A Shadowrun Based on Bullshit by Rise Against, Part 2
DrBurst
The Potter Administration's matrix polling datavault was destroyed, and the Technocrat party suffered a loss in political clout.
"Dandy" Dale Hardin
Night Claws - John Holis
Purkinje
Emerald City Security
Dawkins Group
Casualties and losses
4 Emerald City Security contractors
4 Dawkins Group agents
5 Shiawase Cyber-5 cyberdecks
A squad of expensive security drones
A Knight-Errant Dodge Charger
2 Meet
3 Run
6 Player After-Action Reports
6.1 Purkinje's Report
After the events of A Shadowrun Based on Bullshit by Rise Against, Horizon began using its control of the news cycle to spin the exposé of the Technocrat party's methods away from blaming the government for any negligence or wrongdoing. Disgusted (though not surprised), Purkinje gathered several close friends to strike quickly before the public lost interest.
The four runners met at the Daze to discuss their plan of attack. The idea of a protest came up, but ultimately the group decided the best thing to do would be to demonstrate how vulnerable the Technocrat party really was to interference so their incompetence would be undeniable. This led to a daring plan: destroy the datavault that served as the nerve center for the party's political matrix infrastructure. The damage could be repaired, and the files would be recoverable, but it would send a message.
A combination of deep matrix searches and sifting through street rumors gave the team some critical security information about the building in which the datavault was housed. They learned that the building was staffed by Emerald City Security, who were under orders to use nonlethal force against any intruders and were equipped to disable. Nonlethal did not mean the security was light, however. A series of pipes had been installed throughout the basement levels on which the target was housed and would flood the area with stun gas if intruders were detected, despite any civilian employees. Aside from this, the building was protected by state-of-the-art security devices such as cameras, motion sensors, electronic locks and a strong host to protect them. In addition to security details, the team learned that Horizon was behind most of this.
Figuring social infiltration against a Horizon project would both be extremely difficult and take too long to be effective, the team decided the best option would be a direct assault. They first approached the Seattle cell of Black Star, who after a negotiation agreed to draw attention away from the datavault building by causing trouble at City Hall. When they gave the signal, the team drove to the facility in the middle of the night to begin their infiltration.
On the way inside, Night Claws accidentally called the police emergency number, leading the nearest Knight-Errant patrol (a K9 unit) to approach the team, who were fully dressed for open warfare. Purkinje told the officer they were participating in a security exercise with Emerald City Security, and they were pretending to be shadowrunners. The officer seemed to buy this (or at least knew his life would be in danger if he didn't), and he left. Night Claws' dog allergies acted up though, and it took some time to calm him down after seeing the officer's Ares Predator V, of which he had a phobia.
Carbon kept eyes out for cameras and other security devices, leading the team stealthily to a side door in an alleyway. Night Claws and Purkinje assessed the security of the devices protecting this entrance and determined the electronic lock would notify security when it was disengaged, but it was not protected by the host. They squelched its communications before hacking it and forcing it to unlock. The other side of the door was protected by a motion detector that Purkinje was able to detect with her ultrasonic scanner contacts. Carbon listened very carefully and was able to hear a guard coming. When the guard approached the area, the motion detectors disabled themselves, presumably to enable the guard to patrol the area without setting off an alarm. After he turned around, the team had a brief moment to open the door and get inside before the sensor reset. They did so.
Carbon continued to lead the team silently past the guards and cameras until they reached a locked stairwell that led to the basement levels where their target was. The devices in here were protected by the host and were not easily accessible by hand for direct connections. While Dandy provided overwatch down the corridor with his rifle, Carbon held Purkinje up to the ceiling to gain a direct connection to a wireless camera, and Night Claws touched her leg to assist her via a dual-skinlink direct connection. He then contorted himself to touch the door lock and spoof a direct connection unlock command after Purkinje looped the camera feed. Door open, the team proceeded down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairwell, Dandy scouted ahead and spotted more cameras up ahead. These were pointed down the hallway in their direction, meaning any hacks to loop their feeds would have to go through the host and its prodigious firewall. The party decided it better to let Dandy shoot a looper round at the camera, allowing them to slip past. A security team heard Dandy's suppressed gunshot, however, and moved to investigate. Purkinje tried to loop their biomonitor feeds so they could be taken out quietly, but she failed, setting off an alert and getting marked by the facility's spider. She fried the spider's cyberdeck near-instantly in response, but their cover was blown. Dandy and Carbon went loud, slaughtering the security team with a combination of lightning-fast swordplay and expertly-placed sniper rounds. Four more squads were inbound, including a combat drone squad with screech rifles, four more deckers running Shiawase Cyber-5s, and over a dozen more armed security personnel.
The gas was released, but the team had prepared with chemsealed armor. As Dandy and Carbon went to work opening the vault in which the target hardware was housed, Night Claws compiled a fault sprite and began bolstering the team's defenses while Purkinje drew the deckers' attention. The deckers failed to penetrate Purkinje's firewall, harming their decks severely in the attempt. She and Night Claws' fault sprites bricked all of the decks and the rigger command console within three seconds before destroying the unprotected drones. In terrifying fashion, Carbon pulled out a crowbar and ripped the vault door open while Dandy stood by. Among the dataslaves inside were four disguised Dawkins agents, however, and one of them successfully used mind magic to cause Carbon to believe she was supposed to protect the building. Dandy didn't realize what had happened, however, and tossed a gas grenade inside the vault. The Dawkins agents ran outside to escape it and pursue him, leaving Carbon confused in front of the vault door with little time to react. She managed to shake off the spell, however, and together with Dandy slaughtered the Dawkins agents just as the last of the drones upstairs were fried. The team destroyed and vandalized the datavault once all the dataslaves were clear of it, making sure to take good pictures. They were able to escape the building up a different stairwell before backup arrived on-scene.
Outside, they piled into Dandy's pickup and drove away at top speed. Knight-Errant was called and sent several Dodge Chargers and a helicopter to chase the team down. Carbon destroyed the lead car's engine block with an Ares Thunderstruck while Dandy found a parking garage to pull into to escape the chopper's overwatch. Unfortunately, the garage happened to be owned by the Italian mafia. After a tense negotiation with the capo, the team agreed to pay 4,000¥ in exchange for not getting into a firefight on a crime syndicate's turf and possibly drawing KE's attention. They left via a service entrance that led into the Underground.
Further emphasizing the impact of what happened, Carbon and Purkinje gathered the members of Derelict Hardware to record a song critical of social credit systems and the concept of technocracy. It topped the charts in the Seattle sprawl, serving as a rallying cry against the Potter Administration. The true extent of the damage is difficult to assess, but neo-anarchists and enemy politicians alike joined in on the media circus. Horizon will have to act through shell companies in its future efforts. Only time will tell what happens to the political situation in Seattle.
Player After-Action Reports
Purkinje's Report
Hahahahahahahaha. Yes. Fragging Governor's office says we can't penetrate the data vault? We penetrated the datavault the very next day. You can't tempt fate like that, Potter. Bites you in the hoop every time. Follows up on that technomancer publicity stunt, too. Hope people realize what we have to offer. Oh! And releasing that #1 jam was fantastic! Everyone's work on that was solid, legendary work for such short notice. I'm gonna be talking about this a hundred years from now, I'm sure.
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