A Shadowrun Based on Stick and Poke's Running
| A Shadowrun Based on Stick and Poke's Running | |||||||||
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| Part of Dance Around The Fire That We Once Believed - The Ex-Firewatch Story | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven "Dandy" Dale Hardin Nora Inu Scrabble Slink |
Ares Macrotechnology Insect Spirits | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| N/A | The extraction target | ||||||||
Summary
The ShadowHaven team euthanized their extraction target after convincing the Johnson that the target had already been irreversibly possessed by an insect spirit.
Background
Waspkeeper was recently on a run inside an Ares building that went a little south and her team had to blow a hole in the building to make their escape. On their way out, she saw an old friend from when she worked in Ares. She didn't have a chance to bring him along with her escape, so she wants to hire a team to extract him.
The Meet
The Johnson is Waspkeeper, a fellow shadowrunner who used to be part of Ares Macrotechnology's Firewatch and now wants to extract a friend she recently saw inside an Ares building in Downtown Seattle while one a run of her own. The meet occurs in a dingy bar in Touristville where she is holed up in between her own runs.
The Run
Legwork
Scrabble starts looking in the local Ares host for employee records on the extraction target, but the nested data host was too tough and Scrabble decided discretion was the better part of valor. At Nora Inu's suggestion, Scrabble hacks into the target's P2.1 profile and is able to make a complete copy before getting into too much trouble.
After going through all the data in the profile, the team finds the following:
- The technician appeared to live as a perfectly normal employee and human being until about six months ago.
- According to some private messages, the technician was selected for a special two-week training in Ares' Detroit headquarters.
- Immediately upon his return from that training, his activity drastically changed. For the past six months, his posts became less frequent, sounded stilted and sanitized, and seemed to focus mostly on expressing unity and loyalty to a higher organization.
- There is a personal commlink attached to the profile, and that commlink appears to still be active.
Scrabble was able to trace the commlink back to the building from Waspkeeper's earlier run and the team decided to head Downtown for a closer look.
Downtown
Dandy, Nora Inu, and Slink decide to street race each other just to see who can get to the hole-y Ares building first. They quickly attract Knight Errant's attention, though each managed to break away from the pursuit. Some just had more trouble doing so than other (DANDY!). Scrabble putt-putted along a little later, as he arranged for some burner SINs along the way (for Slink and himself).
The Ares building still has a huge gaping hole from Waspkeeper's earlier run and both the building and the surrounding grounds are literally swarming with armed Ares personnel while the hole is being patched. The trace on the commlink places the technician inside the building and Dandy is able to spot the technician literally standing in the gaping hole of the building as a guard. Scrabble gets out his big camera as the team discusses whether this will be a willing extraction or not and Nora Inu looks into the Astral to check on magical defenses, but she sees something really, really bad. The technician has been fully possessed by an insect spirit and is now a True Form spirit, meaning whoever the technician used to be is already dead.
Waspkeeper is called and presented with the team's current information, then reluctantly allows the team to switch the extraction mission to an assassination in order to allow the technician to rest in peace. There will be a reduction in pay if he is killed and the team cannot recover the body, but she allows the team to judge the risk for that. The team decides to go with a long-range sniper bullet and all vehicles except for Dandy's pickup are sent off-site.
- Dandy will take the shot from the back of his pickup.
- Scrabble will record the mission from the back of the pickup.
- Nora Inu will drive the pickup to escape after Dandy takes the shot.
- Slink is the lookout for security and pursuers.
The Shot
One shot, one kill. Dandy did his forefathers proud and sent the technician to his final rest, though he weirdly seemed to know the shot was coming and just couldn't get out of the way. Nora Inu was able to get the team out so clean that there was no pursuit and Scrabble was able to record everything.
Aftermath
The extraction target may now enjoy their final rest (with the blessings of Waspkeeper), the team managed to get away without incident, and whatever hive that infested Ares lost the skills of a carefully selected technician.
Oh, and Scrabble has a lot of data regarding the life, possession and death of an Ares employee to be collated and disseminated.
Rewards
- 8 karma
- 10,500 nuyen
- +1 reputation with Ex-Firewatch
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
- Dandy -
- Nora Inu -
- Scrabble -
- Slink -