So, this thread is for two things: A quick summary of events, and, so people can post upcoming world level events that I ought to be aware of. (As some of you might be aware, I don't tend to notice stuff in the news, much. So if you want a major real-world event to show up in game, you should probably mention it.)
Saturday, August 8, 2009: An earthquake hits the bay area in the morning. High enough on the scale that everybody felt it, but overall damage is low. A few cars went off of roads; stuff fell off of shelves; and one giant sinkhole opened up in an abandoned parking lot in East Palo Alto. Matthew, David, and Sam investigate. Three bodies buried in the rubble; all members of the "White Caps" gang, and armed with foreign (and highly illegal) assault rifles and steel-cored armor piercing rounds. Evidence of some sort of firefight immediately prior earthquake. Sinkhole itself looked like a footprint to the Sight; something mammalian; perhaps a (metaphorical) giant bear or badger? Nearby buildings include: One abandoned corporate HQ for "Flamingo Chemicals Co." - it's been officially out of use for about seven months, and was at least zoned for administrative work, not actual experiments or production. One "barber shop", of questionable status; it appears to include far too much space, a bunch of folding plastic chairs, and a guy with a shotgun, in addition to amenities that would allow it to function as a barber shop were it actually open. One small non-chain grocery store. One pawn shop - offering top dollar for gold jewelry!
Additional investigation reveals possibility of blood magic in use by a competing gang, the "cutthroats" - though there is little evidence to support them being capable of causing an earthquake.
Sunday, August 9, 2009: Eric Saint, spokesperson of the Volunteer Earthquake Response Group (VERG), contacts Ryan - since the East Palo Alto city government hasn't demonstrated any interest in rapid emergency response to events such as the sinkhole the previous day, they're trying to put together a team capable of safely investigating such locations and extracting any survivors; an armored exosuit (or maybe two or three) is intended to function as the centerpiece of such efforts, supported by scouting robots, a crane (for use with sinkholes, where falling / further collapse is a serious danger), a generator on a truck, as well as conventional emergency response tools.
Also on Sunday: Sam gets called in to back up a VU team that's got some ghouls cornered in a cave in the blast zone. Matthew wanders by just in time for the showdown, which involves much running around. Then, of course, there's the slight issue of cleanup... The ghouls have satellite internet? What? They've also got their PC stuck in an ancient sumerian blood magic circle - human blood, designed to rip the blood out of any human foolish enough to cross. Can't take it down with wizardry, either; calling in a wizard would just result in a fried computer. Fortunately, Samantha has Tsuki's phone number (that's Inali's mother, if you weren't keeping track), and a full blooded kitsune is perfectly capable of carting the machine out without triggering the magical trap. Analysis on the captured machine is pending; the VU has its hackers trying to figure out exactly who the ghouls were talking to, but this may take some time.
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