Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
Unfortunately, we don't have kickass enough theme music to use that name.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
I am broadly in favor of being a good little Technocrat and calling this in, although I'm waffling between calling the VE and making a general all-Union broadcast.
Fucking dimensional breach. If there's anything that could get Yinzheng off our backs, at least temporarily, it's a dimensional breach.
Yinzheng is a generally decent person aside from the fact that she's trying to kill us. I think there's good odds that she'll correctly prioritize the FUCKING UFO over us. And the fact that we're putting ourselves at risk by calling it in is going to give her some pretty interesting questions, particular if her superiors try to tell her to ignore the third Precept and target the person trying to stop it (if we announce who we are, Yinzheng probably has the spheres to verify we're who we claim we are). Might even spark a bit of a crisis of faith, so to speak.
Fucking dimensional breach. If there's anything that could get Yinzheng off our backs, at least temporarily, it's a dimensional breach.
Yinzheng is a generally decent person aside from the fact that she's trying to kill us. I think there's good odds that she'll correctly prioritize the FUCKING UFO over us. And the fact that we're putting ourselves at risk by calling it in is going to give her some pretty interesting questions, particular if her superiors try to tell her to ignore the third Precept and target the person trying to stop it (if we announce who we are, Yinzheng probably has the spheres to verify we're who we claim we are). Might even spark a bit of a crisis of faith, so to speak.
Um, is shockwave + underground a good combo? Because it'll mean that the squid is launching around the time we finally reach the subway, which means it'll be of limited use to us, and maybe in danger of being destroyed.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Look, alien invaders are totally justification for using heavy assets. If you're not going to "RELEASE THE KRAKEN" for UFOs, what good is it?
[X] Scream toVE's Everyone about alien Invasion, in panicked voice (no difficulty, that) over unsecured channel. Seriously. We want everyone to hear.
[X] RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
[X] Scream to
[X] RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
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- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yes, because we can come up wherever we want, and because we're not going to use it to pick us up, we're going to send it at the ship. Which, incidentally, is an Assault/Suppression Vessel. Meaning it is probably specced for assaulting and suppressing cities and basically being an alien invasion out of XCOM, terrorising locals and hoovering them up with tractor beams and so on. It's probably not all that focused on direct combat with other ships - which means that the warsquid may have a good chance, especially if it can get close and start ripping off its point defence guns and then tearing into it so that the UFO can't use its tractor beams or long-range weaponry to retaliate.
[X] Scream to VE's Everyone about alien Invasion, in panicked voice (no difficulty, that) over unsecured channel. Seriously. We want everyone to hear.
[X] RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
Scream shout and run about
[X] RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
Scream shout and run about
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- Location
- The end of all things
No X-COM, you are the UFOs.
You can either try to contact the VEs properly following the correct protocols for calling in a sighting, or you can try for a general Union broadcast. You can't try to take both options - and there's no such thing as an unsecured Union channel.
Because. You know. Secret global conspiracy.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Wow, yeah, there's something so sad and tragic about what they've become....
Vote amended
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Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No!
For fucks sake, scream about the giant alien invasion openly!?
Are you out of your fucking minds?!
This is Serafina. She doesn't have Time 5. She only remembers the world after Jamelia changed it, and that is a world in which the Void Engineers actually do their job in extremis.
In extremis includes GIANT TERROR SHIPS HOVERING OVER ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST METROPOLITAN AREAS.
So
For fucks sake
Do not bleat to the Union at large, which is a lumbering beast easily sidetracked by pulling out one pseudopod from under its body.
Call on t he dudes that specialize in murdering aliens because GIANT SPACESHIP RIGHT OVER MEXICO FUCKING CITY
[x] Void Engineers. Because FUCKING UFO and it's THEIR FUCKING JOB
"AAAA GIANT ALIEN TERROR SHIP KILL IT KILL IT" is in fact sufficient reason.
For fucks sake, scream about the giant alien invasion openly!?
Are you out of your fucking minds?!
This is Serafina. She doesn't have Time 5. She only remembers the world after Jamelia changed it, and that is a world in which the Void Engineers actually do their job in extremis.
In extremis includes GIANT TERROR SHIPS HOVERING OVER ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST METROPOLITAN AREAS.
So
For fucks sake
Do not bleat to the Union at large, which is a lumbering beast easily sidetracked by pulling out one pseudopod from under its body.
Call on t he dudes that specialize in murdering aliens because GIANT SPACESHIP RIGHT OVER MEXICO FUCKING CITY
[x] Void Engineers. Because FUCKING UFO and it's THEIR FUCKING JOB
"AAAA GIANT ALIEN TERROR SHIP KILL IT KILL IT" is in fact sufficient reason.
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[X] SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE!!!
[X] The 3 Xiaolians in the car behind you. Give them orders.
-> [X] Try to get beamed up. Kill everything on that ship or die trying. FUCK THAT FUCKING UFO UP
I am somewhat tempted to vote for the VE option, but our mooks are actually right here, which means that they can respond immediately, and that's important for surviving the next ten minutes.
[X] The 3 Xiaolians in the car behind you. Give them orders.
-> [X] Try to get beamed up. Kill everything on that ship or die trying. FUCK THAT FUCKING UFO UP
I am somewhat tempted to vote for the VE option, but our mooks are actually right here, which means that they can respond immediately, and that's important for surviving the next ten minutes.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Yeah, when Blanc became an Evil Space Ghost version of himself, he either didn't notice or worse, did, and didn't care. It finally let him truly shed 'human weakness'...
Shockwave?
[X] SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE!!!
Release the Kraken indeed!
Run?
[X] Run! (x ∞)
Run pt. 2 (Rote write-ins are not only useful, but probably essential.)
[X] Find a way down underground so they can't beam you up. Somehow. (How?)
Corr 3, Prime 3, Time 1: Corr-based countermagic. By means of perfect timing and SWEET TRIX, Serafina evades the attempts of the UFO to catch her in a tractor beam and leads it a merry chase across the city towards the nearest subway station. If it's got tractor beams, she'll just have to get out of their range by RIDING A HIGH-SPEED MOTORCYCLE DOWN INTO A SUBWAY STATION and then GRINDING DOWN THE TUBE TRACKS AND DODGING TRAINS. Enhanced by Dex+Drive.
You can try to contact one group while also riding a motorcycle at positively unsafe speeds through Mexico City streets on Christmas Eve. Who? (Write-ins can radically affect what the effects of the contact will be.).
[X] The 3 Xiaolians in the car behind you. Give them orders.
-> [X] Try to get beamed up. Kill everything on that ship or die trying. FUCK THAT FUCKING UFO UP
Time permitting, then call the Void Engineers and tell them about the Christmas Present you're giving them.
- Location
- Southern Virginia
Uh, am I the only one remembering the Xiaolins aren't really all that good at independent action?
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
'Kill everything in that ship or die trying' isn't that complex a set of orders.
- Location
- Southern Virginia
They're likely to hit some situation more complex than "kill y/n" and that will be the end of their usefulness. And if we're calling in the Void Engineers to handle the UFO anyway while counting on Serafina dodging it, that seems like a waste of resources that we might need later on.
Sometimes they need to bomb.
But we're not really expecting them to succeed more than do some damage and cause a diversion.
Welp. It's not a robot at least!
...Strongly inclined to just call in the VEs now. This is the sort of thing they're for. Apologies to the city. It's going to Moscow.
Incidentally, distracted by GIANT UFO, but
Is it wrong that my first impulse was "those foods don't go together"?
[X] Shockwave! (It'll be in the air in ten minutes. Major breach of standard protocols)
Fuck protocols. We need our own flying monster!
[X] Run! (x ∞)
[X] Find a way down underground so they can't beam you up. Somehow. (How?)
-[X] Plan Subway Drifting
[X] The 3 Xiaolians in the car behind you. Give them orders.
-> [X] Try to get beamed up. Kill everything on that ship or die trying. FUCK THAT FUCKING UFO UP
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Hmm. Thinking about it a bit more, I think there's a bit of a tradeoff in calling just the VE vs an all purpose TU broadcast.
Calling just the VE
Pro: Doesn't alert anybody except the VE and Panopticon (because of course they're going to listen in) to our presence and, unfortunately, probably our location as well; thus we really only have to worry about two conventions tops coming down on our heads instead of everybody. VEs likely to appreciate the fact that we're assuming they'll do their job. Assuming, of course, that they'll actually do their job.
Con: Gives Panopticon a convenient reason to ignore the FUCKING UFO and just go after us.
TU-wide broadcast
Pro: FUCKING UFO is kind of a big deal and having everybody gunning for it means we might not have to deal with it much longer. Also makes it harder for Panopticon to deny our existence as Serafina Rosario, Hero of Moscow, because they're not the only guys with access to the spheres necessary to tell if we're lying. I'd suggest outsourcing the wording of the reveal to EarthScorpion since he has the right mindset for how to properly word something like this but he's currently occupied making our life difficult with FUCKING UFOs.
Cons: Subtle this ain't. If things go badly or we'd unknowingly become a persona non grata over the past month we'll have just announced ourselves to all Technocratic forces in Mexico.
Calling just the VE
Pro: Doesn't alert anybody except the VE and Panopticon (because of course they're going to listen in) to our presence and, unfortunately, probably our location as well; thus we really only have to worry about two conventions tops coming down on our heads instead of everybody. VEs likely to appreciate the fact that we're assuming they'll do their job. Assuming, of course, that they'll actually do their job.
Con: Gives Panopticon a convenient reason to ignore the FUCKING UFO and just go after us.
TU-wide broadcast
Pro: FUCKING UFO is kind of a big deal and having everybody gunning for it means we might not have to deal with it much longer. Also makes it harder for Panopticon to deny our existence as Serafina Rosario, Hero of Moscow, because they're not the only guys with access to the spheres necessary to tell if we're lying. I'd suggest outsourcing the wording of the reveal to EarthScorpion since he has the right mindset for how to properly word something like this but he's currently occupied making our life difficult with FUCKING UFOs.
Cons: Subtle this ain't. If things go badly or we'd unknowingly become a persona non grata over the past month we'll have just announced ourselves to all Technocratic forces in Mexico.
The Xiaolins will follow the One True X-COM (original) path. Liberal use of explosives until the target dies, they die, or both.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Something people may or may not have been considering... Whether Serafina is Persona non Grata in the Technocracy *next* week. Presumably, being able to function more or less openly as herself might be handy... (OOC: *especially* if it happens to snarl up some plans that Panopticon had to claim that she was alive, well, and living in LA.) Just a thing to consider. Right now, PANOPTICON is trying to disappear her. Failing that, they may try to discredit her... but if she is seen fighting off hostile EDEs in a big way in Mexico... well, that's just situation normal for the Hero of Moscow, isn't it?
This is not actually a problem.
Serafina: [Life 4, Mind 4: The Xiaolians have a 'emergency HVT retrieval' setting that allows them to consume and safely store the genetic and memory information of a high-value hostage, to ensure that they don't end up dead from unlucky freak accidents or ricochets or shrapnel or all those fun things that kill squishy hostages. Serafina can, as a biohacker, repurpose that to have one of the Xiaolians assimilate her on a temporary basis-thus giving her access to its skills and combat prowess and keeping herself safe in their supercharged super duper space marine bodies].
Any Reality Deviants who insist that this is basically a variant of the Prime 4/Mind 4 "Body of Light" rote used to possess other people, just modified to assimilate the physical body more directly, will have their knees broken with a baseball bat.
Yes, it's vulgar. But honestly Serafina can eat the 4 paradox and not suffer backlash, and it means that you have Serafina fully in control of a high-end combatant and capable of applying its skills more efficiently than it can. It neatly eliminates the survivability problem.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
So... unless I'm misreading, that makes her one with the Xiaolan on her bike, with the various advantages that entails. What does it do about making the ones in the car more able to act and think semi-independently while shooting up the interior of a spaceship piloted by EDEs?
She can put Corr 3 into that effect to also network the others to her. I didn't do it because I figured that was obvious.