From:	Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:	Character Background (LONG)
Date:	Mon, 17 Apr 1995 15:11:18 GMT

Okay, for those who asked for it - an outline of Jason Lynch's character
history up to about three years ago....


Background.
Jason Running Wolf Lynch was born near Olympia, in 2025 to a mixed marriage - a Salish
Rangers NCO and an Ares executive, of all the unlikely matches. His father went MIA in
Sioux territory in 2036, and he lost his mother and almost his life when he was
fourteen.
It was quite simple: he and his mother were walking home from the subway when a
unmarked limousine pulled up, four men in suits got out, and bundled his mother
inside. Lynch went for them with a penknife, wounded one (quite badly) in the
arm, then caught a .408 Magnum through the chest point-blank.

He recovered consciousness two weeks later after five operations to
repair his heart, patch one lung and dig the bullet out of a vertebra.
No trace of his mother was ever found. The only clue was his confused
description of the four men, and a Mitsuhama Computer Technology
fraternal device torn from the lapel of one of them: the police were
disinterested and Ares had nothing to investigate (the MCT badge was dismissed
as an obvious plant).

With no family and the only prospect a place in the company orphanage, Lynch
discharged himself from hospital and got as far away as he could - in his case,
joining the first mercenary unit he found. By some odd chance, it was the Ares-
sponsored team for the first Desert War. Lying about your age isn't hard when
you have a scar going clean through your chest. Lynch started as a rifleman,
and was promoted by default when his squad was all but wiped out: the
replacements had no experience, he was a one-day veteran therefore he was
bumped to corporal. By the end of the three-week contest, he was commanding
with competence if not flair: technically he was a failure, since his men
weren't dying messily enough for the trideo audiences.

Since he'd demonstrated some ability, the corporate recruiters grabbed
him for the security force after the euphoric victory celebrations.

Lynch went in as a corporal, was a sergeant within a year, and the
youngest platoon sergeant in Desert Wars 2 - still underage, but in the
swirling hell of the Desert Wars who noticed or cared? The third was a bad one,
though: the emphasis was less on staged set-pieces for entertainment, more on
damaging other companies' assets. Lynch's unit, too successful for its own
good, was recovering from a nervegas barrage and trying to reform their
position when a subtactical nuclear weapon went off a quarter of a mile away.
Lynch survived, but still checks his X-rays for dark spots: he got a pretty
hefty dose of fast neutrons that day as well as some nervous system damage.

Ares were one of the first corps to create a cybered unit for emergency
situations, and Lynch was an early recruit - delayed only by his having to be
sixteen to sign the disclaimers, and assisted by his proven track record as a
soldier both in general service and in Desert Wars. He still calls himself a
'sixty per center' - Wired-II was still a novelty in 2041, and the interface
technology not what modern runners are used to: only sixty per cent of
candidates emerged in a functional state. It wasn't helpful that many - like
Lynch - were still damaged by nerve gas from the Desert Wars. He was lucky,
though.

Emerging from the clinic and adapting to his new equipment took time, then
Lynch joined the Ares Security Fast Response Action Group. The FRAGs saw most
of the action, being the company's version of a SWAT team, and Lynch thrived on
it. After three years, he was second-in-command of the New York City group.

Then Ares formed the Special Strike Force, a full-time group of elite corporate
troops - full-time shadowrunners in all but name - and Lynch was a natural
choice. For nearly two years they rampaged through other corps' security, until
one member sold out and the SSF walked straight into a massive ambush.

Lynch was walking point, and was outside the killing zone. He escaped, barely.
Serpent had sold the team out, and he had nearly a month to enjoy MCT's thirty
pieces of silver before Lynch found him and left him dead (he thought).

With the SSF in ruins, even the FRAG wasn't lively enough for Lynch. He
stuck it out for over a year, before the boredom became too much: with
some regrets, he had himself placed on the Ares reserve list and hit the street
as a freelance shadowrunner.

His first run was a fairly simple heist - pick up a corp from the
airport, take him to a safehouse and guard him for a while before
handing him over. Unfortunately, the safehouse - wasn't.

A simple data heist from Aztechnology went horribly wrong and turned into a
three-way fight involving Aztechnology, the runners and Alamos 20,000. Then a
family feud between three dragons cost Lynch an arm (luckily his DocWagon was
paid up) and a night in the New York State Maximum Security Enclosure (as a
"visitor" after the team's helicopter was shot down), before a climactic
firefight in Times Square subway station.

An assassination on a corrupt local politician who was dealing BTL chips took
three tries before Lynch's approach - blow the place up - prevailed. He was
asked for a go-to on someone who (after a very difficult and - with hindsight,
comical - inestigation) turned out to be an old friend, although beating
Silver's security took some doing. The payoff was good, though, since Renraku
were hiring Silver and wanted to be sure there weren't any skeletons in her
closet she hadn't admitted to.

Then Lynch was called in by a group of friends who needed help - Lone Star
wanted them for a murder they didn't commit, they were carrying a powerful but
evil magical item, and they wanted Lynch to help them survive. He did, even
claiming half a kill on Geyswain the Dragon (shared with a tiger
shapeshifter...Bill with fangs in Geyswain's neck and raking with his back
legs, Lynch firing AVMs into the Dragon's belly)

Another encounter with a dragon, this one astral, introduced him to Flame the
street mage, who he fell for quite heavily. Ares recalled him to retrieve some
stolen cyberware. Then he was hired by Eve Donovan for a datasnatch against the
Cavilard Research Centre, which worked out very nicely indeed.

He pulled off a successful kidnap against a simsense star, holding her
for a weekend before releasing her but having a most unfortunate experience
with insect spirits... Then helping his friend Hogan out of a tight spot put
him head-to-head with the police, levelled a large area of Puyallup around his
apartment, and left him with a much worse attitude towards the police in
general - and a severe grudge against Rodriguez, the #2 at Seretech. Lynch
ended up going up the gravity well after Rodriguez, who skipped out of the
company after an attempt to set up Hogan, Silver and Doctor Johnson as fall-
guys for a crooked op. Lynch cheerfully blew him away with an AVM.

He had a terrible run of luck that severely altered his outlook on life when
MCT came after him. He evaded their entire security force's best efforts for
three-and-a-half days leaving a body count in the hundreds. When they did catch
up to him in a coffin hotel, he hacked through half-a-dozen armed guards with
only his spurs before being captured. Then he made two more escape bids, before
they finally took out his cyberware, without an anaesthetic.

They dumped him on the street to gloat for a while, sure that the Barrens
streets would take care of a blind cripple. By pure luck (and Karma...) a
friend passed. Lynch managed to get to help, and had enough 'ware replaced to
make him functional. Then he turned the tables on MCT by stealing one of their
T-birds, using it briefly to inflict a great deal of expensive damage on them,
and selling it on to acquire some excellent cyberware. In a very unofficial
negotiation with MCT, they agreed to write off the entire incident as a mistake
by both sides: Lynch couldn't outrun a megacorp, but MCT couldn't eliminate him
in a cost-effective way: so they both stepped back.

MCT proceeded to hire him as a "see,we're friends now" gesture for a run to
steal some Aztlan biotechnology, which had odd ramifications when the "biotech"
turned out to be inside a live human host who didn't like being a lab rat.
Unfortunately since he'd been well paid, his attempts to welsh on the deal met
with resistance from Lynch who had enough problems at the moment without
pissing off MCT again. I think Lynch was meant to help Hiller run, but instead
he kept catching him... it turned into "Midnight Run" on amphetmaines.

His next run was against Cavilard again where he encountered an alien life form
that almost killed him and the group he was leading in there. Luckily, Lynch -
although cut off and alone - got out before the centre was blasted with FAE
bombs. He used this opportunity to vanish for a while, since life was a little
warm. A hitman who kept cancelling his telephone number as "subscriber
deceased" also knows, but for a while Lynch was MIA to most people - although a
flattering belief in his indestructibility existed, making life tricky since
nobody was willing to accept that he was dead.

As the Dead Man, Lynch rescued Suzy from a cyborg assassin, allegedly sent from
the future: Lynch was quite prepared to believe that anything which stopped six
bursts of APDS from a HK227 - in the head - had to be somewhat unnatural.

Then Tronic asked him to come in on a run to rescue someone from Aztechnology
and they managed to rescue the prisoner, steal a helicopter, nuke an
Aztechnology research centre (by accident) and obtain a Fairlight Excalibur!
Although the programs on the deck got wiped by built-in security codes, the
deck itself was fine, especially after Lynch uprated it himself, and he spent
about six weeks in coffin hotels writing software. Selling the deck and the
Yellowjacket they rode out in (five people plus four others shapechanged
magically into mice to reduce weight - cue interesting target numbers for
piloting, especially when the shockwave from the blast hit) was profitable
enough to let Lynch buy his Hughes Stallion, arming it with the cannon from the
Yellowjacket.

He had a hitman come after him while he was working on the deck, but since he
just kept moving it wasn't too much of a problem after the first rush of
action. He even had time to fit in two small but profitable runs, as well as
helping the Lady with her first outing, and pay off the balance of a power-
focus for Flame. Unfortunately he and Lady smoked some of Jordan's dope
together after a run and committed the sort of indiscretion that might get
Lynch's balls burned off if Flame finds out. Still, it might have been worth
it...

He undertook a deep-penetration raid into Russia, to destroy a fuels refinery.
It transpired that the entire run was a setup, and one of the runners a
traitor. Lynch and JayCee fought their way out across the Iranian border and
then had to escape Iran... An impressive achievement, as they left a trail of
corpses behind them and dragged themselves out of Kuwait eventually, torn and
bleeding. (I'm writing that one up as a shortish story... remembering it
reminded me how good it was)

While on the run, Lone Star asked him to drop by, which he did.
Apparently a BTL-dealer he took out some time before had left his estate in
shape to be tidied, and his helicopter (which Lynch had acquired and the police
later destroyed, some time ago) was part of it. Since Lone Star had blown the
helicopter up, Lynch took the view they should pay for the damned thing: they
disagreed, made a fuss about illegal cyberware and decided to lock him up. This
annoyed him greatly, but he was unable to escape. He was given two options: go
to jail minus cyberware or go to Mars as a cop aboard the Mayflower II colony
ship. Is that a choice?

Over two years of game passed as the ship went out, deposited the colonists,
and returned. Lynch had two particularly hard times - one when he was contacted
by extraterrestrials - one group of which was using humans to produce drugs
(with fatal doses of heroin) and the other who were law enforcers trying to
stop them.

The second was with an attempt to sabotage the colony...by using Aztechnology's
Grim Reaper spores. Over fifty colonists died - including Flame. That, more
than anything else, decided Lynch to return to Earth when the ship turned back
for the next leg.

Lynch discovered as a result of several assassination attempts that the reason
for many of his problems was a planned merger of Ares Security (internal
security and special ops) with Knight-Errant (contract hire). The idea being
that Knight-Errant saw the Security boys as uncontrollable cybercowboys with
too much attitude for their own good, and wanted to make sure they came out on
top - by discrediting current and former Ares Security personnel. There was
little he could do, but at least he discovered what the problem was.

He was back and cautiously easing back onto the streets when a chance meeting
in New York with an old friend got him into deep trouble - as usual - when the
President's aircraft came down in the middle of the UCAS Max-Security Prison
Zone. Lynch had to go in and get him out...no problem! Well, that's what he
said, even if the run was pretty hair-raising

Then he was contacted by Lone Star to help out with a chase...that turned out
to be a very odd being - either some sort of toxic spirit or an alien life form
(Lynch is loose in his definitions of strangeness), this one possessing
people's bodies. Lynch teamed with Lloyd Stone, who was another similar being
occupying a dead man's body, to track and kill it. Eventually.

He ran into Blackwing the assassin again, while trying to find out about an
amnesiac Dragon... Blackwing is beginning to associate Lynch with failed jobs
involving Dragons. Jason was good enough to spring the Elf from his Knight-
Errant captors, though, so the hitman owes Lynch another favour. The run was a
qualified success (outstanding, really, since there was no way to win, but
Lynch takes his job seriously).

He had an entertaining battle against cultists in Morocco, rescuing a
girlfriend from an evil sect and slaughtering most of them. He also did a
missing-persons run in Scotland, which proved to be much bigger than he'd
thought and landed him in a lot of trouble...but Lynch never had too much
trouble even when it comes to fending off a full Zeta-ImpChem strike team, him
with only two Ares Predators against their automatic weapons. Good strategy and
tactics, and a well-prepared defensive position, won the day although he never
really understood a lot of the mystical aspects. He understands decking very
well (he's a killer in the Matrix, since most of the deckers he's met have been
either incompetent, untrustworthy or greedy he decided to be his own hacker)
and has learned some magical theory, but at heart his world is a simple place
and magic still leaves him confused.

A rather odd shop sold him a bloodstained penknife - the stains nearly twenty
years old - and Lynch realised it was his, from when his mother was kidnapped.
A violent whirl of activity followed which led to Lynch extracting his mother
from a research laboratory in Osaka: she was being used for a direct-neural
connection experiment, trying to interface the human mind to cyberspace with no
intervention. The worst thing was, it actually worked: although her body died a
few months later (she was in very bad shape) she's still loose in the Matrix
and drops in on her son whenever he's decking. Lynch finds the otaku in Denver
very amusing: "my Mom is way better than you kids!"

She also pointed him at the records for the "Corpse Company" of the Sioux
Wildcats: a unit made up entirely of soldiers listed as dead or MIA, many of
them captured during incursions, and used for the most sensitive raids: anyone
trying to ID the body they found discovers the attacker was a UCAS Recon Marine
or similar reported MIA some time ago, not a Wildcat at all... It turned out
after a lot of legwork that his father had believed (with much justification)
that Lynch and his mother were both dead: once out of the Wildcats had retired
to live in Death Valley: he liked the scenery, and hadn't had any reason to
believe his family were still alive. Cue a fiftysomething physical adept buying
a terminal to talk to his wife's ghost...

His relationship with a street samurai called The Lady continued as they worked
together on a number of runs, one of them a complex one involving Seattle gang
warfare and Tir Taingire. They were highly successful in their assigned task
and the Lady discovered a few interesting points about the new second-in-
command of the Ancients.

Unfortunately, the Lady had a past of her own which the Tir Taingire memory-
maulers had neatly suppressed, but feeling a degree of threat from her they
tried to reactivate her. Lady proved less susceptible than they expected, but
was still in deep trouble suffering a severe mental breakdown, then
disappearing. Lynch went after her: one of the few people to successfully raid
Tir Taingire and extract someone from "The House".

This meant war, though, especially since Kylisearn - by then a good friend -
had disappeared, kidnapped by the Tir. Lynch and Lady rescued him, then started
to assemble a strike force of highly experienced shadowrunners with some covert
support from the UCAS and Russia, neither of whom were best pleased by
revelations about a Tir plot to infiltrate their governments. Kylisearn helped
with a lot of inside information, and the names of several members of the
Council of Princes who could provide limited assistance.

The palace guard at Salem were certainly never trained or equipped to deal with
four fully-armed T-birds crashing the walls, and in a long and bloody
firefight the team slaughtered their way through the palace (large parts of it
are still awaiting proper redecoration, and there is still a lot of shrapnel
buried in the plaster) and killed the High Prince in his own throne room.
Succession by assassination has a long tradition, and Kylisearn became the new
High Prince of Tir Taingire.

And there I draw a line under his turbulent history - that was about three
years ago. What he's been up to since then is anyone's guess... :-)


--
When you have shot and killed a man, you have defined your attitude towards
him. You have offered a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or
for worse, you have acted decisively.
In fact, the next move is up to him.

Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk