- POSTs
- RESPAWN
- Memetech
- Tanks
- Support Vehicles
- Shuttles
- Fighters
- Battleships
- Submarines
- Satellites
- "Cyril"
- The RCA...

History of the BIP

The Board Instrumentality Project:

The RCA was developed in the aftermath of the Battle of Mohaborad, as the result of the Board Instrumentality Project. This overarching research project was itself the culmination of many centuries of introspection by the older Boardies as to the nature and source of their "metahuman" abilities. The old Archives used to contain thousands of pages of speculation (and, indeed, some reams of Speculation as well) on this subject, although with little actual resolution. Indeed, there seemed little need for any such resolution, as things worked well just as they were. As a result, for more of Board history, applied <ontocybernetics> was regarded as just a harmless diversion, and its theoretical cousin as almost the equivalent of mental masturbation.

With the forces of the Board severely depleted, it was decided that recruitment needed to be dramatically speeded up. However, Boardies develop personal power relatively slowly, generally moving from being slightly self-aggrandising newbies, with only small mild powers, to the ranks of the Oldbies, with both massive abilities, and, usually, the sense not to use them. Generally, this slow growth of power is seen as being an advantage, allowing the Boardie to mature with his abilities, but it was a positive hindrance in the early post-Mohaborad days, when the threat of another attack seemed high.

Thus, High Command saw the need for a way to "mass produce" or amplify the natural abilities of a Boardie; giving newbies access to the power of an oldbie, and oldbies considerably more. The embittered genius known only as Tchernobyl practically demanded directorship over the project, quickly picking up threads from early work from Nikolai Tesla's directorship of Weird Science, and merging it with concepts from fields as disparate as Quantum Field Theory and Experimental Theology.

According to legend, Tchernobyl only achieved his critical breakthrough after a drink-fuelled night of inspiration. There are no firm records that this is the case, either before or after the beginning of the Project (although Tcher's schedule was erratic at the best of times, and especially when involved in R&D). On the other hand, Tchernobyl has hinted, on the rare occasions he has chosen to speak of his work, that the legend is based on reality. The more stridently religious Boardies have made the obvious connection here, although it disturbs some of them that their Goddess would have collaborated in such an ultimately controversial work.

However the breakthrough in the BIP was made, it quickly led to the first full theory of reality control which the Board possessed. All 37 extant theories on this subject developed by Weird Science derive fundamentally from this theory, and most fail to demonstrate its dramatic mathematic and metaphysical depth and subtlety. In particular, the manner in which Tchernobyl introduces operators to represent the state of the universal consciousness is seen as being a masterpiece of modern conceptual experimental theology, unrivaled to this date. The striking power of this framework allowed all the technological developments which High Command could have wished for - from the more exotic functions of the standard issue POST, through the unique spatial-compression systems found in the Funky Horror's main hangar bay. It also paved the way for manipulation of that same space on a massive scale.

Tcher's theories caused a mixture of horrified shock and extreme interest on publication, which was only amplified when his team began to produce prototypes and blueprints. More conservative Boardies were outvoted by an aggressive majority eager to return the Board to power as quickly as possible, and so a massive version of the device was installed in the then-under-construction Funky Horror.

It has performed admirably to specification to date. Success (and the staggering abilities now available on tap to even barely-fledged recruits) has silenced many of the old project's critics - but like atomic theory and weedkillers, most older Boardies would rather they not be so reliant on a device more than capable of immense, horrific destruction if given the right instructions.