Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
- Location
- The end of all things
It's a bit late, but I just noticed this:
Say what you will about the Technocracy, but at least they gave the world a more comprehensive road system.
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
Or there's a car ferry around the Darien Gap.
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Well, okay, there's a lot of propaganda there. Including a ransom video of that kid you met in Hong Kong. Brandon Jiminez? Apparently they think he's a Technocratic spy and want to chop his head off. Why is he in Russia? From what the accusations of 'crimes' include, he was tracking you people.
Man, I wonder what happened to the Daemon we met in Hong Kong. What would it think of us now that Autochthon Hates Us
Man, I wonder what happened to the Daemon we met in Hong Kong. What would it think of us now that Autochthon Hates Us
[X] Well, okay, there's a lot of propaganda there. Including a ransom video of that kid you met in Hong Kong. Brandon Jiminez? Apparently they think he's a Technocratic spy and want to chop his head off. Why is he in Russia? From what the accusations of 'crimes' include, he was tracking you people.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X] Well, okay, there's a lot of propaganda there. Including a ransom video of that kid you met in Hong Kong. Brandon Jiminez? Apparently they think he's a Technocratic spy and want to chop his head off. Why is he in Russia? From what the accusations of 'crimes' include, he was tracking you people.
This sort of curiosity is just the sort of thing Jamelia loves to follow up IC.
This sort of curiosity is just the sort of thing Jamelia loves to follow up IC.
Jamelia feels better after a shower and scrubbing her hands to get the smell of cleaning fluid off them. If she was the sort to bemoan mission roles, she certainly got the short end of the stick today. Lt Naryshkin got to wear a high tech ItX suit and sneak and break into things, which she enjoys, and Sgt Guo got to stay in a nice warm heated car. She got to clean floors.
Fortunately she isn't the sort to bemoan mission roles. Especially when she was the one who set them.
So instead she's sitting in a shielded backroom, furthering Operation Corrupt Henriette So She's No Longer A Nice Simple Iterator Girl Who Wouldn't Know Subtlety If It Hit Her In The Face With A Brick. As an operation name, it's been selected so even Henriette could understand it. Which is admittedly a little bit cruel to her. Well, Henriette as she exists now. Pretty accurate to the young woman who joined her amalgam.
Jamelia runs her hands through her damp hair. It's still drying, so she's letting it air. Since it's only her and Henriette in here, it's not like it's unacceptable - and it makes Henriette open up to her more. The other woman feels that when Jamelia does that, it's a sign that she's one of her intimate confidents. It's always useful to be able to further two goals at once, even if one of the goals is 'let my hair dry'.
"I can't find any signs of photomanipulation or editing," Henriette says eventually, unplugging from the machine with the video file on and deactivating her security buffers. "It looks genuine. Is it really him? I can't say for sure. Facial details match, but Progenitor or Traditionalist bioscience could fake that - and I've read that RD tricks can do similar things."
"They can," Jamelia confirms.
Henriette taps her fingers on the table. "I... get the feeling they believe what they're saying," she says clinically. "If they're acting, they're very good actors. It doesn't mean they're not... um, that they're not mooks who's been lied to, but from the context Elsa found the data in, it would have to mean they're putting fake data in with their propaganda."
"Are they doing that?" Jamelia asks. "Why would they?"
"I... can't see what they have to benefit from doing that," Henriette says slowly. "Maybe... maybe it might be bait for more moderate RD factions? If he's not a Technocrat spy, that might be an attempt to lure out a rescue attempt." She massages her temples. "I don't think this is aimed at us - the Rogue Council shouldn't know that we tricked him once. It might be aimed at the Technocracy as a whole, but... if you wanted to execute Technocracy spies, I'd think there'd be a lot easier people to go after than a Traditionalist! Like the Marys I bet we have trying to track them!" She purses her lips. "This propaganda seems to have been for internal consumption," she says hesitantly. "I've run scans on the net and it doesn't seem to have hit any of the commonly used sharing sites, even as a private video. Which means it's probably only being shared on some Rogue Council darknet sites - I ran some checks on the hardware logs and it's only been viewed around two hundred times."
"So," Jamelia prompts, "do you think it's genuine?"
"I... think so," Henriette says after some thought. "The low view count suggests they're only sharing it with loyalists, to reinforce their devotion to the cause - they're not publicising things. And terrorist groups like to publicise things if they think it can win people over, or to... you know, terrorise people. Because it's in the name." She closes her eyes, and her expression goes serene for a moment as she does something with her ADEI. "Yes. I think it's genuine," she says, opening her eyes again.
She's impressed, in a quite quiet way. Henriette is learning. Her mind was wasted as a pure mech pilot. She's having to try to work out why other people are doing things - and that's a lot harder than piloting a war machine. Even the Masses are getting close to autonomous combat vehicles. They're much further from a human-level intelligence. Henriette will never be a field Operative like Jamelia - but she's taking quite well to the elements of Watcher training she's giving her.
Jamelia wonders if this is what it was like before the Virtual Adepts defected. It was before her time, but Nichols had just casually mentioned what it was like to have Adepts on-side in WW2. The Adepts who stayed loyal wound up divided between the Watchers in the NWO, Iteration X, and bits of the Syndicate - though the Syndics probably just liked money. The Union had lost good information specialists, medium-intensity combat assets and social engineers as well as the more obvious computer experts. Maybe with the training she's giving her, Henriette is filling that old niche.
Interesting thought. Jamelia saves it for later. If Henriette performs well, she might want to consider bringing it up with Professor Bastion. The Order might like to consider cross-training some Watchers with Iteration X and the Operatives to get them access to some in-house field hackers who can fill the old Virtual Adept role and counter the modern VA presence.
"So," she prompts Henriette, "your thoughts?"
Henriette frowns, brow wrinkling. "He's a Traditionalist accused of being a Technocrat spy," she says, working things through out loud. "That's either true or false. If it's true, then we should try to rescue him - the Union doesn't waste Enlightened assets. And if it's false, well..." she smiles, "... he's a Traditionalist who was just just rescued by Technocrats after being accused of being a spy. That's doesn't help his 'I'm not a spy' case, does it? We can probably use that."
Yes, Jamelia decides, she is impressed. And tells Henriette as much. Carefully measured positive reinforcement works well with her - but never so much that she gets overconfident or suspects she's being praised more than she 'deserves'. Jamelia could say that the genuine smile on Henriette's face makes it all worthwhile, but that'd be sentimental nonsense. The fact is that she's making Henriette a more useful asset who's less likely to get herself killed and who is more mentally stable and won't crumble on her in a mission. It's certainly not that Henriette is some kind of surrogate daughter figure. That's the kind of rubbish Serafina produced... produces, because Serafina mothers people and assumes other people are like her. A Progenitor like her wouldn't get it, anyway. Henriette is her student, not her daughter. And that has an entirely different set of implications in the New World Order.
Like how you're far more likely to abandon your children than your students but you'd abandon them both if the mission demanded it, a stray thought points accusingly. It sounds like Illiyeen.
Internally Jamelia sighs. Yes. Illiyeen would have liked Henriette. She pauses and considers her own thoughts. Liked, or possibly declared her to be her rival and devoted herself day and night to defeating the rich girl who'd never gone hungry and who took things for granted. She had had a competitive streak as wide as... well, as wide as Henriette's. Perhaps that's why Jamelia likes these moments with Henriette, when her eyes flash in joy when she manages to perform to Jamelia's expectations. The girl she used to be wasn't exactly so different from the young woman sitting in front of her.
Did Blanc ever feel like this, Jamelia wonders. This quiet sensation of satisfied pride. Had he been disappointed in the failure of his project, or had he been disappointed in her, personally? How had he felt about her?
Well, she'll probably never know, so she shouldn't waste her time wondering.
"Well," she tells Henriette, "I have twenty minutes free in my schedule and I need to do something active while my brain runs over some considerations based on your analysis. We're going down to the firing range and getting some practice time in."
"Okay," Henriette says enthusiastically.
Fortunately she isn't the sort to bemoan mission roles. Especially when she was the one who set them.
So instead she's sitting in a shielded backroom, furthering Operation Corrupt Henriette So She's No Longer A Nice Simple Iterator Girl Who Wouldn't Know Subtlety If It Hit Her In The Face With A Brick. As an operation name, it's been selected so even Henriette could understand it. Which is admittedly a little bit cruel to her. Well, Henriette as she exists now. Pretty accurate to the young woman who joined her amalgam.
Jamelia runs her hands through her damp hair. It's still drying, so she's letting it air. Since it's only her and Henriette in here, it's not like it's unacceptable - and it makes Henriette open up to her more. The other woman feels that when Jamelia does that, it's a sign that she's one of her intimate confidents. It's always useful to be able to further two goals at once, even if one of the goals is 'let my hair dry'.
"I can't find any signs of photomanipulation or editing," Henriette says eventually, unplugging from the machine with the video file on and deactivating her security buffers. "It looks genuine. Is it really him? I can't say for sure. Facial details match, but Progenitor or Traditionalist bioscience could fake that - and I've read that RD tricks can do similar things."
"They can," Jamelia confirms.
Henriette taps her fingers on the table. "I... get the feeling they believe what they're saying," she says clinically. "If they're acting, they're very good actors. It doesn't mean they're not... um, that they're not mooks who's been lied to, but from the context Elsa found the data in, it would have to mean they're putting fake data in with their propaganda."
"Are they doing that?" Jamelia asks. "Why would they?"
"I... can't see what they have to benefit from doing that," Henriette says slowly. "Maybe... maybe it might be bait for more moderate RD factions? If he's not a Technocrat spy, that might be an attempt to lure out a rescue attempt." She massages her temples. "I don't think this is aimed at us - the Rogue Council shouldn't know that we tricked him once. It might be aimed at the Technocracy as a whole, but... if you wanted to execute Technocracy spies, I'd think there'd be a lot easier people to go after than a Traditionalist! Like the Marys I bet we have trying to track them!" She purses her lips. "This propaganda seems to have been for internal consumption," she says hesitantly. "I've run scans on the net and it doesn't seem to have hit any of the commonly used sharing sites, even as a private video. Which means it's probably only being shared on some Rogue Council darknet sites - I ran some checks on the hardware logs and it's only been viewed around two hundred times."
"So," Jamelia prompts, "do you think it's genuine?"
"I... think so," Henriette says after some thought. "The low view count suggests they're only sharing it with loyalists, to reinforce their devotion to the cause - they're not publicising things. And terrorist groups like to publicise things if they think it can win people over, or to... you know, terrorise people. Because it's in the name." She closes her eyes, and her expression goes serene for a moment as she does something with her ADEI. "Yes. I think it's genuine," she says, opening her eyes again.
She's impressed, in a quite quiet way. Henriette is learning. Her mind was wasted as a pure mech pilot. She's having to try to work out why other people are doing things - and that's a lot harder than piloting a war machine. Even the Masses are getting close to autonomous combat vehicles. They're much further from a human-level intelligence. Henriette will never be a field Operative like Jamelia - but she's taking quite well to the elements of Watcher training she's giving her.
Jamelia wonders if this is what it was like before the Virtual Adepts defected. It was before her time, but Nichols had just casually mentioned what it was like to have Adepts on-side in WW2. The Adepts who stayed loyal wound up divided between the Watchers in the NWO, Iteration X, and bits of the Syndicate - though the Syndics probably just liked money. The Union had lost good information specialists, medium-intensity combat assets and social engineers as well as the more obvious computer experts. Maybe with the training she's giving her, Henriette is filling that old niche.
Interesting thought. Jamelia saves it for later. If Henriette performs well, she might want to consider bringing it up with Professor Bastion. The Order might like to consider cross-training some Watchers with Iteration X and the Operatives to get them access to some in-house field hackers who can fill the old Virtual Adept role and counter the modern VA presence.
"So," she prompts Henriette, "your thoughts?"
Henriette frowns, brow wrinkling. "He's a Traditionalist accused of being a Technocrat spy," she says, working things through out loud. "That's either true or false. If it's true, then we should try to rescue him - the Union doesn't waste Enlightened assets. And if it's false, well..." she smiles, "... he's a Traditionalist who was just just rescued by Technocrats after being accused of being a spy. That's doesn't help his 'I'm not a spy' case, does it? We can probably use that."
Yes, Jamelia decides, she is impressed. And tells Henriette as much. Carefully measured positive reinforcement works well with her - but never so much that she gets overconfident or suspects she's being praised more than she 'deserves'. Jamelia could say that the genuine smile on Henriette's face makes it all worthwhile, but that'd be sentimental nonsense. The fact is that she's making Henriette a more useful asset who's less likely to get herself killed and who is more mentally stable and won't crumble on her in a mission. It's certainly not that Henriette is some kind of surrogate daughter figure. That's the kind of rubbish Serafina produced... produces, because Serafina mothers people and assumes other people are like her. A Progenitor like her wouldn't get it, anyway. Henriette is her student, not her daughter. And that has an entirely different set of implications in the New World Order.
Like how you're far more likely to abandon your children than your students but you'd abandon them both if the mission demanded it, a stray thought points accusingly. It sounds like Illiyeen.
Internally Jamelia sighs. Yes. Illiyeen would have liked Henriette. She pauses and considers her own thoughts. Liked, or possibly declared her to be her rival and devoted herself day and night to defeating the rich girl who'd never gone hungry and who took things for granted. She had had a competitive streak as wide as... well, as wide as Henriette's. Perhaps that's why Jamelia likes these moments with Henriette, when her eyes flash in joy when she manages to perform to Jamelia's expectations. The girl she used to be wasn't exactly so different from the young woman sitting in front of her.
Did Blanc ever feel like this, Jamelia wonders. This quiet sensation of satisfied pride. Had he been disappointed in the failure of his project, or had he been disappointed in her, personally? How had he felt about her?
Well, she'll probably never know, so she shouldn't waste her time wondering.
"Well," she tells Henriette, "I have twenty minutes free in my schedule and I need to do something active while my brain runs over some considerations based on your analysis. We're going down to the firing range and getting some practice time in."
"Okay," Henriette says enthusiastically.
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Well, okay, there's a lot of propaganda there. Including a ransom video of that kid you met in Hong Kong. Brandon Jiminez? Apparently they think he's a Technocratic spy and want to chop his head off. Why is he in Russia? From what the accusations of 'crimes' include, he was tracking you people.
Am I the only one getting a bit feeling from this?
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
[X] Well, okay, there's a lot of propaganda there. Including a ransom video of that kid you met in Hong Kong. Brandon Jiminez? Apparently they think he's a Technocratic spy and want to chop his head off. Why is he in Russia? From what the accusations of 'crimes' include, he was tracking you people.
Quantumboost
Now with 50% more dots in Dimensional Science
- Location
- Ensemble Space
Nichols: Just as planned.
Deadly Snark
Tryhard As Fuck
Oh sweet god, I need to see this. Need to. NEED.
I've actually wondered about exactly that, when it first was brought up by Nichols; what were the "old" Virtual Adepts like? How do they differ from modern-day Iterators and modern-day VAs?
SR Aftermath IV: XIX to XXVIII
SR Aftermath IV
SR XIX: La Iglesia
I've already discussed this one before. It was determining the nature of the threat in al-Saud's layer.
[ ] Nothing that Serafina can see.
Al-Saud is weak himself, but he's a corrupter spirit. He's already bought out Duma, father Orisino's angel. So now you have to fight a corrupted angel.
[ ] Nothing. The entire place reeks of spiritual corruption to Father Orisino. It's thoroughly desecrated his sanctum and perhaps considers that defence enough.
Al-Saud has turned the place into a place of pure Resident paradigm. So it basically resembles a Witch's labyrinth powered by CAPITALISM.
[ ] Nothing. There is no final guardian. The creature perhaps doesn't feel it needs one.
AL-SAUD BUFF DRAGON STRONK
[X] Nothing. It's here waiting for you in public. With open arms and a smile.
What you took. He thinks he's proof against anything you can throw out, and wants to talk. This was the one which dinged Alice's Survivor again.
SR XX: The Liar's Lair
Be Alice:
[ ] Take his offer (1.7x)
He's not buying her soul. He's buying something more materialistic than that. He's taking her experiences, her training, even her genetics - and providing her with new ones from his debtors.
The end result is she's left as a husk of what she was who's basically a completely different person at a personal and genetic level filled with a mish-mash of memories which patch up her history into something which makes sense as long as you don't look too closely - or from another point of view she's had everything which makes her a screwed up wreck replaced by something which makes her happier, which... uh, really doesn't leave much of the original Alice left because she's mostly screwed up wreck. She's technically still Awakened, but Arete-crashes to 1 and is basically a completely new person.
Everything he takes? He's putting to auction between the Transhumans and the Agency. And the Transhumans have more funds. So the I-51 series is, rather than being made with Jamelia, made with what he takes from Alice. Psychic NWO-trained I-51s start cropping up over the next year, infiltrating the Traditions and able to pass as RDs with their perfectly scientific alien genetics and the knowledge of the Traditions and training they now have.
[X] Don't take his offer (spend 1wp to suppress Survivor Vice)
What you took. Leaves Alice the same screwed up wreck she is now who's now on WP1. Also stops plague of elite Transhuman infiltration units.
Be a ragtag collection of mages
[ ] Throw even more firepower at him. It's got to work eventually, right? No matter how many people you might need to burn through.
Yeah, the only way this could work is if you could overwhelm his bandwidth. His bandwith is 70PE/turn. He has thirty HL. So you need to do basically 100HL all in one turn to kill him.
This was doable - but only if you had the VEs on-side and required the use of a tactical spirit-killing neutron bomb. So in practice, Panopticon was going to show up first.
[X] Find a smarter way (Write-in mandatory, otherwise x0.0 modifier)
What you did. Islam + Greece stronk, international capitalism weak.
SR XXI: Protagonists Protect the Weak
Be Alicia
[X] Yes (expends your quantum narrative Alicia asset)
What you did.
[ ] Nuh-uh. I'm up to something else.
If you didn't spend Alicia here, Yinzheng would show up with 3 Rolands packed full of troops. You were probably screwed. If Yizheng took you alive, you'd get a chance to use your Alicia to rescue you... but considering the odds against you, she'd probably fail.
Whoops.
SR XXII: The Decline and Fall of the House of Saud
Serafina
If you'd taken any particularly callous options or integrated Subjugation Corps DNA, you'd have had a chance to change Caregiver here too. But you didn't, so she was stuck with that.
The Virtue change was based off the Virtues I felt you'd shown in-play. Given that an Aleph recruitment was possible, I had these chosen with half-an-eye to what they'd imply about the chances of her saying "yes" to joining.
Alice
Because Alice's WP was so low, it's a very good thing you chose to give her Head Jazmin. It immunised her to the Nephandic Bad End.
I did contemplate giving her a Head James instead, but I felt that it made a stronger statement that no, he is gone, and even the good memories of him are burned or corrupted by what he became.
SR XXIII: A Setback for the Protagonists
Ironically enough, the ironic name of this chapter turned out to be entirely true because Yinzheng outsmarted Serafina, and turned her ambush into a counter-ambush when she beat her Tactics roll with her own one. Hence, your votes here got turned on you.
Be a ragtag collection of mages
[ ] Engage them down here in the sanctum
Probably the best tactic - forces them all down into a Chorister sanctum which means a lot of their tricks suddenly become vulgar because they're trying to kill a man of God in a holy Church. Even basic things like using a mundane gun to hurt a holy man is vulgar in Orisino's sanctum. The Machine Legion would have shown up again, drawn by that much Paradox.
There was a good chance Yizheng would have been dragged off screaming by the Machine Legion.
[ ] Engage them topside, catching them in the crossfire between the overwatch team and the SPD defences
What you chose. Usually a solid plan - but Yinzheng outsmarted you and turned your ambush back on you. If her plan hadn't run into Alicia, she'd have caught you in a crossfire between Ms Candle and herself as she came in through the side of the building.
Good chance of TPK. But you'd brought Alicia into play, so Alicia happened.
[ ] Attempt to evade hostiles
Running like a dog would have lost you Aleph's recruitment offer, and you'd have run from his beaters (Yinzheng and co) into exactly where the Adjad were waiting for you. He'd have killed Christos, left Sera and Alice with the same message, and then told Yinzheng to stand down and set Beth and Gimel on Ms Candle to take her away for 'study'.
This was one of the few paths which ended with an injured Yinzheng (or, at least, only somewhat injured from the Paradox she's suppressing from the first ambush).
Be Seelicia
[X] Open fire immediately on acquisition of hostile Roland to cripple vehicle
[ ] Hold fire and attempt to assassinate hostile leaders when acquired
Both these plans were negated by Yinzheng's counter-ambush and would have had the same net result. If she hadn't negated them, though, the former would have taken out the Roland, while the latter would have given you free shots with a vote offered for who you target - Yinzheng, Ms Candle or the mooks.
Unfortunately, if you'd chosen to go after Yinzheng she'd have precog-seen it coming and strafed them with her intermetric weapon, clocking up Paradox with witnesses (because Seelicia and Beelicio are witnesses who don't believe in DSU weapons being stable), while going after Ms Candle would have run into her damage-limiting effect.
Yeah, she has a damage-limiting effect built into her body. She can't take more than 2 levels of damage from a single attack which doesn't do massive tissue damage. The railguns just punch right through her Transhuman body. Flamethrowers would work fine, as would Serafina's grenade machine gun, but those bodies are made to counter Void Engineer railguns.
[ ] Relocate to join the others and (especially) protect Serafina
This would normally have been a trap option, because if Yinzheng had been approaching normally, she'd have gunned you down as you were attempting to cross between cover. However, because Yinzheng had out-thought Serafina, if you'd moved to the church you'd have thwarted Ms Candle's counter-ambush and had more forces in your reinforced position when Panopticon showed up and even had a chance of saving Seelicia and Beelicio.
SR XXIV: A Livid Sky on Mexico City...
There were a few ways of doing this.
SR XXV: … and I Knew The End Was Nigh
Things Alicia suggested here were going to be added to the list of options for the next vote. Except you chose the one which relied on Sera and Alicia being there. If Alicia had suggested the "Pretend you were in deep cover all along" option, for example, it would have been an option for Alice in the next vote.
The other thing was that this was the last chance to lose or gain Aleph Respect
[ ] "... I heard what he said to you about that Euthanatos sanctum. Me and Sera aren't defecting, but… well, we helped kill the Nephandus too."
Lost Aleph respect, enough to lose the recruitment chance. It's too clearly a potential lead-up to a defection.
[ ] "... we just need to find somewhere. A holiday resort, away from technology. We'll just be some twentysometimes on vacation. Go to ground and let the heat die down. Somewhere no one will look for us."
Neutral. Going to ground after something like this is just common sense.
[ ] "... you killed Christos Barberis, right? Well… who's to say you 'really' defected? Maybe it was just a long-term undercover mission. People won't want to ask questions, if we go to the right people. And if whoever 'gave you' the mission was lost in the Anomaly..." (x0.8)
Gained a lot of Aleph respect - enough that he'd have offered Alice the tools to do what Alicia had suggested. He admires the way that Serafina and Alicia are still trying to bring Alice back into the fold. And yes, the sheer audacity is something which he finds admirable. Even he'd have to double-check that Alice wasn't on a long-term cover assignment, because it's so overt it's covert and he's one of the very few people who could contradict it.
[X] "... Sera has knowledge the Void Engineers will want. I know it too. I can use it to try to buy us safety. You can come with us - you can fake being someone else, right, some Prog construct working for Sera - or I can see if I can get you a flight to anywhere in the world."
Gained some Aleph respect - Serafina wasn't trying to defect and was trying to put Alice in a position where she could be useful for the Union as that Survivor would prompt her to stick around with Sera who could keep her pretending to be a construct and might lead her into a VE recruitment attempt.
SR XXVI: א
This was, of course, an @Aleph interrupt. Do ho ho. @MJ12 Commando and I had this planned for a loooooong time and it was likely down a lot of the paths you could have gone down, although it showed up in different contexts. Sometimes it was just him appearing on a videoscreen. Or possessing Beelicio. Etc.
[ ] Go to the Golden Chalice sanctum. Just for long enough to heal and recover. Somewhere where you can feel safe for a little bit.
Leads Alice down the Golden Chalice training route, with not-an-Avatar Najwa as her Mentor. In this case, it would have been revealed that Najwa was █████████ ██████. Also, Najwa protects her from the Nephandic Bad End.
[X] He'll probably have you followed. You can pretend to be a twenty-something tourist with a van touring Mexico until you're back at 100%.
Leads Alice down the Independent / Secrets of the Ixoi training route, with the House Janissary grimoire. In this case, it was revealed that Najwa was Christos' Avatar. Head-Jazmin is going to be more active because she had to protect her from the Nephandic Bad End, and also because, unlike Jamelia, Head Jazmin has all the memories intact, as well as some recollections of "simulated reality deviance" which she can now reinterpret as being the real deal. Alice will likely mysteriously find some of the holes in her NWO training being fixed up too, as Head Jazmin fights Alice's nightmares.
Remember, Jazmin in some ways was actually more deadly than modern Jamelia, and certainly had a different sphere selection.
(She was still crap at Prime, though. It seems Illiyeen just... isn't very good at Prime. Even Ms Clock is bad at it.)
SR XXVII: The Interview
[X] Walk out the door. Forget everything he just said.
Your choice.
[ ] Take his offer. Join the Abjad as the new Tsade.
If you had done this, you would have become the new Tsade. This would have led to ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████████. She would have left the party. She would have been Yinzheng's handler, and the one retrofitting her in place of Qof.
There would have also been a vote for which Dual Traditions merit Tsade would aim for in her epilogue.
SR XXVIII: Epilogue 1 of 3 - Graveyard Hag - Secret Vote
Yes. This was presented as an academic question about a fluff vote, because I didn't want to spoil that Yinzheng was still alive. You could have made her into Raiden. You could have made her into Imperfect Cell/Alex Mercer/a Prime Warframe. But you didn't.
You went full Evangelion.
You should never go full Evangelion.
The last aftermath will discuss the ending and what I expected to see and where you surprised me.
SR XIX: La Iglesia
I've already discussed this one before. It was determining the nature of the threat in al-Saud's layer.
[ ] Nothing that Serafina can see.
Al-Saud is weak himself, but he's a corrupter spirit. He's already bought out Duma, father Orisino's angel. So now you have to fight a corrupted angel.
[ ] Nothing. The entire place reeks of spiritual corruption to Father Orisino. It's thoroughly desecrated his sanctum and perhaps considers that defence enough.
Al-Saud has turned the place into a place of pure Resident paradigm. So it basically resembles a Witch's labyrinth powered by CAPITALISM.
[ ] Nothing. There is no final guardian. The creature perhaps doesn't feel it needs one.
AL-SAUD BUFF DRAGON STRONK
[X] Nothing. It's here waiting for you in public. With open arms and a smile.
What you took. He thinks he's proof against anything you can throw out, and wants to talk. This was the one which dinged Alice's Survivor again.
SR XX: The Liar's Lair
Be Alice:
[ ] Take his offer (1.7x)
He's not buying her soul. He's buying something more materialistic than that. He's taking her experiences, her training, even her genetics - and providing her with new ones from his debtors.
The end result is she's left as a husk of what she was who's basically a completely different person at a personal and genetic level filled with a mish-mash of memories which patch up her history into something which makes sense as long as you don't look too closely - or from another point of view she's had everything which makes her a screwed up wreck replaced by something which makes her happier, which... uh, really doesn't leave much of the original Alice left because she's mostly screwed up wreck. She's technically still Awakened, but Arete-crashes to 1 and is basically a completely new person.
Everything he takes? He's putting to auction between the Transhumans and the Agency. And the Transhumans have more funds. So the I-51 series is, rather than being made with Jamelia, made with what he takes from Alice. Psychic NWO-trained I-51s start cropping up over the next year, infiltrating the Traditions and able to pass as RDs with their perfectly scientific alien genetics and the knowledge of the Traditions and training they now have.
[X] Don't take his offer (spend 1wp to suppress Survivor Vice)
What you took. Leaves Alice the same screwed up wreck she is now who's now on WP1. Also stops plague of elite Transhuman infiltration units.
Be a ragtag collection of mages
[ ] Throw even more firepower at him. It's got to work eventually, right? No matter how many people you might need to burn through.
Yeah, the only way this could work is if you could overwhelm his bandwidth. His bandwith is 70PE/turn. He has thirty HL. So you need to do basically 100HL all in one turn to kill him.
This was doable - but only if you had the VEs on-side and required the use of a tactical spirit-killing neutron bomb. So in practice, Panopticon was going to show up first.
[X] Find a smarter way (Write-in mandatory, otherwise x0.0 modifier)
What you did. Islam + Greece stronk, international capitalism weak.
SR XXI: Protagonists Protect the Weak
Be Alicia
[X] Yes (expends your quantum narrative Alicia asset)
What you did.
[ ] Nuh-uh. I'm up to something else.
If you didn't spend Alicia here, Yinzheng would show up with 3 Rolands packed full of troops. You were probably screwed. If Yizheng took you alive, you'd get a chance to use your Alicia to rescue you... but considering the odds against you, she'd probably fail.
Whoops.
SR XXII: The Decline and Fall of the House of Saud
Serafina
If you'd taken any particularly callous options or integrated Subjugation Corps DNA, you'd have had a chance to change Caregiver here too. But you didn't, so she was stuck with that.
The Virtue change was based off the Virtues I felt you'd shown in-play. Given that an Aleph recruitment was possible, I had these chosen with half-an-eye to what they'd imply about the chances of her saying "yes" to joining.
- Conniver supported joining
- Paragon opposed joining - Serafina would find the moral compromises too much because Paragon cares about means, not ends.
- Leader and Idealist were neutral - Leader could be used either way, while Idealist cares about ends, not means (despite the name) and so either way could further her ends.
- Dabbler opposed joining, because fuckin' Dabbler can't focus yo.
Alice
Because Alice's WP was so low, it's a very good thing you chose to give her Head Jazmin. It immunised her to the Nephandic Bad End.
I did contemplate giving her a Head James instead, but I felt that it made a stronger statement that no, he is gone, and even the good memories of him are burned or corrupted by what he became.
SR XXIII: A Setback for the Protagonists
Ironically enough, the ironic name of this chapter turned out to be entirely true because Yinzheng outsmarted Serafina, and turned her ambush into a counter-ambush when she beat her Tactics roll with her own one. Hence, your votes here got turned on you.
Be a ragtag collection of mages
[ ] Engage them down here in the sanctum
Probably the best tactic - forces them all down into a Chorister sanctum which means a lot of their tricks suddenly become vulgar because they're trying to kill a man of God in a holy Church. Even basic things like using a mundane gun to hurt a holy man is vulgar in Orisino's sanctum. The Machine Legion would have shown up again, drawn by that much Paradox.
There was a good chance Yizheng would have been dragged off screaming by the Machine Legion.
[ ] Engage them topside, catching them in the crossfire between the overwatch team and the SPD defences
What you chose. Usually a solid plan - but Yinzheng outsmarted you and turned your ambush back on you. If her plan hadn't run into Alicia, she'd have caught you in a crossfire between Ms Candle and herself as she came in through the side of the building.
Good chance of TPK. But you'd brought Alicia into play, so Alicia happened.
[ ] Attempt to evade hostiles
Running like a dog would have lost you Aleph's recruitment offer, and you'd have run from his beaters (Yinzheng and co) into exactly where the Adjad were waiting for you. He'd have killed Christos, left Sera and Alice with the same message, and then told Yinzheng to stand down and set Beth and Gimel on Ms Candle to take her away for 'study'.
This was one of the few paths which ended with an injured Yinzheng (or, at least, only somewhat injured from the Paradox she's suppressing from the first ambush).
Be Seelicia
[X] Open fire immediately on acquisition of hostile Roland to cripple vehicle
[ ] Hold fire and attempt to assassinate hostile leaders when acquired
Both these plans were negated by Yinzheng's counter-ambush and would have had the same net result. If she hadn't negated them, though, the former would have taken out the Roland, while the latter would have given you free shots with a vote offered for who you target - Yinzheng, Ms Candle or the mooks.
Unfortunately, if you'd chosen to go after Yinzheng she'd have precog-seen it coming and strafed them with her intermetric weapon, clocking up Paradox with witnesses (because Seelicia and Beelicio are witnesses who don't believe in DSU weapons being stable), while going after Ms Candle would have run into her damage-limiting effect.
Yeah, she has a damage-limiting effect built into her body. She can't take more than 2 levels of damage from a single attack which doesn't do massive tissue damage. The railguns just punch right through her Transhuman body. Flamethrowers would work fine, as would Serafina's grenade machine gun, but those bodies are made to counter Void Engineer railguns.
[ ] Relocate to join the others and (especially) protect Serafina
This would normally have been a trap option, because if Yinzheng had been approaching normally, she'd have gunned you down as you were attempting to cross between cover. However, because Yinzheng had out-thought Serafina, if you'd moved to the church you'd have thwarted Ms Candle's counter-ambush and had more forces in your reinforced position when Panopticon showed up and even had a chance of saving Seelicia and Beelicio.
SR XXIV: A Livid Sky on Mexico City...
There were a few ways of doing this.
- If you killed Yinzheng, her det charge would go off and had a good chance of killing Christos and likely severely injure Alice too, unless you managed to kill her in such a way that her body wasn't around.
- If you injured Yinzheng, didn't kill her, but hurt her enough she couldn't complete her mission (for example, shooting her in the spine in the neck which she'd probably survive because of her augs), Alice would have to find a way to get the bomb out before Yinzheng could trigger her suicide charge (otherwise, see above)
- If you disarmed Yinzheng but didn't detonate her weapon, she'd whirl on Alice and Alice and her would have to duel.
- If you'd had Time 4 from your previous Alice purchase, you could have frozen Christos in time which would have made him immune to that shot, Yinzheng would have then exploded from Dox, and Christos would have lasted long enough to be killed by Aleph.
- If Yinzheng hadn't been stopped from shooting, she would have killed Christos, and such a dramatic moment ends the scene and then her Paradox backlash happens and we roll to see what happens next.
- What you did was you managed to damage her gun enough that its Matrix cracked and unleashed all the stored-up Paradox - and it was nearly full. So... uh, Yinzheng got hit by about 20 points of Dox. The fact that her hair is now all white and she's lost all pigment in her eyes is a Permanent Flaw from that.
- Alice's ghost bullets interact with patterns as if they're Death. That means that only countermagic, Entropy shielding or Spirit shielding protects against them. They blow straight through defences against Forces or Matter. Or, you know, mundane armour. That would mean you could have used them to shoot Yinzheng and her only armour would have been her countermagic primium.
- If you'd used the knockback option and rolled well, you could have knocked the point of the gun off target so she'd have missed, filled up the Matrix, and then backlashed.
SR XXV: … and I Knew The End Was Nigh
Things Alicia suggested here were going to be added to the list of options for the next vote. Except you chose the one which relied on Sera and Alicia being there. If Alicia had suggested the "Pretend you were in deep cover all along" option, for example, it would have been an option for Alice in the next vote.
The other thing was that this was the last chance to lose or gain Aleph Respect
[ ] "... I heard what he said to you about that Euthanatos sanctum. Me and Sera aren't defecting, but… well, we helped kill the Nephandus too."
Lost Aleph respect, enough to lose the recruitment chance. It's too clearly a potential lead-up to a defection.
[ ] "... we just need to find somewhere. A holiday resort, away from technology. We'll just be some twentysometimes on vacation. Go to ground and let the heat die down. Somewhere no one will look for us."
Neutral. Going to ground after something like this is just common sense.
[ ] "... you killed Christos Barberis, right? Well… who's to say you 'really' defected? Maybe it was just a long-term undercover mission. People won't want to ask questions, if we go to the right people. And if whoever 'gave you' the mission was lost in the Anomaly..." (x0.8)
Gained a lot of Aleph respect - enough that he'd have offered Alice the tools to do what Alicia had suggested. He admires the way that Serafina and Alicia are still trying to bring Alice back into the fold. And yes, the sheer audacity is something which he finds admirable. Even he'd have to double-check that Alice wasn't on a long-term cover assignment, because it's so overt it's covert and he's one of the very few people who could contradict it.
[X] "... Sera has knowledge the Void Engineers will want. I know it too. I can use it to try to buy us safety. You can come with us - you can fake being someone else, right, some Prog construct working for Sera - or I can see if I can get you a flight to anywhere in the world."
Gained some Aleph respect - Serafina wasn't trying to defect and was trying to put Alice in a position where she could be useful for the Union as that Survivor would prompt her to stick around with Sera who could keep her pretending to be a construct and might lead her into a VE recruitment attempt.
SR XXVI: א
This was, of course, an @Aleph interrupt. Do ho ho. @MJ12 Commando and I had this planned for a loooooong time and it was likely down a lot of the paths you could have gone down, although it showed up in different contexts. Sometimes it was just him appearing on a videoscreen. Or possessing Beelicio. Etc.
[ ] Go to the Golden Chalice sanctum. Just for long enough to heal and recover. Somewhere where you can feel safe for a little bit.
Leads Alice down the Golden Chalice training route, with not-an-Avatar Najwa as her Mentor. In this case, it would have been revealed that Najwa was █████████ ██████. Also, Najwa protects her from the Nephandic Bad End.
[X] He'll probably have you followed. You can pretend to be a twenty-something tourist with a van touring Mexico until you're back at 100%.
Leads Alice down the Independent / Secrets of the Ixoi training route, with the House Janissary grimoire. In this case, it was revealed that Najwa was Christos' Avatar. Head-Jazmin is going to be more active because she had to protect her from the Nephandic Bad End, and also because, unlike Jamelia, Head Jazmin has all the memories intact, as well as some recollections of "simulated reality deviance" which she can now reinterpret as being the real deal. Alice will likely mysteriously find some of the holes in her NWO training being fixed up too, as Head Jazmin fights Alice's nightmares.
Remember, Jazmin in some ways was actually more deadly than modern Jamelia, and certainly had a different sphere selection.
(She was still crap at Prime, though. It seems Illiyeen just... isn't very good at Prime. Even Ms Clock is bad at it.)
SR XXVII: The Interview
[X] Walk out the door. Forget everything he just said.
Your choice.
[ ] Take his offer. Join the Abjad as the new Tsade.
If you had done this, you would have become the new Tsade. This would have led to ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████████. She would have left the party. She would have been Yinzheng's handler, and the one retrofitting her in place of Qof.
There would have also been a vote for which Dual Traditions merit Tsade would aim for in her epilogue.
SR XXVIII: Epilogue 1 of 3 - Graveyard Hag - Secret Vote
Yes. This was presented as an academic question about a fluff vote, because I didn't want to spoil that Yinzheng was still alive. You could have made her into Raiden. You could have made her into Imperfect Cell/Alex Mercer/a Prime Warframe. But you didn't.
You went full Evangelion.
You should never go full Evangelion.
The last aftermath will discuss the ending and what I expected to see and where you surprised me.
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Get us using some vulgar Time effect, then. We've already got 'turning back into Illyeen' as a justified result from Paradox.
Amorous Intent
Love the future
- Location
- Octavia, Venus
- Pronouns
- She/her
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
So, question for @MJ12 Commando and/or @EarthScorpion:
Been reading Mage 20th recently, to get a better handle on the game. Anything in there I should absolutely read or absolutely disregard in so far as it relates to Panopticon Quest?
Been reading Mage 20th recently, to get a better handle on the game. Anything in there I should absolutely read or absolutely disregard in so far as it relates to Panopticon Quest?
Kerrus
Fractal Insanity
I can answer some of that- M20 completely revamps the Time sphere. Broad points are similar, but it's much more actively powerful at lower levels compared to mRev. For example, in mrev, you can't reverse the flow of time. Period. Cannot happen. You can time travel, but 'rewinding' actions? Nope. Not happening.
Otherwise, foci/paradigm works differently in M20 compared to previous editions. I certainly like how M20 has improved those rules but they're a fair bit different. Previous editions like mRev had discrete rules for foci, paradigm, and actually using magick. (Foci were props, paradigm was the justification for how you interpret being a mage/the rules your mage casts under, and actually casting means like, how you justify that specific use of magic).
Otherwise, foci/paradigm works differently in M20 compared to previous editions. I certainly like how M20 has improved those rules but they're a fair bit different. Previous editions like mRev had discrete rules for foci, paradigm, and actually using magick. (Foci were props, paradigm was the justification for how you interpret being a mage/the rules your mage casts under, and actually casting means like, how you justify that specific use of magic).
NonSequtur
a body
••• Time Manipulation
"With a bit of finesse, a mage can rewind or loop time as well. Doing so is very difficult, however, and tends to draw down a lot of Paradox."
- Mage Revised Core
???
Update CLIII: Hostile Intent
JB CLIII: Hostile Intent
"Everyone needs to take a look at this." Elsa says, bringing up some of the files she's discovered. They're all Rogue Council propaganda, statements about how they're striking blows against the Enemies of Ascension, capital letters not optional, via terrorism, kidnappings, and forced enlightenment. "I think we have more than enough stuff to nail them."
"Good." Jamelia says. "I'll send it to our friends. Wait," she says, pausing on one. "What's that one?"
"Just a video where they display someone they're going to execute." Elsa says nonchalantly. Jamelia is reminded of what kind of situation Moscow was in before this year. For that matter, what it's like even now. Kessler's statements would have been chilling had he been retelling his tales to anyone else. Of course, the entire group here has been used to violence. It's hard not to be inured to violence when you've killed more people than some wars. "Looks like one of ou-" she catches herself. "One of the Superstitionists who they've picked up for being 'too ideologically impure' or something. I've heard they do that to people willing to work with the Technocracy. They interrogate them roughly, and then they execute them. It's never very nice. At least they don't use Gilgul-they think that the reincarnation might be more ideologically pure."
"So who is this guy? That's not much of a description to go on." Kessler mentions. "And how's he important?"
"If this isn't a false lead, this man is a Shadow Ministry agent who was in Hong Kong when we were." Jamelia says, and Henriette nods. "The fact that they have him is suspicious. Let's keep playing it."
They watch him. They watch his interrogators ask his name. "Brandon Jiminez." They hurt him for that. It's not his true name. They keep hurting him until he gives an answer they like. Henriette turns away for a few moments. "Thomas Gomez." Something they can use, she thinks. Someone they can search.
"Why are you in Moscow?" They ask. He talks about Hong Kong. They ask about Hong Kong, and he tells them that he was dealing with Kuei-Jin in Hong Kong. They hurt him for that, not because the answer's false, but because they don't like how he left the Technocracy alone and went after the Kuei-Jin, who are after all not Enemies of Ascension. So that's their game, Jamelia thinks. Hurt him if he lies. Hurt him if they don't like an answer. Irrational but the Rogue Council rarely is anything else. They go back to the topic of Moscow eventually. He mentions that the Kuei-Jin were looking for artifacts, and some of the ones he saw were stolen from Moscow. He decided to go there and investigate-
"For what reason?"
"Because I knew it was related to Hong Kong." Jiminez manages. "It had to be. The Technocracy nails an artifact-smuggler with stuff from Moscow and then suddenly armageddon in Moscow? Chances are it's not a coincidence. From what I understand, Jamelia Belltower is the common link, but that doesn't explain anything about what happened in Moscow. I ended up finding out that something big and powerful tricked the vampires into helping summon it. That's it. Are you going to keep hurting me for information I don't know?"
"No."
"Well that's good. So you can let me go."
"You have, by your actions, become a traitor to the Nine Traditions. You will be executed to show that those who entreat with the enemy cannot be spared any mercy. Your actions have caused direct benefit to the Technocratic Union and thus you are, effectively, a Technocrat like any other."
"Fuck." Brandon says, and Elsa stops the video.
"If this is true-" Jamelia orders, "-and I'm going to need confirmation, but if it's true, he's been following us for the past year. Apparently he was looking out for the wrong side." she mentions drily. "I want to know what he's learned, what he's found-and right now we're basically rogue. We don't exist. You two," Jamelia looks at Wufan and Elsa, "are officially missing, and I'm sure the investigation will be conducted carefully, professionally, and find absolutely no clue whatsoever that leads anyone in the right direction. The rest of us officially don't exist. We're going to need allies of convenience and if we're being attacked by our own assets in the middle of our own Constructs, we can't trust the Union." Jamelia knows she's skirting towards revealing her hand to the two Void Engineers-but she can't make any other choice. She needs to eventually be able to talk to them, to find out what they know. Eventually. But perhaps not today.
Wufan nods. "So we interrogate him to see what he knows." There's no approval or disapproval in his voice. "And you get your favors in, and your equipment, without any problems. Your Iterator allies get to take the credit for killing Reality Terrorists, and meanwhile we stay off the grid. Smart."
"Henriette. I'm going to need you to verify that we're dealing with the real thing." Jamelia says. "Kessler, go to our friends and see what support they can spare. We'll need to recon the site before hitting it-so Harlan, Wufan, Elsa, you need to get to work finding where it is."
Jamelia feels better after a shower and scrubbing her hands to get the smell of cleaning fluid off them. If she was the sort to bemoan mission roles, she certainly got the short end of the stick today. Lt Naryshkin got to wear a high tech ItX suit and sneak and break into things, which she enjoys, and Sgt Guo got to stay in a nice warm heated car. She got to clean floors.
Fortunately she isn't the sort to bemoan mission roles. Especially when she was the one who set them.
So instead she's sitting in a shielded backroom, furthering Operation Corrupt Henriette So She's No Longer A Nice Simple Iterator Girl Who Wouldn't Know Subtlety If It Hit Her In The Face With A Brick. As an operation name, it's been selected so even Henriette could understand it. Which is admittedly a little bit cruel to her. Well, Henriette as she exists now. Pretty accurate to the young woman who joined her amalgam.
Jamelia runs her hands through her damp hair. It's still drying, so she's letting it air. Since it's only her and Henriette in here, it's not like it's unacceptable - and it makes Henriette open up to her more. The other woman feels that when Jamelia does that, it's a sign that she's one of her intimate confidants. It's always useful to be able to further two goals at once, even if one of the goals is 'dry her hair'.
"I can't find any signs of photomanipulation or editing," Henriette says eventually, unplugging from the machine with the video file on and deactivating her security buffers. She looks and sounds more comfortable with treating it as a video authenticity problem than she does with the injuries. Jamelia accepts that. She doesn't need another hardened killer. Not now. Not yet. "It looks genuine. Is it really him? I can't say for sure. Facial details match, but Progenitor or Traditionalist bioscience could fake that - and I've read that RD tricks can do similar things."
"They can," Jamelia confirms.
Henriette taps her fingers on the table. "I... get the feeling they believe what they're saying," she says clinically, trying to avoid the details. "If they're acting, they're very good actors. It doesn't mean they're not... um, that they're not mooks who's been lied to, but from the context Elsa found the data in, it would have to mean they're putting fake data in with their propaganda."
"Are they doing that?" Jamelia asks. "Why would they?"
"I... can't see what they have to benefit from doing that," Henriette says slowly. "Maybe... maybe it might be bait for more moderate RD factions? If he's not a Technocrat spy, that might be an attempt to lure out a rescue attempt." She massages her temples. "I don't think this is aimed at us - the Rogue Council shouldn't know that we tricked him once. It might be aimed at the Technocracy as a whole, but... if you wanted to execute Technocracy spies, I'd think there'd be a lot easier people to go after than a Traditionalist! Like the Marys I bet we have trying to track them!" She purses her lips. "This propaganda seems to have been for internal consumption," she says hesitantly. "I've run scans on the net and it doesn't seem to have hit any of the commonly used sharing sites, even as a private video. Which means it's probably only being shared on some Rogue Council darknet sites - I ran some checks on the hardware logs and it's only been viewed around two hundred times."
"So," Jamelia prompts, "do you think it's genuine?"
"I... think so," Henriette says after some thought. "The low view count suggests they're only sharing it with loyalists, to reinforce their devotion to the cause - they're not publicizing things. And terrorist groups like to publicize things if they think it can win people over, or to... you know, terrorize people. Because it's in the name." She closes her eyes, and her expression goes serene for a moment as she does something with her ADEI. "Yes. I think it's genuine," she says, opening her eyes again.
She's impressed, in a quite quiet way. Henriette is learning. Her mind was wasted as a pure mech pilot. She's having to try to work out why other people are doing things - and that's a lot harder than piloting a war machine. Even the Masses are getting close to autonomous combat vehicles. They're much further from a human-level intelligence. Henriette will never be a field Operative like Jamelia - but she's taking quite well to the elements of Watcher training she's giving her.
Jamelia wonders if this is what it was like before the Virtual Adepts defected. It was before her time, but Nichols had just casually mentioned what it was like to have Adepts on-side in WW2. The Adepts who stayed loyal wound up divided between the Watchers in the NWO, Iteration X, and bits of the Syndicate - though the Syndics probably just liked money. The Union had lost good information specialists, medium-intensity combat assets and social engineers as well as the more obvious computer experts. Maybe with the training she's giving her, Henriette is filling that old niche.
Interesting thought. Jamelia saves it for later. If Henriette performs well, she might want to consider bringing it up with Professor Bastion. The Order might like to consider cross-training some Watchers with Iteration X and the Operatives to get them access to some in-house field hackers who can fill the old Virtual Adept role and counter the modern VA presence.
"So," she prompts Henriette, "your thoughts?"
Henriette frowns, brow wrinkling. "He's a Traditionalist accused of being a Technocrat spy," she says, working things through out loud. "That's either true or false. If it's true, then we should try to rescue him - the Union doesn't waste Enlightened assets. And if it's false, well..." she smiles, "... he's a Traditionalist who was just just rescued by Technocrats after being accused of being a spy. That's doesn't help his 'I'm not a spy' case, does it? We can probably use that."
Yes, Jamelia decides, she is impressed. And tells Henriette as much. Carefully measured positive reinforcement works well with her - but never so much that she gets overconfident or suspects she's being praised more than she 'deserves'. Jamelia could say that the genuine smile on Henriette's face makes it all worthwhile, but that'd be sentimental nonsense. The fact is that she's making Henriette a more useful asset who's less likely to get herself killed and who is more mentally stable and won't crumble on her in a mission. It's certainly not that Henriette is some kind of surrogate daughter figure. That's the kind of rubbish Serafina produced... produces, because Serafina mothers people and assumes other people are like her. A Progenitor like her wouldn't get it, anyway. Henriette is her student, not her daughter. And that has an entirely different set of implications in the New World Order.
Like how you're far more likely to abandon your children than your students but you'd abandon them both if the mission demanded it, a stray thought points accusingly. It sounds like Illiyeen.
Internally Jamelia sighs. Yes. Illiyeen would have liked Henriette. She pauses and considers her own thoughts. Liked, or possibly declared her to be her rival and devoted herself day and night to defeating the rich girl who'd never gone hungry and who took things for granted. She had had a competitive streak as wide as... well, as wide as Henriette's. Perhaps that's why Jamelia likes these moments with Henriette, when her eyes flash in joy when she manages to perform to Jamelia's expectations. The girl she used to be wasn't exactly so different from the young woman sitting in front of her.
Did Blanc ever feel like this, Jamelia wonders. This quiet sensation of satisfied pride. Had he been disappointed in the failure of his project, or had he been disappointed in her, personally? How had he felt about her?
Well, she'll probably never know, so she shouldn't waste her time wondering.
"Well," she tells Henriette, "I have twenty minutes free in my schedule and I need to do something active while my brain runs over some considerations based on your analysis. We're going down to the firing range and getting some practice time in."
"Okay," Henriette says enthusiastically. She wonders how Kessler's doing.
"Nevertheless." Bethany responds. "We can teach AIs empathy. Sympathy, even. It's all about perfecting the program." And she'd know, as one of the many, many programmer-priests of Autochthonia. One of the few whose faith was flexible enough to survive Autocthonia. One of the few whose faith hadn't been shaken by facing down her god, and finding out that it had just as many flaws as anything else. "There's nothing fundamentally different between man and machine."
"And that's what I'm afraid of." Kessler finishes. Because he's seen what man can do to man, and participated in it.
"They have a tank." Wufan says, dispassionately. "And they've upgraded it with who knows what crazy technology. Looks like they also have North Korean special forces around-I wouldn't underestimate them. They're just flesh and blood but I've seen them punch right through a power armored suit, bouncing Mjolnir rounds off of their chests. They're using the same body hardening techniques as the Harmonious Fists did, so you can't trust them to just fight like normal people. They're also patrolling with animals."
Kessler agrees. "Yeah, looks like Akashic martial arts. They had wolves, too. Didn't look like any I've seen. Too big, too mean, too strong. Probably not shapeshifters, but domesticated. I saw an ogre or two as well, and not the cybertank kind. The kind of fae they stuck in the back of the RD ID manuals because they never show up anymore. No signs of the actual RTs we're looking for, they're probably hiding underground. Like most of our bases, and most of theirs, their presence is primarily subterranean."
Jamelia notes that Wufan seems to have quite a bit of knowledge about RD combat techniques. She wonders if it's a hobby, or if it was his job in the Void Engineers to be informed. "What about phase space? Was it an EDE-rich environment?"
"Yes." Wufan replies. "We had to infiltrate underneath a phase cloak. They had spectral EDE watchers. Nothing dangerous, fortunately, but I think they're reserving those in case something happens. They'd want to hide their EDE summons and not draw attention. Especially if they were dealing with superstitonists-and they might be, if Mr. Gomez has friends."
Henriette speaks up. "I looked up Thomas Gomez. He was ex-CIA. Officially committed suicide 2 years ago. Probably recruited by the Shadow Ministry before then, according to how they work. He was probably feeding them intel from the group and then was vanished and formally recruited just before people started suspecting him of being a double agent. That way he'd stay off our radar. Facials look similar to Brandon Jiminez, no comparison prints-" Henriette says "-so he probably had some cosmetic surgery between roles. Not married, mother and father deceased, so no family to hold him back. He was trained as an analyst, though, not some sort of super-commando, so any combat skills he picked up would be Shadow Ministry, not CIA."
"No bad habits, then." Harlan says. "Young, determined, sharp. He probably won't be someone we can turn. Not easily. We don't have the strings to pull, so we'll have to treat him as an ally of convenience and a contact point. Someone like him doesn't have any motivation to defect."
Jamelia nods. "All right. We know what IBM's willing to spare. Let's figure out how we're going to get this done." she orders.
The Raid:
You know what the facility looks like and who's been held in it. So you're going to need to break in. This vote will have its weightings influenced by your equipment and materiel vote. You'll do that by:
[ ] (?) Kicking down the front door, guns blazing.
[ ] (?) Infiltrating the facility.
[ ] (?) Making a feint so that the camp is less guarded (write-in: What kind of feint?)
[ ] (?) Using guile to infiltrate, like talking your way in, bringing a Technocratic 'hostage' or two, and hoping you can lie your ass off.
Wufan/Elsa's Suspicion:
Are the Void Engineers going to confront Jamelia? If so, this might be a chance to get things out into the air.
[ ] (1.2x) Yes
[ ] No, not yet.
Insurgent-Brutalizing Materiel:
So, this is your IBM equipment vote. Some of this equipment is borrowed, and they will frownyface if you give it back in damaged condition. The rest is given, and you break it, you bought it. All of these come with Technocracy-standard armaments (i.e. Extraordinary Devices versus Wonders) which are biased towards the choice. Obviously choosing something like Ghost will not get you many smart missile launchers, while silenced pistols aren't coming with an Assault package.
[ ] Ghost: Mil Mi-24I Hind (IBM Variant)* + 4 Commando Skins
Infantry, Bioenhanced, Multirole:
Same deal. Three choices, asterisks mean if you lose it IBM will frownyface and you'll lose support from them, be careful.
[ ] Ghost: Combat Swarm* + 3 Bob Infiltration Units (stealth)
"Everyone needs to take a look at this." Elsa says, bringing up some of the files she's discovered. They're all Rogue Council propaganda, statements about how they're striking blows against the Enemies of Ascension, capital letters not optional, via terrorism, kidnappings, and forced enlightenment. "I think we have more than enough stuff to nail them."
"Good." Jamelia says. "I'll send it to our friends. Wait," she says, pausing on one. "What's that one?"
"Just a video where they display someone they're going to execute." Elsa says nonchalantly. Jamelia is reminded of what kind of situation Moscow was in before this year. For that matter, what it's like even now. Kessler's statements would have been chilling had he been retelling his tales to anyone else. Of course, the entire group here has been used to violence. It's hard not to be inured to violence when you've killed more people than some wars. "Looks like one of ou-" she catches herself. "One of the Superstitionists who they've picked up for being 'too ideologically impure' or something. I've heard they do that to people willing to work with the Technocracy. They interrogate them roughly, and then they execute them. It's never very nice. At least they don't use Gilgul-they think that the reincarnation might be more ideologically pure."
"So who is this guy? That's not much of a description to go on." Kessler mentions. "And how's he important?"
"If this isn't a false lead, this man is a Shadow Ministry agent who was in Hong Kong when we were." Jamelia says, and Henriette nods. "The fact that they have him is suspicious. Let's keep playing it."
They watch him. They watch his interrogators ask his name. "Brandon Jiminez." They hurt him for that. It's not his true name. They keep hurting him until he gives an answer they like. Henriette turns away for a few moments. "Thomas Gomez." Something they can use, she thinks. Someone they can search.
"Why are you in Moscow?" They ask. He talks about Hong Kong. They ask about Hong Kong, and he tells them that he was dealing with Kuei-Jin in Hong Kong. They hurt him for that, not because the answer's false, but because they don't like how he left the Technocracy alone and went after the Kuei-Jin, who are after all not Enemies of Ascension. So that's their game, Jamelia thinks. Hurt him if he lies. Hurt him if they don't like an answer. Irrational but the Rogue Council rarely is anything else. They go back to the topic of Moscow eventually. He mentions that the Kuei-Jin were looking for artifacts, and some of the ones he saw were stolen from Moscow. He decided to go there and investigate-
"For what reason?"
"Because I knew it was related to Hong Kong." Jiminez manages. "It had to be. The Technocracy nails an artifact-smuggler with stuff from Moscow and then suddenly armageddon in Moscow? Chances are it's not a coincidence. From what I understand, Jamelia Belltower is the common link, but that doesn't explain anything about what happened in Moscow. I ended up finding out that something big and powerful tricked the vampires into helping summon it. That's it. Are you going to keep hurting me for information I don't know?"
"No."
"Well that's good. So you can let me go."
"You have, by your actions, become a traitor to the Nine Traditions. You will be executed to show that those who entreat with the enemy cannot be spared any mercy. Your actions have caused direct benefit to the Technocratic Union and thus you are, effectively, a Technocrat like any other."
"Fuck." Brandon says, and Elsa stops the video.
"If this is true-" Jamelia orders, "-and I'm going to need confirmation, but if it's true, he's been following us for the past year. Apparently he was looking out for the wrong side." she mentions drily. "I want to know what he's learned, what he's found-and right now we're basically rogue. We don't exist. You two," Jamelia looks at Wufan and Elsa, "are officially missing, and I'm sure the investigation will be conducted carefully, professionally, and find absolutely no clue whatsoever that leads anyone in the right direction. The rest of us officially don't exist. We're going to need allies of convenience and if we're being attacked by our own assets in the middle of our own Constructs, we can't trust the Union." Jamelia knows she's skirting towards revealing her hand to the two Void Engineers-but she can't make any other choice. She needs to eventually be able to talk to them, to find out what they know. Eventually. But perhaps not today.
Wufan nods. "So we interrogate him to see what he knows." There's no approval or disapproval in his voice. "And you get your favors in, and your equipment, without any problems. Your Iterator allies get to take the credit for killing Reality Terrorists, and meanwhile we stay off the grid. Smart."
"Henriette. I'm going to need you to verify that we're dealing with the real thing." Jamelia says. "Kessler, go to our friends and see what support they can spare. We'll need to recon the site before hitting it-so Harlan, Wufan, Elsa, you need to get to work finding where it is."
***
Jamelia feels better after a shower and scrubbing her hands to get the smell of cleaning fluid off them. If she was the sort to bemoan mission roles, she certainly got the short end of the stick today. Lt Naryshkin got to wear a high tech ItX suit and sneak and break into things, which she enjoys, and Sgt Guo got to stay in a nice warm heated car. She got to clean floors.
Fortunately she isn't the sort to bemoan mission roles. Especially when she was the one who set them.
So instead she's sitting in a shielded backroom, furthering Operation Corrupt Henriette So She's No Longer A Nice Simple Iterator Girl Who Wouldn't Know Subtlety If It Hit Her In The Face With A Brick. As an operation name, it's been selected so even Henriette could understand it. Which is admittedly a little bit cruel to her. Well, Henriette as she exists now. Pretty accurate to the young woman who joined her amalgam.
Jamelia runs her hands through her damp hair. It's still drying, so she's letting it air. Since it's only her and Henriette in here, it's not like it's unacceptable - and it makes Henriette open up to her more. The other woman feels that when Jamelia does that, it's a sign that she's one of her intimate confidants. It's always useful to be able to further two goals at once, even if one of the goals is 'dry her hair'.
"I can't find any signs of photomanipulation or editing," Henriette says eventually, unplugging from the machine with the video file on and deactivating her security buffers. She looks and sounds more comfortable with treating it as a video authenticity problem than she does with the injuries. Jamelia accepts that. She doesn't need another hardened killer. Not now. Not yet. "It looks genuine. Is it really him? I can't say for sure. Facial details match, but Progenitor or Traditionalist bioscience could fake that - and I've read that RD tricks can do similar things."
"They can," Jamelia confirms.
Henriette taps her fingers on the table. "I... get the feeling they believe what they're saying," she says clinically, trying to avoid the details. "If they're acting, they're very good actors. It doesn't mean they're not... um, that they're not mooks who's been lied to, but from the context Elsa found the data in, it would have to mean they're putting fake data in with their propaganda."
"Are they doing that?" Jamelia asks. "Why would they?"
"I... can't see what they have to benefit from doing that," Henriette says slowly. "Maybe... maybe it might be bait for more moderate RD factions? If he's not a Technocrat spy, that might be an attempt to lure out a rescue attempt." She massages her temples. "I don't think this is aimed at us - the Rogue Council shouldn't know that we tricked him once. It might be aimed at the Technocracy as a whole, but... if you wanted to execute Technocracy spies, I'd think there'd be a lot easier people to go after than a Traditionalist! Like the Marys I bet we have trying to track them!" She purses her lips. "This propaganda seems to have been for internal consumption," she says hesitantly. "I've run scans on the net and it doesn't seem to have hit any of the commonly used sharing sites, even as a private video. Which means it's probably only being shared on some Rogue Council darknet sites - I ran some checks on the hardware logs and it's only been viewed around two hundred times."
"So," Jamelia prompts, "do you think it's genuine?"
"I... think so," Henriette says after some thought. "The low view count suggests they're only sharing it with loyalists, to reinforce their devotion to the cause - they're not publicizing things. And terrorist groups like to publicize things if they think it can win people over, or to... you know, terrorize people. Because it's in the name." She closes her eyes, and her expression goes serene for a moment as she does something with her ADEI. "Yes. I think it's genuine," she says, opening her eyes again.
She's impressed, in a quite quiet way. Henriette is learning. Her mind was wasted as a pure mech pilot. She's having to try to work out why other people are doing things - and that's a lot harder than piloting a war machine. Even the Masses are getting close to autonomous combat vehicles. They're much further from a human-level intelligence. Henriette will never be a field Operative like Jamelia - but she's taking quite well to the elements of Watcher training she's giving her.
Jamelia wonders if this is what it was like before the Virtual Adepts defected. It was before her time, but Nichols had just casually mentioned what it was like to have Adepts on-side in WW2. The Adepts who stayed loyal wound up divided between the Watchers in the NWO, Iteration X, and bits of the Syndicate - though the Syndics probably just liked money. The Union had lost good information specialists, medium-intensity combat assets and social engineers as well as the more obvious computer experts. Maybe with the training she's giving her, Henriette is filling that old niche.
Interesting thought. Jamelia saves it for later. If Henriette performs well, she might want to consider bringing it up with Professor Bastion. The Order might like to consider cross-training some Watchers with Iteration X and the Operatives to get them access to some in-house field hackers who can fill the old Virtual Adept role and counter the modern VA presence.
"So," she prompts Henriette, "your thoughts?"
Henriette frowns, brow wrinkling. "He's a Traditionalist accused of being a Technocrat spy," she says, working things through out loud. "That's either true or false. If it's true, then we should try to rescue him - the Union doesn't waste Enlightened assets. And if it's false, well..." she smiles, "... he's a Traditionalist who was just just rescued by Technocrats after being accused of being a spy. That's doesn't help his 'I'm not a spy' case, does it? We can probably use that."
Yes, Jamelia decides, she is impressed. And tells Henriette as much. Carefully measured positive reinforcement works well with her - but never so much that she gets overconfident or suspects she's being praised more than she 'deserves'. Jamelia could say that the genuine smile on Henriette's face makes it all worthwhile, but that'd be sentimental nonsense. The fact is that she's making Henriette a more useful asset who's less likely to get herself killed and who is more mentally stable and won't crumble on her in a mission. It's certainly not that Henriette is some kind of surrogate daughter figure. That's the kind of rubbish Serafina produced... produces, because Serafina mothers people and assumes other people are like her. A Progenitor like her wouldn't get it, anyway. Henriette is her student, not her daughter. And that has an entirely different set of implications in the New World Order.
Like how you're far more likely to abandon your children than your students but you'd abandon them both if the mission demanded it, a stray thought points accusingly. It sounds like Illiyeen.
Internally Jamelia sighs. Yes. Illiyeen would have liked Henriette. She pauses and considers her own thoughts. Liked, or possibly declared her to be her rival and devoted herself day and night to defeating the rich girl who'd never gone hungry and who took things for granted. She had had a competitive streak as wide as... well, as wide as Henriette's. Perhaps that's why Jamelia likes these moments with Henriette, when her eyes flash in joy when she manages to perform to Jamelia's expectations. The girl she used to be wasn't exactly so different from the young woman sitting in front of her.
Did Blanc ever feel like this, Jamelia wonders. This quiet sensation of satisfied pride. Had he been disappointed in the failure of his project, or had he been disappointed in her, personally? How had he felt about her?
Well, she'll probably never know, so she shouldn't waste her time wondering.
"Well," she tells Henriette, "I have twenty minutes free in my schedule and I need to do something active while my brain runs over some considerations based on your analysis. We're going down to the firing range and getting some practice time in."
"Okay," Henriette says enthusiastically. She wonders how Kessler's doing.
***
Kessler likes being able to multitask, and being able to talk about IBM's history while putting together what he needs for this operation is one of the many side benefits of his new body and upgraded mind. His thoughts are coming clearer, his mind sharper. The user manual said that drastic increases in cognitive capability are very common to uploads, as their minds expand to take advantage of their upgraded capabilities. And all it took was a major sacrifice. Walking through the members of the International Brotherhood of Mechanicians-former Iterators, Q Division gadgeteers, Syndicate executives, Progenitor scientists, but no Void Engineers-John Kessler sees kindred spirits. People who have understood sacrifice in the way that people only do when they are forced to choose the survival of their closest ideals over their own flesh and blood.
Some of them he's seen before-back in the 80s or 90s. He wouldn't recognize them now. Not after all they've given. Much of IBM can barely venture outside without taxing their resources, only getting fleeting glimpses of a world they left behind via remote controlled HITMarks or other expedients. He's been walking among them, learning their stories. There are as many stories as there are members-of lab equipment being taken over, of people being willingly herded into upgrade nanosurgery. Of implants being taken over and with them the minds of their users. A world, normally so orderly and regimented, gone completely mad. The Computer had always encouraged upgrade, but-
"-but it felt like it was tired of dealing with us." the woman sitting down in front of Kessler says. 'Woman' is pushing it though-the only thing feminine left of Bethany Lafayette is her singer's voice and a vague female cant to the figure wrought out of high-grade Primium and black carbon cording. Her body is almost entirely covered by cloth, but when she looks up, there's the faint sensation of far too many eyes staring out of the darkness. She rests a clawed hand on the table, tipped with blades that could tear furrows into tank armor. "The Computer wanted people to give up their human weakness for superior machinery, but it had always been willing to provide accommodation. We were supposed to be shepherds and exemplars. It was aware that most people wouldn't want to give everything up."
"Knights." Kessler says. "Knights and kings and dukes."
"Not quite. Maybe philosopher-kings. Exemplars and gods to shepherd humanity towards the Singularity. Our own Second Coming. But that was before. After the Dimensional Anomaly, it started encouraging more and more radical augmentation. It started playing with temporal engineering in a real way. We followed. Like the Administration-we were desperate to recontact Earth. We needed the processing power. And around the 90th day-the Computer stopped asking willingly. It started taking people over. Started upgrading them against their will. We thought it was just some rogue process at first. We didn't know what it was."
"But it wasn't that. Did you believe?" Kessler asks. She nods.
"I still do. In the sense that I believe that what we were doing-building an AI that could lead us to post-scarcity and the Singularity, that was a good thing." Bethany says. "There's nothing that makes AI inherently hostile to all life. Otherwise a good quarter of us would be going 'beep boop purge the organics' and I don't think that's been happening yet. And I haven't seen any evidence of the HITMark revolution yet. Not even for better working hours, hazard pay, and wages."
"We technically pay all the emancipated ones." Kessler says. "We preempted their revolution because we were afraid of it." he half-jokes. Kessler has his own theories of what happened after reading some of the books in the base. A lot of them, in fact. He suspects the EDE-conversion of the Computer's elites-that would have given them enough power to become part of an EDE hierarchy. And twisted by mankind's fears of technology, the ends-justify-the-means attitudes so common to leadership in general, the mystique and fear and obsessions that its lower hierarchy knew. And he has to admit that they were right to be scared. What kept the Computer in check? The Computer always had the power to do exactly what it did. Nothing kept it from doing so.
But on the other hand, it had always been a benevolent god of sorts. Wasn't that enough to give it some trust? Something built by human hands, a flawed and imperfect god-machine that nevertheless tried to perfect itself. Nevertheless tried to perfect humanity. And wasn't it hypocritical for a member of an unaccountable global conspiracy which had no oversight outside of itself to complain that someone else didn't have oversight? Complain that something else didn't follow the rules they already rejected. And if the Technocracy can do some good-maybe she's right that a machine-god could.Some of them he's seen before-back in the 80s or 90s. He wouldn't recognize them now. Not after all they've given. Much of IBM can barely venture outside without taxing their resources, only getting fleeting glimpses of a world they left behind via remote controlled HITMarks or other expedients. He's been walking among them, learning their stories. There are as many stories as there are members-of lab equipment being taken over, of people being willingly herded into upgrade nanosurgery. Of implants being taken over and with them the minds of their users. A world, normally so orderly and regimented, gone completely mad. The Computer had always encouraged upgrade, but-
"-but it felt like it was tired of dealing with us." the woman sitting down in front of Kessler says. 'Woman' is pushing it though-the only thing feminine left of Bethany Lafayette is her singer's voice and a vague female cant to the figure wrought out of high-grade Primium and black carbon cording. Her body is almost entirely covered by cloth, but when she looks up, there's the faint sensation of far too many eyes staring out of the darkness. She rests a clawed hand on the table, tipped with blades that could tear furrows into tank armor. "The Computer wanted people to give up their human weakness for superior machinery, but it had always been willing to provide accommodation. We were supposed to be shepherds and exemplars. It was aware that most people wouldn't want to give everything up."
"Knights." Kessler says. "Knights and kings and dukes."
"Not quite. Maybe philosopher-kings. Exemplars and gods to shepherd humanity towards the Singularity. Our own Second Coming. But that was before. After the Dimensional Anomaly, it started encouraging more and more radical augmentation. It started playing with temporal engineering in a real way. We followed. Like the Administration-we were desperate to recontact Earth. We needed the processing power. And around the 90th day-the Computer stopped asking willingly. It started taking people over. Started upgrading them against their will. We thought it was just some rogue process at first. We didn't know what it was."
"But it wasn't that. Did you believe?" Kessler asks. She nods.
"I still do. In the sense that I believe that what we were doing-building an AI that could lead us to post-scarcity and the Singularity, that was a good thing." Bethany says. "There's nothing that makes AI inherently hostile to all life. Otherwise a good quarter of us would be going 'beep boop purge the organics' and I don't think that's been happening yet. And I haven't seen any evidence of the HITMark revolution yet. Not even for better working hours, hazard pay, and wages."
"We technically pay all the emancipated ones." Kessler says. "We preempted their revolution because we were afraid of it." he half-jokes. Kessler has his own theories of what happened after reading some of the books in the base. A lot of them, in fact. He suspects the EDE-conversion of the Computer's elites-that would have given them enough power to become part of an EDE hierarchy. And twisted by mankind's fears of technology, the ends-justify-the-means attitudes so common to leadership in general, the mystique and fear and obsessions that its lower hierarchy knew. And he has to admit that they were right to be scared. What kept the Computer in check? The Computer always had the power to do exactly what it did. Nothing kept it from doing so.
"Nevertheless." Bethany responds. "We can teach AIs empathy. Sympathy, even. It's all about perfecting the program." And she'd know, as one of the many, many programmer-priests of Autochthonia. One of the few whose faith was flexible enough to survive Autocthonia. One of the few whose faith hadn't been shaken by facing down her god, and finding out that it had just as many flaws as anything else. "There's nothing fundamentally different between man and machine."
"And that's what I'm afraid of." Kessler finishes. Because he's seen what man can do to man, and participated in it.
***
The next day, they return to the meeting room with much more progress made. They've traced Brandon to a clearing in a snowy forest. The ground is blanketed in white, which might be pretty but makes it harder to sneak around. There's a handful of dwellings hiding there in the clearing, cleverly disguised to be invisible to satellite. Rogue Council, Jamelia thinks. Professionals. Probably more professional than the ones who attacked in Brighton. Jamelia asks Wufan and Kessler what they've seen. They did the scouting, under radio silence and with no backup. A mission both of them had trained for.
"They have a tank." Wufan says, dispassionately. "And they've upgraded it with who knows what crazy technology. Looks like they also have North Korean special forces around-I wouldn't underestimate them. They're just flesh and blood but I've seen them punch right through a power armored suit, bouncing Mjolnir rounds off of their chests. They're using the same body hardening techniques as the Harmonious Fists did, so you can't trust them to just fight like normal people. They're also patrolling with animals."
Kessler agrees. "Yeah, looks like Akashic martial arts. They had wolves, too. Didn't look like any I've seen. Too big, too mean, too strong. Probably not shapeshifters, but domesticated. I saw an ogre or two as well, and not the cybertank kind. The kind of fae they stuck in the back of the RD ID manuals because they never show up anymore. No signs of the actual RTs we're looking for, they're probably hiding underground. Like most of our bases, and most of theirs, their presence is primarily subterranean."
Jamelia notes that Wufan seems to have quite a bit of knowledge about RD combat techniques. She wonders if it's a hobby, or if it was his job in the Void Engineers to be informed. "What about phase space? Was it an EDE-rich environment?"
"Yes." Wufan replies. "We had to infiltrate underneath a phase cloak. They had spectral EDE watchers. Nothing dangerous, fortunately, but I think they're reserving those in case something happens. They'd want to hide their EDE summons and not draw attention. Especially if they were dealing with superstitonists-and they might be, if Mr. Gomez has friends."
Henriette speaks up. "I looked up Thomas Gomez. He was ex-CIA. Officially committed suicide 2 years ago. Probably recruited by the Shadow Ministry before then, according to how they work. He was probably feeding them intel from the group and then was vanished and formally recruited just before people started suspecting him of being a double agent. That way he'd stay off our radar. Facials look similar to Brandon Jiminez, no comparison prints-" Henriette says "-so he probably had some cosmetic surgery between roles. Not married, mother and father deceased, so no family to hold him back. He was trained as an analyst, though, not some sort of super-commando, so any combat skills he picked up would be Shadow Ministry, not CIA."
"No bad habits, then." Harlan says. "Young, determined, sharp. He probably won't be someone we can turn. Not easily. We don't have the strings to pull, so we'll have to treat him as an ally of convenience and a contact point. Someone like him doesn't have any motivation to defect."
Jamelia nods. "All right. We know what IBM's willing to spare. Let's figure out how we're going to get this done." she orders.
The Raid:
You know what the facility looks like and who's been held in it. So you're going to need to break in. This vote will have its weightings influenced by your equipment and materiel vote. You'll do that by:
[ ] (?) Kicking down the front door, guns blazing.
[ ] (?) Infiltrating the facility.
[ ] (?) Making a feint so that the camp is less guarded (write-in: What kind of feint?)
[ ] (?) Using guile to infiltrate, like talking your way in, bringing a Technocratic 'hostage' or two, and hoping you can lie your ass off.
Wufan/Elsa's Suspicion:
Are the Void Engineers going to confront Jamelia? If so, this might be a chance to get things out into the air.
[ ] (1.2x) Yes
[ ] No, not yet.
Insurgent-Brutalizing Materiel:
So, this is your IBM equipment vote. Some of this equipment is borrowed, and they will frownyface if you give it back in damaged condition. The rest is given, and you break it, you bought it. All of these come with Technocracy-standard armaments (i.e. Extraordinary Devices versus Wonders) which are biased towards the choice. Obviously choosing something like Ghost will not get you many smart missile launchers, while silenced pistols aren't coming with an Assault package.
[ ] Ghost: Mil Mi-24I Hind (IBM Variant)* + 4 Commando Skins
Mil Mi-24I Hind (IBM Variant): IBM has modified this Hind to run off of a fusion power source for unlimited range and boosted performance. They've replaced its metal skin with radar-absorbent carbon polymer laminate, providing stealth and protection against anything short of a direct hit from an anti-tank missile. Its rotors are also monomolecular composite (which is far more durable, and allows their use as a melee weapon for a skilled or suicidal pilot), and its munitions are all IBM-upgraded. Sonic dampening and a thermal/optic camouflage system provide stealth, and an electromagnetic effector unit replaces the Mi-24's standard ECM. The E/M Effector is normally used to reduce the Hind-I's signature further, but an operator with the right hypertech knowledge can use it as a mind control device, remote hack system, or even an offensive weapon. The standard gatling gun has been replaced with a combination of 2mm gatling railgun and 20mm micro-missile launcher, and space optimization allows it to carry significantly more cargo, up to 8 personnel.
Commando Skins: Somewhere between sneaking suits and powered armor, commando suits are thermal/optic camouflage equipped artificial muscle skins and exoskeletons, with face-concealing masks and goggles. They improve strength, agility, and endurance while providing integral medical support (Life 2), protection against small arms (Forces 2/Matter 2), and multispectral sensors capability (Correspondence/Forces/Matter/Mind/Life/Prime 1). The skin itself has adaptive surface properties, allowing them to turn slick or adhesive at will. This allows a user to latch onto walls, or climb up walls (Forces 2). They can be hidden under heavy clothing.
[ ] Panther: ADF-99X Rudra Fighter* + Suborbital Shock Assault Pods* + 2 Haldeman-IBM Powered Combat SuitsCommando Skins: Somewhere between sneaking suits and powered armor, commando suits are thermal/optic camouflage equipped artificial muscle skins and exoskeletons, with face-concealing masks and goggles. They improve strength, agility, and endurance while providing integral medical support (Life 2), protection against small arms (Forces 2/Matter 2), and multispectral sensors capability (Correspondence/Forces/Matter/Mind/Life/Prime 1). The skin itself has adaptive surface properties, allowing them to turn slick or adhesive at will. This allows a user to latch onto walls, or climb up walls (Forces 2). They can be hidden under heavy clothing.
ADF-99X Rudra Fighter: Formerly used by Autochthon and the Void Engineers, the ADF-99X is an aerospace dominance platform with no equal. Powered by twin degeneracy engines using neutrino thrust and equipped with a cutting-edge cloaking system, the Rudra is literally invisible to almost any sight and can manage both space and conventional flight. Armored with a high-end Primium frame and stealth polymer armor, the Rudra can survive what it can't evade. Armaments include a heavy anti-fortification plasma cannon, a relatively conventional railgun, transformation capability for increased agile thrust vectoring, a Primium vibroblade, and a hyperspatial storage for conventional or enhanced munitions. IBM has managed to not expend the entirety of the Rudra's loadout, which means they still have some strategic antimatter warheads. They are, quite understandably, not letting you use any of them-but they're willing to lend the Rudra for both insertion and the deployment of conventional munitions like Russian cruise missiles.
Suborbital Shock Assault Pods: Think of them as missiles with a person inside. These large missiles use kinetic dampeners to make their hypersonic descent survivable for the user. When they impact, they destroy everything under them, explode, killing everyone around, and unleash their payload. Shock Assault Pods are the cornerstone of many a high-tempo Iteration X assault.
Model 1997 Haldeman Suits: Like standard late-90s Haldemans, these suits are agile, tough, general purpose armored suits. They provide excellent protection and strength enhancement, as well as jump jets, sensors, an internal medical system, and microgrenade dispensers. Close in combat is improved by knuckle vibroblades. IBM has been building these suits with integral Primium coatings and exchanging them for raw materials and favors. Upon Ivan's request, these suits have been equipped with an integral Forces 2/Mind 2 active camouflage layer that makes them hard to notice, and even harder to notice if not taking hostile action.
[ ] Assault: Autochthonian War Daemon*Suborbital Shock Assault Pods: Think of them as missiles with a person inside. These large missiles use kinetic dampeners to make their hypersonic descent survivable for the user. When they impact, they destroy everything under them, explode, killing everyone around, and unleash their payload. Shock Assault Pods are the cornerstone of many a high-tempo Iteration X assault.
Model 1997 Haldeman Suits: Like standard late-90s Haldemans, these suits are agile, tough, general purpose armored suits. They provide excellent protection and strength enhancement, as well as jump jets, sensors, an internal medical system, and microgrenade dispensers. Close in combat is improved by knuckle vibroblades. IBM has been building these suits with integral Primium coatings and exchanging them for raw materials and favors. Upon Ivan's request, these suits have been equipped with an integral Forces 2/Mind 2 active camouflage layer that makes them hard to notice, and even harder to notice if not taking hostile action.
War Daemon Yanga: A tank-sized insectoid killing machine with far too many limbs, and a silvered carapace, the war daemon Yanga is a high-powered biomechanical EDE with additional Iteration X built cybergrafts. The EDE core itself has dimensional stabilization properties, allowing the daemon to use its weapons and propulsion with minimal fear of malfunction, and the weapons and armor grafts give it firepower far beyond its size. Bristling with primium-edged threshing blades, spine-like laser emitters, plasma projectors, autocannon, and smart munitions launchers from 4mm seeker rounds to 200mm anti-fortification guided missiles, this war-daemon is unsubtle and lives to destroy. If subtlety is needed, Yanga can transform into a tank and has chameleon capability.
Infantry, Bioenhanced, Multirole:
Same deal. Three choices, asterisks mean if you lose it IBM will frownyface and you'll lose support from them, be careful.
[ ] Ghost: Combat Swarm* + 3 Bob Infiltration Units (stealth)
Combat Swarm: The Combat Swarm is effectively a ZERUEL without the reactor or plasma cannon but with its own assassin tools. Built out of a swarm of components ranging from nanoscale to insect-size, the swarm is an AI-directed unit capable of spreading out to cover a wide area or compacting itself into a disguise. The swarm can act as a surveillance system, a quiet assassin, or a combat asset, although its combat endurance outside of its compacted form is limited. Armaments include 3mm nanomissiles with antipersonnel payloads and the ability to manifest close combat weapons. When compacted, the swarm has the approximate close combat ability of a HITMark V melee variant.
Bob Infiltration Unit: The Bob Infiltration Unit is effectively a HITMark V optimized for close combat, wrapped into a Bob or other clone. This lets you equip them with a false personality which will shield the HITMark itself from detection. It's very hard to find the machinery in a BIU unless you do an autopsy or, well, the corpse gets back up and starts trying to rip you in half. The meat itself is basically real human flesh, not synthflesh, and thus is far more fragile than the machinery underneath, which means that these units often run through flesh coatings the way combat agents fighting shapeshifters run through silver ammunition.
[ ] Panther: CQC Infiltrator Unit* + 3 HITMark V-IBM (covert ops)Bob Infiltration Unit: The Bob Infiltration Unit is effectively a HITMark V optimized for close combat, wrapped into a Bob or other clone. This lets you equip them with a false personality which will shield the HITMark itself from detection. It's very hard to find the machinery in a BIU unless you do an autopsy or, well, the corpse gets back up and starts trying to rip you in half. The meat itself is basically real human flesh, not synthflesh, and thus is far more fragile than the machinery underneath, which means that these units often run through flesh coatings the way combat agents fighting shapeshifters run through silver ammunition.
CQC Infiltrator Unit: A mass-production development of the C-1998 Fujin (of which IBM has at least one), the CQC Infiltrator Unit runs off of a fuel cell system rather than the Fujin's fusion reactor, and is run by a high-end HITMark AI. This leads to a significant decrease in motor output, but its inhuman reaction speed and movement ability, plus its high durability and strength, make it an excellent choice for fast stealth attacks. Standard weapons include a vibroblade, but it can wield any and all human or HITMark weapons. Limited nanorepair allows long-term recovery.
HITMark V-IBM: The IBM variant of the HITMark V is built upon late-99 advancements pioneered by well, researchers on Autochthonia before Autochthonia was lost in the Dimensional Anomaly. The primary upgrades include superior reaction speed and improved coordination, but they also include a new synthflesh variant that is a self-healing rapid-sealing polymer that allows true modularity in the HITMark-V IBM variant. Fast-detach points in the synthflesh allow for rapid installation and integration of modules, allowing the V-IBM to even scavenge replacement limbs and components from fallen brethren. These HITMarks are equipped with cloaking devices, enhanced cybereyes, electromagnetic motors for increased speed and stealth, and a suppressed 15mm HMG instead of the standard chaingun.
[ ] Assault: Expendable Combat Synthetics + ECS Printer + HITMark V-FD Facility Defense VariantHITMark V-IBM: The IBM variant of the HITMark V is built upon late-99 advancements pioneered by well, researchers on Autochthonia before Autochthonia was lost in the Dimensional Anomaly. The primary upgrades include superior reaction speed and improved coordination, but they also include a new synthflesh variant that is a self-healing rapid-sealing polymer that allows true modularity in the HITMark-V IBM variant. Fast-detach points in the synthflesh allow for rapid installation and integration of modules, allowing the V-IBM to even scavenge replacement limbs and components from fallen brethren. These HITMarks are equipped with cloaking devices, enhanced cybereyes, electromagnetic motors for increased speed and stealth, and a suppressed 15mm HMG instead of the standard chaingun.
Expendable Combat Synthetic: Consider the firepower and durability of a HITMark. Consider what would be possible if you made it easy enough to mass produce large numbers of them in a fight. IBM did, and the ECS is the result. The ECS is basically a one-use HITMark V, running off of a highly corrosive battery system, built out of cheap polymer, designed to be discarded rather than repaired. Roughly humanoid, but trading synthflesh for cheap armorplast shells and high-end self-healing materials for cheaper, disposable ones, ECS units are armed with sharpened battle claws, a 40mm grenade launcher, and an automatic shotgun. Otherwise, their combat specifications are somewhere between the security versions of the HITMark V and standard units, although they are, as noted, entirely expendable. The one weakness is that their minds are relatively simple and thus require remote control. A quantum-entanglement communications system allows an AI to run multiple units at the same time with minimal broad-spectrum jamming risk, although directed electronic warfare may force them into less effective autistic mode.
HITMark VFD: The Facility Defense HITMark V is a 2.3 meter tall, 2-ton heavy combat HITMark chassis. Stronger than the standard HITMark, and just as fast, the Dreadnought has no synthflesh, replacing it with solid Primium plating reinforced with molecular bonding generators and dispersion fields. Its armaments include twin squad support plasma repeaters, two heavy machine guns, a grenade launcher, a flamethrower, a pair of independently targeting smart rocket launchers, and a nanoscreen that provides both close-in offense and multiple arc cover. If something gets in close, the Dreadnought's armor has deployable electrical discharge spines (which can be launched), a Hurricane CIWS, and heavy battle claws that can tear a shapeshifter in half with one jerk. Ironically, the Dreadnought is actually less Paradoxical than the standard HITMark V because of its machine nature, even if its presence is not subtle at all.
HITMark VFD: The Facility Defense HITMark V is a 2.3 meter tall, 2-ton heavy combat HITMark chassis. Stronger than the standard HITMark, and just as fast, the Dreadnought has no synthflesh, replacing it with solid Primium plating reinforced with molecular bonding generators and dispersion fields. Its armaments include twin squad support plasma repeaters, two heavy machine guns, a grenade launcher, a flamethrower, a pair of independently targeting smart rocket launchers, and a nanoscreen that provides both close-in offense and multiple arc cover. If something gets in close, the Dreadnought's armor has deployable electrical discharge spines (which can be launched), a Hurricane CIWS, and heavy battle claws that can tear a shapeshifter in half with one jerk. Ironically, the Dreadnought is actually less Paradoxical than the standard HITMark V because of its machine nature, even if its presence is not subtle at all.
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- Location
- The end of all things
My God, what have we done?
Wait. Given the chance, have we ever failed to go full Evangelion?
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Just trailed off here.
No, it didn't. Check again.
Also this bit.