The Immortal Assembly

The Immortal Assembly (also known as the High Council of Immortals) is a group of 22 specially-designed, biologically engineered near-humans tasked by Editi with overseeing the protection and development of humanity. They operate at the highest tier of Engineer leadership, only below Editi herself. With Editi dead, they control the now otherwise independent nation of Japan from the background, continuing to support the new government.

## History

### Creation

The Immortal Assembly was created at some point in either 2016 or 2017, when the species itself was created as part of Editi's human experimentation for mass production of Kantoku clones. The Immortals specifically were created by Editi upon seeing her pet human  Tommy Wilder's exasperation with his roles in managing the Engineers, as well as being one of the secret leaders of Kantoku and Japan, which he found to be "super boring and not fun". Editi's solution was to engineer an organism that could manage administrative skullduggery at a level beyond anything an ordinary human could achieve. Thus, the Immortals were born.

### Treachery

Once the 22 Immortals were in place, it did not take long for them to determine that the situation in Japan as it was being run by Tommy and Editi was untenable. The native population was being strangled by the Wilder's absolute power and lack of understanding how a normal society functions. The further Tommy and Editi pushed for their weeaboo wonderland utopia, the more the Japanese spirit was crushed. Ironically, despite being far removed from common humanity and witnessing their outrage only through data spools and spreadsheets, the Immortals understood the suffering of the Japanese far better than Editi ever managed. Thus, the Immortals decided that she and Tommy needed to be removed.

This presented a number of issues to the Immortals. For one, as a TE-created species, the Immortals were inflicted with the same genetic geas that all of Editi's progeny shared, preventing them from acting directly against her or any part of the TE regime. Secondly, while they were aware that Tommy and Editi intended to eventually leave Earth on board Libra, they predicted this to be one of the worst outcomes, as it would forever put them beyond reach of reprisal from the Japanese and leave them alone to handle the burden of the ever-increasing discontent of the native population.

The Immortals collectively ruminated and debated on several possible solutions. One was to attempt to have Tommy and Editi forcibly removed by the ACC, which could potentially lead to a peaceful takeover by the native population. However, this was not expected to have any chance of success, as the Immortals knew that ACC was already well-aware of the situation in Japan, as well as the crimes of Editi, and that its members had no intention of reining their friends in after all these years of letting them do as they pleased. Furthermore, the slim chance that ACC would in fact intervene would probably not resolve as ACC relinquishing its control over the country, and would only be received as trading one irresponsible foreign ruler for the next, doing nothing to ease the tensions of the native population.

The next solution was to publicize Tommy and Editi's crimes against humanity. This would surely spark a reaction from the international community, especially with the emergent European Federation looking to challenge the ACC's authority. However, this was countered by the risk of an armed EuF intervention, which would lead to a war between the EuF and the ACC, likely having Japan as the battlefield. This was deemed an unacceptable risk, as it would invariably lead to the death of many Japanese and the destruction of a great deal of infrastructure, with the ultimate result likely being Japan reduced to a European colony. Even if ACC was forced to act due to international pressure, the Immortals also concluded that the most likely scenario would see them taken to an ACC court, pardoned by ACC of their crimes and placed under ACC protection, where they could continue to churn out bio-horrors and torture prisoners of war to their hearts' content. This would likely be used by parties such as the American Coalition and the EuF as a gaslight to withdraw support from and condemn the ACC.

The Immortals eventually settled on a plan with a sufficient amount of convolution to allow them to bypass the geas: they would do nothing. They would allow insurrectionist cells to be overlooked. They would allow foreign interests to fund rebel groups. They would allow the weight of Editi's crimes and Tommy's negligence to be their downfall. This plan also relied on the sympathetic nature of the Catgirls as well, as most pilots would think little of bringing a nation to its knees just to earn their affection. In doing so, they earned the loyalty of well-known pilot-celebrity Silver Knight, as well as the leader of Fireteam Vertex, Carcer Carmine.

Unfortunately, Libra's departure date being abruptly pushed forward forced their plans into acceleration. The Immortals ordered the destruction of the Nekomimi Express tunnel, which had been used to smuggle catgirls out of Japan, as well as arms and munitions in. Doing so caused the Dokuritsu, the largest rebellion movement in the land, to panic and go forward with their own plans, likewise forcing the catgirls to enact their own great escape. Silver Knight and his latest groupie Hanai both arrived as expected, but it was decided that Carcer, whom they had been told had expressed disinterest in simply being hired to kill Editi and was more interested in helping the catgirls, was not sufficient for their needs, and would probably try and talk the situation down rather than pressure Silver Knight into killing Editi, leading to the previously anticipated situation of both individuals being pardoned by ACC coming to pass. Thus, the Immortals instead had their catgirl agent, Komikaru Ejento, discreetly contact his teammate, Elena Wagner instead.

Wagner, a former native of Japan herself, and a professional mercenary sniper, was an ideal candidate to ensure Editi's death. To this end, they had Komikaru entrust Elena with unique antimatter sniper rounds for her suit weapons, crafted from Tommy's wedding fireworks. If Editi did not present herself, and instead opted to hide inside Carrier Prime, only a munition of such power would be able to crack its nearly impenetrable hull. This would invariably lead to the death of Tommy as well by proximity, but would only be necessary in the event that Editi still lived.

With the two ACC pilots on their way and Wagner in position as a contingency, the Immortals waited and hoped that their plan would succeed. Despite taking significantly longer to get to them than anticipated due to not having an opposing team hunting for Editi to keep them from getting distracted, the ACC pilots did eventually make it to the TEHQ. Unfortunately, they had a hard time convincing Silver Knight of the necessity of their actions upon meeting face to face, largely on the grounds that they were not cute girls. This did, however, give them the opportunity to meet with the catgirl Tora Riutene, which to their pleasant surprise had overcome her geas and was already walking a path of vengeance against Editi of her own newfound free will. Challenging Tora to do what she felt was right, and having revealed their existence and explained their intent as succinctly as they could to her and Silver Knight, they opted to retreat rather than run the risk of getting murder-hobo'd by Silver Knight and Hanai on their way back, as their deaths would effectively rob Japan of any post-rebellion contingency and leave the country in political turmoil for years.

### Succession

Due to Silver Knight and Hanai's assisting Carrier Prime in escaping via an alternate route away from the city center, and Carrier Prime's subsequent destruction well out of public view, the riots burning Tokyo took much longer than had hoped to subside. The TEHQ's defenders fought to the last, as was their purpose, but were eventually overwhelmed by vengeful Japanese, and the result was a significant loss of Engineer life and property as the natives slaughtered whoever they could find still inside and destroyed whatever else they found.
Though the materiel and personnel loss was regrettable, the Immortals were largely unconcerned with the Engineers, with history showing that they were less useful than any similar R&D group with similar levels of funding and resources due to a lack of professionalism and focus, as well as poor internal management. The Immortals were far more concerned with ensuring that the infrastructure of the previous Japanese puppet government was either left intact or swiftly replaced in the event that certain roles were determined by the rebels to be filled with clone plants, and that the new government be subtly provided with everything it needed to reestablish order over the land.

With the seat of the Engineers having been forcibly moved to the Philippines, the Immortals assumed their role in Japan as shadowy administrators, ensuring that the new independent Japanese government was rectified as soon as possible. They continue to support humanity in this way, and much more efficiently with the country no longer being oppressed by a psychopath and her pet manchild.