Vetmuara BioSciences

Vlore, Albania, Balkanistan

Forged from the broken ruins and wreckage of the dozen or so nations composing the Balkans Peninsula, Balkanistan is a transitory principality organized by the leaders of the Eurasian Alliance. Attempting to handle each 'nation' as a sovereign power in negotiations and sending aid as needed became a bureaucratic nightmare and the entire region was occupied and pacified by General Gradenko and the Neo-Soviet 5th Mechanized Division. The entire region was restructured into the Balkanistan Principality. The region remains a constant source of internal dissent, hosting many rebel and insurgent groups, as well as being a prime recruiting ground for the Armas terrorist organization.

Vlore was quickly elevated over the historic capital of old Albania, Tirana. A bridge connecting Vlore to Lecce, Italy created a valuable overland trade route, and the construction of the Peshkaqen Naval Yards and associated industrial seacology drew in job and money hungry residents. Vlore flourished as a trade point, a tourist destination, and an industrial center, repairing and servicing the submarines of the Alliance Deepwater Fleet. This prosperity attracted businesses who were interested in Balkanistan's almost non-existent legal system and long history of political and social corruption. Crime rates in Balkanistan are also among the highest in the Eurasian Alliance.

Vetmuara BioSciences

One of the major companies that migrated to Balkanistan was Vetmuara BioSciences. Previously located in the United States of South America, the company chafed under the strong central government of the continent and the board of directors agreed that they had no chance of becoming a AAA megacorp in Neuvo Sao Paulo. A year later, they were relocated to the Goca Te Industrial demi-arco at the foot of the Vlore-Lecce Trans-Adriatic Bridge. The Goca Te Arcology was an older facility, but Vetmuara brought most of their own hardware with them, after some considerable sleight of hand getting the gear out of South America and bribery getting it into Europe. Vetmuara was in the highly questionable, but highly profitable business of human cloning.

Vetmuara occupies roughly 40% of the available space in the Goca Te Arcology, including it's corporate office, scientific and research labs and it's production facilities. The rest of the arcology is split between several small light industrial/medical companies on the lower floors, and the top of the arco is home to Goca Te-Holovids, one of the largest producers and distributors of pornography in the Eurasian Alliance. Normally the various occupants of any arcology seldom warrant mention in passing, but the corporate residents of Goca Te have created an incestuous and foul relationship that has garnered them a large amount of money and power.

Mass Produced Human Minus

The biggest dirtiest secret of Vetmuara is that it blatantly produces Human- clones, Epsilon classification under the Tycho Conventions, and technically a crime against nature and a crime against humanity. The sort of clones that Vetmuara produces are even more of an affront to the rights of humans, and the idea of human equality.

Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Arjana.

Arjana is the future of the holovid sex industry, and once brand recognition has been created, Arjana is the future of RealSex Entertainment. Arjana is everything a man wants in a woman. Her breasts are large, with a standard variation between D and triple E size. Her legs are long, and her buttocks are not just large, they are prominent. Arjana is disease resistant, and each one of her is a freemartin, so there is no worry about unplanned breeding, or that pesky PMS.

But that isn't what makes our lovely Arjana the prize that is going to make us wealthy. The real work, the real magic has been done inside her lovely skull. The frontal lobe is reduced, and her top end intellect is severely limited. She is also conditioned to be docile, and submissive to whomever is designated her Master. Her entire existence is designed around only pleasing her master. She doesn't challenge, ask difficult questions, or behave in any way like the shrewish hateful women we all know. She doesn't tease, she pleases. She doesn't hold out, she puts out.

And she will deliver. In our rewiring of Arjana's brain, the pleasure centers have been completely redesigned. No matter what time of day, what mood our little cupcake is in, she is always ready, and willing to please her master. No wasting time on wine and dinner, no software updates or maintenance for a SexBot, and she is self-cleaning, and with a little patience can be trained to even clean around your place like a proper maid.

We have already shipped 150 Arjanas to Goca-Te Holovids, you've seen them in action. They thrive on sex, they crave humiliation and abuse, and the CogNet pays to see them, it pays to use them and abuse them.

We are going to be wealthy beyond our wildest dreams.

The Goca Te Vetmuara Connection

The production of Arjana is used for more than sex videos. Arjana is sold to the medical companies in the building for human experimentation. She is also mass produced for the organ trade. Not every region in the Cosmic Era has access to organ cloning facilities, some places still rely on donor organs. Every Arjana that isn't sold, is disassembled for resale parts. The organs are sold, mostly through the Black Market. The remaining biomass was originally discarded, but later another disreputable company started purchasing this discarded protein for bulk rate and started processing and packaging it as instant food stuffs.

Vetmuara has inadvertently created one of the most dehumanizing situations imaginable. A resident of Balkanistan can be watching his high quality degrading pornography while eating a frozen dinner made of pretty much the same woman he was pleasuring himself to minutes earlier, all the while scratching his stitches where he got the new set of kidneys.

Access to Goca Te

Reaching Vlore isn't difficult, it can be accessed by seacraft or submarine easily as it is a major shipping port and facility in the Mediterranean. Over land it is easily reached as well, particularly from Italy, as the security on the TransAdriatic bridge is lax and it is only actively scanned for explosives, and high energy sources. Reaching it from Balkanistan is likewise easy as it is the 'end of the line' of the O1 rail/road system, that runs from Odesa, Ukraine, through Romania, Bulgaria, and the northern part of Greece.

The Goca Te arcology is one of several in the now thriving city of Vlore, and reaching it is also relatively simple. Doing anything is a different matter as Vlore has a large somewhat draconian police force, and active paramilitary service. Bribery and corruption are the rule, rather than the exception, and the local criminal gangs and syndicates often have as much if not more authority than the law enforcement agencies.

Parapsychics and Balkanistan: The now often subhuman living conditions in Balkanistan, often facing outbreaks of disease and famine, has created a larger than normal occurrence of parapsychics. This is also a factor related to the number of contaminated areas around Balkanistan. There are several wastelands caused by nuclear weapon blasts centuries ago, as well as abandoned chemical waste disposal facilities, and overall groundwater contamination. The EA selects the parapsychics it can capture to be conditioned into special soldiers for it's Intelligence Ministry. Those who escape capture often either become mercenaries or join Armas. Those who become mercenaries can be unexpected surprises for shadowrunners and criminals.

Things to Do at Vetmuara BioSciences

aka Plot Hooks

The Italian Job - The PCs have been contracted as Shadowrunners to break into Vetmuara to find out what is going on behind the closed doors of this subprime corporation. There has been a leak, such as some Albanian made Swedish meatballs being sold in upscale furniture stores containing between 20% and 100% human protein. It is a standard smash and grab job from a legit employer. If the PCs are victorious, they score some sweet jack, and expose and shut down the human farming and sexual degradation factory.

Your Princess is in Another Arcology - The PCs have been hired by a wealthy Alliance Plutocrat to liberate the object of his fantasies from Guca Te Holovids and bring her to him. The PCs are sent to Vlore in an attempt to find this one particular actress and rescue her. Problem is said actress has passed her prime and has already been sent to the recycling center. The PCs now have an impossible contract from a man with gold rings on each finger who doesn't accept failure as an option.

Die Hard 6: Die Harderer - The PCs are in the Arcology doing PC stuff when the building is attacked by a group of Armas insurgents, they lock down the building and are after large amounts of cash, otherwise they are going to bring the building down in the middle of city, causing tens of thousands of deaths and likely creating a shockwave through the Alliance and larger global economy. The PCs have to fight the insurgents in a game of cat and mouse between the decks of the arco, and inside it's infrastructure. Ho ho ho, now I have a magrifle.