All Too Human

While this one-shot was written with Shadowrun in mind, it can be played in any modern or cyberpunk setting. Sample Characters can be found here.

While wasting time crawling the Matrix, the runners spot an interesting job post on The Helix: A fellow Shadowrunner needs an escort to a clinic for surgery. The catch is posted up-front: The clinic isn't expecting him, as the surgery is clandestine. He needs the escorting party to keep him safe while he undergoes the surgery, then break him out again.
Mr. Johnson will meet with interested runners in the Matrix, being careful with precise details until the job offer is accepted. His name is Mash, and he's heavily augmented. He says he paid for more high-quality augmentationsto be cultivated and implanted at a delta clinic, but after a run against the clinic's mother company, the clinic now refuses to give him what he paid for.

---

Mash

Metatype

Dwarf

Gender

Male

Birth Year

2047

Awakened/Ware

Cyberware + Bioware

Type

Shadowrunner

Personality

Aloof

Mash is a Street Samurai who has on occasion made a good profit, but chose to spend it on expensive augmentations rather than retirement. Quite frankly, he's addicted to the idea of transcending his human form. However, he's reached the limits of what his body can handle.
After lengthy studying, Mash figured out a way to enhance himself even further. He had several hackers break into the clinic's systems and program in the creation order of his special project. Now he needs help getting in there before the clinic runs an audit and finds out. The golden opportunity for that has arised with planned Host maintenance. During the downtime, the runners need to get him in and let the autodoc systems perform the lengthy surgery.

---

The Run

Normally, breaking into a delta clinic is suicide. Their security systems are top-notch, with biometric sensors and massively redundant camera footage. However, the target clinic is secretly undergoing an upgrade to their Matrix systems, which means all their wireless systems will be down. The backup nodes can only support a small subset of the security systems, and with the clinic closed physical security is also at a minimum.
In other words, the runners must bypass only a low level of security. Best of all, wifi-blocking paint means security cannot call for backup. Even if the team sets off an alarm, they can still deal with it on the fly. It'd be a golden looting opportunity, if only supplies weren't temporarily removed.

Johnson

Mash

Job Type

Bodyguard Detail

Opposition

Corporate security

Base Rewards

¥9,000 each
7 Karma

Word on the street

"Mash? I know him. Bit of a loner, and crammed with ware. Heard a mage say that he's like two parts removed from death."

"Security will be minimal, giving us the opportunity to retrieve what rightfully is mine."

"Look, mates, our boss is a high-profile target. We're going to need a LOT of insurance to trust you anywhere near him..."

"Memento Mori. Do not worry, my heart will restart in a few seconds. No proper upgrade without some downtime, after all."

---

The Complications

Once the runners get close to the operating theater, they discover a significant amount of security detail is also present. Turns out a highly-wanted criminal has been scheduled for surgery during the Matrix downtime, so that his visit is entirely off the radar. The team must either avoid detection, take out the extra complication, or negotiate a truce.
It gets worse when Mash flatlines on the surgery table. At the same time his eyes open and he tells the team not to worry, just before automated systems take over his heartbeat. By all accounts Mash should be dead, but the ware is keeping his body alive somehow.

The Aftermath

Technically, Mash is dead. He augmented himself beyond the point where his body and soul could handle it, severing the two permanently. Yet he effectively uploaded him mind into his own brain, while his body is on permanent life support that give him full control over it. He pays the runners and disappears, moving continent so nobody can find him.
This is a technological development worth billions, and Megacorps would go to greath lengths to research this. If the runners make the mistake to gossip about the run, they soon will face more attention than any criminal likes to face...