Overview

The Russian Federation was the second country to elect a Nova president, after Randal Portman came to power in America. Team Tomorrow had helped clean its streets of the mob problem, its own domestic Nova forces building order. In 2030, when the Unity launched, it seemed like it was on its way to forgetting its old history of suffering and enslavement, a shining beacon of the eternal progress of the Nova age.

And then everything went wrong.

Coup and Conspiracy

A group of ex-FSB nova operatives, led by a powerful and charismatic nova posthumously diagnosed with sociopathy and megalomania, colluding with dissatisfied retirees from the Directive and various PMCs, attempted an outright coup on the government of a major country. Extremely powerful, highly skilled, and most certainly intelligent beyond human ken, their plan succeeded initially, but was only stopped by a loose alliance put together of various people with disparate reasons for stopping their overthrow of Russian soverignity.

The cost was immense, and planted the seeds of resentment and the first cracks in the utopian facade. It wasn't that people had attempted to overthrow a government-that had happened uncountable times before. It wasn't even that novas did it. It was that the conspiracy had little popular support, latched onto no popular movements, had to fight a good half of the Russian military-and almost managed it, with numbers barely exceeding a hundred. It was that a megalomaniac nova had been able to disguise himself for so long to accumulate the power he needed and the men and women he sought.

Previous incidents of this form had appeared, but this was the first one too large to ignore. The Islington Tea Society reveal, a few years later, would further damage nova-human relations and be one of the major contributors to the death spiral that led to the Aberrant War.

The Aberrant War

Russia was the first country to declare war against novakind. Russia was the country worst hit by it, its weather subverted into a devastating weapon that even now makes it impossible for any agricultural industry to survive outside of climate-controlled fortresses, forcing Russia to lead the world in the production of purely synthetic foodstuffs.

The nature-controlling Nova Digitalis tore apart the fragile ecosystems of Russia, mutating foodstuffs into deadly biological weapons and transforming peaceful forest animals into targeted killers which stored energy in explosives instead of fat. Elemental novas wreaked havoc with the temperature and air conditions, killing millions. The Russian military did its own damage to the ecosystem, with directed nanotech weapons, a massive use of tactical and strategic nuclear arsenals that would have had global consequences had aberrants not already disrupted the world ecosystem, and other, more exotic weapons.

The Collapse

When Russia died, screaming and clawing at the cliff it was falling off of, its scientists still worked. Synthetic nova pharmaceuticals, untested genetic engineering techniques, black-market bioconstructs, all were combined into a hope for surviving the harsh hell that the novas had created. To become inured to the conditions, genetic augmentation was seen as the fastest method. The generation after the Collapse were mostly innoculated to the conditions, given various upgrades to be smarter, faster, stronger, more powerful. Even though a wave of bioconservatism was sweeping through with the end of the Aberrant War, with germline genetic modification being seen as risky and undesirable, Russia had little choice.

The Long Insult

When noetics and bioapps were introduced to humanity at large, a new renaissance of psionic-based technology and rebuilding resulted, with the Psi Orders leading the way for additional research and development. Yet, given the prevalence of genetic modifications in Russia, this passed the Motherland over. There were too few baseline humans, too few men and women with the genetic markers for latency which allowed for psionics to exist, and as the fruits of biotech rejuvenated Earth, Russia was left with the scraps.

Again, the chance to become earth-shaking once again had come tantalizingly close, only to be snatched away.

Russia Today

Russia is, on one hand, recovering slowly. However, outside of its climate-controlled arcologies, its control becomes increasingly tenuous. It is a nation which is at once strong and brittle, held together largely by long memories of the horrors visited on them.

Old Moscow

Old Moscow is a functioning and reasonably prosperous Russian old city, with a working population and police force. However, the slums near it are havens of crime and aberrant cults which the Russian military has not managed to fully stamp out. A center for cultural recovery and archiving history, it is also a large tourist destination, with a famous Aberrant War museum, including the preserved and mounted corpses of several Aberrants who were taken relatively intact or surrendered to the Russian military.

Project 412

An old USSR research station in Siberia has been refurbished and a source of major activity, constantly expanding with additional factories and personnel. This research station has been creating more and more interesting products to see service with the Russian military, many of which are things that only should exist in rumor.

Russian Upgrades

Russian upgrades all lack the genetic code to become either novas or psions. Approximately 92% of Russia have germline genetic engineering, and many submit to additional engineering to better survive the environment and predators.

Standard

+3 to all physical attributes and Willpower, +1 to all other attributes, Long Lived (immortal), Enhanced Antibodies, Filtration System, Regenerator, Blood Hyperoxygenation, Environmental Adaptation (Arctic)

Most Russians (75%) are standard upgrades, better in every conceivable way to baseline humanity, and beyond that with the ability to survive in freezing temperatures and the poisonous, tainted winds that often blow from killing grounds in the Aberrant War. Tough, strong-willed, physically superior to any normal human, these upgraded men and women have been the primary reason of the world's fast recovery and its faster

Equipment

Tactical Gear

Russian tactical gear has been geared to fighting Aberrants, and in the near-century of recovery time it has had, has become even deadlier with the superscience and outright arcane weapons that the Superiors of Project 412 have slowly been churning out. Weapons which are outright gadgets and can only be produced by Paramorphs are marked with an asterisk (*).

Infantry Equipment

Infantry UV Laser

UV lasers use any hardtech laser template but add +2 to damage, +3 to AP, +50% range, and -50% to magazine size

Russian hardtech is superior to every other country's when it comes to warmaking, and they are the only country to use short-wavelength UV lasers. With high penetration power and nearly the same amount of efficiency as standard visible-wavelength laser systems, infantry UV lasers are a significant upgrade over standard weapons.

Smart Rifle

Accuracy 12, Damage 14L [4], AP:4, Range 300, RoF 3, Magazine 30, Mass 8, Min Str. 2

Smart rifles act on Initiative 30, firing at maximum rate of fire and with a -3 multiple action penalty (so 3 attacks at 12/11/10 dice). Their actions are preprogrammed and may only be adjusted out of combat. Their automated targeting braces negate 1 enemy dodge success.

Russian military are commonly equipped with smart rifles, small-caliber payload rifles mated to a drum magazine and automatic targeting brace. There is no trigger system, only a safety switch. When unsafed, the weapon targets and begins firing at enemy targets, the most threatening first, and does not cease fire until anyone not carrying friendly IFF or a civilian is no longer alive. The Russian military has repeatedly been censured for the use of these weapons in populated areas, as their targeting acquisition is not perfect and oftentimes civilians running towards the shooters are labeled as threats and eliminated.

Hypervelocity Missile

Accuracy +0, Damage 24L [12], Range 1,000, RoF 1, Magazine 1, AP:10, Mass 8, Min Str. 3, Guided, Scale:2, Fast-Tracking:2

Russian missile technology had always been top-notch, even before the nova age, and as Russian transgenics improved their technology, is now unsurpassed. The hypervelocity missile is one of these inventions of superhuman Russian scientists. A single-shot coilgun launches the 5-kilogram missile at enormous velocity, which accelerates itself further on its own high-impulse drive. When it hits a target, the missile, now almost 80% lighter, is traveling at over 10,000 meters a second-sufficient to kill an APC... or an aberrant. HVMs are disposable single-shot weapons commonly assigned to Russian infantry units, and are exported in limited amounts to the Legion for use on Khantze Lu Ge.

Singun*

Accuracy +0, Damage 12A [4], AP: infinite, Range 50, RoF 1, Magazine 10, Mass 0.5, Conceal P, Min. Str. 1

Singuns cannot be used for called shots and do not benefit from additional attack successes. If a character has external health levels (from forcefield, psionic powers, or similar) a singun deals damage to both the character and his external health levels simultaneously.

Singuns are rumored to be probability disruptor weapons that cause vacuum fluctuation to go into overdrive in the space a target is in. The result is a significant number of internal matter-antimatter annihilation events as myriads of electron-positron pairs spontaneously appear and annihilate. These weapons have never been confirmed, although they are a famous conspiracy theory and rumors exist of aberrants on Khantze Lu Ge found dead, with severe internal burns that would be expected of such a weapon.

AT-15 "Sunfire"

Accuracy +0, Damage 50L [20] + 24A [12], Area:4, Range 1200, RoF 1, Magazine 1, Mass 120, Min. Str. 15/1 (undeployed/deployed), Guided, Scale 5, Fast-Tracking 3

Damage listed is for the fireball, the weapon also creates a blast wave dealing 25B damage with Area:20.

The AT-15 is an infantry-use tactical nuclear missile intended for use against point targets such as aberrants. Rarely deployed, they have been used against aberrants with quite satisfying results, as few can withstand a direct hit from one of these weapons.

Heavy Equipment

Tactical Fusion Weapon

Damage 50L [20] + 24A [12], Area:4, Scale 5 (uses the scale of the launching weapon for accuracy purposes)