Some of the NPCS that will be with you. [b]'Mother'[/b] Perhaps the most "exhuman" of the Escalating Application, the entity that refers to itself as 'Mother' was a shipping executive in the pre-Fall era, and a criminal in the post-Fall era. Responsible for several hijacking and hacking of automated interplanetary vessels, and several even more notable armed takeovers of ships in the outer rim and belt, she retired suddenly from crime in 6AF, and began to work on other interests, notably bot jamming and being very parallel. Her current form is based on a 'popular' exhuman design, consisting of barely mobile vats of brain matter interlaced with computing hardware and life support. She is very, very good at multitasking and is chief of security, in effect, of the Application, operating drone swarms and several independent synth and pod morphs. It is unknown what her original name is - lost in the Fall - nor, particularly, why she insists that her subordinates refer to her as "Mother". It is believed to be a psychological trick; she rarely deals with outsiders but when she does prefers to be refered to by title or position. [b]Nengyi "Hands" Kul[/b] A famed programmer-artisan pre-War, Nengyi lost his left arm during the evacuation of Earth. Rather than have it regenerated, he instead chose to replace it with a custom cybernetic rig, that he has upgraded intensively. The custom arm sports fractal digits and integral nanoscale work that Kul makes use of in his investigations of TITAN gear - what it is, how it works, how to kill it. Despite his insistence that he's "careful enough", he has nonetheless been banned from several habitats and censured by the Argonauts for unsafe practices with TITAN nanotechnology. [b]Senator Alexander[/b] Son of middle-class engineers who did the thing so very precious few Americans could do - make it big into the political elite, and from there into the hyperelite. Becoming the Senator from Tennessee could have been the path to the Presidency...but then, of course, the Fall happened, and the ultimate fate of Senator Alexander is unknown. So who is this person? He claims to be Alexander, but his identity cannot be confirmed, not directly. There are over a dozen known "possible Alexanders" in the solar system. Certainly, he appears to possess the drive, and some of the knowledge of the Senator. But if he is...what is he doing out here? In any case, the group finds his contacts, energy, and organizational talents invaluable in their operations.

Okay, out of eleven people that had previously expressed interest in this game, nine of them showed up for character creation day, and of those I have four character sheets from: Amorous Intent, DogBoy, Namaphry, and prometheus110, not currently reviewed. As always, you can usually but not always find me on #exposthuman on dal. Next session is next Thursday, 1830 (6:30 PM) Eastern. The most I can have in one session is six people - I didn't think that I'd have this many people, honestly, and I'm still not sure that I'll actually get this many people actually showing up. The purpose of this entire experiment was to have a bunch of people, not all of which would show up every time due to scheduling issues and such (a constant problem with my previous games, were I could rarely count on half the players showing up at any given set time). If I do get more than six people showing up before 1830, I'll ask anyone who doesn't feel particularly motivated or together, or who knows that they can make the next session to step down, and if we still have too many, roll a d10 on whoever is left. Anyone who steps down or is rolled off is guaranteed a slot in the next game - that's the most fair way I can think to handle it. If I don't have your character sheet, I'd appreciate it if you could get it to me by Wednesday. I'm also no longer hosting the MapTools server constantly, but if you need to test it you can find me on #exposthuman as usual. I'll post more information on the first adventure on Monday or Tuesday.

(See OP for update) [B]July 5th, 10AF, 1911 LST[/B] [B]Command Deck (Formerly Mess Hall) of the Escalating Application.[/B] There are still scorch marks on walls and ceiling of the mess hall, and even vaguely humanoid silhouettes where plasma fire scorched away an infested miner. That's how they all were, really - only vaguely humanoid. The computing hardware had entirely been scrapped, and hunter-killer teams had mapped the entire complex. Still, only a fraction of the beehive was marked as safe for general habitation, sterilized down to the last atom. The mess hall had been turned into a 'command room', complete with holoprojectors and AR controllers. If they wished, anyone could turn the room into a sunny forest vista, or somber, efficient-looking military headquarters, rather than the ad-hoc, blemished mess that it actually was. The holoprojector filled the room with the outlined image of the [I]Ten Star Hotel[/I]. A torus, with an inner diameter of 250 meters with a 100 meter docking spar, all shot to hell by both deliberate attack and a decades worth of microdebris. Senator Alexander waved his finger at the image. "We don't have a lot of time. If we are on to something, they'll-" "They'll be expecting it, dear." A stitched-together pod, still trailing vat goo smilled wryly. One of "Mother's" many little puppets. "They'll be expecting more drones, heavier drones. Not for us to go all in." The pod sighed. "Of course they'll expect you to go all in, because they'll expect you to expect them to not be expecting it." A dozen razor-thin wire-hands traced over the image. Nengyi focused on the damaged section, that had been scouted out by the probe. "I'm sorry, but who, exactly, are we worried about there? Are we worried about...them?" The pod shrugged. "Can't say we're not. Can say we are. But..." The holoprojector zoomed out, projecting a display of low-earth orbit, shimmering with thousands of objects - debris, and killsats. Then the number of lights decreased, in favor of an interlocking series of ever-shifting cones and spheres. "...but we think we've found a way down. And that hotel could be the key. We need to gather supplies, yes, but we need the station itself, in its current orbit, if we're going to be able to use it as a launching point. Assuming, of course, [I]they[/I] aren't there. Or the PC doesn't decide to blow the station, just to be safe."

[B]Last Time On [I]Ex Post Human[/I][/B] We met Senator Alexander, did some research, and went to a bar where we nearly got into a very, very bad fight. Some of the highlights of things that we learned. [B]The Unknown Intruder[/B] Right around the time our team was being blown to bits by a Red Zone fighter, a specialized surveillance rig in a higher earth orbit detected a pattern of cloaking artifacts traveling through one of the less well-scanned zones of the blockade. Most notably, this pattern changed course, apparently executing a high-G turn with no detectable exhaust. A through analysis would seem to indicate that a novel populsion system at work. Senator Alexander suspected something called RAINDROP CASCADE could be responsible, but that it hadn't made any progress. The only other faction known to be in possession of that sort of technology is the alien Factors. [B]Proposition 1171[/B] Currently, the big thing going on in Lunar political sphere is Proposition 1171, a referendum to shut down the Lunar Mass Drivers. These robotic bombardment systems continually fire asteroids at suspected TITAN groupings, though detractors say that they're only killing survivors, as well as continuing the ecological devastation of Earth. Reclaimer sentiment is strong in Lunar space, and there's a massive memetic media struggle going on that is sucking all the political oxygen in the room. The smart money says that the proposition will fail or otherwise be negated by backroom dealings, but that much stronger controls on the mass drivers will likely result in any case. Certain factions are making use of the decreased media coverage to get away with things that they might otherwise be worried about sparking a media event in. The PC, as always, is vocally supportive of the bombardments, in subtle and unsubtle ways. The crew of the Escalating Application are divided; reclaimer sentiment is strong, but so is a desire to smack down potential TITAN outbreaks, and there is a certain practical side to having a potential "get through the blockade free" card periodically flinging rocks through. [B]Red Zone[/B] The mercenary hypercorp Red Zone is descended from a squadron of Russian aerospace forces that defected to form their own corporation in the wake of the Fall, unlike most of the Russian forces that were absorbed into the newly minted LLA military forces. Despite their official membership with the Plantary Consortium, they enjoy some relationship with Lunar shipyards and it's very plausible that they have some degree of an 'in' with the oligarchs of the LLA, or at least those that share their nationality. There is no official record of any corruption in Red Zone, but the Russian aerospace forces were noted for both their brutality and their ties to organized crime pre-Fall. Senator Alexander informed the team that it is commonly believed that Red Zone has a special relationship with Oversight's Sub-Director for Lunar Affairs. Our team found rumors that Red Zone soldiers frequented a bar called Roach's Nest (named for its owner, a Québécois scoundrel and criminal money-man), and were lucky enough to find several that were there escorting the Captain of the [I]Exceeds Expectations[/I], the destroyer whose fighter vaporized the crew in their expedition to the Ten Star Hotel. Captain Ludmilla Semyonov had no idea who they were, of course, and a bar fight was narrowly avoided. The fact that the Captain was at Roach's Nest is in itself highly fascinating, though not proof of anything in particular. She could have been meeting with Roach, or a representative, or someone else entirely; Roach offers highly secure privacy services for his usually criminal clientele. [B]Next Time On [I]Ex Post Human[/I][/B] We can either continue doing things on Remembrance - following up the lead on Roach, or attempting to interact more with high society in the upper cylinder. Or, alternatively, we can go to Fresh Kills to recruit fresh meat, get some hardware and intel, and otherwise enjoy all of those things that civilized society with probably shoot you for. The choice is up to you.

A more detailed look at the player's home habitat, the [I]Escalating Application[/I]. This post will be edited as new details, NPCs, operations, and changes occur. [U][B]History:[/B][/U] The Escalating Application began life as a resource, a NEO with a diverse collection of reasonably tightly packed materials that was captured by middle 21st century over a period of several years, and parked in a medium orbit for easy access. Designated Rig-44-0EA, this continued to be a productive source of raw materials for the nascent space industry for years, adding processing and nanomanufacturing facilities to turn the asteroids's silicon, carbon, nickel, and iron into large prefabricated structures or shapes useable for many purposes. After nearly a decade of service, the asteroid has been largely mined out of metals, and demand for bulk materials in low orbit was dropping as new ventures focused on the moon and beyond. The habitat's most valuable asset was instead its prime location - a very useful orbital path - and the robotic processing facilities that could be easily repurposed for any number of applications. It was sold to a megacorp for use as a robotics manufacturing facility and launching point for probe expeditions to the Trojans, used as a data storage and egocasting relay point, held in a legal limbo for the better part of a decade when that megacorp merged with its main rival after a legal knife fight, and more. At the time of the Fall, it was in the hands of an autonomist hypercorp (an odd entity in and of itself) and was being renovated for use as a model automist society and haven right nestled into Earth orbit. During the early days of the Fall, the station's owner attempted to support the autonomists and anarchist factions fighting against the government and megacorps with information and a safe haven. They were eliminated by a deadly infowar attack, later determined to be TITAN in origin, but at the time was believed to be a military or corporate attack. There were no known survivors. The Escalating Application was retaken by a cabal of twenty individuals who had determined a mutual interest in flouting both LLA and PC laws, and had, collectively, the armament, tools, and skill to clean out the habitat and establish it as their own. [U][B]Physical Characteristics:[/B][/U] The Escalating Application is characterized as a Beehive habitat, inhabiting an M-class asteroid that is 1.2 x 1.1 x 2.4 km. The intial object was actually much bigger to begin with; over the course of the rock's history large chunks have been removed as the asteroid was mined out, and only this rump portion remains, containing those bits that weren't worth cutting off or were used as the structure for the rig itself. A significant portion of the habitat is actually outside the rock, in the form of bolt-on habitat and factory modules. These modules are old, structurally, but their electronics have been stripped out and replaced, as much as a modernization scheme as a security measure. [U][B]Residents and Crew:[/B][/U] From that initial group of twenty like-minded members who put the plans in motion to seize the habitat, the residents of the Escalating Application has grown considerably. That small group doubled in size with mercenaries, friends, and allies who were brought on board to take part in the cleanup, and were invited to remain on board. From there, news of renovation and takeover spread, as the group integrated themselves into local darkcast networks and looked for skilled individuals, or interesting (if not particularly skilled) individuals who wanted in on the habitat. At this point, there are approximately three hundred distinct egos on board the Escalating Application as residents. There's not common agreement or philosophy among the residents, but the atmosphere can be described as weakly posthuman. The kind of person for whom splitting yourself into a dozen or more forks running at different speeds and swapping memory and XP with yourself and others, while loading different software-based skillsofts to fill in the gaps is "just common sense" for completing a difficult task in a hurry, even if they have no particular plans to turn themselves into a Jupiter brain. While some have philosophies that do touch on the singularity-seeker or exhuman spectrum, there's a strong normalizing ethic (and a desire to not be shot as a danger to others). The one rule of the EA's residents is this: no mediocrity. Failure is acceptable, so long as it's an interesting failure. Crazy is acceptable, so long as it's the kind of crazy that's sometimes mistaken for genius. The only real sin is being just sort of okay. The EA is home to some of the oddest in the inner system, but so long as they can play nice-ish with others, it works - and as a result, the EA's talent pool is spectacular. A wide range of morphs is common, from the barely transhuman to the oh-dear-god-what-is-that. Due to the range of tasks need to be done, including increasingly routine but extensive technical tasks, the EA's residents have begun to supplement their numbers with purchased egos and weak AGIs. [U][B]Services and Society:[/B][/U] Everyone knows everyone else - there's a simplistic social network, but not a real internal rep network. If someone isn't broadcasting their ID, they can still be identified by almost everyone unless they've changed morphs recently, and even then, will probably be outed quickly - and, certainly, would be suspicious if no one knew who they were. Privacy is mostly non-existent outside of the barracks for any but the founders, the price of living with a group of mad scientists in training. No one trusts you to keep everything to yourself. Special provisions for high privacy areas can be made, involving roach motel protocols, but are rare. All basic fabrication services are public; the real meat and potatoes of the Escalating Application's Economy is in its scientific expertise, services, and high-end military and technical gear. It's economy has actually regressed to some odd combination of barter and command economy, with a loosely democratic method of deciding what is to be done with the EA's facilities at any time. [U][B]Locations:[/B][/U] [B]Command Deck:[/B] The mess hall of the old autonomist base has been turned into a 'command room', complete with holoprojectors and AR controllers. If they wished, anyone could turn the room into a sunny forest vista, or somber, efficient-looking military headquarters, rather than the ad-hoc, blemished mess that it actually was - this mess hall saw thick fighting, and no one as bothered to fix the scorch marks yet. [B]Labs:[/B] <->Alpha: The Alpha Labs are the EA's primary nanotech labs, built out of the old material processing facilities. Contains the personal workshop of Nengyi "Hands" Kul in on of the side annexes. The Alpha Labs were the EA's primary production facilities in the early days, but the needs of mass production have required outsourcing to a dedicated reconfigurable module. Alpha lab has instead been repurposed for individual production of specialized nanotech items and testing. <->Beta: The Beta labs are the smallest labs, dealing with advanced computing, prediction, infolife, intrusion and intelligence applications. Contains the most extensive and developed virtual space, as well as airgapped safety computing. The Beta labs are mounted in an external module that has been faraday shielded to prevent any of the experiments from escaping. <->Gamma: The Gamma labs are the biological science laboratories, and the largest individual laboratory. Mounted in a cavernous bay area and subdivided into individual working components. The Gamma labs are also set up for morph production runs, and can act as a medical bay; the distinction between repair, improvement, and biohazard containment are often blurred in the whirlwhind working environment of Gamma Labs. <->Delta: Delta labs contain the physics and xenotechnology labs, and are still in the planning stages. A portion of the sealed section has been allocated for their use, but fabricator time, resources, data, and personnel are all severely lacking due to ongoing situations. [B]Sealed Sections:[/B] Only approximately 40% of the EA's area is considered habitable. The remaining sections are sealed off, with distributed cameras keeping an eye on the location. While these regions have atmosphere and heating, their systems are cycled on a seperate system than the rest of the EA for safety reasons. The areas have not been reclaimed for a lack of both manpower and a lack of demand for new spaces thus far. [B]Barracks:[/B] The general lack of need to sleep among synths has not entirely obviated the need for cycles of activity, rest, or privacy. The barracks is a series of temporary structures in a series of mined-out tunnels, acting as storage for personal effects and a place where temporary privacy tents can be erected without necessarily inviting the ire of the rest of the crew, so long as no weapons or other gear are allowed into the barracks. [B]Factory:[/B] As the EA grew to need more equipment and especially more robotics, this old robotics bay was modernized and bootstrapped by the Alpha lab's assemblers. Situated as a multi-module surface facility, the factory is a reconfigurable automated manufacturing area that has been working nonstop to recycle raw materials into useful scientific gear, weapons, and morphs. [B]Common Area:[/B] This common areas of the Escalating Application is laid out like many other microgravity gathering areas, but specially care has been made to provide room for larger morphs. There is lighting in all spectra shy of the more energetic bands, and public VR nodes to project a simulated, alternate reality for those who desire it. [B]Powerplant:[/B] Perhaps the most useful bit of equipment salvaged from the old days of the Escalating Application, this oversized fusion powerplant is inefficiently large for its power output, and also gratuitious overkill for it's current use. The original use of this powerplant was to power light-sail probes, and the EA has enjoyed the abundance of power for other purposes. [B]Communications Array:[/B] The communications array is a series of laser links and radio bands as well as a powerful neutrino farcaster. Mesh access is established through several darkcast routers, a service for which the EA's residents must pay significantly for - but the benefits of such an arrangement is hard to ignore. [U][B]NPCs:[/B][/U] [B]'Mother'[/B] Perhaps the most "exhuman" of the Escalating Application, the entity that refers to itself as 'Mother' was a shipping executive in the pre-Fall era, and a criminal in the post-Fall era. Responsible for several hijacking and hacking of automated interplanetary vessels, and several even more notable armed takeovers of ships in the outer rim and belt, she retired suddenly from crime in 6AF, and began to work on other interests, notably bot jamming and being very parallel. Her current form is based on a 'popular' exhuman design, consisting of barely mobile vats of brain matter interlaced with computing hardware and life support. She is very, very good at multitasking and is chief of security, in effect, of the Application, operating drone swarms and several independent synth and pod morphs. It is unknown what her original name is - lost in the Fall - nor, particularly, why she insists that her subordinates refer to her as "Mother". It is believed to be a psychological trick; she rarely deals with outsiders but when she does prefers to be refered to by title or position. [B]Nengyi "Hands" Kul[/B] A famed programmer-artisan pre-War, Nengyi lost his left arm during the evacuation of Earth. Rather than have it regenerated, he instead chose to replace it with a custom cybernetic rig, that he has upgraded intensively. The custom arm sports fractal digits and integral nanoscale work that Kul makes use of in his investigations of TITAN gear - what it is, how it works, how to kill it. Despite his insistence that he's "careful enough", he has nonetheless been banned from several habitats and censured by the Argonauts for unsafe practices with TITAN nanotechnology. [B]Senator Alexander[/B] Son of middle-class engineers who did the thing so very precious few Americans could do - make it big into the political elite, and from there into the hyperelite. Becoming the Senator from Tennessee could have been the path to the Presidency...but then, of course, the Fall happened, and the ultimate fate of Senator Alexander is unknown. So who is this person? He claims to be Alexander, but his identity cannot be confirmed, not directly. There are over a dozen known "possible Alexanders" in the solar system. Certainly, he appears to possess the drive, and some of the knowledge of the Senator. But if he is...what is he doing out here? In any case, the group finds his contacts, energy, and organizational talents invaluable in their operations. [B]Patience[/B] A hacker, journalist, troll, and vigilante by trade, Patience is a careful investigator who is, like many on the EA, done with accepting limits, boundaries, and rules. What began as an investigation into the takeover of the Escalating Application ended in a recruitment instead of a scope. Since joining up, Patience has begun experimenting in more radical information distribution via memory upload and other tricks. Sleeved in a tried and true Ghost morph, the Venezuelan agent provocateur has had long-term plans to be famous, but since joining the EA, has been considering alternate forms of immortality. [B]Adonis 51[/B] A member of the Lost generation, Adonis 51 has made a name as a designer of engineered toxins and solver of molecular infiltration problems across the darknet. While being...less than savy, a degree of cunning and a good sense of timing - and the ability to get out when in mattered - has kept her alive as she's bounced across the solar system in search of a place to settled down and avoid the attentions of her brothers and sisters for reasons unspecified. Her membership with the Escalating Application ran into difficulties with her other habits - particularly, an 'art' form that consists of neobiological organisms that can only be described as horrors, as well as artistic, innovative nanotoxins with structures that evade or confuse many conventional defenses. As a result of these difficulties, she's on a sort of probation, working under Cipher and others in the Gamma labs to help make up for the damage she's caused, and prove her trustworthiness to the habitat.

[b]BREAKING NEWS:[/b] In the wake of the unexpected upset regarding Proposition 1171, the Planetary Congress has authorized the construction of a new series of mass driver facilities in Earth Orbit, to replace the soon to be decommissioned mass drivers. A spokesperson for the Planetary Consortium expressed that this move was "a long time coming" and that "the Earth security situation remains dangerous, and the lunar mass drivers were always an unsatisfactory half-measure". Fa-Jing industrial group has been awarded the no-compete contract for construction of the weapons, and has itself openned bidding on a lucrative series of military contracts. The industrial giant has stated that it is already considering offers from not only PC standbys like Direct Action, Cyclops Armaments, Red Zone, and Krypton, but also outside organizations such as Gorgon Defense Systems, Ultimate Securities, and even LLA military corp Sunside. The new mass drivers are planned to be placed in a lower orbit, with more extensive defense grids and a much lower flight time. Security planners have praised the arrangement, noting that it is much hard to subvert via infowar, and much more capable of flattening large-scale outbreaks should they arise.

Due to the evolving needs of the game, information regarding the game can now be found at Obsidian Portal, here: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/ex-post-human The game remains open to new interest; just show up at the IRC (preferably) or message me here and we'll get started.