Bad Cal-Hots On the Streets: Do Not Die
March 19, 2057

Some roto-cock has smuggled up a bad batch of Cal-Hots. For you non-beetleheads in need of a slang-teacher, Cal-Hots are simsense chips with the sense and emotive tracks spiked juuust into the BTL range. Their addictive and bad for you, but not nearly so much as strait BTLs. They're legal California Free-State, where they're made, but just as taboo as hardcore beetles here in the enlightened UCAS. Smugglers have been running them into the 'plex for years, but recently, folks are just dropping dead.

Consider yourselves warned, shadowtypes. Seems all the geeked chip-heads got their wares from some Yak linked gangs in Redmond, but these things are all over Seattle at this point. If you're going to chip the midrail this weekend, pass up on any Cal-Hots. You might want to check on your street contacts as well.

Shadow Retrospective:
March 15, 2057

I know: holy dreck. The Big D just threw his massive dragon-sized hat into the ring. If the revisited election wasn't enough to make 2057 look to be a crazy year, this definitely kicks the year into gear. Since this is obviously an auspicious occasion, and I'm feeling a little nostalgic, I've decided to post a brief time-line of shadow events over the last twenty years or so. Pick through it and decide for yourselves if the apocalypse is on us.

• Denver Data Haven
  • Emotive simsense. Hello, BTL!
  • Denver Data Haven shows up in the shadows. (Physical location: the old USAF Academy in Colorado Springs).
  • DocWagon founded.
  • Lofwyr announces 63% ownership of Saeder-Krupp, votes himself chairman of the board, president, and CEO.
  • Guerilla warfare in northern California pushes Tir Tairngire back north as far as Yreka. The territory between Redding and Yreka becomes neutral ground, claimed by both sides.
  • Wolves and bears are restored to the Scottish Wild Lands.
  • First North American Urban Brawl championship, "Super Brawl".
• 2039: Night of Rage
  • Feb 7: Thousands of metas, friends & family, and wannabes die in global riots. New York City: 836 dead. Seattle: "Hands of Five" terrorist group firebombs the metahuman detention centier on the Tacoma docks.
  • Feb 10: Alamos 20k destroys the Sears Tower in Chicago.
  • St. Patricks Day: Boston, Knights of the Red Branch bomb an elven restaurant on the parade route, killing 24 and inciting a race riot that claimed hundreds more.
  • Nadja Daviar becomes the Big D's third interpreter.
  • Charleston, SC: Serial killer caught and convicted on evidence obtained from a ghost.
  • Fuchi sponsors the Universal Matrix Specifications (UMS) conference, Tokyo.
  • A massive chemical spill kills 70,000 people in Teeside, England.
• 2040: Azania
  • Southern Africa unites into Azanian Alliance, composed of the Cape Republic, Oranje-Vrystaat, Trans-Swazi Federation, and Zulu Nation.
  • Renraku Arcology in Seattle begins construction.
  • The Universal Brotherhood opens shop (CFS in '42, Seattle in '45).

Corporate Mess (2041-2050)

• 2041: EuroAir Flight 329 from London to Atlanta destroyed by Sirrurg
  • Policlubs appear in Europe.
  • Yamatetsu makes its bid for prime megorporate status, sparking light corporate war.
• 2042: Dunkelzahn begins semi-annual "Wyrm Talk".
  • Akira Watada, oyabun of the Watada-rengo, issues an ultimatum to the Korean oyabuns of Seattle. They must pledge their loyalty to the Watada rengo or suffer the consequences.
  • Liam O'Connor (President of Tir na nOg) disappears from public life.
  • First biannual international Urban Brawl World Cup
  • In the Papal States, Italian Confederation, Pope John XXV declares that women may now be appointed priests in the Catholic Church. (Shadows of Europe)
  • Yamatetsu elbows its way into the Big Seven, becoming the Eighth major megacorp.
• 2043: Seoulpa Rings
  • Jan: Watada-rengo assassins invade Seattle and kill the vast majority of the Seattle Yakuza. Yakuza's Korean leadership. The survivors are forced to pledge loyalty to the Japanese rengo or be executed. New Japanese managers are put in place, and within a few weeks the Japanese Yakuza once again control the
  • Former Korean Yakuza oyabun Park Jai Kyu begins organizing the Seoulpa Rings in Seattle with the help of his remaining contacts and followers. The concept catches fire and begins to spread through the metroplex and the rest of North America.
  • Rhiannon Glendower becomes Countess of Snowdon.
  • Gwynedd elves make major advances in Welsh regional parliament.
  • The Netherlands and Flanders merge and form the United Netherlands.
• 2044: The oyabun
  • Hanzo Shotozumi is appointed the oyabun of the 87th Prefecture in Seattle. He re-institutes and enforces traditional Yakuza ways and values, and begins an aggressive campaign to expand Yakuza operations in the Pacific Northwest.
• 2045: German Alliance founded.
  • Don Patrick Finnigan is failing to hold the line against Yakuza encroachment in the Seattle metroplex, and so the Commissione calls Don James O'Malley out of enforced retirement to resume control of Seattle operations. O'Malley is appointed Don of Seattle specifically to slow Yakuza growth in the metroplex. He, his wife, and his 15-year-old daughter Rowena move to Seattle.
  • The Seoulpa Rings start making a name for themselves in the Seattle underworld as their operations expand; they begin to encroach on the markets of the other syndicates.
  • 2045-2047: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua are accepted into the Aztlaner republic.
• 2046: the Lost Election
  • A team of rogue deckers erases the results of California's gubernatorial election, allegedly aided by a Los Angeles street gang. The so-called Lost Election prompts the government to declare ware on the "criminal element" in Los Angeles, sending army and corporate mercenary troops to raze El Infierno. After fighting a losing battle, California's central government declares Los Angeles a Free City.
  • Para-VITAS outbreak in Tynesprawl (England) kills 120,000. Believed to be the work of unidentified eco-terrorists.
• 2048: Operation Reciprocity
  • Panama admitted into Aztlan.
  • Aztlan (Aztechnology) nationalizes all foreign businesses. Corporate Court authorizes a joint corporate military strike, "Operation Reciprocity", against Aztechnology.
  • Veracruz Settlement: Aztechnology pays reparations.
  • Panama canal becomes a Pan-Corporate Zone under the Corporate Court.
  • Colbert Group CEO Alan Adams is elected president of the UCAS.
• 2049: Renraku develops first Semi-Autonomous Knowbot (SK).
  • Aztlan and Amazonia squabble over Colombia and Venezuela.
• 2050: Seventh-gen cyberdeck (keyboard size).

Welcome To Our World (2051-2060)

• 2052: Technology curve
  • 2XS, BTL with a kick.
  • Bioware hits the public market.
  • Seattle-Tir Tairngire trade agreement, by which Seattle becomes Tir Tairngire's major port.
  • UCAS Pres Adams died after re-election, VP Thomas Steele takes the Big Chair.
• 2053: A new Great Dragon.
  • Hestaby takes possession of Shasta Dam and surrounding territory in Northern California, repelling a Tir Tairngire attack.
  • Publication of Anchoring theorems.
  • Proteus corp completes two arkoblocks (offshore Arcologies) in Japan.
• 2054: Atlantis
  • tentative discovery of Atlantis (Thera) 150 miles off Crete.
  • Tir Tairngire locks down Crater Lake.
• 2055: The UB (Universal Brotherhood)
  • Acting on 'tips' from Ares, the UCAS FBI discovers that insect spirits control the UBUB is completely shut down by '56. Ares assists in destructive raids against local hives, which are reported as widespread incidents of "unmotivated terrorist violence" against the Universal Brotherhood. and shut it down, but without making the reasons public. Cover story of financial corruption. Other nations take similar steps, and the
  • Aug 22: A Knight Errant Firewatch team attack what may be the largest insect hive in North America. It does not have the anticipated effect. A swarm of bug spirits spills out of the hive to infest the city of Chicago.
  • Aug 23: The UCAS government sets up the Chicago Containment Zone, isolating most of the population of Chicago behind UCAS Army barricades. Those trapped include the Chicago Mafia, as well as the Chicago branches of the other major syndicates. The Mafia loses contact with the Don of Chicago and the Commissione believes him dead. It transfers control of Chicago operations to Don Leo McCaskill of Milwaukee, a former lieutenant of James O'Malley.
  • Chicago Containment Zone is explained to the public as securing against a virulent outbreak of VITAS.
  • Early October: The remains of the Knight Errant Firewatch team inside the Chicago Containment Zone detonate a subtactical thermonuclear warhead inside the new core hive. The blast and radiation effects are much lower than expected, but knock virtually all the insect spirits in Chicago into torpor.
• 2056: Year of the Bug (Bug City)
  • Late December 2055-January 2056: The truth about the Chicago Containment Zone is disseminated to the public at large via Shadowland, the Denver Data Haven, etc. via the Bug City download. The UCAS government can no longer sustain its coverup of the Zone, and the world knows that insect spirits and totems are, indeed, real.
  • The UCAS Congress formally recognizes the great dragon Dunkelzahn as a legal citizen of the UCAS. Famous "handshake" between Dunkelzahn and President Thomas Steele sends the Technocrat ticket to the top of the polls.
  • Nov: President Thomas Steele and Vice Pres James Booth overwhelmingly re- elected to office in "the dullest election of the 21st century".
  • Dec-Jan: UCAS Election results of 2056 are found to be rigged; House Speaker Betty Jo Pritchard declares the election null and void and announces new elections. Congress approves short campaign season of under eight months, with Election Day re-scheduled to Tuesday, 7 Aug 2057.
• 2057: Year of the Dragon
  • Mar 15: Dunkelzahn announces his intention to run for President on a historic broadcast of "Wyrm Talk!"

Job Opportunities in the Wonderful World of Politics!
March 11, 2057
Hoi Chummers, just a quick update on the political situation as the 2057 campaigning starts. With all of the parties having chosen candidates, things are about to get very busy in the shadow community. Campaigning starts on the East Coast, and word is that Boston has already seen some nasty political runs. The Federal District of Columbia, word has it, is ready to explode with shadow ops, mostly in and around Georgetown (gotta love ol' Roz Hernandez and her magocracy files). Of course, with Seattle being home of both Kenneth Brackhaven, the Archcon magnate, as well as the home of Hawkshorne Chemical, the first major victim of Dem candidate Arthur "Green Machine" Vogel, things are likely to get nasty here very soon.
Get ready for some serious dirt searching, photo-surveillance, adviser extractions, campaign plan datasteals, and let us not forget, political wetwork. I understand that elements in both Tir Tairngire and the SSC are more than a little worried about General Yeats and his "Reunification" agenda, so any Amerind or elven Johnsons you meet in the coming weeks should be giving you interesting work.
As always, keep your meat safe and always double-check your information.

-CC out