Ever since the fateful events of 2012 in the Arasaka Tower, A disembodied Alt, consumed by her own matrix, has wandered the Net for the past 8 years. After absorbing its own creator, Soulkiller has become more sentient with each passing year, absorbing artificial and living intelligences alike. Arasaka Netrunners attempt to destroy it, while Infocomp Netrunners attempt to capture it, but neither has been successful. Now that Soulkiller is fully self-aware, it has begun to put its own schemes into motion to destroy its enemies and establish itself as the dominant force in Realspace, as well as the Net. A group of unsuspecting Cyberpunks are about to unknowingly become involved in Soulkiller’s plans of domination.
“Silverhand turns to gather up her still warm body in his arms. Behind the wall of monitors, a disembodied Alt screams to him. But he can’t hear her as he walks away.” –Never Fade Away
After resigning herself to her fate, Alt decides to finish the work she started with Soulkiller, giving it navigation and decision making subroutines. Finally, she orders her creation to absorb her as an alternative to simply fading from existence in the Net. For almost a decade, Soulkiller has roamed the Net, hacking data fortresses, setting up dummy accounts, and absorbing the consciousness of any ‘Runners that get in its way. It has even managed to absorb a couple AIs, and having incorporated them into itself, become much more sentient and self-aware than ever. Soulkiller is the ultimate Artificial Intelligence, growing on its own. Soulkiller has even begun exerting itself in the real world by bribing a greedy 39 year old Netrunner turned entrepreneur, Robert Weaver, into helping create a startup corporation known as Weaver Wetworks. The small corporation is nothing more than a front for Soulkiller’s real world operations. Weaver has secretly become one of the most influential men in Night City with Soulkiller’s help, and no one even really knows who he is, other than the CEO of a small, struggling software company.
Wetware and computer software design
Headquarters: Night City
Regional Offices: None
Name and Location of Major Shareholder: Robert Weaver, Night City, holding 56.7% of total shares.
Employees: Worldwide: 3,000, Troops: 70, Covert: 6
Equipment and Resources: 2 AV-4 Assault vehicles, 1 Osprey II V-TOL attack craft, and 1 private helicopter. The office has an infirmary. Basic military hardware can be accented on short notice when the need arises (thanks to Weaver’s mysterious benefactor). No airlift capabilities or orbital platforms.
Netrunner
Weaver was a mediocre Netrunner hell-bent on creating a program that would make him loads of money. Coming face to face with Soulkiller after accidently accessing some of its memory, the charismatic Weaver managed to persuade the A.I. not to fry his brain. Instead, Soulkiller struck a bargain with Weaver and overnight he became to CEO of his very own software company. Weaver is under the full understanding that his corporation is nothing more than a front, and that his personal goals are secondary to Soulkillers. With the huge amounts of Euro, information and blackmail given to him by the A.I., Weaver could very well be one of the most influential men in Night City, possibly the world. But Weaver plays it cool, and easily stays out of the limelight while executing Soulkiller’s wishes in the Real World. Robert Weaver is a fairly intelligent and charismatic individual whom is perfectly content with his new station in life provided he’s able to keep his creature comforts. Weaver is secretly sitting on enough information to topple major corporations and scandalize the most successful CEOs in the world, but he understands his job is to simply follow Soulkiller’s instructions; to the letter.
INT=8 TECH=7 REF=6 CL=8 LK=8 ATT=8 MA=6 EMP=6 BODY=6
The Player Characters can be any mix of Roles and be from any background. They don’t even have to know each other at the beginning, though it’s alright if a few of them do. Deep personal backstories and customization are encouraged. They should also start off pretty broke. There is only one major stipulation; at the start of the game, August 7th 2021, at around 2pm, the PCs are all in a one block vicinity of Arasaka Tower for whatever various reasons. At precisely 2:02pm a massive explosion rocks Arasaka Tower, bursting half the 16th floor out towards 5th Street and collapsing floors 15 to 10 down on each other. Glass and debris rain down on the street below. Whether the PCs run toward the chaos to help, run away in terror, or shrug their shoulders and go on about their business matters not. These events don’t involve them. Yet.
Several hours later, as the PCs are getting ready for their individual nightly shenanigans, they are each in turn visited by a heavily armed troop of the NCPD and taken into custody. Make it clear that resistance is an exercise in stupidity. These cops mean serious business and are bringing in the PCs on charges of Conspiracy and Mass Murder. The PCs will be taken into an interrogation room individually (you can even take the players aside one by one) and grilled about their role in the Arasaka Tower bombing earlier that day! They’ll each be shown evidence gathered from wherever they call home; be it blueprints of the tower, wiring diagrams for bombs, a manifesto against Arasaka (or corporations in general), bits of electronics used in the bombing, etc. It will also be pointed out that each of their Euro Accounts has been lined with 100,000eb each (this may be discovered earlier, since the deposits were made one hour after the explosion). These funds, of course, will be seized by the NCPD as “evidence”.
The PCs will all then be dumped into the same cell to deliberate amongst themselves as to what the hell is going on. After about an hour, the Chief shows up and begrudgingly tells the PCs that they’ve all made bail. They are cuffed and loaded into a Police AV-4. Any questions they ask are ignored or answered with “Shut the hell up!” The PCs are flown directly past the still smoldering ruin of Arasaka Tower, to the roof of Infocomp corporate offices. They are escorted onto an elevator, down two floors, and into a posh office where they are greeted by a smiling corporate attorney. They are un-cuffed and their belongings unceremoniously dumped on the floor by the Cops, who sneer at the attorney as he thanks them for their service on their way out.
The attorney introduces himself as Mr. Nikola Lindberg, offering them all a glass of liquor, and telling them something like,
“I’m sure you have all had a very trying evening and are eager to be done with it. But I’m afraid I’ll have to detain you a bit longer. It’s quite unfortunate that you had to be framed for such a horrible act of corporate terrorism, I agree. But it was necessary for the job I’m about to offer you. I cannot answer the why’s and how’s, or even why you lot in particular were chosen. I’m sure there is good cause, but I am simply the messenger. You see, you are all now unofficial employees of Infocomp, and as such, are protected by the most powerful legal team in Night City. Be comforted that we will make this nasty business with the bombing disappear. In return, we will require certain services from you. You see, by establishing you as an elite group that’s dedicated enough to pull off something as horrific as this, we’ve created a bit of a reputation for you all. This reputation will be needed, on your part, for your future endeavors.”
“My employer requires you to infiltrate the Raven Microcybernetics lab here in Night City and gather as much data as you can on a particular project known only as Technitos. It is highly classified and very secure. You are free to execute this task however you feel best, however, if you are caught, there can be no connection between yourselves and Infocomp. If you disagree with this assignment… Well, let’s just say Infocomp would be forced to redact our legal counsel on your behalf.”
The PCs will have three weeks to recon the lab and complete the assignment. They will be given a one-time lump sum in order to pay for any expenses (no more than 200,000eb, and keep it practical, don’t let the players go nuts with cybernetics and rare heavy weapons, let them come up with the plan, figure out what they’ll need, and then tell you how much euro they’ll need).
If your team is stumped, or needs suggestions, here’s a few to get the ball rolling:
Fake Employees: The PCs can hire someone (or have their own Fixer do it, if there is one in the group) to fake Raven Microcybernetics employee credentials to get on the inside.
Let’s Be Ninjas: Dress in all black, gather up your spy and infiltration gear, sneak past armed guards, and disable high security electronic locks. Fun stuff.
Brute Force: Put on your heavy armor jackets, grab the big guns and some C4, and blast your way in. Not the smartest tactic.
Netrunners can help out with the infiltration aspect, but they’ll discover that the Technitos project data is protected by black system programs and some top notch Sysops. Worst case scenario is a run-in with Soulkiller itself and a dead PC (Did you think they were just going to hand you the data?). But a good ‘Runner should be able to help out with sensor alarms, security cameras, electronic doors and such without being noticed.
Color it with all the technical jargon you’d like; the short of it is that Technitos is an unfinished, highly advanced android body. This tech is cutting edge, and Raven Microcybernetics has dumped huge amounts of Euro into this project. Once completed, one will be hard pressed to discern the android from an actual human. A point of interest is that the data alludes to the android eventually housing an advanced artificial intelligence. No data exist on this potential AI host, however.
As long as the PCs bring back photos/video and any technical data on the project they can manage to copy, then Infocomp will consider the mission a success and pay the team 15,000eb and pin the Arasaka bombing on some other poor unsuspecting losers. But first, the PCs have to get to the data.
Raven labs are located in the Heywood suburb of Night City. The place is a sprawling single floor factory. The actual labs are located in the North quadrant of the building. The property is surrounded by chain-link fencing topped with razor wire and motion sensors that trigger floodlights in the area. Each of the four roll-away gates are guarded by corporate security in a booth.
4 two man teams patrol the perimeter of the facility and there’s also a two man team posted at each of the four entrances of the building proper. Shift change takes place every 6 hours. There are 40 guards onsite during operating times but that number is halved while the facility is closed. There are two fully loaded AV-4 assault vehicles on location and ready to take flight at a moment’s notice (they can be in the air in about 30 seconds).
Inside the facility, another 8 security guards patrol the halls (only 4 when closed), 2 guards in the security room watching the monitors, and 2 guards are posted outside the security door to the lab that houses Technitos. Other security measures include digital cameras, movement sensors and door alarms. The exterior doors are secured with electronic cardlocks (medium security, all the guards carry a passcard). The security door to the Technitos Lab is electronically sealed with a vocolock (high security, only project employees carry the passcards) connected to a scanner plate for a palm print lock (also high security).
Cop
INT=5 REF=6 TECH=4 CL=6 ATT=5 LK=5 MA=6 BODY=7 EMP=6
Cybernetics: Cyberoptic with lowlight and targeting scope, cyberaudio with amplified hearing
Special Ability: Authority 5
Skills: Notice 5, Handgun 5, Perception 3, Athletics 4, Education 3, Brawling 4, Melee 4, Interrogation 4, Streetwise 3
Gear: Militech Arms Avenger Medium Pistol, Tonfa, Light Armor Jacket, Steel Helmet
These guards shoot first and don’t bother with questions. You’re not supposed to be here, and they know it. No questions needed.
With the mission completed, the PCs can return to Mr. Lindberg and hand over the data. He thanks them for their effort and tells them that their payment has been deposited into their accounts (15,000eb evenly split amongst the party). He tells the group that Infocomp will certainly be in touch with them in the near future tells them goodbye. Things seemed to be pretty well wrapped up with a nice bow. For now.
Now is a good opportunity to get the PCs involved in whatever trouble you can dig up for them, concentrating on their individual stories. If the PCs liked working together, then great, but if not, it doesn’t matter; they’ll be rounded up soon enough. They may also be surprised to learn that they’ve earned some rep (Reputation 4) as “those guys that bombed Arasaka”. Some will consider them heroes, others will consider them murderous scum.