Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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The Working Group

Jorga the Hutt

When life gives you Mandos, make Mando'ade
PROBLEM: The Mandalorian Empire gains a strategic and tactical advantage from Force-nulling agents (ysalamiri, void stone, ixetal cilona, etc.).

TASK: This working group, comprising Mandalorians unaffiliated with the Empire, as well as selected invitees, will identify, assess, and develop countermeasures for nulling agents. (OOC: Success means finding explicit canon or getting an explicit countermeasure through the Factory or Codex.)

RESOURCES: The working group is funded by an investment from Clan Rekali. Void stone, voidsteel, ysalamiri, and various ixetal cilona devices are available for testing.

SETTING: Lower City, Taris, unaligned space. The former Addled Nuna tapcaf has been converted into a laboratory space.

karol-wieczorkiewicz-rengkok-city.jpg

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Jorga the Hutt

When life gives you Mandos, make Mando'ade
Data File: Bio-Stabilizer Implant, Advanced Bio-Stabilizer Implant, Bio-Antidote Package
Target Nulling Agent: Ixetal Cilona
Excerpt:


The bio-stabilizer implant was a cybernetic device which was used 4,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. They were essentially micro-computers that were implanted inside the body of the user and monitored the circulatory system. Undesirable contents in the blood were removed by way of a complex algorithm in the implant, allowing the implant to maintain the user's body stability. This same system allowed the implant to detect drops or surges in nerve transmission rates within the body. The bio-stabilizer implant also stored and transmitted basic knowledge of various poisons and toxins into the mind of its user, teaching the brain to synthesize antidotes. The user of a bio-stabilizer implant was essentially immune to poison. Cost: 1,750 credits.


The Advanced bio-stabilizer implant analyzed the contents of the user's circulatory system, as well as any surges and drops in nerve impulses. This device attempted to stabilize the user's system by removing undesirable and toxic elements.


The Bio-antidote package was an implant that maintained an ever-circulating stream of antitoxins in the user, increasing the relevant antidote for any specific poisons introduced into the user's system. Side effects caused by the implant included giving the user a dry mouth.
 

Jorga the Hutt

When life gives you Mandos, make Mando'ade
Data File: Athakam Medtech Immune Implant Mod I
Target Nulling Agent: Ixetal Cilona, Pazhkac'dau
Excerpt:


The immune implant Mod I was a type of immune implant produced by Athakam Medtech and designed to provide immunity to almost all known diseases for its user. The Mod I consisted of a single package located just below the skin, and provided broad results and long lasting effects through the use of a simple and efficient sub-dermal wide-spectrum defense mixture. The implant was the most commonly used of Athakam's immune implants in the period following the Battle of Yavin during the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. It cost 5000 credits.
Potential Effectiveness: Unknown
 

Jorga the Hutt

When life gives you Mandos, make Mando'ade
Connory set aside the data files as a comm alert dinged. He flicked the lab's holoprojector to a video feed from a distant room, where racks of ysalamiri sat in nutrient frames. A rewired medical research droid approached the camera.

"Report."

"I've verified the items you mentioned. Ysalamiri do indeed have sensitive eyes. Their vision in low-light conditions is fully twice as effective as humanoid eyes, both for effective distance and for discerning color.1 Between that and their timid nature, simple flash-bang devices are extremely effective at startling them. Repeated or sustained exposure to high-output lights can cause visible distress. However, the thaissen crystal tests indicate that the nulling effect does not change."

"Keep it up. Let me know if enough flashbangs can give ysalamiri a heart attack."

The droid paused as its compromised ethical pathways sparked helplessly. "Of course. As for the other matter, conditioning tests have demonstrated that the ysalamir is not in control of its effect. It cannot choose to stop projecting the effect, no matter what the circumstances2 - not until it takes severe injury, that is."

"That's an angle. Not sure how to use it, but that's certainly an angle." Connory flipped off the feed and got back to work.

 
Data File: Aurora Industries Kenobi ReThink Stim
Target Nulling Agent: Ixetal Cilona
Excerpt:

The Kenobi ReThink stim is designed to deliver a quick fix of anti-toxins specifically designed to counteract ixetal cilona, with the pneumatic injector allowing a quick deliverance of these drugs into the bloodstream. However, the stim is only useful against a single dose of ixetal cilona to the potency of that found in a single Forcebreaker grenade. If a subject is subjected to another dose of equal strength, it will require a new stim to counter it. Side effects include jitters, cold sweats, mood swings, restlessness after use, and difficulty concentrating, all typical symptoms found in subject experiencing withdrawal.

Potential Effectiveness: Single Dose Resistance

Additional Note: Work has been ongoing on a stronger version, with possible research into a gene therapy to make cells immune to ixetal cilona.
 
The Neti wasn't much for this field of science, his understanding of botany and herbology were great, and even his understanding of animal life. However, most modern sciences were beyond him. He didn't pilot ships, he didn't often use datapads. Orn would often refer to events that transpired before the Four Hundred Year Darkness as 'the other day'.

Instead, he offered forward a few notes about things he had observed during his travels and his time wandering the galaxy. Written on paper and in ink, the neti's scratchy handwritten notes were provided to the researchers while he went to go check on healing and reviving any murdered Ysalamiri.

Ysalamiri seem to operate on a certain shared wavelength. Perhaps they share a hivemind that allows them to use telepathy to coordinate, or perhaps it is a passive part of their physiology, but Ysalamiri do not struggle and negate one another. They only amplify one another when in the presence of more of their kind, much in the same way Bafforr trees might.

This implies that not only are they capable of continuing to use the Force while in one another's area of effect, but also that even in that area of effect they are capable of maintaining a mental connection. A Meld between their minds.

If that connection is biological, such as the radio waves emitted by a Verpine, those senses can be jammed and negated. If that were the case, unable to meld any longer, the hive of them would all begin negating one another rather than working together.

If it lies along the same line as Villips, which is unlikely as Ysalamiri do not have to share genetic parents to communicate, then further testing might need to be done, however gravitic modulators have been known to disrupt other forms of Yuuzhan Vong Biot communication.

Another belief is that some powerful Jedi in history have been capable of forming barriers with their abilities that can contain another being's Force Presence, preventing another from influencing the Force outside of a certain area. With a similar barrier formed around the Force Nullification bubble, one might be able to shrink its area of effect by sheer force of will.

While theoretically possible, most Ysalamiri are used in large quantities and it might require an exceptionally powerful individual to struggle against thirty or forty creatures in such a manner.

Orn was not useful in the later theorem, his aura strong and bright, but his mental abilities were far from extraordinary. His ability to possible commune with one of the animals and decipher its mental connection was much more likely on his part.

[member="Connory"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]
 

Jorga the Hutt

When life gives you Mandos, make Mando'ade
Skimming over Orn's notes, Connory's eyes went wide. He started typing, just rough notes.

What if nulling agents can interfere with each other? Underlying assumption: ysalamir effect = an innate force ability. Virtually certain. Rationale: Force doesn't stop existing in bubble (known b/c no adverse effects on life, life intrinsic to Force), ysalamir just evens out patterns so nobody can sense/interfere.

Obviously you could use ixetal cilona against ysalamiri, get them stoned enough to turn off their fields, but at a deeper level-

Thin voidsteel barrier. Compare to AEI Velokite - secret substance involving powdered void stone suspended in nullification resin.

Less likely to succeed, but worth trying: nullification resin, taozin white-noise/scrambler aura.

Apply barrier to ysalamiri bubble. (Would the barrier need to form an enclosure? Possibly.)

Drafting experiment: small voidsteel barrier, small voidsteel canister, equivalents in nullification resin and taozin flesh, thaissen, lightmeter, small FS creature/item, ysalamir.

Control variable: distance from ysalamir, distance btw FS item/thaissen/lightmeter, ambient light level.

Independent variable: type of barrier/enclosure (x6).

Dependent variable: lightmeter reading.

Within a very short amount of time, Connory found himself running around the lab gathering supplies. The experiment took perhaps ten minutes to set up.

Simplest form first. Three items bound together: a thaissen crystal; a lightmeter; and a tiny Jedi artifact, just important enough to make the crystal glow blue - until the package entered the ysalamir field. Then the ysalamir field dampened the aura. In the pitch-black experiment chamber, the blue light winked out. One hundred percent as expected.

Connory inserted a sheet of voidsteel between the package and the ysalamir, broad enough that it should intersect with the ysalamir field in a complete circle. The lightmeter twitched but didn't do much. Ysalamir victory. He grimaced and folded the voidsteel foil around the package into a rough capsule. The lightmeter twitched harder. The same thing happened when he wrapped the voidsteel sheet around the ysalamir and its frame - partial interference in the ysalamir's control over its environment. Absolutely useless information for nearly any kind of combat situation - but worth knowing. Yes indeed. He replicated all the steps using nullification resin, taozin leather, and even alchemized terentatek leather, and got no significant result. The void stone's aggressive wrongness was, after all, a lot more pervasive than those substances. Fresh taozin flesh right beside the ysalamir made it really fething uncomfortable, but the field stayed up. Again: worthless but worth knowing.

The next step was simple enough: he had a young Force-sensitive assistant put on a suit of voidsteel armor, enough to dampen his Force abilities very seriously, and made him walk into a ysalamir bubble. The assistant promptly reported a total lack of the Force - ah well. No silver bullet solution.
 
The Neti, after healing and feeding several of the tested on Ysalamiri and glaring at several of the testers, returned to his notes and to go over the notes of others. Voidsteel having a minor distortion on the effect was expected, the unearthly rock and its unnatural properties dampened the Force. Unfortunately thus far nothing concrete had been discovered.

Reading through the notes, Orn discovered something interesting however: Ysalamiri couldn't control their effect on the Force.

This presented some evidence to the theory of wavelengths and frequencies that the Force was still able to be effected on, as the only way for the passive, involuntary biological stacking of their bubbles and shared collective, was that if they were working as a group in a meld. An involuntary one at that.

More notes were swiftly transcribed by the Jedi Master and presented to the group once more.

Revision.

Upon study of other findings, it seems evident that the shared communion of the Ysalamiri is related to the Force due to their effects involuntary response. It is as involuntary as a being's heart beat, and thus in order for them to amplify one another, they must be connected involuntarily as well.

With the connection likely being related to the Force, jamming radio waves is unexpected to have any effect.

However, creatures in the wild have been known to suffer ill-effects from electromagnetic distortions. If a species that travels south for the winter lives near a powerplant, it has been documented that some of them would orient themselves directly away from the powerplant, as though it were Magnetic North, until outside the radius of its distortion.

In some insects distortions in the EM Field can disrupt the shared hive mind (though normally attributed to jamming signals in some manner), though in less sophisticated animals like honey bees, a minor disturbance can cause them to lose cohesion with one another.

Additionally, humans exposed to electromagnetic fluctuations have been known to suffer vertigo, disorientation, seizures, loss of memory, and sometimes death as the field causes their natural bio-electromagnetic field to be distorted. A body's biochemistry is designed to operate under a bio-electrical current, that when exposed to electromagnetic fields of the right frequency can be disrupted, causing tachycardia, nausea, loss of vision, and vertigo in the right circumstances. Very minor fluctuations in the electromagnetic spectrum has been known to cause discomfort, a sense of unease, and the inability to concentrate in some humans before.

Knowing this, and with the effectiveness and technological advancement of modern electromagnetic weapons could it be possible to emit an electromagnetic field on a frequency that would disorient Ysalamiri in order to disrupt their shared connection? It is known that a similarly distressed Jedi may have difficulty using his abilities, so the same should be true about other Force Sensitive creatures. If the right frequency was attained, the Ysalamiri may no longer be able to connect to one another and their fields should dissipate into overlapping ones rather than a single amplified one.

Thoughts?

The Neti finished scribbling on the paper with his fingers, it should be noted he used his own branch-like appendages to write, and so much of it was fairly scratchy at best, however it was written. Maybe something the more intelligent and scientifically inclined members of the group could use so they could stop trying to flash-bang Ysalamiri to death.

[member="Connory"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]
 

Jorga the Hutt

When life gives you Mandos, make Mando'ade
The flashbangs would continue until morale improved. Nevertheless, [member="Orn Pharr"] was indubitably on to something. A properly tuned electromagnetic field might very well interfere with ysalamiri coordination and collapse composite bubbles into individual bubbles with a reasonable degree of success. And success might mean drastically reducing the effective null radius of a Bral or a Mircin, at least temporarily. Something like that wouldn't be hard to prototype, either.

In the meantime, the medical droids had begun measuring neural activity in ysalamiri. They'd noted a spike - maybe awareness, effort, or both - when a Force-user stepped into the null radius. And as soon as that happened, vornskrs and voxyn (yes, the working group had a ratty old voxyn in a facility VERY far away) freaked out with desire to kill that ysalamir, sight unseen.1 That phenomenon had been the inspiration for the neural activity measurement.

Connory sat back and took off his helmet to think. He blinked away the afterimage of his analytic HUD. In light of this new data, learning that ysalamiri couldn't consciously turn off the effect had significant but nebulous implications. Still just building blocks - so where to from here?

1The New Jedi Order: Star by Star
 
Data File: Aurora Industries Sel'Sabagno Treatment
Target Nulling Agent: Ixetal Cilona
Excerpt:

As part of ongoing research by Aurora Industries's Bioengineering Division into the effects of ixetal cilona on sentient beings, the scientists at Rhinnal began collecting blood and tissue samples from Balosar volunteers. The goal of the scientists was to create a gene therapy for use in treating ixetal cilona's effects on the body by introducing the Balosar's natural high resistance to near immunity to toxins such as their major export. Using a gene modifying agent, and also isolating the specific parts of the DNA in their Balosar samples that created that resistance, the scientists began testing their treatment on death stick addicts that wanted to get clean and a control group that never had death sticks and would be exposed to contamination. The results were promising as roughly half the subjects accepted the treatment, displaying resistance to the death sticks' ill effects.

Potential Effectiveness: Grants immunity to ixetal cilona and other toxins, besides their addictive effects.

Additional Note: My scientists pulled through and were able to get the gene therapy research off the ground and into the testing phase. As of this time, we just might have something that will make Forcebreakers obsolete for those who get the treatment. The question of ysalamir not withstanding, does the group have access to any samples of this so called "cure" that the Mandalorian Empire is using? If so, my people would like the opportunity to study it and potentially figure out a way to render it impotent.

[member="Connory"] [member="Orn Pharr"]
 

Jorga the Hutt

When life gives you Mandos, make Mando'ade
[member="Taeli Raaf"] [member="Orn Pharr"]

Pazhkac'dau sample transfer authorized. Mandalorian 'cure' is organelle-scale bacterial infection of Yuuzhan Vong derivation. File to follow.

Additional information available re: effectiveness of void stone against ysalamiri. Seamless encapsulation in voidsteel prevents ysalamiri influence from reaching interior of bunker, location undisclosed. Force senses and use still possible within bunker. Jedi cannot sense or affect anything outside bunker. Proof of concept effective.

Redacted file available. Location withheld. http://starwarsrp.net/topic/124102-connorys-bunker-eshan/
 

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