EDIT: This is a choose-your-own-adventure style game. Anyone is free to join at any time. Follow the posting styles and you'll be included automatically!
The Company
On the train out of Casiawa, in one of the premium first class carriages, Special Assistant Manly paced nervously.
The acquisition meeting had been disaster - no, scratch that, the entire trip had been a disaster. 4 dead agents. $2 billion in company property destroyed.
And yet that aside, the board would've been pleased with him if the meeting had been fruitful. But how do you tell the board that Casiawa city governance wasn't going to sign?
Tellex Corp. would be moving into Casiawa exclusively. The projections showed from there in the next decade they would have near total control of the sub-sea protein folding industry with exclusive rights to the intellectual property.
He'd seen the reports - the scientists were going nuts over these new "Silico-Peptide condensates". "Robust biological stability! Neurotransmitter mapping! Well-understood methods. *Scaleable*". It was academic catnip. The more of those they could cram into a paper introduction the better. There was an unfortunate army of new research students who were going to be tasked with finding out which of those was slightly optimitistic in the near future.
The sound of a chicken clucking broke SA Manly from this thoughts. His phone. Right, the board...by now they would've read the reports. The one silver lining of the trip - hell, probably it's point - you couldn't get information out of an undersea city easily. A city of 500,000 people and a few pounds of C4 could increase the time for news to travel from milliseconds to days.
....
Welcome to the Company! This is a CYOA. Anyone may play at any time and you vote on the outcomes.
Votes need to be prefixed with # and bolded i.e.
Updates will be daily at around this time if I can help it.
The writing quality will vary based on my blood alcohol level.
# VOTE FOR VICTORY
Each round there will generally have some global options, and some individual options. Global options are first-past the post. Individual options apply just to you. You have just become members of The Board.
....
VOTING OPTIONS:
Global:A) What is the company?
1. Ubicon Dynamics
Business: Manufacturing Robotics
Ubicon is a well respected assembly line automation concern. The "Immigrant" series of rapid setup and tear down teachable builders has successfully encroached on 3D printing in some operations. A respectable R&D department has led to speculation that one of the larger firms will be looking to acquire it in a few years.
2. Sense Experiences
Business: Erotic stimulaids
Sense Experiences makes everyone uncomfortable, because they're too good at what they do. Micro-pattern biomimicking polymers may feel good, but when your profits and company age imply almost everyone has one, nobody wants to think about it. Rumor is that revenues are on the precipice of collapsing though - over-engineered products are lasting too long, and nobody's getting sufficiently bored. Still, their profitability means they should have no trouble breaking into new industries.
3. Case-Trent Software
Business: OS Software
What the name means exactly is the subject of some debate, but everyone agrees that nobody can be that good and that good in the software business. Although their CTOS operating system sells well, the numbers always add up yet never seem like they should. CTS has a notable public policy of hiring anyone who successfully hacks their products that has earned a lot of respect in the hacker and cracker communities.
How does the board react to Special Assistant Manly's work to date?
1. Offer condolences for an unfortunately catastrophic mission for SA Manly.
2. Reprimand SA Manly and suggest there will consequences for further failures.
3. Induct SA Manly into the corporate "incentives" program.
4. Detonate SA Manly's briefcase bomb.
C) The board needs suggestions on how to handle the Casiawa situation.
1. Accept their decision for now.
2. Do not accept their decision as final. The most popular suggestion will be implemented by a majority vote.
Posts
A # 1. Ubicon Dynamics ROBOTS!
B # 4. Detonate Failure is never acceptable
C # 1. Let it go... ... for now
Robutts.
# 4. Detonate the bomb
You have failed me for the last time, Special Assistant Manly.
# 2. Now, hold on a minute, Mr. Councillor...
...Perhaps I could interest you in a stay at my vacation home? Ferrari included, of course. Oh, and feel free to keep any... erm... loose change you might happen to find in the car...
B # 4. Detonate Kill.
C # 2. No one says no to ME Cajole, threaten, hint at nano-machines in our products that can eat flesh.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
B #3 I'm not sure exactly what it means, but I'm a sucker for quotation marks
C #1 Our man screwed up already, let's not worsen things by laying in the pressure too quickly.
B # 4 Good news Manly - we're going to transfer you to a hot new product testing program!
C # 1 Regroup, Rebrand, Retry later
B #4
C #1
Or I guess robots with new operating systems but somehow I don't think that will come up.
B #3 Cryptic "incentives"!
C #1 Better to have good relations; maybe a different contract will appeal to them after we've gotten some good publicity.
Gameplay
Anyone just joining us will be assigned some new agents who will be expediently recruited for them.
Agents carry out your individual will, and you can do whatever you want with them.
To keep things simple, if you change your mind delete your old instructions and make a new post with your updated vote details.
There may or may not be a script I end up using to manage this, so voting with the # and bold prefix is important.
Agent play is formatted like follows. Equipment is specified on a single line
by it's code name (first word in the description).
#Agent 1
#YY-6, XX-1
#Guard IT
#Agent 2
#YY-6, XX-1
#Reconaissance Davidson
The first line is the agent number, the second is the equipment they're taking, the third is what they're doing.
Agent activities can work together, but some are at cross-purposes. You need to negotiate your actions to avoid working at cross-purposes.
Various research options will improve the visibility of results.
The items you give agents for activities will effect what the result of the activity might actually be.
Ubicon Dynamics Corporate Profile
Campus
Interest Rate: 5%
Company Status
Public Relations: +5% (Good)
Staffing: 100%
Security Recruitment Rate: 1 per quarter.
Financials
Product Revenues:
Immigrant: 250,000,000
Subtotal: 250,000,000
PR Bonus: 12,500,000
Total: 262,500,000
Expenses:
Interest: -100,000,000
Net Profits: 162,500,000
Current Cash Reserves: −1,837,500,000
Research
Current Research Project: (none)
Research Team:
Dr. Tony Stane (1)
Dr. Monica Yre (1)
Mr I. Amnot Geth (1)
Dr. Odella Teomir (1)
Dr. James Openheim (1)
Total Research Rate: 5
Corporate Inventory (Miscellaneous):
YY-6 Handgun
XX-1 Ballistic Vests
OO-1 "Special Issue" Attache Case
Current Board Members
Member Name : Number of Agents
Mojo_Jojo 2
The Ender 2
Bogart 2
see317 2
Dis' 2
Daemonis 2
Captain Carrot 2
CHOICES
Global:
A) Choose a research project:
1. Migrant Teachable Robotics (5)
Develop the successor to the Immigrant, the Migrant. Enhanced learning techniques mean reduced costs will improve profits.
Immigrant becomes Migrant. +10% to Revenue.
2. Military Robotics (10)
A collaborative effort between science and marketing to break into the lucrative military robotics market.
ED-210 Security Attache product line. Initial revenue of 50,000,000.
ED-210 Added to Inventory.
3. LabAssist Helper Robotics (10)
Equipping the Immigrant series with a suite of analytical equipment, they could be used to improve the productivity of scientists the world over.
Scientist Productivity Improved by 1
LabAssist product line, initial revenue of 25,000,000.
4. Basic Science - Psychology (5)
5. Basic Science - Chemistry (5)
6. Basic Science - Physics (5)
7. Basic Science - Biology (5)
Basic research to break into new industries and expand the horizons of the company. Yields no immediate improvements in revenues, but can occasionally lead to new corporate miscellaneous inventory.
Corporate Acquisitions
1. Corporate Helicopter - 100,000,000
Just your regular luxury helicopter. Will increase the number of corporations
which can be reached by agents.
2. Construction plant - 100,000,000
Plant and tools for putting up new buildings with a minimal of thus. Enables
campus improvements.
3. Covert entrance - 250,000,000
Black market contractors can be found all over the world. These unique specialists are experts at installing non-correspondant egress and ingress points in buildings. The modern corporation benefits from allowing meetings with its employees to be harder to correllate.
Individual:
GUARD <campus department>
Normal security duties around the campus require alert guards to prevent sabotage. The presence of executive agents puts employees mind's at ease.
e.g. GUARD Manufacturing
RECON <corporation>
Meridian, Oberon and OpenSystems have campuses nearby. Discrete surveillance is a standard part of the modern corporations activities. Spy or be spied.
PR
Send an agent to act as volunteer security for passengers and repairmen around the Casiawa undersea rail link.
BRIBE
Send agents to bribe Casiawa councillors to reject Tellex Corporations help in negotiations.
THREATEN
Send agents to threaten Casiawa councillors. Given recent events, this might be very effective or could backfire badly.
SABOTAGE
The Tellex vehicle fleet is not well guarded. It might be possible to arrange for a disaster with their water vehicles. More agents will improve the odds of making it look like an accident.
I hate being in the red.
#A - 1 Migrant Teachable Robotics
#B - No toys! Must save $$$!
#Agent 1 Kevin 'Fingers' McAvoy
#OO-1 "Special Issue" Attache Case
#BRIBE COUNCILLORS
#Agent 2 Laura 'Gallows' Einstein
#YY-6, XX-1
#GUARD ENTRANCE
#B - 2 HELICOPTER
#Agent 1 Agent Studly
#YY-6. XX-1
#SABOTAGE
#Agent 2 Agent Smilin' Pete
#YY-6. XX-1
#RECON OBERON
Frankly, it's a crime we don't already have a robotic helicopter that solves crimes.
Now is time for belt tightening, not fancy new automatons or whirlybirds!
#A 2
#B 2
#Agent 1 Agent Asimov
#YY-6. XX-1
#RECON OPENSYSTEMS
#Agent 2 Agent Capek
#YY-6. XX-1
#PR
#B - 2 Construction Plant - We must turtle, and then spread out.
#Agent 1 Agent Fletcher
#YY-6. XX-1
#RECON MERIDIAN
#Agent 2 Agent Marple
#YY-6. XX-1
#GUARD RESEARCH LABS
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
And, really, who doesn't trust a market that's in the hands of a cackling funnel-shaped head wearing a labcoat and black gloves?
I AM THE ONE WHO DOES NOT TRUST SUCH A MARKET
#B 2 Can't do good research with the basic facilities, either.
#Agent 1: Lana Kane
#YY-6, XX-1
#RECON Oberon
#Agent 2: Sterling Archer
#YY-6, XX-1
#GUARD Archives
"God dammit, Mother, why does Lana get the cool job and I have to babysit the dweebs?"
"Because as far as I know, nobody has footage of Lana screwing one of the dweebs in the back shelves! Now shut up and try to catch anyone who breaks in."
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Sorry for the delayed update people. I was at my parents late. To make it up there's a lot of story incoming + delicious automation of your agents getting murdered succeeding!
Calling into the office to tell me that you've failed is not.
-.-
Mojo_Jojo A3 B2
The Ender A1 BNone
Dis' A2 B2
Bogart A2 B2
Captain Carrot A7 B2
Voting Totals
A:
1 : 1
2 : 2
3 : 1
7 : 1
B:
2 : 4
Board Decisions
A2 Research Military Robotics
B2 Corporate Acquisitions: Construction Plant
As Dr. Stane strode through the entrance way he breathed in deeply. The smell of fresh carpets, sensible potted plants, coffee, printers...home.
Like many companies of the 2040s, Ubicon had followed the live-at-work trend pioneered by the Silicon Valley boom crowd of the late 2000s. He was young enough to still remember when the high-tech industries allowed their scientists and researchers to live off campus. In some ways it was probably nice, he supposed, but the rise of the corporation had created new dangers since then.
As he passed through the spacious reception area he stopped at one of the guest coffee machines - they were every bit as good as the dormitories, but last night had been one of the few he spent off campus and no one had cured hangovers fully yet. Intravenous IVs helped - a bio-specialized roboticist like himself opened up all manner of interesting opportunities. But nothing beat the caffeine hit of a good cup of espresso.
Looking around he noticed that in addition to normal security, one of the executive board's agents was standing guard in the foyer. Ecklestein or someone? Did the board expect trouble today? Agents seemed to come and go all the time. Who knew what they were doing. Ubicon had a good reputation publically - small companies always did. Large companies usually got involved in too many firefights to keep it. Of course the explosion on the Casiawa train line had probably spooked everybody - that would explain it. Poor Manly he supposed - well, he guessed. He never saw the man much, but guessed he probably wouldn't have liked him. Too eager to please. Liked talking up the science too much.
As he checked his emails on his way back to the dormitories a frown creased his forehead. His requests were falling on deaf ears still: Ubicon was moving ahead with the military robotics contract. He guessed the marketing people were going to be jumpy for a few weeks - whether it was all the cocaine or something else he never knew. The Board never commented on it, at least not publicly, but god the military? That was a crowded market. The Immigrant bots were great, but come on - killing people just isn't that hard to teach a robot.
---
A hail of bullets shattered the glass into the foyer entrance of the Ubicon campus. Agent Laura Einstein dived for cover behind the wood-panelled walls as YY-6 9mm rounds embedded themselves in the furniture and filing cabinets. The receptionists had gotten down as soon as the rounds started coming in. Waiting for a lull she moved out of cover and returned fire, sighting two youths at the entrance, prominent A logos on their shirts. Anarchists.
The Anarchists emptied their magazines into the foyer and a bullet thudded into Agent Einstein's shoulder. She fired back and watched an unarmored form crumple, gutshot, but keep firing. The exchange of rounds continued for over 10 minutes, but Laura's shots failed to connect where the Anarchists did. Bit by bit her vest's integrity failed, and she slowly bled out, still firing out the door of the building.
Combat started! 2 hostiles. Range 20m. Ambush!
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 4 times.
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 11 times.
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 7 times.
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 11 times.
Anarchist 1 HITS The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
The Ender Agent 2 Einstein misses Anarchist 2 with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
The Ender Agent 2 Einstein misses Anarchist 2 with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
The Ender Agent 2 Einstein misses Anarchist 2 with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
The Ender Agent 2 Einstein HITS Anarchist 2 with YY-6 Handgun for 26 damage.
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Anarchist 1 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 3 times.
Anarchist 1 HITS The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 3 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 5 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 4 times.
Anarchist 2 HITS The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun for 18 damage. 7 damage resisted.
Anarchist 1 HITS The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Anarchist 2 HITS The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 6 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 5 times.
Anarchist 2 misses The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun 5 times.
Anarchist 2 HITS The Ender Agent 2 Einstein with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
The Ender Agent 2 Einstein was KILLED.
Combat Statistics: 7 hits and 80 misses at distance 20 m
Anarchist attack on the entrance repelled!
---
Somewhere near Aix-En-Provence, two trenchcoat clad figures got off a train. Corporate campuses might dot the landscape, but the French government had maintained steadfast control of the trains. Services were reduced, but European public transport was still respected even in this day and age. Of course it was also sounding more American then ever - the trans-atlantic sea-bed link saw a steady stream of American tourists and business people in Europe. It was a hot-button issue for the French.
As they took a slow-drive past the Oberon campus, the agents were impressed by the scale of the place. Kind of like an inverted Ubicon. The booked hotel was a few klicks away, but had a clear line of sight.
However after several weeks of intensive questioning, wi-fi scanning and telescope surveillance, the agents had yet to determine anything about the internal structure of the place or who worked there. No one was saying a thing.
Recon mission to Oberon.
Mojo_Jojo Agent 2 and Captain Carrot Agent 1 are not detected.
Recon mission 1 failed.
---
Agent Asimov had similar misfortune at the OpenSystems campus. Despite excellent conditions, he was unable to garner any information about the campus. Another recon mission would be needed.
Recon mission to OpenSystems.
Dis' Agent 1 is not detected.
Recon mission 1 failed.
---
Bogart Agent 1 DETECTED while on reconaissance at Meridian.
Meridian launches SECURITY RESPONSE.
Combat started! 10 hostiles. Range 20m.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 9 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 1 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Meridian Security Guard 4 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 4 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 18 damage. 7 damage resisted.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 6 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Meridian Security Guard 8 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 8 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 8 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 8 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 2 times.
Meridian Security Guard 8 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 18 damage. 7 damage resisted.
Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher was KILLED.
Meridian Security Guard 0 misses Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun 1 times.
Meridian Security Guard 0 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher was KILLED.
Meridian Security Guard 9 HITS Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher with YY-6 Handgun for 19 damage. 8 damage resisted.
Bogart Agent 1 Fletcher was KILLED.
Combat Statistics: 8 hits and 69 misses at distance 20 m
Recon Mission 1 Failed.
Corporate Espionage Alarm Raised.
---
Sabotage Mission at Tellex.
Mojo_Jojo Agent 1 DETECTED.
Mojo_Jojo YY-6 Handgun discovered on mission.
Security response avoided.
No sabotage tools or weapons left.
Sabotage failed.
---
"Do you have the money?" asked the Councillor. Fingers nodded. The laptop with the transfer codes in the attache case weighed heavily. He tried not to think about the explosives that were also in it.
Suddenly the Councillor lunged at him. Before he could react he felt the elongated muzzle of a YY-6 press into his rib-cage. The clicks around him told him he was surrounded by at least 6 men. The case was wrenched out of his hands.
"Now you just run along kindly and tell Ubicon thanks for the donation."
Fingers blacked out as a wrench cracked his skull.
The Ender Agent 1 Bribe Mission.
Bribe Rejected.
---
Dis' Agent 2 PR Mission.
Mission successful.
Public Relations raised by 5%.
---
Corporate Profile - Quarter 2
Ubicon Campus:
Public Relations: +10%
Staffing: 100%
Security Recruitment Rate: 1 per quarter
Financials
Product Revenues:
Immigrant: 250,000,000
Subtotal: 250,000,000
PR Bonus: 12,500,000
Total: 275,000,000
Expenses:
Interest: -91,875,000
Construction Plant: -100,000,000
Net Profits: 83,125,000
End-of-Quarter Cash Reserves: -1,754,375,000
Research
Current Research Project: Military Robotics (5/10)
Research Team:
Dr. Tony Stane (1)
Dr. Monica Yre (1)
Mr I. Amnot Geth (1)
Dr. Odella Teomir (1)
Dr. James Openheim (1)
Total Research Rate: 5 per quarter
Corporate Inventory (Miscellaneous):
YY-6 Handgun
XX-1 Ballistic Vests
OO-1 "Special Issue" Attache Case
Current Board Members
Member Name : Number of Agents
Mojo_Jojo 3
The Ender 2
Bogart 2
see317 3
Dis' 3
Daemonis 3
Captain Carrot 3
Nearby Organizations
Casiawa
Tellex
Meridian
OpenSystems
Oberon
Choices
Global:
A) Construction Plant
1. Hardened Ingress Points : 150,000,000 (1 Quarters)
The world is a dangerous place, and standard construction techniques are no longer suitable for it. Hardening ingress and egress points of a corporate campus adds effective protection against most types of small arms fire.
100% ballistic resistance to Agents on Guard.
2. Larger Manufacturing Base : 100,000,000 (1 Quarters)
Expanding the manufacturing campus will allow increased product output in our largest existing markets.
+10% Revenue to Most Profitable Production Line.
3. Security Recruiting Office : 300,000,000 (2 Quarters)
A dedicated on-sight security recruiting office will increase the number of Agents recruited per quarter by 1 per board member.
4. Defensive Internal Guns : 600,000,000 (1 Quarters)
Adding DIG systems surrogates for on-sight guards. Each DIG comes equipped with an independently tracking SAW-5 Light Machine Guns. Very few of these systems have ever been used in the commission of mass-shootings by security forces.
Adds 1 DIG Turret to every department area that will engage any hostiles present.
5. Security Dormitories : 200,000 (2 Quarters)
Security team dorms bring permanent security guards onto the staff role.
Add 2 Security Guards to every department permanently.
Can be expanded.
An message was left by an individual claiming to be
Individual:
GUARD <campus department>
Normal security duties around the campus require alert guards to prevent sabotage. The presence of executive agents puts employees mind's at ease.
e.g. GUARD Manufacturing
RECON <corporation>
Meridian, Oberon and OpenSystems have campuses nearby. Discrete surveillance is a standard part of the modern corporations activities. Spy or be spied.
PR
Send an agent to act as volunteer security for passengers and repairmen around the Casiawa undersea rail link.
BRIBE <organization>
Casiawa: Bribe for councillors to reject Tellex in negotiations.
THREATEN <organization>
Send agents to threaten a corporations employees and executives. Grants a small chance of recruiting new staff on the spot.
ASSASSINATE <organization>
Send agents to remove elements of a corporations work force. Will greatly alarm corporations and the public, but reduces the size of security responses and raises the chance of other operations succeeding through demoralization.
HEIST <organization> <amount>
Send agents to steal funds from an organization. Difficulty scales with volume as a function of totals. Corporations in debt will be robbed off their quarterly profits.
SABOTAGE <organizaton>
The Tellex vehicle fleet is not well guarded. It might be possible to arrange for a disaster with their water vehicles. More agents will improve the odds of making it look like an accident.
Other corporations: Reduce intrusion detection measures.
YOU WILL REGRET THIS
Also our deepest condolences go out to the family of Agent Einstein. Or something.
#A - 4
#Agent 1 Kevin 'Fingers' McAvoy
#YY-6, XX-1
#GUARD ENTRANCE
#Agent 2 Barbara 'Teeth' Makarov
#YY-6, XX-1
#PR
#A -2 : Mo' money, less problems
#Agent 1 Agent Studly
#YY-6. XX-1
#SABOTAGE TELLEX
#Agent 2 Agent Smilin' Pete
#YY-6. XX-1
#SABOTAGE TELLEX
#Agent 3 Agent Torvill
#YY-6. XX-1
#GUARD RECEPTION
#Agent 1 Agent Asimov
#YY-6, XX-1
#RECON OpenSystems
#Agent 2 Agent Capek
#YY-6, XX-1
#PR
#Agent 3 Agent Wiener
#YY-6, XX-1
#HEIST OpenSystems
Yes that's plan. Depending how you guys evolve combat I may dispense with the hit summaries if your agents start to get too tough.
Also, a few notes on voting:
The way votes are processed now, you do not need to edit your old posts. You can simply post an amended block, like an Agent block or similar, and the vote counter will update your vote. I re-run the vote counter before writing an update, so edits will still be properly caught as well.
What it won't do is detect quote tags, to be wary about quoting other people's votes since it will just fuzz your votes up (can be fixed by writing out a complete vote which will reset everything).
One final note: Names for your Agents will be detected and saved, but the number will be what determines who they are (eventually, this will be reflected i update posts). But, for combat logs the type is detected automatically - adding Agent parses as First Name: Agent, Last Name: Whoever. Of course if this is what you want, it is allowed. They are the will of the board.
#Agent 1 Agent Whimsy
#YY-6, XX-1
#SABOTAGE TELLEX
#Agent 2 Agent Marple
#YY-6, XX-1
#PR
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
#Agent 1 Agent Sterling Archer
#YY-6, XX-1
#RECON OpenSystems
#Agent 2 Agent Lana Kane
#YY-6, XX-1
#RECON OpenSystems
#Agent 3 Agent Ray Gillet
#YY-6, XX-1
#RECON OpenSystems
"Mother, don't you think this is a little overkill? I can handle this myself."
"Given what happened on the last recon mission, four people probably isn't enough. So do try not to get killed. Training replacements is such a pain in the ass."
#Agent 1 Agent Winter
#YY-6, XX-1
#GUARD ENTRANCE
#Agent 2 Agent Autumn
#YY-6, XX-1
#PR
Mojo_Jojo A2
Captain Carrot A5
The Ender A4
Bogart A2
Dis' A2
wilting A2
Voting Totals
A:
2 : 4
4 : 1
5 : 1
Board Decisions
A2
Authorized Operations
Bogart :
Agent 1 Sabotage Tellex
Agent 2 Pr
Captain Carrot :
Agent 1 Recon Opensystems
Agent 3 Recon Opensystems
Agent 2 Recon Opensystems
Dis' :
Agent 1 Recon Opensystems
Agent 3 Heist Opensystems
Agent 2 Pr
Mojo_Jojo :
Agent 1 Sabotage Tellex
Agent 3 Guard Reception
Agent 2 Sabotage Tellex
The Ender :
Agent 1 Guard Entrance
Agent 2 Pr
wilting (NEW EXECUTIVE) :
Agent 1 Guard Entrance
Agent 2 Pr
2 Agents recruited for new board member wilting
The last quarter was a busy one for Ubicon dynamics. The research department and been coordinating with marketing to demonstrate the first in Ubicon's new military robotics line - the ED-210. The development had been fraught with problems, with demo models unnervingly demanding every person entering a room surrender...and then shooting them with, fortunately, just the mock-lasers. One particularly bespectacled intern had suffered mild retinal scarring regardless.
Teachable Robotics was optimized to try and copy the big details of an action. A military robot thought shooting people was the big detail, so it tended to want to shoot people. Nonetheless, their had been wideranging interest in the product - skin-capacitiance data transfer and high-gain antennas allowed the prototypes to identify friendly and non-friendly, and fire on the latter with impunity. They just couldn't be used anywhere near civilian populations.
Initial low-run productions were pushed to manufacturing, and the science teams were happy...and somewhat relieved, to see tread-wheeled ED-210s shipping off globally for combat evaluations.
With the completion of the ED-210 project, there was some dissent within the science ranks as to where to take the project next. It had highlighted a lot of deficiencies in Ubicon's science breadth which needed to be filled in for future developments. Some were adamant that teachable robotics was the wrong approach for military robotics - why not remote control? Others dissented - why not put a man in the robot? Why stop there? Why not put the robot in the man.
With no one wanting to take responsibility for the previous quarters failures, and by unanimous decree the board elected to blame the Agents who had died mostly. As the reports had trickled in some of the science team had made the usual oblique comments for more funding. "It's a discipline problem", "Free will", "You know this could be solved with a suitable AI..". Oppenheim suggested nuclear explosives. Everyone just ignored him - the man took his name too seriously.
With their ranks improved by the last quarter recruiting, a swarm of agents were dispatched to the OpenSystems campus. With less work per agent, their probability of a successful reconaissance mission was expected to be higher - less chance of detection, more guns if things went bad.
As it happened, the mission was uneventful. With four agents on the case, OpenSystems was rigourously studied and a full view of its size and research potential was uncovered. As it happened, it appeared to be little more then a think-tank. Open plan offices, only a single dedicated researcher and no specific facilities. Perhaps a left-over from the days of political advocacy when it had to subtle? However thinks worked out, there was a single disappointed agent who, after carefully applying the recon teams work, broke into a glorified library instead of a vault full of riches.
Opensystems: 5 agents present.
Recon : 4 agents.
Reconaissance mission at OpenSystems with 4 agents.
Reconaissance Successful!
OpenSystems Reconnaissance Report
Quarter to Date Cash Reserves: -3175587934
OpenSystems Research Team:
Dr Kaisa Salvay (2)
OpenSystems Corporate Inventory
YY-6 Handgun (Weapon)
XX-1 Ballistic Vests (Armor)
OO-1 "Special Issue" Attache Case (Sabotage-device)
OpenSystems Campus Buildings
Entrance
Archives
Administrative Offices
Agents undetected while on reconaissance mission
Heist : 1 agents.
Attempting heist at OpenSystems with 1 agents.
Success: But there was nothing to steal!
Meanwhile at Ubicon Dynamics main campus all remained quiet during the month. Agents on guard wiled away the days listening for news of outside operations, wishing they could go on the high-stakes missions the board was authorizing. Amongst this group, rumor of what exactly had happened to Assistant Manly spread and mutated. By the end of the month the working theory was that the briefcase was too obvious, obviously he was the bomb. Whether or not management did it became quite secondary.
A note was scribbled on the master science whiteboard that something like that would be "totally awesome".
Ubicon Dynamics: 3 agents present.
Guard : 3 agents.
The big news came towards the end of the quarter. Between a vault that turned out to be a library, and the almost depressing lack of gunfights in reception (depending on which side of the company you asked). The Casiawa situation was painfully unyielding - the Council was adamant they had no further need for another company to help develop their seafloor manufacturing technologies. What was really needed was something to make Tellex look bad. Marketing staffers had been doing their best, but Tellex's position and PR machine seemed unstoppable...
Tellex Corporation
Tellex: 3 agents present.
Sabotage : 3 agents.
Attempting sabotage at Tellex with 3 agents.
Tellex successfully sabotaged!
Tellex alertness increased!
Tellex has been publicly embarrassed.
Public: 4 agents present.
Pr : 4 agents.
Ubicon Dynamics PR event successful.
PR increased to 34%
RESEARCH FINISHED: Military Robotics
ED-210 Security Attache Droid added to inventory.
UPGRADE COMPLETE: Larger Manufacturing Base
Immigrant revenue increases 10%
Ubicon Dynamics Corporate Profile
Company Results for Quarter 3
Company Status
Public Relations: 34%
Staffing: 100%
Financials
Revenues
Immigrant: 275,000,000
ED-210 Security Attache: 50,000,000
Subtotal: 325,000,000
Bonuses:
Public Relations Bonus: 34%
Expenses
Interest: -79,604,687.5
Subtotal: -79,604,687.5
Net Profits: 195,395,312.5
End of Quarter Cash Reserves:
−1,244,698,437.5
Research
Current Projects:
Research Team:
Dr Tony Stane (1)
Mr I. Amnot Geth (1)
Dr Monica Yre (1)
Dr Odella Teomir (1)
Dr James Oppenheim (1)
Corporate Inventory
YY-6 Handgun (Weapon)
XX-1 Ballistic Vests (Armor)
OO-1 "Special Issue" Attache Case (Sabotage-device)
ED-210 Security Attache (Weapon)
Nearby Organizations
Casiawa Council
Tellex
Meridian
OpenSystems
Oberon
Current Board Members
Mojo_Jojo : 4 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2 4
see317 : 3 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2
Captain Carrot : 4 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2 4
The Ender : 3 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2
Daemonis : 4 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2 4
Bogart : 3 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2
Dis' : 4 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2 4
wilting : 3 Agents : Agent Serial Numbers: 1 3 2
Current New Board Member Signing Bonus: 2 agents
Choices
A) Corporate Acquisitions
1. Nothing
2. Hardened Ingress Points : 150,000,000 (1 Quarters)
3. Security Recruiting Office : 300,000,000 (2 Quarters)
4. Defensive Internal Guns : 600,000,000 (1 Quarters)
5. Security Dormitories : 200,000,000 (2 Quarters)
6. Corporate Helicopter : 100,000,000 (1 Quarter)
7. Covert Entrance : 250,000,000 (1 Quarter)
Capitalizing on the Tellex disaster
1. Do nothing. Casiawa isn't worth that much to us anymore.
2. Send a gentle overture to Casiawa about sharing the development burdens.
3. Send a proposal to take-over sole development of Casiawa's undersea protein folding.
4. Leak information that the disaster was caused by corporate sabotage, and that Tellex cannot secure its holdings.
C) New Research Project
1. Migrant Teachable Robotics (5)
Develop the successor to the Immigrant, the Migrant. Enhanced learning techniques mean reduced costs will improve profits.
Immigrant becomes Migrant. +10% to Revenue.
2. LabAssist Helper Robotics (10)
Equipping the Immigrant series with a suite of analytical equipment, they could be used to improve the productivity of scientists the world over.
Scientist Productivity Improved by 1
LabAssist product line, initial revenue of 25,000,000.
3. Basic Science - Psychology (5)
4. Basic Science - Chemistry (5)
5. Basic Science - Physics (5)
6. Basic Science - Biology (5)
7. Haptic Control Systems (10)
Study the creation of direct, low-latency control systems for applied military robotics applications.
8. Weapons Manufacturing (10)
Take a crash course in weapons manufacturing to improve the quality and integration of military robotics.
Individual:
You can perform individual actions against any contacted corporation.
GUARD <campus department>
Normal security duties around the campus require alert guards to prevent sabotage, reconaissnace and ward off attacks. The presence of executive agents puts employees minds at ease.
e.g. GUARD Manufacturing
RECON <corporation>
Any contacted organization can be reconoitored to acquire additional information about it. Reconaissance can help plan further missions, or improve the odds of success in other endeavors.
PR
Send agents to act as volunteer security for passengers and repairmen around the Casiawa undersea rail link.
THREATEN <organization>
Send agents to threaten a corporations employees and executives. Grants a small chance of recruiting new staff on the spot.
ASSASSINATE <organization>
Send agents to remove elements of a corporations work force. Will greatly alarm corporations and the public, but reduces the size of security responses and raises the chance of other operations succeeding through demoralization.
HEIST <organization> <amount>
Send agents to steal funds from an organization. Difficulty scales with volume as a function of totals. Corporations in debt will be robbed of their quarterly profits.
SABOTAGE <organizaton>
Further disasters to the Tellex vehicle fleet may help push Casiawa your way.
Burning down OpenSystems archives will probably put them out of business entirely.
DISCOVER
Exploring the reachable areas of the world will allow contacting new organizations.
KIDNAP <organization>
Attempt to kidnap a scientist from another corporation, and put them to work in your own labs. The scientific community has become surprisingly accustomed to this manner of recruitment.
Sorry for another slow update. I am trading off time manually writing updates for time-automating the numbers and fighting.
Game note: the Board is mysterious. Your reactions will to events will color what options become available to you. Also "Agent" is redundant when naming your people.
#B2 We've already irritated Casiawa enough -- a soft touch is called for, I think.
#C7 We've just made robots -- let's improve them while we have the edge.
#Agent 1 Sterling Archer
#YY-6, XX-1
#KIDNAP OpenSystems
#Agent 2 Lana Kane
#XX-1, ED-210
#KIDNAP OpenSystems
#Agent 3 Ray Gillette
#XX-1, OO-1
#SABOTAGE Tellex
#Agent 4 Pam Poovey
#XX-1, ED-210
#SABOTAGE Tellex
Continue pushing Casiawa towards us, and take everything from OpenSystems before they go down. Actually, could we negotiate a buyout of their facilities and such?