Hi folks,
I was flipping through the SR4 books the other night and had an idea for a mission, but seeing as how I'm not running any SR4 games I thought I'd post it here.
The Patchwork Assassins
This is a very small team of high-end assassins and/or spies that take on the almost impossible tasks. Interpol (or your security department of choice) only has one, maybe two, crimes that have made them aware of the Patchwork team.
The crime was thought to be internal espionage or murder where the perpetrators were found dead afterwards, thought to be killed by the buyer of the data or a partner. The perpetrators had walked right through all biometric security, including genetic scans, as well as astral perception.
The only reason the crime were not attributed to the corpse found was that the corpse possessed a small wound on a finger that had happened several days earlier and that was corroborated by witnesses/video evidence but that did not show up on the biometric scans on the day of the crime.
The Patchwork agent is thought to be the recipient of numerous cloned body parts (limbs, mouth cavity for swabs, vocal cords, eyes, etc) to defeat the genetic scans. Fingerprints and retinal patterns are a result of in utero conditions, not genetics, so cloned limbs have different fingerprints just as identical twins have different fingerprints. Someone has apparently found a way to clone a limb or eye and convince it to match known biometrics.
There are intense arguments by the experts on the case as to how the astral security was defeated; does the modified clonal process actually replicate the donor's aura or is there some other process at play?
This is an unknown medical process, and the medical genius behind the process is referred to as "Dr. Frankenstein." The agents, one male and one female, as "Raggedy Anne" and "Raggedy Andy." The team working the case simply call them Frank, Anne and Andy. Some hypothesize that the Patchwork team was a Black Op that went rogue after Crash 2.0.
The cost for a Patchwork infiltration has to run into the millions of nuyen, given the surgeries and cloning costs, let alone the fees to pay someone to be rebuilt.
Suggestions:
The Patchwork group is suitable as a direct threat the PCs will be trying to guard against (either by protecting the target or more likely the intended fall guy) or one that the PCs have indirectly come into conflict with, possibly by possessing biometric information the team needs to complete their disguise.
Anne and/or Andy are expert impersonators, even without the surgical assist. The biggest weakness for the team is collecting enough databefore the crime to ensure the impersonation is sufficient. They probably have a significant supply of sensors to bug their target (secure RFID units as well as drones and hacking/swap of commlinks).
Anne/Andy have no cyber (unless their patsy did) but may possess some previously unseen magical ability. They have a high level of combat skill but their lack of cyber means they will have trouble defeating a samurai in a straight up conflict, which is why they avoid direct conflicts. Ambushes, kidnapping, interrogation, theft are their preferred MO for legwork.