2 days until deadline.Go in for repairs and to get the stolen stuff made and hooked up us...
ooh why not get that cool flying mobility stuff kade like in that anime where they kill the giant nude men?! We're a robot. A giant robot. That just means it has to be bigger. Like giant nude man sized. You're an idiot. Who knows it's the scientists' job to figure out. Finnneeeee, don't expect anything.
Also your assumption was right.
Home lab has changed since you last time saw it. Little burned, holes in walls and floors. The memory stick is happily taken by one of those skeletal bodies your builder loves to use, sticks it right in some hidden USB port inside, and five minutes later a gray blob oozes from holes and covers you entirely, getting inside your body and does something. Feels unpleasant. But in the end you get upgraded. A little. Monoatomic arm blades? Cool.
Send 10 nanites each to various gas giant moons and dwarf planets. 100% replication for first 2 days then 50/50 replication and computronium
Build a airlock system in the wormhole room. Send 30/30 percent Earth nanites equally between Luna and Mars. Remaining nanites replicate and help fix and upgrade the super-soldier
Luna/Mars Nanites focus 100% on replicating
Mercury Nanites 100% replicate
Fix and upgrade super-soldier with stolen technology, include countermeasures for dazzleball and other basilisk hacks
Priority 1: Grand Unified Theory of Everything
Priority 2: Free Energy (this isn't listed on research in progress?)
Priority 3: All-Condition Technology: Toughen up my QE comms and nanites so they can go all the places. Preferably stars as well for eventual stellar conversion, but that's lower priority
Priority 4: Forcefields: Yay, science-fiction gadget! Maybe I could get it to Culture Effector level? Probably not
You know what? You only the second most overpowered character in this game.
Airlock built and nanites sent.
Grand Unified Theory of Everything done! You don't know everything, but you know how to explain everything and how to simulate everything. That 0.1 thick thing around universe? It's a god. Probably. Something which interacts with all complex structures, such as brains. With proper guidance and hints it can alter laws of physics anywhere anytime. So yeah, might as well make use of that for your tech. Make a god work for you. Brillaint idea. Dunno how long you could abuse it before it decides to smite you out of existance.
Free unlimited energy! Straight from god's heart! Abuse it until it kicks your ass!
All condition technology! Easy peasy. Build a three cubic meters big block with atomic level structure abusing god and turning conditions within given area into your liking.
Forcefields! Tell the god to stop things moving! Easy!
This leaves just barely enough time to operate with your soldier. Let's see, simple all condition terrain adaptable electromagnetic camo. Useless. Drones projecting holographs? Useless. Half decent battery? Useless. Dazzleball? Eh, highly hypnotic lightshow on 390-700 nm range using holographic projection. Easy to counteract. Coilgun? Useless. Shock absorbing lining? Hmm, may have some uses, but probably useless. Grafting technology directly into biological systems, total fusion? Interesting, but useless. Various products of such technology, all useless. Except those interacting with brain. Hmm, nah, your quantum brain is better anyway. Monoatomic katana? Literally five atoms thick. Cracks easily if used improperly. Easily rebuilt. Hmm, your soldier doesn't have any proper close range weapons. Might as well give him one. Blade generation system integrated directly on his forearms meaning he can swing his arms at anytime and cut shit.
That was mostly garbage, as you predicted long time ago. Nothing here compares to you. You wonder why the Company didn't simply hire you right from the beginning. Maybe these apes are just so blind they cannot discern diamonds from trash. Well, it ain't your problem anymore. Only a little more and you can ditch this planet and ascend greater heights.
Singularity Tech
Computronium
Grey-Goo
Wormholes
Mega-Scale Space Engineering
Fusion Power - theory
Nuclear transmutation - theory
Mega-Scale Space Engineering
Grand Unified Theory of Everything
Free Energy
All condition technology
Forcefields
Research in progress:
Grand Unified Theory of Everything
Free energy
To be researched:
Research done:
Armored exoskeleton structure
Artificial muscles (electricity driven cells)
Digital brain copy
Particle Beam II
Miniature fission reactor II
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
Meshanblov Collective II
Cyber-Security
Quantum Entanglement Communication
Invisibility
Supermaterial Armouring
Advanced Sensors/Senses
Fast Body
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
Heat application: Thermovoltaics
Finalized Super-Soldier Design
Stolen garbage:
Meshanite
Meshanite production line
Myomers
High capacity fuel cell
Test subjects expired: 32
Total brainpower of Meshanblov Collective: 30 Bloody singularity. Just take what you want.
Let the training get on track.
Unspecified training goes on. Using MMI levels up some unspecific advanced level, but reaction time training results nothing.
Create system where slaved brains can maintain control of their original bodies. Immediately begin to stick these in the heads of as many test subjects as possible, and have soldier practice controlling them.
The exosuit has the hardpoints installed, yes? One machinegun, one grenade launcher. Make EMP grenades for use with the launcher.
Make sure that I have lots of generic military equipment to give to mindless slavebrain bodies.
See if, when a slaved brain is exposed to eldritch ocean, the effect flows back to the master brain, and if so, give the slavebrain bodies the same metal skull treatment.
Test if Eldritch Ocean still has the enhanced range I saw earlier. Test if Calm Ocean also benefits from the same range.
Make the soldier train constantly, do not let him leave the lab. Do all of this for five days straight, get ample supply of caffeine, and don't sleep.
Remember above action, repeat until deadline. Shotgun as much as possible.
Slaved brains in their brain cases receive a neuron reader block on their brain stem, which requires some modifications on braincase technology to accommodate increased size. Brainless bodies receive its counterpart which is installed into now empty skull. It's connected to to pack of nerves entering into spinal column. Rather simple systems which requires keeping bodies alive long enough for implementing it.
For master brain it is like thinking about moving bodies and they all respond. After all the system relays commands to all slaved brains to execute, so it very hard to make individual body move. But hey, it works!
EMP grenade done.
If the brain case is not shielded, then the effect bleeds but not in insanity causing manner. From such close range it causes flood of mental cacophony, making focusing near impossible. And slaved brains break free from their reduced state and go totally batshit crazy. You had to put them down and replace with new brains. After shielding the braincases effect disappears, but remotely controlled bodies jitter and twitch. Probably because there's neurons and long axons in spinal column. Insulating that with shielding is harder, even for you. Maybe even impractical considering how many holes you would have to make into shielding metal coat. Magnetic field lines will form through those openings unimpended and cause their effects.
Terrorizer range is still the same. Not sure if that really counts as extended. It may have been that long from the very beginning.
Training him goes relatively well. He's now pretty good with that MMI.
But since building all that stuff took only two days, it means today's progress roll is saved. Making him train doesn't really count.
Research in progress:
To be researched:
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
Miniature fission reactor
Terrorizer shielding
Exoskeleton
Slave brain array body remote control
EMP grenades
Test subjects expired: 80 (100)
Other victims: 35
Get along well with myself. Practice and stuff.
And yeah I'll be good to murder everything in sight.
Master chef, master multitasker and advanced willpower levels reached. Whatever good they may do for you. Getting hang on mindreading too. Did you know these lab assistants receive their wages mostly from Microsoft, Google and Facebook? And guards from few different underground mercenary companies. One even used to work as an assassin. Actually you have known that all along, being one of them. Like every other volunteering soldier.
OPERATION: ALL-SEEING EYE
Step Nineteen, cont'd: sweet! Let's see how many EPs we can print in a day. And whether they're connected to the hive mind! Luckily WHW-ASE lets them do telepathy, so there's several design issues we've circumvented already!
Step Twenty-Two: if I finish at least one sphere, see if it is subject to the same issues with maximum volume that inhibited the fleshy EP! Not needing a physiology to support might be pretty useful in that sense.
On the very last stretch of completing the 3d model you hit a proverbial wall. In particular WHW-B part seems distressingly hard to convert into metallic form. So close! And so little time! It's time to start considering about pulling an all-nighter...
And wasn't WHW-ASE all about reading?
Research in progress:
The Great Journey
To be researched:
Advanced multitasking
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
WHW-ASE
Memory wipe
Major Technologies:
NERVOUS SYSTEM DESIGN AND UNDERSTANDING
Test subjects expired: 35
Other victims: 8
Volunteers killed: 1
I'm here for the murdering
Be on standby in case my scientist needs me.
Seems busy fixing your BFG.
repair sensors, build another railgun, hopefully realizing what made it explode and fixing it, fix the fact the the locks won't unlock, fix the jump-jet over heating.
Sensor suite fixed. Discovering problem with railgun and rebuilding it takes whole two days. The reason for failure was a microdamage buildup on rails, which caused them deform and trap accelerating metal slug inside the gun, which in turn tore it into pieces. That problem shouldn't exist anymore.
Research in progress:
Fix jointlocks
Fix jump-jet overheating
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
Advanced sensor suite
Test subjects expired: 6
Hurry, hurry, upgrade my ATHATH!
He's done alright.
And knowing you can watch all those adorable cat videos again fills you with determination. You power through that lightweight armor and produce a fabric that most certainly will become next defacto industry standard. A bit complex to build, but complete one full suit. Coupled with already hardened skin of your soldier this should make him fully bullet proof against conventional small arms. Artillery shell fired at close range will still make a mess.
Full enviromental protection is next task to undertake. Gasous chemical weapons areprobably easiest to protect against. Some modifications on skin to make it inert and impenetrable is done fast. Preventing subject from breathing harmful gasses requires a filter integrated over nose and mouth, rendering subject effectively mute. It also should prevent most biological weapons affecting, though some may work their way through other ways. You'll address those later. Next focus is acid substances. Unreactive cover over skin is hard to archieve, especially via biologically repairable ways, but you'll think something. Eventually.
Research in progress:
Full enviromental protection
To be researched:
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
Stealthsuit non-visual camouflage
Extended brain - Enhanced visual cortex
Monoatomic katana
Lightweight armor
Major Technologies:
True fusion of biological and mechanical technology
Test subjects expired: 45
politely decline extraneous communication via swarm soul with ozarck, stating that individuality has its benefits (including what will soon be revenge!). Otherwise confirming in and ready for augmentation.
Revenge?
A big blob of gray goo wooshes over you, converting your brain into a nanomachine brain, replacing your fleshy body with nanite mass capable of reforming in various shapes, giving you a plethora of psionic powers and making you simply better.
I'm giddy. I'll go ahead and do two things to start.
First, I'll become the Unified Swarm Soul.
Second, I'll create a modified swarm soul for the soldier - one that is non-self replicating.
I will then convert him into that modified swarm soul, granting him access to all robotic tech, as well as the lasers, railguns, improved spatial awareness and improved reaction time, the corrosion resistance, multibrain control system, subject bots, and any and all human brains he wishes to use as slave systems for operating things like swarm bots, hunter killers, targeting systems, remote reconnaisance, and so forth. He'll get a set of portable Annie plants as well. Oh, and the psionic talents. He'll get each of those as I design them.
About the only things I am not granting him are the reality breaking things - self replication, access to matter annihilation tech (he gets the plants, but not the concepts), unrestricted grav manipulation, etc. Of course, I will extend an invite for him to become a secondary citizen of the swarm soul, so that we can communicate freely. This invitation will be eventually extended to others as well. I'll probably make an open invitation for the other scientists at some point.
Then we'll research psionic arts for:
gravity manipulation, electromagnetism, teleportation, small matter to energy conversion (enough for decent sized explosions, but not enough to threaten a city's population with. Say, enough to destroy a standard tank.)
let's install some communications equipment into the space egg, so I can keep in ... you know what? Never mind.
Let's research faster than light communications. Something like quantum entanglement devices should do the trick.
Oh, and research body reconstruction, including neural reconstruction. Should be easy, even were I but a single mind, at this point.
finally, anything left in my to do column should be done, if possible, at this point.
Soul of swarm is born. And oh, boys aren't you fast worker. In a single god damn day you can do work of half to one year! Soooo OP! Think about everything you have reached in one and half month plus what Meshanblov has done. Now you can do all that in a day. I'm gonna stop rolling for you. You get whatever you want at this point. That alse includes construction in your case. Plus whatever prerequisites those may have.
You are just a big blob of gray goo extending its gray tendrils deep underground. Your probably won't even fully fit inside your spaceship. Even Santa Claus won't want you.
Right, so your soldier is just walking weapon of mass destruction. Got it. Done. Bu why he needs a railgun? Your CH launcher is much better.
Yeh, everything done. What was that Large scale modularity about? I don't remember.
Project Ascension:
Annie plant
Confundium Control Unit
Spaceship
Unified Swarm Soul
Research in progress:
Psionic powers
To be researched:
Research done:
Nerve interface
Brain in a jar II
Meshanite
Myomers
Highly volatile fuel
Robotic body
Multibrain control systems
Corrosion resistance
CF launcher
Improved spatial recognition
Variant pulse detonation engine
Improved reaction time
Nanobot production: Extended raw materials
Direct matter to energy converter
Railguns
Swarm bots
Hunter drones
Psionic powers: Detect minds
Psionic powers: Alter perceptions
Electromagnetic control
Gravity manipulation
Teleportation
Lasers
Advanced armor materials
Psionic powers: Gravity manipulation
Psionic powers: Electromagnetism
Psionic powers: Teleportation
Psionic powers: Matter to energy conversion
Quantum Entanglement Communications
Body reconstruction
Neural reconstruction
Distributed neural networks
Large scale modularity
Major Technologies:
Nanomachines
Self construction
Self destruction
Electric manipulation
Kinetic shielding
Structural support
Gray Goo Limited EditionTM
Corrosion resistance
Swarm soul
Factory swarm
Camouflage
Confundium Harmonizer
Test subjects expired: 49
Soul of Swarm:
Goddamn right I'm a good super-soldier. Keep training, or whatever else penguinofhonor needs me to do. And I'm ready to start dying attempting to kill the others when that day comes
She's daydreaming. What does scientist with penchant for flesh horrors dream about, you have no idea nor you are sure if you even want to know. Getting better with body and various extra senses.
Automatic research
While daydreaming about fleshy hellscape you get barely anything done. Monster maker should now cause scales, teeth and claws generate properly.
Research in progress:
Monster maker II
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
Brain targeting neurotoxin
Tarantula armor suit
Combat body first aid injections
Major Technologies:
CELL MANIPULATION AND LARGE SYSTEMS DESIGN
Test subjects expired: 48
Other victims: 3
I'm just getting all the good rolls lately, aren't I. I am beginning to fear some kind of sudden unspecified catastrophic event is about to happen. Not even necessarily in the game.
Well that's just wonderful.
Put those brains into them bodies! I can't make any more changes to the design even if I would like to, so start the production line up. With the remaining 3 days, getting 24 complete soldiers a day before the deadline is plenty more than I expected.
Put assistants to work crafting SAM-bows (and their arrows) and getting swords made. That plasma arc cutter is going to have the work cut out for it. Heh.
Requisition a set of hydrographics equipment the size of a small pool, from the Company. Fit to dunk an entire A/RT-ACCS unit in at once. If we're having different environments, we'll also need different camo patterns, and airbrushing them onto an organic, scale-covered bodyshape is going to be an epic pain. Hydrographics can solve that for us.
Question: Is the armor included in the production line? I bet it's not. If it's not, set up production for it and get it cranking. It's not technically critical, but it'd be nice to have at least a dozen sets.
Daily Research #1 or 2 depending on the above: Custom Ammo. We have the regular 20mm and 30mm ammo for our guns, but we do have some tech that could enhance it. Primarily, we could replace steel cores in armor-piercing ammunition, with superalloy, which is harder than steel, and will thus work better against armor. But we need to do more. We may find ourselves facing "super" armor, much like our own superalloy.
There's an idea floating in me head. Its name is HATAK Penetrators. Hyper-Alloy, Trans-Armor Kinetic Penetrators.
A HATAK Penetrator is two sharp, pointy sheets of hyperalloy, intersecting one another via slits (like you'd see in a cardboard model of some kind), embedded in a heavy but soft lead filler for better impact mass, and fully jacketed in a superalloy shell. If impacting a super-hard armor, like for instance one made of superalloy made by someone who stole the research from me, the superalloy shell will squash, lead will liquefy, but the combined momentum and velocity will carry the hyperalloy penetrator through.
HATAK Penetrators can be devised for both the conventional ammo, and the SAM-Bow arrows. Look into that.
Semi-in-character list of "things to be done before the project has to go into testing":
Mandatory:
- Synth-brain, Synthetic Consciousness.
- Synth-skin | Dragonscale.
- Sensor suite: Optics, sound, temperature/contact/tremor, IR/UV, ultrasound, passive radar, active radar.
Optional, in order of decreasing importance:
- Training with body, and any optional equipment.
- Armaments, ranged: Autocannon Turret, small arms. Superalloy/myomer bow.
- ammo feeds/reload mechanisms
- custom ammo?
- External armoring: Superalloy half-plate barding
- Armaments, melee: Hyperalloy replacements for teeth and claws; Hyperalloy broadsword.
- Apparel: Military combat gear redesigned for different body.
((...I'm actually running out of items on the list. What the.))
Gotta love when everything comes together on the last possible moment, right?
It takes some time to install 24 synthbrains into their assigned cavity and booting them up from preferred position. Arteyu #1 gives them a progress update while they confirm everything works as intented.
Assistants crafting bows. The SAM-bow isn't easy to make and hypersword even less so, so by dividing their effort optimally they can build 1 of each every day.
Hydrographics set will arrive on tomorrow morning.
No, armor isn't part of production line. Setting it up takes more of your time. Can't have Atreyu's assisting in building it just yet.
Custom ammo and HATAK falls under same study basically. SA core bullets are fairly simple in design and build, but building what is required to produce enough of those for all A/RT-ACCS' takes rest of your day. The test types you manually build perform fairly well on close range, but their effectiveness drops faster than normal bullets. Since SA is much lighter than steel, the initial speed boost is soon overcome by air resistance.
Atreyu informs you in his usual stealthy way that he finished the concealment grenade design after letting simulation run few heavy calculations for him. Details are found on your computer.
Research in progress:
Outsourced work:
Research to do:
Superalloy weakness
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
Sidearms
Bionic brain
Sensor suite
Full A/RT-ACCS production line
Synthetic Intelligence training
Myomer/superalloy compound bow
Carbon nanotube growth
Propagated brain growth and learning
Hyperalloy mass production
Hyperalloy broadsword
Outer Armor and Defense Improvements
Weapons ammo feed
Total Opaque Concealment grenade
Other victims: 1