Lectura:

Posted by: Mr. Bonds

There are seven billion metahumans on Earth, and approximately two thousand dragons. Only two dozen or so of those are Great Dragons. Fear can only motivate people so far before it turns to hatred and creates a willingness to sacrifice oneself to defeat a mortal enemy. Lofwyr may possess weapons of mass destruction, but so do most of the other AAAs and far too many other powers for me to want to think about for very long. Dragons great and adult have hoards and nests full of assets of their own, and as everyone gathered here will acknowledge, money moves the world.

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I one day hope that is not true. Capitalism has corrupted enough people that it is not entirely true, but it may as well be.

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Aufheben

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You want a WMD? I can make you a WMD by tomorrow afternoon.

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Beaker

Th is all began when a small outfi t called Kandai Electronics was torched in Columbia, FDC with its legal owners inside. On its face, Kandai was a boutique electronics retailer providing components for NSA wonks who couldn’t leave their work at work. In reality, it was a money-laundering front for the Yamaguchi-rengo operated by their subsidiary Mizugumo- rengo (“Water Spider League”), an organized crew of hackers specializing in industrial espionage. Given its owners and its customers, one could attribute the arson to almost anyone in DeeCee. On the next night three other businesses in DeeCee and North Virginia were also destroyed, along with their true owners. Th e next night saw attacks against Yakuza assets in Oslo, Nagasaki, and Manila—all gumis linked to the Watada-rengo.

As far as I can tell, this was a test run. Th e immediate and overall victims were the Yakuza, but I suspect that the ultimate victim was intended to be Ryumyo. Despite their tremendous strength and magic abilities, the primary tool that dragons, especially great dragons, use to wield power in the world is nuyen. From Rhonabwy’s quiet hoard of corporate stock distributed around the world to Lofwyr’s personal ownership of Saeder- Krupp, the amassed wealth of great dragons allows them to wield disproportionate infl uence in a world that would otherwise not give nearly as much thought, lest fear, to these creatures. Destroy their fi nancial assets, and that 350,000:1 ratio of metahumans to dragons (28,000,000:1 for great dragons) might convince the mass of metahumanity that the power diff erential favors them over ancient reptiles.

Something else to consider is that there is a difference between liquid assets and the kind of legal assets that great dragons have used to infl uence the world. For as much as we have long discussed the fact that Lofwyr owns Saeder-Krupp and other greats own stock or other assets in megacorporations and other business organizations, the electronic datatrail is not always that simple because it is not necessarily true that dracoforms are legally allowed to own these assets. In some jurisdictions dragons have the exact same legal ownership rights as a house cat. Aft er twenty years, Fallen have been to operate against Ares and the Frankfurt Bank

Association on Saeder-Krupp’s behalf.

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While Miles Lanier has been operating in the shadows, it is possible that he engaged Seraphim on occasion to share with them the identity of Vogel’s backer, which Richard Villiers has known since at least 2060.

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Icarus

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Villiers has known for fourteen or fi fteen years? I wonder why he hasn’t acted on that information. He isn’t exactly known for his patience or good will. That seems like the kind of thing he’d have used to break or coerce Vogel.

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Mika

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You mean the man who now controls AresSpace, the largest of the Ares subsidiaries that directly compete with NeoNET?

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Orbital DK

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Sonuvaslitch. I would tip my virtual hat to him if I owned such a thing.

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Bull

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We’re getting off-topic here, folks.

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FastJack

So how do you strike two killing blows when the targets are great dragons? In Hestaby’s case, the answer would surely involve the theft of her talon clippings. Th e clippings serve as material links to her, which could be used in ritual magic. In Rhonabwy’s case, it would also require a means to strike with a material link. He also has no shortage of powerful enemies, especially elven enemies, who would love to strike him down for all of the grief he has caused the Tírs and other elven nations. I want to rewind the clock a year, back to when the dispute between Lugh Surehand and Jonathon Reed was heating up before the Watergate Incident. It was speculated on JackPoint that Reed sought the Sextant of Worlds because it would provide a means to bypass or defeat Surehand’s magical defenses. A year later, rumors persist that the sextant is still out in the world waiting to be rediscovered again. Perhaps the same item would also be useful to the Surehand and other former Princes in alliance with the Seraphim. Th at is hardly the only artifact they have sought. Others include items from corporations, dragons’ hoards, research institutions and museums, and the Vatican’s own stores of artifacts, magical weaponry, and dangerous or forbidden items.

I know this is all a great deal of speculation, and by all indications this is based on a limited sample size and my own estimation. It is estimation and analysis borne of a half century of confl ict. I won’t say for certain that one night all of the former Seraphim will rise up as one to strike a deathblow against Ares, but I wouldn’t be surprised if—when—that happens.

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Just don’t expect the survivors to commit seppuku afterwards. Suicide is a mortal sin, after all, and cannot be justifi ed as an act of faith like the other acts the Seraphim commit on a regular basis.

TRICKL

E-DOWN

EFFEC

TS

. . .

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Such big words. I guess /dev/grrl has fi nally taught you to type instead of scrawling over everything with crayons or autocannon rounds.

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Bull

My suspicion is that if one were to pursue dragons’ fi nancial assets, then it would focus mostly on manipulating the digital ownership of assets. It could be as simple as destroying fi nancial records or more complicated actions intended to transfer rights and ownership, or at least facilitate the purchase of an asset by a third party or the freezing of an asset by a government agency like the IRS or an inter-corporate regulatory body such as the Corporate Court Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, it would also be worth noting that it could be possible to track assets or attacks on them based on what is trending according to Brokerage X or other information brokerages. most people forget that the only reason the Draco Foundation

exists is because Dunkelzahn was granted UCAS citizenship by an Act of Congress, which is the only way a non-metahuman can become a citizen in that country. Th eir fi nancial assets are wrapped in legal fi ctions and complicated shells, obfuscating the truth that many of these dragons may have their claims recognized in private, but only because those claims have never really been challenged in courts of law. If someone or some group was to make a concerted eff ort to do just that, it could change the fi nancial landscape of the world. Th at is what, I am certain, has stopped anyone from trying so far. As Art Dankwalther’s vendetta against Richard Villiers proved, once actions begin to affect other megacorporations’ fi nances or the global economy as a whole, Th e Powers Th at Be will kill you and take your stuff .

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Rumors persist that Dankwalther’s assets were diversifi ed and hidden away sufficiently that some of his empire remained beyond the reach of the Big Ten. Of course, there is also the matter of the people who he used to implement his campaign. Plenty of the work was compartmentalized and performed by one-off shadowrunner teams. There is also the matter of why there is an open Interpol warrant for Zvad Karpov and Armand Lopin for unspecifi ed fi nancial crimes.

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Fianchetto

In fact, Mr. Dankwalther’s actions against Villiers and Novatech seem to have been at least an inspiration for these moves against Yakuza fi nancial operations. Going aft er these gumis seems a test for this particular party, much as Art went aft er Tokugawa Technologies and later the Gunderson Corporation before waging total war against Novatech, a war that Novatech could have lost if not for the IPO that led to NeoNET’s creation as well as the combined response from the Corporate Court that Art had become enough of a threat to the Big Ten for them to respond with overwhelming force. Runners have taken on the Yaks in sprawls like DeeCee to ruin physical assets and pursue the men and women who commit these fi nancial crimes and protect them from being uncovered; bankers, lawyers, fi xers, and so on. If they want to uncover and wrest fi nancial infl uence from the dragons, then it would take a number of Matrix datatheft s and electronic or physical sabotage in order to fi nd and break those shells.

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I remember when Gunderson fell. It took Miami and most of South Florida with it, and nearly destabilized the Caribbean League. Little Jimmy Harvin sold Atlantic Security and the rest of Gunderson’s assets to Aztechnology in return for a seat on their board. That made Aztechnology a much bigger and indelible presence in the League’s affairs. I’m not against people making my life easier, but that didn’t. It fucked up everything by strengthening Aztechnology where they are not wanted. So if someone wants to go down that route again of causing collateral damage that ends up giving the Azzies or shitheads like them more power, then I’ll be the fi rst one volunteering to put a bullet in them.

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Kane

ShadowSea Quicklink

BROKERAGE X

Brokerage X (“BX”) is an Undernet information and stock exchange run by 0111011001, €spion, and a few other prime European hackers that emerged from the Oslo Black Stock Exchange over twenty-fi ve years ago. Their busi- ness model focuses on engaging in highly illegal insider trading by exploiting the fi nancial intelligence provided by shadowrunner clients about the results of jobs they commit. BX is then able to invest their fi nancial stocks in a diverse portfolio hidden through a complex series of shells and cutouts across many global exchanges. Capital gains earned by BX’s investments are then passed back along to their shadow client. BX is quite exclusive and requires signifi cant retainers and deep background investigations on potential shadow clients before they are allowed to use the service. Since BX engages in insider trading using information gained through criminal activities, virtually every law enforcement agency and corporation seeks its closure. Its secrecy and exclusivity, however, has allowed BX to remain an elusive mark for fi nancial cops worldwide.

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Speaking of dragons and fi nancial chicanery, the Frankfurt Bank Association is still attempting to isolate and takeover Brokerage X. BX is seen as a valuable source of fi nancial intelligence on the FBA’s competitors, but would also be a lucrative business in its own right for the drake-run corpora- tion if it were able to take over the fi rm.

TRICKL

E-DOWN

EFFEC

TS

. . .

I want to reiterate that engaging in such a conspiracy requires a deft hand. Th e dragons are not remotely alone in wrapping their fi nancial and corporate assets in these webs and shells. It is just the way business is done, and the easiest way to earn the ire of everyone from the Corporate Court to the shadow banker who handles your personal earnings from runs so that you can keep up payments on your home and purchase all those neat toys is to begin untangling and corrupting the fabric of these transactions and arrangements. It is dangerous, but it can be done. Just ask the Mizugumo-rengo, Kihara-rengo, Korogai-gumi, or Ichiwa-kai.

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Also remember that dragons were able to amass their hoards for a reason, and this reason goes right back to the tools Mr. Bonds glossed over. Their physical and magical strength allows them to intimidate and otherwise control people, which helps them get the nuyen and other assets they want. They also are tremendous long-term thinkers. All this is to say that when you deliver a blow to a dragon, expect them to be able to recover quickly and to hold a grudge.

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Winterhawk

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That’s why test runs are necessary. The people behind them know that once their real effort commences, they’re going to have to start throwing heavy punches, and they won’t be able to let up for a second. That takes preparation.

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Cosmo

In document UNIVERSIDAD PRIVADA ANTENOR ORREGO (página 34-39)