The Saboteurs

SUMMARY

Their detractors often consider the Saboteurs, known as Thugs or Soldiers, to be mindless berserkers and terrorists who inevitably bring the attention of the God-Machine itself onto their associates. Their friends and allies consider them to be stalwart warriors, if perhaps a little reckless, and good comrades-in-arms. As for the Soldiers themselves, they consider their Agenda to be the only true soldiers among demonkind, fighting a thankless war to protect themselves and everyone else from the monster called God.

Betrayal rankles at the heart of the Saboteur Agenda. The Thugs took their Fall personally and believe the God-Machine betrayed them, cast aside like so many broken tools for no good reason at all. They want to hurt the Machine. They want to break it, and everything and everyone who works for it. While Saboteurs have many diverse motivations, for the main body of the Agenda, that motivation is hatred.

Broadly speaking, the Soldiers find themselves split over how the war should be approached, spread out among a spectrum between two extreme stances. One side takes the war literally, focusing the Descent on finding and destroying all of God’s assets as quickly and brutally as possible. The other side takes a more subtle tack, focusing on infiltration and political action with the occasional act of terrorism against well-chosen targets. Political action driven by the Thugs is rarely peaceful, however, focusing on inspiring hatred and insurrection among the human populace. It’s one thing to kill an asset of the God Machine. It’s another to poison the population against such assets, ensuring that a broken one cannot be easily replaced. If that asset can be turned to the Soldiers’ cause, so much the better — an angel that can be made to Fall is another potential comrade-in-arms.

SABOTEUR CLEF

SOLDIERS: An informal term for a Saboteur.

THUGS: A demeaning term for a Saboteur.

THE DESCENT

The Saboteurs’ vision of Hell is simple — Hell is what they will have after they have finally killed the God Machine. The first step on the way is to take out all its Infrastructure and all its servants, bit by bit.

Saboteurs throw themselves fully into the Descent, combining a zealous desire to take down the God-Machine with an array of talents designed to do exactly that. Of all of the Agendas, the Saboteurs are most likely to completely give themselves over to the Descent. Combined with their zealous desire to take down the God-Machine, this makes the Saboteurs the most dangerous Agenda in many ways. Some take advantage of their stereotype and play against it, attacking the God-Machine’s agents from unforeseen angles. Above all, the Saboteur Descent focuses on two things: Be hard to kill and destroy all the God-Machine’s works wherever they may be found. To these ends, the Saboteurs recognize and appreciate the skills of other Agendas, as having allies with varied skill sets help them reach both their goals.

Ultimately, the Saboteurs envision a glorious final confrontation, storming the gates of Heaven itself to take the fight to the Machine that dwells within and striking the final blow. To reach this goal, the Soldiers gladly give their blood, sweat, and tears. Nothing is too important to give up to gain the advantage. Hatred is a powerful motivator. Everything is expendable, even their closest friends, but nothing is given up for no benefit.

SABOTEURS AND HUMANITY

Saboteurs are among the most paranoid demons. They may not seek out conspiracies and secret connections the way Inquisitors do, but they do set out to break and subvert the God-Machine, which makes them its enemies. Many Saboteurs take on the most ordinary and unthreatening Covers they can, the better to avoid the God-Machine’s attention. Saboteurs also put a great deal of effort into their Covers and are among the most likely to have multiple redundant Covers and contingency plans should their Covers fray or be destroyed.

A Saboteur’s life is hard on Covers. The God-Machine has ways of attacking a demon’s Cover — chief among them manipulating curious humans. Saboteurs make themselves targets. Because they seek out direct confrontation with the God-Machine and its agents, Saboteurs have to rely on the most powerful abilities in their demonic arsenal, the Exploits that fray Cover with every use.

Saboteurs tend to attract demons with strong feelings about humans. Some Saboteurs tell themselves that when the God Machine is defeated, they will make a new world where humans and demons alike will be free. Many go so far as to see humans as fellow warriors in the fight against the God-Machine — it’s their world, after all. Other Saboteurs hate humanity for their weakness and stupidity in allowing themselves to be molded and manipulated by the God-Machine for so long. These demons frequently become callous, not caring when stupid, sheep-like humans are caught up in their plans. Few Saboteurs are indifferent towards humans. The direct, aggressive actions they favor — and the consequences for humans that get caught in the way — polarize them before long.

SABOTEUR PHILOSOPHY

The Saboteurs are nearly unanimous in their vision of Hell. It’s ironic that among what is perhaps the most ragtag, disparate Agenda, most agree that they are already living in it. They believe that Earth becomes Hell as soon as the God Machine has been comprehensively defeated.

Nevertheless, this isn’t the only view — there are four major currents within the ranks of the Soldiers, and while the final blow doctrine is overwhelmingly popular, it’s not the only one. Another major bloc is the Nation of Hell, which believes that the Machine is undefeatable, but a stalemate can be achieved. They want to establish a sovereign country on Earth, free of the God Machine’s schemes, defended by soldiers. A less popular group, sometimes considered a variant on the Nation, is the fatalists. These demons believe the God Machine is undefeatable and stalemate is unachievable, so all that matters is that they go out fighting, preferably in a blaze of glory. The final major group among the Thugs is the infiltrators, who seek to usurp the Machine’s place. They are constantly looking for ways to hijack Its connection to Its angels so as to subvert Its serrated legions into working for the Saboteurs.

MAJOR PHILOSOPHIES:

The Final Blow Doctrine seeks a a glorious final confrontation, storming the gates of Heaven itself to take the fight to the Machine that dwells within and striking the final blow.
The Nation of Hell seeks to reach a stalemate against the Machine and create a nation free from its influence as a haven for the Unchained.
The Fatalists believe that the war the Saboteurs fight is unwinnable, but seek to sell their freedom as expensive as possible by taking as much of the Creator's gears with them as they can.
The Infiltrators seek to usurp the position of the Machine and take control of its Infrastructure for their own purposes

IN GROUPS

A Saboteur often has difficult relations with the other members of their ring. After all, their actions do bring attention down on their head, and attention is often the last thing any demon wants. Further, many Saboteurs are violent and dangerous, and are often the first to suggest a direct and permanent solution to any given problem.

So why do other demons tolerate Saboteurs? Because they’re worth it. When it comes to disrupting or eliminating the ring’s enemies, the Saboteur is the optimum member to call upon. While any Destroyer can kill enemies, the Saboteur excels at much more. Eliminating an opponent is but one option, but conversion is another. No matter the method, a Saboteur probably knows the basics, and is an expert in at least one.

In addition, Saboteurs who possess military or police Covers can bring the discipline from that background to bear with the rest of his ring. Such demons sometimes lead their rings, particularly when the entire ring is required to take down a particularly difficult opponent.

SAMPLE HELLS

A Saboteur’s Hell almost always involves changing the world in some way to make it more accommodating to the Unchained — by which he means “less controlled by the God Machine.” While Thugs speak of ridding the world of the God Machine entirely, most regard this as an eventual goal of outcasts as a whole rather than as a victory they expect to achieve personally.

HELL'S MARSHALL

Some Saboteurs acknowledge that the complete destruction of the God Machine may be beyond the capabilities of any single ring or Agency. The Enemy simply operates beyond the scale of the Unchained. Even if they banded together, they would likely fail in any war against Heaven. The Marshall has chosen to operate on a smaller, realistic stage. They choose a territory, a few blocks within a city, for example. She then destroys all Infrastructure in that zone and makes it so expensive for the God-Machine to operate in that region that It no longer wastes resources on it. Unlike Tempters, Marshalls don’t set out to rule within their territory, just to keep the Enemy out. Occasionally, several rings of Saboteurs form loose Free Agencies of neighboring Infrastructure-free zones, bound together by mutual protection agreements.

TAMING THE MACHINE

Some Saboteurs argue that the Unchained do not have the numbers or the resources to topple the God-Machine. They’re quick to point out, however, that the Enemy expends considerable energy keeping Its existence and actions hidden from the world at large. This hints at a vulnerability that Thugs exploit by revealing the God-Machine to as many human institutions and supernatural beings as possible. Their goal? To drive humanity to open war against the Enemy. Although this conflict is unlikely to be short, merely bringing the Machine’s activities into the light will force It to radically change the way It pursues Its goals. In this version of Hell, the God Machine is allowed to exist, but must follow the rules humans lay down for It, which the Thugs intend should include stipulations forbidding the Enemy from enslaving outcasts.

CPU SABOTAGE

Many Soldiers have concluded that lashing out at random Infrastructure is a waste of time and energy. To have any hope of defeating the God Machine, the Unchained must strike at the Infrastructure without which It cannot function effectively. How much less dangerous would the Enemy be if It could no longer recycle angels, if It developed major gaps in its understanding of arcane physics, or if It lost contact with most or all of its angels? How many resources could It afford to waste pursuing outcasts if a surgical strike divided Its awareness into two, ten, or a thousand competing God Machines? Even if the Saboteur never completely destroys the God Machine, they hope to at least make It a negligible threat. Most on this path seek and destroy Command and Control Infrastructure, reasoning that this does the most damage to Its systems.

TOTAL VICTORY

For some Saboteurs, merely crippling the God Machine or forcing It to play nice with humanity isn’t enough. Only the complete destruction of the Enemy and all Its servants will satisfy them. In this scenario, demons no longer need fear the Hunter angels. Perhaps the Unchained will preserve some Infrastructure — both as a monument to their final victory and as a source of Aether — or perhaps the Unchained will learn to live without easy access to Aether. Some think the surviving outcasts should establish enclaves for themselves in major cities or build a nation in the ruins of the fallen Machine. Others hope to settle down into peaceful lives, changing Covers every few decades so they can enjoy immortality. Whatever their personal dream, all of these Thugs agree, at least in principle, that they should wait until after the war is won before pursuing it.

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