Nu2018 Carnifex
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| Registered Phenomena Code: 709 Containment Rating: Beta Lethality Rating: Black |
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Containment Protocol
RPC-709 is currently serving under Nucorp Industries CEO and President Damien van der Berg as his personal security detail. This arrangement appears to be a temporary agreement between Nucorp Industries and its sister companies within the Nucorp multiversal network. The specific terms and conditions behind RPC-709's supposedly temporary service are unknown. However, Damien van der Berg has stated multiple times that RPC-709's presence is in the best interests of Baseline Earth.
Aside from Damien van der Berg himself, RPC-709 is presently considered the most dangerous asset in Nucorp Industries' possession. Because of this, RPC-709 has voluntarily imposed restrictions on its own capabilities and conduct, allowing the Authority to continue cooperating with Nucorp Industries without undue concern. The precise nature of these restrictions remains unknown, though their continued observance is considered essential to maintaining the current arrangement.
Description
RPC-709
An anomalously enhanced humanoid construct with a muscular physique standing 2.5 m tall. Its head and limbs are encased in self-nullified1 brass. The entity adorns a fitted coat of Nucorp Industry's standard double-breasted jacket. The entity is officially titled the "Nu2018 Carnifex"2 by Nucorp Industries and serves as Damien van der Berg's personal bodyguard. Analysis of the entity's atomic vibration and memotic frequency suggests the entity originates from numerous different alternate realities.3
RPC-709 is equipped with numerous advanced anomalous weapons, the majority of which remain unknown to the Authority. Its most commonly used weapon is the N-0 Aperture "Black Sun", an integrated system capable of generating a compact sphere of nuclear fission around a designated target. Matter caught within this sphere is ripped apart at the atomic level, effectively erasing the target while leaving the surrounding area largely intact.
In addition to the N-0 Aperture, RPC-709 possesses numerous other anomalous weapons integrated throughout its body. These systems are powered by Nu-Particles,4 which circulates continuously through RPC-709's synthetic blood vessels and metallic wiring, allowing it to utilize extra-dimensional technology without harming itself or its environment.
| System | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| N-0 | Black Sun | Generates a spherical fissure that atomizes its selected target. The fissure can potentially expand to a radius of ███ km. |
| N-1 | Spatial Pull | Generates a distortion in local spacetime, temporarily connecting its interior to a separate spatial location. RPC-709 can use the resulting phenomenon to traverse or transport objects across otherwise impassable distances. |
| N-2 | Lion Star | The creation of matter and its molecular deconstruction and reconstruction through focused radiation. With this, RPC-709 is able to create material constructs. The resulting constructs can allow RPC-709 to rapidly generate weapons, tools, and other structures as required. |
| N-3 | Iron Crown | Utilizes N-1 and N-2 to generate material constructs that extend across the adjacent 4-dimensional grid. The constructs can emerge from arbitrary points within a designated area and ignore distance or obstacles. |
| N-4 | King's Hand | [REDACTED] |
| N-5 | World Fire | [REDACTED] |
| N-6 | Brass Choir | Generates an anomalous resonant frequency through RPC-709 components. Exposure produces an immediate and involuntary instinct to cease resistance, causing affected individuals to abandon hostile actions and submit to RPC-709. |
| N-7 | Aether Rift | [REDACTED] |
| N-8 | Kraft Machina | Higher-precision version of N-2; it quickly calculates and constructs complex anomalous machines that can be easily controlled. The resulting constructs can allow RPC-709 to build vehicles, robots, and artillery rapidly. |
| N-9 | Last Star | A higher-scale version of the N-0 aperture, it releases a large portion of RPC-709's stored Nu-particles in a single concentrated discharge. The resulting energy release is potentially catastrophic. |
RPC-709 is largely unresponsive and remains silent unless addressed directly. It primarily follows the orders of Damien van der Berg, whom it appears to regard as its commanding authority. However, orders issued by Nu0 supersede all of van der Berg's commands, regardless of circumstance. RPC-709's presence on Baseline Earth is believed to be temporary, although the purpose or conditions of its deployment remain unknown.
Discovery
Lady Elyria Nu and the Carnifexes
(ALTR-Nu0)
According to Nucorp's records, RPC-709 was first encountered in November 1972; one month after the successful activation of the GS-1 Phasegate. The entity appeared alongside █ other Carnifexes and PoI-7799 "Lady Elyria Nu", who identified herself as an emissary of ALTR-Nu0. She congratulated Nucorp Industries on the successful development of the Phasegate and extended an offer for the company to enter Nu0’s wider Logistical Centralization within the Nusphere.5 A deal which Nucorp ultimately accepted.
No further contact with Nu0 was recorded following Lady Elyria Nu’s departure. Communications sent to ALTR-Nu0 went unanswered, including requests concerning the terms of Nucorp’s incorporation into its logistical network. Nevertheless, Nucorp continued to receive technological and logistical benefits consistent with the agreement.
The arrangement continued without direct Nu0 involvement until the emergence of GEAR in an event that would be known as the NuGEAR Corporate War of 1981. A faction of Nucorp’s management led by former CEO Nicolaus van der Berg defected and established the organization in another reality. GEAR subsequently declared its intention to remove Nucorp and its newly appointed CEO, Damien van der Berg, from Baseline. The dispute developed into a wider conflict involving Nucorp, GEAR, and the Authority. Throughout the conflict, Nu0 remained silent despite Nucorp’s repeated attempts to re-establish contact.
Damien eventually succeeded in forcing contact with Lady Elyria Nu. Rather than requesting military assistance, he presented GEAR as a developing threat to Nu0’s interests, arguing that their activities in Baseline could eventually compromise Nu0’s wider logistical network. How much of Damien’s assessments were lies or truths is uncertain; nevertheless, he succeeded in convincing Elyria that intervention was warranted. Nu0 deployed RPC-709 to Baseline with a single directive: “Assist Damien van der Berg.”
Despite having completed its initial mission, RPC-709 would remain with Damien van der Berg to the present day, accompanying him and serving in company operations.
Addendum 709.1: Production
The Carnifexes are specialized weapon platforms developed by Nu0 through the combined technological contributions of the Nusphere Corps.6 It can be surmised that each company specializes in a particular field of technology, pursuing its development to an exceptional degree before contributing the resulting technological singularity to Nu0. In turn, these contributions appear to determine the company’s prominence and role within the wider Nusphere. The exact manner in which these companies are selected, developed, and integrated into the Nusphere remains unknown.
The technological singularity of Nu0 is the generation, manipulation, and calibration of Nu-Particles. The existence of this singularity has been confirmed by Nucorp Industries, although the properties of Nu-Particles themselves remain poorly understood by both Nucorp and the Authority. Nu0 is the only known entity capable of producing and utilizing them at their full potential. Their incorporation into the Carnifex allows the models to independently calculate, traverse, and manipulate dimensional space, enabling them to operate across realities without conventional Phasegate infrastructure.
The N-0 “Black Sun” is believed to be the technological singularity contributed by ALTR-XL22's future, a reality in which the development of nuclear science progressed considerably slower than in Baseline. The eventual emergence of nuclear weaponry consequently occurred without the safeguards and institutional understanding that had developed alongside it elsewhere, ultimately culminating in a nuclear war that is believed to have eliminated approximately 80% of ALTR-XL22's human population. The Carnifex program is considered one of the surviving technological legacies of this conflict.
Due to the cost and complexity involved in their production, only a small number of Carnifexes exist throughout the known Nusphere. Although their construction incorporates technological contributions from multiple realities, the majority remain stationed within ALTR-Nu0. The Authority is currently aware of only ██ Carnifexes, each possessing a unique configuration and primarily serving Nu0. RPC-709's assignment to Damien van der Berg is therefore an unusual exception.
RPC-709 alone has allowed Nucorp Industries to leverage a military capability vastly disproportionate to its conventional armed forces, effectively eliminating the need for a large standing military of its own. Its existence provides Nucorp with a strategic asset capable of functioning as both a deterrent and a military force in its own right.
Addendum 709.2: Alternate Variants
Carnifex-Nu0
The Carnifex known as "Rosaline the Rhetor," the entity appears to fulfil an administrative and communicative role within Nu0's Carnifex hierarchy, and is the leader of the executioners. It is the first Carnifex entity documented by Nucorp Industries, and the only known Carnifex to possess a female form. Authority encounters with the entity have been scarce, as Carnifex originating from Nu0 are rarely encountered outside their native reality.
Rosaline the Rhetor is what Lady calls her, and I think it suits her rather well. She is the one who accompanies our dear Elyria Nu as she travels across dimensions, following along that invisible thread which binds all the Nusphere together. Neither the infinite stretch of the Caementicium nor the savage heartbeat of the eternal war of the Collective Chaos has ever parted those two. And what a relief that is… Nusphere-Alpha is as faceless as it is cold; and the little Lady is a familiar face there. A warm candle in the dark of Point Nemo, if you can imagine such a thing.
No one seems to agree on where Rosaline herself came from. I suppose that is the trouble with Carnifexes. Their making was never quite a singular affair, you see. One finds their traces in worlds that ought never to have known of one another, in centuries separated by impossible distances, and sometimes in places where the word century hardly means anything at all. Perhaps Rosaline is older than we think. Perhaps she is younger. I wouldn't be surprised if both were true at once.
She is, after all, an executioner. A war machine, through and through. They say she may be the strongest of them, though I have always found it rather impolite to rank such things in spite of how meagre the Carnifex population is. She certainly is in better condition than her brothers. There's not a speck of rust nor visible degradation on her armor; it only makes the engravings on her metal plate pop all so much more. Perhaps she simply sees less combat than the others. Or perhaps our Lady takes particularly good care of her. I suspect it is the latter. Elyria has always been rather fond of her.
— Dr. Liufrit Reginpirc
On the Nature of the Nusphere
Addendum 709.3: Executive Assessment
Acquired Media: Nucorp (708/709) #N418
Nusphere Executive Assessment: Damien van der Berg (31/04/2018)