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Miscellaneous Toys

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Wed, 2013-08-14 05:25

MirrorField MirrorField's picture

Miscellaneous Toys

Here are few toys that I've cooked up. Any opinions/comments? %%%%%%%% Stack Encryption This Feature is related to Dead Switch. It allows friendlies to pop and recover the stack eg. if you get wounded during the op and would weight down your team but the op is not fully blown yet and for possibility of getting your forgotten stack to friendly hands with minimal risk of forknapping and/or hostile interrogation. As a security measure this sort of stack is encrypted with an one-time pad (OTP) which is wiped when the morph dies or the stack is popped. Without a copy of the OTP (usually held by morph insurance firm/firewall/whatever) such stack is absolutely useless as even TITANs can't break one-time-pad encryption without side-channel attacks. Aside the encrypted ego, such stack usually also includes "ransom metadata" to effect "Will pay (X credits/favors/whatever) on delivery to (Estelle Matsuko/Firewall Front/whatever), no questions asked." with reliable escrow agency vouching for the promise. This is a surprisingly effective way to get salvaged cortical stacks returned intact and unmolested, but depending on circumstances the stack was salvaged, espionage efforts to acquire the encryption pad via other means may be initiated... Cost: High, plus any ransom promised which must be given to escrow agency beforehand. %%%%%%%% Uploading Icepick This somewhat rare and esoteric medical implement is usually only used in extremis. It's basically a very specialized nanohive shaped like icepick, with cortical stack as "pommel". The Icepick is a quick and dirty (very, very dirty in several senses of the word) uploading tool used for emergency "brainpeel" uploads of the mortally wounded. It's designed for unskilled use, but "peeling" a single brain takes about 5 minutes. Also, any uploads made with this tool must be checked out and possibly repaired before any resleeving is attempted: Roll Psychosurgery at -20, with failure resulting in neural damage (treat as beta-fork). The Icepick is a relatively rare implement these days, as most people already have cortical stacks, but a good emergency medkit always has one plus few empty stacks. %%%%%%%%

Wed, 2013-08-14 06:06

Smokeskin

I like the uploading icepick.

I like the uploading icepick. It also seems like a great way to steal an ego from someone. You might not want to deal with the mess of extracting the stack, or the stack is encrypted or self-deleting.

Wed, 2013-08-14 10:33

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

I like both.

I like both. I was wondering when I first saw the mention of OTP, but I like the justification. My intuition would have been to use a public/private key pair for encoding and decoding, but that can potentially be cracked with enough computing power - if I were going up against TITANs I would want an OTP. Of course, I'd also like to have something to scramble my bio-brain cryptographically strongly. Along the same lines: Emergency egobridge ("brain peeler", "deli slicer") This is the quick-and-dirty upload-only version of egobridge used by a lot of truly desperate people in the last days of the Fall. A normal egobridge performs advanced nanosurgery to get to the brain and manipulate it; this is a destructive scanner. Typically looking like a microwave-sized box, the head is placed inside (attached to the body or not) and a sheet of nanodisassemblers picks it apart as fast as possible, mapping the neural pathways. The process is not pleasant viewing. The device takes about 3 minutes to do its job, assuming it has enough electricity and cooling. The end result is a preliminary scan file (same postprocessing needs as for the uploading icepick) and two kilograms of pink slime in the output sluice. The emergency egobridges were mass-manufactured from open source blueprints during the Fall. While the designs were robust and simple, intensive use often led to wear and tear. Flaws in the disassembler sheet produced linear artifacts in the scans, giving many people neural damage or worse. Energy outages or cooling failures produced half-done scans or occasional freezes. That, and the traumatic memories of people seeing them used (often while desperately queuing in front of them) has given them a thoroughly bad reputation. Seeing one in a habitat neuro-lab today is a very worrying sign. [Cost: Moderate]

—

Thu, 2013-08-22 13:29

bibliophile20 bibliophile20's picture

MirrorField wrote:Here are

MirrorField wrote:
Here are few toys that I've cooked up. Any opinions/comments? %%%%%%%% Stack Encryption This Feature is related to Dead Switch. It allows friendlies to pop and recover the stack eg. if you get wounded during the op and would weight down your team but the op is not fully blown yet and for possibility of getting your forgotten stack to friendly hands with minimal risk of forknapping and/or hostile interrogation. As a security measure this sort of stack is encrypted with an one-time pad (OTP) which is wiped when the morph dies or the stack is popped. Without a copy of the OTP (usually held by morph insurance firm/firewall/whatever) such stack is absolutely useless as even TITANs can't break one-time-pad encryption without side-channel attacks. Aside the encrypted ego, such stack usually also includes "ransom metadata" to effect "Will pay (X credits/favors/whatever) on delivery to (Estelle Matsuko/Firewall Front/whatever), no questions asked." with reliable escrow agency vouching for the promise. This is a surprisingly effective way to get salvaged cortical stacks returned intact and unmolested, but depending on circumstances the stack was salvaged, espionage efforts to acquire the encryption pad via other means may be initiated... Cost: High, plus any ransom promised which must be given to escrow agency beforehand. %%%%%%%% Uploading Icepick This somewhat rare and esoteric medical implement is usually only used in extremis. It's basically a very specialized nanohive shaped like icepick, with cortical stack as "pommel". The Icepick is a quick and dirty (very, very dirty in several senses of the word) uploading tool used for emergency "brainpeel" uploads of the mortally wounded. It's designed for unskilled use, but "peeling" a single brain takes about 5 minutes. Also, any uploads made with this tool must be checked out and possibly repaired before any resleeving is attempted: Roll Psychosurgery at -20, with failure resulting in neural damage (treat as beta-fork). The Icepick is a relatively rare implement these days, as most people already have cortical stacks, but a good emergency medkit always has one plus few empty stacks. %%%%%%%%

Arenamontanus wrote:
Emergency egobridge ("brain peeler", "deli slicer") This is the quick-and-dirty upload-only version of egobridge used by a lot of truly desperate people in the last days of the Fall. A normal egobridge performs advanced nanosurgery to get to the brain and manipulate it; this is a destructive scanner. Typically looking like a microwave-sized box, the head is placed inside (attached to the body or not) and a sheet of nanodisassemblers picks it apart as fast as possible, mapping the neural pathways. The process is not pleasant viewing. The device takes about 3 minutes to do its job, assuming it has enough electricity and cooling. The end result is a preliminary scan file (same postprocessing needs as for the uploading icepick) and two kilograms of pink slime in the output sluice. The emergency egobridges were mass-manufactured from open source blueprints during the Fall. While the designs were robust and simple, intensive use often led to wear and tear. Flaws in the disassembler sheet produced linear artifacts in the scans, giving many people neural damage or worse. Energy outages or cooling failures produced half-done scans or occasional freezes. That, and the traumatic memories of people seeing them used (often while desperately queuing in front of them) has given them a thoroughly bad reputation. Seeing one in a habitat neuro-lab today is a very worrying sign. [Cost: Moderate]

*yoink* *adds to House Rules page* Thanks!

—

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin

Fri, 2013-08-23 01:28

UnitOmega

Was watching GitS again, had

Was watching GitS again, had a couple of ideas. - Memory Wipe: The Memory Wipe functions as a limited version of a Dead Switch or Autodelete plugin. It can only be installed in a Cyberbrain or Infomorph, or in a Biomorph with the Mnemonic Augmentation implant. Using the Memory Wipe, an Ego can delete sections of its own memory. The Memory Wipe can either erase a set period (ex, forget the past 12 hours) up to a week back, or the user may "tag" certain memories to be deleted. This also deletes any copies of the memory saved on a Cortical Stack. The Memory Wipe may be activated on command, or preset to activate under certain conditions (such as large amounts of physical trauma or unexpected unconsciousness caused by shock or chemical agents), and can be activated remotely. Memory Wipe functions quickly, removing selected memories in less than a minute. A character who activates the Memory Wipe who loses more than a few continuous minutes of memory must make an immediate Continuity test, in order to handle the disconnect of their now missing memory. Attempts may be made to recover deleted memories, but this is very difficult. A Psychosurgery test (At -30) may be attempted, but even if successful, if only recovers fragments or impressions of the deleted memories, not the entire thing. Cost: Moderate Attack Barrier: A nasty and militant variant on the Firewall, the Attack Barrier is a protective piece of software that actively counterattacks intruders who attempt to break past authentication or firewall systems without authorization, and are usually loaded with nasty scorchers or other surprises. The Attack Barrier is usually places in devices which require wired connections, or by paranoid individuals willing to kill or maim attackers trying to access their cyberbrains. Normally, the Attack Barrier functions as a normal Firewall, though it imposes an additional -10 penalty to the hacker's InfoSec test. If the hacker fails to breach the Attack Barrier, the attack barrier counterattacks. Wired connections receive a vicious electrical surge which will disable or permanently damage most devices, and if the hacker was attempting to hack using their own access jacks or skinlink, they take 1d10+5 DV which ignores armor, and must make a SOMx2 test or be stunned similar to Shock. Wireless intruders are automatically traced by the Attack Barrier, which automatically begins its own Counterintrusion attempt (The Attack Barrier has an InfoSec of 40). If successful, the Attack Barrier will attempt to scorch or crash cyberbrains and infomorphs, or remotely disable devices or mesh inserts. In most habitats Attack Barriers are highly restricted, only available to military or highly secure government or corporate networks. Cost: Moderate

—

H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/

Mon, 2013-09-02 06:44

Baalbamoth Baalbamoth's picture

dont know if this one has been done before... just an idea

"Corpse Walker" Originally conceived during the fall campaign and reportedly realized by the 9 Lives Crew, appearing as a thick saucer shaped disk this black market device is used after a pod or biomorph has sustained too much physical damage to allow normal life functions, but has not been completely destroyed. After removal of the cortical stack, fish hook like barbs extend from the unit into the corpse's spine, nanites then repair and tap in to damaged tendons and sensory organs and run synthetic nerve fibers to the major muscle groups connecting to both the unit's power source and onboard simple AI. finely controlled electro stimulation via the onboard ai allows the corps to walk and follow simple commands. The main purpose of the unit is to allow a biomorph to walk itself away from a dangerous engagement allowing salvage of the unit and extraction of expensive biomods at a later time. Rumors also persist of more advanced units that allow the "empty hat" morph full mobility and give it the capability to engage in combat.

—

"what do I want? The usual — hundreds of grandchildren, complete dominion over the known worlds, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me."

Mon, 2013-09-02 10:55

MirrorField MirrorField's picture

Dead Switch

Dead Switch A Proper Firewall-approved Dead Switch has couple extra features to the basic one described in Core Book. They're also used by Ozma, Oversight and wide variety of criminal syndicates. First, the Dead Switch includes a tiny plasma charge in either cyberbrain or biological brain sufficient to scramble the brain without possibility of recovery, defending against "tomb tapping" (Hat tip to Stanislaw Lem for the name and idea) attack analyzing the remnants of the brain. This plasma charge is triggered at the same time as the rest of the Dead Switch. It doesn't do damage to the surroundings, but tends to be nasty on carpets and paints the surrounding walls into new Jackson Pollock masterpiece while causing (1D10)/2 SV mental stress to anyone within same room at the time. Second, the Dead Switch can be triggered by the user. Due to security reasons the implant is not connected to mesh inserts and triggering mechanisms can vary. This is the 10 AF equivalent of the old Cyanide Pill and with backups get much more use than today. Traditional trigger mechanism is a simplified, separate neural interface and appropriate pass phrase(s) that can be customized at user's discretion: Poignant poetic verses or quotes are a favourite and no hacker (except TITAN / Promethean) can dig them out without long-term psychosurgery even from cyber-brained people. Note that it is difficult to get larger yield out of implant-sized plasma explosives and if you want to use antimatter (with all associated problems) you're probably better off with "Khan Special" farcaster implant. These Dead Switch features are compatible with stack encryption and you can assume that good versions of aforementioned include them.