Cry of the Condemned

Cry of the Condemned
Date 2083-01-22 GM Archtmag Location Seguam Island, Aleutian Islands Status Threat Level: Semiprime
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Miyuki 7	Renraku	Major Paige Jenkins (Allied Contact)
Bannerette Knox Pell Spider	Red Samurai Miyuki Kanekawa	One borrowed Scorpio Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB)
Casualties and losses
	Geothermal powerplant for a research island; Countless Renraku employees killed in the artillery volleys; Untold number of protosapient test subjects	One borrowed Scorpio RIB

Summary

The ShadowHaven team was contracted to free an apparent e-ghost from a Renraku research facility on a now-private island in the Aleutian chain.

Background

Renraku purchased a secluded island and turned it into a private research facility for sensitive (read: super-secret) projects. There was a geothermal powerplant built in the center of the island to run everything and five sites scattered around the island identified by letters: one administrative site, three operational research sites and one research site undergoing construction.

The apparent e-ghost of one Miyuki Kanekaw, research scientist for Renraku, smuggled a protosapient AI off the island with the resources and instructions to free her (it?). That metasapient AI, named 7, is the Johnson that contacted the runners.

The Meet

7, our Johnson for this caper, invited the runners to a meet in a privately rented Matrix server (kinda like renting a conference room or a temporary office) through a message in ShadowHaven's #ic-guest-node and all runners attended on the Matrix side. Over the tasting and testing of several alcoholic beverages (and I swear the Mac and Cheese Shots were tasty), the runners performed the usual bob-and-weave with their Johnson, though the Johnson was new to being a Johnson, to agree to take on a high-risk extraction from an island in the Pacific with high opposition from Renraku for 10,000 nuyen up front, 10,000 afterwards plus paydata and software.

The Plan

Infiltration onto the island was to hop a ride on a westbound cargo ship with a Scorpio Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) on board, inflate the RIB when the cargo ship's path reached it's closest arc to the island, and then approach the island from the south on the RIB.

Once the island was reached, reconnaissance would be the priority because the island's secluded location and high security prevented a lot of remote surveillance options. The team would have to discover where Miyuki was held on the island and then figure out how to break her out. Spider had enough space available in her gear to download Miyuki for transit.

There were three exfiltration options:
1) Wait three days on the island and link up with a returning cargo ship on an eastbound pass with the Scorpio.
2) Contact some local crab fisherman who were willing to make a buck and arrange a rendezvous.
3) Island hop to the east along the rest of the Aleutian Island towards Alaska.

The Run

The Infiltration

The team approached the island from the south at night and skirted around the western edge of the island about five kilometers out, observing no traffic on sea or in the air, buoys displaying AR warnings, and regularly spaced watchtowers around the perimeter of the island about every two kilometers. The island is extremely bare with little animal life, no plant life larger than lichen and a landscape mostly of windswept rock and snow. The team did see the lights and shadows of a couple of the facilities in the dark and after reaching the northern shore, deciding to head into land close to the Renraku docks due to relative cover it provided.

Two kilometers from the shore, the team hit a mine that had not been displayed any Matrix or communications signals. The blast shredded the borrowed Scorpio. And Knox. And Bannerette. Pell and Spider escaped significant injury and managed to pull their comrades to shore with the assistance of a water spirit. The team literally dug into a crevasse inside a small ravine (at roughly the 9pm position) to dry out, warm up and heal. It took two days for Knox and Bannerette to recover, with Pell providing concealment with spirits and deploying some spirits for Astral recon and Spider making several dives into the facilities Matrix grid. They're only excitement during these days was learning how to melt snow into drinkable water, eating puffins, and one poor watcher spirit.

The Recon

Between the recon efforts of Spider and Pell, the team learned the following about the facilities on the island:

Geothermal Plant - The entire island was powered by a geothermal powerplant built into the inactive volcano in the center of the island.
Site A - The large facility on the north side of the island (at roughly the 11pm position) with the docks was the main administrative center of the island.
Site B - The northern-most facility (at roughly the 12pm position) engaged in the research of self-directed nanite construction. Interestingly, even though the site had all the security and containment protections you would normally expect, plus seawater being a natural limiting element, Renraku had stationed heavy artillery elsewhere on the island aimed at this facility to decimate it should grey goo breach occur.
Site C - The southern-most facility (at roughly the 7pm position) engaged in the research and development of new hunter-killer AI and IC systems. The facility was also highly warded against Astral intrusion.
Site D - The newest research facility a little to the southeast of the Geothermal Plant (at roughly the 5pm position) and was only partially constructed. What sections were completely built were still empty, awaiting their experiments to move in. There was a lot of activity here due to the construction.
Site E - The eastern-most facility (at roughly the 2pm position) engaged in general AI research.

The Advance

After spending two days dug into the island to heal up, the team decided to head up to the inactive volcano to gain the high ground for further recon before choosing between Sites C and E. On their way, they discovered the inland roads used by Renraku to connect the facilities (more like beaten down snow paths) and saw two large trucks with security details heading towards Site C while the runners crossed into the innermost section of the island.

As the team trekked up the snowy southern slope of the volcano, Spider noticed that there were drone swarms passing high overhead and decided to pull the gloves off. She dove into the security host the drones were slaved to, took control of a drone swarm, and smacked the snot out of three Renraku security spiders in quick succession. She noticed that the drones were only armed with targeting lasers and, in a flash of intuition, realized what Renraku was using them for. Spider turned the spotter drones onto Site A and the team heard the distant pop and subsonic scream of artillery fire as Site A erupted. The drones were Renraku's control trigger for the artillery fire in case of a nanite breach, and it was quite functional in Spider's hands. Spider proceeded to turn the artillery guns onto the watchtowers around Site A (and the docks), then the Geothermal Plant to starve the whole island of power, and then aimed at Site D before Renraku employees managed to start ripping the remote control mechanisms out of the big guns. Without her new toy, Spider directed the drone swarm to crash into Site D.

After the big guns were silenced and the whole island plunged back into the 5th Age, the team continued up the volcano and around the rim to find one of the artillery instillations with a small swarm of security and technical staff cutting remote access to the gun, and a couple of trucks off to the side. The team snuck up on a group of four Renraku security who were keeping the trucks warm and were set to pounce when Knox decided to impress the guards with his non-existent harmonica skills. The Renraku guards did not appreciate his recital, but it served as a distraction for the rest of the team. The team managed to quickly mow down the small group of guards and one truck was inundated with pepper punch on the inside, but Knox went down (again). Bannerette and Pell selected another truck for the team to traverse with, Pell behind the wheel and Bannerette behind the HMG, while Spider revived Knox and tossed him into the back seat.

The team was now able to make quick time to Site E, with a company truck on company roads with the power grid out and no one having a description of the menace to Renraku's bottom line. The guard at the gate of Site E did question their credentials (everyone but Knox was displaying a Renraku ID), but Pell was able to talk the team through the checkpoint with a Matrix assist from Spider. Once parked inside the gate for Site E, Spider jumped back into the Matrix to find a map of the facility, but also found a very large and tightly sealed door on the facility's grid. Of course she's going to open it. On the other side of the door, Spider finds a large (very large) number of protosapient AI's engaged in constant combat with each other. They seem to be fighting and consuming each other in the constant melee, but among all the protosapient AI's, Spider also finds our target wandering about and absently striking down any protosapient who wanders too close. Spider takes a few Matrix-minutes (like dog-years, but faster) to remind Miyuki who she is and that the team is here to rescue her. Miyuki seems to awaken and become herself (?) and informs Spider that she cannot leave because Renraku has tied her down to this place in three locations and the person who did it is the original Miyuki Kanekaw, who is very much alive and still in Renraku's employ. Spider realizes that she needs to gain deeper access to the Renraku grid in order to free Miyuki, so she prepares to go into the grid's Foundation with Pell and Bannerette while Knox keeps watch in meatspace.

The Foundation

The first thing the teams sees is a very large (man-sized) scorpion wandering about and some tumbleweeds.
A radio playing an oldie's song
Spider adjusts the dial and picks up Wasteland Radio
Panel behind the back office falls away with a staircase leading down
Found the skeleton of an adult with a deformed arm
A glowing flower?
Spider starts climbing a tree, but the tree disappears from below when she looks below
Tree reappears in the sky with a bustling city in front of you
Challenged by a gentleman asking what their business is, Spider says they're looking to move.
Mutated ants, but no trolls, orks, elves or dwarves
To the library!
Spider finds a book (video book) about Miyuki, who apparently dropped a copy of her persona into the proto-sapient testing tank.  The copy developed with memories of Miyuki and later experiments, including how the hooks were set in.  The hooks are in the robot command bunker.
No actual evidence that the real Miyuki died.
Locals keep thinking Pell is a mutant.
Bannerette's favorite flavor of crayon is blue.
Restricted area protected by a robot who did not like Civilian Bannerette, but 2nd LT Bannerette is a joy.
Spider unlocked some gates (in the "real" world)
An army of angry, armed robots were marching down the hall
Dubstep guns and the staff of nature gnarl the robots while Spider plays "The Eye of The Tiger"
They find a tree, in a space suit....  That's the way out? 
The team suits up (after choosing the appropriate suits) and spacewalks up the tree.
Arrives in a burnt-out city populated with very large spiders
Our Spider has a snack and the spiders lead the team to a bomb.
Bannerette gets wrapped up in a spider's lunchbox.

The team comes out of the Foundation, Spider opens up the gate and loads Miyuki into her deck.
Left a note for the real Miyuki calling her a bad person.

The Escape

After waking up from the Foundation run, the team puts their truck into gear and quickly exits Site E. The guard at the gate just waves them through since he just cleared them to come in and now there's a number of alarms ringing inside the facility. The team follows the road towards Site A, buzzing by Site B. They were interested in messing with Renraku's nanite experiments, but there was too much security present and they had already completed their primary objective.

As the team drove around the burning wreckage of Site A towards the docks, the team sees a Renraku security squad of four blocking their access to the docks in magnificant samurai armor and dead wageslaves at their feet: the famed Red Samurai. The Red Samurai sniper snapped a shot off on Bannerette and then Pell whipped up a F18 Lightning Ball, one Samurai jumped on the hood of the car and the Samurai mage cast a F14 Lightning Bolt at the car (and his squadmate), Knox became a backseat driver and jumped the truck into the bay while Spider uncorked Miyuki like a genie from the bottle. The team climbed into a nearby boat and took off with Bannerette at the helm. The Red Samurai sniper fired several farewell shots towards the stolen boat from shore.

With the help of Wusan, the team hid out on the Aleutian Islands for a few days to avoid pursuit before reaching Alaska and contacting 7 for help in securing transit further south.

Aftermath

Our electronic Miyuki is free from the clutches of Renraku.

Renraku has functionally lost a secure research facility that will be very, very expensive to rebuild.

An untold number of combative protosapients have been unleashed into the world at large.

We never did discuss what happened to the stolen Renraku boat.

Rewards

Base RVP: 36 x 2.17(time) = 78 RVP

Dollars:

Upfront payment of 10,000 nuyen (5 RVP)
Follow-up payment in a mix of nuyen or gear (0-30,000 nuyen or 0-60,000 gear) (15 RVP)

Sense:

30 Karma (30 RVP)
40 CDP (19 RVP)
1 Street Cred (1 RVP)
Contact: Miyuki (7/2, pending Thematics approval) (8 RVP)

Game Quotes

Do you have a moment to discuss our Lord and Savior, Renraku?

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Bannerette

This was probably the most difficult mission I've ever done, even among those in the military. I started it by nearly getting killed before making landfall, and it's only by the grace of the almighty (and a good deal of skill from my teammates) that I'm still alive at all. It won't be soon that I forget the 2 days I spent on a barren island surrounded by hostile forces recovering from the injuries incurred from hitting a mine, and holy shit was Paige mad at me for losing that boat. We ended up successful though, which is what counts in the end. We laid waste to that god forsaken island, and I even took a dive into something called a foundation. It was a weird place, but a lot of fun to play around in. I can't believe the first person to salute me outside of the corps is a weird AI robot thing. I also can't believe we fought the red samurai and lived, to be honest. Even more unbelievable was the payday, though most of it ended up paying for that damn boat.

Pell

So that's what a Foundation dive's like. Can't say it's my cup of tea, as there's a big "no magic" thing.

Also, woooooooooo! We fought Red Samurai and got away with it! I'll have to say that this run went almost as well as it could be, barring the "getting shot by a HMG" thing.