Black Site Blue

Black Site Blue
Date 2082-03-07 GM Chrisst111 Location Greece Status Threat Level: Semi-Prime
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Ares Arms
Eric Payne Boombox Lil' Boomer Shine Sp4rks Triple Trouble	Security Guards Scientists Undersea Staff Ares Spiders
Casualties and losses
Just Our Pride	Several Security Guards

Summary

The team is contracted by Renraku to extract a scientist, Dr. Bob Wall, from an underwater Ares base near Greece. The runners infiltrate the nearby port, but fail to commandeer a sub. Though they search for other options to breach the underwater base, they come up empty-handed. They return empty handed.

Background

Several years ago, Ares sunk a base approximately 35 miles outside Athens, Greece. It's purpose, presumably, was to contain dangerous research in a way that could be eradicated by the water pressure should that material ever need to be contained.

The Meet

The team found descended several flights of stairs in a downtown building, finding itself guided to a storage area by AROs. There a pair of bodyguards, one awakened, guarded a door into an office with an overwhelming background count. The team stepped inside and was offered high compensation for an extremely challenging task: extracting a target who had fallen off the grid after an Ares extraction nearly a decade before. The trail has been cold, but the target's value has not dropped. Locating and extraction was either too difficult or too dangerous to be done with corporate personnel, hence hiring the deniable assets.

The Plan

Sp4rks uncovered the sunken base quickly; there was old trideo footage of the base's sinking. However, since areas in the ocean are indistinguishable from one another, the team's research uncovered only that the base was approximately 35 miles from the shore of a Greek island near Athens. Sp4rks managed to find what appeared to be the nearest port facility owned by the same Ares Arms company, and--according to records--it could service submarines. The team decided to leverage connections with Ace Powers to enter Athens through the cargo hold of a plane, then infiltrate this water front base in order to commandeer a submarine and breach the base. Because of the pressure and depth, diving was ruled out as a possible incursion method.

The Run

Lil' Boomer rented a boat for the team in Athens, and the team drove around the island, scouting (and enjoying the sunshine) disguised as a leisure craft. They looked for submarines coming in and out of the facility, but found none. However, the base was still their best lead, and they decided to infiltrate it.

The team then landed on the island and rented an Ares-brand vehicle upon this island and obtained high level fake SINs to infiltrate this facility. Despite these preparations, the team was made upon entering the main gate. Despite the attempt to counteract being made with magic, the team's vehicle, (a rental on grid guide,) was ordered to park. Twelve guards surrounded their vehicle, and the team came out hot. Lil' Boomer managed to mostly burn the OPFOR's initiative (and his own) by lobbing area of effect spells and grenades. Shine, Sp4rks, and Boombox were more useful, pushing the enemies back. After a gas grenade was lobbed, the runners were cut off from the opposing units, which retreated up a set of stairs toward the facility.

After the gas cleared, the team pursued, but evacuation had already begun. They cleared an upper catwalk area, before catching a scientist attempting to leave via cargo ship. The scientist did not seem to know their mark, and the team allowed that scientist to leave unharmed.

The team then scouted the bottom of each of the ships with drones in an attempt to find a submarine launching mechanism, and Lil' Boomer sent out a spirit to attempt to search for the extraction target. Both of these attempts proved to be fruitless.

The runners then returned to Athens proper for several days while dealing with their wounds and attempting to find more information. Sp4rks managed to break into another Ares host and--after dispatching many security spiders and IC, uncovered detailed records for Dr. Wall, Dr. Scholz, Lula Sherman, Erikk Lowery, Rae Tate, Dr. Morrison, Dr. Dorsey, and Project #3122. In addition to directory information, these records gave the team detailed psych evaluations, cyberware and magical profiles. While the team spent quite some time pouring over these records and finding weaknesses within the underwater crew to exploit, Triple Trouble noted that the base was still underwater and they were not.

On calling their Johnson in a futile bid to acquire extra intelligence and guidance, the team simply activated an automated message that provided the coordinates of a dead drop that would remain active for 24 hours. However, despite their best efforts, the team were unable to locate the base within that timeframe.

After some deliberation, Triple Trouble called Ace Powers for an extraction, and the team returned to Seattle emptyhanded.

Aftermath

The team burned some of its reputation, both within the shadow community, and with Renraku. However, no runners were lost.

Rewards

• 40 Karma
• 2 CDP
• -2 Reputation (Renraku)
• 1 Notoriety (2 for Sp4rks).

Game Quotes

"Shine is going to sunbathe and just soak up being out on the ocean on this boat--you know, so we don't draw attention to ourselves."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Lil' Boomer | LB

Alright...so fraggin...so fraggin' Greece can bite me. I know I'm not the best and brightest summoner--especially with how people look at me, but...I thought I had a few tricks up my sleeve with askin' spirits to search and stuff. I just don't have the attention span for it. Sp4rks is spendin' 12 hour shifts divin' into forums. Triple's over there like, ready to switch her face off. Shine's at least havin' a good time.

I think we coulda done it. I think we coulda done it if I were smarter. But I just get mad about stuff and shoot grenades at it. I mean--come to think of it--if we had gone underwater, and I had started shootin' grenades everywhere, what happens then? Like...would I have just gotten us all killed? Shit. That's not great.

Shine:

I do not like to fail. I do not like to fail my team mates, myself, nor my Johnson. But in this instance we simply ran out of ideas. Those data-bombs almost cost Sp4rks his life, and the almost certainly cost us access to the location of the Underwater base. As much as I enjoyed the company of my companions, I cannot help but think we would have fared better had we a Relay or a Roadkill or a Zenith among us. And yet I cannot call the run a complete wash. I did acquire a most satisfactory, even spectacular tan and seized the chance to visit and enjoy many of the attractions of Greece.

Triple Trouble

This job was BS from the start. If the frickin' MAGIC TEN GEOMANCER and Shiawase can't find the people, how the frag do they expect a group of under-informed runners to do it??? Utterly bullshit.