Massaging her brow, Jamelia frowns. Idly, she pops more painkillers. The slight pulsing headache fades, and she can think properly.
Blanc. She doesn't know why she's thinking of the old man. He was an old warhorse back when she was new. He'd been caught by the Ivory Tower and packed into a teaching role for a while, while he recovered from injuries. Jamelia now knew how that felt, because... oh yuck, she was damn well near the age he'd been the first time she'd met him, and she'd also been caught by the Ivory Tower and forced into teaching roles while heat on her died down.
For a man who'd probably been born around 1900, he'd been progressive. Which was to say that he thought that a fresh-faced little Arab in her early twenties could be a useful little asset in less 'civilised' bits of the world, and it was his job to overcome the disadvantages of her early life and ensure she was moulded into a proper agent of the Technocratic Union.
'Every man's head is filled with levers,' he'd told her. 'Lust, fear, greed, the desire to be a hero, revenge. Each one, a way to move him in a certain way. Friendship is one. Hate, another. Oh yes, a man who hates is so pliable if you know what you want from him. And the most useful way to get your results is to set up the situation so he'll pull his own levers for you.'
So. Assume that one has set up a bait to lure Union forces into attacking. The Union stands absolutely against traffic with the kind of EDEs superstitionalists call 'demons'. The Union is hungry for equipment. The Union wants revenge against the traitors who now work for vampires. Put that together, and this is the perfect trap for the local Loyalists. Lure them to commit their forces, to lead them away from their remaining assets. Maybe call in Daedaelean help, too, both so they'll leave their assets unprotected and so when it goes south, a wedge'll be pushed between the two.
Bastards. That's brilliant.
Except Unionists aren't the only kind of enlightened scientists who think like that, are they? No, they're not. There's the bastard child of the Union who ran away from home. The Virtual Adepts. Well, bastard children - the Sons of Ether, or Tunguskan Fellowship, might also do it. But no, from what Ivan said, the Adepts are exactly the kind of... well, the same kind of pragmatic and asset-hungry she is. And they hate infernalist haemophages too. And Nephandi.
Jamelia doesn't think they're going to attack at the same time. She knows it.
It's what she'd do.
She has to warn Ivan. She has to warn Susan. She has to get in contact with the local Traditionalists.
She dials a number. "Ivan," she says.
"Belltower," his voice comes down the phone. "What is it?"
"Give me everything you've got," she says bluntly. "I need all the men you have for a hard assault. Six hours time. I don't care if it leaves you undermanned. We're killing these Baali here and now. You owe me for January 11th, 1985. I'm calling in that debt, here and now. Give me what you owe me for that."
His eyes narrow. Yes, come on, she thinks. Realise what I'm playing at. Realise that I'm demanding a favour from you, but the incident I'm citing is one where some of my Taliban assets kidnapped one of your squads and tortured them to death, then left the bodies for you to find. You owe me nothing for that. Realise that I'm phrasing things in the wrong way to get you to help. Realise I'm deliberately not using the standard codewords for this and that I mentioned 'undermanned'.
"Fuck you, Belltower," Ivan says, his voice cold. "You've asked for enough favours and you haven't paid back jack shit. You can't call in favours from 30 years ago and expect anything when you have given me nothing since. Tell you what. Go attack on your own. Bring me what you get to settle our debts. Then we'll talk."
"I'm doing this to help you, you bastard," she hisses through clenched teeth. "The Tower'll be hearing of this."
"If you think the Tower will send you help, you are mistaken," Ivan says back coldly. "They have done nothing to help me with my traitors. Why will they help you when you insult me to my face? I have my own people to think of, Belltower. Then we'll talk."
Jamelia hisses, knuckles whitening around the phone. She hangs out without a further word. And then hums happily to herself. She thinks that went well. He should be on edge now, certain that she's telling him to give her nothing at all - which means he'll need them himself.
She sips a glass of water. Now. Time to contact Susan.
She pauses. No. First she'll tell Cross about this. Mistaken understandings here could only further the goals of whoever's plotting against them.
...
The stark white light of the fluorescent bulbs bleeds out into the night. The cheap computer hums, its fan whining. She managed to contact Susan Iosfeova, and a few more samples of drugs from the RAVANA and the formula for a compound 'borrowed' off Serafina's computer (thank you, Henriette) was enough to buy this laptop. By most standards she has been ripped off, because those drugs could have gone for tens of thousands of dollars in hospitals.
But then again, she wasn't buying the laptop as a gaming machine. She was buying it for the contact point. And the dongle plugged into it, which has cutting edge encryption tech which'd take weeks for Iteration X to break and which she isn't going to let Henriette anywhere near because it self-destructs if someone tries to take it apart.
The IRC chatroom is open. It's so retro even Kessler is probably at home around it. Black screen, green text.
Code:
TheMan: We wish to talk. We wish to engage in negotiations.
She waits. It's a "closed chatroom". She doesn't even know if there is anyone else on the other side.
Code:
SyberPunksYou: let's talk. whatre you offering for trade. wtb/wts?
Jamelia smiles. Time for one of her patented informed guesses, running purely off "what she would do."
Code:
TheMan: We know about your planned action against the Baali. We consider them a negative influence in Moscow. We wish to see them eliminated in full. Moreover, we wish for revenge against the compromised Union assets who are now Nephandi serving vampires. We consider this an intolerable state of affairs. We wish to minimise the risk that any of them escape.
SyberPunksYou: ha ha ha ha ha
SyberPunksYou: omfg
LessBeanNJA: cratty over there sounds like they want to cyber. damn, that dom attitude is making me wet.
SyberPunksYou: shut up LessBeanNJA, this is srs bnsn. the crat wants in on our raid. is anyone willing to vet?
DrDr: Yes. This is genuine, SyberPunksYou. I am willing to vet and verify, full consequences of betrayal.
SyberPunksYou: ... whoa. this is 4 real?
DrDr: I believe so. And understand, TheMan, if you betray them, you'll not get what you want from me. Or any other help from anyone else I can pull strings for.
TheMan: We understand fully. The Nephandi and the vampires must be eliminated. We may have ideological differences with the Adepts, but at least you are not haemophages who believe that they worship demons. We furthermore offer the agreement that until we formally notify you of this alliance of convenience, Union elements loyal to us will not take the first action against you or any of your allies, barring intolerable action, and expect the same from you.
SyberPunksYou: loot?
TheMan: We believe a proportionate distribution along the lines of the number of enlightened agents contributed to operations would be mutually acceptable.
SyberPunksYou: deal
LessBeanNJA: now we're talking. prov in
Jamelia chokes on her water and very nearly sprays a mouthful over the very expensive computer. Things... aren't meant to be this easy. They're meant to negotiate more. Something is going on, she fears.
Shit. Has she been too generous? Or are they underestimating how many enlightened agents the Union can spare for this, and don't think they'll cut into the loot much? Or since they were attacking anyway, they think having some Union meatshields around can't hurt and they really want the vampires dead?
Code:
LessBeanNJA>> contactdetails.exe
TheMan: We're not stupid. We will not download that.
LessBeanNJA: ha ha ha can't blame a girl for tryin
LessBeanNJA: DrDr can provide a contact method.
SyberPunksYou: same here.
Jamelia pauses. She types one last thing.
Code:
TheMan: We believe we are up against opponents with a superlative grasp of hypermathematical principles and futurecasting. Engage in counter-analytical actions. Expect unexpected coincidences. We believe an outside force attempted to have us attack at the same time so we would come to blows. We ask that you request of your Superstitionalist allies that they hold off against operations against the same target, unless they are cooperating with you, and that you inform us if anyone will be joining you so we know not to engage them.
SyberPunksYou: one tunguskan. nuclear power armour. deploys with us.
LessBeanNJA: okay i have one question
LessBeanNJA: like
LessBeanNJA: what's up with the whole plural thing
Logging off, Jamelia shakes her head. The New Word Order stylistic handbook, that's what's up with it.
It is quite a pack fitting everyone into the tiny windowless room. Of course, a lot of that is because any room with both Cross and Kessler in has an overload of pectoral muscles. And Serafina isn't helping the cramped conditions.
Henriette, who has oil stains all over her hands and looks exhausted from the work she's been doing on rush-preparing the vehicles, seems to be split between being appreciative of being close to Cross's chest and annoyed at being close to Serafina's chest. "Is there a reason we're all crammed in here?" she says, stuffing her hands into her pockets.
"Yes," Jamelia says calmly. "In the following operation, it seems we will be cooperating with local members of the RD group labelled as the Virtual Adepts. I am currently arranging a temporary truce with them, while we concentrate on the haemophagic threat."
"What?" Henriette demands. "But..."
"The local Union cannot afford losses, and I suspect that enemy forces will attempt to take advantage of the chaos to attack their assets," Jamelia says, with all the authority of a veteran spook. "By cooperating with the local Adepts, we can preserve a reserve and avoid weakening local forces. They're in a bad enough position that they cannot conduct operations on two fronts, and if we lose our infrastructure, the Union's grasp on Russia will be rendered nearly impossible."
Serafina nods. "So you pulled the Virtual Adepts in, because they're the ones closest to being Unionists among the Traditions. Workable."
"I calculated that there was a non-negligible chance that the Adepts were planning an attack at the same time, in the same way that the Choristers assaulted the Baali at the same time as Kessler and Langley did," Jamelia says. "As far as the Adepts know, the Union found out about their plans by some unknown means and approached them to offer cooperation because we wish to eliminate the ex-Union Nephandi. And that brings me onto my next point.
Jamelia takes a deep breath. "I would like to be quite clear," she says. "They are still a group of RDs, even if their disagreements with the Union are more political than metaphysical. They may attempt to recruit you. Do not listen. They may attempt to make you doubt the Union, especially if they are ex-Unionists. This is an alliance of convenience, nothing more, because arguments over the precise role of computers in society can be put off for tomorrow when there are demon-worshipping haemophages and ex-Union Nephandi in our way. We present a unified and organised face to them and will not show them any weaknesses they may attempt to exploit when they go back to being our enemies. Do you understand?"
Cross nods. "That seems fairly standard," he said. "And I wouldn't have liked for them to show up at the same time. Better on the inside than the outside."
"Yeah, I can do that," Kessler says. "Good thing I don't have any hypertech WiFi ports, like the very newest models do. I'd be worried about remote hacking."
"Okay... wifi isn't hyper..." Henriette trails off. She sighs. "Well, I suppose so."
"Kessler has in fact pre-empted my next point," Jamelia says. "Henriette, before the attack I will require you to perform whitehat hacking attempts on all of us, as no doubt the Adepts will attempt to do it. No one should bring any hardware with them which has sensitive information on it. I want everyone to make sure their firewalls are up to date, and no one is to broadcast at anything less the highest encryptions unless they wish to risk the Adepts getting their hands on it. No leaks, and no risks. Does everyone understand?"
Henriette nods a bit more cheerfully. She's being useful. She's doing something no one else can. And she's also going to thwart some Virtual Adepts with her vigilance, because Director Belltower understands not to trust them. Yes, she now has everything in a much more sensible mental model.
Jamelia sees this, and sighs. She really does need to get the girl training in hyperpsychology and concealing her emotions. She's really no challenge.
[X] (1.5x) Kill Nephandi. Retrieve Union Property. Win at life.
[X] (-0.2x) Virtual Adepts sound cool. You're basically doing a shadowrun, you might want to get some shadowrunners for this. And sure, they wear trenchcoats and sunglasses at night, but you've seen Ivan's video surveillance of those guys shooting two guns with perfect accuracy while running along a wall against ghouled SWAT guys. If you can convince them this is of mutual benefit, you can always find some guys sympathetic to a temporary alliance. Besides, Jamelia hasn't seen many physically active Adepts. It's rare for her to actually experience something new and interesting.
[X] (1.1x) Purify a church. It's not quite your ideal place of worship, but defiling it is awful.
[X] (+0.2x) Get the Choristers to purify that church. It's probably the least they can do to pay you back, after firing all those RPGs and autocannon rounds at you.
[X] (1.5x) Kill Nephandi. Retrieve Union Property. Win at life.
[X] (-0.2x) Virtual Adepts sound cool. You're basically doing a shadowrun, you might want to get some shadowrunners for this. And sure, they wear trenchcoats and sunglasses at night, but you've seen Ivan's video surveillance of those guys shooting two guns with perfect accuracy while running along a wall against ghouled SWAT guys. If you can convince them this is of mutual benefit, you can always find some guys sympathetic to a temporary alliance. Besides, Jamelia hasn't seen many physically active Adepts. It's rare for her to actually experience something new and interesting.
[X] (1.1x) Purify a church. It's not quite your ideal place of worship, but defiling it is awful.
[X] (+0.2x) Get the Choristers to purify that church. It's probably the least they can do to pay you back, after firing all those RPGs and autocannon rounds at you.
Been sitting on my vote waiting for the arguments to resolve, not a lot of time at the moment to contribute heavily.
[X] (1.5x) Kill Nephandi. Retrieve Union Property. Win at life.
[X] (-0.2x) Virtual Adepts sound cool. You're basically doing a shadowrun, you might want to get some shadowrunners for this. And sure, they wear trenchcoats and sunglasses at night, but you've seen Ivan's video surveillance of those guys shooting two guns with perfect accuracy while running along a wall against ghouled SWAT guys. If you can convince them this is of mutual benefit, you can always find some guys sympathetic to a temporary alliance. Besides, Jamelia hasn't seen many physically active Adepts. It's rare for her to actually experience something new and interesting.
[X] (1.1x) Purify a church. It's not quite your ideal place of worship, but defiling it is awful.
[X] (+0.2x) Get the Choristers to purify that church. It's probably the least they can do to pay you back, after firing all those RPGs and autocannon rounds at you.
One good thing about Russia, Jamelia muses, is that she can find prepaid cell phones almost anywhere. Cracking open the plastic casing on the new phone, she dials a number from old memory. It takes only a moment for the call to be redirected, probably being scanned by Virtual Adept technosuperstition as it does, before it reaches its destination.
"Go for Patriarkhat," the voice rasps in accented Russian. The speaker's voice is heavy with age and weariness, but the steel underneath it is self-evident.
"Hello, Patriarch," Jamelia responds in fluent Georgian, dancing out of the way of a chunk of snow falling from a balcony overhead. "I've heard a great many things about you."
"N-"
"Unsecured line," Jamelia cuts him off. "Also, I use a different name now."
There's silence on the line for a moment before Patriarch speaks up again. "To what do I owe the displeasure of your company?"
"I've had a busy night, Alekseyev," the NWO agent says abruptly. "I had planned on a little operation to remove some detritus from the world - a little public service, if you will." 'Nephandi' would doubtlessly attract the attention of anyone listening in on Russian telecom traffic-like hemophages with access to Technocratic information-monitoring software-so Jamelia relies on code words. "With your men handling the ones at the opera house, surely I'd be in the clear to do my part for the common good, no?"
"Get to the point," Patriarch growls.
"Oh, Alekseyev," Jamelia sighs. "We might have have tried to kill each other a few times, but that's just business. We can all agree on who we really dislike, no? Yet tonight my men were nearly killed by yours at one target, and ran into a hit team of blood-drinkers and addicted former allies at another. How does the saying go, again? 'Once probably isn't coincidence-'"
"-and twice definitely isn't," the old priest responds. "What do you want, child?"
"Find your heart, and see that it is a nest of vipers," Jamelia says in Georgian. The obscure dialect that she used, which she'd picked up when she'd been ordered to study the old priest named Patriarch and his origins, should only throw off potential listeners for a moment. She uses allegory as her code: the heart of the Choristers - the church. It's a 'nest' for vipers - a summoning site. A defiled church means Nephandi, since the old vampires have at least enough respect for the old ways - and respect for Chorister firepower - not to defile a Russian Orthodox church lightly.
She realizes she's clenching the tiny plastic phone with white-knuckled fingers. C'mon, you old bastard. Put it together.
"How soon?" Patriarch asks.
"As much time as I gave you before," Jamelia responds. I gave you no time. Attack immediately; do not wait.
There's another long silence, as Jamelia steps through the near-blizzard. "Proof?" Patriarch asks finally.
"You still using the same desk?" the NWO agent asks.
"Yes. Which side?"
"Trick question. Two rounds hit the front, and one on the left. Nine-millimeter, not ten." Jamelia had set up the assassination perfectly, but Patriarch had seen through it at the last moment. She hoped he was still as astute now as he was then.
There's another silence, and Jamelia worries that he might have hung up. Yet after a subjective eternity, Patriarch responds simply: "Good luck."
"Likewise," Jamelia says. Taking out the phone's battery and tossing it in a nearby dumpster, she methodically rips the Sleeper tech to bits. With luck, any listener would waste time trying to look up the meaning of her code phrases in the Bible, rather than understanding the implicit meanings the words had in their original Georgian. She doesn't plan on it slowing down her pursuers for too long, but every little bit of subterfuge had to help.
Tightening her coat, the NWO agent turns a corner and begins the long walk back to the rendezvous point. The Ascension War was a long, strange conflict. She'd seen more than a few allies become enemies, and fought alongside more than a few hated foes. Yet in the grand scheme of things, she had no real hate for Patriarch, and with luck he'd find it in himself to trust her on this lead. She wasn't the type to pray, but Jamelia asked anyone listening up above for a little help.
Her only response was more wind and snow.
***
Los Angeles, California
Gretta's happy that Donald's come to join her for dinner and business chat, less happy that he's bringing his new "bodyguard" along. She can't begrudge him his entertainments, considering how much help he's been for her. She can, however, begrudge him the fact that his new "executive assistant" is clearly some lonely Progenitor's idea of "sexy vampire", even if she looks distinctly happy to be here instead of the automatic half-smile of a HITMark or combat homonculus. On the balance, she decides to not mention it. It's a common enough dirty habit for Technocratic leadership to bring trophy girlfriends or boyfriends who have more firepower than infantry platoons. Talk about business and funding goes by quickly, and eventually Donald gets to what Gretta thinks is the real purpose of his being here.
"I heard one of your supporting actresses imploded on set?" Donald asks.
Gretta nods. "She threw a bit of a temper tantrum at her contract. You said you could help with that?" She takes a look at the menu, orders something expensive that she's always wanted to try. It's not like she's paying for it, or that Donald will mind footing the bill. He never does.
"Well, it happens that Rose here," he nods at the Progenitor war machine, who can barely contain her glee, "might actually fit the bill. Our Construct's in the Oppenheimer Building anyways, and she says she doesn't need much sleep, so she can probably moonlight if you don't mind adjusting the schedule for occasional ops."
"Please please please please can I do this, Ms. Hayman? Please? I've always wanted to!" Rose begs.
Gretta raises an eyebrow and gives Rose a once-over. A combat construct with dreams of becoming famous? It's surreal enough that she runs an ADEI diagnostic to make sure she's not being hacked. It comes out okay. "I'm not actually the casting director, you know that?" she says.
"That's not actually a problem, because I own the casting director." Donald retorts. Gretta's fairly sure he does, in fact, mean that quite literally. "If you give her the okay, I'll make sure she gets in, probably with another fake name."
"So what happens if she actually ends up famous? You know how nerds are with women." Gretta replies. "Well, maybe not."
"The quants in the analysis department are full of nerds, so I know. They might be slightly better adjusted and more used to wearing ties than the ones in Iteration X," Donald pauses, remembering just how excessively casual Iteration X workspaces could get, "but I can make a pretty good guess. If that happens, we'll figure something out. Have her be a recluse or something. Give her scripted exclusive interviews with friendly channels. We're good at media control, it's not an unworkable problem. Besides, I'm pretty sure half the actors here are already constructs, whether Iteration X or Progenitor."
"Fair enough." Gretta says. "But they're normally a little more... well, socialized. Combat constructs, especially young ones? They're scarily naive, especially when you consider that when a toddler throws a tantrum? Maybe a couple of toys get broken. When a HITMark throws a tantrum, a lot more can end up broken.
"Hey! I don't throw tantrums!" Rose complains. "I'm very well behaved." She pouts slightly. It doesn't work as well as she hopes.
Donald comes to her rescue. "She's right, she doesn't throw tantrums. Rose can follow scripts, and look, the kind of trouble she gets in is basically 'spent all her money on ice cream' instead of 'is driving while high on meth at 100 miles an hour on the wrong side of the highway', so we should have media control types who can deal with this issue."
Rose smiles widely. She doesn't even mind that Donald and Gretta are talking past her like she isn't there. Today really is one of the best days of her life. She's gotten great food and the chance to meet great people and maybe she can be a movie star!
***
Today has to be one of the worst days of her life, Jamelia thinks. She's gotten ambushed, nearly killed, shot at a dozen times-oh, and someone's using her old teacher's plans against her in a way that could only be said to be inspired. It's like being on the set of a bad action movie, except she can't demand a break and her salary isn't nearly enough.
She absolutely hates not being the chessmaster directing everything behind the scenes. She hates being played even more. And oh, she's getting another augmentation headache. Massaging her brow, Jamelia frowns. Idly, she pops more painkillers. The slight pulsing headache fades, and she can think properly.
Blanc. She doesn't know why she's thinking of the old man. He was an old warhorse back when she was new. He'd been caught by the Ivory Tower and packed into a teaching role for a while, while he recovered from injuries. Jamelia now knew how that felt, because... oh yuck, she was damn well near the age he'd been the first time she'd met him, and she'd also been caught by the Ivory Tower and forced into teaching roles while heat on her died down.
For a man who'd probably been born around 1900, he'd been progressive. Which was to say that he thought that a fresh-faced little Arab in her early twenties could be a useful little asset in less 'civilized' bits of the world, and it was his job to overcome the disadvantages of her early life and ensure she was moulded into a proper agent of the Technocratic Union.
'Every man's head is filled with levers,' he'd told her. 'Lust, fear, greed, the desire to be a hero, revenge. Each one, a way to move him in a certain way. Friendship is one. Hate, another. Oh yes, a man who hates is so pliable if you know what you want from him. And the most useful way to get your results is to set up the situation so he'll pull his own levers for you.'
So. Assume that one has set up a bait to lure Union forces into attacking. The Union stands absolutely against traffic with the kind of EDEs superstitionists call 'demons'. The Union is hungry for equipment. The Union wants revenge against the traitors who now work for vampires. Put that together, and this is the perfect trap for the local Loyalists. Lure them to commit their forces, to lead them away from their remaining assets. Maybe call in Daedaelean help, too, both so they'll leave their assets unprotected and so when it goes south, a wedge'll be pushed between the two.
Bastards. That's brilliant.
Except Unionists aren't the only kind of enlightened scientists who think like that, are they? No, they're not. There's the bastard child of the Union who ran away from home. The Virtual Adepts. Well, bastard children - the Sons of Ether, or Tunguskan Fellowship, might also do it. But no, from what Ivan said, the Adepts are exactly the kind of... well, the same kind of pragmatic and asset-hungry she is. And they hate infernalist hemophages too. And Nephandi.
Jamelia doesn't think they're going to attack at the same time. She knows it.
It's what she'd do.
She has to warn Ivan. She has to warn Catherine. She has to get in contact with the local Traditionalists.
She dials a number. "Ivan," she says.
"Belltower," his voice comes down the phone. "What is it?"
"Give me everything you've got," she says bluntly. "I need all the men you have for a hard assault. Six hours time. I don't care if it leaves you undermanned. We're killing these Baali here and now. You owe me for January 11th, 1985. I'm calling in that debt, here and now. Give me what you owe me for that."
She can hear the pause in his breathing, imagines his eyes narrowing. Yes, come on, she thinks. Realize what I'm playing at. Realize that I'm demanding a favor from you, but the incident I'm citing is one where some of my Taliban assets kidnapped one of your squads and tortured them to death, then left the bodies for you to find. You owe me nothing for that. Realize that I'm phrasing things in the wrong way to get you to help. Realize I'm deliberately not using the standard codewords for this and that I mentioned 'undermanned'.
"Fuck you, Belltower," Ivan says, his voice cold. "You've asked for enough favors and you haven't paid back jack shit. You can't call in favors from 30 years ago and expect anything when you have given me nothing since. Tell you what. Go attack on your own. Bring me what you get to settle our debts. Then we'll talk."
"I'm doing this to help you, you bastard," she hisses through clenched teeth. "The Tower'll be hearing of this."
"If you think the Tower will send you help, you are mistaken," Ivan says back coldly. "They have done nothing to help me with my traitors. Why will they help you when you insult me to my face? I have my own people to think of, Belltower. We'll talk when you've shown that you can help them, instead of just using them as disposable assets."
Jamelia hisses, knuckles whitening around the phone. She hangs out without a further word. And then she hums happily to herself. She thinks that went well. He should be on edge now, certain that she's telling him to give her nothing at all - which means he'll need them himself.
She sips a glass of water. Now. Time to contact Catherine.
She pauses. No. First she'll tell Cross about this. Mistaken understandings here could only further the goals of whoever's plotting against them. Or whatever.
***
The stark white light of the fluorescent bulbs bleeds out into the night. The cheap computer hums, its fan whining. She managed to contact Catherine Iosfeova, and a few more samples of drugs from the RAVANA and the formula for a compound 'borrowed' off Serafina's computer (thank you, Henriette) was enough to buy this laptop. By most standards she has been ripped off, because those drugs could have gone for tens of thousands of dollars in hospitals.
But then again, she wasn't buying the laptop as a gaming machine. She was buying it for the contact point. And the dongle plugged into it, which has cutting edge encryption tech which'd take weeks for Iteration X to break and which she isn't going to let Henriette anywhere near because it self-destructs if someone tries to take it apart.
The IRC chatroom is open. It's so retro even Kessler is probably at home around it. Black screen, green text.
TheMan: We wish to talk. We wish to engage in negotiations.
She waits. It's a "closed chatroom". She doesn't even know if there is anyone else on the other side.
SyberPunksYou: let's talk. whatre you offering for trade. wtb/wts?
Jamelia smiles. Time for one of her patented informed guesses, running purely off "what she would do."
TheMan: We know about your planned action against the Baali. We consider them a negative influence in Moscow. We wish to see them eliminated in full. Moreover, we wish for revenge against the compromised Union assets who are now Nephandi serving vampires. We consider this an intolerable state of affairs. We wish to minimise the risk that any of them escape.
SyberPunksYou: ha ha ha ha ha
SyberPunksYou: omfg
LessBeanNJA: cratty over there sounds like they want to cyber. damn, that dom attitude is making me wet.
SyberPunksYou: shut up LessBeanNJA, this is srs bsns. the crat wants in on our raid. is anyone willing to vet?
DrDr: Yes. This is genuine, SyberPunksYou. I am willing to vet and verify, full consequences of betrayal.
SyberPunksYou: ... whoa. this is 4 real?
DrDr: I believe so. And understand, TheMan, if you betray them, you'll not get what you want from me. Or any other help from anyone else I can pull strings for.
TheMan: We understand fully. The Nephandi and the vampires must be eliminated. We may have ideological differences with the Adepts, but at least you are not haemophages who believe that they worship demons. We furthermore offer the agreement that until we formally notify you of this alliance of convenience, Union elements loyal to us will not take the first action against you or any of your allies, barring intolerable action, and expect the same from you.
SyberPunksYou: loot?
TheMan: We believe a proportionate distribution along the lines of the number of enlightened agents contributed to operations would be mutually acceptable.
SyberPunksYou: deal
LessBeanNJA: now we're talking. prov in
Jamelia chokes on her water and very nearly sprays a mouthful over the very expensive computer. Things... aren't meant to be this easy. They're meant to negotiate more. Something is going on, she fears.
Shit. Has she been too generous? Or are they underestimating how many enlightened agents the Union can spare for this, and don't think they'll cut into the loot much? Or since they were attacking anyway, they think having some Union meatshields around can't hurt and they really want the vampires dead?
LessBeanNJA>> contactdetails.exe
TheMan: We're not stupid. We will not download that.
LessBeanNJA: ha ha ha can't blame a girl for tryin
LessBeanNJA: DrDr can provide a contact method.
SyberPunksYou: same here.
Jamelia pauses. She types one last thing.
TheMan: We believe we are up against opponents with a superlative grasp of hypermathematical principles and futurecasting. Engage in counter-analytical actions. Expect unexpected coincidences. We believe an outside force attempted to have us attack at the same time so we would come to blows. We ask that you request of your Superstitionalist allies that they hold off against operations against the same target, unless they are cooperating with you, and that you inform us if anyone will be joining you so we know not to engage them.
SyberPunksYou: one tunguskan. nuclear power armour. deploys with us.
LessBeanNJA: okay i have one question
LessBeanNJA: like
LessBeanNJA: what's up with the whole plural thing
Logging off, Jamelia shakes her head. The New Word Order stylistic handbook, that's what's up with it.
***
Moscow, Russia
Panopticon Forward Staging Base, Operation Infernal Vixen
Siddharth hums happily to himself as he makes the final preparations for this assault. The rogues have abandoned loyal Union members to die, happily working with all sorts of Reality Deviants. Rogues everywhere, traitorous dogs who need to be purged like a cancer. He is a doctor, here to sterilize this outbreak of incorrect thought. And now that he's remembered his true loyalties, he has the equipment necessary for doing exactly that.
His team is beautiful. On the lead ARC he has 6 men, plus the assault helicopter. Himself, a quartet of HITMark Vs with heavy combat modifications, fiber-optic artificial nervous systems for improved reaction time and high-density nanotube skinweave, and another Enlightened Operative, Gretkov, some sort of Russian NWO super-soldier whose augmentations made him nearly as efficiently lethal as he was sociopathic. The man could torture children to death in front of their parents and not feel a single ounce of remorse. He had been used for dirty black operations for the past several decades, chances to indulge in his own love of violence.
He has another 12 men on the second and third ARC, and 10 in an Iteration X Urban Assault Vehicle, armed with a quartet of 20mm hypervelocity chainguns and mini-missile racks. Most of those are Victors with control implants allowing them to be remote-puppeted by loyal Union members or basic cyborgs, but among them are another four Enlightened Operatives. Stetchkin, an Iterator who is approximately 98% machine, a dreadnought of a man who masses 300 kilograms of powered exoskeleton and Misha, Mikhail, and Mara, a trio of Progenitor combat clones with quantum-entangled minds.
Puppeteering. He pauses at that word. It makes him think for a minute. It makes him think impure thoughts. He pushes them out of his mind. Before he can think of it more, the voice in his head, the voice of Control, tells him what he needs to do.
"Your target is Prokhor Filipov, a rogue agent. He is no longer welcome in our circles, having made deals with those who we no longer have need to deal with. You are to destroy him, and then render his salvaged assets unusable. We will take nothing from them, for we have no need of their resources. We do, however, need Filipov to become... an example. Deviating from the ideal path of reality is sin. And the wages of sin are death. Should anyone seek to interfere with this, you should eliminate them as well. It does not matter what they claim to be, if they are Reality Deviants they must be purged. If they claim to be Union members, interference with your operation shows that they are rogue-and they should therefore also be purged. You are the hands of the Union.You have been chosen by Control to retake the world from Reality Deviants and the rogue agents who call themselves Technocrats."
The voice pauses, lets this sink in.
"You are Panopticon."
28 voices respond as one. "WE ARE PANOPTICON! WE ARE THE EYES OF THE TECHNOCRACY! WE SEE ALL! WE JUDGE ALL! WE PUNISH ALL!"
"Now go, agents. Accomplish your mission."
***
The tiny windowless room is absolutely packed. Of course, a lot of that is because any room with both Cross and Kessler in has an overload of pectoral muscles. And Serafina isn't helping the cramped conditions.
Henriette, who has oil stains all over her hands and looks exhausted from the work she's been doing on rush-preparing the vehicles, seems to be split between being appreciative of being close to Cross's chest and annoyed at being close to Serafina's chest. "Is there a reason we're all crammed in here?" she says, stuffing her hands into her pockets.
"Yes," Jamelia says calmly. "In the following operation, it seems we will be cooperating with local members of the RD group labelled as the Virtual Adepts. I am currently arranging a temporary truce with them, while we concentrate on the hemophagic threat."
"What?" Henriette demands. "But..."
"The local Union cannot afford losses, and I suspect that enemy forces will attempt to take advantage of the chaos to attack their assets," Jamelia says, with all the authority of a veteran spook. "By cooperating with the local Adepts, we can preserve a reserve and avoid weakening local forces. They're in a bad enough position that they cannot conduct operations on two fronts, and if we lose our infrastructure, the Union's grasp on Russia will be rendered nearly impossible."
Serafina nods. "So you pulled the Virtual Adepts in, because they're the ones closest to being Unionists among the Traditions. Workable."
"I calculated that there was a non-negligible chance that the Adepts were planning an attack at the same time, in the same way that the Choristers assaulted the Baali at the same time as Kessler and Langley did," Jamelia says. "As far as the Adepts know, the Union found out about their plans by some unknown means and approached them to offer cooperation because we wish to eliminate the ex-Union Nephandi. And that brings me onto my next point.
Jamelia takes a deep breath. "I would like to be quite clear," she says. "They are still a group of RDs, even if their disagreements with the Union are more political than metaphysical. They may attempt to recruit you. Do not listen. They may attempt to make you doubt the Union, especially if they are ex-Unionists. This is an alliance of convenience, nothing more, because arguments over the precise role of computers in society can be put off for tomorrow when there are demon-worshipping hemophages and ex-Union Nephandi in our way. We present a unified and organized face to them and will not show them any weaknesses they may attempt to exploit when they go back to being our enemies. Do you understand?"
Cross nods. "That seems fairly standard," he said. "And I wouldn't have liked for them to show up at the same time. Better on the inside than the outside."
"Yeah, I can do that," Kessler says. "Good thing I don't have any hypertech WiFi ports, like the very newest models do. I'd be worried about remote hacking."
"Okay... wifi isn't hyper..." Henriette trails off. She sighs. "Well, I suppose so."
"Kessler has in fact preempted my next point," Jamelia says. "Henriette, before the attack I will require you to perform whitehat hacking attempts on all of us, as no doubt the Adepts will attempt to do it. No one should bring any hardware with them which has sensitive information on it. I want everyone to make sure their firewalls are up to date, and no one is to broadcast at anything less than E-alpha unless they wish to risk the Adepts getting their hands on it. No leaks, and no risks. Does everyone understand?"
Henriette nods a bit more cheerfully. She's being useful. She's doing something no one else can. And she's also going to thwart some Virtual Adepts with her vigilance, because Director Belltower understands not to trust them. Yes, she now has everything in a much more sensible mental model.
Jamelia sees this, and sighs. She really does need to get the girl training in hyperpsychology and concealing her emotions. She's really no challenge.
***
Moscow, Russia
Temporary Rendevous Point
En Route To Molotek Building
A Paladin Sedan, a limousine currently disguising itself as a BTR, complete with fully functional autocannon in its turret (although, Jamelia reflects, most BTRs are normally not plated in solid gold-she'll have to complain about the ability to disguise the LX-4 after this mission), and two black SUVs drive towards the Molotek building. The construct, Ivan says, is the ten-story building itself. He's happy about this assault and the chaos-every time Moscow erupts into open warfare, the hemophages have to reveal assets to keep the information suppressed, using NWO media control technology and censoring systems to keep the world from seeing that Moscow has erupted into open warfare.
They have to cover for them, lest their existence be threatened as well. Right now, they've kept it to "isolated terrorist attacks". Jamelia wonders how they'll explain a gold-plated Russian IFV destroying their facilities.
Jamelia can look through the tinted windows of the SUVs using the Paladin's sensor system. One of them has a consor as a driver, an unAwakened Superstitionist acolyte, and a few more in the seats. The rear is taken up entirely by a heavy suit of Russian flight-capable power-armor, a massive custom-built contraption armed with nuclear-powered flamethrowers, smartbomb launchers, heavy machine guns, and powered by electromagnetic rams. Inefficient, prone to fatal malfunction, and absolutely lethal. Tunguskan to the core. She wonders if the machine has external speakers to play heavy metal music.
The other black SUV is armed, with a pop-out minigun turret. She senses space-warping effects in its mechanism, a small 5.56mm drum feed shaped like an infinity symbol. She suspects Virtual Adept "reality hackers" have done their own brand of pseudoscience to it. Possibly hacked it to fire 37mm shells or something obscene like that, she guesses. Inside are four Virtual Adepts and four more consors. She can tell who the VAs are, because with one exception they're wearing leather and black trenchcoats, either with the distortions that accompany "reality hacking" or dense with high-tech circuitry. One of them's an actual cyborg, massing nearly twice as much as her lithe body would imply. The last one is wearing "gargoyle" gear, heavy body armor loaded with sensors and electronics equipment. He still has a SMG, though, and he looks like he knows what he's doing with it.
Her sensor feed cuts out. "Hey, no peeking. We'd like to make this a surprise to everyone. You guys especially." A female voice says on the radio.
"If I don't know your abilities then it'll be harder to understand what's going on."
"Look, you stay out of our way, we'll stay out of your way, and nothing will go wrong." the same voice responds. She pauses, and notices something. "Police bands and your distress signals have lit up everywhere. Says that steelheads are attacking the biggest source of gear the Cammies have. You didn't tell us we were the distraction!"
Jamelia tunes the Paladin's radio recievers, checks Union bands. She's guessed right-Filipov's men haven't managed to change their encryption yet.
"-under heavy attack-"
"Looks like at least three- repeat three assault gunships, plus at least one heavy armored vehicle-"
"Four, repeat, four HITMarks, high-end Mark Vs, plus at least four Enlightened operatives, two in powered armor, with more than a dozen lesser cyborgs and combat clones-I think we got one of the light borgs but they have overwhelming firepower..."
Jamelia makes a note of this, but steels herself. "We continue. This is an irrelevant sideshow."
"Target approaching in three-"
A pair of pop-out defense turrets deploy from the sides of the Molotek garage as they prepare to bull-rush through the gate. Henriette engages one, while the VAs engage the other. Jamelia takes slight solace in the fact that she was right-their minigun was hacked to fire autocannon rounds. The two turrets explode before managing to do more than crater pavement, and then Jamelia engages the Paladin's aggressor shield to slam through the fast-deploying armored barrier as the other vehicles move in single file behind her.
They're in.
The Molotek building, if Ivan's floorplans are right, is set up like this:
Floor 10: Sleeper offices, Security Checkpoint Gamma
Floors 7-9: Sleeper offices
Floors 5: Command and Control
Floor 4: Security Armory, Barracks
Floor 3: Sleeper offices
Floor 2: Sleeper offices, Security Checkpoint Beta
Floor 1: Reception, Security Checkpoint Alpha Basement -1: Parking
Basement -2: Security Checkpoint Delta
Basement -3: Vehicle Hangar
Basement -4: Reactor, Heavy Equipment Storage, Mat-Trans
The floor you are on right now is in bold. "Security Checkpoints" are floors with additional dedicated defensive measures, such as laser traps, pop-out chaingun turrets, guard robots, deployable fusion cannons, smart mines, and more. Vote for your target location. Remember that Molotek may end up being reinforced if you dawdle.
Choose your speed of assault:
[ ] (1.5x) Take it slow. You need to methodically clear the building if you don't want to be, say, bisected via a monowire trap.
[ ] (0.8x) Take it fast. Shock tactics will get you the victory.
Also, choose what floor(s) you'll be assaulting.
[ ] Assault your way up to Floor 5. You want to take over security control of this building.
[ ] You're here for the loot, right? Hit Floor 4 and raid their security armory.
[ ] Go and steal their vehicles at Level -3.
Finally, Enlightened Science procedures. In an effort to get you guys to participate more and not basically 100% rely on EarthScorpion writing in the only procedures, I will limit people to making only Enlightened Science suggestions for one character at a time now. Please suggest procedures or you might end up literally not having a team left at the end of this. You may ask questions freely, and probably should. Refer to the guide to Spheres if you need basic information.
Also, note that due to her repeated use of Correspondence effects (and her lack of spending XP on anything else) Henriette has upgraded to Correspondence 2. This allows her to use Matter 4 and Forces 3 remotely, which is incredibly helpful, especially since you're in a Construct where her remote casting is entirely coincidental.
Willpower: 6/7
Prime Energy: 3/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incapacitated/Dying
Current Injuries: None
Current Effects:
???
Paradox: 0
Soak: 8B/7L/0A (6B/6L from armor, 4 Armor HLs)
Dodge DV: 10/10 (+1 Dexterity from Alanson)
Shockwave Codes: 0/1
Willpower: 10/10
Prime Energy: 5/5
Health Levels: -0 x 12/-1 x 5/-2 x 5/-4 x 4/Incapacitated/Dying
Current Injuries: Severe Epidermal Damage (10 Aggravated Health Levels)
Current Effects:
???
Paradox: 5 (5 permanent)
Special Abilities:
Stabilizers: +2 Dexterity for the purposes of aiming or fine manipulation Heavy Primium Endoskeleton: +3 Countermagic Liefeld Coat: Arsenal 5, +4B/4L soak Targeting Cybereyes: [1] automatic success to Firearms or Gunnery attacks
Soak: 15B/15L/5A (9B/9L from armor)
Dodge DV: 6/6
Willpower: 8/8
Prime Energy: 5/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-4/-4/Incapacitated/Dying.
Regenerates 1 Bashing/Lethal HL a round (Bionanotech integration)
Heals Aggravated damage at normal speed.
Current Injuries: None
Current Effects:
Mindshield: +5 Mind Shield
Paradox: 4
Special Abilities:
Bionanotech Integration: Immune to all mundane diseases and poisons, does not age.
Hyperoxygenated Blood: 6/6 charges. Usable for any of the below effects.
Reroll a failed or botched Stamina roll
Add an automatic success to a single roll
Gain an extra action
Heal 2 health levels of damage
Soak: 11B/11L/3A (8B/8L from armor)
Dodge DV: 14/14
Willpower: 7/7
Prime Energy: 5/5
Paradox: 2 (2 permanent)
Also, I updated the agent profiles in the second post on the first page with short-form summaries of the agents and their notable traits/Enlightened Science.
[x] (1.5x) Take it slow. You need to methodically clear the building if you don't want to be, say, bisected via a monowire trap.
The last time we assaulted a nephandi hideout we had a homunculus with crazy regen and a mini giant death robot with like 40 health levels. We don't have that right now and to make matters worse our current bullet sponge is already suffering from 10 HL's of agg.
Throwing caution to the wind could easily result in unacceptable casualties.
[x] Assault your way up to Floor 5. You want to take over security control of this building.
This (1) helps prevent the VA from double-crossing us, (2) helps establish more trust when we don't double-cross them, and (3) will give us a better idea of the defenses so that we and our allies don't suffer losses.
As for using that sweet new Correspondence 2 that Henriette has, maybe we could have her hack local circuitry and electronics (such as conveniently placed beverage dispensers) with explosive results (Correspondence 2 + Forces 3 + Matter 3...I think).
Well, you guys kept putting Filipov off. "Gotta check out Exordium. Gotta make a raid. Gotta prepare this, gotta do that." At some point, the shoe is going to drop.
So, you know, don't assume just because an option exists that you will always retain access to that option.
[x] (1.5x) Take it slow. You need to methodically clear the building if you don't want to be, say, bisected via a monowire trap.
The last time we assaulted a nephandi hideout we had a homunculus with crazy regen and a mini giant death robot with like 40 health levels. We don't have that right now and to make matters worse our current bullet sponge is already suffering from 10 HL's of agg.
Throwing caution to the wind could easily result in unacceptable casualties.
This isn't a proper Labyrinth-these are Infernalists, not True Nephandi or Malfeans. Only the latter two use Labyrinths and Cauls, for different purposes (True Nephandi invert your avatar to gain Qlipphotic magic, which gives you awesome difficulty breaks for wrecking shit and bonus collateral damage, while Malfeans use it to remake their soul into something alien). Infernalists trade parts of their soul, sure, but it's done more via formal contract than by formal conversion.
It's just a Technocratic construct.
As for using that sweet new Correspondence 2 that Henriette has, maybe we could have her hack local circuitry and electronics (such as conveniently placed beverage dispensers) with explosive results (Correspondence 2 + Forces 3 + Matter 3...I think).
Correspondence 2/Forces 3 is sufficient. The Corr/Forces/Matter for Emergency Weaponization is just to make it more effective by converting some of the item into the primordial ideal of explosion.
Henriette is probably good at electronic warfare. But the Virtual Adepts probably specialize in that shit.
Should we assume that they are going to be hacking the shit out of the enemy, sending false signals/positives/alarms, shutting down doors and elevators, killing lights or power, etc?
Or should we have Henriette do that?
Also -- is there anything that Henriette could do to have repaired Kessler some more?
This isn't a proper Labyrinth-these are Infernalists, not True Nephandi or Malfeans. Only the latter two use Labyrinths and Cauls, for different purposes (True Nephandi invert your avatar to gain Qlipphotic magic, which gives you awesome difficulty breaks for wrecking shit and bonus collateral damage, while Malfeans use it to remake their soul into something alien). Infernalists trade parts of their soul, sure, but it's done more via formal contract than by formal conversion.
Nephandic subtypes aside, would that difference make the boobytraps any less lethal?
Correspondence 2/Forces 3 is sufficient. The Corr/Forces/Matter for Emergency Weaponization is just to make it more effective by converting some of the item into the primordial ideal of explosion.
The idea behind Henriette's procedure being...we know what happens when one bottle of soda explodes. What happens when it's a soda machine filled with dozens of bottles of highly volatile, cutting-edge Union sugared beverages? At the very least, shrapnel everywhere. Probably some pretty interesting ingredients in those drinks, right? The electricity from the short might cause a bit of a chemical reaction in some of those interesting ingredients, resulting in a highly toxic/corrosive mist.
Depends. Do you prefer entropic sigils or big fuckoff turrets deploying out of the walls?
The idea behind Henriette's procedure being...we know what happens when one bottle of soda explodes. What happens when it's a soda machine filled with dozens of bottles of highly volatile, cutting-edge Union sugared beverages? At the very least, shrapnel everywhere. Probably some pretty interesting ingredients in those drinks, right? The electricity from the short might cause a bit of a chemical reaction in some of those interesting ingredients, resulting in a highly toxic/corrosive mist.
Normal remote hacker VAs, sure. But these guys aren't quite normal VAs. Think less Uplink, more Matrix.
This is also pretty much what is likely to happen.
Should we assume that they are going to be hacking the shit out of the enemy, sending false signals/positives/alarms, shutting down doors and elevators, killing lights or power, etc?
They will probably be extremely busy with their own issues, most of them stemming from "potentially everyone in the office might be brainwashed to pick up an AK taped under their desk and start shooting", others stemming from "Constructs tend to be designed specifically as massive meatgrinders".
Also -- is there anything that Henriette could do to have repaired Kessler some more?
No, actually. Only Kessler actually has the proper spheres to heal himself well. Serafina can sort of do it but since she lacks Matter it's at half-effectiveness.
Finally, Enlightened Science procedures. In an effort to get you guys to participate more and not basically 100% rely on EarthScorpion writing in the only procedures, I will limit people to making only Enlightened Science suggestions for one character at a time now.
Help! I'm being oppressed! See the cruelty of the Technocratic Union and how it works to cause its own downfall! It's calcifying reality, preventing the free use of magic! Overthrow it!
...
Anyway, let's talk paradigms, as apparently I'm not allowed to just churn out spell-write-ins any more and have to instead tell you what to write in [1]. We'll get started with Henriette, because hers is pretty easy and doesn't require Jamelian levels of corkscrew thinking.
She now has Matter 4, Forces 3, Prime 2 and Correspondence 2. The Correspondence 2 is the really big deal here, and makes her radically more dangerous as a support character. Why?
Well, with Correspondence 2, a wizard could set someone on fire from a long way away, using the power of sympathy. By making a voodoo doll, one could set it on fire and so burn the target. Or you could make a demon out of raw flame, and send it out to burn one's foe, following the scent of their hair.
Now, Henriette is an enlightened scientist, or at the very worst an enlightened engineer. She doesn't believe in chanting before sending a conjured construct of flame to burn her foes alive. No, the very concept is nonsensical and honestly a little offensive. She's not some wizard. She's certainly not Henriette the Red, shut up shut up shut up.
No, as an enlightened scientist who's also a master materials engineer and fully trained with all kinds of high explosive weapons and is also, despite all Jamelia's best efforts, still not down with the whole "subtle" thing, her "remote ranged attacks" consist of drones. And smart missiles. And drones firing smart missiles. And kamikaze drones built from 40mm grenades which are indistinguishable from smart grenades apart from their extended hover time. And she can do precisely calculated launches from -pre-set-up launch sites to deploy them when needed. And she can use the camera feeds from other team members to aim her missiles, because she handed a few micromissiles out which she can remote lock on. And so on.
My point, I believe, is that Henriette now has the capacity to say "You, over there. Monsieur Vampire who clearly is a vampire because you have no body heat and your image is distorted on my cameras. Say hello to Drone Alpha-2. Drone Alpha-2, fire one Incendiary missile at the hostile." And then because she's controlling drones with her cyberneticly enhanced mind, she can enhance the roll with a (Int + Heavy Weapons) or (Int + Computers) or (Int + Pilot) roll, all of which she is rather good at.
Of course, such drone operation doesn't stop at firey missiles, oh no. Remote operated spiderdrones the size of a coin can infiltrate server rooms through the vents and get access to physically isolated computer systems (Correspondence + Forces hacking). Her scout drones can scout out an area from safety (Correspondence scrying), and then plant explosives to cause precise collapses (Correspondence + Forces + Matter demolition, hitting weak spots to cause changes in shape of things - ie, from solid object to 'rubble'). She can fire glue missiles to trap enemies, and she can have already handed out special ammo to teammates so when they fire, she can use their shot as a focus for her effects (so with Matter + Forces + Correspondence, it turns out that that special ammo she just told Jamelia to use did Corrosive and Cold damage, and so was very effective against Corrupted and Grineer). She also, importantly, has Prime (unlike Jamelia), and so she can fire Primal Energy enhanced rounds to do extra damage (it's a waste against vampires; just use fire), and scan the building for use of Primal Energy.
Like, you know. If that Matter Trans thing in the basement spins up.
We should probably deal with that. Like, quickly. Because not only is that a source of people suddenly arriving, but also there's the reactor down there and we really don't want people to set the reactor to overload. Plus, if we control the reactor, we can then externally cut power to the whole building and turn off security systems.
We should probably discuss the benefits of doing this.
...
There's another thing which is one of the really under-appreciated advantages of the Union paradigm, of course, and that comes from the fact that it's the winning paradigm and so it can be done with what I like to call Passive Aggressive Troll Casting. We've already seen some of it, with Jamelia's "Silly vampire! Don't you know the machine will fall apart if you try to pick it up like that?". Well, Henriette can do the same when scrying spying on people with remote drones. All one has to do is see something, and then make a plausible declaration about it. It's not even magic from the Unionist's PoV. It's making astute observations about the world.
For example, Henriette can now declare "The magnetic seals on this door are defective; they're barely holding it shut." If she tells the attack team this, then they find they can kick down the door with a solid boot. Good thing she noticed that, right? Or "That bit of hypertech he's carrying doesn't look like it's been maintained properly. The batteries are flat". And won't the person who tries to fire the laser rifle have such a surprise. Sadly Primium artefacts are much more durable to this kind of thing. She can even do things like "Creating fireballs in your hands and throwing them at us isn't very safe, because with the kind of heat involved to damage power armour, you're going to burn yourself from the convection". And lo and behold, when the Hermetic creates the fireball, he gets hit by her Correspondence + Forces attack because his own fireball is the focus for horrific burns to his hands.
I'll summarize Serafina for you guys to save EarthScorpion the trouble of writing more stuff on her.
Serafina has the spheres of Life 4, Mind 4, Correspondence 2, and Prime 2. ES has gone over why Correspondence 2 is very useful (it allows for distance casting), and the use of Prime 2 (it lets you deal aggravated damage to supernaturals, although they get to soak it as either Bashing/Lethal dependent on what the original attack's damage was).
"How does a doctor work while safely ensconced in an armored car", you might ask. Well, that's simple. All three agents are walking around with all the foci she needs. She can shoot them up with bioengineered microorganisms before they exit, or simply use their armor medical monitoring systems to do things. Kessler's got all those bionics, which she understands well enough to use to alter his meat-traits. Her paradigm of bioengineering and medicine is quite workable in remote-"I gave them a drug that does exactly this", for example.
So, Life 4 lets you remotely improve physical attributes or create things like 'armored skin', 'claws', and so on. Drastic changes to physical structure, like turning into a swan, are impossible, but that's not something in-paradigm anyways and of limited use. Life 3 lets her, in conjunction with Correspondence 2, remotely heal friendlies or harm living enemies. Life 4 also allows her to resuscitate someone if they're very recently dead, or resuscitate the slightly longer-term dead for very short periods of time (generally only enough so you can use it in conjunction with Mind to get answers or impressions).
Mind 3 lets her create telepathic networks with allies, or create more complicated mind shields. Mind 4 lets her do mind control-overriding someone else's conscious mind to do things. She can increase everyone's mental attributes with Mind 3/Corr 2. Mind 3/Corr 2 also lets her read someone's thoughts remotely, while Mind 2/Corr 2 let her read merely surface thoughts, if she wants a weaker (but easier to use) effect. Mind 4 lets her browse memories, although she can't edit them. Mind 2/Corr 2 also let her give people mental impulses, such as the British embassy aphrodisiac bombing.
And, of course, she can do passive-aggressive troll casting just as well, if not better than Henriette.
*Henriette sulks*
Don't worry Henriette, we all love our only tsundere. Hers, of course, would be biological-"I see he's afraid and is going to miss his shot", "he's so stressed out he'll have a heart attack", "all those augmentations are just begging for implant rejection under full combat operation..."
Help! I'm being oppressed! See the cruelty of the Technocratic Union and how it works to cause its own downfall! It's calcifying reality, preventing the free use of magic! Overthrow it!
...
Anyway, let's talk paradigms, as apparently I'm not allowed to just churn out spell-write-ins any more and have to instead tell you what to write in [1]. We'll get started with Henriette, because hers is pretty easy and doesn't require Jamelian levels of corkscrew thinking.
She now has Matter 4, Forces 3, Prime 2 and Correspondence 2. The Correspondence 2 is the really big deal here, and makes her radically more dangerous as a support character. Why?
Well, with Correspondence 2, a wizard could set someone on fire from a long way away, using the power of sympathy. By making a voodoo doll, one could set it on fire and so burn the target. Or you could make a demon out of raw flame, and send it out to burn one's foe, following the scent of their hair.
Now, Henriette is an enlightened scientist, or at the very worst an enlightened engineer. She doesn't believe in chanting before sending a conjured construct of flame to burn her foes alive. No, the very concept is nonsensical and honestly a little offensive. She's not some wizard. She's certainly not Henriette the Red, shut up shut up shut up.
No, as an enlightened scientist who's also a master materials engineer and fully trained with all kinds of high explosive weapons and is also, despite all Jamelia's best efforts, still not down with the whole "subtle" thing, her "remote ranged attacks" consist of drones. And smart missiles. And drones firing smart missiles. And kamikaze drones built from 40mm grenades which are indistinguishable from smart grenades apart from their extended hover time. And she can do precisely calculated launches from -pre-set-up launch sites to deploy them when needed. And she can use the camera feeds from other team members to aim her missiles, because she handed a few micromissiles out which she can remote lock on. And so on.
My point, I believe, is that Henriette now has the capacity to say "You, over there. Monsieur Vampire who clearly is a vampire because you have no body heat and your image is distorted on my cameras. Say hello to Drone Alpha-2. Drone Alpha-2, fire one Incendiary missile at the hostile." And then because she's controlling drones with her cyberneticly enhanced mind, she can enhance the roll with a (Int + Heavy Weapons) or (Int + Computers) or (Int + Pilot) roll, all of which she is rather good at.
Of course, such drone operation doesn't stop at firey missiles, oh no. Remote operated spiderdrones the size of a coin can infiltrate server rooms through the vents and get access to physically isolated computer systems (Correspondence + Forces hacking). Her scout drones can scout out an area from safety (Correspondence scrying), and then plant explosives to cause precise collapses (Correspondence + Forces + Matter demolition, hitting weak spots to cause changes in shape of things - ie, from solid object to 'rubble'). She can fire glue missiles to trap enemies, and she can have already handed out special ammo to teammates so when they fire, she can use their shot as a focus for her effects (so with Matter + Forces + Correspondence, it turns out that that special ammo she just told Jamelia to use did Corrosive and Cold damage, and so was very effective against Corrupted and Grineer). She also, importantly, has Prime (unlike Jamelia), and so she can fire Primal Energy enhanced rounds to do extra damage (it's a waste against vampires; just use fire), and scan the building for use of Primal Energy.
Like, you know. If that Matter Trans thing in the basement spins up.
We should probably deal with that. Like, quickly. Because not only is that a source of people suddenly arriving, but also there's the reactor down there and we really don't want people to set the reactor to overload. Plus, if we control the reactor, we can then externally cut power to the whole building and turn off security systems.
We should probably discuss the benefits of doing this.
...
There's another thing which is one of the really under-appreciated advantages of the Union paradigm, of course, and that comes from the fact that it's the winning paradigm and so it can be done with what I like to call Passive Aggressive Troll Casting. We've already seen some of it, with Jamelia's "Silly vampire! Don't you know the machine will fall apart if you try to pick it up like that?". Well, Henriette can do the same when scrying spying on people with remote drones. All one has to do is see something, and then make a plausible declaration about it. It's not even magic from the Unionist's PoV. It's making astute observations about the world.
For example, Henriette can now declare "The magnetic seals on this door are defective; they're barely holding it shut." If she tells the attack team this, then they find they can kick down the door with a solid boot. Good thing she noticed that, right? Or "That bit of hypertech he's carrying doesn't look like it's been maintained properly. The batteries are flat". And won't the person who tries to fire the laser rifle have such a surprise. Sadly Primium artefacts are much more durable to this kind of thing. She can even do things like "Creating fireballs in your hands and throwing them at us isn't very safe, because with the kind of heat involved to damage power armour, you're going to burn yourself from the convection". And lo and behold, when the Hermetic creates the fireball, he gets hit by her Correspondence + Forces attack because his own fireball is the focus for horrific burns to his hands.
Depending on how things work out we might be able to deploy a version of that earworm thing I was asking about earlier via the PA system*. I imagine that the Void Adepts would appreciate it if all the potentially hostile Sleepers were busy sitting at their desks and staring into space whilst bullets and body parts are flying all around them.
Depending on how things work out we might be able to deploy a version of that earworm thing I was asking about earlier via the PA system*. I imagine that the Void Adepts would appreciate it if all the potentially hostile Sleepers were busy sitting at their desks and staring into space whilst bullets and body parts are flying all around them.
Think Arthur C Clarke's 'The Ultimate Melody'
*Assuming this building has one and we can get one of Henriette's robots to hook into it.
Vulgar so would get paradox, because mind control earworms are out of Consensus. Henriette has no Mind sphere. People will naturally try to fight it, and spend wp to resist, because it's the precise opposite of Jamelia's large-scale subtle Mind + Entropy effects which work to make people do what they want to do naturally. Liable to get countermagiced because it's a blatantly magical effect interfering with their stuff so they'll act to counter it.
Vulgar so would get paradox, because mind control earworms are out of Consensus. Henriette has no Mind sphere. People will naturally try to fight it, and spend wp to resist, because it's the precise opposite of Jamelia's large-scale subtle Mind + Entropy effects which work to make people do what they want to do naturally. Liable to get countermagiced because it's a blatantly magical effect interfering with their stuff so they'll act to counter it.
A more workable solution (that I made sure could be done before suggesting) would be to have Henriette's robots modify the fire alarms to let off disorientating ultra/infrasonic pulses. We wouldn't be able to hack into isolated computers at the same time though, so we can either make the fight slightly easier or have a higher chance at getting intel.
I'd like a clarification, since I can't remember at the moment due to Summer Training Camp and my body feels like shit.
If we have Correspondence 2, doesn't that mean we're limited to Life/Matter/Whatever 2 as well if we do effects beyond sensory range? I recall reading something about this ruling to prevent shenanigans like... Targeted Biochemical Vitrivirus [Life 3/Entropy 3/Correspondence 2] or something similar.
I'd also like question whether Enlightened Hypermathematics allows for the usage of Gun-Kata? Something like... Entropy 3/Time 2 to predict probable projectile trajectories, granting bonuses to dodging? Because this is something the VAs might probably use.
[X] (0.8x) Take it fast. Shock tactics will get you the victory.
[X] You're here for the loot, right? Hit Floor 4 and raid their security armory.
All the guards in the world are of little use if you've got all their guns. And if we get to the barracks quickly, we might be able to bottle up a good part of their manpower before it can be deployed. Have Dr. Rosario toss in a few high grade soporifics or hallucinogens to keep them out of the fight, or maybe even invert their loyalties if we can think of a good Procedure. (Dr. Rosario hits them with an aerosol that reverses the neurochemical responses for friend/enemy recognition or such, perhaps?)
And this is an assault. Speed is vital for getting inside your enemies response decision-curve. The more time he has to respond, the tougher the defense gets.
However comma space: Is it feasible for us to assault down to the Mat-Trans and use that to teleport us behind their defenses, or drop us right into their C&C room? If that is viable, we can let the VA's take the point on the conventional (haha, pun!) assault route while we head down to seize the Mat-Trans and the reactor as a prelude to leapfrogging their checkpoints by the power of Enlightened Science.
I'd like a clarification, since I can't remember at the moment due to Summer Training Camp and my body feels like shit.
If we have Correspondence 2, doesn't that mean we're limited to Life/Matter/Whatever 2 as well if we do effects beyond sensory range? I recall reading something about this ruling to prevent shenanigans like... Targeted Biochemical Vitrivirus [Life 3/Entropy 3/Correspondence 2] or something similar.
I'm not limiting it because it's boring and also because I can always jack the difficulty up via the "Epic Feat"/"Lack of Knowledge"/"Distance" modifiers to whatever I feel like if I feel like you guys are abusing it.
I'd also like question whether Enlightened Hypermathematics allows for the usage of Gun-Kata? Something like... Entropy 3/Time 2 to predict probable projectile trajectories, granting bonuses to dodging? Because this is something the VAs might probably use.
[X] Go and steal their vehicles at Level -3.
-> [X] (0.8x) Take it fast. Shock tactics will get you the victory.
Okay, so, why the fast assault? Simple. We've just hit Level -1. There is one security floor between us and Level -3, and therefore if we move fast we can hit it and get through it. We have Henriette, who has Matter 4 and so we can possibly quite literally bypass the floor, but even if they have something like primium underfloor layers we can try to get through before the defences are fully online. Cross and Jamelia both have Time and so can use their experience to avoid making mis-steps
And under that is Level -3. This is the "vehicle hangar". Remember, this is a Technocratic vehicle hangar. We're not just talking "really, really nice spy cars" here. We're potentially talking black helicopters, IFVs, combat mecha. We're also talking "Henriette has Forces 2, Correspondence 2 and so can remote pilot them using that rote in the VE book, thus allowing us to steal them even while the raid is going on. And if we can get Henriette into any mecha they have down there, we get another combat character into action - and remember, Kessler is also a good driver, so we can probably put him in his damaged state in one too. Those are potentially very nice assets which we can a) extract easily using remote piloting and b) are high value hardware. And if we steal their vehicles, they can't use them against us. And they can't escape in them.
Moreover, the hangar almost certainly connects up to Moscow's Metro-2, which even IRL has massive conspiracy theories related to it and has defecting KGB colonels saying things like "You still do not know the main KGB secret yet: a huge underground city, a whole communications network of such facilities. But they will not show you; they will never, of course.". That shit's just cool.
And then, if we can take control of the hangar, we're only one level above level-4. I'd just like to make clear what a big deal that is.
Basement -4: Reactor, Heavy Equipment Storage, Mat-Trans
Reactor - this is what's providing the power for the facility. If we control it, we can shut down the automated defences by cutting the power. We can also steal its tass-rich fuel and send it out in our stolen vehicles, if we're not going to try to maintain control of the building.
Heavy Equipment Storage - don't you want to see what Russian Technocrats considered to be "heavy equipment"? It may be mining gear which they've been using to build warrens for the Nosferatu, it may be parts for some superproject, it may just be things like "primium processing equipment". Either way, worth looking into.
Mat-Trans - this is a matter transporter. This is a big deal. Yes, if we control it we can use it. More vitally, if we control it, they can't use it. And when you think about all the things a Mat-Trans could be used for... well, these are Nephandi. With modifications using Dimensional Science, they could be transmitting matter from across the Dimensional Anomaly. Allowing EDEs access to our dimension. We need to control it, or failing it, shut it down because we can't let it exist in their hands.
Mat-Trans - this is a matter transporter. This is a big deal. Yes, if we control it we can use it. More vitally, if we control it, they can't use it. And when you think about all the things a Mat-Trans could be used for... well, these are Nephandi. With modifications using Dimensional Science, they could be transmitting matter from across the Dimensional Anomaly. Allowing EDEs access to our dimension. We need to control it, or failing it, shut it down because we can't let it exist in their hands.
[X] Go and steal their vehicles at Level -3.
-> [X] (0.8x) Take it fast. Shock tactics will get you the victory.
I agree with ES's reasoning on this.
Would it be possible to also have the VAs go soften up the security checkpoints while we do this?
Also, I would propose a [Mind 2/Entropy 3/Correspondence 2] rote from Jamelia to: 1) Get their security to rush to the security checkpoints while we go down, because any invaders are obviously trying to get to the Control Room, and 2) To put them into mild panic due to, ya know, being invaded in what they thought was their safe place.
These would clear out some opposition for us from effect 1, and maybe lower some of their dice pools or cause them to be more likely to botch from effect 2.
Would that require two separate rotes, or is it alright as-is?
EDIT: Just in case it would be helpful for people, I put a quick cheatsheet of our team's Spheres together here.
Would a mind/correspondence effect justified by infiltrating the tactical networks of any Hit Marks that are present be within Serafina's paradigm? Perhaps justified as by hitting them with a bioengineered virus she's distributed through the building that commands the peripheral nervous system in their flesh covering to transmit the payload to the HIT Marks synthetic brain by taking advantage of a security hole in the nerve-silicon interface that has been patched since these Technocrats defected.
Either to take them over and turn them on their masters (or to edit their sensor feeds so they think their masters are us and vice versa) or, less ambitiously, to watch through their eyes and identify their location?
