Metapsionics

"'In our war against the Ferals, Metapsionics is our greatest tool. Whilst Metapsionics is a discipline that has no physical effects to call its own, the way it can modify and control psychic energy means that, in the field, a metapsion can deny a feral psychic its one major advantage against our suppression squads. I would suggest that all psychics we train have at least a basic understanding of Metapsionics before they are allowed to graduate.' - Dr O'Hara, Lead Psychic Researcher, Psychic Protection Division"Metapsionics is a discipline that focuses on the control of psychic energy itself, rather than the use of it to manipulate the psychic's environment.

On its own, the discipline allows a psychic to increase the raw Effort available to them, and allows them more flexibility in how they use the Effort they have. Expert metapsions can even teach other potential psychics how to control and channel their new abilities.

Beyond this, a competent metapsion is the only practical way to protect a target from undetectable psychic attacks. Without a vigilant metapsion standing guard, anyone may find their minds rifled through effortlessly by some undetected psychic intruder.

Due to their discipline's lack of physical effects, many metapsions become much more physically competent and better-trained in combat than the average psychic, and their existence as a shield against mental infiltration provides a high price in many systems in the sector.

Core Technique - Psychic Refinement
The first technique a metapsion learns is the ability to refine the use of their own psychic powers, and gain an innate sense of when other psychics are using their abilities.

Level-0: The psychic can visually and audibly detect the use of psychic powers. If both the source and target are visible to the metapsion, they can tell who is using the power, even if it is normally imperceptible. The metapsion also gain a +2 against saving throws vs. psychic powers

Level-1: The psychic's maximum Effort increases by one point.

Level-2: The psychic can determine whether or not a person is psychic, or has latent psionic abilities though one round of visual inspection. The psychic's saving throw bonus against psychic powers increases to +3.

Level-3: The psychic's maximum Effort increases by one point.

Level-4: The metapsion can perform a slightly safer version of Torching. Instead of rolling on the damage table as normal, they may instead take 10 points of damage after the torching has been used. The damage occurs after the fueled power activates, allowing a psychic to trigger powers this way before falling unconscious.

This damage cannot be healed by any method other than natural bed rest, though a psychic can be stabilised if this technique drops them to zero hit points

Cloak Powers
"'One of the more significant dangers of teaching Metapsionics to our students is the fact that, with a little training in this discipline, it is a simple affair for a psychic to be able to cloak their psychic abilities, a cloak which can only be pierced by a better metapsion. This will make it much more difficult for us to pick up on a psychic's trail if one decides to go rogue. My objections have been noted by the Psychic Protection Division, but every time I try to make any headway with stopping this, I get blocked at every opportunity' - Dr. David Santaro, Metapsionics Instructor."With this technique, a psychic can conceal their own psychic abilities from metapsionic senses. They must commit Effort for as long as they wish to cloak their powers.

While hidden, only a metapsion with an equal or greater skill in Metapsionics can detect their abilities with their level-0 or level-2 Psychic Refinement abilities. In those cases, an opposed Wis/Metapsionics roll is made between the metapsion and the investigator. If the investigator wins, the cloak is pierced. If not, then the investigator remains oblivious.

Mindtracing
"'One of the first things we end up teaching new Metapsionics students is the ability to see and hear through the eyes of a psychic. This ability is incredibly useful when dealing with hostile psychics, but also has usage with information gathering. While it only lasts for a short while, the insight it gives to the user is invaluable as it allows a metapsion to always keep their senses focused on a hostile psychic.' - Dr. David Santaro, Metapsionics Instructor."With this technique, a psychic can trace back the use of psionic powers that they have noticed in their presence.

By committing Effort for the scene as an Instant action, they can see and hear through the senses of a user of a psychic power, giving them an intuitive awareness of the power user's location, and treating them as a visible target for purposes of their own abilities.

Thus, if the psychic can see someone being affected by a telepathy power with no visible source, they can use this ability to briefly share the hidden telepath's senses. If used on a target that is teleporting, they can perceive the teleporter's view of their destination. Use on a metamorphic-shaped imposter would reveal the biopsion responsible for the change, and so forth

These shared senses last for only one round and do not interfere with the adept's other actions.

Synthetic Adaptation
"'I've noticed a curious technique being practiced by some of my more technologically-minded students. After discussing with them about this new technique, I found out more about it. Apparently, with some knowledge of computing or engineering, a psychic can control their energy so that some powers can affect synthetic VIs. As far as I have learned, this technique can only work on VIs with some form of sentience, and it could apparently work on AI as well. I have to wonder how such a technique came to exist. It is unlikely that the students invented it, they aren't skilled enough to be performing such wild experiments as inventing new techniques. A curious puzzle, indeed' - Dr. David Santaro, Metapsionics Instructor."With this technique, the psychic has learned to synergise with the quantum intelligence of VI or True AI and can apply Telekinetic or Biopsionic techniques to their inanimate forms.

This technique can only be used on machines with an intelligent sentience, and only psychics with at least Program-0 or Fix-0 can understand this power enough to be able to use it.

This synergy takes much of its force from the psychic. Any System Strain the powers may inflict must be paid by the adept, rather than the target.

Level-2 Techniques
"'Whilst the beginner techniques mostly focus on simple effects, the more advanced Metapsionic techniques use more intricate methods to allow a psychic to actively interfere with a hostile psychic's usage of powers. The techniques listed in this book show a few of the more prominent techniques that have rose to prominence over the years' - Excerpt from The Metapsionics Handbook"

Neural Trap
"'Willingly accepting the effects from a psychic assault seems rather unwise, at first glance. However, it has been shown that doing so allows a psychic to create an 'imprint' of the user's MES patterns. This 'imprint' can then be used to slip through the defences of the psychic who used the power, forcing them to suffer the effect of any power in the psychic's repertoire.' - Dr. Alex Legume, Psychic Interdiction Instructor."With this technique, a psychic can allow a hostile psychic into their mental sanctum in order to gain a later advantage.

When targeted by a hostile psionic power that allows a saving throw, the psychic may commit Effort as an Instant action and voluntarily fail the saving throw, accepting the effect. The next psychic power the user targets at the assailant then allows the victim no saving throw.

This technique lasts until the psychic makes their psychic attack or reclaims the Effort commited. A hostile psychic may be affected by only one Neural Trap from a given psychic at a time.

Psychic Static
"'For the psychic concerned with suffering adverse effects when setting up a Neural Trap, there is an alternative, though it could be costly. Suppression forces have found that a hostile psychic power can be shut down by simply throwing brute-force psychic energy at it. This brute-force suppression can exhaust your supply of Effort fairly quickly, especially if the hostile tries to brute-force the power through your suppression. As a precaution, I would suggest that you only use this technique when facing a psychic of lesser skill.' - Dr. Alex Legume, Psychic Interdiction Instructor."With this technique, the psychic can commit Effort for the day to negate a psychic power that they can perceive.

Initiating this negation then begins a battle of Effort between the psychic responsible for the effect, and the psychic attempting to negate it. If the psychic responsible for the effect commits Effort for the day in response to this effect, then the negation is resisted. However, the psychic negating the effect can commit further Effort for the day in response to the resistance to keep applying the negation.

This process of resisting and negating continues until one of the psychics run out of Effort to spend, or chooses to stop.

Psychic Static can be applied only once per round to any particular power, and the target of Psychic Static automatically knows the position of the interfering metapsion, though other onlookers do not have any obvious way of identifying the metapsion.

Suspended Manifestation
"'At times, a psychic may find it useful to have a psychic power readied to activate at a moment's notice. This technique allows a psychic to sustain a power for an indefinite period for such a purpose.' - Dr. David Santaro, Metapsionics Instructor."With this technique, a psychic can hold a psychic power ready in their brain, suspending it in a loop until it is time to trigger the power's release.

The psychic must commit Effort for the day to hold a power, along with the Effort cost normally required to trigger the power. None of this Effort can be recovered until the power is expended, after which it recovers at the normal rate.

Activating the power is an Instant action, or an On Turn action if it allows the target a saving throw of some kind. Only one ability can be held suspended at any one time.

O'Hara's Notes
Warning: The following documents are classified under CODE PSYPROT. Only members with the necessary clearance have the authority to access these files. Dissemination of these files will result in severe disciplinary action."'Your division's insistence on teaching students the basics Metapsionics is becoming a significant problem, Doctor. We're getting more and more reports of psychics going rogue from the academy. Some are even tutoring other psychics. This is a problem that cannot be allowed to fester, O'Hara. Fix this. Now.' - Memo to Dr O'Hara left by Admiral Finell of the Federation Navy Command HQ"

Concert of Minds
"'A curious development in the field of Metapsionics is the ability for advanced metapsions to connect minds together in a form of gestalt consciousness. This gestalt appears to share the techniques of its members with everyone in the gestalt, allowing psychics to use powers in disciplines in which they have no experience in whatsoever. This appears to put immense pressure on the metapsion holding the gestalt together, so suppression teams facing groups of rogue psychics should focus their efforts on the metapsion holding the a gestalt together.' - Dr O'Hara, Lead Psychic Researcher, Psychic Protection Division"With this technique, a psychic may commit Effort and form a psychic gestalt with one or more willing psychics within 3 metres, including up to one other psychic per Metapsionics skill level. This gestalt persists for as long as the Effort remains commited, regardless of the subsequent distance between psychics.

On their turn, any member of the gestalt may use any power or technique known by any other member, using the other member's skill levels as necessary and paying any Effort cost from their own pool. This gestalt shares only psychic power, not thoughts or senses.

At the end of each round in which one or more members have used some other member's powers or abilities on their turn of action, the metapsion must commit Effort for the scene or the gestalt drops and cannot be re-established for the rest of the scene.

Metadimensional Friction
"'An advanced Metapsionics technique that our suppression forces have encountered in the field is the ability of metapsions to create turbulence within metaspace around a hostile psychic. This turbulence causes the affected psychic to suffer a 'backlash' effect which physically harms them. We aren't entirely sure what causes the harm. However, we do know that the damage is not from psychic burnout.' - Dr O'Hara, Lead Psychic Researcher, Psychic Protection Division"With this technique, a psychic may commit Effort for the scene to create localised MES turbulence around a visible target psychic within 200 metres.

Each time the target commits Effort or an NPC initiates a psychic power, they suffer 1d8 damage per Metapsionics skill level of the psychic using this ability.

Each time the target suffers damage this way, they may attempt a Mental saving throw to throw off the effect. This effects lasts no longer than the scene in which it was applied, and only one application of this friction can affect a target at any time.

Psychic Tutelage
WARNING: The following file is classified under CODE TOPSEC. This file may only be accessed under the direct supervision of Dr. O'Hara. Dissemination of this file will result in severe disciplinary action, termination of employment, and subsequent blacklisting from all psychic research.

ERROR: UNAUTHORISED ACCESS DETECTED!

ERROR: FIREWALLS FAILING. FOREIGN CONNECTION ESTABLISHED

Sorry folks, PsyProt won't tell you shit about how other psychics are trained, so it falls to this humble hacker to fill in the blanks for ya. Don't have access to the file itself, so you'll have to make do with the shit I've managed to piece together below:

With this technique, a psychic can modulate and temper the metadimensional energy that surges through an untrained psychic's mind. This "safety buffer" allows the novice to experiment with their abilities and gradually develop the control they need to channel their powers without causing permanent brain damage. Without this technique, it is virtually impossible to turn a normal with untapped potential into a trained psychic.

A psychic with Metapsionics-3 can train up to ten pupils at once. A psychic with Metapsionics-4 can train up to one hundred.

In order to train a potential in ways to avoid accidentally triggering their powers, a week of training under this technique is required. The actual training of a potential in the use of their powers effectively requires anywhere between one to four years depending on the natural aptitude of the student, and the availability of other psychics willing to assist in teaching.

So yeah, that's basically a crash course in training any newbies you find. If you've got the skills to do it, make sure you keep the poor fucks safe. They'll likely be going through enough shit with the risk of their brain frying, never mind the fact that the Feds will be on their asses for the rest of their lives, most likely.

This is Static Synth, signing off.

Surge Momentum
"'Our efforts in psychic disruption have borne fruit with this technique. A powerful metapsion can augment their other abilities with this technique in an effort to completely shut down any defence from this technique. Hopefully its use in the field will help suppression forces to subdue psychics easier.' - Dr O'Hara, Lead Psychic Researcher, Psychic Protection Division"With this technique, a psychic can reinforce their abilities with enough metadimensional energy to cause substantial damage to a less adept mind. Particularly weak or unprepared minds may be completely crushed by the force of the psychic's augmented will.

When using a power that normally grants its target a saving throw, the psychic may commit Effort for the day. If they do so, the target of the power will suffer a penalty to the saving throw equal to the psychic's Metapsionics skill level.

If the target's hit die total or character level is less than half the psychic's level, rounded up, the target automatically fails the saving throw.

Flawless Mastery
"'Dr O'Hara. What are these reports I am getting about rogue metapsions having the ability to use psychic powers at frequencies far past those of normal psychics? Have these psychics learned how to use their powers at such a level that it becomes effortless? If so, you have a very significant problem on your hands. You were put in charge of PsyProt to stop rogue and feral psychics, not create more of them!' - Memo to Dr O'Hara left by Admiral Finell of the Federation Navy Command HQ"With this technique, a psychic gains a level of mastery over a technique that allows them to use that technique effortlessly.

The psychic may choose one technique from any discipline they know. That technique no longer requires Effort to be committed in any way, though other techniques that augment it may still exact a cost.

Mastered Psychic Static, for example, can spend an effectively unlimited amount of Effort.

If the technique has a duration based on committed Effort, then it lasts until the metapsion chooses to end it, or is killed. This technique may only be used to master one power, though the perfected technique may be changed with a month of meditation and practice.

Impervious Pavis of Will
"'Dear God. I thought that Metapsionics was the key. I thought that training psychics in Metapsionics would be how we finally stopped ferals for good. What a fool I was. Not only have I created an entirely new problem in the case of the Rogues, it turns out that masters of Metapsionics have the ability to negate the powers of entire disciplines. Instead of defeating Ferals, I have handed our enemies the weapons they need to undermine the authority of the Federation as a whole.' Dr O'Hara's Personal Journal, found moments after his disappearance."With this technique, a psychic becomes immune to powers from certain disciplines.

When this technique is learned, the psychic must choose a discipline. They then become entirely immune to unwanted powers from that discipline; they and their abilities are simply not valid targets for purposes of that discipline's powers unless the psychic chooses to be affected.

By committing Effort for the day as an Instant action, they can extend this immunity for a scene to all allies within 50 metres. This technique may be learned more than once, and any shared protection applies to all disciplines negated by the psychic.