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Crimson Jack

Dec 16 2004, 05:55 PM

Post #26

Running Target

Group: Members
Posts: 1,129
Joined: 11-June 03
From: Tir Tairngire
Member No.: 4,712

QUOTE (Crimsondude 2.0)

Jay Adams was born in Frederick, Maryland. He grew up in a nice middle-class family. His father was a Lieutenant in the Frederick PD, and his mother was a real estate agent. Growing up in suburban Frederick, he was never exposed to the more awful reality that existed around him. Most of the time. However, he quickly caught on, and became enamored with his father's profession as a way to save the world. He was a fine athlete and excellent student, and decided to venture off to Philadelphia for college. He was admitted into the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In three years he received his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Wharton with a concentration in Accounting. In the Spring Semester of his senior years, he met a recruiter from the UCAS Secret Service. The Secret Service has remained one of two federal agencies that investigate financial crimes. As well, they investigate counterfeiting and protect the UCAS President and other officials. While he could have taken the time to work in the private sector, earn his CPA license and apply to work for the FBI, he was hooked. He wanted to work with the Secret Service, and like most of the people who find themselves in the position of choosing--he has since bought into the institutional bias against the Bureau by the Secret Service.
The general track for a Secret Service Special Agent requires a college graduate or sufficiently skilled and experienced applicant first to successfully complete the Treasury Enforcement Agent Examination, a background investigation and a complete physical. Qualified applicants they must attend the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Quantico, North Virginia. After completing the 9-week Basic Criminal Investigator Training Program on the basics of federal criminal investigations, Secret Service trainees are then sent to the James J. Rowley Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland to complete the Special Agent Training Course for 11 weeks of advanced instruction on Secret Service protection, criminal investigations, firearm training, physical training, evasion and survival procedures and skills. Following that training, they are placed on probationary status and sent to a Field Office to perform criminal investigations. Following a period of six to eight years, the Special Agents are then sent back to the Maryland training center to train in advanced protection skills before they are assigned to a detail in a Protection Division under the authority of the Office of Protective Operations. This protection detail lasts anywhere from three to five years before they continue on their career track.
For Jay, his Secret Service career began in the Philadelphia Field Office. He was tasked to the local investigation program which was overseen by the Office of Investigations' Financial Crimes Division. He was tasked to investigate complex financial transactions and fraud. He reported to the Philadelphia Financial Crimes and Organized Crime Task Forces. He was very good at his job, analysing and investigating money trails, false fronts, and counterfeit transactions. In the three years he was assigned to the Philly FO he was involved in over 37 criminal investigations involving credstick fraud, money-laundering and securities fraud. The investigations resulted in 45 arrests and 32 convictions for violations of Federal law. Jay helped provide financial anslysis and investigations into these abuses, and assisted in the preparation of testimony of Secret Service agents testifying into the findings of their investigations or as expert witnesses explaining evidence that had been collected proving financial malfeasance and criminal activity. After three years, Jay had enough experience to be eleigible to take the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination, and was licensed as a CPA in Pennsylvania. Remarkably, he passed each of the sections on his first attempt at taking the UCPAE.
Shortly after becoming a licensed CPA, Jay was transferred to the Detroit Field Office in the winter of 2052. Working in Detroit was an interesting experience for Jay because it required himself and the other Feds who worked there to operate in a company town that was thoroughly pervaded by Ares Macrotech's influence, especially in having to deal with Knight Errant in their home town. It was especially interesting given his continued presence on the OCTF (this time focused on the Greek's Family) required him to participate on raids and serving warrants in Detroit to an extent that he didn't have in Philadelphia, and because of budget constraints and FedGov policy going back at least to the 20th century, the Secret Service relied heavily on local PD support for such activities--especially when they required the use of SWAT teams or other law enforcement special purpose units. Because Knight Errant is a massive corporation with its own purposes and agendas, dealing with Knight Errant often required having to accept being a relatively small fish in the Detroit pond. He continued to work in the Financial Crimes Division, working on credstick and credit fraud, cooperating in Matrix Fraud investigations with the Marshals Service and the rest of the Detroit Matrix Crime Task Force, and investigating money-laundering. After 14 months in Detroit, he was transferred to the Field Office's Counterfeit Division and tasked exclusively to the OCTF to perform undercover investigations into the financial dealings of the Mafia in the Detroit area, and their ties to the O'Toole Family's activities in Chicago and the McCaskill Family's activities in Milwaukee.
Jay was then sent to the Rowley Training Academy to complete the Undecover Operations program, and was then transferred to Chicago under the cover of a crooked CPA working for the Colbert Group. He engaged in a undercover investigation for 11 months which entailed him acting as a money-launderer and financial consultant for the Mafia. The investigation was abruptly interrupted after almost a year, and Jay was immediately transferred out of Chicago. Jay found himself relocated to the Omaha Field Office.
At this point, he got the impression that he was being dead-ended in a city which was rather undistinguished in the field of criminal investigations into complex criminal conspiracies to defraud the UCAS government and/or public. However, because it was on the frontline of the UCAS-Sioux border, there were quite a bit of possible activities involving smuggling and various forms of fraud and counterfeiting. It was mostly low-level grunt work, and he spent most of his time working with the military on financial fraud involving military personnel, with the rare counterintelligence investigation in conjunction with the FBI to break up the monotony.
Jay spent a year in Omaha before he was tranferred to the Rowley Training Academy in Maryland to complete the Protection Agent Training Program before he was assigned to a Protection Detail under the auspices of the Office of Protective Operations. While in Beltsville, Jay found himself well-acclimated to the skills necessary for physical protection. He had honed his firearms skills further in his dealings with O'Toole's boys. He was working around a captian who had a heavy-duty agro crew of gun-nut enforcers, and he managed to ingratiate himself well with the boys. He had also been very quick to learn and excel at his training, much as he had at FLETC and in the Special Agent Training Course.
Once he had completed the Training Course, Jay was assigned to the Washington Field Office, working in the OPO's Protective Operations Foreign Dignitary Protection Division, working closely with the USSS Uniformed Division and State Department's Diplomatic Security Service to protect the foreign missions (including the Corporate Court embassy) and Internationally Protected Persons. He also served in support roles with the various other Protection Details in WFO's jurisidiction (i.e., PPD, VPPD, FLPD, SLPD, TSPD, etc.). However, he was then transferred to the Candidate Nominee Protection Division in March 2056 following the de facto selection of Senator Joseph Carnahan (D-MO) as the Democratic Nominee for President. Jay served primarily on his Advanced Team, but was given the opportunity to occassionally serve on the Principle Team as a gun man carrying usually either an Uzi III or Ingram Warrior 10. Nothing is more fun than walking around campaign sites in the middle of summer wearing a cheap wool suit, body armor, and a large KevlarTM-lined bag with a submachinegun inside and your hand on the grip.
Following the November election, Jay was transferred to the Cleveland Field Office and assigned to the Carl Preston Protection Detail. However, after the election fiasco and the impeachment and removal of President Steele and Vice President Booth in January 2057 the protection operations were returned to full-scale activity. Following the rapid renomination process the Candidate Nominee Protection Division was put into heavy use, and Jay was assigned to Gen. Franklin Yeats' Protection Detail. When Jay was assigned to the Detail, he was placed on the Principle Team and served as the Advance Man or Point Man on Gen. Yeats' principal team. His team escorted the General across the UCAS on various campaign stops, and he was usually very close to the General. However, he was also working closely with the the Advance Team and the Seattle Field Office's Office of Protective Research (specifically the Intelligence Division) on a possible threat to the General's life. He was in a meeting with agents from OPR at a campaign rally location on July 18, 2057 when Gen. Yeats was assassinated by an FBI special agent in his hotel room. It later turned out that the agent was a Wasp fleshform spirit. Jay has never gotten over the fact that a principle was lost on his watch, even though he was not even in the same building as the General. He was about to be reassigned to provide additional physical protection for Anne Penchyk when he was given another choice.
Jay's closest ally and friend from Quantico and Beltsville was a woman named Samantha Madison. Samantha was in the same CITP class at FLETC and SATC class at the Rowley Training Center. Unlike Jay, she came to the Secret Service after serving four years in Army INSCOM where she was tasked with performing counterintelligence operations. She was assigned to the Office of Protective Research in the Denver Field Office. She was then transferred to the Washington Field Office. She moved to Seattle and was assigned to the Office of Inspection out of the Seattle Field Office. During the time, both agents kept in touch frequently except when he was working undercover in Chicago. By the time Yeats was assassinated, she had again been reassigned to the Office of Inspections, and her first case was into the working on the investigation into the security failures which led to the assassination of a Presidential candidate by a Wasp fleshform who had passed for an FBI special agent and had access to the General long enough to execute him before anyone else could react. The investigation was a massive bureaucratic undertaking between the Secret Service IG's investigation, the Treasury Department Inspector General's investigation, the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility investigation into FBI operational security, and the Justice Department IG's investigation into the FBI, and the FBI Division of Magic/Paranormal Activity investigation over the crime itself because it involved magical entities, and the Secret Services' investigation because it was the investigation of the assassination of a protectee. It was a mess, which they planned to utilize to their advantage. Samantha requested that Jay be assigned to the internal investigation due to his experience and expertise with the detail given his assignment to protect Gen. Yeats to assist her investigation of the security lapse that occurred, something which should have been prevented beforehand by the detail mage. Regardless of the FBI's failures, of which there were many, the fact that he even got close enough to Yeats to kill him was just as bad.
Jay was working on the investigation into the assassination itself with the joint task force that had been created to settle the infighting between the two agencies. They worked on the activities and background of the Special Agents assigned to the detail who did and could have helped provide the fleshform with access to Gen. Yeats. They were also investigating the agents who were conducting the other investigation. There had been rumors since the truth was revealed about Chicago that there were people inside the government who were possessed by insect spirits. This simply confirmed what everyone feared, and there was a sudden desire to root out this particular hive and any others like it precipitated by President Pritchard's orders to purge the government of all elements immediately. Sam and Jay were working to ensure that was exactly what happened by counducting a counterespionage investigation into the infiltration of the FBI and possibly the Secret Service of an unknown number of insect spirits. They spoke with every federal agent, campaign staffer and volunteer, Lone Star officer, and hotel employees and guests who had access to the hotel. They contacted local Lone Star personnel, had assistance from the Office of Magical Operations and the FBI's. They also contacted Knight Errant, who did, after all, have the most experience in combatting insect spirits. The KE personnel were of great assistance in providing technical information on the insect threat and providing skilled magicians who had dealt with the bugs long enough to develop countermeasures.
Unfortunately, the investigation was still proceeding when President Dunkelzahn was assassinated on August 9, the entire world seemed to have gone insane. The Yeats assassination investigation was still on-going at that time, but the shock of two assassinations within a month of each other was significant. Eventually, the Scott Commission would assume some responsibility for the investigation into the Yeats assassination as well, but that didn't much concern Jay. However, by the time the Scott Commission was fully active in mid-August, Samantha had been transferred back to the Washington headquarters staff to investigate the procedural failures of the Secret Service and produce answers before Congress, the FBI or the Scott Commission could find something that could be used to crucify the leadership of the Service and lead to changes being made in the agency--assuming that either august body saw the point in keeping the Secret Service around in its current state given the fact that they lost two protectees to significant acts of magical activity which they were unprepared to handle. She was later temporarily assigned to the Scott Commission a year later. Jay continued to work on the Yeats investigation in Seattle when they found a break in the case shortly after something had happened in Salish-Shidhe and a goodly number of agents from the Seattle Office of Protective Operations were sent to retrieve Nadja Daviar from the middle of Devil's Canyon. There were rumors going around about what had happened, and all of the sudden people became very eager to get people focused on other things.
The investigation found an officer from the Uniformed Division who was assigned to the Yeats detail and who had some irregularities in his background which coincided with some of the FBI agent's "missing time." They also found evidence which indicated that the intelligence that OPR had collected about a mundane physical threat to the General was falsified. It was a red herring designed to focus them on outsider threats and in fact increase the amount of security around Gen. Yeats which would include the fleshform FBI agent. That intelligence had been provided to OPR from the FBI intself, and had in fact come from the Foreign Counterintelligence Program as being a possible threat on his life from Aztlan or Aztechnology or one of their agents. The intel had looked quite reassuring, and there were even details in the investigation into the fleshform that indicated that there might have been acting as an agent for the Azzies and not as an insect spirit, which the Azzies were also now hunting openly since their existence was public knowledge. The FBI's OPR had not caught onto this information yet, and it was with great pleasure that the Secret Service was able to inforrm the Bureau that it had been compromised in one of its most senstive areas by bug spirits. Jay demanded that he be on the operation to take down the agent. Going back to Washington, Jay was very pleased to be the one to trap the agent (alive) and take him into custody. Overall, the purge of the federal government wasn't as exciting as it could have been. The assistance of DF and KE mages helped expose the few remaining bug spirits which were mostly in the military and foreign intelligence.
Following this experience, Jay found himself dedicated to his mission as a Special Agent in the Secret Service, but he also found himself concerned that this experience had led him to want to become more deeply involved in counterintelligence and counterespionage. His options were threefold: 1) Stay with the Secret Service and tranfer into OPR and do mostly analysis (Intelligence Division) or general on-site security (Security Division); 2) Try to find a job in the Intelligence Community (including the FBI); or 3) Go into the private sector, working for KE or some other corporation. He considered his options, consulted with his close confidants, and contacted some of the people he had worked with in Knight Errant about the equivalent of lateral transfers or other information about the experience working for Knight Errant in the post-Bug City world where the MSTF existed and KE was forming ACCs. He looked at the benefits, the job opportunities available to him in KE, and the work environment, and after much thought, he decided to forego his government career in March 2058.

Jesus :eek:

mfb View Member Profile	Dec 16 2004, 06:43 PM Post #27
Immortal Elf Group: Members Posts: 11,410 Joined: 1-October 03 From: Pittsburgh Member No.: 5,670	i actually don't often write deeply detailed backgrounds for my characters. i start out with a few solid facts, and develop the character's personality from there; i usually fill in other background details as the character progresses. my main character right now started this way. he started out as a mob legbreaker who married a mafia princess and adopted her son, who went freelance when he was determined to be too loyal to the old regime after the events of Mob War. since then, well, he's grown slightly.

U_Fester

Dec 16 2004, 06:58 PM

Post #28

Moving Target

Group: Members
Posts: 230
Joined: 3-December 04
Member No.: 6,863

QUOTE (Crimsondude 2.0)

Let me say, don't do this. I spent months rewriting and tweaking it. It's been fun, but still.... I've been playing for a long time, and had the free time to really put some effort into it, tying in a great deal of references to things that have occurred over the years in SR's timeline. I can't imagine many new players being able to do it (They can, but some of these refs are second nature to me). Still, you could get away with a quarter and be fine.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Adams was born in Frederick, Maryland. He grew up in a nice middle-class family. His father was a Lieutenant in the Frederick PD, and his mother was a real estate agent. Growing up in suburban Frederick, he was never exposed to the more awful reality that existed around him. Most of the time. However, he quickly caught on, and became enamored with his father's profession as a way to save the world. He was a fine athlete and excellent student, and decided to venture off to Philadelphia for college. He was admitted into the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In three years he received his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Wharton with a concentration in Accounting. In the Spring Semester of his senior years, he met a recruiter from the UCAS Secret Service. The Secret Service has remained one of two federal agencies that investigate financial crimes. As well, they investigate counterfeiting and protect the UCAS President and other officials. While he could have taken the time to work in the private sector, earn his CPA license and apply to work for the FBI, he was hooked. He wanted to work with the Secret Service, and like most of the people who find themselves in the position of choosing--he has since bought into the institutional bias against the Bureau by the Secret Service.
The general track for a Secret Service Special Agent requires a college graduate or sufficiently skilled and experienced applicant first to successfully complete the Treasury Enforcement Agent Examination, a background investigation and a complete physical. Qualified applicants they must attend the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Quantico, North Virginia. After completing the 9-week Basic Criminal Investigator Training Program on the basics of federal criminal investigations, Secret Service trainees are then sent to the James J. Rowley Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland to complete the Special Agent Training Course for 11 weeks of advanced instruction on Secret Service protection, criminal investigations, firearm training, physical training, evasion and survival procedures and skills. Following that training, they are placed on probationary status and sent to a Field Office to perform criminal investigations. Following a period of six to eight years, the Special Agents are then sent back to the Maryland training center to train in advanced protection skills before they are assigned to a detail in a Protection Division under the authority of the Office of Protective Operations. This protection detail lasts anywhere from three to five years before they continue on their career track.
For Jay, his Secret Service career began in the Philadelphia Field Office. He was tasked to the local investigation program which was overseen by the Office of Investigations' Financial Crimes Division. He was tasked to investigate complex financial transactions and fraud. He reported to the Philadelphia Financial Crimes and Organized Crime Task Forces. He was very good at his job, analysing and investigating money trails, false fronts, and counterfeit transactions. In the three years he was assigned to the Philly FO he was involved in over 37 criminal investigations involving credstick fraud, money-laundering and securities fraud. The investigations resulted in 45 arrests and 32 convictions for violations of Federal law. Jay helped provide financial anslysis and investigations into these abuses, and assisted in the preparation of testimony of Secret Service agents testifying into the findings of their investigations or as expert witnesses explaining evidence that had been collected proving financial malfeasance and criminal activity. After three years, Jay had enough experience to be eleigible to take the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination, and was licensed as a CPA in Pennsylvania. Remarkably, he passed each of the sections on his first attempt at taking the UCPAE.
Shortly after becoming a licensed CPA, Jay was transferred to the Detroit Field Office in the winter of 2052. Working in Detroit was an interesting experience for Jay because it required himself and the other Feds who worked there to operate in a company town that was thoroughly pervaded by Ares Macrotech's influence, especially in having to deal with Knight Errant in their home town. It was especially interesting given his continued presence on the OCTF (this time focused on the Greek's Family) required him to participate on raids and serving warrants in Detroit to an extent that he didn't have in Philadelphia, and because of budget constraints and FedGov policy going back at least to the 20th century, the Secret Service relied heavily on local PD support for such activities--especially when they required the use of SWAT teams or other law enforcement special purpose units. Because Knight Errant is a massive corporation with its own purposes and agendas, dealing with Knight Errant often required having to accept being a relatively small fish in the Detroit pond. He continued to work in the Financial Crimes Division, working on credstick and credit fraud, cooperating in Matrix Fraud investigations with the Marshals Service and the rest of the Detroit Matrix Crime Task Force, and investigating money-laundering. After 14 months in Detroit, he was transferred to the Field Office's Counterfeit Division and tasked exclusively to the OCTF to perform undercover investigations into the financial dealings of the Mafia in the Detroit area, and their ties to the O'Toole Family's activities in Chicago and the McCaskill Family's activities in Milwaukee.
Jay was then sent to the Rowley Training Academy to complete the Undecover Operations program, and was then transferred to Chicago under the cover of a crooked CPA working for the Colbert Group. He engaged in a undercover investigation for 11 months which entailed him acting as a money-launderer and financial consultant for the Mafia. The investigation was abruptly interrupted after almost a year, and Jay was immediately transferred out of Chicago. Jay found himself relocated to the Omaha Field Office.
At this point, he got the impression that he was being dead-ended in a city which was rather undistinguished in the field of criminal investigations into complex criminal conspiracies to defraud the UCAS government and/or public. However, because it was on the frontline of the UCAS-Sioux border, there were quite a bit of possible activities involving smuggling and various forms of fraud and counterfeiting. It was mostly low-level grunt work, and he spent most of his time working with the military on financial fraud involving military personnel, with the rare counterintelligence investigation in conjunction with the FBI to break up the monotony.
Jay spent a year in Omaha before he was tranferred to the Rowley Training Academy in Maryland to complete the Protection Agent Training Program before he was assigned to a Protection Detail under the auspices of the Office of Protective Operations. While in Beltsville, Jay found himself well-acclimated to the skills necessary for physical protection. He had honed his firearms skills further in his dealings with O'Toole's boys. He was working around a captian who had a heavy-duty agro crew of gun-nut enforcers, and he managed to ingratiate himself well with the boys. He had also been very quick to learn and excel at his training, much as he had at FLETC and in the Special Agent Training Course.
Once he had completed the Training Course, Jay was assigned to the Washington Field Office, working in the OPO's Protective Operations Foreign Dignitary Protection Division, working closely with the USSS Uniformed Division and State Department's Diplomatic Security Service to protect the foreign missions (including the Corporate Court embassy) and Internationally Protected Persons. He also served in support roles with the various other Protection Details in WFO's jurisidiction (i.e., PPD, VPPD, FLPD, SLPD, TSPD, etc.). However, he was then transferred to the Candidate Nominee Protection Division in March 2056 following the de facto selection of Senator Joseph Carnahan (D-MO) as the Democratic Nominee for President. Jay served primarily on his Advanced Team, but was given the opportunity to occassionally serve on the Principle Team as a gun man carrying usually either an Uzi III or Ingram Warrior 10. Nothing is more fun than walking around campaign sites in the middle of summer wearing a cheap wool suit, body armor, and a large KevlarTM-lined bag with a submachinegun inside and your hand on the grip.
Following the November election, Jay was transferred to the Cleveland Field Office and assigned to the Carl Preston Protection Detail. However, after the election fiasco and the impeachment and removal of President Steele and Vice President Booth in January 2057 the protection operations were returned to full-scale activity. Following the rapid renomination process the Candidate Nominee Protection Division was put into heavy use, and Jay was assigned to Gen. Franklin Yeats' Protection Detail. When Jay was assigned to the Detail, he was placed on the Principle Team and served as the Advance Man or Point Man on Gen. Yeats' principal team. His team escorted the General across the UCAS on various campaign stops, and he was usually very close to the General. However, he was also working closely with the the Advance Team and the Seattle Field Office's Office of Protective Research (specifically the Intelligence Division) on a possible threat to the General's life. He was in a meeting with agents from OPR at a campaign rally location on July 18, 2057 when Gen. Yeats was assassinated by an FBI special agent in his hotel room. It later turned out that the agent was a Wasp fleshform spirit. Jay has never gotten over the fact that a principle was lost on his watch, even though he was not even in the same building as the General. He was about to be reassigned to provide additional physical protection for Anne Penchyk when he was given another choice.
Jay's closest ally and friend from Quantico and Beltsville was a woman named Samantha Madison. Samantha was in the same CITP class at FLETC and SATC class at the Rowley Training Center. Unlike Jay, she came to the Secret Service after serving four years in Army INSCOM where she was tasked with performing counterintelligence operations. She was assigned to the Office of Protective Research in the Denver Field Office. She was then transferred to the Washington Field Office. She moved to Seattle and was assigned to the Office of Inspection out of the Seattle Field Office. During the time, both agents kept in touch frequently except when he was working undercover in Chicago. By the time Yeats was assassinated, she had again been reassigned to the Office of Inspections, and her first case was into the working on the investigation into the security failures which led to the assassination of a Presidential candidate by a Wasp fleshform who had passed for an FBI special agent and had access to the General long enough to execute him before anyone else could react. The investigation was a massive bureaucratic undertaking between the Secret Service IG's investigation, the Treasury Department Inspector General's investigation, the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility investigation into FBI operational security, and the Justice Department IG's investigation into the FBI, and the FBI Division of Magic/Paranormal Activity investigation over the crime itself because it involved magical entities, and the Secret Services' investigation because it was the investigation of the assassination of a protectee. It was a mess, which they planned to utilize to their advantage. Samantha requested that Jay be assigned to the internal investigation due to his experience and expertise with the detail given his assignment to protect Gen. Yeats to assist her investigation of the security lapse that occurred, something which should have been prevented beforehand by the detail mage. Regardless of the FBI's failures, of which there were many, the fact that he even got close enough to Yeats to kill him was just as bad.
Jay was working on the investigation into the assassination itself with the joint task force that had been created to settle the infighting between the two agencies. They worked on the activities and background of the Special Agents assigned to the detail who did and could have helped provide the fleshform with access to Gen. Yeats. They were also investigating the agents who were conducting the other investigation. There had been rumors since the truth was revealed about Chicago that there were people inside the government who were possessed by insect spirits. This simply confirmed what everyone feared, and there was a sudden desire to root out this particular hive and any others like it precipitated by President Pritchard's orders to purge the government of all elements immediately. Sam and Jay were working to ensure that was exactly what happened by counducting a counterespionage investigation into the infiltration of the FBI and possibly the Secret Service of an unknown number of insect spirits. They spoke with every federal agent, campaign staffer and volunteer, Lone Star officer, and hotel employees and guests who had access to the hotel. They contacted local Lone Star personnel, had assistance from the Office of Magical Operations and the FBI's. They also contacted Knight Errant, who did, after all, have the most experience in combatting insect spirits. The KE personnel were of great assistance in providing technical information on the insect threat and providing skilled magicians who had dealt with the bugs long enough to develop countermeasures.
Unfortunately, the investigation was still proceeding when President Dunkelzahn was assassinated on August 9, the entire world seemed to have gone insane. The Yeats assassination investigation was still on-going at that time, but the shock of two assassinations within a month of each other was significant. Eventually, the Scott Commission would assume some responsibility for the investigation into the Yeats assassination as well, but that didn't much concern Jay. However, by the time the Scott Commission was fully active in mid-August, Samantha had been transferred back to the Washington headquarters staff to investigate the procedural failures of the Secret Service and produce answers before Congress, the FBI or the Scott Commission could find something that could be used to crucify the leadership of the Service and lead to changes being made in the agency--assuming that either august body saw the point in keeping the Secret Service around in its current state given the fact that they lost two protectees to significant acts of magical activity which they were unprepared to handle. She was later temporarily assigned to the Scott Commission a year later. Jay continued to work on the Yeats investigation in Seattle when they found a break in the case shortly after something had happened in Salish-Shidhe and a goodly number of agents from the Seattle Office of Protective Operations were sent to retrieve Nadja Daviar from the middle of Devil's Canyon. There were rumors going around about what had happened, and all of the sudden people became very eager to get people focused on other things.
The investigation found an officer from the Uniformed Division who was assigned to the Yeats detail and who had some irregularities in his background which coincided with some of the FBI agent's "missing time." They also found evidence which indicated that the intelligence that OPR had collected about a mundane physical threat to the General was falsified. It was a red herring designed to focus them on outsider threats and in fact increase the amount of security around Gen. Yeats which would include the fleshform FBI agent. That intelligence had been provided to OPR from the FBI intself, and had in fact come from the Foreign Counterintelligence Program as being a possible threat on his life from Aztlan or Aztechnology or one of their agents. The intel had looked quite reassuring, and there were even details in the investigation into the fleshform that indicated that there might have been acting as an agent for the Azzies and not as an insect spirit, which the Azzies were also now hunting openly since their existence was public knowledge. The FBI's OPR had not caught onto this information yet, and it was with great pleasure that the Secret Service was able to inforrm the Bureau that it had been compromised in one of its most senstive areas by bug spirits. Jay demanded that he be on the operation to take down the agent. Going back to Washington, Jay was very pleased to be the one to trap the agent (alive) and take him into custody. Overall, the purge of the federal government wasn't as exciting as it could have been. The assistance of DF and KE mages helped expose the few remaining bug spirits which were mostly in the military and foreign intelligence.
Following this experience, Jay found himself dedicated to his mission as a Special Agent in the Secret Service, but he also found himself concerned that this experience had led him to want to become more deeply involved in counterintelligence and counterespionage. His options were threefold: 1) Stay with the Secret Service and tranfer into OPR and do mostly analysis (Intelligence Division) or general on-site security (Security Division); 2) Try to find a job in the Intelligence Community (including the FBI); or 3) Go into the private sector, working for KE or some other corporation. He considered his options, consulted with his close confidants, and contacted some of the people he had worked with in Knight Errant about the equivalent of lateral transfers or other information about the experience working for Knight Errant in the post-Bug City world where the MSTF existed and KE was forming ACCs. He looked at the benefits, the job opportunities available to him in KE, and the work environment, and after much thought, he decided to forego his government career in March 2058.

and my wife tells me I play to many games and need a life

mfb View Member Profile	Dec 16 2004, 07:05 PM Post #29
Immortal Elf Group: Members Posts: 11,410 Joined: 1-October 03 From: Pittsburgh Member No.: 5,670	you know, it's probably not necessary to quote that whole thing every time...

Critias View Member Profile	Dec 16 2004, 07:33 PM Post #30
Freelance Elf Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 7,324 Joined: 30-September 04 From: Texas Member No.: 6,714	But we don't want people to be confused about which background they're talking about!

Crimson Jack View Member Profile	Dec 16 2004, 07:44 PM Post #31
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,129 Joined: 11-June 03 From: Tir Tairngire Member No.: 4,712	:rotfl:

Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*

Dec 16 2004, 08:29 PM

Post #32

Guests

QUOTE (U_Fester)

and my wife tells me I play to many games and need a life

Listen to your wife.

This whole thing, of which this is a small part, nearly drove me insane. Seriously.

U_Fester

Dec 16 2004, 08:50 PM

Post #33

Moving Target

Group: Members
Posts: 230
Joined: 3-December 04
Member No.: 6,863

QUOTE (mfb)

you know, it's probably not necessary to quote that whole thing every time...

but it's not as fun then

Sepherim View Member Profile	Dec 16 2004, 10:31 PM Post #34
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 326 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Vigo (Spanish Kingdom) Member No.: 1,446	I usually go for the point in the centre: a background about a page long, which details why he has gotten to the actual place, and start playing from there. He gets quircks and details in game, which in turn are introduced in the background after master aproves it (well, I'm the master, so there usually is no problem with that). As for players, giving them 5 Karma Points for a story usually worked. As for Sepherim's story (short version, since it might be a bit long and I don't want to translate it now since I don't have time), here it goes: ------------------------------ Sepherim was born in a little town in the sothern border of what was to be Tir Tairnguire in the Year of the Crash. He had a nice life, and caring parents. All blew into pieces the Night of Rage, when a bunch of Alamos 20K guys raided the town from every direction. Everyone was gathered in front of the City Hall or was killed on the way. Wallace Blade (yup, I know, not a great name) was taken there by his father's hand, but lost them in the crowd. He got near a lamp post crying, and started to look for them. The Alamos guys entered the place and opened fire... everyone died but the poor boy who hid as he could. The men left the place and, when he recovered, he ran crying to the station. He had always liked computers (being so close in importance to his birth), but had never really tried anything until he took that "turtle deck" and hacked himself a ticked to San Fran. He met Nigur in that trip, another elf boy who had a terrible life at his back and knew how to survive, and both boys soon became friends. They lived as a squatter for a couple years, begging and stealing to get enough to eat, but Nigur dissapeared one night and it was impossible to find him. Alone, Wallace continued on until he tried to steal from who he shouldn't have; he was another elf, and a shadowrunner. William Harth was a lonely mercenary, and he felt pity for Wallace, or maybe he saw something in the boy that reminded him of his past. Whatever the reason, Harth took Wallace as his boy, and started to teach him about his shady world. He learnt what he needed to know about weapons, but they really didn't catch his eye. Until the day that Harth called a friend of his, Dominant, to visit him at home. Dominant was the decker in his team. They both were talking about something when Wallace, only thirteen years old, took his deck and started to use it as he best could. They soon saw him and took the deck away from him, but Dominant was impressed by his ability to use the deck without previous knowledge. So Dominant took Sepherim as his apprentice, and during years Wallace learnt the secrets of decking. And he was very good at it. They gave him the nickname Sepherim, which in Sperethiel meant "The Dagger" (I didn't know then what it really means), because he was quick and deadly as one, and knew how to hide very well in the Matrix. By the end of 2054, both runners were impressed by Sepherim, and so they paid a visit to the doc to obtain the only piece of cyberware that the decker uses: a datajack. A hot interface was a new thing completely, and Sepherim was even more fascinated by the Matrix now than it was when he started. But this years of relative happiness were to blow soon after. In 2055 Sepherim had achieved a profesional level in decking, though he never did it without Dominant overwatching him. But one night he was cooking when he received a call at home and didn't hear it; he saw the message soon after, and it shook him completely. "Harth's team had been caught during a run. Something had gone wrong, someone had betrayed them. Harth was calling, almost dead, closed inside a room and knowing he wouldn't be able to leave it alive, and Dominant had his brains fried in a van near them. It all was over. And they would go after them. Sepherim had to take a user-credistick that Harth kept in a secret place for emergencies, and a phone he had left behind. With both objects, he was to leave the house inmediately and move to Seattle, where he'd find work as a decker for Nailer, a fixer who was an old friend of Harth." Sepherim didn't have time to think twice about it, since a couple black cars reached the building's entrance by then. He took the objects and ran to the roofs. Noone knew he lived there, but still he ran as far and fast as he could. He escaped, but by a very narrow margin. He took a plane to Seattle, and got in touch with Nailer. Sepherim had entered the world of shadowrunning. -------------------------------------------- There are a couple important errors in the story, and now I know them, but when I wrote it originally we only had the 2º ed basic book, and so there wasn't much background to be used. There's another Sepherim story in the topic "OOC Second Twist" IIRC. It ain't the same decker at all, but I kept the name because I already had the nick in Dumpshock, and it was easier to play with a character who has the same name as the user than trying to remember always which is the name of the character of certain player. And, for those that know Spanish, the full story of Sepherim (from here to when he commited suicide) is hung on my webpage, both as a novel and as a short story.

kevyn668 View Member Profile	Dec 17 2004, 12:13 AM Post #35
Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,751 Joined: 8-August 03 From: Neighbor of the Beast Member No.: 5,375	You guys could use [ Spoiler ] Spoiler Tags :)

Glyph View Member Profile	Dec 17 2004, 08:28 AM Post #36
Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,116 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,449	Since we're posting backgrounds now, I'll share my original background for Rat, my 40-build point character who ironically was one of my most successful ones, and one who really changed from what he started out as: [ Spoiler ] Bull's 50+ Questions - 1. What is your character's Sex? Male. 2. What is your character's physical size? Short, very thin - underfed looking. 3. What is the color of the character's hair, eyes, and skin? Brown hair in greasy strands, hazel eyes, slightly tanned (and dirty) skin. 4. What is the character's general appearance (i.e., How does he dress, etc.)? Rat dresses in well-worn street clothing, looking slightly more like a thug or ganger than a squatter - torn denim, old combat boots and an urban camo T-shirt, and a few "punk" accessories. He has a tattoo of a purple rat on the back of his left shoulder. He tries to look vicious, but it only comes off as sullen. 5. Where was the character born (City, State, Hospital Name)? Rat was born in the Redmond Barrens somewhere. 6. What is the character's date of birth? January 16th, 2047. 7. What was the character's family life like? Rat was born and bred into crime and poverty, and as such, it all seems perfectly normal and natural to him. You pay off the cops, the Yaks, or whichever other big group is leaning on you. You use certified cred, a fake ID, or connections when you need something. You pay careful attention to gang turf and other people's street rep and need to save face - the possibility of sudden violence erupting hangs over every encounter. And that's just how it is. 8. Has the character begun his own family? Rat has no desire to start a family. 9. Where or how was the character educated? Rat learned most of his lessons on the streets, although his mom (actually, the kindly ork squatter woman who took in the abandoned dwarf baby) home-schooled him a bit. He can read (sorta) and do simple math, but his grasp of such things as history or literature is appalling. 10. Has the character ever done anything else for a living? Rat has been a small-time criminal since he has been a kid. The only change has been his slow progress from squatter to near-ganger. 11. What are the character's political and religious beliefs? Rat is apathetic about politics, although he will join in with metahuman rights demonstrations, or at least cheer them from his barstool. His religious beliefs waver between agnosticism and a muddled deism. 12. Describe the characters Moral Code. Include how mercenary he is, whether or not he'll kill innocents, etc. Rat is bitterly amoral. He is usually loyal to his friends, but he has no trouble committing most crimes. No moral problems, anyways. He is a survivor, and puts running away to survive another day over bravery. 13. What are the character's goals? Does he have any? Rat wants to be a successful criminal and retire to luxury, or at least comfort. Right now, though, a low lifestyle would be an unimaginable step up for him. 14. Why does the character run the shadows? (Why does he run the shadows still, rather than getting a "real" job?) What else would he do? He couldn't get legitimate work even if he wanted to. 15. What kind of personality does your character have? This should not necessarily be obviously stated in the background, as it is more important for actually playing the character, but it may color or add mood to the history. Rat is a petty, spiteful person. He would probably not be as nasty if more people took him seriously. 16. What special qualities does the character possess? This does not refer to skills, but rather to other things, such as how he gets along with people, whether he plans ahead, etc. Rat is determined to make it. Only his instinct for self-preservation keeps his ruthlessness at bay. 17. Are there certain things the character can't or won't do? Why? Rat is deathly afraid of BTLs ever since a friend of his died horribly due to a defective Kong Chip. He used to have a pierced nose, ears, and tongue, but after a peeved mage cast Hot Potato on him (pain, pain, pain), he got them removed and doesn't have any piercings any more. 18. What things, people, or ideas does the character hate? He hates the bullies who pick on him. Of course, he has no problems being a bully himself on the rare occasions where he has the upper hand, but who needs moral consistency? 19. What things, people, or ideas does the character love? Rat loves good beer, friendly women, and junk food. His vices are extremely prosaic ones (and even these simple ones are rarely indulged at the moment). ^_^ 20. What is the character's name? Give both full birth name, as well as nicknames, street names, etc. His adoptive mom gave him the name Rudy, but everyone calls him Rat now. 21. Determine what your character used to do, before becoming a shadowrunner (very important). Rat was a hustling street kid, then a ganger wannabe and street criminal, where he is stuck now. 22. Decide why your character left his or her old job, if he had one (also important). Rat wants to keep moving up the criminal hierarchy. 23. Come up with a reason for why the character became a shadowrunner. (This very often will tie in with #22. This is not the same as #14, but rather why he started running the shadows originally. What led him to it?) Rat isn't there yet. He might reach the lower-most rungs soon (the amateur 'runners who have a high mortality rate). 24. How did your character come to know his or her contacts? Contacts are an important part of Shadowrun, decide how and why you know them. >Knuckle Jack, Bartender (Level 1): A massively built troll who runs a sports bar, The Arena, catering mostly to trolls and orks - Jack isn't prejudiced, it's just that seeing the big crowd of orks and trolls often frightens other races out of the bar. The ones who stay, though, find that they are not unwelcome. Jack likes to talk about sports, intermixing it with the local hot rumors and gossip. Rat likes to hang out at Jack's bar. Despite all the big guys here, they seem to leave him alone. It's a good-natured crowd. >Martin, Fence (Level 1): A short, chain-smoking little man who runs a pawn shop where you can always buy and sell hot items. He is a survivor first and foremost, so don't expect him to shield you if nasty people are looking for you. He is also a tight-fisted businessman. Some people call him Martin, or even Martie, but for Rat, it's still "Mr. James", often followed by "sir". 25. Does the character have a SIN? Does the character actually use it? Or is the character one of the SINless masses? This may be affected by the characters previous employment. Rat has never had a SIN. 26. Is the character a full-time shadowrunner? Or does the character lead a Batman-like double existence? Rat is a small-time criminal, barely above a squatter. 27. Which person(s) or group(s) do you love the most? Rat loves thrash bands, although he can hardly tell the good ones from the bad ones, and he FEARS the mosh pit (where he usually gets battered around). 28. Which person(s) or group(s) do you hate the most? Rat resents anybody who is better off than him, especially if they didn't even do anything to earn it, but were just born with it. 29. Which person(s) or group(s) do you respect the most? Rat respects the criminals who have "made it" or are considered to be the very best at their profession. 30. Which person(s) or group(s) do you fear the most? Rat doesn't even like normal bugs, due to a frightening experience seeing roaches crawling all over a room as a kid. So to him, insect spirits are REALLY bad news. 31. What is your favorite color? Black. 32. What is your favorite food and/or drink? He likes junk food, and a trip to the local Stuffer Shack is a happy treat for him. He likes beer, although the cheap soy stuff is all he can usually afford. 33. What place would you most like to visit? He would love to go to any kind of hot nightclub or fancy restaurant and get the VIP treatment. 34. Which person(s) or group(s) are you most loyal to? Sadly, himself, although he would do just about anything for one of the rare women who doesn't turn him down. 35. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the most enjoyment? (Warning: Answering Sex for this question can and will result in penalties to your character!) Rat likes sitting at the Arena, where he can nosh on pretzels and peanuts, watch urban brawl on the big-screen trid, and nurse a beer for an hour. 36. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the least enjoyment? Rat hates when he has to run or hide from people, but he would rather be uncomfortable or humiliated than dead or beaten up badly. 37. What annoys you the most? When he has to deal with a public dataterm, a vending machine, or any other infernal computerized device. He could swear the damn things are out to get him, messing up anything he tries to do. 38. What (if any) is your favorite form of art? Rat does not appreciate art, just low-brow entertainment. However, he does consider porn to be a fine art form. 39. What is your greatest goal? To retire to "luxury" (a concept he has a limited idea of at the moment). More short term - to get an actual cruddy apartment to stay in, with a lock on the door, water when it is being rationed, and the works. 40. What do you think is your characters best quality? His will to survive. 41. What do you think is your characters worst quality? His bitterness and envy. 42. What is the most important thing you have ever done? He took part in a city-wide march for metahuman rights. He barely even had an idea what the march was about, though - he just got caught up in it. 43. Which religion (if any) do you follow? None. He considered becoming a Rastafarian, until he learned that you still had to BUY the weed - they didn't GIVE it to you. "So what's the point, then?" he said petulantly. 44. What is your most treasured possession (and why)? He loves Mr. Gruff, his squeaky rat toy keychain. 45. What are your three most common dreams? > He and a popular sim star, who has now become twins, frolicking in a swimming pool that is, for some reason, filled with beer. "Mmmm... beer" he will mutter in his sleep. > He has a sudden attack of the munchies, goes to Stuffer Shack, and there's no one there, so he grabs a bag and starts stealing a bunch of stuff. > He's at the Arena bar, and he's naked. All of the big orks and trolls surround him with disturbing smiles on their faces. He screams and wakes up. 46. What is the Character's current relationship with his family? Never even knew his father. His adoptive ork mom is gone now, but he remembers her very fondly. 47. If the characters family is still alive, what do they do, and where do they live? His only real remaining family are his two "brothers", one human and one ork, who were adopted by his "mom" along with him. They have gone their separate ways, though, and he doesn't even know if they are still alive. If he ever met them, though, he would still help them if they were in trouble, and he would still consider them his "brothers". 48. Where did the character learn his Skills? Informal training and the school of hard knocks, picking much of his knowledge skills simply from constant exposure. 49. Does the character have a good luck charm? What is it, and why? He has a "lucky coin", although he mainly kept it because it was negligible in cash value. He wouldn't really care if he lost it. 50. What type of music does the character like? He likes thrash metal the most, although he will also listen to pop, country, or whatever is on the radio. 51. List any past serious relationships that your character has had, and give a brief overview of the relationship. None. He is happy enough when a woman will even go out with him. 52. Where does your character live? Why does he live there? His current squat is in the basement of an abandoned tenement building. It is dry and comparatively warm, but lacking in any amenities. 53. Remember, your Gamemaster like detail, so if you can think of any other little details, quirks, or whatever that you think might please the almight GM, then add them in as well. Oh, and your GM won't use any of these details against you at a later date. trust me...:) Rat is basically a thug, although he is quicker to sneak, scrounge, scavenge, or run away than to confront someone.

U_Fester

Dec 18 2004, 05:46 AM

Post #37

Moving Target

Group: Members
Posts: 230
Joined: 3-December 04
Member No.: 6,863

QUOTE (Glyph)

[ Spoiler ]

You need help man.

Fortune

Dec 18 2004, 08:30 AM

Post #38

Immoral Elf

Group: Members
Posts: 15,247
Joined: 29-March 02
From: Grimy Pete's Bar & Laundromat
Member No.: 2,486

QUOTE (U_Fester)

You need help man.

You did notice that he stated it was a 40 Build Point character?

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