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Swarm Chapter 1: Demonstration
Posted By: monitor101<wasup1989@hotmail.com>
Date: 27 February 2005, 12:27 AM
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And the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.
-Revelation 6:3
Chapter 1: Demonstration
(0600 hours, September 12, 2551, Military Calendar / UNSC controlled space, ONI Engineering Research Facility EX-221-7, ONI Department of Special Weapons Projects, Lambda Serpentis system, planet Jericho II)
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you will take your seats, I'll get right to it." He waited until the audience of twelve people seated themselves in the rows of seats in front of him. "Lights," the lights snapped off and the room went dark. The back wall lit up as a view screen came to life. On it was a picture of a small, black orb; the orb was covered with electronic circuitry that strikingly resembled a human brain.
"What you're looking at is an enlarged image of a nano-particle. In real life, this ball like orb is one thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. It is 100 nanometers across or a hundred billionths of a meter. It is just one of billions that we have produced." He stopped talking as a woman in the audience raised her hand. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Yes, uh, just what do you call these things in general?"
"Well around here we have several names for them: nanobots, nano-particle, nanites, or just really small robots. Mainly, we just refer to them as swarms. They travel in large groups, which are visible to the naked eye. They look like hazy, black clouds. Each group consists of millions and sometimes billions of them."
"How do they operate, are they based on the same quantum technology that AIs are?" a general asked. "And how are a bunch of microscopic robots capable of combating Covenant on the ground?"
"Yes, they are based on quantum computing technology, which isn't new but it is flourishing. Ship grade Artificial Intelligences are made up of memory processing super conductors and layers of code, which hold intrusion software and other important subroutines for certain tasks. Each nano-particle consists of the same material and design, only on an atomic scale. Since the super conductors are so small they are not able to be as witty, intelligent, and smart as AIs. So one of these things is quite literally a small AI...and millions of them in a swarm can be as smart as a low end AI, but they cannot speak to humans and they operate autonomously. And to answer your second question, general" He snapped his fingers and on the screen an image of a group of Covenant appeared. They were standing in an open grass field holding chrome plasma weapons, all around them were fifteen foot high steel walls.
"This is a live image your looking at. We captured them during the current fighting on Jericho V." He snapped his fingers again and behind him, the walls parted to reveal the same field that the view screen displayed. "Don't worry we're separated from them by three inch thick, plasma dissipating glass."
In the field thirty meters from their position the group of Covenant stood. A view screen came down from the ceiling and showed a close up image of the Covenant. The aliens looked around aimlessly. Suddenly a black cloud seemed to materialize out of thin air and engulfed one of the five Elites. The blue Elite roared and swung its arms around in the air hitting nothing. Its shields flared and died and it bent over and coughed up purple black blood. The Elite howled and fell to its knees, continuing to flail its arms wildly in the air. The coughing turned to vomiting and it hacked up its entrails. The alien hit the ground and blood flowed from its mouth and eyes. It all happened in less than five seconds.
The people in the audience stirred and ripples of conversation sparked, as they grew intrigued by this new and strange weapon. The other four Elites were quickly cut down and by now, the other aliens had noticed. Three Jackals ran around in random circles, their arms flailing. They too coughed up blood and internal organs, and then collapsed. The ten Grunts bunched up into a tight circle, firing their plasma pistols and needlers into the air. A black cloud engulfed them and they ran around, their methane tanks leaked and they suffocated to death in the nitrogen oxygen atmosphere.
When it was over and all the Covenant had suddenly died the man again snapped his fingers and the walls closed and the main view screen turned to life.
"As you can see the swarm is a perfect weapon for combating Covenant. They are more effective than a platoon of Helljumpers."
An admiral in the audience looked at his watch and shook his head in amazement. "That only took fifteen seconds."
"Yes sir, they kill the enemy quickly, quietly."
"How did they do it?" another general asked.
"When fighting Elites they will disable their personal shield generators then enter their bodies via the mouth, pores on the body, and any other available orifices. When inside they attack every major artery and blood passage, causing them to burst. They rupture the lungs and then attack the brain. The swarm basically attacks every vital organ and with all that blood that the victim is hacking up, guts are bound to come with it."
"I see," the general replied, his tone indicated uneasiness.
"The swarm is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. They learn as they go, they can mimic technology perfectly. This is the ultimate weapon against the Covenant."
"Just on the ground," Fleet Admiral Drake Harper commented.
"Not entirely, Admiral," the man yet again snapped his fingers and the view screen displayed an image of a missile. "This is your common ship-grade Archer missile, the tip is filled with high explosive but in the middle we put canisters full of nanobots. The canisters holding the nanos are radiation, EMP, and blast proof. So when the missile impacts it will tear a whole in the Covenant ships' shield and the canisters will automatically open and swarms will be able to enter the ship through microscopic holes in the ship caused by mircometeors or any small openings, which there are bound to be many."
"Why not just blow the ship to hell, how will this aid the space front?" Harper asked.
"Sir, this method is perfect for the capture of a Covenant ship intact or for the swarm to be able to go on board and copy Covenant technology."
"Right, what about the cost and time strains of filling up every human ship's Archer missile supply with these canisters."
"Admiral, it will be cheap and will take no time at all," he answered, the edges of his voice hinted annoyance.
"Very well," Harper said his expression blank.
"Any more questions?"
"Yes, if the nano-particles are as smart as you say they are then what are the chances of them attacking us?" an ONI oversight committee member asked.
"Unlikely, Each swarm is able to tell the difference between humans and Covenant by the way we breathe. They are able to tell if it is a human by the amount of CO2 that we exhale. They tell if it's Grunt by detecting methane traces. When Elites breathe their personal shields muffle the amount of air they inhale, nanos detects this. As for the rest of the different races of the Covenant, each breathes a specific way and the nanobots detect all this. They do what their programmed to do. The same as a young child who is told to do something by their parents. The nanobots do not have as large a memory bank as an AI nor are they as smart. They are smart enough to carry out orders but are not smart enough to think on their own."
"But, you said that they were self-sustaining," the member replied.
"Indeed I did, they are able to survive on their own without a battery supply or an energy source. They are independent and autonomous but are not self-governing."
"Since they travel in groups of millions and each is an AI on an atomic scale can't all that brain power work as one and become smarter?"
"As I said before they can't think. They just travel in swarms because their so damn small and there's so many of them. It's impossible for them to connect themselves together and act and think as one," his voice was an obvious indicator of his rising anger. "Any more questions?" he asked in a rugged tone.
The room was silent.
"Okay, thank you for your time and if you'll just follow the arrows to the exits." He said.
The people filed out of the exits and some stopped to shake his hand.
"This is great; it's gonna rival the Spartan program. By the way what's your name?" one asked.
The man looked at the committee member and smiled. "Dr. Webber."
To Be Continued...
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