A joint research into the cybernetic organisms encountered on 7th and 8th September 2519 was conducted by Professor Ivan Kirov, Felicity “Canary” Binx, William Napier, William “Prince” Smith, Penelope ‘Kensington’ Devereux-Quille and Decker Castellan. By also compiling reports from FEF members, we have added them into this report to ensure that any personal that encounter the cybernetic creatures have the knowledge to combat and survive against them.
These creatures are considered hostile and extremely dangerous. They are extremely durable, being able to operate in areas with high levels of radiation with some units being able to withstand a hail of gunfire due to the Cybernetic Augmentation they employ. Additionally, the weaponry they employ is technologically advanced and superior to our own.
The first reports of these organisms came to the FEF’s attention when we intercepted a report over the radio from Bunker Fortitude who were encountering heavy resistance. It appears that they were attempting to take over something with their forces but were decimated by this unknown faction. What was alarming with the distress call was the obvious sounds of electro-magnetically propelled weapons being used against Fortitude’s force, destroying their Power Armoured infantry known as “The Ironclad.” It was evident that this faction had access to railguns.
FEF members went to explore sector shere Fortitude were last reported. This sector lay near the vicinity of the heavily radioactive zone and they encountered the faction that wiped out the Fortitude forces who in turn almost wiped out the FEF patrol sent to the area to investigate. It was speculated that the faction was another variant of the nanite Hive virus that was spreading across the globe before The Fall as they began to infect FEF personal on the patrol.
Eyewitness reports
Professor Ivan Kirov
The mission I was a part of on 7 September 2519 was to find and secure a facility known as the DAHL institute. We had no idea what this facility was only that this within a heavily radioactive zone and Fortitude forces were attempting to secure it. Please see Council Member Vasilli’s mission report for more information on this mission:
The D.A.H.L. institute allowed us to confirm that the cybernetic organism previously encountered are indeed a variant strain of the nanite virus which we have referred to as “The Hive.” DAHL confirmed that that they have attempted to breach the sanctity of the D.A.H.L. institute but the emitters in the AI’s employ kept them at bay.
Additionally, whilst questioning the AI programme of locations nearby, it gave us the locations once we located the password. One of the facilities it gave us the location of was situated within the heavily radioactive zone, Sector…., the territory of the hostile organism. The name of this facility was Vulcan Industries. More on this later.
Our mission on 8 September 2519 to secure the D.A.H.L. Institute from Hive forces gave me a first eyewitness view of the organisms. We set up an ambush for the creatures, with military personal making short work of the lesser versions of the patrol. The Node creature leading the patrol did not go down easily and required a steady stream of gunfire to bring it down.
Once it could not take any further firepower from our guns, the heavily cybernetic creature went down and one of our Soldiers, ‘Hightower’, went at it with a shank to ensure it did not get back up. Whether it was a result of the hundreds of bullets poured into the creature or ‘Hightower’ making quick work with his shank, the exposed cableling on the Hive creature caused it to explode (probably igniting with the C7 within its body) destroying a good portion of its body and weapons, as well as hurtling ‘Hightower’ into a fucking tree.
Once Hightower was revived, we attempted to retrieve the remains of the Node creature but were subsequently attacked from behind by relentless force of The Hive and forced to make a fighting withdrawal to the D.A.H.L. Institute. Lead Medic Binx attempted to cut into the Brain of the creature on the field but due to the intensity of The Hive assault we had to make a full-on retreat to the facility and make a stand against the encroaching cybernetic menace.
Heavy Infantry “Tower” Hill
Intel from the Dahl Facility (from now on shall be referred to as Dahl) revealed that there was a local group of Nanite Plague (Upgrade Hive or Upgrade) that had been patrolling near Dahl. Over the years the facilities defence, which had been modified to defend against Upgrade, had been damaged and was no longer functional.
Dahl had provided the route the forces would patrol and the location of the defence grid and recommended we got the defence grid online first. The decision was to go straight to the patrol route to set up an ambush and happened to pass a defence grid node which Soap deemed beyond reasonable repair.
The Ambush location which was a 2-tier ridge overlooking the patrol route. Hawk, Treaty and Park was set up on the higher ridge, Tower Hill was set up on the lower ridge edge with Soap, Kirov and Canary set back on the lower ridge.
Once the patrol, which was made up of general Upgrade, (possibly Bronze Heads – elite units) and a single Silver Head hand entered the kill zone, Hawk fired the first shot and the rest followed. The lower ranked Upgrade feel very easily however the Commander Unit, the Silver Head was able to advance up the ridge whilst taking sustained fire from different types of small arms as well as rail weapons.
Using combat daggers was ineffective however it was taken down after prolonged sustained fire. Once downed, it took about 10 seconds for it to explode. Tower Hill was in the blast area and was blown into a tree trunk. Soap, Canary and Kirov looked over the remains and picked up as much research material as they could, including the skull.
The battle had drawn the near by Upgrade forces to where the Silver Head was taken down and a second battle ensued. The team was pushed back to the higher ridge and we tried to catch out breath and allow Canary, Soap and Kirov to preform some field research. The upgrade forces were not reinforced but was healed by one of their number.
The team was pushed back a second time and was going to retreat back to Dahl, all upgrade forces were downed and Tower Hill went back to ensure forces were finished off. This is were the healer using was discovered which was regenerating and was finished off with a dagger. Research material was gathered and on the way back to Dahl, the scavenger unit (also known as Mr Toad, due to its appearance) was discovered. Mr Toad down Tower Hill and was downed by the other soldier which had to be radioed back for assistance. This unit had a large amount of salvage on it.
Hive designation: Vulcan
The previous Hive strain we encountered during our early expeditions on the surface was known designated as Hive: Apollo, as this was the name of the programme controlling the local virus. Despite trapping the Apollo programme into a creature deemed as a “Node” and destroying it was speculated whether this was end of the Hive organism. In my discussions with Vasilli, I wondered if we would encounter more of The Hive and if they too would also take on the guise of our forgotten mythological Gods and incorporating their many aspects as Apollo had.
I had suspicions that due to the proximity of the Vulcan Institute that The Hive may have taken the mantle of the Smith God (or its Greek counterpart Hephaestus). The Hive brain captured by both Professor Kirov and Lead Medic Binx, allowed the project team to study the designation of the variant strain which referred to itself as Vulcan.
Vulcan/ Hephaestus was viewed as the God of Blacksmithing and the creative/ destructive notions of Fire. The Hive organisms appeared to be heavily armoured and wielding railguns (which were far superior than our own). Also, the two Gods were viewed as as warding against fire, an energy source. Their territory, being a radioactive zone, allows the human hosts to continue functioning within the radiant energy as damaged tissues are ignored through the enhancement of augmentation. Additionally, Hephaestus made use of automatons which this new variant with their cybernetic augmentations could be described as.
This association with the ancient forgotten Gods brings up two points:
- Are they programmed this way? If so, by whom/ what?
- Or do they envision themselves as Gods (styling themselves as them)? This may suggest that they (the programming) has some form of vanity and thus sentience.
With the global contamination of the Nanite Outbreak I believe that we will encounter more strains of this virus with different programming (as well as allusions to the Old Gods).
The Brain
The Brain of The Hive unit (we believed to be designated as a Node) was retrieved on the final mission to secure the D.A.H.L. Institute from Hive Vulcan forces. Using her surgical skills, Lead Medic Binx elegantly retrieved the brain from the ruined skull and placed within a substitute to prevent decomposition. The Brain was heavily augmented with Cyberware which could be connected to a terminal and accessed.
With the help of Head Engineer, Decker Castellan, we have inserted the Brain into a Vat to prevent decomposition as well as allow us to interact with it.
What secrets does The Hive Brain hold….?
Biological Functions
The medical team, led by Canary, investigated the biological functions of the Hive creatures we encountered. It was observed that the creatures were capable of regenerating on the field and able to heal other fallen of the brethren.
The medical team conducted an autopsy on a creature we have identified as a “Shaper.” The body had extensive radiation damage, highly probable due to the exposure of high levels of radiation in its territory. However, despite the radiation damage the creature is able to perform its functions even with the biological degradation. The musculature and skeleton of the body is enhanced through medical and nanite augmentation. This not only allows the creature to withstand physical damage, lethal to an un-augmented creature but also repairs or ignore the radiation damage on its body. This dramatically alters the creature’s appearance, covered with metallic parts and cyberware, allowing us to clearly identify them.
Their findings also showed that the heart of the creature was replaced with a generator/mini production nanite factory. Additionally, their hands also possessed delivery tubes which were observed being used on other fallen Hive creatures and wounded FEF personal. After being used on the fallen Hive creatures would be revived immediately, joining the combat against FEF forces. Those wounded FEF personal that were infected with the virus were healed however, became ill as the nanites began attacking their immune system. This is speculated to be the nanite virus attempting to take control over the host’s body and merging them with the Hive Mind.
By scanning the nanites fed into the delivery tubes it was ascertained that they offered the creatures infected by the nanites, the capability to be rapidly healed. However, the coding within the nanites are altered and scans deemed the nanites, “highly dangerous.”
No further information could be gathered from the “Shaper” specimen and the Medical Team’s goals into what other capabilities they possess and how we could reverse engineer the technology and replicate it. For us have the best possible chances of fully understanding the creature, we will need capture a live specimen to examine. We should focus in the next expedition onto the surface to capture a live specimen.
Combat Capabilities
The weapons employed by Hive: Vulcan are a combination of basic firearms as well railguns. The Railguns itself are of a far superior design compared to the weapons employed by Hive: Apollo and FEF members requiring no visible connections to a power source.
Based on an incorrect supposition that these weapons did not require a C7 power source, it was discovered that the creatures used a similar process to Hive Apollo creatures in which they stored power within the body of the unit. Whereas the C7 was surface mounted on the back of the Apollo creature, here it forms part of the whole body of this unit. The Fission fuel flows around the body, like a secondary circulatory system, and is directed where required to augment the abilities of the Nanites in self repair, or flows through the hands of the Unit into the weapon via several connecting pipes that would be invisible when viewing the unit in operation.
The body is almost completely machine, and it is very clear that this augmentation has been built up over several hundred years of development; and individual machine parts have themselves been repaired and upgraded very often.
The C7 supply does appear to be limited and is used as required. In a high combat situation, the C7 supplies would be burned quite quickly (although it is difficult to accurately estimate given the variables involved the range would be measured in minutes rather than hours) to feed the extreme repair demands and weapon feed. In this accelerated state, there is no doubt that breaching the system could prove extremely explosive; and this is your hypothesis as to the cause of the explosion in the unit.
Given these findings, a single, extremely high-powered strikes would be the best counter against this unit, as it’s extreme rate of regeneration would render it virtually invulnerable to weapons even as powerful as Sniper Rifles. Otherwise, we are reduced to attempting to deplete the unit’s energy reserves whilst it reigns destruction down on FEF units.
Combat Models
Hightower has put up a list of Combat models utilised by The Hive. Our information is regarding the creatures is still limited with most of the information gathered from the field. The research conducted by members of Project Steel Father allowed us to gain more insight into some of the Units.
- Standard foot soldiers (designation unknown): Part of their face seems to be mechanical. They are slow moving with no real tactical sense. Guns and Knives work.
- Collector: They wear a long coat with a backpack and googles. Appears to skitter around the battle ground. They seem to have a large amount of salvage in their bag (military and engineering). Guns work/ Knives unknown. The goggles are in fact it’s eyes which allows it to see in the electromagnetic spectrum. Possibly allows them to find valuable salvage as well as navigate through the harsh radioactive environment they dwell in.
- Shaper: Long robes with a weird hand, appears to be mainly red with 2 syringe-like attachments on the back of the hand. Was seen healing other units even after they were “finished off”. They can be taken down by guns however they will get back up until they are “finished off” (With a knife)
- Elite soldier (designation unknown): They have a bronze or cooper colour helmet/head. They are more dangerous and appear to have some tactical sense. The helmet is part of their head. Guns and Knives work.
The Node: This is heavily augmented and armoured (appears to have a Silver Headed helmet). Armed with an advanced form of Railgun that fires as fast as a DMR. Very difficult to take down with the rapid regeneration rate allowing it to survive a hail of gunfire. Either laying down constant gunfire into the creature to deplete its power supply or conducting a high-powered strike to take it down. Once taken down through force creature may likely explode. Guns work/ Knives do not.
Conclusion
These creatures are considered extremely hostile and an immediate threat to Bunker Ascendant. Please take this information into consideration when dealing with the creatures as they have wiped out a large segment of Bunker Fortitude’s forces as well as almost succeeding in destroying FEF forces on almost two occasions.
Our knowledge on the Hive Vulcan creatures (and the nanite virus) is incomplete and more study is required. The Science and Medical teams will be communicating with the Hive Node brain to gain more understanding into its programming and functions in the next excursion. It is also of the strong recommendation of Professor Kirov, that we capture a live Hive Vulcan specimen, designated as a Shaper, so that we can study its live functions. The use of stun batons will be required in the capture of a Shaper and suitable quarantine facilities to store and conduct our research.
The Nanite Hive Virus had ravaged the world after the catastrophe in Russia before The Fall. Based on this and the fact that it is designating itself after Gods of a Pantheon, we can assume that we will encounter more of these organisms as we expand onto the surface. The information we have on the previous Hive strain we encountered is fragmented. The more we understand and codify this strain, the more likely we are to overcome the threats of possible Hive strains as we encounter them.