Minor Faction Darkwire Crash Course 1: Crashing Markets

A hologram comes online, displaying a young Farghul girl.

"I've never done one of these before. A diary, I mean. I never saw the point, really. Who was it for? I already know what I know, and a diary always meant leaving my secrets vulnerable. I could never afford that."

"Well, now I'm on the other side, walking with the people I helped to hurt. If this is the only way I can understand them, Darkwire, then maybe I can afford it this time."

"This war is older than I am, so I'm going to listen to what they have to say."

Her gaze seems to linger on you for a while before she reaches over to turn off the holographic recording.



Out of Character, Darkwire started roleplaying on January 22nd, 2020, and became a Major Faction on January 28th, 2020. Our founder, Hacks, had just survived a failed attempt to cash in a bounty on a CIS government member on Geonosis, along with myself (Cassus Akovin) and a whole host of other Bounty Hunters. Our first thread, Welcome to Denon, introduced the basic precepts of our setting: a Corporate Dystopia and an invisible underworld called Darkwire working both for and against their corporate overlords.

In Character, Darkwire was a small-time cyber organization specializing in manipulating markets through many highly skilled and sometimes dangerous techniques. It was more or less founded by a character known to Darkwire as "Frankie," who was instrumental in handing power over to a group of corporate refugees from the Corporate Sector Authority fleeing the nationalization of their assets in the Sith Empire. Frankie disappeared shortly after the formation of the Corporate Authorities of Denon (CAD). The CAD was led by Executive Officer (ExO) Mr. Fey and the Direx Board, consisting of the five most powerful corporate superpowers known as DireX's (Marlene Starlight, Luminous Sun, Larz Blackheart, Diviak Manfloon, and Qanatain Xopsaloff) and fifty other business leaders under their influence. Most original members of Darkwire started directly after this time.

Our first dominion started on Belazura and best exemplified the kind of crazy Darkwire was all about. Diviak Manfloon, Director of Industry representing the Mining Union, desired access to rich mineral reserves in the resort world's pristine, luxurious natural landscape and hired Darkwire into an elaborate plot. Their Governor, Kjell Chuma, wouldn't allow Diviak Manfloon to encroach on Belazuran sovereignty, so the DireX hired Darkwire to acquire his will and forge it to cede complete ownership of the planet over to Diviak Manfloon upon his death, then kill him. To accomplish this, Darkwire literally cut the entire top floor of a Cloudcutter off to gain access to a vault (and after pillaging it for all its worth, sent it to Denon to serve as a trophy and Darkwire hideout). Belazura fell to the Mining Union.

Similarly for Devaron, Darkwire was hired by Luminous Sun, Entertainment Mogul, to acquire access to its many Gladitorial Arenas. Darkwire infiltrated an arena observed by the head of the planetary government and staged a false slave rebellion resulting in their assassination. Thus, allowing Luminous Sun's pawn to rise to power and give her unfettered access to the planet.

Our fourth dominion ended up being one of the most impactful, the infamous Nanotripping on Parcellus Minor. The Corporate Authorities released a revolutionary nanobot-based entertainment system on the "backwater" world of Parcellus Minor, funded by the Bursar Qanatain Xopsaloff. The "Cyberdive" system was meant to be a fully immersive virtual reality experience from a simple injection of nanites into a user's bloodstream. Yet something went wrong, turning it into an insidious global pandemic! Suspecting Darkwire of interference, Xopsaloff threw money at them to fix their problem. However, one issue cropped up; almost all of Darkwire on the quarantined planet were infected too, either engaged in bizarre involuntary dance routines or comatose in an ideal dream world slowly and suspiciously moving towards a bar on Nar Shaddaa. While Darkwire resolved the issue in the real world, those trapped in the dream discover a suspicious plot orchestrated by Larz Blackheart in the dream world, giving them a way out... but at what cost?

To smooth over the massive corporate failure on Parcellus Minor, CAD distributed free Vouchers redeemable at resorts on Belazura, members of Darkwire included. Trying to forget all that they experienced on the swamp world, Shadowrunners and civilians alike joined up on the Beach of Dreams to take the edge off with some relaxation. However, not everyone was satisfied with the Corporations facade of control, and the simulated beach was hijacked by Zenitha Chuma, the orphaned daughter of the former Governor Kjell Chuma, to display all of the horrible work and environmental conditions subjected to the natural beauty of Belazura orchestrated by Diviak Manfloon. As a spark of rebellion ignited in the middle of a Corporate Fued between Diviak Manfloon and Luminous Sun, Darkwire managed to escape paradise once again.

Yet, this was only the beginning of their troubles returning to Denon, as the virtual echoes of themselves seemed to have followed them home...