91. Yutani Nu

Yutani Nu was one of the first children raised in the agōgē, and one of the best. He was the first agōgē student to be raised to the rank of exemplar, is a recognized master of several martial styles, and a respected scholar of Ultimate philosophy. Rumors say that he was parented by an autarch; he certainly seems to have received the best possible tutoring.

Nu was instantiated into the agōgē as a newborn, the best of thousands of combinations of Ultimate heroes. Like all agōgē students, he spent his early years learning the basics of outer system survival, and combat. He killed early, a fellow student during a botched raid on his bunker. The next time he was attacked, he managed to kill a parent from ambush, but took her student hostage instead of killing him. He treated the girl as a fellow student, playing war-games, sparring, and studying with her. When she was killed by a malfunctioning vaccsuit, he recycled her body personally.

On his graduation from the simulation, Nu hit the ground running. He volunteered for any mercenary contracts available, taking part in TQZ incursions, gatecrashing missions and special actions against the seceding Morningstar Constellation. Now that he has achieved the rank of exemplar, his interests have become more abstract, and he mixes philosophical study with sports, sparring and games. It is expected he will apply for agōgē parenthood soon.

Mechanics

Morph: Remade

Motivations: +Ultimates, +Personal Development, +Survival

COG 20 COO 20 INT 15 REF 15 SAV 15 SOM 30 WIL 30
MOX - INIT 6 SPD 1 LUC 60 TT 12 IR 120 DUR 40 WT 8 DR 60

Active Skills: Animal Handling 45, Blades 78, Climbing 60, Demolitions 40, Fray 63, Free Fall 45, Freerunning 70, Hardware: Industrial 60, Intimidation 45, Kinetic Weapons 83, Medicine: Paramedic 50, Navigation 35, Networking: Ultimates 45, Perception 55, Pilot: Groundcraft 45, Seeker Weapons 45, Throwing Weapons 50, Unarmed Combat 90

Knowledge Skills: Language: Hindi (Native) 80, Academics: Philosophy 85, Academics: Psychology 60, Interest: Ancient Sports 60, Profession: Post-Apocalyptic Survival 60, Profession: Scavenging 60

Ego Traits: Ambidextrous

Morph Traits: Uncanny Valley

Reputation: c-rep 50, u-rep 90

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Circadian Regulation, Cortical Stack, Eidetic Memory, Hyper Linguist, Enhanced Respiration, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Vision, Medichines, T-Ray Emitter, Temperature Tolerance, Toxin Filters, Clean Metabolism

90. The Agōgē

"A normal soldier would not sacrifice a limb like Aquinas just had; seven decades of the knowledge that limbs were irreplaceable, and that the loss of one could lead to death, worked against it. This wasn't a problem with Special Forces soldiers, who never could not have a limb grown back, and who knew their body's tolerance for damage was so much higher than a normal soldier could appreciate."

Old Man's War

Direct Action has the war, the Ultimates have the agōgē.

Named for the educational system of ancient Sparta, the agōgē is a simulspace project in which the Ultimates raise their children. Children are generated by algorithms remixing and improving the genes of proven Ultimates. They are raised by a single, unrelated parent.

The simulspace environment consists of a small, frozen moon in an elliptical orbit around a Uranus-like gas giant. The elliptical orbit of the moon brings it periodically within the powerful radiation belts of the giant, and so life is divided into two seasons, each approximately eight months long.  In the "hot" season, heavy radiation forbids surface life, and family pairs spend all their time in bunkers. This is when formal, historical, scientific and ideological education takes place. In the "cold" season, the parent and child pairs mine ore and ice, trying to scavenge enough feedstock to last through the hot season. Raiding takes place regularly. Killing is neither encouraged nor discouraged; it is expected that half or less of the children will survive the agōgē.

The tough conditions breed tough Ultimates. They have hands-on experience with all the realities of out system life: they learn to wear and repair vaccsuits, mine, program fabbers, fight, steal and above all else, survive. They are accustomed to cold, poorly-mixed air, and injury. They have little material expectations. Their parents teach them to strive for the virtues of the Ultimate's philosophy.

The children are born into their remade biomorphs. Baselines tend not to fully trust the greater tolerances of a remade morph:  their expectations are based on the body they were born in. The children do not need to become accustomed to the capabilities and tolerances of their heavily engineered bodies. To them drinking salt water and sleeping two hours a day are only natural.

Experimentation has concluded that it is actually best if the children are at least partially aware of the simulated nature of their lives. Throughout their education they are told that they are being tested, and that if they succeed they will be brought to the others of their kind. Once a child has been deemed sufficient to graduate into reality (usually between 14 and 18 years of age), they undergo a coming-of-age ceremony, testing their willpower by requiring them to drown themselves. If they succeed, they awaken in Xiphas, the Ultimate's home station, that which they have been striving for. Because of the small poulation of the simulation, the Ultimates can run it at 10x real speed, and thus can raise a generation every 1.6 - 1.8 years.

Plot Hooks: One child has proven more capable than the Ultimate's could have hoped for. She has deduced the precise nature of the simulspace and been testing its limitations. This has caused an internal rift among the Ultimates. Some believe she is dangerous and troublesome, and will inevitably fight Ultimate authority. Others believe she is the agōgē's greatest success; what better strength than to break from a trap? Firewall would be extremely happy if she were extracted and recruited.