New Ringtone

New Ringtone
Date 2085-05-09 GM Syphilen Location Downtown, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	ComNet Dynamics
Oberon Docteur Vega	Corpsec Goons Hotel Rent-a-Cops
Casualties and losses
	Corpsec Goons x2

Summary

In which the runners are hired to steal some next-generation commlinks.

Background

Nick Greene is in a bind - he's the lead designer on a new commlink project and is supposed to exhibit his prototype at a conference in a few days, but they're nowhere near ready for the release timeline. Thus, he decides to have them stolen by shadowrunners to cover his ass.

The Meet

The runners are contacted by their fixers and told to meet with Mr. Johnson at a rented room in a Horizon business complex in Downtown at 9pm - Vega does a bit of searching on the possible identity of the Johnson, finding that they've been around for a few months and has contracted runners for half a dozen other gigs, but little in the way of his corporate affiliation, if any. Both of them are able to get to the meet without issue, where Mr. J greets them (a bit anxiously, but they chalk it up to nerves) and explains what he needs: steal a piece of prototype communications technology (some new top-of-the-line commlinks) from ComNet Dynamics, which is currently in Seattle being exhibited at an industry conference, as well as snatch and delete the digital plans for them. They agree to a price of 18k along with some discount tech, and in turn Mr. J gives them the name of the engineer in charge of the tech as well as where he's staying while in town, telling them they have 3 days to get the job done.

The Plan

Vega hits the Emerald City grid and begins doxing their target (Nick Greene), learning that he works for Renraku and finding that he's staying in town (at the Congress Hotel) under a fake name, along with several other employees in town for the conference. Utilizing the social cache from her fame, Vega goes to the hotel to scope the place out while Oberon waits down the street; while waiting at the hotel bar to see if Greene shows up, she obtains the floor plan and starts mapping out the position of the cameras. However Greene doesn't show up to the bar, denying the opportunity to snatch and copy his keycard, so instead she goes to the attached conference center the next day hoping to bump into him there.

As luck would have it, she finds that he's checked in and made a post on social media about having lunch at the restaurant there, where she's able to get a table near his. While Greene doesn't recognize her, she's able to strike up a polite rapport with him and get him to show her some personal photos on his commlink, letting her access it with her skinlink and place a mark onto it; Greene nearly catches her attempting to hack his files, but she's able to con him into thinking she's also being hacked, diffusing his suspicion of her. Deciding a change in tactics is needed, they plot to break into his room that evening before he returns from a talk at the conference that he's scheduled to attend.

The Run

Oberon parks his getaway car nearby and (in the form of an invisible eagle carrying his B&E tools and chameleon suit in a plastic bag) flies to the roof of the hotel. He suits up, making his way past the locked door and the ward before using illusion magic to make himself look like a hotel concierge, heading down to their target's room; meanwhile Vega enters via the main entrance and is able to blend in with the affluent SINner crowd well enough to get up to the same floor, hacking the camera pointing at the target's door before popping the lock open and allowing Oberon inside.

Once inside the room, the banshee is able to locate the room safe, crack the case open, and use his sequencer to unlock it. Inside are the pair of commlinks, as well as a data slate containing the plans - snatching them, he chalks his signature on the inside of the safe and sneaks off, handing off the tech to Vega. Both runners are able to exfiltrate the way they came without drawing too much attention themselves in the process, making a clean getaway before Greene returns.

Contacting Mr. Johnson, the runners agree to meet at an underground parking garage in Tacoma; they briefly scope the place out before their employer arrives, but find nothing apparently amiss. Mr. Johnson, more nervous than before, arrives in a black van to accept the commlinks and data slate, and tells them that "everything's fine" before handing them their credsticks and driving off just as a duo of operators burst through the stairwell doors to ambush them. Vega dodges bullets and data spikes while Oberon races to the fleeing van and uses mist form to get inside, telling the J to pull over. The enemy mage attempts to levitate the vehicle before blocking its path with a barrier as the J frantically explains that he's not with them - Oberon, realizing he's telling the truth, goes to confront the enemy mage as Vega poisons their gunner with a paralytic agent before being knocked out by a link-lock data spike by the Matrix support. Oberon zaps the mage's magic away with a Master of the Nine Chakras-empowered nerve strike, dispelling her recklessly summoned spirit and the barrier (which allows Mr. J to flee); seeing that Vega is unconscious but somehow still active on the Matrix, he has his agent tell him what's going on before using the jammer in his car to create enough noise that she's forcibly dumpshocked off the grids. Loading both the knocked out techno and the paralyzed goons into his car, the banshee is just barely able to avoid pursuit via drone thanks to his vehicle's chameleon coating/gridlink override/morphing plates/spoof chips combo as he brings everyone to his Tacoma safehouse.

Aftermath

After stabilizing Vega with a medkit, Oberon helps himself to the pair of goons' essence while she sleeps off her drug crash. When Vega wakes up, he tells her that he had to kill the pair since there was a mage among them who couldn't be safely contained, and that he'll handle body disposal. Vega is suspicious of the nocturna, filing them away for later when her migraine stops paining her, and the two are left with their originally negotiated payment (minus the gear) plus some extra cash from paydata and the operators bodies/equipment.

Rewards

22k nuyen (10 RVP + body disposal side hustle)

3 karma (3 RVP)

2 CDP

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Oberon

Man, it has been a while since I've been ambushed at a handoff - over a dozen jobs with this outfit and this is the first time. Here I thought that the corpos had gone soft. Nice to know I've still got it, though I have to give it to Vega, she did a hell of a job poisoning one of them before getting taken down over the 'trix. Gotta admit, I considered draining her (haven't tried technomancer yet), but it'd have looked way too suspicious if I was the only survivor of a situation like that, and I'd rather not get the black mark on my record here just yet since the runners have been so agreeable so far (still baffling that, but I've never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth). All in all, this was a good job - good clean heist with solid payday plus a nice scrap and a snack at the end, not much more a guy could ask for.