Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns

[EarthScorpion]

Oh, it specifically hates Henriette? I was under the impression based on the description that it was a more general hate everything destroy everything threat- in which case sticking it in an ultra-high-end combat body before we bail could be a good choice since it means that panopticon would have to expend assets to deal with it.

If it's actually an anti-henriette thing specifically, then yeah, sure, that's a bad idea. I feel bad now.

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I'm just going to assume that Henriette's nightmare hobgoblin thing of her sister hates her personally and wants to make her suffer, until proven otherwise.

Mari: "... I find the fact that she thinks her nightmare of me can't aim to be offensive."

Henriette: "Sometimes the truth hurts."

Mari: "Sometimes me giving you a Chinese burn hurts! Hah! How do you like that, you double-meatbag!"

It won't actually work either. The ZERUEL requires a living (trans)human brain to upload and emulate. Otherwise, you might get random EDEs wandering in and taking it over, and fucking nobody wants that to happen after they did it to the BARDIEL units.

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... wandering random EDEs, eh?

Hmm. Or maybe wandering random psychic projections. Harlan does have Mind 4, Corr 4, Forces 3 and that's enough to modify the Void Engineer Forces 2 Corr 2 remote piloting rote into possessing a vacant doll and using it as a marionette, moving it like a creepy doll with its strings cut, wreathed in a bloody red glow with its eyes glowing, rocking that Blatancy (Comic Book Psychic).

... eh, that'd run into the fact that there's probably enough primium in it that he'd have problems, because as a design feature ItX VIPs aren't in favour of psychic assholes possessing them or hacker assholes hacking them.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

... eh, that'd run into the fact that there's probably enough primium in it that he'd have problems, because as a design feature ItX VIPs aren't in favour of psychic assholes possessing them or hacker assholes hacking them.

Click to shrink...

It totally would, tragically. Primium haet RDism, and psychic assholes are even more Reality Deviant than those assholes who out-compute you with 'gut feelings' and 'the power of instinct' and then rub it into your face that you need millions of dollars of augmentations to compete with them. If psychic powers were more in-ItXParadigm he'd have a much easier time of it.

Or if he was less of a psychic asshole, because clearly it's the 'asshole' part which makes Primium counter him, not the 'psychic' part.

(Amusingly now that Kessler can use ItX foci for his Spirit, he could stick a spirit in it).

 

[notanautomaton]

*Shoots NAA with a plasma projector*

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That doesn't do much when I'm made of nanobots and have my own plasma weapons.

 

[tryingtobewitty]

(Amusingly now that Kessler can use ItX foci for his Spirit, he could stick a spirit in it).

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This immediately made me think of Centurion.

(Note that I do not endorse this course of action, and won't unless someone can convince me that it is unlikely to backfire in horrible-yet-amusing ways.)

EDIT: A little more elaboration on my misgivings.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

That doesn't do much when I'm made of nanobots and have my own plasma weapons.

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It totally does, because the nanotech construction's secondary benefit is "I am resistant to normal weapons," but magical attack, as well as things like explosions and fire, ignore this protection. The Zeruel is not a HITMark VI.

Spoilers: Plasma is literally magic explosive fire. Also in case people didn't guess, yes you do in fact have to link up into a humanoid form (or at least into a solid one) to use the plasma projector.


Amusingly, unlike less-ridiculous nanotech constructs like the NT-1 infiltration unit, this benefit is basically irrelevant because the kinds of things that can damage the ZERUEL are generally either Forces magic or highly explosive and/or on fire. I guess if you were being shot at by a tungsten (not depleted uranium, which is on fire) penetrator?

This immediately made me think of Centurion.

(Note that I am not necessarily endorsing this course of action.)

Click to shrink...

There are so many things that could go wrong with this idea that you could probably start an entire thread just about the things that could go wrong. It'd be amazingly entertaining though.

 

[Kerrus]

This immediately made me think of Centurion.

(Note that I am not necessarily endorsing this course of action.)

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Oh god, why didn't I think of that?

Not necessarily saying it's a good idea, I don't have a reputation for making bad ideas for nothing.

I just make bad ideas to encourage people to think of better ideas that aren't just tag follow the leader bandwagon.

 

[veekie]

There are so many things that could go wrong with this idea that you could probably start an entire thread just about the things that could go wrong. It'd be amazingly entertaining though.

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Massively amazing.

 

[tryingtobewitty]

There are so many things that could go wrong with this idea that you could probably start an entire thread just about the things that could go wrong. It'd be amazingly entertaining though.

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Believe me, I know. Thus my (not quite fast enough) ninja edit.

Though, there are probably worse things you can put inside. Like a Claptrap.

Click to shrink...

Oh dear Jack why.

 

[Aleph]

Okay, changing my vote to:

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector

which I hadn't realised included Jamelia's awesome Moscow suit.

For the second... I'm torn. On the one hand, the Guardian Rig is really useful. On the other hand, if we don't steal the ZERUEL it will come after us later and try to kill us, and putting it down is going to be a royal bitch, especially when Ms Clock stuffs a Mind 4 fork in there.

Hmm.

@EarthScorpion, do you have any thoughts on how to kill Ms ZERUELock if (when) she comes after us, if we go with the Rig?

 

[MJ12 Commando]

Though, there are probably worse things you can put inside. Like a Claptrap.

Click to shrink...

The normal upload procedure is a one-shot functionality that basically disassembles an Awakened human brain and turns the body into a phylactery. Basically, a ZERUEL user is a techno-lich. However, whereas the standard lich rote requires massive and disconcerting levels of sacrifice, the ZERUEL manages it via the classical Syndicate method of transferred karma. That is to say, it costs way too fucking much money. So in a way, the Zeruel is inefficient because it has to be inefficient, or else the spell won't take, because it's still a mystic ritual, even if the ritual suicide is much more gradual, less painful, and requires far less "killing everything vaguely attached to you, including any Talismans you made and your Familiar."[1]

To put something else inside a ZERUEL, you have to use the standard spheres. Mind 4 can puppet it, Mind 5 can give it intellect, while you can use Spirit to possess it should the Spirit be capable of possessing something with that much Primium in it.

Later collaborations between the Progenitors and Iteration X around 1994-1995 led to a much less expensive Life 4/Matter 4/Prime 3 upload process, wherein the brain is just Ship of Theseus-ed into being turned into biomechanical nanotech that can feed on electricity. This made uploads significantly more affordable than they were in the 80s to the point where Iteration X is still doing them at a slow but steady rate. It's just sometimes really convenient to have a super-shock resistant brain that can survive more concussions, and it's a really good attachment point for hardware.

[1] There are probably more than a few Hermetic liches crying at this point because they didn't think of the idea of binding themselves into a Prime-infused golem-body and using symbols as sacrifice instead of their real selves. Although the weaknesses are actually significant.[2]

[2] Liches are basically immortal unless Gilguled while someone in a ZERUEL can be killed by sufficient firepower, liches don't need any sustenance while the ZERUEL requires feedstock for self-repair and various other functions, lichdom can't be undone by countermagic while you could technically unmake a ZERUEL given enough time, and lichdom doesn't require a billion dollars worth of high-tech sacrifice. Lichdom also requires no spheres above 4-and it's much easier to acquire 4-dot ones than 5-dot ones.

 

[EarthScorpion]

@EarthScorpion, do you have any thoughts on how to kill Ms ZERUELock if (when) she comes after us, if we go with the Rig?

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Well, it says it's about as dangerous as a Commando HITMark V, so... that's basically in the ballpark of a Kiril-25, which is another high end HITMark V upgrade package. In that case, it's a pretty dangerous HITMark, but it's not up at full HITMark VI level. Also, from a certain point of view it's sort of a waste putting a non-Enlightened mindstate in it. We might have to be more careful about Ms Clock essentially using it as an Uber-ATLAS, especially if we wreck her existing ATLAS' chassis but don't destroy the brain.

One thing that helps a lot against it is Henriette using Matter 4 to reconfigure it on the fly. Or Jamelia with Entropy 3 Slay Machine and troll-casting while she runs away. The "You're a Matter Pattern" flaw is quite significant, especially when a lot of Technocrats have Matter 2 and thus can break bits of it with a focus of "I shot at you with a handgun and that broke some internal mechanisms".

If she does put a fork in it, I'd rate it basically as a more cunning, more treacherous, smarter Kiril with a slightly better plasma cannon. So, you know, first thing we'll know of it will probably be the plasma cannon shooting through a wall or trying to blow up Henriette's ride. But on the other hand, Ms Clock can get her hands on anti-materiel plasma cannons anyway.

[1] There are probably more than a few Hermetic liches crying at this point because they didn't think of the idea of binding themselves into a Prime-infused golem-body and using symbols as sacrifice instead of their real selves. Although the weaknesses are actually significant.[2]

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being hemetuca is sufering

 

[veekie]

Well, it says it's about as dangerous as a Commando HITMark V, so... that's basically in the ballpark of a Kiril-25, which is another high end HITMark V upgrade package. In that case, it's a pretty dangerous HITMark, but it's not up at full HITMark VI level. Also, from a certain point of view it's sort of a waste putting a non-Enlightened mindstate in it. We might have to be more careful about Ms Clock essentially using it as an Uber-ATLAS, especially if we wreck her existing ATLAS' chassis but don't destroy the brain.

One thing that helps a lot against it is Henriette using Matter 4 to reconfigure it on the fly. Or Jamelia with Entropy 3 Slay Machine and troll-casting while she runs away. The "You're a Matter Pattern" flaw is quite significant, especially when a lot of Technocrats have Matter 2 and thus can break bits of it with a focus of "I shot at you with a handgun and that broke some internal mechanisms".

If she does put a fork in it, I'd rate it basically as a more cunning, more treacherous, smarter Kiril with a slightly better plasma cannon. So, you know, first thing we'll know of it will probably be the plasma cannon shooting through a wall or trying to blow up Henriette's ride. But on the other hand, Ms Clock can get her hands on anti-materiel plasma cannons anyway.

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Here I thought the Nwooblet might be due a resleeving.

 

[Garlak]

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector

This gets the squishy NWO operative some very nice defenses -- and if we're approaching the end-game of this arc, then it's only right we face it while wearing something similar to what Jamelia had back at the Moscow finale!

[X] M-1992 ZERUEL Combat Chassis

Giving this to Kessler or Reina is extremely interesting. If we can pull off the latter -- if we can manage to resurrect(?) Reina Lior -- then it would be both an amazing accomplishment and also potentially give us a potential (and intriguing) path to the resolution of the "How do we finally deal with the Union? And Panopticon?" plot-line.
(Or maybe the "dealing with Augustine Aleph" plotline, if Reina could convince him -- supposedly that was one of the potentially possible ways to deal with that. Still seems unlikely, but it would at least probably be of some help. Even if it ends in a "convincing Saren to shoot himself" type of victory rather than managing to turn him.)

Plus, if Serafina (or maybe Serafina + her parents?), maybe we could even wrangle something on 'leadership of the Progenitors' angle of things. But that's secondary and might be a bit ambitious, but, eh. Maybe.

If Alicia can run around with a body despite being Serafina's Avatar, I don't see why we can't have Reina Lior up and about too! ((I wonder how Reina would interact with the IBM guys. If things ever lined up such that she ever met them, I mean. Since by this point we haven't had contact with them since Moscow - though maybe that might change in time.))

 

[EarthScorpion]

Giving this to Kessler or Reina is extremely interesting. If we can pull off the latter -- if we can manage to resurrect(?) Reina Lior -- then it would be both an amazing accomplishment and also potentially give us a potential (and intriguing) path to the resolution of the "How do we finally deal with the Union? And Panopticon?" plot-line.

Click to shrink...

It is... interesting how people seem to automatically think this is a good idea, on the grounds that... what? Reina was nicer to Rose than Thorn?

Donald thinks she's an authoritarian asshole who thinks the word "please" is Reality Deviancy for how little she uses it. And we know that by the end, she was just tired and felt that dying for a good cause was a good way to put down her burden and rest.

 

[Garlak]

Well, more on the grounds that Reina is a member of Control (well, the Invisible College) who is opposed to Threat Null.

Plus, it sounds like it might be an interesting direction to take.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Well, more on the grounds that Reina is a member of Control (well, the Invisible College) who is opposed to Threat Null.

Plus, it sounds like it might be an interesting direction to take.

Click to shrink...

Well, let's look at what we know of her. We know she's a pro-Pogromite imperialist who backed genocides across the Solar System, who has several viewpoints which clash with modern liberal sensibilities who was in a senior enough position that many of the sins of the West she either condoned or failed to speak out against, and she was totally fine with being a leader of the early Technocratic Union with all its racism, paternalism and other -isms.

And by seeking to put her back in a position of authority, you're condoning exactly what the Progenitor project which made Rose wanted, which was to bring Control back so everything will go back to being managed and under control and how things used to be.

Actions mean things. And Thorn said that both her and Reina are not too unalike - they exist to oppose Rose and force her to grow by overcoming them. Now, of course, Thorn says things like that a lot, but it should still make you think.

 

[spacemonkey37]

Vote updated for the second choice to:

[X] Prosthetic Rejection Inhibitors + IX-18R + Guardian Rig

I don't think asset denial is a good enough reason to choose the ZERUEL. It's not so powerful that we should prioritize it over something we can actually use. Especially since we're already up against the Anathema, which is significantly scarier.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Special Projects Division Catalogue Spring 2015 - PART 3 OF 3
Original Publication Date: 11-FEB-2015
Upload Date: 01-MAR-2015
Scanned by Bowman, Shadow Ministry to TradWiki: Your One-Stop Open Source for All SIGINT
Edited by Thig4Life bani Thig

Uploader Comments: Part 3

Editor Comments: I need a drink. A drink, and for someone to go kill all these bastards. But I'll settle for a drink.

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@-10-S L@ptop Shr@pnel Projector - A modified version of our best-selling @-10, the @-10-S L@ptop is a full automatic shotgun. Because sometimes you need to kill every hostile in the boardroom.
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Uploader's Comments: Actually metaphysically safe to use - they're too cheap and disposable to make demonic. Physically more dangerous - with that explosive charge, they can detonate your weapon remotely.

Fuerza Gyrojet Tech Firearms

Weapons from our Fuerza line may look like conventional firearms - but trust us, they're not! Fuerza weapons use gyrojet technology to fire specialised minimissiles with far more destructive potential than regular bullets. What's better than shooting someone with hot lead? Shooting someone with a mini-rocket which can blow a hole clean through a man's torso! And let's not even get started on our ranges of special ammunition! You've never seen anything like this before! We can fit tank-killing potential into a standard rifle!

Uploader's Comments: Bog standard Technocratic 16mm gyrojets, upscaled to 16.5mm so you can't use standard rounds in their weapons. Some of their special ammo is nasty - they're using alien tech in them.

Editor's Comments: The special ammo is a talen - a one-shot spirit binding.

Alkalartistry Anti-Materiel Firearms Now, some people might say that there are laws against the use of chemical weapons. However, our lawyers have made it clear that these weapons are only for use on materiel, and if you were to use any of these high tech weapons firing potent alkaline mixes against living beings, we would not be responsible. With our proprietary blend of alkaline substances, a tank hull is nothing! And did you know they're incredibly potent at disposing of cow skeletons? In tests, we found that use of our Alkalartistry AM-111 warhead could dispose of an entire skeleton in less than a minute!

Enquire for details of our range of:
AM Pistols
AM SMGs
AM Remote Package Deployment Rifles
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Editor's Comments: This is some kind of demonic bile they're using. There were videos. They dissolved living cows. The cows screamed until they died and for a little bit after they were actually dead. Fuck these guys.

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Editor's Comments: The MJOLNIR is the Syndic's favourite compensatory weapon. The DRC is like a malformed MJOLNIR. Muh muh. It has a demon living in it that feeds off death. And also the user's blood, through that very expensive grip. And apparently owning this gun causes erectile dysfunction (it was in the terms and conditions in very very small print), presumably because your actual dick feels neglected by how much you're spending on this substitute.

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Editor's Comments: These aren't actually Technocratic in origin. They're just demon-possessed regular mundane cluster bombs.

Hellion Armour

Under our project lead Dr Helena Drake, Project Hellion has advanced in leaps and bounds. We're now operating in tomorrow's world with our innovative sourcing methods and blue sky thinking, and with that we bring you the latest hardware to keep yourself safe from hostile forces.

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Editor's Note: This armour isn't actually magical, but it's made with magical processes. I think the SPD must have Union nanofabs or something if they can make it cheaply enough to sell it at the cost they do. The design isn't very Union, though - 'Crat mooks prefer their creepy hard-shelled insect look. This stuff looks more reptilian.

FL81 Fafnir Gen 2 Combat Skin - The next generation is here… today! Making use of advanced carbon nanoweave structures and quasi-diamondoid microscale layering, the FL81 will keep your soldiers fighting until the very end! Our advanced intravenous drug feeds banish tiredness, doubt and ethical concerns while the armour is worn, allowing your soldiers to operate at 100% efficiency at all times! And this armour is so light and comfortable that you can even wear more conventional armour over the top for extra protection! With our optional enhanced model FL81-B, Fafnir plating is incorporated over the top, allowing for the ultimate combat solution!

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• Customisable Combat Drug Feed
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• CloseToHand melee weapon
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Your soldiers will find it so good, they'll wonder why they'd ever want to wear anything else!

Editor's Note: This may look from the outside like a Progenitor light combat biosuit - all black corded muscle and that shit, combined with the SPD scales design. It is not a light biosuit. It's a flayed demon, coated in plastic. Once you put it on, it fuses with your skin - and then your other organs - turning you into a demonhost. It'll get in your brain and change who you are. Tame you. Make you into an SPD meat zombie who'll do exactly what he's told to do and who lives to further the cause, greedy and amoral and hungry for power.

Siegfried Personal Power Armour - So, maybe our FL81 isn't enough for you? You want more! More armour! More firepower! More ability to kill everyone who stands in your way! Well, say hello to our brand new Siegfried! The Siegfried requires the user to be wearing our FL81, for the ultra-high tech interface layer to handle power management and ensure the operator's safety. We're so cutting edge you need our armour to protect you from the inhuman strength of the Siegfried. With the effective armour of a tank, an edeium lining and four hardpoints for our weapons, the Siegfried is the future of warfare!

Uploader's Note: Okay, this is freaky and not in the normal SPD way. The Siegfried was a WW2 Nephandic design of power armour, built by corrupted Technocrats. It's basically a Haldeman 3 decades early. The Siegfried here is basically a slightly updated version, but not built to normal modern Technocratic Haldeman standards. It's roughly comparable to an early 70s Haldeman - lacking in primium and standard Techno-features, but with built-in horrific bane spirit-based features and they've retrofitted them with edeium.

Yes, you heard me. Retrofitted. Worst of all, when we checked these things out, they're not old models. They read as being built less than ten years ago. But they also read as being built in 1960. Some people might say that this is what happens when you get a CoXer to try to chronodate SPD tech. I pray that's all it is. Because when you have the SPD making Nephanic Nazi power armour which require you to be a demonhost to use… well, that can't be good. It just can't.

 

[EarthScorpion]

It totally would, tragically. Primium haet RDism, and psychic assholes are even more Reality Deviant than those assholes who out-compute you with 'gut feelings' and 'the power of instinct' and then rub it into your face that you need millions of dollars of augmentations to compete with them. If psychic powers were more in-ItXParadigm he'd have a much easier time of it.

Click to shrink...

Hmm. Actually, going back to check Harlan's recruitment thing;

"Can build and maintain NWO hypertechnology without assistance."

I think we may have been focusing a little too heavily on the fact that he's a psychic asshole, and forgetting that he's also a fully trained NWO Operative / Q Division asshole. We do from that know he's actually okay at Hypertechnology, given it was listed as one of his recruitment advantages, and there are ways of controlling things that don't require the use of psychic powers.

Cashman probably left a spare hands-free weapon control hood (for when you sometimes need to control your guns while also keeping both hands on the wheel, aka the "Lock-on") and Harlan can probably rig that up to turn the body into a turret (using straps and possibly superglue) that they can strap to the top of one of the cars while Harlan stays inside where it's safe and shoots people with a plasma cannon. While Jamelia goes out where it's dangerous.

Harlan: "Shotgun the car Hyena was driving! Now help me glue this robot to the top so I can use it as a turret."

Henriette: "What are you doing to my car? No! Stop!"

Harlan: "Ignore her. She's having a nightmare."

Henriette: "I'm awake and I..."

Harlan: "Go the fuck to sleep."

Henriette: "Zzz"

Jamelia: "..."

Jamelia: "... did you ever do that to Elissa? Because I'm wondering why on earth I thought you would be a good parent."

Harlan: "No comment."

 

[Cavalier]

Nephandic Nazis still around post-1945? Man, talk about perfect villains for an arc. We are all sad we will never see Kessler dual-wielding plasma guns to kill a necromantically resurrected cyborg-Hitler while rattling off a series of one-liners.

Though to address another matter, I think you're being a tad unfair to Reina. We have seen no indications of raging imperialism, sexism, racism, homophobia, and every other evil associated with Western culture before about 1970. It is a tad drastic to exclude the possibility of her growing, especially since has incorporated Rose's memories of the modern world. And whether or not we condone the experiment behind her, nevertheless, she exists and is worthy of consideration. And Donald is, mind, inclined to consider basically any military figure as an authoritarian asshole, so his opinion needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Or is perhaps liberally seasoned with that condiment already.

Not to say that there aren't issues with putting her in ZERUEL! That she died basically a suicide-by-vampire-Prince might suggest she doesn't want a second chance. Whether or not she's willing to follow Jamelia's leadership is another question.
And without Enlightened Science she's just a beta fork, so that would need to be addressed. Though she would still be basically Kyril level or better, though, so hardly worthless as an addition to the team.

Having her restore the Inner Circle and a new Control is not something that appeals to me, but her "codes" and knowledge and prestige would be extremely useful in mobilizing the Technocracy against Threat_Null. She has seen what the Computer became, and probably rejects most of Control's more tyrannical and excessive development; coming back to correct her mistakes might appeal, and the link between the Pogrom and those mistakes should be obvious. She could be a link back to the ideals and traditions of the Order of Reason, and thus part of a path to reform for a more humanistic and liberal Technocracy.

Now I'm not sure she is necessarily the best fit here if we take the ZERUEL, but it is something probably worth IC investigation and consideration.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Though to address another matter, I think you're being a tad unfair to Reina.

Click to shrink...

Oh, entirely deliberately. I am being unfair, because I needed to emphasise that she's not the messiah and that the overwhelming wave of "Let's try to put her back in charge, she'll fix everything" is built off exactly the same sentiments which led to EXEMPLAR III in the first place. The exaggeration was a strong and convenient place to build my rhetoric off. She's a woman out of time, and she will have plenty of attitudes which the party will not agree with - and she's party to and condoned at least tacitly a lot of the sins of the West. So, yes, I was quite deliberately putting her in the worst light because she's a tarnished hero and the naive "let's bring Reina Lior back!" was getting on my nerves.

For my part, I think she's old and tired and weary, and what she'd probably like most is a 'retirement' in Rose's head, helping mould her as a protege who can continue her work without having to be her and carrying all the regrets and the memories and the lost loved ones and the guilt [1]. But of course, if she thinks it's necessary, she'd put away her regrets and her weariness and force herself onwards, because part of being a tarnished hero is the heroism as well as the tarnish.

(And we do know about the raging interplanetary imperialism, because she was one of the people who started off in the Conquest faction for 'crush Mars' and then flipped to the Genocide faction after they started finding a way to fight back against Earth. And you aren't the leader of the IBM militants and the Cabal of Pure Thought militants before that without being pro-Pogromite and one of the people who helped put it in in the first place.)

[1] This does run into the problem that this is Rose she's trying to mould, which is one of the reasons that she's sort of an antagonist for Rose. Just as, I note, Rose was an antagonist for her in the Control timeline, sprinkling salt water over her old scars.

 

[Cavalier]

A desire to wipe out Vampires, Fae, Werewolves, and the Traditions is perhaps understandable in someone who was born long enough ago to see them all at their worst. Times have changed somewhat, especially in regard to the Traditions and factions of Werewolves and even maybe individual Vampires that don't deserve extermination; and she can see where the Pogrom took the Technocracy, which is nowhere good. But whether or not she will adapt to the modern world is a real legitimate and serious concern to be addressed well before putting her in the ultimate cyborg body.

 

[Aleph]

Okay, the Zeruel isn't quite as much of a threat in Ms Clock's hands as I'd feared. Cool.

[X] Prosthetic Rejection Inhibitors + IX-18R + Guardian Rig

 

[EarthScorpion]

Okay, the Zeruel isn't quite as much of a threat in Ms Clock's hands as I'd feared. Cool.

[X] Prosthetic Rejection Inhibitors + IX-18R + Guardian Rig

Click to shrink...

Oh, it is a pretty big threat. As is every other option. These are all phat loot. Ms Clock would be just as murderiffic as Jamelia with the Guardian Rig, if not more so (as there are some implications she has better enhancements). By my estimate, MJ is going to roughly balance all of these options with each other, so we'll probably get kicked in the arse by whatever we don't choose.

Qué sera, sera.

 

[Lightwhispers]

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector
Armor Jamelia is already familiar with, plus a plasma rifle? Yes please. The symbiont armor would also be nice, but Jamelia would probably notice the "no longer needs sleep" feature and never let anyone else use it. (Yes, that might up her efficiency slightly, but at the cost of funnies for us.) Also the "slight risk of permanent attachment" seems slightly suspicious - or it might just be a standard side-effect learned from the Post-Progenitor habit of hugging and never letting go...

[X] Prosthetic Rejection Inhibitors + IX-18R + Guardian Rig
Because murderswarms are fun, and the Seeker rifle literally does not miss. Combine, and you get lots of unerring dakka. The ZERUEL would be a bigger boost, but not immediately usable, it looks like. And while I'm not opposed to transhumanism per se, it feels like the most appropriate person to give this to would be Elsa, and I don't think she's quite trusted enough for that. It just doesn't feel right.

Given that there's another IX-881 in the batch, that it is pretty certain we won't be taking, would it be possible to set it on a time/conditional delay for the Suicide Overload?

Also,

Editor Comments: I need a drink. A drink, and for someone to go kill all these bastards. But I'll settle for a drink.

Click to shrink...

*Slides over a tray of Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters* Here. Freshly delivered from the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Drink until the pain goes away. Or you pass out. Either works.