The Chessmen

The current Chessmen are the second organization to use that name. The first was founded and controlled by Godwin Kaspar, father to the current Grandmaster. It existed more than thirty years ago and consisted of highly-trained former espionage and law-enforcement personnel recruited by Kaspar in his guise as “Black King.” Most of the agents were ranked according to specialty, Knights for combat, Bishops for intelligence, and so on; however, some members were elite enough to earn their own unique code-names, such as the logistics expert Endgame and the infiltration specialist Gambit.
Masters at behind-the-scenes manipulation, the Chessmen intended to take the reins of powers quietly and secretly while the hero community was diverted by more obvious and colorful menaces. Eventually, AEGIS (aided by the first Raven) brought the organization down. The majority of the organization, including its founder, ended up in federal prison. Godwin Kaspar was broken by his defeat and died behind bars less than five years after his incarceration.
Then, a little over a decade ago, the last survivor of Kaspar’s Chessmen, a man named Vassily Dragovich, convinced Kaspar’s son, Alexander, to form a new Chessmen organization. Alexander replaced his father’s peerless personal charisma with his own technological genius, electronically brainwashing agents instead of recruiting them directly and substituting technological firepower for combat training. In the space of the past few years, Alexander, now known as the Grandmaster, has taken his organization from nothing to a highly-efficient and powerful operation.
Shortly after commencing operations, the Grandmaster was approached by Emerald City tech magnate Maximilian Mars. He explained how things really worked in the city and revealed the existence of The Chamber, which he was certain either the Grandmaster or Endgame would have learned of soon enough. Mars offered him membership and explained the Chessmen’s surveillance tech more than justified the Grandmaster’s inclusion in the group. The advantages to such an alliance were clear to the young mastermind and he quickly accepted. The fact the offer was made by a successful father-figure like Mars only made it that much more attractive.
For years the Grandmaster served as a member of the Chamber, providing valuable intelligence to the rest of the group. The Grandmaster was surprised and hurt (more than he’d ever admit) by Mars’ abandonment and betrayal, especially because the two had worked closely together as members of the Chamber, often cooperating to dilute the power and influence of The Big Brain and F.O.E.

Structure

GRANDMASTER

Alexander grew up a paranoid recluse obsessively hero-worshipping his father and unable to accept that he could have been defeated without being betrayed by someone within his organization. While staying out of the public eye, Alexander made a living using his technical skills, but lacked the vision to do more than tinker and lament his father’s death. Dragovitch changed that, finding and molding the man from self-absorbed genius into cunning mastermind.
Alexander now goes by the name Grandmaster almost exclusively. He reacts poorly when called by his real name and rarely leaves the Board. He is focused, has a goal and a means to achieve it; everything else is distraction. He has reinvented himself as the man his father would have wanted him to be; stronger and more capable. Now he’s the Grandmaster, not Alexander.
The Grandmaster is a brilliant technician and programmer. He’s also obsessively focused, controlling, and analytical with few interpersonal skills, which is why he makes enemies easily and burns through allies quickly. The only person who ever seemed to understand him was Maximilian Mars, but that ended when Mars betrayed him and caused the dissolution of the Chamber. Mars is definitely on the Grandmaster’s list of enemies.

ENDGAME

The Dragovitch family has always traded in secrets and been adept at using such information to help or harm others. They worked for the czars, then for the Politburo, and then for themselves. As a younger man, Vassily Dragovitch grew bored working for the communists and went looking for something else more interesting. He found Godwin Kaspar and grew enchanted for a while with the idea of taking over the world.
Dragovitch was a gifted tactician and his planning skills were unparalleled, so he quickly became quite valuable to Kaspar. Dragovitch was given the code-name “Endgame” by Kaspar to reflect his lethal tactical expertise. Thanks to that same expertise, Vassily kept his head and saw the group’s downfall coming with enough time to extricate himself. He walked away with the secret to a serum developed by one of the organization’s scientists that proved capable of extending his life and vitality years longer than Mother Nature intended. In the decades since Kaspar’s capture and death, Vassily joined the Russian Mafiya and lived the life of a wealthy consultant and playboy. Wealth, wine, and women helped him recover from the blow to his ego the defeat of the Chessmen represented.
And then, a few years ago, the pain began. His body was deteriorating—as his expensive doctors told him, the longevity serum was unstable and his cells were consuming themselves. It was only a matter of time before it killed him. His enemies in the Mafiya capitalized on his weakness and were able to force him out of the organization. But he didn’t care anymore. While investigating the serum, he learned the inventor was a former AEGIS scientist and Vassily had come to the conclusion the man had corrupted the serum at AEGIS’ command and left it for him to steal when he escaped, after all, that was something he would do. They had killed him without ever pulling a trigger and he wanted revenge.
In his final days, Endgame has put the Chessmen back into play by manipulating the new Grandmaster. Every ounce of energy he can muster he gives to his pupil, hoping the son will succeed where the father failed. If he can do so while Vassily is still alive and able to see his enemies precede him to the grave, so much the better. Ultimately, Dragovich just wants to see AEGIS burn.

THE QUEENS

The Queens (one white and one black) are massively complex AIs that control all electronic and mechanical operations in the Board. They monitor and analyze incoming intelligence, track Chessmen agents, and coordinate usage of the teleport network. They are programmed to be utterly loyal to the Grandmaster and, as he does, view all other organization personnel as expendable pieces. They have no physical presence outside the facility (their physical systems are integrated into the Board’s infrastructure).

THE BISHOPS

Bishops are designed with intelligence and infiltration in mind. Their extensive cybernetics are hidden and even shielded from sensor detection. When outside the Board, many of them are unaware of their status, instead conditioned as “sleeper” assets. In operation, they are able to infiltrate electronics systems easily and with no external equipment.

KNIGHTS

Knights are the combat leaders of the Chessmen. Highly mobile and heavily armed, they are equipped with the same TacNet interface as the Pawns, but are capable of independent thought and creativity which Pawns lack. Recruits are trained via computer interface (a process which includes brainwashing and a removal of normal fear responses) and each has a “killswitch” that can be remotely triggered to kill them and destroy their armor.

PAWNS

Pawns are sophisticated combat robots. Though their complex programming may make them seem intelligent, they are only machines and have neither creativity nor independent thought. Pawns stand eight feet tall, are obviously armored, and each has a cannon in place of its left arm. In addition to its Arm Cannon, a Pawn also has an internal grenade launcher and can release a hail of taser darts from the center of its chest plate. Acting in concert with other Pawns, they can pose a significant hazard to those who are accustomed to the more easily disposable robot assets of other organizations.

ROOKS

A Rook is essentially a flying tank cybernetically-interfaced with a pilot and consists of an armored exoframe surrounding a life-support womb. It possesses powerful weapon systems, extendable tentacles for manipulation, and a short-range integrated rapid-teleport system independent of the Board’s network that it uses to “pop” around targets for tactical advantage. As with the Bishops, Knights, and Pawns, the Rooks access the TacNet system.

TACTICS

Alexander has studied his father’s decisions, both his successes and mistakes. To him, everything boiled down to misplaced trust and impatience. So, his people are conditioned to obey and no longer have the capacity to betray him. His watchwords are planning, information, and precision. Enemies are watched and studied in detail before steps are taken against them. Operations begin by targeting friends and associates or favored locations. Then, when the target is off-balance or distracted by other concerns, the target is hit with blackmail, extortion, or an outright smear campaign—whatever it takes to remove them from the game. Every operation and every enemy is reduced to pieces on a board, with moves carefully thought out.
Moving into an area, the Chessmen identify the criminal elements they need to neutralize or take over in order to operate effectively. Once they take control, they move on to local business and government elements, again blackmailing, intimidating, or eliminating whomever they need to in order to put their people in those positions. Thus far they have avoided directly confronting AEGIS and several powerful criminal organizations… biding their time until the Chessmen are able to deal with those obstacles.
When Chessmen agents or equipment are captured, they are immediately destroyed via a built-in “killswitch,” and video or digital evidence pertaining to the group is corrupted, altered, or eliminated at the earliest opportunity.

Public Agenda

The Grandmaster wants to be respected and feared. He wants to realize his father’s ambitions and for AEGIS, the hero community, and the public to not only be helpless against him but to recognize and admit that fact. More importantly, he wants to shame the people responsible for his father’s ignoble end. To achieve this he wants to seize control of business, political, and military assets. He intends for the Chessmen to eventually be a world-class threat on par with SHADOW or The Foundry and will take any steps necessary to make that happen. Wealth and firepower are a means to these ends, nothing more.

Assets

The Board is an underground facility located far beneath the Emerald City federal building.
The Chessmen have access to the city’s traffic cameras, municipal and police computer databases, as well as many individual security systems (commercial and private). All input is processed and analyzed by the Chessmen’s Queens. The organization has eyes everywhere, constantly sifting through the data to find useful information. Finally, their teleportation system enables the Chessmen to move anywhere in the city at a moment’s notice. With all of these resources, the Chessmen seem to know everything and be everywhere.
The Grandmaster funds the Chessmen by diverting money from hundreds of companies and online schemes as well as by stealing from other criminal and terrorist organization. He recruits homeless people and runaways from around North America—his electronic training and conditioning makes them into capable agents.

Type

Illicit, Cartel

TACNET INTERFACE The TacNet is a suite of “smart” software used by Chessmen operatives acting in concert. It analyzes movement patterns, fields of fire, and environmental factors and combines the results to allow operatives to adapt to an enemy’s actions in battle as perfectly as possible. This is a Weaken effect against a target’s combat-related traits that is undetectable by the target and resisted by Will to reflect mental focus and discipline under fire.