Piezomagnetism

Piezomagnetism
Date 2087-03-26 GM John Location Bogota, Aztlan Status Threat Level: Extreme
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Rosa Rito	Aztechnology
Huntress Alkali Delphi White Thistle Tsarina	Harris Way Corpsec Security Teams Various Mages and their Spirits Transport Workers Private Detective Various Drones
Casualties and losses
None, somehow	Harrris Way is detained, and two of the corporate security team were killed by the team. Major infrastructure was also damaged, but other combat damage was not caused by the runners themselves and is not recorded here.

Summary

Corporate power is something that often feels impossible to challenge. With towering skyscrapers, impenetrable fortress black sites, swathes of goons and amoral monsters willing to work for the soulless machine of commerce if it gets them the opportunity to fuel their greed and megalomania, they seem invincible. The story of corporate control is all over the 6th world. Like in Aztlan, and the city of Bogota, where Aztechnology controls almost all facets of life, and is free to do as they please.

One former runner wants to put a dent in that. And with the help of a newly rising PMC and a scrappy team, has the perfect target in mind for putting a dent on that chokehold the bastards have on the city.

Background

Even after the second AzAm war concluded, a common sentiment amongst the people in Bogota is that it never truly ended, merely quieted. With the way that Aztechnology holds such an iron grip on the city and its usual, awful practices against whoever it can get away with using, needless to say there's a number of fighters still looking to put up resistance against the corporation. A fighter in focus for this particular story is one Rosa Rito, a former prime runner now retired with a few places to hide out and rumors floating about the strange things she's collected over the years. Her target for removal was an utterly awful piece of work called Harris Way.

Harris is a UK native, blood mage, and utter bastard of a person. He had a bounty on his head from destroying an entire building for a crime along with everyone inside, with a massive bounty on his head until it...suddenly got cleared when he got picked up by Aztechnology. He had last been seen on a train somewhere in Bogota a few years back, and it seems as if since then people who 'wouldn't be missed' have been disappearing since. Given the way things work with Azzie R&D, this did not bode well. Rosa was not in her prime, and she could not take this guy or his research alone. No, she needed a team to back her up. And she needed more firepower.

One half of this equation was the Shadowhaven. The other was Horned Bear. Maybe with both groups, she could make this work.

The Meet

The runners had their illegal cargo (and teammate) delivered via transport plane as the majority of them wore disguises, met up for a ritual to hide their signatures, and flew on their own plane over to reach Bogota. They called Rosa, got directed to a small bar in the fringes of the city, let the bouncer know who they were looking for, and after a bit of paranoid double checking in this fairly sketchy place went inside the little panic room Rito had.

They talked business there, gathering information on their target and figuring out more of who was involved here. They learned of the three different sister sites that Aztechnology had in the mountain ranges, alongside the terminal station hidden in the city that ran...somewhere through to the countryside. More than likely, Harris was inside one of those sites. They needed to locate him, and deal with him. Somehow, Rosa wasn't really particular. Any blow to their research would be astronomical in the effort to slow the suffering of the people.

They learned of a number of different spots from which they could rest and operate from, to keep from drawing too much attention to this particular hideout of Rosa's. Now they needed to plan things out and get moving.

The Plan

The matter of what to do with Harris was something that needed to be established early. Delphi was not about to murder this man in extra-judicious justice, and despite some grumbling from Tsarina about the matter and White Thistle jumping down her throat, things were fine enough there. The bigger issue was that they were operating more in the dark than they would've liked. They didn't know the depth of the enemy's capabilities yet, nor did they have an exact location. And worryingly, Delphi had a divination about a certain detective of Aztlan who was already trying to piece together what was up with the transport plane coming by and, eventually, narrowing down the team's presence.

They needed reconnaissance, they needed to figure out how to use Horned Bear's forces that were sent over to assist them, they needed to derail the detective long enough to prevent any disasters upon them, and they needed to figure out their actual infiltration too.

The team could talk to Horned Bear on their own time, and Tsarina seemed confident she could discreetly throw off the detective from their trail. They knew there were helicopters coming in and around at the other end from Rosa's intel, and if they wanted a physical look at the sites they needed to get a drone in to scout ahead, and that means IFF signatures if they wanted to keep from being detected. So, they had three objectives they would accomplish thusly:

1. Recon to get vital intel:

1a. Alkali and Delphi use astral projection to get an early look, see what kind of forces are on the ground to clear the way for...

1b. Huntress and WT to go in and get a data tap on the copter, securing the IFF for her drones so...

1c. Delphi can use her drones to get a visual on the security on site, and by this point through either astral or physical checking see if they can't determine Harris's whereabouts

2. Tsarina throws off the detective from their tail using her social infiltration skills

3. Team goes to talk with HB as Tsarina goes to deal with the detective. They'd figure out how best to use them with more intel, but they wanted to establish a general idea now

With those objectives complete, the team would secure the way forward into capturing Harris.

The Run

Tsarina's task was simple enough. She put on the lost tourist routine as she went to the detective's favorite bar, stood out, got his attention, and fed him a sob story to buy time as well as tie into dropping Red Herrings he believed about other suspicious characters who separated her from her group. The team secured contact with Lieutenant Bubbles of HB and established the use of his shock troops as a cover for their own infiltration to draw away any security. Alkali and Delphi had an easy enough time astrally sneaking through despite a close call, but Huntress and Thistle had a near discovery when an Earth Spirit patrolling at night caught White Thistle barely. She somehow managed to convince it that she was an Aztechnology black ops member, confusing the earth spirit enough that his sleepy summoner did not care to raise the alarm on them. They got the data tap secured, and Delphi could do her scouting with her drone for a proper investigation on site.

Astral projection revealed one of the sites had a massively increased background count and was likely their target, and they had 3 security teams of 6 members each on site. 2 would be active and deal with threats as they saw them at a time, 1 would be resting. The site had a garage for helicopters to land at, a storage room, a small power building, and a main research room. Harris was likely in that room. The team would split into two infiltration teams: Delphi, Alkali, and Tsarina disguising themselves as service workers to seek in ahead of the team, and Huntress and White Thistle backing them up by sneaking in once HB set up the distraction - ideally hitting the power unit to shut down the electrified fence and keep communications down. They'd head into the main building together and apprehend Harris in the chaos. This worked exceptionally well - Tsarina's group bluffed their way in with astral signatures copied and, in the commotion, easily managed to get into the main building despite heightened concerns. Thistle and Huntress joined in after them to back them up, and with Delphi's sensing they managed to find a secret trap door that led down into the more...restricted research rooms.

The team prepared for their final confrontation with Harris, Alkali using smuggled preparations to get the team ready as they stormed down the corridors and to a massive, warded vault. With time an issue and subtlety no longer needed, they broke the ward down by force and pried the vault door open. They immediately flew into a firefight as Huntress chucked a grenade inside, the magical team did their best to hold back Harris's intense magical might, and a spirit under Alkali's control joined White Thistle in holding back the two security members who had joined Harris when the emergency started. The fight was incredibly risky: the two security team members were effectively HTR, and despite a mana static weakening his spells and preps and compulsion hampering his mental faculties to strike himself, things were at a stalemate. And things looked even worse when a blood spirit nearly cleaved White Thistle's soul in twain on the astral. But their combined efforts did slow down the monster enough that, when his desperate attempt to control their minds succeeded, the drain left him unable to fight. And that plummeted the morale of the remaining security team.

Aftermath

The team were mostly unchallenged on their way out as they had broken down someone on-site personnel saw as a demi-god and were not worth dying to in an attempt to stop them. They got information from searching and mind probing Harris about the location of survivors of the vile experimentation at that place, and while the number of survivors they could save were few one in particular stood out:

Tres, a sibling of Nueve's, was for some reason here as a subject. A rather interesting prospect for AZT's research, and now free from their clutches.

The mission was a success either way, and the team were flying back with a contract payment from HB soon enough. A successful blow had been dealt to the presence in Bogota, though whether that is enough will have to be seen in due time.

Rewards

40k of Gear Rewards (Magical Gear, Armor & Weapons up to A24). Take half unspent as liquid nuyen. (10 RVP)

+1 Street Cred (1 RVP)

6+2 CDP (3 RVP)

16 Karma (16 RVP)

Good Feels clearing out bad magic: Can serve as an Initiation Ordeal

Optionals:

Can take Rosa Rito as a 5/3 contact (7 RVP)

Can take Tres as a 3/4 contact (6 RVP)

Qualities:

FoCon for Tsarina (4 RVP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Tsarina

"...between this and my last job, I'm beginning to suspect my fixer is starting to see me as a military asset. I don't appreciate it."