- POSTs
- RESPAWN
- Memetech
- Tanks
- Support Vehicles
- Shuttles
- Fighters
- Battleships
- Submarines
- Satellites
- "Cyril"
- The RCA...
-- History of the BIP
-- Technical Details
-- Array Operation

The Reality Control Array...

The RCA, often erroneously referred to as the "BIP" after the Project which produced it, represents a high point in Board Weird/Ultra-Advanced Science. It also stands, to many older Boardies, as a symbol of the mixed results of unfettered technological progress, and the moral issues which it can bring.

For the younger Boardies, recruited after the launch of the Funky Horror, its social effect has been more unambiguously good: it is the RCA which provides them with instant power, on tap, which their forebears would have had to develop over many years. It is also the RCA which, as part of RESPAWN and the powering source of the Warthread system, lets them feel almost invincible in combat, confident that nothing can "really" hurt them.

The standard briefing text used in Board training states that the RCA "employs the basic principles of a Boardie's capability for reality manipulation in much the same way a nuclear warhead employs atomic theory". In fact, this metaphor is extremely misleading: while the RCA is capable of extreme destruction, it is most commonly used as a device of extraordinary precision and subtlety. Indeed, without the constant functioning of the RCA's low level functions, the Board would not be able to operate in the form in which it does today. In this sense, the RCA is of as much political and organizational importance as it is in the realm of ground operations.

For a social analysis of the RCA's influence, please ask Archives for the latest version of "Insanity At The Door: An analysis of Boardie Social Structures" by AOANLA, or, if you have access to relevant clearance at the Throne/A level, "FLEET OPS INTEL DOCUMENT X2317:ALPHA", and the links therein: