Helios Security

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*"Nobody leaves until they sign a waiver!"*

- Helios Security at a disaster scene.
## Tactical Analysis

* **Attorney of Fortune**: Helios Security are hired security guards used to protect high ranking Syndicate members. Equipped with zero point energy projectors that project constant streams of zero-point energy, they can keep their enemies trapped helplessly in place.

* **Cross Examine**: At the flick of a switch, a Helios Security agent can switch from the zero-point energy stream to a zero-point energy pulse which knocks enemies backwards, hurting and stunning them.

* **Objection!**: Be careful, however, as Helios Security are protected only by thin armour, and their services don't come cheap. As well as this, despite their ability to do damage to enemies, they are still primarily support units.

* **Cut a Deal**: Once they have amassed enough "restitutions", many Helios security agents would replace their old projector with a Mark II one. The new model allow users to immobilize an enemy from a much safer distance, or evict a disruptive group farther away.

## Operational History

In 1966, a former Japanese zaibatsu, the Myishi Corporation, currently a member of the Syndicate under the name of Straylight Electronics, bought up a bombed out section of Belfast, establishing the Sprawl Urbe Celestia. They promised to put an end to religious warfare, and rejuvenate Ireland's economy into the 20th century.

The original idea was a novel one. Straylight put forth the idea of building a Sprawl run completely by one supercomputer bouncing its signal off a satellite in geosynchronous orbit above the city. Drivers could simply input coordinates into their cars and cruise to their destination. AURA relay stations would all be in orbit, making towers on land unneeded. Within a month, the project was approved, and *Straylight One* was soon in orbit over the British Isles. Satellite City was built from the ground up, quickly encompassing most of central Belfast. It seemed the project would be a success. It wasn't.

To this day, the satellite and the associated supercomputer are plagued by countless issues, resulting in no small number of problems for the city below. Orders and requests for information can sometimes take days to fulfil, and the satellite's AURA relays are constantly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data. Connections are frequently cut or scrambled at vital times, resulting in traffic accidents and mobile buildings being stuck in the same place. When Straylight One came online, riots, fighting between various factions, and accidents quickly tore the city apart. Destruction and lawsuits abounded. The Board of Classics demanded that something be done soon, even if it was sweeping the entire city clean with a hurricane and rebuilding a traditional Sprawl on the ruins.

Straylight had another idea; Project Helios. They would deploy hundreds of combat lawyers armed with non-lethal Zero-Point Energy Projectors to put down the riots with minimal loss of life, making sure that the Syndicate was never legally responsible for anyone caught in a disaster scene. Unfortunately, training men in both law and combat, even with micro-softs on both, was just too expensive. And the Syndicate didn't care about loss of life or legalities.

The Syndicate decided to utilise its traditional strategy: riots put down with (lethal) brute force, and most lawsuits simply stalled until the plaintiff had died of old age. Project Helios was cancelled. The thirty man strong proof-of-concept team was relegated to guarding prisons and orphanages.

All of this changed when Satyr Ian Brady attempted to kill the Satellite City Principate, Apollo Fowl (who was unarmed at the time) for the heck of it. Brady came within inches of slicing Fowl's head off, when a nearby Helios agent who had been buying Smilex-laced cigarettes from a nearby store froze him in place with his gun. A terrified Fowl took the agent's sidearm and shot the Satyr several times in the head. From then on, Fowl demanded that at least six Helios agents be with him at all times. News of their effectiveness spread, and soon everyone had their security guards fired and replaced by members of the rapidly reorganised Helios Security Agency.

## Behind the Scenes

The lore for the Helios Security was heavily inspired by the Paralegal from Eoin Colfer's cyberpunk novel *The Supernaturalist*.