Ok so things were in their usual state of equilibrium in the 2060s. Corps were doing their thing. Shadowrunners were running as usual. And small terrorist groups were just a fact of life. That was the way of things…

You might loose a factory once a year to some radical eco-terrorists, but you wrote that off as the cost of doing business, seeing as how your factory is demolishing the local environment by cutting costs anyway, so you saved money.

I assume the reason many of these small terrorists groups exist is because it is not cost effective for the Megacorps to track them down and get rid of them.

Then Winternight and Pax hit.

The cost in lives, and more importantly, the cost in property damage is incredible compared to the size of the group. Even many Megas are hit hard.

After 9-11, we here in the U.S. basically went crazy. We knew of such organizations but never imagined the impact of one of their attacks. So we get incredibly paranoid and security conscious (Not sure if we really are more secure, but hey perception is what it is all about.)

So now after the Crash do the Megacorps take small terrorist groups far more seriously than before? Does panic reign supreme? Do the Megacorps radically increase their security and change procedures? Even if it is only in the short term. Now if a Winternight can cause ridiculous amounts of chaos if not properly stopped, can a cost conscious Mega really afford to let these little “terrorist”groups sprout up and operate without being checked?

Does that mindset sort of trickle down and affect the “regular” shadowrunners.

It does and doesn't trickle down.

1st. Corps cannot legally use black-ops tactics off of their territory, and most terrorists are based in countries, or even sponsored by rival corps. So, while the countries may look the other way for a bit (specially right after the crash), they will not tolerate (or the general public won't) large shoot outs, collateral damage (bystanders and surrounding real estate, etc..). Some one will demand explanations, cease-fires, reparations, etc..

2. The hard a hammer you use on terrorists, the more likely that you will create martyrs and lots of recruits.

3. The corps need Shadowrunners, as deniable assets. So, they will not go on a massive hunt for them. And think of it, if Shadowrunners knew that the corps were on the hunt for them, they might retaliate, and be fairly effective in taking out managers, VPs, etc.. After all, they manage to extract them all the time.

4. As for increased security, sure, some of the procedures will have changed, but you cannot stay at high alert all the time. It is just not possible. Don't forget that high security costs money, a lot of money. So, after a few months (at the most), security levels will drop to a lower level, and the new normal will be in effect.

You can't extend the policies of the modern elites to what would happen after a really large scale set of attacks. WW2 started with the British being unwilling to bomb German munitions factories because that would be destroying private property and the US focusing on precision daylight bombing to avoid civilian casualties.

It ended with Operation Thunderclap, which killed 50,000 civilians when the British destroyed Dresden with fire bombs; and with the US fire bombing of Tokyo, which burned down 16 square miles of the city and killed 80,000 - 200,000 civilians, followed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed another 200,000.

Things just don't settle back down the way they were.

indeed.

i can easily see all the corps and countries tossing the "terrorist" label (or whatever buzzword becomes popular) at every act by their enemies. Ares-hired runners get caught burning a Yamatetsu warehouse? TERRARISTS! deniable CIA assets funding anti-Aztlan Texan militants? TERRAR! and so on. bad guys are really handy; you can do anything you want to 'em, and your constituents will cheer.

There never was any protection for runners caught in corp territory, the corps could do what they wanted with them, even deny that they existed or were in custody. So, being labelled terrorist makes no real difference. Besides, you don't really want to tell the world that there are a lot of terrorists hitting you, other terrorist groups might become interested, and even worse, other corps might think that you are weak, and a general blood letting happens.

Only reason corps hand runners over to the local law-enforcement providers is because they don't want to bother with feeding and housing them, and have no current biological/etc.. project on the go.

KZT, the attacks in the crash, caused much destruction (mostly matrix) and confusion, thought there was no clear enemy, with everyone scambling to protect their own. So, with no clear enemy in sight, no escalation. As happened after 9/11, no immediate attacks, no clear enemy to attack (terrorist group targetted, but difficult to find and hit).

As for things settling back they were, they mostly did, as they did after WW2. But then again, I said that they settle back to the new normal (that included technomancers, wireless, new corp structures, etc...), not back to the exact way they were before.

There would be some lipservice but terrorists are far too useful to make an actual effort. And if they actually succeeded in making the world safer then they'd be completely screwed.

See thats what would scare me, as head of a government or Megacorp.

We say "oh look at that group of cute little Shaman Eco-Terrorist. Just more of the same. "

But a dedicated group of cute little end of the world types almost brought about a virtual Armageddon! How can they afford to not worry about such groups now though?

Regular shadowrunners I figured would be safe since they help Corps make money. But the thought of all the Winternights and Deus’ out in the world scheming wouldn’t let me sleep so good at night.

The new normal would pay lip service to going after the small fry terrorists for reason of perception--particularly for governments--but the serious attention and hard nuyen would go towards increased intel to find and identify the big threats sooner.

Note that Winternight is pretty much history; heck, if the corps or governments had gotten the intel a few days sooner, the Crash never would have happened (otoh, everyone might all now be Deus). So, don't compare it too closely to today, because rather than known threats, the danger is in the threats that nobody's ever heard of.

That means a lot more potential for runs. Corps want the cheap runners to smack down the eco-shaman terrorists bothering them when they would have let it slide earlier. But they want the hot teams to do deniable work inside national borders running down intel leads, and if it comes down to it, terminating the threat.

After the bugs, the assassination (or for those in the know, what went down at Aquareena Springs), and the near-destruction of civilization in the Crash, paranoia at the highest levels is spiking. Corps may hate each others' guts, but they're not about to let somebody blow up the planet and kill all their customers.

Well, except for AZT.

The amount of oil is finite.

The amount of total money made by an oil corporation is therefore the average amount of money they can sell their oil for times the total amount of oil.

So if the amount of oil is reduced (by for example, a terrorist attack), but the cost of oil rises for a period of time, this is a net profit for the corporations if the price rise multiplied by the amount of barrels sold during the period is more thanthe basal price times the amount of barrels lost.

Or to put it another way: a dollar spent on financing terrorism makes more money for Exxon than a dollar spent on improving capacity, distribution, or refining. Exxon hasn't ceased supporting Saudi Arabia, nor do they have any plans to do so.

And while the US went crazy, remember that it actually went crazy. The 9/11 hijackers were predominantly Saudis and were educated and brought into the country by Henry Kissinger's foundation and Pat Robertson's flight school respectively. We invaded Iraq, which was actually completely unrelated to the events in every meaningful way.

So while I'm sure that Neonet would use the "Post Winternight Environment" as an excuse to shoot people they didn't like, history shows us that there is no particular reason to believe that any corporate entity would stop dealings with terrorist elements just because a lot of people got killed.

Terrorism is simply too profitable for the big corps to give it up. I mean, Neonet got to rebuild the Matrix, and they got paid market rate to do it. If they could have a Winternight every 2 years, they would.

-Frank

Man its like a scary version of Russian Roulette. (^_^)

Win big and lose big.

Mass destruction and casualties are sort of bad for business. Still if your competitor gets kicked in the crotch then that's the win even if you do take some collateral damage.
Still I think corp sponsored terrorism has to be kept at an acceptable low level otherwise the Corporate Court steps in and starts asking uncomfortable questions.

*coughs* Insurance Wars *coughs*