subject of a hunter sheet in the back of the Contract Directory, is a popular man. And not in a good way.
- Hunter sheet as appeared in the CD
- BPN issued by Dept of industrial espionage - a yellow paying out 1000c total. They would like him alive or they are not paying. They were also responsible for issuing the Hunter sheet which is 'cover' for this BPN
- Fire soft company - who want a word about his pension arrangements. :)
Effectively your players could be any one of these groups - or even Arch employees charged with protecting their asset. However as part of this mini campaign they are doing the leg work for the hunter sheet. - however if they have good financier contacts they may be able to find out about the BPN and attempt to claim that one as well.Remember the footage bonus is NOT dependant on the death of the target, so it is possible to claim both.
Refs should bear this complexity in mind when running the adventure. Which ever group they belong to they characters should encounter others on the same or related missions.
He took with him designs for some of the latest stuff he had made for them, along with details of the weaknesses of the old products - and this data he has been selling off to provide capital to set up Arch.
It's the hope that he has more of this data that has got the Dept of industrial espionage interested in 'acquiring' him, and obviously Fire are a little fucked off and also want him back/ dead as well.
All this will come to a head in Arch's manufacturing and research location - a 'recycled' Augustus factory in Deepest darkest Down town… The Augustus factory is the perfect set up for Arch - much of the CAD/CAM machinery, though old, is still there so they have been able to get up and running very quickly. However they need to get raw materials in and the finished product out, and this is the weak link in their defences.
Finding it is a simple matter of leg work- much of which has already been done if the characters bother to check out the hunter sheet. Archs products are predominately arising in props centred on sector 2987- analysis of the products from those brought in by yellow BPN's or shiver confiscation, show that a fair proportion of the components have been shaped using now out of date Augustus CAM. Given those 2 facts its not hard to put things together.
Once on the ground its even easier, all the people in the upper downtown neighbouring sectors know that the factory is there - indeed some of the more "affluent but without visible means of support" individuals are working for Arch. Once in the area any street wise group will be able to pick out Arch's 'runners' and from them find the 'safe' route into the factory. [Bribery, interrogation, torture, subversion or infiltration are all valid options here.]
This is important as the 'obvious' route in is a death trap.
All Augustus factory's are constructed with a dedicated Gauss line to make the movement of products and raw materials easy. However Arch are well aware that if Fire track them down that is likely to be the route in and out they will use. Thus the whole line is booby trapped, culminating in old Augustus bodies being thrown down the tube using the gauss train acceleration system - filling the tunnel with deadly shrapnel of fractured steal and glass. Any attempts to come this way will be fatal. - Oh come on it's obvious - these guys are making small man portable bits of kit they don't need a gauss line to move then - and as such it is a liability which has to be 'closed'. If you want to be nice and give them a hint let them come across the shreaded Fire suit to get the message across. If they keep going after that and the "Are you sure?" then let them have it.
The safe route is long and on foot. No vehicle can penetrate into these parts of lower downtown. It passes along rickety apparently walkways and through deserted buildings. Downtown that has been abandoned this long is in a bad state of decay, however Arch are not taking any risks and the 'safe' route has been reinforced and supported to make sure their runners are not going to fall down any holes. Good scouts might well pick up on this and thus provide another way of the squad finding the factory if talking to the locals is not their strong point.
The journey is a good opportunity to introduce a flavour of down town - the sights, sounds and smells of centuries of SLA abandonment. There are few "people" obvious here, those that survive in this terrain are cautious and will stay out of the way of any strangers. As a result the terrain is a paranoids nightmare. A sense that there is something watching ever move, something behind or to the side, just touching peripheral vision and then vanishing. A shadow that shifts. Keep them on their toes. Its unlikely they will actually spot their observers, unless they are from this type of terrain themselves. Attempts to follow them will have the squad lead off the 'safe' route used by Arch personel and onto floors and catwalks that really are as fragile as they look. Detect rolls will point this out before the floor gives way. However on the plus side the locals are not going to interfere with them, as long as lesseir faire rules. Should they catch up with the locals, or come across a dead body, it will be hard to tell if they fall into the category of Scav's or Humans.
Even if they have the correct route there are Arch devices to monitor their approach. If they have used the infiltration / bribery route then they might have a friendly guide with them who will point out the sensors, cameras etc which they are being watched on. If not then they are on their own. Detect rolls will be needed to spot them and avoid them. Scatter them through the route, especially in areas (such as sewer sections) where people would rarely go unless they are following the rout to the factory. If they fail then when they get to the factory Arch security will be waiting for them. If they are going for the infiltration route then they will have to fast talk their usefulness to Arch before security "removes" them
The Arch Factory…
Once at the factory it soon becomes obvious that the old development lab building has been turned over to manufacture. Although there is power in the factory it is focused on the perimeter protections, the accommodation block (the glass windows building at the back) and the labs (the 'silverish' building and the one in front of that). The large manufacturing complex, which in its day churned out 300 Augustus a day, lies silent - and if the squad have managed to sneak in this far, will provide a good place to go to ground to observe what is going on. The corroded tube affair leading out of the bottom left of the picture is the Gauss line.
Arch is a 24hr functioning factory. These far in downtown natural light is a distant memory - and thus the concept of days outmoded. It functions using 4 shifts working 8 hrs (midnight to 8am, 6am to 2pm, miday to 8pm, 6pm to 2am) - 2hr over laps on each shift (6 to 8 and 12 to 2) allowing for updating and stuff. As a result if the PC's wait until the shift changes over to 'attack' then they will have to deal with double the numbers below.
As you see from the picture above the factory is in a box.
It wasn't originally built this way, but as the city around it decayed, Augustus decided to reduce outside interference and vandalism by making mini sector walls around their factor. Once the factory was declared surplus to requirement these walls were used to support the sector above- thus completing the box.
Over the many years since the factory was abandoned the locals have found routs it to the box so they could loot the factory and later use it as a relatively safe place to hide from pigs, carrien etc.
When Arch moved in they kicked out the locals and sealed up most of these holes. For the record the end of the 'safe route' is through such a hole and down a ladder near the accommodation block. Any one coming down the ladder will be met by security. Arch consider them selves mostly secure, as a result, although there are patrols, they are 'relaxed' as they don't expect 'small' problems. Most of their worries are about Fire - and they don't expect them to come sneaking in.
There is an inner fence - which was the old Augustus fence before the sealed the factory in. It has some basic security on it designed to detect breaches in the fence and give warning of pig/ carrien interest. Any PC with even a basic knowledge of security can circumvent it.
Should the PC's (or one of the other groups) managed to trigger the security the response will be violent and make much use of the 'advanced weaponry' mentioned in the hunter sheet. Barnard is expecting the attackers to be Fire and will respond accordingly. In addition to the guards and their hand held weapons there are a number of gun emplacements on the building which are remotely operated from the security office via visual/ IR camera routes (so smoke might help mess up exact aiming - but that's not going to make too much difference.) There is a 10m killing ground between the box and the perimeter fence, and another 10m between the fence and the nearest building. These areas are covered by multiple gun emplacements (assume 3 at any one spot.) There is also gun emplacements covering the entrances to the 2 lab buildings and to the accommodation block. This latter one is actually in the carpark/ void under the accommodation block and is probably the hardest one to spot.
For the record I hate doing stats for things - the idea is this thing is a gauss powered flachete weapon - far to large to be transportable but devastating as a static defence. It draws a lot of power from the factories power grid - fortunately for Arch they have lots spare. Feel free to make your own stats for such a weapon if you don't like the idea below.
Game mechanic its virtually a reloadable claymore.- There is a central point of impact and anything with the 6m/12m radius takes damage according to the grenade rules. Dam 32, Pen 21, AD8
The emplacements are armoured: PV 10, ID 30 treat the vulnerable bit as a head with the -5 to hit.
The Arch security guards are carrying shot guns and wearing Arch armour which is the equivalent of HARD. Assume combat associated skills (including detect) of 6. Relevent stats of 8 and HP of 16
The lab complex is not a place to go in shooting. It's full of fragile and explosive equipment. Remember the adage every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Also the fact that some walls have been knocked through whilst other rooms have been blocked up in making the production lines for Arch's means this place is a maze.
On the minor positive note the guys working in the labs have no fire arms, and thier 'armour' is limited to the arch equivalent of Tech ware. PV4, ID10 (torso),7(limbs) - no protection for the head. Well safety specs but that's not going to stop bullets. Assume combat associates skills of 3 (at best) . Relevent stats of 6 and HP of 12. Of course if the obvious trouble has started there will be guards in here too, falling back to protect Barnard.
The accommodation block is a 5 story tower block of flats with large glass windows. The ground floor is actually an open space - originally used as a car park when the factory was new. There is a gun emplacement here, although it is set up to insure it does not shoot out the support beams in the corners Open stone stairs lead up to the front door providing no cover for anyone actually on the stairs.
The first floor has a central open lobby, with a communal lounge/ meeting area for entertainment and the flat used by the caretaker. There are central lifts and 'emergency stair cases at each end of the building.
The floors above are divided into flats. 4 on each side of the building. Flats are 2 bed self contained units, with a kitchen, bathroom and living room.
Note there is only one exit - the stair case (assuming you don't jump out of a window) - bit of a design flaw but there you go.
Unless the pc's wait until they see him go to the accommodation block for a rest, Barnard will be on the top floor of the lab complex in his private lab 'tinkering'. He is accompanied by 3 guards, and others will fall back to his location at the first sign of trouble. They will lead him towards the accommodation block and attempt to leave via the safe route. They will use the unused bits of the factory as cover during this retreat and their only aim is to get Barnard to safety. Use them intelligently. They will use distractions and lay false trails, and if they have time to pause will get Barnard to swop clothes with one of the guards so he gains the protection of the armour and every one is after the wrong person. Barnard is not comfortable or used to working in the armour- so any one who is suspicious and used evaluate opponent with pick up on this.
If the security team can get him out onto the safe route the chances are they will be able to vanish into the maze of down town. Only the best tracker has a chance of finding them. Arch will eventually resurface, probably taking some other discarded SLA factory as a base. However for now the attackers have missed their chance.
If Barnard is captured or killed, Arch will vanish. Without his inventive drive there is nothing to keep the company going.
All in all this would probably make a good scenario for a 4 side demo/skermish wargame. Watch this space.