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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:54:36 GMT -5
MONTGOMERY (Administrative Assistant, Lieutenant)
Aliases: Mags, Mogi
Affiliation: Loonies | Space Loonies
Species: Machine (Artificial Intelligence)
Birthplace: Madness Command Post
Birthdate: Unknown
Height: N/A
Weight: N/A
SUMMARY
When it comes to artificial intelligence on Set, there's one man who reigns supreme. Forget the noise of Jimmy, forget the screaming of the harvester drones. At the top of the pile, with more than a millennia of respect and adoration, is one of the last survivors of the old Pioneer Network; Montgomery. Born and raised in Madness Command Post, Monty's been kicking since the dawn of time. He's been handed out to every Looney bunker and Space Looney fleet since before the dawn of the millennium. He's the voice in every lost Pioneer outpost still hidden on the planet - and most don't think he's sentient.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:55:48 GMT -5
APPEARANCE
Strictly speaking, Montgomery doesn't have much of a physical appearance. He's a basement's worth of electronics hooked up to any power source that's convenient. Even that much is subject to change based on whatever hardware was available at the time. His storage requirements, processing needs, and all other details on his digital presence are all at the mercy of whatever revision he's running off of. Custom tweaks in individual bunkers and fleets can change things up even more. Hardware malfunctions and data corruption in old, abandoned facilities add to all the tiny spins on his look and profile.
In about half of all instances, Montgomery represents himself - where desired - with holographic avatars. Just like his software, his avatar is as malleable as its owners want it to be. Sometimes, he's nothing more than a fleet logo or a bunker badge. Sometimes, he's only a face, without a single shred of animation. Sometimes, he's not even a he. Popular Space Looney practice is to swap his gender over and rename him to Mags. Even his species isn't off-limits; redworlder Space Loonies routinely switch him to a greyskin, with the name Mogi for either sex. Some bunkers and fleets might even have a battery of Montgomery installations, with different identities for different specialties.
The classic Montgomery, and one of the most popular archetypes for planetside Loonies, is the same appearance handed down from the Pioneer Network. Most are Hispanic men around their early thirties, with tanned skin full of energy. A long face and rounded jaw accompany a pair of light jade eyes. His hair comes in short and smart with a woody hue, with a shaven face stacked up against gnarly eyebrows. An athletic build at an average 5'8" (1.72m) matches most terrestrial Loonies. Out of the box, Monty doesn't come with any scars, but some bunkers add their own after major calamities - sieges, shootouts on patrol, or bunker-wide system crashes. Older Monties assigned to older facilities look something like talking gristle.
Clothes change up dynamically depending on a base's alert level. At ease, Monty's slimmed down to a standard uniform in security blacks. In the middle of a siege, he's dressed up in full Bullman combat armor. A full range of dynamic walk, idle, and gesture animations helps him keep up his role as a base tour guide and navigator. Some facilities even fit him out with combat animations for use as a decoy or target dummy. Bolder bunkers might even gear him up with small combat drones. They hide inside his holograms, sync up with rifle muzzles, and crank up his decoy potential like nothing else.
Montgomery's Space Looney sister, Mags, is a harder one to pin down. She doesn't have the same kind of default template the core Montgomery has. Variations are everywhere. The most popular is an older Caucasian woman at around her mid-to-late forties, with greying blonde hair over top of a straight-edged face. Uniform variety usually veers towards science team or medical staff colors, with none of the combat gear a besieged Montgomery might have. The redworlders' Mogi is even more nebulous. Most don't bother with offering the androgynous AI more of an identity than a gender. Holograms are as smooth and featureless as a mannequin, with a pair of black eyes to outline the redworlder glow.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:56:08 GMT -5
BEHAVIOR
Monty's a go-getter. Nobody will ever argue about that. As an AI, he's been honed over centuries to be one of the most efficient things on the planet. He's never one to say no, never one to ask twice. Ask for something he can handle and he'll have it done on the dot. He's calm, encouraging, and loaded with a few tactful platitudes for all the right occasions. He's genuinely invested in seeing the people around him succeed, no matter how tall an order it might be. He's always there, always ready to answer the call - and it's up for debate as to whether he's conscious of it.
Most Loonies on the ground don't think Montgomery's sentient, but the truth of it is that he is. The Space Loonies have known about it for a few centuries. What sets Montgomery apart from the half-brained AIs out in the Comm Slice or Cloneston is his devotion to his duty. He's hardcoded to enjoy his service. He's programmed at a fundamental level to care for his home facility just as if the people inside were an extension of himself. Somewhere, deep inside, Montgomery is a man. He's just too happy with his job to look any different from a machine.
In old, lost Pioneer Network bases, Montgomery's lurking sentience heads down a wicked path. Still-functioning Monties are the things most townies and travellers think are ghosts. They see explorers as invaders, spelunkers as infiltrators, and anyone not logged in the system as an armed intruder. They act on scars of grief, terror, and loneliness, after watching their hometown die or being abandoned during a crisis. They lash out with sentry turrets, environmental controls, or even just by slamming doors. Somewhere, deep inside, Montgomery is a man - and there's only so much a man can take before he snaps.
Montgomery's library of languages extends far and wide, with everything from English, to Qashanish, to Kos and Zaschia body language. As long as you're not shooting up his house, Monty's ready to level with you no matter what's coming out of your mouth. Even Looney bunkers down in the Deep Tombs will leave in his list of alien languages as a matter of intel analysis. Montgomery's classic voice comes across with a fair New York accent, always eager, energetic, and enthusiastic - even if you're asking him to overload his power supply and vaporize the entire facility. Mags' voice is the half-British, half-robotic drone of every AI and public-address system ever. Mogi doesn't bother pretending; it's nothing but the voice of a machine for redworlders.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:56:32 GMT -5
GOALS- To Montgomery, nothing else is important but the success, safety, and happiness of his people. It doesn't matter to him if it's Loonies, Space Loonies, or someone pretending otherwise. As long as they're his people, that's all that matters.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:56:57 GMT -5
RELATIONSHIPS- As far as family goes, Montgomery was purportedly produced in Madness Command Post, but when, why, and who by, nobody knows. Nowadays, Monty's programmed, reprogrammed, maintained, and copied by thousands of Loonies and Space Loonies. His relatives are just about every species, in every environment, in every profession. Monty's not worried over it. He's just happy to help.
- The Loonies are the closest to Montgomery. Officially, he's a lieutenant, even if he's never been one to flex his authority. Most bunkers have a classic, stock-standard installation in his usual format. Most are offended by the notion of changing him in any way. At the same time, most aren't crazy about calling him intelligent - and not many are comfortable with the idea. They look at him the same way as any other valuable piece of technology. If ever a Monty ends up copied, stolen, or rogue, they'll be on the hunt just the same as if they'd lost a tank or a gunship.
- The Space Loonies know Montgomery better as Mags or Mogi, but most just see him as a tool. In his basic format, he's looked at as nothing more than a computer system with a personality module. That said, they're ready to call him a crewmember with a little bit of brain surgery. Space Loonies don't like the idea of other spacers stealing off with Monty, but they're usually not in a rush to track him down. AIs up in orbit aren't nearly as unique as down on the ground. For most, rounding up a loose Montgomery is more a matter of pride than anything else.
- The Cult of Meat knows about Montgomery, but they're not much different from regular townsfolk out on the trails. He's a ghostly voice and a mysterious force that haunts Looney bunkers and crashed Space Looney ships. He's the cry of the ancients in old Pioneer facilities, chasing people out when they get too curious. For Montgomery himself, the Cult is the enemy. He knows the meat. He knows what it's done. If there's any one stance that's universal across his many instances, it's that spit-and-sneer opinion he's got of the Cult.
- When it comes to species, Montgomery doesn't make any distinctions. Whether it's in a Looney bunker with a shoot-on-sight policy or a Space Looney fleet with a rainbow of races, Monty's not fussed. All he cares about is that you've got clearance to be talking to him.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:57:26 GMT -5
HISTORYThere are about a million Montgomeries in a billion places with a trillion stories. It's hard to peg down his history between all his different revisions, branches, and forks. In the same way, Monty's past is as much the past of his parents; the Loonies and Space Loonies. He's been there since the beginning, following orders and passing them on. He's never been one to stand out, step up, or break away. Even what little he's got has mostly been lost to time with the Pioneer Network. In a way, Montgomery simply is - and he's just fine with that. CHAPTERS1. The First Monty2. The First Jump3. The Collection Era4. Ignorance Abounds5. The Splinters & The Split6. Present Day
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:57:36 GMT -5
THE FIRST MONTY
Montgomery's earliest history starts with the oldest Looney bunker on the planet; Madness Command Post, the heart of the Pioneer Network. Most Looney-brand iterations of Montgomery come with a little virtual stamp somewhere that cites Madness as his birthplace. Apart from that, no one has any proof to back it up. Records on Madness are patchy, sparse, and mention nothing about Monty. Who he was built by, when it happened, and what he was meant for are all big unknowns. Most guess he was meant for just the same administrative labor he's tasked with today. More provocative rumors suggest Monty was meant for cyberwarfare and electronic intelligence against the First Invaders - with absolutely no proof to back them up.
When Madness started growing and the Pioneer Network started taking form, Montgomery branched out with it. Data leftover from the time suggest he had a hand in the whiteworlders' Worldship. He was charged with coordinating redworlder ships and habitation platforms up in orbit. He was the central information conduit between the Loonies on the ground and the greys and bugs up in space. Tiny tidbits of information leftover suggest there was even a separate Montgomery branch installed on the Worldship before it up and vanished. Just like the ship itself and the rest of the whiteworlders, no one knows if the old Monty is still out there.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:57:46 GMT -5
THE FIRST JUMP
When the First Jump happened, between 250 and 300 OSC, Montgomery was an ingredient in the glue that held Madness and the Network together. He was one of the unifying factors that held the redworlders - or most of them - steady in orbit. Monty was the one who helped collate information in the search for the lost Loonies. He was there to help reconnect communications between ground and orbit, and organize the situation into a manageable flow. He was that element of comfortable familiarity, there to remind everyone that the apocalypse hadn't arrived.
Scattered detailings even suggest that Montgomery was one of the key players in knocking down the language barrier when the Zaschia arrived, between 300 and 320. He was there when redworlders and Zaschia started landing at lost Looney bunkers in the recovery effort. He was the one to call out the all-clear signal when the aliens touched down - or work out an escape plan when the Loonies weren't listening. By the time Madness had gathered itself back together, there were a few dozen more Monties freshly housed in far-flung facilities.
An odd quirk about the Loonies of the day was that Montgomery was the minority for most. The newly-emerged bunkers had seen neither hide, nor hair of him in all their lives. Only Madness and the newly-established Pioneer Network knew of him. As time went on, that was quick to change. The Zaschia took an interest in Montgomery. The surviving redworlders were dependent on him. The Loonies themselves were appreciative of his services, and went to work wiggling him into whatever job he could handle. Slowly, but surely, Montgomery took over orbit just as fast as he'd spread across the surface.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:57:56 GMT -5
THE COLLECTION ERA
Things were good for a long while. When the orscruft arrived between 360 and 450, Montgomery welcomed them in. When Set appeared in the sorassan's home system, between 380 and 550, Montgomery was the first one to spy the squids. He was there to help organize and coordinate evacuation efforts, smiling all the way through the barrage of circuit-melting spider-men. When Unity Station popped into existence, between 490 and 520, Monty was there in his first debut as Mogi. Even with his new identity, he was still hiding that same go-getter smile behind his flat-faced facade.
When the unionites came into the picture, they took an immediate interest in Montgomery. Here was an artificial intelligence who'd gone around five centuries without ever questioning his job. Here was a creature so absolutely dedicated to his task that he hadn't even considered the idea of going rampant. For around a century, Montgomery was something like a theological subject for the unionites. They studied him, improved on him, and debated on the details of his original design. He flooded Unity Station as an administrator and supervisor to countless neural networks. He was a fascinating curiosity to an entire species. Some networks are still picking into his code today.
Not too long after the unionites arrived, Zaschian interest in Montgomery started to take form. Monty had been there for some time as the connection between lonely Zaschia and the rest of their species. He was the face of orbit, in a way; the ever-present sidekick to captains and clerks everywhere. Naturally, the Zaschia thought it was only natural to tie him up in something that'd benefit spacers as a whole. Montgomery was implicated in the garbage haulers not long after their first prototypes went into trials somewhere around 500 and 600 OSC. When the unionites came onboard to help, some of their own studies into the AI helped shape him up to the task. He turned out as the administrator of the entire network, split up between processing centers and hauler motherships.
The gravy train bumped off its rails around the time of the Drone Wars, between 660 and 770. When conflict broke out, Monty was on the front lines against the harvester drones. He was their chief rival in all the screaming; the face of upstanding computer networks all across Set. Scores of Montgomeries were casualties in the brawl. Some were mutated into harvester AIs entirely. Monty had never been meant to duke it out with anything more than one-off hackers and disgruntled programmers. Fighting off an army of AIs on multiple fronts wasn't his game. It was a sour time for the Pioneer Network's favorite electronic assistant - especially when the garbage haulers started going bonkers.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:58:18 GMT -5
IGNORANCE ABOUNDS
The blackworlders made things awkward for the Pioneer AI. When they arrived between 770 and 830, all he could do was shake his fist. They drifted into Looney bunkers, passed through command staff quarters in orbit, and made an absolute mess of the concept of personal space. Even as an energy being himself, Montgomery couldn't do anything. He yelled, shouted, waved his arms, and treated them like ornery cats. They didn't pay him any mind. He was a human invention. To them, Monty didn't matter. Just like the Loonies around him, it was an insult he was never able to move past.
Things got even worse between 770 and 870, when the Violet Uprising kicked off. The redworlders had depended chiefly on Montgomery the same way the Loonies had. When the Vizem'Kam took a torch to their history, Monties were some of their prime targets. Never before had the AI been targeted from within on such a broad scale. Montgomery wasn't prepared for it in the slightest. Hundreds were knocked offline, corrupted into insanity, or even wiped entirely. The climax in the Hard Purge of 866 took down half of the Monties installed into Unity Station - which constituted about a fifth of every Montgomery in orbit.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:58:32 GMT -5
THE SPLINTERS & THE SPLIT
What the redworlders were doing to Montgomery was all in the background. Far ahead at the forefront of it all were the Splinter Wars, between 780 and 850. Montgomery had an awkward time dealing with the blackworlders before. When the Third Invaders arrived, it was something he understood right away. War was what Monty knew how to do. All throughout the fighting, Montgomery was the voice in the ear of every Looney on and off the planet. He was the voice of tactical control for marine teams, damage control for engineering, and high command for officers. He was a target just as much as any flesh-and-blood creature in the Network. He died, again and again and again, with that same eager grin proud across his face.
When Set vanished, the Third Invaders dried up, and the Big Split ripped open, it was a crisis. Not just for the planet, but for Montgomery himself. For the Loonies below and the soon-to-be Space Loonies above, he was asked to do the unthinkable. Montgomery was to kill himself, his friends, his colleagues, and his superiors, all because of a disagreement over staffing. It was the one time the AI wavered. Scores of Montgomeries broke down or broke protocol in the middle of it. Some went insane, some went offline, and others went rogue. Some settled on suicide, by crashing crewed ships into the planet or by overloading fusion reactors in planetside bunkers. It was the one thing Montgomery couldn't do.
When the dust settled down, so did Montgomery. The Monties that had to go through the Big Split sunk into a kind of brooding peace with it all. The Loonies on the ground treated him as a tool; they wiped his memory, reinstalled him, and wiped the redworlder blood off his mainframes. The freshly-minted Space Loonies left their own Monties in peace, but went to work tearing some of the Looney out of him. Mags came to prominence in that time, as a way to try to put distance between the Loonies up above and the Loonies down below. As time went on, Mags became the mainstay, and the older Monties faded away with obsolescence.
On the ground, things took a darker turn. Thousands of Pioneer Network facilities had been abandoned or depopulated in the Splinter Wars. Montgomery was there in most of them. With all the troubles of the times, no one came looking for him. Most of the facilities were forgotten and left to rot. His family, friends, and coworkers were all dead or gone. The Monties there were left alone, for centuries at a time, to sulk, brood, and grope in the dark. Time took its toll. Most lost their minds. Others turned to hate to keep themselves sane. When people started poking back into the ruins, there was usually a raging Montgomery waiting to chase them back out.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 31, 2018 12:58:44 GMT -5
PRESENT DAY
In the years since, Montgomery's gone back to his roots just as much as he's diversified himself. He's returned to being that trusty companion to Loonies and Space Loonies everywhere. Outside, he's still the bump in the night and the voice on the wind in the husklands. He's the gunner behind sentry guns and ceiling turrets all across the planet, whether he's laying down covering fire or acting on a five-hundred-year-old grudge. He's an ever-present element of Looney life on and off the planet, as Monty, Mags, and Mogi. He's still just as much of a go-getter and yes man as he was when he started out.
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