OPEN UP

OPEN UP
Part of Nightmare Mode
Date 2081-03-21 GM Doom Location Seattle, Downtown
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Mission Control Chop Shop Roadkill Kani Riot Mars	Ares Macrotechnology Horizon

Summary

The runners are tasked with holding out against KE HTR as hackers break through into data housing some of KE's most recent disturbing bug research. While not everything goes to plan, and some people end up getting hit by falling rocks, everyone make it out alive with Ares' dirty dealings in tow.

Background

On a prior run runners had acquired data pertaining to Ares' exploits into secret biological weapons involving insect spirits. The group known as Firebreak has taken this data and had assigned others to set up a location to hack this data. This data pertains information on Ares' most recent secret research involving bug spirits. They're going to be notified immediately after they start cracking the data, and need someone to protect them.

The Meet

The meet was short and sweet. MC, Chop Shop, Roadkill, Kani, Mars, and Riot all received calls as night fell upon the city. It was the guy from Firebreak, the hackers were just about to break through the data obtained from the last run with them and they needed defending to finish the job before KE HTR stormed the building and took them out. The group had... About an hour to get there. Payment would be received on retrieval of the data.

The Plan

The runners who had done this mission before had set up quite a few defenses within the high-rise floor that the hackers were held up in. They had window sensors, RFFID detectors, hidden gas releases, hidden grenades, the works to ensure this place was secure. The best the new defensive group could hope was to hold it particularly well from KE when they enter. They also had knowledge that one of the elevators went directly to the VIP parking, where they were connected to various other buildings. That was their exfil.

The Run

But things did not go as planned. Three of the six runners did not arrive in time, leaving Mars, Mission Control, and Kani trapped in the high rise surrounded by KE HTR. The rest of the team regroup and made their way to the underground entrance that was connected to other high rises via maintenance tunnels. While up top, the crew got a call on the penthouse's PA system from the bottom floor. Mission Control was the one to pick it up, hearing the voice of an Ares intelligence officer by the name of Jack Hawker. It turns out he was a handler for MC's old team back when he was in Ares, as well as had some oversight on the Mars Project. Turns out that the rest of the projects involving bugs they found spawned from this man himself. He was a source of a lot of pain for MC, and MC let him know with a few choice words. After this, Hawker hung up. Immediately, the PA near Mars rang. She picked it up, receiving orders from Hawker to take out the rest of the runners on the basis of her real identity. Though conflicted, her mind was made up when she heard the underlying whispers of the Hivemind underneath his voice. She refused, stating the company compromised by insect spirits. She hung up, and at this point the rest of the runners had managed to make their way up the tower through the secret VIP elevator.

That's when the group spotted two Ares transport choppers, headed to the roof of the building. At the same time, Riot detected about 40 hostiles moving up below them. MC and Mars using their military knowledge of Ares deduced they were going to blow the top of the building down. Riot had summoned three spirits to combat those that were sure to be sent by HTR. The team decided to split into two. Mars, Roadkill, and Chop Shop decided to head down to stop HTR from bombing the building down while MC, Riot, and Kani stayed up top to protect the hackers. Kani made her move first, sniping one of the choppers out of the sky causing it to crash into a city block. The other chopper backed off, staying out of her range. The lower team encountered HTR 20 floors below. After some tactical maneuvering, they struck first, mars firing a HE nade directly between two HTR before moving up and finishing one off with a burst of her rifle. The explosion burst a hole into the private elevator, and Roadkill and Chop Shop fired more rounds onto the KE in the hall. Mars took about 7 blasts from rifles and shotguns before she dropped to the floor, and then the rest of the lower team became suppressed. In the Astral, Riot's spirits were taking quite the beating, and of the three spirits two were destroyed quickly, while KE had only lost one. Back up top, more choppers had arrived, and spread out around the building. They surrounded it and moved closer, firing missiles at the penthouse. Kani was able to shoot a couple of them out of the sky, while Riot used magical barriers to stop some in their tracks right next to a chopper, causing it to crash. But this wasn't enough, as the north and east sides were about to be hit. Being on the Eastern side, Kani decided her best course of action was to jump out of the building, instead of running in deeper. She caught only a little of the shockwave before using her grapplehook to latch onto the building. The wall did not hold though, and Kani continued to plummet.

At this point, the hackers had finished their job, but not all of them survived the rockets. One of them had perished, another was completely hysterical, and the last one was shell shocked from the explosions. Riot spurred the hysterical one to action, though not to the best effect. Scared, they fled down the stairs right into the supressive fire from KE floors down. MC grabbed the decker with the data, while giving the last one a way to rappel down the elevator. Riot chased after the one fleeing down the stairs to find him killed by the spray of bullets. She cast a high powered Napalm spell and vaporized seven KE HTR. Afterwards, some that were hiding in the rooms began throwing det charges into the room, barely missing Mars in destroying more of the room and injuring Riot. She put up a napalm wall in the way as Chop Shop grabbed Mars and began to repel down the shaft. MC was making his way down holding onto the decker and climbed down using magnetic boots to make their way down. The fight in the astral had come to a halt as the KE spirits spotted Riot while she jumped down the shaft and cast levitate on herself as well as Mars.

Outside, Kani was having a much harder time. She was falling with a rock above her, and decided to open her parachute which lead her to get hit by said rock. She was out for a while before come back and noticing KE at the ground trying to group up where she'd fall to arrest her. To her side was a KE chopper. She cut her chute and once again used her grapple hook to connect to the chopper. Her plan was to climb into it but the chopper was wise to this, constantly thrashing her against buildings as they flew farther out of the city over the river. Farther out was an Ares ship and Outremer islands. Now clear of the city, Kani cuts her grapple an d shoots down the chopper midair. It goes hurling into the water, where Kani is then saved by a spirit. Back in the tower, one of the Ares spirits gets taken out by Riot's last spirit before getting destroyed by the remaining one. Riot and the rest of the team were in a tight spot being too tired to cast spells or not having any weaponry against it. So Chop Shop used their entire body to drop onto the spirit, destroying it and falling onto the bottom of the shaft. While hurt a bit, he was alive.

Aftermath

The team had stealthed their way out of the parking garage, making a clean getaway from KE HTR with two of the hackers and the data. Kani had been taken by the spirit to Outremer island, nearby an Ares testing facility. The spirit had words of sagely wisdom for her, and left her out on the island. In the end, Mars' home was seized by KE, knowing she was a traitor, and her companion bandit took her vehicle and fled to rocket raccoon's hideout.

Rewards

• ¥48,000.
• 2 Karma
• 2 CDP

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Mission Control

"Well damn , i wasnt sure if Jack would have been turned by now but now i sure know he is and that there is no real mercy anymore. I will find him one day and then ill show them bugs not to mess with the wrong people. That said im not theonl angry person right now but most others are angry at me for choosing such a poor defensive position. And sure they are right, i should have known better. But damn sometimes things are just like this. I sure hope everybody can recover, i man Kani for sure but the Doc had a hard fall and Mars´ place got compromised, gonna see what future holds. Hopefully for me, more dead bugs."

Chop Shop

Well that job was a shit show. Turns out the Johnson was expecting the team to protect the safe house we arranged on the last job. We set the place on as a quiet place to do a hack job that could stand off a wetwork team coming to hit the hackers. Little did we expect a full on military style raid in the middle of downtown, who would? Well naturally the Johnson put out the call on short order to respond to the incoming attack on the safe house, but with the time given, there wasn't a chance I'd make it on time. Luckily Mars and Roadkill were also running behind so at least we had two teams to tackle an HTR manned cordon and frontal assault of a condominium. While the inside team got ready to face off against HTR, my team headed in through an attached underground garage to get past the cordon. Security was laughable on the way in and a few quick hacks got us through to the target building, while also securing our escape route, which let us all regather before the show really began.

Kani turned out to be deadly with her sniper rifle, though her problem solving and planning skills could probably leave a little to be desired. I'm not sure what happened to our sniper after she shot down the first two VTOL's to take a run at the tower, last I saw she was diving out a window without a parachute, but word is she made it out so there has to be something to be said for luck. The rest of us weathered the inital volley of ripple fired missiles into the penthouse, shredding most of the walls and managing to frag Robin Hood, sorry Moth don't think your pets are going to make it out of this one. Luckily the HTR teams had decided losing a few VTOLs was expensive enough, and had switched tactics to breachers, coming up from below. Mars, Roadkill, and I kitted up and headed down to meet them when it became clear they were trying to blow the top 10 floors off the building but things quickly got harry when we hit the first wave of HTR goons in the stairs. You know for all their propaganda you'd think Ares's goons would be able to hold their own in a fight, but it took most of the squad just to knock Mars on her ass. Roadkill and I were busy cutting down the rest of the squad when our team finally got the all clear from the hackers and started exfiltrating them. Riot's timely arrive managed to incinerate a couple of squads, and the breacher's lackluster skills at throwing demolition charges gave us the perfect opening when they blew a hole into the adjacent elevator shaft on a botched throw.

Things had been hectic so Mars was still catching a cat nap next to my boots, and with the rest of the team and the deckers on the move I decided it was time to disengage. With a firm grip on Mar's drag handle I dove through the opening into the elevator shaft, a 90 story freefall might cause some complications, but less than being in the building when the top floors came off. Unfortunately the second round of satchel charges managed to cut the first cable I'd managed to snag, but a levitate from Riot had me riding Mars down the shaft like that english chick from the old flat vid.

While floating to safety I managed to snag spiderman out of freefall, broke the poor kid's arm and shoulder in the process but better than the impromptu physics lesson he was in such a rush to attend. eventually me made it to the ground, and with judicous application of slap patches we were able to get the team moving. Only a few cops stood between us and the exit, but of course Ares's finest were too busy admiring their toys to spot us, even with some close calls we managed to make it out clean to disperse into the city.

Mars

It is truely a shame to see Ares fall so low due to their greed. To learn supervisor Jack is under the control of insect spirits is incredibly troubling. But as it stands I am no longer professionally affiliated with Ares Macrotechnology. I certainly owe an apology to the rest of my team for even considering betraying them. But I know that as I once was Ares would never actually accept me, and instead turn me into a spirit like the others we fight in Alaska. I know that there's going to be a storm ahead, given these new circumstances.

It also turns out even with the various upgrades I acquired I still have a lot to learn and mauch more equipment needed if I'm to handle the threat to Ares being the insect spirits. Even if I cannot return back home, I still wish to see my original plan through. Not for Ares or my creator, but for myself, now.