The Itsy Bitsy Spider

## Background

On the 13th of January, 2084, Robert Castillo was leaving a department store in Everett when he wasn’t paying attention and was hit and ultimately killed by a bus. His death came with little remark except some socially appropriate mourning by his wife and a simple cremation and storage in a vault. His wife, realizing that their poor planning left her now reliant on his life insurance payment that would take time, remembered that Robert’s managers were being lazy about implementing several programs Robert had developed for the company. This gave her an idea. Because of her own position within the parent Renraku corporation, she chose to steal some crucial data that if she used it would land her in hot water and decided to sell it in exchange for the data from Robert’s work. She just needed a team to make it happen.

## The Meet

The team meets with Mrs. Smith in a cafe in Downtown Seattle. She casually mentions her husband was run over by a bus and tells the team she wants them to break into a Renraku subsidiary to steal some data off their servers. Because she doesn’t have the cash from his life insurance payout, she can only offer paydata in return, specifically a subdivision of Renraku’s earnings that won’t be published for another month. Frontman calls a common lawyer, Azaadi Jones, to verify she’s on the level before accepting. She will upload the key to unlock the data upon delivery of the programs.

## Legwork

The team heads out and gets eyes on the facility. It’s a manufacturing and machine shop in Northern Everett with a set of offices on site. Miko spends some time performing Astral Perception to scout out the mana barrier around the facility, before Matrix Perception reveals the host is pretty secure. Further research reveals the company, Everett Engineering, is a C-level subsidiary of Renraku and thus isn’t eligible for extraterritoriality. Frontman also contacts Velara Vindani in order to obtain a Rating 5 burner SIN to infiltrate the engineering company. He pays her, but forgets her markup and she texts him later telling him to bring several Magic the Gathering cards for her and she’ll make up the difference in card games.

## Run

[Informational Note: JustNick had to drop the game at this point due to RL so Clutch was taken over by Vent for the rest of this run.]

Ready with a plan, the team prepares. Miko summons a force 7 Spirit of Man. The summoning fails, but the spirit feels sorry for her and her string of bad luck and when Miko gives it a hug, it takes pity and gives her a single service to overwatch the team. Frontman then transforms into the target of the Burner SIN and becomes one of the middle managers at the company. After a bit of resistance, Frontman and Miko pass through the mana barrier and approach the building. Miko plugs into the badge reader’s universal port and starts to override the door locks while Frontman offers words of encouragement. The device doesn’t offer much resistance, and Miko is able to unlock the door and get the team inside. They get inside and find the office for Information Technology and Miko prepares to get through the door, which also has a badge reader. Fortunately, this one seems even easier than before, so Miko gets into the room.

Miko jacks into the server and starts to sift the information and finally finds it, and doesn’t see a data bomb or encryption so she downloads it to her deck, deleting it off the server in the process. She also manages to find some juicy pay data and gets it copied before workers arrive trying to get the door open. Frontman uses shape metal to seal the door, so the worker calls for backup and they arrive with the tools and intention to get the door open. Frontman decides to make it look like a problem with the door and turns himself invisible before casting shape metal. The workers get the door open and look confused at the door, but chalks it up to a mundane cause and thanks the worker who got the door open before he sits and starts working on his computer. Frontman casts Trid Phantasm to make the door appear closed and he walks through the door, while Lambshops gets confused as he does so. Finally after his mind makes sense of what he’s seeing, he can see through the illusion and go through the door.

## Aftermath

The team manages to extract through the mana barrier, with Frontman leaving the spirits behind to maintain Concealment. They get free and upload the program to Mrs. Smith, who releases the key for them to unlock their pay data. Through some contacts, they are able to sell the accumulated paydata, and make out like bandits.

Mrs. Smith goes on to sell her husband's program and eventually is tracked down and interrogated by Renraku, who figures out her involvement in the entire affair. She ends up being quietly eliminated and no one ever sees her again. With no kids or immediate family, she simply disappears off the face of the planet, though a poor kid in Seattle does receive a new liver.

## Rewards

* Karma 10
* Nuyen ¥12,000
* CDP 2
* Contacts N/A

## Player After-Action Reports

*In Character* accounts of events, general impressions, or memorable moments