And now Kessler is checking our their private parts too.
Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
A Jaunt In The Web:
What's Donald doing while he's stuck in the middle of nowhere, quarantined by an Anathema? Choose 3. One is already chosen for you, so it's more like choose 2.
[X] Find a Mind mage capable of un-brainwashing Rose.
[X] Trying to contact someone, like...
-> [X] Jamelia
[X] Searching for information on (each choice is a single choice)
-> [X] Current Affairs
Donald is glad he has a corner booth. It allows him to nudge the very attractive, very scary pretty lady in full primium plate away from the onlookers. Not least because he has a very, very alarming suspicion that Dr Polanski over there may have recognised the armour and he's an Etherite power-armour nut so the last thing he needs is someone fanboying over the possessed-by-a-member-of-the-Inner-Circle Rose.
Well, the last thing he needs right now. He'll probably want to use Reina to pump him for information later.
"I need information," Reina informs him coldly. Her voice is Rose's - except it isn't. The accent is wrong because it isn't Rose's adorable faintly lilting hint of Italian. The intonation is wrong. She doesn't do the thing Rose does when she's thinking or trying to puzzle out something outside of her experience. Oh, and of course, she doesn't talk to him with any fondness. "I need information about the world, I need information about the nature of this... this synthetic realm of electricity so I can understand it and understand what the thing out there is doing. And I need information about the state of the world so I can draw conclusions about the motives of our enemies and what might have prompted such action - and what else they might be doing."
"Mmm," Donald says. She makes a good point.
"Therefore you will aid me in gathering this information," she says, denying any chance that he might argue. He thinks he prefers being told what to do by Director Belltower. She makes him feel like a henchman, you know? A proper second in command who she can say 'Sykes, get it done' to and expect that he'll find his own methods. Reina makes him feel much more lackey-ish.
"I think I know some people," he says.
"You will also need to find someone who you can trust to attempt to fix Rose," Reina adds. "I don't want to slip when I eventually grow tired and forget my older memories, restoring her personality to control. She would kill you very quickly, and though it would distress her she is not strong enough to fight the commands in her head. Fixing that is quite important."
Donald agrees that yes, not being torn apart by Rose is quite important.
And there's another thing. He's out of contact here. Rose is out of contact here. That only leaves Serafina from the senior command staff - and he knows they're going for the amalgam too. Against something like the... the god-thing out there, it won't stand. It'll just stalk through the labs and kill anyone it feels like.
There's a good chance that Serafina is dead right now. He wonders if Reina knows that - or even cares. Rose certainly would. He won't bring it up, though. It might make Rose crumble. And if she crumbles, she might just fall back to the blind obedience of orders rather than have to face up to the pain and the self-doubt and the blame for not being there to protect Serafina but instead being on a date.
They won't be able to bring her back if she's like that. Not without time that they might well not have.
So. Assume the amalgam is lost. It's not much of an assumption, with that Autochthonian thing out there. Therefore Panopticon have total control over the site. They'll no doubt be ready setting it up as a trap for Jamelia and the rest of the amalgam if... no, when they get back - because they have to succeed.
So he needs to get a message out onto the net. Somehow. Something floating in the digital sea that can wash up to her whenever she arrives back on Earth. Something that can get past that thing. Something... maybe he can try to bait it into... into destroying messages he tries to get out in a way that formats areas of the Digital Web that'll leave suspicious damage which will trigger the paranoia in his boss's head and make her realise that someone's trying to erase all the information about certain topics? Maybe trick it into going up against the Traditionalist web infrastructure carrying his messages, because that stuff has withheld the entire force of Iteration X pre-99, so might stand up to this thing. Even beat it?
Well, he can hope.
... or he could talk to a Virtual Adept. Might well be easier. Or maybe not even a VA. That'd use ways out that the machine could understand. Maybe there's a Verbena out there who could make flowers close to Director Bellower blossom with a warning message? Or some other kind of horrible blatant RDery that Donald of course can't do himself, but which he can pay or coax someone else into doing for him? He'd see if someone could send her a message in her dreams, but trying to send a message to the dreams of Jamelia Belltower has one significant flaw. It's like trying to email someone who's never online.
Fuck it. He doesn't have anything better to do here, apart from getting drunk and or high. He'll do that when he runs out of ideas and try to find new ideas in chemicals.
Donald adjusts his tie, and prepares to mingle.
[X] Write-In: SNEAKY 4th OPTION DEFYING EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS FROM MJ
-> [X] Falling back on old habits vis a vis drinking and drugs because holy fuck he is stuck in a bar with a killer god thing outside what do you expect? Being sober is too much hard work right now, all things considered.
-> [X] Discovering very, very unpleasantly that Reina has the capacity to order him to sober up and he does.
Reina stares down at the table. She stares at Donald. She stares at the stacked-up heap of empty shot glasses.
She purses her full red lips in a thin line of annoyance.
"Mr Sykes," she says, leaning down and grabbing him by the ear, and pulling it up to her mouth height. "You will cease such a shameful display this instant."
Donald blinks. The world has suddenly re-focussed and isn't wobbling any more. And his ear hurts. He still... he still feels drunk, but his head is perfectly clear. And he suddenly gets the feeling that he'll be sick if he tries to drink anything else. "Guh?" he manages.
"I believe you've had enough. You had enough quite a while ago."
"Maybe I didn't?"
"You did. No more."
"Please?"
"No."
"But everyone else is doing it!"
"So?" Reina glares at him, tapping her foot and somehow drawing on dark memories of Miss Black, who'd been one of his teachers in elementary school and hadn't had time for children who couldn't sit down and shut up when they were told to. "If everyone else was jumping off a cliff, would you do it?"
"Do I get a parachute?" Donald enquires hopefully, running his hands through his hair. "Or a wingsuit? That's a lot of fun."
"There are no parachutes in this hypothetical."
"... why are we jumping off a cliff? I mean, since everyone else is doing it, is there something scary up the top we're trying to escape?"
"Mr Sykes," Reina Lior informs him, "if I catch you drinking or imbibing debilitating drugs again without my permission, I will..." she considers, "... have your body hair pulled out via the application of hot wax. Do I make myself clear?"
"... but I wax anyway," Donald points out, and the moment of confusion on the face of the ancient member of the Inner Circle of the Technocratic Union is worth it.
"You will stay sober. And you will devote your full attention to your work!"
[Reina - Conditioning 1 trigger used on Donald]
What's Donald doing while he's stuck in the middle of nowhere, quarantined by an Anathema? Choose 3. One is already chosen for you, so it's more like choose 2.
[X] Find a Mind mage capable of un-brainwashing Rose.
[X] Trying to contact someone, like...
-> [X] Jamelia
[X] Searching for information on (each choice is a single choice)
-> [X] Current Affairs
Donald is glad he has a corner booth. It allows him to nudge the very attractive, very scary pretty lady in full primium plate away from the onlookers. Not least because he has a very, very alarming suspicion that Dr Polanski over there may have recognised the armour and he's an Etherite power-armour nut so the last thing he needs is someone fanboying over the possessed-by-a-member-of-the-Inner-Circle Rose.
Well, the last thing he needs right now. He'll probably want to use Reina to pump him for information later.
"I need information," Reina informs him coldly. Her voice is Rose's - except it isn't. The accent is wrong because it isn't Rose's adorable faintly lilting hint of Italian. The intonation is wrong. She doesn't do the thing Rose does when she's thinking or trying to puzzle out something outside of her experience. Oh, and of course, she doesn't talk to him with any fondness. "I need information about the world, I need information about the nature of this... this synthetic realm of electricity so I can understand it and understand what the thing out there is doing. And I need information about the state of the world so I can draw conclusions about the motives of our enemies and what might have prompted such action - and what else they might be doing."
"Mmm," Donald says. She makes a good point.
"Therefore you will aid me in gathering this information," she says, denying any chance that he might argue. He thinks he prefers being told what to do by Director Belltower. She makes him feel like a henchman, you know? A proper second in command who she can say 'Sykes, get it done' to and expect that he'll find his own methods. Reina makes him feel much more lackey-ish.
"I think I know some people," he says.
"You will also need to find someone who you can trust to attempt to fix Rose," Reina adds. "I don't want to slip when I eventually grow tired and forget my older memories, restoring her personality to control. She would kill you very quickly, and though it would distress her she is not strong enough to fight the commands in her head. Fixing that is quite important."
Donald agrees that yes, not being torn apart by Rose is quite important.
And there's another thing. He's out of contact here. Rose is out of contact here. That only leaves Serafina from the senior command staff - and he knows they're going for the amalgam too. Against something like the... the god-thing out there, it won't stand. It'll just stalk through the labs and kill anyone it feels like.
There's a good chance that Serafina is dead right now. He wonders if Reina knows that - or even cares. Rose certainly would. He won't bring it up, though. It might make Rose crumble. And if she crumbles, she might just fall back to the blind obedience of orders rather than have to face up to the pain and the self-doubt and the blame for not being there to protect Serafina but instead being on a date.
They won't be able to bring her back if she's like that. Not without time that they might well not have.
So. Assume the amalgam is lost. It's not much of an assumption, with that Autochthonian thing out there. Therefore Panopticon have total control over the site. They'll no doubt be ready setting it up as a trap for Jamelia and the rest of the amalgam if... no, when they get back - because they have to succeed.
So he needs to get a message out onto the net. Somehow. Something floating in the digital sea that can wash up to her whenever she arrives back on Earth. Something that can get past that thing. Something... maybe he can try to bait it into... into destroying messages he tries to get out in a way that formats areas of the Digital Web that'll leave suspicious damage which will trigger the paranoia in his boss's head and make her realise that someone's trying to erase all the information about certain topics? Maybe trick it into going up against the Traditionalist web infrastructure carrying his messages, because that stuff has withheld the entire force of Iteration X pre-99, so might stand up to this thing. Even beat it?
Well, he can hope.
... or he could talk to a Virtual Adept. Might well be easier. Or maybe not even a VA. That'd use ways out that the machine could understand. Maybe there's a Verbena out there who could make flowers close to Director Bellower blossom with a warning message? Or some other kind of horrible blatant RDery that Donald of course can't do himself, but which he can pay or coax someone else into doing for him? He'd see if someone could send her a message in her dreams, but trying to send a message to the dreams of Jamelia Belltower has one significant flaw. It's like trying to email someone who's never online.
Fuck it. He doesn't have anything better to do here, apart from getting drunk and or high. He'll do that when he runs out of ideas and try to find new ideas in chemicals.
Donald adjusts his tie, and prepares to mingle.
[X] Write-In: SNEAKY 4th OPTION DEFYING EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS FROM MJ
-> [X] Falling back on old habits vis a vis drinking and drugs because holy fuck he is stuck in a bar with a killer god thing outside what do you expect? Being sober is too much hard work right now, all things considered.
-> [X] Discovering very, very unpleasantly that Reina has the capacity to order him to sober up and he does.
Reina stares down at the table. She stares at Donald. She stares at the stacked-up heap of empty shot glasses.
She purses her full red lips in a thin line of annoyance.
"Mr Sykes," she says, leaning down and grabbing him by the ear, and pulling it up to her mouth height. "You will cease such a shameful display this instant."
Donald blinks. The world has suddenly re-focussed and isn't wobbling any more. And his ear hurts. He still... he still feels drunk, but his head is perfectly clear. And he suddenly gets the feeling that he'll be sick if he tries to drink anything else. "Guh?" he manages.
"I believe you've had enough. You had enough quite a while ago."
"Maybe I didn't?"
"You did. No more."
"Please?"
"No."
"But everyone else is doing it!"
"So?" Reina glares at him, tapping her foot and somehow drawing on dark memories of Miss Black, who'd been one of his teachers in elementary school and hadn't had time for children who couldn't sit down and shut up when they were told to. "If everyone else was jumping off a cliff, would you do it?"
"Do I get a parachute?" Donald enquires hopefully, running his hands through his hair. "Or a wingsuit? That's a lot of fun."
"There are no parachutes in this hypothetical."
"... why are we jumping off a cliff? I mean, since everyone else is doing it, is there something scary up the top we're trying to escape?"
"Mr Sykes," Reina Lior informs him, "if I catch you drinking or imbibing debilitating drugs again without my permission, I will..." she considers, "... have your body hair pulled out via the application of hot wax. Do I make myself clear?"
"... but I wax anyway," Donald points out, and the moment of confusion on the face of the ancient member of the Inner Circle of the Technocratic Union is worth it.
"You will stay sober. And you will devote your full attention to your work!"
[Reina - Conditioning 1 trigger used on Donald]
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... You know, if "grabbing someone by the ear" is a Conditioning trigger, that would explain a lot...
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] VPR Reptile Hybrid 1st Company
[X] X-410 'Xiaolian' Heavy Combat Bioroids
[X] X-PROG-311 Combat Powered Exoskeleton Cephalopod Gunship
Yeah, the UV weakness and the Beast are weaknesses in the Lucards that I'm not comfortable with, and if each Xiaolian is worth about 3 HITMarks, we have some serious force concentration - and we can leave 4 with Serafina, Alicia can take 2 more, and Ceelicia can take the last 2 and Beelicio, who needs about as much micromanagement
. Charlie team is inconsistent, erratic and has heavy Conditioning, which I'm leery of.
The gunsquid, of course, needs no justification.
[X] X-410 'Xiaolian' Heavy Combat Bioroids
[X] X-PROG-311 Combat Powered Exoskeleton Cephalopod Gunship
Yeah, the UV weakness and the Beast are weaknesses in the Lucards that I'm not comfortable with, and if each Xiaolian is worth about 3 HITMarks, we have some serious force concentration - and we can leave 4 with Serafina, Alicia can take 2 more, and Ceelicia can take the last 2 and Beelicio, who needs about as much micromanagement
. Charlie team is inconsistent, erratic and has heavy Conditioning, which I'm leery of.The gunsquid, of course, needs no justification.
Right, calling it here now I finally got a tiebreaker.
Expect a half-update soonish.
Expect a half-update soonish.
Kerrus
Fractal Insanity
Actually you know what might be a far easier way for Kessler to figure out if Donald is actually Donald?
Remember that bit of information we made absolutely sure not to let Clock know about? (ie: Donald is a Spirit mage?)
John could just use spirit 2 to get a figment to poke Donald from the umbra and see if he notices.
Remember that bit of information we made absolutely sure not to let Clock know about? (ie: Donald is a Spirit mage?)
John could just use spirit 2 to get a figment to poke Donald from the umbra and see if he notices.
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One small problem with that.
Stopping Jamelia, Harlan, Elsa, and Wufan from noticing the spirit activity too.
Henriette: "... what's going on here? Why is everyone else staring at thin air?"
poor henriette isn't it sad? you and sera can start a 'i have no dsci or spirit' club.
SR IX.5: White's First Move
SR IX.5: White's First Move
From her stolen hidden bunker under Mexico City, Serafina Rosario looks over the maps and the data feeds. She compulsively checks Dr Fujiyama's emails and phone records to make sure nothing is escaping her. And it's all coming together.
This isn't even the worst Christmas Eve she's ever had. And as the sun creeps down towards the Western horizon, she's pretty sure she has it all worked out. She's got the orders and the authorisation codes for VPR 1st Company. She had to spend vital hours prepping and tweaking the X-410s. And her false orders to the maintenance teams and her tweaking of the priority orders means that the X-PROG-311 is currently ready to be used as a Shockwave code - one only she has authority for.
She's ready. And that means she's going to have to risk it.
She orders the URTURNs to make the call to the disposable number Alicia primed her with. The meatware AIs are primed to encrypt and cram her messages, so only the intended target should hear them.
The number rings.
"Hello?" a speaker says in Spanish. It's not Alicia - but it is Seelicia.
"Is Senorita R there?" she says in the same language.
"She is not here right now. She is busy. Can I take a message?" Seelicia says, playing along. They go through the arranged check and countercheck. She has to hope it's enough.
Serafina adjusts the neural encryption of the message for a beta fork in a Vanessa like Seelicia, and then sends the cram.
"I understand," Seelicia says, sounding slightly groggy from the data transfer. "I'll be ready. And pass it along. And… Fina? It's good to hear from you. I was worried."
"I'm fine," Serafina says. "Some of the things I did might have left a bad taste in my mouth, but… you know, I'm fine."
Yes, she thinks as she puts down the phone and starts her final preparation. She is fine. And the mouthwash helped remove the bad taste.
Serafina's objective is to Rescue Alice. Her plan will therefore be based around accomplishing that objective.
Mooks
VPR Reptile Hybrid 1st Company are emotionless slightly-above peak-human soldiers, based off an augmented MiB 1.0 design. They are notably reptilian when inspected closely, but can conceal it under military gear and sunglasses. They are currently pretending to be elements of the Mexican army, but will change disguises if ordered and are capable of fulfilling a number of roles. They are perfectly loyal, have no moral qualms in following orders, and their special weapons forces are more extreme snakemen enhanciles wearing light exoskeletons disguised as bomb disposal gear and armed with Union-standard weapons.
VPR units operate in 9 man fireteams. Each fireteam is linked up into a combat hivemind. 1st Company consist of three platoons, operating out of light military vehicles, and a command section.
VPR units are set up for remote command and remote operation by an authorised user.
What would Serafina have them do?
[ ] Poke the trap with a stick. Send a fireteam or two in disguise as drugs cartel gang members to attack the Panopticon trap they're preparing and maybe toss a rocket into the building, then retreat. If there's a firefight there, it'll scare Alice off and ruin the entire Panopticon set-up trap, giving Serafina more time to find her. The rest remain in reserve, ready to act when she's located.
[ ] Ruin the trap. VPRs are obviously inhuman. If a few get seen lurking in the area around the place, Alice should probably avoid it. And if she moves to take one down to mind-read it, Serafina can override it and try to talk to her through the puppeted reptile-man. She might not believe her, but there's things only the two of them should know. The rest remain in reserve.
[ ] Get them all ready up in the city but hold them in reserve. If Alice shows up at the trap, move them in to protect and save her, and extract her. And the records will just show that they were stationed in the city because Amalgam-391 wanted to be ready to reinforce Panopticon if they asked for help.
[ ] Sweep the streets. Find her first. Search-and-do-not-destroy-am-I-clear? Serafina coordinates them using data from -391 and the fact that she knew Alice very well when she was younger. (Corr 3, Life 1 - searching for Alice in the area Serafina's mooks are sweeping over - made more effective by how the snakemen can taste her)
Elites
The X-410 Xiaolian is a prototype heavy assault unit intended to be superior to the HITMark V in every way and incorporating elements of enhancement projects as wide ranging as ICARUS, EXEMPLAR and UPLIFT. They are dependent on their advanced primium-lined biosuits to stabilise their biology, and will suffer damage if pushed too hard. They are kept in suspended animation in tubes by default - Serafina has concealed the order to decant them with false orders for a test hunt against Sabbat forces.
Xiaolian units are set up for remote command and remote operation by an authorised user. As Serafina has meatware access to them, mysteriously the list of authorised users has been reset and now only contains one valid operator ID. How peculiar.
Serafina has two four-unit teams. Therefore, these teams should be treated separately and can have different votes.
Where will she position them?
[ ] [ ] With the mooks, as a hidden elite strike unit (requires remote Corr guidance, or the commitment of the Lician Vanessas)
[ ] [ ] Operating independently (requires remote Corr guidance, or the commitment of the Lician Vanessas)
-> For what purpose?
[ ] [ ] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[ ] [ ] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
The default armaments of the Xiaolians are 20mm smart grenade MGs, STERILISER alpha-source biological unit disposal sidearms (BUDS), and a field in-combat vivisection kit. There are other optional load-outs.
[ ] [ ] Default - as above
[ ] [ ] Anti-armour - Replace the grenade MG with a 1mm UHV infantry railgun, replace the BUDS with an anti-armour grenade launcher. (UHV is vulgar if fired at full power and hits like a tank cannon, standard power equivalent to anti-materiel rifle)
[ ] [ ] Biohazard - 2 units replace their grenade MG and BUDS with a P-42 Incinerator, units are issued with anti-biohazard variable threat grenades (Life 1, Entropy 1, chose what forms of life you want to kill in the area)
Heavy Support
The X-PROG-311 Combat Powered Exoskeleton Cephalopod Gunship is in a Ready state, where it can be in the air in approximately ten minutes. This is following standard protocols in Amalgam-391, which dictate that one aerial asset should be maintained in a Ready state at all times in case of a Shockwave code being called in by field assets. All Serafina did was shift the rotation so it was the X-PROG-311's turn.
[ ] Shift it to High Alert state (can launch immediately - breach of standard protocols)
[ ] Maintain current Ready state.
Serafina has access to the maintenance logs and noticed that they have a few upgrade kits. She has ensured that the maintenance teams have:
[ ] Carried out standard practice and that everything is good to go (extraordinary citizen engineers ensure 2 stored uses of the Checklist rote, negating botches)
[ ] Replaced the nose IX-21 'Bandsaw' 25mm cannon with a VE-E115-1B 'Steak Knife' plasma cannon (+ firepower, - vulgarity)
[ ] Applied applique reactive armour (+armour, - maneuverability)
[ ] Administered combat plasmids to the cephalopodian elements of the unit (+ plasmids, +flexibility, - vulgarity, - breach of standard protocols)
[ ] Made sure there's a Damage Control cache in the cargo hold (+ supply cache of standard DC gear)
Serafina
Things are probably going to go down. She needs to think of her own safety and evac route. Where's she going to run the op from?
[ ] Inside Amalgam-391 (+focuses, +shielded secret base, + not necessarily burning her Laura cover yet, +possible emergency grabbing more mooks, - it's a secret base she's not really meant to be in, - no way out if it gets put on lockdown)
-> [ ] Do it from inside the URTURN facility for direct access to the meatware (+ ease of hacking, + in the most secure bit of the base, - in the most secure bit of the base)
-> [ ] Just find an unused broom closet (+ secrecy through obscurity, - someone might want to use a broom, - 'in the closet' jokes)
[ ] She'll take out a Damage Control field operations APC (+field mobile, +cargo space and onboard gear, + comes with a team of Oliver mission control bioroids assistants, + armoured and armed, - not the fastest vehicle around, - could be stealthier, - seriously it's a biohazard sealed APC)
[ ] She's going to "borrow" Professor Fujiyama's Saviour motorbike and a Damage Control field-operations covert command rig - and hey, with the full helmet it even looks like motorcycle leathers (+ fast NWO superbike with all the trimmings, + very field mobile, + stealthy broadcasting, + did I mention it's fast enough to be a Corr 3 focus, - limited cargo space, - Fujiyama will not be a happy bunny when he finds out someone stole his very expensive Device motorbike, - any bodyguards have to lame it up by following in a car)
Alicia
Alicia's just chillin'. She's certainly not up to something and not telling Serafina. Oh no. Certainly not. She's totally reliable. It's not like she has Intelligence 7 and a speciality in "I Am The Butterfly Who Flaps Her Wings". Nope.
Though she would quite like it if Serafina would go and learn some Entropy. You know, just in passing. As a favour to her. It'd make things easier, because things'd be, like, totally hilarious if she could enhance her rolls with that Int speciality and an appropriate ability.
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
[ ] Write-in (any write-in will need to persuade Alicia that her cooperation is more useful than what she has planned)
Beelicio and Seelicia
[ ] If they are not already "locked in" to another part of the operation, write-in which part of the operation they'll be assigned to.
From her stolen hidden bunker under Mexico City, Serafina Rosario looks over the maps and the data feeds. She compulsively checks Dr Fujiyama's emails and phone records to make sure nothing is escaping her. And it's all coming together.
This isn't even the worst Christmas Eve she's ever had. And as the sun creeps down towards the Western horizon, she's pretty sure she has it all worked out. She's got the orders and the authorisation codes for VPR 1st Company. She had to spend vital hours prepping and tweaking the X-410s. And her false orders to the maintenance teams and her tweaking of the priority orders means that the X-PROG-311 is currently ready to be used as a Shockwave code - one only she has authority for.
She's ready. And that means she's going to have to risk it.
She orders the URTURNs to make the call to the disposable number Alicia primed her with. The meatware AIs are primed to encrypt and cram her messages, so only the intended target should hear them.
The number rings.
"Hello?" a speaker says in Spanish. It's not Alicia - but it is Seelicia.
"Is Senorita R there?" she says in the same language.
"She is not here right now. She is busy. Can I take a message?" Seelicia says, playing along. They go through the arranged check and countercheck. She has to hope it's enough.
Serafina adjusts the neural encryption of the message for a beta fork in a Vanessa like Seelicia, and then sends the cram.
"I understand," Seelicia says, sounding slightly groggy from the data transfer. "I'll be ready. And pass it along. And… Fina? It's good to hear from you. I was worried."
"I'm fine," Serafina says. "Some of the things I did might have left a bad taste in my mouth, but… you know, I'm fine."
Yes, she thinks as she puts down the phone and starts her final preparation. She is fine. And the mouthwash helped remove the bad taste.
Serafina's objective is to Rescue Alice. Her plan will therefore be based around accomplishing that objective.
Mooks
VPR Reptile Hybrid 1st Company are emotionless slightly-above peak-human soldiers, based off an augmented MiB 1.0 design. They are notably reptilian when inspected closely, but can conceal it under military gear and sunglasses. They are currently pretending to be elements of the Mexican army, but will change disguises if ordered and are capable of fulfilling a number of roles. They are perfectly loyal, have no moral qualms in following orders, and their special weapons forces are more extreme snakemen enhanciles wearing light exoskeletons disguised as bomb disposal gear and armed with Union-standard weapons.
VPR units operate in 9 man fireteams. Each fireteam is linked up into a combat hivemind. 1st Company consist of three platoons, operating out of light military vehicles, and a command section.
VPR units are set up for remote command and remote operation by an authorised user.
What would Serafina have them do?
[ ] Poke the trap with a stick. Send a fireteam or two in disguise as drugs cartel gang members to attack the Panopticon trap they're preparing and maybe toss a rocket into the building, then retreat. If there's a firefight there, it'll scare Alice off and ruin the entire Panopticon set-up trap, giving Serafina more time to find her. The rest remain in reserve, ready to act when she's located.
[ ] Ruin the trap. VPRs are obviously inhuman. If a few get seen lurking in the area around the place, Alice should probably avoid it. And if she moves to take one down to mind-read it, Serafina can override it and try to talk to her through the puppeted reptile-man. She might not believe her, but there's things only the two of them should know. The rest remain in reserve.
[ ] Get them all ready up in the city but hold them in reserve. If Alice shows up at the trap, move them in to protect and save her, and extract her. And the records will just show that they were stationed in the city because Amalgam-391 wanted to be ready to reinforce Panopticon if they asked for help.
[ ] Sweep the streets. Find her first. Search-and-do-not-destroy-am-I-clear? Serafina coordinates them using data from -391 and the fact that she knew Alice very well when she was younger. (Corr 3, Life 1 - searching for Alice in the area Serafina's mooks are sweeping over - made more effective by how the snakemen can taste her)
Elites
The X-410 Xiaolian is a prototype heavy assault unit intended to be superior to the HITMark V in every way and incorporating elements of enhancement projects as wide ranging as ICARUS, EXEMPLAR and UPLIFT. They are dependent on their advanced primium-lined biosuits to stabilise their biology, and will suffer damage if pushed too hard. They are kept in suspended animation in tubes by default - Serafina has concealed the order to decant them with false orders for a test hunt against Sabbat forces.
Xiaolian units are set up for remote command and remote operation by an authorised user. As Serafina has meatware access to them, mysteriously the list of authorised users has been reset and now only contains one valid operator ID. How peculiar.
Serafina has two four-unit teams. Therefore, these teams should be treated separately and can have different votes.
Where will she position them?
[ ] [ ] With the mooks, as a hidden elite strike unit (requires remote Corr guidance, or the commitment of the Lician Vanessas)
[ ] [ ] Operating independently (requires remote Corr guidance, or the commitment of the Lician Vanessas)
-> For what purpose?
[ ] [ ] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[ ] [ ] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
The default armaments of the Xiaolians are 20mm smart grenade MGs, STERILISER alpha-source biological unit disposal sidearms (BUDS), and a field in-combat vivisection kit. There are other optional load-outs.
[ ] [ ] Default - as above
[ ] [ ] Anti-armour - Replace the grenade MG with a 1mm UHV infantry railgun, replace the BUDS with an anti-armour grenade launcher. (UHV is vulgar if fired at full power and hits like a tank cannon, standard power equivalent to anti-materiel rifle)
[ ] [ ] Biohazard - 2 units replace their grenade MG and BUDS with a P-42 Incinerator, units are issued with anti-biohazard variable threat grenades (Life 1, Entropy 1, chose what forms of life you want to kill in the area)
Heavy Support
The X-PROG-311 Combat Powered Exoskeleton Cephalopod Gunship is in a Ready state, where it can be in the air in approximately ten minutes. This is following standard protocols in Amalgam-391, which dictate that one aerial asset should be maintained in a Ready state at all times in case of a Shockwave code being called in by field assets. All Serafina did was shift the rotation so it was the X-PROG-311's turn.
[ ] Shift it to High Alert state (can launch immediately - breach of standard protocols)
[ ] Maintain current Ready state.
Serafina has access to the maintenance logs and noticed that they have a few upgrade kits. She has ensured that the maintenance teams have:
[ ] Carried out standard practice and that everything is good to go (extraordinary citizen engineers ensure 2 stored uses of the Checklist rote, negating botches)
[ ] Replaced the nose IX-21 'Bandsaw' 25mm cannon with a VE-E115-1B 'Steak Knife' plasma cannon (+ firepower, - vulgarity)
[ ] Applied applique reactive armour (+armour, - maneuverability)
[ ] Administered combat plasmids to the cephalopodian elements of the unit (+ plasmids, +flexibility, - vulgarity, - breach of standard protocols)
[ ] Made sure there's a Damage Control cache in the cargo hold (+ supply cache of standard DC gear)
Serafina
Things are probably going to go down. She needs to think of her own safety and evac route. Where's she going to run the op from?
[ ] Inside Amalgam-391 (+focuses, +shielded secret base, + not necessarily burning her Laura cover yet, +possible emergency grabbing more mooks, - it's a secret base she's not really meant to be in, - no way out if it gets put on lockdown)
-> [ ] Do it from inside the URTURN facility for direct access to the meatware (+ ease of hacking, + in the most secure bit of the base, - in the most secure bit of the base)
-> [ ] Just find an unused broom closet (+ secrecy through obscurity, - someone might want to use a broom, - 'in the closet' jokes)
[ ] She'll take out a Damage Control field operations APC (+field mobile, +cargo space and onboard gear, + comes with a team of Oliver mission control bioroids assistants, + armoured and armed, - not the fastest vehicle around, - could be stealthier, - seriously it's a biohazard sealed APC)
[ ] She's going to "borrow" Professor Fujiyama's Saviour motorbike and a Damage Control field-operations covert command rig - and hey, with the full helmet it even looks like motorcycle leathers (+ fast NWO superbike with all the trimmings, + very field mobile, + stealthy broadcasting, + did I mention it's fast enough to be a Corr 3 focus, - limited cargo space, - Fujiyama will not be a happy bunny when he finds out someone stole his very expensive Device motorbike, - any bodyguards have to lame it up by following in a car)
Alicia
Alicia's just chillin'. She's certainly not up to something and not telling Serafina. Oh no. Certainly not. She's totally reliable. It's not like she has Intelligence 7 and a speciality in "I Am The Butterfly Who Flaps Her Wings". Nope.
Though she would quite like it if Serafina would go and learn some Entropy. You know, just in passing. As a favour to her. It'd make things easier, because things'd be, like, totally hilarious if she could enhance her rolls with that Int speciality and an appropriate ability.
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
[ ] Write-in (any write-in will need to persuade Alicia that her cooperation is more useful than what she has planned)
Beelicio and Seelicia
[ ] If they are not already "locked in" to another part of the operation, write-in which part of the operation they'll be assigned to.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ho hum! Right then.
Mooks
[X] Get them all ready up in the city but hold them in reserve. If Alice shows up at the trap, move them in to protect and save her, and extract her. And the records will just show that they were stationed in the city because Amalgam-391 wanted to be ready to reinforce Panopticon if they asked for help.
Interfering with the trap will alert Panopticon to the fact that we're moving against them right now, which we don't want, and they've already been looking for her so I'm not sure how successful sweeping the streets will be - it'll find her eventually since she can't Corr ward, but will it do it fast enough? And, well, this is Jamelia's daughter and Blanc's prodigy. I suspect she's already going to be poking the trap. Let's have assets in place to help her with it.
Elites
[X] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[X] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
Easy enough. They're our elite units, therefore half of them go with Serafina as bodyguards and the other half go with Alicia as our elite field team. Not sure about their armaments just now.
Heavy Support
[X] Maintain current Ready state.
[X] Replaced the nose IX-21 'Bandsaw' 25mm cannon with a VE-E115-1B 'Steak Knife' plasma cannon (+ firepower, - vulgarity)
We need to start prepping it ten minutes ahead of time. But I don't think we need to start prepping it this early. That said, if things have gone to hell enough that we need a SHOCKWAVE code, I want it to be a really well-armed one.
Serafina
[X] She's going to "borrow" Professor Fujiyama's Saviour motorbike and a Damage Control field-operations covert command rig - and hey, with the full helmet it even looks like motorcycle leathers (+ fast NWO superbike with all the trimmings, + very field mobile, + stealthy broadcasting, + did I mention it's fast enough to be a Corr 3 focus, - limited cargo space, - Fujiyama will not be a happy bunny when he finds out someone stole his very expensive Device motorbike, - any bodyguards have to lame it up by following in a car)
Fastest and most mobile option. Being trapped like rats in the Amalgam does not appeal. And this way we'll have slept with the guy and taken his passwords, his motorbikes and quite probably his job. This is probably why he stopped sleeping with real women in the first place, poor man.
Alicia
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
Yessssss.
Mooks
[X] Get them all ready up in the city but hold them in reserve. If Alice shows up at the trap, move them in to protect and save her, and extract her. And the records will just show that they were stationed in the city because Amalgam-391 wanted to be ready to reinforce Panopticon if they asked for help.
Interfering with the trap will alert Panopticon to the fact that we're moving against them right now, which we don't want, and they've already been looking for her so I'm not sure how successful sweeping the streets will be - it'll find her eventually since she can't Corr ward, but will it do it fast enough? And, well, this is Jamelia's daughter and Blanc's prodigy. I suspect she's already going to be poking the trap. Let's have assets in place to help her with it.
Elites
[X] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[X] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
Easy enough. They're our elite units, therefore half of them go with Serafina as bodyguards and the other half go with Alicia as our elite field team. Not sure about their armaments just now.
Heavy Support
[X] Maintain current Ready state.
[X] Replaced the nose IX-21 'Bandsaw' 25mm cannon with a VE-E115-1B 'Steak Knife' plasma cannon (+ firepower, - vulgarity)
We need to start prepping it ten minutes ahead of time. But I don't think we need to start prepping it this early. That said, if things have gone to hell enough that we need a SHOCKWAVE code, I want it to be a really well-armed one.
Serafina
[X] She's going to "borrow" Professor Fujiyama's Saviour motorbike and a Damage Control field-operations covert command rig - and hey, with the full helmet it even looks like motorcycle leathers (+ fast NWO superbike with all the trimmings, + very field mobile, + stealthy broadcasting, + did I mention it's fast enough to be a Corr 3 focus, - limited cargo space, - Fujiyama will not be a happy bunny when he finds out someone stole his very expensive Device motorbike, - any bodyguards have to lame it up by following in a car)
Fastest and most mobile option. Being trapped like rats in the Amalgam does not appeal. And this way we'll have slept with the guy and taken his passwords, his motorbikes and quite probably his job. This is probably why he stopped sleeping with real women in the first place, poor man.
Alicia
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
Yessssss.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
If Clock and her nwooblet protoge can't find Alice I don't think Serafina will have much better luck if Alice wants to stay hidden.
Being ready to assist/bail her out immediately after things go to shit sounds like a decent plan of action.
Their description says they suffer damage if pushed too hard which means they're a bit Paradox-prone. Might be better to leave the fuck-you level heavy weapons to the war squid.
Hmm. Or one squad (probably Alice's) with the anti-armor and Serafina getting the Biohazard loadout since that's another focus for her to work with.
Yeah, extra firepower seems like a good call. Either that not having to worry about botches - when shit goes down it might be nice not having to worry about the war squid exploding or going all tentacle-y on us.
On the one hand the bike is super snazzy. OTOH we're stealing the man's baby which makes this personal. For the same reason we didn't pick the fire-breathing T-Rex, let's not make more enemies than we need to.Fastest and most mobile option. Being trapped like rats in the Amalgam does not appeal. And this way we'll have slept with the guy and taken his passwords, his motorbikes and quite probably his job. This is probably why he stopped sleeping with real women in the first place, poor man.
I'm leaning more towards the APC because, while I aim to get out of Dodge ASAP, the extra C&C might help us maintain our cool while trying to contort ourselves around corkscrew Agency plans.
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I refuse to confirm or deny rumours that it was Pia who was to blame for that irrational fear of real women, after she slept with him and wound up taking his wallet, his motorbike, and got the graduate placement he'd really wanted to get using her family connections.
On a side note about armaments: our plan has been predicted, which can actually be somewhat useful. We can, to some extent, choose what we'd really rather not be on the field by choosing our armaments. (Though, uh. Panopticon firepower might mean they don't care >.>.)
Shouldn't that be "rescue Alice"? Alicia is (hopefully) not in need of rescuing.
Now, as for options (WALL OF TEXT WARNING):
Scaring Alice off will also mean Serafina needs that additional time to find her - and meanwhile, Panopticon will be going after Serafina. Bad move.
Potentially has the same time downside as the first option, while still alerting Panopticon (although they might not move as quickly if things aren't exploding.) The mental connection could go really well or really badly, and may not even happen in the first place.
The safest option, and the one that doesn't immediately alert Panopticon. Simply let Alice show at the trap. The problem with this one is that Serafina is lacking in NWOness, and thus might assign the VPRs to the wrong trap. (There were at least two, last I checked.)
Alice has no idea that these Technocratic assets aren't trying to kill her, and her attempting to avoid them might make her more vulnerable to the actual trap. Bad idea.
The first two options require a Correspondence link (which requires Serafina's attention and might be able to be tracked) or committing Seelicia and Beelicio (for whom Alicia might have other plans). Bodyguarding Serafina increases her survivability, but also her visibility, and doesn't mix well with the bike.
As for the loadout, FunkyEntropy already noted that Serafina would love her some Life/Entropy grenades, and Panopticon will probably be packing heavy armor. The benefit of the default load out appears to be effectiveness against swarms at distances longer than flamethrower range, while still retaining some anti-armor capability.
I don't think there's much question about the ready state. Putting it on High Alert will tip our hand early, and the action probably won't start that soon.
As for the options, I'm thinking either botch-immunity or the gun. That said, I'm not sure about what exactly a Damage Control cache entails. Guns? Armor? Medical equipment? All of the above? And whatever it is, can the squid airdrop it without breaking cover?
Inside the amalgam seems like a bad idea - the idea here is to grab Alice and GTFO, not hang around while Panopticon consolidates their hold and investigates what the hell went on in Amalgam-391.
It seems to lack the typical Cratmobile features, such as camouflage, so it's airstrike bait as soon as Panopticon figures out what's going on. The real question is just how budget this van is - is it just a Sleeper APC with Damage Control Gear installed? Something more like a Roland, but with less guns? Somewhere in between?
On the downside, this will piss off Fujiyama (more than he already will be when he figures out the Amalgam was hacked using his passwords,) and the Xiaolians won't be able to tag along with her. On the upside, not only is it cool as hell, it's fast enough for a Corr 3 teleport. Serafina has Corr 3. This means that if she can inform Alice about what's going on, she can simply zip up, grab her and GTFO while Alice obfuscates the trail. (Alicia will have to exfiltrate on her own.)
EDIT: Whoops, forgot Death replaces Entropy. Shaking any tails is going to be a lot harder - no matter how fast your bike is, you'll have to stop sometime.
...Why is there even a write-in option?
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
I'm thinking assigning them to help Alicia do Alicia things. Anybody got any better ideas?
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- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X] Get them all ready up in the city but hold them in reserve. If Alice shows up at the trap, move them in to protect and save her, and extract her. And the records will just show that they were stationed in the city because Amalgam-391 wanted to be ready to reinforce Panopticon if they asked for help.
[X ] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[X] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
[X] Default - as above
[X] Anti-armour - Replace the grenade MG with a 1mm UHV infantry railgun, replace the BUDS with an anti-armour grenade launcher. (UHV is vulgar if fired at full power and hits like a tank cannon, standard power equivalent to anti-materiel rifle)
AA ones with Alicia
[X] Maintain current Ready state.
[X] Combat Plasmids
[X] Inside Amalgam-391 (+focuses, +shielded secret base, + not necessarily burning her Laura cover yet, +possible emergency grabbing more mooks, - it's a secret base she's not really meant to be in, - no way out if it gets put on lockdown)
-> [X] Just find an unused broom closet (+ secrecy through obscurity, - someone might want to use a broom, - 'in the closet' jokes)
The jokes sell it.
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
Beelicio and Seelicia
[X] If they are not already "locked in" to another part of the operation, write-in which part of the operation they'll be assigned to.
Both to the team overwatching the trap site, ready to get to Alicia's side and get her out of there.
[X ] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[X] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
[X] Default - as above
[X] Anti-armour - Replace the grenade MG with a 1mm UHV infantry railgun, replace the BUDS with an anti-armour grenade launcher. (UHV is vulgar if fired at full power and hits like a tank cannon, standard power equivalent to anti-materiel rifle)
AA ones with Alicia
[X] Maintain current Ready state.
[X] Combat Plasmids
[X] Inside Amalgam-391 (+focuses, +shielded secret base, + not necessarily burning her Laura cover yet, +possible emergency grabbing more mooks, - it's a secret base she's not really meant to be in, - no way out if it gets put on lockdown)
-> [X] Just find an unused broom closet (+ secrecy through obscurity, - someone might want to use a broom, - 'in the closet' jokes)
The jokes sell it.
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
Beelicio and Seelicia
[X] If they are not already "locked in" to another part of the operation, write-in which part of the operation they'll be assigned to.
Both to the team overwatching the trap site, ready to get to Alicia's side and get her out of there.
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"...you do it voluntarily?"
[X] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[X] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
[X] Anti-armour - Replace the grenade MG with a 1mm UHV infantry railgun, replace the BUDS with an anti-armour grenade launcher. (UHV is vulgar if fired at full power and hits like a tank cannon, standard power equivalent to anti-materiel rifle)
[X] Biohazard - 2 units replace their grenade MG and BUDS with a P-42 Incinerator, units are issued with anti-biohazard variable threat grenades (Life 1, Entropy 1, chose what forms of life you want to kill in the area)
[X] Maintain current Ready state.
[X] Carried out standard practice and that everything is good to go (extraordinary citizen engineers ensure 2 stored uses of the Checklist rote, negating botches)
[X] She'll take out a Damage Control field operations APC (+field mobile, +cargo space and onboard gear, + comes with a team of Oliver mission control bioroids assistants, + armoured and armed, - not the fastest vehicle around, - could be stealthier, - seriously it's a biohazard sealed APC)
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Look, we've already made him an enemy. Like, there's a medium chance already that it'll be discovered that we used his access codes - and that alone is going to get him in a heap of trouble. And the APC is slow and obvious, and staying in the Amalgam is suicide if it gets sealed. Remember that we're dealing with a Special Agent here. It will probably get sealed. And then we're stuck like rats in a trap.
The bike is fast. The bike is covert. The bike is a valid Corr 3 focus to GTFO while the Xiaolians stay behind to slow down pursuit. The bike can, in an emergency, be used to just drag Alice on behind us and then hightail it out of the city entirely. Not making more enemies than we need to is one thing, but I think we basically decided to make this guy an enemy when we slept with him and stole his access codes and deployed memetic weaponry against him while he was asleep. Like, if you wanted to not piss him off, you should probably have thought of that a while ago. Because he currently has two or three reasons to instantly kill us if he ever finds out what we did - which he will if (when) we have to call in our SHOCKWAVE code and they realise the Amalgam is subverted.
And @Strypgia, I will note that Alice was Blanc's prodigy, and that Yinzheng, while good, cannot think in corkscrews in the way that she can with Bastille's help. Alice is too wary and too paranoid to just charge into the trap herself - she's more likely to Mind 4 someone else into going and poking it. In which case us poking it does nothing but reveal our hand early and interfere with her strategy. Let's not do that, and instead wait to see what she's doing and then move in to help in a way that doesn't result in a clusterfuck where our plans collide.
I'm pretty sure "Clusterfuck when plans collide" is about 50% of the quest.
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yes, and given how well that's worked out for us in the past, how about we try to avoid it happening for as long as possible and ensure that we can actually exploit it when it happens rather than being caught with our pants down?
If we wanted to avoid our pants down we shouldn't have taken the Professor Fujiyama option.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yes, but you want as many of the colliding plans to be enemy plans as you can. Having two allied plans collide, generating clusterfuck, is just bad all around.
I would say, though, that if we're going to have Serafina on the bike we're probably better just giving Alicia *all* of the Xiaolans. I'm sure she can find something entertaining to do with them, and Serafina's defenses at that point are going to be primarily speed/stealth, which they'll be actively harmful for. If she needs the heavy backup? Well, that's what the squid is for.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Fair enough, I bow to your wisdom on the approach to the trap. I'm still not sold on the bike, though. I may change away from the Amalgam-391 location on more consideration, though.
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Okay, let's look at it this way.
We are probably going to get attacked. What this choice is about, therefore, is where we get attacked. Staying in the Amalgam means playing Base Defence, and while that does allow a "RELEASE ALL THE DINOSAURS, ALL OF THEM, MWAA HA HA HAA!" option, it also means that we're sealed in with no way to run, and... well, frankly, if you feel guilty about stealing his bike, you're probably going to feel a lot guiltier about getting him killed when the Amalgam comes under attack from whatever Panopticon throws at us. Also all of the Lauras, etc.
The APC I don't regard as a valid choice at all. It's big, it's flashy, it's slow. It will easily be noticed, and it will force us to go loud and start just trying to smash our way out through brute force. And I'm pretty sure Panopticon can bring more to bear than we can. It's a good command centre, but it's a bad escape option, and with a Special Agent fucking our plans up, we need it to be a good escape option.
The bike, however, means that we're more likely to wind up in a chase scene where Sera has to use SWEET TRIX and RAD MOVEZ to stay ahead of the dracosaur hunting teams as we remote-scramble our warsquid to come and blow them off the face of the earth while we freewheel off into the distance. Therefore, it is clearly both the logical and the totally sweet choice to pick.
And I'm inclined to leave a team of Xiaolians with Sera to give her time to get away - especially since one can ride on the bike with her and the other three can follow behind in a covert car. Given that the warsquid takes ten minutes to scramble and the Xiaolians are each equivalent in performance to about 3 HITMarks and have primium-lined bodysuits, that one bodyguard on the bike with her could be the difference between life and death for her.
[X] Give them to Alicia. No doubt she'll find some use for them. A safe-for-work one, too! Uh… your work is okay with murder, right? Hers is!
[X] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
[X][X] Biohazard - 2 units replace their grenade MG and BUDS with a P-42 Incinerator, units are issued with anti-biohazard variable threat grenades (Life 1, Entropy 1, chose what forms of life you want to kill in the area)
[X] Maintain current Ready state.
[X] Carried out standard practice and that everything is good to go (extraordinary citizen engineers ensure 2 stored uses of the Checklist rote, negating botches)
[X] She's going to "borrow" Professor Fujiyama's Saviour motorbike and a Damage Control field-operations covert command rig - and hey, with the full helmet it even looks like motorcycle leathers (+ fast NWO superbike with all the trimmings, + very field mobile, + stealthy broadcasting, + did I mention it's fast enough to be a Corr 3 focus, - limited cargo space, - Fujiyama will not be a happy bunny when he finds out someone stole his very expensive Device motorbike, - any bodyguards have to lame it up by following in a car)
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
[X] Keep them in reserve with Serafina. They'll keep her safe, can help extract her, and… you know, help her not die. (note, if the bike option is taken, only one can ride on the bike and the others have to trail behind her in a car)
[X][X] Biohazard - 2 units replace their grenade MG and BUDS with a P-42 Incinerator, units are issued with anti-biohazard variable threat grenades (Life 1, Entropy 1, chose what forms of life you want to kill in the area)
[X] Maintain current Ready state.
[X] Carried out standard practice and that everything is good to go (extraordinary citizen engineers ensure 2 stored uses of the Checklist rote, negating botches)
[X] She's going to "borrow" Professor Fujiyama's Saviour motorbike and a Damage Control field-operations covert command rig - and hey, with the full helmet it even looks like motorcycle leathers (+ fast NWO superbike with all the trimmings, + very field mobile, + stealthy broadcasting, + did I mention it's fast enough to be a Corr 3 focus, - limited cargo space, - Fujiyama will not be a happy bunny when he finds out someone stole his very expensive Device motorbike, - any bodyguards have to lame it up by following in a car)
[X] Do Alicia Things (x3.0)
... okay, it does appear some people misunderstand things.
The Biohazard option is the "kit for dealing with biohazards". That is why it has flamethrowers and it has programmable grenades where the shrapnel only hits things conforming to a certain biological profile. So you can burn hazardous biological material and throw grenades without risk of collateral damage. It is the other end of the scale to the anti-armour gear.
The Biohazard option is the "kit for dealing with biohazards". That is why it has flamethrowers and it has programmable grenades where the shrapnel only hits things conforming to a certain biological profile. So you can burn hazardous biological material and throw grenades without risk of collateral damage. It is the other end of the scale to the anti-armour gear.