Double Exposure Part 3: Faith
General Summary
Insect spirits do not exist. All other animals and even plants were represented in the astral plane, but magical scholars had long pndered why insects were always curiously absent. Their contacts, predictably, knew nothing of them but even the spirits were clueless. With no other options, the mages performed a ritual to summon a Great Form Nature Spirit. The ancient entity did indeed know of the Insect Spirits, revealing that they return every 10,000 years to consume all life and magic in the world... and that they were only the first of many horrors to come. The fact that they are about 5,000 years early is concerning. They also learned from their metahuman contacts that Renraku's extraction team was planning their attack on Camp Faith any day now. Seeing how well the insecticide worked on the insects, the runners stocked up on gel rounds full of RAID.
Camp Faith sat on the edge of a cliff in the ashen wasteland of the Verge. A sheer 200 ft drop kept it secure from all but one side. The camp was filthy and poorly maintained, as Camp Hope was the face of Project Hope, while Faith looked like it was built with security in mind and little else.
They were commed by someone nearby: An associate of Mina's, Manhattan Calaveras of Aztlan's elite black-ops Leopard Guard. Manny's team was to infiltrate Camp Faith and extract Renraku's research data. Manny was standing guard over the astral one klick away and could only watch as his team was slaughtered by the unexpected resistance. Manny offered his assistance as a Blood Mage if the runners would help him find the surviving members of his team and allow him to copy the same research data they were after. Manny could track the bio-signatures of his team, seeing that they were weak but most were still alive.
Manny claimed he could cast a powerful invisibility spell, but he would need their blood as part of the ritual. If they were unwilling, the blood of a metahuman sacrifice would also suffice. They opted for the latter, luring in one of the Knight Errant Peace Officers who was out on patrol (and taking a leak). Bringing him back to an abandoned gas station, Manny set up a mana barrier to hide their activity. Once the ritual was complete and the unconscious KEPO was slain, the Insect Spirit within escaped, trapped inside the mana barrier in close quarters with the runners. Killing its materialized form splattered everyone with acid, damaging their armor. Manny, who had not known exactly what had overtaken his team, was irritated that the runners had not forewarned him that this might happen.
The runners levitated over the high fence and moved quietly and invisibly through Camp Faith, making their way to the Medical Center and hacking cameras along the way. Patients were being treated here, but they seemed unaware of their surroundings. On the lower level, the runners followed screams to a surgical room, where a doctor and two nurses were implanting cyberware into a paralyzed, but not sedated, troll. Against Manny's advice, the team chose to help the troll, subduing the nurses and interrogating the doctor. The doctor didn't know much, just that he was working for one of the megacorps and that he was paid to well to ask questions. He said that the office of the Director, Jonathon Tung, was nearby and might have the info they sought. They knocked out the doctor and gave medical aid to the troll to relieve his pain and blood loss. As the troll passed out, the runners saw that, in their haste to help the troll, they hadn't seen the security camera watching them the whole time.
The exited the surgical room to see Tung stepping out of his office with a datapad. He opened a set of large metal security doors and ran through into the darkness beyond. While the team chased after him, Mina decked his cyberterminal to find that he had wiped all the data after downloading it to his datapad. While jacked in, she sent a false signal to redirect the responding KEPO team, buying them precious time. The floor of the carved tunnels beyond the door were slippery with a strange pungent bio-matter, making the chase difficult. Vola managed to tackle Tung, tying him up and carrying him away.
Manny said that his team was nearby and followed their signal. Regardless, they were got lost in the tunnels. The mages sensed a mental influence trying that was altering their perceptions and attempting to slowly seize their minds. The mages were able to combine their efforts to create a ward against the influence. A pale human woman appeared before them. She looked like a farm girl in a sun dress, smiling pleasantly under matted greasy hair. She remarked that they do not belong here, before walking back into the shadows, her bare feet squishing the bio-matter as she went.
They came to a vast cavern carved around an subterranean river. Large clusters of the same bio-matter covered the floor over 100 ft down. Making their way down, the runners that stood watch atop the cliff saw movement in the shadows: Swarms of dozens of insect spirits crawled down the walls of the far side of the cavern, making their way towards the runners. They moved quickly as they flickered between the astral and material planes. Manny cut open a cluster of bio-matter, finding one of his team coccooned inside. The friend attacked him with taloned hands, spitting acid from his grotesque half-metamorphisized body. After killing what was once his friend, Manny touched the body to charge it with a spell. The runners up top covered their vertical retreat, firing RAID rounds into the swarm. As the swarm gathered around the cocoons, Manny triggered the Corpse Explosion spell, killing his team and their captors with them.
As they frantically ran through the tunnels, swarms of Insect Spirits seemed to leap from the shadows, materializing out of the astral from all sides. The greasy woman seemed to lurk in every shadow they passed, doing nothing but smiling at them. Tung was left behind in the chaos, but the torn up and acid burned runners made their way out only to be beset upon by the squad of flesh form Knight Errant response team. They were assisted by the troll, who used the electricity in the lights to cast a lightning spell on their attackers. As they made their way up the elevator, the troll levitated away into the darkness of the hive.
Surrounded by Knight Errant that were waiting for them outside the Medical Center, they were saved by the bullets of the Renraku's covert Red Shinobi team. They used the confusion to fight their way out. Manny killed a KEPO with a blood clot spell and then hurled his body into a chain-link fence, detonating it was a corpse explosion to create an exit. Once safe from the chaos of the battle, the runners gave Manny a copy of the research data for his bosses in the Aztlan government.
They parted ways and browsed through the research data. They found that a large part of the Universal Brotherhood's funding for Project Hope indeed came from Renraku. Project Hope was a front to gather the homeless people of Redmond and transform them into hosts for the Insect Spirits. Those who were unsuitable hosts were experimented on by Renraku's surgeons, and sometimes the dead were used to feed the hive. Renraku's bioware division lagged behind the other Megas, and so this attempt to catch up oversaw experiments covering many different fields from bio-weaponry to simsense, but one of note was Project Zelazny: an attempt to alter neurotransmitters to allow cybernetics to resonate a sensitivity to magic. Renraku had no knowledge of Project Hope's true nature, but the FBI's investigation was what triggered them to end their relationship with the Brotherhood and, not trusting them, covertly extract their own data before the deal officially ended.
Magwyn was grateful for the research, promising it would go to good use. Meeting with Juarez after, they exchanged the evidence for the blackmail footage and payment. Juarez offered additional nuyen if they uncovered any additional intel that would be of interest to the UCAS government. He didn't believe the story of the invading force of insect spirits, but they convinced him to look into it. He said that if the investigation turned up anything, he would transfer the money into their accounts and perhaps have more work for them.
They all received 5000¥ less than a week later.
Camp Faith sat on the edge of a cliff in the ashen wasteland of the Verge. A sheer 200 ft drop kept it secure from all but one side. The camp was filthy and poorly maintained, as Camp Hope was the face of Project Hope, while Faith looked like it was built with security in mind and little else.
They were commed by someone nearby: An associate of Mina's, Manhattan Calaveras of Aztlan's elite black-ops Leopard Guard. Manny's team was to infiltrate Camp Faith and extract Renraku's research data. Manny was standing guard over the astral one klick away and could only watch as his team was slaughtered by the unexpected resistance. Manny offered his assistance as a Blood Mage if the runners would help him find the surviving members of his team and allow him to copy the same research data they were after. Manny could track the bio-signatures of his team, seeing that they were weak but most were still alive.
Manny claimed he could cast a powerful invisibility spell, but he would need their blood as part of the ritual. If they were unwilling, the blood of a metahuman sacrifice would also suffice. They opted for the latter, luring in one of the Knight Errant Peace Officers who was out on patrol (and taking a leak). Bringing him back to an abandoned gas station, Manny set up a mana barrier to hide their activity. Once the ritual was complete and the unconscious KEPO was slain, the Insect Spirit within escaped, trapped inside the mana barrier in close quarters with the runners. Killing its materialized form splattered everyone with acid, damaging their armor. Manny, who had not known exactly what had overtaken his team, was irritated that the runners had not forewarned him that this might happen.
The runners levitated over the high fence and moved quietly and invisibly through Camp Faith, making their way to the Medical Center and hacking cameras along the way. Patients were being treated here, but they seemed unaware of their surroundings. On the lower level, the runners followed screams to a surgical room, where a doctor and two nurses were implanting cyberware into a paralyzed, but not sedated, troll. Against Manny's advice, the team chose to help the troll, subduing the nurses and interrogating the doctor. The doctor didn't know much, just that he was working for one of the megacorps and that he was paid to well to ask questions. He said that the office of the Director, Jonathon Tung, was nearby and might have the info they sought. They knocked out the doctor and gave medical aid to the troll to relieve his pain and blood loss. As the troll passed out, the runners saw that, in their haste to help the troll, they hadn't seen the security camera watching them the whole time.
The exited the surgical room to see Tung stepping out of his office with a datapad. He opened a set of large metal security doors and ran through into the darkness beyond. While the team chased after him, Mina decked his cyberterminal to find that he had wiped all the data after downloading it to his datapad. While jacked in, she sent a false signal to redirect the responding KEPO team, buying them precious time. The floor of the carved tunnels beyond the door were slippery with a strange pungent bio-matter, making the chase difficult. Vola managed to tackle Tung, tying him up and carrying him away.
Manny said that his team was nearby and followed their signal. Regardless, they were got lost in the tunnels. The mages sensed a mental influence trying that was altering their perceptions and attempting to slowly seize their minds. The mages were able to combine their efforts to create a ward against the influence. A pale human woman appeared before them. She looked like a farm girl in a sun dress, smiling pleasantly under matted greasy hair. She remarked that they do not belong here, before walking back into the shadows, her bare feet squishing the bio-matter as she went.
They came to a vast cavern carved around an subterranean river. Large clusters of the same bio-matter covered the floor over 100 ft down. Making their way down, the runners that stood watch atop the cliff saw movement in the shadows: Swarms of dozens of insect spirits crawled down the walls of the far side of the cavern, making their way towards the runners. They moved quickly as they flickered between the astral and material planes. Manny cut open a cluster of bio-matter, finding one of his team coccooned inside. The friend attacked him with taloned hands, spitting acid from his grotesque half-metamorphisized body. After killing what was once his friend, Manny touched the body to charge it with a spell. The runners up top covered their vertical retreat, firing RAID rounds into the swarm. As the swarm gathered around the cocoons, Manny triggered the Corpse Explosion spell, killing his team and their captors with them.
As they frantically ran through the tunnels, swarms of Insect Spirits seemed to leap from the shadows, materializing out of the astral from all sides. The greasy woman seemed to lurk in every shadow they passed, doing nothing but smiling at them. Tung was left behind in the chaos, but the torn up and acid burned runners made their way out only to be beset upon by the squad of flesh form Knight Errant response team. They were assisted by the troll, who used the electricity in the lights to cast a lightning spell on their attackers. As they made their way up the elevator, the troll levitated away into the darkness of the hive.
Surrounded by Knight Errant that were waiting for them outside the Medical Center, they were saved by the bullets of the Renraku's covert Red Shinobi team. They used the confusion to fight their way out. Manny killed a KEPO with a blood clot spell and then hurled his body into a chain-link fence, detonating it was a corpse explosion to create an exit. Once safe from the chaos of the battle, the runners gave Manny a copy of the research data for his bosses in the Aztlan government.
They parted ways and browsed through the research data. They found that a large part of the Universal Brotherhood's funding for Project Hope indeed came from Renraku. Project Hope was a front to gather the homeless people of Redmond and transform them into hosts for the Insect Spirits. Those who were unsuitable hosts were experimented on by Renraku's surgeons, and sometimes the dead were used to feed the hive. Renraku's bioware division lagged behind the other Megas, and so this attempt to catch up oversaw experiments covering many different fields from bio-weaponry to simsense, but one of note was Project Zelazny: an attempt to alter neurotransmitters to allow cybernetics to resonate a sensitivity to magic. Renraku had no knowledge of Project Hope's true nature, but the FBI's investigation was what triggered them to end their relationship with the Brotherhood and, not trusting them, covertly extract their own data before the deal officially ended.
Magwyn was grateful for the research, promising it would go to good use. Meeting with Juarez after, they exchanged the evidence for the blackmail footage and payment. Juarez offered additional nuyen if they uncovered any additional intel that would be of interest to the UCAS government. He didn't believe the story of the invading force of insect spirits, but they convinced him to look into it. He said that if the investigation turned up anything, he would transfer the money into their accounts and perhaps have more work for them.
They all received 5000¥ less than a week later.
Unearthed Secrets
- Project Hope had secured its funding from Renraku to conduct experiments on the vagrant population. But the Project was funding something far more disturbing: The first wave of an incursion by extraplanar insect spirits.
- The projects covered a range of fields, including cyberweapons, simsense and an effort to neurological simulate artificial essence known as "Project Zelazny."
- Neither Renraku nor Knight Errant knew about the Insect Spirits nor that some of their people had been compromised and inhabited. This could be embarrassing for either one.
- Aztechnology's spies had learned that Renraku's partnership with the Universal Brotherhood was coming to an end and wanted to steal the research data beforehand. The operation would have failed had the runners not helped.
- Insecticides are less effective against flesh-form insect spirits and completely ineffective against perfect flesh-form (past the normal metahuman vulnerability).
- The great form forest spirit revealed that the Insect Spirits return to our dimension every 10,000 years to consume all life and mana within it. They are about 5,000 years early this time. Dang,
Rewards Granted
5 Karma
30,000¥
Additional 5,000¥ for info on the Hive
30,000¥
Additional 5,000¥ for info on the Hive
Character(s) interacted with
- Simon Juarez (client)
- Manhattan Calaveras
- The Hive Queen
- Jonathon Tung (killed)
- Magwyn Lhenesael (fixer)
5.22.2057
Locations Visited
- Redmond
- Camp Faith
- McDonalds
- The Daisy Chain
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