Current Developments

## Corporate Concerns

### Contract Security

AMERICAN HAWK SECURITY and several other prominent security firms in San Francisco is currently lobbying the city government to retire its police force and replace it with corporate contracted security, citing the government-sponsored police force’s lack of funding abnd state-of-the-art technology, poor health coverage and family benefits, and the rising rate of criminal activity within the city. If successful, AHS and other security firms could potentially bid the government to hire them for a term of four years and take over the city’s enforcement of law.

### Shiawase & Looming Extraterritoriality

In 1997, SHIAWASE CORPORATION opened an aluminum production factory in Southern San Francisco. The plant was powered by the regional utility grid. Electricity prices went through a 550% rise over six months.

In 1998, SHIAWASE filed a request to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a nuclear power plant. They planned to install a small nuclear reactor—similar to a research reactor—which would have had a limited output only for the purpose of powering the factory.

SHIAWASE’s request was turned down by the NRC. The commission argued the hazard presented by nuclear power plants were acceptable only if they were balanced by public interest; for this reason, they refused to allow a nuclear reactor that did not have a direct commercial or research purpose. The case was brought to the Supreme Court in 2000 where SHIAWASE claimed it was fulfilling all the requirements for such plant and its output would answer to their existing needs. It accused the commission of overriding its prerogatives by intervening not on the electricity market, but on the aluminum market.

The NRC thought they had a strong legal basis: Wickard v. Filburn (1942) had long established the government power to regulate trade allowed it to regulate non-commercial activities that had an impact on trade. Aware of their opponent’s strategy, SHIAWASE lawyers shattered it as the trial started. Wickard v. Filburn allowed the government to prevent overproduction to drive up agricultural price, while in this case both the electricity and aluminum production were unable to reach the demand, and rising price wasn’t a goal they pursued.

Predictably, the NRC lost and SHIAWASE was authorized to build their nuclear plant. The case had the additional effect of making the Supreme Court review all the requirements the NRC had put on. Among them, the NRC required local police forces to be permanently involved in the plant security. This regulation had been put into place precisely to get around United States v. Seretech (1999), who made the authorities the last resort when a corporation was unable to fulfill its obligations. The Supreme Court, seemingly disgruntled to see their recent holding—the Seretech Decision—already contested by the executive power, struck down the demand, reaffirming the corporations’ responsibility in securing their activities ahead of any government involvement.

#### The TerraFirst! Attack

The lawsuit of SHIAWASE against the NRC brought media attention on the SHIAWASE factory and power plant, which was completed within months as most of its elements had already been built in Singapore.

Shiawase completed construction of its power plant in late 2000. The Supreme Court decision garnered the power plant much attention, making it an attractive target for eco-terrorists. The ecoterrorist group TERRAFIRST! attempted to breach the reactor, allowing nuclear material to contaminate the area. They assembled a special forces grade team using military-grade weapons and had enough explosives to carry out their plans. Well-equipped and prepared, they were able to reach the outside of the containment zone before they were detected and fatally neutralized in total by SHIAWASE security forces before they reached the containment building.

TERRAFIRST! denied any participation in the attack on SHIAWASE and allegedly later gathered evidence that SHIAWASE had conspired with other corporations to stage the attack, but the evidence was destroyed when the terrorist group’s California office was bombed.

#### The Decision

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission prosecuted SHIAWASE CORPORATION for criminal negligence and reckless endangerment. The NRC’s case was that SHIAWASE maintained inadequate security measures, allowing the terrorists to penetrate the outer perimeter of the plant. SHIAWASE offered in its defense evidence that they could have defended against a group three times the size of the TERRAFIRST! team. It also contended that it was NRC regulations that prevented SHIAWASE from implementing more effective security measures in the first place, and the terrorists had been able to enter the site only because the NRC had forced SHIAWASE to separate the nuclear power plant security system from the aluminium production factory. SHIAWASE’s argument also detailed several dozen regulations and laws whose enforcement were weakening the power plant security level.

Following the recent decisions United States v. Seretech (1999) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Shiawase (2000), SHIAWASE reminded the Supreme Court that it nore sole responsibility for security when exploiting a nuclear power plant. If the government was enacting laws and regulations which prevented the adequate level of security for a nuclear plant, then it was implicitly allowing SHIAWASE’s protection of its nuclear reactor to be inadequate. SHIAWASE argued that when a regulation or a law resulted in actually threatening security, health, morals or the welfare of the people, the government should no longer retain such permission. SHIAWASE gave the court and the government a choice: shut down all the nuclear power plants in the US, or give their owners complete freedom to fulfill the security requirements. Their argument was used for the first time the concept of corporate extraterritoriality to ask for a differentiated enforcement of the law inside corporation facilities.

After several weeks of deliberation, the Supreme Court gave its verdict in favor of SHIAWASE.

#### Interest in a New Concept

Other corporations like GOOGLE, AHS, MICROSOFT, and WALMART have all expressed support and praise for SHIAWASE’s victory over the NRC. The OSI is currently watching and tracking trends in corporate activity, alert that many other like-minded corporate entities may be looking for ways to gain the extraterritoriality SHIAWASE has.

GOOGLE has already been making not-so-subtle inroads into San Francisco, approaching a few of the city's communities with the idea of hosting GOOGLE inside an arcology.

## Old Ways vs. New

The Catholic Church has seen a massive dip in its membership over the last year and a half as the troubles of San Francisco have left its citizenry adrift and confused. The Church counsels faith and dependence on God, a stance which is finding popularity amongst some but is failing to resonate with most.

Opposed to this religious point of view are those who insist that if things are to get better it will require people to stand up and rally together to fight the system, not trust in some amorphous and unsubstantiated god: “Together We Can Lift Mountains” is the slogan of the movement known as, CNM (Codependent No More).

## National/International Stirrings

* **AIM (American Indian Movement):** a Native American advocacy group in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with an agenda that focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty. The founders included Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Harold Goodsky, Eddie Benton-Banai, and a number of others in the Minneapolis Native American community. AIM has been gaining popularity recently in the public eye as they’ve been advocating in marches and protests for a more spiritual lifestyle in America, publically criticizing the American frantic and “instant-gratification” based lifestyle. They are calling for a return to spiritual roots and are inviting the “white man” to join them. In the decades since AIM’s founding, the group has led protests advocating indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities, and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States.

* **Chicomoztoc:** Mexico has recently found itself on the verge of a civil war with a party that wants officially change the country’s name to Chicomoztoc, or “the place of the seven caves.” The party claims that “Mexico” (derived from Mexica) was a name forced upon its people by Spanish conquerors and only represents the people known as Aztecs, conjuring violent images and stories that do not account for the diversity and beauty found in Chicomoztoc’s people: the Xochimilca, Tlahuica, Acolhua, Tlaxcalan, Tepaneca, Chalca, and Azteca. Along with the name change, the party promise an upswell in the economy and the major drug cartels eradicated or driven out. Although not at the forefront of their propaganda, the party also promises that the old religion, Teotl, will become the official religion of the country—the Catholic Church is struggling to retain its members since the resurgence of the people’s “national pride.”

* **The Warping:** A severe plague, dubbed the “Warping,” has swept over Europe (and to a lesser extent western Asia), causing massive deaths (20% of the population) and leaving those who survive mutated and deformed. The disease does not affect everyone, leaving many unmolested and without even a hint of symptoms, however those it does touch it hits with ferocity. It is unknown how the plague is spread and there is no known cure. As a result, the U.S. Government has halted all travel to the region.

## Rampant Fae

The FBI's local field office and its Office of Special Investigations recently suffered an attack from a powerful fae in broad daylight. The government building was severely damaged and nearly twenty agents lost their lives as floors collapsed and concrete fell. As a result he FBI has relocated their offices. Behind the scenes, the Noble Court has begun and investigation as to whether this attack was directed at them and/or their assets. To date nothing definitive has been determined.

## Xenomorph Invasion

A psychiatrist, EROL WAHNSINNIG, began treating a patient (ALEXA WOODS) who claimed to be the only survivor of an expedition to Antarctica sponsored by the Weyland corporation. While there she claimed her entire party was caught between two alien forces as they fought for supremacy. ALEXA checked herself into a sleep clinic because she was having trouble sleeping when her story was heard by WAHNSINNIG who pushed for her to be admitted to his hospital as his patient.

Unknown to most, WAHNSINNIG was also a fledgling hedge mage who had been trying and failing to be accepted by LEIDECKER's *Noble Court*. The psychiatrist created a crude spell that would bring the nightmares that plagued ALEXA WOODS to brief life for him to study. What he did not realize was that when he dismissed the horrors conjured before him they would re-manifest elsewhere at random. As a result, the xenomorph's of ALEXA's nightmares took form (a twisted form of nightmare spirit) and began multiplying. Soon the city was under siege. A young local werewolf pack discovered WAHNSINNIG's meddling and cornered him, but not before a powerful vampire, MASON, twisted the man's head off his shoulders in retaliation for disturbing the territory MASON had taken upon himself to protect. Unfortunately this did not stop the threat as the magic cast on ALEXA was out of control and still spawning creatures from her nightmares. KIDA SWANSON of the young werewolf pack killed ALEXA to stop the continued spread of the threat. Still, hundreds of xenomorphs had already manifested in the city and were on a rampage both bloody and unpredictable.

The HARBRINGERS eventually called upon all packs in the area to assist with the fight against the xenomorph invasion. Human authorities were outmatched and taxed beyond their capacity to function. As most of the uratha fought the xenomorphs, the NIGHTSISTERS began investigating the creatures rather than fighting them and they discovered something that brought a pattern to the creatures' violence. They they were technically spirits, conjured though they were by human magic, they were malformed. The creatures desired to reenter the Shadow but could not consciously detect loci. Their Queen could, though she was unaware of it consciously. All she knew was that when she was near a locus her body went into labor and she nested in the vicinity for a time spawning eggs. When the NIGHTSISTERS discovered this, they captured 30 humans and intentionally allowed them to become impregnated with the Queen's progeny in order to power a ritual that would open the Gauntlet and allow the xenomorphs to cross *en masse* into the Shadow. Upon the deaths of the 30 mortals as their chests were ripped open by the creatures' births the ritual was powered and most (though not all...) of the xenomorphs raced toward their proper home.

### Aftermath - Noble Court Retreat

The HARBRINGERS held the Noble Court responsible for WAHNSINNIG's actions, something which LEIDECKER adamantly refused to accept. DAMIEN, the HARBRINGER's alpha, demanded that if the Noble Court would not accept responsibility, then his pack would enforce its own authority over the city and demand the mages withdraw any claim. Surprisingly, LEIDECKER agreed to this. The wizards of San Francisco withdrew...but many wonder if the retreat is permanent, and regardless of its permanency the question still begs: why would they submit like that at all?

## The Story Continues...

Chapter One - Chapter Two - Chapter Three - Chapter Four - Chapter Five - Chapter Six - Chapter Seven - Chapter Eight - Chapter Nine - Chapter Ten - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13 - Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16

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