Levies of Illumination
Construct
Symposium #LO135001 maintains very limited influence in New Orleans proper. As with most Symposiums, each of the five Conventions keeps its own headquarters somewhere in the city or metropolitan area. But there is a main base the Symposium calls HQ, which doubles as the base for the Syndicate and Void Engineers alike.
Headquarters
Out on the Gulf of Mexico, a short five-minute helicopter flight from the docks of the city’s furthest reaches, stands a massive oil rig known as Rig #OKT931 (nicknamed the Oktopus). There are many such rigs in the Gulf, of course, but this is one of the largest, easily the size of a small town! Even Hurricane Katrina did not faze it much. Its upper decks and refineries support a few thousand oil workers of every level. Smoke plumes rise up from black stacks. Above this industry rise offices, where the Syndicate rules its beast of steel and oil. Floating around the rig is a small fleet of ships, most of which are scouting and transport crafts. Some are actually gunships, however!
The underwater pillars that hold up this rig descend thousands of feet to the sea floor, anchored there by the best maritime architecture. At the feet of these pillars lies a sprawling undersea base, accessed by two methods only: the secured elevators in two of the eight pillars, or by submarine and docking in the appropriate, secured bays. The underwater base has narrow, undecorated halls, not unlike living in an unmoving submarine. The barracks are small and spartan and the labs unattractive, though fully fitted. Of course, the hulls are reinforced to withstand the pressure and more: the Void Engineers are well aware of the dangers of Reality Deviant “sea monsters”. The hulls of the base could probably withstand direct torpedo assaults, never mind the ramming nose of an angry Rokea. Additionally, the underwater shipping bays maintain the Symposium’s small submarine fleet.
The Oktopus is considered the main base for the Void Engineers (and the Aquatic Exploration Teams) and the Syndicate, though the latter also maintains offices in New Orleans’ business district. The Progenitors maintain their own private labs in the Oktopus’ sub-aquatic station, but also keep a lab run by the Missi River Exploration Group in the Venetian Isles, which is a section of New Orleans’ eastern peninsula. The New World Order does what it can from its multi-media conglomerate tower, NO-NBC, in the western business district. Iteration X occupies itself with outdoing the Void Engineers’ own technological designs down at the base of the Oktopus, but also maintain a branch of robotics manufacture for Mechadyne, Inc., in the central Dillard District.
Nodes
Some of the crude oil drawn up by the Oktopus rig isn’t just oil. It seems that some of the deposits in this part of the ocean are charged with the remains of more than just caches of ancient sea life. Some of that life was fantastical, even by primordial standards, and when these organisms finally turned into oil deposits over the eons, they proved far more valuable than mere gasoline. The Syndicate and the rest of the Union contains, transports, and harnesses thousands of gallons of this unusual oil, which is refined into functional liquid forms of Primal Energy. It is this energy that has focused the greed of the Syndicate and turned Symposium #LO135001 into little more than a fuel depot for the North American Technocracy.
Defenses
In addition to its reclusive locale cutting it off from average threats, the Oktopus keeps what its Sleeper employees consider paranoid security, which was strong even before 9/11, but is even more beefed up now. Doors demand keycards, guards walk regular patrols, and boats armed with sea mines, machine guns, and torpedoes cruise around the rig. Government contracts helped the Syndicate keep the arsenals legal. The entire structure is reinforced with the strongest materials available, especially titanium steel.
Indeed, the Oktopus seems to shine in the sun almost blindingly; this is also an actual scientific technique to reflect Correspondence attempts on the stronghold. Correspondence from within is not so blocked. The eight supporting pillars are also sensitive to disruption and vibration, and cameras are equipped at every angle of the rig above and below the water. The base itself boasts triple-reinforced walls and mounted guns to discourage sea creatures of all types of getting too close. Because of its Technocratic paradigm, even the sub-aquatic station maintains an even keel on the immediate Gauntlet, cutting it off from the rest of the sea’s more “natural” environment.
Backgrounds & Characters
All characters gain the Construct Background ***. All other Backgrounds must be purchased and acquired normally. Bear in mind the locale, and that Sleeper society Backgrounds will be less common. The construct commands a communal Level 5 Node of entropic Primordialism.
Citizens
There are close 3,000 employees, all Sleepers, that work at the Oktopus. And 90% of these proles are oblivious to the true nature and goals of their Enlightened masters. The technicians and troopers housed in the sub-aquatic station, of course, are quite aware. The same demographics go for the Union’s bases scattered in the city proper.
