| From: | Avenger <Avenger@*******.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | For those who want to know, ( very long) |
| Date: | Mon, 5 Jan 1998 02:12:43 +0000 |
I'll save any further embarrassment from myself or anyone I unwittingly
involve in some of my lunatic schemes. The following will make a few
things clear, so that you all know what I'm doing. Hope it's clear
enough.
Contained in this post:
Paraquat
Achilles
Red Shift
Huh?
Paraquat - An overview of certain parts leading to the end of the
thread. Until I finish rescuing it, and trying to logically prevent the
characters from hearing anything to do with suicide and explosions, this
will not continue.
Achilles - A brief explanation of the explosion, the death of Crawley
and the other agents, Chronos, and COT.
Red Shift - A quickie concerning the Drugs thing, and other crap.
Huh? - I didn't want to do this, but seeing as I am so wrong keeping
some sections of my plots to myself while I work on them, here is what I
have so far (in brief).
----- Explanations follow
Paraquat.
(This is what would have come out of it)
Monolith killed him. Why? Paraquat (sort of) asked him to. They met
earlier that morning, to discuss the upcoming duel. The pressure that
Midnight brought to bear on him was beginning to tell, and he realised
that what the man was saying made sense. Monolith was not left with a
choice. Paraquat had brought the attention of the wrong people on
himself in the wrong way to achieve what he saw as an easy way out.
Those of you who have been reading the thread will be familiar with the
exchanges between Midnight and Paraquat. He had also made some contacts
for the younger members to talk to, and call on for help when things got
too deep for them. Haze, although not entirely stable, showed strong
support for Paraquat, although misguided it may have been. He's
announced several times what he's done, and gave Paraquat some
references to check out. A dangerous man who might be useful in a fight.
Midnight. A man with a heart, a soul and a mission. Someone perhaps,
the youngsters could talk to later if they needed guidance or
assistance. Midnight was also someone who appeared to know a few
people, and if at any time the team got into trouble and needed help, he
might be able to point them in the right direction. Other names were
mentioned, and different reactions were monitored and noted. (You may
vaguely remember a comment from Monolith concerning "reading Paraquat's
notes") The fact that paul's characters responded in such intensity is
neither here nor there. Paraquat was enjoying what he planned to be his
last argument.
(Side note - to explain his dislike of Lynch - I have a relatively good
memory, but also regularly browse through the logs, so little things are
brought to light. I post stuff months prior to it coming into effect, I
run my RL games the same way. If I don't have a copy locally, I'll got
looking through the logs to see if I've said anything I can use.)
Information was sent to Lynch by someone from S&L concerning a _large_
weapons shipment to the middle east from Harrow. The fact that Lynch
hadn't even acknowledged receipt of that information was something that
Paraquat considered ungrateful, especially seeing as the information was
potentially very dangerous, and might have resulted in government
attention being brought on the team. Then the Yemen stuff started
hitting the list, middle east, a war, lots of tanks and stuff... And in
the centre of it all, the man himself (now you know why he didn't like
Lynch). Then Lynch himself responded to him. Well, you all know the
results, that was dealt with during the thread.
<back to the story>
His problem with Latin. His youth was spent in a hostel, run by a
strict Catholic regime. His memories of the use of latin, were combined
with worship, abuse (physical and sexual), severe punishment, and
vicious task masters, mixed in with occassional if little kindness. If
a translation had been offered, he wouldn't have commented, and a
different sort of situation would have occured (Paul couldn't have known
this part of his life, without researching it). But he saw the use of
the language, without consideration to others and remembered his
youth... he reacted badly, later when he realised what was happening,
it was too late, and he was embroiled deep into something with no way
out except grovelling. Paraquat doesn't grovel very well. He has a
military history, in transport, he's worked as a trucker running goods
across the UCAS, he's worked as a rigger in a variety of places, it was
while working on one such contract that he lost his legs, pelvis and had
one of his arms crushed. He has a proper SIN and is one of the few
legal people running the shadows.
The apology was not written by Paraquat, it was written by Monolith.
Paraquat was already dead by then (With Lynch's comment about being
suspicious, I thought Paul had twigged to something). Monolith posted a
few other messages from Paraquats' computer, then terminated the
account, and shut down a few other things. The old man had got his
wishes, he had died, (painlessly) It was tearing Monolith apart to
watch the old man doing what he was doing, knowing what was happening,
and what was about to happen. Employing a friend, he had that person
watch the accounts of himself, Marathon, Cathy and Hungry, and to
intercept any mail heading to those accounts. (answered later) He then
drove Paraquat to his favourite place, the underpass of the Seattle
Freeway West, overlooking the old harbour and Puget Sound. There, he
set fire to the truck, damaging a fuel line near the electrical
junctions to make it look like an accident(no explosion except the small
reports when the nearly empty tanks went off). He phoned it through to
Lone Star, explaining what he had seen, and identifying himself (his
story was that he was waiting for Paraquat) A short investigation by a
busy office verified the statement, and the damaged fuel line was found
- accidental death.
Knowing that Marathon would trust him, Monolith told him Paraquat had
died when his truck exploded. Feeding him information supposedly from
Lone Star to cover anything that might be said at the morgue when they
collected the body. The request not to bring Cath, was partly because
of the damage to the body from the fire, and partly because she was more
likely to ask the wrong questions.
Monolith would then have contacted Quinn, paid the bet, and the other
things that I _was_ able to do. There would be little animosity between
anyone. Quinn and Lillith would have had their apology, and thankyou
very much, it's over) None of the team had upset the Lynch clan, none
of them had attacked them in any way. They were safe. Monolith would
have done anything it took to make sure they were safe, it was the last
request made by Paraquat before Monolith killed him.
The strange post from Monolith to Midnight. Monolith is suffering from
terrible guilt over what he has done. His reason for offering Midnight
his life is not so much in payment for the kindness Midnight offered, as
in recompense for his own actions in killing an old and loved friend,
and preventing Midnight from achieving what he wanted. (He can't admit
that yet, Midnight is a stranger and with obvious problems himself.)
Other possible solutions to the thread. None of you saw the developing
"Duel" post, because unfortunately someone had a late late night, and
was ... well... /was/. Midnight suggested that maybe a simulated
combat would be better than this lunacy. Paraqaut would have agreed.
unfortunately not being James Bond, he can't do some things, driving a
naval ship of the line in combat is one of them. He has never had to,
he has never been given the opportunity to train as a naval commander
and take a cruiser/destroyer/battleship into battle. Quinn apparently
has, but she can't do anything else. Lillith flies aircraft, fine,
Paraquat has flown transports and lighter choppers, he even flew a fixed
wing once, he loves simulations of WW2 fighter combat for the glamour it
all offered, but couldn't possibly fly the high tech stuff fighter jocks
use today or in 2058 - that was not a problem. Because I didn't want to
create a James Bond character who could do anything anywhere anytime
with any object - I prefer that characters rely on others for things, it
creates a more "team-like" atmosphere, the Duel didn't occur. Paraquat
couldn't use a ship, Quinn couldn't use anything except a ship. And
Paraquat was possibly the worst possible shot you can imagine,
especially with "Flintlock" pistols, which he wouldn't even know how to
load, let alone fire, he's had some weapons training, but that was with
an assault rifle, and not a lot of that - he's never had to use one and
is a tad rusty - his weapons are rigged.
Oh dear, a Mexican standoff. Lynch requested an apology for what was
said, Paraquat requested an apology as well, why should he say sorry of
the same wasn't returned (he can be quite belligerent in case you hadn't
noticed).
While I was reading that duel, (written very kindly by Mike Goldberg at
some obscene hour of the morning, and altered very slightly by Paul). I
came up with another way out of it. I was in the process of writing
this for Paul to read, when a _very_ short post, and the "apology"
arrived in my mail box. Reading that, I started on another way out for
this situation, and immediately posted an apology to Quinn and Lillith.
Deliberately trying to make it sound like he was being polite and
sincere, (totally oppposite to previous trend) I then started working on
his death in the very short time I had left to write anything at all,
before my eyes closed on me completely. I then sent the "death" into the
list. Then I went to bed for a couple of hours. You know the rest.
There are still ways to save this but I will have to work at it. Also,
on the off chance that somebody elses character may become involved, it
has obviously become necessary that I will have to post a complete
synopsis before I do anything to prevent any possible confusion and
reaction.
That's it for now. More probably won't follow for a while, I have a lot
of writing to do.
----- Next: Achilles
OK, the FBI bombing. For those who read the posts leading up to that,
it will be fairly clear that COT are involved (Children of Thunda - soon
to be renamed) and will know that the assassination was a mistake.
Achilles are a threat to them, so, they were going to employ a few
people to do something that would distract them, a few "suicide
bombers" were due to hit the town in the south end of Seattle, picking
on the airports and a few other sites. While Achilles was distracted in
southern Seattle, COT were going to auction off the control interface
they'd been perfecting when they field tested Thunda.
Mike and a couple of other people will be familiar with the idea behind
this, and came up with some damn good alternatives and methods
themselves.
CHRONOS was to be the next Thunda. More subtle, more controlled, the
implanted BTL interface and other systems would result in a total
subliminal control of a subject - it could be anyone if skillwires were
involved as well. Chronos the subject, is a businessman from Germany,
he "died" in an automobile accident in New Jersey, the body was
recovered by a body bank and sold to Biodyne Cybernetics (one of the
more "unpleasant corps" from my RL game.) They implanted the cyberware,
and COT, who is in fact the team that initially set up the Thunda
incident, were due to test him. So far field tests have shown a 94%
reliability of the interface and control systems. The subject is not a
robot in any sense of the word, what he/she does is natural and
consistent with their abilities, the difference is if the character has
no skills in a certain area, say sniping - then skill wires and other
systems are introduced. The subject wakes up in a hospital, surrounded
by very concerned people, and the conditioning over the previous year or
so has removed the majority of the more important memories (this was
necessary for Chronos, but wouldn't be for a "sleeper".) Once the
mission is completed, the sumbliminal BTL control is deactivated, and
the subject continues with their normal life (maintenance and updates to
the programming is carried out by regular visits to their "doctor")
The test of CHRONOS would go ahead as scheduled, knowing that everything
was safe while the FBI, Lone Star and others were occupied with this
rash of suicide bombers. The auction would be a moderate success,
bringing in desperately needed "deniable/hidden" funds. Research would
continue and the system would go back into production for the buyer and
development for improvements. The subject of the Chronos attack would
be the robbery of a particularly tough Jewelry store. Taking out the
guards, executing the theft, and a number of other things involved in
such a job. And only one death, that of the manager of the store (who,
for what it's worth one of the board members of COT happens to dislike).
They could, if the job was successful, also sell of the gems recovered.
All that is left for the legal authorities is a jewel heist with one
death, certainly not as important as these lunatics with dynamite
strapped to their chests, and a "dead" suspect. CHRONOS would disappear.
Later, much later this year or probably next year, (after some
discussion with Paul), I had intended that COT decide to test their next
subject on a new type of opponent, who better than the man who ran
Thunda to ground. The combat monster himself, Lynch. They would,
through a secondary contact, inform Lynch of their intentions, The
Children of Thunda were going to avenge their martyr. With the
opposition arrayed against Thunda, even an unsuccessful attack on Lynch
would be satisfactory, depending on how long the experiment lasted. At
that point they would go to ground again, and analyse the data they had
gathered.
The Achilles involvement in the suicide bombers and Chronos, is to
change the overall appearance and mission of Achilles. To make the
group less of an FBI attachment, and more of a direct action force.
Involving them far more in things on the streets, something that seemed
like a good idea at the time, if only as an experiment. It was intended
to post something into the list to cover this.
There shouldn't be any involvement here for outside (list) characters,
beyond Lynch's concern that an acquaintance was hit in an attempted
assassination. Originally, the bungled assassination was to start off
the transformation process of Achilles, their investigation into this
would reveal a few things and put them on the long trail to COT.
There is also the developing side of the Tir section of the plot, which
was due to start building again. This would initially have erupted
around the end of Spring, but that's unlikely at the moment. Urbanus
and "Tourniquet" as some of you may remember are an Irish family who
have certain aspirations regarding the total destruction of Tir
Tairngire (or the discrediting of the council). One of them, Seain
O'Connor, is known to the FBI, information passed to them by British
Intelligence - he's believed to have associations with certain terrorist
organisations, he is known to have strong views regarding Tairngire, and
is known in the UK as slightly more than a peaceful activist. The FBI,
therefore assigned Achilles to watch him and follow him on his fund
raising tour of the American continent. It is this man that D'Arkan
suspects of the assassination attempt, something that will amuse COT
greatly if they hear of it. Because of that conviction, D'Arkan is more
convinced that O'Connor is in the UCAS for a reason other than visiting.
It was this suspicion that I was going to introduce some of the events
that aren't suitable to be posted from Tourniquet, but work fine when
sent as a report from watching FBI agents.
(That's a rough outline, if anyone wants more, I can send it to them)
----Next: Red Shift
Most of you, again know the original mission of Red Shift was to find an
archaic Mayan object that was believed could be used against the Invae,
an opponent of them and other teams. With the destruction of the
Chicago containment zone, and a couple of other events, this became
pointless. So I left Red Shift in limbo, working in the jungles of
South America for government and private hire against pirates, smugglers
and drug runners.
The death of DA, has been a planned event from the formation of Red
Shift, and the introdcution all that time ago, of Dark Avenger. He died
in an explosion, taking out a laboratory producing designer drugs and
BTLs. After such a major event, Red Shift had to get out of the area.
They were illegally in the country, and operating without sanction from
the Venezuelen government. They hightailed it back to Guayana. The
Venezuelen troops arrived and found a butchers yard. They also found
four survivors. Two of them soldiers. One of them DA. Taking the
survivors, they left them with a Venezuelen military research laboratory
(Adam 12) for healing and interrogation. No usefull information could
be gained from the survivors and the head injury had damaged DA's brain
(notice a link yet?) so, the lab used the bodies for their own
purposes.
(Their present thing) Red Shift, have been together for a good many
years. To two of the team DA is a father, to the others he's a mentor,
leader and close friend, they have all dealt with his death differently.
Only Shado wants blood in repayment. The rest are mourning him, and want
vengeance, but will deal with things anyway if they don't get it. They
all miss him. For now. THey have been hired as deniable assets by the
Guayana government through a contact in the British Embassy to kill a
particularly sore thorn in their side. The contact in the embassy
(conveniently) was an old contact of DA's from the UK - exiled to a
lesser job in a foreign country of no particular note for alledgedly
assisting DA in the UK when he escaped.
The hit on the mountain fortress of Enrico Mateas, will leave Red Shift
badly bruised. Another two characters from the team will die, they'll
kill Mateas, but not without some personal cost. Pharaoh, is one of
those who will die. Essentially leaving the team leaderless, except for
a senior mercenary (Henson) who has just been introduced, or one of the
other less experienced members. Further to this, three other characters
will be leaving the team, Wells, Loch and Tank (they have personal
"family" related problems that need dealing with. As well as a strange
link between the two brothers Wells and Scorpius - Also where these are
not my characters, I can't really keep them indefinately.)
(There is something else, but that's very much in the speculation stage,
and involves the Amazon and Brazil.)
-----Next: Huh?
DA has escaped from the laboratory. The technicians there have been
working on him over the last couple of months, mending this, adding that
and destroying more of his memory and mind. Some of you who read it,
might have recognised what I was doing) DA, doesn't know who he is, or
where he is, or what he is. He only knows he wants an answer, and
nobody's given it to him. He's loose in Venezuala, confused, scared, in
pain and very very pissed off. He has some vague memories, but they
haven't surfaced yet. DA is linked to three of my plots. Achilles and
Tourniquet (his history in the UK, places him in Ireland, Urbanus and
O'Connor are two people he ran across while there. Achilles through
Urbanus, and another event that is planned for the future, but not
fleshed out yet. DA, is not the same person anymore, and until he sees
something that cracks the damage done to his memories, he won't know.
He has found that he's good at killing people, he's found he has
survival experience, and a few other things that are confusing him, but
at least giving him something to think about and are augmenting the work
carried out by the laboratory (experimentation on producing "super
soldiers"). As soon as I can figure out a way to post it, I had
intended sending what was going through his mind and what he was
experiencing to the list. I've yet to figure that out though.
Meanwhile I'll work on it from the Venezuelen military pov.
I'm hoping to eventually hitch him up with Red Shift again, but that's
for a much later date.
Hopefully that hasn't spoiled anyone's fun in any of my plots, now that
you know what's happening and some of what is due to happen.
Sorry if I have bored anyone. But Paul has a point, and I'm just about
fed up enough to agree with him. Now there shouldn't be any surprises
for a while. As soon as I finish writing the complete dissertation I'll
make them all available on my web site (shalako) for the curious of
mind.
That should prevent any future "problems" from arising. I will of
course bore you all to tears when I've done it, by telling everyone, and
for those few who don't have web access I will be more than happy to
send the stuff as a text file by e-mail.
I've got a lot of work to do, so - bye for now.
--
Dark Avenger -:- http://www.shalako.demon.co.uk/index.htm -
Unofficial Shadowtk Newbies Guide, Edgerunners Datastore &
Beginnings of the Underseas Sourcebook.
http://freespace.virgin.net/pete.sims/index.htm - Alternative UK Sourcebook
(U/C)
