A Journey of a Thousand Miles Starts With A Single Map

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Starts With A Single Map
Part of The Name of Heaven
Date 2085-06-29 GM Niven Location Renton, Seattle Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Singularity Inc.
Hawk Clown Vailrunner Akuma	Minutemen Security staff
Casualties and losses
	None

Summary

The runners steal experimental software on behalf of a mysterious archivist by running one of the oldest cons in the book.

Background

Archive Angel is a Heavenseeker relatively new to the scene. Through sheer chance she caught wind of a program that seemed able to bypass barriers between parts of the matrix, and theorized that if The Garden is in an inaccessible part of the matrix that this program might help her locate it. However, the program was stored on a wired dataterminal, leaving it safe from her hacking attempts all the way from Denver. So she hired a local team to do the job.

The Meet

The meet was virtual, in a secure VR conference room. Ms. Johnson outlined the job: stealing an experimental search program from unrated (but Horizon-owned) corp Singularity Inc.'s lab in Issaquah. The data the J needed was stored offline, necessitating the runners going in and getting physical access to the project. 3 days was the deadline given and 10k nuyen was floated as a reward, though Akuma bargained for the J's contact info and some extra data as a bonus.

The Plan

The runners met up in an Issaquah dive bar not far from the lab they planned to rob. From there, they pooled what they knew (not much) and decided that their best approach would be to pretend to be an inspection team in order to get inside. Clown took a crack at the lab's host, grabbing floor plans and inserting an inspection into the schedule without being spotted by and matrix defense. The floorplan didn't tell the runners which of the three laboratory rooms the paydata was stored in, so later that night Hawk infiltrated the building's vents with a Spy-Fly and took a look at the labs, inferring which one they would need to grab the data from.

The plan was for Akuma in the guise of a corp hotshot and Vailrunner in the guise of her bodyguard would enter the facility, get shown around the place, and find an opportunity to discreetly put a data tap into one of the dataterminals in the programming lab. To this end fake SINs were bought and disguises were prepared.

The Run

On the day of the job Akuma and Vailrunner rolled up to the lab, with Hawk and Clown offsite nearby for support or if things went wrong. Akuma and Vailrunner had no issues passing themselves off as a suit and her hired gun, and got a tour of the building (with Akuma acting critical of everything she saw and Vailrunner trying to not draw attention to himself) until they reached the lab division right before their target. There, Clown and Hawk ascertained that the project in that wing was in dire straits, and that the guide was trying to hide it. Akuma took the opportunity to berate the hapless employee guide and dismissed him for someone who would tell her what was actually going in. The scientist she got to explain things gave a very technical speech, during which Vailrunner stole away from the group to try and plant the data tap.

First, he tried walking into the lab nonchalantly. The workers inside immediately called him out, and he couldn't find a good excuse to be there. He managed to avoid blowing his cover by following instructions and walking away, but it was a close call. For Vailrunner's second attempt he opted to play to his strengths, sneaking in after Clown disabled a doorway camera. Without being spotted, he plugged the data tap into an unoccupied terminal for Clown to copy the file off of. This went off without a hitch, and Vailrunner crept back out without alerting anyone. Returning to Akuma (who was unformed over comms that they had the data), he resumed pretending to be a bodyguard. Akuma used the lengthy diatribe as an excuse to cut the inspection short, and the pair left with no one the wiser.

Aftermath

The runners stopped to inspect the files they had stolen, learning that the program Singularity Inc. was developing had an unreliable but intriguing quirk. The program, initially intended to fetch files from a host more quickly than existing code, had displayed anomalous behavior where it had a very rare chance of retrieving files from outside the host, including files with no counterparts on the open grid. Since the mystery files that had been pulled during testing were all worthless by themselves and the programmers were unable to replicate the behavior, the corp hadn't done any further research into it. Seeing the potential for enabling cybercrime, Akuma kept a copy for her Gumi.

Then the team called Ms. Johnson to arrange the digital handoff, but paused to ask about her intentions. She explained her theory that the Garden existed outside of both the Grid and the Resonance Realms, in an otherwise-inaccessible third place. She theorized that the search program, with its evident disregard for boundaries between grid and resonance, could be the key to finding a path to the Garden. She never explained why she was seeking Heaven and The Garden, but the intensity of her interest was obvious even over the matrix. Satisfied with the explanation, the runners handed over the file and got paid for their efforts.

Rewards

• 2 CDP (freebie)
• 10,000 nuyen (5 RVP)
• 4 karma (4 RVP)
• 2 CDP of knowledge skills, representing info brokered by the J (1 RVP)
• Either the J, "Archive Angel," as a 1/1 contact (to be written up, did not expect to use her as a contact) or 2 more CDP worth of knowledge skills (1 RVP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Vailrunner - "This hacking stuff just comes off so bizarre to me. I'm sure we're fine, but why do I feel like a horrific can of worms is going come of this?"