The valley of thunder

Story

31 October 2021 it all started pretty simply:

"You received 1 (one) new message"
Send by Kramden Biotechnologies Ltd.
at +20.13

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Mission type: destruction of corporate assets
Mission requirements: A team of professionals including combat specs, technicians and a matrix operator.
Mission target: Genetek Research Facility Laboratory.
Compensation: Each team member will be compensated 3500 Eb after evaluation at the end of the mission minus penalties.
Briefing: 20.00 at the Kramden Offices, West Plaza Tower.
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At first, the team wasn't too enthusiastic but they needed the cash, or the adrenaline. So, they headed for the office to find out more. There they learned that Genetek Corp., the biggest (direct) rival to Kramden Biotechnolies, was using some Kramden invention without paying. So Kramden wanted them to go blow the lab where Genetek forged "the real thing" out of the galaxy. Pretty simple: They would receive the approximate location and a map of the research facility and enough C-6 to blast the whole damn thing in the air. So, the team accepted, and off they were. The time limit for this mission was it had to be done before 14th of November.

The next 24 hours the team visited their fixers, old army surplus stores and dark alley's where their weapon dealers operate. They mainly bought survival material and jerry cans of CHOOH². They agreed that Ted would drive his van, and Marcus his pickup truck. When all was set for departure, the team hit the road, moving west up to something like 30 km from the facility's first security checkpoint.

The next day (01/11/21) Marcus had the bright idea to start a radio scanning to locate and monitor the radio communications going to and from the base. Telling the others it would take him the whole morning, they left with his pickup truck (which didn't contain the ELINT equipment). But bad luck strikes the unfortunate team members, as they drive off-road to evade possible surveillance on the private road to the facility, the pickup bounces through the rocks and after 15 km a sharp rock pierces the fuel tank. So Ted, Jerry and Heavy decide to continue on foot. Thanks to the GPS module of Heavy, the don't get lost and arrive exhausted in the falling darkness. Jerry and Heavy put up their one-man's-tents and leave Ted outside, in the blistering desert cold. Ted, unable to light a fire due to the proximity of the checkpoint was going to a certain death, for if at that moment Heavy didn't propose him a piece of survival cloth.
30 km back, when he had finished his monitoring, Marcus decided to catch up with the others, so he took Ted's van and left, first on the road, then off-road for the last part. That's where bad luck strikes again. Driving all lights out, in the darkness, Marcus didn't see that big stone coming and killed the breaking system of the van. As you can see, everything was running smoothly.

02/11/21, 04.00, Jerry wakes up, Heavy falls asleep (damn desert animals) and Ted keeps on sleeping like a baby. Why is Jerry up? Well, the guard post is only about 1 km down so why not check it out? From close by it seems pretty empty except for the two guards playing poker in the main office and the guard watching TV in his little guard post booth so he maps out the whole place. At 07.00, Jerry is back and wakes the others and after breakfast (on exception of Ted, who left his kibble bars in the van) Heavy and Jerry decide to move on to the research facility, some 10 km further in the valley. Ted decides to go back to the pickup truck and meet with Marcus he tells Heavy and Jerry, they'll rendezvous all two days later near the facility. After finding and repairing the vans. Ted & Marcus sleep in the cosy environment of a car's interior while Heavy and Jerry camp out again.

The next day consists mainly of surveillance of the facility and the facility's security. They have discerned different diversion targets in the facility, and things that they could blow up to cause a lot of panic, like the dorm section.
Ted & Marcus meet and drive off-road in the direction of the facility without any bad luck for some change. And again, it's a very different night for the two parts of the team.

04/11/21 at 09.00 Ted & Marcus leave their vans and rendezvous with Heavy and Jerry at 12.00.
After endless talking, screaming, nagging and whining a sort of "big plan" is born. Marcus would tap into the direct underground line (running from the security post to the facility) and from there, hack the central computer to take over the security systems. Meanwhile Ted, Heavy & Jerry would move in from the north, Jerry would blast the AV-fuel depot as a diversion, that way Heavy and Ted could bomb the lab.

05/11/21 at 19.00 the team gathers at 3 km from the facility, locate the direct line and try to tap the line. Something went wrong at that stage and they knew it, so they rapidly fill the hole they had just been digging and go hide in the rocks on the valley side. Some moments later 2 security jeeps arrive to investigate the intrusion. They discover the foot tracks and place a IFF-movement-detector mine. Then they move out again.
Twenty minutes later and 400 m further, the team tries again, but now Marcus breaks the entrenching tool on a rock. At last Ted taps the line. Marcus enters the line, running a stealth program but gets caught by a spy program, thus raising an alarm. A sysop, already weary because of the previous intrusion doesn't hesitate and fries Marcus. Ted sees Marcus' skin blistering and twitching so plugs him out, thus saving his life...
The team has had enough, run away!

06/11/21 The team gets back to Night City to lick their wounds, buy appropriate equipment, jack up the van so it can go off-road (for real).

10/11/21 The team drives back to the "valley of thunder" with another "big plan" They'll attack the guard post take the IFF transponders and advance on the facility while Marcus can enter the system fully "legally".
At 20.00 the guard in the small booth receives a gigantic crossbow quarrel in the face and dies instantly, just minutes later the two other guards are decapitated by DP-bullets. 20.06 Marcus & Ted move in the morbid guard post office. Marcus plugs in the system and the rest leaves with the transponders and a security jeep.
Marcus was pretty successful in the net until he got detected by a sysop. This time Marcus fried the sysops' brain and was left alone for a moment, plenty of time to take over the security systems like the camera's the automated weapons, the movement detectors, the alarms and the cyberdogs.
That left little threat for the other three. Ted cross-wired the monowire fence and they all went in for their target. Jerry for the AV-fuel depot, Ted for the liquid oxygen tank and Heavy for the lab, while Marcus was controlling a cyberdog. Bad luck again, Heavy got detected by a guard which raised the alarm. From there on it is a chaos of fiery exploding cyberdogs dieing guards and running B&E specs (Ted).
Seeing a parked AV-4 near the fuel depot, Jerry decided to test his luck and went in for some "fly" experience. Miraculously he took off and shot some rapid response troops. Then he went for the central security building and did everybody there. Eventually he flew, full-speed, to the first guard post to check on Marcus, but when he heard that an AV-6 was threatening the retreat of Ted & Heavy he flew back as fast as he could, ending his run in a chicken-or-dare contest. The AV-6 evaded the AV-4 and shot it down. Luckily Jerry had ejected just on time. The AV-4 went crashing in the dorms of the facility and the AV-6 took a wide turn to come back in full force. It is precisely on that moment that the demo-charges went off, sending lots of debris in the air - and in the air intakes of the AV-6 - which went crashing down. With the facility completely devastated, the pursuit was nonexistent and the team could get away easily.
Back in N.C. they got paid, but less than agreed because of the mass collateral damage and the bad publicity it brings with it for Kramden Biotechnologies. But their street reputation has received a major boost.