Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
| Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers | |||||||||
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| ShadowHaven | Major Corp | ||||||||
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Veles Fennec Samael Relay Chance |
Character1 Character2 | ||||||||
Summary
Basically, Foxes in Space.
The team manages to pull the job, including the bonus objective, just in the nick of time while avoiding the Space Rescue Service, Saeder-Krup, and the hazards of the Vacuum of Space.
Background
On a prior run, one of the client's agents was left stranded on an S-K Satellite due to vehicular issues.
The Meet
The blood-red structure of artificial stone and copper-tinted glass near Lake Washington in Bellevue that was Ares’ former corporate HQ now holds their Seattle shipping operations, overseeing all shipping by Ares-owned trucking, shipping, and air-freight companies in and out of the metroplex, reaching all across North America and the Pacific Rim.
The client arranges Ares SINs for folks, taking blood samples from the team for it. Relay sets up connections to his PiTac and the team takes off for Alaska. During the trip, the client explains that a prior job went to an S-K satelite and one of those runners got left behind due to some vehicle issues. The team's job is to extract said runner as soon as possible. The general timeline for this is about twenty hours before the space resuce service begins tracking down the problem and making our job harder, if not impossible.
Perhaps expectedly, Fennec works over the client for some extra payout, given he can avoid hiring a pilot since the team can cover that. Fennec asks for some permament Ares SINS, cash, etc.
Travel plans:
- Seattle to Alaska
- Alaska to Apollo Station
- Apollo to S-K Satellite near "Himmelsschimede" via deniable transport
- Recover agent
- Shuttle back to Apollo
- Apollo to Alaska to Seattle
Equipment provided:
- Ares Corporate SINs
- Ares spacesuits
- Magnetic Boots
- Short term treatments for microgravity
The Plan
- Pilot our shuttle to go recover the one-man shuttle from the prior agent
- Repair shuttle and attach to our ship
- Make our way to agent location without attracting attention
- Make contact, recover agent
- Return to Apollo station within time limit
The Run
Legwork: Eyes on Heaven
Needs:
- Avoid getting made on Apollo
- Navigate to Satellite without getting spotted by S-K
- Make contact with Agent and recover
- Get Back without getting spotted by S-K
Knowledge:
- The Skyforge, by SK, will be the nearest issue
- Ares will be covering for us so they won't be an issue
- EVO and Shiawase have big stakes in Space Rescue, as does Aztechnology
- EVO has a space resort en route, so we'll need to fly casual to get there.
- Apollo is the first big constructed space station, built in 2019. First station to lease to the other corps, but demand dropped after mass driver and skyhook
- SRS, Space Rescue Service, runs out of Apollo as well.
- Conspiracy Theories: lots of dead bodies in space.
- Math gives us a vector to recover the shuttle without burning too much time, but it would need to be repaired. Costs us some time, but buys us HTR time
- Conspiracy Theories: Ares made other classes of spaceship, but there are lots of rumors of a Vanguard class ship which is militarized to "defend against the aliens" / "defend against the monads" / "Sekrit Space War" / Mars is Where the Dragons Come From
The Run: See ya, Space Cowboy
Apollo to Shuttle:
- On the run up to Apollo, the team (save Samael and Veles) undergoes Microgravity Adaptation treatments.
- Predictably, Samael is the only one to lose his cookies on the way up to Apollo Station.
- Our ship is in Shuttle Bay 6
- Veles gets made as a Cyborg by Ares
- The team goes shopping, before going to the shuttle bay
- While in the bar, Chance and Samael overhear rumors about Echo Station in geosynch orbit, exists as somewhat of a rogue freeport
- Outside the shuttle bay, the people who own the shuttle get overheard by Fennec wanting to "double dip" by getting paid by us as well as Ares.
- Fennec Happens and manages to talk the space pirates out of trying to fleece us for extra money. Also maybe establishes a contact. Also maybe a space date.
- The team begins loading up onto the ship, called the Vagabond.
- They go over the pre-check and confirm the ship has no problem, albeit being a smuggler ship with modifications
- The team takes their places on the bridge, cramming into the small, cramped, spaces, and takes off without immediate destruction! Winning!
- The team gives the Free Fall Resort a wide berth, avoiding getting close to the station and heads straight towards the shuttle.
- Due to Fennec, Veles and Relay, working together, they manage to avoid getting spotted by Free Fall Resort.
- Three hours pass. Chance ponders what his new Space Pirate Name is going to be. The runners explore Zero-G, while Veles and Relay handle most of the piloting.
- Helper fan-bots out on Fennec.
Repairing the former shuttle:
- On the way to the shuttle, one of the after market modifications needs some maintenance and so Fennec goes to repair it with Helper.
- Velez and Relay spot the missing shuttle where it has floated into a field of debris.
- They spot an SRS early warning drone scouting the debris field. It is slaved to a R9 Industrial Host: DR 6, DP12/FW12. (!)
- Chance and Fennec tag team the hack, getting 3 marks on the SRS Host and the drone. They proceed to GIGO the drone to make it mark this area as done so it moves on to the next one and away from both the Vagabond and the Shuttle.
- The Shuttle is a small, egg shaped, one person craft. While made by Ares, not branded - clearly someone's "space dustoff".
- Veles and Fennec gear up for their spacewalk while Samael kits up to wait in case of emergency.
- Repairs done, they pilot the shuttle back to the Vagabond, anchor the ship, and set course for the agent satellite.
Recovering the Agent:
- The team apporaches the satellite while Relay pilots, Veles Ewars, Sam does Vehicle Stealth, and Chance does Jamming. Fennec and Fennec's sprite support Relay and Samael.
- The Vagabond comes unfortunately close to the Skyforge for any of our comfort.
- Fennec and Velez make the space jump over to the satellite, while Sam posts up for emergency rescue.
- The agent is on the outside of the satellite with metal through his leg. A quick cutting job makes it easier to move the agent and Veles carries the guy with her.
- Back on the ship, Relay, Sam, and Chance continue to run jamming, stealth, and piloting
- Chance spots some kind of S-K Tech pointed at the Moon that seems to have to do something with nanites.
- Fennec and Velez make the jump back over with the agent, whose name is Kaleidoscope
Aftermath
A clean run later, the team returns the shuttle to Apollo Station, makes their way back to Alaska, and then, eventually, home.
Rewards
- 50,000 nuyen
- 5 karma
- 2 CDP
- +5 Ares Macrotechnology reputation
- Optional Contact: Danny Hoffman (C8/L1 Ares Special Operations Coordinator)
- Optional Contact: Adrien Taylor (C3/L1 Space Smuggler)
- Optional Gear Reward: Ares SINs and Space Gear (Spacesuits, Laser Weapons, etc.)
For Chance:
- Optional Quality: Analytical Mind (for manning the ops station)
- Optional Quality: Spacer (for going to vacation on Echo Station)
For Relay:
- Optional Quality: Subtle Pilot (Aerospace) (for evading S-K's security sensors)
For Veles:
- Optional Quality: Perceptive (for spotting out the hidden SRS early warning drone)
- Optional Gear Reward: Cyborg synthskin upgrades
Narrative Consequences:
- -Ares manages to successfully upload their spyware into S-K Prime's network; the team was subtle enough that the intrusion isn't caught until a routine security sweep several weeks later.
- -Chance exchanges the salvaged shuttle for a trip to Echo Station from the Vagabond crew.
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Samael - If there was going to be a run that goes by the numbers and clean, by god it needed to be this one. Aside from the small indignity of the trip up, everything went about as quietly as could be expected. Bit of a shame that Chance chose to remain on the station and I can absolutely see why Fennec, Veles, and Relay maintain the reputations for skill that they do. I should remind myself to not worry quite as much, I wager.
Chance - "3 days ago I woke up in my burnt out drug lab 2nd story apartment building. Now I am a motherfragging space pirate. Hacking international satellite arrays and jamming major corporate space facilities. Anyway I talked to this pirate/smuggler outfit over at Echo station and I'mma stay up here at least a month or two. Help These boys out. Cook some space drugs. Ends up it's easier living than barrens life in a lot of ways and I take to it. Pew-pew-pew..."