Part 26: Corporate Raiders

Part 26 - Corporate Raiders






And now, back to our irregularly scheduled programming. As a refresher, things got weird somewhere along the way so now we're here to grab a sample of some kinda substance called Aegis that's supposed to kill invincible bugs.



And this weirdo's supposedly going to help us do that.

Yeah, we're gonna shake the pillars of heaven, buddy.

Sarcasm should have no place between partners, eh? Let us be professional!

The way you professionally hacked my commlink?

Point taken. S'il vous plaît, but we must be friends! We are allied, you and Samedi!

So what now?



Storming the front desk doesn't sound bold. It sounds insane.

Do not be so negative! Samedi has rerouted the guards in this section of the complex. The coast should be clear for you to navigate to the Accounting offices. Bonne chance!

Our last job was nothing but fighting so not having to murder every guard and security guy in the building should be a nice change of pace.



Today's guest star is Dodger, who's supposed to be a big deal decker and has even been in some Shadowrun books. In this game he's not really any better than any other decker at this stage, but he'll certainly get the job done. He comes with no less than three ESPs and 5 points in ESP Control, allowing him to bring a veritable cyberarmy into the Matrix.



They also gave him a unique character model, which mostly serves to make his complete silence and lack of personality even more jarring.



I believe he's the first character we've brought who's carrying a Smartlink weapon. Smartlink weapons require a datajack and cost more than a regular gun in exchange for being more accurate at range. This'd be a whole lot cooler if the gun in question here wasn't yet another Ares Predator though. Jake was using one all the way back at the beginning of the game and there it was still quite good, but that was twenty damn updates ago!

There isn't much anything new of interest regarding the other party members. Falk now has Aim III which improves accuracy by 18% for 6(!) turns, and he's upgraded his barrier to Fire Barrier 3. Coyote shoots things.


Anyhow, this might all very well be irrelevant since Samedi said he'd rerouted the guards. At the very least we should be able to get some ways in before we have to resort to violence. So let's just go through the first door and



Oh come on.







Sigh



Okay calm down we're opening fire



Sorry buddy, neither of us wanted things to go this way. Blame our incompetent help or God.

We grab a security card from the man's body.







The doors ahead are locked so the only thing we can do is slide the card into this terminal, which causes the screen to come to life.



We're all about those unsecured terminals. This one's only good for unlocking the lobby doors in front of us though.

Apparently the coast was not-so clear.

Is this the way this whole run is gonna go?



Great, things'd be downright boring if little details like this were mentioned sooner.



I'm not really convinced Samedi is "handling" anything whatsoever.



A couple of guards and an enforcer burst into the room in response to the mage's hollering.



Jade Rabbit stops most of them in their tracks with a concussion grenade though, and he quickly changes his tone.



Honestly there isn't much to say about most combat at this point, you should already know how it goes by now.



Between our concussion grenades and firepower most enemies are downed before they get to do anything, and those who do usually miss their shots.



Even those who do actually land a shot on us rarely deal any considerable damage due to their low-level weaponry.



So yeah, I'm not gonna bother wasting your time or mine with detailed combat descriptions here where it's pretty much always covered by "we immediately shot everyone to death".



There's a trio of terminals we can take a look at in this room. Let's start with this one.



We run a search on "Universal Brotherhood" but get nothing. "Lynne Telestrian" gets a hit though.



Guess she doesn't share a name with the corporation by coincidence. Maybe her new family took priority over her old one just like with Jessica.



Next terminal!



Only thing we can search for here is "Project Aegis".



"Schwerindustriegesellschaft" is an excellent word.



This is why bringing a decker was mandatory for this mission, and losing your last one leads to an immediate game over. Of course since Amazon's a decker and her death is also an immediate game over, that's not particularly relevant for us. Dodger meanwhile can die a terrible agonizing death and nobody will give even the smallest of damns.



The third terminal allows us to search for "Sam Watts" and "Jessica Watts", and while neither gives a primary hit, they both give a secondary hit on "Melinda Watts" and two payment records related to her. Can't get any further details here though.

Upon logging out, a slip of yellow paper happens to slide out from under the keyboard.



Conveniently enough, this is what we need to unlock the next doors. We also get +8 karma for this discovery.



Before we move on however, there's an inviting-looking air vent on the wall here.



Go forth, our electric explorers!



Well hello, these guys probably aren't here to throw us a surprise birthday party. No less than four guards and even a pair of sentry guns are watching the door.

"Do not doubt Samedi" he says. Right...



There are a couple of ways to give us an advantage in this fight, of which we'll choose this one: Another vent which just so happens to lead from the conference room right to the enemy's flank.



Surprise! Not even sentry guns are immune to the almighty concussion grenade. It did take two of them to actually do the job though, yet another feat only possible due to our 4 AP drones as throwing a grenade takes 2.

You may also notice that the elevators to the top left are our destination, but as the Baron mentioned earlier they're locked down. We'll have to find that access point once we're done with these guys.



With four of the six foes out of the picture on the first turn, this potentially troublesome fight is reduced to nothing more than a small bump on our road to glory.



The rest of the group promptly storm in to partake in the cleaning operation.









Good fun. For us anyway.



The aforementioned access point is located in a computer room to the northeast. We have two deckers and either could do it, but we'll let Amazon handle this one.



While she's busy jacking in though, an uninvited guest shows up from the southern doors we entered through earlier.

Well, I guess technically we're the uninvited guests here, but you know what I mean.



Coyote calmly asks her to leave. You can also spot a bit of Fire Barrier blocking the doorway, just in case we get any more intruders.



Meanwhile Amazon has entered cyberspace, and a decent amount of Intrusion Countermeasures are trying to block her way right off the bat.



They can't handle all the pretty lights she throws their way though.



Don't even need to pack any cyberheals when you have Shield III.



The next cyberroom features another way one could've made the earlier fight easier, hacking the pair of sentry guns. Obviously this has no effect now, aside from establishing dominance.



In the real world a pair of Heavy Guards make their entrance, this time from the elevator side. Sneaky bastards.





But there being only two of them, they're disposed of about as quickly as they arrived even without Amazon's drones. Points for effort I guess.



Ooh, juicy unguarded legal files.





Wait, hold on now. James Telestrian III, the big man CEO of Telestrian Industries, shares a father with the children of Melinda Watts? That'd make him the half-brother of Sam and Jessica, which in turn makes them eligible for this Trust?

So Sam and Jessica's father who died way back when and whose life insurance Sam apparently squandered afterwards was James Telestrian II, huh. Seems Sam did have some rich relatives after all, but it also seems like he was purposefully kept in the dark about that fact. Or maybe he found out at some point and that's the source of his own insurance money that came seemingly out of nowhere? Man, who would've guessed that enormous mess of a family could possibly turn out to be even messier.



Whatever the case, we can think about the full implications later. A little ways further in a spooky Black IC is watching a datastore, but it's no issue by its lonesome. Let's see what's in this thing.





Unlike with earlier paydata, we don't have to take this one anywhere and are immediately paid 2,000 nuyen. Handy!



We finally reach the elevator controls, but there's one last trick up these guys' cybersleeve as 5 IC pop up into the previously empty room the moment we get close to the node. This isn't as big of a problem as it looks though, since whoever programmed this clever trap made the mistake of dropping the square-shaped melee IC a cybermile away from us.



By the time they slowly manage to cyberfloat their way to Amazon it's all too late, and they're blasted into fine cyberdust.



One hacked elevator, coming up! Also +6 karma. There are a lot of karma rewards in this part of the game. Delicious karma rewards.



No more enemy reinforcements arrive and there's nothing else for us to do here, so it's back to meatspace and into the elevator.


This job sure went awry in a record time. Maybe the Baron will get his shit together and it'll all be smooth sailing from here though?

Ah, who am I kidding.