The Smoking Gnu (defunct 2374)

Makerspace and hookah bar just outside University Heights in the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid, destroyed in the Breen bombardment.

The replicated "coffee" is drinkable (-ish) and will keep you up, but otherwise bears no resemblance to the original. Get a hookah and burn some cognitive-enhancer flake instead.

Anarchist/conspiracy theorist hangout popular with CCRU dropouts, self-taught engineers, and conspiracy-mongers. Hacker collective, but more in the original sense of the term. They don't do contract netrunning, but they do love a challenge, or a juicy target.

Most anyone can hang out at the Gnu, but that doesn't make you a Gnu. That's invitation-only, and years go by without invitations being given out. Lots of wannabees say they're Gnus. Lots of wannabees eventually get their brains fried.

Just outside University Heights in the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid.

Regulars

Toledo Killswitch A throwback to an era of heroes, a major player in the Fall of the Net. Definitely on the losing side of the Emancipation. It's absolutely amazing he's still alive. For the bounty payouts on him, you could buy your own arcology. Baby netrunners grow up on stories about him.

Fan Heatsink One of the biggest names on the Street: some call her this generation's Toledo Killswitch. Yeah, one of those Lavignes. Shut up. It's not like she owns the arcology.

Zelda Sanghvi ("Native Resolution" - "Nate")

Zero Day

Where the rest of the Gnu are hackers in the old sense, driven by the fun of pushing technology and accessing the forbidden, Zero Day is a killer of systems. Nobody knows who they are in meatspace, but if they're in your network, your network is dead. Rumored to have remote access ability - but they could just be a ninja, too. Lots of rumors (they're a Soong-type android, they're a pre-Emancipation rogue AI, they're with a secret Starfleet black-ops group), nothing certain.