Five Earths, All in a Row

[warellis]

How difficult to kill are they?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by warellis

How difficult to kill are they?

In terms of physical damage and melee combat they're pretty durable, strong, and quick, but they suck at many important aspects of being a modern (WWII) soldier, like ranged combat, tactics, and imagination. If you actually let them close with you, you're in trouble, but if you keep the range wide, they're going to die (eventually - the heavy armour and high endurance helps, just not enough). For that matter, if they're kept in the field for too long, their weak immune systems are going to kill them, because once one gets sick, the others will soon follow.

They're pretty much a flawed concept of an early 'super-soldier,' rushed into production before the design has any of the bugs worked out. I mean, they make rolls to avoid death on a 6 or less!

[warellis]

What advantages would modern (Inp-Earth) soldiers have facing these supersoldiers compared to WW2 (Dsp-Earth) soldiers who are facing said supersoldiers?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by warellis

What advantages would modern (Inp-Earth) soldiers have facing these supersoldiers compared to WW2 (Dsp-Earth) soldiers who are facing said supersoldiers?

Better technology and training, just as they would against any other threat on Dsp-Earth.

[Prince Charon]

One of the rare powerful psychics on Earth-1, with summaries of two others:

King Ernesto I, of the House of Cruz

Age: 34

Attributes

ST 11 [10]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 12 [40]; HT 12 [20]

Secondary Characteristics

HP 11; Will 12; Per 12; FP 12

Social Background

Languages: Spanish (Native) [0]; English (Accented) [4]; French (Broken/Accented) [3].

TL: 8

Cultural Familiarity: Latin American [0]; Western [1].

Subtotal: 118


Advantages

Ally (Luciana; Wife, built on 75% of points, available on 15 or less) [9]
Ally (Rafael; Best Friend, built on 75% of points, available on 15 or less) [9]
Charisma 2 [10]
Military Rank 4 [20]

Combat Sense 4 [96]
Probablity Alteration Talent 4 [20]
Visions (Dream) [5]
Weather Control 4 [88]
^ Adjustment 9 (Alternate Ability of Weather Control) [8]
^ Coincidence 3 (AA of Weather Control) [16]
^ Curse 9 (AA of Weather Control) [8]
^ Second Chance 4 (AA of Weather Control) [10]
^ Wild Talent (Retention, +25%; Probability Alteration, -10%; AA of Weather Control) 3 [14]

Perks

Armorer's Gift (AKM). [1]
Dabbler (Current Affairs/TL8: Business 9, Headline News 10, Politics 10, Regional (Cuba) 10, Science & Technology 9). [1]
Good Neighbor. [1]
Karma Bank. [1]
Misfire Master. [1]

Subtotal: 318


Disadvantages

Code of Honor (Soldier's) [-10]
Curious (12) [-5]
Delusion (Major: 'God has anointed me King of Cuba!') [-10]
Fanatacism (Cuba) [-15]
Overconfidence (12) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Cuba) [-10]
Stubborness [-5]

Quirks

Devout Catholic. [-1]
Drinks with his men. [-1]
Hates to sit with his back to a door or window. [-1]
Likes to stargaze. [-1]
Says 'Madre de Dios!' when stressed or surprised. [-1]

Subtotal: -65


Skills

Administration [IQ/A] [1] 11
Astronomy (Observational)/TL8 [IQ/H] [2] 11
Camouflage/TL8 [IQ/E] [1] 12
Detect Lies [Per/H] [1] 10
Diplomacy [IQ/H] [2] 11
Driving [DX/A] [1] 11
Expert Skill (Logistics)/TL8^ [IQ/H] [4] 12
Expert Skill (Military Science)/TL8^ [IQ/H] [2] 11
First Aid/TL8^ [IQ/E] [1] 12
Games (Chess) [IQ/E] [1] 12
Guns (Rifle)/TL8 [DX/E] [4] 14
Guns (Pistol)/TL8 [DX/E] [4] 14
Hiking [HT/A] [1] 11
Judo [DX/H] [4] 12
Knife [DX/E] [1] 12
Leadership [IQ/A] [2] 14*
Navigation (Land)/TL8 [IQ/A] [1] 11
Public Speaking [IQ/A] [2] 14*
Savoir-Faire (Military) [IQ/E] [1] 12
Soldier/TL8 [IQ/A] [2] 12
Spear (Rifle with bayonet) [DX/A] [2] 12
Sports (Soccer) [DX/A] [1] 11
Stealth [DX/A] [1] 11
Strategy (Land) [IQ/H] [4] 12
Survival (Island/Beach) [Per/A] [1] 11
Survival (Woodlands) [Per/A] [1] 11
Tactics [IQ/H] [4] 12

Adjustment [IQ/H] [4] 16**
Coincidence [IQ/H] [2] 15**
Combat Sense [IQ/H] [4] 16**
Curse [Will/H] [1] 14**
Second Chance [IQ/H] [2] 15**
Visions [IQ/H] [4] 12
Weather Control [IQ/H] [4] 16**

Techniques

Evil Eye (H) Curse-4 [3] 12
Remove Curse (H) Curse-1 [2] 14
Thunderbolt (H) Weather Control-7 [4] 12
Transference (H) Second Chance-10 [5] 9
Unsupervised Change (H) Weather Control-10 [8] 13

Subtotal: 95

Total: 466


Equipment

Notes

* Include +2 from Charisma.
** Includes +4 from Probablity Alteration Talent.

I made use of the Soldier and Weather Wizard templates from GURPS Psis when making Ernesto, with some modifications.

'His Catholic Majesty Ernesto I, Anointed by God King of Cuba and Captain General of the Cuban Forces, Duke of Holguín, Count of Havanna, and Lord Protector of the Caribbean' was born Ernesto Jose Pedro Cruz y Famosa, and before the Event, had risen to the rank of Major in the Cuban Revolutionary Army. His empowerment started slow, but grew fairly rapidly, by which point he had a dream of God granting him the titles he now claims. Whether this was an ordinary dream, a vision from the god of Abraham, or a spirit leading him astray, is a question beyond the scope of this document. His power level is exceptionally high for Earth-1, but then, he has big dreams. At this point in his life, he's only king of the small section of Cuba that his battalion has control of, but he's got a reasonably good chance of taking the island within the next year or three, if he leaves Guantanamo Bay alone.

Evil Eye modifies Curse to be based on eye contact (User's Vision) rather than touch. Thunderbolt works mechanically like the Ergokinetic version in Psionic Powers p34 (I don't recall how I worked out what the skill penalty should be, as it's been a while), but fluffwise, is based on making it very, very likely that the target will be hit by a bolt of lightning from the storm that the user is influencing.

'Queen' Luciana Cruz is a fairly weak telepath (Aspect 1 and Telereceive (Shallow) 2), but a strong esper (Retrocognition (and Retrocognitive Flashbacks) 4, with Visions (Full), Prognostication 5, Psychic Hunches 4, Psidar 4, Psi Sense 4, Signature Sniffer 4, and Seekersense 4 as Alternate Abilities). They grew up in the same town, and have been friends since about the age of six.

'Duke' Rafael Hernandez y Daiz is a strong telepath (Mind Shield 6, Telereceive 3 with Borrow Skill 4 and Emotion Sense 4 as Alternate Abilities, and Telesend 3 with Suggestion 2 and Emotion Control 2 as Alternate Abilities) and a few Perks from other powers. He met Ernesto when they first joined the Army, and later married Ernesto's sister Maria.


Imagine trying to fight a group lead by these three. A bit concerning, no?

What's more concerning is that he's the strongest psyker on Cuba, and possibly the strongest on any island in the Caribbean Sea.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

One of the rare powerful psychics on Earth-1, with summaries of two others:

King Ernesto I, of the House of Cruz

(SNIP)

As long as they're not complete psychos, the CIA and the GOP will consider them better options than the Castros, that's for sure. Obama might not like them, as much, since his back-door Cuban diplomacy is well under way, by now. These three just introduced a lot more chaos into the island's political situation.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

As long as they're not complete psychos, the CIA and the GOP will consider them better options than the Castros, that's for sure. Obama might not like them, as much, since his back-door Cuban diplomacy is well under way, by now. These three just introduced a lot more chaos into the island's political situation.

And what interest would the CIA have in this guy? This causes problems for them as well considering no one wants a refugee situation right next to its borders or instability.

They'll support Castro because he's the devil we trust here. Familiar and all.

Now if this was 60-70 years ago, your argument here would be more appropriate because then, there wasn't any stability as Batista was overthrown.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by warellis

And what interest would the CIA have in this guy? This causes problems for them as well considering no one wants a refugee situation right next to its borders or instability.

They'll support Castro because he's the devil we trust here. Familiar and all.

Now if this was 60-70 years ago, your argument here would be more appropriate because then, there wasn't any stability as Batista was overthrown.

Oh, the CIA might decide to stick with the Castros, when all is said and done, but the agency has a pretty serious institutional bias against leftists. It also has a history of support for the worst sort of right wing authoritarian governments who do horrific things to their own people, as long as they use "fighting communists" as the justification.

I would anticipate at least a robust debate at the Latin America Desk, if the Cruzes make contact and appear to have a real chance to overthrow the Castro regime.

Also, since this is an RPG setting, more conflict is better. I could definitely see a rogue op sponsored by the CIA with the support of/at the insistance of the expatriate Cuban community.

Miami becomes a hotbed of intrigue, black financing, political skullduggery, mercenary contracting (technically against U.S. law, but what if the CIA is doing the hiring?), and smuggling of guns, drugs (can't keep the cartels out of a deal this big) and people. It could easily justify scenarios that draw heavily from the Cocaine Cowboy days.

[warellis]

Conflict is better when it makes sense, not when you pull it out of nowhere to support RPG tendencies.

The biggest problem with the agency nowadays is too many out-of-college no-expeirence in the field types of agents I've heard.

[Prince Charon]

My general thought is that the CIA is not going to make a snap decision on this. Instead, they will watch Ernesto for a while, and if he isn't immediately crushed, send someone to get an idea of his attitude towards the US (not overwhelmingly positive, but certainly higher than his opinions of Castro or Russia; if he wins, he'll be in favor of normalizing relations, though he'll be more in favor if the US gives a little now).

In general, if he looks to have a chance at winning, but isn't going to threaten Guantanamo or other US interests, the CIA is unlikely to do anything to him. There is a decent chance that they'd help the Cuban ex-pat community to help him, but how much really depends on how much they think he would benefit US interests, whether he actually would, or not.

Note also that the CIA has been pretty aggressive about hiring telepaths and espers.