A Worrying Silence

A Worrying Silence
Date 2085-08-31 GM Eva Location Boston, Massachusetts Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven EVO Corporation	EVO Corp (Monads)
Neijing Geodesic Asura	Monad Guards Monad SYSAdmin Various weaker combatants
Casualties and losses
None	All Monads in the labratory

Summary

An EVO Corp Black Site was compromised for some reason, and the whole place went silent for weeks. In need of assets retrieved, the corporation was willing to hire out a group of runners in order to take back whatever was salvageable, and kill whatever wasn't.

This is their story.

Background

The Boston Lockdown had recently been lifted, and as hubris is a common trait of the powerful and wealthy, EVO Corp believed this was a perfect time to begin experimentation with nanites and new genetic clones in Boston. They had several labs like this in the city, but for some reason, a leakage or break in containment, what have you, led to the nanites causing a little infectious streak in the majority of staff in the facility. The non infected hid from the newly born Monads that now roamed the halls, barricading themselves in as the facility around them went silent. Even the Spider was infected.

Naturally, the research inside was in dire need of recovery. So after some weeks of bureaucratic hmms and hahs about the ordeal, they finally settled on having a group of runners hired out to deal with the threat and recover their research.

The Meet

Asura, Geodesic, and Neijing all met with the Johnson for the evening, who filled them in on the briefest of details. No name of the corporation involved to keep things tight lipped, but the job itself was simple: They would secure themselves some method of transportation over to Boston, ready to clear out the place. Everything there that could not be saved was to be destroyed-whether that be personnel or just the lab itself. The job had two parts to its payment: The first was to torch the place and any sort of unrecoverable asset. The second was to recover any kind of prototypes or research were available for the corporation. Asura was somewhat concerned by the callousness of the situation, but was assured that if any survivors were still in the facility, that their retrieval was allowed. With that said, the group was off.

The Plan

Arrival in Boston would not be too difficult with Neijing's resources at her disposal, and most of the crew had means of smuggling their more restrictive or forbidden gear over the airways, so the main problem was to be the actual retrieval of information out of the area and dealing with the Monad threat. While both combatants were armed and armored enough for facing any infected inside, the matter of security and their lack of information on the black site meant that they would be at the site's mercy unless they could even the odds. So, the team would make a small little camp outside of the facility, letting Geo do her 'decker' work in order to recover any security information or project data she can, so that Neijing and Asura could breach in and begin their assault with her guidance. While Asura was determined to try and save whoever they could, the team decided early on that their priority was the mission, and that if Neijing's nanoscanner determined someone was a problem, then that was final. There would be no hesitation.

The Run

Unfortunately, even the best laid plans go awry. And a plan such as this was not exactly solid. While Geo was able to eventually make her way into the host, soon she had to deal with the monad spider inside it, and while trying to deal with the spider quickly the situation quickly devolved. It was a brutal brawl between her sprites, the host IC, and the spider, with multiple failed attempts and cracking against one another on both sides of the conflict. Eventually, the sprites had managed to destroy the mind of the CFD victim, and the files of research recovered, but Geodesic was not in a position to continue her work on the host with it being alerted to her presence and her mind pushed to the limit. The two combatants would have to go without any prior knowledge of the facility. With Neijing leading the charge and Asura's assistance, they breached into the facility. Two heavily armored monad guards stood in their way, able to regenerate from most wounds in mere moments, even Neijing's considerably powerful laser cannon. But slowly, the two massive threats were pushed to their limit and brought down. From there, the run was routine. Most other infected were far simpler to defeat given their lack of heavy armor and a recently discovered weakness to electricity, and as they explored they managed to find the nearly dead but distinctly still alive and non-infected survivors. Once the facility was secured, the two managed to guide the survivors out and get them the help they needed.

Aftermath

The Lab was destroyed, and any survivors or assets were retrieved. Despite some risky moments and Asura being knocked unconscious during the assault, the team had managed to secure both ends of the bargain as well as perform a bit of good for those unfortunate enough to be caught in the machinations of those too powerful for a second opinion. Needless to say, EVO corp was pleased to have its assets returned.

Rewards

Rewards for 'A Worrying Silence' (Deadly):

30k Nuyen (Gear rates for 'ware avail 19 or under) (15 RVP)

5 karma (5 RVP)

2 CDP

Optional, taking from above rewards:

Shoot first, don't ask (2 RVP)

Game Quotes

"I have masking! Not the magic one, the autism one" - Neijing

"This is 'how much neurodivergence can we put in a run?' the run" - Eva

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Neijing

"Asura is overly critical. She performed well under pressure, and that one is the more important bit to this. CFD outbreaks are always messy affairs, so it went extraordinarily well given the mission parameters"

Asura

"I am not fully satisfied with my performance here. I need more powerful arms if I am to continue to delve into these Hellscapes. Which was an important lesson to learn, for I fear I have quite a bit more of hell to go through."