Roma Victor
2172-Q4
Security
[x]Rich Startup
You expand your facilities to include entertainment, food, amenities, and anything else your employees could need. The company takes care of all of life's everyday bothers so that employees can focus on work.
However, employees are not allowed to take electronic storage devices out of the research areas without letting security scan them, and are regularly reminded to not talk about their work off of the corporate campus. Text and data communications from the research area are all kept on record and may be reviewed at any time. (7,500,000 credits to pay for new buildings, 7,500,000 credits/quarter in upkeep and additional personnel, reduced risk of infiltration.)
Most people are quite happy with the new arrangements, scientists and security guards are not generally known for their fondness for "life's little bothers," and so having the company take care of that is a load off their minds. There is a little grumbling about increased security protocols and constant reminders about regulations. Conrad in particular seems to take offense at being reminded of the same things constantly. Of course, he is also the only one who has to be told to shut up at the company dinner later the same month.
Spare time
[x] Apply to the Systems Alliance for permission to patent the Arc Reactor in Citadel Space.
Having a legal department is a godsent. Seriously. There is still a lot of work for you to do personally, conversations with concerned semi-enophobic generals is not something you want to leave to a lawyer, but on the whole they are proving their worth by making sure you don't sign anything you don't want to, and that you don't have to spend an inordinate amount of very boring time going through all the fine print.
In the end, an expansive application document is compiled and sent through all the proper channels. Now you just have to wait for the military bureaucracy to back to you. Aaaaaaaaany day now.
[x] Write in: The security Vi stress testing was fun. Practice more Mock-combat with your security teams, Including your family and possibly Brian, if they want to go. Practice in a few environments, but make it clear that the ones away from the lab are not mandatory, and ensure the lab always has it's normal complement.
"Do you have plans this weekend?" You ask Brian as you're both warming down after your latest run.
"Not in particular," he says, "though I was hoping we could make some," he adds with a grin.
"We're doing a mock battle with the power suits at the compound on Saturday," you say, smiling back, "I was thinking you might like to get your power-armored ass kicked."
His face lights up, "hell yeah, I'd love that. But I don't actually know how to drive one."
You give him a crooked smile back, "got any plans tonight?"
Later. Quite a bit later, Brian has learned the first thing about Legionary combat: "Shepard is alwasy right. I will listen to Shepard. I will not ignore Shepard's recommendations." You may not be the most patient teacher, but you know what you're doing, and you don't mind reminding people of this fact.
Research
30d10+25=182, 50d10+50=314, 40d10+15=228, 10d10-5=56
-[x] Micro-missiles (150)
--Finished!
Even in this modern age, almost all weapons use fire-and-forget ammunition. Although the launching mechanism is vastly more sophisticated, the modern rifle bullet is little different than the first rocks men threw at each other millennia ago. Now, you and Paragon Industries are going to change that. When your enemy is using humans (or other precious things) as shields, a slug thrower of any kind just leaves too much to chance.
The Sagitta micro-missile leaves nothing to chance. Building upon your security VI's experience in telling friends from foes, and integrating FOF designation in the HUD of the Legionary, you are able to quickly and precisely designate targets. The VI then propels the tiny missiles, only slightly larger than a conventional bullet, towards the designated enemies and strikes them even behind moving objects.
The tricky thing was figuring out how to incorporate
both a sufficient number of sufficiently precise micro-thrusters and including a payload that could do considerable damage, even if the missile is unable to move as fast as a regular bullet. The answer is (obviously, you realized after several long nights of banging your head against the wall) to make thrusters that can blow up. The Sagitta missile is simply a flying self-destruct mechanism with VI-controlled maneuvering.
-[x] Repulsors (150)
--Finished!
Back in grade school, you did a history project on Humanity's ideas for spaceflight back before anyone knew anything about Mass Relays or Element Zero. A lot of your school mates' projects were little more than pictures of the Moon and Mars rockets along with "One Small Step For Man" type quotes. One guy included a note about the nightmare that is bringing your own fuel out of a planet's gravity well (thank whatever gods may or may not be listening that modern technology has done away with that need). You, of course, were not satisfied with such pedestrian exercises.
Your project was about Project Orion (not to be confused with the Orion Spacefraft, the Orion Module, the Orion Satellites, etc. They sure did like the name Orion back in the day...), the concept that a rocket powered not by traditional chemical fuels, but rather by nuclear bombs. The basic idea that a weapon and a propulsion system are so closely connected has stuck with you, and it is what you now have perfected in the Repulsor Beam.
Making a particle beam that is strong enough to cut through walls and enemies with equal efficiency was not all that difficult. To compress it to the size of your palm was more complicated, but there's a reason they call you a genius. The really tricky thing was to make it possible to use it as a means of locomotion
without destroying everything behind you as you move forward, either through direct damage or from radiation. The crucial component in this was a lens that lets you focus or unfocus the beam rapidly, since an unfocused beam does comparatively less damage while still providing the same amount of thrust.
Learning to fly your prototype Legionairy (tentatively named Mk 1.75b. You really need to get to work on the Mk 2 proper) is turning out to be a more complicated matter, and one best practiced where no one can see you.
-[x] Improved Intelligence algorithms (110/400):
--Finished!
When you were training your Security VI, you came to realize that the algorithms that the VI community have so far written for machine learning purposes share a fundamental problem; their authors are all very high level programmers. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with this. High level programming makes the human's work much quicker, easier and transparent, while making the machine's a little slower. However, when it comes to teaching VIs to do pretty much anything, it introduces some fundamental bottlenecks that severely slow down all the good code out there.
It is, you reflect at you casually revolutionize yet another part of modern life, a problem you've encountered many other places. People these days are overspecialized, they know their own thing, and perhaps a few neighboring things, but they don't see the Big Picture. Multi-talented scientists are often called 'polymaths' or 'renaissance men,' and their numbers have been dropping even as the total number of scientists has been growing. You, however, are just such a one, and you
do see the Big Picture. You can read the high level code, and see how it gets translated down the line to assembly language, machine code and in the end to the flipping of physical bits and qubits, and it is this knowledge that lets you cut the Gordian knots weaved in previous generations of programmers' spaghetti code.
-[x] Basic Neural Interface (200):
--Finished!
The human brain is just
fascinating. The first subjects you put your impressive abilities to mastering were engineering, physics and chemistry, and these were the subjects that let you build the Arc Reactor and your power armors. Like many other young 'hard' scientists, you regarded the 'soft' sciences with more than a little scorn. It seemed like way too much collecting insects and putting them in neat little rows that weren't really very neat. All description, and so very little
understanding.
Now, you've gained quite a bit more respect for, at the very least, the field of neurobiology. The thing about physics and chemistry is that you, to a very large extent, can take things apart and find out how each little bit works, and then rebuild them piece by piece and see how each new bit affects the whole. You can't really do that with the human brain. But looking at the brain as it works with X-rays, PETs, MRIs, NMRs and pretty much every other TLA out there still lets you study it, and lets you understand some of how it works.
The really neat thing is that the things that go on in our brains are really just electric impulses. Frightfully complicated ones, and the patterns are as important as the things themselves, and yada yada yada. Electric impulses can be coupled to electronics and electronics is something you
get at a level many others have described as frightening. Putting electrodes in people's brains is the kind of thing that makes Luddites scream bloody murder, but when you make a little girl who lost her legs during the Batarian bombardment play
football again, the Luddites can go screw themselves.
On a more pedestrian level, having a simple computer you can control with your mind and get output from in a pair of contact lenses (or prostetic eyes if you're feeling transhumanist) is pretty cool.
-[x] Basic Genemodding (200): 56+(32+24+28)/2 = 98
--Halfway there!
Construction
-[x] Start construction on a factory III
A Contest of Wheels
"It's official now," Lindsey Bradley says when she meets you for lunch one day, "the Alliance is hosting a competition in six months to find out who will make their new series of infantry fighting vehicles."
You nod, good thing you bought the Mako designs when she first brought it up. "That's good news, thanks for the heads up before."
"That's my job," she replies with a neutral expression, "if they were able to pull things like this off without anyone telling me, you should fire me."
"I'm glad that will not be necessary," you say with a smile. She may be terse, but she's a nice person under the military dicipline. "How are our chances with the upgraded Mako?"
"Well," she says, hesitating a bit, "not bad. It's certainly seen some decent upgrades since the original design, so it is better than what they have already, and they have purchased a number of them as well, so there will be a good word out. However, the problem is that Hahne-Kedar and Rosenkov know who you are now, and they know what you can do. They're bound to have something to counter your easy advantages. If you want to blow the Alliance brass away like you did with the Legionary, you need something more."
The Cord-Hislop Aerospace Deal
Today's the day. You got the call from Miranda Lawson a few weeks back, the final prototype of the new Gladius class fighter spacecraft is almost ready, and they have invited you to visit their shipyard in orbit over Uranus. It is only the second time you are back in sight of Humanity's native star, and it's quite a different experience from the first time.
The airspace over Uranus is almost exclusively given over to big corporations. It is remote enough that no one in their right mind wants to live their recreationally, and central enough that there is no one would dare attack it; between the fleet defending earth and the one defending the Charon relay, Uranus is as safe as can be.
You are greeted in the port facility by Miranda Lawson, in the flesh this time, and note that she still seems to favor close-fitting synthetic clothes. She flashes you a smile that you are certain has taken several hours of practice and at least as many under a cosmetic dentist's tender care.
"Miss Shepard, so good of you to come," she says, offering you her hand.
"My pleasure, Miss Lawson," you reply, your eyes wandering across the interior of the shipyard. It's truly an impressive construction, and this is just the one that builds fighters. The ones the Alliance has that constructs the Dreadnoughts and Carriers that are the pride of the Alliance Navy are even bigger.
"Please, call me Miranda. And it is this way," she leads you deeper into the vast plasteel labyrinth as if she had been born there.
"Revy," you reply, "I must say, I've been looking forward to this. The gladius is going to be the biggest thing I've worked on. And the one that packs the biggest punch."
She gives a pleasant laugh, a rehearsed one, you're sure, "it
is a very impressive little ship, as I'm sure you've seen from the early tests."
You enter a room with a large panoramic window that has a perfect view of the dock where the finished ships will exit, and the test targets that have been set up to demonstrate the Gladius to you and the Alliance VIPs who have already assembled around the snack table.
Just as you step up to the glass and take the glass of champagne offered, the dock door opens with a bright blue light and the first squadron of eight Gladius's fly out into the night sky. You almost wish you had built atmospheric fighters instead, this really lacks the roar of a proper flyby. It is impressive none the less, their sleek forms cut through the vacuum of space with an elegance that is far beyond what you've seen in recordings of the old Scimitars.
They turn with a swiftness that belies the great forward momentum they have already built up and swarm past the windows you and the other important people (it is still a bit strange to be counted in the same breath as admirals), only to turn again once more and blow up the test targets with an impressive display of precision.
The admirals try to hide their excitement, probably to maintain a better bargaining position, but you're not buying it. They want your figthers, and they want them bad.
You lose the Arc Reactor commission with Cord-Hislop as they are no longer building upgraded Scimitars. Instead, they will start producing Gladius's and give you a cut of the profits. They will keep producing 100 ships per quarter, but the Gladius has 10 rather than 5 arc reactors, and on top of that you gain 10% of the profits.
I am, however, somewhat unsure about how large CHA's profits on these fighters are. In ME it's stated that a fighter drive core costs 10,000,000 credits, and I'm inclined to think that that's at least 50% of the production cost of a fighter. This leads to a conservative production cost of 20,000,000, and if they're using 2.5 markup like you are, this becomes 30,000,000 in profit per fighter, which would net you 3,000,000/fighter. Does this seem fair?
Liara's message
"Shepard!" Liara says with surprise, though a smile quickly appears on the holograph of her face. FTL communication is pretty amazing.
"Liara, it's Revy, I've told you that already," you say, returning the smile. She hasn't even started talking yet, and you can still feel her enthusiasm rolling off her.
"Revy, then," she says with a hint of nervousness, "though I do feel it would be proper to be a little more formal. You
are paying my salary after all."
"I donated some money to the expedition, the expedition is paying your salary, and you are the head of the expedition. You're paying your own salary, Liara, no need to stand on ceremony."
"Ah, yes," she says, you think you can see a slight change in the coloration on her face, but with the hologram and alien anatomy, it's hard to say what that means, "that's technically true, I suppose."
"And in any case, that's not why I called you," you say, bringing a smile forward, "how is the expedition going. Finding anything interesting?"
"Yes!" She exclaims, joy overshadowing the former hints of uncertainty and shyness. "We have been progressing slowly to make sure we do not damage anything, despite the Protheans' amazing skill at construction, these things are more than fifty thousand years old, and we have to be careful." She shudders, "I sometimes have nightmares of finding an important Prothean artifact and breaking it because I wasn't careful enough."
You nod in recognition, and smile slightly at her rather particular nightmare.
"Like most archeological sites, it is buried under layers and layers of dirt and sand," she continues, "the people who lived here since have even built a city on top of it, which is what we are excavating now. But" she says, almost bubbling over with excitement, "we have deployed several ground penetrating radars, and we can say with absolute certainty that there is a structure down there which was free standing between forty and sixty thousand years ago. And," she adds with that delightful exhuberance she has, "what we can see of the architecture looks very much like the Prothean structures that have been found on other worlds."
"That's great," you say, your smile clearly infected by hers, "how long until you actually reach the Prothean ruins?"
She looks slightly unhappy with that question, "that's the thing. If we were to simply rush through these upper layers, we could get to the Prothean ruin in a month, maybe two, but that would mean destroying another possibly important archaeological site." She sighs, and smiles again, "but this
is interesting as well, and it will not delay us by more than six months, so we still have plenty of resources to make sure that we reach the real dig site."
"What kind of city is it that you have found?" You ask her.
"Oh, as far as we can tell, it is an otherwise unknown species, probably extinct. The civilization which was here at the time seems to be of a high iron age level, not unlike the Rome of ancient Human history."
Names
The names are subjects of discussion, not voting. If people are unhappy with them, we'll bring it to a vote.
Suggested name for the not-SMG: Plumbata
Suggested name for the micro-missiles: Sagitta
Suggested armor names: Legionary - Centurion - Prefect - Legate
HK's LOKI and YMIR mechs take their name from Nordic mythology. Perhaps roman gods and titans would be suitable for yours when the time comes.
You will also need something for your ground vehicles if you're going to compete.
Spare time (pick two)
[ ] Have L3 implant installed.
[ ] Continue Exercising
-[ ] Marial Arts
-[ ] Rock Climbing
-[ ] Parkour
[ ] Go to the Shooting range
[ ] Practice piloting (Legionary)
[ ] Practice piloting (Aircar)
[ ] Work on a College degree via the extranet.
-[ ] Specify subject.
[ ] Explore Landing
[ ] Spend time with family
[ ] Write-in
Research!
Revy: 4(+4*10-4*10)
Lab 0+I+II: 3(+3*10)
6 Research Teams: 6(+6*10+6*5)
Conrad: 1(+10)
Basic Research: 0(+30)
Total: 140d10 + 160, average: 930 (please check this)
[ ]
Basic Directed Energy Weapons (200): With the potential power production of the ISAR within reach, many traditional dictums regarding energy weapons come into question. Investigating Basic DEWs will allow you to build GARDIAN class lasers, as well as lay the foundation for both very large and very small laser weapons and other DEWs. (May be bought, 200 million credits)
[ ]
Advanced Fire Control VI (400): By attaching a millimeter band radar and advanced fire control VI to your power armor, you can adapt both shoulder mounted autocannon and micro-missiles to serve as a point defense system against incoming rockets and grenades.
[ ]
Frigates (400): Naively, you'd think that building frigates is just like building very large fighters. Sadly, the need for a crew, a command station, independent Mass Relay jumps and ordinary human waste, makes building frigates rather more complicated.
[ ]
Advanced Black boxing/FRM (800): Knowledge is power, guard it well. You have taken this old saying to heart, and even moderately sized intelligence agencies would have to devote non-trivial amounts of resources in order to crack your tech. The amateurs who call themselves your competitors wouldn't stand a chance of retrofitting it before you'd already made it obsolete.
[ ]
Basic Genemodding (98/200): It is a terrible tragedy that Humanity is still troubled by genetic diseases like Vrolik's Syndrome. The genes of infants are the building bricks of adults, and if you know what they all do, you can improve them. Time to pick up your LEGOs again. (This will let you build special facilities where people can get better babies. High upfront investment, decent pay out down the road).
[ ]
Medium Armor (400): The early tanks were nothing more than cars with a lot of steel plating stuck to them, the modern armor is a more refined beast, and a beast that would benefit more than a little from your careful touch and keen intellect.
[ ]
5 Meter Mech (400): You have an old, washed-out shirt that used to belong to your father with the inscription "Giant robots. Because life isn't dangerous enough." Now, you will have them.
[ ]
Superalloys (800): Your new ceramic armor plating was developed to be the best possible without emptying your R&D budget and beggaring your clients. However, as your company grows, the former ceases to be a concern and you can let your mind play wild with all the elements known to Sentience.
Now available
[ ]
Mk II Suit (500): Building your armor in easily replaceable components made from your advanced materials lets you make it so much stronger than the MK 1.5 could ever be. It also lets Cortana suit you up, which looks
awesome. Adding repulsors in the hands and feet gives you hitherto unimagined maneuverability. (I. Am. Iron. Man! [Well, ceramic man, but the other thing sounds better!])
[ ]
AI Licensing Preparation (800): The Galaxy has not had a particularly pleasant history of interactions with AIs, most notably the story of the Geth is perhaps one of the most ominous tales told in Council Space. Learning how to shut down computers is an essential step to take before any AI research can be started. (Develop EMP and electronic warfare suites.)
[ ]
Advanced Biotic Amp (400): You finally have the power to do what you've been thinking of ever since the doctor told you you were Biotic. The L2 implant has nasty side effects, the L3 implant is not as powerful, and not nearly as powerful as what you can now make. With this, Biotics as the Galaxy knows it may well be changed. (Get a biotic implant with the capability to go beyond what the canonical Biotics could do.)
[ ]
Adrenal Implant (400): Almost everyone has an anecdote about a mother lifting a car to get to their child, or a man pulling a tree out of the ground to bash in an assailant's head. Adrenaline's power to make people stronger and faster is well documented, and many people have wished it were possible to stimulate adrenalin production safely. Well, now it is. (The implant makes the user faster and stronger for a limited time. Overuse is bad for your health.)
[ ]
CASIE Implant (400): You were never the most adroit social butterfly, and many times, you wished that you could just ask a computer what the right ting to say in this instance was, or what that guy really meant with that comment. Well, now you can. (This implant gives savvy advise in social situations.)
[ ]
Advanced Neural Interface (400): With your neural interface, you are limited only the speed of your thoughts. But really, limits are for lesser people, you should not have such limits, even if your thoughts are swifter than anyone else's. (This interface lets you process information faster than you would otherwise be able to, and make computer-assisted decisions in the blink of an eye.)
Conrad's Special Projects
[ ]
The invisible man (400): The stealth system that was installed in the prototype the Berkeley students presented at the power armor conference was not good enough to fool Alliance security, but then it
was Conrad piloting the thing. While working on your advanced ceramic, you've had some ideas of your own on how to incorporate digital camouflage at a fundamental level. (Make near-invisible versions of your vehicles. Sound, thermal and radar detection will still be issues, but issues exist to be solved!)
[ ]
The black fucking gun (400): Conrad knows pretty much how the "Black Hole Gun, but not really" that they entered into the competition works. It does, however, have more than a few safety issues, and you really don't want a gun that will make General Alexander call you and ask what the hell happened to his entire right flank. The core idea is good, but the problem is that Conrad, smart though he is, is very bad at adapting his designs to the constraints posed by reality. (Build the M-490 Blackstorm, though you get to pick a new name for it if you'd like.)
[ ]
Time is an illusion (XXX): Have Conrad and his team continue the work he started in his dissertation. Time manipulation of any kind would be pretty awesome, but this is as bleeding edge as research gets, and you have no idea what's on the other side, or how far away it is. (This may or may not give you limited control over time. It may or may not have other prerequisite techs.)
-----
A/N: I was unsure what to do with the AI Licencing Preparation tech to make it not a speedbump. Alternate suggestions are welcome if you don't like what I've done with it.
Regarding the relationship with Brian, anything in particular you want to see happen with it? Because of the format, I obviously can't show you everything that's going on, so if there's no news, assume that they're having a nice time and doing all the appropriate things.
There were two important references this time! One is to a tabletop rpg, the other to a tv show. +50 reserach points each!
