D&A Session 5 - The Sons of Sicily

"In La Cosa Nostra, loyalty is not its own reward; shadows move to make profits from betrayals; sometimes, the only things that matter are the road you take and who you take it with."

Table Members

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

Session Summary
After having caught him unawares in Baja California, CINO escorts Dux to Italy on the orders of the Don Bonanno. The Don receives them at a new compound, and explains that a former mob bookkeeper has informed on numerous mob rackets throughout Western Europe, causing rapid disruption and forcing the Don into hiding. The bookkeeper's name is Luigi Vela, and Dux is ordered to find him and bring him back to make good on the life debt owed to La Cosa Nostra.

Even in the absence of a cash reward at the end of the tunnel, the team assembles in Marseille, France, where the target is preparing to finalize a deal with French federal authorities in exchange for protection and diplomatic immunity. An upscale vacation destination for European tourists, Marseille is prowled at night by other parties interested in capturing Vela. Knight is able to tap into the local darknet to find where their efforts are being focused, and inadvertently leaves traces of his presence.

CINO checks into the Intercontinental Hotel Dieu to scout the resort for Vela, while Oliver tours the Hotel La Petit Nice. Though CINO comes up with no leads (and a hefty bill for an Ambassador's Suite), Oliver finds La Petit Nice to be staffed almost entirely by 'dumb' AI bellhops, and swimming with armed federal authorities occupying the hotel's dining facilities. Knight concocts a plan to infiltrate both hotels in order to install a physical backdoor at each location, allowing him to get into their closed networks to search for guest lists and check-in data.

Before Knight and CINO are able to roll up onto the property at La Petit Nice, a police barricade prevents anyone from entering the nearest intersections, and a fight breaks out between a strange magenta AF and a stealth-capable mob AF. Knight and CINO circle back into the city's alleyways and break into the hotel's dining room, only to find that there are no signs of human activity, and all of the bellhops are in stasis.

The pair start to shake down the hotel's business offices, but are surprised to find Vela hiding in the first door they check. CINO is injured protecting Knight from Vela's guard detail, and Antonio air-drops the La Mancha into the hotel lobby in order to back them up. CINO is sent off to get medical attention via La Mancha's autopilot, and Knight and Antonio push back into the hotel. Responding the chaos on the first floor, another Luigi Vela reveals himself on a stairwell with another guard detail; Knight uses hacked bellhops to pin him down and extract him forcibly, but the magenta AF intercepts them in the lobby along with a pair of hacked French Federal 'Justicar' RFs.

The AF's pilot is Tassos Pelagios, the team's former handler for the Oikogeneia. His terms are simple; hand over Vela, and nobody dies. The team complies, but Tassos gives them forty-eight hours to meet him in the Forest of Saint Baume to bring him a trade offer. Dux and Oliver arrive to extract the others, and their van is menaced by the black mob AF as it leaves the area.

Knight journeys to the local airport to attempt a controlled hack against another batch of Justicars, but their AI proves to be too difficult to subdue. CINO offers Knight the use of his custom AF, the Method Mask, during the operation against Tassos, and Dux takes the team's Ibex freighter across the Atlantic on a nonstop trip to acquire the Chiron. Tony concocts a plan to assault Tassos from the summit of the the Sainte Baume mountains by climbing the Southern side, and Dux returns to France with less than eight hours until Tassos's deadline.

The team makes their move late at night, but as CINO and Oliver sneak down into Tasso's camp, an unknown AF engages Tassos's stolen Justicars. Thankfully, the camp is empty save for Tassos, whose attention is consumed by a sniper battle. As CINO and Oliver locate Vela, the others are ambushed on the Southern side of the mountain by another hidden AF. Revealed to be a Nero, a unit given only to Don Bonanno's most elite pilots, the Method Mask, Chiron, and La Mancha attempt to fight back. The Ibex is destroyed in the ensuing melee, and the Chiron is damaged in the crash. Dux manages to upright his machine just in time to destroy the enemy Nero with a well-placed linear cannon salvo.

Without an escape option, Oliver and CINO are forced to steal Tassos's personal Ibex, dispatching its guard detail and disabling its IFF hardware as the team leaves Tassos at the first Nero's mercy.

Dux and CINO bring Vela back to Palermo, Sicily, and are received by Don Bonanno's right hand, Domenico Medici. Dom drops Dux with a right hook, informing him that the Nero he destroyed was being piloted by his former mob handler, Maria. Upon arriving at the Don's new compound, the Don wastes little time in executing Vela, and Dux is stripped of his rank and position within La Cosa Nostra. He admits to sending Dom and Maria into France to make the job more difficult as a means to test Dux's commitment and abilities, and is relieved that Dux succeeded; his life will be spared as a reward.

The team receives Dux back in Palermo. Not long after, Antonio receives a frantic phone call from an old confidante...