Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

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MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

PANOPTICON QUEST

As usual, you are at the office on time, cup of coffee in hand. The Technocratic Union doesn't tolerate lateness in its agents. Rank does have its privileges, but with it comes the need to set a positive example for everyone in the Construct you manage. It's a small Construct, five Enlightened personnel including you and perhaps 40 unEnlightened agents of various stripes, but the resources at your beck and call are still phenomenal. Your secretary has left a message for you, and you hit the play button.
"Look, there's a bit of an issue with the personnel records. Fucking Virtual Adept crackers got into the system again and scrambled them. We're restoring from last backup, but just in case there's been altered data, you're going to have to verify who you are."

[WELCOME TO TECHNOCRATIC UNION SECURE ACCESS. WELCOME, AGENT. BIOMETRICS LOADED.]

[ERROR: PERSONNEL RECORD REVIEW. PLEASE MANUALLY CONFIRM IDENTITY.]

You flip through the personnel records and verify your own name, gender, Convention, and experiences. It takes a while to match everything up with what you want to know (there is a lot in your dossier), but it's more tedious than nerve-wracking. You resist the temptation to embellish your CV further and finally finish the recovery process, leading to a start screen. A moebius strip gazes back at you, and underneath it is written:

[WELCOME AGENT. TU SecureNET: ipsa scientia potestas est.]

This is obviously a Mage: The Ascension Quest. There will be rules hacks involved, and totally not self-indulgent cameos as well. But first, you're going to need a name and a Convention and a role. Name and gender are write-ins, I'll choose whichever one I like the most. Choose one role below. If you want to embellish your vote with background, that may actually result in your vote counting double (if I like your background details). Understanding of the setting is not necessary, as a tutorial will be provided.

CHARACTER AND CONVENTION BACKGROUNDS

ITERATION X
The Clockwork Convention. Iteration X are programmers, biomechanics, engineers, scientists, and physicists. Their field agents tend to more 'high energy applied physics', although every type of Enlightened Science is represented. Stereotypically, Iteration X field agents will have heavy cybernetic augmentation, making them more vulnerable to rogue biokinetic psions, but also have improved access to psi-dampening alloys such as primium. Typical methods Iterators use to enact Enlightened Science are high-tech weapons, computer systems, internal cybernetics, and mathematical modeling.

Iterators tend to favor the Sphere of Forces, allowing them phenomenal firepower and defenses, although just as many favor the spheres of Life and Matter. All Iterators have an Advanced Digital Enhancement Implant, giving them perfect memory, quantum-encrypted wireless access on the go, and the ability to download new skills as needed from centeral databases.

[ ] POST HUMAN WARRIOR
"Faster. Stronger. Better."
Instead of a heart, there is a cold fusion furnace (they also replaced your circulatory system with vasculoids to fit it in). Your bones are made out of graphene and hypercarbon instead of osseus tissue. You have more silicone in you than a porn actor convention (as artificial muscle, not those kinds of augmentations, you perv.) You are so, so much more than human. As a front line shock trooper, you spend just as much time kicking ass as you do running your Construct, and you are very, very good at it.
Advantages:
More Than Human (Enhancement)
Two Ph.Ds: One in physics, the other in ass-kicking
Disadvantages:
Too Cool For This Lame Earth (Paradox)

[ ] ASSAULT WALKER PILOT
"Prepare for Titanfall."
Cybernetics are just too inconvenient. Hardsuits and assault walkers? Those are far better. Not only is it far more believable (Thanks, Gundam! Thanks, Battletech!) when a 5 meter tall robot runs at 90 kilometers per hour and flips a car than when a 2 meter tall combat cyborg with a vaguely Austrian accent does it, but you can pack a level of hardware on an Avatar class combat walker that you'd need to do serious contortions to fit in a 'borg. Like for example, you know the IX-22? Sure, you do. Standard heavy chaingun, fires 20x150mm hypervelocity shells at 300/minute. You need serious tech to fit that in a HITMark, but any random combat walker can grab one.
Oh yeah, and you're pretty good at piloting everything else too. Not just mechs, titans, walkers, striders, gears, mobile suits... if it moves around and has wheels, legs, or jet engines (and isn't an animal) you can kill things with it.
Advantages:
Highway To The Danger Zone (Piloting)
GIANT DEATH ROBOT (Self Explanatory)
Disadvantages:
95+% of direct combat effectiveness is from the GIANT DEATH ROBOT (also self explanatory)

PROGENITORS
Progenitors are bioengineers, doctors, and medical scientists. In the world of pharmaceuticals and biotech, they are the shadowy power behind the corporations. Progenitors, like Iteration X, provide technological support to the Conventions, in the form of cortical stack backups, fast-grown replacement clones for lost agents, and high-end combat constructs easily the equal of Iteration X cyborgs.

[ ] EXALT
No. Not that kind. This kind. You have no parents-the Technocracy is mother, the Technocracy is father. You're a bioengineered killing machine, sixty million dollars of high end biotech packed into a vaguely human frame. And like cutting edge military hardware, your specifications are pretty sexy if you do say so yourself. Rapid regeneration, backup organs, mutable physiology, genetic memory, your specs are probably more attractive than your body, and you were sculpted by some of the finest plastic surgeons in the world. You were decanted fifteen years ago, awakened ten years ago, making you ancient in terms of biotech weaponry. Some people still have prejudices against you, but they either learn to respect you, or learn that being racist against someone who can literally throw you through a concrete wall is generally not a good way to spend their time.
Advantages:
Mean Lean Killing Machine
Genetic Memory
Impeccable Sense of Style (if you're already bulletproof, why wear armor into a combat zone?)
Perfect Loyalty
Disadvantages:
Real World Naivete
Space Racism
Perfect Loyalty

[ ] APPLIED ETHICIST
You're an applied ethicist. This sounds like a boring job, involving reading through research proposals and stamping them. Nothing could be farther than the truth. You've seen more action than most compatriots in Damage Control, simply because there's always someone trying to go too far. Oftentimes just showing up in full tac gear gets them listening to you, but a lot of the time that isn't enough and you have to get into a gunfight. You've learned to handle all three of the parts of the job, and that's gotten you quite a bit of respect. More importantly, you know a lot of people on the "other side", as it were. The Traditions might be in a Cold War with you, but they hate demon-worshipping Nephandi just as much as you do, and sometimes someone defending against Technocratic assault forgets about guys with magic fucking swords. Speaking of magic fucking swords, you have some. They should be turned in to get destroyed, but sometimes they're useful. You've sometimes bent the letter of the law, but you've never bent the spirit. Too bad anyone who knows might use it to blackmail you into doing something, forcing you to choose between pragmatism and idealism.
Advantages:
Three Ph.Ds: One in biology, one in philosophy, one in kicking ass
Demon Hunter Contacts
Illegal Relics
Disadvantages:
Internal Enemies
Illegal Relics

NEW WORLD ORDER
The NWO are the definition of control. They control things via surveillance, psychology, via understanding human nature. It makes them cynical and paranoid, but it also makes them incredibly effective. NWO agents are everywhere in government and society, watching and waiting, adjusting public opinion to fit the Technocracy's narrative of progress and advancement. They are also inside the Union, watching for signs of rogue agents and cultist influence.

NWO agents typically prefer the sphere of Mind, although Time and Entropy are not uncommon. The NWO prefers "subtle" procedures, although "subtlety" means that they're technologically plausible, not that they're mundane coincidence. Exploding cuff-buttons and suits woven out of carbon nanotube fabric, combat drugs, prototype DARPA firearms, and other spy fiction or Tom Clancy staples are common tools for a NWO agent to channel Enlightened Science through.

[ ] AUGMENTED AGENT
"You are one of the elite. An Agent." The NWO rarely uses augmentations, and when it does, it uses them in a much more subtle way than the Progenitors do. But nevertheless, that is often enough. You can sprint a kilometer flat-out without elevated breathing, hold your breath for five minutes, and feel no pain. You heal faster than a normal person, and can survive a Rasputinian level of punishment. You can't kick through an armored car door and tear a man in half with one hand, but you also don't suffer from Paradox nearly as badly as what Progenitors or Iterators build. On the other hand, you need your pills. The last time you haven't taken them, you woke up in a strange bed, without your memory and it turned out you had spent a week AWOL and put two fellow Technocrats into skeletal rebuilding (to be fair, they shot at you first!). That was... embarassing.
Advantages:
Martial Knowledge
Peak Soldier Performance
Disadvantages:
Augmentation Side Effects

[ ] VETERAN SPY
You've been there, done that, seen it all. You've seduced vampires, shot your way out of ambushes while wearing formal clothes, disarmed a nuclear bomb, gotten into martial arts fights on top of speeding trains, and even fought one crazy Estatic gangster high on crack cocaine while 80s music played. You've survived it all. You've learned a little of everything across your adventures, and holding command of a Construct is just another step on your expected career path.
Advantages:
Know It All
Inhuman Luck
Sharp Dressed (Wo)Man
Disadvantages:
Well Adjusted And A Bit Bland
Name MUST Initial To "JB".

SYNDICATE
The Syndicate are a bipolar Convention. On one hand, you have the men and women using economics as a tool of political and social control, developing models of the world as to better predict human behavior (and thus better predict how it can be altered). On the other hand, you have those who use money itself and commerce as the method of controlling humanity. They... don't get along very well. On the other hand, both are absolutely necessary to keep the truth of the world defined as what the Union wants it to be. The Syndicate typically favors Primal Utility, understanding magic (and enlightened science) through the medium of exchange, but often spheres like Correspondence, Mind, and Time are used in conjunction with their understanding of Primal Utility and mundane finance.

Syndicate Procedures are almost always subtle, and the difference between their enlightened science and their resources are hard to define at the best of times. If you destroy someone's reputation via a smear campaign, and they kill themselves, is that a Mind procedure, or just the natural consequence of their dark secrets coming out? Who knows? The Syndicate prefers subtle spheres, or subtle applications of obvious ones. An Iterator might call in an orbital strike (with the ensuing vulgarity). A Syndicate member just gets a hitman with a high-tech sniper rifle to finish the job.

[ ] INTERNAL AUDITOR
You joined the Union in the wake of the largest Syndicate paradox backlash yet. It was a busy time, with a lot of corruption and graft being exposed that could not be. When you took down a high-level executive, you got yourself a promotion, and a bunch of enemies. You're as comfortable in the office as you are in the combat zone. You've used every weapon from economic theory to political theory to social media to a Javelin ATGM (but only once)
Advantages:
21st Century Renaissance (Wo)Man
Sterling Reputation
Disadvantages:
Internal Enemies

[ ] MID LEVEL EXECUTIVE
You have money. And lots of it. And you know how to use it. Only fools think you seek riches for the sake of riches. No, you understand that humanity, as greedy and broken as it is, believes that shiny things have power, and because they believe shiny things have power, such things do have power. This secret has gotten you closer to understanding the truth of the world than many of your peers. On the other hand, without your money you are much, much less. Your investment makes your underlings more than the sum of their parts, but they need to be there for you to do so.
Advantages:
LOADSAMONEY
Political Connections
Requisitions
Henchmen
Disadvantages:
Paradigm Difficulty: HARD MODE
Public Figure
Useless Without Assistants

VOID ENGINEERS
Space. The final frontier. A source of many unknown mysteries. To make the universe safe, one must understand the universe, and that is where the Void Engineers come in. By exploring, colonizing, and otherwise exploiting space, they control reality. The Void Engineers are relatively pragmatic and starved of resources, fighting a mysterious war no other members of the Union can understand or appreciate, but they are necessary. A more potent military arm than even Iteration X, there are a lot of shared influences in their enlightened science.

The Void Engineers specialize in Dimensional Science, a sphere of Enlightened Science which allows FTL travel, alteration of reality metrics, and seeing into the "spirit worlds", such as the human collective unconscious (the Dreaming), Autocthonia, or other places. It also provides for some interesting offensive abilities.

Void Engineers tend to vulgar, powerful forms of magical ability, used to the looser rules of the Umbra. However, whereas Iteration X is gritty cyberpunk or shiny transhumanism, Void Engineers tend towards more Space-Opera uses of enlightened science. Common foci include battleships, orbital assets, high-tech gadgets like tricorders and phasers, and high-tech military ordinance.

[ ] EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMBAT AGENT
You're a Void Engineer, but not a pilot or astronomer. No, you're a space marine. You've faced down werewolves, vampires, and in one case a (demi) god with nothing but your suit of Iteration X forged powered combat armor and a plasma cannon. You've seen things nobody would believe, survived things nobody has any right to. The problem is that because of that, everyone suspects you. They suspect that something about you is broken, and that eventually you'll either snap, defect, or kill yourself, and all of them are waiting to see what it is. They're probably right.
Advantages:
If It Bleeds, I Can Kill It
Cutting Edge Gear
Various Strange Contacts
Disadvantages:
Untrusted

TUTORIAL
Would you like to play through a tutorial mini-quest to understand some of the concepts? In this tutorial, you will be playing as Christopher Westin, Project MKKARMA Agent, leading a squad of Strike Force Zero recruits to horrible death. The tutorial will take place simultaneously with chargen votes.
[ ] Yes, I would like a tutorial.
[ ] No, I am HARDCORE and not a FILTHY CASUAL.

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

This post is reserved for character writeups and other useful things. It will be updated semi-regularly.

You:
You are Jamelia Belltower, The Man.
Virtue: Analyst (regain 2 WP when you resolve a situation with rationality and/or logic)
Vice: Chameleon (spend 1 WP to actually reveal your true self to anyone else, regain 1 WP if doing so would be a good idea)

Notable Traits:

Versatile and adaptable to almost any situation
Skilled in firearms, driving, and close quarters combat
Statistically Improbable Performance In High Risk Situations (Daredevil Merit)
In very high risk rolls, 10s count as 2 successes, difficulty is lowered by 1, roll gains bonus dice

Extremely adept at social manipulation

Capable of ridiculous parkour over just about any surface (Legendary Dexterity-Freeflow)
1 automatic success on Dexterity rolls

Moderate biotech enhancement of mind and body
Enlightened Science:
Willpower 10
Genius 5
Enlightenment 6

Correspondence 3
Dimensional Science 2
Entropy 5 (Disruptions)
Forces 2
Life 2
Matter 2
Mind 2
Time 4 (Revelations)

You are Jamelia Belltower, who is The Man. Well, an Arabic woman, but that doesn't mean she can't be The Man. Jamelia Belltower is a veteran NWO spy, she's seen it all and done it all. Over sixty years old, and she doesn't look like she's aged a day over 25, she would be the Da Vinci of Espionage. If Da Vinci was female. And Middle Eastern. And had a personal kill count larger than the standing armies of some nations. This is a pretty new assignment, a command and leadership role. She's done leadership before, but only on an ad hoc basis, versus actual day-to-day administration.

Jamelia Belltower is a Veteran Spy. Ms. Belltower has a Broad set of subtle Spheres, a powerful Avatar (Avatar 5) and is incredibly lucky in dangerous situations (Daredevil Merit: Whenever making a risky roll where failure is incredibly dangerous or certain death, reduce the difficulty by 1 and add +2d to the roll. If this Merit is in effect, 10s count as 2 successes). She has access to the Union's Requisitions, giving her the ability to gain whatever tools she needs (should she roll well enough), like powered armor, heavy machine guns, and in at least one case a tank, access to the Union's Secret Weapons, which allow her to gain access to various experimental devices that may or may not be useful. Like the time when she was given an advanced cosmetics kit on a Chantry assault. She has Cloaking, making her phenomenally hard to notice by the inattentive.

Her artificially halted aging, due to the fact that she has abandoned all her Sleeper connections long ago and nobody knows how old she should be, has not resulted in Paradox. Yet. Longevity vaccines do end up often resulting in heavy genetic damage over time.

Back in the 80s, she was one of the first recipients of INVISIBLE BEAR (Gamma-0). It was basically a complete psychological rebuild from the ground up, an Iteration X/Progenitor/NWO program to do deep level brain hacks. Rewiring fight or flight to have instincts relevant to post-modern combat, optimizing brain function for enhanced cognition, movement precision, and reaction speed. Oh yeah, and they actually removed her ability to feel pain and made the shock reflex provide some actual damage control benefits. It's not the same as a fully genemodded agent, but it's an edge, and when you use the functions they've loaded into your cognition you can hold your own with any one of them.

Over the course of this Quest, this psychological conditioning has been replaced by heavy retroviral enhancement. Jamelia has gained nearly superhuman physical and mental ability from the augmentation and lost her painkiller addiction. Furthermore, she has gained Legendary Dexterity from one of her past lives, giving a significant bonus on Dexterity-based rolls and allowing her to effectively run up vertical walls.

Unfortunately, she has also gained 3 permanent paradox from time travel.

Your Construct:
Construct Organizational Chart

Your Interns

Your Team:

Henriette Langley, Assault Walker Pilot.
Virtue/Vice: Competitor/Critic. She likes finding reasons to dislike a plan/a person/a place, but she thrives in difficult conditions putting her to the test. She was originally Penitent/Critic, but no longer after Moscow.

Notable Traits:

Skilled in vehicular combat and computer hacking
Legendary Pilot (1 automatic success on Pilot rolls, capable of safely bailing out of vehicles even in unlikely circumstances)

Linguistic prodigy

Significant Cybernetic Augmentation-combat and piloting enhancements
Slightly Tsundere Personality
Permanent Paradox 2

Enlightened Science:
Willpower 8
Genius 4
Enlightenment 5

Correspondence 3
Forces 4 (Heavy Weapons)
Matter 4 (f) (Military Equipment)
Mind 1
Prime 3

On one hand, in her element she's approximately as subtle as any other Iteration X exowalker pilot. That is to say, not at all holy shit subtle and Henriette are not even on speaking terms. On the flipside, heavy hardware comes in handy. Sometimes. If used in incredible moderation. The fact that she's a great helicopter pilot and stunt driver make her potentially useful in subtle operations, or "subtle" operations gone wrong, wherein your car is being chased by a dozen demon possessed Yakuza. (True story, happened to Jamelia in the 90s). Of course, the reason she's here is clearly because someone didn't want her back in her home Convention. ~~You'll have to figure out why.~~ This is because she's had some very bad experiences in outer space which have led her to be completely shit-scared about the Computer, the old leader of Iteration X.

Henriette has some level of cybernetic augmentation and has also been neonatally engineered, being the daughter of two (now-dead) Technocrats. She's a surprisingly good computer hacker, and she also reads voraciously. She has a personality best described as 'tsundere', although she's getting significantly better now.

After the events of Act III, Henriette has committed herself to significant body modification, at least partially reintegrating herself into Iteration X. This has led to her gaining 2 permanent Paradox, for a total of 4.

After bullying her own sister into apotheosis and killing her, she has promised to become a better person. This might take some work.

John Kessler, Post Human Warrior.
Virtue/Vice: Bravo/Expert. He is a warrior-hero who fights for justice, but when the chips are down he has to resist showing off his expertise.

Notable Traits:

Expert in all forms of combat, armed or unarmed
Uploaded to fully synthetic combat chassis
Immense strength, durability
Superhumanly agile
Virtual immunity against kinetic weaponry, resistant against light anti-vehicle weapons, regenerative capability
Integrated anti-fortification plasma weapon
May use either mysticism or enlightened science
Permanent Paradox 2

Enlightened Science/Magic:
Willpower 10
Genius 5
Enlightenment 6

Forces 3
Life 2
Matter 4 (f) (Enhancement)
Mind 2
Prime 2
Spirit 4 (f) (Command)

John Kessler was one of the more respected Iteration X cyborg shock troopers until he went missing in action for 20 years, back in the halcyon days of the early 90s. A man with biceps the diameter of tree trunks and a chest that looks like you could bounce anti-tank missiles off of it (you suspect this is not hyperbole), John Kessler might be an outdated combat model with none of the sleekness of modern HITMarks or frontline cyborgs who are all implausibly good-looking men and women who seem to blend in on Hollywood sets. But in this day and age, that's still useful. An X14-A Thunderhead still kills people pretty damn well, after all.

The reason why you've managed to poach him is threefold. First, the guy's still stuck in the 90s (probably due to his cranial implants, the old ones tended to create quirky behavior). It's funny. He still can learn new things, he's smart, he's surprisingly level-headed for a cyborg agent of Iteration X's will, but he just can't figure out the new-fangled 21st century. Second, things around him tend to devolve into explosions and car chases through little fault of his own. Third, he spent 20 years in a Reality Deviant "shard realm" learning psychic powers via drinking way too much dragon blood.

Kessler is a great driver and capable of piloting. He is a lethal personal combatant who has incredibly heavy augmentation rendering him basically a man-sized minitank. Many would look at his stature and assume he's as dumb as a brick, even if he holds two degrees (to be fair to them, one of those degrees is a legitimate Doctorate in Tactical Combat Sciences, i.e. the much-fabled Iteration X "Ph.D in ass-kicking"). They'd be right-he's as dumb as a brick... of densely packed computronium-and is actually quite talented at a lot of things (like 80s action movie stars were), like chemical and mechanical engineering. He an Enlightened Scientist. He is also a wizard who talks to spirits he can see due to drinking way too much dragon blood. Stuff really acts weird when you're a cyborg.

Recent events have stripped him of his oddities and he is no longer stuck in the 90s. They have also turned him into a fully synthetic killing machine made mostly of nanobots.

Rose Ashford, Experimental Progenitor Bioweapon.
Virtue/Vice: Masochist/Charmer - Finds strength in pushing beyond her limits, but avoids telling people things they don't want to hear. Formerly Charmer/Idealist ("I only want the best for everyone"/"I don't like hurting people or doing wrong things") before having Conditioning ripped out.

Notable Traits:

Expert melee combatant, skilled in firearms usage
Superhuman strength, agility, reactions, and durability
Vampire tissue integration allows for bursts of further-improved speed and strength at cost of potential berserker fits
Rapid healing capability from integrated bionanotech
Incredibly idealistic and will attempt to be as 'heroic' as possible
In times of great stress, may manifest secondary personality with superior Spheres
Winner of "Most moe member of the Technocracy" 2 years running
Somewhat childlike personality, eternally optimistic
Does not understand sex jokes

Enlightened Science:
Willpower 7
Genius 5
Enlightenment 5

Entropy 2
Dimensional Science 3
Forces 2
Life 4 (f) (Vicissitude)
Mind 4 (Do You Like The New Me?)
Primal Utility 3
Time 3

Keeping the trend of "discarded but nevertheless incredibly useful killing machines with minimal subtlety", you have Rose. Well, 'minimal subtlety' would be a lie. She looks normal. If it wasn't for her pale skin, fangs, and too-red lips. Okay, she looks normal... for a vampire. You have a file on her that says that she was a Progenitor experiment into integration of hemophagic tissue into combat operatives, and that the baseline chassis is Project RECOIL material-organically distributed diamondoid bones, carbon nanotube mesh armor, enhanced physical capability. She seems to have a sunny personality from what you've actually read of her psych report, except when she occasionally (it's rare trust me, we'll have the bugs fixed eventually) flips out and tries to murder everyone. Oh yeah, and there were ethical issues with the project at some point. Skill-wise? She's good with knives, fast, tough, and lethal, and is okay at subterfuge and infiltration.

She's not a very powerful mage but she does provide one of your two sources of Dimensional Science support.

Besides for her immense combat augmentation, which has a toll in that she looks obviously like a vampire, but provides her with inhuman durability, strength, and speed as well as incredibly fast healing, she possesses a genetic memory that provides her with low-level knowledge on just about everything, but is actually legitimately an expert in Medicine in her own right. She is very beautiful and surprisingly good at convincing others, but is eerie and offputting in her beauty. Her Virtue is Masochist. She regains willpower when she pushes herself through a harsh situation, no matter how she suffers. Her Vice is Charmer. For a superhuman weapon she's awfully nice, and she wants to tell everyone that everything is all right, no matter whether or not it actually is.

Oh, and she may have the soul of a long-dead Technocratic paladin named Reina Lior, as well as an angry imaginary head-frenemy called Thorn who insults her all the time. This has finally led to her being broken down and reshaped in a way which may lead to... interesting consequences.

Donald Sykes, Syndicate Executive
Virtue/Vice: Machine/Hedonist. He can power through human weakness and often does when he has to, but he spends most of his time indulging in pleasure for pleasure's sake.

Notable Traits:

Extremely wealthy with massive personal assets
Adept at Social Engineering
High-Level Requisitions Access
Executive V/STOL Capable Private Jet
Various Substance Dependencies

Enlightened Science:
Willpower 9
Genius 4
Enlightenment 5

Correspondence 4 (Multitasking)
Entropy 4 (Narrative Inevitability)
Life 2
Mind 1
Primal Utility 4 (Budgeting)
Time 4 (Efficiency)
Spirit 4 (Contracts)

Hey, finally someone Jamelia can understand. Okay, she never liked the kinds of guys who never get their suits dirty, but they're never useless. So he's got an award for revealing bribery and a Nephandi cult in the Union somehow (it apparently involved an accident and demon money, sure he says he meant to do it but you figure that the Nephandi just got a terminal case of bad luck), and in response to shaking the boat the Syndicate dumps him on this Construct. Figures. They at least gave him a raise while they were at it, so he's got a seven-digit annual income and an eight-digit net worth. There is an official reprimand on his record for "potential Reality Terrorist sympathies". Looking at it, apparently he was using modified crack cocaine as a method of accelerating his body and mind, like an Ecstatic would (not a dirty Ecstatic. Those would probably just have an orgy for it).

Serafina Rosario, Progenitor Prodigy.
Virtue/Vice: Leader/Caregiver. Good at executing plans, but finds it difficult to ignore the suffering of others. Formerly Dabbler/Caregiver: She is very good at hopping from problem to problem, but she honestly can't resist taking care of people who need it-which is why she's done what she did for Henriette and Rose.

Notable Traits:

Genetic enhancements: Superhuman intellect, social attributes
Expert Biotech Engineer specializing in genetic engineering
Social Engineering Competencies, Legend (Butterfly Princess)
Very High-Level Requisitions Access
Connections with High-Level Union Leadership
Surrogate Parent to Rose Ashford
Professional/Personal Relationship With Senior Constable Alexander Cross, Ethical Compliance
Extremely Protective of Surrogate Child

Enlightened Science:
Willpower 8
Genius 5
Enlightenment 5

Correspondence 3
Entropy 1
Life 4 (Biotech)
Matter 2 (limited-only works alongside bioengineering)
Mind 5 (Cognitive Enhancement)
Prime 3
Time 1

Like Donald, Serafina is a reasonable Technocrat, the daughter of two famous Progenitors. Serafina is Rose's surrogate mother, and has done an okay job of raising her little monster in a way wherein she behaves well around normal people, which is a small miracle given how massively fucked-up she is. Serafina's a Progenitor research scientist, although she's done a very short stint in field work and found it not to her tastes (also, Damage Control is a much worse promotion track if you want to end up in a leadership role in the Convention). She's a biologist, chemical engineer, and biotech expert, with superhuman intellect backing up a lot of experience with Enlightened Science.

Serafina has been bioengineered for a much longer lifespan, increased intelligence, superior social ability, and incredibly good looks, but has no really combat-relevant enhancements.

Elsa Naryshkin, Cyborg Ninja.
Virtue/Vice: Survivor/Thrill-Seeker. Elsa is very good at surviving through her own wits and cunning and her endless fonts of perseverance, but she needs that because she loves throwing herself into dangerous situations all the time. It's why she charged into Molotek, it's why she defected to the Void Engineers, and it's why she's with the party here and now despite it being in the center of something very, very dangerous.

Notable Traits:

Full-conversion cyborg: Superhuman strength, speed, agility. Resistant to most small arms fire.
Utility augmentations: Multispectral cybereyes (Forces/Matter/Life 1 senses), integrated crossbow launcher, fiberoptic nervous system for short-duration accelerated combat reactions
Skilled personal-scale combatant, expert markswoman
Computer intrusion specialist
Competent technician specializing in cybernetics maintenance
Ex-Reality Deviant, possible distrust

Enlightened Science:
Willpower 8
Genius 3
Enlightenment 4

Correspondence 4 (Surveillance)
Correspondence 5 Rote: CAD/CAM-allows overwriting of physical properties with one another

Dimensional Science 3

Forces 3
Mind 2* [gadgets only]
Prime 3* [gadgets only]
Time 3

Wufan "William" Guo, Man in Black.
Virtue/Vice: Judge/Traditionalist. Good at dispassionately looking at problems and solving them equitably and rationally, but his conservative streak and trust in tried and true methods can be somewhat problematic if you wish to take risky action.

Notable Traits:

Genetic engineering: Minor physical improvements
Skilled martial artist and adept at small arms usage
Trained in deception, media manipulation, and evidence tampering
Investigative training
Signature Weapon: Light Varigun, a multirole heavy pistol with varied weapons functionalities from nonlethal toxin darts to antimateriel penetrators.
Void Engineer agent sent to keep watch on amalgam

Enlightened Science:
Willpower 9
Genius 3
Enlightenment 3

Correspondence 2
Dimensional Science 2
Entropy 2
Mind 3 (f)

Retired Team Members & Casualties:

Siddharth Rajesh, Void Engineer SPACE MARINE. And the Union, being as progressive as it is, had to fill the last slot with a token minority. Mr. Rajesh hails from the Singaporean navy and then the Void Engineers, who booted him because of... ethical inflexibility. Which means that he plasma cannons and jackboots first, and asks questions about never. And Janina had entertained thought that after Sykes you were going to get a well-balanced group of subtle, professional, agents overall. Yeah no. On the other hand, his loyalty to the Union is impeccable, and he's going to obey any commands the TU gives him, up to and possibly including firing that plasma cannon on a bunch of orphans (if you can claim they were Reality Deviant orphans) in a nunnery (it has to be a Celestial Chorus nunnery though). He provides the other Dimensional Science source for your team, and has a suit of Iteration X built Immortal Warrior power armor, as well as a NSN Plasma Caster. His spheres include Forces 3, Dimensional Science 3, and Matter 3. He is only moderately more subtle than Henriette.

Siddharth Rajesh chose to join another cross-Convention organization due to irreconcilable personal differences. He chose... poorly.

CENTURION, the British Lion

Other Nice To Know Things:
About Spheres
About Technocratic Constructs
About Inhuman Attributes and Blatancy (Rose)
About Primal Utility (Donald)
About Powered Armor
About Russian Superstitionists

Dossiers

Team Dossiers:

Technocracy Dossiers:

Historical Dossiers:

Enemy Dossiers:

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

ABOUT SPHERES

Correspondence: Correspondence is the Sphere of space. At Correspondence 1, you can measure exact distances without issue, as well as not get lost and know exactly where you are relative to anything. Correspondence 2 allows for you to sense distant locations, and with the use of other spheres you can retrieve small objects from distant locations. Examples would be pulling a handgun out of an empty pocket with Correspondence/Matter, or reading someone's mind from a long distance with Correspondence/Mind. Additionally, you can protect yourself from remote surveillance. At Correspondence 3, you can teleport (if justified in paradigm), or Ban a type of object from passing through a space. Correspondence 4 allows for a character to co-locate objects, putting them in more than one location at once, or teleport others and other objects without conjunctional spheres.

Example: Donald Sykes is being attacked by angry Reality Terrorists with AK-47s. He thinks "They might be uncultured brutes, but they know someone important when they see him. They're not going to shoot me, they're just going to take me hostage for ransom or something." He uses this thought in paradigm to cast a Ban against bullets, so attacks against him with said AK-47s miss.

Entropy: Entropy is generally the Sphere of probability (Reality Deviants call it fate and fortune but they're also ignoramuses). Entropy 1 allows you to sense whether something is likely to be important or not, as well as detect weakpoints, such as security weakpoints or physical ones. Entropy 2 allows you to directly manipulate events of chance, such as the spin of a roulette wheel or what card will come up next in a card game. Entropy 3 allows you to use Entropy to degrade or reinforce the likelihood that a predictable pattern, such as a machine or a force, will break down. Fires suddenly sputter out, machines halt, etc.

Example: Jamelia is in a high-stakes poker game. She uses Entropy 2 to cheat, justifying it as having counted the cards repeatedly and kept track of every one of them through the shuffle.

Forces: Forces is a sphere that is capable of great subtlety and great obviousness. At Forces 1, a character can perceive forces, such as infrared, radio, sound waves, hard radiation, and more. The character can precisely quantify said forces, which can be incredibly useful combined with mundane investigative methods for a spy like Jamelia-say, using Forces/Correspondence to directly read someone's power meter so you know if they've been at home often. Forces 2 allows you to increase and decrease the intensity of forces, and change their direction. A gun can be made to deal more or less damage, you can make a fire burn hotter or cooler, deflect an incoming tennis ball, telekinetically manipulate an object, speed up a car, or, I don't know, taser an electrokinetic clone loli with her own powers. Forces 3 lets you create forces out of thin air. This is the level of Forces used by infantry plasma weapons, particle beams, and railguns. Coincidentally, it is also the level of Forces that Henrietta possesses. At Forces 4, characters can manipulate and enhance large-scale forces, giving them the firepower to level city blocks, throw tanks around, or do other large-scale and incredibly paradoxical feats.

Example: Henrietta is trapped in a cave with a box of scraps with an angry werewolf beating down on the door. She improvises a single-shot railgun, using Forces 3 to accelerate the projectile. She takes a ton of time to build up Enlightened Science successes, and then when the werewolf breaks down the door it eats a giant metal pole moving at approximately 5 kilometers a second to the face, promptly exploding in a cloud of gore.

Life: Life is the sphere of manipulating... you guessed it, living things. Life 1 allows you to sense life patterns, which sounds pointless but can be useful. It also allows you to sense flaws in said patterns, which is great for medical diagnostics. Life 2 allows you to heal (or injure) yourself and do minor adaptations to the environment (lighter/darker skin, etc.), but it also allows you to heal or injure simpler animals, generally smaller life forms or invertebrates. Life 3 allows you to heal or harm more complex animals (like humans), and it also allows gross physical changes to oneself or to simple animals. Life 3 allows for a character to grow claws or bony armor plate, to engineer a bacterium into a deadly weapon, or to turn a crawfish into a cedar tree (it would, however, be a very small bonsai tree). Life allows a character to deal Aggravated pattern damage, which can bypass most soak, although mages can attempt to soak via Willpower alone. Life 4 allows a character to do drastic changes to their body, which is sometimes used to shapeshift into a bird or a tiger. It also allows the character to enhance another character's body the same way Life 3 would allow the character to enhance themselves.

Example: Rose is in a fight with an angry bear mind-controlled by a hemophage and needs it dead fast. She stabs it with a enzyme-laced blade, causing it to swell up and explode into gore, suffering aggravated pattern damage. Later, she needs to break through a thick metal door. Channeling Life 3, she reconfigures her musculature for improved instantaneous force, and punches the inch-thick metal door, putting a neat hole in it (and doing a number on her body, but she has regenerative nanotech, she does not care).

Matter: Matter manipulates unliving objects, like rocks and machines. At Matter 1, you can analyze an unliving object and understand its composition, any damage it's taken, or even see through solid matter. Combined with Entropy 1, you can "see the fate" of an object, seeing what it's intended to do. Matter 2 allows you to transmute simple materials to other materials, although a mage cannot, at this point, change the shape of the object or its phase. At Matter 3, the mage can resculpt the object and change its phase, turning metal into toxic gas, as an example. A Mage can also increase or decrease the density of objects and change other properties, leading to creations such as collapsed-matter "hypercore" bullets or armored business suits which can turn blades and small arms fire. At Matter 4, a mage can do complex transformations, creating complex working machines.

Example: Henrietta accidentally brought a car to a giant robot fight. Fortunately, it's a Japanese rental car, and everyone knows the Japanese love their giant robots. So she fumbles through the manual to find its "transform into a giant robot" mode (it's written on the back of page 320, with invisible ink that only an ADEI-enhanced operative can read). One use of Matter 4 (and about a dozen successes) later, she now has a transforming giant robot to fight another giant robot.

Mind: Mind is a very subtle sphere. Mind 1 allows a character to sense other minds, thoughts and emotions, as well as enhance their own memory, clarity of thought, concentration, and computational skills. Mind 2 allows for an Enlightened Scientist to read surface, immediate thoughts, and also send brief mental impulses. This is not 'mind control'-it only allows for simple commands. Mind 3 allows a character to provide telepathy, as well as send more complex thoughts to others and read minds. Furthermore, the character may augment Mental Attributes with Mind 3. At Mind 4, a character may fully control a victim's conscious mind, as well as walk into their dreams and adjust their personality that way. Beware-sometimes the dream fights back. At Mind 5, a character can completely alter a person's mind, adding or subtracting memories, and shaping their personality like putty. This also allows the character to create entirely 'new' minds, either from scratch or from a template.

Example: Jamelia wants to know what someone is thinking. She asks a few pointed questions and gauges his reactions. This is her focus for a Mind 2 Effect to read the person's thoughts. And as you know, if someone asks you a question, you generally have a hard time avoiding thinking of the answer. Later, she finds out that the person in question is, in fact, a Reality Deviant (a minor sorcerer) and realized what was going on, and sent a small army of thugs to chase her. To avoid them, she runs into the middle of a crowd and blends in, using Mind 2 to avoid attention.

Primal Utility/Prime: Primal Utility and Prime both have to do with the fundamental building blocks of the universe. Primal Utility is a Sphere based on the Syndicate's understanding of economics. Most Enlightened Scientists (and Reality Deviants) understand the Sphere of Prime as manipulating some sort of fundamental universal building block, some sort of *snort* "pure energy" *snort* that is an actual, real thing. The Syndicate, on the other hand, understands Prime as real value. Everything has value, and by understanding economics, you understand the value of this. This provides it with some advantages that normal Prime does not allow for, but on the other hand comes with real and significant restrictions. Primal Utility 1, like normal Prime, allows a character to store more Primal Energy/Quintessence than normal by channeling from nodes, but also allows for the exploitation of Primal Ventures in the same way you exploit Nodes. Primal Ventures are exceptional situations which create Primal Energy by being closely associated with the human capacity for innovation and finding value. Not every successful business is a Primal Venture, but at Primal Utility 1 you can sense them, so that's not a problem. More importantly, you can sense the flow of Primal Energy, understanding the metaphysical 'value' of things (such as Procedures or "spells").

At 2 dots of Primal Utility, you can create Gadgets (short-lived single-use Enlightened Science Procedures) out of Tass, which is Prime Energy invested in an object, such as a power cell or a feather or mushrooms (Traditionalist nodes can sometimes get strange). A character with conventional Prime would have to do the construction themselves, but with an understanding of Primal Utility, you're allowed to delegate. Furthermore, you can invest Prime Energy into an object to have it perform closer to the "ideal". Weapons deal aggravated wounds, armor protects against spiritual attacks, even things like financial resources, requisitions, and personal connections are more reliable and less likely to fail. This allows a character with Primal Utility to straight up pay Prime Energy to get successes on Resource rolls and the like, as well as "enchant" weapons and armor. Finally, this allows characters to create "something from nothing", arbitraging the very structure of reality to set up imbalances that end up creating what you want. Unlike conventional Prime, Primal Utility does not allow the creation of pure ideal Extradimensional (Umbral) weapons, which Prime does.

At 3 dots of Primal Utility, the character may produce permanent Devices (objects that can channel Enlightened Science procedures more than a few times) out of Tass, apply ECONOMICS! to living things, seize Prime Energy at the moment of death, and use Tass (again, solidifed Prime Energy) to recharge his own or other Enlightened personnel's Primal Energy storage. Like with Gadgets, the Enlightened Economist does not actually have to be the one making the object, which is a huge advantage. Similarly, to recharge his Primal Energy storage, the Enlightened Economist doesn't generally need to burn/snort/eat the Tass, but can just sell it on the market. Using Primal Utility to augment living things allows one to create living Gadgets. This can take many forms-intensive training in perishable skills, chemical enhancement regimens, a really good pep talk, or more. On the flipside, similar principles can be used to seize someone's Prime Energy at the moment of death. For Enforcers who work on the "right" side of the law, or the few NWO agents trained in Primal Utility, this often involves literally seizing the target's assets via court orders. Extralegal Division Enforcers may send goons to ransack the person's house, while Financiers have a bunch of ways, from the up-and-up (going to the funeral and actually sympathizing) to the unsympathetic (literal wage slavery) to do the same.

At 4 dots of Primal Utility, characters can convert Prime Energy into Tass. Characters may also destroy non-living objects based on their value via their mastery of Primal Utility. Characters at this level of Prime may create Devices out of Prime Energy rather than Tass but may not convert Prime Energy into Tass.

Prime is vaguely analogous to Primal Utility. This will only come up on a case-by-case basis, and most of the exceptions are already noted.

Spirit/Dimensional Science: Spirit is the Reality Deviant equivalent of Dimensional Science, although a very few agents, such as NWO Psychic Warfare or Progenitor Paraphysical Sciences agents, may possess the Spirit sphere. The vast majority of Technocratic Agents who possess an extradimensional sphere possess Dimensional Science. Dimensional Science deals with the alteration of dimensional topography, allowing for things like bubbles with altered laws of physics, the negation of Paradox effects, and travel between dimensions. Spirit, on the other hand, is much more focused on the extradimensional entities themselves, allowing for summoning, awakening, and binding them. Dimensional Science 1 allows one to see into extradimensional space, while Dimensional Science 2 allows one to touch it and transport small objects in and out of other dimensions. Dimensional Science 3 allows direct travel to and from said dimensions, and also gives the Scientist an offensive weapon, in that they may disrupt the integrity of living or nonliving things ("Phase Disruptor").
Example: Siddharth is faced by a demon. His plasma cannon is out of ammunition. Fortunately, he has Dimensional Science 3. He grabs the tricorder from his belt, reconfigures it, and phasers it to nonexistence.

Time: Time does about what you'd expect. With Time 1, you have perfect timing. You know the exact time, you can sense the flow of time and whether it's been accelerated or decelerated, and you can sense rifts in time which allow you the potential to travel into the past or the future (do not travel into the past this is a bad idea). Time 2 allows you to look back and forward in time. Time 3 allows for the acceleration or deceleration of time. Time 4 allows for stopping time, as well as creating magic which stays in standby until activated by triggers (using conjunctional spheres). This triggered magic system allows a character with Time 4 to create 'static magic systems' with a variety of effects dependent on use. Both of these effects are generally paradoxical

Example: Donald needs to run away from the Reality Deviants who attacked him with AK-47s. Fortunately for him, he packed his special cocaine. Making sure no by-the-rules Technocrat is observing the fact that he's using cocaine to go fast, like a dirty Esctatic, he snorts the stuff and goes really fast (and probably takes a bunch of Paradox while he's at it).

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

CONSTRUCTS, INHUMAN ABILITY, AND BLATANCY

Constructs

Have Donald Sykes talking to you about Technocratic constructs-artificial beings- (as opposed to Constructs, which are facilities they use to field agents from).

Men in Black
Affiliation: NWO
Subtlety Rating: Moderate
Firepower: Low
These guys aren't guys you want to rely on when shit hits the fan because they're so close to ordinary humans (and as you know, ordinary humans with guns don't do too well against anything dangerous), but they are useful. They're mostly clones, although recent iterations are often indoctrinated soldiers or government agents. That's cheaper, but they can't be as tailor-made.

Gen Is are the old style ones, which we've been using for decades upon decades. They're more like robots that bleed than people, and they've got a lot of genetic flaws which make them appear incredibly odd. Of course, the problem with them standing out is easily fixed. We tattooed an Illuminati pyramid on their necks, gave them black suits and dark sunglasses, and now anyone who talks about MiB operations is considered certifiably insane and they get dismissed. Gen IIs fixed these issues and can look and act like anyone. Hell, some of them become Enlightened Scientists themselves. Unlike the seriousface Progenitor combat constructs, they've got pretty minor biomods. Standard issue is their inability to feel pain or shock, they'll do their job until they die of it. They also don't feel fear, sexual desire, remorse, or sympathy. They're perfectly loyal super-sociopaths with the bodies of Olympic athletes and the training of Navy SEALs. Useful for expendable soldiers.

Hyper Intelligence Technologies Mark I-VII
Affiliation: Iteration X
Subtlety Rating: Low (Mark IVs)-It's okay if the only witnesses are dead, right? (Mark Vs, Mark VIs, Mark VIIs)
Firepower Rating: Yes. All of the Firepower.
Okay boss, I'm not sure why you're asking about HITMarks. Everyone knows about them, even our respected opposition on the other side of the aisle. They're artificial intelligences loaded in cybernetic combat chassis. The old Mark I was some sort of Victorian-age robot built in the shape of a medieval knight, using mechanical computers and gears. Pretty steampunk. I had one in my old office. They're really crappy combatants, and one wonders how you took out werewolves in the old ages when you needed about a dozen of these to equal one, but it does what it does. Funnily enough, the Void Engineers have grabbed the plans to that and have been building a variant of that obsolete hunk of junk for the last 40 years. The "Mark-I-HEV", I hear it's called. Uses enough diamond in its structure to make DeBeers jealous. It's supposed to operate in highly entropic environments where conventional circuitry doesn't work well like that one James Cameron movie, and has a mechanical computer to boot. I take a look at them and I think there's a lot of better things you could do with that much diamond, like impress a whole lot of wom- okay, stopping. That was the Mark I. The Mark II and Mark III, as you already know, are museum pieces that doesn't even have that note. The Etherites still use 'em, though. They've got a whole bunch, and we don't give a shit because they're obsolete. Mark IVs and Mark Vs are cut from the same cloth, they're both about 50 years old. The Mark IV came first, because we didn't quite have the neural network tech to make a fully sapient combat chassis, and used human brains in them instead. Mark Vs came later. They both have roughly similar physical characteristics, except for the fact that Mark IVs, using regular ol' meat brains, are a hell of a lot more flexible. They're also a lot more unpredictable but you takes your brainmeats and you takes your choices.

Mark VIs came along when someone looked at Hideo Kojima's fever dreams and decided "oh yeah, cyborg ninjas? Fucking cool." Okay, that's not how it actually happened. But that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Fine, fine, the real story. Mark VIs were designed as a slightly more precise alternative to the Iteration X strategic strike arsenal. Yeah, you heard me right. They were intended to replace fifty megaton primium-enhanced antimatter warheads in the early 90s and went online in '99. It's fortunate they existed, because when Case Ragnarok showed up, it meant we could take him down without vaporizing half of India and then engineering WW3 to cover it up. Of course, fat lot of good that did, since now all those nukes are wrecked thanks to the Dimensional Anomaly, and most of our Mark VIs too. But seriously, I've seen them deployed against alien warships. And come out on top. Void Engineer teams have stories floating around about Mark VIs . So why don't we use them more? Well, three reasons. First, they run on antimatter. You heard me right. Second, their skeletons are reinforced with monopolium. Exotic matter. Now, back in the old days, you could build enough for maybe one or two of these a year, except you needed the exotic matter foundries to make primium too, and all the other stuff, like the armor plate for Qui La Machinae, and black hole generators, and all of the real hypertech. Third, because they break down hilariously fast Earthside. Each Mark VI needs a 20 or so man team of scientists and technicians behind it, and a few thousand man-hours per hour of deployment, and if you don't monitor them they have a mean time to failure of about thirty seconds. We generally only use them off-planet, because that way they aren't irreplaceable strategic weapons.

I've heard rumors of a new Mark VII, though. Well, okay, I've been on a board that approved the budgeting for the Mark VII. I've heard rumors of what it can do. Rumor says that they've figured out how to break human cognitive limits or something, and that the Mark VII is going to be capable of containing a strongly superhuman intelligence. It might just be a lifetime diet of Hollywood films, but I can't see how this could go right. At all. At least the specs on it don't look nearly as ridiculous as the Mark VI, so when it inevitably goes mad and seeks to dominate the human race to calculate Pi, we won't need to nuke it. Well, maybe just a little.

Victors, Vanessas And Homonculi
Affiliation: Progenitors
Subtlety Rating: Moderate
Firepower Rating: You don't need firepower when you're rocking these guns.
True story, MiBs were the prototypes for Victors. FACADE-that's Forced Adaptation and Clone Alteration/Developmental Eugenics-built the MiB first, and thought they were a failure for being too limited by human frailties. Ah transhumanism, where would we be without you? Victors were their second result. They had the looks of supermodels, the physiques of Captain America, the memory of elephants, the toughness of grizzly bears on PCP, and the IQs of wet noodles. Sometimes you fuck up and overpromise, and you end up realizing you just wrote a check your ass can't cash. The Syndicate, I hear, was really displeased by this, and wanted to cancel the experiment entirely. The Progenitors desperately scrabbled for something to do with these failed clones. Turns out they were useful for two things: Shock troops who got very, very specific orders and contingency plans that they could memorize, and comedy. It got to the point where even Progenitors have Victor jokes.

Victors were phenomenally successful at both, and thus they helped FACADE rocket to increased prominence. But the original reason to make Victors, the transhumanist rationales? Those never faded. So the Progenitor brain trust took a few years to clean up the human genome, did a few more test runs, and built a new, sexier version 2 clone. Figuratively and literally sexier, I mean. I hear FACADE is in possession of some kind of equation which shows the optimal body and facial structure for peak attractiveness to the maximum number of people. Now instead of the IQs of wet noodles, they've got enough brains to get a few Ph.Ds of their own, making them useful for literally everything. The V2 Victors, the "Vanessas", after what the original clone was named, are probably going to replace every other specialized clone in the end with their general purpose flexibility.

After all, "men are not interchangeable parts". Budget concerns? Ha! Since when did the Progenitors care about that. Just demand more money. Now, they're not replacing everything. There are some things which being only as good as the best human ever or slightly better isn't nearly enough in. That's fighting against werewolves and the like, and for that the Progenitors have Homonculi.
You see, the Progenitors and Iteration X were best buddies a long while back, but there were a few rough spots. When that happened, the Progenitors realized they dearly missed the existence of HITMarks because they weren't getting any. And they decided to build their own. That's a Combat Homonculus. It's a genetically-engineered biological weapon designed to disguise itself as normal life for long enough that it can extrude bladed tentacles and rip you to bits. But well, biology evolves, and so do they. Now you've got a few which have legitimately become learned scholars, a few which have gone rogue and have gotten good enough at survival that they can't be hunted down, and at least one who dreams of world peace and hugs for everyone. Okay, yes, Rose isn't technically a Combat Homonculus by the proper meaning-she doesn't have quite the same genetic flexibility, and she wasn't built in the same way, but the term has spread to just about every form of dedicated combat construct the Progenitors have, including their uplifted gorilla space marines and the psychic war-squids I know they use to guard their underwater labs.

Yes they exist, I've seen the budget for them. Do you know how much psychic squid food costs?
Now, a proper Combat Homonculus shares a few things. They're not built from human or animal DNA, even if they look human or like a cute baby goat or a dog or whatever. They generally have two forms, a form where they disguise all their combat adaptations, and their proper combat form. They're generally genetically unstable and have fairly short lifespans, although you have anomalies which have managed to stabilize their cell degradation on their own and will probably live forever barring the high likelihood of dying from violence. They're also not capable of the neural flexibility to understand Enlightened Science, which is important. They might be smart, but they'll generally be smart in very limited, less-creative ways. Oh, and they're all phenomenally fast, strong, and capable of incredibly fast regeneration of injuries. You ever seen a hamster claw a werewolf's eyes out?

Anyways, that's most of the common combat constructs and their more uncommon variants. There are a few other kinds, like Iteration X cybertanks and combat robots, but they're not nearly as common and don't see as much cross-Conventions use.

Inhuman Attributes

Some characters, generally Akashic ass-beaters, tattooed Thanatoic assassins, and Ecstatics who take a fuck of a lot of drugs, may have permanent superhuman attributes. This does not normally provide paradox, as Paradox is only given from things that people can't believe, and superhuman attributes are things people can often believe, since so many action movies and kung fu movies have permeated the collective unconscious. Punch someone with your 10 Strength so hard that their neck breaks? Not a problem. Kick through a concrete wall? Yeah, that's fine.

Throw a SUV? Wait what? The first time you do a unique and implausible thing that shows off these superhuman attributes (throwing a SUV, tearing away a bank door, cutting a 500 ton giant robot in half), you gain Paradox as if you had cast the effects that allowed you to do that in front of the audience. This normally would be Life 3, but may be higher or lower. This only happens once per scene, although entirely different implausible things may cause further Paradox.

Example: Iterator X344 is chasing a Reality Deviant through a crowded shopping mall. The RD turns to shoot at him with a handgun, scoring multiple hits because X344 does not give a fuck and leaving a lot of bloody bullet holes. This does not incur any paradox, because clearly he's just a crazy guy on PCP. You know how guys on PCP can be shot a dozen times and not even notice? Therefore, this is Coincidental and does not produce paradox.

The Reality Deviant, unfortunately, has friends, who hit him with a RPG-7. This blows off most of X344's face and reveals that most of his body is made out of a primium endoskeleton. It also moderately inconveniences him. Moderately. Now, people generally are not made of metal, and are not capable of surviving RPGs, so this is not Coincidental. Since the highest sphere going into the Enhancements in question is Matter 5 (for the primium), he takes 6 points of paradox because this is vulgar with witnesses.This is incredibly crippling, but he keeps chasing anyways. Should X344 be hit by another RPG-7 and end up chasing the RDs as a shiny primium endoskeleton, this would not give him further paradox, because it would be unbelievable, but in the same exact way. "Nobody can be this tough."

The RDs then lock themselves into a bank vault, probably to do some sort of teleportation ritual to get away from the homicidal cyborg with a plasma cannon arm. The mall has long since been evacuated. He uses his augmented servomotors and rips the vault door off. This is still vulgar, but without witnesses, he takes a "mere" 3 points of Paradox, as the highest sphere going into the Enhancements his action revealed are Life and Forces 3.

Fortunately for those reality deviants, he gets a really, really bad backlash roll at that point and his BIOS crashes, leaving him combat-ineffective for days while he frantically tries to restore his base nervous system's code from backup.

Blatancy

Rose is the only member of your Construct to possess the Blatancy attribute. This is entirely because of her close association with vampires, and thus vampire fiction. If she is expressing superhuman ability in a way that is common in vampire fiction, she reduces the paradox gained from anything she does by her Blatancy rating, which is currently 2 but may get higher as she gains more vampiric grafts and traits. If she gains more vampiric grafts and traits, she may not want to.

Blatancy is not a common Technocratic merit, and is more common in stage magicians who are actually Traditions magi, witches, shapeshifters, and other people whose magics have legends behind them. NWO agents occasionally, however, may have Blatancy (James Bond) or Blatancy (Jason Bourne), and there are a few Iterators who have Blatancy (The Terminator) or Blatancy (Bubblegum Crisis) or Blatancy (Iron Man). Basically, Blatancy is when your magic, sorry, Enlightened Science, and pop culture mesh to the point where normally vulgar effects are coincidental for you.

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

Hardsuits And You: A Primer
By: Agent Gretta Hayman
(Written to this soundtrack)
Okay, if you're new recruits to Iteration X Shock Corps boot camp, you probably haven't heard of me. I'm the test pilot who basically made most of your combat suits the way they are today. To understand your suits, though, you have to understand the history. There's a lot of history behind the combat chassis you wear, and I'm writing this down so you know the details. Now, you'll normally be given your standard-issue Sentinel or Paladin, as those are a good balance between cost, capability, and protection, but there's a lot of more interesting suits and tech you'll probably end up encountering. Some of them are high-end experimental designs, which might kill or horribly maim you if you aren't totally careful around them for even a moment, some are historical oddities you'll want to know about solely to pass the history part of your exam because here at Iteration X we believe in well-rounded educations, and others are high-tech variants you'll see used by elite units, or use yourself if you end up in an elite unit.

Generation 1: The Precursors

Even in the old days of the Order of Reason, the idea of power armor existed. Of course, they didn't call it power armor then. They called it "Super-Heavy Assisted Plate" or other things, like "Mechanized Armor". The earliest examples are probably the clockwork designs the Artificers used. Elegant, simple, and they had the issue that they needed finely machined primium springs and gears to store all that energy, and you needed to wind the suit to make it work. Rather inconvenient compared to replacing a battery. Furthermore, it was hard to figure out how much power you had left.

So in the 18th and 19th centuries, we settled on better ideas. The Mark I Custodian was the first mass-produced "Mechanically Assisted Plate Armor" that used a steam engine. It was massive, slow, extremely heavy, and temperamental, although later designs were increasingly reliable. However, it did its job. It made the wearer impervious to anything short of cannons and its gatling gun provided a lot of firepower. The Mark II was introduced soon after in the Convocation, powered by a smaller combustion engine running on hydrocarbons (that is to say, oil). Early versions used whale oil, later versions used petroleum. The Custodian was largely retired after the Mark V, which served very well in the Boxer Rebellion-although the Void Engineers still have them and are snatching up all the suits they can get. They say they're useful in 'technology-hostile subdimensions', whatever that means, although I'm not sure how many oil-powered hardsuits you need for that.

Note that understanding the specs of the old Gen 1 suits is still very important, because they show up in the hands of RDs all the time. The Etherites keep building the damn things, I suppose. You'll want to know their weaknesses and how to disable them quickly (hint: shoot the engine) if you ever face one. Just remember, you're faster, stronger, tougher, and don't break down as soon as someone sprays the engine with some .50 HMG fire.

Generation 2: The Early Days

There were two Iteration X Macrotechnicians, Alanson and Martinez, who didn't like the Biomechanics much, and definitely didn't like how they were making all these bionic men in the early 20th century to fight Reality Deviants while all they did was make guns. Why not make an armor that gave a normal man enough power to destroy Reality Deviants? And so, power armor was born.

The Alanson and Martinez were the first electrically powered armors. They used servomotors, instead of modern biomimetics, and their power came from a gigantic battery instead of microfusion cells like the later Gen 3s. The Alanson was about 50 kilos of heavy metal armor, the Martinez about 150, making them far, far lighter than the Custodian. They enhanced the wearer's strength significantly, had reinforced armor which would deflect machine-gun fire (for the Alanson) and anti-tank rifle fire (for the Martinez), and provided a sealed helmet for use in battlefields where gas was deployed. We still use them today, although the latest builds use synthetic muscle tissue and high-end composite, making them weigh roughly half of their original weights and giving them commensurate increases in speed.

I've had fun using the old Alansons and Martinezes. They're not cutting-edge technology, but they're good enough, incredibly reliable, and easy to customize. One of the best hardsuit jocks I've known, a guy going by the name of Felix, got all his kills driving a modified Alanson. In the 80s, mind you. Sure, it was one of those tacticool SOPMOD-types, but the core was still the chassis that those two geniuses made. Incidentally, Alanson and Martinez also invented the concept of universal forwards-and-backwards compatible ports before USB was a twinkle in Sleeper eyes, so most later-gen modules can sort of be kitbashed to work on an Alanson or Martinez.

The NWO loves the shit out of them too, becuase they're easy to build enough that they don't need us to supply them with spare parts. So if you end up with a NWO heavy element, chances are they're going to be wearing slightly out-of-date Alansons or Martinezes. Learn their specs and how they handle-they're common replacements if you trash a better suit, and if you work cross-Convention you'll be seeing a lot of them.

Generation 3: "Starship Troopers"

The most famous Union powered armor suit is the "Heinlein". No points for guessing who it's named after. I'd go as far to say it's the first truly all-aspect 'modern' powered combat armor. As befits its inspiration, it had jumpjets, heavy armor, and a basic sensors package of nightvision and infrared optics. Back in the 1950s, they must have been formidable. Not so much today. On the other hand, a lot of them are still being built today for unEnlightened sympathizers. It runs on a high-power battery, rather than microfusion like modern armors, but the Heinlein is basically a design that is so reliable and versatile nobody has retired it. It's got a huge list of optional modules, and there's more than a few hyper-conservative exojocks who swear by SOPMOD Heinleins. I'm not one of them. They're also very easy to train Sleeper personnel to use, so you'll see them show up a lot if you're around any Construct with heavy Iteration X presence.

The Heinlein had competition, which eventually outpaced it for Enlightened personnel usage. We are talking, of course, about the "Haldeman". It was originally known as the Hardiman, but when Forever War came out, everyone started deliberately mispronouncing its name, and the new name stuck. The Haldeman used a miniature fission reactor, which is where it got its name-although modern versions use fusion now that we've managed to miniaturize them to the same level. They had basically infinite in-field endurance barring malfunction (which was high at the start but today malfunction chances are almost nonexistent) and with a higher-endurance powerplant could do a lot more. Although the initial fission powered Haldemans couldn't manage to get the juice for jumpjets, the second build could use TORY-style nuclear ramjets for jumps. Those were decomissioned due to the issues with salting places with fallout as a regular thing, but the fusion powered ones rapidly replaced them. Haldemans are pretty much the normal suit of powered battle armor today-we've replaced the waldoes and servos with neural feedback and silicone musculature, we're using nanocomposites to reduce weight and increase strength, but the core design is the same. The Sentinel you're probably using is a Haldeman-variant that got its own nickname.

If you see a hardsuit that you can't ID, it's probably a Haldeman variant. The Kazan Systems hardsuits that all-female amalgam in Japan used to fight biomech constructs? Haldeman variants. Your suits? Haldeman variants. The VE DSCA? Haldeman variant. I could go on.

Generation 4: Modern Hardsuits

Gen 4 suits are technologically more advanced, but they're also actually specialized rather than heads-and-shoulders better. With a solid basic suit design in the Heinlein, you end up with everyone building variants with more advanced technology. The techs used in the Gen 4 designs, artificial muscles, nanocomposites, and self-repairing systems, all made their way back into Gen 3 and Gen 2 suits to some degree, because Alansons, Martinezes, and Heinleins are so damn useful, even today.

The Void Engineers have the most famous Gen 4 variant, of course. The DSCA, Deep Space Combat Armor, is a Haldeman with improved thrusters and life support endurance. It can fly in 1G environments instead of just jumping, and it's got upgraded musculature in case you want to escape from an angry dragon's jaw or something before being torn in half. Similarly, it's got a better self-repair system than the Haldeman and it's a bit tougher. Of course, all of this costs. They're often unwieldy on Earth, and their thrusters are optimized for extraterrestrial environments.

When the 80s came along and myomer was the next big thing, Iteration X used it to make a heavier suit, a halfway point between giant robots and infantry, the BASIC-Battle Armor Specialized for Intense Combat. It was a half-ton minus weapon, making it heavier than even the Custodian, but its heavy armor and surprising maneuverability due to its fusion-powered jumpjets, plus its phenomenal strength made it a great shock unit. It often mounted a heavy weapon, like a X16 Thunderhead-II (imagine a Thunderhead chambering 15mm ammo instead of 10mm), a heavy plasma cannon, or a continuous-beam laser. Furthermore, its shoulder packs could be customized with various secondary weapons. Grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles, HVMs, micromissiles, or you could just carry extended life support or heavier applique armor. Their squat, headless forms caused them to end up being called "Frogs", but the BASIC ended up being produced in a ton of styles (many of them more aesthetically pleasing) because it was just so damn useful to have the armor and firepower of a LAV in a package which could breach buildings. With the Thunderhead or a REASON hyper-assault gauss, it's actually pretty stable now, and you don't need fully Enlightened personnel to maintain the tech anymore. Of course, any of you wearing a Paladin know what the BASIC is, because you're piloting one.

On the other side of the fence is the Nano Muscle Suit, which basically used CNT muscles and early nanotechnology to make a stealthy special forces type of combat suit. It uses a fuel cell to power itself, because it's way more efficient and very light, it's only designed to protect against medium-caliber gunfire, and it's integrated a high-end biomed suite and a lot of sensor equipment, including NV, IR, radar, and olfactory enhancers. The main selling point was that an active camouflage system was integrated directly in its armored skin, making it great for stealth ops. Although hugely malfunction-prone in its early days, we've worked out almost all of the bugs. And the joke's on the other designs-the NMS is the basis for a lot of its own variants. Mark II of the NMS is a heavier suit, but still not breaking the 80 kilo empty mark, and all the Gen 5s are based on it or technology it pioneered.

Generation 5: My Little Robots: Nanomachines Are Magic
Fifth generation suits are the experimental designs that the Union has built for the 21st century, advanced combat chassis which are unstable and risky to use, but if you can manage to make them work, they can do things you'd say are literally magical. There's four main designs that are being worked on.

NOBLE NOVEMBER (N2) is a joint Progenitor-Iteration X project. It's a suit that's basically synthetic life, with a full-up tactical artificial intelligence and the ability to keep you alive no matter what happens to your body. Real-time brain scanning and backup is amazing like that. The N2 is reliable, since it's intended to work in the field for long durations without significant maintenance. People are willing to believe a black muscle suit covered in black tactical webbing can let you lift a few tons and throw people like softballs. The suit itself is nothing special-it's the combat AI integration that's its main selling point. I think it's the most likely to succeed, being the most grounded and practical of all the Gen 5 designs.

The MA40-U SH(JO) project was the last one I tested, and the one I lost my limbs on. They say it's safe now that they've fixed the problems, but I highly doubt it. It's prone to failure, extremely finicky, requires constant calibration in a full-up nanotech lab, and half its features don't work. On the other hand, if they've managed to, and I repeat, I doubt this, fix the issues with it, it's got incredible firepower, a large and very varied arsenal, and a medical suite you won't see out of the field anywhere else. But again, I'm going to state that the MA40 has maimed or killed all its test pilots to date, and the project has had a short-sighted love of finding stopgap solutions instead of actually tuning their work. But, assuming it ends up working, it's got a lot of features-whether they're useful or not is up in the air for now. The NanoHA biomedical system, the MAMI cognition backup (a N2 development they copied straight-up, I might note, and probably the only part that even semi-works), and integrated heavy weapons. Just be aware that something this expensive cannot be captured by the enemy, and it has the MADOKA self destruct system. So it'll probably kill you even if it's totally in working condition.

The NWO and Syndicate decided they needed their own literal power suit, and made that. The High Threat Variable Response Agent Garb, the HT/VARG (not to be confused with the VARG or BioVARG, which are giant robots, as the NWO likes to confuse everyone) is a evening gown plus gloves and stockings, or a three piece suit. Your choice, although most male agents choose the latter option for some reason. It's got carbon nanotube muscle, microhydraulic variable-hardness skeletal elements, an active camouflage function (deployable hood disguised as a collar or necklace), and a high-end version has a limited savant version of NOBLE NOVEMBER's combat AI, giving the user reflex programmed combat skills, just like a ADEI skillsoft. Obviously, being the size and weight of formal wear, it doesn't provide the same level of protection that any of the other options do, and isn't going to stand up to a serious fight, but it'll stop bullets and look great.

Finally, the Void Engineers leveraged the Authocthonia trip to get themselves a custom design for a new-generation powered combat armor, the UTN (Universal Threat Neutralization) suit. The ambush and near-destruction of the Autocthonian rescue mission just meant more funding for the UTN. Frankly, I think it's a waste of time, because they're basically trying to make a HITMark VI as a hardsuit and suffering for it. It's... well, it's incredibly risky, but I guess in space it's got a lot fewer worries about things like dirt and grime gumming up how it works. I'd say it's suicidal, and flying it around on Earth probably is. It's this shapeshifting suit of ultra-high-end powered combat armor, with an antimatter powerplant that it can also use to achieve nuclear-level firepower with sufficient charge time. It's surface-to-orbit capable, maneuvers like a high-end starfighter, and has similar levels of armor. It also has all the standard features-stealth, self-repair, biomedical systems, the works. I don't even want to think about how much it's going to end up costing and how many dead test pilots there's going to be before it works.

Generation 6
There are rumors, probably started by Iterators who have read too many Iron Man comics, or seen the Iron Man movies, that there's some form of 6th gen combat armor in the works. If there is, I haven't heard anything about it, and I do keep up with old friends.
I'm not even sure what Gen 6 powered armor would entail. Armor with tactical faster-than-light systems or combat teleportation? Phase-space resident armor that could deploy around a user at a moment's notice, providing them constant protection against threats? Armor with the ability to take advantage of tactical FTL to create causal loops?
No matter what I think of, I only can conclude that any Gen 6 design would be absurdly maintenance-heavy and likely to fail in field operations.

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

Henriette Langley, Iteration X Serial Code 11921111
Date of Birth: December 4, 1995
Augmentations: Sarif Biomodifications MHD-995 Advanced Digital Enhancement Implant (with MARX interface unit plugin), Anno Biomodifications Extrasensory Visual Augmentation ocular prosthesis, Watson Neural Developments TacWire-R Reaction Augmentation, neonatal genetic optimization
Aptitudes: Computer science and engineering, mechanical engineering, linguistics, piloting, heavy weapons deployment

Born to two Union agents, Alvin Langley and Yui Ayanami, Henriette suffered from the loss of her parents at an early age to the Dimensional Anomaly. Introduced to the Union at an early age by her foster parents, psychological profiling implies that she determined to find out exactly what happened to her parents and perhaps get them back home. It is undeniable that the psychological impact of the loss of her parents has driven her to seek approval via excellence and that she is something of an overachiever in part due to childhood experiences.

A child prodigy due in part to neonatal enhancements providing increased intelligence, Henriette sped her way through normal schooling. She grasped the theory behind Enlightened Science at a very young age and was formally enrolled in the Technocracy at the age of 14, finishing her (accelerated) schooling and education while training in Iteration X. At the time, the Joint Combatant Project was fully active, and Henriette was selected as one of the pilots for the joint Iteration-X/Void Engineer Assault Walker project. Although complaints were filed by her guardians as to her potential deployment to active combat situations, she personally requested to have the complaints dismissed and for her tenure as pilot to continue.
Henriette was found to be an excellent pilot and quick learner, and was quickly reassigned to a more interesting project, the Modified Augmented Recombinant Xenobiology Project, fusing extradimensional entity tissue to cybernetic control systems, like the ill fated GENOVA project. Projections showed that without a secret triple-agent Nephandus at the helm, the project was far more likely to bring fruitful results instead of nearly result in the destruction of Tokyo. Henriette's increased neural plasticity over the other pilot candidates was judged to allow for better xenobiological interface and a reduced chance of mental instability.

Her interface with BioVARG Unit 03 (VARG: Vacuum Assault/Reconaissance Gear) was successful, and she was one of the Iterators who volunteered for the mid-2014 joint Void Engineer/Iteration X flight to Autocthonia for recontact and rescue purposes. As all agents know, the effort resulted in over 80% losses of personnel. Henriette lost both eyes and suffered severe nervous system damage from feedback injuries and shrapnel wounds during Operation AVENGER, and her combat records from that time remain sealed. Partial repairs to her body were enacted, although traumatic brain injuries prevented her from regaining natural sight or movement. Instead, the BioVARG interface protocols were repurposed to allow for her to "pilot" herself, allowing a modicum of recovery.

From all accounts, Henriette was nearly completely mentally broken from the ordeal, rambling about how she had to kill her parents with her own hands (an impossibility, the Void Engineers have confirmed that they were lost during the Dimensional Anomaly) and about "Autopolitans". At one time, she attempted to commit suicide by physically removing her cranial implants with a scalpel. She spent the next six months in a Void Engineer orbital medical facility being psychologically reassembled and undergoing trauma disassociation therapy and was judged fit for duty in January 2015.

However, when an Iteration X lunchroom argument led to a discussion about the Computer, Henriette physically assaulted Comptroller David Ingram, one of her previous guardians. Comptroller Ingram was not hurt, due to his high-grade combat implants leaving him immune to harm from anything short of high-power DEWs or concerted shapeshifter assault, but rather than risking internal inquiry decided to use his authority to unilaterally transfer Henriette to a mixed amalgam. She is currently serving under Jamelia Belltower, a NWO covert operative.

Dossier Update
Subject: Rose Ashford- Artificial Human (Combat Optimized) Test Type, Serial Number EXEMPLAR-R-528-S-3
Genetic Line: Project RECOIL Synthetic Biology Studies/Sub Project EXEMPLAR/Series III
Augmentations:

Skeletal: Reinforced skeletal structure w/diamondoid structure for near-unbreakability, bone marrow replaced by primordial "Omni-cells"-capable of rapid development of necessary biological countermeasures
Organ: Organ optimization-reduced oxygen need, implanted secondary heart, "smartblood" replacement of circulatory system with intelligent nanofluid capable of intelligent bypass of breached blood vessels. Reverse-engineered "Leviathan" Underspace jump organ tissue overlaid on nervous system, allowing for Dimensional Science applications. Primary heart replaced with hemophage organ-provides capability for bursts of extreme speed and strength. All organs capable of self-repair and internal trauma management.
Cellular: Enhanced mitochondrial respiration rate, multiple-redundant DNA to protect against radiation/RD damage, enhanced metabolic rate allows for extremely rapid regeneration. Regenerative factor reverse-engineered from hemophagic tissue. Rapid evolutionary capability provides potential counter to adaptive bioweapons. "Smart" metabolism with internal error correction-provides protection against aging, many biohazards, and most toxins.
Muscular: Myofibril re-engineering for drastically increased strength indices. Hemophagic DNA graft to allow for extreme explosive strength in short bursts (system overstress risk)
Ocular: Implanted display system. Retinal re-engineering provides night/thermal vision, improved eyesight (20/2 equivalent). IPS (Improved Protective Structure) shielding for eyeballs-
Neural: Genetic memory interface. Minor cybernetic implants to allow for smartlink with Technocratic weaponry. Improved myelin sheathing and nerve cell "squid axon" reengineering provides potential for superhuman reaction speeds.
Skin: Nanotube skinweave protects against almost all small arms fire. Integrated superconducting fibers provide limited thermal and energy weapons protection.

Project History:
As one of the many, many Progenitor transgenic engineering projects, Project RECOIL was intended to create in-house supersoldiers for the Progenitors to use upon the retirement of "Chimerae"-more primitively engineered combat constructs built via 1950s-era genetic engineering expertise, often crudely mixing and matching animal and human traits in force-grown clones. Although constructs like the Silverback uplifted gorillas were undoubtedly effective, at the time of RECOIL's start (1986), it was decided that chimerae were too crude and inhuman to be the majority of Damage Control's forces, and that a newer, more human-looking construct was needed. The irony that the RECOIL subjects would be far less human, DNA-wise, was not lost on the lab technicians performing this project.
RECOIL's early successes were humans augmented with custom-typed transgenic tissue ("bioware"), although with the backing of FACADE, RECOIL rapidly graduated to building fully synthetic combat constructs. The failure rate of these designs was high but acceptable-most failures were limited, low priority failures such as quality of life reduction or dependence on anti-rejection medication, although there were a small handful of catastrophic failures. The knowledge gained from this (later known as RECOIL I) was invaluable and led to many biotech advancements, but in the late 20th century RECOIL II was judged to be far too expensive for its results-and the fully synthetic combat constructs that RECOIL II was producing were too expensive for their admittedly excellent ability.
However, RECOIL's success at creating high-end synthetic bodies that could pass for human was not unnoticed. Several of these techniques were used to create medium-term combat bodies for Damage Control officers, using braintapes and neural dubbing to allow a Progenitor field operative to temporarily and relatively painlessly take on the characteristics of a far superior field combatant and stand toe-to-toe with weaker shapeshifters. Other RECOIL constructs showed a surprising flexibility of intellect that meant some could theoretically understand Enlightened Science and thus provide a small but extremely potent stable of high-level agents to the Union itself. RECOIL switched roles-instead of providing high-risk combat clones, RECOIL II was generating a small, "hand-crafted" series of high-end combat constructs intended for long-term usage. Removing shortcuts taken increased costs further, but the additional personnel were judged worth the cost.
Sub Project EXEMPLAR, led by Dr. Karen Altman and Dr. Joyce Ambrose (ex-Son of Ether, supporter of 'ancient astronauts' theories) took RECOIL's transgenics to an interesting and excessive degree in an attempt to prove a point regarding nature versus nurture to the NWO. With Void Engineer assistance to acquire genetic samples of various difficult to acquire heroic figures, they created heavily modified clones of various legendary figures. EXEMPLAR was a multi-iteration project that sought to accomplish its overarching goals in three phases.
Series I EXEMPLAR (EXEMPLAR I) was a mere initial project using heroic sleeper figures to demonstrate that aptitudes could be inherited. Although successful, NWO psychologists were exceptionally skeptical-the 'inherited aptitudes' in EXEMPLAR I could easily have been due to their accelerated memory dumps and extensive VR training. However, despite NWO protests, Syndicate financiers allowed EXEMPLAR II and EXEMPLAR III to proceed. EXEMPLAR II was intended to use legendary figures from mythology to demonstrate that it was not mere upbringing, but genetics, which decided whether someone would be exceptional or not-and thus by engineering humanity to have 'ideal genes', one could uplift humanity to be universally exceptional.
EXEMPLAR II provided several immense successes, such as Piero Dominici (EXEMPLAR-R-301-S-2), a fast-grown clone of Achilles who inherited his preternatural speed, lethality, and durability (as well as, more unfortunately, his near-psychotic fury) and Senior Constable Alexander Cross (EXEMPLAR-R-284-S-2), an expert marksman cloned from the genetic stock of Paris who is now a decorated Ethical Compliance agent despite initial qualms about unknown xenobiological DNA found in his geneline. Successes on EXEMPLAR II were folded into funding requests for EXEMPLAR III, leading to the failure and temporary suspension of the program.
EXEMPLAR III was intended to clone heroic figures of the Order of Reason, several of whom were also high-ranking Union members lost in the Dimensional Anomaly. Acquisition of the genestock for EXEMPLAR III was trivial considering the depth of paraphernelia and information available in the Technocratic Union's London Historical Archives. The first batch was ten men and women. Nine were successfully decanted with no issue. EXEMPLAR-528-S-3 was the sole "failure", suffering critical errors in subconscious personality integration. These events led to her being split off of the project and being unofficially "adopted" by lab assistant Serafina Rosario, FACADE Engineer. Approximately a year after decanting, EXEMPLAR III suffered a massive setback when seven of the nine subjects apparently went rogue and seized the Construct, killing the other two which acted in defense of Union assets. A cross-Convention assault team destroyed the Construct, and Drs. Ambrose and Altman were questioned by both Progenitor Ethical Compliance and a cross-Conventions research ethics board. They were demerited and demoted, but not further censured.
The sole survivor of EXEMPLAR III was ordered to be destroyed. However, with the impassioned defense of several of her brothers and sisters from EXEMPLAR II, as well as Dr. Rosario's own testimony about her controllability, 528-S-3 (now named "Rose Ashford", a name given to her by Dr. Rosario herself), was tentatively provided a stay of destruction, especially due to the sunk costs in EXEMPLAR III and her undeniable combat capability. Even with no formal training (as almost all of her education until that point was intended to allow her to function semi-normally in society) in combat, her programming was still that of a R-grade combat construct, as more than a few people have found out to their regret.
Specific Unit History:
After the suspension of EXEMPLAR III until the cause of this 'clone psychosis' is found, Ashford was used as a standard combat construct under the protests of Dr. Rosario and Sr. Constable Cross. This resulted in several personality clashes that nearly led to the recension of her stay of recycling until Cross used (one may say abused) his authority to have her directly assigned to an Ethical Compliance team, despite her various instabilities, such as a refusal to follow orders that may have resulted in collateral damage, occasional psychotic breaks, and some form of hallucinations where 528-S-3 believed her reflection was talking to her. As an Ethical Compliance agent, 528-S-3 was capable of satisfactory performance despite having suffered from several unfortunate accidents. However, complaints of 'clone favoritism' led to her removal from the position and reassignment. With very few field amalgams willing to take her on, Ashford was used as a glorified lab assistant for several years, filing several dozen unanswered transfer requests and a handful of sexual harassment complaints (filed on her behalf by Dr. Rosario and Sr. Constable Cross) in the process.
Desperate, she put her name in for several cross-Convention amalgams and was finally assigned to the one led by Jamelia Belltower.
Behavioral History:
Rose Ashford is an eternal optimist and idealist, raised by a second generation Technocrat and her brothers and sisters, all of whom were programmed with loyalty to the Union and many of whom were programmed with a strong sense of ethics, one of the many reasons which was brought up for the cancellation of EXEMPLAR-a lack of ethical flexibility in many of its products which made them of limited use in certain missions-as well as a reason brought up for its defense, because EXEMPLAR constructs have managed to successfully convince Orphans and other Superstitionists to defect to the Technocracy as well. She believes unflinchingly in the idea of progress slowly making the world a better place, and has unshakable faith in the ideals of the Technocratic Union, even if she lacks the same unshakable faith in the specific orders or people of the Union.
Being merely five years old and not having a fully integrated personality, she can show surprising wisdom and surprising naivete, often in the same span of time. She finds day-to-day life and the "outside world" exceptionally exciting and if not kept on a tight leash will often spend all her time wandering around cities and wasting whatever money she has been allotted on tourist traps and overpriced kitsch, although despite her apparent lack of street smarts she has not once fallen for an actual scam. The circumstances of her decanting, education, and performance have led her to be alienated by the majority of the Union and anyone showing her kindness will likely be reciprocated unconditionally, as well as giving her a phenomenal phobia of negative performance reviews due to the possibility of being recycled. Should she be threatened with recycling (explicitly or implicitly), she is likely to perform the action, no matter how distasteful. The possibility that Ashford will go rogue is considered extremely slight. Not only are superstitionists and hemophages even less likely to accept one such as her, she is dependent on the Union for the anti-rejection medications which keep her body functional (although her medical and biotech talents are sufficient to synthesize such drugs, in theory).
One of the few non-negative performance notes by someone other than Dr. Rosario or Sr. Constable Cross mentioned that although she has a facade of naivete and 'airheadedness' she is surprisingly intelligent and well-educated, but simply needs coaxing to put everything in context due to her youth and lack of experience. Furthermore, the note says that she is a surprisingly good judge of character, oftentimes being able to understand someone better than they themselves do. However, the Progenitor in question has a known record of erratic behavior and may not have been entirely accurate in his judgment.
Specific Unit Design Intentions-Rose Ashford:

Nephandic Labyrinth Assault
[CLASSIFIED]
[CLASSIFIED]
[CLASSIFIED]

Specific Unit Programming-Rose Ashford

Infernalist/Nephandic behavior
Hemophage society
Hemophage biology
Linguistic Skills
Union Historical Records
Medical technology

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

HVT ID: "Christos Barberis"
Major Known Aliases: "Dimitri Sotiris", "Achilles Constantinides", "Christina Weyland"
Threat Level: 7-X (Strategic Level Threat)
Hostility Level: 2 (Long-Term Opposition To Goals, Low Short-Term Threat)
Estimated Age: ~200-250 years old
Known Proficiencies: Speaks most languages, extensive combat training, extensive piloting and driving skills, information security, social manipulation, psychology, medicine, filmmaking, covert operations planning, terrorism, occult knowledge, Technocratic Union operations, Technocratic Union standard operating procedures, hemophage society, shapeshifter "society", art history, literature, law, horticulture, cooking, military science, Infernalist detection, artifact identification, boardgames, RPG design
Known Associates: Iago, Leader of Golden Chalice (HVT), Senex, Euthanatos Archmaster (HVT), Astra Alcippe (Euthanatos RD), Kevin Gallahager (Euthanatos RD), The Indian (Euthanatos RD)
Known Non-Technocracy Enemies: "Rogue Council", Camarilla, Sabbat, Shapeshifter Society, Order of Hermes, House of Helekar Sympathizers
Known Goals: Defense of humanity, promoting Reality Deviant viewpoints i.e. Great Man Theory/personal excellence. Elimination of Nephandi.
Notes: Can occasionally be beneficial for Union operatives. However, all operatives dealing with Christos should be fully aware that he has his own agenda and own definition of what 'protection of humanity' involves, and should always understand that he is unlikely to provide help unless he gets personal benefit from doing so. Credited as "Christina Weyland" on the suppressed "Sorcerer: the Exaltation" RPG, a Lv-1 memetic hazard.
Multimedia Clip-Agent J. Barrett, 05/03/1982
"Okay, everyone. You have to understand that we've had a sighting of Sotiris here, so we're going to act like it's a confirmed sighting. Probability is sixty percent."

"For some sort of super-wizard action hero killing machine, he has an awfully low confirmed killcount."

"Do not let that fool you, people. He's got his own twisted little serial killer reasons for who he kills and who he keeps alive. And the file doesn't tell you that most of the guys who survived an encounter with him took extended sick leave eating through a straw, even the Iteration X bionic-men. Do not let that body count fool you into thinking that he's 'nice' or you should show mercy. It just shows how arrogant he is, that he literally does not care enough about you to actually go all out. Your job is to make him care. Can you do that?"

"Sir!"
Detailed Notes:
Christos Barberis, as he is currently known, is a retired Euthanatos assassin of extremely high pedigree and lethality. His earliest operations against the Order of Reason date back to various operations eliminating Union agents embedded in colonial governments throughout the world. It is unknown where he initially got his combat training, but wherever the original source, it is undeniable that his understanding of martial arts and combat in general is unsurpassed by all but a few high-end Union savants. Due to the paucity of records on the Technocratic Union's formative years and the relatively chaotic times of the Industrial Age, it is unknown how many operations he undertook during those early formative years of the Technocracy.

Although Christos later graduated from direct action to leadership of a cabal of superstitionists, this did not reduce his time in the field and if anything increased it. He was more than willing to take to the front lines of the Ascension War even well into his first century of life, where most superstitionists tend to end up in indoctrination or mentoring roles. This constant exposure to the changing world may have been a reason for his increasing disillusionment with the superstitionists and the Ascension War in general. This disillusionment led to him being one of the voices of reason in World War II, allowing for the temporary truce between the superstitionist Traditions and the Technocratic Union in the 1930s and 1940s. Although his assistance in the war was limited, his support of the truce meant the Union was not distracted by a two-front war and was successful in purging most of the deviants from its own ranks, as well as suppressing Nephandic activity worldwide. Post-WWII, his use of direct action against Technocratic facilities became near-nonexistent.

This is not to say that he defected or simply walked away from the Ascension War, merely that he decreased direct action activities against Technocratic assets, instead focusing violent assaults on Nephandi and hemophages and deciding to fight the Technocracy's superior message with subterfuge and lies spread by sleeper proxies. One of the more famous psyops Christos engaged in involved a RPG in the heyday of the pen and paper RPG industry written as a subtle attempt to encourage more superstitionists, which was only suppressed by the Special Projects Division in conjunction with Pentex's Black Dog Game Studios. Even today, although NWO media control and Syndicate financiers attempt to attack his access to resources and influence, he plays a role as a reclusive patron of the arts, encouraging anti-Technocratic propaganda via generous grants. Assassination missions have been authorized repeatedly, the last such mission being in 1998. After the Dimensional Anomaly and the refocusing of Union assets on suppression of Nephandi, hemophages, and shapeshifters, no such assassinations have been ordered by the Union chain of command, especially because Christos himself has spent most of his phenomenal resources and influence on the elimination Nephandi and the slow reduction of hemophage control of human populations.

Currently, Christos spends his time as a semi-public figure, who has a mysterious source of wealth via inheritances and the sale of valuable ancient artifacts. This income is supplemented by wealth and blackmail material seized by his constant and continuing war against hemophages. He still supports anti-Union causes, but is largely peaceful, making him a long-term threat whose defeat should be reserved for NWO and Syndicate media moguls, rather than any form of direct action. Iteration X Statisticians predict all but the most extreme levels of response are unlikely to successfully assassinate him, and should an assassination be ordered they suggest extreme levels of firepower be brought to bear immediately ranging from X-62 Aurora VTOLs to HITMark VIs.

Should an agent engage Christos in combat, they should be aware that he is an expert in virtually all known forms of armed, unarmed, and vehicular combat and his resources extend to sufficient money and influence to have safehouses and arsenal drops throughout the world. Christos does not seem to have any weapons type preference although he does seem to have a preference for less flashy, deniable weaponry. Like many of his Chalice brethren, he has been spotted using Hermetic-style alchemical methods, phenomenal personal skill, and even twisted parodies of hypertechnology that seem to mock the efforts of Q Division. Furthermore, he has a constant low-level probability distortion field which makes it more difficult for agents to successfully strike him, and is known to have physical strength, dexterity, and endurance exceeding those of even V2 'Vanessa' clones. Finally, he is phenomenally difficult to track, which has made creating this dossier extraordinarily difficult to the point of absurdity.

The Dimensional Anomaly-Case RAGNAROK
The Dimensional Anomaly is a phenomenon of unknown cause that has drastically changed the nature of extradimensional phase space, creating significant risks to human extradimensional and FTL travel.

The causes of the Dimensional Anomaly are largely unknown, even to this day. In 1999, an unknown Code GODLIKE Hemophage appeared in Bangladesh, causing untold destruction. Surrounding the Hemophage was a massive typhoon, of sufficient strength to make standard orbital response insufficient. Intermittent reports of significant and heavy fighting between Code GODLIKE and various other high-threat Reality Deviants was reported, but the Union could not rely on the idea that Reality Deviants would "take care of their own", and was required by the Precepts of Damien to intervene against this blatant display of the supernatural. In response, Iteration X Comptroller Schiavelli field-tested the prototype HITMark VI project with full authorization from Control (as was then necessary for the deployment of any strategic-level assets), which successfully eliminated the target at significant materiel losses.

The result of the death of the targeted hemophage, called an "Antediluvian" according to ignorant superstitionist propaganda, was a mass orgy of chaos and destruction across the world as other hemophages were driven to extreme levels of aggression, perhaps to avenge the deaths of their so-called god against humanity. Task Force SUNBURST, a cross-Progenitor/Iteration X amalgam, was created and deployed to deal with the resulting violence and potential Precept breach that resulted. For related topics, see (Task Force SUNBURST, Project EXEMPLAR, Project VAN HELSING, Project IGNIS). The result of this worldwide violence, however, disguised issues with dimensional space, as extrasolar scientific studies were relegated to lower priority levels. This is unfortunate, for it may have been possible to have saved more lives.

The Dimensional Anomaly struck within 72 hours of the death of Code GODLIKE. It is unknown whether the two are related. Experts in hemophage physiology believe that hemophages are extremely limited in their ability to interact with extradimensional phase space, but as we have no in-depth studies of Code GODLIKE, this is not the same thing as eliminating Code GODLIKE as a potential cause. The results, however, are well known. Extradimensional space was significantly disrupted, causing massive destruction to Union extrasolar and extraplanetary assets, dependent on hyperspace taps for power and FTL drives for timely transit and resupply. Many of the Void Engineer's vessels were lost. The few which were not were forced to transition to realspace and attempt to use backup fusion drive to return to Earth. It is true that there are still VE vessels returning to Earth to this day.

Contact with Control and other extrasolar assets, however, was not fully cut off. Messages, often heavily degraded, have been received from extrasolar assets. These messages were increasingly degraded and incoherent until 90 days post-Anomaly, at which point all communication ceased. The Void Engineers have been attempting to rescue survivors and discover the fates of exoplanetary and extrasolar bases. So far, there has been no success in recovering any living personnel or undamaged records of the Dimensional Anomaly. According to the Void Engineers, there is an organized and significant enemy force that has been actively preventing the recovery of Union personnel or records, possibly the creators of the Dimensional Anomaly. The Syndicate and NWO have been skeptical of the Void Engineers' claims, but have not, as of yet, chosen to demand actual evidence.

Hemophages:
Hemophages are a hotly debated topic in Progenitor laboratory Constructs. Originally, they were believed to be a subspecies of the human race, homo sapiens anthropophagi. However, that hypothesis was later disproven by understanding of the reproductive cycle of hemophages, which involved the (un)willing transformation of a normal baseline human into a new hemophage. The current theory is that hemophages are humans infected by a parasite, potentially extraterrestrial in origin. However, some others seeking a more unified codex of Reality Deviants, supported by the (debatably sane) Svalbarg Psionic Control Project, consider them to be very limited biokinetic psions whose unwise manipulations of their own genetic code have caused significant genetic defects (similar to those seen in Combat Homonculi). As support, they cite the fact that the genetic flaws of vampires are, in fact, very similar to the flaws of defective combat constructs, including stress atavism, regenerative abilities negated by incendiary weaponry, inexplicable weaknesses to relatively common stimuli, the "Tremere" hemophages and their association with the Order of Hermes, and the legends about them having fixed responses to religious symbols. Under that hypothesis, vampires were once self-replicating Reality Deviant equivalents to our own combat homonculi, who were controlled via religious symbolism, but eventually mutated a resistance to these control mechanisms and rebelled.

Complicating this debate is the existence of yet another hemophagic subspecies, the Cathayans or "Kuei-Jin", mostly isolated to Asia. The theories of those are similarly hotly debated between Asian Progenitors, whether they are some sort of human-Reality Deviant hybrid (the existence of traces of dragon DNA in Cathayan corpses would imply this), extradimensional parasite possession (their ability to dimension hop similar to many EDEs would support this assertion), or the Svalbarg hypothesis of biokinetic psions (their abilities to modify their own flesh and bone lend limited support to the Svalbarg hypothesis). As opposed to "western" hemophages, Cathayans have entirely different genetics and behaviors, and some debate whether they are hemophages at all, as they seem to be able to subsist on a much wider range of substances than the western hemophage, which is generally solely capable of deriving nutrition from blood. Kuei-jin have been observed eating human flesh, or even subsisting on Prime Energy.

Although the theoretical underpinnings of hemophages are not well understood, their physical and combat capabilities are well-documented. Hemophages of both sorts are incredibly resistant to shock and possess rapid regeneration, and most possess incredible physical strength, agility, and endurance. Conventional small arms are contraindicated against hemophages, although skilled firearms users may be able to eliminate them via head or vitals shots. Furthermore, hemophages have possessed abilities such as incredible strength and speed, durability allowing them to deflect even full-sized rifle fire or two-handed swords without injury or reaction, various forms of mental influence, and more exotic abilities such as the manipulation of shadows.

Eastern hemophages have roughly equivalent powers, although they often have their own unique abilities. Notable recorded abilities are the ability to alter their own physical bodies to create weapons, armor plate, or even detach body parts as autonomous servitors, the ability to generate and expel plasma, limited levels of electrokinetic or cryo/pyrokinetic ability, and even limited resistance to incendiary weaponry. Furthermore, all Eastern hemophages possess either some form of reaction acceleration, or the ability to transform into an atavistic warform with enhanced durability and physical capability, superficially similar to shapeshifters ("werewolves").

Hemophages are vulnerable to sunlight, primium weaponry, and incendiaries, although eastern hemophages may be somewhat resistant to the latter. If an agent does not possess any of these, bladed weapons are often more useful than firearms, although a physically adept hemophage will be more capable than unaugmented agents and engaging with a bladed weapon should always be considered a last resort. Fortunately, if attacked during daytime, hemophages are often extremely vulnerable, even if the agent cannot create a plan to expose the hemophage to sunlight. This does not necessarily hold for eastern hemophages, so beware.

Finally, hemophages can create servitors with some of their own abilities. These servitors, named "Ghouls" (western hemophages) and "Dhamphyr") (eastern hemophages) possess some of the abilities of their creators, and are fully functional in daytime. Dhamphyr are created when eastern hemophages interbreed with humans, while ghouls are created by western hemophages and are addicted to the hemophage's blood. This does mean that standard divide and conquer strategies may work with dhamphyr but are not as likely to work with ghouls, who should be treated like drug addicts and manipulated in the same fashion.

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

Former Technocratic Exoplanetary Assets

Before the Dimensional Anomaly, the Union's primary heavy assets were all located off-planet, where the microgravity conditions and vacuum made it easier to reliably maintain advanced hypertechnology. There were significant numbers of extraterrestrial or extrasolar laboratories working on cutting-edge technological advancements to be slowly disseminated to field agents and then the public, which were all lost during the Dimensional Anomaly, delaying Union research and development by decades if not more. Notable former Technocratic Exoplanetary Assets include:

Autochthonia: Autochthonia was Iteration X's primary extrasolar realm, a large planetoid existing in extradimensional space. Like the Cop, Autochthonia was discovered rather than built, a world of synthetic biomimetic life. Derisively referred to as "Cybertron" by Progenitors, Etherites, and Virtual Adepts, it is suggested that daemons were originally Autochthonians, although interrogation on that has proven incredibly fruitless and has long since been abandoned. Autochthonia was the site of Iteration X's "Computer", an advanced transcendental seed AI with phenomenal computational power which was the de facto leader of Iteration X until the Dimensional Anomaly. Under Iteration X pressure and the promises of additional support, the Void Engineers sent an expedition through the Dimensional Anomaly to contact Autochthonia in mid-2014. They were met by unknown hostile forces and suffered severe losses.

Cheiron Biological Research Station: Cheiron Station is the extrasolar equivalent of the ill-fated underwater Liberty Research Facility, which was overrun by escaped experiments in the 1960s. A Progenitor extreme biological augmentation research lab, Revelation is one of the sources of several of the advancements which later found their way into high-end combat constructs, such as bionanotech "Smartblood", xenotransplant technology, and several other bioengineered augmentations. Unlike Liberty, Cheiron suffered no containment breaches, even through the Dimensional Anomaly. Furthermore, Cheiron was broadcasting updated research and development data until 90 days after the Anomaly, highly advanced biomodification schema developed by extreme transhumans, which earthside Progenitors do not understand. Implementation of these updated combat models has been extremely slow due to constant sabotage by rogue Union members, Euthanatos, and Virtual Adepts, although some recent constructs in Projects EXEMPLAR, BETA, and ENGEL have been modified with such enhancements. It is rumored that the Euthanatos "Christos" possesses at least a partial copy of some of these modifications. Attempts to recontact Cheiron have been unsuccessful, similar to attempts to recontact the stations Cerberus, Revelation, and Lagerhalle.

The Copernicus Facility ("The Cop"): The Cop, as it is known, was a xenosapient artifact of immense age and sophistication. An abandoned Dyson Sphere made of seemingly indestructible exotic matter, the Void Engineers used the facility as one of their main extrasolar bases, although they only successfully mapped an infinitesimal fraction of a percent of the structure and colonized even less. However, all contact with it was lost during the Dimensional Anomaly. The gravity generators which kept the Cop stable apparently failed, causing the star to destabilize into a black hole and consume the base.

Keynes Station-Economic Monitoring and Adjustment Unit: Keynes Station was built in honor of its namesake, one of the most famous Syndicate hypereconomists to exist. Although sanctioned for his spiritualist leanings ("animal spirits", et al), it is undeniable that his accomplishments made such minor transgressions a nonissue. Keynes Station hosted Ophelia, an Iteration X AI designed to monitor the economies and financial transactions in the world, to keep the pillars of the world economy stable and ensure increasing prosperity in the world. Ophelia is considered to have been responsible for the Great Moderation, the several decades wherein no major economic instabilities occurred, and is one of the Syndicate's most missed assets. Rumor is that the main reason the Syndicate is funding Iteration X's "Computer 2.0" project is due to the inability of anything less than a hypersapient AI to manage something as complex as a world economy on a second-to-second basis. The more free-market wing of the Syndicate believe that Ophelia's market manipulations created the 2008 market crashes, as a Market Adjustment to constant, decades-long management, and have been vociferous at vetoing any attempts to recreate such a system. Keynes Station was confirmed lost in the Dimensional Anomaly with no survivors.

Leviathan Assault Carriers: "Leviathans" used the Iteration X 'floating base' carrier concept but translated to interstellar warcraft. Only three were built-the Leviathan, the Charybdis, and the Kraken. Not "carriers" in the conventional sense, they do have a sizable small craft compliment but are largely designed to take advantage of the economies of scale of FTL Farcaster and Singularity drives, allowing smaller vessels to do without any form of expensive and powerful FTL system and thus be deployed in greater number. Each of the Leviathans was several hundred meters long, bristling with particle beam weaponry, long-range missiles, and heavy electromagnetic accelerators, as well as more exotic weaponry such as spatial disruptors, "Chronosphere" temporal shift generators, negentropy beams, and even broad-spectrum EM manipulators. All were lost during the Dimensional Anomaly, and the Void Engineers have not had any confirmed sightings. Rumors abound of their sightings and their assistance in various Void Engineer operations, but not once have any of these sightings been reliably confirmed. They may have gone rogue, or become the 'ghost ships' some Void Engineers talk about.

Naval Base Null-B: The Null-B naval base was the primary Void Engineer warship manufacturing and design until the Dimensional Anomaly hit. As the primary shipyard, the Void Engineers have placed a high priority on reclaiming it, but have found it largely destroyed. Some of the damage appears to have been self-inflicted, the scars of some form of internal power struggle in the desperate times immediately post-Anomaly, perhaps. Although still active, full-scale reactivation is likely to require at least several years, and currently only one of its dozen high-end assembly plants is active. However, the wrecked vessels and defenses of Null-B have allowed the Void Engineers to deploy several ships by recycling damaged vessels and spare parts, and restoration of its smaller repair and refit facilities have allowed the Void Engineers to deploy a fairly constant stream of lighter vessels. Building advanced assault carriers like the Leviathans, though, is no longer within the resources of the Void Engineers.

Orbital Monitoring/Elimination Network (OMEN): The OMEN network is noted here despite the fact that it is not, in fact, a 'former' Union asset due to its nature. OMEN was designed as the last line of defense against extraterrestrial invasion. Built in extrasolar fabrication facilities, the OMEN satellites were cutting-edge Union designs from the core, using hyperspatial taps for energy access and having exotic weapons such as electromagnetic manipulation arrays, high-yield primium-jacketed antimatter munitions, large-scale metric alteration devices, and other high-end exotic systems. This, coincidentally, means that the OMEN system is irreplaceable. Extraterrestrial incursions have caused damage to the OMEN network over the 15 years post Dimensional Anomaly, and each damaged or destroyed satellite is nigh-irreplaceable. The Void Engineers have created the Sentinel Monitoring System as a replacement, using more conventional munitions such as high-yield primium-jacketed nuclear missiles, but there is a noticeable and significant degradation of capability as each OMEN satellite fails.

The Pyramid: "The Pyramid" is the nickname of the NWO Advanced Societal Modeling Academy, where most of the NWO's academics and senior leadership spent their time. The Pyramid was the core of the NWO's central societal surveillance system, where extremely powerful Iteration X computers worked to simulate society and allow for long-term changes to be planned out with reliability. It was also the location of the NWO's psychological modification programs, including INVISIBLE BEAR, GOLDEN LARK, AMOROUS WEASEL (nobody lived that one down), and FATAL TIGER. Although situated inside the Solar System, the hyperspace tap of the Pyramid was destabilized during the Dimensional Anomaly. It is unknown whether or not ASMA still exists, and whether there are any survivors. Although the NWO are not typically known for their incredible understanding of engineering, they are incredibly resourceful Enlightened Scientists, and surviving such an incident is not out of the question.

Personal Note (J. Belltower): Been there once. Very cheery, if you enjoy walls with computer-generated propaganda slogans and cheery pastel colors, clones everywhere, and sinister rumors of things like "Room 101". FYI: Room 101 does not actually exist as some kind of massive psychological torture chamber. It's actually the ASMA party room. Although I suppose if you don't like Tostada Thursdays, it could be a form of psychological torture.

MJ12 Commando · Apr 20, 2014

Daemons: Autonomous Extraterrestrial Artificial Intelligences

Daemons, named after the computer science concept, are a race of extraterrestrial intelligences primarily made out of technological components. There are nonsapient daemons, but as these autonomous entities are more easily manipulated and extremely predictable, this briefing primarily focuses on sapient daemons. Daemons should not be confused with demons, common parlance for Nephandic-aligned extradimensional entities-daemons are often neutral and sometimes even friendly. Contact with them should be done carefully, though, as some daemons are hostile.

Iteration X and the Void Engineers have had longstanding trade and technological sharing agreements with some factions of sapient daemons, although many are leery of the Computer, asking whether Iteration X has built it or whether it serves a higher power. One faction of sapient daemons, which has made deals with both Technocratic and Superstitionist elements, seems to be at war with another faction, which has similarly made deals with both parties in the Ascension War.

Daemons are, like most extradimensional entities, not fully extant in realspace. Much of their physical being exists in phase space, allowing them to achieve feats similar to shapeshifters and other Reality Deviants, such as growing to very large sizes, disguising themselves as humans, substantiating weapons or equipment out of thin air, or even actively suborning ambient technology. Daemon physiology is entirely inorganic and highly technological, but biomimetic-artificial muscle cables allow them to move, veins circulate self-repair nanofluid, segmented plastic and metal plating substitutes for skin, multispectral optical sensors are their eyes. They even often have mouths, although they are almost always weapons of war, as daemons do not need to ingest food in their true forms to sustain themselves, powered by a powerplant that serves as their heart and their cognitive center that is based off of unknown principles.

Furthermore, all daemons are capable of disguising themselves as other objects. These disguises include human beings, animals, machinery such as military or civilian vehicles, and even structures. Daemons so disguised are difficult to detect unless they transform, though-Dimensional Science scanners at very high sensitivity are useful for detecting such daemons. Furthermore, the phase-space disruptions of daemons can create occasional breaks in reality surrounding them, allowing for an alert agent to detect daemonic presence, if not the precise location of a daemon.

Daemons have no special weaknesses to common elements, and possess a wide range of combat powers. They are capable of violating causality, moving at immense speeds, wielding weapons from electromagnetic launchers to high-power plasma cannon, and some have immense physical strength and speed in their true forms. Furthermore, any daemon can "overclock" themselves, briefly gaining immense and unbelievable power and instantly regenerating damage, even that inflicted by primium or direct matter disruption. This is rarely done due to the daemonic cold war and how obvious a daemon overclocking is, but is always a threat. Daemons are seemingly immune to Paradox Effects, but using obvious exploits in reality cost them effort and can drain them of energy, similar to hemophages and shapeshifters.

Should contact be made with a daemon, diplomacy is recommended. Many subfactions of daemons have limited diplomatic ties with the Union, and are often peaceful and willing to live undisturbed and not invoke Reality Deviation unless provoked by hostile action. Furthermore, daemons are an immense threat to all but the most heavily augmented agents and should be treated as such. A daemon pretending to be a M1 Abrams does not even need to break cover to vaporize an unfortunate operative, for example.

One well-kept secret is that Daemons can be hacked. Agents skilled in both Dimensional Science and Forces can reprogram their cognitive core, or even transform the daemon and force it to substantiate in a realspace disguise form amenable to their needs. Only a very few sapient daemons are hacked in this way due to the ethical and practical issues involved (such as "transforming giant robot tearing your face off"), although lesser daemons are semi-commonly reprogrammed to serve as armor, weapons, or equipment for unconventional Void Engineers or the few Iterators skilled in Dimensional Science. If the sapient ones have any large-scale issues with this practice, they have not made it known. Reality Deviants consider this analogous to "summoning" or "binding" spirits, but their conclusion is mistaken.

User	Total
MJ12 Commando	340
EarthScorpion	30
NonSequtur	2
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Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns

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