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

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Ooh yes this promises to be fun.

[X] Hell (mandatory choice)
[X] Militarized Wildlife. It turns out that one of the Izanagi defenses Major Clarent wasn't in charge of (but Akari was) is the fact that they have done certain things to the wildlife there. Swarm-intelligence fast-flying bees with high-power neurotoxin stingers. Fungal growths which create animal-infecting cordyceps variants to turn them into acid bombs. Giant underground tentacles with monomolecular bone spikes.
[X] A very, very large number of test subjects who were formerly Bobs or Victors or Lauras or failed constructs and subjected to experimental transgenic enhancement. This doesn't sound dangerous until you realize that these "experimental transgenic enhancements" include things like "can transform into optimized warform with anti-tank scything claws and hardened chitin armor proof against some light artillery pieces" and "suicide bomb variant whose organs and muscles are optimized to create a large explosion and spread monofilament shrapnel everywhere." Of course, others are things like Project LUCARD or other chaff-tier experiments who will get annihilated by Damage Control coming in heavy.
[X] Write-in: "Ah." Piero says happily as the enemy's secret weapon reveals itself. "They have a dragon. This will do." It looks like it was once a militarised dracoid-dinosaur, covered in primium scales - but the growth of its raw-looking, bleeding flesh and four bulging eyes has left only fragments of the attachment points on. It's so genetically unstable that even as he watches, thick lenses are growing over its eyes to protect it from the fumes.
 
Eh? Plan EarthScorpion works for me.

[X] Hell (mandatory choice)
[X] A very, very large number of test subjects who were formerly Bobs or Victors or Lauras or failed constructs and subjected to experimental transgenic enhancement. This doesn't sound dangerous until you realize that these "experimental transgenic enhancements" include things like "can transform into optimized warform with anti-tank scything claws and hardened chitin armor proof against some light artillery pieces" and "suicide bomb variant whose organs and muscles are optimized to create a large explosion and spread monofilament shrapnel everywhere." Of course, others are things like Project LUCARD or other chaff-tier experiments who will get annihilated by Damage Control coming in heavy.
[X] Write-in: Maybe Serafina should have been considering Iteration X a bit more rather than focusing mostly on cutting off Dr. Leon from the Progenitors, because a heavy cyborg team is part of the mass of test subjects. Their organic parts have subsumed their cybernetics, and their death-dealing weapons are now strange techno-organic things.
[X] Write-in: "Ah." Piero says happily as the enemy's secret weapon reveals itself. "They have a dragon. This will do." It looks like it was once a militarised dracoid-dinosaur, covered in primium scales - but the growth of its raw-looking, bleeding flesh and four bulging eyes has left only fragments of the attachment points on. It's so genetically unstable that even as he watches, thick lenses are growing over its eyes to protect it from the fumes.

Really, the only thing I cared about was giving Piero his Dragon, but the other picks are also cool.

We can save the "Suddenly, North Korea!" bit for one of the complications later in the process.
 
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linkhyrule5 said:
Insofar as there is a joke, it's that "shin" (Japanese for "new") is written the same as "shin" (English for "the front of your lower leg"). Also that @noliar is slightly confused - Donald lost his arm, not his leg, I believe. Though it's been a while so I might be confused myself.
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Donald had a meeting with Shin (as in the Hebrew letter) of the Abjad, taking ownership of that can of worms. He also has two legs.
 
I'm A-OK with whatever here so long as Piero gets to fight a dragon, and it looks like everyone agrees on that point at least.
 
Arcus said:
Godzilla vs Gojira vs Kong vs Achilles: King of Monsters.

There can only be one.
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Indeed.

How often does Piero really get to truly cut loose?

Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles, of Peleus' son, murderous, man-killer, fated to die, sing of the rage that cost the Achaeans so many good men and sent so many vital, hearty souls down to the dreary House of Death.

Piero: "Κρατήστε τη μπύρα μου και aυτό."
 
[X] Hell (mandatory choice)
[X] A very, very large number of test subjects who were formerly Bobs or Victors or Lauras or failed constructs and subjected to experimental transgenic enhancement. This doesn't sound dangerous until you realize that these "experimental transgenic enhancements" include things like "can transform into optimized warform with anti-tank scything claws and hardened chitin armor proof against some light artillery pieces" and "suicide bomb variant whose organs and muscles are optimized to create a large explosion and spread monofilament shrapnel everywhere." Of course, others are things like Project LUCARD or other chaff-tier experiments who will get annihilated by Damage Control coming in heavy.
[X] Write-in: Maybe Serafina should have been considering Iteration X a bit more rather than focusing mostly on cutting off Dr. Leon from the Progenitors, because a heavy cyborg team is part of the mass of test subjects. Their organic parts have subsumed their cybernetics, and their death-dealing weapons are now strange techno-organic things.
[X] Write-in: "Ah." Piero says happily as the enemy's secret weapon reveals itself. "They have a dragon. This will do." It looks like it was once a militarised dracoid-dinosaur, covered in primium scales - but the growth of its raw-looking, bleeding flesh and four bulging eyes has left only fragments of the attachment points on. It's so genetically unstable that even as he watches, thick lenses are growing over its eyes to protect it from the fumes.
 
Maugan Ra said:
Also Jamelia just really seems to like killing people using musical instruments.

No one's sure why and they're all a bit too afraid to ask.
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Imrix said:
Look, music class was a difficult time.
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If I recall correctly, Jamelia was trained to play multiple instruments as part of her NWO training. That would also have included lessons on how to kill a person with each instrument. It's not that she likes using them more than other weapons, but that they don't count as improvised weapons in her hands.

...also, hello, I read your entire huge thread and it was entertaining a bunch. I gave up thinking of a good first post to make compliments about the quest in exchange for making this post about a tiny detail instead. :V
 
Imrix said:
Look, music class was a difficult time.
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NWO Operative training requires a certain... breadth of 'soft' electives as well as the usual 'hard' ones like security bypassing, gunfights, CQC, and parkour.

People achieve those qualifications in various ways. Some learn poetry, others learn to paint, yet others learn to play an instrument. But there's still this desire to have gentleman spies in the NWO, which goes back to the Operatives and how they were mostly gentlemen spies and gentlemen detectives, and there's that institutional culture which suggests it. It doesn't hurt that NWO educational techniques are very advanced, which means that 'you are competent at creative writing' or something doesn't take that much time to instill.

And of course because the NWO wants results, while you're taking those classes, you learn how to kill people with the same tools you'll have on you. Like pens. Or paintbrushes. Or musical instruments. Did you know that a string instrument can be an excellent tool to hide fiber-wire garrotes in or conceal a whipsword?
 
MJ12 Commando said:
NWO Operative training requires a certain... breadth of 'soft' electives as well as the usual 'hard' ones like security bypassing, gunfights, CQC, and parkour.

People achieve those qualifications in various ways. Some learn poetry, others learn to paint, yet others learn to play an instrument. But there's still this desire to have gentleman spies in the NWO, which goes back to the Operatives and how they were mostly gentlemen spies and gentlemen detectives, and there's that institutional culture which suggests it. It doesn't hurt that NWO educational techniques are very advanced, which means that 'you are competent at creative writing' or something doesn't take that much time to instill.

And of course because the NWO wants results, while you're taking those classes, you learn how to kill people with the same tools you'll have on you. Like pens. Or paintbrushes. Or musical instruments. Did you know that a string instrument can be an excellent tool to hide fiber-wire garrotes in or conceal a whipsword?
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At least a few Traditionalists have died to neurotoxin laced paints. Even more have died after being stabbed with pencils.

People also tend to forget that warding against electronic surveillance doesn't protect you from an Operative with good eyesight and a sketchbook.
 
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Remember that Gregor Leon plays Go, but Piero does too. He mostly practices the Nuclear Tesuji though. He is extremely good at it.

This is a very good thing because you are facing a bunch of smartypants and therefore being very good at flipping the table when you're losing, throwing the playing board at the opponent, and punching them in the face is a vital skill to survive.

The top three choices for opposition are: A mutant hyperevolving dragon, a bunch of extreme exhuman Progenitor test subjects, and militarized wildlife, by the way. The next two most popular are the Obliterators and the Ayyliens.

@EarthScorpion convinced me that Shinji needs to get into the giant robot Sanjeet can pilot a dragon, right? So instead of giving him a regular biohorror giant robot you have gotten a dragon with an Enlightened pilot instead. The benefit of this is that you do not have to deal with an additional robot, which probably wasn't going to be a DSS-unit (but if you had gone with more heavy integration with RAGCOM and the VEs it might have been, so Henriette could get another giant robot fight in proper surroundings, which would clearly end with Jamelia activating the Dummy Plug System and crushing Sanjeet into paste). The penalty of this is that I figure that you need a fourth choice of potential Fun.

So let's talk Fun. Choose between:
[ ] Lurking underground, as part of the killteam waiting for the forces that will never come include several ex-Iterators. These are former Iteration X test subjects, flesh and implants warped by Progenitor experimentation. Damage Control's sensors don't even read them as human anymore, that's how mutated they are. Long, thick tendrils connect them to their weapons, and their helmets have too many eyes, all in the wrong places. They might be covered in conveniently concealing biomech armor right now, but everyone looking at those scans knows that what they're going to see underneath is going to give them nightmares. Or would, if they weren't Damage Control and didn't deal with terrible biohorror on a daily basis.

[ ] It looks like Gregor Leon and the rogue exhumans have wanted even their line troops to be more than human, and their loyal sympathizers are uncannily fighting in alliance with inhuman things. Gregor Leon's modified the crew of the Khmer Rouge-and the modified crew are deadlier. The Greys are taller, stronger, more psionically capable, and have teeth. The Mantons are sleeker, faster, smarter, and just as tough. The lizardmen have shed their disguises and now slither through the evacuated buildings and the perimeter, waiting to drag hapless Damage Control constables into their crushing grip. And there are units of what look like old Samurai suits-but armed with rather biohazardous weaponry. They're numerous and cumbersome, but there are a lot of them.

The Iterators are obviously a lot less numerous but significantly deadlier, because they're ex-radical transhuman Exceptional Citizens who embraced Supremacy-Harmony just a little too much. They're packing Devices, a fair bit of Primium, adaptive biologies, and all the fun toys of an Iteration X heavy unit (like exojocks) with all the fun toys of unEnlightened Progenitor heavy units. They also network really well with Ling and Sanjeet, which means that now their armor has an infantry screen. Fortunately there's not that many of them, and this means that Leon is going to have to rely on his sympathizers for mass, who are basically just... Technocratic employees with some middling end Technocratic equipment. Basic light powered armor, light railguns, 20 years into the future guns, etc.

On the other hand, the ayys are well, ayys. Numerous, dangerous in ambush, but significantly less deadly one-on-one. Unlike XCOM which starts out with ballistics and kevlar Damage Control has plasma/powered armor + gene mods. (And of course Leon's sympathizers with Union-issue non-Device gear are basically ADVENT in that case).
 
[X] Lurking underground, as part of the killteam waiting for the forces that will never come include several ex-Iterators. These are former Iteration X test subjects, flesh and implants warped by Progenitor experimentation. Damage Control's sensors don't even read them as human anymore, that's how mutated they are. Long, thick tendrils connect them to their weapons, and their helmets have too many eyes, all in the wrong places. They might be covered in conveniently concealing biomech armor right now, but everyone looking at those scans knows that what they're going to see underneath is going to give them nightmares. Or would, if they weren't Damage Control and didn't deal with terrible biohorror on a daily basis.


We have already seen a lot of X-COM inspired aliens already methinks.
 
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MJ12 Commando said:
@EarthScorpion convinced me that Shinji needs to get into the giant robot Sanjeet can pilot a dragon, right? So instead of giving him a regular biohorror giant robot you have gotten a dragon with an Enlightened pilot instead. The benefit of this is that you do not have to deal with an additional robot
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Oh noes we are fighting Mecha Godzilla

[X] Ayyliens, because I am a sucker for anything XCOM

Subjugation Corps vs ECOM go go go
 
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XCOM 2: JSDF edition? I'm sold.
[X] It looks like Gregor Leon and the rogue exhumans have wanted even their line troops to be more than human, and their loyal sympathizers are uncannily fighting in alliance with inhuman things. Gregor Leon's modified the crew of the Khmer Rouge-and the modified crew are deadlier. The Greys are taller, stronger, more psionically capable, and have teeth. The Mantons are sleeker, faster, smarter, and just as tough. The lizardmen have shed their disguises and now slither through the evacuated buildings and the perimeter, waiting to drag hapless Damage Control constables into their crushing grip. And there are units of what look like old Samurai suits-but armed with rather biohazardous weaponry. They're numerous and cumbersome, but there are a lot of them.
 
If we pick the ayys, will we have to fight Faceless equivalents? You know, undifferentiated mass of pink smart cells, shapeshifting, shapeshifter regeneration, resistance to penetrator weapons because they're goo, and other such nastiness?
 
[x] It looks like Gregor Leon and the rogue exhumans have wanted even their line troops to be more than human, and their loyal sympathizers are uncannily fighting in alliance with inhuman things. Gregor Leon's modified the crew of the Khmer Rouge-and the modified crew are deadlier. The Greys are taller, stronger, more psionically capable, and have teeth. The Mantons are sleeker, faster, smarter, and just as tough. The lizardmen have shed their disguises and now slither through the evacuated buildings and the perimeter, waiting to drag hapless Damage Control constables into their crushing grip. And there are units of what look like old Samurai suits-but armed with rather biohazardous weaponry. They're numerous and cumbersome, but there are a lot of them.

Partially gut desire. Partially because it'll help with the after-action stuff. The fact that Leon is so blatantly dealing with things from beyond the gauntlet should help with some of the political pushes we're looking at, and it's wrapped up neatly in a way that we can afford to just publicize to everyone, if it turns out that revealing the Man In White is going to be overly messy.
 
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