Anonymous Lepers
15-05-2004, 04:22
The Rebellion had grown slowly at first, but over the years, as the capacity of Eldrad the Supreme to implement his Supreme Plan had inched forward, it had gained momentum. A few years ago it had reached critical mass, and now the Lepers of the Rebellion had more than two-dozen specialized and multi-purpose facilities hidden on the island; facilities created to help further the Rebellion’s three goals:
Defeat and destroy HIM
Restore the capacity of the island to support human life
Become human again themselves
The main challenge was resources. Eldrad the Supreme kept close track of the efficiency of all operations; until the Rebellion could subvert or replace sufficient Lepers in key accounting and production positions, it was difficult to divert what they needed. And they could not effectively establish contacts with the outside world until Rebellion bioengineers had accomplished the tasks that would enable them to interact effectively with humans.
Still, they had one great advantage: HE had never for an instant suspected their existence. It was inconceivable to HIM that any of HIS units, created and engineered using HIS work, for functions advancing HIS Supreme Plan, could possibly have any other goals. But whatever strange and horrible things had happened to the DNA that formed HIS raw material, it had been human once, and it was essentially human still.
*********************
In a facility hollowed out under the fill piles of the island’s largest above-ground salvage site, a few Lepers of the Rebellion were gathered to complete a task that would mark the initiation of the truly active phase of their work. For more than a year, bioengineers had labored to reproduce, with modifications, a smaller but extremely powerful version of HIS great computing unit, the ODSA—Organic Data Storage & Analysis. Based on neural organic materials, the ODSA performed prodigies of data storage and manipulation that rivaled the most advanced inorganic electronic intelligences.
The Lepers’ version was called WILL. It was not an acronym. It was a reference to the author of The Book, the tome that had explained humanity to Leper X those many years ago, and unleashed the long chain of independent thought that had culminated in the Rebellion itself, and this moment.
First, they had grown the microscopic neural matrices that formed the multiple lobes of the organic structure, and constructed the input devices. They augmented the more versatile organic optical, aural, tactile, and olfactory sensing units with “hard” units that added speed and power.
Then they had created the data acquisition channels, setting up “scavenger” receivers to pull signals of all types from satellite and atmospheric sources. They used shunts to siphon data from all of the low-security lobes of ODSA—mainly the databases dealing with bioengineering technology and the limited amount of knowledge HE had acquired regarding humans and their cultures, behaviors, etc. Most of the Plan was beyond levels where the shunts could reach, in areas accessible only to HIM by direct brain interface.
WILL’s purpose, engineered into the biological material from which it was constructed, was to assist the Rebellion to achieve its goals. It had been told to assess its own funtionality, and to inform its creators when its utility threshold entered levels where it could provide data reference, analysis, correlation, and recommendations relevant to the achievement of the goals.
It had indicated that it was ready.
The leaders of the Rebellion—Leper X, Leper Y, and Leper Z; with a handful of other key rebels--jacked into WILL’s output network to hear what the unit had to say. Most were in the facility with WILL, but Leper X was jacked in by remote, as was the engineer Mercutio and the logistician Lady Macbeth.
WILL’s output units included a larynx, with a pneumatic pressure generator and articulation chamber. It had a pleasantly neutral tenor/alto vocal range.
“You must study war,” it said.
There was a moment’s silence while the various Lepers assimilated this.
“I do not see the utility in this,” the Leper known as Bassinio said. “HE has vast superiority of resources and numbers; levels we could never match while remaining covert.”
Leper Y concurred. “Our assumptions were predicated upon covert operations to achieve the Goals.”
WILL’s vocal production mechanism was astoundingly versatile, and it had absorbed a great deal of information from more than a year of studying human satellite feeds of all types, from popular entertainment to numerical descriptions of astronomical data.
However, none of the Lepers was really equipped to appreciate the gentleness WILL infused into the tone of the response.
“Unfortunately, HE has created a sufficient cadre of advanced-level units that are now independently motivated toward the achievement of HIS Plan that mere destruction of HIM will no longer suffice. Conditions will remain suboptimal for the achievement of the other Goals, and HIS remaining supervisory and administrative units will unquestionably assume directive capacity both in achievement of the Plan and in destroying the obstacle that the Rebellion presents.”
“You must study war,” it said again.
The logic was unarguable. Leper X murmured, “‘In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.’”
“We will study war,” Leper Z said, its speech synthesizer an uninflected buzz. “We will form a weapons research unit.”
“That would not be an efficient or optimal strategy,” WILL responded.
“Explain,” Leper Y said.
“Weapons are rarely the decisive element in warfare. ‘Superweapons’ can produce single victories, but often at the cost of rendering the contextual environment inappropriate for habitation, a factor which should be familiar to you,” said WILL.
The facility in which most of them were currently located was under some of the mile-high slag heaps formed by excavation under the blasted and irradiated surface of the Island, the result of HIS initial and apocalyptic wresting of control.
“Weapons that are not ‘superweapons’ can be obtained, using financial exchange, from those who have the facilities and resources to devote to their manufacture. Devoting the Rebellion’s limited facilities to such manufacture on the necessary scale would be an inefficient strategy. Some weapons production will be required, but the ‘study of war’ must focus upon the factors most reliably indicative of success.”
Lady Macbeth enquired, “What are these factors?”
“The creation of a viable fighting corps with superior motivation and effectiveness. Analysis of all available human-based data indicates that this is the most consistently reliable predictor of success in cases where the relevant forces engaged with opponents superior in numbers and resources.”
************************
On the basis of this discussion, the Leper known as Titania, a former fuel harvest operation supervisor, was delegated to “study” war, in effect making the 140-kilo, 3-armed unit into the Rebellion’s military commander. The Lepers logically connected Titania’s former occupation in supervising hundreds of individual Leper units in physically challenging, dangerous conditions, with the requisite experience and skill. After administering several evaluation tools assessing Titania’s intelligence, verbal acuity, spatial abilities, linear and non-linear cognitive skills, and other esoteric processes, WILL agreed.
Titania was immersed in a hypno-learning tank for three 100-hour stretches, at 1200:1 speeds, to absorb the necessary basic data. Upon emerging from the tank, an additional seventeen hours of real-time discussion and analysis with WILL resulted in Titania requesting a Coordinator’s Meeting.
Again, Lepers X,Y, and Z, with a few key comrades, forgathered, in the flesh or by link.
“In order to develop a fighting corps training unit of maximum performance, it will be necessary to gather additional data in real-time,” Titania informed them. “We must observe human military training in detail. And not just any human military training. The majority of such efforts are inferior or at best adequate. We must observe the superior efforts. To do this, we must identify the efforts, and develop observational capabilities.”
The Coordinators agreed. New task groups were allocated for each task, with the identification group under Titania’s supervision, and the development of observational capabilities delegated to Mercutio and his subordinates.
Additional time passed. Another Coordinator’s Meeting was assembled to discuss the task groups’ results.
Mercutio presented first.
“The effectiveness parameters required were deployability, capacity, data transmission, and detection evasion. Unfortunately, the nature of the element required precluded maximization of all parameters. Trade-offs were necessary. We believe this element achieves the optimal configuration on all parameters.”
Mercutio gestured to an assistant, who produced an impervobox. This was placed on a table, and Mercutio tapped its key. The box opened, revealing a sphere approximately three centimeters in diameter, which on contact with the atmosphere, initiated a time-delayed deployment sequence. A few seconds later, the sphere’s halves broke apart, and disintegrated.
“There is now present in the room a microcloud biobot. One moment.” Mercutio initiated a sequence in the room’s environmental control panel, and the light suddenly polarized, adding high-spectrum elements. For an instant, the Lepers present could see what looked like a puff of smoke hovering in midair, which promptly dissipated.
“An anti-detection device. The swarm will break apart into component molecular units under most detection protocols. The individual molecular units convey amounts of data insufficient to trigger known detection protocols. The swarm will re-form and re-activate using a programmed time-delay sequence once the detection protocol’s presence no longer registers.”
“Unfortunately, we were unable to identify any transmission mechanism that would enable the swarm to transmit data undetectably. Since most military training facilities are high security in nature, transmissions of all known types would be infeasible. Therefore, transmission relies on the element physically leaving the observation area and entering space, where it can transmit high-security encrypted microbursts. Sufficient energy storage and supply molecular units are included in the swarm to enable this sequence; however we were unable to include enough units to enable the element to remain outside an atmospheric envelope longer than twenty hours. This effectively functions as an autodestruct. When the element’s purpose is fulfilled, it will return to space, and in twenty hours it will become inert, and the individual molecular units will dissipate.”
“The shell can be appropriately launched in a drone pod by any commercial facility; it is recommended that Leper X facilitate this.”
Leper X stated “This can be facilitated through commercial satellite and drone deployment operations of a number of private corporations; the cost will be reasonable.”
Mercutio was commended.
Titania then reported that a limited number of military training facilities had been identified as appropriate for observation under the stringent review protocols that WILL had recommended. They had selected the first facility, to use as a test prototype for the operation “Study War.”
The facility chosen was Camp Hartmann, the Scolopendran Mobile Infantry Special Operators training facility.
(See here: http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3166607#3166607 )
Defeat and destroy HIM
Restore the capacity of the island to support human life
Become human again themselves
The main challenge was resources. Eldrad the Supreme kept close track of the efficiency of all operations; until the Rebellion could subvert or replace sufficient Lepers in key accounting and production positions, it was difficult to divert what they needed. And they could not effectively establish contacts with the outside world until Rebellion bioengineers had accomplished the tasks that would enable them to interact effectively with humans.
Still, they had one great advantage: HE had never for an instant suspected their existence. It was inconceivable to HIM that any of HIS units, created and engineered using HIS work, for functions advancing HIS Supreme Plan, could possibly have any other goals. But whatever strange and horrible things had happened to the DNA that formed HIS raw material, it had been human once, and it was essentially human still.
*********************
In a facility hollowed out under the fill piles of the island’s largest above-ground salvage site, a few Lepers of the Rebellion were gathered to complete a task that would mark the initiation of the truly active phase of their work. For more than a year, bioengineers had labored to reproduce, with modifications, a smaller but extremely powerful version of HIS great computing unit, the ODSA—Organic Data Storage & Analysis. Based on neural organic materials, the ODSA performed prodigies of data storage and manipulation that rivaled the most advanced inorganic electronic intelligences.
The Lepers’ version was called WILL. It was not an acronym. It was a reference to the author of The Book, the tome that had explained humanity to Leper X those many years ago, and unleashed the long chain of independent thought that had culminated in the Rebellion itself, and this moment.
First, they had grown the microscopic neural matrices that formed the multiple lobes of the organic structure, and constructed the input devices. They augmented the more versatile organic optical, aural, tactile, and olfactory sensing units with “hard” units that added speed and power.
Then they had created the data acquisition channels, setting up “scavenger” receivers to pull signals of all types from satellite and atmospheric sources. They used shunts to siphon data from all of the low-security lobes of ODSA—mainly the databases dealing with bioengineering technology and the limited amount of knowledge HE had acquired regarding humans and their cultures, behaviors, etc. Most of the Plan was beyond levels where the shunts could reach, in areas accessible only to HIM by direct brain interface.
WILL’s purpose, engineered into the biological material from which it was constructed, was to assist the Rebellion to achieve its goals. It had been told to assess its own funtionality, and to inform its creators when its utility threshold entered levels where it could provide data reference, analysis, correlation, and recommendations relevant to the achievement of the goals.
It had indicated that it was ready.
The leaders of the Rebellion—Leper X, Leper Y, and Leper Z; with a handful of other key rebels--jacked into WILL’s output network to hear what the unit had to say. Most were in the facility with WILL, but Leper X was jacked in by remote, as was the engineer Mercutio and the logistician Lady Macbeth.
WILL’s output units included a larynx, with a pneumatic pressure generator and articulation chamber. It had a pleasantly neutral tenor/alto vocal range.
“You must study war,” it said.
There was a moment’s silence while the various Lepers assimilated this.
“I do not see the utility in this,” the Leper known as Bassinio said. “HE has vast superiority of resources and numbers; levels we could never match while remaining covert.”
Leper Y concurred. “Our assumptions were predicated upon covert operations to achieve the Goals.”
WILL’s vocal production mechanism was astoundingly versatile, and it had absorbed a great deal of information from more than a year of studying human satellite feeds of all types, from popular entertainment to numerical descriptions of astronomical data.
However, none of the Lepers was really equipped to appreciate the gentleness WILL infused into the tone of the response.
“Unfortunately, HE has created a sufficient cadre of advanced-level units that are now independently motivated toward the achievement of HIS Plan that mere destruction of HIM will no longer suffice. Conditions will remain suboptimal for the achievement of the other Goals, and HIS remaining supervisory and administrative units will unquestionably assume directive capacity both in achievement of the Plan and in destroying the obstacle that the Rebellion presents.”
“You must study war,” it said again.
The logic was unarguable. Leper X murmured, “‘In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.’”
“We will study war,” Leper Z said, its speech synthesizer an uninflected buzz. “We will form a weapons research unit.”
“That would not be an efficient or optimal strategy,” WILL responded.
“Explain,” Leper Y said.
“Weapons are rarely the decisive element in warfare. ‘Superweapons’ can produce single victories, but often at the cost of rendering the contextual environment inappropriate for habitation, a factor which should be familiar to you,” said WILL.
The facility in which most of them were currently located was under some of the mile-high slag heaps formed by excavation under the blasted and irradiated surface of the Island, the result of HIS initial and apocalyptic wresting of control.
“Weapons that are not ‘superweapons’ can be obtained, using financial exchange, from those who have the facilities and resources to devote to their manufacture. Devoting the Rebellion’s limited facilities to such manufacture on the necessary scale would be an inefficient strategy. Some weapons production will be required, but the ‘study of war’ must focus upon the factors most reliably indicative of success.”
Lady Macbeth enquired, “What are these factors?”
“The creation of a viable fighting corps with superior motivation and effectiveness. Analysis of all available human-based data indicates that this is the most consistently reliable predictor of success in cases where the relevant forces engaged with opponents superior in numbers and resources.”
************************
On the basis of this discussion, the Leper known as Titania, a former fuel harvest operation supervisor, was delegated to “study” war, in effect making the 140-kilo, 3-armed unit into the Rebellion’s military commander. The Lepers logically connected Titania’s former occupation in supervising hundreds of individual Leper units in physically challenging, dangerous conditions, with the requisite experience and skill. After administering several evaluation tools assessing Titania’s intelligence, verbal acuity, spatial abilities, linear and non-linear cognitive skills, and other esoteric processes, WILL agreed.
Titania was immersed in a hypno-learning tank for three 100-hour stretches, at 1200:1 speeds, to absorb the necessary basic data. Upon emerging from the tank, an additional seventeen hours of real-time discussion and analysis with WILL resulted in Titania requesting a Coordinator’s Meeting.
Again, Lepers X,Y, and Z, with a few key comrades, forgathered, in the flesh or by link.
“In order to develop a fighting corps training unit of maximum performance, it will be necessary to gather additional data in real-time,” Titania informed them. “We must observe human military training in detail. And not just any human military training. The majority of such efforts are inferior or at best adequate. We must observe the superior efforts. To do this, we must identify the efforts, and develop observational capabilities.”
The Coordinators agreed. New task groups were allocated for each task, with the identification group under Titania’s supervision, and the development of observational capabilities delegated to Mercutio and his subordinates.
Additional time passed. Another Coordinator’s Meeting was assembled to discuss the task groups’ results.
Mercutio presented first.
“The effectiveness parameters required were deployability, capacity, data transmission, and detection evasion. Unfortunately, the nature of the element required precluded maximization of all parameters. Trade-offs were necessary. We believe this element achieves the optimal configuration on all parameters.”
Mercutio gestured to an assistant, who produced an impervobox. This was placed on a table, and Mercutio tapped its key. The box opened, revealing a sphere approximately three centimeters in diameter, which on contact with the atmosphere, initiated a time-delayed deployment sequence. A few seconds later, the sphere’s halves broke apart, and disintegrated.
“There is now present in the room a microcloud biobot. One moment.” Mercutio initiated a sequence in the room’s environmental control panel, and the light suddenly polarized, adding high-spectrum elements. For an instant, the Lepers present could see what looked like a puff of smoke hovering in midair, which promptly dissipated.
“An anti-detection device. The swarm will break apart into component molecular units under most detection protocols. The individual molecular units convey amounts of data insufficient to trigger known detection protocols. The swarm will re-form and re-activate using a programmed time-delay sequence once the detection protocol’s presence no longer registers.”
“Unfortunately, we were unable to identify any transmission mechanism that would enable the swarm to transmit data undetectably. Since most military training facilities are high security in nature, transmissions of all known types would be infeasible. Therefore, transmission relies on the element physically leaving the observation area and entering space, where it can transmit high-security encrypted microbursts. Sufficient energy storage and supply molecular units are included in the swarm to enable this sequence; however we were unable to include enough units to enable the element to remain outside an atmospheric envelope longer than twenty hours. This effectively functions as an autodestruct. When the element’s purpose is fulfilled, it will return to space, and in twenty hours it will become inert, and the individual molecular units will dissipate.”
“The shell can be appropriately launched in a drone pod by any commercial facility; it is recommended that Leper X facilitate this.”
Leper X stated “This can be facilitated through commercial satellite and drone deployment operations of a number of private corporations; the cost will be reasonable.”
Mercutio was commended.
Titania then reported that a limited number of military training facilities had been identified as appropriate for observation under the stringent review protocols that WILL had recommended. They had selected the first facility, to use as a test prototype for the operation “Study War.”
The facility chosen was Camp Hartmann, the Scolopendran Mobile Infantry Special Operators training facility.
(See here: http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3166607#3166607 )