I was reviewing messages at the Bolt Hole, and there was something big going on with Auntie Cheng. She was going to be away for a while, taking a “direct hand” in cornering the Plastic-faced man. In the meantime, she had a different sort of job for us.
One of her informants had learned of a laser prototype being developed at Ares – one of the major players in international arms sales. And she wanted to use this to tip the balance in her favor within the Triad. Her Yellow Lotus had been feuding with Red Dragon for decades. She wanted us to break into Ares Labs , steal the prototype – and frame Red Dragon. Not just for the theft, but also making it look like Red Dragon had been bribing engineers and stealing research for some time. She wanted to get Red Dragon caught up in a hot war with the biggest guns in Hong Kong.
We’d already seen one Ares team in the field. Breaking into Ares’ Hong Kong HQ was playing with fire. But this time we’ woul’d be on offense. And if we played it right they’d never even know we were there. Not likely…
Auntie provided fake creds we could use to get access to the labs. But we’ woul’d have to inject them in the system from the inside. And she had an exit route mapped out through an old metro station underneath Ares HQ. It was no longer active, and guarded. Ares was no slouch at security. But it was still physically connected to the metro network tunnels – so it was our best escape route. She signed off with one final complication. Word was that other runners were scoping out the same hit. We’d have to move fast before somebody else either stole the prize or tipped off Ares to upgrade security.
I considered my companions, and decided the best team for the run would be me, Dunk, Iz, and Rack. This figured to be a pretty tech-heavy gig. Iz’s hacking would be an absolute necessity. But Racter’s background could also be useful. He knew the culture and the lingo.
When I went to talk to him about it, it turned out he knew more than that. Part of the reason Racter had left his position in Russia was because colleagues had stolen a cutting edge project he had been working on involving drones that could upgrade and repair themselves. Those former colleagues were now working at Ares. That is why he ended up in Hong Kong. If we were hitting Ares Labs, he wanted to recover his own research as well. And if we could stick it to Taylor and Hardingham in the process – implicating them in Cheng’s scheme – then he would consider that a bonus.
I told him first priority had to be the mission. Freelancers in our line tended to end up dead. But if we could find his stolen work while we were there without significantly increasing the risk to the team then we would help him. He accepted that condition – as always he was nothing if not professional. He would be bringing a modified Koschei on this run. A smaller frame which could fit into air ducts, geared for surveillance and infiltration. While I appreciated the firepower on the heavier models, I agreed with the selection. The best battles were the ones you managed to avoid entirely.
The front desk did not initially buy my attempts to talk our way in, but Rack quickly stepped up. He introduced himself as a Drone researcher giving a presentation to Ares developers. He knew the names to drop, he knew how to act like a big-shot dev lead used to getting his way. And he rattled off enough technical detail while pointing to Koschei to leave reception completely overwhelmed.
In the lobby area I kept the guard distracted terminals while Iz hacked in through the guest terminals to get our fake access creds into the system.
Unfortunately there were still guards manually checking access to the elevators to the sensitive levels. Fake creds wouldn’t be enough to get by them. So instead we used the creds to reach a more wired-in server, so that Iz could Deck in. She was able to change the timetable for security guard shift rotations to give us a window to slip through. She also found exactly where our targets would be located. Unfortunately she ran into heavy ICE inside – backed by a Spider. An Ares decker intercepting her directly. She took him out, but he would eventually either wake up in meatspace or be found. Our countdown to discovery had just kicked off.
As soon as the rotation clocked we made our move, waving our badges and heading up as the distracted guards were reviewing their duty updates.
Both Racters’s associates and the laser research were on Level 27. Hardingham was involved with the laser project. Taylor was heading up a project involving “self-repairing machinery”. Wasn’t hard to guess what that meant. We found a secure electronic safe in the robotics lab. Based upon the surrounding projects Rack was pretty sure the prototype he wanted was inside, but we would need to find an access card to get in. We didn’t have time to brute force through it.
It didn’t take long to find Hardingham’s office. And his system wasn’t well protected at all. Iz had no trouble planting a few suspicious financial transactions and then pulling out the access codes to the laser lab.
There were guards behind bullet-proof glass watching the corridor to the laser lab. We wouldn’t be able to break in with them watching. But Rack noticed a bulletin in the robotics lab that the security shutters had been malfunctioning. They tended to get stuck when closed for live-fire tests – requiring a maintenance crew to get them opened back up. It didn’t take long for Iz to hack the corridor cameras while Rack set off a “test” – and our route was clear.
The laser lab itself had some cutting edge stuff. High-tech weapons weren’t really my bag. I didn’t have much use for them. But Dunk was practically salivating.
Especially at the laser prototype. He was like a kid seeing the latest video game. “Its a freakin laser gun, Ye! How fragging awesome is that!“
Just then we heard – and felt – a big explosion in the next room over. So much for stealth.
We took cover, and could see a firefight going on through the blast doors in the next lab over. Someone was coming in hot.
When the shooting stopped we heard arguing from the other side. Runners. Another team had entered play. One of them caught sight of us, and signalled to talk. He wanted us to open the doors and let them through. We negotiated briefly, before he offered up a keycard he had taken from Taylor’s office. That was almost certainly the key to Rack’s safe. I accepted.
They introduced themselves as a team from Seattle, trying to make a few extra scores to bring their balance black before heading back home. The leader introduced himself as “Jarl”. They were after the same laser that we were. And they recognized us! Said we had become the talk of the local runner scene. “Heavy hitters” working for Auntie Cheng that had dropped in out of nowhere.
Jarl suggested that we team up to get out, and sort out how to handle our conflicting missions later. Since Ares security would be going hot soon, it seemed a prudent suggestion. Even if they were the primary reason for that.
Just then the security lights switched on. The alarms were going off. And something much worse. Toxic gas was being pumped in through the air ducts! Ares could just camp the exits and force us to either come to them or die in the gas!
Rack sent Koschei into the ducts to disable the system near us. That didn’t fix the problem. The whole level was being gassed. But it bought us some time.
And then Ares security charged in. Apparently they weren’t willing to wait for the gas to do us in once we started shutting down injectors.
Dunk’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas as he realized this gave him an excuse to *use* that fancy laser gun he was carrying. And it was easy to see why it was attracting so much attention. That sucker vaporized its way straight through tables, servers, and anything else in the lab the Ares guards tried to use as cover. Unfortunately it was still a prototype for a reason. It burned through its power supply *very* quickly, and then Dunk was back to bullets.
I pulled out a new trick of my own I’d been practicing with Crafty. Arcing mana currents which ignored armor and directly zapped the nervous system. Hard to shoot back when your arms and legs spasm and you drop what you’re holding.
While we were fighting off security Iz was hacking in through the lab servers. Trying to get the gas delivery system on our level shut down completely to give us more breathing room. Literally.
We fought our way through to the elevator, stopping in to grab Rack’s data from the safe on the way out. We thought we had a clear path out. But when the alarms kicked in it auto-rebooted the elevator. No hacking around it. The system would be completely offline for another five minutes. We would have to hold out until Iz could get the elevator open.
And Ares was stepping up their game, hitting us with flashbangs rather than charging in while we were ready.
Fortunately flashbangs didn’t have much effect on Koschei.
When the elevators came back online we made a break for the basement. As expected, the old metro tunnels were dark and dank. But we knew we’d have company down there soon enough.
Before we went further we needed to hash out exactly how we were going to settle things with the other team. Jarl said they’d been hired specifically to get the laser – they didn’t care about anything else. While Auntie just wanted to pin the job on Red Dragon triad. To finish that we didn’t actually need the laser itself. We just needed its tracking chip to complete our frame job. So we made a deal. Dunk was disappointed to give up the laser gun, but it was better to maintain cooperation than to have to fight another runner team with Ares bearing down on us.
Iz led us along the power conduit to the old substation controls. From there she killed power to the whole sub-level – including the exterior elevator doors. Any further Ares reinforcements would have to take the stairs the last few levels.
There was still a large contingent waiting for us at the central terminus. Ares knew where we were headed. But without backup they didn’t have enough manpower to hold back two full runner teams.
We thought we were in the clear when we made it to the main metro lines… and then one more guest showed up to the party. A huge chromed-up troll with his own goon squad. A third runner team. And this one had decided to let everyone else take the risks and steal the prize at the finish line. They were camped out in prime ambush position. They had us dead to rights.
So I took inspiration from my totem… and lied my ass off. Told the big trog the laser had been rigged to blow, and we’d lost it as soon as we left the elevator. He looked like he wanted to argue the point, but I told him there was a whole Ares strike force hot on our heels. Which was probably even true… Just not quite as hot as I led him to think. So he snapped and growled but high-tailed it out.
When we got back to Heoi we split with Jarl and his crew. They appreciated us finding a way we could both complete our runs, and told us to look them up if we ever needed backup. I’d keep that mind. They weren’t the strongest team I’d ever seen. But they’d kept their heads, been well coordinated, and most importantly had been willing to compromise. I’ll take a 5 I can trust over a 10 that makes me watch my back any day.
Author’s Notes:
Still learning how to manipulate GPT2, but man it lets me get away with some things that would have been impossible last year. DALL-E throws a fit if you hold a water pistol in a threatening manner. Its nice to be able to pull off images reminiscent of actual gunfire..
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