Project Six Four Two
20-02-2006, 03:14
Many thousands of years ago, civil war struck a nation much like the Incorporate State of ZMI, with the difference that the military of this nation had a sizable amount of power and popular appeal amongst the citizens as well. The two factions had existed in an uneasy peace for centuries, but eventually the sheer size of the growing population prompted the corporation to attempt to turn the armed forces into a 'profitable organization' in an effort to squeeze more money out of a rival. The military, being true to it's name, violently objected, and dragged the country into a civil war that would eventually spell the end of it's existence...
...This war raged for many years across vast and varied terrain, but they were a technological people, and employed such weapons and otherwise that shook the nation to it's very core. The military lacked the sheer financial power the corps had, however, and this gave them a slight upper hand in terms of quality of weaponry. Even this great power could not stop war being a drain on spirit, flesh and most of all, resources. Knowing that any improvement in yield of the weapons that had already been used in this conflict would sterilize half the planet, they turned to an aspect of a technology that had only recently proven it's worth on the battlefield.
The blending of a complete electronic intelligence with the flesh of a man, producing a soldier above and beyond that of baseline human. But they weren't looking for mere cannon fodder, and they knew if this war was to be won it would be with a single, devastating act of unparralled power, and thus they, against the wishes of a faction among them, used a piece of tech they had reverse engineered from an artifact found in the ruins of a city on a far-away corporate colony world.
The military did not stand still amongst all this plotting, however, and was possessed of a competent leader, who won enough victories against the corps that the whole war degenerated into something Great Waresque, neither side being truly superior to the other. The corps needed time to complete their project however, and switched to purely delaying tactics, on top of the push and shove nature of this war.
The guinea pig for this project was a young Captain that they had taken prisoner in a 'security action' some weeks earlier. This woman suited their goals perfectly, for she would be of some use to them, even as her flesh was damaged to the point where extracting information via conventional interrogation methods such as mindrippers was useless. It took them years to complete this procedure, years in which the shadow of the enemy leader loomed ever closer over their cities. Eventually the brilliance of said enemy leader shattered what stalemate there was, and they were forced to send Project Number Six Four Two on her mission several months early, untested and incompletely personality reformed. This mission was of course to assassinate the enemy ruler that had plagued them for so long, and this she proceeded to with such skill and ferocity that the better part of an entire army was eliminated along with him.
Unfortunately for her, a power struggle erupted among the senior boardmembers of the corporation before she could return to her handlers, a power struggle over the very reason for her existence, and the extreme cost it had brought upon them. This struggle tore them apart only hours after she had completed her mission, and the corporation and it's soldiers collapsed into nothingness along with the remnants of their enemy's forces.
The country itself crumbled into oblivion much as the corps and the military had themselves, thus she was forced to wander the deserts created by these years of warfare. She survived, but the citizens of this nation did not, swallowed in city consuming flame by the last elements of the feuding factions.
Being effectively immortal, and fundamentally an extremely powerful weapon of war, all she could do, after the radiation had lowered itself to acceptable levels, was seek out a new purpose in life. Though she was in essence purely a weapon, she was also human, and thus was able to fight against the programming the corps had implanted in her skull. And so she began to wander outside the barren wastelands of her former homeland, disappearing off the face of the earth for what must have seemed like eternity...
...After literal millenia, her wandering finally ceased when her sensor equipment dragged from the local info nets mention of a certain being or being's called 'Tech Ninjas' in use in combat on Mars, nothing specific, but enough to spark her interest. For here, she thought at least, was something akin to herself enough that she felt compelled to seek it out.
This being, or beings, were mentioned as belonging to a corporation called Zepplin Manufacturers, a veritable nation in and of itself, something that reminded her of her past all too well. And so she boarded the nearest transport for ZMI, careful to conceal her true nature as well as she could until she arrived at her destination...
...This war raged for many years across vast and varied terrain, but they were a technological people, and employed such weapons and otherwise that shook the nation to it's very core. The military lacked the sheer financial power the corps had, however, and this gave them a slight upper hand in terms of quality of weaponry. Even this great power could not stop war being a drain on spirit, flesh and most of all, resources. Knowing that any improvement in yield of the weapons that had already been used in this conflict would sterilize half the planet, they turned to an aspect of a technology that had only recently proven it's worth on the battlefield.
The blending of a complete electronic intelligence with the flesh of a man, producing a soldier above and beyond that of baseline human. But they weren't looking for mere cannon fodder, and they knew if this war was to be won it would be with a single, devastating act of unparralled power, and thus they, against the wishes of a faction among them, used a piece of tech they had reverse engineered from an artifact found in the ruins of a city on a far-away corporate colony world.
The military did not stand still amongst all this plotting, however, and was possessed of a competent leader, who won enough victories against the corps that the whole war degenerated into something Great Waresque, neither side being truly superior to the other. The corps needed time to complete their project however, and switched to purely delaying tactics, on top of the push and shove nature of this war.
The guinea pig for this project was a young Captain that they had taken prisoner in a 'security action' some weeks earlier. This woman suited their goals perfectly, for she would be of some use to them, even as her flesh was damaged to the point where extracting information via conventional interrogation methods such as mindrippers was useless. It took them years to complete this procedure, years in which the shadow of the enemy leader loomed ever closer over their cities. Eventually the brilliance of said enemy leader shattered what stalemate there was, and they were forced to send Project Number Six Four Two on her mission several months early, untested and incompletely personality reformed. This mission was of course to assassinate the enemy ruler that had plagued them for so long, and this she proceeded to with such skill and ferocity that the better part of an entire army was eliminated along with him.
Unfortunately for her, a power struggle erupted among the senior boardmembers of the corporation before she could return to her handlers, a power struggle over the very reason for her existence, and the extreme cost it had brought upon them. This struggle tore them apart only hours after she had completed her mission, and the corporation and it's soldiers collapsed into nothingness along with the remnants of their enemy's forces.
The country itself crumbled into oblivion much as the corps and the military had themselves, thus she was forced to wander the deserts created by these years of warfare. She survived, but the citizens of this nation did not, swallowed in city consuming flame by the last elements of the feuding factions.
Being effectively immortal, and fundamentally an extremely powerful weapon of war, all she could do, after the radiation had lowered itself to acceptable levels, was seek out a new purpose in life. Though she was in essence purely a weapon, she was also human, and thus was able to fight against the programming the corps had implanted in her skull. And so she began to wander outside the barren wastelands of her former homeland, disappearing off the face of the earth for what must have seemed like eternity...
...After literal millenia, her wandering finally ceased when her sensor equipment dragged from the local info nets mention of a certain being or being's called 'Tech Ninjas' in use in combat on Mars, nothing specific, but enough to spark her interest. For here, she thought at least, was something akin to herself enough that she felt compelled to seek it out.
This being, or beings, were mentioned as belonging to a corporation called Zepplin Manufacturers, a veritable nation in and of itself, something that reminded her of her past all too well. And so she boarded the nearest transport for ZMI, careful to conceal her true nature as well as she could until she arrived at her destination...