Ultrasonic Brats
The problems of Mort don’t end in Downtown. Suburbia is full of small gangs of teenagers who, while not as large or well armed as those in Downtown, are still major problems both for the local population and for the Shivers.



Lt Miller is relatively new to the sector, having been transferred from Downtown in an attempt to toughen up on the kids that are raising hell in the streets. She has dealt with several small downtown gangs before and wants to take a hard approach to the ones here too. The problem is that the gangs of Suburbia consist of the children of SLA employees, and so her options are more limited. She has decided to concentrate on one gang in particular, Ultrasonic, who make their way into Suburbia from Uptown in order to cause havoc and bully the other gangs. These kids have wealthy and influential parents, and by creating a BPN to deal with them she hopes that the Ops will make an example of the most violent gang and then take the fallout from their enraged parents, leaving her with less of a gang problem and not shouldering the blame.

Upon contacting Lt Miller the squad will be informed that they must deter the Ultrasonics from entering Suburbia. She will tell them that these kids are all from the families of influential SLA corporates and that they have a lot of money at their disposal. She is deliberately sparse with her information and direction, because she wants the Ops to go over the top with their enforcement. She does direct them to SLAnet though, telling them that there is a lot of case information under the BPN Ref.

She’s right, there is a wealth of information at SCL 10 regarding the Ultrasonics and the Shiver cases against them. So far there have been no arrests of any of the gang because their fast civilian bikes can easily outrun a Shiver APC, and the SCAF units have better things to do. They are, however, suspected of causing two deaths by dangerous driving – one of a civilian who was forced off a suspended walkway, one of a rival gang member whose bike was rammed into oncoming traffic. They are suspected of a drive by shooting with a CAF SMG, which resulted in two injuries (of rival gang members) but no fatalities. On top of this there are dozens of public order and traffic offences attributed to them. There are several CCTV footage clips showing members of the gang racing and performing stunts on their bikes, and of them harassing passers by. Last approximation is that there are 12 members, all of whom are thought to own a motorcycle and carry at least one CAF firearm. Most of these incidents are around the area of the Wilkins Mall and the kilometre long, 100m high walkway that leads to it. The gang can be identified by their black and white striped helmets.

With no extermination warrants issued (no identities) the squad will have to try a bit of persuasion, assuming they can catch them. The gang will be hanging around the walkway from about 2200 (say, 6 hours after they get the BPN). After this time the gang will start their night by having a few races. The Ops will probably be waiting for them, and if a few have motorbikes they can give chase (see later for bike chase rules). It’s possible that the Ops will take a few potshots at the bikers if they can’t catch them, but in the heavy traffic this is risky and they haven’t been authorised to kill anybody. Bear in mind that the heavy traffic will also prevent other preventative measures such as roadblocks and stinger traps. If the Ops do try anything so disruptive the Shivers will waste no time in showing them the error of their ways.

Chasing them down and apprehending them will work for a couple of the gang (as many of them as the Ops can catch on the first run), but after that the Ultrasonics will wise up a bit and stop racing. Interviewing any captured members will reveal one or two more names (Interview/torture/intimidate skill + roll – ganger’s COOL, 11+ is one name, 20+ is two), but mostly they only know nicknames. Any names gained can be passed on to the Shivers and they’ll be scooped up later for a nice interview, taking them out of the equation. Any gang member who crashes will try to escape on foot and unless there are Ops there to chase them down they will succeed. Depending on their injuries they may not return.

The remaining gang members will gather elsewhere to think about their plan for the night. They were planning a repeat of the attack on their rival gang (The Talladegas) tonight but having some Slops in the picture might complicate that. They decide to do it anyway and concentrate on the Ops later.

At around 0020 the remaining gang members will return at the far side of the walkway. They will speed along the walkway and make for the Mall, riding in through the front doors and scattering pedestrians. They will proceed to tear through the Mall, splitting up if pursued, with the aim of at least three of them getting to the Silver Bar at the same time. The Silver Bar is a trendy indoor bar used by the quieter but cooler Talladegas as a hangout. They are sitting outside in the mall drinking and being rowdy, but not doing anything illegal. If there aren’t three Ultrasonics left to perform the shooting the remainders will flee and not return, and the BPN can be deemed successful. Should three of the Ultrasonics escape the Ops they will converge and make a shooting at the Silver Bar. This time they will be successful and kill the Talladega’s leader, Tony Malvina, also injuring three others. If any of the Ops have foreseen this and are nearby they should be given the chance to try and save Malvina with a Booper medikit and a first aid roll -8. Kick Start will not help such extensive injuries. Malvina is the son of a senior executive in BLA and if someone does save his life his father will present them with a chrome Blitzer with custom grip (+1 to DEX roll to draw, 1 extra aim), extended barrel (+25% range) and internal venting (-3 recoil). The whole squad will also get a +1 reputation with BLA.

Quick thinking Ops will get the mall locked down. There are around 50 exits, so they can’t cover them all, but the Monarch Security guards who guard the mall can. Also, the main entrance is the only place the Ultrasonics can easily escape with their bikes. Any gangers that end up on foot will head for the nearest exit and most probably disappear into the crowd, only to be apprehended by the Monarch guards later. Any still on their bikes will attempt to burst out through the main entrance, which would be the best place for the Ops to wait. There is no traffic here and the Mall management will give them full co-operation, so traps and stingers and barricades are perfectly viable.

After the success of this hit the Ultrasonics will get more cocky. If most of the gang escaped the mall and there are four or more of them left they will turn on the Ops. If not they will disperse and the BPN can be considered successful. Wherever the Ops happen to be at the time (as long as it’s near the walkway), a single Ultrasonic will blast past them hoping to draw some away on bikes. If they succeed they will lead the pursuing Ops into an ambush – the lead bike will ride up a plank over a dumpster blocking an alley (make a roll for this as it’ll be amusing if they miss) and another member will kick the plank away afterwards. The remainder of the gang, with the bait man returning after a round, will start firing on the Ops from prepared cover. They’re way overconfident to think they could take on a squad of armoured Ops with just CAF, but until they’re down to a couple of uninjured members they’ll carry on blasting away. Any ganger who is hit will not carry on fighting with his injury, remember they’re not hardened DarkNight Ops. This should allow the squad to mop up the remainder of them and finish the BPN.

Vehicle chase rules:
Vehicles accelerate at their acceleration rate in km/h per phase, up to their maximum speed. A drive roll needs to be made at intervals depending upon the speed at which the vehicle is travelling, modified by the factors below. If a driver wants to make another action, such as firing a weapon, then every point of skill used to fire the weapon is subtracted from the drive skill for the entire round, regardless of how often that skill is used. Note that a driver doesn’t have to use all their skill for the secondary skill roll, in the same way as firing two weapons, as they vary their concentration between the tasks.

Drive roll:
60km/h | 120km/h | 180km/h | 240km/h | 300km/h+
1/turn | 2/turn | 3/turn | 4/turn | 1/phase

Relative speed (to maximum):
80% | 90% | 100%
-1 | -2 | -3

Traffic:
None | Light | Moderate | Heavy | Stationary
0 | -1 | -2 | -4 | -8 (bikes only)

Conditions:
Dry | Wet | Ice/Oil
0 | -2 | -4

The result of a drive roll dictates the outcome of the action:

0:- Spectacular crash – The vehicle runs headlong into another vehicle or stationary object. Vehicle and driver take 200% of the damage for their speed, rolling their vehicle until it comes to a halt.
1 - 5:- Crash – The vehicle hits an object or other vehicle and takes full damage for their speed. The vehicle cannot accelerate for the rest of the turn and another drive roll should be made next phase to regain control with a cumulative -2 modifier until the roll is passed.
6 - 10:- Control loss – The driver loses control slightly and cannot accelerate this turn. Another drive roll should be made next phase to regain control.
11+ :- Pass – Control of the vehicle is retained and the vehicle can accelerate as normal.

Damage taken in a crash is reduced by the driver’s armour (driver only) and the PV of the vehicle, and varies depending upon the speed at which they are travelling. Riders crashing a motorcycle will not get the protection of their vehicle’s PV. The first number is the damage taken by the driver and passengers, the second is the damage taken by the vehicle.

<30 km/h | 60km/h | 120km/h | 180km/h | 240km/h | 300km/h+
1/10 | 3/30 | 6/70 | 9/130 | 13/250 | 15/300

Ultrasonic:
Str 4
Dex 4
Dia 6
Conc 6
Cha 5
Cool 4
Hits 8
PV 2

Streetwise 5
Pistol 5
Rifle 4
Auto/Support 4
Unarmed 3
Drive – bike 6

CAF SMG or AR, Stryker armour, racing bike.