THE DREAM TANKThere is a bloody devotion to the Astral. Every day, Aratam generals consider it just as heavily in their plans and battles to be as important as their guns and battle-tanks. The BEO has long pushed us to put more boots on the ground, so to speak. It’s about time we answered that call.The Dream Tank is the result of a negotiation between the BEO and the Aratam Design Bureau.
The Dream Tank acts as second-level access, a Mirror into the Astral Realm, but it is safer, more reliable, and far faster than the previous method for the Systemic Elimination of the Entropic Mind (Long period of isolation, than a long period of astral exposure). The isolation period before someone can be introduced to the Dream Tank is reduced to a single day, mostly for the body's adjustment to the extreme forces at work than anything else
Once a candidate is ready, they are exposed to a/the Dream Sphere. The Dream Sphere was directly inspired by the various components salvaged from the Cult of Abbadon. The machination consists of an incredibly active Astral Presence or consciousness that was “hand” tooled into existence. While technically not a human, it is built to mimic that spark as closely as possible, as that is all we have familiarity with from the Astral. This consciousness perfectly nullifies the massive pull that all being have on that realm and replaces it with a gentler, easier “wind” that merely thrashes all beings present in mostly predictable directions. The main reason we lost so many subjects was that they did not have the enduring personality to survive the pull in its full force at first, and their consciousness would be jarred off their body and lost. With the Dream Sphere and the critical mass of “retired” Astral personnel that can now act in advisory roles, we can in effect, “guide” new persons into the astral without any issue, slowly acclimating them to the realm of dreams and conscious presence.
The installation of a DreamSphere requires Cryostat Equipment to be grouped into 36 units on two levels around a Dream Sphere, with each installation able to handle the exposure of all individuals present to the Astral. All or most staff must be in some form astrally active as even an inactive Dream Sphere generates extreme reality turbulence that can be dangerous to sleepers.
The Dream tank is a modification to the SEEM Process by introducing the Dream Sphere, a semi-mechanical method of reducing casualty rate for SEEM, or perhaps allowing a wider candidate pool.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56bb9a78c2ea51d09c4949ab/t/5ac291ccaa4a99763c315498/1523646935843/?format=1500wAn inactive Dream Sphere under maintenance, care is to be made sure that non-astrally sensitive personnel does not directly witness an exposed Dream Core without proper clearance.https://www.deviantart.com/meckanicalmind/art/FUSE-Cryo-Stasis-375998833The Mark four Cryostatic Restoration pod, ready to be installed around a Dream Sphere or in the private library of a necrocrat.https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56bb9a78c2ea51d09c4949ab/t/5ac292121ae6cf6442f0dcc3/1523646935850/finnian-macmanus-14-biolab-fmac.jpg?format=1500wA technician observing the status of an active Dream Core under inv--thrugh.
Reality stress yellow alert, wash all hands before exposureDIKTAT OF ASTRAL KOMMUNICATION KORPS OF ARATAM (DAKKA)The Diktat of Astral Kommunications is an individual with the ability to use the technique of communication, able to send a sentence to the astrally aware, a whisper to someone who is not, and have a conversation with another Diktat. Diktat communications can be intiated from large distances with the caveat that it requires a connection between two individuals at least somewhat familiar with each other's astral signature. This is an alteration of the Blackwell technique. Its basis is that it fires off a bolt of reality across the astral dimension to invariable strike a person that matches its tuned resonance, ie it has a specific target in mind that is created by the user. This reality bolt then restructures itself into a form as desired by the caster. This method is not weaponizable in its default form, as it interacts with the astral “part” of the brain rather than the meat-ware, which is much more adept at turning astral energies into conscious thoughts. Those who are more aware perceive more of the message, which allows a Diktat to theoretically send a message to anyone, though a Diktat will understand most, or all of the message and send messages back.
BLINKBlink is a subset of the FURY pharma augmentative serums. With a rather small augmentative period, an individual's neural structure can be adjusted to handle the BLINK chemical concoction, with a relatively light profile compared to GoldenEye or RAGE serums, so much so that cross-compatibility to the RAGE pharmaceuticals should be almost certain, as well as the possibility of the SPICE lineage.
BLINK is designed to be utilized as a stimulant, but with a far more intensive effect without causing overdoses. It allows the human brain to receive and process information dramatically faster than the norm. This is done through the same process that increases the reaction time of RAGE imbued personnel, by allowing for faster memetic transfer times (defined roughly as the time it takes for the sensory organs and slash or the brain requires to send an idea or concept to the astral persona, or vice versa.) between the meat-ware and the astral persona of the individual in question. At no point is an awakening required for the pharmaceutical to function. This is an incredibly complex internal system, and BLINK merely acts as the equivalent to a lubricant for an engine: It makes it go faster.
Several experiments have determined a proper drug regimen for safe and effective use of BLINK. Overdose can have some incredibly perverse side effects as the low-profile augmentations applied in the first place are not designed to handle constant or high-level neural acceleration.
One of the most terrifying possible side effects (and is the most common effect in overdoses.) occurs when the memetic transfer time reaches the Ensorcel Super-Limination point, where the conscious processing of information rapidly over steps inherent limits of the human psyche, a transcendence for the quixotic. Conscious thinking reaches a 1:100 to 1:1.89*10^14 ratio, where one second of the home-line standard results in an equivalent amount of “seconds” for the subject to experience. A human mind is not designed to handle three million years of consciousness, much less three million years of consciousness staring at a wall, and such strenuous activity can cause anything from psychosis, drastic personality changes, seizures.
We have reason to believe that at least one subject stopped existing in our records as well as all conscious memory of those involved because of or in relation to BLINK development. The only reason that such an event was noticed at all was because of BEO audit had dropped off an infraction notice summarizing as such. The official stance from the BEO is to, quote “Don't do that” when thinking about using BLINK to purposely reach the Ensorcel Super-Lamination point.
BLINK may have non-military uses, as scheduled use allows personnel to think, for the lack of a better term, more often than an equivalent base-line. This also comes without incredibly taxing cryo-stat time n compared to more extreme augmentations.