I am vaguely wondering what happens to Enlightened Scientists who have moral qualms over some of what the Technocracy does. I mean, is it really necessary to vat-grow clones to be thrown away as cannon fodder to defend humanity? Is all the Orwellian mind-control and brainwashing of the NWO really justifiable? Is it a good idea to let the Iterators continue to rush headlong into Seed AI research and building deathbots? For some reason I have trouble imaging a robust internal debate about the many ethically questionable (and dubiously wise) courses pursued by the various Conventions, and someone who joins the Technocracy because it protects Sleepers might very well start getting a bit disillusioned...
In general? They get quietly shuffled to places where 'strong sense of ethics' is not actually a huge problem, like "beating cancer" or "building modern infrastructure in poor countries" or "shooting Nephandi". It works, which coincidentally has allowed a lot of these ethically questionable activities to go on continuously.
In general? They get quietly shuffled to places where 'strong sense of ethics' is not actually a huge problem, like "beating cancer" or "building modern infrastructure in poor countries" or "shooting Nephandi". It works, which coincidentally has allowed a lot of these ethically questionable activities to go on continuously.
Which, of course, is responsible for a lot of the state of the void-dwelling pre-1999 population of the Technocracy. The Earth-side population was forced to remain more grounded and do things like "pay people to give them information" rather than "abduct and mind-trawl them" rather more often, because abduction is hard, goes wrong, and you don't have unlimited assets while a few thousand dollars and a Mind effect linked to that is a pretty effective means of information gathering, all in all [1]. The void-dwelling population got to live in Horizon Realms where a lot of the limitations were removed.
That's why the modern Earth side Technocracy is made up of the overworked, underresourced poor bastards running around trying to be a global conspiracy with several components they relied on removed, while Threat Null is made up of the people who felt that the best idea ever was to find WW2 Japanese war criminals and put them in combat mecha.
This is why Horizon Realms are a bad thing for everyone, Technocracy and Traditions alike, and the stifling weight of the Consensus is the best thing around for keeping a check on mages because it means they have to shape their actions to take into account what other people believe and think [2]. Even when Jamelia treats humans as collections of levers she has to pull, she's still acknowledging that they have their own beliefs and feelings, and it's her job to try to use that to shift things, slowly. Indeed, she has to spend a lot of time trying to work out why people think what they do. That's probably why she has so much quiet contempt for Panopticon, who don't do any of that whole "empathy" and "try to make them work for you" thing, and just break out the plasma cannons, the drone strikes, and the HITMarks.
But then again, both the NWO and the Syndicate do have a very humanist core to them, on their "good" side. Both of them hold that people fundamentally matter, that you should always try to have the general population on your side, that technology is only a tool rather than a goal in itself, and that the best thing to do to an enemy is to convert them. The Ivory Tower of the NWO is the place in the Union which has academic freedom and dissent is accepted as natural; the Syndicate is prone to extreme ecumenicalism because their own fiscal paradigm can cross many boundaries and it's very, very abstract and goes into some weird (and metaphysically very accurate) places.
[1] Albeit less ideologically pure.
[2] I know, right? Drawing the precisely opposite conclusion that the writers of Mage would want you to
[X] (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.
- Everyone has multiple actions. Use one of those actions to hunker down behind a Chest-High Wall and refresh DVs while Jamelia does field surgery to her unlucky enemies at knifepoint.
Be Serafina:
[X] (2.0x) Serafina needs to get to work pronto on deactivating this brainwashing.
Be Henriette:
[X] (2.0x) Make sure they can't self-destruct the motor pool.
- Load the HITMark III and Vs into the vehicles, then intercept their self-destruct order, send a false positive back and remotely burn out the self destruct devices after locating transmitters.
Anyway - honestly, with the vehicles and the HITMarks and the level of the defences here, I think we might be pushing too far. If we get away with all their cars and four of their HITMarks, we've done notable damage to them here, and they're going to have to use even more influence to cover this up, which Ivan can track. After all, we know that Panopticon seems to be going after Filpov, and I'd really rather not take casualties when we might need to act to protect the local Union forces if the vampires decide they were behind the attack.
I'm just considering the risk of us pushing our luck.
[X] (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.
-> [X] Modified - depends on what's down in the Heavy Equipment Storage. If whatever there is valuable but immobile, for example, we'll need to sabotage it. On the other hand, if it's heavy weapons, then we might want to turn them against the reactor. We won't know until we find out.
-> [X] Make it clear to the VAs whatever we do, and be prepared to cover their retreat. We promised Iosefova we wouldn't betray them, so that's another reason we shouldn't overcommit; we'll piss her off if it seemed we "left them to die" or "fled" when we could have covered their retreat.
Karar Zhukov takes one last look at the family photo in his locker before closing it and stepping in line with Anali Creschen. He's almost got enough money saved up to bring mama and papa to the city now, instead of that creaking old house in the middle of nowhere. Working maintenance on the motor pool isn't as satisfying as it was in the army, but the pay is levels above what he used to get. He checks the fit of his vest, the ammo in his assault rifle, and heads down the hall with his coworker.
Just a few more months and they can be a whole family again.
Serafina's eyes widen as she tracks the data from the field teams.
"BRIGHT NOVEMBER," she whispers. Well, maybe not. BRIGHT NOVEMBER, one of those little projects the Progenitors provide consultation advice to the New World Order on, is too recent for this. But the same principle, that it's a biofeedback linked network of indoctrinated agents linked together by subliminal microchips which use a cloud topography to parallel-process combat data from the central hub... yeah, it has all the hallmarks. "Are they crazy? A mass activation like this?"
Maybe they are crazy, she considers. After all, the people in charge are EDE-worshipping H^2 addicts. That's going to leave them with all kinds of little quirks and abnormalities, because it's really not good for the human mind. Also makes practice of Enlightened Science harder, which should be an advantage. But still, a pre-BRIGHT NOVEMBER mass activation like this? She's willing to bet that they're overloading their buffers to do this. The indoctrinated field assets are going to be suffering strokes, brain damage, increased risk of Alzheimer's... all kinds of things from this. She can push it further. Push the biofeedback to the hub. If they can't handle the increased noise she's throwing at them, they'll need to either disconnect the network, or she'll cook the brain of the boss up there. Either way, she wins.
Serafina grins to herself, a little bit madly. Look at her. She's acting like an Iterator with all this hacking. But it's Progenitor-style-hacking! Complete with brain-liquifying biofeedback! Nevermind that Iterators have Black ICE and do brain-liquifying biofeedback all the time. "Belltower," she says, urgently down the line. "I know how to deal with the sequestrated employees."
"Tell me." Just... cold. The other woman isn't quite unflappable, but she is very hard to flap.
"There should be a chip inside one of their ears. It's wetware hooked up to their auditory nerve," Serafina says. "See if you can find it. Check the left ear first."
There is a grisly noise, remarkably like a combat knife cutting through flesh, and then a second one. "There's no chip". Jamelia says.
"No chip?" Serafina goes. She almost panics, remembers yet again why she decided lab work was better than field work. At least in the lab, if you had an unexpected situation you had logs, you had previous research data to go on-right, she thinks. Previous research data. She looks through logs. She doesn't have many Russian ones, but she knows from her parents that was a lot of duplication going on in the Cold War. She just needs a potentially analogous project. "Director, remind me of the symptoms you're seeing, in exact detail. And have you seen this before?"
"Hostile Sleepers have perfect morale, excellent coordination despite no visible C3 network, seem to have no shock reflex and require mechanica-" her voice is drowned out from a burst from the IX-15 "-mechanical stops. Looks like... some mass-deployed variant of SILVER LAKE or SHADOW PANTHER."
"Right." Serafina says, quickly browsing TUSecureNet for the projects. Right. Subliminal psychological brainwashing and pharmaceutical conditioning for assassins, and-yes, there it is, a Russian equivalent. Potentially mass deployable with an enhanced operative using nootropics to coordinate-
-and there. The specific nootropics create a vulnerability to epilepsy-like seizures.
"Okay, Director. I can break the network but I'm going to need to have you work with me on this. Belltower, I need you to get me a fast-scan of their neurology so I can predict the kill pattern for this network. If I can find it, I can give this guy a fatal seizure." She switches lines to the Virtual Adepts. "The enemies have initialized combat brainwashing on their employees," she says quickly. "They're coordinated via a single operative."
"Oh, no shit!" one of them snaps back. "Is that why they're all armed with rocket launchers and very, very irate? I'd never have guessed! That was sarc..."
"Speaking as a cyborg ninja who's played with mass mind-links, how are they coordinating? Biochips?" a woman interupts, over the noise of automatic weapons fire. "Hub and spoke?"
"No, old fashioned drugs and brainwashing. Probably done early on when they got their employee training.," Serafina says efficiently. It's nice to see someone among the Virtual Adepts knows what they're doing. Well, not nice-nice, because they're a bunch of Reality Deviants, but useful. "Central operator is probably using sensory interceptors to actually coordinate them. That's the exploit."
"DDOS bioneural feedback?" the Adept says.
"No, not a direct neural link. Too much information for human mind to normally process-enhancile drugs create epilepsy vulnerability. Do you have visual display?"
"Yes." A male voice responds. "I have a holoprojector in this EW kit. Just need to code it."
Serafina smiles. "Thank you. You've just saved my day. I need you to broadcast this fractal pattern in a way so they can see it."
"Okay. You're the expert." Serafina is wondering if he's reacting to her expertise or her voice.
"Good. I'll coordinate my end. Max noise, max pain, fry his brain!" the female VA says in a feat of improvised poetry.
***
Back in the nice and comfy seat of the Syndicate currently-a-solid-gold-BTR (seriously, what was up with that? Was an entire Convention made up of men who felt they couldn't compensate for their small dicks in the proper way, which was to give Iteration X more funding to build giant robots which they'd get to try out occasionally), Henriette sits perfectly still. She doesn't need anything as crude as a keyboard when she's simply having to think to type in commands.
She can hear Serafina swearing to herself, and ignores that. She's busy instilling havoc and a fear of the wrath of the Iterators upstairs, being the best distraction ever - which is to say a distraction that if you don't deal with her annoying little drones, she'll cut your power and then it will turn out she was the real plan all along. Henriette is starting to see what Director Belltower must feel like all the time, and it's... well, it has things going for it. It is more complicated and there's fewer giant robots with 20mm cannons, which is a distinct downside, but on the other hand her plans always seem to be shaped so her construct wins either way. And Henriette is distinctly in favor of that.
Henriette hates losing.
Well, her current orders are to distract the hostiles and aid in the recovery of tech from these renegades. Which is a very important job. And... Henriette winces as she follows the feed from Director Belltower. They almost self-destructed the cars! That would have gone not as planned at all! She needs to disable the self-destruct! And get these cars out of here until she can properly strip out whatever command overrides they have.
If she was using her body, her hands would have been flying over the keyboards as she sent some of her microdrones towards the cars. As it was, however, she merely twitched slightly. Strip the aerials, pull out the standard overrides, hope that they didn't have special features installed. She'd have her drones latch into the steering circuitry, extending electron probes, and she could directly interface with the hardware. Drive them as easily as she could move her arms.
But how does she stop them self-destructing if they have something hidden? Once she's in control she'll have more time to tear out even more contaminated hardware, but she needs time. And... oh no, she can't spend time both booting up the HITMarks and dealing with the cars. What will she do? She needs more time. Her orders are to... yes, Henriette realizes, staring at the data streams. She's been trusted to get the salvage out. The local Union needs it.
She'll show Director Belltower! She can be subtle! She can be incredibly subtle. She can be so subtle that they almost forgot to give her a commendation for subtlety because they didn't realise how subtle she was being, although she won't be that subtle because that would be bad. She'll get the cars to send out their self-destruct sequence without actually blowing up, so the hostiles won't look for them because they think they're gone. She's hyper-crammed some of the books Director Belltower gave her on the reading list, and she's learned things about deception!
"Kessler," she says shortly. "Put each of those HITMarks in the driver seat of each vehicle and buckle them up. Don't put any of them in the same vehicle. I'll be able to work on them and if I can get them booted up later, I'll send them to help, but this lets me remote-drive them out."
She can hear the grin of the mummy-like man, even if his face under the bandages looks like a permanently grinning metal skull. "A-okay," he says. "Can do! Man, I'd love some old Mark IIIs on side. They're just so trusty and reliable!"
And obsolete, Henriette doesn't say. It would be cruel. Anyway, her drones are busy cutting and splicing wires and assuming direct control of the vehicles, tearing out wires and reading memory banks. And... ah, yes. Her digital self-image reaches out for the data-sheets with the self-destruct confirmation sequences on them. Maybe she'll ask Kessler to throw some smoke grenades around. For that proper "the cars are on fire" feel.
***
Up in the command center, the Director looks up from his command chair at the swearing from Irina. "What is it?" he asks.
"It's a good news bad news situation," she says, eye twitching slightly. He notices the signs of Vitae withdrawal in her. Well, they should all be getting more for this defense. "Bad news; the motor pool just self-destructed in sequence. And I'm getting no vitals from Associate Inga Popov, whose job was to ensure its safety. Good news; the motor pool just self-destructed, which means the hostiles won't have access to them. And even if the hostiles took out all the local cameras, the message sigs read as valid, so we won't need to worry about that."
Director Petrokov groans. The day has just got worse. Much worse. He doesn't think how much he'll have to pay for replacements. If he can even get his hands on them. Fucking Reality Deviants. And then his day gets very, very much worse, as he fails to close his eyes before he gets hit by the Basilisk. He shudders, bites his own tongue, flails around with crazed strength sufficient to snap bones, until Irina and Mikhail manage to stabilize him. It hurts. He hurts. At least his last combat plan is in operation. "Irina. Mikhail. I need firewalls and anti-transport buffers up around this room." he manages to say. "We absolutely need those employees contributing to our defense."
They nod. It'll reduce his ability to deploy weapons or other traps in front of the enemy, but keeping himself alive is important. "Also, get our guests into the body bags so we can get them out via helicopter. Now that we know that they're not attacking from the roof, we can risk a rooftop extraction."
***
A Victor takes a RPG to the chest as Jamelia snap-shots its firer. Technocratic body armor and reinforcers hold up pretty well, which is to say the Victor is only mostly in pieces instead of actually vaporized. Jamelia's defended constructs before, although in her case they didn't have dozens of brainwashed employees to soak up gunfire. It taught her that she didn't particularly want to be on the other side. It annoys her, because she doesn't like the sound of bullets ricocheting off of her armor. Maybe Kessler is used to that kind of thing, but Jamelia Belltower is made of flesh, and although the ideals underneath might be bulletproof it is somewhat hard to advance them while decomposing. So when she gets a phone call, she is even more annoyed.
"This is Belltower. What is it? I'm busy."
"Jamelia! This is Ivan! I have excellent news for you, tovarisch!" He sounds legitimately happy. Probably because she's annoyed, the NWO operative thinks, as she fires a 40mm grenade into a HMG turret that has just popped out of the roof.
"Get on with it."
"Filipov is trying to surrender to me. He says western Technocrats have been killing his men, destroying his things, and he would like to give us his entire remaining stock in exchange for being able to live his natural life out quietly. I owe you an apology for the way I treated you. You give us this prize, exactly what we wanted solely to demonstrate your sincerity."
Jamelia raises an eyebrow. It's invisible in the armor, but anyone who knew her would have realized just what it meant. "Say that again?" She can understand Ivan perfectly well. But this-things never go that well in operations.
"Filipov is trying to surrender to us. He still has a significant amount of his war materiel. He merely wishes to take his money and retire to a dacha somewhere quiet." And Jamelia realizes what's happened. Filipov and Ivan don't know the difference between Panopticon and her. They think she's had enough pull to bring in a pan-Union assault force. She barely resists the urge to break out in laughter at how awry enemy plans have gone.
"I'm currently under heavy fire right now, talk to you later about it. Accept his equipment, but don't keep him in anything you might mind losing. There might be reprisal attacks." Make him think it's the hemophages who are going to be doing reprisals, or maybe the Choristers. Not Panopticon. Definitely not Technocrats who may actually be rogue agents, or worse-are not rogue agents.
"Looks like Sera's taken their automated defenses out of play for a while until they fix that little exploit in the cameras." Cross says calmly, as he shoots a worker through an inch-wide vision slit in the chaingun turret he's manning, milliseconds before the turret would have been aimed in his direction. Jamelia's not sure if that was fortunate or if he was just showing off for the ladies. She suspects a little of the latter. "I think we should take the reactor. That way we've got access to their Prime Energy stores, which means they won't be able to arbitrarily burn as much as they want overcharging their stuff, and we can see whatever they count as 'heavy equipment'."
"Remember." One of the VAs says, a woman with cybernetic augmentation Jamelia's sure came from a patchwork of HITMark Vs, wearing little more than a leotard and leather jacket, holding a smartgun. "We split it 50/50."
"We will hold to our end of the deal. Our remote backup has already sent one of the Paladins to your drop-off point." Jamelia responds. "Given the odd numbers of other equipment, we will have to negotiate for an acceptable distribution afterwards."
"Get down!" Kessler yells, and everyone hits the dirt as another RPG explodes in the narrow chokepoint. Everyone there, however, is armored enough that the shrapnel and blast isn't sufficient to hurt them. "Man, I thought Russkies would be more about the AK-47s."
"It's the 21st century, Sergeant." Cross says. "People have learned about the ineffectiveness of rifles and use RPGs as anti-infantry weapons."
"I don't see you using a rocket launcher." Kessler shoots back.
"Yeah, well, some of us don't need one." Cross says. He thinks for a moment, and then moves, diving through the door and making three precision shots. "Threats neutralized." Jamelia hears the bodies slump simultaneously. He's definitely showing off for the ladies at this point, she thinks. She's almost impressed despite herself.
"Lot of guys like him in the west?" another one of the VAs asks, eyebrow raised. She's wearing a heavy coat of some sort of nanomaterial over a pink tank top, and has a literal pink mohawk that is only slightly mussed by having been exposed to shrapnel and explosions multiple times during this night. She sounds slightly impressed, which, given that she's been murdering people with two SMGs using some sort of crazy curving-bullet explosive rounds, is impressive in and of itself.
"Yes." Jamelia carefully responds. It's technically true, after all. There are more EXEMPLAR models and other high-end combat constructs there. Even if most of them aren't quite as high-end as super-elite Ethical Compliance operatives.
Jamelia activates her armor's scanner systems, looking for a more detailed map of the underground complex. It attaches to underground Soviet-era railways where men and materiel could be moved, but that's not all she's looking for. She wants to see lifesigns, equipment, anything useful. And-there. That Primium-shelled bunker complex, heavily guarded enough that she can barely see through it. Heavy equipment storage. She can see shapes, long thick boxes that are clearly weapons, empty storage racks for exoskeletons which seem to be Stalin Mk.I heavy exosuits, machinery which was state of the art Iteration X equipment in the 1950s but today are close to Sleeper technology-some of them are moving around.
Stalins are solid kit, she knows. She's fought a few, used a few. Heavy armored bathtubs around the pilot, liquid-fueled rocket jumpjets, high-powered batteries giving them a few days of powered endurance. No manipulators, because the Russian Iterators considered exosuits to be heavy weapons platforms, armored vehicles you could deploy indoors rather than super-infantry, but plenty of armament. A twin-barrel 14.5mm HMG, laser-guided rockets, and a free-electron laser system slaved to the pilot's vision. Armor sufficient to resist HMG fire and maybe a rocket at a shallow angle.
She guesses a few of the Construct's inhabitants, probably legitimate security rather than indoctrinated employees, have activated one of the Stalins and are preparing to massacre anyone who sticks their head in through the sole entrance of the bunker. Another pair sit in their creches. There are also other guards, mostly around the reactor itself. One of them is probably heavily enhanced. She can guess, simply by the way the figure moves.
She forwards this information to everyone else. She realizes she basically has no conventional backup left. All the Bobs have expired, and she's got one Victor left. The Consors the Virtual Adepts have brought are also mostly dead or wounded enough that they've been dragged back to the SUVs. The woman who introduced herself on IRC as "LessBeanNJA" smiles. "Thanks, steelhead. You're not the only one who's got skills, though."
She fires her smartgun four times, and Jamelia's powered armor warns her of QT effects that the armor provides no protection against. Some sort of teleporting rifle rounds, Jamelia thinks. She's no physicist, but she knows Q Division absolutely hates anyone who asks for them without good reason because of their finickiness.
LessBeanNJA curses as her gun snow-crashes. "Stupid firearms drivers. Quantum computer got fried from the fuzz of QTRs. I think I got most of them. Also, Gargoyle and Ivan wanted me to tell you. They're been engaged by a guy with an armored exoskel and a fucking monoknife, removed one of the hardsuit's arms, killed some of his mercs. They've retreated out the front door with the stuff they can carry that looks important, the suit's crashed. They think he's going down to destroy your vics."
"So we get this done quickly. You're here for their assets as much as their deaths, correct?" Jamelia asks. The other woman nods. "We hit the heavy weapons-" she grabs an unfired RPG-29 from one of the corpses, makes a double-check. It's a no-backblast version for confined spaces. That's good. "I'm taking point to hit the Stalin, Cross, Kessler, secure the mat-trans. You two, one of you go with them and one of you come with me."
Jamelia slaps a charge across the reinforced door, blows it open, dives in low to fire the rocket, and staggers as she takes multiple hits from the HMG. She sees the Stalin through a haze, its machinegun arm blown off, the boxes around it shattered, spreading ammunition and grenades everywh- and she sees an Iteration X plasma grenade clink at the machine's feet. She fast-draws her pistol, shoots it. There is a blinding flash.
Jamelia regains consciousness seconds later. She feels not-quite-pain, and the HUD readouts are showing that the capacitor for the Alanson's piezoelectric armor is dead, that it can't maintain full rigidity. "Boss, you all right?" Kessler is asking. "We just secured ourselves a goddamn treasure trove of gear. And we've already eliminated the Mat-Trans guards. Good news, they didn't set it up as a portal to Hell or anything. We can use it as an escape route..."
Cross pauses. "...or you can use it in an entirely different fashion. I wasn't fully briefed on your Construct, Director. How many Sleeper assets do you have for defenses?"
Jamelia thinks. "I've got a dozen plainclothes guards with SMGs, a fireteam of ex-SF QRF who've got NWO heavy kit. Spidersilk body armor, strength enhancing exoskels, high-power rifles and MGs, and I have three HITMark Vs, two with ACs, one with a plasmacaster... Donald's got that Paladin Security insurance guarantee so we can probably pull them to cover if we don't deploy them for more than a few hours. You're suggesting..."
"You're right. I'm suggesting we rewire it to LA, bring in our own assets. We've already killed most of their Sleeper proxies. We advance up as quickly as possible, let our own personnel secure the lower floors as we go. We might have them stop past the security checkpoint, just blitz that."
"Kind of risky, isn't it?" Kessler says. "You've seen what these guys have done to our mooks. We'll take losses and I don't want anyone to have to write letters to little Johnny or Jill about how their dad or mom died in a strange foreign country for no good reason."
"It is." Cross concedes. "But they're Infernalists. I'd like to give them the justice they deserve. It's our duty."
"D-Director Belltower?" Henriette calls. "I've got recon footage from a drone overhead. Looks like some of their goons are loading sealed and armored coffins into a helicopter. Vehicle ID says it's a NWO black helo, stealth engine, active noise cancellation, active camo, light armor. Weapons are a fold-out 23mm autocannon and a pair of anti-tank missiles, normally concealed. I can take it out from here, maybe."
Jamelia is strangely satisfied. This is more like a normal operation, with things going wrong and multiple actions happening at once.
So. You guys wrecked a bunch of the Big Guns armory but got a lot more. You have two intact Stalins (more or less) and an arsenal of pretty heavy gear ("Heavy Equipment Storage" was also for their less man-portable equipment). On the other hand, you now have Totally Not A CoD 2014 Protagonist coming at you, probably running more or less a full-out Willpower x Arete (that is probably somewhere around 21-40 successes, BTW) suite of combat effects. And he may have the Commando Pro Knife (Entropy 4, all damage dice count as successes, Forces 2/Correspondence 2, stabs from really far away).
Survivors With Tragic Backstories Counter (I basically rolled 1d10 for each of the guys, they survived on a '10')
Grieg Krupin
Ryadovoy Radimir Maksimov
(Everyone else is now dead. You monsters.)
Notable Loot:
Militarization Kits for Paladin Sedans and Spectre Limousines (compatible with the LX-4)
Anti-Missile Defense System (Matter 2/Correspondence 3 'ban') [1]
Deployable Autocannon (Correspondence 2/Matter 2 to 'teleport' the autocannon in) [2]
Deployable ATGMs (Corr 2/Matter 2) [2]
Deployable Microwave Pulser (Forces 2, Mind 2 'oh god it's burning') [1]
Deployable HV-SAM System (Forces 3, Matter 4, Mind 2, Correspondence 2) [1]
Stalin-MkI Power Armor [2]
11B/11L soak, 8 Armor HLs
14.5mm double-barrel HMG
Six-pack 57mm rocket pod
Optically-Slaved Free Electron Laser (Enlightenment 5, Forces 3, Time 3)
Extremely Paradox Resistant
ARS-8 Multiple Missile Launch System [1]
Fires multiple 37mm smart missiles
Correspondence 2 multi-target system
Matter 4 nanofabricator for in-field reloading
Masses 40 kilograms
7K114-D Augmented Infantry HV Railgun [1]
Mass: 80 kilograms, Length: 2.5m
Payload: 10mm tungsten penetrator
Sniper Rifle Rated For Anti-Tank Use
Recoil Lethal To Unaugmented Firers
Unbraced Firing May Cause Malfunctions
Various heavy military ordinance including rocket launchers and ammunition for heavy vehicle weapons
So, vote time. The Baali motherlode is yours, although it's mostly impractical weapons, whereas the security armory would have had practical weapons systems.
[ ] (2.0x) Bug out. Use the Mat-Trans to get out of here.
(-0.3x) Take as much loot as you can grab and run. Don't use the mat-trans, you'll have to load it into the Syndicate limo.
(-0.3x) Switch Kessler out for Rose. She's undamaged and you're sure she'll enjoy the break from resisting Donald's sexual advances.
[ ] (1.5x) Rewire the Mat-Trans to bring your security forces in. Time to open up a portal to Hell Moscow in your own Construct.
(-0.5x) Bring Rose in ASAP. Sure she's not going to approve of the mass murder you've gotten to, but she's useful and you'll be able to explain this.
(-0.3x) Call Donald and have him hire more Paladin Security guys to bring in even more firepower. Maybe even one of their 'special units'.
[ ] Fuck that, assault your way up the place, kill everyone the hard way. Sure, you're down 2 VAs, but you have 3 left and your personnel are basically all good.
As usual, write in Procedures at your discretion to enhance people's actions.
Willpower: 6/7 (regained 1 due to her Virtue)
Prime Energy: 1/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incapacitated/Dying
Very High Pain Tolerance (reduces all wound penalties by 2).
Current Injuries: Cracked Rib, Concussion (3 Lethal HLs). Wound Penalty: -0
Current Effects:
None
Paradox: 1
Soak: 8B/7L/0A (6B/6L from armor, 0/4 Armor HLs)
Dodge DV: 8/10 (+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: 5/6
Willpower: 8/8 (spent 1, regained 2 due to his Vice, yes, he was showing off to impress the ladies)
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: (+1 difficulty to subsequent Procedures)
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: 5/6 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: 11/14
Willpower: 7/7
Prime Energy: 5/5
Paradox: 2 (2 permanent)
[x] (1.5x) Rewire the Mat-Trans to bring your security forces in. Time to open up a Moscow
(-0.5x) Bring Rose in ASAP. Sure she's not going to approve of the mass murder you've gotten to, but she's useful and you'll be able to explain this.
(-0.3x) Call Donald and have him hire more Paladin Security guys to bring in even more firepower. Maybe even one of their 'special units'.
[x] (1.5x) Rewire the Mat-Trans to bring your security forces in. Time to open up a Moscow
(-0.3x) Call Donald and have him hire more Paladin Security guys to bring in even more firepower. Maybe even one of their 'special units'.
[X] Have Serafina boot up the HITMark Vs recovered earlier and bring them in with the reinforcements.
[X] Have Henriette take out that helo. Drone kamikaze strike, maybe?
Kessler is missing a lot of health levels, but he has even more health levels around, his present wound penalty is still 0, and he has a lot of raw firepower which is frankly more important here than Rose's more subtle style of combat. And perhaps we can augment that firepower he can tote around with the captured equipment here. But bringing in some more bodies to help clear the tower would be very useful, and calling on Donald to help with that would be worthwhile. I also think adding in two more HITMark Vs, for a whole five of them, should also add significantly to the power we have available and make taking the premises outright more viable. Even better, maybe we can get some of the new arrivals into the Stalin suits; with the HITMarks they should hopefully be enough to support Cross and Kessler in overwhelming their combat adept.
Also maybe Henriette can bring in that drone she made with the Special Stealth Features and a core of high explosives? Am I doing that right?
Yeah, there will be casualties, and that is regrettable, but we are dealing with Infernalists. And winning a complete victory here will greatly enhance our reputation with the Virtual Adepts, and through them the Traditions, as well as with Ivan and even Iosofeva. They'll be even more willing to work with us once we demonstrate our effectiveness, after all.
That said I reserve the right to change this vote later due to better considered arguments.
[ ] (2.0x) Bug out. Use the Mat-Trans to get out of here.
(-0.3x) Switch Kessler out for Rose. She's undamaged and you're sure she'll enjoy the break from resisting Donald's sexual advances.
Is there anyone or anything we actually care about in the upper levels at this point or are we in straight "loot and pillage" mode?
Given that we control the lower levels, if Henriette can blow up the helo to prevent them from getting out that way, it'd be excessive but we could just drop the building (take out the support columns) in such a way to pancake it. Screw going through the teeth of those defenses.
Is there anyone or anything we actually care about in the upper levels at this point or are we in straight "loot and pillage" mode?
Given that we control the lower levels, if Henriette can blow up the helo to prevent them from getting out that way, it'd be excessive but we could just drop the building (take out the support columns) in such a way to pancake it. Screw going through the teeth of those defenses.
Serafina's eyes widen as she tracks the data from the field teams.
"BRIGHT NOVEMBER," she whispers. Well, maybe not. BRIGHT NOVEMBER, one of those little projects the Progenitors provide consultation advice to the New World Order on, is too recent for this. But the same principle, that it's a biofeedback linked network of indoctrinated agents linked together by subliminal microchips which use a cloud topography to parallel-process combat data from the central hub... yeah, it has all the hallmarks. "Are they crazy? A mass activation like this?"
Maybe they are crazy, she considers. After all, the people in charge are EDE-worshipping H^2 addicts. That's going to leave them with all kinds of little quirks and abnormalities, because it's really not good for the human mind. Also makes practice of Enlightened Science harder, which should be an advantage. But still, a pre-BRIGHT NOVEMBER mass activation like this? She's willing to bet that they're overloading their buffers to do this. The indoctrinated field assets are going to be suffering strokes, brain damage, increased risk of Alzheimer's... all kinds of things from this. She can push it further. Push the biofeedback to the hub. If they can't handle the increased noise she's throwing at them, they'll need to either disconnect the network, or she'll cook the brain of the boss up there. Either way, she wins.
Serafina grins to herself, a little bit madly. Look at her. She's acting like an Iterator with all this hacking. But it's Progenitor-style-hacking! Complete with brain-liquifying biofeedback! Nevermind that Iterators have Black ICE and do brain-liquifying biofeedback all the time. "Belltower," she says, urgently down the line. "I know how to deal with the sequestrated employees."
"Tell me." Just... cold. The other woman isn't quite unflappable, but she is very hard to flap.
"There should be a chip inside one of their ears. It's wetware hooked up to their auditory nerve," Serafina says. "See if you can find it. Check the left ear first."
There is a grisly noise, remarkably like a combat knife cutting through flesh, and then a second one. "There's no chip". Jamelia says.
"No chip?" Serafina goes. She almost panics, remembers yet again why she decided lab work was better than field work. At least in the lab, if you had an unexpected situation you had logs, you had previous research data to go on-right, she thinks. Previous research data. She looks through logs. She doesn't have many Russian ones, but she knows from her parents that was a lot of duplication going on in the Cold War. She just needs a potentially analogous project. "Director, remind me of the symptoms you're seeing, in exact detail. And have you seen this before?"
"Hostile Sleepers have perfect morale, excellent coordination despite no visible C3 network, seem to have no shock reflex and require mechanica-" her voice is drowned out from a burst from the IX-15 "-mechanical stops. Looks like... some mass-deployed variant of SILVER LAKE or SHADOW PANTHER."
"Right." Serafina says, quickly browsing TUSecureNet for the projects. Right. Subliminal psychological brainwashing and pharmaceutical conditioning for assassins, and-yes, there it is, a Russian equivalent. Potentially mass deployable with an enhanced operative using nootropics to coordinate-
-and there. The specific nootropics create a vulnerability to epilepsy-like seizures.
"Okay, Director. I can break the network but I'm going to need to have you work with me on this. Belltower, I need you to get me a fast-scan of their neurology so I can predict the kill pattern for this network. If I can find it, I can give this guy a fatal seizure." She switches lines to the Virtual Adepts. "The enemies have initialized combat brainwashing on their employees," she says quickly. "They're coordinated via a single operative."
"Oh, no shit!" one of them snaps back. "Is that why they're all armed with rocket launchers and very, very irate? I'd never have guessed! That was sarc..."
"Speaking as a cyborg ninja who's played with mass mind-links, how are they coordinating? Biochips?" a woman interupts, over the noise of automatic weapons fire. "Hub and spoke?"
"No, old fashioned drugs and brainwashing. Probably done early on when they got their employee training.," Serafina says efficiently. It's nice to see someone among the Virtual Adepts knows what they're doing. Well, not nice-nice, because they're a bunch of Reality Deviants, but useful. "Central operator is probably using sensory interceptors to actually coordinate them. That's the exploit."
"DDOS bioneural feedback?" the Adept says.
"No, not a direct neural link. Too much information for human mind to normally process-enhancile drugs create epilepsy vulnerability. Do you have visual display?"
"Yes." A male voice responds. "I have a holoprojector in this EW kit. Just need to code it."
Serafina smiles. "Thank you. You've just saved my day. I need you to broadcast this fractal pattern in a way so they can see it."
"Okay. You're the expert." Serafina is wondering if he's reacting to her expertise or her voice.
"Good. I'll coordinate my end. Max noise, max pain, fry his brain!" the female VA says in a feat of improvised poetry.
Back in the nice and comfy seat of the Syndicate currently-a-solid-gold-BTR (seriously, what was up with that? Was an entire Convention made up of men who felt they couldn't compensate for their small dicks in the proper way, which was to give Iteration X more funding to build giant robots which they'd get to try out occasionally), Henriette sits perfectly still. She doesn't need anything as crude as a keyboard when she's simply having to think to type in commands.
She can hear Serafina swearing to herself, and ignores that. She's busy instilling havoc and a fear of the wrath of the Iterators upstairs, being the best distraction ever - which is to say a distraction that if you don't deal with her annoying little drones, she'll cut your power and then it will turn out she was the real plan all along. Henriette is starting to see what Director Belltower must feel like all the time, and it's... well, it has things going for it. It is more complicated and there's fewer giant robots with 20mm cannons, which is a distinct downside, but on the other hand her plans always seem to be shaped so her construct wins either way. And Henriette is distinctly in favor of that.
Henriette hates losing.
Well, her current orders are to distract the hostiles and aid in the recovery of tech from these renegades. Which is a very important job. And... Henriette winces as she follows the feed from Director Belltower. They almost self-destructed the cars! That would have gone not as planned at all! She needs to disable the self-destruct! And get these cars out of here until she can properly strip out whatever command overrides they have.
If she was using her body, her hands would have been flying over the keyboards as she sent some of her microdrones towards the cars. As it was, however, she merely twitched slightly. Strip the aerials, pull out the standard overrides, hope that they didn't have special features installed. She'd have her drones latch into the steering circuitry, extending electron probes, and she could directly interface with the hardware. Drive them as easily as she could move her arms.
But how does she stop them self-destructing if they have something hidden? Once she's in control she'll have more time to tear out even more contaminated hardware, but she needs time. And... oh no, she can't spend time both booting up the HITMarks and dealing with the cars. What will she do? She needs more time. Her orders are to... yes, Henriette realizes, staring at the data streams. She's been trusted to get the salvage out. The local Union needs it.
She'll show Director Belltower! She can be subtle! She can be incredibly subtle. She can be so subtle that they almost forgot to give her a commendation for subtlety because they didn't realise how subtle she was being, although she won't be that subtle because that would be bad. She'll get the cars to send out their self-destruct sequence without actually blowing up, so the hostiles won't look for them because they think they're gone. She's hyper-crammed some of the books Director Belltower gave her on the reading list, and she's learned things about deception!
"Kessler," she says shortly. "Put each of those HITMarks in the driver seat of each vehicle and buckle them up. Don't put any of them in the same vehicle. I'll be able to work on them and if I can get them booted up later, I'll send them to help, but this lets me remote-drive them out."
She can hear the grin of the mummy-like man, even if his face under the bandages looks like a permanently grinning metal skull. "A-okay," he says. "Can do! Man, I'd love some old Mark IIIs on side. They're just so trusty and reliable!"
And obsolete, Henriette doesn't say. It would be cruel. Anyway, her drones are busy cutting and splicing wires and assuming direct control of the vehicles, tearing out wires and reading memory banks. And... ah, yes. Her digital self-image reaches out for the data-sheets with the self-destruct confirmation sequences on them. Maybe she'll ask Kessler to throw some smoke grenades around. For that proper "the cars are on fire" feel.
Up in the command center, the Director looks up from his command chair at the swearing from Irina. "What is it?" he asks.
"It's a good news bad news situation," she says, eye twitching slightly. He notices the signs of Vitae withdrawal in her. Well, they should all be getting more for this defense. "Bad news; the motor pool just self-destructed in sequence. And I'm getting no vitals from Associate Inga Popov, whose job was to ensure its safety. Good news; the motor pool just self-destructed, which means the hostiles won't have access to them. And even if the hostiles took out all the local cameras, the message sigs read as valid, so we won't need to worry about that."
Director Petrokov groans. The day has just got worse. Much worse. He doesn't think how much he'll have to pay for replacements. If he can even get his hands on them. Fucking Reality Deviants. And then his day gets very, very much worse, as he fails to close his eyes before he gets hit by the Basilisk. He shudders, bites his own tongue, flails around with crazed strength sufficient to snap bones, until Irina and Mikhail manage to stabilize him. It hurts. He hurts. At least his last combat plan is in operation. "Irina. Mikhail. I need firewalls and anti-transport buffers up around this room." he manages to say. "We absolutely need those employees contributing to our defense."
They nod. It'll reduce his ability to deploy weapons or other traps in front of the enemy, but keeping himself alive is important. "Also, get our guests into the body bags so we can get them out via helicopter. Now that we know that they're not attacking from the roof, we can risk a rooftop extraction."
A Victor takes a RPG to the chest as Jamelia snap-shots its firer. Technocratic body armor and reinforcers hold up pretty well, which is to say the Victor is only mostly in pieces instead of actually vaporized. Jamelia's defended constructs before, although in her case they didn't have dozens of brainwashed employees to soak up gunfire. It taught her that she didn't particularly want to be on the other side. It annoys her, because she doesn't like the sound of bullets ricocheting off of her armor. Maybe Kessler is used to that kind of thing, but Jamelia Belltower is made of flesh, and although the ideals underneath might be bulletproof it is somewhat hard to advance them while decomposing. So when she gets a phone call, she is even more annoyed.
"This is Belltower. What is it? I'm busy."
"Jamelia! This is Ivan! I have excellent news for you, tovarisch!" He sounds legitimately happy. Probably because she's annoyed, the NWO operative thinks, as she fires a 40mm grenade into a HMG turret that has just popped out of the roof.
"Get on with it."
"Filipov is trying to surrender to me. He says western Technocrats have been killing his men, destroying his things, and he would like to give us his entire remaining stock in exchange for being able to live his natural life out quietly. I owe you an apology for the way I treated you. You give us this prize, exactly what we wanted solely to demonstrate your sincerity."
Jamelia raises an eyebrow. It's invisible in the armor, but anyone who knew her would have realized just what it meant. "Say that again?" She can understand Ivan perfectly well. But this-things never go that well in operations.
"Filipov is trying to surrender to us. He still has a significant amount of his war materiel. He merely wishes to take his money and retire to a dacha somewhere quiet." And Jamelia realizes what's happened. Filipov and Ivan don't know the difference between Panopticon and her. They think she's had enough pull to bring in a pan-Union assault force. She barely resists the urge to break out in laughter at how awry enemy plans have gone.
"I'm currently under heavy fire right now, talk to you later about it. Accept his equipment, but don't keep him in anything you might mind losing. There might be reprisal attacks." Make him think it's the hemophages who are going to be doing reprisals, or maybe the Choristers. Not Panopticon. Definitely not Technocrats who may actually be rogue agents, or worse-are not rogue agents.
"Looks like Sera's taken their automated defenses out of play for a while until they fix that little exploit in the cameras." Cross says calmly, as he shoots a worker through an inch-wide vision slit in the chaingun turret he's manning, milliseconds before the turret would have been aimed in his direction. Jamelia's not sure if that was fortunate or if he was just showing off for the ladies. She suspects a little of the latter. "I think we should take the reactor. That way we've got access to their Prime Energy stores, which means they won't be able to arbitrarily burn as much as they want overcharging their stuff, and we can see whatever they count as 'heavy equipment'."
"Remember." One of the VAs says, a woman with cybernetic augmentation Jamelia's sure came from a patchwork of HITMark Vs, wearing little more than a leotard and leather jacket, holding a smartgun. "We split it 50/50."
"We will hold to our end of the deal. Our remote backup has already sent one of the Paladins to your drop-off point." Jamelia responds. "Given the odd numbers of other equipment, we will have to negotiate for an acceptable distribution afterwards."
"Get down!" Kessler yells, and everyone hits the dirt as another RPG explodes in the narrow chokepoint. Everyone there, however, is armored enough that the shrapnel and blast isn't sufficient to hurt them. "Man, I thought Russkies would be more about the AK-47s."
"It's the 21st century, Sergeant." Cross says. "People have learned about the ineffectiveness of rifles and use RPGs as anti-infantry weapons."
"I don't see you using a rocket launcher." Kessler shoots back.
"Yeah, well, some of us don't need one." Cross says. He thinks for a moment, and then moves, diving through the door and making three precision shots. "Threats neutralized." Jamelia hears the bodies slump simultaneously. He's definitely showing off for the ladies at this point, she thinks. She's almost impressed despite herself.
"Lot of guys like him in the west?" another one of the VAs asks, eyebrow raised. She's wearing a heavy coat of some sort of nanomaterial over a pink tank top, and has a literal pink mohawk that is only slightly mussed by having been exposed to shrapnel and explosions multiple times during this night. She sounds slightly impressed, which, given that she's been murdering people with two SMGs using some sort of crazy curving-bullet explosive rounds, is impressive in and of itself.
"Yes." Jamelia carefully responds. It's technically true, after all. There are more EXEMPLAR models and other high-end combat constructs there. Even if most of them aren't quite as high-end as super-elite Ethical Compliance operatives.
Jamelia activates her armor's scanner systems, looking for a more detailed map of the underground complex. It attaches to underground Soviet-era railways where men and materiel could be moved, but that's not all she's looking for. She wants to see lifesigns, equipment, anything useful. And-there. That Primium-shelled bunker complex, heavily guarded enough that she can barely see through it. Heavy equipment storage. She can see shapes, long thick boxes that are clearly weapons, empty storage racks for exoskeletons which seem to be Stalin Mk.I heavy exosuits, machinery which was state of the art Iteration X equipment in the 1950s but today are close to Sleeper technology-some of them are moving around.
Stalins are solid kit, she knows. She's fought a few, used a few. Heavy armored bathtubs around the pilot, liquid-fueled rocket jumpjets, high-powered batteries giving them a few days of powered endurance. No manipulators, because the Russian Iterators considered exosuits to be heavy weapons platforms, armored vehicles you could deploy indoors rather than super-infantry, but plenty of armament. A twin-barrel 14.5mm HMG, laser-guided rockets, and a free-electron laser system slaved to the pilot's vision. Armor sufficient to resist HMG fire and maybe a rocket at a shallow angle.
She guesses a few of the Construct's inhabitants, probably legitimate security rather than indoctrinated employees, have activated one of the Stalins and are preparing to massacre anyone who sticks their head in through the sole entrance of the bunker. Another pair sit in their creches. There are also other guards, mostly around the reactor itself. One of them is probably heavily enhanced. She can guess, simply by the way the figure moves.
She forwards this information to everyone else. She realizes she basically has no conventional backup left. All the Bobs have expired, and she's got one Victor left. The Consors the Virtual Adepts have brought are also mostly dead or wounded enough that they've been dragged back to the SUVs. The woman who introduced herself on IRC as "LessBeanNJA" smiles. "Thanks, steelhead. You're not the only one who's got skills, though."
She fires her smartgun four times, and Jamelia's powered armor warns her of QT effects that the armor provides no protection against. Some sort of teleporting rifle rounds, Jamelia thinks. She's no physicist, but she knows Q Division absolutely hates anyone who asks for them without good reason because of their finickiness.
LessBeanNJA curses as her gun snow-crashes. "Stupid firearms drivers. Quantum computer got fried from the fuzz of QTRs. I think I got most of them. Also, Gargoyle and Ivan wanted me to tell you. They're been engaged by a guy with an armored exoskel and a fucking monoknife, removed one of the hardsuit's arms, killed some of his mercs. They've retreated out the front door with the stuff they can carry that looks important, the suit's crashed. They think he's going down to destroy your vics."
"So we get this done quickly. You're here for their assets as much as their deaths, correct?" Jamelia asks. The other woman nods. "We hit the heavy weapons-" she grabs an unfired RPG-29 from one of the corpses, makes a double-check. It's a no-backblast version for confined spaces. That's good. "I'm taking point to hit the Stalin, Cross, Kessler, secure the mat-trans. You two, one of you go with them and one of you come with me."
Jamelia slaps a charge across the reinforced door, blows it open, dives in low to fire the rocket, and staggers as she takes multiple hits from the HMG. She sees the Stalin through a haze, its machinegun arm blown off, the boxes around it shattered, spreading ammunition and grenades everywh- and she sees an Iteration X plasma grenade clink at the machine's feet. She fast-draws her pistol, shoots it. There is a blinding flash.
Jamelia regains consciousness seconds later. She feels not-quite-pain, and the HUD readouts are showing that the capacitor for the Alanson's piezoelectric armor is dead, that it can't maintain full rigidity. "Boss, you all right?" Kessler is asking. "We just secured ourselves a goddamn treasure trove of gear. And we've already eliminated the Mat-Trans guards. Good news, they didn't set it up as a portal to Hell or anything. We can use it as an escape route..."
Cross pauses. "...or you can use it in an entirely different fashion. I wasn't fully briefed on your Construct, Director. How many Sleeper assets do you have for defenses?"
Jamelia thinks. "I've got a dozen plainclothes guards with SMGs, a fireteam of ex-SF QRF who've got NWO heavy kit. Spidersilk body armor, strength enhancing exoskels, high-power rifles and MGs, and I have three HITMark Vs, two with ACs, one with a plasmacaster... Donald's got that Paladin Security insurance guarantee so we can probably pull them to cover if we don't deploy them for more than a few hours. You're suggesting..."
"You're right. I'm suggesting we rewire it to LA, bring in our own assets. We've already killed most of their Sleeper proxies. We advance up as quickly as possible, let our own personnel secure the lower floors as we go. We might have them stop past the security checkpoint, just blitz that."
"Kind of risky, isn't it?" Kessler says. "You've seen what these guys have done to our mooks. We'll take losses and I don't want anyone to have to write letters to little Johnny or Jill about how their dad or mom died in a strange foreign country for no good reason."
"It is." Cross concedes. "But they're Infernalists. I'd like to give them the justice they deserve. It's our duty."
"D-Director Belltower?" Henriette calls. "I've got recon footage from a drone overhead. Looks like some of their goons are loading sealed and armored coffins into a helicopter. Vehicle ID says it's a NWO black helo, stealth engine, active noise cancellation, active camo, light armor. Weapons are a fold-out 23mm autocannon and a pair of anti-tank missiles, normally concealed. I can take it out from here, maybe."
Jamelia is strangely satisfied. This is more like a normal operation, with things going wrong and multiple actions happening at once.
So. You guys wrecked a bunch of the Big Guns armory but got a lot more. You have two intact Stalins (more or less) and an arsenal of pretty heavy gear ("Heavy Equipment Storage" was also for their less man-portable equipment). On the other hand, you now have Totally Not A CoD 2014 Protagonist coming at you, probably running more or less a full-out Willpower x Arete (that is probably somewhere around 21-40 successes, BTW) suite of combat effects. And he may have the Commando Pro Knife (Entropy 4, all damage dice count as successes, Forces 2/Correspondence 2, stabs from really far away).
Survivors With Tragic Backstories Counter (I basically rolled 1d10 for each of the guys, they survived on a '10')
Grieg Krupin
Ryadovoy Radimir Maksimov
(Everyone else is now dead. You monsters.)
Notable Loot:
Militarization Kits for Paladin Sedans and Spectre Limousines (compatible with the LX-4)
Anti-Missile Defense System (Matter 2/Correspondence 3 'ban') [1]
Deployable Autocannon (Correspondence 2/Matter 2 to 'teleport' the autocannon in) [2]
Deployable ATGMs (Corr 2/Matter 2) [2]
Deployable Microwave Pulser (Forces 2, Mind 2 'oh god it's burning') [1]
Deployable HV-SAM System (Forces 3, Matter 4, Mind 2, Correspondence 2) [1]
Stalin-MkI Power Armor [2]
11B/11L soak, 8 Armor HLs
14.5mm double-barrel HMG
Six-pack 57mm rocket pod
Optically-Slaved Free Electron Laser (Enlightenment 5, Forces 3, Time 3)
Extremely Paradox Resistant
ARS-8 Multiple Missile Launch System [1]
Fires multiple 37mm smart missiles
Correspondence 2 multi-target system
Matter 4 nanofabricator for in-field reloading
Masses 40 kilograms
7K114-D Augmented Infantry HV Railgun [1]
Mass: 80 kilograms, Length: 2.5m
Payload: 10mm tungsten penetrator
Sniper Rifle Rated For Anti-Tank Use
Recoil Lethal To Unaugmented Firers
Unbraced Firing May Cause Malfunctions
Various heavy military ordinance including rocket launchers and ammunition for heavy vehicle weapons
_______________________________________________________________________________________
So, vote time. The Baali motherlode is yours, although it's mostly impractical weapons, whereas the security armory would have had practical weapons systems.
[ ] (2.0x) Bug out. Use the Mat-Trans to get out of here.
(-0.3x) Take as much loot as you can grab and run. Don't use the mat-trans, you'll have to load it into the Syndicate limo.
(-0.3x) Switch Kessler out for Rose. She's undamaged and you're sure she'll enjoy the break from resisting Donald's sexual advances.
[ ] (1.5x) Rewire the Mat-Trans to bring your security forces in. Time to open up a portal to Hell Moscow in your own Construct.
(-0.5x) Bring Rose in ASAP. Sure she's not going to approve of the mass murder you've gotten to, but she's useful and you'll be able to explain this.
(-0.3x) Call Donald and have him hire more Paladin Security guys to bring in even more firepower. Maybe even one of their 'special units'.
[ ] Fuck that, assault your way up the place, kill everyone the hard way. Sure, you're down 2 VAs, but you have 3 left and your personnel are basically all good.
As usual, write in Procedures at your discretion to enhance people's actions.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Willpower: 6/7 (regained 1 due to her Virtue)
Prime Energy: 1/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incapacitated/Dying
Very High Pain Tolerance (reduces all wound penalties by 2).
Current Injuries: Cracked Rib, Concussion (3 Lethal HLs). Wound Penalty: -0
Current Effects:
None
Paradox: 1
Soak: 8B/7L/0A (6B/6L from armor, 0/4 Armor HLs)
Dodge DV: 8/10 (+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: 5/6
Willpower: 8/8 (spent 1, regained 2 due to his Vice, yes, he was showing off to impress the ladies)
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: (+1 difficulty to subsequent Procedures)
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: 5/6 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: 11/14
Willpower: 7/7
Prime Energy: 5/5
Paradox: 2 (2 permanent)
[x] (1.5x) Rewire the Mat-Trans to bring your security forces in. Time to open up a portal to Hell Moscow in your own Construct.
- [x] (-0.3x) Call Donald and have him hire more Paladin Security guys to bring in even more firepower. Maybe even one of their 'special units'.
[X] Have Serafina boot up the HITMark Vs recovered earlier and bring them in with the reinforcements.
[X] Have Henriette take out that helo. Drone kamikaze strike, maybe?
Waiting on Nuts! to come up with an appropriate action movie related stunt for Kessler vs helicopter.
Also, I forgot that I need a vote on what Henriette is doing. She can either:
[ ] (2.0x) Blow Up The Helicopter
[ ] Not Blow Up The Helicopter
"But MJ, why would you not blow up a helicopter full of demon worshipping vampires" you might ask. Well, the answer is "doing so is going to take effort. Which means Henriette won't be around passively countering enemy Procedures. Which means that one of your friendly neighborhood rogue Technocrats might, say, be more likely to teleport a live anti-tank mine right underneath your feet."
[x] (2.0x) Bug out. Use the Mat-Trans to get out of here.
[x](-0.3x) Take as much loot as you can grab and run. Don't use the mat-trans, you'll have to load it into the Syndicate limo.
I'd also add "Rig everything we can't take with us to explode." Just because we can't have it doesn't mean they should be allowed to keep it.
Let's not get greedy. We've done pretty well so far, and now it's time to quit while we're ahead instead of pushing our luck. We don't need to go to the mat on this one.
Also, "strip our own base of its defenders to use as reinforcements" seems like it has some potential to backfire.
[x] (1.5x) Rewire the Mat-Trans to bring your security forces in. Time to open up a Moscow
(-0.3x) Call Donald and have him hire more Paladin Security guys to bring in even more firepower. Maybe even one of their 'special units'.
[X] Have Serafina boot up the HITMark Vs recovered earlier and bring them in with the reinforcements.
[X] (2.0x) Blow Up The Helicopter.
Agreement with Cavalier and Nuts!. Alteration for taking out the chopper; give Kessler the ARS-8 Multiple Missile Launch System we just looted, and let him use that. Killing Nephandi is a virtuous act all on its own, and if the boss of this location we're assaulting is getting his bug-out chopper ready, that means we've done enough damage that he thinks he's running out of defenses/defenders and needs to be ready to run. In that case, we should go for a full purge on this nest of demon-lovers.
Jamelia can arrange for reinforcements from Donald, Dr Rosario can see to healing Jamelia's concussion and broken rib (And see if there's anything she can do for the clones if she has time. Can't she revive the recently expired? I guess not if they've been combat-converted to chunky salsa, though), Henrietta can get the captured HITMarks online and reprogrammed for our side, Kessler can see if he can do any more patching up of his injuries (Aided by Dr Rosario's Life or Henrietta's Matter, whichever applies), Cross can keep running his nifty Time 2/DSci 1/Forces 1/Life 1/Mind 1 precognition routine to scope out what the remaining Nephandi defenders are doing.
John Kessler is a man of action. His favorite route to a target is ideally striding through the burning wreckage of the target, everything around it, and - well, in general he's preferred missions where everything except him was either burning or exploded. Really, it's just a lot simpler to shoot someone when they're busy being on fire and complaining about the shrapnel in their gut, and all that.
Kessler prefers this, of course, because he has traditionally been the prey instead of the hunter. Scavenged hypertech and malfunctioning cyber-arms aren't much good against an Ecstatic-derived cyberdragon that flies a couple hundred feet above and tries to roast the poor stranded exojock below with metal-fire. Through a combination of trial and error, (mostly error) Kessler eventually learned how to deal with such thorny problems, using a variety of simple, common-sense solutions.
The fact that nearly anyone else would characterize his "solution" as "utterly bugfuck insane" does not, in fact, phase the massive cyborg. When your biceps are best measured in tonnage, "insanity" takes on a slightly different meaning for you than it does for others.
Striding over to the eponymous "heavy equipment," Kessler quickly sees something he likes: a few stacked 70s-era "Buzzkill" SAMs, doubtlessly meant for the Paladin's bolt-on missile mount, and a few smaller "Corkscrew" anti-tank missiles. Ignoring the warheads stacked neatly on one side, he grabs the massive SAM with one hand while perusing the mundane equipment stores with his other, pausing long enough to pick out two "Corkscrew" rocket motors. Picking up three braces of grenades and several rolls of duct tape, Kessler gets to work. The Virtual Adepts give the massive cyborg a wide berth, casting him strange looks, but Kessler is wearing a wide grin as his makeshift plan takes shape.
The first cyberdragon John had ever seen, R'zzz'thk, had pounced on him the moment he'd re-entered Xanadu for his long exile. The old wyrm had smashed his stores of Technocratic gear, hunted him for weeks, and turned John's life into a living hell. The old bastard had a particular hate for Technocrats due to old grudges, along with a memory as long as his teeth - and his fangs could have doubled as spears for giants. Killing him was still one of the single most satisfying moments in John's life.
Kessler smiles wickedly as he realizes he'll have a chance to repeat the experience.
------------------
"Agent Kessler," Jamelia barks, already wishing she had more painkillers, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"
John looks down at his feet. Well, more accurately, he looks at the two anti-tank rocket motors strapped to his boots, which are resting next to the guidance fins of the giant SAM he's holding up. "It's...a bit of a story, ma'am."
Jamelia crosses her arms. "Give me the abridged version, then."
John looks up the darkened elevator shaft. He's already thrown up a grenade or two, plus a head (don't ask) to trigger the more obvious explosives and other traps, but he knows just how dangerous a Construct's transportation corridors like these can be. Going up an elevator shaft in an enemy Construct was suicide. Everyone knew that.
What they didn't know was exactly how much mayhem a sufficiently motivated person could cause with a few tools.
Kessler glances at the SAM resting on its fins on top of the broken elevator car, a de-extremitied human torso implausibly stuck on top of it. "Doin' a little remodeling, ma'am. Might want to step back for this part, by the way," he says, and Jamelia wisely ducks away from the elevator shaft. Kessler steps back behind cover, slams the emergency doors closed, and triggers the rocket ignition.
The motor ignites with a thunderous roar, and Kessler's augmented vision tracks the infrared hotspot as it shoots up the floors, springing buried traps along the way. Monofilament wires spring out and buried Claymores detonate as the biological material of the torso and its still-beating heart triggers a reaction, but there's far too much momentum built up to stop the rocket's payload. The package is burned, sliced, and diced, but its remains continue to fly upwards...right until the missile warhead detonates.
The explosion is thunderous in the cramped space, and the shockwave triggers or destroys traps up and down the elevator shaft. Laser grids fire before sputtering out, gun turrets search blindly using scorched optics, and buried explosives are unearthed by the pressure wave. The force is constricted in the tiny space, with nowhere to go but...up. Masonry is torn and sundered under the force of the explosion, and the only thing standing between them and daylight is the reinforced steel of a blast shield capping the building.
Then again, Kessler has yet to find an immovable object that could stand up to an unstoppable force. And given that he's holding an augmented infantry railgun, recently looted from the underground stores, he figures that he just might have enough force to do the job.
He braces, aims, steadies the weapon...and for a moment, his world disappears in blinding white. It takes almost a full second for his augmented eyes to adjust, until his normal red-shaded world reappears again. Daylight gleams as the blast shield blows off in a blizzard of torn masonry and flame, and Kessler glances at the gigantic weapon which did the deed.
I could really get used to this thing, he thinks.
Sliding the gigantic railgun over to Jamelia, Kessler gives a wide grin to Agent Belltower, who's looking almost - but not quite - surprised at this turn of events. Stepping out into the bright elevator shaft, he taps his rocket-clad boots together, activating the holosuit and grabbing R'zzz'thk's massive fang from inside his trenchcoat. "Goin' up, ma'am," he announces, and the two rocket motors fire.
The large rockets are enough - barely - to lift his bulk off the ground, and Kessler holds his breath as the cramped compartment fills with toxic fumes. He races past broken, deactivated, or re-setting traps, passing unscathed by weapons that should have killed him a dozen times over. He rockets up to the ninth floor and past it, and a moment later he's past the roof and into open air. Rogue Technocratic lackeys gape as the rocket-man flies upwards, but Kessler simply smiles and yanks the duct tape holding the pins on the grenades across his body.
"Ho ho ho! Saint Nicholas comes early this year!" he bellows, the sound perfectly in-character with the holosuit that's attempting to disguise him as the world's most buff Santa Claus ever. It can't hide the makeshift rocket-boots, but Kessler was short on sleighs. He'll work with what he's got available, after all.
As the lackeys below duck for cover from the many grenades raining from above, Kessler focuses on the stealth helicopter that's attempting to escape. It was on the helipad a moment earlier, and with the previous explosion being its only warning, the chopper hasn't had enough time to get far away. Kessler turns himself in midair, building up some horizontal momentum, and then slices down at his feet to chop the rocket motors away. They arc off to each side, the left one already sputtering, and the American cyborg points his cyberdragon fang directly forward...right towards the cockpit of the NWO helicopter. The cockpit is blacked out, but John imagines that he can see the terror on the pilot's face, just like R'zzz'thk looked before he speared the old dragon to the earth.
Cutting-edge stealth meets a very swole Saint Nick in a hurricane of splintering glass, and the chopper dips as several hundred pounds of man-muscle makes an unexpected boarding call. Reaching into the cockpit, John hurriedly grabs the wires which connect the pilot to the machine, and rips them out before casually tossing the mortally-wounded man over the side. As the chopper dips in midair, its optical camouflage and autopilot trying to compensate for the massive weight on its nose, Kessler reaches into one of the pockets of his trenchcoat and pulls out one of those "USB" thingamabobs Henriette had given him before the op. He was supposed to put 'em in every computer so she'd have access, and hey, there had to be a computer in here somewhere, right?
Looking back to the roof of the Molotek building, John can see movement as the many body bags on the roof try to roll themselves to cover. Bracing himself on the nose of the chopper and unlimbering his Thunderhead, John takes aim at the wriggling body bags. "Ho ho ho! Now I have a machine gun!" he yells at the vampires doubtlessly inside, ignoring the lackeys and sighting on the real threat. "Lump of coal for every one of you!"
Well, that wasn't quite accurate. Still, there had to be at least some carbon deposits in those shotcannon shells, right? Resolving to ponder this conundrum later, John opens fire.
While that's a great stunt, it suggests another option - Grand Theft Vampire.
Why kill the Baali, when we can capture and brain trawl them.
After he kills the pilot, why not have the body bags have already been loaded into the helicopter, so that he can plug in the usb stick, and then Henrietta take over the helicopter and fly it away to a recovery site?
