Notes on Red Hammer – Hong Chui 

My series Tales of the Quantum Corps has as the principal enemy an Asian cartel called Red Hammer.  Red Hammer’s main goal in this series of stories is to steal or copy as much ANAD technology from Quantum Corps as possible, in order to further their cartel enterprises and defeat Johnny Winger and his nanotroopers once and for all.  Below is a more detailed description of this adversary….

1.     Red Hammer is a criminal enterprise formed in the late 2030s in Hong Kong and Southeast and southern Asia.  The first base of operations was at Lions Rock, in Hong Kong.

2.     Two ex-PLA generals—Zhang Ru Ji and Dao Li, were instrumental in forming Red Hammer.

3.     The current headquarters base is a Buddhist llamassary at the Paryang Monastery in Tibet.

4.     Red Hammer is an outgrowth of Chinese and Vietnamese criminal gangs, similar to Macau and Hong Kong-based tong societies. 

5.     Red Hammer is run by a Ruling Council, or Council of Rulers.  There are rumors that one or more members of the RC are artificial intelligences, even robots.  The current leader is unknown but may be an individual called the Keeper. (In reality, the Keeper is a device buried under the Paryang Monastery and other locations, uncovered by Red Hammer, which is a portal and communication device to a race of extraterrestrials that Red Hammer refers to as the Old Ones).

6.     One of the more visible members of the RC is the former Thai neurotraficante Theo Souvranamh.  Other members are Luis Escorial, General Zhang, General Dao, Vladimir Berensky, Dmitri Kulagin, and Andreas Echeverria.  They meet once a week, either at Paryang or connected in to Paryang.

7.     All Ruling Council members and most all Red Hammer agents are, upon joining the cartel, ‘infected’ with a small ANAD-like swarm of nanoscale bots, known as a Halo.  It resides inside their brains. This Halo is how Red Hammer controls its people.  It protects them from counter-swarms from Quantum Corps and other sources and helps keep them in line or keeps them from doing anything that might harm Red Hammer’s interests.  Once installed, it cannot be removed.  And under certain circumstances, the Halo can kill its host.  It’s a near-perfect, remotely programmable control device.

8.     Principal Red Hammer businesses are scope (an addictive drug), illegal fabs for rogue nanobotic devices, twist (pirated and rogue DNA or other genetic sequences), HNRIV (a hemorrhagic virus that kills and could easily become a global pandemic), Serengeti (an addictive antidote to HNRIV), and various extortion and protection rackets throughout Asia and Africa. 

9.     UN Quantum Corps and their new ANAD nanobotic systems are a direct threat to the fab and rogue nano businesses of Red Hammer.  The Ruling Council has issued a ‘main directive’ (zhiling touhao) to combat UNQC and eliminate the threat from ANAD.

10.  The Main Directive requires all Red Hammer stations and personnel to work “ceaselessly” toward frustrating Quantum Corps.  More importantly, Red Hammer wants to steal the configuration engine and software that animates ANAD.  If they can achieve this difficult goal, they believe they can neuter Quantum Corps and give themselves a virtually unassailable weapon to continue and extend their criminal enterprises into the Americas and Europe.   

11.  The Keeper is an advanced artificial intelligence (in swarm configuration) left behind on Earth by an extraterrestrial race known as the Old Ones several billion years ago. 

12.  The Keeper is a gateway to the Old Ones as well as an AI.  It is part gateway, part oracle, part deterrent and patrol, part computer/monitor and many other things as well.  It does not normally exist in physical form, but can configure into many forms. 

13.  The Keeper is the nominal head of Red Hammer.  All members of the Ruling Council are aware that the Keeper is not a human being in any normal sense.  Yet major decisions and directives for the criminal cartel are always handed down from the Keeper.  No one knows whether the Keeper generates these directives itself or whether it is somehow in touch with the Old Ones.

14.  The reason that Red Hammer occasionally has access to technology considerably more advanced than Quantum Corps is that the Keeper periodically provides new technology from the archives of the Old Ones.  This is not known outside of Red Hammer’s Ruling Council.  It is sobering to realize the menace and the threat that exists to the world from a cartel that can monopolize access to advanced technology from an alien race.  Were this to become known, Quantum Corps and most of the advanced nations of the world would take whatever steps needed to crush Red Hammer.  Therefore, this is Red Hammer’s most closely guarded secret.

15.  Because Red Hammer’s main base is in a derelict and abandoned llamassary in the Tibetan high country, there are some within Red Hammer, notably the Thai druglord Souvranamh, who think that Buddha himself, the Enlightened One, was (is?) in fact a composite representation of the Old Ones.  There is no proof of this. 

 

This introduction to Red Hammer will help you understand what will be coming as Tales unfolds toward its inevitable end.  It’s a vicious, mortal battle between Quantum Corps and Red Hammer. 

Let’s hope the good guys win…and remain good guys in the process. 

The next post, to be uploaded on April 1, will detail the creation and purpose of a robotic entity known as Symborg, who appears in Tales of the Quantum Corps, Books 5 and 6.  Could a robot be a celebrity?  Could a robotic swarm be a celebrity, even a Messiah-type figure?

Check in with Quantum Corps Times in April.

See you then.

Phil B.

All cadet applicants entering Quantum Corps have to go through ‘nog school,’ also known as the UN Quantum Corps Academy.  It’s a four-year science and engineering-heavy school that takes a raw recruit and makes him into a world-class nanotrooper.  There are separate tracks for officers and enlisted personnel.

Below are some details about the Academy, specifically the officer track:

1.    The Academy is physically located at Table Top Mountain, Idaho, USA.

2.    The Academy is a 4-year school.  Cadets graduate after 4 years and are commissioned into Quantum Corps as 2^nd Lieutenants.

3.    There are multiple schools and specialties within the Academy.  Most cluster around the following areas (all cadets must choose a course of concentration in one these):

a.     Command and Control (CC) School

b.    Interface Control and Operations (ICO) School

c.     Containment, Service and Support (CSS) School

d.    Quantum Systems and Engineering (CQE) School

e.     Defense and Protective Systems (DPS) School

f.     Stealth, Signatures and Countermeasures (SSC) School

4.    The first 2 years (Nog 1 and Nog 2) are for foundational instruction in Languages, History, other Social Sciences, Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering Fundamentals. 

5.    The last two years (Nog 3 and Atomgrabber) are for applied studies, command and leadership studies, strategy and tactics, Corps history and philosophy, higher level math, science and engineering, unit-level assignments as a cadet apprentices or interns, and senior projects.

6.    The term nog comes from the word ‘noggin’, as in what gets beat on when you come to the Academy.

 

Here’s a closer look at the sequence of courses a typical cadet might take during his or her four years at nog school:

  

	1st yr Freshman “Nog 1”	2nd yr Sophomore “Nog 2”	3rd yr Junior “Nog 3”	4th yr Senior “Atomgrabber”
Fall Semester	Foreign language Psychology History Math 1 Computer Science PE	Nan Eng 1 Eng Mech 1 Econ 1 Physics 3 Pol Sci PE	Molecular Ops 1 Intro to ANAD Chemistry 5 SODS 1 NanoBiology 1	ANAD Sys 3 Nanoscale- Tactics 1 Containment 1 Human-ANAD Interface Design
Winter Semester	Foreign language English 1 Chemistry 1 Engineering 1 Math 2 Physics 1 PE	Nan Eng 2 Eng Mech 2 Law Chemistry 3 Physics 4 Molecular Eng 1 PE	Molecular Ops 2 ANAD Sys 1 SODS 2 NanoBiology 2 Battalion Ops Quantum Sys 1	Command & Control NanoTactics 2 Containment 2 DPS Senior Project 1
Spring Semester	Foreign language English 2 Chemistry 2 Engineering 2 Math 3 Physics 2 PE	Nan Eng 3 Eng Mech 3 Chemistry 4 Molecular Eng 2 UNIFORCE -    History	Molecular Ops 3 ANAD Sys 2 SODS 3 NanoBiology 3 Quantum Sys 2	ANAD Strategy NanoTactics 3 Containment 3 Philosophy Senior Project 2
Summer Semester	Electives Apprenticeship	Electives Internship	Electives Internship	Unit assignments

 

Quantum Corps Academy turns out world-class nanotroopers.  Once you’ve fulfilled all requirements for graduation, you receive a diploma awarding you a Bachelor of Nanospace Engineering and you’re authorized to wear the gold ‘atomgrabber’ pin on your black and gold UNQC uniform.  The graduation ceremony at Table Top’s Drexler Field is a sight to behold: the graduation and commissioning ceremony ends when a small tightly controlled swarm of ANAD bots is released into the air, quickly forming the Quantum Corps emblem in the sky over the stands. 

 

And, of course, now that you’re a newly commissioned 2^nd Lieutenant in Quantum Corps, you learn how to say “small is all!” with a new found conviction.

 

On the next post in early March, I’ll introduce you to one of Quantum Corps’ principal enemies…the Asian criminal cartel Red Hammer (Hong Chui).

See you in March.

 

Phil B.

All nanotroopers are equipped for combat in any environment with a hypersuit.  So what is a hypersuit?  In this post, I’ll try to answer that question.

1.    A hypersuit is a boosted exoskeleton and fully enclosed structure that envelopes the nanotrooper in a protected environment and augments his human capabilities and senses so that he can fight and survive in almost any environment, from other planets to the floor of the ocean and anywhere in between.  Part spaceship, part submarine, part semi-autonomous robotic oversuit, the hypersuit is capable of doing a lot of the thinking, maneuvering and fighting for the trooper. 

2.    Training on the uses and systems of the hypersuit typically takes many months.

3.    The Mk 1 hypersuit operates many subsystems, including the helmet/headgear subsystem, combat enclosure, body status and monitoring subsystem, environmental control and climate conditioning, power, sensors, and propulsion.

4.    Here’s one view of the Hypersuit:

 

 

5.    Let’s look at some basic details of each subsystem, to get a sense of what the hypersuit is and what it can do.

6.    Helmet/Headgear - The Headgear Subsystem, is the situational awareness hub of the system. It includes integrated tactical processing by providing maps, routes, and data with a 180° emissive visor display, high bandwidth wireless communications, microelectronic/optics combat sensor suite that provides 360° situational awareness, and integrated small arms protection.

The Helmet Subsystem has capabilities that provide networked hypersuit-equipped small units with robust team communications (including quantum couplers), state-of-the-art distributed and fused sensors, organic tactical intelligence/collection assets, enhanced situational understanding, embedded training, on-the-move planning, and linkage to other assets.

7.    Combat Enclosure/Suit – the suit enclosure performs a number of critical functions, including holding breathable air at pressure, environmental control and maintenance of the life-envelope at all times, ballistic protection against enemy fire and certain medical/survivability measures in the event of suit penetrations or leaks.  The enclosure helps protect the trooper by providing full-body bullet and fragmentation protection. It is subdivided into three layers, the Protective Outer Layer, the Power Centric Layer, and the Life Critical Layer.

Ballistic protection is provided by a "Shear-Thickening Liquid" armor additive produced from a mixture of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives and other consumer products, and nanobits of silica, or purified sand. When struck with a significant impact, the armor stiffens instantly into a shield, then reverts to its liquid state just as fast when the energy from the projectile dissipates.

Currently, the Mk. 1 hypersuit life support subsystem circulates chilled water through a special heat-transfer garment. The cooled circulating fluid pulls metabolic heat from the soldier's body and transfers it into the environment through its condenser. The main condenser unit can provide 120 W cooling power in a 95 °F (35 °C) environment, with an average power consumption of 35 W and weight of 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg), excluding the power source.

8.    Body Status and Monitoring – the hypersuit is capable of performing light medical/surgical interventions in the event the wearer is wounded, injured or in some way compromised.  The suit monitors trooper vital signs at all times in real time and can inject medicines via hypodermic, nasal spray or skin patch as well as perform suturing and stitching, puncture care, bone/tissue/cartilage repair and even simple surgical procedures.  Not quite a doc in the box, the hypersuit is capable of substantial artificial learning through its processor algorithms and maintains a homeostatic environment tailored specifically to the individual trooper.

9.    Power - The Power Subsystem, built into the Power Centric Layer, provides a 2 to 20-watt Micro Turbine fueled by a liquid hydrocarbon fuel cell. According to the specifications made public by Quantum Corps, ten ounces of fuel would power the soldier's integrated electronics ensemble for up to 21 days. Polymeric nanofiber battery patches embedded in the headgear and certain weapons provide back-up power for eight hours.

Current specifications allow up to 72-hour autonomous individual operation and 120-hour continuous autonomous team operations, with a high density, low weight/volume, self-generating/re-generating, reliable, safe power source.

10.  Sensors – The Mk.1 Hypersuit operates sensors in a variety of media and wavelengths, including radar, sound, broadband electromagnetic, quantum coupler decoherence wake detection, and even olfactory/ chemical/ radiological detection.  One the hypersuit’s more unique capabilities is the active camouflage system, giving the trooper the ability to blend into a variety of natural and man-made environments, including a form of ‘cloaking’ that makes the trooper nearly optically invisible.  The signature control techniques involved in cloaking and camouflaging are closely held classified secrets inside Quantum Corps.

11.  Propulsion – One of the hypersuit’s more unusual capabilities is known as suit-boost.  The suit contains small thrusters, mounted on the soles of the boots, along the lower extremities, at the waist and shoulders, providing the wearer the ability to lift himself up and over obstacles and maintain low-altitude flight for short durations. 

12.  ANAD Integration – Every nanotrooper now has an embedded ANAD master bot contained in a capsule surgically implanted in his shoulder.  The Mk.1 hypersuit provides suitable containment, comms and interface control for additional ANAD units as well as an ingress/egress path for these devices to enter and exit the suit proper.  The Quantum Corps nanotrooper is in all ways a blended man-machine warrior, equipped to deal with threats in a variety of media and environments. 

This post has described some operating details of the typical Quantum Corps nanotrooper’s Mk. 1 hypersuit.   The hypersuit plays a critical role in many of the stories of Tales of the Quantum Corps.

 

The next post, in early February 2016, will cover training and the Quantum Corps Academy at Table Top Mountain, Idaho.  Cadets usually call it nog school.

 

See you in early February.

 

Phil B.

This post will detail one of the most important facilities that appear in the Tales of the Quantum Corps stories…the Quartier-General in Paris.  The QG is home and headquarters for UNIFORCE, the security and mandate enforcement arm of the United Nations.

1.     QG is located in Paris’ 5^th arrondisement (district), near the Luxembourg Gardens and just off the Boulevard St-Michel. 

 

2.     The building and complex itself is a 75-story tower of a unique flower petal ‘opening’ design. 

3.     As UNIFORCE Headquarters, there are many staff functions located at the QG.  They fall into the following categories

a.     UN treaty and mandate enforcement

b.     Operations (including a 24-hr Watch Center)

c.     Intelligence/Surveillance (all domains: land, air, sea, space, cyberspace and nanospace)

d.     Logistics

e.     Personnel

f.      Planning and Strategy (UNSAC General Staff)

 

5.     UNIFORCE incorporates more than just Quantum Corps.  Other UNIFORCE enforcement organizations include Cyber Corps, and the various Security Corps (UNILAND, UNISEA, and Frontier Corps…once called UNISPACE).  Each of these commands has UN enforcement and security responsibilities for its associated domain. 

6.     UNIFORCE Staff and Departments

a.     Office of UNSAC (the UN Commissioner of Security Affairs; reports to Security Council directly).  UNSAC has overall oversight, command and management responsibility for UNIFORCE security operations and mandate enforcement.

b.     Office of the Director-General (the DG is head of the General Staff and UNSAC’s principle advisor)(also main liaison between Corps-level commands and UNSAC)

7.     Corps-level Commands and Missions (UNQC, Cyber Corps, Frontier Corps, etc)

8.     The QG has some unique facilities that UNIFORCE uses to execute its responsibilities.  Among them are:

a.     Containment vaults – secure isolation facilities for containing, operating, experimenting with and analyzing nanoscale robotic devices and systems.  ANAD-style nanobots and adversary systems can be safely housed in the QG’s containment center.  There are similarities with CDC’s Level 4 Biosafety protocols at this facility.  If the worst happens, the containment vaults contain multiple layers of defense systems: electron-beam injectors, High-Energy Radio Frequency beams (HERF) and magnetic impulse projectors to make sure nothing really nasty escapes containment.  But what could possibly go wrong….?

b.     Memory tracing/interrogation center – one of the not-very-nice developments that ANAD technology has made possible is the ability to insert a small bot into your brain (you’re under anesthetic hopefully) and direct ANAD to sniff out chemical pathways of glutamate concentration in your brain.  Glutamate is a key neurotransmitter involved in memory formation.  When this parlor trick works right, ANAD can re-construct crude renditions of the visual, auditory or haptic stimuli that created the pathway…in another words, the device can reconstruct a memory trace.  While questionable legally and ethically, there are times in the Tales of the Quantum Corps that this technique becomes useful and necessary.  Again, what could possibly go wrong….?  The QG has all the facilities and technicians needed to do this. 

c.     The brig (a MOB center) – individuals who must be incarcerated (awaiting trials, memory tracing or other forms of questioning and those awaiting transport to other facilities) are held in the QG brig.  It’s not like a county jail.  Each cell is secured with a mobility obstruction barrier (MOB) in addition to the standard jail-type barriers.  The MOB system is a mesh of active nanobotic elements that can be commanded to form any type of enclosure, to restrict mobility and prevent escape.  Brig cells are enclosed and have doors and bars, just like any prison cell, but they are also loaded with active MOB, which can be used to secure any recalcitrant prisoner into any position, even down to fetal position or coffin-sized shapes, when so commanded.  The prison cell is almost like a living thing; make any unauthorized movements or actions and the MOB system acts to prevent anything further.  You can find yourself secured inside a suffocating cocoon. 

d.     The QG also houses an underground geoplane transit station and tunnel from QG Paris to the Atlantic coast (near site of WWII St Nazaire U-boat pens).  This station permits personnel, notably UNSAC and senior command staff, to board a geoplane for underground routing and covert transport to Haven-One, the seabed alternate command post located on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred kilometers south of the Azores.  Of course, geoplanes can transport personnel and cargo to any place on Earth, given enough time, but usually they’re used for short-range trips.  It’s a bit slow, pile-driving through solid rock with a nanobotic borer head at the front end.  Geoplanes can operate at several thousand meters depth into the Earth’s crust and show up in several stories of Tales of the Quantum Corps.  The Quartier General has a geoplane station and garage for use by command staff and designated personnel, in the event UNIFORCE headquarters is compromised in any way. 

9.     This concludes our short look at the Quartier-General, headquarters of UNIFORCE in Paris.

 

The next post, coming in early January 2016, will detail one of the more intriguing pieces of gear used by nanotroopers of the Quantum Corps…their boosted, armored exoskeleton suits known as hypersuits.

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season this December and I’ll see you in the new year.

November 2015, Farside Part II

Due to technical difficulties, I failed to post a layout diagram of the Farside Complex in the last post.  Here is the diagram:

Details are described in the previous post, Farside Part I.

This completes our tour of Farside.  As I said in the previous post, the next post in early December will cover another key facility that plays a big role in the stories of the Tales of the Quantum Corps.  This is the Quartier-General, in Paris.  The Q-G is UNIFORCE headquarters. 

 

See you in December.

November 2015 Post  Farside, Part I

In this post, we look at one of the more important facilities used in the Tales of the Quantum Corps.  It’s the Farside complex, at Korolev Crater on the far side of the Moon.  The complex is run by Frontier Corps, a UNIFORCE agency that is co-equal with Quantum Corps and often conducts joint missions. 

Just to set the stage, Korolev Crater is about 430 kilometers wide and lies near the Moon’s equator on the far side.   The Farside complex is located here, as shown in the image below.

 

Farside is operated by Frontier Corps and has two main tenants: SpaceGuard Center and the Observatory Center. 

SpaceGuard is a defensive network of sensors and detection systems that range across the entire breadth of the solar system, looking for anything out of the ordinary.  They catalogue asteroids and comets that threaten human habitats, stations and settlements, from the Jupiter system to the inner system, including Earth.  They also operate remote sentinel stations in key locations around the solar system, such as the Europa Eye satellite in orbit around Europa, put in place after the Great Rift Zone case to keep an eye on the Europan Keeper.  SpaceGuard’s mission is to know where everybody is at all times and to provide alerts when something changes.

The Observatory Center is also run by Frontier Corps.  It contains radar, optical and infrared telescopes, mass spectrometers, radio telescopes, and a variety of other devices to conduct astronomical research within the solar system and across the galaxy.  The work of the Observatory is predominantly research, although they do have a supporting mission to assist SpaceGuard Center as needed.

The Farside complex itself is home to over fifty personnel, ranging from astronomers and cosmologists, to engineers and technicians and system operators, command staff, even a few robotic bartenders for the habitat spaces.  Most of the complex itself is buried under a few meters of lunar regolith for radiation protection.  The domes have several levels and there are three main elements, called wings: Galileo Wing, Kepler Wing and Newton Wing.  A fourth compound, to be known as DaVinci Wing, is under construction. 

Let’s look at the elements that make up Farside.

1.     Three shuttle and ferry landing pads occupy ground a kilometer or so to the northwest of the main facility.  The telescope arrays are also located to the northeast, connected by wireways and buried access tunnels, to make servicing and maintenance a bit easier.  Many of the scopes and arrays are operated remotely from Newton Wing’s SpaceGuard Center.

2.     Southwest of the main compound, a small nuclear power plant, well shielded, provides multi-megawatt power for night time operations, augmented by a huge array of solar photovoltaic panels for daytime power.  Again, there are buried wireways, power cables and access tunnels.

3.     Galileo Wing contains offices for UNISPACE and Frontier Corps command staff.  There is also a protected and isolated section for ANAD operations, including a containment vault, a foundry for assembling parts and items needed by the base and replicator banks to test out molecular assembly and disassembly ideas and concepts.  Note the crawler garage and airlocks; all wings have this.  Crawlers are pressurized surface mobility vehicles used by personnel to shuttle around the complex above ground and to conduct forays further afield as needed, for science, materials (mainly dirt) and other needed tasks.

4.     Newton Wing contains SpaceGuard Center itself, including mission operations and supporting rooms.  The mission of SpaceGuard is critical so there are plenty of backups and redundant systems for everything.  About half the instruments located in the array fields are operated by SpaceGuard Center. 

5.     Kepler Wing is where most of the base personnel live and hang out when not on duty.  This wing contains the berthing spaces, the wardroom and mess facilities (café and lounge) and the canteen, which is currently done up to resemble a South Seas beachside cantina.  The Locals call is ‘Fiji Island Lagoon’ and it’s said that the robo-bartenders can mix up anything, including a mean daiquiri.  All personnel have individual rooms, though calling them rooms might be a stretch.  Perhaps ‘closet’ would be better. Farside operates on an Earthside duty schedule, which means three shifts over every 24 hours. 

6.     DaVinci Wing is the newest wing and, when finished, will house more hab spaces, staff facilities and labs for the Observatory crew.

 

This completes our quick tour of Farside. I'll put the layout diagram of Farside in a following post. The next post in early December will cover another key facility that plays a big role in the stories of the Tales of the Quantum Corps.  This is the Quartier-General, in Paris.  The Q-G is UNIFORCE headquarters. 

 

See you in December.