Peak & Derrera

Peak & Derrera is a small company that is based out of Baltimore, USA in the pen n paper RPG.

Overview
Peak & Derrera remain a respected, if somewhat low-key. name in the precious metals market. They now deal with all precious materials. This includes more traditional items like diamonds, metals, and alloys, but also unconventional things such as rare chemicals, experimental pharmaceuticals, orbital products, and much more.

Generally, P&D looks for commodities currently trading at a low market value. They research the commodity (they have excellent financial analysts working for them, and when they can't find it,they have an ongoing contract with InfoComp, and if the future of the commodity ranging anywhere from next week to five years looks promising, they invest accordingly, acquiring as much of it as possible. When the time comes to sell, P&D cashes in on the commodity, usually raking in a huge financial profit or trading for another promising material. P&D analysts are rarely wrong.

History
Peak & Derrera is one of those rare corporate oddities in the business world of 2020: They were small enough to duck the fallout from the crash of '94, but strong enough to keep their heads above water. In 1970, George Peak and Salvatore Derrera were a couple of grunts stuck in the middle of the Cambodia invasion. During quiet periods, the pair would talk about what they would do if they made it back to the world. There was nothing else to do but talk, and it was better than listening to the crickets chirp. Both men had heard the news: The situation at home was starting to sour. They shared the same philosophy that the smart investor would tum to technology as America's industrial base weakened.

Peak and Derrera both survived the war and kept in contact with each other when they returned to the U.S. In early 1972, "Sally" Derrera called Peak with a business offer: if both men could scrape up $25,000 to start with, it was possible for them to break into the precious industrial diamond market Peak was skeptical but after some research decided to invest. Thus in January 1973 an idea that began as a way to soothe the combat jitters flourished into a financial reality. The partnership of Peak & Derrera was born.

The company expanded into Asia at first, treading delicately into the new Chinese and Japanese markets that were opening up. When the computer age began in 1979, the company cornered a nice chunk of the silicon market. With customers like Atari and IBM, the firm's fortune was assured. Peak & Derrera was incorporated in 1980.

With the boom of the 1980s, the company grew quickly, breaking into various industrial and precious metal markets. When the party ended in '94, most of the Asian developments were sold off for vital cash. Later, that cash was used to invest in the critical European market.

In 2002, George Peak sold his interests in the company and became an independent investor. The Wasting Plague incapacitated Sal Derrera in 2003, and he sold his share to Penstone Equities. Orvis became chairman of the board, but the firm's original name was retained for its prestige.

Equipment & Resources
Each P&D office is about the size of a large savings bank, with several massive vaults. Every building has a VTOL corporate Learjet. a VIP chopper; and two military gunships. The company owns thirty AV-6s, used to escort shipments of materials, which are always at various locations. For long-distance or orbital shipments, P&D usually hires Orbital Air.

Security at each office is incredibly tight. involving various redundant systems, some of which are intentionally not accessible on the Net Every member of the security force is individually hired by Christine Bianca; yes, they are that good.

Particularly of note are P&D's Netrunners, used for both security and research. Their entire staff of 'runners are Pro-(60%) and Top-level (40%) programmers. These people do not fool around. It is rumored that Bartmoss would occasionally hit P&D for spare cash until one time when Spider Murphy got blown off the system and had an APB put out on her for three months. Of course, Bartmoss is dead now and Murphy isn't. so you be the judge.

Board of Directors

 * Chair: Mr. Maxwell Orvis
 * Trustees: 10
 * CEO: Mr. Maxwell Orvis

Management

 * Vice-President: Mr. Peter Stotz
 * Director World Ops: Dr. Robert Harris
 * Director. Security: Ms. Christine Bianca
 * Director Finance: Mr. Michael Staggert
 * Director. North America: Mr. Christopher Trache
 * Director Japan: Mr. Senaki Hiratako
 * Director Europe: Ms. Jeanette Brisbane

Hiring Practices
Peak & Derrera generally never openly advertises for freelancers, although in reality the Special Projects Division needs deniable people once or twice a month. P&D is not particularly malevolent. so the SPD is only called in when something ·unusual" arises, or when the Board of Directors has something specific and potentially embarrassing in mind.

Note to Refs: Peak & Derrera will also act as a legitimate fence, trading material or cash with clientele when they need to get rid of something but really don't know what the hell it is. PCs may find the company an interesting alternate source for profit making, no questions asked, when the local Fixer is nowhere to be found.