DeckCon 2078

Well, it’s Deckcon time again, which means that we get a lot of work trashing one of the world’s largest consumer electronics shows. I mean, it’s the only reason I’d be there otherwise, as the thing’s a total nerd-fest. Just look at how excited Neon gets for it as proof. And just like last year, we were busy throughout the show doing various jobs for various people. The offers came in thick and fast, and yet we managed to be at cross-purposes throughout.

The first job we got wasn’t actually a job, however, but also was rather personal. Ishtar, our least favourite Babylonian Goddess-themed pop star, had thrown down an open challenge as a publicity stunt. She was goign to be putting on a livecast show on the first day of Deckcon, and she was openly daring people to hack the feed. Naturally, Neon immediately wanted to hack the feed, but was trying to think of a way to do such that wouldn’t immediately be giving her what she wanted.

No sooner had Neon started plotting then Freddie got a call from Lightspeed of all people. She wanted Freddie to discourage Neon from doing something stupid. Freddie being himself basically ummed and ahhed around the subject and then didn’t talk to Neon at all. Of course.

Typical Wuxing Johnson(s)

While Neon was busy plotting her revenge, we were getting actual real paying jobs. The first of which came in from one of those types of Johnson who don’t identify what company they’re from, but are blatantly obvious no less. It wasn’t just that we were meeting in a traditional Chinese teahouse that gave it away. It was the fact that there were two of them wearing identical suits that sealed the deal, given that it’s a signature of Wuxing Johnsons.

The pair of them had a job for us at Deckcon (what a surprise!). MCT was going to be rolling out a new domestic service Anthrodrone, a sector of the drone market that they were surprisingly behind in. The Wuxing Johnson(s) wanted us to trash the launch, and make MCT look bad while basically nipping the line in the bud. No, we had no idea why given that Wuxing wasn’t exactly a big name in the Robot Butler business, but we weren’t going to say no to the money on offer either. Plus it was a chance to make one of the big ten look like idiots, so I was not going to say no to that.

Typical Evo Johnson

Not to long after that, we got another job offer. This one was even more obvious as to who they were working for. They wanted to meet at an Evo-run bar on the Evo campus. Oh, and they were a lizard man. In fact, they were the same lizard man Johnson we’d met before, which means that we had a working relationship with him. Didn’t make him any less creepy, mind you. Anyway, he also had a job for us at Deckcon.

Specifically (and stop me if you’ve heard this before), MCT were rolling out an anthropomorphic domestic service drone. However, their marketing blurb had suggested that it was more then just a generic  drone like a Manservant or a Juan, and rather that it had some sort of adaptive AI system. He (and Evo) wanted to know more about it, and so were going to pay big Yens for us to steal it from MCT, along with its control system.

These were two nicely overlapping jobs that we figured we could do both of at the same time. We could trash the launch and then have Freddie literally walk off with the Drone, whereupon we’d deliver it to Lizard Johnson. Plans were put into motion, but there was still a few more things on the horizon.

Another two jobs landed in our laps after that, but these two were mutually exclusive. The SK Johnson who had gotten us into Deckcon last year wanted us to perform an extraction for her of somebody who was going to be at the convention. The target was Rafael Connor-Mason, an assistant to Ares exec Art Vogel who usually lived on the Daedalus Space Station. He was going to be planetside on some vital mission that involved him attending Deckon for a single day, and more specifically, a single event. She wanted us to extract him and bring him to her unharmed. Much of this was because he had a data lock in his head, and she wanted to know what was in that.

This became problematic when we got a job offer from the Ares Johnson who had been making our lives hell in past. He wanted us to do exactly the same thing, only obviously bringing Connor-Mason to him. So the problem was that the two jobs were basically mutually excusive. After some thought I decided that we’d do the job for SK Johnson, as she had so far provided us with so much more. Plus, frankly, I never want to speak to Ares Johnson again.

As Deckcon drew close, we began doing the groundwork for the three jobs (plus one personal revenge trip) we had in store. Step one was to find out how the Matrix security for the Ishtar concert was being handled. While SK were handling the on-site security, we figured that Ares were handling the Matrix duties for the concert, and thus would have their own security spiders for the task on-stie. Our plan was to find where they were, disable them and then let Neon do whatever she wanted to the concert. To that effect, we’d bought a little toy, being a smokecloud generator drone loaded down with nausea-inducing gas. Because sometimes revenge is a dish best served as obnoxiously as possible.

The MCT Drone launch was on day two, so we put the serious planning into that. I came up with the idea of disabling some of the behind the scenes crew and substituting ourselves for them. Once there, we’d have Freddie jump into the drone and trash the launch by basically being an idiot and screwing up the presentation. While we were at it, Neon would also screw with the AV portion of the presentation as well, helping to sell a general level of across the board ineptitude with the project. Then, once it was done, we’d simply walk out with it, stuff it in the van and drive off.

What we had to deal with was the issue of how to disable the tech staff in a way that would allow us to replace them. I came up with an idea, and turned to Cwildred for some help. In exchange for getting her in to Deckcon (Didn’t ask why she wanted to go, but I figure it wasn’t just to attend product demonstrations) she would supply party drugs to the MCT staff and then lay them out at the right time. Plus as a bonus, it meant that I’d have somebody at Deckcon to talk to.

Unfortunately, given the narrow window that he was going to be on Earth meant that we couldn’t do much to plan for snatching Connor-Mason. Rather, we’d need to wing it as we went. What we did do was take precautions to help disguise who we were so we wouldn’t have to answer two many awkward questions from Ares Johnson afterwards.

Technomancer protest in action

And so we arrived at day one of Deck Con. Things got off to a colourful start, as there was a protest by a bunch of drones out the front of Deckon, waving placards and chanting about matrix freedom and Digital Murder God (Sorry, ‘Xenosapient’) rights. Added to this, there was the occasional protesting Drone inside, which turned out to be a great cover for our own activites. I met Cwildred in there, and she confirmed that she’d found the right Charlies and was allready hooking them up with the latest drug cut the Ancients were pushing.

Having laid the groundwork for day two, we then headed off to do Neon’s personal revenge trip. Some field recon had confirmed that the Ares Spiders were in a separate control van in the carpark, so our plan was to knock them out with Neurostun and then let Neon do what she wanted to. Of course, when we got out there, things got complicated, as there was not one but two parties also making a move on the van.

Slackintosh's ride. Practical and boring

Group one was two of our old friends. Snig the Axe was lurking by the side of a GMC Universe van, watching the Ares truck and the guards surrounding it. There was also the barrel of a sniper weapon poking out of the back of the van, suggesting that Slackintosh was also waiting inside. More interestingly, the Dwarf who had been hanging around Shortcut’s Aztechnology Johnson was also lurking in the carpark; he delivered some refereshments to the Ares truck, but then lingered, glaring at it. An online check by Freddie traced a Living Persona back to him, which told us that he was a Technomancer and likely trying to dick with the performance for some reason that we could only guess at.

Inside Ishtar unveiled the centrepiece of her concert; a visualisation of the battle unfolding in the Ares Host as various Deckers and others tried to trash her concert. Yep, she was using the hack as a part of her show, and relishing in the publicity of other people in effect fighting over her. Neon was even more determined to put a stop to it, and so we went into action.

After Letting Snig do whatever he wanted to do, I slammed the door shut on Slackintosh so that she wouldn’t be able to back him up. Some non-lethal drone support helped put down the guards (and annoy Snig) while Abbey took out the Dwarf and cut him off from doing... well, whatever he was doing. A neurostun grenade inside the control truck cut off the spiders, leaving Neon free to do her thing.

And so inside, the display changed from the unfolding matrix battle to our recordings of Ishtar bragging about her manufactured publicity stunts and manipulating people into doing what she wanted. As you can imagine, that went down well. We took off and skipped the rest of day one (but not before leaving the Dwarf techno in a dumpster), but Neon was revelling in her victory.

One down, three to go. And at least we would be paid for these.

Day two rolled around; the morning was quiet, save for Cwildred reporting that she had the four MCT techs under her thumb and was ready to drop them. As soon as she got the go-ahead from us, she fed them a ‘cooked’ batch of drugs to knock them out and stash them in a corner. Then the four of us snuck backstage in some MCT service jumpsuits to do our thing. There was one small problem though; all four of the MCT staff Cwildred had knocked out were Japanese human men, a qualification that none of us met. (In fact, three out of four of us failed in two categories and we all flunked the third)

We got backstage and got ourselves set up. The plan was that Freddie would run the drone while Neon screwed with the AV. Abbey and I would be security and stay on the lookout. Once we were done with screwing up the launch, the four of us would take off with the drone and shove it in Freddie’s van, which was out the back (and currently disguised as a Cheezy Whatzits catering truck). We also had a backup in the form of the smokecloud drone (now nicknamed the ‘fartsquito’) for if we needed to cover our arses.

Instead we hit a snag straight up as the MCT exec in charge of the show barged in back and demanded to know who the hell we were. I quickly improvised an explanation based on the two things MCT are paranoid about, and said that a red flag had come up on one of the team’s security check, suggesting he was a technomancer. Thus we’d been parachuted in at the last moment to keep the show rolling. This bought him out in a cold sweat as he realised that it would be his head on the line if anything went even more off the rails, and he left us to do whatever we needed to do in order to ensure a smooth launch.

Yeah, this is going to end well.

And so the show began as MCT rolled out the prototype of the Virtual Intelligence Domestic Assistant or VIDA. The drone itself was... unexpected, being styled as a robot Geisha. Not my cup of tea, but whatever works for them, I guess. The host making the presentation was trying to explain how VIDA had access to them MCT Skillwire library, and could instantly download and install any skill package you could think of. Meanwhile, Freddie-VIDA was walking into walls, trying to leave the stage, looking at anyone but her or the audience and generally engaging in pratfalls, while the display was malfunctioning and dropping out.

The Fartsquito

To her credit, she was handling it like a pro, and was managing to remain personable and witty up until a point, even though the presentation was getting a lot of laughs. And then she decided that she’d had enough and sent some commands to VIDA, which saw it actually fight back against Freddie's control. With no idea of what was actually going on, we went to plan B. Neon cut off the drone as we activated the Fartsquito, and then hightailed it out of there with the robo-Geisha in tow.

The MCT showrunner, armed with a holdout pistol, tried to stop us. I pointed out that we were clearly Shadowrunners, that there were four of us and that he might want to rethink his life choices. He complied and stepped aside for us.

That brief incident aside, we were able to get to the van and, once again, skip out on deckcon before the end of the day. We delivered the drone, its control system and the data Neon had pulled to lizard Johnson, who was very happy with us. We also touched base with the Wuxing Johnson(s), who seemed to be satisfied with the degree that we had screwed up the product launch. Certainly the buzz regarding VIDA had been less focused on its performance and capabilities and more on its habit of walking into walls and the fact that a chunk of the convention centre had to be evacuated.

Day three rolled around, and we were starting things out a little bit differently. Rather then going in as ourselves, me and Abs were kitted out as generic urban anarchists. We had proper disguises to change our features, wigs and so on, plus hoodies and bandannas for when things got loud. Our plan was to cruise the floor and keep an eye out for Connor-Mason, see where he was and where he was going. We knew that he’d be at the keynote address, but what we would need to do was engage in an opportunistic abduction depending on where and how he moved after that.

I saw him go in, and that’s where things got really problematic. He was being guarded by Theresa, our sometime ally and Lightspeed’s only apparent friend in the universe. Which meant that we’d need to get past or disable her in order to get to him. I kept watch outside while Abs slipped into the show to see what was going on and check up on where he went. Turns out the keynote address was by Danielle De La Mar (And nobody tried to shoot her this time, more’s the pity) and the audience was packed with a whole mess of people we’d met in past. Ares Johnson, SK Johnson, Lizard Johnson, Wuxing Johnson(s), that Aztechnology guy who hangs around Shortcut’s golf club, Sahira Sabery… the list goes on. Theresa aside, somebody gassing the room would have saved us a lot of bother.

At the end of the address, Connor-Mason went out the side instead of the front as we had hoped. He met De La Mar backstage and swapped the content of his datalock with her, before heading out the back. At this stage, our plan was completely screwed, and we had to act fast. We headed out to the carpark to intercept, only to find Connor-Mason and Theresa taking off in a Dodge Charger Interceptor; in fact, the same one that had killed a bunch of vans that we were trying to steal stuff from a little while back.

We took off in pursuit, with Freddie managing to catch it while I rode alongside on my bike with Abs riding on the back. Freddie deployed his Steel Lynx to try and take the Charger out, only to be surprised when it dropped a Lynx of its own. While Freddie tried to take out the Charger, Abs tried to at least disable the Lynx by jumping on it. She almost didn’t, and instead managed to end up barely clinging onto it as it veered wildly. Abbey has cat-like grace and agility, by the way.

Freddie managed to put a shot through the Charger that enough crippled it but didn’t stop it entirely. It was enough to get Theresa to bail out with Connor-Mason, which was good enough for us. I tried to engage her, but while she wasn’t as fast as me (and who is?) she had experience on her side and was able to dodge everything I threw at her. Which, by the way, wasn’t a bad thing, as I kept her distracted long enough for Abbey to run off with the target. The Charger exploding gave me the cover I needed to make my escape. As a nice bonus, it turns out the car was being driven by Euro-Trash runner Cristoph, who we met at the last Deckcon. At least we don't need to worry about him again.

We delivered Connor-Mason to SK Johnson, and gave her the run-down on what had happened. She seemed pleased enough and provided us with our third and final payment for the con. Between the three jobs, we walked away with a pretty hefty pay packet. Abbey spoke to the Ares Johnson to spin our story of the target being intercepted by another runner team disguised as anarchists and he seemed to buy it. Probably because she did the job and not me, as I’m still angry at him on so many levels.

Day four was… dull. Neon went to some Pro Gamer tourney, but my day was spent wandering around the Con with Cwildred. Who was, by the way, discreetly placing tags on things. Funnily enough, that night, a convoy carrying electronics back from Deckcon was attacked by the Ancients who made off with the cargo. What a surprise.