Left the light on

## Background

The J sent thru the fixers that some weird stuff was going on that needed to be investigated. Location: Berlin PS. Bring Something Radiation resistant. PSS: and probably have it armored too. Message more invitations for those that could operate in a high background count.

## The Meet

The meeting started with driving to an old UCASAF site that was owned by a PMC. A charter Transport was available to take us straight to Berlin. 10 hours later. After landing at a runway in the anarchist capital we travel about 3 km to a building with lots of Johnsons, after mentioning the J were to meet by their actual name we were led to a room. Our Johnson arrived and brief us. The task was to investigate an Abandon Arcology inside the SOX. A power plant that melted down in 2008 rendered the place uninhabitable now shows new heat activity and suggests the plant is operational again.

## Legwork

After the brief, we would be moved inside the SOX via airlift T-bird when we were ready. The team took the option for a night's rest before starting the run. Leg work was limited There is very little current info on what is in the SOX and we could have been going to any number of black sites. The only blueprints we were able to find were ancient pre meltdown something like 2005. They were some notes about research involving radiation-absorbent material being researched pre-meltdown.

## Run

It took just a few minutes to get inside the SOX the T-Bird landed and gave us a few seconds to down our gear and gas masks before stepping out into the wilderness of the SOX. We were far enough in that target Arcology was only a few klicks away. Geiger counters put us in a moderate radiation hazard so the mission was on a clock if we wanted to get out with our lives. When the T-Bird left was did get far before we started to encounter the local fauna, Our Adept called them "Kaiju" and it felt appropriate for huge boars, huge Pill bugs, and huge baggers. To avoid the area these Kaiju were nesting/fighting we went around. This had us walking through a high-rad area till we were closer to the Arcology.

The entrance of the arcology was surrounded by about 20 Huge Pill Bugs. The team made a run for the door and the bug just ignored us. One of the Sam's had a high level of experience with bug spirit and these did not seem like them at all. Maybe something else.

The security for the arcology was all hardwire wireless we entered the decker go us in easily enough and got our first glimpse inside. Three dead bodies just at the entrance died trying to get out. We close the door after we entered not wanting to invite the Kaiju in for a free meal in the copse litter arcology. Our entrance went down a level inside a large hall there were more bodies. Luckily we found a dead maintainer and grabbed their pass for further access that was needed.

The Arcology was weird in many ways. When on the inside arcology and close to the meltdown center the radiation drop to low levels! The Arcology was also partially active. The lights turned on in every room we entered after a few seconds. Corpses were litter in many areas but nothing was rotted. Food and people's bodies were highly intact with some dehydrated damage to the skin. With the weird changes in the radiation, we took the stairs down to reach the reactor control room in B3.

Unfortunately, after we got to B2 the lower stair was collapsed with concrete and soil. We changed the plan to walking arose the rooms of B2 to an elevator to continue to go down. Our team was then intercepted by two large security drones that were climbing on the walls and roof. That combat was fast in 3 seconds the team shot 8 bullets and a rocket against the 2 drones and their 4 miniguns. The drones were modern and pointed to new additions to the arcology.

Getting down to the B3 was another 4m drop down the elevator shaft. Inside we saw more corpses in different frozen in the last movement of their life. I don't know how high the radiation blast needed to be to freeze these people at the reactor control room level. The radiation was increasing but still lower than outside the arcology. The noise level was getting increasingly bad. At B3 R7 commlinks stop working and drones could no longer function.

The Control room was empty with less dust than elsewhere in the facility. Access to the computer allowed us to update our arcology map. An expanded search of the room discovered a password on a data chip and a modern jackpot. The decker tried the password and the link and was loaded on the SK grid. The grid was filled with six or seven AAA hosts with host ratings between 11 and 12. Those hosts are evidence of other black sites operating in the SOX.

Investigating the power flow of the Arcology showed that power was being drawn into the reactor site (B4 and beyond by the map) and to a smaller extent a backroom closet on the B3 level. The power draw was causing the heat not a repaired and functioning reactor. Investigating the power draw from the B3 backroom closet discovered hidden stairs down inside a double-door closet with a slide-away floor.

B4 was very different. The entire area was marked as a reactor on the map. This didn't make sense for the size of the reactor was much smaller than the 4 full floors it was marked as on the map. 4 Large antennae-like structures were the most noticeable feature along with holding cells, a potential virology lab, and a very recent corpse. All the computers were wiped clean. The holding cell had corpses that were reduced to bones.

The fresh corpse was recently dead maybe a month. Looks like he took a fatal wound from one of the Kaiju outside before making his way to B4. There was a note for use asking someone to drink the vial inside. Also, the vial was leaking and likely airborne. (Confirmed when we have net access again) Our Gasmask saved the day.

The four antennae structure was radiating a noticeable amount of heat. Noise increases sharply toward it. When the Decker tried to connect to it they were confronted by a powerful host entity. The entity made a simple demand of "let me out" and attacked the decker. Thank to some clever maneuvering the decker was also to dodge the entity and jacked out.

After completing the investigation of B4 we tried to head toward an arcology hospital in the hope of finding something about the vial on the fresh corpse. We made our way to the 3rd Floor without issue. The Hospital was littered with hundreds to thousands of corpses. Likely people in the original Arcology received a lethal dose of radiation beyond any possible treatment. With net access restored the team was able to identify the pathogen inside the vial as cypher. Cypher is a viral agent that injects data into a target genome. With the help of the faculties in the hospital, the decker was able to sequence the virus and got a message addressed to our Johnson in German.

Exiting the Arcology was simple enough and we continued to avoid the areas of larger Kaiju by walking through the more radioactive areas. After a few hours of walking, we reached the border SOX. Given the keyword given by the Johnson the team got decontaminated. After a short armored car ride back to Berlin and the team met the Johnson to debrief.

## Aftermath

The Decker got a lower level of radiation that would follow him for a few days but otherwise fine. We met the J in the Same briefing building The info gather was useful. When reviewing the detail of the message inside the cypher and the details of the recently dead member at the arcology our Johnson looked very troubled by the news.

## Rewards

* 3 Karma
* 25K Nuyen
* 2 CDP

## Player After-Action Reports

*Habit:* *I had my life flash before me twice on this run. Calisee, The first is when we were facing off against 4 miniguns attached to two armored drones on the ceiling. I got the first shots off of the team.  That means I had all 4 mini guns aiming for me to dodge.  Thankfully both were destroyed before they could continue to fire more than once.*

*The second was when the leaking broken vial in an arcology virology lab. A lab with dead remains in holding cells and I was standing beside and I was without a chemical seal.*

*When a Johnson mentions in the advertisement you ‘may want to bring armor’ that means Full body armor and a chem seal. Thank Christ is was a non contact delivery virus.*