Séquence en Cascade

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Séquence en Cascade
Date2085-05-19
GMSarcarian
LocationMCT Blacksite, SOX
Status Threat Level: Extreme
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven
Alexandria
Amrei Veidt
Atlantean Foundation
The Helix
Mitsuhama Computer Technologies CFD
Angra Mainyu
Astrid
Red Ribbon
C-Unit 537 - Hunter
Automated Security
Cyborg
Headcases
Casualties and losses
Ahriman was lost in the metaplanes. Blacksite severely damaged. Infosec regarding technology compromised. Cyborg killed in liquid nitrogen.


Summary

A rescue plot is arranged to get Ahriman out of MCT's clutches; a CFD outbreak throws a wrench in their plans and they have to divert to a more esoteric research section of the complex, causing Ahriman to technically escape the site, only to get stranded worse than before.

Background

Ahriman couldn't escape from MCT's clutches during Contrôle d'Accès, although the megacorp also wasn't aware she joined up for a shadowrun. Since she was wanted by them for years and they insisted on keeping her, she was transferred to an advanced research facility operated by the megacorp during the events of Point Insertion. Since then, she's worked quietly to try and prepare for an eventual break-out, especially since she now has confirmation that a rescue is on the way.

West Wing

The meet is difficult since Red Ribbon manages to get the team into the site despite automated perimeter security. Something's wrong in the research complex and everyone can feel it; despite the runners' allies getting inside access to the security systems thanks to Ahriman's data tapping, there's not enough of a welcoming committe as they expected. Joining up with Ahriman happens soon after most of the team gets physically inside the facility on its western side and they plan their extraction soon.

Center Conflict

The security detail of the MCT blacksite isn't fully defeated. While the team starts uncovering more and more signs of sabotage by the CFD victims, several automated defenses and more notably a security cyborg haunts the party throughout their venture through the complex. Ahriman suggests they take a quick detour into the warehouses and armories, equipping herself with her old reliable archeology power armor and an experimental gluon disruptor weapon. With a few plastic explosive charges in hand, they begin making their way east while evading most of the genuinely concerning threats that the surviving security poses.

The first time they come across the cyborg, it's patrolling the corridors for anything alarming or unrecognized. Thankfully, they avoid its gaze this time around. The second time around, Ahriman knows this isn't like before and uses her last C4 charges to collapse a whole lot of steel piping and concrete on the borg, trapping it under the rubble. This lets the party continue forward, making contact with some of the surviving science personnel. Unfortunately, they're between the team and the required access points to more of the complex's electronic systems. Ahriman swears to help them take the complex down since the monad personalities in the headcases have a bone to pick with MCT. Hunter also uncovers some clues about his origins thanks to this same connection.

The Hidden Agenda

On their way across the complex, the team has concerns over whether they should just bail. Ahriman, having spent several months in something akin to indentured servitude has too much built up resentment to quit now just to run and decides to continue helping the headcases. Part of the team decides to evacuate now while the remainder head all the way east with the headcases. Unfortunately, the security borg from before intercepts them again, as if the automated defenses and environmental hazards of a research lab falling apart weren't enough. Ahriman manages to land a grenade just in time on a cooling pipe and freeze the thing solid before blasting it apart with her experimental weaponry, ridding the world of the machine for good.

The headcases disseminate throughout the secret research lab, preparing to start really breaking it apart. Alexandria and S-K has already managed to vacuum most of the research data they were after thanks to the connections the runners arranged to the offline hosts. Ahriman finds the manatech portal to the metaplanes that she'd helped work on in the last half a year and, with the remaining security approaching, decides to run into it, attaching explosives on the portal generators and dismantling it for good. Having escaped the blacksite, Ahriman's finally clear... in a manner of speaking. The headcases cause enough chaos to let the rest of the team exfiltrate without too much issue and the security elements are left with a number of monads to contend with.

Aftermath

Saeder-Krupp acquires the schematics and prototypes needed to reverse-engineer MCT's plasma weapons technology. This will probably not bode well for people running against S-K in the future. The Atlantean Foundation acquires MCT's magitech research on stabilizing metaplanar portals and exotic mana-sensitive materials. The Helix acquires a trove of proprietary research on resonance theory and the genetic origin of virtual kinetic abilities. Ahriman, infected with CFD and clad in her arcano-archeology suit, vanishes into the metaplanar portal to the depths of the plane of earth. Astrid recovers the missing Andre, along with several tribe members who are now monads in the bodies of MCT scientists. Hunter kills Dr. Kobayashi after receiving information regarding the PTT program that created him and the woman he's looking for. Red Ribbon brings a trio of SOX technomancers back to Seattle and begins acclimating them to life outside of The Zone.

Rewards

  • 50,000 nuyen (25 RVP)
  • 15 karma (15 RVP)
  • 22 CDP (10 RVP)
  • +1 Street Cred (assaulting a MCT black site to free captive technos)
  • +5 Atlantean Foundation reputation
  • +5 S-K reputation
  • -20 MCT reputation
  • IG/Ascension ordeal
  • Optional Contact: Alexandria (C8/L2 Artificial Intelligence) for 9 RVP or 18 CDP
  • Optional Contact: Amrei Veidt (C6/L2 S-K Prime Operative) for 7 RVP or 14 CDP
  • Optional Gear Reward: Exotic Weapons (Lasers, Nonconventional Ballistics, Non-Ballistic Firearms), Lucifer Lamps, Pi-Tac Units, Restorative Genetic Treatments (Cellular Repair and Essence Revitization)

For Ahriman:

  • Can exchange RVP from karma and CDP as nuyen towards the microwave gun.
  • Quality Buy-Off: Records On File (MCT)
  • Incomplete Deprogramming (CFD)

For Astrid:

  • Optional Quality: Spirit Whisperer
  • Incomplete Deprogramming (CFD)

For Hunter:

  • Optional Quality: Adrenaline Surge

For Red Ribbon:

  • Optional Quality: Instinctive Hack

Game Quotes

Player After Action Reports (AARs)