Streetlight Manifesto - Watch It Crash (Part 2)
Streetlight Manifesto - Watch It Crash (Part 2) | |||||||||
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Part of Aftermath - The Ex-Neonet Story | |||||||||
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Factions Involved | |||||||||
NeoNET Taco Temple Anarchist Black Cross |
Evo Recourse Industrial | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Voxel Rabbit Yokai (Dusk) Nora Inu | |||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Two guards knocked out, James Christie dead. |
Background
The ex-NeoNET SINless were being harassed and targeted for extraction for their intellectual properties and whatever awakened potential they had. This is part of EVO's plan to swivel from 'ware to magic. NeoNET is also the dedicated fall guy for CFD, and keeping its ex-employees helpless and forgotten also serves to suppress any counter-narratives to EVO absolving itself of any blame in the matter.
Meet
Apart from their shadow-Johnson, a mysterious oracle claiming to divine the future, the team met a figurehead Johnson in Holly Jones, an ex-NeoNET HTR operator. As luck would have it, Holly won the TacoTemple monopoly, She drops to her knees and whispers a prayer begging for relief for her co-worker from Evo's assault upon learning she can have any wish granted.
"Mercy, mercy, mercy me
Praying for the death of a man I'll never meet
Though everyone will know the truth they'll still just make believe
Mercy mercy me"
This scores her enough nuyen to hire herself a runner team to address all her grievances. The runners reveal themselves, stepping out from the stunned patrons and start walking away from Taco Temple. She tells the runners about her flock of 300 SINless being targeted by another team of runners, which they had successfully chased off for now.
Run
As the ex-NeoNETers used nonlethal force, they actually incapacitated one of their attackers, and handed him over to the Anarchist Black Cross for first aid. The runners followed this trail, interrogated the runner, first learning some vague details about their target. To repay the favour to the ABC, the runners kneecapped a troublesome drug dealer, giving him a friendly reminder to sample his own merchandise and to inform his customers about its potency. Further research via Matrix and contacts produced the name of James Christie, a troll EVO executive specializing in the 'ware business. Christie was located in a secure section within an extraterritorial building belonging to EVO, guarded by professional security, with HTR very close by and free spirits watching over the location as well. So rather than start a minor war fighting through 61 floors to get to Christie, the runners opted for a social infiltration. With Voxel inserting a fake order for Recourse Industrial, the maintenance provider for the building, into the host, the team disguised themselves as ventilation technicians, some even using facial masks to hide their identites. They got through all the checkpoints without any major hitch, even though the indoor arboreum's pollen threatened to incapacitate an allergic runner. Within the secure section, two rent-a-cops escorted the runners to their fake destination, where Yokai took over and mind controlled them into bringing them straight to Christie. Fresh out of the shower, in a bathrobe, the EVO exec was very briefly surprised by the intrusion into his private quarters before being surprised by his decapitation at the hands of Rabbit. The team exfiltrated through a window, using Daedalus wingsuits, and only fortuitous winds stopped some of them from crashing straight into the next skyscraper.
Aftermath
Holly Jones got her problem Johnson dealt with, Dermatome should have much less trouble with his dealer. And James Christie is spared the headache about his future as a 'ware expert in a corp trying to swivel to the magic business. Providence got the scoop on the story, naturally.
Rewards
5 Karma, 30,000 Nuyen.
Yokai got SINner (national) and Trust Fund 4 instead of 30,000 nuyen and 5 karma
AAR
Nora Inu
Oh, boy, running with some legends. No matter how open they are, the air up here still feels thin for a leadslinger. More than a month on the haven and I've fired less shots than on some afternoons with the mongrel club of the Kenran-Kai. Waaaay less. I should focus on other talents in the long run. There was a lot of cost involved in setting up this run, but the payout made it worth it. Went almost too smoothly.
Yokai
"Your place in the future must be assured, the time line depends on it." These were the words said to be as I received my brand new UCAS citizenship and a Trust fund for me and my family. Sad it took a life to get this. I'm glad I was able to pull this off flawless and without needless bloodshed. I hope I can all unnecessary bloodshed in the future, slaying only the wicked. Reflection on life aside, there was some weird things going on in that EVO building, and that Johnson, using some faux tarot divination or something. Curious...