There was actually a bit of discussion between the Collective Geneticist, The C-Metal Tech, and the Edger if there was a way to make some scratch off this find. The Nanotechnology defenses, while utterly vicious were of limited application outside of Enclave Defense, but the modified SK protocols (henceforth dubbed as SKIV), the personality templates, and relatively quick growth genetic engineering tools were of exceptional interest. They also found indications buried in the data which stated five of the Angels were still active, namely Metatron (Voice of God/Interface with Corporate officers), Azreael (Angel of Death/ Top-End Solo), Uriel (Solo & Wetwork Specialist), Michael (Cadre Leader/Solo) and Lilith (Interface Op).
Along with a cryptic Simple Text Message buried within the Data: “I'm still in here, You Bastards---Lucifer, The Star of Morning, Esq.” With the most recent updates to the frame within the last month, including templates for several exceptionally sophisticated forms of powered armor dubbed Hardsuits, as well as an address within Tokyo.
Now as any one knows, The Net crashed hard in the Collapse, so the players were utterly mystified as to how the thing could have been updated as the place appeared to be a sealed bolthole. After a bit of investigation, which mostly involved asking the smart-frame if it had radio or sat receivers (yes) and how it was updated. They found out there was a combination of a physical agent coming about once a month to the site (they had not noticed tracks in) plus occasional transmissions into the old sat link (which doubled as a micro squirt radio receiver).
Lacking any experts in communications, the decided to go back to Night City with as much as the tech they could cart, made some fairly profitable deals with each of their enclaves, they decided to go looking for some deckers with knowledge of the older net (a bit harder to find than one would initially think). After traveling to the Blind Science enclave in what remained of Silicon Valley, a few of the older techs recognized it as being related to some of the prototype Ishara-Grubb V3 protocols that were being developed as CW4 rolled on as well as the addressing which seemed to come from Japan. They also found out Lucifer was a legendary Decker in the Pac-Rim who'd had a mad-on against the Zaibatsu of Japan
Suffice it to say, this was a thunderbolt, as no one had even heard Japan being still online, or rather had paid attention to it being that way (Vindex and all that). So to find out if such a thing was possible, they asked around their contacts and went back to the True America Enclave, as they seemed to have their hooks into many factions money and intel. After showing the evidence, their contact sighed a bit stating, “Well, this was eventual.” And told them that, yes, Japan still existed in a contiguous fashion, but truly was not aware of the condition of the USA. True America had been making a killing by bringing imports through the Riptide Confederations transport system of going around the Pac-Rim to Night City, and having exclusive trade rights for certain items meant the True Amis unconcerned if the secret got out.
The players at this point made a polite request to see which items were already under the Ami's hooks, had a confab to discuss what they'd try brining back for they factions once they got there, then asked for a contact to talk to among the Rips.
The True America contact actually stated that they would need to go to the Stray Dog Enclave on the outer edge of the dock areas in the San-Fran Hub as he produced a few old U.S. passports for them. After a bit of paperwork when dealing with with they respective factions (Mostly explaining that Japan was back), They headed out after a few encounters with Water-based boosters, they managed to make it to the Coordinates...and found out the enclave was a Water Based Parkology that they needed to show they passports to get in. Once inside they had to take a boat to an artifical island that was in the cleanest sky blue water that any of them had ever seen at a balmy 87 degrees with about 95% humidity.
The Enclave looked to be a retro enclave at about 1945-1953 Japan after the War, with locally fac'd cars and buildings....and No Net or CellNet they could detect. To say they stuck out like a sore thumb is being generous, with them drawing stares from the locals. The Sheer culture shock nearly lead to some altercations, but the fixer was able so smooth things over after watching the local street action and figuring out, in spite of appearances, they was a active black market in the area dealing in rice ration cards. Figuring out this would be a decent time to spread the wealth, he hooked up with a local fixer and asked for directions to where they would need to go to head for Japan while being generous with the NCD's. The local fixer was a bit perplexed, but wasn't going to turn away easy cred, so pointed him at the local Police station, which handled passport stamping and booking on ships leaving port. One of the players said, “Heh, Casablanca.” As they got to the station and noted the general laziness of the local police, having tea and smokes. The passports were stamped and they were booked on the Hon Maru for Japan, a former IEC cargo submarine.
The submarine had been an old Typhoon class that had been bought off the Old Soviet Union By IEC and refurbished for cargo transport before the Collapse. After that, the Rips had seized it and refitted it slightly to make travel a bit more tolerable for the haul across the ocean. The crew tended to stay out of the players way as they were paying customers, but left a holojector with several data solids for them to review as they traveled. The solids contained 3DV's of a History of Japan as well as Post Collapse History in a News Reel format which the C-Metal pegged as the “Why We Fight” style of propaganda, raising more than one eyebrow among the players. The fact the solids and passports stated “Empire of Japan” on the official labels gave pause for thought.
At about on day out from landfall, they had a microsub doc with them, and two government agents from the Bureau of Cyber-Technology Regulation came to visit them, subjecting the players to some very pointed questions about they chrome they were carrying and how it worked. While the specifics were glossed over, the BCR agents seemed to be more interested in the humanity costs of the chrome as opposed to weapon systems, The players had wisely chose not to bring any, except close quarter weapons, which didn't really seem to interest the BCR overly much. After showing Edger armoring technology, which the BCR classified as a passive system (therefore ignorable), they were given clearance to have the ship surface to head into Japan.
The players were allowed up on deck and had several double takes as they saw Tokyo. Instead of ash and cinders, The City was completely different from the older skyline. Gone were the imposing mega Archologies and Soulless black edifices which emphasized the corporate reign of the Japanacorps, but was replaced with a clean, aesthetically pleasing , more people friendly looking sprawl....which seemed to stretch out over the water much further that it should have, but light seemed to get under the floating cities that were nearby hubs to Tokyo itself.
When asked, the ships crew made several mentions of “The Reformatting” and “Fusion-tech” provided by The Collective after North Korea EMPed the country to hell and back. After a few questions, the players pegged The Collective as a Japanese AltCult that had wormed it's way into the Japanese governmental bureaucracy after the Collapse, and had considerable, if relatively benevolent, control over the island nation. The inate cynics in the group adopted a wait and see attitude as the ship docked near a massive archology which the locals called 'The Cathedral' (named as such for it's Gothic-inspired architecture, which serves as a Government Annex and Housing Block for the Collective's members. At this point their agents stated getting hit with lots of messages, adverts, and other calls to use the local Net (TsunamiNet, Catch the Wave).
What was noticed was that the players Agent's identified the local Net protocols as Ishara-Grubb Version 3 protocols, as the players fiddled with the local media to figure out just how far spread the local com-nets were, services available and so forth. Sadly, only the fixer had come chipped for Nihon, and had to help the others find out where certain things were. Eventually they came across a reference for an “Guide” program to help them find their way around. It rendered itself on their agents as a Japanese Courtier Woman from the Heian period and politely answered any questions they had about the local area, as well as direct them to the Cathedral as the area for Diplomatic Embassies. Catching on quickly, they asked how many other nations had embassies. The reply of none was unsettling to the players, but they headed for Cathedral, now realizing they were effectively Ambassadors ( and considering all forms of high diplomatic abuse).
The Fixer in the group was thinking that actually getting a feel for the Governmental Annex and learning the local laws ( to see what they could get away with). The Cathedral was a Acro-Block on the scale of some of the more massive blocks from back in Night City and was a technological mixture of Gothic and Japanese industrial sensibility, while it was rather subtle a few of the more hardened types noted the rather large amount of security drones and casual, but alert types in various forms of clothing, which they deduced was advanced armor jack.
After wandering for a bit and soaking in the ambiance, which was disconcerting as the interior of the block was a perverse mixture of office block, living quarters, and open air market and parks, they were approached by a motorized noodle stand run by a Korean ex-pat cyborg who opened up the sides and asked if they needed anything. Twigging to the fact that this was an informal opening to negotiations and deals, The Fixer ordered some udon for and was a bit surprised to find out it was the real thing, not soya rubbish, The players learned a bit of history behind what happened after the Crash.
The Japanese 'particle shield' held up a bit better than expected, but for about 5 hours the country went dark, then Tokyo and other cites began to change, in what would later be called 'The Great Reformatting.' No one was exactly sure how it started ut it was though that some form of nanotechnological network had been secreted into Tokyo before the war and the EMP was the trigger. The great imposing towers of corporate dominance dissolved, with many corporate officers still within them and rendered into building materials. A common dark joke by the locals about mega-corp officers from that era is ”Oh, they're some where around in the city, somewhere.” When all was said and done, the city had completely rebuilt itself, and the back of Arasaka, along with the other Japanacorps was broken, with this rise of the various Yakuza, The Japanese Government, And The Collective to fill the vacuum. Needless to say the players figured out the implications of this fairly quickly and realized the place was a minefield if not trod upon carefully.
The noodle vendor stated a 'Mr. Sebastian' was waiting to see them on the 237th floor and he has sent the vendor to say 'hello' and when it suited them, to avail themselves upon him, as well as several rooms had been set aside for them on the 236th floor so they could rest. Considering they had not seen any Anglos or other non-Asians in the area, rather conspicuously so, they thought it was a good idea to take up the offer (after checking for bugs). They also discovered the rooms were rather spartan in design but one could ask the local smart frame to bring up a holo-feed to change the background in the room into something a bit more to they liking. They also weren't keen on being noticed so quickly
