The New Gods possess overwhelming power. Manpower, firepower, soft power, hard power, name the power and they have it. And they gift their most loyal believers ultratech and occult powers. No human military or police force can oppose them; they have all been co-opted by the New Gods. No corporation can compete with them; they are all owned by the New Gods. No government can resist them; they are all controlled by the New Gods.
How can anyone hope to fight them?
In the hands of a lesser author, the story arc will revolve around finding various ways of means to do this. The development of wunderwaffen that can quickly, easily and cheaply obliterate the soldiers New Gods in a single shot. Identifying the one vulnerability of a keystone army and destroying it. Or growing so powerful that the heroes can battle the gods in a head-on fight.
The last time a wunderwaffe won a war was in 1945, against an empire that was already on the ropes. It’s not going to happen, not here in Babylon, where the New Gods reign supreme. Sure, Yuri Yamamoto and his team will have access to ultratech, but by and large this gear confers tactical and occasionally operational advantages. They don’t have the ability to influence the course of a war—at least, so far as they have experienced.
The New Gods are students of human history. They are keenly aware of the vulnerabilities posed by designing a keystone army. Their leaders have deputies, and their deputies have deputies. Kill one and there’s a dozen who can take his place. Redundancies and backups are built into critical infrastructure. Knock out one facility and it can be easily replaced. The hive minds do not have a singular overlord that can be destroyed. The only real vulnerabilities the New Gods possess are themselves—and the New Gods exist in a dimension far beyond human reach. Striking critical personnel and infrastructure would be significant, but it would not be a mortal blow.
And finally, Babylon is a cyberpunk action horror story. It’s not a superhero story, or some cultivation power fantasy clone. It’s the wrong genre for an eleventh hour superpower.
Yuri Yamamoto and his team face fearful odds. They face seven Leviathans at the same time—and there are no easy weaknesses they can exploit. To their knowledge, the New Gods have sealed away every possibility of a swift and clean victory—and armed themselves with every advantage against the STS. They cannot hope to win in a stand-up fight.
So they don’t engage in one.
The New Gods enjoy absolute advantage everywhere. What the STS can do is to create relative advantage. They cannot overpower the New Gods. They cannot fight the New Gods on their terms. But they can force the New Gods to fight in disadvantageous conditions.
The New Gods possess ultratech that can decide the course of a battle—or so they think. Armour-piercing munitions and explosives nullify armour. Stealth and mobility nullify manpower and firepower: you cannot kill what you cannot see, and you cannot engage what moves too quickly for you to target. The STS has its own cyberwarfare capabilities, allowing the team to exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems. That leaves the New Gods with magic… and Yuri is a Christian street samurai with the singular ability to nullify that.
Nullifying advantages does not lead to victory. Merely a level playing field at best. It does not guarantee victory. This brings us to the realm of strategy and tactics.
Provoke an enemy to divide himself into small groups, then defeat him in detail. Distract and mislead the enemy to keep him from directing superior firepower against you. Manipulate one enemy to attack the other for you. Attack from ambush, disappear when they rally, attack again when they are exhausted. These are just some of the methods Yuri Yamamoto and his team have employed against the New Gods, and will continue to employ against them.
Most Western fiction depicts a small but high-tech force fending off massive swarms of inferior enemies with superior firepower. It is the Western way of war, reflecting idealized elements of Western history. Horror fiction depicts characters fleeing in the face of a horror that possesses overwhelming power.
With Babylon, I intend to depict both: a small and heavily disadvantaged force pitted against a huge opposing force of immense power.
It is a story unlike anything you’ll see from a Western author.
Firefights in bog-standard Western fiction become boring once you understand the tropes. Artillery, air strikes and the like become instant win buttons. The characters just need to hold on long enough until it arrives. Or if it isn’t present, they simply need to stand fast against the primitive hordes, counting on superior training and technology to win.
This option isn’t available in Babylon Black. This forces the characters to pursue alternative strategies, strategies that actually make sense in the setting. And with the deck stacked against them, every move they make is fraught with risk. The slightest mistake could lead to disaster. The risks are high, and the stakes even higher.
The New Gods stand astride the world, and against them a sword is but a toothpick. Yet employed at the right place and the right time, all that is needed to fell the Leviathan is a single sword.
Back Babylon Black on IndieGoGo now!
Leave a Reply