Well, that happened

I’m writing this from a makeshift hammock on board our Cargo plane as it flies across the Atlantic. None of these things are by choice, I might just add. How I got here is a classic case of people taking things just a bit too far.

See, in the shadowy world of corporate espionage that us Runners live in, there comes a point where you have to take a loss and walk on it. When a Runner team makes a mess of your stuff and gets away, there’s only so far you can pursue the matter before it comes back to bite you. Most corps will take their losses and accept them, and then try to move on. But some are worse at letting it go then others.

So our team had all been the victims of targeted attacks aimed at us personally. Each had been performed by a hired assassin who had tailored their methods and approaches to their very specific target. While the ones that came after me could have been going after Tyler, it was just too much of a pattern for us to ignore. This meant that we needed to figure out exactly who was after us and why, and then a way to kill them so that they wouldn’t be so stupid as to try it again. (Hey, I’m just looking at the most direct solutions to the problem here).

The first asset we had at had was the bot the hitmen had used to get to Tyler’s yacht. A quick interrogation of its GPS systems showed that it was a rental, and had come from a company near the airport. However, it had made two stops after leaving before getting here; the first was at a wharf in a warehouse district, and the second at a private dock in a more secluded area. We decided to do a bit of investigation to see if we could find out who these guys were working for. The only other clue the boat yielded was a scuff mark that suggested somebody getting their head bashed aginst a bulkhead.

We went to the Warehouse dock first, figuring that was the best place to do some sort of changeover of boat occupants. A bit of sniffing around lead us to a warehouse who’s security cameras had been hacked to hide what had been going on, complete with the self-destructed remnants of a Data Tap. Figuring that we might find even more within, I snuck into the building to take a look around and see what I could find. In this case, it was a wooden packing crate that had only been freshly deposited, was scheduled to be shipped to Atzlan soon and, most importantly, was conveniently man-sized. Opening it up revealed that what do you know, there was a dead body inside. Tyler was able to confirm that it was Govec, the man he was supposed to be meeting.

Knowing that the hitmen had done a switch, we headed over to the rental agency to get some more information. Posing as a client, I found out that the agency had next to no standards at all and would hire out a boat to anyone, really. The other important thing that I found was that they gave you the option of also hiring a driver for your boat. Hacking their records, Neon found that Govec had opted for not having a driver, but then somebody had changed his arrangement to add one on. That driver, I might just add, had only just been added to the company’s roster that day and was registered under an obviously fake SIN.

So we had a good sequence of events. Govac hires the boat and is killed by his driver. After stashing his body, the boat was used to pick up the rest of the team and head to the yacht. Of course that still left us with the issue of who had hired them to come after us. What we did find, however, was an unexpected lead. There was a Hobgoblin waiting by the dock, wearing a sharp suit. I cautiously approached him, and after several delicate questions I discovered that his name was Yufus, and that he was supposed to be meeting Govac after he was done. I explained what had happened, which lead to some more discoveries; specifically that the pair of them were members of a Middle Eastern crime group who had ties to the Grey Wolves, themselves a large mercenary/police/whatever organisation (Its complicated).

Northrup Wasp. The "better then nothing" of
attack helicopters

Yufus was not happy to learn of Govac’s death, but any further discussion on the matter was cut short by a pair of Wasp Patrol Copters that were supposed to be covering the airport. Instead now they were heading towards me, and clearly moving to attack. Me and Yusef started running like hell (he wasn’t the target, but still was in the line of fire) as Freddie unleashed his own drones in response. As he covered us, I made for my bike and got my own rifle out, opening up while using the carpark for cover. Both of the copters went down, but one of the pilots made it out alive... only for me to shock him and throw him in the Bulldog’s smuggling compartment.

I made a quick deal with Yusef to pass along any information I found before we took off, heading for a safehouse I’d found relatively nearby. Once there, we disembarked our passenger for our favourite hobby, light rendition. With a little bit of persuasion, he revealed that he was a MCT security goon, working for a guy called Jun Sakai. We were being targeted because we’d pissed off MCT once too often, especially after we burned down their Technomancer genocide lab. What then struck us was how they knew so much about the team; we had been betrayed by one of our own, specifically, a Technomaner.

So in short, the creepy Dwarf techno had set MCT on us.

Added to that, we had a new and related problem. Checking her deck, Neon found that it had been ‘infected’ with Dissonance, presumably by said Techno. And while I had no idea what that actually meant, I knew enough that it was bad for us. So she was now pulling apart her deck and trying to isolate the problem, while also worried that the infection had spread to everything else we used; Freddie’s Control Console, his Drones, our commlinks... my cyberwear. So very bad.

While she was dealing with that, I put in a call to Yusef and arranged a meeting with him on a freeway breakdown lane, of all places. Once there, I explained what had happened and our guess at the identity of the individual responsible. He said that he would ‘look into things’ at his end. As a peace offering, we handed over the MCT pilot, who was appropriately terrified as to what was going to happen to him next. Moral of this story: Don’t be a CorpSec goon.

We had other problems to deal with. As Neon was putting her deck arm back together, we got a call from Benny. Specifically, it was Benny who was in the firehouse which was now full of MCT goons. Mister Sakai was there, and suggesting to us that we should surrender if we wanted Benny to live. So now they had invaded our home, took one of our friends hostage and were touching my stuff. To quote a great philosopher of the last century, of course you realise, this means war.

The situation did not look good. We were down Neon and all the support she bought us, and thus our systems were venerable and we couldn’t screw with theirs. But I had a plan no less. Step one was to recon the situation, using the Optic X2 and Fly Spies and simply hoping that MCT didn’t pick them up. This allowed us to locate the MCT goons and, most importantly, Benny. Step two was to tape a bunch of NeuroStun grenades to Thinman, who would be acting as our hostage negotiator.

Step three was to go nuclear. Sakai had gone for our throats, so we went for his.

I called him up and told him that we wanted Benny back, alive, well, unharmed and so on. If they didn’t comply, then we would put out everything we found in MCT’s technomancer horror lab onto the Matrix. That was enough to give Sakai pause and make him want to talk. He told us to turn up in person to make the trade, because he wasn’t going to negotiate by commlink. Of course, it was going to be a trap, and he was going to geek us as soon as we walked in there.

So we sent Thinman instead. (It’s what he does). Sakai was not impressed, although given that he hadn’t shown up in person either, he was really in no position to claim any sort of high ground. He reluctantly agreed to hand over Benny, not wanting to risk us making the situation worse or besmirching his company’s good name any further. All the while, he doubtless had the rest of his team looking for us, especially the Security Spider and Wage Mage that are compulsory for these sorts of things.

My reply was to drop Thinman’s neurostun grenades right there on the spot and then have him run as fast as his robotic legs could carry him. As the MCT team were recoiling from this, I punted a frag grenade into the room onto the CorpSec goons to keep them busy while we got as far away as possible. And by that, I mean we got into Freddie’s plane and took to the air.

So now we have MCT on us looking for revenge for our screwing with… well, actually, a lot of things. The good part of it, as little as it seems, is that Yusef and Tyler have contacts in Constantinople of all places, which can help us lie low and investigate things further, especially as both of them have got reasons to be angry at both MCT and the creepy Dwarf Techno who set us up. A Dwarf who Yusef identified as being an ex-employee of S-K’s Middle East branch. Funny that.

Enough of this. For now I’m going to try to sleep.