Terminal Retrovirus

Terminal Retrovirus is a potential recruit for the mercenary squad.

Backstory

After being diagnosed with terminal retrovirus R-892, your milsec unit dropped you like a hot rock. Put out to pasture with little support, you found your way to a shadowy clinic that promised a cure but their uncertified fork of CRISPR 17.2 nearly killed you. Out of options, you bargained your way into an experimental Chem-Hive implant. So far, your Hive's specialized nanites may be the one thing keeping you alive.

-4 Strength, +7 Will, +7 Tech, +60 Hit Points, +6% Built-in Armor, -15% Stress Res and -15 Wound Res

Source

This Scourge can be recruited through the Underworld Hub. The name is randomly generated.

Starting Attributes

These Attributes come from the character Backstory and may be modified by the Starting Traits during the recruitment process.

• Reaction: 7
• Strength: -4
• Will: 7
• Tech: 0

Starting Traits

The Scourge will start with the following Trait:

• Not Much Time 1: +1 Will, +1 Initiative, +5% XP Gained and 10% chance to gain Stress if left behind on a mission if Ready status, 5% to gain double Hype on mission completion

Recruitment Dialog allows the player to choose another Trait from the following:

• Agile 1: +1 Reaction, +0.2 Move Points and +5% Move Speed
• Bull-Built 1: +2 Strength and +40 Hit Points
• Carefully Precise 1: +1 Will, +5% All Ranged Accuracy, -2 Initiative and +2% Legwork Success

Tags

The Scourge will start with the following Tags:

• Faction Insider: Due to your connections and history, you are capable of executing Legwork inside Arrowhead Security territory without undue attention.
• Faction-Ex: Left Arrowhead Security without burning bridges and is still able to operate within their territory.
• Gambler: Gravitates toward the high-stakes tables, gambling backrooms and Syndicate-owned casinos of the zone.
• Retrovirus R-892: One of the 2000 known and catalogued retroviruses active within the human genome, R-892 is incurable and highly unpredictable. Researchers have classified R-892 as a 'chimeric activator,' as it often interacts with other latent retroviruses in the genome, amplifying its effects or creating entirely new pathogenic behaviors.
• Milsec Protocols: Well-informed and practiced at the rules and channels used for milsec escalations.
• Trusts: Has established a lasting trust with <member of squad with milsec background>. Back in your early years with milsec, <squad member> was a friend who made the grinder bearable - a good laugh and a steady hand when the pressure hit hard.
• Suspicious: Is suspicious of <random street splicer Contact>. <Contact> did save your life but you still can't bring yourself to trust the Street Splicer.

Recruitment Dialog allows the player to choose an additional relationship with a Contact from the following:

• Wronged: Has done wrong to <random Gang Boss Contact> that will not be forgotten or forgiven. An expensive and risky raid against <Contact>'s drug lab earned you a custom Chem-Hive.
• Wronged: Has done wrong to <random Dockmaster Contact> that will not be forgotten or forgiven. A risky and rough intimdating run against <Contact> earned you a custom Chem-Hive.
• Obligations: <Scourge> owes 2 Obligations to the street splicer who implanted the Chem-Hive.

Starting Cybernetic

The Scourge will start with the following Cybernetic:

• XTAAN Chem-Hive [unique implant]: grants Scourge class, +3 Strength, +50 HP and -15 Wound Res

Starting Appearance

To return this recruit to their default appearance, copy this text to the clipboard and select "import" from their appearance tab:

---BEGIN CYBER KNIGHTS APPEARANCE--- 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 ---END CYBER KNIGHTS APPEARANCE---

Recruitment dialog

(This recruit can be introduced by any friendly mercenary)

Friend: Let me introduce <recruit>. I know <recruit> from back when we were young pups, just getting into the milsec game. A lifetime ago, but he is strong and reliable, and is looking for a new crew.

CK: So I hear you were working your way up the chain in Arrowhead.

Recruit: Ha! When we were young, we were stupid but ambitious, weren't we, <friend>? Those dreams got steamrolled a long time ago. What I did have was a good unit, stable employ and citizenship at Arrowhead. But one of my routine physical checks caught something in a scan. The next thing I know

Friend: The next thing he knows, the Arrowhead bastards have kicked him to the curb!

Recruit: It wasn't that dramatic but ... I was diagnosed with retrovirus R-892.

Face: I don't know it well but the number sounds bad. It's a bad one right?

Recruit: It is. The diagnosis is terminal. They call it a chimeric activator. It stirs up other latent retrovirus and all sorts of bad things. I didn't know anything about it either before my diagnosis.

Friend: And that's the part when they dropped you like a hot rock. The retrovirus isn't contagious but Aaron was off-duty the next day.

Recruit: It was a terminal diagnosis, they can't have someone with that risk working in the field.

CK: So R-892 is or was a terminal diagnosis? You're standing here today.

Recruit: It didn't take long to realize that Arrowhead wasn't going to help me. I got a little payout, a crap pension and placement in a trashcan habstack with medi-bot assistants.

Friend: They put you out to pasture to die.

Recruit: That part is true. So I started digging around for other options. If you pull enough strings and get desperate enough, you'll find someone who has an answer. I found a shady little clinic in the zone below the Avenues - one stop down from Fenway. They promised they'd set me right. They claimed to have a super-specialized fork of CRISPR 17, called it 17.2R. They said it was the fix, and R was for retrovirus. That one damn near killed me. I just starting to have symptoms from the R-892 but this CRISPR ... I guess it would have 'fixed' me alright.

CK: Fixed you dead.

Recruit: Exactly. I fell another few rungs down the ladder and found a D-Cartel Syndicate Street Splicer who had a solution - an experimental Chem-Hive. It sounded as bad as the 17.2R but I was dying anyway so I went for it. And it worked - I swear the nanites have brought me back from the brink. I don't know how long it will last but it's made me all new.

Make your choice and continue:

• I was never that fast on my feet but I'm more Agile now than ever. (+1 Reaction, +0.2 Move Points and +5% Move Speed)
• Years in milsec harden you up but with the Chem-Hive in, I feel Bull-Built, like I can always push through. (+2 Strength and +30 Hit Points)
• I was always a good shot but now, everything slows down when the lead starts flying. I just hit my target with Careful Precision. (+1 Will, +5% All Ranged Accuracy, -2 Initiative and +2% Legwork Success)

Recruit: I was always a good shot but now, everything slows down when the lead starts flying. I just hit my target with Careful Precision. I don't know what juice the chem-hive is pumping but I hope it lasts. I know my days are numbered, but I'd like to make them good ones.

CK: In our line of work, that can be the difference between a score and a disaster. What do you think, Face:?

Face: I've got one more question - I want to know about the deal you cut with the D-Cartel Syndicate to get your Chem-Hive. That's not cheap chrome you didn't afford those wires on your little Arrowhead pension. How did you afford it or what did you promise away?

CK: And before you answer, let me be clear - if you want in this company, trust is our baseline. So, even if you don't like your own answer, it better be the truth.

Make your choice and continue:

• To earn the implant, I had to run a heist for the splicer. I hit a Blue Ox drug lab for a big steal. Now that gang boss is trying to find me.
• To earn the implant, the Syndicate sent me to intimidate a McKellen official, someone in charge of imports. I had to rough him up a bit and now his people are looking for me.
• I was a mess when I went under the knife, but I made a lot of promises to the splicer I owe her 2 Obligations.

Recruit: To earn the implant, the Syndicate sent me to intimidate a McKellen official, someone in charge of imports. I had to rough him up a bit and now his people are looking for me. Getting the Chem-Hive was never going to be free.

Face: That's a risky thing to do on your own.

Recruit: The Syndicate insisted Dominique was a corrupt piece of trash I could push around. They weren't wrong - they knew everything about him and how to leverage him. Dominique rolled over real fast once I got to work.

Face: But he hasn't forgotten you exactly.

Recruit: One way or another, Dominique got my details. I was careful. I'm not sure, maybe the Syndicate sold me out to patch things up with him.

Face: So then there will be head hunters, eventually.

CK: A private word, <face>?