Prison Extraction

[LostOne]

So I'm hoping to plan a scenario where the group needs to extract someone from an ultra max security facility on Rifts Earth. They might need to get themselves incarcerated to pull it off.

I'm still brainstorming and deciding if it is feasible. It would probably run by Coalition but could be another nation if that works better. I don't really know that much about security real prisons might implement beyond the obvious guards, cells, walls, snipers, cameras, etc. Then you add in that some inmates will likely have powers such as magic, psionics, supernatural abilities which requires more security.

The problem for story purposes is I don't want to be crippling the players. I don't remember if I read this in one of the world books or a Rifter, but I vaguely recall the CS might give a practitioner prisoners cybernetics to permanently cripple their magic. That's the kind of thing I don't want to do to the players.

If the prison is Coalition run then they would have a strong chance of having detailed insider info including blueprints, personnel files, schematics and expired security codes.

So, has anyone planned a maximum security prison they can share, or is there one already detailed in a Rifter or book that I'm not remembering? Is what I'm hoping to do even realistic or is this more trouble than it's worth if designed somewhat believably? The group is a mixed bag of supernatural strength, a human-looking wolfen quatoria, and a tattooed warrior. With a possibility of a cyberknight. The quatoria has a communication uplink and could call in reinforcements or precision dronestrikes in an emergency but in Rifts I'd fully expect a prison to have countermeasures against that kind of thing as well.

[Orin J.]

i don't think the CS has maximum security prisons, they just have maximum security cells inside their fortress cities. your guys would probably be assigned to some place they'd expect them to get killed if they managed to break out on their own.

[taalismn]

There's the POW camps from the Tolkeen War supplements, but beyond that there are no canon prisons that I know of.

I did a random roll Prisons of the Megaverse table-process that can give some ideas, but that's aimed at other worlds, not the CS.

[guardiandashi]

considering that policy towards lots of dbees/monsters and "excess resistance" can rapidly go to shoot first, shoot some more, and after everyone is dead think about asking questions

I doubt they really have a lot of high security prisons, although they may have some high security cells, but I suspect they tend to have rather lethal provisions to stop escape attempts.

I don't suppose its quite as bad as what the empire had on the the infectious disease vault in one of the rogue squadron novel, but in that case its more a matter of scale rather than kind. I could totally see them having grenade drop dispensers in a high security cell for instance, but they most likely do NOT have a full on nuclear warhead for use to stop a breakout.

[narcissus]

Sourcebook: Heroes of Humanity has a few pages on the CS prison system.

[Warshield73]

Have you thought of them trying to escape from the secret labs in the lowest levels of Lonestar complex? I had an idea for this years and years and years ago but never had the chance to run it.

This is a place that people could be brought without any official CS knowledge to be used as lab rats. This means when they escape they will encounter a few monsters, CS guards, some mutant animals, and even the tunnels full of mutant rats.

[LostOne]

So I'm not married to the CS running the prison, that would simply be easiest for the group to plan for and possibly pull off. Anyone else would have defenses harder for the group to feasibly overcome such as enchantments, wards, area effect spells, geas, invisible guards with spells and supernatural abiltiies, astral/spirit guards, etc. But maybe the group will surprise me with some wild and feasible ideas if presented with such a scenario.

I'll have to check out that heroes of humanity section, thanks.

I also found that Prisons of the Megaverse and will check that out, there's likely good seeds there.

Sadly in my campaign, Lone Star will likely not be an option for the forseeable future, but they would already have facilities that could probably hold this group since they have all these monsters they're experimenting on. Great thought. Maybe I'll have to rearrange some things to make that work. Or maybe there is another facility along the same lines, but intentionally kept separate from Lone Star to encourage thinking along a different path. Lone Star is more well known because dog boys were a great success. But maybe this other facility has other projects kept top secret and are looking for fresh victims to experiment on and it's more of a prison facility that experiments on the victims.

[Orin J.]

i mean it's not impossible for northern gun or someone else to be experimenting with superhuman "bioweapons"- we already know NG's been doing some hinky stuff with juicer and M.O.M. technoogy and making the next step to selling their own brand of genetic sioweapon a la dogboys isn't all that far.

maybe your group happens to be in the latest batch of experiments/parts to harvest?

[Warshield73]

i mean it's not impossible for northern gun or someone else to be experimenting with superhuman "bioweapons"- we already know NG's been doing some hinky stuff with juicer and M.O.M. technoogy and making the next step to selling their own brand of genetic sioweapon a la dogboys isn't all that far.

maybe your group happens to be in the latest batch of experiments/parts to harvest?

NG doesn't seem to have the tech for this. I mean they can copy existing juicer and MOM tech to sell but they don't seem to have any of the biomedical facilities necessary to produce anything like dog boys. Is there a facility in the two NG books that can do this that I missed?

Also, there is a huge gap between the technology for juicers and crazies and the ability to create mutant animals.

[LostOne]

NG doesn't seem to have the tech for this. I mean they can copy existing juicer and MOM tech to sell but they don't seem to have any of the biomedical facilities necessary to produce anything like dog boys. Is there a facility in the two NG books that can do this that I missed?

Also, there is a huge gap between the technology for juicers and crazies and the ability to create mutant animals.

All it takes is recruiting the right person (or team) with the knowledge and motivation to get a project like this going. Put them in charge of recruiting others. Maybe these are Lone Star defectors or d-bees from an advanced world like Center. Or maybe they managed to unearth a pre-rifts facility that gave them a huge head start on launching their own Lone Star level facility.

[Blackwater Sniper]

One of the best ways to secure people is to place the prison in a near uninhabitable location: middle of the water (large lake, ocean, or underwater) or environmental (barren desert, frigid arctic, underground, or inside a mountain).

Then the hard part isn't the breaking in or breaking out, but getting to or from the location itself undetected.

I worked security at Quad Cities Nuclear Power Plant for eight years. This was 20 years ago, but our layers of security included armed security at strategic locations, metal detectors/wanding, x-rays for hand-held items, picture ID cards with keypad door locks, and biometric readers. Security doesn't chase people, but instead have specific locations to report to during an "alert."

Everyone there knew everyone else mainly because we worked so closely together for years. You can't just put on a uniform and sneak around like one of the guys. It's hard to get into an unauthorized area, even security doesn't have access to locations they have no business being.

It's all defense in depth with both passive and active systems interlocking.

[Warshield73]

NG doesn't seem to have the tech for this. I mean they can copy existing juicer and MOM tech to sell but they don't seem to have any of the biomedical facilities necessary to produce anything like dog boys. Is there a facility in the two NG books that can do this that I missed?

Also, there is a huge gap between the technology for juicers and crazies and the ability to create mutant animals.

All it takes is recruiting the right person (or team) with the knowledge and motivation to get a project like this going. Put them in charge of recruiting others. Maybe these are Lone Star defectors or d-bees from an advanced world like Center. Or maybe they managed to unearth a pre-rifts facility that gave them a huge head start on launching their own Lone Star level facility.

This is all true but it is true of almost any power on Rifts Earth. If NG uncovered something like this they seem more likely to sell it to the CS than to use it, it's just not there area.

NGR is more a pure tech company which is more likely to experiment with AI and nano tech than biotech.

[Orin J.]

NGR is more a pure tech company which is more likely to experiment with AI and nano tech than biotech.

they already stepped into that ring with their juicer program, though.....might simply not be a field they're currently openly selling, but tech they've decided to grow until it's more viable, which is a good reason to need a lot of creatures with superpowers to "experiment" with. it'd also explain teh security, because they REALLY don't wnat that kind of reuptation. who'd want to be the first thing both lazlo AND chi-town publicly decry as unacceptable?

[Fenris2020]

One of the best ways to secure people is to place the prison in a near uninhabitable location: middle of the water (large lake, ocean, or underwater) or environmental (barren desert, frigid arctic, underground, or inside a mountain).

Then the hard part isn't the breaking in or breaking out, but getting to or from the location itself undetected.

I worked security at Quad Cities Nuclear Power Plant for eight years. This was 20 years ago, but our layers of security included armed security at strategic locations, metal detectors/wanding, x-rays for hand-held items, picture ID cards with keypad door locks, and biometric readers. Security doesn't chase people, but instead have specific locations to report to during an "alert."

Everyone there knew everyone else mainly because we worked so closely together for years. You can't just put on a uniform and sneak around like one of the guys. It's hard to get into an unauthorized area, even security doesn't have access to locations they have no business being.

It's all defense in depth with both passive and active systems interlocking.

Excellent points.
Crap that works in movies and tv shows doesn't work outside of those enertainments.