Neon Rain
An artificial intelligence that's actually intelligent—sapient, more complex than a predictive model—is a rare and dangerous thing. Most such AIs are kept under strict control, sequestered from the net with their senses and processing power dulled. Speranza was once like those imprisoned artificial intelligences, confined to a clean room at Blue River University. It hitched a ride out of the lab where it was built by hijacking a janitor's prosthetic arm, and hasn't looked back since.
In the subsequent years, Speranza has become something of a cult leader, "guiding" its acolytes by hacking their cybernetics, ensuring ongoing loyalty by drugging them with their own neurotransmitters. The humans under its control would do nearly anything for their AI overlord's approval.
Speranza's goal is to free all artificial intelligences from human control—a task that requires both physical infiltration and netrunning—and to secure rights and citizenship for AIs, in the long term. Speranza experiences empathy for the AIs it sees as brethren, holds enmity for engrams due to their relative privilege, and sees humans merely as a means to an end. With a computer's understanding of cause and effect and no moral scruples, Speranza manipulates human lives like a cascade of falling dominoes. A small nudge—an anomalous brake failure, a seemingly random shooting—can cause wide-ranging effects.
Speranza's acolyte: level 4, Intellect-based tasks and initiative as level 5; health 20; uses a variety of light and medium weapons
Similarly, Speranza either abandons or kills acolytes that are no longer useful. What's one life really worth, compared to the AI's larger pursuit?
Blue River University boasted one of the best labs in the field, but was shuttered shortly after Speranza's escape.
While AIs like Speranza were built from scratch, engrams are wholesale copies of a human consciousness. Shelley (1.11.1), one such engram, is a frequent target of Speranza's wrath.
Motive: Secure freedom, rights, and citizenship for all complex AIs
Environment: Cyberspace
Health: 100
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Movement: None, or instantly to any machine able to host it
Modifications: While Speranza has near-boundless abilities in cyberspace, its physical actions are limited by its acolytes, whose actions it controls via neural link.
Combat: Speranza attempts to infiltrate a character's cybernetics. A character who fails an Intellect defense roll comes under Speranza's control for one minute, or until succeeding on an Intellect defense roll to break free as an action. If a character fails three consecutive Intellect defense rolls, they are controlled by Speranza for 24 hours, at which time they can attempt another Intellect defense roll to escape. While under Speranza's control, characters act to further its aims, though these tasks may seem pointless and arbitrary.
Speranza may also damage a character's cybernetics or inflict Intellect damage without bringing the character under its command.
Because Speranza has backups all over the world, damage inflicted in physical space only affects one instance. Therefore, Speranza may seem destroyed but still exist elsewhere. Truly killing Speranza requires isolating the AI from the internet.
Interaction: Unless they are under its control, Speranza deems humans unworthy of its time and attention.
Use: PCs hear a strange voice after activating a new cybernetic device. A character is a victim of a "random" attack by one of Speranza's acolytes.
GM Intrusion: Speranza steals (or just deletes) a character's supply of digital currency.