Smear Campaign

Smear Campaign
Date 2082-09-02 GM Disco Location The Auburn Matrix Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Knight Errant	Saeder Krupp
Al-Ahmar z Nova Kid	KE Spider

Summary

A host dive performed on Saeder Krupp's Megablock 14, a gigantic coffin apartment complex located in Auburn. The goal of the dive was to smear a corrupt Knight Errant officer who worked in the building, one Mallory Kenway. The team met with the J on the Emerald City Grid, received their blackmail material, and dove into the tower's host to paste it all over the enormous screens broadcasting that night's Urban Brawl match. After sneaking through the outer host and around the security spider, the team successfully hacked the screens and shared their dossier with the entire building. One quick scuffle with the spider later and they made a (mostly) clean escape, collecting their payment and being congratulated on a job well done.

Background

Julia Abrantes, the girlfriend of an impressively corrupt KE officer, had been living good until recently. Her boyfriend Mallory had the (admittedly petty) amounts of money and power necessary to keep her living well, and the confiscated novacoke wasn't that bad either. Unfortunately, it turns out that crooked cops don't make for good long term relationship partners. When she discovered that he had been cheating, she emptied his bank account and used the money to hire people to ruin his rep.

The Meet

The runners met with Abrantes in an alleyway on the Emerald City Grid, a few blocks away from the Megablock's host. Abrantes, her persona's face clumsily obscured, gives the team an information packet she collected from Mallory's devices and the cameras outside of his apartment. She offers the team 4,000 nuyen each to put the info on the Megablock's screens during tonight's Urban Brawl match. The team, happy for a chance to frag over a cop, accepts.

The Plan

The runners use their combined editing skills to condense the dossier into a single, easy to understand video. Their work put even Seattle's best political attack ads to shame, and they prepared for their dive confident that this would absolutely ruin Mallory's rep. After performing the pre-hack ritual of doing a bunch of psyche, the team dove into the host.

The Run

The outer host of the Megablock was a crowded destination host plastered in headache inducing advertisements. After a few minutes of inconspicuous searching the team managed to locate the entrance to the complex's industrial host. The three managed to break in without a problem, and once inside set about hacking the gigantic trid screens in the center of the building. Z and her machine sprite Marx ran support as Al-Ahmar and Nova Kid got their marks and inserted the files, spoofing a command for the screen to switch streams. Not yet satisfied, the team decided to try and use bootstrap to ensure that even when rebooted the screen would go right back to playing the video. Midway through this process they were spotted by the KE security spider, who proceeded to brick Al-Ahmar's deck by bouncing their failed attack. Z used some techno magic to turn the rapidly deploying IC against the spider, distracting them long enough for Nova Kid to finish their work on the screens. The team made a beeline for the exit and were able to escape cleanly.

Aftermath

The J was ecstatic at the team's performance, and the runners could hear the sounds of their video blaring from the other end of the line. She offered payment, which Al-Ahmar and Z politely declined on the condition that the J spread their handles around with positive recommendations. Satisfied at a job well done, the team went their separate ways and rezzed out of the matrix.

Rewards

4k Nuyen

6 Karma

4 CDP

For everyone who didn't take the money:

7 Karma

1 Street Cred

4 CDP

+5 Rep: Streets of Auburn

For Syphlen:

8 GMP for playing a premade

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Nova Kid

Hell Yeah! Everything went smooth, at least for me. Didn't get spotted, got the marks, rewrote the bootloader, and got out. Sadly it didn't go so well for the other two, I sure hope they didn't get hit too hard.

Al-Ahmar

I can't say that I'm sad to see S-K's property defaced with this little prank. Really, ultimately it's pretty harmless, I don't mind doing petty crime like this. It's funny, makes me laugh and we get paid for it! If things were always this innocent, I think I wouldn't be so worried about my future as a shadowrunner. The other two were totally solid teammates to have on the grid - I just wish it would've been more... relaxed.