Something Bugging Me
| Something Bugging Me | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Diana Wyatt | Ares | ||||||||
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Ca1yps0 Pell Relay Tupelo |
Braeden Wyatt Braeden's Secretary Bug Shaman Guard True Form Spirit x2 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Bug Shaman, Guard, True Form Spirit x2, Diana Wyatt | |||||||||
Summary
Diana Wyatt asks the runner team to investigate her husband, Braeden, because he has been acting odd since returning from a corporate retreat with his secretary. The team decides he's infected, though there's disagreement about whether it's by bugs or CFD. After confirming that the targets are infected by bug spirits, the party decides not to engage in the open, but the target is long gone. In reporting the news to the J, the team discovers that she--too--has been turned. They then kill the shaman and guards overseeing her and attempt to release her from her cocoon only to find that the process has been lethal to Diana as well.
Background
Ares executives and personnel attended a conference in hotel where an entire floor was barricaded to the public and staff. During this event, at least some members were turned into bug spirits, including Braeden (worker spirit) and his secretary (Nymph) causing the change in behavior noticed by Diana Wyatt. Diana hired a private investigator, but he turned up no information of note.
The Meet
The team joins Diana Wyatt in a coffee shop to hear her plea for investigating her husband. After visiting a corporate retreat, he's acting like a new person and spending a lot of time with his secretary. She offers the team 8,000 nuyen a head to find evidence of his cheating or what have you since her private investigator turned up nothing. The team, feeling bad for the woman, agreed
The Plan
Ca1yps0 and Relay would provide matrix searching capability while Pell would provide astral perception and Tupelo would attempt to coax information out of the target socially.
The Run
Relay's search uncovered an entire floor of an Ares subsidiary hotel was off limits from other guests. No selfies or information was leaked in any noticeable fashion over social media or web forums during that window. Ca1yps0 managed to hack the commlinks of Braeden and his secretary. Braeden's had notes about his life, his wife, and how to act normal. The secretary had notes about Braeden and to maintain a social media presence.
Given the retreat information in combination with the commlink data and his repeated interactions with bug spirits, Relay immediately assumed that Braeden is infected. Ca1yps0--a technomancer--believed it was more likely to be CFD. Relay wanted to convert the mission to wetwork, but the team was not in agreement as there was not nearly enough evidence yet.
Tupelo asked Diana Wyatt to let us know when her husband would be in public. Tupelo attempted to socialize with the target, pretending to be a schoolmate. While he didn't get much from the target, Pell didn't manage to glean information about Braeden being a bug spirit, and noted that it may actually be the secretary who was infected, if anyone was.
With this information in mind, the team decided to meet the secretary at work by tracing her icon. They drove out with the intention of assensing her and scanning her with a nanite scanner. As Tupelo distracted the woman, Pell assensed her and discovered that she was a Nymph spirit. Scanners confirmed that no nanites were present. The secretary attempted to shoo the team of runners away as Braeden arrived. A second assensing showed that he was also a worker spirit, but this information was missed on the previous pass due to masking. Relay wanted to assassinate the pair while they were distracted. Ca1yps0, afraid of the imminent danger in assassinating the pair so close to an Ares facility, vehemently disagreed with that plan. Pell suggested that the team should hang back and tail the spirits as they left the location.
The team retreated, but left drones off-site to scout for movement from the targets' vehicles. After a day, there was no movement, so the team decided to contact and update the J. There was no answer on her commlink. The team piled into the van, and Relay sent a drone ahead. There were signs of a struggle, and a boot attempted to squish Relay's Fly-Spy as he investigated the basement. The team moved into position as soon as possible.
Ca1yps0 provided calibration and I am the Firewall support to the team, as Pell, Tupelo and a Roto-Drone kicked in the basement door. The team narrowly dodged a comet slung by the bug shaman, but the spirit and its guard were quickly dispatched by Pell and the drone. Two true form bug spirits manifested through the floor, and Tupelo open fired, winging one. The team cleared out the remaining spirits using led elemental spells, and Pell made her way to the basement to try and save Diana Wyatt. Unfortunately, the transformation was too far along, and Diana was lost.
Aftermath
Diana Wyatt is dead. The shaman, two true form spirits, and a guard are dead. The worker spirit born from Braeden and the Nymph from his secretary are either holding up inside an Ares facility or have been moved. Relay, believing his lack of leadership caused the Diana's death, is trying to track down the spirit.
Rewards
- 14 karma
- 2 CDP
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Relay
I keep running into these fraggin' bugs ( Bug1.sim / Bug2.sim / Bug3.sim ) and I recognized the symptoms. I saw the patterns. I knew it. I knew it and I couldn't convince my teammates that I was right. Because I second-guessed myself, two bugs are free, one of which could become a queen. And--just as important--an innocent woman was turned against her will, ending up dead. It was our job to help her and we didn't...it was our job to figure out what was wrong, and I caved at every step. Diana's dead because of me.
Pell
Fraggin' bugs, fraggin' all over fraggin' Seattle.
...I'm not sure which feels worse: not forgiving myself for messing up with the J, or Bear doing so because there's nothing else I could have done.
Ca1yps0
Bugs. Awful. Haven't dealt with those things in years, and it was not a pleasant reunion. Haven't had a J die on me in years either, which was a pretty damn crappy feeling. Should have had someone guarding her. It was a stupid oversight, and now she's dead... frag. I hope Relay doesn't blame himself - I shouldn't have told them to wait until we were sure. I was certain it had to be some sort of con, or that we were missing something... at least the shaman got taken out, which is more than we could have hoped for if we'd just geeked the guy and his secretary, but they got away. Just... bleh, what a mess. Gonna need a little while to process this one.