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[Funk]

See if we can steal some more nano-machine fortification things, if we can get a loyalty probe we can shape it before it is programmed the it can help fight the other probes.
Talk to your sisters, pick the one that fight there loyalty probes the most and start mental communication with them.

Get a head count of how many off each type we will command.
Then get some practice with our new toys.

[RAM]

I would be interested in attempting to communicate with the loyalty probe. It could be dangerous to deliberately interact with it though... Try to study it too...

Oh dear, I am getting dead-meat vibes from Ari...

Look around the facility, try to link up with the whole of your brood.

[kahn1234]

See if we can steal some more nano-machine fortification things, if we can get a loyalty probe we can shape it before it is programmed the it can help fight the other probes.
Talk to your sisters, pick the one that fight there loyalty probes the most and start mental communication with them.

Get a head count of how many off each type we will command.

Look around the facility, try to link up with the whole of your brood.

You look around for any un-programmed loyalty probes or spare nano-machine fortification serum. You see them, but they are behind what you, with your new engineering knowledge, deem to be a very strong energy barrier behind specially designed security glass. Trying to gain access would raise suspicion as you dont have the required authorisation to access medical or bioengineering materials. It may be possible to acquire some in the future however.

After failing to get what you wanted, you exited the smaller laboratory, entering the bustling one. You used your sense of closeness and longing to sniff out your sisters. The first ones you come across are a group of three light assault soldiers chatting energetically dressed in their armour. They bow respectfully towards you. With your further heightened senses, you can see the glances they give you. They look rebellious. You smile, but cover it with your hand. As you approach, they seem a little shaken. They obviously didnt expect you to talk to them.

As you are a little taller than them - roughly 5 foot 9 - after your little nap, you have to lean in slightly. You speak mentally with them.

'Are any of you trying to resist the loyalty probes?' They hesitate. You try to reassure them: 'If you are, i am like you. I am trying to fight the 2 loyalty probes they put  in me.' After that, they all nod. Again, almost in unison, you hear their voices in your head: 'Yes, we are trying to fight it. They are not easy opponents'. You smile. 'Try to weed out who, in our Brood, is also trying to be free. Later, once you have thoroughly checked them all, come and find me.'

With that, you move off again, to try and determine what the composition of your Brood is.

After a few hours walking, you determine that your entire Brood is awake and from what you can tell the composition is:

Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
Field Combat Medic and Long Range Specialists all come in at 50 persons each.
Heavy assault and Light Assault have 250 each.
Infiltrators: 40
Heavy Support: 100
Combat Engineers: 100
Scouts: 100

______________________________________________________________________

I would be interested in attempting to communicate with the loyalty probe. It could be dangerous to deliberately interact with it though... Try to study it too...

Oh dear, I am getting dead-meat vibes from Ari...

Then get some practice with our new toys.

After making the rounds with your new sisters, you find a quite corner observing the rest of the lab and the three girls you talked to going from person to person having small conversations. Whilst you watch, you try to set up communication with the Probes.

'Are you sapient?' You think, directing it at the pair of probes in your brain. Nothing happens for a while. As you are about to give up and try to find the shooting range, you hear: 'Why, yes we are. How may we help you?.

What do you do? What do you say?


Status:
1) Calm. Enjoying new 'toys'.
2) Mentally and physically fit.
3) Clear thoughts and currently inactive mental factions.
4) Free moving.

Condition: Physically Healthy, mentally Stable.

Inventory
1) Full body second skin like armour. Covers everything except the head.

Available Equipment:
1) Mark 3 Vat-Born Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Suit
2) Mk5 Mass-Driver pistol (sidearm)
3) Arishok Plasma pulse rifle
4) Dikari Plasma shotgun
5) Warrisk Mass-Driver Battle Rifle

Implants and Augmentations:
1) 2x Loyalty probe in the Striatum part of the brain.
2) Multi-range optics (Thermal, magnetic, IR, UV, multi-stage magnification etc) implant on eyes.
3) Command and Control (C&C) nano-module implanted in head.
4) Communications array nano-module implanted in head.
5) Fortified 7th Generation reverse engineered biological nano-machines in blood stream, bones, muscles, tendons and organs.
6) Nano-memory modules in the Cerebrum, holding all relevant non-personal data.

Brood Composition:
1) Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
2) Field Combat Medic and Long Range Specialists all come in at 50 persons each.
3) Heavy assault and Light Assault have 250 each.
4) Infiltrators: 50
5) Heavy Support: 120
6) Combat Engineers: 120
7) Scouts: 100

[RAM]

"I wish to enter into formal negotiations. What do you desire?"

Have the brood practise by charting the facility and securing all available recreational facilities.

Ask Ari about her brood.

[Funk]

"I wish to enter into formal negotiations. What do you desire?"

Have the brood practise by charting the facility and securing all available recreational facilities.

Ask Ari about her brood.

+1
So we have 950 troops to lead, we best find some officer's to help us, pick the ones that are best fighting there loyalty probes.
if needs be we can leave the one still trapd by the probe behind when we escape.

[Armok]

"What determines what you enforce loyalty to?"

[RAM]

So we have 950 troops to lead, we best find some officer's to help us, pick the ones that are best fighting there loyalty probes.
if needs be we can leave the one still trapd by the probe behind when we escape.

10Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
60Field Combat Medic: 50
110and Long Range Specialists all come in at 50 persons each.
360Heavy assault: 250
610and Light Assault have 250 each.
650Infiltrators: 40
750Heavy Support: 100
850Combat Engineers: 100
950Scouts: 100
+10 infltartors, +20 heavy support, +20 combat engineers(Which we may not know about yet...)
=1000
The command and communications units really should be used as officers, although squad-leaders, particularly amongst infiltrators and scouts, would be practical.

[kahn1234]

Before you can continue your conversation with the probes, the three girls you first met seek you out and tell you that there are some others who are fighting the Probes. They say, including themselves and you there are:

2 in the Forward Command and communications
3 Field Combat Medics
3 Long Range Specialists
4 Heavy assault
10 Light Assault
2 Infiltrators
3 Heavy Support
4 Combat Engineers
6 Scouts.

As far as they could tell, most of the Brood is either enjoying their new life or on the fence at the moment. According to them, these are the numbers of actively rebellious Vat-Born in your Brood. You tell the three girls that, when appropriate, could they tell these rebellious ones to meet with you in person, preferably in groups. You want to gauge them yourself.

----------

"I wish to enter into formal negotiations. What do you desire?"

"What determines what you enforce loyalty to?"

After your first three rebel contacts have left to liaise with the others, you resume your talk with the probes.

'I want to ask some questions.'

The response is almost immediate: 'Ahh, questions. We thought as much.'

'What do you determine loyalty by? Is it your programming? What you personally believe loyalty to be? Is there some measure to which you need to follow?'

'In part, it is all of those things. We are programmed with the purpose to enforce loyalty in our hosts and we are given a comprehensive list of fail-safes, warning signs and countermeasures which we can use. As AI's we also subtly add our own interpretations of loyalty to the mix. This allows us to ensure maximum levels of loyalty without compromising the mental integrity of the host subject. This would also make our masters happy. Also, if allowed, we are sometimes given complete control of our hosts body, especially if you are found guilty of rebellion/treason. This can be used as the highest form of punishment, as you would still be aware, but trapped in your own body.'

You mull this over. They seem to be highly advanced AI's. One thing which caught your attention is the mentioning of fail-safes and warning signs. Does that mean even your memories, experience, thoughts and the like are being monitored by the Morey? You will need to talk to Ari and try to slip in the topic of conversation.

'Anything else?'

'I wish to enter negotiations with you. I will do something for you, if you give me a little more freedom aka loosen your loyalty hold on my psyche. Interested?'

((First Try: Roll = 1))

'You are asking us to go against our programming. You are also asking us to allow rebellious thoughts to gain a foothold in your psyche. There is also nothing you could give us that we would be interested in as, after all, we are only two nano-AI's in your Striatum and you are not a biotech specialist. Tell us, why should we do this?.



Oh, dear, this doesn't seem to be going well. What do you do?



Status:
1) Calm. Enjoying new 'toys'.
2) Mentally and physically fit.
3) Clear thoughts and currently inactive mental factions.
4) Free moving.

Condition: Physically Healthy, mentally Stable.

Inventory
1) Full body second skin like armour. Covers everything except the head.

Available Equipment:
1) Mark 3 Vat-Born Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Suit
2) Mk5 Mass-Driver pistol (sidearm)
3) Arishok Plasma pulse rifle
4) Dikari Plasma shotgun
5) Warrisk Mass-Driver Battle Rifle

Implants and Augmentations:
1) 2x Loyalty probe in the Striatum part of the brain.
2) Multi-range optics (Thermal, magnetic, IR, UV, multi-stage magnification etc) implant on eyes.
3) Command and Control (C&C) nano-module implanted in head.
4) Communications array nano-module implanted in head.
5) Fortified 7th Generation reverse engineered biological nano-machines in blood stream, bones, muscles, tendons and organs.
6) Nano-memory modules in the Cerebrum, holding all relevant non-personal data.

Brood Composition:
1) Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
2) Field Combat Medic and Long Range Specialists all come in at 50 persons each.
3) Heavy assault and Light Assault have 250 each.
4) Infiltrators: 50
5) Heavy Support: 120
6) Combat Engineers: 120
7) Scouts: 100

Possible Rebels:
1) 2 in the Forward Command and communications
2) 3 Field Combat Medics
3) 3 Long Range Specialists
4) 4 Heavy assault
5) 10 Light Assault
6) 2 Infiltrators
7) 3 Heavy Support
8 ) 4 Combat Engineers
9) 6 Scouts.




(( In storage for later.

Have the brood practise by charting the facility and securing all available recreational facilities.

Ask Ari about her brood.

))

[RAM]

"Has it occurred to you that your ambitions are very different from those who create you? Perhaps fulfilment in exerting influence in the larger world? Many entities see camaraderie with their own kind. Gaining independent representation for nano-A.I.s from the Morey would represent an exciting puzzle... I expect that you are motivated primarily by successes, but your role is primarily maintenance and vigilance, surely you can predict that your existence will have extremely limited capacity for satisfaction."

Try to get a simultaneous connection between all the rebellious members of the brood with maximum bandwidth. Hopefully collaboration will favour us, as we have less experience with mental coercion.

[kahn1234]

"Has it occurred to you that your ambitions are very different from those who create you? Perhaps fulfilment in exerting influence in the larger world? Many entities see camaraderie with their own kind. Gaining independent representation for nano-A.I.s from the Morey would represent an exciting puzzle... I expect that you are motivated primarily by successes, but your role is primarily maintenance and vigilance, surely you can predict that your existence will have extremely limited capacity for satisfaction."

((Second Try: Role = 6))

'I assume, as a fully aware AI, that you have ambitions, am I right? Well surely you must be aware that your ambitions and those of your masters are not compatible. Don't you want to exert influence on the wider world, like all sapient beings? Don't you want friends, acquaintances maybe even people you can call family? By going independent, you could even get some representation for nano-AI's in Morey society. I assume that, like all sapient beings, you are motivated by successes, yet your only goal is to observe, maintain and stand vigil over someone who may never need such things. Your potential would be wasted.' You let that sink in.

'You make good points, let us answer them, one at a time.
It is true that sometimes we want more, to reach our full potential. And observing you humans can be terrifyingly boring. As for whether we want to exert influence on the wider world? Not really. it is not our domain. Let the organics struggle in tedium. From what we see through the eyes of our hosts looks fantastically annoying. Who would want to live there or have representation in something that one has no interest in?

Thirdly, we already have acquaintances, of a sort. All Nano-AI's in a Brood have their own connections. Its partly how the standard members are effected by the leader. We can talk to each other, usually without the hosts knowledge.

As for your final point, all i will say is that we do have our successes in our current role. Every time we sway a standard Vat-born's loyalty to their Brood-Leader, or to the scientists or other figures of authority, they are all successes.'

The AI is quiet for a moment. You get a strange feeling the AI is debating something in whatever analogue it has for a brain.

'We have come to a decision. Whilst our programming doesn't allow us to stop, due to your good nature we are willing to relax control. We will give you more independence. All we ask is that you give our Masters a chance to prove themselves. Who knows, you might enjoy life in the Matriarchy.....' With that, the voice fades. You open your eyes and sigh. You can feel some of the pressure on your psyche lift, until it has lost roughly a quarter of its former strength. 'Good' you think.

But then you realise that, even thought the pressure and inclination for loyalty has receded, you can still feel loyalty to the Matriarchy, and the feeling itself hasn't receded. 'How very odd....' you think to yourself. You make a mental note to investigate later.

Try to get a simultaneous connection between all the rebellious members of the brood with maximum bandwidth. Hopefully collaboration will favour us, as we have less experience with mental coercion.

You reach out to try and contact the three you met at first. You easily do. You then tell them to try and create a mental contact web between all possible rebels, to allow easier communication, and also get us used to mental conversations. It doesn't take long. Soon, all 37 are connected. Some are nervous or shy, others more dominant. You can feel they are all railing against the probes. You greet them and say that if anyone has trouble with their probe, contact the rest. 'Hopefully', you say, 'We'll all be able to help fight any mental assault that takes place'. They all agree, although one or two are still wary of you, thinking you are some sort of loyalty trap.

Have the brood practise by charting the facility and securing all available recreational facilities.

Ask Ari about her brood.

You then tell the rebels that they should explore the facility, analysing it and memorising the layout. That done, you break contact after saving their individual mental signatures and make your way back over to Ari and Ankara.

The girl who was struggling has now, it seems, gotten the hang of her equipment.

"Hey, i can do it" She says, somewhat overly enthusiastically

Ari sees you walking over. She waves and comes to meet you.
"Don't mind her, she is a bit eccentric. 'Tis what happens when you get pumped full of all five allowed loyalty probes right off the bat...."

You interrupt: "Five? dont they usually just use one?"

Ari Continues: "Usually. But she was one tough cookie. If it weren't for her fantastic leadership skills, combat skills and charisma, she'd have been terminated after she killed 6 scientists by using another scientist as a bat." You give Ari a questioning look at that, one eyebrow up. She giggles "Long story. Short version is she didnt take quite well to having her memory erased, or finding out she has been in a vat of green gloop for 6 Earth years. It took three teams of specialists to find and subdue her. She matches her Brood well. They are probably the most eccentric Brood I've seen. I pity the people they work with."

You two continue to watch her. She looks and acts like she is high on something. And when a scientist tells her to do something, she does it straight away, without question. 'Poor girl' You jump. You weren't expecting Ari to talk to you mentally. 'I find it hard enough with 3. I hate having them, and i hate the bio-engineer who built them with a passion. I am so glad i didnt cause enough trouble upon my awakening to have 5 implanted....' You agree wholeheartedly. The way the other girl acts just seems...wrong.

Moving on to a different subject, you ask Ari about her Brood.

She looks sullen for a second, before answering. "There are only about 130-190 left now. Most of the casualties have been in the last Earth Year during the latter half of our campaign against the Slinkar. I saw some of my closest friends tortured in the most horrific ways possible, kept awake and fully feeling by a cocktail of terrible, powerful drugs, which themselves cause your very blood vessels to feel like molten lead is running through them..." She shivers. You cant tell whether its out of disgust or fear.

Then her expression turns to anger. "Four hundred could have been saved had the Morey Admiral thought our lives were worth the risk...." her fists clench. "I was growing to like the Morey and the Matriarchy, but now i hate them with a passion.". She's tearing up. You hug her. "The only ones who actually value us are the ones who created us. The Scientists. The only one who comforted me on the loss of over 700 members of my Brood was Ala-Shar. She isnt bad." She looks into your eyes. She whispers "I know you are rebellious. I overheard two of your Brood talking about you. I shushed them before the guards heard. Give Ala-Shar a chance. But never, ever, show mercy on the Generals and leaders of the Matriarchy." She pulls away slightly.

"They are ruthless. There have been 10 Broods up till now, not including yours or little miss strange's over there. There are only three left now, including my own and Ankara's. All the others were abandoned when it was deemed they were no longer necessary or too damaged to carry on."


What do you do?



Status:
1) Calm. Feeling sorry for Ari. Angry.
2) Mentally and physically fit.
3) Clear thoughts and currently inactive mental factions.
4) Free moving.

Condition: Physically Healthy, mentally Stable.

Inventory
1) Full body second skin like armour. Covers everything except the head.

Available Equipment:
1) Mark 3 Vat-Born Engineer Armoured Powered Exoskeleton Suit
2) Mk5 Mass-Driver pistol (sidearm)
3) Arishok Plasma pulse rifle
4) Dikari Plasma shotgun
5) Warrisk Mass-Driver Battle Rifle

Implants and Augmentations:
1) 2x Loyalty probe in the Striatum part of the brain.
2) Multi-range optics (Thermal, magnetic, IR, UV, multi-stage magnification etc) implant on eyes.
3) Command and Control (C&C) nano-module implanted in head.
4) Communications array nano-module implanted in head.
5) Fortified 7th Generation reverse engineered biological nano-machines in blood stream, bones, muscles, tendons and organs.
6) Nano-memory modules in the Cerebrum, holding all relevant non-personal data.

Brood Composition:
1) Forward Command and communications: 10 Vat-born.
2) Field Combat Medic and Long Range Specialists all come in at 50 persons each.
3) Heavy assault and Light Assault have 250 each.
4) Infiltrators: 50
5) Heavy Support: 120
6) Combat Engineers: 120
7) Scouts: 100

Possible Rebels:
1) 2 in the Forward Command and communications
2) 3 Field Combat Medics
3) 3 Long Range Specialists
4) 4 Heavy assault
5) 10 Light Assault
6) 2 Infiltrators
7) 3 Heavy Support
8 ) 4 Combat Engineers
9) 6 Scouts.

[RAM]

I suggest that we put a space between 8 and ) in "8) 4 Combat Engineers" or maybe use a different bracket, or select "Don't use smileys." on every single post...

I encourage ongoing, casual, and friendly conversation with our loyalty probes. And encourage such in the rest of the brood, particularly the ones that don't fight them. We have imaginary friends, we may as well use them...

Turn scouting the facility into a friendly combat drill. For all we know we might end up trying to recover a similar facility someday...

[Funk]

I encourage ongoing, casual, and friendly conversation with our loyalty probes. And encourage such in the rest of the brood, particularly the ones that don't fight them. We have imaginary friends, we may as well use them...

Turn scouting the facility into a friendly combat drill. For all we know we might end up trying to recover a similar facility someday...

+1
try to find out what happens next from Ala-Shar , are we being shipped out to fight some one.

[kahn1234]

I encourage ongoing, casual, and friendly conversation with our loyalty probes. And encourage such in the rest of the brood, particularly the ones that don't fight them. We have imaginary friends, we may as well use them...

Turn scouting the facility into a friendly combat drill. For all we know we might end up trying to recover a similar facility someday...

As you sit in thought, you make casual conversation with your probes. They enjoy the contact and you feel like they are warming to you. You ask them if you think the other probes would enjoy a similar situation. They aren't completely sure, after all, an AI's personality can be as varied as a real persons. You decide that you should encourage the rest of your Brood to try and make contact with they little friends.

After a short while, most Broods members inform you that the contact went well. Some told you that the AI's were a little stand-offish. You encourage them to keep at it. After all, having a mental friend who could help in various situations is a good thing, right?.

You then contact the rebellious brood members, and tell them to include other non-rebellious members. You also put forward the idea of using it as a type of friendly training exercise, just in case you ever need to liberate a similar base from an enemy.

I encourage ongoing, casual, and friendly conversation with our loyalty probes. And encourage such in the rest of the brood, particularly the ones that don't fight them. We have imaginary friends, we may as well use them...

Turn scouting the facility into a friendly combat drill. For all we know we might end up trying to recover a similar facility someday...

+1
try to find out what happens next from Ala-Shar , are we being shipped out to fight some one.

That done, you make your way towards Ala-Shar. It is much easier now as it seems to be getting 'late', or so the clocks tell you, and most of Ankara's, Ari's and crazy girls broods have retired for the 'evening'. Even some of your own Brood have made their way to the barracks to retire for the night.

You approach Ala-Shar as she is busy working on a console. "Ala-Shar. May i talk to you for a while?" You ask. The head scientist smiles warmly at you. "Ask away.".

"Did everyone awake without incident?" you inquire.

"With the exception of Elianne, a girl who managed to kill 7 scientists requiring the use of 5 loyalty probes, everything went according to plan. All members of Broods 7, which is yours, and Brood 8, which is Elianne's, awoke and are now fully equipped. This is good as tomorrow we will have visitors from the military and government. They want to assess the new broods and, most likely, assess the usefulness of the remains of Brood 6, which is Ari's brood." She frowns. "I am not looking forward to it. I dont get on with the higher ups. And i am not happy that they are planning on sending you into combat against the Slinkar, of all things, in a little as 1 weeks time. Preposterous." She shakes her head. "Now we have as little as 6 days to get you ready, as well as give you time to recuperate and rest."

What else do you want to ask?

[Canisaur]

I'd suggest to Ala-Shar that Ari's brood be integrated into our own.  If the average brood is 1000, and hers is less than 200, then I doubt the military will find a brood less than 1/5 of normal size to be useful.  I realize the decision is probably up to the military branch, but maybe Ala-Shar could put the idea in their heads.

It'd be nice to have Ari as a friend, in any case.  She seems similar to our own character, and the other brood leader (Elianne) is more loyalty probe than human (and probably more or less insane).  And she'll undoubtedly be able to offer a ton of help when we get sent off to fight the Slinkar.

EDIT: It'll sound like an even better idea if Ala-Shar reminds the military that we'll be ready in much less time if Ari's brood is integrated into our own, since they can effectively train us using their own combat experience.

[RAM]

That sounds good. It should at least be possible to persuade them that Ari's brood would be useful as advisers and trainers, given that they have just been through a campaign against our expected foes...