New Lemuria

Delivered to the forces of SCALE by fate the interdimensional fighting champion known as Kii-Chugo has been elevated by the Seditious Campaign for the Advancement of the Lemurian Empire as their new ruler, the SCALE Sovereign. The last of his kind and the only living Lemurian on this Earth, his coming (along with the recovery of the Sarcophagus of Aphosis) heralds the dawning of a new age for the planet. No longer will homo sapiens rule the world. Instead there is a new order, a new ruling class... a new Lemuria.

Under the rule of the SCALE Sovereign, their old leader has taken on a new mantle... that of Tyrant Lizard Rex. Armed with a new costume re-engineered to control the alien contents of the Sarcophagus Tyrant Lizard Rex will lead the forces of SCALE to total world domination.

Their first order of business is the complete and utter annihilation of the human race. Only a small chosen few, safely confined on Seafloor City from the coming onslaught, will be allowed to survive.

Session Six: Small SCALE War

Last time on Vanguard for Victory our heroes were picking up the pieces left in the wake of the Triple Threat attack by Ringo, the Intraverse and The forces of SCALE. Surprisingly the personal adversities suffered by each individual only served to strengthen the team. Finally working together and sharing vital information the Vanguard rallied around their leader as he made demands of the mayor that changes be made to daily team operations. Siding with her choice for team leader Mayor Talbot quickly fired Maximillian Mars and took steps to remove all presence of all Mars Tech technology from Victory Tower. That didn't go over well and Max left the team cursing Doctor Robot's name. 

Quickly working to recover the items stolen from the ruins of Doctor Robot's lab the team tracked the Sarcophagus of Apophis to the middle of the ocean with help remotely from new their security coordinator Alexander Kaspar, grandmaster of the small spy organization The Chessmen and Barricuda Ritchson in his borrowed AEGIS flying shield carrier. Headed toward the deep sea coordinates the team learned about the existence of the Chamber conspiracy from Adela, the true identity of the global drug kingpin known as Lagarto by Ultima and that Ringo is totally open to some horizontal sparring with Shota. 

Once they arrived the team descended to an abandoned SCALE bunker on the ocean floor just in time to stop the cackling mad Tyrant Lizard from channeling megawatts of energy into the sarcophagus. They would have retrieved the sarcophagus too, except it was teleported away at the last moment by means unknown. Their only lead now is in Seafloor City, an experimental underwater think tank community of cutting edge scientists lead by billionaire eccentric Tox Cofera. Since Seafloor City is considered its own sovereign nation AEGIS can not assist them in infiltrating it, even though it very well might be the secret headquarters for the terrorist organization known as SCALE, the Seditious Campaign for Advancing the Lemurian Empire. 

With only four days remaining before Victory Day can the team succeed in penetrate the secrets of Seafloor City, recover the stolen sarcophagus and stop the forces of SCALE from executing their nefarious plans in time to return in Emerald City to attend the funeral of murdered local hero and retired Majestic 20 agent Somber Quinn?  

Or will the world descend into...

There is only one way to find out.

Everyone gain 2 Points.

The Chessmen

The Chessmen were a British secret intelligence operation that operated from 1962 to 1980. Formed originally by Godwin Kaspar, the original Chessmen consisted of highly-trained former espionage and law-enforcement personnel recruited by Kaspar in his guise as the Black
King. Most of the agents were ranked according to their specialty, Knights were recruited for combat, Bishops for intelligence work, Rooks for security and so on. Masters at behind-the-scenes political manipulation, the Chessmen initially intended to clandestinely assist the American and British governments in containing unusual and colorful menaces to the crown during the Silver Age of heroism.

Eventually, however, it was revealed that the Chessmen only appeared to be foiling the threats they were asked to intervene in. In truth, the Chessmen were profiting or even recruiting from criminal and terrorist organizations they pretended to be dismantling. AEGIS (aided by the Second Nightwatchman) exposed Kaspar and eventually brought the entire organization down.  The majority of the Chessmen, including its founder, ended up in US federal prison. Godwin Kaspar was broken by his defeat and died behind bars less than five years after his incarceration, professing his innocence the entire time.

Then, a little over a decade ago, the Black King’s son, Alexander Kaspar, formed a new Chessmen
organization as a private intelligence firm dedicated to providing personal protection and private security options to wealthy clientele. Alexander replaced his father’s peerless personal charisma with his own unique tactical genius, outmaneuvering and anticipating threats to his clients before things become a problem.

In the space of the past few years, Alexander, now referring to himself as the Grandmaster, has taken his organization from nothing to a highly-efficient and well respected private security firm. And in doing so he hopes to rebuild the tarnished reputation of his father and the original Chessmen. Alexander believes his father claims of innocence and resents AEGIS' role in what he sees as a conspiratorial take down of a legitimate intelligentsia rival.

Now the Victory Foundation has hired Alexander and his Chessmen to act as Vanguard's intelligence support network, acting as home base security, information gathering and media support in the wake of Maximilian Mars' departure.

Lagarto

The man known only as Lagarto is believed to control the entirety of the Mexican drug cartels. This near mythical Capo of Capos united the narcos cartels of Mexico and created an alliance of sorts with drug trafficking organizations in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. He is the most feared man in all of South America even though no one has every successfully identified him and lived.

It is said that Largato has developed a unbeatable drug trafficking system that allows the transport of South American cocaine anywhere in the world. It is through this process and his reputation as a cold blooded killer who assures complete loyalty from everyone in his organization that Largato retains his unprecedented power.

It is believed that Largato controls many high ranking members of the governments in nearly all of the South American countries as well as a few rumored politicians in North America as well.

Tyrant Lizard

Originally formed in the late 1970s S.C.A.L.E. was originally the brainchild of science fiction author Carlsbad Skink. Skink returned from a mountain climbing trip to the Himalayas with the foundation for a new religious philosophy that he shared in a book called Reptilian Complexities: the Next Evolution of Man. His new religion, which he called the Scientific Church of Advanced Latterday Evolution, proposed that advanced beings he called the Serpent People were the true source of human evolution and that by adopting their philosophies and teachings humanity could continue to evolve past what Skink referred to as man's recessive mammalian period. Skink claimed that he learned of the existence of the Serpent People by visiting extra terrestrial Preservers that dwell within the Nexus of all Realities while lost in the Himalayas. He opened several self help centers in Washington and California where believers could have their Maha Virus Levels measured and begin the metaphysical process of advanced latterday evolution. After several scandals involving charges of abuse and claims that his church was a cult Skink abandoned the mainland completely in 1981, gathering up his loyal followers on his private cruise ship, the Lemurian, and sailing out into international waters indefinitely.

Skink and his followers reemerged in 1985 as SCALE, with a plot that involved highjacking a American Space Shuttle in an attempt to launch their own satellite into space. Skink wore a mask that covered his face and called himself the Tyrant Lizard, declaring that SCALE now existed to subjugate what he called the unevolved hominid  population. They were stopped by Majestic 20, who believed SCALE to be a front for alien invaders, but continued to escape custody and prosecution for the next decade, attempting wilder and more elaborate world domination plans until eventually fading into obscurity during the middle of the Iron Age of heroism.

In 2001 a new terrorist organization began operations in international waters under the command of a new Tyrant Lizard. Unlike Skink's old cult bent on world domination this new SCALE focused on acts of open waters piracy and the destruction of archaeological sites. Although more technologically advanced and in possession of actual super human agents the new SCALE remains under the radar as a global threat. The modern version of SCALE has never made an attack on American soil...until now.

The identity of the new Tyrant Lizard is unknown, although it is widely believed among intelligence services that it is no longer Carlsbad Skink under the helmet. What the most recent Tyrant Lizard ultimately wants, and what motives the organization has for attacking archaeological sites remains a mystery.

Siesmosaur and Snake Charmer

Siesmosaur was once Clifton Troodon, a ex-con with a criminal career including armed robbery, assault, and murder.

Freed from prison by S.C.A.L.E. in 2003 Clifton agreed to genetic experimentation using Lemurian technology. The results of which gifted Clifton impressive mental and physical abilities but altered his DNA to an unstable degree and greatly impaired is already questionable intellect. Clifton, now known as Siesmosaur, is one of a number of S.C.A.L.E.'s elite superhuman agents.

Nigh invulnerable, freakishly strong and capable of gravitational mental blasts that can shake apart the landscape around him Seismosaur is one of S.C.A.L.E.'s most effective shock troops.

Often Seismosaur is deployed alone, as his antisocial tendencies, fits of easily provoked anger and proclivity toward violence can lead to blind rage and S.C.A.L.E. casualities. In fact, the only superhuman agent regularly deployed with Seismosaur is Snake Charmer.

Snake Charmer was once Dominika Zmeya, a ex-member of the Russian mafia who freely joined S.C.A.L.E. in 1997. Dominika helped develop S.C.A.L.E.'s Lemurian genetic experiments and is notorious for experimenting on herself, and others. Dominika possesses a potent form of mental hypnosis activated by sight. Dominika, known as Snake Charmer, is a member of S.C.A.L.E.'s inner circle, capable of leading SCALE soldiers and superhuman agents on field missions.

Snake Charmer is also a well known seductress and spy. Her kiss is said to be poisonous.

Like most of S.C.A.L.E.'s elite ranks, Seismosaur and Snake Charmer are vegan.

S.C.A.L.E.

S.C.A.L.E. stands for the Seditious Conspiracy for Advancing the Lemurian Empire. It is a high tech terrorist network bent on world conquest. Inspired by the legendary Serpent Empire of lizard humanoids that some believe ruled the Earth during the Cenozoic Era.

Far out in the Pacific Ocean, the saurian people, the pinnacle of evolution at that time, developed their civilization on the island continent of Lemuria. They founded a mighty Sepent Empire that spread across the globe from Lemuria. This empire was built on the backs of hominid slaves using advanced science and sorcery. For millennia, their civilization waxed and waned, expanded and contracted, with waves of exploration and influence reaching the western shores of the North and South American continents, where serpents still appear as gods and great spirits in ancient art. The Serpent Empire was already old and decadent by the time the first human civilizations arose in the world.

As the Serpent People stretched their influence further and further, claiming new human populations as their slaves, an evolutionary struggle to the death was inevitable. Sapien ruled Atlantis rose on one side of the world as an empire to rival saurian Lemuria on the far side of the globe. So began a series of wars between the two civilizations, human and serpent, culminating the Great Cataclysm that destroyed them both, sinking the continents below the waves, and virtually obliterating all evidence of their existence. Civilization fell into chaos, and humanity was forced to rebuild from nothing, with the survivors of Atlantis becoming the basis of legends. The Serpent Empire never recovered, the remnants of their once-proud civilization confined to the deep depths of the Ocean.

Until evidence of the Lemurian Empire was uncovered and S.C.A.L.E. was formed. Using recovered Lemurian technology and magic S.C.A.L.E. quickly made a name for itself in global super-terrorism. Their weapons and vehicles are made from cutting edge amphibious technology. They routinely force test subjects, willing and otherwise, to endure aggressive genetic experimentation design to create super-villains and recreate the lost saurian species.

Ruled by the mysterious Tyrant Lizard, S.C.A.L.E. focuses on terror acts against hominid ruled population centers, high seas piracy and the plunder of archaeological sites believed to be tied to the lost Lemurian or Atlantian cultures. Based somewhere underneath the Pacific Ocean S.C.A.L.E. strikes quickly and disappears beneath the waves once their missions have concluded.