The Ashiran Project

The original Ashiran project, code-named Dark Granite, was intended to be an organic deep-space repair system that would replace the machine-system telepresences already in operation. Self-replicating molecules were analyzed by various computer systems, and projected possibilities on life were made; final design rested in SRM28g2. The Dark Granite project culminated with the ExtraVehicular Autonomous Maintainance and Repair (EVAMaR) unit. Endothermic reactions allowed the unit to store 99.92% of incipient light. The same reactions also allowed the EVAMaR to operate in a wide variety of temperature extremes, from 1K up to 8,000K -- excessive heat and EM radiation (infra-red to X-ray bands) was stored in chemical reactions. Duration times in the extreme heat range varied, but projections estimated roughly two minutes of exposure at such temperatures, with exposure times increasing exponentially, based on temperature drops and incipient fuel. The primary fuel system consisted of pulverized nickel-iron, mixed with a carbon source. Radio communications, using paraneural nets as antennae, allowed the unit to function remotely. Those same paraneural nets also allowed the units to operate independantly of one another, and the vessels they would repair, with bioprogramming (genetic) routines.

Moral and ethical questions inevitably arose, regarding the creation of what could be interpreted as a new form of life. Extensive analysis of project Dark Granite concluded that the EVAMaRs, and all related technologies, were droids -- robots -- with no more rights or abilities than programmed machines.

The use of SRM28g2 ended the possibility of viral infection for the EVAMaRs, and exposure to vacuum afforded little opportunity for bacterial infection. Concern regarding in-ship repairs, programming, and maintance of the units precipitated the need for a primative immune system that took full advantage of the differences in genetic origin. Computer and think-tank analysis could find no potential for disruption of DNA-based life -- the SRM28g2 system was self-enclosed, and the primative immune paracells could not replicate. Additionally, the stem paracells for the immune system would not operate without the parablood inherent in the EVAMaR system.

Difficulties in alien relations forced the project into the Defense Department’s spot-light. The overall mass of the EVAMaR was not prohibitive, and the Department felt that these units could become effective weapons platforms. One of the original design team members noted that the SRM28g2 system could be built in a variety of shapes and sizes -- including androidal. Project Dark Granite was renamed to the Ashiran Project (taken from the word ‘assurance’), and analysis of such an android proceeded at an increased pace.

Difficulties with interplanetary and intersteller piracy further increased the pace of the project. The androids, each called an Ashiran, were designed with human-resembling endo-skeletons and external factors. Visual, rough X-ray, and thermal imaging of the Ashirans would indicate a human being. However, to protect the relatively weak vision systems for such an android, a nictating membrane capable of protecting the visual input systems at the extreme temperatures of the original EVAMaR units was added. Additionally, chitonous armor-plates resided subcutaneously over the larger muscle groupings. Smaller, more numerous hearts were hidden inside the system, to assist a human-like primary, allowing the system to pass all of a physical exam, save a blood or serum test.

Additional ethical and moral questions were brought to the fore. The Ashiran units appeared very human, and were each capable of independant intelligence. They were also self-contained units, able to eat the food humans ate, and breath the air that humans breathed. Ashirans could not procreate. They could not age. They were capable of utilizing carbon-containing gases, such as carbon dioxide, and giving up oxygen. They were programmed, and would not deviate from within the constraints such an SRM28g2 genetic limit. They were capable of emotion, but only as much as they were allowed. And, since they were programmed to be content, and never to rebel, their safety in human biospheres was guaranteed. The decision was reached that they were, technically, androids -- and as such, no more entitled to rights or liberties than machine androids.

The first batch of fifteen Ashirans, labeled Ag1's, were code-named Silver Ones, for reference to the symbol for silver from the periodic table of elements. The Silver One generation operated in an unwitting human environment for three months, with no errors. The original paraneural net allowed for instantaneous radio communication, both between Silver Ones, and with the central observation platform. Additional weapons training indicated that the Ashirans would make adequate Marines or shock-troops.

Silver Twos, the second generation of Ashirans, had additional features. Their massive stores of electrical energy could be discharged in an atmospheric system, much like a taser. The endothermic absorbtion systems were modified, so that their paraneural net could absorb and conduct more massive amounts of energy, including low-powered lasers. The paramuscle system was upgraded, and further refinements to the electron-transport system were made. Combat tests indicated that the Ashirans would save roughly three-thousand human lives, per unit, when used in combat.

The first test of the Silver Twos, a defensive assault on a rebel-held strong-hold, indicated the necessity for further refinements in programming and design. Six Silver Twos, in full Deltan Federated Marine Corps battle-armor, were able to neutralize five-hundred rebelling colonists, with no casualties, in under half an hour. The faster Ashirans were able to approach the colony undetected, absorbing lidar. Once inside the colony’s perimeter, the Ashirans donned the DFMC battle-armor, to perpetuate the myth that the Ashirans were elite Marines. The Silver Twos made near-perfect shots, incapacitating targets without killing them. The programming errors fell under the categories of tactics and strategy. Raw power alone had allowed the Silver Twos to accomplish their mission -- conventional weapons did no harm to them, and the Ashirans did not miss.

While conventional weapons had not affected the Silver Twos, improvised weapons caused some confusion among the inter-communicating androids. Kinetic weapons, such as projectiles and emergency-door systems, nearly gave away the inhumaness of the Ashirans during the test. Further phsyical changes were made, allowing the epidermis to absorb and translate kinetic energy into electrical energy. Further modifications enhanced the energy-distribution of the chitonous subcutaneous armor. Increased computational ability was given to the units, to enhance their programming in areas of non-leathal tactics and strategy.

The Silver Threes, or Ag3's, the third generation of Ashirans, were ready for mass production, after several trial runs. The first order for nearly a thousand units was fulfilled on time. Production-time improvements allowed for the generation of prototype Silver Four’s, by the time the Silver Three order was completed.

The Defense Department’s Ashiran project proceeded apace, with distribution of Silver Threes throughout the military’s ranks. In the well-structured military, the Silver Threes were able to pass as humans, provided that medical staff were sworn to secrecy, and to the project. Concerns were raised that the Ashiran project was most needed on merchant freighters, the vessels that were most prone to attack. With the success of the Silver Threes, the Defense Department ordered a thousand Silver Fours, to be modified for civilian infiltration and servitude. The Silver Four project was successful, capturing close to fifteen thousand pirates and mercenaries in Sol interplanetary space alone, in a three year period.

The project came to public light after a capital ship engagement with pirates incapacitated one Silver Three. The initial outrage at the Ashiran project was significantly less than expected, and Congressional investigations found no indications of wrong-doing. Out from behind its veil of secrecy, the Ashiran project was expanded significantly. The Silver Five units (Ashiran generation 5's) were designed for domestic police enhancement, and an order of close to one-hundred thousand units was placed, for distribution throughout the Federation.

Some members of the public called for an outward sign of identification that would negate the designed android features of the Ashiran project. The more vocal members of this group were pacified with assurances that the Ashirans would only be used in police forces, not as a replacement for humans, but as tools, to save human lives. Silver Fives were diversified, with some handling bomb disposal, and others handling emergency calls such as conventional and plasma fires, and in environments unsafe for humans. In some instances, the Silver Fives came to fulfill the roles of the original EVAMaRs.

A new order of close to one million Silver Sixes was placed, to serve as military combatants in an undeclared war against an alien species. A corrupt military official in the Defense Department was able to bribe and blackmail the design team into adding additional program procedures to the Silver Six order. If the design team had know precisely what they were adding to the procedures, they no doubt would have refused. Simultaneously, work was proceeding apace with the Silver Seven prototypes.

After the deployment of the Silver Sixes, the corrupt official, Vice Admiral Aquile, utilized his special programming of the Ashiran units. All one million Silver Sixes immediately performed whatever task was necessary to reach the Admiral, including abandonment, theft, and murder. Ships were comandeered, and a great migration of Silver Sixes to a common point began, with a number of units serving as personal body-guards to Vice Admiral Aquile. The self-destruct of the Ashirans, a specially engineered SRM28g2 virus, was never released -- its various storage facilities had already been destroyed by the Admiral’s orders.

The remaining Ashiran facilities immediately came under Aquile’s domain, and he began producing even more corrupt Silver Sixes. However, the Silver Seven project had been moved out from under the Ashiran project, and transferred to the Exploratory Department, under the name of the Anadine project (named for the word ‘analyze’). The Silver Seven project immediately became a last-resort against the million plus Silver Sixes that were enforcing Aquile’s regime.

New SRM28g2 viruses were engineered, and added to the Silver Sevens’ arsenal for use against the Silver Sixes. The Anadine facilities were able to produce nearly twenty-thousand units, before the Silver Sixes discovered them. The Silver Sevens performed in unexpected and unexplainable patterns, outside of their programming area; however, they fulfilled their initial mission, which was to protect the Anadine facilities, and the humans there -- human and Silver Seven casualties were minimal, and Silver Six casualties were relatively high.

Aquile used gravitic weapons to destroy the Anadine facilities, but not before the Silver Sevens were deployed. Improved human mimicry allowed the Silver Sevens (Anadine/Ashiran generation 7's) to spread the SRM28g2 virus among the Silver Sixes, weakening Aquile’s military effectiveness. Further military acts involving both humans and androids (including Ashiran generations prior to the Sixes) worked to reduce the Silver Sixes’ numbers. Aquile was killed while under retreat.

Unfortunately, Aquile’s programming had not covered his demise; the Silver Sixes were instantly transformed into murderous savages. One popular press report accurately described them as “killing machines”. The Silvers Sixes went berzerk, killing anyone and anything they could; however, the momentum of the joint assault allowed for the eventual extermination of the Sixes.

During the reconstruction, as the general public turned against the Ashiran design, and Congressional investigations began, it was discovered that Aquile had created a secret facility, at which he had constructed close to one-hundred thousand more Silver Sixes. The Silver Sixes, however, could not be located, and the memory systems of both the computers and the engineers at the facility were mysteriously blank.

A Trevitt jump-drive research station orbiting the blue-giant star of Epsilon Eridani Prime ceased transmitting, not long there-after. An elite squad of Marines and Silver Sevens was immediately dispatched to investigate, for Epsilon Eridani Prime was not far from the secret facilities of Aquile. What happened next is unkown. Epsilon Eridani Prime went super-nova after the arrival of the fleet, destroying the research station, and several nearby star-systems. Subsequent investigations revealed that close to 85% of the mass of Epsilon Eridani Prime was missing, and that a severe time/space distortion existed where the research station had once been. These clues indicated that some portion of the facility’s Trevitt jump-drive research was utilized.

Whether any of the Marines or scientists at the research station survived, or any of the Silver Sevens survived, is unknown. Whatever happened to the Silver Sixes is unknown.

Of course, you and I know what happened. They went back in time...

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