[Kincaid]

I don't remember the Azzies being the target of an Omega Order (if we accept that Enseñada was a shot across the bow and not a proper Omega Order), but there may be a mod out there I've forgotten.  QZE was a target of an Omega Order in the fallout over Yamatetsu's ascent to AAA status.  And that's why this is the first time you've ever heard of QZE

[Nath]

Didn't Aztech get rid of the blood mages a while back? Maybe after they tried to take over the company (also, the world)?

It was Corporate Download which described Aztechnology as almost purged from the blood mages following the events of the Dragonheart trilogy and the failure of "Mister Darke", with a few remaining hiding from the management. But it went like no one really took notice and most gamemasters and players kept the connection alive because at that point they were way too much established and even entrenched as generic villains.

Street Magic described blood magic as common thing in Aztlan, and Corporate Guide restored the blood mages faction within Aztechnology, introducing for the first time the "Smoking Mirror" name. However, that was set to happen way earlier had Shadows of Latin America been released, from which the text featured in Corporate Guide was actually taken.

That was the Blood Mage Gestalt, and they were kicked out in... Actually, I don't remember. Sometime between 2055 and 2064? Anyway, they are back. These days they call themselves "The Smoking Mirror".

The Gestalt was a specific group of Aztlaner blood mages, described in Threats, who used specific ritual magic. If anything, they rather looked like they were a tool for the actual blood mages' faction leaders.

The front leader, "Mister Darke" aka "Oscuro" was supposedly killed at the end of the Dragonheart trilogy in 2057 or 2058. He possibly was one named Geraldo Solis, which would mean he survived (Loose Alliances also introduced another survivor, Abd El-Hameed Hassani, a Panamese of Lybian ascent, who moved to become the head of the Apep Consortium).

In Shadowrun there is such a thing as an Omega order, which permits full-out economic and physical war against a corporation without repercussion.  They are only issued (or issueable) by the Corporate Court; this is one of the things that the Court was originally created for, to prevent the chances of full-blown war among the AAA corporations.  (The Ensenada Strike was a Corporate Court 'Omega order' warning shot.)  From what I remember, one particular corporation can be made the Court's executor, usually a AA or AAA that was recently and directly harmed by the company to be so 'executed'; the Court also has the option to simply declare open season.

So while 'protocols' might be stolen, it isn't going to change anything, and no single megacorporation, or even a minority subset of the Big 10, is going to be able to wage all-out war against the rest in order to dominate the world.  Too much collateral damage, and who the hell would you sell your products to?  Remember, the corps are about making money, not about blowing shit up - unless the latter is an advertisement for the former. 

In Corporate Shadowfiles, the Omega Order was described as the highest possible level of sanction, an unlimited mandate that allowed every megacorporation (not just those represented on the court) to seize or destroy any assets of the offending corporation. So the Omega Order was specifically a case where the court wasn't designating any executor for its mandate or limiting the level of damages to be delivered.

Corporate Guide presents conflicting views on what Omega Orders are. To the best of my understanding, the main text considers there is an Omega Order every time a sanction is carried out by one or several corporations who were not part of the original dispute. It even labels as an Omega Order the hit on Art Dankwalther (who was a physical person, not a corporation).
It's also Corporate Guide who first mentions "Omega protocols" as emergency plans that give the court a short track to activate a number of megacorporate military assets. So the protocols may give key intelligence on each of the megacorporation strategic assets, including their location and capabilities.

[Aryeonos]

I would love to see S-K go under the bus, something like Lofwyer pulls an arrogant and underestimates a dozen of his competitors and subsidiaries tenacity and the whole company balkanizes/get snapped up. He`s left standing on a large chunk of a crumbling cliff desperately trying to snap up the pieces falling away from him. Zeta Impchem with their stern hold on eastern europe and the middle east finally wins the head butting competition and eats up what it can. I`d love to see a new company crop up out of the middle east with indian and african influence, a golden age of islam middle eastern company that`d just been biding their time till the next big schism, then boom, all those decades of research, mining projects, resource rich land grabs pay off. S-K is nothing but a heap of double and single As trying to ruffle feathers and inch their way up the economic truss as the tide rolls in slowling melting them away. Cause nothing spells boring like an invulnerable entity who you cant even fight against.

[McGuffin]

I would love to see S-K go under the bus, something like Lofwyer pulls an arrogant and underestimates a dozen of his competitors and subsidiaries tenacity and the whole company balkanizes/get snapped up. He`s left standing on a large chunk of a crumbling cliff desperately trying to snap up the pieces falling away from him. Zeta Impchem with their stern hold on eastern europe and the middle east finally wins the head butting competition and eats up what it can. I`d love to see a new company crop up out of the middle east with indian and african influence, a golden age of islam middle eastern company that`d just been biding their time till the next big schism, then boom, all those decades of research, mining projects, resource rich land grabs pay off. S-K is nothing but a heap of double and single As trying to ruffle feathers and inch their way up the economic truss as the tide rolls in slowling melting them away. Cause nothing spells boring like an invulnerable entity who you cant even fight against.

Don't be silly. Runners can't fight any of the mega's leaders unless the GM waves plausibility out of the window. Runners could and did stand against some of the plans the AAAs tried to pull of and SK was not an exception. For runners it never mattered if a corp was lead by a single entity or a group.
The idea that SK can and will fall to violence is insane. The corp has access to orbital weaponry, nukes, employs an army on top of all the magical assets (same is true for many AAAs) and has a very aggressive intelligence agency. Violence is just not an option. SK is too entrenched in Europe to get rid of easily and it's not weak or vulnerable right now to make any kind of economical move plausible.

[Mirikon]

Indeed. Outright violence is not going to end a megacorp, not unless an Omega Order is involved, and everyone involved is eliminated.

As for who will fall, Ares seems to be recovering from the Excalibur debacle, and the factions are more stable now, but the bugs are working against them actively. Still, I don't see them as taking the hit. My thoughts are this:

NeoNET - Shadowrun Chronicles IS set in Boston, NeoNET's hometown, and is almost certainly going to involve Sybil, which is more than likely due to NeoNET's throwing AIs in cyberjail and dissecting them to figure out how they work. And their leadership is sharply divided into factions that just don't get along, and never will (much like how Fuchi was before its downfall). Add all that up, and NeoNET seems the most likely candidate.

Horizon - They've had problems with TMs, problems with AIs, problems with Spirits, problems with Azzies... And what happens if head cases get into the Consensus?

Evo - AI experimentation and their EvoCulture leaves them vulnerable to Sybil. A few well-positioned head cases in a corp where people are always adding on new augmentations is going to cause problems. Still, I'd put them as the dark horse in this race.

[Ursus Maior]

Could live with any of those. Though Evo obiously would hurt many of the "stick it to the man"-movements.

Which on the other hand is a good thing. Taking out the light would give SR more grit.

[Sithlis]

Could live with any of those. Though Evo obiously would hurt many of the "stick it to the man"-movements.

Which on the other hand is a good thing. Taking out the light would give SR more grit.

I disagree. Without some sorta light the world becomes hopeless and that changes the game from dark and gritty to something focused on pure survival.

[Zukkel]

Wait a second......you mean Evo are the good guys of shadowrun??

either in my 4 weeks reading madness I have missed everything pointing to that or you are reading somewhere between the lines?

[Mirikon]

Well, Evo, Wuxing, and Horizon typically come off as 'lesser evils', compared to, say Mitsuhama or Aztechnology.

[Zukkel]

Hmkay, I havent read anything about Wuxing yet, but Evo? CFD seems to be on their turf (and NeoNETs but also on theirs). And Horizon got the bad guys status after the Vegas massacre.

What is it, that Evo is percieved as lesser evil?

[Magnaric]

As I recall, EVO is known as the most metahuman - friendly of the Big 10, and has done a ton for pushing a progressive and inclusive "all metasapients are family/equal/etc". Largely comes from them changing from the Japanacorp Yamatetsu to the Japanese/Russian EVO, based out of Vladivostok. Also that 2 of the largest shareholders are an Ork and a free spirit, so that helps.

In the 4E Corporate Guide I think it also mentioned that while am EVO Mr Johnson will still betray you if he has orders to or whatnot, he/she will usually seem to feel genuinely bad about it. Basically that it's absolutely not personal, but everyone has a boss and everyone has orders.

So yeah, as a Corp they aren't necessarily any less guilty of shady practices than the other ones (wetwork, forcible extractions, datasteals, sabotage, etc), but they're usually less overt about it, and they're known for being one if the most eco-friendly, slightly-less-ethically-vague of the AAA corps.

[Kincaid]

Every mega is evil (or eeeeevil) in its own way.  MCT is pretty straightforward while Horizon is the Google work campus cult run amok.  EVO's dark side is social conditioning and/or political correctness to an extreme degree--one at which dissent isn't tolerated.  It's hard to say if that's more or less evil than MCT's Zero Zone policy, but it's certainly more insidious. 

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

That's ... not my read on Evo, but hey.  Everyone has their interpretation.

[Nath]

People use a fairly short list of item to deliver a megacorporation its certificate of goodness.

Try to summon "demons" ?
Racist ?
Mob connection ?
Run by Lofwyr ?

And that's it. Everything else pretty much are "things every corp do, you know". For a long time, Ares did get away with purposefully maintaining countries in civil war to sell more weapons. Meanwhile, mere support of Triads' smuggling operation had Wuxing labelled as more evil. But now Ares summon insect spirits, it's wholly different.

[Zukkel]

might be because I am german myself but.....I have never seen SK as evil....just efficient

but ok, I see where you are going