Project Ozma

By most measures, Ozma does not exist. It has no budget, no known command structure, no executive order justifying its existence. Occasionally a Firewall team will stumble through the layers of false fronts to collide with an Ozma agent. The little data collected on Ozma is from those chance encounters, before their own clean-up squads eliminate the agent and all unlucky witnesses.

Ozma is a highly classified agency, operating on behalf of the Consortium, for purposes that are not completely understood. Its roots are in the SETI program of the 1960s, attempting to contact and understand extraterrestrial intelligence. Sometime before the rise of the TITANs, the program was officially terminated, only to be resurrected in a new form after the Fall. Ozma’s mission is unknown, but seems parallel to Firewall: monitoring alien, TITAN, and exsurgent activities, as well as other threats, including anything posing an existential risk to the Consortium itself. It is unclear if the Hypercorp Council is aware of the existence of Ozma — and if not, who Ozma ultimately answers to.

Ozma Operations

Ozma is an off-the-record, black-budget operation. It operates within and through legitimate Consortium channels, masquerading its agents and affairs. In many of the situations where Ozma is secretly calling the shots, the staff and field personnel doing the grunt work are not affiliated with Ozma and may not even be aware of their existence. In this way, Ozma directs legitimate professionals to do its dirty work: Oversight agents following orders from above, local police acting on legal orders from the Consortium Ministry, or a struggling hypercorp fulfilling orders from a mystery angel investor.

This permits Ozma to remain two or three levels removed and totally undocumented. This is particularly ideal for situations that can be handled without direct guidance (such as cleaning up a crime scene, pushing a product to market, or arresting individuals). That Ozma was involved at all can only be inferred based on the pieces missing.

With more sensitive projects, Ozma embeds undercover field agents. This may be the mysterious “consultant” giving orders to the Oversight team, but most operatives prefer unremarkable roles, such as the bureaucrat from the Olympus Terraforming Board or a corporate lawyer. Ozma operatives often assume the identity and morph of someone associated with the target/situation for years (with copied memories to back the ruse up). Agents are always experts in their necessary skills and equipped with the most advanced technology permissible for the role they are playing.

Due to their secrecy and deniability, Ozma agents must sometimes take matters into their own hands. There is no “Project Ozma”

badge to flash. When agents are cornered, they commit suicide or use an emergency farcaster to evacuate. In severe situations, Ozma will call in lethally competent tactical teams. Always on standby, they can land, vaporize the mess, and evacuate within minutes.

Ozma operations are tied to extraterrestrial life and exoplanet exploration, though it’s not clear what their ultimate goal is. In this field, the agency must rely heavily on local assets among gatecrashing and consular teams. They frequently cross paths with Firewall in addressing existential threats. Ozma does not share space well, and Firewall assets may be intentionally targeted for elimination. Ozma has on several occasions manipulated Firewall operations for its own purposes.

Project Ozma Rumors

Ozma itself is a rumor. Many strange stories persist:

  • Ozma does not answer to the Consortium, but to a higher power embedded in the Consortium hierarchy. Ozma defends Consortium interests only as far as it benefits their benefactor.
  • Ozma is either a secret project of the TITANs, influencing transhumanity from within, or has captured a TITAN to work for them.
  • During their SETI years, Ozma intercepted the digital exsurgent virus first, possibly even partially reverse-engineering it before the rise of the TITANs.
  • Ozma is controlled by the alien entity that first brought the pandora gates to the Solar System.
  • Ozma was the first to seek to track and capture asyncs. Project Psiclone may even have been a masked Ozma operation.
  • Ozma is a cabal of expertly trained old nation-state spooks that survived the Fall and operate in their own interests.
  • Project Ozma dealt with the Factors first, before they were known to the rest of transhumanity.

Embedded Ozma Agent

  • Transhuman, Medium Size
  • Threat Level: Red
  • Niche: Exoplanet Colonies, Planetary Consortium, X-Risk Outbreaks
  • Numbers: 1–8. Ozma agents are rarely recognizable as such.

Motivation: −Firewall +First Contact +Ozma Interests +Planetary Consortium Interests +X-Risks

Use: Operating under an identity with legal power, they may co-opt law enforcement to secure the target, so Ozma can then complete their mission unrecognized and unmolested. have continuous mesh oversight and can call in additional support as required. Agents will die rather than surrender.

Embedded Ozma Agent

  • Morph: Exalt
  • Initiative: 5 • Fray: 50 • AV: 8/15 heavy armor vest + second skin, shock proof
  • WT: 7 • DUR: 35 • DR: 53, ignore 1 wound effect
  • Threat Pool: 5
  • Microwave Agonizer: 70, SA, Ammo 20, Range 15, pain;
  • Roast Mode: DV 2d10, SS, armor-piercing, pain
  • Wasp Knife: 50, DV 1d10 + 2, neuropath: causes agony, −30 to actions, WIL Check or incapacitated
  • Perceive: 65, 75 hearing/vision
  • Move: Walker (Medium 4/20)
  • COG: 20 60 • INT: 15 45 • REF: 10 30 • SAV: 25 75 • SOM: 10 30 • WIL: 15 45
  • Skills: Deceive 75, Exotic Skill: Disguise 70, Free Fall 50, Guns 70, Hardware: Electronics 50, Infiltrate 60, Infosec 70, Interface 60, Kinesics 50, Know: Alien Tech 65, Know: Containment Protocols 50, Know: Cryptography 70, Know: Law 50, Know: Nanotechnology 60, Know: Security Ops 60, Melee 50, Perceive 65, Persuade 60 (50)
  • Rep: @-rep 30 • c-rep 80 • g-rep 40
  • Ware: Biomods, Cyberbrain, Endocrine Control, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Vision, Emergency Farcaster, Ghostrider Module, Medichines, Mesh Inserts, Mind Amp, Mnemonics, Nanophages, Skillware
  • Gear: Covert Ops Tool, Dazzler, Disabler, Encryption App, False Ego ID (2), Microbug (4), Portable QE Comm, Saucer Bot (2), Spy Nanoswarm
  • Traits: Adaptability, Hardening: Violence, Edited Memories, Innocuous Looks
  • Notes: Agents will have the additional equipment and skills appropriate to their role/mission