9 days until deadline.So umm, the Meshanblov brains are now getting mass-produced? Where are they?
Once made, the new brains will be divided up to help the six current projects
Brain 1 & 5:
* Advanced Sensors/Senses
* Quantum Entanglement Communication
Brain 2 & 4:
* Stealth Systems
* Improved Meshanblov Co-Ordination and Co-Operation
Brain 3:
* Nuclear II
* Particle Beam II
Number of test subjects are interviewed, their insignificant skills listed and then prompty killed while digitalizing their brains. Then, using Mark I Quantum Brain and letting played subject borrow remote body, they are instructed to perform their skills. Data is observed, relevant portions of digital brain identified and copied. One digital test subject is chosen, his brain carefully analyzed and after good amount of tinkering, new skills are succesfully implanted.
Upgrading intelligence is a project one order of magnitude more complex than merely giving skills to people so you both decide collectively ditch it for now. Battle-mode thing likewise is troubling. It's not like the hardware is running on its limits (it is), but it's rather that the QB is designed to function as a whole. Shutting down portion of brain can be done, but it doesn't increase preformance. It would require not only total redesign of QB but also altering how mind works in first place. Not really feasible in remaining time.
So we've finished maybe two of the research goals? Man, Meshanblov is lazy.
They are right here: +10. And when it comes to developing more vague tecnologies, feel free to add your own ideas too.
So there's now whole flood of really smart dudes remotely controlling robots with minimum viable systems required for science. Massive amount of brain power right here. It's nice to have smart people to talk with. Truly.
So a group of three starts working with advanced sensors. So they start with high definition highspeed cameras as apetizers. Building one set they add those into their own bodies and good lord isn't world detailed! Second thing they make is IR camera of equal quality. IR cameras could simply transmit grayscale image to the brain over normal visual channel. Using both cameras together could be as simple as using IR channel as brighness boost for normal visual feed. But using them in same time separately is essentially like having four eyes and human brain is not wired for that. There's simply no human brain with such skill you could copy. Modifying digital visual cortex is easy, but you don't really have any idea what to change. Well, only one way to find out: Poke brain some subject's brain data running on QB I and see if anything sticks.
Another group of three tries to solve superluminal communication, which basically also means dealing with time travel. Bu there's nothing stopping you from trying. This groups starts from assuming no-communication theorem is incorrect, and works form there on.
Group 3, likewise consisting of three members. Pokes that invisibility thing again. Their brainstorming and dangerous experiments leads to conclusion that jumping light forward is indeed possible, but within limits of
c. It appears to be possible create an area where light kind of does not exist. No, thats putting it wrong. Photons do exist in the area, but using some sort of weird probability fuckery photons will somehow avoid hitting anything. Downsides of this field would be that photon detectors aka. cameras will not function within. Also it won't stop light generated inside from escaping the field, which in turn means your nuclear reactor will not function inside. Because gaseous uranium shines brightly on both visual and ultraviolet range it would rather turn your soldier into a brilliant torch. Well, that's just another problem to solve.
Group 4, two members: Brainstorming ways to improve coordination yields one crazy idea. Create a central brain where every member of Meshanblov Collective is connected to. The central brain's main task would be to manage and distribute knowledge, problems and hard data. The group theorizes altered quantum brains would be able to use it as long as digital brain data would be modified accordingly. Such idea would require heavy modifications on your very existance which makes you hesitant to commit for the project, but you have done it once already when you discarded flesh and became greater.
Group 5 finishes design and creation of more compact version of the nuclear reactor, including all upgrades designed for it. Combat body will need some retrofitting if you want to use it. Also it is now shrunk down to 70cm tall box. Any smaller and you start losing power.
Group 6: two members. Your work with creating vacuum channel yields another forbidden fruit. Plasma channel would make it possible to create very short duration vacuum. So introducing very, very carefully managed high frequency alternate current into ion channel created by laser would create conditions where plasma can be shoved aside for the brief moment required for particle beam to pass through. This means your particle beam weapon is turning very power hungry piece of equipment. You are not entirely sure if whole output of the mini nuclear reactor can handle everything required here. Adding number of high density capacitors would reduce momentary strain on the reactor, which also means fire rate of the weapon won't be very high.
Research in progress:
3 Advanced Sensors/Senses
3 Quantum Entanglement Communication
3 Stealth Systems
2 Improved Meshanblov Co-Ordination and Co-Operation
2 Particle Beam II
To be researched:
Heat application
Supermaterial Armouring
Fast body
ECM/ECCM
Forcefields
Cyber-Security
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
Research done:
Armored exoskeleton structure
Artificial muscles (electricity driven cells)
Digital brain copy
Particle beam
Miniature fission reactor
High density capacitors
Remote controlled body
Quantum brain II
EMP hardening
Remote sciencing body
Compact built-in systems
Modular design
Quantum brain mass production
Modular autonomous drones
Remote Sciencing Bodies mass production
Mind Editing
High definition high speed cameras
High definition high speed IR cameras
Nuclear II
Stolen garbage:
Meshanite
Meshanite production line
Myomers
High capacity fuel cell
Test subjects expired: 32
Size of Meshanblov Collective: 15
Capture the next target and continue to wherever I'm ordered to go next.
Plan IT'S PRANK BRO, A PRANK! fails miserably with next set of subjects. Trying to get them into less open areas already rises suspicions and when out of schedule police arrives it just goes downhill very fast. Thanks to everyone being professional mercenaries and experienced shooters, you make it out but the whole mess left behind is a mark of shame on your track record. Best you can do is to make it look like a drug carter fight, but that won't hold light for very long. Too many corpses, including the target.
It's time to disappear.
Automatic Research
You construct last bits of the reactor core and start dealing with cooling.
Research in progress:
Miniature fission reactor
To be researched:
Terrorizer shielding
Exoskeleton
Mind to machine interface - canine adaptation
Mind merging
Artificial muscles
Advanced medical procedures
Optical camouflage
Overclocked biology
Research done:
Stable weapon attachment point and remote aiming designator
Mind to machine interface
Dreamstream
MMI - Data Diver
Braincase
Slave brain array
Simple brain-enhancing system
Test subjects expired: 62 (100)
Other victims: 35
This is cool as all hell. Keep practicing them maneuvers and stuff.
WHW module George installed yesterday blooms today into full power. Your first teleportation is accidental one. You are looking at a tree used for target practice when something in your mind clicks in place. You suddenly have distinct cylinderic shape in your mind centered around the tree, from ground level half way up to top. Exact shape, size and orientation of the area is very clear to you. You shake your heads in confusion and another pair of eyes locks on a crate nearby. Location, size and orientation of the crate's boxy interior locks into your mind too. Then it could be described as accidentally pulling trigger. Totally unintentional. The first area around the tree is somehow shoved
out and then pulled
in where second location was defined; inside the crate. What ends up inside the crate is not a tree trunk. Probably it originally was one, but certainly not anymore. Vertically compressed, horizontally deflated and distorted into square form.
Further experimentation proves you can fully control what ends up where in what shape. It also proves that simplest and smallest forms are least taxing for your collective mind. Because after teleporting shit around twenty times you are starting to lose focus. Hard to think.
But one thing is clear:
ALL HAIL THE PSIONIC SOLDIER!OPERATION: ALL-SEEING EYE
Step Fourteen, cont'd: test out the capabilities of the EP both on his own and through EPA line of sight. Switch the communication method of the hivemind to purely WHW-B if possible.
Step Fifteen: begin work on WHW-ASE, an adaptation of WHW-B that would permit information to be drawn from nearby brains at range.
OPERATION: RECYCLED NEURON
Step Two: the first thing to try is always drugs! See if we can find a good formulation to remove memories out of a lab mouse.
Yeah, as it appears EP can use EPA sight as well as his own. WHW-B added to EPA folks, though technically they all are now EP.
It is fun to observe wanton destruction of enviroment using unknowable psychic effects, so fun that it is hard to focus actual work. Reversing WHW-B's effect is not easy task and thinking about possibilities of teleportation doesn't help. You barely manage to design pattern of perhaps two thousand neurons which is hardly even a base.
On the other news you do create a drug mixture that destroys connections between neurons, but it does so indiscriminately. It needs to be focused somehow.
Research in progress:
Memory wipe
WHW-ASE
To be researched:
Hivemind testing
Research done:
Improved coordination
Improved cooperative bonding
Improved learning ability
Improved reaction times II
Terrible Glory + Analysis
Hive mind
Brain killswitch
Incentive module
Hivemind master module
Extra fast neuron growth
Executive module
Codename: WHW-R
Codename: WHW-T
Codename: WHW-B
Full WHW integration
Major Technologies:
NERVOUS SYSTEM DESIGN AND UNDERSTANDING
Test subjects expired: 35
Other victims: 8
Volunteers killed: 1
Automatic Research
Final bits of the jump jets come together nicely and with time to spare. Two canisters, size avarage office extinguisher, containing air pressurized to very dangerous levels. Jet fuel for thrusters is stored on secondary layer of the air canisters (to save space). Two of those packets are strapped on the exoskeleton's back, both sides of the power generator.
While even two of them won't let your man fly, they certainly will help to alleviate effects of gravity.
Those three projects have been sitting in your todo queue so long that I don't even know if they are relevant anymore. Ditch them? Keep them?
Research in progress:
To be researched:
Reverse chemical formulation
Improved training speeds
Intelligence increasing treatments
Research done:
Layered lighweight armor
Matter annihilation power plant
Dead man's switch
Rail-guns
Exoskeleton
Military armor grade shape-memory alloy
Advanced flamethrower
Insulation suit
High power laser
Pressurized air jump-jets
Test subjects expired: 6
Put extended brain pieces in torso and connect them with wires or nerves instead of making the head bigger.
Just below enhanced visual cortex, add a monoatomic katana that can cut through anything.
Edit: I mean just below on the list. Don't implant a katana in the brain.
That clarification was very important. I was quite perplexed here for a moment.
Alright, the nonvisual camo. Infrared portion is dealt with cooling, so what remains is ultraviolet range. Working with maximum effiency, completely ditching toilet and lunch break, you bore down into the problem of selective scattering and absorption of UV light. The stealth cloak requires UV cameras to identify correct brightness and useable wavelengths just like visual camo does. After that you can solve the actual problem, or rather a pair of problems. Selective UV scattering and absorption is done easily enough, but combining that technique with visual camo into one cohesive system is a problem for another day.
Research in progress:
Stealthsuit non-visual camo
To be researched:
Extended brain - Enhanced visual cortex
Monoatomic katana
Lightweight armor
Full enviromental protection
Self-sealing body
Redundant organs
Extended brain - Control equipment with thought
Extended brain - External knowledge
Extended brain - Physical and mental pain filtering/hardening
Stealthsuit body integration
Suggestible pheromones
Stealth holodrones
Researched done:
Reaction time study
Optical camouflage
Mobile holoprojector
High density battery
Dazzleball
Extended camouflage
Coilgun
Shock absorbent lining
True cyber limbs
Leg enhancements
Brain integrated chips - Improved reaction speed
Improved internal organs
Hyper eyes
Locable joints
Extended brain - Enhanced coordination
Built-in coilgun
Extended brain - Enhanced multitasking
Major Technologies:
True fusion of biological and mechanical technology
Test subjects expired: 43
wait, I'm confused. The description says I finished improved reaciton time, but the secret tech says I am still in progress.
continue working on swarm soul. Include our previously debugged interbrain communications system once we have the soul working.
Work on expanded materials for construction.
Nothing to be confused about. Description is always right. I simply forgot to update public notes.
Testing produces apparently functional nanite brains. You can't tell how correct they are, but when three previously botted brains are soaked in nanite bath, resulting bloody mess cleared and new nanite brain reintroduced back into the testing nanite body, it seems to perform and function just like before. Subjects do complain about the uncomfortable feeling when their brains were being
decoded by nanites. You ignore their complaints, they always have something to whine about.
You start working with expanded materials project, but somehow end up drawing plans for making sculptures with nanites. A special function where nanites take object apart and build another, different object from those materials. A factory swarm, if you were to call it as such. In theory they could break material into microscopic building block shapes which they can use to build another structure as instructed. It could be nice to break random objects on the field and reconstruct them as something more useful.
Research in progress:
Nanobots: Factory swarm
To be researched:
Nanobot production: Extended raw materials
Brain in a jar II
Swarm bots
Hunter drones
Psionic powers
Kinetic shielding
Camouflage
Railguns
Lasers
Armor
Distributed neural networks
Large scale modularity
Body reconstruction and restoration
Research done:
Nerve interface
Brain in a jar
Meshanite
Myomers
Highly volatile fuel
Robotic body
Multibrain control systems
Corrosion resistance
CF launcher
Improved spatial recognition
Variant pulse detonation engine
Improved reaction time
Swarm soul
Major Technologies:
Nanomachines
Self construction
Self destruction
Electric manipulation
Kinetic shielding
Structural support
Gray Goo Limited EditionTM
Corrosion resistance
Confundium Harmonizer
Test subjects expired: 37
Automatic Research
The idea about carbon nanotubes, calcium carbonite tiles and funky proteins turns into reality. Test plate is strong and light. You can bend it a bit before it just stops bending. Shattered plate is probably very dangerous to breath, especially if it turns into very fine dust. It shouldn't, however, those proteins are very clingy.
Oh hey! Brutus, my boy, he's fully generated now. And heavy as collective sins of mad scientists.
Today's test with Chimera upgrades its grade from C- to C. It's agility and balance is better, but other measurable properties have apparently plateaued.
Research in progress:
To be researched:
Research done:
Targeted hyper cancer
Inline DNA manipulation
Artificial Siamese Twins
Monster maker
Rapid healing
Extra bodypart attachments
Panacea - Immune system replacer
New nerve pathways
DNA: Codename Tarantula
DNA: Codename Brutus
DNA: Codename Chimera
Nutrient slurry generator
Magnetoreception
Post-implantation adaptation
IR detection
Weaponized neurotoxin
Body armor material
Major Technologies:
CELL MANIPULATION AND LARGE SYSTEMS DESIGN
Test subjects expired: 47
Yay for getting things done! Should probably not get used to it.
I would assume that, going forward, everything added onto the body is reflected in the production line. Such as the SPU being constructed and installed in the cranial cavity, or the dragonskin and various sensors I have yet to add to it.Give Build Team #2 a therapeutic kick in the behind and tell them to get their project done. If I have to step in and do it myself I may just have to find a use for the test subject holding cells. I only tolerate incompetence while it still brings results.Daily research #1: Finalize the design of the bionic brain, molded to its little armored chamber. It's basically in a second skull inside the ribcage, protected by as many layers of armor as possible. Be sure to include sufficient EMP hardening, the technology already exists and it's not rocket science.
I expect that after this tech is complete and the SI training is done, there is nothing else to hold up brain construction.Daily research #2: Sensor suite. This is a large project with lots of parts, but all the parts are doing the same thing: miniaturization. Every bit of hardware we have has to be reduced in size. There are some specific details.
- Optics, IR/UV: the body has 2 primary "eyes", each consisting of a
cluster of wide-angle lenses. The body is also dotted with small, lower-resolution, at most 5mm across "selfie-camera" sensors, in strategic locations. Several on the back of the head, some along the spine and tail, some along the limbs and faux-wings, etc. Basically the whole system together allows for true 360-degree vision with no blind spots, but there are still the 2 primary eyes for the brain to focus on, that have the best resolution and optics.
- Sound: Your typical high- and low-gain microphones, again distributed throughout the body, with two primary ones on the head. Consider designing myomer "ears" to allow directional hearing.
- Thermal, vibration, pressure - distributed in tiny nodes throughout the skin underlay and internal systems, to monitor the state of the body.
- Radar, passive/active: The crest on the back of the head is probably the best place to put an extensible antenna for passive radar. Active radar will have to be externally mounted. Perhaps coupled with that autocannon we have?
The soldier's past memories and experiences have probably all been absorbed into the consciousness by now. Have the soldier be a bit more active from now on, keeping to the confines of the building so as to stay connected. Get him to play realistic strategic/tactical videogames, so that he and the consciousness can improve their understanding of strategy and tactics.And take a look at those hyperalloy results. If they're not "good" results, what are they?
Semi-in-character list of "things to be done before the project has to go into testing":
Mandatory:
- Brain. To brain things. Consciousness included.
-
Synth-skin, outer layer of "natural" protection. "Dragonskin"?- Sensor suite: Optics, sound, contact/tremor, IR/UV, ultrasound, passive radar, active radar - in order of decreasing importance.
Optional, in order of decreasing importance:
- Training with body, and any optional equipment.
- Armaments, ranged:
Heavy autocannon, small arms.
- External armoring: superalloy half-plate barding?
- Armaments, melee: Sword? (Hyperalloy preferred)
- Apparel: Military combat gear redesigned for different body.
Yup, production line takes a bit longer to finish with additions. Maybe a day or two. Of course you could do it in five hours, but you can't expect equal performance from less gifted humans.
Literal kick helps team two focus on the guns and finish them today.
While you can grow synth-brains all you want, adapting their structure for specific mind during growth and afterwards is something that still takes time to solve. Using the catalyst method and precisely aimed vibrations from at least three direction seems to the key to modify metal threads inside the crystal. Finding optimal frequencies is still work in progress.
Optics are logical start point for sensory suite. The primary eyes in particular. For IR detection, do you want someting like night vision or more of thermography? By the way, those eyes are seriously cool.
Soldiers keeps soldiering his stuff.
Eh, nothing special about hyperalloy. I was only makeing a note how you went and assumed success automatically.
Well, layering superalloy with carbon nanotubes makes it stronger and reduces weight. It also lowers its plasticity a lot, so it shatters pretty quickly as you go over its tolerance.
Research in progress:
! Synthetic Intelligence training
Bionic brain
Sensor suite
Outsourced work:
Sidearms - assistants
Full A/RT-ACCS production line - assistants
Carbon nanotube growth - simulation
Research to do:
Superalloy weakness
Hyperalloy mass production
Research completed:
Structural skeleton
Myomers
Muscle layout
Cooling
Molecular simulation
High capacity fuel cell
Wear protection
Knowledge Database
Man Machine Interface
Non-Newtonian Kinetic Protection
MMI-computer control
Customized Personal Supercomputer
Consciousness Simulation Engine
Main gun
Synth-dragonskin
Hyperalloy
Synth-Machine-Interface
Secondary Processing Unit
Other victims: 1
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Topic: Roll to create a supersoldier! Bloody air resistance (Read 139642 times)