Blackjack's People #096
Safe Return
By Blackjack [Blackjack's Shadowrun Page: www.BlackjackSR.com] [BlackjackSRx@gmail.com] [@BlackjackSRx]

Posted: 1999-10-25

Commander Rain

Archetype: Human Dog Shaman

Most folks don't expect to see a shaman in charge of a megacorporation security force and the realization that Rain and his unit exists is a most unpleasant surprise. Having grown up a street shaman, Rain joined up with the corporation and worked on his detection and tracking spells. As his power grew the big boys find him the best candidate for leading a special force created for the sole purpose of returning extractees. Rain is a big guy, looking awkward and frightening in his black and grey street shaman garb when contrasted against the suit wearing corps he works for. What Rain wants in the area of personnel, Rain gets, commonly snatching up newly recruited shamans in order to test their ability at tracking, and then tossing them back to the corporation when they don't live up to his expectations. Although Rain is ready to fight if necessary, he much prefers negotiating the return of an extractee as opposed to forcibly retrieving them. He will even go so far as to negotiate with the kidnapper's Johnson or, if he can get the name of the corp behind the extraction, the corporation itself. But, being a dog shaman, Rain will not let up until he has his target and will resort to whatever methods are necessary in order to get the job done. Rain prefers to work with spirits and watchers, leaving the spell tossing and ritual stuff to his resident mage and other magic users brought in on a temporary basis.

Teal & Toby

Archetype: Allies

Teal and Toby are ally spirits belonging to Rain. They inhabit and otherwise take on the form of two grey steel dogs, one male and one female. They are only partially devoted to their master and Rain allows them to take their own "excursions" into astral space or the city in order to keep them happy. Both are able to speak and take on a personality closely resembling what one might expect from a mean Disney animal character. They constantly babble between themselves over how they're going to one day make off with Rain's magic, making sure Rain can hear this just so he'll get nervous. When on the job they still maintain their cocky and spiteful personalities but actually use their hunting skills to track targets. They will not enter combat unless absolutely necessary.

Trax

Archetype: Human Mage

Trax is a well accomplished initiate and it is usually he and other members of his corporate based magical group who use ritual magic or astral tracking in order to locate people. Having boosted his perception reflexes to the max, Trax is constantly on edge. It is almost a blessing that he's too slow and to under-trained combatwise to react immediately to his perceptions otherwise many people who innocently walked up behind would be dead by now. In Trax's mind he is always on duty and will even take a menial guard duty in order to prevent himself from getting bored.

Punishment

Archetype: Ork Corporate Soldier

When all of the "nice" attempts at retrieving an extracted individual fails, Commander Rain calls in Punishment. In turn, Punishment calls in the biggest and the baddest of the corporations nasties to help him out. He may call on other corporate soldiers, pull in a mercenary force, even higher some shadowrunners. All that matters is he's going to get the target back. When Punishment goes after somebody his methods are unpredictable and he makes sure he never has any evidence on him tying him to the corporation. Those who know him know enough to stay out of his path, especially when he's having trouble getting somebody back. Although he can't get too ruthless he may cause some unfortunate civilian "accidents" to accompany his retrieval attempts if they forward his efforts and don't draw too much attention.

As you've probably perceived, with Rain and Punishment in charge of things it appears as if they'll hijack a ballistic to the moon if that's where the target is. Well, they probably would, but it is likely by that time the higher ups in the corporation would have pulled both of them back. You see, such operations cost a lot of money and can also result in bad publicity and the risk of even nastier retaliation if the corp ends up stepping on a bigger corps shoes. Although Rain and Punishment may not like it, they'll pull out if their bosses tell them to.