Major Candidates Settled


The major candidates have announced their running mates and the race for UCAS president is officially in full swing. Some surprising choices have been made on just about all sides of this conflict, with a staggering three metahumans involved in the race for the White House.

Current front runner, Republican General Franklin Yeats, has surprised just about everyone in his party and out by selecting his long time friend Anne Penchyk. Penchyk, who has served two terms as a UCAS representative from Wisconsin, is a successful self-made business woman, a lifetime Republican, and an outspoken advocate for tough action in the Chicago Containment Zone. All of these facts endear her to Republicans the world over, but the fact that she is both a woman and an ork has caused a considerable amount of controversy. At the same time that her selection has pushed some Repbulicans towards the Archconservative party, a fair number of metahumans and those who typically vote for a the most meta-friendly candidate are flocking to Yeats's "Rebuild America" platform. Penchyk, for her own part, is a strong and outspoken woman, feared in the UCAS House for her willfullness and her fearsome oration skills.

One World Democrat Arthur Vogel has made another surprising choice by selecting Gary Grey, a troll eagle shaman, to run as his VP. Grey is a staunch environmentalist who has been active in the Audubon Society and Sierra Incorperated, along with a handful of other environmental preservation groups. His inclusion makes him both the first troll and the first shaman of any kind to enter into a presidential race. Grey is a powerful speaker, capable of wooing a crowd in mere seconds with his deep resonant voice. He's also fiercely patriotic, equating his eagle totem with the symbolic bird of the United Canadian American States. This reverance with which he speaks for both Eagle and the UCAS seems to have strong pull with many voters. The fact that this presidential ticket is made up of the two least populous metahuman types (aside from metavariants) places many metahuman and metahuman sympathy voters behind Vogel's Democratic One World platform, even with some more conservative voters pulling for Yeats and Penchyk. It is unknown at this time if Grey's shamanism will split the small but vocal Awakened vote between the Democrats and the New Century Partry.

ArchConservative candidate Kenneth Brackhaven has selected hard-right Republican William Ager as his running mate. A former corporate resource adjsuter for Fuchi North America's UCAS division, Ager has a reputation for backing strong conservative legislation in the UCAS government. With his rather cutthroat corporate know-how and Brackhaven's business accumen, the ArchCons have created a ticket that has real potential to cut into the legislature and create real change. Ager is a vocal opponent of the current "welfare state", and proposes cutting taxes accross the board by removing "needless and malfuctioning attempts at social engineering" such as the Equality in Education Act, and the Welfare-to-Work Program. Voters are flocking to the Brackhaven/Ager ticket after both candidates have had the will to speak directly to the needs of the vast majority of the UCAS population without caving to the demands for special treatment from fringe minorities.

Professor Rosalyn Hernandez of the New Century Party is powerful initiated mage and reknowned (and often controversial) social scientist from Georgetown University, so her choice of Ramsay McCulkin, famed trid and simsense actor, might seem strange at first. McCulkin was one of the first screen/trid actors to really make the transition to sim in the early days of that medium. Known for giving "good X" (excellent emotive track), McCulkin has starred in such memorable sims as Friday the 13th: Feel the Terror, Life of the Hero, A Soldier's Tears, and Who's in Charge Here? As such, many UCASers feel that they not only know McCulkin, but that they've been him. Putting the mundane face on the NCP's platform of utilizing magic and technology to unlock the untapped promise of the Awakening, McCulkin has already announced plans to record his life on the campaign trail through his implanted simrig, and distribute the sim on the campaign matrix host. "We're the only party really trying to change things for the better," McCulkin told NEWSFAX. "I'm hoping the sim recordings help people understand what we're about, and what we can do to change the future for the better".

Former Vice President James Booth has selected Brandon Ekimatsu, a corporate golden boy from Mitsuhama Computer Technologies. A staunch technocrat, Ekimatsu is a political moderate focused almost exclusively on any legislation that benefits the economy. Though many accuse Ekimatsu of only pushing legislation that benefits corporations, Ekimatsu refuses to defend himself against such claims, stating repeatedly that "these corporations are not the enemy of government, they are not the enemy of the UCAS people. It is on the backs of these very corporations that our economy balances. Why is it that we should not attempt to aid them in aiding our economy? Has the UCAS become so jaded against a hard day's work that we wish to destroy the largest employers of our own citizens?".

With the race all but settled for these parties, the true campaigning is now underway. While Yeats leads the preliminary polls, there can really be no determining this early in such an unconventional and short election. The future of the UCAS is for the first time in a long time, truly up in the air.

"Karl Kombatmage 2" Ignites Summer Season

The entertainment world is buzzing with the release of the trailer for "Karl Kombatmage 2". This sequel to the breakthrough blockbuster of two years ago is hailed by insiders as surpassing the amazement of the original.

Four years ago, New Bavarian SimSinn Studios took a chance on an unknown filmmaker named Hans Cliber, who came to NBSS lead producer Jan Marx with a remarkable proposal: installing a simrig into a mage. Marx saw the potential and together they took the plunge, creating the most innovative simsense production the world had ever seen.

"Never before had the sim viewer been able to feel what it's like being magically active," said Cliber, who wrote and starred in "Karl Kombatmage," and who will be returning to the role this summer. "I always thought that it was a shame that although you could become a spy, or a street sam, or a famous polititian, you could never really feel what I think is the best feeling in the world, which I think is bending the mana to your will to cast a spell. So I thought, 'why not make a sim myself'?"

The original grossed over $200 billion nuyen worldwide, beating out such hits as "Against the Hivemasters" and NBSS's own "Drehen, Nicht Drücken". Overnight, Karl Kombatmage became the epitome of cool for teens (and more than one adult) the world over. Merchandising tie-ins also broke records for sales, with even the previously outdated "action figure" making a huge comeback. "Kombatmage" games have been released on every major gaming system, along with a multiplayer Matrix game with millions of players jacking in each day.

This success has not come without a cost for Hans Cliber. "Everyone said I was insane to have a simrig installed. Of course it has made magic a little bit harder. But I knew it was worth the sacrifice in order to make such an amazing sim, and to let everyone feel a little bit of what magic can be."

This summer, audiences around the world will get a second taste of magic. The poly-POV action sim promises more spells, more motorcycles, more gunfights, and of course, the infamous dragon. When asked if he had really gotten a dragon to star in "KK2", Cliber just smiled slyly. "Well, I suppose you will have to see my film to find out."