Downzone 9: Picket Duty
- Location
- Australia
Downzone 9: Picket Duty
It takes Laine less than two weeks to return with a report on Shutterbug.
"Comprehensive stuff's in the report," he says stiffly when he hands it off to you, standing uncomfortably in the boardroom. "Lot of stuff to cover. Good decision to hand trainees off to me. Not all were effective, but got the job done anyway."
"Excellent," you reply, taking the report and opening it. "Would you mind giving us a general impression of the area while you're here, prior to going through the report in greater detail?"
He gives you a sharp nod.
"Shutterbug is not a good area. Gangs rule the area. Even private law enforcement is out. Suspect some corporations behind it, want an area without supervision, no oversight or ethical committees interfering. Downtrodden. Few jobs available, mostly sweatshops, hard labour, government-sponsored cleanup crews."
You quickly skim the report as he talks, taking in the information in it. The things he's saying match what he put in the report, unsurprisingly.
From the information he's put on you, Shutterbug seems to be almost as bad as some of the places you'd visited while you were still in the military. The only law enforcement in the area didn't even deserve the name; Laine noted that most of them probably wouldn't raise a fuss even if you were to rob a bank right in front of them, unless you manage to personally inconvenience one of them.
Violence in the streets is a lot worse than it is here. There are a few reasons for that, you suspect. Laine has noted that economic influence is a part of it; with so few well-paying jobs going, and there not being enough jobs to go around in any case, civil unrest has been growing steadily worse for decades.
Ordinarily that wouldn't be too bad, but aug-related crime has become ever more prevalent over the years as low-end augs have become increasingly more available. The Brigade used to patrol Shutterbug semi-regularly, keeping much of the violence contained for fear that the group would fall on anyone who let it spill into the streets. That's not viable any more, though- now they're kept busy responding to reports of aug and enhancile-related violence all across the prefecture. They don't have the time to respond to this, and the gangs in the area know it.
With that, however, necessarily comes opportunity. Corporations that operate there to avoid oversight necessarily won't make too much of a fuss when their facilities get hit, for fear of drawing unwanted attention. There are so few jobs that you're pretty sure you could get a lot of labour for far lower than you'd pay elsewhere, too- although a large part of you hesitates at the thought of it.
You open the progress report in front of you, a thick binder full of densely-packed text. There's enough information in it to make reading through it a day's work, but you know from experience that sometimes you just have to do this kind of boring scut work. Which doesn't mean you like it-but it means you have to do it.
Your cyberneticists are still bored out of their minds, as usual. Sending them outside to help other facilities has been useful at keeping them occupied, but hasn't been particularly profitable. However, Laine has reported on some good deals-myomer implantation devices, some computer workstations-things you can get them started on. It won't be good for much-low-end augs like that are fairly common nowadays-but it'll at least be something. It'll keep the surgeons busy and let the techs start work on developing new ones. If you can seize more black market cyberclinics, you might be able to get the department fully operational soon.
Expanding your biotech department will likely benefit them as well. Modern enhanciles may be related to the early serum ones, but that's largely via history rather than technology. You need cybernetics, and advanced ones, to make them work. Right now, you have some of their own discretionary budget set up towards acquiring better computers and tools to make better biomods. The enhancile you bought, "Chemist"-has been very useful for that. He's not particularly bright, but he can make the chemical precursors your biotech staff need for basic augments.
In concert, it might be possible to create low-end enhanciles with slight upgrades. You know that some of the gangs seem to have access to illegal enhancile clinics-so one of the corps is probably supplying those boosts in exchange for money or favors. You suspect that they'd have to put something like that in Shutterbug-people would have noticed if it was somewhere else. People like the ones in your employ.
IT has been getting along with your new investigation department quite well-having access to a technopath's services in the form of Shamus has been a godsend for Laine and his research efficiency. If you had known, you might have considered hiring him sooner. Your 'field' investigators are still a tiny group-Laine worked solo and a lot of former police detectives went corporate rather than work with your splinter group, but you have confidence that you might have a small team when you go into Shutterbug.
And finally, your militia are doing well. Their training won't be done for another month or so-but they're quite enthusiastic about the weapons they're going to be working with. Even telling them that they're not allowed to use them outside of high-risk situations hasn't dampened their spirits much. Blowing targets apart with a hypervelocity rifle is still incredibly exhilarating when you're used to cheap chemical rifles. You might even consider finding some of them and giving them basic augs- By the time you're ready to move into Shutterbug, you'll have a security force ready to take on those challenges-armed, armored, and ready to face down augs.
The only question is whether they're going to be auged themselves. Working with Lima and you has given a lot of them fresh appreciation for just what modern science can do, and there's a very long line of people clamoring to become some kind of supersoldier. Not a decision most people should take lightly-but it's one they seem to be dead-set on.
One day, your phone rings at 3 AM. You answer it, voice still groggy. "Ez here. What's the situation?"
Laine's voice is distorted over the line. He must be underground, or in a tunnel, or even just in a large building. These newfangled wireless connections had problems like that, going staticky at a moment's notice whenever there was so much as too much smoke in the air above you.
"Think I've got a break in the missing persons case," he says. That's enough to jolt you to attention, causing you to scramble out of your bed with a muttered oath.
"Alright," you say blearily. "Hold on a minute, I'm going to need some coffee before we go any further."
Your percolator is bubbling away in your kitchen. You've made a habit of leaving it on overnight whenever you're actually at your apartment. Coffee is a much more pleasant way to start the day than activating your adrenals- your augmentations are perfectly capable of waking you up at a moment's notice, but the inevitable adrenaline crash when the hormones die down sucks.
Moments later, you're done, and mentally cursing that you forgot to pick up milk on your way home yesterday. "Alright," you say, moving to the flatpack coffee table you'd set up a few weeks back and kneeling beside it. It did double duty as a dining table, now it could do triple duty as a work desk, too. "What do you have?"
"Working in Shutterbug," he reports. "Trying to establish patterns, determining territories, membership, so on. Been noticing disappearances here."
"There are disappearances in Shutterbug, too?" You frown, idly drumming your fingers on the tabletop. "No, never mind, that does make sense. Okay. Do you have any leads on who's doing it?"
"No targets yet. Been watching, though. Most likely corporations. Offer jobs, money, trick them into coming in, never seen again. Fits established pattern."
"Yeah." You let out a frustrated sigh. "Alright. Thanks for telling me, Nicholas."
"No issue. Want me to continue investigating?"
You nod, even though he can't see it. "Yes, definitely. You're doing a good job, Nick. Thank you."
The line goes abruptly dead, and you hang your head with another loud sigh. The coffee is already coursing its way through your system; there's no way you'll be able to get back to sleep now.
Another early start it is.
With the next quarter rolling around, Alfonso has allocated your security department nearly $10 million. This brings your total operating budget up to $14.5m for the next quarter- assuming you don't "find" yourself some more.
You're planning on making a push into Shutterbug, which means that you're going to be stretched too thin if you're trying to operate from your current office. If you want to be at all effective there, you're going to need to buy yourself an office to work from.
[ ] You have a lot of things you need to purchase, and very little money to purchase them with. You're going to have to go for the cheapest- and least effective- option, and purchase a shady office in Shutterbug's slum district. Nicholas reports that the building at least isn't as small as it seems- there are two underground bunkers, as well as the office space up top and the two attached wings. You could probably perform clandestine research and development here. $2.5m
[ ] You have a lot of things you need to purchase, but you can't skimp out on your headquarters. You're going to purchase a large office in what counts as the affluent area of Shutterbug. It won't come with much equipment beyond the basics, but the office at least has five attached wings, enough space for a proper administration department, and the real estate worker who showed you around has promised to throw in a free desk fan. What more could you want? $5m
[ ] Large office spaces are all well and good, but you're expecting trouble- and a lot of it. You're going to spare no expense, and hire builders and purchase land to build yourself a proper security office, complete with reinforced titanium walls and a skeleton staff of cheap robots to patrol its halls. Sure, it only comes with three wings, but you'd like to see anyone try and attack you here. $7m
You have been upgrading your biotech department and started working on your cybertech department. This has enabled you to start doing basic augmentation surgery. If you want to augment some militia to create elite units, you can start doing so. This will obviously cost money, which will be taken out of your next quarterly budget. Your elite units will have, if any...
[ ] Muscle and bone hyperdensity (+1 Tactical)
[ ] Cognitive Augmentation for Socialization and Interrogation Enhancement (+1 Negotiation)
[ ] Kinesthetic and sensory boosts (+1 Security)
[ ] Implanted computer interface systems (+1 Technical)
[ ] We don't have the money to make another aug team at this point.
Between your biotech department and your cybertech department, you have enough staff that you can afford to pull a small handful of them away to work on a special project. It'll be expensive to run one, and you probably won't be able to pull them away after the next fortnight without impacting your R&D department, so you're going to have to decide what you want to do now. You decide on…
[ ] You had a contract with Nicholas Laine, specifying that you'd build him augmentations in exchange for a lowering of the cost of his salary. You need to fulfil that. You could probably put it off, though, at least for the moment. $.5m
[ ] Immolator has the fantastic ability to control plasma, which he is able to leverage into limited flight capabilities, but beyond that his augmentations are just the norm for enhanciles. You want to change that, building specialized augmentations to boost his physical capabilities. $2m, grants Immolator [Physical Boost]-1.
[ ] Chemist has the extraordinary ability to produce various liquid chemicals from his body, but that is currently the extent of his augmentations- beyond the norm for enhanciles, of course. Given how integral he is to your biotech team at present, you want to change that, building specialized augmentations to boost his memory and thinking speeds. $2.5m, grants Chemist [Mental Boost]-1.
[ ] Your security team is currently lacking much in the way of enhancile support- there's just you and Immolator. And as last quarter proved, you're stretched thin when things go wrong. You need more enhanciles to swing things properly in your favour, but you can't rely on recruits conveniently popping up all the time. No; you're going to have to make one. And you have the perfect recruit in mind; Karena Valli, the most mercenary of the gang members you'd selected to lead the militia alongside your other officers. Hopefully, you'd solve two birds with one stone here; buy her loyalty, and bolster your security division. $5m, makes Karen Valli an enhancile.
[ ] Your security team is currently lacking much in the way of enhancile support- there's just you and Immolator. And as last quarter proved, you're stretched thin when things go wrong. You need more enhanciles to swing things properly in your favour, but you can't rely on recruits conveniently popping up all the time. No; you're going to have to make one. And you have the perfect recruit in mind; Naomi Cooper, the most charismatic of the gang members you'd selected to lead the militia alongside your other officers. $5m, makes Naomi Cooper an enhancile.
[ ] Your team members are fine for the moment. You have a rather different project in mind, actually. Plasmius gave you a lot of trouble when you fought him, but he's not the worst of them- and there are a lot of other enhanciles nearly as tough as him, anyway. If you're going to be going up against proper enhanciles in the future, you're going to need weapons- weapons capable of piercing through even an enhancile. You probably won't get them made, but you can at least get the designs started. $1.5m
It takes Laine less than two weeks to return with a report on Shutterbug.
"Comprehensive stuff's in the report," he says stiffly when he hands it off to you, standing uncomfortably in the boardroom. "Lot of stuff to cover. Good decision to hand trainees off to me. Not all were effective, but got the job done anyway."
"Excellent," you reply, taking the report and opening it. "Would you mind giving us a general impression of the area while you're here, prior to going through the report in greater detail?"
He gives you a sharp nod.
"Shutterbug is not a good area. Gangs rule the area. Even private law enforcement is out. Suspect some corporations behind it, want an area without supervision, no oversight or ethical committees interfering. Downtrodden. Few jobs available, mostly sweatshops, hard labour, government-sponsored cleanup crews."
You quickly skim the report as he talks, taking in the information in it. The things he's saying match what he put in the report, unsurprisingly.
From the information he's put on you, Shutterbug seems to be almost as bad as some of the places you'd visited while you were still in the military. The only law enforcement in the area didn't even deserve the name; Laine noted that most of them probably wouldn't raise a fuss even if you were to rob a bank right in front of them, unless you manage to personally inconvenience one of them.
Violence in the streets is a lot worse than it is here. There are a few reasons for that, you suspect. Laine has noted that economic influence is a part of it; with so few well-paying jobs going, and there not being enough jobs to go around in any case, civil unrest has been growing steadily worse for decades.
Ordinarily that wouldn't be too bad, but aug-related crime has become ever more prevalent over the years as low-end augs have become increasingly more available. The Brigade used to patrol Shutterbug semi-regularly, keeping much of the violence contained for fear that the group would fall on anyone who let it spill into the streets. That's not viable any more, though- now they're kept busy responding to reports of aug and enhancile-related violence all across the prefecture. They don't have the time to respond to this, and the gangs in the area know it.
With that, however, necessarily comes opportunity. Corporations that operate there to avoid oversight necessarily won't make too much of a fuss when their facilities get hit, for fear of drawing unwanted attention. There are so few jobs that you're pretty sure you could get a lot of labour for far lower than you'd pay elsewhere, too- although a large part of you hesitates at the thought of it.
You open the progress report in front of you, a thick binder full of densely-packed text. There's enough information in it to make reading through it a day's work, but you know from experience that sometimes you just have to do this kind of boring scut work. Which doesn't mean you like it-but it means you have to do it.
Your cyberneticists are still bored out of their minds, as usual. Sending them outside to help other facilities has been useful at keeping them occupied, but hasn't been particularly profitable. However, Laine has reported on some good deals-myomer implantation devices, some computer workstations-things you can get them started on. It won't be good for much-low-end augs like that are fairly common nowadays-but it'll at least be something. It'll keep the surgeons busy and let the techs start work on developing new ones. If you can seize more black market cyberclinics, you might be able to get the department fully operational soon.
Expanding your biotech department will likely benefit them as well. Modern enhanciles may be related to the early serum ones, but that's largely via history rather than technology. You need cybernetics, and advanced ones, to make them work. Right now, you have some of their own discretionary budget set up towards acquiring better computers and tools to make better biomods. The enhancile you bought, "Chemist"-has been very useful for that. He's not particularly bright, but he can make the chemical precursors your biotech staff need for basic augments.
In concert, it might be possible to create low-end enhanciles with slight upgrades. You know that some of the gangs seem to have access to illegal enhancile clinics-so one of the corps is probably supplying those boosts in exchange for money or favors. You suspect that they'd have to put something like that in Shutterbug-people would have noticed if it was somewhere else. People like the ones in your employ.
IT has been getting along with your new investigation department quite well-having access to a technopath's services in the form of Shamus has been a godsend for Laine and his research efficiency. If you had known, you might have considered hiring him sooner. Your 'field' investigators are still a tiny group-Laine worked solo and a lot of former police detectives went corporate rather than work with your splinter group, but you have confidence that you might have a small team when you go into Shutterbug.
And finally, your militia are doing well. Their training won't be done for another month or so-but they're quite enthusiastic about the weapons they're going to be working with. Even telling them that they're not allowed to use them outside of high-risk situations hasn't dampened their spirits much. Blowing targets apart with a hypervelocity rifle is still incredibly exhilarating when you're used to cheap chemical rifles. You might even consider finding some of them and giving them basic augs- By the time you're ready to move into Shutterbug, you'll have a security force ready to take on those challenges-armed, armored, and ready to face down augs.
The only question is whether they're going to be auged themselves. Working with Lima and you has given a lot of them fresh appreciation for just what modern science can do, and there's a very long line of people clamoring to become some kind of supersoldier. Not a decision most people should take lightly-but it's one they seem to be dead-set on.
One day, your phone rings at 3 AM. You answer it, voice still groggy. "Ez here. What's the situation?"
Laine's voice is distorted over the line. He must be underground, or in a tunnel, or even just in a large building. These newfangled wireless connections had problems like that, going staticky at a moment's notice whenever there was so much as too much smoke in the air above you.
"Think I've got a break in the missing persons case," he says. That's enough to jolt you to attention, causing you to scramble out of your bed with a muttered oath.
"Alright," you say blearily. "Hold on a minute, I'm going to need some coffee before we go any further."
Your percolator is bubbling away in your kitchen. You've made a habit of leaving it on overnight whenever you're actually at your apartment. Coffee is a much more pleasant way to start the day than activating your adrenals- your augmentations are perfectly capable of waking you up at a moment's notice, but the inevitable adrenaline crash when the hormones die down sucks.
Moments later, you're done, and mentally cursing that you forgot to pick up milk on your way home yesterday. "Alright," you say, moving to the flatpack coffee table you'd set up a few weeks back and kneeling beside it. It did double duty as a dining table, now it could do triple duty as a work desk, too. "What do you have?"
"Working in Shutterbug," he reports. "Trying to establish patterns, determining territories, membership, so on. Been noticing disappearances here."
"There are disappearances in Shutterbug, too?" You frown, idly drumming your fingers on the tabletop. "No, never mind, that does make sense. Okay. Do you have any leads on who's doing it?"
"No targets yet. Been watching, though. Most likely corporations. Offer jobs, money, trick them into coming in, never seen again. Fits established pattern."
"Yeah." You let out a frustrated sigh. "Alright. Thanks for telling me, Nicholas."
"No issue. Want me to continue investigating?"
You nod, even though he can't see it. "Yes, definitely. You're doing a good job, Nick. Thank you."
The line goes abruptly dead, and you hang your head with another loud sigh. The coffee is already coursing its way through your system; there's no way you'll be able to get back to sleep now.
Another early start it is.
With the next quarter rolling around, Alfonso has allocated your security department nearly $10 million. This brings your total operating budget up to $14.5m for the next quarter- assuming you don't "find" yourself some more.
You're planning on making a push into Shutterbug, which means that you're going to be stretched too thin if you're trying to operate from your current office. If you want to be at all effective there, you're going to need to buy yourself an office to work from.
[ ] You have a lot of things you need to purchase, and very little money to purchase them with. You're going to have to go for the cheapest- and least effective- option, and purchase a shady office in Shutterbug's slum district. Nicholas reports that the building at least isn't as small as it seems- there are two underground bunkers, as well as the office space up top and the two attached wings. You could probably perform clandestine research and development here. $2.5m
[ ] You have a lot of things you need to purchase, but you can't skimp out on your headquarters. You're going to purchase a large office in what counts as the affluent area of Shutterbug. It won't come with much equipment beyond the basics, but the office at least has five attached wings, enough space for a proper administration department, and the real estate worker who showed you around has promised to throw in a free desk fan. What more could you want? $5m
[ ] Large office spaces are all well and good, but you're expecting trouble- and a lot of it. You're going to spare no expense, and hire builders and purchase land to build yourself a proper security office, complete with reinforced titanium walls and a skeleton staff of cheap robots to patrol its halls. Sure, it only comes with three wings, but you'd like to see anyone try and attack you here. $7m
You have been upgrading your biotech department and started working on your cybertech department. This has enabled you to start doing basic augmentation surgery. If you want to augment some militia to create elite units, you can start doing so. This will obviously cost money, which will be taken out of your next quarterly budget. Your elite units will have, if any...
[ ] Muscle and bone hyperdensity (+1 Tactical)
[ ] Cognitive Augmentation for Socialization and Interrogation Enhancement (+1 Negotiation)
[ ] Kinesthetic and sensory boosts (+1 Security)
[ ] Implanted computer interface systems (+1 Technical)
[ ] We don't have the money to make another aug team at this point.
Between your biotech department and your cybertech department, you have enough staff that you can afford to pull a small handful of them away to work on a special project. It'll be expensive to run one, and you probably won't be able to pull them away after the next fortnight without impacting your R&D department, so you're going to have to decide what you want to do now. You decide on…
[ ] You had a contract with Nicholas Laine, specifying that you'd build him augmentations in exchange for a lowering of the cost of his salary. You need to fulfil that. You could probably put it off, though, at least for the moment. $.5m
[ ] Immolator has the fantastic ability to control plasma, which he is able to leverage into limited flight capabilities, but beyond that his augmentations are just the norm for enhanciles. You want to change that, building specialized augmentations to boost his physical capabilities. $2m, grants Immolator [Physical Boost]-1.
[ ] Chemist has the extraordinary ability to produce various liquid chemicals from his body, but that is currently the extent of his augmentations- beyond the norm for enhanciles, of course. Given how integral he is to your biotech team at present, you want to change that, building specialized augmentations to boost his memory and thinking speeds. $2.5m, grants Chemist [Mental Boost]-1.
[ ] Your security team is currently lacking much in the way of enhancile support- there's just you and Immolator. And as last quarter proved, you're stretched thin when things go wrong. You need more enhanciles to swing things properly in your favour, but you can't rely on recruits conveniently popping up all the time. No; you're going to have to make one. And you have the perfect recruit in mind; Karena Valli, the most mercenary of the gang members you'd selected to lead the militia alongside your other officers. Hopefully, you'd solve two birds with one stone here; buy her loyalty, and bolster your security division. $5m, makes Karen Valli an enhancile.
[ ] Your security team is currently lacking much in the way of enhancile support- there's just you and Immolator. And as last quarter proved, you're stretched thin when things go wrong. You need more enhanciles to swing things properly in your favour, but you can't rely on recruits conveniently popping up all the time. No; you're going to have to make one. And you have the perfect recruit in mind; Naomi Cooper, the most charismatic of the gang members you'd selected to lead the militia alongside your other officers. $5m, makes Naomi Cooper an enhancile.
[ ] Your team members are fine for the moment. You have a rather different project in mind, actually. Plasmius gave you a lot of trouble when you fought him, but he's not the worst of them- and there are a lot of other enhanciles nearly as tough as him, anyway. If you're going to be going up against proper enhanciles in the future, you're going to need weapons- weapons capable of piercing through even an enhancile. You probably won't get them made, but you can at least get the designs started. $1.5m
