Massacre in the West Texas Town of El Paso
| Massacre in the West Texas Town of El Paso | |||||||||
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| Part of Blood in the Machine | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Charity Horace Mistah Jay | Aztechnology | ||||||||
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Farsight Itztli KBC Rabbit Relay |
Andres Gutierrez Orsen Cordova Leopard Guard | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| One of Relay's drones! | Six leopard guard. One blood spirit. | ||||||||
Summary
Charity Horace hired the runners to try to learn more about the past of a man recently captured by another team. Orsen Cordova. Charity knew that he had spent time in El Paso, and a ceremonial obsidian knife found by the other team had suggested - on psychic reading by Doris that it had been used to kill at least one person in El Paso.
The runners accepted the job, and discovered a great deal of Cordova's history, primarily by rescuing a reporter with key research, and getting evidence from the place where Cordova had stayed in El Paso, where he committed a terrible massacre at a church. However, they were left with as many questions as answers. There is certainly more yet to explore!
Background
Itztli had been on two related runs; see this report and this report. In summary, there were a series of kidnappings in Redmond traced back to two men. Both were infected with CFD. The first one found, Andres Gutierrez, was also a blood magician, and Stuffer Shack regional manager. The second one found, Orsen Cordova, was a decker. Andres expected Orsen to help him, when he was captured. Orsen appeared to be trying to complete the blood ritual when caught, despite being a decker. The ritual involved body parts and a cave with Aztech relics in the wall. Also a machine that seemed to be screaming, or possibly playing a recording of someone screaming.
Anders had come to Seattle from Los Angeles. This appeared to be a decision made by the AI riding him, while he was in blackout. Orsen had come to Seattle from El Paso. Again, this seemed to be a decision by the nanites over-writing his personality.
It is unusual for a mage (like Anders) to have CFD, as it is contracted from infected cyber, but he was a type 1 diabetic and had an insulin pump. This device had infected him. It was unclear what had infected Orsen.
Charity is attempting to help the two men get access to a cure, but their personalities are very far gone. All that seemed possible to learn from talking to them had likely already been learned.
The Meet
Itztli and Charity helped explain the background during the meet. Charity's husband was reluctant for them to pursue this matter out-of-nation, but she could not let it go. She paid the runners upfront and offered to cover travel expenses also. She also gave them access to a room in the building where her apartment is located, for planning purposes. It was a somewhat open-ended job. What threads would they pull on? How would they know when they had learned 'enough'?
The Plan
The runners planned the trip logistics, with Relay and Farsight bringing vans. Both had smuggling compartments. Everyone had SINs sufficient to crossing national borders, but they still focused on choosing a route that would minimize the border crossings.
On the way, KBC would do a series of matrix searches to try to help them narrow down their options for research.
And Farsight would study the ceremonial dagger for psychic impressions.
Relay focused on driving his vehicle, and Farsight's when he needed coverage to focus on the magical study.
Itztli and Rabbit made sure they had all the supplies they would need. Rabbit packed demolitions supplies, which KBC thought was an excellent idea.
KBC's initial matrix searching confirmed that Orsen had been in El Paso one year ago. He had left for Seattle sometime between six months ago, and the present. He had also grown up in El Paso prior to that, but there was a gap. He had no siblings. His parents died in the Dragon attack; he did not return for the funeral. There was no obvious sign of personality change before the gap in the timeline. Friends of the family were concerned that he didn't return for the funeral. There was on-going concern about his alcoholism. It seemed that he had been born an otaku, prior to the 2nd crash. But not made the transition to technomancer. There were occasional records of traveling, mercenary, runner style work in the gap. Of particular note, after he returned to El Paso, there was one major news story - a horrific massacre at the Two Pines church. Six people dead, including the bride, groom, maid of honor, best man, and the bride's mother. Others fled. The church seemed a key place to investigate. She obtained pictures of Orsen at various ages.
An idea for future investigation was where Gutierrez got his insulin pump. Could they confirm any commonality between the two stories? This was never determined.
Farsight's investigation of the obsidian dagger's psychic history confirmed - and permitted him to experience - several uses of the dagger. The last three were in Seattle, and the dagger wielded by Gutierrez, as Charity had thought. Then there was a flash of the dagger being used by Orsen Cordova. There were other users and victims, going back to the Spanish conquest. Of note, Farsight saw that at least one victim returned as an attacker, after having the dagger stabbed into their heart. Was there some aspect of this that allowed people to return from death? A question for blood magic experts, perhaps. That remains unsolved. Gutierrez only appeared in the role of the attacker, stabbing someone.
The team also reviewed basic information about CFD. It is transmitted via infected ware. To cure a person with it, there are four steps. First, you must convince the AI to depart them. That's hard. The most common route is to force the xenosapient AI mind to experience the worst parts of being human - starvation, exhaustion, torture, high emotion. Then, a technomancer does some techno-magic. Then, there is a medical process to scrub the nanites. Then, the person's body and personality can recover, but may not, depending on force of will.
They would have to continue to plan as they learned more in El Paso.
The Run
The journey to El Paso was pleasant. They stopped and stayed in hotels along with way, and made a point of seeing the Grand Coulee Dam in Las Vegas.
When they arrived in El Paso, they secured a posh penthouse hotel suite. Some of them had never been in a posh penthouse suite before! It was very nice.
In the morning, they headed to the church. Farsight disguise himself as a southerner, with a cowboy hat and a synthskin mask, with help from KBC. He introduced himself to the woman present at the church as a detective investigating the old massacre. The woman was very reluctant to speak of it, but they eventually convinced her. They learned some interesting details from her, including that the bride was pregnant. There were persistent rumors that the bride haunted the church. She also commented that others had asked lots of questions after the event. Law enforcement (then Lonestar), but also men in the livery of the leopard guard. After that, it was all hushed up very quickly. No killer had been found. The knife was lost from police custody. She confirmed to KBC that there was only one major journalism outlet in town - the El Paso Times. At least one reporter had asked questions about it. Tourists came frequently now, wanting the gory details.
Farsight positioned himself where the bride had been standing, and studied the psychic impressions. He was able to relive the murder from the bride's perspective. He confirmed that it had been Orsen Cordova who came in and stabbed her (and the others.) He was quite shaken by the experience.
Relay confirmed with his flyspy that there was nothing else to find at the church.
KBC did some matrix searching to determine if any family members were still in town. None were. But she could see that the journalist who was mentioned over and over again on the matrix in connection with news stories about the massacre was still in town. She got his contact information.
Farsight called the reporter. The man was insistent that he could not speak about the case. Unnaturally resistant. Perhaps paid off or threatened? KBC tracked his commcode to the Soybucks across from the newspaper building. Relay drove Rabbit and Itztli] to convince him. By which they meant 'black bag' him. While Farsight was still on the phone with the reporter, Rabbit slid across from him at the table. She had a gun concealed inside her long coat and threatened him with it, making it clear that he needed to walk out with her right now. The reporter hung up on Farsight. He looked absolutely terrified, and allowed Rabbit to guide him out to the van, gun at his back. They were off. KBC helped them search a cheap motel to rent a room for an interrogation. It became clear the reported had been being watched. KBC found a stealth tag on him, and Relay sensed a following vehicle. Relay was able to evade the following vehicle, but the runners decided this was an opportunity to potentially learn more about the folks who were behind the plot. Whoever was following the reporter, must know more about Orsen Cordova.
The runners intentionally left the stealth tag active, and focused on the important business of ordering tacos for the group. They arrived at the hotel and got into defensive position. The reporter, Relay, KBC, and Farsight were holed up in the bathroom, with the reporter hiding in the bathtub. Rabbit and Itztli waited in the main room, with Relay's drone and Itztli's spirit. What would arrive first? The tacos, or the opfor?
It was the opfor. Six leopard guards. Relay's flyspy in the parking lot confirmed as they got out of the vehicle that they had the tacos and the taco delivery man inside their van!
An epic battle began.