John Locke
V U L K A N
- Intent: To submit a cybernetic reaction package
- Image Source:
- Canon Link: n/a
- Permissions: N/a
- Primary Source:
- Star Wars
- Real World
- Star Wars
- Manufacturer: Locke and Key Mechanics
- Affiliation: Locke and Key Mechanics
- Market Status: Closed Market
- Model: Hercules Implant
- Modularity: No
- Production: Limited
- Materials:
- Nihil Smokestone
- Duraplast
- Electronics
- Droid Brains
- Heuristic processors
- Chemicals,
- Classification: Neural Booster
- Size: Small
- Weight: Light
- Resistances (Optional): None, internal neural implant only.
- Increases the ability of the brain to process and react to stimuli and data allowing the user to react faster than an unaugmented human.
- Increases the reaction speed of the organic body, allowing for vastly increased reaction times.
- Able to increase the strength used by the organic body, allowing an increased ability for a body to dish out damage.
- Able to disable the body’s natural limiters, allowing for increased strength and speed.
- At its basic level the Hercules Implant is able to increase the users' reaction speed to a level analogous to a Jedi or Sith (Knight level). When operating in high-mode the user’s reaction speed is further increased to a level equivalent to an average Jedi or Sith Master.
- Able to separately increase mental processing speed and physical reaction speed.
- In its basic form the Hercules Implant is able to increase its user’s strength by making more efficient use of the body’s musculature. The implant makes the optimal use of the body in both timing and transmission of instructions to provide a small but noticeable increase in strength. When high-mode is activated the user is able to surpass their normal strength, achieving what might be seen as superhuman feats.
- When the implant is switched into High-Mode the user’s body is flushed with Endomorphins and other painkillers as well as adrenaline allowing them to shrug off injuries and pain that would otherwise stop them in their tracks.
- Using the Hercules to increase the user’s strength or reactions, even in basic mode, can leave them feeling drained and listless afterwards until their body has had time to recover.
- If the Hercules is used to surpass the body’s limits it will cause actual physical hurt to its user damaging their body. Extended use of this function can potentially lead to permanent injury and degradation of the body.
- The electro-reactive fibres threaded through the body leave the user significantly more vulnerable to tasers and electric attacks.
- Although the Hercules doesn’t contain wireless capacity in its own right, if it is physically hacked, or if a user’s connected cybernetics are hacked it can result in the Hercules Implant being used to paralyze and incapacitate the user.
- When High-Mode is engaged the user’s body is flushed with endorphins, which suppresses the pain response of the body meaning it is very possible for the user to injure themselves and not realise it.
- The release of endorphins when the implant is switched into high-mode releases a wave of pleasure through the body. If the user isn’t careful this can create an addiction to combat, or just the activation of the implant.
There are few machines in the galaxy that surpass the potential and complexity of the organic body. Most engineers' creations look crude and ponderous in comparison to it. Locke and Key Mechanics are a galaxy-leading developer of cybernetics, but much of what they do is looking at enhancing the machine that is the organic body, drawing out more of its potential.
The Hercules Implant is the end product of this quest, a cutting-edge implant that allows a user to achieve capabilities that were before only the province of powerful force users who used the force to enhance their bodies.
The technology used in the Hercules is similar to the reaction improving implant that Locke and Key Mechanics had previously created, the Atlanta. However where that implant only allowed you to push your reactions to their natural limit, the Hercules allowed you to push both reactions and strength past what was possible naturally by removing hte limitations the brain naturally imposes on the body.
Building on the Atlanta, the Hercules was designed with two key abilities, the ability to increase reaction speed and strength.
Reaction Speed
In order to increase the reaction speed of the user, the cyberneticists at Locke and Key use their previous work on the Atlanta Implant to:
- Increase the speed with which the brain was able to process and react to information.
- Increase the body’s ability to respond to neural stimuli.
The Brain
In order to stimulate the brain, to enable it to work faster and boost its cognitive abilities nanofibers are threaded into the user's skull. capable of generating targeted magnetic fields within the user’s brain. The fields use magnetic fields to induce a low-level electrical field in the brain, making it easier for neurons to fire, allowing the brain to react and process information faster, as well as alleviating exhaustion and boosting attention.
The Hercules was also designed to flood the brain with Neurotransmitters if necessary, massively increasing the reaction time of the brain and its ability to absorb and process information. However, this was meant as a last-ditch measure, while providing a massive boost, the come down on the other end was equally impressive, liable to knock you or leave you in a stupor while you recover.
It’s not all rosy though, the brain can’t function under the stress of the increased magnetic fields for a long period of time without causing significant damage to the brain. This initially manifests as phosphenes, small rings of light, and leading to various neurological conditions. The greater the strength of the magnetic field generated, the more pronounced the increase in your reactions and the greater risk you find yourself at. Although there are safety features installed in the implant limiting the strength of the field and the duration which it can be kept active, these can be disabled if you so wish.
The Body
Increasing the speed at which the body is capable of reacting is a significantly harder task than improving the ability of the brain to process information and react faster. Although it would be possible to achieve the goal via significant genetic engineering and biological upgrades the engineers at Locke and Key Mechanics chose another way, a cybernetic way. Their approach was 3 fold.
- Neurotransmitters
- Shortening the reaction chain
- Increasing the muscle’s ability to react.
Neurotransmitters
The body is perhaps the most complicated and capable machine in existence and hte engineers at Locke and Key chose to look at it in exactly that way as they attempted to decide how best to improve the reaction system. Their analysis identified one of the primary areas in which slowed the system down was the transmission of pulses between neurons, and so they set about finding ways to shorten it. The ultimate decision was to allow the Hercules to alter the biochemistry of the body ever so slightly around the neuroreceptors, allowing the signal to travel much more quickly over the synaptic gap. In this way, they were able to significantly increase the speed at which the body was able to react. The increased level of neurotransmitters had the side effect of increasing the flow of data and sensation up the nervous system as well, rendering the user significantly more sensitive to stimulus.
Shortening the reaction chain
Another key issue in the system was the distance that impulses had to travel in order to elicit a reaction, which could result in the loss of precious time that could be better put to use dodging attacks and reacting. To aid in the shortening of reaction times the Hercules installed microprocessors in the spine capable of creating the same magnetic fields that were used in the brain to increase the speed at which neural impulses would travel up and down the spine. The implant also contains micro-processors loaded with heuristic algorithms, capable of learning and adapting to the user's fighting style. These processors would allow automated reactions if the option was enabled to put the user in the best place to strike back at their opponent or leave them in the best situation.
Increasing muscles ability to react
The user’s muscles are finally seeded with electroreactive fibres, allowing the muscles to start moving with a much smaller electrical input, meaning that you are literally moving as soon as you think.
Strength
The body has a natural limiting factor when it comes to using its muscles to prevent someone from damaging their own body. The tendons of the muscles can send a signal back to the brain when they are stressed too far, preventing them from causing damage to the body. Although training, both mental and physical, allows you to increase the strength and efficiency of your muscles, there is a limit at which the brain will stop the increase in strength. The body will naturally prevent itself from causing damage, however, it is possible to disable this feedback loop.
By flushing the body with endorphins which will link with opioid receptors in the brain muting the pain response of the body. As such the brain won’t realise when the body’s normal limit is being approached, allowing the muscles to push past hte point where they would normally be stopped, unlocking the full potential of the body’s muscular system to be used.
The implant will also flush the body with Adrenaline, causing the blood vessels to expand and promoting blood flow to the major muscles. This primes the body, allowing muscles to react faster and with more force for longer, which provides benefits to both strength and reaction speed. The main muscles in the body, arms and legs, are also threaded with electro-reactive fibres. While these are primarily meant to help the muscles react faster, they will also increase the strength of the treated muscles.
