Last week, the Blood Raiders’ annual Crimson Harvest returned to our cluster. Once more, the cluster is gripped by the threat of blood thirsty hunting parties and the fear of fallout from their violent clashes with the Order of St. Tetrimon. This year, however, reports have reached the Scope that both Blood Raider and Tetrimon pilots have begun attacking abandoned Upwell Consortium facilities.
Here to explain this unusual shift in behaviour is investigative reporter, Johanna Marqoso.
Dr Hwung and the Advent of the Hollow Clone
On the planet of Tei-Su in the Lirsautton system, there is a necropolis. In that ancient city of the dead stands the mausoleum of a once-great family. Amidst the hundreds of rows of generations laid to rest, one coffin lies empty. Empty, that is, save two small trophies. The name on that coffin is Dr. Hwung Rudolfo, once the pride of a planet, now its greatest shame.
The more prestigious of these entombed trophies was awarded in YC127, the Jin-Mei Science Award for Achievement in Cybernetics. The triumph of this award was, unfortunately, quickly overshadowed by his greater legacy. For the Blood Raiders, he will be remembered for flinging open the gates to glory. For the Order of St. Tetrimon, he was the father of abominations. For the Upwell Constorium, he is a mistake best forgotten. The reason for all these responses is the same, the Hollow Clone.
Hwung Rudolfo grew up a member of the Jin-Mei’s ruling Sang Do caste, though generations of poor financial management had left his family rich only in heritage. His mother, an immigrant from the nearby system of Ardene, refused to allow her son to wallow in his family’s fallen status. Rudolfo recalled in an interview by the Interplanetary Media Network, “whatever I took an interest in, my mother would push me to be the best. It is thanks to her that I learned that greatness often comes at the cost of comfort.”
“She pushed me to perform ballet as a child”, Rudolfo reflected with a broad smile, “I was not a natural. My mother told me that I was a smart boy, but that my overthinking was an obstacle I had to surmount. So I practiced until I did not need my brain to know where my feet should be, and soon I could jete as easily as I could walk. This is the grace of action unencumbered by thought.”
This was the key revelation that would earn Hwung that buried trophy. Hired by Eifyr and Co. after completing his doctorate, Hwung was assigned to improve workforce efficiency for the Upwell Consortium’s Equinox suite. The Mecha-Tooling upgrade he developed allowed workforce clones to elegantly control construction mechs with a “Reflexive Interface”. Unlike the neural interfaces used by capsuleers, Hwung’s invention connected the nervous system directly to external technology, bypassing the brain entirely.
The innovation was hailed as a triumph, and Hwung became a celebrity in the cybernetic field. His new interface meant untrained workers could control machines as if they were a part of their own bodies. But for Hwung, success was not enough; his goal was greatness. When he was handed the Jin-Mei Science Award, he leaned into the microphone and whispered, “Just wait until you see what’s next.”
The true potential of the Reflexive Interface, Hwung theorized, was still to come. To achieve that, he proposed a new device, the Cybernetic Neural Lattice (CNL), a bridge between reflexive inputs and a lattice of neural networks working in harmony. With this increased power, he aimed to enable the average workforce clone to not just execute simple tasks, but also instantly master complex skills.
The Upwell Consortium sank trillions into its development, constructing hundreds of research facilities. With all that investment, Hwung was under constant scrutiny. To satisfy his backers, he arranged a simple test. At every experimental site, cloneblanks that did not yet support infomorphs would receive the new implants. These cloneblanks would then be hooked up to a simple set of security protocols to see if the system could register basic reflex responses from the bodies.
When the first bodies lurched off their operating tables, the researchers were shocked, too shocked to run. The bodies should have moved the system, not the other way round. If they had foreseen that the system could also instruct the body, perhaps things would have gone differently. Instead, hundreds died across the cluster before the first alarm was even sounded. The bodies, propelled by corrupted security systems, tore through every facility with blood-curdling efficiency. Then, they took to the ships.
Exactly what went wrong is still unknown,but some how monsters without minds took to space with a singluar goal; kill everything they see. Without infomorphs, they were dubbed Hollow Clones.
If the story had ended there, Upwell would have quarantined the sites and this horrible tale may have gone untold. Instead, it occurred just as the Blood Raiders prepared for their clone hunt. The Raiders perverted this tragedy into a challenge. Many young sect members have descended on the newly destroyed Biocybernetics Facilities, looking to prove themselves against the hordes of Hollow Clones. Some have even survived.
The Order of St Tetrimon has also rushed to combat the hollow clones. For this storied sect, a body acting without a soul is an abomination that must be destroyed. Though they have remained unwaivering in their usual animosity against the Blood Raiders, the two groups now find themselves fighting the same enemy. There is no threat of cooperation, however, as for the Blood Raiders, every Hollow destroyed by the Tetrimon is a source of clone blood they have been denied, and for the Tetrimon, every site the Blood Raiders claim only adds to the heresy.
What started as a dream for Grace has mutated into a cautionary tale of blood-soaked brutality. Hwung Rudolfo was on site when the disastrous malfunction occurred, and while his exact fate remains uncertain, there were no known survivors. The violence surrounding these experimental sites has prevented any attempts at recovering bodies. All his grieving mother could do was bury the award that once made her son the pride of Lirsautton, side by side with the child’s ballet trophy and the dream it unlocked.
News in Brief
-
Winter Coalition and The Initiative clash in Fade region after Initiative accused of betrayal.
-
The Initiative denies existence of alleged agreement with Winter Coalition.
-
Upwell promise inquest into Hollow Clone disaster, refuse to set date.
-
SOCT report detect “ripples” indicating Drifter Wormhole Occupiers have ramped up hyperspace network testing.
-
Natural gas explosion prevented on HZO Refinery holdings by native bird population.
-
Home Guard presents results of secret investigation to closed CEP session.
-
CONCORD fail to prove connection between rogue drone activity and Federation AID Act.