The Technocracy has the advantage of standardization, something the Traditions are bad at, and thus have more than just empty statements and the situational context.
Also their reputation for making fakers wish they were dead.
It'd better be supercancer. I don't think we have the (months? years?) necessary for regular people cancer to kill off a werewolf, even if it's doing Aggravated damage.
Unfortunately, werewolves cure cancer the same way they cure most other problems. Namely, RIP AND TEAR!
Surgical intervention has a much higher success rate when you can in fact remove the entire cancerous organ and most of the surrounding tissue and just let it grow back.
It'd better be supercancer. I don't think we have the (months? years?) necessary for regular people cancer to kill off a werewolf, even if it's doing Aggravated damage.
Unless they always had cancer and didn't notice until now, when their regeneration is causing the cancer cells to proliferate through their body as a consequence, falseflagging the corrupted cells as their own vital parts regenerating.
A bit of high intensity regeneration later the werewolf is a meatloaf.
It'd better be supercancer. I don't think we have the (months? years?) necessary for regular people cancer to kill off a werewolf, even if it's doing Aggravated damage.
No, it's actually the worst fate to hit any werewolf ever. Genital cancer. They're honor-bound to commit suicide as soon as they realize their naughty bits don't work. (It may also be super genital cancer which creates highly toxic and easily burst tumors, but...)
Also, quick question. Is anyone planning on doing a write-in from the hilarious point of view of Pentex? Because come on, corporate weaselspeak, bitching subordinates who want to do the absolute minimum necessary (yes, even if they're possessed by demons. They're lazy demons. The non-lazy ones tend to throw their hosts into meatgrinders and end up banished very quickly to the Umbra yet again) dealing with psychopathic incestuous werewolves and trying to avoid as much work as possible is great.
You see, there's a departmental happy hour tomorrow night and they'd really love to be there. Especially because Frank over there just got himself a new trouser snake and wants to show it to the ladies. (It is literally a prehensile acid-dripping demon snake. You can guess where it attaches to.)
(Somehow the ladies are not impressed)
Henriette: What the shit. Just because I'm half-Japanese doesn't mean I'm into this sick sexmurder shit!
Jamelia Belltower:
[X] You are going to need to talk to Serafina.
[X] Not so sternly.
Jane Clarent:
[X] (1.5x) Pick up the pace! You're on a tighter schedule now.
Donald Sykes, Chief Execution Officer:
[X] Deal with the Traditions intrusion first.
->[X] (2.0x) Convince Kiet to not actually murder the fuck out of them, because that's: 1. Terrible for business, 2. Likely to cause some severe injury.
Henriette & Sylia
[x] Get Donald that visual ID he needs to properly asses the RD threat.
[X] You are going to need to talk to Serafina.
[X] The immediate goal is to figure out just how big a risk she is to herself and others. Use whatever method will make this happen as fast as possible.
Once you realize she isn't an immediate threat, have a not so stern heart to heart with her, and maybe apologize? Who am I kidding, your Jamelia, you'll just tell her a story about somebody else is a similar situation from years ago.
[X] Not so sternly.
Indeed. Jamelia's more than good enough at hyperpsych to know that a harsh talking to is not what Serafina needs right now. She needs reassurance that she's not an evil mess that's killed more people than a small war and ruined her daughter's life. This is really awkwardly timee
Jane Clarent:
[X] Continue your mission as planned. The RDs are irrelevant.
We planned for this. Continue Mission.
Donald Sykes, Chief Execution Officer:
[X] Deal with the Traditions intrusion first.
[X] (2.0x) Convince Kiet to not actually murder the fuck out of them, because that's: 1. Terrible for business, 2. Likely to cause some severe injury.
The RDs are not the targets here, just an irritation. Killing them does not really add to our mission's victory conditions. Stopping them from stopping us is all we need. The rest of the plan is proceeding as intended, but this complication needs to be dealt with. Luckily, because of your connections, if you can get an ID on them, then you can assess the situation. Are they people who you can bribe to leave the operation alone? Are they not actually here to shoot you? Do they have compunctions about killing 'real' people that you can use?
Further, it's unlikely to reflect as badly on Jamelia if Donald has the minimalist Traditionalist sympathies to figure out why this happened before returning fire.
Henriette & Antoinette
[X] Get Donald that visual ID he needs to properly asses the RD threat.
This is why Henriette and Antoinette are on perimeter guard, to handle unusual things like this. They've got far better gear than the RDs, although they may be a little outskilled.
Attacking them blindly isn't going to help anybody. Why pick a fight with them, when we can make use of them? But to do that, well we need to figure out just who they are or at least what are they trying to do. Observe them. Are they outright wrecking our forces? Or they only engaging if we are in the way? If we move units out of the way, do they pursue? Are they moving towards our important assets or towards something else?
At the very least, we aren't giving away our pre prepared killzones to the follow up Pentex kill teams/Wulf Counter Assualt by shooting them blindly. If we want to shoot at them, we hit them at the moment whereby their weakest or at a disadvantage. Not at the first opportunity.
Jamelia Belltower:
[X] You are going to need to talk to Serafina.
[X] Not so sternly.
Jane Clarent:
[X] (1.5x) Pick up the pace! You're on a tighter schedule now.
Donald Sykes, Chief Execution Officer:
[X] Deal with the Traditions intrusion first.
[X] (2.0x) Convince Kiet to not actually murder the fuck out of them, because that's: 1. Terrible for business, 2. Likely to cause some severe injury.
Henriette & Antoinette
[X] Get Donald that visual ID he needs to properly asses the RD threat.
I am serious about the Pentex write-in thing, though. If you wanted to try a write-in but don't feel confident writing for the main characters, you can always write in for Pentex!
They're an XTREME bunch of 90s anti heroes from the DARK AGE with SUPERPOWERS gained from MAGICAL DEMON CANCER. They have ALL KINDS OF FLAWS like tiny feet and Addiction: Pouches and the inability to shut up when saying BAD ONE LINERS. They're also part of a CORPORATE CULTURE which is INTENTIONALLY TERRIBLE AND LABYRINTHINE because Pentex is actually ENTIRELY MADE UP OF INFERNALISTS who worship some kind of BUREAUCRATIC HELL GOD and thus HATE DOING WORK despite the fact that goldbricking is PUNISHABLE BY SUMMARY EXECUTION.
You can give them ANY RIDICULOUS LEVEL OF NASTY LOOKING HORRIBLE SUPERPOWERS.
And you know, if they end up too out of character I can just drop a Hellfire on them. (And 10 more). Actually even if they don't end up too out of character they are probably going to get FUCKING MURDERED because they definitely aren't equipped to fight a war against the Technocracy but THAT IS ONLY A MINOR INCONVENIENCE.
Not because they have ACTUAL LIFE INSURANCE but because THEIR LIFE SUCKS SO BAD THAT BEING DEAD IS ONLY CONSIDERED A MILD INCONVENIENCE.
Writing for Pentex is SO AWESOME I need to RANDOMLY CAPITALIZE WORDS! So someone should do it.
Here's some reading material for the Pentex First Teams, i.e. the Freak Legion:
Might I ask why? This sounds very out of line with the rest of your post. Everything else sounds like you want to have Donald work his magic. You also have another vote for the same people directly below it.
Don't forget that among their bosses are BLACK SPIRAL DANCERS which is to say INBRED CANNIBALISTIC WEREWOLVES. But since this is the UK, they're not just any inbred cannibalistic werewolves, oh no. They're SNOBS (by the standards of such creatures) and so PRIDE THEMSELVES on being the ORIGINAL BLACK SPIRAL DANCERS and so even when they're not cannibalistic insane Glaswegians (there are several BSD hives in Glasgow), affect SCOTTISH ACCENTS when they're MURDERING DUDES.
Might I ask why? This sounds very out of line with the rest of your post. Everything else sounds like you want to have Donald work his magic. You also have another vote for the same people directly below it.
I think he's confused it with 'not shooting'. FYI: The 'hunt down' option with the 4.0x involves shooting first, so if that wasn't your intent, change your vote.
Might I ask why? This sounds very out of line with the rest of your post. Everything else sounds like you want to have Donald work his magic. You also have another vote for the same people directly below it.
They're also part of a CORPORATE CULTURE which is INTENTIONALLY TERRIBLE AND LABYRINTHINE because Pentex is actually ENTIRELY MADE UP OF INFERNALISTS who worship some kind of BUREAUCRATIC HELL GOD and thus HATE DOING WORK despite the fact that goldbricking is PUNISHABLE BY SUMMARY EXECUTION.
Some of them do. It's kind of like a coalition party built by various Infernalists and Wyrm-worshippers to cooperate in not being burned alive by inquisitors/HITMarks/Euthanatos ninjas. Given the state of American politics where you have a party unwilling to compromise and a coalition whose one core value is opposing said party, you could call them Democrats Demonrats.
But yes, they worship Catbert among many other powerful demons of corruption and sin. Catbert being, of course, the demon lord of corrupting human systems, such as governments and corporations.
I am serious about the Pentex write-in thing, though. If you wanted to try a write-in but don't feel confident writing for the main characters, you can always write in for Pentex!
[Pentex - Bureaucracy 2 Obstructionism 3 Body Horror 3] With armed forces blocking their way the proper path was easily apparent when their complete lack of fear of death was taken into account. (Well okay, not so easily; there had been weeks of meetings and committee deliberations in the hyperaccelerated mental boardroom that governed every movement of the mind-linked husks that constituted the task force) Until he had felt the agonizing pain of ripping the sheet of fleshpaper out of the suitcase that had been permanently melded with his hand, he had forgotten which body had originally been his. Idly noting the way the spray of blood from the wound had started bonding to the next sheet as ink, he made his way forward to the Technocrat and presented his formal written complaint and request to see his manager. The fleshpaper writhed and then shot forward to viciously cut its way through the poor man's skin, not emerging from the other side. Instead it erupted in a shower of gore from an aid in the command center and began trying to latch onto the general and burn the complaint into his "permanent record"
[Pentex - Bureaucracy 4, Boredom 4, Surveillance 2] The members of the strike team all have their minds networked and are essentially puppetting their own bodies from the perspective of a virtual reality boardroom. This boardroom is vastly temporally accelerated so that every muscle twitch of each of the bodies can be decided by committee. Also, there's no way for them to stop this or adjust the time ratio, so they've spent what seems like decades just driving to this Cairn. There is no entertainment in this boardroom and they are currently working on the company dime and so expected to remain professional the entire time. This enhancement is only turned off during what little "free time" they have outside of their job. So they sit in boardroom meetings for years and then get less than a day off when they go home.
It's also a shame that she's suddenly off-stage given Senex himself inducted her into the Euthanos as little while ago. That could have been all kinds of fun.
The Technocracy has the advantage of standardization, something the Traditions are bad at, and thus have more than just empty statements and the situational context.
Also their reputation for making fakers wish they were dead.
Also, quick question. Is anyone planning on doing a write-in from the hilarious point of view of Pentex? Because come on, corporate weaselspeak, bitching subordinates who want to do the absolute minimum necessary (yes, even if they're possessed by demons. They're lazy demons. The non-lazy ones tend to throw their hosts into meatgrinders and end up banished very quickly to the Umbra yet again) dealing with psychopathic incestuous werewolves and trying to avoid as much work as possible is great.
"Okay, you shit-heads!" Jenny Mother-Fucker yells, standing at the front of the briefing room. "I am a motivational speaker, specialising in rapid briefing, and I have four years experience in positive outcomes! When I talk, you fuck-faced fomori cannon fodder say 'how high'! Because you're fucking stupid lumps of human flesh whose only slight redeeming feature is that you've got a bane packed into your useless body! Got that?"
At the back of the room, Brian Dunting (BA), Interim Executive Assistant Junior Sub-Director for Applied Management in the Hereford area, tries to shrink back and not catch her eyes. Part of the reason for that is that he's still hungover and thus his are rather bloodshot. Part of the reason is that she's frothing at the mouth, because of a congenital cleft palate. The main reason is that he's got his phone out up against the chair in front of him, and texting a friend over in IT.
[aww man id love to go. ill check if the bstsrds want us doing overtime again and ill be totally up for hat if u r], he types.
"Today, I'm talking to you shithead morons about the importance of getting your timesheets done on time! That means on a weekly basis! Due to financial regulations which apply to our American parent company, we have to comply with the Sarbanes–Oxley Act! And that means you need to get them in each week!" The frothing lunatic at the front of the room points at the powerpoint projection with her corroded brass blade which drips green slime. "Internal Accounting fines each region per late employee! Well, chucklefucks, we're passing those costs onto you! If you don't get your weekly timesheet in on time, no pay! And on another note, shitcocks, all approval for overtime must be obtained at least twenty working days in advance! No approval, no overtime!"
Brian tunes out. He clenches his fist, imagining for a moment that he was punching whoever came up with these stupid paysheet rules, and watches the yellow bile flow through his veins, faint bruises rippling across his skin before they fade again.
Man, where did his life go so wrong?
Oh, not because he's got something strange in his body and bile in his veins and if he thought his old 'roid rages were bad, you should see things now. And not because he pulled strings to get his girlfriend hired here and she's like him now - he's glad about that, because you should see her now, wow. And not because there's a faint gnawing feeling of defilement at a deep spiritual level, because that nagging feeling only comes up at moments of soul crushing depression, like this kind of briefing. And not because the motivational speaker briefing them is an insane inbred incestuous werewolf whose mother is his boss's boss, and who just ate a woman's arm in front of them.
No, he should have just got that fucking application in on time for Mergers and Acquisitions, and maybe he'd be there now, getting twice the salary for lower hours, and only having to go out on missions when a specific target had to be... retired. But, no, he was hung over then too and missed the deadline and now he's on a First Team and his promotion prospects aren't great. Because his survival chances are bad.
He's distracted from his brooding by the text back.
[lawl man hope you make it if you di ei promise i wont make moves on kate jk i totally will]
The maniac at the front has just about finished, and Brian pays attention again so he can pretend to be attentive and ask some kind of sucking-up question. But she doesn't ask for questions. Instead, she sits, and hands the floor back to her mother.
"I think you all need to give my daughter a round of applause for her excellent speech," the older woman sitting at the front of the room says, getting to her feet and clapping loudly. She's dressed like a cross between a business executive and a Celtic barbarian warrior, and her once-crisp white shirt is stained with red from the person whose phone had gone off. Generously, she'd only eaten her arm, and even now her victim was down in surgery getting a brand new arm. Every one else rises, because when Elise Ball-Breaker asks for applause, she gets it.
Or else she takes your arm. Which she's fond of doing.
"We here at Murklake are devoted to excellence," she declares, with a wolfish grin. "One of our sub-contractors in the intelligence field has provided us with information on a capitalisation opportunity. As a result, all of you will be required to work overtime for the next week. As we understand this comes as a surprise, we have back-dated the overtime requests.
There is a certain look in her eyes which suggests that she doesn't think any of them will survive to claim the overtime.
"Naturally, hazard-pay-in-kind is being offered, so anyone who wishes to claim this beforehand is welcome to take advantage of your medical insurance to accept further enhancements. If you don't, it's your fault if you get torn apart. Further briefing will be provided at the next meeting at one o'clock. Now," she snarls, "get out."
Obediently, the Murklake staff file out, because they don't want to be eaten by a psychotic werewolf who's already wetted her appetite with an arm.
"Did I do good, mama?" he hears Jenny ask behind him, his enhanced sense of hearing picking out the words.
"Hey, man," Jonny, his best friend, says, "so at least that bullshit's over."
"I know, right?" Brian agrees. "Same fucking corp talk every week. And more overtime."
"Yeah, yeah." Jonny, whose skin is like rubber and whose shirt sits awkwardly over his spikes carapace, shrugs. "So, man, you gonna go take them up on the hazard-pay-in-kind?"
"I dunno, man," Brian says. "I'm feeling kinda mixed, you know, bro? Like, if I keep to this diet plan and on my current enhancement package, they're saying I'm on course for a promotion to a Violence Application Manager. I don't know if I want to ruin my career path by adding a contaminating influence. I mean, I haven't got a fucking pay rise in two years now, and I gotta get something next salary review. Lunch?"
"Yeah, sounds good. It's meatloaf today, right?"
It was not meatloaf. It was burger and chips.
"Fucking bullshit, man," Jonny complains, eyes glinting in rage. "I'm sick of fucking burgers."
Brian looked over the sandwich counter. "I'll get a Southern Fried Wrap," he decided out loud. "But... yeah, a plate of chips with it."
They sat down to eat, the chair creaking under Jonny's weight. "But yeah, man," he continued, "seriously, take the hazard-in-kind pay. Know what I got last time?"
"'Course I fucking do," Brian says wearily. "You were bragging about it for weeks."
"Hey, man, don't fucking diss the fact I now got a one-eyed monster. It's two feet long, and, let me tell you this, I haven't met a girl yet who hasn't screamed when she saw it. The Luvas in PR love it, let me tell you that. They say no one else bites back."
There is a little bit of Brian's consciousness which is not surprised at the fact that woman scream at the sight of the one-eyed, purple-headed snake-like thing fused to Jonny's groin. The rest of him, though, grins. "Now that sounds fun. I bet my girlfriend would love it... especially, hell, if I got her onto the Luva treatment, right?"
"Right on!" Jonny agrees, through his mouthful of food.
Inwardly Brian screams, and doesn't stop until the glutinous synthetic fats in the tainted chips wash away his maimed and wounded conscience.
How to make phone call to Project INVICTUS and get them and a bunch of glass walkers to watch out for and ambush the Pentex Assualt en route to our position?
At the very least, when we deal with them, they should he vastly weakened and ripe for the pickings.
en.demonhunters.tradwiki.9mt/wiki/ExchangeDocuments/CounterPentexOperations/Commentary/ Uploaded by AxeBasedHacking Originally received from Katherine Laura Gates, Esquire (Syndicate Enforcer/INVICTUS)
I. Pentex Overview
Pentex is a non-publicly listed holding company which works with Infernalist and Nephandic elements[3] that controls businesses in almost all fields which allow for commercial exploitation. It uses its position in society to corrupt the masses into increased deformity and depravity, in line with its Nephandic agenda. Pentex was originally exploited by Syndicate financial elements to encourage economic growth[4], although the reliance on Pentex for laundering and economic stimulus slowly decreased as alternatives were made available in the 1930s[5] and was officially cut off in the early 1980s. However, unofficial transfers of assets continued through the Special Project Division until its censure in 2008[6].
Pentex spends most of its money on growing its commercial assets, but also spends a significant amount on charitable use. This is not intended to imply that their charity is a benefit to society-it is intended to provide a corruptive influence that is significantly harder to root out, albeit much stealthier, than corporate activity, and should be treated identically to Pentex corporate actions.[7] Pentex has significant firepower in the form of several private military contractors and private security firms such as Murklake, Securis, and the Independent Intelligence Agency. [8]
II. Known Pentex Subsidiaries
Sunburst Computers-computer technology firm with a large share of the tablet and smartphone market.[9]
Tellus/Avalon Interactive-entertainment media firm which does animation, live-action, and electronic gaming. [10]
Black Dog Game Factory-tabletop games, electronic games,
O'Tolley's-Fast food
King Distilleries-Alcoholic beverages
Endron-Energy [11]
Murklake-Private Military Contractor
Securis-Private Security
IIA-Private Security/Detective Firm
III. Allies and Enemies
Pentex is known to be allied with the shapeshifter tribe known as the "Black Spiral Dancers", a corrupt and degenerate shapeshifter group with strong Infernalist ties. More importantly, Pentex is known to have close associations with the Camarilla, with several of their high-level executives being Camarilla leadership. This alliance gives them a significant amount of both soft and hard power via governmental influence, rendering them significantly more resilient to targeted interventions using societal infrastructure. [12]
On the other hand, almost all superstitionists are hostile to Pentex and its subsidiaries. All other lupine shapeshifter tribes and the rarer non-lupine ones are hostile to Pentex actions, although their unreliability and psychotic nature make them difficult to use against Pentex at best. Instead, one should see shapeshifters as a force of nature, which if properly controlled for, can harm the enemy more than one's own assets. Pentex itself is also notable because it is often extremely self-destructive. Hypereconomic analysis shows that at least 30% of Pentex's internal budget and assets are wasted in constant corporate warfare (often literally), drastically reducing its threat level to significantly below what its numbers and Nephandic influence imply. In a way, we should consider Pentex its own worst enemy. [13]
IV. Pentex Forces
Pentex's primary line of defense is simply its insinuation into modern society. Due to its close associations with governments and vital infrastructure, most of Pentex's assets can only be targeted by small, elite units due to collateral damage risk. Such units will have to deal with significant numerical overmatch. Although augmented enforcers such as BULLFROG and UTOPIA enhanciles in standard four-Agent teams with standard gear can be sufficient for this task, almost all Enforcer constructs, especially post-99, will not have access to such highly modified agents. [14]
Pentex often uses normal baseline personnel to protect its assets, generally armed as well as they can while still fulfilling the letter of local armaments laws. Many of them will be constantly dosed with psychoactives to protect from shapeshifter-induced psychosis, with various detrimental side effects. These personnel are often poorly trained and have relatively poor discipline and coordination, making them more of a tripwire force than any sort of real threat to agents.[15] More professional Pentex paramilitaries are employed by Murklake and Securis, with military training and military-grade weapons, and used to guard moderately more important assets or assets which are at high risk. Such soldiers are still largely tripwires, but can be fatal to an unlucky agent.
Pentex's actual security is primarily made of "Formori", EDE-infested humans. These Reality Deviants are given various disgusting powers via EDE biografts, which are often poorly integrated with human DNA and give such RDs extremely short, tortured lives. Such creatures, although generally not one-on-one equivalents to even Combat Synths, V2s, or other low-end combatant constructs, are deployed in large numbers and have extremely varied powers. Some Formori are significantly superior to standard combat constructs, while others are largely noncombatants with powers focused towards seduction or intelligence gathering. Pentex "First Teams", special forces strike units, are made up largely of these, mixed in with the last category of Pentex ground asset, the Black Spiral Dancer. [16]
Finally, for high-risk areas Pentex can often call upon Black Spiral Dancers, Nephandic lupine shapeshifters. Such shapeshifters have at least the lethality and traits of shapeshifters, although their Nephandic associations allow them to call on significantly more powerful EDE investments which have unacceptable costs even to the religious fanatics of "polite" shapeshifter society. Black Spiral Dancers suffer from heavy DNA degradation from constant inbreeding and generally have significant physical and mental deformities, but very rarely do these deformities actually affect their combat prowess.
Pentex uses significant numbers of EDEs to provide both data and phase space defense. These EDEs, although almost unanimously disgusting, are just standard EDEs, often fairly low-powered as to maintain higher endurance in realspace. Purchasing a large amount of VE-surplus dimensional phase disruptor emitters are recommended for agents engaging Pentex operations.[17]
V. Tactics
Although Pentex is powerful and corruptive and so contact with it should be limited, its self-destructive nature is the greatest asset to any agent engaging in counter-Pentex operations. No matter if the engagement is done via firepower or legal force, an agent should be aware that Pentex employees aware of the true nature of their employer (and thus less easily replaced than the majority of the rabble) will be immersed in a corporate environment that encourages casual backstabbing and pointless abuse. This is exacerbated by the stress atavism of the EDE-infested employees in their midst, with combat operatives (and even many noncombatants) exhibiting a high level of stress atavism.[18]
The most cost-efficient way of dealing with a Pentex operation is to induce it into attempting to compete with other Pentex operations, generally leading to brutal internal warfare, and then eliminating the winner after they have exhausted their resources. However, this may not always be practical-Pentex is itself aware of this strategy and inducing such actions requires a deft hand lest they flood the area with assets and increase the risk margins and collateral damage to unacceptable levels.
Another cost-efficient method is leveraging society as a weapon. Although their allies in the Camarilla can influence voting habits and judges, even forcing the issue into court can tie up a Pentex operation in legal knots for indefinite periods of time. Furthermore, in discovery evidence can be requested which helps both build the case and a tactical plan in the event the case is blocked by corrupt influences on government. Such lawfare plays to our strengths but strengthens NWO ideologies of government interference over self-managing corporate actions, and the cost-benefit equation should be carefully weighed. [19]
Military operations against Pentex should keep in mind its numerical superiority-but our massive qualitative superiority. Large scale military operations are ill-advised-Pentex has sufficient military force between its EDEs and its conventional weapons to make large-scale attacks extremely bloody, but our faster decision loops and superior coordination allow us to avoid relatively cumbersome Pentex operations and attack them in their weakpoints. High-end agents are recommended due to the risk of meeting Black Spiral Dancers in close quarters and the numerical superiority of First Teams.
Finally, remember that Pentex is an enemy, but one which is associated with the nihilistic influence of the Nephandi. Exposing Pentex corruption could, in theory, defeat the company in one fell swoop, and NWO/Syndicate media control would be sufficient to ensure a full exposure of the depths of depravity in Pentex's holdings. This would also destroy almost all faith in corporate and government systems, collapsing centuries of the hard work of the Order of Reason and Technocratic Union. Cheiron predictions show a 90% chance that the resulting anarchistic collapse would lead to a undesirable outcome, such as Nephandic victory. [20]
As such, even when Pentex assets are eliminated via legal means, care must be taken to pin the blame on 'insufficient local oversight' or 'a few bad apples'. Even as we strangle Pentex, we shall continue pretending that there is nothing wrong with the company at large, and agents are recommended to prepare plausible cover stories sufficient to keep the public apathetic. Surgical precision is required to excise this tumor on modern society.
[1] VoxVeritatis: The Cheiron System has been assigning some very meaningful codenames recently due to its unique construction as a quantum-processing neural network computer. Neither the Syndicate nor Iteration X have figured out how it pulls this knowledge from the ether, and we haven't either.
MindOverMatter: I think the quantum computer manages to somehow resonate with the Akashic Records and Mount Meru. It resonates with hidden knowledge, and gives them undeserved insight, plucked from the realm of insight itself.
ChristosBarberis: More importantly they keep it in a vault so tight that you'd need nuclear strikes or an Archmaster of Forces to breach in any reasonable time. It's a good way to commit suicide, though. Never gets old, telling Rogue Council lackeys where it is and giving them a nudge.
[2] ChristosBarberis: That's "Need To Know". It's not actually classified but for anyone who's reading this page from the Other Side, and you know who you are, they're going to look at you very skeptically if you request it without a good reason.
WhoDaresWins: The Technocracy has a long, long list of security permissions. We generally include them in these because they're useful in figuring out how much the Technocracy wants people to know about them, and whether or not you can trust that a Technocrat's heard of the actual thing you need a temporary alliance with them for.
BaptismOfFire: In this case, ORCON INVICTUS means that INVICTUS, which is the Syndicate Enforcer subproject that primarily deals with Pentex and Syndicate Nephandi, manages all copies of it. This also means that this text of theirs was intentionally sent to us with Enforcer approval. One line can tell you a lot here.
[3] StabBats: In other words, bad news, avoid all the time.
MindOverMatter: If you haven't learned this by now, you're probably already dead, but it bears repeating.
[4] SuperEthicalRealityClimax: The story of Pentex is a hilarious one, really. It's the story of Technocratic hubris writ large. Basically, they found a corrupt company that didn't ask questions, used it to push their agenda of industrialization and convert some of their wizardry into Sleeper-acceptable tech, and then a century later find out why it was so convenient. It's actually a pretty common story with barrabbi, because this is a common recruiting method. Give a new mage just what she needs, no questions asked, and then when they're reliant on it it's way too late. There's something funny about these powerful old men and women falling for the same goddamn thing. I use it to teach new Etherites about the Nephandi all the time, because it shows just how good Nephandi are at corruption, and how easy it is for us to end up being blind to it because 'we obviously know it when we see it'.
KaBlammoAntivirusPro: Hey n00bs thinking that the first hit's not so bad, read that message above until it's burned into your luser eyeballs. The Nephandi managed to play a con game on The Man for a century. More than that if you count the SPD. You're probably more desperate and don't know half as much as even old Technocrats do.
[5] GothicPsychicChick: If you slept through history class (not blaming you!) Mr. Moneybags means direct government spending, like the New Deal and the manufacturing programs Nazi Germany went through. I didn't get to sleep through history class.
VoxVeritatis: There is something darkly amusing about Nazi Germany being one of the models that allowed the Technocracy to finally take its blinders off and realize that Pentex is probably worse.
[6] ChristosBarberis: The story of SPD and its intertwining with Pentex is long and embarrassing, so they aren't going to cover it here. Basically, Special Projects did Syndicate R&D, and then promoted it directly to the Masses, but always was too big for its britches and wanted more power and influence. This led them to start being buddy-buddy with the 'doesn't-ask-questions-and-loves-all-this-shiny-gear' Pentex, which led to their downfall. Now, SPD was never that corrupt-corrupt, by which I mean actually infested with Nephandi who had properly inverted avatars. There were plenty of those, but the majority were just regular psychopaths and people who thought the ends justified the means to an absurd degree. This is important, because it shows you why they could hide for a century. That, and the Syndicate's leadership believing that it didn't matter that some of them were Nephandi as long as they were largely controllable and promoting the goals. So the Avatar Storm comes, the Syndicate's leadership poofs out of existence, and suddenly when someone kicks a complaint up the chain what happens isn't that someone gets quietly scapegoated and nothing else happens, but the Syndicate, desperate to regain legitimacy after the economic crash, comes down on the Nephandi like the wrath of Olympus.
SuperEthicalRealityClimax: Of course, now the SPD doesn't exist anymore as a Convention, even the name is tainted in the eyes of the Technocrats. Syndicate Research & Execution has replaced it, and as much as I hate giving even back-handed compliments to the Technocracy, they're decent people for Technocrats. The Nephandic or ethically challenged remnants of the Special Projects Division have largely fully jumped ship to Pentex, which explains why they've gotten a significant tech jump in the last several years. A lot of the Adventurers I keep in contact with have mentioned that Pentex has been deploying gear to their elite forces equivalent to standard-issue Technocracy gear.
VoxVeritatis: I thought that INVICTUS wiped out the SPD? You're implying that some of them made it out.
ChristosBarberis: Who do you think founded INVICTUS? The SPD has always been worse at covering its tracks than it's thought. Three men can only keep a secret if two are dead, after all, and magi are very hard to kill.
[7] ThinkOfTheChildren: They aren't kidding here. I once was working with an INVICTUS member-nice lady, for a Technocrat-and we raided a Pentex-funded orphanage, but too late. We took a look at each other and we just burned the entire place, orphans and all. Had to do it, given what the orphans were carrying in their bodies.
BaptismOfFire: Wow. Is it really that bad?
ThinkOfTheChildren: My liver says yes. The worst part is that if we told anyone in public, Pentex would win by discrediting all other charities, so we had to keep it silent. Thanks for letting me vent.
[8] WhoDaresWins: Private Security is a hostile environment for us. If the firm isn't a Syndicate front, like Paladin, Praetorian, or Polar Span, a NWO front, like Belltower or Bodark (although Bodark are officially rogue after the Soviet collapse, I suspect that they still have significant unofficial NWO ties), they're probably a Pentex or Camarilla front. You can trust Myrmidon-that's mostly Knights of Radymanthys and a few Akashic 'Warring Fists' after '99 came and the reconciliation between us really started-but that's about it. In general, if you're rich and working with us, find a way to get your own trustworthy security, or just hire from us. On the flipside, it means if you're facing mercs you probably don't need to feel too bad if you shoot them.
BaptismOfFire: That's getting awfully close to off-topic soliciting.
WhoDaresWins: Apologies, just pointing out something important.
[9] KaBlammoAntivirusPro: They're most infamous for heavy tech support outsourcing, which leads to hilarity when your smartphone built from the tears of Third World orphans explodes in your hand or something.
GothicPsychicChick: Do they actually do that?
KaBlammoAntivirusPro: No. Anyways, the good news is that the Syndicate decided that some sort of Nephandic web of smartphones would be a terrible idea and started leaking high-end blueprints and the equipment for building them cheaply to their subsidies, which means they've been in a downwards spiral market-share wise. It also means that Lenovo and such are great sources of low-spec, but still amazingly useful, Iteration X nanofabs. Just remember that by doing so, you're helping the Nephandi, so most of us will require you to do something against Nephandic influence before we give you the intel on where you can get a fab.
[10] SuperEthicalRealityClimax: Economically, some of what the Syndicate is doing in the videogame industry seems to make no sense and seems like they're intentionally courting a crash, until you realize that they're probably trying to burn Tellus to the ground.
[11] SenexIsWithUs: Endron doesn't just do oil, they do literally everything. And since energy is the beating heart of modern society... well you can figure out why this is a little inconvenient for people who don't want to cause mass destruction to take out.
[12] ConscienceOfMars: "Had it coming" is a good descriptor for both werewolves and the Technocracy, really.
MindOverMatter: Hubris is a fairly common character flaw in immortal wizards promoting a lie for their own power, just like it is for angry reactionary wolfmen. Truly a surprising revelation.
[13] ChristosBarberis: The good thing about Nephandi is that all of them are paranoid nihilistic lunatics who spend almost as much time fucking each other over as they do us. Their only redeeming quality.
[14] VoxVeritatis: These are pretty high-end Syndicate upgrade packages, expensive and with the benefits to match. There's not that many of them-the Syndicate really wants the Glass Walkers to become Enforcers for a reason, because that'd give them a lot more assets, and if Invictus is a serious influence on Syndic internal spending, they need them for surgical strikes without begging Iteration X or the Voidies, who aren't listening anyways.
[15] WhoDaresWins: Keep this in mind. Pentex mooks are not there to kill you, they're there to make you waste ammunition. Ideally, you avoid them and engage their Formori, because most of them are just schmucks who have no choice because they're working to make ends meet and the prestige of getting cool guns and body armor makes up for the fact that Pentex doesn't pay much. Of course, if you do end up fighting-don't let the gear intimidate you, they're basically mall ninjas and no threat at all.
[16] SuperEthicalRealityClimax: They're right about the short lives, and the relative weakness. Being able to spit acid a few meters isn't going to help you when the other guy has a Hazard Powersuit and a Gluon Gun, or if you're on the other side or using salvaged gear, the NWO/Syndicate's ORC (Operative Robotic Carapace) light powered protector and their HVAP firing rifles. Most of them, that is. Some can throw cars and punch through concrete while bouncing bullets off of their malformed pectoral muscles. The problem with Formori is that they are extremely unpredictable at best. Even though Pentex has a few discrete breeds of them, there's heavy variance even in those breeds in both power level and power types.
[17] KaBlammoAntivirusPro: Always bring a Spirit or DSci expert if you're raiding anything important of Pentex. Always. Generally it's good advice when dealing with Nephandi of any stripe, but because werewolves are super-spiritual and Pentex runs a lot of corrupted Nephandi werewolves you can expect a lot more spirit dealings of the hostile kind.
[18] VoxVeritatis: Judo. It's more than a martial art.
[19] VoxVeritatis: Remember this for anyone who wants to kick over Pentex. The Technocracy does not like them, but they are not going to let anyone know in public, which means that officially if you blow up a bunch of Pentex things they're going to be hunting you down. Unofficially it turns out that the teams assigned to such along with counter-terrorist agents have an awful habit of missing a lot. Must be the job stress. But even so-if you can take one down quietly, sometimes you might get a few party favors for it.
WhoDaresWins: Some of my mercenary colleagues have worked for the Syndicate, under their "Project J". A lot of the time, this is what they tell you to do, which is nice because you get to do what you mostly wanted to do anyways, get paid for it, and the Syndicate gets a head start on their coverups. If you're willing to do that and don't mind angering hardliners it's an okay way to make a few drams of tass.
[20] SuperEthicalRealityClimax: Basically the Technocracy knows that Pentex is corrupt as hell but has to pretend it isn't or else their societal edifice crumples around them. Now, there's a small chance that might mean us winning the Ascension War-but I don't like those odds very much. It also means that if you start shouting that Pentex is super-evil and spreading real evidence around, instead of just an 'isolated affiliate' is evil, the Technocracy is in fact going to shoot at you.
I had 'hunt and attack' initially. You convinced me otherwise.
