Cause and Effect
| Cause and Effect | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of By Royal Decree | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
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ShadowHaven Seelie Court Treasa ke'Vedryn | Tír Tairngire | Ares Macrotechnology | ||||||||
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Pell Triple Trouble Cricket Black Samurai Vichnozeleny |
Attack Helicopter Ghosts | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| Sword Adept Ghost, Helicopter Rotor :( | ||||||||||
Summary
The runners travel to Tír Tairngire to perform a false flag terrorist attack to pit Ares and the Tir against each other.
Background
In an effort isolate the Tir Government, elements of the Seelie Court and of the Danaan Families of Tir Na Nog planned a false flag terrorist attack to drive a wedge between the Tir and outside powers.
The Meet
The team is called to a nondescript building in Bellevue, rather unadorned and unimpressive, but considerably well maintained on the interior. Lead to a conference room, the team is faced with an elven woman calming watching them, a polite offer of food extended. Assensing as nothing more than an aware, the team sat down and listened to her offer.
It turned out to be a simple and easy ask. Just a bit of terrorism in the Tir.
The J requested that the team infiltrate Tir Tarngire in time to crash a corporate event between Ares's local subsidiary and Tir officials. A tech demo to show off new Ares military technology, the event was to host Acquisitions personal from the Tir Peacekeepers, who would perform a first hand evaluation of the gear.
The team was tasked to stage a false flag attack, framing the terrorist organization Brat'mael for a political assasination. An extremist, nationalist organization, Brat'mael calls for a return to explicit elven supremacy in the Tir, and for the nation to stand apart from foreign interests. While officially rebuked by the government, sympathisers to their cause still permeate Tir society. The group from the Tir would have two officers of note in attendance, Duke Nayln Hine, the colonel in charge of the acquisitions delegation, and his aide, Lord Elion Moon, a Lt. Colonel. Duke Hine was in favor of closer ties with outside corporations, favoring further integration with the Peacekeepers and their further entrenchment in the culture of the country. In contrast, Lord Moon was known to harbor... regressive sympathies.
The task of the team was to infiltrate the Tir and attend the acquisitions event, and then publically kill Duke Hine, while leaving Moon untouched. The 'terrorists' would then steal the Ares prototype so it can be reverse engineered, sabotaging Ares. The faithful to their country would be protected, while the traitors would be purged, all the while screwing over the foreign corporation. Or so the message would hopefully be. This assassination would hopefully frighten members of the Tir government, discouraging them from forming outside ties, while at the same time ruining a lucrative corp deal, and making outside investors view the Tir as a unstable and unwise ally. If this worked, the Tir would start a path that isolates it from outside support.
While worried about the risks in the job, promises of valuable rewards eventually swayed them into doing it.
International Travel
The first big issue for the team to face was how were they getting inside of the Tir. Tir Tairngire is notorious for having a tough border to cross. While not quite as ridiculous as it used to be before the revolution, the Tir Border Patrol does not play around.
The team ran through different ideas, weighing the pros and cons of each. They considered taking a covert flight inside, only to imagine the not unreasonable scenario of getting blown out of the sky by a SAM site. There weren't any ships they could stowaway on in their time scale, at least ones that didn't have a high chance of getting nailed by the coast guard. For traveling overland, they had more ideas, though some of dubious quality. They thought about pretending to be musicians sent in by Ace Powers for a concert. Ace said it would be easy as drek. Foolproof even. They didn't trust him.
Eventually, after thinking through all the possibilities, they decided for the straightforward option. They would simply drive through a border checkpoint and pray they didn't get flagged.
Heading through in multiple vehicles, they started trying to pass through. The border checkpoint, though painted and decorated in a more pleasant way than decades past, still clearly showed off it's fortress like construction to the runner's discerning eyes. If they drew negative attention, they would be in for a very bad time.
Things were going well, runners passing through the barrage of scans and questions unscathed, until the car carrying Pell and Triple Trouble pulled up. Things were going well until TT tripped a cyberware scanner, showing off her vast suite of illegal infiltration gear. Understandably, this bothered the border cop. Thinking fast, TT bluffed, creating a story about being a deep cover Tir operative returning home for a report. The agents need to let them through to not blow their cover. While absurd, TT was so confident and their ware so specialized, they actually considered the idea. Somewhat certain they'd get in deep shit with whatever choice they made, the border agent decided to take a middle option, secretly slapping a tracking tag on the car and then waving them through. Soon after the team left, she reported the incident up the chain.
Preparation
Making their way into the Tir, they headed towards the capital, Cara'Sir. On the drive, Cricket started trawling the matrix, collecting information on the event, the participants, and anything else she could think of. Additionally, she reached out into the local trog community, making ties and connections. Using this, she managed to secure a place for the team to rest at.
Pell trawled social media, seeing what she could find as an actual, legal citizen of the Tir. Unfortunately, it wasn't a lot.
Still, this gave the team the ability to start doing physical legwork.
First the team took a stroll nearby the event center, looking around at the grounds. On the trip, the group drew the attention of a local police officer. Pell and TT defused the situation by making fun of the other members of their party in Sperethiel. Humans and orks are apparently more palatable to the cops as the butt of a racist joke about tourists. Laughing, the cop left them to their tour.
Later, Vic and Black Samurai went underground to explore the tunnels beneath Old Portland. Trying to chart a path from their hiding spot to the target, this would provide a better way to escape after their crime. Roaming around, they eventually found the way, but they also found something else. Feral ghouls. Vic decided to use this.
Carefully, she gathered a small horde of ghouls, leading them closer to the convention center. Sealing them in a small room nearby their escape point, Vic would be able to quickly break it back open on their escape, leaving a bunch of hungry ghouls to bother any pursuers in their wake.
Cricket during this started hacking. Breaking into the convention center host, Cricket took a look around. Of note, she found the data on the service contractors the center was using for the event. Following this trail, she managed to create credentials for a few infiltrators to get inside. She also nabbed some other info, like the schedule and similar things.
The Attack
As the time of the event arrived, Pell and TT dressed up as clearly elfy looking temp workers, and made their way into the convention center. The event had multiple phases, with stages of corp socializing, food, test runs and more socializing. Vic and Black Samurai remained nearby, ready to burst with combat support when needed. Cricket, being obviously unelfy even when covered up, stayed offsite doing matrix overwatch and support.
The team waited until the prototype had been unveiled, giving Cricket a chance to kill a few alarms and get in position to commandeer the drone. There appeared to be a view guards roaming around the Tir delegation, though most didn't seem too threatening. One however, with a sword, seemed to set off a few danger vibes to the infiltrators.
The attack started as the duo engaged the security team, Cricket aiding by killing the guns turrets. Pell shouted a slogan of the Brat'Mael as she cast some destructive magic. Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly, until the sword guard engaged. This was an undercover Ghost, and he was very skilled with that blade. Suddenly, rather than just mopping up some unprepared nobles, they were in a fight to stay alive, barely dodging the blade attack by attack. Black Samurai rushed in to engage the threat, a sword duel unfolding as spirits began to appear and attack the intruders. Thankfully the team managed to kill the target before he got away, and eventually, as all the support came in, they managed to wear the Ghost down, defeating him. No one died yet. The mission was going well.
Grabbing the prototype, the team raced down into the tunnels below, letting the ghouls free behind them. Quickly, they headed back to their safehouse, job done.
While the cops were on alert, things seemed relatively safe where they were at. No one had managed to follow them back. Now all they had to do was spend the night waiting out the heat and then head back.
Escape
Unbeknownst to the team though, there were other factors in play. In the runs prior to this, time and time again, Amrei exploited the greed of runners to gain information about the Fae's activities. Keeping a careful eye, she waited for the perfect moment to exploit. The team's little problem at the border gave her this. As the team rested, agents of the Tir were closing in on them, Ghosts ready to raid their safehouse with orders to capture or kill.
She sent a message to the team.
SAFEHOUSE COMPROMISED. GHOSTS DEPLOYED. EVAC NOW.
Softly, in the distance, the team could hear a helicopter approaching. They didn't stick around. Desperate, they raced out of the safehouse, killed a few encircling officers, and ducked into the sewers, heading towards coordinates their mysterious benefactor gave them. Somehow, they managed to reach the forest outside of the city. The only problem was that their pickup was on the other side of the border. To get there they would have to cross the forest and get over the border's no man's land.
With no other options, they started trekking into the dark trees. The journey was quiet, but tense, no sounds but the wind whistling around them. No one seemed to be following them. Well, until a searching spirit appeared. The team dissipated it as soon as it appeared, but that was enough to relay their location. Not long after, the beat of a helicopter approached. Armed and ready to kill, an attack helicopter closed in on their position. Despite their haste, it was clear they wouldn't make it to the border in time.
They tried to run for cover, to hopefully hide from the helicopter, but Cricket was too slow. Illuminated in the spotlight, missiles were aimed, her death near. This was when Vic acted.
Running out next to Cricket, proclaiming the power of the Monolith on all channels, she took aim with her Gauss Rifle and made a near impossible shot. The shot hit the rotor, disabling the craft causing to crash and explode. (Smackdown)
The West Coast Monolith had showed its strength. The Tir noticed.
Still alive, the team made it to the border. Now they had the other problem. With 20 meter high fences, a large minefield and automated gun turrets, crossing the border wasn't going to be easy. Black Samurai's light footsteps didn't set off land mines, so he just ran across. The rest had to take an aerial approach. Using levitation and floating spirits, the group slowly made their way across, dodging weapons fire and spirit attacks.
As they landed, they headed over to the nearby extraction location. A landed VTOL waited, ready to move them back to Seattle. Still not sure of what was happening, they took the ride, with few other options open to them.
Aftermath
Amrei made her demand clear on the return trip. She wanted the drone prototype. If the runners delivered it, they would have a nice, peaceful flight home. The threat was left unspoken.
Recovering the drone was ultimately an optional objective, something that would be nice, but not required. The only important thing was the perception that they stole it. With that in mind, they handed it over.
As they returned to Treasa, she was fine with it. She was more than satisfied with the runners performance. They played their role in the false flag well. Tensions had already risen, even in the short period after their actions. She promised more opportunities to serve their lady in the future, being somewhat vague about what that meant.
Rewards
Overtime ~ 1.46x -> 45 RVP total 10 Karma 50,000 Nuyen (100,000 in gear rewards) 22 CDP
Gear Reward Options - (Foci, Reagents, Ware, Missile Launchers + Missiles, Fake Sins) up to A22, Ware Betaware or lower, Note Foci as made by "Sarah"
Optional Contact: Treasa ke'Vedryn as 6/2
For Cricket, Trog Networker, -12 RVP taken from other rewards. For Vic, Perceptive, -5 RVP taken from other rewards. For TT, Witness my Hate, -7 RVP taken from other rewards.
-1 Chip on Amrei for Vic
+1 Notoriety for Vic
The Tir saw a figure wearing WCM gear levitating across the border, plus recordings from a downed helicopter implicate the West Coast Monolith.
Cricket left her resonance signature to be found by Ares and the Tir.
+5 rep for The Seelie Court
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Pell
Welp, there's a first time for everything, including a Haven job back home. The escape at the end there was real messy, but I think it ended up mostly fine?
Was off my game at the execution. :pensive: