THE INSTITUTE
Founded in 2189CE, by a small group of bunker fugues, former researchers, and prols, this organization’s goal is to leave a record of the last stages of Homo sapiens. We will continue to gather information, retrieve data, and collect field samples for as long as this is possible. Data and information is presented here and sat-cast to whomever may receive. Samples, if alive and deemed non-threat, are boxed to limit further threat and collect further data from observation and mechanical means. If samples are deemed a plus high risk, they are silenced. Tissue and cell samples are stored, gene-logged, and cultured until data is collected. After the glitch and the final collapse, most rec-stores were either destroyed or lost. What we present here is the rebuild effort to the best of our skill and ability. Plus-note, this is not meant to be the singular historic notation, but may very be, simply do to lack of survivors. Notes: The Institute is housed in former bunker-plex A14497 located in the Rockies of Northlands in Oceania. This area was not nuke cleansed and largely left non-scorched due logistics and luck in the final year of the Conflict. Weather alterations have made this region nearly uninhabitable by Homo sapiens, and shunts the growth of many hybrids or biomechs. Without the plex the members of The Institute would have never survived. This is our record of the Conflict told mostly from data gathered from the stores of Oceania/Ingoc and some from Eurasia.
e Institute
121102
In him we pinned our hopes. From the first day humans became sentient we have feared death and dreamt of immortality. The time has come to pass, our understanding of life, our technology, our morals, our brains… all have evolved to the stage where it is time to leave the human body. We are now moving into a new hybrid arena retaining parts of the flesh to keep the brain comfortable and connected with its new cybernetic home. In this manner we can move closer to immortality. A life unfettered by the fear of the inevitable collapse of the human form. Death will no longer inspire us to war or step on others in a mad grab to attain power and material wealth as fast as possible. We are now free from these constraints to spend our limitless time in pursuit of the continuum of the universal knowledge. We are now able to pass the barrier of time itself. - M. Nole, opening speech, RailTech Industries development conference, 2091.
SPECIMEN 137
"Sometimes things just do not go as planned." This was the final conclusion of report 90Z4/RED33 AKA Specimen: 137. Details have been omitted and lost to time, details such as the names of the team, exact location of ground zero, the complete extent of biological contamination. But it is clear, the loss of containment regarding Specimen 137 is the root cause for the warhead strike and quarantine of much of the New Pac zone above the 47th.
Corroborating data shows that EW Railtech's division ReTech created a wetware research facility in New Pac using a century's old data tech facility. Communiqués that survived the Glitch detail funding of this unit and multiple vectors of development to arrive at a wartime solution expediently with minimal resources. A few journals and other communications such as lab notes have survived as well in the personal belongings of refugees from New Pac after the nuclear sterilisation. (Note: Media cover-up from Ingsoc's New Thought lists this attack as one of the prime proofs of the Prol attacks from Eurasia.) No clean DNA sample survives showing the initial contaminating organism. Nor is it clear if Specimen 137 is an example of the initial contaminate. However, it is certain this is a direct descendent of the initial organism. Ingsoc’s SOP was to erase and rewrite records in accordance with policy. The Archive has had to assemble this entry piecemeal from ancillary sources. (Full disclosure, much of what follows is second hand.) Specimen 137 is the end result of a commissioned wetware field device code named: Sporecore. While this is currently the only complete example of a gem. 2 Sporecore currently on file. There are, no doubt, some Spores still in the zones, EW Railtech did make every effort to eradicate them. But, once a living organism comes into existence, it will always choose life at all costs.
137 Seems to be at stage 3 of development. Sporecores were seeded into a zone via atmospheric distribution. Once a spore found purchase it would germinate and phagocytize to a custom created zooid or social amoeba. If conditions were right the organism would begin development of specialized individuals to form a pseudoplasmodium that served as a centralized intelligence. This hybrid was essentially a colony of individualized autonomous human neurons bound in a cell membrane similar to a slime sheath. Leaching nutrients from the local attachment the pseudoplasmodium would assess the location and begin a mode of specialised individual development to form tendrils, eye organs, and protective spore ejaculates that contained concentrated aconite (neurotoxin). Once secured the Sporecore aggressively cocooned, calcifying a hard outer armor.
At this stage the Sporecore connected to the neural net and began seeking net connectivity to perform its primary function of data gather and node interface. It is noted that the this process is the laboratory and field test ideal scenario. However, the aggressive behaviour of the pseudoplasmodium colony quickly turned the Sporecore development into an internal nightmare for both EW Railtech, the ReTech division, ground operatives, and indigenous organisms of the deployment zone.
There are several accounts of a Sporecores attaching to animal hosts in sleep performing autonomous control of the body. This carried over to humans as well. Even alliance field operatives were affected by the unrelenting performance of the pseudoplasmodium’s interface and alacrity. When project termination commands were issued the autonomous units already on net. Allowing termination was counter intuitive to self preservation. The Sporecores fought back. Entire Zones were sterilized.
DCF 7309
“14th of each month, note the spike.” There on the screen in the daily briefings a spike, 291MHz to be precise, every 14th of the month at 14:00:00. Three times, 1 second each could not be a fluke. This was a signal ping. The only reason our tech knew of this was because of the dispersal pattern in the ionosphere. Without something at the end of that wave to read it it was just a shout into the void. It took almost 6 months to triangulate the location. Eventually J had a doubleplus good idea to look at old satellite orbital maps to figure out what was in that receiver location. Logic told us it was most likely something for the war so that narrowed our search down to the last 20 years of the conflict. There it was. An E. W. Railtech high frequency bounce satellite in geosync. It didn’t exist anymore, but the maps put it squarely at a location for nearly 7yrs that would align with the dispersions we saw. A recon tech team was sent out to investigate. It was an area we’d known to be used for syncasting and data collection in the latter part of the conflict. We’d had some moderate success a few K’s from there in previous years, but this specific spot was new.
Note: In hindsight I wish we would not have sent a new tech to train on this mission. Lesson plus-learned. It has certainly set back his training and given us all a rather unsettling realisation: We’ve become desensitized to the entire spectrum of horror of war and inhumanity our world created. In personal reflection I am unsure if we will ever regain that humanness again.
Location area was overgrown with plus small amount of buildings left standing. Initially those were ignored but have since been thoroughly checked. This area appears to have been a syncaster repair and launch location. Until the end years of the conflict syncasters would self terminate when damaged. But the last decade was harsh on resources and techs so they were retrieved or directed to return. DCF 7309 appears to be a return unite with no further command instructions for deployment. It was found perched for maximum connection and would boot it’s transceiver once a month to ping the satellite. With no return commands it has been locked into a loop for at least 30yrs.
Foetal tissue appears fully functional as well as other bio and mechanical components. It is a uncommon autonomous unit. With no command instructions it was neither gathering data nor sending out cognitive dissonance signals. It is, rarely, a neutral unit. It will be reflashed and used as a backup data unit here on level 24.
Included below is a section of transcript from the rookie field tech. I had not realized their limited exposure to the biohacks, a policy which is now changed here at the Institute. Policy change is not done without due consideration. Transcript is provided as a means to understand the reason for such a fast change.
“Field Tech R89116 initial observation. It’s a baby. A human baby growing out of a head that seems to be broadcasting. How did they do this to a person? Why? That baby, it’s older than anyone I know, but it’s just… why… why did they use, we use, a baby?”
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