Learn from Yesterday
| Staring | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri |
| With | deepColour, Saffron Cade, KANZAKI Kazuki |
| And | Emily Bunker, Eloise Brady, Langdon Brady, Aaron Gallardo, Hyalmánúra Melehtë, SANKAI Ikito, Saoriko Süß, URUSAI Mimi, YASUDA Keirin |
| Introducing | Adelaide Gaspar |
| Previous Episode | S01E09 – Success Requires Sacrifice |
| Next Episode | S01E11 – Tailwind |
After the tragic attack and on their initial hideout, the team realizes their resistance is too tightly clustered. They break into smaller groups, and establish smaller, more secure bases scattered across the lowest fifty floors of the SCIRE.
From there, they set out for the basement levels, hoping to discover more about what's going on in the Arcology and maybe get a message out to the wider world.
Session 1 - 2024/04/04
Montage à Huit[1]
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, deepColour, Emily Bunker, Eloise Brady, Langdon Brady, Saffron Cade, Aaron Gallardo, KANZAKI Kazuki, Hyalmánúra Melehtë, SANKAI Ikito, Saoriko Süß, URUSAI Mimi, YASUDA Keirin |
| When | Tuesday, January 6, 2060 (Day 19) through Thursday, January 15, 2060 (Day 28) |
| Where | SCIRE |
The team spends over a week, working quietly to rearrange the survivors into smaller cells and instruct them on what features make for a good hideout. They specifically avoid helping them find the actual locations, believing it would be better to set up a series of dead drops for future communications.
They reach out to the other groups they've found, and make various deals to get them to work together:
- Gallardo and his six Weapons World co-workers realize that they can't go it alone. They are willing to participate in exchange for food and information. They're happy to share ammo and guns in exchange for moving their stockpile to a more secure location than the Level 3 Mall.
- SANKAI Ikito, URUSAI Mimi, and YASUDA Keirin are willing to participate, but having limited hiding spaces in their hydroponics facility believe they're somewhat vulnerable.
- Roughly half of the sixty-something people they rescued from the Banded work detail stuck around waiting for their return, including Emily, Eloise, and Langdon. The others decided they'd be better off by themselves instead of in a large group.
- They're unable to locate the other team of runners at this time, believing them to be much higher in the arcology.
They divide into cells, with most of Gallardo's men and the work crew split up evenly. The Weapons World salesmen are not soldiers, but they're all accomplished marksmen, familiar with their products and capable of teaching their safe use.
While the shadowrunners know they are the most powerful group on a member-by-member basis, they also realize they'll be the most active which in some ways makes them the most likely to expose other groups. They're only involved in setting up the Medical Corps main base and already know about Low Garden. They deliberately remain ignorant of the other cells' locations.
- Brady Bunch — Eloise, Langdon, five from the work crew, and one of the Weapons World salesmen form a cell. Eloise is the most skilled fighter among them, even if she can't use firearms. There's soem concern about her stability, but Langdon assures the shadowrunners he can keep his mother under control.
- Bullet Town — Gallardo, one of his men, and five of the work crew will maintain the Resistance armory. They plan to establish weapons and ammo caches around the plinth levels to resupply other units without having to expose their own location.
Mukami's adept abilities allow her to pick up languages in short order, and uses this ability to form the basis of the Resistance communication web.
- Brady Bunch — Eloise speaks English and Spanish.
- Bullet Town — Gallardo speaks English and Japanese.
- Divorced Court — Nobody speaks anything but English.
- Low Garden — They all speak English and Japanese; Mimi also knows German and North American Sign, though the latter is pretty useless for message drops.
- Medical Corps — Saffron only speaks English, but both Kazuki and Saoriko know Japanese, while Saoriko also knows German and French.
- Swim Team — Nura knows English, Japanese, Sperethiel, and Perkins-Athabaskan Sign.
The shadowrunners add Irish Gaelic (Liam) and Lakota (Garbo) to the list, plus knowing a few of the other languages as well. Mukami herself knows Oromo and Zulu.
- Communications Hub — While developing and deploying unique cyphers is a bit beyond the group's capabilities, they have a wide spectrum of languages among them, including quite a few uncommon to the Pacific Northwest. They decide to use as many of these languages as they can, including teaching key words to other resistance cells as a method of security through obscurity.
- Divorced Court — Emily, an Ares Employee, and five work group survivors form a cell. They'll figure out the best way they can contribute after they get settled in and learn more about each other.
- Low Garden — deepColour joins the trio so he can collaborate with Urusai-chan on developing some sort of communications system.
- Medical Corps — Saffron takes Kazuki and Saoriko, along with one of Gallardo's men and five from the work gang. She sets up in one location, but establishes a secondary location to teach first aid techniques and distribute supplies. She's unwilling to risk the children's safety.
- Swim Team — Nura takes charge of the last five work crew rescuees and one of the weapons salesmen.
Once everything is settled — the groups are secure in their new hideouts and the communications drops are established — the shadowrunners begin working on other plans:
- Set up a matrix listening post that can collect data to be analyzed later. They quickly discover this is impractical. There's entirely too much message traffic for a passive solution — either you're in the matrix or not.
- Identify the SCIRE's new command and control structures, and find a way to get that information to any outside parties that are trying to assault the arcology.
- Re-establish contact with Shinko and Hotaru, if they haven't made good their planned escape.
- Determine the purpose of the holding pens found on Level 11 and Level 31
Session 2 - 2024/04/18
Furtivité Indépendante[2]
The group heads down to Level 11 to check out the prisoner pens they discovered while conducting reconnaissance on Level 10 for a base location. They find the stairwell guarded, but not well — just a standard group of four Blues that they evade by hopping over the bannister and sneaking into the adjoining hallway.
The group remains there, having been previously informed of the Leeches in use as prisoner restraints and knowing they react to the Awakened. Shirayuri overrides the elevator vestibule door to gain entry. She discovers both elevators have cars present (the area has power and the time-to-next car displays are active) and the "inner" door is not locked.
She approaches the fence to get a better look at the imprisoned victims. Each one she can see has a datajack with a remote biomonitor plugged into it. They each have leech constructs attached at ankles and wrists, hardened, calcified, and appearing to fasten the person to the gurney.
While she's inspecting the prisoner, she spots two Green Banded nurses in one of the pens. They do something that causes the leeches to dissolve, then take the patient away in some sort of medical pod. Realizing they're heading towards the rest of the group, she warns them and they climb up into the duct work to hide.
Once the nurses have disappeared into the elevators, Shirayuri rejoins the others. The group discusses what she saw, then sends Shirayuri back to get a sample of the residue. There's not a whole lot left, but she is able to collect a tiny bit. She also discovers that the creatures have altered the steel gurney in someway, and close examination reveals tendrils extending from the "creature" into and through the metal surface.
Additional information in hand, she conceals her breach and rejoins the group. They slip back into the less patrolled floors to plan.
Suivez L'enfant[3]
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, KANZAKI Kazuki |
| When | Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30) |
| Where | SCIRE |
Wanting more information on the prisoners and what's being done to them, the group decides they need to get into the biomedical databases. With Tosh gone and deepColour dedicated to working with the Low Garden, they realize that their only computer specialist may be Kazuki. He previous demonstrated a precocious ability with computers and drones.
In the process of confirming he can help and convincing him to, Garbo and Shirayuri also convince him that they're no longer shadowrunners — they're freedom fighters. This immediately opens a flood gate of information when he says that's too bad, because he hired shadowrunners. After some back and forth, they learn that he had some inkling something was coming and reached out to people on the Matrix to help him get out of the arcology. He explains that he refused to talk to them because the client talks to the fixer and the fixer talks to the shadowrunners, but the client is never supposed to speak to the team directly. He also apologizes for being late: at the last minute he wanted to convince his father to come with him, but couldn't find him or his nanny, so he came alone.
Session 3 - 2024/04/25
Erreur Medicale[4]
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, KANZAKI Kazuki |
| When | Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30) |
| Where | Hospital, SCIRE, Level 10 |
Returning nearly a month after they first visited, they find Level 10 mostly unchanged. Many of the sections are stripped down to the bare floors, but others have the freshly rebuilt vibe of the area outside Mr. Muraro's workshop. The doors are closed and locked, with the active identity panels indicating the area has power, but the lights are out.
The group sneaks into the lobby of the hospital. Shirayuri spots dried blood on the floor further in, but doesn't bring it to anybody's immediate attention. Kazuki takes a seat at reception nurse's desk, accessing her computer terminal. While he does appear to be operating the computer by the regular interface, Shirayri notices the inputs and responses don't match — it's almost as if some screens are getting skipped or he's entering commands before being prompted for them. He informs them the receptionists' terminals are not set up with access to what the group wants, and trying to do it from here would probably raise an alarm.
They decide to head further in to find a terminal with more access, a doctor's or hospital administrator's. Instead of Shirayuri cracking and bypassing the door, Kazuki walks up to it and it opens after a brief protest, an error noise that gets quickly cut off.
What are the people in the pens are being used for?
- The pens provide short term and long term storage for current and future test subjects.
What are the leeches?
- The leeches are an astrally-sensitive bioengineered construct, with a primary purpose of reinforcing structures against both physical and astral incursions.
How is this hospital being resupplied?
- All medical facilities in the Renraku Arcology are connected via priority access elevator shafts to storage and production facilities.
What are they doing this hospital?
- This facility is evaluating and processing test subjects for other projects.
Inside, they discover a near-charnel-house. Despite the presence of nurses and the sounds of other activity, the walls and floors are stained with blood of varying ages. Paying more attention to Kazuki's saftey than her own, Shirayrui accidentally steps in a still damp puddle. Garbo scuffs her unique foot shape with his Lone Star cop boot, and they move on.
Further in, Fräulein identifies where pointing to where the offices were in the other hospital. They sweep the area, finding it empty. Kazuki asks to be alone to do the terminal work, and everyone leaves the room despite it having a glass door and a window. He closes his eyes when he touches the terminal, and just slumps like a decker might do when in VR.
After barely a handful of minutes, Kazuki informs the group that he has answers to some of thier questions, but they need to go. The take out four Blues on the way out, then continue downwards towards the basement levels.
Session 4 - 2024/05/02
Attention à l'Acheteur[5]
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, KANZAKI Kazuki |
| When | Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30) |
| Where | The Frag Grenade, SCIRE, Level 6 and Retail Sector, SCIRE, Level 4 |
In the public access levels, they find house pets of varying kinds, likely released from higher levels in the SCIRE. Many of them are on the thin side, not as well fed as one might expect house pets to be, but Liam says they're doing much better than he would have expected in the circumstances.
The group swings through The Frag Grenade and its attached VIP landing pad. Checking the club's kitchen for their own needs, they discover where some of the animals are getting food — the store room is an utter mess, with nearly everything busted open and scattered across the floor. Liam is able to secure a couple of bottles of booze, though.
A few levels down, in retail area Shirayuri notices something glowing inside a clothing store. She goes scouting, while the rest of the group remains in the front of the store but out of the hallway. Fräulein joins Shirayuri to check on the working light source, discovering it's an one of the fit-check augmented reality mirrors in a changing room. They remove the panel in the adjacent room so Fräulein can slip into the service space, where they discover a battery and a matrix transmitter connected to the display — it's a trap.
They're soon attacked by multiple waves of Dervishes, some of them displaying significantly better performance than the others. They initially try to escape back into the hallways, but additional waves force them back into the shop. In the fight, Garbo succumbs to their neurotoxic darts, but Liam is able to grab his paralyzed body and make good an escape down into the basement.
Aux Survivants, le Butin[6]
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, KANZAKI Kazuki |
| When | Friday, January 16, 2060 (Day 29) |
| Where | Retail Support, SCIRE, Level B1 |
The team flees down to the first easily-accessible and readily-scoutable elevator exit, which happens to be in the support basement, as it has no shaft doors. It also has power and light because its part of the air handling system. As a drone-serviced section of the arcology, they believe it to be lacking sensors, much like the elevator hub they took refuge in earlier.
After treating Garbo for his paralysis, they explore the area. The quickly discover that many of the warehouses still contain products for the mall stores above. They spend some time searching through the nearby zones. It's a slow process; without proper matrix access they have to consult the inventory terminal of each node individually and manually, hoping something useful is still at hand.
The group's scavenging is quite successful. They refresh their supply of stimulants, both patch and injectable, along with some psyche and a box of trauma patches. In addition to a few small weapons (knives, throwing and otherwise), they find some magical goods: hermetic reagents, some spell formulae, and even a couple of foci. More importantly, though, they find electronics, among them a cyberdeck so Kazuki can direct connect and use his computer skills without exposing himself and a waterproof commlink they hope will be able to survive ejection through the SCIRE's wastewater processing system.
Session 5 - 2024/05/09
Accident De Voiture[7]
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, KANZAKI Kazuki, Adelaide Gaspar |
| When | Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30) |
| Where | Parking, SCIRE, Level B2 |
Two levels down, before they've even left the elevator shaft, Shirayuri spots what looks like somebody trying to start a car: the headlights are on but dim, and it makes a distinctive clicking noise like a starter failing to get enough power. Before she and Liam sneak up to check it out closer, Fräulein does an astral scan, looking for any signs of Hotaru or Shinko, but finds nothing.
Liam and Shirayuri sneak up on the vehicle, where Liam knocks on the glass to get the driver's attention. The driver gives up trying to start the car immediately, and attempts to escape out the passenger door.
This triggers an ambush: there was a team of regular Blues waiting in a parked limousine, a high-threat response team sniper hiding in a vehicle with a clear line of fire, the rest of her team in a van nearby, and a Medusa.
The party puts up a good showing, but an early shot from the sniper damages Shirayuri's cybernetic knee — damage that won't heal, unlike a person. They take out the four regular security officers, but the presence of the heavily armored HTR troopers eventually forces them to run away. Fortunately, that same armor prevents them from keeping up with even the slowest of the team.
The Medusa does not give chase.
Le Blanc de leurs Yeux[8]
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, KANZAKI Kazuki, Adelaide Gaspar |
| When | Saturday, January 17, 2060 (Day 30) |
| Where | Parking, SCIRE, Level B3 |
Deeper in the parking section, the group stops to take a breather. They ask the girl who she is and what she was doing. She introduces herself as Treasure then immediately apologizes, explain that's what her parents call her — her name is Adelaide Gaspar. Shirayuri knows her, she was two years behind in her school.
She goes on to explain that she was captured and experimented on, though it has nothing to do with her appearance — that's just because she's an albino. She claims to have escaped captivity and was attempting to steal a car and escape. Fräulein looks at her on the astral, identifying that she is both nervous and afraid (understandable in her situation). She has a lower Essence than Fräulein, but the magician is unable to pick out any implants, indicating they are very high quality.
References
- Previous: S01E09 – Success Requires Sacrifice
- Next: S01E11 – Tailwind