Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father
Part of Cross Flight Love Fight
Date 2082-02-05 GM OrionsRequiem Location Fort Lewis, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Federated Boeing Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III	Cross Applied Technologies
Relay Ca1yps0 Brumudar Tahki	CATco Corpsec x4 CATco CorpSec Spider CATco Corpsec Mage Cecelia Cross

Summary

Runners are hired by Fed-Bo in order to reclaim some property that was stolen from them some days before.

Background

Last week, using the malicious code that Babylon snuck onto Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III's commlink, Cecelia Cross was able to track his movements, including to an experimental test facility where Fed-Bo was testing the Manaverse engine. A collaboration between Federated Boeing, Aztechnology and Renraku Computer Systems to create an engine that can convert untapped mana into propulsion. Seeing potential in the engine, Cecelia sent a team of Cross Corpsec to steal the engine and bring it back to a facility in Fort Lewis.

The Meet

Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson II, having decided that his son couldn't be trusted to get the Manaverse engine back, hires runners himself. Relay, Ca1yps0, Tahki, and Brumudar are contacted by their fixers and told to arrive at Airport Road at 9 PM. The runners all arrive and are greeted by a slick black limo which they get inside. In the car is Brodie J, his father, and his two bodyguards, Ork razorfolk named Tee and Vee. Mr. Johnson II explains that due to Brodie J's repeated fuckups, an experimental engine has been stolen by Cross Applied Technologies and hidden away at a former CATco facility in Fort Lewis. He offers 14k initially, lowballing the value of the runners and the engine. Due to negotiations with Ca1yps0 however, he says that he will provide an additional 4k if the runners do the job smoothly and do not bring the heat back on Federated Boeing. The team agrees to the terms of the job and Mr. Johnson II gives them one more tool. An Ares Venture VTOL in order to carry the engine back to the private landing strip at the Seattle Airport.

The Plan

The team returns to Relay's home base and begin to plan the heist. Relay sends a small drone to scout out the warehouse, and finds there are two patrols, one meat guard and one drone each. They also see a limo pull into the facility around 12 AM, emerging from the limo is Cecelia Cross and her bodyguard, there to inspect the Manaverse engine. Brumudar goes to the Taco Temple across the street from the facility and scouts out the location, finding that the guards change at 3 AM, and seeing Cross' limo leave at 5 AM after the facility is bathed in neon-blue light from the inside around 4 PM.

Tahki does an astral fly-by of the facility, seeing a Force 4 mana barrier and two bound Force 4 Air Spirits that share an astral signature. She doesn't attempt to move into the facility itself, but is able to summon additional spirits in order to combat the spirits that are watching the facility.

Ca1yps0 dives into the Matrix from a No-Tell Motel and enters the Host of the facility. Inside she sees a Spider, wearing the persona of the biblical flaming wheel, and while looking at the files on the Host, finds several are touched with a Resonance signature. As she attempts to get a hold of the Manaverse Engine file, Ca1yps0 is spotted by the Spider and combat ensues. Ca1yps0 cleverly uses her sprites to distract the IC that the host sends out, though the Spider is focused on the intruder, link-locking the technomancer and marking her. Though Ca1yps0 makes an valiant attempt at getting out of the host, she is stopped by the Spider and is traced before finally being able to Jack Out of the Matrix and suffering some dumpshock as the team retreats from the motel before the security forces can converge on them.

The Run

After spending three days recovering from the legwork, the team springs into action. Tahki and Brum infiltrate the perimeter with Improved Invisibility and Levitation, which allows them to touch down and avoid the patrols by entering through the industrial ventilation shaft in the back of the building. One of Relay's drones accompanies the group while another hovers above the facility in case the Air spirits manifest. The group enters the facility and after incapacitating the mage in a surprise attack, makes short work of the security forces guarding the facility while Ca1yps0, jacked into the VTOL, arrives just in time to load up the Manaverse engine. Thanks in part to her technomancer powers, they are able to avoid anyone following their flight and arrive back at the airport with the engine intact.

Aftermath

Returning the Ares Venture to Mr. Johnson II, the group is paid their agreed 18k nuyen and depart, Brodie J sending his commcode to each of the runners, as he wants to be friends with everybody. The Manaverse Engine was then returned to a more secure Federated Boeing facility, and the commlinks of everyone involved in the project were thoroughly searched and wiped so that this would not happen again.

Rewards

• 2 CDP
• 18000 Nuyen (9 RVP)
• 3 Karma (3 RVP)
• An Optional Contact for Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III at 3/3 (5 RVP from rewards)

Game Quotes

Dad! You're embarrassing me in front of the Shadow dudes! -Brodie J

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Tahki

Not one to blow my own horn, but... well yes I guess I am as I continue to amaze myself. Sure, I may not be the strongest combat mage out there, but I've got some doozies for support. I can make an infiltration almost effortless with my powers of illusion, and the aid of my Chauncey's is always appreciated. One day I may branch out into combat magic, but for now, I'm a solid support mage, welcome in most teams. Let the others take down the opposition, I will ensure that they get into position without any muss or fuss.

Brumudar

We were tasked with recovering a experimental engine. I'm rather pleased with the effort put into this run on part of the team with the scouting and gathering of information, dives into both the tech and mystical hoodoo, I didn't understand as it was no where in my wheelhouse. I spent some time in a nearby taco temple to put eyes on the ground and discovered when the guard change happened and when the lease amount of people would be there. After some 'trix complications we were able to derive a solid plan to get two of us onto the premises and start chaos we dropped the mage and went from there. Everything was over pretty fast and went pretty smoothly. We were able to get the engine rolled out and loaded onto the VTOL dusted our tracks and got out. Good to be back doing what I know how to do.

Relay

Both matrix and traditional scouting plus a strong infiltration team made this run a success. It's always problematic to load out a drone's weapon between ammo types. You don't want to kill anyone you don't have to, but you also want to make sure you can bring down any drone or turret firing at your squad. It's often a balance between the lives of your team and the lives of the opposition. Given our means of extraction, it was beneficial to have more than one person capable of flying planes and drones, but there was some definite friction about how to approach. In the end, our approach was fast, hard, and non-lethal. All good things.

I'm now certain this engine was stolen because of Babylon's...side job...during a previous run. No skin off my nose. I'm not sure who's the worse person to have such a ridiculous device, but at least I ended up getting paid twice over the situation.

Ca1yps0

Manaverse engine. What a strange concept, and even stranger that someone like "Brody J" managed to make it work. To think Cross Applied Technologies of all people were the ones to steal it too - I thought they were old news after the Crash, but I guess they're still alive and kicking. I was pretty nervous about the prospect of going up against "former" Seraphim, but thankfully we managed to time it right and avoid the worst of their security (though whoever that spider was really knew his stuff). The rest of the team did most of the heavy lifting here, actually recovering the engine - Tahki was good with illusions and got her and Brumudar (who seems like a capable operative) inside unseen, along with one of Relay's drones. He seems like a nice guy, plus he let me fly the VTOL, so no complaints.

Got a pretty concerning message after though, same signature that I spotted in the host - sparkles, from what I'm certain is a courier sprite. Apparently I'm on someone's list now, which can't be good. Gonna have to do a bit more digging there just to cover my ass...