| From: | "Paul J. Adam" <paul@********.demon.co.uk> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Killing in Shadowrun... |
| Date: | Tue, 21 May 1996 17:44:21 +0100 |
>>to notice? :)
>
>Sure they'll notice. But they'd also notice that you work for corp X, corp
>Y, and corp Z. If any of those finds out that you've done runs on
>themselves, you're in big trouble.
Facts of life. You work for your fixer: how the hell are you meant to
know, before the fact, who the job was for? You might be able to guess,
or you might guess wrong. The only way round this is to formally
affilate to one corporation, which rather destroys the point of using
deniable assets.
>Mind Probe gives all the little details.
That the target saw. Disguise, Fashion, Makeover, Physical Mask, False
Memory...
>>Also, how are you putting this about? "Our strike team killed six
>>shadowrunners last night who had..."
>>"You murdered six civilians in UCAS jurisdiction?"
>>"No, we killed six fugitives-"
>>"You unlawfully executed six people without trial?"
>
>Anonymous Shadowland BBS posting: The team that did job X was wiped out to
>the last man last night.
Right between "By Elvis Presley" and under "No we weren't". :)
>Watcher spirit to any surviving team members: We're watching you.
>Board meeting: The problem we had last week was taken care of.
>
>Lone Star: We were minding our own business when these ruffians tried to
>attack us. Lucky for us, some unknown benefactor shot them all before they
>could hurt us. They also had this big bag of credsticks with them...
>Also, runners are rarely citizens. You have to have a SIN to be a citizen.
>They're just a bunch of corpses rotting in a dumpster out in the barrens
>that nobody ever saw get put there and nobody is going to go near.
'Scuse me? Why would runners not have SINs, at least excellent fake
ones? You want to be able to move relatively freely, you need a SIN. You
need to be able to blend in uptown, you need a SIN that can stand some
scrutiny.
That means your body is a citizen's corpse and the corporation has to be
a little careful. And a lot of people - the UCAS and all the other
corporations - are just begging for you to slip once, because then you
are sponsoring terrorism outside your jurisdiction.
Get your assasins caught and you're in big trouble.
Hit the wrong target and you're in enormous trouble.
Miss the target, and they may start hitting you hard to even the score.
Van bombs work well in these situations. Indiscriminate, expensive
damage to the corporation, accompanied by messages to the Board "Try and
kill me again, and it gets even more expensive".
Slot a chemistry chip and start cooking nerve agent, then use that on
your runs: flood the air conditioning with VX, permanently contaminate
the entire building and kill everyone inside. What's to lose? The corp
will hunt and kill you anyway, better make sure there are no witnesses.
Corporations have large numbers of fixed assets and lots of people.
Shadowrunners make good terrorists when the mood takes them. Terrorism
is very hard to stop: it's much harder to deal with someone who merely
wants destruction, than it is someone who's come to extract an item or
person intact. It pays to avoid pushing your enemies into that corner.
>>If you don't publicise, your investors don't find out and you might as
>>well not have bothered. If you do, you have some very tricky explaining
>>to do. Extraterritoriality cuts both ways.
>
>They have more confidence without ever knowing what happened. They find out
>that the top-level owners are buying up more, so the little guys buy more
>too on the assumption that the big guys know something that they don't.
Why would killing a couple of small-time runners reach the ears of the
top-level investors? Even if it did... "We killed those runners, sir."
"Have we managed to improve security?"
"Uh... well, another team penetrated the Green Lake site... but we're
going to kill them too. Could you authorise another quarter-million for
the intel gathering and a hundred grand for the assassins?"
Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted doesn't earn a
return. It doesn't even stop people running against you, because some
will get away. It costs you money for no profit.
"There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable and
praiseworthy."
Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk
