Denial of service attack

After the little adventure on the boat, things had settled down a bit and allowed us some breathing time. Collectively, the team had been working on improving various skills; for example, Orca is getting better at picking locks, while I'm learning how to act like a Drone when I’m jumped into one. I asked Orca to spot the difference between me controlling Adam and Jamie running autonomously, and she couldn't, which means I must be doing something right.

Unfortunately, we also need money because drones, arrows, car parts and such don't pay for themselves. Fortunately, Orca's Fixer (a Kebab stand owner called Lenny), was able to come up with one that needed doing urgently and that he felt we were suited for. It was rather simple; the client needed us to break into the Sydney CBD HQ of Baird Communications and destroy a bunch of their servers. They were paying a flat fee for the first two server rooms we killed, and then were offering a bonus for each server room we took down after that, It seemed straightforward enough, even if he needed it done in the next couple of days.

Life on the Coathanger

I’ve mentioned the Bridge before and it's already factored into one of our runs, so I might as well talk a bit more about it. It's a key part of the Sydney Shadow Community landscape while also being the city council's single biggest sticking point. It's definitely not the sort of thing you see on the tourist ads either, and for a good reason.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge copped it pretty bad in the first mana Storm. it suffered severe structural damage and had to be closed for a long-term repair project. Unfortunately, the resulting abandonment of Sydney and the entire country turning feral resulted in a massive influx of poor and desperate refugees from not just the country but even the outer parts of the city. They wound up funneling through the 'controlled areas of North Sydney and the CBD and squatting en-masse on the then abandoned bridge. Sure it was a creaky mess that could have fallen down at any moment, but it wasn’t like they had anywhere else to go.