[FOCI]
Rust and Redemption
You were raised in an underground bunker by Milly, an AI instance installed in your brain before you developed cognition of your own. Unlike AI zombies, your personality and motivations haven't been replaced; your sense of self grew alongside the AI, as collaborators rather than foes. This granted you superior intellect and an uncanny knack for computers. Now you've emerged into the larger world, where survivors are predisposed tso distrust you, and you may need to keep your background a secret to be accepted. Whether you hate AI or remain loyal to Milly, you face the best odds if you can fit in with another group of survivors. After all, there's a lot you don't know about how things work on the surface and the things people have done to stay alive in the past twenty years.
You have scars on your scalp in the shape of circuitry (like Lichtenberg figures). You probably keep these hidden, as they identify you as one of Milly's children to anyone familiar with the mark.
You restore 2 points to your Intellect Pool.
An ally or indicated target can take an additional action.
By directly plugging into a device, you can identify and learn to operate it as though the task were one level lower.
A level 2 robot of your size or smaller (built by you) accompanies you and follows your instructions. You and the GM must work out the details of your robot. You’ll probably make rolls for it when it takes actions. A robot assistant in combat usually doesn’t make separate attacks but helps with yours. On your action, if the artificial assistant is next to you, it serves as an asset for one attack you make on your turn. If the robot is destroyed, you can repair the original with a few days’ worth of tinkering, or build a new one with a week’s worth of half-time labor.
While your chosen weapon is in your hand(s), you are trained in Speed defense rolls.
Ability Choice: Choose either Assisted Sight or Machine Telepathy as your tier 4 ability.
You can activate a visual overlay that helps you analyze threats and boons in your environment. When you trigger this ability, you gain an asset on one attack or defense roll of any type, due to your knowledge about the situation.
or
You can read the surface thoughts of a machine within short range, even if the machine doesn't want you to. You must be able to see the machine. Once you have established contact, you can read the target's thoughts for up to one minute. If you or the target move out of range, the connection is broken. If you have the Mind Reading ability, when you apply Effort to Machine Telepathy, you gain a free level of Effort.
Action to initiate.
From very long range, you can activate and control a device (including a robot or vehicle) that you have bonded with. For example, you can detonate a manifest cypher even when it is held by someone else, or cause an automated turret to fire where you direct. Bonding is a process that requires 24 hours of meditation in the presence of the machine.
You can ask the GM one question and get a very short answer if you succeed on an Intellect roll against a difficulty assigned by the GM. The more obscure the answer, the more difficult the task. On a failed roll, feedback or perhaps some defense from the network you're accessing inflicts 4 points of Intellect damage on you (ignores Armor). Generally, knowledge that you could find by looking somewhere other than your current location is level 1, while obscure knowledge of the past is level 7. Gaining knowledge of the future is impossible.
You gain 6 points to your Intellect Pool.
Ability Choice: Choose either Master Machine or See the Future as your tier 6 ability.
You can control the functions of a machine you have bonded with using Machine Bond, intelligent or otherwise. In addition, if you use an action to concentrate on a machine, you are aware of what is going on around it (you see and hear as if you were standing next to it, no matter how far away you are). You must touch the machine to create the bond, but afterward, there is no range limitation. This bond lasts for one week. You can bond with only one machine at a time
Action to initiate.
or
Based on all the variables you perceive, you can predict the next few minutes. This has the following effects:
GM Intrusions: Machines malfunction or shut down. Fellow survivors are afraid of someone whose mind is touched by an AI.