163: Rust Convocation

ENTRY 163: Rust Convocation

In many ways, Firewall is not a single organization. There are dozens of groups that seek to protect transhumanity, or guard against exsurgent threats, some of which are aligned with Firewall and others of which are ignorant of its existence. The Rust Convocation is one of the latter, a supergroup that is focused on sharing information and resources among various anti-exsurgent groups on and around the planet Mars, and coordinating their efforts to prevent and contain outbreaks.

The Rust Convocation began as an alliance between the Zone Rangers, who developed and maintain the private sensor net encircling the TITAN Quarantine Zone, and the Ruster Reclamation Project which seeks to identify and rehabilitate victims of the TITANs among the Barsoomian population. The Convocation quickly grew to include such groups as the Olympus-based Extraordinary Virus Containment Unit which seeks to identify, contain, and possibly reverse the effects of various exsurgent viruses; and the Red Market, a group of hypercorp executives who have pooled their wealth to remove TITAN-related materials from the Martian black and grey markets before they can do any harm. Most of these groups are secret to various degrees, due to questionable legality of their practices, but the Convocation provides Mesh resources that link their individual intelligence networks into a single database/wiki, and provide additional quasi-legal tools for covert funds and material transfer.

While the Rust Convocation as a whole is ignorant of Firewall, Firewall is aware of the Rust Convocation, and has a few agents planted in the various organizations to monitor their progress and lend additional aid if necessary—made all the easier by the Rust Convocation’s anonymous funds/material/information transfer procedures. While not sufficient to really influence the organization, the plants Firewall has in place are enough to keep tabs on the various groups.

Seeds

• The Zone Rangers have registered a major incursion into the Zone, and have coordinated with other groups through the Rust Convocation to intercept the quarantine-breakers on their way out—with lethal force, if necessary. The player characters are quietly approached to assist; if nothing else it should be a good networking opportunity…on the other side, they may be facing a small army of exsurgent morphs looking to make a breakout.
• Firewall’s plants inside the Rust Convocation are concerned that the Extraordinary Virus Containment Unit is keeping samples of the exsurgent virus in storage for study, and with inadequate security precautions. An agent approaches them and asks that the player characters infiltrate the facility and activate the emergency protocols that will destroy the samples.
• The Red Market is concerned by a recent source of TITAN-tech that has begun appearing on the Martian black market. The offer to provide the player characters with a line of credit for two million Titanian kroner in order to track down this source and eliminate it—with prejudice. Anything left of the original two million is theirs to keep for a job well done. They will receive additional help and information through limited access to the Rust Convocation network.