Unlink TombofHorrors.Host
| Unlink TombofHorrors.Host | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| Purkinje | x_X_Troll_U_4_Days_X_x | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None. | x_X_Troll_U_4_Days_X_x killed in cybercombat. | ||||||||
Background
An old rival attempts to lure Purkinje into a trap.
Meet
Hipster Machine pulls a troubling forum exchange off a strange host that appeared to be calling out Purkinje and threatening a prisoner in an unknown location. The information is relayed to her, and she immediately goes into VR to investigate.
Run
Fighting through the poor bandwidth of the public grid, Purkinje cracks the mystery host. She searches for the users who communicated with the dissonant in the forum posts, marks them, and snoops their communications. This leads her to a host as well as informs her the dissonant is after a person Purkinje once talked to on an awakened discussion forum. She calls the person to warn her and has her kept safe by some Firewatch friends until the situation is resolved.
Once she is escorted to safety, Purkinje checks out the second host. It's weaker, but well hidden. She cracks her way inside to discover it is the lair of her rival. She spots his living persona and marks it, then spots a biomonitor on him. She also traces his location... to Bellevue, only a few streets away from her house. Suspicious, she follows the data streams to look for the prisoner. She finds her and spots what appears to be a bomb collar on her neck.
Tracing her location, Purkinje finds her to be in a warehouse in Redmond. She compiles a machine sprite and deploys Galatea to perform a rescue mission. Galatea arrives to find it patrolled by sprawl gangers, but they aren't able to detect her as she infiltrates the warehouse. Purkinje loops the camera feed and has Galatea take a closer look. She spots the bomb collar's icon on the Emerald City grid, not slaved to anything, but running a program that will detonate an explosive if it ceases to receive a signal from an unknown source. Galatea prepares a signal-jamming bag. Purkinje crashes the program, then has Galatea cover the collar before it can be manually detonated.
Though the prisoner is safe for the moment, the dissonant discovers Purkinje in his host. He challenges her to cybercombat, and they engage. Purkinje begins by taking a close look at him. He has grown in power since last time. She activates her biofeedback sigil, and he assaults her with a glowing sword. She dodges, countering with a small magic missile, then gathers resonance to prepare for a massive attack. This seems to enrage him, and he charges wildly. Purkinje sees a vulnerability in his attack and expertly dodges in dramatic fashion, immediately following up with a massive blast of rainbow energy that leaves behind naught but a pile of ash.
Aftermath
Purkinje returns to AR and heads down the road to his location. It's a luxury apartment. DocWagon is outside, loading a body into the ambulance. Their sirens aren't on, and they don't seem to be in a hurry. Purkinje has a short exchange with them before returning home, a smile on her face. Immediate death due to biofeedback-induced stroke. A BTL addict, open-and-shut case.
Purkinje leaks the host addresses to Shadowhaven to clean up the dissonant's digital messes. They take to it enthusiastically.
Rewards
- 10,000¥
- 5 Karma
- +3 Faction Rep, Crusher 495
- -1 Faction Rep, Rusted Stilettos
- -3 Faction Rep, Night Hunters
- 2 CDP
AAR
Purkinje's Report
This has been a long time coming. I regretted not purifying the matrix of this horrible man after our first encounter long ago. I feared what might come of him, knowing him to be a follower of Snuff with considerable enough power to have met me in an instance below the Foundation. Many dissonant paragons only wish to see things destroyed, but Snuff is insidious, wishing to see the matrix persist but be filled with horrible content. If only there were a way to turn them from the path of dissonance. Until then, my firewall remains primed to purge.