A word of warning, this is a bit longer than I intended.
Byond ID: Nick123q23
Marine Name: Miranda 'Mira' Laporte. I also play Akl'iiya Quatza-rij, Alien queens, support and defensive castes mostly.
Name/Designation of the Synth Character you’re requesting to use: Kia
Examples of acceptable names: James, Mason, Xavier, Felix, Otto, Allan, Jessica
Examples of unacceptable names: Obama, Jesus, King, Dragon, Godly, Snyper, Circuits
Are you familiar with the Synthetic Programming and Guidelines (viewtopic.php?f=57&t=14417)? Yes, I've studied it since the day it was released.
Synthetic Character Story:
► Show Spoiler
The machine stood there, standing...yet only on it's locked legs, the rest of it was limp, not dissimilar to a corpse. It was off and awaiting evaluation for the time being.
An eager employee from the ever-prominent Weyland-Yutani corporation stood to it's side, facing two officers of the Americas' cherished colonial marine corps. One of which wore a light goldish-tan uniform of a commander, the other wore the black and red markings of a high-ranking military police representative.
"Okay, Commander Lawson, Warrant Officer Genady, this is 'Kia,' one of our most advanced synthetic models, designed specifically with frontier patrol transports in mind." he says, looking down at his clipboard, "This specific one here has an outdated Carbon-59 processor, but I'm sure your *ahem* funding, will cover that."
Perhaps the worst-kept secret in the entire galaxy was the close bond the Company and the Colonial Marines had with eachother. Many members with lesser status of both organizations disliked the other, and even bore some hatred against their counterparts. But with this far in their partnership, and their reliance on eachother, the USCM was rarely seen without sporting somekind of equipment that bore the Weyland-Yutani corporate logo. Especially if that company has a near-monopoly on advanced robotics.
"That'll be fine" Commander Lawson spoke confidently and with authority. He was an older man, yet he had not lost his oratorical abilities. "Can we take it from here?"
"Yes, I've already loaded the Almayer's manifest onto her, and it already has the standard military programming locked-in. You're good to go, you can even put it to work immediately after the initiation phase."
"Good work." Lawson nodded. The employee then began to press a button on a small PDA-like device.
The power cell turned on.
Micro-hydraulics throughout the body of the husk started to piston. White latex fluid began to circulate throughout the machine,
Vat-grown muscles moved, the android's fingers wiggled,
And the Carbon-59 Processor loaded out of the kernel.
The machine's head went up right, slowly in a veil of humanity, opened it's blue eyes, and became an artificial person.
"Android activation: Successful. Good morning, Commander Lawson."
"Good morning, Kia. Chief Genady here is concerned about having a 'Strategic Advisement Synth' specialist onboard. Could you soothe his concerns?"
"Certainly, Commander. I would first like to address something you have said, if I may? I am a generalist, by definition. I am skilled in all non-combat support roles, however my creators have taught me with additional information in certain areas, such as Tactical and Strategic command, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and android maintenance."
"But could it hurt anyone? I don't want my officers to be killed by a terrorist-hijacked robot, and I don't want it asking us to start using human waves!" spoke Warrant Officer Genady. He never really trusted robots, not with people's lives, especially lives he was charged with protecting.
"I would never do that, Chief Genady. I want everyone to stay alive, just as much as you do. To that end, I have been restricted from using any personal weapons
I work for the United States Marine Corps, and in our missions, we sometimes stop threats using violence. I hate that."
Artificial tears came down her cheeks, as she stopped for a moment, closing her eyes, allowing her human counterparts to connect to her pseudo-emotions.
"But I also understand that it is sometimes necessary. Sometimes you must take lives to save others. Per law, I am completely unable to hurt people directly. But I will assist the USS Almayer in it's mission, peacetime or wartime. My very existence has been made with minimal loss of human life in mind, and I will always notify you of the solution with the least violence, Chief Genady."
The military police man nodded silently, satisfied with the robot's answer.
Six months later
A lone Arikara-class transport was moving in the deep void of space, accompanied only by several wings of Marine interceptors.
Suddenly, with the transport's engines cut, and interceptor wings following suit, the 'HALVE BLACK' stealth tiles allowing the vessel to drift completely blended with the dead blackness of space behind it, becoming only a shadow that would bypass most forms of detection.
An encrypted burst of terrified radio communications hit the shadow earlier.
"Hello? T-this is the USCSS Carthage, is anyone out there? We have CLF terrorists onboard, Th-they've set up bombs, they said they'd kill us, I encrypted this message with a corporate code, but I don't think I can send anymore. Help us, please! Anyone!"
The USCSS Carthage was a Weyland-Yutani deep space research vessel, made out of an old, re purposed cruiser.
It dwarfed Arikaras in size, and could have a few smaller capital ships docked to it, of which there were none currently. However, it's stated crew compliment was less than 80.
That was how the public saw it, anyway. Off the record, the USCSS Carthage was part of the Company's PMC division. While it no longer performed combat functions like it once did, it was now a highly valuable logistics ship, a mobile, untraceable base of operations for any Wey-Yu paramilitary assets in the system.
Of course, a mobile, untraceable rearming and repair station would be the perfect thing to start a revolution with.
The officers within the Combat Information Center of the now-visible-to-electronic-detection and halted USS Almayer knew this when they received the message
The Commanding Officer turned to his synthetic crew member
"Kia, we don't have the numbers right now to risk losing them all like this. I've already sent Alpha squad to sneak in and defuse the bombs, but you'll have to go in and negotiate, keep the terrorists distracted until we can figure out how to get the crew and the Carthage out of this mess"
"Understood, Commander Lawson." said the confident and serious Kia.
The synthetic and Delta squad rode in the Normandy dropship, setting down in a small hangar near the Carthage's bridge where the hostages and terrorist leaders were likely to be. Kia was in front, with Delta following behind, as stealthy as Delta squad can be. They neared the entrance to the bridge, and Delta squad took cover, out of sight, but within range. Various bodies were scattered around the Carthage. Some wearing Weyland PMC security uniforms, others wearing makeshift armor and hoodies.
The door to the bridge opened, and a shot from a custom revolver rang down the room, until it pierced right through Kia, blowing clear, white latex fluid onto the closing airlock behind her, though the android walked on with a large dent in her side, revealing some of her artificial innards.
Kia spoke quickly, loud, yet calm and nonthreatening, "Hello there. My name is Kia, I am a United States Colonial Marine Corps acting-negotiator synthetic with Fourth Brigade, Second Battalion Falling Falcons, USS Almayer."
The terrorist leader who held the customized, stolen M44 revolver, still pointed at the synth, spoke with a tinge of fear,
"Drop your weapons, bot! DO IT!"
Kia spun around slowly, raising her arms to reveal any concealed weapons, except she had none.
"I am completely unarmed, but there is a fireteam of marines behind me should I come under any harm. I am only here to prevent loss of human life."
The man kept his weapon pointed at Kia, but seemed to relax a little more, though he was trying to hide it.
"So you're the baby-killers the companies' goons send after me? You've got no power or authority here, tyrant. I've got all the cards in MY deck. You fuck with me, I blow this entire ship up. I know it's secrets, and I've got people in every deck. You'd best march back onto your lil' Almayer and go home before you make things even worse for these folk here."
Kia processed these words, and she knew that Alpha squad needed more time to defuse the bombs. More time. Just, more time. That's what she needs to do. Then she responded in her coldest, neutral robotic tone her mouth could produce, "I am expendable. So is this vessel. I am here only for the crew of the Carthage. Should the Carthage be lost, we can make another. The only difference is whether or not you save these innocent crew members and your people's lives."
It was a bluff. Kia wasn't expendable at all despite her robotic nature, nor was the Carthage by any stretch of the term. There were also still marines on board, and the CLF terrorists had valuable intelligence on how they discovered the Carthage in the first place. Now was the moment where Kia saved the lives of everyone onboard, or failed spectacularly, to go down in history as a synthetic who made a mistake that cost the lives of so many people.
The tension would be stressing for any human involved in the matter, but Kia was spared from such a response.
The terrorist leader looked at Kia,
"Innocent. You think these monsters, these animals," the leader said, raising his voice at her, "are INNOCENT? You haven't seen HALF the shit they've done! They-" He paused, recalling something forgotten in his panic, as his eyes move over the Kia's damaged side. "You don't think at all. You CAN'T think! You're just a robot! A fucking computer on legs! You only know what THEY tell you! I'm not fooling myself here, you're only as smart as my goddamn toaster!"
Kia could read his emotions from his face. If it didn't do something and fast, this would get out of hand and end in bloodshed.
"You're right. I am just a computer. Just a cog in the company's war machine. There's a thousand models of Kias alone, and a dozen more Carthages in the ship yards. You can't stop the corporation here. We would just cut our losses and leave with all hands lost. But you,"
Kia's voice became more human, concerned, even with a tinge of hope.
"You're the one who can make a decision to save the lives of everyone here. The marines aren't monsters. They'll make sure you're taken care for, but that will only happen if you surrender and stand down. If you do anything else, the Almayer will be forced to open fire on the Carthage."
More lies. The marines weren't monsters, and they wouldn't do any of those things that just came out of her fake mouth.
Just then, Kia's headset vibrated. An Alpha squad marine was speaking. "Command, we've got all the bombs. They were controlled by a remote detonator, we cut the remote connection out."
The leader's eyes widened a little, "You fucking bastards. You'd actually do it, too. Okay, I'm throwing my weapon down. Just don't hurt my milita."
He lowered the revolver, and set it down on the floor, raising his arms up.
The headset vibrated again, "Delta squad, we just got word from Chinook. They want to keep the Carthage's operations a secret. The bombs are gone. Kill the terrorists ASAP."
Delta marines ran in from behind Kia, opening fire on the terrorists in the bridge.
The leader was shot in the chest, somewhere near his lungs. He reached for something.
A detonator. He wasn't surrendering afterall. He had insurance.
He clicked it, closing his eyes.
But nothing came. A pulse rifle round exploded inside his head in the seconds after. Firefights were going on across the entire ship, while the rest of the Falling Falcons reinforced Alpha and Delta squads.
There would be no tears, no tinge of sadness or regret on Kia's face, were it not for the horrified expressions of the still-restrained hostages in the bridge.
How do you intend to play your Synth? I've mained as AIs and Synthetics on traditional SS13 servers, Bay and the like. I portray them as clerical, logical, and emotionless, well, machines.
As it should be. But, If you've seen traditional SS13 synthetics, you'll know they like to be meme-ish, special snowflake "robobuddies" that are a thinly disguised person pretending to be a robot.
AVP Synthetics are the opposite. Well-veiled robots pretending to be people, and I do not want CM to have robobuddies, outside of well-roleplayed comradely between synths and their human counterparts.
Kia fully embraces her android nature, as opposed to some androids which prefer to be called artificial persons and so on
I want her to be able to switch seamlessly from a useful, confident and supportive android helper, to an unsettling husk devoid of all humanity, especially during admin-assigned directives.
Her quirk could be described as "cold." Though like most synths employed by the USCM, she values human life above all else, she isn't an asimov stinger either. She is fully accepting of USCM marines lawfully killing hostile humans, and even less so for hostile alien life, be it intelligent or not.
She's in a neutral state most of the time, but will mimic emotions extensively in order to calm down people around her, be easier to interact with, or further her assigned goals.
Like she said, she will ALWAYS strive for the outcome or goal that results in less human life lost, in the priority order of
1. Friendly Military/Civilians
2. Enemy Military
I intend to play Kia as mostly RP roles, such as a Diplomat, Negotiator, Command Adviser, hence the butchered "Strategic advisement synth" phrase in the story above. Sometimes you need an anchor of sanity, or extra help when dealing with command, especially if they're new to the role and need someone to help teach them. She can also manage Logistics in requisitions, Assist with any engineering duties, up to and including setting up the fusion reactors and performing repairs or construction even on the front-lines, and will adapt to perform any lawful role requested of her.
I also want to set some standards on the translation ability. UPP are easy, as russian is a common earth language. Yautja are more difficult, as Sainja can only be spoken by them, and is the only language they can speak, even the predators themselves have extreme difficulty translating sainja into comprehensible english, but it is very possible for a synthetic to learn and be able to understand.
Xenomorph hissing, however, is impossibly difficult to understand without extensive study of the alien's body language, that is if they even choose to hiss their ideas out instead of utilizing their psychic hivemind which should be actually impossible to intercept and hear by a synthetic alone.
How familiar are you with support roles?
I'll get this out of the way first. Medical is not my strong suit. Yes, I'm a veteran SS13 player, from bay, the baymed we use, I played a medical-only character in traditional SS13 for a long time, and I even want to enter the real-life medical field myself one day.
The problem isn't my knowledge, it's my reaction time. I can do surgery quickly and easily, I've even memorized some common procedures, and I can deal with most aliments aslong as you aren't in crit, or I have to make a chemical myself. Chemistry would be my worst skill, but I know what most chemicals do, and CM has most chemicals already available anyway.
I CAN stabilize people, but I've had people bleed out and die on me before while I'm trying to stablize them and two other people.
I will have to get out of my comfort zone and force myself to help with medical in any way I possibly can with Kia, even if I don't think I'm good at it. Who knows, perhaps I'll end up an amazing doctor one day.
Now with Medical out of the way, let's talk about everything else.
I'm pretty good with engineering. I've memorized most airlock wire functions, and I've built many a construction in my time.
I used to not like it because of the supermatter engine alone. I can't mess with atmospherics. Luckily for me, CM doesn't have extensive atmospherics, if at all.
Science in CM, as I understand it, is mostly an RP role with some chemistry ingenuity thrown in. I haven't played a researcher very often, because of my terrible skills at chemistry. Outside of that small circle however, I believe I can roleplay both robotic and human scientists well.
I have a good understanding of Requisitions and can perform all roles within that department.
Command, hence my synth's specialty, is my strong suit. The first name I came up for my synth character was even "Eva."
I've played XO and SO countless times, and though SO can be boring, merely playing as a synth would be engaging for me, especially since I must maintain the illusion that my character does not need rest.
I know Overwatch like the back of my hands, common squad-tactics from RTS games, X-Com, and even multiplayer mili-sims, such as flanking, ambushes, guerilla tactics, and so on. I know basic geometry so I won't accidentally blow up two squads with an orbital bombardment strike or land rockets into an enemy hive.
But I also know the importance of Morale, especially since CM is a roleplaying game, and an element that Kia will try to improve, and the importance of proper logistics.
You need rockets for the rocket to operate, you need the rocket to operate or the crushers will end you.
You need metal for the bases, or you'll have no fall-back points.
You need marines to stay alive, or you'll run out of manpower and lose the war of attrition, an opinion that Kia will share. You can have all the guns and ammo in the world, but without anyone to use them, they're useless.
Why should we whitelist you? I'm currently a proud member of the Predator whitelist.
I founded my predator application on the pillars of me being a good community member, and someone who wants to further the fun of staff, players, predators, and everyone enjoying the server, the discord, or the forums.
I've hit a few roadblocks with trying to turn the predator's reputation around like I've said, but most people I've spoken to ingame over OOC or Dsay and on the discord seem to enjoy my actions as a whitelisted character, as do my fellow predators and the staff members I've met.
I want to do the same with synthetics.
The funny thing about Predators, though, is that, while they're all exceptional players and amazing people, bar a few exceptions, most of the actual yautja characters themselves, ingame, (and I exaggerate heavily here,) are the same emotionless "Unga Dunga Me honor-hunter hunt well." So you get all the predators who are essentially the same character type, but with a few quirks here and there.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
If I can do that, even unintentionally while trying to be different at the same time, then I can definitely do it intentionally with my own little quirks
Predators are cursed with a bad reputation of being a secret club circlejerk, only friends of staff, etc, you know this and I've said it before already.
Synthetics are a brand new thing we can mold here, and I want to help mold them right. My goals will be that, when Kia and other synthetics are in play, players are relieved to see helpful people keeping the marines from going down the slope too fast.
And with any luck, like Weyland-Yutani's intention of making robots more human-like, we, as players of synthetic characters, can make ourselves more robot-like.
Have you been banned from CM in the last month for any reason (we will check, and lies may result in immediate denial)? No, I have not to my knowledge.
Are you currently banned from any other servers and if so, why? Not at all to my knoweldge.
Do you understand that any player - donor or otherwise - can have their whitelist status revoked should they break our rules or the Synthetic Programming Guideline?
I understand that any player - donor, staff, predator, commander, or otherwise - can have their whitelist status revoked should they break our rules or the Synthetic Programming Guideline.
Whoa, that was a long one. Only thing I did for
nine! actual hours straight.
I hope you bore with me and read through all of my work. Please tell me your thoughts and feedback. You get to chew me out for being shitty because you sat here and read all of this.
