Aberrant: Ba'alt - Re: Two Years later...

[Narrator]

Planet Paril has become home to all of you. Apartments can be had by all, a vast headquarters is likely assembled, and reputations have been made or broken.

Smites actions with the starport acted a s a catalyst in the eventual breaking of the Siege done by House Heni. Heni has acted rashly in their attempt to cause pain to House Carlisle and taking over their key starports, especially when there were people on the planet like you all. They day after the reports were in that a small band of unknown armed men entered the starport (internal security camera?s and news drones recorded some of the ?sounds? of the battle with Smite and his men), House Carlisle discretely landed a few small ships on the planet trying to help out with the blockade. One of these ships landed blocks from the shelter the team was staying at and this led to a meeting with a fleet Admiral. After explaining that he really was not there according to diplomatic policy, he nearly begged the group to represent him and his House in helping to thwart House Hini off the planet.

In one for or another, the team would have agreed to help simply because Eve could not allow an Ally of House Rathien to go unaided in a situation like this. She would have done her best to get Zephraines aid as well as Jack?s in assembling an information base and then a strategy. Smite?s efforts did not go unnoticed and Eve would have asked him to help where he could. The Hundreds of would-be heroes that ask around about him on the streets could be directed to whoever he wants in his network of streetwise men and his numbers would nearly triple in a matter of two to three months.

The siege is finally and ultimately ended nearly 6 months after it started when the last vestiges of the Hini force are swept away and off the planet; Paril government all the while trying to pinpoint the vigilante force in some form or another and it will be up to the group whether they remain anonymous or not.

What I want to hear now form all of you is the finer details of the 18 months after the siege and perhaps some details from the 6 month siege. Post them in the short story section and we will adapt them as canon.

[Jack-in-the-Green]

In the interests of letting us all play off of each others actions ... a brief timeline of Jack. Changes are possible, and I'll probably add stuff, depending on what everyone else is up to.

beginning: Once the group is contacted by the admiral, he begins to particularly push relocating on the team - he doesn't view the shelter as secure enough or private enough, and (though he, personally, is very much sequestered) he tries to convince the team to upgrade, and helps them do so if they agree. His point of view is that nothing can be accomplished if basic security isn't seen to first.

early months: The first two months, he participates both physically and through telepresence. He contributes a great deal to planning (particularly when jacked up on multiple minds), tending to take an approach of identifying flaws in the current plans, offering several possible remedies, then repeating with the refined plans several times - he's big on optimization and very extensive contingencies. He also helps quite a bit with helping folks evade surveillance, since he's plugged into the planetary systems.

two months in: Two months in, he disappears completely for a week or so, leaving a vague explanation behind for the team. When he returns, he completely ceases physically involving himself in anything, doing everything through telepresence. Unless the team puts a very large amount of effort into locating him, they have no idea where he is - he spent the week or so digging in somewhere and refining his tools.

until six months: For the rest of the siege, he is quite helpful, if physically distant. In fact, he seems quite a bit less standoffish, despite the fact that he is never seen physically. He's also a shade more effective, and he probably makes good ground in electronic warfare/cyber warfare against Heni.

six months in: After the siege, he sort of fades away again, though he is easy to contact if the team wants him for something. He counsels keeping a low profile, but doesn't argue the point very long if the team disagrees.

six months to a year: Jack is around, but doesn't particularly work on keeping up with the team. He does a great deal of behind-the-scenes work, the exact nature of which depends on what everyone else has been up to in that time. He may work with specific members of the team if they are doing things which interact well with what he's doing. In particular, he supports anything which degrades the power structure of the megacorporations.

a year in: About six months after the siege ends, he tries to set up a 'policy meeting' with the team to suss out long-term intentions. He shows up in person, and seems ... not normal, but substantially less neurotic.

the second year: Kind of depends on the above.

[Jack-in-the-Green]

So, along with that, would y'all be interested in doing a communal freepost for a meeting set one year into the two year period? Jack has some things he'd like to do, but he'd like to submit them to the team's review (since they're kind of drastic), and he'd like to shake out a long-term relationship of whatever kind with the team.

[Narrator]

Quote:

early months: The first two months, he participates both physically and through telepresence. He contributes a great deal to planning (particularly when jacked up on multiple minds), tending to take an approach of identifying flaws in the current plans, offering several possible remedies, then repeating with the refined plans several times - he's big on optimization and very extensive contingencies. He also helps quite a bit with helping folks evade surveillance, since he's plugged into the planetary systems.

I like the ideas here especially, they give room for a type of "Mission Impossible" feel where even when it seems the team has finally gotten caught or exposed or something, you find out it was all part of an extensive plan to fish something or someone out. This is good information for some back stories involving near escapes and whathave you.

I also like the idea of the grup haveing a sort of combined freepost; this could involve the newbies as they get used to their new surroundings (having woke up only a month or so ago).

[Smite]

Current

Fighting against, Smite has begun to assemble a cadre of soldiers around him. His organization takes on a very Robin Hood feel, making in roads with the community out of respect and admiration. They fund their orginization with gambling, prostitution, and black market goods, but in an honorable manner.

If they lend you money, they require collateral and won't take more than that if you default. Leg breakers are reserved for people who try to game them or have the money and run out on their debt. They keep slavery, gangs, and other less savery elements out and they steal primarily from corporations and the wealthy. They get justice for those who would otherwise know none.

He and (hopefully Kara) spend their off hours in

+3 Months

The Training continues, as he tries to bring more of the Base personel as well as his organization up to combat ready levels. He funds research into advancing cybernetics (and establishing an off the books enhancement clinic for his men), along with making sure he has the latest in arms and equipment (without using our own tech).

He will continue to try to expand his orginization, vetting trusted lieutants to run things in different areas. He will likely be expanded out beyond what he can keep personel and immediate control of.

+6 Months

With the organization expanding outward, he will have the forces to start effecting business and government at a local level. The manipulations will be subtle, as not to call to much attention to one's self. He will be riding high off the breaking of the blockade and their will be recruits in the hundreds. His resources will be tapped to continue supplying his men with gear and training, while they inflitrate all levels of government.

That's what I got so far.

[Jack-in-the-Green]

In the interests of kicking the tires and seeing if we're ready to move on a bit, I'm going ahead and starting up a freepost thread for Jack's little meeting. Whomever shows up, he'd be interested in talking to.

For simplicity's sake, I'm making it just before the start of the game, at the two year mark, instead of at the one year mark. That way it won't be necessary to resolve events that happen as a consequence of the meeting ... they'll just occur alongside the game.

[Jack-in-the-Green]

And, since I am moving the meeting up to the two year mark, I can go ahead and say what he did in that second year, since it is no longer dependent on the meeting. I'll start to work this into freeposts, as time permits.

He's probably noticed Chronos' activities, and Chronos has probably noticed his (since they both have Sphinx level intelligence, it seems reasonable to assume that they've noticed each other's influences). Chronos is working toward a very similar goal to Jack's, so Jack does suggest that they join efforts.

He also offers to help Smite, though in a minor way - he can provide advanced cybernetic designs for Smite's men. These would be very cutting edge (maybe even a bit better than that), but they would also be very experimental ... the first few generations of technology might not be entirely reliable.

Jack's own plans chiefly revolve around a future strike back at the Power That Is - he does do things which aren't immediately related to this, but almost everything contributes back to that goal in some way. The only exceptions might be if any of the other PCs asks him to do something.

He has specific ideas (which he'll go into in the meeting), but his activities so far have been devoted toward securing a firm position in Paril. This involves honeycombing global networks with backdoors and subverted AIs, as well as founding a new corporation (except all the records say that the corporation has been around for quite a long time).

He's also been engaging in experiments, small-scale and large. A lot of this is in computer networking and artificial intelligence. He creates advanced AIs in hidden corners of the net, he works out new ways of organizing electronic information, and he tests the systems he's developed, building things ... perhaps including cybernetics for Smite, and perhaps running optimization programs and projections for Chronos.

Additionally, he has this little sideline running throughout the entire two years:

• During the early part of the siege (when he disappears from sight for a couple weeks), he created a new corporation (Green Engineering Consortium). At that point, it didn't exist anywhere except electronically. He tied a few AIs to the GEC, and began fighting a second battle against House Heni, entirely separate from the one he was fighting alongside the team.

• Before the end of the siege, GEC's AIs (heavily aided by Jack) provided a fair amount of assistance to House Carlisle ... Carlisle was provided with Heni's troop positions at several key moments, and there were many instances in which a sudden systems failure on the Heni side enabled Carlisle to make critical advances. Jack did immediately not come forward - all of this was totally anonymous.

• After the siege, Jack put together GEC for real. He manipulated electronic records, stole money, bought property, and even hired employees through third party headhunters. Once everything looked good, he had GEC step forward and take credit for its assistance in the war.

• The story was this ... GEC is a well-established corporation that thrived by hiring independent scientists and giving them the funding to develop their ideas (GEC holds several patents, which Jack 'stole' from minor corporations that got destroyed in the war).

GEC itself was almost wiped out by the siege, but its electronic resources were untouched. One of the projects at the time included prototype versions of advanced artificial intelligence, and GEC's directors were patriotic enough to apply that technology to helping House Carlisle win the siege. By a month or so after the siege, this looks like it could be true (Jack's experiments into AI development are in full swing).

All the new offices and personnel GEC is hiring is simply rebuilding after the siege. The corporation was unfortunate enough to lose almost everything in the siege (actually, there was never anything in the first place, but Jack needs a cover story).

• The 'new' GEC is taking a more focused approach to research. The directors and researchers are all in super-secret, super-secure locations (in reality, they don't exist), with the visible parts of the organization existing only for marketing and such.

• The research division begins to turn out refined versions of its advanced AI technology, and it capitalizes on their military success by releasing starship-scale weapons technology that had been in development before the siege (Jack raids the files of existing weapons manufacturers and begins reverse engineering and improving the designs).

GEC sells both of these things to House Carlisle, if the House is interested, and is even willing to sell exclusivity of the technologies to the House. The designs are very, very good, so it is likely that GEC is now in business with House Carlisle.

[Smite]

Quote:

And, since I am moving the meeting up to the two year mark, I can go ahead and say what he did in that second year, since it is no longer dependent on the meeting. I'll start to work this into freeposts, as time permits.

He also offers to help Smite, though in a minor way - he can provide advanced cybernetic designs for Smite's men. These would be very cutting edge (maybe even a bit better than that), but they would also be very experimental ... the first few generations of technology might not be entirely reliable.

He has specific ideas (which he'll go into in the meeting), but his activities so far have been devoted toward securing a firm position in Paril. This involves honeycombing global networks with backdoors and subverted AIs, as well as founding a new corporation (except all the records say that the corporation has been around for quite a long time).


? The research division begins to turn out refined versions of its advanced AI technology, and it capitalizes on their military success by releasing starship-scale weapons technology that had been in development before the siege (Jack raids the files of existing weapons manufacturers and begins reverse engineering and improving the designs).

Smite has not problem with this and will ask for volunteers among his men for a free experimental enhancement. He won't force it, but living on the cutting edge will surely net some interested participents. He will also look into a way of reversing the field of the Anticyber belt, so he can project it closely or possibly weaponize it.

He will also be looking for counter-agents for his men, as it behoves him to have people who can operate freely.

[Narrator]

Quote:

? The research division begins to turn out refined versions of its advanced AI technology, and it capitalizes on their military success by releasing starship-scale weapons technology that had been in development before the siege (Jack raids the files of existing weapons manufacturers and begins reverse engineering and improving the designs).

GEC sells both of these things to House Carlisle, if the House is interested, and is even willing to sell exclusivity of the technologies to the House. The designs are very, very good, so it is likely that GEC is now in business with House Carlisle.

House Carlisle, and very likely someone of great influence on Paril, perhaps a Mage of great import or a high ranking member of the Planets Circumverate (governing body) approaches Jack through whatever channels needed. (setting an appointment with his secretary, etc).

At the meeting it is told to Jack that the research into the AI and the starship weaponry is good and well, more knowledge is needed. Althouh the planet is beleived to be at the highest point of AI short of calling the Ban, the problem lies in the actual manufacture of any working prototype and its subsequent attraction of the Ban. The latent danger beheld in such a task is too much to consider doing planetside. Period.

If Jack looks or seems like this is something he thinks he can work around, the messenger will insist that he get involved wit the attempted "cloaking" of the work. Actually equipping the ships wit weaponry is easier than making a TRUE AI because the Ban only acts toward observable and evident weaponry and then it really hammers in when the said weaponry is used.



What say you Jack?

[Jack-in-the-Green]

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Smite has not problem with this and will ask for volunteers among his men for a free experimental enhancement. He won't force it, but living on the cutting edge will surely net some interested participents. He will also look into a way of reversing the field of the Anticyber belt, so he can project it closely or possibly weaponize it.

He will also be looking for counter-agents for his men, as it behoves him to have people who can operate freely.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->The first couple of generations are, like I said, somewhat unreliable - they work ok, but there are some unexpected failures and side effects. Those problems should fade as later generations get turned out. Jack can certainly try to help with the anti-cybernetics thing (though its entirely possible that variants like that already exist on the market).

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Althouh the planet is beleived to be at the highest point of AI short of calling the Ban, the problem lies in the actual manufacture of any working prototype and its subsequent attraction of the Ban. The latent danger beheld in such a task is too much to consider doing planetside. Period.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Jack being who he is, this kind of caution makes perfect sense to him. While he continues to work from Paril, I was sort of thinking in terms of doing the actual prototype assembly elsewhere - some moon, or an orbital factory.

Anyhow, his main interest here is studying workarounds on the Ban with regards to AI development. In particular, he works with the idea of creating multiple 'legal' AIs which are designed so that they can work together seamlessly, creating the effect of a more powerful AI without actually having that AI. Since he can sense violations of the Ban, he should be able to keep an eye on the prototypes and shut them down if it looks like they might be about to receive a crackdown.

He also looks into creating swarm intelligence [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence" target="_blank">wikipedia</a>] with multiple AIs ... creating twenty or so fairly sophisticated AIs and working on them so that they can operate individually, but generate more advanced solutions than are possible with just one Ban-legal AI. Of course, he has an excellent model for this kind of thinking - he uses the groupthink created by multiple Jacks as a model.

Jack is highly cooperative with House Carlisle. Jack himself acts as the company spokesman, once he gets over his more pronounced personality quirks - he claims to represent the rest of the GEC directors, who have relocated to more secure locations (some of them on different planets entirely) after the ruin of the House Heni siege. He keeps whomever his Carlisle contact is fully appraised of GEC's lines of research and such ... he really doesn't have any reason to hide any of that. Of course, he is very careful to buffer himself with Dissociative Fog (concealing the fact that he is a nova) whenever he deals with a house representative.

The weapons manufacture is just a sideline, but he puts a great deal of effort into it. It represents a test of his systems' ability to optimize and develop designs, and it provides an opportunity to impress the locals - he doesn't come forward with a design until he has something which is distinctly a step or so past anything offered by a competitor. Not light-years ahead of the cutting edge, or anything ... just impressive, so as to make the 'new' GEC's reputation.

[Narrator]

Quote:

Anyhow, his main interest here is studying workarounds on the Ban with regards to AI development. In particular, he works with the idea of creating multiple 'legal' AIs which are designed so that they can work together seamlessly, creating the <!--coloro:#ff0000--><span style="color:#ff0000"><!--/coloro-->effect <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->of a more powerful AI without actually having that AI. Since he can sense violations of the Ban, he should be able to keep an eye on the prototypes and shut them down if it looks like they might be about to receive a crackdown.

In the ban, the end justify the means. If you are having an effect of a more powerful AI, that is, an Artificial Intelligence that truly can learn, evolve, and develop new skills and functions independant of any direct future programming, then you have an AI sufficient of the Ban's wrath.

Jack would see this in every attempt to develop a system of multiple AI's working together to form a group function. This might be something that is frustrating him presently since he would know see the Ban coming when a banned state was reached. That is of course if the end result is a learning, evolving, developing AI.

Houses were wiped out in the past because they were cloning people; the Ban saw the act of creating clones as creating artificial Intelligence. People like Eve who are truly an Artificial Intelligence are non-existant except with a few scattered Houses. Jack might be studying her now and then to get a leg up on what in effect, hides her from the Ban.

[Jack-in-the-Green]

He still writes improved AI for distribution, but it will have to be more along the lines of AIs that require less dataspace to exist, and which have better intrusion countermeasures - that kind of thing. Just offshoots of his real line of study.

Of course, his end intention is most certainly to create Ban-violating AI, beyond any shadow of a doubt, so this is mostly just poking at the edges of what is possible. If Eve is will to submit to examination (or simply discuss the mechanism of her immunity), he's glad to look to her for an example.

He also looks into gadgeteering (in the Abby player's handbook sense of creating devices imbued with quantum power), with an eye toward synthesizing a version of his own invisibility and quasi-invulnerability to the Ban.

[z-Kara]

Kara continues to play the role of support staff to the group. She acts as advisor but only when asked. She rarely offers advise letting the group learn as they go unless it is something that is life threatening.

During the siege, Kara supports the planetary defenses as a doctor and healer. She concentrates on minimizing the loss of Smites henchmen, civilian life and then the planatary military members. She does her best to support House Carlisle without being overly exposed. She does not want to instigate another house to turn into an enemy of hers.

Kara will definitely support Smite in his taking over the underworld. She will use her skills to evaluate "talent" and offer to train Smite's Captains and Lieutenants. They will be enhanced by means that are not easily detected as breaches of the Ban, ie cybernetics, etc. They will be trained in official skull cracking and Bone smashing methods. Over time, those who are worthy will begin to develop body armor and regeneration.

Within the two years, Kara will let the main official of House Carlisle know that she is on planet for a while. She will meet with him privately to not add any stress to the team.

Throughout the two years, she will remain in contact with Voids Guard. All communications will be done with the highest level of encryption. Occasionally she may visit VG to check on her crew and maybe to pick up a couple of "toys".