[Mirikon]

That's my read on the situation. The way things stand, NeoNET and/or Evo are on the chopping block. But hey, just because you're down to the river and need to fill an inside straight doesn't mean it won't happen. There is a nonzero probability that it could be one of the other megas. Just like there is a nonzero probability that Lofwyr will give up all his worldly possessions to charity, and go off into the mountains to live as a hermit.

[Herr Brackhaus]

So, taking your point of view on this, it basically means that, it's more/less a done deal, the AAA will be NeoNET, or maybe Evo (as there is no reason for Wuxing or Horizon to go away).

Unless the writers decide to throw in a curveball the likes of which the Sixth World has rarely seen; yes, that's exactly right.

There's very little known information that would support any other megacorps falling if you base your view on published material so far. It seems almost certain that either NeoNET or Evo will fall.

Of course, feel free to speculate at Plan 9 levels of conspiracy theories, but that's ultimately all we're doing; speculating.

[Mirikon]

Of course, feel free to speculate at Plan 9 levels of conspiracy theories, but that's ultimately all we're doing; speculating.

Yes, but most of us are restricting our speculating to at least Snopes level.

[Sendaz]

Of course, feel free to speculate at Plan 9 levels of conspiracy theories, but that's ultimately all we're doing; speculating.

Yes, but most of us are restricting our speculating to at least Snopes level.

Mostly anyway

Samantha is still dead.... or is she?

[Plan-9 Mode Engage] Samantha was chummy with Nadja who has been known to use body doubles.  Could Nadja have set up Sam with some of her own and it was actually a look alike that took the hit and she is laying low doing spirits know what in the background.
What's even scarier is what if Daddy Richard sent Caroline into Evo's arms using the only thing that could possibly buy her way in, while he gets NeoSpin running around with a target on it's back to draw fire because he does do his best work under pressure and Sam is playing around behind the scenes because who suspects or even plans for the dead lady?[/Plan-9 Mode disengage]

[Nath]

Now the followings golden tickets are subsidiaries:

Renraku via Izom (formally Keruba) - could be swiped but no one has ever tried it before
S-K via BMW - Llowfyr owns most of the stock in BMW but some unknown party owns part of the shares too
NeoNET via JRJ - lately it's where ever Villiers goes, though someone else could try to make a grab for it

In real life, the very definition of a subsidiary requires to parent company to have full control - 50% of the vote plus one. Unless the parent company is willing to sell, to take over a subsdiary requires an inside job.

Richard Villiers could order the sale of JRJ International as the President/CEO of Fuchi Industrial Electronics (even though in real life such decision would be worthy of a lawsuit from other Fuchi shareholders with decent chances of winning). And it also required Fuchi only Corporate Court justice Lynn Osborne to side with Villiers to guarantee Fuchi effective removal from the Court.

Actually, it would be impossible for Richard Villiers to personnally own JRJ International. If Villiers owns a majority, then it cannot be a Novatech or Neonet subsidiary and cannot get the benefit of its AAA rating. A possible alternative would be Neonet/Novatech owning a majority in JRJ while Villiers owns an option for extra shares that would allow him to reclaim a majority ownership at will. But that's different from what has been described so far.

Market Panic now lists JRJ International as an "internal corporation" which is a made-up expression for which no definition has been given.

[belaran]

Well, again, I don't think the golden ticket is so crucial here. But to be fair, my speculations were not based on the "what is the most logical" (Evo, NeoNET), but more on "what could be fun or different for the game line".

Remember that is a made universe, Catalyst writers can completly pull a "big unknown event that change everything" and made an other not suspected mega to fall. (Like Lowfyr being killed or forced  by other dragon to sell his stocks, or Damien Knight calling it a quite, and so on...).

IMHO, I think it would be more fun if the writer go this way - but I won't blame them if we discover that the mega to fall is [NeoNET/Evo].

[Herr Brackhaus]

Well, again, I don't think the golden ticket is so crucial here. But to be fair, my speculations were not based on the "what is the most logical" (Evo, NeoNET), but more on "what could be fun or different for the game line".

Remember that is a made universe, Catalyst writers can completly pull a "big unknown event that change everything" and made an other not suspected mega to fall. (Like Lowfyr being killed or forced  by other dragon to sell his stocks, or Damien Knight calling it a quite, and so on...).

IMHO, I think it would be more fun if the writer go this way - but I won't blame them if we discover that the mega to fall is [NeoNET/Evo].

They absolutely could, but I honestly don't believe they won't. Not just out of left field, anyway; instead, I think they'd set it up like previous editions have. You know, kind of like what they've done with CFD

[Nightmare]

Having a seat on the court makes one a Triple A which is why the golden tickets are important. That ticket means that you always get at least one seat at the table even if the judge is killed. Only way an Ares is going to lose their seat is to implode or it turns out to be a giant hive.

While it might be cool for one of those "for sures" to fall, the rules Catalyst and FASA setup means that won't happen.

Now, those with two seats on the court could end up losing one of those seats if the judge dies/ect and the court puts a new corp in that chair.

[Mirikon]

As they said. It may be a 'made universe', but that universe still has rules that govern it. And that means a golden ticket keeps that corp as AAA until such time as the corp doesn't exist, even as a subsidiary of another corp, or the court changes its charter in a completely nonsensical way. And Omega Orders against AAAs are very rare.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Heck, Omega Orders are rare, period. How many have there been that we know about; one per decade? Less?

But yeah, what Nightmare and Mirikon said.

[MijRai]

Only ones I can remember are Aztechnology and Proteus AG. 

[Mirikon]

Don't forget Arty Boy. Don't care what you say, when you use orbital weapons platforms to take out one man, that's an Omega Order.

[Nath]

It depends on which source you refer to for a definition of what an Omega Order is. Originally, second edition sourcebook had the Omega Order as an hypothetical thing that had never happened. It casts some doubt over the status of Operation Reciprocity against Aztechnology, which would in turn mean that the definition of the Omega Order was also false.

What happened later is that authors wanted ot use a name that sounded cool and was well-established. So the Omega Order has been since redefined as something that actually happen. Even if the strikes against Aztechnology were limited and even if Art Dankwalther was not registered as a corporation. So much for that universe having rules that govern it.

Corporate Shadowfiles, pages 101-102
Infringement against pan-corporate laws falls into two basic categories: infringement by minor corps and infringement by megacorps. The first case is a no-brainer. If the Corporate Court decides that a minor corp (any corporation not classified as AAA) has broken a law and warrants punishment, it gives mandate to one or more of the major corps to a given degree. This mandate gives the megacorp official authorization from the Corporate Court to use its security assets against the guilty corporation, to the specified extent. A mandate can range from relatively minor destruction of selected black-ops assets to "open season," where the enforcing megacorp can destroy the target corp.

>>>>>[The dreaded "Omega Order" differs from this "total mandate" only in that an Omega Order lets every megacorp, and anyone else who wants to play, have open season on somebody.]<<<<<
 -Hangfire (09:9:58/4-22-54)

Aztlan, pages 42-47
>>>>>[Here's another one that requires some explanation. If Espectro is to be believed, he (or the division running corporate security overwatch for Aztechnology) managed to liberate this from the datastores of Ares Macrotech. Its stated purpose is to provide a kind of follow-up on the Ensenada "incident" and its aftermath. As always, boys and girls, read this with the same skepticism filter through which you look at all corporate-speak.]<<<<<
 -Captain Chaos (13:18:02/5-1-56)

File Header: Ares-1://html:/0202-Ensenada Operation Reciprocity
Security Link: Omega-335 10/10/48

>>>>>[I'll repeat my request from earlier in this file. Any Ares "refugees" out there who can give us a reality check on this file header structure? Is this the clean deal on "Operation Reciprocity"? And was this really an Omega Order?]<<<<<
 -Jason (02:38:10/5-4-56)

>>>>>[Omega Order?]<<<<<
 -Talbot (09:10:29/5-6-56)

>>>>>[In essence, an Omega Order constitutes the Corporate Court in Zurich-Orbital declaring open season on a corporation for any number of reasons. Check out a more complete explanation in the Corporate Shadowfiles post elsewhere on this board.]<<<<<
 -Link (00:03:15/5-7-56)

[... The Seaborne strike force] had the capability for a land assault should damage assessment indicate i necessary. As it turned out, this was not necessary. [...] By operational measures, Operation RECIPROCITY was a sterling success. Losses among the strikes forces were well within acceptable limits, and damage assessments showed almost precisely the degree of damage that planners had expected. [...] The damage inflicted on the Ensenada complex was not severe in overall terms. The military capability of the site had been degraded by only approximately 10 percent. Still the destruction of the Ensenada complex as a capable fighting force had not been the purpose of Operation RECIPROCITY. The message had been sent as clearly as possible that the pan-corporate forces could have done much more. [...] Ares's willingness to activate Operation Big Gun against the Ensenada complex was laid out in no uncertain term with a deadline fo 72 hours.

Corporate Download, page 22
If the Court decides that a non-AAA corp broke the law and deserves a spanking, the Court issues a mandate to one of its member corps, giving full authority to use security/military assets to whup hoop on the perp. The mandated corp gets a set amount of funds from the z-OG Bank to finance its operations. Each mandate specifies the extent of damage the mandated corp can inflict, based on the severity of the violation. If the mandated corp steps over these boundaries (as such corps are often enticed to do), this corp becomes subject to corporate punishment.
If the Court decides that one of its own AAA members has violated the rules, it has several options. For minor infractions, the Court orders the Z-OG Bank to increase the bad corp's fees for various services - for example, charging higher interest rates for loans. For more severe rule-breaking, the Court will delegate two or more AAA megacorps to punish the violator using their security assets, just as migh happen to a lesser corp.
For extreme transgressions, the Court issues an Omega Order. This decree, essentially a mandate to all AAA corps to punish the offender, makes it open season on the condemned corp. It's the corporate equivalent of a death sentence, and it ain't pretty.

Corporate Guide, page 21
> One of the best ways to understand the Corporate Court’s difficulties is to look at what it takes for them to move boldly. One of the Court’s most aggressive moves was the Omega Order of 2044 against Aztechnology, clearing the way for all sorts of corporate aggression against the Big A. How did they arrive at the point of issuing that order? By watching Aztechnology make a nakedly aggressive move
that benefited them tremendously and hurt everyone else on the Court. Thinking they were a little more imposing than they actually were, Aztechnology pushed the puppet Aztlan government to nationalize every industry in the country, using the government to make a hostile takeover of every corporate asset in the land. So most of the then-eight members of the Court were united in common  cause, and that was enough for the Big A to get slapped hard. That’s the kind of naked aggression it takes to get them to respond. For the most part the justices line up about as often as the planets.
> Kay St. Irregular

Corporate Guide, page 24
Omega Orders
Sometimes you just gotta cry “Havoc!” and let the dogs of war do their thing. An Omega Order is essentially the Court taking the shackles off the megas, throwing their hands in the air, and saying that whatever happens, the target of the order deserves.
It’s harsh, which is why it’s seldom used. How seldom? Well, depends on who you talk to. Most people agree that Operation Reciprocity, the strike against Aztechnology in 2044, came as the result of an Omega Order, but a few holdouts claim that if it truly was an Omega Order, the attacks would have come on a wider geographical scale and would have been more damaging.

> Look, it was an Omega Order. There’s this idea that Omega=immediate extinction, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Sometimes, if you inflict enough pain but let the victim survive, what you get is a better corporate citizen. Though I have to admit Aztechnology is probably not the best case to cite in support of this argument.
> Snopes

> It was not an Omega Order, no matter what your history books may say. All the other AAAs at the time, and plenty of AAs, were chomping at the bit to go after Aztechnology after Aztlan’s nationalization scam, and if they had been given the Omega go-ahead, enough hell would have rained down on Aztechnology that they wouldn’t have had even a lemonade stand left to their name. The Court was mad at them and wanted them hurt, but not enough to go Omega.
> Axis Mundi

> Just out of curiosity, and not that I believe your line, but if everyone was so pissed at the Azzies, why not go all the way?
> Frosty

> The ones making the decision were the peers of the heads of Aztechnology. Sometimes, the inclination of the powerful to look out for their own overwhelms all else.
> Axis Mundi

The other Omega Order that most people agree occurred was the Thor shot (and associated offensives) that killed Art Dankwalther and dismantled his empire in the aftermath Crash 2.0. Without going into details on the whole Dankwalther story (I hate thinking about Crash 2.0 anyway—always makes me think of Captain Chaos), the moral of the whole thing is simple: You can become pretty big in this world, but never bigger than the biggest gun. It helps, then, to have other people on your side, and in the end, Dankwalther didn’t.
The Court obviously takes Omega Orders very seriously and is reluctant to issue them, but the Court also very much enjoys holding the threat of an Omega over corporations’ heads. The justices are very careful to maintain the belief that an Omega Order could be issued at any time—they regularly update their Omega Protocols, which detail what steps should be taken once an Omega Order is issued.

> 99.9 percent of the people who claim to have seen a copy of the Omega Protocols have actually been taken in by one of the many fakes circulating around out there, so I’ll understand if people are skeptical about any claims as to their contents. I believe, however, I can safely say this: They don’t intend for the delay in organizing Operation Reciprocity to happen again. The protocols identify several military assets in various parts of the world that can be called upon for fast, devastating strikes.
> Mr. Bonds

[Nightmare]

But you already proved that the rul s work, Nath. In 2E, as you mentioned, it was a hypothetical potential concerning the Omega Orders. There weren't any rules set forth for them. It wasn't until latter that the rules concerning the orders were established and expounded on in 3E, by FASA who first created the idea of the Omega Order, that everything afterwards was governed by what came before. The hit on the Azzies was an Omega Order that was rescinded by the Corporate Court after the Azzies gave in and made a deal.

The game universe and ideas have to have some rules to govern, or else it would end up beings mass of contradicting ideas from multiple writers. As long as those rules are hypothetical like the original idea of theOmega Orders there is room to play with them. Once they get defined, like the golden ticket and the Omega Order after3E, then you have to try hard to stay within those rules. Sure, Catalyst could come up with a way to bypass them but it would need to have a good explanation for it and some major game event/history/plot to make it work.

[Wakshaani]

For the record, there's one canonical Omega Order, but I've yet to see anyone mention it.

As for NeoNET (o Evo) being the obvious one to fall? Let me toss a scenario out there.

Corporate Court meeting is called, to rule on the Boston situation. Everyone expects pain to be put down. Evo, or NeoNET, present surprise evidence that Corporation X is responsible for it and demand restitution or, failing that, an Omega Order to value of assets that they have lost due to the Lockdown and PR fallout. Evidence is measured, found to be accurate, and the order goes down.

And suddenly the weak position of NeoNET or Evo is reversed as they get to sieze assets while the other corps inflict pain upon the patsy.

This would, of course, pivot on either Evo, NeoNET, or a third party who wants to see a corp other than those two pay being the corp that wound up with the incriminating data.

Now, the question there is this: WHich offer did Lockdown players take most often?