Monday, December 2, 2013

336: The Seeds

ENTRY 336: The Seeds

"We will not make the same mistakes. We will be prepared for all contingencies. Next time...and we feel there will be a next time...we will be ready. If not for the enemy we must face, than for what comes after."
- The August XXX, Firewall Council Meeting Notes

Since the Fall, Firewall has worked to protect transhumanity from exsurgent threats - both those that arise within and without. Yet its actions are not limited simply to foreseeing or defeating those agencies that wish to cause extermination to transhumanity, but the preservation of transhumanity itself in some form in the event of a similar catastrophic event on the order of the Fall. While most transhumans cannot bring themselves to even consider such scenarios, Firewall is determined that if - when - the next Fall occurs, something of transhumanity will survive, and will have the means to continue.

The Seeds are one of Firewall's long-term projects. Each Seed is a singular artifact designed and produced with the latest nanotechnology and containing a precis of transhumanity's accumulated scientific and technical knowledge, compiled and constructed without regard to who owns or claims the intellectual property involved. Firewall has designed the Seeds as providing everything needed to rebuild a transhuman technical base, literally from scratch. Once complete, the Seed is hidden away in a transhuman population calculated as statistically likely to survive a major extinction event - often small, but long-lived habitats away from major population centers like Mars, Titan, or Luna. Currently there are five Seeds scattered throughout the transhuman dominion, with the Sixth Seed in planning and production stages.

Using The Seeds

The Seeds may be the future of transhumanity, and if the gamemaster wants to treat them as mere MacGuffins to be fought over and won or sold or lost, that's fine. However, the PCs associated with Firewall may also be brought in to assist with the production of the Seeds, or hiding/protecting them, or seeding clues to their location so that survivors of the next extinction event can find them. Player characters may also desire the Seeds for themselves - each represents a pinnacle of nanotechnology, and once activated could do almost anything. Rather than be a meaningless MacGuffin, it might be interesting for the gamemaster to set specific capabilities for each of the Seeds. Some possible forms and capabilities might include:

  •  A "nano-bomb" designed to disassemble an entire asteroid and re-assemble it into a full-sized, functional space habitat.
  • A "living Seed" in the form of a synthmorph with AGI that acts as a living repository for technical knowledge.
  • A nanophage that bonds with the nearest transhuman(s) and establishes a mini-Mesh between their minds, directing them to build.
  • A sizable hidden cloning facility capable of regenerating a sustainable transhuman biomorph population when activated.
If a gamemaster is interested in a campaign, the different Seeds might actually be designed to integrate with one another, to make a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts - a machine that could terraform an exoplanet, at least in theory.

Seed

  • Not everyone approves of Firewall's attempts to save transhumanity - or at least, doesn't agree with their philosophy of willing to write off the bulk of transhumanity so some fragment of it can survive. The Aggies are a former Firewall action cell that has determined to hunt down and expose or destroy the Seeds, in an effort to force Firewall to stick to its mission of protecting all transhumans, not just a chosen statistically-likely few. Firewall contacts the PCs to hinder and reason with them, but when the talking is done and the guns come out, which side will the PCs choose?

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