Difference between revisions of "A Shadowrun Based on Bullshit by Rise Against, Part 2"

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(Created page with "{{Infobox military conflict | conflict = | width = | partof = | image = | caption = | date = hasDate::2080-18-09 | gm = ha...")
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| image      =  
| image      =  
| caption    =  
| caption    =  
| date        =  [[hasDate::2080-18-09]]
| date        =  [[hasDate::2080-20-10]]
| gm          =  [[hasGM::DrBurst]]
| gm          =  [[hasGM::DrBurst]]
| place      = Seattle, the Resonance Realms
| place      = Seattle
| coordinates =  
| coordinates =  
| map_type    =  
| map_type    =  
Line 18: Line 18:
| map_label  =  
| map_label  =  
| territory  =  
| territory  =  
| result      =  Purkinje submerged, documents proving a flaw in the Governor's system were made public.
| result      =  The Potter Administration's matrix polling datavault was destroyed, and the Technocrat party suffered a loss in political clout.
| status      =  
| status      =  
| combatants_header = Factions Involved
| combatants_header = Factions Involved
| combatant1  = [[Purkinje]]
| combatant1  = [[Carbon]]<br>[[Dandy]]<br>[[Night Claws]]<br>[[Purkinje]]
| combatant2  = [[Horizon]]<br>
| combatant2  = Emerald City Security<br>
x_X_Troll_U_4_Days_X_x
Dawkins Group
| casualties1 = AESTHETIC the companion sprite disrupted, may they rest in peace
| casualties1 =  
| casualties2 = 1 heavily injured dissonant technomancer
| casualties2 = 4 Emerald City Security contractors<br>
4 Dawkins Group agents<br>
5 Shiawase Cyber-5 cyberdecks<br>
A squad of expensive security drones<br>
A Knight-Errant Dodge Charger<br>
| notes      =   
| notes      =   
| campaignbox =  
| campaignbox =  
}}
}}
==Background==
==Background==
The election of Technocrat Potter to the office of Seattle Governor was an upset for the establishment and promised use of matrix polling and analysis to increase decision-making times and extend democracy to the people. Any backlash against the administration's reactionary policies was met with criticism on the basis the policies were supported by the public.
After the events of [[A Shadowrun Based on Bullshit by Rise Against]], Horizon began using its control of the news cycle to spin the exposé of the Technocrat party's methods away from blaming the government for any negligence or wrongdoing. Disgusted (though not surprised), Purkinje gathered several close friends to strike quickly before the public lost interest.
 
Purkinje felt something about this was off and was determined to access the resonance realms for the first time in order to find data that could be used to investigate the Governor's policies.
==Meet==
==Meet==
After communing with 01 on the Neo-Tokyo grid, Purkinje contacted her infobroker [[Ashabel]] to ask for where she could find a resonance rift. In exchange for a copy of Purkinje's file on Project Pyro's Seattle integration plan, Ashabel pointed to a rift tucked away in a scarcely-used host nested within the destination host for Horizon in Menlo Park. After getting her fixer to set her up with a bed in Deireadh An Tuarthell hospital, Purkinje headed off to the host.
The four runners met at the Daze to discuss their plan of attack. The idea of a protest came up, but ultimately the group decided the best thing to do would be to demonstrate how vulnerable the Technocrat party really was to interference so their incompetence would be undeniable. This led to a daring plan: destroy the datavault that served as the nerve center for the party's political matrix infrastructure. The damage could be repaired, and the files would be recoverable, but it would send a message.
==Run==
==Run==
The host proved difficult to get into, with Purkinje spending nearly a full day trying to crack it with the help of a registered crack sprite before giving up and deciding it would be easier to scam the host's spider. This proved a much easier solution, as her experience in con artistry combined with her ability to thread Resonance Veil made it simple to pose as a new employee who hadn't been granted access to the host she wanted into.
A combination of deep matrix searches and sifting through street rumors gave the team some critical security information about the building in which the datavault was housed. They learned that the building was staffed by Emerald City Security, who were under orders to use nonlethal force against any intruders and were equipped to disable. Nonlethal did not mean the security was light, however. A series of pipes had been installed throughout the basement levels on which the target was housed and would flood the area with stun gas if intruders were detected, despite any civilian employees. Aside from this, the building was protected by state-of-the-art security devices such as cameras, motion sensors, electronic locks and a strong host to protect them. In addition to security details, the team learned that Horizon was behind most of this.


Purkinje was sucked into the resonance rift once she entered the nested host. She woke up in a medieval fantasy tavern, suddenly feeling stronger, faster and more capable than she'd ever felt before. Her sprites were with her, and together they formed an adventuring party. A nearby mysterious old man in a hooded robe told her what she was looking for was to the west in an evil wizard's tower and that she could follow up on it in a shining, great library to the east.
Figuring social infiltration against a Horizon project would both be extremely difficult and take too long to be effective, the team decided the best option would be a direct assault. They first approached the Seattle cell of Black Star, who after a negotiation agreed to draw attention away from the datavault building by causing trouble at City Hall. When they gave the signal, the team drove to the facility in the middle of the night to begin their infiltration.


The party set out west and set eyes upon a dissonant realm that appeared to be full of poison fruits and guarded by twisted abominations. They managed to sneak by the guardians and break their way into the dizzyingly tall tower, where a foul miasma of toxic hatred surrounded them. They began to search, Purkinje bolstered by a form that gave her even greater resilience in this land of death.
On the way inside, Night Claws accidentally called the police emergency number, leading the nearest Knight-Errant patrol (a K9 unit) to approach the team, who were fully dressed for open warfare. Purkinje told the officer they were participating in a security exercise with Emerald City Security, and they were pretending to be shadowrunners. The officer seemed to buy this (or at least knew his life would be in danger if he didn't), and he left. Night Claws' dog allergies acted up though, and it took some time to calm him down after seeing the officer's Ares Predator V, of which he had a phobia.


As soon as Purkinje found the file, the evil wizard of the tower appeared. His name was x_X_Troll_U_4_Days_X_x, and he embodied all the hate that had coalesced here. With a powerful cast of Dissonance Spike, he nearly brought Purkinje to her knees; just then, Purkinje's companion sprite leapt in the way and took the hit, being destroyed instantly. The fading the dissonant technomancer took from threading crippled him, and between Purkinje's hyperthreaded diffusions and buffed firewall, he was unable to mount a successful attack. Purkinje didn't learn much about him, but she quietly took note of his resonance signature before escaping with her crack sprite and the file she was after.
Carbon kept eyes out for cameras and other security devices, leading the team stealthily a side door in an alleyway. Night Claws and Purkinje assessed the security of the devices protecting this entrance and determined the electronic lock would notify security when it was disengaged, but it was not protected by the host. They squelched its communications before hacking it and forcing it to unlock. The other side of the door was protected by a motion detector that Purkinje was able to detect with her ultrasonic scanner contacts. Carbon listened very carefully and was able to hear a guard coming. When the guard approached the area, the motion detectors disabled themselves, presumably to enable the guard to patrol the area without setting off an alarm. After he turned around, the team had a brief moment to open the door and get inside before the sensor reset. They did so.


The trip to the great library was less eventful, but it was a welcome contrast to the chaos and despair of the dissonant realm. Purkinje had found the Archive, a place where all files that had been stored on the matrix were found. In exchange for providing a deep scan of the mural depicting the Night of Rage in the hospital, a sprite promised to help her search for the polling data she could cross-reference with the data from the Information Exchange Network she had pulled from the dissonant realm. It took her nine full hours, but eventually she found it.
Carbon continued to lead the team silently past the guards and cameras until they reached a locked stairwell that led to the basement levels where their target was. The devices in here were protected by the host and were not easily accessible by hand for direct connections. While Dandy provided overwatch down the corridor with his rifle, Carbon held Purkinje up to the ceiling to gain a direct connection to a wireless camera, and Night Claws touched her leg to assist her via a dual-skinlink direct connection. He then contorted himself to touch the door lock and spoof an direct connection unlock command after Purkinje looped the camera feed. Door open, the team proceeded down the stairs.


In order to leave, Purkinje returned to the bed where she had woken up in the tavern. The old man was still there and congratulated her on completing her quest. He said something about how she'd be "recompiled" one day, but he vanished before she could ask what that meant.
At the bottom of the stairwell, Dandy scouted ahead and spotted more cameras up ahead. These were pointed down the hallway in their direction, meaning any hacks to loop their feeds would have to go through the host and its prodigious firewall. The party decided it better to let Dandy shoot a looper round at the camera, allowing them to slip past. A security team heard Dandy's suppressed gunshot, however, and moved to investigate. Purkinje tried to loop their biomonitor feeds so they could be taken out quietly, but she failed, setting off an alert and getting marked by the facility's spider. She fried the spider's cyberdeck near-instantly in response, but their cover was blown. Dandy and Carbon went loud, slaughtering the security team with a combination of lightning-fast swordplay and expertly-placed sniper rounds. Four more squads were inbound, including a combat drone squad with screech rifles, four more deckers running Shiawase Cyber-5s, and over a dozen more armed security personnel.
 
The gas was released, but the team had prepared with chemsealed armor. As Dandy and Carbon went to work opening the vault in which the target hardware was housed, Night Claws compiled a fault sprite and began bolstering the team's defenses while Purkinje drew the deckers' attention. The deckers failed to penetrate Purkinje's firewall, harming their decks severely in the attempt. She and Night Claws' fault sprites bricked all of the decks and the rigger command console within three seconds before destroying the unprotected drones. In terrifying fashion, Carbon pulled out a crowbar and ripped the vault door open while Dandy stood by. Among the dataslaves inside were four disguised Dawkins agents, however, and one of them successfully used mind magic to cause Carbon to believe she was supposed to protect the building. Dandy didn't realize what had happened, however, and tossed a gas grenade inside the vault. The Dawkins agents ran outside to escape it and pursue him, leaving Carbon confused in front of the vault door with little time to react. She managed to shake off the spell, however, and together with Dandy slaughtered the Dawkins agents just as the last of the drones upstairs were fried. The team destroyed and vandalized the datavault once all the dataslaves were clear of it, making sure to take good pictures. They were able to escape the building up a different stairwell before backup arrived on-scene.
 
Outside, they piled into Dandy's pickup and drove away at top speed. Knight-Errant was called and sent several Dodge Chargers and a helicopter to chase the team down. Carbon destroyed the lead car's engine block with an Ares Thunderstruck while Dandy found a parking garage to pull into to escape the chopper's overwatch. Unfortunately, the garage happened to be owned by the Italian mafia. After a tense negotiation with the capo, the team agreed to pay 4,000¥ in exchange for not getting into a firefight on a crime syndicate's turf and possibly drawing KE's attention. They left via a service entrance that led into the Underground.
==Aftermath==
==Aftermath==
Purkinje edited a highlight reel of the run that would excise identifying information while explaining that technomancers were not inherently evil, but special people who could do great things for the world locked in a never-ending battle with the powers of dissonance. She attached the polling data and Information Exchange Network files and leaked the full file on popular matrix message boards so it couldn't be traced back to her. The files had secret information hidden for technomancers, directing them to NCL.
Further emphasizing the impact of what happened, Carbon and Purkinje gathered the members of Derelict Hardware to record a song critical of social credit systems and the concept of technocracy. It topped the charts in the Seattle sprawl, serving as a rallying cry against the Potter Administration. The true extent of the damage is difficult to assess, but neo-anarchists and enemy politicians alike joined in on the media circus. Horizon will have to act through shell companies in its future efforts. Only time will tell what happens to the political situation in Seattle.
==Rewards==
==Rewards==
15 karma
==AAR==
=== Purkinje's Report ===
I finally made my way into the resonance realms, and it was more than I could have ever dreamed. It wasn't exactly like the Root or Façadebook I had theorized, but there was a land of dissonance that held all manner of toxic files shared on social media, and another where I felt such peace surrounded by the countless files that were there. The Archive.
My infobroker was nicer than I expected. She's always intimidated me, being so well-connected in the community and all. She pointed me to a resonance rift in a Horizon host that had been built on the architecture of old Facebook. Apparently time works differently there, so she advised me to get an IV. Briar was able to set me up with a hospital bed, and he wasn't too horny about it thankfully. The place was decrepit and understaffed. I can see those donations I made weren't nearly enough. Still though, it was a low-key place to keep my meat body while I was out.


The host Ashabel sent me to was an utter pain in the ass that I spent a whole day bashing my head against. That was my fault though, I should've played it smarter. It turns out spiders are not immune to my charms, and I fooled one into thinking I was an employee looking to get into the history host under the regional destination host. A little form to cover it up and bam, he was none the wiser.
* 70 Karma


Once I got in, everything changed. I was superhuman there. I was strong and fast, and I could cast magic spells. I had an intuitive understanding of so many things. I snuck past guards, picked locks - it was amazing! That dissonant realm was something else, though. I could feel the evil and hatred in the air assaulting my body with every racial slur and hateful shout. But when I fought that dissonant? I was so powerful! I... I lost AESTHETIC, though. They jumped in the way of a big spike so I wouldn't get hurt. I know they're not dead, but... I kinda miss the smug little bastard. The Archive was totally different. Completely opposite. I felt like I could spend a lifetime there, but I had to get the file I was looking for and go.
==Player After-Action Reports==


I still don't know the implications of what I released to the public. I hope people get angry. Me, though? I just wanna go back to the resonance. I thought it would bring me peace, but this world feels more fake than ever. Gotta turn that hate outward though, find somewhere good to channel it.
<br />

Revision as of 23:12, 21 October 2019

A Shadowrun Based on Bullshit by Rise Against, Part 2
Date2080-20-10
GMDrBurst
LocationSeattle
Result The Potter Administration's matrix polling datavault was destroyed, and the Technocrat party suffered a loss in political clout.
Factions Involved
Carbon
Dandy
Night Claws
Purkinje

Emerald City Security

Dawkins Group
Casualties and losses

4 Emerald City Security contractors
4 Dawkins Group agents
5 Shiawase Cyber-5 cyberdecks
A squad of expensive security drones

A Knight-Errant Dodge Charger

Background

After the events of A Shadowrun Based on Bullshit by Rise Against, Horizon began using its control of the news cycle to spin the exposé of the Technocrat party's methods away from blaming the government for any negligence or wrongdoing. Disgusted (though not surprised), Purkinje gathered several close friends to strike quickly before the public lost interest.

Meet

The four runners met at the Daze to discuss their plan of attack. The idea of a protest came up, but ultimately the group decided the best thing to do would be to demonstrate how vulnerable the Technocrat party really was to interference so their incompetence would be undeniable. This led to a daring plan: destroy the datavault that served as the nerve center for the party's political matrix infrastructure. The damage could be repaired, and the files would be recoverable, but it would send a message.

Run

A combination of deep matrix searches and sifting through street rumors gave the team some critical security information about the building in which the datavault was housed. They learned that the building was staffed by Emerald City Security, who were under orders to use nonlethal force against any intruders and were equipped to disable. Nonlethal did not mean the security was light, however. A series of pipes had been installed throughout the basement levels on which the target was housed and would flood the area with stun gas if intruders were detected, despite any civilian employees. Aside from this, the building was protected by state-of-the-art security devices such as cameras, motion sensors, electronic locks and a strong host to protect them. In addition to security details, the team learned that Horizon was behind most of this.

Figuring social infiltration against a Horizon project would both be extremely difficult and take too long to be effective, the team decided the best option would be a direct assault. They first approached the Seattle cell of Black Star, who after a negotiation agreed to draw attention away from the datavault building by causing trouble at City Hall. When they gave the signal, the team drove to the facility in the middle of the night to begin their infiltration.

On the way inside, Night Claws accidentally called the police emergency number, leading the nearest Knight-Errant patrol (a K9 unit) to approach the team, who were fully dressed for open warfare. Purkinje told the officer they were participating in a security exercise with Emerald City Security, and they were pretending to be shadowrunners. The officer seemed to buy this (or at least knew his life would be in danger if he didn't), and he left. Night Claws' dog allergies acted up though, and it took some time to calm him down after seeing the officer's Ares Predator V, of which he had a phobia.

Carbon kept eyes out for cameras and other security devices, leading the team stealthily a side door in an alleyway. Night Claws and Purkinje assessed the security of the devices protecting this entrance and determined the electronic lock would notify security when it was disengaged, but it was not protected by the host. They squelched its communications before hacking it and forcing it to unlock. The other side of the door was protected by a motion detector that Purkinje was able to detect with her ultrasonic scanner contacts. Carbon listened very carefully and was able to hear a guard coming. When the guard approached the area, the motion detectors disabled themselves, presumably to enable the guard to patrol the area without setting off an alarm. After he turned around, the team had a brief moment to open the door and get inside before the sensor reset. They did so.

Carbon continued to lead the team silently past the guards and cameras until they reached a locked stairwell that led to the basement levels where their target was. The devices in here were protected by the host and were not easily accessible by hand for direct connections. While Dandy provided overwatch down the corridor with his rifle, Carbon held Purkinje up to the ceiling to gain a direct connection to a wireless camera, and Night Claws touched her leg to assist her via a dual-skinlink direct connection. He then contorted himself to touch the door lock and spoof an direct connection unlock command after Purkinje looped the camera feed. Door open, the team proceeded down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairwell, Dandy scouted ahead and spotted more cameras up ahead. These were pointed down the hallway in their direction, meaning any hacks to loop their feeds would have to go through the host and its prodigious firewall. The party decided it better to let Dandy shoot a looper round at the camera, allowing them to slip past. A security team heard Dandy's suppressed gunshot, however, and moved to investigate. Purkinje tried to loop their biomonitor feeds so they could be taken out quietly, but she failed, setting off an alert and getting marked by the facility's spider. She fried the spider's cyberdeck near-instantly in response, but their cover was blown. Dandy and Carbon went loud, slaughtering the security team with a combination of lightning-fast swordplay and expertly-placed sniper rounds. Four more squads were inbound, including a combat drone squad with screech rifles, four more deckers running Shiawase Cyber-5s, and over a dozen more armed security personnel.

The gas was released, but the team had prepared with chemsealed armor. As Dandy and Carbon went to work opening the vault in which the target hardware was housed, Night Claws compiled a fault sprite and began bolstering the team's defenses while Purkinje drew the deckers' attention. The deckers failed to penetrate Purkinje's firewall, harming their decks severely in the attempt. She and Night Claws' fault sprites bricked all of the decks and the rigger command console within three seconds before destroying the unprotected drones. In terrifying fashion, Carbon pulled out a crowbar and ripped the vault door open while Dandy stood by. Among the dataslaves inside were four disguised Dawkins agents, however, and one of them successfully used mind magic to cause Carbon to believe she was supposed to protect the building. Dandy didn't realize what had happened, however, and tossed a gas grenade inside the vault. The Dawkins agents ran outside to escape it and pursue him, leaving Carbon confused in front of the vault door with little time to react. She managed to shake off the spell, however, and together with Dandy slaughtered the Dawkins agents just as the last of the drones upstairs were fried. The team destroyed and vandalized the datavault once all the dataslaves were clear of it, making sure to take good pictures. They were able to escape the building up a different stairwell before backup arrived on-scene.

Outside, they piled into Dandy's pickup and drove away at top speed. Knight-Errant was called and sent several Dodge Chargers and a helicopter to chase the team down. Carbon destroyed the lead car's engine block with an Ares Thunderstruck while Dandy found a parking garage to pull into to escape the chopper's overwatch. Unfortunately, the garage happened to be owned by the Italian mafia. After a tense negotiation with the capo, the team agreed to pay 4,000¥ in exchange for not getting into a firefight on a crime syndicate's turf and possibly drawing KE's attention. They left via a service entrance that led into the Underground.

Aftermath

Further emphasizing the impact of what happened, Carbon and Purkinje gathered the members of Derelict Hardware to record a song critical of social credit systems and the concept of technocracy. It topped the charts in the Seattle sprawl, serving as a rallying cry against the Potter Administration. The true extent of the damage is difficult to assess, but neo-anarchists and enemy politicians alike joined in on the media circus. Horizon will have to act through shell companies in its future efforts. Only time will tell what happens to the political situation in Seattle.

Rewards

  • 70 Karma

Player After-Action Reports