Anomalous Spy Games

Anomalous Spy Games
Date	2084-10-14
GM	Asmodeus
Location	Haaparanta, Finland
Status	Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
Casualties and losses
	Mundane Ascension/Initiation where applicable.

Summary

Team gets hired to investigate a missing KGB agent. Turns out it's not as simple as it seems.

Background

During the run Mainilan Fire information was uncovered that hinted towards a remnant of Ex Pacis operating from Siberia. The drone that was sent across the border to Russia's Western neighbor attempted to destabilize Erika's country and set them up in an antagonistic position towards Russia to cause a conflict. While this was uncovered and prevented, the culprits remain at large.

The Meet

Evo's employee Irena Tachikov recruits a handful of runners to go perform a job that Evo's own employees can't exactly be seen performing: a government contract from Russia that demands the extraction of a KGB agent from Finland's sovereign territory. The agent's gone dark for several days and even if he's dead, his data must be secured at all costs before the Finns discover it. For this purpose, Blackhawk and Katherine Tyler are contacted for aid.

At the same time, Erika's employee Taina Kauhava is told to contact a foreign agent for security's sake. Delphi is contacted by the lonely transwoman in Seattle's more secure apartment complexes and desperately asked to look into it. Something's off and the Russians are trying to spy on them more than usual. Erika wants to get to the bottom of it, whatever it is.

Both parties agree and after the relative meets are over, the runners decide to work together to resolve the seemingly shared threat.

The Plan

Unfortunately, the agent's signal and all groundwork done points towards him fleeing to the Haaparanta Anomalous Zone. Erika arranges for transfer for Delphi while Evo attempts for a more discreet infiltration for Blackhawk and Kate, requiring them to parachute into the anomalous area.

Delphi's legwork Matrix Searches in the Nexus do provide a degree of useful fruit: Siberia's traffic is a little suspicious. Trying to look into the ex-Ex Pacis front doesn't show direct ties, only a shipment of parts from a defunt nanofab that was to be shipped off for destruction went missing instead, helicopters and all. While Nexus members suspect it might be related, there's no clear evidence. S-K and Evo were to be the ones safely destroying the nanofab's parts.

The Run

Once inside, the two Evo runners land straight into a bog. A razorcat causes severe radiation burns on Kate's sword arm as she lops its head off and they begin heading over to the city to get solid ground to walk on. Trees in the area appear to generate noise, having integrated ferrous metals into their bark structure and creating magnetic fields. Delphi arrives near the border from the outside and encounters necro spirits, recognizing them as Wychking's security troops. Realizing Erika's paying close attention to the containment cordon, she completes the required paperwork to enter and makes her way to a rendezvous site.

Following tracks is difficult at first and it takes time for the team to find a relatively decent bit of shelter. Filled with cockroaches, they have the skills to use insecticides and sterilize the interior, possibly guarding them from roaming foveae in the Anomalous Zone. Once there, they avoid a large Detritus Spirit resting nearby and start planning their next move.

Blackhawk's Rat mentor seems to thrive in this seedy environment, allowing him to attune to the surroundings somewhat more precisely than the other two. The rat guides him to a little hideout under the trailer they're taking shelter in, showing a dugout pit that their agent might've hidden in. There's scarcely any signatures on it, but Delphi cuts out a piece of the tarp that was used to separate the Russian agent's body from the irradiated dirt and psychometrizes it, realizing that the man was hiding from something chasing him and feels the tarp get hit by sharp claws at the end of her vision.

Fortunately, some tracking abilities the team possesses allows them to notice faint tracks leading west from their location. They have two options to proceed, urban environment or suburbs with less sparse building density. They choose the quieter-looking suburbs and sneak through -- the background counts feel peculiar. Static noise is high. The vampire and seer remain highly influenced by it, Kate scouting ahead. They come across a rusted gate and don't want to wrest it open since it'd create too much noise and might alert the local, hostile wildlife. Given they're near abandoned living quarters, Kate searches the local buildings for any kind of oil to grease the hinges. During her searches, an invisible foe uses a sharp surprise strike to paralyze her nervous system and drags her into a stuffy, moldy basement. Delphi takes an astral photograph of the area, trying to understand what this sensation of being observed is coming from, and finds that there is an astral form on the photograph that she never saw with her own astral perception.

Delphi and Blackhawk start looking after Kate after they lose DNI contact with her and search the building; Delphi's Oracle-imbued divination sense allows her to dodge the very same surprise attack after she spots a peculiar ritual site around a couch and static-broadcasting TV, surrounded by the magnetic branches they saw before. Both realize they're being assaulted by the environment and with few attempts to disable this mysterious force like destroying the ritual site, testing for masking wards and more, Blackhawk has to bear the brunt of these attacks directly. His infection screams to keep him alive and the predator's instincts permit him to miraculously continue dodging completely invisible onslaughts while Delphi retreats outside. Eventually, however, the completely untouchable malice in the house overpowers Blackhawk and paralyzes him like Kate was. Delphi, knowing she won't get anywhere on her own, attempts replicating Asahiro Kunitoshi's ofuda spirit seals and commanding the evil spirits to appear. Instead, she realizes a lanky, tentacle-mouthed abomination of a vampire-like creature. The creature underestimates the seer and its hunger compels it to try and devour her. Delphi maneuvers around the creature and turns the statue-like Blackhawk towards the creature. The smartlink fires without his trigger pull and blasts a hole through the creature, incapacitating it.

The team finds Kate and helps both of the fighters recover for a time, nervous system healing from the nerve strike blockages. Blackhawk vindictively shoots the creature in the head while Delphi realizes it once was an elderly, peaceful man that the zone had twisted into the creature before them. She buries the being somewhat below the surface into a proper grave.

Seeking further information, they continue looking for more tracks and find the KGB agent near one of the dock complexes. Divination gave Delphi some information about this man's condition, suggesting that he may be contaminated with CFD and will not be able to cooperate directly. Kate and Blackhawk contact Hextech and ask her for any advice, which concerns her deeply when she hears about headcases.

Finally encountering the KGB agent, through a careful evaluation of the feverish-looking agent, his immune system fighting the nanites, Delphi attempts to reach a flaw of logic in the nanites' incomplete programming and fool them into deactivating by completing their programming. Irena Tachikov informs the Russian Federation that the agent is dead which Delphi then shows him, then uses a synthskin mask to replicate his appearance, calls herself by his name and shoots herself in a convincing display. This completes the nanites' runtime, one of the completion objectives being to terminate the agent. Hunter nanites are injected into him which destroy the bootleg replicators, far inferior in strength to the real thing.

Aftermath

Kate manages to hire the agent to join the Huk and the intel he acquired is given to both Evo and Erika by the respective parties. Curiously, the exact details are concerning: evidence points towards several members of the Corporate Court wanting to put Russia and Finland against each other. S-K and Evo want to gain control of Finland, Russia's being manipulated into this potential conflict as well and it's no longer clear if the former Ex Pacis members are the true masterminds behind the operation or mere puppets for megacorporate greed.

Saeder-Krupp and Evo both have individuals that appear to have approved the commissioning of destruction of the nanofabricator and didn't launch any direct inquiries or probes into the missing shipments. This could be highly suspicious or just corporate neglect for low profit labour. Whether S-K and Evo are indoctrinated in ways that the Russian KGB agent was by the former Ex-Pacis elements or if they're the true masterminds orchestrating destabilization and potential conflict with Finland is not yet clear.

Rewards

40,000 Nuyen (20 RVP)
Or double that in firearms including anti-materiel rifles, heavy machine guns, grapple guns and missile launchers and ammo up to 20 Availability
10 Karma (10 RVP)
10 CDP (4 RVP)
+1 Erika Reputation for Delphi
+1 EVO Reputation for Blackhawk and Kate
Delphi may increase Taina Kauhava's loyalty to 5 for getting her good coffee and people to talk to
Kate's sword now causes geiger counters to react. Delphi cleanses the blade, robbing it of the title "Nuclear Razor" after being anointed in the blood of a razorcat.
Optional Contact: Irena Tachikov to Blackhawk and Kate
Initiation Discount/Mundane Ascension if applicable

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Blackhawk: "That was... a lot to take in I suppose. Things get messy in the shadows and it's part of the job but... still. I'm just glad we made the best decision we could with the intel we got. If I knew a bit more about the tech stuff I imagine I'd be a lot more scared but as it is I'm still worried enough to keep my guard up. Edoecially if a megacorp is involved."