Soft Beats of an Icy Heart
| Soft Beats of an Icy Heart | |||||||||
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| Part of Cross Flight Love Fight | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Cecelia Cross | Horizon | ||||||||
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Magnum Triple Trouble Babylon Sp4rks |
Horizon CorpSec Goons Horizon CorpSec Spider | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Horizon CorpSec Goons x5, Horizon CorpSec Spider | |||||||||
Summary
Cecelia Cross hires a group of runners to deal with a Horizon transporting a technomancer in a coma.
Background
Cecelia, after Crash 2.0, Emerged as a technomancer much to her horror given how much she blames technomancers for causing the Crash and destroying Cross Applied Technologies almost overnight. However, over time she realized that there were useful powers that she could use to rebuild Cross. She also became more and more curious about Crash 2.0 and the the otaku and technomancers that were still alive from that time. She established the Lucien Cross Memorial Centre for Survivors of Crash 2.0. A medical facility for those who fell into comas after the Crash. Behind that, however, it's a way of studying technomancers and the effects of Deus and the Crash on them.
Keeping herself apprised of situations, Cecelia found out about a technomancer who was captured by Horizon SpecOps named Julian Eleys who was another such otaku who fell unconscious during the Crash who was going to be experimented on. So she decided to hire runners to deliver Julian to her.
The Meet
Cecelia calls Babylon, Triple Trouble, Magnum and Sp4rks to E-Vue, the popping club that caters to CorpKids. The troll bouncer recognizes Babylon as she cuts the line again and is not impressed when Triple Trouble tries to pick his pocket. However Cecelia's bodyguard arrives and lets the runners into the club, bringing them up to the private booth where Cecelia looks out over the crowds of the club. She explains that this job must be done without bringing attention to her on the side of either Horizon or CATco. She explains that Horizon is bringing a technomancer into town to do research on them. They are being transported by Horizon CorpSec in a cryochamber. Their destination is a Horizon Facility in Auburn where they perform "metahuman research".
Cecelia offers the group 6000 Nuyen each for the job, but explains that the priority here is the rescue of the technomancer, rather than hurting Horizon. The group agrees to the job and heads off to begin planning.
The Plan
Attempting to gather information on the route of the vehicles coming into Seattle, Magnum lets Sp4rks get into the back of his truck while Babylon summons a spirit to watch over the decker as he goes and seeks out the Horizon facility. He finds the host on the grid and manages to sneak into the Host, avoiding the look of the Spider as he attempts to get a hold of the file labelled "Upcoming Operations." The file is rigged with a Data Bomb and is detonated by Sp4rks' attempt to edit the file, while he suffers some severe damage from the Data Bomb he is not detected by the Spider and attempts to grab the file which is luckily not destroyed by the detonation. As Sp4rks attempts to mark the file, his Overwatch Score increases to 40 and the host Marks him and begins to send out Black IC to stop the intrusion.
Sticking around to finish the job, Sp4rks manages to destroy the Black IC and avoid detection by the Spider before grabbing the file and jacking out of the Matrix before the Spider had a chance to respond to the intrusion. While the Decker went back to Magnum's house and began to repair his deck, the team gathered their information about the route and discovered there was a point where the convoy was going to leave the I-5 and detour through Tacoma. Learning that there was a checkpoint owned by Aztechnology that they seemed to be avoiding, however, thanks to Babylon calling up Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III they learned that the checkpoint was also being used by Federated Boeing to try and catch Horizon moving this person into the city. Magnum also calls up Forty-Four to act as fire support for when the cars start.
The Run
Early in the morning right before the convoy was meant to enter Seattle, Babylon astrally projects to check out if there's any magical defenses around them. Not seeing any, she prepares a Spirit of Man and a Guardian Spirit to sent after the cars. However as she returns to her body, she discovered that her Parole Officer called her and was upset that she didn't pick up, and ordered her to come to the local office to explain herself. Babylon tries to lie her way through the situation, including calling up her Ancients buddies in order to create a distraction for them, however Charles sees through the lies and sends a car to pick up the Criminal SINner.
Triple Trouble acts as magical support for the team, and prepares to influence the driver after Sp4rks gets marks on both vehicles. He reboots the CorpSec Spider's deck and forces the cars into manual mode. Babylon, as an astral form, casts a spell to terrify the CorpSec and make them want to flee while Magnum attempts to keep up on his bike. Babylon's spirits both manifest within the cars and cause the CorpSec to freak out further. Sp4rks engages the emergency break on both cars and it causes them to crash. Killing all the CorpSec instantly, only avoiding killing the target they were trying to acquire by having Babylon's Guardian Spirit using the Guard power in order to protect the cryopod. One of the coolant tubes springs a leak, but thanks to Magnum and Sp4rks, they are able to repair it and get the location of the Lucien Cross Memorial Centre. They drive to the location, and are greeted by a nurse and armed guards who bring the cryopod into the facility.
Aftermath
After delivering the cryopod, the runners are paid. Cecelia uses some of her contacts to allow Babylon to get out of her Parole check-in and admits that the two of them are friends. Sp4rks goes back to the Horizon host where he had seen the Spider using Biofeedback and decided to send a message. Through an intense Matrix Combat, the Spider is sent out of the Matrix with a bricked deck and severe dumpshock damage, proving Sp4rks' Matrix superiority.
Rewards
- 2 CDP
- 6000 Nuyen (3 RVP)
- 10 Karma (10 RVP)
- Optional Contact: Cecelia Cross (at 4/2) (5 RVP)
- For Babylon +1 Loyalty for RVP
- For Sp4rks: Optional Codeslinger(Dataspike) at Chargen Price
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Babylon
Oh Cecelia. As it turns out the ice queen has a heart after all - I had a hunch, but it's nice to know I haven't lost my knack for reading people. Can't say I expected to be rescuing a frozen toaster-fragger for her, but I'm not complaining - I got to help her out and get paid for doing it, and I even got her to admit we're friends! :D Even got Brody J to spill some of his secrets, so I'm sure there'll be more work soon, plus my good deed for the month has been done and I got my parole officer off my back for the moment, so I'm feeling pretty great right now!
Triple Trouble
There were unfortunately not many opportunities to act on this job. I thought Ace Powers said this would be a good test of my abilities! Oh well, hopefully next time. :(