Gone Cold

Gone Cold
Part of Never Again
Date 2081-1-17 GM Purkinje Location The Matrix
Factions Involved
Mute Twitch	Hand of Five
Casualties and losses
Twitch was mortally wounded, but made a miraculous recovery.	None.

Background

After the events of A Shadowrun Based on Charge Into the Sun by The Briggs, ShadowHaven's runners were made aware of a planned terror attack on the anniversary of the Night of Rage, but they had no further details on it. They knew the address of the host and saw briefly that there was a hidden cache inside, but they didn't have time to dig around in it before they had to go back to the job. Several months later, Hipster Machine sent out a notice warning of the approaching date and providing analytics assessing the probability of a terror attack.

Legwork

Mute and Twitch responded to the reminder and decided to crack the host together. They consulted the leaked documents, and after calling Purkinje for more information on the events surrounding the leak, had Hakjak arrange for a brief window where they could crash in a warehouse in Tacoma to avoid the worst consequences of possible traces. A tired security guard let them into the warehouse without asking too many questions. They set up a surveillance network with their drones, then jacked in.

Run

Twitch and Mute spotted the host, a burning fireball hovering over the grid. They cracked it and snuck inside, where they saw a group of six personas patrolling. The personas looked like various apocalyptic, Mad Max-style things including war machines, bikers, and a hellhound. Working together, they spotted the hidden cache - a war camp in the distance obscured by the smoke of a city on fire. Mute cracked it, but Twitch was unfortunately marked by the host. The personas, it turned out, were all the host's IC, left in a permanent on state to kill any intruders who attempted to follow up on the leak after the host was abandoned months ago. Twitch was link-locked and failed to jack out before the Blaster and Black IC caused him to experience lethal levels of biofeedback-induced stroke. It happened so quickly, Mute was ill-prepared to help; he had not been spotted, however, and decided to enter the war camp.

Inside, he checked out the war camp's attributes and found that the Hand had modified it to maximize its firewall protection and electronic countermeasures, but doing so had severely taken away from its free processing power. This meant the IC in this node were severely limited in their spotting capabilities, so he was almost completely safe. He was not spotted as he searched the cache for its files. He found that the vast majority of files here were given misleading names that indicated they were important, but they were actually databombed and contained only dummy text. One file labeled "README" actually had something worthwhile in it. Among a series of rambling, veiled rhetoric, it indicated that not only was a terror attack coming on the anniversary of the Night of Rage, but it would be conducted in the most important city for the Hand on that night: Seattle. He copied the file and jacked out.

Aftermath

Seeing Twitch in horrible condition, Mute called Splint for medevac. She agreed to do it for a fee, and Mute also bribed the night watchman to stay quiet about it. After doing diagnostic procedures, Splint was ready to pronounce Twitch dead, but just as she said so, the EEG picked up brain activity. He would recover, eventually, but he would always have a fear of IC.

Mute returned to Hipster Machine, who raised the probability of a terror attack in its calculations to over 95%, then requested Mute go to Mothers of Metahumans. He did, giving them the information for free. They said they would be in contact with his fixer for further work and were extremely grateful.

Rewards

• 9 Karma
• 2 CDP
• 2 Faction Rep: Mothers of Metahumans
• For Twitch: Frostbite, KC 78

Player After-Action Reports

2020-02-19 Mute

Hipster Machine has left an exploration request for Nested Host discovered after a previous run uncovered it's ties to the Hand of Five, an old-school hate club that was active during the early days of Awakening. Recently, there have been rumors the Hand of Five has been revived under the leadership of a surviving member. Now operating a covert terrorist cell intent of inciting violence between the different metatypes. Mute and Twitch answer the call to explore this uncharted Host.

The duo met and ran some quick legwork on the history of the Hand of Five and their alleged end at the hands of Lone Star during the Night of Rage. Renting out a cheap safehouse in Tacoma, Mute and Twitch made themselves comfortable before diving into the Host. The host was styled a seething ball of infernal fire. Upon entry they found that a plethora of IC was on permanent patrol, each IC styled as post-apocalyptic motorcycles, trucks, and flaming dogs. The Nested Host to be explored was hidden at the back of the Mad Max hell-scape, and while Mute was successful in gaining entry to it, Twitch was not and was swiftly dogpiled by the IC. Inside the Nested Host, Mute discovered that this was a Rogue Foundation Host, probably a relic of pre-Crash 2.0 days, repurposed as a baited trap for nosy hackers. More IC lay in wait. Mute was able to evade the roaming IC long enough to find that the files stored were mostly incoherent data bombed red herrings. One file of note however was labelled as README. A hateful mantra of sorts, promising that Seattle would have the horrors of the Night of Rage revisited upon it on its anniversary. Disturbed by this, Mute copied the file to a commlink and made haste to get Twitch some well-needed medical attention.

Mute brought the file to the attention of Hipster Machine and the Mothers of Metahumans organization.

TERROR PREDICTION ANALYTICS ADJUSTED <<<<< 95% CHANCE OF TERROR ATTACK DURING NIGHT OF RAGE ANNIVERSARY <<<< IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

Twitch

We got the file, Purkinje. First thing I did after I woke up is post it in NCL and on the SH host. I posted a warning too. That host is a trap. Don't go there again. If I'm better, I'll do all I can to stop these people. We can't let them make another Night of Rage. Oh? It's time for meds now. They're going to knock me out again. Someone tell my mom I'm fine. I can't bear to face her right now. I just know I'll let slip my condition.