It had been a slow few weeks for South Plains Security Consulting, after a near-disaster of a run that almost killed their three primary employees. Leon had been recuperating and trying to rebuild his shoulder strength from the hellhound burns, and after some repairs to his cybernetic muscle replacements, and some steady hours put in on various complicated lifting techniques, his left shoulder was just about at full strength. Sylvia had been recuperating from her burns, but had put most of her efforts into keeping lovemaking practise from Leon to a minimum. Leon tended to get...... overly active in the bedroom after situations where he almost lost his life.

Brandon had taken the least damage, and was thus handling all the odd jobs, while also trying to rustle up contacts to keep the nuyen flowing into South Plains. They had plundered some high quality gear from their run against the Manitou tribe: Several spare sets of winter combat armor, two dart guns, and a dozen good-quality frag grenades were ready to sell. However, finding buyers in town was difficult.

Traditionally, shadowrunners sold any gear they might have (that couldn't be sold by normal means) to people called "fixers". These "fixers" operated in the shadows as well, and frequently bought and sold stolen and illegal goods, as well as paydata taken from corporate datastores, and any information of value picked up on the streets. The local fixers had been put on a hard squeeze recently by the Long Arms police force though, as a Regina military man had stupidly gotten caught selling some of his equipment to shadowy figures. No one in town could move the gear that Leon was needing to sell due to all that heat, and Leon felt he needed some luxury upgrades now that the money was flowing in again.

So Brandon looked elsewhere. Thunder Bay was always a promising place to find anything, but Leon wanted them to steer clear of there for the moment. His presence would cause Long Arms and their hardass leader David Longmiles to freak out and follow his every move there, which would ruin business for the smugglers that profited off of the lack of Long Arms beat cops in the city.

Instead, a deal was lined up with a fixer that worked the bordering Salish-Shidhe Council and Sioux Nation. The fixer was an AmerIndian by the name of Harold Willow, and he was willing to buy and sell some high-quality stuff. A careful meetup had to be arranged, one that involved a roundabout route where Willow's crew had to travel around the southern border of the Algonkian-Manitou Council and into the Athabaskan Council, meeting at an abandoned small hamlet near Edmonton. Brandon had been sending out fake info to friends of his within Long Arms, which would hopefully throw its leader David Longmiles off the scent, and prevent them from tracking the trading point.

Leon, Sylvia, and Brandon suited up for the trip. All three were eager to leave the confines of their company pavilion, and even though this wasn't a shadowrun, it had some of the intrigue and danger present in such an encounter. The hope was that it would be a worthwhile trip......

~~~

August 9, 2058

Abandoned Community Hall

Former Hamlet of Busby, Athabaskan Council

~~~

They met in an abandoned community hall, one that formerly belonged to a hamlet called Busby. It had been checked and certified free of any varmints, vagrants, and critters of the paranormal variety, and that was important to check. Busby was one of many small hamlets, villages, or towns that had existed for over a hundred years before being utterly screwed up by the Awakening and all its mysteries within. Busby had a population of around 80 until 2043, when the hamlet lost contact with the outside world and every person in the area disappeared. Investigators from the Athabaskan military had come in, and determined that the hamlet had been assaulted by feral sasquatches. A private bounty was offered, and a few innocent sasquatches had been executed, but it was likely the true culprits had never been found......

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The buildings were barely affected by the attack, curiously enough. A few broken windows, cracked walls, and a lot of bloodstains, but nothing major, which added to the mystique of the place. No one had tried to rebuild Busby to its former glory, but the decaying remains had attracted the occasional desperate squatters, and a few shadowrunners and fixers looking for an out-of-the-way meeting point. Like the eight people currently in the old community hall, for example.

Harold Willow brought four bodyguards. Two watched the perimeter, and two more watched the transactions taking place with a bored expression. Harold carefully peered over the tactical armor with a literal magnifying glass, while Leon, Sylvia, and Brandon glanced casually at the arsenal Harold would try to sell them later. All three thought in the back of their mind that if the sasquatches came back for Round 2, there'd be enough firepower here to hold off an army of them.

"The winter tactical armor looks good, it'll sell well to contacts up North." said Harold, while rubbing his hands together. "I can offer 60 grand for the lot. The dart guns are 2 grand, and I'll buy the dart clips for another grand. Frags are 200 a pop. So in total, thats......65,400 nuyen. We got a deal?"

"We got a deal." said Leon, shaking Harold's hand. "I'll be spending most of that back, I imagine."

"Well, I got a fine selection, including some prototypes that aren't even out on the street yet." Harold said, while clapping his hands together. "I want you to check out the action on this new model Ares Viper Silvergun."

Harold picked up and tossed the shiny handcannon over to Leon, who caught it and did some fancy barrel rolls straight out of a Wild West variety show.

"Parts are re-worked and fit better to within 1/100th of a millimeter, it cleans easy, and it's got a slightly shorter barrel to improve drawing time."

Leon liked the gun, but shook his head.

"I'll stick with the Predator. This thing still takes flechette rounds, they don't pierce armor too good, and they jam sometimes. Predator Pistols don't jam."

"Predator Pistols don't hold 30 rounds neither."

Leon still shook his head. "30 rounds against an armored opponent might be like 10 from the Predator. I'm fine for my big sidearm. What I'm looking for is some heavy duty firepower, and some better ammo."

Harold sighed.

"Well, we got the heavy duty firepower covered. Here's the latest assault rifle on the market, the new model Ares Alpha."

One of the bodyguards opened a case and brought out a menacing looking rifle. It looked heavy.

"The Ares Alpha comes with a Gas Vent II, a built-in Smartgun System, and a grenade launcher attachment that fires smaller concussion grenades, which I will gladly sell you for 80 nuyen apiece. This bad boy holds 42 rounds and 8 grenades total, and has piercing power as good as any other assault rifle on the market, with a bigger clip size. I'd be willing to part with it for the low, low price of 3000 nuyen."

Leon checked the rifle carefully. He liked the balance and sighting on it, but it was a bit heavy.

"Do you have a sound suppressor that fits this thing?"

"......Thats an extra 800, chum."

"Give it to me with a clip of normal ammo, and let's test fire this thing."

Harold carefully handloaded ammo in. Targets had been setup at the other end of the long room they were in, right below a rusted basketball net. Leon barely had to look down the sights before blasting prescise holes in the head, heart, and balls of each of the three paper targets.

"Good gun, I'll take two. Sylvia will want something lighter though."

Harold favoured Sylvia with a smile.

"Then for the lady, might I suggest the Heckler and Koch 227-S?"

Harold presented Sylvia with a considerably smaller rifle than the Area Alpha Leon had tested.

"Oh hey, I remember using the little brother of this back when I worked the Crime Mall." said Sylvia, as she carefully checked and re-checked the weapon. Sylvia was satisfied with it, and placed her shots within millimeters of Leon's shots on all the paper targets.

Harold whistled.

"Thats some good shooting there. Aren't you a shaman? How'd you do all that without cyberware?"

"The guy I worked for in the Crime Mall taught me a little, then Leon taught me a little."

Leon laughed. "Taught her a little, yeah sure, I taught her everything except a quickdraw, and she learned it within days. Took me years to be any good with guns, and she just picked it up instantly."

"How, with magic?"

"Maybe. I think Sylvia can just kinetically think a bullet into its target. It's the weirdest thing."

Harold rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"In that case, can I interest the lady in our latest sniper rifles?"