Session 5: That’s Why They Called It BADI - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

304 Rand 4 Money -> Sun

Kestrel found someone to be the cat Colony catsitter/vet/server minder in Haiphong: Zoey Higashi. He met her in the clinic where he got his face redone and then undone. She’s tired of working on furries. Lane ensures she has their contact information, and tells her to take good care of the cats.

The team presents their landlords with fresh fish, which they cook up for a lovely dinner. Rina calls the cats, telling them that there’s fresh fish for Drift kitties who don’t make the bus late. Seventeen of 16 kitties show up for breakfast. They sort to figure out who isn’t going on the bus.

Kaito, the Drift Colony leader tried to shake down Rina for a better deal than the Haiphong colony got: “You may have suckered Hayate into letting you be his slumlord, but this kitty wasn’t born yesterday. We want a dedicated human liaison, security network, and a medic of Moopsie’s for ourselves - or we’re staying on the bus!” Rina is unimpressed: “We’re street cats! They should be proud of their origins! This building is fully customizable to their needs! They can order so many things and have so many boxes! And, I didn’t make the contract!.” Rina doesn’t give in to blackmail.

Lane comes over. They cats are crawling up people, leaping from their shoulders… Jiefan refuses to drive. Rina says their job is just to take them to start a colony in a new place, that’s it. Rina sees this as a problem for later, but Lane sees it as a problem for now, with Jiefan refusing to drive. The team boards the bus, now bug-free and smelling of Fresh Pine Scent, whatever that’s supposed to be. Kestrel agrees to drive: he can’t be distracted by the cats, even if he’s not an experienced city driver. Driving down to the ferry and boarding is hassle-free.

Before departure, a safety video pops up on your agents – you can’t turn it down or off. For those with an internal agent, it plays on your eyeballs.

“This is your captain: today’s voyage will be 2.5 hours. We’re expecting moderate to heavy swells an hour out, so please take your seats and hold on when the warning message flashes on your agent. There is no risk of pirate attack, nor will passengers be required to commit to active defense. This is a union vessel, and security is provided by 4I’s Red Star Cyborgs Local 280: workers of the world unite!”

And yes, about an hour in, the captain gives a heavy seas warning. Needless to say, 16 cats – and Rook – are puking their guts out on the bus. Looks like Kestrel is going to have to do a deep cleaning again.

Rina holds it down, but climbs up onto the roof. Kestrel does the cleaning without complaint, but isn’t real comfortable with being protected by communist cyborgs – it’s a little too close to the Borg for him.

But do they make the puke the resort’s problem or clean up first? Kestrel doesn’t like letting drones deal with problems he could solve himself and he draws the line at cat puke. Lane’s delighted to hand the matter off to the resort. Lane bends, as Kestrel has worked so hard to clean up the cat puke. Rina figures out how to use the drink mixer to spray down the inside. The cats just want to park somewhere to lick themselves off and puke some more. Kestrel decides to help with their grooming issues.

They take some time, and are really quite presentable, except Rina and Jiefan are just squeaking by. Kestrel is going in style. And the bus has been hosed down with seltzer, with a vodka spritz at the end to tamp down the odors.

Kestrel wonders what their story is for people. Rina wonders why they might have to talk to people. Lane suggests they all have their roles. They decide to go for a convincing corporate look – and considering one of them is a teenage catgirl, that’s quite an accomplishment.

Rina starts looking up some local buildings for sale. Time for another call to Terabase Express Corporation. They’ve definitely moved up the food chain this time: they get Odessa Sharpey, a much more polished commercial real estate agent. Turns out there are a number of waterfront warehouses available: one of their clients, Mirage TransHub, is liquidating its Drift operations, and is more interested in cash now than prime market prices. What’s your budget?

Rina doesn’t know that, but passes on the cat’s requirements: waterfront with good access to fishing, and then forwards the call over to Lane and hangs up.

They need about 5000 square feet, and are offered one for 75K. Lane does a check on Mirage TransHub, learning that they’re a large organization with a shady reputation, but a good reputation among the shady.

Lane offers 55k NB cash. Odessa will have to confer with the client, but she thinks they will accept cash in hand at that price. Rina forwards the bill to the Clowder, with no context.

Rina gets an email with an auto-opening attachment. It’s surveillance footage from the Wreck: Moopsie’s and Nymphie’s labs, the Clowder server, alleys full of uplifted cats. It’s a comprehensive map to the Colonies in the Wreck. That’s all. No notes, no warnings, untraceable. Rina yanks the file off her personal database and onto external media, metadata intact, then cleanse her system. On a secure channel she sends a message to the Clowder telling them what she just got.

Grandfather calls back immediately, and asks who might be threatening either the Clowder or her by threatening the Clowder. She doesn’t know, but tells him to keep an eye on Moopsie, who isn’t doing well. He knows, and will send some kittens to distract her.

“Kaito is mean! He threatened to stay in the bus!”

He reimburses them.

Rina is freaked, and goes to find Lane to tell her. Lane pulls Jiefan in, and Rina hands her the chip, and asks if she can find anybody to look at it in a clean environment. She doesn’t know much, but offers to look at what the local Triad is using. Rina thinks to take it to TreeHouse.

Jiefan suggests calling on Tiffany’s security firms to defend The Wreck and Ruin Island: Zhukov does know where they live, them and the cats, now. TFS Specialized Defense does just this sort of thing, and should be plenty of deterrent.

Lane calls Eloise and walks her through the story so far. Eloise offers the friends and family discount, either cash or coming out of their stock holdings on success. Security is being deployed: troops are rolling as they speak. Rina informs her parents, not the Clowder directly, so they can coordinate with the Battle Kittens.

They rent a limo to head out to TreeHouse. TreeHouse is a corporate campus of half a dozen low geodesic domes, opaque from the outside, surrounded by a hexagonal ring road – hexagons are a big thing on the Drift. The buildings are separated by verdant lawns – none of you have probably ever seen a lawn before.

Rina wants to roll on the lawns! Lane tries to march them all along. Eventually Rina walks back over, but she runs her fingers along the edges as they go.

The executive offices building is clearly labelled on your nav app. When you enter, you’re greeted immediately by a stunningly good looking male receptionist, who hands you all small clip-on ID badges. “Please wait a moment, Dr. Dowe is on her way down to greet you.”

You were expecting Quanh, the security chief: what’s up with this doctor?

She’s the CEO, who’s told the receptionist to summon her immediately on your arrival.

Lane is not best pleased to be meeting with the CEO. Rina wanders off to start playing with the live plants in the lobby. Lane gets the vibe that Dowe is not impressed with them, but is putting on a good front because Eloise is leaning on her.

Dowe greets them warmly, introducing herself. Eloise Zemke has - *politely requested” the full cooperation of everyone at TreeHouse.

“Any threat to the CEO is a threat to all of us, of course. We’ve provided an office suite in the Undersea Operations wing: you’ll have a conference room, breakout rooms, unlimited server access, and access to relevant specialists. Your IDs are keyed to your biometrics and will get you in anywhere at TreeHouse.”

She gives you a once-over look that easily reads as “try not to steal the silverware.”

She’ll answer any questions you might have as she leads you up a gorgeous glass curving stairway in an atrium filled with exotic native plants. Quanh’s office is on the second floor. It’s small, and looks unused. As you enter you see a connecting door to what looks like a sophisticated security nerve center: he probably lives there.

Dowe introduces Quanh and takes her leave. Quanh is thrilled to be investigating Zhukov – he’s very much not down with threats to Tiffany. He introduces his best analyst, Quentin Calder, explaining that Calder is your for the duration, along with TreeHouse’s best offshore science and engineering team, Flipper and Madison.

Calder leads the team over to the TreeHouse R&D building, a single-story glass donut around a large pool or small artificial lake. Inside, you see that the rooms encircle the building, with opaque-able glass on the inside. Calder leads you into the research suite that’s yours for the duration. The furniture and workstations are all on the floor, Japanese style. You notice that all the rooms are open to the water via a sort of slip or jetty, and that there’s a lot of tech at floor level.

He calls on his comm, and Flipper and Madison swim up the ramp, half in and half out of the water. Flipper is a dolphin, whether an uplifted one or a full body conversion it’s not clear, and Madison - Dr. Madison – is a stunningly gorgeous mermaid, naked human(-ish) from the waist up and scaled fish below. Kestrel’s immediately fascinated by Dr Madison’s augmentations. Rina is fascinated by the fish people – her eyes are very big right now!

Dr Madison asks to see the data. She, Flipper, and Calder begin to go through it thoroughly.

Lane gets a call from Hua Tsui, the crazy one of the Creepy Twins. “Miss Lane, it has been a while. You have taken on a very, very dangerous job for our new employers. I have information vital to your survival. If I go to Miss Zemke, well, that would be a bad idea for us. And directly to Miss Nguyen – I would receive a pat on my head for my efforts. Now you - this information will keep you alive.

“I have a deal, take it or leave it, right now. Fifty thousand NB to this account within five minutes and the information is yours. If not, perhaps Da will decide it’s time for us to switch sides again. Oh, there is one additional term to this transaction: should you ever wish to deal with us again, you must not mention your source. We have more value to trade, you know.”

Lane’s sceptical of the Tsui’s integrity, despite past dealings, which Hua reminds her of. Eventually she agrees to the deal and transfers funds. On clearance, Hua explains that Tiffany acquired Avant Specialized Services, a super-elite corporate hit squad, out of the wreckage of BADI. The sale was a con: Zhukov wanted her to have them; they’re still working for him, with orders to hit Tiffany herself when the word is given.

Lane says, “You are really creepy, you know that?” “Why thank you, we do work hard.”

“It better be good or I swear I will come after you with my pen and my reporting, and get you in my fashion blog!”

“I have never modelled before and I would be intrigued by the opportunity. I cannot speak for Da of course, they are rather more reserved.”

Lane wants a secure channel to inform Tiffany: she doesn’t know how deep it goes. She calls Quanh, who comes over to walk her back to the security headquarters, and gives her a top-security booth.

Eloise puts her right through to Tiffany when Lane explains the stakes. She tells Tiffany the intel came from a trusted and well-paid source. “You can’t trust any of them, and they’re just waiting for word from Zhukov to kill you!”

Tiffany gives them 100 grand: “Buy yourselves something nice for the afternoon!”

Calder points something out in the blueprints, and Madison nods: one way to pursue the location of the lair is through the materials used in its construction. Specifically, there’s a unique deep-pressure-rated alloy (used for outer hull plating) and a proprietary ceramic coolant shell for fusion cores. These components have unique shipping IDs and fabber codes.

Calder works with a seagoing information broker/fixer, Umbral. It’ll cost, bu t she’ll have good info. He goes to make a call and comes back about 10 minutes later: Umbral will fly in for a 10 AM meeting with the team tomorrow.
Calder notes that there are codes on the purchase orders that identify the warehouse/docks goods were shipped from. Some of them are big public docks that do immense business around the clock, but some of the specialty goods went out of a private complex with a shady reputation: Mirage TransHub. Mako Watanabe is the business manager: she’s hard to crack, but Quanh can offer up some favors to trade. That’s one thing you can pursue while the TreeHouse people run a deep analysis on the shipments.

Flipper offers to take the team around to the docks by sea: "You probably all should get used to 'wet work'" Cackle. Rina hisses at him.

They all do scuba training: Rina hates the idea and pays no attention, but somehow absolutely slays the training.