File: Phage thinks this is a go(...).jpg (204 KB, 565x834)

204 KB JPG

>>32805097

You ask one of the attendants at this nameless underground hotel to set you up with a secure connection to the outside world. Once you’re plugged in with full-throttle encryption running, you dial up Neurophage.

“Good afternoon, Echo.” Phage’s icon says. “I’m assuming you got out of Puyallup alive?”

“Alive and well.”

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Well, you know that run I’m doing?” You take a deep breath. “It’s still on, but I’ll need a little favor with the legwork.”

“Why do I get the feeling that I’m about to be asked an extremely troublesome favor?”

“Because I wouldn’t call for anything else.” You say flatly. “So, I’ll be breaking into a military base tonight. Don’t worry about overwatch. I’ve already got someone on that. Instead, I need you to cover my trail.”

“Hack into Fort Lewis and erase your team from their surveillance? I thought you said this would be troublesome.”

“That isn’t the troublesome part.” You grumble. “So, you still have that military-grade software suite we liberated in Dubai, don’t you?” There is a full minute of silence from the other end of the line.

“You know that stuff is only valuable because we decided not to give it to anyone, right?”

“Yeah, I remember. I’m hacking something close to heavy metal and I need an extra edge.”

“Stay on the line, and I’ll start the transfer.”

“You’re the best, Phage.” You suppress a relieved sigh.

“Sooner or later, I’m going to call in all these favors.”

“I know.” You keep Phage on the line until the file transfer finishes and say your goodbyes.

(cont.)

File: This could also be Summer(...).jpg (410 KB, 900x1200)

410 KB JPG

>>32805113

Once you’re done with Phage, you take a deep breath and stare at a commcode on your civilian ‘link. This is a call you knew you’d need to make eventually, but switching yourself ‘off,’ even for a few minutes, will be hard. You send the commcall before you have the chance to reconsider. No answer on the first two rings. You nearly hang up when you hear chatter on the other end of the line.

“Hey, Trace. What’s up?” You are relieved to hear Summer’s voice. It seems like it’s been way longer than two days since you last saw her, but her dyed pink hair, cat-like cyberears and balance tail are burned into your mind.

“Just work.” You say. It dawns on you again just how tired you are. In the last twelve hours alone, you’ve been nearly brain-fried, shot, kidnapped, and broken out. “Is this a bad time?”

“Not at all. I was just about to head home.” According to the time, it was only about one PM. “We just finished up with a job at the studio, so I got the rest of the day off.”

“That’s good.”

“Anyway, what’s been up with you? I know you can’t talk about work, but I’ve been kind of worried. There’s some rumor about ‘runners vanishing going around. Are you okay?”

>Lie. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” (DC 12)
>Explain as much as you can. “I’m fine for now, but…”
>Other (write-in)
(As usual, the first voting period of the night will be twenty minutes instead of ten.)

(Also, there's some vile part of me that's amused that no one's taken exception to Echo dating a girl who seriously augs herself to look like a catgirl.)

>>32805174
>Lie. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” (DC 12)
We are just a little tiered, but wanted to call to see how she was doing.

I'm actually surprised he is dating someone that "tame".

>>32805174
>Other
"I'm fine for now, and this job is really keeping me on my toes. I haven't forgotten my promise; the vacation with you after this will just be all the better after all this effort."

>>32805457
Sounds good to me.

>>32805457
>>32805546

I doubt we'll be getting in any more votes, so...

>Writing

>>32805174
“I’m fine for now, but this job is seriously keeping me on my toes.” Understatement of the fucking century. Between Declan turning out to be the worst double-crosser you could imagine, the minor shadow war erupting over their operations, and managing the conflict between your team and Hardesty’s, you’re surprised you haven’t turned to BTL just to keep yourself sane.

“Just be sure to keep your head low. The whole town’s really tense. Like, something big is about to go down.”

“It is, and it’ll probably be bigger than either of us can imagine. Trust me; I don’t want to be part of it. I’ve still got a couple more days on the job, and then I collect my pay. I haven’t forgotten about our upcoming vacation. I’m seriously gonna need it.”

“I kind of don’t want to ask, but… how ‘involved’ are you in this?” You’ve never heard Summer this worried before. Despite the crowd she runs with, she isn’t half the social deviant that you are.

“Enough that I wish I weren’t. Every ‘runner in Seattle has a stake in this, and it’ll all be coming to a head soon. Don’t worry about me. My luck hasn’t run out yet.” You don’t trust yourself to say anything else. Even if the encryption on this line is meant to be perfect, you know better than to take chances.

It occurs to you that you really might not come out of this alive. If that happens, well… Summer will move on. She’s a member of regular society, and you’re a deviant begging for a bullet. All of this was temporary in the first place. Even so, it might be prudent to leave something behind for her on a dead man’s trigger.

>Enough money to leave town in case she draws heat.
>Whatever intel you get, to make sure someone knows the truth.
>Your car and the contents of your apartment.
>Other (write in)

>>32806087
>Enough money to leave town in case she draws heat

She's not part of this life, we'd just make her a target.

>>32806087
>>Your car and the contents of your apartment.

>>32806087
>Enough money to leave town in case she draws heat.
>Your car and the contents of your apartment.
Even if it was all temporary, she doesn't deserve getting dragged into this.

>>32806134
>>32806210
>>32806268
>Writing

>>32806087
“Summer, I hate to cut this short, but I gotta get back to work.”

“Okay. Be careful okay?”

“You, too. I’ll see you again in a couple days.” You take a breath, and you’re back to “pro-mode.” “The night after tomorrow, go to Night Queen and ask the bartender for Jabir. He’ll have something to tell you.” If you combine what you’ve got in your cred account and what’s left of your Declan advance, you’ve got enough to get Summer a ticket out of Seattle and a new identity in wherever she ends up. That, plus your car and what gear you still have in your apartment, is more than enough to start a new life. If everything goes well, you’ll tell Jabir to cancel the exchange and Summer will be none the wiser. If this run goes pear-shaped and you end up in an unmarked grave, you can at least take care of her.

“Got it. See you soon, Trace.” The line goes dead. You know you’re being stupid. You’re a lonely asshole who needs the human comfort, and Summer’s a trendy club chick who’s in love with the ‘runner glitz. The last time you let civilians get involved in your world, you had to fake your own death just to keep them from getting hurt. This is a matter of principle.

You send a message to Jabir about where your car and apartment are. You’ll be sending him some money to hold on to pretty soon. You know Jabir can get the key to your apartment easily, and it’ll make a nice gift for Summer if you manage to live.

(cont.)

Sorry for the delay, I had an rl issue to deal with. I'll only be another minute or so.

>>32806708
You spend the rest of the afternoon resting, preparing your gear and counting bullets. You keep telling yourself that this run is a stupid idea. You don’t know the capabilities of what’s left of Hardesty’s team. The layout of the Fort Lewis base is under government lock and key and you don’t have enough time to get access to it or look at their network protocol. In any other situation, you’d ask for an extension on the job.

There isn’t going to be an extension this time.

You meet the rest of the team in the makeshift conference room. Everyone’s suited up, and Terminal’s already plugged into the wall, preparing to dive.

“Are we ready?” you ask.

“Ready as we’re gonna be.” Fury scoffs. “It’s too late to change the plan and all, but are you sure this is the best way to do this?”

“If we’re right, and an A.I. programmed Harriet’s legs, the source code for the OS, firewall, and IC are all completely outside our reach. The brute force approach is the only one that’ll work anymore.”

“I was afraid of that. I guess we shouldn’t waste any more time, then.”

You all pile into your respective vans (Dreadnought’s was retrieved as part of his preparation) and make headway towards Fort Lewis. You know that the go-gangers that Fury arranged are preparing for a full assault, and that they’ll be attacking from Tacoma. For your team’s approach, you plan on approaching from the…

>North, from Tacoma. You can lose yourselves amongst the gangers and go dark once you’re inside (DC 15 to infiltrate.)
>East, from Puyallup. You know that plenty of bad shit is lurking in the woods in west Puyallup, but you’ll be able to break through without being noticed. (DC 12 to infiltrate, with a second roll at DC 15 to avoid attention from unwanted natives)

Also, my dinner will be coming out of the oven any minute. If I had to give a time-frame for when I'll be back, it'll probably be half an hour.

Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves (all three of you) until I get back. Any lurker anons who are first-timers to the live threads, make yourselves known.

>>32807340
>>North, from Tacoma. You can lose yourselves amongst the gangers and go dark once you’re inside (DC 15 to infiltrate.)

>>32807340
>>East, from Puyallup. You know that plenty of bad shit is lurking in the woods in west Puyallup, but you’ll be able to break through without being noticed. (DC 12 to infiltrate, with a second roll at DC 15 to avoid attention from unwanted natives)

>>32807409
Okay, now that I think about it I thing approaching from the East might be better. Even if there is a second roll it's better to approach while they are distracted.

>>32807340
>East, from Puyallup. You know that plenty of bad shit is lurking in the woods in west Puyallup, but you’ll be able to break through without being noticed. (DC 12 to infiltrate, with a second roll at DC 15 to avoid attention from unwanted natives)

This approach, while leaving us with an extra roll, allows for our team to get in relatively unscathed (Depending on the second roll) someone might get pegged with a bullet or two hanging out with the gangers.

I will never turn on an oven while running a quest ever again.

>>32807624
>>32807702
>>32807853

>Writing. Incoming dice roll.

File: spookywoods.jpg (147 KB, 960x854)

147 KB JPG

>>32807340

Your team’s vans will be approaching from the east. This is not without risk. When the modern district of Fort Lewis went up, it expanded its borders to include parts of Puyallup and Tacoma. While the Tacoma locals never forgot (thus making this incident of gang violence much easier to organize), there weren’t enough people still alive in that part of Puyallup for anyone to care. Between the radioactive volcanic ash coating the ground, magical experiments gone wrong, and the effects that both of those have had on the wildlife, infiltrating Fort Lewis from the east was asking to get attacked by an eight-legged bear or something.

The road noise fades as your convoy drives through west Puyallup. Soon, the only visible road is cracked by tree roots or stamped through by… something. A thick canopy of overgrown trees blocks out the distant city lights, and you don’t trust yourself to turn on the van’s high beams. You only hope that your night-vision goggles and your teammates’ vision enhancements help you navigate this forest without attracting undue attention.

>Roll 2d20

Rolled 6, 8 = 14

>>32808449
Here goes nothing.

Rolled 6, 19 = 25

>>32808449
Rollin thunder

Rolled 4, 12 = 16

>>32808449

>>32808492
>>32808612
>>32808614

>Miss, Hit.

You've managed to avoid attracting the attention of the native beasts of west Puyallup, but attracted the attention of the UCAS military. Spend Edge to avoid the military (Current Edge: 3)

>Y
>N

>>32808654
Spend that edge

>>32808654
Spend that edge.

>>32808654
Y

>>32808677
>>32808715
>>32808750

>Writing

>>32808449
>Edge spent! Hit. Hit.

The final push of your infiltration is marked by a sudden explosion to the northeast and the sound of sirens. You look crossly at Fury.

“What?” She shrugs, badly hiding her mirth. “They’re gangers. What did you expect?”

You shake your head as your van speeds towards the plasteel fence of the military reservation. You’re lucky enough that the beasts of Puyallup didn’t notice you on your way in. You get the feeling that you dodged a major bullet when you pass the last security checkpoint on the way into the reservation. Dreadnought’s van doesn’t even slow down before barreling through the fence. Dreadnought, Hardesty close on his heels, quickly drives away from the site of the crash. If and when the soldiers and MPs got around to investigating this, you didn’t want to be here. Once you park the vans in a lightless area near another fence, you all barrel out. At this point, the whole base was probably on alert, which meant that their radio signal scanners were getting a thousand false positives a minute. Any signal activity from, say, a band of professional criminals infiltrating the facility would be ignored in favor of the obvious problem.

The second you turn on your commlink, Terminal sends in a commcall to the whole team.

“Overwatch commencing.” He says.

“Roger.” You all answer.

“Okay, this place doesn’t accept any outside signals, so we’re flying blind. We’re looking for their armory, which should be somewhere near a post exchange.”

“I know where post exchange is.” Hardesty says. You look at her. “What? You think I never did ops for the UCAS military while I was with Ares?”

You take a moment to think. The most direct route risked running into military personnel, who would likely not be happy to see you. A roundabout route meant you were counting on the gangers to last against the military. Which way should you go?

>Direct route.
>Indirect route.

>>32809170
>>Indirect route.

I'll give the vote another five minutes

>>32809170
>Indirect route.

>>32809323
>>32809517

>Writing

>>32809170
An indirect route is best. Gangers today aren’t weak enough to be put down by soldiers that quickly. Your team, plus the drone, keep low and quickly skirt the edge of the territory. Following Hardesty’s instructions, you avoid any bright lights and bypass any checkpoints your find. Dreadnought has a little trouble keeping quiet, but no trouble keeping out of sight. With so many buildings around, even an eight-hundred pound Russian commando can avoid attention.

You creep to the top of an artificial hill that has line of sight on the commissary and post exchange, and can finally see the extent of the damage the gangers did. An entire guard post has been blown up, and gangers in identically-colored gear on nearly-identical bikes are streaming past the responding soldiers. You can see that the gangers are speeding towards the commissary, with the soldiers not far behind. If you don’t act quickly, someone might spot you.

>Loop around towards and go into the post exchange. The armory shouldn’t be too far away. (DC 12 to avoid detection, with a second DC 12 roll to avoid detection from the gangers.)
>Try and find a way into the armory from the outside. (DC 14 roll to avoid detection.)

Are we out of players? Okay, then. I'll wait around for a few minutes and then start to close up shop.

>>32810124

Okay. We're done for the night.

Shadowrun Hacker Quest will return next Sunday at 18:00 EST. Be sure to follow me on Twitter for schedule updates and be the first to know when the next thread goes live.

https://twitter.com/NullFearQuests

I'll be around for a little while and then I'll archive this baby. Also, special thanks to the anon who archived last week's thread. That was cool of you.

>>32809943
>>Try and find a way into the armory from the outside. (DC 14 roll to avoid detection.)

>>32809943
>Try and find a way into the armory from the outside. (DC 14 roll to avoid detection.)

Actually, okay. I'll hang around for one last vote. Next plot post will be the last one of the night, then.

>>32809943
>Try and find a way into the armory from the outside. (DC 14 roll to avoid detection.)

>>32810240
>>32810283
>>32810481

>Writing

>>32809943
“Inside’s too risky.” You whisper to your subvocal mic. “We’ll loop around the outside.”

“We still don’t actually know where the armory is.” Hardesty whispers. “We’ll just be guessing and hoping we don’t get caught.”

“It is better than nothing.” Dreadnought says. “We do not have much time. We should hurry.” Hardesty makes a hand signal and starts stalking in that direction, you and the rest of the team follow behind her.

>Roll 1d20

(Okay, I lied. The post-roll plot post is the last one tonight)

Rolled 17

>>32810523

Rolled 12

>>32810523
Rollin thunder.

Rolled 4

>>32810523

>>32810699
>>32810726
>>32810729
>Writing

>>32810523
You hear the crash of motorcycles bursting into the commissary, followed by bursts of gunfire and furious shouts. You use the sounds of battle to mask your own approach as you loop around the commissary and post exchange and try and find something that looks like an armory.

In retrospect, you shouldn’t have bothered.

A squat, rectangular building made of solid concrete (which you can bet is reinforced with a titanium frame, plasteel mesh and faraday cage) is just across the way from the commissary. Its single steel door is both bolted shut and guarded by a half-dozen soldiers. They probably have a set protocol for ganger invasions by now. While they haven’t spotted you yet, you can tell that you were only a few steps from getting seen and, likely, shot. You’re suddenly very glad for the bulky goggles and rebreather mask covering your face.

“The armory’s probably in the basement of that building.” Hardesty whispers.

“How do you plan to get by the guard?” You ask.

“This is your plan. You figure it out.”

You glance back to the guarded armory, feeling tension creep into you. No matter how this fight goes, it’ll probably alert the rest of the soldiers in the commissary. You can’t think of a happy outcome to that. But you were in too deep to turn back now.

You feel yourself starting to smile.

Oh well. No one said this would be easy.

[THREAD 13.5 END]

>>32810935
Thanks for yet another great thread!

I've already done the outro a couple at

>>32810206

so I won't repeat it. You know the drill. Next Sunday, 6 PM Eastern.