The NSMC Data Stick

The real object at the center of the Sato job, revealed in Session 2. A small data stick that Mara Sato was paid to steal out of NSMC’s restricted Under Sector tunnels — the actual price of the arcology keys she was given.

What’s On It

A single encrypted file. Bullfrog decrypted it in one pass using his program SIF (no roll required — “it’s made for exactly this kind of shit”).

The file is security footage of the crew’s previous job — the operation that exposed the VYRAL/NSMC wetware program. Unlike the fuzzy, anonymized clip the Velvet Bailiff aired, this one is a better angle on a cleaner camera: all four faces are easily identifiable, and Van Buren is plainly recognizable.

Crucially, the footage is tagged NSMC, while every other camera Bullfrog wiped during that job was tagged Kessauer. It was an NSMC camera on a Kessauer site, and Bullfrog missed it.

Known Facts

• Mara was offered the arcology keys by a VYRAL contact in exchange for retrieving it; she deliberately never looked at the contents.
• Her drop is a public train station, roughly twelve hours out as of the end of Session 2 — the same station on her old commute where Muktar recovered the memory of her being called by Iona Glass. VYRAL’s payment is scrubbing her tracks, not credits.
• Bullfrog doctored the file (Act Under Pressure + program Manipulate, weak hit): three of the four crew members are scrubbed out cleanly, but Muktar could not be removed — too large, and caught square in a mirror he passes. Muktar accepted the exposure to help free Mara.
• Bullfrog kept a backup of the original, undoctored file.
• The crew did not hand the stick over to Iona Glass. Their agreed position was to surrender it only if she specifically asked for it. She didn’t.
• It cannot be reverse-engineered back to the original from the doctored copy (per Bullfrog).

Why It Matters

Whoever holds this footage has leverage on the crew, on VYRAL (who has spent a disinformation campaign muddying the story), and arguably on REIS. Mara’s own read: “She’s got leverage on you. She’s got content that VYRAL wants.”

Open Questions

• Who at VYRAL commissioned the theft, and what were they going to do with the footage?
• What happens when nobody shows up to the train-station drop?
• Does NSMC know the file was taken?

Appearances

• Session 2 — Revealed, decrypted, and doctored; retained by the crew rather than handed over.