Day #280 - Roger R Robertson

3R Snr was a man that was born for business, he had no time for anything else, cheese was his whole life.

When he reached his 40s he realised there was a hole in his life, his legacy. Sure 3R cheeses was massive but who would look after it once he was gone?

So he made a trip.

In a secret laboratory in Rio de Janeiro, well actually it's a secret laboratory behind a Capoeira Gym, Dr Jairo Santos was a geneticist, but his speciality was the most illegal kind on earth. Only people with extreme wealth could afford his services.

Within 3 weeks Robert was 'born', to get around certain laws the only clones that were created were newborns and fake papers were drawn up and they were legally classed as adoptions.

Everybody knew that this occurred but the wealthy would pay for it to be covered up.

Unfortunately the cloning technique that was used wasn't with issues.

As Robert had no mother he lacked the love that a mother could give and although Roger would spend all of his spare time with Robert he still had a huge conglomerate to run.

Robert was pretty much raised by his Nanny and his X-Ing LD.

Roger was devastated when Robert ceased but he saw it as another blip on the 3R cheeses road, he knew he had to have an heir so he went back to Brazil the day after the funeral to have another Robert made.

He knew the business needed an heir.

Day #279 - Robert R Robertson

Robert was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he lacked the self confidence the wealthy normally excrete.

Robert was extremely introverted but he was the sole heir to the Family Robertson fortune, the family fortune was vast actually, the 4th largest in the known world and the 2nd largest Swiss fortune, behind Victorinox. The family fortune is due to their 3R Cheese range, the greatest cheese in the world, actually one of the few that is still made and not synthesised.

Robert's father Roger R Robertson loved him like nothing else so when the X-Ing LD was released Roger had to buy one for his little 3R.

3R and 'Robbie R Robotson' (the name he gave his X-Ing LD) became instant friends, the alignment procedure completed when you first initiate the android meant that 3R and Robbie would remain together until the day one of them ceased to exist.

3R was always a target for kidnappers, due to his high profile but thankfully his shyness kept him out of the public eye for the most part and it would be times like during the annual cheesefest that he would venture out into the general public. Robbie would be on high alert but Robert would be completely oblivious to his surroundings. He would sit there not making eye contact with anyone until the ceremonies had completed then he would just quietly slip out the back into his private car and head back to the palace (anybody who was anybody in Switzerland had a palace).

This year, the ceremonies had just completed and Robert slipped out the back to his awaiting vehicle but his vehicle wasn't there, instead there was a young Austrian Socialist standing there with a rail gun, he let go of one round, in a flash Robbie had positioned himself between the assailant and Robert, he took the round in the left shoulder which removed it clean off, then remembering the rules in his BIOS he removed the gun from the assailant, although he couldn't harm the assailant he was able to destroy the gun. The assailant had other weapons and each time he drew one Robbie disarmed him, when he then flung his self in Robert's direction Robbie simply rendered him unconscious.

Robert called for the backup car which whisked them away, all of the action though was too much for Robbie and the loss of limb meant that he had lost his important coolant and overheated on the way back to the palace. Robbie was fried. Robert was heartbroken, he became a hermit and mourned for Robbie, he refused to eat and eventually withered away till he himself overheated, lost his coolant and expired.

Roger was beside himself.

Day #278 - Wan Long Dong

unlike his name suggests he was not well endowed in the trouser department but instead Wan was endowed with an amazing brain, he excelled in the academic world. He was a real self starter and unlike his brother was self driven.

His life was uneventful really, he did well at studies, didn't get into any trouble and had invented many things, including the X-Ing LD a new type of artificial intelligent combat training robot. He was lucky that his brother had been so knowledgeable and a willing participant but that was only for the base operating system within the robot as it was truly an AI, well, by truly it still had so rules hardcoded into which it could not break, Wan had to put these in as one example would be the 'due force' code, it simply meant that the robot would only apply enough pressure for the victim to feel the pain but not be permanently harmed. Wan had to include this rule as when testing the prototype model it pulled Wan's left hand straight off his wrist.

the X-Ing LD was a huge success, obviously only the high income earners or conglomerates could afford these devices but it was a great investment, the X-Ing LD had a life of approximately 10 years although this could be extended to 15 or even 20 with proper servicing. As Wan was a businessman he put a safeguard rule into the robots, the day they turned 20 they wiped their memory banks and shut down for good. The general public don't know the rules Wan set in the robots, although he did release the documented rules in the press release, obviously the ancient Asimov 3 Laws of Robotics had a presence although they were slightly modified.

All of the major syndicates purchase a constant stream of the X-Ing LD as it works great as a teacher and a bodyguard, many lives have been saved by this robot.

Robert R Robertson is one such case.

Day #277 - Abbot Xing Lin Dong

Xing Lin Dong had a different path to Abbot-hood than most Abbots before him, you see, Xing Lin Dong didn't enter the monastery until his late teens, he actually entered the monastery seeking asylum, after 4 years he realised he would never leave again, the monastery offered him that which he had never had in his life, structure and order. Unlike his brother Wan Long Dong the great inventor and scientist, Xing Lin Dong was always on the run from the authorities and always in some sort of trouble.When he'd crossed the local triad boss he knew the only place he'd survive would be the temple. So he fled there.

Wan Long Dong was an amazing pupil, so passionate and committed but most of all naturally gifted. After 2 years he'd already progressed to "Blood Monkey Master" a rank which would normally take a decade to reach. He progressed this way in every discipline and after 8 years was the highest decorated monk, studying was in his genetic make up, his brother was world renowned for his abilities and soon Xin Lin Dong would be too.

In his 12th year in the monastery Xin Lin Dong was appointed Abbot, the head of the monastery after the untimely death of his predecessor.

Xin Lin Dong's bravado would open the temple for outsiders to have the ability to learn his teachings so long as they proved themselves worthy.

His brother Mo-capped his fighting style and used the captures in the OS for his "fighting monkey" combot, a personal training android for use at home. It would become a best seller.

Day #276 - Morten Magnusson

All his life all Morten wanted to be was a warrior, like father before him and father before him.

In fact, Morten was bred to be a warrior, genetic splicing and manipulation had made Morten the perfect warrior, he was tall, fast, nimble and as strong as a horse.

An insatiable hunger for victory no matter the consequences.

In fact in his teenage years, in search for becoming an even greater fighter than what he was destined to become he went out into the wilderness to hone his skills, already able to live off the land he went on a crusade, his mission was to travel from Norway by foot to learn from the famous Shaolin Monks, it took him two years to get to his destination, he travelled through IKEA (formerly Sweden) and then across NOKIA 2 (the former Finnish republic) and then into the rugged lands of the former Federation of Russia which now were a barren post nuclear wasteland. He then travelled south through 4 Stans then across into the most densely populated country in the world, ICC (which now stood for Indian Cricket Country), over 4 billion people lived there and there was immense poverty and crime, Morten would spend almost a year crossing ICC becoming an expert in Kushti on the way, he was an amazing grappler. Finally he headed north through Nepal (the richest state outside of vatican city) and finally into China proper.

Morten studied under Abbot Xing Lin Dong at the Shaolin Temple for 3 years, he mastered Da Hong Quan (Big flood fist), Liu He Quan (Six harmonies fist) Qixing Quan (Seven star fist) and Qi Lu Quan (Seven animal fist). He became adept at Dan Dao (Single Sabre) and Long (Dragon technique).

After this Morten travelled back to Norway and entered Ny-Norsk. He quickly worked his way up the ranks to the position of Lenndman, from here he was able to lead an entire regiment in sorties.

Morten was entrusted to lead Ny-Norsk across the seas an to setup base in the US, unlike the other militia groups that operated there Ny-Norsk would not seek land or a base but purely be available to the highest bidder. As it turned out the highest bidders were almost always politicians as they had the largest disposable income.

After the "Assassination" of Senator Saunders Morten returned to his homeland awaiting their next engagement as their current contract was null and void once Mart was gone.

Day #275 - The Viking Senator

If you are in politics, it’s known you are bad-ass and have an army at your beckon call, whether that be the Chems of the Newppies, the Mafia, the Yakuza (now defunct), the NEWSAMs, or the USSF or a group of Mercenaries.

Mart as his name suggests can trace his ancestry to the Norsemen, his army are the most feared in the melee arena, the true strongest men on earth. Ny·norsk as they refer to themselves have retained the ancient genetic make up of the Vikings and are so ruggedly adaptable to any terrain they are feared like no other. In fact, if you know they are coming for you and you don’t leave, they’ll wipe every trace of you from the planet. Then get drunk and dance the night away.

Ritualistic killers without remorse or fear.

Morten Magnusson was the leader of Ny·norsk and a close friend of the Nevada Senator so when Mart placed the help call out Morten gladly picked up the reigns. This war would be ugly but that's exactly how Mart wanted it, those swine in the NEWSAM had murdered his only son and they would pay.

The NEWSAMs though were no pushovers, they knew that they couldn't stop Ny·norsk in a ground battle so they retreated to their stronghold in Montana. The NEWSAMs were big, in fact next to the Hindus, Muslims and Catholics they were the 4th largest religious groups around and had easily the biggest band. the NEWSAMs were 25 million strong in the New USA and would be a nasty nemesis but Mart had planned it that way, the Ny·norsk carved through every local branch in the country turning the skeleton staff into skeletons. It took 2 years but they finally had the NEWSAMs isolated to their stronghold in Montana, this is were Mart played his masterstroke. Nuclear Weapons had all but disappeared in the early 2200s so a weapon of mass destruction was out of the question. Mart's cunning knew no boundary, he brokered a peace talk with the NEWSAMs within their stronghold, the deal was that he would come alone, in his capacity as senator he had the ability to enter these negotiations with an element of trust by the NEWSAMs (this was still their only weakness).

Once inside the compound Mart explained to the leaders of the NEWSAM that they would all be extinguished for what they did to him, Mart explained that it was personal and that he himself would take the responsibility of the ultimate revenge. You see, the pin that he wore on his lapel that looked like the insignia of the Nevada Senate was in fact a nano tech GPS locator. Mart had been working with the Newppies for the past 4 months to develop this tech, the Geo Thermal Dynamics farms were at this moment channelling all of their stored energy straight upwards, bouncing that energy across the Newppie satellite network and at the moment Mart said his goodbyes and then pressed the button on his lapel pin all of that energy shot down from space into that massive compound in Montana, in the blink of an eye the entire compound and every soul within it became ash.

Mart had cleverly set it up to make the NEWSAMs seem like they did this to themselves in an act of defiance and therefore lost their religious license in Nth America for committing a political assassination and mass murder.

the NEWSAMs were no longer the 4th largest religious group, in fact they'd dropped out of the top 10 behind the Snow Crash Sumerians and just below the Scientologists.

Buddhism was now 4th.

Day #274 - Steck Saunders

Being raised a Newppie was an interesting livelihood, it meant that instead of the usually subjects of Math, Science, Geography etc you instead learned crop rotation, irrigation, sustainability, seed management and chemical warfare. The Organic weapons the Newppies developed were second to none as the production costs were almost nil and they had a renewable ammunition system. The ‘Cucumber Flute’ was the handgun of the Newppies, I’d love to tell you about it but unfortunately it’s design is a closely guarded secret,all I know is that it’s the more powerful than any other handgun or laser you can get, not until you hit the Rail Guns do you surpass its power. Concussion melons are used to brake structures and the rotten flesh of one ‘hound tomato’ would provide enough noxious gas to elimate all animal life in a 50 metre radius. And these were the basic weapons, the Newppies had been developing these weapons for the last 400-500 years and had them refined to the nth degree.

It was ironic that all the genetically modified foods turned to be bland mush that all tasted the same, this happened around 2150 and the Newppies were the only ones with tasty organic unmodified foods and therefore cornered the market and gained a very much upper hand in society, although they were a registered charity they were clearly not a not for profit organisation, they were asset rich and quite the land owners. But they needed to be, geo-thermal dynamic power plants weren’t cheap to operate, solar farms were expensive to maintain and the security of their seeds and methods were paramount and para-military in their defense.

Steck was born into the order, all he knew was the Newppie way of life, outsiders intrigued him as he did not understand their ways but taught them his anyway.

His mother was a 8^th generation Newppie but his father was a senator for the state of Nevada, therefore as Steck was born as the result of a love-in with the Newppie fundamentalists whilst Steck’s father was an intern with the state office he had to deny any knowledge of his son when he finally made it to office although he passed several bills to allow the Newppies more control over their lands.

Steck’s father, Mart Saunders was brought to power by a campaign funded by the NEWSAMs, passing bills to allow more control to the Newppies was political suicide which he knew but hey, his son was there so he though ‘fuck em’.

He was not to know that his actions and these bill would be the catalyst that the NEWSAMs would use to aggressively wipe out all traces of the Newppies from the state of Nevada.

Mart was pissed.