Shadowrun Novella

FUN-AND FEAR-IN THE SUN…Everything's Irie in the Caribbean. What could be better than a week of sun, fun, and parties at the bi-annual Caribbean League political conference in Havana, with every shadowrunner, pirate, and low-life in attendance looking for work? What could possibly go wrong? And when the Rastafarian troll shaman T'ing and his crew are approached by an official from Haiti to investigate rumors involving their old enemies, the dark voodoo Kofo cult, it looks like an opportunity for payback and profit combined. Digging deeper, however, T'ing and his runners discover a genocidal plot that threatens the entire region, possibly even resulting in an all-out shooting war between several major Sixth World players. There's nothing to do but round up all their badass runner contacts, light up a spliff, and kick some ass. But this run will take them under the sea to a top-secret covert lab where Kofo cultists are hiding a weapon that could change the face of the entire Caribbean..and only T'ing and his hard-partying-and even harder-charging-crew stand in their way...

ALWAYS READY TO ROCK…AND RUN!It was supposed to be a Top Drek gig like any other: Play some tunes, have a fight, get wasted. How was I supposed to know the guy I cracked in two over a table was some corp bigwig? Like, not our usual crowd, y'know? (And look, I may be a bass player named Twinkle Toes, but I'm also a tall, red-skinned ork with a love for shouting, so there's not way he didn't see me coming.)So the corp gave us a choice: Do a job for them, or die. How the frag can I say no? I got my bandmates to look out for, including my adopted daughter (and amazing singer), Ametheest, her maybe-lover Silver, my best mate, Bleeding Blossom, and our loser keyboardist, Lance.But our spotlight is growing, dispelling the shadows we desperately need to hide in. Rock and roll might not jive with the corps…and Ottawa's gonna get caught in the crossfire.In the end, only one question remains for all of us, chummer: You gonna be SINless…or soulless?

HELP FOR ALL-RUNNERS, CHUMMERS, AND DREGS... Nestled in one of the worst parts of Seattle is a place where anyone can go to get patched up, no questions asked. They call it Mercy Street and it's a practically free clinic run by a drunk old troll named Shimura, who's seen a lot in his years. When a decker named Lockdown Paradox shows up bleeding on his doorstep, it's just an average Tuesday, but when corporate stooges looking for her show up and try to shake Shimura down for information, he wonders just what this kid hacker's gotten herself into. But hes not the only one wondering…Paradox thinks there's more to the ol' whiskey doc than meets the eye, wondering if he might be a legendary shadowrunner that might be able to help her. When she turns up missing, Shimura is forced to go far deeper into the sleeze and sprawl than he ever wanted to...and return to a part of his past he'd sworn to leave behind if he wants to get both of them out alive…

THE RULES ARE SIMPLE… Redlock is a rising star in the brutal sport of Urban Combat, where teams of armed combatants try to score points against their opponents while shooting it out amid Seattle's decaying urban landscape. Managed by his mother, a legendary Urban Brawl player until her forced retirement, and fitted with top-line cyberware that makes him better than human, Redlock is on the fast-track to super-stardom-until it all comes crashing down around him. WIN OR DIE… After sabotage takes him out of the major leagues, Redlock finds himself on the streets for real, alone for the first time ever. But the lure of Urban Brawl is too seductive to ignore, and when his mother lines up another opportunity for him, all her son has to do is go against every instinct he has… Will he sacrifice his one shot back to the majors for the scrappy team that adopted him when he had nowhere else to go, or will Redlock pull the ultimate ambush play on his own teammates?

The Life of a Lifesaver DocWagon-saviors of the needy, rescuers of the desperate. Willing to go anywhere, rescue anyone, as long as that "anyone" has forked out enough advance cash to justify the effort. Reporter Amelia Hart has embedded herself with a DocWagon team to see what their life is really like, and she's in for a wild ride. From an OD'ing celebrity to an aggressive team of hackers, from pesky gangs to an extremely rich and powerful client teetering at death's door, this night will give the team all they can handle. But, will they survive long enough to remember that in the Sixth World, nothing is truly random? Full of memorable characters and rich Sixth World flavor, DocWagon 19 is a thrilling ride with the people struggling to save lives in a sprawl with a million-ways to make people dead. Strap in, hold on, crank up the siren, and get ready for a crazy ride-along through the full chaos of the Shadowrun setting.

Sucked Back In...Former shadowrunner Yuri Yehzov has discovered that the shadows have long tendrils. Life pushed him and Soren, his new partner in crime (and everything else), to Seattle, where they'll have to do what thousands have done before them-figure out how to scrape by and attempt to build a life. If there's one thing the darker corners of the Sixth World have in common, it's the tendency to explode into violence at any moment. Yuri will discover that Seattle's shadows are merciless and unkind, but also full of opportunity for those who can think on their feet and keep flying lead from piercing their skin. Can Yuri move fast enough to stay upright in the worldwide capital of shadowrunning? He's about to find out.

CAUGHT IN A TANGLED WEB… Maria Price is good at her job. Very good. As a corporate operative, she carries out sensitive missions for Ares Macrotechnology, one of the premier megacorporations in the Sixth World. But megacorps are infamous for demanding absolute loyalty from their employees, and equally infamous for not reciprocating. And when Maria encounters an assassin in her own home, she must question everything she holds dear. Her quest for answers leads her to the glittering city of Neo-Tokyo, and a mission for Ares also holds the bonus of being against the corp she thinks tried to kill her. But when she encounters a competing ops team onsite, Maria quickly realizes the scope of this mission is bigger-much bigger-than she expected. And when she finally tracks down her target, the information he shares goes far beyond anything Maria ever expected, and draws her further into corporate machination than she ever planned to go…assuming she can survive.

SEARCH AND RECOVER… It should have been an easy job for Tycho and his team: Travel to the Sioux Nation, in the region that was once the state of Montana, and investigate what happened to the previous shadowrunning team that had gone up there to check out…something. But of course, things are never easy in the shadows, and soon Tycho and his fellow runners are up to their eyeballs in double-crosses and mysterious goings-on-including the seeming complete disappearance of the previous shadowrunning team. Their search leads them to the wilds near Yellowstone, where the answers they seek lie deep within the earth…and uncover a secret that, if revealed, could result in the complete destruction of the entire Sixth World…

RUNNING FOR HER LIFE… Ridley Ruiz is an ambitious teenager from a poor family, but she's got dreams of a bigger, better life. Her courier service, Three Mice Running, is succeeding beyond anyone's expectations, and she's able to share her success with her friends. One night at a jabber changes all that. Ridley sees something she wasn't supposed to see, and is given a package she isn't supposed to have. After she makes the delivery to a dangerous person and receives a handsome reward, chance conspires against her, and this one-time event becomes a deal with the devil. With her family and friends on the line, Ridley is forced to go down a dangerous path. Can she save her friends and deliver the package on time before competing forces find her? All while trying to keep this newest delivery from her own family? Ridley doesn't know if she can, but she knows she has to try…