Time to Attack

Time to Attack
Part of Hail to the Pumpking
Date 2082-04-23 GM Asmodeus Location Shiawase Central Grid Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Shiawase
Sp4rks Master Morty Ca1yps0

Summary

Jack starts a smear campaign against Shiawase to get them to back off. Runners decide this is fine.

Background

The Starscreamers in Sophocles have begun getting stronger, but strength invites challenge. Knight Errant, Black Lodge, Shiawase and possibly even Urubia in the future. Jack's decided he's had enough of trying to be accommodating and goes on the offensive now.

The Meet

Jack's right hand, a dissonant technomancer meets the runners in a wiped clean host that she has presumably completely wrecked. Plain white void with but a glitchy humanoid persona meeting them is an alarming sign for Calypso, but the meet is a disaster regardless. Chitin, the technomancer, is not exactly a people person and only delivers Jack's offer to them, unable to really negotiate too much on his behalf. She offers some scrap components they have as leftovers from Shiawase HTR teams and other dissidents, Jack's trademark stolen karma empowerment and the liberty steal any paydata they want from their target: a clandestine UV host on Shiawase's Central Grid rumored to host forbidden secrets.

For obvious reasons, the team's reserved about hitting the target, but Chitin reassures them that they're paid for the risk and that she has as much information as possible -- she can put them on the right path and even escort them to the entrance, but beyond that they're on their own. The intent is to replace some odd two hundred personnel files with forgeries, planting evidence of an insect spirit infestation among the ranks of Shiawase's Seattle personnel. The team does eventually accept, but Calypso tries to explain to Chitin how bad of an idea it is to work for a shadow spirit. Unfortunately, the ingratiated technomancer doesn't seem to hear the wisdom in the mermaid's words.

The Run

The team does sneak their way into the UV host once found, which turns out to be an ever-shifting fortress floating in nothingness. Calypso uses the waterways around to swim freely while the other two walk normally. They get a little bit of information about the surrounding area, but not much. This much is known: some crucial locations such as the Great Bridge, the Barracks, the Underworld Library and the Castle are pointed out to them. Posing as local residents, the team interacts with some of the local icons and even prove their might by data spiking a training doll with a great display of 'magical power.' This earns them an administration key to certain files in the form of a wooden sword.

Getting in the Underworld Library is kind of hard, however. The elevator leading down is guarded at all times, but Morty and Calypso take some inventive actions to distract and disable the guards before heading down. They find multiple floors, but resist the urge to head all the way down, instead concentrating on the library.

Turns out that encryption on the personnel files is heavy as sin. They edit and crack as fast as they can, avoiding data bombs of sealed scrolls exploding in their face or freezing the arms off their personas while they hear commotion up from the surface. Someone's figured out they're here. With haste, they finally finish the colossal task of editing the personnel files and make a mad dash for the exit that they found in one of the bathrooms. It's revolting, but they succeed at getting the hell out before the guards find them and exit from the host.

Aftermath

Chitin's happy, Shiawase's not and folks are getting paid!

Rewards

• For Sp4rks: Information about Shiawase UV Host on the Shiawase Central Grid (Estimated worth: 24,000¥)
• For Calypso: 24,000¥
• For Master Morty: Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None + Natural Hardening
• 2 CDP
• 2 Starscreamers Reputation

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Master Morty

"Pumpking Jack, a shadow spirit taking over the area of Sophocles, is looking to make his mark on the Matrix. Not sure why, but a job's a job, and this one promises the sweet sweet reward of POWER. I've made deals with the devil before, and this one is no different. I'm starting to feel that there might one day be a price for all these deals I keep accepting, but the end justifies the means doesn't it? Anyway, another dive into an Ultraviolet Host, this time to plant some files in the Archives to bring shame to Shiawase. Don't much like being slaved to my physicality, but I will do what I have to. We get in, plant the data, and get out by the skin of our teeth. Another dive, another payday. I go to the meet with Jack, and he's every bit the anti-christ I expect him to be, full of horror and promises of power. But he delivers, with that wide grin of his, and I can feel the power swimming through me, settling in and getting cozy. One step closer to my goal...? Only time will tell."

Ca1yps0

It's always a simple datasteal, right up until it isn't - in this case it started with the J, evidently an insectile changling who had been struggling with the Dissoannce and taken in by this Pump King Jack figure. A tragic story really, and I tried my best to convince her to leave, but truly there was not much I could say that would reach her. I hope that she will find somewhere else to go, being in that place cannot be good for her.

The host itself was... well, it was astounding, as only ultraviolet-level stimulation can be. There is more that could be said, but I would not be doing justice to the experience. Planting the data proved easy enough, however Sp4rks and Morty wanted to go deeper, towards the Foundation. Sp4rks made a comment about destroying the place to slot over Shiawase, and I told him that it would be sacrilege to do such a thing instead of trying to take it back from it's current owners. That seemed to convince him at least to come back later with a plan. Hopefully it works out.