New Game: Chill 3rd Edition (Boise)

So, yesterday the group that was playing Headspace met up again, at last (it's been like 4 months). We decided that we'd rather start something new than continue with Headspace, but that's no knock against +Mark's excellent game, it's just that our schedules didn't synch up for freaking ever and we've kinda lost the thread.

I pulled out three possibles: Chill, Werewolf: The Forsaken, and Hollow Earth Expedition. My group went for Chill, which of course suits me fine. We pulled out SAVE and the Chill core (and some Edges & Drawbacks from the forthcoming Monsters book, sssh) and got to makin' an HQ.

The players liked the idea of dealing with the Unknown in a rural setting, but wanted to have the HQ set in a population center, so they chose Boise, ID as the HQ site. The Boise HQ is a ranch, long owned by the Adams family (not Addams Family), who have been part of SAVE for generations. Then, back in the 1950s, Eli Adams inherited the ranch and went whole-hog into the Red Scare. He leased much of the land to the government and they built a missile silo. Fast forward to now; the silo's been decommissioned, the HQ lost touch with SAVE during Project Lifeboat but has now reconnected using Nejem's methods (so it's a cell), and Eli's sister "Auntie Dee" Adams has inherited the ranch.

The ranch isn't really a functioning ranch; there are a few animals around, but they're mostly for show. The place acts as a very small B&B during the season, and employs a small staff. As for the SAVE part of things, it's got a panic room (the old missile control room), it's peaceful as hell (Tranquility Quality), it's well-appointed and has an on-staff masseuse (Darnell Stafford; he's a former EMT, Army medic, and he's dealing with ongoing PTSD from his time in Iraq), and Eli's daughter Ruth Adams and her no-account boyfriend Chet Barnes help maintain the place.

No shortage of Unknown issues out here, too! The cell has dealt with an abandoned orphanage; kids were playing out there, getting possessed by something, and going to recruit others. They resolved that issue, but they feel like the real issue hasn't been fixed. Likewise, there's a wolf out there that just won't die. It shows up near the ranch sometimes, someone shoots it, and it just comes back with new scars. Also, there's a sasquatch somewhere in the woods nearby that is still alive...

Into all this, we have a few active SAVE envoys (that is, PCs) in the Boise HQ:

• "Auntie Dee" Adams: Played by Jess. No one's sure what he real first name is, and no one really wants to ask. Dee owns the ranch and the property, having inherited it from her brother Eli. She's in her mid 60s, but still very much an active envoy. Her Drive is for Jesus (and my past, but mostly Jesus). Indeed, she has a little whippet mix she calls "Baby Jesus."
• Dylan Reeves, played by Mike. Dylan is from San Diego, and was visiting his brother in Boise while a college student. They went into the woods with some friends, and that's when the wolf attack, tearing a classmate apart in front of them. His brother has been missing ever since. He transferred to Boise, finished his degree, and got a job at Boise as a prof. His Drive, of course, is to find his brother. 
• Edward Potter, played by Rob. Edward is a filmmaker. He made a horror movie about a vampire-like creature called a penanggalan, which did very well...until an actual penanggalan came after him. He shot it out of the air, but isn't remotely hopeful that he killed it. He wound up joining SAVE, because the Unknown brought the fight to me, now I bring it to them. 
• Jeanette "Jeanie" LeClerc, played by Michelle. Jeanie is descended from French fur traders, and she's an outdoorsy sort of person herself. She drove off a sasquatch that was attacking hikers, and eventually found her way to SAVE. She takes care of a lot of the maintenance and repair on the ranch. Her Drive is that people need rescued. 
• Basil "BB" Bottomley, played by Sarah. Our favorite lovable Australian bounty hunter made his way out here from LA chasing a jumped bailed and decided to stay a while. The rugged countryside reminds him a little of home, but with fewer deadly spiders. His Drive, of course, is that everyone deserves justice. 

And that'll do it! Next month: Our first case!

Headspace Gets Weird!

Today was Headspace; we actually just finished up a few minutes ago. But for a change, I don't have anything pressing right afterwards, so I'ma do the write-up now.

Last time, the Operators prevented PSS from making headway on their goal to subsume civilian police, and stopped Applied Optimism's project to get proof that another corp was behind the tsunami. This time, they learned the Applied Optimism was taking aim at Headspace tech directly, trying to learn to subsume or crack it.

They decided that was important enough to focus on to the exclusion of all else (which meant that the PSS project achieves an objective, but we'll get to that next time). They decided to take aim at the AO project's Time Milestone, which was Test Headspace crack using a broadcast facility. Their objectives were to locate this facility, rescue their test subjects and liberate the data, and then destroy the facility.

Spider activated his AI, Diane, to check the footage of their original raid on AO (where their Handler and Whitecoat were killed). They found that there was an aerodyne that landed just before the building exploded, marked with passes to get in and out of the quarantine zone - that must be where the facility is. As they were checking data, though, Diane told Spider that their feed was being tracked. They left, Grease driving (and plowing through a taco stand - Rage feedback!). Willis leaned out the window and blew up an aerodyne that was following them, and they made it to Grease's hideout in an old, abandoned bank.

Arrow checked the security feeds and found someone tooling around on a hoverbike, adjusting his nose - he had the same disguise implant that she did. Figuring he was probably looking for them, Arrow and Willis went down the road to see if he'd follow (he did) while Spider tagged the dude with a special invisible tracking paint that he rigged up. They followed the guy into the quarantine zone, but Grease got cold feet at the last minute before crossing the border. Willis jumped out and parkour'd their way in, following the guy, while Grease searched around for a safer crossing point.

Willis trailed the guy to a short, squat building in the q-zone. The others caught up, and Arrow used her contacts in the Architect's Guild to get the blueprints - there was no roof access, but they could get in through a manhole (or, to use the less sexist term, "street orifice"). The Operators went below and, hacking their way past security, emerged into the ground floor.

There, they found 20 beds, each occupied by a person hooked up to electrodes. The people were all breathing in perfect unison. One of the people was Angel, their supposedly-dead Whitecoat. But if she's here, then how is her memory still in the Headspace? (At this point, the Operators had achieved their first Objective: Found the facility, but Operators are off-balance and freaked out.)

They decided to split up. Grease left to go and find a vehicle big enough to transport these people. Spider create a failsafe to buy them time if AO decided to fry these folks. Arrow and Willis climbed up the elevator shaft (the only egress from their floor), and emerged in a control room with three whitecoats and the op from before.

Arrow nailed the op in the back with a monofilament knife, but those are messy, and the whitecoats noticed and hit the alarm. Spider was unable to stop the data from being purged (rather, he chose to save the people instead). Willis shot the whitecoats, but Diane warned Spider that vehicles were incoming.

Grease, meanwhile, contacted his ring of thieves and got them to send a bus. He got it to the facility, and Willis blew a hole in the wall. Willis used their weapons and grenades to fend off the security response, but was shot and wounded (and Taken Out) in the process. Arrow went to grab Willis, but collapsed into the bus (also Taken Out). Spider ran off into the q-zone, abandoning the others but circling back around to where they crossed into the q-zone. This completed the second Objective (Victims rescued, but data was lost and Operators and separated).

Grease drove the bus to the Dodge Clan's den, but wasn't allowed to leave the bus (the Clan was justifiably concerned that they'd been in the q-zone. Spider arrived and rigged the bus' engine to provide power to the victim's communal headspace, but knew that wouldn't last. Grease, meanwhile, fussed over Angel (who'd been injured in the escape), and Arrow obsessed over how Angel was here, alive, but also her "ghost" was in their heads. Willis woke up and discovered their left hand wasn't moving; too badly injured in the fight.

Spider hacked into the headspace, but did it too forcefully and all four of the Operators appeared. They talked with the people, who were confused and defensive, but Willis talked them into waking up. They did, including Angel, but Angel's memories after receiving her headspace implant were gone - she had no memory of the other Operators. She was, however, able to give them tests and prove that they were negative for the Tsunami Flu, so the Clan let the Operators leave.

By then, though, they'd been in there long enough that AO had time to get rid of all the evidence at the facility. This meant that the Operators failed the final Objective, but since they completed the first two they won the Milestone.

Next time, though, they'll have to split their focus or give ground.

Headspace: Double Duty

The way Headspace works is that the Operators are working against corporate projects. One of the things I really like about it is that it asks the players to come up with concrete goals - like, here's what we're doing this session to thwart this project, which does wonders for keeping people focused.

Yesterday, we started session 2 by defining some Anchors. Their Anchors are:

• Victoria, an older woman who mentored Willis and acts as an arms broker. She thinks Willis is sloppy, whereas Willis think she's old-fashioned. Arrow doesn't trust Victoria; she suspects the old lady is Corp. And Spider has a very special (and sometimes naked) relationship with Victoria. 
• Johnson Taylor, a producer/report at Applied Optimism. He's Corp, yes, but his relationship with the Operators is more cordial. Willis was once hired to kill him, but didn't because he actually got mad rather than weepy. Grease dislikes him because Taylor used Grease as a scapegoat in a story once. Arrow has a good working relationship; she got dirt on a rival for him once. 
• Michael, the younger brother of Keaton, the group's (now Ghost) Handler. Michael and Grease are friends; Grease showed him how to start a car with a cell phone. He has a rivalrous relationship with Spider; there was a drone race, which they both claim they won. 

Officially we should have done corporate Anchors, too, but eh. Wasn't feeling it. 

So the Operators had two Projects to deal with, the Applied Optimism one (which had one Objective left - AO was going to broadcast the evidence they had of 3H's involvement with the tsunami), and PSS' new Project to remove civilian authority from the police and take over. They decided to take both of these on. They decided they'd start by getting some intel on exactly what PSS planned to do. 

Arrow and Grease took on that job. Grease called on his Dodge folks and got himself a delivery truck with some janitorial supplies, and rocked up to a PSS facility. Arrow hacked in, and wound up triggering a Regret. The rest of the group saw the flashback of her having sex with one Trenton Kelly, another PSS soldier...who's now in charge of his facility. But, be that as it may, they got in and Arrow donned her camouflage cloak and went looking for data while Grease watched the security feed and kept lookout.

She found what she was looking for, but someone in the security office noted the logon and folks started looking for her. She dodged them, but needed a diversion, so Grease released the wolf-drone he'd borrowed from Spider and just had it run around the loading dock like a crazed puppy. That gave Arrow enough time to get back to the car and slip in, but there had been a lock put on their vehicle. Arrow hacked it, and they took off, in the midst of a hail of gunfire - they got what they wanted, but PSS had seen them. 

Reviewing the data, they realized that PSS' plan was to take out a community center on the edge of the quarantine zone by gassing it. That wasn't going to stand, but they had other fish to fry in the meanwhile. 

Specifically, Willis and Spider were at an Applied Optimism building, enacting that part of the plan. They were first going to take out AO's broadcast capability for a few minutes, then "neutralize" a high-level producer named Knowlton who had put together the presentation on 3H, and then steal or corrupt the evidence. No problem.

Willis sneaked into the basement and set a bunch of charges, while Spider rode the elevator up to find Knowlton. Willis, in creeping around the basement and wishing she could just take the whole building down, found a tech working on one of the generators. She incapacitated him (and in the process revealed a Regret; she'd blown up a building that had destroyed a fortunately empty playground across the street) and dragged him up to the surface, but in the process missed her cue to blow the gennies. Spider had his predator drone fire, but since the building's power wasn't down the missile didn't do much damage. Knowlton had time to dive cover, but Spider just shot him (berating Willis all the while). And now the building was in pandemonium. 

Arrow and Grease arrived at this point, and headed upstairs. Arrow and Willis headed for the vault to get the physical evidence, while Grease and Spider went for the server room to delete the data (Grease bringing Spider's wolf-drone to serve as a portable power supply, since the power was out). Both locales were guarded, but Spider sent in the wolf-drone to make short, messy work of the guards and then started downloading the data.

Arrow and Willis, meanwhile, took out their guards with a combination of Martial Arts and Guns, and Willis blew the vault open. They grabbed the evidence, but now there were guards everywhere, shooting. Willis' armor held up for a while, but in the end Willis collapsed, unconscious and bleeding. Arrow ran out, scooped up Willis, and ran for the exit, shooting all the while. She got out, but with some injury.

Spider and Grease weren't doing much better. Spider tried to run to help the others, but got pinned down by gunfire. Finally they made a break for it, Grease riding the predator drone down and Spider rappelling with his wolf-drone as an anchor. It worked for Grease, but Spider was Taken Out, and landed in a heap. Grease pulled the van around and grabbed Spider, but left the disabled wolf-drone. The Operators had failed at this final Objective, but succeeded on the first two, meaning they had won out on the Project overall.

But they had another couple of fish to fry. To wit, they needed to do a preemptive strike on the folks coming to nerve has the community center and then get all this data to Johnson Taylor. They waited a while to heal, though, so they started one pie-slice in the hole when they got things moving again.

Digging into the intel they'd gathered, they learned that the folks doing the gassing weren't PSS, but rather a team of Operators like them. Spider talked to Victoria, and she was willing to share particulars if she got the gas canister back and if all this didn't come back on her. The Operators agreed, and she told them that the team was going to pick up an aerodyne off a particular roof, then landed on the center's roof and hook the canister into the ventilation system. The Operators decided to do this quietly - switch the gas canister for something benign, take the deadly stuff back to Victoria, and avoided blowing up too many things (Willis wasn't thrilled).

They found the rooftop and staked it out. There was a protest going on down below on the street, so when the other team arrived (which included a man called Jeremy, whom Arrow recognized as her brother Craig's lover), Willis set off a bomb in a storefront as a distraction. The team looked over the edge, and Arrow crept up near the aerodyne. Willis tossed a firebomb to the roof, Jeremy dropped the canister, and Arrow swapped it and ran, tuck-and-rolling into Grease's vehicle. The team shot at her, but didn't realize the switch, and then got in their aerodyne and went on their way.

Final Objective: Give this data to Taylor Johnson. They set up a dead drop and waited, but the one who showed up was one of the members of the other team (a woman in a black catsuit). She collected the data and ran, and since the Operators didn't know who she was working for, they let it go, failing the last Objective (but completing the first two and earning one overall victory on this project).

After all was said and done, there was a permanent event: Applied Optimism has lost much of its credibility with the masses, but maintains pull with the corporations. The struggle with PSS is ongoing, of course, and we'll pick it up next time.

Game Prep: Squiggles

OK, I'm running three games in the next three days (counting today) and then another one next Monday and aAAAAHAHAhahahahaAAHAAH I need to do some prep.

Got my game face on.

Anyway. Running Headspace today, Night's Black Agents tomorrow, Feng Shui Monday and finishing up Iron Edda next week. Plus I have a bunch of writing to do on Monsters, since the Kickstarter is launching on 10/4 (I don't need to have the book written by then, which is good, because that's not going to happen, but I want more of it written), and eventually I might get the outstanding drafts of the Beast books I'm working on and be able to redline.

Oh, and I need to bash out enough of Np that I can take it to Metatopia.

Today, however, is game prep day.

Character Creation: Headspace

Doing chargen for PtbA games is always a little weird, because chargen is designed to happen in a group, but hey.

First thing's first, though:

What is the Game You Are Most Likely to Give to Other? Probably one of the ones that I wrote or publish.

What Makes for a Good Character? A lot of things, but here are some of the most important, IMO:

Sticky. The character needs to have a reason to be involved in the story and, in particular, with the other characters. This is why I encourage group chargen; if you make characters separately, then you're asking the GM to come up with a reason for a bunch of disparate people to hang out (which works OK in some games and really not at all in others).

Conflict. A good character needs to have something to struggle against. I don't (always) ask players to get meta enough to think about a character's arc, but it's worth considering what, at the start of a game, is driving the character and what problems they're having.

Mistakes. This is a personal one, but I think it's useful to consider what kind of mistakes a character makes. Fate highlights this with the "Trouble" Aspect; when this character gets into trouble, what drives that?

What Hobbies Go Well with RPGs? Cooking. You know how to cook, you can make for happy, well-fed gamers.

Most Unusual Circumstances in Which You've Gamed? Um. I think summer camp a loooooong time ago, where we didn't have dice and simulated that by pulling scraps of paper with numbers written on them out of a hat.

Thing You'd Be Most Surprised a Friend Had Not Seen or Read? This is a weird question; what does it have to do with gaming? I'd be surprised if most of my close friends hadn't seen Firefly, but only because that's the kind of crowd I run with.

Right, now then.

The Game: Headspace
The Publisher: Green Hat Designs
Degree of Familiarity: Some. I ran a session a month or so back, and we're playing again once we beat the schedule-weasels into submission.
Books Required: Just the one.

 
So, Headspace is, apparently, a lot like Sens8, which I haven't watched yet, so I don't know how accurate that is (my players tell me it is). It's cyberpunk by way of Leverage, insofar as the characters are hypercompetent and plugged into each other's brains. It's pretty baller.

To make a character, I'd first choose a setting (there are a few pregenerated ones in the book). I think I'll just go with Vancouver Aftermath since I'm familiar with it; it's the one my group is using.

Now I choose an Operator. There are six to choose from, and if I had a group, any Operators not accounted for would be Ghost Operator (present, but dead, in the Headspace). My natural inclination is, of course, Runner, because Parkour is awesome, but let's do something a little different today. Let's do Infiltrator. Being all martial-artsy and sneaky sounds fun.

First thing I do is name my infiltrator. I can pick a name or make one up. I'll call him Jones. It's not his name, but I like the idea of the Infiltrator being scary in a nondescript, could-be-anybody kind of way. Plus I'm still salty at White Wolf for changing the name of the Jones bloodline in Ancient Mysteries, but never mind.

Next, I define my Skills baggage. Skills in Headspace key off of emotional baggage, because it's not whether you succeed, it's how much your action ups the tension. This includes answering a question about how I used that Skill in past, which normally would involve another PC, but as it's just me, I'll just wing it.

For Martial Arts, the question is "Who was the only one who stood up against you?" I'll say that it was the Whitecoat. He saw the toll that assassination was taking on Jones and advised him to stop trying to shunt all his guilt away; it wasn't working and it was going to kill him or change him irrevocably. "Guilt" isn't one of the choices, but "Grief" is, so I'll put that under Martial Arts.

For Security, it's "Whose family did you forge documents for that allowed their escape?" I'll say it was the Ronin. The trade-off was that the Ronin come work for our team for a predefined period (of course, joke's on me, now I'm in the Ronin's head and can see how pissed she is at me). Sounds like Rage fits.

For Stealth, it's "Who did you witness doing something that still puts you off?" It was the Handler. She's willing to sacrifice us to finish the job. That's not plan A, but it's closer to A than Z, and that makes Jones a little nervous; surely there should be some attention paid to getting the team out safely? Fear fits here.

Now, normally I'd fill in the baggage from the other characters on the right side of my sheet, but since it's just me, I don't have any way to do that. Instead, I progress to the next step, which is Choose a Sub-culture. Jones feels pretty Corporate to me, but maybe that's too easy? Let's say he's a Net-head. He's the ghost in the machine. He's a "guest user."

Now I do my look. My eyes are focused, my hair is bald with retro net-ports (lots of folks have them, and it makes my tech look older than it is), my body is average, my clothes are second-hand, and my avatar, quite apart from the usual highly customized look that Net-heads go for, is a simple, generic, default guest avatar that a lot of systems use.

Next step: choosing my Disciplines. I get +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2. I'm meant to put higher scores in emotions I can deal with more easily. OK, then. I think Jones has a good grip on Fear and Rage, so I'll put my +2 and +1 there, respectively. I'll stick my 0 in Ego; it's kind of a wash for Jones (he's good and he knows it, but he's learned humility and he doesn't like to take credit). I'll put -1 into Grief, since he still grapples with guilt. That leaves the -2 for Need, which is perfect; Jones doesn't like to admit that he needs anyone or anything, but now there are people in his head.

Next would be defining Ghost Operators, but that's another "I need a group" thing, so I'll skip it.

That brings me to "Define Your Regret." What did Jones do for a Corporation that he now regrets? Well, I think that Jones is the kind of person you call if you need someone disappeared, not just dead. He can kill you and wipe out your 'net presence, up to a point. So I think that he was called in to take out a young idealist. She was interested in actually following AO's mandate of bringing information to the people, even if said information was scary or unpredictable, and she had ideas that were actually fresh and new. AO's suits couldn't handle that, so Jones was called in not just to kill her, but make her work look...ordinary. He can live with killing, but snuffing out real innovation still eats at him. Her name was Sinnead.

That leads into the next step, which is Drive. I can have a Vengeance or Redemption Drive, but Redemption sounds better. Jones' Drive is "get Sinnead's unedited work into the 'net."

Edges! I pick two from a list. Let's see. I'll take Registered as a Lethal Weapon (extra Harm in unarmed combat, though really tracking Harm doesn't seem to matter much) and Identity Thief. I have lots of backup IDs and related files ready to go. It's stored digitally, in the servers of some little company that has more computing power than brains.

And I get an upgrade. Oh, it's the "Potato Head Disguise Kit;" I can remove my features and mix-and-match them. I'm not thrilled about that (there are optional rules that let me pick a different one, but I'm not going to bother). I just think it's silly.

And that's it!

Headspace: Vancouver Aftermath

Yesterday, I ran a session of Headspace, a new cyberpunk PbtA RPG by +Mark Richardson. I ran it in preparation to write a review, like I do. Most of the time, when I run game for review purposes, they wind up being one-shots, but I'm always interested to see which ones will make the players say "let's play this some more." Unwritten would have, I'm sure, but the group that we assembled was disparate enough schedule-wise that it wasn't tenable. This group, though, is an established one; we were played Epyllion for a while, but then hit the end of a story arc and were waiting until the full game is released to pick it up again.

Anyway, the point is, we played a session yesterday, and the players decided they'd like to continue the story next month. That, Mark, is the best response you can get from players. As such, I need to do the write-up (which is not the same as the review, which I'll work on this week and try and get it up before GenCon), but first:

We made characters first. Since we have four players, we wound up with two Ghost Operators (the Handler and the Whitecoat, as it happened). The remaining Operators are:

• Grease, the Runner (played by Mike). Grease got used by Aescupalian labs to deliver drugs to (he thought) folks in need, but it turned out to be a bunch of execs and their hired goons. He and his family emigrated from the US, and were investigated as possible terrorists (Americans are dangerous, you know, they're violent and gun-obsessed; we also joked that Grease might be a descendant of Jethro, Mike's character from Misspent Youth).
• Spider, the Tech (played by Rob). Spider was the one hired to investigate and then smear Grease's family. He's hacked into a lot of people's lives and ruined them, but wants to make amends for what he's done. 
• Willis, the Ronin (played by Sarah). Willis is expert in blowing stuff up, and made their bones (Willis doesn't like pronouns) taking on dirty jobs for Pacific Security Systems. 
• Arrow, the Infiltrator (played by Michelle). Arrow, too, used to work for PSS, and burned down a food warehouse as part of PSS' plant to start food riots in 'Couver. 

I read over the Vancouver setting for the players and introduced them to the five corps that are relevant, and asked which one they would like to take on, figuring that since a couple of them have tied to PSS, they'd pick that or Aesculpian (Mark, a note: I hate that name, it's hard to pronounce and spell). So obviously they picked Applied Optimism, the least overtly evil and most subtle of the corps to work against.

So Applied Optimism wants to turn the unwashed masses against the other corps, and use the masses as a weapon (they're said to be involved with the Occupy movements, some 60 years ago in-setting). I decided to go with their corporate project listed in the book: Leak corporate involvement to the wage slaves. To that end, their three Objectives were: Find proof of 3H involvement in the quake (Cost), start riots in the reclamation zones (Quality), and broadcast proof of 3H involvement (Time). Since this is the first session, they've already achieved one; I decided it made most sense if they'd achieved the Cost Milestone already. The Operators chose the Quality milestone as the one they were working against (after some deliberation). 

The broke their approach down into three milestones: First, rescue Kevin Mitnick, a civilian resident advocate whose popularity and notoriety made him a voice of the people. AO had kidnapped him and reported him dead; they were using that as a way to whip people up. Second, they planned to make sure a critical food delivery arrived safely. And finally, they planned to take out a group of paid agitators out on the streets. 

We start in medias res, and the Operators were working on rescuing Kevin. They'd made some progress - Grease had found Kevin in the upper floors of a high-rise and had called in Angel (their Whitecoat) to help treat Kevin's injuries (we justified that by saying that AO employed some tech that disrupted the Headspace enough that Grease couldn't just treat Kevin himself). Meanwhile, Spider was outside the building observing through drones, Arrow was on the upper floors being sneaky, and Willis was downstairs with Keaton (the Handler). Turns out AO had rigged the building to collapse via several explosive charges. 

Grease jumped off the building, lugging Kevin, and yelled for Angel to follow...but she froze, and Grease heard gunfire. Angel disappeared from the Headspace, but Grease landed and rolled, keeping Kevin safe. One of the charges exploded in the bottom of the building, vaporizing Keaton. Willis reset the other charges, figuring if the building went down, AO would think Kevin was dead and the Operators could use that to their advantage. 

Spider provided backup on drones, but wound up taking a couple of Grief complications and fleeing. Grease jabbed Kevin in the leg with a hypo to dull his pain, but hit a nerve and Kevin screamed, altering guards. Arrow saw he needed help and looked for a way (using Observation, which isn't her skill), and wound up revealing her Regret, triggering a flashback for all of the Operators. She spotted a fire escape, zipped down, and landed on the guards all martial-arts style. 

Willis blew the building and everyone fled. The Operators had achieved their first milestone, and created an Event: AO thinks Kevin is dead and he's getting ready to hold a press conference.

Next up: The food delivery. Grease contacted the Dodge, his gang of car thieves, and got himself a hoverbike with a faulty altimeter (take it too high and it doesn't know how high up it is, which can lead to problems). Spider did some hacking using his AI, Diane, and learned that the food was being delivered via aerodyne and then split up into multiple shipments and taken throughout the zone. If AO was going to hit the shipment, it needed to it before that point. 

Arrow did her infiltrator thing and got on board the aerodyne, wearing the appropriate uniform. Spider, as always, hung back and watched through his drones. Willis rode on Spider's predator drone (it's loud and hot, but Willis has a pain editor, so Willis don't care), and Grease swooped in behind on his new bike.

As they approached the landing site, the aerodyne pilot reported that something was taking control of the ship and throwing off the gyros. Spider tracked the signal and found a dude on a rooftop with a rig. He sent the predator drone over, and Willis, not one to fuck around, shot the dude in the face. Crisis averted?

Maybe not. Grease noted someone on another rooftop with what he thought was a rocket launcher (he may also have picked up a couple of Fear complications and overestimated the danger). Willis flew over and shot that guy, too, and then realized the "rocket launcher" was a really high-tech camera; the dude was just filming everything, probably for AO. Willis hopped off the drone and picked up the camera, keeping an eye on the the ship, making sure it all went smooth.

Not so much. As the aero came in for a landing, Arrow recognized one of the dudes on the landing strip from her time freelancing for PSS. She had Spider run facial recognition - they all were PSS goons. Spider sent in his wolf drone as the ship landed to take out one of the PSS guys, and everything kind of went chaotic - the PSS guys hadn't threatened the delivery guys, so no one knew of the danger. Grease started heading toward them on his bike, Spider had the predator drone fire a missile near the strip, and Willis shot the dude Arrow had ID'd. The remaining goons opened fire on Grease (the only target they could see), and he crashed his bike into a wall, Taken Out. 

The pilot of the aero, deciding "fuck this" was the better part of valor, took off. Arrow, still on board, managed to coax him into touching down a small distance away, after which he got out and ran. Arrow contacted the folks waiting for the delivery and they showed up to unload and distribute. Success.

Mostly success. The collateral damage had made this a qualified victory. The food is distributed successfully, but collateral damage has the populace spooked. 

The Operators dragged Grease out of the wreckage and treated him, and then they got to work on their last objective - the agitators. 

Willis, of course, was of the opinion that "find 'em and shoot 'em" was effective, but the others noted that AO could just as easily use that to get what they wanted. Instead, the Operators decide to find the agitators and dox them, revealing their real professions and allegiance. They went to work using Hacking and Sprawl to find these dudes, and somewhere in here Willis reveal their Regret to gain Sync - when Willis set off a bomb to start riots, a young girl wound up half blind after taking shrapnel to the face. That stayed with Willis...and now with the other Operators, too. 

Anyway, the Operators spread out through the city, finding the agitators, ID'ing them, and putting names and profiles up on the great big digital screens on the sides of buildings. They also had to convince the volatile populace not to kill them, since violence would lead to riots just as surely as agitation. For the most part, they were successful - no riots, no big explosions. At the end of the day: The agitators have been disowned, but the wage slaves are out for blood. 

It's a dangerous city the Operators find themselves in, and we'll see what that means next time.