Retaliation, where to now? Options

[imperialus]

Long story short I was trying to fence some very hot chemical weapons, nasty nerve gas called "agent blue" (I don't think it even has stats it's sorta like the death star) that eats through most normal chemical seals.

Anyhow I had a fence that I felt I could trust far enough to see the deal through. He'd been referred to me by another NPC that my character trusts a great deal. Not only that but Jean felt the need to get rid of this stuff ASAP since very BAD THINGS would happen if he was caught with it in his possession. I doubt there is even a felony serious enough to charge him with when it comes to trafficking this stuff. Not only that but the only other serious fence that would likely be willing to take it off our hands was associated with the New Islamic Jihad and this nerve gas falling into their hands would likely cause even WORSE THINGS to happen.

Anyhow I go to the meet while the rest of the team guards the goods in a secure location and I start negotiating with the guy. We get to the point where we are starting to talk price at which point he tells me he'd rather not pay for them and one of his goons suddenly has a gun pointed at my head. He also jammed my comlink so my connection to our technomancer suddenly went dead. He then drugged me and I blacked out.

The rest of the team got paranoid after about 15 minutes of radio silence so they changed locations.

I woke up chained to a chair with a hood over my head on a boat somewhere. After much cussing I agreed to a second deal where we would actually get some payment for the goods. I made the arrangements with the team after which he knocked me out again and I didn't come too for about an hour. Unfortunately for the guy who double crossed me he didn't know I was a mage. After he left I did some astral recon on the boat and found out it was a pretty decent sized yacht with only a single rigger piloting it. I popped back into my body, used a bound spirit to get rid of my blindfold and began raising a ruckus. Rigger came down to get me to shut up and I hit him with a mob mind and took control of the ship.

I then contacted the TM again and told him the deal was fubar'ed. I also gave him the address of the fixer, sent him his picture and asked him to get our two attack dogs (the street sam and the physad) to teach him a lesson, with an RPG to the storefront as a physical demonstration, preferably after they knew he was home too. I'm 90% sure the hit was successful. At the very least his storefront doesn't exist any more.

The question is where to now? We're still sitting on 10 25-30L cylinders of VERY BAD nerve gas, with a shiny new boat, a rigger/autonomaton and a few crates of small arms. Where the heck do I go to unload this stuff? I could try my Seripham contact but I'm not sure he'd want it. And how should I cover our asses to keep a certain (hopefully) dead fixer from coming back to haunt us?

[PlatonicPimp]

No one who would pay for that can be trusted to have that, and any attempt to unload it will result in dealing with more people like this last guy. Now, obviously you want to make some money off this, but you have to ask yourself: is the chances you'll have to take worth what you are likely to get out of this? Are their easier ways to get the same amount of money? Even without the moral considerations (which aren't negligable, even to a runner such as yourself), this stuff is too hot to handle.

I say destroy the damn stuff, write it off, and consider your shiney new yacht the payment for your trouble.

[laughingowl]

Some times calling it a wash is best.

I would seriously consider either delivering the toxin to a 'safe' holder. (Star if you trust them, the 'manufactor', etc) or destroying them (if you can safely).

Destroying them you have the problem people might not belive you did and still come looking for them.

Returning them, you need to be careful not to leave a trail back to you.


Sometimes though things are too hot to handle.

Call the boat and the small arms your payment. (I would make sure your ficer (you said you trust so dont think he was in on the double deal), knows the story of the double cross and why you took action. That should keep too much heat from coming down on you for the boat even if the double-dealing fixer lives.).


If you want to try to squeeze something out of it.

Find a reasonably well trusted if low rating contact with the 'athorities'. Let him know wheere the big bad stuff is.

Let him get credit for finding / recovering it, and just let it be a 'favor'.

Really something are much much much better not to be associated with.

[Westiex]

Offer to sell it to the local authorities.

Ask them if they're currently pissed at someone and how much they'd pay for the stuff to be planted at said location. You'd probably take a hit on the price, but at least you'd get something for the stuff, the authorities would get good PR and get rid of someone they disliked and they probably wouldn't be asking questions about you.

[PlatonicPimp]

Or, yah, pick someone you hate yourself, plant it on them, and then CALL the local authorities with an anonymous tip. This might be a great way to get rid of that gang problem around your hood.

Though I wouldn't trust the "authorities" with it anymore than the New Islamic Jihad. Actually, I can't think of a single group of people I'd EVER want to possess something like that.

[hyzmarca]

Selling it is going to be a chore because it is so hot. As has been said, you can't trust anyone not to double cross you. There are ways to set things up with no physical contact between you and the buyers, but my personal preference would be to just find something worth using it on.

[fistandantilus4....]

For the fixer, if it's his boat, try going over it with a catalog spell looking for ritual links. Find everything you can, then go through a process of eliminition through all the samples. Also, you could try good ol' fashion leg work. If yuo've got a technomancer, see if he can find the guys commlink, and try looking up his other contacts. See if they've heard from him lately.

[imperialus]

I seriously concidered finding a construction site with wet concrete (a dam would be nice) and making the cylinders a permanent part of the dam. Unfortunatly one of the other runners is a member of the New Islamic Jihad (no my character doesn't know) who really wants to give them to his contacts. He had been willing to let them go to my contact for more money but he's gonna want to sell them to his buddies now that plan A is out the window. Not only that but Jean has no knowlage of who exactly the Jihad member plans on selling the stuff to. All he knows is that it seems like a pretty low offer and it is going to some guy in the Philipenes.

[hyzmarca]

My recommendation is to put the canister onto an aerial drone and have the mind-controlled rigger disperse it over Tenochtitlan. Record the whole thing with clearsight equipped mini-blimp, edit together the most gruesome footage, and release it onto the matrix with the label "For Dzitbalchen"

That'll make things interesting.

[toturi]

Maybe this is your GM's way of creating PC conflict?

[kzt]

This is live agent, not a binary agent? Odd, as something that aggressive would be hard to transfer into a munition.

Anyhow I'd suggest that most shadowrunners can't really stand up to multiple governments assigning several thousand highly motivated and trained guys to hunt them down and who are offering 25 million rewards. Unless you are confident that there are no clues that link you to this and none of the various people who know that you have this won't roll over on you for enough money to live in luxury for the rest of their lives I wouldn't sell this.

And if someone is planning to kill a few thousand people, why wouldn't they kill another few infidels?

I'd suggest getting it collected before something bad happens. Or dropping it into several thousand feet of water without getting a fix, or otherwise disposing of it. A nice hot fire in a concrete vault would work, but I'd add a couple of large oxygen tanks to maximize combustion if the boiling agent blows the containers before it breaks down completely.

[Fortune]

Give it to the Draco Foundation. Might serve as a good introduction for future work.

[imperialus]

[imperialus]

[fistandantilus4....]

[ChicagosFinest]

What about other chemical companies. I think UO is big in Chemicals try them? Well I'm not sure if you want to deal with a corp wht about an academic cirle as well?

My best advice is store it in a secure locker/bank vault, or smuggle it to an out of town contact via that shinny new yacht you got.

If your feeling evil... have your contacts spread the word your looking to sell it and hold a net auction (EBAY!) that way your ananomus. Make sure your technomancer sets up the node and have it bounce from place to place so you cant be tracked. That way you dont have to worry about getting kidnapped.

And do the catalog spell the best Defence is a good offense dont let up until you know he is dead.

[FlakJacket]

One word for you my friend, Madagascar. More specifically Fort Dauphin. Ever since all the native inhabitants left the island and the pirates moved in to the ruins its been pretty much one big free for all of black market commerce. The old Pirates sourcebook even mentioned that you could buy and sell biological weapons there if you knew the right people.

So as I see it you've got three main options. First option being you sail off to Madagascar or wherever and try to sell the stuff whilst attempting to stay alive. You could sell them on the black market if you're not choosey, to a government agency or NGO if you like or even randsom it back to the original owners at a large discount. Second one is to head out to the Pacific, find a massive active volcano and then use drones to remotely dump the lot of it into the very centre of the thing to incinerate the canisters. Third and final options is to find someone you don't really mind using it on. I'd suggest finding a nice small tin-pot African micro-nation sitting on top of gold, diamonds or other precious commodity, loading all the Agent Blue into a fleet of sprayer drones and then taking out the government and army before moving in and declaring yourself the new President For Life.

[Penta]

Thoughts: If you want some excellent cosmic warm-and-fuzzies, call the folks at Ft. Lewis (or your nearest UCAS military base) via more-or-less untraceable methods, and inform them that chemical munitions of unknown provenance may be found at a (location where you dropped them off).

No pay, but y'know what? Anybody else might actually use the things.

FlakJacket: That was considered, I believe, when it came time for the USA to destroy its chemical weapons; Nogo. As a result, they have to build specialized plants to do the job. Most are in very remote areas, for obvious reasons.

[Fortune]

[FlakJacket]

[kzt]

[Fortune]

[kzt]

[Fortune]

You might have that many people involed, depending on the specific person contacted, and of course the method of contact itself. Trails can be covered if acted upon quickly enough.

All things considered though, I wouldn't trust any Government or Megacorp with this. I'd rather take my chances with Draco.

[Penta]

If you just send a note to JTF Seattle HQ or the like, it'll go from the duty officer on up; something like this would go all the way up to the Situation Room in the White House. Easily hundreds of people will know of the call, more of the deployment of forces to secure the munitions.

I think it's underestimated how *hard* it is to really conceal things in a beauracracy.