[RP] Turn 5, 1312 Kowloon

[Cannonshop]

Inside...

In the main room, there was, as promised, food, along with an old holostage, and decor more suited to a hunting lodge.  Amanda led them past this, and into another large room, this one lit by artificial lighting from the walls and ceiling.


The body of Eremiel Artemev lay dissected on a stainless steel table, and a single woman in her mid-thirties stood beside it.

"This is my senior scientific advisor, Sophie Cham, she conducted the autopsy of the enemy commander."  Amanda said.

The red-haired woman dipped a short curtsey, in silence, then, she began making gestures.

A voice-synthesized, came from....somwhere in her vicinity.

"We have discovered several things in the postmortem examination of 'admiral' Eremiel Artemeiv of note-the most important being, we were lucky to recover the body intact, with as few marine deaths as we did.  the extent of the cybernetic alterations is quite interesting from a scientific and psychological point of view-scientific, in that the technology used is quite advanced, psychological, in that I am now certain that this was in its entirety, elective surgical alteration in nature-there are no indices of either defective genetics, or crippling pre-conditions.  she is quite dead, and the systems have been carefully segregated-I also removed the explosive charges she had before bringing the rest of the interesting evidence here for display."

Sophie stopped gesturing for a moment, and studied her audience.  "Nope, no scientific or medical professionals, I will keep this to layman's terms-the enemy uses extensive cybernetic augmentation, this augmentation is not experimental-at least, not for them, it is deep and it is advanced.  THIS subject's body was equipped with reinforcements to the skeletal structure, including trauma-plates over vital areas, a mechanism to accumulate, sort, and disperse Pheremones-that is, natural chemicals that all warm-blooded animals use to influence each other's behaviour, in high concentrations, she was given supplementary implants to her brain, including what amounts to a sort of mental-process-accellerator, circuitry obviously intended to be used to translate data directly from artifical sources to something directly interpreted by the brain and back again, a transciever system designed to link into warship communications, sensors, and other control systems, and several items I have yet to properly identify.  The lungs were modified with a filter for toxins-this may indicate where or in what conditions she has been living.  Based on interviews with surviving enemy personnel, the 'Admiral' had built quite the cult to herself with these modifications, and used them to communicate and coordinate with other ship's commanders, and with senior shipboard personnel.  Samples of the devices are on the tables to the left, and right, I've been able to isolate a few of the operating frequencies, but without a live subject, I can only theorize possible means of jamming based on materials composition, wavelength, and know physics of the electromagnetic spectrum-the development of a means to remotely interfere with technology LIKE this will take time, I can tell this much currently-Microwave and Electromagnetic Spectrum bursts in the right wavelengths may be useful for pre-detonating suicide charges which, if the Admiral is any indication, are likely to be installed in enemy officers of similar rank-the difficulty, of course, is determining the correct spectra to use, and developing a reliable means of rapid delivery.  Likewise for the direct-neural interfaces, This subject's installed hardware included what appear to be buffering systems-what you can call 'fuses', which may block an overload signal if it is not properly devised and delivered."

"What are you describing?" Amanda asked-this part almost felt rehearsed.

"I am saying that the advantages the enemy is seeking with Cybernetics, may be able to be converted into disadvantages-technology often carries the seeds of its own counter...of course, to develop a rapid-counter to this, or to find the correct frequency and modulation to listen into their 'thoughts', as well as effective technology to translate it into something of use to a battlefield commander, is going to require extensive study of a live enemy subject-preferably more than one-equipped with such systems.  There is no point in trying to replicate the tech, no matter how faithful a replication, the enemy has a massive advantage in terms of understanding and development, but we MIGHT be able to develop means of fouling it up in battle-at least once, maybe repeatedly, depending on how secure they feel their advantages are.  I can probably come up with a few possible test articles, but taking such test devices into the field, finding the enemy, using it, and having it work-is going to be very high risk.  Cryptoanalysis of enemy databases captured on the Leviathan II is still going on-it would help if we had some means to discern which hardware came on it stock, and which hardware the enemy installed, as well as any back-doors built into the stock hardware that might be of use in slicing the datacryption and compartmentalization of systems.  So far, OSS and Coast Guard analysts are having to wade through a jumble of different, sometimes conflicting, data structures.  Informatio so far indicates that the enemy's task-force passed through at least one heavily inhabited and patrolled system without being detected-including concealing the jump signatures of a ship the size of a Leviathan II, and signatures of several other capital warships, but hardware analysis, where we have been ABLE to correctly analyze it, does not indicate HOW they managed this, only that, according to course-data from the nav-beacon, they DID...but Cryptoanalysis has only analyzed around four to four point five percent of the data we KNOW is there, due to the way in which the enemy has stored and encrypted it."

Sophie tapped the open skull and revealed brain of the enemy admiral, "Personally, " she signed, "I think, if there IS data we can use, it is still in the white-matter portions of this brain-or stored in some of the modules I have yet to finish analyzing.  the danger is, if it is sufficiently black-boxed, any normal approach to cracking what is in those modules is going to destroy the data they contain..." she stopped, looking pensive, then signed something that made Amanda turn white, before the system translated it...

"Central processor from something like a Caspar, maybe, or a disposeable brain with similar RNA and DNA structure-something we can incinerate if it starts going rogue.  What I have found so far, could advance computing a couple steps beyond anything short of what they had at NIOPS...at least, according to some rumours, but it is damned dangerous tech.  These guys were and are trying to go beyond human intelligence, if they have succeeded, we're in for a rough time."

[Dave Baughman]

Victor shook his head in apparent dismay at the scene. There but for the grace of God, he thought, goes Arthur.

"If the Word of Blake," he said quietly, "had spent half the resources they dedicated to making this woman what she was to genuine medical applications of this technology, they would be remembered very differently, I think."

Contemplating for a moment some of the things that Arthur had told him about his time with the Word he added, "I share your concern with where some of this technology is going. If the Word of Blake is resurfacing after all of these years, it must be for a reason... and I can't think of any that would be good for the Star League."

"I assume part of why you are showing us this is to seek our aid; I'm sure the resources of the New Avalon Institute of Science could be put to good use decoding this woman's secrets. However, I have to ask: you alluded to conducting tests on live POWs. What exactly are you proposing?"

[Cannonshop]

Sophie looked at the Marshall, then at Amanda, and sat down.

"No." Amanda Ngo said, "not on live POW's, Marshall.  Not only would that violate every moral concept my people stand for, it would also alienate every possible ally we could hope to gain...but..."

"Tell them." Amanda said, shaping the words explicitly at the scientist.

Sophie sighed, and pulled up a PADD.

"Human testing would take too long, and is, as Her Grace put it, morally objectionable above and beyond it's lack of utility in terms of scientific work.  We need an Emulator-think of it as an artificial brain-or maybe something grown artificially, similar to the Chimeras developed for recombinant DNA work in the 21st through 24th centuries before that scientific endeavour fell out of favour.  An emulator would allow testing of some of the hardware we have under controlled circumstances with over-ninety-percent repeatablility of outcomes.  Human beings are far too diverse to provide the necessary repeatability of results to get real progress in finding ways to turn the enemy's technology against him, predict his next likely development in time to counter it, or even properly model how the enemy's hardware is SUPPOSED to work."  she looked up in a watchful way, seeking to see if anyone were speaking, before continuing.

"I do not have access to the kind of hardware we need-the last place in the INNER SPHERE that had hardware suitable to the task-that was not already likely under enemy control, was the NIOPS association-we have no way of knowing how much of THAT hardware, or the people who created and understood it best, has survived-issuing challenges for nonexisting devices is worthless, so the trial process as outsiders, is something that neither Kowloon, nor the rest of the Union can reliably pursue...but maybe another Clan could...or perhaps the Scientist Caste has some means we have not thought of that is neither morally reprehensible, nor technically infeasable."  she kept studying the faces, looking for words...understanding...something.

"Between what is needed in terms of finding the enemy's strongholds, and what is needed in breaking their modifications, is understanding-we understand, from interviews with hard-core enemy POW's, that cybernetically enhanced persons are, by their lights, 'ascended' beings.  this is a religious conflict.  The enemy has already abandoned all semblance of human morality in a quest to make themselves transcendent-the old term was 'Transhumanist Evolution'-it was a scientific fad about the same era that my ancestors were being worked to death in the Germanium Mines of the Sinai, and it shares no small amount of commonality with the twisted science of the Nazi Reich.  WE have committed to fight for HUMANITY, for what MAKES us Human, and what elevates man above the animals, and above his creations, and we need your help."

She gestured to the dissected body, "Get a good look, if you will-that is evil, on that table, and you saw what its only product is on the way here.  Every identifiable system installed on that corpse, was installed with an intent to dominate, control, to subvert free will and to make slaves...and it worked.  I have piles and piles of interviews of enemy POW's taken from their flagship.  The thinking and behaviour are all the same, even with persons whose records we were able to piece together whom should NOT have been vulnerable."

[Fatebringer]

Star Admiral Marius chuckled. "The biggest asset in a battle is suprise, however that affect is achieved, be it through technology, manipulation of expectations, or good old fashioned archaic stealth. When I heard your intentions for the Master of the Void, I was pleased to see the efforts being put into preventing further suprises." Keigan agreed with Marius and nodded to Amanda, "These projects of yours say a lot about how your people think Duchess. If you are successful, there will be less suprises for you, and more for the Terrans. This is a good thing. As far as creating an Emulator, we may able to assist there and in explaining how the Master of the Void was able to bypass a habited system, undetected. Not that I would know the specifics, but our Scientist Caste has been studying that topic for some time. Perhaps after these meetings are over, our people can share knowledge?"

[Cannonshop]

"That is the intent." Amanda said, "One of the main reasons we are here, and not at Spider moon, or Arluna, is that here is VERY difficult to monitor with listening devices."

[Dave Baughman]

Victor nodded, "I'm glad my concerns were exagerated; forgive me for fearing the worst, but after what they tried to do to your world... well, I suppose I can't say it better than you did. Somewhat to my discredit, the Institute has some practical experience with cloning. If you need assistance with your emulator program, I think we can arrange to provide it."

"I'm sorry my brother isn't here. I imagine he would have some very keen insights into the Blakists' intentions, if not their immediate objectives."

Victor paused for a moment before looking to Marius, "Star Admiral, I know in the past I have not exactly been a friend of the Dominion. I hope you won't let that get in the way of cooperating to do something about this threat."

[Cannonshop]

Sophie watched...and then, she tapped on an instrument tray insistently until Amanda turned.  she signed*.

Want to meet this Arthur, if he has first-hand... she signed.

Amanda shook her head, and signed back.  NO. Too dangerous, besides, news reports have him all the way across the sphere, and I will NOT authorize the travel chit for that.  she glowered.

If he knows something we can use, it is worth the risk. Sophie insisted.

"NO.  Ennn-OH, Sophie." Amanda repeated the sign while speaking.  "we need you here, besides, Lenny has transit-disorientation syndrome, she can't leave the system without getting sick, and I don't trust anyone else to put up with you, or handle your business on a long trip-especially into a War-zone."

Fine. I can take care of myself... the scientist signed back.

My decision, I'm your boss, and your Leige-Lord, AND it isn't like I have any class-19 intelligences laying around to replace you, especially with your insight.  I'll ask the Marshall if he can arrange a visit...if you INSIST, but I won't pay for transit that far into a war-zone, period...and if you think you can get Eddie to cover your back, We can't spare HIM, either-he's the nearest thing the South Granges have to a legal representative and I need him coordinating civil defense.

Fine...but ASK, please-a non-invasive examination of this 'arthur' person could answer a LOT of burning questions about some of this hardware, and if he's a former cultist, he might be really useful for helping to break down the indoctrination they're using. Sophie signed, with a heavy sigh.

"I'll ask, but that doesn't mean the Marshall can or will do it, nor that he will come." Amanda said-and signed.

Acceptable, milady. Sophie replied.

Amanda turned to Victor, "She wants to meet Arthur." she said, "I won't sign the travel voucher for that-he's on the Cappie/Free Worlds front, isn't he? but I told her I'd ask you if you can arrange a meeting..."



*characters familiar with common sign-language or 'Belter sign' suit-signing will understand this portion of the conversation, otherwise, it just looks...weird.

[Daemonknight]

Victor followed the hand motions, but was clueless to their intent. He found it slightly amusing actually. Even though he didn't understand what was being said, he could tell it was a matter of some urgency and interest to Sophie, and was equally upsetting and worrisome for the Duchess. When the question was asked, he was a bit suprised.

"You wish to meet Arthur? Hmm, well I personally don't see why it couldn't be arrainged. As you've said, he is somewhere along the FWL/Supremacy border, and I'm not exactly sure where either. He was originally leading a large force of ground forces on a liberation campaign against the Spirit Cats. Since their pullout however, he was lying in wait inside the Capellan borders. Luckily his forces moved out before the Sharks made their move.

"Once we have Arthur back someplace where a nice scientific conversation can be held, I'd be more than happy to arrange the meeting. However, there's currently no way to get you safely to him. You are more than welcome to accompany me and my guardians back to the Suns to facilitate meeting him. It would also give you a chance to bring the body to the NAIS, and look into some of your techniques you've been explaining to us. What do you think?"

[Cannonshop]

Sophie looked thoughtful, watching Victor's words, then, she glanced over at Amanda.

We'll discuss it...later. the Duchess of Kowloon signed.

I expect we will. Sophie signed back with a nod.

"I have copies of Dr. Cham's reports for each of you." Amanda said, "and we can continue this discussion...in the main house, unless you have objections?"