Forbidden Science of the Second Imperium
- Thread starter Michael Schulz
- Start date
They are there...
in the dark, forgotten places...
waiting...
A facility in orbit around a brown dwarf, sitting unnoticed between star systems, enough of it's brigades still viable if revived to be a force to be reckoned with within the subsector. Then, the flash of a jump arrival awakens the dormant management system.
I've done a 'verse set during the slow collapse of the Second Imperium, as it's unravelling after the banking crisis. This setting would be great to introduce all sorts of obscenities into. Genetic supersoldiers, modified humans like Bujold's Quaddies, old, abandoned Leyland-Futanari corporate research facilities, slightly flaky A.I. with a history of blue-on-blue incidents ...
I felt that this 'verse would have a slightly post-apocalyptic feel. I think Hard Times does something similar but I haven't read it. The idea was that you could find all sorts of relics squirreled away in old Imperial facilities that the guards just walked off after 6 months of not getting paid. Maybe the crew was just left there and never picked up.
Xerxeskingofking
SOC-13
one of the dirty little secrets of the Rule of Man was its biological warfare programs.
begun as weapons of last resort in the darkest days of the Interstellar Wars, and carried on thoughout the Confederation and the Rule of Man, shuffled form budget to budget, these programs reached a sophistication never seen before...or since.
one of the first offspring of this program were targeted viruses, that attacked only those of Vlani descent. these were then refined, first to where they could target specific castes or worlds, then to the point where individual families could be stuck with by a virus, released three weeks earlier in a crowded restaurant, that affected only them. it is rumoured that at least one battle in the interstellar wars was won because the vlani admiral was affected by a vague malaise that seemed to slow their thoughts and deaden their reactions.
Once the interstellar wars ended, the terrans had access to the produce of thousands of worlds, and this, coupled with the advanced bio-sciences that he Vlani had lacked, led to an explosion of chemical, pharmaceutical and genetic treatments that achieved feats that stagger the minds of modern science.
terran mastery of genetics was such that they were able to create virus that could overwrite a persons genetic codes, allowing them to re-make a person into whatever image they chose. they could alter a persons hair colour, height, skin colour, almost anything controlled by the genes. Stories say the terrans used this to create the ultimate infiltrators, who matched their targets perfectly, down to their very genes.
their is some evidence that these viruses were able to select for other, more emphical traits, like subservience, or loyalty.
what is certain that at least one of these plagues was released during the fratricidal conflicts of the Twilight, a highly vicious killer with an extended incubation period, that nearly depopulated parts of the Verge and Illelish sectors, and was only stopped due to a built in timer on the virus activating and mutating it into something similar to the common cold.
and those are just the stories which have some evidence to support them......
or maybe they didn't leave, but, after seeing the government they worked for going down the toilet, have decided that the secrets that they guard are so bad, they must be contained at all costs, even if that means shooting any "outsiders" they see, in order to save the wider world form what they guard......
begun as weapons of last resort in the darkest days of the Interstellar Wars, and carried on thoughout the Confederation and the Rule of Man, shuffled form budget to budget, these programs reached a sophistication never seen before...or since.
one of the first offspring of this program were targeted viruses, that attacked only those of Vlani descent. these were then refined, first to where they could target specific castes or worlds, then to the point where individual families could be stuck with by a virus, released three weeks earlier in a crowded restaurant, that affected only them. it is rumoured that at least one battle in the interstellar wars was won because the vlani admiral was affected by a vague malaise that seemed to slow their thoughts and deaden their reactions.
Once the interstellar wars ended, the terrans had access to the produce of thousands of worlds, and this, coupled with the advanced bio-sciences that he Vlani had lacked, led to an explosion of chemical, pharmaceutical and genetic treatments that achieved feats that stagger the minds of modern science.
terran mastery of genetics was such that they were able to create virus that could overwrite a persons genetic codes, allowing them to re-make a person into whatever image they chose. they could alter a persons hair colour, height, skin colour, almost anything controlled by the genes. Stories say the terrans used this to create the ultimate infiltrators, who matched their targets perfectly, down to their very genes.
their is some evidence that these viruses were able to select for other, more emphical traits, like subservience, or loyalty.
what is certain that at least one of these plagues was released during the fratricidal conflicts of the Twilight, a highly vicious killer with an extended incubation period, that nearly depopulated parts of the Verge and Illelish sectors, and was only stopped due to a built in timer on the virus activating and mutating it into something similar to the common cold.
and those are just the stories which have some evidence to support them......
or maybe they didn't leave, but, after seeing the government they worked for going down the toilet, have decided that the secrets that they guard are so bad, they must be contained at all costs, even if that means shooting any "outsiders" they see, in order to save the wider world form what they guard......
Bromo33333
SOC-9
secret bases hidden in jumpspace (crewed by you know what
I had not considered that. Ha! I'd love to use this. But maybe I wateched 'Event Horizon' too much.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
You do not need to get so creative with the idea of biological warfare within the 2nd Imperium. Any pharmaceutical company doing research on new antibiotics is also going to be a biological weapons research lab, as they have to have viable samples of the bugs to test the antibiotics on. Given the large number of planets within the Imperium, you are going to have a large number of diseases localized to one planet (hopefully), with research being done to deal with the disease. Simply introducing that disease to a new planet, where the population has no natural immunity to it, gives the possibility of a massive plague developing, similar to the Spanish Flu outbreak at the end of World War One, the Black Death in Europe, or the havoc wrought on the American Indians tribes by European smallpox and measles.
Currently, the malaria parasite is developing resistant strains to the current range of malarial drugs. The is a potential biological agent readily available, and some of the antimalarial drugs have some fairly nasty sides effects. There are men at the local VA hospital that are still getting treated for malaria picked up in World War 2 in the Southwest Pacific area and the Philippines.
Another real world example. When I was first hospitalized at Walter Reed back in the Spring of 1977, I had for a few days a roommate who was an Army doctor researching tropical diseases in the Amazon region. In the course of his research, he naturally picked one up. It was a parasite similar to malaria, but was a new one, and not contagious. The French, it turned out, has just run into the same thing as well, and were starting to work on drugs for it. The doctor went from being a researcher to being the subject of a research study. I never did find out what the result was.
Then there is the Ebola virus in Africa. There is clearly a pool of resistant carriers in the wild, and once transmitted to humans, it is highly contagious and highly fatal.
Currently, the malaria parasite is developing resistant strains to the current range of malarial drugs. The is a potential biological agent readily available, and some of the antimalarial drugs have some fairly nasty sides effects. There are men at the local VA hospital that are still getting treated for malaria picked up in World War 2 in the Southwest Pacific area and the Philippines.
Another real world example. When I was first hospitalized at Walter Reed back in the Spring of 1977, I had for a few days a roommate who was an Army doctor researching tropical diseases in the Amazon region. In the course of his research, he naturally picked one up. It was a parasite similar to malaria, but was a new one, and not contagious. The French, it turned out, has just run into the same thing as well, and were starting to work on drugs for it. The doctor went from being a researcher to being the subject of a research study. I never did find out what the result was.
Then there is the Ebola virus in Africa. There is clearly a pool of resistant carriers in the wild, and once transmitted to humans, it is highly contagious and highly fatal.
And it got used to genocidal effect way out past the Spinward Marches, after the fall of the Second Imperium, by the Sindalian Empire.
They also had psionics, since the Psionic Suppressions were a Third Imperium event, long after the Sindalians were gone.
now that i retired from my day job, I could work on an old idea, thanks to you:
TL 18 Darrian: Darian pose as TL 16 frozen-decaying to avoid a TI "anti-cybernetic" crusade, or a pre-emptive strike against an enemy gathering an technological advantage that you do not wish to race because of a social doctrine of deliberate slow tech advancement.
Their war fleet is built and kept n deep space, largely by robots. Parts and whatever tl 15-14 convenient sub assemblies are made and brought from planets where shipyards explain their presence.
a) you are TI scouts posing as traders to investigate Darian technologies
b) you are Darian counter-intelligence with a lot of maximum tl-15 cool stuff. However, you cannot fall in TI hands… expect your boss to hold your self destroy switch in his hand, in case the automated SD system fails or the AI is found wanting.
have fun
Selandia
TL 18 Darrian: Darian pose as TL 16 frozen-decaying to avoid a TI "anti-cybernetic" crusade, or a pre-emptive strike against an enemy gathering an technological advantage that you do not wish to race because of a social doctrine of deliberate slow tech advancement.
Their war fleet is built and kept n deep space, largely by robots. Parts and whatever tl 15-14 convenient sub assemblies are made and brought from planets where shipyards explain their presence.
a) you are TI scouts posing as traders to investigate Darian technologies
b) you are Darian counter-intelligence with a lot of maximum tl-15 cool stuff. However, you cannot fall in TI hands… expect your boss to hold your self destroy switch in his hand, in case the automated SD system fails or the AI is found wanting.
have fun
Selandia
Vargr Breath
SOC-13
Just a bump for a great thread! It's been a long time since anyone posted on this thread, and we have a lot of new members who might not have seen this and can add some new ideas.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
Here's one I came up with for a truly vicious AI on a large scale. It makes The Virus look tame by comparison.
A drone producing factory ship comes to life around some forgotten star system. It immediately sends out all the extant drones aboard to collect ALL refined materials in the system. That is, they look for refined metals, plastics, chemicals, you-name-it, that any level of technological society might produce. These drones are designed to then remove these materials a bit at a time and bring them to the factory ship where they are turned into more drones that go and get more materials. That is, it is an AI programmed to devour all technology it encounters however basic and use it to continue its mission.
They are programmed such that they initially do this at a speed and level that evades detection, particularly as TL goes lower. Once they reach a critical mass, they then simply start disassembling whole factories, power plants, everything in a matter of days to weeks. They take the fillings out of your teeth, the nails out of wood, the rebar in concrete. It's a refined material, it's going to the factory ship.
Once they've consumed everything in the system that is the result of technology, the ship moves with the drones to a new system. It could be sub-light speed for all that it matters as this thing goes on forever.
If the factory or drones are attacked, they immediately focus their breakdown and removal of technology on the threat. That is, they swarm the attacking ship in the billions or trillions of tiny to large drones (a variety necessary to get every last bit of stuff) and disassemble your ship.
They don't go after organic life whatsoever. They just leave it with nothing more advanced than a pointy stick or a rock for a hammer.
From time to time, the factory ship will produce another factory ship and the two will then split and go off to consume different systems.
Originally a long-forgotten weapon invented for some long forgotten war somewhere outside of known space. Now the threat is these things are showing up in known space, and the players just stumbled on one in some moderately low-tech system where every bit of technology is well on its way to being devoured...
(Yes, it's a variant of the "Santa Claus machine" crossed with something like the Star Trek TOS doomsday carrot).
A drone producing factory ship comes to life around some forgotten star system. It immediately sends out all the extant drones aboard to collect ALL refined materials in the system. That is, they look for refined metals, plastics, chemicals, you-name-it, that any level of technological society might produce. These drones are designed to then remove these materials a bit at a time and bring them to the factory ship where they are turned into more drones that go and get more materials. That is, it is an AI programmed to devour all technology it encounters however basic and use it to continue its mission.
They are programmed such that they initially do this at a speed and level that evades detection, particularly as TL goes lower. Once they reach a critical mass, they then simply start disassembling whole factories, power plants, everything in a matter of days to weeks. They take the fillings out of your teeth, the nails out of wood, the rebar in concrete. It's a refined material, it's going to the factory ship.
Once they've consumed everything in the system that is the result of technology, the ship moves with the drones to a new system. It could be sub-light speed for all that it matters as this thing goes on forever.
If the factory or drones are attacked, they immediately focus their breakdown and removal of technology on the threat. That is, they swarm the attacking ship in the billions or trillions of tiny to large drones (a variety necessary to get every last bit of stuff) and disassemble your ship.
They don't go after organic life whatsoever. They just leave it with nothing more advanced than a pointy stick or a rock for a hammer.
From time to time, the factory ship will produce another factory ship and the two will then split and go off to consume different systems.
Originally a long-forgotten weapon invented for some long forgotten war somewhere outside of known space. Now the threat is these things are showing up in known space, and the players just stumbled on one in some moderately low-tech system where every bit of technology is well on its way to being devoured...
(Yes, it's a variant of the "Santa Claus machine" crossed with something like the Star Trek TOS doomsday carrot).
Baroun Tardis
SOC-12
The Navy handles the Ancients. We handle the 'Moderns' -All the more reason for the IISS to let the Navy keep tracking down "the Ancients", while the Scouts go after the real truth...
Anonymous member of IISS Covert Archeology Division
That factory ship drones remind me of the mechanical "ants" from Dennis E. Taylor's 'Bobiverse'.
The X-boat Files (creepy mystery music plays..)
I went there first (or at least earlier), not that it matters :
(From my PbP, October of last year.)
:(From my PbP, October of last year.)
My headcanon says there's a hidden archive world, long ago removed from the charts, that contains all of the Things That Man Was Not Meant To Know. It's inhabited by the people who found those things, their personalities overlaid with loyalty to Humaniti as a whole rather than the Imperium. (And their descendants, of course.)
They can defend themselves if needed, that's all I'll say about that.
There is a protocol to contact them, and to deliver newly-discovered disruptive technologies to them.
They alone are the judges of the Godzilla Threshold (TVTropes).
The technologies, artifacts, and anomalies they guard are segregated into tranches based on their expected impact on Imperial society and civilization. They will be revealed and released only as absolutely necessary.
"Break Glass Only in Case of Apocalypse."
They can defend themselves if needed, that's all I'll say about that.
There is a protocol to contact them, and to deliver newly-discovered disruptive technologies to them.
They alone are the judges of the Godzilla Threshold (TVTropes).
The technologies, artifacts, and anomalies they guard are segregated into tranches based on their expected impact on Imperial society and civilization. They will be revealed and released only as absolutely necessary.
"Break Glass Only in Case of Apocalypse."
Fabulous post.
Vargr Breath
SOC-13
Those drones exist they are called- Divorce Lawyers.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Yet, who else can explain the rules to the dungeon master?
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Going back and re-reading the entire thread...
some of my ideas have changed over time, for the better I think
I have a 4000 word essay on the secret history on my hard drive now
MWM published Agent of the Imperium and in addition revealed the secret history of the Annic Nova in an interview
My big take from AotI are the Vilani repositories for forbidden knowledge
some of my ideas have changed over time, for the better I think
I have a 4000 word essay on the secret history on my hard drive now
MWM published Agent of the Imperium and in addition revealed the secret history of the Annic Nova in an interview
My big take from AotI are the Vilani repositories for forbidden knowledge
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