Well this happened.
Okay, I need a better summary for that last
run then that. Right. Anyway, it began when we retrieved MCT’s prototype drone
from DeckCon for Lizard Johnson for a hefty wad of cash. A few days later,
Lizard B. Johnson got back to us with an aghast look on his scaly face, and
said that he had another job for us. He wanted us to go to the MCT research
facility that had created the drone and destroy it, their ability to make more
drones and all the data on it. Oh, and kill anyone who was involved with the
research and development of the drone as well. The fact that he used words like
‘abomination’ suggested that something about meant that this was more then just
getting one-up on a rival company.
 |
| Mitsuhama Computer Technologies: We're that damn evil |
So we had a job, one that would need us to
terminate the targets with most gross prejudice. Of course, to get there, we’d
need to find out where it was being developed and who was involved with the
program. (It wouldn’t help just to shoot up every MCT lab we came across, as
fun as it would be). Likewise, we also had to deal with MCT’s infamous
Zero-Zone policy, which meant that the place would be a virtual fortress packed
full of guards, drones, turrets, critters, wards and run with a policy of shoot
to kill and don’t even bother with the questions.
Fun times.
So step one was to gather some information
about the program. The good news is that the whole debacle at DeckCon meant
that the MCT drone launch was the hot news on everybody’s lips, but not for the
reasons that MCT wanted. I had my suspicions that this was something being run
outside the usual MCT murder-bot department, given that both the application
(Domestic service) and the operating system were so far off the mark for their
usual developmental process.
A bit of social engineering (I had to dress
up and hang around in classy wine bars, oh the prices I pay for this job) was
able to garner me some information about what was happening behind the scenes.
It was indeed a separate branch from the usual MCT drone development structure,
apparently being handled by some maverick genius who had previously worked in
unrelated matters. That gave Neon the information she needed to pin down the
facility and the people in question.
Calling it secure would be an
understatement. The facility consisted of a series of concrete bunkers in a
semi-rural setting in Snohomish, which meant that they would have long sight
lines to see anything coming. The upside was that they would also be a fair
distance form any HTR response, but on the other hand, given that they would
likely have a small army on-site, that wasn’t as much of an advantage as it
seemed.
The other thing we found was the name of
our target; a doctor Shoji Yamazaki, previously from MCT central in Tokyo where
he’d previously worked in drone programming. While he was there, he had been
noted for making a number of developments in the field, but no actual
breakthroughs or the like. That suggested to us that there was something really
strange going on with the project
 |
| Hazmat Suit. Only being worn by a human woman, not a Dwarf guy |
Armed with all this information, we began
developing our plan. We found a dairy farm and processing plant nearby which
would be the perfect place to stage from. Freddie would disguise his Bulldog as
a service vehicle and we would lurk inside it while Shortcut went through stage
one of the plan. He was going to sneak in there through the sewers, using his
small size and adept abilities to make it though their physical security. In
order to protect him from whatever MCT had dumped in there (I mean, its MCT. Of
course they’re going to just casually dump waste) and conceal his identity he
would be wearing a Hazmat Suit. After all, nobody notices Dwarf service personnel.
He got in easily enough, although he did
note the presence of a Mana Barrier along the way. Once inside, his next job
was to locate the security centre and plant a Data Tap there so Neon could shut
down their security. Of course, in order to do that, he had to get the two guys
in there out of the way first. This being Shortcut, he opted for a very
creative approach. A mind control spell convinced one of them that he needed to
go to the vending machine to get some chips. This lead to an argument between
the two about operational procedure before the target left to get his chips. A
second spell convinced his partner that he had a horrible rash on his thigh and
needed to scratch it, and when that failed, he needed to go get some ointment,
leaving the bunker unguarded. So Shortcut slipped in and placed his tap while
the two guards stumbled around in the darkness, one of them pantsless.
 |
| A vital asset in a Shadowrunner's arsenal |
With that accomplished, we moved on to
phase two. Neon shut down security long enough for us to enter; me and her on
foot, and Freddie jumped in to the Steel Lynx. The Rotordrones were on standby for
backup when things inevitably were all fragged up. Shortcut located our target
bunker and checked the entrance, only to find that there was another guard in
there. Fortunately, not only did he fail to notice Shortcut, but he got
distracted and went outside to check on the nose coming from the two guards
having an argument at the chip machine. This allowed the three of us (plus
drone) to get inside unopposed and head down to the accommodation level.
Locating doctor Yamazaki wasn’t hard. I
roused him and ‘convinced’ him to cooperate with us, marching him to the main
lab. What we found there was surprising and actually managed to get a bit of a
shocked reaction out of us, something that I thought we were already too jaded
for. Besides the usual array of computer terminals and workshop equipment, the
centrepiece of the room was a collection of a half-dozen disembodied human brains
suspended in storage tanks and connected to the computers. That his assistant
was the same woman who had done the product demonstration at DeckCon should
have aroused some suspicion, but we did have other things on our minds.
 |
| You know what? Screw you, MCT |
Yamazaki explained that these were
Technomancer brains and the key to his revolutionary artificial intelligence
process. They were being forced to create and register endless machine sprites,
which were in turn being used to drive the drones. It was a lot more
complicated then that, but I didn’t really care for the details and, truth
being told, I was probably more then a little angry at that point. Neon went to
work at retrieving and deleting all his data, but reported that there was a
problem. The system was under attack from a Technomancer; more to the point,
she recognised the resonance signature as being the same as the creepy Dwarf
techno that had been scoping out the Ares security van at DeckCon.
Naturally, this attack tripped all the
alarms. So while Neon was engaged in a matrix battle, we had more physical
threats to deal with. I decided to take matters into my own hands and punted a
grenade into the brain farm, blowing them apart. And while Yamazaki was wailing
in despair at the loss of his work, his assistant came running at me at high
speed. Yep, she was one of his drones. Of course a mad Japanese scientist has a
killer sex robot. Freddie and I were able to put it down with a lot of
gratuitous overkill. Neon grabbed the data we needed (and burned the originals)
leaving us clear to blow the lab.
Meanwhile, Shortcut had hassled Yamazaki up
to the assembly level where he was aiming to shut it down or blow it up.
Unfortunately, what he found was that a dozen completed drones were now active
and had gone into full kill-crazy mode. The drones tried to bear down the pair
of them; Shortcut escaped by jumping up and clinging on to the ceiling. Once up
there he took the opportunity to kill two birds with the one stone and sent a
lightnig bolt down to fry Yamazaki and several of the drones. I was able to
catch up with them, and used another grenade to finish the rest off. Freddie
then took the opportunity to rig up some bombs around the place (So that’s why
he put a drone arm on his Steel Lynx) and we headed up to the surface.
 |
| Note: Not an EVO Johnson |
Of course, the entire MCT security detail
was now out and ready for action, and had the bunker surrounded. Not jut did
they have armed security goons, but they also were backed up by drones and a
couple of basilisks, the latter of which were leading the charge. I wounded one
of them and then Freddie perforated the other with his Lynx’s gauss rifle. That
caused the survivor to flee, giving us the opening we needed.
With Freddie’s Rotordrones coming in to
provide support, we managed a breakout and turned it into a running firefight
as we bolted to the perimeter. Shortcut made great use of a toxic wave spell to
keep a group of heavily armoured troopers locked down and too busy to deal with
us, while the Rotordrones shredded the enemy drones and kept the rest
suppressed. Between them we were able to make it to the fence where Freddie was
waiting, and then get the hell out of there. Of course, we were sure to blow
the assembly line before we departed, leaving a nice cheery explosion for them
to remember us by.
We returned to Lizard Johnson to report our
findings and our success. While he was clearly perturbed by what we had
discovered, he also was glad at our report of what we did and the degree to
which we had ruined MCT’s efforts. Between the death of the project lead, the
loss of all the data, the destruction of the prototypes and the facility being
gutted by explosions, it was safe to assume that the project was very dead.
And most importantly, we got a fat stack of
yens at the end of the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment