>>31305422
>Try and get in touch with Dreadnought’s spare link. You need to warn him.
>Trace the call. You need eyes on this woman immediately. (DC 15)
>Put all of your focus into running. You’ll be able to assess the situation once you’re closer to it.

>>31305422
>Trace the call. You need eyes on this woman immediately. (DC 15)

>>31305433
>trace the call
then we can link the call to Dredd and let things go cuh-razy.

As usual, the first vote of the night gets a fifteen-minute voting period instead of ten minutes.

>>31305590
>>31305687
(I'd like to have three players, but I'm pushing ahead anyway. I'm sure this will pick up in a bit.)

“You’re a runner on the Declan job.” You say, sifting through your commlink and pulling up your trace program. “Do you really think the Johnson’s gonna pay you for poaching the retrieval?”

“She won’t have a choice if my team is the one that turns her over.”

“You know that isn’t true. If I’m dead, all that means is an extra few grand the Johnson won’t have to pay. They gave this job to a lone man for a reason.”

“Oh, come off it.” The woman snarls. “You have no idea the shit I’ve gone through because of this job. They’ll be begging me to accept more work by the time I’m done.”

This is absurd, you think. While you talk, you keep your eye on the parameters for the trace. It would slow your pace, but you needed to focus on this.

>Roll 1d20

Rolled 17

>>31305980
Just got a third

It's still pretty early, so I'm going to let this one go another five minutes. Three rolls would be ideal, but I'm willing to work with what I can get.

>>31306049
Okay. We're going with what he have, then. And what we have is a hit. Would you like to spend a point of Edge to turn it into a Critical Hit?

(Edge Pool: 3)

>Y
>N

>>31306454
>Y
Dox this bitch, don't threaten me or my peeps

Rolled 11

>>31305980

Rolled 20

>>31306454
Y

>>31306688
>>31306527
>Writing. Need to continue. The other regulars will start trickling in pretty soon.

>>31305980
(1 Edge Spent: Critical Hit!)

A few moments later, you’ve got a location triangulated within fifty meters. She’s about a block away from Leonardo’s. You pull up a mapsoft of Redmond and put down a waypoint on the hotel and stare hard at the area indicated by the trace. From a sniper’s point of view, there are only two buildings that look attractive.

“Declan wants to keep this job as quiet as possible. I’m willing to bet that they’re not going to be too happy about anyone in Seattle knowing what they’re up to. Even if you do kill me, you’re just gonna get run out of the city. Are you really okay with that?” Your breath catches in your throat. You had Sybil give the node a once-over the second the trace finished, and you’re now extremely glad that you did. Waiting in the sniper’s commlink is another persona, presumably a hacker doing overwatch.

“This job caused my team a lot of pain and lost me a good rigger, and all I’ve got to show for it is a couple grand. I want my money, TRACER, and I don’t think you’re troll is standing between me and a payday.”

You ignore the sniper’s words and focus on running. You’re only about a block away from Leonardo’s, and one street away from the block where the sniper is hiding. You slave the drone’s node to your own and put him on standby by a dumpster. You’ll need to manage this carefully. Even if Dreadnought’s a heavily-augmented troll, a sniper rifle bullet was nothing to sneeze at.

>Send up the rotordrone to try to get eyes on the sniper, and send the Steel Lynx into the hotel to get eyes on Dreadnought.
>Send up the rotordrone to try to get eyes on the sniper, and launch a Trace program off of the Steel Lynx to find the hacker.
>Send up the rotordrone to get eyes on the sniper, and the Steel Lynx to get an angle on her. Trace the hacker yourself.

>>31307034
Oh, wait. I'm an idiot. I forgot the DCs.

>"Agent on the Steel Lynx traces the hacker" plan: DC 18
>"Trace the hacker yourself" plan, DC 15

>>31307034
>Send up the rotordrone to get eyes on the sniper, and the Steel Lynx to get an angle on her. Trace the hacker yourself.
We can do that much

Rolled 5

>>31307085
Ok rollan for trace

>>31307192
To avoid a flurry of uncounted rolls, I generally wait until after the vote before calling for a roll. The DCs are there so players know the risks, and to help help them decide whether or not to spend Edge after a roll.

>>31307258
Oh alrighty, sorry bout that

We're an hour and a half into the thread and I'm only seeing one player right now. The night is slower than normal. I'll give it a couple minutes, and if we remain where we are, I'll close it up for the night and postpone this to next week.

Please guys you're needed here

>>31307034
>>Send up the rotordrone to get eyes on the sniper, and the Steel Lynx to get an angle on her. Trace the hacker yourself.

>>31307034
>Send up the rotordrone to get eyes on the sniper, and the Steel Lynx to get an angle on her. Trace the hacker yourself.

>>31307125
>>31307759
>>31307814
>Writing. The d20 roll will be requested at the end of the next post.

>>31307865
Just got here. Will be waiting for the next post.

>>31307034

You take the Fly-Spy out of your pocket and direct it towards the block of buildings across the street from Leonardo’s. You sync its camera feeds to Walter’s and direct him to find an angle of attack once hostiles are in sight. Once they’re off, you load up a few axillary programs. Your personal IC, loaded with a trace-and-kill setup in the event of a hack, along with the usual compliment of hacking programs. You’re getting dangerously close to hitting processor limit and you doubt you could do a stint of cybercombat without dropping into full VR. Like hell you were doing that with a sniper in the area.

Your scan program snags the connection between the sniper’s commlink and the hacker’s. Parsing through the other trash connections in the area is going to be tough without arousing suspicion, but the sniper’s continued yammering tells you that she hasn’t figured out that you’ve that traced her yet.

>Roll 1d20.

(I know we just got rolling, but I’ll need to pull dinner out of the oven in about a minute. I’ll be back in 20-25 minutes, so please bear with me. Players and lurker anons, feel free to converse about whatever while I’m gone. These threads aren’t typically very long and it’d be nice to see some extra traffic.)

Rolled 5

>>31308202
Come, tracer, time to live up to your reputation.

Rolled 18

>>31308202

Rolled 11

>>31308202
Here we roll

>>31308255
>>31308375
Sorry for the delay. Wow, almost half an hour and only two more posts. I should hope this will pick up more in the next few posts. For now,

>Writing.

>>31308933

Oh, we got a third, right at the last minute. Fantastic. Also, given that we have a Hit, it's possible to spend Edge to make it a Critical Hit. I feel like I probably know the answer to this but...

Spend one (1) Edge?
>Y
>N

>>31308977
Y

Sure, why not.

Rolled 15

Also, I'm making a roll for something the enemy hacker's doing, the ramifications of which will be revealed in the next couple of posts.

>>31308977
I would say Y

>>31309009
>>31309113
>Writing now.

>>31308977
Looks like it, that puts us at 1 right?

>>31308977
(1 Edge Spent. Critical Hit! 1 Edge remaining)
You can easily cut through the fat clogging up the trace. You know exactly where to look. Every little while, your trace gets caught up in a redirect, but it doesn’t fool your trace program for long. In less than a minute, you have the hacker’s location and access ID. Based on the map location, you can see that the signal’s coming from the fifteenth floor of a hotel in the Downtown area. Assuming they remain stationary, you’ll be able to deal with them as soon as you’re done with the sniper.

“I’m still waiting, TRACER. We can do this all day but I’m still taking the girl, whether I have to kill your samurai or not.”

Speaking of the sniper, she still hasn’t shut up since she called you, though she’s gotten increasingly frustrated with your silence. In the interim between when you sent the drones off and when you finished the trace, the Steel Lynx found itself a vantage point in a nearby building while the Fly-Spy managed to get a good look before having to evade the detection of the sniper’s own drones. You check the log of the feeds and get a look at her.

(cont.)

File: 1396832592258.jpg-(938 KB, 872x1200, Hardesty.jpg)

938 KB JPG

>>31309408
She’s surprisingly young, maybe nineteen at oldest. You weren’t much older when you started your criminal career, but you didn’t start with wetwork. Nothing about her looked like it belonged to a street rat, especially not her equipment. The sight of customized Barrett in her arms makes you more than a little nervous. An aimed shot from that thing could probably put Dreadnought in the hospital even if she shot him through a wall.

“My drone’s got eyes on you, sniper.” You say coldly. “If you kill my samurai, I’ll kill you.”

“When did you-?” You feel a little satisfaction from her surprised gasp before the line goes silent. Chances are, she’s talking to her hacker. Your suspicions are confirmed by the security on your commlink reacting to an intrusion attempt. Whoever the hacker was, they probably weren’t expecting Walter to be slaved to your work link. While the IC distracts your potential intruder, you send a quick message to Dreadnought, informing him that there’s a sniper on a nearby rooftop, but that he doesn’t need to worry. Once that’s through, you consider how to deal with the hacker.

>Frying their brain will end them for good (DC 18).
>Fighting them off will keep them off your back without anyone having to die (DC 15).
>Resetting your link will dump their connection long enough to find a more creative solution. (No roll necessary).

>>31309842
>Fighting them off will keep them off your back without anyone having to die (DC 15).

>>31309842
>Resetting your link will dump their connection long enough to find a more creative solution. (No roll necessary).

>>31309842
>Fighting them off will keep them off your back without anyone having to die (DC 15).

Fighting the hacker off wins.

>Roll 1d20

Rolled 7

>>31310189
Meh

Rolled 16

>>31310189

>>31310280
>>31310335
>Writing. It's been long enough

Rolled 9

>>31310189
Come on, tracer.

>>31310452
Checking in. Don't quit on us now Null;Fear!

>>31309842
You strongly consider diving into VR. An agent, even a sophisticated one, will never be as smart or as resourceful as a genuine hacker. But you’ve already encountered one backup for the sniper. You can’t assume that she didn’t bring a second, or that one of her spotter drones hasn’t been built for combat. Still, you have an ace of your own. You pull up your DataDoc medic program and put the whole of your attention into keeping the IC functional, simultaneously putting one-hundred percent of the IC’s resources into crashing the hacker’s persona.

For an enemy hacker, cybercombat is a matter of either distraction or desperation, and the lack of other incoming connections tells you that it’s probably the latter. Your fingers cascade over a virtual keyboard, aided by your mental commands, and continually repair the damage that they inflict upon your IC. The IC is being slowly worn away, but the hacker’s persona is being worn away more quickly. They can’t switch their focus to you without leaving themselves vulnerable, and they can’t keep fighting the IC without a way to repair their own damage. After only a few exchanges, the enemy hacker retreats.

Once their gone, you return your attention to the sniper.

“Your hacker’s beaten and your position’s compromised.” You say. “Pull back and move on.” You don’t hear an answer, but you do see a smoke grenade detonate on the roof the building.

>Don’t panic. She’s just running away.
>Have the drone open fire. She’s taking the shot.
>Close the distance. She’s changing her target, likely to you.

>>31310640
Its funny that the one Shadowrun quest that runs is curiously free of shadowruns, leading to little extraneous discussion.
Maybe because we know and expect that our paranoia will be vindicated, that we don't feel the need to tell everyone else about it?

>>31310747
>Don’t panic. She’s just running away.

>>31310776
That might explain it. Even though it might be nice to get a few theories on who exactly is planning on stabbing you in the back, most readers probably expect that the answer is "everyone."

>>31310747
>Don’t panic. She’s just running away.
Tell Sam to get moving

>>31310868
>>31310821
>Writing

>>31310747
Sending up a smokescreen means that she’s probably running. Letting her go is kind of a shame, but a runner’s never more dangerous than when they’re about to be cornered. Before the smoke even clears, you pull back the drones and call up Dreadnought.

“Echo, what is your status?” Hearing Dreadnought’s voice again is a welcome relief.

“I’m alive, but we need to change locations. Get Harriet and get my things out of my pod. I need a new place to stash my car. Drive around until I can find a new place to hide ourselves.”

“Roger.” Dreadnought says without hesitation. “I’ll get the drone on my way out. Keep Quetzal with you.”

“Understood. Radio silence until I secure us a new hiding place. We’ll have a lot to discuss.” You close the call and switch off your work commlink. That last thing you’ll want is for it to get hacked again. You signal Quetzal to get to your car and lag a little behind. You take the disposable commlink from your pocket and dial up a commcode you never thought you’d use. It rings a few times before someone picks up.

“Knight Errant Seattle.” A bored-sounding service rep says.

“Good afternoon, sir.” You put on your best professional voice. You can feel the tug of a mischievous grin on your face. “I’d like to report a cybercrime.” Less than a minute later, you’ve divulged the location and access ID of your mystery hacker’s commlink. Once you hang up, you open up the burner’s case and apply your shock glove to its innards before tossing it in the trash.

Once you’re back at the storage facility, you pay the toll and retrieve your car. Quetzal rides shotgun, seemingly unperturbed by what just happened.

“Where will be going next?” he asks.

>The hotel where the hacker was hiding.
>A brothel.
>Call Jabir.

>>31311321
>The hotel where the hacker was hiding.

On the way
>Call Jabir

>>31311321

Reading over this again, I feel like some rationale is in order for basically calling the cops. To put it most bluntly: it was a smoke-out. Kind of a dirty smoke-out, but the idea is that the threat of Knight Errant will force the hacker to abandon their position and lose out on the prospect of making another attack. Love and war, and all.

>>31311321
>Call Jabir that little rat

A little Early isn't it Null?

>>31311443
I feel like that capitalization is meant to imply something, but I can't readily figure out what it is.

>>31311321
>Call Jabir
It seems like he did cover for us, so the least he deserves to know is that the Johnson is going to burn him as well. And I'm afraid the hotel is going to have Knight Errant all over it since we called KE on the hacker.

>>31311475
No it's nothing not sure why I capitalized it honestly perhaps a finger slip I dunno.

>>31311419
>The hotel where the hacker was hiding.
Always darkest under the light tower

>>31311419
>>31311443
>>31311494
>>31311537

It occurs to me that I was being a little vague with the options. Basically, "Call Jabir" was supposed to mean "Have Jabir get you a place to hide." Granted, nothing is stopping you from calling him anyway, but the decision is about where to stash yourself and your team. With that in mind, the vote is currently deadlocked, so I'll let this sit for a few more minutes before seeing if I need to roll for it.

>>31311692
Oh, then let's go with the hotel. It's already crawling with KE, so we'll be marginally safer.
I would like to warn Jabir, though. Declan is going to burn him and as much as we dislike him, he's our fixer.

>>31311774
Roger

>Writing

>captcha: factcntr groups

I don't know what a fact center group is, but I feel like I should try and incorporate one in some way. Maybe as a data haven or something.

>>31311321
“I’m about to find out.” You say, switching your work link back on and, once the proper programs are in order, dialing Jabir’s commcode. He answers almost immediately.

“Echo, you’re alive!” Jabir sounds amazingly pleased. “I thought for sure that by now you’d be dead.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time an augmented assassin underestimated me.” Another remnant of one of Jabir’s jobs. “The sniper told me she heard about me from you.”

“Echo, please, you have to beli-”

“She also told me that it took more effort than it was worth to get you to talk. They came to you yesterday, didn’t they? That’s why the safehouse was compromised.” There’s a short silence over the line before you hear Jabir sigh.

“… Yes.” He says. “The sniper, the augmented soldier, was working with a mage.”

“A mind probe…” you mutter. “Son of a bitch.”

“You actually thought I betrayed you, didn’t you?” You can already envision Jabir’s wide, toothy grin.

“Never for a second.” You smirk. “I’d recommend keeping your head low. Declan Futures has been killing off everyone associated with this job. I’d like to tell you more, but the less you know, the safer you’ll be.”

“Of course. I understand.”

“Good. I’ll be in touch, probably tonight. I get the feeling someone’s gonna try and kill me at Pinewood Heights.”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon, Echo. Keep safe. And peace be upon you.” Jabir hangs up as your car enters Downtown. Next on the list is Dreadnought. You shoot him a quick message with the address of the hotel where the hacker was staying. The place would have Knight Errant investigating the crime you reported, but you specialized in looking beneath suspicion and… well, if nothing else, Quetzal and Dreadnought didn’t look like cybercriminals.

[Thread 7 End]

>>31312142
With that, I'm out of notes for now. I had a lot of extra notes for the sniper confrontation that ended up going unused just because the focus shifted on dealing with the hacker. Well, it matters little. It occurs to me that the pacing here has been pretty slow, but that's okay. Somehow, it works out pretty well.

Shadowrun Hacker Quest will return next Sunday at 18:00 EST. Follow me on Twitter to receive schedule updates and be the first to know when the next thread goes live.

https://twitter.com/NullFearQuests

As usual, I'll be around for the next little while for any questions and to deal with the postmortem. I'll archive the thread in about an hour.

>>31312257
So if we went the full ShadowRun route and shot at Sniper-chan how bad would she fucked us?

>>31312328
That question would be answered by how you distributed your team. Your tactics would have heavily impacted how the encounter went. A hacker, a mage, a Russian commando and a combat drone wouldn't have lost to a single combatant. You might've even killed her if you wanted. But if you spread your resources too thin between trying to stop her from escaping and trying to keep Harriet safe, it was perfectly possible for Echo to get shot and thrown off a building. He would've survived, but the injury would've been an impediment for the rest of the run.

>>31312622
Ok cool I'm good, night N;F

>>31312622
Interesting. In reading it I was hoping a little that we'd kill her. I don't like the idea of having a sniper from the shadows with a grudge still out there. I imagine we'll see her again some time soon, if so I think we should end her (assuming she doesn't want to join us).

Posting to say I like this quest a lot even if I can never catch it while it's running.