Rivers in the Barrens:BTL Warehouse Run

Executive Summary

Hit a Better-Than-Life chip warehouse being run by the Troll-Killers gang. Shut it down and grab any pay-data within.

Objectives

• Shut down the Troll Killers' BTL operation in Ashbarrow.
• Retrieve pay-data from a server node supposedly housed within the warehouse.
• [Optional] Avoid any casualties, especially deaths.
• [Optional] Rough up or kill some Troll Killers, in memory of Peter Scrupp.

Johnson or Smith

This 'run is unusual in that two different clients both put a request in to hit the BTL stockpile.

The first, our "Mr. Johnson", is an orcish woman who contacted Tylr Mikell at the Working Class. Her client's identity is the usual: unknown. Mr. Johnson took pains to look like a local, including wearing a scarf and clothes that have seen better days, but her nails and skin were too clean and undamaged. That's usually a sign of a corpro in sheep's clothing, but she had a legitimate concern in her voice regarding the metahuman victims in the community, even to the most cynical ears listening in. So our best guess is probably metahuman policlub or non-profit, with token bleeding heart or good actor as runners up. This Johnson wants the pay data from the warehouse, and also offered a bonus to avoid carnage.

The second, our "Ms. Smith," is Johann Scrupp, local salvage collector, whose troll son got cooked by one of those bad BTLs. Ms. Smith wants vengeance for his son and to prevent any other parents from suffering his grief. He wants the operation shut down and the Troll Killers run out of town, minimum. Sounded like he'd appreciate some spilt blood or cracked skulls too. While Ms. Smith's the only one that approached Crazy Ivan with the money to pay for a shadowrun, he's far from the only person in Ashbarrow to lose a friend or family member to this poison.

Opposing Forces

The Troll Killers are racist human gangsters whose idea of a good time is collecting orc tusks and troll horns as trophies. Spawned in the 2030s as a way for the angry kids of Humanis Policlub members to take 'direct action' against the "metahuman threat," the Troll Killers persisted as their own entity after the Night of Rage. Completely devoted to sating their hatreds, the Troll Killers have never moved beyond serving as shock troopers and useful idiots for Humanis and other human supremacists. They don't control any meaningful part of the city's economy, shadow or otherwise, and were largely beaten back to their stronghold in Lake Washington after their prey organized and began to fight back.

Lately, however, the Troll Killers have increasingly been seen roaming beyond their turf, better equipped and better trained than usual...

Background Info

Better-Than-Life chips have long been a vice targeted towards the wage-slave lower class and the pariah SINless. After all, they're the ultimate form of escapism from the dreadful conditions most people live in. That said, the neo-anarchists in the Ashbarrow understand that BTL use is a systematic issue, not a personal moral failure, and the community generally only intervenes when someone's habit is harming themself or others. Often this works, sometimes it doesn't. Four months ago, people started dying.

Horizon's various networks, clickbait, and other corporate news will often blast wage-slaves with scare stories about people dying from BTLs. "This is your brain on BTLs," B.A.R.E., you know the type. When in truth, BTL deaths are usually from something secondary - forgetting to care for oneself because you're not thirsty or hurting in the BTL, running in front of a car while high, that sort of thing. Overdoses of a type can happen with extremely persistent use, but they're typically much more gradual than overdosing on actual drugs, often taking the form of early-onset dementia. What began to happen in Ashbarrow was different. BTL users screaming in agony, convulsing, dying of cranial hemorrhage... The deaths were acute, awful, and occurred even in first time users. The conclusion of the Black Cross, Black Crescent, and local militias is that these chips are adulterated, and the contents as described by survivors point toward malice rather than incompetence on behalf of the creators and distributors.

A conclusion supported when the Troll Killers, a human supremacist gang that revels in murdering "trogs" (a slur for orcs and trolls), were sighted distributing the tainted chips to BTL pushers in Ashbarrow. Further legwork traced the Troll Killers' operation back to a supposedly abandoned warehouse on the corner of Calistoga and Emmons, facing the Puyallup River. More than a stockhouse, stakeouts and matrix traffic suggests some of the chips are actively being burnt on-site. Entrances to the warehouse are guarded at all hours by 3-5 belligerent and well armed gangers. Shipments come in via powerboat, while exports go directly or indirectly to unaffiliated small-time dealers - especially those that sell to blocks with high metahuman populations. Since the deadly effects have become known, the Troll Killers are beginning to change tactics, surreptitiously spiking shipments of normal BTLs with their poisoned chips and selling to dealers while hiding their colors.

Heads-Up

• The Troll Killers are normally a third-rate gang of jumped up racist manchildren. Operating a BTL ring is outside their usual capabilities, let alone modus operandi. Something stinks here, be careful.
• The BTLs in question are direct-input, physical medium, dream- and tripchip variants. They're often falsely labeled as popular strains. Survivors describe the chips as a nightmarish and entangled cross between sheer terror and a snuff film from the victim's POV. In addition to the traumatic contents, the chips rapidly cause fatal brain damage if not shut off.
• The Troll Killers have already violently repelled strikes from local antifas and militias. Don't let the light security detail outside fool you - they've got major reinforcements inside.
• The two clients' preferences on how to handle this op are at odds. Use your own discretion and follow your conscience. I certainly won't weep over a few dead fash. - Ivan
  • Mr. Johnson is working on the bigger picture here - following that pay-data to the root and dragging it into the light. If you splatter the data with blood, it'll be a lot harder to use outside the shadows. - Tylr