GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 17: Job Interview

Characters:

Alexander "Specter" Marshal - Solo
Pat "Peacock" Watson - "Former" Nomad
Ruby "Paxos" Lang - Netrunner

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Plans Within Plans

Peacock reached out to an old buddy, Walker O'heron, who owed them a favour and learned that the passkeys held by Kazumi Kanata and Yorinobu were probably the zetatech K-series, but when Paxos dove into the 'Saka net to confirm this, she got zapped by a black ICE databomb that had been left in the financial documents.  Flames shot out of her neural port and cybereyes, but she was able to jack out and then put out the fires before they got any worse.  Still, it put her in the hospital for a few days while she got skin grafts.  While she was recovering, she went through the photos Jennifer Thracker had taken from inside Arasaka Tower and compiled what useful information she could.

Peacock, meanwhile, went to Corpo Plaza with the intent of observing the tower security and maybe lip-reading employees on smoke breaks but unexpectedly struck gold: some HR employee was going on a rant to a coworker in Reconciliation Park (while never once turning away from where Peacock was watching!) about how a whole bunch of security staff had jumped ship to one of the other factions over this conflict with Kang Tao.  Apparently, Arasaka was hiring, and for once they were looking explicitly for non-japanese applicants with no scruples to become bodyguards for mid-level execs.

The next day, Peacock came back when work let out with a badge scanner hidden in a laptop bag to get some credentials for the techies to work with.  They had to get almost right up against people to scan them, but that wasn't a problem with the crowd.  While that was happening, Paxos was scouring Arasaka press releases, hoping she'd find something that would require the execs to access the data vault on their own.  Unfortunately, the closest thing she found was Yojimbo Kageki 3, a video game that wasn't due for digital release for several weeks.  Even if it was in the vault, it was past their deadline anyway.

There was also the Save Your Soul system (aka Relic), which had been in development hell for years.  It was almost definitely in the data vault, but it was impossible to guess how frequently they accessed it.  In other bad news, Yorinobu only ever left his mansion in an armoured AV that flew straight to the tower.  Jar spent a couple days picking up a set of tools for forging keycards and a pickpocketing skillshard on the black market, and Specter finally finished his meditative therapy.  Back at the tower, Peacock had noticed another possible means of entry: a Kiroshi blimp floated right over the AV hangar at the top floor.

Fresh out of surgery, Paxos figured she couldn't get her brain fried twice and hacked back into the Arasaka net to get Peacock a job interview for security.  Meanwhile, Peacock went and got another skillshard slot and an implanted holster installed, then had Jar pick up an (illegal) pickpocketing shard at a night market to give them a better chance at stealing the passkeys.  The next morning, Peacock showed up bright and early at Arasaka Tower for their interview under the fake name "Hermione Granger".

After being cleared by security when their eyes set off the metal detectors, Peacock took a seat between a bunch of much larger and imposing solo types and waited their turn.  Eventually, they were called to a small black office where an older japanese man asked them about their (false) prior work in security.  They were convincing enough, and moved onto the practical exam at a firing range.  The interviewer explained that bodyguards had to be capable of using both the standard issue revolver and assault rifle, and let Peacock get to work.  Thanks to their targeting scope, they were able to pass both courses, though the revolver was uncomfortably heavy and with too much kick for them to properly handle.

At Jar's place, Paxos took the id card credentials that Peacock had scanned and created false identities for each of them with basic access.  Jar spent some time tinkering with them and got them up to low-level security permissions, but they wouldn't be able to get into any executive offices or the AV hangers.  

Notes:

Paxos' surgery actually only took 1 day, but she had retroactively done something in the future so I just stretched it.  She took 12 damage from the data bomb.

At one point, Peacock noted that Adam Smasher, Arasaka's heavy hitter, was dead, but Specter just said that they probably had Molecule Smasher, an even bigger guy.

Nobody in the play group had heard of the Cask of Amontillado.  Uncultured swine, smh.

The three player-controlled PCs all have at least one humanity disadvantage (Specter has 4).  Peacock just got On The Edge due to the skillshards, Paxos has Berserk, and Specter has Bad Temper, Short Attention Span, Compulsive Partying, and Seflish.

Peacock has declared that if they pull this off and survive, that they will have earned their "the" (as in, The Peacock).

A short session where not a whole lot got done.  Largely on me, as I got sidetracked a lot, but this was also the first time it felt like my pre-heist rules didn't work smoothly.