Dead in the Water

Dead in the Water
Date 2085-06-09 GM Dawnfire Location Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Proteus AG
Marionette Nearl Trades Norville Craddock	Character1 Character2
Run took 15 hours

Summary

Norville Craddock hires the runners to steal Proteus research data on Awakened algae, but it turns out the deep sea research base is infested with shedim!

Background

After learning about a secret deep sea Proteus research base through a mole planted in the corporation, Norville Craddock sends in a runner team to steal research data on a newly discovered species of dual-natured algae. Unfortunately, a rift into the metaplane where shedim originate had opened in the deep sea trench near the base, and both the Proteus personnel and the runner team were taken out by the shedim. With the runners disabling the base's communication system, Proteus is unaware of the situation and Craddock has no idea what happened to his first team, so he hires another team to get him that data.

The Meet

The runners meet their Johnson at the Eye of the Needle. Craddock explains the situation as he understands it (although he is unaware that his original team was wiped out by shedim), and requests that the runners retrieve the data he wants before the next time Proteus refreshes the supplies and personnel of the deep sea base. Marion is disappointed with the relatively low payout for what he sees as a highly dangerous job, so a bonus is offered if the team retrieves a live sample of the algae. Craddock offers the passage on a shipping vessel if the team requires transport, but they declines as Trades has her own boat.

The Plan

The team is given some basic intel on the deep sea site by their Johnson, including the location of the research base, rough number of onsite security personnel, and the fact that their automated security systems largely rely on IDing intruders via the lack of an isotype-marked ID tag. Trades hits the Matrix to look for intel on Proteus's typical security procedures, and Nearl buys some dead bodies from Johan Liebert and creates a pair of Corps Cadavers. The team then heads out to sea.

The Run

After several days at sea, the runners reach the coordinates given for the research base. The waters are infested with bio-drone Sea Leeches, but the runners eliminate the toxic critters (much to Wusan's pleasure) and find the elevator hidden just below the waves. Trades hacks into it, and the team starts descending.

While heading deep into the depths, Trades hacks into the offline host and gets access to the cameras, noticing that the spider seems to be absent from the host. It appears that almost everyone in the facility is dead, except for a crying woman locked in one of the barracks with several dead bodies, a severely dehydrated man matching the description of the rigger Javelin trapped in the airlock, and a corporate Hermetic looking fuck tinkering in one of the server rooms. The team tries to think about what could be going on here, with theories ranging from a disease outbreak to shedim. Nearl and their spirits almost end up intersecting with a ward placed in the elevator shaft, but Halflight cuts it down (alerting the off site mage who created the ward).

Most of the blast doors have been sealed in the facility, so the team starts cutting into the airlock and chats with Javelin to get the limited bit of info that he had: his team's mage started behaving strangely after doing astral recon, their muscle got taken down after "dead" researchers got up and attacked, and the decker followed shortly. Deciding that this sounds like the work of shedim, Trades hacks into the security turret in the barracks and shoots the crying woman after noticing she seemed to be suffering no physical effects from being trapped without food or water for a week, then starts popping the heads of the other corpses in the room. This, unfortunately, had the effect of alerting the rest of the shedim in the place.

An Unbreakable shedim controlling the corpse of the troll street sam Warpath rushes towards the sound of gunfire, and finds the team. After a long, drawn out combat with the shedim that seemingly refused to die, as well as several lesser shedim and the anthrodrones acting as security for the facility, Warpath is put down for good and the Unbreakable possessing his corpse was disrupted.

The team advanced further, only for Marionette to find himself being Compelled by the master shedim possessing the to attack his team. He attacks Nearl, but shakes off the control before he can either take down the mage or be taken down by their spirits. Halflight advances further into the facility to take down more shedim, while Marion and Nearl's other spirits corner the master shedim and take out its entourage. The master flees its vessel, Marion tries to trauma patch it in a misguided effort to save the mage since the body was an abandoned and not dead vessel, and Trades spots a corpse in the hyrdoponics room start moving. The Palefire spirit destroys this new vessel, and Halflight moves in to finish off the master on the astral.

The team makes quick work of the remaining shedim and security anthrodrones, and Marion cuts his way into the air gapped room holding the sensitive research data. Nearl grabs samples of the Awakened algae while Trades makes a copy of the research data they're after, formats the storage device, and the team prepares to exfil. Marion rigs up several HE grenades to hopefully take out the servers (and maybe even cause the entire facility to implode), and the runners (plus Javelin) head up the elevator back to the surface.

With Nearl rendering Trades's boat invisible, and Trades employing some sneaky Piloting, the team sails away from the facility. A HTR VTOL zips by overhead, but fails to detect the runners. After another several days, the team makes it back to Seattle and drops off the data and samples for their Johnson to connect. Nearl held onto a sample of the algae and a copy of the research data kindly given to them by Trades, and delivered both to Fire Mage.

Aftermath

Having access to both Proteus's research data and live samples of the algae, Norville starts experimenting, hoping to eventually be able to manufacture a metaplanar portal. Unfortunately the samples he has are currently attuned to the shedim's home plan, so he may need to arrange another run to re-align the samples to a less dangerous metaplane...

Javelin is deeply grateful for being rescued, and spreads the good name of the runners among the shadows.

With their deep sea base lost and its most recent data destroyed, Proteus launches an investigation into the destruction. Details are limited, especially with Trades taking care to wipe all the cameras.

Rewards

Base (20 RVP):

• 24,000¥ (12 RVP)

• 6 Karma (6 RVP)

• 4 Bonus CDP (4 RVP)

2 Base CDP

Time Bonus (30 RVP):

• 24,000¥ (12 RVP)

• 10 Karma (10 RVP)

• 14 CDP (7 RP)

• 1 Street Cred for Rescuing Javelin (1 RVP)

Optionals:

• Norville Craddock as a contact (C6/L1) for 6 RVP

• Nuyen reward can be converted into Magical Goods at gear reward rates (up to 24 RVP)

Trades:

• Chip on Norville Craddock

• Chip on Wusan for clearing out Sea Leeches

Optional: Trades can raise Norville's loyalty by 1 (1 RVP)

Optional: Better on the Net (Firewall) (9 RVP)

Optional: Hold the Door (7 RVP)

Nearl:

Chip on Fire Mage for stealing Proteus's research behind the J's back

+2 Black Lodge faction rep for the same

Optional: Nearl can raise Fire Mage's loyalty by 1 (1 RVP)

Optional: Solid Rep (Black Lodge) (2 RVP)

GM Rewards

Deadly: 18 GMP

Game Quotes

Marionette and Nearl, "If you hold them by the wrists and pin them to the wall, and put your fingers in their mouth, they can't cast spells!"