Crap idea from Radioactive Zombie, after hanging out with too many SR MUDders. In the form of fragmented pages and half-assed RPs, though he's starting to FINALLY write the intro fully.
Jake Armitage wakes up in a morgue locker, only remembering a bomb explosion and the name "Drake". Upon forcing his way out of the morgue, he's immediately assaulted by waves of hitmen and cops. Forced underground to look for clues to why he's been targeted for assassination, he meets an odd cast of characters, ranging from government agents to psychopathic samurai...
This work contains examples of:
- Alternate Continuity: Every event, up to 2011, happens, so this version of SR had the Iraqi Wars, the Bushes, Clinton, and Obama as presidents, and has much more advanced technology. Dunkelzahn wasn't blown up by a bomb as part of an Evil Plan — it was an internal conspiracy, and he got nuked by way of a Redeemer. Novatech still exists, and the UCAS and the CAS are currently waging a secret war on the Triple AAA corporations. Tech ranges from much more advanced to barely passable compared to canon Shadowrun. The world sucks less, but is still crappy. Real-world events still happen throughout the 2010s and 2020s (if RZ doesn't lose interest by then). Also, Akagi's dealings.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: On one side, you have corporations that will stop at nothing for profit, tech, and a bigger slice of the share than their competitors, with maybe a sympathetic CEO who wants to do the best for their workers and the world. One the other, you have shadowruns, most of whom can kill innocent people for money (or even nothing at all) and perform terrorist actions, robberies, hits, assaults, massacres, kidnappings, and so on, usually with bystanders. They're willing to backstab each other, and probably the only ones who don't take glee in murder are Jake Armitage and what courier-only runners are there (like Novi). And then you've got a third faction, a UCAS Super Mysterious Black Operation Unit that is extremely patriotic and rabidly anti-corporate (being led by someone clinically insane does not help), engaging in... rather violent terrorist actions.
- British Stuffiness: Played straight with Kitten, and averted with Dover, who, in both personas that have a British accent, is either a talkative, kind-hearted scientist, or a cloudcuckoolander scientist that annoys the frag out of you.
- Captain Ersatz:
- Jake Armitage occasionally throws in flashes of Wesker and the T-800 (who he somewhat resembles).
- The Hunter is an evil version of Saya Otonashi. (No, not like Diva.)
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Played straight with many of the minor CEOs for the Triple-A corps, and Akagi Corporation's board, who, despite their hole-in-the-ace turned into giblets, want to continue world domination. Subverted with Chester, who is doing this purely because he doesn't like the prospect of world domination interfering with corporate practice.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Since third-edition swear words (Frag, Drek, et cetera) are commonplace, Dover's usage of "fuck" and "Goddamn" are a bit antiquated, going by canon.
- Implacable Man: Mocked twice. First, a mutated test subject breaks out of the Corporate Union facility, ready to massacre everything in her sight with a saw. The army of guards gun her down without incident.(Turns out, Dover planned this because "he hated that bitch", and to make a distraction for Armitage.) Jake Armitage tries this in the assault on Akagi headquarters, but is nearly killed.
- It's Personal: Many of the Shadowrunners in the story have some sort of vendetta against... anything. Ranging from the Mafia to Triple-AAA corps to corp workers, just 'cause they're corp workers.
- Mooks: Averted. Even a normal guard squad can pose problems for anyone evenly matched in terms of cyberware or magical prowess — and the guards are given a slight edge, having gone through training, while Runners only rely on street smarts. For example, Armitage's first run winds up with two of the more experienced runners dead and him seriously injured.
- Our Monsters Are Different: Going with the Canon Discontinuity, this version has werewolves that are actually werewolves and vampires that aren't psychopaths (original SR had werewolves permanently mutated and vampires something out of Buffy). Of course, the original versions still exist in greater numbers. Oh, and occasionally, there's a Fallout-like Ghoul who's intelligent enough to not mindlessly act like a stereotypical zombie..
- Shout-Out:
- Armitage fighting his way out of the Lone Star morgue mirrors Max Payne 2's opening level.
- The UCAS Black Ops team fights amongst each other if they should call themselves the COG or the Enclave.
- Kaze is pretty much a Ghost in the Shell character who happened to end up in the wrong continuity, and uses a mini-Tachikoma as a drone.
- Dmitri later changes his arms dealing business's name to the Merchant of Menace.
- Armitage's middle name is Corto, and acts much like his namesake did, before it began to revert back into Corto's old personality.
- Dover gets turned into an Eversor after he gets captured by Akagi. He improves somewhat, but starts channeling Colonel Kurtz.
- The Hunter is a trenchcoat-wearing, katana-using vampire hitwoman whose eyes keep growing red and feels terrible about her "condition".
- Superpowered Evil Side: Endymion, for Kaze. It required a load of various illegal drugs to get him back to normal, and nearly tears Kyzrath and Dmitri new ones in the process. Mocked with Dover, who thinks he's a super badass when he's trying to ape Captain Kurtz.
