Peacekeeper
| Staring | Rook, Shiranui, Tak, Zosimos |
| With | Della Cooper, Clive Drummond, MOCHIBOSHI Rio |
| And | Bob, Sammy, Liz |
| Introducing | Bobsie Twins |
| Previous Episode | S01E05 – Medical Coverage Exceeded |
| Next Episode | S01E07 – Incompatible Atmospheric Conditions |
Outside the SCIRE and months before the Shutdown begins, another group of shadowrunners embarks on a mission to prevent a political firestorm from raging across North America.
Session 1 - 2023/08/24
Two For The Show
| Who | Rook, Shiranui, Tak, Zosimos, Bobsie Twins |
| When | Wednesday, October 22, 2059 (Day -57) |
| Where | Blue Flame Tavern, Tacoma, Seattle Metroplex |
A group of shadowrunners meets up at the Blue Flame Tavern, an entry-level Shadowrunner bar off Rt. 67 where Tacoma, Puyallup, and Auburn meet. The team has had enough recent success to make them bubble up to the top of this particular cesspool, but they still come here out of tradition.
Shiranui, the only one among them known to bear a real SIN and hold down a real job, is late arriving. Once she arrives, the proprietor, the The Chinaman offers them free drinks as congraulations for thier last success. They're probably watered down, unless there's something he wants from the group or he's trying to keep them around. He soon tells them that the Bobsie Twins are looking for them. Rook and Tak both have heard of them as low-tier bruisers, but don't really know much about them — at least, not beyond the fact that they're not twins at all.
The Twins appear soon after, with a job offer. Shiranui and Zosimos pick up on some discomfort with Shiranui's presence at the table, though they're not sure if it's because she's the groups token metahuman, token female, or both. The team and the Twins banter back and forth a bit, evetually reaching a point where they can't or won't give any details, and get surly when the team presses them.
Figuring there's no harm in listening to the pich, they all mount up and head downtown. Zosimos rides with Tak, Rook and Shiranui have a car and bike respectively, while the twins are also motorcyclists.
Puttin' On The Ritz
The Bobsie Twins escort the team into the lobby restaurant at the New Ritz, where they take up positions behind the Johnson. The table is set for four, so Rook elects to stand in a similar position behind Tak. The Johnson is slightly perturbed when Shiranui takes a seat — perhaps it was a deliberate slight — but gives Rook a respectful nod at his professionalism.
They quickly get down to the meet. Mr. Johnson wants them to find and capture an operative named Jessie John — shaman, assassin, agent provacatuer, and batshit insane. He offers the team 115,000¥ to stop his attempt to destablize the region (which would be bad for Mr. Johnson's sponsor), with an extra 15,000¥ if they can take him alive. The Johnson explains they can't use internal resources, for fear of a potential mole. His suit and watch make Tak think he might be working for Aztechnology. Once the team agrees, he provides them with a dossier on Jessie, including his travel arangements (under the name Ben Johnson).
Session 2 - 2023/09/07
Legwork
While Rook makes arrangements for fake travel documentation (transit passes and whatnot), Zosimos tries to get his hands on some mage cuffs and a mage mask. Only the cuffs are available on short notice, so he uses the time to put together some additional alchemical preparations.
Meanwhile, Shiranui does some matrix research:
- She finds six different entries for a "Ben Johnson" staying in Las Vegas; five hotels (one on the Strip, four off) and a private home rental.
- There are three tradeshows and conferences with Aztechnology ties taking place over the next few days:
- An aviation industry tradeshow with Aztechnology subsidiaries Dassault & Hawker-Siddley both in attendance, among others.
- A film festival, sponsored and catered by Natural Vat Technologies, an Aztechnology subsidiary.
- A law enforcement convention. Aztechnology has an interesting in buying Atlantic Security.
- Jesse John doesn't have a public manifesto, but she finds indications that he split from the mainline Humanis Policlub over "policy differences."
On The Border
With valid paperwork, fake or otherise, crossing the border is generally an automated process. However, the lights remain red and the barriers stay down. An officer comes outside to appologizes to Rook for the inconvenience and instruct Tak to park nearby and come inside. They're escorted to an interview room and left there.
Rook and Shiranui stop just on the edge of comfortable matrix range, about 100 m (330 ft). Shiranui hacks into the border post's host, quickly realizing that there are two — one for each side of the border. On the Salish host, she finds the cameras for the detention room and gets a count of the Salish forces on site: two border patrol officers, a team of four Rangers, and a their Dodge Goliath armored transport. In the UCAS host, she finds a memo from the UCAS FBI to all Seattle border stations to keep an eye out for a hispanic male driving a Tata Hotspur. It includes instructions to detain the driver if possible and contact the Seattle Field Office for further instructions.
Session 3 - 2023/09/21
On The Border (Cont...)
Realizing things will go very bad if the UCAS FBI shows up, Rook sneaks back to the border, long rifle in hand. He post up where he has a clear line of sight to the building but still plenty of foliage to hide in. Shiranui remains in the car, on the edge of comfortable matrix range and proceeds to hack the SSC Ranger's ride. She uses it as a battering ram to smash a hole in the detention room's exterior wall while Rook starts popping tires on the other vehicles in the lot.
Zosimos needs some assistance from the much larger and stronger Tak to climb over the rubble, but they effect an escape. The SSC border officers retreat to safety, while one of the Rangers attempts to climb the rubble behind the runners, almost catching Tak before getting kicked away and then dropped by Rook with gel rounds.
As they run to Tak's remotely started vehicle, the UCAS border patrol troopers open fire on them. They fail to land any hits before Tak and Zosimos are inside — the Hotspur is effectively immune to small arms fire. Meanwhile, Rook's gunplay drops a second Ranger and keeps the other two pinned inside the building. Shiranui data spikes the Ranger's ride into cybernetic oblivion, and the group escapes.
Session 4 - 2023/10/05
Thunder Road
Session 5 - 2023/10/12
Strangers In A Strange Land
Session 6 - 2023/10/19
Off The Florida Keys
Into The Fire
| Who | Shiranuyi, Ram |
| When | Friday, October 24, 2059 (Day -55) |
| Where | PCC Financial Subnet Watchdog Monitor Alpha |
Shiranui heads to PuebloNet, the Pueblo Corporate Council's national grid to access the host identified on the datachip they got from Jesse's lackeys. It's a subtly different experience than she's used to. Everything is cripser, more elegant with dataflows processing timeslices at a much higher rate than Seattle's grid does.
The host itself is a massive black edifice, looking like a high tech castle with high towers, crenelated battlements, humming with power. As soon as she activates the utility from the datachip, everything changes. It appears as a black-and-red pennant — some sort of special mark — flying from her samurai icon's banner pole. The same pennants drop from the walls of the castle and it turns a pristene glowing white, with trumpets blaring a fanfare and a drawbridge descending towards her.
As soon as she enters the host, she encounters another icon — a troll-sized black-furred humanoid with glowing red eyes, carrying a katana with a matching red laser edge. He's also bearing the same special matrix authorization recognition key she is, his taking the form of a tag on a dog collar. Calling himself Ram, he taunts Shiranui, inviting her to come "play" with him.
They go back and forth for a bit, exchanging tricks and ploys, but failing to deal any substantial damage to each other's icons. He breaks away from her, clearing her marks on him and moving to a different host. Without any effort on her part, she's able to identify where he went and reacqure a mark on him. She gives chase.
Once she finds him, he deliberate sets the new host on alert. Two PCC spiders log into the host and engage the two hackers. Apparently having done what he was here for, Ram soon logs out. Unwilling to tangle with two spiders, Shiranuri escapes as well.
Session 7 - 2023/10/26
Rearview Mirror
While they're fueling vehicles and bodies for the five-hour drive to Provo, the UCAS FBI rolls up on the team with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police in support. Realizing they must still be following the Hotspur and hoping the others haven't been made, Tak attempts to escape. From the gas station bathroom and the back of Rook's car, Shiranui and Zosimos create distractions. His escape is greatly eased by the arrival of a Renraku corporate strike team. Looking for the team, they are instead forced to engage with the FBI.
Once the smoke clears (and Zosimos disguises himself as a golden retriever, figuring he was on the border crossing video), Rook talks to the FBI supervisor, Special Agent Clive Drummond, while flying his legitimate SIN. He initially tries to pass his presence at a second armed incident in as many days as bad luck, but the agent doesn't buy it. He's forced to reveal that he's a shadowrunner running down a Humanis Policlub sponsored madman. In turn, he learns that the Johnson the team believed was in the employ of Aztechnology is actually a highly placed shotcaller in the Humanis — they've been in the dark since the beginning.
In exchange for letting Rook and the rest of the team go free, and the FBI off thier backs, he demands that Rook keep him in the loop going forward.
Session 8 - 2023/11/02
Sign of the Beast