Quantum of Solace
| Quantum of Solace | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Tír Tairngire | Telestrian Industries | ||||||||
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Catharsis Zenith |
Data Vault Security Tir Ghosts |
Telestrian Spider Timmy Telestrian III | ||||||||
| This was an ascension/initiation run. | ||||||||||
Summary
Background
Zenith has been searching for his missing wife for years, and has unraveled the threads of a far-reaching conspiracy behind her disappearance (see: Casino Royale, For Elven Eyes Only, The Sixth World Is Not Enough, and other previous initiation runs for more information). Having learned of the existence of a data vault full of secrets in Tir Tairngire, and forseen via divination that the information he seeks lies in data vault number 1867, he resolves to break into the secure facility and find out more.
The Meet
Zenith is sitting at home watching some trids while he thinks about how he's going to go about infiltrating a secure data facility in Malek'thas, the former capital of Tir Tairngire, in order to find more information about his missing wife.
Reaching out to his contacts on the other side of the border Zenith explains the situation about the data vault and learns that the facility is a well-known government facility that keeps information from the history including information from former Council of Princes members. He also puts out a few feelers that he's looking to work with Rouge once again.
He then contacts Amrei Veidt about the facility and learns that it's majorly secure, and the way in would be to either compromise someone who already works in the building or to attempt to body snatch and impersonate someone who already works there. She provides a few possibilities that he could reasonably impersonate but requests that he obtains the information from Vault 429 in the same facility.
Zenith hooks up with a smuggling group from the Laesa, and is smuggled into Tir Tairngire to avoid the issues surrounded by the price on his head. While there is a close call near the border with a drone, the smugglers manage to safely get him to Malek'thas, formerly Salem, Oregon.
The Plan
Getting to the Capital Hotel, Zenith manages to avoid the judgement of the staff by acting like he belongs, despite the disheveled appearance the adept gives off. But manages to meet Rouge in the room that she has already established here, having another rendezvous with the redhaired elf before asking for her assistance. She agrees to help him, but since she doesn't have the ability to bodysnatch and Zenith's genetic data is on record with the Tir Tairngire government, they will need another member to get them into the facility. To this end Zenith calls Sidewinder and pays them 20k in order to secure their help.
Scanning through profiles that would have access they needed, Zenith and Rouge come across the name Timothy Telestrian, a member of the family that kidnapped Scarlet for their bloodfeud with the O'Cathalain family, and the brother of the current Telestrian Industries CEO. Finally, calling in Catharsis as Matrix support as well as using her ties to elven nobility in order to gain better access. Trying to garner some sort of ulterior motives for Rouge's presence in the city as being very convenient he attempts to judge her intentions only to once again be distracted.
Catharsis passes across the border using her real SIN and makes it to the Capital Hotel as Zenith comes down to the lobby. The two of them discuss Zenith's distrust of both Sidewinder and Rouge from his past experiences with her. They then discuss the plan to grab Telestrian and keep the bodyguards out of the loop while Sidewinder replaces them, setting up the infiltration so they can get the data vaults and escape cleanly. Leaving to scout the area Zenith takes to the roofs and approaches the capital building. Finding that he was also being watched by the Tir spies in the form of Eavesdropper. The spy tells Zenith to be more subtle about his infiltration, and that he's trying to keep the forces that be from falling down on him. He also explains that he needs Zenith not to look into the many state secrets that are held in the Capital building, but rather just take what he needs and leave. This prompts Oracle to prod Zenith in the brain and he then lies and says that is exactly what he plans on doing before Eavesdropper leaves.
Meanwhile Catharsis and Rouge begin to probe each other for information and try to place one another in the situation. Figuring out that the decker is from one of the noble families in Cara'sir and getting more personal information out of the therapist. While flirting with an increasingly flustered Catharsis, Rouge seems to be getting the better of the conversation before Zenith climbs back into the room and asks Rouge to give them the room. Pulling out stacks of data chips that he purchased on the way back and asks Cathy to program them to copy any information from a data vault that they are placed into. Doing so the two of them begin to discuss Rouge and the possibility that this whole thing is a setup. Catharsis is still concerned about Zenith's drinking and the trouble that he's gotten into since he lost the eye.
Sidewinder eventually arrives and the full group discusses the plan to grab Telestrian and set Sidewinder in his place, using Zenith's deal with Eavesdropper to get five minutes of unobserved time. Sidewinder mentions that he'll only be able to keep the ruse going for 48 hours after taking on the form of Timothy Telestrian, meaning that they need to be able to go the next day to infiltrate the former capital building and grab their data. Zenith attempts to plan for both a hot exfil as well as a calmer one, though without knowing the exact floor plans since the ones given to him by Amrei are years old at this point, and the security of the place is relatively unknown there are a lot of factors that he's unable to predict.
The team take the night, splitting up the two rooms between Rouge and Catharsis and Zenith and Sidewinder. The two female elves spent a good amount of time discussing Catharsis' marriage, including explaining that Aaron Knight had survived the assassination attempt that Zenith had made on him several months ago, and the decker was still concerned about her husband coming back to bite her at the worst possible time. Catharsis also admits to an attraction to the other runner that she is not ready to deal with. The other room meanwhile were reflections upon Zenith's feelings that he hadn't yet earned the right to have his eye restored through genetic restoration after not seeing Sidewinder's betrayal coming at Crater Lake. There was also discussion about how Zenith knew that Scarlet was still alive, explaining that through the psychometry of her engagement ring a trustworthy seer had let him know that she was still around. The runner also explained, after some probing, that it had been a strange electronic form of Scarlet that had let him escape from the Tir super prison and given him the next set of leads.
The next morning the crew went to try and obtain more information, Zenith acquiring vehicles that could be used for kidnapping and escape to a safehouse that Banks had set up for them, while Sidewinder follows the target and Rouge and Catharsis attempt to hack into Telestrian's files so that they can get a hold of Tim's schedule. While the deckers are successful, coersion from Rouge leads to them looking for more paydata to use against the corporation and get some more info, but due to unfortunate circumstances a data bomb explodes and bricks both of their decks before they are able to extricate themselves from the situation and return to the hotel.
Taking off to prepare for their infiltration of the club known as the Gilded Leaf, Zenith purchases a realistic-looking fake eye while Catharsis buys a fake SIN based in Tir Tairngire that will at least give some cover to her real SIN. Zenith also calls Mush to pick up a small lighter as a Qi Focus to grant him Adept Spell. Catharsis dives into the matrix to hack into the host of the Gilded Leaf to grant the group fake invitations. Arriving at the club the group splits up until Timothy arrives at the club with two escorts. Zenith and Catharsis take care of the escorts by flirting with them and peeling them away from the target before Rogue honeypots Tim and gets him to the bathroom, with Zenith hiding the sound of a scuffle using his newly acquired Sound Barrier spell. After a quick Shapechange spell from Sidewinder means they can pass the unconscious corpo through the window and load him into a van before driving to the safehouse where they began to interrogate the man while Sidewinder takes over his life. Pulling out a password given to the security forces at the civics building to let them in and also learning that Timothy doesn't want Zenith looking at Box 873 of the civic's building's data vaults.
Finishing the interrogation by knocking the Telestrian out, Zenith and Rouge discuss Catharsis' involvement in the run, with the face complaining that she's basically a civilian and that she might feel like something more than friendly towards Zenith if she jumped across the border and risked her SIN for this job, Zenith denies this and his own feelings as he says that Catharsis is simply a skilled decker (which he believes) and that they are just friends. Catharsis overhears and comes in with Rouge leaving, and the two argue about the emotional stuntedness of Zenith and his quest to retrieve Scarlet, and that it's affecting both himself by turning to alcohol as a coping mechanism, and Harriot by showing her that those unhealthy coping mechanisms and the obsession were acceptable. As well as worrying his daughter. Zenith arguing back about why she cares, and that he has to find his wife and bring her back.
Frustrated by the conversation, Catharsis goes outside to smoke with Rouge while Zenith patrols the perimeter, finding a note nearby the safehouse that is obviously from Baran, the paladin that works for the O'Cathalain family who had been spotted at the club earlier had left, telling Zenith to meet him in a parking lot within the city. Going there with the intention of antagonizing the paladin and starting a fight in order to bury his feelings. However instead he began to tell Baran about the reason he was in the country, telling them of his plan to rob the data vaults of the civics building in order to get a lead on Scarlet's location, also explaining that there were immortal elves that seemed to be involved in the chal'han.
Returning to the safehouse Zenith finds Rouge who decides to take a walk of her own, though Zenith stops her before she leaves and asks if he's going to have to worry about her. She says yes, but not in the way he thinks, and that she wouldn't stab him in the back. She then leaves, taking the vehicle with her while Zenith wakes Catharsis and the two runners apologize to one another for losing their tempers. In a moment of solidarity they share a quick moment before Zenith notices that there is a datachip in Timothy's datajack with a green hue to it. Confused as to why, he gets Catharsis to take a look at it, eventually calling in Freya to give the other decker some assistance while he calls Baran to try and track down Rouge while he heads back for the city on foot until Baran picks him up.
Catharsis and Freya work through the code and find out there's some sort of psychotropic code that can be used for mind alteration, this chip apparently working to turn Timothy against the Telestrian family to be used as some sort of sleeper agent. Contacting Alcatraz Catharsis is able to find the second verse of the chal'han challenge embedded as comments within the code, and sends the information to Zenith who shares it with the paladin.
Needing some way of finding Rouge before she escaped, Zenith turned to his mentor spirit, letting Oracle lead a divination ritual through himself and expediting the ritual through extraordinary effort and channelling his magic fully into the task. Discovering that Rouge was going to attempt to leave the city via a boat, and quickly drags Baran back to the vehicle so they can get to the docks before the elf escapes.
The Run
Arriving at the docks Zenith and Baran find Rouge working on trying to move a speedboat, when confronted by Zenith she tries to explain that she's trying to have contingency plans in place for what happens next, including making Timothy turn against his family so that they can get the upper hand on Telestrian for once. Zenith asks to see her datajack, which Rogue reveals by moving her hair out of the way, though Zenith notices something glinting in her hand and begins to approach. He tells Rouge that he understands what she's trying to do and that they need to work together to get Scarlet back. Kissing Rouge and using the distraction to palm away the chip that she had tried to hide before letting her get back on the boat and driving off into the dawn.
Baran and Zenith part ways and Zenith returns to the safehouse where he gives the chip to Catharsis and she begins to analyze it. Able to break through the solid wall of IC that was protecting the file and decrypting the file with the help of Harriot and a sprite. Catharsis is able to tell that the young Technomancer's sprite also takes a copy of the file, despite both the decker and her father warning her not to, and telling her about the fact this mission is about saving her mother and that the chip might have been used to mind control her aunt. Catharsis is able to analyze the file and break it down over the next six hours and finds many details through the haze of exhaustion and soykaf. Though one of the comments is about how the chips are coded per person and the one that Rouge had was in fact designed for Scarlet O'Cathalain. Leading to the question as to if Rouge and Scarlet are in fact one in the same or if the chips can be used on relatives.
Catharsis sleeps while Zenith keeps guard just in case someone else comes to try and attack or capture Tim, before the two runners prepare for the heist of the civics building.
Meeting back up on Sidewinder in the form of Timothy Telestrian III, the shapechanger is quickly filled in on the events of the last night while he fixes Zenith's disguise and Rouge joins them once again for the heist of the century against Tir Tairngire. They are able to make it through the checkpoint and into the data vaults where the team splits in to two, with Catharsis and Zentih taking one side while Rouge and Sidewinder take the other side. The groups start putting the auto-hack chips in the datavaults, finally coming to vault 873 and deciding to wait for the chip to finish on the priority target. Zenith hears a rail drone on the way and grabs Catharsis after she puts the case down on the vault and the two of them hide from the camera.
Catharsis observes the local PAN the runners are on while they wait and discovers that Rouge's deck is not on her person, instead being run by a ghostly scarlet persona that seems to be using Rouge's knife-deck. She tries to hold the information back, but seeing Zenith struggling with the idea of either running out of the building or staying and finishing the job with possibly the biggest score any of the runners had seen in their lifetimes. Pulling on reserves of willpower Zenith put aside his desire to find his wife and decides to finish the job. The runners converge at the elevator and are able to descend to the floor where they find vault 1837 and insert the chip, keeping as quiet as possible and avoiding a guardian spirit with a particular rose pattern that Zenith recognized. Taking the chip from the vault once it was full and then escaping from the civic building without burning their identities.
Getting back to Sidewinder's car, the group head to the safety of the outer city, and Catharsis informs Zenith that the mysterious persona sent a message to her that she loved him and Harriot, and hoped that she could see them soon. Zenith is quiet for the rest of the car ride until they are clear of the city.
Rouge appears with the knife-deck and Zenith confronts her about what's going on. Why Scarlet was there and apparently working with the other elf. Rouge gives Zenith an ARO explaining the situation that the adept seems to accept and allows both Rouge and Sidewinder to leave. With just himself and Catharsis left, the two discuss for a few minutes before Catharsis insists that they get out of the country before having a proper talk. The two split up a few miles from the border while Zenith meets up with the Dog Soldiers once again and Catharsis legally crosses the border.
Aftermath
A week or so later, Catharsis, having returned from the events of In Shadows We Hyde, finds Zenith who had been laying low, having cooked breakfast. The two runners discuss the priorities each has on a job, and how dangerous those changing on the fly could be. Catharsis also chastised Zenith about his missing eye, telling the adept that he could have fixed it at any time, and was just punishing himself for not seeing the backstab coming. Zenith was concerned, but said that he would go to a consultation if Catharsis found a gene clinic without ties to a corp that would take his genetics.
Finally, the therapist turned to the matter of Zenith's emotional availability. This conversation was only a few moments of silence before the two admitted that they had too many problems around relationships, marriage, and intimacy to ever let such a thing work before they kissed.
Rewards
(2.5x duration modifier)
50,000 nuyen
25 karma
50 CDP
For Catharsis: Optional Contact: Lord Loogie (C5/L1 Infobroker) for 5 RVP or 10 CDP
Optional Quality: I C U @ chargen price
Ascension rewards out of RVP
For Zenith: +1 chip on Amrei Veidt (for recovering Lofwyr's secrets)
Wanted (TT/TNN/Telestrian) increases by 250k, adding kidnapping and espionage to the list of crimes
Optional Quality: Memory Palace @ chargen price
Initiation discount
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Catharsis -- This... I don't even really understand how to describe this run? I was constantly feeling under pressure to prove I was good enough. Then Rogue was angling for... Something, uncertain as to what. I still have those chips, Rogue's and the one we pulled from Timmy. Almost makes me wish I was Emerged, so I could understand it better, so I could get to the bottom of this but... I'm not. I am not emerged, and maybe not good enough, maybe I am too civilian. But we got out the other side unharmed. Z and I committed a huge data heist, and I'm happy I was able to help, I'm happy I was able to reach out... Through? Rogue? to Scarlett. I wish I was able to do more to help, to give Harriot back her mother. But at least... For now, it seems like Z is becoming more normal. Him and Harriot seem to have a better relationship, he's drinking less... But on the other hand, there's guilt.
We are both married after all.
Zenith
Fuck it all.
Bad enough that the whole drek with the Telestrian brat went down like it did and I had to give him back, but I also had to tell the fraggin' paladin about the weird chip so I can't even enjoy them trying to rip themselves apart. More than that, I got this whole chip thing lingering over my head. It was bad enough when it was just Doc and I involved in that drek, but now Harriot might get involved and that's enough to set me on edge so I gotta find out who made these so I can just keep putting bullets into them until they stop moving, or resembling a metahuman.
There were some benefits of this job, but over all
Fuck it all.