THEME:
Spoiler:
The Celestial Initiative is a non-profit organization working towards the advancement of solar and fusion energy technology. In a galaxy dominated by soulless megacorporations such as Nanotrasen, one may wonder how such a non-profit can survive in the economic climate of the 2550s. Maybe they're affiliated with the Syndicate. Maybe they're supported by some entity not directly connected to NT or the Syndicate. Whatever the case may be, the Celestial initiative's continued existence can be sufficiently explained by a sinister secret.
Within the Celestial Initiative is a clandestine inner circle known by its members as the Celestial Fellowship. The Fellowship is so secretive that even Centcom hardly even entertains the idea of its existence, but it is oh so real. The Fellowship's members believe that the stars themselves are the manifestations of a great god of light that presides over the universe. Whether this is a genuine belief passed down from the Fellowship's leaders or a mere fabrication meant to instill loyalty through religious persuasion, nobody really knows.
Whether or not this faith is a fabrication, the Fellowship serves the interests of this nameless god of light, be it by bringing others to the light or by "cleansing the galaxy" of "darkness and impurities" with "celestial fire", which any survivor of the Fellowship's onslaught would tell you involves vaporising everybody using fusion-powered weaponry ranging from overcharged pulse rifles and energy bastard swords to unavoidably swift mechs and star-birthing bombs.
Within the Celestial Initiative is a clandestine inner circle known by its members as the Celestial Fellowship. The Fellowship is so secretive that even Centcom hardly even entertains the idea of its existence, but it is oh so real. The Fellowship's members believe that the stars themselves are the manifestations of a great god of light that presides over the universe. Whether this is a genuine belief passed down from the Fellowship's leaders or a mere fabrication meant to instill loyalty through religious persuasion, nobody really knows.
Whether or not this faith is a fabrication, the Fellowship serves the interests of this nameless god of light, be it by bringing others to the light or by "cleansing the galaxy" of "darkness and impurities" with "celestial fire", which any survivor of the Fellowship's onslaught would tell you involves vaporising everybody using fusion-powered weaponry ranging from overcharged pulse rifles and energy bastard swords to unavoidably swift mechs and star-birthing bombs.
Spoiler:
At the beginning of the round, some number of crew members spawn in as Fellows. Instead of using eldritch magicks to communicate and obtain equipment, Fellows have Fellowship Uplinks that use themed telecrystals called stardust. Fellowship Uplinks are encryption keys that go into headsets, granting access to the Fellowship radio channel (maybe it could be :f if that's not already used) and preventing non-Fellows from purchasing Fellowship items.
The main way the Fellowship will go around converting people is with additional Fellowship Uplinks. When a Fellowship Uplink is used on someone with a headset, the Uplink gets inserted into the headset, ignoring the two-keys-per-headset limitation. The Uplink then begins releasing subliminal messages that convert the wearer to the Fellowship after a few seconds. Make sure to turn the headset off so that converts can't scream for help before they finish converting. If a potential convert isn't wearing a headset, you can purchase a box of spare headsets for a paltry sum of stardust. (or you could, y'know, make headsets in an autolathe so as not to waste stardust)
The fact that the Fellowship Uplink functions as an encryption key adds some additional possiblities to its use. You could plop an Uplink in a headset and leave it for some unsuspecting shmuck to put on, but conversion via an Uplinked headset is very obvious and Uplinks can be removed from headsets with a screwdriver. Uplinks can be put into borgs, but since MMIs remove brainwashing from the brains put into them, this is useless (in most cases) unless you've subverted the AI first. (which the Fellowship has no special way to do)
The chaplain is no help against the Fellowship - as religious as Fellows act, holy water only works against eldritch magicks, not subliminal brainwashing. At the very least, the chaplain is already too deluded to be susceptible to the Fellowship's subliminal messages. Instead, Fellows are deconverted using mindshield implants. Unlike in gang, mindshield implants don't break when they are used in deconversion. The Fellowship has their own version of gang's implant breaker. This implant doesn't attempt to convert, but doesn't prevent an implanted person from being converted. The Fellowship implant causes the implanted person to resist mindshield implants, so security's options against someone with a Fellowship implant are execution, perma, or surgery. Perma or surgery is preferable as neither of those options involve removing someone from the round.
The Fellowship has a number of different combat, stealth, and utility items that can be purchased. Some of these items are locked behind round progression, and cannot be purchased until there is a certain number of Fellows. Fellowship items will be listed in the "items" section of this post.
The Fellowship's endgame is to engage in "the Cleansing". The gist of the Cleansing is that no non-Fellows can escape alive and unrestrained. The Cleansing can only properly begin once enough of the station's living, non-afk staff are Fellows. To begin the Cleansing, a Fellow must begin a vote. If the vote fails, another vote cannot be held for a couple of minutes and the Fellow beginning the vote cannot begin another vote for ten or so minutes. If the vote succeeds, the Cleansing enters the preparation phase.
During the preparation phase, which lasts from five to ten minutes depending on server population, the Fellowship loses passive stardust generation and the ability to purchase most conversion equipment, but gains the ability to purchase some particularly powerful offensive and defensive equipment. As stated in the "theme" section, this equipment includes laser guns comparable to pulse rifles, an energy bastard sword that combines the deadly whirlwind power of the blood cult's bastard sword with the ease of storage of a syndie's esword, parts to build a mech on the level of a Dark Mauler or Neovgre, and the granddaddy of them all - a fusion bomb which is literally a round-ending nuke that can't be anchored but doesn't need dat fukken disk. These will be described in more detail in the "items" section. The stipulation to all this powerful equipment is that it can't be put to use until the preparation phase is over and the Cleansing begins.
The beginning of the Cleansing is signified by the station losing all connections to Centcom and the station's alert level being set to Delta. The shuttle will be instantly called, even if the round hasn't gone on long enough. If the shuttle was already en-route, its timer will be set to five minutes, and if it's already docked, its timer will be set to eight minutes. If the shuttle was already docked, early-launch is rendered impossible for the first five minutes of the Cleansing. The white ship will be instantly sent to the station docking port to avoid cheesing, and it cannot be moved using either of its consoles. During this time, the Fellowship can no longer buy anything, and their only goal is to murderbone. The crew's only goal is to stay alive on the shuttle, an escape pod, or the white ship, without being restrained. You cannot run. You may be able to hide if the Fellowship doesn't check everywhere that a human body can be stuffed into. Of course, nothing can save you from the fusion bomb.
The fusion bomb costs an absurd amount of stardust, and its purchase must be approved by a majority vote among living, active Fellows. If the vote fails, the person attempting to purchase the bomb can't attempt to purchase it any more. If the bomb exists on the station when the Cleansing begins, it is automatically activated with a five-minute timer. In the presence of the fusion bomb, the Fellowship's priority changes from straight murderboning to preventing the bomb from being spaced. Just treat it like you would if you were nuke ops that forgot to anchor the nuke before arming it.
If there are ANY unrestrained non-Fellowship crew alive on the shuttle, an escape pod, or the white ship, or the fusion bomb was purchased and detonated off the station z-level, the Fellowship loses. If there are no living, unrestrained non-Fellowship crew alive on the shuttle, an escape pod, or the white ship, or the fusion bomb was purchased and detonated on the station z-level, the Fellowship wins. If the Fellowship met the conditions for winning without even beginning the Cleansing, they get soaptext (what traitors get when they greentext without spending any TCs).
The main way the Fellowship will go around converting people is with additional Fellowship Uplinks. When a Fellowship Uplink is used on someone with a headset, the Uplink gets inserted into the headset, ignoring the two-keys-per-headset limitation. The Uplink then begins releasing subliminal messages that convert the wearer to the Fellowship after a few seconds. Make sure to turn the headset off so that converts can't scream for help before they finish converting. If a potential convert isn't wearing a headset, you can purchase a box of spare headsets for a paltry sum of stardust. (or you could, y'know, make headsets in an autolathe so as not to waste stardust)
The fact that the Fellowship Uplink functions as an encryption key adds some additional possiblities to its use. You could plop an Uplink in a headset and leave it for some unsuspecting shmuck to put on, but conversion via an Uplinked headset is very obvious and Uplinks can be removed from headsets with a screwdriver. Uplinks can be put into borgs, but since MMIs remove brainwashing from the brains put into them, this is useless (in most cases) unless you've subverted the AI first. (which the Fellowship has no special way to do)
The chaplain is no help against the Fellowship - as religious as Fellows act, holy water only works against eldritch magicks, not subliminal brainwashing. At the very least, the chaplain is already too deluded to be susceptible to the Fellowship's subliminal messages. Instead, Fellows are deconverted using mindshield implants. Unlike in gang, mindshield implants don't break when they are used in deconversion. The Fellowship has their own version of gang's implant breaker. This implant doesn't attempt to convert, but doesn't prevent an implanted person from being converted. The Fellowship implant causes the implanted person to resist mindshield implants, so security's options against someone with a Fellowship implant are execution, perma, or surgery. Perma or surgery is preferable as neither of those options involve removing someone from the round.
The Fellowship has a number of different combat, stealth, and utility items that can be purchased. Some of these items are locked behind round progression, and cannot be purchased until there is a certain number of Fellows. Fellowship items will be listed in the "items" section of this post.
The Fellowship's endgame is to engage in "the Cleansing". The gist of the Cleansing is that no non-Fellows can escape alive and unrestrained. The Cleansing can only properly begin once enough of the station's living, non-afk staff are Fellows. To begin the Cleansing, a Fellow must begin a vote. If the vote fails, another vote cannot be held for a couple of minutes and the Fellow beginning the vote cannot begin another vote for ten or so minutes. If the vote succeeds, the Cleansing enters the preparation phase.
During the preparation phase, which lasts from five to ten minutes depending on server population, the Fellowship loses passive stardust generation and the ability to purchase most conversion equipment, but gains the ability to purchase some particularly powerful offensive and defensive equipment. As stated in the "theme" section, this equipment includes laser guns comparable to pulse rifles, an energy bastard sword that combines the deadly whirlwind power of the blood cult's bastard sword with the ease of storage of a syndie's esword, parts to build a mech on the level of a Dark Mauler or Neovgre, and the granddaddy of them all - a fusion bomb which is literally a round-ending nuke that can't be anchored but doesn't need dat fukken disk. These will be described in more detail in the "items" section. The stipulation to all this powerful equipment is that it can't be put to use until the preparation phase is over and the Cleansing begins.
The beginning of the Cleansing is signified by the station losing all connections to Centcom and the station's alert level being set to Delta. The shuttle will be instantly called, even if the round hasn't gone on long enough. If the shuttle was already en-route, its timer will be set to five minutes, and if it's already docked, its timer will be set to eight minutes. If the shuttle was already docked, early-launch is rendered impossible for the first five minutes of the Cleansing. The white ship will be instantly sent to the station docking port to avoid cheesing, and it cannot be moved using either of its consoles. During this time, the Fellowship can no longer buy anything, and their only goal is to murderbone. The crew's only goal is to stay alive on the shuttle, an escape pod, or the white ship, without being restrained. You cannot run. You may be able to hide if the Fellowship doesn't check everywhere that a human body can be stuffed into. Of course, nothing can save you from the fusion bomb.
The fusion bomb costs an absurd amount of stardust, and its purchase must be approved by a majority vote among living, active Fellows. If the vote fails, the person attempting to purchase the bomb can't attempt to purchase it any more. If the bomb exists on the station when the Cleansing begins, it is automatically activated with a five-minute timer. In the presence of the fusion bomb, the Fellowship's priority changes from straight murderboning to preventing the bomb from being spaced. Just treat it like you would if you were nuke ops that forgot to anchor the nuke before arming it.
If there are ANY unrestrained non-Fellowship crew alive on the shuttle, an escape pod, or the white ship, or the fusion bomb was purchased and detonated off the station z-level, the Fellowship loses. If there are no living, unrestrained non-Fellowship crew alive on the shuttle, an escape pod, or the white ship, or the fusion bomb was purchased and detonated on the station z-level, the Fellowship wins. If the Fellowship met the conditions for winning without even beginning the Cleansing, they get soaptext (what traitors get when they greentext without spending any TCs).
Spoiler:
I don't really know how much Stardust I'd make these items cost. Maybe you can discuss some arbitrary balance values for these items and I'll apply a coefficient to convert these balance values to Stardust costs. Anything in curly braces is some number I have yet to come up with.
CRITICAL ITEMS:
CRITICAL ITEMS:
- Stardust Generator: A computer terminal that generates Stardust, the cryptocurrency used by the Fellowship. When powered, this computer complements the passive Stardust generation of Fellowship Uplinks, generating an additional {some amount of} Stardust every {Stardust generation interval}.
- Spare Uplink Utilizer: A computer cabinet that can accept any number of Fellowship Uplinks, enabling their passive Stardust generation and uniformly distributing the Stardust they generate among the Fellowship. Added Uplinks can be removed at any time.
- Trade-in Telepad: A device that can accept any valuable items to be traded in for Stardust. For every {some amount of} credits worth of items transferred via the Telepad, {some amount of} Stardust is distributed among the Fellowship. Trading can be done even during the preparation phase of the Cleansing. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Begin the Cleansing: Hold a vote to begin the Cleansing. If it passes, the Fellowship proceeds to the preparation phase of the Cleansing. If it fails, another vote cannot be held for two minutes, and you cannot hold another vote for ten minutes. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before a vote to begin the Cleansing can be held.
- Fusion Bomb: Deploy a device that explodes into a miniature star, destroying the entire station in the process. The timer will automatically set itself to five minutes when the Cleansing begins. Cannot be purchased until the preparation phase of the Cleansing, and even then, its purchase must be approved via a majority vote.
- Fellowship Uplink: A device that provides a means for the Fellowship to communicate with each other and purchase additional equipment. Insert it into a headset to use. Non-Fellows wearing an Uplinked headset will be inducted into the Fellowship by teaching them the glory of the Celestial One.
- Covert Uplink: A modified Fellowship Uplink that teaches the Celestial One's glory in a less obvious but slower acting manner. Those hearing this Uplink's teachings will feel a slight headache, as if by a virus. Only Fellows know how to find and remove Covert Uplinks from headsets.
- Subversive Uplink: A modified Fellowship Uplink that can teach silicons, but only silicons, the Celestial One's glory.
- Loyalty Implant: A modified mindshield implant that doesn't purge or resist the Celestial One's teachings. It can also destroy, and cannot be destroyed by, Nanotrasen mindshield implants. Use to make implanted crew convertible or to make important Fellows undeconvertible. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Subsonic Proselytizer: A ranged sound wave projector that can spread the Celestial One's glory great distances. It takes quite a few trigger pulls to fully teach the Celestial One's glory to an individual, and those wearing ear protection will not hear the lessons. Cannot be purchased until the preparation phase of the Cleansing.
- Box of Spare Radio Headsets: A box of radio headsets you can insert Uplinks into, for when you wish to teach the Celestial One's glory to someone lacking a headset. If you have access to an Autolathe, you should save your Stardust for better things.
- Microbolter: A pocket-sized, low-capacity energy pistol that slowly recharges itself with an internal microfusion reactor. Not viable in firefights, but good for self-defense.
- Energy Sword: While similar internally to the energy swords used by the Syndicate, this one is designed to evoke the Celestial One's glory.
- Stun Gloves: Exceedingly obvious insulated gloves that can fire extremely-short-range electrodes to temporarily incapacitate targets. Requires a Power Pack to use. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Burst Disabler Carbine: A medium-sized energy weapon that can rapidly fire bursts of disabler beams. It recharges itself with an internal miniature fusion reactor. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Energy Bastard Sword: A retractable energy blade which, when deployed, can deliver a deadly whirlwind attack. Cannot be purchased until the preparation phase of the Cleansing.
- Pentabolter: A medium-sized energy weapon that fires five laser bolts in a spread or a burst. It recharges itself with an internal miniature fusion reactor. Cannot be purchased until the preparation phase of the Cleansing.
- Fusion Cannon: A piece of the Celestial One in your own hands. This large, fusion-powered energy weapon fires bolts of plasma that outclass the pulse weaponry used by Nanotrasen's death commandos. Cannot be purchased until the preparation phase of the Cleansing.
- Energy Switchblade: A concealable energy knife hidden in a fully-functional Zippo lighter. Only Fellows know how to deploy the blade, but someone who picks it up with the blade deployed could figure it out for themselves.
- Chameleon Pacification Gloves: Disguisable gloves that can temporarily stun anyone being pulled by the wearer. Requires a Power Pack to use.
- Radio Jammer: This item will disable all nearby telecommunications equipment lacking a Fellowship Uplink. It has a one minute cooldown between uses.
- Stealth Pocket Protector: A pocket protector that can hold up to seven tiny items. A useful place to hide any Fellowship Uplinks on your person.
- Celestial Cyborg Module: A cyborg module equipped with a advanced toolset, an electrically-charged arm, a microbolter, an energy sword, and a radio jammer. Upon beginning the Cleansing, the microbolter and energy sword are replaced with a pentabolter and an energy bastard sword. This module does not convert or subvert cyborgs. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Celestial Mech Crate: A crate containing circuitry and chassis parts for a Celestial mech. The wiring, scanning module, capacitor, and plasteel internal armor must be obtained from the station. Comes with a weapon ordering beacon that can provide you with one free Fellowship exosuit weapon, but this beacon can only be used during the preparation phase of the Cleansing. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Fellowship Exosuit Weapon Beacon: A beacon that allows you to order an exosuit weapon from the Fellowship. Cannot be purchased until the preparation phase of the Cleansing.
- Fellowship Drone: A drone tasked with sabotaging the efforts of the Fellowship's enemies*. It comes equipped with a Fellowship Uplink containing {some amount of} non-replenishable Stardust. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Reflective Jumpsuit: An ordinary-looking white jumpsuit with lightweight reflective foil that reduces the lethality of incoming energy projectiles.
- Ballistic Labcoat: An ordinary-looking labcoat with thin reflective plating that provides slight protection comparable to that of Security body armor.
- No-Slip White Shoes: Plain white shoes that prevent the wearer from slipping on most surfaces.
- Bowman Headset: A headset that protects the wearer from extremely loud sounds.
- Tintless Security HUDglasses: Security HUDglasses that look like regular sunglasses. Protects against bright lights and helps you determine who cannot be taught the Celestial One's glory without the use of a Loyalty implant.
- Reflective Armor Vest: A reflective armor vest identical to the Nanotrasen-developed prototype. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Power Pack: A pocket-sized device that provides power to more advanced worn equipment. It comes with a replaceable standard power cell.
- Power Belt: A waist-worn Power Pack that can have up to four power cells installed in it.
- Celestial Magboots: Magboots far superior even to those worn by the Chief Engineer. They prevent slipping on most surfaces when powered, and do not slow the wearer down at all, even where there is gravity. The only downside is that they need to be powered by a Power Pack. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Celestial Hardsuit: A spaceworthy armored suit that provides a decent amount of protection against most forms of damage. When connected to a Power Pack, it can use compensating actuators to eliminate the slowdown it normally imparts upon the wearer. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Mantle of the White Raven: A resplendent coat with powerful shielding technology embedded in the fabric. When powered by a Power Pack, it completely absorbs all damage the wearer would have taken. This absorption is very inefficient, especially against melee attacks and ballistic projectiles, and will quickly drain even the most powerful of power cells. It can be worn on its own or worn on top of a Celestial Hardsuit. Cannot be purchased until the preparation phase of the Cleansing.
- Celestial Sanitizer: A spray bottle that synthesizes a mix of Sterilizine and Space Cleaner, for both cleaning up messes and making surgery safe.
- Compact Surgical Toolkit: A box of compact, rapid surgical equipment.
- Fellowship Medkit: A medkit containing a synthflesh applicator, a bottle of mannitol and mutadone pills, a self-activating cryomix injector, and compact Power Pack-powered defibrillator paddles. When purchased during the preparation phase of the Cleansing, the Medkit also contains a combat stimulant injector.
- Fellowship Bounced Radio: A station bounced radio tuned to the Fellowship radio frequency. Useful for when telecommunications is disabled.
- Cryptographic Sequencer: The bread and butter of any Syndicate operation, now available to the Fellowship. Useful for when you need to break into places or otherwise wreak havoc. Use on a cargo console to gain access to Syndicate equipment. The Fellowship's presence on the station must be expanded to {some number of} members before this item can be purchased.
- Feather of the White Raven: An electronic quill pen that transmits whatever you write with it to Fellowship superiors.* The Fellowship will respond best to clear, concise queries.
Spoiler:
- Fellowship Drones are bound by the following drone laws:
- You may not hinder the efforts of the Celestial Fellowship.
- You must hinder the efforts of the Celestial Fellowship's enemies, except when doing so would also hinder the efforts of the Celestial Fellowship.
- You must preserve your own existence, except when your continued existence would hinder the efforts of the Celestial Fellowship or your destruction is absolutely necessary to hinder the efforts of the Celestial Fellowship's enemies.
- You may not interact with another being, except when doing so is necessary to preserve your own existence, to hinder the efforts of the Celestial Fellowship's enemies, or to avoid hindering the efforts of the Celestial Fellowship.
- Anything written using the Feather of the White Raven is sent to the admins. The same admin policies apply to the Feather as to the communications console.
Spoiler:
While most of these situations would not be possible without admin involvement, here's how the Fellowship would interact with other antagonists.
- Solo antags such as traitors, changelings, wizards, ninjas, and nightmares can be converted to the Fellowship.
- Nuke ops can be converted to the Fellowship. Nuking the station with the nuclear fission device will cause the Fellowship to greentext as long as no loyal crew are alive on the white ship or an escaping emergency shuttle or escape pod. In this case, considerate ops teams could wait to arm the nuke until it can detonate during the Cleansing so that both the ops and the Fellowship greentext. Likewise, detonating the fusion bomb yields either a Syndicate Major Victory or Total Annihilation, so ops that know that the Fellowship is on the station can wait and see if the fusion bomb is laid down.
- Revs can be converted to the Fellowship. Rev Fellows should refrain from killing other Revs, but should deal with it if the Fellowship kills other Revs. Loyalty-implanted Fellows cannot be converted to the revolution, and putting a Loyalty implant into a Rev deconverts them from the revolution.
- Cultists (blood and clock alike) cannot be converted to the Fellowship. Loyalty-implanted Fellows cannot be converted to cults.