Sixteen Tons

Sixteen Tons
Date 2081-08-27 GM SedatedAlice Location Redmond historic Union building Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Urban street shaman group	An unrated corporation, Brightstar Consortium
Farsight KBC Koi Roadkill (Inactive)
Casualties and losses
Roadkill became addicted to kami	One toxic shaman

Summary

The runners were hired by a group of urban shaman to save a construction site that included a massive concrete slab of critical importance to the The Union of Pebbles, Gravel, Limestone, and Debris, local 414 - a group of urban concrete spirits.

They sabotaged the construction site and ultimately convinced the VP of BrightStar Consortium to halt construction and give the land to the urban shaman to safeguard.

Background

Farsight, KBC, Koi, and Roadkill arrived at the meet. It looked like a warehouse nightclub. They had to display the curious rune from the run post to get in. This proved to be a picture of the intersection where the warehouse nightclub for the urban shaman is located. In the parking lot, they encountered Billy the Shaman who was interacting with all of the cars parked there, almost as if they were living animals he was shepherding.

Once inside, KBC was drawn to a man in construction clothes talking about how concerned he was that a building was going to be torn down. (He would prove to be an ally spirit of the urban shaman Jerry.) Jerry realized the group were the runners hired by head urban shaman Zen. Farsight could see that Zen and Jerry were shaman, and the construction worker was a spirit of concrete. Jerry gave the construction worker a brick.

The Meet

Zen, the Johnson, explained that the runners would need to do whatever was necessary to stop the site from being demolished. She provided the address. It was clear that it was very important to the construction worker spirit, also.

Zen paid them up front.

She also agreed that they could use the basement room on the back of the club for planning.

The Plan

KBC searched the matrix for information about the building, the person or organization who bought it, and any recent cases of construction being halted to see what reasons had been sufficient in the past. They learned that the building was an old union building, over 100 years old. The foundation was very unusual - a massive unbroken slab of concrete extending not only under the building, but under its parking lot as well. KBC knew with her knowledge of construction that there was no mundane reason to have a foundation of that size, or to use a single piece of concrete like that. She asked Farsight if there could be a magical explanation.

Farsight scouted in astral. He found a very large group of spirits, just like the construction worker spirit at the warehouse. He could not find any arcane reason for the concrete, beyond that it certainly seemed to make the spirits happy to have it there.

KBC learned that the site had been bought by Brightstart Consortium. They had recently moved into Seattle from Salish-Sidhe territory, wanting to operate where there was less environmental regulation. They were planning to build a large industrial facility, to make NERPs. She found a few cases of cancelled construction projects, but it was always because some cost became unbearable. There was no indication that sites in this area could be protected by a historic designation, or appearance of protected wildlife.

Koi and Roadkill scouted the physical site, being stealthy. They confirmed the constructions was being done by Steinhauser Construction Company. Roadkill captured trid of all he saw, with his cyber eyes, and transmitted to the others. When he was stopped by a lock on the construction site trailer door, KBC was able to hack it open for him. Once inside, he collected pictures of before and after blueprints and several loose data chips. He secured a data tap to the terminal. KBC reviewed the data on the terminal and shared it with the team. It included staffing lists, communications over their e-mail system, payroll information, security information, and equipment lists.

The construction worker spirit from the warehouse was inside the trailer and encouraged Roadkill to come inside the building for more information.

The initial plan was to sabotage the construction site, making it impossible and cost-prohibitive for work to continue, and to investigate what was going on inside the building.

The Run

Farsight, with support from the team, crafted a convincing e-mail message to all staff from HR which told them the job was cancelled and they should no longer report to work. KBC sent it via the terminal to all the construction staff.

Farsight and [[Roadkill] went in to the building to see what was going on with the spirits of concrete. They were having a union meeting. They began by reviewing minutes and then moved to a discussion of the new business - what to do about the construction work. They had appealed to their friends for help. (The urban shaman.) Roadkill gave a very stirring speech about the philosophy of neo-anarchism for the people to rise up against the man. Farsight reinforced this message with a further speech. The concrete spirits were definitely moved by the speeches, and beginning to rally.

Then, Farsight sensed something filthy and foul approaching. A toxic spirit! The newly emboldened construction spirits threw their bricks at it. Farsight attacked it as it manifeested with a mighty blow that completely annihilated it.

With the toxic spirit dispatched, the concrete spirits readily joined the runners in dismantling the construction equipment. An orgy of violence followed. Koi took one jackhammer and used it on the other jackhammers, pummeling them out of shape. KBC bricked the vehicle with the crane and the wrecking ball. It was soon a sparking, smoking mess. Roadkill detonated a couple frag grenades in the construction trailer. The construction spirits helped them break everything down into pieces.

To send a particularly strong message to the company, they took the disassembled broken equipment and other supplies on site, and with KBC's construction guidance, and the help of the spirits of concrete, reinforced the aging union building to make it more sturdy and harder to tear down.

Their sabotage complete, they got some rest, and then returned in the morning to see what reaction there was to all they had done.

Was this enough? As they were waiting on their stakeout, KBC and Farsight researched options to protect the site by registering it as a sacred space to so many spirits. Farsight could do so with his psychometric license. KBC found the proper organization to file with. But that process would take time. Likewise, they could perhaps disincent the factory being built by stealing the data about the NERP to be built there, and selling it to the competition. KBC obtained that paydata.

A few construction workers had missed the e-mail and did show up to work, but the majority of workers stayed away, as hoped.

But then a fancy car pulled up to survey the damage. A man in an expensive suit, and a female assistant. A few guards.

The group took bets as to whether the man was a toxic shaman. KBC won over 100 nuyen from the others by correctly guessing that the man was mundane. It was the woman - the assistant - who was the shaman.

The runners did some quick review of options and decided the best thing was to kill the shaman, subdue the guards, and subdue and kidnap the VP. They would pressure him into giving up the land permanently. Farsight would ask the urban shaman for help, including - if possible - sending an air spirit to help, and specifically follow Koi's direction (who would have a bird's eye view). KBC would take over the fancy car, and potentially use it as a weapon to run over the shaman, if needed. As a first step, she stealthily acquired her marks and locked the doors so they could not get in if they tried to escape when the combat started. Koi took up a sniper position on a nearby rooftop. Roadkill planned to stun the group with a powerful neurotoxin grenade.

The urban shaman sent a spirit of the airwaves.

Roadkill landed the grenade at the VP's feet. The VP, the two guards, and several of the construction workers fell unconscious. The shaman managed to shuffle out of the cloud of gas, and began to manifest on the astral. Farsight landed a powerful blow in astral combat, killing the toxic shaman. Fearful that the grenade was powerful enough that it might kill the folks now unconscious, Koi sent the spirit of the airwaves to disperse the gas, which it did with the vibrations of loud music on its boombox, and shuffle-style dancing. KBC was monitoring and realized that the VP had tried to trigger an emergency distress beacon of some kind from a hidden commlink. She acted quickly to squelch the signal before it could transmit, while she got close enough with a jammer to block the transmission.

They loaded the captive restrained VP into Roadkill's van, and began driving away. They drove in circles while they tried to arrange a meet up with Farsight to lead the investigation. (His body was still back at the warehouse, and now crashing out from drugs.) Billy the Shaman helped them get word to Jerry at the warehouse to detox Farsight, and have him call-in for the meet-up. Meanwhile, Koi and Roadkill attempted to get help from contacts for a safehouse to conduct a 'negotiation'. Roadkill's contact The Florist came through with an address.

At the warehouse, Koi led the effort to find the hidden emergency beacon. It was up his nose! Koi yanked it out, and gave it to KBC to brick. Roadkill used his considerable medical skill to patch the VP up and wake him up. Still restrained.

Farsight led the negotiations, while the other three stood behind him in full armor and masks looking intimidating. The VP did not initially want to give up the site, though he took the runner's threat seriously. He had invested a lot of money. But it gradually became clear that he did respect spirits. The VP's mother was a mage, and the spirits had saved her. It seemed the toxic shaman had deceived him in some ways, making him think the site was good for their purposes because it was already toxic and they couldn't make it any worse. He genuinely did not want to upset a site sacred to so large a number of urban concrete spirits. He agreed to meet with the person who wanted to take over the ownership of the land (their Johnson, Zen) to work it out. The runners called Zen and let her know the situation. She and several others of the urban shaman arrived, and she negotiated with the VP. He agreed to give the ownership of the land to her.

Aftermath

The site of the enormous concrete foundation that now serves as a guild hall for The Union of Pebbles, Gravel, Limestone, and Debris, local 414, was saved. The land now belongs to the urban shaman to protect.

The runners did their job, and got paid.

Rewards

14,000 nuyen
6 Karma!
+2 CDP
OPTIONAL! Billy the Shaman as a 2/1 Contact

Game Quotes

"Let's just say he was down to Earth." - Farsight, referencing the spirit of concrete.

Torq: "Is this technically a foundation run?" (As they plan to protect a concrete foundation...)

"The Spirit may be manifesting, but I am delivering a spirited manifesto." - Farsight

"Like our brick happy friend. Not KBC. The other one."

"The 414 Union. The 404 Union would be for deckers. File not found..."

"What's in it for me?" - Billy "Do you want a hug? An APDS round? A trauma patch? I don't have drugs. Anybody have drugs?" - Koi "I have psyche!" - KBC "I'm already on psyche!" - Billy

"We're not killing a hostage. I have a code." - Koi "KBC does not apparently have a code." - Others "I have code. I hack code all day long." - KBC

GM to Farsight: "You have successfully fooled him into thinking you're all professionals."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

KBC

My first run report with the haven! This was a good team. An interesting job. I felt like I did my part, with lots of matrix searches, one bypassed lock, one hacked computer terminal, one bricked wrecking ball/crane, one hacked car which I totally could have driven over someone (but did not get the chance to), one squelched emergency beacon signal that did not transmit... Also, I was pretty excited to have my contact Miss Moon - a construction expert - ready to call. Though she wasn't available, and I had to leave a message. And now I have a new contact! Billy. And three new colleagues who I very much look forward to working with again. Also, it felt pretty good sticking it to that dreckhole corporate guy. A happy ending for all. Except the toxic shaman. And she deserved it.

Koi

Everyone complains about their homes. Everyone says the Metroplexs like Seattle, cal free, Denver, Hong Kong, berlin. They all call it a meat grinder, to chew you up and spit your bones out. But today I met the soul of Seattle, and I got to help it stand strong. These city's have soul and frankly I'm happy to call this place a second home