Sim Hell (Remastered)

I hate the foundation.

But we had to go there anyway in order to kill Pierce, so I really had no other option. And so, Me, Freddie, Neon and Captain Cancer (Best not to ask where he came from) plummeted into it, knowing full well that we'd end up having to navigate nonsense dream logic in order to find the nodes and their connections. In theory all we needed to do was indentify the control node and then interact with it to destroy the hose. Of course, since it could be anything and the interaction could be anything, that just meant we were casting a very wide net.

We got an eleventh hour call from Dayglo, which was her asking for help to go reclaim the spirit of the Brooklyn Bridge form Aztechnology for some random neo-anarchist reasons. We said 'yeah, that's nice, will totally get on it' in a way that was a massive brush-off and instead asked her to watch Nobosuke Yamura’s yacht. With that minor obstacle out of the way, we jacked in.

The planet Dacron in the Polyester System

So the four of us ended up on a space station of some sorts orbiting the ringed gas giant of Dacron in where they mine gas or some other sci-fi junk that I don't care about. Cutting a long story short, we figured out we were in some sort of tawdry sci-fi soap opera (really) where the nodes were the major characters and the data trail were their awkward and forced relationships.

Cutting a long story short (which was mostly Captain Cancer ogling the station's doctor) we IDed the control node as being the captain based on his apparent function and his relationships with the other characters. I figured the best way to find out how the nodes worked was to hang around him. So I introduced myself to him, explaining that I was a new transfer to the stations' command staff and then immediately breaking down into a trite sob story about how I was a poor girl from the third moon of Rayon or some other crap and how I really needed this job and whatever else. He was eating out of my hands in seconds.

An obvious location for cheap soap opera drama

I was able to then use him to reset the host and we escaped from there and go back to the real world (Some details omitted for brevity) which served to completely destroy the Pierce CFD clones while also serving to remind me why I hate the Foundation. Oh, and we found out that Yamura was Shin Okabe's son, and that the target of the whole mess was a meeting of the Big Ten's leaders at the Manhattan Corporate Court offices.

Not that the latter mattered, as we found that Abigail Hudson was fully de-Pierced. AS quick scan by Dr Sleep told us that the Nanites inside her were fully inert and would flush from her system eventually. We figured that Yamura would know by now, so we called Dayglo to see what was happening with the yacht. The results were somewhat surprising, as Dayglo demanded to know who the hell I was, how I got her number, and why there was a fat guy sitting on her couch eating pizza and corn chips. (Hi Benny!)

A quick exchange told made me realize what had happened. The last thing Dayglo remembered was going to meet Teh Dave to try and bury the hatchet batten the pair of them. That had also been several months ago. In short, she'd been infected with a Pierce Clone all along, which was a fair explanation as to why she was so utterly arse-useless. And in response, by our leaving her out of the loop we'd inadvertently been protecting our own operations against discovery Go accidental compartmentalization or something.

While we were in the middle of explaining everything, I also told Neon to activate the remote killswitch she'd placed in the original Pierce terminal back home in Seattle. She denied that she had done such a thing and then went ahead and did it anyway.

Using the call history from Dayglo's comm we went ahead and contacted Yamura. He was aware of what had happened (confirming our suspicions) and we basically called him out, demanding that he come meet us while holding Pierce v1.0 over him as a threat. He agreed, clearly indicating that it was simply because we had left him no choice, offering to meet me alone outside the now-burned Safehouse under the Manhattan bridge.

Naturally I had the entire team on standby lurking nearby, so when I met him I was ready for anything. To say that he was unhappy was an understatement. He'd basically lost everything and been put in a situation were he couldn't go back. He did still have the forges that were constructing the nanites yes, but he would have to basically restart his plan from the ground up. Oh, and he knew that we'd broken Peirce because his wife had suddenly stopped being perfectly nice and obedient to him. So in addition to all else, he's an utter creep.

It's at that point that Captain Cancer told me that his Aura was all over the place; he was not only masking it, but then had a physical mask spell dropped over that. Knowing full well what was about to happen, I simply went for my gun before he could react. One bullet went straight between his eyes and a dead Red Sam hit the floor.

The perfect place for a supervillain to work from

A quick astral Recon by Captain Cancer told us that the Yacht had suddenly left the harbor and was in motion. We quickly set off after it, tearing through the city at speed while hoping to either stop it or at least, get to another boat. Captain Cancer provided a solution by dropping a mass confusion spell on the deck to great effect. The yacht veered off course and ploughed into a marina, marooning itself while giving us easy access to board it.

I got there first, opening up with a couple of Neurostun grenades to drop those on the outside. A heavily dug in Red Sam responded, only to be hosed down by a hail of fire form Freddie's Rotordrones and his Steel Lynx. With Neon jamming their comms we had a brief window in which to act, and I took every advantage of that. I boarded the ship, rifle in hand, ready to end this once and for all.

I have geeked several of these now. I am the big time

Entering the back of the yacht, I found Yamura there along with a woman in Red Sam armour blocking the way, and a boat behind the pair of them. Neon warned me that something had just thrown her Deck offline and rebooted it, which meant that I didn't have much time. So I took a gamble and told the Sam that her husband had deliberately brainwashed her and taken away her free will. That got her to step aside so I could confront the soon to be ex-suit himself.

He was in a bad situation, but he decided to make it a lot worse on himself. I pointed out that there was a Steel Lynx outside waiting to geek him the instant he tried getting away on his boat. He replied by pointing out that he was also a Technomancer, and then using the opportunity to take control of said Steel Lynx. Of course, what he should have done was go for the boat regardless as Captain Cancer used a bit of Magic Fingers to start it up without him. And then while he was distracted, I cut him in half with a burst from my rifle. Idiot.

Quickly recovering the drones (Thinman had managed to get himself gunned down during the firefight) we got the ever-living hell out of there. That was a good move, given that not only were there several dozen Lone Star cop cars on the way, but a pair of Reneraku LAVs were also inbound, probably packed with more angry men in red who wouldn't take kindly to the several dead ones we'd left behind.

We laid low at Dayglo's place (Which also amounted to effectively reintroducing ourselves to her and explaining everything that had happened in the last six or so months) while also sending the full details of what had happened to the one Renraku Johnson who we don't completely hate. Between her and Yamura's pissed off ex, we were pretty certain that none of his equipment would survive.

After that, the only thing left to do was another meeting with our SK employer, She seemed to be very happy with what we'd done, and how we had fulfilled the original job she hired us for while also doing about a billion other things as well. She out and made us a ‘come work for us full-time' offer, and I did manage to have enough decorum not to tell her to shove it. So instead we took our original cash payment (even if Freddie still wanted a cargo plane...) while she offered us with either more cash or access to other weapons and equipment. It's a hard call, but I'm leaning towards the former as you know the latter I going to come with strings attached. Never deal with a company owned by a dragon, after all.

After that, there was really nothing left to do but lie back and soak in Dayglo's pool for a while as we plan our next move. We might go back to Seattle or we might stay here in Manhattan for a while. Either way, I never want to go back to a Foundation ever again.