Other Factions

The Serpent’s Tail

Given the nature of the enemy, even the Garou find it difficult to make any kind of serious dent in Endron’s activities. The bastards are too widespread and too well integrated into human society to take down easily. Destroy one facility, spin-doctors turn the story into one of terrorism and tragedy, while two other sites complete construction and begin the drilling process. Take out a trucking fleet and thousands of families are suddenly without a meal ticket, innocent bystanders are now casualties in a war they don’t even realize is happening. To some tribes, like the Red Talons, this is an acceptable sacrifice. All humans are guilty by direct action or by association, and the Garou must tear their world down to heal Gaia. The Children of Gaia naturally disagree, feeling it impossible to win the war without humanity on their side. After all, the Garou made their own mistakes in the name of hubris and greed, and Gaia has paid the price for those mistakes. Other tribes struggle with the issue: a few feel that the roots are too deep, and that ripping out Pentex and its competitors would play into the Wyrm’s hands, making the world a worse place for the average person. Others don’t worry too much about the question. Their concern is the latest Endron construction site, not poisoning the whole Wyrm-tainted corporate network. No matter what the Garou do, they won’t win more than a Pyrrhic victory.

Endron is far from the only problem. Though the company keeps its best innovations for itself, it also manufactures and sells advanced parts and machinery to its competitors. That way, it both acquires some of its profits from competitors and helps those other companies in their rape of the natural world. None of Endron’s competitors has any clue that they are literally helping kill the spirit of the Earth, but taking direct action would ruin even more of the world than destroying Endron, the increased misery and human suffering empowering the Wyrm and its Banes. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the warriors of Gaia are have little recourse to vent their Rage, while Endron and its competitors all laugh their way to the bank. It is a problem responsible for much of the lost ground in the Apocalypse War. Pentex knows this and takes the opportunity to twist the knife any chance they get, and they especially love the little things. One of Endron’s iconic commercials shows a beautiful, half-naked “Mother Earth” happily giving of her lifeblood in order to sustain her favorite children.

It’s not always easy money for Endron. They didn’t simply start in a position of dominance, and though they have maintained it for decades, they cannot rest on their laurels — especially with the financial repercussions of the 2010 oil spill resounding throughout the company. They must find petroleum oil in order to drill for it in the first place, and to do so that Endron develops new equipment and new methods to hunt down oil reserves. If the oil dries up, so do the profits. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem like it will happen before it’s too late to matter in the face of the impending Apocalypse. Endron’s elite oil-finders are the EEPS: the Endron Exploratory Personnel Squads. These people are the best in the world at scouring the planet for new sources of oil. They don’t stop for inclement weather or international law, and always find their mark. EEPS consist of the best and brightest geologists, marine biologists, and engineers, protected by suspiciously well-armed private security contractors. Together they locate a new source and create the most efficient plan possible for harvesting it. Endron spares no expense in funding EEPS expeditions, and that includes greasing the wheels of local authorities in order to make a difficult job easier. R&D supplies the coordinates for an expedition, and if the EEPS determines that the site holds something worth pursuing, further equipment and forces move in to secure the area and prep it for drilling.

Oil is not the only prize won from such expeditions, either. Many EEPS are wholly human and know nothing of the supernatural, save perhaps for the weird things they sometimes encounter on their missions. Others are fomori or humans who know some of the truths of the World of Darkness, and they know what to look for besides oil-bearing strata. Such places range from unclaimed caerns to the resting places of ancient creatures that, by human reckoning, should not exist. Endron happily drills these sites, even if the oil reserves are minor, because the profits for the Wyrm more than make up for money lost. Supernatural EEPS teams face some of the worst conditions imaginable, risking their lives in order to unleash an ancient evil or clear the way to a Caern sought by many forces.

Indeed, a company as large and as thoroughly tainted as Endron has thousands upon thousands of fomori in its employ. Some of them occur “naturally,” when human workers suffer exposure to the warping energies of the Wyrm and the other things in the shadows. Endron, like its sister subsidiary Magadon, also engineers fomori for special purposes, including the most dangerous EEPS missions. Many things slumber in the earth and the dark corners of the world, and Endron has much to gain by releasing them, despite immense risks. In those cases, fomori rush in where angels fear to tread. The casualty rate on such missions is very high, because the heads of the Hydra do not believe in cooperation. If the EEPS team dies, their sacrifice has raised an ancient evil — and opened up a new space for Endron to exploit for oil and gas. Like much of Pentex, even when Endron loses, it wins.