Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
Quantumboost
Now with 50% more dots in Dimensional Science
- Location
- Ensemble Space
Will she attempt to extend the same control over the others?
[X]M. Bison YES! YES!
The difference between Xiaolian heavies and Xiaolian heavies with Sera's Mental Attributes and improvised biotech skillz is pretty fucking huge.
[X]
The difference between Xiaolian heavies and Xiaolian heavies with Sera's Mental Attributes and improvised biotech skillz is pretty fucking huge.
- Location
- The end of all things
[X] Yes
Is this portion vulgar?
Is this portion vulgar?
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
I can hear the RNG gods laughing at us.Okay, so I think I maybe shouldn't roll dice for this quest anymore:
[X] Yes
Okay. So roll me 9d10x7.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
Good news! Serafina is now a superinteligent hivemind spread over four very expensive combat bioroids. One of them is riding a motorbike.
Bad news! She's still getting used to the new bodies, and her next roll which would benefit from a speciality has that bonus negated as she can't apply her knowledge properly until she gets used to the bodies.
Now, final set of rolls:
Dex + Drive (Motorbikes) 10d10e7+1 (x removed due to Paradox Flaw) for another round of dodge, dodge, dodge the tractor beams.
Intelligence (Creative) + Tactics 13d10x7 for her... uh, certainly creative idea of attacking a UFO from the inside using supersoldier clones by letting the aliens abduct them
Bad news! She's still getting used to the new bodies, and her next roll which would benefit from a speciality has that bonus negated as she can't apply her knowledge properly until she gets used to the bodies.
Now, final set of rolls:
Dex + Drive (Motorbikes) 10d10e7+1 (x removed due to Paradox Flaw) for another round of dodge, dodge, dodge the tractor beams.
Intelligence (Creative) + Tactics 13d10x7 for her... uh, certainly creative idea of attacking a UFO from the inside using supersoldier clones by letting the aliens abduct them
- Location
- in the trash
WATCH THE AMAZING SERAFINA AS SHE DOES SWEET TRIX ON HER SWEET RIDE(I forgot the +1, so that should be 8 sux)
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
JAMELIA QUEST SLEEPER AGENT DETECTEDOkay, so I think I maybe shouldn't roll dice for this quest anymore:
it was so fucking close to botching. with 15 dice. seriously.
That was right on the edge of "Welp! So the next post is Alicia and Alice having to assault an alien spaceship to try to save Sera from a terrible fate of decidedly unsexy probing (they're only interested in her for her brain)."
Serafina: "Why do I keep on getting kidnapped?"
Alicia: "I don't know! Stop it!"
Serafina: "... didn't you technically kidnap me?"
Alicia: "Only technically! To keep you safe! From the world! And I did consider dragging you off to a secret safe hiding place and keeping you in the basement for a few months."
Serafina: "..."
Alicia: "I lie a lot."
Alicia: "No I don't."
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Clearly a flaw.
But they also slipped up when they had our subordinates show up being exactly like they were when we left rather than being almost unrecognizable!
- Location
- in the trash
Beelicio: "Don't worry! I won't let any kidnappers touch a hair on your head!"
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Only her head?
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Just so nobody forgets this when we plan how to deal with the Jamelian side of problems.
"Spaz out and shoot 'em all" is in fact a viable response.
"Spaz out and shoot 'em all" is in fact a viable response.
Does she still have those augmentations? I mean, her psyche got kicked out into the Umbra, then her original body got blown up, but then she came back from the Umbra with a new body (I'm still not quite sure how that worked. I mean, the rescue team was specifically looking for Jamelia's consciousness, right? Or did Harlan's paradigm basically get outvoted by everyone else's?)
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Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Her body didn't get blown up.
The body that got blown up was a decoy, after Catherine Nichols got her real body back first.
Nichols: "Yeah, I actually replaced it before Kessler even found it. With my Time, DSci and Corr, I can in fact use 'bullshit better than NWO conspiracy' as a focus to do the ol' body switcheroo."
Serafina: "Bullshit. I would have noticed. You can't justify that."
Nichols: "Bitch, you can't even notice that your best friend is a hallucination. You're officially banned from using 'I would have noticed' as a focus."
Serafina: "... Jamelia is a hallucination?"
Nichols: "... you know what? Yes, yes she is. It's funnier this way."
SR XII: The Worst Santa Ever
SR XII: The Worst Santa Ever
It would almost be better if the UFO up in the sky was making a noise. But it isn't. The pools of light are even more terrifying for their silence.
The rest of the world isn't silent. Serafina can hear Doppler-shifted screams and honking horns. She pays them attention only to map their location in the world around her, as she speeds through Mexico City silently blessing that she inherited her father's obsession about motorbikes - and also his good taste. She's making this baby dance. And it still might not be enough.
"Shockwave shockwave shockwave!" she transmits back to Amalgam-391, "Mexico City under assault from unidentified flying object utilising some kind of tractor-beam like system to abduct civilians. No record of planned operations in the area! Go to red alert and launch all available air assets for recon and potential combat of threat. Auth-code Bravo-Niner-Omicron-Bravo-Niner-Sigma-Slash-Three!"
A pause, and Sera would cross her fingers if her hands weren't so busy steering the bike. Over to her left a beam sweeps in, sucking up a tip and all its contents and she slams on the brakes pushing the friction compensation to its limits. It's enough to get her a turn which leaves a trail of burning carbon nanotube as she accelerates down a narrow alleyway.
"Roger, authorisation is valid. Asset Yellow Submariner will be airborn ETA nine minutes and ten seconds."
She would swear, but instead just cuts the channel. Then she starts cursing. It helps her focus, when she's having to do all of this with the useless lump of brainless meat sitting behind her on the bike. If only there was a way she could use its reactions and-
Oh. Oh. If she… yes. Yes. The VIP protocols. She could subvert them. Take control. And then she'd have a thick layer of dense engineered useful meat and a primium-lined biosuit between her and any danger, in case they decide to stop trying to capture and just go to kill.
It'd be like wearing Kessler.
Trying something like this wouldn't usually occur to Serafina, for the very good reason that this is something best done under controlled and calm circumstances with plenty of precautions against accidents and preferably when lying down somewhere comfortable, as opposed to on the back of a motorcycle travelling at 120 kilometres an hour through a city. But in a life full of poor-yet-educational choices, she can't exactly say that this has stopped her from similar decisions in the past.
Jinking she powerslides round a corner, thanking anyone willing to listen for the Saviour's smart friction tires and gyrostabilisers, and accelerates between two trucks onto a straight bit of road. She's been kludging together the command required for this in the back of her massively boosted mind even as she tries to dodge the aliens.
It's a crude field hack. A very crude field hack. She could have done much better - really should have done much better. Especially with all the augs she has. But in her defence, she's just a little tiny bit freaking the fuck out about the alien spaceship which is literally trying to beam her up. So. She's going to do it. She just needs a free moment.
The bits of her brain which aren't carrying solving a complex biological engineering problem notice the parking garage and she slams on the breaks as soon as she's under cover. The harsh electric lighting above her flickers, and dust crumbles from the unpainted concrete ceiling.
Serafina sends the command, and the X-410 behind her reaches forwards and wraps its hands over hers, pulling itself forwards. Its living biosuit splits open and its mutable biology envelops her, pulling her back even as it surges forwards. She doesn't have time to be scared, even though she knows that it's going to digest her and upload her. One moment there's light, then only black-tinged red. She has to trust that she'll be safer in here than outside.
There's a terrifying moment of uncertainty, where she's not in control and she can feel it crushing her and she can't breathe and there's no air on her lungs and there's so much pain and-
-then that moment passes. She's cold and lucid, looking out at the world from a HUD-overlay vision. It's not perfectly aligned and there are visual artefacts, but she's now in her subverted VIP mode. She's a backseat driver in the X-410 and if it wasn't for the lingering pain and the way she feels there's something off in her head, she'd be feeling great. She feels so much stronger. So much faster. Is… is this how Rose and Alexander feel all the time?
And that's when the beams of light tear the roof off with a shattering of concrete. From a stationary start, Serafina guns the engine and roars off. She's even better than she was before, now, with the superior body of the X-410 in control. She needs to get back into visual range of her trailing bodyguards. Transfer her biodata to them, operate them too.
Because she has a plan. They want to kidnap her? They can. Sort of. Well, they can kidnap three high end combat bioroids she's meshed in her hacked VIP protocols and which are high end killing machines with her intelligence guiding them. Brains and brawn. And grenade MGs. Inside the UFO.
Her range indicator is counting down as she speeds between two cars, passing through a gap barely wider than her own bike. She's got the override command prepared. And there! There they are. She has line of sight and her TacCom has synched up with the other parts of the combat unit. She sends the data pulse and then flinches as her consciousness expands once again.
She is legion.
Well, four, but four X-410s would probably massacre a Roman legion with the main risk being that they push themselves too hard and their biology fail before they'd managed to hunt down the fleeing survivors.
It's almost a relief in some ways. Spread over four bodies, her distributed intelligence takes some of the load of her hypercognition. But she's never had four bodies before and it's disorientating. The moment of dizziness nearly costs her dearly as she barely notices the pool of light sweeping towards her until it's almost too late.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. She needs to get underground. The tractor beams can tear the roof off a build, but Mexico City has an underground network. She can try to lose them down there - and even if they can still follow her signature, metres of concrete and stone should stop them. At least until her Shockwave code is in the air.
Lowering her binoculars, Seelicia messages the armoured hood of her biosuit. She's worried. She's exposed out here, even if she's lying on this high-rise rooftop under a 'borrowed' camoblanket kindly donated to Alicia Enterprises by a pair of reptile hybrid Panopticon assets who never expected someone to unleash genetically modified mosquitos with allergenic venom on them. One of the X-410s is lying next to her, railgun stabilised for sniping. It's a better shot than she is - which is totally unfair - but she's smarter and a better spotter. Beelicio and the other X-410 she was given are on the floor below, as a tripline of defence should something go wrong.
She listens to the terse comments of VPR 1st Company. Something is happening and they're being asked questions about their current status. She doesn't like it. She hopes their cover isn't blown. But that's not the root cause of her worry.
Serafina's last ping didn't come through. And there's something out there. She isn't sure what, but there's… there's something in the sky. Something that makes her electronic binoculars display static, which should be impossible.
Seelicia really wishes that Alicia had removed some more memories when making her. Not as many as Beelicio lost, of course, but she remembers too much. She knows what it's like to be a proper alpha-fork hallucination of a genius, and she sometimes feels so slow and stupid and limited. Right now it's really biting, because she feels like she's wading through oil as she tries to work out what to do.
"Assume defensive positions," she transmits to the VPR command section under her borrowed authority. "Prepare for possible hostile RD assault. Reserve units should be ready for counterattacks to relieve any unit which encounters the enemy."
It's all she can do.
"See!" Alicia sounds frantic. "Where's Ess? What's happening?"
"I don't know," she responds. "She missed her check-in, none of the hardware I have can find her rig and… there's something out there. Some kind of EDE, maybe."
"I know there's an EDE!" Alicia snaps. The only time Seelicia has seen her like this - or can remember being her like this - was when Serafina was dying. "Hold still! Look at the jamming! I'm getting an expert on the line."
There's muttering. "Hmm," says a familiar-ish voice. Seelicia can't place where she knows her from, but she does know her. "Eyes up a bit." Unseen fingers brush over her brain, and Seelicia shivers. "It's moved from the epicentre of the incursion, but I can see the scars. The Ava… Anomaly is heavily disrupted here. Watch out. It's going to be breaking through into the real world - and into the Near Umbra - until it stabilises. The… the vessel is heavily shielded against my powers, but I can see it by its dimensional wake. This is bad news, Alicia."
"No, really?"
"No, I mean it's worse news that you think it is. The psychic resonance of that thing is… it's an abomination." The strange-yet-familiar woman's voice is tense with disgust. Her accent is hard to tell - there's certainly a lot of RP in it, but more than a few American mannerisms. "It's raw with death. So many people have died on it. And it's got something which looks like Void Engineer space formatting snarled around it. Are you sure it's not Vee-Eee?"
"Pretty sure," Alicia says. "From that scaling, it's bigger than even an X200. I don't think Void Engineers have vessels that big."
"Well, then someone does."
"Yeah," Alicia says. "Yeah, looks like someone does. We need to find Ess and get the fuck out of this city. Before this becomes another Moscow. See?"
"Yes," Seelicia says, trying not to think about her own, helpless-yet-proud patchwork memories of Moscow. "Orders?"
"I need you to stay up in the spotter position. You get any contact with Ess, contact me ASAP. I'm going to leave you on the line with Liss, 'kay? Listen to her. She's got Operative training, so ask her for tactical help. I might be out of contact for some time. Liss, I need you to do… some kind of psychic mindy-windy thingie to hide me from precog. Keep it up, 'kay? Don't try to explain it, just do it."
"What're you doing?" both Seelicia and the unknown woman ask at the same time.
She can hear the smile in her alpha's voice. "What I do best. I'm a pretty little butterfly. Time to start flapping my wings. Waiting on the psi… ooh, I felt that! It tingles! Sweet. Laters!"
There is a silence.
"She's gone, and now I'm sitting in an empty bar next to a mindless, drooling Vanessa. She's always been like that," the other woman says, disgust in her voice. "Alicia. So annoying."
A wave of strange deja-vu overcomes her, but Seelicia is used to that feeling as a beta-fork. "I find her annoying and I was made from a pruned fork of her. So, tell me what you want me to do," she says, relieved to have someone with Genius giving her orders.
Back in the car, Serafina looks at herself on her left, while in the driver's seat in the front she accelerates, aiming for the ever-moving pool of light. It's like she's got whole new sets of instincts. The Xiaolians aren't conscious - they autonomously know how to fight and kill without any trace of awareness. All she has to do is think of preparing for combat, and her bodies do it for her. Just as well, really. It's an interesting experience. Even in the middle of this urban hell as cars and pedestrians are ripped from the streets she regrets not trying this before.
Uh. And for some reason, the genetic fusion has left the Xiaolians notably female. Well, she supposes she does have Progenitor gene-augs to enhance those salient features, and they have a plastic, morphic genotype and rapid-update phenotype. So the fusion of the genetic material resulting in instant changes in their appearance isn't entirely surprising.
Sadly, she probably won't get a combat advantage out of this. It's not like the aliens will care that the black-clad blind killing machines fused into the armour they're dependent on to survive have hourglass figures. For one, hopefully there'll be too many explosions.
Two of her bodies catch each others' optic sensors, and nod. She's ready. Time to relieve some pressure off the her on the bike.
The bridge of the alien ship is a cavernous, hollow space. Pulsing nerves lie over purple metal and tubes carry dull red and glowing green fluids to where they're needed. The elite of the Void Engineer troops - enhanced with captured and reverse-engineered xeno technology - guard the entrances, for this is the nerve centre of the entire ship. The centre of the room is dominated by a holographic orange and purple map of the alien city below. Standing on their balcony, the Colonel looks down at the map and the floating holographic head of their penultimate superior - the ultimate superior of course being Control.
"Colonel," hisses the Commander. "I have been in contact with the Funding Council. They have authorised a more extensive deployment. They consider the capture of the alien scientist and alien psychic to be high priority. It will increase morale in the Union to know that the alien scientist responsible for the failed Iterator capitol assault has been captured. For the Union and the Corps!"
The Colonel nods, dark eyes gleaming. Their respirator wheezes. The Syndicate are so predictable. They want alien technology to be captured so they can profit from it.
A new Void Engineer appears on the communications link. Twitching meat is illuminated by the glow of E-115 tech and sparkling electricity. The alien on the slab is still screaming faintly. "I must agree with the Commander," states the Doctor in their mechanical voice. cybernetic eyes staring placidly at the camera, their long-fingered still-bloody hands held in front of them. Their brain is exposed, enhancement technology having removed much of their skull to allow it room to grow. From their stealth science ship in orbit, the Doctor heads up the Corps' Research & Execution division. "We require the assets the Funding Council can provide for our research into terraforming technology. We still need to find Earth, but we have orders from Control to subjugate these aliens."
"And," the Commander narrows their dark eyes, raising one hand, "it is more critical than ever. Hyperwave transmissions passed to us by the Syndicate indicate that Iteration X has failed catastrophically once again."
"Where?" the Colonel rasps, mild concern flavouring their manner. The tubes running from their armour into their head fill with calming red fluid, made from rendered-down alien.
"In orbit around Oscar N173. Loss of one planetoid and two HKs."
There are three hissed rasping intakes of breath. The wastefulness of Iteration X is beyond measure. The Void Engineers have to survive with what they can salvage and what they can get from the Syndicate Funding Council. A single Iterator planetoid is more assets than the entire Subjugation Corps has access to.
"I don't like to wish the Union ill, but any such defeat to Iteration X was quite possibly self-inflicted," the Doctor hisses smugly.
"Do not gloat," the Commander commands. "There will be time for that when we have captured the alien scientist and the alien psychic. Progress?"
The Colonel salutes. "The hyperwave intercept of the alien psi-pulse was not enough to discern the location of the psychic, but we are currently attempting capture of the scientist." Manipulating the hologram before them, the Colonel displays the aerial view. "The scientist's biosignature has shifted to conceal itself from us, but we still have a lock on their alien hypertech vehicle. We will capture it too. We believe that the xeno is trying to flee underground, perhaps to one of their concealed facilities. Hyperwave scans indicate aliens have multiple underground concealed bases in this city, as well as extensive underground infrastructure. We will cut them off before-"
"No, that is not sufficient," the Commander hisses. "The scientist is cunning. It will escape if we do not move forces to block its escape. This scenario has been rigged against us by hostile forces."
"You are certain?" the Doctor interrupts.
"Yes. I have run this scenario a hundred times in emulation. I know how things will go - and randomness is our foe here. Reality Deviants are interfering in the probability matrix. Assume all random chance will go against us. Minimising risk is imperative."
The Colonel accedes. The Commander is the foremost tactical mind among the Void Engineers, and they willingly bow to their superior experience. They were old when the Colonel was a raw recruit in World War 2, fighting on Io against the damned forces of the Nephandi. They begin to give the orders.
"Activate the singularity array," the Colonel orders, speaking to the ship's AI. "Begin deployment of ground forces through the alien subterranean transport network. Then begin to coordinate the deployment of our assets. Will you authorise the deployment of the Absolute Terra field, Commander?"
A pause. "I will. There is no choice. Our foe will escape without it."
The Colonel nods. "Begin capture attempts on the alien population to fuel it. We cannot let the scientist escape. And this may force the xeno psychic out of hiding - or at least flush other high value alien targets out. Capture any which engage our forces. For the Union! For the Corps!"
If she had time to be amused, Serafina would be amused that at almost exactly the same moment as three of her bodies are ascending in light into the belly of the beast, the fourth of her bodies is riding a motorcycle down into the darkness of the Mexico City subway network and into safety. The power has failed, probably from the damage to the power grid the tractor beams are doing. She's seen them tear up power pylons and uproot telegraph poles.
She is not amused. She is very not amused. Her engine temperature is in the red, her tires are reporting noted degradation, and all around her she knows that innocent people are being seized by these monsters and she can do nothing to help any of them. As her other bodies ascend, she's really looking forwards to revenge.
Smashing through a closed set of ticket barriers, she brakes, dismounts, and immediately starts wheeling it towards the escalators. She's relying on the sheer blatancy of a hulking black-clad figure trying to take a motorbike on the subway to stop anyone from trying to stop her - or at least until she's passed them and underground, especially when everyone else is panicing. And she needs to give the engine a chance to cool down.
Screams, panic and the sound of weapons discharge precede her. They're already waiting for her at the bottom of the escalator; skinny grey-skinned figures with large dark eyes wearing rebreather masks and dull green tactical webbing. In most circumstances Serafina Rosario would be useless in such a situation.
However, this isn't most circumstances. This is Serafina Rosario stored inside the biosubstrate of a X-410 Xiaolian, and that means that what she chooses to do is to do nothing and let the body do what comes naturally to it.
Shortly afterwards all the aliens are dead. She's also found quite conclusively that Xiaolians are immune to their stunners. But there's more aliens up ahead, and falling to one knee the X-410 draws its grenade launcher and at Serafina's prompting fires a HE/biofunction shocker grenade set to airburst at headheight. The ones it doesn't kill are thoroughly pinned, but she can't stay here in this concourse. But she can't go back outside. The tractor beams will be waiting for her. So she's going to have to go down onto the tracks and find another way out.
Serafina's wild ride continues.
"Operative Li. I have something from the centre of the disrupted area," Iterator Mendoza reports.
Massaging her brow, Yinzheng tries to focus on her rather than any of the other ten thousand things she needs to giving her full attention to right now. There's a city's worth of confused reports hitting the local Watchers all at once, the local phone networks are jammed, and the power grids are being drained by… something. And she's also trying to monitor her operation to try to capture or kill Alice Aristide and work out if she's related to the abnormal activity and also trying to contact the Void Engineers because widespread reports of paranormal activity are their job and if DIDO isn't linked to them she needs to find someone else to hand it off to.
And no, it's not the damn vampires because her intercepts on them indicate they have no clue what's going on, either.
"Cram me," she says, bracing for the headache.
It's a CCTV grab from the entrance to a subway station, just before everything vanishes in static. A few frames of an individual wearing a disguised biosuit, riding… hmm, a Saviour model of Q Branch superbike, according to Mendoza. There's clearly weapons folded into the biosuit, and - Li narrows her eyes with all the contempt of a field Operative who has a figure better suited for storming RD bases than beds - they're probably Progenitor or an Iterator under the biosuit with a blatantly artificial build like that. Heavily enhanced to be navigating at those speeds, or a construct.
Yinzheng leans forwards. "Can you ID them?" she asks urgently.
"Unknown. It is not a standard model of cyborg or bioroid." Iterator Mendoza falls silent. "Analysis suggests it is a custom modification of an X-410 Xiaolian. Equipment loadout matches that of a X-410 Xiaolian. Serial numbers are obscured by non-standard modifications and low-resolution of CCTV footage."
Pursing her lips, Yinzheng brings up a page on them and scan reads it. High end, experimental Progenitor unit. Only eighty units made so far - although there are rumours that the loss of two X-410s to Rogue Council forces has allowed them to reverse engineer them. Yinzheng taps her fingers, and gives herself four breaths before she speaks. "Mr Blue," she orders, "make enquiries of every facility known to have X-410s! I want an inventory check now!"
"Amalgam-391 is on the list," Mr Blue says immediately.
Yinzheng tenses up. This is exactly what Director Belltower warned her about. Subverted Progenitor hardware? Could this be FIERY ANGEL? How can Belltower be this amazing? Somehow she managed to predict this pattern of behaviour exactly - and now this modified X-410 is showing up exactly when she's moving to capture DIDO, in the middle of an inexplicable chaotic phenomenon. Director Belltower makes someone like Mendoza look like a child even if Mendoza has a head full of cyberware and she is even less enhanced than Yinzheng is.
"Blue, get me -391 on the line! If they've lost an X-410, Damage Control needs to know! And get me drones in the air!" Li orders. "If that bioroid shows its face again, I want to be in a position for laser comms with it. And to take a shot if it doesn't respond to override codes!"
Light all around her. The ground below her. Detritus and trash from the streets around her. Even a few other people. Serafina prepares for the worst. In Moscow she spent the entire combat in the Molotek headquarters and even when Mari attacked she had the entire IBM there with her, but right now she's heading into the belly of the beast all alone.
There's a man just in front of her bodies in the beam. They pass through an orange-glowing barrier, and like ash his clothes fall apart. It's doing the same to all the scrap the beam picks up. Serafina has just enough time to panic until her first body passes through and-
-the field does nothing. She almost laughs. It exists to destroy inorganic matter. But the biosuits the Xiaolians wear are alive - and their weapons are in primium-shielded compartments. The field does nothing to them.
And with that thought, electricity crackles and convulses over the X-410s. It stings a bit. Sort of like a static electricity shock. If Serafina had a mouth right now, she'd smirk. She doesn't, but it's the thought that counts. She's wearing ultraheavy primium-shielded biosuits. Something which would knock out a normal human being is no impediment to her - although she suspects this wouldn't incapactiate a Xiaolian anyway. Not without the stunner being cranked up to levels which would fry an ordinary human.
Somehow, she's managed to set things up so their pretty rigorous security measures do nothing to her. Although, come to think of it, they also wouldn't do anything to a HITMark, as living tissue over a primium endoskeleton. But they'd work fine against civilians or even soldiers in the Masses. Or the NWO, although she honestly wouldn't put it past a lot of Operatives to consider little things like "being naked" and "being hit by a biostunner" to a workable problem. After all, Damage Control trains people to resist pain like this. That was a very unpleasant bit of the training she did, where they shocked her again and again so she knew how it felt and learned to work through the pain.
Really, they're bullies, these aliens. They go after the weak and helpless.
She's pulled through tubes which are both organic and technological. Not in the way that the Progenitors would do it. They're using neural cabling exposed to the air and pulsing arteries are twined together, plunging into blued steel ports. She switches to PrimEnView on one of her HUDs, and she can see the power flowing through the arteries, incredible amounts of power which… looks wrong. It's coming from a central reactor somewhere on this vessel, a heart pumping power around this place. And then the tumbling, wild ride comes to an end and the X-410s are, one after another, plunged into separate capsules.
It's a vast hollow room. No, a chamber. Or a hatchery. Except it's not eggs in here. It's people. Naked people in coffin-like tubes. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. The mind recoils at the horror. Some of them are unconscious, but most aren't. They're crying. They're weeping. Some of the insides of the tubes are bloody from where people have tried to claw at the smooth interior. None of them are dead - she can see the biosigns from every one. They can't have been picked up from here. The aliens must be storing them here.
If she'd just sent the Xiaolians in on their own, this is when the killing would have started. But Serafina is smarter than they are. Much, much smarter. She can wait, even as she concentrates on her manic ride through subway tunnels. She can wait even though she wants to start screaming and breaking things so this place will burn and they'll never get to do something like this again. She can wait until the wandering of the taller, grey-skinned alien down on the ground brings it closer. It's wearing a clinging white garment which is a mockery of a lab coat.
It looks humanish. Nearly human. Like the LEMRU upgrade package, or a Ka Luon alien, only… not. There's something about the greyness of its skin which makes her think of extreme age, or cloneline degeneration. Its dark eyes still have a darker center for an iris and a black pupil. Its head is bulbous and its chin is tiny and pointed sort of like an L-model bioroid and there are two slits in the middle of its face which might have once been nostrils.
And then when it turns its back, it isn't time to wait anymore. The polycrystaline clear layer of the tubes doesn't stop the vivisection tools the X-410s have, which can punch through the toughest alien carapaces. Then she's on it, pinning it down and crushing its fragile limbs under her bulk as another body pulls back its arm and jams the vivisection tool into its brain and the third shoots out the cameras.
CONNECTION MADE
MEMORY EXTRACTION IN PROCESS
this is scientist 137
of void engineer research & execution
for corps for the union
The brain is nearly human. Not in the sense that a bioroid is nearly human. More in the sense that an ape is nearly human. Or maybe it's something that has the same relationship to a human brain as a human brain does to an ape one. Not in the sense that it's more intelligent. But in the sense that different selective pressures have been applied to it. She doesn't understand parts of the brain - they seem to operate by different laws of physics, but she's read textbooks on dimensional science and she recognises some of the signs that things aren't working like they should.
hurts hurts hurts hurts
i will not betray the union
hurts die hurts die for the union
die for the union kill for the union
It's trying not to think of sensitive information. Poor, stupid thing. She has a probe stuck in its brain. She can recognise the activity in regions where it's trying to conceal things.
She extends more needles, knocks out those brain functions and the information all comes rushing out.
i emerge from a pod flesh pink and raw the walls are white
orders i take orders research study examine
fire airlessness panic new purpose
it is an emergency new knowledge is required to survive
cutting repairing welding cutting stitching cutting cutting cutting
death for the union
i emerge from a pod flesh pale and raw the sky is black outside
and then the old memories come back
cutting cutting cutting cutting
death for the union
i emerge from a pod flesh grey and raw and i can see all the stars
more memories for the union more deaths for the union
so many pods only a few siblings far fewer scientists than marines
i emerge from a pod time and time again
die for the union die for the corps kill for the union kill for the corps
She thinks it was probably once something like a Laura. Long ago. A research-focussed bioroid. Some kind of Void Engineer knock-off, anyway. But it's been cloned and cloned and cloned and cloned so many times, forced into new roles with deteriorating genestock, hybridised with alien genomes to try to keep it viable - and God only knows what else.
But she doesn't need to know that so much. There are other things she needs to know more. She starts cutting deeper into the brain, probing it, vivisecting it.
carrier 2 mighty force of union third of carrier fleet second only to battleship
one central core power plant aliens writhing glowing 115
command centre command and control speak to control for the union
around the core 5 wings carrier wings holding landing craft fighters abductors
many many brave marines some were once aliens all void engineers now
love the union trust the union die for the union kill for the union
The things they've been doing to people. It makes her sick. It makes her so sick that down below, she nearly crashes her bike until she ruthlessly shuts down her emotions for the moment.
this world is toxic we need the alien technology to survive here
we need the alien bodies to subjugate here
the aliens attack our bases try to wipe us out we fight back for the union
where is earth
we must find earth
for the union
How long has it been for the lost Void Engineers? It's only been sixteen years here on Earth.
for the union for the union for the union for the union for the un
CONNECTION LOST
SUBJECT DECEASED
The memory connection is cut when the alien dies. The ship shakes, as something detaches. But she has enough. More than enough.
"Terraforming equipment deployed," states Assistant 2193, staring up at the Colonel with hollow blind eyes. They're a converted alien, recruited by the brave forces of humanity and given a chance to help their benefactors. They've been upgraded, too, as befits their new station. They live to serve the Union, so they're wired into their console and the blood that pumps through them is an E115-enriched green fluid which aids in cognition. "Terraformer 2 is holding station. Capacitors are charging and the fuel is currently being loaded in preparation for enforcement of Earth-like environment."
"Keep me posted," hisses the Colonel, staring at the hologram and the marker indicating the location of the invisible Terraformer 2. It'll find a place to land, connect up to the precursor elements which are sapping the aliens' power grid, and then it'll get ready to produce a safe environment on this alien world.
From their command position on the bridge, the Colonel's eyes widen. A red alert is flashing in Containment. CAPTURE FAILED warns the systems. Dark eyes narrow and they switch to the security cameras.
They've been destroyed. Something is attacking the internal ship security. Something is onboard the Void Engineer carrier. They rewind the footage, right to the moment the capture failure was detected. There's just a moment before the systems jam where the Colonel manages to capture a freeze frame of their opponents.
There's three of them. They have tar-like, black skin and they're carrying advanced alien weaponry - something like the smart grenade systems the Void Engineers have been trying to develop themselves. The aliens are bipedal and their entire shape stands as a mockery of the human female form - to an even greater degree than most of the aliens on this planet - but they're eyeless and faceless. Their biology barely resembles the baseline of the most common aliens they encounter. They'd probably be able to take a plasma rifle to the chest and keep on moving.
The Colonel remembers the battles around Jupiter at the end of World War 2. They remember driving those damn tar-monsters that the Nephandi dragged into reality off Io. They shudder at the horror, the nightmares which have haunted them through the long search for Earth and driven them to cleanse and purge so many worlds for Nephandic taint. These black things resemble those monsters too closely for their comfort. Maybe this world is tainted too. The Colonel will need to make the case to the Commander that they should further Project: EXTERMINATION. It's the only way to be sure.
And worse, they look like they have some features from Progenitor constructs which the Engineers have on record, the Colonel thinks with concern. These damn aliens. They're advancing too. The Void Engineers are stuck playing catch up. And they should have known that a high-ranking alien scientist like this would have the very latest xenotech meatware protecting it. They're going to have to find alien scientists who they can capture and study to develop better capture technology if they're going to see more of these things.
All this passes through their mind before the Colonel reaches out and slams the red alert with one greying, wrinkled fist. Hostile aliens are onboard the Carrier! And the troops are mostly moving onto their landing craft. Internal security will take too long to respond. They'll only have a few squads in place to try to slow down the aliens. They'll have to try their best before reinforcements can be moved in.
"Commander," they hiss, pulling up an emergency channel. "We have a problem."
We now interrupt your update with an important broadcast. Because Serafina has fused into a hyperinteligent hivemind with the supersoldier killing machines (and gave them hourglass figures due to Paradox), her options have just got rather more complicated than just 'wind up the Xiaolians, and let them wreck shit'. As a result, she now has a new chance to pick objectives while onboad the alien carrier.
And, sorry? Did you think there would be no consequences for giving Yinzheng a data expert and then choosing to take an escape route which led you by lots of cameras?
Wrecking Ball
[ ] Targets of Opportunity. Stealth systems are notoriously sensitive to 'internal fires', there are power conduits in the walls which are probably powering the weapons or maybe the anti-grav, and she saw what had to be fuel and ammo caches near the landers. (Low difficulty. Successes start shutting off subsystems like weapons and stealth. The more successes, the more subsystems are wrecked. With a lot of successes, she'll hit something critical and inflict catastrophic damage)
[ ] Primary Reactor. The power source is blinding bright on the HUDs on the Xiaolians' suits and it's nearby. The primal energy flows are incredible. If she can take that down, she'll cripple the vessel. Even if she can't scrap it, damage will force it to land for repairs if it can't maintain flight. (Medium difficulty - success damages the reactor, forcing the carrier down and shutting down most of its systems. With a large margin of success, the reactor is destroyed, forcing a crash landing and wrecking the ship.)
[ ] Landing Craft. These landing craft in the memories are larger than Void Engineer corvettes! This vessel must exist to carry them through the Anomaly, because they look capable of independent operation and are armed. If she can get control of one of them, she might be able to turn its guns on the inside of the vessel. Of course, landing craft are lousy with aliens. (Medium-High difficulty. Success takes down one of their landing craft and allows her a chance to use their ship-scale guns to inflict damage from the inside. With a large margin of success she manages to steal a ship, possibly with the help of the Xiaolians' vivisectors when used on the pilot.)
[ ] Assault on the Bridge. This vessel is partly organic, and she can see how the nerves lead to one central control point. The biggest, baddest aliens will be protecting that place, but if she can do damage there, she'll cripple the invasion and might even be able to wrestle control over the entire carrier. (High difficulty. Success disrupts their organisation and might be able to kill their leaders. With a large margin of success, she gets control over the vessel to do with as she sees fit - at least until the aliens rally for a counterattack)
[ ] Rescue. These… these people don't deserve this! She has to get them out! Even if they're stuck in an alien spaceship and she just has three bioroids. (Medium difficulty. Success lets her destroy their containment facility, hopefully stopping them taking any more, and let people out. With more successes, she'll be able to get control of a tractor beam and start depositing some people back down on Earth. With a very high margin of success, most of them might even survive!)
[ ] Write-in
All choices apart from "Rescue" require her to suppress her Caregiver Vice for 1wp. On the other hand, choosing Rescue is indulging in her Vice, returning 1wp.
Write-in rotes can aid in these things. The local paradigm inside the Subjugation Corps Carrier is "90s Alien Conspiracy Horror With Lots Of Body Horror", and rotes which are Consensual in here benefit from automatic successes. Rotes which are vulgar in here, on the other hand, are at increased difficulty and always count as being with Witnesses.
Serafina Rosario's status
It would almost be better if the UFO up in the sky was making a noise. But it isn't. The pools of light are even more terrifying for their silence.
The rest of the world isn't silent. Serafina can hear Doppler-shifted screams and honking horns. She pays them attention only to map their location in the world around her, as she speeds through Mexico City silently blessing that she inherited her father's obsession about motorbikes - and also his good taste. She's making this baby dance. And it still might not be enough.
"Shockwave shockwave shockwave!" she transmits back to Amalgam-391, "Mexico City under assault from unidentified flying object utilising some kind of tractor-beam like system to abduct civilians. No record of planned operations in the area! Go to red alert and launch all available air assets for recon and potential combat of threat. Auth-code Bravo-Niner-Omicron-Bravo-Niner-Sigma-Slash-Three!"
A pause, and Sera would cross her fingers if her hands weren't so busy steering the bike. Over to her left a beam sweeps in, sucking up a tip and all its contents and she slams on the brakes pushing the friction compensation to its limits. It's enough to get her a turn which leaves a trail of burning carbon nanotube as she accelerates down a narrow alleyway.
"Roger, authorisation is valid. Asset Yellow Submariner will be airborn ETA nine minutes and ten seconds."
She would swear, but instead just cuts the channel. Then she starts cursing. It helps her focus, when she's having to do all of this with the useless lump of brainless meat sitting behind her on the bike. If only there was a way she could use its reactions and-
Oh. Oh. If she… yes. Yes. The VIP protocols. She could subvert them. Take control. And then she'd have a thick layer of dense engineered useful meat and a primium-lined biosuit between her and any danger, in case they decide to stop trying to capture and just go to kill.
It'd be like wearing Kessler.
Trying something like this wouldn't usually occur to Serafina, for the very good reason that this is something best done under controlled and calm circumstances with plenty of precautions against accidents and preferably when lying down somewhere comfortable, as opposed to on the back of a motorcycle travelling at 120 kilometres an hour through a city. But in a life full of poor-yet-educational choices, she can't exactly say that this has stopped her from similar decisions in the past.
Jinking she powerslides round a corner, thanking anyone willing to listen for the Saviour's smart friction tires and gyrostabilisers, and accelerates between two trucks onto a straight bit of road. She's been kludging together the command required for this in the back of her massively boosted mind even as she tries to dodge the aliens.
It's a crude field hack. A very crude field hack. She could have done much better - really should have done much better. Especially with all the augs she has. But in her defence, she's just a little tiny bit freaking the fuck out about the alien spaceship which is literally trying to beam her up. So. She's going to do it. She just needs a free moment.
The bits of her brain which aren't carrying solving a complex biological engineering problem notice the parking garage and she slams on the breaks as soon as she's under cover. The harsh electric lighting above her flickers, and dust crumbles from the unpainted concrete ceiling.
Serafina sends the command, and the X-410 behind her reaches forwards and wraps its hands over hers, pulling itself forwards. Its living biosuit splits open and its mutable biology envelops her, pulling her back even as it surges forwards. She doesn't have time to be scared, even though she knows that it's going to digest her and upload her. One moment there's light, then only black-tinged red. She has to trust that she'll be safer in here than outside.
There's a terrifying moment of uncertainty, where she's not in control and she can feel it crushing her and she can't breathe and there's no air on her lungs and there's so much pain and-
-then that moment passes. She's cold and lucid, looking out at the world from a HUD-overlay vision. It's not perfectly aligned and there are visual artefacts, but she's now in her subverted VIP mode. She's a backseat driver in the X-410 and if it wasn't for the lingering pain and the way she feels there's something off in her head, she'd be feeling great. She feels so much stronger. So much faster. Is… is this how Rose and Alexander feel all the time?
And that's when the beams of light tear the roof off with a shattering of concrete. From a stationary start, Serafina guns the engine and roars off. She's even better than she was before, now, with the superior body of the X-410 in control. She needs to get back into visual range of her trailing bodyguards. Transfer her biodata to them, operate them too.
Because she has a plan. They want to kidnap her? They can. Sort of. Well, they can kidnap three high end combat bioroids she's meshed in her hacked VIP protocols and which are high end killing machines with her intelligence guiding them. Brains and brawn. And grenade MGs. Inside the UFO.
Her range indicator is counting down as she speeds between two cars, passing through a gap barely wider than her own bike. She's got the override command prepared. And there! There they are. She has line of sight and her TacCom has synched up with the other parts of the combat unit. She sends the data pulse and then flinches as her consciousness expands once again.
She is legion.
Well, four, but four X-410s would probably massacre a Roman legion with the main risk being that they push themselves too hard and their biology fail before they'd managed to hunt down the fleeing survivors.
It's almost a relief in some ways. Spread over four bodies, her distributed intelligence takes some of the load of her hypercognition. But she's never had four bodies before and it's disorientating. The moment of dizziness nearly costs her dearly as she barely notices the pool of light sweeping towards her until it's almost too late.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. She needs to get underground. The tractor beams can tear the roof off a build, but Mexico City has an underground network. She can try to lose them down there - and even if they can still follow her signature, metres of concrete and stone should stop them. At least until her Shockwave code is in the air.
***
Lowering her binoculars, Seelicia messages the armoured hood of her biosuit. She's worried. She's exposed out here, even if she's lying on this high-rise rooftop under a 'borrowed' camoblanket kindly donated to Alicia Enterprises by a pair of reptile hybrid Panopticon assets who never expected someone to unleash genetically modified mosquitos with allergenic venom on them. One of the X-410s is lying next to her, railgun stabilised for sniping. It's a better shot than she is - which is totally unfair - but she's smarter and a better spotter. Beelicio and the other X-410 she was given are on the floor below, as a tripline of defence should something go wrong.
She listens to the terse comments of VPR 1st Company. Something is happening and they're being asked questions about their current status. She doesn't like it. She hopes their cover isn't blown. But that's not the root cause of her worry.
Serafina's last ping didn't come through. And there's something out there. She isn't sure what, but there's… there's something in the sky. Something that makes her electronic binoculars display static, which should be impossible.
Seelicia really wishes that Alicia had removed some more memories when making her. Not as many as Beelicio lost, of course, but she remembers too much. She knows what it's like to be a proper alpha-fork hallucination of a genius, and she sometimes feels so slow and stupid and limited. Right now it's really biting, because she feels like she's wading through oil as she tries to work out what to do.
"Assume defensive positions," she transmits to the VPR command section under her borrowed authority. "Prepare for possible hostile RD assault. Reserve units should be ready for counterattacks to relieve any unit which encounters the enemy."
It's all she can do.
"See!" Alicia sounds frantic. "Where's Ess? What's happening?"
"I don't know," she responds. "She missed her check-in, none of the hardware I have can find her rig and… there's something out there. Some kind of EDE, maybe."
"I know there's an EDE!" Alicia snaps. The only time Seelicia has seen her like this - or can remember being her like this - was when Serafina was dying. "Hold still! Look at the jamming! I'm getting an expert on the line."
There's muttering. "Hmm," says a familiar-ish voice. Seelicia can't place where she knows her from, but she does know her. "Eyes up a bit." Unseen fingers brush over her brain, and Seelicia shivers. "It's moved from the epicentre of the incursion, but I can see the scars. The Ava… Anomaly is heavily disrupted here. Watch out. It's going to be breaking through into the real world - and into the Near Umbra - until it stabilises. The… the vessel is heavily shielded against my powers, but I can see it by its dimensional wake. This is bad news, Alicia."
"No, really?"
"No, I mean it's worse news that you think it is. The psychic resonance of that thing is… it's an abomination." The strange-yet-familiar woman's voice is tense with disgust. Her accent is hard to tell - there's certainly a lot of RP in it, but more than a few American mannerisms. "It's raw with death. So many people have died on it. And it's got something which looks like Void Engineer space formatting snarled around it. Are you sure it's not Vee-Eee?"
"Pretty sure," Alicia says. "From that scaling, it's bigger than even an X200. I don't think Void Engineers have vessels that big."
"Well, then someone does."
"Yeah," Alicia says. "Yeah, looks like someone does. We need to find Ess and get the fuck out of this city. Before this becomes another Moscow. See?"
"Yes," Seelicia says, trying not to think about her own, helpless-yet-proud patchwork memories of Moscow. "Orders?"
"I need you to stay up in the spotter position. You get any contact with Ess, contact me ASAP. I'm going to leave you on the line with Liss, 'kay? Listen to her. She's got Operative training, so ask her for tactical help. I might be out of contact for some time. Liss, I need you to do… some kind of psychic mindy-windy thingie to hide me from precog. Keep it up, 'kay? Don't try to explain it, just do it."
"What're you doing?" both Seelicia and the unknown woman ask at the same time.
She can hear the smile in her alpha's voice. "What I do best. I'm a pretty little butterfly. Time to start flapping my wings. Waiting on the psi… ooh, I felt that! It tingles! Sweet. Laters!"
There is a silence.
"She's gone, and now I'm sitting in an empty bar next to a mindless, drooling Vanessa. She's always been like that," the other woman says, disgust in her voice. "Alicia. So annoying."
A wave of strange deja-vu overcomes her, but Seelicia is used to that feeling as a beta-fork. "I find her annoying and I was made from a pruned fork of her. So, tell me what you want me to do," she says, relieved to have someone with Genius giving her orders.
***
Back in the car, Serafina looks at herself on her left, while in the driver's seat in the front she accelerates, aiming for the ever-moving pool of light. It's like she's got whole new sets of instincts. The Xiaolians aren't conscious - they autonomously know how to fight and kill without any trace of awareness. All she has to do is think of preparing for combat, and her bodies do it for her. Just as well, really. It's an interesting experience. Even in the middle of this urban hell as cars and pedestrians are ripped from the streets she regrets not trying this before.
Uh. And for some reason, the genetic fusion has left the Xiaolians notably female. Well, she supposes she does have Progenitor gene-augs to enhance those salient features, and they have a plastic, morphic genotype and rapid-update phenotype. So the fusion of the genetic material resulting in instant changes in their appearance isn't entirely surprising.
Sadly, she probably won't get a combat advantage out of this. It's not like the aliens will care that the black-clad blind killing machines fused into the armour they're dependent on to survive have hourglass figures. For one, hopefully there'll be too many explosions.
Two of her bodies catch each others' optic sensors, and nod. She's ready. Time to relieve some pressure off the her on the bike.
***
The bridge of the alien ship is a cavernous, hollow space. Pulsing nerves lie over purple metal and tubes carry dull red and glowing green fluids to where they're needed. The elite of the Void Engineer troops - enhanced with captured and reverse-engineered xeno technology - guard the entrances, for this is the nerve centre of the entire ship. The centre of the room is dominated by a holographic orange and purple map of the alien city below. Standing on their balcony, the Colonel looks down at the map and the floating holographic head of their penultimate superior - the ultimate superior of course being Control.
"Colonel," hisses the Commander. "I have been in contact with the Funding Council. They have authorised a more extensive deployment. They consider the capture of the alien scientist and alien psychic to be high priority. It will increase morale in the Union to know that the alien scientist responsible for the failed Iterator capitol assault has been captured. For the Union and the Corps!"
The Colonel nods, dark eyes gleaming. Their respirator wheezes. The Syndicate are so predictable. They want alien technology to be captured so they can profit from it.
A new Void Engineer appears on the communications link. Twitching meat is illuminated by the glow of E-115 tech and sparkling electricity. The alien on the slab is still screaming faintly. "I must agree with the Commander," states the Doctor in their mechanical voice. cybernetic eyes staring placidly at the camera, their long-fingered still-bloody hands held in front of them. Their brain is exposed, enhancement technology having removed much of their skull to allow it room to grow. From their stealth science ship in orbit, the Doctor heads up the Corps' Research & Execution division. "We require the assets the Funding Council can provide for our research into terraforming technology. We still need to find Earth, but we have orders from Control to subjugate these aliens."
"And," the Commander narrows their dark eyes, raising one hand, "it is more critical than ever. Hyperwave transmissions passed to us by the Syndicate indicate that Iteration X has failed catastrophically once again."
"Where?" the Colonel rasps, mild concern flavouring their manner. The tubes running from their armour into their head fill with calming red fluid, made from rendered-down alien.
"In orbit around Oscar N173. Loss of one planetoid and two HKs."
There are three hissed rasping intakes of breath. The wastefulness of Iteration X is beyond measure. The Void Engineers have to survive with what they can salvage and what they can get from the Syndicate Funding Council. A single Iterator planetoid is more assets than the entire Subjugation Corps has access to.
"I don't like to wish the Union ill, but any such defeat to Iteration X was quite possibly self-inflicted," the Doctor hisses smugly.
"Do not gloat," the Commander commands. "There will be time for that when we have captured the alien scientist and the alien psychic. Progress?"
The Colonel salutes. "The hyperwave intercept of the alien psi-pulse was not enough to discern the location of the psychic, but we are currently attempting capture of the scientist." Manipulating the hologram before them, the Colonel displays the aerial view. "The scientist's biosignature has shifted to conceal itself from us, but we still have a lock on their alien hypertech vehicle. We will capture it too. We believe that the xeno is trying to flee underground, perhaps to one of their concealed facilities. Hyperwave scans indicate aliens have multiple underground concealed bases in this city, as well as extensive underground infrastructure. We will cut them off before-"
"No, that is not sufficient," the Commander hisses. "The scientist is cunning. It will escape if we do not move forces to block its escape. This scenario has been rigged against us by hostile forces."
"You are certain?" the Doctor interrupts.
"Yes. I have run this scenario a hundred times in emulation. I know how things will go - and randomness is our foe here. Reality Deviants are interfering in the probability matrix. Assume all random chance will go against us. Minimising risk is imperative."
The Colonel accedes. The Commander is the foremost tactical mind among the Void Engineers, and they willingly bow to their superior experience. They were old when the Colonel was a raw recruit in World War 2, fighting on Io against the damned forces of the Nephandi. They begin to give the orders.
"Activate the singularity array," the Colonel orders, speaking to the ship's AI. "Begin deployment of ground forces through the alien subterranean transport network. Then begin to coordinate the deployment of our assets. Will you authorise the deployment of the Absolute Terra field, Commander?"
A pause. "I will. There is no choice. Our foe will escape without it."
The Colonel nods. "Begin capture attempts on the alien population to fuel it. We cannot let the scientist escape. And this may force the xeno psychic out of hiding - or at least flush other high value alien targets out. Capture any which engage our forces. For the Union! For the Corps!"
***
If she had time to be amused, Serafina would be amused that at almost exactly the same moment as three of her bodies are ascending in light into the belly of the beast, the fourth of her bodies is riding a motorcycle down into the darkness of the Mexico City subway network and into safety. The power has failed, probably from the damage to the power grid the tractor beams are doing. She's seen them tear up power pylons and uproot telegraph poles.
She is not amused. She is very not amused. Her engine temperature is in the red, her tires are reporting noted degradation, and all around her she knows that innocent people are being seized by these monsters and she can do nothing to help any of them. As her other bodies ascend, she's really looking forwards to revenge.
Smashing through a closed set of ticket barriers, she brakes, dismounts, and immediately starts wheeling it towards the escalators. She's relying on the sheer blatancy of a hulking black-clad figure trying to take a motorbike on the subway to stop anyone from trying to stop her - or at least until she's passed them and underground, especially when everyone else is panicing. And she needs to give the engine a chance to cool down.
Screams, panic and the sound of weapons discharge precede her. They're already waiting for her at the bottom of the escalator; skinny grey-skinned figures with large dark eyes wearing rebreather masks and dull green tactical webbing. In most circumstances Serafina Rosario would be useless in such a situation.
However, this isn't most circumstances. This is Serafina Rosario stored inside the biosubstrate of a X-410 Xiaolian, and that means that what she chooses to do is to do nothing and let the body do what comes naturally to it.
Shortly afterwards all the aliens are dead. She's also found quite conclusively that Xiaolians are immune to their stunners. But there's more aliens up ahead, and falling to one knee the X-410 draws its grenade launcher and at Serafina's prompting fires a HE/biofunction shocker grenade set to airburst at headheight. The ones it doesn't kill are thoroughly pinned, but she can't stay here in this concourse. But she can't go back outside. The tractor beams will be waiting for her. So she's going to have to go down onto the tracks and find another way out.
Serafina's wild ride continues.
***
"Operative Li. I have something from the centre of the disrupted area," Iterator Mendoza reports.
Massaging her brow, Yinzheng tries to focus on her rather than any of the other ten thousand things she needs to giving her full attention to right now. There's a city's worth of confused reports hitting the local Watchers all at once, the local phone networks are jammed, and the power grids are being drained by… something. And she's also trying to monitor her operation to try to capture or kill Alice Aristide and work out if she's related to the abnormal activity and also trying to contact the Void Engineers because widespread reports of paranormal activity are their job and if DIDO isn't linked to them she needs to find someone else to hand it off to.
And no, it's not the damn vampires because her intercepts on them indicate they have no clue what's going on, either.
"Cram me," she says, bracing for the headache.
It's a CCTV grab from the entrance to a subway station, just before everything vanishes in static. A few frames of an individual wearing a disguised biosuit, riding… hmm, a Saviour model of Q Branch superbike, according to Mendoza. There's clearly weapons folded into the biosuit, and - Li narrows her eyes with all the contempt of a field Operative who has a figure better suited for storming RD bases than beds - they're probably Progenitor or an Iterator under the biosuit with a blatantly artificial build like that. Heavily enhanced to be navigating at those speeds, or a construct.
Yinzheng leans forwards. "Can you ID them?" she asks urgently.
"Unknown. It is not a standard model of cyborg or bioroid." Iterator Mendoza falls silent. "Analysis suggests it is a custom modification of an X-410 Xiaolian. Equipment loadout matches that of a X-410 Xiaolian. Serial numbers are obscured by non-standard modifications and low-resolution of CCTV footage."
Pursing her lips, Yinzheng brings up a page on them and scan reads it. High end, experimental Progenitor unit. Only eighty units made so far - although there are rumours that the loss of two X-410s to Rogue Council forces has allowed them to reverse engineer them. Yinzheng taps her fingers, and gives herself four breaths before she speaks. "Mr Blue," she orders, "make enquiries of every facility known to have X-410s! I want an inventory check now!"
"Amalgam-391 is on the list," Mr Blue says immediately.
Yinzheng tenses up. This is exactly what Director Belltower warned her about. Subverted Progenitor hardware? Could this be FIERY ANGEL? How can Belltower be this amazing? Somehow she managed to predict this pattern of behaviour exactly - and now this modified X-410 is showing up exactly when she's moving to capture DIDO, in the middle of an inexplicable chaotic phenomenon. Director Belltower makes someone like Mendoza look like a child even if Mendoza has a head full of cyberware and she is even less enhanced than Yinzheng is.
"Blue, get me -391 on the line! If they've lost an X-410, Damage Control needs to know! And get me drones in the air!" Li orders. "If that bioroid shows its face again, I want to be in a position for laser comms with it. And to take a shot if it doesn't respond to override codes!"
***
Light all around her. The ground below her. Detritus and trash from the streets around her. Even a few other people. Serafina prepares for the worst. In Moscow she spent the entire combat in the Molotek headquarters and even when Mari attacked she had the entire IBM there with her, but right now she's heading into the belly of the beast all alone.
There's a man just in front of her bodies in the beam. They pass through an orange-glowing barrier, and like ash his clothes fall apart. It's doing the same to all the scrap the beam picks up. Serafina has just enough time to panic until her first body passes through and-
-the field does nothing. She almost laughs. It exists to destroy inorganic matter. But the biosuits the Xiaolians wear are alive - and their weapons are in primium-shielded compartments. The field does nothing to them.
And with that thought, electricity crackles and convulses over the X-410s. It stings a bit. Sort of like a static electricity shock. If Serafina had a mouth right now, she'd smirk. She doesn't, but it's the thought that counts. She's wearing ultraheavy primium-shielded biosuits. Something which would knock out a normal human being is no impediment to her - although she suspects this wouldn't incapactiate a Xiaolian anyway. Not without the stunner being cranked up to levels which would fry an ordinary human.
Somehow, she's managed to set things up so their pretty rigorous security measures do nothing to her. Although, come to think of it, they also wouldn't do anything to a HITMark, as living tissue over a primium endoskeleton. But they'd work fine against civilians or even soldiers in the Masses. Or the NWO, although she honestly wouldn't put it past a lot of Operatives to consider little things like "being naked" and "being hit by a biostunner" to a workable problem. After all, Damage Control trains people to resist pain like this. That was a very unpleasant bit of the training she did, where they shocked her again and again so she knew how it felt and learned to work through the pain.
Really, they're bullies, these aliens. They go after the weak and helpless.
She's pulled through tubes which are both organic and technological. Not in the way that the Progenitors would do it. They're using neural cabling exposed to the air and pulsing arteries are twined together, plunging into blued steel ports. She switches to PrimEnView on one of her HUDs, and she can see the power flowing through the arteries, incredible amounts of power which… looks wrong. It's coming from a central reactor somewhere on this vessel, a heart pumping power around this place. And then the tumbling, wild ride comes to an end and the X-410s are, one after another, plunged into separate capsules.
It's a vast hollow room. No, a chamber. Or a hatchery. Except it's not eggs in here. It's people. Naked people in coffin-like tubes. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. The mind recoils at the horror. Some of them are unconscious, but most aren't. They're crying. They're weeping. Some of the insides of the tubes are bloody from where people have tried to claw at the smooth interior. None of them are dead - she can see the biosigns from every one. They can't have been picked up from here. The aliens must be storing them here.
If she'd just sent the Xiaolians in on their own, this is when the killing would have started. But Serafina is smarter than they are. Much, much smarter. She can wait, even as she concentrates on her manic ride through subway tunnels. She can wait even though she wants to start screaming and breaking things so this place will burn and they'll never get to do something like this again. She can wait until the wandering of the taller, grey-skinned alien down on the ground brings it closer. It's wearing a clinging white garment which is a mockery of a lab coat.
It looks humanish. Nearly human. Like the LEMRU upgrade package, or a Ka Luon alien, only… not. There's something about the greyness of its skin which makes her think of extreme age, or cloneline degeneration. Its dark eyes still have a darker center for an iris and a black pupil. Its head is bulbous and its chin is tiny and pointed sort of like an L-model bioroid and there are two slits in the middle of its face which might have once been nostrils.
And then when it turns its back, it isn't time to wait anymore. The polycrystaline clear layer of the tubes doesn't stop the vivisection tools the X-410s have, which can punch through the toughest alien carapaces. Then she's on it, pinning it down and crushing its fragile limbs under her bulk as another body pulls back its arm and jams the vivisection tool into its brain and the third shoots out the cameras.
CONNECTION MADE
MEMORY EXTRACTION IN PROCESS
this is scientist 137
of void engineer research & execution
for corps for the union
The brain is nearly human. Not in the sense that a bioroid is nearly human. More in the sense that an ape is nearly human. Or maybe it's something that has the same relationship to a human brain as a human brain does to an ape one. Not in the sense that it's more intelligent. But in the sense that different selective pressures have been applied to it. She doesn't understand parts of the brain - they seem to operate by different laws of physics, but she's read textbooks on dimensional science and she recognises some of the signs that things aren't working like they should.
hurts hurts hurts hurts
i will not betray the union
hurts die hurts die for the union
die for the union kill for the union
It's trying not to think of sensitive information. Poor, stupid thing. She has a probe stuck in its brain. She can recognise the activity in regions where it's trying to conceal things.
She extends more needles, knocks out those brain functions and the information all comes rushing out.
i emerge from a pod flesh pink and raw the walls are white
orders i take orders research study examine
fire airlessness panic new purpose
it is an emergency new knowledge is required to survive
cutting repairing welding cutting stitching cutting cutting cutting
death for the union
i emerge from a pod flesh pale and raw the sky is black outside
and then the old memories come back
cutting cutting cutting cutting
death for the union
i emerge from a pod flesh grey and raw and i can see all the stars
more memories for the union more deaths for the union
so many pods only a few siblings far fewer scientists than marines
i emerge from a pod time and time again
die for the union die for the corps kill for the union kill for the corps
She thinks it was probably once something like a Laura. Long ago. A research-focussed bioroid. Some kind of Void Engineer knock-off, anyway. But it's been cloned and cloned and cloned and cloned so many times, forced into new roles with deteriorating genestock, hybridised with alien genomes to try to keep it viable - and God only knows what else.
But she doesn't need to know that so much. There are other things she needs to know more. She starts cutting deeper into the brain, probing it, vivisecting it.
carrier 2 mighty force of union third of carrier fleet second only to battleship
one central core power plant aliens writhing glowing 115
command centre command and control speak to control for the union
around the core 5 wings carrier wings holding landing craft fighters abductors
many many brave marines some were once aliens all void engineers now
love the union trust the union die for the union kill for the union
The things they've been doing to people. It makes her sick. It makes her so sick that down below, she nearly crashes her bike until she ruthlessly shuts down her emotions for the moment.
this world is toxic we need the alien technology to survive here
we need the alien bodies to subjugate here
the aliens attack our bases try to wipe us out we fight back for the union
where is earth
we must find earth
for the union
How long has it been for the lost Void Engineers? It's only been sixteen years here on Earth.
for the union for the union for the union for the union for the un
CONNECTION LOST
SUBJECT DECEASED
The memory connection is cut when the alien dies. The ship shakes, as something detaches. But she has enough. More than enough.
***
"Terraforming equipment deployed," states Assistant 2193, staring up at the Colonel with hollow blind eyes. They're a converted alien, recruited by the brave forces of humanity and given a chance to help their benefactors. They've been upgraded, too, as befits their new station. They live to serve the Union, so they're wired into their console and the blood that pumps through them is an E115-enriched green fluid which aids in cognition. "Terraformer 2 is holding station. Capacitors are charging and the fuel is currently being loaded in preparation for enforcement of Earth-like environment."
"Keep me posted," hisses the Colonel, staring at the hologram and the marker indicating the location of the invisible Terraformer 2. It'll find a place to land, connect up to the precursor elements which are sapping the aliens' power grid, and then it'll get ready to produce a safe environment on this alien world.
From their command position on the bridge, the Colonel's eyes widen. A red alert is flashing in Containment. CAPTURE FAILED warns the systems. Dark eyes narrow and they switch to the security cameras.
They've been destroyed. Something is attacking the internal ship security. Something is onboard the Void Engineer carrier. They rewind the footage, right to the moment the capture failure was detected. There's just a moment before the systems jam where the Colonel manages to capture a freeze frame of their opponents.
There's three of them. They have tar-like, black skin and they're carrying advanced alien weaponry - something like the smart grenade systems the Void Engineers have been trying to develop themselves. The aliens are bipedal and their entire shape stands as a mockery of the human female form - to an even greater degree than most of the aliens on this planet - but they're eyeless and faceless. Their biology barely resembles the baseline of the most common aliens they encounter. They'd probably be able to take a plasma rifle to the chest and keep on moving.
The Colonel remembers the battles around Jupiter at the end of World War 2. They remember driving those damn tar-monsters that the Nephandi dragged into reality off Io. They shudder at the horror, the nightmares which have haunted them through the long search for Earth and driven them to cleanse and purge so many worlds for Nephandic taint. These black things resemble those monsters too closely for their comfort. Maybe this world is tainted too. The Colonel will need to make the case to the Commander that they should further Project: EXTERMINATION. It's the only way to be sure.
And worse, they look like they have some features from Progenitor constructs which the Engineers have on record, the Colonel thinks with concern. These damn aliens. They're advancing too. The Void Engineers are stuck playing catch up. And they should have known that a high-ranking alien scientist like this would have the very latest xenotech meatware protecting it. They're going to have to find alien scientists who they can capture and study to develop better capture technology if they're going to see more of these things.
All this passes through their mind before the Colonel reaches out and slams the red alert with one greying, wrinkled fist. Hostile aliens are onboard the Carrier! And the troops are mostly moving onto their landing craft. Internal security will take too long to respond. They'll only have a few squads in place to try to slow down the aliens. They'll have to try their best before reinforcements can be moved in.
"Commander," they hiss, pulling up an emergency channel. "We have a problem."
We now interrupt your update with an important broadcast. Because Serafina has fused into a hyperinteligent hivemind with the supersoldier killing machines (and gave them hourglass figures due to Paradox), her options have just got rather more complicated than just 'wind up the Xiaolians, and let them wreck shit'. As a result, she now has a new chance to pick objectives while onboad the alien carrier.
And, sorry? Did you think there would be no consequences for giving Yinzheng a data expert and then choosing to take an escape route which led you by lots of cameras?
Wrecking Ball
[ ] Targets of Opportunity. Stealth systems are notoriously sensitive to 'internal fires', there are power conduits in the walls which are probably powering the weapons or maybe the anti-grav, and she saw what had to be fuel and ammo caches near the landers. (Low difficulty. Successes start shutting off subsystems like weapons and stealth. The more successes, the more subsystems are wrecked. With a lot of successes, she'll hit something critical and inflict catastrophic damage)
[ ] Primary Reactor. The power source is blinding bright on the HUDs on the Xiaolians' suits and it's nearby. The primal energy flows are incredible. If she can take that down, she'll cripple the vessel. Even if she can't scrap it, damage will force it to land for repairs if it can't maintain flight. (Medium difficulty - success damages the reactor, forcing the carrier down and shutting down most of its systems. With a large margin of success, the reactor is destroyed, forcing a crash landing and wrecking the ship.)
[ ] Landing Craft. These landing craft in the memories are larger than Void Engineer corvettes! This vessel must exist to carry them through the Anomaly, because they look capable of independent operation and are armed. If she can get control of one of them, she might be able to turn its guns on the inside of the vessel. Of course, landing craft are lousy with aliens. (Medium-High difficulty. Success takes down one of their landing craft and allows her a chance to use their ship-scale guns to inflict damage from the inside. With a large margin of success she manages to steal a ship, possibly with the help of the Xiaolians' vivisectors when used on the pilot.)
[ ] Assault on the Bridge. This vessel is partly organic, and she can see how the nerves lead to one central control point. The biggest, baddest aliens will be protecting that place, but if she can do damage there, she'll cripple the invasion and might even be able to wrestle control over the entire carrier. (High difficulty. Success disrupts their organisation and might be able to kill their leaders. With a large margin of success, she gets control over the vessel to do with as she sees fit - at least until the aliens rally for a counterattack)
[ ] Rescue. These… these people don't deserve this! She has to get them out! Even if they're stuck in an alien spaceship and she just has three bioroids. (Medium difficulty. Success lets her destroy their containment facility, hopefully stopping them taking any more, and let people out. With more successes, she'll be able to get control of a tractor beam and start depositing some people back down on Earth. With a very high margin of success, most of them might even survive!)
[ ] Write-in
All choices apart from "Rescue" require her to suppress her Caregiver Vice for 1wp. On the other hand, choosing Rescue is indulging in her Vice, returning 1wp.
Write-in rotes can aid in these things. The local paradigm inside the Subjugation Corps Carrier is "90s Alien Conspiracy Horror With Lots Of Body Horror", and rotes which are Consensual in here benefit from automatic successes. Rotes which are vulgar in here, on the other hand, are at increased difficulty and always count as being with Witnesses.
Serafina Rosario's status
Shockwave codes: 0/1
Willpower: 3/6
Prime Energy: 2/4
Current Effects: Xiaolain Hivemind Fusion, Cog Aug, Correspondence anti-search protections
Paradox: 4
Paradox Flaws: Strangely Compliant (-1 to all actions which go against anyone's orders), Stupid Sexy Xiaolians (Obviously Possessed)
Willpower: 3/6
Prime Energy: 2/4
Current Effects: Xiaolain Hivemind Fusion, Cog Aug, Correspondence anti-search protections
Paradox: 4
Paradox Flaws: Strangely Compliant (-1 to all actions which go against anyone's orders), Stupid Sexy Xiaolians (Obviously Possessed)
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- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... fuuuuuck.
Well, okay then. Assault on the Bridge is too ambitious and Rescue is pointless - sorry Serafina, you're going to have to suck it up and save these people (ish) by just knocking out the tractor beams and crashing the ship. Some of them might survive. Maybe.
That leaves Targets of Opportunity, Primary Reactor and Landing Craft, and of the three I'm most inclined to go for the lattermost because it lets up do tremendous damage with ship-scale weaponry from inside the UFO and also potentially gets us a spaceship, which fuck yeah.
So.
Edit: Vote changed
[ ] Landing Craft. These landing craft in the memories are larger than Void Engineer corvettes! This vessel must exist to carry them through the Anomaly, because they look capable of independent operation and are armed. If she can get control of one of them, she might be able to turn its guns on the inside of the vessel. Of course, landing craft are lousy with aliens. (Medium-High difficulty. Success takes down one of their landing craft and allows her a chance to use their ship-scale guns to inflict damage from the inside. With a large margin of success she manages to steal a ship, possibly with the help of the Xiaolians' vivisectors when used on the pilot.)
Well, okay then. Assault on the Bridge is too ambitious and Rescue is pointless - sorry Serafina, you're going to have to suck it up and save these people (ish) by just knocking out the tractor beams and crashing the ship. Some of them might survive. Maybe.
That leaves Targets of Opportunity, Primary Reactor and Landing Craft, and of the three I'm most inclined to go for the lattermost because it lets up do tremendous damage with ship-scale weaponry from inside the UFO and also potentially gets us a spaceship, which fuck yeah.
So.
Edit: Vote changed
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Also the greater the chance that you'll do nothing at all and just fail, and the smaller the chance that you'll get the best result, rather than just getting the more basic version. The "Targets of Opportunity", for example, basically guarantees you'll wreck a few subsystems even if you roll poorly, and if the cloaking - for example - is one of the ones that fails, not only will it start getting slammed by Witnesses, but the rest of the Union will start shouting about the spaceship in the sky.
All about risk vs reward and where you think you can extract the most dice. Are you willing to accept the certainty of some damage, or do you want to risk for a chance of decapitating the invasion here and now and if you succeed at that having a good chance of forcing the Colonel to be regrown (ie, respawn as a spirit)?
Or do you want to be a decent human being and save the poor people on this ship?
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- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Okay, yeah, never mind, better idea, changing vote. We still have VPR Company on the ground to help us secure this thing if we get it on the ground - and then we have five ships! And a crashed UFO. And probably a lot of dead people, but hey, it's a better shot than jumping would give them, and the Xiaolians will barely feel it.
[X] Primary Reactor. The power source is blinding bright on the HUDs on the Xiaolians' suits and it's nearby. The primal energy flows are incredible. If she can take that down, she'll cripple the vessel. Even if she can't scrap it, damage will force it to land for repairs if it can't maintain flight. (Medium difficulty - success damages the reactor, forcing the carrier down and shutting down most of its systems. With a large margin of success, the reactor is destroyed, forcing a crash landing and wrecking the ship.)
Rotewise... hmm, what do we need? Well, putting together Alice's "oh god the death Resonance" with all the people they aren't just killing with Serafina's observation that there's a fuckload of probably-PE flowing through a central heart-reactor, odds are good that this ship may in fact be a living nightmare that needs to be fed PE in the form of people to stay flying and, quite possibly, Format Space to enforce its local paradigm. Soooo... if I may...
Serafina: Life 3, Prime 3 - You know, you really shouldn't run high-power conduits through EDE-derived biological substrates to power your ship. It means that horrible people who happen to have just brain-probed one of the scientists who works on said ship for all the information in its head can do things like... oh, say, reconfigure their biofunction grenades and start hitting the conduits with hyper-allergenic blasts that trigger horrific flesh-melting rejection reactions to the primal energy that will send the biological reactor into a fatal and extremely messy downwards spiral (or "wheee, Agg damage fuelled by ambient PE is such fun when it's not pointed at you!)
[X] Primary Reactor. The power source is blinding bright on the HUDs on the Xiaolians' suits and it's nearby. The primal energy flows are incredible. If she can take that down, she'll cripple the vessel. Even if she can't scrap it, damage will force it to land for repairs if it can't maintain flight. (Medium difficulty - success damages the reactor, forcing the carrier down and shutting down most of its systems. With a large margin of success, the reactor is destroyed, forcing a crash landing and wrecking the ship.)
Rotewise... hmm, what do we need? Well, putting together Alice's "oh god the death Resonance" with all the people they aren't just killing with Serafina's observation that there's a fuckload of probably-PE flowing through a central heart-reactor, odds are good that this ship may in fact be a living nightmare that needs to be fed PE in the form of people to stay flying and, quite possibly, Format Space to enforce its local paradigm. Soooo... if I may...
Serafina: Life 3, Prime 3 - You know, you really shouldn't run high-power conduits through EDE-derived biological substrates to power your ship. It means that horrible people who happen to have just brain-probed one of the scientists who works on said ship for all the information in its head can do things like... oh, say, reconfigure their biofunction grenades and start hitting the conduits with hyper-allergenic blasts that trigger horrific flesh-melting rejection reactions to the primal energy that will send the biological reactor into a fatal and extremely messy downwards spiral (or "wheee, Agg damage fuelled by ambient PE is such fun when it's not pointed at you!)
- Location
- in the trash
"Absolute Terra" Field? What does that do, turn local lifeforms into tang?
Anyway, I don't think we want to see what it actually does, so...
[X] Fuck the Primary Reactor up
- [X] Aleph's write in
Though I'd like to destroy the cloaking systems too, because that means the Union will notice the FUCKING UFO and hopefully send in forces to fuck it up.
When that happens, maybe get in touch with the Void Engineers that show up, and try and convince them not to turn Sera and Alice over to Panopticon.
Anyway, I don't think we want to see what it actually does, so...
[X] Fuck the Primary Reactor up
- [X] Aleph's write in
Though I'd like to destroy the cloaking systems too, because that means the Union will notice the FUCKING UFO and hopefully send in forces to fuck it up.
When that happens, maybe get in touch with the Void Engineers that show up, and try and convince them not to turn Sera and Alice over to Panopticon.
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