Hey guys, thought I'd share this with my beloved Dumpshock Forums. I've read Dumpshock for a long time(and missed it when it was absent.) I even did some mock SR3 runs helping people understand the Rigger 3 book when it launched. So here goes.

As I do every Halloween Season I get the tendency to pull out the paranormals and spirits for a fun old romp through terror town. This session was no different, though I like to title the run "Resident Evil" based on the layers to it. Sadly our Decker called in sick again this week so my carefully sculpted Nexi went into to the trashcan for the most part But the gist of the story was They got approached by a J to take on a simple mission, fly out to a secluded research center, find out why the center went off the grid mysteriously, and flip the lights back on.

They accepted the run at 15k apiece, 3 runners. The J gave them detailed diagrams of the complex proper, laid out some of the complexities of the facility, and even gave them Access Passkeys to the Complexes mini fusion reactor, corporate spider room, and how to get the access codes out of the administrators private node.

They fly out about 1 km off of the facility and arrive at night. they hit the supply shed, grab up some medkits just in case, and have tons of Drone overwatch. Drones detect creepy crawly ghoul #1 crawling back into the cafeteria on the complex grabbing some much needed dinner. Some industrial mechanic rolls and matrix work later they get the fusion reactor back online, the coolant pipes were a mess as if something chewed/clawed through them. After the reactor comes online the Microdrone monitoring creepy 1 gets detected and smashed by the ghouls. They quickly race over to the Security building to get the Rigger to pop into the spider room and take control of the complexes vast array of gun turrets and cameras. As they breach the door they are fired upon by ghouls in corpsec armor hiding in the back of the barracks. couple flash bangs and gunfire later, the room is neutralized, the armory looted and the Rigger in the hotseat. The rigger pulls the data off the sec camera system of what occurred before the power was lost and finds out that this place was cultivating ghouls and running experiments on them. They later realize that these ghouls were Native Americans captured from the local tribes of the region and being utilized. They find this out after subduing the now Ghouled Native Shaman. He realizes these guys aren't Aztech team and tries to get them to help him, before summoning a spirit to find his son to help him. they fly home and get their pay.

Next day the Rigger tells me she wants to approach the NAN with a copy of the evidence. she sets up the meet and hands over a copy of the corpsec tapes and the research data. the NAN turn this over to the corporate courts in an attempt to sanction Aztechnology. Now obviously Aztechnology knows that data could only come from a small handful of people(3 to be exact since there were no survivors of the facility incident) and will probably be scrambling as best they can to cleanse all traces of their involvement and eliminate any liabilities.

Trick to this is, they obviously have methods to keep themselves alive, Doc Wagon Contracts and Hand of God, and I don't want to entirely ensure their demise, but I want to really turn up the heat on the team from this. So how my fellow GM's would you guys work it out?

I've got some thoughts but since some of my players might be reading I don't want to say exactly what comes to mind immediately, and if anything your suggestions may work like Chaff to the incoming missile so to speak, so they won't know exactly what's coming. So fire away guys, if you guys want more details from the run or about the runners I'll be happy to supply more backstory

I can see serval ways to handle it depending entirely on how you want to handle things.

First decision to make: Will the corps come after them? You've mentioned the corp in question is Aztechnology so the answer might be yes. Now one things to balance here is thematics vs rules. DOCWAGON (a single or double A) will not go up against Aztechnology (a AAA and the number 2 on the planet of that bunch) to haul their butts out of the fire. Secondly I would be really careful on letting players use hand of god as an escape route for all consequences.


As to Aztechnology, to put the screws to the team the Azzies might start by hitting their physical asset and their friends. Their safe houses might go up in flames, their contacts might have pressure put on them if not outright killed. One of the best things to do from a team perspective might be to leave town accept asylum somewhere in the NAN until the heat dies down. Maybe someplace like LA. Lots of interesting opportunities to run there.

There are two different issues that interact here. First, they have injured Aztechnology and possibly cost them a LOT of money. Second, they betrayed a client.

If I was Aztechnology I'd have my people ensure that it's common knowledge on the street that these runners can't be trusted. I might well kill the guy (aka their fixer) who recommended them for the job if it's convenient, if it isn't I'd have a long talk with him about the quality of his runners.

I'd then gather info on the runners and then arrange for their expedient demise, as soon they should be kind of hungry for work. Like hiring them for a job, and either killing them at the meet or arranging for them to go on a run that will get them killed. Like by forgetting a few minor details, like the prototype they want stolen has 20 KG of C12 and a mercury switch in it. Or, it that is too much effort, just having them killed by high force spirits as they sleep.

There is a reason that the whole witness security program was created. People who screw with really powerful and totally ruthless people in a traceable way don't just get to go on with their lives, unless they plan on a really short life. If they don't ditch their ID, leave town and go some where where nobody knows them AND take precautions against being found by magic their lives are not worth a plugged nickle. So they better plan on spending the vast majority of next year or two inside a high force ward. The only other option would be to be on board with someone who can and will protect them.

what kzt said...

Last time we shafted an employer( IIRC it was the one of the Triads in HK) we ended up in exactly that situation. work and contacts dried up and we ended up stranded in HK looking for any job at all just to get out of the country. We finally got an offer and lo and behold it was a set up by the guys we had screwed.

Id have bitched more but it was my character that caused the shafting by releasing a naga and her babies instead of delivering them to the dragon spanker gang ( or what ever they called themselves) . It was not smart, but its what i felt a cascade ork merc with a litter and ex wife might do if faced with the situation. To quote Stonewall as he turned his Ares Alpha from the Naga to the aproaching triad soldiers "Haul hoop,Scaled -one and tell those kids that they owe me a favor if i ever get out of the Drek sandwich this is gonna cause."

Stonewall was last seen on a Junk trying to sneak south and get to Australia. His last action being to transfer the 50k on his comm to his ex-wife for child support. He hasn't been heard from since and is assumed to be dead....

Ohh drek... So she actually went through with that? I would have made her wait a while, not do it the next fraggin day. We also uploaded the info to their satellite, could be the info got ganked. I bet she didn't payed a single cred to boot.

My bikes parked in her garage and all my heavy artillery is in her bunker... And i was one of the three....

When do i hear about this?

@Vic - You'll know when I get access to Facebook again and post the Seattle News Network Post to the group The rigger claims she's going to call you. Also were your cyberears ringing that brought you to snoop on this thread? lol

Thanks so far guys and sure enough meet one of my heavy hitters Vic I knew he'd show his face in here.

so from the sounds of things the players might want to think about using some of their contacts/favors and maybe help from the NAN to get erased and skip town for the next few months or more. Talking to the players that sounds like the option they might take, but of course they'll have to collab once they all are aware and ready to deal with what's ahead.

Question is, will their contacts/methods of egress be faster than the anger of the mighty pyramid in Seattle?

Well depending on how big of a solid they did the NAN and how much the NAN want to help them out someone from the Consolate office could tell them to have their stuff together at X time at X airport and put them on a diplomatic plane bound for LA or or any other NAN holding. Hell they could spend a few months running against the sea lion mafia in iceland. That's if you want to help them out. To add spice to it and a good close on the seattle chapter you could have an Azzie team try and intercept them on the way to the meet a running firefight all the way to the embassy line. Note while the Azzie's are going to try for revenge it's reasonable to assume they arn't going to compound the issue by hitting the embassy or other high profile targets. So it could be a dramatic running firefight team as the runners try and get to sanctuary.

No need for that.

"I'm sure it was natural causes. People get all the blood sucked out of them by the mosquitoes here all the time."

"Inside a broken ward, with the furniture in the room shattered, her gun shot empty and her body showing signs of violence?"

"Just a coincidence."

[IC]
Well Vic...
I'd suggest doing like that old 20th century song says and, "Run to the hiiiiills, Run for your liiiiiiiiives".
Good luck with that. If you show up anywhere around me, I'll put two in your chest and one in your head, and collect the bounty on your corpse.
Nothing personal you understand, just business.[/IC]

Every bounty hunter, hitter and wannabe is gonna be looking to make a buck off of them in less than 24 hours. I hope their contacts are loyal.

Yeah, ill definitely have to watch my back for the rest of my career. They better bring a small army though. (they probably will )

I may be able to save my own ass, i knew she was trouble from the get go. If the sixteen year old dwarven rigger/demolitionist i just met wraps a guys junk in detcord on our first run and has me throw em out of a plane at cruising altitude I will use it as an indicator next time. If there is a next time.

I just hope wherever i run and hide i can bring my chopper with me and all my big guns, a troll without his bike/boomsticks is a sad thing. I spent like 150k modding that piece of machinery. Most likely ill end up self destructing the thing trying to make my exit.

@geek

I was just browsing and i was like "Well whats my GM posting about"

Then i went :O

I am not sure if they are betraying a client. Unless the J identified himself as Azzie, he is just another nameless gray Johnson and if I read the brief right, they did turn the lights on and turned the data over to him. Did he pay them for "an exclusive"? If he got what he paid for, then they did not sell the J out.

Selling paydata from a run is par for shadowrunners; as a GM, I make sure that if I want a specific piece of data, I specify that the file and only that file is stolen and/or how much exclusivity the J is willing to pay (1 day, 1 week, 1 month, etc). If you don't want your sensitive data leaking to the public, send in your own people or pay extra for discretion. Or you are prepared to incur higher costs to hunt down and punish those that leaked the data. If they were prepared to get their elite security teams to eliminate these runners, why didn't they use them in the first place to get into the facility?

From the OP, unless Aztech was stupid enough to identify in some way that the facility was theirs (within the data retrieved/insignia of the guards/etc), they only have the NAN shaman's word for it. And if Aztech was conducting research through deniable proxies, they won't have much to worry about. The facility's been trashed and probably going to be written off as a loss. NAN can't make the charge stick, but the damage's been done, going after the runners would be more an exercise in protecting Azzie rep than actually accomplishing something that would benefit the bottomline in the short term.

Small army indeed, given that you tore through a 8 man Federated Boeing Spec Ops team like you did if a corp gets really mad at you guys again I'm going to have to make sure they know enough of your rep to bring in thicker skinned(read heavily armored) troops instead of corp ninjas.

but, once facebook quits being mean to my account I can post the news report and you and the rigger can begin plotting your next great escape trick.

(seriously this so far has been just one in a series of hasty and hairy escapes the group has dealt with in the last 4 sessions, but I still love my runners just the same. I mean hell they practically do the work for me )

You know what this sounds like to me?

"OK, so, you have two choices right now after you get yourselves some cosmetic surgery and genetic treatments:
1) You can try and live in the town under your new identities, and hope no-one ever figures it out..or
2) You can pick someplace you all want to go...I understand Chicago is beautiful this time of year...Or Manhattan..
I mean..who would ever look for you right under the Corporate Court's nose.."

BTW: It is nice to see someone actually putting the interesting side of the shadows out there!

Working for Aztechnology is a lot like working for organized crime. Except that Aztchnology/Aztlan not only has the morals of Al Capone and Meyer Lansky, but has the intelligence gathering and covert action resources akin to the KGB/GRU and more money than god with which to punish people who anger them.

If you gave info on an Al Capone deal to the cops what do you think would happen to you? Do you think you'd get a chance to explain that you didn't really agree to keep his secrets? Do you think he'd care?

Ah, but this is not really about the chance to explain to him whether you agreed to keep his secrets or not. Working for Aztechnology is a fool's deal, you are already dead, either you choose to betray them or they will betray you eventually. Do it first because you are not going to win, you can only make it cost more for them.

Dial up the paranoia. Have the Azzies put out word that said team double-crossed their (non-specified) employer on their last run and that said employer is out for revenge. Follow this up with putting a bounty of say... 100 - 1,000 each on their heads (payable upon proof of death).

Their contacts dry up - nobody wants to get caught in the crossfire from the next batch of desperate SINless trying to collect that money, much less any serious enemies sent in by whomever they've pissed off.

Jobs become a lot harder to get; the other big players don't want to be the next ones the team sells out, and don't want the job they're hiring for getting screwed up by the people trying to kill the team.

Their Fixer is even more desperate than their other contacts; not only do they risk being caught in the line of fire, they're potentially a target themselves for setting your team up with that job - unless they can find a way to get themselves off of the Azzie's shit-list, possibly by handing over the team?

The team is under constant threat that the next guy they pass on the sidewalk may recognize them and try to kill them for the money, to say nothing of the people who are actually desperate enough to go out of their way to track them down for it. (And even when the people involved aren't serious threats to their survival, the constant need for more bullets an medical supplies starts to cut into their already-reduced finances).

And then have Aztechnology find a way to send a message to all three people on the team; they're willing to be reasonable and cancel the bounty, if the individual responsible is handed over to them.

Now, sit back and practice your evil GM laugh.

(Sure, Aztechnology can do a lot more to them - and perhaps should - but the advantage to taking this tactic, at least to start with, is that it costs them next to nothing)

I'll answer from both perspectives...

As a player? (@Vic)

The rigger dug their own grave and now would get to lie in it. Selling AAA Corp info like that, especially without consulting the other 2 members of the team, was extremely poor form... and a bit suicidal. I'd K.O. the rigger, tie them up, and give them to Aztechnology as a peace offering... let them sort through the rigger's headware and verify the truth with their own hackers/magicians.
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Players / Vic should stop reading here
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As a GM? It seems to me they knew full well who they were working for when they were handed all the passcodes and information needed to get in to the facility... and if not they probably should have investigated it a bit more before tryin gto sell information that would very easily get a lot of people dead... including themselves. At the VERY least they would gain noteriety, lose street cred, and be gaining some serious negative qualities (hunted/wanted/records on file - aztechnology, etc.) Sure they may have gained an ally in a tribe or two... but are they really going to be powerful enough (or willing) to expend the resources necessary to protect the runners from the Azzies? Runners are an expendable and deniable resource for a reason... much easier and cheaper to cut them loose as they really don't have anything else of value now. (they gave away their biggest bargaining chip.)

Another thing to consider is what is going on behind the scenes. The guy who actually hired the runners is most likely dead for such a colossal failure (both in hiring the runners and the break down of the facility.) Whoever is taking that person's place is going to want to show management that they have what it takes. That may mean "cleaning up" all lose ends and showing off some trophy heads on spikes.

But as an interesting twist and something somewhat more realistic I think that the new guy might have the brass balls big enough to try to hire the runners again for the kind of mission that would incriminate the NAN for something big, discredit the runners (if not a suicide mission / set up), and hopefully get something that the Azzies want / have wanted. All sorts of ideas really...

On a last note you might want to really reinforce to the one player that playing politics with the AAA's (especially Aztechnology) is a sure way to get iced.

You have hitmen that will go out of their way to off a team for less than a month's salary? wow... Now if you said 10k to 100k per head, then that would be incentive to track them down...

But yeah. Even if the research facility is a sub-company of Aztech, they would do a quick clean-up of the situation just to prove a point. The fixer, if not directly in the Azzies payroll is most likely going to disappear. I'd give the team 48 hours to become ghosts before they physically reach that state. Take time to go through the Seattle consul? Frag that! Get yer arse over the border pronto and negotiate for asylum within their turf. The longer you stay in the Sprawl, the shorter your life expectancy will be.
As mentioned in other posts, even if Aztech doesn't give a kill order, news leaked that the team can't keep their non-disclosure agreement will hit the streets. They might as well be dead, hung up and dry without any jobs, because their names will soon be dirt to the local Shadow circuit. Unless they find some tree-hugger outfit that needs eco-retribution/humanitarian work.

If it goes before the Court, the other corps are gonna hear about the story - and one of them might make the team "an offer they can't refuse", a way to pick up some competent assets cheaply.

I'd propose two different scenarios:
1.)
The Azzies have experience with experimentation that should not become public, so it stands to reason that they have protocols in place to handle accidents in those labs. So why would they send in runners with their flexible loyalities, instead of a fiercely loyal corpsec team with orders to recon the place and if neccessary arrange an unfortunate little meltdown? Answer is they wouldn't, whoever hired the runners did NOT have Aztech's wellbeing in mind. Maybe he wanted the information to become public (for humanitarian, personal, business or other reasons) but realized that "get into a ghoul-infested Aztech lab, find out what happened there and then spread the news" is not the kind of job runners like. Or it's some battle between Azzie subsidaries, or...

2.)
Aztech was behind the job. But now that the cat is out of the bag, the top priority is making the incriminating data disappear, have a little talk with the people who want to bring the case before the CC and so on, revenge will only come after that. In short, some people in the NAN have a need for bodyguards, people who did up additional evidence, and services your trusty deniable asset has on offer.

I'd add that AAA corps have huge PR departments. It would be interesting to see the PC hand over the data, the NAN start the process of going after Aztechnology and then allow the PCs watch as the Aztechnology PR department spin doctor the hell out of it so that Aztechnology ends up looking like the good guys.

If the Johnson was associated with Aztechnology in some manner, I would still probably have the corp put some heat on the PCs...make their life more difficult for a while, possibly show up with a gang of knee-breakers as a reminder that they may be occasionally useful assets, but that they should remember their place and should expect to receive a call at some future point that they should NOT turn down.

Not so much professional hitmen. You're getting the desperate SINless from the barrens, the Lone Star officers who are willing to make up reasons for why a routine traffic stop ended with someone dead in exchange for a nice bonus, and possibly hitmen, other Runners, and other serious threats who stumble into a good opportunity (Look at it this way: how many of your PCs would take the shot if they ran into someone on the street, or in the bar, or wherever that they knew was worth 1000 dead? What about finding out that one of their neighbors has that kind of bounty on their head? Sure, it's not worth the effort of tracking them down, but if you've already found them...). The bums are almost guaranteed to fail - but they're forcing the team to waste resources keeping themselves alive, and helping to ensure that they get no downtime. The cops might pull it off if they play their cards right - but that's going to be luck and/or tactics to make it work. The other runners/hitment/whatever have the skill, but are unlikely to put serious preparation into this for so little - and may not be willing to start a fight without having prepared ahead of time. Of course, the fact that they'll probably survive all of this (at least for a while) works out fairly well since the OP wasn't wanting the players dead.

The two big things this accomplishes is that it helps isolate the character (having to worry about who's going to be shooting at them next, and nobody wanting to risk catching a stray bullet by sticking too close on top of the bad rep for their recent double-cross) and cause them a lot of stress (three people broke into your apartment last night trying to kill you in your sleep. They all were bad enough at it that you woke up and were able to shoot them, but how well-rested are you after a night like that? How willing are you to go back to bed and risk that tonight, someone who knows how to be quiet will show up?). Sure, they get paid for work that puts them in the line of fire, but they can usually count on some measure of safety between jobs - this is following them home in all sorts of nasty ways - and getting paid for it - the only chance of making any money from this would be rifling through the latest corpses' pockets and hoping to find enough to cover the cost of the bullets they put in it and any medical treatments they'll need recovering from it. Keep them under that kind of stress, and they start to get desperate and sloppy. The first leaves them open to the Azzies coming forward to offer them another chance (the kind of offer you'd have to be insane - or just desperate for a decent night's sleep and a chance to run down to the local stuffer shack without being shot at - to accept). The second means they'll be providing opportunities should Aztechnology instead decide to go with hiring real hitmen to take them down.

My addendume to the Azzie PR spin:

Reporter:What do you have to say about the Salish accusations that you were running an illegal compound that performed horrible experiments on people turning them into ghouls?

Julia Gonzales (Aztech spokes person): We're investigating the inicdent. However, we were not turning people into ghouls. That is an absurd lie. We were housing ghouls in the containment facility. We were working on a cure/innoculation that would allow them to freely integrate into society without infecting others. While not all are mindless flesh eating monsters, some are. These feral ghouls apparently broke free of containment due to the actions of the terrorists that are attempting to sully aztechnologies good name. Please take a look at the footage here (link to video clip showing the runners breaking in, killing a few guards, and then releasing the ghouls who kill all the staff).

Now that you have seen this footage, just ask yourself who is the criminal? By the time Aztechnology staff were notified, and sent, the facility was overrun. We do believe the terrorists are still at large and are offering a 100,000 nuyen bounty for each of the three terrorists involved. No questions asked, dead or alive. Such monsters are worse than the ones they released.

Reporter: Thank you. On a related note word has it that on of the witnesses that claims he was turned into a ghoul went crazy and had to be put down. Apprantly this was due to his dietary requirements as he tried to eat his supposed guards.

Right, the problem is you attribute too much willingness to go against professional shadowrunners to even the desperate SINless of the barrens. People who's end goal is to stay alive. 1000 simply isn't enough for much of anyone to risk their life trying to take down a shadowrunner no matter how hard up for cash they are, as it's essentially a suicide op. Plus there's just no reason for the Azzie's to leave this up to intermediaries. So long as the runners don't have another megacorp or similar power protecting them there is no reason why Aztechnology won't send it's own assetts after them or hire other shadowrunners to make the amtter a sure thing.

Maybe it's because i don't run ghetto punk campaigns but I can't think of any of my PC's who knowing someone in the room was worth a measly 1k would draw on them. Because long after that 1k is taken and spent there may be after affects of said run.

However I re-iterate the best thing for the team to do is go to another another power and get asylum somehow OR drasticly change all their appearance facial features, sins etc either way their going to want to relocate for a while to a sprawl where the azzies will have more difficulty reaching them. Like I said LA is nice this time of year, so is Denver now that I think about it.

There are lots of ways to go with this. While Aztechnology may decide to punish the runners, it is important to keep this from having a DM versus Players adversarial feel. This has the appearance of a classic unwinnable feel to it. Depending upon the resources available to them the corp could easily move heaven and earth to find and punish the characters. If I were running it, I would slowly over the next few game sessions escalate matters. Allow the players to see the machinations behind the scenes all working up to a glorious fiery end. When it was all over, players that chose to sever all ties would probably be able to fake their deaths and go a long way away. My thinking being that it would be the local Aztech resources that would care, not the global corporation. Any that were unable to severall ties, or were not willing to leave the country probably will be hunted to the end.

Hmmm... possibly. Though the 1k figure was mostly drawn at random. Scale it as needed to get the kind of response I described in my post above.

There really are very few people, other than the USG, who offer serious rewards for killing people. If you are the mafia it's just part of the job, you don't get paid extra for it. There are LOTS of people, real world, who get killed for less than $1000. For example, this morally uplifting story:

And that story proves what exactly? Just because there is one guy dumb enough to take on a soft target doesn't mean there are many people willing to take on Shadowrunners (who by their very definition are hard targets for as little as 1k. Yes in the whole of human history I can come up with somneone dumb enough to support any argument, that doesn't mean it's what happens at the whole

It took ONE phone call and less than 6 hours to find someone who would do this. For less than $1000.

Anyone ever see the Warriors? 1980's movie. Aztech can afford some phenomenal rewards. They could practically announce to the world a value for the runner's heads, and laugh as the world explodes with every petty criminal and established runner team tries to collect. I could see the whole thing being a rolling firefight as the runners try to find a safe place. The ultimate crowning irony cqwould be when their NAN contact decides to try to off them himself to collect.

Ooooo just occurred to me...


If one of the players dies, there could be another mad scramble as the different groups fight over the head. Each group wanting to be the one to turn it over for the bounty. Every contact the players have would either be dead as one group or another tries to get useful info, in hiding to avoid that faite, or actively trying to cap the players himself.

No he got less then 1k, he was expecting quite a bit more. As I stated before the reason the 1k figure isn't reasonable is partially because shadowrunners are hard targets and partially because the sort of people that would be willing to kill people for a grand in the first place don't have the means to get near the targets, let alone throw away their lives trying to fight them. Your article doesn't even prove your own point, whatever that was.

Mixed bag here, I have to agree, there are morons willing to kill someone for $10 in crack. They are not going to be sent to kill elite delta force team members and such. That being said, the characters are not going to be in their usual haunts, or they will be dead quickly. This could provide an opportunity for some of the also rans to play with the big boys. Aztech will either do the job themselves or make a large offer. This will be a point of honor, to show that you do not double cross them.

As always it is your game.

IMHO you should lower the scope a little to keep it manageable.

Going after the runners with a full AAA's resources would only prove that the Azzies were behind it to the NAN (and everyone else).
Also some goody two shoe runners could be an asset if they were wanted to frame another corp.

So the question becomes how damming was the evidence and could it all be blamed on a rogue research head (who is likely dead or they could be trying to protect a valuable asset by blaming it on someone else)?

And how much are the Azzies willing to spend to make a point has to be a consideration especially when the runners didn't even know it was an Azzie op.


This sounds to me like some sort of internal Azzie office politics.

1) their Johnson would have used reliable Azzie resources to clean up if the operation was traceable back to them.

Either someone inside the Azzie was free lancing (to sabotage a rival perhaps) or trying to clean up the matter without attracting attention from higher up. Perhaps they screwed up and left data that proved the Azzies were running this.

So either they are Azzie and didn't want to use company resources (or at least explain why they needed them) or they are not Azzie and wanted something that required the lights be turned on.


Either way in this case, the Exec behind Mr Johnson is unlikely to have access to the full Azzie resources.
Also assuming he wasn't planning to leak the data (and blame the runners).

He would have to explain why he knew who had leaked the data.

He could however using resources already assigned to him to clean up. Not all of whom would know why the exec was after the runners, but companymen don't ask a lot of questions.

Say the exec has one or two companyman in on his extracurricular ops (perhaps including the Mr Johnson?)

Well they could quietly clean up some loosed lipped runners. Make an example out of the fixer (assuming the exec can afford to waste a Shadow resource like a fixer (perhaps the fixer could ID the companyman/Johnson and through him reach the exec)). Or require the fixer to make amends.

Have the fixer trash the players for being unprofessional.

And two comanymen could be a real pain even if they were being extra careful to not leave any traces. plant a bomb here, snipe a little there. some advance drone work there, post a bounty anonymously, Drop a dime there, and use the runner's faces and MO for a crime there.


What if another exec wants the runners found so he can prove that his rival was playing fast and loose.

So they have two sets of Azzies after them.

Well we knew it was Aztech, not from the start but all the security uniforms and hardware were stamped. And after the ghoul shaman was captured we landed on the pyramid in the stealth heli to drop off the shaman and some info before being dropped off at another location to head home.

I will most likely contact them myself and plead my case that i had nothing to do with the backstab and offer the entire timeline on full simsense (from time of being dropped off on the run to current time) as my evidence to be reviewed and also let them know theres another copy that will make it to the NAN and others if something unfortunate befalls me. I will also let them know i am still their man for the right price. This should cover my ass sufficiently considering it implicates them fully from the bottom up and would screw any type of coverup they had in mind. My character is fairly professional as much as he looks like a big mean ganger boss and wouldn't pull something like this unless the price tag was gargantuan. He knows his place.

And to seal the deal, all you'll have to do is kill her yourself...

No, some things just need the personal touch....

From what the OP descripes it sounds to me someone at aztec screwed up bad. As cndblank (and others) mentioned in the thread, the mission would risk being compromised by using deniable assets instead of using loyal assets. So even if the johnson had the best intentions to pull it off and get the job done, he (probably) screwed it up by hiring runners. So it doesn't changes much if the runners were told to act descreetly or not.

At least that is what i deduce from what the OP tells. The one about Mr. J wanted to get the info out seams a bit far fetched (the runners might as well have not leaked the info) unless he wanted to leak it himself, and it presents interesting options.

So why is Mr. Johnson not doing is job well enough ?

One can think of some possible reasons...

to name a few:

1) addiction making him do hack work and perform badly.
2) or could be because he is under a lot of stress
3) internal rivalry
4) in the pocket of someone else (other Corp, NAN?)

Yet another motive using deniable assets could be he was trying to hide the op. eg. from upper management for some reason.

In any of these cases the johnson will want to sever all connections pointing back to him being the mind behind it. Upper management will be looking into it. Maybe he was running his own department inside another department or some such.

This could be a good springboard for another run or aftermath.

I was thinking maybe the site's core/mainframe went off line during the alert and he needed it turned on (so it could be remotely accessed.)

This works well for a rival (exec R) who wants to frame the exec in charge (Exec C) of the site. Exec R has the Mr Johnson hire the deniable assets while making it look like Exec C did it. Mr J just knows he got the right authorizations from Exec C's office. Once the site is lights on, Exec R can use a backdoor and leaves evidence of Exec C incompetence and gets a copy of the research paydata. He can even subtly sabotaged the paydata to throw the project behind even more making Exec C look doubly incompetent. Then has his team of hired runners make a public deposit of the survivor back at the pyramid.

Shoot exec R can even make it look like the runners pulled the paydata (reduces questions of who stole the the paydata when he sales it to fund his next "promotion"). That would be a great reason for the Azzies to come down on them trying to get the pay data back.

Making an example of runners that betrayed them would just be a bonus. And of course Exec R would want the runners dead just to prevent any interrogation from raising any questions about did they really take the paydata.

You could even have an ally of Exec C helping them or hiring them to catch exec R (or extract Exec C to another Corp).

No, no....all he has to do is bring her to the Johnson....I am sure her heart will make the sun rise

Hehe... Good point... I forgot about that... or... One brand-spanking new blood spirit coming up...