He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche "Beyond Good and Evil" (1886)
Near future, year 2026, modified Earth setting (to account for a variation in technological development.)
Vampires exist, as they have for a long, long time, ageless and hard to kill and thus fancy themselves apex predators who use their resources and influence to ensure that they cannot be assailed by common humanity.
Society does not know this, or the way the Eternal, as the Vampires call themselves, have maintained a policy of culling humanity but not destroying it, to profit from it. Through the long centuries, the initial cull policies of removing the brightest, the most creative for turning have morphed into a policy of turning beautiful people into vampires. The eldest were the great minds of their time, but they've also become set in their ways.
The Vigil has also existed from ancient times in a variety of forms, collecting information as best it could against Vampires, though it found few successes in hunting them. They have, instead in secret, cultivated the wealth and resources necessary to eventually confront vampires when the opportunity arose. Vampires have long since dismissed the Vigil as being a passive organization and a non-threat, as a second-rate Illuminati that focuses on economic interests and corporate affairs. They never bothered to crush the Vigil and the Vigil has been very good about masquerading as an organization that has long since abandoned its original goals in preference of simply pursuing profit, while faking scientist deaths and undertaking other operations to 'move the needle' toward their actual goals.
Through the course of the 20th and early 21st century, the Vigil has been content to continue this policy of appearing harmless, even as it took to the bleeding edge of technological research; a combination of extensive corporate espionage and sponsored research and development have yielded considerable leaps forward in a variety of technological fields. The Vampires, in their arrogance, do not realize that the plan is to advance to a point where they can level the playing field against vampires and fight them toe to toe.
The recruits are your characters -- they have a variety of skills, backgrounds and reasons for associating with the Vigil; they are all victims of vampires who have survived their encounters, and have been modified to be able to even the score.
These characters are sent forth, armed with the best equipment their very rich patrons can provide as a kill-team; their orders are to assassinate vampires. Ideally, they are to preserve their secrecy as much as possible, but killing vampires is the priority.
Oh, and the first operation will be killing an Edward Cullen type. How cool is that?
Specifics of technology will be discussed, but I have a general idea of where I want to draw the line.
Inspirations; Movies - Munich, Blade Runner, Blade, The Lost Boys, Escape from New York. Books - the works of William Gibson, Dracula and Twilight, at least for the idea of killing an Edward Cullen type first. :)
No thank you on half-vampires and daywalkers. This is about the victims.
In Character Info:
Vampires have styled themselves the apex predators, the ones that take the predator that kills all the other life on Earth, and have fallen into this pattern of considering humanity prey. Some of them try to view humanity as a threat, but the oldest, the ones in charge, are set in their ways and sometimes have a hard time adapting to the idea of humans advancing beyond the means of the time that they were made into a vampire, a time when they were rampant over the earth. Hunters have come and hunters have gone, but with limited means to do damage to the Eternal, their name for themselves.
Organizations too, have come and gone, hunters trying to eradicate vampires under the auspices of the church and some kings, but they have failed, largely due to the inability to match the vampires unparalleled strength, speed and powers; the natural abilities that make them the predator and humans the prey.
One organization has watched and waited, understanding that until the day arrived that they were able to match these strengths and perhaps overcome them the fell rule of the Eternal from the shadows would continue unabated. Through the long centuries, members lived and died, compiling and securing information on their enemies, but not moving against them hastily. They invested assets wisely, cultivated research and learning, infiltrated institutions, worked with a slow purpose and a goal that spanned many lifetimes of effort, waiting for when science would allow them to match or even outmatch the vampires. The vampires, in addressing more overt threats, violent threats, derided the Vigil as timid scholars. The Vigil played the long game, looking for a time when there would be a means to fight the vampires effectively. The world slowly changed, but the Eternal did not change with the times as well as the Vigil did.
Now, in 2026, that reckoning has come.
Out of Character Info
The characters are essentially a team of hunters enhanced with cybernetics that are hunting vampires; the cybernetics are still a prototype phase, but they work and the enhancements are considerable in their performance and scary in their implications -- the characters are giving up their humanity to fight the inhuman, and that Niezstchean element of the RP should not be forgotten. They are more like what they fight than they wish to admit.
Characters are selected for many reasons, but they boil down to the basic imperatives of 'skills' and 'motivation.' Vampires are more visceral and are not, generally, creatures of training and self-discipline. While a few are brought into the fold for their skills, they are more often picked by their masters out of some sort of lust, and so there are quite a few artist and beautiful people types among the vampires. The Vigil, by contrast, looked at their recruits carefully for the skillset and mentality of those they are enhancing to fight the vampires -- they can build the body, after all.
Therefore, the characters are picked for what's in their heads; not just military types, but sharp investigators, cyberwarfare and hacking experts and people that can move easily through most places and speak the native languages. The implants enhance these abilities, but the characters quickly come to realize that the implants give them a fighting chance, but they do not assure victory. Only creative thinking and their skills can do that.
All the same, for a variety of reasons ranging from wanting revenge to desiring the ability to walk again without a wheelchair or even an idealistic desire to free humanity of this scourge, the characters signed on for the long haul, with their flesh and blood as down payment.
This is interesting. I might make a talented human with flash precognition. Not enough to significantly unbalance things, but definitely enough to make him extremely useful. As for what role he'll play, I was thinking either long range sniper, or strategic advisor so that his abilities fully complements what he does.
This is interesting. I might make a talented human with flash precognition. Not enough to significantly unbalance things, but definitely enough to make him extremely useful. As for what role he'll play, I was thinking either long range sniper, or strategic advisor so that his abilities fully complements what he does.
Sounds like a plan and will review accordingly. I think the conversation there needs to be about how the precognition works and how accurate it is.
Sounds like a plan and will review accordingly. I think the conversation there needs to be about how the precognition works and how accurate it is.
Cool. I have it set for five minutes currently, and I'm debating whether to make it flash based or uncontrolled, or controlled. Also for accuracy, that is somewhat of an issue. One I'm not sure how to go about myself. I mean technically if the future is always in flux, then it shouldn't be more than guess like in terms of accuracy. But if not then it has the potential to be broken.
Also, I edited the Optic HUD, as the communications suite takes care of the HUD and whatnot. Now it just allows him to have alternate modes of vision.
@ZAVAZggg I kinda stole your idea for the theme of my CS sorry-- though I don't think I did it as well.
@HeySeuss Here's a character. Tell me if I made her too OP? I tried to balance her, but she still may have a bit much in the way of destructive power, and I can dial that back if you need. My thinking was since I figured there may be more "strong" characters, that are complete Ubermensches (in a good way), I wanted to make someone who was kind of very physically frail, and used other means to keep up, and used the technology to enhance her pursuit of those means. She's a bit like a scorpion-- easy to step on, but if she can get her sting out it's probably over for you.
-- Quote from Ulrike Arámbula's time with a radical leftist student group at University
Before her file was mysteriously (but, for reasons I have been made privy too) closed, investigators and criminologists expended many hours of research attempting to track commonalities between Arámbula's various disguises and what can be seen of her clothing in rare public appearances. As of writing, none have yet been made available to me. Likewise, psychological profiles have been conducted vis-à-vis her clothing, and while no common psychological threads can be seen between what she wears-- it has been said that her reflective, typically drab and dark clothing, and disguises, reflect a desire to disappear. That isn't very helpful. It can be assumed that her clothing in any circumstance is 'plain' and doesn't stand out from those around her. That isn't helpful either.
However, while she isn't easily identified based on style, she is limited by her physical frame. She is a slight woman, quite small, in fact-- not weighing much more than 100 pounds max, her general figure is an unknown at this time, but based on her disguises (subject to change) she is quite toned or her size. She isn't taller than 5 feet, which limits her male based disguises significantly to certain scenarios. It can be assessed that she prefers female and young male disguises, and in her unaltered appearance she has an androgynous air that she can seemingly choose to switch to feminine or boyish on a whim. While she has changed her hair style and color frequently-- it can be assumed based on pictures of her time in University that she has naturally dark, straight hair, seemingly preferred long. She also has naturally brown eyes and a slightly tan complexion. Her lips are naturally dark, plump and full, and it is unknown if she is missing any teeth or has any scars.
SKILLS AND TALENTS ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ● DEMOLITIONS ; It is this writer's opinion that this is the chief skill of Arámbula. Having trained with all manner of conventional and improvised bombs, including incendiary and EMT pulse devices of all types for well over a decade-- Arámbula is a threat to any individual, group, or piece of property with a bomb in her hands. And without a bomb, she is more than capable of gathering the material she needs in her environment to make one. She prefers to combine her skills in outright combat, sneaking around the side lines while using mines and explosives strategically. Overall, her accuracy with thrown and launched explosives is near mechanical and there are even rumors that she is capable of disarming a nuclear bomb, though no evidence exists to verify this. ● STEALTH ; While Arámbula's chief skill may be in causing loud explosions-- the clear second is, perhaps funnily enough, easily in her abilities to conceal herself. In public incidents, and other classified instances while she was still an active Eco-terrorist-- she has shown an outright uncanny ability to evade detection. She is nothing less than a master of disguise-- not just using clothing and make-up, but also acting techniques, plastic surgeries, overloading her body with hormones in the case of a male disguise, and even using mental performance enhancing street drugs to better allow her to focus on her character role. ● GYMNASTICS ; Gymnasts tend to be shorter, so it's no surprise Arámbula excels here. Years of urban guerilla fighting and intelligence work with various violent revolutionary anarchist sects and eco-terrorist groups has left Arámbula with the skill and stamina to perform various advanced parkour and gymnastic maneuvers many would be hard pressed to follow up. She is especially effective in city settings, where all of her skills can be utilized to frightening effect.
MOST EFFECTIVE FOR ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Intelligence gathering, scouting, undercover operations, assassinations, demolitions and trap setting.
MODS AND EQUIPMENT ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ● UPGRADED VIGIL NERVOUS SYSTEM MODS ; Arámbula has many standard issue Vigil implants. While her body is not hearty enough to handle some of the more intensive or combat focused implants, the ones she can take, she has upgraded further in order to make her more effective in what she can do.
● CYBERMOD//UPGRADED COMMUNICATION SUITE ; Along with all the basic features of the communication suite, Ulrike has further upgraded her own to allow her full control of her organs, allowing for her to efficiently control her body and push her limited physical abilities to their max. As well as this, the suite allows her to lessen the potency of some senses, thus boosting the power of others. This feeds into her optical HUD. ● CYBERMOD//UPGRADED EYE AUGMENTATION ; Along with all the base abilities of the standard Vigil eye augmentation, Ulrike has upgraded hers with telescopic sight and a simple AI, showing her estimations for angles of throws and shots from her grenade launcher, allowing for more accurate strikes-- as well as constant reminders of traps she has set. The optic ability is boosted by the communication suite's control of her senses, allowing for more accurate environmental information when it comes to angular estimates for explosions. ● CYBERMOD//NEUROREGULATION ; Finally, Ulrike has upgraded her brain with a neuroregulator-- allowing for efficient use of her myelin sheath in each thought, as well as the production of neurochemicals essentially allowing her to do things like stay up for much longer than is humanly possible-- or achieve hyperfocus by producing the effects of a brain enhancing drug. Using these abilities for too long result in her feeling completely drained and typically sleeping for several days.
● VIGIL BODILY MODS ; While her body wasn't capable of dealing with many upgrades outside of her nervous system, the few that Arámbula has undergone, increase her abilities ten-fold.
● CYBERMOD//ARTIFICIAL HEART ; In her final encounter with a group of Eternals her sect had been dealing with, things went about as wrong as they could have gone for Ulrike Arámbula. Somehow, their plan was discovered, and the Eternals struck them first. Ulrike the group's resident explosives expert, lost a lot-- much more than her legs, and later even her heart-- aside from losing all of the people she knew and loved, she lost most of her body in the beat down she received. It was all the Vigil doctor's could do just to keep her alive-- most of her body is now 'artificial,' but not particularly enhanced beyond average human abilities, as her weak constitution could only handle so much. One of the enhancements she DID opt for, she actually helped to create-- her artificial heart serves as a timed bomb, much more powerful than the one in her head. Connected to her various neural implants, if she registers herself as in combat or danger, and her heart stops-- it will trigger the explosion of something she calls 'a Big Bang Bomb.' Aside from this, the heart is more efficient than her last one, and it has boosted her stamina greatly. ● CYBERMOD//REINFORCED LEGS ; While most of her body was shattered but more or less in tack, the Eternal that had been playing with her cut her legs off from below the knees down. So while most of her augmentations are negligible, and give her the abilities of a human-- her legs are enhanced, allowing her to move with muscle she doesn't have, jump to heights previously unreachable, and kick with a much greater force than her otherwise frail body should be capable of.
● FREQUENTLY USED GEAR ; Aside from a personal abundance of clothing, Arámbula makes frequent use of Vigil electronics. Both in use on their own, and in the development of her own explosives.
Ulrike Arámbula LOVES explosives, this much is apparent after spending jest a few minutes with her. She enjoys supplying her teammates with whatever custom explosives they request and is always excitedly working on some new custom design. Either physically or mentally. It's a bit childlike, really:
● EQUIPMENT//CUSTOM STANDARD ISSUE GRENADES ; Standard "Disco balls" made to have a higher light yield and be lighter to carry. She always has a few of these on her. Just in case. ● EQUIPMENT//"Dice" CUSTOM INCENDIARY/FLASH BOMBS ; If Ulrike had a signature weapon, this would be it. These small, blue balls of TNT are the size and shape of dice. But rolling these dice causes a toned down, blue version of of the flash of light from the "Disco balls," as well as a small explosion, capable of chipping concrete, and about a foot of a plume of flame, sent in the direction the dice were thrown in. They're impact based bombs, and not grenades-- so duds are a possibility purely due to how hard they may be thrown-- Ulrike compensates for this by throwing multiple dice at once. You can produce custom amounts of explosive yield depending on how many dice are thrown. She carries many of these on her person, more or less depending on the mission-- but always a few. Getting hit with a handful of these in the chest may not always kill, but it will definitely send you to the hospital. ● EQUIPMENT//"Smoke star" CUSTOM SMOKE BOMBS ; Similar to "dice" Ulrike's smoke stars can fill a room with black smoke in less than a second when thrown directly at the ground with force. She likes to keep a few of these on her person, in order to better escape trouble, should it find her. ● EQUIPMENT//CUSTOM EMT GRENADES ; Not proper EMTs-- but they have a similar effect. Essentially these are mini-conductors that release a high voltage . ● EQUIPMENT//"Logic bomb" CUSTOM BOMBS ; A collaborative effort. These "dice" style impact bombs contain nano-tech that can infect computers with custom viruses. Ulrike isn't a hacker, nor is she a nano-technician. She merely built the bombs. Mission specific. ● EQUIPMENT//CUSTOM "BEC" GRENADES ; Bose–Einstein condensate is a scarcely understood 'exotic' state of matter, by creating a seal with gas trapped in this state, hybridized with fermionic condensate are how Ulrike has gone about making 'cryo grenades.' ● EQUIPMENT//"Discus" CUSTOM MINES ; Landmines, with a twist! Aside from being lighter and more powerful than the common landmine, these are built with a sap-like cool-plasma polymer on the bottom. This allows these mines to be places in many more interesting positions than just slide along the ground-- with gyroscopes built in, they detect when they are upright and function normally, or can otherwise be placed against a wall or upside down, and will function based on motion sensors. ● EQUIPMENT//CLAYMORES ; Self-explanatory. Ulrike has built custom claymores to be lighter and deliver a higher yield. Motion triggered, of course. Depending on the mission, she'll bring a few to cover her bases. ● EQUIPMENT//SATCHEL CHARGES ; These are the big boys. Depending on the assignment, Ulrike can make these in the field, but they will always be timed. The custom ones she makes in a lab can be timed or trigger based, and have massive explosive potential. As few as 10 of her charges, properly placed, can take down any average large skyscraper. A single eternal stands no chance if he runs into one of these. ● EQUIPMENT//"Ante Up" CUSTOM 40MM GRENADES ; Standard 40mm grenades for B4. Customized for thrown use as well as to cut down on unnecessary weight. ● EQUIPMENT//CUSTOMIZED TWIN SWITCHBLADES ; Ulrike isn't an expert in knife combat, but these knives aren't really for that. The metal is hybridized with flint in order to have the two serve as a permanent means for producing fire. These are invaluable for her making improvised bombs that aren't molotovs in the field. ● EQUIPMENT//"Bidi Bidi Bomb Bomb" CUSTOM CHINA LAKE GRENADE LAUNCHER ; Also known as "B4." For when combat is inevitable, this is Ulrike's go to. Instead of magazine loaded, it has been adjusted to be internally loaded, holding three grenades inside at any time, with a pump of the weapon chambering the next grenade. It has been customized to fire all of Ulrike's custom grenades, which can be used with or without the gun. The weapon is painted completely black, has a rudimentary sight (common on the M79), and all along the muzzle are names etched in green (her fallen comrades from the Green Faction), there is a bright green star painted on either side of the stock, and like most of Ulrike's weaponry it has girly phone charms hanging from it-- the muzzle and the stock. ● (EXPERIMENTAL) EQUIPMENT//"Ol' Dirty Bastard" PROTOTYPE XM203-5 ROSE ; It actually is rocket science! This is the 5th incarnation of Ulrike's attempt at improving on the M202 FLASH 4-chambered rocket launcher. She began working on this weapon in an attempt to not only create a single weapon that could destroy a building, but one capable of doing it from up to a mile away. The firing system, as such, is much larger than the original M202 FLASH, over twice the size, in fact-- both to house the 4 much larger rockets, and to house the conductor that generates the power for the launch system-- a large Tesla coil that juts out of the back. The entire weapon is probably 6 feet long and a mess with wires connecting to both the power system and circuitry for the onboard targeting system. The rockets themselves are miracles of science: Essentially, they house miniature hadron colliders-- in each are chambered secondary hydrogen atoms, and primary gold ions-- which, once fired, are pushed to supersonic speeds and repeatedly collided with each other while the rockets fly through the air, this creates a soup of quarks which have extremely high levels of heat. Waste heat from the creation of this slurry is used to further propel the rocket toward it's target. Since the micro colliders in the rocket aren't the same size as LHCs, nor can they generate the power required to produce near light speeds that is typically used to create this gold big bang slurry-- Ulrike compensates for this by trapping the gold ions in an exotic state of matter known as the time crystal, through temporal crystallization, this means the particles rub against themselves through different instances in time, thus producing friction and amplifying their heat by several times, allowing them to easily reach the levels of heat found in the sun. Thus, miniature sub-thermal fusion can be achieved upon impact, when hydrogen atoms are smashed into each other upon impact. These mini-nukes use the energy of the big bang to produce explosions found in the core of stars-- Ulrike appropriately calls them big bang bombs (though she will point out they are rockets) and there are only 4 in existence currently. They only work with this prototype weapon, and they do have a higher than average tendency to dud (the entire weapon system has myriad flaws that Ulrike would gladly discuss with anyone who asked). That being said, this deadly weapon has the potential to allow a single person to destroy a city with enough ammunition. Ulrike can't use it-- it's far too heavy and taxing-- she can't even chamber a single rocket without help, let alone fire it.
"Why? If I carried a gun... getting what I want would be too easy. But it would ruin the chance at getting what we need. My passions would lead me to shooting every fucking bloodsucking leech my eyes can identify. That could only go on for so long-- It would be nice for a day, maybe, but it would set us all back in taking out the important ones."
"███████████████████████████████?"
"Because bombs are honest. With a gun, you basically have to try if you want to hurt yourself... but bombs always carry the threat of, excuse the pun, blowing up in your face. If you want to properly utilize a bomb, you need to be constantly thinking. That makes keeping to your task a lot easier."
"██████████████████████?"
"The task always has to be the most important thing in your mind. When I thought the enemy of this planet was men in power I was willing to die for it-- and that hasn't changed now that I know who the real enemy is."
-- Interview with from Ulrike Arámbula
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Very little is known of Ulrike Arámbula's childhood. The little that is known is either negligible or possibly falsified for her own protection. Here is what is compiled that can be verified:
She was born to a single mother, ████████████, on ████████████ in a ████████████████████████████████████. She attended ████████████ and ████████████ for middle and high school, and skipped several grades. Though physically small, frail, and sickly from a young age-- she also displayed clear scholastic ability, and had an affinity for chemistry as early as 8 years old. While the few that knew her would describe her as generally happy, she was also clearly eccentric and imaginative from a young age-- perhaps this is why she was bullied along with her sickly nature, (a trait she quickly learned to hide). She has personally commented, though, that this was due to her overwhelming passions toward what she wants, and the grander task she feels she needs. Arámbula's personality is therefore generally joking and light-heated, if task oriented. She can be quite confrontational about some issues, and is even prone to judging others and applying her own shifting grey morality to them. She is also a bit childish, and resembles a 'mad scientist' to some.
There is more that can be directly verified of Ulrike Arámbula's time spent in University and after. Though this is still only a general snapshot:
Arámbula graduated high school as early as 16 years old, and though she came from a very poor background she was able to cover most of her expenses with scholarships. Double majoring in physical chemistry and inorganic chemistry, after 4 years she had BA's in both subjects, and continued her schooling, hoping to earn a PHD in theoretical chemistry-- it is around this time that her skill in explosives developed, and that her membership in local leftist clubs in the school would turn to her performing illegal acts, allied with groups outside of the school. She would spend her 20's becoming acquainted with the radical underground organizations of ████████████, honing skills she would perfect when coming under the Vigil's employ. It is unclear exactly when, but around the time she was 25, perhaps due to mounting tensions and a need to focus on what she saw as her primary task, Arámbula dropped out of her PHD program, despite nearing completion. Her thesis was on the use of exotic forms of matter in the construction of bombs.
After this, Arámbula's public appearances were nearly nonexistent, and her movements became difficult to track. It is known that this is the period that she cemented her connections with Eco-terrorist sects around the globe, and her crimes of minor property destruction and small-time robberies became assassinations and destruction of whole buildings and monuments. Some years after this, her sect met with an underground contingent of the Eternal-- though at first the Eternal merely manipulated her sect into doing what they wanted, soon, her org began to rebel. This directly led to Ulrike Arámbula becoming a member of the Vigil.
Throughout her years as a militant anarchist and Eco-terrorist before joining Vigil, Ulrike Arámbula was involved in some way, in dozens, possibly hundreds, of campaigns of foreign and domestic terrorism in the name of saving the environment. First, from the threat of man, and later from the threat of the Eternal. Listed here are a few of her verified campaigns with the Green Faction:
● CRIME AND DATE ; ██████████████. ████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████. ████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ███████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████. ████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████████████████████. ████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ████████████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; █████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; The first known instance of Arámbula's sect interacting with Eternals. Taking a small job for an underground group of Eternals. Hijacking fuel trucks that were en route to a blood donation center. Occurred approximately three years ago. ● CRIME AND DATE ; █████████████. ████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ██████████████████████████████████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; ██████████████████████. ████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; The first instance of Arámbula's sect actively interfering with Eternals. Bombing of an Eternal owned building. Occurred approximately two years ago. ● CRIME AND DATE ; Freeing of a small group of Eternal blood slaves, failed to keep secret. Occurred approximately two years ago. ● CRIME AND DATE ; █████████████. ████████. ● CRIME AND DATE ; Publicly listed as 'the bombing of parliament,' the true goal of this operation was the destruction of a base Eternals frequently used for easy access to trafficked children. It is unknown how the Eternals were tipped off, but the sect was decimated. Members not drained or outright killed were left bloodied, crippled and near death. This is the last known operation by the Green Faction. Occurred approximately two years ago.
