Shadowrun Denver Web Site: Thorn's Background

Born in the year of 2030 at the time of 4:13 in the AM, Eric Daniel Thorn was
an only child. His mother Jessica a hardworking Fuchi data slave his father
Justin having been in the grave for the past 6 months after being killed when
a sub orbital was shot down, or crashed as the papers said. He was a small
baby with dark black hair and brilliant blue eyes having come several weeks
premature, which the doctors attributed to stress.

As the days went by, turning into years Eric grew slower than the other
children around him, although his mind developed much faster. Speaking after
just several months with ease he also began to speak Sperethiel that his
mother taught him before he had mastered English. While his intelligence
greatly helped him with his grades and being in school his social skills and
small size did little to win him friends. Picked on by the older kids in his
class he was far from popular, his only friend being Fredrick a dwarven child
with who he was almost the same height in the first few grades.

He and the dwarf became fast friends Fredricks father a Fuchi security guard
filling the male role in Eric's life as he grew up. His mother worked hard and
saw that he was provided for as best she could, her husband's life insurance
helping for the first years before it finally ran out. Fredricks father Hale
took on some of the burden then slipping his own son a little extra money to
help provide for Eric when it came to recreation such as going to the arcade
or seeing a movie. Isabel, Fredricks mother also helped befriending Jessica
and letting Eric spend the night as well as feeding him after school and
helping the boy in general.

As Fredrick and Eric grew older they grew closer even as the elven boy finally
began to put on some height and weight almost shooting upwards overnight. It
was around seventh grade when Hale began to teach the boys how to shoot his
old Ruger 600-sport rifle so they could go hunting in the fall. At first both
were horrible shots not hitting the target for the recoil but little by little
and day by day they both began to learn how to use the weapon to some degree
as well as care for it. The boys would go on hunting trips then with Hale in
the fall normally never bagging a since thing but enjoying there time together
and learning how to move in the forest quietly, hide, and other such things
required when hunting animals.

Grade school turned into middle school and middle school into high school as
things progressed on. Fredrick now a tough little bastard of a dwarf
constantly stood up for his taller and skinny friend Eric, who in return
helped him to keep his grades up. Freshman year Eric made a choice to join the
ROTC program hoping the physical exercise would help him to bulk up and become
more popular. While not popular Eric's circle of friends finally did grow a
bit larger as he trained and worked out with others in his unit even attending
some of the courses and camps over the summer.

His senior year rapidly approaching and Eric's grade some of the best in his
class he was offered a chance to attend MIAT&T. Unfortunately that is where
money came into things and even with a partial scholar ship his mother
couldn't afford to send him. Fuchi took a step in then offering to pay for
Eric's schooling in chemistry if he would come to work for their Military
Intelligence Department for 5 years afterwards, to help analyze and study new
weapons chemical weapons. Eric jumped at the chance to attend college and
graduated with honors from his high school heading off to college in the fall.

Without delay Eric jumped in headfirst at college loading up on courses and
spending most of his time studying. Four years flew by as he became recognized
as one of the best chemistry and biotech students at the college, all the
while Fuchi kept the money coming to retain there prize. Nothing was beyond
the corp as he was provided with a new car, spending money each month, and the
top research tools and facilities to use as he obtained his degree. Cyber and
bio was added as well, a chemical analyzer and gas spectrometer and a level
two cerebral booster to help him analyze his creations.

As the four years of college seemed to fly by for the young elf the next few
would drag on and on as Fuchi exploited him to there own benefit. His training
he soon learned was to encompass more than just a basic boot camp and sitting
behind a desk, he was trained as a field operative. An olfactory booster,
chipjack, and router were installed to link his systems to all him to analyze
compounds and other things. He was taught the skills in how to get into a
place and out with the info he needed without being killed, how to open locked
doors, what kind of info Fuchi was after, as well as his ass being busted into
shape by the other members of his unit who he would be working beside. All
contact with his friends and family was severed to an extend, all his mail
read, all his letters looked over before being allowed to be sent

In October of 2056 Fuchi assigned Eric and his team to Renaku as a group of
security guards and researchers. There infiltration was seamless and easy as
they were rapidly accepted under false pretenses, as being scientist come up
from a small corporation. Eric was uneasy in his new role as he spied on the
enemy as Fuchi refereed to them as, sending encrypted signals to them time and
time again with the new chemical and bio research the other corp was
performing. Then one day they were caught, no one knows the exact details or
how but the entire team was busted. Rounded up and tosses in a cell they were
left to rot for several days. Everyone though Fuchi would make a jail break
for them, pulling them out of the hell hole they were kept in back to freedom.
It never happened for a month or more they were imprisoned in the cell, before
finally it happened there chance came.

Shadowrunners is what they are refereed to, people who work for the corps off
the books and they are always expendable. Eric didn't know their job and
didn't care but when the power to the cellblocks went out the small
half-starved group saw their chance and took it. With the electronic security
gone one of the other members of the group managed to pick the lock to the
cell getting it to open with a little help from a troll named Smiley and his
shoulder.

As the team exited the cell they ran afoul of several sentry guns, which
managed to kill almost everyone remaining save Smiley and Eric. It was a
frantic flight from the compound after that running past guards and using what
they new to get the hell out. While not a soldier Eric knew his way around
pistols and put that knowledge to good use that night as they fled the
compound. Everything was going well and then it happened as the perimeter
sentry guns opened fire blazing fire in the darkness and the hot lead slamming
into and through the tall elf.

A white room smelling of cleaning solvents, a white sheet covering his torso,
and a light blue gown made of light cotton covering his body is how Eric
awoke. Where was he were the first thoughts through his head, is this heaven,
am I dead. Then pushing himself up with rubberband arms and shaky legs he saw
Smiley his ass planted in a chair next to the bed asleep his chest heavily
bandaged his right arm wrapped from wrist to shoulder. As Smiley woke up and
things progressed Eric managed to find out what had happened. He caught three
bullets from a sentry gun in the side, one hitting his spin, Smiley had
managed to drag both of them to a cheap flop and signal Fuchi for help. From
there he found out that Fuchi had taken more liberties with his body while he
was in the hospital installing level two alpha wire reflexes, as well as cyber
eyes with several different options such as thermographic and low light to
better help him perform his job, and having his joints coated with teflon to
help him be more articulate.

It was months later when Eric finally got out of the hospital and went back
about his business so to speak working with Smiley to help put together a new
team for Fuchi. For the next several years things would fall into a pattern as
Eric would work with and help run the new team with Smiley. As the years went
buy he finally began to put on the muscle he desired as well as train more
with a rifle and pistol so as not to be completely useless in a combat
situation.

Then it happened all hell broke loose as Fuchi sold off some of its American
assets to the other corporations in an attempt to help the company and its
stock. Eric then decided it was time to go and his debt to Fuchi was paid,
erasing his files from the computer in the middle of the night he packed up
the few possessions that where his as well as his gear and weapons, void of
tracking signals and left.

It was harder to get rid of his SIN but Eric managed to accomplish it, hiring a
decker for a little over 200K his life savings and having him mark the SIN as
deceased in all the systems he could find as well as change the DNA on file
and other specific items. For all effects and purposes Eric was dead and not
coming back any time soon.

Life on the streets was new to Eric as he tried to go legit working for several
companies but not being close to being hired due to his lack of SIN. Finally
he turned back to what he knew how to do to a degree stealing at first the
supplies he needed, and finally setting up a small chemistry facility
manufacturing illegal drugs to pay the rent. Then it happened, not the cops
walking into his shop but a slender ork dressed in a nice jacket and packing
visible heat. He introduced himself as Drake and put in an order for something
quite rare, a poison, something to paralyze, but leaving feeling and the
senses. This would be a changing point in Eric's life as he learned just how
much power he could possess.

The poison was manufactured and Eric would assume used from the review the ork
gave it. Several more times then would deal and work together before finally
forming a light friendship, more like a working partnership. At the same time
as this was happening Eric began to get back into the business so to speak,
training daily at his skills in the backroom of his shop and a nearby firing
range, as well as keeping himself in shape with jogs and other exercise.

Finally when he felt he was ready he put the word out on the street he was
looking for some light low key work. Going through Drake as well as a fixer he
had made contact with he was eventually handed a bodyguard job. The op was
simple keep a minor exec for DocWagon alive and intact for two days. It was
simple and easy without a shot fire and netted the elf 10K from the exec, 5
grand a day. After several more of these milk runs Eric found out that he
liked the money of the work, as well as grew more comfortable doing it.

Shutting the drug shop down much to the dismay of several gangs and junkie he
focus his attention on shadowrunning, although at the time he didn't know
that's what he was doing. Finally Drake came to him looking for backup on one
of his hits, someone to cover him with the long gun for 30K. Agreeing eagerly
Eric had no idea what he was getting into the assassin provided him with a
Walther MA-2100, and explained his job.

Maybe it was an omen but Eric didn't see it that was as he painted the chest of
his target with the laser sight double tapping the big sniper rifle. The first
job he and Drake has done together and things had gone wrong leaving Eric to
cover the ork as he ran like hell from the house of a small time yakuza member
who he has just knifed.

Omen or not the two would continue to work together through the rest of the
year and most of the next, doing what needed to be done. The good thing about
assassinating people is paid better than keeping them alive. While the two
took several types of jobs, including bodyguarding and thefts they were first
and foremost killers, doing just that. At the same time Eric spent his money
to begin to bring him up to the same level as Drake purchasing a level II
smartlink, more modifications for his eyes. He bought more bioware as well as
reflex recorder tied to the part of his body that governed using a rifle, as
well as another more specific recorder that governed the use of the Walther
MA-2100 specifically.

Then it happened it seems the Omen came true and Drake died at the hands of a
cybered troll protecting a Fuchi executive. The job was complete as Eric put
two rounds into the exec chest and the rest of the magazine into the troll's
head and shoulder area. After that it was a made flight from capture the
Walther getting sold for about a quarter of its worth and some clothes thrown
in a suitcase. The plane for Washington DC left the landing pad on time
thankfully with Eric sitting in coach sweating the entire time.

D.C. was different than Seattle to say the least, but Eric was determined to go
legit to a degree, no more assassinations. He put the word out he as a
bodyguard again and began after about a month and a half to do that work
again. Things were good to say the least as the heat from Seattle didn't
follow him and in the UCAS capital work as a bodyguard was good.

As the months went by Eric saved up the money to get his ears replaced and
modified with several advancements such as hearing amplification and a spatial
recognizer. After recovering from the surgery it was on a job bodyguarding a
low level diplomats son that Eric met Edge and Grinder a pair of Street
Samurai he was to work with, the first a human the second a massive ork. The
job supposedly a milk run turned into a cluster fuck on the first of a three
day assignment, and in the end all three of the mercs walked away wounded, but
satisfied as there charge was alive and there pockets heavy with fifty
thousand yen.

Things would develop between the three then as they new each other from the run
and used a cyberdoc contact of Edges to get them all patched up. Eric learned
the other two worked with a like minded group of professionals on most jobs,
not assassins but men who prided themselves on being able to get in and out of
someplace without causing a sound. After a couple weeks Eric took another job
with the two working just with them and not the rest of there crew to provide
long range support as they would hijack a truck for some component inside.

Finally after several jobs such as this it happened and Eric was asked to do a
run with the entire group to see how they would work together. The elf agreed
readily to the job, covering the entrance and exit to a small corp compound
for the team. Things almost went bad save for the quick thinking of the decker
Jojo, and his interaction with Eric to distracted two security guards who
showed up. A sentry gun that Jojo controlled popped up and opens fire on a now
fleeing Eric drawing those two guards as well as about half the compound out
after the fleeing elf.

What started out as a working relationship at first turned more into a
friendship then as the team began to work and live together in a renovated
warehouse. Grinder was an ork sammie and the leader of the team, Edge was
another sammie a human and second in command, then came Mojo a dwarf mage, and
Jojo the teams rigger/decker. Eric was brought on board as a bodyguard to Jojo
as well as someone to help secure the entrance and exit to the compounds and
areas the team would be working in so to speak. Readily accepting the job Eric
became part of No Quarter and took to calling himself Raven on the streets so
as to create better animosity like the others in the group.

Not long after the group had been working and learning to function together
they were called in on a run, parahunting for a corp in Chicago. They were to
capture a queen ant spirit alive and bring her out of the city to a
destination to be named after she was secured for study. Much like everyone
else on the team Eric had reservations about doing this, despite the fact that
assistance was promised if they accepted. Also like the others in the group
the lure of 100K per head was hard to resist and in the end No Quarter signed
on for this job. The assistance came in the way of several veteran parahunters
one of, which was named Chaos who Eric hit it off with on day one.

While Eric may have like Chaos and the two gotten along or at least really
respected each other the run wasn't so easy. Bad luck from the start things
kept getting worse as people kept dying around the core group of No Quarter
with most of them injured at this point. Regardless they pressed onwards the
HV LMGs Edge and Grinder packed clearing a way through the flesh forms slowly
if not surely. As the group finally made it to and began to extract the queen
luring her around with magic all hell broke loose and caverns of the hive
erupted into flashes of flame, smoke, screams, and the sounds of ants. Then
out of the darkness a claw tore into Eric's throat and everything went black.

When Eric awoke he realized that he was in his room as the warehouse his neck,
chest, and head all heavily bandaged and hurting like hell. Not soon after he
awoke Mojo who had some medical training arrived and checked the different
machines that were hooked into him over. It was explained rather simple, he
had gotten most of his throat ripped out by a true form, Chaos the parahunter
had slung him over a shoulder as the group fought there way out. Mojo had then
healed Eric right before he had died thankfully, although the healing was on
partial complete. The group had then headed back to D.C. via a chopper Jojo
had procured dropping Chaos off at the Chicago outskirts. Once they had
touched down in D.C. they took Eric to the group cyberdoc to see what he could
do. There wasn't much he could do for the wound since it had been magically
healed but he could install a suprathryoid gland which would repair the damage
as well as help boost Eric's performance.

Luckily what happened in Chicago never really filtered back to D.C. to effect
No Quarters reputation. While Eric spent the next month or more in bed
recovering from the damage done to his throat and the installation of the
bioware the rest of the team did some small jobs. Finally after two months of
more or less being on the shelf the team was hired to go to Denver. In Denver
was where the next concert of the Metalholics an ork metal band currently big
with just about every middle age kid who is angry at their parents. Someone
had been mailing threats to the band, and the manager wanted some under the
table protection as well as the standard bodyguards of the band.

The concert went off without a hitch it was the party that Metalholic through
afterwards where things got a little trick. From having Humanis attack the
group limo on the way to the warehouse where the party was being held, to the
professional sniper that almost took of Eric's head it was an interesting
night. While not seriously wounded from the snipers bullet Eric was bleeding
as well as Edge, Grinder, and Mojo who had been injured in the Humanis attack.
There Johnson refereed them to the bad section of Denver and a cyberdoc that
worked out of an abandon bookstore down that way that went simply by the name
Jennifer.

While the name and location where simple nothing else about the shadowclinic
was. From having to check your weapons at the door to the surgery everything
was done quickly and thoroughly. Jennifer was a short human woman who didn't
take shit from anyone but sure as hell knew her business as she proved to
everyone. Several hours after they entered the clinic everyone was patched up,
stitched up, and sleeping comfortably while the drugs worked their way through
their bodies healing the wounds. On top of that Eric jumped on the chance to
pick up some alpha grade ware Jennifer had in stock, getting a level 10 radio,
commlink X, and a transducer installed so he could do away with having to wear
a radio all the time.

No more catastrophes or any real jobs of merit would hit the team for the next
few months which was just fine with them. They took small low profile jobs
that paid decent but not overly large amounts of money or were highly
dangerous. They were just runs to pay the rent and lead a comfortable
lifestyle nothing overly huge nothing to pay for new cyber or bio. Just basic
jobs such as bodyguarding work, a couple of extractions of low levels execs,
and a couple of sabotage missions although thankfully nothing that made the
papers or drew major heat.

After several months of keeping things low key and honing their skills No
Quarter was ready to get back to making money. There first run out of the gate
was for the Mafia, while not the groups favorite source to work for they
always paid well and kept there half of the bargain. Their job was to break
into the offices of an industry complex an actual front for the Yakuza. Once
inside they were to steal a list of all the Yakuza's informants and contacts
through out the city of D.C. and down the East Coast. The list was supposedly
heavily guarded by physical as well as matrix security so everyone on the team
save for Eric who was securing the escape route would be going inside.

Something was wrong from the get go Eric said it from the moment the team
entered the industrial complex. Things were too easy for them to get in, in
the first place, there were only two guards eliminated quickly by shots from
Eric's rifle. The front doors were help shut with a chain, and what reports
the elven sniper could hear from inside the compound were deserted halls, the
security next to none. Eric kept up a watch from outside as Jojo jacked into
the offline database and then all of a sudden the entire complex exploded. The
roof of the building dropping down as screams came across the radio and then
all of a sudden everything went quiet, as the shock wave rolled outwards
catching Eric in its wake and dashing him against the plastcrete wall he had
made his perch nearby.

The wail of sirens woke Eric from his brief coma as he looks on as fire
fighters tried to put out the smoldering fire of what used to be his life.
Gathering up his gear and holding the back of his badly smashed head he began
to make his way back to the team warehouse. Things didn't feel right, without
the familiar jokes of Jojo or Grinders constant bitching about how messy Mojo
was. Gathering up the things he needed, spare ammo, money, food, and other
necessities he armed the security system and headed out. Taking a bulldog van
to a hotel on the other side of town he plugged in to check his e-mail
account.

A message from Jojo was waiting oddly enough It was four typed names all of
them Italian in origin. Setup was one word written at the bottom of those.
From there Eric had a plan, using what resources he knew of he began to look
for the four names on the list. Finally he found a link through one from his
fixer, he was a mid level boss for the Mafia. The training that Drake had
given Eric was put to full effect as he stalked and trapped the first of the
four men.

The second of the men was much easier for some reason perhaps it was on purpose
Eric thought to himself as he laid hold up waiting for his body to heal from a
pair of bullet wounds. Stupid is what he had become, trusting in skills he
hadn't used in months to take out a high level boss of the mob after already
icing one of his underlings. Eric was out of action for more than a month not
just cause of the bullet holes though. He took the opportunity to have an
internal GPS as well as an orientation system installed then.

Now it was time to get back to action planting tracking signals on the cars of
the three remaining men was a task in itself, well worth the effort though.
With a map of the city slotted in his chip jack, and the cyberware power up he
had a fix on the cars at all times of the days through the imagelink in his
eye. From there he would sit back and wait picking his targets one at a time.

The first two were much easier as he slipped back into the swing of things
doing what he had done for years. A rifle shot from five hundred meters
removes another low level scumbag from the swing of things, while a hefty dose
of DMSO and neuro toxin eliminated the second in command. Things got difficult
then as the bodyguard on the last of the four names picked up and the tracking
signal went offline.

It was as Eric was lining up for a rifle shot on the last of the men that he
realized something was wrong. Then it happened across the street from his own
position he saw a flicker of movement and rolled to the side in time to avoid
his skull from being split like a melon. Double tapping the trigger of his
rifle to buy himself some time he was on his feet gunning his wired reflex.
Taking cover behind a nearby stairway entrance, he popped his head out almost
getting it shot off. That's how it would go for the next few minutes as the
two snipers would play a deadly game of cat and mouse. The battle would
finally be resolved as a rifle round would slam into Eric's right side
breaking ribs and coring into flesh even as his own took the other sniper
right in the left eye.

It was three months later when Eric finally would come out of hiding, and
recovery the rifle round wound in his side finally healing. Just like Seattle
he decided that D.C. had become a little to warm for him especially since what
had happened with the Mafia. Denver the UCAS zone was the first plane that was
leaving and it was the first one that Eric was on. Mailing his gear to himself
he boarded the plane taking a seat next to an elderly couple and waiting
patiently for his flight to touch down.

This page Copyright ©2001 by Joel E. Ricketts and Craig G. Rickel. All Rights Reserved. Some information and content Copyright ©1999 by FASA Corporation and/or Wizkids, LLC, and its use or reference here is not intended as any sort of challenge to those Copyrights. Shadowrun is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation.