Cipher

Cipher

Decker
Player	u/Dice-Mage
Metatype	Human
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	0
Public Awareness	0
Titles and Awards	0
D.O.B.	May 21st, 2053
Folder	[1]
Priority	Metatype - E Attributes - B Magic/Resonance - E Skills - B Resources - A

Character Information

Summary

Former Australian spy and hacker, forced to flee his country and seek refuge overseas.

Goals

• Delete his records from the Renraku corporate databases.
• Remove his file from the GOD Most Wanted; either through deletion from the database or by misleading them to think that he is dead.
• Obtain a Fairlight Caliban, or similar high end cyberdeck.
• Obtain a Rating 6 fake SIN (or a legal one) to eventually use for his post-shadowrunning retirement.
• Make enough money to retire comfortably.

Background

Matthew Bennett grew up in a middle-class family on the Australian east coast. His childhood wasn't luxurious, but it was better than most. From the earliest age, it was clear that his intelligence was greater than any of his peers, and he eventually ended up graduating University with his undergraduate degree aged only 15.

When he turned 18 years old, Matt broke into the Matrix Host for the Australian Intelligence and Security Enforcement agency and left his job application file inside the system, flagged for the attention of the head of recruiting. He was caught by AISE Spiders immediately afterwards, and could have very easily gone away to serve a heavy sentence in prison, were it not for the impressed head of the Cyber Intelligence division who proceeded to offer Matt a job.

Matt spent the next few years hunting threats to his country in the matrix; terrorists, AI, technomancers and foreign operatives. After distinguishing himself through doing so, he found himself selected to join a covert group called Task Force Amber Field, created to monitor and (if necessary) act against megacorporations that might constitute a threat to national interests & security. Key corporations that Amber Field was interested in were Aztechnology, Wuxing Incorporated & Renraku Computer Systems. These three megacorps were the targets of numerous operations in which valuable intelligence was extracted from corporate data centers; in particular from Hosts on the matrix.

Amber Field made several important discoveries during its operational history, but the biggest and most troubling was the revelation that Renraku was running an off-the-books research project with Emerged test subjects; a pet project of Noriko Sakai, head of the corp's Oceania division. The project involved using a group of kidnapped technomancers to gather up a vast archive of classified intelligence through the digital footprints left in the Resonance realms. As much of the information at risk was deleted or classified files that the Australian intelligence agency didn't want shared, soon as AISE learned of this development, they acted. Australian Air Force drones were deployed to destroy the research site with air-to-surface missiles, which they did, killing the technomancer subjects in the process. AISE congratulated themselves on a successful mission.

Unfortunately, the Renraku demiGOD division managed to trace the intrusions in their system to the hackers of Amber Field, and took their findings to the corporate court. Their 'kidnapped' technomancers were revealed to be legal corporate citizens, and the consequences for their murder were far greater than the Australian government was willing to face. The deckers and operators of Amber Field were disavowed; their details were turned over to Renraku Computer Systems, which promptly shared the discovery that their research programs were being covertly monitored and hunted by a group of hackers with representatives of Aztechnology and Wuxing. The alarming revelation quickly catapulted Amber Field to GOD's Most Wanted list.

Having discovered exactly who was responsible for her pet project's destruction, Noriko Sakai (who apparently had taken the damage Amber Field caused rather personally) deployed her own Blue Samurai security force to hunt down the rogue intelligence officers. Matt managed to narrowly escape, getting out of the country using a burner SIN reserved for AISE case officers and taking as much of his gear as he could carry with him. Most of his friends were not so lucky.

Having relocated to Seattle, somewhere he hopes to be beyond the reach of his corporate enemies, the Australian decker is currently trying to earn a living as a Shadowrunner while lying low. He intends eventually to try and scrub his file and details from the Renraku records (possible) and the Grid Overwatch Division (less so) if he can find an opportunity to do so; he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder for G-men and corporate HTR teams.

Narrative Significant Qualities

Negative

• Curiosity Killed the Cat: Cipher can't help but feel a an overpowering compulsion to gain access to information that people don't want him to know. In the intelligence community, that was a strength; it remains to be seen if it'll be a help or hindrance as a Shadowrunner.
• Prejudiced (Specific, Biased) (Technomancers): Technomancers are often feared and distrusted by most of the populace, and Cipher is no exception to that. Being a Decker, he's more frightened than most of a class of metahumans to whom the rules of the Matrix do not apply, and has been conditioned by his years in AISE to see them as potential threats to society.
• Records on File (Renraku Computer Systems): When he and the other officers of Amber Field were disavowed by the Australian government as rogue agents acting without authorisation, his identification was turned over to Renraku CorpSec as a show of good faith. Whether Renraku actually bought the deception is anyone's guess, but for Cipher the important part is that they know who he is.
• Wanted by GOD: As a former intelligence officer of AISE's Task Force Amber Field, Matthew Bennett is known to have been involved in extracting sensitive information from megacorporate Matrix Hosts. They have no idea precisely what secrets he may or may not have learned of their operations over the years, but consider him to be a threat nonetheless.

Run History

Run Name (DD-MM-YYYY)

A Nineteenth Shadowrun Based on Fall Out Boy's The Phoenix (01-09-2019)

A Shadowrun Based on Weary Traveller by Stick and Poke (08-09-2019)

Affiliations

Contacts

• Madame Butterfly - Connection 4, Loyalty 1.
• Dr. Gotham - Connection 3, Loyalty 1.

In Character Information

Matrix Search Table

Threshold	Result
1 hit	Cipher: n. 1. a secret or disguised way of writing; a code. 2. a zero; a figure 0.
2 hits	A series of academic articles exploring cryptography and decryption on the Matrix 2.0.
3 hits	A decker active on the Renraku Okoku global and Emerald City local Seattle grids, offering his services for hire in Matrix security and information retrieval. Associated with Aegis Cognito.
4+ hits	An Australian decker for hire living in Seattle. His persona and posting history bear a strong resemblance to a disgraced Intelligence officer wanted by the Renraku demiGod.

Shadow Community Table

Threshold	Result
1 hit	A recent newcomer to the Seattle shadow community.
2 hits	An Australian Hacker who's recently settled in Seattle. Uses Madame Butterfly as his fixer.
3 hits	Australian Decker recently accepted into ShadowHaven. A former member of the Intelligence community; likely the Australian Intelligence & Security Enforcement, judging from his background.
4+ hits	Former officer of AISE's anti-corporate task force Amber Field, disavowed by his government. A member of the Grid Overwatch Divsion's Most Wanted list, though strangely with no public bounty for offer.

SINs

Daniel Keller; Matrix Security Officer for Aegis Cognito, Australian Republic - R4 Fake SIN. (Fake Concealed Carry Permit; Fake Cyberdeck License; Fake Driver's License; Fake Firearms License; Fake Private Investigator's License).

Appearance

Brown hair, blue eyes, mostly non-descript physical features. Cipher has a Datajack implanted above his right temporal muscle.

Clothing

Cipher's clothes often change to match his environment whenever he can manage it, but generally ranges between jeans t-shirt and jacket and cheap suits.

Matrix Persona

Cyberdeck: An ahistorical blend of samurai/ninja, dressed in a mixture of black, grey and dark blue. Marks by this persona resemble shuriken embedded into a target.

Commlink: A medieval man-at-arms dressed in an arming coat, maille, and a breastplate, with a rondel dagger device icon at his side to represent his Transys Arthur commlink.