Icosahedral Facets

Icosahedral Facets
Date 2084-06-08 GM Asmodeus Location Albuquerque, PCC Status Threat Level: Extreme
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	MCT
Spectre Heracles Oathbane Pell	Technorigger Yasuke Squadron Leader Nobunaga Prison Security Team Jojo
Casualties and losses
Heracles & Pell had to burn edge; MCT tightened their security.	4 Security Team units.
Run objective failed, but all runners extracted successfully.

Summary

Runners attempt breaching a heavily fortified blacksite. It doesn't go so well.

Background

In 2031, the last remnants of Echo Mirage dissolved into the private sector or shadowrunning, assuming they were even alive. Thoughts of their existence linger even through Matrix crashes and the passage of time. Some of these thoughts are remembered by Mitsuhama.

The Meet

M_07 from the Matrix Tribe "The Walking People" meets the runners in a Matrix Host that TWP has sculpted to their liking. He elaborates that he found an ancient bounty that he could not find any further information on. Details, payment and account number are about the only things found, as well as the fact that the bounty was made in -31. 400,000 US Dollars is a hefty number, even once converted into Nuyen. M_07 gives them the bounty details and leaves, showing that the coordinates point northwest of Albuquerque.

The Plan

Heracles and Oathbane combine their mega minds to explore the possibilities, even hopping onto the MCT grid. The blacksite has zero presence on the Matrix, although Oathbane discovers that the blacksite had a host once on the MCT Grid in the 3rd Matrix. It came online a minute after Crash 2.0 ended, then was forcibly taken offline again, considering the broken links it generated automatically.'

More information about Prisoner #96, their extraction target, is found when Wade, the CEO of Pentacle Press, a thaumaturgical book publishing subsidiary of MCT, requested access to #96's files 23 hours after Crash 2.0 and was almost instantly denied his request. He was killed 12 years later in a NeoNET Avenging Angel attack in his personal villa off the coast of Japan.

With little information, they try satellite pictures but find prototype scrambling comparable to Faceless systems, scaled to a larger area. The approximate area this scrambling covers is 300 square meters and the facility is underground; the team's left in the dark of many things but will test their luck anyway.

The Run

Avoiding Albuquerque due to it being Celedyr's - the Great Western Dragon's - lair, the runners arrive and park a respectable distance away to mask their approach. Powerful double digit force spirits explore the area but vanish, their departure suspected to be banishment by Spectre. The team equips high end stealth abilities: Improved Invisibility, Concealment, Stealth. They find a blue cabin near the riverbed and discover it to be an elevator. The obvious death trap is left alone and instead alternate exits are searched for. Eventually a thorough sweep finds one, a bunker hatch disguised under sand. Oathbane's expert puzzle solving skills allow her to figure out the unorthodox puzzle lock on its surface and Spectre's Levitate spell lifts the 100 kilogram lid. Spectre doesn't climb the ladder down but jumps down, only to realize too late she'd jumped into a ward. The astral intersection cracks all of her spells and her Concealment cracks the ward, the worst of both worlds. Pell descends with slightly more care. Once they're down, they let Heracles get direct access to the lock, hack it open and wrench the bulkhead door open. The projecting mage, having hidden herself with utmost care, continues tailing them all the way down and with Mindlink active snitched on the team's ingress point to the facility security. Despite their best efforts, their entire approach was telegraphed.

Half of the facility took up positions and immediately ambushes the infiltration team. Pell and Spectre both avoid instant death by jumping out of the killbox, but are separated by the act. Spectre's noticeable durability is tested as hundreds upon hundreds of bullets pelt her and wear her down with consistent blunt force trauma. Pell dodges immediate attempts at her life and blasts a drone in a single hit, but gets cornered by consistent pressure and doesn't have the time to dodge another set of grenade launchers aiming right under her feeth. Spectre, despite powerful spirit aid, is targeted by a competent team led by a squad leader behind the frontline and a rigger overseeing their containment of the runner menace. She's slowly beginning a retreat, realizing she's almost on death's door even with maximized drugs and supernatural resilience on her side. She does all she can to try and survive, but the onslaught continues relentlessly, continuously.

Heracles and Oathbane, on the other hand, split up Matrix duties. Oathbane defensively calibrates the firewalls and alert protocols of Spectre and Pell while Heracles meets a former colleague, a security technomancer operating drones for MCT. The technomancer is about to lose to Heracles who continuously puts more and more pressure on him, but the security spider desperately overcompiles a Level 20 Fault Sprite from the Resonance and commands it to attack his comrade. Heracles realizes the security's gamble paid off too late and his nostrils turn into gouts of blood as his brain is wracked with the biofeedback of a firewall-crushing sprite. Spectre's spirits cover the retreat while Oathbane's brave drone slides in and grabs Pell by the collar of her armor, dragging her up for Spectre to levitate out. MCT's losses and concern over containment ensure they wait until their backup arrives and the technorigger's drones in the area try to follow the team.

Aftermath

A sandstorm covers the runners' exfil and some remain in Salt Lake City for a time, recuperating from literally critical death's door conditions. Some call Brodie J and ask for a flight home which the party boy's glad to do. The bounty remains unclaimed, but to escape a Zero Zone is still a feat in and of itself.

Rewards

• 4 Karma (Got all yer gang out alive!)
• 20 CDP (Learned about Masking Wards, Obfuscating Wards, Various Security Protocols and Combat Tactics)
• Pick the negative qualities that you believe suits your character best
• MCT Technospider Yasuke knows Heracles' Resonance Signature and has a burning desire to murder him.
  1. Optional Quality: Out For Myself for Spectre (this is not a good thing) at Chargen Rates (3 Karma)
  2. Optional Quality: Battle Hardened for Oathbane (what a queen) at Chargen Rates (2 Karma)

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Oathbane that was a rather risk job. nearly half my team almost ended up dead and I barely avoided the sight of that enemy techno who could have killed me... Luckily due to my nature of remaining in the shadows and not being caught save our lives and could get pell out with the help of my drone.