The Eclectic Meme Conspiracy - A script

[techbot 12]

Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, 50 to 100 years after a civilization ending battle between humans and superheroes on one side and AI on the other.  The apocalyptic event that  ended both the planet's final limited resources and the war itself was triggered by the exiting of the richest man on the planet, off the planet to Mars in one of his many rockets.
The cataclysmic events which included earthquakes, continental upheaval and the melting of the polar caps resulted in the decimation of all major cities.

England and Wales became a maze of hundreds of tiny islands, Scotland highlands  remaining unaffected , the lowlands are like the rest of the old United Kingdom. Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg - No longer exist. The final remnants of the ages of Kings and Queens is over.

Africa and Australia are hundreds of huge islands separated by the areas originally below sea level, now lakes and seas of many shapes and sizes and a hundred dangers. Oil is scarce and what little is left is difficult to refine. Air travel is non-existent.  

Flight is almost non existent save for battery powered drones. Batteries are in high demand, are rare and expensive.

There are four emerging city states and the expectation to add a new city state every 6 to 12 months. Nothing goes in or out of the Arctic, a land once covered in ice. Since the war it remains the Dark Continent. It’s not known if Santa Claus still lives at the North Pole.

Current City States Online

Dublin

Pop ¼ Million

Style: Steampunk, Radioactive Swamplands (Children Of Men, Reign of Fire), Irish Mythology

A distorted mirror image of Bree

Whilst everything is powered by steam, this means the large electrical hydro stations supply most of the electricity to the city. The remaining is powered by individual stations or steam engines owned by various factions or ethanol provided by the walled towns and villages that pepper the Neo Eireann islands.

Cairo

Pop ½ Million

Style: Egyptian symbology with Dieselpunk, Desert (Mad Max), King Solomon's Mines-Indiana Jones

A distorted mirror image of Rohan

More access to the remaining petroleum deposits (tho lacking the pre war infrastructure) Cairo boasts more prewar diesel based vehicles than the others but

Cyberia

Pop ⅛ Million

Style: Cyberpunk, Dungeonpunk, Invasive Species, Star trek/Logan's Run style post war colonies run by idealists and idealougues.

A distorted mirror image of Rivendell

Gated community of the rich and powerful from the other three cities. Built around a series of giant subterranean pre war bunkers

 Designed for the enormously rich but not rich enough to leave the planet to live out the nuclear fallout before emerging some 20 years with a cache of pre war pre AI technologies to reassert their global positions.

New Washington

Pop 1 Million

Style: Cyberpunk, Retro Arcades, Post Consumer consumerism (Night City or Blade Runner)

A distorted mirror image of Gondor

Powered by a huge pre war nuclear reactor buried deep beneath the surface at the heart of the giant walled pyramidal city.

 

City States In Preproduction

Maya

Pop 1/4 Million

A distorted mirror image of Moria

Style: Inca, Rainforests, Dungeonpunk,

A South American City state that provides a commercial centre for thousands of tiny towns and villages that populate the South American Continent.

Neo Rome

Pop 4 Million

A distorted mirror image of Numenor

Style: Roman Greco, Volcano, Lava Mines and caves

With influence stretching from the British Isles to the Adriatic sea This Neo Roman Greco City state, reflects it’s Imperial and Christian background with the Vatican City it’s smaller twin sibling.

 

Future Planned City States

PanAfri

Pop 1 Million

A distorted mirror image of Valinor

NeoMoscow

Pop 1 Million

A distorted mirror image of Minas Tirith

Mutants,  Cyborgs, PSIbots and Superheroes.

The Wartasaurs, The Rabbit People, The Mousemen, The Boars, The Lizard People, Orcs, Trolls, Vampires, Minataurs and the Pig People. A result of Pre and post war DNA modifications and the radiation. Nothing of which hasn’t been written before. Most stick to themselves forming factions, tribes, ghettos and towns. But there are many who travel to or inhabit the city states, as representatives of gatherers for their tribes.  

The difference between a Psibot and a Cyborg is:

 a Cyborg is a human with implants, the modification affects limited to the organ being replaced, PSI bots on the other hand were born, or rather grown by the AI consciousness during the war as an answer to the increasing powers of the various superheroes and metahumans. The AI  computed that CPU was better grown than created from the increasing rare metals and minerals.  

The AI army was made of organic and nanite components and their control over their organic and nanite functionality bordered on magic.

Severed from the hive mind after the destruction of the AI , these Psibots were left to rot in battlefields and dump lands. Some however survived and developed a limited sense of self. Loathed by the survivors of the war, these reclusive beings most often become rat catchers and zombie killers, whilst a few have joined mercenary and pirate factions. Most however eventually lose their sense of individualism and return to their catatonic state.

You play a Psibot recently found(after 70 to 100 years) in a dump and brought to Mr Blue the repairman - a master of Crafting and general friend of Psibots.

Since the war, most of the remaining superheroes are employed by Corporate executives and some of the wealthier politicians as bodyguards. Superheroes and Psibots were (and still are to some extent) mortal enemies. Tho today unless a n executive sees a profit in interfering with a Psibot for whatever reason they are  not going to sanction possible loss to their property (the superhero) for the sake of a feud. on the other hand, when growing an individuality. Both  have to deal with the trauma of disjointed memories of the barbaric nature of superhumans unleashed or the cold efficiency of the Psibots.

It is perhaps unfair to compare the two. Psibots, while merciless in their killings and utterly terrifying to the humans, had no sense of hatred or cruelty, no more than a hammer or a nail. They were tools.

Crafting and Commerce with Mr Blue

“The Art of Crafting” says Mr Blue “s knowing that the price of something and the value of something are rarely the same”.

Nobody knows if Mr Blue is a wizard.

Nobody really knows if wizards exist.

But it is said that Mr Blue has a repair shop in every City State and a junkyard just outside its walls. It’s said that no matter where or when you go, If you enter his little workshop you’ll see him city behind his bench fixing an old toaster from the 1940’s or a transmogrifier from 2040 or converting an electric toothbrush from the 1990s into a tachyon inverter.

How many City states are there? How many Mr Blues are there?

Each repair shop, has a workshop were many of the locals learn Mr Blues craft and convert the rubbish brought in by the destitute, the scavengers, the Floresmen and the PsiBots, into working components and gadgets, or broken down into plastic chips to be converted into crystals - the foundation of the PsiBots powers.

Nanites:Silicon and Carbon … sand and plastic.

 The cornerstones of a good rat catcher.

Truth is most PSi bots are dedicated zombie killers and the cities only remain standing because of them, but they don’t know that. And anyone that does is saying nothing. In a world littered with garbage, it is fitting that the lowest of the low, the Psibots, feed on carbon reconstituted from the planet's plastic bags and fishing nets.

It is said that Mr Blue will buy just about anything you have to sell.

Areas where the radiation is just about low enough to survive has had entire areas reclaimed from what was once the refuse dumps of well-to-do suburban pre-war societies. Miles and miles of tin cans, nappies, motor vehicles and the crap of an entire race of beings with no regard for their own home has been converted into almost livable communities. It’s not much but enough to create places with maybe a doctor and or a teacher or some farmers  with crops and wild flora and fauna. A lot of which would be unrecognisable pre-war.

Each day merchants are seen leaving the Blue Workshops with cartloads of recycled toasters, or refrigerators or FM transceivers or Phase Magnets, maybe accompanied by a few mercs or if it's really valuable cargo a Psibot. The journeys might be as short as from the junkyard outside the walls of the city to the shops and stalls inside the city.

Or they might be week and month long journeys to the other known cities. Often treacherous, plagued by mutants and roque superheroes. Rabbit people, Wartasuaoroeses,  Rat people and the single gendered MouseMen scour the deserts and waste lands looking for easy prey.

Mutants, the result of genetic modifications, radiation levels or both, equal humans in number. Originally used mainly for aesthetic reasons, the 1% had long since gravitated towards the  life enhancement and novelty that these modifications provided them and their offspring.

But Humans, Mutants superheroes and Psibots are all outnumbered by the Floresmen -

Homo Floresiensis.

 Long extinct pre-homo sapiens brought back by pre-war scientists to be a new workforce to prop up the Capitalist ideal amid the decline of petroleum resources.

Freed during the great apocalypse the race is perfectly suited to the greater wastelands  - seemingly immune to radiation. Their numbers unknown, living completely secluded save for rare moments at market fairs, their continuous supply of goods to Blue Junkyards and as an unrelenting force when retrieving one of their kin (dead or alive). Their adaptation to the harsh world of today surpassed only by the Psibots.

This is the second age of Homo Floresiensis.

There are stirrings in the North…

The little Hobbits bring stories to Mr Blue, so too do the merchants and the travellers, there are stirrings in the North. Tall buildings once quiet now spew plumes of smoke and fire. But no one enters or leaves save for the carts of machinery and pods.

Zombies are increasing in number and state. Not the stupid bumblings of the newly undead but the evolved intent of zombies with a hundred years of synaptic restructuring.

Orcs and Trolls, once shy and nocturnal have become bold and increase in number.

Could the AI have returned?

What of the  Psibots, can they be trusted? Usually loners, many Psibots have recently congregated and formed factions of their own. Would they re-connect with the hive mind if given the opportunity?

Factions:

Political parties, Criminal Organisations, Street gangs, Secret Societies, Corporations, Militia, Revolutionary Freedom Fighters, Guilds, Bandits, Tribes, MotorCycle Clubs and Religious Sects all fighting for survival, all vying for agency however they know best.

The Techbot are a group of Psibot monks  forbidden from joining any faction thus in essence making them a faction too.

Opening Scene

Location Dublin :

Part 1: Headquarters of Unknown Dublin Underground revolutionary movement.

Part 2 : Mr Blues workshopMr Blues workshop.

Red: Street Surgeon (Angry then friendly)

Green: Revolutionary One ( Abrasive)

Orange: Revolutionary Two (Friendly, talks a lot)

Mr Blue: Repairman (Emotionless)

Main Mission 1:1 Wake Up

You blink.

Two humans are observing you with fear.

You are restrained.

One human speaks.

Green: Do you know who you are?

You do not understand the question

Orange:Do you have a name?

You do not understand the question

Green: Do you remember how you got here?

No. (silence)

Green: are a bot. Kinda half human half robot,

Orange: but not like a cyborg. That's a human with implants, you were born this way.

 Green: If you’d call it being born.

Orange:Go easy on it. A friend of ours, Mr Blue, found you in his Junk yard. He’s got junk yards and repair shops in every major city. Not that there are that many since the war. Anyhoo that’s where you come in. To beat the super heroes the AI came up with you guys. It figured with resources depleting an’ all, it needed to grow CPU power not make it like before (from sand and rare metals), single consciousness but bred like clones, half organic - half nanites. The Psibot.

Green: And everybody just wiped everybody else out.

Orange: Now most of that technology is beyond our knowledge illegal or forgotten.

Green: With the AI destroyed the Psibot just fell dead on the battlefield, except some started rising. No memory, some couldn’t even speak or walk, most died.

Orange: But a few gained a sense of identity. Like you

Green: They are pretty much hated because of the technology - because of the nanites, but they are also in high demand as mercenaries, because of the nanites.

Green: Is any of this getting through?

No

….

You blink

Green: Here take this. You need it to keep you alive. It’s a shot of the potion. If you don’t take it every 24 hours your nanites will not be able to function and you will die.

You take the potion

Time passes.

You blink

Green: Here take this.

You take the potion

Main Mission 1:3 Basics

Red: You fucking kidding me, You brought a Psibot into this city? Are you fucking mad? If the Techbot… if they find out they will kill you for fucking with one of their kin, if they don’’t find out one of the corps will kill you and take it.

Orange:It’s not an it, it’s a them. It’s name is Psibot.

Red: Fucking original. Look I do ‘borg … implants …human implants.

Red:  I don’t know shit about the Psibot.

Orange: First off we know they can interface with any human cyborg implant, ANY. So that’s a lot of ground covered already. Surgically insert whatever needs to be inserted and the nanites will do the rest.

As for Psibot upgrades they’re there to be found. During the height of the war there were hundreds of thousands of Psibot, now there are a few hundred… if that. All that tech is out there waiting to be recycled, just like every other bit of tech we still have left.

You blink

Green: Here take this.

You take the potion

Main Mission 1:4 Training

Orange:You need to begin your training.

Orange:Your right hand can summon a nanite katana or a nanite blaster. Both of these can be upgraded by chips at FAW so as soon as we crack the safe insert the chips and you’ll find exiting the building a lot easier.

Orange:You’ll need the upgrades. Most corporate execs have superheroes as bodyguards, Daredevil Captain Flag,  the Black Terror

all them old school fuckers so used to tellin’ us what is what.

Now they grind like the rest of us.Once the safe is opened and the alarm is raised, it will be up to you to handle the super heroes. Do this and you are free, you are on your own.

Main Mission 1:5 Prologue

Green: The deal is simple, You help us break in FAW and you get your potion, we get the weapons

What about it?

You blink

Green: Here take this.

You take the potion

Green: If you don’t help us tonight you won’t live another week. We have no more potion.

You compute: “You revived me knowing I have a limited lifespan”.

Orange: “Look, it’s not as bad as you think. There are a lot of Psibot out there so the demand for the potion is high but so too is the supply .You simply need to make sure you have enough income to cover your outgoings understand? And be careful with the upgrades, you start on that path and you’ll need more income to cover the higher quality needed.”

Orange: “can stay with us for a while but it will be better if you get your own place before one of your kind finds us. They won’t understand.

They will help you get a supply of potion and maybe they will take you in … or train you or something.”

" I don’t really know what Psibot do”

    You maximise your energy

    You maximise your health

    You enter a helicopter like craft

Orange:They won’t be expecting us by air. Since the war there is not been enough oil to maintain airforces. Any alternatives were blown out of the sky. There are drones and small atols, but nothing that can go any distance.

Won’t they blow this out of the sky too? You’re thinkin’ Most anti aircraft will be pointing out of the city towards the wastelands and the other cities. Our journey is but three miles. This is a one way flight. We get up there, we leave through the front door.

Main Mission 1:5 Battle

•     You upgrade your nanite katana
•     You upgrade your nanite blaster
•     You pick up 12 potions

 

•     You fight Daredevil and his boomerangs.

 

•     8 potions are destroyed.

 

•     You and your team escape.

 

•     Your FAW reputation is decreased by 1
•     Your Peoples Freedom Fighters reputation is increased by 1

Main Mission 2:1

Mr Blue: You will need an apartment. One that’s secure, safe and cheap. I’ll ask around.

Red: As it so ‘appens I’ve come across a Psibot upgrade, it’s some kind of ocular enhancement device. And I’m giving it to you for nothin’ on account of you keeping your mouth shut about me when you me up with other Psibot. I wanted to notify them asap but it wasn’t my place.

Mr Blue : Don’t worry about that . You did the right thing . I’m sure The Techbot will be glad that a faction went out of its way to protect one of their kin

Red: What you needs is a silicon transmogrifier. You can literally turn sand into nanites - silicon. Takes time but it can be done. Nope, no idea where he’d get one.

Also he should get one of them universal translators. Since he can interface with any human borg implants he’d be able to use one of ‘em. An’ since nearly everyone who works uses one on account of there being so many peoples languages and so few language learnin’ schools, nobody would notice the difference. ‘Cept of course his brain is on view for everyone to see,under that glass helmet.

 But he could wear a hoodie.

You wake up in Mr Blues warehouse.

You blink

Here take this.

You take the potion

Main Mission 2:2 Silicon transmogrifier

Main Mission 2:3 Universal translators

Main Mission 2:4 Meet The Techbot

Main Mission 3:1 Make Some Money

Side Missions:

Dublin 001 : Meet the team and get the quantum computer.

Dublin 002 : Retrieve the bike from the local bullies

The plot twist here is the gang are the good guys. The player helps them prevent bad drugs getting on the street in exchange for the bike and thus make allies.

Dublin 003 : Destroy the Neon Advertisement     

Making friends with the neighbourhood. Setting up your alliances and reputation.

Dublin 004 : Search the Junkyard

An introduction to crafting

Dublin 005 : Protect the shipment

An introduction to commerce and the secondary mechanic: recruiting NPCs for non realtime missions.

Dublin 006 : Kill three zombies

Main  PVE Game loop

Dublin 007 : Steal the new formula

Upgrades

Dublin 008 : The Weed Grower Seeds

Semi legal activity

Dublin 009 : Protect the protesters

Plot twist - De arrest a protester before they are shoved in the paddy wagon.

Dublin 010 : A friendly chat with the local slumlord

Plot twist. Instead of the landlord repaying the deposit to the tenant as agreed resulting in the player playing the deposit to the tenant and taking over the apartment

Dublin 011 : Release 10 pressure valves

Steampunk City requires constant monitoring of water valves in city and suburbia.

Dublin 012 : Take Out the Scabs.

Results in Player’s faction taking over Slumlords entire portfolio.

Dublin 013 : Fuck the Water Company!

Instead of blowing anything up the bomb is actually to blow up the road after the water company is annexed in the name of the local community.

Dublin 014 : Baggage Heist

Dublin 015 : Intimidate the Nightclub owner.

Results in Player’s faction taking over Nightclub

Dublin 016 : Remove the competition by setting them against each other.

Edited September 13 by techbot
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