A Tough Nut to Crack

A Tough Nut to Crack
Part of Two Steps Ahead
Date 2081-12-13 GM Sarcarian Location Snohomish, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Saeder-Krupp
Charon Dr.Trauma Jowls Oathbane Sp4rks	Mysad Decker Air Spirit Guardian Spirit
Casualties and losses
	Mysad Decker, Air Spirit, Guardian Spirit

Summary

In which the runners are sub-contracted by a pair of hitmen to help them get their target.

Background

Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones are a pair of professional freelance assassins – a face and a sniper – who have quite the target on their hands: a mystic adept decker working for S-K, with a data lock full of juicy secrets in his head. Unfortunately, their target managed to see them coming, and has gone to ground in a fortified bolt hole in Snohomish after calling for an extraction. Smith and Jones are good at what they do, but they are on a hard time limit until this payday slips from their grasp and are unequipped to deal with the threat themselves, so they have decided to sub-contract the job out to shadowrunners.

The Meet

The runners are sent a MARK for a rented host and told to be there in 5 minutes, as it is a time-sensitive matter – everyone manages to show up on time, rezzing into a blank white space where a pair of besuited men are waiting for them. The two introduce themselves and explain the job, offering the team 12,000 nuyen to literally bring them their target’s head, as well as bonus pay if they bring them his cyberdeck as well. Jowls takes the lead on negotiation, much to Charon’s consternation, and manages to squeeze an extra 3 grand up front out of the Johnsons – they provide the location of a dead drop where they can pick up the credsticks. Smith and Jones warn the team that they are aware that the target has a self-destruct module in his deck, and that they should be careful that it does not go off.

The Plan

While Dr. Trauma, Oathbane and Sp4rks head to Snohomish to get their advance payment, Jowls assists Charon with a social con to find her someone to snack on. Meeting at a nameless Touristville bar, Jowls body sculpts into an attractive ork and manages to seduce a likely target into following them out into the ally, where the vampire is waiting for them – she manages to give the poor fragger the good succ, stealing 1/3 of his soul before he manages to get free and knocking him out as the two of them beat a quick retreat. She pumps herself up on essence, and the two faces make up.

The team converges in Snohomish and make their way towards the coordinates they were given, finding an abandoned mine shaft in a hillside with a watcher spirit out front standing beside an intercom. Dr. Trauma uses a spatial sense prep to get a better idea of the space, managing to sneak around without being seen by the watcher and mapping out the layout of the mine, as well as a secret exit to the top of the hill where another watcher is camped out. After drawing a map of the layout for the rest of the team, they start to devise a plan of attack.

Knowing that the target is expecting S-K to extract them, Charon and Sp4rks put their heads together and devise a social con for Jowls to pull off using footage Sp4rks has of a known S-K operative from a previous job they worked together (see: A Lesson in Not Getting Caught) who he can impersonate – however common sense wins the day when Jowls remembers halfway through turning into her that he is unable to speak German and thus cannot convincingly pull it off, and Sp4rks nukes the surreptitiously obtained footage from orbit just to make sure that it doesn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

With the social infiltration ruled out, the team devise an alternate plan involving a two-pronged attack – Charon and Trauma will attack the secret entrance while the others perform a frontal assault. They plan to knock the target out so that the self-destruct module (which a matrix security roll tells them is likely to be linked to a biomonitor) doesn’t detect a flatline and go off, then have their own decker disable the module before killing him and removing his head.

The Run

After drugging up, the team gets into position and launches their assault. Sp4rks approaches the intercom and smashes it open, slapping a data tap on it as he engages EAARS and presses is induction-receiver modded deck against it; he Goes Big or Goes Home on his instinctive hack, managing to get 3 marks on the device which travel up to the owner’s deck. Attempting a format device action, the target goes on full defense and manages to avoid having his deck rebooted. Meanwhile, Charon and Trauma are able to sneak up on the watcher spirit up top – Charon devours it with duel-natured unarmed combat, while Trauma explodes the rock it was sitting on and melts the mana barrier underneath it to reveal the shaft leading down to their target. Charon drops down and turns into mist form, while Trauma jumps in after her and slides down the ladder.

The target is quick on the draw, commanding his drones and spirits to defend him before launching a quick and dirty data spike at Sp4rks which he is barely able to avoid. Oathbane has her sprites start opening up the front door so Jowls can get inside, while Sp4rks works on forking marks onto the rail drones inside to take control of them. Meanwhile, a rotodrone and an air spirit ascend the secret exit to head off the intruders, while a guardian spirit watches over the decker. Charon falls into the rotodrone and deletes it, managing to avoid the noxious breath from the air spirit and slip by it without its notice while still in mist form; Trauma meanwhile is immune thanks to his chemseal, falling downward with a high force punch prep on an arrow and slapping the spirit upside the head.

The magical strike team manages to get into the decker den while the front door crew work on breaking the door down – Oathbane manages to unlock it just as Sp4rks gets marks on the drones, so he heads inside with EAARS engaged… only to get filled with ADPS rounds from the drone on the other side which he had yet to issue alternate commands to. Jowls slaps a trauma patch on him before he passes out, and he manages to send a command to the drones to go back to the decker and shoot his spirit bodyguard. Said guardian spirit immediately unloads on Charon when she de-mists – she manages to survive the first hit and tap the decker with one of Trauma’s punch preps, which immediately knocks him out, getting rid of the air spirit and preventing him from retaking control of the drones.

Unfortunately the guardian spirit is bound and has orders to defend the decker, so it immediately attacks Charon again and puts her into physical overflow. Trauma lands in the room and attempts to attract its attention before hiding behind cover, while the rest of the team rush to assist. The drones arrive and unload with ADPS fire, but the spirit dodges one and soaks the other handily; while Sp4rks sneaks past it in the heat of combat to plug into the decker’s jack, Oathbane and Jowls attempt to distract the spirit with their own weapons to little effect. Trauma launches a punch prep crossbow bolt at it to reacquire its attention, and manages to soak another direct hit before Sp4rks disables the self-destruct module and fills the target full of lead, getting rid of the spirit for good.

Aftermath

After catching their breaths (and regenerating, in Charon’s case), the team remove their target’s head and confirm that there are files in the data lock and on the deck (all encrypted/data bombed). They pop the head in a bag and grab the deck before beating a quick retreat, licking their wounds before calling up Smith and Jones to arrange a handoff. The two assassins have the team meet them at an abandoned strip mall, where a lone figure waits in the parking lot (Mr. Smith – Mr. Jones is on the roof with a rifle).

The team is suspicious, with three of them exiting their own vehicle to do the physical handoff – Smith exchanges the head for a credstick containing 60,000 nuyen, then requests to see the deck before handing off the rest of their promised payment. Sp4rks sees a laser sight on his chest briefly click off before he gives it over, and the team prepare for trouble, but the two assassins are smart enough to not attempt to double cross a team of shadowrunners when they just took out a tough target and are so on edge (if they were unaware it might be another story). Instead, Smith hands over another 25,000 for the deck, bringing the team’s individual take up to 20 grand each, and wishes them a good day, leaving the team with the impression that the lone man might have been a monad all along.

Rewards

• 20,000 nuyen
• 2 karma
• 2 CDP

Game Quotes

Charon: [out of context, after essence draining a man] "I am now tempted to find another guy to suck, but I don't want to keep you all waiting."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Dr.Trauma

I won't lie that could have been a lot worse, but it could have also been better. If it wasn't for everyones quick acting that spirit and the drones of his would have easily wiped us all out. I do feel a little bad since I knocked out Charon in the attempt to use a spell, and then said spell flopped but she was unconscious so she just doesn't know any better.

Oathbane: That's was not something i'm use to, a mage hiding in a hole and a world class hacker, glad that i didn't have to face him on the matrix. i would have likely lost that fight against him or whatever team being seat in to grab him and leave...knowing the corps this won't end well for some people as they are going want to know who wanted their Decker Iced.

Sp4rks

Okay, so imma say it, as much as i hate seeing Technos against me because of their eerie capacity to always spot me when running silent, having them on my side really is a boon. Oathbane proved a really great ally, especially when against such odds as those we met this run. The guy we fought against must have been one of the best Decker i ever met, i really would have liked to meet him, in other circumstances...

His prowess on the cyberspace put me right on the spot, every move i made he countered, and when he passed on the offensive he really was going all in, a fantastic fight ensued before he was knocked out cold by the rest of the team, as usual charon and Dr trauma rocked the meatspace.

However it was quickly becoming apparent a spirit was pinning them down, and so i got in the building to help them out as i could. However i kinda forgot a detail, the rail drone saw me and instantly opened fire, and a whole world of hurt came my way. thankfully i was still up when i hacked and sent the order to the drones to shoot the spirit, i then rushed towards the room where the fight was raging on. Taking the situation in, my Chum Dr trauma was taunting the spirit to attack him, giving me the opportunity to slip right under the spirit's fiery nose and connect to the deck, back right against it's solar searing heat. With no time to think, i disabled the explosive module and planted my machine pistol in the neck of the target, unloading the whole clip in him in the hope that his spirit would disappear with him dying.

Thankfully, the spirit's heat waned and it quickly disappeared, at which point the team was as close to safe as we could hope.