This is my first attempt at a bpn for others outside my own little wop.
don't go too hard on me!!

This mission is best aimed at a Squad who is in love with implants or desperate for some top-level corporate recognition. Who wouldn't want to work for Karma? This BPN will require at least one Ebb user in the party.

My preference for this BPN would be to be delivered via a "friend" in a related organisation or the squad's financier strikes lucky. Once the squad is informed of the BPN, hopefully there will be two hooks. 1) Karma involvement and a sponsorship deal will help propel the squad into the big time; and 2) Why would a simple retrieval (Yellow) merit such an expensive Black? Adventurous players should spot this.

The squad will be told to go and see Dr Moreau in person.

This is a time to reinforce the majesty and splendor that comes with sitting at the top of the tree in the World Of Progress. Go to town with your players, describing the place. Personally, I add details of Mahogany paneling and real plants lining the reception area. This place should be dressed to impress.

The squad should be treated courteously and not kept waiting long.

Dr Moreau (SCL 5d) is a lab rat. He is quite tall, but thin and bespectacled beneath a disheveled head of hair. He will meet the players, with a suit called James Conway (SCL 5a). James is well dressed and clearly is an accountant type.

The good Doctor will take the squad to a lecture theatre and deliver the Briefing.

For the past 2 weeks, Karma has had reports of implants going wrong. Spontaneous degradation of the tissue, accelerated growth till the recipient had burst and strange growth that are equally unpleasant. None of the victims have survived as the new tissue overran their own DNA. Yesterday an Operative called Dutch McKensie was brought in for a LAD re-work. It was at this point that the first "live" specimen had been found. Run VT. Dutch is now a squirming mass of partially human flesh. The rest looks like a cross between and epileptic squid and baby-food. He is still alive but no longer intelligent. Karma has him in a reinforced plastiglass observation cage. He weeps piteously between violent fits.

Tissue extraction has revealed that some of his implants had been "enhanced" by foreign material of unknown origin. It appears to be corrupted Karma material.

The squad is tasked with the location and eradication of the source of this material. They are left under no uncertain impression that time is of the essence and that this sort of thing, whilst kept from the news thus far, could cause terrible damage. A friendly 3^rd Eye news team will be attached to the squad for the investigation. A liability waiver is available if asked for. Extermination warrants can be arranged also. (after the fact if necessary)

A file is provided detailing the information thus far on the victims. (make your own) It reveals common factors. All low SCL ops, all low income and all recently have been on Blues or crappy whites, in Downtown sectors 22, 123, 124 and 242. None of them were chipped.

It is not only SLA combat drugs that soft companies have been trying to replicate. With the assistance of two Karma scientists, Dr.'s Thomas and Jennifer Gelding, Darknight have come up with a serviceable clone of Nuke Tendons. (The Geldings are recorded as missing, presumed dead) Most of the time the implants work fine. Of course in this competitive world, they have to offer them at lower prices than Karma do. The price reflects the quality. The Tissue that they are using is not entirely stable. It suffers random spontaneous mutation. It is also keyed to respond to Type IV shatter in explosive ways.

Darknight have made a lot of money already from impoverished Ops who are looking for that edge. They also sell happily to civs who turn out. Of course the Ops are unaware that it is a Darknight operation. It is a well-kept secret. But the more tissue they clone the more often and worse the casualties become. This is a fabulous field test for Darknight, who are treating this as a giant, profitable experiment.

Little do they know that this is a set-up by Karma. The defection and the equipment obtained were deliberately released by Karma as a pre-emptive strike. The Doctors sere pushed into their defection. Now Karma want a squad in the limelight to release this information, to prove that Karma is the only way to fly.

The DN Tec's are operating out of a facility in the industrial sector. The main research facility is hidden in downtown. They target their clients by looking out for those Low SCLs out on ops. The independent agents are fabulous salesman. They are not knowingly Darknight.

Word of mouth between OP's and civs is also doing its work to spread the joy. Unabated this is likely to spiral out of control.

Outside they will be met by a media squad, headed up by Trixie Donovan (SCL 6a), a well respected media Op who is often seen in the thick of the action on 3^rd Eye news.

With her is a 2 man crew. David Mulholland (SCL6), a large human with many implants to show for his money and P'kith (SCL6) a lively and friendly Wraith Raider, who is far too excitable for his own good. They will be well armored and armed.

All three permanently give off an aura of "Oooo, I can't tell you that!" Life for them is now shrouded in mystery. Or at least that's what they try and give away. Trixie will ask lots of searching and annoying questions. Whilst friendly, after 2 hours, the squad should want to kill her. They are reasonable, however and will give the Ops space when they do undercover stuff. When the fighting breaks out, she will be in their faces.

How the players follow the trail is up to them. They could figure the connection and take a couple of blues in downtown to try and attract a salesman. This could take time. Also, the squad would not be able to get away with this if they do them in flashy kit with expensive guns. If they sustain this method, reward them after a week with a visit from an agent. Also, give them lots of hassle from Karma for taking too long. The 3^rd eye crew will also get pissed off, but they may well join in.

If they take the computer subterfuge route, they will be able to chase down a couple of erroneous transactions on the victims finance records. This will lead them to one of the agents. The agent is a prop (now quite enhanced as part of his pay; and sales technique)

He will attempt to get away if he rumbles the Ops. He will have a finance chip scanner on him (previously registered to Karma). The squad should approach him as a salesman, disguised as low SCL Ops in order to gain his trust.

They could just start asking around Ops or Downtown contacts. People may help if the Ops pull off that they are trying to buy, but not if they are investigating. A cheap and quick source of implants is proving popular and people may not be inclined to jeopardise it. This avenue could work depending on who your players know. If it is appropriate, give the information this way.

Once they have extracted the location of the outfit, they will proceed to it. It is a large manufacturing plant producing clock-radio cigarette lighters. The Facility is beneath here.

Ground Floor up appears to be a perfectly legit operation. There is a heavy prop presence in here and a large number of lookouts. Shivers are surprisingly light in the area (local commander has been bought off). It will be fishy if they go in mob handed and set the guards off. Again if they are in flashy kit, they will be rumbled and intercepted and politely asked to leave and come back with a search and seizure. By the time they get this through, all the key players will have escaped.

If they sneak in they can get the evidence and make sure first. They will find Dr Jennifer Gelding inside working with the implant teams. Her face will be instantly recognised back at Karma, and all will become clear about the source of the kit. (but not why)

It will be a pristine lab and operation, with theatres and recovery rooms etc and all seem very professional and above board. In a way it is, as only the implants are counterfeit and most of the staff believe they are working for Karma legitimately. The team will need to capture the good doctor alive to find out where the main lab is. (Where the tissue is being grown.)

It will be a fight. Good tactics would be to bring in the Shivers to cordon off the area. The commander will try and get out of this as best he can but will bend under pressure.

If it devolves into a fight, then is should be quite hard. Props good enough to give the Ops a run for their money. They should have a smattering of Darknight gear. Capturing people should be a priority. The Shiver Cordon will prevent escapes.

Examination of the area will reveal that the tissue is only stored here, not grown. This should help focus the interrogation process.

Karma will offer a bonus for the capture of Dr Thomas Gelding.

The Doctor is the only one who knows the source. If they kill her, they are in trouble.

If you are feeling kind, a stakeout may allow capture of the delivery boy and get the source that way.

There are a couple of other things to chuck in at appropriate times during the BPN.

1) During the BPN have the team informed of two more associated incidents. Have more deaths from the stuff and one where the recipient also had shatter and murdered 20 shivers and 4 ops before he was brought down. Also as they cannot replicate Stormers, since they lack Deathwake, they have experimented using over-enhanced people. A human and a Wraith-Raider have both been captured. They look like Stormers, but their true heritage shines through. These abominations are mindless killing machines.

2) Dark Lament contacts a member of the squad (preferably ebb-user) and offers all kinds of wonderful things, in return for them fouling the mission and allowing the operation to continue. This can be used to test your people. Their best method here to gain DL favour is to "accidentally" kill the good doctor before she can reveal further info.

3) Several props have spontaneously exploded after 30 minutes psychotic rage. (like man sized frag grenades) Study reveals that they have taken shatter and it has reacted badly with the implants.

The Main facility is well guarded within a gang (pick your favourite) controlled sector of downtown. This is a well-defended area. Even if the ops get past the gangs, they will have to roll the facility. It may be a good time to call in reinforcements. Karma could be persuaded to issue a couple of red BPN's to bring in the extra forces needed. Unless the team is feeling lucky. Shiver forces are unlikely to willingly turn up, as they know how low survival chances are in this area. In the absence of demolition charges, they will have to find another way to destroy the lab.

The facility is in a well-built and reinforced area. It does have walkways and various sniper points around. Some of these will already have DN snipers in place.

The building should be approachable, but make it difficult.

The Gangs are around, but do not specifically guard. This is just gang territory. There are Props around on the doors. Inside is 2 squads of Darknight bad-boys ready to fight. With a bit of effort they should make it into the lab. There is a hidden doorway inside the facility leading to the main lab but it is not that well hidden.

A good method would be to clear the snipers and come in from above. There are skylights and observing will reveal the other entrance. The skylight is rigged to booby trap grenades. This will alert the two squads inside. (obviously!)

Inside is a lot of stolen Karma kit. Some from LAD facilities, some from Karma Labs. There should be lots of figures in Glass tubes hanging from the walls with twisted figures in them. A couple will contain childlike figures. (Imagine all the Ripleys in Alien Resurrection) Have one of them watch the operatives. It will just stare at them and be a distraction. There are about 25 Tec's scattered around the two levels of the complex. Top floor is a lab, 2^nd floor is growth vats and cryogenic freezers. Most of these people know what they are doing is wrong. Once ops are noticed, or shooting starts, the Tec's will release a several of their creations. Imagine Stormers on shatter and add the factor to bring them up to squad killer.

These things should be horrible to look at. Anyone with appropriate phobias should soil their armour.

Unarmed 10, with 12 points damage claws and teeth. 1/3^rd damage and 30 odd hits. Natural PV5. They will regenerate, but not properly (back to epileptic squid and babyfood)

This will backfire as they will start to attack everything. On either side. If not otherwise accounted for, the DN squads will attack the Ops in the rear. Firefight of fun.

Once everybody is dead, then the squads will need to get away. If they went in loudly, they should have to fight their way away from the gangers who have come to look see.

Also, if they did not remove the snipers before they went in, they will come under heavy fire, before the Snipers bug out. Time to run.

If the squad destroyed the lab by torching it, the fire will spread. I hope they picked up the liability waiver! However, this will bring down fire shivers, enforcer shivers etc and provide some excellent cover for the squad to get away. They will not be popular with the shivers.

If any of the squad survive, then they will be aptly rewarded with the credits and the sponsorship. Karma will not be too upset if neither doctor makes it back.

The Karma defectors will be publicly executed in a Gorezone special if they do.

Karma will achieve their publicity coup of only they can make Bio-ware of quality and the Squads faces will be all over the news.

Karma will obviously look upon them favorably for future missions.

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