Eclipse Phase: Breaking Light

[Hotfoot]

Some people say we should have seen it coming, but in reality, there was nothing we could do to stop it. Somehow, someone would have unlocked the door and we, ever the explorers, would have walked right through it. Just like we're doing now with the Pandora Gates. What choice did we have then? War was coming, and everyone was looking for a way to get the upper hand, even if it meant relying on something we couldn't control, something that ruined the Earth and resulted in the loss of billions of human lives.

So here we are, the remnants of humanity, clinging on to what's left of our ever shrinking grip on existence in the stars. Constantly afraid of the leftover land mines the TITANS left behind, terrified of the ruins of our cradle, and desperate to try and find an edge that will let us survive against the TITANS should they come back. So we continue to try to understand things that destroy us without care or effort, just as we have since the dawn of our species. Some because of an earnest fear of the TITANS and what else might be out there, others to gain an edge in the never ending squabbling between people with more power and money than wisdom and understanding.

And at the center of it all, Mars. Oh, sure, there are plenty of hotspots in the solar system, but Mars is that last vestige of normalcy we have left as a species. We came from the dirt and many of us don't feel right without it under our feet, but the collection of interests in and around Martian space put it constantly at risk, and the scar left by the machines on the Red Planet is always looming over us all. If we lose Mars, we may lose the only thing that's keeping most of us going, the hope that we can survive this, that Earth was just a fluke, that perhaps we can even retake it one day and rebuild.

That's where you come in. Firewall has tagged you for active operations in Martian space, along with several other individuals that you might remember from a...previous incident. Someone high up has decided that you would do well together, and there's something you're in a perfect position to deal with immediately. More details will be given once you've gathered at the attached coordinates, where your handler will take over the briefing and allocations. Remember, there is a reason you did not know about Firewall until recently, so try to keep us off the mesh. There are only so many ways explosions in habitats can be explained away, and we are beginning to run out of our yearly allotment.

[Hotfoot]

Basic Rules:

1. Characters must be capable of getting around in environments populated by humans. Certain morphs limit this. If you want something that would either be illegal in most habitats or simply incapable of surviving on Mars or her stations/moons, guess what? You won't really be using it.

2. You have, at some point, all worked together and/or can tolerate each other in some way, shape, or form. I'm not asking everyone to be best friends, but if you come in with a character concept that someone else would shoot in the face, you are going to have a bad time. If you would shoot someone in the face, or someone tells you they would shoot you in the face, either bring it up to me, or to the other person, and work something out.

3. Have a reason to be joining Firewall. This will be tied into your character's backstory, which I will be using to work with everyone for how you all have met/stumbled on something bad enough to catch Firewall's attention.

4. This game will be alternating with the Rogue Trader game that runs over Skype on Monday nights, 8PM-12PM Eastern Time. Right now, we have just about zero flexibility in that schedule and as we are going to be running every other week instead of the regular every week, I'm going to want to eke as much out of those hours as possible.

[frigidmagi]

Reading Rimward... I've gotten to the Jupiter Republic and a list of it's security council, the true rulers of the Republic...

There's

General Contreras (corrupt south american generalissimo, Kill on Sight)
General Brown (corrupt cowardly American political general, Kill on Sight)
General Cauas (bootlicker in charge... Eh Kill on Sight, just to be safe)
Director McFarlane (treasonous spook son of bitch, Kill on Sight... twice)
Director Vasena (corrupt Colombian politico, Kill on Sight)
Director Gilder (former RAND Corp CEO turned totalitarian... Yeah... Kill on Sight)
General Westmoor... Wait... What?

General Adam Westmooreland Space Forces... WESTMOORELAND? Oh... Oh... It's on now Jupiter. You hear me? First the Planetary Consortium, then Legba (only because I have go through the PC to get to them) and then you! Westmooreland!

On the flip side, I think I got those edited memories you want Cameron.

[General Havoc]

Reading Rimward... I've gotten to the Jupiter Republic and a list of it's security council, the true rulers of the Republic...

There's

General Contreras (corrupt south american generalissimo, Kill on Sight)
General Brown (corrupt cowardly American political general, Kill on Sight)
General Cauas (bootlicker in charge... Eh Kill on Sight, just to be safe)
Director McFarlane (treasonous spook son of bitch, Kill on Sight... twice)
Director Vasena (corrupt Colombian politico, Kill on Sight)
Director Gilder (former RAND Corp CEO turned totalitarian... Yeah... Kill on Sight)
General Westmoor... Wait... What?

General Adam Westmooreland Space Forces... WESTMOORELAND? Oh... Oh... It's on now Jupiter. You hear me? First the Planetary Consortium, then Legba (only because I have go through the PC to get to them) and then you! Westmooreland!

On the flip side, I think I got those edited memories you want Cameron.

Well then, Frigid, you and I are going to have a lengthy conversation, because guess who's playing a character from Jupiter...

[LadyTevar]

I'm sorry, I'm not going to be able to join the game. :(

[Hotfoot]

Okay, for the players who have expressed interest, here is the current roster of what I've seen so far. If I've missed something, send it again.

Cynical Cat: Kerem Kaplan (Stats, Backstory, Motivations) (Combat, Criminal Connections)
Frigidmagi: Marshall (Stats, Backstory) (Combat, Hacking Support)
Marcao: Noble Character #239 (Stats) (Social, Investigative, Grenade Whore)
Comrade Tortoise: Nothing (Arachnid Scientist)
White Haven: Mr. Morden (Stats, Backstory, Motivation) (Ghost in the Machine, Hacker Supreme, Dr. Phil)
Karrick: Nothing (Octo-Engineer?)
Academia Nut: Artyon Zolnerov (Stats, Backstory) (Gun-bunny scientist)
General Havoc: Togusa (Stats, Motivations) (Jovian Military, Investigator, Civic Connections)

Now, as far as character sheets and all that. If you used the spreadsheet, send me a copy via email or skype. I'll look it over and give it a yay/nay. Backstories, email or PM, or post here. All's fair. If you've got something secret, let me know privately and we'll work from there. People with edited memories, be aware that I will be abusing that later on. If you have a particular flaw that requires my interaction, such as an enemy or somesuch, we'll need to talk about that.

As far as Obsidian Portal. They have a dynamic character sheet setup that looks quite nice. You'll need to input all of the fields manually, but it looks worth it. Once you've joined the campaign, you can make a character, and at the top there is an option for a dynamic character sheet that normally isn't there. Worth it for quick glances, trust me.

Some things with regards to XP spending during the game. There are detailed rules for spending XP in the system. We'll not be using those as such. Instead, we will be using a fairly straightforward approach. Below 60 (pre-morph), you can only boost a skill 5 points per session. Attributes can only be boosted 1 point per session. You should have some reason for increasing the skill or attribute in question (use during the game, practice during downtime, etc.) It's not something I intend to focus on, but at least give it some thought. From 60-80, you can only increase skills by 3 per session. From 80+, you can only increase a skill by 1 point per session. This is to reflect the difficulty of becoming the best there ever was at something. If you have fast learner, you can boost this slightly, but not phenomenally.

As far as spending XP to get money and rep, I'm not changing too much, but here are some things to consider:

1. Rep gains must be approved by me, full stop. If you think something you did during the game warrants an increase in rep for a given faction, let me know. Normally, I'll be letting you know of any in-game rep gains or losses, and I will let you spend XP to enhance or mitigate the changes. Sometimes, however, you just lose rep, and no XP purchase will change that. In those cases, I will refrain from removing rep directly, and simply add the appropriate flaws. If you piss off Civic Net enough to get blacklisted, that's on you.

2. XP for Cash. This one's pretty much free-flowing. You want some serious new gear and you need the cash for it? Go right ahead. The assumption is that you all have jobs in addition to your duties as Firewall agents. XP spent on cash reflects spending time increasing your bank account instead of your skills. Go nuts. However, see the next point.

3. The Burn Notice Balancing Act: You are all secret agents. You also all have jobs. These two things will sometimes conflict, but since the nature of the world means that office jobs are less important (super telecommuting for the win), you can, in fact, do your normal job while on another job. Though you may want some additional Mesh IDs for that purpose. Every in-game week or so, you make an extended test based on your normal job, with modifiers based on how much you've been paying attention to your more mundane duties. You will receive funds based on the result. If your job requires your physical presence (i.e. being a bodyguard), keep that in mind as it will affect your modifiers if you are constantly blowing off work in favor of your Firewall duties. How much money you earn as a baseline will depend largely on what you do and how much time you spend doing it. Also, keep in mind that some of you may run in circles that wouldn't understand if you're seen with some of the other members of your team. Remember what I said about additional Mesh IDs?

Buying perks and removing flaws via XP is also doable, but please see me about it before you spend the points. Some flaws require in-game actions to undo.

Now, the most important part, the communal backstory. You're all in or around Mars. Firewall trusts you*, and you all trust each other enough to work together, even if sometimes you grit your teeth. You don't have to be best friends, you don't even have to like each other, but you should be able to work together without guns being pulled because of some offhand comment or, worse yet, because of some fundamental issue with one's backstory (Barsoomian terrorists killed your family, someone is playing a Barsoomian terrorist). If there is such an issue, be proactive and either talk to the player about it or talk to me about it. We'll see if there's a compromise that everyone can live with.

However, I can't do this without complete characters from everyone. Only two people have given me full and whole characters to work with. Three more of you are close, but are missing a key element. If I've missed something somewhere from someone, let me know, but right now I've only got a kernel of an idea of how to bring you all together.

[Hotfoot]

Oh, and one more thing. If everyone could come up with some sort of images for their characters, I would appreciate it. I'm still working on how I want to do certain things, but it would help for the purposes of having minis to have something to work with.

[White Haven]

You know, since I'm a bit shy of a corporeal form to take pictures of, I'm tempted to have Terrence use a Morden avatar as his face to the world. Just...because.

[Hotfoot]

Oh, and one last thing guys. Don't forget your Muses or other AI's. I want to see names and/or stats for them.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I present to you, Johannes Heidrich

Biographical Interview with Momo Von Satan and The Cock on the Monster Raging Goblin Cock News Network

Von Satan: Hello Everyone, I am here with Dr. Johannes Heidrich here to talk about his newest book “Exoplanetary Biology: A Journey into the Surreal”. Dr. Heidrich holds the Alexander Von Humboldt Professorship at Titan Autonomous University. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology at Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität, and his PhD at ETH Zürich. He has over 300 peer reviewed publications and has written seven books.

The Cock: <Something about the Pandora Gates being an elaborate conspiracy by hypercorps to subvert the Titanian Commonwealth>

Von Satan: Silence, Cock! I am trying to conduct a fucking interview! If you do not settle down I shall have to restrain you in the elctro-ring.

The Cock: NOOOOOOOO! The cock will behave…

Dr. Heidrich: I was not under the impression that this would be a political interview, though if you need to sedate The Cock, I brought with me a syringe full of an alpha-beta blocker. That should calm him down

The Cock:….. YOU MOTHERFUCKING FILTHY KAPITALI$T KRAUT WHORE!

<The St. Bernard sized robotic spider injects the medication into The Cock, who rapidly becomes flaccid, but continues to rant incoherently in what amounts to infant babbling.>

Von Satan: Thank you Doctor. So, you are a German, and I understand were off-world on Mars, Europa and then in Lunar Orbit before the fall. How did you find yourself on Titan?

Dr. Heidrich: Yes, but not on Titan originally. I wont bore you with all the details, but I went to space during my Post Doc. I was at that point working in a public/private partnership with MIT and Ecologene, which at that point was based on McClintock Station in mars orbit. They were trying to develop insect species that would be useful for terraforming. The problem was of course that they refused to honor a provision in their contract with MIT that would keep them from having publishing control. I will not go into the details on that, because I do not know them, but that data managed to find itself on Mitre Station when the entire lab group left at the end of the two year term. Apparently, not everyone turned over their data to the hypercorp, or at least kept a copy. Of course, there were twelve of us, I have no idea who it was, but did find my second post doc on the Argonaut controlled station. In either case, relations between the Argonauts, MIT and Ecologene have smoothed over in the intervening years.

My third Post Doc was on Europa starting four years before the fall and before the Jovian “Republic” seized control. You can imagine, it was a biologist’s heaven, and I am still processing some of my data backlog from those three years, but what I managed to publish in that time was enough to be offered a tenure track position here pending completion of civil service.

Von Satan: I have here that you did your civil service term in Germany working in a third world hospital during the resource wars. What did you do there, and what did you do during your Titanian Civil Service?

Dr Heidrich: Well, I did not handle combat casualties. Instead I did parasite identification. That sort of thing happens in wars when infrastructure collapses. Sanitation systems are damaged, clean water supplies become erratic, and the food supply becomes contaminated. This leads to a variety of parasitic infections that most physicians don’t really know how to identify. I do. Here on Titan it was a bit more complicated, Academic postings cannot exactly go unfilled for three years while someone goes through the military, so the Ministry of Science did some mumbo-jumbo with the paperwork and I was instead put to work in a forensic biology and chemistry lab with Fleet in my off-time, for the first year anyway. Then the fall happened and the Höðr virus arrived with a large group of Infugees. They put me on epidemiological monitoring duty to make sure it did not jump vectors that was… well, let us just say it was bad and move on to say I went back to my original duties after it was done.

Von Satan: So Dr. Heidrich, I see you are here in your custom designed Arachnomorph, what made you choose that particular shell?

The Cock: HE WILL SPIN A WEB OF LIES! CATCH YOU IN HIS WEB OF LOGIC AND SCIENCE!
<The Cock begins to re-inflate>

Von Satan: Oh don’t tell me you have gone luddite! You are an AR projection of a giant penis!

Dr. Heidrich: It appears I will need to increase the dosage. No, I have a better idea

<With a metallic whir, one of the spider’s forelimbs punches The Cock in the face>
<The Cock cries out in agony, and is suddenly silent, sagging back down to the floor, his Viking helmet falling off his head with an almost cartoonish clank>

Dr. Heidrich: Well, to answer your question, I chose this particular chasis because I love arthropods, and the Arachnoid was the most versatile of available models. Most people experience Earth-Nostalgia by clinging to artifacts of humanity and earth. I experience it by cherishing the living things we left behind. So, my choice was partly functional, and partly based on sentiment. The modifications allow me to go anywhere from deep space to the deep see—my crush-pressure is 250 standard atmospheres. I can fly, climb, swim, move in hard vacuum at microgravity, see in the entire EM spectrum, echolocate. Also, one should never under-estimate the importance of being able to defend yourself from hostile organisms. That is one of the reasons I selected a synthmorph rather than say, a Nova Crab. On my first biological survey, I was the only survivor because everyone else was in a bio-morph. The planet was PXLB-426. The first-in team got in and out no problem and they called in the Academics to survey the planet

In any event, it was three days until our check in and for some reason Gatekeeper brought in a mycologist. A first-timer. He got a little bit too excited about some fungal pods. Well, one of them exploded and covered his suit in fungal zoospores. It turns out that some of the life-forms on this planet have armored exoskeletons, so getting through the suit was no problem, and the holes were tiny so there was no contamination or depressurization warning until it was too late. They went through his suit and skin, into his blood, and infected his central nervous system. It was only three hours until he started showing symptoms of brain-swelling. Blindness, fatigue, seizures. The usual. Twelve hours after that, his head burst open into a fungal pod while everyone else was looking after him and trying to make him somewhat comfortable. The resultant explosions of zoospores got them too.

That planet was passed over for colonization. I was fine. Relatively easy to decontaminate. I was able to analyze the spores under safe lab conditions, someone from the Bio-Weapons division of the Weylan-Yutani microcorp came and took a sample when I published my findings.

Von Satan:*snicker*

Dr. Heidrich: I would never permit that to happen. Besides, any corporation called Weylan-Yutani would need to be nuked from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Von Satan: ...You killed it Doctor.

Dr. Heidrich: Did I?

Von Satan: Yes. Yes you did. You might as well have pinned it on a wall with the collection date on a piece of card stock.

Dr. Heidrich: Oh. My apologies... <Dr. Heidrich manages to make the spider droid look sheepish>

Von Satan: So...that is what your book is about?

Dr. Heidrich: Pretty much ja. It is my first popular work. The other six are the sorts of books that twelve people have read and only five actually understand. One of them for example is about a species I discovered on Droplet called Malalitoracrus conturbator, known colloquially as the “Zombie Crab”. I catalogued everything from its anatomy, to its reproduction, to its relationship with its symbiotic Droplet-Exoprotozoan Falsucaleficio intracancerensis, and foraging modes. This one is a sort of combination research diary and field guide. A bit like Darwin’s chronicle of his voyage on the HMS Beagle. Fully illustrated as well, though not by me. The arts are not my strong point. It is available in text, and AR versions.

Von Satan: So, where do you go from here?

Dr. Heidrich: Mars, actually. Sort of a multi-organization cooperation thing between The Argonauts, U-Mars, and TAU. I want to see what is on the other side of other Pandora Gates, U-Mars wants someone to help develop their academic gatecrashing program, and the Argonauts, well… we are Argonauts. We will even help the Consortium so long as data is published rather than patented.

[Hotfoot]

Okay folks, here's the deal. I'm reviewing my notes, the details everyone has sent in thus far, and as it is, I'm willing to start up the game. Either next week or the week after, depending on the Rogue Trader game, I will start swapping out with Cyncat and we will get this party started.

Get your muses ready.

[Hotfoot]

T-Minus 2 weeks, at the moment. If you don't have your character sheet up on Obsidian Portal one way or the other by then, you won't be playing. You don't have to use the Dynamic Character Sheet, but you've gotta get it there. Anything else you need done, get it done by the 2nd.

[Hotfoot]

For the people who don't know, I commonly on weekends go out and spend time outside of the house. That happened this weekend, it will happen next weekend, and the weekend after. As a result, I will not be around for last-minute backstory or character sheet reviews this weekend, and don't count on my being happy with having to look things over the day of the game. This Wednesday is the deadline for your backstories, sheets, etc. so I can have time to review them and get back to you. If you do not already have your character sheet up on Obsidian Portal, get it done. If you don't have access to it, make an account and tell me to add you to the campaign.

[Academia Nut]

I'm afraid that due to current health issues I feel I will be unable to positively contribute to the game. Sorry guys.

[Hotfoot]

Sorry to hear that man, hope you feel better soon.

[frigidmagi]

I hope you feel better soon AcNut. I also hope it's nothing to serious.

[Hotfoot]

Okay, while I'm out, feel free to talk amongst yourselves with regards to your prologue mission and how you all worked together on it and so forth.

The first mission of the team involved an X-Threat that involved a scum barge that had been attacked by Exsurgants from the Fall that had gotten off of Earth onto a passing orbiter. The Scum Barge was set to pass through a highly populated section of Jovian space, but was dealt with before the X-Threat could pass on to the Jovian Moons. The team then backtracked the original orbiter to near Mars space, where it was covertly destroyed. Evidence of Hypercorp involvement on the original orbiter indicated possible reasons for why the X-Threat only recently appeared.

[Cynical Cat]

Well the Prince was a smooth motherfucker when talking with the magnates, but next mission he's not allowed to talk to anyone from the @ block.

[White Haven]

Evidence-gathering was almost certainly Morden's territory, assuming we're not talking about dumb-paper hardcopy.

[Cynical Cat]

Evidence-gathering was almost certainly Morden's territory, assuming we're not talking about dumb-paper hardcopy.

No, hacking systems and data analysis was your territory iboy. Physical and social evidence gathering isn't exactly specialty, oh voiceboxless one.

[frigidmagi]

Well, Alan's character likely talked to respectable types while Cat and myself went and did investigations in the more honest parts of town so to speak.

[Cynical Cat]

Hi frigid. By the way, I've found overwhelming proof that the Titanian Commonwealth has the best military in the solar system. Not only is it large and modern, there is no Army. Only Marines.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Well, Alan's character likely talked to respectable types while Cat and myself went and did investigations in the more honest parts of town so to speak.

And when physical evidence needed to be found, and reams and reams of various sorts of data processed...

"Hallo. You have come to the right arachnikraut"

[Karrick]

Hi frigid. By the way, I've found overwhelming proof that the Titanian Commonwealth has the best military in the solar system. Not only is it large and modern, there is no Army. Only Marines.

But without an army where will they get their equipment?

H.A.N.N.A.H. is a walking, flying, 8-limbed, hyper-spectral sensor suite capable of interfacing with, repairing and/or jury rigging pretty much any kind of hardware or software you might need such things done to. He is familiar with the systems and operating procedures of a variety of habitats as well as the security forces therein. If necessary, he is also capable of slicing and dicing through both energetic and kinetic means. Basically... 60% R2 unit/40% General Grievous (most of which is the arms).

In the event of explosive decompression this cephalobot can also be used as an emergency tether.

[frigidmagi]

But without an army where will they get their equipment?

Oh that's easy. From everybody else's armies.