Characters > Augs

Since the introduction of IRIS so many years ago, many enhancements have been made to it, though the most potent of all these was actually unintended. As an intuitive system, IRIS gained an ever increasing ability to assess its host's strengths, weaknesses and requirements, eventually making the system able to adapt itself autonomously over time. Users of the time began to report that their “standard issue” integration seemed to be developing increased capabilities entirely on its own. Pleased with the progress, the development team did all they could to enhance this ability even further. At one point, however, the results returned far in excess of anything they could have anticipated. After a long tour of combat, one of the more receptive test personnel came back with a story of how he had been caught in a building by enemy combatants with nothing but a knife. He reported often using close combat where circumstances allowed, since his mission was primarily reconnaissance and this minimised risk of detection. In this case however, after attacking one enemy, his weapon became lodged in the target's body and he was having difficulty recovering it. During this struggle another enemy appeared to investigate. Disarmed and in a confined space he made a desperate, empty-handed leap onto the second target only to be blinded by a massive electrical discharge which left the victim burned beyond recognition and undoubtedly dead, while the soldier himself remained entirely unharmed. Further study of the soldier's body revealed a dense formation of IRIS nanites clustered in his hands and arms which was structured for electrical capacitance and could store up an impressive charge by drawing from the body's own natural activities. The IRIS had also laced the skin of his entire body with metallic filaments almost too small to see; literally “evolving” the soldier a lightning touch. It would seem that his repeated use of close combat had “taught” the IRIS what enhancements would be beneficial for his survival and it had adapted accordingly, but not in a way any human could on their own. After realizing this outcome was possible, the development team discovered countless other examples of IRIS-based augmentations, or, “Augs” in their subjects, ranging from utility to lethality. These have become a highly regulated personal enhancement, leaving very little to old legends of “super powers”: they have become a modern reality.