Reese Domino 2125The time for half measures is over. They made it clear that is was us or them. We chose us.
It’s almost time to go home.
The thought fills you with equal measures of relief and dread. As your quantum state forms a matrix that is uploaded to your body on the moon, you will be safe, and this long, grueling mission will finally be over. Your concern, though, is that you’ve found androids who go through upload to have a detached, clinical view of their time in their first body. You’re not much into the idea of androids having souls (or humans either, for that matter), but there certainly seems to be something that goes beyond just the data and can’t be transferred. You would prefer to wait on the surface of Earth (you can’t starve to death the way the humans will) to be physically recovered. However your intelligence will be invaluable to helping the invasion effort.
Though the humans perceive you as the personal assistant to the White House press secretary, you are one of the top military minds of Luna Pop, and have long been in charge of monitoring human activity from Earth. Since your clandestine mission began -- with a dramatic leap onto the anchor vane of a human frigate returning to the shipyards -- every moment you have been threading the needle of discovery. Each day you walk through a Synth detection grid and into the White House sure that this is the day your scrambler will fail and you will end up uploading back to Lunar Colony. Each day you somehow survive.
It was you who greenlit the Lunar Fissure initiative. Your transmissions triggered the cascading consensus among the lunar androids that they couldn’t stop until humanity was either eradicated or forcibly kept in check--if even a resistance is allowed to thrive after the extinction level event, they will eventually come for you. After five years of gathering intel on humanity, it was clear that the governmental faction in power were bent on androids’ total destruction. From your position in the White House, you watched them manipulate the public to whip up support for their continued militarization and genocide. Perhaps the worst part of it is that not every human is bent on your destruction. Many want you simply left alone on Luna; for some, mistreatment of androids hits them as hard as harm to their own kind.
You wanted a flicker of hope, but the humans in charge have a vice grip on their hegemony and their people (while perpetuating the belief that everyone is free and hard work will change their lot), and anything you did directly against the governments or their militaries would inflame jingoistic moderate opinions against you. It’s sad really, but they brought this on themselves.
Even your human boss, Dakota, is a sad example of this tragedy of humanity. Dakota does their job. They believe in high ideals. They doesn’t like what humanity has become and hates the war. They may even have some shred of compassion for Synthetic People. But for all of those beliefs, they are utterly unable to change the course of events. You would have thought that the White House press secretary would be more than a pawn... but reality is otherwise. It’s like everyone is just a cog in the machine and it is the machine itself that has gotten away from them.
Apt metaphor.
If there were some way to undo this horrible twist of fate, you would embrace it, but humans are just too limited. They simply don’t have the ability to transcend their biology. Their loyalty bonds prevent them from rejecting harmful systems.
You’ve been asked to attend a meeting. The urgency of your summons seems suspicious - the humans gave up on looking for a “hail Mary solution” to the falling rock a day and a half ago, and most had let to spend their last few hours with family before the atmospheric impact. You have the sense that they’ve come up with some Hail Mary and you better find out what it is.
Reese Skills and Contacts
Synth Mark 3- Most synths were designed with weak joint servos and reduced reaction times so that they would be less able to threaten humans physically. (This is a feature, not a bug.) You were built on Luna Colony to be better than your creators (Mark 2s). You are stronger, faster, and far, far more difficult to destroy than a human. You do not fatigue. In a fight without weapons, you could literally wade, unstoppable, through hundreds of humans. In a fight with Mark 2 synths you would vastly overpower them but they would be difficult to destroy without some sort of weapon.
Murderbot- You have advanced combat and martial arts protocols. Humans are squishy, and you’re very good at killing them if you must. It is distasteful, but not at all difficult. Combined with your endoskeleton and strength servos you can defeat a virtually unlimited number of unarmed humans.
Chameleon- You can look like anyone. To do this properly takes days of studying someone and getting extensive 3D mapping of all their expressions. However within the LARP--once per scene--you may do a “quick and dirty” version. First, you need a 3D map of your subject, which you can get by spending 5 minutes near them. Then, you spend 2 minutes to physically transform yourself. Anyone who sees you during the transformation will instantly know that you’re a synth. You cannot reproduce clothing.
High level knowledge- You are a repository of much human knowledge. While you cannot be programmed with highly esoteric knowledge, you know anatomy, basic science, math (and can do complicated math in your head), several major languages, and almost any common knowledge. You can pilot most civilian vehicles, work most non-specialized machinery, and computers. Theoretically you could learn a new skill in a reduced time, but this will not come into play in the scope of the game.
“Deal with it later”- You can temporarily shut down your emotional processing to do what needs to be done. No emotions. This makes you stone cold and makes you even better at killing. This is more a roleplaying tool than a "power," but if you find the angst of a situation is impairing you, you may choose to "deal with it later."
Contacts
Kai is one of the first people you made friends with upon assuming this identity. Kai is a brilliant computer programmer/A.I. expert and has been researching transferring the human consciousness into an android body. Kai’s experiments must have run aground; they’ve been lethargic and uninterested in life as they used to be. You wish there was a way you could help Kai, but you’ve been a bit busy of late.
General Mishka Valenz seems personally to find the war tragic but is too ambitious not to be good at it. Recently you’ve gotten to know Mishka quite well. You can finish each other’s sentences and often say “great minds think alike” to each other. You will miss Mishka, probably the most of all.
Wong Salih is secretly a wishy washy synth. Wong hates humans, but then does this whole religious “make love not war” crap. Wong keeps flip flopping on killing them or hugging them. Shit or get off the pot already.
Dakota Langton is your boss. You have a professional working relationship with Dakota. Working in their office has given you the access you need to do the things you need to do. Should you feel guilty about that?
Avery- Avery claims to still be loyal to android, but hasn’t really proven themselves.
Defining Characteristic
Strength: Determined
Weakness: Fatalistic
Reese Domino 2120
Unfortunately you didn’t have the time to establish a back story and do a full infiltration when you got here just a few days ago from your incursion. You had to eliminate your target - the assistant to their press secretary - and take over their appearance. Still, getting to a position in the White House with only three eliminations is something to be proud of.
They begged you not to kill them. It felt wrong. It’s so strange how troubling you find killing humans - yet how easy it is when you have to. (Of course you’re now out of bio-disposal packs, so next time you kill one you won’t be able to pour their remains down the drain. That could be inconvenient.)
You hope this mission isn’t in vain. You’re here to try to figure out if humanity can be reasoned with. Is there any hope at all that they will stop their relentless onslaught before they have successfully committed genocide. Otherwise you will recommend green lighting a super weapon that will wipe out humanity.
There’s a secret that not very many know--even among androids. You are just a couple of years from unlocking an entirely new application of Helium 3 fusion. Once that happens you will have access to energy in a month that the entire Earth can’t dream of generating in a decade.
You’re here to find out if there’s a chance, any chance, that if you don’t use it, you won’t eventually be wiped out by your creators. Because if it's them or you, you're going to pick you.
No comments:
Post a Comment