The Duality Wars: The Alien Wars 6
Key: S = Session. Sty = Story. M = Mini. (more may be added with time)
Part I: Ebb and Flow
Arc Two:
Verse 1, M1
Asarar and Otto look into and search for information on Macross, their intended target, looking into connections and businesses, while the Corporations begin to try to draw in NetRunners due to Macross' announcement at there being a game changing moment coming up. Meanwhile, Chelsea and Bonnie begin to bond, while there is a blue cat that keeps stealing her catnip from Asarar. Eventually Chelsea and the blue cat become friends and she names it BonBon, as if she knows who the blue cat could be, needling Bonnie about it. During all this, Asarar and Kira take time to relax and have fun with each other, even as Asarar punishes Luci for getting a little too fresh with her during one of the times she falls asleep and takes a look at her naked body. Which leads to Luci wanting to do a DNA test.
Verse 2, S.1: Session 36: BitCode
5.24.5990 CE
Asarar discusses a business that is making new fauna. If the team truly wishes to stay independent, they can proceed by denying assets to the Corporations. She wishes to have a peek at their server, even if it means infiltration.
The group heads out, including Bonbon the cat, while Posco discreetly follows them. He eventually breaks off from them, and they ultimately enter the business's building through a water system leading through to its waste material disposal, extremely unnerving though it may be given the nature of the business.
Slipping into the lab, they find several young fauna being subjected to cruel experiments. Stopping the scientists, they rescue the children, learning that the project there is meant to make perfectly obedient, docile fauna. No one is happy with this news, and they then head to a secured room.
Just as they make it through the guards and look to get the door open, it unlocks on its own. Inside is the 'key asset' they were looking for: an extremely talented hacker fauna, who seems to be unable to speak in ordinary English, at least as far as the team can figure out.
Meanwhile, Wolfe, Kira, Luci, and Bonbon move to break out the rest of the test subjects on the upper levels. Before long, the group is back together. The head scientist sends guards after them, but the guards fall quickly and easily. Seeing fauna who have had their mods installed already, the group try to get him to undo what he's done, but ultimately end up incapacitating him before they escape with the various fauna.
Verse 3, M2
Jelly, the recovered fox fauna, makes it hard to understand him as he works and is invited onto the team, taking parts from machines and building things. Asarar meanwhile works with him to up the code a little and focuses on her pet project, the Net Platform, allowing the people to easier enter the Net in the hotel with out needing the clunkier headsets.
Verse 4, S.2: Session 37: Corporation's Grasp
5.27.5900 CE
As Bonnie plays with a crystal containing the results of a DNA test, Asarar arrives, her shoulder injured. She explains that she ran into a nasty device, then gets down to business talking about businesses they could work for as security to get inside of Macross.
Asarar lists them off: FossResi, a business claiming to work on bringing back spirits from fossils. TectFau, a business trying to push the boundaries of BioTects and attach magic to them. SpiritBio, a business working to combine BioTects and spirits. Mod Paradise, a mod business.
The team end up voting in favor of the mod business, and soon they reach it, getting set up in a place nearby to stay while they deal with things, with some thanks to Hood. They soon meet up with Ted Dey, the man in charge, who has a desk filled with plushies and posters. He mostly seems to take interest in Luci and Chelsea, much to Asarar's dismay.
After haggling a bit, they make a deal, Ted giving plushies to Luci and Chelsea. They leave, but no sooner does Maxwell Terran arrive and drag Ted inside, Chelsea ending up along for the ride. As Chelsea sits in, Macross tears Ted a new one in business ways, though the team will be allowed to stay on board for a small time as security regardless.
Chelsea gets a look at a girl inside of the car, who has black blue hair, and a hat, with dark blue eyes. They pack up and head out as Asarar works on their security schedule, pulling up a bio on the girl Chelsea might have seen.
Verse 5, S.3: Session 38: Dagger of Dra
5.29.5900 CE
As Mod Palace is dismantled, Asarar announces that Macross wants to talk to the team and see if they are worth keeping around after the fact. The team is given a couple of hours to prepare, and arrive in nice clothes. They are greeted by Albert Ling, a lieutenant from Macross.
After they sit at the booth, Ling notes that he can't verify their (fake) credentials, and presents his theory that their identity isn't real, but that they wanted to play with the big boys, e.g. Macross. He offers them a job as a test to get them in: they get the item, he gets the credit for it, and they get the position they want.
With Ling gone, they ponder his offer and the one-use number he gave them. Some of the team distrust him, but ultimately they agree to do the job. Asarar gets the mission info when she makes the call: It's a job to break into the Geyze Artifact Museum in Quad 1 and retrieve an artifact known as the Dagger of Dra.
They sneak around the museum at night and manage to get its floor plan, but they don't feel comfortable going in with only this and agree to scope the museum out the next day.
5.30
When they do, they see quite a few interesting artifacts -- as well as quite a few fakes -- but no sign of the dagger itself, which is stored in the old artifact storage on an upper level.
With a tight time limit given by Ling and a tricky job to do, they decide to hit the museum that night.
Verse 6, S.4: Session 39: The Heist
5.30.5990 CE ~ 5.31.5990 CE
Cypher check their gear and supplies, heading out to the museum, noticing security upgrades along the way. They finally make it to the museum, neutralizing the cameras and breaking in. Sneaking past some guards, it isn't long before the reach the third floor.
On the third floor, they encounter a gauntlet of cameras, as well as many useless boxes. It isn't long before they reach the dagger, however, which Chelsea verifies as real, even though it looks like it's been used as a pizza cutter. They decide to steal an animal from the second floor as cover. They smash and grab, making their theft of the animal very obvious, and are quickly out.
The next day, they go to see Albert Ling with the dagger in hand. Once the dagger is handed over, he holds up his side of the bargain, although he does question them bringing the animal they stole, known as Fluffinator, along with them. Presuming they'll start to get assignments soon, they return to the club and start learning more about Fluffy and its behaviors.
Verse 7, M3
Bringing Fluffy back, along with lots of other animals over time, Posco finally comes down on them, especially with all the rioting beginning over the cameras set up watching people, so Wolfe promises to get all the proper paperwork for the animals that they have been getting, despite the trouble and Posco waiting to bust them all. Also, Fluffy at one point when trying to lick Jelly gets farted on by him and then attempts to eat the fauna, spending a few days stalking him before losing interest. Other than that, it is business as usual and it seems by now everyone knows that Bonnie is BonBon. Also, it appears Otto has been doing a ton of jobs for himself and others and not for the group anymore. How much longer before Asarar fires him?
Verse 8, S.5: Session 40: Macross
6.4.5990 CE
While the crew is hanging out, a message comes in from Macross, requesting their presence at the lowest level building, the 15th. They head out, and Jelly improves the cracks on Asarar's data-reader as they travel, arriving in the Middle District.
When they enter, they walk past a painting of Maxwell Terran with a pink-haired catgirl and a girl in a blue hat that resembles Ylva. Soon they are told that the Corporation wishes to test them to see where they should be placed in the company, and they are left alone in a waiting room.
Alarms begin to sound and they are told that the building is being attacked. They spring into action, forcing the door, but are met with nothing but death, caused seemingly by magic blasters, with all of the PCs' HDDs having been scavenged.
Overcoming traps, with some missteps, they begin to catch up to the group of fauna that have apparently committed this assault, taking them out one by one. Max charges in wildly while Asarar and Chelsea exercise more caution, but the traps and blows just keep coming.
Eventually they catch up to the hooded leader-apparent of the group just as he's about to escape, managing to stop him in his tracks and recovering the HDDs. Taking him out non-lethally, suddenly Corporation officers come in, seizing the leader and the HDDs. The room disappears, revealing it was a simulation.
Some of the team are surprised by this, some are not, but either way they are told that they didn't seem to fight well together, and that there was a lot of collateral damage. They leave, their new credentials in hand, pondering the things that happened and what they've seen, such as the painting from before.
Verse 9, S.6: Session 41: Spying on the Boss
6.7.5990 CE
The group, now working in the defense of the Corporation Macross, attempted to spy and learn what they could of the Corporation from the inside, but things did not go well and they ended up bungling their attempts. The most they could learn is that the belief by older staff members is the girl in the pictures if the daughter of Maxwell Terran though she hasn't been seen in years and many believe it is due to an illness, though rumors have been heard she is starting to make appearances again recently. Due to their failure to get any real information, and the possibilty that the Corporation has begun to watch them and get information on the team due to their failure, Asarar has told the group to dial it back and play it normal.
Verse 10, S.7: Session 42: Runner Battle
6.9.5990 CE
Cypher discuss their theories about Ylva in the office as Asarar goes over Macross data, but then an emergency call comes in from Macross. The group heads through the slums, upward to the top level, where Albert is waiting for them with a limo. They are soon rushed to the Macross main HQ, a lavish and huge building.
They are told that NetRunners have been detected accessing their files from inside the building, and soon they are on Floor 33's BioTect Terminal Archive, investigating. Unfortunately, what they find consists primarily of busted-up terminals that are of no use. After a bit of work, they head up to the next archive, on the 40th floor.
When they enter the 40th floor's archive, they are met by met dressed in black, green, and red light outfits with faceplates, with gun cameras and other traps about the room, as well as a terminal. They try to get Cypher to surrender, but soon battle has erupted.
Ultimately, the team rushes them down, catching them off guard, and soon Chelsea has stabbed Black in the back, only for Max to slice him into a fine red mist. Not long after, Green follows, burned from the inside by Asarar and exploding.
Red sees the tide of the battle turning, unable to use what's in his bag of tricks, so he moves to escape, trying to use his charm to buy time. Unfortunately for him this does not work, as the team rush him down and stop his escape. Albert enters with guards to take him into custody.
The team are offered bonuses, with the team members putting in their requests, although Jelly's is horribly misunderstood. Back at the club, they consider their new equipment, while Chelsea ponders the fact that Jelly was most likely understood. Indeed, he seems almost traumatized. But at least everyone made it out alive.
Verse 11, M4
6.10 - 19.5990 CE
Bonnie and Chelsea have a heart to heart after Chelsea begins to muse about side jobs and her past, wondering what to do, confessing to Bonnie that she wants to do something. The two go upstairs to have a one on one heart to heart, which will not be revealed here. Bonnie reveals her past and what she is, and Chelsea talks about her own and what her sacred dream is as well. The two become closer and Bonnie asks if Chelsea will be her sister figure.
Later the next night, Bonnie gets drunk and is almost taken outside and away by an obvious sleeze, but Chelsea saves her, and Max stalks the guy as he buys an underage prostitute, and proceeds to threaten him to never buy a girl under 16. The man runs off and they have to change the cameras that have been set up so Max is not identify, Asarar leaving it to Jelly to do so.
Later, Asarar and Kira leave for a date together and Asarar returns first, with a concussion and acting strange, and Kira is found outside the club after that with a broken arm. Asarar begins to act differently, locking herself in her room and reading files on the group, as well as changing passwords.