Go to Stoker's Coffin and get Michael's stuff. (1)[]
When you enter the motel, you can ask about Michael's stuff if you want. Stoker will ask for 250 nuyen before you can get his belongings back. C'mon, the guy died! Jerk. Anyway, you only have 20 nuyen at the beginning of the game, so Stoker will direct you to the Jump House so you can get some money.
You'll be back out on the street in front of the motel. Walk to the left and up, then left a little more until you see a street terminal. Ordinarily, you'd be able to catch a cab to a different part of Seattle with one of these, but, conveniently, traffic is so bad that the cabby can't get out to you. Bah. Anyway, enter the door to the left of the terminal.
You'll be inside the Jump House. Walk to the booth in the back left corner and you'll meet Gunderson. You can talk to him if you want some basic information, but you're really here for cash. Ask for a job ("I'm looking for some work") and Gunderson will offer you a Shadowrun. At this point, ANY bodyguard or courier run is acceptable, but NO ghoul bounty run is acceptable (see Section IV for definitions). The pay will be bad, but you don't really have much of a choice at this point. If you want to cheat and sell your equipment (Ares Weapon Emporium is next door to the motel), I guess you can, but you need the Karma from these runs just as bad as you need the money.
Besides, if you REALLY want to cheat, though, get a hundred or so nuyen, hire Ricky, and sell HIS stuff. You'll end up with several hundred nuyen. If you do this, I still suggest spending that money on a Predator pistol at Ares. This is the best weapon in the game. That's right, five minutes in and you've already got the best gun. If you don't have enough money after buying the gun, you can always go to Gunderson and earn the money the old-fashioned way.
So, anyway, you'll have to go on runs that are essentially walking from one building to another. This can get pretty monotonous and can actually waste a lot of time if you don't know where the buildings are. So, here's a (very crude) map of Redmond Barrens so you'll know where you're going on these first few runs:
+-------+----------+ +------------+ +-----------+
| Jump | Jackal's | | Boris' | | Abandoned |
| House | Lantern | | Greenhouse | | Building |
+-------+----------+ +------------+ +-----------+
+--------------+
| |
| Hollywood | +----------+ +----------+ +-----------+
| Correctional | | Stoker's | | Ares | | Little |
| Facility | | Coffin | | Weapon | | Chiba |
| | | Motel | | Emporium | | Chop Shop |
| | | | +----------+ +-----------+
+--------------+ +----------+
+-------+ +------------+
| Rat's | | Shiawase |
| Nest | | Nuke Plant | +--------------+
+-------+ | | | Halloweeners |
+------------+ | |
+--------------+
Make any sense? Well, at least it's a little help. Anyway, if you run into enemies during your runs (which will probably happen a few times), don't try to fight back. You'll just be wasting your bullets. At the very beginning of the game, you're so weak that you just have to take getting killed at random by street thugs as a fact of life. You'll wake up outside Little Chiba, lose a few nuyen, but will otherwise be fine. Just go back to Gunderson and ask for a new job. No harm done.
By the way, if you're into killing innocent bystanders (and who isn't?), you can pick up decent money and items by mowing down the little pedestrian guys who cross your path during runs. You may have to do a little chasing, but by and large, the occasional clip, medkit, or nuyen is worth spending a few bullets. Don't go out of your way, though. Just shoot if you're doing a run and you happen to come upon a civilian... don't hunt them down. The shadowruns are still your main source of income here.
Once you've got your 250¥, head back to Stoker's and pay him. The game will explain the stuff that you receive better than I could, so just pay attention to the item descriptions. Note also that you'll get 500¥, too, so your balance will be back to what it was before you paid Stoker. Regardless of what the game says, the irony of that STILL hasn't worn off, and it's been years. Those clever Sega designers. I bet the guy who thought that up is still relishing the irony.
Go to the Tarislar City Inn and ask about Tabatha Shale. (1)[]
First of all, now that you've gotten Michael's stuff, a few things have changed. Traffic has magically cleared up, so you're free to explore the Seattle area. You got a cyberdeck, so now you can start hustling the Matrix as soon as you find someone with a Datajack. Hopefully, you will have gotten some Karma from doing those runs. You did do the runs, didn't you? Aw, you just cheated. Oh well. If you have some Karma, you may want to stay at the motel and upgrade a few stats. There's not much you can do with 5 or 10 points, but early on in the game, I suggest concentrating on Reputation, Biotech, and Firearms. Magic users may want to work on Sorcery. Characters who plan on getting cyberware down the road (read: All non-magic-users) should avoid upgrading the Body, Quickness and Strength attributes -- see the intro to Part 5 of Section VII for details.
You'll also want to buy that Predator if you haven't done so already. You need some protection when you get out into the different parts of the city. If you're feeling extra diligent, you can keep working until you have enough to buy the Vest w/Plates armor, or even better, the Armor Jacket. Even if you don't get one now, keep it in mind that you do need one or the other before you do any real fighting.
The other items you got can be investigated later. First, you need to track down Tabatha Shale, who sent Michael the note you got from Stoker. Go to a street terminal and call a cab for Puyallup Barrens. When you get there, make your way to the far top-right corner of the area and enter the large building there -- the Tarislar City Inn. Once inside, ask about Tabatha Shale. Eventually, you'll meet her and she'll tell you what she knows about Michael's last shadowrun. She mentions how the run was through Caleb Brightmore, whose holopix you have, and that Michael stopped at Boris Errascoe's place. She also mentions that they usually go through Mortimer Reed before giving you a bit more information on both Boris and Caleb.
Then, no matter what you tell her as you're leaving, the same thing will happen: an unknown group will break in and assassinate Tabatha. You don't have to do any fighting -- when it's all over, Tabatha will be dead and you'll be left with a holopix of David Owlfeather that she left behind.
Go to Boris Errascoe and ask him about Michael. (1)[]
The last thing you should do to get the ball rolling on the story is to visit Boris Errascoe, who you may have talked to before. This time, though, you'll know what to ask him about. Take a cab back to Redmond Barrens and go to Boris' place. Before you enter, you may want to go on a few more runs from Gunderson to get some extra Karma because after you complete this step, you'll have to fight two armed enemies. You'll also need 500 nuyen to give to Boris, but the enemies are probably your first concern -- you're too weak in your initial form to kill them. If dying isn't a big deal to you (nothing happens if they kill you and whether you kill them has no effect on the story), then you can lay down and take it before being hauled to the hospital and continuing in the story. If you want to be able to kill your attackers, though, you'll need to improve both your offense and your defense.
Whenever you feel that you're ready, enter the greenhouse. Tell Boris that you're looking for some information and agree to pay the fee. You can ask about David Owlfeather if you want, but it will be an extra 500 nuyen and it won't progress the storyline any. When you ask about Michael, though, Boris will tell you about how Michael came by and was later followed by Mako Sochou, a Renraku executive. After that, a Renraku Strike Team will bust in and you'll have to fight two of them. Like I said before, whether you kill them doesn't really matter. What matters is that Mako Sochou, the last of the three plotlines, has been introduced and you now have your choice of how to find your brother's killers.
Sources[]
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