I assume our "allies" probably have this covered anyway, but perhaps we should suggest to them that "hacking" the security Armory and shutting it down might be a good idea? Granted, there are presumably a great many reasons this would not actually be possible in Reality, but hacking stuff that should by all logic be unhackable is supposed to be their thing, isn't it?
Too tired for the rest, but I suggest that Cross uses Time 3 to speed up his reaction time/use his EDE neurology for extra actions, and that Jamelia sets off a number of conflicting alarms to break up the enemy emergency response drill (corr 2/entropy 3 supplemented by subterfuge or terrorism)
Siddharth's presence is a major complicating factor. He can derail most of our plans, which rely on gathering up allies, simply by running around in his Technocratic Union power armor with his fellow Technocrats and his Technocratic HITMarks killing Reality Deviants in the most blatant ways possible.
No time right now to actually write but throwing out a suggestion:
Okay, nominally we want to get down to the reactor to shut it down for good, but we can maybe still work on things from here.
Jamelia: Forces 2+Matter 2 on the nearest unit with a large power draw. "Oh look, taking leave of your senses and attempt to 'overclock' something that already wasn't working well just blows up in your face. There's that Nephandic-influenced ingenuity for you."
Henriette: Combos off that with Corr 2+Forces 2+Matter 2. "And that unit failing quite so destructively seems to have sent a power surge all along the transmission lines leading up to the reactor. The reactor hasn't been mucked with and was engineered with enough safeguards to not explode, but it can't actually power anything using that trunk line to the rest of the tower."
Someone unfamiliar with the control systems of early nineties era exomuscle might mistake John Kessler's feats for RD martial art witchery, but the truth is that when you reach a certain level of augmentation, punching rockets out of the sky just sort of becomes one of those things you can do that you don't give much thought to.
Confronted with an angry, fanatic, technocrat purist armed with a rapid fire hypertech rocket launcher? John's just glad he remembered to set up that interference signal on his servo-control system. Every time a rocket gets close, its software faults, forgets where the ground is, and becomes much more easily handled. For a rocket.
Siddarth continues screaming obscenities as Kessler backhands yet another rocket out of the way to explode dramatically behind him. The cyborg frowns.
"Why aren't you firing lasers out of your eyes at me yet?" he asks, voice carrying across the room. "Some kind of software fault?"
Siddarth's screaming intensifies, and he mashes his fingers down on full autofire, trying to drown Kessler in rockets. Trying.
Anyways, what you guys have so far looks pretty solid.
We're Virtual Adepts, not Void Adepts. Sure, both groups have Correspondence as a specialty Sphere, but VAs usually have fuckall to do with the Umbra or anything off-world aside from hacking the things remotely, and the few that do are either former Voidy Cybersecurity or infiltrators (in either direction). Umbrawise we usually stick to the 'Web, and Virtually never leave the Near Umbra anyway.
And I'm pretty sure that the local Adepts aren't cross-Conventioning with the Void Engineers, that's more a Nexplorer thing than Cyberpunks.
...*ahem*. Anyway.
Things for Serafina to do...
Clean off the trace biological material on any equipment; using DNA as a trace for hypertechnology backprojection is a well-known practice, and taking measures against that sort of analytics is just good sense. [Correspondence 2] Handing out retroviral cocktail patches loaded with modified lycanthrope DNA traces to the personnel, giving them regenerative ability on par with those beings. [Correspondence 2 Life 3] Scratched that since we're at a two-tops limit
Whipping up an addiction-intensifier aerosol drug targeted against Vitae-using Enlightened Scientists, deployed via Henrietta's drones; the blood cripples normal Enlightened Science slowly over time, so amplifying the trace effects should disrupt any further Sciences used. [Correspondence 2 Mind 2]
Guys, guys. Actually put down solid suggestions on one (or two at most) procedures per person, and discuss those, instead of just throwing out ideas, because at which point I really don't know what you want people to do.
Even if you can't figure out a Procedure proper, saying what you want someone to roughly try to do (given their spheres) would be very helpful and may let me make some guesses.
Serafina: Anti-memetic defense injections for everyone, and overclocking combat boosters for the disposable clones.
Jamelia: Hypermathematic jamming by planning against her usual MO, Mind/Correspondence effects on the enemy to disorganize their reactions. Order the Custodian armor to follow & protect Serafina and Henrietta if it is not otherwise tasked. (They're the squishiest targets)
Henrietta: Micro-drone insertion to begin tapping/disrupting enemy comms and sensor systems in the building (The VA's can likely do the same thing better, but no way are we leaving that entirely in their hands.)
Kessler: Whatever repairs he can effect in the time left, see if he can use his Spirit friends to scout out the building?
Cross: Memorize the floor plan (he will know all access-ways, possibly where to make new ones) and establish a combat mind-link for the group.
@Kessler: healing HL is nice, but there's only so much you can heal yourself with life within a given time frame- and I think we're up against that limit. Instead I was thinking of some alternatives.
1. Forces 2/Matter 3 active armor procedure. Kessler runs a polarized field through his exomuscle, and reactivates his long suffering inertial limiters- originally a feature on early mode exomuscle to prevent an inexperienced user from ripping themselves apart. The system pulls extra kinetic energy beyond a certain limit away from the sensitive synthskin and whatever fleshy parts remain, and uses it to fortify any armor the user is wearing. This procedure essentially works as a forces shield against incoming projectiles- bullets, rockets, draining their kinetic energy and turning it into temporary extra armor.
2. Forces 2/Matter 3 reactive armor procedure. This works like above, but rather than using that energy to reinforce his existing armor temporarily, it instead diverts the energy to build a charge. Once the charge has reached a certain level, Kessler can release it as a devastating kinetic attack. Sure, he's lost the old electricity projector that was part of the original KTS he wore during that ill fated mission in '96, but he's learned a lot about exomuscle between then and now, and can easily route that power to overcharge his servomotors temporarily. This procedure works as a forces shield against incoming projectiles, draining their kinetic energy into a temporary 'battery', that can be used to add extra successes to any attack roll.
For Henrietta, honestly she doesn't really even need drones. These guys are using old techno surplus for a lot of their systems- Henreitta bets they haven't even bothered to change the NWO backdoors in the system. Or know how. She fires up her codebreaker program and- yep, sure enough, she's in the mainframe.
This is a forces 2 or 3/correspondence 2 procedure. Henrietta is wirelessly accessing the building mainframe, bypassing mundane defenses like 'basic password' 'ignoring certain hardware IDs' and other such trivial things by using an old NWO backdoor she knows. Success will give her full access to the building's internal computer systems, and theoretically its defense (ie: she can use the various systems as foci for her other procedures).
I'm sure Henriette can manage the hacking with or without drones. But there's a benefit to using the drones, which is that having drones present on-site sets up a situation that makes it easier for Henriette herself (as well as Serafina and Jamelia) to deploy other tricks. Hacking into an old NWO backdoor doesn't let Henriette institute "Plan D for Demolitions" using the explosives-carrying drones that she's conveniently already placed in structural weak-points.
I'm sure Henriette can manage the hacking with or without drones. But there's a benefit to using the drones, which is that having drones present on-site sets up a situation that makes it easier for Henriette herself (as well as Serafina and Jamelia) to deploy other tricks. Hacking into an old NWO backdoor doesn't let Henriette institute "Plan D for Demolitions" using the explosives-carrying drones that she's conveniently already placed in structural weak-points.
No, she can just activate the old auto-demolition system installed into every construct to prevent seizure by hostile elements to selectively collapse rooms, hallways, whatever. Remember that for all their protestations to the contrary, technocrats ARE mages. They don't actually need to physically carry the explosives in- they just need a plausible reason to be able to do something. I don't know necessarily that it matters too much mechanically whether we go with drones or hacking, it really just produces different results story wise.
No, she can just activate the old auto-demolition system installed into every construct to prevent seizure by hostile elements to selectively collapse rooms, hallways, whatever. Remember that for all their protestations to the contrary, technocrats ARE mages. They don't actually need to physically carry the explosives in- they just need a plausible reason to be able to do something. I don't know necessarily that it matters too much mechanically whether we go with drones or hacking, it really just produces different results story wise.
Yes, it does actually. Not least, "we didn't actually install an auto-demolition system" or "we deactivated it as soon as we turned against the Union because holy shit guys we're not stupid, we really didn't want them to collapse the building on top of us" means you don't have a focus.
If you don't have the focus, you can't do the magic.
If your focus is "I'm hacking the auto-demolition system", then you can't do it if there isn't an auto-demolition system or it's been turned off, just as much as a Hermetic whose trying to focus his magic down his staff to throw a fireball at you can't throw the fireball if you break his staff. Otherwise things turn into the worst kind of 2nd Edition Purple Paradigmism. And that's frankly dull and removes one of the great lures of Technocracy games, which is that you stick much closer to paradigm and it's much more of meaningful limitation than "I'm a wiiiiiizard" tends to become in Tradition games.
Plus, as Emy already pointed out, once we have the drones in place, we can pull much more useful other magical acts. A drone in place is not only a Correspondence link, it's also a valid focus for a vast swath of Forces and Matter effects. And we can even have Serafina use Henriette's drones as a focus - for example, telling Henriette to use the drone's shock on the back of the target's neck is not only Henriette's Forces attack, but Serafina's Life attack.
Plus, drones are a) cool and b) totally coincidental inside a Technocratic facility like this, because the broad generic Union paradigm can be rule of thumb measured as "20 years more advanced than IRL".
I'm aware that magick defends on having the foci. The foci in this case would actually be the computer system, just as in your example, the foci is the DRONE, not the 'explosives'. It having explosives is actually a result of the forces effect you're using. It doesn't actually have explosives.
'there isn't a demolitions system/it's been turned off' is possible, insofar as it is what the result is when you roll crap on your enlightenment, just as 'the trigger mechanism for the drones is jammed/they've got an interference signal running and the drones aren't working properly' might be if you crap out on your roll for the drones.
That said, yes, if you have physical drones to use, you can use those, and it's been said that Henrietta can use the other party members as remote foci- but the query I responded to didn't seem to be talking about either of those. The drones in question were really just a justification for coincidental magick use, much in the way of your '2nd edition purple paradigmism' you seem to be suggesting I'm advocating. You even outright say that I'm trying to advocate using "I'm a technocrat" for every paradigm justification, when actually you seem to be doing it with "I have drones for every possibility."
I'm trying to actually encourage variety, rather than having the answer for literally every single procedure Henrietta uses be "I have drones"
[Cross: Time precog linked to (all the 1-dot spheres he can tie together) running as he's a highly trained highly engineered combat monster who knows all the tricks and all the traps, and has OMGWTFBBQ high perceptiveness. He can hear a laser grid from the sizzle of the air molecules even if he couldn't see it from his wide EM vision, and knows exactly what would happen if we took a wrong step because he can tell where all the pressure pads are through training and the slightly different sonar profile of the tiles. Boosted using something like Wits + Alertness]
Because, you know, we're taking a fast approach, and someone with Time precog linked to sensory effects is pretty useful when it comes to not stepping on traps.
'there isn't a demolitions system/it's been turned off' is possible, insofar as it is what the result is when you roll crap on your enlightenment, just as 'the trigger mechanism for the drones is jammed/they've got an interference signal running and the drones aren't working properly' might be if you crap out on your roll for the drones.
No. If there's no self-destruct system, you can't hack it because it doesn't exist. And creating all the explosives throughout the entire building so it's wired up in that way is a vulgar Matter + Correspondence effect requiring a lot of successes, because there were not explosives wired up everywhere before, and now there are, and the people in the building know that.
Excuse me? And there I was thinking that the incredibly skilled pilot who is wired up so she's technically piloting her own body and who we're trying to encourage to be more subtle would probably be a good idea to have her support paradigm become drone-focussed, because drones are flexible, multirole, and she can make them herself because she has Matter 4. Because that way she can use her really high Int + Pilot pool to boost all her magic. Which is free dice.
Also, you can't hack things protected by an air gap under the Technocratic paradigm unless you can bypass the air gap. That is, you know, why we're sending in the drones. Because, you know, maybe the secure facility which knows the Virtual Adepts are their enemies might actually act to protect themselves from the paradigm of some of their common infowar enemies, and you can in fact defend yourself against a paradigm by denying them their focus even if you don't have adequate countermagic.
You cannot wirelessly hack Kessler under a technological paradigm, because he doesn't have WiFi. For a VA to try that, they have to pull things like "directly attacking his informational substrate", and that's vulgar. Just by denying them their focus, you've forced them into using vulgar magic. Playing paradigm is important, and attacking a target's foci is a great way to shut them down.
That's why one of the later actions we should have Henriette try to do with her drones is to target the focus computer that the local sysadmin is using to counter the intrusions.
No. If there's no self-destruct system, you can't hack it because it doesn't exist. And creating all the explosives throughout the entire building so it's wired up in that way is a vulgar Matter + Correspondence effect requiring a lot of successes, because there were not explosives wired up everywhere before, and now there are, and the people in the building know that.
Oh for the love of Christ, would you stop making shit up. The explosives ARE NOT the focus. They aren't. They're not a focus. Not on the drones, not on the building. There are no explosives. Nobody has any explosives anywhere. They don't exist.
They are what happens when the mage in question uses a forces effect in paradigm. A forces attack using corr/forces for remote casting has 'explosives on the drone' 'explosives in the building' as a result of a successful casting. The actual focus would be the drone, or the computer system, or whatever. There are no explosives, until a mage makes a successful enlightenment/arete roll to manifest the forces effect, and under the technocratic paradigm that effect is that there were explosives and they go off. They are not the focus, and no amount of insisting that they don't exist so we've denied people their focus will make it actually the case.
Similarly, the air gap is not removing someone's focus. It's going to be one of:
1. It can be a focus to use countermagick. We have an air gap, your wireless connectivity is useless.
2. It can be part of the creation of the construct, when specific functionality of reality- and magick within its bounds are defined. Within the construct reality works specifically in the technocratic paradigm defined at its creation, and air gaps preventing remote hacking is easily one of the things you can say. A virtual adept hacking in is not totally stumped, because his foci IS HIS COMPUTER, not the wireless signal, but it will increase the difficulty of doing so significantly, and he will accrue significant amounts of paradox by warping reality to his will. If you break his computer he will not be able to use it as a foci.
3. It can be a paradigm limitation. Technocrats can't breath in space. Trad mages can. Hermetics use and have true names, which they can use to gain difficulty breaks on corr and other magick directed at people whose true names they know, but won't work on people who do not have true names, like any given technocrat. They can still magick them, they just don't get the break. If the air gap is a specific technocratic paradigm limitation, and not just something you've made up or inferred from real life limitations, then yes, it could protect them from technocratic intrusion. It would do fuck all for anyone else's intrusions, but someone with the paradigm that says there is no way to bypass the air gap would be unable to bypass it.
[Cross: Time precog linked to (all the 1-dot spheres he can tie together) running as he's a highly trained highly engineered combat monster who knows all the tricks and all the traps, and has OMGWTFBBQ high perceptiveness. He can hear a laser grid from the sizzle of the air molecules even if he couldn't see it from his wide EM vision, and knows exactly what would happen if we took a wrong step because he can tell where all the pressure pads are through training and the slightly different sonar profile of the tiles.]
Because, you know, we're taking a fast approach, and someone with Time precog linked to sensory effects is pretty useful when it comes to not stepping on traps.
Jamelia should be running the same at all times, because holy shit 1-dot procedures are completely free for her. Justify her precog as a result of her extensive experience with Constructs and base assaults mixed with hyperstatistical computation. She should also have a Entropy 1/Forces 1/Correspondence 1/Time 1 aimbot up as well (enhanced by Dex+Firearms, of course), because there's no reason we can't be as hilariously lethal as the Russian VAs.
Jamelia should be running the same at all times, because holy shit 1-dot procedures are completely free for her. Justify her precog as a result of her extensive experience with Constructs and base assaults mixed with hyperstatistical computation. She should also have a Entropy 1/Forces 1/Correspondence 1/Time 1 aimbot up as well (enhanced by Dex+Firearms, of course), because there's no reason we can't be as hilariously lethal as the Russian VAs.
She can't, unfortunately; you need Time 2 for the precog to provide warning of things.
However, she can walk around with Listen I've Been Doing This Shit For Longer Than You've Been Alive, which is an "Entropy + all the other spheres she has at 1", which flags up plot-important phenomena under any of those spheres' sensory capacities she sees.
The Sons of Ether have a similar rote, called I've Got A Bad Feeling About This, although that only flags potential hazards until the mage has at least a decade of experience.
Hmm, I need some effect rolls from rolz by someone. This is me going in rough order of what's been suggested.
First, Jamelia's Mind 2, Entropy 3, Corr 2 effect (BES), roll 8d10e7 (diff + 3).
Second, using Kessler's Int + Engineering + Stunt (10d10e7) to enhance his Matter 3 effect (8d10e7, diff + 1) (Corn). Henriette is also capable of assisting, adding another 9d10e7 (difficulty + 1) to this. I would also have him roll for his Life effect but since it's basically just "look like a burn victim" I'll let it automatically succeed.
FunkyEntropy talks a game about Henriette's drones, so she needs to enhance them with Int + Engineering (12d10e7) to enhance her Matter 4 effect (9d10e7, diff + 2). Since Kessler has some level of Matter, and Serafina has some level of Correspondence, they can work together on it, giving her 2 additional automatic successes on her effect roll.
Stryp has suggested Serafina run mindshields on everyone, which is Int + Medicine (14d10e7) enhancing Mind 1/Corr 2 (8d10e7).
And the suggestion for Cross to run Time 2 precog, which is his Wits + Tactics (10d10e7) augmenting Time 2/Mind 1/Life 1/Forces 1/DSci 1 (7d10e7).
Please label exactly who you're rolling for and what, otherwise I will get very confused and have problems writing your update.
Jamelia:
Well, argh. We are spending Prime and Willpower on this, right?
2 Prime brings Jamelia down to one remaining, yeesh. Plus one success from willpower.
Kessler:
That's four successes; one goes to reduced difficulty, three to extra dice, IIRC?
So:
Hennriette's assisting of Kessler:
And I think I'll stop there, because I am rolling way too many ones.
OK, so, rather than just have a grab-bag of stuff that Serafina+Henriette can do with the drones, instead how about a list of what I think we ought to use them for:
Henriette:
-Use drones to disable cameras and other security devices in the immediate vicinity.
-Detect/hijack/disable automated defenses (aka HEY GUYS I FOUND THE TRAP!)
-Surveillance drones to scout the facility and, should the opportunity present itself, spread a little mayhem and chaos amongst the defenders. Distraction.
-Remotely sabotage/overload the circuits & wiring to disrupt the equipment in the security control room (this is a distraction, success is nice but not necessary)
-Hijack/disable/harass whoever's in the Security Control room (in conjunction with Serafina. Also a distraction).
-Hijack/monitor/disable/destroy security equipment/functions in Security Control room. Main goal.
-Hijack/monitor/disable/destroy targets of opportunity such as static defenses (auto-turrets) or HITMarks.
Serafina:
-Find concentrations of local resistance, gas them with substances that will amp up their aggressiveness/nervousness/confusion. Itchy-trigger finger, basically. Main goal.
-Blatant attempts at mind-controlling local resistance (this is a distraction).
-Drip acid from the ceilings to harass/attack (also a distraction).
-Remotely deploy combat drugs/healing mists to assist VA allies.
If we can take over the security systems we can start sending the defenders false information and pull off all sorts of neat tricks like having them ambush their buddies (which they're more likely to do if they're in a shoot-first-think-later state of mind).
-Find concentrations of local resistance, gas them with substances that will amp up their aggressiveness/nervousness/confusion. Itchy-trigger finger, basically. Main goal.
Director Petrokov is having a very bad early morning. He had just gotten to work after getting another fix of his preferred product, and his lovely morning was interrupted by two SUVs, a gold-plated BTR, and a (probably stolen) Paladin Sedan ramming their way through a three-inch thick titanium wall, destroying two of his emplaced gun turrets, and disgorging a squad of very, very suspicious looking figures who proceeded to methodically disable his security cameras within a few seconds.
They didn't give him a very good look at who they are, but he suspects they're Tunguskans and Virtual Adepts. Choristers wouldn't have brought quite the same level of firepower. He looks at the pattern they took the cameras out-yes, it's clear now. They took out the ones near their entrance, and made sure to take out the cameras in the stairwells heading down first, before going back up and eliminating the ones in the stairwells heading upwards, and are slowly moving to take those out. Yes. They must be moving to attack him. "Irina. Deal with the intruders. I have work to do."
His assistant in the hardened command center nods. "Deploying emergency barriers." Armored blast doors seal shut, forcing the enemy to go through the heavy defenses, rather than merely bypassing them, while allowing his forces relatively free movement. The elevators, he knows, will be secure. You'd have to be suicidal to enter an elevator in the middle of a Construct. Mikhail is busy coordinating the automated defense deployment, moving turrets across hidden rails to focus on defending the control center, and making sure backup systems are viable.
Director Petrokov has one more task, though, one only he can do. He keys the intercom, sends a message to all his workers. Fortunately, most of them were here working late, pulling night-shifts. Otherwise he would have been drastically undermanned for this. "This is Director Petrokov. I believe we are behind schedule on a project called Flaming Mongoose?" Cameras across the roof cut off from missile strikes. He orders his soldiers to deploy to counteract this.
***
Lizaveta Petrov is an accountant working for Molotek. She is a mother of two, and is looking forward to finishing this day so she can go back to her husband and children. She opens the locked cabinet in her desk and grabs the AK-101 and its 40mm grenade launcher from under the false floor, the armor vest from behind the coat rack. She knows her desk has been reinforced to survive small arms fire and will be an excellent ambush position.
Shura Romanov is a secretary for Molotek. When the call goes out, he knows what his job is. He looks at the lining of his suit-ah, yes, the explosive weave in it is still there, as is the directional micro-shrapnel. Pretend to surrender to the enemy, feign sympathy, and then self-detonate. As one of the youngest workers and one who lacks any close family who will be concerned with his disappearance, he has been volunteered for this task.
Filipp Ivanov is a data entry clerk. He has just proposed to his girlfriend. He opens his computer tower, revealing that most of it was just disguise for a tiny hypertech machine. Inside is a military-grade vest, a brace of grenades, and a machine pistol, loaded with high-velocity armor piercing rounds. He checks the pistol with the expertise of a trained commando and moves to intercept the hostiles.
Genya Fodorov is working as a janitor on the ground floor. He didn't want this job, but it paid better than the alternatives. He sidles over to the receptionist, looks at her meaningfully, and she nods, tossing him a heavy shotgun loaded with explosive ammunition. He mechanically racks the action, then scans the stairwell door like an special forces operative as floor tiles hinge upwards, becoming cover against incoming gunfire.
***
Inga Popov is an associate with Director Petrokov's breakway faction of NWO and Syndicate operatives. She expected another quiet day. She didn't expect to have been told to secure the motor pool against any incoming hostiles, just in case they're sending a few stragglers to steal a getaway vehicle. She definitely didn't expect to be told to crash-start all their HITMarks, both the old HITMark IIIs and the newer HITMark Vs, because of an incoming attack. She most definitely didn't expect that the attack would come with near-zero warning while the HITMarks were in cold storage. So when she hears that Security Checkpoint Delta is under assault by Superstitionists, she starts panicking. Well, she would be panicking if her emotions hadn't been suppressed by NWO brainwashing. Under NWO brainwashing, she is merely mildly annoyed.
She watches the reports impassively as she starts booting up the combat machines. Unfortunately, it's a cold-start, not a warm-start, and the four machines respond slowly, oh-so slowly. The high-density superconducting toroids of the IIIs have to be stored in a discharged fashion, same with the miniature reactors of the Mark V, and it takes minutes for them to start up. She sees several employees get torn apart despite taking cover behind reinforced steel cover by what looks like a solid laser beam from a bandage-wrapped intruder carrying a stolen Technocratic HMG-probably a HITMark they repurposed, she thinks, and mentally adjusts her estimates on how long it'll take. A ricocheting gunshot kills another pair of repurposed Molotek employees, and she adjusts the time she has a few seconds downwards as she frantically overrides safeties to get the HITMarks to activate faster.
Two more follow them, and a horde of consors, apparently solely to clear the area, moving quickly, too quickly for human reactions. One of them is in black powered armor, a Technocratic variant. She finds that suspicious, but the Tunguskans have plenty of them from defections. Another is wearing a combat chassis she isn't quite sure of. She wonders if it's a Tunguskan design or if it's something else. Both have IX-15s, weapons significantly more advanced than the X-12 Close Combat Intervention System that she's carrying in case she needs to defend themselves. The one in the strange combat chassis is phenomenally lethal, parkouring over cover while firing the IX-15 one handed. It's a foolish firing stance for anyone else, but whoever he-or she-is manages it well, nailing perfect headshots every time whenever someone pokes their head so much as a centimeter above their cover, putting short bursts through anyone who manages to hide. The HITMark and other power armored RD seem to have given up on matching the man's killcount and have settled for making sure nobody can flank him and catch him in a crossfire as he runs through hails of gunfire and grenades without so much as being hit once.
Inga mentally reduces the time she has even further. She's going to be cutting it close.
A heavy behemoth of Tunguskan make charges through concentrated autocannon fire from several turrets on Checkpoint Alpha, staggers, forcefield flaring, from stepping over an anti-tank mine, and then manages to make it through the fire, putting its nuclear-powered flamethrowers to use and melting the gun turrets, and the employees manning them, into bubbling radioactive goo. But it isn't entirely one-sided. One of the hostiles is slightly too slow and takes a direct hit from a 40mm gyroc from a modified RG-6. She flies backwards, smoke pouring out of the fist-sized wound in her torso, and bursts into pink mist. A dying employee on Delta waits until one of the consors gets close and then self-detonates, mortally wounding the unfortunate subject.
At least some of them are going down, Inga thinks. But they're almost through. She's 90% complete on the HITMark deployment. She just needs a few more-
She hears the cacophonous roar of an Iteration X heavy machine gun as orange tracers literally saw their way through the heavily reinforced door and kick it down. Desperately, she reaches for the "HARD LAUNCH" button, overriding everything to activate the HITMarks, even partially charged. She takes several hits as one of them shoots her again and again, but she ignores the fatal wounds from NWO conditioning and- Jamelia's precision shot takes off her hand at the wrist.
She slumps, her eyes facing the motor pool and the ex-Union assets. There's a Spectre limo there, as well as a Syndicate luxury car, a superbike, and a pair of Paladins designed to resemble Chaikas. She cannot let the Reality Deviants get access to any of them. If they do, she will be summoned again after her death, tormented eternally by the Baali's masters for sadistic fun. But perhaps she can- perhaps she can actually scuttle the vehicles. She whispers into her microphone, trying to command the vehicles to self-destruct.
She manages to pronounce the first syllable. Another gunshot. The world goes black.
Well, that experiment failed miserably. We'll go back to letting people do suggestions for multiple people for now.
Now, as for Enlightened Science: Notice that it's actually fairly organic to the people's skills and the genres involved. Director Petrovich, being ex-NWO, is activating brainwashed soldiers. Irina, as a Syndicate member, made sure to have heavy blast doors installed, and Mikhail is doing the Iteration X thing of "GUNS POPPING OUT WHEREVER I FEEL LIKE GUNS SHOULD POP OUT".
Anyways, because of a very timely botch, you now have access to two inactive HITMark Vs (Security Variant) and two inactive HITMark IIIs. You also have the aformentioned motor pool. This is probably a good thing because you just lost a Bob and the VAs are down one man. Molotek is serious business.
So vote time.
[ ] (0.8x) Assault upwards to the command center.
[ ] (1.2x) Assault downwards to the reactor. FYI: They probably realize what you're actually doing and that I-Am-Ivan-Man (who is, in fact, playing loud Russian heavy metal while he flamethrowers innocent Molotek employees) is the distraction, combined with Henriette.
[ ] (1.6x) Yeah fuck it, let's get out of here. Take a quick detour, hit the heavy equipment storage to see what's viable there, and grab all the vehicles and run. Henriette can remote drive.
[ ] (+0.2x to any one choice) take it slow. You're getting fatigued and you're getting sloppy, you better actually take a short break before you get, like, unluckily blindsided by a RPG-29. That'll probably grievously wound anyone short of Kessler, and even he's going to feel it.
Be Serafina:
[ ] (2.0x) Serafina needs to get to work pronto on deactivating this brainwashing. Tell me how.
[ ] (0.8x) Serafina is the only one here who can reprogram biochips, like the ones HITMark Vs run on. Have her start up the HITMark V (Security Variants) for your side.
[ ] Write-In
Be Henriette:
[ ] Continue distracting them.
[ ] Remotely assist the assault team (how?)
[ ] (2.0x) Make sure they can't self-destruct the motor pool.
[ ] (1.5x) Reprogram the HITMark IIIs. Sure, they're out of date early-20th century designs, but they're pretty well armed, what with an automatic grenade launcher and a heavy machine-gun, and they're almost as tough as the Vs, even if they're slower and less accurate.
Willpower: 5/7
Prime Energy: 1/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incapacitated/Dying
Current Injuries: None
Current Effects:
None
Paradox: 0
Soak: 8B/7L/0A (6B/6L from armor, 4 Armor HLs)
Dodge DV: 6/10 (+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:
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: 1/6
Willpower: 7/8
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
Fast-Bayesian Pattern Matching: Time 2/DSci 1/Forces 1/Life 1/Mind 1 precognition
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: 6/14
Willpower: 7/7
Prime Energy: 5/5
Paradox: 2 (2 permanent)
