SNS 2: Uplifted Cat Seeks Legal Rights

SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAMSHEET 2: here at Vircades Project we spent good money on a subscription to the a time-traveller's news digest, but all we got in return a bunch of celebutante garbage. Still, I was able to turn it into an adventure, below the jump...

FEATURING: Lawfare! Cats! Keratinised penile spines!

KASHA SEEKS LEGAL INHERITANCE

Network 60 Daily Update

...legal complications following the death of Enrique Solo (54). The SoloGene founder, eccentric billionaire and uplift pioneer left no will. His two children (Leo and America Solo, both 14) and his former partner (Ms Jara Mitchell of Fort Worth TX, 42) have both put forward claims on his estimated $4.5 billion worth, while contesting a number of patents with SoloGene.

The intervention of Kasha has further complicated the affair. The celebrity cat has made claims to membership in the Solo family and produced verified online message transcripts indicating that Mr Solo wished him to have an inheritance. He further alleges that SoloGene is responsible for wholesale tampering with Mr Solo’s personal cloud server data store, removing evidence of Mr Solo’s intentions. Independent security experts confirm that some tampering certainly took place but cannot clearly identify a culprit. Kasha’s belief in SoloGene’s complicity is backed by the chat logs, in which Mr Solo himself alleged that SoloGene was intentionally acting to prevent further development of the cat uplift patent.

INVESTORS PRESS SOLOGENE FOR ANSWERS

Singapore Review

...Following the announcement of the successful Kasha project, investors have eagerly awaited the release of a successful cat uplift product onto the market. Indeed, the original announcement caused SoloGene stock to rise almost 430% and funded their major expansion through the last twelve quarters. Few of these investors expected immediate results and were simply happy to see SoloGene remain profitable through its period of expansion.

Five years later, shareholder patience has run out. Many admit to investing out of a simple desire to see uplifted cats reach the market, rather than any economically pragmatic reason. The “cat fancier” faction among the shareholders was willing to live with low dividends and high research costs in pursuit of this goal. But with no obvious progress yet made, they want answers from the board. Kasha’s recent accusations have fuelled a fire among investors that may yet burn SoloGene to the ground.

PETULANT AMERICA SOLO DEMANDS “SENTIENT CAT DISSECTION”

Outraged Citizen Monthly

America Solo shocked the world this morning with claims that Kasha the uplifted cat is “nothing but a fraud.” “My father was not an honest man. The so-called uplift-cat is nothing but a bio-computer AI implanted in a bio-drone. Impressive tech but no more sentient than a Mr Wacko(™) doll.” She further called upon Kasha to submit to medical testing to disprove her allegations. Kasha’s lawyers replied that such testing could not be adequately carried out without invasive surgery and severe risk to their client. Kasha himself used last's nights Tonight Show appearance to make wry comments about America Solo’s own intellectual faculties. “She loves Bop Metal, after all…”

SNS 1: Are Teenage Drone Pilots Child Soldiers?

I always loved the "Screamsheet" adventure format in the back of Cyberpunk 2020, sooooo:

SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAMSHEET: Vircades Project compiles the news from the grimdark future so you don't have to, sifting out adventure opportunities from all the trash and misinformation.

There's an adventure outline beneath the jump. This week - kidnapping, dixie gangsters and teenage drone pilots!

FIGHTING CONTINUES AROUND CHOLUTECA

Islamic Republic News Service

...government forces routed from their fortifications under ferocious strafing fire from insurgent “Fatbed” gunbirds. The rebels drones even succeeded in downing one of the government’s antiquated Cessna A-37s over the city itself.

It was only by evening that government forces rallied. Electrothermal anti-aircraft cannon brought up by Primeval corporation mercenaries forced the gunbirds to retreat, while a counter-attack by “stalker” type drones stalled the guerilla advance. But with EMP mortar rounds raining down on the city limits, it seems clear that the Honduran army has a tough fight on its hands if it means to keep the rebels from cutting the Pan-American Highway by week’s end.

ARE THE CHAEBOLS HIRING GAMERS TO FIGHT THEIR WARS?

GamerGateWay.com

...won the 2023 Sparkle Vampire World Wars World Championship under the moniker Twilight<3 before being drafted into the Korean Airforce like so many other championship gamers.

Following his return,Twilight<3 surprised many by choosing not to return to the pro-gamer scene, instead hiring out to the private sector. For the corporations, gamers provide a source of trained and battle proven talent. Col. Mikaelova notes that “the interfaces used in modern drone swarms are, if anything, a generation or three behind the newest games. These days, most combat drone AIs and pilot aid systems use code originally built for the entertainment sector.”

His suicide has prompted renewed calls among veterans organisations for better psychological support for drone operators. Twilight<3 is known to have taken part in LG Yeongdeok’s oil platform security operations in the Gulf of Mexico, targeting “Wolverine” insurgents in southern Texas. “He spent days at a time monitoring terrorists and terrorist sympathisers in their family homes, waiting for the moment to strike. There’s an intimacy to this kind of operation unprecedented in the history of warfare” claimed…

GAMER HERO? YOU COULD BE A WAR HERO! ENTER THE TOURNAMENT, WIN A JOB!

Miami Noticeboard

Age 14+, tournament entrants must possess an Immortal Sanguine Crystal Medallion in Sparkle Vampire World Wars or a platinum rating in Titancraft. Must be willing to move to Miami for at least one two-year tour of duty. 35k annual salary and benefits - see below for contract details.

TEENAGE DRONE PILOTS ARE CHILD SOLDIERS, RULES UNITED NATIONS

Auckland Post

“The high rates of PTSD among drone operators going right back to the Obama era should prove to any honest observer that these people are as much “combatants” as soldiers on the frontline. To say otherwise is frankly disrespectful to a generation of American veterans. If we forbid children from taking part in other forms of combat, why should we tolerate this?”

[...]

The Secretary General’s comments were ignored by all parties.

No War but Generation War! (Bounty Board, West Palm Beach edition)

The middle of the 21st century is a great time to be a bounty hunter in the United States. The laws are looser, the targets are more numerous, the paycops less capable of doing their job than ever before. Easy money!

The middle of the 21st century is a terrible time to be a bounty hunter in the United States. The target might be more numerous, but they're also better armed. It's a relatively simple matter for a fugitive with a few friends and a 3d printer to blanket his surroundings in sousveillance systems, giving advanced warning of any arrest attempt. A thousand separatist gangs and survivalist militias will gladly shoot any jumped up Boba Fett wannabe who tries to grab a criminal in their midst.

Bounty hunting takes guts. Or idiocy. Probably more idiocy. Let's be honest here...

The hunters have descended on West Palm Beach in pursuit of two separate targets; the rogue New York ripperdoc Standish Haley and a local gang of online blackmailers called the GitBits. 

(...of course, the town doesn't have to be West Palm Beach. You could use this motley crew of NPCs anywhere. But you don't need to be told that...)

(...also, while I'm breaking the fourth wall in italics, I have to thank VFTE's very own Interrupt for the gang name "GitBits" and every single one of their hacker handles. Blame him!)

But first, there's one dirty piece of business to take care of....

A MAN NAMED "CHUMP"

Archetypal Adventures: four netrunner adventures in Sektor:K

All pictures from Starcraft II

Sektor: Korprulu is an eSports bar on the decaying fringe of a central European city, named after a location in the forgotten progenitor game of the eSports scene. Situated in a rusting Soviet-era industrial park, the Sektor is a metallic realm of varnished steel and fading Americana frequented by eSports fans flocking to live broadcasts of Korean, French and Argentine professional matches. 

It is also famous in a different scene: criminal hackers and fixers from across Europe know the bar as a place to wheel and deal and make connections, safe from absent police and protected from underground rivalries. This post covers four netrunning adventures originating in Sektor:K, concerning match-fixing, political violence and the viler side of unlicensed cyberware installation.

INTO THE NEUTRAL ZONE

Unbeknownst to most of the crowd, the staff and even the owner, the Sektor is located conveniently close to one of the pillars of the local 'runner economy: the underground "black medical" run by the Bandura clan, a Polish operation which manufactures and installs pirated, bespoke and illegal cyberware designs. 

The Bandura clinic attracts 'runners from across the region, possessing a reputation for discretion and competence. The clinic also has some notoriety within the same scene; the people who run it come across as totally amoral. In addition to 'runners - not exactly the most reputable people themselves - they have also been known to supply gear to paramilitary militias, football hooligan gangs and organised criminals. This last client is responsible for much of the special horror surrounding the clinic: the Bandura have been known to perform non-consensual surgery on various captives and "employees" of the Balkan mafias.

The proliferation of 'runners caused by the presence of the Bandura operation gives the Sektor its specific ambience. Situated close to a number of discrete hotels and far from regular policing, the Sektor is a convenient place to rest, recuperate and pass time while waiting for the mercurial Bandura to complete their work. Anyone who pursues a grudge or starts a fight anywhere near the clinic risks smashing the tacit agreements which keep the police away. The Bandura have promised to "blacklist" anyone who does so, so the Sektor remains neutral ground. The presence of so many cyber'd individuals attracts transhuman subculturalists and posers, reinforcing the chromed aura of the place.