The Steps Are Paved With Good Intentions

The Steps Are Paved With Good Intentions
Part of Nanomachines, Son
Date 2080-12-18 GM Darklordiablo Location Seattle
Belligerents
Frag Face Marionette Purkinje Spider Trash Panda	SpinGlobal
Casualties and losses
	Countless employees and security personnel

Summary

A bunch of crazy people decide to challenge SpinGlobal to a battle of the bands to distract them from protecting a prototype nanocybernetic component.

Background

The Order of the Delayed Calamity has been researching ways to combat the Null Council. They've made a breakthrough recently, discovering that a prototype null monad cyborg is in production. One of the required parts is in a nanotech production plant owned by SpinGlobal. They hire a team of runners to either destroy or capture it.

The Meet

The team meets with the Order's liaison, who explains the situation. He gives information about the component, noting that it is contained in a 1 x 1 x 2 meter crate and is scheduled to be shipped off in two days. He says there is a bonus for capturing it instead of destroying it, in order to learn what the Null Council is doing.

Legwork

Spider and Purkinje spend some time researching the facility and learn that there is a massive sonic defense mechanism that will trigger if an ultrasonic proximity sensor is triggered. They also find that there are secret basement levels not included in the public plans, and these levels are heavily secured.

The Plan

After giving it some thought, Purkinje has the dumbest idea she's ever had: challenging SpinGlobal to a battle of the bands in order to distract their Combat DJs so the rest of the team can go in with lighter resistance. She runs Galatea's percussionist autosoft, and Marionette runs a performance activesoft on his skillwires. In the meantime, the team starts calling in favors from their contacts to get an impromptu stage and sound setup to be delivered. They manage to get a junkyard owner to provide what they need, though it's grungy. Trash Panda casts Fashion on their armor to make it look more like a post-apocalyptic stage outfit. They were ready for their nonsense.

The Run

Marionette, Purkinje, and Galatea tromp on the impromptu stage outside of the building and start blaring Darude's "Sandstorm," naming their band Clueless Vigilante Countess. This succeeds in getting SpinGlobal's attention, and a stage rises from the ground outside with three Combat DJs on it, appearing to have been prepared for this exact circumstance. Then, the sonic defense system triggers. The windows on the side of the glass building facing the band magnetize and fuse into a giant, building-sized speaker. Trash Panda leads the infiltration team inside and manages to crack a door open and get them inside quietly. Or it seems quiet, next to the deafening roar of the music outside. Spider manages to crack the host and sabotage the speaker before it can be used, and the SpinGlobal band struggles to adapt. Clueless Vigilante Countess fires back with an excellent cover of Linkin Park's "In The End," and the crowd goes wild.

Inside the sublevels, the team searches around and finds a vault door. Frag Face takes exception with its paint job and vaporizes it, surprising a Razor Elite Security™ guard, whom he dropkicks into a wall, accidentally breaking his neck. The team runs in and continues looking for the package, only to run into another squad of Razor Elite Security™. These charge at them and mostly end up knocking themselves out by skating into a wall. Trash Panda finishes off the rest. The team descends to the next sublevel, where Frag Face deletes another vault door. Meanwhile, the Combat DJs deploy a series of speaker drones to make up for the sabotage of the large one. Spider sabotages most of the drones to play anti-Spinrad EDM, which doesn't seem to interrupt the Combat DJs too much, but they fail to impress the crowd with their performance. Clueless Vigilante Countess follows it up with The Foo Fighters' "The Best Of You," which is even more well received than their previous number.

The infiltration team finds the storage room where things to be shortly shipped out are placed, but the package is not there. Trash Panda suggests that it might have been installed in someone already to be delivered covertly that way. As they head back up to the cybersurgery room, the Combat DJs take control of their sound system and finish with a big number at their full power, but they still somehow fail to capture the crowd's favor next to Clueless Vigilante Countess' finale, Queen's "We Will Rock You." The infiltration team finds a squad of SpinGlobal Cybercentaurs in the cybersurgery room along with a troll cyborg patient. The cybercentaurs begin firing grenades out of launchers mounted in their liminal bodies. Frag Face severs one's torso from the horse part, and Trash Panda fires off a spell, but things go wrong when Spider attempts to shoot the troll patient and ends up nicking critical structural material in the prototype arm and unleashes a swarm of nanites. The team runs, tossing copious HE grenades behind them. A fire erupts, and it spirals out of control, eventually bringing down the entire building, causing it to collapse accordion-style as Clueless Vigilante Countess finishes their number, jumps off the stage, and detonates all of the junkyard gear.

The team members rendezvous in Marionette's Westwind and speed away from law enforcement. Nanite scanners indicate the infiltration team is utterly covered in nanites, but they currently appear to be inert because the prototype was destroyed. They are given nanite-cleaning treatments and end up safe.

Aftermath

The client is satisfied with the destruction of the prototype, but regrets that it couldn't be recovered. SpinGlobal begrudgingly accepts that they were beaten at their own game but challenges the team to a rematch later, meanwhile gifting them super special high tech instruments.

Rewards

• 15,000¥ client payment
• 5,000¥ in tips
• 4 Karma
• 1 Street Cred
• A SpinGlobal Rising Star Synthstrument (Internal)
• +1 Faction Rep (Order of the Delayed Calamity)
• +1 Faction Rep (SpinGlobal)
• 1 Public Awareness (Purkinje & Marionette)
• 2 CDP

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Purkinje

Hahaha. Hahahahahaha. I can't believe that worked! I was sort of just expecting us to be a distraction, but we somehow won against their band on their own turf. I am going to have fond memories of this and treasure it always. Also, I'm really proud of Galatea for her drum solo at the end there! She's very well programmed! I'd better lay low for a while, I feel like I drew too many eyes.

Spider

Huh. We were supposed to get the nanites, and instead I accidentally released them. We did beat their band though, so now I have this cool synth. I guess I should learn to play it?