Day 10Continue working on Quantum Brains and Nuclear Reactor
You finish the brain scraper and give it a test run. While it slowly beheads a test subject you focus on developing fission reactor. Managing gaseous uranium is a tricky business. Carefully maintained and shaped magnetic field is pretty much minimum requirement to ensure reactor heat shields won't melt on touch, so you work that out over course of the day.
After that you check out the brain scraper. Test subject's head is lacking quite considerable amount of material; everything above upper lip is gone, reduced into fine frozen dust onto ground. A bit backwards slanted flat surface of his grounded head is quite smooth to touch and it's easy to see where his skull bones, muscles, veins and spinal cord are. Data scraper recorded is almost filling your data storage mediums, so it takes until midnight before you have confirmed that everything you need is in there. There's also a plenty of garbage data about myelin sheaths and all other unnecessary cells, so you still need to build automatic tool to sanitize data into pure essential. And then? Quantum computers. That's another large undertaking.
Research in progress:
Quantum brain
Miniature fission reactor
To be researched:
High density capacitors
EMP hardening
Modular design
Research done:
Armored exoskeleton structure
Artificial muscles
Major Technologies:
Electricity driven cells
Test subjects expired: 18
Start training to learn the system I'll be using.
Just freakin stick it in some heads. Hell, stick it in my head. Do some mind merging experiments.
Stick ones in star2wars3's and Aigre's heads and have them mindfuck each other to the death.
Eh... That might result you two mental cripples. While you don't need their bodies, you do need their brains. Alive and uncrippled. Power use of data transmission was easy to finish. Frankly you were excepting troubles, but you encountered none. With a couple of prototype chips produced you install them into test subjects' brains and whip up a training program for them. A simple things first, like moving a dot on computer screen (for fine control). Playing chess against each other in different rooms while having only their opponent's pieces on their respective boards (for transferring information). Subjecs are picking it up quickly.
You can install chips into your potential supersoldier's brain and have him train too, if you so want. You current candidate seems eager enough. Actually let's say you did install and he's training with test subjects. It is strating promisingly.
Research in progress:
To be researched:
Artificial muscles
Exoskeleton
Mind merging
Advanced medical procedures
Optical camouflage
Overclocked biology
Mind to machine interface
Research done:
Stable weapon attachment point and remote aiming designator
Mind to machine interface
That's not very forward-thinking of my test subjects. After all, they signed a liability waiver and everything. And hey, you know what happens when I make mistakes? That's right! You all die! Horribly! Just ask the first-timer improved reaction times people.
As for where to put it, the cerebral cortex is a funny thing in that it has a lot of redundancy, so to speak. Trim the additions down as much as possible and pop it into something these people won't really need all that much, like for example Broca's area in the frontal lobe, responsible for the production (but not comprehension) of speech.
You show them slowly rotting corpses of your previous test subjects. For some weird reason they try to kill you! Ungrateful bastards, they should rejoice for getting change to be part of cutting edge science! You dance away using your lab assistants as a meat shields, locking doors behind you and let security deal with them.
Sounds like a really good spot to place down. Merging minds is pretty much like communication, you theorize. As for the neuron pattern, you almost done. Math is getting easier and you don't have to consult so often your paper. Only a bit more. Designing the pattern is one thing, but making neurons connect to each other in precise manner like this project requires is another. Maybe build a scaffold for neurons to grow on? Take a bunch of stem cells from test subjects, coax them turning into neurons and very carefully guide formation of synapses? Then a bit of brain surgery. OR grab a bunch of existing neurons from their brains and fiddle with them until desired synapses form. Hmm...
Research in progress:
Hive mind
To be researched:
Research done:
Improved coordination
Improved cooperative bonding
Improved learning ability
Improved reaction times II
Martial arts training
10 test subjects - 5 days trained
Major Technologies:
NERVOUS SYSTEM DESIGN AND UNDERSTANDING
Test subjects expired: 31
continue with reassert in previous post
Work with antimatter production continues. Can't have it being too energy intensive process to start, otherwise you would need another antimatter reactor to start it, and that's not very good for supersoldier. You have source material and instigator process decided, but it still requires fine tuning.
Research in progress:
Matter annihilation power plant
To be researched:
Reverse chemical formulation
Improved exoskeleton
Rail-guns
Improved training speeds
Intelligence increasing treatments
50 test subjects + 15 + 1
Research done:
Layered lighweight armor
Test subjects expired: 6
At this rate my supersoldier won't just be some random conscript!
Let's try some counter illumination!
Perhaps instead of replacing the reaction time neurons they can be stimulated by chemicals or electricity to perform better
Your completed stealth cloak can now intelligently choose shape and colors that helps it best match with its enviroment. After tossing the cloack on your messed bed you quite literally cannot tell what is part of the bedsheets and what's not. Quality work! Next counter illumination.
New composition of materials marginally improve energy density of your batteries, but it's nowhere enough. It needs more work tomorrow. And day after tomorrow. Probably.
Well, no. The primary bottleneck of neuron performance speed is synapses, especially the chemical exchance point where axon of transmitting neuron is turning electric signal into chemical signal which is transferred to dendrite of receiving neuron and transformed again into electric signal. Computer chip could eliminate that weak point, although transforming that single bottleneck on entire neural network could greatly improve many aspects, including reaction times. However it may also have large number of unforeseen consequences. Well, you could find out what they are, shouldn't be too hard, right?
Research in progress:
Optical camouflage
High density battery
Brain integrated chips - Improved reaction speed
To be researched:
Brain integrated chips - Imprinted knowledge
Killing emotions
Associate obedience with joy
Researched done:
Reaction time study
Test subjects expired: 15
Make the sounds of Progress.
Yeah, what the nanomachines are capable of really influences what I need in terms of robobody.
finalize tools.
Design nanobots for these functions:
consumption/conversion of matter
electrical manipulation
armor and shielding
structural strength (i.e. ability to hold weight, apply force, resist pressure, etc)
Allright, you drop robobody out of active research for favour of completing nanomachines more quickly. It's a major cornerstone of your progress, a great crossroads of either major success or utter failure and gray goo situation. That's something to avoid, you know.
After long hours of work it seems like major success. Like weaponized gray goo level success. First million nanobots have very specific command set to absorb only certain raw materials and rebuild copies of themselves. A small experiment with a kilogram of pure metals and alloys produces a shifty mass twice the size of source materials within half hour. Using predefined radiochannel and encryption you give the mass instruction to form simple shapes, which it does rapidly. Then more complex until you have detailed miniature weight lifter with your face. Pretty damn good!
With its current capacity to build copies you think you can also command them to deconstruct themselves too. You know, a backup solution should your soldier go batshit crazy.
Talking about your soldier soldier, he reports this today:
He found a location of lab belonging to competing scientist. Whose it is remains unknown, but defenses seem fairly standard. He will scout the surrounds tomorrow in greater detail and formulate plan for entrance, execution and extraction.
Research in progress:
Nanobot functions: Electric manipulation, Kinetic shielding, Structural support
To be researched:
Robotic body
Armor
Multibrain control systems
Distributed neural networks
Research done:
Nerve interface
Brain in a jar
Major Technologies:
Nanomachines
Test subjects expired: 19
Seeing as how I'm penguinofhonor's soon to be supersoldier, get armored up and kitted out. Go and kill the crazies in the lab for him to have examples of his work before cell death ruins the results.
((Some more...refinement...of the monster maker may or may not be appreciated if you are planning on using it in its current form. Just saying.))
Well... These fuckers are fast and they have complete lack of self preservation besides of feeding. This makes fighting them extremely difficult and dangerous in closed enviroment like this. It ain't a fight you are used to because they don't fight like humans or even animals. They just run over each other while eating parts off from others, completely ignoring bullets in their legs, arms, stomach and wherever you happen to shoot as you hastily retreat. Some fucker bites a big piece off your left hand before you decide to call it a day and run bravely away. It's like fighting against fast zombies...
You got perhaps four or five down before escaping. That was rather poorly planned and executed, you have to admit. Didn't even get any samples.
I use what I've learned recently to complete my rapid healing technology. If I get it to an acceptable state I test it on the gorrila arm subject from a couple days ago.
((Also, are technologies like the monster maker already in weaponizable form that I could train soldiers with? Or would I have to develop them more for that?))
You have a prototype weapon for the monster maker. While originally planned for mortar use, it can be adopted to use your hyper cancer weapon as delivery system for no cost. And you have exactly one of those. You can build more if you want, but it costs time you could be using for research. More you want, more it costs, but since it doesn't require any research the time cost is negligible.
Well, would you look at that. Despite of howling, banging and shooting your soldier does few rooms away you manage to collect all relevant pieces of formulate injectable virus that will boost cell division around injected area to rebuild damaged parts. It will take account of merged flesh and activate both until balance is reached.
And right in time to treat your soldier. He got his left arm bitten into shambles. You can only hope the virus causing mutation didn't infect him.
Research in progress:
To be researched:
New nerve pathways
Research done:
Targeted hyper cancer
Inline DNA manipulation
Artificial Siamese Twins
Monster maker
Rapid healing
Major Technologies:
PANACEA
Test subjects expired: 16
Stock up on coffee, Red Bull, Mountain Dew, and Hot Pockets. Focus shall be obtained!
Also how is that volunteer/guinea pig of mine doing? Has he learned to juggle live bears yet?
Work on wear protection and cooling today.
Try to at least get the right materials selected for joint anti-friction pads, if nothing else.
And for cooling... radiator wings, you say? That is a marvellous idea! But if they have to deploy, they would need to be rigid... If only there was a way to protect them from harm within the otherwise flexible body... aha! We will take inspiration from the winged horse Pegasus, and add actual wings to the body! Well, okay, no, not actual ones. But faux wings, sheets of our lightweight and durable alloy attached together on simple ball joints and operated by the artificial muscles, with a network of cooling tubes running through them. They can rest on the sides of the body, covering up the arms, and further adding to the concealment/subterfuge by masking the body's extra limbs when they're not in use. They can also, worst come to worst, act as a layer of ablative armor on the soft sides of the abdominal region.(you will note the "wings" being present in my designs for the Artee, i.e.
here they're fairly obvious and the one on the opposite side of the body is lifted up)
He's been training... five days? He says his instructor did beat him pretty badly today so he's very tired, but has learned some nasty things man can do to another man with their fingers only.
((I don't think I ever saw that particular drawing. It's cool! And man do your rolls keep sucking. I suspect RNG may hate Artee.))
You force yourself to focus on wear protection. Materials at least should be... well you got those example materials. You tinker with them some time, trying to think how to combine best parts of both and actually come up with an idea. You scratch the idea on paper so you can synthetize it tomorrow. Maybe see if it does what you want it to. Hopefully.
This mental juggle drains your spirit, your desire to live. You briefly play with idea of abandonding whole wear protection and make all parts replaceable. Just... accepting the inevitable wear and tear.
Wings? Right. Yes, tomorrow. Maybe.
An assistant tells you that they finished building small myomer muscle production line. It and its products seem to work according specifications.
Research in progress:
Wear protection
Cooling
Research to do:
Wetware AI
High capacity fuel cell
Research completed:
Structural skeleton
Myomers
Muscle layout