Covert Executives

By Stuart Ellis (s.ellis1@lancaster.ac.uk)

Description

The Technocracy has a problem - it's short of humanity. Technomancers, particularly the senior officials, no longer think or act like normal people. This is partly due to the lifestyle and indoctrination systems but is also caused by Resonance, the principle that magick leaves traces on everything, especially mages. So over time Technocrats slowly become more like stereotypes -- the ruthless executive, the amoral politician, the passionless scientist etc. and are less able to relate to Sleepers. Think of Cancer Man and his colleagues, or Bill Gates...

Their creations and minions are even more inhuman, and have serious problems interacting with society -- Superiors range from being slightly sadistic to totally psycho; HIT Marks and Men In Black can terrorise but could never befriend a Sleeper or even subtly manipulate them.

This has led to the use of Covert Executives, Sleepers recruited from intelligence and law enforcement agencies who are carefully trained and indoctrinated to be used in the war against the fantastic. They are rarely used to terminate reality criminals; their role is to carry out the routine work of paradigm enforcement -- investigation, surveillance, basic sanitation (cleaning up traces of weird events), handling (manipulating ordinary Sleepers into doing things) and other tasks which require more brains, social graces and autonomy than most Techno have.

CovEx usually operate in teams of two to six, and pose as minor officials with enough influence to get the job done without being too conspicious -- private or police detectives, health inspectors, lawyers and even repairmen. Their ID is always flawless, and the cover story always convincing.

These agents are not mindless thugs but intelligent, dedicated men and women working to protect civilians from alien things that the population would be terrified to know existed, and those dangerous and irresponsible people who try to harness uncontrollable powers for their own ends.

STs can use CovEx to give players both roleplaying and moral challenges -- 'retiring' a death squad of cyborgs or Superiors is common sense but killing misguided humans is straight murder, and if anything happens to their investigators the Technocracy will become even more interested. The CovEx can also justify their work; in fact their appearence in a Chronicle will probably be the result of characters seriously disrupting static reality in a way that harms Sleepers.

If there is a fight then the Executives will make full use of their intelligence and teamwork, either to capture isolated Awakened or retreat to call in the cavalry, and a discreet van full of 'men' in bulky coats or a black cadillac will soon be on its way. They also have subtle defences -- their Willpower is normally high and because they are unAwakened they count as Sleeper witnesses for mystical magick (but not for technomagick such as Etheric science or VA gear), so using vulgar Effects against them is always dangerous. A modified government agent profile works well (CovEx usually have good Subterfuge and Bureaucracy skills).