Its the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine.) A
Timeline for Shadowrun. Compiled by John Maniha
Late 1990s: -Civil unrest intensifies worldwide. In response to
the seemingly indifferent or incompetent governments,
corporations begin to take matters into their own hands.
Beginning with third world holdings, corporations arm their
security personnel with the finest military equipment available.
Professional mercenaries are hired on both short and long-term
contracts. These new paramilitary assets are transferred to
anywhere that civil violence threatens corporate holdings.
1992: -Jeffery Lynch is elected President of the United States.
In his inaugural address, he refers to his landslide victory "as
a mandate to cure the ills of the nation and bring a new vitality
to America." Seeing how easily the voters accept Lynch, Congress
quickly falls into step behind his programs.
-In Great Britain, A major riot breaks out in South London.
1993: -The first of the Supreme Court justices appointed during
the Burger court leaves office.
-The Handicappers of America (HA) begins its campaign to
protest the abundance of handicapped parking spaces in the U.S.
1994: -Chief Justice Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court retires for
health reasons. He is succeeded by Terence Ordell, an outspoken
conservative law professor from the East Coast.
1996: -The Summer Olympics are showcased in Atlanta, Georgia.
-In Quebec, separatist advocates are finally elected into
government positions.
-The Mohawk indian tribe begins to kill off the criminal
element in its tribal government in order to properly pursue
their land claims.
-U.S. President Lynch begins a massive program of
deregulation. Beginning with the sale of the U.S. Postal service
to various private messenger services, Lynch approves the sales
of the U.S. Weather Service, Forest Service, Amtrak, and a half-
dozen other public services.
1997: -The Shiawase corporation opens a new metallurgical
engineering plant. The plant draws huge amounts of power from
the regional utility grid. The government-run grid raises its
rates for high-load commercial customers, increasing Shiawase's
energy costs by more than 550 percent. in less than six months.
1998: -By this year the United States defense establishment has
been cut by almost 40%, with even bigger cuts in procurement and
R&D for new weapons systems.
-The Shiawase corporation approaches the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and demands the right to set up a nuclear plant. This
would make the Shiawase corporation independent of the regional
utility grid, saving it untold millions. The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission refuses Shiawase's request. As a result, Shiawase takes
the case to the Supreme Court.
-The Perfluoro-4-methyl-octahydroquinalidine (P4MO)
artificial blood replacement is created.
-By this year three members of the U.S. Supreme Court
appointed during the Burger court have either died or retired.
-In Great Britain, riots break out in South London.
-The Teamsters' New York Local initiates strikes that last
into the next year. The Teamsters fail to realize that the state
of New York do not have the money to meet their salary demands.
-The import of all firearms is banned in the United States.
-In the U.S., police stop writing speeding citations except
during "reckless conditions."
-A group calling itself the Turnflashers begins a campaign to
advocate the use of turn signals on cars by shooting vehicles that
don't use them with paint pellets.
1999: The Teamsters' leadership, realizing that the city of New
York cannot meet their demands, urges the rank-and file members to
accept the state's final contract offer. The truckers reject the
contract and the strikes continue.
-In response to the strike, which halts the flow of fresh
foods, A massive riot erupts in New York City. Hundreds are killed
and thousands are wounded in the ensuing violence hundreds are
killed and thousands are wounded.
-During the New York Riot, a Seretech Medical Research truck
hauling medical wastes, some of which is infectious, is attacked by
a mob. The mob believes that, since the truck is refrigerated, it
must be a food transport. The mob tries to overturn the truck and
get its contents. In what becomes a running gunfight, Seretech
security comes to the aid of the corporate truckers, withdrawing
them to one of the firm's medical research facilities. The enraged
crowd storms the building and Seretech security fights back. By
dawn, 20 Seretech employees and 200 rioters are dead.
-In an attempt to end the assembling of corporate armies, the
city of New York, followed by the state and federal governments
sues Seretech Medical Research for criminal negligence. Seretech
maintains that in defending their truck, they prevented its
potentially lethal cargo from infecting the population at large.
-In a landmark 193-page decision (The United States vs.
Seretech Corporation (1999)), the Supreme Court upholds Seretech's
right to maintain an armed force to protect its own personnel and
property. Furthermore, the Supreme Court commends the corporation
for protecting innocent citizens and honoring its duty to dispose
of the infectious materials safely.
-The Mohawk Indian Tribe in Canada declare land in dispute
between them and the Canadian government to be Mohawk territory.
They support this claim by blockading roads into their reservation
around Oka, Kahnawake, and Kanesatake in Quebec. They declare
themselves the Sovereign Mohawk Nation.
-After a four-week standoff with the Mohawks, the Canadian
infantry attacks the reservation. Canadian casualties are very
high. Although the Mohawk position is weakened after two assaults,
they still hold one well-fortified position in Kahnawake.
-The Canadian forces offer safe-conduct to all non-combatant
Mohawks. The offer is ignored.
-On October 3, at local dawn, a perfect time-on-target salvo
of Cataphract wire-guided missiles hit the Kahnawake fortification.
Mechanized army, an armored platoon, and several air cav units move
in. The fighting is over by noon and the Sovereign Mohawk Nation
is wiped out.
-The Dene indian tribe of Canada is violently forced off its
tribal land to make room for natural gas pipelines.
2000: -On January 1, Quebec declares itself independent from the
rest of Canada.
-On January 2, a referendum is held in Australia concerning
turning the country into a republic and changing the flag. Both
movements fail.
-The United States Supreme Court upholds several important
government challenges to corporate autonomy.
-Renovation begins on the Foran Bridge in San Francisco,
California.
-The United States Supreme Court rules the case of The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Shiawase Corporation in favor of
Shiawase and allows them to build their own nuclear power plant.
-The Shiawase corporation builds its reactor and brings it on
line. They immediately declare themselves independent of the
regional utility grid.
-Within weeks of its opening, the Shiawase reactor is
attacked by a special assault team sent by the radical eco-
terrorist group TerraFirst!. Armed with military weapons, the
group penetrates the plant's security perimeter and clashes with
Shiawase security forces. The Shiawase security team kills every
member of the TerraFirst! team. They discover that the terrorists
carry enough explosives to crack open the containment building and
reactor vessel spreading nuclear material throughout the
surrounding area.
-The Nuclear Regulatory Commission sues Shiawase for criminal
negligence and reckless endangerment, charging that Shiawase's
inadequate security had failed to prevent the terrorists from
penetrating the plant's outer perimeter. Shiawase counters with
evidence that not only could plant security have taken a force
three times the size of the terrorist group, but that the only
reason that they got as far as they did was due to security force
restrictions enforced by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
-The Texas Rangers begin to evolve from a law enforcement
group into a more military organization.
-Acura Motors releases the Acura Demon. This car is the
fastest production car built in the year 2000.
2001: -Due to the precedent set by The United States vs. Seretech
Corporation (1999), the second Shiawase Decision (The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission vs. The Shiawase Corporation) rules in favor
of the Shiawase corporation. It also firmly establishes the
extraterritoriality of multinational corporations in international
law by giving them the same rights and privileges as foreign
governments.
-Martin Hunt is inaugurated as President of the United
States.
-The U.S. government starts a movement to confiscate all
handguns currently owned by any citizens not employed as police or
security agents. Resistance against this movement is high.
-P4MO is deemed safe for use by the FDA.
-The Athabascan Tar Sands oil extraction project is abandoned
as no longer economically feasible.
-Due to the enormous amount of trash in Saint Louis,
Missouri, the Saint Louis police enact the Citizen Trash Patrol
(CTP). Members of the patrol can phone in reports of littering,
and the police will issue the offender a ticket without question.
The Turnflashers upgrade their campaign by using live
ammunition to shoot out the signals of cars that don't use them.
2002: -New technology makes it possible to construct the first
optical chip that is proof against electromagnetic pulse effects.
-The beginning of what the media dubs "the Resource Rush."
corporate coalitions demand and are granted access to oil, mineral,
and land resources on U.S. federal lands. The U.S. government
invokes eminent domain again and again to claim property, only to
license its exploitation to a corporate sponsor. The majority of
lands taken in this fashion are Indian reservations and federal
parklands. Conservationists and Indian-rights groups express their
shock and disgust, though corporate influence and paramilitary
power make it dangerous to object.
-Angry and frustrated over the seizure of their land, more
radical members of the Native American population found the
Sovereign American Indian Movement(SAIM) whose roots trace back to
the Indian-rights struggles of the twentieth century.
-Mitsuhama Computer Technologies opens its office in St. Paul
Minnesota.
-Governor Rudd of Minnesota opens discussion with Native
American tribal leaders of major reservations to prevent
exploitation of the resources of Minnesota.
-Japanese corporations begin pulling out of the Australian
tourism industry, increasing animosity of Australians against
Asians.
2003: -The United States Congress ousts the city government of
Washington D.C. amid charges of widespread corruption and
incompetence.
-The Anglo-Japanese suborbital Ghost is unveiled. This new
plane is capable of flying from London Heathrow International
Airport to Boston in 76 minutes, and London to Tokyo in a few
hours.
-The North American panther is declared extinct.
2004: -Libya unleashes a chemical-weapons attack against Israel.
Israel responds with a nuclear attack that destroys half of Libya's
cities.
-In south London, major riots break out.
-In Great Britain, the first nuclear meltdown at Dungeness in
Kent creates a local irradiated zone. The meltdown kills over
6,000 people including a third of a group of 800 attending a gaming
convention.
-In Tasmania, the Conservationist party is elected into
power. This party's main platform is the protection of the
environment, regardless of the consequences. Their main targets
are corporations who respond by withdrawing from Tasmania.
-In Saint Louis, Missouri, the CTP is repealed. Despite this
act the CTP continue their own method of enforcement: Namely
pouring trash on the lawns or in the cars of known infractors.
2005: -At 7:20 A.M. on August 12, New York City is struck with a
major earthquake that goes 5.8 on the Richter Scale. This results
in over 200,000 deaths and 20 million dollars worth of damage. The
only Manhattan building of any size that does not collapse is the
Empire State Building.
-The East Coast Stock Exchange is moved to Boston and the
United Nations is moved to Geneva.
-Philip Bester is inaugurated as President of the United
States.
-The Public Broadcasting System is disbanded and privatized.
-The Treaty of Bemdji is signed. This treaty between the
state of Minnesota and leading Ojibwa tribal leaders prevents the
exploitation of resources on Ojibwa land.
-In Great Britain, the Conservative Government establishes
regional parliaments in Scotland and Wales.
-In south London, new riots flare up.
-In Tasmania, BHP opens a new Uranium mine in the Kakadu
National Park after convincing the government that there are large
profits to be made from the mine and, therefore, larger taxes.
-By this year, Japan's largest coffin hotel boasts 350
cubicles.
-In Great Britain, the rebuilding of Corfe Castle begins.
-Sakehisa Tajika of Genentech gains a reputation for bringing
massive success to his company.
2006: -Japan asserts its position as a world power by announcing
the creation of the new Japanese Imperial State and deploying the
first of a fleet of solar-powered collection satellites to beam
microwave energy to receptors on the Earth's surface. With this
relatively cheap method of distributing power to isolated regions,
Japan begins to make strong inroads into the Third World.
-The U.S. government, realizing that high-tech weapons
production and exportation is one major portion of the U.S. economy
that the country cannot do without any more, loosens the
import/export restrictions on firearms.
-The first High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT), a plane design
based on the Concord, is flown.
-Texas Instruments successfully sues Miroyama Electric for
gross violation of patents. Although TI has to take the lawsuit
through all levels of the Japanese legal system before finally
forcing the appeal to its highest levels. In a surprise decision,
it is ruled that Miroyama is guilty of the charges. The management
of the company is ordered to turn over its assets to TI. This they
do, then commit seppuku.
2007: -The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review the decision of
Congress to remove the Washington D.C. city government.
2008: -Texas passes a law creating urban militia units, which allow
residents of an area to sign up for limited combat training and
obtain military weaponry with minor restrictions. New laws also
define the right of residents to contract private security firms to
provide armed protection for their communities and homes.
-Four months after Texas authorizes urban militia units,
Minnesota follows their example and passes the "Firearm Education
Law."
-Proto-Feudalism is first recognized in the United States.
-The implementation of an ultra-fast digital packing
algorithm allows high definition television to finally work on
existing U.S. channel bandwidths.
-The Nestle corporation falls apart.
-A meteor impacts with the Mir space platform (recently sold
by the Russians to the Harris-3M corporation) killing two of the
crew outright. The rest die later when Harris-3M fails to launch
a rescue mission. The orbit of the station begins to decay.
-On November 25 Harris-3M, determining that the Mir platform
cannot be saved, place a Fuel-Air Explosive (FAE) on board and
destroys it.
2009: -Jesse Garrety is inaugurated as President of the United
States.
-Charles III is crowned King of Great Britain in Westminster
Abbey.
-Don Victor Marconi of the Washington D.C. Mafia marries the
Daughter of the late Don Howard Torricelli of San Diego,
California. He initiates a campaign to destroy all local Mafia
competition.
-On May 5, United Oil Industries announces that it has
acquired the right to exploit the petrochemical resources in one-
quarter of the remaining federal parks and one-tenth of the
remaining Indian reservations, which the government has just
confiscated.
-In immediate response to the United Oil Industries
announcement a small band of SAIM members enters the U.S. Air
Force's Shiloh Launch Facility in northwest Montana. It is unknown
how the group bypasses the security systems in the facility. Once
inside the silo, the group meets up with USAF Major John Redbourne,
a full-blood Dakota Sioux. Redbourne knocks his partner
unconscious and uses the man's keys and codes to unlock the missile
launch fail-safes. The Shiloh raiders threaten to launch the
facility's missiles unless all Indian land is returned.
-After ten days of negotiations a Delta Team anti-terrorist
group invades the silo. During the struggle, which results in the
death of all the occupying SAIM members, a single Lone Eagle ICBM
carrying four MIRVed five-megaton warheads is launched. The
missile, which is targeted for the Russian Republic, ignores all
auto-destruct signals. The military has no interceptors in
position that can shoot the missile down either.
-Although denying responsibility for the launch, U.S.
President Jesse Garrety informs Russian President Nikolai Chelenko
of the targets of the multiple warheads. Garrety hopes to prevent
a full scale retaliation by giving the Russians enough time to use
semi-secret ballistic defenses to stop the missile.
-Moscow, skeptical of Washington's claims that the launch was
accidental and not an attempt of a surgical strike on Russian
cities, puts their forces on full alert and orders all citizens of
the Commonwealth of Independent States into shelters. The U.S.
public is kept unaware of the situation. President Garrety waits
anxiously and as later revealed in the celebrated "back-room
tapes," alternately weeps, rants, and prays.
-Shortly after being informed of the missile, President
Chelenko tersely informs Garrety that the warheads have been
stopped. A privately conducted stress analysis of Chelenko's voice
later indicated only a 79% probability that he speaks the truth,
but neither seismic nor space-based sensors record any nuclear
explosions.
-When the Lone Eagle incident is revealed to the American
public, the outcry against all Native Americans skyrockets.
Corporate propaganda makes all indians scapegoats for the actions
of SAIM. Anti-indian riots break out nationwide.
-The Re-education and Relocation act is introduced in
response to the growing outcry against Native Americans. This act
calls for confinement of anyone connected in any way with SAIM.
-The U.S. government quietly repeals the laws forbidding
private ownership of firearms to non-security employed citizens.
-The "Battle" of Bagley is fought in Minneapolis, Minnesota
between security and gang forces.
-NASA and United Oil Industries complete a high-speed rail
link between Houston, Oklahoma City, and Dallas/Forth Worth. This
above-ground train, built as a prototype for use in a proposed
lunar colony, is propelled by a frictionless cushion of magnetic
repulsion. It travels great distances at high speed.
-United Oil Industries announces plans to build a
multimillion-dollar convention complex at Eagle Mountain Lake, west
of Fort Worth, Texas.
-Enraged unemployed and homeless workers storm United Oil
Industries' Dallas, Texas headquarters and take control of the
tower. The leaders of the revolt demand that "fascist
corporations" be held accountable for the city of Dallas' financial
and criminal plight, that their assets be liquidated and used to
revitalize the Dallas side of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
-Governor Hunter Carstairs of Texas calls in Texas Ranger
Assault Teams to quell the Dallas riot. After the smoke clears,
six mercenaries are dead, five United Oil Industries employees are
seriously injured, and 167 rioters are killed.
-In response to the Dallas riots, the Texas state legislature
passes laws giving corporate security forces carte blanche in
dealing with armed intruders.
-The last California condor dies in captivity.
_The North American gray wolf is declared extinct.
2010: -The Re-education and Relocation act is passed. All Native
Americans believed to have connection with SAIM are sent to
detention camps referred to as "re-education centers." Due to the
general feelings of hatred against Native Americans, abuse of the
law is rampant and many innocent people are incarcerated.
-In Canada the Nepean Act, legitimizing internment camps for
Native Americans in Canada, is passed the same day as the Re-
Education and Relocation act in the U.S.
-Daniel Coleman is sent to the Abilene Re-education center.
-To conserve funds, the U.S. Congress contracts out
management of the re-education centers to corporations. Once out
of the media spotlight, the corporate managers allow overcrowding,
poor sanitation, and insufficient medical care to plague the
inmates.
-In Australia, the Monash Industries corporation becomes
Australia & New Zealand Amalgamated Corporations (ANZAC) with Alex
Monash as CEO.
-Australian Aborigines and New Zealand Maoris riot in
sympathy for the Native Americans in North America. The response
is at first to stop the rioting, but due to corporate influence,
the governments later decide to drive all Aborigines and Maoris
from the major cities after they refuse to stop the rioting. These
natives are accepted into the outback communities and country towns
where they have numerical advantage.
-By this year massive phase-outs of U.S. military bases in
both Japan and Okinawa leads to a complete lack of significant
American military presence west of the Philippines.
-The Latin Quarter of Quebec City is destroyed in a fire.
-Casino gambling is legalized in Louisiana.
-Macdonnel Douglas, already having purchased several smaller
companies in order to diversify production capabilities and broaden
their technology pool, changes their name to Advanced Weapons and
Systems (AWS).
-The first cases of a new disease, Virally Induced Toxic
Allergy Syndrome (VITAS),are discovered in New Delhi, India.
-Within weeks of its first appearance, VITAS cases are being
reported around the planet. Most fatalities occur in outlying
areas of the planet where medical care is scarce and in high-
population centers where supplies of medicines and vaccines are
insufficient. China, India, many African nations, and densely
populated Third World cities suffer disproportionately due to their
insufficient medical delivery systems. By the end of the year
approximately 25% of the world's people are dead or dying.
Ironically, the re-education centers are spared the worst of the
plague due to their isolation.
-In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the New Metropolitan Council
(NMC), a group formed to handle the riots and chaos of the VITAS
outbreaks, is formed. The group's members have their identities
concealed to all but themselves and Governor Haroldson (Governor
Rudd's successor) in order to protect them.
-Ares Industries absorbs the EoTech corporation.
-Michel Beloit, a young senior executive with BMW, expands
the corporation and makes it Europe's premier industrial power.
-A number of primates escape from Exeter Zoo in Great
Britain.
-Japanese-style coffin hotels open in North America.
-In the U.S.A., a major urban reconstruction project occurs
in Seattle, Washington in the Pine and Broadway region.
-In New Orleans, U.S.A., River Walk Mall closes down. It
soon becomes a haven for drug addicts known as Nitemare Alley.
2011: -"The Year of Chaos." The government of Mexico is violently
disbanded. This event marks the beginning of an unprecedented
number of governments being overthrown in the following five years.
More governments are overthrown in this span of time than in any
other comparable span in history.
-In Great Britain, the Conservative Party is voted out of
Parliament in favor of the new Socialist Labour Party.
-On January 13, a powerful earthquake rocks the Olympic
Peninsula of the United States. The destruction of buildings in
the re-education camps results in mass breakouts. Among the
thousands of escapees is Thunder Tyee, a Salish warrior chief and
friend of Daniel Coleman.
-Thousands of refugees from the Mexican dissolution cross the
border into Texas. Some head for southern California, but most end
up in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas/Fort Worth. This influx of
people overtaxes the already strained welfare and housing system,
leaving most of the refugees in the street. Shantytowns spring up
in vacant lots and under highway bridges. The crime rate in Texas
soars, leading to increased incidents of racial violence.
-The police departments in Texas, severely outnumbered in the
face of the violence, vote to strike.
-Declaring a state emergency, re-elected governor Carstairs
calls in the national guard to deal with the crime. Dallas
residents live in a state of siege, unsure which to fear more, the
governor or the refugees. Before negotiators can strike a bargain
with the police department, 27 National Guardsmen are killed. Six
shantytowns are razed in the struggle, but more quickly replace
them.
-The first of a series of Magical attacks are made on
military targets in Ulster, Northern Ireland by the IRA. 75
members of the Parachute Regiment are killed. 44 in Coalisland in
February and 31 more in Derry a month later.
-On April 14, the IRA attacks and destroys the SAS base in
Belfast. Thirteen members of the SAS are killed along with eleven
Protestant paramilitary groups used as informal death squads by
British intelligence and the military. British Press covers up the
assault but the truth is revealed several years later.
-On April 23, in Australia, the first reported sighting, and
subsequent attack, of the Carnivorous Koala, or Drop Bear, occurs
when one attacks Wildlife Ranger Patrick Stone of Sydney.
-The Athabascan Tar Sands oil reclamation project is reopened
when Biogene Laboratories Inc. markets the first efficient oil-
leeching bacteria.
-Massive civilian protests in Europe lead to raids on nuclear
power plants. Three plants suffer meltdowns and cause massive
radiation damage.
-Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Great Britain suffers
critical meltdown, resulting in 7,800 deaths.
-Dounreay nuclear power plant in Scotland suffers critical
meltdown, creating the Scottish Irradiated Zone.
-Floods hit central and southern England, destroying much
property.
-In Ireland, dramatic storms, flooding, and seismic shocks
occur along the eastern coastline due to radiation leaks from
British nuclear power stations.
-In Wales and along the length of the Pennines in central
England, a series of serious landslides occur.
-An earthquake erupts in central Scotland
-Toxic waste leaks from landfill sites in England result in
an epidemic of pollution for that country.
-Trojan-Satsop, a nuclear power plant in the Redmond district
of Seattle, suffers partial meltdown, contaminating Beaver Lake and
the surrounding land for kilometers around.
-Worldwide, mutant children begin being born to "normal"
parents. This event is labeled Unexplained Genetic Expression, or
UGE. Newsweek magazine label these children as "elves and
dwarves."
-On December 24, hundreds of Japanese witness the first
appearance of the great dragon Ryumyo as they pass Mount Fuji on a
bullet train.
-At the same moment as the Ryumyo sighting, Daniel Coleman
and his followers escape from the Abiline re-education center in
plain view of all guards and inmates during a storm. Guards later
claim that Coleman is "glowing" and that he and his followers
ignore bullets fired at them. This event, as well as the
appearance of Ryumyo is considered the sign that magic has returned
to the world.
-In Australia, the first mana storm strikes the Campbell
sheep station, 102 kilometers northwest of Hay, New South Wales.
Only three people out of the 31 inhabitants survive. These storms
quickly increase in frequency.
In Ireland, western forests begin a rapid and unexplainable
period of growth.
-On December 26, the Great Welsh Dragon Celedyr is first
sighted in the fortress town of Caerleon in England.
-In England, no less than 14 mediums and clairvoyants report
astral sensings of the energizing of the Stalker ley line.
-In Ireland, the Giant's Causeway begins to grow larger.
-In Greece, the ruined temple at Larisa in Thessalay is
magically replaced by a fully rebuilt classical temple.
-In various sites across Great Britain, most especially in
the center of the Welsh town of Brecon (where the town center is
flattened) stone circles and standing stones erupt through the
earth, forming patterns of sacred sites extending along known ley
lines.
-Tibet regains independence from China as magical defenses
seal it off from invasion and render the region incommunicado.
-In Ireland, the ancient Slighe roads, peat bogs, and cairne
lines begin to re-emerge from the land.
-Pope John Paul IV denounces metahumans as abominations in
the eyes of God.
-The Minneapolis NMC is granted further governing powers.
The Metropolitan Security Directorate (MSD) and Metropolitan Police
Corps (MPC) are established to exercise these new powers and to
keep the state from falling into anarchy.
-The Plains Federation, a Native American group autonomous
from SAIM, disbands.
-The CTP changes its name to Litterbugs International.
2012: -On January 1, King Charles III of Great Britain announces
his intention to join an unspecified esoteric order. He then
abdicates in favor of his third son George VIII, his first two sons
having been killed in a plane crash. Charles III then withdraws
from society completely.
-On January 27, the great dragon Dunklezahn makes his first
appearance. Arriving in Denver he is notable because unlike other
great dragons, Dunklezahn shows an exuberant fascination with high
technology. He later takes up a lair in the area around Cherry
Creek Lake.
-As the military tries to seal off Cherry Creek Lake,
reporters from all over fight for an interview with Dunklezahn.
The winner is Holly Brighton, an early-evening weekend anchorwoman.
The resulting 12 hour and 16 minute interview gives humanity its
first real clues into the breadth and depth of the Awakening.
Dunklezahn earns $13 million dollars tax-free for participating.
Holly Brighton maintains an informal business relationship with
Dunklezahn.
-Dunklezahn, in order to bypass the problem of recording his
words (due to the fact that dragons communicate through a "thought-
voice"), hires John Timmons, a young black divinity student from
Denver, to be his interpreter. As a result, Timmons becomes a
major voice in Post-Awakened North American Protestantism, where he
preaches tolerance and clear-mindedness against a tide of religious
reactionism.
-Texas corporations offer funds to shore up Dallas, Texas'
failing welfare system. Corporate lawyers draw up terms, which
include corporate approval of welfare distribution. Governor
Carstairs has no choice but to agree. The rules tend to favor Fort
Worth and Tarrant County. The poorhouse system of relief is
reinstated and work farms are established to contain the growing
masses of homeless and to supply labor to the new construction
projects in the area.
-After a series of hostilities between corporations resulting
in massive profit loss, the Keruba Corporation (later absorbed by
Renraku Computer Systems), BMW, Ares Industries, The Shiawase
Corporation, Mitsuhama Computer Technologies, ORO (later to become
Aztechnology) and JRJ (later absorbed by Fuchi Industrial
Electronics) band together to form the Inter-Corporate Council
(ICC) to represent the interests of all megacorporations.
-Chief Harold Jim, the influential and well loved leader of
the Nootka tribe of Native Americans, is killed when a truck's
brakes fail and he is hit.
-The Plains Revival Movement, an offshoot of the Plains
Federation, officially joins SAIM.
-The first HSCT production models enter regular service.
-In Great Britain, a new stone circle erupts at the foot of
Bon Nevis.
-National Airport in Washington D.C. restricts traffic to
flights with federal clearance only.
-ANZAC buys the contract of Derrick Rommanche, a noted expert
on computers, from the Renraku corporation.
-In the U.S. the "smooth flow of traffic" concept replaces
speed limits. This new law states that anyone disrupting the
smooth flow of traffic is to be cited and that actual speeds are
irrelevant.
2013: -The awakened animal known as the Gabriel hound is first
sighted.
-Vernon Prudhomme, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hires
a group of motorcycle daredevils and stages a game involving
motorcycles, stunt riding, padded clubs, and "paintball" guns as a
publicity gimmick for his speedway business. The game is broadcast
over radio and T.V. and becomes quite popular. Prudhomme jokes
about starting a "Combat Cyclists League."
-Soon after Prudhomme's exhibition, a go-gang called the
Maulers show up. Calling themselves a Combat Biker team, they
violently defeat Prudhomme's stunt riders. The Mauler's leader,
Charles "Mangler" Patterson tells Prudhomme that for a modest
payment they will stay away.
-Prudhomme hires a rival go-gang, gives them uniforms
unpadded weapons, and riot weapons firing plastic ammo, and names
them the Red Devils. When the Maulers show up again the Red Devils
soundly defeat them. Strangely enough, for the first hour the game
stays within the rules (for the most part). The story makes huge
ratings on the national news.
-The Keruba Corporation and ORO go to limited corporate war
for reasons unexplained. The ICC meet to mediate the dispute but
are unable to do anything substantial due to their lack of power.
-In Great Britain, the British Imperial Chemical Industries
corporation is revealed to have been improperly dumping chemical
waste in North Cambridge.
-In Ireland, IRA attacks, which have been escalating in
Ulster and the British mainland since the destruction of the SAS
base, culminate in an attack in Aldershot using elementals.
-In Great Britain, the IRA attack in Aldershot leads the
government to consider a referendum to determine the fate of
Ireland.
2014: -Daniel Coleman, now calling himself Daniel Howling Coyote,
reappears. He has spent the past three years proselytizing to both
free and imprisoned Native Americans and convincing them to wage a
guerrilla war against the white man. Backed by an elite core of
fanatics, including Thunder Tyee and his multi-tribal warrior team,
he announces the formation of the Native American Nations (NAN), a
coalition of tribes with the Sovereign Tribal Council at its head.
They lay claim all to all of North America and demand all persons
of European, African, and Asian ancestry to withdraw from the
continent. They threaten dire magical retribution if their demand
is not met.
-The government ignores Howling Coyote. The media tries to
make a laughing stock of him and his followers. Despite the fact
that magical phenomena has become increasingly commonplace, no one
believes that any one group has that much power.
-Redondo peak erupts, burying Los Alamos, New Mexico under a
cloud of volcanic ash. Howling Coyote appears soon after in a vid-
cast from a nearby Zuni reservation. He claims credit for invoking
"our Mother Earth to punish the children who forsook Her."
-Within an hour of the broadcast, a federal reaction force,
composed of the Sixth Air Cavalry Battalion from Fort Hood, Texas
is on the way to capture Howling Coyote and destroy his movement.
The entire group is destroyed before it even reaches the
reservation by the sudden appearance of several violent tornadoes.
By the time a second force arrives, Howling Coyote is long gone.
-The story of Howling Coyote's successful guerilla war is
leaked to the public by unknown sources. President Jesse Garrety
is forced to take all the public outcry.
-The referendum on Northern Ireland is held. By a majority
of 78%, the People vote to exclude the province from the United
Kingdom. As a result, the House of Commons passes the Act of
Dissolution on June 16.
-Pope John Paul IV dies in his sleep. He is replaced by Pope
John XXV. Despite this change in power, several Irish Catholic
bishops who had refused to accept John Paul IV's denouncement of
metahumans, break from the Catholic church and instead go to the
Church of Ireland, a small splinter church.
-A week after the Act of Dissolution is passed, the
governments of the United kingdom and Ireland sign the Treaty of
Galway and the United Free Republic of Ireland is formed.
-The white controlled government of South Africa finally
dissolves completely.
-In Australia, most of the desert regions of the outback are
lost to mana storms. Some people however, having learned how to
predict one, stay in the outback.
-Six teams begin playing the Combat Biker games
professionally. The competition receives national T.V. coverage.
-The ban on steroids in amateur sports is ended due to new
physical enhancement drugs on the market that make testing too
difficult to be practical.
-The state capital of Louisiana moves from Baton Rouge to New
Orleans.
-Don Victor Marconi's war of elimination of Mafia competition
ends.
-A board of regents composed mostly of corporate executives
and token government representatives now runs the Dallas/Fort Worth
municipal welfare and education system. Despite widespread
dissatisfaction, the situation works out quite well. Education
programs are established to teach the Mexican refugees English and
a trade. Graduates from the program are guaranteed jobs with the
corporations as long as they obey the law. The crime rate drops
significantly and economic stability begins as the per-capita
income rises.
-The international signal format agreements for computer
datalines are signed.
-A group of Salish warriors led by Thunder Tyee captures the
Trident Submarine base at Bangor.
-Two months after the Trident base, Tyee's group captures the
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremington. One Nereid class
submarine, the Wichita, almost escapes capture, but Tyee's warriors
sink her with cannons and a missile.
-Now armed better than the U.S. Army forces in the area,
Tyee's forces prepare for a final showdown and surround McChord Air
Force Base and Fort Lewis.
2015: -On January 26, Australia and New Zealand merge into one
nation, formally named Australasia, though still called Australia.
-In Australasia, Viking Enterprises, a maritime food
production corporation, purchases the Woolworth chain.
-A riot breaks out in Quebec City, Republic of Quebec. The
Hotel du Gouvernment, the meeting house for the Republic of Quebec
National Assembly, is destroyed.
-In response to the recent riot, the Republic of Quebec
National Assembly makes civil insurrection a capital offense.
-Hong Kong secedes from mainland China and declares
independence.
-Great Britain is duped into using its influence to protect
and give aid to Hong Kong but find that corporate interests have
wholly taken over.
-The orbit of the U.S. space station Freedom begins to decay
for unknown reasons. It is predicted that it will burn up in
Earth's atmosphere in 2017.
-In Ireland, the IRA reopens negotiations with the Dublin
government. Although Ireland is now unified, the IRA's political
wing Sinn Fein still wants to further certain policies. This
movement is led by Liam O'Connor, commander of the Derry IRA.
During these negotiations, O'Connor and a handful of his key
advisors and allies who until now has concealed their true
identities with magic, are revealed to be a "spike baby" elves.
This leads to rumors of an elven conspiracy among the non-elven
members of the IRA. As a result a schism occurs and the IRA splits
into two factions: The human led Official IRA, and Liam O'Connor's
primarily elven Provisional IRA. The Official IRA breaks off
negotiations with the Irish government. The Provisional IRA
strikes a deal with the Dublin government that incorporates the IRA
into the security apparatus of the state. In return for IRA help
the Fianna Fail government agrees to initiate strict environmental
protection laws, metahuman equality legislation, and government
subsidized hermetic study programs.
-A shuttle is sent to retrieve the crew from the Freedom
space station. The mission is almost a failure when a member of
the TerraFirst! eco-terrorist group launches a man-pack SAM at the
rescue shuttle. The ceramic tiles of the shuttle prevent serious
damage.
-In Hungary, the Green Party wins control of the government.
They try to cut back all polluting industries but only manage to
destroy Hungary's already weak economy.
-In Ireland, the Catholic church begins to lose power when
people abandon it for the more moderate Church of Ireland.
-The SportsBlast cable channel broadcasts the first
"official" freestyle fighting match. This new sport allows any
attack that a fighter can make unarmed to any point in the body
including eyes, joints, groin, or throat. The fight goes on until
there is a knockout, disable or surrender.
-In Ireland, a census is taken revealing that only the
province of Ulster has a recognizable population of non-Catholics.
Each of the other great provinces of Leinster, Munster, and
Connaught have Catholic populations as high as 90%.
-The Magic Hat, a professional organization for practice of
real magic opens in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
-In Ireland, the Lough Key forest shows an unnatural growth
rate of 40%. This growth lasts for another four years.
2016: -Russian President Nikolai Chelenko, Prime Minister Lena
Rodale of Great Britain, and Minister Chaim Schon of Israel are all
assassinated. The people responsible are all killed in violent
confrontations.
-Soon after Chelenko, Rodale and Schon's deaths, U.S.
President Jesse Garrety is assassinated by William Springer.
Springer is never captured for the crime.
-Jesse Garrety is succeeded by his Vice President William
Jarman. His first act immediately upon taking office is the
issuing of Executive Order 17-321. With this order Jarman plans to
solve "the Indian question" by authorizing the total extermination
of all Native American tribes.
-One month after Jarman issues Executive Order 17-321, it is
ratified in Congress with the Resolution Act of 2016.
Ares Industries purchases the failing NASA from the united
states government including the shuttle and cargo fleet,Cape
Kennedy launch facilities, installations in Florida and Texas,
tracking stations, and so on. According to the agreement, key
elements of the facilities will be returned to the United States in
2055.
-Immediately after the NASA purchase, Ares Industries re-
stabilizes the orbit of the space station Freedom, beginning a
program of expanding its facilities. They also team up with Lloyds
of London and begin a salvaging operation of non-functioning
satellites in Earth orbit.
-Renovation on the Foran Bridge in San Francisco, California
is finally completed.
-BMW president Michel Beloit dies, leaving his wife Mina the
primary-stock holder of the company.
-A terrorist-caused major oil spill in the North Sea
penetrates more than 20 miles inland, creating the Scottish Fringe
Toxic Zone.
-On December 12, a U.S. Army Ranger battalion receives
intelligence on a large concentration of Native American warriors
and materials located near the battalion's base. The Rangers fire
artillery and stand-off weaponry to "soften them up." When the
Rangers run an assault on the position they discover that it is in
fact a refugee settlement housing several thousand non-combatants
of the Kiowa tribe, mainly women and children. For all intents and
purposes, the Kiowa tribe ceases to exist.
-Investigation into the Kiowa massacre proves that the
Intelligence report leading to the attack was provided by a group
of radical Cheyenne nationalists.
2017: -In Nevada, a major cholera epidemic sweeps through the
Pyramid Lake Re-Education Center. Many fatalities result.
-Daniel Howling Coyote and his followers initiate the Great
Ghost Dance. With this potent magic ritual, the NAN continuously
delays Jarman's plans to exterminate the Indians by causing freak
weather patterns to disrupt the organization of the necessary
troops and equipment.
-On August 17 at 10:32 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, soon after
the government has managed to assemble its troops to carry out the
extermination, Mount Hood, Mount Ranier, Mount St. Helens, and
Mount Adams all erupt simultaneously.
-Native American tribesmen and non-indian sympathizers, now
occupying military bases in all three North American countries,
demand a multinational conference.
-President Celinne DeGaulle of the Republic of Quebec begins
peace talks with the NAN.
-In Minnesota the Awakened Forest, an area teeming with
awakened lifeforms, begins to grow.
-A new riot breaks out in south London in Great Britain.
-In Ireland, documents are discovered revealing that visions
of holy figures in the village of Knock were a hoax.
-The U.S. government and a consortium of corporations creates
the Public Broadcasting Network (PBN) to replace PBS.
-On December 11, the Republic of Quebec sends official
invitations to the United States (particularly the northeastern
section) and the Maritime provinces to join the Republic. All but
Labrador, the mainland portion of Newfoundland, refuse.
-Four separate British high-tech companies complete the
merging of their facilities to create the Transys Neuronet
corporation.
-British Imperial Chemical Industries merges with two Swiss
owned pharmaceutical firms creating the Zeta-Impchem corporation.
-In Tampa, Florida, a group calling itself the Leftlaners
(composed mostly of retirees) begin a campaign of slowing down
traffic in the U.S. to safe speeds by driving slowly in groups.
2018: -The federal governments of the United States, Canada, and
Mexico all send representatives to Denver, Colorado to negotiate
with the NAN.
-Three months after the meeting of the North American powers
the Treaty of Denver is signed by all parties. Quebec abstains
from signing, citing their historically close ties with the Native
Americans and its recent rapprochement with others who felt
disaffected. In the treaty, all three governments acknowledge the
sovereignty of the NAN over most of western North America. The
document outlines a ten-year population adjustment plan that would
relocate all non-Indians off NAN lands. Provisions include the
establishment of reservations for non-tribal peoples and
corporations, the maintenance of certain cities (such as Seattle)
as extraterritorial extensions of the governments that formerly
owned the land they are on. and the retention of most of the state
of California by the United States. Denver itself is set aside as
a "treaty city," under joint administration by The Sioux Nation,
Ute Nation, Pueblo Corporate Council, United States, and Aztlan
(formerly part of Mexico).
-Daniel Howling Coyote is named as head of the Sovereign
Tribal Council.
-The Ute Nation grants the Mormon Church the rights to govern
Salt Lake City, Utah as a society only nominally part of the
nation, analogous to Vatican City in 20th-century Italy.
-In Australasia, after five months of protest from the
Aboriginal Tribal Council (ATC) regarding land rights, the
Australasian government rounds up all Aboriginal people and sends
them to live in the mana-storm-affected lands of the outback,
whether they want to go or not.
-In Australasia the spaceplane America, with its secret
military payload, disintegrates in orbit. The wreckage lands in
the town of Longreach, Queensland. 300 Longreach citizens are
killed. One of the major pieces of debris strikes the Stockman's
Hall of Fame, killing 57 tourists and staff.
-The first-generation of Artificial Sensory Induction System
(ASIST) is created by Dr. Hosato Hikita of ESP Systems Inc. in
Chicago. This technology is later called "simsense."
-Immediately after announcing the creation of ASIST
technology, ESP Systems Inc. is bought out by maverick financier
Dan Truman. Truman goes on to make Chicago the capital of ASIST
and simsense research.
-ESP becomes a subsidiary of Truman Technologies, but is
absorbed into the parent company after Truman Technologies loses a
lawsuit it brought against the Fuchi Corporation on ESP's behalf,
claiming that Fuchi had stolen ESP's ASIST technology.
-A Boeing 787 heavylifter delivering military supplies to
Dallas/Forth Worth Airport crashes with its full load of ammunition
and bombs on the downtown area of Irving, Texas. The shockwave
from the blast shatters thousands of panes of glass throughout the
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, adding to the already large list of
casualties. The accident is never successfully explained.
_In Ireland, government prosecutors convict Health Minister
Seamus Molyneaux and fourteen of his departmental officials of
skimming funds from contracts awarded to medical equipment supply
companies.
-Fuchi Electronics completes its new Seattle Industrial
Compound.
-Ares Industries completes its expansion program of the space
station Freedom, using its primary storage area for orbital
salvage.
2019: -More than 200,000 non-indian refugees from lands now
belonging to the NAN enter the city of Seattle. This causes
massive food and supply shortages.
-The premier of Newfoundland, acting as spokeswoman for the
Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward
Island, and the island of Newfoundland, approaches the state of
Maine and asks to be annexed. Maine agrees.
-The Red Lake "Invasion" occurs when street gangs invade the
Red Lake district of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
-The 1st Minnesota Regulars are formed to battle the
increasing gang violence.
-The Washington districts of Bellevue, Renton, and Kent vote
overwhelmingly to become part of greater Seattle.
-By summer's end, Seattle has also absorbed all of King
County, Washington and most of neighboring Pierce and Snohomish
Counties as well.
-On September 6, the citizens of Everett and Tacoma,
Washington vote in favor of joining with Seattle.
2020: -In response to a jihad declared against the new races by
Iran's ruling Ayatollah, the city of Tehran is demolished by Aden,
a sirrush Great Dragon.
-On February 28, the state of Sydney is formed in
Australasia. The Sydney Metroplex is formed along the same lines
as the Seattle Metroplex, except for the lack of international
boundaries. The state capital is moved to Canberra.
-Despite a disastrous first term for U.S. President Jarman,
the 29th Amendment to the Constitution is approved. This allows a
president to serve an unlimited number of terms in office.
-The new Ares Industries space platform Apollo becomes their
primary space facility.
-The EuroFighter Aircraft (EFA) becomes the European Economic
Community's standard STOL tactical fighter.
-In Ireland, elvish children are reportedly being born of 41%
of all registered births.
-On November 16, President Jarman signs a resolution
dissolving Washington State and officially recognizing the creation
of a city-state to be known as the Seattle Metroplex, with Seattle
Mayor Charles C. Lindstrom to be named as governor.
-In Great Britain, Paul Bernal, Jr., Ceo of the Hildebrandt-
Kleinfort-Bernal (HKB) corporation initiates a takeover of Lloyds
of London, making HKB the leading provider of London-based
financial services.
-The space station Freedom becomes the Zurich-Orbital
Habitat.
-By this year, all American telebroadcasting is controlled by
twenty-three corporations.
-The World Bank is replaced by Global Financial Services, a
Zurich-based financial corporation.
2021: -On April 30, one out of every ten men, women, and children
suddenly metamorphosize into hideous humanoid shapes. Soon after,
children begin being born this way or change soon after puberty.
This change, termed by the media as "goblinization", marks the
first occurrence of "trolls" and "orks". Variant expressions of
goblinization occur in different geographical regions, such as the
minotaur troll in the Mediterranean basin, and the ogre ork in
continental Europe.
-The Republic of Quebec immediately extends full rights to
all French-speaking victims of UGE.
-King George VII of Great Britain is announced dead. Rumors
state that he goblinized and was ordered killed by senior members
of the British aristocracy and military.
-Rival bloodlines begin to compete for the throne of Great
Britain.
-Another serious riot breaks out in south London.
-In the Seattle Metroplex Governor Lindstrom, acting on fears
that goblinization is contagious, orders the Metroplex Guard to
round up all metahumans and their families. He then has them
detained at camps once used to contain Native Americans.
-Governor Melissa Santiago-Ortega of Texas establishes
metahuman detention centers. She strong-arms the Welfare Board
into allocating the funds to provide adequate shelter and sanitary
facilities for the newly transformed population. Psychologists are
brought in to find out if orks and trolls can be safely
reintegrated into society. Specially trained units of Texas
Rangers ensure that the new metahumans do not fall victim to
attack.
-Walter Bright Water is named as representative of the
Cascade Crow tribe to the Salish-Shidhe Council.
-Rocknet's "New Notes" segment plays the trideo Sons of
Thunder by Concrete Dreams. This is the band's first public vid-
cast.
-The Atlantean Foundation is founded by Sheila Blatavska.
Its goal is a return to the "enlightened days of Atlantis."
-Fires break out in much of Portland, destroying many old-
growth forests.
2022: -The tension and prejudice against the new races erupts in
race riots around the globe.
-In August, Governor Lindstrom orders all Seattle metahumans
released from quarantine. He speaks of a united people living
together in peace as he did before goblinization.
-Governor Santiago-Ortega refuses to release the Texas
metahumans without legal provisions for their safety. She rocks
the Texas legislature by personally escorting ork and troll
representatives into senate hearings. In a moving speech, she
stresses that the metahumans had been taxpayers before
goblinization and, like victims of any other disease, still deserve
the protection and support of the government they have trusted.
-In June, tensions rising for two years between Papua-New
Guinea (PNG) and Indonesia reach flashpoint. Armed tribesmen
(mostly trolls and orks) supplied by the Indonesians attack and
destroy an army camp near the border. The Indonesians use this as
an excuse to annex prime mineral sites in PNG territory. The PNG
armed forces respond, causing the Indonesians to temporarily
retreat.
-A few months after the Indonesian attack, the PNG army
returns in force.
-During the lull in fighting between Indonesia and PNG,
Australasia tries to help with peace negotiations, but their
ambassador is killed by Indonesian troops for reasons yet to be
fully explained.
-The Australasian Armed Forces activate and move to protect
interests in the Indonesian and PNG areas, closely followed and
supported by corporate security forces.
-The islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Grenada, Bermuda, and the
Virgin Islands as well as the Southern tip of Florida join together
to form the Caribbean League.
-The United States government disbands the FCC and ceases to
have any control over broadcasting. The Internetwork Transmission
Control Council (ITCC) takes over as a "self-regulating oversight
body for the responsible management of the communications
industry."
In Ireland, seventeen business and political figures are
implicated in the "Kavanaghgate" affair. They are convicted of
misappropriating EEC agrosubsidies.
-John Timmons is killed by an assassin with connections to
the growing anti-metahuman movement. Dunklezahn, who is present at
the assassination, kills the assassin. Witnesses report that he
reduced the gunman "to his component atoms" with a glance.
-The MegaMedia corporation buys the SportsBlast channel.
-In an attempt to re-establish order the U.S. Government
institutes martial law
-Reports trickle out of Russia and the Commonwealth of
Independent States of death on a massive scale brought on by social
disorder.
-A new wave of the VITAS plague kills a further 10% of the
world population. In fear of the disease, most people forget about
the racial tensions and the violence dies down.
-Data, an electronic news magazine, first coins the term,
"Awakened" to refer to the new metahumans and other lifeforms
influenced by magic.
-In Minneapolis, Minnesota, federal troops attempting to
control a food riot in a northern suburb accidentally drop several
high explosive bombs. 20,000 people are killed and an estimated
45,000+ are crippled or injured. Fires rage out of control for ten
days.
-In France, street gangs begin playing a special game to
settle problems. Two armed teams establish a playing field and the
team that scores the most goals with a ball wins the argument.
-Javert et Cie, a French megacorporation begins sponsoring
the gang games in order to control them when they fight on Javert
et Cie territory. They play for cash purses, assignments in
corporate security, and other prizes.
-The French gang game (now called Jeu de Guerre de Ville)
becomes popular worldwide through satellite coverage.
-The Zeta-Impchem corporation takes over the German Hoechst
becoming the biggest pharmaceutical corporation in Europe.
-In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the political parties are
realigned. A coalition is now needed to pass any legislation.
-In Seattle, UCAS, the Mizu-Kagayaite subclan of the Sendosha
New Century Yakuza makes its first appearance in the Seattle crime
scene.
-On December 3, the HMAS Darwin is struck by Indonesian
aircraft-launched missiles. This causes the Australasian troops to
engage in full scale warfare.
-In Scotland, 14 members of the Campbell Clan are massacred
by a group led by William MacDonald of the rival MacDonald Clan.
-To counter the Leftlaners, a new group is organized called
the Speed Demons.
2023: -The Seattle Police Department, tired of taking the brunt of
the anger expressed in the racial riots between human and
metahuman, goes on strike.
-An incensed Governor Lindstrom declares the Seattle Police
strike illegal and fires all members of the SPD.
-Governor Lindstrom hires Lone Star Security to take over all
law enforcement and security measures for the Seattle Metroplex.
-George Edward Richard Windsor-Hanover, the candidate of
corporate interests, wins out over Edward Arthur Charles Gordon-
Windsor, the candidate supported by the growing druidic movement
for the throne of Great Britain. He is crowned Edward VIII.
-The Supreme Court amends the corporate extraterritoriality
provisions. The amendments define the limits of "territory" for
the purposes of determining extraterritoriality. According to the
new amendments, territory owned by a corporation extends down into
the earth in a cone traced out by connecting each point on the
territory's boundary with the center of the earth. It also extends
upward from the earth's surface along these lines to an altitude of
1,200 meters.
-Texas senator Franklin Moss becomes so incensed during a
debate over metahuman rights that he challenges his opponent,
Senator Victor Sanchez, to a duel. Senator Moss' death the
following morning is widely televised.
-Sakehisa Tajika becomes CEO of Ares Macrotechnology.
-The Texas state legislature passes the Metahuman Bill of
Rights, guaranteeing voting privileges and equality in housing,
medical care, education and employment for all metahumans.
-The International Trade Zone of Saint Paul, Minnesota is
moved south of the Mississippi River to occupy that section of
Saint Paul.
-The Corporate Court (formerly the ICC) establishes the
Zurich-Orbital Habitat as its base of operations.
-In response to the federal bombings of Minneapolis, Federal
troops are restricted to federal land in Minnesota.
2024: -Using ASIST technology, the first simsense entertainment
unit (a kind of sensory VCR) becomes available on the open market.
-The new experimental "remote-vote" system is authorized for
use in the presidential election.
-President Jarman is reelected by landslide victories in
urban centers. He becomes the first three-term president since
Franklin D. Rosevelt. The opposition claims fraud.
-In response to the dominance of Government and its attendant
private industry over the economy in the Delmarva area (the
intersection of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) the Federal
Capital District Act of 2024 is passed. This extends the
boundaries of Washington D.C. to include Montgomery, Prince
Georges, and Howard counties in Maryland, and Arlington,
Alexandria, and Fairfax counties in Virginia. Lorton prison in
Fairfax becomes a Federal Prison. Tax revenue lost by the two
states are to be made up by increased allocation of federal tax
monies to their budgets. This new jurisdiction is chartered as the
Federal District of Columbia, colloquially known as DeeCee.
-Pope John XXV, the Roman Catholic pontiff, issues his
historic encyclical, In Imago Dei ("In the Image of God"). In this
document, the Pope sets forth the following as official church
doctrine: 1) Metahumans are possessed of souls and capable of
salvation. Discrimination against Metahumans is not Christian. 2)
Magical abilities are not, by nature, evil. Rather, like any other
human ability, they may be used for good or evil ends. 3) Spirits
are living manifestations of nature. Thus, conjuring is not in
itself evil. This encyclical however, is unable to prevent the
virtual disappearance of Catholic influence in Ireland.
-Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California is razed and
completely rebuilt.
-The Renraku Corporation releases the Digital-XScan holo
protocol which is adopted by all major broadcasting networks.
-Governor Santiago-Ortega of Texas presides at the opening of
a multimillion-dollar Metahuman Resource Center in eastern Dallas.
-Georgia Tech turns the now unused Fulton County Stadium into
a research project. The coliseum is covered with an experimental
biotech membrane that is supposed to photosynthesize to produce
food, turn solar radiation into usable energy, and purify the air
it releases into the domed interior of the coliseum. Before the
project can yield results however conflicting business interests
and corporate sabotage result in a cut-off of funding which
eventually shuts down the project.
-Jeu de Guerre de Ville organizes into official non-gang
teams in Germany.
-Govinda Enterprises in Chicago adopts Jeu de Guerre de Ville
to co-opt the gangs plaguing its operations in depressed
neighborhoods. They rename the game Urban Brawl.
-The metropolitan area inside the `94 Loop' in Minnesota is
designated as the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metroplex (MSP) under the
rule of the NMC.
-Grain wars between corporations in MSP result in a trucking
war. It is short lived as the NMC intervenes.
-The University of Minnesota develops a Multi-User/Multi-
Input (MUMI) program using a Cray donated mainframe computer.
2025: -UCLA becomes the first university to recognize magic by
offering an undergraduate program in occult studies. Within the
next two years, technical magic programs and magical research
facilities are established at Texas A & M and MIT, with the latter
adding "& M" to its name(for "and Magic").
-In Great Britain, the Conservative Party renamed the
Conservationist Party, wins the general election under new Prime
Minister Kenneth Redmond.
-The United Kingdom Constitution Act is passed. This
formalizes roles of Parliament and Royalty. It also creates the
Office of the Lord Protector, a post with many powers relating to
administration of internal and national security.
-Lord Marchment, a leading figure in the British Druidic
movement, is appointed as Lord Protector of Great Britain.
-The first cyber-modified players enter the NFL. These
players are restricted to those who needed reconstruction due to
injury.
-Tim Washington of the New York Jets wins the Super Bowl with
a 99-yard pass.
-In New Orleans, Louisiana, the dragon Falthur makes his
first appearance.
-In Ireland the "Walsh's hookers" scandal brings down three
government ministers, two industrial leaders, and a Bishop Palatine
in Limerick.
-In England, the U.K. police force changes its policy of
restricting firearms and now routinely arms its officers.
-The Skytrack Company in Chicago, Illinois begins development
of a monorail system for Chicago's Southside.
-The Optical Music Networking Interface (OMNI) is invented.
This method of music-data interface revolutionizes the music
industry.
-Truman Technologies has become rich enough from simsense
entertainment profits to begin a major revitalization project in
Chicago's South Side district.
-Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) changes its name to
4M by adding magic to its industries.
2026: -The U.S. Constitution is amended to give full legal rights
to all metahuman races.
-The first cyberterminal is created. It is a room-sized
isolation chamber with multi-contact point jacks and multiple hook-
ups for the operator. It is designed by various military-
intelligence agencies to make it possible for strike teams of
"cyber-commandoes" to raid data systems. The first volunteers go
mad.
-The guerilla war between Indonesia and PNG ends with the
tide turned against Indonesia.
-In Great Britain, Oxford and Edinburgh universities
establish Bachelor of Science degrees in occult studies.
-The World Combat Cyclists League is established. Combat
Biking now has full league organization, established rules, and
major media coverage.
-The Skytrack Company expands its Chicago monorail plans to
encompass more areas.
-The Souix Nation Bureau of High Technology rules that only
Souix-based corporations are eligible to license technology from
the University of Cheyene.
-On September 26, in Australasia, the home of Thomas Grayson,
a dwarven mining engineer is demolished by a bomb set by Alamos
20,000, killing him, his wife and three children, two neighbors and
injuring twelve others, all metahumans.
-Three days after the Grayson killing, outside the Wynnum
Police Station in Brisbane, seven bodies are found by Constable
Susan Smith as she arrives for her shift. Six of them are
identified as UCAS members of Humanis Policlub, the seventh a local
fixer of some note. With the bodies is a note: "For the Grayson
Family."
2027: -On March 13, due to a combined venture with New South Wales
University of Technology, Maquarie University, Queensland
University of Technology, and Gaetronics Corporation the first
commercial fusion reactor power plant goes on-line. It lasts for
22 minutes before running away and detonating. With the data
collected, functional reactors are built worldwide by years end.
Although not the tiny generator hoped for by scientists, the large
plant proves highly efficient.
-The UCAS government passes the Telecommunications Act of
2027. This act states that if the content of a program is legal in
its country of origin then it is legal to receive it in UCAS
territory.
-The NFL allows all players to receive cyber modification.
-Cybernetically enhanced fighters are introduced in
professional boxing.
-In Manhattan Inc. vs. The State of New York, New York City
forces the boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, Statan Island, and the
Bronx to separate from it.
-Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx attempt to
become one entity called Quad Counties.
-In Great Britain, the Lord Protector's office drafts the
Magical Practitioners Registration Bill, which Parliament passes
into law. This act severely restricts the use of magic in Great
Britain.
-Rebuilding of Corfe Castle in Great Britain is completed.
-Cyberterminals become more refined and less dangerous to
use.
-Parabiologicals appear in Northern Minnesota carrying new
and dangerous virus strains.
-A mass exodus of dwarves (who appear immune to the new
viruses) begin to migrate north from Minneapolis-Saint Paul, to
Duluth in particular.
-The new Federal District of Columbia jail complex opens.
2028: -Governor Lindstrom of the Seattle Metroplex retires.
-The Conservationist Party government withdraws Great Britain
from the European Economic Community.
-Caimbridge University in Great Britain establishes a
Bachelor of Science degree in occult studies.
-The NFL football season is delayed two months to make
alterations for the new cybered players. The new regulation NFL
field becomes 160 yards long by 65 yards wide. The end zones
remain 10 yards long, but the distance from end zone to end zone
becomes 140 yards. Completing a first down on the ground means
moving the ball 20 yards instead of 10. The ball is also armored
and has extra weight added to it.
-Walter Bright Water gains a reputation for strong support of
segregation of humans and metahumans in the Salish-Shidhe Council.
At the same time he becomes a strong advocate of welcoming
metahumans into Salish-Shidhe Council territory.
-Shiawase Atomics builds a new nuclear power plant next to
the deserted Trojan-Satsop plant in the Redmond district of
Seattle.
-Sakehisa Tajika steps down as CEO of Ares Macrotechnolgy.
-A massive blight breaks out in the remaining forests of
Oregon, destroying most of them.
-Dunklezahn appoints Terri Ann Riberio, a neophyte reporter,
to be his new interpreter.
2029: -Andrew MacAlister is inaugurated as President of the United
States.
-In New York state Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the
Bronx after failing to stick together as Quad Counties, become
counties of New York State, municipal entities unto themselves
again.
-Charles S. Kross replaces Lindstrom as Governor of the
Seattle Metroplex.
-Sony Cybersystems, Fuchi Industrial Electronics, and RCA-
Unisys develop prototype cyberterminals to allow a user to
interface with the world data network via his or her central
nervous system. These cyberterminals are still massive and require
the user to be placed in a sensory deprivation tank.
-In the United States, the CIA, NSA, and IRS pool their
resources and create the Echo Mirage project. Headed by Air Force
Major David Gavilan, a liaison to the National Security Agency,
this organization recruits and trains a team of cyber-commandoes to
function in the world data network despite the balky equipment and
psychoses induced by overwhelming sensory signals generated by the
primitive cyberterminals.
-On February 8, computer systems worldwide are attacked,
apparently at random, by a virus program of unprecedented power.
The program crashes systems, wipes software, and even burns out
hardware. The chaos caused by the virus topples governments and
brings the world economy to the brink of collapse.
-On April 19, the computer virus infects the national air
traffic-control network. As a result of inaccurate signals and
scrambled communications, 27 air accidents occur within two hours,
with a death toll in the thousands. Non-essential air traffic
remains grounded for almost a week following the disaster, until a
new control network can be put together.
-The Federal District of Columbia breaks out in riots due to
the fall of civilian government initiated by the computer virus.
-Australasia contains the virus by taking their
communications network connections to the world off-line. Special
receiving stations are created to handle normal communications
traffic. All communications received are extensively checked for
contamination.
-The Echo Mirage team is activated under presidential order
to combat the computer virus. The "straight arrow" agents however,
are unable to withstand the psychological demands of psycho-
physiological combat in cyberspace.
-The directors of Echo Mirage recruit the most brilliant, if
erratic, data-processing mavericks from industry and the
universities. These men and women are drafted under a presidential
emergency order and put through a brutal training program. 32 men
and women graduate with their sanity intact.
-In August, the new members of Echo Mirage, armed with
improved cybertechnology, begin their attack against the virus
program. Eighteen minutes after engaging the virus, four members
of Echo Mirage are dead. When their data logs are analyzed, two
things are discovered. First, the virus program can induce lethal
biofeedback in humans accessing cyberspace. Second, no existing
computer security can even slow down someone using a cyberterminal.
-In the course of fighting the virus and attempting to
rebuild the world data system, the computer network called the
Matrix is born.
-Horrified by the ease at which the Echo Mirage members
penetrate their most secure systems, the corporations involved
begin secret research to develop new security software that can
repel intruders using a matrix interface device. This includes
research to duplicate the lethal effects generated by the virus
program. The resulting software is the first generation of
intrusion countermeasures, or IC, now known worldwide as "ice."
-Echo Mirage learns techniques to isolate and contain the
virus. Equipped with new combat programs and beefed-up
cyberterminals, they begin to purge the grid of the virus.
-The Salish-Shidhe Council, soon followed by the entire NAN,
declares the emerging metahuman races to be welcome in tribal
lands.
-Satisfaction Safaris, a company that gives tours of the
Awakened Forest in Northern Minnesota, is founded.
-Many of the first generation UGE elves in the Salish-Shidhe
Council, move to the Mount Rainier area and form a separate tribe
called the Sinsearach. Dwarves, orks, and trolls also move to the
area, but in smaller numbers.
-A major gang crisis in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota
forces the MPC to get active assistance from the MSD crisis
response teams.
-Walter Bright Water announces his retirement from the
Salish-Shidhe Council, citing a recent diagnosis of terminal cancer
as the reason. After making a final public appeal for segregation
of humans and metahumans, he drops from sight.
-Sakehisa Tajika becomes a member of the board of directors
of Ares Macrotechnology.
-GMC Motors completes its first 4201 jeep.
-The Sikorsky-Kamov corporation collapses.
-Walter Bright Water is announced dead. The city of Portland
mounts a lavish funeral and memorial service.
2030: -The beginning of series of conflicts in Europe and Asia
known as the Euro-wars. With the Russian communication and
surveillance systems disrupted by the virus, the Commonwealth of
Independent States make a bid for true independence. The conflict
is long and drawn out as Eastern European powers like Germany and
Poland are drawn into the war. Switzerland remains, as always
neutral.
-In Great Britain, the government begins funding the building
of a vast series of domes, stretching six miles north and south of
the Thames river. These "breathing" domes will be designed from a
biofabric that block and absorb pollutants but pass air.
-The Awakened come to dominate the Western Siberian Lowland,
Yukat ASSR, and all other lands to the west of the lowlands.
-On February 13, in Australia, Viking Enterprises initiates
unrevealed hostilities against ANZAC causing a conflict known as
the Corp War.
-ANZAC responds to the Viking Enterprises attack by giving
Chief of Security Susan Patrick, an elven physical adept and former
member of the Australasian Special Air Service Regiment, free hand
in stopping Viking Enterprises. She immediately and almost
publicly calls on every available shadowrunner in Brisbane, Sydney,
Melbourne, and Perth for work. Viking also beefs up their security
and conducts covert activities against ANZAC. The fighting goes on
for five months, mostly in Brisbane.
-On July 29, an ANZAC shadowrunner team known as the Maroons
is caught in an ambush set after a traitor tips Viking Enterprises
off about the raid. The Maroons not only destroy the ambushers but
also the facility they are supposed to penetrate, which hosts
several senior board members of Viking Enterprises. Within three
hours, Southern Cross Security, an ANZAC security organization,
conducts a series of precision strikes against Viking facilities
that devastates the corporation, killing the rest of the high level
management and rendering the overall corporation a non-viable
entity.
-Concrete Dreams plays its first show at Club Penumbra in
Seattle.
-In California during local elections almost every ballot
calls for a referendum for secession from the United States.
-On October 15, U.S. President MacAlister and Canadian Prime
Minister Harold Frazier sign a treaty to merge the remains of the
United States of America with what is left of Canada, including her
major industrial center and important natural resource areas. The
new government is called the United Canadian and American States
(UCAS). The merging goes through smoothly despite protests on both
sides of the border.
-Francis Daniels, an engineering Ph.D., fourth dan ki-akido
black belt, and the first publicly documented physical adept, is
killed during the D.C. riots.
-Tong & Anvil Mining Company (an exclusive dwarvish
corporation) is founded in Duluth, Minnesota.
-The suburb in Minneapolis-Saint Paul Minnesota that was
bombed during the food riot is walled off and made into "Crystal
City"-Minnesota Maximum Security Facility. Every inmate of this
new penitentiary is fitted with a security collar which has a
timer, a transceiver, and a plastic explosive charge. Any attempt
to tamper with the collar or to leave the area of the prison and
the transmitters on the prison walls, results in detonation of the
collar. When the inmate's sentence is over, the explosive
dissolves, destroys the transceiver, and the collar falls off.
Each inmate is left to his own devices as to how to survive the
length of his sentence.
-In Australasia, the Humanis Policlub tries to open a
chapterhouse in Sydney. The first turnout is composed entirely of
metahumans. This causes a small riot in which the Humanis members
are arrested with disturbing the peace.
-The Super Bowl is canceled.
-Brian O'Malley, head of the Chicago and Seattle Mafia, is
shot and killed in his home.
-The oyabun of Seattle is assassinated.
-The deaths of the bosses of the Mafia and Yakuza results in
a truce between the previously warring groups.
-O'Malley's brother James takes control of his Mafia
organization.
-Frederick Davitt begins work as a reporter for Newsnet
(formerly Turner News Service).
-Prostitution is legalized within New Orleans city limits.
-The 4F corporation is discovered by other corporate powers
to be performing research on a method of tapping into fiber-optic
communication lines that was previously lost in the computer crash
of 2029. The corporate powers immediately go to the Corporate
Court on the Zurich-Orbital Station and demand that they put a stop
to 4F's research.
-Under the direction of the Corporate Court, all of the major
corporations sign the Concord of Zurich-Orbital. This document
states that no corporation will attempt to reconstruct the
technology to tap into fiber-optic lines. Furthermore, if any
corporation attempts to violate this agreement, the other
corporations will band together to eliminate them.
-In The Salish-Shidhe Council the Shoshone and Modoc tribes
integrate into the Salish and Makah tribes, ceasing to exist as
individual tribes.
2031: -The Echo Mirage team wipes out the last known concentration
of the virus code. Of the original 32 members, only seven are
still alive. Four of these survivors decamp into the private
sector, taking with them the secrets of cyberterminal technology.
-Echo Mirage head Major David Gavilan disappears without a
trace.
-Australasia reconnects their communication network to the
Matrix, but keeps the equipment to disconnect it again in case of
an emergency.
-The Violence in the Federal District of Columbia dies down.
-The governing council of Denver begin to establish security
zones.
-A Constitution for the UCAS, is submitted to the Provisional
Congress. Within six months, two-thirds of the new country's
states have ratified the UCAS Constitution. U.S. President
MacAlister becomes the provisional president and Canadian Prime
Minister Frazier becomes the provisional vice president.
-In response to the inability of the civilian police to
control the violence in the Federal District of Columbia, the UCAS
Congress set up the Federal Capital Police or FedPols to deal with
law and order in DeeCee.
-The Russian Republic steamrolls across Byelorussia and
launches an invasion of Europe to secure vital industrial and
agricultural resources. Germany, Poland, and the other members of
NATO, fight back tenaciously. In a fit of isolationism, the UCAS
Congress recalls all American troops from Europe.
-Aithne Oakforest, Sean Laverty, Lugh Surehand, and Ehran the
Scribe, four previously unknown elves in the Salish-Shidhe Nation,
become major figures in the southern region of that country.
Oakforest and Laverty become strong advocates of reoccupying and
revitalizing the southern cities. Surehand and Ehran become more
social figures, bringing the elves together into a new society.
2032: -UCAS President MacAlister is re-elected, becoming the first
elected president of the UCAS.
-The European conflict slows to a deadlock due to attrition.
Despite heavy loss of both men and materials on both sides, little
territory has changed hands.
-Russia, with a precarious hold on much of Poland, renews the
war with a surprise attack on Berlin. The allies are thrown into
confusion but still manage to slow the offensive.
-Britain, previously uncommitted to the struggle, steps in by
sending troops to the low countries "to protect British interests."
-Led by senators from Alabama and Georgia, a major walkout of
legislators from the southern bloc threatens to derail the merging
of the United States and Canada. As the rest of the U.S. Senate
argues over new tax structures and fund allocation, the delegates
from ten southern states meet to discuss secession.
-In UCAS, the city of Boston, Massachusetts celebrates its
300th birthday.
-Official Olympic events fall apart due to worldwide chaos.
-The AAA baseball league relaxes its rule and allows a
limited amount of cyberware for players.
-Harlan Carson, one of the original members of Echo Mirage,
founds Robot Technologies Inc.
-The oyabun of the Yakuza in Chiba, Japan sends new Korean
bosses to run the Seattle organizations.
-The Elected Council of the Ute Nation approves a proposal
from Maritech Enterprises of Vancouver in the Salish-Shidhe Council
to convert the Sevier Bridge Reservoir into the world's largest
fresh-water fish farm.
-The members of the Corporate Court band together to take
over Global Financial Services.
-Frederick Davitt uncovers a scam operation in ConEd. His
story is hailed by journalists around the country.
-The Genesis Foundation, a corporation specializing in
genetic and biological research, is founded in Minnesota/Saint Paul
Minnesota.
-The dwarvish majority is recognized in Duluth, Minnesota
when a dwarvish mayor is elected.
-Wilhelmina Graf-Beloit becomes chairman of the board of BMW.
2033: -On January 1, the Brisbane Metroplex becomes the 12 state of
Australasia. The Metroplex covers the old shires and cities of
Beaudesert, Caboolture, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Maroochy,
Moreton, Landsborough, Pine Rivers, Redcliffe, and Redland. Sharon
MacKenzie, a former member of the Queensland National Party, is
elected first Metroplex Premier.
-On January 23 Swedish airspace monitors detect several
flights of what appear to be British Aerospace FA-38 Nightwraith
fighter-bombers flying across northern Europe. In short order, the
aircraft obliterate key communications and command centers
belonging to both sides. With their offensive plans crippled
beyond recovery, the two sides announce a cease-fire the following
day. Although Swedish records indicate the planes origin to be in
the area of Great Britain, no nation ever takes credit for the
Nightwraith strike.
-The Nightwraith strike ends the major fighting of the Euro-
wars, although lesser battles still continue on.
-Aztlan begins to take over portions of Mexico.
-Damien Knight, a previously unknown financier, initiates his
now-famous Nanosecond Buyout of Ares Industries. Using a series of
expertly programmed computers in Stockholm, Sweden, Knight executes
a series of transactions so complicated that they can only be read
by another computer. By the end of the minute that the
transactions took, three corporations have ceased to exist, two
multi-millionaires have lost their fortunes, three people have
become multi-millionaires, and Damien Knight has acquired 22
percent of Ares Industries.
-Global Financial Services is moved to the Zurich-Orbital
Habitat and renamed the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank.
-On March 14 Andrew Cole, an employee of the accounting and
disbursement division of the Kensington corporation suspected of
embezzling 500,000 nuyen, dies.
-Homeless people begin to move into the abandoned Fulton
County Stadium and using it for shelter. The increasing numbers of
people build their own microsociety based on such primitive
principles as "might makes right."
2034: -In May, Matrix Systems of Boston comes out with the first
"gray-market" cyberterminal.
-Six weeks after the cyberterminal release, Matrix systems'
main computer crashes and two of its founders are killed in
apparently unrelated accidents.
-The British government gives Primrose Hill and the
surrounding buildings to the New Druidic Movement as its
headquarters.
-Lugh Surehand and his associates have by now forged the
southern area of the Salish-Shidhe Nation into an independent state
in all but name. Through reestablishing infrastructure, social
and governmental programs and the establishment of a police force
named the Portland Axis Peace Force.
-In June, Irish State President Charles McGoldrick is
impeached for vidphone-tapping, illegal surveillance of political
opponents, and corruption on a grand scale. Power is passed to
acting State President Eamonn McCarthy.
-In London, U.K., Armor Industries scientists Anatole Torkin
and William Kingston III along with 10 other specialists make a
breakthrough in body armor technology that will lead to the
creation of Kevlite.
-Many displaced Irish humans migrate to the Boston sprawl,
Massachusetts and organize the Knights of the Red Branch terrorist
group.
-Armor Industries executives discovers that Security
Concepts, a company that has been buying up their stock, has broken
into their computers and stolen the files on their Kevlite
discoveries. Security Concepts denies this accusation. Lacking
proof, Armor Industries is forced to recreate their discovery.
-Armor Industries director of Research and Development
Anatole Torkin suffers a freak auto accident and is killed.
-Despite their setbacks Armor Industries successfully
recreates their Kevlite armor. It attracts the attention of many
German and Soviet buyers.
-The government of Brazil signs a contract with Armor
Industries reaching into the several billions range.
-A force of Awakened beings and metahumans led by three great
dragons descends on the Amazon basin. In a short but extremely
bloody conflict, Brazilian forces cede most of the Amazon basin to
the invaders.
-The Brazilian government falls and two days later, most of
their territory is claimed by the Awakened army. They name their
new nation Amazonia. They claim that they will be the savior of
the eco-sphere.
-Armor Industries demands that the new government of Amazonia
makes good on the amounts still owed by the former Brazilian
government. Amazonia refuses, stating that any bills owed by the
Brazilian government are null and void.
-Aztlan secedes from the NAN.
-Lugh Surehand fires the chief of the Peace Force John Big
Smoke, and replaces him with Rainer Grundman, a German elf from
Berlin. Grundman reorganizes the Peace Force in a more military
fashion.
-In Seattle, in order to deal with an interim undercapacity
in shipping warehouses on Marginal Way, new interim warehouses are
constructed.
-Displeased with what they perceive as President
MacAlister's preferential treatment of the midwestern and
northeastern sprawl zones, the southern states of the UCAS threaten
to withdraw from the union. MacAlister, in his oft-quoted "Eat My
Shorts" speech responds that if the southern states walk, there
will be hell to pay.
-A few days after MacAlister's speech, Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
and the southern portion of Virginia secede from the UCAS to form
the Confederated American States (CAS). The CAS is instantly
recognized by Aztlan. Sentiments run high, and fears of a second
civil war are rampant. Nevertheless, the transition is relatively
orderly. President MacAlister signs the Treaty of Richmond with
the rebel states establishing peaceful boundaries and a working
political and economic relationship between the two countries. The
Northern part of Virginia remains as a state in the UCAS. The CAS
is also written into the governing council of the city of Denver.
Military units, divided in loyalties, split up and move to their
preferred countries with few incidents of violence. The former
governor of Alabama is voted pro tem president of the CAS until
regular elections can be held.
-Aztlan becomes the first nation to recognize the CAS.
-Unofficial Olympic Games are held in Beijing, Buenos Aires,
and Johannesburg.
-A major gang war breaks out inside MSP and destroys most of
South Saint Paul. The area is rebuilt and redesignated as Corps
Saint Paul.
-The Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank establishes its primary
headquarters in the Zurich-Orbital Habitat.
-A coalition of laboratories, doing research on the lifespan
of metahumans, declares that the elven metatype has a potential
lifespan of several centuries.
-Dunklezahn begins his purchase of Lake Louise in the
Athabaskan Council to serve as his lair.
-On December 11, Irish President McCarthy turns to Liam
O'Connor and asks him to impose a state of emergency while the
legislature and other influential governmental officials initiate
future constitutional changes. Within weeks O'Connor has passed
through massive changes, including cutting the power of the Dail
and increasing that of the largely elvish Senate. Local
governmental powers are also cut.
-On Christmas, Irish politician Seamus O'Kennedy, an
associate of Liam O'Connor, makes a nationwide broadcast announcing
further governmental changes and the birth of a new nation: Tir na
nOg.
-Anton D'Venescu, a prominent mage with Aztechnology
announces a significant breakthrough in summoning spirits and
claims to be close to rediscovering the magical rituals of the pre-
Columbian Aztecs.
2035: -By this year, the UCAS has no military presence anywhere
outside North America.
-The Athabascan Council orders all the UCAS to remove all DEW
sensor stations from their territory.
-Tir na nOg State President Eamonn McCarthy resigns on the
grounds of poor health. He is replaced by Liam O'Connor. Seamus
O'Kennedy is appointed Minister of the Interior, and Thomas O'Brien
is appointed Minister of State for Industry and Commerce.
-The Zurich-Orbital Corporate Court rules that, since
Amazonia is recognized by neither London nor the Corporate Court,
they are not responsible for the monies owed the Armor Industries
corporation.
-The coalition of laboratories that determined the elven
lifespan strangely retracts their findings, saying that elves live
100-125 years.
-In Tir na nOg, acts of Constitution vest large amounts of
power into the Senate.
-A series of bombings strikes Union Station in the Federal
District of Columbia.
-Armor Industries manages to take over its former adversary
Security Concepts after a 2 year stock battle.
-A major schism opens between the Tsimshian nation and the
other members of the NAN.
-The NAN sector in Denver fragments into three separate
sectors. ruled by the Pueblo Corporate Council, Sioux Nation, and
Ute Nation.
-Armor Industries president Franklin Tulley dies of a heart
attack. He is replaced by William Kingston.
-In Tir na nOg, the Danaan family creates the province of
Meath in order to define on paper the heart of the nation.
-The CAS votes to make Atlanta the permanent capital.
-Aztlan begins a military takeover of southern Texas.
Despite the efforts of the Lone Star Militia and the Texas Rangers,
Austin is lost before the invaders can be stopped. The
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex becomes the new Texas capital.
-The Texas State Legislature petitions for a military venture
to reclaim the southwest of Texas.
-The CAS government, fearing that the NAN will come to the
defense of Aztlan, refuses Texas' petition.
-Texas angrily declares its independence from the CAS, again
becoming a Republic. They immediately launch an invasion against
Aztlan.
-Four months after their failed invasion of Aztlan, Texas
applies for re-admittance to the CAS.
-The Aztlan Freedom League (a non-profit organization
dedicated to sending medical supplies and food to the impoverished
areas of Aztlan) begins an underground railroad to allow a steady
stream of refugees into Texas.
-The Insurance War. Cord Mutual Insurance and North American
Eagle Life Insurance wage a semi-covert war over the insurance
contract for all employees of the CAS government. On June 8, six
Geas jets explode simultaneously in flight from their Atlanta
departure point. Geas Airline is insured by North American Eagle
Life Insurance which pays out huge sums both for the jets and the
relatives of slain passengers. No connection is made with Cord
Mutual. A sweep of assassinations of vidstars and entertainment
personalities across the continent, especially in Atlanta, follows.
Eventually North American Eagle's corporate investigators make a
connection between one of the assassinations and Cord Mutual.
North American Eagle begins funding a terrorist organization known
as the Medusa Sisterhood to retaliate against Cord Mutual.
The Medusa Sisterhood makes a series of vandalous attacks on Cord
Mutual-Insured corporations and individuals. Cord Mutual responds
with attacks against the Medusa Sisterhood as well as North
American Eagle. What began as a clandestine corporate power
struggle becomes a bloody war, claiming the lives of hundreds of
insured.
-The media breaks the story on the Insurance War, acting on
rumors of the two corporations' involvement in the rash of violence
in the sprawl. The CAS government and the City of Atlanta
government comes down hard on both corporations, ending the war.
-Cord Mutual is able to provide evidence of North American
Eagle's funding of the Medusa Sisterhood, while no official
connection is made between Cord Mutual and the independent
operatives they used as soldiers in the Insurance War. North
American Eagle is assessed fines and several top officials are
arrested. Cord Mutual wins the CAS insurance contract despite a
storm of controversy.
-Cord Mutual goes through a power struggle and several
changes in upper management. There is also a supposedly unrelated
accident in the company's skyraker, which leads to the closing of
the buiding's top 25 floors. Cord Mutual officials say only that
it is declared structurally unsound.
-In an unprecedented interruption of worldwide broadcasting
by mimicking the Civil Emergency Network priority code, the Ceneste
or "forsaken" tribe of elves of the Northwest territories of the
NAN (formerly Oregon) declare their independence and announce the
birth of Tir Tairngire (the land of promise). Lugh Surehand, now
mayor of Portland, declares himself to be the High Prince of Tir
Tairngire. Aithine Oakforest, Sean Laverty, and the relatively
unknown Jenna Ni'Fairra become the first members of the Tir
Tairngire Council of Princes. Ehran the Scribe also becomes a
member, but secretly.
-The Salish-Shidhe Nation sends troops into the Tir Tairngire
area, confident that the elves are poorly armed and constitute no
real threat. The elves strike back using heavy military weaponry,
driving the Salish-Shidhe troops back. The Salish-Shidhe attack
six more times from different directions and are driven back each
time with heavy losses.
-After seeing the strength of Tir Tairngire, every other
member of the NAN recognize Tir Tairngire as a sovereign state.
The Caribbean League, UCAS, CAS and Aztlan refuse to recognize Tir
Tairngire.
-The Yarrow nuclear reactor complex in central England
suffers a meltdown, resulting in the Northern Toxic Zone.
-The last major gangs inside the MSP metroplex are forcibly
disbanded. Gangs inside MSP are outlawed and wearing gang colors
becomes a crime punishable by internment in "Crystal City."
-In Tir Tairngire, three more members are added to the
Council of Princes. These are Jonathon Reed, Maria Cinebal, and
Dar Varian.
-Coffin hotels begin to replace front-desk employees with
automated computers.
-In Tir Tairngire, High Prince Lugh Surehand makes a motion
to make the great western dragon Lofwyr a member of the Council of
Princes. Although this is adamantly opposed by Jenna Ni'Fairra,
Aithne Oakforest and Ehran the Scribe, the other members support
the High Prince. Ehran bluffs and decrees that if Lofwyr becomes
a member of the Council he will resign. The High Prince calls his
bluff and Lofwyr becomes a Prince.
2036: -Martin Vincenzo, a charismatic businessman from
Massachusetts defeats President MacAlister in his bid for re-
election. Vincenzo, a member of the newly organized Technocratic
Party, introduces a new level of coalition politics into UCAS
elections by naming Republican Vernon Washington as his running
mate.
-The 14th Amendment to the UCAS constitution is ratified.
This amendment establishes the System Identification Number(SIN),
requiring the registration of every UCAS citizen. Individuals
without SIN's are defined as "probationary citizens," and have
sharply limited rights. Probationary citizens are not allowed to
vote in federal elections. Species other than Homo Sapiens are
eligible for probationary citizenship in the UCAS, but full
citizenship to a non-human/metahuman may be granted only by act of
Congress.
-In Scotland, druidic magic transforms acres of economically
unsuitable pine forests into deciduous forests, marking the
creation of the Scottish Wild Lands.
-The Cascade Ork tribe of the Salish-Shidhe Nation in the NAN
uncovers a major uranium concentration in their lands near
Peshastin.
-In Tir Tairngire, the number of official members allowed on
the Council of Princes is set at eleven when its first non-elven
(other than Lofwyr) members are elected. Blake Ladner and Garth
Stone, both dwarves; Larry Zincan, an ork; and "Rex", a sasquatch
are elected to the Council.
-Ambrosius Publications of New York releases the first issue
of the Manual of Practical Thaumaturgy.
-Governor Kross of the Seattle Metroplex Retires.
-Governor Kross is succeeded by Victor "Vic the Quick"
Allenson, a former combat biker for the Tacoma Timberwolves.
Allenson is known to have a low opinion of metahumans as shown
during a trideo interview when he is quoted as saying, "Orks and
Trolls make great offensive combat bikers, but I'm afraid they
haven't the brains for much else."
-A church in the town of Liberty Village, Ohio is fire-bombed
with napalm. Twenty people, most of them metahumans, are killed.
An anti-metahuman terrorist group calling itself Alamos 20,000
claims responsibility for the incident.
-Dr Caitlin O'Connal, a sociologist, psychologist, futurist,
and writer as well as a lecturer in sociology and statistics at
U.C.L.A., begins her research under corporate grant to develop a
numerical value system that can be used to measure and ultimately
predict social interaction in various situations, particularly mob
dynamics. Dr. O'Connal's husband Paul Grigg, a shaman and fellow
instructor at U.C.L.A., assists her in her work.
-Tir Tairngire holds its first Rite of Progression. This
series of mental and physical tests determines ones rank in Tir
Tairngire. High scores allow for upgrades in rank, average scores
keep their original rank, and low scores suffer demotions.
-The CAS government legislates a new tax structure that meets
with wide-spread disapproval.
-CAS elections are scheduled for the fall and campaigning
focuses heavily on taxation.
-Large portions of New Mexico and Oklahoma join the CAS,
though the government excludes them from the upcoming elections
until a distinct border can be determined.
-CAS elections are sporadic and ill-run. Most pro tem
officials are elected by default.
-Doctors Akiko Kano and Arthur White Eagle win the Nobel
Prize for their work on the Kano-White Eagle Theory of Metaphysical
Phenomena.
-Tir Tairngire mounts a surprise attack on Northern
California using an entire armed division supported by infantry and
limited air cover. The attack catches the California National
Guard completely by surprise. Within the first six hours of the
assault the California units are pushed south of Yreka. By adding
paranimals, combat mages, and allegedly at least two dragons to
their regular army, the Tir Tairngire forces roll south of Redding,
where the CNG digs in to make a final stand. The battle lasts for
two days and although the CNG fights valiantly, the defending
soldiers of Redding are completely destroyed by the Tir Tairngire
forces with no survivors. The survivors of the CNG army retreat
from Redding. The Tir Tairngire army demands that all non-elves
leave the area taken from California within 30 days.
-Resistance armies spring up in the new Tir Tairngire
territory of Redding. The Tir Tairngire army, feeling they have
bitten off more than they can chew, pull back to Yreka, leaving the
land between Yreka and Redding as a buffer zone between California
and Tir Tairngire.
-After witnessing the Tir Tairngire proficiency at combat,
all North American nations except Aztlan recognize Tir Tairngire as
a sovereign state.
-A group of 500 elves from the MSP Metroplex gather to enter
the Awakened Forest and start an independent colony.
-Three weeks after entering the Awakened Forest, 75 of the
500 elves return as broken men. They tell of the forest itself
rising up and killing the other members of the colony.
-Within three weeks of their return, all of the 75 survivors
of the Awakened Forest colony are dead. The senior elves of the
Great Northern Council have ideas as to the reason, but make no
public comment.
-In Tir Tairngire, Portland is officially recognized as the
hub of trade between Tir Tairngire and the rest of the world.
Construction of a massive wall surrounding Portland to protect it
is begun.
-A period of expansion allows McCarren International Airport
in Las Vegas, Ute Nation domestic, international, trans, and sub-
orbital capacity.
-Urlan Manes and Thomas Martelli establish Global
Technologies Inc.
-In Tir na nOg, an Establishment Act is passed placing the
Church of Ireland higher in importance than the Catholic church.
2037: -California representatives in Washington recognize their
secession Proposition 129 and begin to push for heavy economic and
political concessions. President MacAlister calls California
Governor Nelson Treacle and tells him that if his state votes to
seceded he will hang them out to dry.
-California lawmakers approve legislation dissolving
California's political bond to the UCAS. Secession from the Union
lacks only Governor Treacle's signature, but he is in Africa at the
time.
-Upon hearing about California's bid for secession, President
MacAlister goes before Congress and declares, under Article IV,
Section 3 of the UCAS Constitution, California no longer qualifies
as a member of the UCAS.
-Lieutenant Governor Marshall of California calls an
immediate press conference to announce that Proposition 129 will
not be signed into law, and that the Governor Treacle is returning
to California early to deal with the crisis. President MacAlister
states however that secession, based on the vote for Proposition
129, is the popular choice and that such a mandate cannot be
ignored.
-All federal resources are immediately withdrawn from the
newly independent state of California. All California citizens no
longer qualify for Social Security. The only UCAS services
maintained in California are veteran's benefits.
-An Aztlan light armor division invades San Diego, annexing
it and the surrounding area.
-Governor Treacle, failing to receive help from the UCAS,
makes semi-covert overtures to the Japanese Imperial State.
Stating that further takeover from Aztlan or Tir Tairngire would
jeopardize Japanese interests.
-The Japanese Imperial State immediately recognizes the newly
declared California Free State as a sovereign nation.
-On February 7, two Japanese Imperial Marine light divisions
arrive by air at San Francisco's International Airport and the
Alameda Naval Air Station.
-Tir Tairngire is admitted into the U.N.
-Emboldened by the Tir Tairngire secession, the Tsimshian
nation also declares independence from the NAN.
-In the wake of the Tir Tairngire and Tsimshian secessions as
well as massive internal dissent, Daniel Howling Coyote resigns as
head of the Sovereign Tribal Council of the NAN. He then withdraws
into isolation.
-The British government orders the Yorkshire Fringe Zone
evacuated due to pollution and radiation hazards.
-The great dragon Lofwyr makes his first appearance.
Announcing that he owns 63% of Saeder-Krupp stock (the backbone of
the BMW corporate empire), he votes himself into the chairmanship
of the board ousting Wilhelmina Graf-Beloit. She flees to the
Zurich-Orbital Habitat. Lofwyr then names himself to be president
and CEO of BMW, changing the name to the Saeder-Krupp Corporation.
-Timber wolves and bears, long extinct in the Scottish Wild
Lands, are spotted once again.
-In Tir Tairngire, construction of the wall surrounding the
city of Portland is completed.
-Dunklezahn purchases VisionQuest from the Ares
Macrotechnology Virtual Reality labs.
-Agatamori Kihara, chairman of the board of Mitsuhama
Computer Technologies, is shot in the chest during random gang
violence. As a result of the resulting health problems, he resigns
from the board.
-Simsense gear is now improved so that it can broadcast
emotive signals.
-Tir Tairngire extends an offer of peace to the California
Free State to reconcile their differences in the form of expanded
trade relations between the two nations.
-The first North American Urban Brawl championship, "The
Super Brawl," is held.
-The DocWagon organization is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
It promises to provide better emergency on-site medical care by
responding to calls much faster than any other private paramedical
service.
-CYCO Circuits is founded.
-In France, The hemophiliac population is struck by a strange
virus with a long latency period.
-Rainier Grundman retires as chief of the Tir Tairngire Peace
Force, citing ill health as the reason. He dies soon after.
Rumors state that he actually suffered a broken spine during an
attempt to depose Lugh Surehand and the Council of Princes.
-A group of nonsmokers in Minneapolis, UCAS organizes
themselves into a paramilitary organization called the Nonsmokers'
Supremacy League (NSL) to combat public smoking. Armed with small
arms, they begin a campaign of raiding restaurants and other public
places which no longer have separate seating for smokers and
nonsmokers.
-In the North Sea between Scotland and Norway, a UCAS
maritime research expedition discovers the Abrams lobster. This
creature is identified as Europe's largest crustacean.
-Lugh Surehand replaces Rainer Grundman with another
European, Elya Therese. Therese names General Martha Gardener as
commander of the constabulary, and General Rory Harty as commander
of the military.
-The Truman Reality 500 simsense gear is released. To this
day it goes without major upgrades or changes.
-The Armor International corporation releases a revolutionary
type of highly durable body armor known as kevlite.
2038: -The state of Hawaii secedes from the UCAS and establishes a
constitutional monarchy. They receive backing from the Imperial
Japanese state but Malama, the queen of Hawaii manages to keep them
from taking control.
-The Super Bowl, canceled since 2030, is reestablished.
-In Great Britain, on Channel 7's show "Medicine Bag", ork
reporters expose the Adams-Hoffmann "Project 42-20". The show
reveals that for 15 years the Adams-Hoffman corporation have been
performing a wide-ranging experiment in forced gene-pool
manipulation on the inhabitants of south London housing estates in
order to discover how to control goblinization. The corporation
has been systematically crippling, mutilating, and generally
decimating south London's population by exposing them to a huge
number of experimental mutagens. One particularly shocking
incident involves Generation Epsilon/Alpha 16 mutagen put in free
milk distributed to school children. Investigation reveals the
project responsible for 720 deaths, with a further 9,500
unprovable.
-In response to the Adams-Hoffman revelation, the inhabitants
of Brixton, Camberwell, and New Cross in south London initiate a
major riot that ends up on Tower Bridge. The police block the way
leading to the Adams-Hoffman corporate headquarters in the city.
During this riot, the first 19 of a group calling itself the
Lambeth Martyrs are killed. The Tower Bridge and the nearby Thames
Wharf shopping mall are seriously damaged.
-Several more riots break out in London after the Tower
Bridge riot. These are controlled however by the army and the
police.
-The Lambeth Martyrs, who have moved underground, initiate
terrorist strikes with automatic weapons and rockets. The first
units strike at Waterloo and Victoria Stations and in the Bond
Street Station Mall. Almost one hundred innocent people are
killed.
-The Lambeth Martyrs initiate more attacks on government
sites. Their most infamous one is at Dulwich Village, where 74
people are killed, including a retired ex-prime minister.
-In order to control the violence in south London initiated
by the Lambeth Martyrs, the government declares a medical emergency
and creates the Lambeth Containment Zone.
-Great Chief Deborah Jim is named head of the Tsimshian
Nation.
-A group of workers within an Ares Macrotechnology subsidiary
attempts to form a union. Ares management responds by terminating
everyone involved. When the fired workers appeal, the courts
recognize Ares' rights to fire the employees because their action
violates the megacorporation's law prohibiting unionization. The
attempts at organization took place within Ares facilities, and so
fell under corporate jurisdiction.
-Judy Hofsted becomes the first woman to win a professional
baseball contract when she joins the Detroit Tigers.
-The only successful escape from Crystal City occurs.
Criminal mastermind Wentworth Childe, known as "Brain Childe" is
able to escape by stealing his collar-link transmitter, thereby
keeping his collar from exploding.
-Aztechnology initiates an "information coup" against Robot
Technologies Inc., forcing the company to improve employee
screening and benefits.
-The NBS network creates the game show "Do You Feel Lucky?"
which randomly calls people at their homes to play. This gimmick
soon becomes popular on other game shows as well.
-Dosan Aburakoji rises through the ranks of Mitsuhama
Computer Technologies by selling deutschemarks short.
2039: -The Night of Rage. On February 7, the Seattle Metroplex
Guard, under order of Governor Allenson, systematically rounds up
all metahumans and transports them under armed guard to a series of
warehouses on the Seattle waterfront. They are told that they ar
being deported to camps near San Francisco. In one of the
warehouses a series of screams prompts gunfire from the guards.
Panic and hysteria takes over. One of the warehouses catches fire
due to explosions. Soon all warehouses are burning. Some
witnesses claim to see Hand of Five terrorists in the area. The
Metroplex Guard does nothing to stop the blaze. As news of the
incident reaches the public, citizens protest the barbaric
treatment of the metahumans. The United Corporate Council
threatens Governor Allenson with lock-outs and boycotts to force
him to act against the terrorism. By the time Governor Allenson
acts, the fire has already ended and many of the metahumans are
dead. This incident sparks violence around the city. Similar
events occur worldwide. Thousands are killed. These are mostly
metahumans, their supporters, and those cosmetically altered to
look like metahumans. In New York alone, 836 deaths occur.
-Three days after the Night of Rage in Chicago, Illinois,
members of Alamos 20,000 use a combination of explosives and magic
against the supports of the nine units making up the Sears Tower,
sending the building crashing down to the street. The falling
debris destroys blocks worth of buildings, streets and sidewalks.
Thousands are crushed to death. Gas lines rupture and the whole
area goes up in flames. A second Chicago Fire is narrowly averted
by mages who contain the blaze in less than an hour. The final
death toll is nearly 26,000. The Sears Tower and surrounding areas
are never rebuilt and the area becomes known as the Shattergraves.
-Alamos 20,000 makes the destruction of the Sears Tower look
like the work of metahumans in retaliation for the Night of Rage.
The corporations of Chicago respond by sealing the metahumans and
poor out of their neighborhoods. The city government and the
corporations build projects on Chicago's North Side district to
house the metahumans and keep them separated from the rest of the
city.
-In Australasia, Asians commit the greatest number of attacks
on metahumans. The Australians respond by attacking the Asians
with the same anger that metahumans experience worldwide.
-The Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island
of La Grande Jatte is stolen from the Art Institute of Chicago.
-The Art Institute of Chicago is closed down.
-Three days after the Night of Rage in Seattle, public,
civil, and media anger focuses on Governor Allenson. Rumors spread
that he is a member of the Hand of Five. Local politicians, with
heavy prodding from the UCC, demand that Governor Allenson step
down. Allenson denies any wrongdoing and refuses to resign.
-The day after he is called on to resign, Governor Allenson
is found murdered in his office.
-A special election is held in the Seattle Metroplex to
choose a new governor. Marilyn Schultz, mayor of Belvue and a
relative unknown, wins by a surprisingly large margin. Reports
that she was one of the first city officials to appeal to the UCC
for help during the Night of Rage apparently clinches he
nomination.
-Governor Schultz delivers an ultimatum to Lone Star
Security: Arrest the leaders of the Hand of Five or else face a
breach of contract lawsuit for their criminal refusal to stop a
crime in progress during the Night of Rage.
-The Week of Sirens. Lone Star Security forces go on a
massive manhunt for the terrorists in Seattle. Within a few days,
most Hand of Five leaders are either dead or behind bars.
-Alamos 20,000 attempts a mass murder spree in Duluth,
Minnesota. Eleven members of the terrorist group are captured but
escape the day before being turned over to state authorities.
-In June Dr. Caitlin O'Connal discovers the equations that
she has been searching for that fit into the equations of all races
and cultures. Dr. O'Connal calls these equations of group
consciousness the, "universal brotherhood." No reputable journal
will publish O'Connal's report because her conclusions are
considered unacceptable.
-In Boston, UCAS, on St. Patrick's Day, the Irish terrorist
organization known as the Knights of the Red Branch "strike a blow
for Eire." A bomb is planted in a popular elven restaurant along
Boston Commons. 24 people are killed and dozens injured in the
resulting explosion. The St. Patrick's Day parade rapidly
degenerates into a massive race riot. By the time authorities
impose martial law and reestablish order, hundreds are dead and
hundreds more are injured. The day becomes known as "Bloody
Tuesday."
-Mullins Chadwick, a sociologist and leading authority on the
Awakening and its effects on modern culture, receives the Campbell
Fellowship to the Mythological Institute for his book Monkeytribe:
Survival Manual for Erect Bibeds.
-In New Orleans, Louisiana, a majority of the city's African-
American population demand that a portion of the city be set aside
for them to set up their own community. Despite protests from both
corporate and civic leaders, the city gives in to the group's
demands. The area set aside for the black group becomes known as
the Zulu Nation.
-The Trans-Polar Aleut Nation announces plans to build a
fusion power plant on Cape Dalhousie to supply energy to their
districts of Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, and Alavik. The idea is quickly
scrapped in response to violent objections from the populace.
-In Great Britain, a massive chemical spill on the Teeside
district of London results in more than 70,000 deaths from nerve-
gas poisoning.
-Outcry against the chemical spill leads to a schism in the
British Conservationist government.
-The Pan-Europa terrorist group releases a paraviral agent on
the city of London in retaliation for their involvement in the
dissolution of the European Community. The virus has immensely
destructive effects on all wood and biofabrics, including the
biofabric covering the London weather control dome.
-A superheavyweight class (95 kilograms and up) is introduced
into the World Boxing Association in Atlanta and the International
Boxing Commission in Bonn, Germany to accommodate superboosted
human and metahuman fighters.
-Seattle megacorporations begin buying up land in the Tacoma
district at an unprecedented rate.
-Fuchi Incorporated sponsors the Universal Matrix
Specifications Conference in Tokyo. More than 7000 humans and
metahumans meet for three months to determine the details of matrix
programming.
-The Mafia of Redmond, Seattle is thrown into turmoil when
Carl Dacavitt and a group of followers declare independence from
the Seattle Mafia. Dacavitt is summarily executed but his
followers manage to begin a serious challenge for control of the
district.
-Senate hearings begin in the CAS to investigate charges of
racial prejudice against metahumans. The committee's shocking
report verifies that conditions amount to slavery in most states.
The Native American Nations impose heavy trade sanctions on CAS to
speed up metahuman equality laws.
-In Charleston, South Carolina, a serial killer is captured
after the detective-mage handling the case studies the ghost of one
of the killer's victims. The ghost's actions reveal sources of
evidence that lead to the murderer's arrest and conviction.
-In New Orleans, Louisiana, a group of four fire elementals
that have been ravaging that city's barrens are banished.
-In Latvia, a farm settlement is attacked by a group of
bulldog stoats. eleven people are allegedly killed.
-Aztlan introduces death matches fought with real weapons and
minimal armor as a form of execution of condemned criminals.
-A fringe group of the NSL based in Chicago bomb a United
Airlines 797-jetliner, killing 161 people. The act is followed by
a declaration of de facto war by the NSL against smokers
everywhere.
-In Boston, UCAS, a hermetic magic group called the Scions of
the Rose are implicated in a rash of disappearing orphans and
juveniles. Most of the members are found guilty and given
sentences of up to 25 years.
-Despite attempts from the Minneapolis home branch to
segregate itself from the Chicago group, the NSL becomes the focus
of nationwide law enforcement attention.
-Terri Ann Riberio resigns as Dunklezahn's interpreter in
order to begin what will become a somewhat successful, if not
noteworthy, acting career. She is replaced by Nadja Daviar, an
Eastern European elf with no personal history on file.
-The GM-Nissan Spotter recon drone becomes the standard for
long-range remote spotter drones.
2040: -Campaigning for CAS presidential elections heats up, with
the Metahuman Protection Act as the most publicized issue.
Coalitions of orks, trolls, and elves lobby for equality. The
elections run more smoothly this time and the competition for all
offices is fierce.
-In the CAS South Carolina Senator Joseph Alexander is
elected President, with Florida's governor Jeanette Malory as Vice
President.
-Several Metahumans are named to key CAS cabinet posts, which
persuades the NAN to lift some of its sanctions.
In New Orleans, Louisiana, that city's trolls and orks demand
their own community similar to the Zulu Nation. The city responds
(although slowly). The area set aside for the trolls and orks
becomes known as Orktown.
-In Philadelphia, police headquarters burns to the ground in
a massive fire. The cause is unknown.
-In Great Britain, new evidence is discovered revealing
government approval of the Adams-Hoffman experiments.
-Thomas Jefferson International Airport opens just south of
the Federal District of Columbia boundaries in North Virginia.
-A.I. Proncs is hired as head of ANZAC's Discoveries
Unlimited.
-In Philadelphia,Minuteman Security takes over the city's
police contract. Their headquarters are built on the remains of
the old police headquarters.
-Kate Mustaffah, a dwarf from Europe, emigrates to Tir
Tairngire. She quickly becomes leader of the business community of
Portland.
-The UCAS begins a training program for the Trans-Polar Aleut
Peace Force (That nation's police).
-Hammer & Shield Security, an all dwarvish corporation in the
MSP Metroplex, is founded.
-In Australasia, a law is passed stating that any reflex
enhancing modifications must be registered with the government.
-In Great Britain, Daffyd Rhys Williams, one of the first
noble-born elves, becomes Earl of Pembroke.
-Lochlann Investments is established by Geyswain, a low-
profile western dragon.
-the Biogene Technologies Inc. corporation is created from
three similar companies experiencing financial difficulties.
-The Association Para-Nobilis (APN), a radical pro-elf
organization with an all-cosmetically altered human membership, is
founded by Leo Ridgeworth.
-Anton D'Venescu's wife Diana is found murdered in ritual
style. D'Venescu himself has disappeared. His daughter Fayette
disappears as well.
-The Film Noir style enjoys a minor revival.
2041: -The British Conservationist government is voted out of
office.
-The Green party, a pro-environment political group, takes
over Parliament in Great Britain from the now disgraced
Conservationist party.
-EuroAir Flight 329, enroute from London to Atlanta, is
destroyed over the Atlantic with no survivors. Though garbled, the
flight recorder indicates the plane is attacked by a dragon (later
identified tentatively as Sirrug, a well known Western Great
Dragon). The recorder also states that one passenger holds the
dragon off with magic for several minutes before the plane is
destroyed. Many believe the plane is destroyed in retaliation for
the Night of Rage.
-Policlubs, youth-oriented associations devoted to spreading
various political or social philosophies, appear in Europe. Each
club hopes to recruit the masses to its own viewpoint and thus
play a leading role in the European Restoration.
-The Antibac genetic treatment for bacterial infections
becomes available.
-Tir na nOg President Liam O'Connor marries Lady Brane Deigh.
He then secures her position as Prionsa within the Court of
Stewards.
-Global Oil merges with UCAS Steel. Both facets of the
conglomerate continue to do business under the Global Oil label.
-A unilateral ban on all genetic warfare experimentation is
enacted.
-In Germany, Doktor Gansz, an employee of the Waldheim Klinik
is discovered to be a nosferatu vampire. He is revealed to have a
whole private ward of people on life support to allow him to feed
on them. It is discovered that over the past ten years he has
killed fifty people.
-UCAS athletics are officially opened to all metahumans.
-Knight-Errant Security presents evidence that Warren
Security in New York City has been systematically butchering
squatter-residents of various buildings owned by Warren habitats,
their parent company.
-By this year DocWagon has become Atlanta, Georgia's de facto
official on-site health-care provider.
-DocWagon further consolidates its hold on the health care
market by purchasing a small for-profit hospital about to go out of
business. Using its excellent management skills, DocWagon turns
the hospital around, and the first of several DocWagon Acute Care
Clinics in the Atlanta area becomes one of the corporation's
largest profit centers.
-Sakehisa Tajika becomes chairman of the board of Ares
Macrotechnolgy.
-Rumors abound in the corporate world that Lofwyr has given
or sold some of his shares of the Saeder-Krupp Corporation to other
individuals.
-Casinos and nightclubs are opened by the Mafia on White Bear
Lake in the MSP Metroplex.
-Mullins Chadwick wins the Pulitzer Prize for Monkeytribe:
Survival Manual for Erect Bibeds.
-The Leather Devils go-gang in Seattle force their way onto
Council Island (the NAN embassy in Seattle). Before Island Police
and Lone Star Security's Rapid Deployment teams can chase them off,
50 people are killed.
-In the Tsimshian Nation, a total of seven planes crash due
to heavy storm activity.
-The Yamatetsu corporation manages to make headway into
obtaining a seat on the Corporate Court and the Zurich-Orbital
Gemeinschaft Bank. Ares Macrotechnology, Fuchi Industrial
Electronics, and Mitsuhama Computer Technologies all resist
Yamatetsu and skirmishes erupt between corporate forces around the
world.
-In Tir Tairngire, the Art Education Act is passed. This law
states that all students in the Tir Tairngire elementary, secondary
and high school levels must take art technique classes until each
student finds one or more art forms in which he or she can
adequately express himself. The definition of art extends beyond
traditional schools and includes embroidery, bonsai-like tree
cultivation, manuscript illumination, and other forms.
-John George, a half-blood Haida indian in the Tsimshian
Nation, establishes the radical group known as the Haida National
Front. This group agitates for equal rights for their tribe. As
a result, George and many of his followers are put in jail.
-Vladimir Zorgon, CEO of Zorgon Cybersystems, sends his
brother Vasilev to the MSP Metroplex to open a new facility there.
-Ignaz Yablonski, Seattle's chief Medical Examiner since
2032, is elected to that city's newly created post of Director of
Forensic Magic.
-In the CAS, the Atlanta based Lanrie Corporation infects a
Miami-based competitor's computer system with a tailored computer
virus. The other major corporations discover this action and,
under the terms of the Concord of Zurich-Orbital and with the
sanction of the Corporate Court, destroy the Lanrie corporation.
Lanrie's infrastructure is shattered, its facilities and assets are
destroyed, and its board of directors are executed. This is the
last known incident of viral warfare.
2042: -The Euro-wars officially come to an end.
-The Fuchi Electronics Industrial Compound is rebuilt after
being destroyed during the Night of Rage.
-The Oyabun of the Yakuza, seeing that the new Korean bosses
are now putting Korean interests over Japanese interests, sends an
ultimatum to them: Pledge their loyalty to the Oyabun or face the
consequences. The Koreans ignore this threat.
-The Yamatetsu corporation is finally recognized as a member
of the Corporate Court and the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft bank.
Skirmishes between the disputing factions die off.
-The United Nations recognizes the Sasquatch species as a
sentient race.
-The Tsimshian Nation police discover the headquarters of the
Haida National Front. They attack with Japanese-built one-man
gunships and decimate the HNF headquarters. No HNF members
survive.
-In March, Tir na nOg State President Liam O'Connor stages
his own election as High Steward.
-Arthur Garrett, the most influential academician in the
field of magical studies, takes over as Chairman of the Department
of Occult Studies at UCLA.
-Harry "Ironjaw" Bartlett, pitcher for the L.A. Yankees,
goblinizes after five years on the mound.
-Holly Brighton retires from the media industry.
-The various pro-sports commissioners charter a joint
committee to make a decision as to whether physical adepts should
be allowed to compete in professional sports.
-The Zeta-Impchem corporation is exposed in the Polydopa
scandal of dumping neurotoxins for the past four years in central
Africa. This results in 4,000 premature deaths and 35,000 cases of
irreversible brain damage.
-Several streets in downtown MSP Metroplex collapse. Rather
then rebuild the streets on badly saturated foundations, the sunken
areas are smoothed out and turned into the MSP Canals, allowing
boat travel in the city itself. The area becomes known as "Little
Venice."
-DocWagon begins to expand beyond the Atlanta, Georgia area.
In an unprecedented marketing campaign, DocWagon begins franchising
its operation throughout the UCAS, excepting Seattle. By the end
of the year, DocWagon has sold at least three franchises in each
major UCAS city-again excluding Seattle-and have many more
scattered through the country's smaller communities.
-In London, several floors of the Angel Towers Arcology are
damaged when a missile from the Lambert Containment Zone is
misfired.
-The Underplex Corporation is established to oversee the
final stages of development for the West End Underplex mall in
London.
-In Seattle, UCAS, an Aztechnology long-haul dirigible
crashes into Puget Sound when it is fired upon by Metroplex Guard
fighters for not following travel orders. Tensions build up
between Aztechnology and the Seattle government over this incident.
-In the Mediterranean, the villa of a collector of rare
animals is destroyed by a rocket and missile attack on his island.
The explosion releases his collection of greater armadillos,
allowing them to breed and establish for the first time in Europe.
-The policy of automating coffin hotels becomes much more
widespread.
2043: The Universal Brotherhood, a humanitarian organization that
preaches a philosophy based on the group consciousness equations of
Dr. Caitlin O'Connal, opens its first chapters in California: Two
in San Francisco, one in Ukiah, and one in Gilroy.
-During the World All-Star baseball exhibition between the
Yomiuri Giants, Japan's most revered team, and the L.A. Dodgers,
the Yomiuri corporation newsnets create a major uproar at the fact
that they are playing a team with Harry "Ironjaw" Bartlett due to
the fact that he is kawaruhito (changed person, goblinized). The
L.A. Dodgers win the game.
-In Great Britain, Rhiannon Glendower, an elf mage, becomes
Countess of Snowdonia in Wales.
-In Tir Tairngire, the Council and the High Prince respond to
the population's growing demands for equal representation in the
government by creating the Star Chamber. This organization divides
the country into 128 districts and each district elects a
representative to serve in the Star Chamber. The Chamber has
advisory powers over the Council and the High Prince, but cannot
force them to do anything.
-Elves in the Welsh regional Parliament begin to make major
advances.
-The Knights of Rage, a group claiming to be descendants of
Nubians who predict that the world will be eaten by dragons, begin
support of the dragon Celedyr in Caerlon, Great Britain.
-Ehran the Scribe publishes his first book Mankind Ascendent.
-The Trans-Polar Aleut Nation announces plans to dam a
tributary of the Mackenzie river to build a hydro-electric power
plant. The idea is quickly canceled by environmental interests in
the government.
-In May, Tir na nOg State President Liam O'Connor disappears.
-In Bonn Germany, the EBMM scandal occurs. It is the only
reported verified event of magical cheating in Urban Brawl.
-In Tir na nOg, Lady Brane Deigh proclaims herself Rian, or
"Queen" of the Seelie Court, a non-legislative body independent of
the Court of Stewards.
-Governor Schultz of the Seattle Metroplex is reelected.
-The construction of Freepark in Atlanta, Georgia in the CAS
is completed and the turbulent government transition comes to an
end.
-The Willamette Compustat Corporation is founded in Tir
Tairngire by Darcy Dybhavn.
-Professional gladiator sports, with fighters under contract,
have their first official matches.
-Dunklezahn begins a semi-annual vid program called Wyrm
Talk. Topics range from celebrity interviews to insightful
commentaries on culture and society.
-DocWagon goes international, as well as finally opening a
chapter in Seattle.
-Two weeks before it is to go on-line, a Seattle prototype
wash-phase-array radar near the Sioux Nation border explodes.
-The Tir Tairngire Rite of Progression is held.
-Don Franco Mueller, leader of a second Mafia group in the
Federal District of Columbia, becomes member of the Mafia
Commissione.
-The Yakuza send Japanese Assassins to Seattle to purge all
Koreans from their organization. Most are killed but some escape
to later form the Seoulpa Rings.
-Due to increased senility, Sakehisa Tajika is removed as
chairman of the board of Ares Macrotechnology.
-Leo Ridgeworth of the APN dies. He is replaced by APN
secretary Aaron Mitchell.
-Aaron Mitchell, convinced that Leo Ridgeworth was murdered,
trains 27 APN members as soldiers and launches a covert war against
the APN's enemies. Many of the APN's opponents are killed but only
six APN soldiers survive the assault.
-Several months after the beginning of the APN assaults,
Aaron Mitchell (now calling himself Xeric) calls a halt to the
violence and begins a recruitment drive to rebuild the APN.
-After a failed attempt at a hostile stock take-over of Tong
& Anvil Mining, 4-M launches a prolonged corp war against the
dwarven corporation.
-Waren Tyler, president and primary stockholder of Western
Biosystems, dies.
-In London, U.K., Protestant terrorists launch attacks using
incendiary bombs. 31 people are killed and 102 people are maimed.
2044: -On February 23, three humans and an elf attack and nearly
destroy a Downtown Metro Security precinct in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Two humans and the elf are killed, but the remaining
human is captured and revealed to be a vampire. Before her
execution the vampire reveals that a small group of her kind, led
by an ancient vampire/mage named Bartholomew, is plotting to
conquer New Orleans. "This is our age, not the age of man," she is
quoted as saying. "We will rain hell on this city until the blood
runs in the streets and we turn it into our hunting ground."
-Within days of the precinct attack, ghouls, hellhounds, and
elementals, all lead by one or more of the vampires, direct more
deadly attacks on New Orleans corporate and city property.
-In response to the vampire attacks and the inability of
Metro Security to do any thing about them, the city government of
New Orleans organizes a specially trained and equipped group of
Metro Security Officers to battle the vampires and their troops.
Combined with mages to fight the elementals and other awakened
creatures, the elite force is named the "Night Stalkers." They are
sent out in two to four-man patrols to deal with the vampire
threat.
-Within six months of their founding, the Night Stalkers have
scored twenty vampire kills. Every suspected member of the New
Orleans vampire group except Bartholemew is dead. The closest they
come to capturing Bartholemew is finding a massive library of
grimoires and tomes belonging to him. Magical experts who examine
the books call them black magic, dealing with beings of alien
dimensions and how to summon them. The books are put under lock,
key, and spell at Tulane University.
-Aztlan nationalizes all foreign-owned businesses, under
heavy pressure from the Aztechnology Corporation.
-Tir na nOg suffers from a massive heatwave induced by
chemical pollution in the air from Great Britain.
-In response to the business nationalization, Semi-open
warfare breaks out in Aztlan as some corporations attempt to hold
on to their properties.
-In Tir na nOg, further acts of Constitution concentrates
even more power into the Senate. It also states that every Tir
citizen has a right to gainful employment.
-Using the corporate war as a screen, Aztlan annexes most of
what is left of Mexico. The exception is the Yucatan, where
Awakened forces foil all takeover attempts.
-Texas initiates trade sanctions against Aztlan to protest
the annexation of Mexico.
-The rebuilding of New York City is completed.
-The International Olympic Committee is officially revived.
The results of the unofficial games of the past 12 years are
stricken from Olympic record. The games are also opened to
multinational corporate teams.
-The Research Division of the New Age Labs corporation in the
MSP Metroplex discovers a room temperature super conducting plasma.
Following this discovery, the New Age Arms corporation is formed
and initially placed under a large contract by the MSD to develop
a Plasma Shock anti-vehicular weapon.
-Construction is completed on the Tir Tairngire Civic
Building in Portland.
-A.I. Proncs is named as the new head of ANZAC's Special
Services division.
-San Francisco, California is now almost totally controlled
by Japanese corporations.
-Hanzo Shotozumi is appointed as head of the Seattle Yakuza.
His strongarm tactics once again start hostilities between the
Mafia and the Yakuza.
-James O'Malley comes out of retirement to deal with the new
Yakuza threat.
-In Tir na nOg, Ulster Museum is half destroyed in a
terrorist attack by the URF.
-In Great Britain, United Meat Products is revealed to have
hazardous levels of photochemical carcinogen in their products.
-The CAS is accepted into the United Nations.
-CAS President Alexander is reelected. Mississippi Senator
Timothy Newstrom is the new Vice President.
-Texas leads a CAS embargo on all Aztlan goods after the
Aztlan annexation of Mexico.
-At the Club Penumbra in Seattle, Concrete Dreams plays their
last concert appearance.
-Due to many members leaving because of discrimination the
Metahuman Research Assembly, an organization dedicated to
discussion and research of new technology for metahumans, now has
less than one dozen non-dwarves in the organization.
-At Lakeshore Laboratories in Minnesota, a synthetic "Generic
Gene" is discovered. This allows for growth of "generic" limbs
which can be coded with recipient's DNA prior to the graft. This
cuts down clone time by 75% but increases rejection rate by 45%.
-In Scotland, a boat containing men of the MacGregor clan is
sunk in Loch Arkaig. It is suspected that a British army submarine
is responsible.
-One week after the MacGregor incident, the military base
that housed the submarine is attacked by a bean sidhe of the
Macgregor clan. It kills one man a week for nearly a year.
-On November 6, the mayor of New Orleans declares the vampire
war finished, even though Bartholemew is never found.
-In Seattle, UCAS, a serial killer begins a spree of murders.
The media nicknames the killer the Full Moon Slasher due to the
pattern of only killing on the full moon. Due to the severity of
the crimes, The High Prince of Tir Tairngire sends a group of
Paladins to deal with the Slasher.
-Dr. Richard Raven, an Amerindian elf, and his assistant
Wolfgang Kies, formerly a suspect due to his unique shamanic
ability to shape change into his totem wolf, track down the Full
Moon Slasher. This is the first known appearance of Dr. Raven who,
along with his operatives, will go on to become high-profile
shadowrunners in Seattle.
-After six disputed decisions over whether the carrier was
still alive when he entered the goal circle, the Internationaler
Stadtskrieg Sport Verein (ISSV) modifies the rules of professional
urban brawl that as long as the ball is in the brawler's hands or
somehow attached to his body when he gets into the goal, it doesn't
matter whether he is alive or dead.
-In Great Britain, a group of radical feminist trolls manage
to gain an elected majority on the Croydon council. Although they
are only in office for a year, they manage to create all sorts of
chaos on the other branches of Croydon government.
2045: -CAS President Alexander dies in office. Though some believe
he is assassinated, no conclusive proof emerges.
-CAS Vice President Newstrom assumes the presidency, becoming
little more than a puppet for cabinet members.
-Secretary of State Gabriel McCoy fills the CAS Vice
Presidency by popular vote despite fierce mudslinging. Vice
President McCoy becomes the only force keeping the CAS cabinet in
check.
-In Chicago, UCAS, a previously unknown strain of meningitis
strikes the city. 12 schoolchildren die from the disease.
-In New Zealand, Australasia, the Maoris begin taking control
of the island, claiming it as a sovereign nation. Government
response is swift but futile, as the Maoris use magic and guerilla
warfare techniques learned during the PNG Emergency.
-The Aboriginal Tribal Council overthrow the Tasmanian
government by blocking the entrances to the Tasmanian cities (which
have been moved underground to allow natural flora and fauna to
return) and using chemical weaponry to neutralize the local
security forces. The take-over is achieved without excessive
fatalities.
-A major junk bond crash occurs in the stock market causing
disastrous economic damage.
-The commission on physical adepts in pro-sports rules that
physical adepts can compete in professional sports as long as they
have absolutely no cybernetic modifications.
-Tir Tairngire raises its age of majority to 17
-In the downtown Seattle Council Chamber, a disgruntled
councilman shoots a fellow councilman for authorizing a gun-control
bill.
-The U.N. passes a decision making the construction and
production of robots for use in military combat a violation of
international law.
-In Great Britain, the Democratic party officially announces
support for the Green party.
-Aztechnology attempts a corp-war to take-over Control Data
in the MSP Metroplex. The attempt fails and the NMC censures
Aztechnology for the deaths of innocents and demands reparations
and weregild for their actions. Aztechnology refuses and is placed
under interdict by the NMC. They receive no power, no water, and
no services.
-After two months and two failed firefights with the NMC
enforcers, Aztechnology breaks down and pays the entire sum, which
includes a substantial penalty fee. Funds are used to rebuild the
skyways damaged by Aztechnology.
-Mitsuhama Corporation extracts Keith "the Suit" Hannigan, a
noted interface technician and programmer, from Fuchi Incorporated.
Hannigan's wife and daughter are killed in the extraction.
-The Universal Brotherhood opens its Seattle headquarters.
-The Tir Tairngire Museum of Science and Technology opens a
"simsense theme park" using state of the art simsense technology.
-Paul Grigg, his mental health already deteriorated, commits
suicide.
-The first known appearance of the Seattle wiz-kid go-gang
called the Merlyns. Two gangmembers wearing their symbol (an
elaborate bird-of-prey) are killed at the Dante Corporate Complex
during the kidnapping of their top paranormal researcher, Dr.
Marcus Loman.
-The Loman Kidnapping case is closed due to lack of evidence.
-On September 8, the inhabitants of the Fulton County Stadium
pour out in a mass exodus, taking refuge around the coliseum and
building crude shelters in the parking lots. Media teams who
investigate the scene report that the membrane has gradually
deteriorated to where it no longer allows enough food to be
produced for the masses living inside the dome. The former leaders
have remained inside with their families, taking what food the dome
membrane produces. A ritual is created where an outside "domer"
can earn a position inside the dome by dethroning an inside "domer"
in a gladiatorial battle.
2046: -The first simsense megahit, "Free Fall" ,starring Honey
Brighton, is released.
-The rock group Shield Wall releases their first album.
-The policlub idea migrates to North America. The movement
spreads quickly, but with violence in its wake. The Humanis
Policlub, in particular, attracts a major following that cuts
across economic, social and political divisions. In a series of
paid advertisements, Mothers of Metahumans (MOM) denounces Humanis
as an arm of the Alamos 20,000 terrorist group.
-In the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Europe, a massive
volcanic storm erupts.
-Researchers discover a freshwater serpent living in
Scotland's Loch Ness.
-Three megacorporations, Aztechnology, Shiawase, and
Universal Omnitech, announce publicly that they have fully decoded
the mundane segments of the human/metahuman genome.
-Researchers Bruckner and Langer discover a new strain of
HMHVV virus that is lethal to nonhumans. The result of this
disease on humans is transformation into nosferatu.
-The Adventures in Time corporation announces the invention
of SensorTech body armor and VibraTech weapons. These devices act
much like virtual reality by simulating the actual effect of the
weapon or armor they are modeled after.
-The Hemlad Cartel in Tir Tairngire wins a bid for a new club
in baseball's North American League and establishes the Portland
Lords baseball team.
-In their first game, the Portland Lords beat the L.A.
Dodgers 5-0.
-The first international Urban Brawl World Cup is held.
-The StyleNet channel in London goes on the air.
-The rock musician ME-109 makes his first appearance.
-Plasma shock weapons are demonstrated in theory following
the formation of New Age Arms Company.
-Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank executive Sol Weinstein is
killed when his personal shuttle burns up during re-entry into
Earth's atmosphere. This leaves a hole in the bank's board of
directors.
-The Souix Nation strikes a deal with the Trans-Polar Aleut
Nation for military training and high-technology weapons.
-Wolfgar Marrson, president of the Metahuman Research
Assembly passes an official resolution forbidding non-dwarves from
joining.
-The effects of HMHVV virus on dwarves is first documented.
The effect of the disease on dwarves is transformation into
goblins.
-In Japan, Noguri Owaru, an executive with Mitsuhama Computer
Technologies, is kidnapped from his high-security apartment
complex. His body is later found in Chiba, Japan, apparently the
victim of a professional execution. Rumors of Noguri's Yakuza
connections are denied by MCT.
-Dr. Marcus Loman is declared legally dead.
2047: -Governor Schultz of the Seattle Metroplex reelected for a
second time.
-In Tir Tairngire, an assassination attempt is directed at
High Prince Lugh Surehand as he tours a municipal building in the
city of Eugene. The attempt fails due to magical intervention.
-Cougar Mountain Resort in the Renton district of Seattle is
completed.
-In Great Britain, a para-VITAS outbreak kills 120,000 people
in Newcastle, Tynesprawl. The outbreak is believed to be the work
of an unknown eco-terrorist group.
-Soy Joy products in London are exposed as having high levels
of neuromodulator-inhibiting algal residues in their pastas and
pizzas.
-Steven Monash, a dwarf, takes over as CEO of ANZAC.
-In Greece, the fishing village of Agnondas on the isle of
Skopelos is destroyed by a gorgon. Eleven people are discovered
petrified, fourteen ripped apart, and another ten are found dead of
no visible causes.
-Celinne Barbeau, a Quebecoise elf, is booted from the
National Assembly of Quebec for her membership of the Alliance
Metahumaine. She emigrates to Tir Tairngire.
-In Tir na nOg, The Tir government takes over possession of
Lismore Castle and begins renovations.
-Professor Matthew Hawkins puts forward his Intelligence-
Generated Reality Inversion Field theory (IGRIF) at the Chicago
Thaumaturgical Research institute. This theory states that the
fact that magic and certain metahuman races feature so prominently
and so frequently in folklore shows that these legends are
undoubtedly based on a previous Awakening, or possibly Awakenings.
Given that these legends are true, how could stories have come
about of, for example, humans destroying dragons, when anybody
attacking a dragon with a sword would be fried by a spell before he
could do any damage? Based on this theory Hawkins concludes that
there must be people immune to magic. And if they existed then,
they must exist now. Hawkins embarks on a worldwide search for
magically immune people.
-In June, London Bridge station is bombed by an unknown
terrorist group. The station is declared irreparable and closed
down.
-The North American Basketball Association (NABA) finally
allows cybertech on players after lengthy, bitter arguments.
-The Tsawassen band, an anglo tribe of the Salish-Shidhe
Council in the NAN, try to block the development of Vancouver
International Airport as a protest against "intrusive technology."
-The Salish-Shidhe Council Rangers and the Sioux Nation
Special Forces "Wildcats" stage a war game. The Sioux "Wildcats"
barely win with a winning point total of just 5% higher than the
Salish-Shidhe Rangers.
-The Policlub Blut und Ehre initiates a string of chopper
raids in the Government Zone of airspace in the Federal District of
Columbia.
-In response to the Blut und Ehre chopper attacks the FedPols
develop major enforcement over the Government Zone of airspace in
the Federal District of Columbia.
-Mullins Chadwick releases his new book Wake Up Call: Living
in the Awakened World.
-The Metahuman Research Assembly changes its name to the
Dwarven Technical Guild and elects Wolfgar Marrson as Guildmaster
for life.
-In Tir Tairngire, the Portland Civic Stadium is rebuilt to
accommodate 25,000 people.
-The Great Dragon Morgor'ash, CEO of Vibra Technologies,
becomes CEO of Fantasy Kingdom Adventureland Theme Park in the MSP
Metroplex.
-Chrome Centurions becomes the latest rage for security and
bodyguards in the MSP Metroplex. They come in four models:
Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
-In New Orleans, CAS, a series of brutal murders and
disappearances begin in Nitemare Alley. These events remain
unsolved.
-Due to a rumor that he is alive, the kidnapping case of Dr.
Marcus Loman is temporarily reopened.
-Richard Villiers, one of the three owners of Fuchi
Industrial Electronics, divorces his wife Samantha, the head of the
Fuchi Systems Design group.
-In Scotland, a series of killings at the Inverness naval
base is identified to be the work of a Each-Uisge. The animal
escapes one attempt from the military to kill it before it is
destroyed by a local shadowrunner.
2048: -The Aztlan government negotiates the Veracruz Settlement
with several megacorps, in the wake of a corporate military strike
on Ensenada.
-Alan Adams, former CEO of the Colbert Group, an Illinois-
based multi-national corporation, is elected president of the UCAS.
-Edna Wallace, former governor of Louisiana, is elected
president of the CAS. Jeanette Malory returns to the Vice
Presidency.
-Former president Newstrom retreats to self-imposed exile to
the Louisiana swamps.
-Anonymous death threats against Newstrom force Louisiana
Governor Ivory McCabe to declare martial law in the southern
portion of the state.
-CAS Secretary of State Douglas Bennett is discovered dead
with his elven mistress. Innuendos of policlub involvement fill
the press.
-CAS President Wallace approves a gag order on police and
federal investigators assigned to the Bennett murder. The press
accuses Wallace of initiating a government cover-up. National
Guard units are called to escort the suspect from the courthouse
following the arraignment.
-Aztechnology unsuccessfully tries to take control of the
Federated-Boeing Corporation.
-Zorgon Cybersystems becomes a world leader in the
manufacturing of skillwires and the coding of skillsofts.
-Maria Mercurial makes her first hit single, "Who Weeps for
the Children?"
-Queen Euphoria makes her first simsense production, "Shotgun
Blues."
-Legendary rock-star Jetblack disappears on his way home from
a concert. He is later presumed dead due to street violence.
-Harry "Ironjaw" Bartlett retires from the L.A. Dodgers with
a lifetime record of 5,301 thrown strikeouts, beating Nolan Ryan's
final total of 5,299.
-Councilman Bob Perkins of the First Hill area in Seattle is
filmed taking money from Lone Star and FBI agents disguised as
soldiers of Mafia Don James O'Malley. Perkins receives only a two-
year suspended sentence.
-Thomas Martelli of Global Technologies Inc. dies, naming
Urlan Manes as the new CEO.
-Ivar J. Lindstrom, Mayor of downtown Seattle, is reelected
for his third term in office.
-Samantha Tilliam, Mayor of Everett, Seattle is reelected for
her second term in office.
-Carl B. Vanderslam, Mayor of Renton, Seattle is elected for
his third term.
-Zax Pound-Down is elected as Mayor of Auburn, Seattle.
-Drew Anderson is elected as Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia in the
CAS.
-The Puyallup district of Seattle offers grants to any
business or corporation that will implement specified anti-
pollution controls in their production systems.
-Doctors Eileen Van Buren and Peter Carmine publish their
highly controversial book, Studies in Awakened Biology.
-In Nottingham, Great Britain, Chinese Tong crime groups kill
32 members of a rival Indian crime family in what becomes known as
the Hirwani massacre.
-The British government announces that, although the conflict
with the Lambeth Martyrs has not been resolved, they will begin
redevelopment grants to bring employment back into the district.
-A 500 foot plume of flaming toxic gasses erupts from the
ground north of Merseysprawl in Great Britain. The plume of mildly
neurotoxic materials continues for a week before going out.
-A subsidiary of the Yokogawa corporation is fined over three
million nuyen by the Ute Nation for Effluent release into the
Escalante River.
-With the help of Sandra Willowfall, the elven mage bass
player for the group Til Es Hault, the rock band Eight Immortals is
caught using magic to hype up audiences. The lead singer Tony Li
and his magician hirelings are all convicted of magical assault.
-In France, the Bordeaux grape vineries are struck by a
phylloxera plague which all but destroys them.
-The Children of Uranus, an obscure religious sect in
Finland, is revealed to have been manipulated by a blackberry cat.
-The International Mercenaries Guild votes the M22A2 assault
rifle as the Best New Weapon of the year.
-Honda Motors wins the NorAm Sports Car Circuit Gold Cup for
the second year in a row with the Honda-GM 3220 ZX Turbo.
-Bikes 'R' Us names the Harley-Davidson Scorpion the "Best
Highway Bike" of the year for the fifth year in a row.
-Fuchi Incorporated hires Professor Susan Athenson, a noted
psychologist and matrix programmer right after she turns in her
doctoral thesis.
-Sim-K-Tel starts distribution of old movies in simsense.
-Mitsuhama Computer Technologies is found guilty of
sponsoring Yakuza activities in the MSP Metroplex. The senior
executives are sentenced to fifteen years in Crystal City and the
corporation is banned from MSP Metroplex offices for three years.
The senior officers all die within six months of entering Crystal
City.
-Designer Zoe of New York enters the world of high fashion by
designing custom-fitted, one-of-a-kind outfits for an exclusive
client list.
-In Sweden, a herd of Dakkarynes breaches the Storsjon dam
complex in Ostersund. Using their corrosive secretions they burn
away the plascrete side-locks releasing millions of gallons of
various toxic wastes into the water supplies of the city and
surrounding military bases.
-In Great Britain, the London Police lose the controversial
McFadden case, prompting them to make a policy to respond to calls
within five minutes.
-Gunther Steadman, the leader of the Der Nachtmachen
policlub, is assassinated in Hamburg, Germany.
-Shavan, the shadow-liege of the Revenants policlub is
murdered in Seattle, UCAS. A connection is suspected between her
death and that of Gunther Steadman.
2049: -Governor Schultz of Seattle signs an exclusive trade deal
with representatives of Tir Tairngire. Seattle, already a major
cultural and economic center for the UCAS, NAN and large segments
of the Awakened population, now takes on new importance as the only
access to Elven goods and services.
-A major oil spill breaks out on the Louisiana Coast.
-In Great Britain, 31 members of the British nobility are
killed in Dartmoor forest by the group Deep Green while on a hunt.
-In Minnesota, UCAS, a flock of over 300 Carrion Crows
attacks a small town on the shores of Lower Red Lake. No less than
35 people are killed and over 110 are injured.
-The "Racial Revenge" trial of Douglas Bennett's accused
murderer begins. Despite President Wallace's gag order, several
facts important to the defense are aired on Atlanta's evening news.
Hostile witnesses from both sides confuse the issue with dogma and
political slogans. A mistrial is declared near years end. The
suspect is moved to Texas' new maximum-security facility to await
a change of venue. Texas Ranger Units replace the National
Guardsmen outside the prison.
-Lopez, captain of the Aztlan Court Ball Union champion
Ensenada Eagles, dies in a plane crash.
-Celinne Barbeau becomes mayor of Salem, Tir Tairngire.
-Professor Matthew Hawkins reappears from his search with
Miles Freeman, the worlds first reported nega-magician (magically
immune person).
-"Lock-on" Lorenzo Hayes, left fielder for the Manhattan
Yankees, tops the records of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Sauharu Oh
with 847 career home-runs and 4,195 hits.
-Texas, seeing that the former Mexico territories are
prospering under Aztlan rule, lifts the trade sanctions against
Aztlan.
-Portland begins planning for a cutting-edge subway system
connecting the downtown core with the outlying regions of the city.
-An official proposal comes before the Ute Nation Elected
Council to create a tribe to be known as the Wasatch Awakened. It
is tabled for further consideration.
-A wire-addicted secretary in the downtown Seattle Council
Chamber goes berserk and opens fire on the councilmen. One is
killed and three are wounded.
-Warren Cartwright, guitarist for Concrete Dreams, hosts an
impromptu acoustic jam session at Club Penumbra in Seattle. Over
a dozen musicians, including Maria Mercurial, sit in.
-On September 10, Mayor Michael Alvarado of Tacoma in the
Seattle Metroplex is murdered in front of the Tacoma Sheraton.
While leaving his limousine he is accosted by a woman who claims he
is the father of her child. She then pulls out a knife and stabs
Alvarado twice in the chest. After whispering something in his ear
the woman runs off. She is never caught for the killing.
-The UCC names the Everett district of Seattle the best area
to start a new business.
-New Age Arms successfully completes its contract with the
MSD and develops a functioning Plasma Shock weapon.
-The Chrome Centurions security corporation discovers a
light-weight, high-strength crystal-metal alloy. This enables them
to develop a highly superior armor protection for its security
personnel at a fraction of the weight of conventional armor.
-Tensions between the Yakuza and the Mafia in Auburn, Seattle
explode when The Yakuza attempt to assassinate several Mafia
leaders at Eric's Italian Restaurant in Enumclaw. The gunfire of
"Eric's Ten-Minute War" leaves 20 people dead, 14 of which are
innocent bystanders.
-Mayor Pound-Down of Auburn, Seattle is forced to fire his
personal assistant Kevin Delancy for his ties to the Yakuza.
-A student of paranaturalism discovers that a creature once
believed to be a cat shapeshifter is actually a new awakened
animal. The creature is named the Talis Cat.
-The Delancy Scandal is exposed in the MSP Metroplex. The
Director General of the MSD is discovered to be involved in the
black market and smuggling operations.
-In New Orleans, Louisiana, CAS, Kyle Dremen, a notorious
boko, is found innocent of practicing ju-ju (a form of magic
illegal in Louisiana due to its use of (meta)human blood
sacrifice). The ruling is given despite the five zombies raised by
Dremen produced as witnesses.
-Leonard Aurelius, through a cunning proxy campaign, ousts
Damien Knight as chairman of the board of Ares Macrotechnology.
-Saab Motors brings home its fifth consecutive win at the
Euro-Rally with the Dynamit 776TI.
-A total of four non-hostile planes are shot down over the
Government airspace zone in DeeCee due to mistakes in security.
-The kidnapping case of Dr. Marcus Loman is again reopened
due to a reported sighting.
-The Zeta-Impchem corporation develops a chemical that when
used against a Bayard horse, it inflicts excruciating pain on them
when they try to use their powers of mist form, thus making them
easier to capture.
-Ryoi Shawase, a major shareholder of the Shiawase
Corporation is killed. According to rumor, Shiawase is killed when
an assassination attempt upon Sadato Shiawase from Soko Shiawase
goes bad.
-A single mated pair of normally solitary cerberus hounds is
photographed for the first time.
-Leaders in the fashion world begin to market designer
clothes in the "street mercenary" style.
-Tina Cole, wife of suspected embezzler Andrew Cole, dies of
natural causes.
-In Tir na nOg, another Establishment act is passed placing
the Church of Ireland as the official church of the nation as well
as implicitly excluding the Catholic church.
2050: -The seventh generation cyberdeck is introduced, now down to
keyboard size.
-Scott Mislan, image coordinator for the MegaMedia
corporation, announces the sale of the-50 millionth copy of Honey
Brighton's simsense megahit "Free Fall." Mislan also announces
that the next Honey Brighton simsense, "Rock Solid" is currently in
post production at MegaMedia's Seattle studios, under the hand of
Free Fall's famed director, Wilt Lipton.
-In Seattle, UCAS, at the estate of William Howell, a massive
firefight breaks out between Lone Star forces, the Redwing gang of
Kid Stealth (a street samurai operative of Dr. Richard Raven), and
forces of the Mizu-Kagayaite Yakuza over Nadia Mirin, Vice
President of the Natural Vat corporation. Also involved in the
battle Are the great western dragon Haesslich and Mizu-Kagayaite
oyabun Hidiki Yamamoto. The battle is so violent that it is later
referred to as the Night of Fire.
-The Algonkian-Manitoo Council suffers food shortages when an
attempt to genetically engineer improved nitrogen fixing for their
genetically altered grains results in a microorganism that
decreases the root viability in the crops.
-On March 19, Randall Grant, one of the first theoretical
thaumaturges, is killed in a freak accident. Rumors spread that he
was actually murdered by Alamos 20,000 to keep him from revealing
their connection to Dr. Armand Duplessis, a leading member of the
materialists.
-An elvish colony is established in the Arrowhead region of
Northern Minnesota. The Great Northern Elvish Council establishes
its headquarters there.
-In Australasia, Steven Monash announces a surprise holiday.
As a result ANZAC stock drops three points and corporate employees
experience extreme panic.
-On October 31 in Tir na nOg, four unknown elven mages gather
at the Knockeen dolmen site and raze it to the ground in a ceremony
lasting hours.
-The Tir Tairngire Rite of Progression is held.
-Harold Jonathan Mason, one of the Founders of the Metahuman
Order of Occultists, Sorcerers, and Enchanters (MOOSE) dies.
-Before MegaMedia's new Honey Brighton simsense "Rock Solid"
can be released, both Honey Brighton and "Rock Solid's" director
Wilt Lipton defect to MegaMedia's closest competitor Brilliant
Genesis, taking with them all known copies of "Rock Solid."
-In Seattle, UCAS, Dr. Richard Raven and his operatives
rescue Moira Alianha, an elven princess, from Seattle crime lord
Etienne La Plante.
-Oklahoma City is named as the new trial site for the Bennett
murder trial. Each side prepares new expert witnesses, cautioned
that inflammatory remarks will be punished by stiff jail sentences.
Evidence linking the defendant to a brutal policlub surfaces,
further injuring the defense case.
-In Atlanta, thousands of orks, trolls, elves, and dwarves
converge on the capital, calling for increased awareness of the
metahumans's plight. Members of the militant Metahuman Organized
Rebellion (MOR) accuse the CAS of encouraging genocide by their
inaction.
-Aztlan introduces lethal game shows for high-cash prizes
like "Suerte y Muerte" (a gladiatorial amateur contest where
citizens, condemned criminals, and other such people fight contract
fighters for a 100,000 nuyen purse.)
-The Universal Brotherhood enjoys international growth.
Consul Gail Walker is elected president of the organization.
-In the Tsimshian Nation, a ferry is dragged underwater by a
creature believed to be a kraken. There are no survivors.
-De Brize, captain of the Aztlan Court Ball Union champion
Zempoala Cats, is killed during a war between two Veracruz go-
gangs.
-Major advancements in Cyber- and Biotechnology occur.
-Axe Slayer, an up and coming neo-metal revivalist rock star,
is killed during a performance when his exploding codpiece
detonates prematurely. Sales of the video of this performance make
millions.
-The Suzuki Aurora Racing Bike wins the top three places in
the Pan-Pacific Motorcycle Circuit.
-In Great Britain, Duke Charles Hamilton of Caimbridge dies.
-The British government establishes a Royal Commission to
investigate an outbreak of cholera and typhoid fever in
Merseysprawl caused by the terminal collapse of the sewer system.
-Mayor Michelle Herbert of New Orleans, Louisiana is elected
to her second term.
-Malcolm Jenice-Goodine is elected mayor of Eugene, Tir
Tairngire.
-Chrome Centurions security corporation introduces a security
service with personnel wearing their revolutionary new body armor.
This armor has the same amount of protection as medium security
body armor but, in addition, has built-in sensors and increased
battlefield management capabilities.
-GMC Motors completes its twenty-millionth 4201 jeep at its
DeeCee plant.
-In Seattle, Aaron Rand, a local Seattle playboy dies of
simsense overload at Pulse, an exclusive simsense club. Rumors
abound that he was slipped a snuff-BTL chip.
-Armored clothing is now considered high fashion.
-Governor Schultz of Seattle initiates a program of urban
renewal in the Redmond Barrens by installing new street lighting.
The lamps are promptly shot out by the residents.
-In Minnesota, UCAS, a simsense film crew is attacked by a
pack of Fenris Wolves near the Boundary Waters. Fifteen crew
members are killed. The only survivors are six crew members on an
elevated platform.
-In the MSP Metroplex the MSD shifts the MPC to exclusive use
of Plasma Shock weaponry.
-Construction begins on the Portland subway system.
-In Seattle, UCAS, Reverend Dr. Lawrence Roberts, a Seattle-
based televangelist, is killed by the ghost of his former partner
Thomas Harrison, a small-time con man whom Roberts had murdered
earlier for possession of the 500,000 nuyen worth of bearer
credsticks embezzled by Andrew Cole.
2051: -Construction is completed on the first line of the Tir
Tairngire subway system, connecting Lloyd Center, the Convention
Center, the Memorial Coliseum, the Port of Portland Terminal 1,
Northwest Lovejoy Street and Northwest 19th Avenue, West Burnside
Street and Broadway, and the civic building on Northwest Gilsan.
-In March, the Lovecraft Institute in the MSP Metroplex hosts
the International Association of Arcane Academia (IAAA).
-On April 7, inhabitants of the California Free State towns
of Gilroy and San Martin seemingly go mad and start a war between
each other. By the time the police step in and control the
situation both are almost empty of people. 10% of both town's
populations are dead. The rest have fled to safer areas.
-In Great Britain, the Bodmin Hunt group is killed by a pack
of hell hounds.
-In Australasia, the Queensland University of Technology
Magical Studies Department suffers a total of seven fatalities.
-Haesslich, a great Western Dragon and chief of security of
United Oil's Seattle branch, is killed in a fight with well-armed
shadowrunners.
-In Tir Tairngire, Concrete Dreams performs one of their
famous improvisational drop-ins at the Chrome Rat in Salem.
-Princess Caroline of Great Britain marries Swiss banking
magnate Jurgen Meier, further strengthening links between their two
nations.
-An Airlink Transit plane in the Pueblo Corporate Council
collides with a dragon. Two passengers on the plane are killed.
-In the Algonkian-Manitoo Council, an anti-industrial
terrorist group called the Manitoo Brotherhood bombs a GMC plant.
fifteen workers are killed.
-Maranouchi Entertainment merges with Hatari Computers. The
new conglomerate is named Nihon Enterprises.
-In Tir na nOg, a terrorist bomb explodes killing over one
hundred innocent people.
-Chamac, captain of the Aztlan Court Ball Union champion
Tenochtitlan Tigers, is found washed up on a beach in Cancun,
apparently drowned.
-In U.K., the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment is
assassinated by a radical environmental group.
-Elven rock star Darkvine makes his first appearance out of
Tir Tairngire.
-During a debate between corporate security officers and
shadowrunners on the show Heavy Hitters, the host Jermaine Jerard
is injured when a street shaman's conjured spirit shoves Jerard's
head into a holocam.
-Simsense star Euphoria releases her new production "Final
Fling".
-The Revenants policlub explode a bomb onboard the Werner-
Voss corporate shuttle on its run from Berlin to London. All 175
people on board are killed.
-In Seattle Metroplex, three berserk fire elementals set
large numbers of fires at the Renraku Arcology. Dozens of people
are injured.
-Former Vice President of Global Technologies Edgar Kepple is
found dead in his downtown Seattle apartment five days after his
resignation from Global Technologies. The cause of death is
apparently strangulation.
-In Atlanta, massive rioting breaks out at the Fulton County
Stadium.
-In Seattle Metroplex, the Seattle Kingdome is attacked by a
street gang known as the Red Death. Considerable damage is done to
the stadium.
-Dr. Richard Raven reveals that Global Technologies is
producing a number of illegal BTL chips with a full range of
emotions and the skills of a complete persona.
-In Seattle Metroplex, riots break out at the Seattle City
Hall between the Humanis Policlub and various metahuman rights
groups after the city government announce plans to declare the
second Monday in December official Awakening Day.
-Governor Ivory McCabe of Louisiana disappears mysteriously.
-Governor McCabe is replaced by Edwin W. Edwards III.
-Marta Morgenstern, Sam Virtue, David Buckley, Bob Sinclair,
Rino Elverhoy, Albion Foss, and Lija Tatras are elected Reves of
Salem, Tir Tairngire.
-Stefanie Orlowski, Jan Houde, Carole Hegedos, Ken Janske,
Betty Scott, Chuck Pogue, and Der-Hoy Yi are elected Reves of
Eugene, Tir Tairngire.
-On April 19, A hitchhiker, identified as Gareth Hill, is
found dead in the Imnaha River near the Hell's Canyon area of the
Salish-Shidhe Council. The body is terribly mutilated. Hill was
famous for being saved from a murder conviction in Salish-Shidhe by
reporter Frederick Davitt.
-Dr. Caitlin O'Connal is killed when a minigun being cleaned
by a bodyguard accidently goes off.
-Reporter Frederick Davitt is found bludgeoned to death in a
dumpster behind his DeeCee apartment building.
-Reporter Zebediah Wanderly, a known associate of Frederick
Davitt, is killed when Grodin's Tavern in Seattle explodes. Juli
Parkhurst, a decker who goes by the name Icepick, is also killed in
the explosion. Evidence suggests that Wanderly was trying to cause
the explosion himself when Parkhurst discovered him and tried to
interfere.
-On June 3, Gloria Yu, a Seattle grocery store owner, is
assaulted by an Ork street gang. Baily Security Control Systems
uses the incident as an extremely successful marketing gimmick for
their products.
-The Yamatetsu Corporation purchases of Biogene Technologies
of San Diego.
-A raid on Saxkatcher Industries in Seattle reveals evidence
that the Merlyns go-gang is involved in BTL running.
-Professor Edmund Pipen of the Lovecraft Institute of arcane
studies in the MSP Metroplex is found insane and raving following
an experiment with astral travel to a "theorized" dimension of the
netherworld.
-In Spain, a massive riot breaks out in Barcelona. Witnesses
claim to see wraiths, which may be responsible for the riot due to
their emotion control powers.
-The style of armored clothing becomes much more exaggerated
and starts to copy the lines and textures of heavier armor.
-In the U.K., 37 people are arrested at the equinox
celebrations at Stonehenge amidst reports of widespread rioting and
major supernatural happenings.
-In the California Free State, San Francisco Bay area is
rocked by an earthquake 5.5 on the Richter scale.
-In Seattle Metroplex, nine Laubenstein paintings are stolen
from the Laubenstiein Plaza Hotel lobby gallery.
-In Seattle Metroplex, an unidentified gunman opens fire with
an assault rifle in the Seattle Downtown Lone Star precinct,
killing two officers and injuring another.
-Independent reporter Reid exposes a takeover attempt by the
Graz-Burya Corporation of the MosTrans manufacturing division.
Graz-Burya denies any hostile takeover attempt and MosTrans
manufacturing division is instead taken over by Ares
Macrotechnology.
-In Seattle Metroplex, Five people are killed when a bomb
goes off at the Universal Brotherhood Chapterhouse in Tacoma,
Seattle.
-In October, New Age Arms begins an 18-month testing period
of Plasma Shock weaponry with Knight Errant Security in Seattle,
New York, and Chicago metroplexes.
-In the MSP Metroplex, six animal trainers at a 4-M facility
are killed trying to train Fenris Wolves as guard animals. A heavy
response team from the MSD are required to put the wolves down.
-In Spain, a pro-animal rights group liberates six terminally
ill crested barbarians from Cordoba labs. The labs hire street
samurai and call in military choppers to recover the animals before
they start an epidemic. Five of the crested barbarians are
recovered. One is never accounted for.
-In the Souix Nation, Shiela Wolffriend becomes the new
director of the Office of Military Intelligence.
-The Zurich-Orbital Habitat initiate a policy of only hiring
staff that have family members.
-Ambri Costellor replaces Henry Carmichael of director of
Research and Development for Armor International.
-Akae Ono of Ares Macrotechnology is elected to the Corporate
Court.
-In Tir na nOg, Flaithri O'Connor, a skillwire designer for
Eireann-Tir Publishers, has a "cerebral accident". He is
sequestered in their forest hideout in Killarney.
-Noted journalist Domingo Higuera releases his award-winning
simsense documentary, Born Lucky: The "Teela Brown" Factor in
Shadowrunning. The story details the life of a shadowrunner with
an unusual luck factor.
2052: -The Manitoo Brotherhood terrorist group bombs a plant owned
by Litton Industries in the Algonkian-Manitoo Council on the false
rumor that they are building guidance modules for long-range
tactical nuclear weapons.
-Tir na nOg announces tighter traveling restrictions for non-
elves seeking entrance.
-Tir Tairngire diverts its trade flow from Portland and
begins negotiations with the Seattle Metroplex to shift a large
percentage of its international trade from Portland to the Seattle
ports.
-In the MSP Metroplex's Como Zoo the first litter of Saber-
Tooth cat kittens born in captivity are announced.
-President Adams of the UCAS is re-elected.
-President Wallace of the CAS is re-elected.
-Xochitalco, captain of the Aztlan Court Ball Union champion
Tenochtitlan Jaguars, kills himself during the award ceremony when
he dedicates his win and his death to Tezcatlipoca and jams a snap
blade into his own chest.
-The East Coast of North America suffers a record breaking
heat wave.
-Tokyo, Japan wins the bid for the Olympics of 2056.
-Japan announces that, in keeping with the Yamato ideal,
metahumans will not be permitted to compete with humans in the 2056
Olympics in Tokyo, but will be scheduled in special "exhibition"
contests. Tir Tairngire and Tir na nOg respond furiously with U.N.
resolutions.
-In Greece, the Athens Intelligencer documents the first
footage of the petrification powers of gorgons.
-In Aztlan, Aztechnology begins a slash-and-burn program in
an area of the Yucatan. A radical environmental group responds by
attacking the Aztechnology facility in the area. Public opinion
turns against the environmental group and Aztechnology effectively
destroys it. It is later rumored that the environmental group,
which until the attack was using legal means to block Aztechnology,
was not involved in the attack at all. The rumors say that
Aztechnology staged the attack to sway public opinion.
-A fire at the Bannockburn Bakery in Seattle offers evidence
of a protection operation run by the Merlyns go-gang.
-The street mercenary style of clothing begins to lose favor
in the fashion world.
-Chrome Centurions security corporation introduces a new
combat armor, which provides the same amount of protection as heavy
security armor but, like their body armor, is equipped with a full
range of sensors and a battle management system.
-In Tir na nOg, Prisona-presumptive Tuam O'Connor and Raine
O'Reilly are married.
-A new type of BTL chip called 2XS enters the black market.
This chip is more potent and addictive than regular BTL chips and
it works on the physiological system of the human body.
-Crashcart, a new company offering emergency extraction and
medical service, enters the market in competition with DocWagon.
They claim that they will make extractions where DocWagon won't and
at better rates.
-Mariane Corbeau, Lone Star Security's Vice President of
Enforcement in Seattle, is almost killed in a car crash.
-Crashcart makes big news when they extract Daniel Waters, a
news anchorman with KOMA, from a gang attack after a DocWagon team
fails to break through the gunfire.
-Daniel Walters dies on the air five days after his injury of
some form of seizure.
-Buddy, one of the original deckers of Echo Mirage, dies of
neural damage sustained in the Matrix.
-Crashcart is acquired by the Seattle branch of the Yamatetsu
corporation. Yamatetsu fires most of the upper echelon, some of
which later disappear.
-London experiences a wave of serial murders dubbed the Bone
Boy Killings. The murders are performed in a daily pattern of one
killing the first night, then two, and so on up to seven when the
pattern goes back to one. The bodies are found mutilated as if
skinned and chewed on. The hearts are removed. These killings
last less than a month when they abruptly cease. No official
explanation is given by the police.
-Miles Otaka, one time senior manager for Lochlann products,
is found dead in his Matthews Beach condominium. Originally
thought to be the victim of an apparent suicide, the death is later
attributed to natural causes.
-Pier 69, a popular club in the Seattle Metroplex, is
temporarily closed following an accident involving a hovercraft
crashing into the building's structural supports.
-In the Seattle Metroplex, a wave of killings strikes the
Redmond Barrens. Bodies are found mutilated for many weeks.
-In England a fire breaks out in the Devonshire area.
Thousands of residents are forced to flee their homes.
-In Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, rival gangs start an
especially vicious gang war. For four days the gangs fight over
what appears to be local turf.
-Tir Tairngire raises its age of majority to 18.
-Leo, a popular rock star, knocks loose the lighting supports
at his show at the Skeleton Club in the Seattle Metroplex, sending
the entire rack of lights crashing to the stage. Despite the fires
and small explosions, Leo continues his show and it is a huge
success.
-Gerard and Alain of the French retro-acoustic rock band
L'Infame, try to kill each other. Although neither is successful,
Gerard's legs are severely damaged. It is later revealed that both
men are BTL users.
-The Eastern Tiger Corporation of Korea attempts a takeover
of the Mitsuhama controlled Highstar Corporation. In a surprise
move the Renraku Corporation prevents the takeover by buying a
major portion of Highstar stock. This is under secret agreement
with Mitsuhama and that Renraku has agreed to sell the stock back
to Mitsuhama once the Eastern Tiger threat is gone. When Eastern
Tiger loses interest in Highstar, Renraku refuses to sell its
Highstar stock to Mitsuhama. Mitsuhama Seattle's president,
Toshikazu Nakamura, appeals to the Corporate Court, but to no
avail.
-Mitsuhama Seattle's president, Toshikazu Nakamura, is sent
back to Japan in disgrace. He is later found dead of multiple
beating wounds and two gunshot wounds in the back of the head. The
police rule Nakamura's death as a suicide.
-Martha S. Grimes is elected chairman of the Highstar
Corporation's board of directors. Grimes is well known as VP
Marketing for Renraku Seattle.
-In Seattle, UCAS, a major storm breaks out along the
coastline of the city. It is rumored to have been magically
conjured using a focus called the Hurricane Rattle by an unknown
shaman.
-In the CAS, a major price-fixing scandal is uncovered by
regulatory agents. A large consortium of pharmaceutical firms is
discovered to be artificially jacking up the prices of
immunosuppressants used in implant surgery. The agency charges all
of the corporations involved, then without explanation, withdraws
the charges.
-The Microengineering Division of Fuchi Industrial
Electronics announces a major breakthrough in "growing" specialized
crystals in the microgravity of their orbital lab. They also
announce that the first shipment of these crystals will reach Earth
for release on the market very soon. Almost overnight Fuchi stock
jumps 450 percent.
-Rumors hit the market that the Fuchi organic crystals are
flawed and Fuchi Microengineering will not be able to fill the
orders on time. Fuchi stock prices begin to drastically fall. The
Yamana family (one of the three controlling families of Fuchi)
begin to buy up stocks at an astounding rate.
-In Chiba, Japan, the Chiba Virtual Stock Exchange crashes in
the middle of trading. This prevents the Yamana takeover attempt
from succeeding.
-Mariene Carstairs of Saeder-Krupp is elected to the
Corporate Court.
2053: -Hohiro Sato, Vice President of Operations of the Renraku
Corporation and executive assistant of Renraku President Inazo
Aneki, disappears.
-Tir Tairngire announces further restrictions for visitors
and persons wishing citizenship. In addition, it announces
increased border patrols and a large upgrade of equipment for
defense of its lands.
-In U.K., fourteen members of the British Army are killed in
their barracks by a radical environmental group.
-In Japan, a group of unarmed metahumans are fired upon by
soldiers, killing seven.
-The Japanese government announces that two soldiers under
investigation for firing upon the metahuman crowd will not be
prosecuted. A riot breaks out in response and troops are sent to
disperse the rioters. 38 people are reported injured, though none
are killed.
-New magical theorems are published detailing a new skill;
anchoring. This ability allows one to cast a spell but not have it
go off until a specific circumstance triggers it.
-A Spirit Air jumbo jet crashes in the Andes Mountains with
254 passengers aboard.
-A Seattle University research expedition returns from
Southeast Asia with only four of its twelve person crew alive.
Unconfirmed reports state that the expedition ran afoul of a
Vietnamese bandit king.
-The Seattle branch of the Yamatetsu corporation goes through
corporate reorganization. The shock waves caused in the corporate
community causes many smaller corporate corporations, mainly
subsidiaries of Yamatetsu, out of business.
-In Seattle Metroplex, a giant Geoduck the size of a
motorbike is found by boaters in Puget Sound.
-Hurricane Ethelbert strikes the east coast of the UCAS.
Extensive damage is caused to the DeeCee-New York Corridor. Many
areas are put under martial law.
-In St. Louis, UCAS, the landmark Moolah Temple is burned to
the ground. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
-Jonathan Highstar, former executive president of Highstar
Incorporated, a prominent Seattle-based entertainment company,
commits suicide.
-In Scotland, fourteen members of the MacDonald clan and
their servants, including Alexander and Rory MacDonald, twin
nephews of clan leader Sir Iain Macdonald and Sir Iain's daughter
Morag, are killed in what appears to be a massacre initiated by the
rival Campbell clan.
-In Lisbon, Portugal, Johnny Spinrad announces the planned
acquisition of the Principality of Monaco.
-Robert Gray Bear, 14 year old son of Gaetronics Corporation
President David Gray Bear, disappears.
-In Chicago, UCAS, the offices of Crusader Security are
attacked, apparently in retaliation for Crusader attacks against
the Byrne metahuman housing projects.
-An Eco-terrorist group calling themselves North Americans
for North America (NANA) shoots down a Boeing C7-10 Cargo carrier
over the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff. The crew of three
are killed and the cargo of expensive electronics is lost.
-The new techno-thrash group calling themselves Epinephrine
Max releases their album "Basilar Membrane."
-Robert Coventry, husband of CAS Environmental Director
Catherine Coventry, disappears after last being seen at his
residence.
-Talks between the CAS and Aztlan concerning acid rain caused
by Aztlan factories break down after four seemingly productive days
when Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Juan Cuatal suddenly
announces that Aztlan was no longer interested in talks and the CAS
could ". . . rot in their own bile." The announcement comes mere
hours after it was disclosed that the husband of CAS Environmental
Director, Catherine Coventry, is missing. As a result, both
nations go on peak military alert.
-The Salish Shidhe council suspends coastal fishing rights
for two weeks due to attacks by the terrorist group The Seven
Riders.
-In the Seattle Metroplex, a plastic container filled with
the ash remains of Traxx, a suspected shadowrunner, is left on the
front doorstep of Governor Shultz. No reason for this is given.
-Aztechnology begins negotiations with the Dwarven Technical
Guild for what many believe to be the largest outside contract
Aztechnology has ever offered. Details on the project cannot be
obtained but it is believed to involve orbital weaponry.
-In Seattle, an explosion goes off during an Urban Brawl game
between the Berlin Backbreakers and the Renraku Invincibles. Six
players are killed. No one claims responsibility for the
explosion.
-The cities of Seattle, UCAS and Brisbane, Australasia begin
negotiations for a mutual trade agreement to speed customs clearing
of shipments between the two cities.
-ANZAC, a major producer of food products in Australasia,
suffers a major strike, slowing production to almost a standstill.
-In Boston, a major chemical spill strikes Boston Harbor.
Environmental damage is kept to a minimum but a large number of
fish die due to contamination.
-The group Epinephirine Max breaks up after a fight on stage
between members Dirk Blitzmeister and Dashing Death.
-During a Boston-Seattle game, a player carrying the ball is
blown in half by his opponent's blaster. The body flies ten meters
and the half with the ball lands in the opposing goal zone. The
ISSV rules the goal legal due to the rule that goals are counted as
valid whether the scoring player reaches the goal under his own
power or not.
-In the Seattle Metroplex, three bodies are found floating in
Seattle harbor. At first believed to be squatters, they are later
identified as undercover MSD officers from the MSP Metroplex. The
men were apparently investigating organized crime when their covers
were blown.
-The CAS Destroyer Garfish disappears on a routine mission.
Communication with the ship was lost seven days previous but
trouble was not suspected due to the communication interference
caused by a storm front that hovered over the coastal area for the
previous week.
-In the Seattle Metroplex, many violent confrontations
inexplicably break out between corporate forces and just as
suddenly stop soon after. Corporate leaders have no comment on the
incident.
-In Philadelphia, a fire breaks out at the Germantown
research center of the Special Projects Unit of the Kono-Furata-Ko
International corporation (KFK). The fire is reportedly due to an
accident in magical research. Of the seven researchers present,
only Robert Neiman, Steven Jorge, Thomas Harris, and Adam Malik
escape alive.
-In the Sioux Nation, the Office of Military Intelligence
undergoes major reconstruction. Many members are relocated and
some, including director Shiela Wolffriend, vanish.
-Rebel forces initiate a civil war in Aztlan.
-In Tir Tairngire, the elven rock group Til Es Hault, known
for playing at sold-out stadiums, plays three nights to a standing-
room-only crowd at the Chrome Rat in Salem.
-Ares Macrotechnology takes over the Atlanta-based Syntronic
Biotech corporation, recently divested from Saeder-Krupp.
-A UCAStrak maglev-bullet train going from Seattle to San
Francisco derails. 157 passengers are killed. Within an hour
UCAStrak's stock plummets 32 percent. UCAStrak blames the accident
on Tir Tairngire-based ecoterrorists.
-Independent reporter Maria Thorpe, reveals proof that the
UCAStrak crash was caused by substandard maintenance on the train.
Thorpe accuses UCAStrak of criminal negligence. This causes
UCAStrak stock to fall even further.
-The Shiawase corporation buys out UCAStrak through its
subsidiary, the Ressha Corporation. This prevents UCAStrak from
going bankrupt.
-In Japan, an Aztechnology-controlled gengineering lab
explodes. Rumors persist that Aztechnology blew up its own lab to
keep it from being taken over by Mitsuhama Computer Technologies.
-Jacques Barnard, executive vice president of Yamatetsu North
America, relocates from Seattle to Kyoto, Japan.
-In Tir na nOg, two famous test cases make membership in the
Unseelie Court difficult to bring to trial due to the fact that no
one has established that the organization actually exists.
2054: -In London, a rash of murders break out. The victims are all
women with names identical to the victims of the 1888 "Jack the
Ripper" slayings. All are prostitutes and all are found horribly
mutilated. The media all but ignores these killings.
-After the fourth London Ripper murder, the killer is
revealed by Lord Geraint of Wales to be a clone of Prince Albert
Victor Christian Edward Windsor, Duke of Clarence and one of the
suspects of the original Ripper killings of 1888. The clone,
created by the Transys Neuronet corporation and later killed by
Lord Geraint, is the first recorded fully cloned human being.
-In Tir na nOg, Sean O'Brien and Patrick Robinson of the New
Ulster Revolutionary Movement are arrested and convicted of 12
counts of murder.
-The CAS destroyer Garfish is found at the bottom of the Gulf
of Mexico. No bodies are found onboard.
-The NANA terrorist group shoots down three Lone Star
helicopters. Lone Star responds by initiating a joint raid against
NANA with the Salish Shidhe security forces. Eight terrorists are
killed and four wounded. The NANA leader escapes.
-In the California Free State, a military observation post
just south of redding explodes. Tir Tairngire involvement is
suspected.
-The ANZAC strike ends.
-The Seattle-Brisbane Trade Agreement is signed.
-A chartered plane carrying 13 members of the Tacoma Wings
urban brawl team crashes over Sioux territory.
-In Tir Tairngire, Count Gerard McCoy, a civilian member of
the Board of Military Advisors with which the Council of Princes
consults on Military matters and frequent companion of Prince Jenna
Ni'Fairra, disappears from public view.
-In Philadelphia, there is a rash of serial murders
characterized by the extreme mutilation of the bodies to the extent
that gender cannot immediately be identified. The media dubs them
the cannibal killings.
-In Philadelphia, Robert Neiman, Steven Jorge, and Thomas
Harris, three of the survivors of the KFK Special Projects research
lab fire of the previous year, as well as Bernard Ohara, head of
KFK, are killed execution style. Robert Malik, the last survivor
is suspected but never found by Minuteman Security. Another
suspect, a female assassin known worldwide as Striper, escapes
Philadelphia in the company of a local street mercenary known as
Ripsaw. Both disappear.
-Lacrima, a self-styled "mage-historian" in Tir Tairngire,
declares that the exact date of the volcanic eruption that formed
Crater Lake in Tir Tairngire is 3454 B.C., July 22, 09:35 hours.
The scientific community, known for denouncing Lacrima's theories,
responds with total silence.
-In Tir Tairngire, the military seals off Crater Lake for
unrevealed reasons. Access is completely restricted and secured by
land vehicles, combat drones, jet patrols, and magical security.
-In Denver, a Tir Tairngire commando team initiates a raid
against Data Haven, the home base of the Shadowland computer
network, in order to prevent information on Tir Tairngire from
being released. The team accidentally strays into Sioux territory
and is attacked by a group of the Sioux Special Forces Wildcats.
The event causes a large, yet short lived, diplomatic incident and
is unsuccessful at preventing the Tir Tairngire files from being
broadcasted.
-In Tir Tairngire, a terrorist smuggles a bomb into the
Telestrian Habitat in Portland. The bomb detonates killing both
the terrorist and twelve inhabitants. Hard Green, Alamos 20,000,
the Muslim Ork Army, TerraFirst!, the Nuevo Kachinas, and half a
dozen other terrorist groups claim responsibility.
-Aiden FitzGerald, President/CEO of Matsushima Computer
Technologies (Tir Tairngire) is arrested for espionage against
NeuroTech and Willamette Compustat. The Matsushima's Tir Tairngire
assets are all confiscated by the Tir Tairngire government.
-A Sioux-registered airbus suffers engine and servo systems
failure and crashes into the Crater Lake area of Tir Tairngire.
There are no survivors.
-The luxury vessel Gilded Hope is lost while trying to cross
through the security veil of Tir Na nOg. All 8 crew and passengers
are lost.
-In Seattle, UCAS, radical ork activist Preacher holds a
rally attended by seven thousand orks and trolls. Preacher
encourages all listeners to "take up the torch" and fight back
against metahuman racism "at all times, and with due force." Soon
after the rally, supporters of Preacher begin a policy of active
resistance against Lone Star Security.
-In Boston, UCAS, a team of scholars and archaeologists
report a major archaeological find 130 miles off the coast of
Crete. The expedition, funded by the Atlantean Foundation,
discovers a major treasure trove of artifacts in an area reported
by historical records to be the former location of an island called
Thera. Thera is known as a possible location of the legendary lost
city of Atlantis.
-In Seattle, UCAS, Janie Lamet, a young human child, is
rescued by Solista, a sasquatch, from a cave-in after two days of
being trapped. The media immediately cashes in on the event with
made-for-trideo features.
-The Banco Euro Internationale is discovered to be forging
accounts. Bank President Fellipe Tolonka and fourteen bank
officers are arrested after a week-long undercover investigation.
The initial tip given from a clerk who noticed a discrepancy in one
of the accounts of which the only possible cause could be a bank
officer. The financial damage to the European Economic Community
is estimated to be in the billions, possibly trillions. Over one
hundred corporations face financial collapse due to the scheme.
-In the Salish Shidhe Council, a Sea Drake that has been
attacking shipping lanes resulting in destroyed property and many
deaths, is caught. The creature is discovered to have been
cybernetically altered by unknown parties.
-In Seattle, UCAS, Flex Lenard, a popular trideo interviewer
known for extreme ultra-conservative views, is abducted after a
gunfight leaving his four bodyguards dead.
-A semibalistic flight to Tokyo crashes just short of Narita
Airport. All 109 passengers plus a flight and cabin crew of ten
are killed. Among the passengers are Martha S. Grimes, chairman of
the Board of the Highstar Corporation, and 17 members of her
personal security party.
-In Gilroy, CalFree, Valerie Stupnikov, a known shadowrunner,
is found murdered execution-style.
-Fuchi Industrial Electronics initiates a hostile takeover of
FTL Technologies Inc.. A Sioux-based software developer and
inventor of the popular "Warpdrive" language, as well as holder of
many breakthroughs in cyberdeck technology.
-In the former Yugoslavia, Serbian and Croatian hostilities
flare up again.
-In Seattle, a minor breakout of a new retrovirus,
inaccurately labeled VITAS 4, strikes in contained areas. For some
unknown reason it seems to primarily strike members of the street
gang subculture.
-In Seattle, Lone Star corporation executives Sarah Layton,
Vince McMartin, and Marcus Drummond are killed in an automobile
accident.
-In Seattle, UCAS, Dr. Theodore Drumming Bear, a beloved
magical physician known for his low cost treatment of street
people, is found murdered.
-In Tir na nOg, government officials announce a relaxation of
their strict policy of isolation and separatism.
-In Seattle, UCAS, trideo personality Flex Lenard is rescued
from his kidnappers after over 150 days in captivity. He is
slightly injured during the rescue attempt in which 3 members of
the Knight Errant strike team leading the rescue are injured. All
7 of the kidnappers are killed.
-In Seattle, UCAS, 2 inmates, Ironhead Tiamartz and Wilson
Gressman, escape from the Hollywood Correctional Facility. After
an intense 3 week manhunt, they are recaptured and sent back to
prison.
-A computer virus infects the stock market computer causing
a massive economic crash. The event is later called Black Friday
and results in the market being closed until the virus can be
purged from the system.
-In Yokohama, Japan, several unexplained fires break out at
9 industrial sites. 6 of the destroyed complexes are owned by Ares
Macrotechnology. Witnesses near the scene of the fires report
seeing a dragon flying in the area several minutes prior to the
fire.
-In Seattle, UCAS, grunge rock star Fetid Nikky is found dead
in a dumpster behind the Viper Club by Rikki Ratman, a bartender at
the club. Reports indicate that the body is drained of all fluids
and severely beaten.