Victoria was officially the Martian capital. But few pay attention to such official facts; the Martian central government was very weak, and in any event, subordinated to the whims and desires of the Imperial Security Director. Still, it was a lone monument towards self-rule and the Imperial Knights feared that this monument could act as a rallying cry for the Rebellion. It had to be conquered, for the glory of the Immortal Emperor.
But when the Imperial Knights arrived, nobody was there. The entire city appeared to be evacuated. Was it a trap? The Imperial Knights decided to examine the city, block-by-block, to check for any ambushes.
Once the entire city was cleared, the Imperial Knights reported for duty...only to find that two of their members, jiokuy and Tiruin, were missing. A report from the Imperial Police cleared up where jiokuy was; he appeared to view the Imperial Knights as being doomed and sneaked outside the city to join up with his rebel buddies. He has been held in detainment for further interrogation.
jiokuy was modkilled; he was a Rebel Persuader.
The second Imperial Knight, Tiruin, was found dead in an alley dumpster. The murder appeared to have been quick and (relatively) painless. A quick search of his body revealed nothing remarkable or interesting about him, and he was acclaimed as a martyr.
Tiruin was an Imperial Soldier.
As the Imperial Knights entered into the normal routine of lynching, The Overseer barked, ordering the Knights to continue the assault against the rebels. The Imperial Knights has already been exhausted after a house-to-house search, and demoralized by the winnowing down of whatever little loyalty is there left.
"Rio de Luz is a very strategic mining facility. We take that out, and we gain access to every one of their rebel tunnels and---you maggots just don't follow orders properly, do you?"
There was some mummer of dissent. For the first time, the Imperial Knights were countenancing mutiny.
"You say my orders are suicidal? Well, of course they are! But that's because we now outnumber you. Even if you do manage to lynch one of us Cybrids, we'll just kill you back, and in a war of attrition, we'll eventually prevail. So we get to dictate how you die, and because I still retain some loyalty towards this unit, I grant you an honorable death against the Rebellion that we have united ourselves against."
zombie urist screamed, "I am loyal to The Overseer, not to the Cybrid glitch that replaced him! I will rather die than to serve your illegitimate orders."
"You will die, zombie urist. But if you do not wish to be killed heroically in battle against the Rebels, then you will die unheroically against the inevitability of the Cybrids."
Toonyman, Toaster, and GlyphGryph reveals themselves to be Cybrids and win the game!
Dariush and "zombie urist" terminated by Cybrids!
"You can still be killed by us at any time, you realize that?" Toonyman scowled. "Just because you aided us today does not mean that you may be that Metagen scum we've been searching for all this time."
"I find," Toaster begins, "that this Metagen question distracts us from the potential of controlling both the Rebels and the Imperials. After all, I'm still a high-ranking Imperial Commander, and GlyphGryph can inspire and coordinate the Rebellion. How long do you think it'll take for the invasion fleet to arrive?"
"Thirty-six hours."
"Then we'll prolong the war between the Rebels and the Imperials for thirty-six hours," said a cheerful GlyphGryph. "Maybe even convince some of them to surrender peacefully to the Cybrids and become converted themselves!"
"Then let's get to work then," said ToonyMan cheerfully. "Another batch of Trojan Horses are arriving to Mars as we speak, and we always need fresh meat."
Toaster picks up his transmitter and start speaking in it. "This is the Imperial Overseer speaking..."
Roles:
Toonyman = Machinatior//NEXUS
GlyphGryph = Rebel Commander/Organizer Inquisitor//Analyzer
Toaster = Imperial Overseer Inquisitor//Duplicator
zombie urist = Investigator/Imperial Officer
Megaman = Imperial Soldier
Tiruin = Imperial Soldier
Dariush = Rebel Snowman
jiokuy = Rebel Persuader
Night 1:
Toonyman converted GlyphGryph (to Cybrid).
zombie urist investigated Toonyman, found him to be "Unknown".
GlyphGryph invited Jiokuy to the rebel chat.
Jiokuy did nothing.
Toaster did nothing.
Night 2:
Toonyman converted Toaster (to Cybrid).
zombie urist invested GlyphGryph, found him to be "Unknown".
GlyphGryph did nothing.
Jiokuy did nothing.
Toaster did nothing.
I modkilled Jiokuy, therebyending the game. Though someone did end up willing to sub for him, since I have to leave tomorrow (and could not expect to receive his orders), I decided that I should have no choice but to modkill Jiokuy*. I also sent a PM to Dariush saying that his alignment changed to Imperial since the loss of Jiokuy makes winning as a Rebel impossible, but that was before I checked for Game End and realized that the Cybrids meet their victory condition: The Cybrids can no longer be lynched or killed. Even if Toaster is killed by the Cybrids in a day lynch, the Cybrids can then nightkill a human in a night to maintain majority control over the town.
*There probably could have been other options, like randomly choosing a target for Jiokuy to convert, but I only thought of these options right after making this post. Again, I apologize.
I can write a post-mortem of all the wrong things I did in this game, but that is irrelevant. The fact is, I have done a lot of stuff and created a setup that I realized in retrospect was horribly unbalanced, especially in the sense that the Rebels' chances for victory were reliant heavily on a role that was possessed by an inactive person. The most important issue may be that the inclusion of a NEXUS meant that the town had to play almost-perfectly to contain the conversions (or had to hope for an early Metagen). The Town didn't (and couldn't) play perfectly, and I didn't roll an early Metagen. I take full responsibility for this setup. I have learnt stuff for this game, but it does mean I need to take a break from GMing Mafia games, so as to prevent a train-wreck like this.
In addition, I learnt that Imperial Overseer/Rebel Snowman dynamic did not work as intended, because ToadyOne refused to let people use the same account. I've been thinking of an alternative...instead of the Overseer/Snowman/Ghost being granted an account (which wasn't really used at all in this game), Overseer/Snowman/Ghost gain access to all Imperial Officers' reports, and Imperial Officers must give truthful reports until they get converted to Cybrids. Reports seem a more useful source of information than being able to anonymously talk to the town, especially when someone else is also anonymously speaking as well (though Cybrid Mafia #2 showcased an example where anonymous talking could have been important).
Deleted Outtake
"I find," Toaster begins, "that this Metagen question distracts us from the potential of controlling both the Rebels and the Imperials. After all, I'm still a high-ranking Imperial Commander, and GlyphGryph can inspire and coordinate the Rebellion. How long do you think it'll take for the invasion fleet to arrive?"
"Thirty-six hours."
"Then we'll prolong the war between the Rebels and the Imperials for thirty-six hours," said a cheerful GlyphGryph. "Maybe even convince some of them to surrender peacefully to the Cybrids and become converted themselves!"
"The human species is very resilient, even in the face of rational defeat," said a somber Toaster. "Never underestimate them and their tendency towards bravery and loyalty to Terra."
"Bravery? These were the most cowardly Imperial Knights I seen. Now if you are talking about the Rebel guerrilla forces fighting for independence on Mars, or about the struggles of Unitech's bureaucrats to increase efficiency, of course their bravery is uncontested. But most of humanity is quite frankly mewling sheep, to be shepherd by great men like us. Cowards to the last, and never loyal to Terra, but instead to their own skin. But obviously, an Terran commissar like you would never admit that his entire job is based off an lie."
Toaster and GlyphGryph quickly get into a long and drawn-out argument, complete with ad hominen attacks, brazen insults, and a complete lack of discussion of how to actually manipulate the Imperials or the Rebels. Toonyman sighs. "I swear, when we do get to Homeworld//Desire, we'll only replicate the same social structures and divisions that we sought to destroy in the first place."
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Topic: Cybrid Mafia #4 - Game Ends (Read 22152 times)