The standard Board RESPAWN Pod is a hemispherically
tipped cylinder,
approximately 4 metres tall and 3 metres in diameter. There are
numerous thick cylinders attached to the sides of the pod, which
connect to various ancillary systems held elsewhere (these are mainly
power conduits and matter-injection supply systems). The front half of
the cylinder is sealed to the back with a complex airtight seal. When
the RESPAWN process is complete, the halves separate, and then hinge
apart to allow removal of the the contents. There is a small
observation port in the front section, made of thick, heat-resistant
glass, tinted to remove dangerous radiation.
The RESPAWN matter-injection process is performed at
near-vacuum, in order to simplify the recombination of molecular
structures. Depending on the Boardie, the injection nozzles are
switched between various matter supplies - from the standard "organic
precursor" mix of polyamides, fats, oligosaccharides and other simple
organics, to an energised plasma mix for the energy-based Boardies, and
other more complex substrates for more unusual entities still.
All of which sounds rather clinical, for what is
essentially a miracle on tap. To put it in layman's terms, RESPAWN can
raise the dead. Not in the drooling zombie manner (that would be
Necromancy, and the Boss hates
Necromancy), but in the good-as-new, you'd-never-know-it-happened
sense. All it requires is a functioning POST to power the teleport, a
line-of-sight to the FH or her satellites within 37 seconds, and the
fatal injury to leave a body (purely
robotic Boardies are not handled directly by standard RESPAWN pods -
instead, they use dedicated download systems linked to duplicate
bodies).
RESPAWN Functions
The first working Mark 1 RESPAWN nodes were completed
several months
after the Battle of Mohaborad. While the technology and expertise had
existed before then, the impetus to actually begin such an ambitious
project was only provided in the vast losses of that battle. It is
founded upon a merging of several complex systems,
themselves the product (serendipitously) of various personal or group
projects by high-ranking Boardies.
Most notably, RESPAWN relies on the Reality Control Array
(itself a product of research associated with the so-called Board
Instrumentality Project, and with origins in work by Nikolai Tesla) to
track individual Boardies, and their lifesigns. The mutability and
manipulation of the self-aware soul is a well-known area of
metaphyiscs, if one has the proper capabilities, and as soon as a
Boardie is
registered as deceased, the RCA is deployed (in pick mode) to divert the soul from
its normal destination and into the RESPAWN conduit system.
Once within the RESPAWN conduit system (a simplified
"addition" to the
existing soul transport system, produced as the result of portal
research by M-Division), the soul is directed to a free RESPAWN pod.
There, it is held in place by another RCA pulse, while molecular
spinnerettes spray a carefully chosen mix of organic chemicals (or the
equivalent, for non-organic or extremely alien Boardies) into the
surrounding area. Nanotech assemblers, and the soul's own morphogenic
field (suitably stabilised by the carefully chosen pod geometry) act to
create a first approximation copy of the soul's old body within
minutes.
This body is capable of walking, talking and otherwise
functioning
as a normal body of its species, as soon as the soul adjusts to its
home. Over the next few days, residual traces of nanoconstructors, as
well as the soul's own action, remodel the body towards a perfect copy
of the soul's original housing. At the same time, the soul acts on the
brain, both restoring memory and integrating itself into the new
nervous system. During this process, the RESPAWNee requires almost
continuous bedrest, in order to not divert energy and resources away
from the healing process.
After 96 hours, the patient is considered to have
completed the
RESPAWN recuperation period, and is
put on a one week course of
remedial exercise to finalise his psychosomatic integration. At the end
of that period, he is usually at 96% of his peak operational fitness,
and ready to be extensively debriefed, and sent out on further field
assignments.
The History and Theory of RESPAWN
As every Boardie learns during their
basic training and induction, the modern RESPAWN system is the pinnacle
of Board magictech engineering. What they are not told is that it was
not the first such foray into such concepts.
The interwoven network of "conduits" which transport the
souls of the dead to their next destination existed long before RESPAWN
was developed to take advantage of it. Board paleometaphysicists have
theorised that the system is fundamental to the nature of the local
universe itself, and was created at the same time as the rest of the
metaphysical fundament underlying reality. Certainly, it is the case
that RESPAWN operates as well in Hell as it does in the more mundane
parts of the universe. Both Maritza Herself, and the small minority of
Boardies with Experience, as it were, have avoided commenting on the
similarity of the post-death experience to RESPAWN. Even the most
devious questioning techniques that Speculation could think of have
failed to
produce anything close to even a tiny hint.
The first known attempts to subvert the existing soul
transport system to other uses date back to prehistory. Legends speak
of a Wizard who gained great knowledge from the "Book of the Dead", and
used it to render himself permanently unkillable. Each time his body
was killed, his soul would reincarnate in a new body, less than a day
later. Eventually, some valiant hero (whose name is lost to us) stole
the Wizard's amulet, breaking his power, and ending his life
permanently. Unfortunately, even the Board's resources have failed to
discover any truth to this story, the remaining records being hundreds
of years older than the facts they refer to. The Ancient Boardies, who
were alive at the time, all seem to have either been elsewhere at the
time, or aren't telling.
Moving into the periods for which we have direct records,
the preponderance of myths concerning a hero or god figure who returns
from the dead suggests that there is a common origin or principle at
work. Further, the alleged ability of other figures to return the
recently dead to life is even more suggestive. Of course, any such
abilities at manipulating the soul conduit system must, presumably,
have been granted by a Higher Power, although Maritza's reply to
questioning about this is, predictably, vague and teasing. The
Egyptians, certainly, intended their pyramids to channel something
into the mummified bodies entombed there, although obviously this was
less than successful in the designs which survive to today. During the
early 16th Century, Leonardo Da Vinci appears to have been commissioned
to develop a technique for restoring men to life, ostensibly for use on
the battlefield. All records of this work are found only in certain
notebooks held in the Vatican's private collection, and in copies of
these available (at Dominion/B security clearance) in the Board's
archives. It appears, from the designs, that Leonardo was unsuccessful,
primarily due to an imperfect grasp of Theological Field Theory.
In the more modern era, it is known that all of the
major governments of the 20th Century have dabbled in the area of
resurrection technology. Both the Russians and the Americans pursued organic preservation techniques as a
method of preventing a body from
decaying while the soul was reintegrated into it. While both
governments were extremely successful in this endeavour (the displayed
body of Lenin, at least, attesting to this fact), neither has yet
managed to gain a full understanding of the soul conduit system,
according to Board Speculation reports. In Britain, the Hermetic Order
of the Golden Dawn are known to have resurrected many old examples of
Egyptian magic, and may have been attempting a more mystical solution
to the same problem. Certainly, this may explain the vast number of
artifacts "recovered" by the British Museum from their various host
countries.
Despite this long history of activity, there is no
evidence that any attempts to build a RESPAWN system were successful
until the Board's efforts at the dawn of the 21st century. Most members
of the Board believe that this is simply because the Board possesses
the greatest depth of scientific, engineering and magical experience
(and the largest number of borderline sane creatives) in the world.
Previous groups failed simply because they didn't have enough knowledge
and experience.
However, while it is true that the Mark 1 RESPAWN design
is obviously a
more refined concept than its predecessors, it is also the case that
no-one actually fully understands how it works. Even today, there is a
small research unit devoted to trying to develop a complete RESPAWN
theory, although many think that this is a hopeless cause. Indeed,
there is a strong minority (including some of the originators of
RESPAWN theory as it stands) who hold that RESPAWN only works because
a certain deity wants it to.
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