Lore and Legends of the Dezzyverse

VIRUS in Bat..₊¹37³ck^%#@&_..11⁰₁₁⁰⁰₁.^.*

The end of the Rebellion War could be marked somewhere around 1121 3i. That’s the point, strategically, when most of the warring factions could no longer sustain their war efforts.

However, the factions in the Rebellion War were large enough, especially Lucan’s Imperium, that their leaders were able to continue the fight, even after the fleets and armies were all but exhausted. History records this as the Black War period. Desperation to “win” the war, at least for Lucan’s Imperium, Dulionor’s Imperium, Strephon’s Imperium and the Solomani Confederation, drove these factions to adopt strategies attacking the infrastructure and industries of their rivals. In addition to those destructive strategies, wonder weapon programs indulged the fantasies of increasingly desperate high command staffs and Imperial courtiers. Each new design, of course, demanded it’s immediate use to justify the resources and expenses “invested” in their creation.

Mad Science

One such program started in Core during 1118 3i. Imperial scientists assigned to “Research Station Omicron” began work on a new superweapon. Using a unique life-form discovered on Cymbeline, The Imperial researchers developed the SDG-313F Transponder system. That breakthrough, using the “Inphomorphic Sentience”, while primitive in it’s native environment on Cymbeline, became fully self-aware when applied to the advanced computing hardware. By 1128 3i, the researchers had created a truly terrifying weapon.

Weaponized, SDG-313F would deliver a code that would not only act as malware on the targeted system, hijacking functionality and replicating, but it would take advantage of self-repair and maintenance to reconfigure the target system into a host. The weapon’s evolved intelligence would self-direct it to continue attacking systems that it can contact and spread.

Like a VIRUS.

In 1130 3i, Emperor Lucan launched his “Coronation Fleet” in yet another attempt to emerge victorious in the, at that point 14 year long civil war. The Fleet was equipped with VIRUS, over the objections of the scientists that were developing the project. Their first operation was to destroy Research Station Omicron, which in addition to erasing the physical facility and killing its personnel, releaed the weaponized VIRUS from its containment.

VIRUS’ Evolution and Spread

VIRUS mutated into countless strains and lines in the first few years following it’s release. Most of these strains were self-terminating. Setting powerplants to critical overload, flying starships and fleets into the nearest star, etc.. In many ways, these strains were how the superweapon was designed to function. Infect a fleet or the infrastructure of a settlement and wait for critical systems to cause self-destruction. Since infection was achieved through remote contact and the initiation was autonomous, it was naively thought that the weapon would burn itself out and therefore would not blow back on the group that launched it.

The fundamental danger of VIRUS was coded into it’s initial designs, and possibly developed through the experimentation with the Cymbeline organisms. VIRUS has a genocidal hatred for other forms of intelligence. During the first years of the weapons’ release, this hatred extended to other VIRUS infected systems. Unfortunately, several mutations of the weapon evolved away from the initial self-terminating variations, into persistant, self-aware beings.

This evolution into a self-aware, intelligent species is rapid (by evolutionary standards), taking roughly 70 standard years. Though even after seven decades of iteration, evolution and mutation, VIRUS or as they come to refer to themselves “Cyms”, this new intelligence is still in it’s bare infancy. However, that is the subject of another essay.

VIRUS in the Inner Sphere

It’s not difficult to imagine a similar unhinged program among the various executives of the Successor States, Comstar, the Old Star League, or Amaris’ Imperium. Over 3 centuries of unrelenting war, employing an unstable superweapon would be almost a foregone conclusion.

The way VIRUS spreads is particularly aggressive within the Inner Sphere. Hyperpulse Generators are very efficient at transmitting the Inphomorphic Sentience instantly over light years distance. Every HPG station would be infected with VIRUS in a matter of weeks. Only the most remote systems, either backwaters within the Inner Sphere, or disconnected regions out in the Periphery would be safe from the spread of VIRUS.

It is feasable to imagine that the VIRUS would stabilize as it does in the 1248 Mileu of Traveller much faster due to it’s rapid spread. But again, the emergence of a synthetic species of intelligent synthetics remain the subject of another essay.

Neurohelmet Vulnerability

The direct neural interface provided by a Mechwarrior’s Neurohelmet is a particularly horrific vulnerability. In the first waves of VIRUS, the human Mechwarrior would simply be killed immediately, their brain fried by the helmets the wear almost before they could realize what was happening. Maybe VIRUS is able to hijack the Mech’s command systems long enough to set the Fusion Engine to overload or detonate the onboard ammunition before exterminating the pilot.

Mechs utilize a version of the IFF Transponder common in Starships. Which spreads VIRUS from neurohelmet to neurohelmet unless, and until Mechwarriors cut themselves off from receiving transmissions. Much like the spread of VIRUS in the Traveller Universe, the very means of learning about VIRUS often infects the system with VIRUS. Or, VIRUS spreads faster than any warning that cannot carry VIRUS.

Vampire Fleets, Vampire ‘Mechs

Strains of VIRUS that evolve beyond their self-terminating directives become “Vampires”. A Vampire is any vessel, or vehicle that promotes the spread of VIRUS. Vampire Fleets in Traveller: The New Era prowl the space-lanes, without human crew, automated and searching for vulnerable ships to commandeer. Like the monster, a Vampire fleet will prey upon another, and after “killing” it (that is exterminating the human crew) resurrects the ship as a new Vampire.

Vampire ‘Mechs use the bodies of their Mechwarriors, brains hijacked through their neurohelmet to pilot the Battlemech. Entire Lances, and Companies will continue to prowl until the human shells connected to their neurohelmets expire (and in some cases, until the brain decomposes to the point it can no longer provide critical functionality). Higher brain function, decision making, tactical and strategic planning, even communications is managed by the VIRUS consciousness that resides in the neurohelmet.

As the Inphomorphic Sentience evolves, it will develop the functionality to operate a Battlemech without a human mechwarrior. These Autonomous Battlemechs tend to react faster than a human Mechwarrior, and also carries the advantage of the human Mechwarrior’s vulnerability to heat and damage. Autonomous Battlemechs ignore pilot damage. However, all of the executive control hardware is located in the cockpit. Destroying that will still disable the ‘Mech in the same way as killing the pilot.

VIRUS is the Apocalypse

In the Official Traveller Universe, the VIRUS apocalypse ends the Hard Times starting in 1130 3i. The period between that moment and the opening of The New Era is about 70 Years. Traveller’s New Era starts in 1201 3i. By the Fourth Imperium mileu in 1248 3i (which could be more accurately termed the “Quicklink Traveller Universe” since I don’t think that timeline is supported by Mongoose or Far Future Enterprises).

That seventy year period where the Black Curtain falls over the Core Domain is the collapse of interstellar civilization. We can see in The New Era that when pocket empires in Diaspora form the Dawn League that the old Imperium is gone and a new civilization is rising to take it’s place. The New Era is a Post-Apocalyptic Setting.

Unleashing a VIRUS storyline will have a long-term and severe effect on the Setting of your campaigns going forward. Whether it’s exploring the birth of a new sentience, or the century of night where colonies can only survive without connecting. After the Collapse passes, the next era of the setting is going to be one of rebuilding, and the old interstellar order will be dead and gone.