[hider=nearly done(?) wip of The Catequil Syndicate] [img]https://i.imgur.com/bwfTwIw.png[/img] Name: The Catequil Syndicate [hider=Government Type: Direct democracy] The enhancements that most citizens undergo allow them to have a near permanent connection to a VR chat room known as the Core. Here the masses can debate the issues of the day, deliver speeches, propose new laws, vote on the issues of the day and adjust their behavior based on any collective decisions made. Thanks to the multitasking capabilities of their cybernetics they can, if so wished, be permanently engaged with the politics and governance of their nations while simultaneously going about their lives in the real world. Non hybrids can participate via other technologies but the system caters specifically to hybrids, leaving other options poorly maintained and less than optimal to use. [/hider] [hider=Demographics] [img]https://i.imgur.com/VFhUtTq.jpg[/img] Hybrids: Cybernetically enhanced humans and demihumans who collectively refer to themselves as Hybrids. The most notable modification is the significant remodeling of the brain, which culminates with the fusing of a sentient ai installed on the hardware with the human’s mind. The two become one and also something greater, and granting the new being complete mastery over both its flesh and it’s steel components. The sources of the Ai are numerous, with the most common being either a fresh Ai designed for the task which has the human’s mind imprinted/replicated onto it before the fusion process. More extreme cases may involve the fusion of an existing Ai or an Ai with someone else's mind imprinted upon it. Whatever AI is used, it must be a willing participant, both for ethical and practical reasons. An AI that wants nothing to do with the process can either potentially sabotage the process or render the resulting transhuman deeply incoherent and at war with itself. The reverse is also true. There are ways to allow domination of one subset of the mind over the other but these have been outlawed, and are considered heignouse by the vast majority of Transhumans. Baseline humans/demihumans: Non upgraded individuals who live among the Transhumans. Sentient Ai: Rare to find outside of those made for Hybridisation Ai are accepted as citizens and can participate directly in Core Discussions/votes etc. Most independent Ai come from either Hybrids who’s meat parts have been too damaged but who survived the trauma of this event, Ai who’s partner backed out or who themselves backed out of the hybridisation process or copies of Hybrid’s minds who’s original bodies have died. The syndicate is rather heavily populated despite its megar holding for two reasons. Firstly is that the territory around the AL space elevator (absurdly large space elevator or ALSE) is heavily urbanised, with structures being built into the Andes mountains as well as along the flatter coastline beyond, megacity that was, and still is, fueled by the economic importance of the ALSE. [/hider] [hider=Economy] [img]https://i.imgur.com/FnvNm1k.png[/img] The Catequil economy is primarily structured around the Syndicate and subsidiaries of the Syndicate who own and manage most of the infrastructure in the Syndicate’s territory. The central part of the Syndicate’s economy is the AL Space Elevator, one of the last and also the largest space elevators currently connected to earth. The surrounding ground and space based industry is equally key to their success as it can rapidly turn received materials into usable goods, which can then be rapidly redistributed across the system via railgun. It is a relatively cheap method of transporting goods vs spacecraft. The base’s location right next to the Panama canal means it’s relatively easy for earth territories to ship in or out goods via the ocean. Naturally they also manufacture sending and retrieval systems for orbital mass driver related deliveries. They are undeniable masters of cybernetics and cybernetic compatible software, though not all hybrid technology is directly compatible with less invasive cybernetics. Hybrids are generally very good with technology as they are able to directly mentaly interface with it. They also produce some excellent programmers, resulting in a flushing software industry and digital artists who produce work for games, films or other high quality media. The Syndicate imports large amounts of raw resources as well, either raw or processed, to fuel its industry. The most notable industries are the manufacture of computer technology, work in robotics and cybernetics and ships built within the orbital infrastructure surrounding the elevator’s spaceport. The nation also has some terrestrial fishing and farming as a source of food, some of which is exported. There is also some very limited mining and a massive amount of electrical production, sourced from geothermal, nuclear and solar installations which is needed to fuel both the industry and the people. The syndicate also does some of its own mining, both on planate and in the asteroid belt, which is used for its own manufacturing. They also perform salvage operations on space battle debris fields such as those littering earth. [/hider] [hider=Military] Two things make the Syndicate’s military (something no sane group would go without in these troubled times) stand out. The first is the fact that any member of the company can take control of nearby available automated assets in order to deal with a situation due to a guiding principle of “arm the workers” being taken to its logical (to the syndicate) extreme. This stems back to the early days of the syndicate when they were in the process of taking over the space elevator and attempts to institute locks on the access to military hardware have always been voted down. Various anti-friendly fire features and the ability for targets to paralyze automated weapons with contradictory commands means this system has not been as devastating as some predicted, contributing to the disinterest in restricting access to the syndicate’s war machines. [hider=Chimera class warbot] [img]https://i.imgur.com/cpyP3Wp.jpg[/img] [/hider] The second is the syndicate’s ability to produce digital copies of Hybrid minds. While primarily part of the hybridisation process, mental replication can be used to give sentient level intelligence to their warbots. To avoid issues of enslavement, these copies are generally made for war, mission or even single engagement by the present Hybrids front themselves, and then those that survive are reintegrate back into the Hybrid after their duty is complete, which bypass a lot of the ethical and loyalty related issues sentient warmachines present. Training is of course required to control a warmachine properly. To this there are two solutions. First is that the soon to be replicated Hybrid does vr or remote training with the machine. The second is that the Hybrid modifies their own body to be like that of the machine they will be controlling. The latter are the closest the Syndicate has to a professional soldier class, and they can often be found leading squads of Ai replicas of themselves on the field, human and robot utterly indistinguishable from one another. There are limits to this technology, primarily the amount of Ai’s that can be reintegrated into a Hybrid at once is rather low, so they will rarely be copied into more than a dozen units at a time, restricting the mass use of this technique. Hybrid numbers are backed up by dumb Ai’s generally wirlessly mircomanaged by a nearby Hybrids and Ais. A syndicate squad can as a result consist of a single hybrid, a dozen Ai copies of themselves and dozens more dumb AI drones screening the scentient members of the squad. [hider=Navy] [img]https://i.imgur.com/Dveqo98.png[/img] The syndicate’s space power is focused around the AL Space elevator. The structure was already a decent fortification, sturdily built to withstand attempts of sabotage or accident, repurposable delivery mass drivers and defensively equipped with advanced detection systems, a tractor field and beams that could catch incoming objects (rail gun and asteroid deliveries), but the dangerous times have lead to its transformation into a fully fledged star fortress with heavy shielding point defence and weapon batteries being installed to war off hostile incursions. It also has the capability to artillery strike anywhere in the sol system or around or on earth, though this feature is rarely if ever used. [hider=AL space elevator] [img]https://i.imgur.com/awlkf8a.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/3dukDin.jpg[/img] [/hider] Syndicate ships are generally used to either protect the Space Elevator (Bulwark class) or varios Syndicate interests in the solar system (Negotiator Class). Crews are relatively small and generally plugged straight into the ships for the entire journey, with each member either directly controlling systems or microing teams of drones to perform maintenance, repel boarders etc. recreation is done via VR and cybernetics generally reduce the impact of muscle decay by replacing said muscles. Not having to be human habitable generally counteracts the cost of the automation, rendering their ships roughly the same in cost, more resilient physically and more vulnerable to electronic warfare when compared to the average ship. Ships generally feature spine mounted railgun cannons as a primary armament, laser weapons as secondary and point defence and AI clone and drone fighters as support. Defensively the ships utilize reflector and tractor shields. They also utilize stealth fields though these are more often found on commercial ships attempting to avoid danger all together. The syndicate also has a sizable nautical navy as well which operates on almost exactly the same lines to protect their merchant navy and coastal facilities. [/hider] [/hider] [hider=History] The Space Elevator that eventually became the core of the Syndicate’s holdings was the first of its kind. It was created under the directive of The International Space Elevator Consortiumlong long before the conquests of the Terran Empire within the old earth nation of Ecuador. Since then it has been in near constant use with the only expectations being periodic expansions that resulted in it becoming one of the largest of its kind. It has survived the various wars centered around earth in part for being far too valuable an asset to simply destroy, and also because of its mass driver retrieval systems, which provides excellent detection and interception capabilities against long ranged ballistic strikes. While obsessively a global asset it was in function controlled by the Catequil Corporation, a mostly unremarkable mega corporation notable primarily for first pioneered Hybrid technology, eventually required most of their employees to make use of it and their eventual restructuring into the Catequil Syndicate. During the Great Collapse the elevator was a hotly contested resource, one which the Corporation used to turn a profit, charging exuberant rates for earth access and playing various factions against one-another to avoid repercussions. Sick of the Corporation’s wheeling and dealing three powers all boarded the elevator’s orbital facilities and attempted to seize control. Caught in the crossfire and completely disillusioned with the corporation's management, the Hybridized workers of the corporation took matters into their own hands and used their innate knowledge of the station’s every nook and cranny to expel the invaders (genearly into space) before turning the station’s orbital mass drivers and tractor beams on invading ships. The invaders counter attacked and put the elevator under siege, but the elevator and its people were spared by the collapse of the Jump Gate network that occurred shortly after, something some label as highly suspicious, which rapidly ended any enthusiasm for further conflict within the system. The organisation which had formed to take control of the elevator then refused to follow the directives of the corporation's owners who had happened to be insystem upon the collapse and instead restructured itself and the company as a whole into a worker cooperative known as the Catequil Syndicate. The lack of a central power to enforce the previous owners claims, combined with the war fatigue of the various earth stranded armies, ment no concentrated retaliation for this takeover came against the Syndicate. Those that attempted to re-seizes the station were thwarted via financial or violent means and often had their assets seized. Over the following two centuries the Syndicate gradually expanded its territorial control and membership. The Syndicate now controls the region around the base of the elevator, located in the former nation of Ecuador, the regions surrounding the Panama Canal and the lands linking the two. In space it has acquired a great deal of the surviving empire orbital infrastructure and space wreckage from the war via financial, violent or archaeological means giving them a considerable space presence. Technologically, they have been plumbing the depths of the hybridisation process, and have made numerous advances in cybernetic hardware and software advances related to their unique modifications. It has also transformed from worker cooperative to something closely resembling a nation state as more and more people have joined the syndicate, seeking the stability and prosperity it provides and as the syndicate expands the scope of its business ventures within the area it operates. [/hider] [hider=Characters] [/hider] [/hider]