|
This particular Defender is covered almost entirely with velour-like black “fur” and usually wears a stark white body suit. The jacket is bright red.
|
Dimensional Defenders
The last thing he remembered was the sudden crushing pain as the car ended its long fall down the hillside, debrís from the torn guardrail showering down around it. Now, it seemed, he felt nothing. He also heard nothing, saw nothing, smelled nothing. Briefly he wondered if this were death.
When the Voice spoke, directionless and somehow impersonal without being distant, he was for a moment even less certain. It did, however, answer his fleeting question, after a fashion. He had a choice: he could accept the death on the verge of which he hovered . . . or he could accept an entirely new body and an arduous mission that, in all likelihood, would be life-long.
The Voice made no bones about the level of commitment required. He would be among the vanguard of a small cadre of individuals, snatched from death as he was and placed in powerful, sophisticated, custom-manufactured cyborg bodies, to be sent out as sentinels and guardians of their world. The prospective enemy could appear virtually anywhere, since they were not invaders from a distant star.
They were, instead, an empire built on conquest of parallel Earths—and this Earth was, if not next on the list, not far down from the top. Though the mercantile confederation represented by the Voice could not or would not intervene directly, it could and did provide a sort of “foreign aid” to targeted worlds via the cyborg bodies, inhabited by volunteers that met the high standards demanded by the circumstances.
Like most of the candidates selected, he did not have to consider long. It seemed only an instant later that he was beginning anew, learning the ways of a strange new form and the tremendous potential balanced carefully within it.
Editor’s Notes
The exact mechanism by which the invaders and the Merchants cross dimensions is as yet undecided, and suggestions are welcomed, though “gate”-style methods are favored over vehicle-based methods. The nature (and motivations) of the invaders and the Merchants are also undecided, though the Merchants are intended to be somewhat mysterious. The invaders, likely as not, are human, though there may be some odd variations or other species from very “distant” parallel worlds incorporated into the empire.
Overall, the feel is obviously somewhat fast and loose, though the more closely one sticks to plausibly extrapolated technology, the better a story will be received. The invaders’ technology is not as highly developed at the Defenders’. It is somewhat better than that of the Earth being invaded, but the gap is not large, and initial incursions by necessity tend to be small until a beachhead can be secured for larger deployments. A vigorous response by conventional forces of reasonable size and quality can, with luck, slow or hold off an incursion even without a Defender. However, while the world was relatively quickly alerted to the danger, it is difficult to patrol an entire planet for what begins as a small and often covert operation, especially in areas lacking well-equipped, professional militaries.
The Defenders
Defenders are chosen—nobody is quite sure how—from unattended individuals hovering on the brink of death. If they decline, there is later no apparent sign to investigators of any intervention. If they accept, they awaken in their new bodies and undergo a period of intense rehabilitation therapy and training in the use of those bodies. Sometimes their old bodies are listed as “missing” and are never found; sometimes a body is found burned or otherwise reduced beyond recognition—whatever is most appropriate to the situation.
The training is completely individual, and may be to some degree “virtual”, involving an incredible variety of environments and opponents. When a Defender is deemed ready, he, she, or it is returned to Earth to stand guard over a specific region. When not working to contain an incursion by the invaders, or assisting fellow Defenders in doing so, other duties can be addressed, such as assisting local police or emergency services.
The standards demanded of the personalities recruited are high. No one is incorruptible, and the Merchants are not foolish enough to believe that anyone is, but within realistic limits, they seek out the best they can find in the aforementioned near-death state. As well, everything possible is done to reinforce and bulwark their characters and esprit de corps.
There is good reason for this: a Defender’s cyborg body is tremendously powerful. No two are alike in appearance or capabilities, but any of them is at least the equal of a top-of-the-line combat aircraft or armored fighting vehicle, directly controlled by a higly trained mind with vanishingly short reaction times. Each is quite self-sufficient, able even to “heal” minor damage. (Major damage requires repairs, made under circumstances similar to the initial recruitment.)
The heart of a Defender body is a system, mostly crystalline in structure, that acts as a conduit for Fold energy, feeding a fiber-optic-like meshwork under the heavily armored skin. The capabilities of this system vary from Defender to Defender, but in general, it appears to be able to duplicate artificially many abilities reminiscent of so-called psychokinetic powers—those psychic talents dealing with manipulation of the physical world in some fashion. It also appears to provide power and, somehow, nourishment for the Defender.
The other technologies built into a Defender are equally sophisticated. Advanced materials make up powerful muscles, rugged skeletons, and heavily armored skins; directed energy weapons of various sorts draw on electricity converted from Fold energy; sensor suites provide a tremendous range of information on the environment. A Defender can transmit and receive on most communication bands in use, and in addition can network with one another on a private band apparently undetectable to conventional technology or to the invaders. (Rumor among the Defenders has it that “Defnet” relies on a pseudo-telepathic link through the Fold-energy system.)
For all that, however, Defenders are not invulnerable. They are difficult to damage, and can absorb tremendous amounts of punishment and keep functioning, but a lucky or solid hit with a sufficiently heavy tactical weapon—a tank gun, missile, or autocannon, for instance—will put paid to one in short order. Defenders must be smart, fast, and aggressive to avoid such a fate. Ω
Go to top of page
Go to . . .
This Web site and its content
copyright 2006 Dave Bryant except where otherwise noted. |
Some design elements on this Web site may render awkwardly if font sizes are changed in browser preferences or if viewed through Internet Explorer, because of its cavalier treatment of HTML and CSS standards; Safari or Mozilla-Firefox are recommended.
|