BATTLE SCREEN

The secretive Paramilitary Command (PARACOM) division of the Conglomerate Military Service Bureau (CMSB) have long cited the full, systematic cyber-augmentation of their ranks to be the Holy Grail of Enforcer supremacy on the battlefield. The cutting edge research in the field is known only as the “Battle Screen.”

The Battle Screen (or “Screen”) is steeped in PARACOM silence, officially denied and is, in fact, the namesake given to it by conspiracy theorists of the scientific community. Knowledge of its existence only came about through an intercepted cable of a CMSB front company’s sudden interest in highly-experimental, rapid healing technologies. Such devices are believed necessary to render full combat enhancement procedures...survivable... Details are scarce of the Battle Screen itself, but educated (if cautionary) speculation includes: enhanced speed and agility (neural), strength and endurance (musoskeletal), sensory throughput and response (general) and healing (hemotopic). The term “screen” is used to acknowledge the enhanced individual would effectively see the world in a completely new way from their former lives “in totality through the screen of technology.” It acknowledges the complete replacement of synthetic senses rather than those of organic experiences, organic perceptions and naturally occurring memory.

Augmentation programs are nothing new to militaries, both past and present. But none have been as audacious as the Conglomerate's quest for the fabled “super soldier.”

So bold are these upgrades, human trials remain 100% voluntary and drawn from a carefully selected group of Enforcer candidates. The risk to the individual is enormous. Lavish financial packages are believed to reflect this stark reality...though none are known to have survived the procedures long enough to fully enjoy them. Battle Screen insertion is thought to be a massive, one-time nanosurgical process. Should the initial trauma not kill the test subject outright, they may yet expire within 48 hours if the Screen healing factors do not “take” in time. Rejection rates for this wholesale manipulation of organics remains in the high 90 percentiles. The exact reason for this failure rate remains a medical mystery as any one (sometimes two) of these procedures can be sustained by a well-conditioned soldier.* The speculated 10% “Survivor Club” are believed to be in high-security observation scenarios until serviceability and longevity can be established

MediClones (full human clone “blanks” without consciousness) lack the experiences of the battle-hardened Enforcer and yield ineffectual combat and disciplinary data. Convicted criminals, long the favored test subjects of radical in-vitro medical testing, are also exempt from experimentation in case of augmentation success. Neither process nor intent are identical to Tholeen, but the lessons of creating an “uncontrollable, superior being” is drilled into every Conglomerate research scientist before they set foot in a lab.

* In the 20th and 21st centuries, titanium elements were often used to strengthen or replace bone material within the human body. The larger the quantity of titanium used, the less likely the body was to reject it. A similar process is thought to be taking place with nanosurgical processes, but in the opposite direction. Anecdotal evidence points to a 20%-27% tolerance for nanite modified human organics. Doubly baffling is that artificially fabricated cells are, in fact, 100% R/DNA (and antigen) accurate. This is in stark contrast to the 88.5109% tolerances of wholesale cybermechanical enhancements...most of which still utilize titanium as the material of choice).