Part 27: Corporate Raiders Continued

Part 27 - Corporate Raiders Continued




After such a smooth start, it sure would be terrible for things to take a turn for the worse.



Aside from the blinking alarm panels on the walls, things seem perfectly quiet and normal up here. We're still in combat mode though, so that's unlikely to last.



A tad unexpectedly we don't find guns pointed at our face in the next room however, so far making the combat mode purely an annoyance since it forces every character to be moved manually and one at a time.

No terminals or anything we can interact with here either, so we pass through this boring room and open the next door.



Knock knock, anybody home? Is there gonna be a boss fight here, it feels like there's gonna be a boss fight here.



Seriously, nothing? No bosses, guards, turrets or anything, we really just waltzed into the CEO's office. Even the door wasn't locked.

This doesn't seem right. Maybe this shiny globe in the middle of the room is a magical bomb or something.



Doesn't seem like it. Like Tir Tairngire, Tír na nÓg is an elven nation, one roughly located in what used to be Ireland with Dublin as its capital city. Incidentally both derive their names from Irish mythology, meaning roughly "Land of Promise" and "Land of the Young" respectively.



The door on the eastern side of the office leads to another plain room, nothing here but a door we can't open. There's a vent on the wall, but sending a drone in reveals that it doesn't lead anywhere.



Well, standing around won't do us any good so might as well get to work. We'll let Dodger handle this one so the poor guy doesn't feel completely useless.



Physical security might be absent, but unfortunately IC never sleep.







Dodger himself isn't quite as effective as Amazon when it comes to dealing with cyberthreats, but he makes up for it with numbers.



These camera nodes are a little special, instead of giving us information/paydata or otherwise helping our progress...



...they instead provide us with visibility on the top right and bottom right portions of the floor. Hacking cameras in this manner actually became a semi-recurring thing after this game, with the camera locations marked and everything.



Anyone who has played a tower defense game probably knows that this implies incoming enemy waves, so we prepare accordingly with fire and drones on the southern doorway.



Sure enough, our first visitor enters soon after, and departs soon after that.



Hot on the last guy's heels another hopeful tries to make their way in, but seems to have some trouble dealing with the floor being on fire. Weird.



They manage to get through with only a couple of serious burns to their feet, only to fall for Coyote's ol' "pistol shot to the noggin" trick.



While all this is going on, Dodger discovers a dose of concern.





Guess that solves both the mysteries of Lynne's departure and the Aegis production facility blowing up. A real go-getter, that woman.



In a slightly more believable attempt at stopping us, a group of four guards enter the scene, this time from the door to the east. We shift our defenses accordingly and Falk conjures up another barrier to block the office's eastern entrance.



Dodger reaches another node, and faces a group of ICs annoyingly spread out from each other. His ESPs come in handy here since he doesn't have to run around personally taking down each one.



While the elf is busy with his cybercleaning, Telestrian's security begin their assault. Softened up by Jade Rabbit's mortar fire, the first guy doesn't even make it to the doorway.



life.gif



In cyberspace Dodger has finished eradicating the local ICs and digs into the logs.





Yet another Telestrian, this is a pretty big family. Not much new info here, but it does confirm that a sample of Aegis did indeed survive.



Another area, another node. A Black IC teams up with the usual ones this time, probably making this the most threatening room so far.



Dodger brings the whole squad into this one to make sure they go down without incident. Shield ESPs aren't great at dealing damage, but they're capable of basic attacks and you can never go wrong with more Shield.



After the area's been cleared, Dodger pokes at the node.



Bingo.



You know, it's almost like if things are going according to plan.

As you say. Now, to stop those elevators... I am sure there is an accessible node in this system we can access. Find it, before you are overrun with guards.

That's another +8 in the karmic bank.



Despite Baron's warnings, there's no time limit and we're not in any danger of being overrun by anything. The two remaining security guards from the eastern group fall to a mortar, and in the physical world all is quiet once more.



Dodger finally reaches the elevator controls, but there's one last trick up these guys' cybersleeve as no less than 4 IC pop up into the previously empty room the moment he gets close to the node.



Since this is the last room, Dodger's Exploder ESP gets to show off where it derives its name from, unleashing a devastating suicide explosion!



...which a little comically has no animation of any kind, it waves its arms around a bit and then just kinda vanishes into thin cyberair. The damage it deals is the real deal though, so maybe it's just one of those things humans can't perceive or something.



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 Dodger returns back to meatspace and we head to Silverstar's office door, located near the elevator we initially used to get here.

Except... it's locked with some kind of a panel.



You didn't know about this control panel. Great.

Let's face it, this is the least unexpected thing to happen during this entire run.

Apparently, Mr. Silverstar's reputation for paranoia is well-founded. This panel is a hard-coded door control that cannot be accessed from the Matrix. It was not here yesterday. How did he have it installed so fast?

So what now?

Samedi will think of something!

Very well - this will work but the plan requires you, and ONLY YOU to stay the night.

What? This already sounds like a terrible plan!

What about my crew?




And fade to black. I know, a bit of a sudden end, huh?

In what exciting new ways will things manage to go horribly wrong next time, as Amazon lodges alone in the same corporate building she just raided and murdered nineteen people in? Stay tuned to find out!