Night of Vengeance

Night of Vengeance
Date 2085-11-06 GM Scranton Location Seattle, Renton Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven The Midnight Coven	Humanis
Cauldron Heart of the Tempest No Significant Harassment Onigiri	Duncan MacDonald
Casualties and losses
None	Duncan is MIA
Metaplot is currently not filled in, but I plan to make this part of a metaplot, still to be submitted to Thematics

Summary

A Coven demands vengeance for an unpunished murder

Background

Sofia Doxiadis, a cyclops and a high ranking member of the Midnight Coven, a neo-anarchist awakened commune, had been recently murdered by an unknown assailant, suspected to have ties with human supremacists groups. The police investigations have been inconclusive, possibly due to some amount of tampering, and now the Coven is demanding vengeance. Jin-sung Myeong, a wealthy member of the Coven, opted to bypass the internal council and use their personal money to hire runners, to avoid both some of their sisters to fall to the allure of darker arts, and the inevitable wider scale bloodshed that would happen in case the organization at large would move against the local chapter of Humanis.

The Meet

In a slightly unusual way, the fixers contacted the runs with a certain haste, urging them to get to the Last Drop, a shady and dingy dive bar in the barrens of Puyallup, as fast as possible, as the meeting with the Johnson was set within the hour. All but Tempest managed to make it in time (she just arrived late).

Jin-sung Myeong appeared very hurried and stressed, explaining the broader context of what had happen. Sofia, a personal friend and esteemed member of the coven, got in what appeared to be a bar brawl, that resulted in her being gunned down by an unknown human. Accounts of the event vary, but there is video evidence, captured by the bar's camera system. The footage, once reviewed, showed how the cyclops was just using her words, only retaliating with magic once hit by a bottle, which then resulted in the shots fired. In the trid, the man pulling the trigger appears to sport a flaming sword tattoo, which the team identifies as a symbol of self identification within meta-racist/human supremacists organization, started as an identifier of the Alamos 20000 terrorist organization, the most extreme, violent and fringe elements of the movement, later reclaimed by the more moderate (if still decidedly metaracist) Humanis Policlub, and the armed wings under the wider organization.

The Johnson urges the team to act quickly, as recently KE declared that the case was to be investigated and prosecuted not as homicide, but rather a possible "excess of lawful self defense", which meant the perpetrator could very possibly never be put in jail. This made the witches understandably upset, and the climate of rage brewing could lead them to dark paths, both in the destructive and the self-destructive sense, so, they request that the responsible is brought to real justice, be it by assassination or, ideally, being personally brought in front of the coven's council, and his fate left to them to decide.

Before any further investigation, Cauldron comments that if the target was a patron of the bar, there are good chances he made purchases under his SIN, making identifying him easier. So, he went and tried to talk the bartender into giving him that information, but due to some competent but less then spectacular conmanning on his end, that sadly went nowhere

The Plan

No Significant Harrassment got to matrix searching, using a facial recognition software to turn that footage into serviceable intel, and in a short time, the shooter had been identified as a certain Duncan MacDonald, which in turn turned out to be a veteran of the UCAS military, now deployed at a Renraku owned arcology in Downtown as security personel, and also a proud and outspoken member of Humanis, frequently sharing memes and political material on his socials, urging the other "decent people of Seattle" to join him at the weekly meetings at the central club situated in Renton. Sadly, the research produced no information on the murder itself, but still, gave a location and an overview on the man. Onigiri, due to her experience as former Renraku security, notes that the man appears well trained and augmented, and that it is customary for the Japanacorp to implant their guards with a GPS enabled biomonitor, to both keep tabs on their employees and making taking them down without tripping an alarm signifciantly harder for infiltrators.

The first idea is to attack him while he gets home after work, but Tempest's watcher confirms that he likely sleeps on site, only leaving the complex on his free time.

Some deliberation leads the team to decide to wait out the next Humanis meeting, scheduled the next day, in hope that the target would attend, and attack him while en-route, to avoid having to deal with either the rest of Renraku security, or the many armed members of the Policlub. To this end, another matrix search his made to see what car the man drives, and much to the surprise of everyone, he appear to be without a driver's licence, and travel mostly by public transport

The Run

The idea of an ambush is pitched, to attack him while he is walking from the train stop towards the Humanis building, but due to the way being mostly out in the open and full of potential witnesses, with NSH staying out of the way, provide quick infli and exfil via invisible and untraceable flying vehicle, Tempest making all of the other runners and herself invisible, and holding Cauldron as they fly wrapped in the banshee's sphere of silence, and Onigiri acting as a bait.

Once visual with the target is established, the oni tosses a milkshake at him, calling him a "fucking metaracist" and running away in an out of the way back alley. Obviously, the hot tempered man follows her into the ambush, where his implants and combat experience prove insufficient in holding out against the melee mastery of Onigiri and the more then respectable shotgun work of Cauldron. Using the flying boat's winch, the team and the unconscious target are quickly exfilled, and some mind probing work from Tempest confirm the suspicions previously held that, while not directly Alamos, the man had ties with other "flaming swords" in various position of preminence, including Knight Errant, and that while this was an isolated incident, the chances of events similar to this or worse are terribly high.

Aftermath

The team is thoroughly convinced that some action must be taken against the allies the target had, and the assassin is handed to the Coven, that will do with him as their council deeds appropriate

Rewards

4k Nuyens (2 RVP) 14 Karma (14 RVP) 2 CDP (0 RVP)

Optional Reward :

Jin-sung Myeong as a contact at 4/2 (5 RVP)

NSH can get analytical mind at gen price for 5 RVP

Qualifies as inititation ordeal for Onigiri

Game Quotes

"Can we just assume confidence and grab a milkshake on the way" - Gel.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Cauldron: "I hardly expected to be saddled with a pirate, a ninja, and a Dracula-enthusiast for a metaracist-payback job, but this was a surprisingly efficient group. I'll have to remember to speak with Tempest later to pick her brain about their alchemy, as well."