This is a one-shot episode, which takes place before the Brace the Badlands campaign. This means you don’t need to have listened to the main series, but there might be characters or events referenced which this origin story ties into.
This story takes place during the earlier life of Rez (known as Isabel Rezetti earlier in her life), while she was working as a Trauma Team Med Tech in Night City. Clients can pay a recurring subscription service for the benefit of receiving aid from the Trauma Team medical service. When in danger, or injured, a highly specialised team is dispatched via aircraft to the client’s location to triage and securely move them to a safe location for further medical treatment. During this session, the other players take on different characters:
- Luke plays as Eaves, a tactical assault officer, equipped with a variety of weapons.
- Ze plays as Omar, the team Search and Rescue operator, he uses technology to help locate clients with the help of his backpack-sized drone Shakes.
- Ben (the GM) also takes on the role of a character named Fens, the group commander.
Flying over the skies of Night City in an AV-4 (an aircraft powered by ducted jet fans), the team are reviewing their gear as they proceed en-route to a new job. Fens updates the team that two executive-class clients, Ryan and Lisa Barrett, have triggered an alert automatically from a linked cyberware bio-monitor. Due to some type of local interference, they can’t confirm their exact location, but have an approximate radius somewhere in the Merlott apartment tower, in the Upper Marina district. The team prepare for departure on the tower’s rooftop helipad, with Omar preparing his weapons, Rezetti checking her medical equipment, and Omar running diagnostics on Shakes. Fens indicates they will need to work their way down, scanning to find a better signal on the clients.
By triangulating the signal, Omar indicates to the team that the decayed signal appears to be strongest three floors down, so they continue down the interior stairwells. On the floor, Rezetti listens against a door, but hears nothing. Omar finds a small set of air vents, and wireless plugs into Shakes, taking control and viewing things from the robot’s perspective. Crawling through the vents, Shakes arrives into the interior of the apartment, and leans up to open a door. Shakes’ motion detection activation detects at least one human in a far off room, further into the apartment. Navigating around the person, Shakes moves to the front of the apartment, finding a barred door blocking the main entrance. Lifting the bar off the door, it opens, and Omar collects Shakes in his hands. Eaves leads the charge into the apartment, engaging with the unknown person Shakes encountered earlier who shouts in surprise.
Entering into combat, in round one, Eaves pulls out his stunrod and makes an attack, dealing a shocking blow against the ganger. Fens moves closer to the kitchen, identifying another ganger, and shoots with his heavy pistol, landing a shot. The ganger closes the distance with Fens, shooting with his shotgun. While his armour absorbs some of the blow, Fens is injured from the shot. Rezetti moves into help Fens, shooting at the ganger with her SMG. Shakes repositions to help Fens and Rezetti, shooting with his SMG again, but misses.
In round two, Eaves shouts to the ganger he is entangled with to tell them where Ryan and Lisa Barrett are. The ganger is not cooperative, so Eaves tries to hit them with his stunrod, but misses the first swing. The second swing hits successfully, knocking them around. Fens shoots at the ganger in the kitchen, hitting them, but suffers a returning blow from the ganger’s shotgun. Another ganger shoots with their heavy pistol, hitting Eaves, but being absorbed by his armorjack. Rezetti moves back into the kitchen, shooting with her SMG, but missing again. She decides to try moving further into the apartment, asking Omar to provide cover. Omar shoots his SMG as a distraction, missing the target.
In round three, Eaves lands another blow against the ganger with his stunrod, with the second hit failing. Fens switches to his stunrod, successfully hitting one of the gangers in the kitchen. The armed ganger with the shotgun lands a shot, but Fens armour absorbs the blow. As Rezetti continues moving forward into the apartment, she encounters a panicking ganger who tries to run for cover. She lands her SMG shots against his back. Omar shoots his SMG again, dealing a critical injury, forcing them to drop their shotgun.
Moving into round four, Eaves switches to their assault rifle, and lands a successful fully automatic barrage against his target. Fens, noticing the dropped shotgun on the ground, kicks it out of the way of the ganger. Using his pistol, he lands a headshot, taking them down. The remaining ganger attempts to run towards the balcony of the apartment. Rezetti forces the ganger into a face down, using her reputation as a Trauma Team officer, which results in the ganger saying where they are keeping the clients before running into hiding.
Omar sets Shakes up to monitor for monition detection on the other side of the apartment, while Rezetti moves to find the clients. She finds an injured man and woman, and begins to perform basic triage, assessing their wounds. Eaves and Fens begin to scan the rest of the rooms for hostiles. Rezetti speaks with the woman, identified as Lisa Barrett, who is stable. The husband, Ryan Barrett, appears to be dazed due to some injuries, and doesn’t respond to Rezetti’s prompts or commands. Rezetti scans and determines that Ryan has a broken leg, and is suffering a concussion due to a damaging blow to the head. Meanwhile, Omar is able to use his agent to track the signal scrambler, which looks to be a shoebox-sized device sitting on the dining table in the kitchen. Omar activates his tool hand accessories, and (rolling a critical) easily disables the scrambler, preparing to take it. Almost immediately the AV-4 pilot connects into their comms asking if they are ready for their EVAC. They decide the best approach is to move the clients to the balcony, where the pilot can move in. Eaves finds the now-hiding ganger, and tries to interrogate him, but (rolling a critical failure), slips at the last moment. Fens steps in, backhanding the ganger, and asks him what the ganger’s intentions were. The ganger reveals that Ryan Barrett is a Corpo for Arasaka, and runs an Insurance division, repeatedly cheating people out of their payouts.
Meanwhile, Omar’s motion detection activates, picking up movement on the other side of the apartment near the front door. From the video feed, Omar sees a heavily-decked cyberpsycho and relays this to the team. The cyberpsycho attempts a shot (but misses), then moves in to kick the drone. Taking control, Omar moves Shakes in to land a hit, dealing a small amount of damage. Everyone enters into initiative.
In round one, Eaves activates his Sandevistan cyberware, placing him at the top of the initiative order. He tells Rezetti to start packing up the clients, while he distracts and engages the psycho. Eaves makes a suppressive fire check, forcing the cyberpsycho to move into cover on their turn. Controlling Shakes, Omar tries to land another hit against the psycho, but is deflected. The cyberspsycho, shielding from the suppressive fire, moves further back into the apartment. Fens and Omar position to watch the apartment and continuing to put pressure on the ganger. Rezetti utilises her medical expertise to stabilise Ryan Barrett and brace his leg for moving him.
Back into round two, Eaves repositions to the kitchen, and reloads. Omar has Shakes climb up the wall, and it lies in wait with eyes on the cyberpsycho. The psycho moves out of the hallway, activating a pop-up grenade launcher, and aiming down the hallway. Fens jumps in to absorb most of the blow, suffering most of the blast and breaking their left arm. Omar is partially caught in the explosion, taking a serious hit as well. Omar switches his SMG to Full-Auto, making a wide array of shots, but they ping off the cyberpsycho’s armour. Preparing to move to the client’s to the approaching AV-4, Rezetti preps Ryan Barrett for transport. As it arrives at the balcony, Lisa is directed onto the aircraft, while Rezetti begins moving Ryan closer to the balcony.
With the AV-4 in-place, coming into round three, Eaves lays down suppressive fire to keep the cyberpsycho pinned. Omar programs Shakes to drop off the ceiling and grabs him, packing him up for transport. The cyberpsycho, reacting from the suppressive fire, ducks into cover in a small bathroom. Fens instructs everyone to finish packing up and prepare for immediate EVAC. Omar runs into the kitchen, holding Shakes in one hand, and grabs the scrambler in the other. Rezetti continues dragging Ryan along to get them into the AV-4.
In round four, Eaves throws a teargas grenade down the hall towards the cyberpsycho. It hits, restricting their visibility. In retaliation, the cyberpsycho feels their way through the apartment to try and find the team. Omar continues moving to the AV-4 and arrives at the balcony, helping Rezetti to place Ryan Barrett onto the floor of the aircraft.
Into round five, Eaves inspects Fens’ broken arm, applying just enough triage to stabilise it. The cyberpsycho continues moving forward, but still can’t see the team. Fens instructs Eaves, Omar and Rezetti to get on board while he keeps the psycho busy. On the aircraft, Omar connects Ryan Barrett up to a cryo-pump to keep him stable. Rezetti continues to make their way to the aircraft.
As part of round six, Eaves makes their way to the AV-4. The cyberpsycho comes out of the kitchen, making a wide barrage with his SMG which pings against the outer shell of the vehicle. Fens continues moving forward and jumps onto the aircraft. Omar and Rezetti try to shoot the cyberpsycho. It functions as covering fire, keeping the psycho pinned.
With all team members onboard and accounted for, Eaves throws a smoke grenade as the AV-4 prepares to depart. As the aircraft starts to move away from the building, the cyberpsycho makes a final shot with their pop-up grenade launcher. The shot hits against the open door of the AV-4, with Rezetti and Fens taking a majority of the blast. For Rezetti, who was holding a handhold, their entire left-arm is blown off. On the side of their helmet, her name tag only has “REZ” remaining. Fens is equally damaged from the blast, being stablised during the short flight back to the Trauma Team headquarters.
Arriving at Trauma Team HQ, a number of doctors and surgeons arrive to the air pad. Prioritising the clients first, they begin to cart Ryan and Lisa away for medical treatment. A doctor and nurse approach the team to assess their injuries, applying a cauterising resin to Rezetti’s wound. They indicate they’ll have to bring her into surgery to replace the arm…