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Tom Dowd was the Shadowrun developer at FASA until 1995. He is the author of several short stories which have appeared in Dragon magazine, FASA promotional flyers, and the Into the Shadows anthology. He wrote two shadowrun novels, Night's Pawn (1993) and Burning Bright (1994). As shadowrun developer he made many contributions to sourcebooks, including large portions of Bug City (1995). He is the author of the Street Samurai Catalogue (1989), Fields of Fire (1994), and Cybertechnology (1995).
Dan Truman and his company, Truman Technologies, are described on page 113 of the Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America and page 88 of Bug City. Truman Technologies was built around ESP Systems, Inc., the original developer of simsense.
Kyle Teller, Hanna Uljakėn, Seeks-the-Moon, Anne Ravenheart, Melissa Truman, and Linda Hayward are all described in the "Movers and Shakers" section of the Bug City sourcebook (p.146-149).
Prior to the events of this novel, the existence of insect spirits remained a fairly well-kept secret. Kyle Teller, a professional magical investigator and initiated hermetic mage, had never before encountered or even heard of them.
The effects of the Bug City disaster felt in Washington FDC are described in Just Compensation (Robert N. Charette, 1996).
The date for the beginning of the novel is not correct -- it is given as August 14th, but it should be the 19th. Part 1 is very specific about the passage of time, and there are only three days from the beginning of the novel to the disastrous KE raid and subsequent bug break-out on the 22nd, which is the date given for Part 2. Bug City (p.128) also dates the insect swarm on 22 August. From that point, there are nine days to the Cermak Blast early in the morning of 1 September. The Bug City timeline, however, puts the detonation of the nuclear weapon on 1 October. Somebody lose a month? Corrected dates are used in the Plot Summary above.
p.6: The Universal Brotherhood was shut down by the UCAS government in May 2055, most of its leaders imprisoned. The official reasons given were tax evasion and "conducting illegal medical experiments on the homeless." This is a reference to the published adventure, Double Exposure (Fraser Cain & Nigel Findley, 1994). The sinister truth is that the UB was a successful front for a coalition of insect spirit hives, originating in California Free State in 2043 and spreading around the world by 2055. The whole story is told in the Universal Brotherhood sourcebook (Nigel Findley, 1990). Rather than create a possible panic by disclosing the truth, government officials constructed various conventional pretexts with which to attack the organization. In keeping with its cover story, the government provides medical care, psychological treatment, and a generous settlement to the UB's mundane "victims" by redistributing its seized assets.
p.9-11: a quick overview of Chicago geography.
p.11, 80: Kyle uses his pocket phone with his datajack, superimposing the telecom video image over his normal eyesight via an image link.
p.15: Kyle owns several foci, but he refrains from using them to avoid the danger of focus addiction (Magic in the Shadows, p.45). They are kept in a locked box in the hotel safe, protected by an anchored Paralyze spell (Awakenings, p.136). Anchoring is a metamagical ability (Magic in the Shadows, p.70), enabling an initiate to prepare a spell that will take effect only when certain conditions are met.
p.20: Daniel Truman and his wife have been married 45 years. Both have used expensive "cellular cleansers and genetic rejuvenation" to maintain a youthful appearance. The Trumans have three children -- Melissa, 16; Mitchell, 17; and Madelaine, the eldest.
p.21: Truman has a valuable art treasure hanging in his office, an "enormous painting" rescued from the Chicago Art Institute. From Truman's comment -- "It's best viewed from the middle of the room. From there, you can see the dots very clearly." -- I would guess that this is supposed to be the famous Georges Seurat pointillist painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, last seen hanging in an apartment in the Noose three years earlier in Changeling (Chris Kubasik, 1992).
p.21: Kyle was referred to Truman by his brother-in-law. Kyle was employed to locate Truman's niece, Anna-Marie, when she ran away from home.
p.28: Lt. Facile's cyberware systems include: "a Richmond series-twelve neuromuscular accelerator, a Fuchi MPX-R headware comp and data-access package, Mitsuhama-Zeis ocular light-amplification systems, and a recent upgrade to level two for his Ares smartlink combat system." Translation: wired reflexes (unknown grade), headware memory and datajack (possibly knowsoft link as well), low-light retinal modification, and smartlink 2.
p.29: Knight Errant recently bought out Winter Security's contract as security provider for Truman Technologies. Eagle Security holds the public law enforcement contract for the city of Chicago. Knight Errant seems to be positioning itself to make a bid for the city contract when it comes up for renewal in eighteen months. In fact, Ares is preparing to exterminate Chicago's large concentration of insect spirits.
p.33-41: Kyle explains various magical processes to Hanna. Ally spirits, spellcasting, ritual sorcery.
p.39: Kyle attempts to locate Mitchell Truman using ritual sorcery (Magic in the Shadows, p.34). In lieu of a tissue sample, one of Mitchell's favorite T-shirts serves as the ritual's material link. SR3 makes no provision for sympathetic links, but they are described in the second-edition Grimoire (p.35). Kyle takes two hours to establish a hermetic circle and conduct the ritual, so he is working at a relatively low Force.
p.44-46: Kyle calls up an air elemental, Charlotte, and commits it to remote service protecting the Trumans' penthouse (SR3, p.187). He also calls up a watcher spirit, Delta, to act as courier should the need arise (MitS, p.102). Both spirits would have been initially summoned much earlier, using prolonged rituals, and kept on standby against future need. On p.78, Kyle commits two more elementals named Elliot and Richard to protect Mitchell's hospital room. On p.116, he calls up a fire elemental named Winston. A hermetic mage can control a number of elementals at one time equal to his Charisma -- Kyle's must be at least 4.
p.49: Linda Hayward is a member of an all-female gang called the Desolation Angels. The gang takes their name and colors from an album recorded by a group called Bad Company in the nineteen seventies. The Desolation Angels also appear in the Super Tuesday adventure, Casualties of War.
p.57-58: Kyle uses a Clairvoyance spell to see through a wall across a crowded room.
p.61-62: a discussion of bound spirits versus free spirits.
p.75: Kyle projects astrally and manifests. His astral form appears naked -- though it is a simple matter to shape clothing for the astral body (SR3, p.173), Kyle does not do so. Subconscious exhibitionist?
p.83: Knight Errant has three "Firewatch" combat strike teams, six people to a team, "a hard mix of cybernetics and magic." Not unlike a shadowrunning team. The teams operate around the world, and the FBI tries to keep tabs on them. Team Two is led by Anne Ravenheart, a classmate of Kyle's from Columbia University.
p.89: Kyle knows a spell that opens mechanical locks. Electronic maglocks, on the other hand, are dealt with more bluntly using a Power Bolt spell.
p.97: Knight Errant has identified five members of the Desolation Angels: Dierdre Reinmann, Karyn Moffit, Mary Hauser, Gwen Pitvorec, and Linda Hayward. KE seems to believe this is a complete roster, but Bug City introduces another Mantid, Vixen, and Super Tuesday adds Mara Suhar to their ranks.
p.103: Ares/Knight Errant began actively investigating insect spirits in February 2051 by offering rewards for information about "aberrant spirits." This would have been before Zeb Wanderly's failed attempt at posting his UB document (May, 2051), but well after Knight Errant's first encounter with Mantis Spirits in Dowd's short story Free Fall (2050) from the Into the Shadows anthology. The tragic death of simsense star Euphoria (Jan, 2051) in Queen Euphoria was probably the catalyst for Knight Errant's crusade against the bugs.
p.103: One of Kyle's elementals on remote service is destroyed: "Somewhere, deep inside of him, the echo of a part of his being that had been sent elsewhere twisted. He felt it burn, and then an instant later, dissolve as potential unexpectedly freed returned to him."
p.105-107: astral combat with a Roach spirit.
p.123-124: A reference to the events of the published adventure, Queen Euphoria (Stephan Wieck, 1990). Against the Hive was the last simsense of superstar Amanda Lockhart, aka. Euphoria. She was captured by insect spirits and invested with a Queen. Though the experience was fatal, it was nonetheless recorded by Euphoria's simrig. MegaMedia released the sim as a work of fiction.
p.130: Kyle achieved some measure of fame in the magical community in 2050 by solving the sensational case of Wilhemina Keene: "Keene had been a registered nurse and adept mage performing ritual sacrifices with newborn babies stolen from hospitals throughout New England. She killed twelve before the FBI finally caught up with her on the verge of murdering her thirteenth, the final element in whatever bizarre ritual she'd been performing."
p.133: You can gain the attention of an astrally projecting mage if you slap his physical body hard enough. A mage is aware of damage inflicted to his physical body even when he is not in residence (SR3, p.174).
p.179: The aftermath of the bugs' attack on the Knight Errant command vehicles is described in Bug City (p.117): "Something trashed a pair of big-ass trucks -- combat-support vehicles -- down there, just ripped apart their armor plating. There used to be a pile of bodies, all KE troopers from the looks of it, littered throughout the area."
p.227: Ravenheart breaks the bad news: "Two days ago, a joint delegation from the elven nations of Tir Tairngire, led by Prince Ehran the Scribe, and Tķr na nÓg, led by Caoimhe O'Dunn, daughter of the High Steward, had a private audience with President Steele that lasted six hours... Sometime during the meeting the White House received a call from the great dragon Lofwyr. What I've been told is that the joint delegation, and Lofwyr, recommended to Steele that the area inside the Containment Zone be saturated with ANVAR-TFM, Saeder-Krupp's most powerful pesticide, which will turn the area into a toxic waste zone for centuries."
Public speculation on this secret meeting can be seen in Just Compensation (p.130). The dates don't jibe, however. Charette dates the meeting on 23 August 2055, while Dowd puts it on 29 August.
p.229: "We'd already dusted what we thought was the main hive in the Rocky Mountains a few months ago, after the Project Hope fiasco almost blew the lid off the whole thing." This is another reference to the published adventure, Double Exposure (Fraser Cain & Nigel Findley, 1994). Sponsored by the Universal Brotherhood, Project Hope was allegedly a program to set up work camps, providing the homeless and SINless with employment, shelter, and medical care. In fact, it was a ruse to supply host bodies for the Hive.
p.233: "Kyle pointed out that a nuclear weapon had been detonated only five times in anger since its invention over a century ago -- the two dropped on Japan in 1945 and the three on Libya by the Israelis in 2004." Kyle's missing at least one -- according to Find Your Own Truth (Robert Charette, 1991), Baghdad (Iraq) was also the victim of a nuclear weapon.
p.234: At half a kiloton, Damocles is a tactical warhead. Compared to the strategic nukes used on Hiroshima in 1945 (14 kilotons) or Libya in 2004 (100 kilotons). The name Damocles comes from Greek mythology. After praising his lord extravagantly, Damocles was invited by him to a banquet. The lord seated Damocles beneath a naked sword suspended by a single thread, as a demonstration of the precarious nature of power and prestige.
p.258-259: Anne describes what happens to insect spirits when a Queen is destroyed: "Roaches don't care. They really don't have queens. Same for flies and beetles and the others that have 'nests' rather than hives. The true hivers, with real queens, they usually go nuts and either mill around the queen's body or start attacking each other. I think the ants tend to do that." This more or less agrees with Magic in the Shadows (p.130), hive insect spirits are either destroyed or become free when their queen is killed.
p.261-262, 268: Between them, Kyle and Anne summon 10 "attack dog" watcher spirits, to harass and distract the bugs on their raid. As with elementals, a mage can summon and control a number of watchers equal to his or her Charisma attribute (MitS, p.100).
p.266-279: the final attack on the hive and detonation of the warhead are witnessed and reported in the "City Under Siege" section of Bug City (p.21).
Aftermath: The destruction of the primary insect hive and its queens throws many of the insect spirits inside the Containment Zone into torpor. Kyle, Anne Ravenheart, and the surviving Knight Errant troops establish one of the Zone's largest safe havens at the Wrigley Dome (Bug City, p.116). The Chicago Containment Zone remains in effect until February 2058, by which time Ares Macrotechnology has managed to exterminate most if not all of the bug spirits using an Awakened bacteria called Strain III (see Threats and Target: UCAS).
The anonymous interview describing insect spirit torpor, titled "The Big Bug Sleep" in Bug City (p.63), is almost certainly with Kyle Teller.
About the cover: The cover portrait by Peter Peebles depicts Kyle Teller armed with a Barret Model 121 heavy sniper rifle (the weapon is an exact match for the picture in Fields of Fire, p.35), presumably acquired from the remains of the Knight Errant strike force. The cowboy behind him must be Seeks-the-Moon, though he doesn't come close to the spirit's description on p.31. The scene is probably supposed to be that on p.198, where Kyle and Seeks-the-Moon prepare for their trip north through the newly established Containment Zone in search of Kyle's missing family.
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