Three Packs a Day

Three Packs a Day
Date 2082-06-02 GM OrionsRequiem Location Downtown Seattle Status Threat Level: Low
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III Cecelia Cross	The Robot Vet
Barracuda Trashcan Pete Crane Milliam	David Breeder One Confused Receptionist
Casualties and losses
	One Beloved Doberman Drone

Summary

The runners steal a man's beloved pet cyberdog to get Brodie J a pet that even he can't manage to kill.

Background

Cecelia Cross coerced Brodie J into desiring a specific pet Doberman drone - namely, one that was currently inhabited by a Machine Sprite she believed to be carrying information regarding an exploit in one of Federated Boeing's newest projects.

The Meet

As usual with any run involving Brodie J, the runners showed up at E-Vue the night of the meet, and were greeted with a line stretching clear around the block. Vee-Jay, the red-skinned troll bouncer, was adamant about not letting them through - Milliam and Crane took that at face value and moved to the back of the line, while Trashcan Pete loudly bitched about how this wouldn't have happened back in his day, and Barracuda started an argument slash debate about the nature of criminality in society.

Before long, Tee and Vee, Brodie J's bodyguards, came to collect the runners and bring them to a private table in the back of the club. There, they found Brodie J himself, and after a celebrational deepweed blunt or two and watching the playboy take two lines of Pixie Dust in a row, they managed to wring the actual information out of him. Apparently, he'd been recently infatuated with the idea of getting another pet (namely a dog to go along with a lion), but figured he'd start with just a nigh-on indestructible robot dog instead of the genuine article. Directing the squad to the Robot Vet, a store in Downtown specializing in pet Doberman drones and their maintenance, he offered a full twelve grand for retrieving a imposter pooch of his very own. But only on one condition: That it was specifically the dog owned by David Breeder, one of his employees. After a bit of additional discussion and assurance that they could also take part of their payment out of Brodie J's infinite vault of drugs, the runners agreed to the job.

The Plan

They quickly ran into a problem after that point. Namely, while Trashcan Pete for whatever reason had a Thundercloud Morgan to transport the team despite being an old hobo, they were looking at a job in the middle of Downtown. Going loud wouldn't be an option unless they wanted to smash, grab, and subsequently get stomped by the pawns in the area. Issue was, none of them were Matrix specialists; the closest thing they had was Barracuda, who vaguely knew how to work his commlink without it detonating in his hand.

A number of more Matrix-savvy folks were quickly called upon to lend a hand, leading to some information on David Breeder: Namely, that his mechanical mutt, Sprocket, was damn near the man's entire life. Meanwhile, faced with either success or going home empty-handed afterwards, Barracuda bit the bullet while the rest of the crew called upon some of their contacts to learn more about the location. He put in a call to one of his exes, a decker named Jack-In that he met back during his days with the Headsmen. After narrowly avoiding catching a data spike to the face for calling after a messy breakup, Barracuda offered the hacker a clean two grand to help on the job, and secured the necessary Matrix support.

After further recon from the rest of the team, including a quick Astral jaunt from Trashcan Pete to check the place out in terms of magical defenses (of which it had a beast spirit guarding the Doberman maintenance racks), a plan was formulated: Get into the system with an appointment at 9:30 AM the next day to pick up Sprocket "on David's behalf", grab the dog with a clean social infiltration, and be out, five minutes top to bottom. As a backup, Milliam sat on standby, ready to pull some Mission Impossible drek just in case something went wrong and the team had to scrub Plan A.

The Run

After getting Jack-In to lend a hand one more time and change the appointment file, the team got a good night's sleep and gathered the next day to put the plan in action. Pulling up a block from the Robot Vet in Pete's car, they went over the setup one more time (in the process convincing Milliam not to tag along for the social bit), and Barracuda went in with his nicest suit and a bit of pheromone cologne to seal the deal. After the ork lady working the front counter started squinting at his story about being there to pick up Sprocket on behalf of Mr. Breeder, he managed to distract her from the inconsistencies with a bit of small talk so that he could get in smoothly.

Unfortunately, there was an issue once he was in. The door to Sprocket's holding room was closed tight with a password maglock, and neither SPROCKET nor DAVID were cutting it. Heading back to the front desk, he managed to convince the receptionist to use her master override key to crack the door open. That was about when he learned that the override system was keyed to be an emergency measure, used to unlock all the doors in the building just in case. After managing to catch Sprocket in the ensuing chaos and being briefly trampled by a stampede of dozens of robot dogs, he walked out with the chrome canine in hand.

Milliam, however, wasn't quite convinced. She quickly opened a debate in the car about the nature of the dog - she and Crane being on the side of investigating further, while Barracuda and Trashcan Pete were far more inclined to dump it at E-Vue and call it done. After a bit of convincing, they relented; taking Sprocket to an abandoned lot in Redmond, they let Milliam play with it to her heart's content for a while. After a series of attempts to figure out why this Doberman was so lifelike, Pete assensed the lifeless metal... only to find a sprite inside. Another round of arguments ensued, with the team finally agreeing to take Sprocket to Brodie J, on the condition that Milliam could confirm that he would be a satisfactory owner for a questionably sentient robot dog.

Aftermath

Brodie J received the mutt with muted enthusiasm, given that it was well before 6 PM by the time the runners called. After hastily setting up a meeting at E-Vue, he welcomed them with an entire table filled with various breakfast items. A few explanations and piercing questions later, he called up the one person who knew that could sus out technomancer stuff: Cecelia Cross herself, currently overseeing CATCo from her office in Quebec. Her curt summary of sprites and some charm from Brodie assuaged Milliam's fears for the most part, and soon afterwards, the runners left, twelve grand richer.

Cecelia, meanwhile, got back a few days later and got the data she wanted from the sprite. Thankfully, she sent it back to the Resonance instead of Breeder - after all, better to not have it burn the runners after doing an adequate job.

Rewards

• 12k Nuyen, or 24k worth of drugs (6 RVP)
• 3 Karma (3 RVP)
• Brodie J (4/2 Responsible Robo-dog Owner) as an optional contact for 5 RVP or 10 CDP.
• Vee-Jay (2/1 Bouncer) as an optional contact for 2 RVP or 4 CDP.
• 2 CDP

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

[Barracuda]

Y'know, I didn't think I'd ever be walking into somewhere quite as nice as a Downtown drone shop like I owned the place, but here I am. Didn't think I'd be calling up my ex, either, but at least he didn't brick my comms just for doing it. Maybe I should try to get with him again sometime...