The focus of this full body conversion should be speed and mobility. No matter how strong the armour, something will always be able to crack it so better to avoid damage all together. To this purpose:
((The armoured exoskeleton is fine, but focus on speed now))
Rather than a brain in a jar, I shall convert the brain to a cybernetic version as well, drastically improving reaction times. This would also conveniently remove any need for life-support. Fortunately my work on mapping nerve connections should help me with accomplishing this.
Artificial muscles seem best for mobility. Perhaps use carbon nanofibres?
Modularity would certainly be a bonus, but this should be a low priority for the design. Better to get a general-purpose supersoldier completed first before beginning with fiddly things.
A miniature nuclear generator with some capacitors seems simple enough for power. Using the electricity to magnetically reinforce the materials of the exoskeleton for some extra toughness seems like it'd be an easy low-hanging fruit to increase survivability as well.
Full cybernetic conversion for brain seems certainly something useful even outside of warfare. It however comes with some considerable hurdles. Creation of new nerve connections, storing long term memory, and such. Digitalizing entire brain and then simulating it could be the answer, however computer system required for that would be greatly vulnerable for EMP. And current computer technology is simply far too slow for that purpose, which would require investigation of quantum computing. Good amount of work is already done on that field for you to use as a springboard.
Alternative for that way is more mechanical approach of creating quite literal copy simulating each and every nervecell in the brain. Some delicate mechanisms could be used for creating new connections. This approach however suffers same problems as organic brain does; namely blunt force trauma and natural erosion can permanently damage it. Simulated brain offers possibilities of (theoretically) easy suspending, manipulation, backups and duplication, where as mechanical way... does not.
And all this you thought up over your morning coffee. Now then, back to work with exoskeleton. Progress today is great, you figure out a good chitinous material to use as basic framework, apparently stronger than human bone by a good margin, but not good enough to use as armor against bullets. For now it serves as exoskeleton to attach internal and external components on, be they either special armor plating or muscles. Shielding of joints has some minor issues left you decide to leave for tomorrow morning.
Research in progress:
+ Armored exoskeleton structure
* Artificial muscles
* Miniature nuclear reactor
* High density capacitors
* Cybernetic brain copy
* Modular design
"The fight-or-flight-or-freeze response is the core of our animal selves, the purest expression of mammalian simplicity. It is here that we begin our exploration of the subtleties of the mind. Our work had many promising results right from its inception. We sought out and found the triple point of response, and from there elaborated the delicate kinetics of neurochemicals that produce each discrete state. The approach was blunt and simple. We were to play chemists, and the brain was to be our reactor of endless violence..."
Head Researcher Curious George, Knuckle Deep In The Mind, A Memoir
The idea here is to create a suggestible state, much like the formative period animal younglings experience, where they find themselves inexorably and instinctively attached to what are ostensibly their mothers.
Look into the possibilities of induced neuroplasticity to help with this - fluoxetine and valproic acid, both of them widely available psychiatric medications, have been shown to renew critical periods. Can the superscience skills and dubious ethics of Curious George help turn this into something more?
If possible, follow up with studying the fear response. Obtain equipment to assay the chemical balance of a soldier's brain under a variety of stimuli.
Writing a memoir about your time in service of possibly evil corporation is good way to ensure income in case they do not choose you as their final contractor. All you need to do is to find a publisher.
As for "friendship pill", simple suggestible state would be easy to archive, but the downside of it is, as you yesterday figured, that it cannot be easily direct without specially crafted situation and that is probably easier to do. Hmm, shouldn't take longer than few hours.
However because your brain analysis study is going so swimmingly you decide to push it for tomorrow, everything just falls in correct place today! As all data gathered yesterday and today is printed out and distributed over floor of your laboratory you start seeing bigger picture here. Something profound is knocking your subconsiousness, wanting to be found. You run all over your lab, moving papers around, climbing on tables and ceiling trying to see the pattern. It's like building a jigsaw puzzle, hard at first, but quickly picking up speed like an avalanche until full picture is revealed. Half formed ideas start solidify, hypothesis is formed, an experiment devised and completed with cost of few lives.
You have made a major breakthrough in nervous system design! The possibilites of specifically designed neural networks are limitless. Learning organic computers! Easy manipulation of existing nervous systems! And a glimpse of something greater, infinite possibilities to create, manipulate and reject data in highly complex systems... Your friendship pill seems suddenly a lot easier to archieve, though thanks to the breakthrough you may want to consider more direct and greater applications.
((Reality bending rolls told me to give you their best regards. Working with brains and nerve systems is now officially soft scifi for you. Enjoy.))
The Company informs you that they have secured a martial arts teacher for test subjects. She have written nondisclosure agreement, but you may still want to keep her in dark.
Research in progress:
+ Forced friendship
Martial arts training
40 test subjects - 0 days trained
Technologies completed:
NERVOUS SYSTEM DESIGN AND UNDERSTANDING
Test subjects expired: 8
Hmmm, Ah!
increase neurons' possible connections to others!
This kicks your study on overdrive. You develope various substances for the purpose, though most of them causes your subjects to die from explosive brain hemorrhage. One particular substance however seems promising as test subjects in question show increased ability to focus and remember. There's still a long way to completion of this study, but at least now you have something promising.
Research in progress:
+ Intelligence increasing treatments
50 test subjects + 15 + 1
Test subjects expired: 6
Opening test subjects' brains displays some inconclusive results, nothing as great as you were hoping. You replace expired test subjects with new ones, and have them go over the test procedure again. These ones apparently have already better reaction times than others, so hopefully you get something better out of them.
Research in progress:
+ Reaction time study
40 test subjects
* Brain integrated chips
Test subjects expired: 10
Finish building polymer machine. If there is time left, start work on test subject, starting a regimen of steroids and immune system boosters to improve his muscular performance and capacity to heal.
Work with the machine runs repeatedly into problems. Errors in measures. Fractures in materials that require rebuilding them completely. Incorrectly assembled electronics. It's so frustrating, entire day is basically wasted. Some easier and more forgiving parts gets build and installed, but these complex ones are being a real pain in the ass for some reason.
Turning on more theoretical aspects then. Major problem with muscles is that they tend to damage themselves in minor ways under stress, which is major thing reducing their effiency. You recall a news story about a man who does not get tired. Apparently something about his metabolic systems lets him practically run forever as long as he's receives enough nutrients. Endurance is a major factor for soldier, so you figure that man would be the key you need. You let The Company representative know that you want his tissue samples for study.
As soldiers often get wounded, rapid healing is a major thing. Infections in particular are troublesome as battlefields are rarely clean. Boosting immune system is important, and sharks are known to basically immune to viral infections. In general species that have existed long time without changing are major interest there, suprisingly enough. Humans are quite newcomers in evolutionary sense, and as such they are very imperfect beings. Sharks, crocodiles and other such ancient species (compared to humans) have survived long time, so clearly nature has done something right there. One of the few cases where studying non-humans first is beneficial approach. Basic wound regeneration is something humans can boast with, so it is simply matter of careful study of cancer to unlock its potential for full regeneration.
Research in progress:
+ Modular polymer plastics machine
* Strong polymer plastics
* Muscular boosters
* Healing boosters
"Shut up, you whiners. It only hurts until you re dead, unless we are successful!
Cryofreeze the dead subjects, if such technology exists. if it doesn't, use the dead subjects to test cryofreezing technologies. Actually, that is secondary. First, continue with the mapping! I want 100% connectivity, or I want answers! Answers about how to get 100% connectivity.
Edit: on request of my potential supersoldier, I'll try to keep my test subjects alive longer, by mapping smaller parts of the system on each individual subject, cycling through them so they have a little time to recuperate between procedures.
Dead bodies can be simply dumped into liquid hydrogen canisters to flashfreeze them. It's best current technologies can provide at the moment. Who knows if it actually works for resurrection purposes. Something to look up for on later date.
Giving in on your softer side you try to keep your subjects alive, but by reducing amount of work done on single subject you need greater number of them. Maybe this softer approach is better for science, maybe not, but work gets done in flash. Nobody dies, everybody even probably stays fully functional (after long healing process anyway). Mapping is 100% done, you even figure out way through individual differences, something you expected to finish tomorrow. You have all data you need to start working with actual interface system. You let your lab hands to know that on next morning you want to have wide array of artificial limbs ready for connection tests.
This sudden increase of effectivity makes you wonder if softer, more ethical approach on science is actually better for results. It seems so counterintuitive, yet results today were great. Of course, correlation doesn't imply causation meaning this might have been a mere coincidence. More study is required on the matter. Perhaps play some classics over PA system tomorrow when working though connectivity tests?
Research in progress:
+ Brain in a jar
40 test subjects
* Cryogenic preservation
Test subjects expired: 15
Hm, I do seem to have more materials than time. Maybe I'll reevaluate my strategy.
I experiment with pairs of subjects, aiming to attach them via directed cancerous growth. Immune response is an obstacle I'll probably have to deal with, as well as figuring out how to sort out neurological control.
Aggressive cancer samples arrive on time and you get on work with hope. Research consumes your day thoroughly and when you finlly finish near midnight, you realize you have made great headway on entirely different subject than you intented. Data you have promises way to forcibly cause extremely malignant form of cancer in any desired organs. Suitably crafted short living virus could easily make it happen. The research is almost complete, and you suspect this technology would be of great value in assassination business. It would be untraceable and very natural looking way to make undesired people perish.
Not exactly what you wanted to do today, but science is science. May as well finish it tomorrow by morning coffee, who knows what other insights it provides.
Research in progress:
+ Cause cancer
* Rapid bio growth / healing
* Inline DNA manipulation
* Forced growth activation
Test subjects expired: 1
If I can direct my search, look into artificial (or natural, that will be interesting) spidersilk as source of tensile strength, and any potential shape-memory metals as source of the contracting action.
As my presumably mighty brain continues the battle against physics for the perfect myomer fibers, I assign some of my assistant personnel to more tedious-rather-than-difficult matters.
In particular, sources of specific materials must be secured, in order for later mass-production to be successful. Repeating the Captain America problem, after all, would be a very stupid mistake. A single soldier is not an army.
The required materials are metals and alloys of extreme hardness that would make up the "skeleton" of the soldier, strong flexible materials akin to super-kevlar or "dragonskin" for the basic outer layer, and any existing non-Newtonian materials (i.e. soft but hardening on impact) that any of the world's militaries may have researched for the purposes of advanced body armor, that would be built into the soldier.
If the perfect material for a given purpose cannot be obtained in bulk, if it's classified, not exported to.. whatever country we're working for here, or available only in small quantities because it's experimental, my assistants are to obtain the production process for it by any means, and they have enough lab space to try and recreate it here, so that the project is not limited by supply.
((Really there's just not much else to do if I'm limited to one thing at a time, because almost anything specific to the project would require my personal attention.))
((Well, single
well made super soldier can be an army. Remember Arbiters and Renen? Captain America is hardly a super soldier (don't shoot me). He just has some muscles, good recuperation and eye-hand coordination. You can easily do better. Far better.
You can divide your attention if you want to. I will roll amount of work getting done and divide it for each task equally, and then roll for insights individually. It means slightly greater chance for major breakthroughs, with cost of having to wait longer for results in case of no major insights.))
Obtaining materials and things is what The Company does well. The representative proudly states that if they cannot obtain something, nobody can. It is just a matter of time and money.
Well, spider silk loses to kevlar and other aramids when it comes to tensile strength, but its weight and supercontraction ability are something to note. Work continues with greater focus. Still shooting in the dark, really, but you start to get rough feeling in which direction to aim.
Research in progress:
+ Myomers
I'll also Volunteer as a prospective supersoldier. What's the worst that could happen, right?
Worst? Decomissioned piece of failed scrap metal with a brain inside. You are assigned to Curious George, aka Harry Baldman.
You lucky bastards.
Have one of these idiots assassinated so I can steal their funding!
We'll see. Assassination without funding is hard.
Oh, this sounds neat.
I volunteer a super soldier for a random scientist.
Welcome! The person responsible of your fate is Dr. Strauss, who is huge nerd and proud of it.
Volunteer as a solider test subject under Sean Mirrsen
Welcome! Long time no see! I hope you don't mind being tactical suggestions unit.
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Topic: Roll to create a supersoldier! Bloody air resistance (Read 131755 times)