The Sprawl: An Unused Mission

We've reached the end of my Sprawl recaps. The majority of my players became occupied by the birth of their first child resulting in the game being cut off before its third act (Search or Destroy?). But before that happened, I created most of what we needed for that night. So here is the third somewhat unfinished and unused mission.

Search or Destroy?

Employer: The team gets this mission not from a corporate cutout but via a tip from Demon's contact Gearhead, who resurfaces to deliver his repaired and upgraded drone.

She has information on Dale. Cryptic messages surfacing on the web and etched into construction projects across the city reveal that he is alive. A reporter named Edison is also digging into this.

Demon also knows that Dale's sister has recently moved to Indianago.

The Get the Job move would have altered choices:

• You have useful information (*intel)
• You have useful assets in place (*gear)
• Gearhead hasn't already sold this information to somebody else
• Your meeting doesn't draw attention

Getting paid would also have altered options:

• Your enemies don't retaliate
• You avoid leaving a trail for the authorities
• You resolve things with Dale
• You earn all cred stacked
• You learn something, everyone marks experience

Target: Dale

Mission Directives:

• Accept Mission
• Locate Dale
• Liberate Dale
• End Mission (2 Experience)

Complications

A number of complications make this mission rather difficult.

• Dale is a disembodied brain owned by the city turned into an experimental computer system by United Security and tasked with managing the city's robotic assets. He is well guarded at their central server farm.
• Team Zeta wants revenge on the team and would like another crack at obtaining United Security's new system for Veridian Dynamics.
• Shinja is blackmailing Dale's sister, Ellen, for information. she knows nothing but Dale knows about their efforts. He intends to escalate this into an all-out war.
• Edison, the reporter, is acting as Shinja's proxy. His goal is to learn where Dale is but he is willing to destroy everyone with the truth if he has to.
• United Security wants to keep this whole situation quiet.

Team Zeta (Veridian Dynamics extraction team):

• Their Mission: Revenge with a side bonus of getting a biological computer system for their bosses.
• Team Roster:
• The Boys [9 man team, medium gang 2-armor 3-harm]: military lifers, out for blood
• Jax: the swarmy hacker who does overwatch for the team. He sticks to the team's attack chopper.
• Squirrel: the ex-sky jockey. Bitter and petulant she occupies herself with road rage in the team's tactical van [rugged, huge, armored, sloppy, 1-armor]
• Angelo: the bastard leader whose weapon of choice is an assault rifle called Bad Boy [4-harm autofire near/far/extreme loud]
• When you face off Angelo, he's prepared. Roll +Edge. On a hit, you know his tricks, hold 1 and so does he. On 7-9 to he holds an additional 1. On a miss he holds 2 and the MC will make a hard move now. Spend hold to add +1 or subtract -2 to a roll to interfere with him. He can do the same to you.
• Group (Impulse: to dominate)
• Custom Moves:
• Deploy shutdown codes on Oracle
• Surround a situation
• Deploy in force

Dale (or Transportation Logistics Hub 153):

• After his contract was extended beyond life, United Security decided to liquidate it along with his body. His organs were recycled and his brain became part of an experimental program to create not quite artificial intelligence.
• Deep down, Dale just wants to follow the rules. His programming removes his humanity slowly each day but Demon's presence reminds him of his pain. He needs to hurt him.
• Also tethering him to his old life is his sister. He watches over her subtly for now.
• When he acts he uses teleoperated drones and altered traffic signals to harm and kill.
• Loner (Impulse: to murder)
• Custom Moves:
• Use vehicular violence to complicate situations
• Reveal the callousness of the corporations
• Attack via misdirection
• Attack using a proxy
• Turn technology against the wielder

Edison

• A corrupt reporter, Edison takes Shinja money and pursues the stories they want exposed. In this case they see a chance to harm United Security and perhaps other rivals.
• Headline (Impulse: to explode)
• Custom Moves:
• To pressure others in desperate action
• Use the truth to hurt others

The Corporations

Also at the end of the game the megacorps were beginning to notice the PCs and not in a good way. The collateral damage had gotten their attention.

Veridian Dynamics

Spheres of Interest: Pharmaceuticals, Virtual Reality
Corporate Clock: 2200

A creepily cheerful corporation based in Germany, they essentially own Oracle since her surgery. Indeed her cybernetics have yet to be cleared for export. Looking for an opportunity to expand their reach they are the most clearly competitive megacorp.

Custom Moves:

• Spin public relation disasters into successful new products
• Employ ruthless efficiency

Unified Security

Spheres of Interest: Vehicles, Weapons
Corporate Clock: 2100

Demon and Dale used to work for their weapons manufacturer. Both a weapons developer and deployer, they have a habit of shuffling employees between divisions. They also like to lock them into life long (or longer) contracts.

Custom Moves:

• Deploy contract slaves
• Perform a field test
• Reveal bleeding edge weapons

Genewear

Spheres of Interest: Cybernetics, Genetics
Corporate Clock: 1200

Based in Indianago, the premier cyberware and bioware developers work mostly to advance technology itself (and maintain their chokehold on that tech).

Custom Moves:

• Blend machine and man
• Alter what it means to be human
• Push boundaries

Shinja

Spheres of Interest: Financial, Criminal
Corporate Clock: 2100

Shinja blurs the line completely between finance and organized crime. Based in Singapore, they are well behind technologically, a fact they are working to rectify.

Custom Moves:

• Use catspaws to deal with unpleasantness
• Acquire territory