Re: [BNW] Regs and more...

[Mark Kilfoil <kilfoilm@nbnet.nb.ca>]

At 06:45 PM 03/25/2000, you wrote:

>Regs are the ones inside armorgeddons suits arent they?

Yeah, we gotta remember that there are regs on both sides of this fight, 
aren't there...

As for regs being inside of Armorgeddon suits..  that's what most people 
say, and in quite a few cases, I'd imagine that's true...

It's quite a nice toy to give a reg, isn't it?  They probably employ regs 
to fly those things who have an axe to grind against Deltas..  Maybe some 
Delta did something nasty to them or someone they cared about..  or maybe 
it's just a misguided fool who really thinks he's doing something *right*..

Don't get me wrong tho..  there are some Deltas that have to be taken out 
of the scene...  It's been said that power corrupts, and Deltas have power 
that corrupts them...

So parts of Delta Prime have merit..  If only it were not a puppet 
organization under the control of a maniacal dictator (Kennedy)...

Now, back to the comment I made above about what's inside an Armorgeddon suit..

Notice how I said "in quite a few cases, I'd imagine that's true"?

Well, I've heard rumours -- street knowledge, you might say -- about an 
experiment that Kennedy personally commissioned during the worst of the 
cold war, a program nicknamed "Blank"...

Blank was originally intended to be a program to test mind-control 
techniques, turning soldiers into a blank slate onto which any 
mission-specific knowledge, expertise and ability could be written; this 
stuff was collectively referred to as "plugs", and the process was referred 
to as "blanking and plugging".  They could then take any group of 
reasonably athletic joes, make them into a prime fightin' squad for a 
specific mission, and then "unplug" the memories, making them forget what 
went on.

It was a sound, if somewhat terrifying vision:  "plug and play soldiers", 
we might call them today..

Well, they achieved only a moderate success with this program.  They had no 
problem programming the soldiers with the information (initially through a 
combination of hypnoprogramming and physical manipulation of brain waves 
through a "brain-wave generator"), but they had lots of problem erasing 
those memories and reinstating the original memories in the subject.

In other words, once the soldiers were "blanked" and "plugged", they could 
not be "unplugged".

The project was nearly a success, but the loss in manpower meant that the 
soldiers had to "disappear" once plugged...

Along comes a scientist named Alonzo Caine, a brilliant biologist, who had 
started up a poorly-funded project called "Genesis".  The goal of 
"Genesis", as you might well imagine, was the creation of "perfectly 
replicated humanoid replacements", or as we might call them today, "clones".

The cloning was successful, and he was able to create viable, fully-grown 
beings in a relatively short period of time, around a year to grow a 
25-year old man.  Alonzo had a problem in his project:  although he could 
create clones, the clones had no memories, abilities, knowledge, 
nothing.  They were more helpless than babies, with nothing but a few basic 
instincts to help them.

In short, the clones were interesting, but effectively useless.

Caine had followed the progress of project "Blank" with interest, seeing an 
obvious application of that project's success within his own project.

The coincidence of Caine's success in cloning came around the same time as 
the other project was having it's limitation.  Caine put forth a proposal, 
and project Blank was officially moved under his control.

It took some time to make the clones' integration with the plugging process 
work properly.  In order to plug the "virgin" brains, Caine had to expand 
the depth of information in the plugs to contain even the most basic of 
facts and abilities.

Early plugged clones were functional, but lacked individual 
motivation;  they followed orders perfectly to the letter however, and were 
a viable by-product.  (These clones are referred to as "Level 1" clones, 
"Level 0"
being unplugged.)

They were unsuited to be sent on their own, however, so Caine continued his 
research, expanding and refining the plugging process.

Finally, he had a breakthrough, of sorts.  He had managed to create a 
perfect copy plug, so that he could utterly duplicate a person's entire 
knowledge and experience, and use that plug to create a functionally 
duplicate clone, or several clones.  These are the Level 2 clones.

One trouble with the process is that it utterly destroyed the original 
subject, and the plug had a limited usefulness to about 10 clones before it 
was rendered unusable.  Protests arose in some of the upper management of 
the project, complaining that Caine's project was wasting valuable 
resources:  the soldiers that Caine used in his experiment were good 
soldiers, and he was just killing them.

Despite protests, Caine has continued.

One thing that Caine had not counted on is the personalities of the people 
he had cloned being present in the clones.  As the clones grew more aware 
of themselves, many rebelled, fighting back against Caine.

Some of these clones escaped, and are still at large today.

Caine continued, and has created two more types of clones, the Level 3 and 
the Level 4.

Level 3 clones are Level 2 clones who have gone through a secondary 
plugging process.  The secondary process is similar to the original 
plugging process, in that it removes the individual from the equation.

Level 4 clones are essentially Level 2 clones as well, but are kept in 
check by some manipulation of the cloned bodies;  all Level 4 clone bodies 
are dependant on a specific chemical compound to live, and Caine is the 
only source for the compound.

This all comes from some leaked documents and scraps of information I've 
discovered over the years...  Some of is conjecture, some of it is 90% 
definite.

Level 1 clones make excellent foot-soldiers, and can be plugged with the 
knowledge of how to use an Armorgeddon suit.  What's more, Caine can 
produce more, and they are relatively cheap.

Level 3 clones make decent commanders, especially when faceless behind an 
Armorgeddon suit.

Level 4 clones are frighteningly loyal, and the addictive qualities of the 
compound their bodies need gives them a frantic edge that is terrible to 
behond...

Level 2 clones should be extended the hand of friendship by the Defiance, 
because they have been oppressed and manipulated by the government in ways 
most of us can't even imagine.

So, if you meet someone you swear you've met before, but they don't know 
you from Adam, consider carefully whether you should push the question 
about your familiarity with them -- because they might not be the them you 
*think* they are...

Or, if you know you scragged some hotshot in an Armorgeddon suit only to 
find yourself being chased by him the following week, don't always presume 
that they made a "speedy recovery".

EVER DEFIANT!

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