GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 9: Child Protective Services

Characters:

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     Absent
Alexander "Specter" Marshal - Solo
Pat "Peacock" Watson - "Former" Nomad
Ruby "Paxos" Lang - Netrunner

Preparations

Paxos dug around some more in the Militech Genetronics systems, injecting fake security IDs and editing the work schedule as she did.  According to their intel from Jennifer Thracker, the guards rotated out every 4 hours, with those in the control room switching to patrol and those on patrol going home, which meant two members of the crew would be in the control room entirely unsupervised.  With some further digging, she found and downloaded a bunch of encrypted files related to the black site, which she'd crack later.

Meanwhile, Peacock learned through continued observation that the cleaners were from Squeek-E-Kleen, which was an external contractor.  They also saw that the researchers were dropped off and picked up by "taxis" that were definitely just undercover Militech shuttles, meaning they were only on the street for maybe a total of two minutes a day, which would make establishing some line of communication difficult.  Paxos probed around the systems for Thracker's corpo apartment, but unsurprisingly it also had heavy security: the weak point was definitely the black site.

Paxos got around to cracking the files she'd grabbed, and there was some useful data.  In addition to invoices that revealed what exact model of security equipment was used, they also contained a pile of safety and operational procedures.  The children were referred to as "biological equipment", and if they died they were to simply be removed by the cleaners.  Specter and Paxos got biomonitors installed, as all the guards were supposed to have them, though theirs wouldn't be connected to the Militech systems.  Peacock went and grabbed some rope, handcuffs, and duct tape ($1 a roll?  What a deal!) from "Kidnaps R Us".

The Job

Day of, most of the crew got into disguises (Paxos did her best, though Jar refused to have his style cramped).  The stuffy summer air was choked with dust from the Badlands as they drove through The Glen.  Peacock dropped Paxos and Specter, or, as their Genetronics IDs said, Jane Doe and Hugh Mann, in front of the optometrist's, then parked the van in an alley nearby.  The two "guards" nodded at the staff and walked through to the back room where they grabbed their bulletproof vests, stun batons, and handguns, then took the cargo elevator down.

Paxos' cyberdeck was making a noticeable bulge in the torso of her vest, and when the other guards asked how their day was going, Specter said "I LOVE MILITECH".  In spite of this, their cover wasn't blown, and the last shift left while the two in the control room headed out on "patrol" of the 30 feet of hallway.  Alone in the control room, Paxos ran a jamming program while Specter looked into the "development lab".  There were 5 bald little girls, maybe 10-12 years old, almost identical except for age.

Thracker was at her desk, and she was shorter than they'd realized, maybe 4'8".  The jam went up, blocking all communications using Militech equipment (including the cameras), and Paxos told Peacock and Jar to get in position over radio.  The two of them walked over and popped up the manhole cover concealing the escape hatch with a crowbar, then climbed down until they were just above the hatch.  Specter waved at the guards in the hall, gesturing at his ear, and they nodded and started walking closer.

At a further signal from Paxos as she and Specter entered the airlock into the facility proper, Peacock and Jar opened the hatch and climbed down, the former taking aim with a stun gun and the latter hefting his shotgun, though he didn't plan on using it.  Just as one guard was asking what was going on, Specter said "I LOVE MILITECH", then charged forward and punched him in the chest.  The guard rolled with the punch and didn't go down, while the other took a taser dart to the ass and fell over, convulsing.  Specter followed up with another punch to the face which sent a tooth flying, but the guard stayed up.

He stepped to the side to avoid being shot in the back and snapped out his stun baton while Paxos hacked into his systems and got ready to fry him.  Specter's fist whipped out at his right arm only to be deflected with the baton, but that was enough of a distraction for Peacock to hit him with a taser dart, which sent him to the floor.  Jar tied up both of the guards with duct tape and rope, while Specter went in and manhandled the other two scientists out into the hallway at gunpoint.

Paxos went back into the control room to wipe the cameras, and Thracker came out and said that since she wasn't being tied up, they were probably here for her?  Specter confirmed they were, and she let out a sigh of relief.  She said she'd need time to copy over her research data, and asked if they knew that the material they were supposed to smuggle out was one of the clones.  Peacock replied that yeah, they knew, and took a look at the clones... realizing that they looked exactly like one of his sisters, Mary-Jane, had as a kid (well, with less hair).  

They asked Thracker if she knew who the clones were based on, and she said that she didn't, but it should probably be in the data she was copying over.  While she was at it, she stated that while she knew the contract specified they were to only take a single clone, she'd prefer if they could take all five.  Peacock said it was no problem, and continued looking at the clones.  They'd had brain implants installed, the same ones the crew had grabbed way back when they'd robbed that BioDyne convoy, and there were containers of what must have been Firmitas in the other lab.

Thracker finished copying everything over and tossed Peacock a shard with the data on it, then started herding the clones to the escape hatch.  Specter went up first to confirm the coast was clear, and the rest followed soon after.  By the time the alarm finally went out, the crew were long gone.  They dropped Thracker off at the safehouse in Wellsprings that Wonderland had arranged (door passcode: 8675309) and she buzzed them once the doors were locked to congratulate them on a job well done and transferred the eddies.

Downtime

Peacock spent some time looking over the data, and discovered that the person whose division was responsible for obtaining the genetic material for the clones was Jackie Wu, a Militech executive and another of Specter's ex-girlfriends.  Paxos meanwhile had a missing call from her "partner" at Kang Tao, Lin Ru.  A while later she got a text reading "keep your eyes open for a heist on a cargo freighter ;)".  Jar fenced the Firmitas and some of the useful data he'd swiped to his usual guy.

Paxos got an Advanced Neural Port installed, then underwent a week of therapy to hopefully deal with the fallout.  Unfortunately for her, she soon realized that she had difficulty focusing for long periods of time, extremely inconvenient for a Netrunner.  Peacock was watching the news when they learned that their arch-rival, Davis Numbers, had just debuted (and patented!) an AI-driven dispatch at Delemaine.  This would put their own taxi company on the backfoot (when they got around to starting it, anyway).  The stress of thinking about it got them to undergo a course of therapy as well.

While the others were busy, Specter made some bribes to the right people to burn off some Heat, and finally got Jar to repair his bootleg soviet sandy.  Once that was done, he went out with his gang, the Wingless Dragons, to crack some skulls to set up protection rackets.  Paxos fenced off some paydata she'd swiped from the Militech servers and made a couple hundred easy eddies.  She also pored over the data they'd gotten from Thracker, and found some more juicy tidbits.

One, experimenting on clones was illegal, which gave them potential blackmail material against Jackie Wu if they ever needed it.  Two, the person who had provided the necessary BioDyne blueprints and formulae was Rin Shimamura, who was an Arasaka employee.  Third, BioDyne had been taken over by the Taka faction of Arasaka (which her ex, Cosma, informed her over a phonecall was Yorinobu's gang).  They had Jar sell all the blackmail on the open market, which made them some cred but meant they wouldn't be blackmailing anyone any time soon.

Meanwhile, Specter found out from one of his underlings that a deal had gone wrong, and a couple of his boys had been arrested.  He paid the bribes to have them released, and did a regimen of drugs and hypno-therapy to recover from the stress.

Yo Ho Ho

The crew got a call on the holo from Regina Jones (well, the crew except Specter, as he doesn't have Chyron), who had a job: they were going to board and rob a cargo freighter at the Waterfront.  They agreed, and got the briefing: a freighter out of Vietnam, the Chim Bồ Câu, was secretly carrying a high-altitude military assassination drone.  They were to board while it was docked, and sabotage the drone by 1) uploading corrupted targeting software and 2) installing a backdoor.  Their employer would be providing the former, while they would have to procure the latter on their own.

The Chim Bồ Câu would be docking in 4 days, and it would be unloaded almost immediately, so timing on this mission would be tight.  It was owned and operated by a numbered corporation, but security at the docks would be Arasaka, as at all facilities on the Waterfront.  Regina asked if anyone had any questions, and when no one did, she cut the call.  Paxos immediately sent a text to Lin Ru saying "a heist involves stealing something", and got a bit of malware that could install a backdoor on this very model of drone that he just so happened to have laying around.

Peacock went and spent a few days scoping out the docks, observing that though security was heavily-armed and armored, there were fewer than he'd expected; maybe Arasaka was banking on rapid response to any big threats.  An elevated security station looked out over the yard, and cameras were dotted around, but not many.  In terms of ingress onto the boat, there was a ramp for forklifts and several sets of staircases.  Of course, they could also ride the crane if they felt adventurous.  They went and borrowed a speedboat from their family, figuring they might as well just approach from the ocean where less people would be watching.

Specter went out and got one of the Arasaka goons (selected by Peacock) drunk, then abducted him with Peacock's help.  Once they were secure, Paxos came in and interrogated the guy asking after any odd items in the shipping manifest; two shipping containers were full of "bananas", so those were the ones they were after.  Some more questions found out what kind of security the freighter would have on the high seas, which turned out to be almost none: it had crew, but no security officers, and while there were security cameras, drones, and spy satellites, any real threat would be an hour or so away.

They decided to hit the ship while it was en route to minimize immediate threats.  Peacock would have to stay on the speedboat, and they might end up having a helicopter gunship called in, but that was only if things went wrong.

Notes:

Due to scheduling difficulties, Jar's player is officially out of the campaign except for special guest appearances.  Because the crew was designed with a Techie in mind, Jar will remain as an NPC.

Specter suggested that Peacock be part of the infiltration team, while he would drive the car.  Peacock's entire thing is being a driver, and they were not amused.

Legwork on this mission was made more complicated by the fact that BAD for dealing with the rest of Militech was much worse than for just the black site (-8 instead of -4).

Paxos tried to use Current Affairs to say "we check to make sure we go on a day when there's not a parade!".  No, getting rid of imaginary problems that don't exist doesn't lower BAD.  Some skills just aren't useful every time.  Criminology and Tracking also sat out.

Paxos has Enemy (Militech) and Obsession (Get Revenge), and had to roll to not spitefully just wreck up the place.

Jar hadn't picked a mandatory disadvantage so he now just refuses to wear disguises.  Probably worth 10 points in a game where your identity being revealed is potentially extremely dangerous.

Peacock's van may or may not have "Free Candy" stenciled on the side.

On seeing the clone children:

Paxos: "Are they anime protagonists?"
Me: "No, they're all bald."
Peacock: "Oh god, they're psychic."

During the punching, Specter tried to activate his Sandevistan but it failed again.  Despite working on a 12 or less, a 74% chance, it has failed 4/5 times.

The guard made 4 consecutive rolls of 6 or less.  Paxos: "Who is this guy?" Me: "He's V, you're all fucked."

Peacock has 3 sisters: Emma, Jane, and Mary-Jane, all with the last name Watson.

Paxos rolled the worst possible trait result out of 20 for Humanity loss.  She now has to roll 12 or less any time she attempts to do a Deep Dive or use a Clue Skill (Research, Accounting, etc).  At the moment, if she gets back to max Humanity the trait goes away, but that might change because Therapy is pretty strong.