Had a busy day today cleaning and cleaning out my PC and regreasing the heat sink (knocked 10*c off with a new coat of z9 WOW!) so I didn’t have time to work on my primary project. I figured i would take this time to start a WIP thread on one of the main characters of my books. Arguably the main character by the time you’ve read book 3.
Codename G-01 I.A.T.H (Generation One, Intelligent Antonymous Tactical Humanoid) alternatively Guardian Of Litheria. That name is a bit misleading because he wasn't designed or constructed by the council or come from the citadel. GOLIATH designs and manufactures his own body and all his own peripherals, GOLIATHS core programming was partially written by a character tentatively named ["The Tinker"](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Cloudcuckoolander).
~getting low in the weeds hold your breath
The Tinker is another time traveler but instead of popping around he is a refugee of sorts from the future. In the far future on a distant planet a race of creatures invent several races of sentient automatons called the Inevitable that enforce certian universal rules (this bit is from D&D). Having helped design the Inevitables the Tinker wasn't satisfied designing physical machines and sought to create a super-intelligent sentient AI which was universally forbidden. "The gods" (Pantheon) and the Inevitables themselves enforce that law, the inevitable are endowed with supernatural intelligence not digital code. To avoid these rules he skips town so to speak and goes back in time and to an obscure planet to try to continue his research in secret.
~ whew... lots of backstory for a lot of the side characters that wont necessarily be in the main 3 books. I think after i finish the trilogy ill write "Chronicles of GOLIATH" which tells the story from his perspective.
Having met with limited success with writing a self learning highly adaptive AI the Tinker gets an idea. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel he designs a brainwave scanner helmet he can use to try and map the human brain and learn from it in his quest. Once completed he can use this device to imprint thoughts and memories into his computers, he might have a general sit in the chair and tell an old war story to have the machine capture his thought process. Here it gets good, luck would have it that the Tinker meets David and company shortly after they themselves are cast back in time. As he does with most anyone who will sit in his chair and allow "such a strange hat" to be put on them he hooks up the party to the machine one by one to verify they are from the future for one.
When its Davids turn though some bad stuff goes down. David dies essentially almost immediately, being psychic Davids mind can feel the sensors feeling him and instinctively tries to bridge the gap and form a connection. This pulls his soul out of his body into the computers, his subconscious tries to make sense of the screeching hoardes of data and randomly flashing bursts of light as his body flat-lines and his compatriots panic. In the few minutes it takes the Tinker to retrieve a defibrillator and revive David his subconcious has organized the data into what becomes the core programming of GOLIATH. Several reboots and shutdowns in a row as it writes more complex code then reboots as that version to rewrite yet further complex code. Hence how GOLIATH designs himself. Convinced of the impending temporal war which didn't happen in the future the Tinker came from the tinker redoubles his efforts.
Ok thats the bulk of his backstory and how he came to be. There's a ton more on his actual design and capabilities. Lets dive in.
[img]http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr113/d1g1tal_0ne/imp1.jpg[/img]
First up is an IMP (Imaging and Mapping Peripheral; I like acronyms) The first of these guys come off the "production line" maybe a month or two after the David incident with the AI and the Tinker working in tandem. This first one actually is a Main character sort of. They are hollow basketball sized perfect diamond spheres with an ultra-high res camera in the center (can read DNA from your skin within 5ft). The camera is surrounded by dual high density plasma loops that it uses to generate light through the spectrum for various purposes. It can pulse to induce epileptic seizures in its opponents and also blind and disorient them, along with simply fly over and smash into thier heads. IMPS are surprisingly combat effective. These guys are partially inspired from that evil little flying camera from Halo.
~More weeds...
The event that throws the party back in time forms a closed temporal loop and sets up several different timelines. At the end of this first timeline after the Original IMP has existed nearly 1k years it gets a clever idea! (This idea was inspired by Robo from the game Chrono Trigger) The IMP, being immortal essentially, can loop back through the timelines allowing for essentially unlimited processing time before the war begins. [i](I like to describe this effect like playing Portal and setting a portal on the floor and the ceiling and doing the infinite fall except going down is going forward in time. He can loop as many times as he wants but the instant he misses the loop that's it he is permanently stuck going down that timeline.)[/i] So the computers it uses as its main brain crunches all its data down and compresses as much as possible near the event that sends the party back in time to cram into the IMPS on-board memory (just like R2-D2 and his message). The IMP, being roughly the size of a basketball stows away in the partys belongings and goes dormant until that party meets the Tinker in the next timeline then those calculations can be extrapolated out with blueprints to build faster machines etc loop after loop. This is how GOLIATH comes to be a nearly unimaginably powerful supercomputer capable of simulating the consciousness of dozens of people simultaneously and then multiply those individuals by thousands of iterations and still have CPU cycles left over to provide detailed real time battle maps to soldiers to avoid arrow fire. Think the way Agent Smith from The Matrix can multiply himself seemingly indefinitely, so too can the consciousness in GOLIATHS mind form thousands of plans in thousands of conference rooms simultaneously.
~ whew!
[img]http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr113/d1g1tal_0ne/orc5x.jpg[/img]
This is an ORC (Orbital Reconnaissance Craft)
GOLIATH has 3 of these guys in orbit by the time he touches down to face The Dark Psion. Multiple ORCS mounted to an orbiting platform with one larger ultra high resolution camera, it can track all visible targets throughout the entire spectrum. The lit rings are high density plasma loops that emit laser-like light because of powerful magnetic fields that orient and focus the light. This allows the ORC to pulse Xrays and low levels of Gamma rays down to the surface in tight packets for further visual abilities. (like mapping that underground temple) IMPS can also do this to a lesser extent, several imps focusing on a single target would be very unpleasant. These guys are the plot device that prevents GOLIATH from ever being snuck up on. If your coming its almost certain he knows it.
[img]http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr113/d1g1tal_0ne/EPOCH3.jpg[/img]
This is some preliminary work Ive done on his launch system. A bit of trivia, GOLIATH was never designed or intended to fight The Dark Psion. He didnt exist before the loop, like GOLIATH. So when GOLIATH decides he has to face down TDP after he nukes the teleporter (cant stop him before or GOLIATH ceases to exist too.) he has to retrofit his original launch vehicle designed only to take the ORCS to orbit to hold his re-entry capsule. The rails are EM linear accelerators (the same technology GOLIATH uses to move) so the vehicle is near cruise velocity by the time the engines hit 100% resulting in nearly no turbulence and fewer fuel requirements.
[img]http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr113/d1g1tal_0ne/BIGIMP.jpg[/img]
Here is a really fantastic rendering. This image captures my idea fir his eyes the most. Most of the light is projected forward but because its an enourmous volume of photons you'll see more wrap around and internal refraction. I want to keep the noise sparkle some to simulate how laser light sparkles when you look directly at it.
On to the star of the show!
[img]http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr113/d1g1tal_0ne/goldark8x.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr113/d1g1tal_0ne/golKER.jpg[/img]
I want to talk first about which parts are still at draft quality and which aspects im 100% sure i want in the final product. I love the hands and fingers the way they rotate around the center, lots of battlefield functionality there. The basic design of the arms legs and torso are set, I like the torso armor rails and how they mesh up with the extending shoulders to lock heavy weapons in place. I need to work on the hip area some, the wrists, and ankles mostly. Im also not happy with the collar around the eye. Its there hiding modelling errors from the Boolean i had to cut for the eye. The weapons systems need more work too but Im set on the radial plasma cannons. The center of the hand is a modular interface for weapons. So far i only have 2 types worked out for the hands though i really wanted 3.
Lets get into weapons systems since we are here. Mmm weapons. GOLIATHS primary weapon first and foremost is his entire body. GOLIATH is constructed in a process I like to call "super-massive construction" where at the nano scale instead of making the bare minimum molecular cylinders for stronger materials at reduced weight GOLIATH crams as many molecules as will fit into the space all interwoven together forming nano-scale systems. His entire body is electrified with a nano-scale superconductive materials so he weighs an astronomical amount for his size and can build up incredible amounts of kinetic force in a small amount of time and short distance.
Past his body itself we have Plasma cannons which are self explanatory and Spacial Accelerators which are the two large spheres on the back one small one on the chest and one in each hand possibly. Similar to the gravity hammers from Halo the Spacial Accelerators twist space until at a certain point like a magnetic field it snaps and reorients causing a massive shock wave that ignores barriers. If you thought sneaking up behind GOLIATH was a good idea he has permanent back facing weapons and the back models are quite large.
Optional shoulder mounted weapons, Ive only got 2 designed so far. The KER (Kinetic Energy Rail-Gun) different from a traditional rail-gun which might fire explosive or other projectiles this one actually fires a long solid super-massive rail designed to penetrate Great Wyrm dragon scales described as stronger than steel. Its designed for maximum kinetic impact. Its shown rendered with new drum fed ammo containers. Need to rework it.
Unmodeled as of now is GOLIATHS ultimate weapon which brings us to his power core too and his only laser weapon (lasers are so boring for special effects!!) This ones not going to be boring. Behold the gamma ray burster brought down to earth. GOLIATHs core is a technologically induced extra dimensional space in which GOLIATH poured nearly 1k yrs worth of generated hydrogen into. He literally has a star for a heart. In a large spherical device which takes up both shoulder slots and causes GOLIATHSs already heavy body to sink into soil or any non-stone surface GOLIATH cranks his core to 100%. It usually runs maybe at 20% even at full weapons fire. Cramming all the energy into a containment field he forces energy to the center until he breaches the universal energy limit and tears an artificially small black hole. Opening a forward and rear facing aperture at the moment he vents part of his hydrogen core into the void he creates an artificially small gamma ray burst of unbelievable power. If it were fired in daylight it would still be blinding, it vaporizes the atmosphere instantaneously along both paths upon creation causing a giant thunderclap along the length of the beam followed by a loud deep rattle as air tries to fill the space and is abruptly vaporized. Creatures immune to fire and heat damage are still helpless to the beam. Fire cannot exist within plasma, so a fire elemental would still be extinguished, any creature made up of molecules and atoms (Dragons) which usually enjoy resistance to heat up to thousands of degrees cant handle hundreds of millions of degrees, the atoms will come apart. The beam works essentially like a light saber with unlimited range. Typically it will instantly cut through anything but large solid structures like mountains will take some focused fire to punch through. Instantaneous widespread wildfires and firestorms localized down the path of the beam. Its really a beast. Its designed after the ultimate weapon of the Golden Dragons which use magic instead of technology to form a hole and modify their breath weapon to exhale hydrogen along with a 12 layer spacial warping at 15* each to form the double sided beam into one dual layer beam (Known as the 12 gates in the incantation most Golden Dragons would need to use to help contain the beam and not themselves be killed by it.)
[i]
“Three rings bind the beast, to contain its power. Seven lances pierce its heart, unleashing its fury. Twelve gates channel its flow, to set its path. And one voice, SCREAMING INTO THE VOID!”
[/i]
