Next Job and the arrival of Deefer

While we were working with Valentina and getting her settled in we got a ping about another job. The Neo Birmingham police needed help with something. There was a guy Ilyara had already heard of, named Sylcus. A known murderer and rapist. Max was immediately up for the job. Any job with scum like that and Max wanted to take it. Nothing to do with the bounty on his head, just wanting to take guys like that off the streets.
 
We didn’t know much about him, other than that he’d last been seen in the south-east of the city, one of his aliases was ‘Cutter’ and that part of his ears had been cut off. The job had come through from Detective Freidrichs as he had been spotted in his precinct. Last seen near the apartments in block 14 so close to us as this was in our district.
 
Along with the request for help we also got an image of him. The image is different to what Ilyara was expecting. He had on a skull helmet, cybernetic arms where the cybernetics extended into his chest rather than stopping at the shoulder. There were also Demonic sigils carved onto him. Looked like they could be from the cydonic wastes. From what I could see looking at the cybernetic limbs they were black market, sheng-tao district, China. This meant they were strong and adaptable and could store weapons. When I say strong, I mean that they had force multipliers, they could remove limbs from non-augmetic humans. I took another look at the head. There was something about it, I wasn’t convinced that it was a helmet. There was something about it I thought it might actually be his head. Now Iwas zoomed in a bit more, I could also see that the whole torso was cybernetic with his human skin tanned and stretched over the cybernetics. It was fashionable amongst gangs, can’t say it was something I’d have wanted done though.
 
I ran a search on him, I wasn’t expecting much but it was always worth checking as you never know what you’re going to find. I did find some things but nothing I didn’t already know. Unsurprisingly there was no legal entity under either of the names. The only thing I did find was that he could be a half breed or an elf. That could help to explain why his ears were cut, if he was an elf and had cut them to disguise it.
 
The reason he was wanted was because there had been a series of ritual murders and the police wanted him stopped. Although the killings were ritualistic, there was no pattern to the dates or times. We couldn’t tell if the killings were random or through necessity.
 
The job also came with a warning. That any previous mercenaries who had gone after him had gone off the grid. Those who were found had been murdered in a pretty brutal way with their veins splayed out around them. They were always also found very publically. There was no known ritual that this related to, this was just for fun. The civilian kills were the ones that were ritualistic. These kills were also hidden away and not found quickly.
 
The only other note on the file was one relating to how to take him down. He has the ability to use blood magic which means that if we make him bleed, he can use the blood to make a weapon. Not something we wanted to give him if we could avoid it.
 
We all piled into the AV and headed over. We messaged the Detective to let him know we were there. It was always best to give them the heads up. That way if things went south they knew we were there for them and wouldn’t come in after us. They also then knew that there was a chase we might need backup. In this case there was another reason. They’d asked for one of the uniforms to make the arrest.
 
The building was in a fairly slummy area. As we walked up there was a guy outside, he was old and had some cybernetic limbs but they were also old and looked like they could use some serious maintenance. With him was a cybermastiff. We got chatting to him and found out his name was Reginald Wiggins ‘But everyone calls me Rusty’ the dog was just called ‘Dog’
 
As we were talking Ilyara seemed to be sensing out the area. She thinks there’s a leyline under the block. Good for magic, lots of overlapping trails of Mana in the area. Unfortunately it appeared that Sylcus’s magic was sigillic which does not radiate in the same way which made it harder to pick up.
 
I searched for devices to see if there wasn anything that would let me hack into the system. The ports were all open though, there was security but it was almost non-existent and I was able to get into the systems pretty quickly. I ran through the security feed from the entrance until I found him coming in. He was fairly well disguised with a long leather coat and hood. However, he’d forgotten to wear gloves and I could see the distinctive black and green paint job from his cybernetics. He kept his head low and it also looked pixellated so the chances were he was wearing a baffler system or there was one installed in his helmet or head, whichever it was. I tracked him to the 12th floor but then couldn;t track anywhere past that as the camera’s had been moved to point at the floor or flat out disabled. I scanned through the feed from the 15th floor but couldn’t find anything.
 
While I was scanning through the data Rusty told us that the power went out to the building for a while a couple of days ago and that the building was a housing project owned by the city. Ilyara also gave the dog a once over an, unfortunately, it looked like he only had a few months left in him unless he got some attention. He also had quite a few augmetics that were starting to fail. Rusty told us he didn’t know much about the dogs story. He’d found him out here on the street and they’d just sort of, fallen in together. We offered to come and pick him up in a couple of days when the job was done and see if we could get him fixed up. Rusty nodded, he seemed happy with that idea.
 
We headed into the building, there was someone working on the front desk, he looked like he needed a shower and the right side of his face was augmetic. We tried to bribe him but that didn’t get us very far so Ilyara used her special charms and that got us in the door.
 
We headed upstairs, I was glad of my filters as the air was stale with food and sweat and overflowing toilets and old cigarette smoke, the walls were stained with nicotine. As we climbed Ilyara was keeping alert for any magical signatures, there were definitely magical people here but nothing that stood out, it was more utility magic.
 
We got to the 13th floor and Max and Ilyara started knocking on doors to see if they could either find the guy or find someone who knew where he was. The first door that opened was a Posiedonian. I’d never actually seen one in the flesh before but I’d seen enough pictures to recognise one. He was tall with essentially four hands, two long arms with pincers and two smaller arms with three fingers and a thumb. They were bi-pedal like humans and this particular specimen was about 6 ½ feet tall. He also had a large domed head. The best way to describe him was, essentially, a crab person. Max spoke to him for a minute and then I remembered something about Posiedonians that Max could probably have done with knowing. The way they say hello is to headbutt you. But when your head is essentially armoured, it’s going to hurt anyone who doesn’t have the same level of armour. Max went flying on his arse and I filed away the footage for a broadcastle bloopers reel that I’d decided to work on for the annual piss up.
 
The Posiedonian started chuckling and helped Max up off the floor and shook his hand. He introduced himself as Bob and said if we needed any help to give him a shout. I think Max had impressed him. He also knew the guy we were looking for was on the 15th floor so we headed up there.
 
Towards the end of the corridor was apparently a magical dead-zone. Ilyara said it was like someone had scoured all magic from the area. I sent out a quick ping to see if there was any technology we needed to be aware of. The data pinged up in front of my eyes. 5 IFF military specification signals. Unfortunately there was no way I could tell what they were, the signals were often masked. What I did notice though was an open window at the end of the corridor. There’s more than one way to see inside. I pulled out one of my microdrones and sent it out of the window and down the side of the building.
 
The first window reveals the kitchen and a robot. The second window is the living room and another bot facing the door. The third window reveals a woman on a bed. She’s tied and looks fairly cut up but seems to still be breathing. The back window is a second bedroom.
 
We ping the data over to the Detective, there was more firepower than we’d been expecting and there was the civilian. I quickly got a message back, Civilian is priority 1, he is priority 2. Shoot to kill is authorised but to try to take him alive if possible. He will try and get us some support but he could be delayed as The Triad are mobilising weapons and vehicles - watch your back. As the message from the Detective came in, I noticed a transmission going into the apartment. The timing was no coincidence. The police department has a mole.
 
From inside the apartment came a voice ‘Don’t you want to come in for a conversation rather than standing out in the hall?’ One of Ilyara’s robots breached the door and threw in a Frak grenade. I guess we weren’t doing this the subtle way then. The others all headed in, it was going to be cramped fighting conditions so I decided to hang back and see if I could hack the bots. Even if I could just disable them it would be better than them firing on the others. I still had the drone outside so I could get a vague idea of what was going on in the apartment but it was all happening very quickly and I couldn’t see everything without moving the drone.
 
We were eventually able to take him down by using the footage from the drone to triangulate Sylcus’s position and fire on him through the walls. We weren’t using traditional weapons though as we didn;t want him creating blood weapons. We were using energy weapons.
 
Now he was dealt with and secure I quickly turned my attention to the three bots. I wanted to try and get them under our control. There was no way of knowing if anyone else had eyes on the apartment and could start using them to hit us remotely. I managed to get them disabled which was the next best thing.
 
Although the fighting in the apartment had stopped, I could still hear fighting, but this was now out in the streets. From the quick glance that I took with the drone it was the police and someone else, presumably The Triad as that’s who the Detective had said was mobilising.
 
All signals have dropped and no signals going out. Extra bits on his skull – were a transmitter. His head was reinforced and essentially bullet-proof but were able to take him out because of the energy weapon.
 
Detective Freidrichs arrived and we gave him a quick update. The civilian needed to go to the hospital as she was close to bleeding out. Ilyara was doing what she could. Now the fighting had stopped outside they should be able to get a medivac in to get her out. We pointed out Sylcus’s body and apologised for not being able to take him alive. Bob had also used his pincers to remove the arms and turn him into a nugget as he put it. The detective laughed at that and said it was fine. Some of the lads were on the way up now to pick him up and get him into a mana negative cell so that he couldn’t use his magic. They would also remove his cybernetics, although I wasn’t sure how much of him would be left if they did that.
 
He confirms that it was the Triads kicking up trouble outside. That sounded a little too convenient to me, especially coupled with the transmission that came in at the same time as I was messaging the Detective. I suggest that the Police department might have a mole, he raised a hand and dropped a device on the table. Things got a little crackly for me but I was still able to hear what was going on if I concentrated.
 
He tells us that they do have a mole in the Police Department, there is a rogue AI in the police department and they haven’t been able to do anything about it at the moment. I asked if Sylcus and the Triads were linked, he confirms that Sylcus was important to them but they don’t know why.
 
He also confirms that cutter and Sylcus are not one and the same as I originally thought. They are different. Sylcus was an accomplice, a copy cat. Cutter is still out there but this is not common knowledge.
 
Detective Freidrichs also picks up a red stone with silverwork on it that Sylcus must have dropped. He dropped it into an evidence bag but I could see Ilyara eyeing it up so she must have some idea what it was for.
 
He tells us that they will be taking the bots in as they want to check all of the drives for any data. However, he is prepared to give us one of the bots as well as a payout. Max started to try and negotiate the bot away but I quickly pinged a message onto his visor ‘THE BOT IS MINE’ I’d been after a more high powered robot body for ages but they were so expensive I hadn’t been able to get one so we couldn’t pass this up. Plus it wasn’t just any bot, it was a grade 5 military bot. He also relented on the stone and let Ilyara take it, ont he understanding that she provide him with a full report on the stone, it’s properties and origins. He also hands her a DSD with some footage he had promised her.
 
I offered to help with the AI problem but he can’t sign off on that, anything like that would need to come from the Mayor.
 
As we were leaving the building I noticed that Rusty wasn't there but Dog was. I scouted about and saw him lying on the floor dead. From what I could see he'd made a valiant last stand as there were a few Triad bodies around him and a rather bloody mangled rusty pipe in his hand. I was sad for him, he'd been a nice guy, but I got the impression it was the ending that he would have liked. I grabbed a length of string I found lying about and Dog was quite happy for me to tie it to him like a lead and to come with us. He was hobbling a bit, his cybernetic legs obviously stiff and needing work. I ran a quick diagnostic and he seemed to move a little easier. He clambered on board and curled up under my seat. I started looking up vets local to the base and decided to call him Deefer. When Ilyara questioned it I explained D for Dog - deefer. Better than just Dog but in the spirit of Rusty's name for him.
 
When we got back to the base Ilyara went to go and talk to Valentina. She wanted to check how she was recovering after the operation. While they were talking she said she had been thinking and that she did want to come and work with us but that she was not as good at hacking as me, but that she was a good sniper and that was something we didn’t really have so she would join if she could do that for us. Ilyara agrees and we have our newest member of Broadcastle security solutions.
 
We’d not been back from the job long when Scarlett came over wanting to talk to us all. We gathered in the medbay and she turned off any communications. She had found Raylan, but from the look on her face it was not good. She led us to the back of the base and into the subway system. She turned to the right away from the subway car. I was about to ask where she was taking us when I saw it. The pentagram on the wall and splayed out on the wall is Raylan. Pieces of rebar pinning him to the wall, including through his head. No sigils just a pentagram. Pierced torso, legs, arms, head, neck but nothing ritualistic.
 
Whoever it was had wanted him dead but also wanted to send a message.