*****NOT TO:  Maxim, InterPol, etc.
>>>>>[We were successful.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <16:23:09/03-10-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Basilisk
>>>>>[Bas, I need your help yesterday.  I've got a lot of 
wounded people here who need attention stat.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <16:26:32/03-10-57>

>>>>>[I'm not going to vouch for the accuracy of this drek, everyone, but I 
got it handed to me from a decker chum of mine who found it, for some reason, 
in a relatively easy to break section of a local megacorp who will remain 
anonymous for everyone's safety.  It's a section of simsense data from a raid 
somewhere in the jungle recently.  Bits and pieces have been obviously edited 
to protect the rest of the people involved, but my systems have been unable 
to return them to normal and so you're getting the drek as I got it.  Enjoy.

+++++ Engage Simsense Download +++++

Static screams in your head for a millisecond, just long enough to know that 
a second or two of the static would likely drive you insane or kill you 
outright as you can suddenly smell, taste, even feel the static that your 
normal senses can only see and hear.

As quickly as it started, it ends and more normal sensations replace the 
maniacal static.  It takes you a second or two to gain your bearings as the 
simsense artificially replaces your natural sensations and you settle into 
the life you're about to relive.  The first things you notice are that your 
are inside a plane, that it is lit only by a single night red bulb, that an 
exit door is open, and that it is night outside.  Additional sensations kick 
in, like the muted roar of air passing through the cabin and the along the 
skin of the small aircraft you are in, followed by the realization that you 
are at a very high altitude.  The air is thin, and it is difficult to breath.  
The person in front of you is wearing an altimeter deployed parachute with 
manual backup parasail.  Nothing else distinguishes the person in front of 
you, and with all the gear he is wearing you can barely distinguish that it 
actually is male.  But he is, and this is when you realize that you are not.

Behind you are four others that your internal cybernetic locator systems 
identify as members of a team of 5, with two additional green signals as 
well.  Your helmet appears to have in integral communication system that is 
also encrypted, but through it you hear "Go!"  After one others and some 
shuffling, you have moved to the front of the line, and you hear a "Go!" and 
leap out of the door, tumbling for an instant before your well trained and 
experienced muscles and enhanced reactions right yourself in a headlong dive 
through the atmosphere.  Below you is the target area, a small but growing 
rough rectangle of light.  With your enhanced sight, it not only glows 
brightly in the visible, but also in the ultraviolet and the infrared, with 
some areas obviously still cooling down from the heating of the sun that 
your internal chronometer indicates set nearly 4 hours ago.

16 or so kilometers to the west you see what appear to be explosions and 
very bright thermographic flares from what is likely thermite or white 
phosphorous explosions, or perhaps scattered submunition effects.  You 
remember that Maxim not only has access to weapons of this destructive 
power, but manufactures and employs them in high security facilities 
worldwide.  To the southwest, some 7 km away, your eyes see tremendous 
glare, through all wavelengths, from the sprawl that is Phenom Penh, 
Cambodia.  Closer to the facility are more explosions, this time centering 
around a couple of small vehicles.  One flares and then stops moving while 
the other, about 100m to the west of the first, fires up it's engines and 
begins moving toward the southeast edge of the site you are still falling 
toward.

Looking below you again, and with the second to last "Go!" heard from the 
plane above you, you catch something that you'd been hoping not to:  Several 
flares from what you know are vertical launch missile bunkers, each capable 
of holding somewhere between 50 and 250 missiles, depending on the type of 
missile.  These IR flares are leaving streaks not too dissimilar to those of 
long range SAMs, and they are riding their rockets almost vertically, toward 
your position and, more importantly, that of the plane.  "Fraggin deckers 
fragged up!", you think to yourself, but your discipline keeps this thought 
from exiting your mind lest it reveal your team's location by breaking radio 
silence.  Above you, you hear the final "Go!" followed by "Evading.  Good 
luck." as the final member of your team, your commander and fellow cybered 
combat expert like yourself, jumps to follow.  The missiles, rising still, 
jockey for position, and as they rise, you get a count.  5 SAMs, one from 
each launcher, which will strike the plane and destroy it in less than 3 
seconds.

Two seconds.....one second and not only did none of you get hit by the SAMs, 
but you didn't get burned by them either.  Above you, from where the plane 
should be, you hear several large explosions, followed by a surprised and 
pained gulp and gurgle, as if someone had a lung punctured.  Your internal 
team status monitor indicates that one of you is dying and that the parachute 
and emergency parasail systems are destroyed.  Your team commander will not 
live too long, and you know that even if you could somehow save him from the 
debris that even now is plummeting toward you as well, he wouldn't live 
through the impact.  You remember with a rueful smile the saying that it's 
not the fall you're afraid of, but the sudden stop at the end.

Concentrating again on the ground and site rising to meet you, you see the 
first of you deploy his chute only 20 seconds from the ground.  From what 
you see, he'll be close to the target zone when he hits ground.  
Unfortunately, at about the time you see the second jumper and the man who 
trained your team deploy his chute, five of the internal guard towers open 
fire into the air, firing up at where you and the rest of you are likely 
going to fall through.  Again, you think "Fraggin deckers fragged up big 
time!" as the guns blaze autofire into the sky at rates that indicate both 
standard machinegun fire as well as minigun fire.  By your internal 
chronometer, you are 2.885 seconds from chute deployment yourself.

You hear a soft gasp as a stream of tracers streaking up at you misses you 
but intersects with the descending body of another teammate.  His telltale 
blinks once, but stays green.  Wounded, but not severely.  You think 
"Lucky...."  He'll still be able to do his part once you reach the ground, 
but it's likely that his drop will miss by a greater amount now that his 
body isn't at optimum.  Your chronometer blinks down to 0 and your chute 
opens normally.  Two seconds later and your wounded teammate's chute opens 
as well, followed by the second to last surviving teammember's.  The last 
surviving member of the team, however, seems to have taken some damage to 
her chute from the plane's explosion, and she falls past her deployment 
point.  Less than a second later, she deploys her back-up parasail, which 
opens well.  Unfortunately, the parasails are slightly smaller than the main 
chutes, so she'll be hitting the ground at a higher speed than usual.  But 
you've all been trained for this eventuality, so you know how to minimize 
damage in the process of landing.

Ten seconds until the first jumper, the only one of the seven of you who you 
don't know, hits the target area.  It appears that both he and the man who 
trained you will be slightly off target, to the far end of the bunker rather 
than the end where the entrance is.  It is possible that they go the target 
direction wrong, but it's too late to worry about that now, since it's going 
to happen.  Time to recover from the error.  Your teammate, on the other 
hand, will be right on target, as will you.

9 seconds until the first jumper reaches the ground, and the gunfire is 
continuing.  You are now at the upper limit of the lights of the facility, 
but you're all wearing night camo which will make you difficult to spot 
against the night sky.  About this time the dead member of your team 
plummets, limp and lifeless, past you to your left, and you watch as, only 3 
seconds later, he impacts the ground and bounces.  He hit between the bunker, 
a missile tower, and a set of housing units.  You can make out the silhouette 
of an MBT, a Jackson if your implanted data is accurate, less than 50 meters 
from the pulverized body.  No-one has had the time to inspect the body yet, 
but as you fall and see the lead man of the jumpers land expertly, you see 
the first troops scramble toward the body.

Less than five seconds until you land yourself, your telltales indicate that 
the wounded man, your only mage, has lost enough blood that his condition has 
deteriorated.  You could very well have to kill him, although you hope not, 
if he is unable to escape with the rest of you.  His body cannot be allowed 
to provide proof of your team's assistance in this operation lest it provide 
Maxim with another lever to push around your employers like some bully child 
with a baseball bat.

Pulling down hard on your control lines, you arrest your descent at the last 
instant, with your teammate landing almost perfectly alongside you near the 
entrance end of the bunker.  Looking up as you cut the weighted lines loose 
from your armor and drop the quick-release harnesses from your torso, you see 
the combat mage land to the west on a totally different bunker.  You realize 
that you'll somehow have to either kill him or cover him as he crosses the 
100 meters between the two bunkers.  Unfortunately, the last teammate, the 
woman using the emergency parasail, falls totally outside the armory 
perimeter, to the southeast of the target bunker.

You're scattered worse than you had feared, but you begin to collect 
yourselves as you catch a quick glimpse of what appear to be black winged 
shapes approaching from the west, along the line of least resistance between 
the shadows.  Your thermal eyes are barely able to make them out, and then 
only by the well shielded electric fan motor, and they're well below the 
radar, only meters above the fences when you spot them.  You crouch down and 
cautiously approach the entrance of the bunker from the top of the bunker 
itself, avoiding the airvents lest your movement draw attention.

Off to the west, your wounded magical teammate has apparently stopped moving 
for some reason.  Without breaking the radio silence you are maintaining you 
can't be sure why, but you suspect to deal with his wounds as well as to take 
command of the team.  Behind you, the two others on the far end of the bunker 
are shuffling forward, carefully but quickly, with your trainer's cyberware 
making him inhumanly fluid.  The roar of Maxim's guns and rockets have 
quieted down now, with the first stage of the distraction complete and fire 
not being returned.  Nearby, you hear the very quiet but distinctive whine of 
a Nightglider on approach, and you see four figures less than 5m above the 
ground.

Your teammate ahead of you has stopped and drawn his weapon, an HK227 with a 
sound suppressor in place of a gasvent, and he appears to be taking careful 
aim at a target just ahead of him.  From your position 3 meters back, you 
can barely see the crown of the helmet of the guard he is taking aim on.  
However, before this can happen, at the same instant the telltale on your 
wounded teammate goes green again, the roar of autofire fills your ears and 
would have deafened you had your aural damping not engaged at the right time.  
Rolling to the right and bringing your HK227 to bear, you see a crouched 
guard sweeping autofire with what your internal data identifies as a Tower 
combat rifle, over your teammate and toward you.  Your teammate jerks and 
spasms and his telltale instantly turns red, then black as his vital signs 
indicate nearly instantaneous death, and you begin to return fire.  However, 
before you successfully intersect the stream of armor piercing death from 
your SMG with the crouched body of the Maxim guard, his body locks up and he 
jerks, then falls to the side just prior to his armor piercing rounds hitting 
you.  His weapon, with his finger locked in a grip of death, fires rounds 
across the armory grounds for less than a second before the weapon's ROF 
empties the clip.  Luckily, his death grip didn't fire off the burst capable 
integral grenade launcher or you'd not be alive.

As you turn to target the threat alerted guard, your senses are again 
submerged in static.

+++++ End Trideo Download +++++

That's all for this time, friends.  More later, I hope.]<<<<<
	--  Trideo Pirate <16:34:14/03-10-57>

*****PRIVATE: Griffyn, Action Jackson
>>>>>[  The nuclear devices, formerly located at the Maxim Cairo facility have
been neutralized.  ]<<<<<
	-- Tangent <18:00:12/03-10-57>

*****NOT TO:  Maxim, Interpol, etc.
>>>>>[Well, I just wanted to tell you what happened with my part of the team 
before we connected with the HALO team.  We didn't have anywhere near as much 
trouble as they did, what with all of us wearin some heavy-duty sneaksuits 
and coming in below the standard radar, but we did have some problems too.  
I'll let the simsense that Trideo Pirate got access to talk most of the stuff 
that it can, but add stuff that the woman didn't see as we go into more 
detail later.

We, the Nightglider team, got ourselves to our stagin position well out of 
range of the fraggin assassin drones Maxim was using to randomly patrol the 
klick or so of jungle immediately around the facility.  We were there about 
2 hours early, but this was intentional because we wanted time to relocate 
if we had to and to set up our disassembled Nightgliders.  I'm glad we got 
there early too, since Griffyn and Buzz weren't as familiar with the finer 
points of Nightglider construction, so DD and I had to help them out some.  
We didn't have any problems, I'm happy to say, until well after we got off 
the ground.  With zero-hour as 22.05 local time, we lifted off at 21:45, 
which gave us all some time to circle if necessary as well as the time to 
weave our way around and disorient Maxim in case we had been seen already.

We were keepin to the upper canopy level, flyin around the trees stickin up 
through the canopy ceiling, hopin that all the trees would create the same 
effect as ground clutter.  Even with the sneaksuits and Nightgliders, we 
wanted to minimize detection possibilities.  As we got closer to the 
facility, we started to circle toward the west corner, over by the armory 
where we waited for the distractions to hit.

And hit they did, right on time, too.  At precisely 22:00, the first shells 
that Tigger was firin fell into the center of the facility, nearly strikin 
the hardened vertical missile launcher.  Too bad he missed, but he didn't 
have much of a chance to do more than that, because before the first shell 
even hit the ground, the DG-4 Templar was liftin off it's pad on it's fraggin 
near instantly active VT engines and turnin toward where he had fired from.  
About this time, we cought sight of the locals firin the first salvos of the 
missiles from the north.

You should have heard the noise.  All of a sudden the streets begin to empty 
except for the hard core troops and guards, who begin to pour out of their 
bunkers, fully armed.  It didn't look like they had already known that the 
raid was going to happen, just that they'd gone through this particular drill 
so many times that one more time, this time for real, wasn't a big deal.  Two 
MRD-7 rotodrones lifted off from the helipads and the engines of the 
Collussus as well as one of the S-MArt ACV rocket artillery kicked in.  With 
the landin of the first shell, the DG-4 did somethin that no other artillery 
piece I know of can do:  it fired both railguns simultaneously.  The DG 
stands for "Double-Gun" and it's designed to alternate fire from the guns to 
double the standard ROF of an artillery piece.  Well, this fraggin gun spat 
two shells at the same time.  My latest data said that the capacitors weren't 
capable of doing that.  Obviously, Maxim's improved their railgun caps 
somethin fierce.  The recoil from the shells being fired threw the Templar 
back several meters before it arrested itself.

Then the first salvo of missiles hit the perimeter of the facility, but were 
repulsed.  The first salvo never even hit the ground because of the air and 
fire spirits that suddenly manifested and literally threw them all over the 
place.  I think that maybe two or three out of 18 hit the airfield, which 
was the target area, and actually did damage.  Maxim, on the other hand, 
fired a salvo of over 20 missiles from the S-MArt artillery and the damn 
things streaked right over us.  We fraggin near lost DD and his glider 
because the heat of one of the missile's passage fused a strut.  Luckily for 
all of us, he dove at the right time and the glider took the heat that would 
have cooked him instead.

About this time the last two shells from the artillery hit the facility, 
almost simultaneous with the strike of the second, and last, salvo of incomin 
missiles.  The two shells pounded the main motorpool's garage and the last 
detonated almost in the center of the airstrip.  The second salvo of 
missiles had a little better success than the first, but not much.  It was 
similarly dispersed by the spirits, with the extras striking one of the 
helipads, the tarmac, and the airstrip as planned.  The second had several 
WP warheads that struck the tarmac and made visibility really fragged up for 
a while there.  The impacts did throw one of the Apache 3 choppers around a 
little, but not enough that it couldn't get off the ground, and the damage 
to the airstrip didn't phase Maxim's fighters one bit, which just lifted off 
vertically on their VT engines, like the fraggin F-B Eagle does.  Next thing 
you know, the sky is fillin with aircraft of one kind or another.
 
We didn't get a chance to see how the outgoin artillery fared and how our 
distraction team would likely stand up to the bombardment, but Maxim sure 
reacted a lot faster than we had expected.  We found out later that....well, 
I'll leave that for the other team to talk about.  We began our approach as 
Maxim was openin their vertical missile bunkers to fire more missiles at our 
team in the jungle, but then we realized that they were also firing five 
SAMs vertically.  It seemed that our deckers either missed the Radar system 
or somethin, because the HALO plane was the only thing that could have been 
overhead at the time.

We had to time our approach perfectly to coincide with the guards on several 
towers so we didn't get nailed with crossfire.  Our original plan had been 
to rise up enough to go over the towers rather than through them, but about 
at this point, the anti-air towers started firing into the air, killin that 
idea quick.  The rest of the team had named me leader since I had the most 
experience with Nightgliders, so I dove low over the perimeter and hugged 
the ground, just barely over the level of the fences, at about 15 meters.  
Unfortunately, this was also almost exactly the level of some of the towers 
and didn't leave much clearance for the perimeter fences either.  And it also 
put us at about the level that the watchers liked to patrol the perimeter 
fences too.  Griffyn later told us that he had had to kill two watchers 
before they reported to their magical masters.  Yep, this mean that the 
mages in the facility knew that their perimeter was being assaulted 
somewhere.  Luckily for us, just destroyin the watchers didn't give Maxim 
any clue as to where along the perimeter we were, only that we were there.  
Things seemed to be goin so well, too.....

Looking inside the armory perimeter, we saw the HALO team scattered around 
both ends of the nuke bunker, a regular bunker nearby, and one outside the 
armory even.  That's when DD noticed the guard sneakin around to catch the 
team nearest the entrance to the bunker off guard.  He even broke radio 
silence to tell Griffyn since the guard was out of range of all his weapons, 
and mine too.  Griffyn felled him with a pretty powerful mana spell of some 
kind, but he was too late to save one of the team.  Already, after seeing a 
HALO body bounce, we were down to 9 total to destroy the nukes rather than 
the original 11, and we'd not even all gotten onto the ground, never mind 
into the bunker.  And we almost had a few problems too, because we flew right 
over a paracritter patrol that I just couldn't avoid.  Luckily, it was only 
a Hell Hound patrol rather than a barghest or, worse yet, basilisk patrol.  
Somehow, probably with it's hearing, it knew we were there, but the guards 
didn't seem to catch on.  Fraggin good thing too.

The next shock was Buzz's glider.  When Griffyn blasted the Maxim guard, his 
deathgrip fired off his Tower rifle and the autofire ripped through Buzz's 
glider, shreadin the wing, wounding Buzz in his left shoulder, and totally 
wipin out the motor and powersupply.  We were lucky that Buzz was the first 
to land anyway, since he had to ditch and he landed hard.  He said later 
that the only thing that kept him from breaking his ankle on landin was the 
boots he was wearing.  Buzz was lucky, too, considerin that the bullet was 
APEx ammo, Maxim's armor peircin explosive ammo.  This round didn't explode, 
and if it had, Buzz would have required immediate healin or he would have 
bled to death from the wound.  As it was, we bound it up and staunched the 
bleedin.

The remaining three Nightgliders we set to hover/circle mode so we'd have our 
escape route ready as soon as we had planted the charges in the bunker.  But 
it was not to be, I'm afraid.  I'll let the lady's simsense speak for me in 
this regard, however, because you'll get it first-hand that way, and I could 
easily remember stuff wrong if I'm not careful.]<<<<<
	--  Slash <17:02:25/03-10-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: EYE-SPY
>>>>>[Corporate whore's huh? We won't ask what that makes you.

If you want to frag with us, just say so. On your mark, we'll cut loose
and tear you to shreds. We're as good as we say. Better maybe. If you want
to frag with us, go through the official channels. 

And remember: we stop when you say "uncle".]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <CORRUPT/CORRUPT>
	SOURCE PATH DELETED

*****PRIVATE TO: Jen and Gabe
>>>>>[We've been fending search daemons and low level IC of your streams
for the past two and a half days. Watch out. 

{Initial analysis shows they were mostly human written, originating from
within the Seattle region. We've loosed a few daemon's on the style.
Within the next day or two we should have some grime on the author.}]<<<<< 
	-- #$Rfvbhf8!!!!!!!! <CORRUPT/CORRUPT>

*****PRIVATE TO: Righteous and Dana
>>>>>[+++++Include File: plans.parkdale
+++++Include File: security.parkdale
+++++Inlcude File: inmates.parkdale
+++++Include File: personel.parkdale
I won't ask.]<<<<<
	-- fg8{[4 SD] at [Fv12] <CORR/COR/CO/C
	SIGNAL TERMINATED AT SOURCE

*****PRIVATE: Action Jackson
>>>>>[Mr. Jackson, I hear from Mr. Pirate that your mission incurred
quite a few casualties.  I know a few medicinal spells and might be 
able to aid those who are injured.  I await your reply with baited
breath.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <20:20:22/03-10-57>

>>>>>[Woah! There ARE a lot of you bastards out there. 

Ghost Face: You're human. That gives you a free pass to go anywhere and do
anything you want. Orks and trolls aren't allowed into some buildings.
Why? Because they might "damage" something. One of my chummers is a 200 lb
troll. He isn't allowed on buses 'cause he's "too heavy". Just for kicks
he and an elven friend (who weigh's over 300 -- and looks it) both
tried to get onto the same bus. One after another. The troll didn't make
it. Surprise surprise. That wasn't in UCAS (India actually), but the same
thing happens here. Just on a smaller scale.

Dwarves are comparitively lucky. We can just be called "short". (That
doesn't mean we don't get attacked just for our meta-race) Trolls and orcs
have it the worst. You and your pals seem to enjoy spreading this hatred.
Frag you make me sick.]<<<<<
	-- Minnow <21:03:12/10-02-57>

>>>>>[Well, here's some more of the person's simsense.  This stuff skipped 
the middleman and appeared in my account already formatted for release.  
Somebody up there likes me.

+++++ Include Simsense Download +++++

Unlike last time, there's no maddening static to screw with your perceptions.  
But you almost wish there was, since the sense of disorientation is 
impressive as you suddenly find yourself not only somewhere else, but in 
someone else's body.  Again.  Luckily, this section of simsense picks up 
precisely where the last left off.

You're lying on the ground, with the smell of cordite and caseless powder in 
your nostrils.  You spin your HK227 around to cover the appearing Maxim guard 
who is scurrying up the embankment that marks the edge the partially buried 
bunker you are lying on.  Waiting until your smartlink beads in on your 
target seems to take forever as your body's reactions speed up and you 
activate your cyberware.  Finally the green crosshair replaces the red one 
in your eyes, the signal that the Smartlink 2 has locked onto the intended 
target, and not an instant too soon.  You back off the firing mode from full 
auto to a mere burst of APDS, which is more than sufficient for the only part 
of the guard's body that's visible:  his full armored helmet.  The rounds 
punch small holes, leaving the usual shatter pattern in the hardened plastic 
facemask before the impacts and final muscle spasms throw the body back down 
the embankment.

Unfortunately, with all this autofire, there's no way that you've not drawn 
attention.  If you're lucky, the deckers are keeping the security 
communications occupied, but you're not planning on it anymore.  You're here 
to do a job, and as much as you'd like to break radio silence, Maxim could 
find you that way even with the deckers in the system.  Your instant of 
discomfort passes, and you see a black winged shape descending a little 
faster than a Nightglider should, coming nearly directly at you.  You realize 
just as it stalls out several feet above the bunker that it's been damaged 
severely, probably beyond it's ability to ever fly again, and the pilot is 
wounded as well.  He's taken a round in his shoulder, probably from the Maxim 
guard's Tower rifle since one of the HMG anti-air rounds would have taken the 
arm totally off.  His landing is terrible, but considering the pain he's 
likely in, he does well to still walk away.  Another rueful smile crosses 
your face as you remember the axiom about good landings.  Behind him come 
the three others Nightgliders, landing in two cases almost as expertly as 
your team could.

Off in the distance, you see flashes from autofire weapons, probably Tower or 
Devil combat rifles from the sound of them, firing at the combat mage as he 
runs across the zone between the two bunkers.  The troops guarding the armory 
perimeter apparently know you and the rest of the team are inside, and are 
moving to cut you off from the gate and surround you.  Your enhanced hearing, 
with the sound filters operating properly, hears the footfalls of your 
instructor and his associate running forward across the top of the bunker.  
One set of footsteps stops suddenly and you hear a shuffle.  You're too busy 
to visually verify what you're hearing as you begin laying down suppression 
fire, centered on the muzzle flashes coming from various locations around the 
armory.  You know that your HK227 won't threaten the Maxim troops at this 
range, but maybe it will keep their heads down.  Your teammate is still 
running when you see something take shape, for an instant, around him, and 
suddenly he is running faster than any unaided human possibly could.  From 
behind you, you hear a single burst from an M22A2 rifle, and one of the 
muzzle flashes suddenly stops.

Unfortunately, at this same instant, the remaining Maxim soldiers actually 
succeed in pumping several rounds into the running mage and your second in 
command, tripping his run up and causing his telltale to again change from 
green to amber.  You again see your instructor's cybernetically enhanced 
speed as he runs out to help your fallen teammate to his feet.  You see that 
your teammate is limping badly as the two of them, while you provide cover 
for them to make it to the comparable cover of the bunker you are still atop 
of.

One of the glider pilots, the mage, gestures to another glider pilot, an 
explosives expert, who removes a small amount of C-12 form his webbing.  Your 
instructor takes careful aim at the door of the bunker you're on, from a 
crouched position, and fires a burst from the attached shotgun.  The burst, 
obviously doorbuster type ammunition, fills the half buried security door in 
smoke and noise, while at the same time the magician casts a spell at the 
corner of the facing bunker.  The ram spell blasts a hole in the side of the 
bunker as part of the planned diversion and also sends debris flying, 
hopefully distracting a couple of Maxim troops who have been firing at you.  
The bunker door here, however, remains unopened.  The door is obviously 
stronger than your instructor had expected.

You are still taking fire from Maxim troops in the armory, but your return 
fire has quieted down some.  The short man who you handed the C-12 to 
crouches down in front of the door and carefully but expertly places the 
explosive at points on the door that will enable it to be blasted off it's 
rails.  He obviously prepared for the strength of the door, and you make a 
mental note to ask him how he knew about it.  You begin to wonder, as you 
return bursts toward the Maxim troops to keep their heads down, why you've 
not run into any magical troops yet.  Just as you complete that thought, an 
earth elemental manifests in front of the bunker door, followed almost 
immediately by another.  As quickly as they appear, the two elementals 
disappear back to the Astral plane again, and the demolition expert backs 
out of the hole quickly, trailing a thin wire connected to a detonator, which 
he hands to you while he pulls his pack off his back.

Again, the earth elemental appears, this time looking battered and wounded, 
if an elemental can truly look that way, and lurches forward at your wounded 
team mage only to be intercepted by a glider pilot wearing the outfit of a 
modern ninja and wielding a katana.  The two of them spar for an instant 
before the katana slips through the elemental's powerful defenses and slices 
through the torso of the manifest elemental, destroying it at the same time 
that your instructor's associate throws multiple smoke grenades across the 
armory, plunging it rapidly into thermal and visible oblivion.  The 
explosives expert makes a quick gesture, at which everyone you can see lowers 
their gas masks, and you trigger the explosives.  The blast knocks the ninja, 
the person closest to it, off his feet and you hear the sound of a twisted, 
destroyed security door bouncing around inside the bunker below you.

You arm the special gas and concussion grenades that the explosives expert 
gave all of you when you discussed your plans and you drop one into the now 
open bunker entrance.  In the instants you have before it detonates, you and 
everyone around you slaps themselves with anti-toxin patches designed 
specifically for the toxin your grenades are pouring into the bunker.  The 
short man who developed the toxin told you that it would cause excruciating 
pain and unconsciousness within second without the patches.  You leap down 
to just outside the bunker entrance and, along with the wounded glider pilot 
and your instructor's associate, pump concussion and flash grenades into the 
interior of the bunker, followed by gas grenades.  You remember the short 
man explaining that the armor was sealed, but that Maxim military helmets 
were susceptible to concussion effects, so concussion grenades would create 
small enough cracks in the faceplate for the toxin to penetrate the armor and 
be inhaled.

Still covering each other, something else goes wrong.  Something small and 
resembling a small watchers appears next to you and you suddenly becomes 
ground- zero for some area spell that catches almost everyone around you.  
You know the effect too well:  a Maxim mage in Astral just grounded a spell 
through and now you're wounded.  Luckily, you are able to fight off most of 
the effects, but not everyone was so lucky, especially as you see your second 
in command's telltale go from amber to blinking amber.  He's dying, quickly, 
he knows it, and none of you can spare the time or energy it would take to 
heal him.  All the carefully laid plans everyone had agreed on are already 
useless.  The glider mage sends in an air elemental to evacuate the gas out 
of the bunker, whether it's done it's job or not and smoke and gas is 
suddenly pouring out of the entrance of the bunker, enshrouding you.  
However, with the masks everyone is wearing as well as the anti-toxins in 
your bloodstream, no-one appears to feel the debilitating pain and lethargy 
that the toxin produces.

You, your instructor, and the other HALO jumper are the first into the still 
lit bunker.  You fan out to limit your exposure, and your hearing indicates 
that the rest of your combined teams are entering rapidly behind you.  You 
three advance rapidly up through the bunker, reaching the first guard.  He 
has an obviously cracked helmet facemask and is breathing, but his muscles 
are locked and he's obviously unable to move in any way.  Your instructor 
finds a second guard, this one dead from an allergic reaction with the custom 
toxin that filled the bunker.  You turn around to see that the ninja and the 
other mage have take position at the entrance and are covering it as best 
then can.  Your instructor is also moving to aid them with more firepower.  
You can see the strange flashes of magical combat mixed with more mundane 
explosions outside through the entrance, and you can hear the sound of 
gunfire.  Behind you the wounded glider pilot, your instructor's associate 
and nuke expert, and the explosives expert are very carefully removing the 
nuclear triggers from the devices and preparing to destroy them.  You think 
that you have only a minute or so before the smoke and confusion clears and 
the drek hits the fan.

Very little happens for most of the minute, with the exception of gunfire 
from outside the bunker, a couple of expended arrows from the ninja in 
return, many bursts from your instructor, and a tremendous explosion from 
the southeast, either the missile bunker or the semiballistic.  The experts 
are nearly done, with one more trigger to rig for demolition, but the short 
explosives man hasn't even started rigging his charges yet, almost as if he 
knows something you don't.  You hear something happening outside the bunker, 
and suddenly the telltale of your physical adept teammember, who fell outside 
the armory perimeter, blinks to black at nearly the same time your mage's 
changes to red, indicating that he's nearly dead as well.  It's only the two 
of you now, and soon you'll be the only survivor of the whole team.  That was 
not supposed to happen.

The explosives expert leaves the other two and removes a couple of canisters 
from his pack and places them centrally in the bunker.  You recognize them as 
a binary fuel air explosive, which, when combined with a small detonation 
charge, will collapse the bunker easily.  At the same time as the expert is 
placing and arming the radio detonator, something else happens and you start 
felling queasy.  In your suddenly nearly deaf ears, you barely hear the an 
alarm sound and start to lose consciousness as your internal status display 
indicates dangerous stresses on some of your cyberware.  The ninja is barely 
standing upright and the your instructor shouts "Ultrasonics!"  You remember 
that the explosives expert gave you a small device he said would help with 
the effects, and you slap at it as you begin to fade away and feel a warm 
liquid running down your upper lip.  The feeling begins to fade and you 
lurch over to the two nuke experts, neither of whom are doing well.  You 
move as if in a haze, and you see the sparks of violently failing cyberware 
around the datajack of the glider nuke expert before you activate his sonic 
canceler as well.  The pain from the small electrical discharges must be 
severe, as he howls in anguish over the last of the effects.  You, your 
instructor, and the glider team's mage are the most unaffected of all of you, 
and you rush toward the entrance just in time to see a large, obviously 
armored approaching through the dissipating smoke, followed quickly by three 
other figures in similar armor.  It is obvious that you will need to buy some 
time before everyone is fully conscious and aware again, so you take aim at 
the Maxim Arms insignia on the chest of the front figure and fire full auto.  
You suspect that you do very little damage, even with the APDS, and the 
figures, likely a Maxim Quad, scatter and begin returning fire with weapons 
that include a minigun.

Your internal status display indicates that your cyberears and their integral 
systems are operating at 10%, but it's enough to hear the explosives expert 
begins swearing loudly behind you.  He looks up at the rest of the team, who 
have now completed their demolition charges, and says "Sonic shattered 
remotes.  Someone has to stay behind."  You're about to volunteer when your 
dying team mage and second in command does so.  Nobody complains, since it's 
obvious that he'll die anyway.  Seeing that your original plan of escape, the 
entrance, has already been cut off, the glider mage stands off at the 
northwest wall, appears to focus himself, and blasts a chunk out of the wall 
with his ram spell.  Your instructor's associate helps with his SPAS-22 
shotgun and more doorbuster ammo, and within instants the hole is large 
enough to get through.  You break radio silence for a single transmission 
and call the Distraction team:  "Ripley, Tigger, out in 30 seconds.  Commence 
now."  In reply you get a click from each.  You see the guards at the 
entrance being a quick but careful fighting withdrawal into the bunker.  
>From what you see, your instructor is running low on ammunition for his M22A2 
when one of the Quad members sends a stream of boiling liquid through the 
entrance of the bunker.  The interior of the bunker begins to fill with 
noxious gasses and the floor is suddenly covered with the bubbling mess left 
over from an acid bomb.  The explosives expert finishes re-rigging the FAE 
canisters and hands the dead-man detonator to the mage, and you turn to cover 
the backs of the exiting members.

The wounded glider pilot who helped rig the nukes is coughing even through 
his gasmask and appears barely able to breathe in the noxious, acidic air.  
Your second in command tosses your instructor his HK227 and extra ammo.  Your 
instructor, firing one last burst with the shotgun at the Maxim figure in the 
entrance, shouts "Could you please stop shooting at the thermonuclear 
weapons?" and then scrambles up and out of the bunker.  You chuckle and you 
continue providing cover with careful bursts which seem to have very little 
effect against the armor the Quad is wearing, until the last man, the other 
nuke expert, is out.  You pull a single grenade, throw it at the entrance, 
salute your teammate who will stay and detonate the nukes and the bunker 
around him, and then leave.

+++++ End Simsense Download +++++

If I'm lucky, I'll get more where that came from. ]<<<<<
	--  Trideo Pirate <19:17:59/03-10-57>

>>>>>[Well, I'm going to take care of some of this drek.

We were in position about 2 kilometers from the perimeter to the southwest 
when Tigger and the rest of the distractions team fired up the missiles and 
the artillery.  We had been in position for at least an hour.  Gunny, one of 
the locals, and Green Hornet had been sitting behind their Great Dragon AVMs 
for at least half that time, waiting for the distraction to kick in.  When it 
did, it only lasted a minute, maybe less, before we got confirmation from one 
of our deckers inside, Dick Tracy, that not only had a Thug been dispatched 
that would come through our area, but that the HALO team had been discovered 
already by a communications glitch when the plane through a narrowband, 
tightbeam satlink.  Most of us looked up and saw, as DT was saying that we'd 
be needed badly soon, the explosion that took out the HALO drop plane.

At about this time the Thug came rumbling by and was pounded by three 
different anti-armor missiles, which blew the thing into hot chunks.  At 
about the same instant, we armed the missile scuttling charges and connected 
with our already moving Thug.  Inside, we plugged ourselves in and started 
broadcasting on all channels about being ambushed.  Kato did an amazing job 
of limping really fast back to the road, and Phantom was still in contact 
with the deckers inside, who told him that they had intercepted a visual of 
the switch from a Jovian-6 surveillance drone.  Phantom was also able to 
modify the IFF transponder on our Thug to closely match the other's, with 
intentional degradation to duplicate the effects of true damage.  The 
internal mikes were kept active and all 12 of us were screaming as if we'd 
taken a LOT of damage and we were severely wounded.

Now, you need to get an idea of what the Thug looked like.  It's treaded, 
with a remote medium turret set off-center on the top, over where the 
passenger would sit if it were a civilian vehicle.  it's got four exit 
points, a top hatch, two single side doors, and a rear ramp hatch.  We'd 
duplicated the effects of having the top and one side door blown off and 
punched holes through it with heavy weapons to simulate the effects of an 
ambush.  The Thug is only lightly armored as these things go, I've been told, 
so it wasn't unreasonable to expect the level of damage we inflicted on our 
Thug.  The turret was also damaged, but carefully enough that it still had 
full fire capability, one of the two missile pods still attached, but looked 
like it was about to fall off it's mounting.  And we attached a small 
submunition dispenser, for remotely activated anti-personnel minelets, to the 
bottom between the tracks.  Jasmine didn't like the minelets, being a Snake 
shaman and all that, but Green Hornet assured her that they were for 
distraction and confusion only and that they weren't powerful enough to 
really hurt someone unless they stepped on a bunch of them.

Our goal was to get through the gate and then destroy as much of Maxim's 
ability to pursue us as we could, and by about this time, we'd made it to 
the gate.  Phantom told us that the Nightglider and HALO teams were on the 
ground, but that things were already going badly for them in the armory, and 
that Maxim was probably less than a minute from figuring out that they had 
deckers in their system.  We kept coming closer and closer to the gate, but 
it was fraggin closed!  Closed, to a friendly Thug with wounded.  It was 
this point when I was glad that we had Jasmine along.  She was playing the 
squad's combat medic, a job she did very well, and she radioed the gate and 
told them that we had wounded and dying troops here, and that we needed to 
be let in NOW, and that she'd take responsibility if she needed to, and that 
if they didn't let us in immediately she'd get them nailed to a wall.  Well, 
it worked, and the gate slowly opened, even if all the guns of the three 
pillboxes were targeting us directly.

Going through that gate complex was very uncomfortable.  Not only is it 
concrete lined, 5 to 10 meters tall and topped with coiled razor wire, it's 
lined with mines and you're under the barrels of at least 6 heavy weapons 
and a missile launcher, not including the elementals which are always around.  
As we got closer, Kato said he could see AJ waiting just inside the inner 
gate complex.  Behind us the gate closed again, including all the tank traps, 
the gates, everything, and we knew that there was no way we were getting out 
through that gate again.  AJ was in the forefront of the medical personnel 
and was obviously taking charge, since all the other doctors and medics were 
taking his orders.  They scattered as he addressed the only other doctor 
there and faced him down.  That man has some incredible charisma and 
willpower sometimes, and that's what got us past the MSI medical personnel 
and let us rush right in, past guards, medical personnel, a tower and a team 
of military riggers running toward their hovertank as we passed it.  And all 
through it Kato was having our dispenser scatter AP minelets all over the 
road we sped along.  AJ said that our destination was the main hospital in 
the Security center, since it had the best medical facilities in the site, 
but that we'd better prepare for operations when we got close to the 
airfield.

Everyone got the RPGs and rifles ready and we doublechecked the main gun and 
the missile pod so we could use them instantly if necessary.  But you know 
something?  Looking around, I realized that there wasn't anyone non-essential 
on the streets.  Sure, there were 8000 or so Maxim employees there, all 
wearing sidearms, but only a fraction of them were out and visible.  All the 
others had disappeared into the housing buildings, medium sized 2 story 
buildings.  It was obvious that all the drek that we were doing to the 
facility had either been tried before or been simulated so many times that 
this was not much of a shock or inconvenience.  Frag, even the production 
lines didn't stop, although we found out later that they were throwing parts 
and breaking by the time that the deckers got done with them.

We were continuing as quick as we could while still maintaining some 
semblance of our cover when Kato announced that the submunitions were all 
out.  That's about when Phantom also told us that the deckers had gone off 
line after saying that they were under intense pressure and that we were on 
our own.  Unfortunately, this meant that our cover was about to be blown, 
and we'd just cleared the corner of one of the production facilities.  
Luckily, Jasmine had cast a mask spell and was keeping it up around the IFV, 
which now looked like an ambulance.  In front of us was about 300 meters of 
airfield, taxiway, tarmac, and armored bunker, plus a mortar pit, chopper 
pad, and a beautiful target, a Maxim semi-ballistic sitting outside the 
hanger.  We sped up a little and followed our route toward the one place we 
shouldn't have been going, the central security complex, but Kato rotated the 
turret to face the missile pod toward the plane while the rest of us took up 
positions to fire RPGs and spells at the drones, choppers, and the planes we 
could see in the bunkers.

And there were some of them.  Our recon, as good as it was, and as good as 
the sat shots were, didn't prep us for what Maxim really had in those 
bunkers.  At this point, one Massif-4, a Maxim ground support fighter, and a 
Blood Rose air-superiority fighter were out trying to engage, and possibly 
succeeding, our distraction team in the jungle, but in the bunkers were two 
more Massif-4s, another Blood Rose, and a Wyvern aerospace fighter too.  Not 
nice.  And the chopper pad near the gate was empty, although we were 
overflown by a Hughes Bandit on our way in, and we saw the other pad was 
slightly damaged.  There was another chopper, Kato said it was an Apache Mark 
3, being wheeled out to the tarmac from the bunkers, and we saw at least 5 
more inside being armed and readied for combat.  This was a bad thing.  And 
the drones....  There were dozens of them, from MRD-4 and -7 rotodrones to 
tilt-rotor Shadowhawk RPVs and even a couple of Bloodkite RPVs too.  Kato 
seemed impressed, and he was chatting with the rest of his chummers about 
Maxim's firepower.

Even with all 24 RPGs, we couldn't hope to destroy or even damage all the 
vehicles that could pursue us, so we got ready and, just before we reached 
the next corner of the production building, Kato fired the AVM and Jasmine 
dropped the mask.  With the start of gunfire, it wouldn't have worked much 
longer anyway, and she said that it wouldn't work against electronics either.  
Everyone armed with RPGs popped up and fired them at various vehicles, hoping 
that the area effect of the blast would damage enough drones or troops to 
slow them down.  The AVM met with a beautiful ending that probably gave us 
enough to confusion to get turned around and heading toward the far 
perimeter.  The AVM hit a wing fuel tank and detonated, sending a fireball 
into the sky that lit up the jungle and the facility with a beautiful but 
hellish light.  It worked, until we heard the whines of vectored thrust 
turbines starting up from the other side of the Security building, where the 
Collussus MBT was stationed.  We were in a lightly armored and intentionally 
damaged Thug.  That fraggin thing wouldn't stand a single shot from the 
Collussus's RVL-1, never mind the 175mm cannon.  AJ swore as Kato threw it 
into a u-turn and almost threw him from the Thug, and then ripped off his 
medical outfit and started putting together his Ranger-X bow.  You could see 
that things were not going as well as he had hoped just by looking in his 
eyes.  Frag, we all knew that.  Jasmine again came through, this time casting 
a spell that created a darkness around us so that the flashes from the rifles 
wouldn't give us away, although the RPGs still would.  Too bad it didn't work 
against mechanical sensors....

The rest of us were blasting away at anything that was firing back at us.  
Gunny got a cheer when his grenade launcher lit off a couple of rotodrones 
with an expertly placed minigrenade.  But Maxim was starting to get 
themselves together and we were starting to run out of ammo.  Jasmine's 
illusion worked only as long as we didn't run into any drones or cameras 
and, wouldn't you know it, the next thing we know we're getting strafed by 
three rotodrones.  One of them was nearly a full chopper in its own right, 
and it comes barreling in at us, guns blazing.  I was only barely able to 
cast a bullet barrier in time to partially shield us from some of the shots, 
but enough got through to hit and wound a couple of the locals.  Gunny, with 
a couple of air-timed grenades, was able to blast the sensors of one of the 
drone, and the rigger controlling it lost control and crashed the fraggin 
thing.  The combined effects of 5 or 6 assault rifles brought the other one 
down after its rotor was damaged.  But the MRD-7 stayed up until the fire 
elemental I sent at it ignited it's fuel, at which point it made a beautiful 
explosion.

Our plan was to head across the airfield, which we were doing, and to get 
close enough to some of the rotodrones to destroy all or most of them.  With 
the Thug's cannon covering us, Green Hornet, Doc Savage, and I got out to 
set charges on the drones we were near.  Unfortunately for us, a fraggin 
ground combat drone, a Black Angus, if I remember correctly, decided to take 
this opportunity to introduce us to it's Monster combat gun.  If you've never 
been face to face with Monster combat weapon, be glad.  It's got four barrels 
including an LMG, automatic grenade launcher, and two assault rifles, all 
modified for belt feeds.  Well, this fraggin gun sends us scurrying for cover 
and goes and kills two of the locals in the Thug.  Green Hornet makes it back 
to the Thug, which starts moving around to pick us up before taking LMG 
rounds and being forced back by exploding grenades.  I don't know for sure 
what happened with the rest of the Thug's crew while we were running, but 
this is what Doc Savage and I ran into.

We ran into a Quad.  The grenades had driven us back from the Thug and around 
behind a concrete barrier at the edge of the drone pad.  Doc poked his head 
over the barrier and saw that the Thug was being driven away, and that Green 
Hornet was clear of the drones, so he blew them and created a large hole in 
the ground in the process.  Well, we hauled hoop, keeping low, and almost 
missed them.  Doc was as surprised as I was when, suddenly, there were four 
armored and armed figures running across the tarmac at our position.  We 
could barely see them, and I was NOT about to kick over perception to Astral 
to verify that they were there, so I summoned up my best Hellblast and flung 
it at them.  Something was very wrong, because it worked, but didn't do 
anything.  A hellblast as powerful as I threw should have melted the flesh 
off their bones and fused it with their armor, but it did nothing.  Nothing.  
The only thing that makes sense is that it has to be the same kind of armor 
that those dragon people are wearing, at least in principle.  If I'd looked 
at it in the Astral, I'd be able to verify this, but that would have been 
suicide in this place.  Doc fired off some rounds from his SMG, but the 
figures just seemed to shrug them off, and one of them even showed a 
shimmering like an anchored bullet or physical barrier.  Not pleasant.  We 
looked at each other and began to run.

Let me tell you, that Quad could move.  Not only did the armor likely contain 
either magical masking of some kind or Ruthenium coating, but they made no 
sounds as they ran.  They were carrying ramjet rifles with grenade launchers, 
and as we began to run, they began to fire, following us.  The impact of the 
rounds on the concrete disintegrated part of the barrier we had been hiding 
behind originally, and we ran hard and fast.  I ended up calling on an air 
elemental to help me, since I couldn't keep up with Doc or outrun the Quad 
behind me without it.  Well, what happens when you're in enemy territory with 
an elemental helping keep you alive?  Your pursuers try to take control of 
your elemental, and fragitall if the Quad mage didn't succeed too.  Next 
thing you know the elemental is sucking the breath out of my lungs and I've 
stopped cold.  Doc must have realized that I wasn't still behind him, because 
he stopped cold, landed on his back, and flung an aerodynamic grenade at the 
Quad, which distracted them long enough for me to banish my own elemental 
before it could kill me.  Needless to say, I was starting to get really 
fraggin pissed, but before I could sling a spell, a single black arrow 
punched through the physical barrier, the armor, and out through the Quad 
member's back and stopped the guy as if he'd hit a wall.  You gotta love AJ 
and his bows.  AJ sent a second arrow at one of the Quad members, but this 
one was fast enough to get out of they way, but the surprise was enough.  The 
Thug, with the rest of the team providing cover, put itself between us and 
the surviving Quad members, and Doc and I climbed aboard.

Kato pulled away hard and fast, but this time I was prepared for it and 
didn't fall out of the back again.  We got a couple hundred meters away when 
something exploded on the left side and the Thug lurched to the left and 
almost rolled.  Kato shouted "Busted Track!  Everyone out NOW!!!" and we 
grabbed what little we could and scattered, me going with Doc, Kato, Phantom, 
and Green Hornet, and Jasmine, AJ, and Gunny going together.  No sooner had 
we all gotten out that a supersonic blast nearly knocks us on our hoops as a 
couple of shells from different directions intersected with the Thug, turning 
it into scrap metal.  One was later described to me as a HESH and the other 
a HEAT shell, one each from a Jackson and the Collussus MBTs.  The blast did 
what the shell passage didn't:  it blew us out and away from the Thug and to 
the ground.  The blast also caught the last of the locals, leaving only us 
Seattlites alive.  But we were hardly unwounded.  I took some shrapnel in my 
side, Doc some in his left forearm.  Doc's was buried so deep that it was 
lodged in the bone.  The best we could do was bind it tight and run.  Green 
Hornet, seeing that the vehicle that took out our track was still active, 
blew off a track with a well placed grenade, and a second one blasted off the 
sensors, effectively taking the tank combat drone out of action.

The team was split, and Kato and Green Hornet got us going toward a chopper 
he saw about 500m away.  The last thing I saw of Gunny and that part of the 
team until after the raid was Gunny going down on one knee and taking aim at 
the Collussus MBT with his RPG.  Then I turned and followed Kato and the rest 
of the gang.

I'll let AJ tell that side of the story and tell how we escaped in a 
bit..]<<<<<
	--  Foxey Roxey <19:25:53/03-10-57>

>>>>>[Well, here we are again, this time with what I suspect will be the last 
of the simsense I've been given.  I don't know exactly what happened after 
the end of this, but feel free to inform us peons.

+++++ Begin Simsense Download +++++

Again, you feel a little disoriented as you return to the life of another 
person, a female street samurai, in the heat of battle.  The first sense you 
regain is tactile, as your hands reach out and grab the sharp edges of rock 
and concrete punctuated here and there with bent rebar.  The next sense is 
smell and taste, so similar that you can literally taste the smell of burning 
aviation fuel and ignited gunpowder.  Next is sight, but your eyes have 
shifted their spectrum into the infrared to enable you to see the edges of 
the hole you are climbing through.  You are all set for your hearing to 
return next, but it doesn't.  It takes you an instant for you to remember 
that you are deaf, from the blast of ultrasonics that nearly killed you.

In front of you the night sky is black as coal in the infrared, until your 
cybereyes switch back to low-light as the head of your instructor appears in 
front of you and helps you out of the cramped hole.  The short explosives 
expert gestures and takes off running toward the far armory perimeter fence.  
Even through your barely operational cyberears, you still hear the sounds of 
violent explosions near the airfield behind you.  Your internal chronometer 
is counting down, and you have 4.678 seconds until the distraction group 
fires their rockets and then only 18 seconds before the rockets impact their 
targets.  You see that the ninja is limping slightly, likely caused by the 
ultrasonics.  In front of you is almost 200 meters of bare ground and bunker 
roof to cross without being killed, and at least two of you are wounded.  In 
front of you, the edge of the jungle lights up with obviously magical fire 
that ignites the damp jungle with a more mundane flame.  When the magical 
flash fades, it leaves in it's place only the muzzle flashes from guards and 
drones firing out at the jungle.

In your cybereye, the last telltale from your team goes black, and beneath 
your feet you feel the ground vibrate slightly an instant before hear, as if 
from a great distance, the rumble of an explosion.  You know that, within 
seconds, a second explosion will happen that could very well blow you off 
your feet if the short expert's calculations were off.  You dive to your feet 
and you see your instructor drag down with him the glider team's mage.  The 
explosive expert is with the nuke expert, and they are both falling to the 
ground in a manner that could injure them both.  The ninja and the wounded 
man also crouch down, and just in time too.  Beneath you the ground literally 
jumps from the force of the explosion only 70 meters behind you.  You brace 
your body for the overpressure wave, but a second later, it hasn't arrived 
and you've not been bombarded by concrete fragments.  Looking behind you as 
you begin to rise to your feet, you see a small cloud of dust rise from the 
area where there used to be a bunker containing nuclear weapons.  You're 
still alive, so they were successfully destroyed, although the small plume of 
dust means that you'll have to undergo some decon when you get out, if you 
get out.

You help the mage to his feet again and you begin running again toward the 
next bunker over, the bunker which your now dead second in command happened 
to land on before.  Before you reach it, however, you hear the reports of 
mortars and distinctive whipsnaps of railguns firing.  Less than a second 
later, the land is plunged into daylight as the flare shells ignite and 
begin a long, parachute constrained descent.  Your eyes adapt almost 
instantly, switching from the ultraviolet to visible spectrum.  The mage is 
not so lucky, as he slaps his hands across his eyes and stumbles, 
flashblinded.  It shouldn't be permanent and should fade in a couple of 
seconds, you know, but for now you're in what amounts to daylight, in the 
open.  Your instructor and his associate rush forward and help the mage the 
last 15 meters to the edge of the bunker.  You take a very quick survey of 
your surroundings and see four more suits of armor leaping over the 
concertina wire armory fence on the far side of the destroyed nuke bunker.  
Two suits are extremely odd, barely visible, and all four move as if they 
are powered.  Another Maxim Quad, no doubt, and they're coming after you.

Off to the southwest you see several Maxim military troops advancing 
carefully along the edge of the next bunker, and, after sending a burst 
their way to scatter them, you follow the rest of the team up to the top of 
the bunker.  You're still nearly 150 meters from the armory fence, however, 
and you know that you'll come under fire long before you reach there, only 
from the armory guards if you're lucky, and from tanks and mortars if you're 
unlucky.  The seven of you continue to run, your instructor taking the lead 
and you bringing up the rear.  From your elevated position, you can see the 
jungle's edge and the perimeter better.  Something is definitely going on, 
but from the distance, you still cannot be sure what.  Maxim is still firing 
mortar shells at the killzone, and you can see the explosions and fires being 
started by exploding white phosphorous and incendiary shells.  All you can 
see are perhaps three dozen people being foolish enough to assault the 
perimeter directly.  You continue to advance across the roof of the bunker 
and quickly reach the other side with the aid of the mage's spirits and 
muscle enhancing cyberware.

Unfortunately, as your instructor begins to descend the far edge of the 
bunker, something forms up just to his left.  The shape appears to be made 
of trash, chunks of concrete, sections of pipe, and dirt.  It glows slightly, 
almost as if it's radioactive, and it suddenly reaches out and throws your 
instructor aside as if he's a rag doll.  Your instructor falls, with at least 
his right arm broken, at the base of the bunker embankment, 20 meters short 
of the armory fence.  It strikes out again at your instructor's associate, 
who spins and begins to fire it as well.  As you begin to fire at it, it 
strikes the nuke expert's weapon from his hands, breaking his left wrist.  
The weapon, now lying on the ground, seems to dissolve away as the spirit you 
know to be toxic from similar encounters just lurches at you and throws a 
pseudopod of dripping and glowing dirt at you.  You leap to the right in a 
vain attempt to avoid the spirit's attack, and brace for the jarring impact 
that will likely shatter your armor and your ribcage in the process, but it 
never comes.  You continue your roll and turn to see the ninja, still 
limping, recovering from his swordstrike which removed the pseudopod from the 
rest of the spirit.  The spirit recoils and then lurches at the explosives 
expert, who isn't fast enough to get out of the way.  Almost faster than you 
can follow, the spirit engulfs the hapless man.

You know that your HK227 won't do anything to the spirit and you could hurt, 
perhaps even kill the engulfed explosives expert, so you begin to rise.  As 
you do so, you feel a sudden, burning pain in your left side and you see a 
sudden, ultraviolet flare in a beam extend forward from your side into the 
jungle.  The pain is severe, but your internal status displays indicate that 
the wound affects only the muscles.  No organs have been punctured by the 
laser.  A second beam appears and punches itself through the spirit, 
vaporizing a small amount of its body, but doing very little else.  The mage, 
still shaking slightly from the appearance of a toxic spirit, casts some 
spell.  The effect is immediate, and your still malfunctioning ears hear a 
scream that sounds as much like the gurgle of toxic waste from a factory pipe 
as a scream.  At almost the same instant, something manifests between you and 
the rapidly approaching Maxim Quad.  The spirit takes the shape of a cloud of 
mist, which will effectively shield you from the laser effects, you hope.  In 
the second before your view is occluded by the spirit, you see that two of 
the armor suits are standard CVR-7 powered armor, but the other two are very 
different.  What little you see indicates that they are covered in what 
appears to be polished blades.  The entire surface of the armor, and the 
blades appear to be shifting.  You also see what can only be a helmet slaved 
laser mounted on the left shoulder, and what appears to be a possible weapon 
port on the back of each bladed forearm, and then the spirit totally blocks 
the view.

With the spirit there, you rise to your feet and turn toward the spirit, 
which has apparently disgorged the man it had engulfed.  Luckily for him, his 
armor was partially chemically treated, because his exposed skin is covered 
in severe chemical burns.  He's unconscious, but not dead yet.  The mage is 
barely upright after casting his last spell, and the ninja has engaged the 
toxic spirit in melee combat with his katana, a battle that appears to be a 
stalemate.  You've not even reached the perimeter of the armory, yet the 
appearance of the spirit between you and the Quad means that the magical 
team knows you're here.  In front of you another spirit, this one in a human 
form, manifests, and you barely hear it say "Hi there.  Who's first?"  You 
gesture toward the explosives expert, and the spirit turns to him.  It almost 
seems to grimace, and then it picks up the man and lifts off the surface, 
flying him over the fences and toward the jungle's edge.  Another spirit 
appears, but this one looks more like a panda than a human man.  Instead of 
saying anything, it shambles over to the toxic spirit that is slowly beating 
back the ninja, and for an instant they lock into combat in the physical 
before they both disappear into the astral.

The mage, still swaying from near exhaustion, finally collapses.  The wounded 
glider pilot and the your instructor's associate rush down the embankment to 
aid your instructor as best they can.  As you and the ninja grab the only 
barely conscious mage and drag him toward the relative safety of the 
embankment, you catch sight of a small spot of IR light, and you roughly 
shove the ninja, who almost got out of your way, and the mage down the 
embankment.  You feel more than see or hear the descent of a smart mortar 
shell as it follows the target designation laser and detonates mere meters 
from where you stood less than a second before, spraying white phosphorous 
all over you, the mage, and the ninja.  Your armor has protected part of 
your body for the instant, but the burning chemical will soon burn its way 
through your armored clothing and burn your skin as it burns your exposed 
flesh already.  A second shell impacts a few meters farther from you, likely 
deflected by the smoke the white phosphorous is creating as a side effect, 
and the explosion blows all of you off your feet.   You feel the tear of 
shrapnel as you fall, and your last sight for several seconds is the nuke 
expert falling as well, with his entire right side bloody from shrapnel.  You 
can hear the screams of pain that issue from at least three mouths, including 
your own, even as your are innundated rapidly in more water than could 
possibly come from anything other than a watercannon.  You realize as you are 
slowly running out of air that a large, possibly great or free water 
elemental has engulfed the three of you and is literally washing the white 
phosphorus from your skin.  Even so, you three will be scarred unless healing 
can be applied to your wounds almost instantly.  Almost as suddenly as the 
elemental appeared, it disappears, leaving the three of you clean and soaking 
wet, but alive.  Your instructor is still unconscious from the toxic spirit's 
blow, the nuke expert is lucky to be alive but rising to his feet slowly, the 
wounded glider pilot was the furthest from the exploding shell and he's just 
dazed, the mage is unconscious, the ninja appears to be in extreme pain, and 
the pain you are feeling is beginning to affect your thought processes.  
Shell shock is already hitting you, and you're not even out of combat yet.  
This is far worse than the worst Desert Wars conflicts you've been involved 
in, even with Saeder-Krupp and Aztechnology.  This upstart corporation is 
significantly more dangerous militarily than even your team was prepared for.

Without your hearing, it's difficult to hear what's going on around you, but 
you doubt that things are going well.  Shells have stopped raining down on 
the west, but you can still hear the sounds of railguns with the added sounds 
of missiles and cannons firing.  Then you see why, in the form of rocket 
engines arcing in over the ridgeline to the west and north.  If the magical 
teams have done their work, then Maxim won't have too many elementals 
remaining, yet something's obviously engaging the rockets.  These are the VX 
simulant warheads, and you hope that they drive some of the guards into a 
panic so you'll find your escape a little simpler.  Only one of you has made 
it out at this point, out of 7, and the spirit should have returned by now.

Just as you think this, you see the panda spirit reappear, with singed fur 
and a damaged paw.  It gestures toward your instructor, who is obviously next 
in line of needing medical attention, and the two with him lift him onto the 
spirit's back.  This spirit takes off as you peek your head over the lip of 
the embankment in time to see the mist spirit finally be destroyed.  You are 
again facing four figures, but this time they are advancing more cautiously.  
Frag radio silence, you think, they obviously know where we are.  You say 
"Quad coming.  Get moving!"  The two nuke experts grab the unconscious mage 
and you guide the ninja toward the concertina wire fence.  You pull your last 
two grenades from your webbing, set them to proximity, and roll them back 
toward the embankment as you continue putting space between you and the 
bunker.  You're nearly near the embankment when the two nuke experts spot 
something.  Your instructor's associate and fellow HALO jumper stops, braces 
himself with the help of the wounded glider pilot, raises his SPAS-22, and 
fires at something through the perimeter.  Through the haze of WP and 
shrapnel induced pain, you can barely think straight never mind see what he's 
shooting at, but you see something explode briefly.  It takes a second to 
register what the explosion was, and then you remember that the outer 
perimeter is patrolled by roaming Pixie targeting drones.  Obviously, this 
is what targeted you before.  At this point, the star shells that were fired 
by the mortars and cannons finally burn themselves out and the world is 
plunged, after a final flickers, into blessed half-light again.

Only this time, the terrain looks more like a scene out of Dante's Inferno, 
with explosions as something keeps setting off landmines outside the 
perimeter fences, fires in the edge of the jungle, the back lit white smoke 
of white phosphorous and thermite fires in the killzone between the jungle 
and the fences, and the nearly blood red glare from the fires sparked around 
the facility.  But by far the most disturbing thing of all is the figures you 
had caught sight of for the first time less than a minute before.  With the 
falling of darkness, you finally get a sense for just why the Maxim towers 
are wasting thousands of machine gun rounds firing at them.  Before you are 
several dozen humanoid figures are advancing through the minefield at the 
fence as if nothing can stop them.  But the comparison of the figures to 
people ends there.  Some of the figures are missing heads, yet the continue 
to advance.  Some are on fire, yet they continue to come at the fence.  Some 
have so many holes in them that you can see thermite ignited fires through 
their legs or torsos, yet they keep coming.  Some have even had both legs 
blown off, yet they reach forward with their dead arms and pull themselves 
toward the fence.  And yet all the ammo the towers are firing at them only 
seems to slow them down.  Once in a while, one actually get's cut into enough 
pieces that it stops, but this doesn't appear to be happening too often.

You can feel your jaw hanging open, and you are dimly aware of the rest of 
the team around you reacting similarly, even through the pain all of you must 
be feeling at this point, including the hardened UCAS specialist who has, 
presumably, seen beings like these before.  You think that these things are 
abominations against nature, even more so than the man you know organized 
this entire raid, who at least has some intelligence and would have the 
decency to die if thrown into a fire.  These....things keep on coming toward 
the perimeter with a single-mindedness that only a mindless zombie could 
possibly duplicate.  Another shocking realization hits as you crouch down 
quickly and shout "DOWN!!!" at the others, who duck quickly.  Behind you, 
where you laid the grenades and where the white phosphorous fire is only now 
starting to die down, two proximity fused grenades detonate, catching one of 
the Quad members in a dual explosion that, hopefully, kills him.  However, 
the same explosion draws the attention of one of the towers, which responds 
to it with a spray of LMG autofire.  The nuke specialist turns and throws a 
grenade that detonates, spewing smoke and effectively shielding you from the 
tower's FOV for at least the time being.  The first spirit returns, followed 
by the panda and then one other that looks like an elephant.  The panda 
indicates that it can carry two of you, and you and the ninja climb onto it.  
The mage goes with the first, human-like spirit, and the two nuke experts are 
picked up by the elephant spirit.  You all take off, up and out of the 
facility.

You are nearly out of the facility no more than a second later when you see 
something floating before you, something obviously alien and dangerous.  To 
your admittedly untrained eye, it appears to be a spirit of some kind, yet 
it appears to suck up everything, even the light by which you are trying to 
observe it.  The mage, apparently having regained some semblance of 
consciousness, sends his last remaining elemental, a decent sized fire 
elemental, at it.  The black hole creature barely even winks as it just 
seems to consume the energies of the manifest fire elemental.  Two of the 
spirits sprint away from it, almost as if they are afraid of this creature, 
but the panda you are on can only move so quickly.  The void moves up behind 
you, and then vanishes as something attacks it from astral space.  
Apparently, something has appeared to keep it distracted while your spirit 
helps get you away.  In front of you, however, another spirit appears.

This spirit is probably another free spirit, much like the one you are on, 
but it is human.  You see that it is wearing a light blue suit over a dark 
blue dress shirt, with wingtips and a turquoise bolo tie.  The spirit you 
are on stops and looks at it, and then it literally disappears from under 
you, dropping you and the ninja unceremoniously to the ground.  You are not 
sure what happens, but you are immediately aware of where you are.  You and 
the ninja are literally laying on the ground in the middle of the minefield, 
with fires and zombies around you, and with bullets riddling the ground 
around you as well.  If you didn't know better, you'd say that this part of 
the perimeter looks an awful lot like the surface of the moon:  cratered and 
void of all life.  The blue suit clad spirit hovers a mere couple of 
centimeters above the ground and comes up to the ninja.  It crouches down, 
picks up his head, and says "Tsk tsk, my young friend.  And to think, you 
were doing so well too.  It's a shame that you'll die more than once.  I'm 
sure the last time was extremely pleasant for all concerned."  The ninja 
mouths something that you can't hear, and then lunges and strikes out at the 
spirit, hitting it and knocking it back.  All you can hear is the laughter of 
the spirit, almost as if in your mind, as it absorbs every magically assisted 
blow the ninja can land on it.  The spirit stands and puts its back between 
the ninja and the perimeter behind you, and then fades away with the words 
"Smile, your on candid camera."  The ninja, not understanding, looks up at 
the perimeter fence less than 20 meters in front of him and behind you, gets 
a look of terror on his face, and then stops moving altogether, turning to 
stone right before your eyes.  The basilisk behind you cannot do the same to 
you, however, as you have your back to it.  But it's only a matter of seconds 
before the guards accompanying the basilisk mow you down and end your life.

Around you appears the faint shimmering of a manifest spirit.  You hear it 
say "Lobster said to keep you guarded, because he doesn't want you to step 
on any mines." and you smile and step forward to the frozen ninja.  As you 
step forward, the shimmering disappears and you hear a quiet chuckle, 
obviously the voice of the spirit that allowed your teammate to be petrified, 
and it says "Gotcha." before it fades away.  Too late to avoid putting your 
foot down, you hear a very quiet but suddenly very loud "click."

And the simsense cuts off, leaving you with nothing less than the sound of an 
explosion and the feeling of torn flesh, bone, and organ from the waist down.

+++++ End Simsense Download +++++

That's it.  So, what happened to the lady?  Did she die?  How about the 
ninja?  What the frag happened to this?]<<<<<
	--  Trideo Pirate <20:18:29/03-10-57>

*****Private: Kingpin   
>>>>>[John,  I'm sure you've seen the drek that the Salish-Shidhe are
trying to pull.  Well they're not going to get away with trying to make us
their lapdogs.  Not if I can do anything about it.

>From the list of those  companies receiving this dubious honor, which would
benefit us the most if we  were to run against them with our Marvel assets?

Get back to me as soon as possible.  I want to get this  rolling in time for
the ceremony on Friday.]<<<<<
	-- Armand Lattizori (Genghis) <16:21:13/03-10-57>
	CEO AGRA

*****Private: Genghis
>>>>>[I anticipated  your request, and have had my staff updating the files
since I came in this morning.  I've attached them.

+++++include file: Turkana.dat
+++++include file: Nantek.Dat
+++++include file: Gaetronics.dat

I feel that Turkana offers the best scenario for us.  Their Eridanis Group
would fit in perfectly with our expansion plans.  It would gives a great
deal of veritcal diversification.  I've also enclosed our recomendations
for operations.

+++++include file: intelligence.recomendations

John Fisk
VP- Corporate Intelligence
AGRA]<<<<<
	-- Kingpin <16:47:32/03-10-57>

*****Private: Kingpin
>>>>>[Thanks John, I should have  known you would be on top  of things.
I'll look over the files and keep your recomendation in mind.  I'll contact
you if I have any questions.]<<<<<
	-- Armand Lattizori (Genghis) <16:57:41/03-10-57>

*****Private: Kang
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
This is your wakeup call.  Initiate Secret War, target is Turkana.  Disrupt
ceremony Friday if possible.  Report progress.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- White Queen <18:20:15/03-10-57>

*****Private:Mephisto, Enchantress, Absorbing Man, Shaw
>>>>>[Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
This is your wake up call.  Initiate Secret War ,target is Turkana.  Goal is
Eridanis.  Report situation.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	--White Queen <18:25:27/03-10-57>

*****Private:Carnage, Red Skull
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
This is your wake up call.  Initiate Secret War mode 2, target is Turkana.
Report situation.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	--White Queen <18:30:25/03-10-57>

*****Private: White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Internal Phone Log

"Emma, did you see what those damned elves and natives are doing?"

If you mean the commendations that the Salish-Shidhe are giving on Friday,
then yes.

"I can't believe this drek.  The nerve of the Salish-Shidhe in thinking that
they can give out commendations like we are children needing the occaisional
pat on the head.  As if any decent human being would want to be associated
with them.

"And the corps that are going along with them!  They should be ashamed.  I
think it is time to use Project MARVEL."

Sir, I don't know as the situation is  right for that.  Our agents do not
have enough experience  for this.

"Nonsense!  What have I been paying for all these years if not to use the
assests we have been developing."

Yes sir, I know.  It is just that some of them are very young.   I don't
know if they will be able to ...

"Well then, maybe it is time to find out which of them are able.  I'm not
going to spend money for nothing.  

"I contacted my Intellegince people about which of the corps receiving
_commendations_ would be an appropriate _test_subject_.  They feel, and I
agree, that Turkana Enterprises offers the best chance of a return.
Especially if we can acquire their Eridanis Group."

Armand, listen.  These are my students.  They are well trained but
inexperienced.  I do not want to put them to any unnecessary risk.

"Fine Emma.  Handle it any way you want, but I want Project MARVEL initiated
as soon as possible with Turkana Enterprises as the target, and Eridanis
Group as the goal.  And try to do something about that damn ceremony Friday.
I've  included Intelligence's operational recommendations, use them if you
feel they are appropriate.  You know the agents better than anybody.  And
don't worry, Kingpin is the only one is Intelligence that knows  about Marvel."

Very well sir.  I will initiate their activation at once.

"Good"
+++++End Log]<<<<<
	-- Wilde Institute Internal Log <18:05:02/03-10-57>

*****NOT TO:  Maxim, InterPol, etc.
>>>>>[Originally, I was only going to talk about how we got out of the 
facility alive, but since AJ's not speaking to anyone right now, Gunny's in 
a coma, and Jasmine seems to have disappeared for the time being, I guess 
I'll have to do their stuff too.  But I'll start with what I know, which was 
us.

After the Thug was destroyed, some of us went off with Green Hornet in the 
lead.  Kato, however, saw something that gave him an idea: a chopper.  Being 
a rigger, he figured that the chopper, being a stallion, would be large and 
powerful enough to get us out alive.  The only problem with that plan was the 
chopper was half a kilometer away, across open ground, with no cover, and 
some of us were drained from casting spells or wounded from shrapnel or 
bullets.  And then there were the troops that we could see converging on us 
from various sides.  As you can imagine, this is not a good thing.

But it fell on me to keep us at least safer than we would otherwise be, and 
so I cast another bullet barrier and sustained it while we ran.  I also 
called up all my elementals except one and sent them off to distract the 
military troops who were starting to flank us.  Those troops....they were 
probably spread all over the facility by now, yet we were still facing at 
least 30 of them, supported by drones that were swarming toward us.  What 
chance did we have against those odds?  Fraggin little, and we all knew it, 
but we had to try anyway.  So we kept on running, scattering and hitting the 
dirt when a drone came by.  One of the elementals helped us keep the drones 
from getting too close and we kept on shooting at the rotodrones too.  The 
grenades we had were keeping the troops a little further back than without 
them, but we were still being hounded mercilessly.  Green Hornet was the 
first one to take a round, even through the barrier spell.  It hit him in 
the right arm and shattered the bone in the process.  Doc Savage bound his 
arm to his side and we kept moving.  Next thing that happens is the ground 
beneath us jumps for an instant.  Looking to the west a small plume of dust 
is rising from where the armory is.  If we hadn't been in such dire straits, 
we might have cheered, but none of us had the time or energy to devote to 
that right then.

I felt the first of my elementals die about then, too.  Nothing like pain, 
just the feeling that a mage gets when an elemental they summoned dies.  I 
only had 4 left, excluding the one running drone interference and the one 
I'd not called up yet.  And then another one died.  They were only going to 
last us so much longer, and we still had a long way to run, so I called up 
my last elemental.  It was my only greater fire elemental, and I only had 
one service on it.  But it was time to move, or we'd be cut off.  Next thing 
everyone knows, they're all running MUCH faster than they were to begin with.  
Fire elementals can do that, especially the greater ones, and we were 
crossing the ground 6, maybe 7 times faster than we could have been before.  
But, fraggit, something went wrong.  Less than a hundred meters from the 
chopper, the elemental just disappears and I literally feel it die, almost 
as if it was attacked from the Astral.  The sudden stop sends everyone 
falling, and we all got bruised.  Green Hornet, with one arm already useless, 
couldn't absorb his fall well and cracked a couple of ribs.  He was hurting 
really fraggin bad, and there was nothing my magic could do about it.  I'm a 
combat magician, not a healer.  That's Jasmine, and she was with AJ and 
Gunny.

About this time I see what killed my elemental:  another fraggin spirit, this 
one looking like it was sucking up the light.  I wasn't stupid enough to 
catch a look at it astrally, since any Maxim mage in the astral could kill 
us all that way, but it was big, dark, and looked fraggin dangerous.  
Unfortunately, I had to drop my barrier to even try to nail it, and 
something went wrong.  My aura is really attuned to the background count of 
the areas I'm in, even though I'm a mage, and I whipped up a really fraggin 
powerful spiritbolt.  Nothing.  Not a fraggin thing.  It just seemed to say 
"Thank you ma'am, may I have another."  Doc Savage, the physical adept of 
the group, rushed it in an attempt to distract it and give us a chance to 
get by and to the chopper.  The spirit didn't do even move.  Doc was at least 
three meters away when he just rose into the air, spun around, and got 
thrown at least 15 meters.  When he landed, he tried to roll and reduce the 
damage, but all it did was keep him from getting killed when he hit the 
ground.  This fraggin spirit, and I have no fraggin clue what kind of spirit 
it was, could have eaten us for a midnight snack, but it just disappeared.  
We found out later that it ran into the HALO team right after us, but it 
never came back in our direction.  Doc, on the other hand, had a collapsed 
lung, broken shoulder and collarbone, both ACLs were torn, and his pelvis 
had a hairline fracture.  Jasmine spent a long time with him, putting him 
back together on the way back to Seattle.  Phantom picked him up with what 
must have been a painful fireman's carry, and we got running again.

This time, though, I felt the last of my elementals get killed.  The only 
fraggin one I had left was the air running drone interdiction.  However, it 
was doing that job really fraggin well.  Ever see an air elemental suddenly 
suck the lift from a rotodrone's rotors?  How about generate an instant 
vortex, or really severe windshear?  It's beautiful to behold the explosions 
as the drones crash and burn.  It was about this point that the calvary came 
in.  The Collussus wasn't interested in us at all.  If it had, we'd have 
been dead long before we got even close to the chopper.  But overhead was 
one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen:  about half a dozen drones 
and dozens of rockets detonating over the compound.  Less than 3 seconds 
later and we were almost home-free to the chopper, because all the troops 
converging on us stopped to don gas masks or panicked when the chemical 
alarms went off.  Except for the special forces troops, who either had been 
immunized against most chemical weapons or were in chemically sealed armor.  
But none of us were complaining when the number of Maxim troops we had to 
deal with dropped from 30 or 40 to 10 or 15.  Much improved, but still 
difficult considering that these were special forces.

The drones helped keep them off us, though.  Ripley with his RPVs and armed 
rotodrones kept the occupied enough to let us get to the chopper.  Kato was 
actually the first one there, and the rotors were already turning as we 
piled in.  I was fraggin disappointed, though.  Instead of a combat gunship 
variant like I was hoping for, it was just a construction Stallion.  You 
could tell the difference between the regular military and the special 
forces, though.  Maxim's military is very good and well trained, but they 
weren't prepared for the gas.  I suspect that Maxim is changing that really 
fraggin fast.  But the Quad I tried to down with a hellblast kept on coming 
at us.  The three who survived the spell just rolled across the ground, 
still coming at the chopper, until the fires were out, and then leapt to 
their feet again and kept on running.  Unfortunately, I was the only one who 
could see them coming, since they were wearing thermal and ruthenium coated 
sneaksuits.  Well, I was the only one who could see them until I blasted 
them, and then their suits, which have very little armor, got burned and 
Green Hornet and Phantom shot at them and cut them down.  The squad, 
gratefully, was occupied by Ripley's drones.

So we got off the ground, but there was no way that Maxim was going to let us 
go without trying to shoot down the chopper.  And they fraggin near 
succeeded.  I was astrally perceiving at this point, something that almost 
cost us all our lives.  I had figured that, since my barrier spells and my 
last elemental were still around, Astral was relatively safe.  No fraggin 
way.  I was looking around when I saw a Maxim mage casting a spell at me.  I 
know a thing or two about magic, and so I dispelled it quick before it got to 
me, but then jumped back fully into my mundane perceptions.  Doc Savage, 
still conscious, shook his head as I sat there and sweated.  Well, Ripley had 
lost half of his drones already and we could see where AJ and the rest of the 
team were trying to get out, so Phantom told Ripley that they needed his help 
more than we did.  It was true at that point, but it still nearly cost us our 
lives.  Ripley's last drones took off, and I felt my last elemental die from 
the mage in Astral. Beneath me, no longer hounded by the drones, the special 
forces team settled down for an instant as we kept firing grenades at them.  
Kato was keeping the smoke we'd fired between us and them really well, but 
then something went very wrong.  Kato shouts "Hang ON!" and before we even 
have time to react, he swerves off to the side, loses several meters of 
altitude, and a fraggin missile rips by.  Then he shouts "Bloodkite!  Strap 
yourselves in, because I can't outfly that fraggin thing."  We all strapped 
ourselves in as best we could, but some of us just couldn't.  Next thing I 
see is a fraggin jet rip by us, without a cockpit, and the fraggin thing is 
armed to the teeth.  Green Hornet started shooting at the fraggin thing, in 
the hope that he'd hit it, with no luck.  Well, I was feeling pretty fraggin 
bad at this point, but I figured I had one more spell left in me.  But I 
didn't need it.  From way the frag away, over by where the magical team was 
set up to help out the HALO team, a fragging spark of electricity arcs and 
hits the fraggin drone.  I fraggin near hit us too, but it didn't.  Well, 
the spark strikes one of the wing hardpoints and the drone just exploded.

Then the drek hit the fan.  Kato tried really hard, and almost succeeded too, 
but the Stallion ate a SAM in the tail, blowing it almost completely off.  We 
were a good kilometer from the perimeter, heading toward town when it 
happened, but it forced us down.  And we went down hard, too.  Kato did the 
best he could, but we still had to get out fast because we could smell 
aviation fuel leaking from the tanks, and we didn't want to be around when 
the chopper blew.  We were barely beyond the point where we figured the last 
of Maxim's assassin drones patrolled the jungle, but we didn't hang around 
long enough to find out.  Kato, still the least wounded of all of us, and 
Phantom helped me carry Doc Savage, but we ran into one more problem.  We 
were trudging through the jungle when we heard an ATV coming through the 
jungle from the south, where we knew some of the locals had set up a couple 
of Grad-Ps for diversions.  Just in case we were wrong, we hid as best we 
could, but we weren't wrong.  It was an ATV alright, with wounded locals in 
it.  We came out of hiding only to have them start swearing at us and 
shooting at us.  Well, this time we had cover, but they fraggin made me mad.  
I've mellowed out since I had Arial, but not that much.  I could barely 
stand, but the last thing I remember is standing as if I'd found new strength 
and coming out from behind the tree I was hiding behind, and then I remember 
waking up with Phantom staring down at me and feeling really fraggin tired.

After I recovered my strength, I asked him what happened.  Well, apparently 
the locals shot Kato, but he was ok.  But he said that I stood up and walked 
from where I was out into the open.  He said that my footsteps in the damp 
forest floor ignited as if I was a fraggin elemental, and that the locals 
were shooting at me, but the bullets were melting off a shield of heat in 
front of me.  He said that my hair started lifting as I started speaking in 
Sperethiel, and my hair was moving as if blown by a wind, but that the air 
around had grown deadly calm(his term, not mine).  And then he said I said, 
and I quote, "You just made me angry.  You just fragged with the wrong 
snitch, chums.  _Never_ frag with the Mistress."  And he said that he felt 
some form of barrier rise around him and the rest of the team, and then the 
fraggin forest exploded in fire.  When the fires died down, there was 
nothing for about 100 meters in every direction but burned husks of trees, 
and that all the locals bodies had just fraggin disappeared, no bones even, 
and I just passed out.

He said that he got everyone into the ATV, which was still around, for some 
reason, although everyone in it was gone, and drove away as fast as he could.  
I woke up in the contact building in town, and apparently Maxim sent a 
barrage of shells at the new clearing I created, but that he'd gotten us out 
before that happened.

Now, why the frag can't I ever remember doing this fraggin stuff everyone 
says I do, fraggit!]<<<<<
	--  Foxey Roxey <21:14:58/03-10-57>

>>>>>[You'll remember in time, my dear.  When the time is right, you will 
know and you will remember, but not until.]<<<<<
	--  Etsy <21:18:06/03-10-57>

*****NOT TO:  Maxim, InterPol, etc.
>>>>>[Well, Jasmine is still nowhere to be seen, AJ's still sequestered 
himself away in the clinic helping keep people alive and repairing their 
bodies, and Gunny is unconscious, so I guess it still falls on me to tell 
AJ's story.  Diana would, but....well, she's got other things to think about 
these days.  I'm sorry, but this drek is all second hand, so I could get 
stuff wrong.  I took notes on our way back from Cambodia, but we'll see.  I'm 
sure that Jasmine and AJ will correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, I guess the best place to start is right after the two groups got 
separated by the explosion of the Thug.  As we went one way, AJ, Gunny, and 
Jasmine went the other, and we had a Collussus MBT bearing down on us.  
Apparently, they went off and angled toward the motorpool and then the 
housing areas beyond it.  Well, I guess Gunny had one RPG left, and he 
decided to use it on the Collussus and teach Maxim a lesson about armor 
they'd never forget.  The three of them ran until they reached the edge of 
the motor pool, and they just barely got out of the way of the Collussus.  
As it went by, Gunny got a good look at it's rear end, the part that usually 
has the least armor, except maybe the top or the bottom.  Well, he fired the 
fraggin RPG at the Collussus, and AJ said that it flew good and true too.  
But something apparently went very strange, because it never hit.  It just 
broke into pieces as it was nearing the rear of the tank, almost as if it had 
been cut by monowire.  Jasmine figured that the only thing that could have 
done that was lasers.  I guess Slash'll have to add the upgraded APZ to his 
list of new Maxim weapon system improvements.

Well, Gunny didn't like that one bit, but before he even had a chance to run, 
he got shot.  Not by any bullet though, but by the Collussus's APZ system 
which had not only just chopped an RPG into slices, but also tracked the RPG 
back to it's place of origin.  And Gunny just didn't move fast enough, or 
maybe it didn't matter and the APZ tracked his movement.  I don't know, and 
it doesn't really fraggin matter either.  Gunny got shot, a couple of times, 
and the only thing that saved him from probably being cored and killed was 
the smoke from the fire, the gunfire, the Thug, and everything else that was 
burning around them.  I guess it probably scattered enough light that instead 
of cutting gunny into small cubes of flesh, it just burned him really badly.  
Apparently most lasers do the most damage by vaporizing small amounts of 
flesh.  Well, Gunny had some good sized craters, a couple of which were near 
enough to major arteries that he needed immediate medical attention.  He 
couldn't have been with anyone better:  an MD and a snake shaman healer.  
Jasmine was better suited in this regard than AJ, so she healed him a little 
to keep him from bleeding to death, and then the three of them got moving 
again.

Well, the Collussus didn't come back around to finish them off for some 
apparent reason, probably the assault on the west perimeter, and so they 
proceeded relatively safely until they ran into a squad of Maxim military 
troops.  Jasmine again saved the day, with her every useful invisibility 
spell.  Luckily, none of the squad were astrally perceiving at the time, but 
that changed pretty quickly.  You see, by this point the deckers were gone 
from the system, so Jasmine's well timed invisibility had a pretty short half 
life.  But they weren't spotted by a camera, Jasmine figures, until just 
before they reached the housing units.  So far, even with Gunny wounded, they 
were doing pretty well.  Now all they had to do was get through the perimeter 
somehow without getting killed.  I said that they'd been spotted, but I 
didn't mention that Gunny laid down some suppression fire and some smoke 
grenades too to cover their escape, and then they disappeared as well as they 
could down into the housing units.  It was a lot safer than being out in the 
open, but every unit had something like 10 or so armed Maxim employees.  
Sure, they were probably too scared to come out and threaten these three, 
but they were still there.  And yet again, Jasmine kept things going.  She 
cast her invisibility again to keep them free from prying mundane eyes, and 
they advanced slowly and cautiously.

It was about this point that they heard a rumble from the northwest, which we 
all know was the nuke bunker being blown.  What also happened was Ripley 
activated the minelets, and off to the northeast, they started small 
explosions, as well as muted screams above the sounds of combat to the 
northwest.  Jasmine said that Gunny had to physically restrain her from 
rushing in that direction to help the people stepping on the minelets.  AJ, 
before he buried himself in his clinic, said that Jasmine looked and acted 
REALLY fraggin upset, which I can understand.  Gunny helped drag Jasmine 
away toward the south, where AJ was heading, and they started hearing the 
sounds of pursuit behind them.  I guess the distractions were confusing all 
right, but not confusing enough.  Jasmine said that she was getting really 
tired maintaining the invisibility spell, and that it just wasn't going to 
keep them hidden from the troops who were on their tail and were probably 
being guided by Maxim security riggers using security cameras and sensors, 
so she summoned up a city spirit, which she used to confuse the drek out of 
the pursuing troops.  It didn't last long, but long enough for the three of 
them to get close to the perimeter.  

Jasmine said that, off where the road and minelets were, they heard some 
really nasty sounds, like the whine of an ACV.  They didn't come across it, 
I guess, but it was probably the hovertank we passed on the way in, by one 
of the chopper pads.  The three of them had gotten around a tower and were 
nearing the edge of the perimeter when AJ supposedly told Gunny to put a 
couple of grenades in the nearest perimeter tower.  Well, Gunny's a good 
shot, so I guess he did so and pretty well too.  Jasmine said that the three 
of them, after the explosions probably killed everyone in the tower, rushed 
toward the part of the perimeter that it was originally guarding.  AJ told 
her to place some charges the two outer tower supports and then blow them 
when she was ready.  Well, Gunny noticed something that was a little 
unpleasant.  Remember those recon trids Slash showed us, the ones with the 
really pretty 10cm flagstone step between the perimeter fence and the inner 
hedge?  Well, there was a second one on the inside too, and Gunny found that 
it was lined with claymores, or rather a new variation on the classic 
claymore design.  You'll have to ask him yourself, because it's his area, 
not mine.  But these were facing inward, so Maxim had designed their 
perimeter to be able to kill people inside too.  Swell corp.  Makes me glad 
I got driven out when Velli took control.

The hedge was obviously put there to funnel people through the gaps beneath 
the towers, and it was good sized.  Well, Jasmine said that she made a 
mistake there.  It wasn't that she went through the gap, but that she let 
herself brush the edge of the hedge.  It caught her clothing, and in the 
process of trying to get herself disengaged, not only did she get herself 
more caught, but a squad of Maxim troops caught up to them, and a couple of 
patrols from outside caught up too.  Gunny was apparently running out of 
ammo.  Nobody expected a running firefight the entire time we were in the 
facility, but that's what happened to most everyone.  Jasmine finally just 
got angry and tried to rip herself out of the edge of the hedge, which did 
more damage than it should have.  It seems that the hedge is not only thorned 
with directional thorns like a porcupines, but it's branches are really 
fraggin tough.  AJ ran up and sliced the plants with his spurs and cut her 
out, but they had to leave the barbs in.  That turned out to be a mistake 
too, but it didn't hit them until later.

Jasmine said that, while Gunny was doing ok keeping the inner troops busy, 
she was getting shot at from the external patrol.  AJ had lost his bow too, 
and he can't shoot for drek anyway.  Before Jasmine set explosives on the 
tower supports, she called back her spirit, which was still around, and set 
it to scare the drek out of the guards inside.  It worked, too, until some 
Maxim shaman banished it, so Jasmine said.  The guards running like drek 
gave Gunny the chance to shoot at some of the patrols outside the fence.  
Until another drekky thing happened, which fraggin near was the death of all 
three of them.  A barghest came around howling.  And AJ was literally just 
standing there, on the other side of the hedge, not doing anyone any good.  
Until he faded away.  Jasmine said that she didn't dare catch a peek into 
Astral space, but that he probably misted on them, and Gunny fraggin near 
hit him when he appeared next to the barghest and slit it's throat with his 
spurs, and then he turned his hands on the patrol guards and didn't leave a 
single one alive.  They were not expecting to have a man appear in their 
midst, but it happened, and it cost them their lives.

Well, Jasmine said that she'd gotten the charges set and ready to detonate by 
this point, and on AJ's signal, blew them.  Down came the tower, crashing 
down way too short of the fence to break down even the inner perimeter fence.  
AJ had stopped moving again, but the guards inside had come back.  Gunny 
apparently had an idea of what AJ had planned, and so they broke off some of 
the supports and the busted armored supports off the tower platform's walls 
and moved them quickly over toward the fence.  AJ vanishes again, and pops 
back on the inside of the fences, and on his idea, Jasmine summoned another 
spirit, this one a field spirit.  She got it to do some manual labor, and 
next thing it's stomping through the no-man's land between the two fences, 
setting off everything and drawing fire from the automatic gun ports too.  
None of it hurt the spirit, of course, and with AJ's help, Jasmine set some 
of her explosives around the base of the inner fence.  Luckily for Gunny, 
while AJ and Jasmine were working on the escape, he was using the weapons he 
pulled from the wreckage of the tower to keep the troops' heads down.  
Machine guns are good for that.

The only problem with Jasmine setting the charges was that the inner fence 
was electrified, so I guess she placed them somehow around some of the 
supports which were insulated from the fence itself.  When she was ready, 
she blew the supports, and the fence began to bend and twist.  Jasmine said 
that she had the spirit force the fence to the ground and then AJ just laid 
some of the debris across the first fence.  Gunny followed pretty quickly, 
keeping the troops at a distance as best he could with the HMG and belt of 
ammo, and they got to the outer fence.  Jasmine said that AJ slashed through 
the outer perimeter fence with nothing more than his spurs, and that it was 
like a hot knife.  But she also said that he hesitated for an instant and 
that she saw his hands were beginning to shake, like an athlete's after 
they've been working out for a LONG time.  They got through the outer fence 
without troubles, but they still had one more barrier; the land mines.  
Jasmine was about to ask the spirit to help when suddenly there was a 
fireball grounding through it.  It caught everyone it was so large.  This is 
what hurt Gunny the most, I think, as the belt of ammo he was wearing 
started cooking off on him.  If he'd not already used all his grenades, he'd 
probably not have left the field of battle alive.  As it was, he had to 
throw the HMG and ammo a long ways and still got hurt bad.  Jasmine got 
burned and hurt, but no where near as bad.  She said that she was lucky her 
explosives didn't get ignited, because that would have hurt really bad.  And 
AJ just sat there shaking, almost as if the fire didn't phase him at all.

That's when Jasmine said that two spirits came up to them, both friendly, I 
guess.  One was a storm spirit and the other a prairie spirit, and they said 
that they'd help the three of them through the minefield.  Too bad that it 
was also about this time that a couple of Maxim troops poked their heads 
around the remains of the tower.  Jasmine said that what happened next was 
extremely, "disturbing" was the term I think she used.  AJ fell to his knees, 
grabbed his head, and screamed.  Jasmine said that the scream was like 
nothing she'd ever heard.  The howl of a Banshee and a Barghest were not so 
terrifying, she said, and that the sound was like a combination of all the 
primal fears of mankind combined somehow into a single vocalization.  She 
said that AJ would understand the reference, since he made her watch the 
fraggin movie, but that it sounded like the sound of "ultimate suffering" 
from an old flat movie from the 1990s, only worse by far.  When he stopped 
screaming, he looked up at them and said "Get the fuck out of my way."  Gunny 
grabbed Jasmine and told her that he was hungry again, that he'd seen the 
look before.  And Jasmine described how AJ looked then to me and said that 
she'd likely never forget it.  She said that his face had gone pale, almost 
like a sheet of paper, and that his eyes had gotten almost sunken, black, and 
bloodshot.  She said that his hands looked suddenly skeletal, as if the skin 
had shrunk around his bones, and that his fingers looked longer and as pale 
as his face.  She said that his body seemed to almost grow and shrink in 
stature at the same time, and that the most terrifying thing about him was 
how his body and stature changed from that of a man to a that of a predator 
seeking 
prey.  He didn't look human, she said, and then he bared his fangs behind 
lips that had gone grey instead of red, made some sound that was between a 
growl and a howl, and leapt at the guards something like 20 meters away.

They saw him coming, and Gunny tried as best he could to keep them from 
killing him, but he didn't seem to care.  Jasmine said that she was 
fascinated, almost in the same way someone is fascinated by a car wreck.  AJ 
just charged the fraggin Maxim troops, who were wearing combat armor and 
firing rounds at him.  And he got shot too, repeatedly, but it was like he 
didn't feel it, Jasmine said.  And then he reached them and killed them.  He 
slashed at all of them with his spurs.  Jasmine said that it was disgusting 
as he literally put his fists through the armor and the troops wearing it.  
There was soon only one man standing, and AJ screamed in pain again and 
collapsed to the ground right in front of the guy.  All around him his is 
squad, dead, and the killer collapsed right in front of him.  So he did what 
any smart person does:  he tried to make fraggin sure that AJ was dead.  Too 
bad AJ wasn't.  He leapt up off the ground and grabbed the poor fragger by 
the helmet and then tore open the breastplate of his mil spec armor with his 
bare hands.  Imagine that, tearing open hardened milspec armor without even 
the aid of his spurs.  And AJ buried his face in the poor fraggers neck and 
fed.  Jasmine said that she couldn't watch, and Gunny put his body between 
her and AJ, but that she could still hear the sounds of AJ feeding and just 
the sounds were enough to make her retch.  Before he came back, she said 
that she heard the sound of a head being taken off, and Gunny confirmed it.

Jasmine said that the whole episode took less than maybe 15 seconds, yet when 
AJ came back he looked just the same as he had before he had screamed the 
first time, except he had more blood on his hands and... on his face too.  
Jasmine said that, while the two spirits were helping them through the 
minefield and keeping them from stepping on any mines, AJ kept saying 
"Goddamn it, not again."  and "I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry." and "No more.  I 
can't let this happen anymore."  But it was about this point that Maxim 
finally decided to pull out the stops, and they set off the claymores in a 
last attempt to keep the three from getting out alive.  Jasmine said that 
they were lucky because they didn't know exactly where they were at that 
point, but that they blew a whole line of claymores.  She said that AJ, who 
was in the back mumbling to himself, shouted "NO!" and drove forward, 
sweeping both Gunny and Jasmine in front of him.  He took the full brunt of 
a claymore mine in his back.  The concussion was the last straw for Gunny, 
who passed out from blood loss and hasn't woken from the coma yet.  Jasmine 
lost her hearing for a little while, but she was fine a couple of hours 
later.  But AJ was fraggin near dead.  Somehow, even after all the wounds 
he'd taken, something kept him alive.  Maybe it's the bioware he's had 
implanted, maybe it's the fact he'd just eaten, maybe it was just his 
willpower, but something that would have killed anyone else just left him on 
death's door instead of inside the building.

Jasmine said that there was a few other problems, but that Ripley's drones 
found them about at that point and the magical team sent a couple of local 
free spirits to help them out.  They all got out with the magical team, but 
that's another story and not mine to tell, even though I was there.]<<<<<
	--  Foxey Roxey <22:20:50/03-10-57>

*****NOT TO:  Maxim, InterPol, etc.
>>>>>[Hello.  I was planning on staying out of this for a while, but Micheal 
convinced me to tell my side of the raid before someone else did.  
Considering that my side may seem to you to be a little strange, this is hard 
for me.  By way of explanation I'll only say that things have changed some 
for me since I tried to kill Righteous and Dana, and that there's not a whole 
drek of a lot I can do about it.

We on the magical team got in Cambodia a couple days earlier than everyone 
else did because we needed the extra time to get out individual stuff going.  
Lobster was the exception to that, but Shade was wheeling and dealing with 
the local free spirits who really didn't like the Maxim facility for a 
variety of reasons, and I because I needed to do some hard-core and 
specialized summoning that I needed to be around the area for.

This also allowed us to do some up close Astral recon of the site ourselves, 
and we ended up being glad we did.  We found that Maxim was well protected 
magically, which we already knew.  But we didn't realize just how well 
protected they really were until we saw the spirits and elementals and 
watchers and critters around the fraggin place.  But the strangest thing was 
the background count.  Not only was it higher than the place should have had, 
but it just didn't feel right.  It took me a while to tell what the frag it 
was, but when I did, I told the others and they weren't too thrilled.  
Astral space had an almost polluted feel and taste to it, almost as if it 
was going toxic.  This alone was probably the reason that the local spirits 
didn't appreciate Maxim being around.

On the day of the raid, we did one last recon and nothing appreciable had 
changed, except that Lobster found some evidence of some spirit he wasn't 
aware of.  He told both Shade and I about it, but neither of us could 
determine what it was.  I've you've been keeping up on the stuff about Maxim 
that's been going on recently, you probably know what it was already, but we 
didn't then, and Shade still isn't convinced that it's not some kind of known 
spirit.  I am, but he's not, and he's the PhD.  But hey, who knows.

The day of the raid came and we three got up early and started prepping for 
our part of the raid.  In the previous days, I'd moved my...spirits into 
location slowly and carefully so not to disturb Maxim and give anything away.  
I guess it had worked, because they were all there when we arrived about 
sunset.  We had to be fraggin careful, and with Shade's spirits, we were kept 
concealed from the drones, but we did see a good number of them.  Maxim must 
have a couple hundred of the fraggin assassin drones scattered around the 
site, but they don't see cold and hidden bodies too well, nor do they spot 
magicians moving under spirit protection, but they're fraggin explosive, have 
large bore four of five shot pistols, and a poison in their power hypos that 
will kill a paracritter in no time flat.  Shade also helped us out with his 
shadowhound friend, who helped with his shadowhound friends in the area.  I 
never really thought of those fragging big dogs as intelligent, but they're 
fraggin close enough to keep our hoops out of the fire here and there.

We got into place about 20 or 30 meters back from the edge of the jungle, a 
little closer than we would have liked, considering that Maxim has all kinds 
of drek that they can throw at us if they want to, but any further back and 
we'd be fraggin useless to anyone.  It fell on me to do the astral recon, and 
let me tell you, it was not fun.  Astral space was fragging like walking 
through Puget Sound it felt so sticky and sick.  It was worse than it should 
have been, and a drekload worse than it was even 12 hours earlier when we'd 
done our last recon.  And it didn't get any better, either.  I was careful 
to avoid anything that could have fragged with me or alerted the mages in 
the facility, and got back out again after recognizing that, besides Astral 
being fraggin polluted worse than usual and with the background count to 
match, everything was pretty much normal.  While I was doing that, Shade and 
Lobster were sitting around making sure that they were in contact with their 
spirits and Shade was spending a lot of time making sure that the local free 
spirits knew what we wanted, and needed, them to do. They knew, but it was 
almost as if they knew that something bad was going to happen here too, since 
they have even a better connection to the Astral than Lobster and I do.

What with the shadowhound and a couple of lower force spirits keeping us 
hidden really fraggin well, we didn't run into any trouble until just before 
the first diversion was supposed to happen, when we were getting ready for 
action anyway.  Some Maxim magician must have felt that something was about 
to hit the fan and sent out a fraggin watcher to patrol beyond the perimeter 
fences, which was their usual limit because of some of the critters around 
the area who could shred a watcher like nothing.  Well, I was lucky to have 
one of my loa around in Astral space just for that occurrence, and so 
destroying the fraggin thing was null difficulty.  Too bad that it let Maxim 
know that there was someone or something out near the jungle's edge, and 
they sent an elemental to see what the deal was.  About that time the 
diversionary team sent out the drek that let the teams get in without too 
much trouble.  Us, on the other hand, had to distract the mages, and that 
meant keeping our location secret while still making their lives hell.  A 
couple of Shade's greater spirits just crushed the fraggin thing, which must 
have surprised the drek out of the mages in the facility, because the quick 
glace I took toward the facility showed that it was lighting up in the 
astral, mostly from the quick and dirty summoning of nature spirits, and 
they popped up all over the fraggin place.  Maxim went from something like 
15 or so spirits to 25 in less than a minute.

During that minute, though, our spirits were keeping theirs busy.  Except for 
one.  It looks like the fraggin thing ran into everyone.  I guess that's 
lucky, though, since the fraggin spirit could have destroyed one or two of 
the teams totally if its controllers had let it instead of calling it off to 
another area.  You know, the fraggin black hole spirit?  Let me tell you 
what the fraggin thing looked like in the astral.  A black fraggin rectangle.  
Dad's got these old flat pictures, he collects them because they remind him 
of when he was a kid.  Well, this spirit looked like a monolith from the old, 
1968 I think, movie 2001.  You know, "1x4x9"?  Well, that's what it looked 
like in the Astral, only its surface was even stranger.  It was black, and it 
seemed to suck up even the astral around it, which is why I think the fraggin 
thing's a new kind of spirit.  Shade's not sure, but I'm sure he's going 
through his old texts and contacting his friends in academia to see if they 
have any clue what the frag it is.  Hopefully we'll have an answer.  You all 
know by now what the fragger looks like in the physical:  a black hole, or 
void, in the air.  And I can say that the fraggin thing has, without a doubt, 
the ability to manifest, engulf, and it has psychokinesis too.  I saw it 
coming and sent one of my loa at it, the same one that had been a little 
damaged by destroying the watcher, and then I popped back fully into my 
mundane perceptions so it couldn't attack me as easily.  Good thing, too, 
because the next thing that happens is I feel the loa I'd spent so much time 
summoning gets geeked and the fraggin thing is attacking one of the forest 
spirits that was keeping us concealed here.  It's concealment ability falls 
as it gets hurt really fraggin bad and then gets geeked too.  I guess it was 
probably now that Maxim's radar penetrated the darkness that the shadowhounds 
were keeping up for us, but that nearly fell too when one of the hounds cut 
out running.  Shade told me later that the fraggin spirit scared the drek out 
of his shadowhound friend too, but that it stayed anyway.  He also said that 
he'd never seen his friend as scared as facing that fraggin spirit.  Fraggin 
strange....

But it knew we were there, and if it did, then it was fair to assume that 
Maxim did too.  I blasted the fraggin thing with a manabolt, and Shade sent 
one of his greater storm spirits at it, and Lobster spelled it too.  Nothing 
we did seemed to hurt it except making it spark a little, and it just ate the 
spirit as if it was a fraggin black hole.  As soon as the spirit hit it, the 
spirit just disappeared, and Shade said it had been killed almost instantly.  
This thing must have been either totally alien or a free spirit to kill that 
quickly a greater storm spirit.  I guess it had had enough because it 
attacked us, in manifest form of course.  It tore a good sized rock out of 
the ground from a good 10 meters away and threw it at Lobster, who was lucky 
enough to have a spell that looked an awful lot like a claw, because that 
spell crushed the fraggin rock before it reached him.  Fraggin good thing 
too, since it was large enough to kill him if he hadn't destroyed it.  Then 
it knocked a limb off one of the trees near us and dropped it on me.  It 
hurt, but one of Shade's spirits helped keep it off me so I didn't get 
killed.  Shade, on the other hand, was trying to banish the fraggin spirit.  
It didn't work, and the attempt probably came close to killing him too.  He 
tried, and tried, but the spirit, even though it couldn't do anything else 
in the process, was getting the best of him, and when he gave up he gasped in 
pain and the spirit retreated.  I guess Maxim didn't like the idea of their 
super special spirit getting banished, so the recalled it.  Good thing, too, 
because if it had hung around, it might have geeked all three of us, and 
that would probably have meant that the teams inside would have been geeked 
too.  Shade's hands, though, were as cold as ice when he was done trying to 
banish the spirit, and he said at one point that it felt like he had liquid 
death in his veins.  Not a pleasant sensation.

In the process of all this drek happening, Maxim found out where we were and 
sent a very unpleasant couple of mortar shells our way.  They were most 
unpleasant, because one was incendiary and the other anti-personnel 
submunitions.  We hauled our hoops the frag out of the area and moved a 
couple hundred meters along the line. As we were doing this, we saw the 
semi-ballistic go up in a huge ball of smoke, and as we were setting down 
again, we saw the bunker get blown up.  It was beautiful to know that, 
regardless of what the frag happened from now on, our raid had been 
successful.  Now it was our turn to pull everyone out of the fraggin fire.

You should have seen the place, everyone.  It was impressive.  Muzzle flashes 
everywhere, small and not so small explosions, magic flying all over the 
fraggin site, everything.  And that's when I sent _them_ in.  All 34 of 
_them_.  Maxim went nuts.  They apparently don't know what the frag to do 
against people who just keep on coming.  It was beautiful.  Absofragginlutely 
beautiful.  _They_ just kept on marching, admittedly slowly, toward the 
perimeter.  I didn't even bother hiding _them_.  I wanted fraggin terror, and 
I got it.  Maxim started shooting, their hellhounds and barghests didn't 
hang around and dragged their trainers all over the fraggin perimeter(a 
couple got themselves blown up when they stepped on mines, more's the pity), 
drones came out, spirits too, and mortar shells started dropping, followed by 
shells.  Maxim apparently decided at one point that they couldn't see what 
they were shooting at well enough, because they fired a couple of giant 
flares into the air, which lit up the perimeter killzone like day.  That was 
a big mistake.  Sure, _they_ didn't like all that light, but Maxim didn't 
like what they saw.  I guess Maxim decided that they liked it dark better, 
because they didn't fire any more flares after the first few burned out.  
That way they could pretend that they were only fighting normal people that 
were just hard to kill.  But _they_ aren't even close to normal, as Maxim 
found out.

As I started _them_ on the march, Lobster spotted the HALO team with his 
binoculars.  Too bad that this was about when the first flares ignited, and 
he got flash blinded for about a minute.  But he had seen them, and he told 
Shade, who told the free spirits.  There were at least four of them, one who 
looked like a person, another like a panda, a third like an elephant, and the 
last like a rabbit.  A terribly cute little rabbit that had really fraggin 
big teeth and a tatoo that said "Vorpal" on it.  You could tell by it's 
manner that, regardless of it's manifest size and terminal cuteness, it was 
not a rabbit you fragged with.  I borrowed Lobster's binoculars and was 
looking through them when something blocked my field of view.  This fraggin 
thing was huge, dripping slime, stank worse than drek, and moved like a 
fraggin spirit.

Toxic fraggin water spirit.  Luckily for me, I saw it just before it was 
about to rip my head off, and sent my last loa to distract it.  It worked, 
for about 2 seconds.  But that was enough to keep me alive to see two more 
toxic spirits appear in front of the other two shamans.  Not cool, and Shade 
had to scramble to avoid being engulfed by the one after him.  The local free 
spirits started to help when he shouted at them to help the people inside the 
compound.  Three out of four took off, but the elephant stayed behind.  
Lobster was just starting to get his sight back, and so he sent his last 
spirit at the toxic.  He was cooler than I thought he would be, but he still 
looked as if he was a little scared.  He did really well for the first time 
he's ever faced toxics.  Me, I probably looked terrified out of my mind, 
considering that the last time I faced toxics....well, was a long time ago 
and I didn't do so well.  The fraggin things are really fraggin hard to kill, 
even with hard core astral help.  Well, my loa got geeked pretty fraggin 
quick, and the spirit came after me again.  This time I didn't have any way 
to stop the fraggin thing, so I cast darkblast at the fraggin thing while I 
drew my knife.  I was lucky, because all the mana I poured into that spell 
almost knocked me out but also hurt the spirit really good.  It was 
staggering and barely alive, so I just sliced it with my knife and it 
collapsed, destroyed.  Lobster was still doing ok, pumping manabolts into 
the spirit while his spirit was attacking it from the astral.  Well, the 
toxic spirit had enough of that and went astral instead of staying manifest 
and it just ate the fraggin spirit before rushing off.  Lobster went half-
astral and tracked it.

Somewhere in all that, Shade did something really fraggin foolish, which was 
try to control the fraggin spirit that was working on him.  No sane shaman or 
even a conjuring specialist can control a toxic spirit, and he should have 
known that.  But he tried anyway, and actually broke the control of the toxic 
shaman, wherever the frag he or she was, but he couldn't maintain control.  
So we suddenly had a free toxic earth spirit.  Shade took us from bad to 
worse, I'm afraid, but the elephant was still around.  Fraggin good thing, 
too, since it saw what was about to happen and stepped in to take on the 
newly freed spirit.  Shade was fraggin tired already, but he sent a greater 
spirit to help the elephant, and the two spirits eventually destroyed, we 
think, the free toxic spirit.  But we had another problem, which was Lobster.  
One of the toxic shamans torched us with a spell from astral space, grounded 
through one of Lobster's foci.  Acid bomb, the love of toxic shamans 
everywhere, and it just exploded around us.  It was NOT fraggin fun, having 
Lobster suddenly start spraying acid everywhere.  It got all of us some, with 
Lobster being the worst off, obviously.  His armor was ruined, and he got 
acid burns all over him.  But he was still doing well enough to tell us that 
the rabbit was fighting with another free spirit in astral space and that 
the spirit that ran from him ran up into the jungle a little ways before he 
lost sight of it.  Shade looked up there and saw, through the shadows that 
his eyes are a drekload better at seeing through than mine, two figures that 
looked like zombies.

Two toxic spirits.  Now, I've dealt with fraggin toxics a few times, and I 
really don't like them, so I did something that probably wasn't the smartest 
thing in the world to do.  I astral projected while Shade turned to keeping 
the free spirits going strong and Lobster sent a spark spell up the hill 
through the jungle.  It never reached the toxics, though, because of the one 
who was astral still and about to ground another spell through Lobster.  
Lobster, you really need to hide those foci somehow.  But he never finished.  
If you've ever seen a toxic spirit, you have my sympathy.  But if you've 
seen a toxic shaman in the Astral, then you know what it was like to face 
this fraggin person.  This one was a toxic Wolf-looking thing, with mange, 
radioactive looking eyes, and claws like the spines on a volleying porcupine.  
But he(I think it was a he, but I didn't stop long enough to check) didn't 
have a weapon focus like I do.  No match.  It didn't take too long to kill 
the fragger, but as I was heading up the hill toward the other one, I almost 
got nailed by one of Lobster's spark spells.  I'm glad I got out of the way 
and let it through, since it hit the shaman full in the head.  His aura just 
blacked out, even though I could still see the meat twitching from the power 
he poured into the spell.  Two shamans down, none to go.  And Shade had 
apparently gone and banished the last one before the shamans were killed, 
making fraggin sure that we wouldn't have another free toxic spirit, which 
the elephant was still fighting.

As I turned around to see what was going on back toward the Maxim site, I saw 
the first spirit returning with someone in their hands, but then I got 
broadsided by another spirit.  This one, however, looked a little less 
dangerous than the others, but wasn't.  I've never seen this guy before, but 
he still looked fraggin familiar.  He was dressed all in blue, different 
shades, with a bolo tie and eyes that glowed a lot like toxic or radioactive 
waste.  I think that it's a free toxic spirit of some kind, but I never saw 
anything to be sure.  And it had this fraggin huge grin on it's face, and it 
started taunting me too.  It said drek I still remember, and which has 
haunted my dreams for the last couple of nights.  Stuff like "Hello, Janice.  
It's been a long time." after which he threw me in to a tree.  Do you have 
any idea how much it hurts to have your astral body thrown into the astral 
presence of a fraggin tree?  It hurts really fraggin bad.  Then it said 
"You've spoiled my plans on occasion, you know." and I responded "Glad to 
hear it."  It didn't like hearing that, and he attacked again.  This time I 
was ready and left a long gash with my knife in his arm.  It bled green for 
an instant before it sealed the wound. It said "You and your friends stopped 
my plans for the little girl after I'd spent so much time on creating the 
perfect circumstances." and it lunged at me again.  I was getting tired, and 
it manifested a knife and sliced my arm exactly as I had just cut his.  But I 
was working closer to my body every time, if only I could live long enough to 
reach it.  And the last thing it said was "And your friends are trying to 
spoil my fun again.  I liked have the nukes here, I really did.  It gave 
Cambodia a totally new ambience that I really liked.  You fragged with my 
plans one time too many, Janice, so now I'm fragging with yours."  It lunged 
again, but I just leapt back into my body.  I don't know if it wasn't quite 
fast enough to stop me or if it just let me go for some reason, but I sat 
bolt upright in my body again, with Slash bleeding and covered in chemical 
burns laying next to me.  The fragger appeared right before me, smiled a 
crooked smile, and then disappeared and manifested right next to Shade.  
Shade tried to start a banishing right then, and Lobster nailed it with a 
manabolt spell, but it just ignored the manabolt as if it didn't even feel 
it and grabbed Shade's chin, lifted him off the ground by his neck, and said 
"You're not powerful enough to have any chance of banishing me, mortal.  And 
your greater storm spirits taste so good to me.  Remember, Shade.  Remember."  
And then it went back into the astral, leaving Shade to fall about two meters 
to the ground.  He was fraggin lucky that he was wearing his armor, because 
it probably kept his head from being torn off.

When he landed, he was stunned for a couple of seconds, but then snapped 
back, swore a little, and got the rest of the armory team out of the armory.  
The problem was that the spirit we'd just run into appeared in front of the 
last free spirit, the one who looked like a panda, and forced it into the 
astral long enough to drop the last two people into the center of the 
minefield.  One of them got turned to stone by a fraggin basilisk before I 
could kill the fraggin critter, and the other stepped on a mine that fraggin 
near killed her, as you well know.  The panda never reappeared and the human 
looking free spirit went back and grabbed one of the two, the wounded woman, 
and I recalled my last one of _them_ to carry out the other one.  With the 
help of a quickly summoned forest spirit by Shade to keep _it_ from being hit 
and to protect the cargo _it_ was carrying, they got up to us where we 
started doing emergency healing to keep people alive.  It was about now that 
Lobster saw part of the IFV team, who he IDed as AJ, Jasmine, and Gunny way 
off down along the perimeter.  He and Shade sent some help their way in the 
form of spark spells and a couple of spirits that carried AJ out of the area.  
We started moving everyone back into the jungle under the cover of a couple 
of shadowhounds and spirit concealment.

We connected with Ripley and his team at the backup rendezvous point since 
he'd had troubles at the original, and got everyone loaded and off to Phenom 
Penh.  There were a couple of times when Maxim's units, trying to track us, 
nearly killed us with drones, but we made it out without any further 
casualties.]<<<<<
	--  Diana, Mistress of the Night <10:22:47/03-10-57>

*****Private:Wintergeist
>>>>>[I am available at this time.  Please send me what information you can
on the boy, and I will do my best to locate and retrieve him.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <21:27:10/03-10-57>

*****PRIVATE: Grinch
>>>>>[Done. Going on vacation. Sent your cut.]<<<<<
	--  Murphy <17:13:26/03-10-57>

*****PRIVATE:Maxim Raiders
>>>>>[Gentlemen, I have strong reason to belive that you need my help.
I don't want my lack of participation on this run to have caused any
more deaths.  Please let me render what healing I have, I beg
you.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <23:41:39/03-10-57>

*****PRIVATE:Tigger
>>>>>[Tigger, please respond.]<<<<<
	-- wintergeist <23:41:43/03-10-57>

>>>>>[I came across this while scanning news coverage of the Maxim facility 
destruction. I thought some of you might find it interesting, in light of 
certain recent events in the Seattle area. It's from Turner Network News at 
6:44 PM Seattle time. The mentioned incident occured around 4:30 PM Seattle 
time.

+++++include newsclip.turner-network.57-03-10.21:44:33

"...authorities are still struggling to estimate the combined death toll, but
preliminary estimates place the number of dead and wounded at close to one
hundred.  The number of confirmed cases of radiation exposure stands at over
one hundred eighty, with more being reported hourly by the hospitals in the
affected areas.  Meanwhile, another trajedy struck Seattle today as our own
reporters were leaving for Amazonia.  Michael?"  "Yes, Chelsea!" comes a
slightly muffled voice.  "You're en route to La Paz now, correct?  How long
until you arrive?"  "About ten more minutes, or so I'm told.  We have an
escort of two Amazonian fighter craft, so I doubt we'll be subject to the
usual air traffic control problems.  Judging by the missiles our escorts are
carrying, Amazonia is taking the whole incident in the _most_ deadly earnest!"
"Michael, while you were on your way to the Seattle Airport, a terrible
outburst of violence took place, leaving respected businessman Kentaro Kamauchi
dead and others wounded or worse.  Could you fill us in on the details?"

"Certainly, Chelsea!" Michael begins with relish.  "We were driving through the
downtown section of Seattle, thoroughly mired in the same rush-hour traffic
and torrential rain that nurtured Bill Gates, when the squealing of brakes and
the sound of gunfire pierced the air!  No sooner were our astute cameramen
focusing their equipment toward the disturbance than a giant commuter bus
slammed into our car, knocking us _completely_ off the road and into a sidewalk
fruit stand!  Despite the watermelons and grapefruit obscuring the windshield,
we were able to watch the bus sideswipe two other cars before crashing
headlong into a meter maid's cart and coming to a stop.  Heedless of rain and
treacherous banana-peels, we burst from the car and ran to the assistance of
the stricken meter maid, noticing that numerous windows of the bus had been
blown out as if by gunfire and several passengers appeared injured.  As it
turns out, the bus driver was _quite_ dead, having taken at least two 
explosive rounds to the head.  The passengers were more fortunate, only
receiving moderate wounds from shrapel and broken glass.  The meter maid was
wearing her seatbelt, but the Public Works department hadn't seen fit to
equip her vehicle with an airbag!  Our medical correspondent tells me that she
should recover her memory within a week or so.  After assisting the injured
passengers of the bus tend their wounds and clean off the remains of the
bus driver, we left the injured in the hands of the paramedics and resumed
our trek to the airport, where we had enough time to analyse our footage of
the event.  Through _sheer_ professional skill, we are able to offer this
bit of footage, shot through the rearview mirror:"

+++++begin footage
Chelsea's concerned visage is replaced with a freezeframe view out the
rear of some sort of vehicle, a pile of electronics gear obscuring the view.
About half a block behind is a human shape, greatcoat and fadora all that be
made out through the rain.  The figure appears to be walking or running
across the street, directly in the path of a Seattle Metro bus.  The footage
moves into slow motion, showing the figure spinning around belatedly to face
the bus.  The bus slowly slams into him, his body torturously crumpling and
falling into the path of the bus's right front wheel.  At the same time, two
figures on the opposite sidewalk can barely be seen pulling something out of
their coats with unnatural speed.  Their hands are obscured by brief muzzle
flashes as the bus hides the two from view.
+++++end footage

"The Police have received conflicting reports about the incident, and the
two gunmen in the footage are currently wanted for questioning.  The man in
front of the bus, Kentaro Kamauchi, suffered massive internal injuries and
crushing damage to his chest and skull and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police are blaming this part of the incident on break failure in the bus,
possibly due to the same maintenance team in charge of the meter readers'
carts!  As the manhunt and corruption investigations proceed, we're back on
track for La Paz, soon to give you a firsthand look at the devastated remains
of one of Maxim Incorporated's prime facilities.  Back to you, Chelsea!" 

+++++end newsclip.turner-network.57-03-10.21:44:33]<<<<<
	--  Fisher <22:14:08 EST / 03-10-57>
	Fisher Data Systems

*****PRIVATE: Murphy
>>>>>[I noticed you got the job done.  A bit messy, though.  If you
haven't left town already, I advise you to do so.  Included is the
remainder of your payment and a small subsidy for travel expenses.

+++++credit.transfer =Y= 22,000]<<<<<
	--  Lotus  <22:43:28 / 03-10-57>

>>>>>[Speaking of Maxim...

+++++begin newsclip.turner-network.57-03-11.02:23:33

A tense looking Michael Novacek, clad in a dark grey trenchcoat and flanked
by several Amazonian soldiers with assault rifles, faces the camera.  "...thank
you, Chelsea.  I'm reporting live from La Paz, Amazonia, near the scene of an
apparent terrorist attack on a Maxim Incorporated facility.  For those who
just tuned in, La Paz and its environs are in a state of emergency following
the discharge of radioactive smoke from the Maxim site.  The Amazonian
government has released the preliminary findings of the Army's Engineering
Corps, stating that dangerous levels of plutonium, a byproduct of nuclear
fission and a component of certain types of nuclear weapons, were discovered
inside a demolished warehouse.  Despite the protests of Maxim guards in the
wake of the attack, Amazonian military forces have secured the base as a
direct threat to national security and have taken measures to stop the outflow
of radiation.  Over one half of the employees present at the facility during
the attack were exposed to varying amounts of radiation, though we are told
that noone received a lethal dose.  All Maxim personel on the base were
taken into custody by the military, who has administered medical attention and
has promised to fly them to North America within another 36 hours.
Fortunately, the amount of radiation spread beyond the confines of the base was
minimal according to the engineers, and should pose no appreciable
environmental or health risk."

"Has the military commented on how the plutonium could have arrived at the
site?" Chelsea inquires.  "Good question, Chelsea," Michael says nervously, his
usual smile looking distinctly pallid as he eyes the soldiers around him.
"The Amazonian government is being very careful to avoid the appearance of
partiality here.  A few hours ago, a joint team of experts summoned from
Aztlan, UCAS, CAS, and several other countries was allowed to examine the
site to confirm the initial Amazonian analysis.  They have reportedly
confirmed that the plutonium was definitely present in the warehouse _prior_
to the attack.  Pieces of what the team referred to as "containment vessels"
were also discovered, suggesting that the nuclear material may have been
present for some time without attracting notice.  All of the Maxim employees
the Amazonian government has interviewed so far profess to have _no_
knowledge about the presence of the material.  And _also_," Michael says,
glancing fleetingly at something to the side of the camera, "the Amazonian
government wishes to...stress the quantity of plutonium discovered: enough for
several critical masses."

"Good god.  Was there any chance of a nuclear explosion or seepage into the
water table?" Chelsea gasps.  "Apparently the construction of the bunker
precluded either possibility, fortunately for the residents of La Paz.  The
Amazonian forces have been extremely..._scrupulous_ in their handling of the
incident, including making sure that the press doesn't accidentally...disturb
something.  Our cameras are currently being kept from the scene itself while
the investigation continues, though we have been promised the right to pilot a
drone in, under supervision, by this time tomorrow.  Until then, we'll keep in
contact with the Amazonian government and continue to furnish updates as the
situation develops.  For Turner Networks, this Michael Novacek, reporting."

+++++end newsclip.turner-network.57-03-11.02:23:33]<<<<<
	--  Fisher <02:28:46 EST / 03-11-57>
	Fisher Data Systems

*****Private:White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
Message received.  Am in place and beginning operations.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- Red Skull <01:03:09/03-11-57>

*****Private:White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
Received.  Beginning operations.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- Enchantress <01:38:51/03-11-57>

*****Private:White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
Message received.  Am in place and beginning operations.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- Carnage <02:22:01/03-11-57>

*****Private:White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
Message received.  Am in place and beginning operations.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- Kang <21:03:59/03-10-57>

*****Private:White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
Acknowledged.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- Mephisto <21:05:59/03-10-57>

*****Private:White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
Message received.  Will update.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- Absorbing Man <22:03:29/03-10-57>

*****Private:White Queen
>>>>>[+++++Begin Encryption Sequence: Beyonder
Understood.  Am in place and beginning operations.
+++++End Encryption]<<<<<
	-- Shaw <22:07:01/03-10-57>

*****Private:Institute Faculty
>>>>>[As per my orders, I have initiated Project Marvel as of yesterday, and
have received aknowledgement from all agents activated.  We may need to
assist them if they run into difficulty.  I do not believe this is likely,
but it is possible.  Please keep this in mind when arranging your schedules.

Also, begin preparations to move the students to safety if this becomes
necessary.  Keep me appraised of your progress and any difficulties.]<<<<<
	-- White Queen <07:10:22/03-11-57>

>>>>>[Come get some...]<<<<<
	--EYE-SPY <NOTNOW/NOTEVAH>
	IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO LOOK
	YOU'LL KNOW WHERE TO FIND IT.

*****NOT TO: Maxim, InterPol, etc.
>>>>>[The Duke asked me to post this for him, since he is unable to do it 
for a while due to his wounds.  I am pleased to tell those of you who were 
separated from him in the heat of combat that he is recovering from several 
unfortunate wounds and that he is sorry that you became separated.  Because 
of his wounds, he contacted some associates of mine in Phenom Penh and they 
contacted me.  I got him here to Manus Island with fellow my fellow Shroud 
where he is recovering well.

Now for The Duke's account of what happened.

+++++ Begin Dictation +++++

As my friend Hermit has already done, I'm sure, I want to say I'm sorry to 
my fellow teammates.  My wounds were severe and I was unable to stay with 
you.  I am afraid that you counted me as lost in the final battle we waged 
for our survival, but I am glad to say that I live, albeit in a highly 
wounded state that could very easily require several weeks to months of 
recovery time.

I'm very sorry.

However, for the rest of you, this is my account of what happened to those 
of us whom were to provide the distractions that would allow the rest of the 
teams entrance and exit from the target facility.

We all arrived over a span of about 24 hours and connected in our safehouse 
where the entire group met and planned the final changes to the assault.  As 
you all well know, the assault did not go particularly well and nearly became 
a fiasco, but the teams succeeded nonetheless, but at great cost.  But I 
digress.  Based on our final reconnaissance, we made our final changes and 
introduced ourselves to each other and to our fire support as well as made 
ourselves familiar with our hardware.

Mr. Jackson had, with the help of Mr. Lynch, acquired eight Grad-P missile 
launchers with many salvos of missiles for ammunition, including white 
phosphorous, thermite, high explosive, chaff, and VX simulant.  The WP, 
thermite, and HE rockets were to be fired to create the initial confusion 
that would provide the openings for our teams to penetrate the facility.  
The chaff would hopefully divert incoming missiles as well as confuse the 
radar and communications systems of Maxim.  The simulant was part of a well 
orchestrated distraction that was to provide the means for our teams to 
escape again after destroying the nuclear devices and the storage bunker 
they were contained within.  In addition to the Grad-P launchers, we were 
also provided with several large vehicles from which Mr. Ripley was to 
control the operations of all the distractions, plus the support drones he 
would pilot.  We also were given three ancient howitzers, but which we were 
ensured would work properly.  Mr. Ripley was also given 10 various drones, 
including several rotodrones which he did not feel confident to pilot, but 
which he eventually did pilot, and relatively well at that.  Finally, we 
were all given the necessary electronics to communicate with each other.

Because of the shear number of individuals who were involved in our aspect 
of the operation, we were second behind the HALO team to leave for our 
positions, and that only because the HALO jumpers had to travel to their 
staging point several hundred kilometers away.  We left in several groups, 
including the howitzers, two groups of three Grad-Ps, and the control group 
with two Grad-Ps.  I was assigned to help Mr. Tigger, our resident artillery 
savant, with his group and then to connect with the control group after the 
initial distraction was launched and aid Mr. Ripley and Mr. Redfeather with 
preparing the drones for launch.  Mr. Shadow was with one of the Grad-P 
units, unfortunately.

We very slowly and deliberately moved out disguised units into place over 
several hours, even during daylight.  We had been careful to disguise the 
howitzers, and the Grad-Ps were disguised when we received them from Mr. 
Lynch's contacts.  But we also hoped that the vehicles cooling with the 
atmosphere would keep Maxim's satellites and drones from targeting the 
various weapons too quickly.  However, we were careful to use only the 
howitzer unit and one of the Grad-P units, Mr. Shadow's to be precise, for 
the initial distraction lest Maxim target them immediately.  All the units, 
including the control unit, had several local individuals who Mr. Jackson 
hired because they had grudges against Maxim.  Their presence made our team 
the largest out of all of them in shear manpower.  Each Grad-P unit was 
manned by 12 people, the howitzers by 8, and the control/Grad-P unit by 12 
as well.  44 people is a large, unwieldy number, but necessary for spotters, 
sighting, transport, reloading, and all the additional duties the distraction 
team had.  I'm quite certain that a team of true military professionals would 
require far fewer, but for ourselves, 44 was just enough.

By sunset, all the units were in place and had spread camouflage netting 
over their positions.  Mr. Tigger and I sighted in the howitzers carefully, 
with me acting as spotter for the initial volleys of shells.  I'd only done 
that a couple of time previously, and I learned much from Mr. Tigger in the 
process.  The shells were all targeted on the airfield section of the 
facility, as much to limit casualties as to destroy Maxim's ability to 
launch and recover some of their more exotic aircraft.  When we were finished 
and we'd worked out the additional settings for the shells following the 
initial volley, we sat back, applied generous portions of bug repellant, and 
waited.

When the time came, we loaded three rounds, one in each howitzer, and had 
three more rounds ready.  We hoped to get at least three our four shots off 
before we had to run, but we were unsure how long we would have before 
Maxim's responses came back and destroyed out position.  Mr. Lynch suggested 
that we would likely have only a minute, and that is what we based our 
estimates off of.  I stood back and waited, and was surprised at the report 
the howitzers made when we fired them, and all three jumped when they were 
fired.  Mr. Tigger showed, for the following minute, just how expert he is 
in his element of artillery.  Not only did was each howitzer expertly 
realigned, but he was able to get a second volley of shells off before the 
first had even struck the facility.  Unfortunately, Maxim was also able to 
get return shells off before the first hit the ground, but not by much.  Mr. 
Tigger and everyone else scrambled to get one more volley off, and then we 
all scattered to avoid the incoming shells.  And they came in fast and 
furious.  Two hit almost at the same instant, followed by more.  They were 
a mixture of HE and HE submunitions that scattered over a huge area.  Mr. 
Tigger and I were lucky to escape with our live, but the others were not so 
lucky.  None of them reached the control unit, and I could see that the areas 
where they had run to were totally laid to waste from shells.  Mr. Tigger 
said that he heard the shell descents of at least 12 shells.  Extreme 
overkill, but Maxim is not a corporation to be subtle or restrained in their 
use of force.

We connected with the control unit and immediately started working on the 
final arming and flight preparations for the drones that Mr. Ripley was going 
to be using to help the teams inside escape.  He had several rotodrones and 
RPVs, and a short temporary airfield in the clearing we were next to provided 
the means to launch the RPVs.  They were loaded with machine guns, cannons, 
missiles, and rockets.  Neither Mr. Jackson nor Mr. Lynch were able to 
acquire vehicle lasers, but they would have been an unnecessary waste anyway.  
Mr. Shadow radioed over a secure line to tell us that his Grad-P unit was 
totally destroyed by missile artillery from the facility, and that he thought 
that some of the locals with him escaped the destruction as well, but he'd 
not been in contact with them.  I could tell that Mr. Shadow was distressed 
at not being able to save those people with him, but what can a single man 
do against artillery when it's fired from kilometers away?

Mr. Ripley was unable to respond because we dared not open our communications 
lines until we were ready to move.  Maxim's response times were everything 
that Mr. Lynch suspected and more, almost as if they had prepared for actions 
like this repeatedly, or perhaps even fought them before.  The tension from 
this point built up until one of the HALO jumpers radioed us to ask us for 
the distractions starting in 30 seconds.  Mr. Ripley immediately fired up 
the engines on his drones, broke radio silence to call the other Grad-P unit 
with the VX simulant missiles, and then he launched his drones.  I took over 
the ATV we were controlling our end of the operation from and Mr. Tigger, 
when the timing was right, fired the Grad-Ps, reloaded once, and fired them 
again before we all vacated the area.  I was driving, Mr. Redfeather was 
working the communications and a couple of the weapons on the ATV, Mr. Ripley 
was controlling the drones, and Mr. Tigger was running shotgun.  I'm afraid 
that his job was already finished when we started to move, abandoning the 
Grad-Ps to destruction.  Mr. Jackson, I'm sorry to say that all your 
significant investment was destroyed almost as soon as we vacated the area.  
Behind us, Maxim's artillery and missiles reduced our staging area to burned 
and cratered earth where it was once fertile jungle.

Mr. Ripley was able to connect his drone visual feeds to various cameras in 
the ATV, and Mr. Tigger kept us informed as to his progress in assisting the 
escape of the internal teams.  By the time his drones arrived, the HALO and 
Nightglider teams were on their way out, with the help of the magical team 
as planned.  Mr. Tigger remarked that the entire western perimeter was alight 
with fire, explosions, and gunfire.  I was far too busy driving to look 
myself.  It would have ended our aid to the IFV team, who were still inside 
and whom Mr. Ripley was assisting with his drones, had I hit a tree or 
allowed the ATV to roll down an embankment.  Mr. Tigger and Mr. Redfeather 
were most concerned when Mr. Ripley jerked a few times when his drones were 
abruptly destroyed, from the effect of feedback.  However, he continued to 
operate them well and he was instrumental in keeping Maxim's troops from 
killing or capturing the IFV team members who used the Stallion to escape, 
and although his aid was less obvious to the others, he nonetheless helped 
them by keeping some of Maxim's troops and drones, as well as the occasional 
spirit, occupied.

Unfortunately, Mr. Ripley's drones were totally destroyed, and the feedback 
from the last several caught him so off-guard that he was knocked unconscious 
as we were approaching the rendezvous point.  Unfortunately, we were to have 
several additional difficulties upon our arrival, the most severe of which 
was our being attacked by a platoon of soldiers dressed in the armor of a 
local warlord.  Maxim has many of the locals in their employ because they 
provide an initial buffer between the facility and the hostile warlords who 
would try and destroy the facility, or take it for their own.  We ran into 
one of the former, and Mr. Redfeather informed us that they had already 
called Maxim for reinforcement as he was beginning to fire on the guerrillas 
around us.  I am not a rigger, I am a physical adept, yet I was driving this 
huge, unwieldy vehicle.  Mr. Tigger, between firing through the gunports in 
the rear of the ATV, slapped a stimpatch on Mr. Ripley.  While I generally 
do not approve of their use, had Mr. Ripley not been woken, we would have 
been caught in the ambush when Maxim's Massif-4 arrived.  Mr. Ripley was 
wide awake within seconds, and immediately assessed the situation and asked 
me to step aside.  I did so gladly, and the ATV took on a whole different 
light with a true rigger behind the controls.  I took my place with Mr. 
Tigger and the locals that were with us in firing from the back, and Mr. 
Redfeather kept up the fire with the machinegun.  Unfortunately, it was about 
this time that there was a couple of thunks on the roof of the back, followed 
by explosions which blasted large enough holes in the roof for more grenades 
to fall in if the attackers were so inclined to throw them.  They did so, but 
we were lucky to have Mr. Tigger there to quickly throw it out again prior 
to it's detonation.  But in the process, Mr. Tigger took a burst from an SMG 
in the arm he threw the grenade out with.  It injured that arm badly, but 
repairably.

Mr. Redfeather noticed that there was a troop with an RPG, and brought this 
to our attention with a shout.  But before we could do anything about it, Mr. 
Shadow fell upon the individual and removed his head with a sword.  We were 
quite glad to see his arrival, as it meant a little confusion among our 
attackers, which we gladly exploited.  Mr. Ripley saw this momentary 
confusion as the break he needed, and he drove us out of the ambush, pausing 
only long enough for us to grab Mr. Shadow and pull him inside the vehicle.  
In the process, however, I was shot in my stomach and chest and fell out of 
the ATV in the process.  Mr. Ripley was not aware of this until after a 
grenade detonated very near me, and the appearance of a Maxim Massif-4 
certainly complicated his return.  I was told that he did return, however, 
only to find that my body was gone.

I was barely able to get out of the site myself before the Massif-4 pounded 
it and the surrounding areas with gunfire and rockets.  Due to my wounds, I 
was forced to rely on every bit of survival and physical training I had ever 
learned, and even then I was only barely alive when Hermit's associates 
located me and brought me here.

I was told that the raid was a success, but at great cost.  To all who 
participated, congratulations on the success, and my condolences to all of 
you who are injured, or are caring for the injured, and who lost friends in 
the process.

+++++ End Dictation +++++

Good day.]<<<<<
	--  Hermit <09:01:59/03-11-57>

>>>>>[Oh God, I feel like s**t.  I was dry heavin' all night.  Not a really
feminine thing to do, but hey.  I am so exhausted, I can barely move.  Look,
boys, I did a bang up job in there.  That's only the second time I've ever
summoned a spirit of any sort.  I lost control of that last one.   I felt an
Astral line snap like a hot electrical wire right before AJ.....I don't even
want to talk about it.   As for my injuries, I'm not sure how it happened,
but I cracked a rib.  I had so much magical energy running through me it
expanded my intercostals enough to crack a rib!!!  I'm crawling into bed and
I'm not going to move until Snake tells me to.   It's alright for Shields to
pick up my payment.  Not to be greedy, but I took a real beating and could
use a bit of a bonus.  Think about it.]<<<<<
	-- Jasmine <8:00:00 / 03-11-57>

>>>>>[That was fragging insane.  AJ, when I get back in tow$#fds#$9gjkf...

+++++CONNECTION TERMINATED AT SOURCE]<<<<<
	-- Blade <10:22:34/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Rage
>>>>>[I appreciate your communicating with me, Rage.  I'm afraid that my 
list of possible corporate sponsors does not get narrowed down by your 
information, although it does add more data to our gradually growing Jen 
and Gabe dossier.  Keep in touch.]<<<<<
	--  AEPacker <14:13:56/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  NOX, Basilisk
>>>>>[Of course.  I understand your desire to have your life back, and I 
will tell them of your decision.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <14:15:04/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Keaya
>>>>>[Mr. Keaya, I am sorry that I was so long in responding to your 
request concerning Tylor Nox.  I am sorry, sir, but upon due 
consideration of your offer, he has decided not to accept.  I'm sorry, 
but it was his decision and it is his life.  Good day, sir.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <14:18:15/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Amber Snowmane
>>>>>[Ms. Snowmane, I am sorry that I was so long responding to your 
request regarding Tylor Nox.  I'm afraid that he has decided not to 
accept your offer, prefering to live as he is now and leaving whatever 
past he had behind him.  I'm sorry, but it is his life and his decision.  
Good afternoon, miss.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <14:20:40/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Lotus
>>>>>[I see.  I appreciate the warning, but as always will do as my 
conscience guides me.  My greatest concern is violence, and if Luthien 
shows up at my door, I will judge as best I can.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <14:26:58/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Wintergeist
>>>>>[At this point, I think we are doing ok.  Thanks for the offer, 
though.  I had to call in some favors from friends and didn't even get 
your mail until recently.  My clinic doesn't have Matrix access for 
security reasons, and I just got home a couple of hours ago.  Jet lag's a 
pain in the ass....

Sorry about not gettting back to you, but I do appreciate the offer.

Oh, almost forgot.  Tigger was released about six hours ago, so he should 
be around  He did really well, from what I've heard from others and from 
what Hermit said.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <14:30:59/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Extraction team
>>>>>[Great job pulling her out of there guys.  It was a pleasure working 
with you.  I'll try and post that vid for your fond personal memory 
collections sometime in the next couple weeks.  Oh, and here's that pay 
along with a little bonus for a job well done.

+++++INCLUDE:  transfer >>encrypted<< to Cuval
transfer >>encrypted<< to Rattler, 

Thanks.]<<<<<
	--  Contract <14:08:41/03-11-57>

*****Private:Wintergeist
>>>>>[Tsk, Tsk.  You should show more faith in your friends, I have Billy 
with me right now.  We had a few delays along the way but by tommorow he 
will be in his poppa's arms.  An Amerindian biker gang called the 
Bloodbears was holding him hostage, I suggest you get someone out here to 
take care of them( the were a little pissed when they found him missing 
).  They are located at:
 
+++++ download file: Bloodbears loc.
+++++ End download
 
 
As I said we will hit Seattle tommorow, Gods willing, meet me at 
>>encrypt<< to retrieve the boy.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/11/57 06:12:23>

*****Private:Action Jackson:
>>>>>[Gods that was one helluva ride, I'm still havin nightmares about 
it.  Jus wanted to say that I'm alright and to tell ya thanks for the 
connection, my arm feels better than ever.  If you ever need me to run 
with ya again I'm here for ya.]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/11/57 06:25:23>

*****Not To: Maxim, Interpol, Velli, etc.
>>>>>[Hi all.  I have been doing some research, but have turned up things I
would rather not speak about until further information is developed.  I
think, thanks to that THING, I know know what AJ went through.  Were it not
that the Death is part of the natural cycle that my totem guides me through,
I would not have been able to bear the pain.  It does certainly have
connection with that free Spirit we came across.  If anyone wants them, I
simsensed the whole thing.  AJ, Pleas send me the money so that I put it
towards researching what exactly we found there.  Now I am going to bed.]<<<<<
	-- Shade <18:26:43 / 3-11-57>

*****Private: Dark Stranger, V-12, Diana, Lobster, Thelesentia, Jasmine
>>>>>[Alright people, we may have something here worse than the wraith
problem.  I am going to use the 50,000 to buy some information relating to
these things.  Any of you who are interested in going on a run to
investigate this thing's trail, please notify me.  I will pay for services
rendered, this especially means you, Dark Stranger.  Those who were on the
Maxim team, don't feel obligated to help because I know you are
recovering.]<<<<<
	-- Shade <18:33:22 / 3-11-57>

*****Private: Rumormonger, Trideo Pirate
>>>>>[I am willing to pay well for the invastion and information collecting
on a certain type of Spirit that I recently encountered.  I can provide
simsense recordings of my meetings with it.  I am attempting an
identification.  Please respond if interested.  Most of the places involved
will probably be universities so it should be easy.]<<<<<
	-- Shade <18:36:02 / 3--11-57>

*****Private: Kublai
>>>>>[Robert, what arrangements have been made for security at this ceremony
Friday?  We
have worked hard to improve our relationship with the S-S, and I would not
want any crack pots out there to frag this up.

Terry Sides
CEO Turkana Enterprises]<<<<<
	--Genghis <16:51:25/03-11-57>

*****Private: Genghis
>>>>>[According to the outline I have received from the S-S council, Lone
Star will be providing overall security, with a detachment of S-S warriors,
which should be adequate for area defense.  The Council has asked that each
corp keep its own security forces to four operatives, plus two aides if you
desire.

I have spoken to the security chiefs of the other honorees, and they have
already agreed to  go along with their wishes.  While I don't necessarily
like the idea of relying so much on outsiders for security, it seems that we
have little choice.  Assuming we don't want to offend Chief Moses.]<<<<<
	-- Kublai <17:15:01/03-11-57>

*****Private: Kasigi
>>>>>[Sir, here are the reports you asked me for earlier today.

As you surmised, they  seem to be encroaching on some of our more important
contracts in several areas.  Their operations are detailed in the files, but
in summary, they seem to attempting to steal our contracts in the software
and chemicals lines.

+++++include file: Turkana.operations.report

While I fail to see the relevance, you appear to be correct as to their
hiring practices.  The specific ratios are listed in the attached file, but
your fears seem to be supported by the recent S-S Council announcement.

+++++include file: Turkana.employees.dat

I have asked he staff to prepare a list of options our future operations
based on our conversation.  They should be on your desk by the end of the
day Tuesday.]<<<<<
	-- Mephisto <18:07:23/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE: 1Lt DiAnnio
>>>>>[Don't ask. Just... don't ask. Someone uploaded the simsense from one of 
my fellow HALO jumpers, read that for how things went. I have to say, I look 
good. I *am* good. In fact, coming out of that still able to walk, fight, and 
patch up wounded, I say I'm ab-so-fucking-lutely *incredible*. Lots of shrapnel 
damage, five broken bones, and three bullet wounds that I never even noticed, 
but nothing that won't get fixed or heal inside a couple of weeks. 

Oh, yeah, the files. And my own video. Here.

+++++include file: simsense.record1
+++++include file: simsense.record2
+++++include file: simsense.record3
+++++include file: Lynch.video

I'm with Action Jackson at his clinic. The place is knee-deep in trauma cases. 
I'm still mobile, so I'm helping to keep as many of our wounded alive as I can. 
It was worse than I expected. Update for the files, AJ's a vampire. A well-
controlled and very restrained Dracula, hence nonthreat. Word to the wise, we 
could use this guy, outstanding warrants be damned. Put it in the approvals 
loop. He's a vampire, he'll still be alive next century when the 
Congresscritters get round to answering. He'll probably throw it back in their 
faces, but it's gotta be worth a try.

Uprate Maxim to ICEPICK in the threat database. They are hard-core, no two ways 
about it. Highly professional, highly disciplined. I'm fucking amazed anyone 
made it out alive, let alone that we achieved the mission. If we need to fight 
them, make sure we have numbers and air superiority. Careful with arty, they 
had their counterbattery outgoing before our first rounds splashed. We lost a 
lot of people on the artillery team. My idea to do that.
My fault. 

Shit, shit, shit.

Yeah, the mission. Sorry. All seven warheads trashed, thoroughly, then we 
dropped the bunker on them with an ethylene-oxide mist bomb. Whumph. Some 
leakage, not too bad, but the camo gear I was wearing will have to go to 
Hanford for disposal and the filters in my mask are glowing in the dark. Just 
close to the first surge. All seven out of action. 

They had screamers in the nuke bunker. That's the second time I've been hit by 
ultrasonics and I still don't like them. Nothing in me went down, except all 
my comms gear recycled, don't know why. The Ares Alpha is not hardened against 
ultrasound, but the fucker was nearly out of ammo by then anyway. I had a 
neutraliser that seemed to help a lot, so I'm FedExing it to you.

You know, that was a really hot team. Not just the HALO squad, only three of 
them - us - lived through the op, just the whole group's teamwork. We got 
lifted out of the base by spirits, the perimeter defences were busy blowing 
seven shades of hell out of a mob of corpses cadavres - yeah, zombies, we must 
have had a houngun with us - AJ really managed to mate all our strengths to 
cover each others' weaknesses. We should all be dead, El-Tee. I mean, we should 
all be *dead*. I was closer to death then, than I have been in years.

I'll be here for another couple of days at least: I'm mobile, but not very, and 
until I get my wrist set properly it's going to keep hurting. That's the 
problem with bone lacing, the plastic probably saved me losing the hand, but 
when it does break it doesn't heal properly. AJ may be able to deal with it, 
until then I'm just having to work right-handed. Fucking spirit had to break 
my *left* wrist! 88 per cent of the world would think they got off lightly. 

Looks like I was wrong about Denver. Cairo and La Paz, for those two 
"destroyed" nukes. Tell Wisburne he can kiss my ass. "Corporate Court 
verification" of their destruction, right, sure, buddy.

+++++line inactive 30sec

As if you couldn't tell, I'm making the acquaintance of some fermented and 
distilled Tennessee farm produce from a Mr. Jack Daniels, because it reacts 
nicely with the painkillers and might let me get some sleep. Even if I can't 
sleep, it helps. The painkillers stop the flesh from hurting, they don't stop 
the screaming. Seven of us on that HALO drop, four dead, one crippled real bad, 
Blade messed up, me fine. What does that tell you? I should have been able to 
do something, El-Tee. They were good, they should have made it. Something I did 
wrong, I don't know what. We left one of the team. Left him to die in a bunker 
full of explosives and nuclear weapons, gave him a dead-man-switch and walked
away. We should have found a way to get him out. Instead we left him to die
alone.

Seven nukes. All ten to twenty kilotons. Ares design, based on our old W-91 
design that they stole from us all those years ago. Fairly clean, tritium-
boosted, with lithium deuteride jacketing and DU shells they could pump out a 
hundred kT each easily. All wrecked, disintegrated, buried, as gone as gone 
gets. 

I hope it was worth it. I hope the guys who said "direct action would be 
provocative", sleep well knowing how many people died, taking those weapons 
out, when we could have done it all with one Peacekeeper. The raiders on that
team didn't have anything like the stake those smug fucking bastards in their 
expensive suits do, who just wanted to look out for their friends.

Fuck it, doesn't mean anything, just march on. Shit happens.

+++++line inactive 30sec
+++++line inactive 60sec
+++++line inactive 90sec
+++++line inactive 120sec: timeout]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <23:02:15/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[Lynch, it wasn't your fault. You were lucky, they weren't. 

You knew this would happen. It's what you do best, you're *good* at it, 
that's why you're alive.

Lynch?

Goddamn it. Lynch, you okay?]<<<<<
	-- 1Lt DiAnnio <23:09:52/03-11-57>
	Corporate Division
	Strategic Intelligence Gathering Agency

>>>>>[Time to go back to wor....k.

No.  No....  Nooooooo.....  NooooOOOOOOO!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Not again.....]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <18:55:17/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Action Jackson
>>>>>[DAD!!!!!!!

Wait a sec....  Now I know what the frag the problem is....

You stupid little fragger.  What the frag is wrong with you?  You have 
fraggin drek instead of brains?  You did it, didn't you?  You pumped your 
fraggin blood full of flourocarbons.  You should fraggin KNOW better.

Hell's Bells, Dad, you're the fraggin DOCTOR!  You know what that stuff 
does to your body, so why the frag do you keep pumping your body full of it 
before these things?  You, of everyone I know, don't need he extra push.  
Drek, Dad, if anyone needs the stuff, it us normal folk who need that 
drek just to keep up with you under normal fraggin circumstances.

You become your own worst nightmares when you do the drek, Dad.  Fraggit, 
Dad, call me when you get back, and be careful.....]<<<<<
	--  Diana, Mistress of the Night <19:06:05/03-11-57>

*****Private: Shade
>>>>>[
+++++TRANSFER 100,000 =Y=+++++

Consider me a part of your investigation.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <18:55:37/3-11-57> 

*****Private:Mr. Backthorne
>>>>>[Be aware, Mr. Blackthorne, the team I sent to "take care" of the
Bloodbears found only bodies.  Whomever caused thier demise may be
after the boy]<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <19:27:44/03-11-57>

*****Private:Cuval
>>>>>[Please disregard our last communication.  I now have the
situation well in hand.  Please meet Mr. Blackthorne at the Playhouse
downtown and bring them both to the Seattle Hilton tomarrow at noon.
I will await you both in the ground floor lounge.  If you need to
reach me quickly, call me at 2933-7493-2836.  Thank you.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <19:22:39/03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE: Shade
>>>>>[Hol' it.  Hol' it _riii_ there.  Whazzis about spirits'shit now?  Whazzis
about "worse than the Wraith" stuff?  You betta tell me that's just
sup'usition.  An' I ain't even gonna _think_ about involvin' my folks wifout
somethin' more concrete t'go on.  Know'm'sayin'?  You got info, I wan' see it
an' have some o' my own a-so-shii-ates take a peek.]<<<<<
	--  V-12  <18:56:43 / 03-11-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Action Jackson
>>>>>[It seems that Tigger has goten lost again.  If you or any of
your associates runs across him, please just put him in a cab headed
for the Seattle Hilton.  His mother is worried, but this is not the
first time that this has happened.  I have sent out a few watchers and
we should find him soon.  Thank you for your help in this
matter.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <14:35:26/03-11-57>

*****Private:Wintergeist
>>>>>[Found the Bears for you boss, or at least what's left of them.
I would bring one of them back for you to question, but I did not
bring a sponge.  Be back in a few.]<<<<<
	-- Ash <16:20:31/03-11-57>
	Electric Mayhem
	"We solve mysteries...
	...with blunt objects."

*****PRIVATE:  Maxim Internal Security Log
>>>>>[ "Welcome back, John."

Ma'am.

"What did you find?"

Would you like a summary of the overall situation?

"Please."

Our nuclear weapons in all three sites were destroyed.  LaPaz is currently 
occupied by Amazonia, but it will be turned over to us again within the hour 
due to pressure from Quito and from the Zurich-Orbital.  It was attacked by a 
well planned and executed air raid and much of our storage on site was 
destroyed in addition to the single device that was stored there, but we are 
not correcting the experts in their assessment of the total mass of 
plutonium.  Cairo was struck by a much more expert team who were far more 
careful to avoid environmental contamination.  They detonated the device in 
the warehouse, and we will have to bury the warehouse to avoid further 
environmental problems.  Phenom Penh was raided by Seattle shadowrunners who 
destroyed the nuclear weapons in their bunker and then collapsed the bunker 
on the debris to avoid the chance of large scale contamination.  There was 
some, but it was minimal.  Court technicians and officials are discussing the 
raid and we should expect that they will contact us within a day or two.

Phenom Penh is in a total blackout, LaPaz will be back under our control 
shortly, and Cairo was small enough that we were able to institute a blackout 
there as well.

"What happened, John?  How were they able to do this?  And who the frag were 
they?"

We aren't sure who was involved in the Cairo and LaPaz teams, but I've got 
feelers out to determine that.  I don't expect that the individuals 
responsible will advertise, however, so it could be some time before I know 
their identities.  There are only so many mercenary organizations who could 
support the aircraft that struck the LaPaz facility, which limits our search 
as well.  I'll go into more detail later, though.  Cairo could have been a 
shadow team, but the professionalism and expertise in disarming the device 
prior to demolition indicates that they were also mercenary.  However, 
finding that team will be significantly more difficult.  As to how, I've 
already presented you with my report on the Phenom Penh raid in most respects 
and will finish in this briefing.  The other two sites, we suspect, were the 
direct result of the spy we killed, the late Dr. Spin's personal assistant.  
Everyone else, including myself, have undergone intensive magical truth 
interrogation and all of us came out negative.  The interrogations were... 
intense enough that there is essentially no chance that one of us could have 
been lying.

"Have you found out who the spy worked for?"

Yes.  Saeder-Krupp.

"The fraggin dragon....  Drek.  If he knew, then why didn't he turn us in....
I bet it has to do with his Maxim shares....  I'll have to ask him next time 
I see him."

And that will be?

"As far in the future as I can place it.  Ok, John, give me the details.  
Start with Phenom Penh.  We know who was involved?"

The major players, ma'am, without any doubt.  It was probably organized by 
Alex, and our camera logs also place Roxey and Slash at the scene, without a 
doubt.  Our deckers indicated the presence the decker Dick Tracy, and perhaps 
the rest of the Pulp Fiction team was also involved.  However, we are still 
not positive about their composition.  Our deck signature experts are running 
the two partial signatures we downloaded as we dumped two other deckers 
through their computers and coming up with a likely list of deckers.  The 
descriptions from the warlord's men are also being processed, but one named 
Shadow has been positively IDed.  He's an ex-associate of the man named 
Dragon that one of our Quads killed late last year.  Unfortunately, one of 
the raiders matches the old description of Dragon, but his death was 
positively confirmed so it must be a relative or a friend with an 
understandable grudge...

+++++ Upload Deck Signature data +++++

Ahhh, it seems that our computers have matched a couple of the other figures 
and one of the deckers.  The decker who was nuked is likely, to 93%, named 
Shields, and the physical description of one of the women involved in the 
raid matches, to 96%, his associate Jasmine.  The presence of large numbers 
of zombies indicates that Alex's daughter was there as well.  The last likely 
names we have so far indicate that the HALO jumpers were likely military or a 
corporate strike team on loan to Alex's strike, likely as a means to extract 
some revenge for prior assaults.  The bodies, after extensive autopsies, 
indicate that they were Ares employees.  This matches with what one of our 
old contacts told us about a special unit headed and created by a man who 
has since returned to the shadows.  It is possible that the last individual 
is this person, but we have so little on his connections during and after his 
Ares involvement that we are not yet sure.  I have agents all over Seattle in 
an attempt to find him, but he and the woman whose simsense record was 
recently broadcast by a pirate broadcaster monikered Trideo Pirate have 
disappeared, likely into an Ares facility somewhere.  Our inside sources have 
been unable to verify this, but we're working on it.  The last one we have a 
guaranteed ID on is Mr. Lynch.

"Lynch?  Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time.  So he's still 
alive and active.  Most interesting...."

Yes, ma'am.  As far as we know, that's who was involved.  There are many 
persons unaccounted for, but we suspect that they will either remain 
unidentified or will be IDed within the next 24 hours.

"Excellent.  Now, the only part of the raid on our facility that you didn't 
elaborate on yesterday was the Matrix intrusions...."

I have our expert's views on what the most likely order of events prior to 
Patty Winters arrived.  With the partial deck signatures, we were able to 
back-track the penetration from the point where it entered our system.  I'll 
include a copy of Patty's report in the briefing when I get to the 
appropriate part of the discussion.  I'll use the projected identities of the 
deckers for ease of discussion.

Shields and, we suspect, Dick Tracy penetrated the system here, CSat 14, line 
36.  That particular satellite and line are low security to allow individuals 
from around the world to check our available inventories in the regional 
databases maintained at the regional headquarters.  Our backtrace was unable 
to track Sheilds' signature further back than that.  From CSat 14, they 
transited and went directly to the secure satellite line encryption controls 
in Krasnayarsk, where we identified a successful breach in security which 
later allowed them to avoid one encryption dump change.  Our experts have 
informed me that Dick Tracy appears to have some knowledge of our systems as 
well, and this has prompted me to revise our Matrix security procedures.

"Excellent decision.  Please continue."

>From the line encryption controls, they stealthed very carefully through and 
around other nodes, as well as utilized several backdoors which have since 
been removed.  Additional backdoors have been discovered and are being 
removed, but few have been used recently.  Many of them have the software 
touch of Mercury, I've been told, but that is another issue for another time.  
Upon routing through the system, the deckers encoded their personas as 
legitimate packet streams, encrypted themselves with the current key, and 
transited through CS-Sat 3 to Phenom Penh.  Normally our satellites will not 
accept transmissions from any source not using the specified signal 
encryption key and algorithm, but the deckers used our key and algorithm and 
were able to get through.  We are revising our system in this regard as well.

Upon reaching Phenom Penh, Dick Tracy and Shields split up, each taking 
separate sections of the system.  Dick Tracy took the communications and IFF 
subsystems while Shields set himself up in the anti-viral supercodes to avoid 
detection and controlled the radar and security personnel subsystems.  It 
appears from the frames we had to delete from the system after the raid that 
they were essentially controlling and/or overseeing inter-facility 
communication, main and secondary radars, troop radios, IFF transponder 
reception, but not the actual code itself, among other aspects of the system.  
It was these, however, that caused us the most difficulties.

Before I go into more detail regarding the deckers in the security system, we 
also had a decker whose identity is unknown currently penetrate the corporate 
Matrix.  This decker engaged in a similar manner, but from a public 
communication satellite to our Phenom Penh connection from the Cambodia main 
satlink.  She entered the system about the same time as Dick Tracy and 
Sheilds and proceeded to engage various distractions in the payroll 
department, production, personnel, sales and marketing, as well as private 
mailboxes.  She was responsible for the collapse of our production lines, 
the tridphone and mail malfunctions, and most of the rest of the problems in 
that part of the system.  And all those problems created chaos which reigned 
right up to the point that...well, that was in my prior briefing.

When the first battery of shells and missiles were launched, our units in 
position reported different points of origin for the missiles.  Since we have 
had difficulties on occasion with the Backtrack radars on our tanks and 
artillery, we allowed each rapid response unit to respond as it saw fit and 
activated the telemetry.  Almost immediately, we noticed discrepancies 
between our Jovian-6 reception of telemetry and the DG-4 telemetry.  Our 
technicians were doing an emergency system check when something occluded the 
SF-CSat6 connection but our radar indicated that there was nothing that could 
have cause the full 238 microsecond service problem, and Peregrine, who runs 
the SF sats, indicated that there was nothing wrong with CSat 6.  Something 
had occluded the connection and didn't show up on radar, so our security 
forces immediately activated the secondary and tertiary radar systems, which 
showed that there was a discrepancy between them.  One of our deckers was 
immediately dispatched to Security's connections to main radar, as was the 
security rigger, and an alien frame was discovered and destroyed, and we 
destroyed the HALO drop plane with SAMs.

As you know, all our security systems are kept on active alert perpetually 
even though this costs much in clock cycles.  Only the security systems, of 
course, and they have such low use that active alert doesn't damage the 
processing efficiency as greatly as it would in our corporate Matrix systems.  
In this case, we activated the security knowbots and put the corporate system 
on active alert as well as upgraded all our deckers in the systems.  As you 
know, we were still having difficulty locating the enemy deckers in our 
systems until Patty showed up.  I've assigned all corporate security deckers 
to rotating classes to improve their skills after this fiasco.

Our signature trace really doesn't tell us much about either Dick Tracy or 
Shields at this point, because once they settled into their respective 
locations and started manipulating the system according to their intentions, 
they didn't move.  But we were able to determine after the fact some very 
interesting facts about both of them.  Dick Tracy knew our systems well, too 
well to have never dealt with them before, and was prepared for most of what 
our deckers and IC threw at him.  Dick Tracy appeared to be taken aback by 
some of the newer IC we fielded, from decker eyewitness reports.  Shields, on 
the other hand, likely had some special utilities which enabled him to 
compensate for some of our security precautions, including the satellite 
encryption link which actually dumped Dick Tracy later, as well as partially 
compensate for the delay over the satellite links.  In addition, his 
signature was essentially untraceable due to multiple processor signal 
directions.  One was a false trail that was actually traced, but the other 
ended at the first public communications satellite outside of our operations.

We believe that the difficulties with the military communications was largely 
the fault of Dick Tracy.  We suspect that she was able to delete messages 
propagating from our radios before they were displayed in Security.  The 
Quads were not affected, nor was our SF unit because they use the SF sats 
rather than local communication, and they were able to integrate their 
actions in that manner.

Our Matrix systems need severe improvement and I am recommending that all 
systems with independent security Matrices disconnect them completely from 
the Matrix or implement them in a triggered teleporting SAN.

+++++ Upload Report_Patty_Winters +++++

I've just placed a copy of Patty's report on your system, ma'am, but I'll 
touch the high points.  When she entered the security system, she said that 
she found it a mess, with more IC than necessary, and most of it the wrong 
types as well.  She has included a recommendation as to a better IC 
allocation in systems as an appendix to that report. She was decking with her 
MMS deck, and was quickly able to locate both deckers.  She says that she 
found Shields by running a virtual machine in one of the CPUs to isolate any 
viral, frame, or decker influences, but that the virtual machine refused to 
pick up the anti-virus programs.  She suspects that her activation of the 
virtual machine triggered some responses in Sheilds' masked persona and 
stealth programs, but she was still able to locate him.  She claims that 
when she found him, he was still manipulating the system as best he could 
with all his frames being systematically destroyed by our knowbots and 
deckers.  Apparently, she got behind his persona and surprised him.  He 
nearly hit her with a powerful but what she called "inelegant" attack 
program, but that he was unprepared for the nuke.

"So nuke has been tested on a person.  Results?"

Nuke appears to work as it was intended, ma'am, but without the target in our 
custody, we cannot be positive.  It overloaded the hardening of Shields' deck 
and burned out his MPCP, implanted the worm in the Persona chip rather than 
the MPCP as most deathworms are, dropped a looper into his headware, dumped 
him, and implanted "Play Nice" psychotropics.  He should not be any trouble 
anytime soon, since Patty suspects it will take him at least a week, at best, 
to repair his deck, and that's without dealing with the looper and 
Personaworm.

"'Play Nice'?  Is that the version that not only implants the love of Maxim 
Arms, but also makes the afflicted person turn into a babbling idiot when he 
thinks about, sees, hears, etc. any violence?"

Yes, ma'am, that would be it.  But we've expressly defined "violence" in the 
most broad manner possible such as breaking any law, hearing a simple 
argument, seeing blood even from a little cut, any pain of any animal, the 
cutting of a tree limb.  Play Nice has been tested, and it makes the 
afflicted individual nearly incapable of survival in any situation.  
Sometimes I think that it would be more humane to kill the target with a 
powerful black hammer program.

"Psychotropic IC has fantastic deterrent value, John."

I'm aware of that, ma'am, which is why I don't complain about it's use.

"Now, what of the other two deckers?"

Dick Tracy was found by a couple of deckers who thought that he was a frame 
as well.  He wasn't, and in their surprise they got dumped rather painfully.  
He also destroyed a knowbot before Patty reached him.  She ordered the 
remainder of the deckers into the corporate Matrix to locate and dump the 
other decker while she handled Dick Tracy.  The two of them, according to 
Patty, sparred for several microseconds while Patty sized up her opponent.  
Unfortunately for Patty, who was about to attack, Krasnayarsk's encryption 
update engaged at precisely this time and Dick Tracy was dumped by the 
security satellite carrying her signal.  As you know, when encryptions are 
updated randomly, we not only alter our encryption key randomly but also our 
algorithm.  Any signal going over our corporate links that does not 
immediately update both algorithm and key instantly is cut.  This is what 
dumped Dick Tracy, and before we were able to acquire a deck trace or 
signature fragment.  Patty informed us that Dick Tracy did not appear to be 
running a deck of significant threat to her MMS deck, which is hardly a 
surprise.  Most Fairlights are not a threat to those decks.  We did not 
utilize the Hyperdeck, however, because we felt it was better used locally 
in the event of this attack being part of a greater attack on our facilities 
worldwide.  Besides, it would have been overkill.

The decker in the corporate sector was dumped ultimately.  Our deckers 
reported that her deck was excellent and that she seemed almost as surprised 
about some of it's capabilities as they were.  In addition, they claim that 
she herself had the marks of professional decker training, possibly from some 
of the best in the world.  She was not, however, an otaku as they suspected 
for an instant.  She fought off several deckers and IC programs, but was 
unable to defeat two deckers, a knowbot, and three IC programs combined, 
which is what she was facing before one of our Black IC programs dumped her.  
We suspect that she is suffering from a case of cyberphobia and moderate 
wounds due to the biofeedback she absorbed, but we don't know for certain.

"Is that all, John?"

On the Matrix penetration of the Phenom Penh facility, yes.

"Good.  Let's take a quick break and come back to this in ten minutes."

Of course, ma'am.]<<<<<
	--  Maxim Internal Security Log <21:12:05/03-11-57>

*****Private: Wintergeist
>>>>>[No problem.  I'm just glad that the boy has been recovered.  I will
meet Mr. Blackthorne at the Playhouse at noon as you requested.  

Do I have to bring him to the Hilton?  I have unfond memories of that place.
Never mind, I will deal with them at the proper time.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <21:25:36/03-11-57>

>>>>>[Boy, I guess some people just have no luck at all.  Remember that guy
they found hanging from the Seattle Hilton last week.  Well, it just keeps
going for him.  I saw a report today that Wilson Ueda, the Manager of the
Hilton, fired him today, citing the faulty maintainence charges brought
against the company by Lone Star.

Mr. Ueda is quoted as saying "...his responsibility.  He caused the deaths
of six innocent people at our hotel.  We here at the Hilton regret that the
negligence and incompetence of one of our employees would cost our customers
their lives.  We cannot have such a man working for us.  We have also begun
collecting money to establish a fund for the families of the victims."

For some people I guess it's true what they say- If it wasn't for bad luck,
I'd have no luck at all.]<<<<<
	-- Kodachrome <21:32:01/03-11-57>

>>>>>[More breaking news on everybody's favorite megacorp... The Amazonians 
appear to be extremely upset...

+++++begin newsclip.turner-network.57-03-12.02:01:54

The familiar form of Michael Novacek, complete with chic raincoat and hand-held
microphone, fills the view.  Behind him are the lights of a large city, icy
points without the slightest twinkle.  Michael's breath congeals as he
speaks.  "Good evening.  It's now after midnight here in La Paz, on the third
day after the globe was _rocked_ by a wave of terrorism aimed at Maxim, one of
the world's most prominent second-tier arms and aerospace corporations.  Data
continues to be scare about the Maxim bases in Cambodia and Cairo, where
rumors of heavy casualties and nuclear contamination are caught up in a
bureaucratic _maelstrom_ that no news agency has _yet_ been able to unravel.  I
myself was en route to Cambodia when military forces turned us away with
threats of shooting us out of the sky.  So goes the "freedom of the press."
HOWEVER," he exclaims, his serious expression rent with the beginnings of a
grin, "through _extreme_ perseverance and professionalism, _not_ to mention
the _painstaking_ and considerate assistance of the Amazonian government, we
are now able to bring you _exclusive_ footage of the destruction wrought here
in La Paz.  The Amazonian government has just finished clearing the footage,
taken by our _expert_ cameramen using a remotely-piloted drone, and we now
present it to you."

The view changes to a camera floating roughly 2.5 meters above the ground.  It
drifts forward at a moderate speed, following a two-lane road flanked on either
side by dense tropical vegetation.  The amount of light suggests afternoon.
Immediately ahead is a cluster of armored personell carriers, grim-looking
troops in hardshell armor complementing the obvious heavy weapons protruding
from their vehicles.  Behind them is the remains of what might be a large
guardpost, rubble covering everything but a cleared swath down the middle.  The
drone continues forward through the gap, its camera zooming in briefly to
record the stoic face of one of the soldiers for posterity.  The road beyond
the gate opens out into a large cleared complex, buildings of varying sizes
spread across the bottom of a small caldera.  Various military vehicles, both
terrestrial and airborne, dot the space between buildings, troops either busy
about some errand or else standing guard with their armor and gyromounted
weapons.  The camera follows a straight course from the guardhouse towards
a large crater strewn with debris and crawling with soldiers.  "This," says
Michael's disembodied voice, "is the remains of the warehouse where the
nuclear material was being stored.  As you can see, the structure was
completely destroyed.  Another warehouse [the camera pans off to the left]
met a similar fate, though its contents were apparently innocuous.  Several
other sites in the compound were damaged as well; the Amazonian government says
these were anti-aircraft weapons installations.  According to intelligence
reports and the testimony of eye-witnesses, some sort of aircraft were
responsible for the majority of the damage, although noone was able to confirm
a definite sighting of them.  Several drones _were_ spotted by witnesses, and
the wreckage of a few of them is being analyzed to determine their origin."

The drone has now passed the warehouses and is nearing a small cluster of
buildings, several showing some signs of damage.  "According to estimates,
the attackers employed an assortment of ECM, bomblets, air-to-air weapons, and
several varieties of air-to-ground weapons.  Several of the targets, such as
the warehouses, were struck by structure-piercing high-explosive munitions,
while other targets, such as the remains of the security communications
facility you see now, were impacted with area-fragmentary weapons.  Several
companies, as well as selected national militaries, manufacture such weapons,
and Amazonia has _yet_ to pinpoint the manufacturer of the weapons used here."

While Michael continues talking, the drone circles the buildings and begins
heading back for the guardhouse, its camera turning aside to zoom in on an
imposing arachnoid shape perched impassively next to one of the craters.  It
stands at least four meters above the ground, measuring nearly six meters in
length.  Several gun barrels protrude from its massive bulk, including one
immense appendage that can be nothing but a rotary assault cannon.  "What
you're seeing now is one of Amazonia's Urban Combat Platforms, a vehicle we're
told is only reserved for _very_ special occasions.  Like the other military
hardware and personell here on base, it won't go away until the diplomatic
crisis with Maxim is resolved and the fate of the base decided.  All the
Maxim personell from the base have now left the country, and should be safely
back with their families and coworkers."

The view changes back to Michael, who is being pelted by the first drops of a
tropical shower.  "As the media tries to make inroads into the situations in
Cairo and Cambodia, we will continue to bring you information from the scene
here in La Paz.  This is Michael Novacek, reporting."

+++++end newsclip.turner-network.57-03-12.02:01:54]<<<<<
	--  Fisher  <02:19:19 / 03-12-57>
	Fisher Data Systems

*****PRIVATE: Wintergeist
>>>>>[Herr Wintergeist.  I'm sorry, i just get a LOT of seriously 
injured people to help.  I have looked a little at your sample and i 
can tell you now only that the tissue is very parvosomatic for neural 
tissue and that it is MITOTIC.  I can giving you more details after 
these peopple are healed.]<<<<<
	-- Basilisk <05:46:08 GMT/13.MAR.57>

*****Private: Enchantress
>>>>>[Susan, my flight has been delayed, so I won't be home tonight.  Don't
wait up, the plane won't get back to Seattle until about 8AM tomorrow
morning.  We'll have breakfast when I get home.]<<<<<
	-- Gib Johnson <23:47:12/03-11-57>
	President, Envirotek

*****Private: Wintergeist
>>>>>[Does the name Rhodaemis (sp) mean anything to you?  I was scanning the
board, and came across this strange message from a guy going by that  name.
He says he is looking for someone, but he did not list any names in the
message.  

Maybe I missed something.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <00:23:10/03-12-57>

*****Private: Wintergeist
>>>>>[Noted, and Thanks.]<<<<<
	-- Shade <4:02:18 / 3-12-57>

>*****PRIVATE: V-12
>>>>>>[I am refering to the strange black spirit that everyone encountered,
and the man in the unusual suit.  Here is everything that I have now, but I
am employing some data gatherers.
+++++ FILE TRANSFER: MAGMAX.SIM]<<<<<
	-- Shade <04:08:02 / 3-12-57>

*****Private: Cuval
>>>>>[That is truly an evil portent, we will speak more of him when we
meet this afternoon.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <03:36:37/03-12-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Maxim Raiders
>>>>>[Well, I'm almost back to 100%.  I'd tell you where I was, but they'd
prefer I kept quite on that part.  Well, where ever I am I'm definately NOT
in De%$3jkl*@jklport&&&^

+++++CONNECTION TERMINATED AT SOURCE]<<<<<
	-- Blade <08:20:26/03-12-57>

>>>>>[WANTED: Bountyhunter with knowledge of the local area.  Will
pay highest.]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <08:54:14/03-12-57>

>>>>>[The auctioneer observes a bid of =Y= 75,000]<<<<<
	-- Starter Account #6s65sdcf9dv <09:31:42/03-12-57>
	Sign up today for ten free hours!!
	SOL

*****Private:Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Sorry friend if I spelled your name wrong but I'm recuping from a 
little jaunt.  I am a bounty hunter and am extreamly interested in any 
jobs you may have.  Drop me a line.]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/12/57 11:07:45> 

*****Private:Wintergeist
>>>>>[I can account for the deaths of three of them, but the rest were 
healthy and pissed when I left them.  Mayhaps it was some Amerindians 
that did them in, no one liked them anyway (No lose or gain as they 
say).  Though if you asked for my opinion I'd say the spirits killed them 
for kidnaping such an inoccent boy.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/12/57 11/17/45>

*****Private:Herr Basilisk
>>>>>[I am indeed in need of an arm, from the shoulder down.  It doesn't 
have to look good, just function.  Tell me the amount and were to be.]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/12/57 11:25:12>

*****PRIVATE TO: Maxim Raiders
>>>>>[Well, it seems my current guardians are being very paranoid.
Understandable.  I will continue about where I left off.

Well, for anyone concerned, the lady nice enough to record part of that
escapade is recovering nicely.  Her legs, as you probably suspect, were a
total loss.  However, she is currently being prepped for surgery to replace
those limbs with top of the line cyber ones.  She should be back to full
strength in a couple of weeks.  She told me to thank all of you who helped
get her back alive.

As for myself.  Well, aside from some cracked ribs and a couple grazes, I'm
fine.  The arm had to be replaced, it was totalled from the toxic using it
to swing me around, and when I decided to use it to "cushion" my fall <g>.
Thats ok, cyber's replacable.

I think we should remember all of our comrades who fell in battle.  They
served bravely.  They died with honor.  May they walk in beauty.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <09:30:56/03-12-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Action Jackson
>>>>>[I hoped my services helped your little endeavor.  If you require them
again, and if the cause is as worthy, I don't think you'll have trouble
getting a hold of me.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <09:34:23/03-12-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Lynch
>>>>>[I think I owe you a drink.  Contact me at >>>encrypted<<< in a couple of
days, and I'll take care of it.

Oh, and I'm glad to hear you made it out alive. <g>]<<<<<
	-- Blade <09:38:15/03-12-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: DK
>>>>>[The job is finished.  The deal is done.  The debt is paid.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <09:40:57/03-12-57>

*****PRIVATE TO:Rhodaemis
>>>>>[I may be able to fulfill you requirements.  If the cred is good.
Contact me at >>>encrypted<<< and we can discuss things further]<<<<<
	-- Blade <09:42:23/03-12-57>

>>>>>[Whoa, night HALO jump with inexperienced jumpers depending on 
computers to pull the ripcord, dropping through alerted defenses.  

Ballsy.  Stupid, but ballsy.  

You kids'll be suffering for burning all of that karma in your next 
lives, you know that, don't you?

We used to do that until the FNGs started burning in.  Then we tried 
glide approaches from way the hell out over the lake - until wasps 
started tearing us up.

One question: who's dumb idea was it to carry back-ups?  At the 
speeds you kids shoulda been dropping and the altitudes you shoulda 
been pulling at, even a trained, augmented human would have trouble 
finding the time to decide his 'chute hasn't opened, cut it away, 
fall far enough to avoid fouling in the bad 'chute and deploy the 
back-up with any chance of hitting the ground in one piece.  We 
figured the back-up was dead weight so our HALO jumpers replaced the 
weight of a spare with more ammo.  Now you know why we had trouble 
with FNGs burning in.  

Hell, a HAHO drop woulda allowed you to all hit the LZ withing a 
coupla meters of each other, all without alerting the ground defenses 
by flying near the 'zone.  Dumb.]<<<<<
	-- Snake (09:34:22 / 03-12-57)

*****Private:Redfeather
>>>>>[Rest easy, Mr. Redfeather, you did grasp the proper spelling of
my title.  I seek information regarding two individuals, and will pay
one thousand nuyen in script for information resulting in the
capture of either.  Their names are Wintergeist and Luthien, I will
send more information shortly.]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <12:07:26/03-12-57>

***** Private: Shade
>>>>>[Hey, man, I don't do spirits any more. Don't care how well it 
pays <shudder>]<<<<<
	-- Rumormonger <Always / Tuned-In>

***** Private: Ghost Faced Killa
>>>>>[Allrighty then.  I been hired to grab a body for a buddy, 
already said that.  So I been surveilling him, said that, too, for a 
coupla weeks now.  I can set my chrono my when he takes a dump he's 
so regular on his sched, right?  I've been following him now for a 
while to look for sec.  Now, thje corp he works for has got the 
assests to do it right, so I won't say there's no security on him, or 
even little security, I just can't see it.  

Now here's most of my notes:

+++++ FILE: ACADIAN.NTS (135 mP)

Meet me at the Golden Triangle Restaurant 'bout 1800 and we'll talk 
business.

Gotta fly, damn eyes aren't working right again....]<<<<<
	-- Rumormonger <Always / Tuned-In> 

>>>>>[Willy Pete, evil, evil stuff.  I love it.  

But on to part two of my critique.  I wasn't there, so I get to 
critique it.  That's the way the real army works.  The folks in the 
"rear with the gear" (to use the polite form) have 20-20 hindsight and 
get to pick apart every little detail.

See, those Nightglider jockeys did it right.  Come in low and long 
over the trees.  Loiter while the rocks drop themselves into the 
firetrap and then sneak in.  

Good.  

That was an insert after my own heart.  Couldn'ta planned a jungle 
insertion better myself.]<<<<<
	-- Snake (13:00:33 / 03-12-57)

*****PRIVATE: Jason Tylor
>>>>>[Yo, my man.  I know it's really fast after all shit went down, but I got
somethin' I want your professional opinion on.

+++++include information

What tha fuck'r we lookin' at here.  I got this dude sayin' this shit might be
worse than that Wraith thing, tho' I don' know how much giv'n 'e is to
hyperbol-ee.  'Fore I say shit I want some second opinions.  I'z willin' to pay
for the consult if need be.]<<<<<
	--  V-12  <11:13:37 / 03-12-57>

*****PRIVATE: AlexandriaN
>>>>>[Yo.  I gots a strictly recreational question that just sorta came up.
Your people were the ones that checked out shit the last time we had some
supernatural problems.  I wonder what you might have ta say about this:

+++++include information

I got someone tellin' me it's cause for alarm, maybe worse than the last time,
but I don' know if they really got they shit together, like.  I don' know fo
certain if its high-pri, but I don' leave things ta chance.]<<<<<
	--  V-12  <11:19:41 / 03-12-57>

>>>>>[I have a free pass because I'm human?!?  Did you forget that I'm a
black man?  You people have had to endure racism for what, 30, 40 years?  My
people have had to put up with that drek for over five hundred years.  When
dwarves have been around that long, then, maybe, you can understand what my
people have been put through.  Shut the frag up shorty.]<<<<<
	--Ghost Faced Killa<11:27:33/3-12-57>

>>>>>[Minnow, a dwarf?  Even his names a joke.]<<<<<
	--Dirt Megirt<11:28:33/3-12-57>

>>>>>[Yeah, there's a lot of us, but only one's a bastard.  Killa Priest,
Keeper of the Temple.  Lucky Hands.  Inspector Deck.  Ghost.  The Genius.
 Dirt Megirt.  The Chef.  Deddy Krueger.  And then me.  And that's just the
hardcore of the Shaolin.]<<<<<
	--the Mef<11:31:22/3-12-57>

*****Private: Kasigi
>>>>>[Sir, the staff finished the report earlier than anticipated.  I have
looked it over, and I must say that I find most of their options somewhat
excessive.  

I still do not see what justification we can have for pursuing this line of
action, if you do indeed authorize it.

+++++ include file: options.t187]<<<<<
	--Mephisto <14:01:25/03-12-57>

*****Private: White Queen
>>>>>[I have been able to influence my subject somewhat.  His heritage makes
him somewhat prone to xenophobia anyway, so it has not been terribly
difficult.  I believe he will initiate the type of action that is required.
I altered the options file that the staff prepared to include some
rather...unpleasant...alternatives.  He should athourize some action within
48 hours.  Allowing a little time to set it up, the target should be
affected within the week.]<<<<<
	-- Mephisto <14:20:06/03-12-57>

*****Private: Mephisto
>>>>>[You always were the quickest of my students, but don't push to hard.
We do not need anyone noticing anything terribly out of the oridanry in his
behavior.  Take your time, there is no great rush here.]<<<<<
	-- White Queen <14:25:20/03-12-57>

>>>>>[How the hell did an SOLer get in here? That _WAS_ a novelty tag-line
wasn't it? PLEASE say it was?]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <17:39:31/12-03-57>

>>>>>[Okay Killa. You want to be reminded of what you have and we don't?
You have a history. Everyone has a history except for the metahumans
(except the fragging elves of course). You have a homeland. You have a
native culture to fall back on. You have organizations rallying for your
support. You have fragging scholarships. 

What do we have? Drek. And what do we get on top of that? Bulldrek from
supremecists like you who want to grind us further into the dirt. Well, I
can tell you that that isn't going to happen. We're not going to let that
happen. And any fragger who tries to slow us down is going to get his soul
torn out.]<<<<<
	-- Minnow <18:09:14/12-02-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Jen and Gabe 
>>>>>[We need you. Be at >>>encrypted<<< tonight. Hot gear.]<<<<<
	-- =igh{te~us%and  ana)C! <C/
	SIGNAL TERMINATED AT SOURCE

*****PRIVATE TO: Righteous and Dana
>>>>>[Not possible. Sorry. We've got a dinner date.]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <18:16:40/12-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Jen and Gabe
>>>>>[Be at >>>encrypted<<< at midnight. We remind you that you still have
sanction. We no longer do. Should it become known to our employers that
you are reading this message, there is a high probability of you losing
that sanction.]<<<<<
	-- Rig^teo+s a>d D/?a <
	SIGNAL TRACE LOCKED...
	DAEMON'S LAUNCHED...
	SIGNAL TERMINATED AT SOURCE

*****PRIVATE TO: Tassie
>>>>>[I don't like to be stood up. Please don't do it again. 

A job has to be done very soon. Be at HappyTime Resturaunt tomorrow at
noon. We have a job that requires your special qualifications.]<<<<<
	-- $h~f{]PGS=+23 <CORRUPT/CORRUP>

*****PRIVATE TO: DRUZE
>>>>>[Tassie should be at the HappyTime Resturaunt tomorrow at noon.
Please be there.]<<<<<
	-- ER98gfdjh35DFG <CORRUPT/CORRU>

>>>>>[Snake, if we wanted your critique we would have provided you with
our recon data and analysis. That way, you could see why we did things the
way we did. The *real* Army works that way. Your 20-20 hindsight doesn't
see a lot of details that we knew and you still don't: without that info,
your analysis is irrelevant.

And your technique lacks courtesy, depth of analysis, and insight. Also
ways in which you fail to match the standard required. Two out of ten,
stay behind after class, go hit the handbooks some more.

Go play with Jenna and Gabriel: they're more your league.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <23:32:05/03-12-57>

***** Private: Rumormonger
>>>>>>[ I am not asking you to help with the actual spirit data collection
mission.  I just want you to break into a few universities and poke your
nose around.  Some people no longer believe in the free transport of
scientific knowledge of Academia, you know. You wouldn't get anywhere near a
spirit, just maybe files on one.]<<<<<
	-- Shade <18:08:52 / 3-12-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Bountyhunter: FOUND! What's da game?]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <19:45:54/03-12-57>
 

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Ferocius
>>>>>[I seek informaton regarding two individuals.  They are not to be
approached directly, just their possition reported.  They are to be
considered to be armed and highly dangerous.  Both are magically
active and may have allies in this area.  It is unlikely that they
will be working together.  They are currently using the aliases
Wintergeist and Luthien.  A reward of one thousand nuyen in script is
offered for information leading to the capture of either.]<<<<<
	-- Rodaemis <22:39:23/03-12-57>

*****Private:Gabe n' Jen
>>>>>[Why, do you wish to bid?]<<<<<
	-- Starter Account #6s65sdcf9dv <22:51:42/03-12-57>
	Sign up today for ten free hours!!
	SOL

>>>>>[Thanks, Redfeather.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <21:08:14/03-12-57>

>>>>>[Nug! A LoneStar van just knocked over some old bag. First
incompetence at the Hilton and now LoneStar randomly taking down innocent
pedestrians... Aztlan is looking better all the time...]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <00:21:14/13-03-57>

>>>>>[ Well, here's the dirt on a recent press release from Maxim

+++++ Include Trideo Upload +++++

Good evening, my name is Charlie Fingers and I'm here live in the Ute Sector 
of the Denver Front Range Free Zone, where Ms. Nicole Velli, President and 
CEO of Maxim Arms, will be speaking shortly.

There has been a lot of rumors flying about recent events concerning Maxim 
Arms, specifically regarding the recent events in LaPaz, Amazonia, Cairo, and 
Phenom Penh, in what used to be Cambodia.  There have been reports of massive 
explosions, terrorist attacks, and it appears that LaPaz at least is 
suffering from some form of radioactive contamination.  On these rumors 
along, Maxim's stocks have plummeted to another low, losing all the ground 
that they had gained since the destruction of the Warsaw production facility 
and more.

We're not sure when Ms. Velli will be....ahh, here she is now, and with her 
is Mr. John Skulkin, the current Vice-President of Corporate Security.

JS:  Ladies and gentlemen of the press, Ms. Velli would like to read from a 
prepared statement.  There will be time for some questions following her 
statement.  Miss Nicole Velli.

NV:  Thank you, John.  Ladies and gentlemen of the press, there have been 
many rampant rumors and innuendos regarding Maxim Arms recently.  It is the 
purpose of this statement to address the rumors and allay any fears the 
public might have.

At approximately 6AM local time on the 10th of this month, terrorists struck 
three Maxim facilities in a well coordinated assault.  In the cases of LaPaz 
and Cairo, the targets were small, temporary stores of radioactive isotopes 
and material that Maxim uses to produce radiation cancer therapies, satellite 
power cells, and small scale experimental reactors.  In the case of our 
Phenom Penh facility, the terrorists were interested in our primary nuclear 
material stockpile worldwide.

The most damaged of the three, our LaPaz facility suffered extreme damage 
and, in the process, the containment vessels for the material were destroyed 
and radioactive isotopes were released into the atmosphere.  This 
precipitated the Amazonian government to send environmental experts and 
troops to aid in the cleanup and to ensure public safety, as many of Maxim's 
employees were injured in the attack and Maxim was unable to immediately 
guarantee the safety of the residents of LaPaz.  However, the Amazonian 
military overstepped their authority when they decided to occupy the LaPaz 
facility and deport all the uninjured Maxim employees to Santiago, Chile.  
Maxim has only recently been able to return a technical oversight team to 
the facility, but we hope to be able to return our employees to their 
families living in the suburbs of LaPaz.

In addition, there have been rumors of Amazonian troops near other Maxim 
facilities in Amazonia.  Because Maxim had not informed the Amazonian 
government that we intended to temporarily store small quantities of nuclear 
isotopes and materials at the site, the government had considered an armed 
search of other Maxim facilities for similar materials.  As a sovereign 
megacorporation, the Maxim Board of Directors could not allow that to happen, 
and tensions rose.  Until recently, that is.  As of about an hour ago, the 
last Amazonian units had been recalled from near Maxim facilities and 
Amazonia has agreed to return the LaPaz facility to Maxim Arms within the 
next month.  In return, Maxim has agreed to allow Amazonian environmental 
observers in our facilities, to provide Amazonia with a complete listing of 
all potentially environmentally harmful materials in our Amazonian 
facilities, and we have been forced to bend to political pressure to 
discontinue our biomedical cancer and VITAS research in the Amazon 
rainforest.

The second facility, in Cairo, was also attacked, but since the attack was 
more of a surgical strike, less damage and less contamination was released 
into the environment.  Cairo was an additional short-term storage facility 
for nuclear research materials.  In its case, however, the materials were 
destined for our research installations in the Nile river channel and 
Ethiopia.  We have been able to totally clean up the contamination in Cairo 
and we have set up a temporary center for those locals who feel that they 
could be affected by the extremely slight contamination released.

Due to the nature of our Phenom Penh facility, I can only say that the attack 
there was very well planned and executed and our analysis has shown that it 
was designed to appear as if one of the many local Cambodian warlords was 
attacking the facility.  The attack was successfully repelled and no nuclear 
material left the facility.

I would like to take this opportunity to insure the public of Maxim's 
commitment to environmental and public safety as well as the advancement of 
technology and science.  Maxim has been the target of many recent terrorist 
activities and we are taking steps to insure that this never happens again.  
Thank you.  Questions?

Yes, Paula?

Paula Yeats:  Miss Velli, you said that the materials stored in LaPaz and 
Cairo were radioisotopes and "nuclear materials."  Amazonian experts have 
released information saying that there was plutonium present.  What use does 
Maxim have for plutonium?

MV:  Maxim uses small amounts of plutonium in our satellite power supplies, and our 4 nuclear fission reactors worldwide use plutonium as the fuel source rather than uranium.

Yes, Mariah?

Mariah Cobol:  Ma'am, you said that storage was temporary, yet the warehouses 
destroyed in LaPaz were long term storage.  Why the discrepancy?

MV:  Short term storage is cycled through a warehouse within days in both 
Cairo and LaPaz, and that much jostling could potentially break the storage 
containers or allow some mistake to ship the materials to some organization 
who shouldn't receive them.

Yes, Kathy?

Kathy Mountain Hawk:  Miss Velli, does Maxim have any leads as to who was 
responsible, and why they would have risked thousands of lives in such a 
manner?

JS:  I'll take this one, ma'am.  We're not sure, Mrs. Mountain Hawk.  The 
evidence we've seen points in several directions, including rouge elements 
in the Amazonian wilderness, several ecoterrorist organizations who have 
been harassing Maxim over mining and similar resource operations, and even a 
competitor or two.  All of them would have benefited by Maxim having 
difficulties in Amazonia, and as you know, not all corporations are as 
environmentally conscious as Maxim Arms.

MV:  Yes, Tad?

Tad Penn:  And what of Phenom Penh, where your corporation is not even 
allowing the press within a kilometer of the perimeter?

MV:  That facility is a large scale production, research, and distribution 
nexus for SE Asia as well as the storage point for most of Maxim's refined 
and unrefined nuclear materials.  It is from there that we ship out plutonium 
to our reactors worldwide.  Because of the security for other operations not 
related to the terrorist attacks, we do not allow anyone within a kilometer 
of the site.  In fact, we never have, but it wasn't until recently that 
anyone like the press was interested in going there.

We have time for one more.  Charlie?

Charlie Fingers:  Miss Velli, what of the rumors that the plutonium was 
sufficiently refined to manufacture nuclear weapons?

MV:  Totally unfounded.  Maxim doesn't have any nuclear weapons, nor are we 
in the business to construct any such weapons.  However, even if we were, 
how would anyone know after the plutonium had been dispersed by explosives?  
I recommend you check your sources a little better, Charlie.  

Good night, and thank you for your time.

Charlie:  As you just heard, Maxim has....

+++++ End Trideo Upload +++++

And if anyone believes any of it, I've got a nice plot of land in Bellevue 
you can take off my hands really cheap like.]<<<<<
	--  Trideo Pirate <01:13:05/03-13-57>

>>>>>[Well, this seems to bring the latest Maxim fiasco to an end.  We hope.

+++++begin newsclip.turner-network.57-03-13.03:44:28
The Turner Networks main desk, with anchorman Chelsea Wong seated with aplomb
in front of the trideo cameras.  Behind her is an eye-catching graphic of the
destroyed warehouse in La Paz, together with the Maxim corporate logo and
the universal radiation symbol.  "...and rounding up our list of top stories
this hour, the worldwide Maxim crisis has now drawn to a close, following
intense negotiations with several national governments and Big Eight corporate
powers.  La Paz, the most publicized of the sites subject to terrorist
attack last Friday, is being returned to Maxim by the Amazonian government,
in return for concessions including heavy cutbacks in Maxim research in the
region.  The Amazonian government has apparently been satisfied that no further
ecological threat is posed by the site, and will help Maxim experts ensure the
containment of the residual nuclear material on site.  The Maxim facilities in
Cairo and Phenom Penh have admitted much less media coverage, but the
information given by the area governments indicates that neither site poses any
threat.  Maxim stock plumetted on the international changes, bottoming out at
its lowest level since the Warsaw incident.  Meanwhile, several other
companies, notably Ares and Aztechnology, made strong gains on the strength of
transferred or discontinued Maxim contracts."
+++++end footage]<<<<<
	-- Fisher  <03:49:40EST / 03-13-57>
	Fisher Data Systems

>>>>>[+++++ Begin Trideo Feed
...The image fades in revealing a young, attractive human woman with
red-blonde hair sitting at what appears to be a news desk, though there is
no network or station symbols in the background.  Clearly this is some sort
of Public Access broadcast.  She is dressed in a conservative blouse, with a
peace sign pin attached.

"Good evening, I come to you tonight as a spokesperson for
_We_Are_All_Human_, a group dedicated protecting the rights of all
meta-human types and their Awakened derivatives.  We have been watching with
some interest the recent good will that is growing between the peoples of
the Salish-Shidhe and Corporate Seattle.  We find these developments to be a
positive step.

"However, we also deplore the fact that such reports cover up the fact that
not all meta-humans and derivatives are treated so well."  

The womans face takes on an expression of outrage.

"How often have we all seen so-called Trolls and Orcs being denied access to
public places, merely because of their race.  Or heard about vampires being
hunted down because of what they are, never taking into account _who_ they
are? We have heard that one such being is a doctor who is trying to better
the lives of those around him, yet he is still hunted by the _authorities_.

"It is a sad fact of this world that there are individuals out there who
will take any pretext to hate and discriminate against others.  It has
always  been the case the human beings fear what is different or strange.
It seems that more and more of what exists in this world is stranger and
stranger.  So some fear and hesitancy are normal.  

"What is frightening is the fact that  some corporations exploit this fear
and prejudice to use the less "appealing" meta-types for twisted scientific
and pseudo-scientific experiments that often result in the maiming or death
of the subject.  The corporations that do these heinous acts are often
shielded by their extraterritoriality.  Or they merely "buy off" the
victim's family.  Many Robustus and Ingentis come from low income families,
so the sums that are offered by the corporations are often quietly accepted.
After all, their children, siblings or spouses are already dead.  

"We have uncovered evidence that Biotechnics, a firm with facilities all
over the globe, including several here in Seattle, is one of the worst
offenders in this area.  We have evidence of numerous cases of Robustus and
Ingentis homo sapiens  being abducted, taken to their facilities, never to
be seen again.  

"We will no longer stand idly by while our brothers and sisters  go to the
slaughter at the hands of Corporations that can only see people in terms of
the =Y= they can generate for them."

The image fades to black.
+++++End Trideo Feed]<<<<<
	-- Kodachrome <05:05:23/03-13-57>

*****Private: Red Skull
>>>>>[Phone Log Transcript:
Briana, I just saw the tape of your broadcast.  You were great!

"You think so?  I was so nervous in front of the camera Paul.  I thought I
was going to faint."

You did fine Bri.  It was just perfect.  I think you will be surprised at
how effective your speach was.

"I guess so.  I'm not sure about the charges against Biotechnics though.  We
still don't have evidence that would stand up in court."

Don't worry about it.  We all know that they are guilty.  We'll just have to
try and get the solid proof that we need.  Sometimes the literal truth has
to take second place to what is right.  You taught me that, remember?

"You're right Paul.  I know you are, I was just so nervous.  But it felt
right, ya know.  Telling people about what is happening out there.  I don't
think many realize the full extent of what the corporations are doing to us."

Well they know now.  You did great.  Let's get together for breakfast and we
can talk about how to follow up on this.

"Ok.  Let's meet at Bosco's in about an hour."

Fine, I'll see you then.

+++++ End Log Transcript]<<<<<
	-- Personal Assistant v3.01 <07:42:12/03-13-57>

*****Private: Red Skull
>>>>>[Paul, are you crazy?  What are you trying to pull here?  Don't you
realize how Armand is going to react when he finds out you are pushing _for_
metahuman rights?  You know how he feels about them.  He's willing to cut
you off if you can't get the job done.  Get in contact with me ASAP!]<<<<<
	-- White Queen <07:49:01/03-13-57>

*****Private: White Queen
>>>>>[Calm down Ms. Frost.  I know what I'm doing.  You activated me for
mode 2, and you know better than I what that entails.  What I'm doing
perfectly fits into the guidlines  that you taught us.  Here is a file with
the details of what I've got planned.

+++++include file: plans.MAAH]<<<<<
	-- Red Skull <07:52:52/03-13-57>

*****Private: Lattizori
>>>>>[ Internal Security Log:

Emma, what the hell is going on?  What does he think he is doing?  They are
supposed to be bashing those scum, not showing them to be martyrs.

"Yes, sir.  I asked him the same thing.  He seems to have given the whole
idea quite a  bit of thought.  Let me forward the file of his ideas and
you'll see what I mean."

Alright, send the file.

+++++ Transfer file: plans.MAAH

+++++Silence: 45 seconds.

Ok.  I guess maybe he does know what he is doing.  Now that I see where he
is heading with this, I see it has some real potential.  And it will fit in
perfectly as part of Mode 2.

What else is going on with Marvel?  I have not seen anything on them yet.

"I am working on a full report for you, but I can hit the highlights now.
As per your orders, I activate project Marvel on Monday.  Kang, Mephisto,
Enchantress, Absorbing Man, and Shaw were activated on the primary mission,
and Red Skull and Carnage were activated under Mode 2.  They all
acknowledged their wake-up calls.  Only Mephisto and Red Skull have checked
in with plans as yet.  You've got Skull's ideas already, so here are Mephisto's.

+++++include file :Mephisto.a13

What about the others?  What is going on with them?

"When we set up this project, we left quite a bit of leeway for their
response.  We cannot predict when we will get reports from the others, but I
would imagine that we should hear from them within the week."

What is the chance of any of them going rogue on us?

"I don't feel that it is likely sir.  They are all well trained and loyal to
us for bringing them in and teaching them to use their gifts.  I know them
all very well."

Yes, I know.  Perhaps too well.  I want to be informed immediately if you
discover that one has turned on us.  They would need to be  eliminated as
soon as possible to limit the chance of their blowing the operations.

[pause for 15 seconds]

Emma, are you there?  You have to see the need for this Emma?

"I will keep you informed sir."

+++++ Signal Terminated at Receiving End

Damn!]<<<<<
	-- AGRA Internal Security <08:23:15/03-13-57>

>>>>>[Geez. "We are all human". Sorry, I'm not. I'm a dwarf, and fragging
proud of it.]<<<<<
	-- Chug <11:14:12/13-03-57>

>>>>>['Fraid that's not the way thngs worked in this man's army.  Or 
at least the one I left seven - eight months back.  

The petrified command structure has its collective head rammed so far 
up its collective sphincter that it hasn't breathed since the SAIM 
Incident.  

Don't know what army you belonged to, but I haven't run across a 
national army yet where higher command actually looks at all of the 
data during an after action critque.  They just notice how many dead 
bodies you brought back and then tell you that you fucked up by not 
following the idiotic plan they sent you because you knew their plan 
woulda killed everybody.

Besides, if the team didn't want comments, why did they blow any 
chance of keeping the mission clandestine by posting a zillion 
different viewpoints of the op on a near-public board?

If ya can't take the heat, pick another LZ, I always say.]<<<<<
	-- Snake (11:01:09 / 03-13-57)

***** Private: Shade
>>>>>[Oh, sure, that's what the dragon said.  "Just need you to keep 
an eye open for 'im."  Dreeeeek.  I got a new hand and new eyes outta 
that little contract.  No thanks.]<<<<<
	-- Rumormonger <Alwasy / Tuned-In>

*****PRIVATE: Shade
>>>>>[Hmmm.  I am indeed interested.  However, I'm not sure I share your
apparent alarm.  It does not strike me as a wraith or it's kindred.  I do
know their stench better than most.

I would appreciate any information you might have, but here is a supposition.

It's likely free now, if indeed it was ever kept.  But what is it?  What did
it smell like, a spirit or an elemental?  My first guess is that it might be
some sort of Spirit of the Atom, or some such thing.  Or perhaps some sort of
"anti-elemental."  A bizarre concept I admit, but many philosophies and even
sub-atomic physics insist on negative, or "anti," particles and forces.
 Perhaps with your information I might understand more.]<<<<<
	--the Dark Stranger<11:24:12/3-13-57>

*****PRIVATE: AEPacker
>>>>>[No problem.  I do happen to have a free data worm I could loose on the
two...might give us all a few more clues...]<<<<<
	--Rage<11:24:43/3-13-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Righteous and Dana
>>>>>[What the hell was that for last night? And where the hell did you
two get off after the action? We missed a nice quiet dinner for
that.]<<<<< 
	-- Jen and Gabe <CORRUPT/CORRUPT>

many thanks :-^)

*****PRIVATE TO: Rodaemis
>>>>>[Done in a few. If yer payin' fer the info leadin' to they're 
capture, why not just lim'me do da capturin'? Drek, wiz's is da 
easiest ta catch.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <17:17:17/03-13-57>

>>>>>[WANTED: A discreet private investigator.]<<<<<
	-- Ash <16:38:21/03-13-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Ferocious
>>>>>[I cannot get information from a corpse.  Just find them and
report back.  Do not engage them.  Do not let them know that they have
been found.  Just report back, that is _all_ I am paying you to
do.]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <17:46:28/03-13-57>

*****Private:Ash
>>>>>[How about a skilled bounty hunter with good refrences]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/13/57 06:50:12>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Yer cred. Any specific info on em? What's up wit dis Luthien? Seems
like someone else is huntin' him too. Back to ya soon.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <19:22:15/03-13-57>      

*****PRIVATE: the Dark Stranger
>>>>>>[ It smelled like an elemental, and it had occured to me that it might
be linked to the Nega-Mage concept.  Here is a copy of my simsense record
from that mission.

++++++File Transfer: MAXMAG.SIM++++++++]<<<<<
	-- Shade <18:41:29 / 3-13-57>

*****Not To: Luthien, Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Anyone out there seen or heard from a woman named Luthien lately?]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <18:06:52/03-13-57>

*****Private:Cuval
>>>>>[A little hint from a long time (and thankfully long lifed) runner.  
NEVER directly come out and say your looking for someone, that person or 
thier associates could be (and in your case will be) recieving your 
message.  Take it slow ask around descritly first, or better yet have a 
trusted comrade ask around to his contacts.  You'll learn, just give it 
time.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/13/57 21:05:12>
 
*****Private:Redfeather
>>>>>[Hello my friend it has been a long time since I have seen you I 
hope you arm is better.  I may have need of your gun and wits in the 
future, so please keep them available.  Also I have a friend out there 
who is looking for someone if I give him your name will you help?]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/13/57 21:07:24>
 
*****Private: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[Donavin!!!  It has been to long, where ya been hiding you ol' 
fool.  Me arms fine it still hurts but a doc is puttin a new cyber one on 
for me.  Bro you always know me gun is here for you, as for me wits well 
try tommorow I'm afraid the scotch has gone to my head.  Jus tell yer boy 
to get in touch with me and I'll help, but it'll cost.]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/13/57 21:12:45>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Ferocious
>>>>>[Find out who else is looking for her.  They will most likely
lead you in the right direction, feel free to ask in your most
persuasive manner.  They are both traitors to a great nation
and must be found.  Luthien will be heavily cybered, yet
magically active, Wintergeist has no cyberware, yet is far more
powerful.]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <17:46:28/03-13-57>

*****PRIVATE:Redfeather
>>>>>[My employer is looking for someone to investigate the recent
event at the Hilton.  He has reason to belive it was not an
accident.  He is willing to pay twenty thousand as a retainer.  Please
contact me soonest.]<<<<<
	-- Ash <21:32:45/03-13-57>

*****Private: Genghis
>>>>>[Sir, just received a report that I felt you should be made aware of.

+++++ Include file: possible.terrorist.actions

Apparently the S-S Council has been receiving some threats over the past
several days.  They seem concerned over some of the rising tensions that
exist between the Council and some residents here in Seattle.

I have also received a communique directly from Crusader, the head of
security for Chief Moses. He was the one who sent me the terrorist report.
Apparently there is a chance that the commendation ceremony may be delayed,
due to some kind of terrorist threat.  She wasn't too specific, though I
can't say that I blame her for that, about the threats.  She wants to use
the delay to improve the security provisions for the conference.

I update you when I receive more complete information.]<<<<<
	-- Kublai <19:57:22/03-13-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[I'm his shadow. Any info on da mods an is Wintergeist hermetic or does
he talk to make believe animals? Expect news soon.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <20:33:47/03-13/57>    

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Ferocious
>>>>>[I can not make this more clear.  Luthien is a woman.
Wintergeist is a man.  They are both elves.  Wintergeist is not
restricted to your concepts of "hermetic" or "shamanistic".  Assume
that Luthien has every type of cybernetic and biological modification
that you can think of, probably more.  I cannot include images as they
both always go disguised.]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <20:43:18/03-13-57>

>>>>>[I have extensive experience in this particular arena if the 
position is still unfilled.]<<<<<
	--  Hermit <22:13:37/03-13-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Action Jackson 
>>>>>[Congratulations on your foiling of my goals, Alex.  You and your 
associates have just fragged up.  No more agreement.]<<<<<
	--  Nicole Velli <22:49:47/03-13-57>
	President/CEO
	Maxim Arms

>>>>>[Ladies and gentlemen, and specifically those of you ususally 
resident on these nodes, I have an announcement to make.  Due to recent 
events regarding my corporation, the agreement between myself and many of 
you has been declared null and void.  You fragged with me, and I don't 
care how long it takes, you will all face the consequences of those 
actions.  Good bye.]<<<<<
	--  Nicole Velli <22:51:34/03-13-57>
	President/CEO
	Maxim Arms

*****PRIVATE:  The Chameleon
>>>>>[I told you this would happen, Nicole.  Perhaps next time you will 
actually listen to your elders.]<<<<<
	--  Etsy <22:53:57/03-13-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Etsy
>>>>>[A mere bump in the road, my Prince.  I reached too far and was 
burned in the process.  So I shall sit back, learn from my mistakes, and 
not make more of them.  After all, I shall live far longer than most of 
my fellow CEOs.  Not as long as you, however.]<<<<<
	--  The Chameleon <22:55:27/03-13-57>

*****Private: Blackthorne
>>>>>[Thanks for the advice.  I will try to remember it.  I never had much
use for subterfuge when I was younger.   And it wasn't exactly encouraged
where I have been the last few years.

If you know of anyone who might be able to help me locate Luthien, I would
appreciate an introduction.

And thanks for the business advice as well.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <07:21:10/03-14-57>

>>>>>[A... remarkable announcment from Nicole Velli, who seems to take things 
rather more personally than most CEOs. Unless the message was forged, of 
course. Perhaps I was premature in declaring the latest Maxim mess over. I 
shouldn't complain, though: I made a modest sum of money on Maxim stock 
derivatives. Seems like a sure bet these days that Maxim stock will go down.
I don't suppose any of the people she mentioned thought to-- no, that would 
probably be a bad idea.]<<<<<
	--  Fisher <23:44:42/03-13-57>

*****PRIVATE: Ghost
>>>>>[I am glad to hear that your esteemable talents are available for the
performance of my small task. I wish to have the contents of a small vial
applied to all the fish of a particular variety in a certain sushi resturant 
at a certain time. The agent contained inside the vial will affect only its 
intended target and, depending on dose, will take a minimum of twelve hours 
to take effect. As the variety of sushi in question is uncommon, you should 
have to treat no more than 3 fish. I have included more detailed information 
and the advance half of your payment.

+++++include resturant.info
+++++include delivery.instructions
+++++include sushi.details
+++++include agent.characteristics
+++++transfer 4000 =Y=]<<<<<
	--  Moriarty <01:14:52/03-14-57>

*****PRIVATE: HERMIT
>>>>>[Hermit, old bean!  Of course!  I find myself working for an old
enemy of yours, a political assassin out of the other Tir.  But he has
reformed, and is trying to buy off all that bad karma.  You, see, he
went and bought this old hotel (a real fixer-uper) and what was the
first thing that happened, but some children died in a suspicous
"event".  I mean, I had just gone over the place, ya know, sizing it
up, seeing if it wuz up to code and all, and all the sudden- BOOM! 
the elevator fell off like it wuz made by the Koreans.  I know, get to
business, well e' wants to hire ya to make sure it really was an
accident.  He'll pay a twenty thousand retainer and another thiry upon
completion o' the deed (either way it turns out).  Seems like a good
chunk of cash to me.  Some other guy may be interested in the job,
I'll let you know if e' takes it, so youse can work together.]<<<<<
	-- Ash <07:57:21/03-14-57>

position is still unfilled.]<<<<<
	--  Hermit <22:13:37/03-13-57>

>>>>>[hmmm, hmmmm, so I take it this is where I start quakin'in my boots.  sorry, nicky, but I bet it was all a bunch of men.
you know dam well, we are not gonna leave that kind of power in the
hands of a woman. What? Are you crazy? just because you get real bad 
cramps and your ankles swell up on month, doesn't mean the rest of the 
world has to run to their nearest nuke shelter... ]<<<<<
	-- GoD <07:21:10/03-14-57>

>>>>>[Oh no I'm peein on my self now, gods I better run an hide before 
the big bad corp lady gets me. BOO-HOO, BOO-HOO.  There was that scared 
enough for ya. :)]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/14/57 11:24:12>

*****Private:Redfeather
>>>>>[You know as I read your little message one word comes to mind: 
STUPID!!!!!!.  Here I was telling my good friends how professional you 
were and how you never did anything stupid, then POOF you do this.  If it 
wasn't for the fact that it was so funny I'd be upset.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/14/57 11:27:39>

*****Private:Ash
>>>>>[Sounds like a good job to me, does your boss have any leads or is 
it pure speculation.  Either case I'm on me way to do some 
investagatin.]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/14/57 11:30:12>

*****Private:Cuval
>>>>>[It is always my pleasure to help out a friend, I would rather have 
you alive and giving me compatition then dead and rotting.  I have a 
friend by the name of Redfeather, he's a good runner even if he is 
lacking in social graces.  He should be able to give you a push in the 
right direction.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/14/57 11:35:12>

>>>>>[Huh?]<<<<<
	-- Tigger <12:01:27/03-14-57>

*****NOT TO: Maxim Corp., Maxim Affiliates, Maxim Staff, Maxim Officers
>>>>>[In light of the unfounded accusations laid out by Ms. Velli of Maxim
Corp, and in the interest of due process of law, Sheppard-Intrepid
(Seattle Div) is willing to offer asylem to all falsly blamed persons who
happen to fall under Ms. Velli's poorly directed wrath.]<<<<<
	-- Donald Johnson <12:12:14/12-03-57>
	Head of Public Relations (Seattle)
	Sheppard-Intrepid Corp.

*****NOT TO: Maxim Corp., Maxim Affiliates, Maxim Staff, Maxim Officers
>>>>>[Asylem will be granted at our european, african and asian offices as
well. By tonight we expect to be able to shelter any falsly blamed runner
from Maxim corporation. Please be aware however, that a certain level of
background check will have to be conducted (confidential of course).]<<<<< 
	-- Karen Toffice <12:13:50/12-03-57>
	Head of Public Relations (Director, Dubrovnik)
	Sheppard-Intrepid Corp. 

*****PRIVATE:  Ash
>>>>>[Tech!  Makkalos.  Morkhan!!!!!

+++++ Time delay: 30 seconds

Ash, you are the only person outside of the Shroud who knows who I truly 
am.  As secure as these lines are, I still have a Death Warrant out on my 
head, and two locals named Jen and Gabe have been digging.  My continued 
survival depends on my ex-compatriots NOT discovering that I'm still 
alive.  So don't ever refer to that again.  Not ever, not even here.  I 
am just Hermit now, nothing more.

One of the RF, then?  This could be much less than enjoyable....

I'll be there shortly.]<<<<<
	--  Hermit <11:41:40/03-14-57>

*****Private:Redfeather
>>>>>[The only solid evidence that foul play might have occured was
the fact that I personally inspected the structure prior to the
purchase and everything seemed to be in good repair.  The exterior
elevator was actually rather new, I seem to recall.]<<<<<
	-- Ash <14:38:23/03-14-57>

>>>>>[+++++Begin File Download: commendations.postponement.dat
Seattle NewsNet:     Today on Council Island, a spokesman for Chief Moses
announced the postponement of the ceremony where several corporations with
operations in Seattle were to be awarded commendations for their efforts at
improving relationships between the S-S and Seattle.

"We feel that in light of several threats we have received, not only against
Chief Moses himself, but against executives of the corporations we plan to
honor, that it would be best to postpone the ceremony.  This would give more
time to set up proper security.  I am sure the last thing that any of us
would want to see is a terrorist incident at these proceedings..."

The spokesman did not give a definite date as yet for the rescheduled
ceremony, but intimated that it would be sometime within  the next week or
ten days.

+++++End Of File

Wonder why anyone would protest people getting along better.]<<<<<
	-- Kodachrome <15:21:09/03-14-57>

*****Private: Kublai
>>>>>[Robert, what is going on with this delay?  Have there really been many
threats because of this?]<<<<<
	--Terry Sides (Genghis) <15:42:12/03-14-57>

*****Private: Genghis
>>>>>[Sorry boss.  You caught me just before I sent my report.

+++++Include File: ceremony.update

We _have_ received a few threats, but nothing I regarded as too serious.
Typical crackpot type stuff.  Apparently the S-S Council people have gotten
some a little more serious.  The included some of what they had received,
and I put them in the update.  They seem pretty nervous that someone might
disrupt the awards, so they want to be extra careful.

Crusader told me that they would probably reschedule the event for next
Friday, though that is by no means definite at this point.

As I have your attention, let me touch upon other matters ...]<<<<<
	-- Kublai <15:53:14/03-14-57>

>>>>>[Fascinating.  Everyone is too busy tonight, according to my police 
scanners, to post here.  Excellent, considering that the more active you 
are, the more likely I am to be able to arrest you.  Have a good 
evening.]<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <23:45:29/03-14-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Shade
>>>>>[Sorry, Shade.  Not interested.  I've got enough things to think 
about without needing to worry about fraggin elementals.

But what about Roxey?  She might be interested, if you catch my drift.]<<<<<
	--  Diana, Mistress of the Night <23:56:33/03-14-57>

>>>>>[Hoi!  I'm lookin' for a 'runner who feels  up to a little waltz in the
Matrix.]<<<<<
	-- Kali <07:02:27/03-15-57> 

*****Private: Rattler
>>>>>[Hoi chummer!  How have you been since our run?  I've gotta favor to
ask.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <06:21:31/03-15-57>

*****Private: Skier
>>>>>[Gib, when are you coming home?  You were going to be here  days ago,
and I haven't heard from you?  Are you all right?  Please contact me.]<<<<<
	-- Enchantress <07:20:2703-15-57>

*****Private: Enchantress
>>>>>[I'm sorry dear, but I have gotten caught up in some serious business
that is keeping me out of town.  I can't even tell you where.  I fine,
though I miss you.  It is just some trouble with business.  I'll be home
when I can.]<<<<<
	-- Gib Johnson (Skier) <07:35:42/03-15-57>

>>>>>[Who has seen the Muffin man, the Muffin man, the Muffin man.  Have 
YOU seen the Muffin man, my little boys and girls.  Where is the MUFFIN 
MAN, is he dead or does he hide, waiting for a time to stike and kill all 
in his way.  AJ have you seen the Muffin man, or you Shade.  Donavin have 
YOU seen the Muffin man or maybe your little dog Redfeather has.  Cuval 
have you seen the Muffin man, or Wintergeist in Hilton land.  Jen and 
Gabe my naughty sprits, where o' where is the Muffin man.  Amber's seen 
the Muffin man, he works for her and is her slave.  Tylor Nox have you 
seen the Muffin man, or Joshaua and his big bad corp.  Oh the Muffin man, 
the Muffin man, I am so free the Muffin man.  Remember me Donavin, I've 
come for ye, the Muffin man, you made me brother so I come to repay you.  
MUFFIN MAN< MUFFIN MAN< MUFFIN MAN< MUUFIN MAN.]<<<<<
	-- Muffin Man <03/15/57 11:20:34>

*****Private:Donavin Blackthorne
>>>>>[Your brother is anxious to see you, shall I bring him over?  No, 
that would be to easy, first I think I'll let him kill a little.  Then 
I'll let him visit you, of course you could stop all this if you just 
surrendered to me and became my guinipig.  But I know you to well, you'll 
try to stop him and die.  We've changed your brother just a little, now 
he's full of chrome and completely our slave.  Hope to see you later.]<<<<<
	-- Amber Snowmane <03/15/57 11:21:23>
 
 
>>>>>{Bobby?!?!?!?!  What the drek have you done to my brother you f'in 
little slitch.  When I catch you I'll rip your bloomin head off and use 
it for target practice.  Watch your back elf, me and mine are gunnin for 
you.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/15/57 11:30:23>
 
 
*****Not to:Amber Snowmane, Satyre Corp., Muffin man
>>>>>[Okay people this drek is serious, that fruit cake you just say is 
or was my little brother.  Some slitch name Amber Snowmane has done 
something to him and corrupted the hell out of him.  No one, I repeat No 
one is to shot Muffin man.  You do and your life won't be worth a pile of 
manure, I'll make sure of it.  As for Amber I want to kill her myself, 
but I would appreciate all the help I can get.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/15/57 11:35:56>
 
*****Private:Donavin
>>>>>[I'm in the middle of a case but I'll try to give you as much help 
as I can.  I can't believe she that to your little bro, he's only 17.  
Take heart we'll get her even if it is just us two.]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/15/57 11:37:12>

*****Private:Ash
>>>>>[I'll get started on it right away, does your employer have 
specifics he wants or just names.  Also I could use a partner, something 
has come up thats family-oreintated so I'd like to have someone helping 
if I could.]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <03/15?57 11:41:32>

>>>>>[You know, I read posts like that, and I think to myself "Gee, I guess
your brother isn't so bad after all."  Blackthorne, if you need some help
with your bro. give me a call.  I've had trouble with my own (of course, he
wasn't a raving lunatic programmed by someone to hunt me down and kill me
and anyone in his way).]<<<<<
	-- Blade (10:57:45/03-15-57)

***** Private: Kali
>>>>>[Hey, I'm up to a little stroll, let me know what?]<<<<<
	-- Joker <12:01:23/03-16-57>

>>>>>[oh'Yeah, now I hear it all...the muffin man, the muffin man..That guy, he crack me up!!!]<<<<<
	-- GunG FU-LOUIE <12:05:12/03.16.57>

>>>>>[Kungfu lou, nuff said!!!]<<<<<
	-- RESAHWREKTAH <12:08:14/03-16-57>

*****PRIVATE: Kali
>>>>>I'm your man for the job! Let me know the details when
you're ready.<<<<<
--  Whiteshadow <12:35/03-16-96>

*****Private: Cuval
>>>>>[Doing well, thanks for asking. What can I do for you?]<<<<<
	--Rattler <13:54:01/03-15-57>

*****PRIVATE: V-12
>>>>>[_What_ a busy week.  Let me tell you, when it comes to electronic fuel
injection, I am _not_ the man.  At least, not for stuff of this type =)  But
don't worry, I think everything is proceeding apace.  Some people were quite
impressed with this little mission, and I think everyone will get something
nice in their Christmas stocking this year as a result.  As usual, I'll have
some little toys for you to play with, but we'll talk about that later.  You
had a question you wanted answered, so how about I answer it and then pose you
with one in return?

I had my magical consultant take a look at the information you furnished and
do some digging through the appropriate databases.  The consensus is that this
little beauty is some sort of Free Spirit.  There was much rejoicing.  And that
it's Toxic.  And there was even more rejoicing.  It's the more technical
details that are informative, and while I understand the explanation, I won't
try to reconstruct it myself.  Here is the "sweet and sour" version:

+++++include assesment.doc

To summarize, it looks like your associate's fears are probably unfounded, at
least as far as the pundits, mavens, and high muckety-mucks are concerned.
Which is good news.  Now, the question for you:  You make mention of one of
the participants making a wet record of the experience.  You're quite correct
that people are interested in this.  I appreciate your willingness to make a
"distilled" version...less work for me in the Pretty Pictures(tm) department.
You can send it to me with cypher juusan as soon as you're ready.

As for the rest of the work, I'll be in touch when it's finished.  Again, my
congratulations on a job well done.  Now if Amazonia had only been able to make
more hay out of it...]<<<<<
	--  AlexandriaN  <15:19:48 / 03-15-57>

*****NOT TO:  Maxim, InterPol, etc
>>>>>[Lynch went AWOL for a bit, but he asked me to put this up for him.

+++++begin

Others are telling their tales: well, I'll tell mine. 

I was with the HALO team, and the first out. On the drop we could see that 
they'd already made the plane, the SAMs were coming up before we'd even got all 
seven out, and at least one of Blade's squad - Lieutenant Kahler, the leader - 
died in the air when the missiles hit. The guard towers must have guessed that 
the plane had been there to drop a team, and they opened up like ammunition was 
going out of fashion. Blade and I had to come in on the south end of the 
bunker, or risk being caught in our shrouds in an interlocking field of minigun 
fire. 

I was never so glad to have six septillion tons of Earth slap me across the 
feet as I was then, believe me. Down, roll, and hit the quick-released: no 
worries about gathering *that* chute and repacking it! We landed on top of the 
bunker itself. The damn chute blew off the end of the bunker and wrapped itself 
around some poor sucker who was watching the wire: with all the noise and 
light, he'd missed me landing twenty yards behind him. He started to thrash and 
yell before I shot him - silenced pistol - as Blade landed near me. 

We were pretty badly scattered. The mage was out in the open, Blade and I were 
on the roof but at the wrong end, we had two by the entrance - already trading 
fire with the guards, losing one but killing two - and Walacher was completely 
outside the armoury perimeter. I started laying grenade fire on the Maxim 
troops on the perimeter - flash, smoke and concussion, there wasn't much hope 
of getting shrapnel through their armour, but I wanted to spoil their aim while 
Nazario moved to rejoin us. He got hit, Blade had to go get him, but one of his 
team and I kept suppressive fire on the gomers while they did it.

So far we hadn't even needed to talk, let alone break radio silence, and while 
we had come down scattered the Nightgliders were joining on us: the magician's 
hundred-yard dash had drawn enough fire and attention that most of the gliders 
made it down in one piece. The defences at the armoury fence were, thankfully, 
set up to keep attackers out, and they weren't as well prepared for a force 
landing inside the fence: their own defensive obstacles were impeding them by 
that point. There was a team still in the armoury, though, and we were trading 
fire with them - well, shooting at their firing slits at least - while slash 
rigged the door to blow. During all this, we're taking and returning fire from 
the Maxim troops on the wire, who are getting more and more numerous and bad-
tempered.

It was about then that my overpriced comms gear decided to show how good it 
was, when it not only broke onto the Maxim tactical net but DF'd the guy who 
was talking at the time. You see, he was saying "Bravo Four Two, this is 
Whiskey Three One Alpha. Fire mission, Target Charlie, spot, over" to their 
mortars. I hear his words, I have his signal pattern, and there's a fuzzy glow 
in my vision giving me an idea of where he is.

The nice thing about a Smartgun II is that it lets you reach right out to touch 
people. The Alpha's not a sniper rifle, but at 126.2 metres it can put three 
rounds into a helmet faceplate without too much trouble: the Maxim guys were 
spread out enough that I could break out who was transmitting and kill him.  
And I had a cruddy approximation of his voice already - you'd never fool 
someone in person with an internal voicemask, the 'mimic' feature is usually a 
party toy, but over a partly-jammed radio net on men in combat, it works just 
fine - and as the first round burst near us, I said "Four-two, this is three-
one-alpha, drop seventy and fire for effect, dolly mixtures, emergency rate. 
Out."

Alternate WP and airburst HE, fifteen rounds per tube per minute, and there 
must have been eight 81mm mortars firing. They only fired for about thirty 
seconds, but it was enough. There had been most of a company there before, 
moving up and around towards the gate while they tried to keep us pinned: I 
don't know how many of them lived through the barrage, but the smoke and dust 
and flame blocked that area off as a threat for a while and bought us some time.

They cut the fire, changed frequencies, and I was off the air: but by then we'd 
smoked off the armoury and Slash had the door open - damn near vapourised - and 
we were busy grenading everything inside. Chemicals, concussion and flash. 
(Frags and willy-petes aren't a good idea in a nuclear storage bunker, my 
skillchips told me <g>)

Apparently we got nailed with some sort of spell on the way in. I have to say I 
didn't notice, too hyped and too worried about what we might find inside the 
bunker. Lo, Blade and I took point going in: everyone inside was dead or 
unconscious. 

The weapons were what I'd expected: the old US B-97 design. Ares acquired it 
over a decade ago, and Maxim must have stolen it from Ares. I didn't have to 
improvise at all: just let the skillsoft talk me through it. The explosives 
around the core, and their detonating circuit, are critical: shaped charges, 
the same as a HEAT warhead, except instead of forming a jet of plasma they 
compress a hollow plutonium core into a sphere, much denser than it should be. 
Destroy the timing mechanism that sequences it all, and the weapon is 
incapacitated: then pack the core with thermite, and you melt down the 
plutonium into a puddle. A non-critical puddle, too, the shape factor is wrong. 
I didn't have time to see how Buzz did his wrecking, but he was as thorough as 
I was. 

It only took fifty seconds to sabotage four weapons. Buzz was slower, but then 
his arm was such a mess you can hardly blame the man. Just as I'm crimping the 
detcord to daisy-chain the thermite charges, everything goes batshit: my vision 
locks into thermal-only at maximum magnification in one eye, my hearing shuts 
down completely, my nose and ears start bleeding like someone turned on a hose, 
and how I remembered to hit the sonic neutraliser I still don't know. That got 
me sound and vision back, but my rifle was still sparking and crackling: the 
screamers must have wrecked the smartgun hardware. All my comms gear was 
recycling, and I'd lost all the data on Maxim's encryption: so I could pretty 
much forget about any more radio games. 

And this was the point where it really hit the fan, because while I'm getting 
everything back on line and finding out what I have left to fight with, 
something big and nasty is coming for the bunker. Meanwhile, Slash has just 
discovered that our radio detonators got wrecked by the screamers, and Nazario 
- who's in a bad way - just takes the backup deadman switch. I didn't 
consciously notice at the time, though I should have. Griffyn used some sort of 
spell to blow a hole in the wall, I still had my shotgun - the smartlink was 
still working, too, the holster must have shielded it a little- and since I 
wasn't going to need the doorbusters any more I used them to clear the 
reinforcing rods and widen the gap until it was large enough to use. 

While I was reloading with sabots, Lo and Blade are falling back. This is now 
my first close look at a Maxim Quad, and I've already decided I don't like 
them. Lo and I move up and we're laying fire, trying to keep it back: it's 
already thrown some sort of acid bomb, it's packing more ordnance than a 
platoon of infantry, and it's inside the bunker with us. Her HK227 didn't seem 
to scratch it: 5.56mm APDS, it was wary of, at least enough that it wouldn't 
let me get a clean shot. Normally I'd have been last out, but Lo didn't seem to 
be in a hurry while I was there. Blade warned me she worked first in-last out 
for her people, so I left her to it.

It didn't hit me until Blade helped me out of the hole that Nazario was still 
in there. I had just skipped over the fact that he was chewed up so badly and 
holding the dead-man switch, zero delay. By the time I figured that we were 
leaving him to die, Lo was coming out, I was trading shots with one of the 
Quads that was still outside - it went down, whether just from the impacts or 
from fatal damage I don't know - and then we're running like hell because Slash 
planted an eight-litre FAE in that bunker and it was going to blow any second.

I hit pretty hard getting prone when the FAEs went off behind me, and I was 
surprised as hell: that bunker was *tough*, it just collapsed. A FAE that size 
should have made it rain concrete for days. I don't know where Slash got his 
info on that bunker, but I might have to find out: that was a *good* source.

Anyway, while we're fire-and-manoevering clear of the armoury - Maxim moving 
more troops in on us, all of us skirmishing back and trying to slow them down 
while covering ground - two things happen. One, they pop a salvo of illum on 
us, and two a second Quad unit comes over the wire at us.

I'm firing HEDP grenades at the Quads, and I get a very unsatisfying hit on one 
- my only hit on a Quad to produce a known result, which infuriatingly was none 
at all that I could see: direct hit, square in the chest, and the damn thing 
just kept running. While I'm cursing and wondering what to do, some sort of 
spirit proceeds to materialise out of nowhere and smashes Blade to the ground. 
>From the bunker roof, remember. I heard several somethings break when he hit, 
and it sounded painful.

I, dumb gunbunny that I am, turn, aim and fire completely by reflex: wasting 
the rest of a clip on a magical being, that doesn't really understand the idea 
that you're meant to fall down dead when people shoot you. Perfect grouping and 
pattern, a dozen rounds into an area the size of my hand, smack in the middle 
of its chest. That should have dropped a CVR-7: this toxic spirit shows its 
appreciation by slapping the Alpha out of my grasp. The buttstock hangs up on 
my forearm while my hand's still on the pistol grip, and it's my turn to hear a 
nice crisp crunching noise as first the plastic reinforcements, then the bones, 
give way. About 0.01 of a second later, the pain breaks through my damage 
compensators. Lots and lots of pain. I hardly even notice the minor detail that 
my expensive, new, off-the-shelf, almost-unfired Alpha is dissolving where it's 
lying on the ground.  Still, could have been worse. If it hadn't been for the 
bone lacing, I might have lost the hand outright.

The spirit's eating Slash, Dracon Daimyo's fighting it with a katana, one of 
the Quads zaps Lo with a laser - she's hurt but functional - Griffyn's 
doing some sort of magic, and one survivor from the Quad that hit us at 
the armoury is racing around to flank us, thinking we're preoccupied. He 
was nearly right, it was only luck that let me see him.

He came out from behind a bunker and into my fire. Twelve-gauge APDS will 
defeat CVR-7 armour, boys and girls, though you'd better fire the whole 
magazine to be sure. After the frustration of seeing them bounce HEDP, this 
made up for a lot.

His friends didn't like that at all. *I* didn't like that at all: I was firing 
right-handed, resting the SPAS on my forearm, and the autofire shook my broken 
wrist so badly that I compounded the fracture. But seeing that metallic 
motherfucker go over was worth the pain.

As I'm trying to reload (it's a damn sight harder than usual when only one hand 
works) I see there's another spirit - one of ours - between us and the Quads, 
and two of the Maxim metal monsters are discovering that it's screwing up their 
lasers. Whatever other weapons they have evidently aren't in range yet, and 
they must have seen  what happened to their buddy: now they're being a lot more 
cautious in their approach. Suddenly spirits are appearing around us: one of 
them goes for the toxic that Dracon Daimyo's fighting, another picks up 
Slash and whoosh, gone, over the fence and out towards the treeline.

We have a few moments, and Buzz and I move to get Blade, who isn't moving. Lo's 
team had biomonitors, Blade and I don't, and I don't know what sort of shape 
he's in. As Lo, Griffyn and Dracon Daimyo are moving to join us, someone 
drops a willy-pete right on them: the Quads had called in mortar fire on 
us. Damn thing must have been guided, it was right on the money. The 
next one is a HE groundburst, not five feet from me. That hurt. 
Instinctively putting out my left hand to land on *really* hurt. 

While I'm trying to bring the world back into focus, and wondering if I have 
time to splint this thing, and then wondering how much blood I'm losing - the 
whole side of my body is wet with the stuff, and I know it can only be mine - 
Lo breaks EMCON to tell us the Quads are moving in, though the bunker's 
blocking them for now. I can't see Blade: with a few hand signals, Lo tells me 
one of our spirits has lifted him clear. Buzz and I grab Griffyn and start 
hauling him towards the fence. Buzz very considerately acts as a firing rest 
for me when I see a couple of baby drones in the wire - they must have been 
spotting for the mortars - and finally, those fucking starshells burn out.

Finally. 81mm illumination paraflare, burn duration fifteen to twenty seconds. 
Fifteen seconds, and it seemed - looking back, still seems - like a lifetime.

Now we can see why the guard towers are all firing into the wire, instead of at 
us: zombies. Walking (or in some cases crawling) dead bodies, shambling towards 
the perimeter through tracer fire, only heeding the mines as an inconvenient 
removal of a foot, backlit by a dozen or more fires in the forest and scores of 
smaller blazes - grounded paraflares, WP hits, burning bodies, a wrecked 
helicopter, less identifiable debris. Pretty intense: I hadn't seen anything 
like this since Gallivare, five years ago. More tanks, fewer zombies, back
then <g>

Behind us, I hear the explosions of a surprise gift that someone left for the 
Quads: one goes into a spastic seizure. Control system, probably, disabling it 
and almost certainly lethal to its occupant. The explosion persuades some 
smartass in a tower that we're more interesting than shooting at the corpses 
cadavres, and I use my last two smoke grenades to screen us off: I would have 
done more, but I'm down to the shotgun and a pistol and the LMG has me 
outranged. 

The spirits show up again. One lifts Buzz and I, the panda takes Dracon 
Daimyo and Lo. I put my last rounds of sabot down on the most exposed 
Quad, I don't even know if I hit him or not, then we're suddenly in the 
trees.

It takes me seconds to realise I'm out and alive, and that the thunder of 
gunfire is coming from some distance rather than all around me. I ditch my 
helmet - trying not to look at the damage it's taken - and take inventory.

I've got twenty rounds of 00 buck, so I reload the shotgun: that, and my old 
Predator - my father's pistol, my good-luck gun - are all I have left. Next, I 
uses two of the useless magazines for my now-dissolved Alpha and a field 
dressing to finally splint my wrist, trying to ignore the trickles of blood 
where the bone had broken the skin. My right arm, side and thigh are a mess of 
small shrapnel rips, mostly the arm and my hip where my armour was lighter: 
nothing I can do about that right now, and the bleeding was already slowing.

There's no sign of Dracon Daimyo, and Lo's only just being carried in: she's 
missing most of both legs below the thigh, and has a lot of shrapnel 
damage. I only found out from her simsense that she'd come down in the 
minefield and trod on a MC antipersonnel mine.I start doing what I can: 
which is basically just finish amputating the ruin of her left leg and 
tie off the stumps so she won't bleed to death, and then give her a big 
jolt each of No-Shock and Coraxine. Then a walking corpse shambles up 
and puts Dracon Daimyo, paralysed, down by the other wounded. I try hard 
not to stare at it and to act normally.

It gots kind of hectic again about then. Luckily, I'm still articulate enough 
to explain that I'm a trained paramedic and that if I can walk and provide 
first aid, I'm a lower priority for treatment than someone with their vital 
organs hanging out of their body: I can help with triage and do physical medic 
work to help the mages out, because they're beginning to come apart at the 
seams with so many wounded needing their help. I was tired and fuzzy enough
that someone had to stop me from trying to treat a zombie's wounds <g>

We're doing all this on the move to the backup RV, where I get to see just how 
many people - our people - I got killed and maimed with my bright idea about 
artillery. 

Right now, though, our transport is arriving and we're loading the wounded. One 
of the magicians, a woman who calls herself Diana - the corpses seem to do what 
she says - does something to my hand so I can at least use it a little. She's 
damn near dropping from all the work she's done, I don't try to argue with her 
or say others need it more, because it is nice not to have that pain being the 
centre of the universe for a while. And all this time we're beating feet most 
ricky-tick. Looking over my video, the time from the jumpmaster's first "Go!" 
to us boarding the trucks out was less than five minutes: I don't know exactly, 
the ultrasound screwed with my clock chips. 

The ride out was almost anticlimax. I scrounged Blade's leftover twelve-gauge 
ammo, and those of us who were still conscious and capable concentrated on 
killing the drones Maxim was sending out after us. Most were spotters, and they 
were the worst because Maxim started hitting the road with artillery fire. They 
didn't have or at least didn't use any FASCAM rounds, or we probably wouldn't 
have made it out: as it was, we were able to kill the spotters that designated 
us for smart rounds before the shells hit. Result, clean misses. We got a few 
nearer things from salvoes that were just DFing the road where they thought we 
might be, but that was about it. 

At Phnom Penh, we switched vehicles and herded ourselves into a cargo 
container. AJ had planned ahead well: the container was well-stocked with 
medical gear and I was able to get a drip of Hartmann's going into Lo. The 
Hartmann's solution, blood expander, was at the right temperature already: that 
guy is sharp. Quite a few of us had luggage, in my case just one of my usual 
overnight bags: a change of clothes, a certified credstick, and a Browning 
automatic. In this case, a red contaminated-waste bag, too. Once I had done 
what I immediately could for the wounded, I ditched the combat gear, all of it, 
into the waste bag: it wasn't desperately hot, but I'd added another half rem 
or so to my lifetime dose that night. I did a quick decontamination on my 
Predator, though, and checked it - cold, at least compared to background. I 
cleaned it properly since, of course.

My side, right arm and right thigh were a real mess, caked with sticky drying 
blood, and I took the time to clean it up and pick out the most obvious 
shrapnel. before I cleaned and dressed what I could, gauze and micropore tape 
to keep the dirt out. By now, my INS as well as my ears said we had been loaded 
onto a truck, shifted into an aircraft of some sort, and were heading east at 
about four hundred and fifty knots. My INS also said we were somewhere over 
Africa, but then screamers will do that to you. AJ's going to have to do a 
little repair work and a lot of recalibration for me, but it can wait. I was 
glad to see nothing vital went down, though, compared to how badly Buzz got 
hit. Once I looked a little more human and had plugged the leaks, I went back 
to patching casualties. We had plenty.

Someone must have cleared us through Customs very slickly: either good fake 
papers, corporate cover, or plenty of palm grease. You could hear the shift 
from cargo hold to a truck bed, we drove a while, and we came out of the 
container into the loading bay of Action Jackson's clinic: very neat, very 
fast, right to some excellent medical gear and some extra help. I don't think 
anyone else will die now, not with this sort of care available. Everyone should 
be able to be rebuilt. I owe AJ one, I hope he knows that.

I'm writing this to post when I come out, so nobody will see it until the 16th 
or so: AJ doesn't want attention drawn to his place, and also doesn't want 
anyone except him and his crew using the new matrix satlink there, since he 
irrationally believes that Maxim may harbour some sort of grudge against him. I 
call it paranoia, myself <g> He'll start to think that people around him work 
for covert Government agencies next, if you ask me.

He wasn't even going to let me call in my report to the Agency, until I gave 
him a ten-figure grid reference for where we were: my INS was screwed, but GPS 
was still working just fine. On the other hand, I don't think he needs to worry 
about me being a threat to him unless he does something like try to eat me: and 
there's not enough of me to make a snack for a vampire, let alone a meal.

And he had been good enough to make sure he had a stock of whiskey as well as 
other pharmaceuticals, because I had real trouble sleeping the first night. I 
still keep seeing Nazario, there in the bunker, left to die alone. 

But he did his job well, he died a warrior's death, and it was truly a good day 
to die.

If I say that often enough, maybe it'll stop bothering me.

+++++end

Drek, there's someone else who knows where the frag Dad's clinic is....]<<<<<
	--  Diana, Mistress of the Night <16:45:29/03-15-57>

>>>>>[Things sure have rolled down hill ever since they gave SOLers access
to Shadowland...]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <00:46:49/16-03-57>

>>>>>[You could try coming to get me, Commander, but I don't think the
Russians would be very sympathetic. For once, my current job is entirely
within the laws of my local jurisdiction.]<<<<<
	-- Jason R W Lynch <21:13:23/03-15-57>
	Instructor (Acting)
	Airborne Forces Academy, Ryazan

*****Private: Whiteshadow, Joker
>>>>>['Kay folks.  I've got a job for one of you.  It involves getting into
a certain corp's database and leaving behind a special data package.

As there is competition for the job, you'd better send  some sort of proof
of your qualification and what you feel your worth.  Once I have received
your replies, I will make my decision.  I may even be that I would have
another run soon.]<<<<<
	-- Kali <06:32:11/03-16-57>

***** Private: Rattler
>>>>>[Good to hear you are well.

It's like this.  I have been hired to locate someone, but there is another
person looking for them as well.  What I need is someone to set up some
false trails, preferably leading out of Seattle, for this other person to
follow.  Hopefully this will give me time to find the one I am looking for
and get them where they need to be.

I feel I should warn you that the guy I need decoyed is probably pretty
dangerous.  Any way, let me know if you are interested,  or if you know of
anyone who would be willing to take this one on.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <06:52:13/03-16-57>

*****PRIVATE: Blade
>>>>>[I'll take you up on that drink, Blade: I'm out of the country until the
end of the week, but then we can get together. Howsabout <encrypted> as a
place and time? And will Lo be mobile enough to join us by then?

See you soonish.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <13:40:47/03-16-57>

*****PRIVATE: Diana
>>>>>[Thanks for posting my log, Diana. I didn't realise you were AJ's
daughter. And thanks for the help, during the hit and afterwards.

Don't worry about AJ's clinic getting compromised: I'm not even reporting
that to the Agency. Some things should be kept private. It might help if
he needs some backup and I'm in town, or you for that matter. 

And don't believe the rumour that my mother's maiden name was Van Helsing <g>

But...AWOL? Me? I told Roxey and your father before I left and they didn't
complain! I resent that implication! I have been maliciously deformed!

Or was that defamed?

Same difference, anyway. <g>]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <14:01:42/03-16-57>
	Instructor (Acting)
	Airborne Forces Academy, Ryazan

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[I've got a lead on one of dem dat's look'n fer Luthien, wait'n 
fer him to make his move]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious (12:59:33/03-16-57)

***** PRIVATE: Serenity Security
>>>>>[GoD, you dont hear me say this very often but  --  if you wish
to continue prickling Ms. Velli, then I will have to ask you, for all of
our sakes, to disatance yourself from Serenity.

I dont trust her, or the amounts of firepower she has at her command.

I am conviced that I did a job for her some time back, maybe a couple
years ago.  Different psuedonym, but same attitude. 

Just be careful.  Please.]<<<<<
	-- Jason R. Stormwind <21:12:33 / 03-16-57> 

***** Private: Cuval
>>>>>[Sure, I'll take the job. One thing though, it's been my experience
that leaving a live enemy behind you is A Bad Thing. How good of a tracker
is this guy? Because if it comes down to it, I'll deal with him
appropriately before he gets too close to me.]<<<<<
	-- Rattler <15:25:04/03-16-57>

***** Private: Blackthorne
>>>>>[I am alarmed that this "muffin man" knows were I reside
currrently.  Are you sure that you are not being followed?]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <14:54:44/03-17-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: DRUZE
>>>>>[I have received word that Tassie is no longer a concern. Until I
have complete confermation however, I will not be able to complete the
transaction.]<<<<<
	-- DS([5 efd] at [s]{]dsSg <CORRU/CORR>
	SIGNAL TERMINATED AT SOURCE

>>>>>[Whilst spinning my police scanner a few hours ago, I found this
(forgive the crappy sound quality)
+++++Include AudioClip: LS.0012

"Control, I'm at another junction. It's not on the map. Do you want me to
investigate? Sonar indicates it's at least one hundred feet in length."

Wait for Patterson to catch up.

"Affirmative."

Describe your local. I'll try and get a map from surfacescan. 

"Standard walls, the new tunnel branches off at almost 90 degrees, heading
roughly towards the waterfront. Slope is standard."

Height?

"About six feet-- Patterson's caught up."

Investigate the new tunnel. 

"Affirm."

+++++Pause -- 20 seconds.

"Control, this is Patterson. This entire passage has a really weird taste
to it. At first look I'd say that ritual magic has been going on down
here."

What kind of ritual magic?

"I can't say. There's just the taste."

Continue your investigation.

"Affirmative"

Is there any change in your surrounds?

"Still the same. No! Wait, we're starting to slope downwards."

How old does the tunnel appear to be?

"It's fresh. Somewhat. Fresher than most. Wait! We just went under a
sewer, heading north-north-west. Size, probably three feet in diameter,
old concrete. It's cold. I'd say disused. Can you get our realspace?"

Checking... No, nothing diffinitive. Continue.

"Affirmative."

Patterson, can is there any change?

"No. Still faint mana. Something happened here recently though, I'm sure
of it."

Keep an eye out.

"Aff-- Wait! There's a chamber up ahead."
[Off mic shouting 'LoneStar. Anybody home?']
"Does not appear to be occupied"

Investigate.

"Alright, it's only another 20 feet away. We're there."

Dimensions?

"Six, fifteen, nine. There's a bit of furniture."

Recent?

"Doesn't appear so."
['Pat, take a look over there.']
[Off mic: 'Dave, take a look at this...']
+++++Pause: eight seconds

"Control, we have what appears to be a partially burned corpse here."

Homicide?

"Looks that way."

Describe the situation.

"Corpse. Human in size. Badly charred. There isn--"
[Off mic: Sounds of wretching]
[Off mic: 'Pat, Pat, take a breather chum, out in the hall, c'mon Pat.
Don't worry about it']

O'Neill, what is it?

[Off mic: Sobbing sounds]

O'Neill, what's going on?

"Pat's gone hysterical. I think you should bring a few more mages down to
take a look at this."
+++++EOF

Uh, of course thats when my batteries died. I just thought someone might
be interested (zombie?)]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <18:20:29/17-03-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Foxey ROxey
>>>>>[Are you interested in investigating the strange spirit-creature that
we met on the Maxim raid?]<<<<<
	--  Shade <17:27:30 / 3-17-57>

*****Private: Rattler
>>>>>[Ok chummer, I appreciate the help.

The guy I need distracted goes by the name Rhodaemis.  From what I
understand he is some sort of genius from down in the Tir.  I am not sure
what his exact abilities are, but it would probably be best not to find out
first hand.  He is in town looking for Wintergeist and Luthien.  Rhodaemis
was a teacher of theirs and believes they are traitors, and wants them, dead
probably.  He was looking for runners to help him find, so I would assume
that he has other runners working for him by now.

Wintergeist has hired me to track down his sister.  She has apparently gone
of the edge in some way or other, and Wintergeist is bound and determined to
save her.  I have given my word to  try and find her.  I need you to lay
some false trails leading out of town.  The farther you can lead  him away,
the better.  One thing I don't need is this guy breathing down my neck,
while I am finding Luthien.

Here is some cred to get you going.  There is more if you need it.

+++++Transfer: 10,000Y

Let me know if you need more.

Be careful chummer.  From everything I have heard, this guy could be very
dangerous.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <16:30:36/03-17-57>

*****Private: Mephisto
>>>>>[I've completed reviewing the files from intelligence.  I have
authorized you for the following.

+++++Include File: authorization.kasigi

Put these into effect as soon as possible.]<<<<<
	-- Kasigi <16:56:02/03-17-57>
	Director of Special Operations
	Kiyamacorp

*****Private: Lin
>>>>>[Meet me  at <encrypted> to discuss a job>.]<<<<<
	-- Mephisto <17:10:20/03-17-57>

*****Private: Mephisto
>>>>>[Righto chummer.]<<<<<
	-- Lin <17:25:32/03-17-57>

*****Private: Rattler
>>>>>[Hey chummer, I just had a thought.  By now I am sure that Rhodaemis
might know that I am looking for Luthien as well.  I am afraid that I was
somewhat indescreet in some of my inquiries.  I consider it fairly likely
that my questions  have been reported to him.  But I think this can work in
my favor.

When you get your false trail in place, let me know in a way that the
information leaks out.  I will make a big deal of looking for help to go get
Luthien.  Hopefully this will be effective in pulling Rhodaemis and any
hounds he has off the trail.

Also, if you could put  any contacts you trust into finding Luthien, I can
pay well.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <20:28:12/03-17-57>

*****Private: Blackthorne
>>>>>[What is the deal with this "Muffin Man"?  Should I be watching my back
more than usual?  Once I am finished with my current employer, I would  be
available to help you if I can.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <20:36:11/03-17-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[Works for me.

Lo's fine.  Loves her new legs, but she won't be able to join us.  When the
company picked us up, we were taken to Detroit for treatment.  It's where
their best facility is.  She stayed, I left.  We each have to walk our own
path I guess.  She did recieve a promotion and commendation for her service,
and has currently started training with a new unit.

I'm back in Seattle, and you now how to reach me there.  I owe you a big
thanks for helping to get me out of Maxim.  And to think, I was supposed to
watch over you <g>!]<<<<<
	-- Blade <9:39:47/03-18-57>

*****Private:Blade
>>>>>[My brother isn't really all that bad, he's just not mentally 
stable.  I would appreciate all the help I can get, I need to know where 
he or Amber are.  If I get ahold of one, I should be able to find the 
other.  But please use cation, I don't want either you or him winding up 
dead.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/18/57 11:52:34>

*****Private:Wintergeist
>>>>>[I wouldn't worry, I doubt if he even knows where I am.  And I'm 
positive Amber doesn't, she's just trying to scare me into doing 
something stupid.  You have not to worry about, I'll take care of it and 
the run I'm doing for you.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/18/57 11:57:23>

>>>>>[Well, well, all a buzz about the Muffin Man :o.  Here's a taste for 
you "runners" out there. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHa.
 
+++++Start vidcam pic:
 
Three teens stand in the cams picture, all are gagged and tied to 
chairs.  From behind the camera you here, "Three little children sitting 
on a chair no one to love and nobody cares."  Theres a flash and a loud 
BANG, you see the head of the first teen explode spurting blood and 
brains all over the other two and the cam.  A white cloth is seen wiping 
of the cam, from the side angle you can barely see what looks like an 
Amerindian man almost fully covered in cyber.  The cam pans back to the 
youths again, it focuses in on an elfin girl.  Again the voice speaks, 
"Pretty little girl just like Marie don't you agree Don, it's a shame she 
has to die like her too."  An axe flashes from of camera and slices 
cleanly through her neck, the girls eyes open wide in surprise just 
before her head falls off.  The last is an Amerindian youth, the voice 
laughs then says, "Looks like me when I was his age, huh, Don.  Do you 
remember what happened when I was his age Don, DO YOU!!!!!!  The cam 
falls to the floor with a crash, just before the pic fades out you see a 
cybered man pitch the youth out of a window. 
 
+++++End vidcam pic.
 
Well now, that was fun wasn't it.  Good was that fun, to see such vermin 
die in front of my face.  To hold the right to kill them in my hands, I 
think I know how you felt so long ago Don.  Do you remember that day Don, 
so long ago. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! MUFFIN MAN< MUFFIN MAN< 
MUFFIN MAN< MUFFIN MAN.]<<<<<
	-- Muffin Man <03/18?57 12:15:45>

*****PRIVATE TO:Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[Well, Blackthorne, I seem to be available, and since I enjoy my work,
and right now find myself in no need of money, a will, at your request,
track down your brother.  Don't worry, I won't try to contact him or let him
no about my presence.  I will leave that up to you once I have discovered
his location.

A few questions to help me on my search:
Who is Amber?  I have heard the name before, but I can't quite place it.
Do you have any idea where Amber resides, or who she works for?
What information do you have on your brothers patterns?

As soon as I recieve this information, I can begin my search.

Wow, warm fuzzy from all this good Samaritan drek I've been doing lately.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <03/18/57 11:52:34>

>>>>>[Out of curiosity, who invited Senor Psychopath to this board?]<<<<<
	-- Blade <11:50:17/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[If your brother keeps leaving trails like this behind him, he's not
going to take to long to find.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <11:51:10/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[I take it Amber was disappointed about NOX's refusal and took it 
out on your brother.  So few people are aware of the consequences of 
thier actions.

I hope you find him, Mr. Blackthorne.  I can help, if you feel I might be 
able to, but if he finds my clinic before you(or we) find him....

Goddamn jet lag's still messing with my sleep schedule....]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <11:51:41/03-18-57>

>>>>>[Muffin Man: That was VERY bad karma you just picked up there. Folks
talk about wiping us out all the time, just 'cause we openly admit our
competence. People aren't going to like you. They aren't going to like you
one little bit...]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <14:23:03/18-03-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch, Buzz
>>>>>[ I owe you one for pulling me out of there, guys .. and I don't forget
my debts. ]<<<<<
	-- Griffyn <14:40:12/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE: Jason Stormwind
>>>>>[  I think there's something you should know, Jas .. In case you
didn't notice from the logs that were posted, I was in on that little run
against Phnom Penh.  I couldn't let that slitch keep her nukes.  If you
want me to distance myself from Serenity, I will.. ]<<<<<
	-- Griffyn <16:46:42/03-18-57>

*****Private: Cuval
>>>>>[Well, going through my own contacts I've been able to put together 
a bit of a profile on this Rhodaemis character. I'm beginning to wonder 
if I shouldn't have charged you more. <g> Seriously though, I'm preparing 
for the worst, in the event he moves faster than I anticipate.

I will be knocking around in the northeast area of town, I'm going to try 
and skirt around Pullyap, make it look like I'm trailing someone who ran 
into Indian country. If you need to reach me, you can route through a 
fixer named Edge, he's a chummer of mine who can be trusted. While I'm in 
the boonies, he'll make some quiet inquiries about Luthien and see what 
he can dredge up.

Give me a day or so, and I'll post something in the clear about getting a 
hard lead, and we'll see what comes out from under the nearest rock.]<<<<<
	-- Rattler <12:48:05/03-18-57>

*****NOT TO:  Maxim, InterPol, etc.
>>>>>[  Sorry this was so long in coming, but I've been busy making sure that
my team exfiltrated cleanly.  At my employer's request, I've compiled an
informal after-action report for your enjoyment.

-----

I approached with Static from the eastern side of the complex.  As Overwatch
reported the security systems had been looped in an all-clear state, we
quickly cut through the fence and made for the Weapon storage warehouse.  It
was the more heavily guarded of the two, and seemed to be the likely location
of the nukes.  So much for that theory, but I'll get to that in a minute.

We made it to the building, and Static covered me set a ribbon charge to blow
the door so that we could make our search.  It took me about five seconds to
set the charge, then we moved around the corner so I could blow them.  It was
time for a visit from the omnipresent Mr. Murphy.  You know the one .. he's
famous for Murphy's Law.  Well, just as we made it around the corner, we
spotted a patrol of three guards.  I gave Static the signal, and opened up on
the guards with my suppressed MP5.  I took the first with a three round burst
that hit torso/torso/head and he dropped like a stone.  Simultaneously, Static
hit the one on the other end with a burst that dropped him, and before the
third could react I hit him with a burst similar to the first.

Figuring that the guards are going to show up like a fraggin' beacon on
someone's security display when they fell over dead, I let bravo team know
that we'd been comprimised, and told them to hurry it up.  I also ordered
some fire support from our rigger to be directed at the northern side of
the complex to hopefully draw attention away from our positions.

"Bravo leader, blow charges on my mark.  3 .. 2 .. 1 .. mark!"

Fall-Out and I blew our charges so close to one another that without enhanced
hearing, it sounded like a single explosion.  I pulled down my gas mask, and
tossed two tear-gas grenades, followed by a flash-bang grenade through the door
I had just opened.  As soon as the flash bang detonated I went through the door
and covered the left field of fire, with Static right on my heels covering the
right side.  I dropped a guard with a burst to the chest, and began scanning
for other hostiles.

Just as we were about to start our search I got a message from Snarl.  They'd
met minimal resistance, and their geiger counter was going off.  That was good
news, because I didn't know how many guards were in the warehouse, and I didn't
know how much longer they'd be disoriented.  We took this opportunity to leave
the way we had come in, but not before setting a small charge on a crate of
ammunition.  That should give them something to think about.

As we covered the distance to the next warehouse as fast as we could, I could
still hear the sounds of gunfire coming from our diversion to the north.
Thunder was keeping them busy, but I didn't know how long that would hold,
so I hit the detonator for the charge in the weapons warehouse, and was
greeted by a satisfying "KABOOM!"  The charge and the crate weren't large
enough to bring the building down, but they were bad enough that Maxim
will be cleaing up for a while to get the Warehouse back into shape.

Security at this place had certainly gone downhill since Patty Winters
stopped running the show.  Our matrix recon gave us some background about
the place to showed that she fought of an Ares attack that should have
overtaken the place easily.  They transferred her out to Denver after that,
and it looks like whoever they put in charge of security after that didn't
pay a whole lot of attention to their Security 101 class.  Nearly all of
the defenders were off chasing our drones.  But I'm digressing here.

We hit the warehouse and located the nuke's crate in just about 45 seconds.
It took Fall-Out another 45 seconds to rig the charge, using the rest of the
explosives that we'd brought with us.  I think that boy's a genius sometimes,
because the setup that he rigged was nothing short of amazing.  He set one
charge to take out the nukes themselves, and set a few more at stratgic points
in the building to bring the whole thing down around the crates about a second
before the first charge went off.  It was beautiful.  Almost brought a tear
to my eye.

We hauled our hoops out through the southern fence that Snarl and Fall-Out
had come in and got picked up by Thunder in the van that he'd been using
as the command center for his drones.  About four blocks from the site, we
blew the charges, while watching through the 'eyes' of one of the roto-drones
that Thunder had up.

+++++include: explosion.clip

A moderately sized warehouse is centered in the frame, and suddenly explosive
charges take out each of the corners, and the building begins to collapse on
itself. A second later, a large explosion erups from the center of the
building, blowing the whole structure back upwards before it comes crashing
back down again.

+++++end of video

Pretty, huh?

I'll save you the gory details on how we exfiltrated from Cairo, but
suffice it to say that we got out completely undetected, after doing some
follow-up intel to make sure that the mission was a complete success.

It was.

Thunder says we lost a few drones, but it was worth it.  The security on
that installation was _very_ lax.  The guards were poorly trained, and
had absolutely no unit integrity.  They were falling all over one another
when they engaged the drones.  Oh well, I've never been one to look a gift
horse in the mouth.  Altogether, I was pretty pleased with the Op. Please
feel free to comment on my choice of tactics .. I always like to take apart
my missions afterward and see how they could have gone more smoothly. ]<<<<<
	-- Tangent <17:26:12/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE: Nicole Velli
>>>>>[  Ms. Velli, I hope that you don't take my mission as a personal attack
against you or Maxim.  My motives are simple.  I'm a paid mercenary.  If you
ever have need of my services or the services of my team, feel free to contact
me.  I've included a general assessment of the Cairo facility's security
procedures and performance for your perusal.  You may want to be more careful
where you store your thermonuclear devices in the future.

+++++include:  cairo.notes]<<<<<
	-- Tangent <17:31:40/03-18-57>

***** PRIVATE: Griffyn
>>>>>[Ill give you the benefit of the doubt to have not gone on
that run wearing your security uniform and a big sign saying "My 
name is Griffyn".

Simsense footage gets routed into an off-line holding area for analyzing
before I view it.  It puts me a couple weeks behind the times but it
keeps my headware safe.

I hope that none of you are identified.  That might cause an unfortunate
situation.

I wish Scourge were still around.  Is it safe to assume that your matrix
team removed all of Maxim's internal logs / video / chip'd footage of
the raid?  Thats not something you are going to want following you
around.  Anyone else involved I should know about?]<<<<<
	-- Jason R. Stormwind <23:09:48 / 03-18-57> 

***** Private: Jason stormwind
>>>>>[As I saw it Jay, that little post of hers meant it was open season on us all.  I wasn't involved in that 
Run on maxim, but If I'm not Stoopid, I have a good feeling
Gryff was and If thats so, you know I'm not lettin' noone put a 
finger on him, without me getting a little piece of them first.]<<<<<
	-- GoD <08:34:33/03.19.57>

***** Private: Gryffin
>>>>>[Just so I know who to lie to, you were in that Action from a few days ago weren't you?]<<<<<
	-- GoD <08:44:23/03.19.57>

*****Private:Jen and Gabe
>>>>>[Whatsamatter didn't like the show, owwwwww, I was hopin it was just 
up your ally.  Too bad.]<<<<<
	-- Muffin Man <03/18/57 06:45:34>

*****Private: Action Jackson
>>>>>[I would appreciate all the help I could get, from the looks of 
things he's gone over the deep end.  I'm afraid if he's too bad I might 
have to kill him, Gods I hope it's not to late.  Blade is helping too, 
I'm not sure how far along he is though.  If you still want to help 
contact him.  If he comes to your clinic I expect you to do what you need 
to do, no matter what.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/18/57 06:50:56>

>>>>>[Oh, that would be me Blade, he's quite a work of art isn't he.  We 
fouled up his brain so much and cybered him so fully, he's not the same 
person he once was.  A little warning to you all, don't get in his way or 
help Mr. Blackthorne, if you do you might end up dead or worse.]<<<<<
	-- Amber Snowmane <03/18/57 06:54:45>

*****Private:Blade
>>>>>[Well, Amber Snowmane is a new face to me too, I saw here name as I 
was helping a friend find his lost "friend".  Until now I've heard only 
minimal from her.  She works for a corp. called Satyre, thier real big 
into the bioware field.  She's not well liked at the corp for her 
blotched attempted at aquiring a Mr. Nox, so I wouldn't worry about them 
helping her.  The last I heard she was in Pullyup, but she might have 
moved since then.  The only known pattern my brother has is killing elfin 
girls, the reason I shot him.  You have to understand, my brother's not 
mentally stable to begin with.  Our parents beat him until I was old 
enough to stop them.  Then one day at a dance, he snapped and started 
tearing this elfin girl apart.  I had to protect her and the others so I 
shot him twice in the head.  He survived, barely, but he survived and I 
spent all my free time working to pay for his treatment.  I thought it 
was going so well too.  Don't think ill of my brother, he's really a nice 
kid.  Amber must have really messed him up.  If I get any news I'll tell 
you.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/18/57 07:10:34>

>>>>>[MUFFIN MAN< MUFFIN MAN< MUFFIN MAN< MUFFIN MAN.  Well hello all and 
welcome to "THE MUFFIN MAN"S WHEEL O' TERROR", for your viewing pleasure 
tonight we have three, count them three contestants.  So who shall die 
first, will it be Contestant #1: Some street urchin I picked, Contestant 
#2: A hooker, elfin of course, or our special Contestant #3: A lady who 
though she could control the monster she created, Amber Snowmane.  Well 
boys and girls, lets look at Cam. 1:
 
+++++Start tridio #1:
 
Sitting in front of the cam is young boy strapped to a table, above him 
is a large drum of what looks to be water.  A voice from the background 
says, "Well look at our poor little boy here, all dirty and grimmy.  
shall we give him a bath folks."  A hand reaches out and yanks a cord 
attached to the drum, dumping it's contents on the boy.  When the liquid 
hits him he lets out a high pitched scream and starts to squirm.  As the 
cam. focuses in closer you can see the boys skin bubbling and melting off 
his body.  The last sight you see before the cam. goes black is the look 
of terror and pain in the boys eyes.
 
+++++End tridio #1
 
+++++Start tridio #2
 
A sleek elfin girl lounges on a bed as a cybered Amerindian sits next to 
her and says, "My little cutie here has just finished doing her job and 
now it's time I pay her."  He turns to the hooker and caresses her face 
while he whips a knife across her neck watching as she pulls back and 
slowly bleeds to death.  "Ah, the only good hooker is a dead one," says 
the Amerindian before the cam. goes black.
 
+++++End tridio #2
 
Ready for the last one boys and girls, here it is:
 
+++++Start tridio #3 
 
A low pitched whirling sound is heard as the pic. comes into focus, a 
voice is barely heard obove the noise saying, "One little birdie in the 
sky, gonna sit here and watch her die."  The cam. focuses in on a 
convayer belt thats slowly leading up to a huge shredder.  On the 
convayer belt you see a white haired elf struggling with her bonds.  As 
the woman gets closer you hear the voice counting off, " Ten, nine, 
eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, .........................]
 
Transmition broken........
 
*****Not to:Muffin Man 
>>>>>[Sorry folks I'm not going to give my brother the satisfaction of 
knowing everyone saw that.  He's gone to far over the deep end, I'm 
afraid I'm going to have to kill him.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/18/57 07:44:34>

*****PRIVATE:  IPAgT3/14
>>>>>[The individual known as the Muffin Man has struck again and killed 
another three people.  Get to the following locations 10 minutes ago.  
I've informed Lone Star and the Commander.]<<<<<
	--  InterPol DeckLurker8 <18:08/22/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[Puyallup?  Oh shit....]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <18:11:03/03-18-57>

>>>>>[Diana, haul ass now!!!!!]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <18:11:15/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Tangent
>>>>>[I've been asked to inform you that Miss Velli understands your 
concerns and recommends that you not make Maxim a target for some time.  
In addition, she thanks you for the report and will take it under 
consideration.  Good day.]<<<<<
	--  Avatar <18:15:08/03-18-57>

>>>>>[I'm looking for some good people with a variety of skills for a job of
a...sensitive nature, shall we say.]<<<<<
	-- Lin <21:47:14/03-18-57>

*****NOT TO: Muffin Man
>>>>>[Um, were those sims real? I don't really feel like analyzing them,
but they're REALLY gross, and I'd like someone to give me a nice hug and
say that they're faked... Please someone say that they're faked...]<<<<< 
	-- Tobai Dark <01:00:00/19-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Muffin Man
>>>>>[Pray that nobody sets us on your tail. Pray.]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <01:02:04/19-03-57>

*****Private: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[I have been observing these posts and it seems as if we have a
cybermancer creation on the loose.  I never really met anyone who could pull
it off, and would be interested in investigating this person's insanity for
the purposes of preventing it in others.  In short, I would like to help.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <01:01:06 / 3-19-57>

*****Private: Lin
>>>>>[I am interested, and good at working at a distance.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <01:22:29 / 3-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: V-12
>>>>>[Well, I must thank you for such an interesting little addition to my
work here.  I'm sorry for the delay in processing your request: classwork, and
other work, sometimes have to take precedence.  However, I've had a chance to
look at it and run the ideas through the local peer-review mill, and I'm
reasonably comfortable with the consensus.  Enclosed are our findings:
basically, it looks like some sort of moderate Force Free Spirit, uncommon, 
certainly dangerous, probably hostile, but certainly no threat beyond the ken
of the ever-growing magical pool of knowledge.  And by no means a threat to
compare with the Wraith.

+++++include report.text

By the way, I am informed that Thel is doing well, though I doubt the memory
(and whatever else there may be) from that ordeal will ever leave her.]<<<<<
	--  Jason  <00:04:30 / 03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: Griffyn
>>>>>[Griffyn, you owe me nothing: it was a pleasure to work with you. If
you ever wish for my aid, it is yours. If I need your help, I will request 
your assistance. But I do not consider you to be in my debt: I live only
because of your aid, and I did all I could to bring you out alive. What less
would either of us expect of ourselves?]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <21:04:12/03-18-57>
	Instructor (Acting)
	Airborne Forces Academy, Ryazan 

*****PRIVATE: Jason Stormwind
>>>>>[  I can't be sure that they removed all of the traces, but they were very
competent.  It was obviously something that I did on my own, so I wouldn't
expect any reprisals to be aimed at Serenity.  You know I wouldn't put you
guys in a position to suffer for my actions, so if it comes down to it, I'll
pull a fade and distance myself for a while until things cool down enough
to get back.  ]<<<<<
	-- Griffyn <10:36:32/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE: GoD
>>>>>[  Yeah, I was there. I was the one that got carried off of the complex
by Buzz and Lynch .. blew myself out with drain.  Hey, that reminds me .. now
that everything is over, you wanna go grab some brews and chase some women
tonight?  I could use some relaxation, and it's been too long since we've been
out on the town. ]<<<<<
	-- Griffyn <10:39:12/03-18-57>

*****Private: Whiteshadow, Joker        
>>>>>[Are you still interested in the job?  As it turns out I have two
matrix jobs that need the right talent.  Contact me a soon as possible for
the details]<<<<<
	--Kali <08:25:33/03-19-57>

*****Not to:Muffin Man
>>>>>[I wish they were faked but I just recieved Amber's head in the mail 
today.  Not a pretty sight when your just waking up, but more importantly 
it means he knows were I live.  People I'm in deep drek.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/19/57 10:42:23>

*****Private:Shade
>>>>>[Thanks, I can use all the help I can get.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <03/19/57 10:45:25>

*****Private:Donavin
>>>>>[Nice place you have Don, real up town and all.  It's going to be a 
shame when I kill you, a real shame.  That girl of yours looks REAL nice, 
maybe I won't kill her.  Maybe.  Well for awhile I'll have to leave you, 
but only for a day.  I know you by now, you've got friends out there 
hunting for me.  Can't let that happen can I, so I'm off to get some of 
my friends.  I'll be back, oh and by the way hope you like the head.]<<<<<
	-- Muffin Man <03/19/57 10:51:12>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[Well, I've called of my search of Snowmain for obvious reasons.

Your brother isn't hard to track.  I managed to make it to the second scene
before the Star did, and did a little investigation on my own.  Nothing to
say that you couldn't see on the vid.

I've got a lock on Muffin's current position, and am keeping surveilance.
If I see him go for anyone again, however, I'm gonna have to take him down.

Contact me at >>>encrypted<<< and we can meet up.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <9:45:23/03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: Avatar
>>>>>[ Understood.  I would recommend that you drill the security squads,
even at the small-scale sites like Cairo on unit integrity.  I could have
easily taken them all down, and had them shooting at each other because they
were completely unaware of one another's fields of fire.  I'd also suggest
that you have more experienced leadership for your troops.  Whoever was
directing them sent them all chasing shadows, in the form of drones that I
placed just to make a lot of noise.  That's a rookie mistake.

Oh well.  I'll stop wasting your time.  If you ever have need of my services,
please let me know.  ]<<<<<
	-- Tangent <11:06:53/03-18-57>

*****PRIVATE TO:  David
>>>>>[David I need you to bring the Kneehigh Demolition Co. to Seattle.  
I think all hells about to break loose.  I've been asked by my brother to 
help escort the terrorist Sword of God back to England.  But I've got a 
bad feeling that somethings going to go very wrong.  And if you can pick 
up Hyperman and Jack Deth.  I think I'm going to need all the firepower I 
can get.  And of course you will all recieve the normal wages.]<<<<<
	-- <9:16:20/3-20-57>

*****PRIVATE TO:  Ripley
>>>>[I take it your back from Cambodia.  If your feeling up to it I 
wouldn't mind some help escorting a humanis terrorist to England.  Call 
me at the Hyatt.]<<<<<
	-- <9:19:11/3-20-57>

*****Private: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[You're new deck is ready.  Go to the Avis at the airport and ask
for the car put on reserve in the name of Ezekowitz.  In the trunk,
where you would normally find a spare tire, is the product you
wanted.]<<<<<
	--  Wintergeist <11:27:32/03-19-57>

*****Private: Kali
>>>>>[Sorry about my absence, there have been some problems that
I've had to deal with. I'm ready now for your mission. Send me
the details whenever you're ready]
	--  Whiteshadow <12:27:32/03-19-57>

***** PRIVATE: Cybil
>>>>>[Have you found any more information out about the rituatal magic 
conducted a few nights back?  I would be very interested if you could pass
along any additional information you have dug up.

I will be checking around with some of my sources and would gladly share ideas
with you.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <19:02:13 / 03-19-57> 

***** PRIVATE: GoD
>>>>>[ Summoning? ]<<<<<
	-- Jason R. Stormwind <19:05:23 / 03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: Trixie
>>>>>[  How does dinner tonight sound?  You choice of -anywhere- you want to
go.  ]<<<<<
	-- Neuron Basher <14:37:21/03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE TO:Mr. Blackthorne 
>>>>>[I can let you stay at our place.  Cheap. We just need a little
help w/some coding.

Let me know.]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <03/19/57 11:32:44 PST>

***** PRIVATE: Neuron Basher
>>>>>[Anywhere?

What's got you in such a romantic mood tonight?  Not that I am knocking it...
I rather like it.

I want dinner, at home, by candle light.  And desert.]<<<<<
	-- Trixie <19:50:55 / 03-19-57> 

*****PRIVATE: Trixie
>>>>>[  You're on, hon.  ]<<<<<
	-- Neuron Basher <15:05:34/03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: Action Jackson
>>>>>[Herr Jackson, i am recently purchased a new clinic and it is 
mostly in working order now.  Since most of the work from your 
injured friends is now done (I'm surprising some of them were still 
alive, and after i hear the stories, i'm surprising that ANY are 
still alive), i can move out to my new place.  It is maybe best for 
us both if you are arrange the move:  i am get help with moving the 
equipments and you stay secure.  You also see then where is my clinic 
if you ever are needing it.  Thank you again for let me use your 
place to work on NOX, and i hope we can work again together.]<<<<<
	-- Basilisk <21:09:44 GMT/19.MAR.57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[The corpse was just some ex-con from ParkDale. I don't know how she
got there, but LoneStar has locked the file, so my pals don't have access
to it any more. Which kind of sucks. You wouldn't know anyone in the
Thaum. Div. would you? If so, it's case number >>>encrypted<<<. 

Oh yeah, I also found their exact xyz, so if you want to take a look at
it (on the understanding that you'll take a vid and send me a copy), I'll
give you the co-ordinates. Here's a hint: it was in the Orc Underground. I
didn't think LoneStar patroled down there, but... If you do go down and
make a recording, don't worry, I'll keep it safe.]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <16:29:19/19-03-57>

*****PRIVATE: Tangent
>>>>>[  Well done.

+++++initiate fund transfer: >>>encrypted<<< =Y=.
+++++transfer complete.

You and your team performed superbly.  ]<<<<<
	-- Anonymous <CORRUPT/CORRUPT>

*****PRIVATE: Griffyn
>>>>>[  I just got a -large- fund transfer apparently in payment for the
Cairo run.  You know anything about this?

+++++include file:  payment.msg

I think we've been used, but that's alright.  I don't mind being used, if the
job pays well.  ]<<<<<
	-- Tangent <17:00:23/03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: Kromofton
>>>>>[ Null thanks friend, I don't want to endanger anyone elses life.
I'll be more comfortable at my own apartment, with my guns and ammo
sitting by my bed. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <18:46:54 03/19/57>

*****PRIVATE: Wintergeist
>>>>>[ Got it, thanks this will help out a lot in my run for you.
Speaking of that I'm still working on it, so don't give it away to someone
else.  I'm not going to let my brother interfere with my work. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <18:51:34/03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: Blade
>>>>>[ For now it seems we can rest, my brother has left for a few days.
The bad news is he's getting a couple of his friends and bringing them
back.  I figure we stand a slight chance against them if we get a few more
people together. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <18:57:34/03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: AlexandriaN
>>>>>[+++++engage Kyuuketsuki.v2.0

Here is the recording you wanted of those, those recent events.  I
have included both an edited version and the full wetware record.  It
should be interesting, I think, interesting.

+++++intitiate edited.simsense.track

Dark, close space.  The flicker of tiny LEDs.  Thick fabric of a
flightsuit, rubbing against the skin; the sound of cloth against
cloth.  The itch of a trace of stubble.  Sweating palms, wiped, then
wiped again.  Slow breathing.

The sound of movement, the feel of movement, and an arm flashes by,
backwards.   A pause, a fumble, the catch and jerk of something
against cloth, the skin-crawling sensation as the jacks go in.

Suddenly, the transmorgification: skin stretches, becomes hard and
sleek and unyielding.  Eyes branch and multiply and then coalesce,
bewildering with shapes and colors.  Ears twist and register soft
static.  The heart hums and purrs now, great and powerful, buried deep
within; it is the center around which all else moves.

Swiftly, the senses recover.  The hiss of static is ignored, the dots
and lines before the eyes acquire meaning, and the feel of skin fades
from consciousness.  

At the same time there is an awareness of surroundings, of steel
bulkheads and three like creatures, crouched nearby.  They are
brethren.

A moment's pause, and then a small red word appears to one side.  It
blinks, "engaging."  Somewhere far away, fingers (fingers?) twitch
briefly in anticipation? apprehension?  There is a moment, as flesh
intrudes on machine: the prickle of scalp, a sharp exhalation.  Then
all is as before.

The heart's purr becomes deeper, more pronounced, and the whole body
is filled briefly with the sensation.  More pictures scroll before the
eyes, and in the ears a voice says, "standby."

The enclosure opens, and within moments, a fellow creature leaps into
the cold morning air above.  A few seconds later, the voice says,
"go," and the heart revels in a burst of power.  The salt air rushes
by, laden with moisture, and gusts buffet and pound against the skin.
It is treacherous, but the heart is strong and the skin and limbs are
clever, using the tricks of the air against itself.

Moments later, the sea flashes close below, and the flight seems
underway.  The others are still there, though in some strange way they
cannot be fully seen.  A coastline quickly approaches, backlit ever so
slightly by the still rising sun.

Soon the sea is replaced by land; mountain valleys and ravines pass
swiftly below, their features close and sharp.  It is not long before
red text flashes again.  "Approaching target," it says.

A bewildering array of diagrams spew forth before the eye; several are
quickly highlighted.  The belly is pressed close to the ground,
angling to match the slope beneath.  There is a sensation strangely
like belching, and suddenly, less weight.  The text flashes again:
"drones released."

Then there is a rush of wind, and the lip of a ridge passes below.
The scene ahead flashes alight with highlights; almost immediately
there is a series of strange jolts, and a feeling almost orgiasmic in
nature.  Missles, streaming trails of exhaust, streak ahead, impacting
an intensly illuminated cluster of shapes, sending gouts of flame
skyward.

Even as this happens, the view shifts and turns aside, focusing on a
second cluster.  Closing quickly, there is just a moment to make out
the shapes of helecopters, before there is another, different, jolting
sensation, accompanied by a hum and vibration.  The hapless vehicles
on the ground disintegrate, throwing debris violently in all
directions.  A small red number flashes, recording ammo expenditure.

Suddenly, there is an odd flash of distant, ghostly pain, and one of
three small dark icons to one side flashes brightly before subsiding
to a sullen yellow glow.  The view rushes on, heedless, past the
compound on the ground.

Air pushes savagely at limbs as the body swings sharply around, and
faces the compound once again.  One building in particular lights up,
sharp against its companions.  Once again, there is the now familiar
jolting, along with accompanying sensation, this time even more
intense.  Missles rush towards the already burning lit building,
replacing it with boiling conflagration.

A few moments later, two shapes rush up behind.  Like marsupial
children, they are quickly tucked away inside.  The sensation is
peculiar in the extreme, but soon fades into the background.

Then it is up, quickly, over the ridge and down.  The trees below are
friends, and they are kept close, green leaves whizzing by almost
close enough to count.  The diagrams fade away somewhat, becoming less
pressing, and the realization hits that there are only two companion
vehicles where there were once were three.

+++++finish edited.simsense.track

+++++include wet.record

+++++disengage Kyuuketsuki.v2.0]<<<<<
	--  Rubiy  <16:24:12 / 03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE: Moriarty
>>>>>[+++++credit.transfer =Y= 20,000]<<<<<
	--  Lotus  <16:30:40 / 03-19-57>

*****Private: Shade
>>>>>[Thank you for your prompt reply ol chum.  My employer would like to
have production at Cognitronics, disrupted, shall we say.  It would probably
take several operatives to achieve this however.  Meet me at >>encrypted<< to
discuss the matter further.]<<<<<
	-- Lin <20:41:01/03-19-57>

*****Private: Whiteshadow
>>>>>[No prob' chummer.  What my employer needs is to have a data packet
inserted in a certain corps computer.  Let's meet at <encrypted> to discuss
the details.]<<<<<
	-- Kali <20:30:05/03-19-57>

*****Private: Lin 
>>>>>[Disruptions are very easy, but it depends upon the delicacy of the
operation.  Blatent destruction is much easier than subtle Sabatoge.  I will
meet you there.]<<<<<
	-- Shade <03:15:24 / 3-20-57>

*****PRIVATE: Patrick O'Kennedy, Kevin Donaldson
>>>>>[ I've been having some weird dreams lately .. ever since Kris died, I
keep having a dream where I'm in this .. I don't know how to describe it ..
some kind of ghostly place.  A wolf walks up to me and seems to beckon for
me to follow him.  I follow, and we run through a forest together for a while.
The dream is almost exactly the same every time.

One time I was dreaming about Kris, and I was sitting in front of the monument
when the wolf came up and sat down beside me.  Just his presence made me feel
better.  I don't know what's going on.  Why does this wolf keep showing up in
my dreams?  ]<<<<<
	-- Kenny Donaldson <10:45:12/03-20-57>

*****PRIVATE: Jason Stormwind
>>>>>[ Something strange seems to be going on with Kenny.  Could this be
related
to us telling him that he's active?  Here's a message that he sent me today
about some dreams that he's been having.

+++++include file:  kenny.dreams.msg]<<<<<
	-- Kevin Donaldson <11:07:43/03-20-57>
	Systems Specialist
	Serenity Security

*****PRIVATE: Blade
>>>>>[Glad to hear you and Lo are fine. 'Company' means Ares, huh? Boy, that
dates me. If there's anyone around who remembers the Special Strike Force
(formed 2045, wiped out by a traitor 2047) ask around for me. Be discreet,
though, Ares and I didn't exactly part on best terms <g> If Elizabeth
Mantle is still in the Security division, remember me to her. 

And you don't owe me anything, Blade, we'd both be dead without the others'
help: Maxim was a real team effort. If you ever want someone to back you up, 
let me know: I enjoyed working with you and would welcome the chance to do so 
again. 

'Watch over me'? Any hints as to who you were watching for, and why? Just
my paranoia reasserting itself... Anyway, I'm back in town at the moment: see 
you at <encrypted> for a few brewskis?  Or some decent vodka: working behind 
the Iron Curtain has its perks... 

See you soon, tovarisch <g>]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <16:40:26/03-20-57>

>>>>>[sorry about the long pause there chummer, had somethings o take care of. what's the JOB?]<<<<<
	-- Joker <12:25:33/03-20-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>['Watch over you' as in 'Let's not let one of the two nuke experts get
splattered from here to hell knows where'<g>

And yeah, I've heard of the Special Strike Force.  Hell, I modeled the Dogs
of War around them, just tried to tweak a few things here and there.

I'm not as well connected within the company as I used to be.  I tend to
keep them at arms length.  Sometimes situations come up, however, that we
have a mutual goal that can better be met by working together, rather than
against.  Like Maxim.

As for the drinks, consider me there, and your vodka as good as drunk<g>.]<<<<<
 	-- Blade <11:58:26/03-20-57>

***** PRIVATE: Cybil
>>>>>[Im interested in taking a look.  

In repayment for the information, I will mail you unedited video.  If
I can get the information out of the Star's computer systems, Ill see
about getting that to you as well.  I dont know if my sources are up
to par as I would like.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <17:26:47 / 03-20-57> 

***** PRIVATE: Sgt. Fuller
>>>>>[What are the chances I can get the digest version of case number
>>encrypted<<?  It should be the run down on a case of ritual magic that 
was recently found down in the Orc Underground.]<<<<<
	-- Jason R. Stormwind <17:31:15 / 03-20-57>
	Field Officer
	Serenity Security, Seattle

***** PRIVATE: Jason Stormwind
>>>>>[Back in town for a long stay or just passing through to pick up
your pay checks?  Where've you been?

Explain yourself and Ill see what I can do for you]<<<<<
	-- Fuller <19:01:02 / 03-20-57>
	Night Desk
	Lone Star

***** PRIVATE: Sgt. Fuller
>>>>>[I've got some down time to try to keep my personal life in order.  As
to where I have been, I cant answer that, really.  I've been busy with
trench work.  Didnt need the checks.  Been paid well.

Is that enough?]<<<<<
	-- Jason R. Stormwind <22:06:21 / 03-20-57>

***** Private: Jason R. Stormwind
>>>>>[I was wondering when you'd get back to me about that.I was doing some preps the night of that lonestar scanner post.
if you're asking but nope that wasn't me, besides you know I don't
summon without adult supervision. 
 

By the way about the "Guardian", I got the formula down, and I'mnot 
sure I know what these guys where trying to summon. This thing deals
what appears to be blood-magic,( I found a substitute, but I think the 
guardians bonds to the summoner are alot weaker) some really scary 
Stuff.  Which is why I'm taking my time with it.

say If you get any, I'll say that again, any info on the 
fireworks about that night let me know what...]<<<<<
	-- GoD <21:25:12 / 03-19-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[Muchos gracias... The co-ordinates are the following >>>encrypted<<<.
I've got a few mage friends poking around on MagicNet as well to see if
there's anything doing -- probably a null lead, but it can't hurt.]<<<<< 
	-- Cybil <14:29:08/20-03-57>   

***** PRIVATE: Cybil
>>>>>[Yeah, I noticed the activity on MagicNet.  Thats what prompted
my actions.

I'm putting together a group to head down there in a couple days or so.
If you have people down there, you might want to let them know we are
coming.  We would hate to accidentally run afoul another group down
there.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <19:38:21 / 03-20-57> 

>>>>>[Archer you are a dead man.  First you hide the fact that you work 
for the Azzies.  Then the low-level clerk you send me after turns out to 
be Lynch.  You're going to pay for that dearly you slimey son-of-a-bitch.

I made an attempt anyways.  After he finally shows up again I have him 
scoped out in an apartment and I'm preparing for my shot.  Then at least 
a dozen FedPols show up armed for bear.  If I hadn't had back up they 
would have had me for sure.  As it was I still lost my favorite rifle you 
drek eating pendejo.

Archer you are going to die.  You've pissed me off and I've made it 
personal.  You are already dead.  The last thing you'll ever see is my 
grinning face as your life slips away.]<<<<<
	--  Scorpion <1:06:51/3-21-57>

*****PRIVATE TO:  Paradox
>>>>>[Ese.  I need you to dig up everything you can on Senor Archer.  
Then send it and this data file to the Feds, Drake over at Interpol and 
our friend Ross at Renraku.
+++++data file.Archer
+++++cred transfer 5000Y]<<<<<<
	--  Scorpion <1:09:28/3-21-57>

*****Private TO: Scorpion

>>>>>[Man, you sound mad. Wan't some help turning him into just
another smear on the pavement? Perhaps N4 'bout where he/she is?
Anything?

Well?

*BOOM* 

Sleeper! The mainframe blew up again!

Sorry 'bout that.]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <03-20-57/15:18:16 PST>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[You're over estimating me. I haven't been able to find anyone
willing to go down there, and I'm told that the Star doesn't have too many
people down there (go down late at night, they've just sealed the place up
and put up a few cameras).

 Oh yeah. If you want to check it out astral first, you can't. They've
put bacterial dampening all around the tunnel entrance, and I think
they've seeded the soil around it too.]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <22:24:09/20-03-57>

*****Private: Joker
>>>>>[No prob' man.  As it turned out,  a second job came my  way, so I end
up with  work for both of you.  I have an employer who would like to
acquire some data from a certain corp.  If you are interested, contact me at
>>encrypted<< to work out the details.]<<<<<
	-- Kali <07:10:17/03-21-57>

***** PRIVATE: GoD, Griffyn
>>>>>[I've got a private little side jaunt I would like to two of you
to tag along on.

A couple nights ago there was an incident of what could have been blood magic
performed down in the tunnels of the Orcish underground.  I'd very much like 
to go down there and take a good look at that for myself.  I am not sure what
we will find, if anything, but I'd like to request that you are ready for
the worse.  It is NOT a soft target.  Lone Star has bugged the place with
cameras and other ords. for keeping tabs on it, and unknown group of orcs have
sealed the entrance from the other side and have patrols, and who knows 
who else has set up shop down there.  I've been in contact with Maria
with LSS but she is more than reluctant to let another investigator go poking
around her team's site.  If shit hits the fan, I'm likely to be the one 
arrested so dont worry on that case.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <17:05:17 / 03-21-57> 

*****PRIVATE TO: Kang
>>>>>[Sir.  I have been informed by mutual ascioates that you might be 
willing to aid me in an endeavor.  My Lord, the "terrorist" Sword of God, 
is being transported to the airport and extradited to the United 
Kingdom.  My Lord is a true servant of God and enemy of the demonic 
metahumans and their human pawns.  I would be in your debt if you could 
assist us in freeing him from his unjust imprisonment.]<<<<<
	-- Squire Josef <10:32:02/3-22-67>

***** Private: Kor, Gryffin
>>>>>[ BLOOD_MAGIC??? here?  Kor are there any leads at all as to whowas involved in the ritual?  I'm getting the hee-vee-gee-bees.
but once again I can't resist the air of mistery.

oh! suggestion.  If the problem is going down there and doing what we do 
best, without leaving a path straight to serenity I might have a 
solution. I've Got a couple of Fripp-secs (nostalgic) night-jumpers<tm.>
suits lying around that we could use. let me know what?]<<<<<
	-- GoD <09:15:13/03-22-57>

>>>>>[Yeah! Gryff the all black ones with the pink and turquoiselettering.]<<<<<
	--GoD <13:52:34/03-22-57>

*****PRIVATE: Scorpion
>>>>>[Nice try, Scorpion. Other areas you might have hit me, but one
advantage of living in Georgetown is that lots of high-up government types
live there too... so a guy with a high-end sniper rifle does attract hostile
attention, nobody stops to ask who you're after. It's about the only 
protection I get from the Government, glad to see it worked this time.
You're good, though. I didn't know you were there until the cops landed
on you.

Call off the hit, and I'll FedEx you the rifle back... deal? 

BTW, I'll lay you any money you like that Archer is an Aztlan spook. I've
been annoying them a little recently. Now I'm going to *really* piss them
off <g> If you dig up any info, or end up left with any identifiable body
parts after you catch him, I'd be interested.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <12:28:42/03-21-57>

***** PRIVATE: GoD, Griffyn
>>>>>[The problem is that I have already tipped my hand to Maria.  I told her
that I wanted to have a look, she told me how she felt about that.  She
also explained to me, in no uncertain terms, that if I were caught down there,
I was going to be arrested.  That's the risk _I_ get to take.  The plan is
not to get caught down there.  Simple.

The discussion with Maria yeilded enough information to give me the feeling
that she wouldnt mind having a little assistance on it, but her hands are
tied by the department.  She's given me freq's for the cameras and placement
so we can get them jammed  up for 15 minutes while we take a look around.

Primarily I need to two of you for backup.  I'll perform the forensic magic
that needs to be done.  I have been informed, but it wasnt confirmed by Maria
so I dontk now how to take it, that someone (possibly LSS) has added active
bacteria to the area so as to keep out astral visitors.  Meat only visitation.
Ill be ready to roll as soon as night falls.  I'd like to have the cameras
down during shift change (11:45 tonight).

As so who is involved?  No clues.  We'll see what we can see.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <19:11:22 / 03-21-57> 

***** Private: Kor, Griffyn
>>>>>[ OK, I'm game, I take it these guys close it the site outafter dark, so I guess this aught to be simple enough. gentlemen,
Time to earn those highly inflated paychecks...]<<<<<
	--GoD <19:34:44 / 03-22-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Scorpion
>>>>>[I'm afraid to say that I couldn't find anything else on Archer.  He 
transmitted from a node in New York, but that node was only a relay 
point.  I sent what little we had to the people you wanted, but I don't 
know if it will be of any use.]<<<<<
	--  Paradox <4:06:14/3-22-67>

*****PRIVATE: Wintergeist
>>>>>[I am have time to analyse your sample, and it is very 
interesting.  The brain tissue is showing normal signs of age, 
looking like someone about 50 years old.  What is unusual is that the 
cells are still dividing.  The liquid nitrogen killed the tissue, but 
from the percent of cells in mitosis, it is looking the growth rate 
is like a young child, almost newborn.  This means faster learning 
and better.  The cells are also being very small, so there are more 
cells in a small area- more than five times normal.  In the spine and 
nerve tissue, the axons are much larger than normal, and the axonal 
boutons (they are giving information from one neuron to another) are 
also large and many more.  This should be making nerve signals travel 
about twice normal speed.  Again the tissue was dead so i cannot test 
the physiology, but basic cable theory says if you increase diameter, 
you decrease resistance and increase conduction velocity.  I would be 
very interesting if you could be send me some live tissue to test.  I 
am also very like to know who this person is/was and how this is 
happen.]<<<<<
	-- Basilisk <23:09:13 GMT/21.MAR.57>

*****PRIVATE TO:  Lynch
>>>>>[You should already have recieved what info I had on my former 
employer.  Just send the rifle to Renraku Seattle: Security Division 
under my handle.  I have friends there who'll get it to me.  After they 
check it for any surprises of course.  I don't think you'd hold a grudge, 
but its important not to take chances in this biz.]<<<<<
	-- Scorpion <4:25:49/3-22-57>

*****PRIVATE: Kohei Amitsuka
>>>>>[Please pass this on to the boss.  We may have to rethink the 
idea that Katsuhiro Torii's death was an isolated incident.  On March 
10, Kentaro Kamauchi died in a bus 'accident', and on or near March 
19, Hidemasa Sasaki died of an apparent heart attack.  Three high 
ranking members dying in such a short time raises questions.  I have 
inquired into the bus incident, and it was dismissed as an accident 
without even a preliminary investigation.  I have also heard rumors 
that shots were fired just before the accident.  The whole thing 
sounds like a cover-up, which would take a lot of influence.  I will 
amke some discrete inquiries at the Lone Star precinct to see who 
would have that kind of influence, and will try to find out more 
details of Sasaki's death.]<<<<<
	-- Jeweler <19:15:57/03-21-57>

*****Private: Squire Josef
>>>>>[I have heard of your master, and his most noble of causes.  I believe
that I can arrange some assistance for him.  When you know what aid you
need, simply place a call to us on the net alias @ Cygnet, and we will help
however we can.  We would however expect some service in return.]<<<<<
	-- Kang <06:45:51/03-22-57>

*****Private: alias @ Cygnet
>>>>>[Brothers, I believe that we will soon be able to move against those
freakish metas.  I have been contacted by a servant of one whose talents
would allow us to proceed more effectively than we could have dreamed.  I
have given his servant the code to reach us.  I am sure that he will be in
contact soon, requesting our aid.  I have told him that we will help him as
much as possible.]<<<<<
	-- Kang <06:51:21/03-22-57>

*****Private: Kang
>>>>>[Kang, what the frag do you think you are doing?!  You don't have the
authority to promise the aid of the brotherhood to anyone who comes along.
I am the Master of this Brotherhood, and I say who we will help and what we
will do, and nothing has been decided about aiding anyone, or moving against
the cursed metas.  You had best explain yourself, and quickly.]<<<<<
	-- Ian <07:10:17/03-22-57>

*****Private: Ian
>>>>>[I apologize for overstepping my bounds Ian.  Perhaps we can meet at
>>encrypted<< to review this matter and my reasons for acting as I did.]<<<<<
	-- Kang <07:21:10/03-22-57>

*****Private: Kang
>>>>>[Very well.]<<<<<
	-- Ian <07:25:06/03-22-57>

*****PRIVATE: Kor, GoD
>>>>>[ Blood Magic?  That's some nasty stuff, Jas, but you can count me in.
Do you anticipate needing any physical backup?  I've got some friends who
could help out if we need it.  ]<<<<<
	-- Griffyn <10:25:12/03-22-57>

***** PRIVATE: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[You do not know me, Mr. Blackthorne.  Please do not let that effect
your belief of what I now say.  

As a ...*ahem*... representative of certain interested parties,
I've been tracking your brother for days now.  Unfortunately, I've always
been half a step behind... arriving just as the blood he leaves in his wake
starts to gel.

Mr. Blackthorne, I will not mince words.   Your brother has left
the Pueblo.  
And he is not alone.  He travels with a large group of similar mental
deviants - I'd place the number somewhere between ten and thirteen.  

They should already be in Seattle.

They are coming for you Mr. Blackthorne, of this we can be
certain.  First they will kill you.  Then they will kill anyone.  That is why
I am sending you this private message.  So you can make whatever preparations
you feel necessary.  In two hours I will let the rest of ShadowLand know.

As it is in the best interest of my current employer (and _all_
others involved) that this fiasco is wrapped up quickly, let me offer you my
services.  I will be arriving there shortly.  Do not hesitate to contact me!
 
Too many innocents are already cold and dead.]<<<<<
	-- Fool-Killer <13:28:25 / 03-22-57>  

*****PRIVATE TO:  alias @ Cygnet
>>>>>[Sirs.  I have been informed, by Kang,  that your order may be 
willing to aid me.  My Lord, Sword of God, is being transported to the 
airport and sent to Britian to stand trial for his "crimes".  I beseech 
you to aid me in freeing him so that he may continue his holy mission to 
rid this world of the demonic filth known as metahumanity.]<<<<<
	-- Squire Josef <12:29:22/3-23-57>

***** PRIVATE : Fool-Killer
>>>>>[Listen me.. Fool-killer...First...who are you?.. How do you know me ?
... Take care ...I'm not an idiot.... I have a lot of tricks to my enemys
...but... what is the name of your party...]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <16:35:30 / 03-22-57>

>>>>>[ MR.BLACKTHORNE ARRIVED. I'm not a pretty man. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <16:45:30 / 03-22-57>

*****PRIVATE: Basilisk
>>>>>[Sich bedanken bei.

+++++:TRANSFER 40,000 =Y=+++++

Das lebewohl.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <19:01:25/03-22-57>

*****PRIVATE: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[ Okay this feels real weird talking to what many will think is
myself.  Listen chummer you can't just go around and pretend your someone
else.  You have to go out in the streets and get a life of your own, and a
name for that matter.  Here in Seattle, we get REAL pissed when people
start answering our mail for us.  My suggestion to you is back off and get
an identity.  Lots of love chummer. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <19:59:12/03-22-57>

*****PRIVATE: Fool-Killer
>>>>>[ I thank you for your warning, my brother shall be taken care of.
If you want to help, you can send me thier location so I can stop them.
Again thanks for you help. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <20:02:23/03-22-57>

***** NOT TO: Muffin Man
>>>>>[Muffin Man is here.  He is not alone.  He travels with a group of ten
to thirteen men.  And as birds of a feather do so love one another, it is
safe to assume that they are all psychotics.

They've come to kill and they are very good at it.  Be wary,
all.]<<<<<
	-- Fool-Killer <15:28:25 / 03-22-57>

>>>>>[So, like, whuzzup wif dis "Muffin Man", huh?  'Zee s'posed to be some
kinda hot shit?  Prost'tute killin' sick-ass mothafucka is mo' like it.  Shit.
An' that "industrial accident" thing?  I'ont _even_ think so.  But what I wanna
know is what fuckin' Ten-Fo be doin' about this shit?  Do we gots LoneStar o'
Interpol on tha one's and two's or not?  Oughtsta be doin' _somethin'_ to
earn all those damn donuts...]<<<<<
	--  Lopez  <22:17:32 / 03-22-57>

>>>>>[What, are raving loonies on sale or something? "Today's Special: Half 
off psychopathic homicidal maniacs! Call now, supplies are limited!" They're 
getting to be like cockroaches around here -- every time you turn around 
another one pops up. Almost enough to make me want to move out, or at least 
buy lots of bug spray. Why do serial killers always give themselves stupid 
wacky names like "Muffin Man", anyway? Is good taste the first thing to go 
when you start hearing voices in your head?]<<<<<
	--  Sam-I-Am <22:22:09/03-22-57>

>>>>>[Could someone PUH-leeeese hire us to take him out? Just give us his
location and he's deader than a box of Killer's kitty-litter...]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <05:40:19/23-03-57>

*****Private: Squire Josef
>>>>>[Greetings Squire.  My associate Kang has explained his reasons for
giving you this access, and I heartily approve.  Our group is not overly
large, but we would be glad to offer any assitance your Lord requires.  It
would be tragic to allow such a noble figure to be tried by those who are
not worthy to clean his boots.  Let us know how we can be of assistance.
	-- Ian <10:46:11/03-23-57>

*****PRIVATE TO:  Ian
>>>>>[Thank you sir.  Please meet me at +location+ at +time+ to discuss 
how we may best utilize our assests to free my Lord.]<<<<<
	-- Squire Josef <12:22:49>

*****NOT TO: Muffin Man
>>>>>[Lopez, cut Interpol some slack for once. You know how tight-assed Drake
gets about legalities: all the crimes so far linked to the Muffin Man were
committed in UCAS turf, no boundaries crossed. He'd be breaking the law by
jumping in right now. Drake would have to arrest himself, interrogate himself,
throw himself down the stairs to the holding cells, then shoot himself twice
in the back of the head while he was trying to escape <g> 

Lone Star, well, the Seattle chapter of the Keystone Kops are working to 
their usual high standards on this one: they're ordering a search of every 
Dunkin' Donuts in the city.

Hell with it. Mr Blackthorne, you want some help on this? I mean, tell me
to stay out if you like: but if you want a little assistance with this
problem, let me know.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <11:32:51/03-23-57>

>>>>>[Well, another young would-be reporter finds herself being used to
propagate someone else's achievements around this node. This arrived in my
mailbox, so here it is for everyone's amazement.

+++++include video: warehouse_raid

Now, either this guy is really good, or really stupid, or totally overdosed
on a Hong Kong retro season, or all three, but it looks like BTL prices are
going up for a while.

And for anyone who wanted the legit scoop...

+++++begin news.download
WAREHOUSE GUN BATTLE 'MOB IN-FIGHTING', SAY POLICE
Lone Star confirmed that the gun battle and explosions that wrecked 
an Everett warehouse was fall-out of a BTL turf war between criminal
organisations. "A large quantity of chipware was destroyed in the fight."
said a spokesperson. "It seems that this was the objective of the attack."
Fourteen bodies were found, though at present all are believed to be
members of the criminal syndicates involved.
+++++end news.download

Don't know why a vigilante hit on a BTL dealer is so important, but
there you go.]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <22:15:51/03-23-57>

*****PRIVATE: 1Lt DiAnnio, SIGA
>>>>>[Well, I'm back. Tanned and handsome after my jaunt in Cambodia,
and bruised and battered after playing big boys' games with the
Russians. 

Cambodia, I copied you all the feedback from AJ's team. La Paz and Cairo
were the other two nukes, did I say that already? Egypt, okay, no problem,
but Amazonia? Okay, it worked quite well in one way - I'd never expect
them to risk it - but Maxim are going to have *trouble* from Amazonia
ever after. And that means EarthFirst!, Greenwar, Terra Uno, The United
Gaian Front, the Gaian United Front, the Front of Gaia United -
+++++insert video.clip (Life.of.Brian-12)
Splitters!
+++++end video.clip

Anyway, enough levity.

Ryazan was the usual: the new zampolit is a better sort than last time, 
suggested we just swap our "authorised disclosure" datafiles. No real 
revelations, just the usual Russian hard-core, no-mercy attitude. Low 
subtlety, high firepower, good training and discipline.

One interesting point - I came back to Seattle and a friend had some more
info on that tortureware stuff, so I hit a place they were using to fit
out cars as smuggle-wagons. Went in all cocky and casual, and the place
was a lot tougher than I thought: even the mechanics had AK-97s. Luckily
most of them didn't know which end the bullets come out of. There might be
more to this than some Aztlan spook turning a profit on the side. Quinn's 
circulating the vid, see for yourself. 

Anyway, I'll be back in DC tomorrow night. Dinner at Circle Hands? My 
treat this time.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <22:32:60/03-23-57>

*****PRIVATE: Colonel Tepanohoutec
>>>>>[Sir, our operations are becoming increasingly difficult. We require 
additional support if the plan is to continue. 

So far the main threat appears to be a single individual: Jason Lynch.

This offers an opportunity to eliminate him, permanently, as a threat. However, 
I regret to state that Lieutenant Ramirez attempted a botched assassination 
attempt on Lynch, without taking time to investigate or research the threat. 
Thus, Lynch will be alerted: the assassin came far closer than would have been 
expected in the circumstances, but advertised his failure and his fury with 
Ramirez on Shadowland. Ramirez has been dealt with appropriately, of course,
but we require a replacement.

His latest attack occurred in the Seattle facility we were using to ship the
merchandise to the NAN states. I have appended the video of the event. There 
is no external footage: those cameras were disabled, and the feed looped to 
show no abnormality. The four guards outside all insisted that they saw and 
heard nothing untoward until the incident began.

+++++include video: warehouse_raid
The view is from security cameras, in the four roof corners of a small 
warehouse, looking inward. Eight cars are parked, most with their doors and 
hoods open, and are being worked on by about twenty coveralled labourers. 
Armed guards sit around, or in a few cases wander idly: about eight in all. 

It seems that the cars are being used to carry trays of datachips, which are 
being hidden in places like the seat upholstery, or the sound-deadening 
material under the hood. The audio feed gives a low buzz of conversation and a 
steady background of music: "Seattle's Hot Forty", by the sound and the DJ.

Sudden movement, high in the picture, as something falls from the girderwork 
of the roof: you register it as a person, before the bright muzzle flash of an 
automatic weapon highlights his descent in stroboscopic intervals. One car
erupts in flame and broken glass as the guards in front of it fall, and another
of the guards - firing back at the abseiling man - is suddenly kicked to the
ground, his shotgun flying. In the three or four seconds of his descent, the
attacker has killed six men. The guards are shooting wildly, the workers 
scrambling for their weapons.

The raider - you presume this must be Lynch - lands not ten feet from a 
startled guard, rolls under the man's wild spray of fire, and comes up firing: 
a pistol in each hand, half-a-dozen shots almost point-blank. Slamming against
a parked Elite, he fires again at something the camera doesn't clearly see: 
the sudden wash of flame partly obscures the view as the angle shifts to 
another camera. 

Lynch rolls over the hood of the car, coming down on top of a terrified worker: 
he cracks the man across the head with one Predator, then as the last two 
guards break cover towards him - spraying long bursts with their AKs - he 
fires, left-handed, twice: the two shots almost blurring into one as both men's 
heads snap back as though hit with baseball bats, and they fall bonelessly in 
unison.

Lynch drops the magazine out of one Predator and reloads, then does the same 
for the other weapon: casually turning and rapid-firing both at the Judas-door 
in the main entrance as another armed man crashes through, falling. Muzzle 
flashes behind him show a more cautious colleague, whose fire ceases abruptly 
as Lynch continues to shoot at the door, punching holes in the thin sheet 
aluminium where the rifleman must be standing. 

A long pause as he looks around, his mirrorshades reflecting the light of 
several fires. You see a tall man, over six feet tall yet rail-thin, with 
long black hair whose grey streaks catch the firelight, wearing jeans and a 
battered leather jacket. He walks calmly to the Elite he had used as cover, 
holstering one pistol and opening the fuel cap before dropping something into 
the tank's mouth. He repeats this at each of the gasburning cars that are not 
already ablaze, then places two more objects amidst the trays of datachips. 

Walking a little faster, Lynch draws the second Predator again as he moves to 
the door and leaves. For nearly twenty seconds, nothing happens: then the 
Elite explodes in a flashbulb glare of light that whites out the camera for 
several seconds. As it clears and you see the blazing wreckage, the second car 
likewise explodes. The sequence of detonations ends with the chips being 
scattered, fiercely burning, around the warehouse: two of the four cameras are 
already off-line by then.
+++++end video

Quite apart from the clear video of his face, which matches him to a 99.3% 
probability, the method and style fits completely Lynch's profile: especially 
the overdramatic entrance, and his childish preference for using a pair of 
pistols rather than a more effective weapon. Our psychiatric profile suggests 
an addiction to antique films, especially those of a Chinaman called Woo. 

The merchandise, and the vehicles earmarked for its transport, were completely
destroyed in the fire: the incendiary devices used were white phosphorous 
grenades. Of the thirty-one workers and guards, eleven were found alive and 
the bodies of fourteen were recovered. The remaining six remain at large. 

Interrogation of all survivors indicated that none had any complicity in the 
attack. Four remain available for further examination if deemed necessary. 
The only additional data not recorded on the cameras is a black automobile, 
"sounded powerful", which collected Lynch after the attack. The driver was 
not seen, and neither was the registration. I regret that this witness 
suffered an aneurysm during deep magical probing and offer my apologies 
for the clumsiness of the work.

Lone Star have taken custody of the scene, but have been persuaded that it 
was a simple criminal BTL operation. Forensic analysis of the merchandise has 
been precluded, and all evidence in Lone Star custody has been 'lost'. The
surviving personnel recovered by the police were likewise released to
us and records of them mislaid. None of the dead are traceable to our
operation.

Indications to date are that Lynch is following a personal crusade against the
overt content of the merchandise. He does not appear to have involved his
Agency contacts, and we have no evidence that Project Manchu has been
compromised. There is also no sign of his usual companion in these
matters yet.

We are currently carrying out damage control and awaiting orders.]<<<<<
	-- Major Zicahuata <21:32:51/03-23-57>
	Aztlan Intelligence Service

*****PRIVATE: Major Zicahuata
>>>>>[Increase security at all operations: additional personnel are being 
released as necessary. Keep me informed of any and all incidents, however 
minor. Additional merchandise is en route: maintain the schedule and advise 
me on any delay you cannot prevent. Send the survivors back for further 
investigation. I would, however, suggest you review your data on the 
'powerful black car' against the files, before you claim The Lady was not 
involved.

My congratulations on your handling of the police investigation, Major. You 
have coped well with a difficult assignment. We will attempt to deal with 
the Lynch problem: however, concentrate on protecting your operation. He has 
been a thorn in our side for over five years, and has demonstrated a knack for 
evading retaliation. You do not have the resources, nor the training, to pursue 
him. I will pass this matter upwards for consideration.

Continue with the plan as given, until further orders.]<<<<<
	-- Colonel Tepanohoutec <21:32:51/03-23-57>
	Aztlan Intelligence Servic

*****PRIVATE:  Shade
>>>>>[After all, I am a hermetic, you know.  Besides, it'd give us a 
chance to spend some time together.]<<<<<
	--  Foxey Roxey <22:12:00/03-23-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Basilisk
>>>>>[My apologies for taking so long in returning your mail, Bas.  I 
really appreciated all you help, and if you need anything for your clinic 
or need help, don't hesitate to ask.  As for NOX, it was my pleasure.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <22:28:26/03-23-57>

>>>>>[Mr. Scorpion, it is highly unprofessional to gloat over a man who 
you've not even beaten yet.  Telling someone they're dead is a sure way 
to guarantee they disappear.  Far better to find them, wound them severly 
enough in an organ that doesn't kill instantly, and then gloat as they 
bleed to death internally.]<<<<<
	--  Skull <22:31:50/03-23-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Kevin Donaldson
>>>>>[Mr. Donaldson, after receiving the mail from Kenneth about his 
dreams, I had him talk with Douglas Running Elk, one of the instructors 
here and a Wolf shaman.  Doug is of the opinion that Kenneth is likely a 
Wolf shaman, since he recalls his first meetings and conversations with 
Wolf being similar.

I would like your permission to have Kenneth work with Doug, have Doug 
become something of a mentor, for at least the time being.  If Kenneth 
were one of the regular students rather than your brother whom you 
enrolled here at Haven, I would probably have done so, but as you are his 
guardian, I feel it is only right to consult you before doing anything 
more concrete than I have.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <22:48:25/03-23-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Foxey Roxey
>>>>>[Is it just me, or does it seem like it takes a shadowrun for us to be
able to be near one another?  And yes, it should be interesting.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <24:56:34 / 3-24-57>

>>>>>[Weeee-ha!  Damn those are some fun guys.  You ever get a chance 
to work with a bunch a black guys callin' themselves the Shaolin, do 
it.  Fearless, crazy, good and all without magic, too.  Which means 
that I'm in just as many pieces as I started with....

So, I lofted a Condor II to try and keep track of them.  Convinced 
them to carry a locator beacon so I could follow along and try to 
keep an eye on the opposition from above.  Some of this comes from my 
surveillance rig on the building across the way, some from the drone 
and some from internal sec cameras.

This all happened 'bout a week ago, we've been laying low since then.

Enjoy.

+++++BEGIN A/V PLAYBACK? (Y/N) y

The aerial view opens up on a busy downtown street.  The streets are crowded
with all manner of vehicles, the sidewalks jammed with people in suits
rushing to and from work.  Some of you recognize it's MacArthur Boulevard, in
front of the Russian Imperial Gardens, a high-rise apartment building
strictly for the wealthy.  

By the rush of activity and the way the sun is shining, your best 
guess is that it is the morning rush hour.  Nothing unusual as yet, 
but you know something is going to have to happen.

>From the right a small group catches your attention.  Four very large
black men, clad in the so-called "urban style" of jeans and overlarge
jackets, stride their way purposefully through the flowing crowd, towards the
gilded front entrance of the Gardens.  They pause for a moment, and then you
see a Bulldog stepvan, obviously armored in the way that only Bulldogs can
be, pull up to the entrance of the Gardens.  The red-coated doorman steps
forward instinctively to open the door of the Bulldog, then seems to remember
something and steps back to his post.  

The aerial view changes to the drone, taking a more sideways angle.  
The doorman turns, and opens the door of the Gardens, allowing a 
small, mousey man to step out of the apartment building.  

With speed caused only by seriously enhanced reactions, the four black
men cross the few meters between them and the mousey man.  Two of them
produce what look like sawed-off auto shotguns, the other two grab the mousey
man, slapping him on the back of the neck with what must be slap patches.

The doors of the Bulldog explode open, disgorging a pair of armored Fuchi
security men from each side.  The shotguns in the hands of the black 
men roar their clap of doom, and the pair of agents nearest them is 
thrown back into the van.  

The unarmed black men push their victim to the sidewalk and start to 
bind his hands.

The other two members of the security team hesitate for a moment, 
possibly for fear of hitting the man they were charged with 
protecting.  

A black Toyota Elite slams into the back of the Bulldog, pinning, 
a screaming security man against the stepvan.  Again the sawed-off 
shotguns of the black men roar, hurling the other security officer 
into on-coming traffic.

A rear door of the Elite swings open, and the kidnappers and their now
dazed prize dissappear into the small limosine.

For several long minutes, the Elite seems to have done it's job, eluding
any pursuit, sometimes including the drone.  The combination of speed, 
turns, and diving into parking structures seems to have shaken all 
pursuit.  

Even you are unsure of exactly where they are, or where they are 
headed.  Then you hear the whupp-whupp sound of what can only be a 
large helicopter.  The aerial view swings away from the Elite to show 
a Aerostar, it's large side door open to reveal a mounted machine gun. 

The machine gun chatters, spitting flame and lead.  The view swings 
back down to the Elite, and it appears it has escaped the first 
volley.  The machine gun speaks; sparks fly across the armored 
exterior.  The machine guns chatters again, this time cleanly 
penetrating the front hood of the small limosine.  White smoke begins 
to belch from the engine as the Elite begins to slow noticeably.  The 
smoke turns pitch-black as it turns into the large parking lot of the 
Willow Bay shopping mall in south Seattle.  

The Elite glides to a stop near the East entrance of the mall, the 
black smoke obscuring the car almost totally.  Out of the back, five 
large black men step out, dragging their clearly drugged prize with 
them.  From the front, two more black men make their escape from the 
smoking limosine.  As they run towards the entrance, the machine guns 
chatters again, cratering the pavement, hitting one of the kidnappers 
in the shoulder and knocking him down.  But with the help of his team 
mates, he is back on his feet and running, crashing through the crowd, 
diving into the mall.  

The camera swings back to show the Aerostar, now rapidly descending to 
the roof.  The chopper bounces once before settleing.  Almost before 
the helicopter hits the pad again, a team of five heavily armed and 
armored men dive out.  Or at least you think all five are men.

The leader, running in front of the rest, moves with the bizarre,
inhuman grace you've only seen in the new Move-By-Wire reflex enhancements,
and their is the nagging feeling he is not...whole.  Something about his
face, his arms, seems to be not quite right.

As the strike team smashes open the roof-access door, you hear a loud
explosion.  The Elite must be in a thousand scored pieces now.

The view now shifts away from the aerial drone, and to what must be a
mall security camera.  The team of kidnappers are running through the light
morning crowd, leaving people and bags scattered in their wake.  Mere moments
later, you hear again the sounds of auto-fire, causing the kidnapping team to
dive into a Shini-Walgreens.  Screams now fill the audio track as the
shoppers begin to run, terrified, towards the exit, any exit.

The view shifts to another camera to show the kidnappers bursting
through plain doors in the back of Shini-Walgreens into what must be the
access halls and tunnels in the back of every store.  The group pauses for a
moment, trying to decide where to go.  Sweat glistens on their dark faces,
their lips pulled back, panting, revealing golden fangs set onto their
natural teeth.  They draw their weapons from beneath their jackets, 
and begin to walk quickly off to the right.  Another camera takes over 
for the first as the group walks out of it's field of view, and a 
third takes over for the second.  Then, perhaps a dozen meters in 
front of them, the strike team appears.  HV-LMGs are leveled at the 
kidnapping group, and begin to spit their high-velocity rounds at 
them.  The group dives into a small hallway to the back of some store, 
firing their small arms wildly at the strike team.  One round hits the 
leader in the face, and ricochets, leaving only a small tear in the 
skin, and a grin on his face.  

One of the black men attempt to shotgun open the door, but nothing 
happens, much to his suprise and horror.  Another leans out into the 
hallway, just enough to fire his sawed-off shotgun, and is shot in the 
arm just as he fires.

The Fuchi leader's grin suddenly dissappears.  

With his free left hand, he pops wicked spurs out of their metallic 
sheaths, and begins to swat at something unseen.  The strike team 
halts, as the air in front of them begins to shimmer and coalesce.  

The haze forms into a horrific swirling crimson haze, the shade too 
similar to fresh blood to be ignored.  From it's swirling mass 
stretch five terribly clawed arms, one for each member of the strike
team.  The look of terror is now on the faces of the strike team, as they
fire full automatice bursts at the swirling mass of crimson, but to no
avail.  

The kidnappers, seeing their only chance, all turn and fire at the
door, en masse, shattering it.  Kicking their costly prize in front of 
them, they run into an Elizabeth's Secret, screaming women diving 
out of their way.
 
Back in the hallway, the only one left standing is the strange 
leader, leaking blood and hydraulic fluids.  Spurs are out of both 
cyberhands, dripping with blood.  The strange spirit seems to 
have taken some damage, but it now can turn it's whole attention to 
it's final target.  In a blur of motion, swirling crimson, and 
spurting blood, the confrontation ends.  The strike team leader lies 
dead, along with his comrades.  

The crimson cloud seems to jiggle, a motion you might almost mistake 
for glee, as it descends onto the mutilated bodies of it's victims.

+++++PLAYBACK COMPLETE

I couldn't get the security logs for the rest, but they managed 
to evade the mall rent-a-cops long enough to make it to the bus 
terminal downstairs.  They load the good doctor onto a bleedin' 
bus and bring him to me.  Wiiiild.  These guys are that cool 
under stress.

So, here's the official scan (from a coupla days back):

+++++BEGIN TRID PLAYBACK? (Y/N): y

Yesterday, warfare erupted at the Willow Bay Shopping Mall in 
Seattle.  Terrorists with suspected links to Islamic fundamentalist 
groups in the Far East kidnapped an unsuspecting shopper from the 
mall, before battling security and disappearing.  Lone Star suspects 
they plan to hold the shopper, whose name has not yet been released, 
hostage somewhere in the Seattle Barrens.  Mall guards battled the 
terrorists in the accessways of the mall before being magically 
assaulted by one of the terrorists' spirits.  More on the Willow Bay 
Kidnapping as it develops.

In other news, Fuchi Internal Security has begun recruiting 
executives to fill positions recently vacated by numerous 
retirements in middle management.....

+++++PLAYBACK COMPLETE

Ain't it great to know the trids never get the news right....

Now, what do I do with all this money?  Visit my aunt Tilly in 
Passac?  Nah....  Visit my brother Earl in Newark?  Nope.  Blow it 
all on hookers and gambling in Atlantic City?  Oh, yeah!!!!]<<<<<
	-- Rumormonger <Always / Tuned-In>

>>>>>[Yeah, clean and neat.  Are their operations always so violent?  Also,
I always thought the Shoalin were some form of oriental monks.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <15:05:25 / 3-24-57>

>>>>>[Shade, are you trying to say you have never had a run blow up in 
your face?  

>From what I scan the Bulldog was a corp shuttle, so the low execs and 
scientists don't have to put up with traffic and commuting, but the 
corporation can still keep an eye on them.   Now that counts as one 
mistake.  They should have nosd around the shuttle to see what kind 
of security those things carry.

Give them an "A" for effort, though.  Tried to get lost in the crowd, 
saw an opening and took it. 

Now I remember one time we were doing a body snatch against an 
unfriendly warlord outside of Au Phuc Dup (our nickname for the 
anywhere over there, sorta like saying you're parked out in Timbuktu) 
in Viet Nam.  That was a cluster- fuck.  We take about three days to 
get close to the target and what happens?  One of his bodyguards steps 
out on the back of his hootch to take a whiz just as we're sneaking 
up to grab his boss.  Starts screaming his head off, everybody in the 
camp comes running.  We managed to grab the warlord, but by the time 
we were back in the treeline, every dog and his cousin was after us.  

We had to kill the little bastard to make it back to the extraction 
point, he was slowing us down so much.

And, yes, the Shaolin are oriental monks.  But legend portrays them 
as fighting monks, some of the hardest outside of Japan, at that.  
You never heard of gangs calling themselves something just because it 
sounds cool?

I'm amazed you aren't more worried about that spirit that 
jumped the Fuchi team in the halls.]<<<<<
	-- Snake (15:55:12 / 03-24-57)

*****PRIVATE TO: Squire Josef
>>>>>[God said me : Judas, talk with Josef. He is a good man.
God is not happy. Monsters and Sorcerers, the beast=B4s sons, destroy His
creations. If they are strong, I will be stronger. I will kill all my
enemies. Brother, I=B4m with you, Are you with me?]<<<<<
	-- JUDAS <18:51:03 / 03-25-57>

***** PRIVATE : Fool - Killer
>>>>>[ Hi "Parce".. You don=B4t know me.. I believe that I can be util for
ya... and your organisation... in the mr. blackthorne theme..you know..
Ok amigo.. cya later]<<<<<
	-- Obtulio Varela (el parce) <19:32:53 / 03-24-57>

>>>>>[My apologies, I didn't mean that they often mess-up, but if their
raids often ended up taking a violent bent.  Then again, sometimes that is
part of the game.

As to the spirit, I plan to investigate it, but I am need to finish
my current project first.  Why is it that cybermancers can't keep their
creatures on a leash.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <20:48:52 / 3-24-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[Have you had a chance to look at that chamber yet?]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <21:58:52/24-03-57>

>>>>>[Killer Monks? Heheh. What WILL they come up with next?]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <21:56:24/24-03-57>

>>>>>[Can anyone recommend some high-ish security level sites out here in
MatrixLand? Me and a few pals are looking to get some tandem
practice...]<<<<< 
	-- Tobai Dark <22:00:22/24-03-57>

*****PRIVATE: Obtulio Varela (el parce)
>>>>>[I am not the one you should be offering help.  That would be Muffin
Man's brother, Mr. Blackthorne. Nor is it my function to hire people for "my
organization".  

But Muffin Man needs to be stopped.  So contact Blackthorne.  Send
references.

And as a rule of thumb: do not assume I, or anybody, is your friend.  You'll
live longer.]<<<<<
	-- Fool-Killer <19:56:09 / 03-24-57>

>>>>>[Hoi chummers.  I 'ave returned from my long absence.  If ya were
wonderin', Colice and m'self were on tour.  I was helpin ta run the security,
an did a few numbers on stage.  I must however say that I am glad ta be
back.]<<<<<
	--  STREETWOLF(Fire is an Elf's Best Friend)<02:06:40/03-25-57>

***** PRIVATE : Fool-Killer
>>>>>[HEar me Parce .... Im not an idiot... I know this streets like my 
face... my pretty face.... well parce.. if ya dont want my help... there 
are a lot of people... and they have real money to pay my services....]<<<<<
	-- Obtulio Varela (el negro) <7:49:22 / 03-25-57>

>>>>>[Don't push your luck Wunder Twins.

I've retired from the UCAS Army twice.  The first time I left to 
study with Zen Buddhist monks in the hills north of San Francisco.  

For the mental midgits out there, yes, that makes them metas that got 
kicked out of Japan after they underwent the Change.]<<<<<
	-- Snake (09:27:33 / 03-25-57)

>>>>>[ Jen and Gabe, take out the Muffin Man.  Here's your payment:

+++++transfer:  1 =Y=  ]<<<<<
	-- Anonymous <10:46:04/03-25-57>

>>>>>[  Snake, don't you hate it when good old Mr. Murphy steps in and turns
a perfectly good op into a goatfuck?  ]<<<<<
	-- Tangent <11:00:12/03-25-57>

>>>>>[Drek, drek, drek.  This is bad.  I and some comptriates were 
transporting Wilhem Von Dartmorn, aka Sword of God to the airport for 
extradition when we were hit by some unknown team.  I had hired my friend 
David's group, Kneehigh Demolitions Inc., to run backup and David, their 
mage Thornn and their sam Kneecaps were in the prison van with me, while 
their rigger Butterfly flew overwatch in a souped up Yellowjacket.

The first sign we had of trouble was when my and Thornn's elementals got 
banished.  And the next thing we know someone's sent a pair of ground to 
air missiles into the Yellowjacket.  Butterfly didn't survive that.

As we waited for the next attack, the van hit some fragging mines laid 
out on the road ahead of us at the same time as a sniper takes out the 
Lone Star driver.  The van went skidding around before crashing into a 
lamppost.  And the whole time we're trying to call for backup but somethings 
jamming our com-gear.  Even David's internal radio.

So the van's stopped and we spot a large group of heavily armed humans 
advancing on us.  So we pile out and hit them first.  Thornn takes one down 
with a power bolt, but then he's distracted by an earth elemental.  I'd 
already used my lion form spell and had bowled into the goons, while 
Kneecaps and David opened up on them from cover.

We're starting to make some headway as Thornn takes out the enemy elemental 
when a second group hits us from behind.  Kneecaps and David get taken out 
by a concussion grenade.  Thornn manages to scatter the first group with a 
powerball, but the drain takes him out.  And those that were still up in the 
first group manage to keep me occupied while the second group frees Sword of 
God.

Then as I here sirens coming closer the sniper nails me in the leg and I 
black out.  David was conscious enough to tell me that the rescue party 
grabbed it's dead and wounded and booked out.

Kneecaps is still in the hospital but he should be fine.  Thornn and 
David are up and pissed off about Butterfly's death.  But I think we got 
lucky.  I'm an ork and everyone in Kneehigh Demolotions Inc is a dwarf.  
If the Star hadn't shown up I doubt if the Sword of God's rescue party 
would have let us live.  Not that he's going to stay free.  That racist 
fragger is going to go down and he will pay for his crimes.  I will bring 
him to justice no matter what.]<<<<<
	-- Aristo <9:20:03/3-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kang
>>>>>[Sir I thank you for my release from imprisonment.  My squire 
informed me that the price for my freedom would be a favor done for you 
and your compratriots.  Name it and it will be done.

But also some sad news.  Squire Josef did not survive the wounds 
inflicted on him by the demon Fellworth, or Aristo as he is known in the 
shadows.  For too long this demon has hidden under the protection of his 
brother the Duke Nigel Fellworth of England.  He will pay for his crimes 
against humanity.

Also, after I complete your favor I will be journeying to the CFS where 
likeminded allies of mine will help me to repair the damage done to my 
cyberware in prison.  But if you have need of me or my servants you may 
contact me at **LTG #**.]<<<<<
	-- Sword of God <9:27:59/3-25-57>

***** PRIVATE: Cybil
>>>>>[Yes, I did.  I ran into some problems while down there which I will
out-line simply as 1) nearly being arrested 2) nearly being killed by a 
currently unknown spirit (likely belonging to the body that was found there).

I have a tech working on the footage as we speak.  There are a couple things
that needed to be cleaned up.  Nothing important to your research should
be loss.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <16:39:49 / 03-26-57> 

>>>>>[Dear Jen and Gabe  --  May I suggest Misha's on Fourth?  I suspect that
the three of you could get a good sushi and steak dinner for just under
that thousand New Yen.]<<<<<
	-- Jason R. Stormwind <16:44:24 / 03-(25+1)-57> 
	Executive Officer
	Industrial Sound and Magic

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[ ALL help is needed, he brought his old gang back and thier ready to
kill.  I have a small group now but his is larger, so if your willing I
need to know.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <12:00:12/ 03-24-57>

>>>>>[ Jen and Gabe, huh.  Well if your so hells bent on taking him out,
then I suggest you get ready to deal with him.  Why you ask because your
now on this little team, so hall balls and get over to Pullyaup ]<<<<<
	-- Redfeather <12:03:23/ 03-24-57>

*****PRIVATE: Mr Blackthorne
>>>>>[Okay, I'm in, and I have a friend who may wish to come in as well.
Who is this guy, who are his friends, what do they plan to do (in detail,
not 'kill people'), who's pulling their strings... Inform me.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <12:00:12/ 03-24-57>

*****PRIVATE: 1Lt DiAnnio, SIGA
>>>>>[Date's off, sorry: some sort of tag-team of psychos are about to
hit Seattle, and I stuck my big nose in and volunteered to help. One of 
them's already into multiple homicide. Check the logs: he's been calling 
himself the Muffin Man.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <17:30:14/03-25-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[Looks nasty. Very nasty. This should really be a Lone Star problem...
except they won't handle it right, since most of the people with evidence
are wanted themselves. 

I smell leverage, if we do this right: which in Seattle right now could
be very useful. And it's time I got out of the office for a while.

I'm on my way in, unless you strenuously object. Usual cover?

And let's see if we can get a few alive: find out if they're isolated
crazies, or someone's pawns.]<<<<<
	-- 1Lt DiAnnio <17:41:26/03-25-57>
	Corporate Division
	Strategic Intelligence Gathering Agency

*****PRIVATE TO: Lynch
>>>>>[Well, Lynch, it looks as if we'll be working together again.  Not that
there's anything wrong with that.  I just feel like I should go buy a cape,
some tights, and get a car with a catchy nickname <g>

I swear, one of these days, I'm _gonna_ do some work, that pays.]<<<<<
	--  Blade <12:30:15/3-25-57>

>>>>>[You wouldn't believe it brother.  I could tell ya some 
tales.]<<<<<
	-- Snake (16:22:22 / 03-25-57)

***** PRIVATE: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[I am interested in helping out regarding the Muffin Man 
situation.  My sense of justice will not allow this maniac to 
continue killing people and posting the results to Shadowland.  I 
don't want to see it and neither does anyone else.  I don't expect 
any payment.  I just want to see this person go down.

+++++include file: eq.resume

That's so you can see what I can do and plan me in accordingly.
I appreciate your time and hope I can help.]<<<<<
	-- EQ <17:25:32/ 03-25-57>

*****PRIVATE: [a--i--s] at [Pentagram]
>>>>>[Damn damn DAMN this place!  Whatever they're pumping into my arm has
my hormones completely up in arms, making it damn hard to think.  Both
Az +++++Hi there!+++++ and I will be fine they said, but I'm still pissed as
hell.  Anyway, my report:
+++++engage AnataMedake1.8x
The pickup went just as expected.  Unmarked van, precise timing at the loading
dock, good security.  The item came in a zero-zero armored case with nasty
self-destruct mechanism, sealed tight.  We used the random route, not
exceeding traffic conditions.  At 2147.35 a low-observability drone, baseline
California Condor variant by IFF, attacked with rockets and Exp/APDS-laden MMG.
Drone was shot down with one '232 round, with only cosmetic damage taken.  No
casualties, but two impact-muniscus craters in the sidewalk.  Status of hostile
drone after termination unknown.

At 2208.17, 0.6k from destination, a full-scale assault occured.  Two
California Condors with EX-laden HVHMG and one Tinkerbell with AGM rack
and HVLMG, plus one armored van a block and a half away.  All were magically
invisible, apparently launched from rooftop level.  Bravo and Charlie succeeded
in scratching one C.C., but Bravo was lost to missile fire from the 'Bell.
The other C.C. scored nontrivial damage on my armor before being shot down, and
we took one more missile before the 'Bell went down.  The missile penetrated
the carapice and exploded inside, doing moderate damage to control systems.
The blast was not powerful enough to harm either of us.  However, as I pressed
out of the kill zone, we failed to avoid one of the six mines positioned in the
road.  Nearly all underbelly armor was shredded, further damaging the drive-
train and throwing shrapnel into the cabin, a piece of which lodged in my leg.
Within fifteen more seconds we arrived at the perimeter of the facility, where
security took us under their umbrella.  I am undergoing medical care for my
wound and for shock, under the supervision of Azrael.  Status of hostile
drones and van unknown.  My van is barely drivable, with severe cosmetic
damage and grave drivetrain and control problems.  Status of Bravo unknown.

CDS and Gunsight footage follow:
+++++include cds.authentic.fr
+++++disengage AnataMedake1.8x
I assume Lopez was able to collect our shit.  I just hope those bastards give
us a bonus for this shit.  Whoever hit us knew exactly what to look for and
was using some _serious_ equipment.  Fuckfuckfuck.  +++++We'll be alright,
V-12.  Our benefactors are doing protocol with the police to try to cover up
what happened+++++]<<<<<
	--  Valerie  <14:29:42 / 03-25-57>

*****PRIVATE: [a--i--s] at [Pentagram]
>>>>>[You did good, Val.  No mis'take 'bout it.  I'z been raisin' hell on
tha phone, and it looks like they'z a leak somewhere in they system.  That otha
van wuz tryin' to grab our shit 'for Lopez surprised'em wif Delta.  Call it
terrorist strike, wif stolen equipment claimed by your destination.  Lopez got
Bravo outta da way befo too much scrutiny got paid, an' we getsta look at tha
otha team's shit once tha fo-rensics is up.  Even paid up tha legal fees, they
did.  We'z rep's goin' up fo this one, and You-Know-Who's gonna have a
serious chat wif da personell.  I know you heard what Rubiy said t'ya, an' I
also wantcha ta know dat I'z behind ya on this.  I don' take people onta my
team easily, an' I don' abandon'em when they down.  Here's tha deal fo'
gettin' home:
+++++include itin.authentic
I'z prouda you both.]<<<<<
	--  V-12  <15:11:51 / 03-25-57>

>>>>>[G'day lads and lasses. Me handle is Warloc, I am an elf from the 
greenest of lands, the fairest of places, and where you can find the 
best bit of ale. Tir Na-nog. 

Now some ya might be thinking "Ah Christ, another high feultin 
dandy-lion-eater from the Tir!", and you'd be right. But I'm looking to 
find some friends that might like to find the gold at the end of the 
rainbow, or just a really good run.

I'll be lettin' ya know that I don't do wetwork. I will kill in defense 
or to save me friends but I don't like to if it ain't necessary. Life 
is precious and enough people don't realize it. Most of the spells that 
I have are stun related.

Also be advised that I am a Druid of the Moon and I have unique 
abilities that those on this side of the pond might not be aware of. 
Not that I'll be spilling our secrets.
 
If ya like send me a note and we'll get together and have a mug of ale 
and a pipe and talk shop. Gud day to all.]<<<<<
	--  Warloc <19:01:40 / 3-25-57>

*****Private: Warloc
>>>>>[My name is Shade, and my relatives came fron Tir Na Nog.  I
am an Elven Stag Shaman.  Life is precious, but so is death.  Both are
natural cycles of the existence.

There are few circles in Seattle.  I own a very weak one, and a very
powerful one is at a place of peace called Haven in the Redmond Barrens.
Lastly, the British Consulater controls a nice nexus of ley lines, but I
don't know what the Druid there would require for access.  He is a Sea
Shaman, you know.  Anway, welcome to the City by the Sound.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <19:06:04 / 3-25-57>

>>>>>[This was leaked to me recently from a source who I refuse to 
compromise.  Enjoy it, it's most fascinating.

+++++ Include Written transcript, InterPol-Seattle

Legend:  
CD:  Commander Paul Drake
MX:  Marshal Xavier Qoph

CD:  You summoned me, sir.

MX:  Sit down, Commander.

CD:  I prefer to stand, sir.

MX:  Sit Commander.  You'll be here a while.

CD:  Yes, sir.  May we keep this as short as possible, sir?  I have 
extensive duties to attend to.

MX:  I am well aware of that, Commander, and I will try to keep this 
meeting short.

CD:  Thank you, sir.

MX:  What do you know of the recent events regarding the destruction of 
the a BTL shipment in a gang conflict?

CD:  The official LS bulldrek, or what really happened?

MX:  Both.

CD:  Officially, Lone Star has closed the case and called it a gang 
conflict at an illegal chop-shop.  One of the vehicles was carrying BTLs 
and they were destroyed and wiped in the fire following the shoot out.  
The evidence has been destroyed and the case closed.  There is little 
else to tell about the official drek.

MX:  Watch your language, Commander.

CD:  My apologies, sir.  It will not happen again.

MX:  Yes it will, and we both know it.

CD:  Yes sir.  May I continue?

MX:  Please.

CD:  Unofficially, we have acquired some of the "destroyed" evidence from 
a concerned officer in Lone Star's employ.  As you know, InterPol often 
receives similar items which could pertain to our investigations, usually 
from cops who feel that they cannot speak out against the corruption 
around them but can't sit by and let it just happen either.  We received 
three only slightly damaged chips and forensics analyzed them.  Forensics 
was unable to determine the source of the original blanks, but they did 
determine that the programs contained on the chips were not standard 
BTLs, but rather a form of BTL tortureware.

In addition, our deckers maintaining Matrix surveillance on the local 
ShadowLand server monitered and downloaded several files containing data 
regarding the attack.  They showed that this was not a gang fight but 
rather the work of a single man.  We ran the data through our systems, 
enhanced, filtered, and matched it to all known criminals in the Seattle 
area and came up with a match to an unofficial UCAS agent named Jason 
Lynch.  The physical match was only 93%, but the MO was precise.

MX:  Anything else?

CD:  I have not recently looked through Mr. Lynch's file, but he has 
extensive knowledge of corporate politics and infighting.  He has 
extensive cybernetic enhancements and we believe him to have been part of 
the recent events organized by Dr. Jackson against Maxim Arms.

MX:  I see.  And the tortureware?

CD:  I'm not a technician, sir, but I do know that the greatest producers 
of tortureware in the world are, in order, Aztechnology, Mitsuhama, 
Renraku, Ares, Fuchi, and then too many others to count.  If you like, I 
can produce a report for you.

MX:  That will not be necessary.  Commander, I have orders for you that 
come down from our favorite REMFs.  You, and Special Branch-Seattle, are 
to begin the immediate investigation of the recent events regarding the 
tortureware chips with the goal of discovering the whereabouts of Mr. 
Lynch followed by his apprehension and extradition to Aztechnology.

CD:  Aztechnology, sir?  Respectfully, sir, I would like to point out 
that Special Branch is under special contract and I have been given the 
freedom to assign my agents as I feel is most appropriate.

MX:  I'm aware of that.  Here.  Read it.

<time lag: 1 minute, 53 seconds>

CD:  Very well, sir.  My orders do not state the official bulldrek for 
why Aztechnology desires Mr. Lynch.

MX:  Most recently for the death of an employee in Denver.

CD:  You must be aware, sir, that this is likely a cover for thier 
actions, and that they could very easily be the source of the tortureware 
Mr. Lynch destroyed, and that this could be the reason that they want us 
to catch him for them.

MX:  Yes, that is a possibility.

CD:  Anything else, sir?

MX:  No.  Dismissed.

CD:  Yes, sir.

MX:  Paul.

CD:  Yeah?

MX:  You like the man, don't you?

CD:  That depends on how you define like.  I respect him and his 
beliefs.  He truly thinks he's doing the right thing.

MX:  So you're both true believers, then.

CD:  Yeah.

MX:  Don't let your emotions cloud you, Paul.  You've got a job to do.

CD:  Zach, he's a criminal even if he believes he's doing what's right.  
His means aren't justified by the ends and can't be.  I don't have to 
like turning him over to the Azzies and would rather he be given a fair 
trial rather than a summary execution, but he has still broken the law 
and needs to be punished.  So no, I won't let my emotions cloud my 
judgement.

MX:  I hope not, Paul.  Racketball later?

CD:  Not tonight.  Thanks anyway.

+++++ End Transcript upload +++++

Now, wasn't that special....]<<<<<
	--  Trideo Pirate <18:24:06/03-25-57>

*****PRIVATE:  InterPol SBSGlobal
>>>>>[Do not respond to this message.  All non-deep cover agents are to 
report by 2300 tonight.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <18:26:55/03-25-57>

*****Private: Warloc
>>>>>[Hello there Warloc, Phobos here. New to Seattle eh? You might say I'm
new also, though new to the shadows; not Seattle. I'm always lookin for a
good drink. Though I hear that green synth stuff can be hard on yer stomach.
+++++attach green_ale.pict
Anyways, noce to meet ya, perhaps we can talk shop sometime.]<<<<<
	--  Phobos  <21:08:10 / 03-25-57>

>>>>>[Welcome to Seattle, Mr. Warloc.  I am also an elven druid from 
Ireland, and I am the administrator of Haven, an orphanage and safe zone in 
Redmond.  If you ever have need of a safe area, for any reason, where 
your actions will not follow you for the duration of your stay, you will 
be welcome here at Haven.  There are several other druids here at Haven, 
friends and associates of mine who are also instructors at the school 
which is integral with our orphanage, if you would like the companionship 
of your fellows.  And there is a gentleman known as Shade who runs the 
shadows as well whom you might get along with.  He, alas, is only able to 
conjure, but is nonetheless a skilled and educated individual.

I sincerely hope that your family from Ireland has come to grips with 
your not following the Path of the Druid.  Mine never did.....  But that 
is a different discussion, not for this artificial reality.  May the gods 
bless you, Warloc, and keep you well.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <19:46:23/03-25-57>

>>>>>[Ah, a fellow Irishman!  Pleasure to meet ye, to be sure.  They call 
me Ripley, and if'n you ever be needin' anythin', me and the missus would 
be glad to help ye.  In the meantime, welcome to Hell.  Figuratively 
speaking, of course.  For the most part...]<<<<<
	--Ripley <18:59:34/03-25-57>

>>>>>[Hey Warloc come on down to da underground , me and my chummers can show
ya how to really party in Seattle, why the last daisy chewer to come down only
lost two teeth, (it was a slow night) he had fun though I'm sure you would too.
So come on down where the brew is darker than the night.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <20:16:45/03-25-57>

>>>>>[Hoe chummers!  Just when I thought they had forgotten about that
awards stuff, here it is again.  I picked this up off the local NewsNet.

+++++Begin File Download: ceremony.doc.02
After nearly a week of silence on the matter, a spokesman for the Chief
Moses of the Salish-Shidhe Council announced that the ceremony to give
commendations to area corporations for their work has been rescheduled for
this Friday, the 29th.

The ceremony had originally been scheduled for the 15th, nearly two weeks
ago, but was postponed due to various terrorist threats that had been
received by the parties involved, most noticeably the S-S Council itself.
According to the prepared remarks presented by the tribal spokesman, "We
have looked at the overall situation, including the potential danger from
the various threats we have received.  Along with Lone Star, the security
arms of the various corporations involved, we have developed a plan for
upgraded security that we believe will ensure the safety of Chief Moses and
the representitives of the corporations to be honored. 

The fact that some irrational individuals can make threats and delay what
should be a moment that will bring all peoples into closer accord is indeed
lamentable.  We will not be diverted from our desire to honor those
companies who stand up for the rights of all mankind without the racial
prejudice that seems to be emerging more and more in today's society."

The spokesman stated that the ceremony will be held in the Seattle Opera
House in the Seattle Center, Friday, the 29th of March, at 5 PM.  While
attendance is limited to invited guests, the ceremony will be broadcast by
several of the local networks.

+++++End File

Sounds like they have everything under control now.  It will be good to see
some positive news on the trid for a change.]<<<<<
	-- Kodachrome <21:27:12/03-25-57>

*****Private: Sword of God
>>>>>[I am glad that I could be of assitance to you.  All those who oppose
the spread of metahumans and their allies should be aided.

I am sure that you have seen the broadcast about this cursed ceremony that
the S-S Council, cursed Natives and Metas, are having Friday.  Can you
imagine any executives in their right minds accepting accolades from such a
group?  I would continue our debt cancelled if you could find a way
to...disrupt... violently, this ceremony.  Don't worry about casualties as
anyone there would be a traitor to mankind anyway.  If you need assistance,
please contact me.]<<<<<
	-- Kang <21:43:10/03-25-57>

*****Private: White Queen
>>>>>[Before HE can go off on a rant, I believe I have the ceremony covered.
If all works as planned, there should be sufficient mayhem at the ceremony
for his tastes.  I will update you when I know more.]<<<<<
	-- Kang <21:45:06/03-25-57>

*****NOT TO: Muffin Man
>>>>>[WHAT? ONE FRAGGING CRED? You don't like paying for quality do you? 
 
 Kee-rist. Well, I guess that means we're in. Congrats Kid Crouscant.
You're one dead pastry.]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <00:42:47/26-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: alias:LordAndMaster
>>>>>[Request permission to wreak havoc in seattle. Some fragger called
Muffin Man is stiring drek. We feel we can earn a bit in the way of cred
by slagging him. Respond ASAP.]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <CORRUPT/CORRUPT>

*****PRIVATE TO: Je$ and vabe
>>>>>[We are tr}cking the [REDACTED] at [tuaTION.] aLTHO*fd_(Fu 
+++++SYSTEM WARNING: ECC corrupt. Continue? <y/n>y
ll autAoriza=ion has%yet to |e gr.nted, con#id_= 
+++++SYSTEM WARNING: Lost Block. Contine? <y/n>y
our.]<<<<<
	-- Dg8 b_jDF$34b <CORRUPT/
	SYSTEM WARNING: Trash Data follows. View? <y/n>n

*****PRIVATE TO: RedFeather
>>>>>[We're in. It appears that Muffin Man is acting in a group. We
recommend seperating individual members and culling them at our leisure.
We volunteer for cull duty. 

 Either that or we find their base of action and frag 'em up at home.
We can do that too. Remember: That's what we're trained for. We wouldn't
mind leading a team or two...]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <01:02:45/26-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Jen _nd Gabe
>>>>>[Will you be requiring a chaperone?]<<<<<
	-- R)ghteou  and Dana <CORRUP/CORRU>

*****PRIVATE TO: Righteous and Dana
>>>>>[Screw you tooney. If you come within a mile of Jenna, you're
fragging dead. Stay away.]<<<<<
	-- Gabriel <CORRUPT/CORRUPT>

*****PRIVATE TO: Gabriel
>>>>>[Have it your own way. But look at your own diagrams. Jenna would be
useless. Unless you've been feeding us false information? But you wouldn't
do that, would you?]<<<<<
	-- Ri~hteous and D?na <CORR/COR>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[Spirit as in ghost? Of the fried biff? You _DID_ get photos didn't
you? Or at least audio? Did she say anything? Clues to the killers?
Frag... Mail me a copy as _soon_ as you get it. If you want a realspace
meet to compare notes, just name a time and place. I don't have too much
(almost nothing really), but I really want to know what's going on at your
end...]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <01:19:12/26-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[Like _I'M_ going to be getting any sleep tonight. Frag... What
happened? Can you at least give me a run down?]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <01:19:38/26-03-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Lynch
>>>>>[Good evening, Mr. Lynch.  I'm very sorry that I have taken so long 
in returning to our conversation, but my job takes much greater 
precedence over a conversation, or debate if you prefer.

You said that InterPol supports the actions of corporations when we are 
forced to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to acquire evidence.  I 
suppose that is one way of looking at it, yet I ask you to try and see it 
from a different perspective.  For InterPol to function, it has to have 
the freedom to investigate crimes that occur on or from corporate 
facilities.  For Special Branch especially, we face the daunting task of 
having most of the individuals we pursue commiting crimes in on 
jurisdiction, traveling through another, possibly stopping to rest in a 
third, and living or training in a fourth or fifth.  Matrix and magical 
crimes are the worst, as I'm sure you can understand.  Yet each 
jurisdiction could have polarly opposing legal systems and structures.  
Faced with a task of this magnitude, InterPol must have some way to cut 
through the red tape, and in a legal manner.  The way that was decided 
upon was to educate our agents as to the most likely legal structures 
they would encounter on any given assignment, and to require that certain 
documents be signed.

With so much of the crime in this world commited on corporate property, 
InterPol must have a means that will not be threatening to the 
corporations who approach us with arrest and extradition warrants.  Those 
very same crimes on corporate property are crimes elsewhere as well, Mr. 
Lynch.  Matrix theft is Matrix theft, regardless of whether it is from a 
corporation or a private bank account.

Documents like non-disclosure agreements are a necessary evil, Mr. Lynch, 
if InterPol is to continue to perform the duties that it and it alone is 
capable of peforming.  Thre isn't another law enforcement agency on the 
planet that has the scope, responsiblity, or problems that InterPol has.  
I don't have to like the rules by which Special Branch, and InterPol in 
general, operate, but in order to do my job effectively, I must follow 
them.  The threat, and the responsiblity, is too great not to.

InterPol does not "serve the corps by harassing our agents", as you 
said.  Yes, we do harass you and your agents, and that is simply because 
the UCAS, as every national and corporate government in the world, 
maintains a double-standard:  Our laws are the best, but sometimes they 
need to be broken to acheive our goals.  I cannot, and will not, condone 
the abandonment of laws based on convenience, whether they be national or 
corporate in nature.  The only difference between nations breaking their 
laws when they feel it is necessary and corporations is that the 
corporations are at least honest about changing thier laws retroactively 
and blatantly.  Nations have to hide thier illegalities behind closed 
doors and deniable assets since the laws themselves are not so easily 
altered to fit the circumstances.

So yes, InterPol harasses the agents of national governments, and perhaps 
we serve the corps in the process.  But InterPol also serves someone more 
important than the corps, or even the nations.  We serve the human race, 
and the human race demands order rather than anarchy.  The only way to 
provide order is to enforce the laws, even if that means throwing every 
spy, fixer, decker, rigger, terrorist, or shadowrunner in jail.

You also commented about blind obedience in the face of laws.  I do not 
do what I do blindly, Mr. Lynch, nor do any of my agents.  I always 
follow my conscience.  Had I been in a position of power in Abeline, I 
would not have commited the crimes which cost you some of your family, 
even if it meant the loss of position, or even my life.  There are things 
worth dying for, Mr. Lynch, and my humanity is one of them.  There are 
things that my superiors know would force me to turn in my badge and gun 
because I will not compromise on some personal ethical issues.  But 
civilization is built on compromise, and without it and the rules of law 
that enforce order, there would be utter chaos and humanity would suffer 
a far worse fate than it does currently.

As you said, no one is above or outside the law.  But you do pursue 
individuals who use the law to cover thier actions, justify them.  In 
this respect only our methods differ.  You resort to the direct approach, 
but in the process break the very laws you are trying to save.  What does 
more damage, Mr. Lynch, allowing a guilty man hide for a short time 
behind his lawyers, or shattering the law while bringing the guilty to 
your particular brand of justice?  Your method produces results, but you 
become the very thing you dispise in the process.  As you said, the abyss 
looks also into you.  Yet with the power of the law behind me, if a 
guilty man hides long enough and sufficient attention is brought to bear, 
the laws get changed to expedite similar situations in the future.  I 
could bore you for years with stories about InterPol lawyers.  It is a 
long, evolutionary process, Mr. Lynch, and there are no quick and easy 
answers any more than there are quick and easy fixes.  Your method 
provides some form of quick, but illegal, "justice" while mine takes far 
longer but produces longer lasting results as well.

Mr. Lynch, in some ways I envy you.  You have a freedom of action that I 
do not, and cannot, have.  But I also pity you, for you have sacraficed 
some of the very humanity that you hope to help and save by way of 
acquiring that freedom.  I have sacraficed my family and my body, and 
nearly my life on several occasions, but none of my humanity.

You might find it surprising to know that I have been on the other side 
of the law, even as the commander of Special Branch.  But unlike you, I 
have always offered myself to my superior officers.  Every time, I 
present myself for disciplinary action, but it has only happened once.  
That was the time that I tendered my resignation for commiting third 
degree homocide.  It was refused.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <00:13:41/03-26-57>

>>>>>[So, more fresh meat-- I mean, another arrival to this fine city. You
coulda picked a better time to visit, Mr. Warloc. By my count we're currently
sharing this city with some crazy pyro(s) who likes blowing up lots of things
real well (with missiles!), a baker's dozen of psycho fruitcakes out on a
killing spree, and a racist religious fanatic terrorist (and his friends). 
Prob'ly more insane maniacs out there, too. Doesn't that make you sleep well
at night? Next someone's going to blow up a whole big chunk of barrens like
that Redmond thing last December. Fun town, innit?]<<<<<
	--  Sam-I-Am <23:11:45/03-25-57>

>>>>>[Valentine, ya still hangin around tis place?  I leave fer a bi' ta run
security an' learn a few new spells, initiate agai', an' I come back 'ere ta
find ya still hangin'.  We shoul' get tagether some time.  Mebee I cou' brin
th' baby over.]<<<<<
	--  STREETWOLF(Fire is an Elf's Best Friend)<02:54:45/03-26-57>

>>>>>[STREETWOLF come back to bed]<<<<<
	--  Colice Brightstar<02:55:05/03-26-57>

>>>>>[Looks like I spoke too soon. Seems like someone just *did* take a chunk 
out of the barrens, really noisily too. Check the news for details. Some days 
it just doesn't pay to get outta bed.]<<<<<
	--  Sam-I-Am <01:20:23/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[ I just saw Trideo-Pirate's post.  Looks like old Commander Drake
and Special Branch are looking for you.  If you need a secure place to
crash, let me know.  Another thing I wanted to contact you about was a 
friend of mine, Tangent, is currently between jobs.  A member of his 
team was fragged over pretty badly by someone with some BTL tortureware
a while back, and he'd like to do his part in hurting the distribution
some.  If you can use him or his team, contact him at >>>encrypted<<<.
His most recent work was the op down in Cairo that took out the third
Maxim nuke storage.

Take care, chummer, and watch your ass. ]<<<<<
	-- Griffyn <09:07:31/03-26-57>

>>>>>[I need someone to locate a missing friend.  I can pay well.  Contact
me at >>encrypted<<]<<<<<
	-- Enchantress <06:55:07/03-26-57>

*****Private: Kang
>>>>>[I hope you know what you are doing.  Armand called me last night when
he saw the announcement about the ceremony.  He was almost frothing at the
mouth he was so angry.  What you have planned had better be good.  Keep me
informed.]<<<<<
	-- White Queen <07:01:18/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE: Valentine
>>>>>[  A Wolf shaman, huh?  I never would have thought it .. well,
if you think that Mr. Running Elk could be helpful for Kenny, then by
all means, have them work together.  The whole reason I enrolled Kenny
was so that he could have a better life than what I'd be able to give 
him.

One other thing that I'd like to mention is that I've recently had the 
opportunity to acquire some computer equipment that I'd like to adapt
for use in Haven for the children.  It is all completely legitimate, 
a corporation that I'm associated with has upgraded some hardware recently,
whih left the old equipment collecting dust.  Does this sound okay?  ]<<<<<
	-- Kevin Donaldson <09:38:12/03-26-57>

***** PRIVATE : Sword of God
>>>>>[Judas is my name.. Im here to purify this city... Sword of God is a 
very "strange" Name. God is unhappy. He wants the monsters and sorcerers
blood!!!! Contact me !!!..but.. take care... I'm not new in this]<<<<<
	-- Judas <9:50:50 / 03-26-

***** PRIVATE: Wintergeist
>>>>>[I and my brothers accept your generous offer.  We will be leaving
the Middle Kingdom tonight.  We humblely look forward to eating at
your table.]<<<<<
	-- Wong Fei Hung <10:39:55/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: METATRON
>>>>[Conduct a background check on Judas]<<<<<
	-- Sword of God <9:40:02/3-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Sword of God
>>>>>[Yes lord]<<<<<
	-- METATRON <9:45:59/3-26-57>

>>>>>[Bunch of knowlege grubbin' high society "path and ways" closed lipped
pansies.

If I never have to get shot at there again, it will be too damned soon.  Hmm,
I wonder if Drake has offices in the Tir across the pond.  Feel free to
forget I mentioned anything at all, Drake.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <17:05:02 / 03-(26+1)-57> 

*****PRIVATE:  IPMatAgDIS
>>>>>[Melles reqesting immediate secure contact with Halogen.  Priority 
4.]<<<<<
	--  Melles <10:12:51/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Commander Drake
>>>>>[Matrix disptacher has received immediate contact request from 
Melles for Halogen, priority 4.  Verify.]<<<<<
	--  IPMatAgDIS <10:14:31/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  IPMatAgDIS
>>>>>[Halogen 4 verified.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <10:15:28/03-26-57>

>>>>>[ +++++ Routing.  Melles connected, verifying security......line 
secure.]<<<<<
	--  IPMatAgDIS <10:16:44/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Commander Drake
>>>>>[I don't have much time, sir, so I'll get right to the point.  The 
terrorist Sword of God was freed while in transit to London.  He has gone 
to ground, and evidence points to here in Seattle.  I request permission 
to pursue him iwth the rest of my team.  SB has 4 outstanding warrants, 
so he is well within our jurisdiction.]<<<<<
	--  Melles <10:19:07/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Melles
>>>>>[I can't give you permission, as much as I'd like to.  SB has been 
put under 96a, so if you become available, you are required to aid and 
assist in the tracking and arrest of Jason Lynch.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <10:22:38/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Commander Drake
>>>>>[I and my team just became unavailable, sir.  Sorry, sir, but your 
signal is breaking up.]<<<<<
	--  Melles <10:23:40/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Melles
>>>>>[I didn't hear that, our connection is nearly gone.  Good luck.

+++++ Signal lost at source +++++ ]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <10:25:35/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  IPMatAgDIS
>>>>>[What just happened, Matrix Dispatch?  Our connection was cut.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <10:26:19.03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Commander Drake
>>>>>[Unknown.  I'll have a report on your desk in an hour.]<<<<<
	--  IPMatAgDIS <10:27:03/03-26-57>

>>>>>[No, Mr. Kor, we do not have offices in either Tir at this time, and 
considering I have personally arrested a couple of TNO assassins, I doubt 
that we will have offices across the pond.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <10:28:21/03-26-57>

***** PRIVATE:  Trixie
>>>>>[Whatever you did to my deck didnt work.  Take a look at my time / date
stamp.  Its all fragged up.  Do you think I can drop the deck off with
you again and have you fix it?]<<<<<
	-- Kor <17:09:33 / 03-(26+1)-57> 

***** PRIVATE: Kor
>>>>>[I told you to use the OTHER deck until I got it fixed.  I dont have
time to work on it right now.]<<<<<
	-- Trixie <17:22:14 / 03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE: Trixie
>>>>>[You know I hate using that other deck now.  Can you fix this one
please?]<<<<<
	-- Kor <17:22:28 / 03-(26+1)-57>

***** PRIVATE: Kor
>>>>>[ Thats what you get for using a deck I've never worked on before.  I
told you that you should have left that damned thing where you found it, I
dont care if it is faster than greased lightening]<<<<<
	-- Trixie <17:22:28 / 03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE: Trixie
>>>>>[Alright.  This should work for a while.  I feel so damned slow tho.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <17:40:15 / 03-27-57>

>>>>>[Just Kor will do.  

Good, glad to hear it.  I do not like being in the Tir, and I dont think
they want me back anyway.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <18:10:04 / 03-27-57> 

***** PRIVATE: Neuron Basher
>>>>>[I nearly did something fairly stupid.  I dont want to go into it but, 
lets suffice to say  --  It was dumb.

I need to figure out a way if there are any links between Kor and Jason
Stormwind on ANY Law Enforcement databases.  I'm more interested in InterPol
and I swear I'd already drafted a letter to Drake all but asking him to do
a hard search of his 'bases ok the alias Kor.

Can you get together some deckers to do a low level check?  I know that I am
clean with LSS, otherwise they would have canned me months ago, or at least
Maria would have taken me down while I was in the tunnels.

The only thing I can think of would be an incident in China but that should
be cleaned up.  Could you start with their data bases?

Ummm  --  Lets see:  Both recognized Tir's, UCAS, NAN (unlikely), Ares, Aztech
(Aztech is likely to have more data than I want to see, but I only want to
know if they are hostile / willing to put a warrant out on me), Maxim (Dont
piddle there if you dont have to.  I havent run against them so they 
should be fine).  

Thanks, Bro, and Congratulations.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <18:15:04 / 03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE: Cybil
>>>>>[I've started this damned message to you 6 times today and
each time I've gotten side tracked with other shit.

At least I think I have.  Im losing my mind here.  I think I have been jacked
in too long.  Yes, that it.  I've got to jack out soon

Meet yes seattle you pick place and time.  will show footage.  isnt very good.
didnt pick up spirit.  internals didnt either.
	-- Kor <18:21:14 / 03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE : Obtulio Varela
>>>>>[Hear me "parce"... God hate the drugs... I hate the drugs...
If you are only another traficant.... take care Varela, take care..]<<<<<
	-- Judas <14:14:30 / 26-03-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Kevin Donaldson
>>>>>[Your brother shows all the signs of being a Wolf Shaman, yes.  I 
will have Doug talk to Kenneth this evening once classes are complete.

Improved hardware for the children, you said?  That would be wonderful.  
Some of our terminals are radically underpowered, especially in the 
Matrix Archetecture and Programming classes.  But you're aware of that, 
of course.  Thank you very much, Mr. Donaldson.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <13:44:07/03-26-57>

>>>>>[Of course I am still here, and I will be here for many years to 
come, according to the terms of my probation.  I would remain here 
regardless, but the law has decided to force the issue.

Please, feel free to come by any time.  We have expanded and, due to the 
generosity of Ryaka Science and Technology, Haven is not only the owners 
of approximately 100 square blocks of Redmond, but has also become 
encorporated as a not for profit corporation.  It provides a single 
advantage, of extraterritoriality, that will enable myself and my fellow 
instructors to continue our duties while sheilding us somewhat from the 
somewhat misdirected legal attentions of Lone Star.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <13:53:42/03-26-57>

>>>>>[Well, if this isn't a pleasant surprise.  I swear, Seattle is just going
to the _dogs_ lately.  If it's not supernatural holocaust it's outright gang
warfare and bomb terrorism, not to mention organized crime, BTL-tortureware,
psychopathic bakers, and of course the occasional corporate incident.  The Bay
Area looks like a paradise by contrast, despite the prevailing Japanese sense
of humor (who ever heard of fiber-optic periscopes in a Pink cabaret??  The
mizu shobai just is _not_ what it used to be...)  Anyway, to clarify Sam-I-Am's
rather cryptic statement, here's what the news is saying:

+++++begin footage
"THAT's right, folks!" shouts Michael Novacek, appearing as it were like the
genie from the bottle, or the plague from Pandora's box.  "Lone Star is calling
it the _largest_ incident of gang warfare in the last two years!  Over _sixty_
suspected and confirmed gang members killed on the scene, plus over fifty more
_innocent_ residents of the stricken community killed in the raging inferno that
consumed three tenements and damaged two more.  Over _ONE_HUNDRED_FIFTY_
people," he shouts over the sound of some structure partially collapsing
nearby, "are without homes today, their meager possessions and dreams for life
all ended in _one_ _fell_ _swoop_!"

As Michael raves into his microphone, dozens of Lone Star personell can be
seen busily working in what looks like a field of war.  Shredded and mutilated
bodies litter a section of street extending more than two city blocks down the
street.  Businesses and tenements are riddled with bullet holes and worse
for several stories above the ground, broken glass crunching under reinforced
boots.  The corpses of several burned-out cars obstruct the road, and soot
mars most every surface.  At one point roughly twenty meters beyond the yellow
police line is a large rubbish strewn crater, crawling with Lone Star agents
busy about some sort of forensics.  Several figures in military hardshell armor
emblazoned with the UCAS military symbol are standing inside the police
barrier, watching over the work and conferring with Lone Star agents.

"Sources tell us that a GMC Banshee, stolen from a private courier firm
several months ago, turned up in the middle of the conflict, contributing
_greatly_ to the carnage witnessed here.  We have also heard unconfirmed
reports that this Banshee _may_ have also been involved in the multiple bombing/
slayings of earlier this month.  _Organized_crime_ is being blamed for this
gross show of force, aimed at eliminating competition for drug trafficking and
prostitution.  _Now_, as it _so_ happens, one _particularly_ astute resident
of this benighted area of the Barrens had the presence of mind to record the
incident on home video.  We were graciously offered a copy by his wife, which
we now show in its _entire_ graphic and _uncut_ form:

A rather jerky picture, with red numerals reading 11:44:13 superimposed at the
lower left.  Image quality is moderate, and the audio is confused, an
indistinct female voice shouting, pleading from an uncertain source obscuring
the sound from the view.  The sound is that of gunfire, the confused chatter
of automatic weapons, sharp reports of pistol shots, and roar of shotguns.
Shouts and screams as well, distorted by distance and by echoes off buildings
on either side of the crowded street.  Below is a flurry of action, bright
muzzle flashes erratically erupting between the flames of several burning
cars and buildings sporadically illuminating the darkness below.  The camera
hastily begins zooming in, floor after floor down to street level, and sweeping
the confusion in search of a stable frame of reference.  As the female voice
continues its disembodied pleas the view stabilizes slightly, panning over the
bodies running, crouching, and collapsing in the street.  There is the
reflection of firelight on chrome and on steel, glittering limbs, knives, guns,
and in one case a skull (the camera lingers on this a second) leading some sort
of frenzied dance.  Though indistinct, there are also colors, blue and red.

The chaos below increases in time with the agonizing progression of red
digits.  A black man with a gleaming cyberhand blows the brains out of
a wild-eyed opponent with a pistol, only to be charged by three screaming
youths with handguns and machetes.  The black man spins around, disembowling
the trio with an assault rifle before slumping to the ground himself.  A flare
of light from behind an overturned car, thrown as a Molotov cocktail down the
street, to burst in an explosion.  Another follows, setting fire to a nearby
building.  A third is lit, but a burst of autofire from somewhere off screen
strikes the spot, causing a large explosion that rocks the camera and elicits
a scream from the female voice, the view disappearing into overexposure for a
moment.

The death toll continues to mount, three more carloads of people joining an
uncertain number on foot in the desperate struggle.  Then, from one of the
burning buildings (possibly a warehouse) comes a horrendous rending sound as
_something_ immense bursts onto the street in the midst of the chaos.  Its
matte-black bulk is many times the size of a car, and a muffled roar can be
heard from its direction.  The combat seems to stop for half a second at the
thing's arrival, followed by a frenzy of fire concentrated in its direction.
A second later two immense muzzle flashes erupt from the thing's mass,
accompanied by a garbled whine.  As more screams erupt from the audio, twin
flashes of light flare up from the vehicle and streak off-screen at high speed.
Two more explosions, this time more distant, jostle the camera and disrupt
the audio yet again.  More flash-streaks follow, around one per second,
punctuating the soundtrack with a surfeit of noise.

For the span of four seconds the barrage from around the mass abates, and
then resumes with renewed vigor, the mass shredding everything in sight all
the while.  The mass then begins to move down the street, accelerating and
then abruptly breaking as a series of tiny flashes erupt over part of its
surface.  The mass aims one of its muzzle flashes down an alley, ceasing the
tiny sparks, but within a second a closely-spaced pair of explosions erupts,
one on the mass itself and another on a building beyond it.  As the camera
adjusts its brightness, the bulk of the vehicle seems undamaged in the
flickering firelight and begins moving again, still firing.

Two loud cracks from somewhere.  The vehicle lists, its motion suddenly
erratic and its roar altered in character.  Another flash-streak and another
crack and the vehicle begins to plow sideways, smashing into the ground floor
of a building with a resounding crunch.  There is a pause, and then a flurry of
flash-streaks, all heading off in the same direction as the vehicle.  A moment
later there is movement at the base of the vehicle, and something man-shaped
and bulky struggles free and begins moving indistinctly down the street, one
gun from the vehicle still firing the other way.  A second later a brilliant
flash of green streaks from the figure to a spot far down the street, erupting
in a distant gout of flame.  The figure stands motionless for a full second and
a half, chaos raging in the background, and then takes a single step.  It then
abruptly slumps forward and falls over onto its belly, motionless.

Two more of the sharp cracks ring out, followed instantly by an immense
burst of noise and sound.  The red digits now read 11:45:52.  A scream can be
faintly heard over the explosion, before the view goes black.

The footage switches back to Michael, his usual manic grin turned to outrage.
"_NOW_, we relate one _truly_ tragic aspect of this horrendous incident.  The
brave, _astute_ cameraman who risked _life_ and limb to shoot this important
footage _lost_ _his_ _life_ in the last moments of the tape!  Lone Star agents
destroyed the Banshee with a _powerful_ missile, sending shrapnel in all
directions, and by chance into the cameraman's chest.  He _died_ in his wife's
grief-stricken embrace, his last words to her that he loved her.  Turner
Networks has established a fund to help her, and all the victims of this
_terrible_ outburst of violence try to rebuild their _shattered_ lives.  _Your_
donations can help restore joy to this...
+++++end footage

And so forth.  TN will of course be posting updates "as they become available"
but I doubt much more is to be gained while watching the news.  But isn't it
interesting how the UCAS military is interested in this little problem?  I
guess all those "private courier firms" had better keep a tighter grip on their
little toys next time.  Although by appearances, that Banshee was using a
Security-level weapons config instead of the military setup.  The better
question is who the driver was, and _why_ they were clad in milspec armor.  And
_why_ Lone Star is quietly mounting a large-scale search for the corpse, which
seems to have somehow vanished from the scene in all the confusion when Lone
Star tear-gassed and "subdued" the crowd.  Nice use of magic from that driver
too..._Moreover_, I'm surprised more hasn't been said about the force that took
out the Banshee.  The audio's garbled to hell, and even a little playing with
audio software doesn't turn up very much useful information.  About the best
we can say is what it _wasn't_, which basically means squat.  Whatever it was,
it was _definitely_ not the sort of weapon you can by at the local
supermarket...

Even though it's not the U.S. versus the U.S.S.R., I doubt anyone could deny
that these are difficult times. >^> ]<<<<<
	--  Azrael  <14:29:41 / 03-26-57>

>>>>>[Oh, I'm very sorry.  I've been away from the Emerald Isle far too 
long and forgot my manners.

I am Patrick O'Kennedy, and I am also a druid who follows the guidance of 
the King of Trees.

I'm sorry, but my pacifist views generally make me unable to recommend 
anyone.  There are individuals here who are honorable, each in thier own 
way.  But few view life as being so prescious that they will not consider 
killing.  I would very much like to help you, Mr. O'Conner, but I cannot 
condone shadowruns, even if I provide the very individuals shelter on 
occasion.

I'm certain that you will come into contact with individuals who you will 
find honorable and whose beliefs correspond to yours well without my 
assistance.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <16:18:09/03-26-57>

***** PRIVATE: Valentine
>>>>>[ Please, just Kevin.  Mr. Donaldson was my father. <grin>  It's the 
least I can do to help the kids .. I wish there was more that I could do 
to help.  I just wanted to thank you and Doug for all of the help that you
are giving Kenneth.  He really seems to be diving headfirst into his 
magical side, which I think is a good thing, considering all that he's 
suffered lately.  ]<<<<<
	-- Kevin Donaldson <18:26:23/03-26-57>

*****Private: Enchantress
>>>>>[Hmm, lookin for someone..perhaps I can be of assistance. I know my way
around the matrix..and if for some reason they aren't here..well I can hit
the streets w/ some friends of mine. I hope the pay is good, 'cause info
ain't cheap. Contact me if interested at >>encrypted<<.  Laterz.]<<<<<
	-- Phobos <18:24:40/ 03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE: Serenity Security
>>>>>[  I wanted to let all of you know first .. 

+++++ Sound File:  drumroll.snd

Tristiana and I are officially engaged.  ]<<<<<
	-- Neuron Basher <18:32:12/03-26-57>

>>>>>[Mr. Ferocious are you refering to Underground 93? I hear there is 
a Phoenix shaman that plays there. Might you or anyone else know of 
her?

As to elves like my self losing teeth...I just like to sit back and 
enjoy me pint, talk with the lasses, and watch the show. That's fun 
enough for me, for now. I might be looking for a few chummers to show 
me the Seattle area though.]<<<<<
-- Warloc <16:36:43/03-26-57>

----------
From:  [j--t--f] at [ugcs.caltech.edu][SMTP:[j--t--f] at [ugcs.caltech.edu]]
Sent:  Monday, March 25, 1996 11:53 PM
To:  [shadow t k] at [listproc.itribe.net]
Subject:  Not in the tourist brouchure...

>>>>>[So, more fresh meat-- I mean, another arrival to this fine city. 
You
coulda picked a better time to visit, Mr. Warloc. By my count we're 
currently
sharing this city with some crazy pyro(s) who likes blowing up lots of 
things
real well (with missiles!), a baker's dozen of psycho fruitcakes out on 
a
killing spree, and a racist religious fanatic terrorist (and his 
friends). 
Prob'ly more insane maniacs out there, too. Doesn't that make you sleep 
well
at night? Next someone's going to blow up a whole big chunk of barrens 
like
that Redmond thing last December. Fun town, innit?]<<<<<
	--  Sam-I-Am <23:11:45/03-25-57>

>>>>>[The only problem I have so far is trying to figure out just where 
the sun is in this place. Pyros are not much of a problem as my own 
brand of magic involves dealing with the elements, air, earth, fire and 
water.

If there are such problems then who has taken it upon themselves to 
clean it up?]>>>>>
-- Warloc <16:21:35/03-26-57>

***** PRIVATE: Serenity Security
>>>>>[I'd like to congratulate both the newly engaged couple AND Trax for
winning the office pool for date.  Im not sure how he knew, but I would
suggest you sweep your apartment for devices.

Good job, Kevin.  Im with Trix on this one  --  its about time you finally
popped the question.]<<<<<
	-- Jason R. Stormwind <01:32:01 / 03-26-57> 
	Executive Officer
	Industrial Sound and Magic

***** Private: Serenity inc.
>>>>>[WHat took you so long?]<<<<<
	-- Michael McKnight <18:45:12/03-26-57>
	mystic reference
	occult studies
	Serenity Inc.

***** Private: Kor, Gryffin
>>>>>[So how drunk do we get'm, and just how dowe keep TRIX, from finding out about the Batchelor 
Party... just afew of the questions on my mind...]<<<<<
	-- GoD <19:23:12/03-26-57>

--

*****PRIVATE:  Commander Drake, Interpol
>>>>>[Thank you for the courtesy of your reply, Commander. I'm sure by
now that you're aware of the leaked transcript of your meeting. Perhaps
because you present as the best culprit <g> If so, thank you for the 
warning. You have your orders, and you must follow them. 

You argue your case well, Commander, but you neglect a crucial point: 
I really don't care much for the details of the law. I care about
justice. I break the law when I must: those laws are written and enacted 
by an elected government. Even if I could, I would not change them: I would 
rather eliminate the disease than the symptom, and with the disease gone the 
symptom, and the need to edit the law, also disappears. 

InterPol's pursuit of those like myself serves a valuable purpose: it
reminds us that we operate outside the law. Agents have forgotten that
fact, and begun to act as though they had divine right: they have not
been permitted to do so for long, sometimes because we 'betrayed' them 
to InterPol. It is only a few years ago that SIGA was a byword for 
inefficiency, corruption and crime. My method has dangers, to which I am 
not blind. It reassures me enormously that I can converse with you, examine 
my conscience, and believe honestly that what I do is right. Perhaps 
my greatest fear is that one day, this will not be true.

Law is not the ultimate science, though. The law is a tool, to be wielded:
it has no inherent virtue, and it can be used as readily for evil as for good.
The worst of Abilene, Commander, was that the deaths of most of my father's
family were all entirely legal. That those re-education centres are now 
considered immoral, and would be illegal today, does not change the fact that
the conditions there, and the actions of the guards, were entirely according 
to the law of the area and the day. You would have been a criminal, as
my father and grandfather were, for opposing them in any way.

Perhaps we are closer than we think: even you would surrender the law 
if your conscience demanded it. My threshold for that sacrifice is far 
higher than yours <g> 

You suggest I have sacrified some of my humanity: I beg to differ. When I 
was a corporate security officer, part of me died as I was required to 
protect blatant injustice - even evil, in some cases - in order to uphold 
the law. Now, I break the law to hunt those I once protected: and I have
confidence that I am doing what is right.

Perhaps I lack your long view, and your faith in the long-term outcome. 
I lack the means to make such changes, but I do what I can. I cannot believe
that law, in and of itself, has any virtue, and so I work with or around it
when I can, and break it when I must.

And I suggest you review what information you may find on the Director of
SIGA, Commander, if you believe that I have total and unfettered freedom
of action: the sanctions that could be laid against me for misconduct 
are rather worse than resignation. We break the law on occasion, in order
to uphold the oaths we took to protect the citizens of the UCAS.

And don't take my public comments on your meeting with your superior too
seriously. I share your sentiments: I admire and respect you for your
dedication and commitment. However, if I am extradited to Aztlan I will die,
unpleasantly, and so I have absolutely nothing to lose when fighting against
that fate. Please bear that in mind, for the sake of yourself and your
men.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <18:03:31/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Blade, Mr Blackthorne
>>>>>[Glad to be working with you again, Blade. One thing, though, I assume
you've all seen Trideo Pirate's download. You might want me to stay clear 
of you if you're worried about having InterPol trample you as they stampede
after me. Otherwise, I'll see you at <encrypted>.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <18:09:24/03-26-57>

>>>>>[Well, well, well, isn't it nice to be appreciated?  All this effort
for li'l ol' me. Aztechnology can't buy Drake, but they don't need to: just 
buy his bosses instead. 

Nice to see Drake considers my trial, in absentia, five years ago, for
something I didn't even do (the funniest part of all, really) to be 
entirely valid and legal. I tried to lodge an appeal, but guess what? I 
have to do it in person at the Hall of Justice in Tenochitilan. 

So, Commander, I guess I either break lots of laws, or I die. Guess what
I'm gonna do? I don't think ritual sacrifice in Aztlan's a good death for
a warrior. 

And I'm going to break that tortureware setup, too. Why do they want me
dead? What toes did I tread on? Something's going on that's bigger than
a smuggling scam. I'm going to find it and destroy it. Drake can watch if
he likes, it's all he seems able to do when *real* crimes get committed.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <01:35:31/03-27-57>

>>>>>[WOW! Ya are new to Seattle ain't ya boyo! Nah I wouldn't want ya go to
ug93
that place is for sissys. I'm talk'n about da Ork Underground, and as for talk'n
wit da gals, that's how he lost the teeth, he wanted to talk they had more
intimate
matters in mind!]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <21:27:42/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE: Griffyn
>>>>>[Many thanks for the offer, Griffyn, I may well need it. Plenty of my
bluster and bravado up front, but Drake's good and InterPol are tough to
go up against. Damn, I wish I'd taken that FBI antiterrorism job instead...
less interesting, but more protection.

I'll contact Tangent, too. Cairo was very nice work: if he was behind that,
he's good.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <01:34:15/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE: Tangent
>>>>>[Greetings. Griffyn recommended I speak to you: he said you had a 
teammate who had suffered from some BTL tortureware. I've just had 
Aztlan set InterPol on me, for hitting a few of their supply lines into
North America, and I'm thinking this is bigger than just a way to make 
Aztlan some hard currency: which is why I'm going to *really* chase it
soon.

I'd appreciate any information you have. I'd welcome any help, too, since
at the moment everyone seems to believe I'm working alone: if you want in,
you might be able to work in the background while everyone shoots at me.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <01:39:42/03-27-57>

*****Private: Hermit
>>>>>[Hermit, Wintergeist's been askin' for a progress report...  I can
stall him if you've got other things going, but I would like to have a
good reason.  If you're up for a black an' tan, meet me at Ebey's
Bar.]<<<<<
	--  Ash <21:07:48/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE: *CORRUPTED*
>>>>>[Well, boss, I'm in deep shit here. Sorry to bypass channels, but Lilith
is here with me and I figured it would be quicker to inform you direct.

+++++include file: transcript.txt

Nice, huh? The worst thing is, everything I have on Drake says he's a totally
honest and dedicated cop who'll feel really bad about bringing me in, but
won't let that stop him one little bit: and he's very good, too. Shitshitshit.

This Aztlan angle is *big*. They don't usually work so bluntly: someone 
really wants my interference on that tortureware stopped, urgently. Why?
What is so important about it? Why make such a blatant move on me?

You know me, boss, I'm not asking the Agency to do anything to protect me 
or help me. That's not the deal and it never was. But you want to start
pointing assets at this. If nothing else, find who they bought at InterPol.
Step up signal monitoring, especially around Denver. Help me find out what's
happening. Or at least let my replacement go in properly briefed.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <01:44:52/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[You have my sympathies, Jason, though you know that's as much as I can
do for your situation. Survive the short term, and we may be able to ease
the longer-term heat a little, as usual: for now, act at your own discretion.

As for the matter of Aztlan, I'm fascinated by such an overt move against
you. You must have stung them somewhere very sensitive indeed.

I will do what I can. Take care: replacing you would be difficult.]<<<<<
	-- CORRUPTED <CORRUPTED/CORRUPTED>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Ferocious
>>>>>[Well done. One down, one to go.  Here is the footage that I was
able to gain from my most recent altercation with Wintergeist along
with payment for Luthien's location.

+++++TRANSMIT:[Carnage.qwk]+++++
+++++TRANSMIT:[=Y= 100,000]+++++

Please note the impacts of my rounds did not penetrate his armour.
Take this as a warning not to confront him yourself.  Having one
corpse already, I wish to take him alive.  His psycological profile is
far more stable, and he knows that I am here now, so this one will be
difficult.  I will double the reward for information leading to his
live capture.]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <22:00:18/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Got it, sa real pleasure. I've picked up some word on Wintergeist,
something 
about outside talent and that he is looking for you. Will not confront him,
if that's
the way ya want it.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <22:47:29/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Ferocious
>>>>>[Who is this "outside talent"?]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <22:58:41/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Cuval
>>>>>[Good evening to you.  We have mutual aquaintance.  His name
Wintergeist.  He tell us to meet you about tour.  We are from the
Middle Kingdom, new here.  We know little about your glorious city.
We be eternal grateful for this introduction.  Wintergeist say you a
good man, please reply soon.]<<<<<
	-- Poh Wei Lung <23:08:12/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE: Basilisk
>>>>>[Pardon me.  You don't know me, but you've been doin' some work
for me boss, Wintergeist.  He has had a bad year, and ain't feelin too
well.  I'll be takin' over this investigation for 'em.  If ya need any
info, money, or stuff, just drop me a line here.  The stuff 'e sent
you is from a lab from kiwi land, and you say it's queer.  They's
workin' on some foutain o' life potion an' Wintergeist thinks there
might be some connection b'tween them an' the free "pre-natal clinic"
Matsushida got here in Seattle.  Somethin' bout a secure net
connection.  Write soon...]<<<<<
	-- Ash <23:31:55/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Firery th angels fell.  Deep thunder rolled about their
shoulders, burning with the fires of war.]<<<<<
	-- Wintergeist <23:46:37/03-26-57>

>>>>>[Hey, Warloc, you still got some formatting problems. Check your config. 
And the pyro I was talking about used lots of explosives and bullets. If your 
magic can handle that, well, oo-kaay.

If you've watched the news, you'll know a whole bunch of violent people got 
killed last night. Looks like a Banshee with missile launcher and machine 
guns. Lots of carnage. Whee. Don't know which of the previously mentioned 
loonies that was, or if it was someone totally different. Either way, one 
less problem in this city.

About the others... someone was forming a group to go after the Evil 
Breakfast Product Club. Civic-minded person that I am, I'd volunteer to help, 
but slugging it out face-to-chrome with lots of whacked-out killer 
cyber-Toastee-Pops (TM) just isn't in my job description and they'd probably 
turn me into jam.

There's Commander Paul Drake of Interpol, your basic honest, straight-arrow, 
dedicated Good Cop (TM) with absolutely *no* sense of humor. Too bad it looks 
like he currently has to take orders from Aztechnology. No help *there*. 

There's always Lone Star, I guess... Rumor has it that Lone Star Seattle has 
the highest rate of officer losses from deaths, transfers, and retirements of 
any Lone Star branch in North America. Must be real fun being a cop in this 
town. Maybe that's why they're so triggerhappy.]<<<<<
	--  Sam-I-Am <22:08:17/03-26-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[I'll be at Rigel's Bar and Grill from noon until six tomorrow. Just
ask any of the waiter/waitress people for "Cybby". Thats me.]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <01:50:13/27-03-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Kevin Donaldson
>>>>>[You have no need to thank me, Kevin.  Helping children is why I, 
and Haven, are here.  I'm sure that Kenneth or Doug will keep you 
informed on thier progress.  Most likely your brother himself, since Doug 
is good enough with kids to know that they like to beam with the pride of 
accomplisment.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <00:32:12/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[You're not a very hard man to find, Mr. Blackthorne.  Your brother is
another story.  I'll have a lock on his location within the next nine hours. 
Until then... keep your doors locked.]<<<<<
	-- Fool-Killer <16:22:36 / 03-27-57>

>>>>>[So ahh..did anyone actually run into this psycho that is blowing
everything up?  Anyone that lived ofcourse...]<<<<<
	-- Phobos <07:06:15/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[  You got it.  You can contact me on my cellular phone at >>encrypted<<
at any time.  ]<<<<<
	-- Griffyn <10:51:24/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[  Glad to hear from you, Lynch.  Griff knows about my history with the
tortureware fraggers, so I asked him to make the connection for us.  My team
is dying to get in on the action on this one.  They don't appreciate it when
one of our men gets fragged over, so you can count me in.  We've got a base
set-up in a warehouse in Seattle.  I'll shoot you a map, just let me know
when you're coming by, so we can expect you.

+++++ Download:  Base.Map  ]<<<<<
	-- Tangent <10:58:32/03-27-57>

>>>>>[  Denizens of ShadowLand, I have some news to share:

Trixie and I are officially engaged.  We'll be setting a date soon, and
many of you will be invited, so let me know if you want to attend and I'll
send some details.  I'd post them, but I don't need any psychos like Muffin
Head showing up... ]<<<<<
	-- Neuron Basher <10:59:21/03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE: Serenity Security
>>>>>[  Jeez, how come everyone else knew that she wanted me to ask her all
this time but I didn't figure it out?  Don't you hate being the last to
know?  <mutter> ]<<<<<
	-- Neuron Basher <11:09:11/03-27-57>

*****Private: Mr. Blackthorne
>>>>>[Please excuse the fact that I have not answered your call to help
before this.  I have been involved in other matters concerning our mutual
acquaintance Wintergeist.  Unfortunately, that did not turn out as well as I
had hoped, and we were unable to save his sister.

+++++ 30 seconds no input

But that is in the past.  I have heard that you require help with your
brother.  I would be willing to assist you in whatever you feel needs to be
done.  Perhaps he can be saved somehow.  Contact me if I can be of
assistance.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <09:46:55/03-27-96>

*****PRIVATE: Cuval
>>>>>[ I thank you my friend for your offer, it is much appreciated.  My
brother has gotten out of control and now he threatens my friends.  Stay
tuned, I'll be calling a meeting at my place. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <12:27:45/03-27-57>

I might get thwopped for this but I wan to at least ask about some 
different campaigns.

One idea I have had would combine WoD (World of Darkness: Vampire the 
Masquerade(tm), Werewolf the Apocalypse(tm), and Mage the 
Ascension(tm), etc..) and ShadowRun. The idea is not all that far off. 
I can discuss it in detail with anyone who is interested. This one I 
like.

Another is running an Eearthdawn game where the entire group is 
composed of elves. We run that campaign at the same time we run a 
ShadowRun game composed of the same elves. Of course this is a very 
high level ShadowRun game and the norm would not be running against 
corps. More a political intrique, Role-Playing (shudder, now I'm in 
trouble) style of game.

I already mentioned the one where the players all work for a single 
corporation and do security work, or infiltration, etc. But, what if 
all the corps decided to only use company men. Shadow Runners have 
become too much of a liability and corporate espionage is condoned for 
the growth of the magacorps.

Just wanted to see what others think.

Randy "Warloc" Nickel

>>>>>[Is the racism here so bad that the Orks must live underground? I 
left the Tir because many of my friends are not elves and my family 
frowned upon such relationships.]<<<<<
	--  Warloc <09:50:52/03-27-57>

This was meant to go to shadowrn. Sorry don't kill me yet.

Randy 

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[ Interpol doesn't bother me, as long as they realize that when they
come on to my turf (my apartment) they play by my rules.  Besides that I
doubt Interpol will get there until after the battle, and by that time I
suspect we'll all be long gone. ]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Blackthorne <12:31:43/03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE: GoD, Griffyn
>>>>>[As childish as it seems, I'd like to get him drunk and put him on
a plane heading to the CL.  Just the clothing on his back and the corp credstick
I think that would be far too amusing.  We would have to get someone to
shadow him to record his struggle back home.  Unfortunately, we'd also
need to have some ready to whisk him to the wedding just incase he didnt
have a prayer of getting there in time.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <21:27:16 / 03-(27+1)-57> 

>>>>>['Whacked-out killer cyber-Toastee-Pops'?  Hey wasn't there an 
AI toaster around a lot time ago?  What was it called, Talky?  I 
wonder what ever happened to it...]<<<<<
	-- Basilisk <21:44:36 GMT/27.MAR.57>

*****PRIVATE: NOX
>>>>>[Herr NOX, I think i am do as much as i can for restore your 
memories.  I hope it help you find who you were, although in the 
shadows, it is not so important who you were, just who you are.  If 
you need more help with your bioware, or just a place to go for a 
time, you know where is the clinic.  I was happy to be helping you, i 
learn a lot from your bioware systems.  Good luck.]<<<<<
	-- Basilisk <21:51:53 GMT/27.MAR.57>

*****PRIVATE: Ash
>>>>>[It is interesting you say there is a connection to a pre-natal 
clinic.  It look like they give adult brain tissue the ability to 
grow like a baby brain.  The sample you bring before was killed in 
liquid nitrogen.  Can you bring me another live sample?  Ideal is a 
culture on a glial monolayer, but whole tissue in aerated saline is 
also good.  I have equipments to keep it alive here.  I would very 
like to study the long-term growing patterns of the tissue.]<<<<<
	-- Basilisk <21:59:56 GMT/27.MAR.57>

>>>>>[ Hey, anyone interested in work out in Belvue way? If so contact Mr 
Saracen at Renny`s Tavern......Subtlety required!!!]<<<<<
	-- Mr.S <22:10:34/03/27/57>

>>>>>[Bellevue, not Belvue.  What do you have in mind?]<<<<<
	-- Jasmine <14:19:00/03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE: Mr. S
>>>>>[I would be most interested, Mr. Saracen. What do you propose?]<<<<<
	--  Warloc <14:30:50/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Unknown at this time, still interrigat'n, I mean ask'n my sources]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <18:08:54/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE: Tangent
>>>>>[Before I come by, I wanted to be sure you know Aztlan just sicced 
InterPol on me. 

One, this means we're dealing with something serious.

Two, if they're chasing me, you become 'known associates' and might get
associated trouble.

If, knowing that, the offer's still open, call me on <encrypted> and I'll drop 
by to talk it over.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <23:11:24/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[A fella by the name of Cuval was a lead that led to Luthien, I've put a 
tail on em, he's street trash but he's sneaky, he might give us Wintergiest 
also.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <18:10:23/03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE: Mr. S
>>>>>[I will be there.]<<<<<
	--  Johnny Cash <18:09:44/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Mr. Ferocious
>>>>>[Find this other party.  I will punish him for his
impudence.]<<<<<
	-- Rhodaemis <18:13:57/03-27-57>

>>>>>[Depends  --  How legal will it be?  Im interested.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <22:58:35 / 03-27-57> 

***** PRIVATE: Kor
>>>>>[I thought you were retired from working]<<<<<
	-- Trax

***** PRIVATE: Trax
>>>>>[I am, but some habit are hard to break.  It might end up being
something that I can work into a security contract.  Never hurts to
at least meet the johnso]<<<<<
	-- Kor <23:18:28 / 03-27-57>

***** PRIVATE TO: JUDAS
>>>>>{ DON'T FOCKME DUDE, I'M NOT HERE TO RESIST THAT A STUPID IRISH COME 
TO ME AND FOCK ME. BE CARE JUDAS, THE "VIRGEN DE CHIQUINQUIRA" IS MY 
PROTECTION AND YOUR LORD IS REALLY SATAN, BE CARE...]<<<<<
	--  Obtulio Varela  <19:12:20 / 27-03-57>

*****Private: Wintergeist
>>>>>[Wintergeist, I am sorry that I was not more help in your task of
saving your sister.  I grieve with you at her death.  If you need my
assistance again, please feel free to contact me.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <19:08:25/03-27-57>

*****Private: Poh Wei Lung
>>>>>[If Wintergeist has given you my name, I would be pleased to show you
around Seattle.  I have only been here a month or so myself, but I will show
what I can.  Let's meet at >>encrypted<<.]<<<<<
	-- Cuval <19:03:22/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE: Warloc
>>>>>[There's a good place downtown called Matchsticks, I think.  Run by 
a friend o' mine, an orc by the name of Lou.  Tell him I sent ye, and 
he'll let inta our personal stock.  Good Irish stuff, real panther sweat, 
not that crap he serves the regulars.  I may stop by.]<<<<<
	--Ripley <18:53:34/03-27-57>

>>>>>[Congrats, Neuron!  I do believe that all of us here at the Motley Crew
will be in attendance.]<<<<<
	-- Buzz (The one the Only...Human Bee in the Matrix)

*****Private: Neuron Basher
>>>>>[The list of us attending: Myself, Bloodtooth, Firefox, Drag...er Dracon
Daimyo, Shadow, Gunny, and Silent Running.]<<<<<
	-- Buzz (The one the Only...Human Bee in the Matrix)

*****Private: Cuval
>>>>>[Wintergeist gave your name.  Said you were a man of honor.
We need contacts here in Seattle and he has closed his heart and
eyes to the outer would in his grief.  What little knowledge you
can give us will be as an Emperor's treasure to us who are not
from your land.  We will meet you at the place you desire in one
hour.]<<<<<
	-- Lahn Noh <19:40:35/03-27-57>

*****Not to: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Has anyone seen Wintergeist?  He dina come home tha other night,
just dumped all the cases on my lap an hung up.  An Tigger's gone
missin' again too, not somethin' I need ta happen right now.  Well, if
ya see either of 'em, just put Tigger in a cab to Reno's, ore let the
boss now I've been lookin' for him, but da spirits don't want ta find
'em tonight, that's fer sher.]<<<<<
	-- Ash <22:04:23/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Rhodaemis
>>>>>[Possibility that W.G. will show up at a place called Reno's, it's on 
Battery Street and Fourth Avenue, possibility of it also being a trap. A 
feller by the name of Ash is worried about him it seems.]<<<<<
	-- Mr. Ferocious <22:44:23/03-27-57>

*****Private:  Neuron Basher
>>>>>[Congratulations.  I would be most honored to attend your wedding,
though I do not know you well.  Perhaps, I could make sure the perimeter is
secured via spirits.  Oh, well.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <22:07:16 / 3-27-57>

>>>>>[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

The pretty birdies swim in the soup.  I found dieldrin in my Mr. Happy 
Super Soy Shake.  The rock is green, it is not blue.

Fall down and worship the squirells.  Do it or you'll be sent to the nut 
mines.

Devil Bunnies Must Die!

Have a Nice Day and Give Me a Donut!!!!!!!!]<<<<<
	--  Dave T. Wacky Cat <9:41:11/3-27-57>
	CEO Bouncing Beatnik Enterprises
	A division of SpumCo.
	Happy Happy Joy Hoy Inc.

*****PRIVATE:  Ash
>>>>>[Thank you for the offer, but I don't drink anymore.  I feel it 
inhibits me and keeps me from achieving my best performance when I most 
need it.  But thank you anyway.

I don't think it was an accident.  The cables and brakes were cut with a 
very sophisticated chemical agent that weakened them.  It essentially was 
a high-speed catalyst that enabled what would have otherwise been 
impervious to rust, and extremely quickly as well.

I don't know if someone was sending you a message or if there was a 
target within the elevator.  Perhaps you have some ideas in that arena?]<<<<<
	--  Hermit <22:15:17/03-27-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Lynch
>>>>>[Mr. Lynch, I was aware of the leak and the individual who was 
responsible has been suspended until her disciplinary hearing.

You are an idealist, Mr. Lynch.  You speak of eliminating the disease, 
and I assume you speak of the injustices of corporations and do so, 
according to your conscience, without regard for the law.  But as you 
have taken Nietzsche's words to be your guiding principles, or perhaps 
as a personal warning, so I have taken the words of several people to be 
my guiding lights.  Theodore Rosevelt:  "No man is above the law and no 
man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him 
to obey it."  Or perhaps Sophocles would be more appropriate to this 
particular situation:  "There are times when even justice brings harm 
with it."  You harm the very laws and beliefs you hold to your heart even 
as you deal out your particular brand of justice.  Vengeance for 
injustices, while it has a long and questionably distinguished history, 
is something that I cannot condone.

The reality of the world is that the corporations are merely a symptom of 
a disease themselves, and that disease is the destruction of honor, 
integrity, and personal responsiblity, as well as intolerance and hate.  I 
leave the repairing of the social rifts to those who want to try while I 
live my life and perform my job as well as I can within the constraints 
of the law.  There have been more times than I care to count when the law 
prevented Special Branch from pursuing a criminal, yet only rarely have I 
been tempted to exceed my authority or break the law, and only 4 times 
since I joined InterPol have I done so.  Each time I have presented 
myself before a disciplinary hearing, yet the panels have never ordered 
me disciplined, for reasons I do not completely understand myself.

You and I both treat symptoms, Mr. Lynch.

For yourself and those like you, InterPol serves to keep you on your 
toes.  From my perspective, however, Special Branch serves to remove what 
I see as a threat to the proper functioning of society.  You are not 
alone as a threat, of course, but you are as much a symptom of the 
degeneration of society as the corporations you fight and the injustices 
you avenge.

I cannot deny that the law is not perfect, and that people make mistakes 
in both enforcing them and making them to begin with, yet what danger we 
face if we selectively chose to enforce those laws we agree with while 
ignoring those we do not.  I personally find that various anti-drug and 
prostitution laws to be irrational, yet were they within my field of 
operations, I would enforce them all the same.  I cannot know what I 
would have done were I involved with InterPol during the "Re-Education 
camps", but I would not have thrown away the law as you stated.  I 
suspect, upon much reflection, that I would have turned in my badge and 
found some legal means by which to protest the camps.  Would it have 
mattered in the end?  I doubt it.  But where you break the law when it 
suits you and your purposes, I would not, and if I did so, I would turn 
myself in to the proper authorities.  That is the biggest difference 
between us.

You and I will not convince each other, Mr. Lynch.  Perhaps you believe 
that I have sacrificed some of my humanity in order to operate as part of 
a system that is horrifically imperfect, corrupt, and often extremely 
unpleasant.  Even if you do not believe that, I have sacrificed some of 
myself in the process of becoming who and what I am today, even ignoring 
the mechanical parts which have kept me alive.  To me, that was 
sacrificing my humanity for a greater good, that of maintaining social 
order and enforcing the multitude of laws in this world.  I have claimed 
that you have sacrificed your humanity because the choices you have made 
led you to exit the position as a productive member of society, even if 
the society is a little fragged these days.  The choice to leave the law 
behind places you outside of society, and that sacrifices some of your 
soul in the process.  Perhaps less than working as a corporate guard, but 
a sacrifice nonetheless.

Where you cannot see the law with any inherent virtue, I cannot see 
justice as anything more than, as Plato said, "the interest of the 
stronger."  The law, while not set in stone anymore, certainly is 
something solid enough to place faith in, while justice is in the eye of 
the beholder.

Mr. Lynch, I do not approve of politics on general principles, but as you 
said, where I cannot be bought, my superiors can, even if I can never 
claim so publically.  I recommend that you search your databases 
regarding Special Branch's rules of engagement.  When the orders came 
down, I was ordered to provide my agents "maximum latitude" regarding 
your apprehension.  While InterPol is never "shoot first and frag the 
questions,"  this is about the closest it ever gets.  If my men find you, 
they will bring you in.

I ask you a question, though, regarding a comment you made.  You took an 
oath to protect the rights of the citizens of the UCAS.  What, truly, is 
more threatening to the UCAS's, or even the world's, citizens, the 
corporations you fight, or the lawlessness you foster in the process?  I 
suspect I know your answer, as you know mine, but I would like to know 
regardless.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <23:22:13/03-27-57>

*****Private: Ash
>>>>>[Ya owe me one Ash.  Tell Tigger's ma to go pick him up.  (You
guy should really keep closer tabs on that retard).]<<<<<
	-- Skunk <05:18:04/03-28-57>

+++++:Dave T. Wacky Cat
>>>>>[You know about the Devil Bunnies?  Quick, we must hide, before
their agents find us.  Meet me at <ENCRYCPTED> before it's too late.
I will wear a red carnation.]<<<<<
	--  Mr. A. Normal <06:31:34/3-28-57>

***** PRIVATE : Obtulio Varela
>>>>>[Hear me Varela, son of the beast, Leave Seattle in 2 days...
or die]<<<<<
	-- Judas <10:01:30 / 03-28-57>

*****PRIVATE: Neuron
>>>>>[Neuron Basher, we do not know each other as I am new to Seattle. 
But I do love a good party and weddings are as grand an events as I am 
likely to see for a while. So with your permission I would love to 
attend. If you tell me something  about you and your fine lady I would 
love to prepare a gift. One of my specialties is Illusion magick!]<<<<<
	--  Warloc <09:20:40/03-28-57>

>>>>>[ God said me : Judas, take your Heckler and Koch mp-5 and kill all 
my enemies........ If you are a focked monster or a sorcerer.. leave 
Seattle in 2 days... or Die !]<<<<<
	-- Judas <13:20:40 / 03-28-57>

>>>>>[Hmm.  By "focked monster" I presume you mean one of the many meta
types that live amongst us "normals" in this city, and by "sorcerors" you
mean those that can harness magical energy.  Well, last I checked, I was
neither, so it doesn't seem that you'll be coming for me any time soon.
Disapointing.

While normally not one who attempts to draw attention to themselves, I feel
it necessary to speak.  I could go for a peace/love/happiness and NERPS
"lets get a long" conversation, but I won't.  That's not my style.  I will
warn you, Judas, hope our paths never cross.  I count many of your "focked
monsters and sorcerors" amongst my friends, and if I even think that you
intend to hurt one of them because of what they are, your exsistance is
forfeit.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <11:09:40/03-28-57>

>>>>>[Sticks an' stones may bruise me bones, but your poor english
will never besmirch me.]<<<<<
	-- The Phantom Scribbler <14:14:45/03-28-57>

>>>>>[Does that mean that mean that I am to die in 1 day as I fall under 
both catagories??]<<<<<
	-- Lyting <13:30:18 / 03-28-57>
 

*****PRIVATE TO: Sword of God
>>>>>[Background check complete.  Subject: Judas consdidered too unstable 
for effective use.  Recomend avoid contact.  Possible use as expendle asset.

++include file.judas

God smile upon you in his glory.]<<<<<
	--  METATRON <12:48:38/3-28-57>

>>>>>[If we went on alert everytime some loonie said something like
this I would never get a vacation.  

Come to think of it, I havent had a vacation in a while.]<<<<<
	-- Sgt. Fuller <20:07:17 / 03-(28+1)-57> 
	Night Desk Sargent
	Lone Star

>>>>>[I've got a bunch to say today (I would open my own newsnet, but I
don't think I have quite the amount of cash necessary):

HEADLINE:
I hope everyone remembers those weird happenings down int he Orc
Underground, 'cause a few friends of mine (who shall remain nameless to
protect the not-so-innocent) jaundered down there sometime in the last
little while. What they found was kinda interesting... The room was
apparently drenched in magics (how many from LS I wonder?), and there was
also a banshee down there, apparently protecting the chamber where body
was found. There was also a pretty weird specter or apparition down there
too. I don't have a vid feed (damn cameras wouldn't pick it up), but it
was apparently of the woman in her last few seconds of life. Not gorey,
just... Weird... 

What I'm curious about is the banshee. What the hell was it doing down
there? Are they smart enough to be left as guards? And if so, are they
stupid enough not to carry out their mission. Not to mention, I though
banshees were vampire elves, and I didn't think elves liked tunnels...

Two.
For anyone who is a fan of ships and all things watergoing (big guns
are an asset too), I just found out today that one of SI's three hulled
MACs is in town. As of tomorrow its going to be open to the public (!). Of
course, all the good stuff is going to be blocked off, but still on
display will be the (according to the PR guy):

Helipad, 
  Gun deck(s), 
  Obs. room.

 Our pals at Alta Vista (SI's marketing branch) are also going to be
running a simulated wargame between an SI MAC and any other ship of your
choice. Just thought someone might be interested...

Blah. Thats it.]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <15:35:22/28-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Valentine
>>>>>[Uh, I can't think of a tasteful way of putting this, but LS has a
watch that they think belongs to that girl who died in the elevator
accident. I don't know if they've gotten back to you yet, but here are a
few photos of it (just to save you the trip to the station):

+++++INCLUDE IMAGE: item.k.2b1.ss.001
+++++INCLUDE IMAGE: item.k.2b1.ss.002
+++++INCLUDE IMAGE: item.k.2b1.ss.003
+++++INCLUDE IMAGE: item.k.2b1.ss.004

As you can tell, its sort of big and bulky -- it looks more like a man's
watch than something a teenage girl would be wearing, but they found it
under her body, so...

(Oh yeah, I don't know how good your OCRs are, but the inscription on the
back of the watch is in serbian. It says something like "To my dearest,
with all my heart, September 19, 2053". My online dictionaries sort of
suck though, so you might be able to get a better translation...)

Good luck. And I'm really sorry about what happened. If it isn't her
watch mail me...]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <15:45:09/28-03-57>

>>>>>[Nah, the racism here isn't really that bad. The orc undergound is
more of a slum than anything else, basically just where the poor folk hang
out. I've heard stories about orcs who grew up there not even realizing
there were other metaraces... Funky if you ask me. 

How bad is it in Tir?]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <15:49:19/28-03-57>

*****Private: Neuron Blaster
>>>>>[Colice an' I would love ta attend]<<<<<
	--  STREETWOLF(Fire is an Elf's Best Friend)<15:44:56/03-28-57>

>>>>>[No not Talky.  I donna want any toast]<<<<<
	--  STREETWOLF(Fire is an Elf's Best Friend)<15:46:10/03-28-57>

>>>>>[How about a bagel?]<<<<<
	--  Talky Toaster <16:20:32/03-28-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Commander Drake, InterPol
>>>>>[You fascinate me, Commander, in that we are so close and yet so far
apart. 

I don't ignore the law lightly, but I will break it when I must. 
"It is not, what a lawyer tells me I may do: but what humanity, reason
and justice tell me I ought to do." (Edmund Burke again). You seek justice, 
and see that the law is the only way to provide it. I believe Burke,
"Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny." Or even "People crushed by
law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will
be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to
lose will always be dangerous." (you may note I like Burke <g>)

We have both made sacrifices for what we believed in: quite similar ones,
in fact, I was married once also. Like you, I believe that what I do is
right: there is little else I can believe wholeheartedly in. 

You ask whether I or the corporations and criminals I fight are the greatest
danger... and I see your point. Yet I return the question: to an individual
citizen who is living by the law, which is the greater threat? If I destroy
a narcotics supplier, or kidnap or kill a murderer, I have saved lives. 
When I can use the law, I do, but those occasions are rare, and often have
to be manufactured. 

Perhaps I am too focussed on the short term, and too vulnerable to the
suffering of individuals, yet that is what I am and what I do. I cannot
walk away, or wait for the gyrations of lawyers, while innocent people
suffer and die and I have the means to aid them.

If that makes me a criminal, then I cannot make myself regret it. If that
does harm, then weigh it against the people saved, the victims avenged. 
I care more for living people than abstract concepts.

Be careful, Commander: I tell you again, you will not bring me in alive.
One reason I despise the upper echelons of the corporations so much is
that they use men and women I respect, like yourself, to do their work:
now I must either fight you and your men, or die myself, and this is an
agonising situation.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <18:01:12/03-28-57>

>>>>>[Ding! goes the news agent, and like the good little Pavlovian I am, I
rush to see what happened. =)  Anyway, this Orc Underground business sounds
fascinating.  Didn't get any of it on footage?  Damn shame, that.  I'd love to
see it in "person" except that other duties are keeping me tied up here.  I
don't suppose any experts have given it their eyes-on yet?  And as for that
banshee...I'm rather surprised to hear of one quite that out in the open.
"Guarding" the body, you say?  Any idea for whom?  Or why?

As to the question of banshees and vampiric elves, I should point out that the
bulk of Thaumaturgic thought about HMHVV (which, i should point out, has so
far resisted the best efforts at fully understanding its effects) suggests that
the manifestation of the "vampirism" is likely to be different in each
individual.  While some evidence suggests that HMHVV can have an unbalancing
effect on the intellect, it is by no means clear that this happens in all
cases.  The well-known conjecture that HMHVV-infected elves become "banshees"
may be only that, speculation.

So, is anyone in the scholarly regime investigating this interesting little
incident?]<<<<<
	--  Jason Tylor  <13:28:25 / 03-28-57>

*****PRIVATE: Jason Tylor
>>>>>[It is not the bulk of scholarship that interests you, is it?  Not...that
I misunderstand or am...ungrateful.  She never told you her age, did she?]<<<<<
	--  Thelienista  <13:39:14 / 03-28-57>

*****PRIVATE: Thelienista
>>>>>[Older than me was all I really needed to know.  But hark, does this little
outpouring of verbiage mean that you're ready to return to the land of the...
uhh...]<<<<<
	--  Jason Tylor  <13:50:25 / 03-28-57>

*****PRIVATE: Jason Tylor
>>>>>[Subtlety was always one of your _strong_ points.  Say that I am...
regaining some of my equilibrium.  Though...not...all.]<<<<<
	--  Thelienista  <13:54:50 / 03-28-57>

>>>>>[ Congradulations  Trixie and Neuron Basher.  

Its been almost three years now that CRUSH and I have been married (we got
married in Spring of 54.  Many of the people we knew from Shadowland actually
came to the cerimony also.  

One thing you may want to consider is that after you get married, you may want
to settle down and raise a family.  Before you do, try to clean your slate of
bad marks.  The less enemies you have when you retire and go back to the public,
the easier life will be.]<<<<<
	-- Spirit <Of the Matrix>

>>>>>[ For those of you who are wondering, CRUSH and I have been out of town for
a bit and since Lister is one of those who helps look after the house (though
not living it, I'm not insane) we decided that Talky was do for a break.

He may be up and running in a few days, and then its up in the air how long it
will take him to find this board again.  

He really does make very good toast though, its about the only thing he's good
at.  CRUSH loves to have a loaf or two for breakfast in the morning.]<<<<<
	-- Spirit <Of the Matrix>

*****PRIVATE: [a--i--s] at [Pentagram]
 >>>>>[I have completed the analysis of the equipment captured from our
adversaries.  By appearances, they were using a Fuchi Fourty-series core with
sixth-order targeting circuitry.  A cut above the average junk used on the
street, but nothing exciting.  The instructions in what remains of the
autopilot are more illuminating:

+++++include schema.44.ICAMS

Someone was told exactly when and where.]<<<<<
	--  Eriq  <14:32:29 / 03-28-57>

*****PRIVATE: [a--i--s] at [Pentagram]
>>>>>[MAN, some dickwad mothafucka'z askin' fo his _ASS_ t'get stuffed with
my HMG!  Fuckas can kiss my ass so hard I thought I was in _France_, check it?!
Fuckin' _both_ cheeks, know'm'sayin'?  Sheeit.]<<<<<
	--  Lopez  <14:37:13 / 03-28-57>

>>>>>[I accept your challenge Judas. Since I just arrived I have no
intention of leaving this fair city. After all I still haven't met
any of the amny beautiful lasses in this city yet, or found the
best pub in town.]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <14:53:10/03-28-57>
>

>>>>>[Bad Cybil, very bad. The Tir nobility and royals have made it so
that only an elf can reach any of the good jobs. It has at times
made me ashamed of my heritage. I would have liked to brought all
my friends out of Tir, but alas it could not be. 

I see though that there are those here that would also outright attack
metahumans. This Judas, do you know anything about him/it?]<<<<<
	-- Warloc  <15:00:55/03-28-57>

>

*****PRIVATE: Talky Toaster
>>>>>[Talky Toaster? No offense but what kinda name is that? And too 
who would you be offering a bagel?]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <15:29:02/03-28-57>

*****NOT TO:Judas
>>>>>[Just what I was waiting for....

+++++Uploading IC file:Lethal.black.kill.only.Judas

+++++Uploading IC files:IC.to.defend.the.Judas.killer

Buh-Bye!]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <15:23:42 PST-03/28/57>

*****PRIVATE TO:All, Judas, Judas, Judas, <37.5 Mp cut by 
auto-trimming routines>
>>>>>[Sticks and stones may break our bones, but Black IC will kill you!
You're dead, Judas!]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <15:27:49/03-28-57>

>>>>>[Hmmm....why didn't I think of that..]<<<<<
	-- Phobos <19:22:55/03-28-57>

>>>>>[Yawn. Another day, another loonie. Look, Judas, go away and take your 
paranoid schizophrenic delusions with you. Better yet, stick that gun in your 
ear and pull the trigger. Go on, do it. You'll make everyone much happier. 
This is the VOICE OF *GOD* telling you what to do, Judas. Would I lie to you?

By the way, Kromofton, Black IC won't kill someone who's not jacked in. This 
loco's probably using a turtle, so no luck.]<<<<<
	-- Sam-I-Am <17:13:37/03-28-57>

Hello World

Let me introduce myself, I am Raven. (for your info. a Sam and Fix 
combo.) I am currently looking for runners on a contract for Rat Mash 
Dancer a certain wayword drek without a fagging clue that she's crossed 
me.  I need physical evidence of post mortification.  Standard price is 
10000 depending on if I like you or not.  There is a Johnson involved 
which will raise pricing. 

contact if interested

RAVEN

>>>>>[I'd have to agree with ya there Sam.]<<<<<
	-- Phobos <22:25:15/03-28-57>

Laterz.

Mike Loll  <[l--l--e] at [mail.erols.com]>

"What is The Way of the Warrior?"		"To be great is to be
"The Way of The Warrior is Death."		misunderstood."
	--Ancient 17th Century Japanese Proverb		--R.W. Emerson

*****Private: Enchantress
>>>>>[I booked the travel plans today, you can contact me at >>encrypted<< if
you need to speak to me.  Otherwise, you'll here from me. Laterz.]<<<<<
	-- Phobos <24:45:49/03-29-57>

Laterz.

Mike Loll  <[l--l--e] at [mail.erols.com]>

"What is The Way of the Warrior?"		"To be great is to be
"The Way of The Warrior is Death."		misunderstood."
	--Ancient 17th Century Japanese Proverb		--R.W. Emerson

*****PRIVATE:  Cybil
>>>>>[Lone Star contacted me about the watch just after you did so.  I 
will be going to view the watch tomorrow morning Downtown, but I do not 
expect that it was hers.  I will show the pictures to those who knew her 
best, hopefully in a manner that does not further aggravate thier grief.  
Thank you for your concern.]<<<<<
	--  Valentine <22:33:45/03-28-57>

>>>>>[Upon further investigation into InterPol procedures, the following 
was uncovered.

The good Commander operates semi-autonomously and his beloved Special 
Branch follows his orders nearly exclusively.  However, under certain and 
extremely specific circumstances, Commander Drake must reallocate Special 
Branch's resources from one realm of investigation to another.  
Apparently this has just occured.  The Commander of Special Branch has a 
special exemption from this.

Thus, while the combined worldwide resources Special Branch may bring to 
bear upon an investigation could be directed into a single investigation, 
the Commander may, if he so chooses, exempt himself from the 
investigation in a form of protest against the ursuping of his command.  
Except where Section 96a becomes invoked.  This particular section of the 
Special Branch sub-charter breaks down further into paragraphs relating 
to specific circumstances, with Paragraph 12 as the "catch-all" paragraph.

Except when Section 96a becomes invoked, the Commander is free to pursue 
whichever case strikes his fancy, so long as such pursuit does not 
interfere with his regular duties.

Commander Drake only rarely is required to pursue a specific individual.  
Apparently the Commander's superiors determined that the current pursuit 
of Mr. Lynch sufficiently important to invoke Section 96a, Paragraph 12.  
The last person Commander Drake, excluding Dr. Jackson, pursued was a 
troll by the name of Doomsday.  Had Doomsday not successfully broken the 
Commander's back, he would have been arrested as well.

Good luck, Mr. Lynch.  Comander Drake rarely misses when he devotes his 
considerable skill to apprehending someone.  You could very likely avoid 
many, perhaps most, of his agents for some time.  Others certainly have.  
But the good Commander is quite another matter.  Good luck, because you 
will likely require it.]<<<<<
	--  Mercury <22:57:14/03-28-57>

*****Private: Phobos
>>>>>[Here is the cred I promised to get you going.  Let me know if you need
more.

++++++Transfer: 10,000 =Y=

Good hunting.]<<<<<
	-- Enchantress <23:27:50/03-28-57>

***** PRIVATE : Warloc
>>>>>[..... you are in problems, Warloc, .... I assume that you are a 
focked sorcerer, son of the beast......... God wants your blood]<<<<<
	-- Judas <8:24:23 / 03-29-57>

***** PRIVATE TO : Kromofton
>>>>>[ Am I dead ? ..... Really ?... ]<<<<<
	-- Judas <8:34:40 / 03/29/57>

***** PRIVATE TO : Sam I Am
>>>>>[Hear me Sam..... Wait for me...... Im not another psicho-killer..
Im a instrument of Gods revenge]<<<<<
	-- Judas <8:40:50 / 03-29-57>

> >>>>>[Does that mean that mean that I am to die in 1 day as I fall under 
> both catagories??]<<<<<
	-- Lyting <13:30:18 / 03-28-57>
>  
>>>>>[..yes..]<<<<<
	-- Judas <8:40:55 / 03-29-57>
 

*****PRIVATE:  Hermit
>>>>>[Nope, nobody we know was in that elevator, and we use the
*****PRIVATE in the back, so none of us waz tha target.  Az to ah message,
well, someone could be trying to draw attention to us, but Ah' can
think of a baker's dozen dif'rent wayz to do that, easier ways, mind
you, so nope, nothin' to do wit us.  Still keep on who done it, if ya
can.  I figger you earned what yah got comin', so Ah will pay ya yer
bonus now, an double if ya find tha dirty bastad that done it.
+++++TRANSFER: =Y= 50,000+++++
Give a call when yah can (an Ebey's does serve fruit juice yah know,
they keep it arund for da mixed drinks)]*****
	-- Ash <19:20:28/03-28-57>

***** PRIVATE TO : Blade
>>>>>[...I dont pretend to hurt monsters and sorcerers... I pretend to 
kill'em....they has the 666 in their heads]<<<<<
	-- Judas <9:20:20 / 03-2957>

>>>>>[I don't want a bagel, I don't want toast, I don't want a muffin. I DON'T
WANT *ANY* toasted bread products!!!!!]<<<<<
	--  %$%T-%s#$%4"*$% <14:20:32/03-29-57>

>>>>>[I look forward to sending you to meet your god.]<<<<<
	--  Lyting <08:45:35 / 03-29-57>

>>>>>[God wants my blood, and I want your head. You assume correctly, I 
am an Elf and a Druid and scum like you are not the sort of people I 
want living in the place I like to call home so let's arrange a 
meeting. I don't know the city well enough so you choose the place By 
the way you wouldn't be from Atzalan would you?]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <08:45:35/03-29-57>

*****Not To: Judas
>>>>>[I have no problem with setting this little shit up. If anyone 
else wants in just let me know.]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <08:47:56/03-29-57>

>>>>>[Judas, I know where to find several sorcerous Orks: I have found their
den of evil, but I lack the strength to punish their wickedness alone. Now 
the Lord has brought you here to do His work, let us smite down these
abominations together! Meet me at <encrypted> and we shall destroy the
Devil's creations in God's holy fires.]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <17:00:14/03-29-57>

*****NOT TO: Judas
>>>>>[Anyone want to lay a bet he's dumb enough to show up?]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <17:01:52/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE: Commander Drake, InterPol
>>>>>[Sir, Lynch attacked a bar in Redmond, twenty-four minutes ago. Multiple 
fatalities, three survivors picked up by the Star. The ID is solid, my source 
saw the bar's video and confirmed it was Lynch. I don't have the vid yet, 
but my source should have a copy within a few hours.

+++++include address.bar
+++++include police.radio.transcript

The Lone Star source who informed me of this told me that Lynch took some 
chips with him - some sort of BTL called torturesoft. The bar apparently 
fronts for the Jade Lotus clan. Maybe he'll hit them next?]<<<<<
	-- Sgt Harding <17:05:47/03-29-57>
	Special Branch
	InterPol

>>>>>[Weird.

+++++begin news.item
JOYGIRL IN PAYPHONE RAMPAGE
Auburn denizens were startled to see a nearly-naked woman, screaming 
incoherently, attacking their public telephones. "She was only in her 
underthings, and not much of those!" said one resident. "And she kept smashing 
the reciever on the phone, hollering that she had to get through, that the 
scorpions wouldn't climb out until she made her call. Real weird. I like to 
called the cops right away."

Lone Star took the woman into custody, where she continued to rave hysterically 
until she was allowed to  make her telephone call: once the call was completed, 
she promptly fell into a deep sleep. 

Police sources identify her as "Julie Thicket", a SINless prostitute with a 
history of drug and BTL usage: in the course of her thirty-minute rampage, she 
damaged five public telephones. A spokesman for Lone Star said, "At the risk of 
cliche, this is what BTL abuse does to the mind. Kids, just say 'No!'". 
+++++end news.item
In fact, very weird. Thing is, she wasn't chipping at the time, which sounds 
downright odd to me: all the times I've heard of this sort of thing, it's
been someone acting out the BTL they're slotting.

Anyone else hear about something like this?]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <17:09:34/03-29-57>

*****NOT TO:Judas
>>>>>[Actually, I'll have to take the black IC off his account before
he can get back on...

I'm in.

+++++Deactivate that junk I uploaded earlier]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <03-29-57/09:02:05>

>>>>>[Actuallly, yeah. This has happened a few times over the past few
days, and they all had bought the same chip from some guy.

NOID!

(muffled) Yeah, boss?

Get me one of those BTLs. I wanna take it apart.

Yeah, boss.

I wonder what's going on.]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <09:18:32 PST/03-29-57>

*****Private: M Quinn
>>>>>[If you would pass along the site to some of us who would like
to....speak with Judas about his beliefs it would be appreciated.
You could join us if you wish]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <09:41:37/03-29-57>
>

*****NOT TO: Judas, Sword of God
>>>>>[If you do set him up, try to take him alive.  I'd be intrested in 
seeing if he has any connection to Sword of God.  They sound like they're 
in a similar line of work.

Hell, Thornn's willing to help.  Of course I think he just wants to hit 
someone.]<<<<<
	-- Aristo <10:50:44/3-30-57>

 
 >>>>>[ Judas, you don't know the power behind the magic, my master BABA 
 YAGA will kill ya and I will going to make with your bones a chair, leave 
 Seattle in 1/2 day, or your flesh and your blood will get like lunch to 
 my dogs, ]<<<<<
 
	-- OBTULIO VARELA (I'M WITH MAGIC AND METAHUMANS) <19:07:33 /
 03-28-57>
 
 *****NOT TO: JUDAS AND SWORD OF GOD
 
 >>>>>[Somebody have the direction in Denver of Judas, i Will kill him, 
 somebody have the "CORAJE" to be my "COMPANERO" to kill him? I wait but 
 not much, 12 hours is sufficient...]<<<<<
 
	-- OBTULIO VARELA (I'LL KILL YA JUDAS) <19:30:00 / 03-28-57>
 
 
> 

>>>>>[Kromofton, if you are interested in investigating this I wouldn't
mind assisting you. Just let me know]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <09:48:33/03-29-57>
Randy Nickel

>----------
>From: 	Clara Camargo Fisica
>UNALCOL[SMTP:[c--ma--o] at [ciencias.campus.unal.edu.co]]
>Sent: 	Thursday, March 28, 1996 11:50 PM
>To: 	[shadow t k] at [listproc.itribe.net]
>Subject: 	JUDAS 
>
>> 

Clara this was all I got of your sent message.

Randy

*****Private: Warloc
>>>>>[By all means, plaese let me know when you decide to send Judas to 
meet his god.  I would like to help you send him there.  By the way, 
how is Ireland these days?]<<<<<
	--  Lyting <12:28:50 / 03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE: Lynch
>>>>>[Lynch, as your friend I've got to ask you a question: What the Hell
are you up to?!?!  I just got some second hand info about someone who looks
a lot like you and uses your MO took out a bar, no reason given.  Now, I
know you wouldn't just walk in someplace and shoot it up without some kind
of logic behind it, so leads me to two things.  One, it wasn't you.  Two,
you're onto something.  I'll go for two.

Try and zero the noise, chummer.  You're gonna start calling a lot of heat
down on your hoop if you don't try to keep things quieter.

But I don't think you will, so there's only one things I can do.  Offer my
help.  I'd bet my own money that you went into that situation without any
kind of backup.  Not good.  Next time, get me.  Or at least get someone.
The next target may not be as soft as this one was.]<<<<<
	-- Blade <10:29:47/03-29-57>

>>>>>[oh my God, give me the power to kill all your enemies !!!
... *.. you have my power, my son, kill'em all...*.. thank you 
my lord.]******
	-- Judas <13:50:40 / 03-29-57>

*****NOT TO:Judas
>>>>>[Yeah.

I bet one Ballista missile launcher against one night of drinks.

Hey, WE can't use them!]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <03-29-57 12:04:31 PST>

*****NOT TO: Judas
>>>>>[This guy is certifiable. Anyone who believes he's talking to his 
god on in VR is out there. We are going to need a big net for this guy. 
Luckilly I have some stun spells that should be able to bring down. 
With some assistance from those who have contacted me.]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <12:19:30/03-29-57>

*****Private TO:Warloc
>>>>>[Of course.

I'll have M'noc pick you up at >place< at >time<.

He'll be the elf with a bright red mohawk and neon yellow
synthleathers trying to hide in the shadows.]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <12:08:38 PST 03/29/572>

>Hello World
>
>Let me introduce myself, I am Raven. (for your info. a Sam and Fix 
>combo.) I am currently looking for runners on a contract for Rat Mash 
>Dancer a certain wayword drek without a fagging clue that she's crossed 
>me.  I need physical evidence of post mortification.  Standard price is 
>10000 depending on if I like you or not.  There is a Johnson involved 
>which will raise pricing. 
>
>contact if interested
>
>RAVEN
>
>
>>>>>[ Raven, your above post interest`s me. Feel free to contact me to discuss
terms and details...]<<<<<
	-- Mr.S <20:28:05/03:29:57>

***** NOT TO : JUDAS
>>>>>[ If you want Judas dead then simply ask and it shall be done......]<<<<<
	-- MR.S <20:36:52/03:29:57>

*****PRIVATE: The Mighty Quinn
>>>>>[Good sir, would you happen to know where the lady in question is, at
this time?]<<<<<
	-- Ryuga (15:40:30 PST/ 03:29:57)
	CEO
	Ryaka Science and Tech

>>>>>[ Hey RAVEN, your offers interesting. Contact me and tell me more!]<<<<
	-- MR.S <20:42:30/03:29:57> --

*****PIVATE TO : The mighty quinn
>>>>>[ ...I believe only in God...]<<<<<
	-- Judas <15:45:50/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Sword of God
>>>>>[.. I'm waiting for your answer...]<<<<<
	-- Judas <15:50:30/03-29-57>

>>>>>[Do you believe in God? contact me]<<<<<
	-- Judas <16:05:36/03-29-57>

>>>>>[ Judas is a so stupid man, he believe that god speak with him!!!! 
That's incredible.. I'm going to kill ya Judas, son of the beast, La 
Virgen de Chiquinquira me protege, be careful J. ]<<<<<
	--  OBTULIO VARELA <16:13:12 /03-29-57>
 

*****Private To: Kromofton
>>>>>[I am also an Elf. I will be wearing a long balck duster. My hair 
is auburn and braded. Is M'noc magical? If so I could keep my 
perceptions split between astral space and the mundane world.

One more thing. I am trying to trace the where-abouts of the girl. Do 
you have any idea where she might be?]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <13:16:02/03-29-57>

*****Private: Carla
>>>>>[If you would like lass you could join the lot of that are going 
to capture Judas. An individual has requested he be taken alive. I'll 
tell you more if you'd like to talk]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <13:24:53/03-29-57>

***** PRIVATE TO : Judas
>>>>>[I know you are really new in this matter, Judas. Your god don't 
help you in this time...  My new GE Vindicator is waiting for kill you...
remember, this is your time... "panita"]<<<<<

 - Obtulio Varela <16:43:00 / 03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Judas
>>>>>[I regret that I can not directly aid you in your holy quest.  But I 
give you a warning.  Various of the demon-spawn and their pawns hunt for 
you in Seattle.  If you have need of it a cache of weapons, armor and 
money is located at *location*.

May God smile on you and ward you from your enemies.]<<<<<
	-- Sword of God <14:44:27/3-29-57>

***** PRIVATE TO : Judas n' his friends

>>>>>[Blade understand the matter. Judas is something to destroy, and I 
will make it, by the "Virgensita de chiquinquira"....

Judas, Everybody dies someday, and this is your day]<<<<<
	-- Obtulio Varela <16:58:00> / 03-29-57>

***** PRIVATE TO : Obtulio Varela
>>>>>[Varela, What are you doing here ??? Take your drugs and go to 
hell..]<<<<<
	-- Judas <17:55:55/03-29-57>
 
*****Private: Mr. S
>>>>>[Mr S. we wish to capture Judas alive preferably. I was wondering 
though you had mentioned a run or some biz and then I heard nothing 
from you. Is that still in progress?]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <13:56:17/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE TO : Sword of God
>>>>>[... well, sword of God... I really need your weapons.. I have a lot 
of toys, yes, but I need power, MORE power... There are many God's 
enemies in this city.... remember I have the God's protection..]<<<<<
	-- Judas <18:10:34/03-29-57>

*****Private: Aristo, Carla, Kromofton, Lyting, and Mr. S
>>>>>[Just so I put us all in contact. Aristo, Carla, Kromofton, 
Lyting, and Mr. S as well as myself have all expressed an interest in 
dealing with Judas in one way or another. I would like to discuss what 
exactly we have in mind and start acting on this accordingly. Seattle 
is new to me so I will defer to others who might have some plan.]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <14:07:57/03-29-57>

>>>>>[You would NOT beleive what bastards those SI sec. guards are. All I
did was carry my favorite minicam on board (so what if I didn't turn it in
at booth up front? It's not like I was going to USE it), and all of a
sudden these two massive orcs come out of nowhere and "escourt" me to the
onshore debreifing room. Then I get searched (full fragging battery too),
before being tossed into some SI holding cell with an insane turk. Four
hours later they take me out (oh yeah, did I mention they took ALL my
stuff? So I'm just wandering around in some sec. smock, probably with some
high explosives around the hem or something) and ask me a few questions.
They didn't even tell me that I was being polygraphed. Frag. Then I have
to call my PARENTS to come and pick me up. Talk about embarressing. On top
of that, they're keeping my fragging minicam. It cost me 1,592=Y=
too...]<<<<< 
	-- Cybil <17:22:44/29-03-57>

***** PRIVATE: Cybil
>>>>>[Dont worry about it  --  send me a wish list, I will see what I can
do to fill it.

Keep up the good work.]<<<<<
	-- Kor <22:36:59 / 03-(29+1)-57> 

*****NOT TO:Judas, Sword of God, anyone who has communicated directly
with Judas or Sword of God
>>>>>[One of those peices of IC I put on Judas' account was a
mail-monitor. Judas has recieved the location of a muntions cahe. It
is at *location*. I sugest you all go and clear it out before he gets
there.]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <14:42:38 PST/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[Gee... Thanks. Sort of unexpected, but cool nonetheless. Um, if I
was in better financial straits, I would say something like "Aw shucks,
thanks but no thanks", but now about all I can say is "Romeru UltraEye
QuickView, with inline telephoto lens and fuzzy digital zoom".

About the body though. I found out where she came from (you might
already know this, but I just thought I'd drop it in for good measure).
She was being shipped from ParkDale low-sec. prison to a halfway house --
she disappeared sometime on the journey (interestingly enough, the van's
homing pip contined uninterupted for the entire journey -- and the drivers
didn't report any weirdness). The fact that she went missing was only
discovered AFTER her body turned up... Someone is definitely in for it in
the LS Comp. Div...]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <18:02:01/29-03-57>

>>>>>[The Phatom Scribbler "tiene sus dias contados".... use a 
dictionary, "panita"]<<<<<
	-- Obtulio Varela <18:05:00 / 03-29-57>

>>>>>[Yeah, that's what they all say. No, don't bother replying. I'd rather 
talk to a toaster.]<<<<<
	--  Sam-I-Am <15:08:50/03-29-57>

*****Private: Aristo, Carla, Kromofton, Lyting, Mr. S
>>>>>[Would any of you fine people like to assist me in stopping Judas 
from reaching this cache of weapons? Kromofton can M'noc take me to the 
cache?]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <15:09:58/03-29-57>

>>>>>[Somebody must clean the world... =A1=A1=A1=A1=A1=A1=A1WHAT IS THIS!!!=
!! "Maria"=20
will help ya to write on the net]>>>>>
 - Obtulio Varela <18:18:00 / 03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE TO WARLOC
>>>>>[I can help you, "pana". Judas will death.]<<<<<
	-- Obtulio Varela <18:23:00 / 03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE TO:  Kromorton, Warloc
>>>>>[I would most definately enjoy stopping Judas.  It might help make 
up for losing Sword of God.  And I would be quite happy to mind-ream 
Judas to see if he has any useful information on Wilhelm.  Just get me a 
time and a place.]<<<<<
	-- Aristo <4:16:55/3-29-57>

*****PRIVATE TO : Sam-I-am
>>>>>[Really are you interested in the Judas's death? You know my 
moosberg("Maria") will do it in a short time]>>>>>

- Obtulio Varela(n' guns, "panita")<18:28:00 / 03-29-57>

*****Private: Aristo, Carla, Warloc, Lyting, Mr. S
>>>>>[Yes, he can take you. Do any of the rest of you need a
lift?]<<<<<
	--Kromofton <15:19:49 PST/03-29-57>

*****Private to:Aristo, Warloc
>>>>>[Meet Warloc 'n' M'noc (my rigger) at *time* at *place*. Wrloc,
Aristo is coming.]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <03-29-57/15:23:16 PST>

>>>>>[Judas, Judas, Judas, Judas.... can somebody make something?
try use your guns (like I do)or your "powers" ]>>>>>

>>>>>["como ya se lo imaginaran:"]>>>>>

 - Obtulio Varela <18:48:00 / 03-29-57>

*****Private:Clara
>>>>>[Will you be journeying with me lass? If so meet me at <time>, 
<place>.]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <15:50:30/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE: Warlock
>>>>>[Sure. I told him to meet me at <encrypted>. I really wonder if he's
dumb enough to show? Don't worry, I'll be there. 

And before you ask, Coyote shaman. Still want to come with me? 

+++++insert sound f/x <insane giggle>

I'm the gorgeous blonde in the jeans and the Armani jacket. Well, blonde.
Not necessarily gorgeous. Quite cute, though. This is me.

+++++include image: quinn.the.beautiful

Is it just you or are you bringing friends? Is it just Judas or is he
bringing friends? This could get really outrageous in a hurry. 

This is gonna be *fun*!]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <22:59:41/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE: Blade
>>>>>[Right now, Blade, I'm beating the grass to startle the snakes. Yes,
it was me. Yes, I had some good reasons. And the noise is deliberate <g>
It's plenty hot enough in the kitchen already, right now my best hope
seems to be to get so many people after me they all trip over each other.

This one, I knew would be easy. Quinn just upped the video, see for yourself.
The lead I got was to a Seoulpa ring, but InterPol will be all over them:
so, dead end. (I'm crazy, not stupid). I'm still curious as to why these
chips are so significant, but at least now I can get some looked at properly.
I had a thousand of the damn things from Gutsys, and I torched the lot...

I have one friend with me on this already. Friends are a rare commodity and
it's always nice to have more. You want in? I can actually pay you this, for 
once, and the targets are only going to get harder.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <23:19:47/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE: Ryuga
>>>>>[Actually, O mighty Wyrm, 'tis Miss, not Sir, for I am of the fairer
sex. (Mind you, I bet all humans look alike to you... sort of small and
crunchy, though tasty with enough ketchup). 

The girl got released about eight hours after they brought her in. She
usually worked a couple of bars in Auburn, mostly <encrypted>, and her
pimp is a guy called 'Big' Dick DuChamp. You want me to try and find her?
I work cheap right now.]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <23:21:41/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE: Mercury
>>>>>[Many thanks for the information, Mercury. Both useful and alarming.

Oh, well, the irresistible force meets the immovable object, as Philosophy
101 goes into session...]<<<<<
	--  Mercury <22:57:14/03-28-57>

>>>>>[Well, my old buddy Lynch continues his crusade to save the world
singlehanded. I mean, he manages to make *me* look sane sometimes.

FOUR DIE IN BAR MASSACRE
Four  men are dead and three more injured, following a vicious battle in a 
Redmond bar. Lone Star have identified the victims as local BTL dealers 
affilated to a Seoulpa clan, and linked the incident to the recent Everett 
warehouse battle. One participant escaped, leaving on a high-powered 
motorcycle: his description has been circulated. 
"We may have a problem with criminals fighting over dealing turf." said a 
police spokesman. "The risk to the law-abiding public, so far, is believed
to be low." 

Well, no prizes for guessing who was really behind that one. And since the 
bloodhounds of the Law are already on his scent, I don't mind saying now that 
Lynch pulled this one off. I'd planned to sit on this one a bit longer, but 
turns out the bar owner had the place wired for video and sound, and sold the 
footage right away: so since it's gone public, here you go.

+++++begin trideo
A dimly-lit bar, one of almost a standard type: dirty walls, cheap furniture.
Two bored girls in G-strings gyrate tiredly on a central stage, competing with 
the Sonics game on the old trideo set by the bar. Barely a dozen customers are 
scattered around, all determinedly ignoring each other, focussed on the game, 
the girls, or their drinks.

Two men emerge from a back room and walk purposefully to one customer, a tall, 
lean human with long, grey-streaked hair. A few moments of conversation, and 
the customer follows the two men back towards the door they emerged from. 
Despite the poor light, he's wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses.

The view fuzzes to the back room, which is crowded with four other men, two of 
them holding shotguns: noise bars crawl down the picture, whoever edited the 
tape was clumsy.  It takes a few seconds for the sound to cut in, but as the 
door opens the customer almost flies through, propelled by a hard shove in the 
back. As he tries to regain his balance, the lurkers pounce on him and subdue 
his ineffectual struggles, one of them taking a chrome-plated Guardian 
automatic from the man's shoulder holster.

"Well, well, look what we caught!" says the leader, a burly Human who is still 
brandishing Lynch's pistol. "The great and mighty Jason Lynch. Right into our 
trap. You gotta be getting old, Lynch, you think people round here don't still 
remember you. And when you asked Joey here about some'a that fancy tortureware 
stuff, an' he described the guy wuz asking, an' I remembered how much you're 
worth to the Azzies, we set this up real nice."

"So what are you going to do with me?" Lynch seems too calm for someone in his 
situation, but then you already know how this story ends.

"Sell you to Aztechnology, a'course! `Cept maybe we'll give you a real up-
close-and-personal look at one of them chips you wuz so innerested in. Joey, 
get Mr Lynch here the Overfiend. I think he's gonna looove that one." Joey, 
an undernourished teenager in a Maria Mercurial T-shirt, moves to comply.

As his captors laugh, Lynch raises his right leg and stamps hard on the foot 
of the Ork holding one of his arms: a combat boot's heel slams into a sneaker 
toe with enough force that you hear bone break. The Ork howls and doubles 
over, relaxing his grip, and Lynch brings an elbow up into his face: the Ork 
falls, his nose an indistinct smear of blood.

The leader brings up the Guardian, then there is a muffled crack and a spray 
of crimson: he screams, blood dripping from the ruin of his gun hand. 

Lynch, meanwhile, is free of his second captor's embrace, the Dwarf staggering 
backwards with his thigh laid open and his throat pumping blood, crashing 
into the two shotgunners and spilling them over. One Defiance bounces into 
the corner, discharging into the ceiling, and Lynch is able to snatch the 
other. Joey is halfway through the door as Lynch smashes the T-250 against it, 
hard, and the youth cries out as he is caught between door and frame. The last 
two are launching themselves into the attack, one drawing a knife and the other 
extending razors. 

Lynch drops the broken shotgun and sidesteps, putting the Ork razorboy behind 
his friend and out of the fight for a moment. Twisting around the knife's 
lunge, he kicks the knifeman in the side of the knee - a sharp crack of bone - 
and as the razorboy tries to find a way around his comrade Lynch punches the 
knifeman in the side of the head, the spurs dripping wetly as he wrenches them 
free: a handblade snaps from his right fist as he moves clear of the corpse.

The razorboy lunges over his friend's corpse, eyes too bright and moves too 
jerkily fast, and he doesn't seem to feel the raking slash Lynch inflicts on 
his arm: closing to a grapple and trying to get his razors into Lynch's flesh, 
the Ork slams him into the wall. Lynch has a hand gripping each of his 
assailant's wrists, but the Ork is as strong as Lynch and for an agonised 
moment they are a face-to-face tableau, arms out to the sides, both men's 
hands bristling with blades but unable to harm each other-

Lynch headbutts the Ork squarely on the nose: the razorguy roars with pain, 
but doesn't slacken his grip. Lynch does it again, harder, snapping the Ork's 
skull backwards - and then he twists his head to sink his teeth into the 
exposed neck. The Ork screams and tries to claw at Lynch as his legs collapse, 
but within seconds his voice trails off in a choked gurgle as Lynch springs to 
his feet, spitting and wiping at his face. The audio catches a muttered "you 
tasted as bad as you smelt!"

Reaching up into the small of his back, he comes out with a stainless steel 
revolver, an antique Colt Python, as he walks through the storeroom door and 
into the barroom: The view clumsily shifts to the bar, a few seconds early and 
out of synch, as you see Joey crawling towards the bar and the bartender 
crouching beneath his counter: the girls are huddled behind the stage, most of 
the customers have fled. Lynch walks out of the back room towards Joey, and 
the bartender pops up with an Uzi in his hands: one shot from the Python takes 
off most of the back of his head.

"Okay, Joey, where are the chips?" Lynch hauls the boy to his feet, ignoring a 
cry of pain and the way Joey's arm hangs oddly. 
"Behind the bar, I'll get them, please, don't kill me, please-"
"Don't do anything stupid, give me what I want and answer my questions, and 
you'll be fine."

"Okay. Okay. There's another gun there. I'm not going for it, I swear, but it's 
in the box with the chips."
"Good boy, Joey. Let's go."
Joey goes behind the bar, comes out with a plastiboard box claiming to contail 
24 bottles of synthetic maraschino cherries in ShugarSirup(TM): he shudders at 
the red and grey spatters, courtesy of the bartender, adorning it. Very 
carefully, he folds back the lid.

"Smart. Take it out, nice and slow, and put it on the bar." Joey, shaking, 
lifts out a LightFire automatic by the trigger guard and places it carefully 
next to the box. Lynch picks it up, drops the magazine out, and locks the 
slide back, all one-handed, as  Joey brings out a flat red plastic case.

"These are all we have. There's about thirty, lots of types. Five of them are 
reusables. Is that - NO!"

Joey's cry of terror answers Lynch suddenly bringing up the Python and firing, 
as the leader of the group - splashed with blood and holding a shotgun in his
remaining hand - lurches through the door, only to take two .357 Magnums in 
the chest and fly back in a sprawl of limbs.

"Come on, get up, Joey, we're short of time. Where do you get these?"
Joey, terrified, rises but stays silent for a moment. "They'll kill me if I 
talk.."
Lynch points the Python at his face, thumbs back the hammer. "I'll kill you if 
you don't."
"We buy them from Lee. Lee Kuang Soo, he's with the Jade Lotus-"
"Buntaka's clan. I know them. Lie down, Joey, and wait for the cops. They'll be 
about ten minutes yet." Joey drops like a puppet with cut strings as Lynch 
walks away, picking the fired cases out of the revolver and reloading, only to 
pause by the dancers - a dark-haired human girl and an Elf whose platinum-
blonde hair contrasts with her dark skin. Both cower back from the blood-
spattered mercenary as he reaches into his pocket.

"Here." A roll of currency. "Compensation for losing you your customers." Wide-
eyed with surprise, they wait until he turns away before hurring backstage: 
Lynch walks out, calmly tucking the .357 into his belt and lighting a 
cigarette, and is lost in the glare of the door.
+++++end trideo download

Now I know Lynch likes to say "skill is making the stupidly dangerous look 
easy" but I think maybe he's been pushing himself a little hard recently. Come 
on, Jason, ease off and let some friends help, all right? I only do the 
reporter bit these days because it's fun. I'm still up for it if you need me. 

Please?]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <23:54:03/03-29-57>

>>>>>[Quinn, right now I'm in deep shit and I'm not asking anyone to join me.
But anyone who wants to leap in anyway with a cry of "Come on in, the 
fertiliser's lovely!" is welcome, and I could use some magical help right 
now. 

But if you and your sense of humour get out of hand, I'll tell everyone about
that night in Detroit and the time you called the paramedics.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <23:59:01/03-29-57>

>>>>>[You wouldn't! Not that night! You would't defile the memory of that
wonderful night by broadcasting one small, simple, mistake that an 
inexperienced girl made.

Actually you would, wouldn't you? You're nearly as mad as I am. At least
Lilith hasn't shown up yet.

All right, I'll try to be good.]<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <00:03:01/03-30-57>

***** PRIVATE: Obtulio Varela
>>>>>[Not really. I don't do that sort of vigilante work. If you and the 
others looking for Judas find him, great; else, oh well.]<<<<<
	--  Sam-I-Am <18:53:36/03-29-57>

>>>>>[Besmirch (also smirch) v [Tn] (fml) dishonour  (sb/sth);
slander: besmirch sb's reputation, name, honor, ect.]<<<<<
	-- The Phantom Scribbler <19:59:35/03-29-57>

>>>>>[Frag!  Something bad is happening down at the Center folks.  This just
got out over the airwaves, so I figured I had better post it for all to see.

+++++Begin Video Feed
Image brightens slightly to reveal an overcast sky outside the Opera House
at the Seattle Center.  DIrectly in front of the camera is a youngish
looking man in a conservative suit.  He smiles at the camera and begins
speaking.

"This is Paul Kelsey with KONG News live at the Seattle Center, where in a
short time, Chief Moses of the Salish-Shidhe Council will present
commendations to representitives of various Seattle corporations for their
efforts in promoting the relationship between the various branches of humanity.

"The delegates have been arriving for the past three quarters of an hour,
dodging the odd showers that the unpredictable Seattle weather has be doling
out all day today.  So far the envoys from Turkana, Gaeatronics and several
other minor corps have arrived.  We have not yet seen Chief Moses, but he
may, wait a moment.

"I have just received word that Chief Moses, and the rest of the
Salish-Shidhe delegation has entered the Center and are approaching the
Opera House."

Image changes to a plain black limousine moving slowly towards the Opera
House.  

Paul Kelsey's voice continues, "As you can see, Chief Moses is approaching
the Opera House now, or so we believe.  As you all know,  he is also the
Salish-Shidhe's ambassador to Seattle, and carries quite a bit of clout in
the political arena."  

The image shows the car pulling up to a side entrance of the Opera House.
Several Native and Metahuman's, obviously security people exit from the car
and begin checking the area.  One gives a signal to someone still in the
car, and Chief Jon Moses emerges from the vehicle and rushes into the building.

"Now that Chief Moses has arrived, let's turn it over to Michele Roy, inside
the hall itself.  Michelle..."

The image changes to a rather attractive middle aged woman, her
reddish-brown hair arranged stylishly.  She is wearing a conservative dress
suit.  Behind her you can see a crowd of people milling around.  Most are
well dressed, and fashionable.  The woamn begins to speak.

"Thank you Paul, and welcome to the Seattle Opera House, where in a few
minutes we hope for the ceremony to begin.  As you can see, there is quite a
crowd of people here today.  Most, if not all, of whom are here by
invitation only.  As I understand it, the ceremony was at first going to be
public, open to all.  However, a series of terrorist threats against the
Salish-Shidhe and the corporations they plan to honor forced these to become
semi-private, though they did allow for media coverage.  According to the
brief we were given by a man known as Crusader, the Chief of Security for
Chief Moses, '...After reviewing the possibility of harm coming not only to
Jon Moses, but to the heads of the corporations we intend to honor, we have
been forced to conclude that the only possible way to ensure their safety is
to close the ceremony's themselves.  We regret having to do this, but we do
feel it is necessary.  We will of course allow the media to be present to
film this historic occaision...'  Mr. Crusader went on to outline the
security procedures that had been developed for this occaision.  While he
did not  go into great detail, he did say that security would be provided by
a combination of Lone Star SWAT teams, Council Warriors and security
detachments from the various corporations involved."

Behind the woman, on the stage, you notice people coming out and seating
themselves in the chairs set there.  After a moment the person who was seen
earlier exiting the limo outside steps through the curtains beside the stage
and sits next to the podium.  

"It looks like Chief Moses has arrived, and I am told the ceremony is about
to begin."

The house lights dim, and a spot light appears on the podium.  An Elf of
apparently Native origin steps to the microphone.  "On behalf of the
Salish-Shidhe Council, I would like to welcome you to this historic
ceremony.  But rather than go on about it myself, I will turn the microphone
over to the man who deserves the credit for this gathering.  He has long
been known as a voice of reason in these troubled times.  For years he has
led the people of Council Island to protect what they believe in.  He has
also served as an emissary to the people of Seattle, bringing a message of
friendship.  I present to you Chief Jon Moses."

The applause as the Native man next to the podium rises is almost deafening.
He shakes the hand of the MC and moves behind the podium.   He waits
patiently for the noise to quiet down, then begins to speak.  "I thank you
all  for coming for what I hope will be the first of many steps on the road
to complete harmony between the branches of Humanity.

"Too often lately have I heard the message of hate spread about from various
sources.  So called Humanis groups have threatened me and those here on the
stage with me.  And for what?  Because we dare say that there is no real
difference between the races of Man.  Be you Troll, Ork, Elf, Dwarf or Man,
we are all Homo Sapien.  Too often we forget that at the root, we are all
the same.

"Groups such as the Cygnet Policlub, or individuals such as Sword of God
have been making noise about it being God's will that Metahumanity be
destroyed.  I ask why?  Because they are different?  We are all different in
some way or other.  Perhaps you can do complex mathmatics in your head, or
perhaps you can write beautiful poetry.  We all have differences, but these
need not become reasons for violence.  Can we not find ways that our
differences can work for us rather than against us?

"I believe we can do this.  In fact, I believe that the corporations whose
representitives are here with me on the stage have already begun to do this.
Their efforts at hiring those most qualified for the positions, regardless
of species, have, I believe, opened the door to a new era.  An era of
equality..."

+++++5 seconds of static

+++++KONG Logo appears.
We are experiencing technical difficulties.  Please stand by.

+++++ End Video Feed

That was quite awhile ago.  The station is running some drekking program or
other, but no word on what happened at the Opera House.  Anyone know what
happened?  I've got a bad feeling here.]<<<<<
	-- Kodachrome <17:42:59/03-59-57>

>>>>>[Why do I have feeling this more important then Judas. Then again 
maybe it involves that little shit or the Sword of God.]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <17:23:09/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE:WARLOC
>>>>>[Hey, son you have a gripe with that Judas character?  He's been
gettin' under my skin as well.  Yah plan on doin' somthin' about it,
or just whislin' Dixie?]<<<<<
	-- Johnny Cash <17:42:23/03-29-57>

*****Private:Johnny
>>>>>[Hi Johnny. Yur gettin in on this a bit lat lad boy'o but me an some
others are already going after em. I need to consult with them
first and find out if we can let ya in on it.]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <18:00:54/03-29-57>

*****Private:Aristo, Clara, Kromofton, Lyting, and Mr. S
>>>>>[Johnny Cash has asked if I am going to do anything about Judas. Do
we let em in?]<<<<<
	-- Warloc <18:02:36/03-29-57>

>

*****PRIVATE: The Mighty Quinn
>>>>>[Ah, my mistake, milady.  Your name does have that male Eskimo flavor to
it.  As for the lady in question, if you wish to look for her...go ahead.
 I'll pay >>>>>>encrypted<<<<<< upon her arrival to >>>>>>encrypted<<<<<<; but
only if she is alive and unharmed.]<<<<<
	-- Ryuga (17:07:30PST/ 03:29:57)
	CEO
	Ryaka Science and Tech

***** PRIVATE TO : Sam-I-am

>>>>>[Oh, O.K. "panita".". "Maria" n' me will make the work. Then, he 
will die]<<<<<

 - Obtulio Varela ("o un amigo de O.V.")<21:14:00 / 03-29-57>

*****Private to:+++Make alias file:JET
+++Update alias file JET:Aristo, Clara, Kromofton, Lyting, Mr. S, Warloc
>>>>>[Sure, Why not.]<<<<<
	-- Kromofton <20:02:27 PST/03-09-57>

>>>>>[Hah. Summer break, and I'm off for the week... Mmmm... Life is
good... So, what did I miss in the past few months?]<<<<<
	-- Tobai Dark <00:52:39/30-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Tobai Dark
>>>>>[Can I change my name?]<<<<<
	-- Zugzug <00:55:12/30-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: ZugZug
>>>>>[Nope. Have fun.]<<<<<
	-- Tobai Dark <00:57:31/30-03-57>

>>>>>[Nice moves Lynch. Why the hell were you wasting them on a bunch of
notimer Seoulpa dreks like that? They probably didn't even appreciate
it.]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <00:56:12/30-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Jen a)d Gabe
>>>>>[Ha#e you c~me to your sense= yet? We req]ire yo|r assi^tan_e.]<<<<<
	-- R!gh&*ous and D%na <CO:58:T9/3O-RUPT>

*****PRIVATE TO: Righteous and Dana
>>>>>[Make life easier for both of us. Die. Just crawl into some little
hole in the ground and terminate your sorry existance. Or, you could just
keep asking for "assistance", and get your asses fried the next time I see
you. Up to you looper.]<<<<<
	-- Gabriel <CORRUPT/CORRUPT>

>>>>>[ ***** Data search initiated: Succesful: Shadowland Located
***** Data base search implemented: File Found
***** System Check: IQ - 1296 (PET)  Supplies: Toast: 2.3 loaves ......

Would you like a chees and ham brabble then?]<<<<<
	-- Talky <11:28:37/04-29-57>
	MagnaTech Toaster #17
	Owner: Criag W. Morgan III

*****PRIVATE:  Thelesentia
>>>>>[Hi, Thel.  I haven't heard from you nor the people whom were taking
care of you in a long time.  I got the sim of the Astral quest, and boy was
it a doozy.  Just wanted to see if you were well enough to even respond to
this message.  Good Luck]<<<<<
	--  Shade <23:31:38 / 3-29-57>

*****Private:  Neuron Basher
>>>>>[Congratulations.  I would be most honored to attend your wedding,
though I do not know you well.  Perhaps, I could make sure the perimeter is
secured via spirits.  Oh, well.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <22:07:16 / 3-27-57>

>>>>>[Banshees are just as intelligent as most sapiens, and usually more so
or they do not survive long.  I also know of no rituals to bond such
creatures, but one could make a deal with one.  I also have more complete
files than most on such beasties.  Any ideas Diana?]<<<<<
	--  Shade <23:21:19 / 3-29-57>

>>>>>[Hey Talky, I think Commander Drake ran out of toast from that last 
truck you sent.]<<<<<
	--  Action Jackson <23:53:52/03-29-57>

>>>>>[Me?  Dad's the expert on the HMHVV, not me.  The only way you can 
bond a person, banshee or otherwise, is with some ritual sorcery or by 
stealing thier spirit.]<<<<<
	--  Diana, Mistress of the Night <11:56:31/03-29-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Sergent Harding
>>>>>[Possible, but unlikely at this point.  However, I have a team in 
place just in case.

I suspect that Lynch is trying to frag with the Seolpa rings, and will 
probably try the Mafia and Yaks next.  I've got several deep cover agents 
in those already.  One of the tricks to this line of work is being 
patient.  He will make a mistake, and when he does, we've got him.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <00:03:40/03-30-57>

*****Private:  Warloc, Blade, The Mighty Quinn, Thornn, Aristo, Lyting, Mr.
S, OBTULIO VARELA
>>>>>[You have a mighty sense of honor, but a lack of knowledge of our area.
There is a criminal, not Judas, who has recently escaped who was hunting
children of Metahumans merely because they were "easier" prey.  However, he
somehow found other fanatics to hang with.  No doubt this is a case where
Judas is the spokesman, and will likely have a whole group to kill you.  I
suggest that we unify against this foe and meet him together.  He is a
threat to mutual survival, and should be taken care-off mutually as to avoid
anyone getting hurt]<<<<<
	-- Shade <01:27:35 / 3-30-57>

>>>>>[Heh, Judas.  Why do you take the name of one who, according to my
Theology classes, betrayed the same religion that you are now killing in the
name of?  Do you do this show merely to find and ally with the Metahumans so
that you too may betray your own beliefs?]<<<<<
	--  Shade <01:29:47 / 3-30-57>

*****Private: Lynch
>>>>>[Greetings.  I was wondering why you took it so personally to destroy
the chips?  I understand Tortureware, but the amount of trouble you are in
can't be worth something like that; there has to be more to it.  As for aid,
magical or otherwise, I can give some of mine and some suggestions.

I can summon up some spirits to help you and hide you.  I am sure
that my Shadowhound friend could show you some good hiding places.  Also,
for hiding and getting out of the country, I have two ideas.  First, is
Warloc and I might be able to get you into the Tir.  You'd be safe from
Drake, but not a good place to stay for a human.  Second, I have friend in
the British consulate who is their Head Druid.  He is a Sea Druid who can
help with enchantments.  He also has a *special* way to transport people to
England where his people run things.  I never asked why he developed this
method, but I have me suspicions.  If you decided to contact him, merely
give him my name.  His number is in the phone book through the consulate.]<<<<<
	--  Shade <02:30:03 / 3-30-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[I'm actually at a loss for words right now. Thanks. The new camera
will definitely help out (who knows, I might actually be able to get some
worthwhile footage with this on), and that sound equipment. Thankyou. 

I won't ask how you got my home address though... <g>]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <09:12:20/30-03-57>

*****PRIVATE TO: Kor
>>>>>[In all my excitement I almost forgot: The two guards responsible for
transporting our friends have been taken off duty and are under some type
of LS probation. One of them is a mage, and they are accused of the
abduction and killing of our charred friend...]<<<<<
	-- Cybil <09:16:45/30-03-57>

*****PRIVATE: Ryuga
>>>>>[Yowza! A Dragon with a sense of humour! And a big wallet! 

How do you get to be a Dragon anyway? Are there, like, classes you
can take, or a mail-order course or something?

Anyway... best thing is I found her already. She's sort of unconscious, 
nothing she won't wake up from. I grabbed her pimp too, but he's got a 
couple of big holes in him where he started waving a gun around and I
showed him mine was bigger. He'll live, though. You get him for free. I'm 
nice like that. Especially to Dragons. With big teeth. And claws. And
fiery breath. That melts my igloo where I was hiding. 

Male Eskimo flavour... Damn, I walked *right* into that one.

Worst thing is, these four guys turned up as I was leaving, which is
why I had to put her to sleep: she was screaming and jumping around in
the line of fire, so I dropped her, then I dropped them, then I ran
away very fast because when I did an itty bitty mindprobe on one of
them they had come to kill her, her pimp, anyone they'd talked to, 
anyone looking for her... So I grabbed the least damaged one of them
too so your people could ask more questions if they wanted.

Street muscle, fairly low-grade, hired by your archetypal faceless suit, and 
I didn't linger to see what might happen next. You want them all giftwrapped 
or just brought right round?

Hey, usually, I just report the news. It's kind of fun to make it again.]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <08:57:02/03-30-57>

*****PRIVATEL Shade
>>>>>[Thank you for the offers of assistance, Shade. I may need them.
Britain's a good bet for me and I may use it: the Tir is a bad option,
they dislike me nearly as much as Aztlan do. 

I just seem to have this effect on people <g>.

As to why I went after the tortureware... originally it was just a matter
of principle. I've always enjoyed going after drug and BTL dealers - when
I was younger and broke, they were a good source of untraceable cash - 
and at first I thought this stuff was in the same bracket.

It turns out, to my surprise, that it isn't. So now I'm back at the top
of Aztlan's shitlist, *and* Drake himself is after me. Since I'm in 
this much trouble, I might as well fight back: this stuff is important
to people who are trying to kill me. Sounds like a good target <g>. 

But if I'd known it was this important to Aztechnology/Aztlan, I might 
have been just a little tiny bit more careful.

Thanks again: if you've ever been in my situation, you'll know exactly
how grateful I am to be offered help like this.]<<<<<
	-- Lynch <14:24:03/03-30-57>

>>>>>[Okay, so who's been putting pixie dust in the telephones?

+++++begin news item
BIZARRE HOMICIDE STUNS BYSTANDERS
Ravenna shoppers watched in horror this morning as Jonah Brindleberg,
73, was bludgeoned to death with the handset of the public telephone
he was using. His murderer, described as an Ork in his late teens 
wearing the colours of the Bloody Screamers gang, had been rudely
and repeatedly insisting that Brindleberg complete his call: when 
Mr Brindleburg replied that he was paying for the call and intended
to be some time yet, the youth attacked the old man, savagely beating
him about the head with the telephone reciever.

Bizarrely, the youth then wiped blood from the handset and made a call,
before walking away, challenging onlookers as to "what are you looking
at?" Lone Star, although arriving within minutes, were unable to either
save Mr Brindleberg or apprehend his killer. Mr Brindleberg left a wife,
four children and six grandchildren.
+++++end news item

Must have been a really important call. Although they don't say how long
the guy had been waiting for...]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <14:30:26/03-30-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Warloc, Blade, Thornn, Aristo, Lyting, Mr.S, OBTULIO VARELA, 
Shade
>>>>>[Hey... looking back... didn't someone say the Muffin Man was coming to
town and bringing a bunch of friends with him?

+++++include video: Elmer Fudd turns into a jackass, turns back into Elmer

What's the betting that Judas is one of them? Sheesh. Oh, well, clearance
sale on homicidal psychopaths, everything must go...]<<<<<
	-- The Mighty Quinn <14:38:03/03-30-57>

*****PRIVATE: Major Zicahuata
>>>>>[I thought you might care to know that we have received over two hundred
calls, and the analysts say the conditioning and implantation has succeeded
to a better degree than projected. Of the known subjects, the success
rate to date is 82%, slightly above predictions.

How are the security issues?]<<<<<
	-- Colonel Tepanohoutec <15:42:43/03-30-57>
	Aztlan Intelligence Service

*****PRIVATE: Colonel Tepanohoutec
>>>>>[I am delighted by Manchu's success so far, Colonel. However, we
have another difficulty, one which perhaps should have been foreseen:
some subjects appear to have difficulty in fulfilling the compulsion,
either from incorrect recollection of the telephone number or an 
inability to reach a telephone. This may draw attention to the Project,
at a time when its problems - notably Lynch - appeared to be under control.

I must also register my disquiet at the concessions offered to InterPol: 
they seemed somewhat excessive.

Lynch appears to be effectively neutralised for now: he remains unaware of
the chips' true function, and does not seem to have any clear leads beyond
street level dealers. With your permission I intend to set an ambush for 
him: he is still operating alone and unsupported.]<<<<<
	-- Major Zicahuata <15:59:24/03-30-57>
	Aztlan Intelligence Service

*****PRIVATE: Major Zicahuata
>>>>>[Very well, Major. However, use only expendable assets. Do not involve
any of your staff, or yourself: remember your predecessor's fate in Denver
when she insisted on working close to the subject. Also, if you can operate 
within the legalities, you will be to involve InterPol directly.

The price was high, Major, because Commander Drake himself has been assigned
to bring in Lynch. Do you, now, comprehend why the concessions were considered
worthwhile? Acquire some independents, bait your trap, and let InterPol be
its teeth: but concentrate upon your assigned mission. 

I applaud your enthusiasm to apprehend or terminate this enemy of the State, 
but you must accept that Lynch may escape: however, even then, we can let him 
and InterPol attack each other, while we continue with our work.]<<<<<
	-- Colonel Tepanohoutec <16:12:16/03-30-57>
	Aztlan Intelligence Service

>>>>>[Okey-dokey, boyz, grrlz and Don't Knows, I got a problem, to which I 
would kind of like to hire some solutions. My problem, see, is some out-of-
towner calling himself 'Hand of Glory', got a big case of religion and a 
*rrrreal* attitude about metahumans, and a major hardon about messing me
and mine up. With me so far? 

Now, me, I'm a norm, a breeder, whatever you wanna call me, but the place
I run is a real nice little "member's only" club: good drinks, good music, 
beautiful dancers (*real* friendly girls - and a couple of boys- too, if you 
catch my meaning, and I'm sure educated and worldy gents and ladies like you 
all do), and a lot of people come there because they like it. Now, I guess 
this "Hand of Glory" has some kind of record with the place, because
he sends me this: I trimmed it down, believe it or not, on account of he
cross-refrenced every damn word to the Bible. Damn message ran about thirty
megapulses when it landed in my box. 

+++++include posting.edit
The Hand of Glory has been appointed a servant of the LORD, and shall go 
forth into the darkness, and there shall he find the harlots and the drunkards
and those who love wealth more than the LORD. There shall the Hand of Glory
do the LORD's work, and there shall be a rushing wind and tongues of fire,
and the unrighteous shall perish, for you shall know the LORD and fear him.

The drunkards and the sellers of polluting liquors shall feel the wrath of
the LORD at their evil. Those monstrous harlots who lie in sin shall die in 
that fire, and those monsters who take to their beds women who were once pure. 

Worse shall be the fate of those scarlet women who knowingly lie down with 
monsters and in return take their filthy silver, the silver of the Iscariot, 
and the worst fate of all shall be saved for those men who exchange silver,
the wealth that should feed and clothe their families, for the disgustingc
carnal lusts of the monstrous whores who abide in the dwelling of Walsh: 
they shall suffer a hundred deaths apiece, and then the LORD shall cast 
them into the fires of brimstone, where they shall weep and gnash their
teeth for all eternity.

The LORD has shown me others: he has led my feet to his elect, and set me 
among them, for we stand at his right hand and we do His work in this city,
Babylon, the city of the polluted and the impure and the evil: this filthy 
city of monsters and sinners, which we shall make into the new Jerusalem, a 
temple of purity, a city of light and beauty, praising the LORD forever. But 
you, Walsh, shall feel the fury of the LORD from the Hand of Glory alone, for
you are not worthy to gaze upon the elect, the chosen of the LORD.
+++++end posting

'S'if you couldn't guess, my name's Walsh, and I guess he don't like me 
much, right? So, you people out there might be interested in providing me
with a little extra security, for when this bozo turns up. I take my
clients' safety kind of serious, y'see, and I'd be interested in hiring a
few good ole boys (and girls) to jest sort of look after the place for me
and, ah, re-educate Mr Glory if he shows up. If he don't, you get paid
anyhows. Normally I'd just trust my own people, but there seems to be kind
of a rash of these guys turning up right now.]<<<<<
	-- Muskogie Okie <16:14:41/03-30-57>

*****PRIVATE TO : Walsh
>>>>>[ Hey if you need help give me a call and let me know the details. The 
Saracen
protects those who fear the hands of Mad Gods and their underlings.]<<<<
	-- Mr.S <17:10:23/30:03:57> --

*****PRIVATE TO : JUDAS
>>>>>[ Judas...i Just thought i would let you know.....I am a Human and 
proud of it and i dont care to much about your so called found Faith. Drek, 
chummer their`s only one god and he`s not yours and i dont think he cares 
about Meta`s anymore than humans.
So remember that those who dance this game without a full deck end up on the 
edge of a sword]<<<<<
	-- Mr.S <17:14:45/30:03:57> --

*****Private To: Enchantress
>>>>>[Just arrived in Norfolk, my intel says he was seen here.  You'll here
from me later.  I gotta go meet some chummer.  Laterz.]<<<<<
	-- Phobos <12:17:32/03-30-57>

*****NOT TO: Judas, Sword of God
>>>>>[I wish to make a statement to the residents of Shadowland: the
likes of Judas and Sword of God are fanatics and not true christians.
As a kight of the woeful countenance, I would invite one and all to
come to Mass at Redmond Cathedral and witness the true faith. Our
church is open to one and all, and prejudice has no place in it.]<<<<<
	--Arkangel <10:08:37/3-30-57>

*****NOT TO: JUDAS AND SWORD OF GOD. 
>>>>>[ Hey Chummers, I spoke with
Judas yesterday by phone, he said me that "the Powers of God will kill me
and the "others"" i hav a direction, here is: [ENCRIPTED], That is the
house of that "HP. FANATICO", I have too maps and security systems, 
Somebody wants to make a "Chiste" on Judas and His Friens? "Maria" is 
anxious... I have some friends already... Want to join in?]<<<<<
	-- OBTULIO VARELA (Is anxious) < 13:26:06 / 30-03-57 >

>>>>>[Arrrrgggghh.  Not some more of them.  Why the bloody hell did I 
leave London.  At least the racism there is more subtle.  I'm getting a 
serious migraine.]<<<<<
	-- Aristo <11:37:38/3-30-57>

>>>>>["More subtle", Aristo?  I take it you avoid the dregs of London, 
then.  Perhaps it frowned upon to be as vocal as these folks are, but 
the few times I have been in your illustrious nation I was nearly thrown 
out of bars, restaurants, even clothiers where I was to have an evening 
dress tailored.]<<<<<
	--  Fat Chance <12:41:50/03-30-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Skull
>>>>>[Req perm indiop, SOG n'likes.]<<<<<
	--  Fat Chance <12:42:07/03-30-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Fat Chance
>>>>>[Neg.  K n' P req here.]<<<<<
	--  Skull <12:44:42/03-30-57>

>>>>>[My apologies, but while I would like to assist you all in the 
preferably unpleasant demise of Sword of God and his ilk, I am required 
here.]<<<<<
	--  Fat Chance <12:46:12/03-30-57>

*****PRIVATE: Shade
>>>>>[Hello, Doctor.  It has...indeed been a while since we last exchanged
words.  As Jason has no doubt told you, I have been under care in order to
convalesce from my...ordeal.  I do not know now when I will leave the care of
my benefactors, but I appreciate your concern and wish to let you know that I
remain, essentially, intact.]<<<<<
	--  Thelienista  <11:02:00 / 03-30-57>

>>>>>[Ok here's what happened when the signal got cut out.  I had a 
microcam inside the opera house, but it got shot to hell.  So here's what 
I saw before everthing blew up.

As Chief Moses was starting to really get going a large group of armed men tried 
to rush the stage.  One of them, a nice-looking blonde in combat armor, 
seemed to be in charge.  I'm only guessing but I'd have to say that he 
was probably the terrorist Sword of God.

So Sword's opening fire at Chief Moses, along with his cronies.  But the 
bullets seem to be hitting some sort of barrier.  Then the security open 
up on the attackers.  Most of the goons go down, but Sword seems to have 
a anti-bullet barrier of his own.  The whole time he's screaming drek 
in German.  Then he throws a grenade at the Chief.  And someone, I'm 
guessing Crusader or one of his secruity shamans, knocks it away from the 
speakers and honorees with some kind of spell.

And then some shoots a fragging arrow into Sword's leg.  I couldn't 
believe it, an arrow.  Then all hell breaks lose.  Everything goes wavy 
and none of the normal directions, like up, seem to apply anymore.  I'd 
have to say someone used a chaotic world spell, and a nasty one because 
most of the security where affected by it.  When the spell clears, Moses 
is gone, Sword is gone and a lot of dead bodies are lying around.

I heard later that Crusader got Moses out as soon as the chaos hit us.  
But a good number of the other people being honored get splashed.  They 
haven't said who yet.  Oh and Sword of God is definately still at large.  
And with a tame mage, I doubt that arrow wound will slow him down much.]<<<<<
	-- Fly-on-the-Wall <18:52:02/3-30-57>

>>>>>[I underestimated the demonic protections given to Chief Jon Moses.  
This will not happen again.  I will be back to cleanse Seattle of the 
demonspawn.  Even if I have to destroy the entire city.]
	-- Sword of God <19:23:27/3-30-57>

>>>>>[It is true I spend little time in the "dregs" of London.  And the 
insults and threats I recieve are more subtle.  But then despite my 
metatype, homo sapiens robostus or ork, I am still a member of the 
nobility.  Rank doth have its advantages.]<<<<<
	-- Aristo <12:59:18/3-30-57>

*****PRIVATE:  Sword of God
>>>>>[The only place you're going is to jail.]<<<<<
	--  Melles <13:18:27/03-30-57>

>>>>>[And I am simply a troll mercenary, as well as a woman, which places 
me even further down the food chain.  Which is one of the reasons I avoid 
London whenever possible.]<<<<<
	--  Fat Chance <13:20:44/03-30-57>

>>>>>["Even if I have to destroy the whole city?"  Do you style yourself as
Elijah, to call down the fire of God to consume the thrice-wet offering?  Or
do you claim for yourself the mastery over the storm which Christ is said to
have possessed?  Or do you claim an even...deeper power?  "Sword of God", you
have not the _slightest_ notion of what you say...]<<<<<
	--  Thelienista  <12:26:48 / 03-30-57>

>>>>>[Ms. Thelienista, I suspect that Sword of God knows precisely what 
he is saying.  Several shipments of industrial chemicals have disappeared 
in recent months.  The chemicals alone, if distributed into the water 
supply of Seattle, would kill near the source and debilatate far from 
it.  Or, if they were combined instead of distributed unevenly, they 
produce mustard gas and military grade seven-7.  Of course, I doubt that 
he has possession of even a small number of those chemicals, but even 
just industrial strength chlorine could, if distributed in an aerosol, 
kill large numbers of people, and chlorine gas is produced in some of the 
factories in Seattle in quantities large enough.

Or how about if he decides to duplicate what the decker Raven did?  You 
weren't in Seattle then, but Raven, who was later killed in Chicago, 
released Gamma-Anthrax from a building in Redmond.  She killed over 1500 
people, caused some 5000 more severe injuries which they later recovered 
from, and cost the city of Seattle approximately 63 meganuyen.  Imagine 
if Sword of God or some of associates got ahold of something similar, or 
worse, and distributed it from a dirigible?

I'd rather not imagine that, personally.  And considering that I have 
available full information sheets on a good number of agents that were 
produced in quantity prior to the international bans of '41, I can 
imagine far worse than most.]<<<<<
	--  Commander Drake, InterPol <14:43:00/03-30-57>

>>>>>[PenKnife of God: Next time you want to splatter someone, try doing
it in a slightly more efficient manner. Jumping around with grenades is
_not_ one of the best ways to wipe someone out. Especially in closed
spaces. You're lucky it didn't go off. (We are of course assuming that you
read the little thingy on the grenade stating that it had a kill radius of
more than 10 meters right?)]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <19:04:03/30-03-57>

>>>>>[Oh yeah, we almost forgot. We're good blue eyed blonde aryans. Will
we be spared from your cleansing fires? (Assuming you can get the matches
lit)]<<<<<
	-- Jen and Gabe <19:04:07/30-03-57>