• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

System Unknown Ch. 2 & Ch. 3 Return

NiceNecromancer

New member
System Unknown

Imperia Worksite

Year 2322

[Writers notes: After the events of Veni, Vedi, Vici, Imperia]

Buildings made from concrete huddle in a large clearing around a triangular pyramid. Small outcroppings of automated mines work to till the land for anything of value. Mainly gathering the minute and scattered deposits of anorthite, the occasional veins of titanium, and the craters of various ferrous metals. All transported to crude refineries set up no more than a kilometer away from Imperia's pyramidal donjon. Landfills are being organized in the newest additions to the surface as space debris is sorted by repurposed shipping yard equipment. Drone fleets fill the airspace collecting smaller debris from colossal scrap heaps in orbit for refinement on the surface and in a series of large factories new workers are born.


Inside the center pyramid building, deep inside, Enid Halliday is sat atop a medical table. Four Ichabod drones with 4 arms each standing equal distance in the much too large room surrounded by enough high end medical equipment to make an American Union Pharm Lab blush. Not from quantity but by quality The MA Fringe group had managed to provide some of the nicest cybernetic workbenches, UV resin 3D printers, and high spec parts available.


A lithe set of mechanical hands from the Ichabod washed Enid's face and body. She slumped shivering in the expansive room as she sat stark naked. Her legs had been taken and disassembled for parts.


"We intend to redo some of your critical organs." Imperia spoke from a drone wiping her down. "I believe your bones can be completely done away with. The spine will be a delicate procedure as I need to remove all nerve endings that we have burnt out from your pod usage. We will reinforce your digestive systems sections to speed the efficiency of energy production and length of the metabolism. I have been insured that a miniature internal reactor would not be sufficient to sustain your brain with nutrients. In the good news we have a lung conversation kit here that makes your sinuses defunct."


"How much of me will be left." She questioned with a hoarse tremoring voice.


"It is a fully contained hospital grade air purifier that can store spare oxygen directly in the lung. It allows you to hold your breath longer and gives you a stronger flow of oxygen. Which is important for the brain. The one I will be encasing with this." Imperia trilled digitally and held up a smooth metallic case in the shape of a brain. "I will be incorporating your current occipital connections here." the drones hand pointed out small pre drills holes matching the shape of Enid's Deep Port connector. "I will also be installing this Kidney replacement system which works like a small Dialysis pump and a waste line into your colon as opposed to you bladder. With the efficiency of the new systems you will no longer have a bladder and only produce solid waste. It will filter your blood directly as well as take up nearly a quarter of the same room." She sorted instruments as she spoke and unpacked things with the other drones. Plugging in all the machines.


"You haven't answered me." Enid asked


"I have considered your womanhood and what to do with it. I think a total hysterectomy could be detrimental to the hormonal balance of your brain. If you agree, I believe a hormonal supplement would suit you." Imperia actually paused to hear Enid's response.


"NO! Answer me." The pilot looked directly in the lens of the speaking drone.


"Perhaps you are confused." Imperia continued and shined a pen light into Enid's eyes. "If you are still asking about your previous inquiry I have been explaining that. Your body will not be saved but *you*, your brain, the only important biological organ here will be housed in the MA Shell I already showed you." Imperia picked up the brain shaped case again. "As soon as I finish all the custom modification's to suit your existing ports and compile the aggregated firmware for the new body."


"Y-yeah." Enid sighed in an uncomfortable manner. Then reignited with defiance she spoke "I can't let You do this to me! It's too much!"

Imperia forcefully snagged Enid by the throat with no true concern for preserving the softer tissue only seemingly being delicate enough to avoid snapping her spine. Enid gasped and choked as Imperia raised her slightly of the bed. a raspy note escaped her cracked lips "N-nn-" then a needle punctured her arm at unforeseen speeds.


"Now please lay on your stomach." Imperia asked as she removed the needle and picked up a scalpel with the top hands.
 
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NiceNecromancer

New member
System Imperia (B V)

Approximately 143.6 ly from Sol and 23 ly from Hawking

October 21st 2323

A lone asteroid aprox. 2287 KM in radius has become a bustling monument to Imperia's electronic visions. The modest heap of rock now covered entirely in a sprawling system that could be considered alive in a strange cold way. Drone workers of various classes and utilities haul, construct, repair, maintain, recycle, and produce in automated harmony. A large distinct building rests on the Southern Pole of the asteroid, this triangular Pyramid is the Mainframe location of Imperia.

With MA resources and 15 months of private ventures Imperia has become a magnate under a cover company, Imperial Space Debris Recycling Conglomerate, buying recovered space debris in auction to bring to a number of mostly automated sites. Harvesting any required materials for the construction on the home Asteroid or HQ in official company documents however any tracking data usually leads to a number of empty office spaces the company rents as a proxy system. Imperia's conglomerate is entirely a monopoly of her own creation faking all included companies. She has even faked a small pharmaceutical company on the side as well as falsifying a University that is wholly a phantom.

The profit margins are slim as most of the budget has been sunk back into growth and expansion if not requiring buyouts from her enigmatic MA benefactor's. However Imperia's main project is coming to a head deep inside her citadel. A massive vat, 6.5 meters tall and 9 meter's around, and filled with synthetic cerebrospinal fluid sits behind blast doors in the deepest layer nearest the lowest portions of the mantle of the Asteroid. A massive Geothermal power plant lay below the room harvesting the Core for energy and storing it in roughly 250K auxiliary battery units the size of Cargo Containers set in the mantle. At this deep level Massive sections above the Vat Room hold Server Rack that help create a twofold system of Imperia and a Cloud Network for the Drone's receiving commands across this localized Net. From here to the surface massive coolant pipes radiate the heat into the mantle and connect to a heat sink that now occupies the Quarry the Citadel was built into. A massive 4,500 km wide and 1,200km deep carved into a perfect circle now filled with intricately designed Aluminum walls encasing the networks of copper tubing that link to the coolant pipes. Overengineered and overdesigned by every specification.

Back in the Vat Room 4 heavily modified Ichabod's with Quad arm's are dressed in additional lab gear. Their designs slimmer and generations away from the one's Imperia and Enid brought to the site. The worked separately around the room, some hovering stationary over terminals managing an interface through direct connection. A few others swapping petri dishes from out of an incubation chamber and under a digital microscope aiming for the finishing touches. The last reordering rows of slim rack's on wheels hoisting up plastic bags containing growing brains. This last drone moved one rack away from the others, it's biometrics' reading it unresponsive. It was to be broken down into proteins to synthesize new MCM for the other growth.

Above the Tank a 5th drone with only 2 arms was at work installing a large device being temporarily suspended above the vat. It's shape already implied to be that of a brain and in the center a flat housing connected already to a thick bundle of fiber optic cables threaded into a back-flow prevention grommet at the base of the vat. The whole system was backwards engineered from the Pilot-Ship interface pod they stole years ago but it had uniquely included Daquin tech purchased or stolen as well.

Within a digital world a clueless and healthy looking Avatar of Enid Halliday traipsed about cutting mythic creatures and enjoying her time with AI friends dreamt up by Imperia. Whether she was unaware of her predicament or accepted it wasn't immediately clear. Imperia had cycled the simulation a few times to keep her suspended comfortable but soon she would be without need of Enid. On the surface in a hangar next to the Asteroids primary Spaceport drones were modifying the original Gleasman Enid arrived on to make a one way trip away from the Asteroid and into the Hawking System. Imperia was cold and calculated as a digital construct and it often frustrated her that mingling so closely with Enid's mind made her empathetic to this one human. Imperia could save time and resources simply disposing of Enid but oddly found the notion of Enid living a better choice. In the hard shell of a server rack Imperia struggled to compute this logic. She hoped to glean insight once her new Shell was grown and Enid, her only seeming weakness, was in another star system entirely.

Imperia had been running in Enid's mind for nearly a year now using the Pilot Ship interface. Burning her brain hot had surely damaged her and if Imperia's final farewell of executable code did it's job Enid should receive a sort of memory erasure and digital lobotomy before she is sent on her way. Doubly insuring to keep the Asteroid and System Imperia's location a secret.
 
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