Flobots - Failure Games

Flobots - Failure Games
Date 2079-05-19 GM DrBurst Location Puyallup, Downtown Result Team recovered Bass's body and cyberdeck, revealed a trap set on the deck, and identified the Horizon operative behind it.
Factions Involved
Enduring Resistance	Horizon
Commanders and leaders
Fischer, Marionette, Mirage (reyjinn), Spectre,	Cory Delgado
Casualties and losses
None	None

Background

In the aftermath of the events surrounding May Day, Enduring Resistance has suffered setbacks. Reeling from a runner attack on their warehouse headquarters, they were stung when one of their key deckers was snatched by corporate operatives. They learned that the decker, Bass, had been taken to meet with a smooth-talking corporate agent, and then, to their surprise, he was released the same afternoon. Relieved but suspicious, they verified that this was indeed the Bass they knew and loved—he was privy to all their host passwords and several members could personally vouch for the appearance of the person in front of them. Unfortunately, over the following days, it seemed that Bass had been gravely shaken by the events. Depressed and prone to long periods of brooding silence, Bass appeared very much unlike his usually lively self. Still, the organization rumbled forward with their agenda, and on the night of May 18th, Bass was amongst he team of Enduring Resistance taggers that had snuck onto a makeshift gantry on an Ares building high above the Seattle streets. Apparently overcome by despondency, the other members of the crew were horrified as they watched Bass step off the edge of the planks and plunge hundreds of feet to his death. Not minutes after, Knight Errant responders swarmed and cordoned off the area, cutting the partisans off from their fallen member.

Meet

The team is summoned to the warehouse headquarters of Enduring Resistance in Puyallup. Marionette arrives first, almost being caught up in an over-zealous patrol that had spotted his car. Mirage, Spectre, and Fischer follow soon after, and the distraught Johnson begins to spill what she knows about the incident. Enduring Resistance needs closure, and the Johnson believes that begins with giving Bass a proper goodbye. The Johnson tasks the team with recovering Bass's body from wherever it was taken. To compound their troubles, Bass was also central to Enduring Resistance's matrix operations, and his cyberdeck represented a sizable asset to the group. The Johnson wants it back, too, and she offers the team 22,000 nuyen to each runner for completing both tasks. With a bit of persuasion, she agrees to add a 5,000 nuyen bonus for reliable information leading to the party or parties responsible for Bass's grim fate. The team is given one week, and they depart.

Run

Retiring to plan in Fischer's aerial safehouse, the team begins to dig into the fate of Bass's body. By chasing the markings on a vehicle seen at the scene in front of Ares Tower, they learn the cleanup on scene was contracted to a company called "Unible Biohazard Cleanup Services". With a quick switch of skillsofts, Marionette and Fischer dive into the Matrix to dig up information on Unible. They quickly determine that the company is, in all likelihood, a corporate shell. Founded only weeks before and contracted almost immediately, this Mom and Pop shop looks to be anything but. With few other solid leads to go on, the team decides to dig deeper.

Fischer is tasked with retrieving the vehicle routing logs from Unible's low-grade host. After successfully infiltrating the host, Fischer is surprised to find himself spotted almost immediately by the host's IC. Irritated and impatient, Fischer tasks his sprite to stall the host's defense while he data spikes the bloodhound IC back into binary goo. A not-so-subtle spat of Matrix manipulation later, and Fischer exits the host with the appropriate information (and a small amount of shame).

The team discovers that Bass's body was indeed taken to Unible's sole location in downtown Seattle, and they decide to scope the place out. Mirage, Marionette, and Spectre don the guises of an out-of-town Charisma Associates operator and two local personal bodyguards. A woman at the front desk greets the trio and recognizes Mirage's Horizon-linked false SIN. Surprised, she asks why the team is there, only for Mirage to request to speak with the manager in charge. Swayed by Mirage's bravado, she takes the team further into the facility and asks whether they need the "manager" or the Manager, Mr. Delgado. The team realizes the information they need is almost certainly privileged, so they request to speak with this shadowy man in charge. The woman escorts Mirage to a back room, sets up a secure video connection, and leaves to let the two speak of delicate matters.

Mirage is introduced to Cory Delgado and immediately realizes that he is speaking with a powerful Horizon Dawkins agent, lounging high atop a corporate building in New York. Stomaching his trepidation, Mirage inquires about the body and personal effects of Bass. Mr. Delgado is suspicious, but Mirage's smooth-talking and well-placed corroborating information wins the agent over. Delgado reveals that Bass was part of a Horizon op to destabilize and demoralize Enduring Resistance. He was reprogrammed during his brief abduction and sent back to carry out Horizon's plan from within. With no immediate use in the operation, Bass's body had been scheduled to be incinerated at the earliest convenience, but the team's quick legwork had managed to get them in touch before it had actually taken place. Bass's cyberdeck, however, had been carefully implanted with a sophisticated computer virus, designed to wreak havoc on Enduring Resistance's host from within. Mirage, thinking quickly, spins a tale of a second Horizon group who had planned to dissect Bass's brain to glean information on the workings of a competent decker—nobody misses the SINless. Delgado plays along, attempting to trip up Mirage by implying he is aware of the group and giving a false name, but Mirage picks up on the ruse and plays it off cleverly. With no use for the body and no tangible reason to mistrust the slippery social operator in front of him, agrees to deliver Bass's body to a predetermined location in Puyallup. Since part of Horizon's operations was to ensure that Bass's cyberdeck found its way back to Enduring Resistance anyways, the team realizes that they can simply send a resistance member to pick it up later. With the mission accomplished, Mirage says his farewells to Mr. Delgado and hangs up. The team makes a graceful retreat from the building and leaves. Unable to restrain himself, Mirage drops a signature business card in the planter outside.

Aftermath

After retrieving Bass's body from the handoff location, the team calls their Johnson and explains the situation. While visibly upset, she composes herself long enough to agree that the team's objectives are effectively complete. She will send an associate close to Bass but without knowledge of the team's actions to Unible in order to retrieve the cyberdeck, and it will be buried with his body, foiling Horizon's sabotage plans. The team also hands over a photo and the name of Cory Delgado to the Johnson, for which she agrees to award the team half their bonus payment.

While Mirage's social acrobatics carried the day, he is left to wonder just how much Horizon knows and whether he will be hearing from Mr. Delgado again soon...

Rewards

25000 nuyen, 3 karma, and +3 reputation with Enduring Resistance for each runner.

Mirage's false identity of Joshua Holmes is being tracked by Horizon; what will happen as a result is yet unknown.

Player AARs

Mirage

Going with the good old thinking of "nothing ventured, nothing gained" Mirage took on a Dawkins agent in social maneuvering. While much more than less successful this drew the attention of this Dawkins agent (a Cory Delgado) to Mirage's favourite fake SIN of Joshua Holmes, Matrix Image Consultant form Charisma Associates. Mirage has had to assume that this SIN is being rather closely monitored from now on. To further complicate matters, because I make excellent chargen decisions, Mirage has the Signature negative quality. So he left one of his calling cards (see Symbols further down on the wiki page) in a flowerbed in the offices of Unible Biohazards Clean Up Service which is a Dawkins Group front. Yay!

Mirage later contacted his contact in the FBI, Al Green and offered him all the information he has on Cory Delgado, risking further exposure and possibly info on him leaking from the FBI.