Eclipse Phase: Devoted

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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

Right, let me put my thoughts down for the benefit of everyone else.

We have QE comms but I think that's a one-shot jobbie for extraction (Joose?). If that's the case then we can either get out and get the word to Firewall, but fail to respond to the threat. Or stay and use the comms to warn them but be stranded, which probably means a backup restore. Or bail and leave forks if we can to try and sort shit out.

If we stay to try to disrupt this thing, and I think if the vote goes the wrong way it might be our last chance, we can either weigh in on Dong's side and buy some time for the big boys, or try to sort it ourselves. Maybe try to smuggle in forks into Nana Buluku on hijacked stacks, although I don't know what the hell we can do, and those forks will likely meet a very nasty end. Or just go loud and try to do something catastrophic. That idea appeals to me because these guys are massive fucks, but if it was that easy someone would have done it a long time ago.

Thoughts?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

Dog Pants wrote:We have QE comms but I think that's a one-shot jobbie for extraction (Joose?).
Sort of. You have a QE communicator, but its use is limited. You only have a few seconds of communication time left on it, just about enough time to say "we are done, send in the extraction team." You dont have to use it all up at once, but its a bit like driving a car with the low fuel indicator on. You have enough fuel to call for extraction *or* to send a fairly brief update. You can try to send the update then call for extraction, but theres no guarantee that the second message won't cut off after "we". The gauge of how much time you have left isn't completely reliable.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

So...
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

Okay, well the traditional way would be to try to disrupt things ourselves to give Firewall some time, then bail with our Merc extraction. So I suppose we need to find a way to stir things up and make sure Dong comes out on top. Rada and Petro are already leaning that way. So we can either try to make sure they have plenty of influence, or we can try to swing Ghede. Ghede are fucking nutjobs, so that might not be easy. Might be able to turn them against Nazon though. I wonder what Nazon could do to really piss Ghede off.

Joose, I'll bounce all this off Timoti, see if I can get a direction on what's feasible.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by fabyak »

Sorry for not doing anything on this for ages. My bad

Would we be able to get our ship fixed up and basically leave something to fuck things up as we leave? Can try and foul things up before going and use the beacon if we have to. Tell me if I'm utterly wrong though, I've not brained at this in a while
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

I think it's an option. Presumably the ship can be fixed for favours, although they might be unsavoury and would probably be dangerous. Leaving something behind might be trickier. Physically damaging AWE's infrastructure would mean getting at it, and I doubt they just leave the door open. A malware attack would be less overt, but I don't think we have the expertise and I reckon an AI could probably eat malware for breakfast. I like the idea in principle though because it means we can fuck up their chi from a safe distance.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

Dog Pants wrote:Joose, I'll bounce all this off Timoti, see if I can get a direction on what's feasible.
Sorry, missed that you were going to ask Timoti. He tells you that if you want to play the political route, boosting Dong (teehee) is going to be by far the easier option. Turning the Ghede against Nazon would be like turning the catholic church against the pope. Whilst the rest of the gang play along with the whole Lapriye thing, the Ghede seem to actually believe it for real.

For the "leaving something behind" plan, someone give me a roll. What roll depends on what you are thinking of doing: some kind of explosives test for a bomb, maybe something hardware/ship related if you want to try and take something out structurally, hacking related for the malware idea, bio-sciencey skills for something biological, etc.

Timoti does point out that although the gang aims for high security in all this stuff, they are a gang with a significant number of mentally unstable members. Its unlikely that even their most secure areas are completely without gaps you could probably squeeze through.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

Hm. I'm not good at any of the things that we could use to jury rig the equipment, but I reckon I might be able to blag my way in there and fuck shit up. Getting back out might not be as easy afterwards of course.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by fabyak »

Would I be able to use my Profession: Lab Technician skill to come up with something? If not would Hardware: Electronics do the job?

In case they can:

Profession: Lab Technician (60):

Roll(1d100)+0:
44,+0
Total:44

Hardware: Electronics (50):

Roll(1d100)+0:
50,+0
Total:50

:boogie:
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by FatherJack »

Dog Pants wrote:Right, let me put my thoughts down for the benefit of everyone else.

We have QE comms but I think that's a one-shot jobbie for extraction (Joose?). If that's the case then we can either get out and get the word to Firewall, but fail to respond to the threat. Or stay and use the comms to warn them but be stranded, which probably means a backup restore. Or bail and leave forks if we can to try and sort shit out.

If we stay to try to disrupt this thing, and I think if the vote goes the wrong way it might be our last chance, we can either weigh in on Dong's side and buy some time for the big boys, or try to sort it ourselves. Maybe try to smuggle in forks into Nana Buluku on hijacked stacks, although I don't know what the hell we can do, and those forks will likely meet a very nasty end. Or just go loud and try to do something catastrophic. That idea appeals to me because these guys are massive fucks, but if it was that easy someone would have done it a long time ago.

Thoughts?
Questions, mostly.

With a choice of this thing falling into the hands of either nutters, scumbags or crooks - it clearly has to be destroyed, but I'm not sure of our capability of doing that, or indeed of Firewall's. It's potential proximity to the reactors might be an advantage, but getting there and making something bad happen to it are other matters entirely.

If we were to just scarper and tell Firewall there was a possible seed, would they just nuke the entire place - would they be authorised/capable of doing that? It's a bit of a scum-hole, but not everyone's bad, would they be okay with that? Would we?

What's the timing like on this? How quickly did the fall happen, does every second count? If we wait and determine whether there really is a seed at play, and try to swing the vote, will it already be to late if the nutters win? How nervous is everyone about a second fall - would even a sniff of a possible seed be enough justification to wipe out everything nearby?

Oh, and where do I record stress damage?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

fabyak wrote:Hardware: Electronics (50):

Roll(1d100)+0:
50,+0
Total:50

:boogie:
The lab tech skill doesn't really help, but I will give you something for the Electronics roll: If AWE really is in the reactor area you are going to need to get in there to do it any damage, short of something that would split the whole asteroid in two. Reactors like that will have shielding up the wazoo, so setting off some kind of EMP or similar on the outside isn't going to do anything.
FatherJack wrote:If we were to just scarper and tell Firewall there was a possible seed, would they just nuke the entire place - would they be authorised/capable of doing that? It's a bit of a scum-hole, but not everyone's bad, would they be okay with that? Would we?

What's the timing like on this? How quickly did the fall happen, does every second count? If we wait and determine whether there really is a seed at play, and try to swing the vote, will it already be to late if the nutters win? How nervous is everyone about a second fall - would even a sniff of a possible seed be enough justification to wipe out everything nearby?
Yes, probably, depending on stuff. Firewalls first choice would be to make it quietly go away, but thats what you guys are there for. If/When you guys fail, plan B would be a kill team, and Firewall kill teams to not mess about. If they believe there is a seed AI in there, and that it has potential to get out in the wild, they would crack this rock open like an egg. Trouble is, that kind of stuff costs a hell of a lot, and Firewall doesn't have infinitely deep pockets, so they won't just throw nukes about all over the shop for anything. Seed AI isn't anything though. If there is a risk of Seed AI getting out, they would happily nuke the place even if it was a larger hab filled with children and nuns.

Firewall as an organisation exists to counter "x-threats", things that threaten to wipe out humanity. On the x-threat severity list, seed AI gone wild is just under "alien super zombie virus" and "machine that blows up the sun". The Fall is the closest humanity has ever come to going under entirely, and that was 100% because of seed AI getting out of hand. And dont forget that we didnt beat the TITANs, they just went away for some reason. Seed AI bad.

Having said that, seed AI is only bad if/when it gets out of control. If it could be guaranteed that the seed were to stay on an airgapped machine of limited computational power forever, then it wouldn't be a problem. If someone were to load it onto more powerful computers (to allow it to work on more Egos at once for example), *then* it becomes a problem. Its an issue of containment really. Think of it like a glass vial containing the worlds most deadly virus: as long as it stays in the glass vial it is just a curiosity. Some nutter comes along and starts juggling with the vial and you risk an apocalypse.

As for timings, its hard to say how long the Fall took really. The event that people refer to by that title happened over a matter of months, but the point of no return where the AI had gotten out of control and super powerful could have been anything from seconds to minutes to hours. Your collective Science Skills tell you that its not going to be a problem in a small, airgapped machine though, and transferring it off that to bigger hardware isn't something they could do at the flick of a switch even if that is what they decide to do. You have time, in other words.
Oh, and where do I record stress damage?
On the Printable tab, in the Stats block, under where it says STRS. Your LUC is your Lucidity, which is like your mental HP. When your STRS equals your LUC is when you put pants on your head and start talking via Mr Wibble. Or try and kill everyone with your teeth. Whichever works for you.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

In the wors of Michael Cain, "'Old on lads, I've got an idea". If this thing's only in a small bit of hardware hows about we fucking nick it? I reckon if we can find some of the people who work on it and grab them we can get our man here to resleeve us into their morphs, and give me a few hours surveillance on one beforehand I can blag being that guy. Then we grab whatever Macbook* it's living on and get the fuck out.

*something this horrible has to be on Apple hardware
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

Dog Pants wrote:If this thing's only in a small bit of hardware hows about we fucking nick it?
Its certainly a potential possibility. If its on something similar in power to the portable server things that you have seen so far in this place its totally doable.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

So....how are you going about Pants' devious plan?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

What, you want details too? I'll have a think when I get home.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

You might need something more than "lets pinch it", yes :lol:
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

Right. So we need to find some suckers who we can murder and bodynap in order to get into this place. I'll run the plan by our handy morph-jockey to make sure it's feasible and find out where I should be looking for our stooges. Then we can start scouting out and watching our marks. As I say, once I've had a while to observe them I should be able to pull off pretending to be one. Then we talk our way in, grab the gear, and get out. Just like playing Payday, but with more gruesome masks.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by fabyak »

My guy will continue to behave like a cupcake which should make him for whichever face he ends up with. Do we actually know where this thing is?
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Joose »

Dog Pants wrote:I'll run the plan by our handy morph-jockey to make sure it's feasible and find out where I should be looking for our stooges.
He ponders this for a minute, before saying that it would be totally possible to resleeve you in someone elses morph, as long as you can get the right morph. The only people he knows go into Nana Baluku (where he thinks AWE is) are some of Nazons personal Psychosurgeons (the Houngan) and Elleggua, Nazons creepy little right hand man who goes around in a neotenic morph (in other words, he looks like a child).
Timoti wrote:You know, mad as it sounds, snatching Elluggua might be the easier option. He lives with Nazon, in Nazons personal quarters. The front door is guarded all to hell, but I managed to grab the blueprints to the original hab that was used in its construction. Theres an emergency airlock at the back that I don't think anyone here even knows exists. You might be able to sneak in there, grab the little shit and sneak out without anyone noticing. Assuming Nazon doesn't give you any trouble of course.
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Re: Eclipse Phase: Devoted

Post by Dog Pants »

I think Nazon might give us trouble, but if we can grab creepyboy on his own we might be onto a winner. I'll have to watch him for a while though. Joose, how feasible is it to grab vid feeds of him from the net? Is there like a Nanchon-tube?

Sorry for keep putting things by you, I'm still feeling my way around what's possible in the setting. Things that sound good in my head might be way off because I've misunderstood something.
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