Nexus Release 13 : The Cyber Friends
UI-ID: 486f7720646f20796f7520646f3f.071123299-CALDETtsfSecretary:RaakelClaramond:RaakelClaramond
My name is Raakel Claramond and I am the Underseer’s secretary.
The following is a document I’ve been requested to assemble and release to the Capsuleer division.
May you find it beneficial.
A human’s best friend
The demurely named ‘Cyber Friends’ are Organo-Mechanical Constructs*, or OMC, that fulfill the purpose contemporary pets and animals do. They were built to meet the Foundations’ initial needs for dumb and simple labor units that could be easily exchanged between locations. When we began to industrialize more effectively after the Great Invasion, their role switched to a more luxurious, ecological need instead.
Modern Cyber Friends were developed when we could spare the desires for old luxuries lost in the Great Invasion. In specific, animal companionship was chief among our practical wants. We faced difficulty in realizing this, however, as unaugmented life is harshly incompatible with most of our dwellings. Animal sheddings would exponentially wear down our filtration systems and increase resource consumption, for instance.
To bridge the gap, we began experimenting with variations of our previously human-only cybernetic technology. The central idea behind the first prototypes was to capture the minds of the animals, but place them in bodies compatible to our life style. Although we succeeded, development in this area is quite slow. It is necessary to research unique implants for every animal species we desire if they are to function properly.
With all the wanted functionality of Normal animals and the upgrades of our cybernetic technology, Cyber Friends are extremely popular in the Foundations. They are most often encountered in personal dwellings, but some can found on the primarily human traffic lanes. We keep them away from our external Stain deployments in order to reduce maintenance overhead, but specialist units may still be found out there.
One of our premier examples is the OPP-AI (pronounced Op-Pai), a spherical, arachnid-like construct that is assigned to nearly all Foundations children. It is primarily designed as an initiation companion, guiding moral and ethical development as well as instructing essential social skills in newborns. The OPP-AI also serves as a guardian for newborns, helping to guide the eccentric activities of children from potentially harmful paths.
The OPP-AI is often affectionately referred to as, “a monster’s best friend”, due to its involvement in the pranks and shenanigans of children. Parental units often dread seeing an unescorted OPP-AI as it normally means something is about to happen to them or the area they’re in. Regardless of its ill-gotten reputation, its effectiveness in assisting child rearing has made it a welcome creation.
I am not too certain how available we will make the Cyber Friends available to you Capsuleers, but I think the architects may have simplified versions in progress for you. I’m certain they can give you a time frame if you are truly interested in owning one. I wouldn’t expect something timid to have lounging around, though! Controlled they may be, keeping the personality of their species intact is something we are quite keen on.
*Organo-Mechanical Construct(s), or OMC, is the umbrella term for any non-human machine created using cybernetic technology in the Foundations. In particular, these are machines that do not possess human-level capabilities, but may be capable of imitating certain human qualities.