Unreviewed JOR-661 "Mania" Chrono-Motivator

[Helix]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a restraint/compliance device for the Dzara
• Image Source: N/A
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Helix Privateers
• Affiliation: Helix Privateers / The Dzara
• Market Status: Closed-Market
• Model: JOR-661 Mania
• Modularity: Yes
• Production: Minor
• Material:
  
  • General Construction: Blightsteel
  • Organic Components: Formgel
  • Electronic Components: Helglass

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Adjustable time, penalties, and audibility

STRENGTHS

• Final Countdown: The Mania is effectively a wearable death sentence, terminating the victim at the expiration of an internal timer.

WEAKNESSES

• Countdown Interrupted: The Mania is hypothetically removable by conventional surgical techniques if caught early, rendering it inert and harmless.

DESCRIPTION

A simple but vile device, the Mania was originally designed to keep slave-soldiers, workers, pit-fighters, and other such unwilling individuals in line.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Mania was born from the diseased macro-consciousness of Helix, who designed it to both force compliance and psychologically torment its victims. From there, its use spread into the wider Dzara, where it can be seen on the organization's less-voluntary personnel.

The Mania is small, usually just a few centimeters across, and in its inactive state can very comfortably fit into the palm of a humanoid hand. A casual observer, when spotting the machine's insectile contours and several pairs of "legs" might mistake it for some sort of probe droid.

In truth, the Mania is designed for nothing quite so innocent as recon, and is instead a form of compliance device. Typically, its installation is as simple as touching the machine to the neck or skull of its intended victim. When so activated, the Mania extends its sharp little legs, clamping itself firmly to flesh and bone.

From there, the device extends a series of thin metallic tendrils into the skin, attempting to invade its victim's central nervous system. Should it succeed, the device fuses itself semi-permanently into the victim's body.

Surprisingly, this process seldom causes serious physical harm to the victim in question. Nonetheless, a fused Mania device henceforth has direct access to the individual's brain functions.

From the moment of fusion, the Mania maintains an internal "countdown", the expiration of which will cause the machine to detonate a shaped explosive charge within its casing. This is typically oriented towards the wearer's brain, and is intended (needless to say) to cause fatal harm.

The exact intents, functions, and duration of this timer are legion, and can be pre-programmed by the device's installer. In all cases, however, the intent is to compel the victim to behave in a certain manner, with compliant behavior adding to the remaining timer, and noncompliant behavior subtracting from it. What exactly constitutes compliance/noncompliance, and how harsh the additions/subtractions are, can also be set by the user.

For example, an unwilling soldier might receive additional time for every enemy combatant killed or order followed, and lose additional time for insubordination, desertion, or rebellion. An unwilling laborer might receive time for completing projects in a timely manner, or lose it for slacking off. Overseers possessed of more practicality than cruelty of spirit can simply set the device to detonate immediately upon any sign of undesirable behavior.

Further options can include an outwardly-audible, ominously-ticking timer, or one only audible to the victim as an auditory hallucination (faciliated by the device's link to the brain). Particularly-cruel installers will give their victims no such way of guessing how much time they have left; these individuals may never know if they are days, hours, or seconds from an unceremonious end.

Excision of a Mania device is difficult, but possible. Predictably, the machine resists removal, and will usually attempt to destroy or permanently damage its victim's brain if tampered with. It is worth noting that the Mania integrates itself further and further with its wearer's central nervous system as more time passes. Long-term wearers are considerably harder to "cure" than those with newly-installed Mania devices.

Thus, removal usually requires a high-end surgical droid, or a particularly-adroit and steady-handed organic surgeon.