Part 25: A Tale of Drones

Part 25 - A Tale of Drones










The Amazon has landed, repeat, the Amazon has landed.

As you can probably surmise from the music, or the track name if you're not the listening type, this isn't exactly a diplomatic mission. It's mostly just us, our drones, and a bunch of unfortunate targets who happened to come to work on the wrong day.

Those in the know call missions like this "filler".



The guard at the front knows we're bad news right away and immediately runs off to hide behind some boxes.



Fitting enough, since he'll be going home in a box as well. Prime has gotten its first taste of blood, and it's gonna take a lot more bleeding to satisfy the mechanical menace.



A pair of Lone Star security (50 HP Enforcer and 30 HP Guard) run in upon hearing the commotion, not yet realizing what a tragic error they've just made.



1 AP, 2 AP, 3 AP...



4 AP! Prime allows them roughly five and a half seconds of regret before ensuring they'll never get into the habit of repeating their mistakes.



The next room to the southeast is quiet and contains little of interest, but there is an open air duct on the northeast wall. Ducts can only be used by drones, allowing them access to the room(s) on the other side, usually to some benefit. This provides riggers with a unique way to contribute in missions, and while there aren't many of them in this game, Hong Kong in particular has very well-ventilated buildings.



Of course such sneaky methods are for the weak, we can and will just walk (float) through the door. A Lone Star guard, enforcer and heavy gunner are watching the computer room on the other side.



They're actually better prepared than most enemies we've faced as the Enforcer takes a rarely-seen overwatch shot at Prime, though the drone's too dodgy for him even from up close. Unlike in XCOM, overwatch shots require the shooter to be facing towards the general direction of the moving enemy, which is why Jade Rabbit got behind him unmolested.



Prime gives the orc a practical lesson in aiming, free of charge.



Meanwhile the Guard has positioned herself strategically under a lamp so damn bright that it all but completely obscures both hit chances and damage.



Ah, that's better.



As the Heavy Gunner tries to feebly fight back but only manages to make a few holes in the wall, another Enforcer runs into the room. Had we used the air duct from before, we could've ambushed this guy and potentially flanked the rest of the guards here.



But again, such tactics are for those who need to tip the odds in their favor, not for red-hot robotic knives cutting through soft fleshy butter.



Roughly 5 minutes in we're halfway done with the mission with no damage taken so far. Dang robbits taking the jobs of honest hard-working runners.

There's actually some paydata worth 1,500 nuyen in this room, but because of our recent investment in drones we lack the 6 Decking required to get ahold of it. Ah well, that would've stung early on but by this point it's not really significant.



Someone must've ordered anchovies on their pizza.



We got a whole welcoming committee waiting for us here it seems. Note the locked hatch in the back.



We could hack this panel here to activate a turret behind that hatch, but that'd require going through a Matrix section while our drones stood idle and man, all that's just too much unnecessary trouble.

As we move a drone in, the mage at the back starts shouting at it.



C'mon, why don't we play nice? We're both just employees here. You walk away and I won't make you dead.

I have a fragging HERD of BASILISKS, idiot. You're going to need a lot more guys.

Really now

That is certainly an interesting assessment of the current situation, but please also consider this counterargument.



Yeah, I figured you'd come around after that one. Prime's pretty good at argumentation.



Hell let's kill you too while we're at it, we got AP. We got AP for days.



This guy seems brighter than most, correctly identifying the threat AND even landing the first hit on a drone today. Good job buddy, now you just need seven more of those. In a row, because our repair kits heal for like 50 or something.



The troll finds some success as well, but realistically the only way these two could actually threaten us is if we headed out for lunch and left our drones floating here for some 45 minutes.



Ah, but here's a wrinkle, because there always is one. The mage might've been an idiot but he wasn't a liar as a trio of basilisks named "Subject 1", "Subject 2" and "Subject 5" make their entrance.

Basilisks have a decent amount of HP and the ability to petrify their targets, but as they lack any kind of ranged capabilities they're only dangerous if they can reach melee range.



Fortunately we're equipped with some handy tools to deal with such risks.



Even a Weak hit is enough to knock out the closest basilisk, not to mention the guard who was unfortunate enough to suffer a critical hit. -6 AP! Even if we weren't about to shoot him to death, his grandkids would be adults by the time the poor bastard regained consciousness.



From here on out it's pretty much just a mop-up operation. Which... isn't that different from how the rest of this mission has been going really. Jade Rabbit and Prime work together to take down the troll...



...then one of the basilisks which was able to waddle next to Prime but didn't have the AP to attack...



...then the stunned (and stunned-looking) basilisk which was still unable to act because AP damage is overpowered...



...then the guard who probably had no idea what was even happening...



...and then finally the third basilisk which managed to reach the exact same spot as the first one, and died the exact same way to the exact same amount of damage as the first one as well.

Done and done.







Amazon's cyberdeck addiction grows worse by the day, during the fight she invented some sort of levitation technology to make sure she never has to put hers down.



Knock knock.



Are you Saada?

What if I say no?

Then you'll probably end up like them.

Then yes. YES! I'm Saada. Wait, you're from Aztechnology, aren't you? I told them I wasn't interested in working for them!

Guess we now know who our mysterious employer is. They've come up briefly before but as a summary; Aztechnology, based in the Central American country of Aztlan, is a corporation that specializes in consumer goods and magic industry. If there ever is some nasty magic stuff happening, especially related to blood and/or human sacrifice, Aztechnology is likely to be involved somehow.

Well, whoever sent me is definitely interested in you.



This is pattern you see time and time again. You get a task from someone, go do the run, and then at some point during that run you end up having to decide whether to stay loyal to your employer or go for an alternate option. Often the alternate option is the one that's easier for your conscience, making it a choice between doing the job and doing the "right thing".

Alternatively you might get lucky and your employer betrays you first, which isn't at all uncommon, saving you the trouble.

And what do you want me to do about it?

Let me go. Just walk away.

Like many things in this game, it's easy to see this mission as a simple prototype to the ones found in Dragonfall and Hong Kong, which are both structured almost entirely around doing runs for various employers which then have some twist which forces you to make the aforementioned kind of decision.

That said "have to fight 3 basilisks" is just about the weakest possible twist and this decision is pretty weightless as well. Of course the guy's going to protest against being kidnapped, why would we have ever taken this job in the first place if we had a problem with that?

It's gonna cost you.

How much are they paying you?

‎¥9,000.



In any case, finishing the job properly would net us 9,000 nuyen and 6 Karma, whereas taking Saada's bribe would net us 5,000 nuyen and 8 Karma. Letting him go for free is also an option, if you're an idiot.

Narratively we have just about zero reason to screw over our employer, but from a gameplay perspective 2 Karma is actually more tempting than 4,000 nuyen in our current situation. We didn't hire a team so all money earned is pure profit, and we already have the best possible equipment aside from the Fairlight Excalibur which we don't have the skill to use anyway.

And so...

Fine. Get out of here.

And with that, the mission is over. A little surprisingly there isn't an escort portion to get him safely back to the exit or anything. Once the conversation ends we're automatically returned to the Union.



There's no new loading screen or anything either, so we'll hop straight to reporting back to "Mr. Johnson".



Saada wasn't there. You had faulty intel.

[He looks at you for a minute, then shakes his head.]

I don't think so. But hey, no skin off my nose. My people will find him eventually. And you've wrecked up a Renraku lab for us, free of charge. Hope it was worth it.

Well, it was a good test run for our machines if nothing else.

And speaking of machines...



With all this money we have, we can finally take one step closer towards becoming one ourselves!



Who needs a soul when you get to have things like a customized eye and this fancy mechanical arm?



Since there's otherwise nothing new to see here it's time to put together a team for the main mission, finding this bug-killing "Aegis" from the Telestrian office complex. As mentioned in the last update Coyote now comes at half price rather than for free, but she's obviously in regardless. Dodger isn't exactly great but I figure we should bring unique characters when we can, plus he comes cheap and having a second decker isn't going to hurt in the upcoming mission. And while it's a bit boring, Falk will join us a second time both for reasons relating to team balance (we've no magic) and budget (we've no money).



The stakes are high, the risks are high, and hell, we're probably high, but if we're gonna have to kick down some corp doors for the sake of mankind's future then we might as well put on our boots and get to it.