Outsider Trading
| Outsider Trading | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Compound Interest | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
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ShadowHaven Red Ledger | Hans, Philip & Lenore | Bulwark Private Security | ||||||||
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Neznayka Chameleon Lumin Pulse |
Character1 Character2 | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| One very nauseated decker | ||||||||||
Summary
A ganger boss hires a team to help her do some subtle insider trading. Everything goes quite well, somehow.
Background
After giving several unapproved raises to shadowrunners for services rendered, Red Ledger is running low on funds, and Windfall is irate. Fortunately, she happens to have some old connections to the business world, and she knows just the man whose coattails she'll ride to the top. All she needs is a team who can pull off a successful reverse heist...
The Meet
The team meets with the Johnson, one Everest Pike. He explains that his employers would like to profit off of the apparent insider trading of one Jurgen Graf, a wealthy investor who does his business through a company called Hand, Philip, and Lenore, or HPL for short. The unusual bit? This Jurgen only makes transactions while physically present at the HPL building, suggesting some unusual security measures. Previous failures to compromise the target's accounts through matrix-only attacks have failed, and so now a team of more comprehensive talent is required. Another key bit of information: Jurgen is returning from vacation in Germany the morning after the meet, and will be landing at SeaTac.
Thanks to some shrewd negotiation from Neznayka, Everest agrees to get them what access to his resources he can - uninstalled cyberware, guns, and ammunition among them - and then it's time for the team to start working.
The Plan
The team performs extensive legwork before beginning the run proper, leveraging Pulse and Lumin's skills to trawl the matrix for information on their target and the investment firm he moves his capital through. They discover that HPL contracts their security out to a company known as Bulwark Private Security, and offers varying levels of investment advisement and custom security measures for those who want them. Their target also has family here in Seattle, a sister. With the knowledge that Jurgen only makes his investments from the physical building, they decide to do some matrix infiltration to gather more information and establish a cover for their pair of physical infiltrators.
They will backdate a scheduled tour of the building for Chameleon, who will drop off a swarm of Neznayka's rats within the facility. Then, Neznayka and perhaps another team member will use the cover of those rats to perform the actual placement of the necessary spy program. The team suspects that there may be a Farraday-caged room within HPL's location, which would explain why matrix-only infiltration has failed in the past.
Lumin and Pulse enter HPL's destination host, a frightfully dull affair modeled after the massive stock trading floors of the 20th and early 21st century. From there, they discover a silent nested host, and proceed to sleaze their way in - though not without some bird-against-window antics from the less-experienced Lumin.
Once both are inside, they proceed to poke around. Pulse finds and obtains camera recordings of Jurgen moving through the building, pinpointing where he makes his investments from, and then the pair alter appointment records to backdate both Chameleon's tour and Neznayka's 'pest extermination' appointment. The spider spots Pulse just before they exit the host, and IC manages to link-lock him, but they can't stop Lumin from yanking his UDC out of his head. Dumpshock is much preferable to capture.
Still feeling like there are a few holes in their information, the team decides to intercept Jurgen at the airport and find out what they can about him. It's not too difficult to find him, as they have a picture, and so Neznayka's rats are able to cling onto his car and follow him back to his hotel. Chameleon is also able to assense him, and putting the information gained from this together with Pulse's cyberware knowledge, the team realizes that Jurgen has two biomonitors in his arm, but only one is broadcasting. Slightly unusual.
Pulse marks Jurgen's commlink, and the team follows him back to his apartment, where they engage in some body-snatching trickery involving a food deliveryman. This results in Chameleon managing to get Jurgen's prints and a saliva sample, and Lumin getting half a sandwich. Now satisfied with their legwork, the team decides to begin their physical infiltration.
The Run
Chameleon's tour goes quite smoothly, and he chats casually with a corp representative while scoping out the full building. He takes a stop into the bathroom to release Neznayka's rats, which scurry into ventilation and head through the walls towards the room that they suspect is Farraday caged.
Afterwards, Pulse and Neznayka head in for their extermination work, after business hours. While Pulse is by no means socially adept, Neznayka is largely able to cover for him with her excellent acting to keep security from being too suspicious. After doing some basic 'checks' on the first floor, the two move up to the second floor, where their target room is. There, they discuss with security, where the head of the team notes that the target room is off-limits.
Neznayka's excellent acting and the suggestion that there might be severe damage to the walls in that area are enough to unsettle the security team notably, and she decides to take advantage of that. After a few more minutes of scanning, she informs the security team that there is indeed notable damage, but she and her co-worker can repair it. This is backed up by falsified camera problems in the all-important room, courtesy of some additional host work by Pulse. This comes at the cost of the host spider's well-being, who gets marked several times and then stuck in a reboot loop.
Neznayka uses the desire of this security contractor to avoid pissing off her boss to weasel her way into supervised access to the room. First, though, they head back to their van for equipment, and Lumin provides Pulse with a datachip that has a sprite loaded onto it, for use with the terminal that Jurgen makes his investments from.
The final stage of the run is tense - Neznayka puts on an incredibly distracting and highly absurd show as she attempts to catch her own well-trained rats, drawing both supervising security personnel into her shenanigans. All the while, Pulse pulls off the best physical stealth of his life, and manages to palm the datachip with the sprite and then his own UDC into Jurgen's secure terminal. When necessary, he even manages to convincingly dive under a nearby desk, going after a 'rat'.
Despite a powerful databomb on the terminal, and an automatic shutdown procedure putting a tight time limit on their operations, Pulse and Lumin's sprite manage to plant the malware they need, and things go smoothly from there - the two exit the HPL building and get back to the van. Home free.
Aftermath
The runners inform the Johnson about their success and are paid or provided with gear accordingly. Lumin is potentially interested in following up on this, but that'll have to be another time.
Unbeknownst to the runners, Red Ledger has just gained a substantial passive income stream, solving their financial woes for the time being. With the ability to hire more runner teams in the long term, surely their star will continue to rise...
Rewards
- 26k nY OR uninstalled cyberware, firearms, ordnance, and armor up to avail 17 (13 RVP)
- 5 Karma (5 RVP)
- 12 CDP (6 RVP) + 2 CDP Base
Optional Contact: Everest Pike (C5/L1, 5RVP/10CDP)
+2 Red Ledger rep. Not that the runners know it...
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Chameleon:I think that this was the toughest job yet. Damn good thing that this was the toughest team yet. Pulse and Lumin did the bulk of the hard work and Neznayka and her pets did the rest. Having a direct neural connection to a couple of matrix whizzes host diving into a financial services corporation was a truly unique experience. A fragging financial services firm! Think about the security. Once they were done my work was a cakewalk. I've mixed feelings about Neznayka and her pets. Sometimes I think she's the most impressive....sometimes it's the rats. I have aspirations as a professional liar and I have to say that the exterminators was a master class in improvisation and the short con. Most of the time I'm happy to walk away alive from a run. This time I'm saving the video of pigeons and rats erupting from a conference room wall for future giggles.
Neznayka: I will admit, corporations and banks are not a place I normally am comfortable in. They have so many little rules you need to remember. However, I was able to make it work out and remember enough of them! Morozko and his team were on their A-game! They are getting many treats for this one. Everyone else was very professional! Chameleon is very ... boring? That sounds so rude but I do not mean it like that! I am very striking so having someone that can go places and not be noticed is very very useful! And he was very kind to the rats. The two deckers, I will admit, I do not really understand the extent of their work but they accomplished the job and Pulse was clever enough not to give anything away when we went in. That is receiving of a positive word in my book! Did you know there are drones that look almost exactly like pigeons? I will need to look into this! People do not give pigeons a second look.
Lumin: This was... A Weird run, honestly. I spent most of my time slamming into the wall of hosts and still got paid, and made at least an ally out of Pulse--As weird as it is to think that he lives on a completely different side of the country, and just takes a spiritual minecart over. Maybe I should meet this spirit, and see how that sort of travel feels. Maybe I don't have to stay in the city after all...