Black Soup'd Hacker

The Black Soup'd Hacker is a potential recruit for the mercenary squad.

Backstory

When your Arrowhead milsec special operations team stumbled on corruption at the highest levels, the team was made to disappear. Personally, you got a bullet in the back of the head and dumped into the New Boston harbor. It has not done wonders for your health or disposition.

+4 Strength, +6 Will, +50 Hit Points, +3 All Ranged Accuracy, +5% Buillt-in Armor, ignore up to 2 Recoil and -10% Wound Res

Source

This Hacker can be recruited through the Underworld Hub. The name is randomly generated.

Starting Attributes

These Attributes come from the character Backstory and may be modified by the Starting Traits during the recruitment process.

• Reaction: 0
• Strength: 4
• Will: 6
• Tech: 0

Starting Traits

The Hacker will start with the following Traits:

• Grokkit 1: +1 Tech and +2% Legwork Success

In addition, Hacker will start with one of the following Traits, generated randomly:

• Fortified Receptors 1: When Hacking gain +2 Matrix AP and +4 Cyberdeck Armor
• Synth Weaver 1: When Hacking gain +40/qpbs IO Speed and +5% Matrix Dmg
• Bull-Built 1: +2 Strength and +30 Hit Points

Tags

The Hacker will start with the following Tags:

• Faction Barred: Due to bad blood and history, you are incapable of executing Legwork inside Arrowhead Security territory without drawing the wrong kind of attention.
• Faction Exiled: Left Arrowhead Security and burned all the bridges and is unwilling to join any job working for Arrowhead Security.
• Revenge: Hates and wants vengeance against Minka Dema (Security Chief contact). Minka Dema betrayed and killled <Hacker?'s team of special operators to cover her own corruption.

Recruitment Dialog allows the player to choose an additional option from the following:

• Stolen Shadow Data Center: You stole the site details of a shadow host that contains troves of valuable or incriminating information. Maybe this will be leverage or maybe someday it will turn into a heist.
• Friend: Has a friend, Karina Dredge (Drug Runner contact). <Hacker> and Karina Dredge were part of the same special operations group at Arrowhead before it was betrayed and wiped.

Starting Cybernetic

The Hacker will start with the following Cybernetic:

• Matrix Link 3: grants Hacker class, +1 Tech, -5% Stress Res, +10 Matrix Action Points, +4 Deck Armor, +2%/Turn Connection %

Starting Appearance

To return Black soup'd hacker to his/her default appearance, copy this text to the clipboard and select "import" from his appearance tab:

---BEGIN CYBER KNIGHTS APPEARANCE---

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

---END CYBER KNIGHTS APPEARANCE---

Recruitment dialog

CK: So you're looking for a new boss?

Recruit: I ran into trouble with my old bosses at Arrowhead. Not the kind of trouble you can put back in the box. I was the on-the-ground matrix operator for my special ops team... We stumbled into a corruption scheme way above our paygrade. We didn't realize how bad it was That they'd just turn on us. The big bosses called and our commanding officer hard us snuffed out just like that.

CK: But somehow you got out of there?

Recruit: We were landing on one of the sea platforms, supposed to recover a kidnapped corporate asset. But none of it was real ...

Face: A nice isolated place to take care of you.

Recruit: Exactly, as soon as our bird lifted off the fireteam descended on us. Our own damn people, you could tell by their attack, it was Arrowhead. I took a bullet to the skull and went over the edge.

Face: Did you get picked up by a boat? You couldn't have swum to shore

Recruit: I don't remember but I woke up in a dockyard clinic. They said they hauled me out from under a dock. ... Now come on, don't look at me like that. I know I went swimming in the soup but I am not toxic.

CK: That's a lot of nano-sludge ... You are tougher than you look.

Recruit: I guess I've got an inner fire that kept me going...

Make your choice and continue:

• A military doc once told me I have Foritifed Receptors - I just handle pain better than other hackers. (+2 Matrix AP and +4 Cyberdeck Armor)

1. I've always found I could do more with less - in the matrix I like to say I Synth Weave. (+40/qpbs 10 Speed and +5% Matrix Dmg)

• I've just always been built that way that's probably how I survived my training - I'm Bull-Built. (+2 Strength and +30 Hit Points)

Recruit: A military doc once told me I have Foritifed Receptors - I just handle pain better than other hackers. Once you get a real dose of near-death experience, I guess the rest doesn't seem that concerning, right?

CK: In our line of work, that can be the difference between a score and a disaster. What do you think, <Face>?

Face: This may come to you as a surprise, <recruit> - but what about the Arrowhead execs? What corporate secret did you stumble over?

CK: And before you answer, let me be clear -- if you want in this company, trust is our baseline. So, even if you don't like your own answer, it better be the truth.

Recruit: There is a cabal of senior shareholders who have secretly started a new milsec corporation, called Spaceforce GOLD. They are pitching themselves as the milsec corporate for your space assets.

Face: Creative name.

Recruit: And to feed their new, secret ambition they are funneling troops, assets and contracts away from Arrowhead to their new baby corp. They're a parasite ... If they were discovered, they'd likely be executed. Arrowhead is famously harsh about that kind of thing.

Face: But if it goes on long enough for Spaceforce GOLD to grow into something, they'll be able to jump ship happily to their new fortune.

CK: So you are very dangerous to them - given what you know.

Recruit: If they find out I am alive, they are sure to try to have me killed.

CK: Let's stay realistic - it is when not if. Then there will be Head Hunters. Why should we pick you up with the extra risk you bring on?

Make your choice and continue:

• I don't have an hard evidence to prove what they are doing, but I did start digging. I uncovered an off-the-grid data trove. For now it's my secret - later maybe it can be yours.
• Before they iced my entire team, we collected hard incriminating evidence against Minka Dema. It isn't ammunition I'm ready to use yet, but maybe someday.
• I wasn't the only one who survived - our cybersword lived. But she is mixed up with the Ricksham and selling Blue Juice now.

Recruit: I don't have an hard evidence to prove what they are doing, but I did start digging. I uncovered an off-the-grid data trove. For now it's my secret - later maybe it can be yours.

Face: That sounds like it could be valuable.

Recruit: It won't clear my name or ward of any Head Hunters but it could be a big haul. Let me join up, let's learn to trust each other and then we can talk.

CK: A private word, <face>? What do you think?

Face: Everyone in this business has something haunting their past. We've got to keep that in mind when weighing a new recruit.