Session 15: Reactor No. 1

Shadowrun
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Chapter 2
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Chapter 1
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F.A.T.E. PCs
Anastasia Ellison - CS Dmitri - CS Eric Black - CS Gideon Wexler - CS Hector Radcliffe Kumiko Nakamura - CS Oni - CS

The Situation

Suggested music: Mako Reactor - Black Materia: Final Fantasy VII - Random and Lost Perception

This mission introduction is different from the others, since the bulk of the planning will be done by the agents themselves. This is a hodgepodge of information available to the agents as well as ideas or thoughts as the group brainstorms.

Drakes Bay Nuclear Power Plant

The nuclear power plant is built on the California coast line on Drakes Bay. It has three separate reactors, each with its own containment dome and steam stack. There is a large building in front of the reactors, spanning the length of all three. This building is largely industrial, used for electrical transmission equipment, storage, and maintenance purposes. There is a smaller office building detached from the main complex but within walking distance. All of the structures were built to withstand earthquakes of 8.0 magnitude.

Nuclear Inspections

The California Nuclear Regulatory Commission (CNRC) is tasked with bi-annual inspections of all nuclear facilities on CFS soil. These inspections are, in practice, symbolic. Corporations in 2073 have the government in their pocket, and rarely does the commission report any violations. Drakes Bay's next inspection is scheduled for Monday, March 20, 2073.

J.P. Redman has suggested that the inspections could be used to our advantage, either to get an agent in (perhaps Dr. Yau) or as a distraction while the agents do their work. J.P. has connections within the CNRC and will have no problem embedding an agent or two in their team of inspectors.

Connection to Mana Bombs

Dr. Yau has developed another theory during his reverse engineering of the mana bomb devices. He believes that the material used in the battery cells of the device is a byproduct of a special nuclear reaction where the nuclear fuel is combined with a rare awakened fungus. His theory is supported by some of the documents obtained by Dmitri. These documents reference the extraction of biological material from the nearby San Andreas fault. There are many documents that indicate that Reactor No. 1 is being used to generate this special byproduct. Production was apparently halted after the devices were stolen, but the latest documents suggest that production will resume soon, possibly after the March 20 inspections.

Mission Objectives

The primary mission objective is to disable nuclear operations at the power plant. It must not look like sabotage, it must be disguised as much as possible as a true nuclear accident. The containment domes are designed to trap radiation in the event of a meltdown; as long as they are not damaged there is little risk to the general population if a traditional meltdown were to occur.

The easiest way to trigger a meltdown would be to disable the cooling systems. The facility pumps seawater through the reactors to cool them. It's possible it can be done by hacking the power plant's systems, but Dr. Yau doesn't think it will be that easy. There would most likely be a safety system in place to cool the reactors in the event of a system malfunction, which may require a manual physical override.

Though California Intelligence has a detailed map of the facility, the matrix systems are largely an unknown. Dr. Yau and Dmitri will be essential to figuring out how the system works.

A secondary objective is to obtain a sample of the awakened fungus used in the reaction process. Dr. Yau fears that if a meltdown were to occur with this fungus present in the reactor, it could trigger a detonation similar to the one the devices are intended to create. It could wreak untold havoc on the astral space in the region, and should be avoided.

Operational Logistics

Dmitri's trove of documents contains a complete employee list, but not security personnel. Some documents suggest that security personnel are Shiawase employed and security is not contracted out. You can expect high security, to be sure.

Possible points of entry into the property/facility:

• Climbing the fence from the surrounding wilderness areas. These are no doubt heavily secured and this is likely one of the most difficult methods of entry.
• Water intake system from the bay. Schematics suggest it may be possible to enter through the underwater piping that feeds the cooling systems. Sounds dangerous, doesn't it?
• As CNRC inspectors. A relatively safe, but heavily monitored, method of entry. Only Dr. Yau would have the knowledge to play a convincing nuclear inspector, but someone else could squeak by if they stayed quiet.
• Dr. Hideki Tonogawa owes F.A.T.E. a favor.

Notes

• This will in all likelihood be a multi-session mission.
• 5,800¥ remaining on the team stipend.
• All vehicles are fully repaired and available for use. Yes, this includes the helicopter.

Session Synopsis

Dr. Yau negotiated with Dr. Hideki Tonogawa and was able to convince him to secure 5 full-access employee security badges and to meet them at the Waffle House at Point Reyes, the small company town just outside the nuclear facility's borders.

F.A.T.E. split into separate teams:

• Eric and Dr. Yau were to go in as CNRC inspectors. They were to check Reactor 2 for the fungus rods during their lunch break. Eric would summon a spirit with the Quake power once the rods were located.
• Hector will travel to Drakes Bay by boat and swim to the water intake pipes. He was tasked with welding the emergency intake pipes shut and releasing carcerand acid molecules into the primary water intake. This would theoretically damage the water filtration system.
• Ana and Wex were to enter the facility as employees and plant flash paper and a detonator cap at each reactor's backup power generator fuel tanks.
• Doc was to enter the facility as an employee as well. He was tasked with checking Reactor 3 for the fungus rods and to eliminate Dr. Hideki Tonogawa.
• Oni and J.P. Redman were on standby with the helicopter just off the coast.
• Dmitri was tasked with hacking the California power grid and cutting off primary power to the facility.

Complications began right off the bat. Dr. Yau and Eric were the first to arrive at the facility with the inspection team. They were met by a team of Shiawase executives, among them Eric's girlfriend Manami Coltrane and the dangerous MFID Special Agent Wu. They all recognized each other immediately, though went through the entire morning session without bringing much attention to that fact. Manami confronted Eric a few times throughout the morning, but he did not break from the character he was playing.

Anastasia, Wex, and Doc were able to enter the compound without an issue. Their passes checked out at each security checkpoint. Ana and Wex immediately went to work, setting course for the first reactor utility room and finding it to be empty. They planted the flash paper and proceeded to reactor two. Doc lay low for some time before proceeding to reactor three. He found that his badge did not have enough clearance to enter a reactor while the reactor was powered on. Instead of going into the containment dome itself, he gathered the readings from an operations console by looking over the shoulder of another employee.

Wex and Ana planted the flash paper at the second reactor and made their way to the third. However, at the third reactor, they noticed that several security guards were talking to the reactor operators, an area Doc recently visited. They were trying to track down the users of the newly created passes. They proceeded to the utility room and planted the flash paper, but just as they did so the security guards entered the room. The two successfully hid and avoided detection as security swept the room. One security guard was left behind to monitor the room.

Doc went to reactor 2 and gathered the readings from those instruments as well and sent the information to Dr. Yau for analysis. Despite his in-depth scientific and engineering knowledge, Dr. Yau was unable to determine if the fungi rods were in the reactors. After some time, Dmitri was able to figure out that the rods were indeed in use in reactor 2. Doc then went back to the main building to locate Dr. Tonogawa's cubicle but no sign of Hideki himself. He took a seat at an empty cubicle but both he and Dmitri were unsuccessful at logging in. He decided to wait the remainder of the time in the men's room.

After the morning inspection, Manami Coltrane tried to pull Eric away for a private lunch. Eric agreed, but as they walked away the team decided it was time to act. Eric and Manami got on the elevator, where Eric made several attempts to stunbolt her. He succeeded on the third attempt, just before the elevator reached ground level. He summoned the earth elemental, who immediately triggered a significant earthquake. He finally opened the elevator doors where Manami's bodyguards were waiting. They bought Eric's story that she was injured in the earthquake, and in the chaos Eric was able to split from the bodyguards.

As the earthquake struck, Wex emerged from his hiding space to stab and kill the security guard that was patrolling the room, grabbing the guard's security badge in the proces. At that moment, Dmitri cut primary power to the facility and Hector released the acid carcerands into the primary water intake. Doc left the restroom to go find Tonogawa, who was hiding under a table in a nearby conference room. He dragged Hideki from the conference room to the bathroom, knocked him unconscious, shot him in the head, and stole his security badge.

Eric met up with Ana and Wex at reactor 2. In the chaos of the earthquake, they were able to enter the containment dome. They donned radiation suits and went into the chamber, waited for the earthquake to stop, then climbed the staircase to access the rafters. An earthquake caused a steam pipe to burst, but it was angled away from any areas they needed to access. They found the manual controls for the reactor and robotic arm. Wex worked the controls to shut down the reactor. He issued a manual override on the cooling cycle and opened the reactor to have the arm grab the fungus rod. This action was ill-advised but they had little choice and could not afford to wait 15 minutes for that process to complete.

Ana backed away from the door, seeing some security personnel outside that contemplated entering. Increased radiation levels from prematurely opening the reactor dissuaded the guards from entering, and Ana found out shortly after that the door had been sealed shut because of this. About this time, a large mechanical switching sound echoed through the chamber, startling them. They soon noticed that the coolant pumps stopped pouring water into the reactor and that the backup seawater system had engaged. This was according to plan since Hector injected the acid carcerands into the filtration systems. And due to Hector's fine welding work, the backup intakes were not operational. What wasn't part of the plan was having 3 agents trapped inside a reactor that was in the early phases of a complete meltdown.

It was a good thing Eric came with Ana and Wex, because the rod was white hot and they had no time to wait for it to cool. Eric summoned a fire elemental to carry the rod for them. In a desperate attempt to open the door, Ana unloaded all of the clips in her assault rifle, but they were harmless to the structure. The containment dome was designed to withstand the impact of a passenger jumbojet hitting it at full speed. There was nothing an Ares Alpha could do about that.

With radiation levels rising in reactor 2 and the three agents trapped inside, they were left for several minutes to muse over their inevitable death. Dr. Yau told Doc that if he could get access to the computer systems he might be able to override the lock, but that he could not leave the cafeteria because of Special Agent Wu. Doc decided to come downstairs and attempt to extract Yau from his situation. He entered the cafeteria and issued evacuation orders. The guards bought it, but Agent Wu knew better. By this time, she had known that several fake passes had been created, and seen the pictures on all of them. Wu issued orders to fire on Doc, but Yau warned Doc to run simultaneously. One guard did get two shots off at Doc, wounding him as he fled the room. Doc returned fire with his holdout pistol, likewise wounding the guard.

Wu pounced on Dr. Yau, subduing the frail 72 year old scientist easily. F.A.T.E.'s biomonitors showed that Dr. Yau had been knocked unconscious. Doc knew he could not overcome all of those heavily armed security guards, and Agent Wu, by himself with a single holdout pistol that was out of ammo. Yau was on his own. And that meant so are the agents trapped in reactor 2.

Wex hastily ascended the stairs and went back to the control systems at the top of the dome. He desperately searched the systems, looking for some type of mechanical override for the access door. Since primary power had been disabled and they were running on generator, he was able to lower the electrical power to the systems that controlled the door. As he did so, Anastasia, the strongest agent (outside of Oni), used every ounce of her bioware enhanced muscles to push the massive door open just wide enough for the group to leave (a critical success). It took every ounce of her strength to keep the door open just long enough for Wex to descend the stairs and exit. The temporary breach of the containment dome released significant radiation from the chamber. At this moment, the team detonated the flash paper they planted in each of the generator's fuel tanks, causing simultaneous explosions in all three reactor utility buildings. Eric ordered his fire elemental to fly away with the fungi rods in hand, and he did so. In the ensuing chaos, employees began evacuating the site, with only essential emergency personnel ordered to stay and attempt to avert catastrophe. The three agents in radiation suits fled to the parking lot, and Doc fled to the coastline and called for the helicopter to pick him up.

The radioactive trio got into their sedan and fled the scene. The security gate was jammed with cars attemping to leave, so Eric attempted to ram the fence. The fence held, causing frustration in the group and a shuffling of the drivers. Ana was the next to give it a shot, successfully ramming the car through the fence and onto the road. A Shiawase security SUV chased after them, scoring several hits with an assault rifle and obliterating the back end of the car. But the car remained operational, and a few mana and stunbolts from the awakened passengers were enough to take care of the threat. The SUV plunged into the ocean a short time later, and the trio was able to escape to CFS territory.

With both primary and backup power systems down as well as primary and backup cooling systems, the reactors were sure to melt down and become completely unusable; and with the containment domes intact, there should be little risk to the people of California. It was "mission accomplished" with only one minor caveat... Dr. Yau had been taken captive inside the main Drakes Bay compound. As the group is soon to find out, he is the heart and soul of the entire F.A.T.E. operation. If he is compromised, so is F.A.T.E.'s entire operation. He must be rescued, or it's game over.

Aftermath

Stipend expenditures:

• Camera Neutralizer: 1,500¥
• Diving Activesoft (Rating 1): 1,500¥
• Acid raw materials: 900¥
• Carcerand molecules: 750¥

Edge remaining:

• Dr. Yau: 2
• Anastasia: 1
• Wex: 0
• Doc: 1
• Eric: ?
• Hector: 2
• Dmitri: 3
• Oni: 3
• J.P.: 5

Damage taken:

• Dr. Yau: 11 stun
• Anastasia: 1 physical
• Wex: 3 physical
• Doc: 6 physical
• Eric: ?

Results

Status: Complete
Dates: March 18-20, 2073
Quote of the night:

After Ana and Eric switch seats so Ana can drive, after Eric failed to drive through a fence.

Anastasia: Gotta let the women do this.

Wex: Women are better at hitting things with a car.

Nuyen: 10,000¥ mission award
Stipend: 1,000¥ Remaining
Karma Awarded: 11
Additional Awards:

• Eric, Doc, Anastasia, Hector, and Wex receive +1 Street Cred for taking down a nuclear power plant.
• Doc receives +1 Notoriety for killing Dr. Hideki Tonogawa
• The group loses Dr. Hideki Tonogawa as a contact
• Eric Black's Loyalty rating for contact Manami Coltrane decreases to 0.