Gone Cold

Gone Cold
Part of Never Again
Date 2080-26-10 GM Drburst Location Seattle
Factions Involved
Decoy Quickdraw Prayer Purkinje Slayer	Hand of Five
Casualties and losses
None	Jenda Kantor

Background

A Horizon influencer is whipping up the dwarves of the Underground, preparing for what looks like a race riot between them and the ork population. A concerned citizen with connections to Mothers of Metahumans hires a team of runners to social engineer the problem away.

Meet

Meeting at an old-fashioned barbecue restaurant, the team discusses the job with the Johnson. The Johnson brings them up to speed on the situation about the Horizon influencer, a dwarf named Jenda Kantor. Kantor has a sizable following of viewers on his streams, in which he goes on novacoke-fueled, conspiracy-laden rants about how orks are trying to kick the dwarves out of the Underground. The Johnson is concerned this is leading to an imminent riot between the metahuman populations of the Underground, and he wants the situation resolved. This means Kantor cannot be made into a martyr. The team considers their options.

Run

The team decides to make it seem like Kantor is in the pocket of a racist policlub. Rather than going for Humanis, who have some measure of respectability, they decide to target the Hand of Five, whose presence isn't entirely public knowledge and who are universally hated for their role in the Night of Rage. With the help of Decoy's agent, Quickdraw and Purkinje locate the secret Hand of Five host and hack their way inside. They manage to avoid being spotted by the patrol IC before finding a list of contacts and burner numbers. After editing the file to include Kantor as an asset, they make a copy and search for any info the Hand might have about him. Sure enough, they had compiled a list of blackmail material. They copy this file, then leave the host and trace the commlinks on the list to dox the Hand of Five members they could locate, including their leader. Quickdraw leaves his signature inside the host, and the Hand quickly figures out they've been doxxed by hackers. They are able to figure out Quickdraw is involved, but Purkinje and Decoy remain anonymous.

The mixture of real and engineered documents on Kantor and the Hand of Five incites a riot, but not the kind he was anticipating. After some stirring words from Prayer and Slayer, angry Underground dwarves storm up to his studio, where Horizon has kicked him out, throwing him to the wolves. Slayer beheads him with a battle axe stroke in the midst of the crowd. Together, the team speaks about metahuman solidarity, and how the Hand of Five and other such policlubs cannot be allowed to separate them.

Aftermath

News of the Hand of Five's return becomes more available to the public, and the leaked documents are given to organizations that would be interested in taking them down, such as Mothers of Metahumans and ShadowHaven. Among the leaks are references to a planned assault on metahuman communities on the next anniversary of the Night of Rage, though the details are said to be kept in a secret security node deeper inside the host.

Rewards

• 10,000¥
• 11 karma or equivalent of a contact from the dwarf community in the Underground
• -2 faction rep with Hand of Five for Quickdraw

Player After-Action Reports

Purkinje's Report

I describe myself as a "social engineer" in my runner profile on ShadowHaven, but it's only so often I actually get to do some deep social engineering work. Manipulating perception is my skillset, and causing problems for racists is my passion. This job was peanut butter and chocolate for me. A delicious Reese's Cup of a run. Harsh execution at the end there, but I'm not gonna shed tears for someone who was trying to get the dwarves and orks to do that to one another en masse. One less tool for racists. Plus the Hand of Five are in some choppy waters now, so that's neat. A decisive victory.