SLA Industries
If the players contact Miss Quinney on the telephone they will be asked to come to the Department in person to collect the details. A Taxi ride will cost the players 3c from downtown, a tube train ride costing 2c. Once into Suburbia a Downtown cab will be stopped regularly to check its business. Miss Lisa Quinney is a petite blond dressed in a skirted suit from Clare’s. Her identification badge proclaims that she is SCL 5b. She will inform the Operatives that:
“Mr Gordon Dean held the position of 2nd Accounting Assistant to the Senior Technician in the Transactions Monitoring Section of the Department of Accountancy. It carried with it a SCL of 11. He had been in the post for one month before being found dead in his Suburbia apartment this morning. Whilst by itself this would be a common occurrence the fact that Mr Dean acquired the position after the previous holder was found murdered in his Downtown apartment has been flagged by the Department of Investigation. There exists the possibility that someone may be attempting to improve their employment chance. There is also a possibility that this is the work of a serial killer due to a strange similarity of addresses. The Department has judged that an enquiry should be made.”
She has the SHIVER file on the previous murder and the applications received for the post. The SHIVER units have sealed off Dean’s apartment (9571 Jacob Parade, Apartment 35, Haven Sector) and are awaiting the players’ arrival.
The previous employee was a Kyle Brannigan, SCL 11. He was human, male and aged 24. He had worked for the Department of Accountancy in the same role for four years. He was found dead in his apartment (1579 Industry, Flat 6, Destiny Sector) after his neighbours reported that they couldn’t hear his television set. SHIVERs gaining access to the apartment found Kyle dead on his couch having died from a single 10mm gunshot to the back of his head. The television set, a Ultrasense 250 from Lobotvision, had been smashed using the deceased ashtray. Access appears to have been gained by way of the fire escape. Note is made that a book (“Skar, A Shattered Ecology” by Aurora) was found by his side on the sofa but no other books were found in the apartment. The SHIVER investigation is still open.
At Dean’s apartment block the Operatives will be greeted by Havelock the Forensics SHIVER on the door. He will direct the Ops to his Sergeant, Otis, inside the apartment. Sergeant Otis will explain that the corpse's mother discovered the body. She had come round to borrow some food whilst her son was at work (a bag of groceries was found spilt out on the table, the SHIVER let the mother take them). Inside, a body lies sprawled upon the bathroom floor. A Fear Check Rating 4 is required from the Operatives. A puncture hole in the head is immediately obvious. Not so obvious are the two holes in his chest, although blood patches stain his shirt. The SHIVERs have not requested a forensics team though the players may choose to do so if they lack the necessary skills. Once they arrive the Forensic investigation reveals the following:
| Time of Death: | 7:15 in the morning. The day before last. |
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| Cause of Death: |
Puncture wound to head, piercing brain. Second wound missed heart. A further wound was dealt after death. No struggle is indicated. The wounds match that of a high-power, small calibre AP rifle round with the exception that there is no indentation marks around the wounds. A characteristic usually associated with gunshot wounds. |
| Other Information: |
No slugs can be recovered from the wounds or surrounding area and there are no powder burns upon the victim. Front door lock shows recent signs of being picked. Mud traces found in bath with partial boot print. Nothing special. Traces had also built up by the side of the bed. Partial fingerprints found on personal effects within the apartment although a thorough search does not appear to have been made. SHIVER control will attempt to run a match. The fingerprints have a strange cross hatching obscuring them. No trace of a murder weapon can be found. |
Use of Ebb Awareness will gain no traces of Flux use in the apartment. Questioning the neighbours will gain the Operatives little. They barely knew Gordon, except that he had a job. Talking to Mrs Dean, his mother, will reveal that Gordon moved to his own apartment when he got the job. She now lives alone having only the one child and what with her husband having died seven years ago in a GoreZone incident when the bus he was driving was used by Bazooka Boy as a diversion. She let herself into his room with the spare key he gave her for emergencies. She wanted to borrow some food having forgotten to go to the shops that day as the Community Carnage Channel was covering Fleishman and Deliverance where she grew up and it was good seeing the old place again. Gordon normally did his shopping on the way home from work, Suburbia has much nicer shops. She found the groceries spilled out on the table, she guessed that he was unpacking when he was attacked. The nice SHIVER let her take what was left, seeing as how Gordon wouldn’t want it any more (he also took two packets Niche Noodles for himself). She has thrown the bag away but if retrieved from the garbage it is found to be from Garbonzo’s Groceries on Alloe, Suburbia. The players may be at a loss, that’s not surprising as there is little to go on.
The request to trace the fingerprints will take several hours, there are after all a lot of murders on Mort. Eventually it will reveal four possible matches spanning the last two years. Cause of death was similar in two of those cases. All occurred in Suburbia, all victims were male. The files will be made available to the players by Fax upon request. The victims seem to have no other obvious connections, other than the fact that they are dead. They will also match the first murder, that of Kyle Brannigan, to 23 other murders involving the destruction of television sets and the depositing of varied books at the scenes.
Mr Eric Garbonzo will vaguely remember Gordon. He didn’t really talk to his customers. He’s not in this business to make friends, just money. He does remember that Gordon was in a few nights back but that’s about all.
After a day of unrewarding investigation the players the players will be left with no alternative but to give up and go home. In the late morning they will be woken by a call from Control. They will be requested to report to 4650 South Trentorr, Lowell Sector, Suburbia in connection with their current BPN. A SHIVER sealed scene awaits the players once again. Inside the apartment is a young lady (about 24) being comforted by a female Ebon wearing a pink and white striped Deathsuit. A SHIVER forensic team and three other Operatives (two male Ebons and a female human) are also present. The human will introduce herself as Muse and the Squad as “Cardinal Paragon”. The female Ebon is Candy Stripe and the two males are Tranquillity and Solicitude. Muse will explain that they picked up a White BPN from the Department of Investigation to investigate the murder of an Operative. Forensics dug up some partial prints which matched with those the players were running a trace on. Seems as if they are the after the same killer. Since the players were onto it first Cardinal Paragon are required to relinquish the Investigation to the players (after all there is no point in SLA paying twice). They don’t seem to mind but the players could offer them some financial reward for the services already performed.
The dead Operative is Christian Nicholls, known as “T-Bird”. He was 28 and SCL 7D. He graduated in Piloting and Navigation in 897 SD and has worked for SLA for three years with a slow but steady SCL increase and five loses noted for infringements. He had been a driver for “Combat Zombies”, “Loves Lost Dream” and “Resplendent Divinity”, his current team. His career has been unglamorous with only one sponsorship deal with Bloodband Tyres. It was believed to have gained him few enemies of note if any.
Cause of death was a standard 12.7mm gunshot wound to the torso, followed by three close grouped shots to the head and a further one in the torso. A further bullet blew a hole in the mattress. The weapon is believed to have been Christian’s own BLA ‘Blitzer’ as there is an empty maintenance kit/carry case in the lounge. The crafting of the stock to the individual user may explain the miss. Players may be aware, with a WEAPONS MAINTENANCE check, that the hand crafted Blitzers are individually numbered and may therefore be traced and identified. If not any monitoring station “listening in” will inform them of this fact. Time of death is estimated as 7:30 the previous evening.
Christian was found dead on his bed, half undressed. There is no sign of forced entry, indeed the door is a standard Operative vault door and forcing your way in is very difficult if not impossible. There are no Ebb traces, so that rules out Folding.
The young lady is Maggie Arthurs, the deceased girlfriend for the past four years. She works for the Department of Tourism. Her father, Richard, appears to be something big in Corps Diplomatique. They tried to pull her background and were hit by enough SCL lock outs and a D notices to stop a charging Stormer. She found the body at 9.30 that morning after returning from a week long trip to New Paris for a works conference. Both her department and Progress Trans-planetary records can confirm this. She doesn’t live here having an apartment Uptown.
If questioned about Nicholls she will inform the players that they met when Chris was undertaking a Green BPN for Tourism a couple of years back and that they have been seeing each other off and on since then. Her father didn’t approve but let her “make her own mistakes” as he put it. She had considered moving in with Christian but every time she made a request for joint accommodation they were assigned Downtown locations. She had asked her father to help but he said that he had no influence with Housing.
The apartment looks like a standard Operatives dwelling. A small table holds fast food packages, magazines and his BPN file (revealing that he was currently assisting with a BLUE in the Haight Sector of Downtown). Empty drug vials, half refilled gun magazines and action videos cover the main table. His locked weapon and armour locker holds equipment he wasn’t using at the time. Comparing the equipment present with recent photographs of Nicholls with his team the players may deduce that a couple of MAC knives and a Klip Killer ‘Panther’ appear to be missing as well as the Blitzer. His kitchen also appears to have been searched at some point. Ample correspondence between Nicholls and the Department of Housing indicates that he hadn’t have much luck in qualifying for an upgrade. Although originally not concerned with upgrading when he started, five opportunities seem to have fallen through in the past two years for various administrative reasons. Contract papers do however show that he did manage to secure the use of a garage two blocks from his apartment.
The players will find the garage key in the pocket of Nicholls raincoat and recognise a vehicle key on the same ring. Checking with Data Retrieval or Forms to find that he has road tax for a SLA “Dune King” jeep and confirms the garage’s address. Checking the garage players will find that the jeep is there. Apart from the latest issue of the “Hardware” Magazine and an issue of “Shoot your Load” from P. Bond Happy Mags (centre spread Bambi the Wraith Raider) it contains a discarded Paramour Pizza box (with a picture of their latest signing “Mr Chuckles” the Brainwaster). A hardened crust (relatively fresh) reveals two sets of teeth marks, one smaller than the other. Dental records can identify the larger set as Nicholls’.
Whilst present at the apartment a Third Eye news team will arrive. The reporter is Kate Bird (known as the “Vulture”) and her cameraman “Eagle Eye” Anthony Forinto. Kate will attempt to enter the crime scene and interview the players, the SHIVERs and Maggie about the case as well as personal unrelated topics. The players may decide whether or not to co-operate with the news team although Kate will be very pushy. If Maggie is involved her father will not be happy with the players. Being seen to keep her out of the picture however may gain them a bonus or a choice assignment. She will offer them a lift in the Third Eye “Zippy” van as incentive. If the players try to convince her that it is a tedious investigation she will respond “Mort’s an interesting place, something’s bound to happen”.
As the players finish up the SHIVERs will carry out the deceased in a wrap bag. The players may like to view the body before it is removed. They will be taken aback slightly (a FEAR CHECK with RATING 3) when they at first believe it is Gordon Dean again. A second look reveals that Nicholls and Dean seem to have shared many similarities, shoulder length dark hair, pale green eyes, high cheekbones thin eyebrows, etc.
If the players request photographs for the earlier highlighted cases they will reveal that all the victims had similar facial features. A previously unregistered connection due to the variation in the modus operandi and victim types (as well as SHIVER sloppiness).
As well as the four cases taken an interest in by the SHIVERs Monarch Law Enforcement hold details of 21 others over a four year period. This is largely due to the fact that Monarch are underpaid and understaffed public sector organisation. They do not have the time or manpower to perform full investigations of all murders, usually handling up to 1,200 such cases a day over all of Mort. Twelve of these cases have been filed under a serial killer given the name “Pin” due to the strange weaponry used in the murders which they assume to be some sort of needle or similar item. All victims share a similar look and live or work in Suburbia or Downtown, their ages range from 20 to 43.
The Mort directory shows 37 Paramour Pizza registered kiosks in the surrounding sectors and checking them all will take the players some time. Should they call them a call charge of 1c per call will also mean a large outlay. The range will be cut down if they narrow the list to those between Haight Sector and Nichols’ apartment. Of course checking payments made by Christian’s finance card over the past 24 hours with Data Retrieval will give the branch immediately. At the Paramour Pizza Parlour they will find an eye witness in the form of Reg Watts the counter clerk for Paramour. He remembers Nicholls because the jeep was cool. He made conversation whilst the pizza was being “nuked” in the Ultrawave. He also remembers the young girl, couldn’t have been more than sixteen or seventeen. “Bloody Lucky Ops, you get it all,” Reg will complain.
“The girl stood outside peering in through the window. She seemed to be staring at the Op, but who doesn’t. And the Op noticed her too, you couldn’t fail to. She was a looker, if you like the young street waif look that is. She talked to him when he left, they laughed, I couldn’t hear what was said. He was showing off, flashing her his gun, that sort of thing. So after a while they got in the jeep together and drove off.”
If asked to describe the girl Reg will point out: “You gotta understand that I only saw her from in here and it was dark out. So I’ll try, OK. She was about 5’7” or 5’ 8”, slight build, little girl like, with short dark hair. She had an Orienta Anime kind of look to her. Little girl, round face, big eyes, but sort of hardened into an intense kind of thing, know what I mean. She wore tight leather trousers, big boots, knee length, with steel toe-caps, Skullcrusher brand from Trooper I think. She had on this waistcoat kind of thing with a way cool DIG denim jacket over the top. And she wore funny gloves, mostly holes. Like I said I only got a quick look.”
If the camera crew is still with the Operatives they will soon have an artist’s expression of the killer and label her “Pin”. The players can make the news if they wish to make a statement on the case or an appeal for aid, although community spirit is a rare thing on Mort (COMMUNIQUE rolls required to come across professionally).
More fruitless investigation should prove uneventful and boring, with the occasional Carrien attack for fun. Eventually the players will receive another call from Control informing them to attend an Exit-Woundz shop at 2017 Inspiration as Nichols’ Blitzer has turned up. The shop stocks a range of ammunition covering most of the popular brands available.
It’s clientele is mostly civilians carrying a range of CAF calibre’s as well as some home defence personal items such as knifes, batons and sprays. It does however deal with a few local Ops as well, though not as much as the Exit-Woundz Uptown outlets.
The proprietor, Gerswin Evans, tells the players that this young slip of a girl came into his shop about an hour ago. She handed him this Blitzer and said she wanted a reload for it. He had to explain that the bullets are hand crafted by Berenyi only and that she should know that if she brought the gun. That’s when she popped out the KK Panther. He ducked, she blew a hole in the display counter. She didn’t grab for the Blitzer but put her hand through the case and stole a couple of ammo boxes, 12mm. Must of caught the glass because she ran out with her hand bleeding. He contacted the SHIVERs to return that gun and report the theft. Streetwise players will be aware that the Blitzer doesn’t sell well on the black market given the difficulty of acquiring bullets for it. His description of the girl matches that given by Reg.
The shop has a security camera and Gerswin will be happy to show the players the tape. It backs up the description of events he gave. However a DETECT roll notices something that Gerswin, who was on the floor behind the counter at the time, did not. As the girl ran out she pushed the shells she had grabbed into the pocket of her jacket. As she withdraws her hand something appears to fall out, a rectangle of paper or card. It can be seen to fall to the floor outside.
Checking outside the players are faced with rivulets of sludge filled rainwater. Following the likely trail of the stream along the road the players will spy something crumpled at the head of a nearby alley. A pile of trash and dirt has built up over the drain, which should take the water away. Now all it does is divert the flow into the street. The item turns out to be an old crumpled photograph of a young boy, about eight or nine. It is faded and badly worn along the edges and several creases. The boy has dark hair and pale green eyes as well as the tell tail sign of developing high cheekbones. It could indeed have been a photograph of any of the victims. On the pictures reverse the players can just make out the faded letters that make up Sufferance Orphanage, Everfall, Mort. 890/901376/gh17. Also on the reverse of the picture a hand written annotation of (deceased, 892) has been added.
Sufferance is a well-to-do orphanage in the Suburbia area. The staff are polite to Operatives and will give what assistance they can, within SCL guidelines. Checking their files will take some time but eventually they will identify the photograph as that of Julian Cathar. He and his twin sister Dominique were admitted to the Orphanage in 882 SD at the age of eleven weeks. Their natural mother had died in an accident and they were to be registered for adoption. The birth certificate gave their mother’s name as Judith Cathar and their father as unknown. An anonymous donation was made at the same time to help finance the fostering. The children were fostered to separate homes while still very young, they didn’t even know each other existed. The boy stayed with the same family for ten years. Unfortunately he then died of a complication during surgery when he was ten.
The girl was a difficult case. She proved difficult to place and ran away from three foster homes. The last time two years ago. On the first two occasions she had been picked up by SHIVERs or Monarch whilst living on the streets. Three weeks after her last disappearance the home was broken into and the records ransacked. Dominiques’ records were tampered with and her brothers' file stolen. His file would have included the last photograph the home had of him, the home maintained some contact with the foster parents. Dominique was of course suspected but the SHIVERs could find no trace of her.
If the players think to have the dental records checked with the pizza crust there will be an 65% chance of a match (they are years out of date and are from her baby teeth).
Checking into Judith Cathar the players will find that she is of Orientan descent and was a Kick Squad Package Operative who used the name “Punching Judy”. There is no record of her pregnancy or of her giving birth, although her death in 882 SD, when she was shot by an un-identified sniper, is recorded. Her Operative team at the time was “Dissolute Innocence” , it no longer has operational status. Of the other three operatives that formed the core team with her “Mooncalf” the Death Squad Stormer died on a Red BPN in 887 SD defending a communications up-link tower from the Soft Company “Laser Communications”. Keiran Maxwell (“The Max”), Business package is now a Cloak Division employee and Pierce Longford (“Semblance”), Piloting package is now a Foldship pilot operating out of Mort Spaceport. Neither will be available to comment at the present time.
Should the players check into the remaining members they will discover that Keiran married an Employee named Louise Keller in 878 SD and that Semblance underwent an enforced Psychiatric Evaluation in 883 for unspecified reasons. He received an Exemption Certificate a year later and returned to Operative duty. The interview of the Psychiatric interview is of course unavailable at the players SCL. Should the players try to call up images of Kieran Maxwell they will discover that this carries a D notice, after all he is Cloak Division and probably Internal Affairs. If they think to check back through past magazines or TV archives for footage of Dissolute Innocence they can eventually, after a great deal of time, find pictures. Kieran shares some of the characteristics of the victims, having green eyes and dark hair, whilst Judy Cathar has distinctive high cheekbones.
Tracking down Dominique is a problem to tax the players’ creativity. Leg work, careful questioning, luck or a cunning plan are called for. For a start the players should suspect that she will return for the photograph and stake out the alley way. Unfortunately she does not know exactly where she lost it and will instead start at Nichols apartment. If the players wait for her to return for the photograph they will be contacted the next day by Sergeant Hines of SHIVER station 87 with further information on the Nichols case. He had left a two man SHIVER team at the apartment as clear up after the Forensics team had finished. As they were getting ready to leave they discovered a young boy sneaking into the apartment. They questioned him and decided that he was just being nosy so they chased him off. They did check his identification, his name was Jimmy Poe, of 315 Impetus Drive, Suburbia. If they are asked to describe him he was about thirteen or fourteen, blond with blue eyes. He was dressed quite well in street styles including a Brutalwear ® Leather jacket. The jacket had some writing in studs on the back that said “The Indefinite Articles”.
At the alleyway the player will have a similar sighting. If they are well positioned they will see a young girl enter the alleyway and start poking around in the garbage. One hand is under her jacket where a largish bulk can be seen. In the dark of the alleyway it is difficult to see if it is Dominique or what the shape can be but her height and build seem to match. If they try to intercept her she will attempt to run away whilst two young men appear to shout at the Operatives to leave her alone. The bulk beneath her jacket turns out to be a Road Rash Motorised Skateboard which she will use to aid her escapes. She is unarmed, the two boys carry coshes and hair spray (as an anti personal weapon, DEX at -5 to avoid blinding).
If all the Ops are left with are dead bodies then FORENSICS (or checking her youth ID card in her pocket) can identify her as Gale Westerly, the daughter of Norton Westerly a production line technician for Primordial Soups. Her address is given as 251 Impetus Drive, Harmony Vale, Suburbia. The young girl is wearing a BrutalWear ® leather jacket, on the rear of the jacket the words “Indefinite Article” is spelt out in paint. Checking with Control, or making a STREETWISE roll if the players live in Suburbia, will identify “The Indefinite Articles” as the name of a Suburbia poser gang with their turf centring on the nearby Harmony Vale sector.
With a live captive they will be able to INTIMIDATE or PERSUADE them to give more information. Eventually they will gain the information that they found a young girl wandering on their turf the previous evening and decided to give her a razing. After she produced the Panther though they changed their mind, Johny Death their slayer (real name John Flock) talked to her and calmed her down, she was lost and scared some. Apparently she was from Downtown but had run away from home. The Indefinites could relate with that and gave her food and shelter. If asked where she is they will explain that they gained entrance to a local SHACK O’ SNACKSTM which was recently closed by an Operative Squad.
If the Ops check with Control they will be informed that the premises were closed by the Operative Squad “Cold Fusion” after they found that it was being used as an outlet by the Soft Company “Carousal Pharmaceuticals”. It is currently waiting reopening once the investigation is complete and new staff have been appointed. The gang gained access through the rear loading door as the father of one of the members works for Manta Security and had keys. She seemed upset by the loss of a photograph of her brother and the gang agreed to look for it. She gave them three places to look, a Paramour Pizza Parlour, some apartment and this alley. She also said that her parents may have reported her missing and that the gang members should look out for SHIVERS.
Dominique, or Nikki as the gang know her, is still in the SHACK O’ SNACKSTM waiting for the return of the photograph. The final shoot-out can therefore involve plenty of exploding food packages sending their contents flying over walls, floors and Operatives.
Of course this may all be avoided if the photograph is used as a personal object for the purposes of Ebb Awareness Rank 8 - True Track. The trail of the owner will lead the Operatives to Harmony Vale and the SHACK O SNACKSTM.
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| Weapons: |
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| Damage: | +2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Phases: | 1, 3, 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total Hits: | 14 (O O O O O O O O O O O O O O) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wounds: | [1/5] [1/4] [1/3] [1/2] [1/1] [2/1] [3/1] [4/1] [5/1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Armour: | Striker leather trousers, DN Flak Vest & Striker leather jacket. |
Dominique is an Obsession serial killer. She blamed her terrible life and her brother’s death on her unknown father. It is obvious, to her Obsessive mind, that anyone who looks like her brother did, only older, could be her father. Presently limited to Downtown and Suburbia she is starting there. She has thought of becoming an Operative in order to gain access to Uptown. She’d probably make a good one, in a way.
Forensic Report Number: 917845618, fifteenth today.
Entry wounds suggested small calibre high power AP round except for the lack of characteristic indentation marks around the wound. No powder burns on body or clothing, no slugs recovered. Suggest weapon used was a long pointed instrument, like, like, a round blunted blade type thing, used for punching holes rather than slicing. Penetration suggests strong individual, though within un-enhanced human limits, location of wounds and lack of deviation suggest pre-meditation. Matter from wounds identified as dried blood and dirt as well as rain water and victims hair. Assumption that blood flaked from weapon during attack, currently running data for cross match purposes and connection to existing crimes.
Blood smears found on face matches victims own. Lack of blood on hands suggest that either the killer or some third party held the head at some point after death. No identifiable fingerprints obtained.
Forensic Report Number: 917842018.
Comments / questions to Martin Wheeler