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.