Rotes & Procedures

Blatant Procedures, or simply, “Procedures” involve the application of Enlightened principles beyond what the Masses have been conditioned to accept. The use of Procedures is officially frowned upon outside the safety and security of a Construct. Most supervisors and Symposiums maintain a level of flexibility in their regulation of Procedures, especially in areas where the Ascension Conflict is particularly aggressive, or Reality Deviants routinely endanger the Masses. Still, even in the most dangerous regions of the Front Lines, an operative is expected to utilize solo judgment and appropriate decorum. Agents failing to show the appropriate discretion when applying Procedures should expect consequences including demotion, reassignment, and reprogramming. Operatives failing to respond to such measures ultimately find themselves relegated to Degree Absolute.

All Triggers Locked (•• Forces / •• Matter)

When you absolutely, positively must kill every mother­ fucker in the room, accept no substitutes. This wildly vulgar Procedure — a measure of last resort — allows a Black Suit or

cyborg to snatch from a distance the guns of every person in the immediate vicinity, snap them back to the agent’s hands, merge them all together into a single line of firearms, lock their triggers, and fire them all simultaneously until the guns run out of ammunition. There’s no way to aim the resulting hail of bullets but so long as the agent doesn’t care about collateral damage, there’s not much chance of escaping the carnage, either.

System

Inspired by S. Shankar’s enthralling Indian film Enthiran (“Robot”), this Procedure uses Forces 2 to grab all the guns, Matter 2 to fuse them, and a combination of both to turn a bunch of different guns into a single one-use autofire weapon.

For simplicity’s sake, assume that this attack demands at least six successes at a base difficulty of 7, and requires three turns of concentration to activate: one turn to grab the guns, one turn to fuse them into a single line of weapons, and one to open fire. The attack fills the surrounding area with gunfire for three turns, inflicting seven dice of lethal damage to everyone within that area, per turn, unless they’re under sufficient cover to block bullets. Treat the attack area as a half-circle explosion with a Blast Area (see Mage 20, pp. 437-438 and p. 455) of 15. Major and minor characters may try to soak the damage or dodge the blast, but bystanders and cannon fodder are simply mowed down.

Okay, But Where Are the Guns?