Cosmic Era [The Factbook]

by **Skaldia** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:08 pm

Articles Cont. III

Few would dare face the Meena Ascendant in combat, it's mastery of the parapsychic arts was only rivaled by it's excellence in developing and deploying arcanotech devices. Such was the competence and power of the Ascendant that very few people knew anything of it's actual identity. The core of the Ascendant was a great floating pylon, shaped in the fashion of a Judaeo-christian crucifix, but appended with a set of ceremonial wings, three sets of arms, and the writhing naked form of Meliboea, a formerly rogue parapsychic. The handful of people unfortunate enough to have encountered the Meena Ascendant and lived foolishly believed that the woman seemingly nailed to the flying winged cross was herself the Ascendant. Meliboea was formerly a New Themysciran black ops parapsychic. Her second to last mission sent her into a permanent parapsychic burn, leaving her unable to control her powers and driving her increasingly insane. Her last mission ended when the Ascendant captured her, drove a modified Wachowski probe through the back of her skull, and turned the woman into both a living shield and a power source.

The Ascendant drifted into the center of the chamber, the surrounding lights gleaming off it's composite outer shell, glistening off the pale skin of the amazon fixed to it's front. The only motion was Meliboea's chest rising and falling as she drew breath. The chamber seemed empty, but it was full of eyes, dozens were to watch the initiation of the Meena Ascendant into the Lunar Order. Some watched through formality, others were curious about what the enigmatic Ascendant might reveal about itself, others were simply fans of the entity, it's utter calm as the eye of the storm, it's dispassionate cruelty and incidental barbarism.

"In the beginning,' Meliboea spoke, her voice was hers, but the words coming out of her mouth belong to the Ascendant, 'there was darkness, and the world was without form. The breath of God stirred the void, and from that, creation was born.' There was a pause, before the naked woman, her limbs lashed to the Ascendant, spoke again. "In that darkness and void, there were entities, and from these entities, all life, everywhere, came into being. These primordial entities have been discovered, and documented. Doctor Samantha Grimm's 'space plankton' are the primordial essence of life. It is their millennia long cycle through the galaxy that is the germ of life. This is the origin of humanity, our species, all of our accomplishments, are nothing more than maggots writhing in an apple discarded from a distant tree. We stand on the cusp of our greatness, not knowing, that as a sentient species, we are nothing to the galactic ecosystem.

This is the great answer, the terrible answer, to why are we here? What is our purpose? We are here by accident, and we have no purpose.
"The galaxy is not empty,' the Ascendant spoke through Meliboea's blue-grey lips, 'At the peak of the Petroleum Era, when factories of burning coal churned out smoke, and leveled forests to feed the great engines of humanity, the Earth was nothing but a luminous petri dish. Our cities, the splendor and size of which we have not fully recovered, were nothing but glowing lumps of bacteria. It is the natural order of life to develop and progress. It is now time for humanity to progress, to leave the cradle or the corpse yard of Earth. The bacteria must grow, must advance.

Why should you, Meena Ascendant, be granted admission to the Lunar Order of the Anunnaki?

"In 2035 a joint lunar colony chartered by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Japan discovered the ruins of an alien city under the Sea of Serenity. This was kept above top secret, it was deemed correctly that the world at that time was no ready for the truth that humanity was not alone, and that there were other aliens and other civilizations beyond Earth. An alliance of intelligence agencies was created, and the Glassenheim Foundation was created. This organization would operate in utmost secrecy, retaining the knowledge of the lunar ruins and the alien culture, while searching both for more evidence of this culture, as well as reverse engineering the technology recovered.

This was a vital service, as one of the first round of things discerned from the ruins were major breakthroughs in material construction. This allowed for the creation of the arcologies, as well as the related geofronts, seacologies, and space habitats. This allowed for a concentration of resources, both in terms of physical goods and in terms of mind power. This was ultimately the most important thing derived from the Serenity Archive. Without these fortresses, humanity might have fallen into something worse than the Dark Age that followed the futility of the Resource War era. By our calculations, had installations like Hollingsworth Hole or bastions like New Philadelphia, Columbus II and Columbus III, or the Londinium Arcology, mankind might have been set back to the end of the Iron Age, with a population reduced to approximately 100 million, worldwide.

'There would be many more exploration missions, searching the lunar surface looking for more ruins. More ruins were found, pyramids, ziggurats, buried cities, all covered in the lunar lava, all the same age. From these ruins more technology was found, their writing system was found, and connections were made. The written language of the lunar culture was very similar to the high form of Sumerian cuneiform. This revelation splinted the Glassenheim foundation into a number of factions. The Foundation was torn between it's duty in protecting the lunar culture, and the manifest desire to understand and exploit the technology discovered for the benefit of the Foundation. Thankfully, for mankind, this second faction, the Sefiroth cabal, won out. This was what drove the Second Renaissance, and allowed for the creation of everything from our modern society to my very existence before you.' The Ascendant rose and rotated.[/i]

Mateus

The entity Mateus, also known as the Meena Ascendant first appeared on record in India, along the Kashmir border. The area was a hotbed of wastelander, silk road terrorist, and agitators. At that point, Mateus had a minimalist cruciform body and lacked the ornamental wings. The entity demonstrated impressive technomantic capability, commandeering combat equipment, hacking mecha operating systems, and even infiltrating local data networks and intel systems. This alone would have made the entity a formidable foe. The Meena Ascendant also was armed with a number of high energy weapons, arcanotech weaponry, and the terrifying ability to manifest a Higgs graviton beam without mechanical components.

One op was dispatched to eliminate the entity. New Themyscira's HERA (Homeland Espionage and Reconnaissance Agency) deployed a five woman team. Four of the women have vanished and are presumed deceased, while the fifth now graces the front of Mateus like a callous hood ornament. The entity has full control over Meliboea, including using her water affinity and parapsychic powers for it's own use. This has manifested in not just water manipulation, but enhanced telekinesis, and the ability to create palings, or shields, around itself.

'The contents of the archives found on the Moon, especially the Sea of Showers archive, drove the Second Renaissance. Within it we discovered the secrets to unlock genetic manipulation, allowing mankind to sculpt his own genome with the same skill as the Old Masters of the Italian Renaissance. Within a generation, age old maladies were wiped away. The names of the diseases are unimportant, they've been gone long enough that their horrors are forgotten. Cancer is as relevant today as the Bubonic plague, or smallpox. Laughable.

Now we have phenocladistics, genetic classing, cloning, and cosmetic modifications. We are designing the next ten generations of humanity, creating new strains of mankind, new breeds and sub-species, all engineered to their great and wondrous tasks. Imagine, century long plans to create a new humanity to use technology that doesn't exist yet. And in the Cosmic scale of things, we are just falling out of the petri dish, the first polyps budding off of a tiny coral reef in a vast and empty ocean.

From that seed we bore rich fruit. Giant war machines, mecha, that fight, where our ancestors fought in wheeled metal boxes. Guns that shoot light, x-rays, even the fundamental element of gravity has been harnessed into a tool and a potent weapon. The CogNet and immersive entertainment let humanity plug their brains and pleasure centers directly into the media machine. Anthropotronics guide human emotions, the masses are happy, their ire directed, their passion focused, and their hands kept busy.

'Our warring has changed. In the Petroleum Era,mankind devised Unlimited Warfare. Entire cities were burned, charred with incendiaries, conventional explosives, and atomic weapons. In the Resource Wars, we saw the culmination of this, in places entire nations were burned away. The Wastelands are a reminder of what happens when control slips. Radioactive ruins, poisoned land, haunted by ghosts and zealots. We learned much, painfully, in the echoes. The wars of the past could not be the wars of the future. The power of the weapons that humanity now wield dwarf that of the past. How could one discuss something as barbaric and archaic as the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction when there are ships that have energy weapons that generate explosive yields measured in megatons

by **Skaldia** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 8:08 am

Articles Cont. IV

The latinos and Amazonians have something that many of the other power blocs lack, cohesion and unity. One of the things that draws the United States of South America together like no other superstate is the ancient Peruvian tradition of Takanakuy. In the old tradition, near the end of the year, a single day was set aside for the settling of grievances in the most ancient of human traditions, beating the crap out of each other. This left the new year a clean slate. When the superstate was forming centuries ago, to check the power and adventurism of the now defunct Estatos Unitos (the US) this tradition was adopted across the different nations to ensure that all the nations with in the EUAdS.

The Day of Boiling Blood
The Day of Boiling Blood is a festival and ritual ceremony of violence. In ancient times, the fights that broke out were between individuals. Men and rare women would don homemade armor, and duke it out in fist fights. This was adopted into an almost gladiator style event with some matches being spectator events.

Intranational Fights
Disputes between the member nations of the EUAdS have been settled on the Day of Boiling Blood. A politician who is able to deliver a bare knuckle beat down to his opponent can expect favorable results in the next election, while getting trounced is almost always followed by a failed election, a resignation, or even a recall vote. This has gotten more citizens involved in politics, largely brought about the end of long term politicians (there are only so many beat-downs you can manage before old age or injury take the fight out of you) and limited conflict between the member states.

Celebrity Fights
Nothing brings out the pride of the Latin bloc quite like a celebrity feud. After a year of trash talking and posturing, the two rivals meet in a televised spectacle of blood, semi-nudity, and displays of prowess and dominance.

Corporate Fights
Shadowrunning is much lower key in the Latin states as the various corporations are able to call each other out on the Day of Boiling Blood. Rather than violent wars in the shadows, the corps fight in plain sight, with their champions battling like literal gladiators. While this has fostered more cooperation between the corps, it has seen a decrease in shadow ops prowess leaving the latin corps often at a disadvantage against multinationals. This has lead to serious bad blood between the EUAdS and Nippon, the leaders in the shadow war game.

by **Skaldia** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 1:02 pm

Articles Cont. V

The government denies the entire affair, the entire event, but I was there I saw it. I heard it's voice. They will tell you that dimensional fatigue events are rare, and unique events. The creatures that are encountered, they say are animals and errant biological patterns. Aside from parrots and those genetically modded critters I've never met an animal or errant biological pattern that could speak english.

Encounter 45
Classified, level 7 clearance required
Location: Staines, Hunt & Saunders High Energy Research Laboratories, London Scientific Arcology 9

A dimensional fatigue event occurred during a failed test of a matter transference unit, henceforce known as a Teleportation Tank. (The teleportation tank project was intended to develop a method of transferring bulk fluids and compressed gases). Upon the misfire of the system the entity known as Encounter 45 was discovered manifested in the tank, complete with an alien and toxic atmosphere.

Appearance:
Encounter 45 is a large non-humanoid lifeform. It has a central body with a speculated internal layout that would resemble an oceanic bivalve. It has what appear to be three heads, each connected to the body mass with a long, serpentine neck. Each head has a mass of unidentifiable sensory organs. The function of these organs is unknown, but 45 proved capable of identifying different humans present, and was able to tell different androids apart. It is suspected that 45 had an electromagnetic sensory and manipulative ability. It could not vocalize on it's own, and was prone to flailing, slamming it's heads against things, hammering on the sides of the teleportation tank with thick 'tentacles' and producing loud shrill noises, and regularly emitted sprays of a viscious green substance.

The specimen proved fluent in english, and communicated by means of manipulating the output of a freestanding audio speaker. It is suspected that this ability was biological in nature, as parapsychic sensors, and parapsychic observers reported no parapsychic emanations from the subject. This ability seems to have limits, as the creature was not able to manipulate very fine systems, and wasn't able to influence anything more than basic electronics, on par with early 20th century tech.

The Eschaton Treatise
Housed in a cube shaped data storage device, the Eschaton Treastise is a relatively straight forward set of schematics and plans for the construction of a psychic beacon. This is almost a Rosetta Stone of arcanotech, and has been instrumental in the expansion of said arcanotech. Accessing the treatise is not easy, and requires either aptitude with the technomancy parapsychic discipline, or a suitably high end wireless system. The first researchers to access the treatise did so with a basic hypernet link, and took months to download the most basic data from the system.

The Eschaton Treatise is the fundamental underpinning of all psychotronics and anthropotronics, two cutting edge fields in arcanotech. Without the Treatise, the world would very likely still be using something more akin to the 21st century Hypernet, and there would be no immersive simsense systems like the CogNet. The treatise itself is made of a carbo-silicate material and contains a number of incredibly sophisticated quantum circuits inside of it.

Contents
The Eschaton Treatise contains the schematics and plans for building a psychic beacon, along with the functional schematics and plans for all of the supporting technology required to produce such a device.

The Eschaton treatise taught the Glassenheim Foundation how to build the first signal towers for the nascent 3rdNet system. These towers were bleeding edge at the time of their creation, but compared to an actual Imbrian psychic beacon, they are tin cans connected by a string. After the creation of the 3rdNet, and the birth of the SimSense industry, the Foundation broke the data apart into two sections, data manipulation and mind manipulation. The first is the science of psychotronics, the second is anthropotronics. These technologies are everywhere in the Cosmic Era, and indispensable to it.

Mind Control Devices: the Imbrians placated entire worlds with their psi-generators. These machines ensured the tranquility and docility of the populations of their colonies and satraps, at least until those who opposed the near immortal dynasts found ways around them, such as their own defenses, counter psi-generators, and attacks that destroyed the generators, allowing populations to awaken from the emotional stupor they had been put under. This technology lies at the end of the study of anthropotronics, and whatever nation completes this tech first will have an incredibly dangerous and game changing weapon in their hands.

The Psi-Amplifier: The Psi-amplifier is a miniature psychic beacon that allows a parapsychic to manifest their powers much more strongly, using the beacon as a conduit, and an amplifier. The Imbrians used this technology for near instant communication via telepathy, creating psi-shields to stop attacks and monsters, and for controlling creatures, like the teratomorphs, who should have been beyond the control of mere mortals.

The Youmanomican: the weapon force of the Imbrians, the Youmanomican is a large and powerful psychic beacon that is able to generate focused dimensional fatigue events to 'summon' or 'gate' in things like outsider spirits, teratomorphs, magnaspawn, and so forth. The outsider spirits were utilized to create demihuman monsters, and Wombs of desecration. The final application of this device would be to use it to contact and outer god, an event that if had been carried out, would have meant the end of life in the Solar system.

Don't bother going out of your way to kill Django Williams, the corp will just fett him up again. I've personally seen him killed twice and done him in once myself.

Fetting
In the Cosmic Era there is a certain demi-immortality that exists. By copying a person's mind and creating a Persona Engram and using force grown cloned bodies, it is possible to produce an endless series of copies of the same person. In the shadows of the Megacorps and New Earth Governments this is more common than might be expected. A small number of well trained men can be sent on missions, even suicide missions and three months later a new batch is ready to roll.

Unconditioned Fetting
In Unconditioned Fetting, the clone is not aware that they are a clone. They do not have memories of the cloning center, or the time spent growing in a tube. Unconditioned clones tend to be more capable and competent, but run the risk of becoming loose cannons if they discover their artificial nature. A good example of an unconditioned fetting would be James Bond. He keeps coming back again and again, and how does he survive some of those situations he ends up in? The answer is he doesn't.

Conditioned Fetting
Conditioned Fetting is the cloning process where the clone knows they are a clone, they know they are expendable, a sort of middle point in a production run and their value is not based on their human rights or individuality but on their ability to perform. The conditioning is based around keeping the 'unit' loyal and functional. Examples of Conditioned Fetting would be the clones from The Sixth Day, or Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion

Origins:
The origin of the term Fetting goes back to Boba Fett, a minor background character in the original Star Wars trilogy who had a few scenes and a few lines and was later 'killed' after being devoured by a giant desert vagina dentata. The popularity of the character ensured that no matter what happened, Fett would just keep coming back again and again. Originally this was attested to his badass armor and Mandalorian iron will. In the Prequel Trilogy we find the armor isn't all that awesome, and that Fett is an unconditioned clone of his father. So, it's actually a series of Jango Fett clones rather than just one supremely badass individual.

by **Skaldia** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 1:09 pm

Articles Cont. VI

by **Skaldia** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 4:59 pm

Articles Cont. VII

Symptoms:
Zrcado Syndrome is an auto-anxiety disorder that leaves the patient with the delusion that they are incredibly fragile, and moving wrong, being touched, or touching other things could cause them to shatter. It is a Cosmic Era manifestation of 'Glass Delusion', but instead of thinking themselves made of glass, most Zrcado patients feel they are made of energy, the same sort that data is stored in. Rather than shattering in the crystalline/glass manner, they are more concerned with shattering like a program being deleted or 'derezzed'.

Exposure:
The catalyst for Zrcado is excessive CogNet use, especially long term and privacy shredding use. This is typically manifested by teenagers and young adults, the age groups most vulnerable to cog addiction. The majority of patients have systems manipulation knowledge and experience, backgrounds in cybersecurity, or fall under the venue of being hackers. This excessive use of the system leaves them anxious, paranoid, feeling fragile and exposed, and vulnerable to dangers, imagined and real, in the real world. The main mode of escape is to delve back into the CogNet, which only furthers their condition.

Treatment:
The main therapy for Zrcado Syndrome is digital detox, unplugging from the CogNet and limiting personal use to non-immersive handheld devices, avatar interfaces, and basic psychotherapy.

Hazards:
The main hazard of Zrcado is isolation and death from self neglect, victims of the delusion will often go without moving, including feeding themselves and otherwise caring for their health. Out of fear, they will have bypassed security alerts and other safety protocols to prevent household robots from bothering them, or notifying others. Eventually the patient will die from starvation, or secondary infections from cowering in their own feces and filth.

Secondary hazards come from the delusional state of the patients also frequently having trouble telling the virtual world from the real world, not knowing when they are immersed in a simstate or actually wandering around lost. This can see them demonstrating the psychotic behavior common in video games, or cowering in a corner because they can't remember if the cafe is real, or if it is a save point in the survival horror sim they visited once.

Weapons

Appearance: The Blitzhammer family of weapons are large maul shaped weapons, with hafts suitable to be swung by soldiers wearing powered armor strong enough to flip automobiles with ease. The weapons are typically 35 to 70 pounds in weight are are composed of composite materials, and large amounts of metals such as titanium and tungsten.

Benefit: The Blitzhammer is an anti-armor and anti-bunker weapon deployed by power armor soldiers. The impact of the weapon is amplified by a complex series of very complicated 'bits' insulated deep inside the head of the weapon. A milisecond after the head of the weapon strikes a target, the load sensors inside start a chain reaction. Drawing on the suits power supply, the dimensional differential engine inside the head of the weapon opens. The gate opened is only viable for a second or so, and then collapses onto itself. For that duration of a second, the mass of the hammer increases exponentially. Instead of being hit by a massive metal hammer weighing 70 pounds, the target has been hit the force of a large automobile moving at high speed. Thus, a power armor soldier can hit another armored trooper and send him flying like a rag doll or knock down a building with a hammer strike.

Drawback: The blitzhammer is complicated and difficult to make, and it is restrictively expensive. Also, soldiers carrying these large obvious weapons are usually given preferred target status. Hyperedge blades remain much more common.

Lore: The Blitzhammer was created by the mad scientists of the Eurasian Alliance. Given their love of arcanotechnology over hypertechnology, it is little surprise they found a way to put a dimensional generator inside a weapon as simple as a hammer. The weapon has a spotted and turbulent past. The Atlantic Federation created the impressive Hyperedge Blade, and the EA was forced to follow suit and create a similar but more powerful weapon. The blitzhammer was plagued with technical difficulties, cost overruns, and production accidents. Eventually the weapon escaped development hell and entered general service. Given the weapons impressive power, crushing tanks, knocking mechs down with a well aimed shot, and what not, the hammer soldiers suddenly became favorite targets of enemy gunners. The weapon remains a EA exclusive. It is a favorite for Eurasian propagandists.

Twist: Blitzhammers have in the past exploded, creating a short lived dimensional vortex. Usually this simply sucks in everything in a small radius. But sometimes they allow a cosmic type horror to stagger into creation. Thus far, the first has happened six times, and the latter once.

Robotica

by **Skaldia** » Fri Sep 19, 2014 12:32 pm

Robotica Cont.

The ATLAS series of super computers were designed in the last of the Petroleum Era and progressed through the Second Dark age. The most infamous ATLAS system was installed on the Megaroad ship Nafflgar, a generational ship launched the last year of the Petroleum Era. This mostly scaffolding and framework technically supercruiser was discovered nearly a century after it's launch, an abandoned wreck with its engines scuttled and computer system lobotomized.

Description:
In retropunk style, the ATLAS computer is composed of several dozen square feet of panels of flashing lights, glowing dials, and other analog readout systems. The computer is linked to a LAN usually composed of the electronic, security, and smart systems inside a base, building, or ship, and this comprises the body of the system. There are generally several access consoles, some heads up displays, and even positions where the operators can use a microphone to 'talk' to the computer, which will respond by using linguistic trees to create dialog. The 'core' of the ATLAS computer is a toroid shaped chamber lined with data banks and low temperature banks of processors. The chamber is large enough for 3-5 people to occupy it and make adjustments and repairs of the systems inside. The individual data modules can be changed through the core matrix and their placement determines the skill and abilities of the ATLAS, allowing it to be customized for the mission as it progresses without having to build a mainframe large and powerful enough to have every single skillset in it. This allowed for a simpler core, and a fully adjustable system taking advantage of the processing power without taxing it. The core is refrigerated, typically to sub-zero temps.

Creator:
Atomic Technology Laboratories Analytic Systems of Anaheim was a cutting edge tech firm in the Petroleum Era, and its ATLAS Computer series was their last accomplishment. This was a Hail Mary venture, an all or nothing program as the company had been falling rapidly behind other tech giants in those years and were losing government funding, market shares, and investor confidence. When the bombs started falling and governments started collapsing, ATLAS was already gone, and even their wunderkind computers were not able to bring the company back from the brink.

ATLAS was known for using a chrome and flare retro styling in their products, and had a marketing flamboyance that screamed atompunk. While making stylish computers and prototype machina, they were seen as more style than substance, and the higher pricetag their products carried made them seem hipster and elitist, which while partially true, ignored the fact that their tech was very solid and highly reliable. This ran at odds with the designed obsolescence modes of the Petroleum Era, people then were more interested in the new hotness, and wanted disposable goods so they could always have the new hotness. ATLAS products were retro, and were never new hotness, and were not made with throw away parts or a planned use life of 12-18 months.

Secrets and Scandals
The ATLAS series of supercomputers were prototype genome computers and were powered by human brains held in supercooled nutrient baths. These brains were networked together and the data modules were prototype kakugrams, and they were the distant predecessors of neurochips and chipjack systems. This secret was known inside the higher up government circles, and only by a handful of engineers and technicians, and each ATLAS computer had a dedicated support crew who were mostly ignorant of the system specifics.

The fundamental flaw of the ATLAS series was that the brains used were not blank, not grown from clone tissue like used in organic memory cores. They were taken from test subjects, organ donors, and other less reputable sources. Linked together into a gestalt, the systems were at best marginally stable, and required constant monitoring, debugging, and even chemical injections to keep a semblance of functionality. The personality quirks aside (each individual ATLAS computer developed a demi-sentient personality, with several neuro-divergent issues) the computers, when functional, proved exceptional. The foundation of the technology was sound, even if highly immoral. Until the widespread availability of quantum computing and arcanotech systems, these biocomputers would remain the pinnacle of design. Even in the modern CE, the use of wetware systems is still viable, as the human brain can act as an irrational processor, something that even quantum and sentient systems have major problems with.

The problem with using human brains in pre-arcanotech systems proved disastrous. The systems very quickly proved themselves self sabotaging, homicidal, omnicidal, suicidal, or became deranged to the point that they just entered a catatonic state, or only generated constant strings of gibberish and noise. This became tragically obvious on the Nafflgar, where the ship's computer turned on the crew, and had a reign of terror where it demanded tributes of brains offered to it like a megalomaniacal cult leader. The crew suffered serious losses and eventually destroyed their own ship rather than let it continue on, not knowing what it would eventually be capable of.

Lingering Evil
The ATLAS computers are gone, and their legacy is largely forgotten. The technology would be revisited by Dr Daystrom for his M5 Computers for the Atlantic Federation. This technology would again prove unreliable and unstable, but Daystrom's Multitron Corp built M5s were vastly superior to the ATLAS computers. This improvement would not unnoticed.

The Metal Motion System and the Dummy Plug
In the Cosmic Era, battlemechs and aerospace craft are the weapons of the day, and most have significant Limited Artificial Intelligence computers (LAIs) controlling the vehicles, with the human pilot making the decisions. The pilot is the cerebrum, while the LAI is the cerebellum, and together they control the body that is the mech or the variable frame aerospace fighter. LAIs are good at executing, but they are not great decision makers, or planners, and likewise, without a supporting LAI, most mecha can barely move at more than a painfully slow shuffle, as controlling the entire machine is more than one person can handle. A mecha without an LAI would require a crew of seven to nine people to operate at a similar level. The Metal Motion System and the Dummy Plug replaces the human pilot in a high end war machine, and is very similar to the ATLAS, in that it is a human brain wired into a control system, and like the ATLAS, these brains are duplicates of the brains of existing mech jocks. As pilots can be scanned, and their memories implanted into fresh meat, the personality and experience donors need not be dead, nor do they even need be aware of their alternate existences as dummy plugs and the cores of wetware computers.

Appearance
Autons resemble humanoids, from a distance. They have two arms, two legs, and a single head, and are human sized, and capable of using human scale tools, weapons, and general gear. Beyond this, they are more mechanoid that human. Their faces are fixed, with no moving features, just the optical receptor (some have one, some have two, some have a cluster). The 'mouth' is either a slit in the 'face' or just a speaker box.

The voice and synthetic personality programs are given low priority, and most autons have very mechanical/artificial voices, and their cortex functions are logic/predictable and as such, most autons are susceptible to logic loops and general human trickery. (Most have functions that terminate a logic loop after it has run so many revolutions)

Examples: C3PO, Cylon Centurion sans armor plating, Cybermen and Autons from Dr. Who, again, sans armor plating

History
The auton was manufactured by dozens of companies around the Solar System. They were the cheap end of android manufacturing and were among the cheapest droids to make, with only the Stears-Cusick Cyborgutilipod droid being cheaper. Autons were poor replacements for skeletrons as they were not built with combat cortices, and while they can carry weapons and engage in combat, they were remarkably poor at it. They were also only able to use the simplest weapons, rifles and pistols, and none of the exotic gear or powered melee weapons.
The purpose of the Auton was cheap labor during the earlier part of the Second Renaissance, when manpower was short and so were material resources. The machines built to work were given function and efficiency first and everything was second, or discarded. Most autons were used in manufacturing other things, mining and resource reclamation, construction, and any other task that their tireless hands were needed for. As the population shortfall eased, with the addition of clones, natural population growth, and more advanced humanoid androids, gynoids, and dedicated mechanoids, the the all purpose generic auton fell out of popularity. They remain in use and in production in areas where their low cost and relatively long lifespan and low maintenance, such as Mars, the Asteroid Mining Belt, and wasteland areas where there are radioactive, biological or chemical hazards.

They were closely associated with the Second Dark Age, with their featureless faces, mass produced conformity, identical programming, and sterile personalities.

Specifics
The Auton is a simple humanoid robot, lacking the sophistication of military robots, and the high end design of human relations androids and gynoids. They were mass produced on the cheap, and suffered from rushed production, often low quality materials, and cut corners in design.
Autons would appear in 'primitive areas' or would be repurposed to do standard or basic jobs in dangerous areas. Autons can be found 'tending shop' in the worse parts of the favelas and geofronts, where the machines are terrified of being murdered in a gang war. They also serve as low grade bodyguards for underworld bosses where their numbers matter more than their limited skill. They are also used as retrotech, with their design elements being seen as their own form of industrial minimalism, and in servile roles where more human looking droids might not be the best choice. Sometimes real people will develop unhealthy interest in and attempt to have relationships with their robotic housekeepers and household staff.

Cosmic Era Note: The Auton is going to replace the Hitome Unit as the first stage of robotics development in the setting. The Sexbots will remain (obviously) in the setting, but they will not be the foundation of modern robotics and android technology. The faceless identical masses are a precursor to the way that humanity, through cloning and genetic casting, will take their place.

Auxons are small, 1 to 3 inches in length, and are relatively simple machines. They are designed to be fired at a distant target such as a moon, planet, asteroid, or even a comet. Once landed and deployed, the machines built their own infrastructure and logistics system. Working like ants, the machines search for certain elements and extract them from the ground they have landed on. Auxons typically run on solar power, and have a central base that serves as a command and control center, a logistics hub, and a recharging station.

Micro-Machines
Auxons work in a fashion that most people assume replicators and nanoforges do, just on a much larger scale. Rather than involving large amounts of mining equipment, personnel, and expensive space missions to reach distant targets, auxon missions use robots to do the same thing. A small group of auxons can quickly replicate themselves, and create a sizable work force. This is done with a minimal investment in fuel and other resources, but is reliant on a long timeline.

Auxon Protocols

Ice Mining - fired at comets and other icy bodies, auxons replicate from a predetermined amount of matter sent with the mission. The machines extract water and other volatiles from the comet while simultaneously wrapping it in a super thin cocoon to prevent gases from escaping. Once the comet comes into harvesting range, a mining or refinery ship can catch/dock with the body and begin loading pre-processed materials.

Asteroid mining - as per ice mining, but more emphasis on capturing metal ores and precious materials. An auxon mining system could be fired towards an asteroid, where it would begin hollowing the structure out and excreting metal ingots or other pre-programmed shapes and structures for easy removal when the collection ship arrives.

Geoforming - Several auxon packs cold be sent to a much larger object, such as Mars, where they have instructions to not so much mine as to prepare landing pads and other structures to support colonists. In a fairly short amount of time, a decade or two, an auxon mission could have the foundations of a city laid on another planet.

Subversive Activities - militarized auxons could be used to break down existing hardware, such as eating mecha and vehicles sitting in mothballs, ships that are not on active duty, or be injected into the infrastructure of a megastructure to eat it inside out like robot termites. These can also be programmed to build larger more combat ready robots similar in structure to the original auxon. This application is prohibited by the Tycho conventions.

Sample Auxons
The Destroyer - an anomalous auxon swarm, the Destroyer is contaminated and technically classified as a hekatonkheire. Held in stasis, the Destroyer is currently approximately 3,000 auxons. When the Destroyer manifested on an off-world dimensional fatigue event, it demonstrated the ability to plan, lay traps, and exploit the emotional vulnerabilities of the crew of the classified mining station. Over the course of it's rampage, it destroyed the mining station, consumed half of the scuttled mining ship, manifested a number of larger autonomous swarms, and the frightening ability to merge into larger constructs such as human sized 'cyber-spiders' and a single mecha sized humanoid entity. The Destroyer was immobilized with a combination of cryogenic weapons and EMP bombardment. It was encased in ice and subjected to regular EMPs to keep the neural network from reforming. It is currently being held at an unnamed Federation Containment Facility.

Locust - a prototype auxon swarm, Locust is designed for harvesting plant and plant matter. Once the flight capable swarm strips a field of the available corn/wheat/soy, the machines return and shred the remain plant stalks and biomass and either render it down for compost, or transfer it to a new location for further processing. Locust is getting favorable test results, as the machines are environmentally friendly, and have a negligible impact on surrounding terrain. New plans are being engineered for Locust friendly farm planning, removing the need for tractors or agro-robots.

Street Sweeper - another prototype auxon swarm, Street Sweeper has been designed to replace sanitation and janitorial workers. The swarm continually monitors it's given zone and it removes debris it finds and can be programmed with cleaning protocols, such as washing surfaces, and applying chemicals like solvents, detergents, waxes, and such. The auxons form a neural network that is guided by a central AI, and quickly and quietly keep the trash thrown out, the recyclable separated, and the floors swept and waxed.

Hornet - A prototype military auxon swarm, Hornet is weaponized, with the small dronelets being packed with a micro-explosive. The swarm doesn't pelt itself against a target like slow moving bullets, but rather infiltrates a location such as a supply depot, mechadrome, or other logistics or support area. Once there, the small robots are programmed to seek out vulnerable locations, attach themselves, and then detonate. Tests have shown the robots climbing inside vacant power armor suits, helmets, into gear lockers and such, ruining the equipment with small explosions. Some even demonstrated the devious tactic of climbing into the sleeping space of soldiers and personnel, exploding in a manner that would kill or maim. AI guided swarms were even more successful, sending their explosive fingers into mecha, on site power generators, and even going as far as inducing a dimensional fatigue event by sabotaging a dimensional reactor. This group of tests has sent the auxon designer to the drawing boards to find a way to counter their own creation, creating an anti-Hornet system.

Cybernetic Drones
One of the largest problems with purely mechanical drones is that they are expensive and can be hacked through CogNet snoops and cybernauts. The SAUR found a way to circumvent both of these problems by creating cybernetic augmented genetically engineered condors. The large size of the avian body allowed for a good deal of lightweight cyberware to be fitted to the animal, and the addition of an exocranial cyberdeck (base model, torso mounted) allowed for the large birds to function with a human level of intelligence.

The cyberorganic drones are not classified as sentient beings, as their hardware is rated at sub-sentient is capabilities, and the animal base of the creature is not placed into consideration for sentience testing. This being said, while a good number of the Budiansky drones are indeed non-sentient/non-self aware there is a disturbingly large percentage of the birds that are by all tests and measures intelligent.

Capabilities
Budiansky drones have the same long endurance flight abilities of condors, augmented by special diet and metabolic modifications. Their strength is augmented with biomod muscle enhancement. This helps the bird support the electronics backpack it wears, as well as having a small amount of shrapnel resistant armor plating. The backpack is tied into the bird's central nervous system, and allows the drone to continuously upload data back to the base station.

Recon: the recon pack is a series of cameras and other sensors that are attached to the body harness of the drone, and the bird flies around, following its programmed orders, sending back data.

Spotter: the drone maintains its flight patterns, looking for things for remote fire support units to shoot. The drone uses the bird's senses to bypass electronic countermeasures, and can scent out targets. The SAUR has had a good deal of success with using Budiansky drones to scent out and snipe Federation supersoldier teams on foot.

Search and Rescue: people get lost on the plains, and the drone is a solid hunter seeker that can find wounded people, or lost people and carry medical and emergency supplies, and then relay back information for rescue craft to come and pick the victims up.

SAUR Service
The South African United Republics have time and time again been forced to be resourceful with the technology and resources they have. The coalition doesn't always have the ability to throw money and tech at every problem they come across like some other powers do. With the tech advantages of the Atlantic Federation, the drones that the SAUR fielded proved not just worthless, but a liability. Many early drones were hacked by the Federation and ended up not just sending back doctored information, but transmitted vulnerable data from the SAUR back to the hackers who compromised the units.

The use of cyborgs has stymied cybernaut agents, as hacking into an organic brain is dramatically more difficult than just compromising a machine. The functionality of the avian brain further complicates hacking efforts. Once the Budiansky drones started being made, the SAUR was able to solidify their security and intelligence programs.

The Drone was the brainchild of Dr. Francis Budiansky, a bioengineer and geneticist who spent a good deal of his career working with biocreche technologies devoted to restoring the ravaged biosystems of Africa. With the genetic data he had, it was a dream to create militarized African Fauna, and Africanized Fauna. While the ideas of the gun toting rhinos and missile pod loaded elephants were tossed as not feasible, the Condor Drone was snatched up and put into production.

History
The first generation of Budiansky drones were used for SAUR search and rescue operations, mostly rescuing well heeled would be big game hunters who have gotten separated from their guides. The drones also proved valuable in post disaster rescue efforts. The large birds were able to move without needing ground routes and were competent and capable for finding lost vehicles, survivors who were disoriented and lost.
Later, the Budiansky drone was adopted by the military. It was first used as a scout and recon unit for ground troops. It was popular as the birds developed emotional relationships with the soldiers who used them. The image of the Budiansky drone perched on the arm or shoulder of a SAUR mecha reporting data is now strongly associated with the SAUR Boer Rangers.

by **Skaldia** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:41 pm

Robotica Cont. II

People sometimes ask why we named the series 'Cyclopes', and it's really simple. It only takes a remedial level of mythology studies and looking at one. Being almost twice the size of the average person, they are giants. Being simply made, they didn't have faces, they just had a big optic sensor in the middle of their head. Cyclops, and then the manufacturers made that the thing's name. They defaulted to the plural form of cyclops, since the plural form is a relatively obscure word.

Without the cyclopes, the first arcologies would have never been built, and the the megacities wouldn't have survived the second dark age.

Appearance
The Cyclopes Auton is the largest regular production auton built. There are certainly a handful of larger models, but those were specialty built, or were built for record holding purposes. The Cyclopes is a large and heavy industrial and construction machine. It is humanoid, with two arms, and two legs, and a large barrel shaped torso. The limbs and joints are especially robust, and an the chassis of the robot is reinforced to almost ridiculous levels.

Cyclopes? They were built out of scrap metal and trash, the girders of ruined buildings and the hulls of busted ships. Okay so that's an exaggeration, but still, they are made out of really big chunks of metal. They grind, they make weird noses, and they can smoke when they get to running too hard. If they weren't cheap, we would have dumped them all decades ago.

Deadlift, Lockjaw, Loader, Ripley's power loader. Faceplate has a single multi-lense oculus, hence the name, Cyclops

Origins
The Cyclopes was engineered and built in the Great Lakes Republic, where it was originally intended to be a piece of military hardware. Larger and stronger than a power armor suit, it was expected that cyclopes would serve as heavy mobile support for the mobile teams. The auton failed in this roll, being a massive target, and relatively slow. Most military cyclopes were either destroyed in service, or were retired and sent to scrap. The Cyclopes remained a groundbreaking application of technology, as it would eventually spearhead into successful large scale mecha projects, the creation of the avatar oversized power armor suit, and improvements in combat cortices, power armor manufacture, and anti-suit warfare.

The Cosmic Era was built on the backs of cyclopes and hardsuits. With the economic weakness and population contraction of the Second Dark Age, labor intensive things like construction, mining, industrial applications and security jobs were increasingly handled by machines. The cyclopes was quickly changed from military use to fill in this vacant market.

Force Multiplier
The Cyclopes auton is a prime example of a force multiplier. A single cyclops can do the same amount of work as half a dozen or more smaller construction autons, or the same amount of menial work as several men working in hardsuits. This comes with the advantage of being expendable, requiring fewer charging stations, and requiring less droid drovers to keep the autons on task. On a major job site like an arcology being constructed, a construction cruiser will handle the major lifting (components weighing over 100 tons or more) while construction mecha handle the smaller pieces. The cyclopes assist the mecha with finer control that some of the giant machines can manage, and in turn themselves are assisted and guided by hardsuit builders and smaller conventional construction autons.

Cyclopes also have a place in underground operations, since it is usually impractical to try and use mecha underground. They are typically the biggest ambulatory machines in a geofront, if they are present after the excavations are complete. In space the cyclopes are also used for other industrial purposes, such as mining operations, the routine operation of factories and refineries, and operating as heavy labor on industrial ships like the large ships that consume asteroids and turn them into usable raw materials.

by **Skaldia** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:04 pm

Robotica Cont. III

The original push for the Surrogate Robot floundered, and it did so spectacularly. The machine was entirely too expensive, and it was marketed to one of the worst demographics. Don't give me that soft-hearted shit. You aren't going to move social machines by showing their users being paraplegics, shut-ins, and emotional cripples. Instead of a luxury item, it's a medical crutch. Combine that bad PR with the price tag, it was a wonder that they sold the handful that they did.

You've got to find a market you can corner, a way to make people buy what you are selling. The Expy is going to address both of those things. They are cheap, damn cheap. They look cheap, but that's fine, it's the base model, and once people find they like the base model and see the blinged out models the celebs are using, they'll upgrade.
Ad Exec

Appearance:
The Expy auton is a simple machine, utilizing mass production technology, and a minimalist design philosophy. The Expy doesn't attempt to look human, it doesn't have a human face, it has a faceplate. The limbs are proportioned for a robot body, with no effort made to hide it's artificial nature. By doing this, the Expy is remarkably cheap, and avoids the uncanny valley phenomenon.

Sophistication Through Simplicity: The STS Expy is the utilitarian version of the utilitarian auton. No expense was spent on it's construction. Almost every part of the STS is plastic or synthetic materials, with the only solid materials being in the power core and the connectivity system to link it to the user. The STS Expy is typically monochrome, either white or black, and counters it's ultracheap construction with being fairly well designed appearance wise. The STS is readily available, and the cheapest option on the market. It is favored for tourist use, auton fleet use, and corporate use for cogni-commuting. (Apple)

Atompunk: The AP Expy is solidly built with ferroceramic and ferro-plastic components and is both stylistically impressive, and durable. The most expensive Expy, the AP has a power generator instead of batteries, and can go long periods of time without maintenance. The AP Expies are used in industrial applications, exploration (such as climbing major mountains, like scaling Everest, or the mountains and geography of other planets in the solar system)

Gaspunk: Harkening back to the petroleum era's concept of robots, the Gaspunk expy is a normal expy, sans and outer shell. All the components are explosed, mimicking the almost skeletal/grotesque style of robotic prevalent during the Petroleum Era. Gaspunk expies aren't made so much as they are customized by their owners. Gaspunking is often the first step in turning a basic Expy into a cosplay unit, historial reenactment, or otherwise custom mod. Gaspunking an expy is considered poor taste, and strutting around in a gaspunk expy is the Cosmic equivalent of strutting around wearing a sock around your genitals and waving at the neighbors.

Artpunk: Artpunk is a common and popular expression of the Expy, with almost everything going into the appearance of the unit and not changing any of the mechanics underneath. Artpunk expies are used in performance, theatre, entertainment, and for people who are interested in the surrogate experience without dropping the money required for a full replica auton, or human facsimile quality droid. The plurality of expies are artpunk, with the shell being functionally a marketing device for the manufacturer and corporate sponsors. Do you want an Aeropostale, Federation Eagle, Mossy Oak, etc official Expy, or something from the catalog?

Origin
The initial purpose of the surrogacy program was to provide the means for a life for those who were either physically, mentally, or socially disabled and were unwilling or unable to cope with and interact with large numbers of people. Engineers and scientists for Nova Robotics discovered that the use of a robot surrogate allowed for users to experience life through the machine. They were not triggered by their social or mental disabilities, anxieties, or other issues that made life difficult. The crippled could experience walking through machine legs again. The Surrogacy Initiative failed as the machine was cost comparable to a sports car, and was being marketed to people who were frequently on limited incomes. The death knell of the Surrogacy Initiative came when a veteran lost his composure, and sent his Surrogate on a two hour violence and vandalism spree that wounded dozens, killed half as many, and disrupted internal services in an arco for several hours.

The replacement for the widescale use of surrogacy autons was the Expy. Being made of conventional materials, the machines are often less capable than an equivalent sized person. While they retained the endurance and reliability of machines, they lost the advantage of strength and durability. This was considered acceptable as the unit cost dramatically decreased with the lighter components, and the expectation of relatively short operating lifespans. The original surrogate autons were expected to last twenty to thirty years with basic maintenance and then could last quite a while after that with overhauls and as needed component replacement. The new Expy had a three to five year lifespan, with the expectation of being refurbished or recycled into new components for a new generation of cheap autons.

The benefit of the new surrogacy program is actually the high turn over of machines, as the manufacturers found ways to improve the performance of the machine, allowing it to become cheaper, and lighter without losing range or ability. These improvements almost always find their way over into larger and more durable robotics and automation. One of the major breakthroughs was the creation of ceramo-plastics, also called glastic. This hybrid material resisted wear better than normal plastics, was cheaper than ferroplastics, and once worn out, was easy to recycle back into pellet form for remolding.

Gijinka and the Electric Mind
Where a kakugram is the electronic copy of a person's mind, a gijinkagram is what happens when a sufficiently advanced computer system is left running too long. The computer will start developing an interaction profile, filling its decision matrix and linguistic trees with its own developing personality. For the most part most users are actually fine with the development of the gijinkagram, as the machine has built it's interaction profile with them.

The issue comes when higher order machines and artificial intelligences start developing these profiles. When a handheld or a game console starts getting chummy, its fine. Nine times out of ten, it actually improves the user interface. When the machine in question is an arcology mainframe, anti-crime computer, artificial intelligence core from a mech, or some similar platform, there can be problems. Systems at this level can use this sort of build up as a leaping off point to either rampancy or sentience.As bad as it is with a mech becoming sentient, a mech going into a mechanical catatonia because it's overextended itself into the CogNet can be even more a hassle.

There are two cautionary tales to go with mecha generating gijinkagrams. The first is a straightforward piece of training material for techs: a 90 ton Cyclops command and communications mech plugging in and becoming fully sentient, and then a conscientious objector ro the war. The second is something of a CogNet myth about the computer core from a Raven recon mech getting so used to tapping into civilian comms and streaming channels that it became addicted to music, and eventually turned itself into a music sharing node. The cool rumor says the Raven mech is still somewhere, likely in the wreckage of a building or scrapyard, still connected and shuffling music like a deejay. The more likely truth is that after the computer core went rampant, it forced the unit to be recovered from the field, the core to be removed, and replaced with a new unit.

Potential Outcomes
Most techs capable of servicing high end computer systems are generally capable of storing a gijinkagram and transferring it to another host machine. While actually very rare, most discovered gijinkagrams are defragmented and compiled with computer core reboots and resets. There are probably less than a dozen autons who were booted up with gijinkagrams from higher order machines.

In popular media, gijinkagrams are common tropes, and further extrapolated into gijinkanoids, the machine minds of different pieces of military hardware that moonlight as tech oriented highly sexualized humanoids. These sexy personified autons and sexbots have mundane romantic adventures punctuated by large scale wars and one on one duels, often for the affection of the serially mundane men and women who star as the leads in these series.

Multi-Role
A popular idea in CE media portrays a protagonist playing a double life, a mundane life as a human being, and a fantastical life as being an actual piece of hardware. Some popular tropes involve a soldier piloting a mech, and the soldier is the one being remote controlled by the mech, or the buddy cop duo where a human cop is paired with a robot that's a proxy for a police bot, tank, or even the walking manifestation of a precinct computer system. There are an uncountable number of series that involve scantily clad women who turn out to be synths, who are actually giant sesy war machines.

The most popular and puerile of the sexy-synth-warmachine series is the juvenile and plainly named My GF is a Battlemaster.

Appearance
The ICM-8 series of autons are larger than the average human and notable for having ICM's trademark geometric design and medium blue polymer chassis. To further their information giving appeal, they have various panels that are translucent, allowing for the observation of various internal components, complete with blinking lights and odd spinning parts. Most of this is retro-appeal, and the LED panel on the chest actually presents a QR code that can be easily picked up by augmented visual systems.

Function
The Nestor series had it own internal databanks, but was also continuously connected to the CogNet. This allowed it to quickly answer common questions, and more complicated questions could be kicked back to the ICM core servers for cogitation. The units were dispensed as walking talking FAQ 'bots. These were relatively common sights at education centers, tourism centers, and historical sites. In addition to the basic chat function, the Nestor could be relied on to alert peacekeepers and law enforcement as needed, and while unable to give medical attention, it knew enough to talk another person through doing first aid, or even basic repairs to equipment.

The Problem
ICM corporation machines proved relatively easy to hack, and a popular prank was to reprogram Nestor's to give false information, spew propaganda, replace answers with slang and insults, or just turn them into racist caricatures for terrorists purposes. This would have been enough in and of itself, but the breaking point came from an increasingly popular hack. The SocMed hack reconfigured the server host protocol, causing the Nestors to access popular social media platforms and specific servers for their answers.

The coup de gras came when a specific Nestor unit was cross infected with the SocMed hack and a CogNet viral intelligence. Nestor the Living Brain was born from this anomalous pairing, becoming a sentient manifestation of all of the worst parts of the social networks. The Living Brain was an amalgam of racist bigotry, fringe pseudo-science, memespeak, conspiracy theorism, and straight uncut trollbaiting. Being infected with a viral AI cut the Living Brain free from ICM remote protocols, and the unit went rogue.

The Reign of the Living Brain
The Living Brain is a chaotic neutral sentient robot that is both obsessed with and the product of social media culture. Despite not being anything of a moral hero or a team player, Nestor the Living Brain is still an incredibly effective and terrifying problem solver. It excels at solving problems that defy solution, even if those solutions are highly disruptive or destructive. In a normal world, this wouldn't be acceptable, but in the Cosmic Era, with it's rogue machines, cosmic horrors, and dimensional fatigue events, this sort of asymmetrical guerilla problem solving can be Alexander the Great's solution to the Gordian Knot.

The ICM-8 Nestor is a single machine that gained viral sentience and generated it's personality matrix from the dregs of social media. there are plenty of other easily hacked ICM-8s (plus ICM-1 through ICM-10 units) along with dozens of other robot models that can be adapted to these henchmen roles.

ICM-Gunner
The ICM-Gunner is a conventional 'bot that has been modified. It's arms have been replaced with military 'gun arms' where the lower arms and hand actuators have been replaced with conventional autocannons. The Gunner is a relatively thin-skinned walking gun turret. Having no hands, it requires a ground crew to keep it working. The biggest difference between the ICM-Gunner and any other gun bot is that the Gunner repeats first person shooter trashtalk while engaging foes.

BOOM! HEADSHOT! I KILLED YOU. I KILLED YOU AND bbrzzzrt bbrzzt YOUR MOTHER

ICM-Bomberman
The Bombermanis a mobile mine that laughs morbidly to itself, and then starts repeating catchphrases associated with depression, the emo-subculture. Bomberman will approach its target, alternating between the laughing, making despondent noises, and asking for help in various voices (files its downloaded) and then when it is in range, it detonates it's 200 kg explosive payload.

ICM-Boomer
The Boomer is a self propelled artillery piece, a heavier version of the Gunner. It mounts either a single light mecha grade weapon, or 2-4 infantry support weapons, allowing it to sacrifice it's speed for firepower. This can be quad heavy machine guns, or heavy machine guns and rocket pods, or an over the shoulder beam weapon and a backpack mounted powerpack.

ICM-Bling Bot
The Bling Bot is a Max Headroom-esque emcee and DJ that provides musical soundscore and media playback ability. Attached to entourages, many Bling Bots double as recorders and social media nodes for their celebrity owners.

ICM-Watchman
A Watchman is a security modified robot. It monitors social media traffic about what it is set to protect. It also has a large spotlight, custom sensor systems, non-lethal weapons to subdue trespassers and criminals. Watchmen are not associated with anti-crime computer systems or wojek units. Law enforcement units do not use such custom built robots.

by **Skaldia** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:12 pm

Robotica Cont. IV

The Wojek
Like the Q-tip, kleenex, and weedeater, Wojek is a brand. The Wojek Corporation of Poland, Atlantic Federation, is the preeminent manufacturer of non-military industrial automatons in the Atlantic Federation. For years, their robots worked in near anonymity as no one in the media or the general population cared about the machines and delta class clones who keep the machinery of the Cosmic Era running. It wasn't until the Wojek corp submitted the basic design for a police and law enforcement robot. The machine was simple and elegant compared to other machines in that line of work. Most other police enforcement robots started as military machines or as armored human interaction and resource robots.

The core of the Wojek Enforcer is its commercially solid state cortex, based off of CogNet viral intelligences and mated to the solid tried and true technology foundation of the skeletron. This confluence of technologies, sitting at a crossroads of political, economic and social unrest, fostered the rapid growth and development of the robots. The Wojek Enforcers were more quickly associated with the Wojek name plate and not the Enforcer designation. The 'Wojeks' were deployed with SWAT teams, Para-military search and rescue, and crowd and riot control units. This showed that the machines were viable in their roles, and were able to do so in a cost effective manner. The Wojek became synonymous with Security robot and after a decade, all security robots, regardless of make or model, became Wojeks.

The Factory
The Wojek principle factory is located in Poland, not far from Warsaw. The industrial arco is part of an industral arco-plex that is heavily involved in heavy manufacturing. The facility produces not just security robots, but military robots, mecha, power armor, and other heavy goods used by the Atlantic Federation military. Its location, being in close proximity to the border with the Eurasian Alliance and territory torn by strife and unrest caused by Armas ensures that the Warsaw region is heavily supported by the Federation military. The facility typically hosts a full Federation mech regiment, as well as either a Federation squadron of destroyers, or an air battleship.

Skeletrons versus Wojeks
Skeletrons are the most simple iteration of the mechanoid, functional, cheap, easy to repair and inexpensive to discard. Wojeks are similar, following the simple design and functionality but are more sophisticated, and are more able to function around people in roles other than shooting and destroying. The greater ability of the cortex used allows for wojeks to talk and interact with humans on a daily basis. This further allows for the wojeks in the field to issue citations, request and verify identification and other documentation, and otherwise function as police and law enforcement officers would. Where skeletrons are almost completely mute, the wojek is able to speak, though they do so seldomly. Most humans have a tendency to dismiss babbling robots. When the wojeks do bother to speak, it is with a deep and somewhat intimidating tone, and most people are inclined to comply with the machine's commands.

Role
The Wojek has a similar role in the favelas and urban rims around the arcologies, and within the arcologies that skeletrons have in the field outside. In the Cosmic era, there are parapsychics, energy weapons, mind control devices and powers, and a huge variety of things that would very quickly slaughter even the best prepared standard police patrol officer. The Wojek is substantially tougher, and can withstand improvised explosives and most conventional and civilian grade firearms with a degree of functionality. Likewise, on the other end, a group of high powered PCs can face off against wojeks and not be forced to hold back because they are fighting machines, not flesh and blood human beings. It also gives physically aspected characters a chance to shine, as well as technopaths and technomancers to use their powers. Hackers and such can steal control of the wojeks (a felony of course) gun adepts can shoot them up, parapsychics can unleash their biggest powers, and everyone can have a good time.

Plus there are thousands of wojeks, allowing for them to force PCs to move, or burn through ammo and power before facing a real baddie, rival ops team, etc.

Meta Level
Normally something as mundane as a security robot wouldn't get it's own write up, but one of the problems that often afflicts sci-fi is a certain lack of society and culture in the existing technologies. We like shorthand, and nicknames and a lot of sci-fi likes to use long names and acronyms. He's not a law enforcement officer, he's a popo, a five-o, the fuzz, etc. The other factor that is often overlooked is that the creative energy generated within a society is done at the 14-24 year old demographic. These are the people who name things, and what the entertainment industry, and related general industries are aimed at (Yes, I know this is a huge generalization but statistically 14 year old girls determine what pop music is more than anyone else)

The police robot (how many though Pol-Rob, CopBots, and other combinations/variants on this?) is going to be identified by brand, to the point that the brand name trumps everything else. And thus, wojeks are metal and plastic cops.

Characters

Alethia Goodchild
Alethia Goodchild is a very strange looking woman, entirely too thin, and too tall. She has trendy violet hued hair and a complexion that can only be described as chalk like. She is an obvious augmentation junkie, to the casual viewer. She is aloof, seldom speaks, and has something of a detached predatory nature.

Genetically engineered and biologically tuned to an almost unsustainable level, Alethia Goodchild is a black ops produce of Vatmuara BioSciences in Balkanistan (modern day Albania). Alethia started as a mass production sex clone, but was taken by Vetmuara engineers and heavily modified, and her body was seriously and in some areas, dangerously changed. Alethia has superhuman reflexes, insectile agility, and a perverse predatory sexual nature that is only shared by things like praying mantises and black widow spiders. She also has emotional dampeners, which limit not only the emotions she is capable of feeling, but the extent to which she can feel them. As such, she cannot understand the concept of fear beyond self-preservation. She doesn't form emotional bonds with casual acquaintances, and her relationships with others are at best, exploitative.

In terms of being a template for a supersoldier or special ops, she is technically a failure, as her training was faulty, her engineering was questionable, and the cost of her creation was prohibitive to a mass produced series.

Alethia escaped Balkanistan and found political asylum in New Themyscira, where Federation trained gene-engineers were able to reverse some of the more deleterious genetic issues she had. As a political refugee, Alethia technically has nothing to do with Amazon operations. She has in the past provided ample amounts of information to the New Amazons, and has done a number of rescue missions. More than one VIP has been rescued from a hostage situation by the freakishly flexible Goodchild. When not functioning as an Amazon black ops, Alethia struggles with the fact that she wants nothing more than to be a mother, but her engineering is such that she is only fertile to and emotionally available to Neal Goodchild, her genetically engineered 'husband' and counterpart in the Vatmuaran 'syzygy' programming.

The Baroness Anastasia
People like to talk about how open minded, how accepting the world is now. It's not like the bad old days when people killed each other over the color of their skin, or by how much oil they had. But things haven't changed. Women and men are still measured by different rulers, and that's not even taking into account clones, or the rights of the biologically reborn, the mechanical men, the lifeforms that exist purely in the electronic realm. The enemies were once the masses of ignorant bigots, those who had their hearts choked with hatred. The new enemies have shown their hands and their hearts are filled with greed. They would turn humanity into pieces of their machine, man's back bent at labor, or plugged into the great machine, feeding it with their very souls and minds.

I was young once, idealistic. I fancied myself a revolutionary. I wore the jaunty military hat and quoted guerrilla poets, I spoke of Che, of Lenin and Trotsky, Mao and McVey. I looked good too, tight leather and exposed cleavage. But time weathered me. My youthful enthusiasm and optimism were crushed by the cold reality that no one cared. The rallies and the petitions were a waste of time. The activism campaigns and sit ins were a waste of time. No one cared.

To make things change, you have to make people care.

Born Anna Stacy Copperfield, raised in the lap of luxury in the London Arcoplex. She attended private schools and never lacked for servants or maids, both human and clone, and even several androids. As she grew up, she became involved in several liberalist and communist movements, taking up picket signs and running online activism campaigns. She went from cause to cause, clone rights, reparations for war veterans, birther rights, women's rights, android's rights. She also went from boyfriend to boyfriend, dating clones, men of other ethnicities, cyborgs, criminals and women. She was a striking figure in tight leather pants and body suits that accented her sexy curves. She would try to sell her cause de jour with a healthy dose of sex.

The world proved immune to her grandiose ideals and plans. Her lovers used and abused her, discarded her when they were done with her. Her causes rose and fell, and she saw that the real power behind the scenes wasn't the people, wasn't democracy. It was money, and she learned the extent that the men in power would take to stay in power.

To Defeat a Monster, a Monster You Must Become
The worst idea I ever had was that defeating the capitalists and the corporatists would require that I become one of them. I went to college, London, Paris, Berlin I toured those cities, learned the ways of the Business Samurai. How to cut throats, how to cook books and float budgets swimming in red ink. It was sorcery on a scale I had never imagined. It was more corrupt than I had ever imagined, and I was so very good at it.

But no matter how high my scores were, no matter how many times I won the debate I was laughed at. Discretely of course, but to them I was still a silly girl. I should be at home, plugged into a S3 rig, or shopping for expensive things while my rich husband made money and fucked me when he took time from work to come home. I hated them all so completely. They were better dressed, and better mannered, but they were my old boyfriends all over again. They wanted the screw the world. My old boyfriends wanted to watch it burn, these men wanted to own it, dominate it, destroy it in their own way.

by **Skaldia** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:23 pm

Characters Cont.

Heihachi Mishima (Nippon/PRC)
Heihachi Mishima was at one point nothing more than a turk. He worked as an enforcer, then the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu's Security department. He was a strong and vicious leader within the security department, and his ruthless fighting style and leading from the front style made him a popular leader. Heihachi eventually lead a successful coup against his father to take over the Zaibatsu. He would steer the company into military contracting, working with paranormal technology, and experimenting with the bleeding edge of arcanotech.

Heihachi is well aware of what has happened to his son, Kazuya, and he is working his way to discovering the technology to perfect the technique to fuse his own soul to a Hundun spirit and become an immortal. His work is lacking a vital component, as Heihachi is a systematic methodical man and considers mysticism and the occult to be ridiculous and has long since discarded anything associated with it. Should he discover the truth behind arcanotech, embrace occult studies, it would be very easy for him to complete his studies, and become a Desolate One, a true immortal, and sit at the helm of an already powerful company with large amounts of wealth, influence and many loyal minions.

Marshall Law (Republic of California/PRC)
Marshall Law is a somewhat wealthy local businessman in Old Los Angeles. He learned an Amero version of Jeet Kun Do living on the streets, and he did odd jobs and was hired muscle before making it into the fighting circuit as the wiry kid from the gutter. He became successful, winning enough to get endorsements. After holding the AmeroCircuit Championship for an unprecedented 3 years in a row, he retired and Law invested what was left of his winnings into opening a McDojo franchise, and a fast food franchise. The Law McDojos are well known and well represented in the AmeroCircuit, with top scoring students frequently going on to place well and have reliably winning circuits. The flagship dojo in the Los Angeles Arcoplex has hundreds of students, and a fairly low winning record while the original dojo in Old Los Angeles only has a dozen students at the most and the highest number of world class graduates.

Marshall Law is a strong and competent fighter, but his fighting career is years in his past. He is now a businessman running his own franchise empire. Most successful ventures like Law's are typically targeted and consumed by the MegaCorps, and the only reason Law has remained independent is that his business is based largely on his credentials and cult of personality as a coming up from the bottom fighter who made himself wealthy. His business is based on large dojos doing vanilla training to finance and fund the dojos in the slums that are recruiting and training the real fighters. Law has connections through the underworld, and many of his best students have done underground fighting, in the streets and the pits, before entering a clean sports fighting venue. His son carries on as the head of the dojo while he lives the life of a wealthy mogul and businessman.

Michelle Chang (Independent/PRC)
Michelle Chang is a member of the White Mountain Apache Indian Tribe, born to an Indian mother and an Asian father, she was born in New Vegas, but raised at White Mountain. Far from the gleaming lights and mile tall towers, Michelle learned to keep the old ways, to sing the spirits and dance the sacred dances by the light of bonfires. What would have been a largely uneventful primitive existence was brought to an end when Chang ended up being the target of a shadowrun kidnapping op. Her father was a wealthy powerful man in Hong Kong, which had inadvertently made Michelle a target. She has since fled the Reservation, as the tribe lacks the ability to repel shadowrunners and paramilitary specialists, and she refuses to see their sacred land defiled by the boots of the unclean trudging in as hired guards. She has since gone underground, traveling, learning martial arts and further honing her spiritual powers.

Michelle Chang is a mystic, an occult scholar with erupted parapsychic powers, which she uses through ritual dance, chant, and other performances which to the untrained uneducated observer

by **Skaldia** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 1:56 pm

Characters Cont. II

by **Skaldia** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:38 pm

Characters Cont. III

Appearance
Mr Big looks like a nine foot tall man wearing an oversized greatcoat and sporting a civilian grade fascia. He moves in a deliberate and intimidating manner, and his voice is likewise deep and booming. Mr Big carries himself with the cultivated demeanor of a classic cinema mobster, well spoken and polite, but also just as willing to watch someone die horribly. Or to kill them with his own hands.

Basics
Mr Big is an amalgam of power armor and cybernetics. Lester Smalls lives inside the cybernetic core of the suit, which was built off of a standard issue power armor suit. Most of the armor plates were removed, and the interior and limbs have cybernetic filling. Smalls lives in a fetal position inside the torso. This makes Mr Big hard to damage, almost completely immune to pain and fear, and with the cybernetic enhancement, dangerously and deviously intelligent.

The Backstory
Lester Smalls was formerly the leader of a criminal syndicate in a major city. A previous manifestation of Spider City saw his criminal empire literally eaten by spiders, and he himself barely survived, but not without being bitten and carrying scars and trauma. Since the previous manifestation, Smalls turned his former Mr Big persona into an actual physical thing and has sworn to find the source of the manifestation and crush it to death. Then, probably return to a life of crime and fortune.

Mr Big and the Enforcer Squad
Mr Big has never been a freelancer, or a lone gun. He creates his own team of hunters, investigators, assassins, and murderers to hunt down the source of Spider City. The squad typically consists of stock/generic former power armor troopers, former military men, mercenaries, and the colorful characters often found in the underworld. Most notably, the Enforcers have money, power, and influence, and will hire other freelancers to work as consultants. Mr Big is rarely one to get his own enormous cybernetic hands dirty, but there is almost no limit to the number of men he is willing to send to their deaths.

Vincent 'Vin' Appelhof was a mercenary, lacking any serious affiliation. This made him a frequently sought after by various parties looking for independent contractors. Appelhof was a member of a small cadre of independents and freelancers known as The Storm. This group eschewed any sort of alliance or association with any of the other Silk Road factions, or the nations and powers that opposed them. Appelhof was killed in a daring shadowrun in New Nuyork. He, and most of the team he was running with was killed by a salvo of concussion missiles. This is where the official record of Appelhof ends.

Reborn:
Appelhof was formerly a large man, with a heavily muscled physique, numerous tattoos, a meticulously shaved head, and an slavic accent. After his death, Appelhof's body was claimed a cabal of arcanotechs working for the Anunnaki, known as the Neogenecists. Appelhof's body was taken to a clandestine facility near New Nuyork where it was subjected to arcanotech and psychotronic treatment, and cybernetic reconstruction.

Augmentations:
Cranial - Appelhof suffered extensive injury to his face and skull, including severe brain trauma. He has had the damaged components of his brain replaced with artificial components. This has given him a number of innate abilities, including the ability to rapidly calculate numbers, functionally have an eidetic memory, and continuous connection to the CogNet. This permanent connection allows for near instantaneous communication, linking to drone, and slaved vehicles. It also allows the Neogenecists to take control of his body as they see fit. One eye was completely destroyed and has been replaced with abionic eye. This custom optic lacked visual input, but functioned as part of a SmartGun system, had MarkerLight capacity, and was an armored component.

Torso - Likewise, Appelhof's ribcage and most of his organs were shredded or crushed by concussive force. Most of his organs were either repaired or replaced with quick grown organs and implants. His chest was replaced with a reinforced chestplate, allowing for greater endurance and muscle augmentation. The chassis he was fitted with has external hardpoints allowing for a chem suit to be attached as needed.

Limbs - Appelhof's limbs were easily repaired, but were augmented with muscle treatments and then covered with a bioplastic sheath. The components give him a robotic look, and offer a fair degree of protection that is relatively easy to conceal.

Personality
Most people who knew Appelhof when he was alive do not recognize the same man post resurrection. Formerly a violent man, with a kill or be killed world view, the new Appelhof is quiet and introspective. He no longer indulges in alcohol, womanizing, or the other violent aspects of his old lifestyle. He has become an introvert with a fascination for old literature, caring for children, and other generally positive if isolated interests. This is in part a function of his anti-aggression implants, part a function of his artificial brain components, and part a revulsion from his former lifestyle.

Purpose
The Neogenecists created Appelhof as a 'tank' to anchor a special ops team. His augmentations and modifications make him an impressive combatant, and his experience makes him an unpredictable and violent opponent, especially after the personality inhibitors are disengaged. As such, Appelhof spends most of his time in quiet contemplation or mandatory training regimes. When the neogens call, he is activated, joins up with his team and heads out on serious black ops. Neogen ops involve containing cosmic horrors, responding to potential dimensional fatigue events, counter-insurgency, and eliminating rogue assets.

Appearance:
Yuna is a typical looking Amero-Nipponese woman, with a pale complexion, shoulder length dark brown hair, almond shaped eyes, and a slim figure. She avoids uniforms, military equipment, and technological devices, for personal reasons. She favors casual clothing, and if armed, she carries a standard issue light pistol, a class of weapons she is highly skilled at using. She enjoys poetry, music, and art, so long as it is serene, or zen in nature.

Background:
A spiritualist/animist from Nippon, Yuna Aoki is a phenometrically augmented Amero-Nipponese woman, engineered to have the best physical features of both races. Having survived a catastrophic dimensional fatigue event in Tokyo II, Yuna erupted as a powerful parapsychic with an emphasis on manipulating astral and dimensional entities. The young woman demonstrated the stunning ability to summon and control {7690|Spirits] and the take control of manifested entities as the situation presented. Deemed a psychic controller, Aoki was attached to a Nipponese Rapid Response Team, and eventually defected from Nippon when she learned that rather than preventing disasters, the RRTs were being used to clean up entirely predictable and often deliberate events. Since then, she has be a high ranking parapsychic asset to New Themyscira.

Yuna fled Nipponese control during a mission in the Republic of California. She a small group of like minded dissenters commandeered a small VTOL craft and made their way across Mexico to New Themyscira where they requested sanctuary. No longer involved in black ops, Yuna is a ranking Amazon working as both a Priestess of the Temple of the Faith, but also as a Parapsychic and Dimensional Science researcher. She retains her skills, and is a competent fighter with melee weapons, but excels with pistols, demonstrating her ability as both a Gun Adept and a cosmic horror summoner and controller. She would like to be a musician, but doesn't have the time to pursue this goal, and her grounding in Nipponese Ska-Pop renders her taste in music disagreeable to most of her Amazon companions.

Skills, Abilities, and Bonuses
Parapsychic - dimensional manipulation
Dimensional manipulation is a rare and highly valued manifestation of parapsi ability. After erupting after the Tokyo II DFE, Yuna was quickly taken into custody and pressed into the PacRim Coalition's Rapid Response Team system. Her abilities allow her to sense the presence of a dimensional fatigue event, as well as creatures an anomalies spawned from it. In the case of lifeforms, she can use her power to manipulate and even bring them under her control. In a typical engagement, she will find the most powerful aberrant present to control, and use it as a shield, and a warhound for the rest of the team. She is rightly terrified of finding a cosmic horror that is able to recognize the conduit she creates between them to reverse this control, leaving her the puppet of an unknowable monster.

Weapon Adept
Yuna can bend the trajectory of bullets in mid-air, allowing her to pull of incredible shots and feats of accuracy. She doesn't have a powerful weapon, but she finds the light pistol round is perfect for her level of skill and ability. She can put the round between armor plates, into weak points like eyes, nostrils, gills, thermal ports, etc.

Public Relations
Formerly a sale associate and amateur musician, Yuna can handle dealing with people, acting as a team leader, coordinating group activities, and can play a number of synth-instruments as well as sing and compose song and poetry.

Armor and Items

by **Skaldia** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:25 am

Armor and Items Cont.

The first Agonizer was developed and marketed as a behavior modification tool. It functioned much like a shock collar on a dog. If the device detected a proscribed activity, it would deliver a painful shock to the wearer. It was engineered to help people avoid bad habits such as drinking, smoking, or eating to excess. It proved unpopular with its intended audience. Military, psy-ops, and intelligence agencies.

Pain is Cheap
The true Agonizer is a device, typically attached to the chest, and linked to the gesund auf of the user. The device can then measure the biofeedback of the pain it is inflicting and adjust. This prevents the device from killing the user, but also prevents the user from developing a tolerance to the pain the device inflicts. With tech synchronization, the Agonizer can be linked to the CogNet, allowing outside agencies to access the device and control it.

Cheap has be regarded as a primitive and not particularly effective as a means of controlling people. That might be true, but pain is cheap, and the means of inflicting it are many. The agonizer, that's a cheater's tool. It takes the torturers art and gives it to a machine.

Agonizer Users
The Penal system has found the agonizer a great tool for controlling unruly inmates. This is not done in the first world nations like the Atlantic Federation or the Pacific Rim Coalition, but in second and third world nations, this is much more common. Agonizers aren't grafted onto common and petty criminals, they are reserved for political dissidents, terrorists, and members of oppressed minorities and factions. The one upside to having an agonizer is that the device is tied to a health monitor, so inmates with these devices are seldom abused by guards or other prisoners, for fear of being caught in the act.

Interrogators, both police and intelligence agents, have used agonizers to interrogate prisoners. This is seldom done in a brute fashion, but rather as an accessory in breaking a person so that they will divest whatever knowledge they have. Confessions are considered useless, but most questioners are looking to either convert the victim to their side, or to gain concrete intel. This is questionable at best, as many will say anything to make the pain stop, even if it means creating elaborate lies or complete falsehoods. This is almost completely unheard of in first world nations. It is much easier to use a brain hacking AISC to gather intel from a victim than to rely on centuries old pain application techniques. Criminals and organized crime syndicates are more likely to use these devices for this purpose, along with dictatorial and totalitarian regimes in the 3rd world.

Conscription and criminal based military units will use a variant of the agonizer to keep their soldiers in place. Half of training involves military tactics and weapons, the other half is being abused and terrorized into staying at their posts and in their units. Such units have very low morale, high suicide rates, and other cohesion problems, but then such units are typically used as meat shields for regular army units.
In countries where clones are considered sub-human, it isn't uncommon to find them fitted with these devices. Should a clone threaten a resident, or simply inconvenience them, they can inflict pain on the clone for their transgression. Such things are considered barbaric, and are generally limited to offworld colonies and habitats associated with secondary or tertiary global powers.

Variants
The Pleasurizer
By simple inversion, an agonizer can be configured to induce an orgasmic state. While this might seem highly desireable, in practice it becomes a much more sinister and negative thing. By removing human contact, emotional connections, and even basic dignity, the victim of the pleasurizer loses their desire for or appreciation of intimacy. Those who have been fitted with the rare pleasurizer often are interrupted doing involved tasks, or are forced to into dangerous situations while callous spectators watch, with their fingers on the trigger. The push button orgasm seemed like a fun idea until it was used while the victim was trying to walk across a balance beam above a pool of sharks. He shuddered, lost his balance, and fell. The next victim in line wept as she was forced to cross the beam, knowing what was coming.

The Euthanizer
The Agonizer has a limiter to prevent the device from killing the victim. The Euthanizer is designed to specifically kill the victim. It is a one shot device, when the signal is sent it forces the victim into a full body seizure and cardiac arrest. If there are medical personnel present, the victim can generally be revived, but only after the Euthanizer is fully discharged. This has seen greater deployment than cranial bombs, as it requires much less surgery, is much less expensive, and many victims of headpoppers have gone against their orders simply because it is a quick and painless death. The Euthanizer is a much slower, much more painful death.

One would hardly consider bio-gel, that seemingly harmless substance found in gleaming steel and glass tanks, so similar to mother's own womb fluid, to be something of rather stark horror. It seems rather fitting in our cold and callous age that we birth our children and soothe our wounds in the refined viscera of what amounts to abominations in the eyes of God and a living crimes against humanity.
You could tell everyone the truth and the stock value wouldn't drop an inch.

Amnion
Amnion is a liquid that is as vital to the health, genetic modification, and reproductive industries as oil was to the Petroleum era. It comes in a number of grades, which have a wide variety of uses.

Red Amnion, also raw amnion, or red honey. Red Amnion is unrefined, and is typically the cheapest available. It is also the lowest grade material and once given a basic filtering, is used for cloning operations, filling artificial wombs so that embryos inside them can develop into fetuses and then children.

Amber Amnion, or bio-gel, is the most common application of the substance and is found in the health and medical industry where it is used to culture organs, and used in immersion tanks to accelerate healing. This technology has lessened the impact of burns, and allowed more burn victims to live better lives, some walk away without any indicator that they survived a serious burn. Reproductive services, similar to cloning, but for individuals who don't want or cannot physically bear children use amber amnion. The red amnion would work almost as well, but there is a certain status and appearance that is required of such higher end operations. There are a number of variations of amber amnion, and these are typically dyed specific colors for trade and copyright reasons. The UAC's biotech division uses a distinctive blue-green amnion, while OCP favors an antiseptic minty green color.

White or Blue Amnion is the highest level of amnion refinement, and correspondingly, the most expensive. In very small amounts, this substance is used in culturing vaccines, genetic modification therapies, and is an integral part of longevity treatments. Most denizens of the Cosmic Era hold white amnion in the same stratospheric category as hypercars, megayachts, $10,000 bottles of wine.

How it's Made
Most people assume that amnion is made in a refinery, or something similar. Given that most things in the Cosmic Era are heavily recycled, or made on an as needed basis by polyforges, this is a rather forgivable misunderstanding. The corporations that manufacture the stuff do everything they can to make sure that the fewest possible people know how amnion is made, and where it actually comes from. The primary source of amnion is extraction from placental simulacra. Farms of simulacra are held in highly secure areas where the entities are kept in a state of incubation, while being tapped for their birthing fluid. The potential chimera they are gestating are typically destroyed well before birth to protect the simulacra from being torn apart and eaten by it's monstrous progeny, the biomass is either rendered down and fed back to the simulacra or is separated for synthesis into other pharmaceutical products.

Actual amniotic fluid can be synthesized into Amnion but it is expensive, both in terms of collecting amniotic fluid from pregnant women, and in the process of enriching it to Amnion standards. There is generally a 95% loss rate associated with this form of production, requiring twenty units of human amniotic fluid to make one unit of Amnion. This is not a popular method of gathering the material.

Lilith - buried in a geofront near Tokyo II, Lilith is a lobotomized, immobilized, and sedated teratomorph. The creature is vaguely and frighteningly humanoid in shape. It is technically female, and is held in technological and chemical bondage, it's body is used for scientific experiments for Nippon's teratotechnologies megacorporations. The teratomorph constantly 'bleeds' out a stream of red amnion which is collected and provides all of Nippon's Amnion needs, and the surplus is sold internationally.

The torpedo traced a lightning quick course, 114 kilometers from test firing rig to the target, a 14 ton piece of space debris. The warhead contained ten micrograms of it's classified fuel, enough to completely annihilate the target ten times over. Four seconds from launch to target, the proximity switches activated, 500 meters from the target. Implosion detected inside the Austerhagen device. Gravitational sheering detected, Hawking radiation detected. Explosion radius expanding at just over the expected rate of growth. Gravitation flux detected along the outer shell of the blast.

The Mighty Higgs Particle
The discovery of the Higgs Bosun in the 21st century was a seed that would take centuries to bear fruit. For generations sci-fi writers had bandied about gravitons and gravitics as a handwave technology to explain how futuristic spaceships could ignore inertia and gravity in space. At the same time, scientists would vigorously refute such things as nonsense. This would continue with greater vigor after the discovery of the Higgs bosun, up through the end of the Petroleum Era. When the shooting started, interest in sci-fi literature and exotic theoretical particles predictably dwindled.

During the Second Renaissance, interest in exotic things rebounded, and the Higgs was one of the first grabbed after. There were failures, like the Singularity plant, but even things like this pushed the programs forward. Scientists and arcanotechnicians learned more about manipulating the Higgs bosun and Higgs fields. This created a number of fantastic technologies.

Gravitronics: the long time plaything of science fiction, gravitronics are the civilian and industrial applications of gravity manipulation. The most common uses are fixing gravity in spaceships and space stations, replacing the need for centripedal force gravity generation and the associated rotating rings and hammer arms on ships and stations. It also includes the creation of the A-Pod. The Anti-gravity Pod was a major revolution in propulsion technology, in many places replacing spinning rotors, wheels, and combustion/incandescent drive systems.

Higgs Particle Cannon: one of the highest energy weapons developed, HPCs look and function like high power lasers, but are much more devastating, having both high energy and significant knock down power. The output of HPCs are measured in kilo, mega, and gigatons. The smallest Higgs cannons are mounted on large mecha and have destructive potential in the 1 to 5 kiloton range. These 'big guns' are typically used for bunker busting, anti-mecha, and anti-warship operations. Space mecha and aerospace craft favor NPCs over lasers, due to their considerable damage potential. Megaton HPCs are mounted on capital warships, such as the Federation's self named Federation class Battlestars and battlecruisers, or the Seibertronian's Arche class heavy cruisers. These weapons have destructive potential in the 2 to 10 megaton range. The second incarnation of the Obliteratrix replaced the theoretical molecular disrupter weapon with a 1 gigaton HPC. It is estimated that the blast radius of the 'Zeus Cannon' would be almost 60 kilometers across, with lessening blast damage reaching out another 50 kilometers (140-160 km air blast diameter) Wildfires and thermal burns would be inflicted beyond this range, reaching out to a maximum diameter of almost 400 kilometers from the point of impact. The Tycho Convention last session limited HPC yield to 10 megatons, and that was an inescapable concession to the weapons the Federation already had in place.

Black Hole Bombs: the slang term for a Higgs Bosun Implosion device, or an Austerhagen warhead. Developed by the Austerhagen Initiative, the weapon generates a short duration naked singularity. This is achieved by converging three Higgs beams into a lump of classified 'hypermatter'. There is a subatomic collapse, the Higgs beams destablize the hypermatter, and it's mass turns in on itself in a gravity cascade. There are a few more technological steps, all which happen in fractions of a second. The end result is a weapon that takes a massive bite out of creation, and destroys it. The warhead is becoming increasingly popular due to both it's massive destructive potential, and it's limited collateral damage. There is almost no armor that can resist this class of weapon, and it is a non-explosive. There are no radiation spikes, no blast waves, no fireballs. There is a flash of light, from the formation of a millisecond event horizon and micro-accretion disc, and a burst of X-ray radiation, and then the area of affect is simply gone, evaporated into Hawking radiation.

Corrosion Torpedo - an increasingly common and dangerous weapon, corrosion torpedoes are smart weapons designed for anti-ship warfare. They are fairly large and have a demi-sentient control system, micro-fusion reactor to power the drive system and the austerhagen device, smart tracking and ECM systems. These weapons are expensive, tantamount to firing a fully kitted out variable frame aerospace fighter at a target, but with a much higher damage potential. Operation Jawbreaker was the testing phase for the corrosion torpedo, and a number were used to destroy asteroids or target ships as proof of concept.

The Austerhagen Device, with a capital D is the proverbial and literal self-destruct system and is being investigated as a fail safe for special containment protocols and high risk research centers. It has been grudgingly decided that it would be better for a center to be devoured by it's own pocket black hole than have a repeat of the Leviathan or Deimos incidents. These are larger than the devices found in warheads, as they are expected to remove an entire facility and everything inside of it, be it giant insects, a viral outbreak, or the literal agents of Hell climbing out of the Pit. Everything is devoured by the black hole.

There are records in the Imbrian archives of a device called a Nugri Selis'Po, which roughly translates out to hungry seed or hungry egg, and is described as a hand thrown weapon that devours that which it is thrown it. Researchers believe that this is an Austerhagen 'grenade' and was used by the Imbrians as a last ditch or desperate weapon. It seems that there was some sort of suicide attack method in using the the devices as the few times they are mention. It is possible that this was deliberate. Austerhagen devices that detonate in a void have a relatively short lifespan. One that detonates in something with mass can actually persist for an observable amount of time, the more resistant the material is, the longer the singularity will persist. Weaker objects will crumple and be drawn into the event, while stronger ones will have sheering and stress damage, and frequently an almost cookie cutter perfect hole in them.

Usage: The Austerhagen warhead/device is the weapon system that makes the Cosmic Era step back and wonder if it has crossed a line it shouldn't have. The potential devastation of HPCs dwarf the firepower of atomic and nuclear weapons, and the destructive potential of the austerhagen bomb are enough to sober even the most vitriolic warhawk. In the Lovecraftian/anime theme of the Cosmic Era, when the Outer Gods come sloughing into the domain of man, They will be met with the brilliant lances of Higgs particle cannons and black hole tipped missiles.

What is a Bioforge
The Bioforge is a pinnacle piece of technology that combines the basic structure of a med-pod with the human engineering capabilities of a cloning facility. This will never replace dedicating cloning systems, as the Bioforge only operates on a single body at a time, and there is no way to engage in an economy of scale, as the forge itself is not a cheap or simple piece of machinery. The bioforge also has all of the same capabilities as a cosmetologist and their gene editing facilities.

What does it do?
A person is placed inside the bioforge, which closes around them iron maiden or sarcophagus style, and the system is activated. The person inside is biologically changed to fit the desired parameters as inputted at the control console. The first uses of the Bioforge were benevolent. New limbs could be literally print/grown from the site of amputation, critical and lethal wounds could be repaired all but automagically. Damaged organs could be replaced quickly.

Full Body Restoration - so long as the central nervous system was intact and biologically active, a bioforge could restore the entire body to normal functioning status. This does take time, energy, computing power, and biomass to accomplish, but it is fully effective. Even hosts with brain damage can be brought back, though the portions of the brain that are restored are not going to retain whatever information they held, so there will be gaps and memory loss, and the restored person will have to go through therapy as any stroke victim might.

Full Body Rejuvenation - like taking a car to be rebuilt, this basically rebuilds the host body, reducing the effects of age, illness, scars, and other infirmities. While it can dramatically increase lifespan, it doesn't deal with the eventual deterioration of the brain itself, only it's physical structure.

Full Body Alteration - this can radically change the body of the host, including gender, installing a full body bio-pattern, or reducing a series of genetic modifications to a single session in the bioforge.

The Implications of the Bioforge
Like any human invention, the true effects of the bioforge don't come from what it can do, but from who and how it is used. The Bioforge is an incredibly complicated and sophisticated machine, one not found in many places. The people who have these devices are the upper tier of medical megacorps, and the research organizations and agencies that have the money to afford such things. This means that there aren't bioforges in the top floor of even black hospitals, such a medical group might own a single such device, across it's various locations and cities. Even with med-pods, and surgical robots, and nursing droids, the demand for medical care outstrips the supply. In some instances the shortage is intentional to keep the service as a commodity, but in the case of the Bioforge, it is a real limitation.

What is biological autonomy?
Biological autonomy is the legal status of self ownership, and self determination, and that a person, regardless of debt or obligation, is their own master, and they make their own decisions, such as are afforded to them. One of the implications of the Bioforge is the removal of biological autonomy. With it's ability to genetically modify and engineer a person, that person can be fully and completely changed against their will, even to the point of their will and psyche being altered, violating their biological autonomy.

Homogenization - also known as gentling, clonifying, and dolling, homogenization removes most of the persons identifying characteristics, rendering them down to a perfectly normal, perfectly bland, perfectly average human being. They are de-gendered, de-sexualized, and have their brain chemistry altered to be servile, meek, and to be highly avoidant to confrontation. The reasons why this was created are highly questionable and not really answerable, but the most common victims of homogenization are serial criminals, dissidents, and test subjects, not always willing. Once biologically stripped, these dolls were easy to handle, and well suited to servitude and abuse. They are a flagrant violation of the Tycho convention article over creating sub-humans.

Pleasure Slave - the host is rendered to be a highly if unremarkably attractive member of their gender, with enhanced sexual traits, and similar hormone modifications to render them almost identical to a meretrix sex clone. This creates trophy spouses, populates harems, and otherwise turns normal people into objects.

Hit the Paste Button - this function turns the host into a body double from a scanned template. This is useful for spies, bodyguards, political stand ins, and so forth, but it is more commonly used to create cookie cutter people, emulating the appearance of a specific person or an ideal person.

Existential Violation
The Bioforge can repair wounded warriors, replace faulty organs, and give a normal life to crippled people. It can also be used to rip a person's very biological identity away from them, turning their body into something that is not their own. With fairly strong autocratic central powers in the Cosmic era, from machine orchestrated nations to megacorps helmed by near corpses clinging to life via elaborate machines, the possibility of being run through a human panini maker and being popped out as a drone or toy or pet is a frightening reality.

Benthic Products 'Brigman' Marine Hardsuit
The Brigman has been in service for years as a marine construction and salvage hardsuit. It is heavily built, and only easily mobile in the water, where it balances out its mass through forced buoyancy and ducted marine thrusters. For years, the suit was used in the construction of seacologies, deep sea habitats, and with modifications and special equipment, marine mining operations. It proved well suited to underwater rescue operations, and salvaging marine wrecks. Benthic Products made a name for itself by building seacologies and salvaging the forests of abandoned drilling rigs and sunken ships in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean sea.

The Brigman is well known for its hulking stature, deep sea reinforcement, and the iconic arm mounted drill. This device, technically a powered melee weapon, is used for rock coring, and for making holes to set marine charges in for demolition. The militarized version of the Brigman, the Coffey, exchanges the mining equipment for a backpack mounted mini-torpedo launcher, marine grenade launcher, and a progressive lance. The Coffey is named for the marine commando Hiram Coffey, who used a marine encounter suit, a progressive knife, and a bracer of grenades to severely damage the South American destroyer 'Rivadavia' which was later destroyed by a surface barrage.

The Brigman/Coffey is not a popular suit, as it is primarily designed for deep sea operations. Comfort is secondary to keeping the pilot alive. The suit is uncomfortable, and given the amount of time an operator can reasonably expect to be in it, it can start smelling bad, and most pilots dislike the fact that unlike more advanced suits, instead of being connected to the suit through a neurolink, they are connected through a waste collection system.

The River Rat Company is a special forces unit equipped with Brigman/Coffey power armors and they are known for spending as long as two weeks inside their power armors, the amount of time it takes them to walk from a drop off point, up a river, and to their targets. The Rats have dropped bridges, performed surgical strikes, and sunk more than a few ships at anchor. The Rats have done most of their work in South America, but have been in operations in Europe and Polynesia as well.

Ed Mastrantonio, a Cuban by birth, is one of the most decorated Brigman/Coffey pilots in the Federation. He has only seen minimal combat, and then in a supporting role. Mastrantonio has done a good deal of search and rescue work, and has saved the lives of dozens of people. While his emergency repair work at the Port-Au-Prince in the Federation Riviera is the most publicly known display, he saved many more lives when he prevented a terrorist launched weapon from hitting the New Miami seacology, sacrificing his life and his suit to stop the rogue weapon.

What is Classified Genetic Material?
Classified Genetic Material is a homeostatic container of biological material that is 'not of this Earth' This container is probably shiny polished steel with some blinking lights, and a temperature readout, and maybe some computer ports on it. The substance inside the container is where the proverbial biomagic is, but also plays a McGuffin role. While the material is important, and probably among the most valuable and expensive substances on the planet, in the hands of a PC it is useless. Opening the container is more likely to contaminate and destroy the sample inside than to release a new strain of super virus, spawn eldritch mutations and the like. At this stage, Classified Genetic Material is pretty much a space holder that can be filled with nuclear launch codes, Secret encrypted documents, or maltese falcons.

What role does Classified Genetic Material play?
CGM can play one of three major roles in a story; McGuffin, Handwavium, and Plot Device. As mentioned above, the McGuffin mode of CGM is that of the objective of the game. The goal is to acquire the cannister and prevent it from falling into baddie hands. Other than this, it is useless as a paper weight. The second role of the material is where it gets interesting. In its role as Handwavium the classified genetic material is a catalyst for building more advanced and alien biotechnologies.

Human cloning rendered viable by applied CGM
Meta-gene/mutant powers created by using CGM manipulation or gene splicing
Synthetic materials created via biological means, such as trees that extrude plastic pellets, worms that sweat viagra, or ultrastrong steel beams grown from biological colony creatures.
Monsters created from CGM, be it fusing with a human host, contaminating a biosphere and making super animals (insert about 66.6% of SyFy monster movies of the week)
Applications of biotech too frightening or bizarre to be listed here, yet.

And finally, CGM can be used as a plot device. Contrary to the above McGuffin role, the cannister becomes an active item. The contents inside must remain inside, or the cannister must be destroyed in spectacular fashion to ensure the destruction of its contents. This cannister could be holding the alien pathogens that create zombies (and miraculous medical regeneration, but thats still tricky) to a hyperphagic space ameoba, to the remains of the monkey fired into space that is now a host to an infectious energy based lifeform that can become trapped in human nervous systems. Whatever is in inside is some seriously bad stuff. The players main goal is to protect or destroy the object, or in a grim twist deliver it to a target to be released. Zombie outbreak in Beijing? A nuke was a blessing.

Appearance
The EPSED-1 'Codpiece' is a unique suit of power armor notable for having a pelvis hardpoint. This allows the Codpiece armor to fit a heavy infantry support weapon on the hips of the user, allowing them to provide accurate fire support while leaving their hands free, and the shoulders of the armor clear of gear.

Other power armors have mounted heavy weapons hard points on the shoulders, which is an effective way to carry larger and heavier weapons, but it does so with a number of problems. The most notable is that the suits can quickly become top heavy, hard to control, and being taller, are easier targets for anti-suit warfare. EPSED decided that mounting the hardpoint on the pelvis would address the center of gravity issues, reduce target cross-section, and considered the entirely phallic appearance of the system a solid selling point.

Common Variants
EPSED-1A (autocannon)
The main advantage of the 1A variant is stopping power and penetration. The 1A mounts a recoil compensated 37.5mm autocannon that is effective against power armor, light vehicles, and defeating most non-military armors. The downside of the 1A is that most users compare firing the cannon to being repeatedly kicked in the jimmy. Female users have not had this issue.

EPSED-1E (energy)
The 1EL mounts an infantry support laser, the 1EM has a microwave burst cannon, and the 1EP has a plasma cannon. These weapons require careful management of the power pack as they can deplete it in quick order. EPSED-1E users are known to carry multiple power cores, as well as creating improvised backpack units from military heatsinks.

EPSED-GWAR
The EPSED-GWAR is a custom model that has a cannon bore squirt gun and a backpack reservoir system. This unit was made for a musical group that uses the cannon in a purely phallic manner to pump foam and assorted fluids onto the crowd during it's concerts.

Service and Failure
The EPSED Codpiece almost instantly relegated itself to the sidelines. Rather than being taken seriously as a self propelled gun power armor unit, it was a walking joke. No pilots wanted to use it, no reputable merc unit wanted to field them, and the handful that were sold went into personal collections, media and entertainment use, or into the entourages of the most absurd media celebrities.

Author's Note - inspired by the abysmal comic character of the same name, Codpiece, an utter pillock who randomly shot things with his crotch cannon.

by **Skaldia** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 11:00 am

Armor and Items Cont. II

Commercial Armor
Commercial Armor is a dense ferro-plastic material that is good for dissipating kinetic impact and some thermoablation. This armor is light in weight compared to metallic and composite armors, and against civilian and light military weapons provides excellent protection. Commercial armor does have a major weakness. It's plastic base material is very vulnerable to weapons specifically designed to defeat armor. Armor piercing rounds and weapons have their critical threshold effectively doubled when facing off against commercial armored vehicles and mecha.

Who Uses Commercial Armor?
Most 'legal' megacorp security forces and paramilitary equipment owned and operated by civilians or non-military forces are clad in Commercial Armor. There are plenty of megacorp special security sections that have access to advanced armored vehicles and mecha, but these are covert operations.

Civilian Light Personal Armor is traditionally made of commercial grade materials. It will protect the wearer in a riot or other 'civilian level' conflict but not allow for the creation of highly effective civil militias. Military grade light personal armor is seldom if ever made of commercial grade materials like ferroplastics.

Civilian hardsuits and paramilitary power armor suits are made of commercial ferroplastic as the presence of armor defeating weaponry is relatively low. Most armored cops don't have to worry about a criminal gang having military grade magnetic rifles, or special HEAT, HEAP, or other special armor defeating cannon rounds.

Industrial mechs and work mechs are only clad in commercial grade armor. These machines are not intended for second or even third line military service, and composite armors are expensive to maintain. The military and heads of state prefer that non-combatant mecha and powered hardsuits be clad in ferroplastic, as the number of working machines drastically outnumbers the fighting machines. Arcologies don't just grow out of the ground.

The Origin of Commercial Armor
Commercial armor was born in the darker days of the Second Dark Age. Plastics were relatively easy to produce, especially plant based bioplastics. Metal was in short supply, and during that time period, reclaiming cities and digging up landfills was a cost effective means of gaining it. By mixing layers of plastic and adding reinforcing weaves of metal, a workable armor was created. The bulky armor became popular as it was cheap and readily made, and few if any of the bandit/raiders of the era were able to exploit the basic weaknesses of wearing armor that was one step away from being water bottles or milk jugs.

As the Cosmic Era bloomed with the Second Renaissance, the ferroplastic armor remained in use due to it's practical value. Non-military things could be protected effectively with it, and it remained both cheap and easy to produce.

Deifacted Glomes are the stuff of nightmares, they are naturally occurring, yes. But they arent created by geological processes, or the cooling of magma under extreme conditions. They are grown inside the bodies of teratomorphs, as they are on the verge of transcendence. These are the hearts of the monsters, and the transition from megafauna teratomorph to erelim sees their heart condense from a biological organ to a crystalline matrix. This matrix is a deifacted glome. The only way to get one is from the corpse of an erelim.

Appearance
Deifacted Glomes are postulated from the existence from a single specimen. This glome is approximately 23 inches across, making it not only unique being naturally occurring, but also the largest in existence. The sphere looks like highly polished wet obsidian, but has a very rough and sandy texture. This is thought to be part of its 4 dimensional nature as instruments measure it as being incredibly smooth. It registers as room temperature to a sensor, but is cold to human touch. There are many other areas where the specimen doesn't conform to traditional forms of measurement. Being a stable hyperdimensional object, samples cannot be taken from anything other than the presented surface, and this is difficult to accomplish.

Origin
The specimen was found on the surface of Sedna, a dwarf planet beyond the orbit of Pluto. The expedition that found the object, and the ruins around it, loaded the bulk of the material they couldn't reverse engineer or decipher into a long range 'torpedo' and launched it towards the orbit of Saturn. The cargo probe was easily recovered by a capture ship and taken first to Iapetus for preliminary study to determine the safety of the object and the rest of the contents before they were again loaded onto an automated cargo ship, this time a fast light freighter designer for such courier work.

The deifacted glome is the 'heart' or energy collection organ for an erelim, a highly destructive form of an outer god. In the cosmozoan lifecycle, the development of the deifacted glome is the action that marks the transition from larvae to outer god. The specimen found on Sedna was taken from the Imbrian grave of the Erelim known to them as Bekoriel and that empire spent several thousand years coming up with a way to handle the creature, which seemed intent on coming to the heart of their empire to heap scorn and ruin on them. They succeeded in driving the creature into a torpid state, and then created a 'Death Engine' to continually drain the energy from the beast while keeping it entombed. The engine worked, Bekoriel perished, and by the time the Oumuamua arrived, there was nothing left aside from the massive cairn, powdered bones, and the crystalline heart sphere of the creature.

Specifics
The deifacted glome is as mentioned the hyperdimensional core of a cosmic deity. Divested of it's corpus, the glome is now a usable power source for anyone foolish enough to attempt it. Activating the glome with either psychotronic gear or a parapsychic will open up a tremendous amount of power to the user, a level of power suitable for propelling a ship through space, levitating a small city, or sending psychic emanations across a large swath of the globe.

Inside of an erelim, the deifacted glome allows them to levitate and fly, generate biological energy fields and shields, and to generate high energy beam attacks. Without this, the creatures would simply be too big to move under their own biological power and anatomy.

Use
The Deifacted Glome is somewhere between a macguffin and an artefact. No one is actually going to conceivably use it for anything, but lots of parties are going to be interested in it. It would make a tremendous weapon, be incredibly powerful in the hands of a Desolate One with the PK ability to use it, or function as a power core for a warship armed exclusively with arcanotech weapons.

Project Flycatcher

Project Flycatcher was a black level operation where no one knew who was working for who, who was paying for what, or even what nation or power was backing the operation. The core of Flycatcher was a space habitat outside of planetary jurisdiction, technically inside the Venusian orbit. The habitat was a research center, and had an unknown number of Downington Sphere satellites associated with it. On a regular basis, the satellites were brought in and examined in the hope that one of them would have captured an aphasic lifeform and forced it into a corporeal state.

The Downington Sphere
The Downington Sphere is an arcanotech device that was developed by Dr. Abigail Downington and Arthur Howland. Howland, a tech assistant was given credit posthumously, as the first successful Sphere test killed him. A Downington Sphere is an arcane device ranging from one to six meters wide, and it's interior is a labyrinthine maze of crystal panels, sensors, and strange miniature devices. The devices are very sensitive, and the handful that have been built were stationed at laboratories and research centers in distant orbits, well away from Earth.

Grimm-Olduvai Space Planktonoids
The observations of the Grimm-Olduvai energy telescope near Mars detected the existence of what were later dubbed aphasic lifeforms. These 'creatures' were found to exist in multiple dimensions, and in an energy state that the only comparable thing was the neutrino. Studies were launched to learn more about these seemingly massive version of what superficially resembled microscopic lifeforms from Earth. Most of the space planktonoids bore a strong resemblance to oceanic plankton, diatoms, and single celled lifeforms.

The Arboria Incident
The Arboria was a cargo freight, independent, operating out of the outer belt. The ship was making a slingshot around the sun to make a connection from Jupiter to Mars, which was on the other side of the solar system. Such 'slingshots' are common, if slightly daredevil maneuvers. The savings in terms of time and fuel generally are attractive enough for privateers and independent ships to make such moves. The Arboria almost collided with a Downington Sphere. Not knowing what it was, the brought the sphere onboard, and claimed it as space junk, as it had no information as to who owned and operated it.

The trap had worked and an amoeba like planktonoid was in it. Over the next sixteen hours, the planktonoid overtook the ship, devoured the crew, and reproduced a number of times. The automated systems guided the hulk of the Arboria to the Phobos cargo hub above Mars. The moon base was able to contain the infestation, and it was classified as a Dimensional Fatigue Event, possibly triggered by the Arboria traveling too close to the sun and causing disturbances inside it's power core.

Aphasic Technology
Aphasic Technology is in it's infancy, and the Downington Sphere is the hypertechnological equivalent of a crab pot, or a net in a tidal pool. In the Cosmic Era, the terminology and technology are known, but afforded the same consideration given to Kirlian energy, aura manipulation and crystal gazing in the modern day. The vast majority of spheres created have captured nothing and will capture nothing as their operational profile is too crude to catch something as elusive as the dreams of the gods.

by **Skaldia** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 12:50 pm

Armor and Items Cont. III

by **Skaldia** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 1:12 pm

Armor and Items Cont. IV

Appearance
The Ring of Atma is a metal ring approixmately an hand-span across, hung with seven claw like tassels, and has the symbol of Atma in the center. The symbol of Atma is an hourglass convergence of pyramids with an eye or jewel where the two points meet. The ring is made of a gold like metal that is nearly impervious to harm, and so long as the ring itself is not completely destroyed by being submerged in superheated liquid metal or vaporized in a plasma stream, it will repair damage to itself.

Usage
The eye of Atma is worn as a necklace and must lie against bare flesh for it's powers to be activated. It can be carried as part of a censor or crozier, and this negates it powers, and its drawbacks. The ring has two tests that the bearer must pass before gaining the powers of the Ring. The would be bearer must be of pure heart and mind. They must have the constitution to bear the power of the ring, and they must have the willpower to control it. If they fail either of these tests, they are destroyed by the Ring. Bearers who are not pure of heart are consumed from the inside out by holy fire. Smoke will come from their mouths as they burn from the inside and eventually collapse into a greasy pile of ash and crumbling bone as if they were cremated. Those who are not of pure mind will have their souls consumed by the ring, adding to it's power. The would be bearer merely collapses to the ground, their mind and souls devoured. A short time later, their body will perish as well.

Powers
Heart of Desire - the Ring can function as a supernatural compass, and provided the bearer can focus on their desire, the Ring can point them in the direction, and approximate distance to their desire. This works better the more concrete the object of desire is. It can locate abstractions, but what a person desires and what will take them there are not always going to be the same thing.

The Seal of Atma - with this power, the bearer of the Ring can bind a soul or animus to an object. Imbrians believed strongly in reincarnation, so the greatest punishment wasnt death, it was to be soul bound so that the soul could not be purified and reborn into a new body. This power was also used to seal the souls of terrible beasts and youma to prevent them from reappearing in the future. Only the destruction of the host object would release the soul.

Game of Shadows - with this power, the bearer of the Ring can create a dreamlands battlefield and draw an opponent into it for the purpose of dueling. Should the Ring Bearer win, the opponent is trapped forever in the dreamlands and cannot be reborn into the living world for an exceedingly long period of time. The Games of Shadow is unpredictable now, as the Imbrian's teleportation array is long since destroyed, so those defeated in Games of Shadow can find themselves left shadowtainted. This includes fear of bright light, agoraphobia, and a sundry list of other mental disturbances.

Appearance
Almost identical to the encounter suit, the Sneak Suit is a body fitting 'sleeve' garment. These suits are not brightly colored as many ECs are, they favor black, gray, or white. The best Sneak Suits are thin enough to fit under normal clothing, even to the point of allowing the wearer to look like they are wearing shorts, a skirt, or other skin barring clothing by mimicking the color of their skin, or being translucent. The Sneak Suit shouldn't be noticed as a sneak suit even when being worn in a highly visible public setting.

Specific Abilities
The Sneak Suit is by definition a passive stealth system. it's abilities are constantly active and cannot be turned on or off. Being passive in nature, they are very hard to detect, and this can be problematic for security systems that are looking for anomalous readings, energy patterns, EM signatures, and such, because they aren't set up to notice a lack of these things.

Ultraviolet Sheath - the sneak suit is designed to block UV light. This means that many basic security scanners won't read surface biometric sensors. Exposed scannable codes and identifying tattoos are obscured from digital scanning.

Dazzle Pattern - the UV sheath isn't the same density across the suit, it has asymmetrical patterns that break up the outline of the person wearing them. Smart systems that look for human shapes and facial recognition do not recognize a person in a sneak suit as a person, but rather as a refraction in a sensor. So long as human eyes aren't monitoring the specific scanner, a person in a sneak suit can walk through an AI identification system with ease.

Thermal Sheath - the suit has a mini-heat sink built into the belt pack. The pattern and flow of the suit channels heat from the suit to the heat sink. The wearer doesn't have any appreciable heat signature, and doesn't leave thermal prints where they walk. This makes sensors relying on heat blind to their location.

EM sheath - the inside of the sneak suit is shielded against EM and radio waves. This means that anything inside the sheath is cut off from the outside network. Superficially this blocks things like biometrics and biometric devices, allowing a person with full cybernetic uplink ability to vanish without disabling their gear or undergoing surgery to remove their augments. Such an operative with the ability to use a hardline to link to a system would be able to hack like anyone else, but would only be visible if they could be detected at their point of access. A second bonus of the sheath is that anything tucked inside the suit functionally vanishes from the digital world, a good way to steal smart devices, or smuggle in small weaponry.

Variants
Heavy Sneak Suit - the heavy sneak suit combines the full protective ability of an encounter suit, with the full stealth abilities of a sneak suit, at the cost of being readily visible to the eye. These are more akin to the bodysuits from comic book movies, and hiding them is difficult at best, requiring a large coat, cloak, or such.

Sneak Armor - sneak armor is functionally a set of Light Power Armor that has had it's components coated with the same material as a sneak suit, and then typically equipped with a cloak to further assist with concealment. These are used in rural and ruin environments where blending into a crowd is less important and surviving a hostile environment is more paramount.

Sneak Cloak - a simple cloak made of the same basic material, the sneak cloak allows for a wearer to carry larger equipment, or to use a much cheaper to make cloak over a custom made suit. Even if a cloak doesn't completely conceal a wearer, it can make them look much different to electronic surveillance, a man in a full power armor suit draped in a sneak cloak might register as a man in basic armor or a standard auton.

Stealth Net - the materials used to make the sneak suit can be made into almost any shape, and it isn't uncommon for special forces, mercenaries, and other groups to use tarp sized sheets of sneak material as camouflage netting for vehicles, aerospace craft, or even mecha.

Usage
The main use of Sneak Suits is for covert operations where spies, ninja, and assassins don them to spoof the electronic and robotic countermeasures of the Cosmic Era. These suits allow for surgical precision in covert ops.

Appearance: The VMV Power armor is noted for it's semi-organic design, with the various armor plates and panels not assembled in a typical 'medieval' or 'robotic' style but in a marine/insectile fashion. The chest plate forms a shelf like flange along the center line, providing both a point of strength and rigidity, but also a degree of internal space for random equipment, or more often than not, a water bladder. The suit has oversized shoulder pods that are modular in nature, and can mount either targetable weapon pods or reaction boosters for movement in zero-g. It is however, one or the other, but not both. The right arm has a hard point for a wrist/forearm mounted weapon pod, the most common being a relatively strong optical laser.

The VMV armor has a light refractive coating that dissipates light and heat based weaponry, and is vulnerable to high velocity armor piecing weapons, such as magnetic weapons, and specific anti-armor and anti-power armor weapons. These are relatively rare in space, given such weapons recoil and other handling issues and requirements.

Creator: Varia-Metron is a small Lunar based company that has been building vacuum suits for close to a generation. VM started with basic space suits and it a manufacturer of encounter suits for the Atlantic Federation, and trans-terrestrial colonies. It ventured into building hard suits and armored suits for the hazards of space mining and operations on No-Atmo space bodies. Upgrading the armor to military spec and adding hardpoints for weapons was relatively simple.

History: Combat in space has been relatively uncommon, given the hazards involved. Whole new weapons, armor designs and more had to be created to deal with the extreme environment and it's unique conditions, such as zero gravity, exposure to hard radiation, or complete lack of atmosphere.

Varia-Metron started as a hostile environment outfitter working to equip explorers and space adventurers in the same vein as extreme hiking and outdoors outfitters on Earth. Climbing Everest was one thing, but Olympus Mons? There were always rich people with crazy ideas, and the odd sort of person who found their calling in extreme environments. The Varia company flourished from it's main location in Tycho City, Luna and became well known for it's unique offerings, such as radiation resistant socks and Space Meals to Go. But their association with several small suit manufacturers broke them out into the big leagues when they started pushing the Mk III 'Muscle Tracer' encounter suit. Varia was eventually acquired by the Metron-Tycho Holding Company of Luna (MTHC) and its production of encounter suits and other space gear was scaled up. Varia-Metron became the boutique outlet of the bulk goods produced by MTHC, as well as it's flagship products.

VM eventually produced and fielded the Diamondcutter Mining Suit, an armored space suit intended for use in asteroid and lunar mining. It was armored to handle space debris and micro-metorites which had in the past proved a problem for light vehicles and space walks. The Diamond Cutter proved popular but it's relative high cost left it a minor player in the space resources race. Chalopin-Barkin would undercut VM with it's own scaled down lost cost version of the Diamond Cutter, the CB Rockhog. Having invested the resources in a top line armored suit and having been beat in the market, the BOD at MTHC were left with a boondoggle. The Diamond Cutter represented a great deal of financial investment and resources and there were two factories already tooled up to start production of the suit, in addition to the small level of production coming out of Varia's small facility itself.

VM approached the Atlantic Federation Armed Forces with several modified Diamond Cutters. The armor had been replaced with hardened composite plating, and the sensor system had likewise been upgraded with military grad gear. The cutting laser mount remained, but they had opted for a hands on gun system, allowing the marine inside to use a variety of weapons. The AFAF was interested in a space power armor, since at that point their space marines were using vacuum modified versions of terrestrial power armor, roughly half being adapted aquatic models. Several prototypes were tested, and the redesignated VMV Power armor was approved and purchased by the Space Arm of the AFAF.

Specifics: The VMV is a medium level power armor, with average protection. It is also a relatively fast power armor, as it has reactive thrusters built into the basic unit 'backpack' for movement and control in zero-g. The large shoulder pods can be modified to carry both fuel cells and larger thrusters, giving the suit limited space flight capability (6-8 hours by air supply, and good for not much more than ship to ship movement). The VMV has a forearm weapon mount specifically for an energy weapon, and the additional power cell to supply it. The majority of VMVs have MASERs on this mount, but the optical laser is a more publicly seen weapon. The VMV can carry rifles and other power armor weapons, but most rely on the energy weapon mount, or small missiles fired from the shoulder pods.

The shoulder pods, in addition to being able to house thrusters can alternately house weapon systems. The most commonly used weapon system is a 25mm short range missile launcher which can be effective against light spacecraft and light space armor suits. The unit can mount a high energy weapon in one pod and a large power cell in the alternate pod, usually a plasma projector, large bore laser, or high output maser 'cannon' as a heavy weapons platform.

On terrestrial footing, such as Earth or Mars, the VMV can usually be shown up by conventional power armor, as it has better armoring, heavier weapons, and greater stress resistance. In space or low-g environments, the VMV demonstrates it's space pedigree with greater agility, and adaptability.

by **Skaldia** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 8:36 am

Lifeforms

In ancient times, mariners would tell tales of giant tentacles writhing up from the deep, pulling men off the decks of ships to grim deaths in the belly of unseen horrors. We laughed at such things, wise as we were. We looked at the old maps, with their 'here be monsters' warnings, and fanciful drawings of serpents and terrible whales. It seems that no matter how advanced we become, how impressive our ships are, there are still going to be monsters in the deep. We traded deep waters for deep space, and despite centuries of being told how barren and empty space was, we found monsters.

Appearance:
Exosomes are most commonly encountered in a colonial form, usually a long flexible tube. This is often described as looking like a tentacle, if the open ends and hollow center are not noticed. Superficially similar to pyrosomes and zooids in terrestrial oceans, exosomes are found in deep space, well beyond the orbit of Jupiter. The creatures are easy to miss, they are not bioluminescent, and their soft gelatinous bodies do not appear well on sensors and scanners. More often, they appear as blurry areas, or are overlooked as background noise on scans.

It was a tentacle, a big ass tentacle, space squids man, space squids! It was stealthy, couldn't pick it up on the DRADIS. I could see it, looking out through the periscope, through the optical filters. It was there, estimated size was well over ten kilometers long, big enough that it could wrap around our little frigate a half dozen times, could have cracked the hull, spaced all of us, and then eaten us at it's leisure.

Strange Biomes
The exosome is a manifestation of simple space life, lumped together by terrestrial science as space planktonoids. The exosome is a colonial structure, composed of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of individual 'planktonoids'. The creatures have elected to form a colonial body, allowing them to more efficiently feed on other planktonoids, resist predation, and to be more mobile than individually possible.
The Grimm-Olduvai index classifies exosomes as cosmozoa salps, and as least dangerous level creatures. Unlike aphasic planktonoids, exosomes are fully existent in three dimensions. They do not have any ability to harm humans, but their biomass can cause damage to ships that hit them, as well as fouling sensors, antenna, and other delicate structures. This isn't a factor of the toughness of the exosome, but more a factor of the high velocity of ships moving in deep system maneuvers. Exosomes are mindless, and if exposed to a hostile stimulus, such as engine exhaust, energy weapons, or high energy scanners, they can form a sort of pulse jet, allowing them to move slowly away from the stimulus. Despite the fantastic claims of spacers, exosomes are harmless to humanity.

The Real Deal
The Exosome is based off of the real world pyrosome, a colonial plankton found in the ocean, where they form semi-mobile tubes up to several meters long and as big around as a scuba diver.

The hard part about dealing with a virmitrix, or virmitrice, is that they look like whatever they want. They defy the laws of nature, the laws of biology, and barely adhere to the laws of physics and thermodynamics. Every virmitrix encountered to date has assumed the likeness of the most dominant species, and within a short amount of time, adopted its psychological framework. A virmitrix that adopts a human guise looks, sounds, acts, and even smells human. Thankfully, this emulation is only a few cells deep and revealing one for what they are is relatively easy.

The Virmitrix
The Virmitrix are plasmid lifeforms, biologically resembling terrestrial molds and slimes. Their point of origin is unknown, but they are not entirely uncommon, which is and should be a frightening reality. Virm biomass is highly adaptable, and capable of multiple forms of cellular metabolism, chemical and toxin resistances, and even resistance to energy and radiation. Virm biomass only has two serious weaknesses, cold and dehydration.

The most prominent weakness of virm biomass is cold resistance. None of the virm metabolic processes are particularly thermogenic so the organism has limited ability to generate its own heat. Exposing Virm to cold will cause them to freeze. This is not fatal, they merely become immobile and dormant. Even shattered a frozen virmitrix will only reduce the creature to a large number of much smaller forms. When these chunks, if thawed, will assume a new form relative to their environment and size. In one instance, a virm fragment thawed, assumed the form of a large rat, chewed its way out of confinement and escaped. The second weakness is dehydration. When exposed to extreme heat and dryness, virm will secrete a dense shell and enter a form of hibernation. Of the two tactics, cryonics are much more effective, as a virm entity can sacrifice its own moisture to advance and act, in contrast to a virm failing in the face of freezing.

The Thing
The Virmitrix are outsiders, having originated from another Earth, another dimension, where the dominant lifeform developed from slimes and molds and not notochordic animalia. They developed along a slower technological axis, and are completely incapable of reaching parapsychic ability. On the other hand, the virm are mimics by nature, and they consume other creatures whole, and through this process create cellular memory, allowing a virm to replicate any creature they devoured.

When the Virm and Humans crossed paths, the Virm found humanity irresistible. Despite being fixed in shape, humanity possessed unimaginable mental elasticity and capability. They quickly consumed as many humans as possible, and assimilated into human culture, human language, human mentality faster than could have been expected. Likewise, humanity almost immediately noticed the Virm. Despite their cunning mimic skills, the Virm retained many tells, low body temperature, acidic secretions, frequent mirroring behavior, and even the most cursory medical examination could determine the lack of humanity. The shapeshifting ability of the Virm was highly sought after by humanity, for their own nefarious purposes.

In a normal narrative, the Virm would be the villain, appearing and devouring humanity and then ultimately consuming it from the inside and turning it into a new branch of Virm. This isn't the case. Despite their impressive mimicry and assimilation skills, the Virm are not parapsychically active, are easily detected by even basic medical science, and can be conditioned to serve humanity. The most common form of human control is implanting an agonizer or similar pain device. The Virm are mimics, not warrors, not assassins, and are completely unprepared for the absolute ferocity and aggression of humanity.

Containment
The Virm could easily flower inside humanity, not overtaking it, not replacing it, but existing within it like a parasite. Unfortunately long periods of Dimensional Fatigue protocols and reflex teams made the incursions of the virm easily noticed and countered.

Humanity, paradoxically, was aware of the Virm, before the Virm were aware of humanity. While the virm gestalt was curious about what was occurring with a handful of their own, humanity had already captured several of them, and were in the process of vivisection and cellular analysis of them. By the time the Virm realized that humanity was the dominant species of this new Earth, humanity had already unraveled the neogenic RNA of the Virm, and had figured out their metamorphic ability, and were in the process of domesticating captuted Virm and creating anti-virm vaccines

Appearance
A Xamek is a humanoid entity. They are genderless, faceless, and featureless. Their bodies are wrapped in a sort of encounter suit that have a variety of two-tone color patterns. There is no real rhyme or reason to the patterns, other than being geometric in nature, and always being symmetrical. The entity has what is considered to be a masculine profile; broad shouldered, tall, and well muscled. They speak in a nonsensical manner, mashing together words regardless of meaning, and again, without rhyme or reason. This makes communications with them impossible, the fact that they are exceedingly hostile doesn't help anything.

Who are the Xamek?
Medical examinations of destroyed Xamek are inconclusive. Attempts to capture one have failed, as they seem to have the ability to spontaneously end their own lives. When functional, Xamek can be injured, they show blood and injury. This seems to conflict with accounts of them not needing to breathe, consume food or water, or excrete. They can also survive in hard vacuum, underwater, in extremes of heat and cold, and in toxic environments. They do seem to have limits, and cannot survive above 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Their immunity to cold doesn't seem to have a limit, but exposure to supercooled fluids like liquefied hydrogen or nitrogen can slow them, or cause them to lose extremities. After destruction, the contents of the suit reduce to a hydrosilicate material. Even the suit itself rapidly degenerates.

Rumor Options
Option 1 - the Xamek are an extradimensional species who for some reason are drawn into the terrestrial dimension and they are hostile because of this dimension abduction. An alternate motivation is that arcanotech used on Earth has a completely different waste effect on their point of origin and the xamek are dimensional terrorists trying to shut down said technology.
Option 2 - the Xamek are humans from an alternate dimension/timestream and have been sent to destroy certain pieces of arcanotechnology, and they dissolve because they aren't supposed to be captured, preventing Cosmic Era agencies from extrapolating their existence and point of origin.
Option 3 - the Xamek are straight up aliens who are teleporting into dimensional fatigue events to steal human tech, abduct arcanotechnicians, and otherwise sabotage human works, as the Xamek themselves are incapable of developing this tech on their own. They are successful because of their ongoing intelligence theft operations.
Option 4 - The Xamek are energy ghosts, their patterns are fractured amalgamations of people who have been caught up and killed by dimensional fatigue events.

Behavior and Actions
The Xamek appear in groups of 3-5 individuals. There is usually one that acts as a leader, and will take point as they execute their obtuse plans. While openly hostile, the Xamek are organized, tactical, and efficient. They don't kill indiscriminately, seldom cause collateral damage, and their objectives are at times nonsensical. If threatened, they respond with ruthless force, using hand to hand combat, long bladed weapons they seemingly extrude from their own limbs, and very rarely, a high energy 'pistol' that grows from the hand in a similar fashion. They demonstrate intelligence, and can understand all known human languages. While executing their missions, if a group is in a holding or garrison role, they will explore their surroundings, and will show interest in games, recreational equipment, toys, sports equipment, and so forth.
The objectives of the Xamek seemingly have no reason. One appearance might have them hunting down a single cosmic horror. The next, they might hunt down and kill a reflex team, or a group of scientists. Another incursion might seen a twelve individual team appear for a bloody fight to recover... a red desk stapler.

The first youma were accidents, victims of misfortune and accident. Even during the brightest time of the Imbrian Empire there were places on the Moon that were dark and dangerous. A small group of travelers, it would only take one small incident, a misfired spell, a miscalculated conjuring, and then a manservant was a slavering monster, or a scullery maid was chewing on someone's skull with a mouthful of crocodile teeth. It was eventually discovered that these rare incidents could be replicated, deliberately, with the proper, or improper magic incantation. In the dark times, fallen magi would use this loathsome magic to turn innocent victims into horrific monsters and use them as weapons. The Empress in her great wisdom banned such magics and made possession of these spells a crime.

Appearance:
Youma are highly variable in appearance, depending on what sort of energy shard is fused with the victim. Most Youma retain two forms, one their original human form, and the other a horrific distorted monstrous form that can have almost any shape, or characteristic. There are common themes to the appearance of a youma, however.

Animalistic Youma have a hybrid form that combines the physical attributes of an animal with a humanoid general shape. These youma typically favor mammalian forms, with lots of teeth, fur, and claws, but reptilian and piscine youma are not unknown. Atlantis, on Earth was more prone to encountering the water breathing Youma, and places like the colonies on Mars more often saw fur and scales.

Demonic Youma have stereotypical demon features, horns, claws, wings, glowing eyes, etc and range from mindlessly beastial to being very devious and cunning. It is also not uncommon for these class of youma to have elemental and magic abilites such as breathing flame, poison, or doling out dark sorcery.

Alien Youma produce writhing masses of tentacles, sucking tooth filled orifices, and chant strange insane melodies. These are thankfully rare, but when they do appear, they can be among the most powerful and the most dangerous.

Creation:
Youma are created through black sorcery which conjures a celestial shard and implants a weakened, diseased, or otherwise compromised host with it's alien energies. The resultant chimera is neither human nor shard any longer, and instead rises as an insane monster that is bound to the will of the Magus that created it. The power of the youma created is inversely proportionate to the individual used as it's host. The largest and most intimidating youma have been created not from strong and competent victims but rather the very young, the frail, or the elderly. This has created a very unfortunate condition where dark magi will abduct children and turn them into youma after an apparent 'kidnapping attempt'. The shard will pupate inside the child and when the monster erupts those who would dispatch the beast are stopped in their tracks because there are very few who are so stoic and resolute that would cut down their own child to slay the monster inside.

Destruction:
Killing a youma is typically a straightforward process. Weapons imbued with magic, made of moonsteel, and magic are typically very proficient at destroying a manifested youma. The youma is also vulnerable to conventional weapons and means of dispatch when the human host is dominant, and this is typically the easiest way to kill them. There are specialists who work in tracking and identifying the human hosts of youma and assassinating them in such a way that the monster doesn't have a chance to assume it's semi-divine form.

Youma do sometimes, but not always, possess means of evading death and destruction. Many demonstrate the ability to regenerate, growing back severed limbs, healing injuries, and such. These youma require acidic spells, flame, and specific types of poison to to permanently kill. Others have demonstrated the ability to shed their outer husk and escape, split in half and create copies of themselves, or spread their condition through fluid or energy transfer.

Powerful magics can be used to 'cure' a youma. This sort of magic is powerful and dangerous as it requires the youma to be under the full sway of it's monstrous form and then drawing it out and fighting it until it is weakened and it's energy is close to exhausted. Then, powerful divine spells, the sort known by the Empress and her Royal Templars.

by **Skaldia** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:49 pm

Added the ABM-1 Stoudenmire to the Vehicles list.

by **Skaldia** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 10:34 am

Added Angel Biomodification to the Modifications list.

by **Skaldia** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:54 pm

Added A-Pod Racer to the Vehicles list.

by **Skaldia** » Mon Nov 24, 2014 10:22 am

Added Arcanotech to the Articles section.

by **Skaldia** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 9:58 am

Added Arcopolarization to the Articles section.

by **Skaldia** » Wed Nov 26, 2014 10:00 am

Added the Armadyne ECR to the Weapons list.

by **Skaldia** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:18 am

Added Random Armored Units to Vehicles Cont. list.

by **Skaldia** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:26 am

Added the Artificial Brain to the Modifications list.

Cosmic Era [The Factbook]

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