A prequel to multiple Shadowruns based on Flags and Concrete by Larry and His Flask
| A prequel to multiple Shadowruns based on Flags and Concrete by Larry and His Flask | |||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||
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Howler Purkinje Night Claws | Ares Macrotechnology | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Howler's Ocular Drone | None | ||||||
Summary
Carlos Blanco calls in that favor from Howler, and it's time to make use of her Ocular drone and scout the facility for bugs.
Background
On a previous run, Howler had to promise to do a favor for a contact of Carlos Blanco to get their help. This favor turned into scouting an Ares facility to confirm/deny the presence of bugs. In preparation for this, Howler bought an ocular drone. However, she had no idea the kind of trouble she would encounter on the matrix side of things, and would quickly end up in way over her head...
The Run
Before Howler sets out, the toilet starts making weird noises. Howler tries to investigate, but finds nothing. She's pretty sure something is just blocking the line.
On her way out, she finds a distraught chiphead girl. The girl is trying to go clean, which Howler can respect. The girl is upset and depressed, and goes on about how awful her life is and how the BTLs didn't really help her any. She talks about one in particular, "Family Thanksgiving". Howler consoles her, and tells her that while everything won't be okay, some things will be. Just enough things will be okay to make it worth it. Howler offers to invite her over for thanksgiving dinner, although it won't be much of a meal it will at least be real.
Howler gets a ride from her taxi contact John Baptise for a ride to the site from someone who won't ask questions and won't talk about the ride. She sets herself up a ways away from the site itself and sends her drone in.
However, Howler quickly learns there is more to the matrix than she was prepared for. The security spiders spot the drone and alert the physical guards. Howler switches the drone wireless off for periods of time, having it hide in obscure locations for hours at a time to throw them. She slowly works her way deeper, but the drone is eventually spotted. It comes under attack from the spiders.
Howler then realizes she is in way too deep, and calls out to the Haven for support. Purkinje and Night Claws answer the call, and battle the spiders while Howler's drone reboots. Once the spiders are down, the technomancers focus on opening doors for Howler's drone. The drone goes deeper and deeper into the facility while an elite demiGOD spider team is inbound to deal with the attackers.
They eventually manage to get the drone to the lowest levels, and find a ritual being performed to prepare someone for bug inhabitation. Howler tries to get her drone out of there, but it's spotted and destroyed. The team checks out and gets themselves gone.
Rewards
10 karma
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Howler's After Action Report
Howler was still clutching the empty socket of her right eye when she made it home. Somehow, it hurt. Why did it hurt? The drone was no more. And yet, she had this phantom pain, a memory of the final feedback the drone sent before it was destroyed. She supposed shooting it was the best thing they could have done for her. As she made it back, she saw the girl she had tried to help. The chiphead. The gangers were mad at her, yelling. Frag. turns out they're mad at her for flushing the chips, and they had to call a plumber. Now they want her to pay for it. Frag frag frag. They knew Howler was a mage, that at least bought her a little respect. Nobody wants to piss off the chick who can throw lightning. Howler stepped into the shouting match and convinced the group to lay off the girl, offering to pay for the damn plumber. Frag Why did she say that? She doesn't have that kind of NuYen right now. She needs that cash to replace her Ocular drone. It just sort of slipped out. But it did seem to satisfy them. Fine. Whatever. Howler just resolved she'll have to earn more NuYen. Fast. Back in her apartment, she started looking to see if there were any available jobs. She figured one would show up soon, this bug nest thing isn't going to just be left alone. She hated the idea of going back, but with a full team it might- Oh. The girl is crying again. Is she upset or just trying to process why someone is helping her?
It wouldn't take long for Howler to realize she may be in trouble. Even with the drone destroyed, they were going to try and figure out if they can trace it back to its owner. And if they realized it is an ocular drone they would realize it might make a good sympathetic link.... Frag. frag How screwed am I?
Salvation would come from another runner. Wolfheart offered to allow Howler to crash in their lodge, a massive greenhouse, for a while. Howler invited her new friend along too, just to help support her as she cleans herself up. But also because she realized it's gonna be real boring being stuck in a greenhouse for as long as she's going to have to stay there laying low...
Purkinje's After Action Report
Hell yeah! This was a rush! When I got the call that I needed to frag up a strong host to help someone out, I leapt out of my body and zipped straight there at light speed! Shooter pushed me on in. "Hold the door," they said. The words kept echoing in my mind as personas fell one after another. Then Night Claws and I got to work cracking open those security doors so Howler could get her eye drone to the objective. It worked! The drone was lost, but... the job was done. Shooter was very happy with my work. They gave me this... achievement? Like, in the sense of a matrix game, an achievement. It was called, "OVERKILL," and it came with what they said was a "perk." The description said, "KILLSTREAK MODE UNLOCKED." Shooter laughed when I asked what that meant. I went to a small host that I didn't mind trashing for a while, and I tested it out. Turns out it makes me stronger the more I sustain fire in the matrix. Hopefully I'll use it well in the future.