IC ThreadSmall: Adjective.
1: Little in size
2: Few in number or little in amount
3: Unimportant, not worth mentioning (Old World Slang)Mercy: Noun.
1: Kind or forgiving treatment of someone who could be treated harshly
2: Kindness or help given to people who are in a very bad or desperate situation
3: A mercenary (New World Slang)These are brave new worlds, and no god ever shaped them for the meek. The endless run of centuries has carved and recarved history, running through the same paths and deep grooves that shaped the endless centuries before. The carvers changed, the tools changed, the audience changed, but the work runs ever on. We live, we love, we strive. We kill, we hate, we die. Small, ugly, misshapen lives, yet they seem to be all humanity has ever sought to carve. Points of beauty, framed by irredeemable flaws.
We left the cradle of one world centuries ago, perhaps tens of centuries ago. Time has become a difficult thing to measure. We flung ourselves into the weft of the universe, relying on pathless tracks jointed by quantum leaps to make our way back home again. Not everyone made it back home, but not all of those who lost themselves to endless stars did die. The sprawl of Earth, the fabled homeworld, grew in size. Those that were once nations of one world began to spread across the heavens, growing endlessly. Growing endlessly even as cancer spread from within. War never really stopped, not when we were so large. Even on fabled Earth, there was always war, always a battle. Even when we were so few that our numbers could be measured to within an accuracy of a few million, there was never a moment undisturbed by the rage of gunfire, never a second that did not hold the screams of the dying. What did we think would happen? Did we think there would be peace when we hurled ourselves into the sky?
If we did, we were fools.
Time passed. Our methods of travel advanced, and we no longer relied on the quicksilver jumps and paths that once were our pinnacle. Lost empires were re-united, and our joyful embrace to see our lost brothers only served to hide the daggers in our sleeves. Nations broke, reformed, burned the skies, and broke again. The years turned, and pioneers continued the march of colonization endlessly while the empires that had sent them forth decayed and broke apart behind them. Time became fluid, places became fluid, names became fluid. The capital of every great empire was Earth, and every great empire had lasted since the beginning of colonization. One empire might have actually contained fabled Earth, but if they did, they wouldn't have known. We made so much history, the history of a thousand new worlds and a hundred civilizations, that the history of one world, and the meager handful of civilizations that had once inhabited it, was lost. It didn't matter. Perhaps it never did. What the most powerful empire said was the truth, everything else was propaganda and deception.
Those that live now are the children of a thousand empires, a blend of old world races and new world engineering. For the most part, they live their lives. Some live as kings, with technology and power unimaginable to the first souls that left fabled Earth, but others live less ably, primitive and backward even by the standards of the souls of old. Humanity as a single race still lives, within accountable deviation, but the great dream of the human race as a single people… That has been shattered, lost forever. Perhaps it was a foolish dream.
There have, however, always been those people who sought to carve their own lives, to make their own paths. The stroke that guides the carving of humanity is not the stroke that guides the individual and, if only for a brief time, heroes have escaped the worn groove that has been cut into history. In the old world, there was little room for these people, little freedom for the different. Now… those that would have been criminals and treasonous revolutionaries, they are assets. Mercenaries, smugglers, freelancers, privateers, bootstrappers, a thousand different names for the people who resist the tie to any one empire, to any home but the one they create.
They are the bastard children of the stars, and you are one of them.
Small Mercies is, to use a rather worthless summary, a game about the future. It's about five sapient races doing the best they can to get along and continue existing in a galaxy where there are so many people, so many cities, so many nations, so many worlds, that significance is all but an impossibility. No sane person would try to make a difference on a galactic scale. It's too big, too immense for the normal mind to even conceive of, but you can damn well try to better you own life, and maybe, if you're very lucky, leave something behind that showed your existence was more than a speck of cosmic dust against an infinite horizon.
I'll be accepting between 4 and 6 mercenaries, based on whatever I feel is appropriate. The systems used in this game are mechanics lite, meaning that who your character is will be the primary determinate in deciding whether or not they can accomplish a task, not a skill score or an attribute value.
---
Name: (Obvious)
Nickname: (Also Obvious, can be blank)
Gender: (You may need to have a long talk with someone if this isn't obvious)
Race: (See races)
Age: (Should also be obvious. Not many individuals below the age of eighteen will be Mercies of any experience.)
Profession: (What is this character's job? A character can have multiple jobs, but the more hats they wear, the less mastery they have in each. If they have one of the Augments (see below) it should go here.)
Description: (What do they look like, how do they dress, what do the seem like at first blush?)
Background: (Who were they, how did they get here? What drove them to become a Mercy? Your background is the first and best determinant of your skills, and thus what I believe a character is capable of.)
Notable Quotes: (A couple different quotes that flesh out a character. These should be dialogue snips from the character's past. These Mercies are already fairly experienced, so you don't have to stick to greenhorn lines. If a particular quote is habitual, make a note by it. Try to keep it to five quotes or less.)
Traits: (Traits are features that flesh out a character, try to keep it to less than ten, and each should be kept to a few words only.)
The Five Sapient Races
The stars haven't been empty for a long time, and while we've never come across another alien 'civilization', humans certainly aren't the only things going. Once, a long time ago, these other races would have been called the uplift species, or neo-animals. Now people just remember the appellation "neo" but have forgotten what it meant. In the shattered history of the exploration of space, it isn't clear who came first anymore. All anyone remembers is that humans (neo-apes) have lived alongside neo-dogs, neo-dolphins, neo-cats, and neo-crows for what is essentially forever. Some scholars have attempted to find a 'progenitor' race, which invariably results in race supremacy movements, but most are content to believe that they've always lived this way.
While there are occasional racial tensions, escalating to bigotry in some less civilized worlds, the sentient species generally view one another as equals. Some longstanding enmities exist; neo-cats and neo-dogs compete physically with such vigor that has become immortalized in the saying "fighting like cats and dogs", while neo-crows and neo-dolphins compete in matters of science and intellect. Humans compete a little bit with everyone, but they don't have the same biologically intrinsic expertise that steps on flippers on claws. Humans are generalists, and, aside from the fact that they form more racial supremacy groups than any other species, are generally held in neutral view by their sapient peers.
Neo-Apes (Humans)
(AKA: Primes, Pinkies (or an appropriately colored variant thereof) {Derogatory})
Humans are bipeds that come in a variety of colors and heights, averaging a height 5'10" for males, and 5'4" for females, with a weight generally between 120 and 190 pounds. Though it varies depending on the world and culture, humans achieve maturity at the age of 16 years (Measured by a C-Cycle system) and with prime-tech medical intervention can typically live to 120 years of age. Granted, that margin can be greatly increased by apex-tech and easily shortened by low-tech care. Significant outliers are known to exist, and humans are certainly the most internally dissimilar of all of the races.
Humans are known for being excellent generalists, hardy, tolerant of adverse conditions, and adept natural tool users. As the only race that doesn't require a tech harness to operate simple tools efficiently, humans are generally the first boots on the ground in terms of colonization. If there is a particular weakness of humankind, it is that they are easily influenced by rhetoric and propaganda, and equally prone to use such methods recklessly. Humans are known for being fluid and adaptable, but also for being just a touch unreliable. They are, in general, perceived as being somewhat reckless and forward, but have few other defining personality characteristics.
Humans enjoy a number of roles in society, and, thanks to their ability to get along reasonably well with all other species, often find themselves at the core of multi-species groups as mediators. However, humans are often seen as ill-fits for command positions in mixed groups due to a certain lack of understanding of the difficulties inherent to tech harnesses, control bits, and a distinct lack of thumbs.
If there is any race that humans get along better with than others, it is the Neo-fin. Both of them share roughly the same lifespan and the same reckless streak. Neo-dogs often associate well with humans, and there are claims of ancient bonds between humans and neo-dogs that, supposedly, go back to Fabled Earth.
The progenitor faiths believe that humans were uplifted from a combination of primate strains.
HUMAN: "We are the firstborn children of the stars! It is our birthright and sacred duty to rise up and claim the sky, to establish order and guide the lesser races to a future of our own creation. We have the power!"
HUMAN 2: "Cool. That future happen to involve you getting pants? Not saying the protest board isn't charming, but you're kinda freaking me out."
Neo-Dolphins
(AKA, Fins, Neofins, Brainfish {Derogatory}, Ceteas {Pronounced: Set-eez})
Neo-Dolphins are, by far, the largest of the species. Between 6'6" and 13'2" inches long, a neo-dolphin can weigh anywhere between 330 and 1,430 pounds. They typically reach maturity at 15-16 years of age, and under prime medical treatment will live to roughly 110 years of age. Their skin is typically gray, lightening to white at the belly. Significant deviation has been reported in this coloration as a result of gene mods and simple mutation, and splashes of color are not entirely unknown in these times. This has, however, had the effect of making the traditional grey and white something of an elite coloration, showing a purity of bloodline.
As a people, neo-dolphins are energetic, intelligent, sincere, and easily bored. Documents from fin research projects have indicated, on numerous occasions, that they were on the cusp of a technological breakthrough, but lost patience with the work and found their attention captured elsewhere. It is worth noting that 85% of these breakthroughs were picked up and finished by Crows, which has led to more than a little enmity between the species. Fins are also distinguished as being the only primarily aquatic race, and while they are more durable than the species it is believed they were uplifted from, they will still slowly die unless either put in a low-G field (50% standard or less), or immersed in a fluid medium of sufficient density (Saltwater is preferable, though they can survive in freshwater and even thinner fluids with increasing difficulty). When not either in zero-g, or in a fluid medium, Fins are quite immobile, their vast bulk hindering them far more than it helps. In their element, however, they are the most mobile and dangerous of the sapient species. When on land, Fins usually make use of a specialized mechsuit known, rather aptly, as a Finwalker.
Fin society is generally characterized as 'free spirited' in polite conversation. Completely chaotic, largely uninhibited, and almost anarchic would be the more realistic definition. Fins are free souls, and their leaders tend to be whichever Fin is most highly thought of in a particular field. Still, for all of their chaos, Fins have very little intra-species conflict and are usually able to smooth differences out between competing groups without resorting to violence. Fins have also been characterized as absentminded due to an unusual ability to daydream. This might not seem remarkable, but some Fins can accidentally "phase-out" of reality for hours or, in severe cases, days at a time. Physical prods are only occasionally sufficient to rouse a fin in this state, and, upon snapping back to the present a Fin will almost invariably reply that they were 'thinking'. These long catatonic spells are referred to as Sea-Dreams, and while they generally occur when a Fin is deep in thought, there is a genetic factor that predisposes some Fins to enter the Sea-Dream involuntarily. This condition worsens with age, and is regarded by Fins in much the same way that humans regard Alzheimer's disease.
Depending on the world, neodolphins can be common settlers or they can be an extreme rarity. Neodolphins require large bodies of water, and in order to thrive alongside other colonists, need large bodies of water in a compatible position with valuable land.
Mercy neodolphins are highly prized as pilots for large ships, engineers, systems manipulators, navigators, liaisons, and for those who studied how to operate finwalkers, mech pilots. Neodolphins are well known for being sarcastic, somewhat crude, technologically brilliant, and endlessly social creatures.
Despite the fact that Neo-Crows and Neo-Dolphins complement one another perfectly from a technical standpoint, there is longstanding dislike between the two species. Neo-Crows are intelligent, focused, and reserved. Neo-Dolphins are intelligent, chaotic, and uninhibited. This has led to no end of fierce rivalries about proper conduct and the proper way to approach research. Add that to the number of discoveries that were first sounded out by Fins, and then cracked by Crows after the Fins got bored, and you have the general picture of the intellectual divide between the two species. Neo-Dolphins tend to get along well with Neo-Dogs, and they get along particularly well with humans, who can at least share part of their environment with relative ease.
The progenitor faiths believe that Neo-Dolphins were uplifted from a combination cetacean strains.
NEOCROW: "You must have restraint. Elders are not used to your kind. You are in our skies, you must follow our rules. I know you, but they do not. They still need you to pay humility for the sins of your people."
NEODOLPHIN: "Uh-huh. I'm going to be honest, I sort of tuned out after you said restraint. I'm actually hungry. Are we allowed to eat in the tribunal? I'd totally share with the elders. How old are the elders, anyway? Can I ask?"
NEOCROW: "…Let us begin again. You must be seen as a scientist first. Seen as a Fin last. Restraint is key. You must (…)"
Neo-Crows
(A.K.A Crows, Ravens, Corvids, Dusters {Derogatory})
Neocrows are the smallest and longest lived of the sentient species. With standing heights ranging from 3'6" to 4'4", and a wingspan of up to 11', the average Neo-Crow without a tech-harness will weigh in between 25 and 35 pounds. Their skin is typically pale with plumage that is usually a dark glossy, grey or false black, with a metallic sheen to the feathers in the right light. Neo-crows have two typical color deviations; albinos with white or exceptionally light plumage, and melanistic specimens with glossless, true black feathers. Neo-Crows are also the slowest maturing of the species, typically reaching adulthood at age 22, and able to live to 200 years of age with only prime-tech medical treatment.
Neocrows are typically thought of as cold, detached, and completely, totally, focused on whatever they're doing at the moment. This is in part because of their culture, but also in large part due to their brains. Neo-crows have the smallest brains of the sentient species, yet they are also generally considered to be among its best and brightest. Brain scans and dissections have revealed that neo-crows have given up a lot achieve that unusual position. Wired much like the brain of an autistic human, neo-crows lack the major mirror neuron groups, giving them a decreased capacity for empathy, and their cerebral cortex is literally pinched together at the front instead of dividing normally. Brain activity is focused, and while neo-crows can be brilliantly creative, they can also get stuck in a rut very easily. Most parts of the brain responsible for filtering input are minimized, which tends to breed a severe dislike of crowds in Neocrows. Neocrows, while excruciatingly polite when it comes to touching and personal space, require specialized lessons to understand verbal politeness and 'small talk'. Neo-crows tend to see the world in terms of things that are vitally important, and things that are irrelevant, without any space between.
In society, Crows are highly structured, with systems of rank based on merit, bloodline, and chronological seniority. 'Electing' an official is rare, and most Crows will back down from an office or position if they perceive that their rivals are better suited to the job. Neo-Crow society is typically very difficult for other species to interact with, save for (surprisingly) Neo-Cats. The obsessive nature of Neo-crows often turns them into specialists in whatever field fascinates them, and Neo-crow society takes on that element. Dedicated Neo-crow politicians can argue and debate for, quite literally, years at a time, leaving other races frustrated and out in the cold. Of course, most of the rest of the Neo-crow society does whatever it believes is best for their respective fields while the politicians debate. Since the scientists will generally have seniority over their politicians when arguing their specific field, this is considered an expected and acceptable aspect of their society.
Mercy neocrows often occupy specialty scientific positions (Doctor, Tech-Scholar, systems manipulator, Etc), or a position as a pilot. Neocrows make excellent natural pilots for atmospheric craft, and are fair natural pilots with small spacecraft, but their ability to intuitively understand how a craft flies decreases with the size of the craft. Neocrows are generally smart, savvy, and very, very easily bored by things that they simply don't want to understand. The dislike of social interaction that plagues specialists of all species does, however, tend to render some of them rather painfully blunt.
Neo-crows have temperate relationships with most species, with a longstanding rivalry with Fins occasionally complicating things. The debate over who truly invented the Bore Drive, the Neo-Dolphin Sarriae Luunath (Who initiated the project and discovered the fundamental compression equations) or the Neo-Crow Chianeth Ki Vrast (Who made the project practical and actually established the first stable Bore), is still alive and well. Oddly, Neo-crows tend to get along best with Neo-Cats. There is some caution there, but the two races tend to compliment the other well.
The progenitor faiths believe that Neo-Crows were uplifted from a combination of strains extracted from passeriformes, with a specific focus on the corvidae line.
NEODOG: "Doctor, you saved my daughter's life, nobody else would even look at her! How can I repay you?"
NEOCROW: "Take daughter away. Daughter's condition was interesting. Daughter no longer has condition. Daughter is uninteresting and occupying my table. Pay yellow haired human with fat cheeks. Good day."
Neo-Dogs
(AKA: Canes, Hounds {generally masculine}, wolves {generally feminine}, puppies {derogatory})
Neodogs are large, powerfully built, and made to weather extreme conditions. Typically weighing between 105 and 180 pounds, with a height average of roughly three feet at the shoulder. Outliers exist, but to a far lesser extent than humans. Their coat is of medium length, and almost always naturally shaggy. Neodogs come in a variety of colors, including but not limited to grey, brindle, red, black, pure white, fawn, and steel. Neo-dogs are a quick maturing, slightly shorter lived race- becoming 'adult' at the age of 10 and living to the age of 80 under prime medical care. Coat patterns except for brindle in Neodogs are very rare, and nearly all are simple solid colors. This is unusual when one considers how easy it is to breed specific color patterns into domestic dogs. This has, in turn, led to a stigmatization of patterned coats in Neodogs- hinting at a rather primitive liaison somewhere up the bloodline.
Neodogs still bear strong traces of the pack relationships that once dominated them, and are known for their fierce loyalty and occasionally clannish nature. In general, Canes are friendly, extroverted, stubborn, dedicated, honest, and typically honorable. Neodog traders are well regarded for getting, and giving, fair deals while exercising a surprising amount of ethical restraint in business. Neodogs, when not actively in defense of something, are one of the most moderate and stabilizing races. They tend to protect the status quo of whatever group they're a part of, not tending towards the ambition of humans, the scheming of neocats, the cold pursuit of crows, or the careless curiosity of fins. Granted, not all neodogs are like that, and some will stir up a situation just to see what happens, but they are not the norm. An interesting aside is that Neodogs tend to have addictive personalities, making them prone to alcoholism, drug use, gambling, and a number of other repetitive vices.
At a cultural level, Neodogs tend to stress familial and group ties. Cane politicians, in either a modern legal or a tribal ritual form, literally disown themselves from any specific family or group in order to be loyal to the entirety of their people. Neodogs, along with humans, are also the only race whose cultures tend to elect the majority of their officials. (Only 'sufficiently advanced' worlds are considered.) Cane debates tend to be short, to the point, and end with one side conceding. This is in part due to natural cooperative nature of Canes, but also due to a innate sense of, and respect for, dominance. Usually, when confronted with overwhelming odds and put in a situation where surrender will save something valuable, a Neodog will embrace humility rather than hang on out of pride. It is important to note, however, that if they believe that fighting to the last breath would do more good than surrendering, most will cheerfully give their lives to their cause.
Mercy neodogs have long made excellent scouts, soldiers, mech pilots, and natural leaders. They're naturally fast, have an excellent inborn sense of loyalty and leadership, and are quite resilient in most situations. They are not, however, known for being good pilots in atmospheric or space craft, being possessed of scientific genius, or being particularly adept with new technology.
Neodogs are commonly seen with all kinds of settlers. The changed palette of the neodog allows easy speech in standard common, and while when stripped of their tech harness they are reduced to using their tongue or nose to operate boards and their mouth to hold objects meant for humans or harnessed sentients, there is a great deal of standard tech manufactured for use by unharnessed neodogs. The only rivalry Canes typically have is with Neo-Cats, with whom they compete bitterly on nearly every level. Some of the bloodiest wars have been born from those particular racial tensions.
The Progenitor faiths believe that, like the Neo-Cats, Canes were uplifted from Carnivora strains, with a specific emphasis on the Canidae subgroup. Neodogs have always resented this genetic link to felines, and often argue about which species came first.
NEODOG: "My life to fight one last battle, kill one last foe, to shed one last drop of blood. One last drop of blood to buy the people one more second of time, one more inch of soil, one more life saved. I am a soldier, and I know that I will die. Let that death be of service to the pack." - Creed of a Cane Protector
Neo-Cats
(AKA: Felids, Claws, Flids {corrupt slang of Felid. Often Derogatory.}, Yowlers {Derogatory}, Rat Eaters {Derogatory})
With the exception of an angry Fin in the water, Neo-Cats are the most intimidating of the sentient races. They beat neo-dogs to that prize largely because, while Neo-Dogs have a longstanding history of cooperation with almost every race, Felids have a longstanding history of having eaten members of every race. Slightly lighter on average than a Cane, Neo-cats typically weigh between 90 and 160 pounds, with a height usually a little better than or equal to 3' at the shoulder. Fur color and pattern are extraordinarily varied. 90% of neocats have a short, or medium-short coat. Neocats live in a span between Canes and Humans, maturing at around 13 and living to 95 years of age with prime medical care.
Felids and Fins are the only strict carnivores among the sentient species, but Felids have always been more… aggressive over the matter. There have been a statistically insignificant number of cases where Fins have eaten the flesh of other sentient races. In this instance, that means that Fins have no greater propensity for eating the flesh of their fellow races than Corvids, Primes, or Canes. Felids, however, have an incident rate almost 800 times higher than all of the other races combined. Felids tend towards the practical, Machiavellian approach to things, and so when they get hungry… Well, a lot of things are on the menu. As a general rule, Felids are social yet detached, intense, clever, somewhat deceptive, and absolutely, unreservedly, vicious when necessary.
Felid culture is rather interesting. Like Cane culture, much of it revolves around what group you associate with and who your family is, but it is far less forgiving. Cane society typically uses a flexible body of common sense laws, Felids replace that with a truly draconian monolith of specifically detailed and razor precise laws. Stepping outside of those laws is very easy, and Neocat punishments are usually bloody to everyone but children. Then they only leave bruises. Felid power games are a dance of law and lies, with each party obscuring the truth and attempting to insinuate a breach on the part of the other party while still protecting themselves. Neocat trained justices and lawyers are some of the best there are, at least when they know what body of law they're supposed to be enacting. In short, Neocat public society is very reserved and almost excruciatingly polite between strangers. A Claw on friendly terms with an individual, however, is usually far, far less reserved, and often downright personable. However, it is important to remember that the defining feature of the Neocat species is a practical, methodical, pursuit of whatever it is they happen to want. Felids that are the exception to that rule are to be prized.
Mercy neocats are known to be skilled face members, liasons, dealers, and gunners. However, they're generally weaker at flight skills, ground piloting, and most all engineering roles. Neocats are naturally cunning and devious negotiators, and their dexterity combined with hardwired twitch reflexes make them excellent gunners in weapon batteries.
Neocats are the other common settler alongside humans and neodogs. Neocats are useful hunters, quick learners, and can get along moderately well without a harness. Problematically, they are also the most distrusted by colonists, which might have something to due with their verifiable history of getting hungry and eating people. There is an enmity between Canes and Felids that goes back farther than either species can even remember, and certainly farther back than any reliable history can explain. Interestingly Neo-cats tend to get along well with Crows, due mostly in part to a similar societal structure.
The Progenitor faiths believe that, like the Neo-Dogs, Felids were uplifted from Carnivora strains, with a specific emphasis on the Felidae subgroup. Like Neo-Dogs, Felids have spent considerable amounts of time distancing themselves philosophically from their genetic kin.
HUMAN: "You… ate the other prisoners?!"
NEOCAT: "If it makes you feel better, I didn't waste anything."
HUMAN: "That really does not help… At all."
NEOCAT: "Well, I tried. A girl doesn't apologize for staying alive."
Augmentations in General
Cybernetic modification, genetic modification, and everything in between are far from uncommon operations. Modification can be done to improve cognition, extend life, increase survivability on a hostile world, to optimize performance in combat or more mundane tasks, or simply to increase physical attractiveness. There are countless reasons for augmentation, and countless augmentations available for purchase. A thorough catalog of such would be prohibitively time consuming and outdated before it was even finished. The Augmentations described below are typically referred to as the utility trinity; three broad classifications of augmentation designed not to enhance existing abilities, but to give users the ability to perform feats utterly impossible for a mundane individual.
A character with such augmentations is a powerful asset, but the time it takes to master these abilities often leaves them less apt than their peers at more mundane tasks. Typically, however, this trade is well worth the cost in time and energy- at least for a few individuals in a group.
Iron Weavers
Iron Weavers are individuals who have a substantial population of nanites held within their body, as well as means to regenerate lost individual nanites, recharge depleted ones, and command the group as a whole. Iron Weavers are capable of performing miraculous tasks with their machines, capable of creating small objects from nothing but raw materials, repairing broken electronics without tools, and pulling flesh back together with nothing more than a touch.
The implementation of the Iron Weaver system varies between individuals. Primitive versions can be grotesque in their bulk, a cybernetic carrier bay from which the machines stream from and return. More advanced versions are integrated into the user's biology, with the nanites streaming throughout their blood when not in active use. Regardless, all Iron Weaver abilities fall fundamentally into two categories: creation and destruction. In creation, the nanites work together to use some nearby and plentiful material to create a set object (a glass wall made from sand). Whereas in destruction the nanites take apart a set object into its base components.
It is important to note that nanites, though small, are subject to physical limitations. Most Iron Weavers can send nanites through the air, and in this state they are vulnerable to all the extremes of the climate. A strong wind can blow away a swarm of robots that would otherwise dissolve the flesh from an assailant's bones. Likewise, complex commands, like getting the nanites to infiltrate the armor of a mech and take control rather than simply break specific parts down, are all but impossible for the controller to issue with any reliability under pressure.
Mind Hacks
Mind Hacks, contrary to the name, do not hack minds. Mind Hacks have a series of implants embedded into their central nervous system linked to a set of arc generators implanted in the mouth for Canes, Felids, and Fins, and in the hands/claws of Humans and Crows. The arc generators create a charge field between their respective nodes, while the implants in the nervous system enable the user to consciously manipulate the EM field and, most importantly, entangle it with another EM field. When entangled, the field the Mind Hack controls is known as a sympathetic arc, and can be used to control and influence any electronic devices it is entangled with by using a series of motions curiously similar to the ancient game of cat's cradle (at least, when in human hands). Essentially, this allows the Mind Hack to attempt to control most technology within their sphere of influence.
Talented Mind hacks are capable of astounding feats, opening holes in interdiction fields, creating energy shields from nothing but a powerful ambient field, and acting as puppeteers over insufficiently hardened robotic systems. What they do is essential Judo for technology, using an opponent's advancement against them. However, this also means that in situations where there isn't a lot of tech to toy around with, the Mind Hack is reduced to manipulating only the technology that they or their team members brought along with them.
Biological systems, based on chemical electrical impulses, are greatly spared the effects of the Mind Hack's field, but certain, highly specialized rigs are rumored to exist that allow a Mind Hack to exert some control over living organisms. The existence of such devices has ever been proven conclusively, and such rigs remain primarily within the realm of fiction and fable.
Bore Jumpers
Bore Jumpers are individuals who have had the combination of poor sense and daring to have a miniaturized FTL drive embedded into their musculoskeletal system. While the rig's processor severely limits jump distance, and the power requirement severely limits the number of jumps that can be made in a given amount time, Bore Jumpers can teleport short distances without regard for pesky problems like gravity, solid objects, or Einstein's cage. Invaluable equipment for scouts, snipers, couriers, and infiltrators, Bore Jumpers are adept at defeating countermeasures designed to prevent the average person (or tank) from getting from point A to point B.
Bore Jumpers, due to the small processors used out of necessity, are susceptible to interdiction techniques. In fact, many sensitive facilities will employ low-grade blanket interdiction which, even if it can't prevent a jump, will severely limit the range at which jumps can be made. The major problem Bore Jumpers have in the field is that the harnesses are typically too small to include a means of power generation as well as power storage, which can mean that their number of jumps is sorely limited if they cannot find a way to recharge. Most infiltrators will carry grid tapping tools for just this purpose, stealing energy from other sources to fuel the Bore.
In combat, Bore Jumpers are capable of moving with absurd unpredictability, putting even the most advanced targeting systems into a nervous breakdown with only casual effort. More suicidal jumpers will intentional destabilize their apertures using hot-rodded jump rigs, arriving at their destination in a detonation of frayed space-time and cascading radiation. The jumper has no intrinsic protection from being at the epicenter of such an explosion, but a properly prepared individual can devastate an unprepared force.
Professions In General
You are all mercies, you all take jobs for money and may not look too closely at the details of those jobs. Mercy, however, is a very broad term, and the exact nature of what you do day to day may be (and probably is) quite different from what most people picture when they think of mercenaries. You're part of an outfit, albeit a small one, and that means everybody has to work together. The professions below are far from a comprehensive list, but they provide descriptors and ideas to define a role. Feel free to invent something new.
Combative
Soldier: Exactly what it says on the tin. The soldier is the one on the front lines with the big gun, the thick armor, and the kill count. Soldiers take and hold ground, buying everyone else time using blood and grit. They're also intimidating as hell, and probably the closest thing to a stereotype mercies have.
Combat Pilot: Combat Pilots come in many forms, mech pilots, fighter pilots, etc. Pilots are like soldiers, except that they typically wreak their destruction from inside some kind of vehicle.
Infiltrator: Outnumbered on a good day, Mercenary infiltrators are common additions to crews that work a lot in anthropogenically hostile environments. Less spectacular than some, but it's often the knife in the dark that crowns a king, not the bomb in the street.
Technology and Utility
Tech-Scholar: Tech-Scholars are the people to go to when you've found something that you have no idea what it does. Tech-Scholars specialize in being on the cutting edge of a dozen different fields. Their fundamentals are often a little soft, but they're invaluable for analyzing the unknown, or at least telling you if something is dangerous or not.
Engineer: Engineers live by the creed that sufficiently advanced theory is indistinguishable from utter bullshit. Engineers specialize in the practical application of the known. They build and repair, refine and implement. They're not the most gifted theoreticians, but if you've got a misaligned Bore filament, you want an engineer who knows the practical way to realign it, not the scientist who could reinvent the entire engine.
Navigator: Navigators are the pilots of large vessels, and typically the pilots of shuttles and smaller craft when combat piloting isn't required. Navigators are skilled in juicing the most out of a bore drive, and (more importantly) in how to handle a vessel that weighs tens of thousands of tons at sub-FTL velocities. While merchants typically employ reliable expert systems instead of biological navigators, Mercy outfits often favor the gambler's edge bought by having an intelligent mind at the helm.
Public Relations
Dealer: Mercenaries work in dark circles more often than not, and dealers know their way around the seedy underbelly of law and order. Dealers have webs of contacts stretching between stars, and even places where they don't have direct contacts they're still adept and niggling their way into societies most people are happier ignoring.
Liaison: Mercenaries also do a lot of work for perfectly reputable organizations and governments, and it's occasionally nice to have someone who doesn't look like a drug dealer in order to make the best impression on such interested parties.
Aesthete: Aesthetes are people who can walk into the highest bastions of culture and not bat an eyelash. They know more than just the protocols of doing business, they know how to adapt to the intricate dance of politics and war that defines most high society.
Author
Topic: Small Mercies (OOC) | Mercenary Menageries in Space (6/[6]) [WARNING: TEXT] (Read 101889 times)