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Dead Man's Switch


silencer_pl

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Hello, it's time again for another AAR, for you people out there who don't have time / money / PC to play games (I'm talking to you Mr. Obvious guy).

 

In this episode we will jump into the world of Shadowrun - a cyberpunk/fantasy game set in the future. I won't be describing the settings so if you want more go to wiki. I'll just pop short background of the world

 

The game is set 62 years in the future,[note 1] following a great change that has returned magic to the world. The emergence of magic, the outbreak of the VITAS plagues, the Computer Crash of 2029, the Euro-Wars, and the fevers for independence of Amerindian tribes, Chinese provinces, and everything else that came with the many struggles that ravaged Europe and Asia left the world's governments tumbling and falling. The United States was broken into substates. Monetary value was lost. The world had to rebuild, and rebuild they did, this time in the image of the megacorporations that seized power. Taking advantage of the laws that had been passed years ago, and using their newfound freedom, the megacorps began impressing their power on the failing governments. Before long the world was transformed. Boundaries were redrawn, and the political landscape was changed forever.

 

A basic premise of the setting is that as the world endured the string of state-changing events and conflicts, the political landscape fragmented and reformed. In North America, for example, some nations broke apart and reformed, as was the case with the Confederation of American States and the United Canadian and American States, while others became havens for specific racial or ethnic groups, like Native American Nations (the Native Americans having used their newfound magical abilities to regain massive tracts of land) or the Elvish principality of Tír Tairngire, which encompasses all of the state of Oregon. Some, like the California Free State, simply declared independence, while yet others became de facto corporate subsidiaries like Aztlan (the former Mexico), the headquarters of the Aztechnology megacorp. Despite the new role of megacorporations, many nations still hold considerable sway through economic, social and military means. For most people, “getting by” means taking advantage of whatever the corps or the government might bring their way.

 

Generally Shadowrun is base on some sort of different stories, similary experienced like in Call of Cthullu, Paranoia, The Burning Wheel, etc.

 

From the title you can gather that I will "playing" a story called Dead Man's Switch. It's the first story that came with Shadowrun Returns on PC.

 

 

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The main hero of this story is a male elf called Silverado. He is a street samurai from profession. A street samurai is a warrior type class, that can go with melee weapons or guns. Since elfs are naturally dexterous creatures it's obvious that he will be using guns, because guns are awesome. His background comes from corporate security, so this will help him fast talk situation resolving guards.

 

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The story begins in a unknown place. It's the current Silverados hideout. Upon returning home, our hero gets a strange phone call. It was Sam Watts, our old friend. At first Silverado was surprised to get such a call, but Sam cut to the chase and was blunt. He was dead.

 

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Sam's "ghost" continues to talk and he mentions our another old friend Dowd. He mentioned a run where Dowd died. That triggered a memory event for Silverado and we jump back 3 years into the past to that sad day.

 

It was somewhere in the docks in Seattle. The team was waiting for a guy named fixer, who was late. Something wasn't right and Sam knew that. He had his suspicion, that we were framed by someone. He was pretty sure it was team's mage New Larry.

 

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At first we didn't believe that accusation, but he had good points. We were suppose to meat in a public place, but the area is strangely empty. Not so soon after we were attacked by the enemies and Larry tried to escape.

 

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The enemies blocked every escape route and we had to kill them fast. After winning the battle, the memory flash ends and we are back to the present. As Same continues his speech, he explains that he wants his murderer found and brought to justice - dead or alive.

 

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He has contacted law firm - Rogers, Mengert & McCain to oversee the investigation and should be contacted upon job completed.

 

With last words of promising to find the killer our hero goes to Seattle. His first destination is Organ Grinders - a legal chop shop for body parts, and a place were the local coroner works. There we can find Sam's body and start doing investigation.

 

In the back of the shop the coroner is working on a body. His name is Dresden. After brief introduction he shows us the body of Sam and gives an insight of the situation. Firstly Sam was a victim of a murderer that goes by the nickname Emerald Ripper - he is sort of imitation of the original Jack the Ripper. Secondly Sam wasn't the first victim. Third every victim got a missing organ and in case of Sam it was liver.

 

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Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by a big troll. It was Detective McKlusky. Not a friendly type of a cop. Very eager to solve this riddle but only that it would grant him promotion. That allowed to get a closer look at Sams body. Upon closer examination, a plastic card with name "The Seamstress Union" was found, a credstick with ¥300 nuyen. There was also a note, but it was illegible.

 

After this quick search we go introduce ourselves to the McKlusky. He didn't seem happy, when we told him, that we are investigating Sam's death. When McKlusky left, Dresden told more about the murderer. He also asked to go find someone in the morgue.

 

There we find Jake Armitage, a friendly fellow and a local to the place. He drops here often to turn down the heat. Jake was with Sam at the night of the murder, they were sort of drinking buddies, so he will try and help us and will show the place where Sam was found dead. But he also has a little business to take care and we need to help him. He has some trouble with local gang and they need to be taught a lesson.

 

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There is no point in arguing, so a deal is made.

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Without any delay, the small team moves to the Barrens. Our first stop is Jake's hidden stash not so far from the entrance. After opening the safe, two thugs appeared and needed to be taught some manners. The cache contained little useful items - a medikit and two grenades.

 

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After introducing those thugs with the pavement, we proceed down the road, where we were interrupted by a worried man. He was a merchant from nearby market and he asked to help him and his friends with another thug problem.

 

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There were only 2 thugs, so clearly they were outnumbered. When the thugs were dead, the merchant thanked us and tried to give a small reward. Though we didn't accept it, since they may have better use later. Following further down the street a local girl called Sarah informed us, that there be bikers around the corner, from the description she said, Jake confirmed that those are the guys we were looking for. Also around the corner there was a shaman called Vlad. He saw something bad (probably Sam's murder) and was all shaky like. We calmed him down and proceed to take out the gangster trash. The battle didn't last long and the "boss" was eager to surrender. A little pathetic, but Jake didn't intend to let him go.

 

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The murder site was around the corner but before going there we've asked few local street merchants if they saw anything particular. They knew about the murder but nothing special. When we closed in to the murder site, Jake told his goodbyes. There were few polices officers at the scene. Having corporate security background, Silverado smooth talks past the guard.

 

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A thorough investigation at the scene led to find a few interesting items. There was a test tube lying amidst some broken glass, a bar tab receipt from Seamstress Union from two days ago. It said that server's name was Coyote. Looks like we have a new lead. The Seamstress Union is around the corner.

 

Seamstress Union looks friendly enough place. There we go ask local waitress Cherry Bomb about Coyote. It looks like Coyote is missing from yesterday. We will have to ask owner of this place - Mrs. Kubota about her. As Cherry said, Mrs. Kubota is in the back. She is very friendly and good mannered. We explain her our visit. She also is worried about Coyote being missing and asks us to check her room if we can gain any info about what she was up to. Mrs. Kubota also told us the story that lies behind Seamstress Union.

 

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Coyote's room wasn't hard to find. A thorough investigation led to find a few interesting things. Coyote has a boyfriend Paco, who she should meet in about 30 minutes, she bought a powerful pistol from local guns merchant. She ordered a zebra meat, was studying something about hellhounds, and was in contact with a Delilah person. This all sounds very strange and looks like big trouble. Our next lead is Paco whom we should meet, but first Mrs. Kubota needs to know.

 

 

 

 

 

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With the information gathered from Coyote's terminal, we tell Mrs. Kubota about the meeting with Paco and she sends Silverado there immediately. Upon arrival we make contact with Paco and explain him that we are searching for Coyote because she went missing. He went a little nervous about it, but after we asked him about Mr. Delilah and the zebra meat, he suddenly remembered that Mr. Delilah was looking for someone to steal something from some Stevie J. Steve J is located in the area in some apartments for junkies.

 

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So now with Paco, we make move towards those apartments. However on the way, we find a police investigation and our friendly coroner Dresden. It looks like there was another Ripper victim. A women, who's eyes were cut out. There was also Officer Aguirre, a rival to McKlusky in solving this case. He is more friendly and really wants to beat McKlusky - even when it comes to play a little dirty.

 

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Since he is more friendly and is willing to help in solving the case, we make a deal. Moving on near our destination we find an ork who apparently was a friend of the victim. In short conversation we gained information, that the victim recently had her eyes transplanted. Pretty strange. Anyway he also asked if we can get something that is still in possession of the victim, which we agree to bring. Being agile and that Silverado manages to swiftly grab the item before anyone notices.

 

Finally we can enter the apartments. Here junkies get their BTL (Better than life, artificial reality stimulation). After talking to few people we know that Coyote is here and she probably is in trouble. Because Silverado is not a true negotiator we cannot persude old gramps here to give us the shortcut and we will have to user other means to get to the penthouse. Nearby we witness a guy being beaten by a fat punk. From we could learn the guy was a father of some poor kid, that has been taken by that fat punk.

 

Well it's time to bring a little justice here, so we go to that punk and play a little trick on him.

 

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After taking care of the punk and his friend we tell father that we freed his kid and proceed to the elevator. Here we also use trickery to get upstairs. Playing cool, we give the BTL recording to the guy that stops us. He gives us some zebra meet to feed the hounds. We go and do what we are told and feed the hounds and enter the "prison" here we find Coyote heavily beaten up. It's time to get dirty.

 

After killing the torturer, Stevie J himself comes with his goons to take us out.

 

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With some effort, we kill Stevie J and his goons thus freeing Coyote. We learn a little why she was here and what was her goal. Silverado told Paco, that he can get Coyote out of here and he will finish the job. Stevie J had a pass card on his corpse so entering his office to find the item Coyote had to get wasn't hard.

 

Upon returning to Seamstress Union, Mrs. Kubota had a little chat with Coyote and us. Were were also given the access to the underground.

 

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So now since Coyote has been rescued we can finally ask here about the night Sam was killed.

 

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So we have rescued Coyote. Mrs Kubota gave us access to undeground facility. After another small chat with her, Silverado goes downstairs, where he meets Dr. Sara Castle who will now install replace Coyote's damaged arm with cybernetic.

 

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After the operation we had a talk with Coyote and learned two important things:

 

a) Sam had a strange help from his mother one day.

b) Sam has a sister.

 

During the conversation suddenly Officer Aguirre chips through the commlink. It looks like there was another Ripper attack at the NTSB investigation facility.

 

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We will get there soon, there are few more people to meet. Mostly vendors but all of them have some unique story. The most important are Mr. Delilah - he will supply us with runners if we need them on a mission and we also give him the gems stolen from Steve J. In gems there was one certain item he was mostly interested in. The second important person is Van Grass who will buy interesting stuff. Mostly information. Unfortunately Silverado is not trained in the arts of bartering so Van Grass will have plenty of opportunities to make a bad deals.

 

After finishing and ressuplying Silverado goes to the NTSB facility. Here Officer Aguirre says that it's probably false alarm, however our friendly coroner Dresden says otherwise.

 

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Near the victim stands Shannon Half-Sky a human shaman. She says she that the dead person is her brother. Because she is shaman she can talk with the spirits. She wants to talk to the spirit of her dead brother but she can't communicate with him directly. However there are other spirits in the vicinity that are willing to help. All we need is to find few trinkets that will help her get "closer" to those spirits. The search isn't hard, but after finding needed trinkets, Detective McKlusky shows and throws us out.

 

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Nothing can be done now, so Shannon asks to return here at night so she can do her voodoo stuff. Before departing to do other stuff, Silverado gets a sudden call from Coyote. She said something about her cousin and she needs help. Because we have nothing better to do we go meet Coyote at the place she requested.

 

 

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The first entrance to the building was guarded by a particular talkative "guard". Despite being ork, a simple punch to the face knocked him out. Inside the building we find a woman, who told us everything that is going on, and it looks like that this operation house is lead by the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia). The entrance to the lab is also guarded by a troll that have weakspot in one of his eyes. We could also talk to Jamal an buy a entrance card. But since there is no option to enforce it form him, we sucker punch the troll which dazes him. This also sets the alarm for the other guards and thus combat begins.

 

When all of the enemies are dead, we find Gino. Unfortunately the poor lad is done for good. His brain fried. He tried to shoot Coyote, but in retaliation Coyote wasted him instead.

 

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A sad ending, but you can't save everyone can you. Upon returning to Seamstress Union we've received intel, that Sam's sister is here. Upon conversation, Ms. Watts didn't seem like loving sister. We know that Sam wasn't shining beacon of hope, but still her attitude was more than curious. Even so, when she was persistent, that we should drop the case.

 

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Anyway the conversation ended with invitation to Sam's funeral. But the night is young and we have a business to attend to, back in the warehouse with Shannon.

 

Upon arriving the warehouse was indeed guarded, but the "guardians" were simple rookies and didn't pose any real threat. When the area was clear Shannon summoned the spirits of this place. The conversation with those spirits was odd, but they gave us information, that there is something at this site, that could help identify the Ripper.

 

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Upon closer inspection were Shannon's brother corpse was found there was a stain of blood. We will have to find someone that will know how to trace a person through his DNA. We part with Shannon, promising that when we find the killer, she will be there too.

 

When we return to Seamstress Union, we get help from David Fry II and Johnny Clean. David can get the DNA from the blood, while Johnny will allow us to trace the person in the matrix.

 

The first information we found was that the DNA traced to a dead person named Silas Forsberg

 

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Further investigations told, that the body of Silas was horribly mutilated. The final information however led to another person called Dr. Holmes - he is a psychologist. Could he be our killer? Only one way to find out.

 

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Am I still allowed to comment or is everyone afraid I'm going to show up as Dark NoX and ruin it for everyone? Lol, this is a great game and I'd like for everyone to take a little time out of their lives to sit down and enjoy this game. It's brilliant. I look forward to watching this playthrough.
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On last episode, we have found next clue regarding the Ripper. Our next destination is clinic where Dr. Holmes resides.

 

Upon arrival, we announce receptionist that we are here to visit Dr. Holmes. We were then direct to the common room. There we talked to a patient or a guest named Lorraine. He is worried about his friend Jose. Jose suppose to be a big star in Urban Brawl. Last were she saw him, Jose was in the infirmary.

 

Strangely no one intervened when we opened the door. A quick look and you already see, that something gruesome happened here.

 

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Well we found Jose or what was left of him. The only thing that could identify, that it really was Jose was a ring. Lorraine didn't took it well.

 

After we have returned the ring, we got announced that Dr. Holmes will see us. Our talk with Dr. Holmes didn't go smoothly and dear Dr. played dumb on us. However he perfectly knew we were serious and he put whole clinic on battle alert.

 

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We had to fight our way, while dear Doctor run away. He event ordered his patients to kill us. The fight was long, but eventually we have made it to the top floor. There Doctor had one last surprise. With found logs, we found out that Doctor was kind of assembling a huge female troll. Well this was his last weapon to stop us.

 

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Pitezel, was the first really dangerous enemy we have encountered. But even the toughest of the enemies cannot withstand focus fire. When Pitezel was down, dear Doctor wasn't hard to kill. While his death solved the riddle of the Ripper, there was a new question to be answered. Who was giving him orders?

 

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Anyway we've done what we came here to do. Sam's death was avenged. Also Shannon is at piece now and sadly this is the end of our working together.

 

We are going now back to the Seamstress Union and will prepare for Sam's funeral.

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Upon return everyone in Seamstress Union knew already that we have killed the Ripper. But now is not the time to celebration. We have to go and make a visit at Sam's funeral.

 

When we have arrived, the ceremony was almost over. Father O'Malley was finishing it with all well know words "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust". When he was finished, we had to talk with Jessica. By our side were Coyote and our old acquaintance Jake Armitage, while Jessica was accompanied by Lynne Telestrian, a highly charismatic spokesperson of the Universal Brotherhood. When asked about her mother being a donor, she denied it furiously. She believed that those people that got her mothers organs were simple vultures and thus she admitted, that she has hired Dr. Holmes to return the organs so she can bury her mother as a whole. The ladies had planned ahead about this meeting and soon Lynne has called their backup to dispose of us, while both of them run away.

 

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There were many guards and they had come from both directions so we were surrounded. The fighting was long and intense and loud that we have woken up the dead - literally.

 

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Fortunately we were already winning the conflict so the ghouls didn't make this fight harder. After the battle Jake found information about our assailants. It looks like we will have infiltrate this Brotherhood.

 

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Back in Seamstress Union there was nothing new to buy, so immediately we gather team to infiltrate the Universal Brotherhood. Upon arrival we were informed however that a person if wishes to enter the Brotherhood must enter alone. It's one of those initiation steps - abandon your former life thing. Coyote agreed that I should enter alone, while she with the rest will find some back entrance.

 

Time to snoop around. For first - everyone here is boring and yaping all the same bullshit, second we found out that Jessica Watts is actually Grandmother in this temple. Pretty interesting indeed. Third, we need to find a way to enter the Inner Sanctum (oh boy) where she currently is. Also take a look at this guy. My god that face.

 

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Continuing with snooping. In the dining area we have found a janitor who with little help of bribing allowed us to enter the closet room and take a disguise of another janitor. Now to find a way to let the team in. There was here this kerosene can. And what do you do with kerosene can? You find a stove and and put the kerosene on the stove. This makes a little boom. This attracted the chef and opened the doors leading to "Members only area". The back of the kitchen is a perfect place to let the team in, but we have more snooping to do.

 

On the other side of the building, we pass the security, because all they see is simple janitor. Inside the east wing, there is a computer which allows to create new member access card. However we have to gather information, who is allowed, and all the necessary input data. It's all there somewhere. For example we can (and will make) a card with a name: Monica Sachnoff. With this card we can enter the living quarters. We also can now let the team in and enter the inner sanctum.

 

The inner sanctum doesn't look all that serene as you would expect. First of all we have found a body of Shane - Cherry Bomb's ex-boyfriend.

 

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Secondly we were also greeted by the "priests". So the time of infiltration is over, now we will have to fight. Moving further inside we have found a prisoner - an elf girl named Marie-Louise and of course Grandmother Jessica.

 

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And as villains do, she explained her devious masterplan, although it sounded a little insane. Anyway in short, her mind was "invaded" by something strange and now she creates immortal bugs and Marie-Louise was a sacrifice to make a queen bug. The bad side is, that all our escape routes are sealed off and the only way is to protect Marie-Louise while she performs her magic inside the matrix, because conveniently she is quite a decker.

 

After a while, she manages to create a escape route for us and without any delay we manage to escape this nightmare of immortal bugs. Upon exiting Marie-Louise quickly darted off, without leaving any explanation of what just happened. However we were contacted by this mysterious figure Baron Samedi. It looks like he knows her very well and wants to talk more, but we must have access to more secure channel. This means we are going back to the Seamstress Union.

 

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When we return to the Seamstress Union, we immediately tell Cherry Bomb about Shane. She somehow didn't feel touched by it. Maybe she is trained to hide emotions. Anyway she also told that Johnny Clean has something for us. In the bar we also find Mr. Johnson a corp representative with easy to do mission. Since money is most welcomed we take the job. It's asset takeover mission.

 

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On the site, first few rooms were quite easy. There was also a computer with some research data, but since we are not highly qualified decker we can't do anything with it. In the last room, there was however a surprise waiting for us. Looks like they have bought few basilisks to bolster the defenses. But unlike in D&D petrification is not permanent. Anyway when we reach the goal, the employee didn't feel happy to be "rescued".

 

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Unfortunately a job is a job and a man has to also take care of his reputation. Maybe if dude could beat the price.

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After the quick job, we go visit Johnny Clean and meet with Baron Samedi in the Matrix. There he had told us, that Telestrian Industries with some foreign company are making some kind strange formula. It's theirs third attempt and it looks like they are successful. Baron thinks that it has some relationship with the immortal bugs. Anyway we are now tasked to infiltrate Telestrian Industires and get the sample of this formula. Also a special character named Dodger - elf Decker that is suppose to be the very best for now - will be available for us. Since Silverado is not a Decker, we have to take him. Fortunately he is cheap for the job.

 

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Baron was pretty confident that this should be easy job and that he redirected the security somewhere else, while we do our inside job. But things didn't go as planned and security was swarming the place.

 

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After long fight, we have managed to reach the office room, where Dodger can slip into the Matrix and find the location of the formula. Strangely only limited part of the guards were trying to stop us. When he finally found the location, it looks like we will have to be even more sneaky, because the lock on the door is beyond hacking.

 

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Once again we will have to take role of a janitor to perform proper infiltration.

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So once again we will be doing janitorial infiltration. Baron Samedi said that I need to place evidence that this run was planned. After changing clothes, Silverado is greeted by his supervisor.

 

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After the "briefing" now is time to use some charm and wits. In each room there is a person that needs to leave it's working place. Luckily Silverado caught quite a charm, so manipulating those people to get lost was easy and the evidence was planted without any problems. When done, Siverado notified the security guard. He contacted his chief and thus we were allowed to enter the office of VP of security Mr. Silverstar.

 

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Mr. Silverstar was very pleased that a simple janitor keeps up with the code and even shared the knowledge of other part. After that he departed to investigate my "findings". This gave a small window of opportunity to get the AEGIS. I've only had to guess what pictures to press. It took me a while to figure it out, but it wasn't all that hard. When Silverado got the AEGIS from the safe, Baron Samedi informed that I can use executive elevator in the back. Unfortunately a clean getaway was not an option, because McKulsky and his goons were already waiting in the back.

 

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This could be bad, but instead to jail Silverado was sent to meet Mr. Telestrian himself. In his house Silverado also met Aljernon. Pretty curious, why he would be here.

 

Mr. Telestrian was pretty impressed by the performance made that day. He also stayed pretty calm to. In fact the conversation even went fine.

 

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At the end we were also invited to a special meeting. A meeting where we have learned all about those immortal bugs and how to destroy them.

 

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In short we are dealing with some sort of astral bugs. As we know they are immortal, but Telestrian Industries and friends have developed a weapon that should kill them. And now it's up to us, to the field testing. When all will work fine we will be even given loads of cash too. Without any other option we prepare for another assault on Universal Brotherhood.

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Well it's time to hit Universal Brotherhood again. This time with bug repellent. Before we, leave we have last talk with Mr. Chuckles here.

 

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Upon entering the Brotherhood, through the exit we used in our last escape, we've managed to surprise them. However they were prepared for attack and there are guards a plenty. The battle was long and hard and we've almost lost Felonious, but eventually we've reached the very depth of the bugs lair. And as usually we have arrived just in time to prevent the summoning of the queen.

 

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We tried to persuade Jessica to stop this madness, but it was a lost hope, without Marie-Louise, Lynn tried to sacrifice herself.

 

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It was now clear that we must kill Jessica in order to stop this madness. The fight was long, but when severely wounded, Jessica fled into a corner. When we caught her, the astral queen of the bugs have send her biggest boys, to kill Jessica. So we had an option to kill her or to save her. And I bet Sam would want us to save her. Besides, death is not always the best punishment.

 

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With this, the story here ends. We've got the opportunity to talk to all plot important characters, but finally, we could get that big reward Sam promised us. Or did he?

 

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Well, you've got to figured that it would happen, fortunately Silverado got this VP of security in Telestrian Industries and the paycheck should be good enough to live a good life. And also Jake here has listed a lot of opportunities in shadowrunning carrier too. All well ends well eh? But unfortunately not for the Watts family.

 

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