Jump to content

[OpNet] Read This If You Can See the Future


Alex Craft

Recommended Posts

I've been talking to a precog out by way of Calcutta - pretty good one, from what I know. I'm a little hazy on certain points, due to a linguistic barrier and the difficulty of interpreting what he sees as ecstatic visions, but he seems to think something big will be going down fairly soon. Well within the next month, I think.

I can't be absolutely sure of the validity of this, but I think he's onto something. An oddball probabilistic flow brought me into contact with him (not something I'm interested in discussing further), and that kind of thing usually only happens to me when big trouble is in the offing.

Anyway, his information is ... vague, to say the least, and my own prognostic abilities aren't really up to more than a day or so of lead time. So, I was hoping one of the couple of other precogs online here could throw in their two cents. Same with anyone else who might know something. I figure the Project and maybe a few others have already caught something (since my guy isn't all that special), but indies like myself are kind of out in the cold.

What I have:

• A group somewhere is brewing up trouble. My man says they are 'gifted by the gods,' and I'm pretty sure he means 'novas.' (This is deep India Syndrome land.) I have no further details, except that at least some of them are either good at fighting or are hiring such people (see below).

• What the event will be, exactly, is unclear, but the sheer scale implies some kind of major terrorist attack. Possibly even a war breaking out. My man says he was attacked recently by agents (or members?) of this group, and that other little gods around here have been killed by the same. Motives for any of this are unknown, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say personal profit (or possibly religious fanaticism).

• The above could mean that India will be the site of this upcoming event, which isn't entirely nonsensical - considering the current mess about the India Syndrome. My man has some vague comments that may suggest otherwise, though. He says the killings of local novas are a distraction for Utopia (or, the great protector of the world). According to him, the real trouble is going on in (and I quote) "lands of jungles and fire ... where ancient civilizations once lived."

Regardless, I think this is a good time for me to take that road trip I've been thinking about. I'll be out of town starting tomorrow, but I will be keeping fairly regular net access - if any one has something to share.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Normally I'd keep clear of this since training is taking a huge chunk of my time but this week I've been getting briefs on religious groups.

From what I see none of the religious sects currently have both the means and the desire to take the kind of action you're describing. Unless there were a trigger event to crystalize the desire in a currently benign or neutral religious...

...

Huh. This job might be harder than it seems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not know, Alex, precognition is a shakey art at best. From what I understand, it is less accurate than stock market predictions at times. Also, it is rather easy to predict something by making vague statements with broad and general criteria.

Still, I understand your point. I cannot see the future but I can feel something building at times lately, like waiting for the other shoe to drop. A very big shoe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"From what I understand, it is less accurate than stock market predictions at times."

Quite true. If it weren't I could make a fortune day trading. Still, my friend's feedback is consistent enough to make me rather uncomfortable. The biggest problem here is the difficulty of backing up his visions. This is likely an event local to India (escalation of the war in Kashmir? that's always been a ticking time bomb), so it's pretty unlikely that a precog in, say, Germany is going to sense anything.

Of course, India's just overflowing with novas (at least a few of which are likely to be precogs), but you'd have to have a ridiculous amount of luck to get them to get together and share information.

... says the man who makes his own luck. Oh well - I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Shinjuku right now, so it's out of my hands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...

So, not Kashmir. Good lord but that was something unexpected - at least by me. I'm guessing from the speed of response and rather conspicuous presence of T2M and a few other faces in every hellhole this side of Vietnam that the big boys had indeed gotten word. Thank god for that, I suppose. I don't think I'm really up for a nova dictatorship, yet.

Anyone here on cleanup duty in Moscow or Kiev? How bad is it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It could have been much worse, Alex. We got lucky with a crew being located in Kiev, they stalled things long enough for the heavy hitters to show up. Radu Szlaniskovich is one of the most ruthless and cunning men I have ever met and the eight others he got to join up are not far behind. Big Time and Ultra-Violence were the worst and fortunately they were stopped before they succumbed to the lesser angels of thier nature (as they are oft to do).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Szlaniskovich is still at large and I think a few others might have slipped the noose as well (I did not see a record for Whisper nor Shinobi). Like I said, at least Big Time and Ultra-Violence were in custody when I left the Ukraine and the latter won't be leaving a hospital for several days. Unfortunately, they are the "simplest" of the group, merely being sociopaths.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nasty piece of business, from start to stop.

One of the more interesting things about all this is, "what made him think he could get away with it?" Szlaniskovich was appearently a deep thinker.

If he had pulled it off, I don't see how he figured he could stay in charge for more than a few weeks. From the view point of the other countries of the world, this was the kind of thing that couldn't be allowed to stand. You could argue that maybe he could hire enough elites to make the difference, but I don't see where the money would have come from.

With all the money that would presumably be opposing him, even Totentanz's fee would look pretty small, and that ignores Utopia and T2M.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ms. Mayhem and Shinobi have pretty much gone underground, or so my sources tell me.

I also hear that Cinder won't be a problem anymore.

Doc, the man failed, once ... so far. Don't think this is over by a long shot.

As for how he expected to get away with it? I have a pretty good idea and I'm probably not the only one. Had the coup d'etat succeeded, it would have held. I would have bet money on that. How long it would have held together is another matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:
Jordan Rossi:
...if that cash was coming from Szlaniskovich.
This is one of two points where the plan falls apart. He had enough money to out bid several countries? Sure, he might control one, but the US and other countries would freeze it's assets so he could get at them. That means that he could only offer potential assets.

My impression of Anna has been she is more of a 'cash on the barrel' gal. Put another way, if your customer has to win in order to pay you, then you are probably backing the wrong guy.

The other point where the plan falls apart is how he expected to keep his nova assets in line after he took over. His crew was a bunch of thugs, they would probably scatter to rule/abuse their own little groups (i.e. create their own little slices of hell for their subjects).

This doesn't sound like a sound way to oppose T2M, all of T2M, which might invade at any point at any time.

There *had* to be more to this plan than has been presented.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...