"The Second Batch"
Nov. 21st, 2002 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zesty_pintoThe news only tells as it always does: another sector lost to the aliens, another battle lost and another hundreds of lives lost. I feel sorry that of all those killed, there is not much to give them for a funeral save a cannister of frozen ashes to be shipped to their home colony for proper burial. That is, for most of them.
Captain Twelve was one of the older experiments for the Genome project. You could tell from the way he talks that there is something about him that even I could tell that shows he was an example of a more aggressive experiment. He takes his meals in liquid packets, never talks except when it is necessary, and always walks in a military fashion. Whenever I tried talking to him, he does not have much to say, except for a few pointers on my piloting that he thinks needs improving. Most of the homeworlders usually look at him with a sort of disgust. Analysis tells me it is disgust. Captain Twelve never was taught psychology for the simple aspect that he was a replaceable soldier.
From what I was allowed to read of the technology back then, the AI project was a flawed experiment. AI could be achieved for the more logical things necessary for it to behave like a living being, but sentience and a proper learning mechanism was still something that was too difficult for the engineers to manufacture. In some sense, people said the AI "lacked a soul."
To replace the great shortage of manpower, the Genome Project was initiated to breed soldiers that did not have parents. For the homeworlders, it meant more morale boosts. It did not mean fifteen years of growing and training just to see their deaths. The Genome project reduced the time to five years. The first batch were antisocial in nature and some commited suicide. Soon all one hundred and eighty one died even before being applied to combat. Captain Twelve was from the second batch.
The second batch was a correction of all the neurologists and geneticists major mistakes. Fixed of the major problems instilled into them from instinctive encouragement supplied by their natural hormone adjustments and learning mechanisms, the second batch were an extreme improvement, but not a total one. Homeworlders complained of their lack of hair growth, of the way they stared like they were of empty minds, and the way they took everything seriously as they were taught to. One of the neurologists told me that while the second batch were not to be destoyed, a lot of care was placed to make sure that they were not immersed into the outside environment for fear that their sensitive learning mechanisms would take in the wrong stimuli. Some received neurosurgery in the next few months to make sure they did not create errors and then kept in rooms to be monitored.
They were made for intensive combat unlike the others. When I was serving under him, he always repeated three things before going into battle. "Aim to cripple then finish";"Suppress all opponents"; and "Protect and learn from the mistakes of others". The new ones never understood why he said it until they saw him in combat, moving with a reaction time and accuracy unlike anything they would have seen. The homeworlders sometimes watched to learn his combat data, and talked of it like he was "something out of a horror movie." When I asked the neuropsychologists about this, they would smile and tell me not to worry about it.
It is strange when you see someone like Captain Twelve. I wonder if he is alone all the time. The records I was allowed to read stated that out of the one hundred and sixty created from the second batch, only thirty-two still exist. They are working on the thirty-fifth batch now, though batches are now done in ten thousand instead of a hundred and sixty, and are more sociable. Some are even allowed to mix with the platoons of homeworlders though they still have careful screening of what they are allowed to see.
I remember the day I was with Captain Twelve and asked if he was alone. He turned next to me, looked at me funny, and then wondered what I meant by it. I told him it was being without someone and I told him if he felt alone then it would be all right to talk about it. He looked at me, and then he saw me smile, and I think he smiled back for once.
During a battle against the forty-three assault ships the aliens posed against the platoon, I remember Captain Twelve about to destroy the last assault ship with the fifteen others. Before he could fire the last shot, the ship managed to catch his in a blast that threatened to destroy his ship. Before he died, his radio asked for me, and he told me he finally understood what I meant. His craft exploded 0.12 seconds afterwards.
His remains could not be scavanged, so I found a flower growing in the atrium of the space station and I placed it in the hangar and then opened the airlock. As it drifted into space, I felt it was fitting that I could not find something more to say about a man like him.
Captain Twelve was one of the older experiments for the Genome project. You could tell from the way he talks that there is something about him that even I could tell that shows he was an example of a more aggressive experiment. He takes his meals in liquid packets, never talks except when it is necessary, and always walks in a military fashion. Whenever I tried talking to him, he does not have much to say, except for a few pointers on my piloting that he thinks needs improving. Most of the homeworlders usually look at him with a sort of disgust. Analysis tells me it is disgust. Captain Twelve never was taught psychology for the simple aspect that he was a replaceable soldier.
From what I was allowed to read of the technology back then, the AI project was a flawed experiment. AI could be achieved for the more logical things necessary for it to behave like a living being, but sentience and a proper learning mechanism was still something that was too difficult for the engineers to manufacture. In some sense, people said the AI "lacked a soul."
To replace the great shortage of manpower, the Genome Project was initiated to breed soldiers that did not have parents. For the homeworlders, it meant more morale boosts. It did not mean fifteen years of growing and training just to see their deaths. The Genome project reduced the time to five years. The first batch were antisocial in nature and some commited suicide. Soon all one hundred and eighty one died even before being applied to combat. Captain Twelve was from the second batch.
The second batch was a correction of all the neurologists and geneticists major mistakes. Fixed of the major problems instilled into them from instinctive encouragement supplied by their natural hormone adjustments and learning mechanisms, the second batch were an extreme improvement, but not a total one. Homeworlders complained of their lack of hair growth, of the way they stared like they were of empty minds, and the way they took everything seriously as they were taught to. One of the neurologists told me that while the second batch were not to be destoyed, a lot of care was placed to make sure that they were not immersed into the outside environment for fear that their sensitive learning mechanisms would take in the wrong stimuli. Some received neurosurgery in the next few months to make sure they did not create errors and then kept in rooms to be monitored.
They were made for intensive combat unlike the others. When I was serving under him, he always repeated three things before going into battle. "Aim to cripple then finish";"Suppress all opponents"; and "Protect and learn from the mistakes of others". The new ones never understood why he said it until they saw him in combat, moving with a reaction time and accuracy unlike anything they would have seen. The homeworlders sometimes watched to learn his combat data, and talked of it like he was "something out of a horror movie." When I asked the neuropsychologists about this, they would smile and tell me not to worry about it.
It is strange when you see someone like Captain Twelve. I wonder if he is alone all the time. The records I was allowed to read stated that out of the one hundred and sixty created from the second batch, only thirty-two still exist. They are working on the thirty-fifth batch now, though batches are now done in ten thousand instead of a hundred and sixty, and are more sociable. Some are even allowed to mix with the platoons of homeworlders though they still have careful screening of what they are allowed to see.
I remember the day I was with Captain Twelve and asked if he was alone. He turned next to me, looked at me funny, and then wondered what I meant by it. I told him it was being without someone and I told him if he felt alone then it would be all right to talk about it. He looked at me, and then he saw me smile, and I think he smiled back for once.
During a battle against the forty-three assault ships the aliens posed against the platoon, I remember Captain Twelve about to destroy the last assault ship with the fifteen others. Before he could fire the last shot, the ship managed to catch his in a blast that threatened to destroy his ship. Before he died, his radio asked for me, and he told me he finally understood what I meant. His craft exploded 0.12 seconds afterwards.
His remains could not be scavanged, so I found a flower growing in the atrium of the space station and I placed it in the hangar and then opened the airlock. As it drifted into space, I felt it was fitting that I could not find something more to say about a man like him.
