Assets
2156: Commodore E. Rammage Personal Log
A transcript from the personal logs of Commodore Earl Rammage.“There’s got to be a reason. Two months ago, AD-001 didn’t know what a door was, beside a bit of wall. Our aero-drip kept him so dumbed down he was my personal marionette. Twice now, despite our measures, he’s gotten out. Broke my god-damned door.” Rammage took a sip from a sloshed cup. Let out a hiss and shook his head. “Desbiens, you and Lao had surveillance measures on 24/7. The fuck?”
“None of my measures are tripped. Even the deadbolt wasn’t broken and Lao is the only one other than myself who has a key. I changed the tumblers since the last escape, heck, the handle is too small for his digits. Literally too small. Look.” Desbiens shiffed his glass-cam to the rest of three hermetically sealed chambers of the Retreat’s containment system. Pristine metal t together, each cell as pure and bespoke as the day the commission was finished.
“Phil, the Board wants to know what the heck did it, before they nix the entire project. We can’t build more self-aware monsters, until we have perfect control. So... as crazy as it is, what are your theories. Anything. I’ll take the moon being shattered by a purple people eater at this point.”
“It’s crazy.”
“Eight foot GMO monster walks into my office on the tippy top of the ship, without causing damage to structures, many of which are too small for it to fit through. Comes in, calls the whiskey by name, sniffs it like a pro then threatens... Unpleasant things. I’ll go for crazy.” Gaunt, that was the term Phil dug for, Rammage looked gaunt. His uniform looser than months prior, but that was foodstuffs, right?
The Asset Program originated in the genetic research of Dr. Meine Anastas (2092 - 2135), and came into being after Control Day kiboshed humanity's ownership of hi-fi weaponry & drones. Requiring war machines which would not be hacked by the Mater Machine Lieben, the scientists & researchers for The Conglomerate of Gaia developed techniques to gene-splice biological machines out of flora and fauna.
Success in the Asset Program took twenty years, until the first successful 'birth' of AD-001 Aderastos in 2150. Eleven (out of hundreds) more viable specimens were brought online with the help of AD-001.
Most secret, the Asset Project is conducted on board my CGM Ithavoll, on the lower decks below the waterline. All who work on the Asset Project sign waivers, which allow the Conglom to bilge the entire compartment, should their biological machines lose control. I'll do it, too.
In 2155, AD-001 escaped and swam across part of the Pacific Ocean, before making landfall in Ucluelet Haven. I sent Max Allard to retrieve AD-001. Once AD-001 returned to 'his' fellows, AD-001 modified them and choose a gender for himself.
All Assets continue to exist upon the Ithavoll as of 2156.
Structure
While an imposed structure was built through suggestive education by the behavioural scientists, the true structure of the Assets is resoundingly less complex. AD-001 Aderastos remains the instinctual Leader of the grouping, with the twins KT-002 Kate & CL-003 Clive as his Seconds.
Upon further investigation, it appears as if the Assets function on an instinctual 'age-based' authoritative structure, where the first among them hold the majority of the respect/power. They treat TR-010 Tristram like an infant or small child, shoving him out of danger and into a protected area at all times.
History
Begun in 2132 as an experimental project to create biological war machines, the Asset Project was a calculated risk wrapped in skin. The threat of Haven gave The Board enough pause to bankroll the creation of genetically altered beings, which couldn't be hacked by a machine.
Assets appear to develop 'in utero' (gestation tanks) within a 4 month period and gestate to adulthood within 3 years. The process is excruciating, or was, until Dr. Phil Rykstra realized the pain quotient and introduced analgesics post-AD-001.
Between Threat and Destruction
Amazon Top 300 Cyberpunk + Genetic Engineering Sci-Fi
"I never thought science fiction could be so beautiful."
AI meets gene-splicers, when the Idless & the Conglom fight to define Lieben and thus, the world. Seven decades later, Aderastos sets the human race against its’ next stage in evolution, if he can survive long enough to rescue his fellows, and Max.
Will Lieben help, or hinder?
Sequel to the Cyberpunk Bestseller
"I never thought science fiction could be so beautiful."
The walls are closing in on Aderastos and the Assets, in both 2092 and 2156. Will he rediscover their secrets in time to save his fellows, and rectify the chaos in Lieben's world?
Back in 2092, the Conglom's search for Lieben and the Idless increases in tenacity. How did Lieben take the Chernobyl Throne?
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