No Rest for the Wicked (Management)

No Rest for the Wicked (Management)
Date 2082-04-16 GM OrionsRequiem Location Seattle Metroplex (Various)
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Cecelia Cross Informer	Renraku	Ancients
Black Samurai Samsara	Noriko Ito and Bodyguards	Ganger
Casualties and losses
	Noriko Ito and Bodyguards
Black Samurai's 3rd Ordeal

Summary

Akira Mori is contacted by Cecelia Cross with an offer: coin in the form of ware and revenge in exchange for a hard drive carried upon the person of a middle manager at Renraku. Informer does some investigating while Akira checks in with Samsara about his uncle's sword. They talk about life, and they decide not to honor duel. After talking trash to Ancients at their bar, the pair part ways and Akira assassinates Noriko Ito, returning the hard drive--as promised--to Cecelia.

Background

Hayato Mori, Akira's uncle, was a Red Swordsman in training; he was stationed at one of Noriko Ito's facilities in the Seattle metroplex before the location was breached by Samsara and others (see A Blast from the Past). Because the facility was lost and his sword was taken, Hayato was forced to take his own life to preserve his family's honor and safety. Akira, who idolized his uncle growing up, vowed revenge on the people who forced this choice upon him.

The Meet

While eating with his sister, Finn, Akira receives a call from a sparkly avatar asking him to come down to E-Vue as soon as possible; he pays, apologizes, and heads out. After arriving, Black Samurai waits in line like a normal person before being admitted to the club. He finds Brody J crowd surfing while asleep, and--surprised to be working for another J--is requested to a private booth by one Cecelia Cross. He waits for her to finish working in AR, and is given a dossier on Noriko Ito, a Renraku employee who runs several facilities around Seattle. Cecelia lets Black Samurai know that she was involved with his uncle's death, and that she wants a hard drive the woman is carrying. In exchange, Akira could get his revenge.

Already having the dossier in hand, Akira was confused as to why he'd return the hard drive to the woman, as she had offered no compensation. Cecelia noted that she was looking for quiet, competent runners for a bigger upcoming job and--if he completed this task for her--she'd agree to subsidize some hardware improvements on his behalf.

The Stakeout

Having read the dossier and deciding not to track down the woman at work--which would be crawling with many, many Renraku agents--Black Samurai first looked over her downtown home. Leaning against a nearby building and "checking his commlink", he searched the matrix for nearby wireless devices and attempted to map the cameras, but the number of devices was extremely overwhelming. It quickly became clear that he would be unable to make a move on her near her apartment without immediate repercussions unless he executed perfectly.

While he had faith in himself, relying on perfection is a foolhardy plan, so Akira called in a chip from his free spirit buddy, Informer. After awkwardly trying to decide if he should mimic Informer's speech patterns or not, Akira asked Informer to perform a little discrete surveillance, and passed along any information he had about Noriko Ito. The spirit agreed, and the world resumed being in color.

Sprite Floats?

Awaiting the return of Informer, Black Samurai calls up Samsara, asking her to drop off her Uncle's sword. Samsara, still mourning the death of Vati during the events of The Most Honorable Birthday asks to meet at a place called the Daisy Chain, an Ancients bar that Akira has never heard of. Black Samurai orders drinks from Samsara's sister, who he met at a burnt out husk of a pizza joint (see initiation when linked).

After a few failed attempts to talk to Juliet, Akira is waited on by Jacqueline Grant, a better listener. Jacqueline fills Black Samurai in on the recent events in Juliet and Samsara's life. Jacqueline serves up a few floats after Black Samurai was complementary of her, and soon Samsara arrives.

Akira explains the situation in some detail, asking if Samsara knows Cecelia Cross and how she might have gotten information about him. Eventually, Akira remembers his outburst at the funeral (see Family, Duty, Honor.)

After listening in, Samsara warns Black Samurai that revenge won't actually fix the issues at hand, and may make things worse. Not the most adept with words, Samsara's warnings fall on deaf ears, but the hateful glances from the bar full of Ancients doesn't go unheeded. Samsara and Black Samurai confront a few gangers angry at the presence of a human and a poser in their bar. There was an exchanging of words, (many of which were in Sperethiel,) a light stabbing, and some mild high fiving before Sam and Sam were ejected from the bar by Juliet who is rightly worried that they're continuing to make her life more difficult.

Akira asks Samsara for his uncle's blade back, but she refuses to hand it to him to just go assassinate someone. Before the exchange escalates, Informer returns with information about an upcoming reservation by Noriko Ito at a Restaurant safely out of the downtown dangerzone. Black Samurai departs to finish the job.

Assassination

Arriving well before his mark, Black Samurai surveys the restaurant's parking lot. Four cameras, one at each corner, pan and sweep the lot. Blind spots exist below each camera, and along the walls directly between them. He heads back to his car, swaps into runner gear, and parkours to the top of the building beside the restaurant and pops betameth before counting every car that drives past until his target arrives.

When her cars pulls into the lot and she gets out, he takes kami, before leaping down, impaling her in a single strike from the roof. Before one guard can react, Black Samurai slices him, knocking him down and out of the battle. The second guard--who caught sight of him mid leap--fared far better. The two parried and exchanged swords for several seconds before Akira asked him to run away. The bodyguard refused, and Black Samurai struck him down. With the hard drive retrieved from the mark, Akira stealthily returned to his car and brought the item back to Cecelia Cross.

Aftermath

Through honing his reflexes, Akira finds that the drugs don't really seem to help him anymore; he stops using them for a combat edge so that he can think more clearly in the moment. The primary target of his hatred is dead, but he doesn't feel a great rush of completion. He feels--well--nothing. It'd be super annoying if Samsara and Vip3r had actual points.

Rewards

Black Samurai:

• 40k Nuyen worth of 'ware at or below availability 19 (10 RVP)
• 2 karma (2 RVP)
• -5 Ancients Reputation
• IG3 Discount
• Can buy off Driven at chargen price, having achieved the goal.

Samsara:

• -5 Ancients Reputation
• Nasty Trog (5 RVP)
• 7 karma (7 RVP)

Game Quotes

Ancients Ganger: "Breeder." Akira: "Oh man...that's exactly what your mom called me last night."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Akira Mori

She's dead. Hayato will never breathe again, but maybe I can?

I'm left with the inevitable "now what?"

Do I try to bring down one of the Big Ten solo? That's ridiculous. I'm not dumb enough to think that will work. Do I cut down the Ork who also bears responsibility for his death? Samsara drives me a little crazy, but she's lost someone recently, and I see a reflection of my situation in her. I don't think that brings me peace.

It's exhausting to feel nothing or everything without anything in between. With Ito dead, maybe this is a chance to drop the poison inhalers in the garbage and see if I can feel like me again.

I'll lay low for a couple of days; I don't want this to spill back on Vip3r or Finn.

Samsara

I still don't know what to think about all this stuff, with Renraku and revenge... I don't think it's what Vati would have wanted. Frag... what a mess. Damn Ancients too, I should have picked a smarter place to meet up. I'll need to make sure to send them some protection money to keep my family safe while they find a new place to live. Doesn't feel right paying a rival gang, but I know they'd never even consider leaving Tarislar for Ghaz's community.

Black Samurai though... I'm not sure what to think of him. He's angry all the time, and rightly so after what happened to his uncle - which I'm responsible for after taking that sword from him. I know he wanted it back, was probably ready to take it from me - and it's not like I could have stopped him really without the hand - but thankfully he didn't push. It wouldn't have been right, to give it to him just to murder that woman. Doesn't strike me as particularly honorable. Also should have smacked him just for hitting on Juliette, but... well, he's going through his own drek. Hopefully he'll be okay.