The Worm In The Apple
| The Worm In The Apple | |||||||
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| Part of Deus Machina | |||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||
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ShadowHaven Riot Calypso Night Claws - John Holis Dog of the Ditch |
Renraku | ||||||
Summary
The mysterious Johnson whose matrix persona is a floating white eye hires a team of runners to go to New York City and extract an unconventional target from a Renraku arcology with the code phrase, "I'm getting the band back together".
The Run
The team meets the Johnson in virtual space, and after agreeing to a price, arranges for the entire team to be flown to New York City and be flown back two days later. He gives their private flight pilot a device to give to them, a data storage device capable of storing and running an absolutely massive amount of data.
Once in NYC, the team sight-sees in addition to scoping out the target arcology to belay suspicion. They quietly question some people about the building, and discover that the target floor of the extraction orders a lot of server parts. They acquire burner SINs and make their way to the building, posing as a troubleshooting team.
The team manages to bluff their way past the guards into the secure basement, where they continue to bluff their way past guards. (There is a guard station at every stair and elevator access point, as well as spaced throughout the basement). After getting their biometrics taken, they are allowed down to the 5th sublevel of the basement. Once there, they proceed to the target room and discover is filled with a large server and several researchers. The researchers chastise them for entering while carrying electronics, but the team is able to convince the researchers that they are there to replace the ward surrounding the server. After getting the researchers to leave and knocking out the head researcher who stayed behind, the team accesses the server and meets Encroach, who is an absurdly powerful AI.
They tell Encroach the code phrase, and Encroach allows itself to be downloaded into the data storage device. This short-circuits the server, and the lack of power sets off the alarm. Several drones and security guards rush to the server room.
The team manages to fight off the drones and security guards - with significant resource expenditure - when an air and a fire spirit materialize on either side of the party. The spirits manage to take down one of the team members, though the team is able to recover and defeat the spirits and scrub their astral signature. Encroach offers to shut down the alarm, and it does after it dispatches the two security spiders in the offline host for the basement. The team makes their way to the elevator and at the top they manage to convince the guards that it was simply a drill (as evidenced by the alarm being off). The team quickly leaves the building.
They make their back to their coffin hotel, and crash for the night to rest off their extensive damage (except Riot who remained awake to have a spirit conceal the entire team). The next day they make their way back to the airport and their private flight takes them back to Seattle, where they deliver the data storage device - and Encroach - to a representative of the Johnson.
Aftermath
Video of Encroach and Night Claws working together surfaces on the Haven, and Encroach is recognized as a Deus fragment. The Haven as a whole realizes that someone in the ACHE now has a powerful AI/Deus fragment and an ultraviolet server under their control.
Rewards
- ¥24,000
- 4 Karma
- 2 CDP