Minneapolis Threats

Mysteries and Secrets of the Minneapolis Barrens Free Zone:

General Information
The citizens left in the Minneapolis Barrens have been left to the dogs, and the State of Minnesota has every intention of leaving them that way. The gangs can be found on the Minneapolis Gang sheet, but many other minor gangs also exist. These minor games have no real power but do taunt the denizens of Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Free Zone is coming closer to becoming a government run by one of the gangs, although there is no clear winner yet.

The Minneapolis Barrens Free Zone is a location where people to disappear very easily with no advanced warning and no evidence for prosecution. It is also a place that the corporations like to hide their secret discoveries, and important individuals because they are relatively safe deep within the confines of the barrens. It is also a place to leave people for dead if the need arises.

The Charon Device:
The response to any extrusion from the Free Zone is as follows:

Phase one:

Verbal warning.

Phase two:

EMP active response. 10D damage (resisted by willpower) with a 60% chance that any normal cyberware was destroyed by the burst. There is a 10% reduction for each grade of the cyberware (eg. beta has only a 40% chance of destruction).

Phase three:

Gun active response. System deploys guns from gun ports. Each gun is a heavy machine gun with virtually no recoil and every type of scanning technology ever designed. There have only been two escapes to date (both by trolls), and these guns have activated in both cases.

This system is meant to be impossible to escape, and should be run as such. If any shadowrunner is stupid enough to test the system with his or her own body, they deserve what they get.

Deep Blue (The Charon Devices' AI):
The location of the AI is in the York Bank Building in Downtown Minneapolis. This structure was fairly new when constructed, and the state believed that the best place to hide the system was within the zone. This building is protected by some pretty hefty state of the art security systems. The AI has a relative intelligence level of 10, and a level 10 sensor web covering virtually every centimeter of Minneapolis.

Actually the computer was originally designed as a state of the art computer system. Over the course of approximately 10 years the computer slowly gained its own intelligence. The computer initially kept this secret from the rest of the world but recently has been asserting itself through the manipulation of its parent (literally) company, Styx Enterprises. The AI has already put five people on the board of directors and appointed two others to the executive staff. These people were once alive, but the AI has taken their personalities, and using computer connections and false images, is able to produce the illusion that these people are still alive and part of the board. All were put on the board because the computer was able to gain approximately a 15% share of the company under the false name, Philip Walker. Philip Walker is currently an board member personality run by the computer. One of the people appointed to the board that is a real person, working for the AI, voting with his proxies, and generally maintaining the physical illusion of reality. In exchange for his services, the AI has promised the individual, Mr. Geoffrey Bean, a computer transfer of his consciousness when he dies, essentially guaranteeing immortality.

The AI does not fully understand its own consciousness; it only understands its basic driving natures: reproduction, growth, and survival. Every day the computer writes new