Darkness

The Foot

Techno-Fear

George

Darkness was a secret organization built by a single man: Master Mind. It exists purely for his personal power, with the ultimate goal of world domination. It seems to have begun as a small team of super-villains, but grew within a decade to an international secret organization with a budget of millions, hundreds of faithful minions, and dozens of ruthless specialists. Together with his strategic advisor Zanshin, Master Mind planned and succeeded in robbing the Australian government of their ability to cope with metahumans (like his agents). Vigilantes were killed and the loose-cannon department of Internal Affairs was broken with a small nuclear weapon (which coincidentally levelled part of the city of Cairns, Qld.) They then infiltrated and in 1990 took control of the government.

From a position as a trusted advisor, Master Mind manipulated the Prime Minister, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, as well as top members of the military, other advisers, visiting politicians, members of Parliament and Senators. An ultra-secret covert operations unit with enormous funds, Black Bag, was created to perform missions to obviously wrong even for the covert-ops units of the Army or intelligence agencies. Darkness continued to maintain several secret bases, each staffed by a hundred or more masked minions.

Minions of Darkness were selected from likely social and psychological archetypes and trained and given mental conditioning for loyalty, obedience and ruthlessness. They wear glossy black wet-look armoured bodysuits with matching boots, gauntlets and masks; also goggles, headset short-range scrambled radios and utility belts supporting a nightstick, one or more combat knives, a 9mm pistol with 3 10-round clips and a 9mm Sterling SMG and 3 30-round clips. Minions may also masquerade in civilian clothes (normally retaining their armour beneath it) or army uniforms (with their connections army gear is easy to get).

Master Mind. A mutant who appears as a fortyish, distinguished-looking man, with conservatively short black hair graying at the temples and brown eyes. He stands 6'1" tall and is of medium build (he retains his youthful athleticism, but he's actually in his mid-sixties!). Diabolic alignment. Super powers: control others, teleport.

His real name is Pierce Canning - or that's what his ID says. No one really knows who he is or where he comes from. His accent betrays his English origin, and he is classically educated, speaking five languages and is a competition-level fencer.

Master Mind is the founder and leader of Darkness, and he rules it with absolute power. With his ability to coerce and blackmail, he exercises nearly absolute power in government, and the arms of government at his bidding regularly ignore the calls of human rights, legality, and common decency. Zanshin adds a deadly-keen mind to improve his plans. Zanshin is occasionally his confidante. He lives on a private rural estate and is always accompanied by at least two metahuman cohorts, dressed as Army bodyguards. Ostensibly he is the least well known of the PM's advisers, a rich nobody.

Zanshin is a Swede who spent many years in the middle East as a mercenary before turning to self-enlightenment through martial arts and Zen philosophy. He is a super-soldier and student of the martial art of Zanji Shinjinken-ryu. He's Master Mind's strategist, a man who has completely subdued the passions within him to the rule of his mind, a brilliant warrior and a deadly opponent. He has a few cybernetic enhancements. He is the only SPB in Darkness who is there completely by his own choice, and he is the only one to whom Master Mind extends even a shred of trust. He retains several false identities and bolt-holes; his current identities include Colonel Napier, the officer in charge of Black Bag, and General Foss, the rarely-seen Commander of the Defence Force.

This organisation was taken wholesale from the pages of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness game from Palladium. I did add a couple of contract mercenary assassins.

A World-Wide Secret Organization For World Domination Using Technology.

Drawing inspiration from Marvel Comics' AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) and Hydra and Image Comics' Covenant, Techno-Fear (or TF) is a vast organization which began as an alliance of a group of unscrupulous scientists, who wished to obtain the respect - yes, and power - they felt they deserved because of their intelligence and discoveries. Their working objectives are (1) to maintain their personal security through secrecy (2) to dominate the world through new technologies.

At the top is the Council. The size of the council varies but currently there are twelve members. Each is a genius-level scientist with vastly more ambition than scruples. The council is ruled by the Overmind, a synethic gestalt created by partially fusing the intellects of all the council members. It exists only as a computer construct in a network, but it has vast intelligence, can work on many problems simultaneously, and can follow through logic chains (and make reasonably accurate predictions of the short-term future) with appalling speed. In reality certain personalities on the council make themselves felt more than others but everyone has input, and the Overmind has access to the memories of everyone (although no member has access to anyones' but their own). IQ is about 45, ME 36, and MA 27. The Overmind's weakness is it's own permanent memory - encrypted with a 128-bit algorithm it is stored redundantly in every director's base, unknown to all but the Overmind.

Council members direct their pet projects personally and may oversee several secret fortress facilities. The only Australian member, Reg Hoag, has backed all TF encounters with PCs to date. The base in the Solomons is under his personal direction.

TF works by building huge secret bases, staffed by indoctrinated personnel, which do pure research but also analyze stolen new technologies from a variety of sources. Each base works on many problems simultaneously but successes are communicated by the Overmind throughout the network.

The base grade of TF personnel is the minion. Minions have military-style training and mental conditioning for loyalty, including a hidden compulsion to die if they are induced to reveal information about the TF leadership (for example by torture, drugs, psionics or magic). Minions wear black armoured bodysuits, with purple gloves, boots, webbing, and hoods. Their hoods contain a gasmask, goggles, a scrambled short-range radio, and a biomonitor. If the biomonitor detects that the wearer falls unconscious, it detonates a 50-gram explosive charge inside it (doing D4x10 HP and double SDC damage to the victim).

Minions are all armed with standard TF ion pistols with 3 clips and combat knives. Squads are units of 8, and each squad will include one TF plasma rifle (with another minion carrying the tripod) with 3 clips and one TF grenade launcher (typically loaded with gas shells - TF use tear gas, sleep gas, hallucinogenic gas, retch gas and mustard gas).

More valuable than minions are the technical and research staff. These people are recruited for their skills, but receive identical training to minions, in addition to being brought up to date with the latest developments in their fields. They wear identical outfits and carry TF ion pistols.

The shock troops for TF are their exo, robot and vehicle crews. These are TF minions with specialist training. They wear identical outfits and all carry sidearms. TF does not actively recruit metahumans (except as test subjects), but a few are included in their ranks. Promotion by physical power is not permitted: in TF it is brains and the ability to use them that count.

TF directors and their staff are the aristocracy of TF. They are usually augmented in some way (often by cybernetics), with the level of augmentation corresponding to their rank. Since they never return to normal human society, a normal appearance is unimportant and they often look entirely alien (energy auras, insectoid bodies, multiple headjacks, etc.)

"George" is a euphemism for a gangster boss. Originally every town had several Georges, all maneuvering for a bigger slice of the money and power which came from drug distribution, fencing stolen goods, prostitution, extortion, and loansharking (gambling is legal in Australia). The term now refers to both eastern Australia's organized crime operation and to its shadowy leader. Up until 1982, no one gang or syndicate controlled as much as an entire city, let alone more than one. In 1982 began a 3-year period of bloody conflict between gangs. This was a progressive conquering of all the eastern seaboard gangs by a small group of skilled criminals led by a faceless leader with a lethal metahuman hatchetman - Fadeout. The leader called himself George. At the end of 1985, all the other crooks called him boss.

The one other criminal operation George never conquered was the Foot. This is partly because they operate almost exclusively in the Asian community, and partly because they operate mostly in Queensland, but largely because the Foot do not wish to be noticed. The organization extends from north Queensland to Adelaide, but it is concentrated in the capital cities. It has little purchase in Canberra and is rather weak in Brisbane (where the Foot have a strong hold). It derives its money from extortion, private sponsorship, gambling, union contributions, prostitution, contract killing and theft, and - above all - the sale of illicit drugs and information. It has numerous legal businesses under its aegis which serve to launder funds and support the syndicate.

The organization has about 500 actual operatives and many times more unknowing contributors. It has informants placed throughout the state police forces and state government agencies, and to a lesser extent in federal forces and agencies (since the advent of the DIA, and then Darkness, it has been losing ground in this area). The structure consists of many minor employees, thugs, legal workers etc. and small or large companies and businesses. Their agency work is organized by agents. The agents know that they work full time for George, but know little about the organisation outside their own area.

The agents have a hierarchy, being ruled by a manager or director in each region; and each state is ruled by a council or board member. The council has 7 members (Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns), and all but one are men. The chairman of the council is George, the same George who founded the outfit.

The lowest level of operative is the thug or goon. Usually they wearing armour t-shirts under civilian clothes, and own a firearm (usually a handgun, sometimes a cut-down shotgun or rifle, occasionally a SMG) and one or more melee weapons (knives, knuckles, blackjacks or coshes, garrotes or chains, razors, baseball bats etc.).

The next level of operative is the agent. They usually have some combat training and are supposed to avoid dumb errors and getting arrested. Usually they wear concealed flak vests or stylish kevlar coats, if not then an armour t-shirt. Armed with one or two firearms (minimum is a handgun, optional cut-down shotgun, SMG or assault rifle) and an optional melee weapon (usually a knife). Some carry one or two hand grenades.

A special kind of operative is the hit man. George sends exceptional agents overseas to training camps, and the ones that come back are skilled with military weapons, explosives, and sniping. Always wear concealed body armour. Armed with one or two handguns and a weapon of choice: usually a SMG, assault rifle or sniper rifle, sometimes heavy military hardware. They often carry hand grenades and have access to explosives, suppressors, and surveillance gear. Each regional director has access to 1D4 hit men.

In an effort to counteract vigilante expertise in fisticuffs, George has indentured some Thai kickboxers from a drug lord in the Golden Triangle. They speak English with an accent and are easy to spot. 1D6 are available to each board member. They hold armour in contempt and rarely use the pistols they are required to carry.

George also retains several specialists. George's right-hand man remains the SPB Fadeout. The Sydney board member has Mako (a mercenary), Frenzy (an inexperienced but viciously talented SPB killer), and Apshai (an experienced but not very smart SPB) and several ex-DIA cyborgs). The Melbourne board member has Flash (another SPB).

George's origin is a secret not known even to Fadeout. In the mid to late 80's, an SPB going by the name of The Phantasm had staged a brilliant series of burglaries. He had run afoul of the local gangs, who hadn't cared to have their territory trespassed on, and they'd beaten him badly. He had vowed to never have to bow to another two-bit hood, and had begun using his powers to gain personal power rather than jewels or art. The Phantasm had retired, and George had arrived.