| From: | mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: realism in corporate life |
| Date: | Tue, 12 Dec 1995 21:53:21 -0800 (PST) |
>
> Mark, I agree that something has to be done about Maxim, but I disagree
> on the timing, and the rest of this is an explanation of what's going on,
> what has happened historically, etc. Evan, you and I might want to talk
> a bit since a lot of stuff has gone on privately between us.
That's certainly possible. =) My main hang-up is the notion that the Big 8
would allow any sort of upstart corporation to get away with acquiring
nuclear arms, or with an excessive amount of posturing in general. It seems
pretty clear that the nuclear arms still in corporate (or even governmental)
hands by Shadowrun days are not really meant to be used in war, but are being
kept in small quantities against doomsday (or whatever). An outside, private
concern acquiring nukes at that point appears to the established powers like
the new acquiree wants to _use_ them in some sort of "terrorist" act, and
it's in everybody's best interest in maintain the status quo.
I appreciate your argument about misinformation pointing at Sheppard-Intrepid.
As soon as any of the Big 8 learned that nuclear capability was involved, I'm
sure there would be an immediate and thorough mobilization of "investigative"
elements. If the evidence pointed at S-I, it would be rigorous pursued, and
the higher-ups at S-I could rightfully be "requested" to open their books, at
which point the investigators would find nothing. Maxim did not in fact
avoid leaving some traces behind, and given their relatively meteoric rise to
prominence, certain people would be naturally disposed to paranoia. Also, I
rate the intelligence gathering ability of the Big 8 to be as good or
substantially better than Maxim's.
I know that your Maxim logs are not supposed to be public knowledge or even
routed through public systems =) I take it that the fact you posted it to
the list is an indication of your moving Maxim's plot ahead in your mind and
keeping us appraised. If that is the case, I took the opportunity to post a
statement of my take on the matter. And perhaps I did move some of the
corporate elements too far on the gameboard without consultation. On the
other hand, Maxim itself is moving with what looks like unlimited freedom,
which in my view would be strongly curtailed by some of the other corps, if
not by the world govevernments.
> all come together in Switzerland, under the guard of InterPol. He then
> very quietly organized Maxim's military, core wars, and orbital assets
> into full, instant readiness, and sent Velli to tell them Maxim's
> demands. The demands were really simple: Don't try to crush Maxim
> because we have your highest levels infiltrated and if you do, we'll take
> you with us when we die. In return, we'll give you half of the Org's
> agents and half of thier facilities, and encorporate the rest into
> Maxim(thus Maxim Security Inc was born). Basically, Velli said "If we
> know enough of your personal secrets to get you all here, then we have
> agents in high enough positions in your organizations to paralyze you for
> long enough that we can hurt you really badly. Sure, your combined might
> will squash Maxim in the long run, but who of you can resist attacking
> your other competitors when they're down? Eventually it'll be world-wide
> corp war, all for the convenience of destroying Maxim. It's not worth
> it, and Maxim is willing to do it."
I appreciate your position, but I have some problems with it. First, this
information would trigger a cascade of subtle but direct attempts to weed out
the corruption, much of which would have to come to some sort of fruition.
Second, the Big 8 form a very stable oligopoly: everyone is clearly aware of
the financial implications of a global price war. This forms a very strong
incentive against such a free-for-all as you describe. Strong enough, in my
view, to prevent the disaster that Velli fortold. Also, it is very much
within the power of the Big 8 to simply blow Maxim basically off the map
with a massive launch of cruise missiles, bombers, and other weaponry. With
all its factory and major research installations destroyed, Maxim would
degenerate into an underground terrorist group at best. In fact, if the
evidence of Maxim's attempt at nuclear arms were to be made persuasively
known to the governments, they would probably help. To say that Maxim's
nuclear bid is a big gamble would be something of an understatement...
Also, I don't know exactly what the Org was supposed to have been, but I
personally doubt that they would have been able to do enough infiltration
of enough of the corporate leadership to trigger the massive crash. The
corporations are not static, but have large numbers of very talented people
working to prevent just such intrusions from without. I certainly won't
rule out some penetration, but I have problems with large-scale stuff.
Thank you for clarifying your history though; I was unaware of most of it.
> Now, what does this mean for the nuke plot? Well, 2 of the corps at
> least are looking elsewhere for thier target. Another has a vested
> interest in Maxim's health(at least some of it), another was never on
> poor terms with Maxim(MCT). That's 4 of the 8 that would not do much at
> this stage.
If the evidence against Maxim was definitive enough, I could certainly see
Azatlan getting into the act, though it would be more eager to act if it
knew it had the cooperation of at least one other Big 8...
> Now, what about corporate spies, you ask? Well, Maxim still
> has some 2500 active agents in corps(half of the 5000 are sleepers) that
> can feed false information or censure what the corp really gets. I
> figure that it's probable that this goes both ways, but the confusion
> should be great enough that there is nothing that provides
> incontravertable proof.
Well, for a matter this serious, a "reasonable" suspicion might be enough...
> Everyone needs to understand something about Velli too. She doesn't give
> a flying f**k about anyone else except how they relate to her personal
> power. She is a Machiavellian in the truest sense of the word. Her
[munch]
> I say this because if you will understand Maxim, you need to understand
> Velli. If the Big 8 bombed Maxim's facilities, she would go apeshit and
> we'd have total war on our hands. That would be bad.
Well, yes. But as I said at the outset, I see _no_ way for the Big 8 to
tolerate such upstart behavior, Org history and whatnot aside. What you
describe is tantamount to a "startup" company able to dictate policy to the
most resource-rich economic powers in the world. If Velli is concerned
about Maxim's continued health, she should have thought again before
embarking on the nuclear trail. Having nukes does noone any good (unless
she plans to launch them, in which case she's a psycho in addition to being
a psychopath), and even trying to acquire them is a great way to piss everyone
off. I'm sorry that I wasn't around when all this started or I would have
tried to make some of these points then. I guess I'm compelled to make them
now.
> I do agree that something has to be done, but I think that the best time
> to start it would be after Maxim tests their first bomb on the far side
> of the moon. The other corps would know that someone did it, and they'd
> quickly figure out that it wasn't SI since they don't have the orbital
> facilities to do it(correct me if I'm wrong, Evan). As it is, Maxim has
> only one station that it bought from Fuchi, excluding the survillance
> sattelites and comm sats it has, of course. I think that this would be
> the best time to make a corporate example of Maxim.
Well, that's perfectly fine with me =) I cannot speak for others on the
list, but I personally have no hard timeline in mind for this stuff. What you
> I hope this response didn't seem like an attack. After writing it, I
> think it's reasonable.
Seems eminently reasonable to me too, and I similarly hope my message did not
come as too much of an affront. I guess I have a tendency to react with
"enthusiasm" more often than circumstances demand. =)
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
