Downzone 2: Old friends, new enemies
Downzone 2: Old friends, new enemies
Almost immediately after you get settled in the ergonomic chair in your office, the phone on your desk rings. You pick it up, and the receptionist answers you. "Ms. Espinoza. You have a visitor. His name is Darius Oakes, Esquire."The sarcasm in the last word is obvious. Ah, you think. He's here. You were wondering when he'd show up to be smug about being right. To be fair to him, he kind of does deserve to take one or two cheap shots at you. This time. "All right. I'll be down to meet him."
You take the elevator down to the ground floor, and you instantly notice the handsome African-American man in the tailored suit who you consider to be a friend. Sort of. The kind of friend you can trust with your life, but not with a beer or your cash. A very military friend.
You deliberately ignore him for a moment, knowing it irks him. Looking at the cracked, questionably maintained street in front of the office and the faded traffic signs, you see an armored vehicle, labeled "SECURIS" in big bold letters. There's a couple of paramilitary types in insectoid body armor waiting next to it-not hostile, but clearly ready for a fight. Their joints bulge with the telltale signs of servomotors, and those rifles look similar to the E-Mags you've used in the military, rather than civilian-legal gunpowder weapons. They're looking out at the downzone slums. People have killed each other in these places for less than millions of dollars worth of high-end computers. You're not surprised they're here-Shamus wanted servers and security set up today, so your brother's chartered an armored car service. He's converted one of the basement floors into a combination of living space and IT services headquarters. Probably because he figures that the office is the most secure place he can find. You find that a bit paranoid-but he did save your life.
Darius looks at you. You keep ignoring him. There's a few kids running around-well, teenagers, but still kids. They look at the armored vehicle warily, taking in its sleek turret and its escorts. You don't doubt they're answering to a gang, planning to sell information on it in the hopes that they'll get prestige or cash as a reward.
"Earth to Little E." Darius finally says, voice smooth and melodious. He's said that it's natural. You suspect he wasn't lying. If it wasn't, he'd have been punched in the face a lot more. "You should be paying more attention."
"I was trying to deliberately ignore you." You respond, gesturing for him to follow you to somewhere secure.
"You should stick to things which you're good at." He says, when you get back to the fifth floor, stopping outside your office. "Like losing limbs. But seriously, it's good to see you again."
You do recall mentioning that to him a while ago, during your recovery. He helped you get the 'paramilitary body modification' license for the replacements. "So why exactly are you here? Last I remember you said you'd become this bigshot lawyer. What? Come back to the life of ass-kicking and simple, straightforward tasks?"
"Nothing's ever simple, E." Darius says. "I decided that working as an associate in Slaughter & May wasn't likely to get me where I wanted to, and I wasn't willing to take more amphetamines than I was doing as a fighter jock to do my job. Which is why I'm here. I'm going to make an offer you can't refuse."
"And that is?"
"I hear from rumors that you're head of security for a new company. One so new it doesn't have a name yet. You know how what happens if you don't have a legal team on staff, and it tends to involve things catching on fire and exploding, sometimes literally. Name me general counsel, pay me twice as much as I was earning in that old job, and I can be your talent. You know you're not going to get anyone better. So what's it going to be, E?" He asks, fingers idly drumming on the wall. "You want the best? Or do you want an old has-been who wants just as much money to feed their rampant alcoholism?"
"How much is that exactly?" You ask. As much as he aggravates you, he's right. He is very good at what he does. You have enough contacts back in the world of the rich to know that. Maybe not as experienced as the others you might be able to find, but smart, augmented, and diligent.
"Two mill." He says. "Plus performance bonuses. And of course if you want to take advantage of my more… unconventional dispute resolution capabilities, that'll require a combat and hazard pay bonus."
"You were Chair Force." You scoff. "How much do you really know about fighting when you're not flying a hundred million dollars of military boondoggle?"
"I recall you tried to show me up and lost a lot of money betting on yourself once." Darius reminds you. "So, 'enough.'"
"So 4 million plus bonuses?" You think. That's a lot of money. You can afford it, certainly, but with an operating budget as low as yours right now, it'd be a noticeable hit. "I'll take it under consideration."
Written by: "Vector"
Purpose of Report:
This report contains the findings of our investigations into local gang presences in the area, in accordance with rules and regulations, esp. Rule 6 (Reports must be filed when corporation assets are spent).
Findings:
Immolator and I have spent the last three days investigating the gangs in the region. Immolator got in contact with some friends of his who have moved around here in the past, while I spent my time lurking in seedy bars and making contact with local dealers to feel out the territory.
From what we've been able to determine, gang presence in the area is definitely increasing. I haven't been able to pinpoint why just yet, but I suspect that's the kind of thing better left to long-term investigations. Local corporations definitely play a part, though. A local corp, Energia Security Solutions, has pulled out the area almost entirely, putting a fair few civilian-level enhanciles out on the street with no means of paying back their debts. Harlaus has been downsizing, too, which has put a lot of people who relied on jobs from them in a lot of trouble with the banks that loaned them money from schools. Zenith Technologies and Jackfruit Technologies are both still operating in the area, but two corporations can't carry an entire prefecture on their own.
Shamus has been worrying about gangs in the immediate area, since they're the ones most likely to launch an assault against our office here. It was a valid worry, so I spent some of my time investigating them during my second day of investigation.
I'm not too worried about the threat they pose, after some investigation. The big three gangs in the area are the Cobras, the Rollers, and the Spectres. The Rollers and Cobras each have two civilian-level enhanciles, while the Spectres have three, but they're negligible concerns. Office security should be capable of handling them if they decide to do anything, especially if we support them somehow. There are a fair few smaller gangs, too- the Screaming Hyenas, the Grinning Skulls, the Black Widows, the Cruisin' Uzis, and a few others- but they're absolutely negligible, two dozen members each tops.
I guess we might need to worry some if they all start seeing us as a target, or if they start grouping up together. We should monitor them. Or just take them down now, before they can become a threat. Either way works.
We have bigger problems, though. Some of the bigger gangs in the prefecture are beginning to edge into our territory. They don't have any big presence yet, but that could change.
I'm not too worried about the Grocers. I'm not a big fan of people selling produce on the streets, especially illegal produce, but when it's actual produce- corn, tomatoes, beans, that kind of thing- I think I can turn a blind eye. They sell really good fish, anyway, even if I have to pay out the ass to get it.
The Black Smokes are a bigger problem. A gang that uses antique weaponry, the kind that actually produced black smoke, they're damned hard to trace- no identifiers on their weapons or any of that kind of thing. You have to follow their supply chains back and find out who supplied them, and by the time you've found that out, they're already gone, or so well-established it'll take years to root 'em out. They're only edging on our territory right now, thankfully. If we throw our weight around a bit, we should be able to prevent them making any real inroads for now.
The real problem is the effect all this is having on the area. Rivalries between gangs is nothing new, and even gang shoot-outs aren't unheard of, but when they're happening every two or three days, things are going downhill FAST. Sure, no particular gang is involved all the time, but there are so many that this stuff's happening near-constantly.
Businesses are finding it hard to maintain profitability with gangs so willing to tackle them to steal what assets they can, which means most have pulled out by now. This means the money flowing into the area's trickling up, making it harder for people to buy products from the gangs. Rivalries are becoming more and more heated as a result, as gangs try to eliminate the competition to secure what little money remains.
I'm kind of wary about the few businesses that remain. Either they're tough enough to withstand the gangs, like we are (at least for the moment), or they're exploiting the locale, and are making enough from it to soak the losses the area's causing. Well, or they're really just that altruistic, but if they are, they're not going to last much longer.
Not all the gangs are that bad, mind. A lot of them are pushing drugs and extorting local businesses, but a few of them have just been formed to protect their local communities and help keep things a bit safer. They're not doing a very good job about it, but hey. That's an inroad, at least. If we want to look at improving the area, we can look towards some of the less pushy gangs. We can probably even hire a few of them on, help flesh out a security division a bit.
Written by: "Vector"
Purpose of Report:
This report contains the findings of our investigations into dossiers acquired from Syndicate contacts, in accordance with rules and regulations, esp. Rule 6 (Reports must be filed when corporation assets are spent).
Findings:
Shamus and I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday nights going through the dossiers we acquired from the Syndicate.
There was a lot of irrelevant data in there- they're not very good at keeping their records up-to-date. They had information on enhanciles who were killed back in the early 80's, even- and Shamus is pretty damn sure they're dead, not just "dead". A lot of our time was spent just sifting the wheat from the chaff, trying to figure out what information in here was useful and what was just noise.
In the end, we narrowed down the useful information in it to a few different categories- enhanciles of interest, assets of interest, and further areas of investigation. I'll go into each asset a bit, but for the full report, you'll have to ask me.
The first asset, and potentially the most interesting, is an enhancile codenamed 'Chemist' (note to self: if we hire him, prepare Darius for the inevitable lawsuits from the other six Chemists out there). The dossiers indicate he's a man named Viktor Brandt. He can produce various liquid chemicals in place of the usual liquids one's body exhibits, and has protection from the ill effects of such chemicals. This, of course, would make him of enormous interest to our biotech research department- free production of rare chemicals would be an enormous boon, even if it's low-level production.
Our dossiers indicate he's homeless, and has only a scattering of knowledge of chemistry and the like, bartered in exchange for his chemicals. If we want to hire him, providing him with lodging, a steady job and access to further education could be the way to go. We'll have to be careful with him, though- someone used to bartering with his powers like this is a prime target for defection.
The second asset- probably the most valuable- is an enhancile called Vertex. She hasn't been around for very long, so the information contained in the dossiers was scarce. Her real name is Jennifer Austin. She's a teenager, attends a local public school, Summer Hill High. Seventeen years old. Father's a preacher, mother's a sinner- parents divorced, reason listed adultery.
She's demonstrated high-end civilian-level augments, physical and mental. Apparently got them from one 'Gerald Heinsworth', who's since gone missing. Nothing special in her powerset, superhuman physical capabilities, enhanced intelligence, better reflexes, better memory. What's unusual here is that she's taken to vigilantism rather than join one of the existing gangs in the area.
I'm interested in recruiting her. Someone who wants to take a stand against the corruption that's taken root here is someone I think is worthwhile to know. If we want to look into recruiting her, I'd say we should build ourselves a reputation as being altruistic, or at least as wanting to help out the community. Alternately, we could offer her money no-strings-attached, but there's no way Alfonso is going to go for that.
The last asset is a canine enhancile, 'Dogmented Agent'. Yes, your thoughts are going down the right track; he's a dog. Ex-police, ex-special forces. Human-level intelligence, capable of speech. Still canine in form, but has extendable 'tentacles' he can manipulate like digits. Never thought I'd say this, but the dog's better with tech than I am, too. Guess I can't pride myself on being better with technology than a dog any more. There was a scandal a while back about this. Guess he's one of the surviving assets.
He's currently embroiled in a pseudo-war with a nearby gang known as the 'Boosterboyz'- a gang known for heavy genetic modifications. He's been at it for nearly a year- the gang's just far too large for a single enhancile to deal with them. He's slowly making progress, but we can probably help immensely with that. In fact, that's probably the best way to approach recruiting him.
Right. That's enhanciles.
Assets were a bit more complicated. I had to spend some time investigating the leads we drew here and in the next section- that's why I'm handing this in today, not Thursday.
There was a lot of drek in here- martial artists who aren't worth a damn, minor surgeons, bribable doctors, and so on. Immolator listed them all up for you in a separate document, but that stuff's irrelevant to all this.
The assets I reckon are most important are listed below.
The first group of assets here are people I've actually heard of- Lima Seven-Nine. They were operating in Afghanistan for a while, Bangladesh after that. Last I heard, their CO was embroiled in some political corruption scandal, and they resigned in protest. Haven't had much luck finding employment since, it appears.
Seven-Nine was good, capital-G GOOD. Couldn't hold a candle to me, of course, but they were assigned to support some old friends of mine at a few points. Some of the newer AP models have tactical assessments taken from groups they trained. I suspect a few of them are minor civilian-level enhanciles, but if so, they've never reported it to their higher-ups, probably to avoid the team being split.
These guys, I know. If I approach them, I can probably get them to sign on with us, although it'll cost us. The first hint of corruption, though, and they're out. They're zealous like that.
The second group of assets here are the kind of people we've all heard of. Ex-cops, who've grown sick of not having the power to affect anything and resigned. This group's done better than most- only a few of them lack jobs. They've banded together to build a community centre nearby, and they all take turns offering up their time to help support it.
Cops aren't particularly good shots or anything, but they know the community damn well. The fact they've built a community centre only furthers that. People actually listen to them. If we want to help clean up the area, hiring these guys is the best first step we can make. We'll need to hire people to run the community centre, though, which won't be cheap- and we'll still need to pay their hiring bonuses.
The third group of assets is a conglomeration of drug producers who've been drafted by a large gang based nearby, the Summer Hill Gang. Almost didn't want to mention these guys, but it's better to have 'em on our side doing legitimate research than it is having them producing drugs for sale on the street.
If we wanna recruit these guys, we're gonna be tackling the Summer Hill Gang to do it, unless we can find some way to be sneaky-sneaky about it. We could set up a turf war and distract them, or find some enhancile who can get 'em in and out all sneaky-like. Maybe even hire some of their guys out from under 'em and announce their resignations that way. Or, we could just bust down their doors, knock 'em all out, steal all their shit, and rescue the druggoes.
That's the assets.
Apart from that, there wasn't too much in here. There's a few disappearances, local enhanciles, some community figures, a bunch of homeless people. If you want, I could look into them, but I'd probably be better getting out there and doing stuff. I'm not cut out for all this investigation stuff.
There's a private detective in the area, one Nicholas Lain. We could hire him to investigate it for us, but he doesn't come cheap- four figures a day, five figures a week. Might be worth it, if he can turn up anything. Not my call, though.
Vector currently has an operating budget of $20m, or 20 million dollars.This amount will increase over time and can be further bolstered by securing further assets for the company, stealing money from the people or organisations you are beating up, or expanding the corporation's business. This is not as big as it sounds, due to the tragedy of space-inflation.
Hiring new assets will cost money from this operating budget. If you run out of money, you don't currently have any means by which you can quickly secure more, so be careful!
[] Darius, an old friend of yours, has come to offer his services to your company. He's undeniably a fantastic lawyer, good enough that he could probably afford to retire comfortably in the Upzone if he wanted. However, he respects you enough that he's come to offer you the preferential option to hire him over anyone else.
[] Hire him for $4m. It's a ridiculous amount, but his legal expertise- and potential future access to his combat expertise- is worth it.
[] Your operating budget just isn't that large, and you have a lot of other assets you need to hire, now and in the near future. You really are sorry, but you can't afford to hire him right now.
[] Meanwhile, your investigation into the gangs in the area, and your research into the dossiers you stole from the Syndicate, have born fruit. You've learned of a few more assets into the area you might be able to make contact with, and hopefully provide yourself a better base with.
[] Look into hiring Chemist. It'll be expensive, but his presence and abilities alone should enormously boost your biotech lab's capabilities. Enhanciles have a tendency to do that. $1.5m
[] Look into hiring Vertex. You probably don't have a good enough reputation in the local community to do this right now. $2m
[] Look into hiring the Dogmented Agent. You don't think this will work just yet, as you haven't made enough progress against any of the gangs he's tackling. $2m
[] Look into hiring Lima Seven-Nine. A team of experienced military veterans is a powerful combat asset, a group who'll work directly beneath you. They won't be of much help elsewhere in the company, but if you're looking at taking on gangs with more members than you have confirmed kills, they'll be an enormous amount of help. $2m
[] Look into hiring the ex-police officers. There are rather a lot of them, nearly two dozen, and they'll each want hiring bonuses and hazard pay, but not only are they good support assets on the field, they're good PR. $1.5m
[] Look into sponsoring one of the gangs in the region to tackle another. It will cost you $.5m to sponsor a gang into waging war with one of the other smaller gangs, or $1m to outfit one of them well enough to convince them into tackling one of the larger gangs. This can be taken multiple times.
[] Look into hiring one of these gangs. They're rough and uncouth people, but you can never have too many warm bodies working for you in security. It's better for them to have stable employment than roaming around, anyway. $1m. This can be taken multiple times.
[] Not all the assets in the region are such special assets. You have regular assets you can look into hiring, too. Ordinarily, people would come to you, but you're not established enough in the region to have such a reputation. It's better for you to go out and meet them.
[] Travel to the various local universities and schools in the area, keeping an eye out for anyone with talent or education in chemical and bio-engineering studies. Putting up small scholarships will help immensely, but you can find people to hire immediately, too. $.5m. This option can be taken up to three times.
[] Travel to the various local universities and schools in the area, keeping an eye out for anyone with talent or education in mechanical engineering studies. Putting up small scholarships will help immensely, but you can find people to hire immediately, too. $.5m. This option can be taken up to three times.
[] Travel to the various local universities and keep an eye out for anyone with talent in journalism or media relations. Your PR division is really, really stunted right now, almost non-existent. $.5m. This option can be taken up to two times.
[] There were some oddities in the Syndicate dossiers- people going missing where they shouldn't have, even enhanciles mysteriously disappearing. That can't be a coincidence.
[] Look into it yourself. Shamus and Immolator can support you in your investigation. Given enough time, you should be able to figure out what's happened to them. (Locks you out of the next vote.)
[] Hire Nicholas Laine to investigate these oddities for you. Trusting a private detective is rarely a wise move in your line of work, but he's one of the best in the Downzone. $1m.
[] Put it off until later. That's never gone wrong before, right?
[] Lastly, you need to decide what you're going to do with regards to the gangs in the area. This isn't safe, not for the business and not for the local community. You need to do something about it.
[] Division is a powerful tool. It's one you prefer to wield yourself, rather than have wielded against you. Your best bet here is to begin making inroads with some of the smaller gangs, slowly poisoning them against the larger ones. This could go badly, of course- you want to whittle them down, not start a massive gang war you don't have the capability to put down just yet. 0.75x
[] Division is a powerful tool, but elimination is a better one. The gangs won't be a threat if you just put them down. You can threaten or hospitalize a lot of their members, neutralize their leaders, and liberate their assets for your own use. It risks destabilizing the area, but if you're effective enough about it, you should be able to shut them down and begin stabilizing the area before the larger gangs around you finish pushing in. 1.5x
[] The best way to handle this isn't to directly combat the gangs. It's to combat the effects they're having on the area. Bolster small businesses with donations, support drug rehabilitation programs, and start trucking in quality-of-life enhancements to make everyone's lives a bit better. Sure, it'll pretty much bring your corporation's growth to a halt, and it won't actually get rid of the gangs, but it'll make the region a bit more stable. 0.5x
Almost immediately after you get settled in the ergonomic chair in your office, the phone on your desk rings. You pick it up, and the receptionist answers you. "Ms. Espinoza. You have a visitor. His name is Darius Oakes, Esquire."The sarcasm in the last word is obvious. Ah, you think. He's here. You were wondering when he'd show up to be smug about being right. To be fair to him, he kind of does deserve to take one or two cheap shots at you. This time. "All right. I'll be down to meet him."
You take the elevator down to the ground floor, and you instantly notice the handsome African-American man in the tailored suit who you consider to be a friend. Sort of. The kind of friend you can trust with your life, but not with a beer or your cash. A very military friend.
You deliberately ignore him for a moment, knowing it irks him. Looking at the cracked, questionably maintained street in front of the office and the faded traffic signs, you see an armored vehicle, labeled "SECURIS" in big bold letters. There's a couple of paramilitary types in insectoid body armor waiting next to it-not hostile, but clearly ready for a fight. Their joints bulge with the telltale signs of servomotors, and those rifles look similar to the E-Mags you've used in the military, rather than civilian-legal gunpowder weapons. They're looking out at the downzone slums. People have killed each other in these places for less than millions of dollars worth of high-end computers. You're not surprised they're here-Shamus wanted servers and security set up today, so your brother's chartered an armored car service. He's converted one of the basement floors into a combination of living space and IT services headquarters. Probably because he figures that the office is the most secure place he can find. You find that a bit paranoid-but he did save your life.
Darius looks at you. You keep ignoring him. There's a few kids running around-well, teenagers, but still kids. They look at the armored vehicle warily, taking in its sleek turret and its escorts. You don't doubt they're answering to a gang, planning to sell information on it in the hopes that they'll get prestige or cash as a reward.
"Earth to Little E." Darius finally says, voice smooth and melodious. He's said that it's natural. You suspect he wasn't lying. If it wasn't, he'd have been punched in the face a lot more. "You should be paying more attention."
"I was trying to deliberately ignore you." You respond, gesturing for him to follow you to somewhere secure.
"You should stick to things which you're good at." He says, when you get back to the fifth floor, stopping outside your office. "Like losing limbs. But seriously, it's good to see you again."
You do recall mentioning that to him a while ago, during your recovery. He helped you get the 'paramilitary body modification' license for the replacements. "So why exactly are you here? Last I remember you said you'd become this bigshot lawyer. What? Come back to the life of ass-kicking and simple, straightforward tasks?"
"Nothing's ever simple, E." Darius says. "I decided that working as an associate in Slaughter & May wasn't likely to get me where I wanted to, and I wasn't willing to take more amphetamines than I was doing as a fighter jock to do my job. Which is why I'm here. I'm going to make an offer you can't refuse."
"And that is?"
"I hear from rumors that you're head of security for a new company. One so new it doesn't have a name yet. You know how what happens if you don't have a legal team on staff, and it tends to involve things catching on fire and exploding, sometimes literally. Name me general counsel, pay me twice as much as I was earning in that old job, and I can be your talent. You know you're not going to get anyone better. So what's it going to be, E?" He asks, fingers idly drumming on the wall. "You want the best? Or do you want an old has-been who wants just as much money to feed their rampant alcoholism?"
"How much is that exactly?" You ask. As much as he aggravates you, he's right. He is very good at what he does. You have enough contacts back in the world of the rich to know that. Maybe not as experienced as the others you might be able to find, but smart, augmented, and diligent.
"Two mill." He says. "Plus performance bonuses. And of course if you want to take advantage of my more… unconventional dispute resolution capabilities, that'll require a combat and hazard pay bonus."
"You were Chair Force." You scoff. "How much do you really know about fighting when you're not flying a hundred million dollars of military boondoggle?"
"I recall you tried to show me up and lost a lot of money betting on yourself once." Darius reminds you. "So, 'enough.'"
"So 4 million plus bonuses?" You think. That's a lot of money. You can afford it, certainly, but with an operating budget as low as yours right now, it'd be a noticeable hit. "I'll take it under consideration."
***
Form ANT-842
Truncated Report
Inquiry 00031- "Local Gang Presence"
Truncated Report
Inquiry 00031- "Local Gang Presence"
Written by: "Vector"
Purpose of Report:
This report contains the findings of our investigations into local gang presences in the area, in accordance with rules and regulations, esp. Rule 6 (Reports must be filed when corporation assets are spent).
Findings:
Immolator and I have spent the last three days investigating the gangs in the region. Immolator got in contact with some friends of his who have moved around here in the past, while I spent my time lurking in seedy bars and making contact with local dealers to feel out the territory.
From what we've been able to determine, gang presence in the area is definitely increasing. I haven't been able to pinpoint why just yet, but I suspect that's the kind of thing better left to long-term investigations. Local corporations definitely play a part, though. A local corp, Energia Security Solutions, has pulled out the area almost entirely, putting a fair few civilian-level enhanciles out on the street with no means of paying back their debts. Harlaus has been downsizing, too, which has put a lot of people who relied on jobs from them in a lot of trouble with the banks that loaned them money from schools. Zenith Technologies and Jackfruit Technologies are both still operating in the area, but two corporations can't carry an entire prefecture on their own.
Shamus has been worrying about gangs in the immediate area, since they're the ones most likely to launch an assault against our office here. It was a valid worry, so I spent some of my time investigating them during my second day of investigation.
I'm not too worried about the threat they pose, after some investigation. The big three gangs in the area are the Cobras, the Rollers, and the Spectres. The Rollers and Cobras each have two civilian-level enhanciles, while the Spectres have three, but they're negligible concerns. Office security should be capable of handling them if they decide to do anything, especially if we support them somehow. There are a fair few smaller gangs, too- the Screaming Hyenas, the Grinning Skulls, the Black Widows, the Cruisin' Uzis, and a few others- but they're absolutely negligible, two dozen members each tops.
I guess we might need to worry some if they all start seeing us as a target, or if they start grouping up together. We should monitor them. Or just take them down now, before they can become a threat. Either way works.
We have bigger problems, though. Some of the bigger gangs in the prefecture are beginning to edge into our territory. They don't have any big presence yet, but that could change.
I'm not too worried about the Grocers. I'm not a big fan of people selling produce on the streets, especially illegal produce, but when it's actual produce- corn, tomatoes, beans, that kind of thing- I think I can turn a blind eye. They sell really good fish, anyway, even if I have to pay out the ass to get it.
The Black Smokes are a bigger problem. A gang that uses antique weaponry, the kind that actually produced black smoke, they're damned hard to trace- no identifiers on their weapons or any of that kind of thing. You have to follow their supply chains back and find out who supplied them, and by the time you've found that out, they're already gone, or so well-established it'll take years to root 'em out. They're only edging on our territory right now, thankfully. If we throw our weight around a bit, we should be able to prevent them making any real inroads for now.
The real problem is the effect all this is having on the area. Rivalries between gangs is nothing new, and even gang shoot-outs aren't unheard of, but when they're happening every two or three days, things are going downhill FAST. Sure, no particular gang is involved all the time, but there are so many that this stuff's happening near-constantly.
Businesses are finding it hard to maintain profitability with gangs so willing to tackle them to steal what assets they can, which means most have pulled out by now. This means the money flowing into the area's trickling up, making it harder for people to buy products from the gangs. Rivalries are becoming more and more heated as a result, as gangs try to eliminate the competition to secure what little money remains.
I'm kind of wary about the few businesses that remain. Either they're tough enough to withstand the gangs, like we are (at least for the moment), or they're exploiting the locale, and are making enough from it to soak the losses the area's causing. Well, or they're really just that altruistic, but if they are, they're not going to last much longer.
Not all the gangs are that bad, mind. A lot of them are pushing drugs and extorting local businesses, but a few of them have just been formed to protect their local communities and help keep things a bit safer. They're not doing a very good job about it, but hey. That's an inroad, at least. If we want to look at improving the area, we can look towards some of the less pushy gangs. We can probably even hire a few of them on, help flesh out a security division a bit.
***
Form ANT-842
Truncated Report
Inquiry 00033- "Investigation into Syndicate Dossiers"
Truncated Report
Inquiry 00033- "Investigation into Syndicate Dossiers"
Written by: "Vector"
Purpose of Report:
This report contains the findings of our investigations into dossiers acquired from Syndicate contacts, in accordance with rules and regulations, esp. Rule 6 (Reports must be filed when corporation assets are spent).
Findings:
Shamus and I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday nights going through the dossiers we acquired from the Syndicate.
There was a lot of irrelevant data in there- they're not very good at keeping their records up-to-date. They had information on enhanciles who were killed back in the early 80's, even- and Shamus is pretty damn sure they're dead, not just "dead". A lot of our time was spent just sifting the wheat from the chaff, trying to figure out what information in here was useful and what was just noise.
In the end, we narrowed down the useful information in it to a few different categories- enhanciles of interest, assets of interest, and further areas of investigation. I'll go into each asset a bit, but for the full report, you'll have to ask me.
The first asset, and potentially the most interesting, is an enhancile codenamed 'Chemist' (note to self: if we hire him, prepare Darius for the inevitable lawsuits from the other six Chemists out there). The dossiers indicate he's a man named Viktor Brandt. He can produce various liquid chemicals in place of the usual liquids one's body exhibits, and has protection from the ill effects of such chemicals. This, of course, would make him of enormous interest to our biotech research department- free production of rare chemicals would be an enormous boon, even if it's low-level production.
Our dossiers indicate he's homeless, and has only a scattering of knowledge of chemistry and the like, bartered in exchange for his chemicals. If we want to hire him, providing him with lodging, a steady job and access to further education could be the way to go. We'll have to be careful with him, though- someone used to bartering with his powers like this is a prime target for defection.
The second asset- probably the most valuable- is an enhancile called Vertex. She hasn't been around for very long, so the information contained in the dossiers was scarce. Her real name is Jennifer Austin. She's a teenager, attends a local public school, Summer Hill High. Seventeen years old. Father's a preacher, mother's a sinner- parents divorced, reason listed adultery.
She's demonstrated high-end civilian-level augments, physical and mental. Apparently got them from one 'Gerald Heinsworth', who's since gone missing. Nothing special in her powerset, superhuman physical capabilities, enhanced intelligence, better reflexes, better memory. What's unusual here is that she's taken to vigilantism rather than join one of the existing gangs in the area.
I'm interested in recruiting her. Someone who wants to take a stand against the corruption that's taken root here is someone I think is worthwhile to know. If we want to look into recruiting her, I'd say we should build ourselves a reputation as being altruistic, or at least as wanting to help out the community. Alternately, we could offer her money no-strings-attached, but there's no way Alfonso is going to go for that.
The last asset is a canine enhancile, 'Dogmented Agent'. Yes, your thoughts are going down the right track; he's a dog. Ex-police, ex-special forces. Human-level intelligence, capable of speech. Still canine in form, but has extendable 'tentacles' he can manipulate like digits. Never thought I'd say this, but the dog's better with tech than I am, too. Guess I can't pride myself on being better with technology than a dog any more. There was a scandal a while back about this. Guess he's one of the surviving assets.
He's currently embroiled in a pseudo-war with a nearby gang known as the 'Boosterboyz'- a gang known for heavy genetic modifications. He's been at it for nearly a year- the gang's just far too large for a single enhancile to deal with them. He's slowly making progress, but we can probably help immensely with that. In fact, that's probably the best way to approach recruiting him.
Right. That's enhanciles.
Assets were a bit more complicated. I had to spend some time investigating the leads we drew here and in the next section- that's why I'm handing this in today, not Thursday.
There was a lot of drek in here- martial artists who aren't worth a damn, minor surgeons, bribable doctors, and so on. Immolator listed them all up for you in a separate document, but that stuff's irrelevant to all this.
The assets I reckon are most important are listed below.
The first group of assets here are people I've actually heard of- Lima Seven-Nine. They were operating in Afghanistan for a while, Bangladesh after that. Last I heard, their CO was embroiled in some political corruption scandal, and they resigned in protest. Haven't had much luck finding employment since, it appears.
Seven-Nine was good, capital-G GOOD. Couldn't hold a candle to me, of course, but they were assigned to support some old friends of mine at a few points. Some of the newer AP models have tactical assessments taken from groups they trained. I suspect a few of them are minor civilian-level enhanciles, but if so, they've never reported it to their higher-ups, probably to avoid the team being split.
These guys, I know. If I approach them, I can probably get them to sign on with us, although it'll cost us. The first hint of corruption, though, and they're out. They're zealous like that.
The second group of assets here are the kind of people we've all heard of. Ex-cops, who've grown sick of not having the power to affect anything and resigned. This group's done better than most- only a few of them lack jobs. They've banded together to build a community centre nearby, and they all take turns offering up their time to help support it.
Cops aren't particularly good shots or anything, but they know the community damn well. The fact they've built a community centre only furthers that. People actually listen to them. If we want to help clean up the area, hiring these guys is the best first step we can make. We'll need to hire people to run the community centre, though, which won't be cheap- and we'll still need to pay their hiring bonuses.
The third group of assets is a conglomeration of drug producers who've been drafted by a large gang based nearby, the Summer Hill Gang. Almost didn't want to mention these guys, but it's better to have 'em on our side doing legitimate research than it is having them producing drugs for sale on the street.
If we wanna recruit these guys, we're gonna be tackling the Summer Hill Gang to do it, unless we can find some way to be sneaky-sneaky about it. We could set up a turf war and distract them, or find some enhancile who can get 'em in and out all sneaky-like. Maybe even hire some of their guys out from under 'em and announce their resignations that way. Or, we could just bust down their doors, knock 'em all out, steal all their shit, and rescue the druggoes.
That's the assets.
Apart from that, there wasn't too much in here. There's a few disappearances, local enhanciles, some community figures, a bunch of homeless people. If you want, I could look into them, but I'd probably be better getting out there and doing stuff. I'm not cut out for all this investigation stuff.
There's a private detective in the area, one Nicholas Lain. We could hire him to investigate it for us, but he doesn't come cheap- four figures a day, five figures a week. Might be worth it, if he can turn up anything. Not my call, though.
Vector currently has an operating budget of $20m, or 20 million dollars.This amount will increase over time and can be further bolstered by securing further assets for the company, stealing money from the people or organisations you are beating up, or expanding the corporation's business. This is not as big as it sounds, due to the tragedy of space-inflation.
Hiring new assets will cost money from this operating budget. If you run out of money, you don't currently have any means by which you can quickly secure more, so be careful!
[] Darius, an old friend of yours, has come to offer his services to your company. He's undeniably a fantastic lawyer, good enough that he could probably afford to retire comfortably in the Upzone if he wanted. However, he respects you enough that he's come to offer you the preferential option to hire him over anyone else.
[] Hire him for $4m. It's a ridiculous amount, but his legal expertise- and potential future access to his combat expertise- is worth it.
[] Your operating budget just isn't that large, and you have a lot of other assets you need to hire, now and in the near future. You really are sorry, but you can't afford to hire him right now.
[] Meanwhile, your investigation into the gangs in the area, and your research into the dossiers you stole from the Syndicate, have born fruit. You've learned of a few more assets into the area you might be able to make contact with, and hopefully provide yourself a better base with.
[] Look into hiring Chemist. It'll be expensive, but his presence and abilities alone should enormously boost your biotech lab's capabilities. Enhanciles have a tendency to do that. $1.5m
[] Look into hiring Vertex. You probably don't have a good enough reputation in the local community to do this right now. $2m
[] Look into hiring the Dogmented Agent. You don't think this will work just yet, as you haven't made enough progress against any of the gangs he's tackling. $2m
[] Look into hiring Lima Seven-Nine. A team of experienced military veterans is a powerful combat asset, a group who'll work directly beneath you. They won't be of much help elsewhere in the company, but if you're looking at taking on gangs with more members than you have confirmed kills, they'll be an enormous amount of help. $2m
[] Look into hiring the ex-police officers. There are rather a lot of them, nearly two dozen, and they'll each want hiring bonuses and hazard pay, but not only are they good support assets on the field, they're good PR. $1.5m
[] Look into sponsoring one of the gangs in the region to tackle another. It will cost you $.5m to sponsor a gang into waging war with one of the other smaller gangs, or $1m to outfit one of them well enough to convince them into tackling one of the larger gangs. This can be taken multiple times.
[] Look into hiring one of these gangs. They're rough and uncouth people, but you can never have too many warm bodies working for you in security. It's better for them to have stable employment than roaming around, anyway. $1m. This can be taken multiple times.
[] Not all the assets in the region are such special assets. You have regular assets you can look into hiring, too. Ordinarily, people would come to you, but you're not established enough in the region to have such a reputation. It's better for you to go out and meet them.
[] Travel to the various local universities and schools in the area, keeping an eye out for anyone with talent or education in chemical and bio-engineering studies. Putting up small scholarships will help immensely, but you can find people to hire immediately, too. $.5m. This option can be taken up to three times.
[] Travel to the various local universities and schools in the area, keeping an eye out for anyone with talent or education in mechanical engineering studies. Putting up small scholarships will help immensely, but you can find people to hire immediately, too. $.5m. This option can be taken up to three times.
[] Travel to the various local universities and keep an eye out for anyone with talent in journalism or media relations. Your PR division is really, really stunted right now, almost non-existent. $.5m. This option can be taken up to two times.
[] There were some oddities in the Syndicate dossiers- people going missing where they shouldn't have, even enhanciles mysteriously disappearing. That can't be a coincidence.
[] Look into it yourself. Shamus and Immolator can support you in your investigation. Given enough time, you should be able to figure out what's happened to them. (Locks you out of the next vote.)
[] Hire Nicholas Laine to investigate these oddities for you. Trusting a private detective is rarely a wise move in your line of work, but he's one of the best in the Downzone. $1m.
[] Put it off until later. That's never gone wrong before, right?
[] Lastly, you need to decide what you're going to do with regards to the gangs in the area. This isn't safe, not for the business and not for the local community. You need to do something about it.
[] Division is a powerful tool. It's one you prefer to wield yourself, rather than have wielded against you. Your best bet here is to begin making inroads with some of the smaller gangs, slowly poisoning them against the larger ones. This could go badly, of course- you want to whittle them down, not start a massive gang war you don't have the capability to put down just yet. 0.75x
[] Division is a powerful tool, but elimination is a better one. The gangs won't be a threat if you just put them down. You can threaten or hospitalize a lot of their members, neutralize their leaders, and liberate their assets for your own use. It risks destabilizing the area, but if you're effective enough about it, you should be able to shut them down and begin stabilizing the area before the larger gangs around you finish pushing in. 1.5x
[] The best way to handle this isn't to directly combat the gangs. It's to combat the effects they're having on the area. Bolster small businesses with donations, support drug rehabilitation programs, and start trucking in quality-of-life enhancements to make everyone's lives a bit better. Sure, it'll pretty much bring your corporation's growth to a halt, and it won't actually get rid of the gangs, but it'll make the region a bit more stable. 0.5x
