Opportunistic Pathogens
| Opportunistic Pathogens | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
| ShadowHaven | MCT | Sioux Nation Security Forces | ||||||||
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Star of the Sea Chance Brunhilde Foxtrot Black Sabbath |
Recon Cyborg Spirit Cadre | Various armed patrols | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| Cyborg extracted, spirits disrupted | ||||||||||
Summary
The small village of Hulett, inhabited exclusively by shamans who reject the technology of the modern world as a disease, has been hit with actual disease. The origin unclear, it's clearly infectious in nature, and in return they have been quarantined by the local government, and left to die. The chief asks the runners to stop that from happening
Background
MCT's biomedical research wing has promised that by the start of the 2090s they would have a permanent, safe and effective cure to VITAS, and needless to say, the shareholders and money people put a lot of faith in the claim. However, as more traditional research avenues prove ineffective in finding that solution they have been looking for. So, they turned to history, and found that the Amerinid population showcased a much, much higher survival rate during the outbreaks at the start of the century, and so they turned to on the field testing.
Creating in all haste a small operating base within the Sioux Nation, one of the more permissive of the NAN, they started offering the homeless and desperate of Belle Fourche money in exchange with being inoculated with a weakened version of the virus, so that they could track down any peculiar immunitary response specific to the Amerinid population that could point them in the right direction.
This plan seemed to have worked to some extent, but backfired when the virus spontaneously evolved in a way that removed some of the suppressive artificial genes, regaining some of its lethality, and in turn, infecting the local settlement of Hulett, where their refusal of technology (including medical one) left them woefully unprepared to deal with the outbreak
The Meet
Chief Serene Dawn, the village's healer and de-facto spiritual leader, contacted the team via matrix host, given his inability to leave physically due to the quarantine. The meet was fast and marked by his desperation: each moment spent in idle chat could result in one more person dying of the horrible disease. The team didn't negotiate, choosing instead to accept the meagre rewards he offered and simply get going as fast as possible
The Plan
The ride from Seattle to the Devil's Tower took the better part of 17 hours, so planning and legwork happened in that timespan. Foreman used his medical knowledge to hazard guesses on what the disease could be, and how to prevent it, landing on the realization that they needed a combination of medicines to stop the inflammatory response AND something to stop the actual pathogen, and that "something" needed to be acquired/produced on site, given that he needed precise genetic templating of the virus to make anything usable. In the meantime, partly due to a real good matrix search and some military and government procedures knowledge from the others, the party learned that the quarantine procedure and information suppression campaign around it weren't how the government operates, hinting at some level of systemic corruption by someone with lots of money invested in this.
The Run
The first hurdle was simply getting there, but the team had many riggers or people with simply decked out vehicles, so the road trip was easy to mount. A few border crossings (UCAS->SSC, SSC->SN) happened, and if at the Salish-Shidhe the cover story of Black Sabbath being a medic out to perform humanitarian aid with an escort to keep him safe from paracritters held, the Sioux border is much more secure, so the decision was to attempt an illegal crossing by the plains, something the wheelwomen and hackers of the party performed masterfully, managing to avoid detection and not crash.
After a brief rest, the team headed in Belle Fourche, the nearest town proper to the quarantine zone. A place that was poor, run down and all around depressingly reminiscent of flyover state tropes even while not being in the USA. They had a quick breakfast at a diner, with service being handled by a certain white haired elf lady, and from there they delved in matters more, finding out about the metahuman testing, and consequently, piecing out what was happening. The immediate response was trying to locate MCT sites in the area, and the team learned of a small improvised lab in the town. What happened afterwards was some host diving to dig information on the virus, and consequent research data. Given that Chance/Pecker was running circles around the spiders, they decided that rather then trying to physically break in to use the lab's facilities to try and produce a cure for the weakened VITAS outbreak, the best course of action was granting the medic of the team access to one of the anthrodrones in the structure, produce it remotely, and then ship it outside. Given it was RNA-based interferons, they needed cold storage, but the Star of the Sea luckily had spirits to aid, using their cold inducing powers on a commercial minifridge to reach liquid nitrogen levels of cooling, necessary for mantaining the really frail (physically and chemically) compounds.
Now, during the dive, they also learned of a concerning development: MCT knew that if this outbreak became public knowledge, the PR damage and sanctions would be extremely pricy, so the course of action was to simply wipe the small community off of the map, and cover everything up under the guise of a natural disaster, which are quite common in the area given the roiling nature of the manasphere in the region.
The team made haste, using the excellent Foxtrot wheelwoman skills to break the quarantine perimeter by cutting through the woods with a combat spec'd truck, while being careful enough to not subject the vials to enough stress to break them. Black Sabbath and Star imemdiately started trying to administer the cure, but the cleanup crew was already on site, and getting to work with a great form earth spirit's quake power, trying to use a localized earthquake as an opener against the unarmed and sick shamans. What happened afterwards was a short but brutal gunfight, where the MCT squad of one cyborg and three spirits ultimately got dispatched. Notably, the cyborg got eliminated by the team's decker, by ejecting its CCU. The team decided that rather then killing what was likely only a 2 year old victim, they would hand it over to a contact of theirs, to allow the jarbrain a life away from corporate bondage
Aftermath
Thanks to some extremely good medical practice on Foreman's part and the team's fast response, the dead only counted in the dozens. A cyborg made the first steps towards actual personhood. The MCT biotech team was made aware that they have been made, and the cleanup crew definetly got some explaining to do to the higher ups, but ultimately, no evidence of the runners breaking into the database was found, and the data there, even with the study halted by the circumstances, was already good. Perhaps not enough to deliver the cure promised by 2090, but it's a solid based for a new approach based on inducing chimeric immunoglobulin production in the patient, and Black Sabbath has a copy of that data, in case he wishes to pursue this lead independently. Pecker's exploit made the rounds of the matrix again, apparently doing a solo dive in an MCT blacksite from an holy site is considered "kinda cool".
Rewards
Deadly TL 20 RVP
6,000 nuyen (3 RVP) 4,000 nuyen (Negotiation) 15 karma (15 RVP) 6 CDP (Base + 2 RVP)
Optional: Kangee as a contact (2/1) for 2 RVP
Foci related to Healing or Defense (i.e. Qi focus for Increase Skill (Medicine) or Empathetic Healing, Spellcasting focus, Counterspelling focus) up to 19 Avail, you get to convert up to 12 RVP into gear rates for those
Subtle Pilot at gen rates for Foxtrot (4 RVP)
Online Fame for Pecker at gen rates (4 RVP)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Brunhilde
"Things went fairly smooth, glad we managed to stop a VITAS outbreak."
Chance
Successful field test for Botsquatch, and the new handle. Hacked an MCT black site... I guess I don't suck at this. Woodie seems to be much more talented than Squatchie ever was. Interesting.
Foxtrot
"All op4 handled, the run went off quietly. It seems we weren't detected and that no one up the chain was informed due to the successful stealth from all parties. Well done, team."#
Star of the Sea
"Not gonna lie, this was basically getting paid to take a roadtrip with my girlfriend. Sure, there was a great form spirit to fight, but the girlfriend fire support was excellent."