@Poliamida Omake time!
Name of Group: Heavy Gear
Codenames of parahumans in group: Ladybug, Tech-Priest, Imp, Nia, Newt, The Fight.
Disposition: Vigilantes
General information and event summary: Heavy Gear is a vigilante organization believed to be founded by Ladybug (AKA Taylor Hebert) and Tech-Priest (AKA Peter Brown) sometime shortly after the two triggered. Their first recorded encounter with the Wards ended in assault with unknown tinker technology and throwing debris into the eyes of the Wards team leader as peaceful contact was attempted.
They are suspected to have burned Winslow High School to stop the bullying campaign that is speculated to have been responsible for Hebert's Trigger Event. They then went on to use lethal force against Coil's (AKA Thomas Calvert) mercenaries in an attempt to rescue two children Coil had procured for an unknown purpose. This resulted in their first conversation with Armsmaster, in which they were openly anti-authority and belligerent about the potential problems caused by their use of lethal force.
They then were spotted several times breaking into hospital rooms and veterinary clinics, apparently to conduct unauthorized and unmonitored experimentation on human and animal subjects to develop their new cybernetics-based healing technology. This technology is speculated to be the source of their Brute and Mover ratings while being integrated into the human body (see file Jacob Strom for an instance of a replaced heart). The robotic organisms were of great use in the crises of the coming month for healing third parties, are apparently immune to EMP attacks (see file Bakuda), and have extensive communications arrays and sensor systems forming a functional hive mind mechanical organism.
The cybernetic organisms appear to be autonomous and capable of some limited amount of self replication, with heavier combat models being developed as needed within some unknown limitations. They exist primarily underground, digging tunnels through solid bedrock across the city in hours and using these and Heavy Gear's portals to move rapidly across the city, functionally creating a light and not so light (see file Heavy Gear Combat Units) rapid response force.
The Heavy Gear member known as "The Fight" (see attached pictures, including before and after full body replacement augmentation) was instrumental in bringing Lung in during her first appearance, and based on Armsmaster's report only spared his life due to "wanting to fight him again". This demonstrates a remarkably sociopathic mental state where violence is one of the only acceptable methods of communication.
When pressured to come to a meeting about the problems Bakuda caused for the city, the representative they sent was a hologram projector that projected one Belisarius Cawl (see attached pictures). This was apparently a ruse by Peter Brown to explain why his technology used so many different paradigms by adding a second (fictional) Tinker to Heavy Gear's ranks. It also deflected the suspicion of the PRT away from the younger members of the group and onto an older, more mysterious backer. This ruse was partially successful. A not inconsiderable amount of analyst time and decision making was done with the assumption that Cawl was a real person and attempting to find out more about him even though he made no in person appearances thereafter with an exception for the villain truce meeting.
Heavy Gear claimed territory in some of the poorest and most run down areas of the city during and after the terrorist campaign perpetrated by Bakuda and the "Asian Bad Boys" gang. There has been no reports to date of them committing extortion or racketeering, but whether this is because the territories in question have no financial resources to speak of or because they are uninterested in personal financial wealth remains to be seen. Analysis suspects a combination of both factors at play, as the children do not appear to understand advanced financial matters and also do not appear to want any tribute beyond Tinkering materials.
The ABB attempted to break their members out of prison, but were recaptured by Glory Girl of New Wave, with support from Heavy Gear. According to testimony provided by Glory Girl, Tech-Priest was instrumental in disabling Lung, utilizing some kind of sonic weapon improvised from his technology and the sound system in a local theater. The sound system was examined and found to have suffered minor damage from drawing too much electrical current as well as damage from accessing components, but no unknown technology was recovered. Ultimately the breakout attempt was unsuccessful due to heroic forces, but Heavy Gear's role was downplayed for PR reasons.
Heavy Gear deployed a great many emergency prefabricated shelters, as well as water purification services to areas impacted by the previous events. They do not appear to have demanded tribute except in the form of tinkering materials, which is in line with their lack of extortion previously mentioned. This could create a long term problem for the city, as Heavy Gear is anti-authority in the extreme (though not outrageously so by cape standards) and could easily decide they don't need the city if they keep building their own infrastructure. As things stand, the city is losing out on a significant amount of money from normal services such as Water, Power and Medical Care if Heavy Gear continues providing these things via Tinker made technology for free.
The reveal that Coil was PRT Director Thomas Calvert appears to have been orchestrated by Heavy Gear. They raided a Fortress Construction building and hacked into the records there while staging an assasination attempt on Calvert's person. While it is unknown at this time precisely what Coil's power was, it appears to be a high-rated Thinker ability given the sheer number of illegal activities he hid successfully from the PRT. They then sent this to the media, presumably in an effort to publicly damage the PRT's image, as well as create a public pressure campaign to clean up the villain population of the city and discredit the PRT's lines about Heavy Gear being unlawful vigilantes with a "both same" campaign.
The local gang "Empire 88" then proceeded to attack Heavy Gear's territory, presumably because the ABB was revealed to be defunct by Bakuda having fled the city. They chose the date of May 5th, coinciding with the Celebrations of the "Cinco De Mayo" ethnic holiday, and Heavy Gear seemingly took this as a declaration of war and acted accordingly. Bringing out never before seen combat variations of their healing and attack robots, the vigilantes deployed a Mutated Humanoid Cape known as "Newt" previously spotted on patrols in their territory, heavier Sniper units that fire large caliber magnetic projectiles as well as the newly full-body-augmented "The Fight". This resulted in the ultimate death or capture of multiple capes and unpowered gang members, as well as deaths and injuries to many civilians and massive amounts of destroyed public and private property.
When asked about this, Heavy Gear appeared to be unrepentant, placing blame solely on the Empire Capes that started the battle. They willingly turned the survivors over to the PRT for incarceration, and that seemed to be the end of the situation temporarily.
The breakout attempt targeting the incarcerated Empire members happened a handful of days later, and Heavy Gear knew it was coming just as much as the PRT did. Seismic inspections indicate that they had tunnels around the prison connected to their cybernetic organism network at least 24 hours before the attempted breakout. Their response could have been faster, with Ladybug and TechPriest being trapped in the distraction attack on the school festival perpetrated by Uber and Leet on Kaiser's orders.
Despite the delay, Heavy Gear ultimately responded in force and, combined with Protectorate responders, managed to capture several enemy capes and prevent a general breakout. During the fighting, both Kaiser and Kreig were killed, one by an unknown assailant using a mixture of insect poisons and the other in an exploding vehicle. Kreig's body had no evidence of bug bites, nor was Ladybug spotted inside the prison while Kaiser was spotted going in and out of the building. It is unknown what happened to Krieg at this time. Kaiser's death could have been consistent with Heavy Gear's willingness to use extreme force, but the vehicle's explosion was not consistent with any of Heavy Gear's known weapons.
A short time later the PRT attempted to open negotiations with Taylor Hebert and Peter Brown at their home. Armsmaster went in with a PRT operative as backup and multiple PRT teams and Heroes standing by to assist, hoping to talk the children down from the violent vigilante path Cawl had put them down. After convincing Daniel Hebert to allow them to speak to the children and verifying that he is not Cawl, Armsmaster spoke to the children and was met with violent threats despite not threatening anything except a search of the premises. Daniel Hebert refused the search of his home and threatened PR attacks on the PRT if the case against his children went to court (see file Sophia Hess AKA Shadow Stalker).
Heavy Gear appears to have known about the Civilian Identities of multiple Wards and Protectorate Members, including Shadow Stalker and Armsmaster. It is speculated that this is a result of their sensor network having covered most of the city, but could also be a result of Thinker support from Tattletale or others or a result of raiding Coil's files.
As this discussion was concluding, the Endbringer alarms went off due to the prediction Algorithms developed by Armsmaster and Dragon. Armsmaster and PRT Agent Macintosh left the Hebert home to get his gear for the coming battle. Heavy Gear also left expeditiously, using their portals to go to wherever their base is in the city.
Heavy Gear was not present at the preparation location for the battle, and it is suspected that they needed time to get their heavier units prepared and ready. During the battle Levithan's movement was unpredictable and even more erratic than usual, and it is suspected that he was responding to some kind of movements from Heavy Gear. The battle proceeded mostly as normal, except for the assistance of the Heavy Gear Healer Nia singlehandedly resulting in a 25% reduction in casualties and an unusually high number of shelter breaches suspected to have been done to divert Heavy Gear's resources away from the battle as they tried to rescue trapped civilians.
Ultimately the battle ended when The Fight arrived with Clockblocker and Flechette carrying Armsmaster's experimental Nanothorn halberd modified with Tech-Priest's technology. Using targeting and power interaction information provided by the villain Tattletale, they successfully locked Leviathan in place using Clockblocker's power and bisected it using this weapon and power combination. While the Endbringers have suffered grievous bodily harm before, this appeared to hit something vital and the creature did not regenerate as expected. While we are waiting on the limited anti-Endbringer analysis possible, we suspect that this combination successfully killed Leviathan.
Personnel:
Ladybug (aka Taylor Hebert): Serious and deceptively calm. Respectful of heroes but not deferential, and seems to actively resent authority attempting to impose limits upon her.
Controls all insects in an unknown range and regularly carries significant tinker made weapons and equipment. Appears to have unknown levels of interpretation of her bug's senses, and can issue orders that blatantly run counter to the creature's instincts.
Ratings: Master 6, Thinker 3 (bug senses)
Sub ratings for common Tinker provided equipment include Mover 3 (often has a Flight equipment of unknown ability), Thinker 2 (Heavy Gear's visors include communications equipment and sensor packages), Master/Stranger 3 (Visual Hallucinations with an unknown range and quantity)
Tech-Priest (aka Peter Brown): Distant. Suspected that he has Autism or some other social and emotional development issue. Hardly ever speaks unless directly addressed, and even then appears to find allowing others to speak for him acceptable. Testimony from his teachers displays a bright and stubborn child that takes active effort to get out of his self-imposed social shell. Good enough at Math to be notable as a prodigy for his age, as well as an unusually high level of historical knowledge about the world at large.
Appears to be some kind of Free Tinker, possibly with some level of Thinker aspect as well to account for the knowledge above the norm for his age. Created the Cyborg War Machines that Heavy Gear seems to use as enforcers, as well as multiple Electromagnetic Pulse Devices created using different mechanical principles to achieve the same goal. We do not currently know what causes his technology to change paradigms, but the sheer variety of technology he produces makes him an exceptional threat.
It is suspected that there is some kind of time basis for his technology changing, as that would explain the addition of more War Machine units over time. With the Light Shield units, the slower moving Machine Gun Turrets that are mainly seen following Imp on patrols, and the Laser based units all only appearing in response to the perceived Empire threat later in Heavy Gear's active timeframe, and them being partially based on different technological principles than the first few units like the Healing Drones they were spotted testing at the hospital.
Tech-Priest has explicitly confirmed that he cannot build more of his technology, including stating "that information is no longer in my brain". This implies an exceptional understanding of his technology by Tinker Standards, and also confirms the (previously only speculated) time constraints he operates under.
Known Technology produced includes: Cybernetic Self Replicating War Machines that form a variety of combat and support units, a Plasma Blade capable of cutting through all known matter, devices to create visual and auditory illusions with unknown levels of range and quality, Visors that appear to possess a super computer worth of sensors and processing power, Flight gear of an unknown performance profile, gels that include movement enhancement and an anti-gravity effect, an implement that creates an edge to cut through exotic effects, and a variety of other devices to numerous to practically list here.
Ratings: Tinker 11 (self replicating war machines that would respond in unknown ways to his death but currently do not seem to be overly intelligent), Thinker 2 (unconfirmed but far more knowledgeable than a child his age should be about a variety of topics per reports from his teachers)
The Fight: Sociopathic. Unempathetic. Appears to be willing to allow full body replacement augmentation, which displays either a significant amount of trust in Tech-Priest or a significant amount of apathy about her own life. Either is very concerning. It is unknown whether the other members of Heavy Gear have positive interactions with her, but interactions with the cape known as "Newt'' appear to be largely respectful.
See Chevalier's Report: [Redacted]
"The Fight" is often deployed alone (see combat footage taken during the assaination attempt on Thomas Calvert), and has displayed the greatest amount of technical proficiency at combat of any member of Heavy Gear. Has displayed significant strength and durability including resistance to various energy attacks, especially post full body augmentation. Suspected to have a Thinker power related to combat skills.
Ratings: Mover 6, Brute 6, Thinker 2 (unconfirmed).
Newt: Boisterous and charismatic. Seems to prefer minimal clothing. She bears no visible Case 53 marking and possesses obviously non-human physical characteristics. This is a combination that is rare, but not impossible and has been seen before in new triggers, especially Changers.
See Chevalier's Report: [Redacted]
Powers: A pair of giant arms that act as a short range Brute projection as well as Pyrokinesis.
Ratings: Mover 4, Blaster 4, Brute 6
Nia: Aloof and teasing, calls Tech-Priest "Master" in a video taken of the two. Has non-human aspects to her appearance (see pictures). Appears to be the newest member of Heavy Gear.
See Chevalier's Report: [Redacted]
Powers: Heals using an unknown energy source and method, verified by Panacea to be safe enough for regular use. Has an energy pool that is used for producing healing effects. As it is a well known fact that there are no true parahuman healers, merely powers that have an aspect that can manifest as healing, it is suspected that she can use her powers more offensively but this has yet to be observed in field use. Was observed reviving the recently dead during the Battle against Leviathan, though according to her there is a time window on how long the corpse can be dead for this to still work. Also appears to have a pool of energy that she pulls from for her healing, meaning that her endurance is sharply limited.
Ratings: Striker/Shaker 6 (Healing, revival of recently dead people, and potential combat applications for her power that are as yet unreported)
Imp (Suspected Civilian Name Aisha Laborn): Civilian name is unconfirmed, but Aisha Labron is Peter Brown's closest friend at school and Imp is the correct height, age and build for her. Violently inclined but no recorded maimings or killings so far. Often seen patrolling with 4 of Heavy Gear's Turret combat robots to provide fire support while she uses enhanced mobility to flank.
Powers: Unknown at this time.
Ratings: Mover 3, Brute 3 with potential described in other sections for additional ratings based on equipment provided by Tech-Priest.
Association with the Undersiders: Heavy Gear appears to have an active Truce with the small time thief gang known as the Undersiders. It is suspected that this Truce extends to medical care from Heavy Gear and to Thinker support from Tattletale. The two have steered clear of each other during public cape battles and met on several occasions in public without coming to blows. The Undersiders notably have not been spotted committing any of their thief jobs since Heavy Gear has been active in the city. Whether this is self preservation, the two have an alliance, or the Undersiders decided to turn Vigilante like Heavy Gear is unknown.
Recommended Strategies: Recruitment is now a top priority for any and all members of Heavy Gear. The possibility of criminal charges has already been raised, but now is made more difficult by the fact that a member of Heavy Gear struck the killing blow against an Endbringer, making such charges toxic to public relations. The blow from Shadow Stalker's actions reaching the public would have been bad, but filing charges against the people who helped kill an Endbringer would be an order of magnitude worse.
The combination of powers used to kill Leviathan was primarily made from Protectorate and Wards personnel, but we cannot be certain that the strike would have worked without the modifications to the Nanothorn provided by Tech-Priest's technology or The Fight's likely Thinker ability for combat to enable targeting. Also, the technology employed to hold Leviathan in place, provide transportation to the strike team and locate the target was almost exclusively Heavy Gear's areas. This would be invaluable as a support network if deployed to future Enbringer battles, on top of the medical care provided by Nia and the healing drones.
Pressure on Daniel Hebert should be exerted, potentially including revisiting contracts with the Dockworkers Union for post battle logistics employment opportunities. Pressure will also be exerted on Ladybug, probably via Gallant offering to mentor her through the new found public relations minefields Heavy Gear now finds themselves inside. Another avenue of approach is to pressure their attempts to start a logistics business using Tech-Priest's portals to allow instant deliveries across the city. Simply offering to expedite their approval and remove legal obstacles may be enough, as they primarily appear to want to instigate capital investment in the sections of the city and that could be helped or hindered immensely with the PRT's resources.
Regardless, no overtly combative action against Heavy Gear is to be taken without Chief Director Costa-Brown's direct and explicit prior approval. The presence of Heavy Gear's War Machines throughout the city is an unacceptable risk even without the problem of potential civilian casualties, potential PR problems, and informational threats produced by Heavy Gear's information warfare technology, or what new technology Tech-Priest could come up with next.
