[Journal] It's Been a Long but Productive Year 2059-12-16 01:23:50

DV8 The last year has been very busy for me. Not only have I developed myself into a bit of an expert in the field of surveillance and observation, I have also started to find my way through financial records, following the money from suspected shadowrunners and the people that hire them. I've managed to make more contacts, conduct more interviews, do more research and find more evidence. I've even gotten some people to help me out - people who are as desperate as I am to find out more about what happened to them, about what these shadowrunners did to them. We all realised that these people are agents, guns for hire, mercenaries for the ones that are truly behind our disenfranchisement, but somewhere along the line we got fascinated with these people who hire themselves out to become the company's "bag men." (If you would've asked me two years ago what a bag man was, I wouldn't have been able to say for sure. I've changed.) I've also managed to make some money through this venture, which I've reinvested to get even more information and have more surveillance done. I guess somewhere along the line I realised I couldn't do this all by myself. I still strive to be knowledgeable about every piece of information we gather and collate, but if we want to move forward, if we want this database to grow - and my internal entrepreneur certainly wants to see that happen - I have to delegate and accept that certain things are out of my hand. I'm in danger of becoming a Jack of all Trades and a Master of None if I demand I know every detail of our operation to the fullest, and pretty soon I'll become the man that holds all of this back. It's been more than a year since we had any real updates here, but I can assure you that we have been making progress by leaps and bounds. We've got a lot of information that we need to format in such a way that we can put it out there. Lots of links that we need to verify before we make them public. I still need to proofread many of the transcripts of the interviews we've been conducting, and I'm certain that in the coming few weeks we'll back-date a lot of information that we've gathered and upload it here. In the meantime, our current investigation has unearthed another series of shocking revelations, ranging from bribery, corruption, extortion, kidnapping and murder. We were witness to a running gun battle between the shadow operatives we've been tracking for over a year now and a particular gang operating out of a factory in Redmond. If you're even half-way informed, you'll be able to figure out which gang we're talking about, so if you're interested in what went down there, stay tuned, because not only do we have eye witness accounts, we've also got some other titbits of information. As a teaser, I added the image attached to this post, which should give you a good impression of what kind of material was used in this gun battle. I'm sure that if you were around early Monday morning and looked east, you could clearly see the tracer rounds belching out of the top-mounted machine gun in the dark skies above Redmond.

[News] Richard Villiers Resigns 2058-09-30 21:35:14

DV8 BOSTON - In an unprecedented move Fuchi CEO Richard Villiers sold what amounts to 14% of the currently outstanding Fuchi stock, out of his private stock portfolio on the open market earlier this week. This started the bidding war between other factions within Fuchi, trying to pick up enough shares to secure a majority vote within the company, driving the price of the stock sky-high. Last Wednesday the price of a single share of Fuchi stock had gone up 43% compared to the opening price on Monday morning. But the turmoil was not about to end there. On late Thursday afternoon, when the stock had skyrocketed to an unprecedented 51% of Monday morning opening, Richard Villiers sold the rest of his remaining stock, another 20% of the total outstanding amount and resigned as company CEO. Several watchdog entities, like the UCAS Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nippon Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) are investigating whether or not the sale of Fuchi stock abided by international rules and regulations and that there was no case of fraud. In particular Villiers' decision to sell his stock on the open market rather than directly to the company has raised a lot of eyebrows because of the massive spike in price, sending the stockmarket into a turmoil. The world was anxious to hear what the iconic corporate shark was going to do next and the answer came today, when a press release stated Villiers' intention to take the reigns at the newly formed Novatech, taking over the top position from estranged friend and business partner Miles Lanier who took up the position of CEO several weeks ago. "I am looking forward to my time at Novatech. Having had the privilege of leading one of the world's most successful and prestigious companies for so long, I am eager to take on a new challenge and capitalize on new opportunities, to learn and to develop myself, and to build new relationships while still valuing and nourishing old ones." Fuchi, at this time, has not issued any formal statements about Richard Villiers' departure.

[News] Search for Body of Corporate Court Justice Ended 2058-09-19 22:46:11

DV8 SEATTLE - The search for the body of Fuchi appointed Corporate Court justice David Hague has been ended as of today, Fuchi representatives stated in a joint press conference with Mr. Hague's family and Seattle law-enforcement contractor Lone Star Security Services. A large scale search for the prominent corporate justice was put underway after the semi-ballistic sub-orbital aircraft crashed deep into the Redmond district of the Seattle Metroplex on September 13th, killing all passengers as well as close to a hundred people at the site of the crash. Fires raged out of control for over 24 hours and social unrest heated up as Lone Star and other disaster response agencies rushed to the scene of the crash. Due to a lack of maintained infrastructure in the district chaos ensued and it took hours before agencies started cooperating under the leadership of the metroplex guard out of Ft. Lewis. The FAA meticulously removed each recovered part of the aircraft while bodies were being salvaged from the wreckage. No official statement has been made by the FAA as to the cause of the crash, but authorities are not ruling out a possible terrorist attack. After 48 hours several bodies were still not accounted for and DNA testing was done on the salvaged bodies that were presumed to be Redmond residents. Mr. Hague's body, as well as that of 23 year old Seattle native Esmeralda dela Huerta were still missing and a large scale search was started both in Japan, were the craft took off, as well as in Redmond, but to no avail. It is possible the bodies might never be recovered.

[News] Flight Crashes in Redmond Killing Hundreds 2058-09-13 15:00:06

DV8 CNN Reports Reports have come in that the sub-orbital flight that overshot Seattle/Tacoma international airport and crashed in Redmond was in fact Flight 1118 travelling from Tokyo, Japan, scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 10:35 am, Pacific Daylight Time. Including personnel, the aircraft was carrying 153 people and while rescue and disaster response efforts are being organised, the first images we're getting from automated camera drones suggest the casualty rate might be very high. The casualties are not just among the passengers and crew of flight 1118, but also among many of the Redmond residents as the meteoric crash of the aircraft caused an escalating chain of fires that spread over just over an eight square mile area. Redmond has long since been an underdeveloped area of the Seattle Metroplex due to the district's inability to financially recover after the Crash of '29 which hit the district's technology industry especially hard. As a result, crime-rate has gone up 1400% and the Metroplex couldn't secure a deal with Lone Star Security Services for law enforcement in many areas of the poverty stricken district. Similarly, it became hard to find contractors who would maintain basic infrastructure, like reliable roads, gridlink, water and electricity, which means that the disaster response task today is all the harder. It isn't clear what caused the aircraft to slingshot past the airport; inquiries at the address of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were not immediately returned. For the uninitiated, semi-ballistic, suborbital flights are flights in an aircraft much like an aeroplane, with a few notable difference. First of all, the craft travels at much higher altitudes, sometimes up to 500 kilometers above sea-level and clears the upper atmosphere and escapes the strong gravitational pull of Earth. Due to its elliptical trajectory and almost free-fall reentry speeds a trip from Tokyo to Seattle, which would normally take around 11 hours, can now be undertaken at only 80 minutes, and that at a relatively low cost. The fuel costs for the initial boost into space is the most expensive part of the trip but once the craft escapes the most of Earth's gravitational pull and no longer has to work as hard to keep the craft airborne, the fuel consumption drops to a minimum. Semi-ballistic, suborbital flights have only been economically viable in the last 32 years and is considered a fast and safe way to travel by all major aeronautic and aviation administration and investigation bodies. Possible reasons for this unfortunate incident could be technical failure, terrorist attack or even an attack from from a foreign power. Currently we've got reporters en route to the crash site and we'll have more information to report shortly. KSTD I've been watching the footage coming in from the Redmond crash site, coming in from news drones with growing frustration. They show so much interesting elements that are ripe for investigation, and yet these bots are programmed to catch either a wide variety of elements, later to be cut and edited or shelfed as stock footage, or catch the most dramatic and juicy details of an incident. Sadly, these dog-brains are too stupid to realise when they've stumbled upon something of real interest and we sit here waiting with our thumbs up our asses until a real reporter with some fire in his guts arrives and dares to zoom in on the real scoop. I've compiled all the footage I could, and there's more coming in every second, and everything about this points towards our two favourite megacorporate sluggers are once again duking it out at our expense. Here. You can clearly see several DocWagon high threat response teams closing in on the crash site, which has already been set upon by the vultures that live around that area of Redmond. You can see them move in, two teams, both homing in on different sections of the craft. One goes for the front end of the craft, and another team goes for the aft section of the craft about two kilometers to the west. You can see here that the sky is already buzzing with newsdrones. But there's more. Fast forward two minutes twenty-three seconds and pause. Here you can see, clearly, a UCAS military helicopter, designation H749910. A source within the Flight Services Station (FSS) of SEA-TAC airport tells me that this helicopter flew out from Ft. Lewis toward the Renraku Arcology and from there flew to the crash site. The take off from Ft. Lewis took place 13 minutes after the crash, and the take off from the Renraku Arcology followed 22 minutes after the crash. I found some footage of upper flight deck 7 at the Arc, it's an eleven second piece of footage of the people getting into the helicopter and taking off. They don't look like UCAS military to me. The UCAS military helicopter circles the crash site and sets down and gets involved in a running firefight with the DocWagon crew as they, too are looking to retrieve something from the front end of the downed craft. Several individuals from both teams enter the craft from opposite ends, but only one group comes out carrying...something. A body? A bag? A bodybag? Who knows. In the meantime more fighting is happening on the ground between a gunman on a motorcycle and a group of individuals in a military grade Ares Mobmaster. Whether this is related or not is unclear to me. What is clear to me, is there's footage of...roll 2-19, Jimmy. Here, you can see another helicopter, this time a private helicopter coming from the east, likely from NAN territory, move in and remain stationary for a long while. As the UCAS military helicopter departs and we lose track of them, the private gunship departs, in pursuit. We since revealed that the private gunship was a Renraku craft. Renraku's issued a statement that one of their crafts was nearby and wanted to see if they could help in the rescue efforts. What a load of bullshit. Because here's the kicker; what most of you don't understand is that this flight was carrying a very important individual; justice David Hague, Fuchi representative to the Corporate Court, who was coming to Seattle on Fuchi business. We all know that Fuchi and Renraku have been at each other's throat for the last few months, battling both in court, on the market, as well as in the street and in the field. It seems rather self-evident to me that there were two Renraku aircrafts in the area as a result of a very suspicious "accident," and one of these makes it very hard to not conclude that Renraku was working in collusion with the UCAS military! More as news comes in.

[Journal] Patterns Easier and Easier to Recognise 2058-09-07 23:53:28

DV8 The group that I've been following broke up about two months ago and went their separate ways. In accordance with my assumptions that this violent and turbulent lifestyle doesn't allow a shadowrunner a lot of friends or friendly relationships, it seemed that the alliance that kept this group together was a tenuous one at best. At the time I wasn't sure whether that would be the last time I'd ever lay my eyes on them, but I decided to try and keep track of them anyway. That turned out to be easier with some and harder with others, but it gave me new insight into their behavior and their patterns. The girl, Catastrophe was nearly impossible to track. She seems to be part of an almost tribal culture of squatters, nomadic and hedonistic in lifestyle, moving around from abandoned tenement to abandoned tenement, making their home where ever they can. A recurring place she visits is Phoame a rather rough nightclub in lower Tacoma. Just as I had made a note of that in the file that I've been keeping on her, thinking it would be a good way to find her again if she were to ever drop out of sight, she dropped out of sight and I wasn't able to pick up her trail again. One of the men Catastrophe dealt with was a man called Mase, a man so obviously beset on all sides by his personal demons that it makes one wonder what redeeming qualities he has that makes another want to work with him. His vices turned out to be the reason why it was easy to keep track of him. Gambling, drinking and fornicating became his staple diet, one he hardly ever deviated from. While there was a particularly morbid facination that arose in me watching this man single-handedly destroy himself, I felt like it was a pattern that wasn't going to change much and which was easily extrapolated and predicted, so I decided to focus my time on others. The nominal leader of the group remained the elderly Bennett, who was the only one who seemed to continue conducting business. It's obvious that this man has business on both sides of the law and that he's very well connected. He also seems very keen, since he's the one that usually manages to pick up my tail rather quickly, yet even though he knows that I am keeping an eye on him, he seems to do very little about it. It makes me think that he knows there's a set of eyes on him at any one point, and that he thinks I'm just one of the many who's keeping track of him. Two others, whose names I've only recently been able to establish are Hammer and Trowe. I lost Trowe pretty early on, since he moved to Council Island, had some business there for a few hours, and then took the state route 18 out into the Native American Nations. This tells me several things; this big troll is most likely a citizen of the NAN, and still has his SIN, which I might be able to uncover. When he left the sprawl I thought it senseless to wait around to see if he'd come back, and given my own grey legal status I didn't think it'd be a good idea to try and cross the border to follow him. Hammer drove to Bellevue and booked himself a luxurious room at a hotel where he stayed almost exclusively the next two months. He had some company, mostly women, but also a man who I had been able to follow. I identified him as a rather well known underworld tutor in thaumaturgy, Mojo Flux. He also seems to do "security" work, whatever that means. I suspect that he might also be a shadowrunner, but I haven't been able to verify that yet. I also kept an eye out at Matchstick's, the venue that this group has frequently used to meet up and I assume conduct business at. My patience paid off in the end because tonight I saw them (and others who I haven't identified yet) converge there. It's good to see that even though these people are as paranoid as they come, know that secrecy and subversiveness is a trait that will most likely allow them to live a longer life, are still prone to behavioral patterns that are predictable. It just takes a little longer trying to figure theirs out, is all. I don't know what they discussed, or why they came together at Matchstick's, but I'll continue my research and collate as much of their movement and actions as possible until the pattern emerges.

[News] Wuxing Incorporated Achieves AAA Status 2058-08-09 20:16:00

DV8 ZURICH - In a surprising move in corporate politics, Wuxing Incorporated was awarded the seat on the Corporate Court left vacant by the recent death of corporate justice Hiroyuki Akiyama, vaulting it the elite AAA status. It was widely believed that Fuchi, who, as second largest megacorporation in the world after Saeder-Krupp, has always enjoyed a second seat on the Corporate Court, giving it significant clout in intra-corporate political matters, would once again fill the vacant seat with one of their justices, but the appointment went towards the asian powerhouse Li Feng, who, together with Wu Lung-Wei were the masterminds behind the Pacific Prosperity Group (PPG), a powerful east Asian cooperation of companies similar in structure to a zaibatsu (only without the backing of a single, large bank.) When the vote was put before the court, the justices were evenly split, six voted for a new Fuchi justice and six for the the Wuxing justice, with Saeder-Krupp representative, justice Jean-Claude Priault ending the stale-mate with his deciding vote to allow Wuxing to become a AAA megacorporation. It is believed that Wuxing, who received 200 million nuyen from the estate of the late Dunkelzahn, used that money to lobby their way onto the court. For the first time in over a decade the make up of the court has shifted and the voices of many AA corporations who claimed that the Big Eight (Ares Macrotechnology, Saeder-Krupp, Fuchi Industrial Electronics, Yamatetsu, Mitsuhama Computer Technologies, Renraku Computer Systems, Aztechnology, Shiawase) have long since made it impossible for any AA company to elevate themselves to AAA status. Now it seems that has proven to be false, it wasn't impossible, it just took 200 million nuyen in grease money. Wuxing is a relatively small megacorporation, but due to their clout within the large PPG it's considered worthy of the seat on the Corporate Court. It's a major hit to Fuchi's political clout, which they could've used in this time of friction between them and Renraku.

[News] Fuchi Corporate Justice Found Dead 2058-08-06 04:24:18

DV8 SAITAMA - Justice Hiroyuki Akiyama, one of the two representatives to the Corporate Court for Fuchi Industrial Electronics, was found dead at his home in Saitama, Japan, just outside of Tokyo late yesterday evening. Rumours began to emerge as the Zurich-Orbital habitat where the Corporate Court makes its home recalled all justices and went into emergency session, breaking all communications with Earth. It was noted that justice Akiyama did not depart for the base and inside sources told of a grave illness. Akiyama, a relatively young man by court justice standards who engaged in regular hiking and rock climbing trips with his family wheneer he was off-base, was considered to be a promising young lawyer when he was first appointed in 2056. Fuchi insiders leaked insiders about his death while the court was in session and two hours later justice David Hague, senior justice for Fuchi Industrial Electronics released a joint statement for Fuchi and the Corporate Court. "We regret to inform the world about the passing of our valued colleague and friend Mr. Hiroyuki Akiyama, who died late last night at his home in Saitama. The exact reason for his premature death is still unknown to us, and conclusions will have to wait until an autopsy has been performed. We request that any speculation regarding Mr. Akiyama's death be kept to a minimum and that you respect the privacy of Mr. Akiyama's loved ones while they go through this sad and trying times." In the meantime, more and more rumours of Akiyama's suicide are circulating on the Matrix. Tons of holopictures have been dug up claiming to be shots of Akiyama's body, but most, if not all have already been exposed as doctored. A trideo recording has also surfaced, supposedly taken by the Habitat Assistant Legend (HAL) of Akiyama's home. It depicts Akiyama climbing into disappearing into a bathroom, locking the door and staying in there for 17 minutes before stumbling out, covered in blood from an arterial wound in his neck and dying in the hallway from blood loss. It's unsure what happened during those 17 minutes because there is no HAL coverage in the bathroom, neither are we sure if it's even Akiyama.

[News] Miles Lanier CEO of Startup Novatech 2058-08-02 18:07:55

DV8 BOSTON - Today, Novatech announced that its board of directors has named Miles Lanier to serve as the company's chief executive officer and president. Miles Lanier has been a corporate figure-head for over two decades now, having served on the board of directors of Renraku, as well as being a long-time head of security at Fuchi Industrial Electronics, which helped build to become a global leader in electronics and matrixware design and services. Patricia Dunn, Novatech's non-executive chairman, said that the Novatech board unanimously selected Lanier based on his track record leading a complex organizations, as well as his strong executive and personal qualities. "Our search for a new leader to help Novatech to grow to success has been focused and thorough," said Dunn. "A screening team of board members, consisting of myself, Jay Keyworth and Tom Perkins, established a broad field of candidates and interviewed many individuals. We then recommended the strongest contenders to the board as finalists. Each was interviewed by the entire board, and Miles was our top choice. "Miles came to our attention because of his strong execution skills, his proven ability to lead top performing teams and his track record in driving shareholder value. He demonstrated these skills by being a driving force behind Fuchi, which, while much larger than Novatech, is a complex organization with multiple business segments, which we strive to emulate. As we got to know Miles, we were impressed by his emphasis on developing internal talent while reaching outside for new skills, his understanding of the role of culture in a company's success and his personal integrity. Additionally, his straightforward style has won the respect of employees, customers and investors," continued Dunn. Lanier said, "Novatech is one of the world's great companies, with a short but proud history of innovation, outstanding talent and enviable positions in many of its product lines and services. It's a great honor to join its leadership team and have the opportunity to exploit its tremendous potential and build on its previous success."

[Journal] Renraku-Fuchi Corporate War Heating Up 2058-07-30 17:56:36

DV8 Having made some solid contacts in the Seattle shadows, I keep hearing about the subversive corporate war being waged between Fuchi and Renraku. It's a subtle one that normal people probably wouldn't notice, but if you know how to read between the lines and look at the daily news in a particular way, you start to pick it up. And once you spot some of it, you start to spot it all. This is the reason I opened up a new section on the website, naming it "news." Rather, I added a new news section and I renamed the old news section to "journal" because it really is just a personal journal in which I chronicle my exploration into this unknown, shadowy underworld. As a place to collect my thoughts, but also for prosterity, and in the event that something might go wrong, that someone, somewhere might retrace my steps to figure out what happened to me. I digress. The new news section will feature some of the articles that I've found in the daily news that I feel is of interest to anyone who is looking to find traces of the shadowy corporate dealings and machinations that determine, in large, what our world looks like. As I said before, once you spot the lie, you start to spot it all, so expect quite a few postings the coming few weeks as Renraku and Fuchi continue to wage their, sometimes bloody, war.

[News] Miles Lanier Forced to Sell Renraku Stock 2058-07-23 17:32:10

DV8 ZURICH - The infamous Miles Lanier, long time head of security at Fuchi Industrial Electronics and the "lucky" recipient of four million shares of Renraku stock, left to him in Dunkelzahn's last will and testament, was ordere to sell the stock to the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaftsbank (ZOGB). He was cleared of allegations of corporate espionage, interestingly brought against him by both Fuchi as well as Renraku, but it was deemed that in order to avoid further conflict it would be in everyone's best interest that he part with his Renraku stock and step down from the board of directors. ZOGB bought the stock at ninety-five cents on the nuyen and will keep them until further notice, at the same time waiving the right to voice or excercise their control over the stock. The allegations from Fuchi came in the first six months following Lanier's departure from Fuchi and taking up a seat on Renraku's board. Renraku began to close the gap in market share of industrial firmware and consumer electronics, especially their Matrixware division began releasing designs that, while the Corporate Court deemed them dissimilar enough to not warrant a conviction, resembled Fuchi's work enough to arouse suspicion. When Lanier was asked about the ruling, his lawyer, Benjamin Epstein, informed us that everyone present during the proceedings were under a gag-order from the Corporate Court and as such were not at liberty to discuss the case. Lanier did reveal that while he will enjoy a few weeks of vacation, he is currently negotiating with a small startup company for its CEO position. It seems less and less likely that the Villiers/Lanier golden duo will get back together any time soon, much to the dismay of investors since betting on a sure thing is always sound business strategy.

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