WHO’S INSIDE - Shadowrun Lockdown

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I asked a few different people to put this together. I

managed to hit just the right collection to minimize overlap, but I left some overlap in where it had value.

Authors are listed by the sections if you have questions for them.

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^Glitch

POSTED BY: KAT O’ NINE TALES

I’ll try not to bore you all with a long list of those miss-ing inside and just hit a few highlights that might in-terest folks around here. I don’t know whether any of these people are alive or dead, I just know that none of them have been seen since the curtain went down.

The most newsworthy individual on the list is Cele-dyr. The last official sighting of the dragon was Wednes-day, June 3rd. He was seen flying from the NeoNET HQ to the MIT&T campus, where he reportedly assumed human form and then went into the labs. It’s possible that the dragon that was spotted the night of the 4th could have been Celedyr, but the size, coloration, and even general description were way off. The other

drag-ons aren’t really commenting, and if Celedyr is on the inside he’s there by choice. I understand there is a lot of security on the wall, but I think a concerted effort by a great dragon would break through. Makes you wonder what would keep the dragon inside.

Prior to the quarantine, Celedyr had been spend-ing the vast majority of his time workspend-ing on a project at MIT&T called Project Vulcan. I’ll put out the open re-quest right here for comments on this project if anyone knows anything.

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It’s not just a NeoNET project. The name came up with

references to at least two other megacorps and half a dozen AAs. I know the connection with Evo is legit and comes through the old Dickens/Imago connection between the two and therefore means it probably had some connection to the CFD virus. On the outside fringes I caught some connection to Aztechnology through MIT&T and mutual funding of the same labs. Not a concrete connection but coincidental enough to make me worry.

Purchase orders and consulting contracts from Manadyne, Maersk, Monobe, and Proteus also tie them in loosely. Whatever this project is, it was hush-hush.

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^{Mr. Bonds}

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Guess those security protocols they mentioned back

in Stolen Souls worked. I remember the name from the memos Butch loaded. Butch, you get any more on these guys?

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^Netcat

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I’ve been a bit too busy trying to stay a step ahead to do

much more digging.

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^Butch

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Conspiracy sites have been all over Project Vulcan.

According to my sources, it’s a dragon-funded project attempting to bring Eliohann back. They say they are trying to do some kind of techno-magic to draw his soul from the Matrix (the entity known as Cerberus) and put it back into his body. You asked.

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^{Plan 9}

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Interesting you would say that. Some of the eyewitness

accounts of the dragon that crashed into Fenway match up with Eliohann. The color was different, but the same accounts also say he was covered in something. Might be something to that story.

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^Winterhawk

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I had some more info on Project Vulcan posted in the

section just above this one.

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Miles Lanier

Also of note, though of little surprise, Zoh Rothberg, Celedyr’s Voice, is still inside. She’s probably still with the dragon or at least operating for him. If for some reason she has parted ways with Celedyr, she has enough clout that she’s probably safe at the top of the NeoNET Towers.

Since the biggest story is a dragon, I’ll hit the oth-er missing dragon next—Damon. He hasn’t been heard from since the lockdown was established. This is almost bigger news than Celedyr, but only because Damon is a constant headliner. He loves the limelight and ended up all over the screamsheets every other day. The last eyewitness accounts of him are actually from Thursday the 4th, when he was seen stepping out of the Avalon nightclub and heading for the highway on his custom Hyabusa. That’s not to say he didn’t get out and isn’t lay-ing low because he worries someone will try and grab him for leaving the quarantine.

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A smart move. I know teams who have been hired to round

up people who got out before the full-on quarantine, when they were just playing at a lockdown. I’m sure there are teams out there who would take the contract to hunt down Damon too.

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^{Hard Exit}

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I have it on good authority that another dragon was

headed into the NEMA to join the overboiling cauldron that is Salem. He goes by Ash and is most likely working some middle-ground angle. Maybe a play to get in good with the witches or some other group. Not exactly what the place needs, but I just report the news. I don’t make things right.

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^Sunshine

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Ash? Blue-eyed carrot top? Real snappy dresser? White

leather trench accented in electric blue? That guy’s a dragon? Damn! I had him pegged for a drake working for Celedyr. Guess I owe Lyran a fifty.

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^Slamm-0!

Most of the time when something like this goes into effect, there are certain people that get a pass or get shuffled to the border, checked out, cleared, and are allowed to leave. Usually those people are corporate executives or government officials. Not this time. Cor-porations were ordered to make sure all their staff inside the QZ stays there. And the UCAS government got the same order. It didn’t mean that rich folks didn’t still try to get past the border or bribe their way out, but very few seem to have made it.

To date, the UCAS Congress is sitting with four seats empty. Representative Anthony Powell (R, MA), Rep-resentative Daryl North (T, MA), RepRep-resentative Trevor Simms (R, MA), and Senator Elias Walsh (R, MA) have all failed to report to their meetings since the quaran-tine went into effect. All four have offices in Boston.

Almost the entire government of Boston itself is inside as well. Normally, the rich and powerful don’t have to stick around for bad situations, but for some reason all the money in the world isn’t getting them out of this frying pan.

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Speaking of Powell, the FBI was running an operation on

him headed up by Special Agent Andrew Smith. Smith’s methods aren’t the most legal, but he’s gotten enough admissible dirt on the (not-so) good representative that indictments were probably close. I’d have to expect those two are squaring off behind the curtain if they both made it. Agent Smith has not been heard from since the quarantine.

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^Bull

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A lot of unfulfilled contracts have been going around for

fixers and Johnsons looking for teams to do extractions from the QZ. Early on a lot of runners took the one-way ticket in, not realizing they were so serious about keeping people inside. Since that became more obvious the jobs are getting left unfilled, even though the pay rates are going through the roof.

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^Fianchetto

The same has gone for corporate execs, even ones with the last name Villiers. Martin Villiers, Richard’s brother, is another of those missing in the zone. He had a lot of friends in high places and a lot of pull around Boston, and even he hasn’t managed to get himself out.

Though based on the things others say about Martin, he may have stayed in just to help out. He’s a Boston boy, born and bred, and he’s definitely not the type to walk away from his city in its time of need.

Manadyne is currently having some operations is-sues as well since their HQ is in Boston and their CEO, Malcolm Grant, and two of the major shareholders ha-ven’t been heard from since the quarantine. It’s bad enough that the company lost its HQ, but offices all over the world are having trouble with upper management out of the picture. We can expect some cutthroat corpo-rate sharking to start going on with the companies that are currently cut off from the outside world. Even big fish like NeoNET may not be exempt. They have a lot of resources tied up inside and around the zone.

Outside the ivory towers and down on the street are some names we might recognize. Smedley Pembren-ton, III, the McCorsican triplets, and Erika Knowles are all inside as far as I know.

Pembrenton, better known as Boom around the shadows, owns the Avalon and used to run with Tommy Talon. He’s unaccounted for post-quarantine and rare-ly ever left the city, so the chances of him being out of town when this all went down are slim. If he’s inside, I imagine he’s holed up at the Avalon, though he could be out working, back up to his old tricks.

The McCorsican triplets were actually down in Man-hattan the day before the lockdown went into effect but posted on their blog page that they were headed home for some well-earned R&R. They haven’t posted anything since, and that means they must be in the zone because Timothy has a hard time not posting when he’s headed to the bathroom. The only time he doesn’t post is when he’s on a run. Either the McCorsicans skipped the R&R and went straight on another job, or they’re in-side and blacked out like everybody else.

Last is Erika Knowles. I know, “who the hell is she”

you ask. She is better known as Staff Sergeant Erika Knowles, head of the Boston office of the Office of Stra-tegic Intelligence (OSI) before the incident. She reports to Anne Ravenheart and runs operations all over the NEMA, but she’s been quiet since the lockdown went into effect. Her office is in Boston, but she travels all over the NEMA, so not being there when the curtain dropped would have been possible. Problem is no one has heard from her so unless she hit the field again and went deep cover, she’s inside and most likely the most universally knowledgeable person inside the quarantine.

I’m sure there are more folks everyone could or would have posted about but I don’t want to sit here all day thinking about this, so this is all you get. Just goes to show that this is affecting everyone. I can’t imagine what the inside must be like with all of those who have to feel they were abandoned by a corp or government they trusted.

Guess there are advantages to living in the shadows—no one can break your trust if you trust no one.

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I don’t condone spreading empty rumors, and I trust the

source that told me the following. FastJack is in Boston.

He was in the area when the quarantine went up. I know, people have ‘Jack sightings all the time, but I trust this one. They knew ‘Jack in the meat. They didn’t talk to him because they were aware of what happened, but they were sure it was him.

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^Thorn

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He’s not the only tech wonder that’s rumored to be in

Boston. Dodger was supposedly last seen in Boston. It was a week before the quarantine, but no one has spotted him since. If this whole thing is CFD-related as we suspect, maybe that’s why both of these heavy hitters were headed there.

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^/dev/grrl

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Or maybe it was intelligences behind the CFD virus

gathering their people in one place for something?

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^Clockwork

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If there was some kind of CFD signal I didn’t get the

memo.

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^{Plan 9}

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I like /dev/’s idea better. Speaking of, /dev/, how are you

doing with this? Any word from your parents?

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^Bull

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Nothing. And Kane won’t help me run the blockade. He

thinks it’s either a one-way trip or a suicide run. He’s been watching me like a hawk to make sure I don’t steal a boat.

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^/dev/grrl

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Again. Steal a boat again.

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^Kane

POSTED BY: SLAMM-0!

I’ll do my best to not just list every athlete who’s inside and the effect their absence will have on their team. I will just say that Boston teams will not be having the best seasons this year even if they are “playing for those trapped in the quarantine.” I’m sure someone else will cover the dragons, the politicians, the corp execs, and even the big names in the shadows, so I’m just going to pick three people who I feel deserve a mention. One is a high muckety-muck with a sullied reputation, the second is a ghost from the past still haunting the city, and the third is a deep personal loss.

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No honey, the kid and I are still out here.

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^Netcat

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^Ouch!

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^Kane

Our high-and-mighty scoundrel is General Stockton Mason, or should I say retired General Mason. He was only forty-seven when he retired and still had plenty of years left in him to earn a few more stars on his shoulder. Prob-lem is, the good general was found to be a stalwart believ-er in the New Revolution and a reunified Ambeliev-erica. He was one of many officers offered early pensions and retirement in order to avoid prosecution and execution alongside em-barrassment on the part of the UCAS government.

He had a decent home in the Nahant, right on the wa-ter. He also had a nice GMC Riverine on the dock. It fits the guy, he was never a real yacht type. If anyone had all the necessary pieces of the puzzle to slip out it was him, but there’s been no sightings. He could be living at sea to stay out of sight, but I’m not sure that’s a possibility for his craft—not that he couldn’t have commandeered something else. If I were to make a bet, I’d say he’s rallied the New Revolution around him and is looking to see if he can hurt the UCAS with whatever is going on inside.

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No Riverine-driving pirates have been spotted that I’ve

heard of, if that helps. There’ve been quite a few incidents off the coast lately. The bottom of the harbor is getting plenty of new residents.

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^Kane

As for the ghost, Viktor Markwart, famed techno-mancer kidnapee saved by Netcat, went back home after all of that and was in the city. Some of you may remem-ber him as Patient V. If not, search our archives, you’ll find his story. Since his kidnapping he’s worked hard at learning to control his abilities, and he even offers train-ing to those who can’t afford the schooltrain-ing. He keeps it on the sly, but now that he’s trapped inside I don’t see any reason not to tell you all. He was living in an apart-ment between MIT&T and Harvard in Cambridge. Not sure if it fell within the cordons. Doesn’t matter. He’s in there, and we know him. He might be a resource.

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His apartment is inside the extended cordon around

Cambridge. News about him would be great.

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^Netcat

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Fuck me that I’m about to say this, but have any of your

techno pals been able to get word out through your secret squirrel Resonance Realms?

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^Clockwork

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Yep, fuck you.

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^Netcat

As for my deep personal loss, Ace Holt, star of the trid series August Night, was in town doing set scouts for the upcoming feature trid and hasn’t been seen since.

The trid film hasn’t been canceled—in fact shooting has begun for scenes starring his costar, Kelli Folé. Hopefully the rumors of recasting the lead or using CGI to kill off Night (Holt’s character) won’t happen, and our reluctant hero will return. So you all don’t think I’m a complete rock, Folé is also a runner. Much like Kat, she uses her talents to moonlight. So does Holt.

POSTED BY: THORN

Boston was not an American city. It may have been lo-cated on those shores but it had a distinctly European, old-world feel. This international culture brought many people to Boston each day who didn’t live there but who are now trapped behind the veil of quarantine. It’s here that I’ll focus. The names may not be familiar to all, but they are leaving voids behind for those cunning enough to build power.

Wolfgang Stürm has disappeared from the political scene in Frankfurt. He’s one of those rare anarchists, capable of working from within the system to generate change without being corrupted by the system. He was in Boston on government business, but he undoubt-edly was meeting with other connections as well. Post quarantine, he has probably fallen in with his lower-class friends. Neo-Anarchists have a far better chance of sur-viving in the ever-growing anarchy of a Quarantine Zone than do politicians who are used to hiding behind their words. Stürm is probably in some position of power with

the neo-a’s at the moment. He’s not the following type.

Angelique Rouge was in town training with a group of Gendarmerie Nationale Special Response team mem-bers at the Ares Simulator. She served in Lille, France as a force trying to keep the megacorporations in line as they continue to expand after the Project Omen scandal, and her presence has already been missed. Her subordinate, Jean-Baptiste Veacheau, looks to already have been bought, and the corps are ignoring the local authorities completely. Rouge is a survivor by nature, and she and her team are probably sitting pretty somewhere secure inside, possibly even working their way in with Knight Errant or another corporate security force for the time being.

Asram al-Aswani wasn’t officially in Boston. He’s a Mullah within the New Islamic Jihad and on several intel-ligence watch lists. He was spotted on footage from Lo-gan the afternoon of the 3rd. He hasn’t popped back up in Khartoum, his home city, since. No one knows why he was in Boston, but it can’t be good. A few intel agencies are looking into the possibility that this whole thing was a New Islamic Jihad action, but most think it’s too big for the crumbling terrorist operation. Best guess from me is that he was in town to talk to Shane Bosel, lead assistant to Dr. Dyna Mite, arguably the foremost authority on metaplanar travel and access in the world. Three

In document Shadowrun Lockdown (Page 92-97)