Enlightened Rule by Science
Construct
Symposium #FS9710 maintains a number of bases in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each Convention has its own headquarters really. But the entire Symposium considers one place its number one base, and here lie the major education centers and primary laboratories of the Symposium. Here, too, are kept the main arsenals. And that is San Francisco State University, found in southwestern San Francisco, and the Stern Grove park north of the campus.
Headquarters
The local Union claimed San Francisco State University decades ago, tearing it from the grip of the Tradition superstitionists in a swift coup. And with that victory, they also obtained (and sanitized) the Node at Stern Grove. The school is run and populated by oblivious Sleepers, of course. Enlightened and conditioned agents of the Union infiltrate every level of the staff, from professors to administrators. The entire university is kept normalized, save for one department: geology. Here the doors are secured, the walls reinforced, and guards patrol.
The geology department encompasses three large laboratories and two main offices. Here all manner of experiments and studies are carried out on soils, tremors, fault lines, and more. Most of these studies seem at first glimpse to be fairly mundane, if as advanced as Sleeper technology allows. But more frequently, the Enlightened agents behind this department plan their next physical exploration of geological sites in the area.
Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a Technocratic headquarters without a more advanced setting. The geology department is just a front, and the primary means to be transported to the real base, which lies beneath Stern Grove. A secret panel on floor of each lab opens into a man-sized capsule, allowing the transfer of one agent at a time (or three through each tube). Through measures of Correspondence, these polymer tubes zip the agents along a winding path a couple miles north, shooting them upwards and safely onto the floor of the Transfer Room, which contains a stronger magnetic grav-field to keep the agents on their feet and not imbedded on the ceiling when the tubes eject them!
From this chamber, the real base sprawls forth into long, steel corridors. Bright lighting keeps the quake-reinforced walls illuminated at all times. Barracks, offices, laboratories for all kinds of scientific investigation, and of course arsenals await the needs of the Technocracy. There are even hydraulic lifts that rise up into the concealing, forested park above. Paths through the woods and holes in the canopy permit the departure of Technocratic vehicles.
Other bases of the local Symposium includes the Syndicate’s e-banking offices called CurrAm Direct on 3rd Street, in the Financial District (northeastern San Francisco); San Francisco Police Headquarters for the New World Order, located in northeastern San Francisco not far from the Civic Center (and close to several federal investigation bases, including the FBI and the US Marshals); the labs of DNA (see the Crusading Cavaliers TUG for more information) include Progenitors and their own laboratories in Silicon Valley to the south of the San Francisco Bay; and not far from DNA’s complex is the software manufacturer, Crystal Ideas, a front for Iteration X and its own constructs.
Nodes
The Node in Stern Grove was once a towering and ancient sequoia tree, surrounded by few others of its kind. Its roots reached deep into the earth and its sap was the source of great power for the superstitionists. When the Technocracy took over, they did not uproot the tree. To sanitize the Node for its own uses, however, they drew the great tree down into the earth and sealed it in a cell, bombarding it with sunlight filtered through special solar panels. Its sap was carefully and slowly drawn into special sanitization units, and skilled botanists kept the tree healthy at all times. It serves the Union still, and to date the superstionists believe their enemies simply tore the tree down.
Defenses
Both the geology department at SFSU and the Stern Grove base are subjected to intensive anti-dimensional barriers to block all forms of external surveillance. They were also built with massive earthquakes in mind, and the reinforced walls are virtually elemental-proof. To boot, masterfully written computer security measures keep out unwanted hackers and trespassers at doors and internal systems. Stern Grove is not patrolled, but a powerful graphic emanation (read: illusion), combined with natural camouflage, hide all traces and fool all scanning of the base that was hollowed out and built beneath the park’s roots.
Backgrounds & Characters
All members gain the Construct Background at ***. All other Backgrounds must be purchased and acquired normally. The construct commands a communal Level 3 Node of primordial Depth.
Citizens
The Union considers all students and staff at San Francisco State University as their proles, and they’re generally correct. Some staff members there are actually unEnlightened agents that teach the syllabi that the Union expects. The actual bases are manned by hundreds of unEnlightened but aware and low-ranked Citizens, from troopers to secretaries and more. All in all, Symposium #FS9710 estimates that it has close to 6,000 employees wittingly or unwittingly in its service.
