This is one of a series of posts intended to show what various mage groups believe, how they think, and why they think the Sleepers ought to prefer their vision of reality. It is not intended as a complete picture of each group, or a 'fair' portrait. It's written as propaganda by each group, but honest propaganda. They won't lie, but they won't list their own flaws in detail either :) Naturally, these posts represent my own idiosyncratic views which I believe to be reasonably compatible with canon, but given my memory is at times rather sieve like, I may forget stuff. If you see a contradiction between this or the appropriate Trad/Conv book, it may or may not be deliberate. If you have suggestions for more questions that should be covered, please let me know. Void Engineers and a bunch o' other stuff is all copyright of White Wolf, of course. You can find the ones done so far at: http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/WW/index.html Enjoy! Ascension 2000 Campaign Pamphlets: Void Engineers So, you're the space cowboys? Buck Rodgers meets Flash Gordon meets Star Trek? So, are you more like Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Next Generation, Babylon Five, or Space 1999? Are you really all as irresponsible as all your fellow technocrats except Iteration X think? There is far more to our duties than just space exploration, although I'm sure the Progenitors, Syndicate, and the NWO neglected to mention any of the other aspects. We are explorers not just of outer space, but also of the neglected corners of the Earth, the undersea depths, cyberspace, and other dimensions. We are soldiers too, fighting to protect the Earth from ghosts, aliens, and extra-dimensional beings. And we are scientists, charting the unknown and expanding our knowledge of physics, chemistry, math, and cosmology. We are psychologists, learning how to prepare people for truly alien conditions and putting them back together again after they snap. And finally, we are engineers, researching and executing a variety of devices, vehicles, and weapons. We are ancient, for humans have felt the urge to explore for untold millenia. To want to see what lies beyond the horizon is a dream everyone feels at some point in time. We get to live that dream. We are the ones who have bound the world together, who explore the cosmos, wiping 'Here be Dragons' from the map and replacing it with the truth. One day, humanity will expand to the stars, and it's our job to blaze the trails they will follow. Our job as well to explore the world in which we live, and the universes which most closely touch ours. We have the most dangerous job in the Technocracy. We cannot sit safe and happy in our laboratories and do our work. We must give up all the creature comforts of Earth and enter dangerous, unexplored territory. Out in space, we don't get days off and vacations. We risk our lives every day; can any of our fellows say that? And we do it with sorely inadequate funding, too. Mr. Burns of the Syndicate thought you were neglecting the Solar System in favor of exploring the universe, and that you were as a result both stirring up hornet nests and leaving the solar system to fall into the hands of Nephandi and rogue Conventions. What do you have to say about that? Mr. Burns is no better qualified to speak about how the Void Engineers set their priorities than I am to explain how the Syndicate sets its objectives, assuming anything more than greed is involved. First of all, two thirds of all Void Engineer personel are actually to be found inside the Solar System or in parallel dimensional locations that correspond to the Earth. It has yet to be tamed completely, and some of our Methodologies, namely the Earth Frontier Division and the Neutralization Specialist Corps, are pretty much completely based on the Earth. The Border Corps Division, while involved in space exploration does most of its work on Earth and in nearby dimensional locations. Even the Pan-Dimensional Corps does much of its work within the Solar System. Secondly, ejecting the renegade Conventions, the Traditions, the Marauders, and the Nephandi from every rock in the Solar system is, simply put, impossible. So long as these groups maintain their chief strongholds either hidden on the Earth, hidden in nearby dimensions, or in the deeps of space, we'll never clean them out of the various moons of Jupiter, Saturn, etc, because they'll just breed more people and send out further forces. In seven hundred years of warfare, we've only managed to eradicate two Traditions from the Earth, and both of those have been replaced by renegade Conventions. The combined forces of five Conventions can't drive our enemies off the Earth, yet they expect a single Convention to singlehandedly drive seven Traditions, two renegade Conventions, the Marauders, and the Nephandi out of the entire rest of the Solar System singlehandedly? I wonder if Mr. Burns always consumes hallucinogens before he gives interviews or if he's just senile. Thirdly, cutting our income, then increasing our responsibilities is not a very good way to get better results. We're stretched rather thin. Our high casualty rate doesn't help. And finally, we can't just confine ourselves to the solar system because there are threats out there which need to be dealt with now before they become too powerful to be stopped. We also have to take measures to keep our enemies from simply fleeing the solar system and hiding somewhere for a few hundred years, then coming back for revenge. Or worse, from allying with the hostile races out there and helping them destroy us. Indeed, the Nephandi are already out there; we'll never beat them by leaving their home bases inviolate while we focus on defeating their pawns and junior recruits at home. The Nephandi live in outer space? Not all of them, but the alien beings they serve mostly live in the deeps of space. We've found evidence that at one time some of them may have ruled over our solar system, but were then driven out by some currently unknown means. Our general working theory is that the creation of the Barrier, whose origin is still unknown, drove them out. It's not much of a theory, but it does keep them out, and it's unlikely they locked themselves out. The human Nephandi have means to cross the Barrier, as do we, but it seems to be much harder for many aliens to cross it, which would seem to point towards its creation by humanity by some unknown means. Some Nephandi claim it was created by means of an artifact stolen from their lords by some human hero of the past, aided by a renegade within their own ranks, but I find that theory implausible. An artifact capable of creating such a huge barrier ought to give off enough energy to be detectible, and we should have found it by now. Although one captured Nephandus claimed that the Sun itself WAS the artifact. Given that we've found plenty of other suns that didn't generate a Barrier, I find this unlikely. Study continues. The Barrier? What is it? Ahh. It's a field of energy which exists both in this dimension and in the closest adjacent dimensions to the Earth. It is also known as the 'Horizon', from which the term Horizon Constructs derives. Its energy can be shaped through Advanced Science to easily form pocket universes for the purposes of research, experimentation, refuge, or whatever. It also keeps most alien races and Nephandi lords out of the inner solar system. Its manifestation in our dimension roughly corresponds to the asteroid belt. It is similar to the Gauntlet, the variable strength barrier which prevents easy access to the dimensions closest to the Earth. It has slowly strengthened over time, but in the past it was much weaker, and people sometimes could pass through it on foot, which helped to create legends about various faerie lands and magical kingdoms. We believe the existence of the Barrier has been crucial to the development of life on Earth, free of control by the most powerful beings it keeps out, many of whom are entirely inimical to our existence, such as the Lords of the Nephandi. But then, how will humanity ever be safe if it expands past the Barrier? We'll have to locate the major Nephandi bases and annhilate them. It won't be easy, but our scouting expeditions are intended to lay the groundwork for that. Humanity may have to fight tooth and nail to claim dominion over the universe, but in the end, we will triumph. But Dr. Weston, what if the Nephandi can't be defeated on their own turf? Do we really need to go beyond the Barrier? Isn't the Earth and the Umbra enough for us? First of all, sooner or later, if we don't take the war to the Nephandi, they will defeat us. You can never, ever beat an enemy who can take the war to your home turf unless you take it to his. Sooner or later, the Nephandi will find a way to crack the Barrier enough to let the Nephandi Lords through and then humanity will die screaming...or wish it had. Secondly, if there is anything to be learned from history, it is that any society which cannot expand begins to stifle and die. Sooner or later, we will fill up all available space, and then we will need to either go beyond the Earth or we'll end up turning on each other. Growth doesn't always mean geographical growth, but if we are to maintain a decent life style, we'll have to move beyond the Earth. Thirdly, we at least have the right to rule our own solar system, yet much of it lies beyond the Barrier. And many worlds beyond the Barrier would be perfect for humanity with a little work, but no sentient life controls them...yet. If we wait, some other race will fill up the Galaxy, and eventually turn its eyes to us. And Fourthly, one day, our Sun will go out. Our Earthly resources will be used up. We need space so we don't run out of resources, and we need to do it now before we use up everything that would enable us to get off the Earth in any reasonable amount of time. If your group is so pressed for resources, and so overstretched, how did you manage to build the Copernicus Research Center? There's a rather large difference between 'We can't patrol the entire universe with a few thousand people' and building a Dyson sphere. Most of the work was done by Von Neumann machines designed with the help of Iteration X. It's important that most of the Cop doesn't actually do anything except not fall into the star in the middle. They're all stored in the remote reaches of the COP; we could build another one if we had any use for it. We use variants on them for a lot of our exploration; remote drones lead the way, and humans follow up the most interesting reports. Indeed, without our remote drones, our job would pass 'extremely difficult', and enter the 'utterly impossible' zone. We owe a large debt to Iteration X for helping us to create them. So it wasn't built with the help of aliens? If we had that sort of help, we'd have put them to more important use than simply building a Dyson sphere. We wouldn't be depending on the Syndicate for funding, either. Although that will likely change as we increase the number of space mining and manufacturing operations we are conducting. We estimate that by 2030 AD, we'll be able to meet 90% of our needs ourselves. By 2050, we'll no longer need the Syndicate's funding. Things will be different then. Hopefully, by then, we'll have gotten humanity started on its way out of the solar system and onto other planets as well. If Humanity lasts that long. What do you think of the Apocalypse Forecast? I knew I forgot something. Namely, the sixth reason why we put so much effort beyond the solar system. Humanity needs a refuge for if it renders the Earth uninhabitable, a feat which is well within human power. That's among the reasons we created the Cop. It can hold everyone on Earth. Unfortunately, we lack the resources to evacuate the entire population, but should such a disaster take place we will save as many people as we can. We're also working to build bases on hospitable worlds which could provide a starting point for their colonization by humanity. Such worlds could also serve as refuges as well. And finally, we're doing our best to fight all the various groups that want to nudge humanity towards annhilation, especially the Nephandi. The Masses themselves are largely outside our sphere of influence, but we can at least try to make sure no one 'helps' them to the brink. So, how large Is your organization? You seem to do an awfully diverse range of things. We employ roughly fifteen thousand personnel, most of them unenlightened. I'm not sure how many drone probes we use, but we have a vast number of them. Only the Syndicate is larger than the Void Engineers, although with the Syndicate, it's tricky to distinguish the exact boundaries of who works for it. The Pan-Dimensional Corps and the Border Division Corps use the largest number of unawakened personnel to man their ships and staff the marine divisions. I can't give you more details for security reasons. I've heard rumors that the Void Engineers have the most problems with Nephandi infiltration. Is that true? Unfortunately, yes. Because we're scattered over such a wide area, it's far too easy for the Nephandi to defeat the crew of a ship and replace them with infiltrators or to brainwash unfortunate captured victims. It's the problem of direct, regular confrontation with the Nephandi which causes this problem, although I'm sure whoever told you that wanted to cast aspersions on our loyalty. I'm sure they forgot to mention we also locate and destroy more Nephandi per year than any other Convention. So what would your ideal world be like? I'm not much of a social engineer, so I'll just restrict myself to what I do no. Humanity would be free to travel between the stars, with the threats posed by the various alien races and the Nephandi removed. I have a dream of a great republic of the galaxy, uniting many different human worlds, tied together by human- generated wormholes and great fleets of ships. That, and maybe we'd finally meet some friendly aliens. So ALL the aliens you've encountered have been hostile? All the sentient ones. We've encountered lots of herbivores and other alien races that are just alien animals. The sentient ones come in three categories: pawns of the Nephandi, hostile civilizations, and ones who don't want to destroy humanity, but just to enslave it. We have yet to encounter a single race we can trade or ally with. It's rather depressing, really. Our current operating theory is that the races of good will have all been slaughtered by the hostile ones because they lacked a Barrier to protect themselves. Of course, this makes the origin of our Barrier even more of a mystery. Indeed. Are you sure you haven't provoked ones that might have otherwise been friendly? We don't have the resources to provoke anyone. Fortunately, only the Nephandi seem to have the resources to mount large fleets or even small ones, although we've had several clashes with an odd race that uses living fleets. Like Gunbuster? Unfortunately, we don't have any weapons like Gunbuster to fight it, nor are we going to be able to tow Jupiter out of its orbit to destroy them by turning it into a black hole. Fortunately, as far as we can tell, this race doesn't like the Nephandi either, so we're hoping they will annhilate each other. If humanity is in so much danger from the universe outside, why conduct a war with the Traditions when there's bigger fish to fry? They could be useful allies; after all, they don't want to see humanity be destroyed. There's several problems with this. The first one is that they want us to die. It's hard to ally with people who want to kill you. I can't entirely blame them; we've done enough directly to them to make them want to. But short of a clear and present danger, we can't cooperate any more than the USA and the Soviet Union were able to cooperate once the Nazis were gone. I think that if the Apocalypse really does come to pass, we'll be able to cooperate, but until then...it's too hard to forget the past. The second problem is that they're riddled with Nephandi themselves, which reduces their value as allies. Most Nephandi begin as superstitionists or under the influence of their ideas. So long as people believe in selling their souls to the devil and other crazy ideas, the Nephandi will find fools willing to give themselves over for power. And thirdly, the Traditions are allied with various kinds of Reality Deviants who form as much of a threat as the Nephandi. Werewolves, vampires, 'ghosts', 'spirits', and other beings which also threaten humanity have links to the various Traditions. They also frequently have links to the Nephandi. I'm sure you can see the problem. And finally, Iteration X would never go for it. They're really fanatical about the Pogrom. I have no idea why. While we could shove it down their throats, it would likely result in a revolt that would cripple us; they'd panic and assume we'd all gone Nephandi. I do NOT want to see a war with Iteration X. But didn't the Technocracy start all the fighting by attacking Mistridge? The medieval traditions were heavily corrupt, oppressing the masses and holding them down with superstitions and force. They had to be broken in order for the masses to be freed. It was necessary. But the masses didn't become free. If the mages had oppressed them before, the nobility was just as bad for the next seven hundred years. Why didn't the Order of Reason do anything about the nobles? If they really wanted the masses to rule? And why has the Technocracy covered up ALL evidence of this alleged tyranny of the magi? The masses wanted a more rational world and... The masses wanted nothing of the kind. The masses were uneducated peasants, not protorationalists. So far as I can tell, the bulk of the population has fought virtually everything the Technocracy has stood for, tooth and nail. Nor, until this century, did the bulk of the population receive very substantial benefits from the science and rationality which the Technocracy stands for. Instead, these advances served to make the rich richer, the governments more powerful, and most of the peoples of the world forced into submission to Europe, rather against their will. The rich, elite, and the powerful continue to derive more benefit from your policies than the masses ever had, and the masses have had to fight against the elites your policies have benefited. You've created a world in which humanity has the power to annihilate itself quickly or slay the world by inches. And now the masses seem to be rejecting your ideas once more with the resurgence of religion and occult beliefs. Why shouldn't the masses join with the Traditions and cast you down? Surely you don't want to go back to living in the Middle Ages, Dr. Warwick. Not at all. I like my computer, my television, my phone, my nicely built air-conditioned flat, my car, and a variety of other benefits. But why do we need you? The Technocracy wants to continue to treat the Masses like children, and it wants to deny us the right to control our own destiny. You say it's for our own good, but isn't that exactly what the Church said in the Middle Ages? Or what the Hermetic Order said at that time? You kill everyone who disagrees with you, just like the Inquisition did to heretics. Oh yes, you say that you're just rehabilitating people who refuse to face reality, or that they're sick in the head, or that they're all criminals, but how is that any different from saying people have to die for heresy? Aren't you stripping humanity of the ability to choose what it wants? Without us, humanity would be unable to protect itself against the darkness. And the masses accept the rational reality we champion. If ... Then why do we need you? And if you're so necessary to protect humanity, how did humanity survive for millenia without you? What gives you the right to put yourselves above the law? You didn't ask the Tradition mages anything like this. They haven't claimed that everything good that's happened in the last seven hundred years was their action. I rather like many of the benefits we've gotten from your worldview, but I don't see any evidence that the Technocracy will ever let go of the reins and let humanity govern itself. Of course, most people aren't under any sort of direct Technocratic control, but your tendency to kill or imprison everyone who has a different opinion doesn't exactly assure me that we'll ever be allowed to govern ourselves. What assurance do I have that the Technocracy won't take control of humanity and enslave it? We want to help humanity. And what kind of assurance could I give? Do you really think a few thousand people could take over the world, regardless of our advanced technology? We can't even protect it as well as we would like. All I can offer you is the assurance that we mean well, and that humanity isn't ready for us to come into the open. Can you imagine what the governments of the world would do with our technologies? Leaving out the vast potentials for catastrophic malfunctions, that would probably be the ideal way to get humanity to destroy itself. Perhaps we are patronizing humanity, but when you look at our species' track record, can you entirely blame us? No. I'm far too aware of humanity's capacity to abuse power. But I see no effective checks in place to prevent the Technocratic Union abusing its power, should the central governing board decide on such action. You're not democratically responsible, you can't be punished, and you can't be removed from your positions of power. And this bothers me. Self-discipline is the key to keeping any society running, Dr. Warwick. Laws which are flouted by the majority of a society cannot be enforced without creating a police state, and even then, there are limits. We have ethical guidelines for ourselves, we do our best to recruit people who will hold to them, and we do the best we can to police ourselves. In the face of our enemies, we cannot afford to surrender or quit, or else we abandon the field to people who will not be so altruistic. I wish I could offer you a better answer, but we believe that at the present time, humanity is better served by our remaining a hidden conspiracy for light and reason than by becoming public servants, subject to all the petty political pressures and abuse that comes with that. Fair enough. Can you give us an explanation of basic cosmology as the Technocratic Union sees it, since your Convention is the Dimensional Science experts? You described the Gauntlet and the Horizon earlier, but I'd like to get the full picture. Okay. The Earth is protected from the vast screaming majority of the Universe by the Barrier (aka, the Horizon), which is a multi-dimensional construct that encompasses both the Earth and a wide variety of dimensions accessible from inside the Horizon, but not outside it. Why these dimensions cannot be accessed from outside the Barrier is not yet known; the usual theory is that they are pocket universes which have broken loose from the Barrier itself and congregated 'inside' it, in a multi-dimensional sense. What the Supersitionists call the 'Near Umbra', we refer to as 'Universe-2', or sometimes 'Earth-2', since its geography parallels our own. Studies continue of the odd interactions between these universes. It bleeds into the various non-Horizon Pocket Universes which also drift inside the Horizon. These Pocket Universes include realms pattered after mythological cycles, strange alternate history Earths, and lairs for various powerful alien beings who once posed as gods (and often continue to do so). Our efforts to map these universes along some sort of multi- dimensional coordinate systems continues; many of them seem to move around, complicating such. The NWO likes to argue that Universe-2 and the Pocket Universes are simply part of humanity's collective unconscious, which explains why they seem to have been shaped by human thoughts and beliefs. This fails to explain where our explorers are when they vanish from sight in a Dimensional Transit Device or where the souveneirs they bring back come from. Some of our own radical researchers postulate that human thought did reach through the Gauntlet and create these Pocket Universes, that while individual humans have virtualy no psychic power, in bulk, the human race has the ability to force the Barrier to belch forth the kinds of Pocket Universes which we can only create through massive expenditure of Primal Energy. This fails, however, to explain Earth-2, or why that same alleged massive human psychic potential hasn't reshaped our universe. After all, why would we be more able to reshape other universes than our own? Beyond the Barrier is simply outer space as it is known to mundane science. The Nephandi and many hostile alien races live here, and great wonders are to be found. Oddly, Advanced Science seems to work much better here than on Earth. Most of this is simply due to the vastly reduced number of stressors and the removal of a variety of variables which can complicate operation. Any closing comments you'd like to make on your fellow Conventions, Dr. Weston? Iteration X is our closest ally among the Conventions. They have aided us in the design and manufacture of much of our equipment, and we aided them in their return to Autocthonia. Many of us have benefited from their military aid when we've come under attack. We understand each other as much as anyone understands Iteration X. We've worked well with the Progenitors also. A fair number of Progenitor medics travel on our ships, along with researchers. They've augmented our marines and provided clone bodies for personel hurt too badly to be saved. And we've brought them a plethora of life forms to study, as well as providing them space in the Cop to work. They seem to have turned on us in recent years; we're not sure why, really. The NWO just doesn't get anything except being paranoid and overly cautious. Humanity needs to get a move on now before its enemies can consolidate their efforts, and the threat of the Earth's doom makes it more necessary than ever. But the NWO wants another fifty studies, and some surveys, and they want to conduct an impact study, and they need to hunt down a few more mages to brainwash and... If the President was about to launch the entire US arsenal of nuclear missiles, they'd pause to make a study of the likely consequences of stopping him, not stopping him, and going out for pizza before they did anything about it. We hate the Syndicate. They're necessary, but we hate them, as they don't understand or care about anything but money. They've crippled our ability to help the masses advance their space travel technology, and crippled our own operations. But in the end, they'll pay. Oh yes, they will. In conclusion, I will say that the Stars are our destiny. Humanity was born to explore, to expand, to grow, to claim the universe. As we always have, we will push back the frontiers, in order that others might come and sow the fields we have cleared and reap the harvest. We do not mind, for it is the unknown we seek to find, not a reward for our seeking. Can't you hear the heavens calling you? Ad Astra Per Aspera! So who will you be seeing next, Dr. Warwick? Well, unless the Solificati find me, I believe this will about sum it up. I've talked to all nine Traditions, the Marauders, the Ahl-I-Batin, the Hollow Ones, and all five Conventions. I suppose that the next step would be to contact the Nephandi, but I don't think I really want to meet them. They're the one group that everyone in the universe seems to hate, and with good reason from what I've heard. I suppose my wife will be happy that I'm not out running about all over the planet. I think that's the right decision. Good day, Dr. Warwick. Good day. [It's not quite the end. Just because Dr. Warwick doesn't intend to talk to the Nephandi doesn't mean they don't want to talk to him. The final installment of this series, 'Vote Nephandi in 2000 or Die' will be coming just in time for Halloween :) Then, I will likely go pass out for a while. Hopefully, I will be getting Sorceror's Crusade for Christmas (or maybe earlier), and then I'll be able to take a shot at 'Ascension 1500'. Once my brain recovers. :) ]