Into the Light of a Dark, Black Night
| Into the Light of a Dark, Black Night | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Saeder-Krupp | Ex Pacis | ||||||||
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Geodesic Caliban Fennec |
B1@ckb1rd Character2 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| B1@ckb1rd(?) | |||||||||
Summary
S-K Prime decides to fight Dissonance with Dissonance and hires Geodesic and Caliban to hunt down a suspected Ex Pacis associate. They get in over their heads.
Background
The Third Universal Matrix Conference is in full swing. Saeder-Krupp, a major corporate attendee, suspects outside parties to attempt to disrupt or assault the conference, among those being Ex Pacis, the Dissonant technomancer tribe. Amrei Veidt, under the moniker "G01d3nI", reaches out to hire Geodesic and Caliban to trail a suspected contact, B1@ckb1rd, testing whether their corruption by Dissonance will enable them to withstand it better.
The Meet
Geo and Caliban head into the Shadowhaven host G01d3nI requested they meet her at, suppressing their intense discomfort to do so. They sit down after a moment, Geodesic confused but friendly, Caliban vaguely hostile, and G01d3nI explains the situation. They are told she wants them to head to New York, the site of the Third Universal Matrix Convention, where a known technomancer and possible terrorist B1@ckb1rd is posing as a pizza delivery man. They believe he is meeting with an organized group plotting to attack the convention, and want the two runners to tail him and find evidence of this plot. G01de3nI offers 30,000 nuyen each, plus travel expenses. Despite warnings that each have received about the situation in New York City, they both agree.
The Plan
Geodesic, expecting heavy Matrix presence and wanting an edge, asks her contacts for a dose of Cereprax. She gets it from Hextech who takes even more time out of her exhausting schedule to produce some. Caliban, meanwhile, asks her for Khamsa, which she is unable to get for the team. Geodesic also takes a moment to register a Machine sprite before the two head to the airport and fly out. They leave their more unsubtle gear at home, including Geodesic's drone and Caliban's emotional support briefcase bomb.
On the flight, Caliban shares discomfort with one of the identified associates of B1@ckb1rd, Dr. Penelope Ann Xavier, who she remembers vaguely from her time in Human Malice. They have a discussion about the nature of personhood and memories, in which Geodesic claims that if personhood is transient, memories that a person has by definition have to be "theirs," whether they happened to that person or not. Caliban is disquieted by this claim, but does not argue.
The Run
Once they land, Geodesic and Caliban decide to rent a car (on S-K's dime) and begin to head towards the pizzeria B1@ckb1rd is working out of. Geodesic asks Caliban if she could thread an Infusion of Sleaze to help her keep her signals hidden while spying via drone. Caliban immediately overthreads and eats physical Fading for her trouble. Taking advantage of this, Geodesic enters and slips in Polynomial, her Festo Sewer Snake, to hide in the lobby and wait for B1@ckb1rd to arrive. Half an hour later, he does, and Geodesic drops Polynomial from the ceiling to slip into his pizza bag. Caliban confirms that he's running his Persona off a commlink for the moment using her matrix perception, and the two tail him in their rented car.
Bl@ckb1rd's first delivery is to an urban mother, who tips generously, but doesn't otherwise raise any flags. The runners follow him into Chinatown, cutting through narrow streets, and find him delivering his next pizza to an older Chinese gentleman, who though perhaps a Triad member doesn't seem particularly relevant. The third delivery heads to The Pit, Manhattan's dilapidated Barrens equivalent. As he delivers the pizza to this woman, he shakes her hand, and Caliban clearly notices his living persona activate as he does so. She deduces that they're communicating via Skinlink, and make note to investigate later, but decide to continue following him. After he returns to the car, he looks into the bag, and yanks out Polynomial, who he'd spotted from the start and decided to play along with. He transmits a set of coordinates to Geodesic through the flailing snake drone, before returning to the pizza parlor. Geodesic and Caliban, despite Geo wanting to rescue her precious Poly, decide to head towards the coordinates, which lead to a skeezy motel in the Terminal, Manhattan's OTHER Barrens equivalent.