It that must not be named wrote:

If you really want to mess with the players, have them see the JJ as you said, then have them realize that firewall is actively trying to in cite the junta leaders into more repression and oppression via subversive means, I.E. trying to make the junta leaders think there is anti-junta activity going on to inflame them to use repressive means to quell it, in an effort to get the junta to become so oppressive it incites the people to rise against it. Puting the players in a situation where they may feel a need to turn against FW could be interesting, for the sadistic type of GM....;)

Dry Observer wrote:

Another possibility is that the Jovians, aside from a little extra Jovian-nationalism training, and slightly better psychological conditions, are in fact trying to *precisely* duplicate the Lost project on a massive scale, with cadre after cadre of children being at some point in their personal development in the program. In other words, perhaps they've actually come to the conclusion that it's time to give a little on the Limit-All-Biotech front, and are creating a vast army of asyncs to be used for research on the one hand and to annihilate any Exsurgent or even TITAN incursions on the other. Whether or not this is a realistic plan, the Jovians have been bringing each class as it matures in and out of the real world, have assigned realtime families and teachers to befriend each child in realtime and in some cases simulspace (particularly with certain rare, prescreened and suitably augmented agents acting in mentoring roles) and are closely monitoring the psychological state of each subject. And while their offensive capabilities may for the most part be limited, hundreds of thousands and then millions of trained async soldiers supported by millions of async scientists, inventors and assorted researchers would form a pretty potent force. What's more, when the PCs initially penetrate the project, they may only discover the surface plot -- large numbers of splicers being produced as a gentle, low-speed test run of the larger initiative who will also be deployed on a broad scale, who are almost mature, and who will actually be adopted or otherwise made full citizens once they enter the polity. But the Junta plans to keep control of the excess numbers of asyncs through a number of means, in particular by putting most of the soldiers, at least, into some form of hibernation "when not in use."

Decivre wrote:

I doubt that there's any mainstream group of Jovian Republicans who would dare think about using these Exsurgents (as they would likely be considered) for anything more than cannon fodder if found.

Dry Observer wrote:

Sounds good, Decivre, except that a lot of political factions can be much more complicated than they're given credit for. Most people associate the last U.S. Administration with bio-conservatism, but are unaware of just how much DARPA was pushing biotech/cybertech supersoldier research at that time, at the urging of the most politically powerful arm under the executive branch, the civilian military leadership. That was also the same government whose Commerce Department collaborated in issuing a report hundreds of pages long essentially calling for the U.S. to push the radical development of info/cogno/bio/nano technologies to become a kind of supercivilization incorporating them into every aspect of our lives. But yes, they also had a committee on bioethics condemning everything they were actually doing, and proposing to do. So the Jovians don't have to be doing what I'm suggesting, but it wouldn't shock me if they were. After all, if you start from the premise of "they're not stupid," they must know they need some kind of an edge against the TITANs. So from their perspective, what tech gives the option of making an end run around TITAN omnipotence? I could see a host of controllable, loyal asyncs as a very tempting option for them.