Holy Engineers

The Holy Engineers or "God-Talkers" are a vampire cult that worships the God-Machine. They aspire to recover Packet Theta and return it to the Moon.

Overview
The Holy Engineers were founded in 1964, when their first member received a message from the God-Machine. They believe these message are answers to questions they transmit towards the constellation Orion, but with a catch: the answers usually arrive a few days before the question is asked, creating a peculiar time loop.

According to the Holy Engineers, the Angel of Death is the patron of vampires, while a being in the heart of the Sun called The Unvoiced Name is their enemy. The Apollo 17 mission breached the temple of Death and stole its corpse, transferring it to Earth as "Packet Theta," but Death's mind remains on the Moon and sends messages to its faithful via the God-Machine. Their stated goal is to recover Packet Theta and return it to the hidden temple on the Moon, where Death will be made whole; as a reward, all vampires will be transformed into living immortals and the sun will hold no more power over them.

Holy Engineers work hard to interpret the messages from the God-Machine, and obey any directions without hesitation. However, the God-Machine being what it is, messages rarely contain clear directions, and there may be conflict within the group over how to interpret the signal. The Holy Engineers are perhaps the most altruistic covenant of vampires, as they believe themselves to be working towards the good of both Kindred and kine and are willing to make substantial sacrifices to achieve their goals.

Radio Sickness
A broadcast from the God-Machine is accompanied by all manner of electromagnetic interference, from flickering lights to malfunctioning computers. Analog media can record the signal, but not digital. The vampire who receives the broadcast, called the Holy Sufferer, has a window of a few days in which to analyze the message and work out what the question is meant to be. If the correct question is not determined within three days, they begin to suffer from Radio Sickness: it begins with internal hemorrhaging that gradually becomes more severe, along with a resumption of the electrical effects on their surroundings. If the question still is not broadcast, the hemorrhages begin to deal aggravated damage until the victim falls into torpor, and then Final Death.

Members of the Holy Engineers take broadcasts seriously, and are quite willing to help a Holy Sufferer interpret a prophecy up to a point. Ideally, a God Talker who recognizes a broadcast coming on alerts other members of the covenant, and they meet in a secure Elysium to observe the clues together. A member who shares a broadcast this way, and who regularly helps others with their questions, is more likely to receive help in return than a peripheral member with no record or corroborating witnesses to their message.