Matte Kudasai
| Matte Kudasai | |||||||||
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| Part of Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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Fletchette Howler Kani Night Claws - John Holis Queen Stormcrow | Mitsuhama Computer Technologies | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Kani, but she got better | 4 MCT Zero-Zone Veterans | ||||||||
Background
The race to recover the Five Technomancers from the file recovered in Mirage Island was reaching its breaking point. The Red Children had Shadowhaven runners find Monique Gray in Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?, and Purkinje had wiped her own name off the list in Some (Wo)Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn. Three names remained, and Scarlet's prophecy from In the Court of the Crimson King hung over the heads of those who cared to save them: The Tiger will make its move soon. The dragon crouches in the shadows. KillSec approached Shadowhaven with a new job offer: destroy an emergent tech prototype they were after, which according to their data was in the same facility as one of the three remaining technomancers: Tanaka Mariko.
Meet
In a mysterious Emerald City host shaped like a glossy, black cube and full of floating Platonic solids, the group met with KillSec contact RM-RF. Stormcrow helped Queen resist her decaying dissonance so as not to cause a scene inside the host. RM-RF cut to the chase. KillSec had been monitoring drone traffic in Vancouver, where they caught wind of Mariko's abduction in the process of searching for details on something called Project Daedalus. RM-RF wanted the group to locate and destroy the Project Daedalus prototype. They added that they would not mind if Mariko were extracted as well. This information was given as a peace offering to Night Claws, who had had a less-than-pleasant interaction with the group before. Queen tried to negotiate for better pay, but RM-RF argued back the information about Mariko was worth quite a bit in addition to their pay and the expenses KillSec would pay to have the team smuggled into Vancouver and back. RM-RF also provided a trid file with location data in Vancouver. The recording went as follows:
A Japanese elf woman adjusts the camera before forcing a smile. "Konnichiwa! Got your message about our mutual business rivals, and uh..." She trails off here and looks around before continuing. "I seem to have found myself in a bit of trouble! No that sounds desperate, edit that out in post. I could use your help with a little thing! You see, some friends of mine-" She is cut off by what sounds like pounding on a nearby door.
"Anyway, gotta go! See you soon!"
Run
The team went to a dock on the west side of town, where they were loaded into a small cargo ship that sailed through the Puget Sound and made its way into Vancouver by night. Once there, the team was given the location of a safehouse, and the location of Mariko's home address. They could also clearly see the prominent MCT skyraker downtown, looming large on the skyline like a scar. They decided to check out the scene of the abduction first. Kani was able to break into the antiquated mechanical locks, and enter Mariko's apartment. Inside was the scene of a struggle, where Night Claws found an inconspicuous datachip left in the debris. The datachip had the trid recording from the meet, as well as a watermark of a winking emoji. Stormcrow began tracking to see what happened, finding a forced window and broken fire escape leading down into a parking lot where two heavy people dragged a light person standing through a puddle of mud two days ago. They got into a van and left. Stormcrow, Queen and Howler used their drones to follow the trail, which went down a series of streets before pausing in a downtown alleyway, switching cars, and continuing to the MCT skyraker.
Searching the matrix, Queen was able to find information about the MCT skyraker's defenses. All the walls of the interior were covered with IR-reflective paint, and there were cameras that could see thermal positioned such that they could easily see around corners this way. Surveillance coverage was extremely redundant, in the infrared spectrum. The contractors behind the building's astral security had put a Force 8 astral mana barrier in place over the building, which would prove a problem for the dual-natured Kani. The security staff had also been training barghests, which had the potential to frighten Night Claws in addition to being dual-natured killing machines. On top of all that, high-threat security staff had been brought in for a few days until Mariko was "processed." Time was of the essence if Mariko was to be recovered alive and well. The team bought thermal damping modifications for their armor and prepared to go inside.
Aftermath
Rewards
- 16,000¥
- 8 Karma
Player After-Action Reports