Brainscan – Revelations
Runners: Fingers, Barger, Neo, Running Wolf, Red
Hammer
Another
rainy Tuesday in Seattle, like all Tuesdays in Seattle. The day started
normally like any other on the mean streets, however things suddenly things
started to go a little weird for the Runners. First up Neo, who got an
email on his cyberdeck asking him if he believed in the Ghost in The
Machine. Then Barger, while watching his favourite cartoons
suddenly noticed a message scrolling across the screen "Who do you
trust"? Red Hammer, while out shopping at Weapons World
noticed that the Lone Star street security cameras were following her
wherever she went. Running Wolf, Fingers and Barger also
noticed on occasions when they passed electronic advertising hoarding that
similar messages appeared as they went by.
Barger also got a call from one
of his Fixers that people had been asking questions on the street about him
and his friends. Gathering in Joes for lunch as normal, things got even
weirder when Joe told them that some "punk kid" had left a
data-chip for them. Neo slotted the chip after checking it out carefully .The
chip contained an address (in the Barrens), a date (today) and a time (9.00
PM). The Runners. Deciding to play along the Runners decided to check out the
place first before the pre-arranged time, finding it a burned out apartment
block trashed in the recent riots during the Great Blackout.
That night at the appointed time the Runners arrived back at the block. As
they got out of the car they could hear somewhere inside a phone
ringing. Hurrying inside they found a phone sitting on the floor of an empty
apartment. As Barger answered the call, the vid-screen flashed up a
street-map. Both Neo and Barger recognised the location - couple
of blocks deeper into the Barrens. Getting back to the car they made their
way there - discovering an abandoned games arcade the door invitingly left
open. On entering all the arcade screens burst into life and the word "Hello"
scrolled across all of them simultaneously. As the runners responded,
questions like the ones they'd all seen that morning began appearing. After
the runners had answered another map appeared, then the screens went dead.
Heading to this location, an abandoned office block, the runners met a young
otaku called Ronin who promised to tell them what had really been going on
and who, or rather what, they'd been working for recently. He then
introduced them to Dodger (a legendary decker and shadowrunner) who told them
that he and Ronin were members of an otaku group called Overwatch and
everything is connected to what's going on down at the Renraku
Arcology.
The official story is the Renraku America's headquarters, the SCIRE
arcology in Seattle, went nuts: The
security systems started shooting people, the place was sealed with 100,000
inhabitants inside, the Matrix connections there went down, and nobody, least
of all Renraku, knew what was going on. Well, Overwatch knows: an artificial
intelligence named Deus took over the place. Renraku and the UCAS military is
currently reclaiming the arcology floor by floor (they're up to floor 13 now
)and freeing the people trapped inside. Deus, who has been
experimenting and "adapting" some of the people inside, has his own
plans and whatever they are they will not be good for homo sapiens.
Deus agents are known as Banded and basically have had their brain re-wired
to interface them constantly with Deus's systems making them semi-autonomous
extensions of his core system. Deus has been getting some of his Banded
outside by smuggling them in groups of civilians freed by the military.
Recently Deus, through his agents outside, has been employing the Runners on
a series of seemingly unconnected runs, which has brought them to the
attention of Overwatch. Ronin tells them that basically they've been working
for the bad guys and its time now to make a choice. Neo decided to check out
some of this info on the Matrix but the Runners agree in principle that
helping a homicidal, egomaniacal, artificial intelligence with
delusions of godhood is probably not a sound career move and agree to help
Overwatch.
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Friends: Overwatch, Dodger
Foes:
Deus ; Renraku
World
events:
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