Glory's Delivery

Glory's Delivery
Date 2081-07-12 GM Chrisst11 Location Seattle Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Aztechnology	Ares
Pollux Ironclad Koi Skadi	CorpSec Bug Spirits
Casualties and losses
Pollux and Ironclad took heavy damage

Summary

The team were contacted through their Fixers that a Johnson had a job for them, and they met over the Matrix in a medieval-themed Host. There, the Johnson informed them that he wanted them to steal a container from an Ares warehouse, though they didn't know what was in it. They were also given a minor side-objective to find out what had happened to a warehouse worker who hadn't been home in a while, though she was still working. The team accepted the job.

Info received through Pollux's contact Axxess led them to believe that the missing woman and some of her coworkers were bug spirits, and so the team prepared for that. After on-site scouting brought them to the conclusion that there was no easy way in, they approached a neighbouring Aztechnology warehouse to get some assistance, which worked out quite well. The group snuck in at night, after the package had been delivered, but quickly got discovered, and Pollux and Ironclad got taken down. However, through some skillful shooting from their remaining companions and help from an Aztechnology decker, they made it out with a bug spirit corpse and a few cases, one of which turned out to have their prize: Deltaware cyberware.

The Meet

At about mid-morning, each member of the group received a call from their Fixer: A Johnson wanted a meet. The group decided to get it done as soon as possible, and were instructed to get marks on a Host in the Matrix. When they arrived, it turned out to be themed after a medieval castle, and they were given the option to change their avatars to match the theme. Ironclad became a plate-clad knight, Pollux became a witch wearing fire-y plate, Skadi became a viking, and Koi...became some kind of 2d fish, styled after old medieval art. They were lead down to the 'dungeons' of the castle, where they had their meet.

The Johnson had reason to believe that there was a large shipment coming into an Ares warehouse through a ship called Gloria. They were uncertain as to what it really was, but they wanted it nonetheless. They also had a side-objective: Discover what had happened to a woman named Rachel McAllan, a worker at the warehouse. She had been seen coming and going from the building, but her husband, Sylvester McAllan, reported that she hadn't returned home. The group took up the job, as well as the side-job, and headed out.

The Plan

The group met up at Pollux's apartment to raid her fridge while they worked on a plan. Pollux called up one of her contacts, Axxess, to take a look into the warehouse. After half an hour of waiting, they got information back: The warehouse was entirely under Ares control, and some coworkers had reported that Rachel and two others had been acting strange. Axxess gave a certain implication related to Ares' history, and the group came to a conclusion. Rachel, as well as the two others, may be bug spirits. After paying Axxess for the info, they decided to do some on-site legwork.

After figuring out that Skadi wouldn't have been able to fit into Pollux's Shin-Hyung, they used the giant woman's instead, and drove around the area. The warehouse was heavily fortified, two stories, with monowire-topped fencing and multiple gun turrets, and they were flanked by Aztechnology and Saeder-Krupp warehouses. They spitballed various ideas, such as zip-lining from a nearby building or setting up a distraction with a cheap car loaded with explosives, but decided to break away for a moment to see if Sylvester knew anything. They rang him up, and he arranged a meeting at a park in Snohomish.

They arrived and met up, though curiously, he called himself James and seemed quite clammy about the entire thing, even going as far to bring a white noise generator. After some questioning that didn't really go anywhere, they stumbled upon a sore spot, which was that Rachel was actually Awakened. That appeared to be the reason why he was so wary, but the group convinced him they weren't an anti-Awakened group or anything like that. Still, he had nothing that would help them get in, other than the location of a fire escape and a map cobbled together from memory of discussions with his wife, so they went back to the drawing board.

Eventually, the group settled on an idea: Aztechnology probably wasn't a fan of bug spirits on their doorstep, nor the background count associated with them being there, so the group decided to try and see if they could get their help, morals be damned. Through Da-Xia Wu, they managed to set up a meeting for the day after with the warehouse manager, and went to bed.

The day after, the group met with the manager. It went amicably, with some double-talk that boiled down to informing him that there were bug spirits next door, and it could be mutually beneficial if the corp provided them with some aid to get in and do their job, while eliminating spirits. The manager also asked for Rachel's corpse, but by that point, the group didn't care about one woman's life, and so accepted, with the manager offering the services of an on-call Decker to help them when needed. Finally, they were ready for the run.

The Run

The plan was thus: Using rappeling gloves, the group would hop the fence the morning after the delivery, after the boat had left but before the package had been delivered to Ares HQ. They'd find the positions of Rachel and the package, kill the former and secure the latter, then leave, alarms be damned, to the Aztechnology warehouse.

Naturally, it did not go that smoothly.

The group managed to get over the fence, though a piece of Pollux's chameleon suit got snagged, but she managed to grab it. They approached the fire escape, but after some checking from Pollux, they ascertained that entering that way would trigger an alarm. Instead, they decided to ascend to the ballistic glass roof to take a bird's eye view, and Pollux used her grapple gun to create a path up. When she was up there however, she noticed two guards approaching, and told the others to hurry. They decided to climb, but Koi got spotted halfway up, and that was when hostilities started. Although Koi fell from the wire, the group dispatched the pair of guards, but not before one of them had sent a message over commlink.

The group made it up to the roof, and began to multitask. Skadi called in their Decker support, who appeared to start fighting with the Ares security spider for dominance. Pollux worked on AR marking Rachel and any packages that seemed to be the right size, and Ironclad set up some explosives to get them in. After recklessly checking up close on the detonation caps (which had 15 seconds left) when Ironclad's commlink went down, the group began descending. Pollux set up her grapple gun again, and they started going down.

Pollux was the first to descend, but setting up the line for her comrades meant she could do nothing else. Skadi took a shot at Rachel, and confirmed their suspicions that she was a bug spirit, though even a bullet through the face didn't finish her off. Ironclad managed to kill her however, and the other two spirits started fleeing. In the meantime however, being the first on the ground of the unlit warehouse made Pollux a prime target for their Ares CorpSec however, and she was easily taken down, and began bleeding out. Ironclad descended next to stabilize her, and succeeded in doing so, before being knocked out himself. It was only through some masterful shooting, dodging, and grenade-kicking on Koi and Skadi's part that the group made it out, as the latter picked off the CorpSec members like flies from her position on the roof.

Koi used a stim patch on Ironclad to pick him up, so he could work on the more severely-wounded Pollux. After they were in good enough health to escape, they collected their target's corpse and the three packages that Pollux had marked, and made their escape, thankfully untouched by the gun turrets due to the decker's efforts. They delivered Rachel's corpse to the manager, though not before taking her wedding ring to deliver to Sylvester, then headed to Ironclad's abode so he could work on them.

Aftermath

The group spent a day resting so that Ironclad and Pollux could deal with their wounds, and so they could check what was in the crates. Each of them was trapped with grenades, but they managed to disarm each and see what was in the boxes. While one was filled with nothing but straw and packing peanuts, the other two were more to their expectations: The first was filled with used cyberware, while the latter was being used to transport Deltaware cyberware, mostly limbs. They informed the Johnson that they had the package, and that Rachel had been a bug spirit, which he seemed unsurprised by. They set up a drop at a chop shop for the day after, then went to inform Sylvester of his wife's fate.

While they did leave out the gory details, the group told Sylvester that his wife had been the victim of an Ares experiment gone wrong, and delivered the ring (as well as a bottle of Jack Daniel's from Pollux's stash). Koi sent along a file that told him what had really happened to his wife, which he appeared to have opened. With their cold-heartedness downplayed a little, they went their ways, made the drop, and got their pay.

Rewards

44k of Cyberware, leftover is halved for Nuyen reward / All, but Skadi couldn't get Deltaware

8 karma / Everyone except Ironclad

7 karma / Ironclad

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

"Fucking bugs. Yet somehow, they weren't the worst part of the mission. Thank god Ironclad and Skadi were there, or I might not have made it out." - Pollux

Koi

This one...this is a run that left a bad taste in my mouth. Theirs a chance azetec isn't going to use the corpse for terrible reasons but I'll likley never know. I'm relieved really at the fact our magic sniper knew that Rachel was a bug spirit, at the end of the day I suppose stomping a bug and kicking ares mandibles in is a good thing. Still doesn't feel like a clean run thou...