SRM-01: Mission Briefing

Your chance at the big time - a friend has tipped you off about a job opportunity to do some bodyguard work for a group of exclusive clientele. You have been trying to break into the Seattle shadow scene, and these are just the kind of people that can help. All you have to do is make sure that their meeting doesn't get interrupted. It's a simple walk in the park, natch! Part One: Mission Briefing [204KB] Part Two: Player Handouts [432KB]

SRM-01: Mission Briefing - "Death of a Fixer"
Introductory fiction by Rich Osterhout

When the dust settled, there was not much left bigger than a soccer ball. Everything had been reduced to rubble - the entire three story building was now just a pile of concrete, rebar, and other clumps of twisted metal laying in the lot of Redmond where the fixer's headquarters once stood. The destruction was the result of a war in the shadows; one where no one was the winner, and everyone was the loser, in one form or another. A few of the more dedicated shadowrunners had arrived too late to the scene, and now used both technology and majicks to search the morass of jagged concrete for any sign of life. It did not take long before the worst was confirmed - the fixer who had once reigned over this section of the sprawl, and had also been one of the best fixers of the entire Seattle Metroplex, now lay dead and torn amidst the rubble. Digging out the body also uncovered some of the fixer's prized possessions - a cyberdeck and storage unit, their armored cases miraculously providing them protection against the crushing collapse of the building, were discovered. Also found was an armored and fireproof box which, upon further examination, contained a copy of the fixer's last will and testament - dated only weeks before. But it was the storage unit that was the most interesting...

... It wasn't until almost two days later that the runners were able to crack the encryption on the files and get to the paydata contained within. What those datachips contained was nothing short of the key to the late fixer's entire empire: contacts, run-ners for hire, markers, access codes, blueprints, reconnaissance photos, and miscellaneous tidbits of "compromising informa-tion" that could be used to blackmail or otherwise ensure coop-eration of many of Seattle's most influential and important po-litical and corporate figures. Needless to say, the data was worth millions of nuyen, and possessing it alone would make someone the target of all the other predators and scavengers of the shadows that smelled the opportunity. The runners had not survived this long in the shadows though by playing things stu-pid. They knew that only more conflict and war could arise from releasing most of this data into the world - conflict that could end up catching them all up in its folds and spitting them back out as corpses. The fixer had somehow foreseen this eventuality however, for the will contained instructions on what to do should the data be recovered. They all saw the wisdom of it - divide and conquer. The will contained a list of almost a dozen of Seattle's fixers; some more well known than others, some less powerful, but all had worked with the deceased at some point, and were known to be among the more "honorable" people that kept the shadow community on an even keel. So it was determined that invitations be sent out to these select few, and that they be gathered for a secret meeting to find an equitable way to distribute the data so that the balance of power could be maintained and the powder keg of another war in the shadows could be defused...

... A week later, and the select few agreed to the terms of the meet. Downtown, in Freeway Park, would be the location. In order to help ensure trickery and double-crosses, for even these fixers were worried about such, it was determined that a team be assembled to provide security for the event. These shad-owrunners would be chosen by the fixers - each one could rec-ommend a team member, but it had to be an unknown, some-one who had little or no stake in the outcome of the meeting, and may not have even met the fixer who hired him or her. Not all of the runners were available, but those that were able to do the mission received directions to meet at a local downtown bar...