Replicant Encryption

Replicant Encryption
Date 2084-12-28 GM Asmodeus Location Seattle
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Omega Dawn
Red Ribbon
Casualties and losses
Two drones and two perfectly good tires	Two assassin drones

Summary

While trying to figure out ways to avoid cyberpsychosis, Red Ribbon picks up an SOS broadcast secured with military-grade encryption. She decides to investigate, and gets caught up in a plot involving assassin drones, an AI, and the aftermath of an Omega Dawn raid. Fortunately, she manages to wrangle a positive outcome from all of it... if you exclude the new microbomb in her brain.

Background

Before heading anywhere, Ribbon finishes her research on cyberpsychosis and schedules a meeting with Ezekyle Burton to discuss her psychological state.

Then, with some difficulty, Ribbon marks the device sending the SOS - a cyberdeck operating automatically - and traces its location to a compound of former NeoNET employees in Redmond. Interested in what this could mean and unable to crack the signal or the deck's contents, Ribbon does some research on the compound, and finds that it was the site of a previous attack by Omega Dawn, per an article by News Van Dan. Further curious, and concerned that the signal might bring Omega Dawn down on innocent people a second time, Ribbon elects to head there, but decides it would be best to have someone to speak to first. She calls up Alessa P, and is given a name: Raid.

The Meet, Part 1

Ribbon heads to the compound and parks nearby. She does a bit of rough scouting with her fly-spy and successfully locates the cyberdeck, buried in a collapsed building. She also spots an anthrodrone staring at her drone from the compound, but it quickly backs away from that location and out of sight. Odd, but Ribbon decides to find more information before acting rashly. Without anything else weird catching her eye, Ribbon disembarks from her van and heads to the side door of the compound, only to spot another anthrodrone peering around the corner at her - one that quickly vanishes again when she attempts to follow it.

More weirded out, Ribbon knocks on the door, and is directed by a gruff man named Jefferson to Raid's room.

She speaks to Raid and informs her of the encrypted signal, but Raid seems only to be exasperated by Ribbon's persistence. She seems to already be aware of the signal, but is more reluctant to believe Ribbon's story about stalking anthrodrones, and the compound's cameras contain no footage of such activity. With mounting concern, Ribbon agrees to remove the broadcasting cyberdeck, and declines monetary payment for doing so.

The Plan

At first, Ribbon considers dropping the cyberdeck somewhere with people she doesn't like, in the hopes of catching them in the collateral damage Omega Dawn might cause, but decides against it due to how widespread that might be. Instead, she decides to dig it out with one of her automated drones, deactivate the signal, copy over whatever useful data remains for later decryption, and leave it at that.

The Run, Part 1

Ribbon sets her Saeder-Krupp Directionssekretar to work digging out the deck brick by brick while she tries to find out more about these mysterious observer anthrodrones. She spots one peering out of the windows of a nearby apartment, and sends a fly-spy up to look at it, only for it to... wave out the window.

Even more befuddled, Ribbon buzzes the fly-spy under the door of the apartment building, but she's let the drone out of her sight once again, and when she has the apartment in view again it's gone. Inside, she finds an older man's corpse, apparently murdered via blunt force to the neck. Now properly alarmed, Ribbon heads back with her recordings to show them to Raid, who seems mildly unhappy about the murdered man, but once more declines to take any sort of notable action.

As the drone retrieves the deck, Ribbon catches an oddity on a nearby billboard - a mysterious green figure making an 'I'm watching you' sort of motion towards her. Incredibly unsettled, she hightails it back home with her new parts, resolved to do research there. When she does, however, she finds that absolutely none of her footage shows the mysterious figure or any of the anthrodrones.

Is she going insane?

Doing some digging, Ribbon finds that a similar persona was sighted during a Matrix brawl down in Tacoma, where it was holding its own against demiGODs. She's about to go further when she receives a call from Dr. Henry Wallace inquiring about an odd signal coming from Redmond, and a very secretive client that might desire associated data. Ribbon agrees to come speak to Wallace at his clinic after a few days of rest.

After this agreement is made, Ribbon contacts Angela, who points her towards a Matrix tribe known as the Walking People. She relies on Skinshedder to get her in contact with them, but that goes poorly to say the least, and she ends up on the bad side of their remnants, but does become aware of a host they apparently possess. When she reaches it, however, there's nothing more than a gravestone-shaped file with a small eulogy... the host itself has been destroyed.

Given that it seems whoever digs into this kind of thing dies, Ribbon decides to leave the investigation here for now.

The Meet, Part 2

Ribbon heads to meet with Wallace after resting for a few days. Once she reaches the clinic, Wallace "introduces" her to his contact... by which he apparently means a medical drone. Not particularly helpful or identifying, and the drone itself doesn't seem to be interested in giving more information, beyond a simple greeting. Wallace reiterates that working for this individual will require an intense level of information security, and assurances that this will be kept.

Specifically, engaging in this work will require that Ribbon have a microbomb implanted in her skull until such time as she's proved herself trustworthy to this mysterious employer.

Obviously, this makes Ribbon hesitant, and she attempts to make a few things clear with Wallace - most specifically, she's concerned with what this client wants, and whether that cranial bomb will ever come out in truth. Apparently, much of the work is anti-corporate, which Ribbon has been looking into doing more recently, and Wallace seems entirely certain that he could have the cranial bomb in his own head removed should he wish to. With these two factors in mind, she hands over the data, agrees to the procedure, and is put under anesthesia.

She's woken up abruptly after the surgery with a splitting headache, and Wallace urgently pulling her to her feet. Apparently the decrypted data was concerning - it spoke of a contingency plan put in place by Omega Dawn, involving both kidnapping members of the compound for bio-drone conversion, and assassin drone infiltration as a contingency.

Oh, also, it seems like her datajack's been upgraded.

The Run, Part 2

Shaking off her headache, Ribbon pops some drugs and heads back to the compound, this time parking a safer distance away. She once again jumps into her fly-spy and infiltrates via the ventilation system. To do so, she has to cling onto a fan's blades with her drone before slipping through - a feat that she doses on ondansetron to achieve without throwing up her lunch. Once in, she proceeds from room to room, scanning each occupant for cyberware and sending the scans to Wallace for identification of bio-drone augmentations. Most people seem fine... except for Raid, who's apparently fallen prey to these machinations already.

One individual, oZZZie, manages to spot her out, and so Ribbon grabs her comm number and contacts her before anything drastic happens. They discuss the situation, and Ribbon learns that the compound's residents are already aware of Raid's bio-drone modifications, but weren't aware of the assassin drones. As the residents are apparently keeping a lid on the situation by avoiding informing Raid of notable information, Ribbon decides to focus only on the assassin drones. She's provided a Machine Sprite as assistance by oZZZie.

A MAD scan of the compound's interior revealed no drones, and so Ribbon turns her focus to the outside. She picks up one while scanning the parking lot, but finds it unlikely that only one would be sent, and so continues the search. She notices that the door of the compound has been set ajar, and decides to send her anthrodrone to the roof to make some noise and attract hostiles, with a swarm of scouting microdrones to assist in scanning. These efforts are successful, and a second assassin drone is revealed via MAD scanner, though not before summarily twisting the anthrodrone's head off.

Still slightly uncertain about what to do, Ribbon is forced into action when she's struck by a powerful data spike - or nearly, as oZZZie's sprite sacrifices itself to save her. The location of Ribbon's van is quickly traced, and one drone makes for her while the other begins to flee. Split between two targets, Ribbon quickly guns down the one fleeing with her rotodrone, and manages to avoid return fire and keep a lock on the other long enough to take it out as well. Before she's able to jack out, one final data spike comes over the matrix, nearly bricking her RCC and giving her some serious brain damage to boot - but a moment later, she's away and offline.

Fighting through blurred vision and a horrible headache, Ribbon collects the scraps of her destroyed drones. As she does, one of the domestic drones from before walks up to the side of her van and starts unloading magazines of bullets into the tires of her van. Bewildered and angry, Ribbon hurries to start her car and heads for Wallace's clinic, flipping the drone off in spirit as she goes.

Aftermath

After arriving at Wallace's clinic, Ribbon submits herself for medical treatment. However, she doesn't wake up anywhere familiar - rather, she wakes in a sterile-looking tiled room, bereft of her possessions and clad in a simple white shirt and pants. She does a quick check over of her appearance to ensure nothing major has changed, and then heads outside, finding a small room and an anthrodrone sitting within. It seems to have previously been covered in synthflesh, but that's been stripped away.

Ribbon strikes up a conversation with the drone, and it becomes clear that this is her mysterious employer - or at the very least, is a form they're controlling. It identifies itself as Von Neumann, an artificial intelligence that apparently wishes to become a swarm of drones and leave the planet for elsewhere due to humanity's atrocities. After some further questioning, Ribbon indicates she's ready to leave, and is passed a pill and a glass of water. Apparently, being sedated is a requirement for entry and egress.

She wakes back up at Wallace's clinic, and after some further augmentation, heads home.

Rewards

--- Run Rewards for Replicant Encryption (High, 16 RVP) Von Neumann at Loyalty 1 (8 RVP) Mundane Ascension (5 RVP) 3 Karma (3 RVP) 2 CDP A microbomb (This one is free!) Von Neumann May purchase: RCC Upgrades Betaware Datajack+ Tailored Greyware up to base Availability 19

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Red Ribbon

No, don't ask me about the microbomb. No, I can't talk about it. No, don't look into it. Not if you value your life.