Cyberpunk Session 18

It's a week after we get back to Section 9 and report. Shadow recovers well (with many thanks to Tharbin's medical expertise) and joins the rest of us in the office as it seems things are getting back to normal allowing us to do a little research and recovery time. There are more reports that Sergeant Masher¹ is still active and causing trouble. We also note scientific papers about the spate of stars going nova (including that there have been more of these than earlier reported). Some of us also do some more specific pieces of research including:

Tharbin

There are several rumours/conspiracy theories about big spiders (including around the Inagawa Kokusai farm).

Tremen

is reportedly sane despite his paranoia about his mental health!

Wakiya

Her pictures and photos from our trip to the icy world. They all match her memory and seem to be good photos. All that is apart from the photos of the mural which still cause a chill and a shudder when viewed.

Nameraka

Researches european myths and fables about mothers and finds there are many but none match the statues under the temple on the icy world.

At the end of that working day, Savan, (the taller of the two gentleman working directly with Kitsune arrives in our office and tells us that Kitsune-san wants to talk with us. He then immediately leaves and we scramble to follow. Arriving in Kitsune's office she informs us that she has some new information for us, but that it is best if we get it directly from her contact and she gestures for us to accompany her. She leads us to a short corridor we haven't been down before and through a curtain that is across the corridor. From behind the curtain wafts a smell of cooking that reminds each one of us of our childhood. We follow Kitsune through the curtain...

The view behind the curtain

And we're in the past and in the middle of a street market! Kitsune is in her fox form. Unsurprisingly we all feel out of place (but the passers-by do not treat us as unusual). Most of us get distracted by a stall selling tempora but eventually we all follow Kitsune into a small store where a gentleman greets Kitsune in English². He gives Kitsune a manila envelope in which there are five reports:

1. A report on the Sample from the leg. The leg was from some sort of spider although there is no correlation to any known spider in the earth database. As whatever this belonged to is an unknown more time will be needed to make a better assessment.
2. The vials of stuff we collected. Four of the vials contain common ingredients bu the fifth contains an unknown substance.
3. A translation of the parchment. It was written in Maithili³ and its translation lists the following: Mount Everest, Olympus Mons, Mons Huygens, Skadi Mons, and Point Hermes⁴.
4. A second document has not been translated as it's in an unknown language (unknown even to the gentlemen and (presumably) his contacts.
5. The notebook was initially considered to be just rambling. However further examination revealing that all the rambling are about dreaming

As we absorb this information we are jolted by a general alert: Masher has struck again but the New Port City PD (NPCPD) have managed to corner him. He is holed up in the storeroom of a supermarket but he has three hostages. The NPCPD have set up a cordon outside the building. With Kitsune's permission we leave her and gentleman and quickly head back to our office, grab some kit and race to the site.

The supermarket as we arrive

The officers on site are relieved to see us (since it means backup has arrived) and happily hand over command to us. They report that about 5 to 10 minutes ago there was a scream from within the building.

After disabling the beep from the main door Wakiya and Shadow cautiously enter the supermarket. There is a spilled basket of shopping on the floor and a small trail of blood leading to the storeroom at the back of the store. Meanwhile Nameraka moves to the alleyway behind the supermarket to cover the fire exit from the store room.

Wakiya finds a swipe card for the store room and hands it to Tremen so that she and Shadow can burst into the room while Tremen uses the card to open the door for them. This done Shadow and Wakiya find that the room is dark and the floor is slippery - slippery enough for Shadow to lose his footing for a second or two. Wakiya spots a woman crying huddled next to a mangled mess of body parts. Two other people are also there - the first is a man in flight or fight mode and definitely would be fleeing if it wasn't for the second man. He is wearing a businss suit and is obviously squeezing the first man's head. This second man says Don't let me do it again!.

Wakiya fires - her shot hits and takes down that second guy while simultaneously knocking him back. She calls for Termen to get and remove the two remaing hostages who does so.

The body of that second guy is still twitching as if his cyberware (or something) is still trying to move his body. As the body has a jack plug Wakiya calls for Tharbin to jack into her own jack plug to monitor her and pull her connection as she jacks into the body.

Her impression at first is that everything is dark and then she hears an agongising scream. Following the ghost line leads her to a defensive barrier which seems to have many minds. Wakiya pushes through the barrier and gets the image of many hands squeezing her head. She quickly retreats but has managed to trace the ghost line to an apartment in Dejama.

Checking the body of that second guys shows him to be a corporate wage slave with an apartment in Dejama.

Tremen organises for forsenics to attend, thanks the local police on the scene (assuring them that he will be handling the paperwork). We all then pile into our vehicle and Shadow rushes us to the building housing the Dejama apartment (rattling Tremen and Nameraka around the vehicle in his haste to get us there). Dejama is an island originally used to house refugees.

Rough floor plan of the apartment. There is a power generator and computer in the bedroom.

The apartment block is 15 floors high with the ground floor housing reception etc. and with parking below. The top floor is used for service equipment such as heating. The apartment we're interested in is floor 12. After worrying some of the other residents we enter the apartment and start to search it. It appears unoccupied. The Bedroom has a power generator (still running) powering a computer.

The bedroom also has a builtin closet and Wakiya opens the door to the closet....⁵