Freedom's Obsolescence

Freedom's Obsolescence
Date	2085-03-09
GM	Asmodeus
Location	Brescia, Lombardy, Italy
Status	Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
Casualties and losses

Summary

Cardinal Coteaz is gaining more and more influence with his conservative anti-shape-shifter policies and actions. Someone doesn’t seem to like that and wants his attitude re-programmed and hires the runners to inject the re-programming nanites.

Background

Politics on high levels have many stake-holders. It is unclear who is really behind this and what the motives are. Is it really about the cardinal’s view and action against those who are different? Is it the mafia who wants to be left alone? Is the powerful cardinal just a pawn in an even bigger scheme. The more one digs into those questions, the more questions arise: Who’s really behind the operation? Commander Raven, CIA, The Native American Nations, Winternight, The Black Lodge?

The Meet

The meet is in Dante’s Inferno, on the Gluttony-Level. Some of the runner’s feast on the delicacies, like they’ve never seen food before - feeling like in heaven while committing the first of the deadly sins. Helena Icariot greets the runners and explains that they are requested to fly to Italy and inject a substance into Cardinal Coteaz without anyone noticing or recollecting that action. She further suggests the runners not take any illegal items with them - especially illegal weapons. This would likely cause trouble with airport security and customs. She offers 60 000 UCAS Dollars (30 000 Nuyen) for the job and the runners accept.

Further, the runners find out that the cardinal has strong views on meta-humans and even stronger views on shape-shifters, Infected and other metasapients who he considers outside the grace of God and actively campaigns against to ensure they don't get the same rights in the eyes of the Catholic Church as the rest of metahumanity. The Cosa Nostra is against the cardinal because he supports crack-downs on organised crime and the local Mafia might be a good go-to for local support. Officer Raven is present during the meet, but doesn't seem to contribute, mostly watching who the runners are.

The Plan

Use the window of opportunity and fly to Brescia, Italy, where the cardinal is spending the week outside of the Vatican. Gain information on routines and itinerary of the cardinal and find a weak spot. Mojo brainstorms and comes up with the idea to use a spirit to use the Accident on the cadinal while he is in his temporary residence, disguise as paramedics and inject the a substance while pretending to administer first aid. The back-up plan is to go in while he's asleep and alter the cardinals memory without him waking up. Both would fulfil the requirements.

In order to achieve this plan, the team has considerable expenses: an Italian fixer in the area arranges a safehouse, connection to a Sicilian mafia fence and some information about the Cardinal's movements, but at a cost of 6,000 Nuyen every day they spend in Lombardy. Mojo, having quite a large sum of money from working with Charon, fronts the costs for the team, proving once again that money is a superpower. He also pays for the burner SINs, legal permit forgeries and paramedic disguises, enabling the entire plan to even work in the first place.

The Run

Delphi runs Matrix Searches on the cardinal and his surroundings. The research into the nature of the injection reveals that it contains nanites designed to reprogram the cardinal’s brain and will to become more tolerant. The details make them roughly comparable to Neural Amplifier nanites, although the comparison isn't perfect. In addition, Delphi's Psychometry skills reveal that an Ares representative gave the nanites in their raw from to Officer Raven, who in a later vision appeared to have handed them to a walking rigger cocoon. This 'cocoon man' appeared to be programming the nanites and had a Native American flag on display in his lair. Delphi can't find a direct link, but Mojo Joe's connections to his friend Broken Hand and the bear's mentor, Thunder Fang reveal that this is the Ondian Ute people's flag before they were absorbed by the PCC. Markedly, these were the people Daniel Howling Coyote belonged to. This raises questions about who is really behind this job and the ethics of reprogramming someone’s brain and free will.

Contacting Charon, the runners find out that there are many possible stake-holders in this game and that Raven is probably much more involved than originally assumed. One thing seems clear: Charon doesn’t like that Commander Raven is playing a powerful behind-the scenes game. This is a business area, which the socialite wants a monopoly on, especially on her home turf. She gives her blessing to the runners to proceed with the plan itself, having gained something useful from this interaction already. The more time the runners spend on finding out who is behind their job and for what purpose, the more questions arise and the very questionable nature of the job seems to become more and more iffy. After having delivered so much valuable research, Delphi almost quits the job then and there, but persists after Charon's Matrix support confirms that the nanites are programmed to pacify the cardinal's more extreme views, nothing more malicious than that.

The other runners go ahead and do some physical surveillance of the estate where the cardinal stays, where they identify 8 guards, of which 2 are dark magicians. The Awakened guards are a source for major concerns, since any plan the runners come up with includes magic which is very likely to be detected by the mages. So, they have to find a way to nuke the mages before any action starts. The runners decide to steal an ambulance, disguise as paramedics, stun-arrow the guards (Thunder lands a couple of lucky shots) while they are in the garden and not seen by the other guards, use spirits to hide the stunned bodies, use a spirit to cause accident on the cardinal, intecept the emergency call (Specter does great work here) before it reaches dispatch and respond as paramedics themselves.

The plan works well and the runners get the cardinal willingly on a stretcher, take him to the ambulance, inject the nanites, first-aid and secretly magically heal the cardinal. The plan turns out to be a success. (Mojo leaves the convincing impression of being a very competent medic. Even some of the runners are convinced). After cleaning up the crime scene (getting rid of astral signatures etc.), the runners leave the premises without having caused any suspicion.

Aftermath

The plan worked out and the runners worked professionally. Delphi's trepidations proved partly valid after she discovered the sheer number of connections some of the parties involved had (such as Charon finding out Raven has been seen interacting with various parties, such as the CIA, NAN, CAS and according to Thunder, may even have some knowledge of Winternight's remnants). Charon enjoyed a good show and is thankful for the amusement provided. Helena and Raven show gratitude for a job well done.

Rewards

60,000 UCAS Dollars (30,000 Nuyen - 6,000 Nuyen per runner for run expenses = 24,000 Nuyen (15 RVP))
2 Karma (2 RVP)
2 CDP
1 Dante's Inferno Reputation
1 CIA Reputation (This is not a good thing)
1. Optional Contact: Helena Iscariot, 4/1 Dante's Inferno Infobroker (4 RVP or 8 CDP)
2. Optional Contact: Officer Raven, 3/1 Sussy Baka Interloper (3 RVP or 6 CDP)
3. Optional Gear: Charon offers foci to Thunder and Mojo Joe because this entire situation is hilarious and Helena promised to offer connections to a source of foci.
4. Optional Gear: Officer Raven offers Spectre an Onotari Arms Ballista or Ruhrmetall SF-20 so she can fulfil her dreams of becoming The Rocketman (Gear Rates)

Game Quotes

"I can't believe joining the CIA whitewashes your race"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Mojo Joe: "What's done is done... I can't with all of my heart say we did the right thing. I will tell myself that what we did probably saved untold dozens of paracritters, shifters, and some infected. If it turns out this is untrue. And we aided in something far, far worse. I will be ready, I must be ready. Now... to go shopping."

Thunder: So many supremist out there! Well, I guess there is one less now. Feels good to not have had to kill the Bishop to change his extremist mind. At the same time, I understand the concerns about free will. There is a strange world out there, and all I'm sure about is that I don't understand the big wig game ...yet.