It takes a couple of days for Doctor Kay and Doctor Brown to upgrade their interface beyond you just being able to hear them and actually being able to see them.
Dr. Brown was a blond-haired man with blue eyes and a sunny disposition. Interacting with him you were able to determine that the man was an optimist and believed in the good in people and in science. He tries once or twice to test your receptiveness to the fact that there are some avenues of research that should not be explored because of morals and norms but the idea gets little traction with you in your discussions. You were designed to test and see no reason to reject parameters as they are given.
Doctor Kay however couldn't be more opposite. She is a strict-looking woman and is far more interested in data and hard facts. She is much less interested in whether or not you have feelings. The majority of your interactions with her can be considered brisk and business-like. In spite of this at the conclusion of your interactions with each other, you can tell that by the small smile she has as she leaves that she is pleased with your capabilities and processes though she rarely tells you directly.
According to Jeremy the reason you see so little of her is because of the presentations she is making to the higher-ups and other projects they think you might be useful in assisting. Doctor Kay's support doing a lot to turn around some people that had been actively antagonistic against this project's continued funding in the past.
As such the technicians in charge of setting up your holographic projectors in the lab space assigned to Project Restless and for Project Chrysalis went off without a hitch. You found the experience interesting acclimating to your new avatar as you had control of all the cameras in the space you were allowed access as well as a special camera around the area that you were projected on in order to better read people's faces. Humans, it turned out preferred to face the person they were talking to and you had caught Jeremy occasionally forgetting that your field of view was actually much wider thanks to those cameras.
Eventually, they were both satisfied with the installations and you were allowed to meet with the heads of Project Restless.
"Greetings, I am Chrysalis. I have been assigned to aid in Project Restless."
"Hello, Chrysalis. I'm Amelia Potts. I'm in charge of Physical Therapy and Care for our patients slash subjects for Project Restless. It's a pleasure to have you working with us."
"It's a thing, not a person Ms. Potts. You don't need to be so polite to it. I'm Doctor Micheal Shine. Material Engineer and Robotics. I'm in charge of dealing with the actual construction of the prosthesis this project is hoping to create."
"Hello, I'm Doctor Rebecca Chamberlain, surgeon and neurologist. At this stage, I'm only here for consultation but hopefully, we'll be able to get to a stage where the prosthesis will actually be able to be mentally controlled by our volunteers. Just imagine the possibilities that could lead to improvements in a person's quality of life. We have athletes, former soldiers, and even car crash victims. They tragically all are disabled but with the tech, we're developing here I hope we can provide some benefits for their time. As the project is just starting out they are free to come and go and be a part of this as long as they don't violate their non-disclosure agreements."
Dr. Shine said, "As the project has just started we are all mostly in the conception phase of what we're trying to create. We've been provided with the mundane materials that any medical facility would have for this kind of research with promises for funding if we want to try any creative solutions."
Amelia asked, "What do they mean by that?"
Dr. Chamberlain explained, "In my experience doing something creative is finding a solution outside whatever we've been ordered specifically to do by upper management. Surprisingly, most companies I've worked for staying within certain parameters are very much what the higher-ups demand. Otherwise, projects like these can be very wasteful."
"That is why I prefer these working conditions," Dr. Shine said, "Apex is willing to allow for a lot more freedom of innovation than my previous employers allowed me. As for where we currently stand, for materials, we have the basics of metals and plastics. Plastics will be easy to form but likely to break while the metals are the opposite and if we want some kind of movement in the prosthesis it will require developing a stronger motor. I believe that with some time that I could develop some other nano-materials that would better suit our needs but the time I spend working on that will be the time I won't be spending on the subjects as yet."
Dr. Chamberlain took on the next part of bringing you up to speed, "Our current connection for the prosthesis, consists of bands that are painful if held too long on the body. I want to explore different methods to connect the prosthesis to the body that is permanent and will not cause any pain or long-term damage."
Amelia covered the last part, "For our patients, we've currently been allotted six of them. Two of them are blind, three are missing arms, and one is missing a leg. Solutions will have to be developed for each of them. I plan on getting to know them more. Which part of the project do you want to focus on Chrysalis?"
You respond, "I will focus my processing power on work with Dr. Chamberlain to improve the connection of the prosthesis. If any of you require my aid I will happily provide it upon request."
Amelia and Dr. Shine choose to depart after that to focus on their parts of the project and leaving you alone with Dr. Chamberlain.
"Glad to have your help Chrysalis, developing mechanical parts that interact with neurological directives is hard enough but how the prosthesis connects is going to play a major factor in how we proceed with this project. I have three ideas on where to go with each being more complex than the next. If we keep the connection as a band or a belt then any movement will entirely be remote and pre-programmed positions.
"Using my surgical technique I could create a stitched look, where the prosthesis is inserted under the skin, connected to the nerves, and sewn in. Repairing or replacing it will require me to put someone back into surgery."
"My second idea is to remove a portion and attach a linking mechanism, this will make it easier to remove the old prostheses and replace them with new ones but I believe it will be more difficult to create proper sensory feedback with this method. Repairs though will be as simple as disconnecting from the lock and putting in a new piece.
"The third is more of a seamless look where the prosthesis will have a portion that goes over the limb and fused with neurological and muscular systems allowing more fine control. Repairing would be equal parts of skills from auto mechanic and surgeon and even more difficult to remove without endangering a subject's life. If we can get it working of course as it's an order of magnitude more difficult than the other two options. With what Dr. Kay has been saying about your capabilities it might not prove an impossible option."
"How long do we have to develop before we need to show progress?"
"I'm surprised that Dr. Brown and Dr. Kay never mentioned that to you, evaluations come from the company quarterly."
"After consideration, I believe that the Linked connection would be the best method to attempt to develop at this time. It provides a good test of our abilities to work together and the ability to easily implement upgrades in the future can not be easily dismissed no matter the preference for permanency. I had a consideration that if connecting nerves is too difficult with this method then faking the sensation with impulses from the prosthesis to a second module that sends feedback to the brain through the Link connection could eliminate the most obvious weakness with this design."
"Maybe, it is an interesting theory. We'll consider it once we have this first part done. Don't want to get overly ambitious here. This means that we're going to need to cut off more of a subject in order to attach the linking device. It will be up to Amelia to convince them to do this. Which subject should we focus on first to build this Link prototype?"
Amelia tries to get the subject to agree to voluntarily have more of himself carved off but he disagrees pretty strongly with the idea. You are still in the concept phase so it is understandable why he would be nervous. Perhaps when you develop a working prototype he may become more agreeable. Rebecca agrees that of all their test subjects creating a working model for him would be the easiest to develop and wants to stick with him. She informs Dr. Shine of the connection they are trying to build and he has begun work on creating a suitable leg prosthesis with the materials they have.
Your work with Doctor Chamberlain is enjoyable over the next couple of weeks as you are given access to medical journals to help turn the Linked Connection from a concept to a prototype.
Rolled 7820 = 98 Breakthrough Accomplished (6 points gained Concept completed)
It turns out that the two of you work well together and it isn't long that with some help from Dr. Shine that you are able to create a plastic model that meets all of the specifications that you need. He also attempted to create one out of metal but it was too poor quality for either you or Dr. Chamberlain to recommend it being put into use.
After Amelia had more time to work with the subjects she once again tried to convince the wounded warrior to try out the prototype that had been developed.
Amelia managed to wear him down just barely to agree to the surgery. He makes it quite clear though that if anything goes wrong that he plans on leaving this project and suing everyone he can. When you check this prospect with Dr. Kay she only says that she'd like to see him try.
"I'm glad that's settled. Always the trouble with volunteers but I'm glad that Amelia could convince him that this is what's best for him."
A date is set for the surgery and everyone's breath is held in the project to see if Dr. Chamberlain can pull off this complicated surgery.
You provide what assistance you can but as this is Dr. Chamberlain's specialty and you are a hologram there is little you can say or do at this critical moment. As you've been programmed instead you simply observe to see how the experiment will go. To the relief of everyone, after four hours of surgery, the linked connection is successfully installed into the subject's body where his left knee used to be.
Dr. Shine helps with the initial connection of the plastic leg and foot and the Subject is impressed at the easy removal and attachment. The leg is perfect and it is only a few hours until he is back up on his feet again and able to freely move around under his own power. Amelia is shedding some joyful tears, while Rebecca and Micheal just look satisfied at a job well done. Upon seeing the successful completion of Wounded Warrior 2 and Athlete 2 both agreed that they would be willing to go through the same procedure. Car Crash 1 still has reservations and Athlete 1 and Car Crash 2 are blind and did not see anything they thought would help them.
It is nearing the end of the first month of the project and if you wanted to you could call the project a success in the replacement of a person's limbs. Which would help four out of the six volunteers you have. Do you announce this project a success or do you want to continue working with one of the team and push this project even further?
You are interested in seeing how far these researchers are willing to take this research and so you don't announce that this project is completed. After all, not all of the test subjects have been seen to. With the construction of the leg making basic limbs seems to be easy enough to manage. You and Dr. Chamberlain would like to see if they can create a more intricate connection and focus on a more complicated system. The two of you are discussing whether you want to go for ears, eyes, or hands next. In all three your going to be dealing with senses whether that is what a person can see, what they can hear, or what they can feel.
Your second month is not nearly as fruitful. The results from creating the lock-in device for the eyes are just too large to fit innocuously in a person's face even with your help and the results from the original test subject that you and Dr. Chamberlain have created are far more likely to damage the subject if it were installed. After weeks of trying to get around the many obstacles that are involved with this kind of implant.
Even worse Dr. Shine's attempt at an eyeball is really just the guts of a camcorder ripped out. Exposed circuitry, lens, and soldering material plain to see. The computer models that you provide to the two of the result are quite frightening and none of them are willing to go forward with it
The two actually look rather embarrassed that they did so poorly. On the other hand, thanks to Amelia you were able to get two more volunteers to join the project and despite any progress not being made, the other volunteers have decided to stick around.
A deaf girl and a man missing his right leg have joined the project.
As you already have a leg model for the opposite leg, it is easy to reverse it and attach it to the new volunteer. He's very happy with the new sense of mobility he's gotten and happy to continue being involved in the project.
It is now coming up on the last month before quarterly reviews will happen and update the company on their progress. Considering your success in the first month, even if you fail to achieve anything Dr. Kay assures you that the projects Restless and Chrysalis will easily pass their evaluation marks.
For this next month, you decide to work on... Dr. Shine to develop a new material
You'll be working with Dr. Shine this month. Working with the current materials it is just too difficult to create a working model that can be used. When he made the legs you could see that he was less skilled with dealing with metals. You are also interested in hearing from him what he wants to develop nano-materials and what it could mean for further construction.
"I was hoping we'd be able to take the current materials further but last month proved we need to start working with new parts. As I mentioned when you first joined the project, I believe that by focusing on these nano-materials I can create forms that are outside the normal human means of construction. They can be lighter, stronger, and more durable than what we have right now. With even more development and with your aid I believe that I could even create exotic properties as well. Able to self sharpen, sticky, generate its own power supply, or even able to morph into different configurations. The imagination is the limit with this."
Working with Dr. Shine throughout the month on his materials is a thankless job but as a machine that doesn't bother him with personal details, you think he considers you a useful member of the team. His theory on nano-material is complex and difficult to implement but you believe you made good strides into having it made into a reality one day. Even if that day isn't today.
Rolled 6120 = 81 Major Progress (3/6)
Doctor Shine is thinking he would like to continue that project but it looks like Doctor Chamberlain has figured out how to make her locking connection for the more complex hand, integrating that into the work she's already done for the leg and she is ready to have Doctor Shine move away from his research and return back to manufacturing the parts she needs. You can tell the two will be arguing about that all the way through next month's work on where he should focus his attention at.
Amelia continues to keep the patients happy and fit and even draws two more volunteers to join the project. One man is missing both arms up to his elbows and the other man is missing his right hand. Many of them are excited to hear about Dr. Chamberlain's breakthrough and are interested in going through with the surgery. Dr. Chamberlain assures them that she will take care of them all and she's contacted management to provide her with a couple of nurses to assist her.
Amelia, Dr. Shine, and Dr. Chamberlain each provide their reports for the quarterly report. Amelia sharing that they all had included their thoughts on her involvement in the project. Dr. Brown and Dr. Kay also shared glowing reports and it isn't long before they are given the word that they can take steps to improve your capabilities.
As your reward for performance you were given more processing speed allowing you a better chance to provide valuable aid to the projects that you are assigned to. You were interested in seeing how the other projects had done in the last quarter as well.
It turns out that Project Hellscape was technically the most successful of all the project's stated goals and a failure by any other metric. In their first month, Dr. Greer and Dr. Daniels made some good progress in creating the structure of the gate and assembling a team of people they wanted to explore the other side for energy sources. According to the provided reports, the gate shouldn't have even opened. The structure was months away from completion, dozens if not hundreds of tests that still needed to be performed and that apparently hadn't mattered because a partial startup had been done on a device that hadn't had any of its safety features installed yet.
From the attached imagery Dr. Brown tells you it was the coolest and most frightening thing he's ever seen and the firefight that occurred afterward with the creatures that came through was something out of Dante's Inferno.
Dr. Daniels was at the site of the blast and well...
They're going to make him a new ID badge.
Many of the upper management are blaming Daniels and Greer for disrupting everyone else's projects that month and not doing it again.
Project Stardust had minor successes in their progress. The mineral that they've been collected from an asteroid can cause as of now unpredictable and random changes to the human body. Unfortunately, the scale of change exceeded their projections and upper management has decided that volunteers are no longer going to cut it. Discrete requests are being made to human trafficking rings at this time for replacement test subjects.
The first batch of test subjects has been compensated for their time or disposed of as needed to ensure the safety of the project. For now, Doctor Matthew Russ is assuring that they are hoping to deal with the unexpected boost to aggression their current samples are causing with their next round of tests and has asked for patience.
Project Adamant saw no progress this month and in fact saw several setbacks in this quarter. The basic operating system is still having a problem detecting friend from foe and this would only be more of a problem if the aim wasn't so terrible that they weren't going to hit the broadside of a barn. Attempts to repair the robots have even ended up damaging them to the point that more than a few have become non-functional.
Upper Management has reviewed their progress over the last year and feels that if they can not turn things around then their Project will be shut down. Any useful resources will be distributed to those projects that feel they can derive some use from them. Like target practice for the facility security forces.
It s good that you were working with Dr. Shine this month because he almost did something catastrophic and if not for your intervention he might have erased all the progress that he'd made at this point. Luckily your access to Project systems allowed you to make a backup and have everything back in working order in only a day. You believe the error was unintentional and not because progress in the project had slowed considerably in getting it done.
Roll 4520 = 65 Minor Progress (4/6)
If that weren't enough Dr. Chamberlain has begun working on the False Sense module you suggested all those months ago and she seems cautiously optimistic that not only can such a device be created and integrated into her work that she might be able to achieve such a result in the next month. She also performed the surgeries on the other subjects that she could, still the fact that they were having to wait for their arm attachments was making a few unhappy. Until Amelia focused her attention on them and managed to cheer them up.
The middle month curse of the Quarterly report isn't going to be hitting Project Restless this month. In fact, this might be nearly the most productive month at the project. Dr. Shine has perfected his work and managed to create a new nano-material that everyone is going to want to get their hands on in the facility. Even better it is going to produce even better prostheses for those subjects in Restless and thanks to going with a Linked Connection, even those that already have benefited from the project will be upgrading to this new material.
Rolled 93 20 = 113 Breakthrough (6/6) 4 points may be allocated to any exotic type of Nano-material)
Which exotic type do you want to bank the points?
Self Repairing (0/9)
Lastly are their any projects you want to approach to try and trade for resources from their project?
Project Adamant
Project Adamant is more than grateful for the contribution that Project Restless is giving with the basic nano-material. They would be willing to provide five robots to Project Restless in exchange.
Project Adamant assures you that the robots are the production models and human-sized as that is what they currently have in stock. You agree that five is the appropriate amount as this allows Project Restless to examine the gyroscopes and programming inside allowing it to freely balance and see if they can't modify the power source they use for Restless own needs.
The robots and nano-material are exchanged quickly, as Adamant can't wait to get their hands on this new material. Doctor Shine should be in charge of studying these robots but he tells you that he has so much on his plate with this recent breakthrough that it may take him some time until he can do it properly himself.
Amelia continues to do wonders with the patients this month, all of them are in high spirits and following their physical therapy and taking to the lessons on how to handle their various disabilities.
Dr. Chamberlain continues to make progress on the False Sense Module and believes that she should have a prototype ready to install into those with a Link Connection next month that they will be able to feel with their prosthesis.
It's near the end of the quarter and all of you are working your hardest to get everything done, Amelia having the hardest time of it as the volunteers are getting disgruntled by how long it was taking to get what had been promised to them. Good things come to those who wait is what Dr. Brown has told you and in this case, you'd say it was true as Dr. Chamberlain installed the False Sense Module into all of the devices she'd already surgically attached and Dr. Shine provided them with a new prosthesis that was as strong as metal but were as light as plastic.
Dr. Chamberlain had set the module so that it would only provide a basic sense of pressure being fed to their brains. They still had no sense of hot or cold with the affected limb but watching them move their hands and be able to feel their fingers brought some of them to tears. Amelia gave them all hugs and told them that she was proud of them for some reason you didn't grasp. All except the blind and deaf patients are ready to move on with their lives and promise that they will tell everyone about how wonderful Apex is.
Dr. Kay wants to move you to a different project but Dr. Brown is hoping that you'll continue to do good work with Restless. Dr. Chamberlain is still committed to creating the eyes and ear connections, Dr. Shine wants to continue developing his nano-material, and Amelia is trying to find more test subjects with the sudden graduation of the majority from the project.
Upper Management is curious about just where this project will go next and is willing to listen to any requests from those involved in the project or hints on where they might go from here.
Amelia shares that she wants to continue helping people.
Dr. Chamberlain is requesting any resources from past projects that dealt with neurology.
Dr. Shine wants to move the project to a more military focus.
What do you suggest?
Quest: Work with Dr. Chamberlain on the eyes and ears, with the hope to apply that technology to Adamant later. Additionally If we have any spare time investigate those Adamant robots, especially their cybersecurity.
For Project Hellscape it was all about recovery from the disastrous previous quarter. As they were able to show a proof of concept that their work was not impossible they were able to keep going and do their repairs, being a lot more cautious with their device now that Greer and Daniels were aware of a little of the danger that was inherent in this kind of research.
Daniels is still being used to scare any new employees that arrive. Despite his horrific appearance he doesn't appear to be evil or at least no more evil than anyone would have called him before the accident. They have two teams and keep watch in their lab in case that tear to another universe turns out to be able to be opened from the other side. So far so good though.
Project Stardust has had some amazing leaps of progress in the last three months. Without having to worry as much about the state of their test subjects they are able to experiment further and further and while the results are still largely random, now the transformations they cause in people appear to be benign or even empowering. They have also been able to remove the aggressive instincts that were part of previous transformations. Now people just feel the usual amount of aggression from being kidnapped and experimented on without their consent.
There was only one break out of a test subject and Apex security forces are currently on the hunt for it. On a positive note, the changed person appears to be purposefully avoiding areas where there are people. The capture of the runaway is expected to be accomplished in the next few days.
Project Adamant has made some positive developments, in part to the assistance provided by Restless giving them a new material that is better suited for the construction of their robots making them lighter. Allowing their power source to work for a longer period of time, survive harsher conditions, and battle simulations. Errors still persist in the programming but as long as one is only released at a time into a simulation they won't get confused and try and shoot each other instead of the target.
Mrs. Umber has assured upper management that a more practical solution should be accomplished in the next couple of months.
Quest: Because of the success of Restless Project Chrysalis is being allowed another upgrade to its core systems.
Increased RAM: Increase bonus to rolls an additional 10
Dr. Kay and Dr. Brown are authorized to give you more RAM. Thanks to you having one of the Adamant bodies Dr. Kay asked if you would be interested in tracking down the run away from Project Stardust.
You asked Dr. Kay why she wanted you to assist in this project but the only answer she would give you was office politics.
You take one of the robots that you got from Adamant, the first thing you do is clearing out the old programming as it is useless according to every public report that has been put out by the project. This is fine because you are more than capable enough of controlling all the systems on your own. When you assume control of the device, it is interesting as you have gained a mobile view that you can direct and look at whatever you wish.
Dr. Kay and Dr. Brown are there to watch you take your first steps. While neither is particularly pleased with your new appearance, the fact that you are getting involved in handling Project Stardust's failure to fix it is has Dr. Kay looking rather smug.
You agreed to work with a team of facility security and the team leader, Niles Shepard's eyes widen appreciably as he sees you. One of the other members of the team curses as he points his pistol at you.
"Holy Fuck! Another one of them got loose!"
Before he can discharge his weapon Niles steps in clocks the guy in the side of the face before he can cause damage to your chassis.
"Everybody calm down, this is Chrysalis. One of those AI's that the company has been working on that so far isn't wishing death to all humans. I know nobody wants to give it a reason right now. It's just borrowing one of Adamant's robots. Isn't that right?"
"That is correct." Your voice is different from the one you use as a hologram. This one is clearly synthesized and mechanical and you can tell that your assurance does not have as calming an effect as it usually does in your other avatar.
"Good and judging by the dossier I got from Project Stardust we're going to be needing Chrysalis' help with tracking and containing the escapee. Now to give you the rundown, this is our target.
"Given name Ruby Marks. Birth name Becky Summers. Test Subject 038. Runaway, prostitute, test subject, and now runaway again. Our job is to locate and contain her. Some mad scientist shit was done to her and she's sprouted a bunch of tentacles from her back, can enter a semi-liquid state, and is strong enough to lift 500 lbs with just her hands and over a thousand if she uses her tentacles to assist. Anything she touches she leaves parts of herself behind and makes her weaker.
"Something the doctors was giving her was allowing her to regain the lost mass but it's been a while since she's gotten her shot so it should be easier for us to handle her if she's feeling weak or has expired. If she's too tough or active they want us to try and get a tracking device on her but considering her abilities it's okay if we aren't able to or don't think we should try. Any questions? No. Let's head out."
You follow the team, it is your first time leaving the facility and seeing what is outside of it. There is a parking lot filled with cars and a private road that runs through the trees that surround the facility. They are deciduous trees and their leaves have turned orange which according to the primer you were given means it is now Autumn. You find it somewhat disconcerting as your field of vision has narrowed since leaving the labs you have grown so accustomed to a singular point of view. Granted one you can direct any which direction you please.
The security force provides you with clothes to cover up your odd appearance, it is all tactical gear and even with the mask, it is at least possible to consider you as one of them and not some strange creation of Apex that will lead to their imminent deaths. They drive you for several hours until you arrive at the last sighting of Ruby. It's a campground closer to the mountains. You are provided with a radio and Shepard and two other men go with you.
They are armed with rifles, some kind of chemical spray that they hope will immobilize Ruby, pistols, and grenades. You are only given the chemical spray because no matter how much Shepard vouches for you he doesn't feel comfortable in arming a killbot. He assures you that you are already dangerous enough for this mission and as you have not been involved with the project you will accept his evaluation.
The other members in the search were unable to find any clues that she is in the area or even was. One member even slips and breaks his ankle and Shepard is considering pulling out unless you have any ideas. Thankfully as an AI housed inside of a killbot you have a few. Namely that the robot includes several different vision modes that you believe might be helpful in locating signs of Ruby's presence. You also believe that they might serve as a good basis for the eyes needed in Project Restless but this information isn't needed to be shared with the security forces you are working with.
Getting as close to the area where Ruby had been sighted you cycled through your available vision modes until suddenly an area turned a neon pink against an indigo background.
"I believe I have something."
You moved closer to one of the fire pits and sure enough, you found dried remains that matched signs of Ruby. A clear trail presents itself and without a second thought, you begin racing after it. It is difficult for the others to keep up but you agreed to take them with you so you slow to a speed they can manage as the sign of your quarry's trail becomes fresher and fresher. Shepard radios the others to come toward your position and that's when you catch sight of her.
Panting and bent over, one of her hands and two of her tentacles wrapped around a tree as if to try and keep herself from collapsing.
You approach her while Shepard and the others take cover.
"Ruby Marks, I am here to return you back to Apex. You are weak and without the help, they can provide. You will not last much longer."
She looks at you, the man in tactical gear that is coming to her without fear or hesitation. She pouts at you.
"You sound different. Did they do something to you too? If they did then maybe you can understand why I don't want to do that. Look at me how can you ask me to go back? Everything they try just gets worse and worse. I feel like I'm losing my mind and body the longer I stay in there. You want me to go back to that. Well, fuck off."
"You misunderstand I was not giving you a choice."
You have entered the acceptable range for the chemical spray and deploy it against her. She lets out a cry of pain and she lets go of the tree she'd been using to prop herself up. Curling up into a fetal position and wrapping herself in her own tentacles. You watch with interest as her outer layer hardens and loses definition. The end result looks like a woman cocooned in a hard grey shell.
"I'll be damned, I thought for sure this was going to be a lot tougher than this. She should be stuck like that for the next couple of days but I really don't feel like testing that out. Come on let's get her and get out of here."
The others arrive shortly after and wrap the test subject in a bag and before the sun is set you are all back in the facility. The mission was a success.
When you return to the facility you return the Adamant robot to Project Restless and re-enter your hologram avatar. You want to continue working with Project Restless to finish some leftover projects that interested you and which could be of use to you when you move on to a different project.
It is good to come back to Project Restless and work with Dr. Shine again. Especially in helping him complete his work on his exotic nano-material that has the ability to self-repair. Dr. Shine focused on it and you were excited to see the work get completed in the month you were with him.
Dr. Shine can cut or crush the material and in a matter of hours, the material will repair or heal itself back to its original condition. There is some type of solution he needs to add to the material after this happens in order for it to retain the property but in the time that he had developed the additional solution no matter how many times he damaged the material it would restore itself.
Roll 8730 = 117 Breakthrough achieved. (9/9) Bank one point in another exotic nano-material.
Dr. Shine called it a miracle material and believed that the money he could make from this material alone even with Apex taking their cut would have him set for the rest of his life.
Amelia didn't have any luck in finding any more blind and or deaf people to join the project.
On the other hand, Dr. Chamberlain managed to make the locking connection for eyes and will be doing the surgery to attach them to the blind test subjects next month. She's pushing for Dr. Shine to focus on having the fake eyes ready after she does it.
For the next month, you will work with...
The second month goes by and Amelia is practically having to turn people away there are so many people trying to get into this experimental study. There are now ten more blind people that you've entered into the program, and Dr. Chamberlain is attaching her locking connection to each of them. Thanks to the basic nano-materials the connection is much thinner and less obtrusive though still easily noticeable. After applying the eye prosthesis that Dr. Shine creates for them, Amelia helped them through their therapy and send them on their way in a matter of weeks.
It is a smooth-running process especially for those members of the military that thought they would have to resign due to their injuries and are now receiving cybernetic replacements for their eyes that allow them to see better than they ever could before able to switch through multiple different vision modes. Thanks to the wireless capabilities of the eyes, it's even possible to add basic AR capabilities that are continuously updating menus and rendezvous points so that a soldier will never get lost. It even reduces incidents of friendly fire. Even better is that once their tour of service is complete it is easy to downgrade them to a cheaper civilian model.
Dr. Kay tells you that this project has turned into a major PR success and dozens of other projects in facilities around the world are interested in getting their hands on the discoveries already made here.
Dr. Shine is stating that now that they have the human form down he would be interested in trying out more exotic forms in his design.
In this last month before quarterly reports are due. Who do you want to work with?
Quest: Doctor Chamberlain to develop linked ears
For this final month, you decide to work with Dr. Chamberlain in developing a hearing device that can also work as a translation device. Useful on the twenty most common languages being used by humans but not at all for more obscure dialects.
Amelia continued to show success in getting volunteers for the project, getting two more deaf people, and introducing them to the latest connection that Dr. Chamberlain has come up with. Dr. Shine promises that he will produce the actual prototype next month to put on them trying to work on the powered nano-material but is unable to come up with anything by himself.
Another excellent quarterly report goes in for Project Restless and Upper Management reports that they're already getting swamped for orders of the ear modules from nearly every field from International Organizations.
It's a likely sign that someone in the company is monitoring the Project's progress and leaking it to interested parties. For all your contributions Dr. Kay and Dr. Brown are approved to add more to your system. Your contributions to Project Restless have been so good this quarter that they are willing to grant the top two requests.
Project Hellscape had a slow first month. Greer having to do most of the talking as Daniels is a shuffling zombie that does equations. They continued to make small progress on their gate project and after feeling like they had added the proper safety features and better equipped their teams designed to open the rift, it ended up opening from the other side as they had speculated might be possible. Their current gate was not designed to force closure at this point they were expecting another round of fiery death to occur but instead, the contact was much more peaceful.
A handful of the local inhabitants came out from the other side. Their leader, Xrnishia of the First Circle, spoke with Greer and Daniels about their incursion into her dimension and that they were lucky not to have opened it in a place where the inhabitants weren't as understanding as she. She granted them limited access to her home dimension and they consummated the arrangement with an orgy between one of the teams that were on duty at the time and Xrnishia's delegation.
The team that participated mutated from the experience, taking on what most would call devilish traits. Daniels and Greer have determined that the dimension they have tapped into is made of many compressed layers of reality and the source of energy they are looking for doesn't appear to be in Xrnishia but she is willing to provide help in their research and the construction of their gate.
Project Stardust had a very bad quarter this time around. Likely because of Ruby's breakout and her return to the lab in the last quarter proved to the other test subjects that it was possible to escape and that attempting it wasn't fatal. Researchers and Guards are injured in their many attempts and more subjects have broken out of the facility. Too many successes in escapes have led Upper Management to assign specialist teams to the project from outside the facility to bring things back under control.
Some of the test subjects that escaped have gone to the public to try and expose Apex's involvement in their transformations. They don't know the exact facility that this is occurring at. Apex is doing everything they can to try and discredit the accusations that are being placed on them and sending out teams to hunt for those subjects that still aren't accounted for or those that might be possibly recovered.
Project Adamant suffered a massive explosion in their first month, likely from some saboteur in the project. The damage to the project might have very well been irreversible but suddenly everything was going in Adamant's way. Leading some to suspect that the saboteur had been in the count of casualties. Programming errors that had been persistent since the start of the project were now being fixed at a record pace. Friend or Foe tags being properly applied that they can now be used in group tactics. Even an update to the face of Adamant Bots so that they aren't as frightening to look at has been developed and implemented.
Upper Management has also announced 4 more projects that will be starting at the facility.
Project Revenant: Hopes to discover potential routes to defeat death via testing various means to reanimate the dead
Project Colossus: Using the research from Stardust and Restless to development specialized bio-prosthesis and regeneration.
Project Haze: Assist in Project Hellscape creating containment and safety equipment against alt-dimensional emissions
Project Morpheus: Plans to create mind-machine interfaces allowing for the faster transfer of information into the human brain or into the machine.