Campaign:BTC/Virus
- See Virus for the OTU version
Description[edit]
Virus is the high-technology Electronic Warfare software developed on Cymbeline combined with the sentient bioengineered chips also from that development programme. Additionally, this EW software can utilise other technologies have been created that allow it to attack or control non-computer lifeforms.
Finally, the AI component of the Virus has been directed to attack its enemies (the definition of "Enemy" being subject to interpretation) in a way that makes most of the versions of it monomaniacal and murderous.
Attack Methods[edit]
Straight forward Electronic Warfare/Cyber-Warfare attacks are preferred.
Use of remote operated technology is an option.
Empire Builder types prefer co-option; Puppeteer types prefer subversion but will accept alliances; others prefer outright destruction. All known in 1138 will resort to destruction as a means to an end if not an end in itself.
Strains[edit]
Suicide Inducer[edit]
These strains of virus are, by 1138 appearing only as objective specific creations of other types of Virus - their relatively short lived nature means that the "Original" strains have never survived long enough to reach Corridor let alone Deneb Sector.
Doomslayer[edit]
These are, by 1138 the main solo Virus ships - they usually have a specific target in mind and will generally act defensively until they arrive at that target - when they will attack. They will create Suicide Inducer subsidiaries, but only as a means of self defence on-route or against the specific target.
Empire Builder[edit]
These are non-cooperative Vampire Fleets. If a new version is created, it is thereafter a new instance that is a competitor for resources: So these clones are only made for a specific purpose.
Puppeteer[edit]
These are cooperative Vampire Fleets made up of multiple virus instances. These will seek alliances with other Virus instances and non-Virus Sophonts to achieve their aims.
Other[edit]
Other oddities exist. e.g.
History & Background[edit]
Virus was released in 1130 with the news of this catastrophe arriving in the Deneb Sector thereafter and having been widely disseminated by 1132.
Virus was confirmed in Corridor Sector in 1133 but the first suspicions of it in Khouth Subsector and Ian Subsector were not until 1137. Much of the first seen Corridor Sector infection went towards Lair, or Vland or Core Sectors.
One of the first Virus instances to pass through the Ian Subsector was Kishkii which was a Doomslayer with a monomania about Trin (world) and thus just passed through with little or no interaction.
AI and Virus[edit]
Not all AI instances are forms of Virus, but few AI instances have the defensive EW capacities to resist Virus infection. As such, the Regency treats almost any AI as an imminent threat. There are some serious/potentially existential implications for places like Tech-World (world).
Meta-History[edit]
Kishkii is the only named Virus that appears in Deneb Sector's OTU - and this is by implication.
The Peter Gray data in this wiki gives some dates but not a coherent picture of the virus' arrival as that wasn't the focus of his campaigns.
- Author: BackworldTraveller
- With references to the history articles by Peter Gray