April Desires Bring May Fires

April Desires Bring May Fires
Part of Cross Flight Love Fight
Date 2082-05-13 GM OrionsRequiem Location Council Island, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Prime
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Cecelia Cross	Federated Boeing
Babylon Vip3r Black Samurai King Beef	Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III Tee Vee House Guards

Summary

In which Cecelia Cross hires runners to prove that turnabout is in fact fairplay.

Background

During the events of Party Quarrel, several runners ended up burning down Cecelia Cross' manor while attempting to steal a scale model of Cross Applied Technologies' first extra territorial location in Quebec. The model was stolen and given to Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III, who has been spending the last several months adding bits to the model in order to make it "cooler". Including A statue of Dunkelzahn, an Azlaner chalice, and a model rollercoaster. These have been assembled into a monstrous diorama and prepared for a presentation that Brodie J is planning on throwing on the 20th.

Thanks to the help of Duchess and Voltage, and her connection with Babylon, Cecelia Cross learned about this presentation that he has advertised as "The Rebirth of Cross Applied Technologies" in The Most Urban Brawl 2: The Metagame, and cannot allow this insult to stand. So to this end, she has decided to hire Shadowrunners to return the same gesture that has started out this feud to begin with.

The Meet

Each of the runners is called by Cecelia Cross. Black Samurai and Vip3r in a coffee shop where they had been having a nice discussion with Black Samurai's sister about her new internship with Horizon, under the tutelage of Ace Powers, working on some strange trideo project called "Fish & Unicorns vs Shadowrunners!".

King Beef is contacted after spending some time with Artemis from The Pantheon, hunting a Juggernaut in the Snohomish Wilds. While King Beef gets broken in half by the creature, his spirit pal's regeneration power being conferred that keeps him from dying, before Artemis takes out the Juggernaut and King Beef is called by Cecelia, inviting him to E-Vue.

Babylon is called by Cecelia while spending time with Gomorrah, her ally spirit. On the way from Puyallup to Renton, Babylon is stopped by a Lone Star cruiser, and nearly crashes into it before stopping. Charles Dreyfus, Babylon's parole officer steps out and holds her up while giving her a speeding ticket and interrogating her about her plans for the rest of the day. Gomorrah tries to take a look at Charles' commlink, but is almost spotted. Once he's inconvenienced Babylon enough, he gives her a speeding ticket and sends her on her way, telling her that she must stop by the Lone Star office at 7 AM for the next three days and spend hours there as a part of their new "Parole service program." Delayed by about a half hour, Babylon sends Gomorrah ahead to E-Vue before starting on her bike again.

Upon arriving at E-Vue, the runners find the club as popular as ever, with a line around the corner. While Black Samurai attempts to get into the line, Vip3r drags him to the front of the line where Vee-Jay is in his usual position. The Troll doctorate student is too distracted talking to Gomorrah about the societal problems of the world, such as career criminals and student debt. King Beef also approaches the other troll, sizing him up in case he is attempted to be bounced, but an emergency is averted by the arrival of Cecelia's bodyguard who brings the runners inside, along with a tray of extremely expensive drinks. They move upstairs to the private room that serves as Cecelia's office. The runners take a seat and are given drinks while Cecelia explains that it is time for her plans to finally come to fruition.

Cecelia explains that Brodie J had stolen an important heirloom from her home when her house was burned down, and that she wants it back. She shows an advertisement that Brodie J made, inviting many people to a Downtown presentation on May 20th, claiming that it'll be the "Rebirth of Cross Applied Technologies." The runners are meant to steal the heirloom before the 20th from Brodie's home on Council Island, and Cross also expresses a desire to see his home burned down. She promises roughly 100k nuyen each in return for this service, or the equivalent in hardware and electronics. She expresses her desire that no one be killed if it can be helped, and makes it clear that Brodie J isn't to be killed at all.

The Plan

Leaving the meet and the club, Babylon calls up the Ancients and finds a safehouse near the Council Island bridge. Setting up there, the runners discuss their plans. The team ask Cecelia to give some up-front payment in the form of Rating 6 Fake SINs with some licenses so that they don't risk burning those that are connected to their real lives. The runners discuss many plans, including dropping from a plane, destroying the bridge, infiltrating via an emergency smuggling route that they learn about through Ether, or even just trying to get Brodie J to burn his own house down.

Vip3r dives into the Matrix and finds information about the security measures of Council Island, as well as the Rating 7 host that the Johnson household is packing. She also learns that there is a full staff, and a consignment of guards that stick around the premises. The technomancer also dives into the schedules of the house, finding out that Brodie has a sister named Rachel Legaia Johnson, and that she and his father, Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson II, would be coming to the presentation on the 20th and that Johnson II would be coming in on the 18th to stay at the home.

Eventually the team attempt to risk Occam's razor and just call Brodie J to attempt to get him on their side. Babylon calls the young corpkid and finds him busy at work, and most shockingly: sober. Able to have a lucid conversation without referring to himself in the third person, Babylon learns that he's taken the week off from his duties at E-Vue to work on this secret project that he's planning on revealing on the 20th. Though he's cagey about the details, knowing the relationship that Cecelia and Babylon have. Babylon takes a stab in the dark, using her connection with both Cecelia and Brodie to try and get the two of them to talk with Brodie in this state. However as they find out a few hours later, while Brodie J did go to the club, he did so after getting high and reverting to the Brodie J that people know and love. A verbal lashing from Babylon later, and the Black Mage is suddenly very interested in the arson and larceny that they are about to commit. However she also makes one last plea to Brodie to attempt to communicate with Cecelia while sober, putting forth all the effort that she can to make herself clear.

While Babylon leaves the safehouse to return to E-Vue and speak with Cecelia, Vip3r takes the time to search out Brodie J's commlink while it isn't slaved to the Matrix Host. Diving into the stylish opium-den like core of the Caliban that Brodie carries, she found several files protected by data bombs. While able to manipulate the files and disarm the majority of the data bombs, Vip3r grabs what she can before being faced with a Rating 9 data bomb on a secret folder. Diving into it and beating the bomb with the sheer force of her luck, Vip3r discovers several Federated-Boeing top-secret files, alongside one labeled the "Cross Revitalization Plan" that seems to have the backing of Brodie J's father.

Babylon wakes up and is forced to go to the Lone Star offices to deal with her parole officer and the many holes that she is being forced to jump through. Meanwhile Vip3r looks through the files and discovers a bunch of materials that are being shipped to Brodie's home, including 700 kegs of various alcohols being sent to the home. Deciding to attempt to hide themselves as delivery staff, Vip3r jumps into the host and starts moving files around. Stopping briefly to attempt to lift some paydata the team can use to pay Freya for her assistance in forging the documents that were used to get their covers in place.

Deciding that the run would be pulled off on the 17th, the team spent some more time discussing possibilities. Black Samurai calls Informer to look into Brodie's sister and see why she's in town. The free spirit takes some time and comes back to reveal that Rachel is only there to take a look at whatever project her brother has been working on. Curious as to why Brodie's father even cares, the runners look into things and find that Alexander-James II has been buying up Cross Applied Technologies stock and telling the board of directors of Federated Boeing to do the same. Two days from the run, Babylon contacts Brodie J again, who is once more sober and ready to talk seriously. Using information that Vip3r was able to pull off during the dive into the files that they acquired, she convinces him that he needs to turn on his father and company and choose Cecelia. Babylon explains that if he doesn't go to Cecelia right away, she's going to be convinced that he was involved and it will destroy their relationship forever. Brodie J agrees, and says that he'll talk to Cecelia, and the call ends.

The Run

The team try to call Cecelia, only to find that she isn't answering her commlink. The runners freak out about this and Babylon sends a spirit to go search for the wayward J while they load up on the cargo truck to bring kegs to Brodie J's house. Meanwhile King Beef goes to the SeaTac airport and boards a commercial flight that will take him over Council Island. As the runners approach the island there is some trouble where their new fake SINs are not holding up to scrutiny, but with some convincing crying and lying from Vip3r and Babylon, they're able to get onto the island properly and go to Brodie J's house. Once there, Babylon projects and tracks down Cecelia, who is with Brodie J underneath the ACHE, where Cecelia has attached herself to the UV Host that was previously explored by Haven runners in The Deepest Dive.

King Beef, while in the air, waits until they are over Council Island and gets out of his seat, breaking open the door of the plane and jumping out, having a spirit bring him his drug cocktail as well as the full body armor and jetpack. One of the flight attendants also falls out of the plane and has to be rescued by Babylon using one of her bound spirits to levitate the woman slowly to the ground. Babylon uses the rest of her spirits to protect the people on the plane as well as to mitigate the damage and get the plane to land safely in Lake Washington, while King Beef plummets into the fire station below. King Beef begins a rampage of terror, fighting off HTR, fire fighters, and all other challenges while the team at Brodie's manor used invisibility to sneak Black Samurai into the private room where the diorama was. Using Smart Corrosives to burn through the material around the model they are there for. However when one of the mansion guards points a gun at Vip3r, Black Sam comes back to try and strike him down, leaving Babylon to have to go in and steal the model.

Black Sam begins engaging the guards while Vip3r hacks into the host, disabling the sprinklers somewhat and forcing open the door of a panic room where Rachel is being kept. Soon Tee and Vee join the fray and begin to fight with Black Samurai, using their coordinated combat to fight off the skilled swordsman. Babylon calls Gomorrah back with her from the ACHE and the two of them set up a series of compressed gasses and a torch to explode, while heading out of the building. Babylon pulls the fire alarm which causes the malfunctioning and sparking sprinklers to spray water which then explode, catching the house on fire. Babylon quickly escapes out of a window and runs back to the truck where Vip3r is supporting the other runners. Turning the technomancer into a bird and sending the ally spirit along with her, Babylon and Black Sam watch as Tee and Vee stop fighting and get out of the house. The team call Cascade to come pick them up, and go and pick up King Beef from his position of killing a bunch of HTR goons. Using Little Smoke, Cascade uses Concealment to hide the runners as her helicopter goes down to the lake and uses it's submersible nature to hide beneath the waves while waiting for the heat to die down.

Aftermath

Having secured the model and returning it to Cecelia, she pays the team, as well as informing Babylon that she knows the location of her cousin, and that more on that would be coming soon. The team that desire it board a plane to take them to Quebec, and a job well-done is celebrated by all.

Rewards

(2.3x multiplayer from reward)

• New Rating 6 Fake SINs w/ licenses (paid ahead of time) (5 RVP)
• Delta Clinic Access & Flight to Cross Delta Clinic for Awakened and Emerged (15 RVP)
• 152k Nuyen worth of ware (up to Delta grade) of Availability 26 and lower, or 76k Nuyen (38 RVP)
• 20 karma (20 RVP)
• 84k Nuyen of various electronics (cyberdecks, commlinks, communication devices, etc) branded by Cross, or 42k Nuyen (21 RVP)
• +1 Street Cred (1 RVP)
• Cecelia Cross (4/2) (5 RVP) (Replaced with 10 CDP if already taken, both new and old contacts gain the ability to use CDP or RVP to upgrade Cecelia Cross to Loyalty 6)
• 2 CDP
• May buy off Wanted, Ex-Con, Criminal SIN or Records on File at chargen price (Cecelia either greasing the right palms, or cleaning the files herself)
• +10 Cross Applied Technologies Rep
• -5 Federated Boeing Rep

For King Beef:

• +1 Notoriety
• +1 Public Awareness
• Uncanny Healer (12 RVP)

For Babylon:

• Corporate Loyalist (Cross Applied Technologies) (7 RVP)
• Closer (4 RVP)
• Alibi (4 RVP)

For Black Samurai:

• Death Dealer - Adept(15 RVP)

For Vip3r:

• Alibi (4 RVP)
• Better on the Net [Data Processing] (9 RVP)

• Optional Contact: Cascade (4/2 Reckless Smuggler) (5 RVP from Karma or Nuyen Rewards)
• Optional Contact: Vee-Jay (2/1 Bouncer) (2 RVP from Karma or Nuyen)
• Optional Contact: Freya (5/1 Forger) (5 RVP from Karma or Nuyen)

Game Quotes

"Would you like me to kill him? Really, just say the word" -Babylon to Cecelia Cross about King Beef

"[Cecelia] doesn't like Brodie J you absolute cretin! She likes Alexander!" -Babylon to Brodie J after he screws up, again.

"Well, I've lost most of my Essence, and you clearly don't have a soul, so I guess [Informer] is the most people out of all of us." - Black Sam to Babylon

"Babylon: "King Beef, I have to ask you something very important, and I'm going to speak very slowly: Don't. Kill. Anyone." King Beef: "...Kill anyone. Got it."

King Beef: "I've just been sitting here folding bicycles for the past two days." Black Samurai: "Why are you folding bicycles?" King Beef: "Because there are no weights in the safehouse!"

Black Samurai: "I wish I had been the one to assist Babylon in her attempt to con this guard by fake crying." GM: "How would you have assisted?" Black Samurai: "I would've put my arm around Babs and then quietly stabbed her in the side to help her cry."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Black Samurai

Babylon seemed competent and Vip3r got us into council island single-handedly. Nicely done. King Beef is an absolute liability except that he isn't. You'd think a Minotaur jonesing for K10 would be the least reliable person on the team, and yet I was the most unreliable person.

Frag.

I don't mind the fact that I'll come to Vip3r's aid when a gun is in her face and the hammer gets pulled. I mind that I let it cloud my judgment and that I didn't trust her to talk her way out of it. She's incredibly competent...but here we are.

Today I got to actually play out a scenario that had gone through my mind several times. What would happen if you were to battle Tee and Vee? They gave as good as they got. I only ended up with a few staples, and Tee did the same. I never really got to dealing with Vee before Brody friggin J called them off.

I was glad I didn't have to kill them. Which is--like--really weird. That's the second time I remember that happening; the first time was when I was battling Steve's bodyguard. On one hand, You could think I have a soft spot for bodyguards because that's what I am at this point--a glorified bodyguard. On the other hand, isn't that literally the exact same spot these shmucks I cut in half tend to be?

I'd like to celebrate my windfall, but most of it's just ripping out old ware and putting newer, shinier versions in. So, as Cecelia's auto-doc sews, what else do I have to think about?

Shit. Brody has given me a few of my best paying jobs. Maybe I shouldn't have stabbed his guards. OH NO THAT IS THE PAIN EDITOR ON MY GOD THAT HURTS PLEASE HIT ME WITH THE ANes...an...mmm sleepy juice.

Vip3r

Well, I certainly didn't expect my plan to get into Cecelia's good graces to take me here. I don't do super risky revenge plots, but... for that kind of paycheck, and Cecelia's favor? ...Frag, maybe I've already sold out to her.

I'm legitimately shocked that this plan worked. I'm used to locking everything down and having enough backups that every course of action I decide to take has to be completely watertight, and this was not that. There were so many points where we had so much potential to fail, and there were multiple times on this job when I thought we were going to. But somehow, all of us--including King Beef, who jumped out of a fragging AIRPLANE--not only survived, but made it out at the end with our new fake SINs that we were fully expecting to burn. I'm also a little amazed that Babylon's communication with Brodie J came in clutch for us the way it did; looks like she learned her lesson from that last job, and I may have been a little too harsh on her in the time since.

Babylon

Ah Cecelia, revenge is indeed a dish best served cold as it seems. It seems like months since she told me of the indignity of having that model stolen and her house burned down by Brodrick, and I would be lying if I said it was not immensely satisfying to watch his own house go up in flames. Less satisfying was the near plane crash and the destroyed fire station however - things went a whole lot louder than I'd have preferred, and it's a small miracle we got away cleanly. Still, it worked out well in the end.

More than the actual objective of the job itself I find myself satisfied with the other results achieved - namely Cecelia and I becoming ah, closer, and the heart-to-heart with Brodrick on the matter of their relationship. As much of an ass as he is, there is something about him that she fell for in the first place and even my jaded eyes can see the potential there. Between the two of them patching things up and that bit of information that Vip3r pulled off his commlink I think that we may have averted a major catastrophe for Cross.

Well, all's well that ends well I suppose: Cecelia is going to pull some strings to get me off parole, plus fly me to Quebec to visit a delta clinic. She gave me something else as well - a very nice Cross pin, and the news that she has found her dear cousin. I will have to inquire after that. Perhaps CatCo's fortunes are not dead in the water after all - It seems that her star is rising, and I look forward to seeing where things go from here.

King Beef Man this team sure liked to plan, I got so bored I started buying and then folding bicycles for a workout since they didn't have any weights around. Oh MAN this K-10 addiction really gsts me craving at the worst time. Guess i was a good enough liar to get through Airport security and onto the plane, luckily I got to do some fighting and a be a distraction while the team did the job. Those 3 seemed kinda soft but whatever, I had a fuckin blast, downed a plane, fought a whole HTR squad and got a free chopper ride out. This is the drek I live for.