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Brainscan – Runners Ex Machina
Runners: Fingers, Barger, Chiqua, Mouse
Arriving in
Seattle with Aneki-same, the Runners were met at the airport by
one of Overwatch's otaku who drove them to the new Overwatch HQ in Bellevue.
Once there Ronin & Dodger advised them the next step was to get
Aneki-sama into the Arcology and to jack directly into the arcology mainframe
to bypass most of the security. They'd made arrangements with the Ork
Underground who'd got a tunnel leading into one of the arcology's
sub-basements, and managed to contact one of the Resistance groups inside.
The Runners had 36 hrs to prepare as at that time the UCAS military were
planning on launching a major offensive inside the arcology which would be
perfect cover for the group's insertion.
The runners his the streets looking for arms and equipment - 24 hours later
however they got a nasty surprise. Renraku had somehow tracked them down from
Honk Kong, and after flooding the streets with corp security and Red Samurai
- were busy shaking down their contacts and offering 100,000 nuyen for
information about them. Deciding that it was getting too hot, especially
after Mouse's apartment was raided, the runners drove around for a
while before asking Overwatch to accelerate the timeframe and head into the
arcology now. Somewhat reluctantly Dodger & Ronin agreed.
Meeting Dodger, Ronin, Aneki-sama and a couple of guides from the Underground
a couple of blocks from Club Penumbra, the Runners were lead through a maze
of sewers tunnels, abandoned basements and maintenance ducts to a recently
excavated tunnel that lead into the arcology. They were warned by the
underground to proceed carefully, if they were discovered and the tunnel
compromised, they'd blow it! Moving carefully through the tunnel they emerged
into an underground car park on sub-level B4 of the arcology. They barely had
time to get their bearings when round the corner squad of UCAS special forces
ran being chased by two medusa constructs. The medusae were ripping the
troopers apart when the Runners decided to intervene. Chiqua fired off
a couple of rounds of Hi-Ex which did little to dent the medusa's ablative
armour so she immediately switched to APDS, Fingers and Barger
hit the drones with a Powerball and Lightning-bolt respectively, downing the
fearsome constructs who exploded messily - killing the last of the UCAS
troopers. The Ork Underground hearing the explosions immediately detonated
the charges in the tunnel bringing the roof crashing down and effectively
sealing off the Runner's escape.
Wearily, the party began their long ascent up the arcology building using
little known maintenance stairways, engineering ducts and walkways supplied
by Mouse's matrix skills. As they progressed through the twisted and
remains of the arcology, avoiding contact with everybody and everything, they
caught fleeting glimpses of the horrific new world Deus had wrought within -
and a glimpse of what might come to pass should the AI manage to escape the
confines of the Arcology. People treated as "meat-machines"
surgically altered, manipulated, controlled and killed.
Finally, several days later, they reached the 199th floor where they finally
made contact with the Resistance. The leaders of two cells Devon and Keil,
greeted Dodger warmly though both seemed hostile in the extreme to
Aneki-sama. At a conference that evening a plan was hatched to deal
with the AI. In order to shutdown Deus it would be necessary to download his
personality in order to make sure nothing escaped. The device for this – the
Mousetrap - was located on the 272nd floor with Cham Lan Wom one of
Deus's original architects who was closely guarded by the AI's White banded -
another Resistance group, Cliber's, would meet them on 272 to cover their
retreat if necessary. Once the Mousetrap was recovered, it and Aneki-sama
needed to be taken to the arcology's mainframes on the 202nd floor
where they could be jacked-in directly to deal with the AI. The only problem
was Deus had sealed off that level, removed all breathable atmosphere and
flooded the level with nerve gas. Before that level could be entered a group
would have to seize the valve system on the 101st floor, vent the gasses, and
hold it against Deus's forces while the deckers did their thing.
Next morning the expanded group set off for the 272nd floor. Mouse
jacked in and tracked the location of Cham - he was in his apartment. Moving
carefully through the level, avoiding the spider constructs and the
skellbots, they made their way to Cham's apartment, while the Resistance
fighters took defensive positions around them. Mouse used a maglock
key to bypass Cham's security and Chiqua burst in, swiftly followed by Barger
and Fingers who took out the remaining banded with a Powerball
- but not before he used his Panicbutton. Cham seemed pathetically grateful
to be rescued and the Runners and the group began a fighting retreat back to
the maintenance stairwell, covered by Cliber's group .
Back in the Resistance's HQ another conference was held, while Mouse
examined the "Mousetrap". Cham notified them that Deus had
captured Huang in Honk Kong, at which point Cliber announced she was
taking her team to rescue him. Keil and Devon accused her of being a jumped
up Renraku toady. Before a big bust
up - Dodger engineered a compromise ... Cham would go with Cliber but they
would retain the Mousetrap and proceed with the primary mission.
The two groups, set out from the Resistance HQ on the
199th floor of the Renraku Arcology. Dr Rock and Iceface remained
behind. Team A - comprising Mouse
Dodger, Ronin, Aneki-sama, Kail and a couple of Kail's fighters - made
their way to the 201st floor and the Arcology's mainframes. Team B - other
comprising Chiqua, Fingers, Barger, Running Wolf,
Devon and some of his fighters made their way to the pumping station of the
200th floor.
As Team B arrived at the pumping station they met their inside man -
Sebastian a white Otaku who'd been feeding information to Overwatch and the
Resistance, Sebastian had already killed the technician working there and Fingers
soon set to work at the console venting the nerve gas from the level above.
Mouse and the rest of Team A, once notified that the gas had been vented made
their way swiftly to the computer room on this level and quickly jacked-in.
The pseudo reality inside the mainframes was based on a medieval Japanese
motif and even the seasoned Dodger was astounded at the superb quality of the
hyper-real resolution. Mouse however was somewhat discomfited to
notice that rather than her usual icon in the matrix, it looked like she
herself was present albeit dressed in the full armour of a samurai. Looking
ahead at a path through the virtual forest that surrounded them they could
see in the distance a keep surrounded by threatening black clouds. Dodger,
advising that now he was this side of the firewalls he could bring in some
help, created a portal through which stepped through the icon of a silver
girl he introduced as Maegera.
Team B sat back, relaxed and waited for Deus to send the inevitable forces to
investigate the pumping station - Sebastian barely had time to show Kail and
his men the next room where dozens of metahumans were plugged into the matrix
when Deus terminated him. as he did so a group of skell-bots burst in through
the door and attacked the runners.
Team A arriving at the keep discovered it was surrounded by two villages of
red and blue oni, both variously involved in maltreating metahuman slaves-
unknown to Mouse, the slaves were the virtual analogues of the poor
unfortunates forcibly jacked-in discovered by her colleagues. Ignoring the
oni, Team B made their way to the door of the keep where they used
Aneki-sama's palm print to bypass the security. Within the great hall of the
keep they found a huge tapestry of Ygdrassil - all complex routes and
branches which Mouse guessed was some kind of directory structure for
the Arcology mainframe. As she, Maegera and Dodger attempted to track some
sort of structure, a huge monster emerged from behind the tapestry and faster
than the speed of thought had swallowed both Ronin and Aneki-sama and
vanished behind the tapestry again. Stunned for a second, Mouse and the
others also dived behind the tapestry , finding a shimmering mirror, which
without hesitation they stepped through.
Team B finally managed to destroy the skell-bots Chiqua and Fingers
using hi-ex rounds, Barger with a Powerball and Running wolf
simply using her teeth. They barely had time to gather breath when they heard
the sounds of combat from the next room where Kail and his men were being
attacked by more skell-bots accompanied by the much more dangerous medusae. Chiqua
suddenly remembered the panther assault cannon she'd borrowed from Iceface
and lugged all the way here! Simultaneously a group of Blue banded changed in
through the door, however Fingers managed to drop them with a stunball
before finding the door controls
and sealing off the pumping station.
Team A, stepping through the mirror, found themselves in a threatening forest
ahead of them in a clearing lit by a pile of burning books (Deus destroying
sensitive data files), Ronin and Aneki-sama hung up on trees. As the party
approached a huge tree thrust itself up from the ground and a voice spoke
warning that Aneki and Ronin would pay for their treachery! Suddenly Maegera stepped forward and
confronted Deus - huge data streams of energy began crackling between the
two. Then Mouse noticed three black samurai heading towards them, as
Dodger and Devon moved to intercept, she ran towards Aneki-sama, and drawing
her wakisashi cut him down, noticing as she did that he seemed bright and
alert. Aneki-sama thanked her and striding forward began reciting a
haiku, tracing kanji symbols in the air, as the glowing symbols faded, he
fell to his knees and drawing a blade from beneath his robes, committed
seppuku. As he did so Deus paused in his battle with Maegera and screamed as
the ground beneath him opened and a swirling vortex of energy appeared to
suck him down, Dodger tried to stop Maegera being sucked in too but at the
last minute se turned away and was dragged down after Deus - a nanosecond
later Mouse found herself dumped out of the Matrix facing into the
muzzle of a Ruger super-warhawk!
Team B watched on the screens as the banded surrounding the pumping station
suddenly looked confused and dropping their weapons began wandering off! The
various drones - skell-bots and madusae - either stood about aimlessly or
began self-destructing!
Mouse, staring into Cliber's gun barrel,
looked on helplessly as Cham recovered the mousetrap from Dodger and Huang
casually picked up Ronin's handgun and put a single round into Aneki-sama's
forehead. Covered by the guns of Cliber's men the three retreated as Mouse
frantically reported what had happened over the comm-link to Chiqua
and the others as she tried to rouse Ronin & Devon from the dumpshock and
Dodger from his grief at losing Maegera.
A brief chase up the stairwells to the roof of the
building the runners arrived to a Renraku helicopter heading off into the
wide blue yonder. Chiqua frustrated, fired off a round from the
assault cannon to little avail, leaving the Runners somewhat disconsolate on
top of the Arcology, with at least some comfort in that Deus had been removed
from the Arcology and the UCAS military could now evacuate the surviving
civilians.
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Friends: Overwatch,
Arcology
Resistance groups
Foes:
Deus, Renraku
World
events: Probe
Race continues to be first to get a probe to the approaching Halley’s comet
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