Update XXVII: Divide and Conquer
JB XXVII: Divide and Conquer
Director Petrokov is having a very bad early morning. He had just gotten to work after getting another fix of his preferred product, and his lovely morning was interrupted by two SUVs, a gold-plated BTR, and a (probably stolen) Paladin Sedan ramming their way through a three-inch thick titanium wall, destroying two of his emplaced gun turrets, and disgorging a squad of very, very suspicious looking figures who proceeded to methodically disable his security cameras within a few seconds.
They didn't give him a very good look at who they are, but he suspects they're Tunguskans and Virtual Adepts. Choristers wouldn't have brought quite the same level of firepower. He looks at the pattern they took the cameras out-yes, it's clear now. They took out the ones near their entrance, and made sure to take out the cameras in the stairwells heading down first, before going back up and eliminating the ones in the stairwells heading upwards, and are slowly moving to take those out. Yes. They must be moving to attack him. "Irina. Deal with the intruders. I have work to do."
His assistant in the hardened command center nods. "Deploying emergency barriers." Armored blast doors seal shut, forcing the enemy to go through the heavy defenses, rather than merely bypassing them, while allowing his forces relatively free movement. The elevators, he knows, will be secure. You'd have to be suicidal to enter an elevator in the middle of a Construct. Mikhail is busy coordinating the automated defense deployment, moving turrets across hidden rails to focus on defending the control center, and making sure backup systems are viable.
Director Petrokov has one more task, though, one only he can do. He keys the intercom, sends a message to all his workers. Fortunately, most of them were here working late, pulling night-shifts. Otherwise he would have been drastically undermanned for this. "This is Director Petrokov. I believe we are behind schedule on a project called Flaming Mongoose?" Cameras across the roof cut off from missile strikes. He orders his soldiers to deploy to counteract this.
Lizaveta Petrov is an accountant working for Molotek. She is a mother of two, and is looking forward to finishing this day so she can go back to her husband and children. She opens the locked cabinet in her desk and grabs the AK-101 and its 40mm grenade launcher from under the false floor, the armor vest from behind the coat rack. She knows her desk has been reinforced to survive small arms fire and will be an excellent ambush position.
Shura Romanov is a secretary for Molotek. When the call goes out, he knows what his job is. He looks at the lining of his suit-ah, yes, the explosive weave in it is still there, as is the directional micro-shrapnel. Pretend to surrender to the enemy, feign sympathy, and then self-detonate. As one of the youngest workers and one who lacks any close family who will be concerned with his disappearance, he has been volunteered for this task.
Filipp Ivanov is a data entry clerk. He has just proposed to his girlfriend. He opens his computer tower, revealing that most of it was just disguise for a tiny hypertech machine. Inside is a military-grade vest, a brace of grenades, and a machine pistol, loaded with high-velocity armor piercing rounds. He checks the pistol with the expertise of a trained commando and moves to intercept the hostiles.
Genya Fodorov is working as a janitor on the ground floor. He didn't want this job, but it paid better than the alternatives. He sidles over to the receptionist, looks at her meaningfully, and she nods, tossing him a heavy shotgun loaded with explosive ammunition. He mechanically racks the action, then scans the stairwell door like an special forces operative as floor tiles hinge upwards, becoming cover against incoming gunfire.
Inga Popov is an associate with Director Petrokov's breakway faction of NWO and Syndicate operatives. She expected another quiet day. She didn't expect to have been told to secure the motor pool against any incoming hostiles, just in case they're sending a few stragglers to steal a getaway vehicle. She definitely didn't expect to be told to crash-start all their HITMarks, both the old HITMark IIIs and the newer HITMark Vs, because of an incoming attack. She most definitely didn't expect that the attack would come with near-zero warning while the HITMarks were in cold storage. So when she hears that Security Checkpoint Delta is under assault by Superstitionists, she starts panicking. Well, she would be panicking if her emotions hadn't been suppressed by NWO brainwashing. Under NWO brainwashing, she is merely mildly annoyed.
She watches the reports impassively as she starts booting up the combat machines. Unfortunately, it's a cold-start, not a warm-start, and the four machines respond slowly, oh-so slowly. The high-density superconducting toroids of the IIIs have to be stored in a discharged fashion, same with the miniature reactors of the Mark V, and it takes minutes for them to start up. She sees several employees get torn apart despite taking cover behind reinforced steel cover by what looks like a solid laser beam from a bandage-wrapped intruder carrying a stolen Technocratic HMG-probably a HITMark they repurposed, she thinks, and mentally adjusts her estimates on how long it'll take. A ricocheting gunshot kills another pair of repurposed Molotek employees, and she adjusts the time she has a few seconds downwards as she frantically overrides safeties to get the HITMarks to activate faster.
Two more follow them, and a horde of consors, apparently solely to clear the area, moving quickly, too quickly for human reactions. One of them is in black powered armor, a Technocratic variant. She finds that suspicious, but the Tunguskans have plenty of them from defections. Another is wearing a combat chassis she isn't quite sure of. She wonders if it's a Tunguskan design or if it's something else. Both have IX-15s, weapons significantly more advanced than the X-12 Close Combat Intervention System that she's carrying in case she needs to defend themselves. The one in the strange combat chassis is phenomenally lethal, parkouring over cover while firing the IX-15 one handed. It's a foolish firing stance for anyone else, but whoever he-or she-is manages it well, nailing perfect headshots every time whenever someone pokes their head so much as a centimeter above their cover, putting short bursts through anyone who manages to hide. The HITMark and other power armored RD seem to have given up on matching the man's killcount and have settled for making sure nobody can flank him and catch him in a crossfire as he runs through hails of gunfire and grenades without so much as being hit once.
Inga mentally reduces the time she has even further. She's going to be cutting it close.
A heavy behemoth of Tunguskan make charges through concentrated autocannon fire from several turrets on Checkpoint Alpha, staggers, forcefield flaring, from stepping over an anti-tank mine, and then manages to make it through the fire, putting its nuclear-powered flamethrowers to use and melting the gun turrets, and the employees manning them, into bubbling radioactive goo. But it isn't entirely one-sided. One of the hostiles is slightly too slow and takes a direct hit from a 40mm gyroc from a modified RG-6. She flies backwards, smoke pouring out of the fist-sized wound in her torso, and bursts into pink mist. A dying employee on Delta waits until one of the consors gets close and then self-detonates, mortally wounding the unfortunate subject.
At least some of them are going down, Inga thinks. But they're almost through. She's 90% complete on the HITMark deployment. She just needs a few more-
She hears the cacophonous roar of an Iteration X heavy machine gun as orange tracers literally saw their way through the heavily reinforced door and kick it down. Desperately, she reaches for the "HARD LAUNCH" button, overriding everything to activate the HITMarks, even partially charged. She takes several hits as one of them shoots her again and again, but she ignores the fatal wounds from NWO conditioning and- Jamelia's precision shot takes off her hand at the wrist.
She slumps, her eyes facing the motor pool and the ex-Union assets. There's a Spectre limo there, as well as a Syndicate luxury car, a superbike, and a pair of Paladins designed to resemble Chaikas. She cannot let the Reality Deviants get access to any of them. If they do, she will be summoned again after her death, tormented eternally by the Baali's masters for sadistic fun. But perhaps she can- perhaps she can actually scuttle the vehicles. She whispers into her microphone, trying to command the vehicles to self-destruct.
She manages to pronounce the first syllable. Another gunshot. The world goes black.
Well, that experiment failed miserably. We'll go back to letting people do suggestions for multiple people for now.
Now, as for Enlightened Science: Notice that it's actually fairly organic to the people's skills and the genres involved. Director Petrovich, being ex-NWO, is activating brainwashed soldiers. Irina, as a Syndicate member, made sure to have heavy blast doors installed, and Mikhail is doing the Iteration X thing of "GUNS POPPING OUT WHEREVER I FEEL LIKE GUNS SHOULD POP OUT".
Anyways, because of a very timely botch, you now have access to two inactive HITMark Vs (Security Variant) and two inactive HITMark IIIs. You also have the aformentioned motor pool. This is probably a good thing because you just lost a Bob and the VAs are down one man. Molotek is serious business.
So vote time.
[ ] (0.8x) Assault upwards to the command center.
[ ] (1.2x) Assault downwards to the reactor. FYI: They probably realize what you're actually doing and that I-Am-Ivan-Man (who is, in fact, playing loud Russian heavy metal while he flamethrowers innocent Molotek employees) is the distraction, combined with Henriette.
[ ] (1.6x) Yeah fuck it, let's get out of here. Take a quick detour, hit the heavy equipment storage to see what's viable there, and grab all the vehicles and run. Henriette can remote drive.
[ ] (+0.2x to any one choice) take it slow. You're getting fatigued and you're getting sloppy, you better actually take a short break before you get, like, unluckily blindsided by a RPG-29. That'll probably grievously wound anyone short of Kessler, and even he's going to feel it.
Be Serafina:
[ ] (2.0x) Serafina needs to get to work pronto on deactivating this brainwashing. Tell me how.
[ ] (0.8x) Serafina is the only one here who can reprogram biochips, like the ones HITMark Vs run on. Have her start up the HITMark V (Security Variants) for your side.
[ ] Write-In
Be Henriette:
[ ] Continue distracting them.
[ ] Remotely assist the assault team (how?)
[ ] (2.0x) Make sure they can't self-destruct the motor pool.
[ ] (1.5x) Reprogram the HITMark IIIs. Sure, they're out of date early-20th century designs, but they're pretty well armed, what with an automatic grenade launcher and a heavy machine-gun, and they're almost as tough as the Vs, even if they're slower and less accurate.
Director Petrokov is having a very bad early morning. He had just gotten to work after getting another fix of his preferred product, and his lovely morning was interrupted by two SUVs, a gold-plated BTR, and a (probably stolen) Paladin Sedan ramming their way through a three-inch thick titanium wall, destroying two of his emplaced gun turrets, and disgorging a squad of very, very suspicious looking figures who proceeded to methodically disable his security cameras within a few seconds.
They didn't give him a very good look at who they are, but he suspects they're Tunguskans and Virtual Adepts. Choristers wouldn't have brought quite the same level of firepower. He looks at the pattern they took the cameras out-yes, it's clear now. They took out the ones near their entrance, and made sure to take out the cameras in the stairwells heading down first, before going back up and eliminating the ones in the stairwells heading upwards, and are slowly moving to take those out. Yes. They must be moving to attack him. "Irina. Deal with the intruders. I have work to do."
His assistant in the hardened command center nods. "Deploying emergency barriers." Armored blast doors seal shut, forcing the enemy to go through the heavy defenses, rather than merely bypassing them, while allowing his forces relatively free movement. The elevators, he knows, will be secure. You'd have to be suicidal to enter an elevator in the middle of a Construct. Mikhail is busy coordinating the automated defense deployment, moving turrets across hidden rails to focus on defending the control center, and making sure backup systems are viable.
Director Petrokov has one more task, though, one only he can do. He keys the intercom, sends a message to all his workers. Fortunately, most of them were here working late, pulling night-shifts. Otherwise he would have been drastically undermanned for this. "This is Director Petrokov. I believe we are behind schedule on a project called Flaming Mongoose?" Cameras across the roof cut off from missile strikes. He orders his soldiers to deploy to counteract this.
***
Lizaveta Petrov is an accountant working for Molotek. She is a mother of two, and is looking forward to finishing this day so she can go back to her husband and children. She opens the locked cabinet in her desk and grabs the AK-101 and its 40mm grenade launcher from under the false floor, the armor vest from behind the coat rack. She knows her desk has been reinforced to survive small arms fire and will be an excellent ambush position.
Shura Romanov is a secretary for Molotek. When the call goes out, he knows what his job is. He looks at the lining of his suit-ah, yes, the explosive weave in it is still there, as is the directional micro-shrapnel. Pretend to surrender to the enemy, feign sympathy, and then self-detonate. As one of the youngest workers and one who lacks any close family who will be concerned with his disappearance, he has been volunteered for this task.
Filipp Ivanov is a data entry clerk. He has just proposed to his girlfriend. He opens his computer tower, revealing that most of it was just disguise for a tiny hypertech machine. Inside is a military-grade vest, a brace of grenades, and a machine pistol, loaded with high-velocity armor piercing rounds. He checks the pistol with the expertise of a trained commando and moves to intercept the hostiles.
Genya Fodorov is working as a janitor on the ground floor. He didn't want this job, but it paid better than the alternatives. He sidles over to the receptionist, looks at her meaningfully, and she nods, tossing him a heavy shotgun loaded with explosive ammunition. He mechanically racks the action, then scans the stairwell door like an special forces operative as floor tiles hinge upwards, becoming cover against incoming gunfire.
***
Inga Popov is an associate with Director Petrokov's breakway faction of NWO and Syndicate operatives. She expected another quiet day. She didn't expect to have been told to secure the motor pool against any incoming hostiles, just in case they're sending a few stragglers to steal a getaway vehicle. She definitely didn't expect to be told to crash-start all their HITMarks, both the old HITMark IIIs and the newer HITMark Vs, because of an incoming attack. She most definitely didn't expect that the attack would come with near-zero warning while the HITMarks were in cold storage. So when she hears that Security Checkpoint Delta is under assault by Superstitionists, she starts panicking. Well, she would be panicking if her emotions hadn't been suppressed by NWO brainwashing. Under NWO brainwashing, she is merely mildly annoyed.
She watches the reports impassively as she starts booting up the combat machines. Unfortunately, it's a cold-start, not a warm-start, and the four machines respond slowly, oh-so slowly. The high-density superconducting toroids of the IIIs have to be stored in a discharged fashion, same with the miniature reactors of the Mark V, and it takes minutes for them to start up. She sees several employees get torn apart despite taking cover behind reinforced steel cover by what looks like a solid laser beam from a bandage-wrapped intruder carrying a stolen Technocratic HMG-probably a HITMark they repurposed, she thinks, and mentally adjusts her estimates on how long it'll take. A ricocheting gunshot kills another pair of repurposed Molotek employees, and she adjusts the time she has a few seconds downwards as she frantically overrides safeties to get the HITMarks to activate faster.
Two more follow them, and a horde of consors, apparently solely to clear the area, moving quickly, too quickly for human reactions. One of them is in black powered armor, a Technocratic variant. She finds that suspicious, but the Tunguskans have plenty of them from defections. Another is wearing a combat chassis she isn't quite sure of. She wonders if it's a Tunguskan design or if it's something else. Both have IX-15s, weapons significantly more advanced than the X-12 Close Combat Intervention System that she's carrying in case she needs to defend themselves. The one in the strange combat chassis is phenomenally lethal, parkouring over cover while firing the IX-15 one handed. It's a foolish firing stance for anyone else, but whoever he-or she-is manages it well, nailing perfect headshots every time whenever someone pokes their head so much as a centimeter above their cover, putting short bursts through anyone who manages to hide. The HITMark and other power armored RD seem to have given up on matching the man's killcount and have settled for making sure nobody can flank him and catch him in a crossfire as he runs through hails of gunfire and grenades without so much as being hit once.
Inga mentally reduces the time she has even further. She's going to be cutting it close.
A heavy behemoth of Tunguskan make charges through concentrated autocannon fire from several turrets on Checkpoint Alpha, staggers, forcefield flaring, from stepping over an anti-tank mine, and then manages to make it through the fire, putting its nuclear-powered flamethrowers to use and melting the gun turrets, and the employees manning them, into bubbling radioactive goo. But it isn't entirely one-sided. One of the hostiles is slightly too slow and takes a direct hit from a 40mm gyroc from a modified RG-6. She flies backwards, smoke pouring out of the fist-sized wound in her torso, and bursts into pink mist. A dying employee on Delta waits until one of the consors gets close and then self-detonates, mortally wounding the unfortunate subject.
At least some of them are going down, Inga thinks. But they're almost through. She's 90% complete on the HITMark deployment. She just needs a few more-
She hears the cacophonous roar of an Iteration X heavy machine gun as orange tracers literally saw their way through the heavily reinforced door and kick it down. Desperately, she reaches for the "HARD LAUNCH" button, overriding everything to activate the HITMarks, even partially charged. She takes several hits as one of them shoots her again and again, but she ignores the fatal wounds from NWO conditioning and- Jamelia's precision shot takes off her hand at the wrist.
She slumps, her eyes facing the motor pool and the ex-Union assets. There's a Spectre limo there, as well as a Syndicate luxury car, a superbike, and a pair of Paladins designed to resemble Chaikas. She cannot let the Reality Deviants get access to any of them. If they do, she will be summoned again after her death, tormented eternally by the Baali's masters for sadistic fun. But perhaps she can- perhaps she can actually scuttle the vehicles. She whispers into her microphone, trying to command the vehicles to self-destruct.
She manages to pronounce the first syllable. Another gunshot. The world goes black.
Well, that experiment failed miserably. We'll go back to letting people do suggestions for multiple people for now.
Now, as for Enlightened Science: Notice that it's actually fairly organic to the people's skills and the genres involved. Director Petrovich, being ex-NWO, is activating brainwashed soldiers. Irina, as a Syndicate member, made sure to have heavy blast doors installed, and Mikhail is doing the Iteration X thing of "GUNS POPPING OUT WHEREVER I FEEL LIKE GUNS SHOULD POP OUT".
Anyways, because of a very timely botch, you now have access to two inactive HITMark Vs (Security Variant) and two inactive HITMark IIIs. You also have the aformentioned motor pool. This is probably a good thing because you just lost a Bob and the VAs are down one man. Molotek is serious business.
So vote time.
[ ] (0.8x) Assault upwards to the command center.
[ ] (1.2x) Assault downwards to the reactor. FYI: They probably realize what you're actually doing and that I-Am-Ivan-Man (who is, in fact, playing loud Russian heavy metal while he flamethrowers innocent Molotek employees) is the distraction, combined with Henriette.
[ ] (1.6x) Yeah fuck it, let's get out of here. Take a quick detour, hit the heavy equipment storage to see what's viable there, and grab all the vehicles and run. Henriette can remote drive.
[ ] (+0.2x to any one choice) take it slow. You're getting fatigued and you're getting sloppy, you better actually take a short break before you get, like, unluckily blindsided by a RPG-29. That'll probably grievously wound anyone short of Kessler, and even he's going to feel it.
Be Serafina:
[ ] (2.0x) Serafina needs to get to work pronto on deactivating this brainwashing. Tell me how.
[ ] (0.8x) Serafina is the only one here who can reprogram biochips, like the ones HITMark Vs run on. Have her start up the HITMark V (Security Variants) for your side.
[ ] Write-In
Be Henriette:
[ ] Continue distracting them.
[ ] Remotely assist the assault team (how?)
[ ] (2.0x) Make sure they can't self-destruct the motor pool.
[ ] (1.5x) Reprogram the HITMark IIIs. Sure, they're out of date early-20th century designs, but they're pretty well armed, what with an automatic grenade launcher and a heavy machine-gun, and they're almost as tough as the Vs, even if they're slower and less accurate.
Willpower: 5/7
Prime Energy: 1/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incapacitated/Dying
Current Injuries: None
Current Effects:
Soak: 8B/7L/0A (6B/6L from armor, 4 Armor HLs)
Dodge DV: 6/10 (+1 Dexterity from Alanson)
Shockwave Codes: 0/1
Prime Energy: 1/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incapacitated/Dying
Current Injuries: None
Current Effects:
None
Paradox: 0Soak: 8B/7L/0A (6B/6L from armor, 4 Armor HLs)
Dodge DV: 6/10 (+1 Dexterity from Alanson)
Shockwave Codes: 0/1
Willpower: 10/10
Prime Energy: 5/5
Health Levels: -0 x 12/-1 x 5/-2 x 5/-4 x 4/Incapacitated/Dying
Current Injuries: Severe Epidermal Damage (10 Aggravated Health Levels)
Current Effects:
Special Abilities:
Dodge DV: 1/6
Prime Energy: 5/5
Health Levels: -0 x 12/-1 x 5/-2 x 5/-4 x 4/Incapacitated/Dying
Current Injuries: Severe Epidermal Damage (10 Aggravated Health Levels)
Current Effects:
Hot-shotted HVAP Ammunition (Matter/Forces 2, +[6] damage, ignores cover)
Paradox: 5 (5 permanent)Special Abilities:
Stabilizers: +2 Dexterity for the purposes of aiming or fine manipulation
Heavy Primium Endoskeleton: +3 Countermagic
Liefeld Coat: Arsenal 5, +4B/4L soak
Targeting Cybereyes: [1] automatic success to Firearms or Gunnery attacks
Soak: 15B/15L/5A (9B/9L from armor)Heavy Primium Endoskeleton: +3 Countermagic
Liefeld Coat: Arsenal 5, +4B/4L soak
Targeting Cybereyes: [1] automatic success to Firearms or Gunnery attacks
Dodge DV: 1/6
Willpower: 7/8
Prime Energy: 5/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-4/-4/Incapacitated/Dying.
Current Effects:
Special Abilities:
Bionanotech Integration: Immune to all mundane diseases and poisons, does not age.
Hyperoxygenated Blood: 6/6 charges. Usable for any of the below effects.
Dodge DV: 6/14
Prime Energy: 5/5
Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-4/-4/Incapacitated/Dying.
Regenerates 1 Bashing/Lethal HL a round (Bionanotech integration)
Heals Aggravated damage at normal speed.
Current Injuries: NoneHeals Aggravated damage at normal speed.
Current Effects:
Mindshield: +5 Mind Shield
Fast-Bayesian Pattern Matching: Time 2/DSci 1/Forces 1/Life 1/Mind 1 precognition
Paradox: 4Fast-Bayesian Pattern Matching: Time 2/DSci 1/Forces 1/Life 1/Mind 1 precognition
Special Abilities:
Bionanotech Integration: Immune to all mundane diseases and poisons, does not age.
Hyperoxygenated Blood: 6/6 charges. Usable for any of the below effects.
Reroll a failed or botched Stamina roll
Add an automatic success to a single roll
Gain an extra action
Heal 2 health levels of damage
Soak: 11B/11L/3A (8B/8L from armor)Add an automatic success to a single roll
Gain an extra action
Heal 2 health levels of damage
Dodge DV: 6/14
Willpower: 7/7
Prime Energy: 5/5
Paradox: 2 (2 permanent)
Prime Energy: 5/5
Paradox: 2 (2 permanent)
Willpower: 5/6
Prime Energy: 2/4
Paradox: 1
Prime Energy: 2/4
Paradox: 1
Last edited: