Like Pulling Teeth

Like Pulling Teeth
Date 2081-09-11 GM Silas Location Tacoma - on the road, at a truck stop, at a warehouse Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Microtech	BioGen
Fortuna Moth Rabbit Santesso
Casualties and losses
One drone down, ready for repair	Twelve guards, two drones

Summary

The runners are hired by a Johnson who wants to extract a decker from a corp, so he can go work for a 2nd corp that the Johnson is helping. What is planned as a careful social infiltration turns into a high speed rescue when the target promptly gets caught!

The runners know the target is in a shipping container with limited oxygen. He's on one of three vehicles, or at a warehouse. They confirm after checking the 2nd vehicle that he is at the warehouse, and rescue him in time.

Background

Their target, a cheerful and perhaps overconfident dwarf, was working as the chief of security for Microtech. He wanted to work for BioGen instead.

Their Johnson was tasked by BioGen with arranging his extraction. BioGen specializes in SINs and helping people disappear. If he can just get to BioGen, they think they can make it impossible for Microtech to find him to re-capture him.

The Meet

The runners met the Johnson at an apartment complex, where she has an office accessible through a secure elevator. She explains the situation, and offers to get them in touch directly with the target to plan the op. As the chief of security, he has the information they need to plan a subtle rescue. He is in a very secure workplace where he works in the basement and lives in the tower. He is always watched. There is considerable security, including that the area he can best be extracted from is only ever accessed by four other people. But he can make the team IDs with those four people's pictures and the team's biometrics so they can get through.

The Johnson sets up a secure drop, via a host, so he can take the biometric information, and hand off camera feed, floor plans, schedules, dossiers on the four targets, and the other information they will need to plan the extract.

The Plan

The first plan was the subtle social infiltration. They could get in using disguises and the fake IDs coded to their biometrics. But, they'd need to plan for a hotter exit, given all the security controls.

This plan went out the window when the promised camera feed instead showed the target being locked in a shipping container. He was unconscious.

Luckily, he'd included his implanted stealth tag in the other files sent. Santesso had the skills to track the stealth tag, with support from Moth and Rabbit. The target was in a vehicle driving south, from Bellevue to Tacoma.

No more time for planning! They needed to race into pursuit. Santesso sent a rotodrone ahead to chase the truck, while the team piled into his van. Rabbit brought her motorcycle. Moth and Fortuna focused on packing gear.

Moth spoke briefly to the Johnson confirming that she was in a panic, that the man getting caught was an error the Johnson had made setting up the drop, and that she feared for her own life if she didn't recover him. Biogen could hide them both. If he could be recovered.

The rotodrone caught up just in time to see that the truck was at a warehouse in Tacoma. But then the steath tag went dead. And three vehicles exited, all going in different directions. Their target could be in any vehicle, or inside the warehouse. What to do?

Santesso quickly got fly spy drones following each vehicle. They looked closely at the drone's footage of the exiting vehicles. One had no driver; on autopilot. That was the vehicle that had dropped him. It was headed north back to headquarters. That could just be because it had dropped off all its packages and was returning to base. But that might just have been a trick to throw them off. That vehicle was closest to them heading south and would pass them soon.

The other two vehicles had drivers who looked like enforcers. Tough guys. A little blood. Possibly from yanking out the stealth tag.

His drone was right there. It was close enough to do something to try to help them guess which vehicle he was in. If he was in a vehicle.

Santesso's drone had the camera, a microphone, and its guns. He realized they could ping a shot off the vehicle and record the audio, and listen to how hollow the truck sounded, when rattled. The shake the Christmas present to guess what's inside approach! The others all joined in the effort to listen to the audio and best guess what they were hearing. The one returning north sounded the most empty. The second one sounded pretty darn empty. Something inside. But not much. The third one sounded packed.

They decided to catch up to the vehicles in order of emptiness-sounding, reckoning that if he was in a vehicle, that might be its only purpose. A single crate.

The fly spys would keep tabs on the other vehicles so they could catch up.

The Run

Vehicle #1

This was the apparently empty or mostly empty truck heading north. No driver. Running on autopilot. It was going to pass them soon. Rabbit took over driving their van, while Santesso jumped into the truck and took it over. He had it pull to the side of the road. They pulled up behind it.

Fortuna was able to open the complex lock on the back, with support from Rabbit and Moth.

And, it really was empty. Just heading back. One package checked. Three more places left.

Vehicle #2

The second truck had pulled into a rest stop. The enforcer driver had gone inside.

Santesso sent a fly spy into the rest stop to keep watch on him. He was just coming out of the bathroom and on his way over to the counter to order.

Moth, Fortuna, and Rabbit approach the back, planning to work together on the lock again. Santesso flagged them that the man was ordering more than one cup of coffee. Curious. Moth quickly studied the truck with her thermographic vision, and warned the others that there appeared to be several people inside. Guards?

Fortuna and Rabbit were confident physical combatants. They decided to fling open the doors and surpise whoever was waiting inside, while Moth took cover around the side of the vehicle.

Rabbit had her whip, and began cutting the opponents in half. Fortuna had a gun and a knife. Santesso gave them 'I am the firewall' protection, while Moth inspired them to move more quickly than their opponents.

Rabbit and Fortuna made short work of the opposition. They had them all dead, before the driver stepped out of the truck stop. They all hid inside the back, non-lethal loaded, ready to surprise him when he opened the door to deliver the coffee, with the intent to capture him. And he was very surprised. And immediately unconscious.

They searched the truck, but there was nothing else in it. An ambush for them?

They needed information, but that's why they'd captured him. They carried him to Santesso's van and started driving toward the third vehicle, while Moth interrogated him with help from Rabbit who made the man magically terrified. None of the others had actually seen Moth interrogate a prisoner before. But she was quite intimidating when she needed to be. Channeling her father on Laesa syndicate business. The man quickly cracked and gave them all the information they needed. Rabbit shot him in the head. The man thought he was dead, but it was stick & shock. They dumped his unconscious body in an alley. He'd live.

The dwarf was in the warehouse! In a crate against the back wall. He gave them the security code to the doors. The number of guards. The security measures to expect. They were ready to return to the warehouse.

It seemed particularly wise to hurry before Fortuna came down off her kami.

The Warehouse

They drove up, and Rabbit sniped the gate guard with stick and shock. He fell forward and triggered the gate control.

Santesso brought the van up to the closest door they could see to the back wall. Rabbit, Fortuna, and Moth made their way in, using the code and key from the enforcer they'd captured. Fortuna and Moth were hidden under RPC cloaks. Rabbit was the fastest of them and headed straight for the big crate against the back wall. Fortuna cleared several smaller rooms where guards could be hiding, and found one in the bathroom. The others were outside, guarding the exterior, making their way towards the entrance.

Santesso's drones battled the drones out front. He lost one, but the other was able to take out both opfor drones.

Rabbit secured the target and his damaged deck, and raced back out to the van with him.

Fortuna killed the guard inside and headed back to the van.

Moth kept encouraging them to move as quickly as they could, but didn't herself have the athleticism to keep up. She was making her way back to the van more slowly. They could all see a silent alarm flashing red. They needed to get out quick!

Rabbit raced over to Santesso's downed drone and collected it so it could be repaired. Santesso moved the van closer to the door, to make it easier for Moth to reach. Moth dove into the van as they pulled away.

There was one guard still alive that Rabbit shot on the way out.

Santesso's van had all the add-ons for stealth. They were able to get away just as six squad cars of HTR SWAT teams were pulling up.

Moth helped stabilize the dwarf, and alerted the Johnson they were on their way. Target acquired.

Aftermath

The Johnson and the dwarf were helped by BioGen to flee Microtech's wrath. They are establishing new lives in San Francisco, under new identities. The dwarf did get the job with BioGen.

The runners got paid, with an extra bonus for their loyalty to the Johnson and discretion.

Rabbit kept the dwarf's cyberdeck. He agreed to help repair it for her.

The driver who gave them the information they needed lived. What he did next remained a mystery.

By avoiding searching vehicle #3, the team avoided a huge grenade trap!

But, the team fears that Microtech did get their biometrics. The dwarf was going to scrub that for them on the way out. Now they need decker support to get their data off a corporate host! ((Stay tuned for an upcoming run!))

Rewards

22,000 Nuyen
4 Karma
2 CDP
2 Faction Rep for cleaning up Biogen's mess.
Note: Fake SINs and licenses can be bought @ half cost with that money because of Biogen's services.

Rabbit only: The remains of the dwarf's cyberdeck which could be repaired with a massive amount of GMP.

Game Quotes

Moth, after hearing Santesso's great idea: "Time to shake the Christmas present and see what's inside."

Driver: [crying]. Moth: "Did I give you permission to cry you little bitch?"

Moth: "He doesn't look trustworthy. He looks like a dead man to me."

Santesso, hearing about the flashing alarm light. "I've heard that sound, it's a bad sound!" - Santesso ". . . it's a light, there is no sound." - Silas

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Moth

Moth here! This was my 48th run. This one was an adventure. I really thought we were going to do a clean social infiltration. And, honestly, I'm sure that's why I was picked. But then it went sideways. Nothing we did wrong! The Johnson messed up. But, everyone really thought on their feet, and kept at it. Santesso is a great teammate. We really team up well together, and he is great at matrix searching and with his drones. Rabbit and Fortuna are absolutely top notch combatants! I felt safe with them. And I am so glad they all waited for me to get back to the van. That's a lesson. Stay closer to the vehicle! Also, I think they were all a little surprised to see me go all intimidating on that guy. I usually fast talk or inspire. That's more 'me'. But I am a first class impersonator, so I can pretend to be intimidating! I just had to think ... what would papa do? Or say? But, speaking of papa, what is he going to say when I have to confess that this corp has my biometrics? We need to get that data scrubbed!