Week 65 Mission Debrief: Come with Shap if you want to live

The Mission: Break into the Ai-Jinn space prison Captivity Ship-17 to rescue the captured Oracle agents (and give the bastards a kick in the face while we’re at it)
The Team: Shinobu, Tansai, Shap, Ace, Karishma, Hugo, Coraline, plus Phoenix and Eroz personnel.

Phase 1: Tamper Tantrum
The Location: Military spaceport outside Beijing War Spire.
The Objective: Steal a transport ship heading to Captivity Ship-17.
The Team: Shinobu, Tansai, Shap.

How it went down:
Assembling outside the spaceport, Strike Force Alpha prepared with full stealth measures and discovered an out-of-order entrance helpfully labelled by the Ai-Jinn. Infiltrating expertly, they determined that the security crews would be checking the weight of oncoming cargo and headed to find cargo to displace. Some initial troubles with tamper-proof seals on a large food crate were solved by Tansai cutting a hole in the bottom of the crate and then welding it shut afterwards. To ensure the weight lined up, Tansai carried food out of the crate and hid it in an alley between buildings with an invisibility field while Shap contributed by eating some of the food.

Once Strike Force Alpha was loaded on and the ship was high in the sky, they left the box to take control. Shap detached his hand and sent it scurrying through vents to spy on the bridge and once it had determined the enemy locations and numbers, the team entered the bridge and began combat. While Shinobu’s initial assassination attempt on the pilot failed, the trio were easily able to kill the pilot and co-pilot and hold the support officer prisoner. Tansai’s interrogations went swimmingly, getting all of the security codes needed for the ship to dock at Captivity Ship-17 and they continued on course to the rendezvous point.

Shinobu’s Comments:
Our first step all went pretty smoothly, despite tamper-proof seals being a pain to tamper with. Of course, it was one of the easier parts of the plan anyway, but everyone worked well infilitrating.

Phase 2: Operation Bomb Setting Us Up
The Location: Space: A few hours from CS-17,
The Objective: Dock and exchange crews, then drop off Hugo and Shap to place bombs.
The Team: Hugo, Shap... And tangentially everyone else.

How it went down:
With the original crew now indisposed, the transport ship was now allowed to connect with the stealth ship and exchange crews. There was minor botch kerfuffle with the prototype stealth ship, but even with one of the engines gone it was able to slowly glide next to the transport ship.

The mercenaries and Karishma joined Tansai and Coraline on board the transport ship. Shap clung to the outside after receiving drugs, a jet pack, and a massive bomb from Hugo, Hugo, and Coraline, respectively.

Ace, S.A.M. in a replicant body, Vaska the mercenary, and the Eroz crew ("Division Prime") remained in the stealth craft. Hugo moved to the outside and clung to the hull, outfitted with 7 huge bombs from Coraline.

Hugo alit from the stealth ship and landed on the bottom of the space station. He placed one bomb on the communications array, and six bombs on the space ship drones that functioned as security for the station. He passed his support weapons roll, shockingly, and then hovered around the security ring.

The transport ship docked at the dock, and Shap went to place his bomb on the communications array. He passed as he is wont to do, and then he joined Hugo at the security ring. Both of them resisted pressing the SHINY BUTTON. Hugo did marginally better in this regard than Shap.

The events of the docked crew in the transport and stealth ships follow next.

Hugo’s Comments: This went just as planned. Just, don't press the button yet, Shap. Don't press it. Don't... Noooo, stop, nooooo--

Phase 5: Fuck Shit Up
The Location: Security Wing, CS-17
The Objective: Shit has hit the fan. Time to lend support and damage the security wing while waiting for reinforcements.
The Team: Hugo, Shap, and a bunch of corpses.

How bitches got fried:
After receiving word that Shit Had Hit The Fan, Shap pressed the SHINY BUTTON and then hung out with Hugo in space. Hugo then removed one of his many plasma cutters and smeakered to his rageful bretheren, "Let's fucking do this."

And do it they did, making two massive holes in the hull, breaching it and sending atmosphere to space. Six security crew were crowded around the middle of the central column, ready to attack the enemy--us--which they believed were coming from above. And how wrong they were.

Hugo and Shap together were a deadly and equally matched team, frying or stabbing the poor hapless torturers on the ring. Hugo stomped around, finding Una's galvanic blast was enough to just murder the hell out of bitches. Shap found that spider-manning around with grappling hooks about the ring gave him a surprise edge on people who were facing away expecting electric death from Hugo.

They then moved down to the prison wing.

Death Toll:

HUGO: 3.
SHAP: 3.

TIE

Hugo’s Comments: But shit didn't actually get real until we opened up the airlock door to the prison wing.

Phase 6: The Rescue
The Location: Prison Ring, CS-17
The Objective: Find and locate the prisoners and save them. But first, let's stop that fucking rail gun.
The Team: Hugo, Shap, Shinobu, Coraline.

Fucking Guan Yu Suits:
Shap opened the airlock door and was immediately hit in the face with a rail gun.

Having faced a rail gun just recently, Hugo was pissed. It was puncturing holes in the ship, could kill anyone in any cell, and was leaving them vulnerable to attack from floors above. Man, rail guns are hot. Hot and dangerous as fuck.

Hugo and Shap attempted to track down the rail gun. In doing so, Shap almost immediately made friends with a terrifying bastard in a Guan Yu suit with semi-automatic exploding knuckles. They would deal insane amount of damage that would have pulped a lesser armored hand, and then another set just slid down on top of those. Nightmarish. Shap was in a poor state, but somehow managed to stab the bastard with an ossie knife through his massive powered armor suit. His goal was to survive until reinforcements arrived.

..Which wouldn't be Hugo, as he veered down another path and made friends not only with the rail gun holder but another Guan Yu suit with a plasma machine gun.. thing. Whatever, Hugo is a boss and he was gonna be fine. Just fine. And then he took a rail and a bunch of plasma to the chest, killing his shield and just fucking him up.

Thankfully, the rail gun user then had an embarrassment of riches in the form of targets to shoot at, as the crew from Phase Three walked down the airlocks. The railgunner took pot shots at the team while Hugo fired bolts and lightening, realizing that being as big a target as possible was the only way to stop people from getting shot at.

Coraline ran over to Shap, medpacking him and delivering a life saving blast of EMP to the Guan Yu suit that was blowing Shap to bits. To the rescue~

Shinobu assisted Hugo, ion katana-ing the Guan yuchebags, slicing off the faceplate of the plasma Machine Gunning Guan Yu. And then something magical happened. The plasma machine gun flashed weirdly, and Hugo took one look at it and realized it had exploded. Ha ha! Fucking plasma! So unreliable! ...Of course, he critically failed his heavy weapons roll. Whoops. But everything was gonna be fine, he was gonna engage the plasma Guan Yu in close combat and kill it!

And then the overcharged plasma shot and killed Hugo, who promptly collapsed and was just brought to consciousness with his IV med pack.

Meanwhile, in a fit of pique, or maybe just Tex-tascy, Shap immediately kicked a steel door, the nearest one. It nearly opened, his foot providing a solid dent in it, terrifying the person inside. On his next round, he kicked it again, the door flying off its hinges. Inside was.. ..A dude, who looked terrified. Shap, not knowing this man but knowing his mission was to rescue, threw the man over his shoulder and stormed out, feeling an overwhelming sense of pride at a job well done.

And then Shap opened 40 more doors using his crime, realizing that was a lot easier, and amassed about 25 loyal followers and 15 begrudging ones.

A room away on the ground, Shinobu began to stab at the plasma machine gun user, knowing that Hugo would die with one more blow. Hugo, on the other hand, had no such worries about his mortality. Without standing he shot at the plasma Guan Yu suit, the bolt he had embedded in the chest breaking its grounding. The bastard fell over, and Hugo immediately lurched over and stabbed her face into a bloody pulp.

The rail gun user was not enthused by this turn of events, but was having a hard time shooting anyone at such a close range. Coraline appeared and applied medpacks to the wounded Shinobu, who Shinobu now flush with health managed to almost sever a leg of the foe--fucking armor--and delivered a host of blows which eventually fell the bastard.

Meanwhile, the rest of the agents broke into cells and actually did the real rescuing.

Hugo’s Comments: In retrospect, not quite sure how I survived that. Shap and I are still tied.

Phase 6a: The Other Bit of the Rescue
The Location: Security and Prison Rings, CS-17
The Objective: Find and locate the prisoners and save them.
The Team: Tansai, Karishma, Coraline, Shinobu, Phoenix Squad, Ace, S.A.M, Eroz Division Prime

In which doors are opened:
The team from Phase 3 began to head down the main station spine towards the security ring, which was quickly searched in case there were cameras linked to the prison ring or any kind of control. They were not found, but a cache of spacesuits was located. Coraline instructed a reprogrammed loading droid to assist with carrying these down to the prison deck. The Phoenix mercs began planting explosives while the agents proceeded down to the prison deck, where they were attacked by a rail gun user.

With Hugo and Shap tied up in battling the Guan Yu suits and Shinobu and Coraline having split up to assist them, the remaining agents, replicants and one modified Sir helpsalot headed to the remaining areas of the wheel to attempt to find the kidnapped agents. Tansai and Karishma ended up in area 4, which appeared to be the special holding area filled with tiny cells. They began to open the cell door viewing slots to find their comrades. Tansai found Fenris on her first try, the former EI agent's hand and head having been seriously damaged and crudely bandaged on top of starvation, while Karishma found what remained of a prisoner and quickly closed the door, feeling ill. Tansai then discovered Enrique, who had entered a meditative state due to starvation, while Karishma found a pair of eyes staring back at her and a EI citizen with one arm. Tansai then found Silvia, who was starved and obviously had been cut open, and began opening cell doors to release the captive agents. Karishma found a door full of psy-dampening technology, and kept the viewing window shut.

Meanwhile, Ace and his group found themselves in the main torture lab area, where they discovered a seriously damaged Han (chest open, face destroyed, arms and legs shattered) lying on a table and two empty labs. After the others had defeated the Guan Yu suits and the space suits arrived, additional Eroz shuttles were dispatched to help with the influx of new bodies, and the entire group began to evacuate the station. Only Positron was not found, but one of the crates in the supply shuttle intitally hijacked had been opened, his equipment had disappeared and his internal hard drive, filled with the data from the SCC, was left on top...

Tansai’s Comments: We got people out. Fuck yeah, eat that you Ai-Jinn shits!

Phase 7: The Loot
The Location: CS-17
The Objective: Removing the prisoners, expanding on the stuff we took.
The Team: Everyone. Agents: Hugo, Shap, Tansai, Coraline, Karishma, Ace, Shinobu. Mercenaries: Vaska Solokov, Hua Ma, Ya Yu, Jenessa Thorpe, Jin Rhee. Eroz: S.A.M the replicant, and Division Prime (Combat replicant, Helpsalot, Human scientist team leader, Fashionable sassy chick.)

What we found:
Unable to provide immediate help to Silvia Fenris at least anyone, Hugo set about opening doors. He opened the view window to the psi-blocked cell, was hit with a massive bolt of assault that nearly killed his shield, and then he tried to communicate with the meditating Thai man inside.

When he didn't respond to words and nutribars, Hugo opened the door. And then everyone with Prescience got the biggest, most massive warning their psychic powers could muster. Hugo fought past insane telekinesis to psi-cuff the guy, who immediately passed out.

Everyone else made it to escape pods, stealth ship, and transport ship. Ace was the last person to leave the station, searching through every database and file for word of Positron. Positron's stuff was placed on the transport ship, but there was no mention of him or his remains.

And then Hugo blew up the station.

Ace and the Eroz team went back to the Moon.
Coraline, the support officer, and the mercs except Jin went back to Seoul.
Everyone else went to Jerusalem.

A List of Stuff I Remember for Matt's benefit:

• 25 Loyal Shap Followers.
  
• Rank 2 EI Agent missing her arm.
  
• A half handful of other very tortured prisoners.
  
• The Psi-Master of Hate, aka, Hugo's new best friend.
  
• A weird, possibly alien artifact of humming torture, resembling a dagger.
  
• All of the possessions that were placed in the transport ship that the station had accrued, whatever that may be. Positron's possessions are included in this, and all of it was taken back to Eroz for sorting.
  
• A database holding all the information on Shanghai Cyberlin Concern. To the room with this.
  
• Whatever Ace salvaged from the SC-17's databases.
  

Information Sales
Project Goliath - The Ai Jinn are building a giant cyberlin in space. The files sold give some indication of its capabilities, it's layout, all sorts of data that an opponent could use to plan against it. And yet the Ai Jinn let it go to market. And the EI bought it... Sometimes Corporations don't behave as you expect them to.
Project Houyi - Plans for the next generation cyberlin, which will not be built for years. This the Ai Jinn bought back, and for a very large sum. Apparently, the potential lost income from the global Cyberlin market is more important to them than the Taiwan fight.

Comments from CEO Lee
I'm honestly not sure what the fallout from all this is going to be. There are some political deals going on that even I am not aware of. Don't make yourselves into targets in the meantime.