Remove ads

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

Reader mode
ckk185 said:
The examplars are biological in nature, more so that DC and seramom and seradad could get some information on the components of them.

I wouldn't count them out as useless.

I would also rather not have them move around like they are teleporting. I mean. Like this we could probably hurt them. But odds are they can hurt us even worse.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm not counting them out, but they'd still need to be brought up to speed and spread the word on Threat Null. The VEs and RC already know.

And teleporting is more manageable when they've only got human senses and lowered countermagic.
 
So, the real purpose of EXEMPLAR IV is revealed.

I'm not sure we ever explicitly mentioned it in thread before now, but it's not exactly super surprising, is it? It's the logical extension of EXEMPLAR III: the same, but it works.

"Rush Production
So. The Avatar Doom Timer has been delayed significantly. Unfortunately, Rose needs to confront her figurative demons, and the best way to do that is for her to confront her literal demons with the help of Reina and her chance to repudiate what Control has become-and maybe accept some of Thorn's lessons in the process. Dr. Leon is making huge sacrifices to bring these units online, and these sacrifices are (choose 3). Please note that they will probably have some level of pseudo Sphere magic, because they're extrusions of the Control-Incarna."

So we're going to have to fight them.

How do we best kill them?

[ ] The interrogator doesn't believe Henriette-but is called by General Starborn about the whole thing. Seems like Kessler and IBM have been doing a lot more talking.

Well, by having a lot of guns. Who has the most guns? Ragnarok Command have the most guns. I'll wait on a write-in, but assuming none appears I'll probably vote for this unless I see a really compelling argument otherwise.

[X] The original plan was to make them nearly invincible-using the same protomatter as the ASE and the same preternatural toughness several of the EXEMPLAR Is and IIs have. Unfortunately, he can't manage that and will have to make do with mere high-end combat construct toughness.

Making them not nearly invincible seems like a solid step one.

[X] The EXEMPLAR IVs were supposed to have Primium-infused bones and a broad-spectrum shield against reality deviance and technocratic procedures. Rush jobs mean they're closer to Rose or Vanessas in innate countermagic than to the Anathema.

Making them not nearly immune to magic seems like a solid step two.

[] The regeneration tech that Rose and combat homonculi have didn't play well with the chimeric construction of the EXEMPLAR IV. They heal with accelerated speed, but only moderately faster than humans.

Making them stay wounded when shot at seems like a solid step three.

However, this still leaves them with full murdering capability. This is bad, because it doesn't matter if we can kill them if they can kill us first.

[X] The ASE's internal weapons and defenses were not capable of being duplicated in time for his rush production. They'll have to rely on, you know. Guns. And armor. And their own personal skill, rather than projecting forcefields of death.

Therefore, I'm going with this as option 3. Yeah, they still have Union guns and armor, but it's not like they weren't going to have those anyway, and reducing SURPRISE ULTRA DAKKA FROM NOWHERE TO KILL YOU seems fairly good on the not dying front.

Of course, any combination of options is pretty good. For instance, Strypgia's is good because it allows us to troll cast and damage cast them into oblivion while not being super obvious to them and then they actually die from that. Whereas the three options I am currently voting for are more of a straight up "shoot and cast them to death bluntly" plan.

So yeah, vote whichever way you want but keep in mind that different options will result in different plans to take them down. Or at least they will if we want to live.
 
Strypgia said:
I'm not counting them out, but they'd still need to be brought up to speed and spread the word on Threat Null. The VEs and RC already know.

And teleporting is more manageable when they've only got human senses and lowered countermagic.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I was thinking let them have their regen. Mostly because from what we are likely getting, we are best making sure our first shot leaves nothing but scorch marks.

Odds are even without regen, they are going to wear us down with that lightning speed.
 
I have two plans, as it turns out. It depends on what our strengths are here, and what we can have the enemy's weaknesses be- along with what type of fight we'll be getting. To that end, I present you:


Leon can only get a few units online, and this is going to be a solid fight. They're drawing on the hermetic practice of using godforms essentially (lol) so they'll be more resilient to paradox- but resilient doesn't mean immune and one of the things this Quest has constantly noted about the successful Exemplar units is that they're finicky as all hell.

To that end, I think our plan needs to work to limit their ability to project harm. If they're largely indestructible and keep recovering, but can't actually project harm, then we can gradually work to marginalize them. Moreover, the longer they stay up, the more likely it is that Paradox suplexes them from orbit.

As such, we should take choices which collectively should cripple their ability to project force.

[ ] Like a few of the EXEMPLAR IIs and the ASE, EXEMPLAR IV was supposed to be fast. So fast they might as well have tactical teleportation and an immensely accelerated timeframe. Unfortunately, they're going to have to rely on merely superhuman agility and speed instead.

Action economy is god, but even in a rebalanced system, being able to teleport, have an eternity to plan out their moves, and take an immense amount of extra actions is very bad, for reasons ranging from lack of ability to contain them, to their ability to basically just straight up assassinate anyone they pick out. More importantly, it gives all the teched up cyborgs we have a lot more to work with.
​
[ ] The EXEMPLAR IVs were supposed to have Primium-infused bones and a broad-spectrum shield against reality deviance and technocratic procedures. Rush jobs mean they're closer to Rose or Vanessas in innate countermagic than to the Anathema.

We want them as vulnerable to Paradox as possible, and vulnerable to effects as possible.

[ ] He hasn't had time to integrate the instinct package to manage the senses of the EXEMPLAR IV. It will only have human-equivalent senses.

Hahahahaha, truly this is my favourite setback. They don't have access to any of their higher level sense. Human only senses means we can lead them around by the nose far more easily. They won't be effortlessly able to interpret our radio signals, hack our systems through direct access or the like. They'll still by hyperlethal, nearly indestructible, and capable of projecting forcefields of doom which could be a problem, but they'll be absolute shit at projecting that force. And, you know, the longer they give it a go, the more likely paradox suplexes them from orbit.

An alternative to the other plan based on the premise that we don't actually know how well they'll be able to mitigate Paradox- if their mitigation is excellent, having those indestructible superbeings wandering around japan would be exceptionally bad, even if they're limited to human cognition and motion and senses.

To that end, this plan focuses much more directly on killing them.

[ ] The original plan was to make them nearly invincible-using the same protomatter as the ASE and the same preternatural toughness several of the EXEMPLAR Is and IIs have. Unfortunately, he can't manage that and will have to make do with mere high-end combat construct toughness.

[ ] The regeneration tech that Rose and combat homonculi have didn't play well with the chimeric construction of the EXEMPLAR IV. They heal with accelerated speed, but only moderately faster than humans.​

No super indestructible armor, and no regeneration. No piecing themselves back together in the middle of combat after getting the shit blown out of them.

[ ] The ASE's internal weapons and defenses were not capable of being duplicated in time for his rush production. They'll have to rely on, you know. Guns. And armor. And their own personal skill, rather than projecting forcefields of death.

With this, their defenses are basically nonexistent. They're limited to external gear and equipment. They're still hyperspeed teleporters and that's hyper lethal, but they're incredibly fragile. This is a high risk high reward option, because they could still very easily murder literally everyone. But if things go well, we could turn them into a smear on the pavement before they can cause too much damage.
[ ] Like a few of the EXEMPLAR IIs and the ASE, EXEMPLAR IV was supposed to be fast. So fast they might as well have tactical teleportation and an immensely accelerated timeframe. Unfortunately, they're going to have to rely on merely superhuman agility and speed instead.

This leaves them their internal 'active' defenses and weapons, but slows them down to a much more manageable progression of actions. This is a more moderate choice- there's less risk, but they aren't quite as fragile either.
 
Okay, so assuming that we'll have to fight everything but the three sacrifices we choose:

Rush Production
[ ] The original plan was to make them nearly invincible-using the same protomatter as the ASE and the same preternatural toughness several of the EXEMPLAR Is and IIs have. Unfortunately, he can't manage that and will have to make do with mere high-end combat construct toughness.
This does not look friendly, but is probably possible to circumvent by MOAR FORCE.​
[X] Like a few of the EXEMPLAR IIs and the ASE, EXEMPLAR IV was supposed to be fast. So fast they might as well have tactical teleportation and an immensely accelerated timeframe. Unfortunately, they're going to have to rely on merely superhuman agility and speed instead.
Hahaha fuck no we do not want them to have this extra actions are murder. Hmm. Probably Vulgar murder, but still murder.​
[ ] The extradimensional myofibrils which he harvested and reverse-engineered from the ASE are a no-go. The EXEMPLAR IV will be strong, but not "beat a tank to death with its own turret" strong.
Yeah, we can probably cope with this.​
[ ] The ASE's internal weapons and defenses were not capable of being duplicated in time for his rush production. They'll have to rely on, you know. Guns. And armor. And their own personal skill, rather than projecting forcefields of death.
... forcefields of death sound like they're going to suck for us. But there are more important things to avoid.​
[X] The EXEMPLAR IVs were supposed to have Primium-infused bones and a broad-spectrum shield against reality deviance and technocratic procedures. Rush jobs mean they're closer to Rose or Vanessas in innate countermagic than to the Anathema.
HAHAHA WE DO NOT WANT THEM TO HAVE COUNTERMAGIC AGAINST OUR SPHERES.​
[X] The regeneration tech that Rose and combat homonculi have didn't play well with the chimeric construction of the EXEMPLAR IV. They heal with accelerated speed, but only moderately faster than humans.
Given how hard to kill Rose has proven, I don't think we want the EXEMPLAR IVs to be equally durable.​
[ ] He hasn't had time to integrate the instinct package to manage the senses of the EXEMPLAR IV. It will only have human-equivalent senses.
We can probably cope with this.​

In summary:
  • Super-Senses and Super-Strength we can probably deal with.
  • Death Forcefields and Super-Toughness are going to suck big-time and we want to start thinking of counters immediately.
  • Super-Speed, Innate Countermagic and Super-Regeneration will fuck us over hard.
These things are avatars of Control Incarnae, and I do not want to let them exist on Earth for any length of time whatsoever, because they are bullshit supergeniuses with Sphere magic and insane dicepools and Conditioning codes. We should probably make them die with maximum speed.
 
Just finished reading this, and this is fantastic

About choice of EXEMPLAR IV weaknesses - I think you underestimate the last option. More then enough technocracy assets can't be detected with human equivalent senses at all. If you also turn off forcefields of death to reduce area attacks you'll be able to shoot at it with impunity as long as needed
 
chinger said:
About choice of EXEMPLAR IV weaknesses - I think you underestimate the last option. More then enough technocracy assets can't be detected with human equivalent senses at all. If you also turn off forcefields of death to reduce area attacks you'll be able to shoot at it with impunity as long as needed
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

They have pseudo-sphere magic, so they can probably get super-senses easily anyway.
 
I am so very glad we forced this early. This would have been worse than Moscow if he had had full production time for the IV's I fear.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
What happens with Henriette?
Here's a chance to choose a plot development that's good for you. Write-ins and debate are not just encouraged-they're probably a good idea. If you have some really good write-ins and ideas on how to mesh them together, I might even give you two!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So, hmm. Thinking about this.

I think I shall try to wrangle the idea that Kessler is in "reserve" with my write-in. He can't show up right now - there's some, ahem, "internal security" issues in Ragnarok Command and there is a certain amount of backstage messiness going on. But by god, when he's sure that he can show up and take people with him who are not sleeper agents, why, then he'll bring out the heavy guns.

Also, the heavy abs.

Basically, Kessler to a certain point concluded his narrative in spesssssssss, and now he's more, mmm, almost a high-level NPC associated with the party. Which means he should exist for the primary purpose of Kesslerness, which is being a grizzled badass old action hero who's now a senior officer on top of that. That means he should show up at the darkest moment, possibly by parachuting in or in a helicopter. Which means, alas, he can't be there from the start.

That means that the primary choice needs to be considered, and I believe this is something which should primarily be considered at a narrative level.

[ ] The interrogator refers to Ethical Compliance-and Cross has been coming to similar conclusions to you. Professor Li wants to talk-and so do Mr. and Mrs. Rosario, who know where Serafina is.

This one means the story is fundamentally one of the Progenitors and reinforces the existing themes with the whole Serafamily stuff and the Progenitor villain and the EXEMPLAR links and so on. Plus, probably wraps up the Li thread too.

[ ] Task Force TYRANT is vouching for you-and with them Bastion and Jamelia.

This means it's a story of NWO housecleaning. The New World Order is the internal police and the hierarchy and the institution and the system - and this path means it's basically a story, ironically enough of the System locking out the Leadership.

Control: "THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!"

Bastion: "Institutional legitimacy, bitches."

[ ] The interrogator thinks Henriette is crazy. Admiral Ivanova does not. Jamelia's behind-the-scenes work and Bastion's acceptance might have something to do with this too.

This one is the long-awaited VE-alliance thing. It's a chance for the VEs to show down with a punchable representation of Control

...

Right now, I'm inclined to go for the Progenitor option. This Tokyo arc is sort of Rose's story and Sera's story, the antagonist is a Progenitor, and I think it's a nice conclusion to that entire arc. It's a sign of our "maturity" of a party that we're willing to deal with Li and put aside mutual differences to deal with this problem, and for Serafina it's a... honestly, I think it's a satisfying ending for her if she's in a position to be the good-cop to Li's bad-cop. She chose to work within the system in public rather than be a shadowy figure manipulating it from behind the scenes, she has Leader as her virtue now, so it's time for her to live up to it.

And for Rose, the Progenitor hierarchy and how she's been treated are one of the big demons from her past. Gotta face the demons and catch'em all.

pluuuuuuus you know this path is one with the option of an EXEMPLAR burly brawl

(no maria control will probably spend wp to avoid turning on each other because they're fighting over you as a waifu. probably.)
 
EarthScorpion said:
Also, the heavy abs.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The more dangerous part.

Largely agree with the treatment for Kessler, though. He's too big for the party at the moment, and is busy in his chrysalis, turning from Staff Sergeant Kessler, Long-Lost Exojock into General Kessler, Major League Leadership and Asskicker. He is the cavalry you call in at the last moment to save the day now.
EarthScorpion said:
pluuuuuuus you know this path is one with the option of an EXEMPLAR burly brawl
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh, damn your eyes. I want to see the VE's come in to things, and tie in to the 'The Union is now aware of Threat Null and ready to listen to the VE's explain why we have to fight', but... Rose as Neo, taking on the half-completed EXEMPLAR IVs? This is too golden.

You bastard. :p
 
[x] The interrogator doesn't believe Henriette-but is called by General Starborn about the whole thing. Seems like Kessler and IBM have been doing a lot more talking.
[x] Task Force TYRANT is vouching for you-and with them Bastion and Jamelia.

This thematically works together, as both are our high level PC's doing important stuff.

[x] The original plan was to make them nearly invincible-using the same protomatter as the ASE and the same preternatural toughness several of the EXEMPLAR Is and IIs have. Unfortunately, he can't manage that and will have to make do with mere high-end combat construct toughness.
[x] The EXEMPLAR IVs were supposed to have Primium-infused bones and a broad-spectrum shield against reality deviance and technocratic procedures. Rush jobs mean they're closer to Rose or Vanessas in innate countermagic than to the Anathema.
[x] The regeneration tech that Rose and combat homonculi have didn't play well with the chimeric construction of the EXEMPLAR IV. They heal with accelerated speed, but only moderately faster than humans.

This should allow us to actually kill the EXEMPLARs, turning them into slightly glass cannons.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
That kind of firepower isn't something any sane person-not even a full cyborg designed and dedicated to combat-is capable of fighting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Top kek. Apparently Clarent hasn't heard the good news about Kessler.

MJ12 Commando said:
Others are ex-Progenitor constructs-Vanessas or similar combat clones. There's a lot of them for some reason.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
:: paranoia intensifies ::

MJ12 Commando said:
[ ] Like a few of the EXEMPLAR IIs and the ASE, EXEMPLAR IV was supposed to be fast. So fast they might as well have tactical teleportation and an immensely accelerated timeframe. Unfortunately, they're going to have to rely on merely superhuman agility and speed instead.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is the one thing I don't want to have to deal with. Speed kills.
 
Incidentally:

MJ12 Commando said:
His latest magnum opus is based off of new tech-everything in EXEMPLAR III-but also some old tech. A prior project, one which was largely an accidental creation-a clone of a traitor to the Traditions and an aid to the Order of Reason.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, well, well. A reference to the ol' Heylel Teomim thing, mmm.

I wonder if Cemal knew the original. Hmm. Heylel Teomim betrayed the early Traditions in 1470, while the Craftmasons were purged in 1670. So, no, he wouldn't have. Heylel Teomim predated Cemal by probably at least a century, who was younger than a man who was into his second century in 1670.

Of course, the Heylel Teomim clone was responsible for the fall of Horizon. And Horizon died through Void Adaption, sealed off from Earth as the HQ of the Traditions and all the many masters there did their thing. So in PQ, that's almost certainly now the centre of the Rogue Council.
 
Broken25 said:
They have pseudo-sphere magic, so they can probably get super-senses easily anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

But this is literally the vote for that kind of pseudo-sphere magic. The fast option is the 'quasi-corr 3/time 3', the senses option is 'quasi-1 dot in every sphere'. Super senses are absolutely relevant in a fight like when you're broadly exhuman with a couple categories of only superhuman ability. A mage with only access to 1 dot in every sphere is still a phenomenally lethal threat, particularly when you have corr 1/entropy 1/time 1/forces 1, and can do things like bullet time laser dodging without the time dilation bit, being able to target the exact weak point of any attack or plan, being essentially immune to mental interference of any kind.

With sufficient successes- and you can damn well bet that Control-Incarna will have sufficient successes, Sphere 1 pseudo-magick is an absolute beast to tackle, and will massively limit our ability to plan around the enemy: they will know everything we know the moment we know it, basically. Every plan, every contingency, anything we communicate, they'll have access to. They'll be able to see and decode the radio waves or direct laser comms in the air, pick out the dimensional resonance transmissions and decipher the genetic signal written into the RNA of fast-cloned carrier pigeons. They will know exactly where all our forces are at all times, and the exact composition and armament of those forces.

This option is essentially a vote for them starting this fight blind. With human only senses, projecting that force, using those doom forcefields becomes so much harder because so much of what we can access can hide from them, and we can do things like reposition without them instantly being aware of it, or lead them into feints and pincer maneuvers. They won't have total battlefield awareness.
 
Anyways, my choice for the primary vote agrees largely with what ES has posited about the narrative arc. As much as I would love to see Kessler again, he's off doing important things, and I feel that he should remain in a state of narrative uncertainty until the last moment, give him more time to do good out there, rather than calling him in at the first chance we get.

[X] The interrogator refers to Ethical Compliance-and Cross has been coming to similar conclusions to you. Professor Li wants to talk-and so do Mr. and Mrs. Rosario, who know where Serafina is.


This brings the arc together, and lets us resolve the issues with Professor Li. Moreover, it brings Serafina back in, and lets us take that next step on her character path. Securing the Progenitors is the ultimate goal here, and gives Leon even less capability to fuck things over in the specific way he wants to.
 
[X] The original plan was to make them nearly invincible-using the same protomatter as the ASE and the same preternatural toughness several of the EXEMPLAR Is and IIs have. Unfortunately, he can't manage that and will have to make do with mere high-end combat construct toughness.

We can't let them have protomatter invincibility because hell no.

[X] Like a few of the EXEMPLAR IIs and the ASE, EXEMPLAR IV was supposed to be fast. So fast they might as well have tactical teleportation and an immensely accelerated timeframe. Unfortunately, they're going to have to rely on merely superhuman agility and speed instead.

We can't let them have superspeed of that caliber so that has to go.

[X] The EXEMPLAR IVs were supposed to have Primium-infused bones and a broad-spectrum shield against reality deviance and technocratic procedures. Rush jobs mean they're closer to Rose or Vanessas in innate countermagic than to the Anathema.

And no, they don't get to have countermagic. Fuck 'em. They wanna be strong? Let them. They want to see us coming? No problem. They want to have death forcefields? Fine. They wanna regenerate? Good, at least they will have to.
 
@MJ12 Commando, can I vote for the same option twice in the first vote? I really want the Void Engineers to FINALLY be on our side for sure. Plus, if we're fighting ADVENT, we need XCOM.
 
EarthScorpion said:
(no maria control will probably spend wp to avoid turning on each other because they're fighting over you as a waifu. probably.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well I'm sold.

[X] The interrogator refers to Ethical Compliance-and Cross has been coming to similar conclusions to you. Professor Li wants to talk-and so do Mr. and Mrs. Rosario, who know where Serafina is.
[X] The EXEMPLAR IVs were supposed to have Primium-infused bones and a broad-spectrum shield against reality deviance and technocratic procedures. Rush jobs mean they're closer to Rose or Vanessas in innate countermagic than to the Anathema.
[ ] Some other stuff whatever people think is good.

Plan "Too Much Waifu Will Ruin Your Laifu" is go.

EarthScorpion said:
Well, well, well. A reference to the ol' Heylel Teomim thing, mmm.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh hey, sweet, I was wondering who that'd be, that fits.

...Hopefully they don't have that whole 'control the Avatar Storm' thing from Ascension.
 
I almost never vote but I really want to see Sera's sub-plot wrap up here, and making it all about the progenators can finally clear them off the narrative table.

Ragnarok Command or the VE's can take the forefront when we have to go toe to toe with whatever Mrs Clock and or the Anathema have been cooking up.

[X] The interrogator refers to Ethical Compliance-and Cross has been coming to similar conclusions to you. Professor Li wants to talk-and so do Mr. and Mrs. Rosario, who know where Serafina is.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top