D&A Session 2 - On The Coast, Doing Wetwork

"In Seattle, two giants fight for a valuable asset; outside parties make their move; what is caught and kept will yearn to be free..."

Table Members

 * ForteNoir as the MC
 * SquashDemon as Jacopo Giuseppe Dux
 * Kixandra as Akamai Reyes
 * Dimin as Oliver Moorland
 * Elgar as Antonio Cervantes

Session Summary
Two weeks after his first job with Joseph Dux, Antonio Cervantes, and Oliver Moorland, Knight is contacted by his handlers to grab some friends and fly to Seattle. A fabled hacker, running the handle [OMER], has gone missing after acquiring an important payload that. Knight contacts the three freelancers who worked with him in Tarifa, and gets them in on the score. Knight's handlers were expecting timely delivery of a crucial piece of security software from [OMER], and their regional agent D'artagnan Gigs is in the neighborhood to prep and brief the team before the set out into the streets of the northern jewel of the Pacific Union.

Oliver refers to his conspiracy-pushing friend Halcon, who instructs the team to check 'authorized hacker spaces' in zones where police CCTV footage has been doctored. After having a few encounters with local law enforcement themselves, the team stumble upon [OMER]'s hiding spot, but only Knight chooses to dive deeper. In the heart of the Seattle Underground, [OMER] has spent at least five days in hiding while trying to understand the strange behavior of the software she stole from LogiCal's northern headquarters. The two hackers combine their efforts and determine that what [OMER] took is actually a true Smart AI, the development of which was outlawed globally over 150 years ago after the Chinese Nuclear Crisis.

In the absence of a safe upload or delivery point in Seattle, the team bugs out and retreats to Knight's home in San Jose. His handlers instruct him to be present for a physical hand-off later that evening. At a disused section of the city's artificial coast, the meeting is compromised when a pair of unknown AFs arrive and engage the team in combat. Dux and Knight retreat into the city to retrieve a loaner AF from Knight's handlers, while Oliver and Antonio stay behind to keep the enemy AFs occupied. After Knight acquires his AF, 'Your Majesty', Dux surreptitiously attempts to steal and upload the AI in an effort to deduce any secrets that could help his wife.

The Smart AI rebuilds itself in full after Dux supplies it with a proper mobile workstation, and introduces itself as DJEETA. With the avatar of a young girl with Indian features, her behavior is less that of a dangerous construct and more like that of a precocious child. Espousing a connection with the AFs attacking Oliver, Antonio, and Knight, Dux brings DJEETA within comms range. The AI is able to convince the enemy AFs to leave her be for now, but Eagle, a former partner to the AI, warns that he will return if DJEETA's freedom is deemed unacceptable.

To ensure that the team is rewarded for their efforts, she writes a new copy of the software that [OMER] was seeking, guaranteeing a proper payday for the team. However, a week later, the team learns that their business in the Pacific Union is not yet concluded...