Session 2: The Road to Ruin - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

304 Rand 1 Money (4 days after New Years)

The group leaves the bar, headed to the Ruin Island for a secure conversation. Outside they’re jumped by two Solos. Lane asks who they are and why they’re after the group, but gets no answer.

Rina calls out, “Go away we don’t have any money!” She picks a car door lock and gets in, closing the door. The fight progresses, everyone tumbles into the car. They get clear, but the Vole is badly wounded.

Zhai Be comes out, shoots one of the solos in the face hard, and takes him prisoner. The other runs off.

At Ruin Island

Vole glugs back a bottle of whisky. Rina is looking for a chop shop to sell the car, and takes their first offer of 10k NB. Somebody needs to remind her to share it out.

Vole opens up a cubicle for Rina to curl up in and patch herself up.

Lane calls Zhai Be to find out what he learned. The solos were sent by Melina Barrick, chief of security for Zhukov Amalgamated Transport. Dekyan Zhukov, thereof, is her former nemesis from BADI, years ago.

Lane is really pissed off to have this guy after her after all this time, and pissed that the Vole took a lot of bullets to the face for it. She wants to find out why it took so long for Zhukov to come after her, and why now. That’ll take some leg work, but a search shows that with the collapse of BADI after the events of New Year’s Day he’s on the move with corporate acquisitions – and apparently is off his boss’s leash at long last.

Lane had missed the news the past few days. She had four days of dating Kodiak, who taught her how to shoot. Now she’s back on her game reviewing the business press.

She calls Tardis to ask if they can get Zhukov off her back. No, they’re not going to war with BADI, but they can supply an armored car and a Solo driver of better quality than her attackers. They’ll meet her at The Qīng-huā after their meeting with the Dragon Head, in a few hours, at 3AM.

Who’s going to the meeting? Rina doesn’t waannnnna. Lane talks her into it after Rina texts someone else. Rina’s still in the same oversized sweatshirt with the blood washed off. Lane offers her a new sweatshirt, and Rina reluctantly accepts.

Lane leaves to go home, patch herself up, and change before the meeting – but she discovers her place got blown up! The rocket launcher is still sitting in the street, a one-shot disposable. She’s able to recover the clothes she got on the last job: they were in an armored armoire. She gives Rina a high-fashion sweatshirt that smells a bit of explosive, but is clean.

Rina is looking for information about Digit Alice, along with anything about her disappearance. And does the Pounce have any information about all of this? An AI of that capability is of great interest to other moderately illegal beings.

She hears from the Pounce that their contact on things Netwatch and AI, someone named Stridev, is missing. Another contact, Nympie is available to meet. The Pounce, really, really want her to go scrape the Netwatch servers on Odaiba Island. And Digit Alice was a presence on the very techy subreddits a couple years ago, but no specific info. Rina keeps most of this to herself: in particular, she needs to figure out how to convince the group to go on an Odaiba netrun.

The Vole finds an abandoned apartment connected to the bar he’d never bothered with: that’ll be a place the group can stay. Lane’s going to have to get a new computer, and Rina’s fine with her cubicle.

At the Qing Ha, they’re glad they dressed for the occasion: the building is exquisite, on beautifully managed grounds.

They’re escorted into a reception chamber, where a woman of indeterminate age sits on something very like a throne (perception: it’s actual wood, holy shit)on a dais. Two guards stand off the dais, on either side, SMGs at the ready. The two who escorted the group in close the doors and take up positions in back.

Lane opens by complimenting the throne. which pleases the Dragon Head. She asks the Dragon Head to run through what she knows about the theft:

• The substrate was couriered to the Yellow Sand Society (the Triad very black ops group) and carefully examined. There was a note with it stating that it was likely a sentient AI, but isolated from communication by its case. Turning it over to Netwatch would get the Triad on their radar in an undesirable way, but it was a potentially valuable asset worth holding onto indefinitely.

• Presumably the decision was made by the Mountain Master himself, to turn it over to the Wo Shing Wo. They weren’t told at first what it was, just stash it as securely as possible and forget about it.

• The Wo Shing Wo was likely chosen because they’re about as low-profile as it’s possible to be: they’re the effective – and she does mean effective – government of Little Harbin. They keep order ruthlessly, and make enough money from the usual sources that they don’t need to lean on civilians. They really might be the least likely people on the planet to be hiding something that could get the entire planet vaporized.

• They had to report it missing, at which time the Mountain Master – at length – explained what it was, and its potential value. Both HQ and the Wo Shing Wo began investigations, but to no avail.

• It was Tardis’s idea to use the Dragonfly as bait, but there were no takers.

• The theft is unlikely, as

o someone needed to know that Digit Alice existed o and was in the care of the Wo Shing Wo o and be able to break in and out of The Qīng-huā undiscovered o and to avoid any clues being discovered in nearly a year • And now, of course, control of the only actual sentient AI on the planet would be worth everything, Not to mention the Wo Shing Wo’s survival.

Rina wonders if the AI was really secure in that briefcase: “Information wants to be free.”

Lane asks if the storage room might have had net access. The Dragon Head checks a tablet: yes, it’s within range of several security nodes. When they put it there, they had no idea what it was, and no reason to be concerned about net access. Not that access showed up on their security logs.

Rina’s tail swishes under her hoodie.

The Dragon Head offers access to her security chief, and to most of the relevant security data, for them to examine themselves.

She says whatever happened is way beyond the knowledge and skills of a “neighborhood governance association.”

They take their leave, and are met outside by their new chauffeur, and Zhai Be’s vehicular pride and joy. The driver offers to take them wherever they want to go. Rina calls Nymphie. “I got a job, I have some questions about tech, can I come over?” That’s a yes: she’ll be awake and functional by the time they get to The Sprawl from Koto City.

They hear the loudest yawn, and Nymphie hangs up.

Debrief

Best player moments: Rina in the fashion hoodie. The new car. Lane’s apartment being blown up. Lane stepping up as group leader. Great Lane/Rina teamwork in talking with the Dragon Head.

Things that worked/didn’t: The fight was dicey at first, but they made it in and out. I’m glad they took the car option. Maybe if there had been 4 instead of the 3 non-fighters, they might have stayed to slug it out. They love the Qing-hua and the new bar.

They’ll have to remind Rina to pass out the car money.