What are ESPers?
@Human ESPers are people that have the abilities to sense the inner thoughts of others. The acronym itself means Extra-Sensorial Perception. With targeted eugenics programs like Alternative III to increase sensitivity and allow artificial batch production, the abilities of younger, new generations of ESPers include many psionic anomolies and phenomena. Because of their powers, relative rarity, and abilities other @Humans purely think they have, ESPers are often shunned or mistreated by others.
Brief History and Background
Most known ESPers were created in Alternative III, @The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)-led Alternative Plan to artificially create @Human ESPers in a breeding program. This would be refined to the point of artificial wombs and incubation in liquid-filled vats. These ESPers were intended to communicate with the BETA in an attempt to understand them. Unfortunately, the deep Hive insertion missions these ESPers were sent on to get readings, amounted to little more than suicide missions, with whole batches of Alternative III ESPers killed in these high-risk operations.
Earlier generations like the Barchenowa (fifth generation, before the Sestina batch) had a reliance on medical prescriptions to both maintain mental stability and keep their bodies from literally failing. They are also known to largely have inferior mind-reading capabilities in comparison to the newest ESPers and are often incapable of picking up on more sensitive thoughts and emotions a member of the Sestina generation could easily read. Most likely due to flaws in the eugenics and birthing process, the remaining Barchenowa ESPers are required to constantly take medications at least every three days, lest they die. The ESPer adjustment tanks are also key to their mental stability and treatment and, unlike the Sestina generation, to survive they must receive occasional submersion into the pods in order to remain healthy. Even with medication, the Barchenowa generation are known to suffer from occasional memory loss, headaches and migraines, and are more susceptible to collapse from stress or overuse of their powers. With the discontinuation of the Alternative III, the Barchenowa ESPers have had their primary directive changed often, going wherever Soviet High Command require them. Due in part to their high maintenance, the Barchenowa ESPers are often used in experimental missions that are considered high-risk. This included the research involving the ESPer Control Pods, which required the "volunteers" to have their limbs amputated and be permanently placed within the device until death.
Sixth generation ESPers at least, are the result of eugenics, genetic engineering, and artificial womb technology. The Sestina (whole batches share the generational name) are the latest and perhaps the last generation of ESPers to be made, created on the tail end of Alternative-III's chronological operations. They are characterized by still appearing fairly young, varying from early to mid adolescence, due to genetic editing to prolong the adolescene period to maximize their power, and they often possess very childlike qualities from their sheltered upbringing. The Sestina are set apart from previous generations by their unparalleled psychic abilities and, as described by other ESPers, having "special" powers otherwise unattainable. Even among the generation, however, some girls stood out for their innate abilities including: @Inia Sestina, who was made part of the Soviet Army Central Development Corps for ESPer-related TSF development and Trista Sestina (true name of @Kasumi Yashiro), perhaps the most talented of them all, was assigned to the United Nations Alternative IV plan. In contrast to previous generations, the Sestina do not require medication to function normally. They can still benefit from occasional internment in the adjustment tanks to fix abnormalities or recover from mental stress, but otherwise can live like a normal human. Since they were not ready before the end of Alternative III, the hundreds of Sestina created have since been used in a variety of both Soviet and UN-led operations and are still considered very useful despite their original purpose being deprecated. Some are used as pilots whereas others are maintained as support personnel due to their special mind-reading abilities.
Despite the failure of Alternative III, the remaining ESPers are still important to the war effort against the BETA in various other ways. This is shown through the Soviet Union's continued use of ESPers in both TSF R&D development and the continued expansion of the Total Eclipse plan under Jerzy Sandek. One ESPer was also requested by the new Alternative IV research team and they were considered integral to the plan's success.
Control and Protections
Limiters are used to control the reading ability of ESPers both to protect them from mental strain and to stop them from reading the thoughts of selected individuals. Microchips called Buffwhite devices, a thought wave transmission device each about 20 microns in size are embedded in them. They can create out-of-phase thought waves that that cancel out thought waves of selected people making the ESPer unable to read their thoughts.
The headgear found on all Alternative III ESPers are limiters designed to control the reading ability and prevent the ESPer from being overwhelmed by too many thoughts at once. It also can act as a way to prevent the ESPer from reading certain people, to ensure they cannot access sensitive information or disobey their superiors. Without said limiter, the range and the strength of their powers increase but at great physiological cost from mental strain.
Abilities
Reading - The ability of an ESPer to perceive the thoughts of others as a mental image represented by colors. A core ability of all ESPers, Reading is intended to allow the ESPers to perceive what the leaders of Alternative III hoped were the wordless language of the BETA. However, the ability to Read differs from ESPer to ESPer, and an ESPer's proficiency at intepreting the presented mental images correctly depends on the ESPer's own social experiences.
Projection - The second primary ability of an ESPer is Projection. By projecting the thoughts of humankind in the same color-based imagery as the ESPers were designed to percieve thoughts, it was hoped that Projection combined with Reading would allow humans to communicate with the BETA.
This ability can also be used on normal humans and other ESPers, although it is much harder for the former to understand the thoughts sent into their minds.
Prafka - Prafka is a phenomenon that is used to drastically increase the piloting ability of an ESPer in a TSF. It allows ESPers to "synchronize" with one another, their bodies moving in unison and combining their heightened senses into one, even speaking in perfect unison. Prafka, put simply, greatly increases the effectiveness of an ESPer-piloted TSF to superhuman levels for the time it is activated, and as long as it is maintained at a stable level. The Prafka effect is categorized by a percentage ratio based on the activity's "strength", along with a Level designation. The link between ESPers can be measured within a decimal point of time delay between their synchronized actions, but requires an adjustment tank to accurately diagnose and fix. A catalyst can be used to induce Prafka, or enter the ESPer into a mindset that makes it easier for Prafka to be activated. These catalysts often have a deep emotional connection with the ESPer.