Werewolves & CIcadas

Werewolves & CIcadas
Part of Swarming Season
Date 2084-08-21 GM Asmodeus Location Wichita, UCAS Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Officer Raven UCAS Army	Kansas Swarm
Ryuuji Cleaner Cleaner	True Forms
Casualties and losses
CC burned 1 edge.	Both True Forms were disrupted. A large frontline offensive was routed.

Summary

Two runners find some impostors and infiltrators in Wichita. They also find an unexpected encounter.

Background

The Kansas Swarm has relentlessly continued pushing whenever the Air Force has expended ordnance and had to do maintenance on their aircraft before another sortie and artillery was busy cooling down. As a result, they've continued to force the frontline further south, dangerously close to Wichita. If the city is lost, it can spell disaster, so the Army has issued an evacuation order. They still need to hold the city for at least three days to give people time to evac.

The Meet

The meet doesn't happen with Janet Cairo as the previous job. Instead, there's an intelligence agency officer known as Raven who meets the team, flirtatious and sassy in her behavior. She offers them skillsoft purchases as a reward if they perform an additional task for her that can help with the war effort. The team agrees. After all, how hard can finding one old man be?

The Plan

Due to the curfew having no exceptions, the team can't wander out at night without risking getting shot by the Army. CC gets additional ammo for her rifle and they get a Humvee without a pilot, an old piece of junk from the Fifth world to drive in.

The Run

First trying to figure out what this old man malarkey is about, they start visiting the various parks of Wichita. In the botanical garden, they find one who appears to at least fit the description. When Ryuuji assenses him, however, he manages to just barely pierce through highly competent masking and discover the man's true nature. He's a Force 9 nuclear spirit, something he relays to his teammate, not wanting to be secretive. CC immediately tries to take a shot at him, but the spirit dodges the shot and chains them down with spectral steel chains. Unwilling to surrender, Emilia aka Cleaner Cleaner still tries to take another shot, forcing the spirit's hand. He casts Sludge and melts all rifles the combat maid carries to a near-functionless state. Utterly furious, she stomps away once Ryuuji manages to negotiate the man to drop the spells. The old man sits down and offers to begin introductions. The Yakuza adept remembers his manners and finds out the spirit calls itself Wednesday and that he's not particularly interested in letting the swarm take the city. Therefore, he wants them to take a big black leather briefcase over to the frontlines to the largest concentration of Army soldiers. He assures it doesn't harm the soldiers, but it will spell doom for the coming offensive. Ryuuji tentatively agrees, having promised to Officer Raven to do this task. Emilia is incredibly distrustful.

Wednesday also offers a bit of advice on finding the spirits; he elaborates that first knowing your enemy is a fine skill in warfare, and that the bugs want to infiltrate the enemy's command and information networks more than anything to undermine them from within. By making one of the two appear like an intelligence or communications officer isolated and vulnerable, it's a bait too juicy for the insects to not strike. No need to chase them if they can come to you, after all. Continuing to approve of all concepts involving war, the nuclear spirit walks off into the park, clearly gladdened by this turn of events and not bothered at all by the maid's attempts to disrupt him.

Ryuuji returns to base and asks Officer Raven what the hell this was, but the woman plays coy and pretends to be surprised that the man was a nuclear spirit. Ryuuji is relatively certain she's lying through his teeth and focuses on the objective, requesting a comms officer uniform so he can go and get drunk in the city after curfew, acting as bait. While it's risky, and he almost gets spotted by a combat patrol, the ability to hear and see in the dark, bombardment-deafened city is absolute rubbish and the patrol drives by him. Ryuuji, influenced by a military personafix gotten from the Krasnaya Mafia's people in the city thanks to CC, wanders off to university grounds and starts spinning in a carousel, utterly shitfaced and unable to care about much at all. CC tails him and spots two True Form Cicadas beginning to approach him. She disrupts one without any concerns as a sneak attack, but the second begins charging Ryuuji. Surprisingly, another one materializes behind her, having snuck up close and makes her feel like there are insects swarming under her skin. She smacks down a Bulls-Eye Burst to immediately delete it with the Terracotta Arms AM-47 she received on loan from the Army to replace her corroded Desert Strike.

Ryuuji's grappled by the other insect that intends to disable him and drag him away, but CC manages to line up a shot and disrupt this one as well. They sneak back to base and report to Raven that they managed to disrupt three spirits. CC then drives closer to the frontlines, sneaks in and plants the briefcase right beside the bunkers and trenches. It soon explodes and showers the trenches in red misty rain. Anyone touched by it goes into an unspeakably raging frenzy and the commanding officers order a bayonet charge. The infantry platoon, having lost their artillery shield again, charge the insects in melee combat with no regard to their own safety. Ryuuji downloads a drug knowledge soft and surmises this might've been a delivery vector for DMSO K-10. The permanently berserk platoon butchers their way through hundreds of Invae, their bodies nearly breaking from their own efforts' strain. The team isn't happy... but they managed to push the line back north, at least.

Aftermath

Raven offers them access to the army clinic for all forms of activesoft interfaces. The Krasnaya Mafia, on the other hand, offers them discounts on active, knowledge and linguasofts themselves. The Kansas Swarm is pushed north by several hundred meters, although two platoons of infantry are lost from the 1st Infantry Division are utterly wiped out by the berserk offensive. The total loss of manpower is over 150 soldiers, something that the higher-ups cannot explain as the officers disobeyed direct orders and turned off their comms devices to focus entirely on butchering the enemy.

Rewards

• 18,000 Nuyen - 36,000 Nuyen for Gear to be spent on following: (18 RVP)
  1. Skillwires, Active Hardwires, Knowledge Hardwires, Skilljack and Chipjacks and upgrading existing systems. Base availability must be 19.
  2. Skillsofts up to R6
  3. Terracotta Arms AM-47
• UCAS Army Officer Uniforms (4,000 Nuyen per piece, counts as 1 RVP)
• 2 Karma (2 RVP)
• 2 CDP
• 1 UCAS Army Reputation
• Optional Contact: Officer Raven, 3/1 Suspicious Intelligence Officer (3 RVP or 6 CDP)

Game Quotes

"Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's sniper rifle." --Cleaner Cleaner

"Look at that subtle chameleon coating. The tasteful discretion of it. Oh my God. It even has a MAD-proof frame..." --Cleaner Cleaner

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Cleaner Cleaner

"I hate Wichita. It smells awful, it tastes awful, the explosions are too loud, and nothing there leaves a body when you kill it! I feel so drained after saving that Ryuuji person. I really want to kill that lady that set me up to work with a taint like that nuclear spirit, but she might be useful to Akilina..."