A Minor Corporate War

Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James Schmidt's Hub stories. Players for the session included:

1. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones, psi resistant detective

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

Beth decided that it was only fair for Jealousy to interrupt Marius. After all, he had interrupted her by hiring her to help solve a kidnapping, costing her the sole opportunity to spot an Andovian bird snake that decade. Jealous did consider the kidnapping far more important, something that solidified her friendship with Marius.

This time, Marius had gone to see an opera with his medical colleague, Dr. Zy Blan. At dinner afterwards, he had hoped to find out if she might be attracted to him. Jealous had advised him simply to ask her outright if she were in a relationship with someone else. He knew that was good advice, and he tried to follow it. He mentioned that he'd been back to Ivic, his home planet, where he'd discovered that she had gone to college with one of his social peers, Edward Moussy.

Marius: Are you in a relationship with Edward Moussy?

Zy said that she wasn't, and asked what had prompted the question. Marius apologized, saying that he'd just spent too much time at home, what with the planetwide competition and all. As he tried to work back to the question he'd actually meant to ask, Jealousy found him and asked to hire him.

Marius took his leave of Zy, with regret, and Jealousy was as sincerely apologetic to learn she'd busted up Marius' date as he was when he'd learned that he'd interrupted her vacation. Marius figured it was probably just as well.

Two corporations were at war, a common occurrence in the Hub. Jealousy had been hired by one of the corporations. The second was the one that declared war and, as soon as legally permissible, struck. The chief executives of the corporation that had hired Jealousy were infected with a neurovirus that did neurological damage, making it hard to think and concentrate, and causing pain and twitching in the victims.

The attacking corporation had done a precision job of targeting. No one who was not a top level executive had been infected, and the corporation assured its foe that it had the antidote available as soon as its terms were accepted. The attack was the reason Jealousy's detective agency, Fifth Eye, had been hired, and the medical angle was the reason Jealousy hired Marius. This was a bit irregular, as Marius had Fifth Eye on retainer, but the two agreed that various lawyers could sort out the details.

Marius contacted his family on Ivic, asking if there was any information available on the two corporations. A few days later, the information from the Lecks databases arrived, with annotations so that Marius would not miss the pertinent, if subtle, details.

Both corporations had been banned from doing business on Ivic. The attacking corporation had been banned because of its actions, which, while always within the letter of the law, were, in Marius' opinion, disgusting and unethical. The corporation simply considered fines as the cost of doing business. Ivic decided that the only fine it would understand was not being permitted to do business at all.

The corporation that had hired Jealousy had been banned, essentially, for being an easy target. It attracted corporations like the one that was attacking it now. It had not, at first, used tactics dirty enough to be considered other than easy prey. The corporation was quite willing to use them in self defense now, but it had been caught up in the cycle of constant attacks, with no apparent way to break the cycle.

Marius and Jealousy went to the space station that held the headquarters of the attacking corporation and proceeded to sneak inside. Their goal was to get samples of the virus and a cure, if possible, and to do as much property damage to the corporation as possible. I forget most of the details, but they got samples of the virus, and Marius left some of it smeared on a doorknob. After all, it isn't as if the corporation didn't have the cure.

Their presence was eventually detected, and corporate goons started firing at them.

Jealousy: Those bastards wrecked my hair!

Marius: Ms. Jones, in my professional opinion, those blasters are set to kill.

Two pertinent facts: Jealousy has very expensive specialized equipment hidden in her hair. Most people shoot to stun. Shooting to kill is rare and raises the stakes considerably.

Jealousy suggested she and Marius depart. He agreed, asking which way they should go. She suggested straight down. They did this, and eventually wound up in a warehouse large enough that it had small ships or large aircars. I forget which. They piloted it out through the warehouse area, doing a tremendous amount of property damage in the process, but not killing anyone, IIRC.

Marius studied the samples of the virus. While it took him some time and he needed to use the facilities and personnel of the corporation that had hired Jealousy (I rolled low, but did not botch, so we agreed it would take time, and then rolled again, and did better), he was eventually able to manufacture a cure.

The corporation was quite pleased. Not only was there a cure, but its attacker had suffered a tremendous amount of property damage. It decided to put Fifth Eye on retainer, hoping it could at last break the cycle of getting attacked every time it started to do well. Marius wrote to his family, saying that Ivic might consider inviting this corporation back in a couple of years.