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[Taricus]

Gas masks might well be a revision given that the military should already have those.

[Chiefwaffles]

"Deep Infiltration" will be used for this phase's design relatively soon if no one else votes. Since there doesn't seem to be a particularly notable amount of discussion or even alternative designs.

[Roboson]

Yeah, it seems that that is the winner.

[Happerry]

Deep Infiltration: Taricus, NRDL, Happerry

[Chiefwaffles]

Skill Design: Deep Infiltration
[1+2,1,4+1]
Both our experience with infiltration and the previous attempt at Deep Infiltration aided us this time around.

KOSMIC is an official agency of Astria. And while it's a new one, it's very highly regarded already.
So with the right connections with the right people in the right spots, we can leverage our political capital to be able to do essentially whatever we want. Of course, this is all in theory - if we had some unlimited quantity of this political influence. But we don't. And we have to spend what we do have wisely.
One way of spending said political influence is of course on infiltration. When a government agent with very intimidating government forms stamped with a very intimidating government seal knocks on your front door, people tend to want to listen to them. With a bit of added subtlety, we can get an agent an official job in key entities and places.

While possible, the idea in practice isn't quite as perfect as imagined. In order to maintain that subtlety (while nice, a high-ranking employee mandated by the government is extremely obvious), the employee has to be given a very low-down position. With almost certainly zero form of security clearance. We can still smuggle in a weapon, but it remains on the level of current Sneaking - small weapons that can fit in small inconspicuous containers. This Skill will also be unusable in the Merkane government without some adjustments to it; the Astrian seal means little to Merkane citizens.

Our organization structure still doesn't help us here. It's no fault of the staff that worked on this Skill and likely would have plagued this project disregarding extreme luck on our part, but organizing this beyond the placement is difficult. Right now we have the Deep Infiltration agent returning practically daily to HQ for new orders and briefings. If Merkan & MOLE caught onto this, it would be extraordinarily easy for them to locate agents using this skill.

And finally, the favors that must be called in and the goodwill used up makes this very costly to execute. We can put one agent in Deep Infiltration in one theater for the whole year. Nothing more.. National Expense.

Spoiler: Deep Infiltration (click to show/hide)

Deep Infiltration: Via political influence, a single agent is placed into deep cover as a low-ranking employee in the appropriate place throughout the year. Agent can smuggle in small concealable (e.g. briefcase) weapons, but must return routinely to HQ for new orders. National Effort.

It is now the Revision Phase. Vote for a Skill and Tech revision to be worked on this phase.

[Happerry]

Right. Anyone want to try Revising some Dead Drops up?

[Jilladilla]

Something like this?

Dead Drops
Instead of risking blowing their covers, agents performing Deep Infiltration will instead have their orders delivered to them via agents disguised as couriers and mailmen.



Ah heck, I had more and I lost it. Sorry team. Another path is to try to work on the cost of it, it is a National Effort after all...

[Sensei]

I think that's already something it's capable of doing. We got lousy rolls on Deep Infiltration, but I think it might be worth saving:

Revision for Deep Infiltration: Schmoozing: Individuals whose cooperation we desire are targeted with large gift baskets, access to favors that befit an intelligence agency like arresting their rivals or covering up their own illegal and immoral doings, and blackmail, or any similar things which are opportune and effective. By spending some effort and, yes, being willing to... bend our own laws, we can gain more valuable political capitol and help more of our agents infiltrate organizations undetected, and in higher places.

[NRDL]

Deep Infiltration ( Schmoozing ): Sensei, NRDL

[piratejoe]

So, I was thinking of joining this, but I decided to view both sides and watch it for a while, so...yeah, I'm just going to wait a few turns (probably 3 or so) before I contribute anything because I viewed both sides...unless me doing that bars me from ever joining a side, in which case sorry for wasting your time.

[Chiefwaffles]

Astria still needs a proposed tech revision before the revision phase can be done.

[Happerry]

Tech Revision - Wiretap : People say interesting things when they think they are alone on the phone. With the Wiretap, they no longer are alone, and now we can listen, and get useful blackmail information, on important and less important figures of both politics and industry.

[Sensei]

Oh yeah, we need a tech revision don't we? Well, I doubt a wiretap would be a revision. So let's just go for...

Tech Revision: Make the MP54C Less Shit: For being bigger than a pistol, it really ought to hold more ammo, and achieve a better rate of fire with more accuracy. Bonus points for making it more concealable.

[Taricus]

Deep Infiltration ( Schmoozing ): Sensei, NRDL
Tech Revision: Make the MP54C Less Shit: Taricus

[Chiefwaffles]

This was already posted in the Core thread, but there's a Shadow Race Discord for anyone interested in that.

Furthermore, in response to comments on the Merkan thread I'll be giving basic mission objectives in addition to the already-planned skill/tech usage voting to the Operations Phase. In the future, at the end of each Operations report, you'll be given the objective for each theater the next operations phase.

Skill Revision: Deep Infiltration - Schmoozing
[4]

KOSMIC is of course acting in the best interests of the Astrian government and its people. Why wouldn't it be? We are tasked by our government to defend against the Merkane Menace, and we owe it to our nation's citizens to protect and aid them. Even if it means bending some laws. These laws were meant to protect the civilians from themselves; we're not civilians here.
Some things just must be done to help Astria, regardless how Astria feels about it.

We surprisingly don't have a huge amount of authority under our own government. While with some effort we can certainly change it in the future, KOSMIC was created with the purpose and authority to combat against Merkan. Not its own people. We don't have any role in enforcement & legal matters inside Astria. But that doesn't mean we're powerless here.
Our agents will be tasked to gather any valuable intelligence regarding corporations of interest while they're in operations. Including (copies) of these documents and a particularly luxurious fruit basket with our official government forms tends to scare executives even further. We can rely less on having our higher-ups do our job for us and more on our own effort, making Deep Infiltration Cheaper. And by making use of the even-more-frightened executives, we can put our agents higher-up in their organizations. Not high-up, but higher. Our embedded agents should have a tiny bit of authority and some decent security clearances.

As a result, Deep Infiltration is now Very Expensive and our embedded agents have a bit more security clearance & authority in their cover jobs. They still have to conceal their weapons, of course.


Tech Revision: "Make the MP54C Less Shit"
[6]

Congratulations! The MP54C is now not awful!

After firing the team that made the MP54 C, we successfully practically removed its flaws. Namely by just redoing the firing mechanism. The MP54 C holds a 20 round magazine and can actually fire automatically in a practical sense. Its accuracy while firing automatically isn't amazing - we can only do so much at a time - but is still more than useful for our needs. Operatives can fire the MP54 C carefully if extra accuracy is needed, and for every other scenario they can fire it automatically and it'll do fine for those purposes.

A bonus of these improvements is size. The MP54 C is now smaller. Concealment is still only guaranteed when placed inside another container, but it should be theoretically possible to conceal it on a person. People probably wouldn't notice it unless they're looking for something. It isn't a huge improvement, but it may slightly increase quality of life and make it any potential future size/concealment revisions a bit easier.

It is now the Operations phase!
Vote for what Skills and Tech to use in each theatre. No other instructions may be given.

The objectives per theatre are the following: (Note: This will be given at the end of the operations phase in the future instead of after the revisions phase.)

Human Power Inc. - A Merkane executive has publically expressed doubts regarding Astrian domination of the company. Merkane representatives are already making headway in convincing them; KOSMIC's objective is to prevent this executive from further influencing the company in any way possible. MOLE is predicted to be tasked with preventing this.

Singleton Arms - A worker's strike is underway at a Singleton factory. While the Astrian government is already planning decisive action against the strikers, MOLE involvement is likely and KOSMIC has been ordered to prevent further foreign involvement.

The Global League is currently undergoing negotiations for a light investigation into the Merkane-Astrian conflict. The Astrian government believes it can benefit from this, and rumors suggest Merkan feels the same way. KOSMIC (and without a doubt MOLE) must acquire a copy of an official report regarding the two countries to aid our diplomats in ensuring they'll come up on top.

A Merkane government official and potential Astrian sympathizer is being targeted by MOLE. KOSMIC must ensure their safety and continued support.