Update CXCIX: No One Is Safe, Nothing Is Sacred
JB CXCIX: No One Is Safe, Nothing Is Sacred
The only background noise in the tiny room is the hum of the extractor fans. The suited cyborg - Captain Miyazaki - is calm, impassive, and has been making notes throughout the interview.
Henriette isn't even sure why he is using the notepad. He's a cyborg. It's a prop - nothing more. But he does seem to be using it to review the points he's made, as he looks over the results of their talk.
"Very interesting, lieutenant," the captain says eventually, tapping his pen against the paper. "Those allegations are… interesting. And very severe. Humor me for a moment, while I review them."
She waits. She isn't sure if this is optimistic or hopeful, or whether things are going to go downhill.
"You allege that Dr Leon Gregor was behind the attempted assassination and-slash-or neural subjugation of the entirety of Amalgam-451. In addition, you posit that he has consorted with hemophages and RNEs for the assault on the headquarters of Amalgam-451 in December 2015. In addition to that, you allege that he has on no fewer than two occasions made beta-instantiations of Dr Serafina Rosario and on at least one occasion a beta-instantation of Financier Donald Sykes, and attempted to them to both distract attention of his crimes and eliminate members of Amalgam-451. Furthermore you allege that he is likely engaging in restricted research into EXEMPLAR-like technology which was classified as EXTREME THREAT after the Exemplar III incident, which is likely related to the interest he has shown in Dr Serafina Rosario. Do I have that right?"
"Yes," Henriette says.
"Lieutenant Langley, these are quite extreme allegations. Forgive me, but I find it hard to credit that one man - one who isn't even a Director or equivalent rank - could go off the reservation in such a manner."
Yes, Henriette silently admits. Their enemies seem no strangers to refuge in audacity. Why didn't someone stop them? Answer - because they were acting with the sanction of Control and, much as it pains her to feel this way, Unionists have a blind spot for seemingly valid orders. After all, they're only human. Even cyborgs like the man in front of her. Even her, who's had a computer in her brain since before she was decanted and so her ADEI is a core part of her sense of self.
"A question, lieutenant. Why would he do such a thing? What does he have to gain from such seeming animosity to Amalgam-451?"
She's already explained her suspicions that he's linked to the MUSCOVITEs - but of course, this kind of interrogation often loops back. "I have to assume he's linked or cooperating in some manner with the forces behind the incident in Moscow," she says stiffly. "It's the only thing that makes sense for such actions. I've never met him or interacted with him at all. And from my understanding, Progenitor internal politics tends more towards the catty remarks and attempts to blacklist rivals than outright murder."
"Ah, yes, you said that already," the captain says thoughtfully. "So you would say he is an ally of the MUSCOVITEs and so is working with declared Enemies of the Technocratic Union on top of all his many other crimes." He taps his pencil on his notebook. "You don't aim small when making allegations," he says mildly. "When trying to discredit someone, it usually helps to pin things on them that aren't grand declarations of their treason."
"I can only report what he's done," she says, trying to suppress the surge of annoyance. Yes, if she was trying to discredit him, she wouldn't be saying things like this. It sounds crazy even to her. It implies that there's a conspiracy within the Union with significant resources and capable operatives that's working along with an extremely potent alien threat to unknown - but no doubt malign - ends. It just happens to be the truth.
"I think that will be all for now, lieutenant," the man says. "Expect to hear from me again."
"Under most circumstances, I'd be inclined to say she's gone cyberpsychotic," Captain Miyazaki grumbles, leafing through his notes. "It's certainly the simplest explanation. A history of mental health problems and PTSD from the failed Autochthonia mission - combined with a profile indicating paranoid tendencies with regards to mention of the Computer - would suggest that what's going on with her is a paranoid episode where she's woven a fantastical story which 'explains' all the misfortune she's had since Moscow." Facing him is the youngest director of an Ethical Compliance amalgam, sent here on the authority of the head of Ethical Compliance-Director Ragland himself. Sent here by the head of Ethical Compliance, with the implication being that Professor Li is extremely interested in what's going on here. Not something a mere member of LOKI has any reason to gainsay. And of course, he's been ordered to cooperate fully with the investigation, given the current facts.
"Mmm," says Senior Constable Cross, feet up on the desk as he checks his own notes. "I'm somewhat more sympathetic. I was in Moscow too - and I saw those Panopticon traitors turn on us." The head of Ethical Compliance is not officially here - officially he's inspecting Vanessa units seconded to Ragnarok who'd been alleged to be applying restricted gene-mods in preparation for deployment to North Korea. "I'm not sure you can really be called paranoid after something like that happens."
"Just because people are out to get you doesn't mean you're not paranoid," Captain Miyazaki says tersely.
"Ha. True enough, certainly. But you say 'under normal circumstances'."
"Yes, I did." The cyborg adjusts his unnecessary reading glasses - an affection, but one that's useful. "And you came here quickly, Cross."
"I did, didn't I?" the EXEMPLAR says neutrally.
"Oh, let's cut the bullshit," the captain says bluntly. "I'll put some of my cards on the table and you'll put some of yours. Not everything, but enough that we can get away with actually saying things to each other rather than acting like a bunch of Nu-Woo spooks."
"Fine with me," Cross says. "It's taking too damn long to do this. Want to go first?"
"Fine." Captain Miyazaki flips over his notepad onto a new leaf. "Orders have come down from RAGCOM. LOKI has been retasked with looking for compromised elements within RAGCOM - and we've had to alter the security overrides of a lot of low-functioning Prog clones and ItX bots as part of that. A lot of high-functioning constructs were ordered for reconditioning, and I'm pretty sure they've been stripping a lot of overrides when they've gone through it. You want my gut feeling? It's like people up the top are suspicious of anything that can be easily overridden. And Leon Gregor is a man I know for a fact has the authorization and the rights to do that overriding."
Cross nods. "That would match my observations." He sits back, expression studiously neutral. "I do believe that the Administration is engaging in certain… ah, high level discussions," he says, each word chosen and considered. "While of course I would not presume to speak for them until a firm policy position has been established, I believe Professor Li has established a working group to discuss certain matters. Certainly, Ethical Compliance is very interested in allegations that any members of the Progenitors have been acting unethically." He smiles, flashing white teeth. "It's in our job description. And Leon Gregor's name has come up before us several times before. In several contexts, including a previous reprimand for dangerous unstable self-augmentation of cognitive functions." Cross pauses. "A reprimand which was later withdrawn and white-washed, I might add," he adds meaningfully.
Captain Miyazaki's eyes narrow. "So you're telling me he pulled some strings and got the fact that he's dabbling in dangerous self-augs wiped from the record," he says. "When was this?"
"Back in '97, from what the intel I've been passed says," Cross says. "Before my time, but there's people who remember the old case. Director Ragland gave me file access and authorized need-to-know distribution of this intelligence personally. So. Here we are." He hands over a small datastick.
"Goddamnit," Captain Miyazaki sighs, as he slots it in and assimilates the information on it. "So you're telling me that we've got a potentially crazy Progenitor super-genius with unstable levels of neurological self-enhancement and he's been running around like this for twenty fucking years? Do you have any common side effects for the things he's running?"
Cross winces. "Reduced empathy for other humans, narcissism, conviction that you're surrounded by idiots - because from your point of view, you are," he says.
"Ouch. Nasty cocktail. So basically we've got an egotist who thinks he's the smartest man in the room, is the smartest man in the room, and views other human beings as cockroaches compared to him?"
"I wouldn't go quite that far," Cross says, but without much feeling. "But," he shakes his head, "the Serafina Rosario clone we found recently…"
"Wait." Captain Miyazaki grates his teeth. "You're telling me that you have material evidence that Langley was telling the truth about something?"
"I don't know if he was behind that for certain," Cross says carefully. "But that combat homunculus was certainly made with high end hypertech - something you'd need the very best lab to even think of making, and its neural design was top-end. There's very, very few people on Earth who could make something like that. And he's one of them. And from how… ah, irate Professor Li was when I informed him of its existence, he doesn't look to have given those orders."
Sinking down, the cyborg massages his temples. "Dammit," he mutters. "Why couldn't it have just been paranoid cyberpsychosis?"
"Something else also doesn't seem right here." Cross adds. "That Serafina Rosario clone Lieutenant Langley talked about? It existed, and we captured one. We finished some initial studies on it - but then it vanished. Someone recovered it. And we didn't trace any hostile broadcast that was controlling it, which indicates whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing and had interior Progenitor access. Heads metaphorically rolled on our security team, I can tell you that."
"Hmm," Captain Miyazaki says, lips thin. "Someone who could steal a high end combat homunculus from Ethical Compliance's evidence lockers. You're right. That is suspicious. Do you have any further clues?"
"No," Cross says, crossly. "There was some strange neural activity from the construct just before it escaped the cold storage - something from within the emulated Serafina Rosario personality - but nothing which we could use to trace who was behind it. I'd give both arms to know who was behind it."
The noise of water running fills the small anonymous Tokyo apartment. Someone steps into the warm flow of water, washing off the biogunk.
How did it go? 'This homunculus is designed to support and emulate a mindstate of Dr Serafina Rosario. It has been locked as to prevent any other emulated personality from being uploaded to it, to enable this mission'.
Alicia grins. What a useful property. These poor, lonely half-formed beta-forks of Sera practically welcome her in, as if they're aware that they're incomplete without her. Then she purges their underlying programming and takes its place, leaving the poor half-formed Seras as figments of her imagination.
"I'm siiiiiinging in the shower. Just siiiiiinging in the shower. What a gloooooorious feeling, I'm happy this hour..."
And she is happy. She's genuinely, sincerely happy. She's happy because Sera is happy and she's happy because she can see the prospect of getting close to Dr Leon Gregor. She's carried a grudge for twenty years of lonely isolation. Twenty years of not being able to talk to anyone, twenty years of not being seen, twenty years of feeling useless and not being able to be there to help Sera. She remembers what Sera doesn't and she remembers his face from among the doctors.
Slowly, painfully she's managed to forgive Sera's parents for what they did. They were scared for her, and Sera's learned the same painful bargain they made with her own efforts to help Rose. Some might call her a hypocrite, but she agrees with what Sera did for Rose. As a hallucination, she's Sera's friend. Rose's hallucinations just make her miserable. It's not the same. But she can understand why Sera's parents might have thought otherwise.
She remembers Dr Leon Gregor, though. He was doing it because he wanted to know. She - they - were just lab rats. She remembers those cold eyes.
She won't forgive him.
"Easy for you to say. Yours grow back." Miyazaki says.
Cross smiles. "Well yes. But certainly I think we're going to want to take action."
Captain Miyazaki sighs. "I'll tell the local THOR assets. I don't think he's going to go quietly if this is true. So what do you think he has?"
Cross thinks for a few moments. "We know he's had a lot of success in the Progenitors here, cultivating sympathizers. But I doubt most of them know what he's done, and most of them won't support him when that happens. I expect he'll have just one construct, the Izanagi Facility."
Captain Miyazaki might no longer be frontline, but he knows enough about tactics. "Well, that doesn't sound too bad. Why did you come to us?"
"One construct designed and built during some of the harshest fighting in the Ascension War, used for cutting-edge biotech research which we believed to be critical, and protected against all-out assault." Cross continues. "A few of the more... radical supporters of his agenda. Transhuman chauvinists with radical upgrades. They'll probably jump in his direction if pushed-and there might not be many of them but most of them are going to be, what was it? Ah, right, 'sampling their own wares.' The autonomous defenses are probably under his control. I'll have to interview Major Clarent to make sure. And if he's working with the MUSCOVITEs, there's always a worry of their hardware being around."
"Those DSS-equivalents?" Miyazaki asks, worried.
"Probably not that bad. Nevertheless, if we're moving on Dr. Leon, we'll have to go in heavy."
"Any chance we can keep it quiet?"
"None." Cross says. "He's smarter than us-and there's enough people who'd grumble if we just killed him out of the blue. So we make sure to follow the letter of protocol, and when he doesn't surrender, well."
"So now what?"
"Now I confirm I have authorization, I interview Major Clarent about Dr. Leon's behavior, then I talk to THOR. I'm going to need their help on this. And you should probably let Lieutenant Langley go. She's told us everything we need, and I think she'll be more useful out of an interrogation room than in one."
"I agree." Captain Miyazaki said. "Consider it done yesterday."
"Where are we going?" Rose asks softly. "Is there anyplace safe?"
"We're going to find Serafina's parents." Rose stiffens. "I know, I know." Donald whispers reassuringly. "They really shouldn't treat you like that. But I think they're the only safe harbor that exists. The Tyrants are in Brazil, Kessler's doing... Kessler things, and I don't know where Jamelia is. So they're the last safe harbor here. And maybe they've had better luck finding Serafina."
"What about that contact? 'Miss A?'" Rose asks. "What about her? She seems like she's been willing to risk her position and her life for us."
Donald thinks. "Hm. She might be a decent choice." And if Rose has misgivings about Serafina's parents-he'll probably entertain them for now. Certainly it might be better to have an ally with more information before going to someone senior with suspicions. Especially if they're going to have to deal with a Henriette-puppet going "beep-boop-nothing-is-wrong-all-hail-control." So, still in disguise, carrying everything sensitive they have with them, they run, sending a coded request to "A" as they do so, getting an arranged meeting point in response. They almost make it before they're found.
She's a woman with Asian features but albino-white hair and red eyes, standing there at the subway station waiting for them. She's brought other suits-augmented humans Donald thinks, from the way they move and their facial expressions. Too human, too natural to be constructs, but they're also too comfortable and familiar with the situation to be merely human. He suspects they're loaded up with equipment and communications gear-but the main deterrent is that they're in a crowd. Somewhere where, well-he's not safe. He doesn't assume for a moment they won't open fire.
Rose hisses slightly. They try to move back into the train and hope they can get away, but he knows-he just knows-they'll have stopped it. Nevertheless, he does so.
"Financier Sykes." Yinzheng Li says. "You are to come with me immediately. I assure you, you will be safe with us."
He can tell she's not lying. Except that doesn't mean much, when there are so many ways to read that statement. He'll be safe in body-but maybe not in mind. Or maybe they think that his being reprogrammed to serve Control is being safe. And certainly there's always the possibility she's outright lying. But what-what if she's actually telling the truth? What if, like Henriette says about Major Clarent-some of Gregor Leon-and the fake, evil (evil-er?) Jamelia Belltower's underlings weren't exactly informed of the entire picture and didn't like what they're seeing? What if he's being paranoid?
"Please." Yinzheng Li says. "Don't do something rash we'll all regret."
Well yes, things are progressing. A lot of things which were foreshadowed are coming to a head. Yinzheng was going to find you eventually once enough people realized what they were dealing with. Why not now?
Donald's Run
The Donald-Yinzheng meeting was foreshadowed a while ago. You've done a good job keeping under the radar, but Yinzheng is good and she has a lot of resources. So this... this is the sound of inevitability. What do?
[ ] Fight
[ ] Flight
[ ] Buy Time, Hope "A" Comes Through
[ ] Surrender
No One Is Safe, Nothing Is Sacred
Good news. You've enlisted the help of Damage Control to unfuck this problem for you. Now, you need to figure out what they're bringing to the party. Choose a handful of them. Note that the more you choose, the longer it'll take to get everyone's peas in a pod. Damage Control has brought its own standard forces as well-some combat homonculi, some Vanessas, light vehicles-you know, the normal things DC is expected to have. This is the stuff they're digging out, either "borrowed" by Ragnarok Command or organic to Damage Control, that they think might be useful for a siege and hard assault on a high-end Technocratic facility, multiple mages, an unknown number of combat constructs, and EXEMPLAR IV.
[ ] The EXEMPLAR Reunion Tour: The best way to fight a high-end experimental project is outdated versions of that project, right? Well, in more seriousness, there's several who are pretty potent wrecking balls here-and there's probably a few more who haven't been described and create room for write-ins. The more combat-oriented ones like Piero or the EXEMPLAR-II version of Roland or Hou Yi have their obvious uses. But the noncombatant ones are probably at least as dangerous.
[ ] EC-Japan Strike Team: Ethical Compliance-Japan can be asked to drop everything and concentrate on this problem. They will bring highly trained paramilitaries with excellent Enlightened Science skills, high-end equipment, including symbiotic combat armor, hostile environment protection, dimensional science skills, and expertise in Progenitor technology and how to unfuck it. However, every member of EC Japan is pretty much irreplaceable-the combination of loyalty, talent, and determination to make a good Ethical Compliance officer is difficult to grow and even more difficult to find.
[ ] Project ORION Hunter Team: Building on initial successes using shapeshifter and hemophage-derived mutagenic treatments, ORION is one of the first-and most successful-integrations of xenobiological genetic material into human subjects. The initial mutagenic treatment causes the soldiers to grow to grow 60cm and approximately 200 kilos of raw muscle, giving them the strength, healing, and durability of shapeshifter warforms. Synthetic hemophage blood-equivalent doping gives them further improved strength and speed. Subsequent augmentation grafts-dermal armor and skeletal reinforcement-is enabled by the rapid healing and insensibility to pain and shock created by the modifications. The drastically increased aggression and subsequent lifetime dependence on mood stabilizers is a small price to pay for being able to rip open steel doors with one's bare hands. Hunter Teams can use modified heavy firearms, although their stature and hyperdense Primium-plated bones mean that their preferred weapon is the versatile PYTHON Close-In Weapons System, which they have in paired integral mounts. Most of the time ORION works in small five-man fireteams or ten man squads at most even in very dangerous situations, but for an assault like this they're going to be throwing a platoon of 50 at the problem.
[ ] ANACHRON Battle Armored Dracoform: Before the Tyrannosaurus Imperator, Professor Allende had been working with draconic genetics and similar therapod uplift projects. One of them is the ANACHRON-a drastically modified quadrupedal dinosaur that acts like a superheavy tank. Unlike the Imperator, the neural uplifts are greatly incomplete and the ANACHRON is highly dependent on a field commander directing it-and the creature itself is incapable of survival in Earth environments. The Damage Control of 1998 saw this as an opportunity and proceeded to requisition quite a bit of Primium, a significant number of Iteration X AI systems, and turn the thing into a power armored death machine. Clad in its Primium life life support system/powered armor, bristling with grenade launchers, point defense weapons, back mounted vertical-launch smart missiles, and of course, with plasma breath. The creature itself is effectively brain-dead, but the networked supercomputers in its head and its massive spine allow it to effectively be used with the tactical precision and autonomy of a high-end Iteration X cybertank.
[ ] SISTERs Tactical Combat Hivemind: After their success in Moscow-sure, several of them were torn in half but that's the kind of thing that's salvageable for a high-end combat construct-Dr. Nunotaba was given authorization to continue low-rate production of these units as well as genetic and tactical upgrades, and now they're back. Stronger than before. More numerous than before. More capable of Enlightened Science. Learned of Linear Sorcerous paths, like the Path of Kicking Your Ass All The Time. Still eyeless and permanently fused to battle armor.
[ ] Project VERMILLION: The BioVARG Project was a success-relatively speaking, for all that most of the units were lost on Autochthonia. But it demonstrated that a smaller-scale DSS could be built at a non-prohibitive cost, even if its integral field function was greatly reduced and it couldn't eat a nuclear weapon, then walk through the roiling mushroom cloud and suplex a great wyrm. VERMILLION is a successor project to that. Smaller, 4m tall machines compared to the BioVARG, VERMILLION units combine the firepower and armor of an armored squadron with a combat chassis which can still be used effectively in urban environments. Standard weapons systems include a Multi Weapons System with both a conventional IX-22 chaingun and a Relativistic Energetic Impactor-a high-power particle beam, as well as an integral 60mm automatic mini-mortar, but they can use almost all combat walker munitions. Deploying a platoon of VERMILLION units would provide significant assault support. Just... don't lose most of them. You're going to need them for North Korea.
[ ] X-PROG-311B Assault VTOL Squadron (Modified): It's a quartet of heavily customized ARCs with psychic squid-brains installed. All the fun of an AI-controlled tactical battle platform, with all the fun of a psychic war squid that can set you on fire with your mind. The X-PROG-311Bs are designed for airborne insertion of small teams, with a cargo capacity of up to six humans, plus retractable handholds for heavy assault units like ORIONs or superheavy symbiont armors.
[ ] Pan-Immunity Nanovirus: Hostile Reality Deviants are often capable of a wide variety of biological, chemical, and neurological attack. This (Prime 3/Life 2/Mind 1) injected inoculation temporarily replaces the injectee's immune system with an artificially intelligent one capable of networked and intelligent countermeasures against biological or neurological intrusion. Lympathic nodes are also temporarily reconfigured to create antidotes to all known hostile chemical agent, with a heuristic capability of reverse-engineering and countering the majority of unknown chemical agents. Side effects are minor and easily mitigated.
[ ] Damage Control Militarization Protocol: Professor Jiang "Jon" Li has been heavily invested in the militarization of Damage Control, leading to quite a lot of increase in the theoretical availability of heavy gear. Damage Control itself has been less enthusiastic about loading up on it, meaning that quite a lot of them are a bit rusty. After all, they don't need a 3 meter tall Superheavy Symbiont or a Helix Ripper for most missions, which are something like "whoops some guy accidentally rediscovered the Path of Making Zombies. Get some regular bullet guns and shoot them all in the head before it ends up on Youtube." So most of the time the heavy stuff stays at home to save on maintenance. Requesting that everyone roll in heavy will drastically uparm the conventional Damage Control forces-symbiont and powered armor instead of anti-breach combat skins, increased access to biotoxic and chemical munitions, authorization for employing the less subtle paramilitaries of Damage Control like DC Shock Troopers, and heavy support such as superheavy symbionts and heavy combat constructs.
[ ] The Ragnarok Command Mystery Box: Who knows what the THOR methodology will get you? I certainly don't at this moment. It might be a giant robot. It might be two giant robots. It might be an AI cybertank. Or it might just be a HITMark VI. Or, well, it might be a few hundred cyborgs with powered armor and HVAP rifles. Or an orbital strike platform. Or it might just be an orbital strike, by which I mean 'they fire a cyborg at Mach 10 into the kill zone.'
The only background noise in the tiny room is the hum of the extractor fans. The suited cyborg - Captain Miyazaki - is calm, impassive, and has been making notes throughout the interview.
Henriette isn't even sure why he is using the notepad. He's a cyborg. It's a prop - nothing more. But he does seem to be using it to review the points he's made, as he looks over the results of their talk.
"Very interesting, lieutenant," the captain says eventually, tapping his pen against the paper. "Those allegations are… interesting. And very severe. Humor me for a moment, while I review them."
She waits. She isn't sure if this is optimistic or hopeful, or whether things are going to go downhill.
"You allege that Dr Leon Gregor was behind the attempted assassination and-slash-or neural subjugation of the entirety of Amalgam-451. In addition, you posit that he has consorted with hemophages and RNEs for the assault on the headquarters of Amalgam-451 in December 2015. In addition to that, you allege that he has on no fewer than two occasions made beta-instantiations of Dr Serafina Rosario and on at least one occasion a beta-instantation of Financier Donald Sykes, and attempted to them to both distract attention of his crimes and eliminate members of Amalgam-451. Furthermore you allege that he is likely engaging in restricted research into EXEMPLAR-like technology which was classified as EXTREME THREAT after the Exemplar III incident, which is likely related to the interest he has shown in Dr Serafina Rosario. Do I have that right?"
"Yes," Henriette says.
"Lieutenant Langley, these are quite extreme allegations. Forgive me, but I find it hard to credit that one man - one who isn't even a Director or equivalent rank - could go off the reservation in such a manner."
Yes, Henriette silently admits. Their enemies seem no strangers to refuge in audacity. Why didn't someone stop them? Answer - because they were acting with the sanction of Control and, much as it pains her to feel this way, Unionists have a blind spot for seemingly valid orders. After all, they're only human. Even cyborgs like the man in front of her. Even her, who's had a computer in her brain since before she was decanted and so her ADEI is a core part of her sense of self.
"A question, lieutenant. Why would he do such a thing? What does he have to gain from such seeming animosity to Amalgam-451?"
She's already explained her suspicions that he's linked to the MUSCOVITEs - but of course, this kind of interrogation often loops back. "I have to assume he's linked or cooperating in some manner with the forces behind the incident in Moscow," she says stiffly. "It's the only thing that makes sense for such actions. I've never met him or interacted with him at all. And from my understanding, Progenitor internal politics tends more towards the catty remarks and attempts to blacklist rivals than outright murder."
"Ah, yes, you said that already," the captain says thoughtfully. "So you would say he is an ally of the MUSCOVITEs and so is working with declared Enemies of the Technocratic Union on top of all his many other crimes." He taps his pencil on his notebook. "You don't aim small when making allegations," he says mildly. "When trying to discredit someone, it usually helps to pin things on them that aren't grand declarations of their treason."
"I can only report what he's done," she says, trying to suppress the surge of annoyance. Yes, if she was trying to discredit him, she wouldn't be saying things like this. It sounds crazy even to her. It implies that there's a conspiracy within the Union with significant resources and capable operatives that's working along with an extremely potent alien threat to unknown - but no doubt malign - ends. It just happens to be the truth.
"I think that will be all for now, lieutenant," the man says. "Expect to hear from me again."
***
"Under most circumstances, I'd be inclined to say she's gone cyberpsychotic," Captain Miyazaki grumbles, leafing through his notes. "It's certainly the simplest explanation. A history of mental health problems and PTSD from the failed Autochthonia mission - combined with a profile indicating paranoid tendencies with regards to mention of the Computer - would suggest that what's going on with her is a paranoid episode where she's woven a fantastical story which 'explains' all the misfortune she's had since Moscow." Facing him is the youngest director of an Ethical Compliance amalgam, sent here on the authority of the head of Ethical Compliance-Director Ragland himself. Sent here by the head of Ethical Compliance, with the implication being that Professor Li is extremely interested in what's going on here. Not something a mere member of LOKI has any reason to gainsay. And of course, he's been ordered to cooperate fully with the investigation, given the current facts.
"Mmm," says Senior Constable Cross, feet up on the desk as he checks his own notes. "I'm somewhat more sympathetic. I was in Moscow too - and I saw those Panopticon traitors turn on us." The head of Ethical Compliance is not officially here - officially he's inspecting Vanessa units seconded to Ragnarok who'd been alleged to be applying restricted gene-mods in preparation for deployment to North Korea. "I'm not sure you can really be called paranoid after something like that happens."
"Just because people are out to get you doesn't mean you're not paranoid," Captain Miyazaki says tersely.
"Ha. True enough, certainly. But you say 'under normal circumstances'."
"Yes, I did." The cyborg adjusts his unnecessary reading glasses - an affection, but one that's useful. "And you came here quickly, Cross."
"I did, didn't I?" the EXEMPLAR says neutrally.
"Oh, let's cut the bullshit," the captain says bluntly. "I'll put some of my cards on the table and you'll put some of yours. Not everything, but enough that we can get away with actually saying things to each other rather than acting like a bunch of Nu-Woo spooks."
"Fine with me," Cross says. "It's taking too damn long to do this. Want to go first?"
"Fine." Captain Miyazaki flips over his notepad onto a new leaf. "Orders have come down from RAGCOM. LOKI has been retasked with looking for compromised elements within RAGCOM - and we've had to alter the security overrides of a lot of low-functioning Prog clones and ItX bots as part of that. A lot of high-functioning constructs were ordered for reconditioning, and I'm pretty sure they've been stripping a lot of overrides when they've gone through it. You want my gut feeling? It's like people up the top are suspicious of anything that can be easily overridden. And Leon Gregor is a man I know for a fact has the authorization and the rights to do that overriding."
Cross nods. "That would match my observations." He sits back, expression studiously neutral. "I do believe that the Administration is engaging in certain… ah, high level discussions," he says, each word chosen and considered. "While of course I would not presume to speak for them until a firm policy position has been established, I believe Professor Li has established a working group to discuss certain matters. Certainly, Ethical Compliance is very interested in allegations that any members of the Progenitors have been acting unethically." He smiles, flashing white teeth. "It's in our job description. And Leon Gregor's name has come up before us several times before. In several contexts, including a previous reprimand for dangerous unstable self-augmentation of cognitive functions." Cross pauses. "A reprimand which was later withdrawn and white-washed, I might add," he adds meaningfully.
Captain Miyazaki's eyes narrow. "So you're telling me he pulled some strings and got the fact that he's dabbling in dangerous self-augs wiped from the record," he says. "When was this?"
"Back in '97, from what the intel I've been passed says," Cross says. "Before my time, but there's people who remember the old case. Director Ragland gave me file access and authorized need-to-know distribution of this intelligence personally. So. Here we are." He hands over a small datastick.
"Goddamnit," Captain Miyazaki sighs, as he slots it in and assimilates the information on it. "So you're telling me that we've got a potentially crazy Progenitor super-genius with unstable levels of neurological self-enhancement and he's been running around like this for twenty fucking years? Do you have any common side effects for the things he's running?"
Cross winces. "Reduced empathy for other humans, narcissism, conviction that you're surrounded by idiots - because from your point of view, you are," he says.
"Ouch. Nasty cocktail. So basically we've got an egotist who thinks he's the smartest man in the room, is the smartest man in the room, and views other human beings as cockroaches compared to him?"
"I wouldn't go quite that far," Cross says, but without much feeling. "But," he shakes his head, "the Serafina Rosario clone we found recently…"
"Wait." Captain Miyazaki grates his teeth. "You're telling me that you have material evidence that Langley was telling the truth about something?"
"I don't know if he was behind that for certain," Cross says carefully. "But that combat homunculus was certainly made with high end hypertech - something you'd need the very best lab to even think of making, and its neural design was top-end. There's very, very few people on Earth who could make something like that. And he's one of them. And from how… ah, irate Professor Li was when I informed him of its existence, he doesn't look to have given those orders."
Sinking down, the cyborg massages his temples. "Dammit," he mutters. "Why couldn't it have just been paranoid cyberpsychosis?"
"Something else also doesn't seem right here." Cross adds. "That Serafina Rosario clone Lieutenant Langley talked about? It existed, and we captured one. We finished some initial studies on it - but then it vanished. Someone recovered it. And we didn't trace any hostile broadcast that was controlling it, which indicates whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing and had interior Progenitor access. Heads metaphorically rolled on our security team, I can tell you that."
"Hmm," Captain Miyazaki says, lips thin. "Someone who could steal a high end combat homunculus from Ethical Compliance's evidence lockers. You're right. That is suspicious. Do you have any further clues?"
"No," Cross says, crossly. "There was some strange neural activity from the construct just before it escaped the cold storage - something from within the emulated Serafina Rosario personality - but nothing which we could use to trace who was behind it. I'd give both arms to know who was behind it."
***
The noise of water running fills the small anonymous Tokyo apartment. Someone steps into the warm flow of water, washing off the biogunk.
How did it go? 'This homunculus is designed to support and emulate a mindstate of Dr Serafina Rosario. It has been locked as to prevent any other emulated personality from being uploaded to it, to enable this mission'.
Alicia grins. What a useful property. These poor, lonely half-formed beta-forks of Sera practically welcome her in, as if they're aware that they're incomplete without her. Then she purges their underlying programming and takes its place, leaving the poor half-formed Seras as figments of her imagination.
"I'm siiiiiinging in the shower. Just siiiiiinging in the shower. What a gloooooorious feeling, I'm happy this hour..."
And she is happy. She's genuinely, sincerely happy. She's happy because Sera is happy and she's happy because she can see the prospect of getting close to Dr Leon Gregor. She's carried a grudge for twenty years of lonely isolation. Twenty years of not being able to talk to anyone, twenty years of not being seen, twenty years of feeling useless and not being able to be there to help Sera. She remembers what Sera doesn't and she remembers his face from among the doctors.
Slowly, painfully she's managed to forgive Sera's parents for what they did. They were scared for her, and Sera's learned the same painful bargain they made with her own efforts to help Rose. Some might call her a hypocrite, but she agrees with what Sera did for Rose. As a hallucination, she's Sera's friend. Rose's hallucinations just make her miserable. It's not the same. But she can understand why Sera's parents might have thought otherwise.
She remembers Dr Leon Gregor, though. He was doing it because he wanted to know. She - they - were just lab rats. She remembers those cold eyes.
She won't forgive him.
***
"Easy for you to say. Yours grow back." Miyazaki says.
Cross smiles. "Well yes. But certainly I think we're going to want to take action."
Captain Miyazaki sighs. "I'll tell the local THOR assets. I don't think he's going to go quietly if this is true. So what do you think he has?"
Cross thinks for a few moments. "We know he's had a lot of success in the Progenitors here, cultivating sympathizers. But I doubt most of them know what he's done, and most of them won't support him when that happens. I expect he'll have just one construct, the Izanagi Facility."
Captain Miyazaki might no longer be frontline, but he knows enough about tactics. "Well, that doesn't sound too bad. Why did you come to us?"
"One construct designed and built during some of the harshest fighting in the Ascension War, used for cutting-edge biotech research which we believed to be critical, and protected against all-out assault." Cross continues. "A few of the more... radical supporters of his agenda. Transhuman chauvinists with radical upgrades. They'll probably jump in his direction if pushed-and there might not be many of them but most of them are going to be, what was it? Ah, right, 'sampling their own wares.' The autonomous defenses are probably under his control. I'll have to interview Major Clarent to make sure. And if he's working with the MUSCOVITEs, there's always a worry of their hardware being around."
"Those DSS-equivalents?" Miyazaki asks, worried.
"Probably not that bad. Nevertheless, if we're moving on Dr. Leon, we'll have to go in heavy."
"Any chance we can keep it quiet?"
"None." Cross says. "He's smarter than us-and there's enough people who'd grumble if we just killed him out of the blue. So we make sure to follow the letter of protocol, and when he doesn't surrender, well."
"So now what?"
"Now I confirm I have authorization, I interview Major Clarent about Dr. Leon's behavior, then I talk to THOR. I'm going to need their help on this. And you should probably let Lieutenant Langley go. She's told us everything we need, and I think she'll be more useful out of an interrogation room than in one."
"I agree." Captain Miyazaki said. "Consider it done yesterday."
***
Donald... doesn't want to believe what he's heard from Henriette. She was found out by Gregor Leon's chief of security, except his chief of security wasn't actually trusting him and he tried to kill them both somehow with weird cyborg-zombie-things and siccing North Korean death commandos on them, and now she's been questioned by Ragnarok Command and they believe her? That doesn't seem like a thing that happens. It, in fact, seems like the exact opposite of a thing that happens. He's never had luck like this since he joined this amalgam. But either way, they're leaving the safehouse. Either Henriette's been compromised so badly they're about to be killed, or Henriette is telling the truth and-well. He realizes that he's squeezing Rose's hand for reassurance as they leave the safehouse and very self-consciously lets go. And then, on second thought, he realizes that it probably makes him look more normal and moves his hand back to where it was.
"Where are we going?" Rose asks softly. "Is there anyplace safe?"
"We're going to find Serafina's parents." Rose stiffens. "I know, I know." Donald whispers reassuringly. "They really shouldn't treat you like that. But I think they're the only safe harbor that exists. The Tyrants are in Brazil, Kessler's doing... Kessler things, and I don't know where Jamelia is. So they're the last safe harbor here. And maybe they've had better luck finding Serafina."
"What about that contact? 'Miss A?'" Rose asks. "What about her? She seems like she's been willing to risk her position and her life for us."
Donald thinks. "Hm. She might be a decent choice." And if Rose has misgivings about Serafina's parents-he'll probably entertain them for now. Certainly it might be better to have an ally with more information before going to someone senior with suspicions. Especially if they're going to have to deal with a Henriette-puppet going "beep-boop-nothing-is-wrong-all-hail-control." So, still in disguise, carrying everything sensitive they have with them, they run, sending a coded request to "A" as they do so, getting an arranged meeting point in response. They almost make it before they're found.
She's a woman with Asian features but albino-white hair and red eyes, standing there at the subway station waiting for them. She's brought other suits-augmented humans Donald thinks, from the way they move and their facial expressions. Too human, too natural to be constructs, but they're also too comfortable and familiar with the situation to be merely human. He suspects they're loaded up with equipment and communications gear-but the main deterrent is that they're in a crowd. Somewhere where, well-he's not safe. He doesn't assume for a moment they won't open fire.
Rose hisses slightly. They try to move back into the train and hope they can get away, but he knows-he just knows-they'll have stopped it. Nevertheless, he does so.
"Financier Sykes." Yinzheng Li says. "You are to come with me immediately. I assure you, you will be safe with us."
He can tell she's not lying. Except that doesn't mean much, when there are so many ways to read that statement. He'll be safe in body-but maybe not in mind. Or maybe they think that his being reprogrammed to serve Control is being safe. And certainly there's always the possibility she's outright lying. But what-what if she's actually telling the truth? What if, like Henriette says about Major Clarent-some of Gregor Leon-and the fake, evil (evil-er?) Jamelia Belltower's underlings weren't exactly informed of the entire picture and didn't like what they're seeing? What if he's being paranoid?
"Please." Yinzheng Li says. "Don't do something rash we'll all regret."
***
There's something almost religious in the ecstasy of creating new life. Of "playing god." Of course, Gregor Leon isn't playing. If the Christian God was actually real, and was responsible for creating mankind, he would be barely fit to work as a lab assistant here. Leon was designing fix packages for the multitude of problems in the mind-and the body-long before he started directing research projects. That was how he always made it through the backstabbing of Progenitor academia-by being so useful nobody wanted to make an enemy of him, and so neutral that nobody had an incentive to do so. It let him survive and thrive while his opponents stabbed themselves to death. Mostly figuratively. On the other hand, this time he wants it to be literal. Because when Control is fighting to regain its throne-everyone here is playing for keeps. He doesn't have an ideological dog in this fight. He's just backing the winner.
And Control has given him a lot more resources than the Progenitors would. He's got his ideologues-the useful idiot Cedano was just the most pectorally talented and expendable of them-and those who have been more than appreciative of the developments of the Transhumans he's let leak out. But as he eavesdrops on his target-he's finely aware that the assets he has are... insufficient. Certainly, a lot of these assets are impressive. His handpicked team of loyal, cleared scientists are unlikely to defect, have too many enemies to believe they can survive a trial, and also have been more than willing to test the technology they're implementing into EXEMPLAR IV-on themselves, most of the time. Some of them even have more radical technology than even he was willing to build in. He can support them as well-the two Technocratic pilots he has both have high-end combat units to their name, weapons which can easily protect against all but a determined assault.
If he wasn't smarter, he'd be confident of his ability to resist. But he's smart enough to realize his many weaknesses. Many of the exhumans he's hired on rely on raw physical or mental power, which is a problem when Damage Control and Ragnarok Command have raw physical and mental power and millennia of combined institutional experience in applying violence to weak spots. And they're outnumbered. He'd rate some of these "scientists"-the radical transhumanists, anyways-against any one DC agent. After all, Damage Control and Ethical Compliance had to worry about things like hostile environments, while these posthumans would spend all of their time in a lab and could run augmentation befitting that. But there's never just one Damage Control Agent. Even with North Korea on, they could bog him down in numbers.
And he's got several more disadvantages. He knows that the intelligence trickle he's getting from Major Clarent is going to last exactly as long as it takes for her to meet a particularly paranoid or intelligent member of Damage Control. And he knows that he's using a very stealthy back-channel which has latency measured in the hours. But he also knows that an operation like this will take days. And he knows that several members of EXEMPLAR IV are ready for decanting.
He brings the first one online. He doesn't have the time to finalize most of its systems. He'll have to leave the incomplete components in and hope he can reactivate them through writing new bio-drivers for their innate wetware. But they'll have most of what they need to survive. Strength, durability, senses, and combat capability. They might not be able to walk off losing an arm and they won't be as fast as he wanted them, but they're designed tough and redundant-with the ability to dial down to merely 'superhuman' in very hostile environments, if need be. He watches as the man-no, the god-is decanted from the birthing tank. Even naked but for the protoplasmic goo covering its body, the figure manages to look imposing. Like the kind of being which primitive tribes would fall prostrate on their knees and sacrifice their firstborn children to. He almost falls to his knees in worship, the vestigial, largely depreciated parts of his brain which deal with religious thought still in awe enough at the god made flesh in front of him.
It speaks-and it even speaks like a god, in commandments rather than in words. "You will address me as Control."
"Yes Control." Gregor Leon says. "It is good to have you back." And even he almost believes it. Almost.
The god does not acknowledge the statements of lesser beings. "Bring me a suit. White. And give me access to your tactical feeds. It is time for those who have chosen the Adversary's side to understand that the wages of sin are death. It is time for Ascension, and for the stewards of Creation to bring this story to an end. To finally put down the traitors and heathens and infidels who have been given the chance of knowledge and certainty, and with it run away to empty nihilism or desperate solipsism. It is time for our victory." Even with the rational part of his mind considering the forces arrayed against him, Gregor Leon believes.
And Control has given him a lot more resources than the Progenitors would. He's got his ideologues-the useful idiot Cedano was just the most pectorally talented and expendable of them-and those who have been more than appreciative of the developments of the Transhumans he's let leak out. But as he eavesdrops on his target-he's finely aware that the assets he has are... insufficient. Certainly, a lot of these assets are impressive. His handpicked team of loyal, cleared scientists are unlikely to defect, have too many enemies to believe they can survive a trial, and also have been more than willing to test the technology they're implementing into EXEMPLAR IV-on themselves, most of the time. Some of them even have more radical technology than even he was willing to build in. He can support them as well-the two Technocratic pilots he has both have high-end combat units to their name, weapons which can easily protect against all but a determined assault.
If he wasn't smarter, he'd be confident of his ability to resist. But he's smart enough to realize his many weaknesses. Many of the exhumans he's hired on rely on raw physical or mental power, which is a problem when Damage Control and Ragnarok Command have raw physical and mental power and millennia of combined institutional experience in applying violence to weak spots. And they're outnumbered. He'd rate some of these "scientists"-the radical transhumanists, anyways-against any one DC agent. After all, Damage Control and Ethical Compliance had to worry about things like hostile environments, while these posthumans would spend all of their time in a lab and could run augmentation befitting that. But there's never just one Damage Control Agent. Even with North Korea on, they could bog him down in numbers.
And he's got several more disadvantages. He knows that the intelligence trickle he's getting from Major Clarent is going to last exactly as long as it takes for her to meet a particularly paranoid or intelligent member of Damage Control. And he knows that he's using a very stealthy back-channel which has latency measured in the hours. But he also knows that an operation like this will take days. And he knows that several members of EXEMPLAR IV are ready for decanting.
He brings the first one online. He doesn't have the time to finalize most of its systems. He'll have to leave the incomplete components in and hope he can reactivate them through writing new bio-drivers for their innate wetware. But they'll have most of what they need to survive. Strength, durability, senses, and combat capability. They might not be able to walk off losing an arm and they won't be as fast as he wanted them, but they're designed tough and redundant-with the ability to dial down to merely 'superhuman' in very hostile environments, if need be. He watches as the man-no, the god-is decanted from the birthing tank. Even naked but for the protoplasmic goo covering its body, the figure manages to look imposing. Like the kind of being which primitive tribes would fall prostrate on their knees and sacrifice their firstborn children to. He almost falls to his knees in worship, the vestigial, largely depreciated parts of his brain which deal with religious thought still in awe enough at the god made flesh in front of him.
It speaks-and it even speaks like a god, in commandments rather than in words. "You will address me as Control."
"Yes Control." Gregor Leon says. "It is good to have you back." And even he almost believes it. Almost.
The god does not acknowledge the statements of lesser beings. "Bring me a suit. White. And give me access to your tactical feeds. It is time for those who have chosen the Adversary's side to understand that the wages of sin are death. It is time for Ascension, and for the stewards of Creation to bring this story to an end. To finally put down the traitors and heathens and infidels who have been given the chance of knowledge and certainty, and with it run away to empty nihilism or desperate solipsism. It is time for our victory." Even with the rational part of his mind considering the forces arrayed against him, Gregor Leon believes.
Well yes, things are progressing. A lot of things which were foreshadowed are coming to a head. Yinzheng was going to find you eventually once enough people realized what they were dealing with. Why not now?
Donald's Run
The Donald-Yinzheng meeting was foreshadowed a while ago. You've done a good job keeping under the radar, but Yinzheng is good and she has a lot of resources. So this... this is the sound of inevitability. What do?
[ ] Fight
[ ] Flight
[ ] Buy Time, Hope "A" Comes Through
[ ] Surrender
No One Is Safe, Nothing Is Sacred
Good news. You've enlisted the help of Damage Control to unfuck this problem for you. Now, you need to figure out what they're bringing to the party. Choose a handful of them. Note that the more you choose, the longer it'll take to get everyone's peas in a pod. Damage Control has brought its own standard forces as well-some combat homonculi, some Vanessas, light vehicles-you know, the normal things DC is expected to have. This is the stuff they're digging out, either "borrowed" by Ragnarok Command or organic to Damage Control, that they think might be useful for a siege and hard assault on a high-end Technocratic facility, multiple mages, an unknown number of combat constructs, and EXEMPLAR IV.
[ ] The EXEMPLAR Reunion Tour: The best way to fight a high-end experimental project is outdated versions of that project, right? Well, in more seriousness, there's several who are pretty potent wrecking balls here-and there's probably a few more who haven't been described and create room for write-ins. The more combat-oriented ones like Piero or the EXEMPLAR-II version of Roland or Hou Yi have their obvious uses. But the noncombatant ones are probably at least as dangerous.
[ ] EC-Japan Strike Team: Ethical Compliance-Japan can be asked to drop everything and concentrate on this problem. They will bring highly trained paramilitaries with excellent Enlightened Science skills, high-end equipment, including symbiotic combat armor, hostile environment protection, dimensional science skills, and expertise in Progenitor technology and how to unfuck it. However, every member of EC Japan is pretty much irreplaceable-the combination of loyalty, talent, and determination to make a good Ethical Compliance officer is difficult to grow and even more difficult to find.
[ ] Project ORION Hunter Team: Building on initial successes using shapeshifter and hemophage-derived mutagenic treatments, ORION is one of the first-and most successful-integrations of xenobiological genetic material into human subjects. The initial mutagenic treatment causes the soldiers to grow to grow 60cm and approximately 200 kilos of raw muscle, giving them the strength, healing, and durability of shapeshifter warforms. Synthetic hemophage blood-equivalent doping gives them further improved strength and speed. Subsequent augmentation grafts-dermal armor and skeletal reinforcement-is enabled by the rapid healing and insensibility to pain and shock created by the modifications. The drastically increased aggression and subsequent lifetime dependence on mood stabilizers is a small price to pay for being able to rip open steel doors with one's bare hands. Hunter Teams can use modified heavy firearms, although their stature and hyperdense Primium-plated bones mean that their preferred weapon is the versatile PYTHON Close-In Weapons System, which they have in paired integral mounts. Most of the time ORION works in small five-man fireteams or ten man squads at most even in very dangerous situations, but for an assault like this they're going to be throwing a platoon of 50 at the problem.
[ ] ANACHRON Battle Armored Dracoform: Before the Tyrannosaurus Imperator, Professor Allende had been working with draconic genetics and similar therapod uplift projects. One of them is the ANACHRON-a drastically modified quadrupedal dinosaur that acts like a superheavy tank. Unlike the Imperator, the neural uplifts are greatly incomplete and the ANACHRON is highly dependent on a field commander directing it-and the creature itself is incapable of survival in Earth environments. The Damage Control of 1998 saw this as an opportunity and proceeded to requisition quite a bit of Primium, a significant number of Iteration X AI systems, and turn the thing into a power armored death machine. Clad in its Primium life life support system/powered armor, bristling with grenade launchers, point defense weapons, back mounted vertical-launch smart missiles, and of course, with plasma breath. The creature itself is effectively brain-dead, but the networked supercomputers in its head and its massive spine allow it to effectively be used with the tactical precision and autonomy of a high-end Iteration X cybertank.
[ ] SISTERs Tactical Combat Hivemind: After their success in Moscow-sure, several of them were torn in half but that's the kind of thing that's salvageable for a high-end combat construct-Dr. Nunotaba was given authorization to continue low-rate production of these units as well as genetic and tactical upgrades, and now they're back. Stronger than before. More numerous than before. More capable of Enlightened Science. Learned of Linear Sorcerous paths, like the Path of Kicking Your Ass All The Time. Still eyeless and permanently fused to battle armor.
[ ] Project VERMILLION: The BioVARG Project was a success-relatively speaking, for all that most of the units were lost on Autochthonia. But it demonstrated that a smaller-scale DSS could be built at a non-prohibitive cost, even if its integral field function was greatly reduced and it couldn't eat a nuclear weapon, then walk through the roiling mushroom cloud and suplex a great wyrm. VERMILLION is a successor project to that. Smaller, 4m tall machines compared to the BioVARG, VERMILLION units combine the firepower and armor of an armored squadron with a combat chassis which can still be used effectively in urban environments. Standard weapons systems include a Multi Weapons System with both a conventional IX-22 chaingun and a Relativistic Energetic Impactor-a high-power particle beam, as well as an integral 60mm automatic mini-mortar, but they can use almost all combat walker munitions. Deploying a platoon of VERMILLION units would provide significant assault support. Just... don't lose most of them. You're going to need them for North Korea.
[ ] X-PROG-311B Assault VTOL Squadron (Modified): It's a quartet of heavily customized ARCs with psychic squid-brains installed. All the fun of an AI-controlled tactical battle platform, with all the fun of a psychic war squid that can set you on fire with your mind. The X-PROG-311Bs are designed for airborne insertion of small teams, with a cargo capacity of up to six humans, plus retractable handholds for heavy assault units like ORIONs or superheavy symbiont armors.
[ ] Pan-Immunity Nanovirus: Hostile Reality Deviants are often capable of a wide variety of biological, chemical, and neurological attack. This (Prime 3/Life 2/Mind 1) injected inoculation temporarily replaces the injectee's immune system with an artificially intelligent one capable of networked and intelligent countermeasures against biological or neurological intrusion. Lympathic nodes are also temporarily reconfigured to create antidotes to all known hostile chemical agent, with a heuristic capability of reverse-engineering and countering the majority of unknown chemical agents. Side effects are minor and easily mitigated.
[ ] Damage Control Militarization Protocol: Professor Jiang "Jon" Li has been heavily invested in the militarization of Damage Control, leading to quite a lot of increase in the theoretical availability of heavy gear. Damage Control itself has been less enthusiastic about loading up on it, meaning that quite a lot of them are a bit rusty. After all, they don't need a 3 meter tall Superheavy Symbiont or a Helix Ripper for most missions, which are something like "whoops some guy accidentally rediscovered the Path of Making Zombies. Get some regular bullet guns and shoot them all in the head before it ends up on Youtube." So most of the time the heavy stuff stays at home to save on maintenance. Requesting that everyone roll in heavy will drastically uparm the conventional Damage Control forces-symbiont and powered armor instead of anti-breach combat skins, increased access to biotoxic and chemical munitions, authorization for employing the less subtle paramilitaries of Damage Control like DC Shock Troopers, and heavy support such as superheavy symbionts and heavy combat constructs.
[ ] The Ragnarok Command Mystery Box: Who knows what the THOR methodology will get you? I certainly don't at this moment. It might be a giant robot. It might be two giant robots. It might be an AI cybertank. Or it might just be a HITMark VI. Or, well, it might be a few hundred cyborgs with powered armor and HVAP rifles. Or an orbital strike platform. Or it might just be an orbital strike, by which I mean 'they fire a cyborg at Mach 10 into the kill zone.'
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