Bestiary

In the waning years of the 20th century, NWO White Suit agent James Michael Smith assembled the Enlightened Shock Corps (ESC) as a hardline assault team. Grinding subtlety beneath the Primum heels of his experimental Atlas units, Smith unleashed hell on mystics across the globe and its related Realms. Captured mages were subjected to horrendous degrees of Social Conditioning designed to convert them into willing agents of Technocratic mayhem, and then had their consciousnesses removed from their frail human frames and implanted within new prototypes of HIT Mark variants. (For other HIT Marks, see below.)

Theoretically, the success of Atlas units would allow for the creation of even more Atlas units. Smith’s plans projected a self-growing armada of cybernetic war machines. In practice, however, Atlas units tended to self-destruct in short order, often because the imprisoned consciousness broke conditioning and either committed “suicide by Reality Deviant” (that is, charged into an impossible situation and allowed itself to be destroyed), or else rebelled against its programming and turned back against the Technocratic ranks until it was, again, destroyed. Given the ruinous expenses and intricate procedures involved in the creation of such shock troops, combined with their unreliability and high attrition rate, the ESC was officially discontinued around 2015. Off the record, of course, several Atlas units remain in service; just whom they’re serving, though, is anybody’s guess.

Forged atop the consciousness of mystic mages, Atlas units possess unstable psyches whose allegiance to the Technocratic cause is questionable at best. Although these Awakened consciousnesses allow an Atlas to deploy reality-warping Enlightened Procedures, the Social Conditioning, torturous entrapment, and frequent mind-wipes jumble an Atlas unit’s guiding consciousness. According to field reports, at least one Atlas went full-on Marauder, and unsubstantiated rumors claim at least two more went into the Nephandic Cauls before they were (reportedly) purged. Each Atlas unit contains an override program and emergency remote-destruction capabilities so that a field commander can remove an errant Atlas from service. The problem with those systems, however — a flaw that led to the program’s termination — is that certain Atlas units have been able to override those theoretical safeguards, inflicting heavy casualties on the Technocratic forces attempting to bring them down.

Initially collected into a corps of 13 units, each Atlas was designated with a 10-digit code name based on their production sequence. As shorthand, the units were named Atlas One through Atlas Thirteen. According to official Technocracy records, all units save for Atlas Six and Atlas Twelve have been terminated. The truth, of course, is whatever a Storyteller wants it to be; if a Nephandic coup has taken place, it’s quite possible that more (perhaps most) of those 13 units remain in service… and that more than 13 may have been produced. It’s possible, especially under such dire circumstances, that they’re still being produced today.

Attributes: Strength 12, Dexterity 3, Stamina 10, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 0, Perception 4, Intelligence 3, Wits 3

Abilities: Alertness 5, Brawl 4, Energy Weapons 5, Firearms 5, Occult 4, Stealth 4, all other Skills and Knowledges 3

Willpower: 7 (4 when opposing the assigned mission commander)

Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, ‒5, Terminated

Armor Rating: 10 (20 soak dice, total)

Powers: Each Atlas unit is essentially a bipedal, vaguely humanoid tank with unique configurations of modular equipment. Putting all HIT Mark models to shame, these walking weapons platforms stand four meters (roughly 13 feet) tall and move with surprising grace and silence for such bulky machines. More properly viewed as robots guided by human consciousness rather than as “cyborgs” in the common sense of that word, Atlas units feature steel-alloy chassis heavily plated with Primum and mundane Matter-hardened armor, modular weapon sockets, electronic countermeasures, and all manner of scanning technology, including the VDAS feed described in Mage 20 (pp. 655-666) and sensors that provide a technological focus for Rank 1 Effects of all nine Spheres. Each Atlas unit carries between three and five of the following modular weapon systems. With an hour or so of prep time at a properly outfitted Technocracy facility, those installed weapons can be changed out for others in the set: