Enemies & Allies

[Ante]

The Aeon Society

Originally Posted By: Aberrant, Arthaus Edition, pg. 222-223

Margaret Mercer

Margaret Mercer didn’t seek to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather, Maxwell Mercer — the founder of Æon — and take the organization’s helm. She is a scientist, not a politician or an administrator. Maggie inherited Max’s thirst for knowledge, but not his managerial skills. She can get by in that arena well enough to run Æon’s Special Projects Division, though she does get frustrated that she can’t just dash out on a field investigation whenever she feels like it.

Maggie oversaw Project Utopia (among other special projects, including Argonaut, Cyclops, Pandora, Tantalus and others) for only a few months before the decision was made to spin it off as a separate, public entity (a choice that she supported). The change soon prompted the dispersal of all existing projects under different directors. Maggie kept only two under her direct supervision — Pandora (the study of psychs), and the little-known Babel Dossier. This last was established in the early 1940s by one of Æon’s founding members, Whitley Styles, as a storehouse of the eclectic and abstruse. The information within the Babel Dossier has proven useful in researching bizarre events and has led to establishing more than one Æon project (including Utopia)…

Though not officially listed as the head of Project Prometheus, she is widely believed to be its founder and it is a generally held (though unverified) truth that she is still the Director of Project Prometheus, even if only unofficially. Regardless, many Prometheans view her as a kind of patron saint of the organization and of their cause.

[Ante]

Project Prometheus

The Aeon Society for Gentleman that Maxwell Anderson Mercer originally founded in 1924 has gone through many changes over the decades, especially in those decades since Mr. Mercer’s disappearance. The Aeon Society of today has dropped the “for Gentleman” portion of its title (which was, admittedly, for the best), and has grown into something more closely resembling a large corporation than a close knit family of like-minded individuals. It is also a conflicted organization.

Originally founded on the principles of openness and trust, the Aeon Society of today is largely a closed book to the general public. Today’s common man (and woman) only ever hears about the charitable donations and disaster aid work the Aeon Society gives out to those in need, but almost never about any of the Society’s other pursuits. This fact does not sit well with everyone on Aeon’s Board of Directors, however, nor even with all of those who are not on the Board, but are in positions of authority or responsibility that might allow them to help steer the course of the increasingly unwieldy philanthropic organization. The result is an Aeon Society that is very nearly divided between those who would pursue their objectives clandestinely “for humanity’s own good”, and those who would return to a more open policy of sharing knowledge and information with anyone who would take the initiative to request it of them.

And this shows in the “special projects” that Aeon oversees. Of them, only Project Utopia has been revealed to the general public, while the remainder (whose total number is a mystery to all but a tiny handful – and they aren’t talking) have remained veiled in deepest secrecy. Even Project Utopia, the one project that has been brought out into the public’s eye, was partnered almost immediately with the ultra-black Project Proteus. Meanwhile, Project Pandora hovers on the edge of public exposure – never quite leaving the shadows, however – and the mysterious Projects Tantalus, Cyclops, Artemis, and others whose very names or total number are only rumors, remain deeply buried in layers of secrecy so black that even Proteus’ Director Thetis has trouble seeing them.

And it is out of this conflicted, secretive environment that Project Prometheus has arisen.

Ironically, considering its ultimate objective, Project Prometheus is perhaps the most secretive of all Aeon’s current projects. This is because, like the Greek Titan for whom it is named, Project Prometheus’ stated objective is to “level the playing field”, so to speak, and to take back all of those hidden fires that those in power in the modern world are hoarding, and to put them to use aiding humanity as a whole instead of the privileged minority. Project Prometheus’ founders know that this objective will frequently pit it against some of its own sister organizations, particularly Project Proteus, but even the more benevolent Project Utopia will occasionally fall within the crosshairs of the Prometheans. You see, the world is a much more marvelous – and mysterious – place than most have been led to believe, and those in charge of Prometheus know it, and they aim to share that knowledge with everyone.

The full extent and scope of Project Prometheus is impossible for even someone like Director Thetis to discern (in fact, she’s heard little more than vague rumors at this point), let alone the average citizen of the world in the year 2010, and even its own operatives rarely know what is happening within the Project outside of their own area of operation. Curiously, very few agents within the organization can identify themselves as being ‘just’ Prometheans; almost every man and woman in the organization would identify themselves as belonging to one of Project Prometheus’ three main Sections. And yet it is known that, existing outside of any of the Sections, are those who can be identified only as ‘Prometheans’ and that these individuals do not report directly to any of the three Section Directors. Exactly who they do report to is a matter of no small curiosity – especially in an organization full of people who specialize in finding out what they weren’t meant to know – but as of yet the mysterious Director (or Directors?) of Project Prometheus is an unknown.

Most within the Project believe that Margaret Mercer is their mysterious leader. Only time will tell if they are right.

The Prometheans

Alex Booth:

Profile: The liaison between Project Prometheu’s three main Sections and its much more mysterious “inner workings”. Alex Booth has been with the Aeon Society for longer than most Prometheans have been alive, and helped found Project Prometheus with Lee, Bannon and a few others, and yet despite this he still looks to be in his late forties at the oldest (ok, maybe his early fifties on a bad day). He is good-looking, of average height and build, with salt-and-pepper hair (though the salt looks like it’s starting to win the battle, these days) and dark eyes that glimmer when he smiles, which is often. While Director Stefokowski was always the straight shooter and Lee has always been the inveterate rebel and troublemaker, Alex Booth was always the politician of the group.

And so it was only natural that he left behind the dangerous lifestyle of the Aeon adventurer sooner than his peers and traded it in for a more influential, if bureaucratic, position within the upper levels of authority within Project Prometheus. For the past few decades he has worked tirelessly behind the scenes, keeping the three Sections and Prometheus HQ communicating with each other in a healthy, productive and, above all, friendly way. Booth’s position means he frequently has to play the Bad Guy in many situations involving internal Promethean politics, but he does it with charm and style and, to his credit, somehow manages to keep from losing his friends in the process.

Like Director Stefokowski, Alex Booth never goes out on field missions anymore, but is rumored to be more than capable in the field.

The Geometrid (aka ‘Geo’):

Profile: Project Prometheus’ most efficient mode of transportation (note: though he does provide transportation for the Argonauts on occasion as well, this is not his primary function and he doesn’t do it often). Geo is a small African-American man with a wiry build and a ready smile, with a warm and friendly personality. As a result, he is generally well-liked by most in the Project, though this might also be because Geo has pulled more than one Promethean out of a tight spot with his exceptional skill at both teleportation and opening warps.

It is thanks to the Geometrid that no one is quite sure just where Project Prometheus’ center of operations is located. It could be in Chicago, down the street from the Aeon Society’s old Brownstone, or it could be in some cave deep in the Amazon. Or it could be on the moon. Obviously, folks wonder, but the folks in charge apparently like to keep people guessing.

Somewhat disconcertingly for many within Project Prometheus, all attempts by his peers to definitively identify him as either a psychomorph or a nova have so far failed. Even the superhuman sensing techniques available to both groups seem unable to get a positive read on the small, jovial, and utterly enigmatic warper. It is assumed that Prometheus leadership knows the answer to this question, but so far they’ve seen fit not to tell.

[Ante]

Project Prometheus: Section 1 (The Argonauts)

Calling themselves 'the Argonauts', Section 1 is the oldest and, in some ways, the most prestigious of Project Prometheus' three Sections. Unlike most of Project Prometheus, those in Section 1 don’t simply limit themselves to taking back what’s been stolen from the world at large. They also move to discover – or rediscover, as the case may be – anything that might aid (or harm, for that matter) humanity as a whole before it can be hidden away by those who would hoard it for their own uses. Like their mythological namesakes, the Argonauts are intrepid explorers and adventurers, in search of the metaphorical Golden Fleece – that one thing – or perhaps many things – that will put an end to the wrongful tyranny under which this world suffers.

The Argonauts are truly a motley bunch; comprised of geniuses, misfits, ex-criminals, mercenaries, first-class detectives and world-class adventurers, the men and women who make up the Section 1 field teams pride themselves on being able to meet the demands of any situation, no matter what that situation is or where in the world it happens to be. They are all the best of the best: equal parts Sherlock Holmes, Indiana Jones and James Bond. And rightly or wrongly, they believe themselves to be a part of the most elite band of field agents in any organization anywhere.

Whether or not this is true, one thing is certain, being an Argonaut means getting to go on all the wildest and craziest missions and deal with the very weirdest the world has to offer, and for most of them that’s more than enough.

The Argonauts

Jake Stefokowski, Director of Operations:

Profile: The grandson of one of Aeon’s founding members, and a true child of the Aeon Society if ever there was one, Jake Stefokowski runs the day-to-day workings of the Argonauts. Jake is, so far as anyone can tell, not a psychomorph or eximorph and is now in his late fifties, with close-cropped classically-cut hair that was once blonde but is now mostly faded to gray. He is very much a “straight shooter” of the old school variety, with a somewhat military mindset. Facts that occasionally cause friction with some of his more morally ambiguous subordinates, but his genuine straightforwardness and natural charisma have so far more than made up for this.

Director Stefokowski is a major player within the Aeon Society as a whole, and everyone knows it. His grandfather was one of the Founders, and “little Jakey” grew up on the knees of and learning life’s lessons from the semi-mythical men and women who made the Society into what it is today. Most Argonauts don’t have the security clearance to know much about those brave and heroic souls who first founded Aeon back in the early days of the 20th century, but what they do know is enough to earn the heartfelt admiration of all but the most jaded Argonaut, and Jake Stefokowski is seen by many within Project Prometheus and the Argonauts as an heir to that legacy.

Director Stefokowski does not go on field missions, but he is rumored to be more than capable of handling himself outside of an office.

Lee (aka Machine Girl), Assistant Director, Field Operations:

Profile: The rumors surrounding the Argonaut’s head of field operations are far too numerous to count, and trying to determine which are based in truth and which are nothing more than ridiculous flights of fancy are a favorite pastime of her subordinates. Popular rumors include the claim that Lee is the oldest nova alive, that she is the former lover of Divis Mal (who, it is also claimed, is her One True Love), that she used to be an elite operative of Project Proteus before being dismissed for excessive violence (not an easy thing to accomplish), that she was a founding member of the original Aeon Society, and of course, the perennial favorite, that Lee was never born at all and was instead grown in a lab as part of some ultra-black super-soldier project.

Assistant Director Lee (more often referred to as Machine Girl – when not being spoken to directly, that is) has the exotic looks and the tall, slender physique of a fashion model, two seemingly cybernetic arms apparently made entirely out of heavily weathered industrial-grade steel, and the hard-living, intense and blunt personality of a career soldier - and if she is the world’s oldest nova she sure doesn’t look it. Despite her rather loud, not to say volatile, personality, and her apparent disgust for anything even vaguely resembling office work, bureaucracy-in-action, or (worst of all, by far) mission reports, Lee has shown herself time and again to be a highly experienced and capable field operative with a network of contacts and a near-encyclopedic knowledge of languages, local customs, and obscure pieces of historical trivia that puts even the most experienced of the Argonauts under her command to shame. Lee fully expects and encourages her agents to take personal pride and enjoyment from their work – she certainly does – but she also expects utmost discretion and professionalism from them at all times as well, and woe to the agent who fails to meet those expectations.

When not running a field op or dodging Director Stefakowski’s requests for the latest mission reports, Machine Girl can most frequently be found at Sul de San Juan’s local cantina with the town’s grizzled old pescadores telling dirty jokes around the cigarette in her mouth and gambling with cards or dominoes.

The Doorman (aka ‘Marcus’):

Profile: Nicknamed “The Doorman”, Marcus Grudy provides on-site security for the Argonauts underground center of operations. He’s almost as nondescript in appearance as the generic Security Guard uniform that he wears at seemingly all times. Obviously a nova, Marcus nonetheless appears as a very regular guy of Indian ethnicity, with the accent to match. His mustache is enormous, his dark hair is thinning at the back of his scalp and he has a thin build with a bit of paunch, but he is nonetheless the HQ’s main line of defense. There is a sense amongst the rank and file of the Argonauts that this is either the result of a very serious mistake on the part of the management, or that “the Doorman” really is that dangerous. Most Argonauts just hope they never have to find out.

[Ante]

Project Prometheus: Section 2 (The Eleusinians)

Like the ancient mysteries from which they take their self-assigned codename, the Eleusinians – officially known as Section 2 – work behind the scenes, uncovering the secrets of this world’s many Powers. Those in Section 2 do not go out into the field to directly investigate the unknown, as do the Argonauts, nor do they go in with guns blazing to take vengeance upon those who would make themselves gods at the expense of their fellow men, as do the Diomedians. Instead, they quietly infiltrate the offices of Project Utopia’s Science and Technology department and mine it for hidden technologies that could make the world a better place, they quietly hack into the databases of the famous Swiss Banking system and subtly redirect stolen funds meant to aid developing nations around the world back towards their intended targets, and when Project Proteus oversteps its bounds, they slip in unseen from the shadows, throw a few wrenches in Proteus’ carefully laid plans and then disappear again, all unseen and unknown.

The Eleusinians are spy-extraordinaires, genius saboteurs, high-tech ninjas and hacker-gods. They move quietly behind the scenes, slipping between the shadows cast by the planet’s most powerful agencies as they take back what has been stolen from the world by those who would rule it. The average Eleusinian is intelligent, unassuming and supremely capable. They pride themselves on being able to get past any security system, any firewall, anything period – and do it all without ever being detected. When things get seriously weird, call in the Argonauts; when things go to hell, call in the Diomedians; but if things are locked in an impenetrable vault five miles underground and guarded by powerful, taint-maddened nova guard-dogs and the best computerized security systems in the world, and you need to get at those things without anyone ever being the wiser, call in the Eleusinians.

The Eleusinians

Tanushree Samarth, Director of Operations:

Profile: A clairsentient psychomorph of truly extraordinary power, Director Samarth is an attractive but outwardly-unassuming woman of South Indian descent. Though quite attractive, she leverages the outsourced-computer-programmer stereotype so frequently applied to those of her ethnicity with such ingenious skill that even fellow Prometheans, if they do not already know who she is, often assume she is just another Eleusinian ‘tech-head’, and not the Director of the entire Section. She sees this as a sign that she still hasn’t lost her touch.

An early recruit from Project Tantalus, Director Samarth joined up with Project Prometheus very early, and was possibly part of its core, founding membership (though such things, as with so much else about Project Prometheus, are not discussed openly). In many ways, she embodies the ideals behind Section 2: she is quiet, level-headed, unassuming, focused and extremely good at what she does. The truth is that, as the hand that guides the Eleusinians, she is personally responsible for much of Project Prometheus’ overall success; a fact that few are aware of, and that no one publically acknowledges. Which is just how Director Samarth and Project Prometheus’ leadership want it.

Nigel Tomm, Assistant Director, Resources and Personnel Allocations:

Profile: A baseline Englishman moving quietly into his middle years, Assistant Director Tomm is the very definition of humble excellence and quiet efficiency. He is so quiet and unassuming that few outside of Section 2 can even remember his name. Nonetheless, he is deeply respected by the baselines, novas and psychomorphs who serve underneath him.

Director Tomm oversees resources and personnel allocation, but what most within Project Prometheus don’t realize, however, is that he oversees the resources and personnel allocations for all of Project Prometheus, not just for Section 2.

[Ante]

Project Prometheus: Section 3 (The Diomedians)

The hard-hitting, ground-pounding, shit-eating and shit-dealing grunts of Project Prometheus, those in Section 3 are the Project’s ‘option of last resort’. Known by other Prometheans as ‘the Diomedians’, the troops of Section 3 have one purpose, and one purpose only: like the hero of myth from whom they take their name, they go up against the would-be gods of this world directly - and they put them down. The Diomedians are not stealthy and skilled like the Eleusinians, and they are not world-class detectives or stylish adventurers like the Argonauts.

What they are, is dangerous.

The other two Sections within Project Prometheus enjoy a kind of love-hate relationship with the Diomedians. On the one hand, the average Diomedian is bullheaded, cocky, and about as subtle as a Saturday morning hangover – and just as headache-inducing, as often as not. On the other hand, there isn’t a man or women in the entire organization that isn’t privately thankful knowing that, if things ever go completely to hell and they ever find themselves in a truly tough spot with their backs up against a wall, an entire strike team of Diomedians will come swooping in to make things right again. And also, there is the fact that not all Diomedians are so thuggish – many take their Section’s codename to heart and try to behave with more respect for their fellow Prometheans.

While it is true that, as one would expect, the majority of the Section 3 troops are novas, many of them are psychomorphs and a surprisingly large number of them (including the Section’s Director) are baselines. Stories abound of Section 3’s unparalleled lethality, skill at arms, and almost suicidal bravery when faced with overwhelming odds, and it is an unspoken credo amongst the Diomedians that whether going up against a bunch of C-Z thugs or Divis Mal himself, they never back down and they never give up, no matter what the odds. However, like the Diomedes of legend, Section 3 also makes a point of not engaging in hubris. If they ever were assigned the impossible task of going up against Mal directly, any Diomedian would do so without hesitation – even the baselines – but if their mission were only to distract Mal for just long enough to allow other Prometheans to get out of the danger-zone, then they would do so and then they would pull back, as quickly and safely as possible.

To be a Diomedian is to know one’s limits and to only exceed them when absolutely necessary and only for the benefit of others.

The Diomedians

Brom Eneis, Director of Operations:

Profile: Flying in the face of the common wisdom of the world of 2010, the Director of Project Prometheus’ direct action and assault personnel is a baseline man in his early forties named Brom Eneis. Well-built, good-looking and possessing the kind of British accent that makes American girls melt, Brom Eneis is polite, charming in an understated sort of way, and surprisingly well-educated, given his position and duties within the Prometheans. Despite his status as a ‘lowly’ baseline, Director Eneis is a legend within Project Prometheus and is almost universally respected by everyone in all three Sections. According to the stories, the Section 3 Director has single-handedly killed no less than three combat-grade novas in combat, two of them DeVries elites, through a combination of sheer battle prowess and unparalleled use of strategy and tactics that exploited his enemies’ own weaknesses.

For this, and many other reasons, the Director has the heartfelt respect and unswerving loyalty of all who serve under him, baseline and super-human alike. For many within Section 3, Brom Eneis is the embodiment of what it means to be a Diomedian and any one of them would walk into hell armed with nothing more than a bottle of water if he asked them to. When Director Eneis quietly says ‘jump’, even the biggest and toughest nova Diomedians do so immediately, shouting ‘how high?!’, on the way up.

Jillian ‘Arsenal’ Barry, Assistant Director, Section 3 Proxy and Beta Team Leader:

Profile: Whereas Director Eneis is urbane, charming and reassuring, Assistant Director Barry (appropriately referred to as ‘the Arsenal’ by other Diomedians) is cold, aloof and a little bit scary. She is also somewhat more temperamental and ruthless than Eneis is as well. For all this, Assistant Director Barry is a capable and skilled woman, who serves as Section 3’s proxy Director when Director Eneis isn’t available, for whatever reason, and as the Team Leader of Section 3’s Beta Team (Director Eneis himself leads the Alpha Team). As is befitting a team led by such a woman, Beta Team has a reputation for being the hardest-hitting, not to say the most bloody-minded, of the three units, and its members have a reputation for being the cockiest and most belligerent in Section 3.

‘The Arsenal’, as her subordinates lovingly refer to her, is a combat-grade nova who possesses nova-class beauty and more quantum firepower than the entire armies of many third world nations. As such, it should come as no surprise that Beta Team’s specialty are missions that involve a ‘clean sweep’, extreme sanction, ‘leave nothing in your wake’ sort of mentality. While such apparent bloodthirstiness leaves many Prometheans with a bad taste in their mouths, the simple fact is that Assistant Director Barry is really, really good at what she does, and Director Eneis vouches for her, which (at least for now) is good enough for her detractors.

Jeremiah ‘Gaze’ Jackson, Gamma Team Leader:

Profile: Jeremiah Jackson is, in many ways, the counterpoint to both Director Eneis’ almost mythic cult of personality and to Assistant Director Barry’s cold-hearted ruthlessness. The Leader for Gamma Team is, despite his exceptionally high levels of Quantum power, pretty much just a regular guy. A former auto mechanic, who owned and ran his own shop in Southern California for more than three decades before finally erupting while being mugged by gangbangers, he never thought of himself as anything special and still doesn’t. Before erupting with potent radiation- and gravity-based powers his life was virtually the definition of ordinary and unremarkable. Now that he is the Team Leader for one of the direct action and assault units of probably the most secretive and mysterious organizations on the planet, his life is nowhere near as ordinary, but his level-headed, imperturbable, ‘regular Joe’ personality remains the same.

Jeremiah is an African-American man in his mid-sixties, though he could easily claim to be in his early fifties, he is of average build with average looks, plain-spoken, old-fashioned and possessing no fashion sense to speak of. He chain-smokes, drives a 1966 Ford Mustang, prefers to use mundane firearms in combat over his own nova powers as they have less chance of killing his opponents, and fully intends to go back to fixing people’s cars for them just as soon as Project Prometheus has finished up making the world a better place. Correspondingly, the Diomedians serving on his Gamma Team have a reputation for level-headedness, approachability, and a tendency to take the least violent approach to any situation they find themselves in (relatively speaking, of course).