The Arrow of Time

The Arrow of Time
Date 2086-08-25 GM John Location Salish-Shidhe Councl (Border with Seattle) Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Dr. Ramirez Dorothea Albright Amrei Veidt The People of Renton	Northern Pacific Logistics (Telestrian Industries subsidiary)
Aishar Star of the Sea Sweetie Sinful Geodesic	Captain Casey Smith Leon Palmer (Rigger) Owen O'Toole (Spider) Cassidy Rockwell (C@STL3 / Remote Spider) Aaron Tomar (Wagemage) Three dozen guards A dozen rotodrones 2x F8 Earth Spirts
Casualties and losses
	Aaron Tomar, Spirits, Captain and many guards, O'Toole's deck

Summary

The team is hired by one Dr. Ramirez to look into the disappearance of a local do-good hacker, a woman called Billie. The team unravels a kidnapping plot by a Telestrian subsidiary and helmed by a bastard son with delusions of grand discovery. The NPL research facility in the Salish-Shidhe Council is compromised, with the help of Amrei Veidt, and the runners make of with the corp's new favorite test subject.

Background

Wilhelmina "Billie" Vanderbilt is a rich girl from Tir Tairnghire, who Emerged as a teenager and ran away from her middle manager parents. She has been doing good on the streets of Renton for the past 10 years, but was black-bagged in the night last Monday. Dr. Joseph Ramirez is a compatriot with good reason to want her back, but little in the way of leads. He calls in the runners to bring Billie home.

Northern Pacific Logistics (NPL) is a Telestrian Subsidiary operating out of the Salish-Shidhe Council. Due to the SSC's tight control of extraterritoriality, the NPL is renting their space from Saedder Krupp, and has a dubiously plausible ability to claim extraterritoriality as a result. NPL is the ego project of one Marcus "Telestrian", walking on eggshells with the SSC and SK while performing dubious and vile experiments behind closed doors.

The Meet

Dr. Ramirez meets the runners at his public clinic in one of the poorer parts of Renton. It is unassuming, and the meet is in his overcrowded office. He gives them the little info he has, and asks their help, in exchange for some goods he can provide. The team is happy not to negotiate, and accepts the promise of several thousand dollars of cyberware or other equipment.

The Plan

Legwork begins by exploring Billie's apartment. There, the team meets her long time situationship, Dorothea. Dorothea is happy to help, telling the team about Billie's torrid history with Telestrian (and it's subsidiary Northern Pacific Logistics, or NPL). Dorothea tries to conceal it, but it's obvious from the conversation that Billie is a technomancer. Aishar's detective work and Geo's quick hacking also confirm that Billie was taken from this location via a break-in at around 3 am last Monday. A discussion with the neighbor, one cranky ex-Seargent Blake Rogers, reveals that Billie was a mentor to several children of the neighborhood.

A quick call to Dr. Ramirez schedules a meetup with one of the kids, and Geo goes digging on the matrix for solid information about Billie and NPL. Billie has very little online presence or self confidence, despite her considerable matrix skill. One of her last posts was to a secret board for Technomancers trying to deal with Dissonance -- implying she may have been grappling with it herself. The kid she's mentoring, a ten year old boy called Chris, is quick to reveal to the team that both he and Billie are Technomancers, causing Geo to burst out and scold him for his recklessness. Nevertheless, the kid offers up some clarifications, including that Billie had been speaking to someone called "Marcus" over the phone, before destroying said phone.

A matrix search of the name in correlation to the relevant corporation reveals the CFO of NPL, one "Marcus Telestrian". Marcus' real name is Marcus Williams, as his Telestrian father wouldn't allow his mistress to name her son after the great family. Nevertheless, his ties to that family have allowed him some gain on the corporate ladder, and he loves to call himself a Telestrian in his public life. Marcus is under the impression that Technomancy is merely a form of regular magic, and wishes to prove that fact, funding many experiments over the years towards that goal.

NPL's headquarters is located just over the SSC border in a little town called Wilkeson, sitting at the base of Mt. Rainier. The team heads there, Sweetie easily charming past the border patrol, and performs some last preparations. Aishar summons a large spirit which *Search*es for Billie, managing to find her despite a Force 10 Mana Barrier blocking the way. Geo calls in a favor from Amrei Veidt, granting them pseudo official access to the facility, under the guise of an SK security team doing a workup.

The Run

The team enters NPL's research headquarters, guided by the head of security, Captain Casey Smith. Smith is a world-weary elf who believes he's being forced to entertain corporate guests while the lab tries to hide it's illicit experiments. He guides them around the facility, describing the security in detail. It is quite comprehensive, with three teams of six guards with specific posts to maintain (perimeter, inner sweep and fixed location near the sensitive labs), a dozen dogbrain rotodrones supporting, a half dozen watchers, a pair of high force Earth spirits, a security rigger, a spider, a nested host and a security mage trained in all three forms of magic.

The team concocts a scheme. They'll say that they've made a breakthrough in Marcus' field of Technomancy-meets-magic, and use that to lure him into a vulnerable position. Though it is a tough sell, this ultimately proves successful, with the team managing (through a series of layered schemes) to convince Marcus to bring them into the inner sanctum, and see the details of his experiment. In his mind, he is assuring the SK agents that their Techno they turn over will be treated just fine after they are gone, and conning them quite well into believing his intentions are so pure. When the team is gathered behind the secret entrance and vault door, through the massive mana barrier, and into the lab at the heart of the facility, they strike. It is the runners, Marcus Telestrian, Billie (controlled by mind magic), Aaron Tomar (the mage) and Casey Smith.

Star strikes first, and hard. Through the surprise and the circumstances, she's able to hit the enemy mage hard, before he's had time to prepare himself (with the dozen preps he has on his person). Before he can do much of anything, he's stuck on one box left, and quickly goes down. The early removal of the mage proves vital, as it also clears the way by removing his spirits and mana barrier. The rest of the combat is quite grueling, with enemy grunts even opening fire on an unconscious (in VR) Geo, but ultimately, with one side utilizing the power of magic, and the other stuck with just technology, the runners eek out a win. During this battle, the enemy Spider has their deck bricked, and the off-site Spider is called in, but it is little use. Before NPL's forces can muster a counterattack or call in their HTR, the runners slip away into the night and floor it back home, Billie in hand. Mid-escape, Geo is able to hack into the host and expertly locate the files concerning the team's research, securing herself a copy, for the Johnson as well as Ms. Veidt.

Aftermath

Billie Vanderbilt is home safe, and Dr. Ramirez is overjoyed. Amrei Veidt is satisfied (for now), with this damning evidence of NPL's schemes. That particular corp won't last more than another year, though Telestrian as a whole is unlikely to suffer much.

Rewards

Rewards: Deadly (20 RVP)

• 8 Karma

• 12 RVP of Gear (48k) of the following:

* Any augmentations of avail 18 or lower

* Medical or scientific equipment 18 or lower

* Drugs up to availability 14

* A low lifestyle (specifically in Renton)

* Unspent goes half into cash (as usual)

• 2 CDP free

Optionally, take Joseph Ramirez as a 4/2 Street Doc (5 RVP)

Ordeal or Ascension, as appropriate (for Hooding and plot significance), except Star

Star may grab Strive for Perfection for 12 RVP

+1 Rep with the "Streets of Renton"

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.