Once the tech tree settled and I spent a suitable amount of time resisting the siren's call, mostly for my own benefit, I gave Sable a kiss goodnight before running straight for my lab. For obvious reasons, I was incredibly excited to get started. The world of Bioshock was one I was pretty familiar with, as I had really enjoyed the first and last additions to the game. I wasn't sure how that stacked up with other people's opinions, but here, now, that hardly mattered.
As I ran through all of the settings I could remember, there were two primary branches of tech that I wanted to explore. One was Adam, plasmid, and Eve. The other was the Vita-Chamber.
When I sat down in my lab, I quickly put together a few designs that we would need to start the ADAM branch before handing them off to Samwise, so he and Frank could get started. As they went off to do their own thing, I hung back to work on the Vita-Chamber.
Investigating the tech tree showed that it was a remarkably short branch, and that due to my wide experience from other tech trees, I could already access the pinnacle, the final version of the Vita-Chamber. As I transferred the blueprints from my head and began to put together the rather worrying device, it became clear that the chamber had three distinct functions.
The first was its cover. Andrew Ryan advertised the Vita-Chamber as a way to "restore vigor," then let the rumor mill spin. Eventually, it was known to the public as an anti-aging wonder device. What it actually did for anyone not coded to its genetic lock was spray an artificial aerosol version of cocaine and several other compounds, which would have definitely been enough to bump up anyone's vigor.
The second part of the machine was an honest-to-God teleportation device. It was not refined as the one we used, as it did cause a certain amount of trauma to anyone who used it, but considering its primary target was corpses, that was hardly a problem.
The third and final part was the revival mechanics, which was where things got… iffy.
Essentially, when the target was teleported into its chamber, a tissue sample was taken and used to create a custom plasmid injection. This plasmid had one mission: to rebuild the body as best it could using the sample and previous scans of the target. Essentially, the plasmid was pre-made to ninety percent completion, inside the device. Adding the tissue sample completed the healing plasmid, and then the body was restarted with sparks of electricity, just enough to give the plasmid something to hook into and heal.
The problem with the design was that it was useless for sufficiently violent head trauma. It could restart and heal a heart, it could fix broken bones, and all sorts of trauma. But your body didn't store memories or consciousness in its DNA, which meant that if your brain was damaged, the Vita-Chamber would fix it, but you would lose whatever was stored in that damaged area. Technically, ADAM could be used to transfer memories, but the effect was crude and dangerous, the results unstable at the best of times.
If I had to make a guess at what caused the inhabitants of Rapture to go psychotic, it was the effect of transferring memories and affecting the brain directly to increase intelligence or other cognitive abilities. They were not ready for that sort of thing, and even with our level of technology, I wouldn't want to use ADAM to revive my mind.
At the end of the day, the Vita-Chamber ran into the same issue we were running into with all of our healing. We could fix the body, but the memory, the mind, just wasn't in the cards.
Well… technically it was, I just wasn't comfortable with it. The mind-scanning tech from Westworld was capable of detailed enough scans to replicate a person's mind in its entirety. The issue was that every aspect of that concept unnerved me to my core. Copying minds, overlaying old scans on newly healed brains…
But, considering that the closest thing we had to a solution to brain damage was an adictol and stimpak derivative treatment that left a person slowly healing, likely requiring months, if not years, of torturous mental and physical therapy...
"Mary… please remind me sometime in the next week to expand on this design," I asked as I put the finishing touches on a completed, but unconnected Vita-Chamber. "I need to get over my squeamishness. Ignoring a way to potentially heal brain damage in a way that doesn't require a horrendous amount of pain and suffering is foolish, not when we have tech that could likely fill in the gaps and make it a legitimate, less terrifying concept."
"I can do that," she said, popping into the projector by my desk.
I nodded, staring out at the inactive, unconnected Vita-Chamber, trying to stamp down on my unease. Eventually, I shook my head and had the machine taken away to be destroyed. The version I would eventually make would be better in all ways, so there was no reason to keep it around.
By the time I was finished building the Vita-Chamber, Samwise and Frank had made a lot of progress assembling the infrastructure to make ADAM, the first step of developing plasmids and EVE.
In its original universe, creating ADAM involved extracting its primary ingredient from a deep-sea slug. It appeared that the slug didn't exist in this reality, or at least couldn't produce the anomalous, green goop that was converted into ADAM. That meant the process for producing it was black-boxed.
In total, there were shockingly few things that were blackboxed from all of the tech trees I had access to, probably less than a dozen. That said, I was not surprised at all to learn that ADAM was now on that list. The pure versatility and depth of what it was capable of was... anomalous at its lowest, insane at its greatest.
The process of production had multiple stages, and started with a slurry of adult stem cells, specifically Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Mesenchymal Stem Cells, and Neural Stem Cells. Now, if this had been my first tech tree, getting these would have been a gigantic pain in the ass, and I would have likely had to do some… unsavory things to scavs or Maelstrom goons to get them in any sort of quantity. Thankfully, by now I was more than capable of designing a process to make them on demand, which was what Frank had been working on, and what I started working on when I arrived at the lab.
Meanwhile, Samwise had started on the second stage, which was to mix the slurry with saltwater algae. Thankfully, they didn't designate a species, so we were able to grab a large sample from the nearby ocean, where there was more than enough for our purposes. We could set up an algae farm at some point, but for now, it was easier just to scoop some out and use that.
The new goopy mixture was then fed into a vat, pressurized to five thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds of pressure per square inch, and then heated to seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit, before being activated with a massive, perfectly calibrated electric shock. All of this required specific equipment to be made, but none of it was beyond our capabilities. Samwise had made good headway by the time I arrived, with a design already completed and parts coming in, which he was assembling next to the machines Frank and I were working on. The hope was to make the system as streamlined as possible, so I wouldn't have to spend more time than necessary making the deep red miracle liquid.
The sun was slowly rising on Night City by the time we had completed all of the equipment, and I had started the first steps. I considered going to sleep, but instead I had Mary give me an update on how the night had gone, as well as the minefield situation. We specifically met in the security room so I could say hello to Murtaugh and Naraku. The former was happily surveying the city and the town, though now with a powerful Dumb AI collating and refining the Data coming from the city, the task was pretty reasonable for him. Naraku was slightly less subdued than they had been when I first put them into their body, but they were still pretty early in their development past the bare bones military AI they had been designed to be.
According to Mary, the situation in the city was more or less nominal, though there was, unsurprisingly, a lot of net traffic discussing what we were doing and what our plans were. We were being pretty open, explaining some of the ultimatums we were planning to impose on the megacorps still operating in Night City, though at this point nearly eighty percent of them had already pulled out.
It was almost like we had a reputation for responding poorly to their bullshit.
The mine field situation, which Naraku actually explained, was mostly complete, with mines making slow adjustments to stay in the path of the Kujira. Naraku was confident in our ability to take down the carrier, and Mary confirmed that confidence with her own data.
Over the next several hours, I kept myself busy working on smaller things from the setting, mostly just putzing with simple things that were interesting. There was more I wanted to investigate, specifically some things from Bioshock: Infinite, but for now, I was focused on ADAM.
I had two weeks with this tech tree, there was no reason to try and rush through it.
Eventually, the wait was over, and it was time to use the newly created equipment to make our first batch of ADAM. Thankfully, producing the liquid didn't take too long, and when it was complete, it revealed several steps up both the plasmid branch and the vigors branch from Bioshock: Infinite. They were both the same thing, just designed in parallel with varying results due to different branching ideas.
With the corresponding branches now open, I dove into the process of making those plasmids and vigors eagerly, astounded by each step of their creation.
"It's official, this stuff is ridiculous," I said to Frank, shaking my head as I finished my second plasmid, this one for Incinerate. "Its potential is unbelievable, and I can feel that they were barely scratching the surface."
When I finished the plasmid, I immediately passed it to a MRVN, who took it and dropped it into a protomatter generator, turning it into water. By building a smattering of the vigors and plasmids, I was rapidly unlocking the entire branch. During this process, I very quickly realized that I would never use any of the plasmids or vigors from the tech tree, at least not directly.
While ADAM was incredibly impressive, those involved with developing it were all bound by their current understanding of science and technology. Sure, the fact that they were given free rein meant they were learning new things daily, but that was no substitute for the amount of refinement that came with time. With what I knew about medicine and biology, I was all but certain that once we started to explore its capabilities, throwing around sparks of lightning would only be the beginning. All the junk I was getting from the tech tree was just the first step.
By the time I had finished plowing through all of the ADAM-related branches, it was starting to get late. My first day of this new tech tree had passed, and I was already incredibly excited to start working with what I had uncovered. ADAM was an untapped gold mine, and both Frank and I were vibrating with excitement. Frank was lucky enough to not need sleep, so he happily dove in when I headed off to bed.
The following morning, Mary woke me up just in time to make it to the security room before Kujira ran headfirst into our ambush. As I stepped into the room, Naraku handed me a coffee and a bagel, which caught me off guard.
"Thank you, Naraku," I said, giving them a smile as I took the cup and food from them. "I appreciate that."
"Mary has been explaining how to interact with humans," they explained, still in their bare ALEO form. "She explained how humans need sustenance, but since you had to rush here, you likely hadn't eaten."
"I haven't, this is great."
The still-developing AI nodded before wordlessly returning to Murtaugh's station, where Mary was projected as well. Sable, Jackie, Kaytlyn, and Gloria were there as well, none of them willing to miss Saburo Arasaka's potential death.
As I settled in with them, I watched a continuously updated feed of mission data, including the speed, direction, and location of the Kujira, as well as the positions of the prepared mine clusters. Most of the mines were marked with red, but a good portion were marked purple, and those were our modified mines.
The general idea behind the ambush was to create a U-shaped cup to "catch" the massive aircraft carrier, so that as they slid in, they would be surrounded on all sides. A ship that size took a while to stop and reverse, so if they did try to run, it would be at a curve, meaning they would just slam into more mines.
"They are getting pretty close. Maybe like five minutes," Mary announced. "We have all the assets in place, including your improved mines."
"Alright, Mary. You've been running this so far," I pointed out. "Unless you don't want it, mission command is yours."
Her projection nodded, and she turned to focus on the mission. As she said, at the five-minute mark, she spoke up again.
"Alright, bringing up the live feed," she said. "Mission go in thirty seconds."
Several of the screens around us turned on, showing the feed of five different drones, all of them perfectly cloaked as they flew above the massive ship. If you were just watching the drone feeds, you would have no idea that the ship was about to be beset from all sides.
"Beginning attack!"
The shift was almost immediate, as the ship's advanced sensors detected the incoming mines. Dozens of weapon emplacements, some concealed until they were deployed, some not, swiveled and twitched, unloading a barrage of projectiles into the water. As we watched, the marks denoting mines on our tactical display began to wink out as they were destroyed.
Unfortunately for the Kujira, this was just a testing wave. Hundreds of mines continued to put pressure on the ship, forcing it to activate more of its defenses.
As the guns fired, dozens of hatches along the side of the ships opened, firing out hundreds of small drones. Some of them took to the air, hovering above the battlefield, though most fell down and splashed into the water. The submersible drones looked like torpedoes the size of my arm and plunged easily under the waves, hunting for mines, while the flying drones scanned the water to target them. Not long after they disappeared, dozens of smaller explosions went off as the mini torpedoes found targets.
Of course, that only led to more mines piling in, all of them directed by Mary, with Naraku chiming in to point out openings and suggest, though Mary didn't take all of their advice. The whole point was to be creative beyond what Naraku had been capable of while restricted, and they were still evolving; it was too early for them to really get creative.
Thankfully, Mary was more than up to the task.
Suddenly, a ring of larger explosions went off around the ship, some deeper, and some closer to the surface, as Mary detonated a strip of mines before they hit the ship. The deeper explosions created a high-pressure wave that ruined the smaller torpedo drones. At the same time, the explosions near the surface threw up a torrent of water, knocking out or obscuring a substantial portion of the scanning drones. In one move, Mary bought herself an opening, which she immediately exploited.
Thousands of mines streamed through the water, pushing through the firing line and impacting the ship's hull. They detonated, blasting water upward and doing light damage to the hull. It wasn't enough, though, even as several mines impacted the same space. Mary kissed her teeth before shaking her head.
"I'm sending in the improved mines," She said. "The normal ones just aren't going to break through before we run out."
About half of the mines marked with purple dots shifted, moving considerably faster than their standard counterparts. As they moved, another wave of normal mines moved to cover them, detonating to clear the waters of drones and protect them from aerial scans. The result was that around ninety percent of the improved mines made it to their target.
When the improved mines detonated, their explosions were noticeably larger, and the damage they caused was considerably more severe. The almost cosmetic damage from the first wave was overwhelmed as dents began to appear, soon replaced by more serious damage. Explosion after explosion after explosion continued to tear into the hull, while the various defenses, which now included larger counter-explosives, more weapons, electrical charges from the hull, and more, were all useless in stopping the massive horde.
Finally, an improved mine caught the hull just right, and a massive tear was rent along the side. Like piranha finding a wounded animal, more mines poured in, both standard and advanced, punching into the wound, tearing it wider. Soon, the damage spread as more mines punched through its hull, each wound torn open.
By now, alarms were blaring on the ship as the crew desperately tried to slow the onslaught. They even had people on the deck throwing grenades and shooting down into the water, trying to slow the advance.
It did not work.
Within just under two minutes of the attack starting, it was clear the boat was taking on water and slowly sinking. Another minute later, and the boat was starting to lean back, water accumulating there as Mary tore its hull to pieces. She was even able to get a few dozen mines inside the ship through several massive holes, tearing through any hope they had of limiting where the water could go.
The ship was sinking, and it was getting faster.
As we watched, something on one of the decks caught my eye. One of the landing strips was being actively cleared, the crew pushing everything out of the way, going so far as to shove a few of their fighter jets into the ocean.
"Mary, something is happening on the deck," I pointed out. "Can you spare a drone?"
"Yeah, hold on…"
After a moment, one of the feeds shifted as the stealth drone descended and focused on one of the upper landing strips, the one most covered from the elements. As it peeked inside, I could see what was happening. Under the cover of the main structure, lit with red lights, was a large transport aircraft. We saw several people being carefully led inside, and as the drone zoomed in, we realized the group was led by Sarubo Arasaka.
Even as the aircraft carrier began to list to one side, the jet transport sealed itself up, turned, and moved until it was aligned with the runway. A moment later, it blasted off and took to the air.
"Damn… the bastard got away," Jackie said with a frown.
"We… should have probably seen that coming," I said with a frown. "It's an aircraft carrier, after all. And short of hacking into the Kujira, Mary doesn't have access to any anti-air weapons."
"I still could…" Mary pointed out. "They are still in range…"
"No, it would give away the whole plot," I said, shaking my head. "It would have been nice and clean if we had gotten him too, but the real goal was stopping the Kujira."
"Can't believe we didn't see that coming," Kaytlyn said, shaking her head. "We desperately need military experts on our team. When is that hiring spree coming?"
"I've already started filling in positions and re-hiring people for the government, and about twenty percent of our jobs for the towers and for the hotel are now performed by humans," Sable revealed. "I planned on making another push soon, raise that to forty or fifty."
"Either way, she is correct," I said with a frown. "The situation is stabilizing, it's time for the push to grow."
Most of the group nodded in agreement, our attention focusing back on the live feed of Kujira. The boat was sinking quickly now, and the mines were slowly ceasing their relentless assault as it became clear the ship was going down.
None of us missed the fact that there were no other attempts to escape, nor did we need reminding that no one would even try to reach the wreck to save survivors. We were the only people who knew the mines were no longer a threat, and we couldn't afford to connect ourselves to the ship's destruction. While I didn't feel bad for destroying such a clear military target, leaving sailors stranded on the ocean, with no hope of retrieval…
"Mary… is there any movement at nearby airfields?" I asked. "Anyone coming to investigate?"
"...No, no activity that I can see beyond the people waiting to receive Saburo."
"Alright," I said, closing my eyes for a moment before opening them and focusing on Mary. "Give me control over the mines."
"What?" she asked, turning to look at me with confusion. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, you did very well. But unless I'm mistaken, Naraku's usual MO was to not leave survivors," I pointed out with a frown. "And I'm not making you do that. So give me control."
The room went quiet for a long moment, before Murtaugh handed me a tablet. I took it from him and, using a simple touch input, confirmed the sinking wreckage as a target. The mines returned to their assault at my command, and within five minutes, there was nothing left. I handed back control to Mary, who wordlessly began redistributing the mines.
Sable, who had been silent during the event, made her way to me and wrapped me up in her arms. The room was quiet for a while before we eventually left. Jackie followed Sable and I as we headed to the courtyard in the vault, where we sat down in the garden.
"There wasn't much else we could have done," Jackie pointed out. "They were doomed, and we needed to protect Night City."
"They came prepared for war," Sable added. "Fully stocked with an invasion force. They were coming here to try and stop our takeover, and they wouldn't care who got hurt in the process."
"Yeah, I know," I said. "Doesn't mean I'm happy about it."
"I'm proud of you," Sable said. "For taking that burden from Mary. Having her fight a warship is one thing… You did the right thing, as much as it might not feel like it."
We sat there for a while before, and eventually I felt… not better, but stable enough to leave. The fact of the matter was that this whole venture had been, and would continue to be, a bloody tear. Between the gangers we had killed, and the future war that was almost certainly inevitable, finishing off a few hundred survivors was a small stone compared to the mountain beside it.
That didn't mean it wouldn't haunt me for a long time.
Eventually, I headed back down to the lab, where Frank was studying the results from the plasmids. While my eagerness was dampened, it was hard not to get sucked back into the excitement as Frank spotted me.
"Jackson, this ADAM material… it is incredible," He said. "It changes everything."
"I know," I responded, nodding in agreement. "Lighting hands, magnetic shielding, healing-"
“No, no, no! Well… yes, all of those things are possible, but that is just the beginning!" He explained. "It's complete biological control, the ability to mold the body like putty!"
"It also has some serious side effects," I pointed out. "Things like super cancerous growths and the fact that using too much of them basically unravels your body on a cellular level. It's also a huge energy cost, so there's a limit to what you can do before-"
"That's the thing, Jackson… there is no limit!" he explained, excitedly passing me a tablet after cutting me off for the second time. "The data I am looking at shows that further refinement of the process will completely remove the danger of cellular unraveling."
I opened up the tablet and scanned through some of the data, nodding in understanding. I could see his research had concluded that the unraveling was due to a poor understanding of some cellular concepts, with a few of them coming together to cause the issue. With the right additions to the plasmids, we could likely solve that problem almost completely, if not entirely.
"On top of that, the cancerous growths are, as far as I can tell, a result of incomplete modification saturation," he continued excitedly. "Due to the archaic techniques used, a certain percentage of ADAM was not being converted into plasmid liquid, and those were causing the growths. With refinement and modern advancements, that issue vanishes completely! As for the power requirements… EVE was a purposeful creation, but it's not actually necessary."
I frowned, mentally examining the design of Incinerate, which was now locked into my brain permanently. The whole design process was intentional, so, of course, the EVE was as well. The body couldn't handle the energy or material requirements for most plasmids or vigors by itself, so EVE, or its Infinite equivalent, Salts, were necessary.
"What's the alternative?" I asked with a frown. "The plasmids need fuel, so of course EVE… is…"
"Yes, yes! EVE is the fuel, but it doesn't have to be!" Frank said, tapping on the tablet with his polymer fingers. "It might have been a precaution, as having it run off fat stores could be dangerous, or it might have been a way to lock in repeat sales, as requiring a special injection would guarantee returning customers. Either way, the need for EVE specifically can be left out. And if we do…"
"We could hook the plasmids up to anything," I finished, my eyes going wide. "We could design a power core implant, let that feed it."
"Jackson, we could grow a power core!" Frank explained. "Plasmids are a combination of ADAM and a material mix that the plasmid uses to modify the body. They were seemingly limited to simple organic materials, but there are plenty of examples of biological processes that use iron, copper, zinc, and more. With time and study, we could substantially add to that list."
"We could create injectable cyberware," I concluded, my jaw dropping.
"Precisely! Imagine being able to apply the second stage of Project Tulip with a series of simple injections. Imagine the process taking hours, not days!"