Anonymous Lepers
08-03-2004, 07:17
Another massive breeding-tank facility; this one to be joined with a development lab, protein-production tank, reactor, and mines. In a more normal place, this would be the beginnings of a major city. Which was why this particular Leper, Leper 1446201-A, had been delegated (personally, no less) by Eldrad the Supreme to manage the site preparation and construction.
Leper 1446201-A was the first production unit of the second-level prototype of a virtual superLeper, provided with hyper-enhanced cognitive capabilities, eidetic memory, and highly sophisticated communications skills. Lepers of the “A” series were scientists, executives, engineers—the backbone of the organic machine HE was constructing to fulfill a fifty million-year-old ambition.
But first, the site for Facility 912 had to be cleared.
Leper 1446201-A surveyed the site. It meant surface work. The nearest egress from the underground labyrinth that had been extended to Site 912 debouched onto the typical moon-of-hell terrain that covered almost all of the island. The Cleansing, which had cauterized the land of the primitive life-forms so that HE might people it with Lepers, had left an endless vista of crazily jutting slag piles, smoking pits, and the naked skeletons of utterly barren mountains. Site 912 was slag piles, heaped up every whichway, as though gigantic blocks and beams and pallets had been tumbled by a careless hand, coated with radioactive ash, and then slagged by the heat of a nuclear blast.
Not a terribly inaccurate assessment, although Leper 1446201-A could not, perhaps, appreciate its full implications. Like all Anonymous Lepers, it was primarily task-oriented. Using optical measuring and recording tools, it laid out the work needed.
Within days, a dome of protective microorganisms had been established over the Site to both shield it from prying aerial eyes, and protect the photosensitive construction Lepers from high-intensity solar emissions. Then the hard machines were brought in. Primitive, roaring monsters of metal. Massive blades, gigantic hammers. Efficiently, they broke apart the largest chunks, rendered them to coarse gravel-sized particles, and shoved them out of the way to serve as fill, later.
Surveying the work in progress, Leper 1446201-A was intrigued. They had broken most of the surface away and were excavating what lay beneath. Remains again.
Strange object and artifacts occasionally came to light. Plastics, organic fabrics of non-functional design, in the lower strata. Objects of glass. More of the odd, rectangular glass devices, complext constructs of metal and even wood, a substance so rare as to be virtually unknown on the island. Eldrad the Supreme wanted it salvaged, though, so the major work was halted while a salvage detail was deployed.
Leper 1446201-A was picking its way among them, musing over some of the odder finds. A cylindrical metal-and-glass object that might have been lab equipment except for the arcane, brightly-colored patterns on its exterior. Nearby was an empty rectangular plastic box with a metal clasp and similar patterns. A purple quadriped with an outsized muzzle and a grinning mouth. This was found in a large square declivity which also yielded a quantity of metal-and plastic tables with attached benches, some strange stainless-steel equipment that included large heating and refrigeration elements, and a seemingly-endless supply of small metal objects similar to scalpels, oversized pronged lancets, and measuring scoops. Almost everything was scorched, melted, and deformed, but here and there anomalous fragile artifacts seemed to have remained unscathed.
A large square of fabric was only burned along one edge. Leper 1446201-A was startled. A moment’s reference to its eidetic memory. It had seen this precise pattern—green, red, and white triangles with a winged figure centered—before, on another Remains site. That one had yielded few intact artifacts, however.
Another large, square declivity was defined by parts of concrete-block walls that had survived intense heat. They crumbled to powder when touched with excavating equipment. Piles of ash were everywhere. Leper 1446201-A idly kicked a twisted, half-melted metal shelf aside. It was leaning against another distorted object, but this one was partially intact. It had drawers, and, idly, the Leper opened one.
For a moment, what it saw did not register. Text? What was text doing here? On a static object? Text appeared only on screens!
Leper 1446201-A was one of a bare few thousand relatively elite Lepers who included text recognition and interpretation among its functions—an essential skill for many higher-level work assignments.
Curiously, it puzzled out the legend on the square object. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. What did that mean? The Leper abstracted the object, then moved out of the way for an excavation crew, still carrying it. With a somewhat furtive air, Leper 1446201-A concealed the artifact in its enveloping black robe.
(OOC: The timeline for this thread is previous to all the story lines I’m currently participating in. This is the story of the very beginnings of the Rebellion, which has now matured into a formidably-organized but desperately secret force within Anonymous Lepers…)
Leper 1446201-A was the first production unit of the second-level prototype of a virtual superLeper, provided with hyper-enhanced cognitive capabilities, eidetic memory, and highly sophisticated communications skills. Lepers of the “A” series were scientists, executives, engineers—the backbone of the organic machine HE was constructing to fulfill a fifty million-year-old ambition.
But first, the site for Facility 912 had to be cleared.
Leper 1446201-A surveyed the site. It meant surface work. The nearest egress from the underground labyrinth that had been extended to Site 912 debouched onto the typical moon-of-hell terrain that covered almost all of the island. The Cleansing, which had cauterized the land of the primitive life-forms so that HE might people it with Lepers, had left an endless vista of crazily jutting slag piles, smoking pits, and the naked skeletons of utterly barren mountains. Site 912 was slag piles, heaped up every whichway, as though gigantic blocks and beams and pallets had been tumbled by a careless hand, coated with radioactive ash, and then slagged by the heat of a nuclear blast.
Not a terribly inaccurate assessment, although Leper 1446201-A could not, perhaps, appreciate its full implications. Like all Anonymous Lepers, it was primarily task-oriented. Using optical measuring and recording tools, it laid out the work needed.
Within days, a dome of protective microorganisms had been established over the Site to both shield it from prying aerial eyes, and protect the photosensitive construction Lepers from high-intensity solar emissions. Then the hard machines were brought in. Primitive, roaring monsters of metal. Massive blades, gigantic hammers. Efficiently, they broke apart the largest chunks, rendered them to coarse gravel-sized particles, and shoved them out of the way to serve as fill, later.
Surveying the work in progress, Leper 1446201-A was intrigued. They had broken most of the surface away and were excavating what lay beneath. Remains again.
Strange object and artifacts occasionally came to light. Plastics, organic fabrics of non-functional design, in the lower strata. Objects of glass. More of the odd, rectangular glass devices, complext constructs of metal and even wood, a substance so rare as to be virtually unknown on the island. Eldrad the Supreme wanted it salvaged, though, so the major work was halted while a salvage detail was deployed.
Leper 1446201-A was picking its way among them, musing over some of the odder finds. A cylindrical metal-and-glass object that might have been lab equipment except for the arcane, brightly-colored patterns on its exterior. Nearby was an empty rectangular plastic box with a metal clasp and similar patterns. A purple quadriped with an outsized muzzle and a grinning mouth. This was found in a large square declivity which also yielded a quantity of metal-and plastic tables with attached benches, some strange stainless-steel equipment that included large heating and refrigeration elements, and a seemingly-endless supply of small metal objects similar to scalpels, oversized pronged lancets, and measuring scoops. Almost everything was scorched, melted, and deformed, but here and there anomalous fragile artifacts seemed to have remained unscathed.
A large square of fabric was only burned along one edge. Leper 1446201-A was startled. A moment’s reference to its eidetic memory. It had seen this precise pattern—green, red, and white triangles with a winged figure centered—before, on another Remains site. That one had yielded few intact artifacts, however.
Another large, square declivity was defined by parts of concrete-block walls that had survived intense heat. They crumbled to powder when touched with excavating equipment. Piles of ash were everywhere. Leper 1446201-A idly kicked a twisted, half-melted metal shelf aside. It was leaning against another distorted object, but this one was partially intact. It had drawers, and, idly, the Leper opened one.
For a moment, what it saw did not register. Text? What was text doing here? On a static object? Text appeared only on screens!
Leper 1446201-A was one of a bare few thousand relatively elite Lepers who included text recognition and interpretation among its functions—an essential skill for many higher-level work assignments.
Curiously, it puzzled out the legend on the square object. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. What did that mean? The Leper abstracted the object, then moved out of the way for an excavation crew, still carrying it. With a somewhat furtive air, Leper 1446201-A concealed the artifact in its enveloping black robe.
(OOC: The timeline for this thread is previous to all the story lines I’m currently participating in. This is the story of the very beginnings of the Rebellion, which has now matured into a formidably-organized but desperately secret force within Anonymous Lepers…)