Heart Clutch

Heart Clutch
Part of Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger
Date 2080-10-02 GM Mach Ten Location ACHE (Former Renraku Arcology), Seattle Result Runners get the girl, win stupid prizes
Factions Involved
BFG Boombox Purkinje Rambozo	Gangers Renraku Corpsec
Casualties and losses
None	4 Gangers 4 Corpsec

Summary

Looking for a friend who has dropped from the Matrix, a group of techno-activists offer a prize for the runners to uncover her situation.

Background

The Red Children have lost contact with a friend, they can't go to law enforcement so they contract out for a Runner team.

The Meet

The runners meet in VR at e-Wasted, a private room provided a more comfortable setting for the Ms. Johnson - Scarlet of the Red Children

The Johnson offered 8k which was negotiated to include a 5k bonus if the job was accomplished in 24 hours without the target being made aware of the runners presence.

The Plan

Investigate the target - Jiang Mao, her abode, workplace and acquaintances

Rambozo, Boombox and BFG will go to A.C.H.E and look at security / ganger presence

Purkinje provides Matrix support and then goes onsite to access the Host.

The Run

The Team focus early on learning the History of ACHE -The Arcology Communal Housing Enclave, formerly the SCIRE (Self-Contained Industrial Residential Environment)), better known as the Renraku Arcology.

Rambozo leads BFG and Boombox straight into the public areas of the complex to a fight club to assess the physical aspects of the building and its inhabitants

Meanwhile Purk pulls up data on Jiang Mao, who seems to be an heir to Julian Mao of Silicon Technologies (B class Corp) who has a rebellious nature, currently starring as the pilot of the RAZORBACK, the KRIME PARTY Urban Brawl team Outrider jeep, digging deeper Purkinje finds she is a Meta-human rights activist linked to several groups including Red Children.

In VR attached to a public device on the UCAS Host in the Mall of ACHE. getting access to map data, bio-metrics and SIN data as well as an address.

Beneath the hastily constructed veneer of the host, something huge and dark stirs, tempted to dive deeper Purk has a moment of clarity and pulls back, to rejoin the team and access the upper habitation levels (8th floor) Purkinje passes Bio-metric data to Boombox to clone ID access on the Elevator while Rambozo and BFG intimidate a group of gangers they recognise in the corner who (unbeknown to them were going to attempt a robbery in the lift.)

Hitting the correct floor the team move quickly through the detritus filled corridors, wires hang loose from the ceiling near attached Data line taps to spread Matrix connectivity through this throwback of a building.. regular steel plates loom ominously overhead and Ramobozo points out the obvious descending turret like nature of them to the team, lending them a sense of urgency.

getting to the apartment, Purkinje rests against the door and focuses on the connected host, to her utmost despair the host peers back! a black chaotic and tainted wasteland looms across her view a central pillar atop which rests an unblinking eye wreathed in fire. The sour acidic taste of Dissonance fills her senses as Matrix icons and echoes flit across the landscape and purk recoils in horror before anything has chance to spot her.

This leaves the door opening to Boombox, who takes time to slip into something decidedly less comfortable, a skin tight chameleon suit and wriggles into a maintenance vent through the building refuse on the floor.

As he makes his way into the apartment, a security detail approaches, looking but finding nowhere suitable to hide, especially for the 3.50m tall giant ... they decide to play it cool and assume their ganger personas. The security in riot gear saunter up expecting no resistance but the looming form of BFG and some quietly threatening words have them scuttling on their way to the elevators with nervous glances back, the runners spot that there's little to no Matrix connected devices on them, something seems 'off' about this.

Boombox emerges into the empty apartment and surveys the surroundings, LED lights flicker from a deck on the side but the place is tidy and clean, a few Data Chips lie next to the device, so he lets the team in with no threats in sight.

Boombox attempts to access the deck and clumsily drops it, breaking it into a thousand pieces and revealing that it's no more than a fake shell for a Technomancer to use as a mask when working real jobs, Jiang might well be a Techno.

The various chips laying around are mostly bad poetry back and forth from a ganger called NightSprawl, Rambozo recognises the tattoos on his profile pictures as the gang from before.

Burner Comm - message 24 hours ago from her father in which he threatens to sell her racing Jeep, the RAZORBACK. "It's time to come home," he says. "I'll make everything right again."

Message from NightSprawl – “It’s time to go … meet me!”

JIANG's angry response telling dear old dad that he can't "buy me off or control me anymore"

Heading toward the lifts the team debate gearing up before heading into ganger territory to follow the next lead.

the heavy doors open though, to reveal a bloodbath, civilian bodies lie in rapidly pooling blood and one of the previously seen security guards slumps against the control panel. The team move quickly to control his bleeding and offer medical aid, they hear the control room urgent calls for response on the throwback walkie talkie but are took shaken to respond in time and hear them dispatch a task force to intercept at their last location (The 37th floor where the team are headed).

Trying to head off this force the team move ahead, into an expected ambush, Purkinje holds her breath and compusre as she piles bodies atop each other to use as makeshift cover she utters a blessing in Sperethial that the team don't hear. the doors open and the gang are ready but taken aback that it's not security but well armed runners that emerge, the fight last less than 3 seconds, a CS gas cannister spins through the air as the murderous form of a clown steps into the hallway, hails of bullets from the machine pistols of gangers richochet down the hall doing nothing, controlled bursts from the clown take the gang down with Matrix overwatch from A R T & Daemon pointing out fire arks and weak points for the gunman to take advantage of. Boombox slips out almost unseen and returns the gas cannister to his pocket before the charge inside ignites, no point wasting good grenades!

One escapee crawls slowly towards a barricaded apartment, Purkinje asks politely and pointedly for NightSprawl and the ganger points at the door before collapsing unconscious, Rambozo moves with purpose and collapses the door with a hefty boot, inside the dust settles on a squat filled with a horrendous stench and various bodies unmoving on couches and the floor ... all hooked up to Matrix equipment " A BTL den" scanning around they find the unfortunate corpse of their target. Purkinje investigates for any cyberware finding a cheap burner implanted and some other low grade ware... and then a huge surprise, his implanted bio-monitor and DocWagon bracelet is PLATINUM grade, this waster has an EMT team inbound any second!

Without wasting time Purkinje dives into his gear and rips data from him without any delay, the elevator doors open in the hall and the team grab her and rapidly depart leaving a scene of devestation behind them.

Aftermath

No one died by the teams hands, they took the gangers out with non-lethal untraceable rounds.

Given enough time Purkinje digs into the data she took:

Silicon Technologies is a Shell Corp of a Shell Corp loosely connected to Renraku

the dead BTL ganger was Anthony Ruz with no connection to anything on file presently. no reason for the expensive DocWagon.

Messages from an hour ago from Jiang Mao to meet him provide enough proof of life to complete the job.

Jiang Mao was last seen aboard a boat heading into the sound.

She suspects the Ms. Johnson is a Technomancer and has exchanged contact details for future work offers.

A suspected Dissonance well resides somewhere in the former home of DEUS.

Rewards

16.5k nuyen

3 karma

+1 Red Children faction rep

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Purkinje's Report

I have stared into the eyes of pure evil. The remnants of Renraku's SCIRE are a barrens now, full of the remnants of DEUS. Being at the center of Crash 2.0 made me uneasy, but I felt a terrible curiosity to find all I could. I saw something I should not have seen, there. Something dark and dissonant. I don't think I'll ever forget it. This may be the dissonance well mentioned in the files I pulled from that dead ganger's brain case. Speaking of the dead ganger, what's up with his 'ware? He had a plat DocWagon band and an implanted burner 'link. Drek's not cheap, not like everything else I saw there. I'm proud of myself for how I handled the shootout, though. I don't think I've ever been that effective in physical combat before. Shooter would've been proud. In other news, our target person of interest appears to have been a technomancer, as was our client. We weren't able to establish contact with the target, but I gave the client a watermarked calling card. There are ripples in the Resonance. What happened here will have a greater impact down the line, I can feel it.