Shadowrun (Sega Genesis)/Mako Sochou

This plotline isn't really that tough. You'll just need to buy decent equipment to fight the battles and make the run against Renraku, but it's not very long or complicated.

Go to the Big Rhino and ask Mortimer Reed about Mako Sochou.
If you're at the beginning of the game, do some runs for Gunderson to earn enough money for a Predator and Armor Jacket. You should also buy some clips and Medkits, and upgrade some of your basic attributes.

When you're not so much of a weakling, catch a cab for the Penumbra District. When you get there, walk down to the cluster of seven bushes, then take a few steps right and you'll be at the Big Rhino. Enter the restaurant and make your way to the back booth, where Mortimer Reed is. Approach the booth to talk to him and tell him you're looking for some information. Say you need some questions answered and ask him about Mako Sochou. He won't give you any terribly useful information about the guy, but will mention that he's been spending a lot of time in Club Penumbra.

Go to Club Penumbra and talk to Mako. (3)
If you're at the beginning of the game, you may have to spend some time getting ready for this step. If you've already done some other stuff and have decent characters, then you should be alright. I'll tell you now: You'll have to kill three Renraku Strike Team members plus Mako, who's about as tough as the rest. In other words, you'll basically have to kill twice as many of the guys who jumped you after talking to Boris. I recommend hiring a decker to get you 10,000¥ for some Light Combat Armor, as well as spending time upping your physical and weapon stats with the help of Karma and cyberware. I should also mention that in order to get into Club Penumbra in the first place, Joshua needs to have a Reputation rating of 4 or higher.

When you think you're ready, head to Club Penumbra (it's in the lower right corner of the Penumbra District) and ask to go in. Hope you brought 75¥ for the cover. As soon as you enter, you'll confront Mako. Before anything can happen, though, another Renraku Strike Team will burst into the club and start firing at you. Despite what the narration says, Mako will also grab a gun and attack. Hopefully you brought some good equipment and maybe a friend or two.

As soon as you kill the last enemy, you'll approach Mako and act like a jerk to him in his final moments. Tough love, I guess. Mako will tell you that his Renraku team was assigned to monitor Michael's team, not to kill them. He'll also give you some information about Caleb Brightmore, mentioning that Caleb was the Mr. Johnson behind Michael's last run (although you already knew that from Tabatha) and that he hangs out in Icarus Descending. Finally, he'll tell you more about Renraku's involvement before saying that his replacement in the project was Ito Ogami, who may be staying in an area hotel. After everything is done with, you'll pretty much leave Mako for dead while you start looking for Ito Ogami.

Go to Gates Undersound.
If you didn't pay much attention to the exchange with Mako, you may not have noticed him mentioning that Ito is in a local hotel. The clue that you have in your notebook makes no note of this and the only other clue that even hints at it has to be found on Gates Undersound's Matrix network. Maybe I'm the only one who had trouble figuring out what to do next when I first played, but if others are confused, all you have to do is walk into the Gates Undersound hotel in Downtown Seattle, next door to the right of the Space Needle (where you get dropped off if you take a cab). Enter the hotel and the man there will tell you that Ito just left for Matchsticks.

Go to Matchsticks and kill Ito Ogami. (3)
The title kind of gives it away, but if you wanted suspense, why are you reading a walkthrough? Go to Matchsticks -- it's the building directly below Gates Undersound -- and prepare for another battle. If you got through the battle with Mako and the Renraku Strike Team okay, then you should be fine for this one.

There is one thing worth mentioning, though: after Ito is dead, Vigore and Jarl will vanish. This introduces a few significant points:
 * You can't do any more runs with them. I don't like using them anyway, because of the Karma penalty, but if you enjoyed using them, then you need to do all the runs you want to with them before you kill Ito.
 * Also, if you are under contract for a run from them at the time of Ito's death, you won't be able to get paid. You're not stuck without a job, forever, though -- visit their now-vacant booth at the Wanderer to have your run contract terminated.
 * Perhaps most importantly, you won't be able to get the contact with Max the fixer from them after they're gone. If you haven't done so, you need to get that contact before you go after Ito. Although Max mostly sells ridiculously overpriced items, the one good thing that he alone can provide are the corp badges. Be sure to make contact with Max while you can; those badges are extremely useful.

Enter the club and you'll be shown a narrative as Ito sees you and calls to his cronies to help fight you. You'll have to deal with three pistol- wielding thugs -- two tough ones and one weaker one -- as well as Ito himself, equipped with good protective armor and an SMG.

After you kill the last one, you'll see a cutscene of the gunned-down Ito as the events unfold. You'll get a Holopix of Michael and Stark, another of the crime scene, a surveillance paper detailing Renraku's activity in relation to Michael's team and with mention of Vigore and Thon, and finally, 10,000 nuyen. You'll also find Ito's passcode, which will let you get into his Matrix system. His system has some of the toughest ice in the game, but on the other hand, it has a very simple layout and contains a lot of interesting information. For details, see its entry in Section XI.

While it's not specifically mentioned, the game kind of hopes you see the opportunity you have to raid Renraku and find out more. If you check your Tips & Clues, you'll see that a run against Renraku may turn up something. Indeed it will.

Go to Renraku HQ and get the map overlay. (3)
Unlike other runs where you can get by with mediocre stats and equipment, this run will be genuinely tough even though I'll tell you exactly where to go. You'll want to spend some time making money for the best equipment so that this will go as smoothly as possible. You may just want to put it off until you've gone through some other parts of the game. I recommend having at least two runners in your team, each with fully modded Predators and Light, if not Heavy, Combat Armor. Plenty of ammo and Medkits will help, as will good weapon stats and cyberware. High Electronics ratings and corp badges will help a lot, and a Level 5 Maglock Passkey is almost essential.

When you've got everybody all ready to go, head to the Renraku Arcology and make your way to the upper part of the area, taking the escalators. The entrance is in the central part of the upper level. Take it and you'll be inside. Now, if you don't already know how to do this, I COMMAND you to read the notes in Part 7c of Section IV. They will explain how to get through the first floor without being detected and how to shut down the security cameras -- two keys to getting through this run with minimal trouble. Go ahead, read it, I'll wait.

Done? Okay, after you've gotten to the second floor and have shut off the cameras, go back to the elevator. Note that there are two elevators side by side. Coming up, it didn't matter which one you used because they both led to the same place. To get to where you're going next, though, you need to make sure you take the elevator on the LEFT. Get in and take it to Floor 6. When you get out, walk down a little bit and take the first door you come to. In the next room, head up to the door, which is Level 4 Maglocked. Enter the room through that door and open the safe there.

You'll see a cutscene showing Joshua getting a strange transparent map overlay. Apparently the corresponding part of the map has not been found yet, but it looks like that's what Renraku is after. Things are starting to make sense, but as the narration mentions, your immediate concern is to get out of the building alive as you've set off an alarm.

The sixth floor has no security terminal to turn off the alarm, but if you have a hotshot (and I do mean a serious badass) decker, you can go to the lower left room and jack into the Matrix in an attempt to silence the alarm. All told, though, it's probably better to just wait it out. Backtrack to the elevator and wait for the alarm to stop. Then get in and take it back down to the first floor. Hopefully, you shut off the cameras earlier, or else you'll probably have to wait out another alarm as you pass by the original one you had to sneak by. So, when all is said and done, you should be safely out of the Renraku with their precious map in hand. Congratulations, you've found out why Renraku was involved and are now done with this part of the game.