Proposals/Behind the Facade
Text from BTAxis docs
Prerequisites:
Second-Generation Vaccine Alien Psionics
TO: Base Commander, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command FROM: Dr. Connor, R&D: Bio & Containment Division, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command DATE: %02i %s %i SUB: Proposal: Behind The Facade
Commander,
Our continued efforts into producing a full anti-XVI cure have produced a startling discovery. In several of our experiments, we have tried to administer the developing serum to our alien prisoners in order to observe the results. Previously, subjects injected with the serum suffered violent allergic reactions resulting in convulsions, profuse internal bleeding in the lungs and viscera, and coma followed by death. Autopsy revealed the bone marrrow of subjects to have liquified and begun rapid decomposition.
Today, however, a subject lived.
Commander, the alien has been cut off from the captive hive mind in our Containment unit. It no longer responds to any of the communication methods we have devised, and interrogation of our remaining captives confirms that the hive mind has lost all sensory input from this particular specimen. The subject exhibits infantile behaviour -- it has little control over motor functions, struggling to walk, and acts frightened of everything that moves. It also appears to have lost all knowledge of how to use alien technology. Clearly, their knowledge and experience is contained within the hive rather than any one brain.
I cannot stress this enough, Commander; we have to research this phenomenon right away. We're at the cusp of key revelations into the relationship between XVI and the alien hive mind. This could be the piece that puts the entire puzzle in perspective.
Sincerely, Dr. Connor
TO: Base Commander, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command
FROM: Dr. Connor, R&D: Bio & Containment Division, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command
DATE: %02i %s %i
SUB: Re: Behind The Facade
Commander,
This is it. We've finally learned the grim truth of the alien threat.
During our studies into XVI and the alien hive mind, we occasionally suspected that XVI served some ancillary role in the aliens' shared intelligence, perhaps even going so far as to enable the hive mind. It's now painfully clear that we were not thinking far enough. Our experiments reveal that removing XVI from a subject removes it from the hive mind. The subject's subsequent regression to mental infancy indicates that it has been under the hive mind's influence from birth. This would indicate that the hive mind simply dominates the subject's normal thought processes throughout its entire life, but it does not explain the complete lack of memory upon removal from the hive. Pursuing this, we then discovered other evidence which blew our theories right out of the water.
After removal, the subject's brainwave activity increased. This childlike adult now shows as much of an EEG response and as much basic intelligence as any human. Commander, this alien has never before used its own brain.
We quickly formed a solid hypothesis that links XVI to the alien thought processes. To put it simply, XVI does not facilitate the hive mind; XVI is the hive mind. The organism itself is what does the thinking for all these alien hosts. It seems to be one whole, a single sentience distributed over billions and billions of microorganisms -- like a distributed computing network -- all connected through some kind of psionic contact. I still can't quite wrap my head around it. This is far outside anything we've known, and its magnitude is staggering.
I shall try to make an example using rough figures. Think of a mind which gains 3-5 IQ points for every host it has. From what we've been able to gather during our interrogation sessions, the alien population may number in the trillions. Now think of a supercomputer twice the size of the sun with near-human, equal-to-human or greater-than-human complexity, that wants to enslave the entire human race. I, for one, will not be getting any sleep tonight.
There is simply no way we can compete. It seems the only reasons why Earth hasn't been overrun yet are 1) The alien mind has been busy with another project, and 2) It wants to gain us as XVI hosts, not eradicate us.
Our focus must lie in discovering the other alien objective, learning the location of the alien mothership, and finding a way to destroy the mothership along with its entire population. We cannot keep resisting the alien invasion, and we have no chance of winning a research war against this viral intelligence. They will keep coming. They will keep infecting more of us than we can possibly cure or keep vaccinating. We either eradicate this infection at its source or face extinction as a free, independent species.
Sincerely, Dr. Connor