Addendum for Faction Entry

[Bob Schroeck]

Musician's Aid Society
Rumor has it that the Filkers are building or have completed building a space port-sized habitat for use as a kind of "Bardic College". Further rumors hold that this habitat is or will be named "Argo," solely so that the Federation can be banned from it.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

[Kokuten]

huh?
-WG, doesn't get it.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Bob Schroeck]

Explanation.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

[Kokuten]

AwesomeWire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[robkelk]

I suppose I'd best spend some time updating a few files...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[ECSNorway]

Heh.
BFA is infamous. One of the most requested, and most hated, songs at filksings.
Banned from Argo tells a tale of Starfleet folks at play
They wreck the whole damn planet and no one wants them to stay.
It takes a couple hours to sing -- each Ensign gets a verse --
As bawdy as you think that gets, I swear to you, its worse.
Singing Banned from Argo is a chore.
Please ban Argo, I dont want to anymore.
Theres several thousand variants; a few I cant believe.
Sing something else or else were gonna leave.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

The Cyber Confederation.
The Cyber Confederation is not just a faction, but in many ways an Inter-Factional organisation. Much like the Senshi, there is a central core of groups that form the Cyber faction. However if you fulfil one of the following conditions you can be considered a Cyber:
* Possess a non-critical artificial enhancement that provides a meaningful benefit over the non-enhanced functionality.
* Consist of between 40 to 95% artificial construction while still having a biological Ghost value.
* Spend 70% of your time dealing with cybernetics (construction or application)
The above is meant to rule out those with medical implants (those which replace damaged organs), AI's with bodies (who they sponsor to the Metropolis Project), transferred consciousness beings (likewise), and general surgeons.
In essence, most Cybers are members of other factions or groups who have or work near exclusively with cybernetic enhancement. As such, it is fairly rare to find a Cyber who is not heavily into the politics of another faction. One notable function of this is that Cybers are frequently found in information services occupations (couriers, intelligence analysts, librarians, etc...), meaning that a dedicated Cyber can gather a great deal of information on a given subject. The network works the other way, allowing messages to pass more quickly than expected between points. Cybers are also found regularly in the medical profession.
The Cybers are a notable contributor to the Metropolis Project, and unofficially work to the betterment of artificially based sentients.
As they are quick to point out, the Cybers are a TOTALLY different faction than the "Cyb0rz." The Cybers work with hardware as much as software, while the "Cyb0rz." are, to quote one Cyber:
"...Mostly a bunch of Script Kiddies playing around with 'waved computers thinking they're Bad Asses, but just making trouble for everyone. I pity the poor 'L33ts' who try to ride herd on them. They at least know what they're doing."
Despite this animosity, the Cybers get along with all recognised factions.
The two notable organisations within the Cybers are:
The Force Works Committee.
The Committee works much like the W3C committee back on Earth. The 20-ish strong panel represents the twenty or so groups that make up the Cybers faction (this includes civilian, non-governing representatives of all the major factions), and set the standards for the cybernetic community to adhere to with respect to construction and application of cybernetic technology.
They meet three times a year (one of which is about a month before a scheduled Con), with an appointed representative from the various groups in attendance.
The most notable thing about the Committee is that they have a representative from the Borg Collective as a Special Liaison. The Liaison's main job is to give the Committee the latest super-user access codes to the Collective's network. This, along with the similar access granted to the Federation Council, is meant to safeguard against the Collective going rogue, or the other groups coming to a deal and using the power of the Collective to a non-beneficial purpose.
The Sabre Corps
The Sabre Corps consist of two main groups; the Spartan Armoured Forces and the Panzer Kunst Gruppe. The Spartans are cybernetically enhanced and use powered armour of various types. The Spartans are best known for their Search and Rescue actions, mainly because they place themselves on all open stations, Space Vessels and large Space Ships they can get on. They are reluctant to field Space Marines due to the use of similar forces by Bosconians, but those they do field, the Grey Knights, are always accompanied by two general Spartans and a Senshi commander. Grey Knights are almost universally respected for their near-fanatical dedication to the protection of Humanity. (The evacuation of Crystal Osaka only succeeded due to the sacrifice of three Grey Knights, who tied themselves into the control systems of the orbital habitat to keep things stable enough for the evacuation to complete.)
The Panzer Gruppe is generally associated with the Supers, as they are those Cybers capable of full combat operations without powered suits. As a result, the Kunstler of the Panzer Kunst Gruppe are well known as near-BNF warriors of other factions. Officially, there is no Kunstler of above Krieger rank. However, the Sabre Corps maintains several watch orders on individuals that may go beyond Krieger rank, notably including the two most drastically biomodded humans known, Wave Convoy and A.C. Peters, even though Wave Convoy isn't a Cyber.
Sidebar: The Big Nine List
The Big Nine List is a quietly put together unofficial list of the nine most powerful, most influential, or most gifted beings in Fenspace with respect to the Cybers faction. But none of those on the list would claim membership as none of them know about being on it.
In fact, the Big Nine list is nothing but a product of a broken expert system, which its creator keeps meaning to get around to fixing. The small group of friends who get the list tend to ignore it and delete the message. Some of the names on the list make sense (Winry Rockbell is a noted Cybernetic engineer and surgeon, for example), some don't (Noah Scott has been on the list for the past two years for no explained reason), and some are just plain weird (The Dobbses are on the list, despite being fully organic). Also notable are the absences from the list (A.C. Peters has never been on the list, neither has The Professor).
However, the existence of the list has escaped the group and now exists as a rumour in Fenspace. As such most factions (including the Cybers) keep their ears open for the identities of the Big Nine, and there is healthy speculation on that subject even though the leadership of the Cybers faction denies the existence of the list.

[KJ]

Hrm, a couple comments.
"Aww... I go to the trouble of putting together an armor-alloy Berserker body and training in martial arts, and I'm ineligible to be a Kunstler because I'm solid-state instead of greymatter? Fooey."
... hrm, yeah, I need to write up Dee post-body sooner or later.
Second off, Winry; modded 'fen cosplaying on a grander scale?

[Kokuten]

Open Character
Winry Rockbell, Nee Josephine Taylor, was born and raised in Missouri, and grew up as the sole, tomboy daughter of a farmer, as her mother died in childbirth. When her father passed away (died from a stroke, 'doc claims he basically just saw a flash of light.. and was gone), Josephine sold the farm and hitched a ride 'Up'.
The Winry Rockbell thing came about after her first real exposure to fandom, an unofficial home-brew 'Becons We Con' on The Island, and at 3am, surrounded by fisherbots, she had an epihany.
like most Fen, her blood-caffeine, blood-sugar, and blood-pocky levels at the time of this epiphany were most likely nearly cosmic.
Since then, she's taken on the 'persona' of Winry, from Fullmetal Alchemist, and it wasn't that big of a stretch. Her upbringing has given her a fairly in-depth real-world knowledgebase of hardtech in heavy and light machinery, and her interests were already taking her towards biomechanical engineering. After her 'change', as she calls it, she began an accelerated course of study, what was laughingly referred to as a "Journeyman Ronin" phase in a bar.
Not surprisingly, it worked. She's a master level cybernetic repair and interface specialist, and a dab hand at cybernetic prosthesis design. She's maintained her larger-scale engineering skills as well, and is a "fair to middlin" mechanic at most any scale.
Winry is that rarest of rare breeds in Fenspace, a well-balanced individual. She's almost always happy, and has no major 'triggers', or even major traumas to _be_ triggered. Just.. don't be stupid with your cybernetics, or you'll hear about it!
Winry's past is a wide-open book to those who have become close to her, and she has nothing, really, to hide. She tends to wear her heart on her sleeve, even if she isn't as exuberant and outwardly emotive as some of the wilder Fen. She is quite pleased with the idea of marrying in the 'conventional, boring, American' sense of the term, and has her eye out for the "Right Man", but is in no hurry to find him, and wants a long relationship and engagement. Winry wants childern, but only after at least a year of marriage (no sense rushing in, she says)
She has no cybernetic upgrades, and has not been biomodded. Her faction affiliations are ++Cybers, +The Island (Residence), +Space Rocks, Inc, +Hephaestus, ++Senshi, ++BBI, ++Grover's Corners, -Professor, -Morden, ----Boskone. She is not a Blue Blazer Irregular, or a Knight Rider. She is a reserve Sammie.
Winry has purchased a second-hand "Space Vespa", and accompanying suit. The vehicle in question is neither very fast nor very powerful, but is capable of towing a surprisingly large mass. Reactionless unique handwavium drive system, single spinal-mounted coilgun, no defensive fields. Her suit is an early-model "Fen Special", and is also fairly unremarkable, save for its impressive number of pockets. All of her equipment is well maintained, clean, and operational. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Cobalt Greywalker]

---

"Aww... I go to the trouble of putting together an armor-alloy Berserker body and training in martial arts, and I'm ineligible to be a Kunstler because I'm solid-state instead of greymatter? Fooey."
... hrm, yeah, I need to write up Dee post-body sooner or later.

---

"Sorry Dear, I didn't make the rules. These days I only qualify because I have been a Cyber since before The Accident. I've been slightly low on the cyber engineering for a while now. Of course, because of it I might be able to put together a wetware cyberbrain system..."
Seriously, if anyone thinks the qualifications need tweeking speak up.

[robkelk]

---

Further rumors hold that this habitat is or will be named "Argo," solely so that the Federation can be banned from it.

---

On the off-chance that people haven't read the most recent draft of the big book of factions yet, I took the liberty of adding a counter-rumour about this: "... other rumours hold that it will be called Space Station Three for the free fruit."

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Foxboy]

---

... for the free fruit...

---

Let's not forget the Latin music, as well.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[KJ]

---

"Sorry Dear, I didn't make the rules. These days I only qualify because I have been a Cyber since before The Accident. I've been slightly low on the cyber engineering for a while now. Of course, because of it I might be able to put together a wetware cyberbrain system..."

---

"Yeah, sorry, fairly minor gripe all things considered. I mean, given how we of the chip-head variety work, it'd sorta throw rankings all out of whack. Oh well, may just have to run a KoF tournament or something one of these days..."

[Cobalt Greywalker]

---

"Yeah, sorry, fairly minor gripe all things considered. I mean, given how we of the chip-head variety work, it'd sorta throw rankings all out of whack. Oh well, may just have to run a KoF tournament or something one of these days..."

---

"Surely you mean the Zenith Of Things tournament? Might be fun after we've got rid of the Boskonians."

[KJ]

"Enh, ZOT's all well and good, but the far more liberal ruleset is kinda worrysome; I mean, do you have any idea what some of the mushtech firearms can *do*? Even for cybers and droids, it'd get excessively fatal pretty quick, and that's not even counting collateral damage. I figure something KoF-style, where the focus is beating people up is safer. Kinda. Still probably need different classes.
Actually, kinda had an idea for classing. I call it the '45 criteria'; basicially asks what happens if a competitor were fired upon with a Colt 1911 aimed at their torso from 10 feet away. Class 3 approximates 'fall on the floor and begin bleeding to death', 2 is more of 'cringe at the big welt' and 1 is 'either basicially not notice or dodge it'. Should keep too many close-to-normals from getting beaten to death.
... then again, a lot of the class 3/2 people might object to it being administered. "

[Cobalt Greywalker]

"By the Lords of Kobal, so true. Anyway, if competitors get squeemish I know a Super who's a DBZ fan (and no, it's not The Jason. It's not his line. Anyway, he's got enough on his plate at the moment. And I'm not merely talking about his food intake these days, By The Force.) who's working on scouters. And I've got some sensors that should help determine who's thin-skinned.
Of course, if you want lots of people to show up we could make it a virtual tornament. There's an awful lot of plain Gamers in the factions. Include the KoF as part of the Fenspace Gamers Olympics? For Independence Sake, I wish they'd get arroud to organising that. But the Boskonians are a bit of a problem at the moment, so nobody's got the time to organise and compete."

[robkelk]

"Sorry I'm late, girls... What's this about a new game for the Fennish Olympics? Let me see... Hey, cool. Noah wants to hold the next Olympics at Stellvia next year - he said something about keeping everyone's morale up - and I think this would be just the right thing to add to it! I mean, we've gotta have some sports that don't need a spaceship. Am I right or am I right, girls?"

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[KJ]

"Virtual tourney might be fun too; I know I could talk KJ into that one and you're right about participation. Separate event for people doing it out in solid space too, obviously... might not get as much participation, but it's always interesting to see what people have come up with, y'know? And yeah, non-ship based stuff is, if nothing else, a lot better for spectators.
Mou, you'd hardly tell I started off as a tech anymore..."

[Ebony]

"Hey, I have a titanium kneecap and reconstructive surgery in my ankle. Can I join?"
"Only if the X-men let you join because you can digest lactose."
"Spoilsport."Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
http://www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Cobalt Greywalker]

"I may (note MAY) be able to get some Neural Induction helmets for the virtual KoF. My own work on that has been a bit haphazard (and I spent most of it on brain plugs) so I can't supply them. My contacts in Metropolis can build the Sim Construct fairly easily. Processing power... Well, I'm planning something along those lines for myself. I *made* those contacts cause I needed cycles for some modeling. I'll ask around while I work out my project loads and see what's available.
The tricky bit will be modeling contestents. THAT we'll have to outsource. Anyone got good contacts 'Daneside, specifically motion capture?"

[robkelk]

"Oh, come on, A.C.! We don't need to go 'Daneside to get any motion capture equipment! All we need to do is mention to each other somewhere near the Sol Bianca that we don't think the Professor can build the gear - I guarantee it'll turn up within a week. Sure, it'll have some funny quirks to it, but it'll work!"
"That isn't very nice, manipulating the Professor like that, Yoriko."
"Yeah, you're right... But I still think it'd work."

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[classicdrogn]

Just then,, a miniature, SD-style tractor truck cab trundled around a bend in the corridor, pulling a cart loaded (according to the box logos) with Hamdingers. It uncoupled and transformed with the classic sound into a more or less (but mostly less) faithful rendition of Wave Conviy that barely topped seven feet tall. The robot's movements were a bit jerky, and the relayed voice had a crackle of static as he apologised, "Please excuse my evesdropping, but I might have a solution for modeling and motion capture - KITTEN and I can both calculate that kind of thing, just by turning up the resolution on our scanners while watching someone. It has to be in person, though, so perhaps it's best considered an interim solution."
(Someone, among responses, paraphrased?) Don't take this the wrong way, but aren't you a little short for an Autobot Commander?
Though there was a slight lag, the robot's eyes crinkled realistically as if the unseen mouth had broken into a wide grin. "I'm Wave Convoy, I'm here to rescue you. Seriously, this is Shortwave, a telepresence unit for dealing with people or environments at a more conventional scale. Who are you modeling again?

(Shortwave is almost certainly the face of Wave Convoy that you'll meet on stations or ships other than Gnarlycurl, while KITTEN is Marcel "Micheal" LeChevalier's grey and black 80's Trans Am with a yellow scanner bar, red interior, and an AI that while fully aware of being an AI also has a full set of memories as Faith Lehane of BtVS up until the day she arrived in prison.)
- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Cobalt Greywalker]

"Thanks Convoy, that should do for the start. The main reason I figured 'Daneside would work best is cause they've already got all the equipment and Kinesetics models. Image models are a no-brainer, most medical scanners I know of can do it (and I know the twenty or so I've sold can do it).
One of my contacts 'Daneside got back to me with some times and prices. Times average out at a couple of weeks. Prices... Yoriko, I figure even Noah would wince at these for the numbers we'd need.
Fortunatly, a friend of mine in the Supers is willing to lend us some capital to buy one. They'll take it and within about two weeks will have duplicated and enhanced it for sale at a better price. I've attached the proposals."

[KJ]

"Kinematics? Hell, I've got that... made a physiologically-accurate model of bones and muscle groups for baseline humans for a simulation project of mine. Should still work for most of us; I at least still bend like one.
Nevermind what the simulation project was... that'd spoil the surprise."

[robkelk]

"Oh, with a line like that, you've got to tell us more!
Shortwave, could you start by modeling me? ... What? No, I'm not going to fight, but you're going to need a referee, right?"

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012