Electric Tornado

#gig
A Gig set in 2077, where the players, acting as first responders from MAXTAC, must deal with internal strife (a rogue mildly-cyberpsycho agent) as well as an active hostage situation(?). Maelstrom is threatening to bring an entire powerplant to the ground, all the while two other squads (Militech-Petrochem troops and Trauma Team) are also landing with their own objectives.

Prepping

Theme

Teamwork makes the dream work. But does it when you can't choose your mates?

Mood

• Daylight, working hours, everybody except those inside are having the time of their lives (or so it seems)
• Dark hallways and server rooms, heavy industrial machinery; purposefully closed off
• Dehumanization through Rules/CPRED/Cyberware/Cyberware and heavy About Cyberpsychosis

Motifs

• internal strife when an agent focused on killing makes the entire mission more dangerous by just being there
• conflict generated by competition between corporations, with infighting between Militech-Petrochem, Trauma Team and MAXTAC.
• external conflict between a risky hostage situation with chromed-up criminals and their noble goals - in fact, they did publish their demands publicly and they have a Media working with them, appearing as one of the "hostages"

Running

Setup

• Maelstrom is a dangerous boostergang with hideouts all across Northside, which is where the Microwave Powerplant is located.
  • They have not made any demands, it's been ~2 minutes since the silent alarm was triggered
• Owned by Petrochem, it's very much expected that they've also mobilized security (both inside the building and external) to infiltrate, so it's a race against the time. Expect Trauma Team extracting VIPs as well.
• Arrest, not terminate.
• Entry points:
  • Sewer system that connects the water canals.
  • Main gate.
  • AV on top of one of the Cooling Blocks.
  • Dropped in the water near the Radar Control Tower.
• Possible Assets:
  • MAXTAC AV circling around the perimeter, with your pilot;
  • Two MAXTAC officers, Lieutenant Hook and Alvarez
  • Blackout
  • Lockdown (triggered by overloading the system)
    !1000

Execution

• Every 5 minutes, the terrorists get nervous and do something. Depending on how Threatened they feel, the Effect of their action will be more dire (directly proportional).
• Militech-Petrochem troops only care about the Plant's safety, so their priority is shutting down all systems by entering the Petrochem offices. They're using explosives, breaching doors and clearing sights with little regard to human lifeforms.
• Trauma Team does not care about anything except their VIPs, which are located in the Old Petrochem buildings, taken hostage a lone wolf cell

The Terrorists

• are split in 3 main groups, each with a leader
  • Cross, the most likely to go cyberpsycho, is locked away in the Petrochem offices with d6 Maelstromites, turrets, drones and a bomb.
  • Warlock is with the hostages (d6 + Ryder) along with 2 other Maelstromites, but he is keeping stealthy; in the Old Petrochem Buildings
  • Bug is in the Radar Control Tower, stressed and on edge, surrounded by EMPs to try and shut down or blow up the plant; he has 2d6 Maelstromites patrolling the entire area and a stolen AV

Turning Point

• Lieutenant Hook loses it, killing civvies and whoever else gets in his way.
• Either Militech-Petrochem or Trauma Team finish executing their maneuver (depending on how the PCs have taken their actions) and secure one of the sites.
• As a last ditch effort, depending on who is left alive:
  • Cross detonates the offices and tries to escape to the sewer. If followed, he goes into CY-RAGE.
  • Warlock kills 2 hostages and plants remote-detonated explosives inside their guts. He then takes point and uses a sniper to clear a way on the ground.
  • Bug causes the Plant to go into shutdown, triggering a blackout across Watson and possibly even more.

End

• Secure Lieutenant Hook, dead or alive.
• Kill or arrest all Maelstrom. You can leave once you complete this objective. You can also sabotage Petrochem for the following reason:
  • Ryder tells you that the Maelstrom are actually doing this because Petrochem is threatening to cut all electricity to Northside, pretty much declaring it a Combat Zone indirectly;

Inspiration

After Action Report

This session took place on 04.11.2025. You can view the Discord thread here. The players were Emy & Sasha.

Events

• The players, Joe Barbarossa & Chronodemos, took the role of MAXTAC officers and quite efficiently penetrated the Microwave Powerplant, getting rid of two out of the three Maelstrom lieutenants, namely Cross and Warlock. They also cooperated with Militech troops briefly, which netted Joe Barbarossa with a CRED from them.
• They managed to shut down the Microwave Powerplant together with Militech and took minimum casualties (besides one of their own dying quite early on, namely Alvarez).
• They also incapacitated Lieutenant Hook, who they found out was a Black Lace user and was experiencing About Cyberpsychosis symptoms.
• Later on, they found out a possible connection between Maelstrom and Ryder
• They sustained minimum damage and maintained close connection with the Central Office of MAXTAC, showing good team etiquette;

Epilogue

• The players found out that Ryder either orchestrated the Microwave Powerplant takeover, with Maelstrom as hired muscle, or vice-versa;
  • An interesting avenue they suggested is that Petrochem forcefully withheld the information that the Terrorists had publicly sent out their demands from the MAXTAC unit, turning them into a kill squad;
  • In truth, Maelstrom's Bug managed to sneak into some of the systems, installing a backdoor for later usage. Who aided who remains to be seen as Bug becomes a larger threat in future sessions.
• The players' actions led to Lieutenant Hook being forcefully retired at the age of 33, quite early for a member of the psycho squad, where investment over time translates into loyalty to the organization even post-mortem.
  • As such, Lieutenant Hook is now on a shitty public pension that barely lets him afford rent in Watson and not enough money to maintain his military-grade cybernetics
  • Still addicted to Black Lace, it is unsure how he is going to deal with his problems and if he will end up dead or, worse, a cyberpsycho let loose.

Session Feedback

• The session felt very CYBERPUNK and the #Theme was very well regarded and understood, save for a few mishaps that can be corrected.
  • Trauma Team's efficiency could've been better highlighted through a call from Central telling the players "20 hostages got rescued", coupled with maybe 2-3 AVs instead of just one;
  • Militech's regimented thinking (and poor planning) could've been shown better;
• Lieutenant Hook was generally a good character, as the players enjoyed his slow and unsure descent into madness, with the adrenaline slowly being hyped up by the end of the session;
• From my perspective, the music and map were alright, they did their job and were good enough to not notice them too much either way;
• The #Epilogue was very well executed, with a slow lapse back into reality from in-character discussion to in-character macro-actions to eventually discussing broader feedback, themes and motifs
• Setting the game during midday rush hour was a nice touch in my opinion