Episode Six: The Sharper Image Job - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

Date: 19 Bezos 289

Starscream does her pre-show ritual, taking a zen moment, relishing having People to do her hair and makeup for the first time in 15 years. Between her own PR efforts and BSP’s advertising and strong-arming, Spire 404 has sold out, and the venue’s turning hundreds away. Bai Jie, BSP’s head of security, is taking no chances, as her headliner had a bombing at her last show. She’s been spending a lot of time with Starscream – and is entirely smitten, despite herself, and reassures a nervous Starscream that security will be flawless. Harb Bai is cool with the shift in her affections, despite somewhat chilly relations with his elder cousin. He’d love to watch :)

Meanwhile, Carbide and Paragon do a recon run against Harb’s house, to check out security updates. They get through Dome Ops’s “backstage” with no problem, their uniform coveralls and temp IDs holding up. At the house, Carbide notices new physical alarms on all the doors and windows, and a security camera on the patio. Paragon gets into the Net architecture and finds a Killer. She backs out: no need to hit it now: if it beat her, she wouldn’t have time to replace any programs it killed. So, security seems a bit higher, but nothing beyond next-step reasonable precautions after a theft.

Before the show, Starscream makes the meet-and-greet rounds of the young corpos. She notices a disturbance by the entrance, with Jie in the thick of it. Simultaneously, her social-media DMs explode: the Gorn Happy Aura Fan Club is tweeting warnings! Security won’t talk to them, and they need to tell her about a threat. She calls Jie over and tells her she’s gotten credible warnings of a security threat, and shows her the tweets. It takes all of Jie’s control not to break into giggles at the profile photos of Gorn in sailor-cosplay. Star tells her she doesn’t have to let them in, but should take statements – and signs some merch to hand out to pacify them.

Jie gets them calmed down, and comes back to do a maximum security sweep, catching three threats: a maintenance worker with a canister of hallucinogenic gas they were going to connect to the HVAC, a lighting tech who’d overpowered a special-effects laser to deliver a killshot, and a media tech who had a smuggled video from Lady Chaos to cut into the feed during the show. On interrogation, the maintenance worker and lighting tech confess to having been bought by the Rackhams. Star forwards the interrogation video to Tenzo at Odaiba Securities with a note: “You have more resources than I do, maybe this will lead you to them.” She sends a copy to Paragon: “These motherfuckers!” As for Lady Chaos – she does nothing at all, a horrible burn.

Carbide Paragon, and Vir start their run. Carbide’s busted getting into Dome Ops, and taken aside to a conference room to await security. He loops the camera video feed and escapes, outrunning security and rejoining the team.

Another good look at Harb’s house turns up another two cameras, including one over the closest point of Net access. They get looped. Paragon has an epic battle with the Net architecture, getting pushed out and taking significant brain damage. Vir administers a Speedheal, which leaves Paragon feeling super sharp and speedy. Nonetheless, her second approach goes four rounds with the Giant Black ICE before she finally manages to whittle it down. She’s too drained to crack either the files or the control node, however: they’ll have to take the remaining security manually.

Carbide jimmies a window on the back of the house, and the team crawls in – but nobody spots the security camera on that side. Once in the guest room, Vir takes note of a camera just outside by the rec room, and Carbide gets it looped. They decide to pass on the Jubilee comics in the downstairs frames, saving them for after they reach their goal.

They spot and disable the cameras upstairs. Carbide and Paragon enter Harb’s bedroom, with Vir hanging back in the doorway. Carbide takes down the frame containing the signed Liefeld, and starts on the safe. He’s got the old password from Starscream’s eyes, and has the safe specs up on his own chiron, making the run a bit easier. He succeeds in disabling the exterior connections and in opening the safe. He stands to one side as he opens the door, just in case.

And that was a very good call! As the safe opens, a rocket launches. Without anything right in front of it to hit, it flies through the bedroom window and detonates outside, taking out a good chunk of the wall, along with Harb’s full-on Austin Powers bed. Carbide and Paragon look in the safe. There’s no comics. There is another security camera, and Bai Jie’s business card. Carbide edits the feed of their faces, leaving the video of the rocket blowing up Harb’s bedroom wall.

Shaken, it takes Carbide three tries to crack the secure frame on the Liefeld, but he gets the comic free and into Paragon’s maintenance cart. They escape into the Ops corridors.

But! Dome Ops has been on alert since Carbide escaped custody, and he and Vir are detected, while Paragon and her cart pass unnoticed. Carbide and Vir lead security on a chase, but Vir is grappled. They’re able to wriggle around and administer a tranq hypo, knocking their guard out. The two confine the guards and make a run for it, barely managing to stay ahead of security on their way out of the Spire. They ditch the uniforms and ID badges: that cover is blown for a good long while.

Star delivers a great show, being called back for three encores. After, her plans with Jie are tanked, given the explosion at her cousin’s house. And no, BSP isn’t going to comp her on a luxury suite in the Spire, so it’s back to a cube hotel for her for the night, after a round of social-media PR work, and a special stage-door meetup with her Gorn fans. She gives the rest of the team an NB1000 cut of her take – which was huge, as she got a cut of every ticket sale after the first 500. The show raised over NB80,000 for charity.

Everyone lies low. Star realizes that now she’s been linked to two burglaries of Harb’s house (her trust was abused by former associates!). Paragon was photographed at the site of a break-in at the house of a BSP executive – the company her family worked for and that she’s been on the run from. Carbide’s been ID’d by BSP. And the Rackhams are after Star, at a minimum.

Work is proceeding on the Honeycomb Hideout. Star’s not going to move in until the dirty workmen are out, of course :)

Vir’s planning on doing a couple rounds of therapy with Paragon, who’s had a lot of brain-frying lately. Carbide’s working on Vir’s Neuralink and chipware socket. They’re hoping for a quiet few weeks.