Anonymous Lowtown Cop

PERSONAL

Gender: Male

Kit: Normal

Location: Lowtown, Khazan

AFFILIATION

Alignment: Hero

Team: Solo Hero

VITAL STATS

Strength: standard (rank 1)

Agility: weak (rank 0)

Mind: standard (rank 1)

Body: standard (rank 1)

Spirit: (rank )

Charisma: (rank )

RECORD

Fame Points: 500

Personal Wins: 12

Personal Losses: 2

Team Wins: 0

Team Losses: 0

Tourney Wins: 0

Tourney Losses: 0

STATUS

Status: Active

unnaturalScience

Hey, buddy, listen…

It looks like it’s your first day, right? You just got out of the academy? Does Lt. Ferris still teach hand-to-hand combat? No. That’s a shame—that guy was a real bad-ass. He gave you hope that you could still knock a mouthy kid flat after fifty.

Hold-up, I just want to tell you some things before you hit the street. Yea, I know, you don’ know me from Adam, but I’ve been doing this a while and I’ve seen a lot of rookies come through. I remember how it was, they stick a gun in your hands, pin a badge on your chest and send you out to make the streets safe. And you’re ready to do it. I mean, why’d you join-up in the first place if you weren’t going to go out and do some good: get scum off the streets, protect abused kids…make this place less of a hell-hole?

But then things weren’t like we expected. The streets decimated us, not the other way 'round. Eight-months later half the guys I came in with—HALF—were off duty. We weren’t ready for the mess and the chaos. We weren’t ready to witness crimes we didn't know names for, and try and arrest things that didn’t have the same number of eyes as us shouting anti-sapien slurs. Since I came here I’ve seen so many rookies get shot, or melted, or frozen, or go straight-up crazy that I don’t like to think about it anymore.

 

I was lucky. That’s all you can call it. I was in the right place at the right time. Or, really, I wasn’ in the wrong place at the wrong time—and it was a near thing. A guy pulled a soul-crusher on me and my partner one time. Neither of us knew what the hell it was, but my buddy happened to be standing in front when it went off. He took most of the blast. We held a funeral for him even though he was still breathing. That same year I was seven blocks too far south to see the Taraxians invaded on 13th St.—just far enough to be on the right side of the cordon.

I don’t have a family. No, I never married; don' even have a girl anymore. But I didn’t go crazy worrying about my kids doing bug-juice in the fourth grade, or come home to find my wife eaten by a vagrant Skad colony. (Yea, the newspapers don’t like to cover it but it still happens.)I’ve been shot five times, but never lost anything more important than the small finger of my left hand and my swagger.

After a while you start to learn. You learn which graffiti signs mean some kid's tagging, and which mean keep your gun drawn. You learn that robots don’t have a vital organ in their heads. You learn that you can smell some kinds of magic users, but that genii have no sense of smell. And, maybe most important, you learn that sometimes you can’t be a hero. Sometimes, getting in front of the huge thing that’s headed into a crowd only makes sure you die with the crowd. Sometimes giving a chance to drop their weapons might as well be pointing your own gun at yourself.

So listen up for a few minutes. Let me tell you how not to get messed up out there…

 

Know how to make 'em hurt

     Tactician: superior (rank 2)

 

First, when you enter a dangerous situation, plan how to you can exit it. That means knowing how to bring down anybody present that might possibly want to hurt you.

Oh you're ready for that already? Then tell me, how many races and offshoots have significant populations in Lowtown? You're way low; there's 32. And each one needs to be shot in the right place to bring him down. If you point a gun at a Gurian's chest he'll laugh at you. If you shoot above an Angelic's head you will seriously wound her. You should know these things as a reflex; you should neven think about it.

But that's not enough. You need to be sizing things up and planning all the time. What if the big hooded guy behind the crank dealer turns out to be a golem. You can shoot the thing all you like--it won't matter. You had better have already spotted the truck you are going to blast him in front of, or figured out how to make the dealer see your gun before his clay friend senses any danger before you ever find out what's under that hood.

We're small, and week, and made of meet. Sometimes the things we're s'posed to stop are immortal, or made of hematite, or standing in three different locations at the same time. Know how to make the situation work for you, or you will be dead.

 

Go in armed

     Concussive Weapon: standard (rank 1)

  • Ranged Attack
  • Area Affect

 

I'm not jus' talking about the shotgun, circuit disruptor, and holy water they give issue standard down here. Those won't be enough.

There's a guy who lives on 5th and Dougherty, look him up. He can hook you up with the things the department won't issue you, an' he likes badges. I figure you should have at least two charges of mid-level explosive on you at any given time. Oh, and see this? Thermite. You should always carry some kind of light weapon, and something chemical, and at least one way to light things on fire fast.

There are times when you're staring into the face of something that hates your guts and you know, know for a fact, you cannot hurt it in any way. That's a bad feeling. You want to keep those times few are far between.

 

Listen

     Environmental Awareness: standard (rank 1)

 

Use your ears and your eyes.

I'm not talking about noticing details so much. That's good I suppose, but sometimes it distracts from the bigger picture. You're not trying to be Sherlock Holmes all the time. You need to be able to tell how scared a street is, how scared the people on it are, by listening to the background hum. You need the things you see out of the corners of your eyes to make you aware that people are watching you, or that people are glad to see you. (They won't tell you things like that if you ask, but they are telling you all the time.)

 

Treat the right people right

     Ally: standard (rank 1)

  • Area Affect

 

Make some friends, and make sure they're the right ones. This place is full of back stabbers and snitches, even on the force. But you gotta have some people in your corner, people to tell you when something's going down, to watch you back, or just to help you understand this damned city.

The thing is respect. Learn a few words of Farize and Tehrishan. Get good enough with algorithmic form to be polite to AIs. Don't be like some idiots in this department and fly sapien-supremacist colors.

But, also, build the important relationships. Take care of your informers, advisers, and suppliers. I already told you about the weapons guy, but I have some old friend or other on almost every street. There's a homeless ol' mystic that tells me when the auras are f-ed up because I buy him breakfast sometimes. I have an excomunicated Gurian who helps me identify alien tech, and gang lieutenant who owes me a big favor.

You can't be a "solo hero" doing what we do. Don't ever get the idea you can.

 

Don't do the wrong drug

     Mental Defense: standard (rank 1)

 

'Most everyone in this department is using something. It's hard not to try some things eventually, doing what we do. Most guys get started to help them sleep, or to help them stay awake.

But you've got to be careful. Most of that stuff will rot your brain, or your teeth, or your coordination, or you ability not to see dead people. When you're tempted to drop a little bit of something be very, very careful.

You know the Shriwir? The cat people, yea. They chew this grass called sashas that's sort of like cat-nip for them. The stuff is bitter as hell at first, but it doesn't mess you up or ruin your teeth. It actually sharpens your eyesight a little, after a while. But, better, it gives you a kind of iron-plated focus. You're harder to manipulate or distract. You can see a pretty girl in a tight top go by and not turn your head. If you're going to put something under your tongue, man, go with sashas.

Don't get all holier-than-though with me. You come back and give me that line when you've stayed alive in this job for five years. I'll be glad to listen, 'cause I'll be glad you're still with us.