Face of Cowardice, Mark of Courage (Villian arc)

[atpollard]

Cowboy
"I have some overdue business to take care of, so I leave you to your moving. I'll contact you again when I am finished with a little job in the works."
The old man leaves and returns to work ... he awakens from his nap to find his orders processed for the day.

[atpollard]

Corporate Super Hack by 'The Eye'
First Cowboy will create a new cyber location ... a temporary clearing house to command his forces and upload stolen files to and to distribute from around the world ...
Cowboy is off to a slow start ... security is heavy ... many false starts need to be abandoned ... he searches for the perfect location ...
After a few minutes, he finds the right location ... he begins to build rings of security
slowly it grows ... one layer of protection ... two layers of protection ... three layers of protection ... four layers of protection ... five layers of protection ... six layers of protection ... seven layers of protection ...
The eighth layer collapses.
The data fortress is as strong as this location can support.

Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 29
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 61
locate spot
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 47
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 69
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 76
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 79
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 67
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 56
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 52
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 10

A brief appearance at Voodoo's V-Station gets the new address and pass-codes into the right hands.
Back at the data fortress, members of The Eye begin to trickle and flood in ... cyber-decks are powered up and synchronized ... ice breakers are readied ... a digital clock floats in the center of the fortress ...

counting down ... the ultimate cyber attack is minutes away ... and Z E R O.

Start with Cowboy's base Hacker roll and add 1 step for the World Wide Cyber Terrorist Organization, giving an initial rank of 50-74.
Each corporation will be subjected to a barrage of consecutive attacks.
Since the corporations will not remain passive while we attack their systems, each minute, we will make one attack and the difficulty will increase one step until we achieve outstanding success or outstanding success becomes impossible (rank falls below zero).

A Marginal Success (red) will allow us to steal their corporate internal/external communication files ... exposing secrets to be leaked to the press and potentially embarrassing the company.
A Success (blue) will allow us to steal their corporate manufacturing files ... exposing production secrets and plans and allowing us to make new equipment, or improve existing equipment, or improve manufacturing to increase availability (bonus to Lifestyle access rolls).
An Outstanding Success (yellow) will allow us to steal their corporate research files ... exposing secrets and plans and allowing us to develop new equipment and super technology.

Each corporation will be attacked consecutively ... Poseidon Electronics ... Rook Industries.

Poseidon Electronics:
0 minutes = Rank 50-74: [Marginal Success]
[1d100] = 29
1 minute = Rank 40-49: [Marginal Success]
[1d100] = 33
2 minutes = Rank 30-39: [Success]
[1d100] = 87
3 minutes = Rank 20-29: [Marginal Success]
[1d100] = 63
4 minutes = Rank 10-19: [Failure]
[1d100] = 10
5 minutes = Rank 6-9: [Marginal Success]
[1d100] = 60
6 minutes = Rank 3-5: [Marginal Success]
[1d100] = 66
7 minutes = Rank 1-2: [Failure]
[1d100] = 49
8 minutes = Rank 0: [Marginal Success]
[1d100] = 91

The Eye turns its attention and its full might against Poseidon Electronics, and instantly their corporate wall is breached.
Corporate Security races to respond to the attacks, but The Eye scores a second Corporate server breach.
Victory ... the manufacturing and operations computers are breached and patents and trade secrets and product specifications ... everything needed to manufacture any product Poseidon makes except the actual factory (and we have the specifications on that) ... begins flooding into the data fortress and out among our cyber minions.

Poseidon's Security people step up their game ... the Research and Development and Prototype Computers remain secure, but the effort to protect them allows The Eye to punch another connection to the Corporate servers and their overseas corporate data begins to pour into the fortress. Four minutes into the attack, Poseidon goes on the offensive and tears through the Seventh layer of protection on our data fortress. Some of newest people start to panic, but the old timers whip them back in line and The Eye presses its attacks once again. Poseidon Security defenses are getting formidable, but The Eye manages to score two more Corporate Computer breaches before Poseidon lands another attack, cracking and then breaking down the Sixth layer of protection.

After eight minutes, The Eye makes its final data breach of the Poseidon Electronics Corporate Computer and scores all of the data and communications on Government Accounts ... nothing on the actual products, but names and dates and items ordered and general correspondence. At exactly nine minutes, it is over. The leaders pull the plug. The attacks stop. The data streams out of the fortress ... scattered around a million computers across the globe. Being duplicated over and over.
All connections to Poseidon are cut. That Genie can not be put back into its bottle.

And The Eye turns towards Rook Industries ...

[Rukellian]

Atpollard, just wanted to let you know that the action sequence with The Eye was excellent. Your treatment of Poseidon Electronics was spot on, but your character will find that Rook Industries is a more aggressive combatant on the cyber stage and will probably have some of its own professional hackers at the ready. The increasing difficulty for success system will remain appropriate for this target, but know that Rook Industries lies in the fields of military production and intel as well as commercial. Hacking into military intelligence is always a high-level risk venture.

When you finish this cyber battle of yours, I will provide you with the information you've obtained and deseminated amongst the web, or bits and pieces of the important stuff that is.

[MonkeyWrench]

Hot Streak remains there leaning on the side of the building or what remains of it. "Well if you'd like a mission I can give you one to do as you wish." he waits a bit then catches up to LG tells hims of the location of the strange mutants near where he teleported into Atlas City. "Take your time or go through it as fast as you wish I just want them dead."

Genocide thinks for a moment, he then begins giggling. He regards Hot Streak for a moment before answering, "I will check out these rascals for you, who knows! They may be the very ones my wonderful lady sent out, It would be good to catch up, share old tales and the like Hehehe." With that Genocide heads in the directions Hot Streak gave him, Cloaking as he does so and super speeding through the cities alleys.

Chameleon 20: [1d100] = 85

[atpollard]

Atpollard, just wanted to let you know that the action sequence with The Eye was excellent. Your treatment of Poseidon Electronics was spot on, but your character will find that Rook Industries is a more aggressive combatant on the cyber stage and will probably have some of its own professional hackers at the ready. The increasing difficulty for success system will remain appropriate for this target, but know that Rook Industries lies in the fields of military production and intel as well as commercial. Hacking into military intelligence is always a high-level risk venture.
When you finish this cyber battle of yours, I will provide you with the information you've obtained and disseminated among the web, or bits and pieces of the important stuff that is.

Great ideas, I feel inspired.

Cowboy attempts to rebuild the Sixth and Seventh defensive walls lost in the attack on Poseidon Electronics, but the damage cannot be repaired.
Rather than delay the second phase to build a new Data Fortress, The Eye proceeds with only Five levels of protection ...

Rebuild the Sixth Wall [Fail]
Computer Hacking, INT=30 (MS=30+, S=60+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 15

Euphoria fills the Data Fortress as avatars congratulate themselves and each other. The data breech at the Poseidon Corporate servers was effective, but not all that impressive ... many here could have done that alone ... the capture of the Manufacturing Data, now that WAS an epic victory. The Eye has reason to rejoice. The leaders, however are not celebrating. They know two things ... the best of the best data was not breached, so while impressive, the victory was not total ... and the worst is yet to come.

Cowboy addresses The Eye: "We are not finished. Now things get hard. Now we separate the Jockeys (high skilled) from Hotdoggers (inexperienced). Rook Industries. Civilian and Military technology ... Civilian and Military Security ... Civilian and Military I.C.E. (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics). We don't have a road-map through the Rook System, so any attack could find itself facing a Military System and Military Intelligence Jocks waiting to test us. It is not a question of IF we trip a Military alarm, only WHEN. Don't worry about that. Your job is to break the ice and grab the data, the Cowboy will be flying high cover ... dealing with Military Intelligence is my responsibility. This time, we grab the friggin' brass ring."

The floating clock begins a one minute countdown and all of the Console Jockeys make some last minute adjustments to their ICE breakers based on the results from Poseidon. Last minute code is exchanged and patches uploaded. Last minute reassignment of people. Cowboy powers up his crystal matrix and readies himself for combat - he has a card up his sleeve, and whispers "They will not see this coming."

... three ... two ... one ... Z E R O.

Adjustments to the rules to account for Referee input:
Any attack roll divisible by three will be against the MILITARY portion of the company, all other attack rolls will be against the CIVILIAN portion of the company.
As long as we attack the CIVILIAN computers, everything will happen just like Poseidon.
When we attack the MILITARY computers ... stuff starts to happen.
Rook Counterintelligence will take notice and begin to launch attacks on us. They will start at rank 0 (few resources allocated) and increase one rank each minute.
So as the battle progresses, The Eye's attacks will get weaker and the Rook MI attacks will get stronger.
It should be exciting.

Rook Industries:
0 minutes = Rank 50-74: [Marginal Success - Civilian]
[1d100] = 29
1 minute = Rank 40-49: [Outstanding Success - Civilian]
[1d100] = 92
2 minutes = Rank 30-39: [Marginal Success - Civilian]
[1d100] = 41
3 minutes = Rank 20-29: [Failure - Military] (wall 5 falls)
[1d100] = 24
(The Sleeping Giant Awakens) MI Counterattack Rank 0: [Marginal Success] (wall 4 falls)
[1d100] = 82
(from this point forward, all attacks will be against the Military computer)

4 minutes = Rank 10-19: [Marginal Success - Military]
[1d100] = 56
MI Counterattack Rank 1-2: [Failure]
[1d100] = 16
(Cowboy attacks MI with his power) [Marginal Success]
Mind Hack Power, 40+1 step (MS=25+, S=55+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 44
(reset The Eye skill to Rank 40-49 ... inside man acting against Rook MI Defenders)

5 minutes = Rank 40-49: [Success - Military]
[1d100] = 68
MI Counterattack Rank 3-5: [Marginal Success] (wall 3 falls)
[1d100] = 81
(Cowboy attacks MI with his power to improve mind control) [EPIC FAIL]
Mind Hack Power, 40+1 step (MS=25+, S=55+, OS=90+): [1d100] = 100
(The Eye will attempt to disengage from Rook)

6 minutes = Rank 40-49: [Failure - Military]
[1d100] = 5 (wall 2 falls)
MI Counterattack Rank 6-9: [Marginal Success] (wall 1 falls)
[1d100] = 75
(the Data Fortress is vulnerable - The Eye again attempts to disengage)

7 minutes = Rank 30-39: [Success]
[1d100] = 69
MI Counterattack Rank 10-19: [Marginal Success] (gain some data on attackers - not actual identities)
[1d100] = 71

The initial attack strikes the Rook Industries Corporate Servers (civilian division), punches through the minimal defenses and scores sales data, personnel files and internal correspondence.

By 'T' plus 1 minute, The Eye has exploited that weak entry point to successfully breach the entire civilian division computer network. Basic business data and correspondence, internal audits and reports, manufacturing plans and specifications, and non-military research proposals, data and reports all flood into the Data Fortress and throughout cyberspace. It is an epic victory and The Eye feels invincible ... nothing can stop us now! Another probe tears another hole into the civilian network and data flows out even faster.

At 'T' plus 3 minutes, everything suddenly changes ... The Eye locates and attacks one of the computers belonging to Rook Industries Military Division.
The initial attack is shrugged off by Military Grade I.C.E. (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics) and on some desk of a supervisor in the Counterintelligence Division an attempted attack is noted ... with the digital chatter of something going on in the Civilian Security Division, the supervisor takes the warning more seriously than usual (ATTEMPTS to hack are a daily occurrence). A Corporate Hacker is told to check it out. He immediately identifies that the threat is real, that Civilian Systems have been compromised and that Military Systems are under a coordinated attack and a serious threat. Alarms sound and Corporate Hackers fire up military grade systems and launch a massive counterattack ... one wall of the unidentified Data Fortress falls ... a second wall of the unidentified Data Fortress falls. More Security resources continue to come online and are directed against the threat. Rook Defenses are boosted and reinforced even as additional attackers attempt to engage the unknown Data Fortress.

At The Eye, a wave of shock and fear flows through the Data Fortress as two walls are obliterated in less than a minute ... only three layers of defense remain.
At 'T' plus 4 minutes, The Eye rallies ... punching through the wall, they enter the military computer system ... The Eye has breached Rook Industries Military Division security ... the best in the world ... the Rook attacks again, but The Eye is ready and harmlessly rebuffs their attack ... suddenly, Cowboy works whatever magic that makes him THE Cowboy and the Rook Defenses weaken as data on passwords and security overrides streams into The Fortress ... The Eye is now the new 'best in the world'.

At 'T' plus 5 minutes, The Eye uses its new found information to breach the Rook Industries Military Division Manufacturing Computers and gains the same sort of technical data on Rook Military Products that it gained on Poseidon Electronic products. The Rook Hackers are good ... very good ... and they adapt and overcome the new Data Fortress defenses to tear down defensive wall number three ... only two layers of protection remain.

In a secret room deep within Rook Industries, row after row of computer terminals with Corporate Hackers are engaged in espionage and counter-espionage around the globe. If you were looking at the supercomputers that line the walls, you might have noticed that more and more systems were powering up, but no one was looking at the computers. No one needed to look at the computers to know that SOMETHING was happening. Over in one corner of the room, supervisors were descending on a row of hackers who seemed to suddenly be frantic about something. One by one, additional hackers were re-tasked from international spying to whatever was generating all of the activity.

Charlie Wilson worked in the Military Cyber-warfare Division at Rook Industries. Recruited straight out of MI, he was good at his job and loved the hunt ... he was going to be the one to nail whoever was attacking HIS system! In all of the activity, nobody noticed when Charlie stopped typing, his stare went blank, and he suddenly had a strange smirk "Sierra Hotel". ... Cowboy was in and his fingers flashed over controls as he uploaded security data to the Data Fortress. He could control this muppet's body, but not his mind. Cowboy needed to make another Mind Attack to access those memories if they were going to get into the Military Research Computers. So Cowboy attempts to Mind Hack this muppet to gain the memories. It required all of his concentration ... the data link to HIS computer, the data link to the Data Fortress, the data link to this Rook Military System ... if he had only been looking around ...

... at an unobtrusive desk with a good view of the entire room sits a man in his thirties. He studies his terminal and calmly stands up and begins to walk over to the cluster of busy Rook Hackers and supervisors. He stands behind the group and says nothing, but smoothly draws his service pistol and shoots Charlie in the back of the head with a 45 caliber frangible bullet. Everyone jumps at the sound and the body falls limp across the terminal. The head of Internal Security calmly reaches past the body to turn off the terminal. "Carry on." He walks back to his desk and makes a note to run new background checks on all Rook Cyber-unit personnel.

At 'T' plus 6 minutes, the tide appears to have turned again. The Rook forces have too great a technology advantage and Cowboy has dropped off the grid. Time to cut and run with what data we have. It is always better to live to fight another day. The Eye attempts to disengage, but cannot. The Rook tears down the two remaining security barriers ... the Data Fortress is breached. The Eye is in danger of being discovered. At 'T' plus 7 minutes, the battle is over. The Eye finally breaks the connection and escapes with it's hard won data ... who knows how much Rook has discovered? You don't think that they penetrated deep, there was too little time. The Eye will call this a victory and celebrate, but some of the old timers suspect that this is not over ... this was just round one.

The Eye goes to work mining the data for anything useful ... they might need it, soon.

I don't think that this will be fatal for Cowboy, He WAS connected at the time, so he should be able to return to his body.
We never really spelled out what happens when a muppet get's killed ... it will probably happen again ... so I look forward to what you have to say in the response.
I am having lots of fun.
Who would have thought that I would be a super villain?

[Rukellian]

I'm still working on the information that The Eye dug up and dispersed, but in the meantime, I wanted to let you guys know that you finished another chapter in the villian arc. For some of you, this will have been your first. At the end of each successful arc/mission or series of missions, your character will be rewarded fortune points. Using those points, you can change dice rolls, bumping up results or bumping them down by rows on the master table, performing your own row shifts. In bulk, the points can also be used to raise rank values slowly, providing some appearance of traditional character progression, though this is strictly optional.

Altering The Dice/ Row Shifting

After a roll is made you may spend 25 points from Fortune (fortune is explained in detail in the character creation thread) to shift the result of a single roll one color left or right (from black to red, red to blue, blue to yellow, or vice-versa) on the Master Table. The roll you alter can be your own or someone else’s (ally or enemy). You may spend additional points to further shift the row value (i.e. from black to blue or red to black) with each additional shift costing a further 25 points. Multiple characters may spend Fortune to affect the same die roll.

Example: Tony wants to reduce the result of an opponent’s roll from blue to black. This costs 50 points (two Row Shifts), but Tony’s character only has 37 points. Thus Tony can do no better than to shift it from blue to red (one Row Shift); the opponent still succeeds, but less so and Tony has points remaining in his Fortune.

Character Advancement

As a superhero game, character advancement is slightly out-of-genre and not completely appropriate. For those of you that like advancement, though, characters may improve their traits and powers as follows:

Traits: A character may spend Fortune to improve the Rank Value of traits. Increasing a Rank Value by one costs a number of points equal to the current value.

Example: Joseph wishes to increase his character’s Melee from 30 to 31. This costs 30 points.

Powers: The Rank Values of powers can be increased in the same way as the Rank Value of Traits: Increasing a Rank Value by one costs a number of points equal to the current value.

A character may also gain a completely new power – with its Rank Value determined randomly – by spending 1,000 points. This new power must have an in-game explanation (be it an accident, a new gadget, super serum, or any other means approved by the DM).

Skills: A character can gain a new skill at the cost of 250 points. As with new powers, there needs to be an in-game reason for this new skill (maybe the character has been attending night school).

Everyone will be rewarded a base 150 fortune for this arc. Hot Streak gains another 50 for his general success in combat. Laughing Genocide recieves 100 extra points for his success in combat as well as his character interactions (keep up the good role playing ). The Cowboy recieves an additional 100 points for his efforts on the cyberfront of the war. Vorpal doesn't get any fortune points because he is an npc... however, he does get a gold star, just because.

With the fortune points rewarded, I will soon be moving you guys to another chapter to continue your villanous plans. Keep your eyes open, it will come up within the next day or so.

[Rukellian]

The new chapter is up and ready for you guys.