The Metal Ascendancy Project was a special division of the Warfare Development branch of The Forge. It was also used as the name of a group of full conversion cyborgs that fought for the Greens.

During the war between the Greens and the Nepleslian Reds scientists would select certain soldiers that had been severely injured in conflict. Using a specific criteria the soldiers would come from both sides of the conflict since The Forge was based in neutral territory. These soldiers were all highly experienced from much combat and survived extreme situations of life and death. They were also prone to eccentric styles of thinking that was unlike the rest of the population.

These handpicked soldiers were outfitted with fully converted cybernetic bodies and abilities beyond that of regular cybernetics. The bodies were completely replaced except for most of the brain. Reproductive organs and matter was preserved as part of standard policy to lessen the strain of the subject being cut off from humanity. Other parts were preserved at the subject's request. Because of the way these soldiers thought they were able to better utilize their new bodies than a standard soldier with implants and augmentations. The scientists were especially facinated by the higher levels of awareness the cyborgs seemed to possess. Some cyborgs had achieved levels of awareness so extreme that they could literally control two seperate bodies simultaneously.

Many of these soldiers would fight against each other since they would return to whichever side they had originally been selected from. As technology advanced the soldiers that continued to survive the war would strive to advance their bodies. Over time the soldiers that were part of this project became independant of the Greens and Nepleslian Reds. At first there were only two groups depending on which side they fought for. One group named itself after the project and continued to fight on a contractual basis for the Greens. Another group, calling itself the Angel Returners continued to fight for the Nepleslian Reds. Coincidentally the majority of the soldiers that had taken part in this project became part of these groups. Almost none remained attached to their former sides as they were originally. Eventually these two groups sought even more independance and stopped being associated with their side.

While the project continued, there were more full conversion cyborgs being fielded. Each group would try to recruit from these newly casted cyborgs as well as scout potential subjects for The Forge to use. Some cyborgs refused to join either established faction and became their own, eventually leading to the formation of the Mistic Metals and the Kashmere Korrupts. The members of the Metal Ascendancy began to try and unify all the different groups under the pretense of seeking out a way to finally end this extensive war between the Nepleslian Reds and the Greens. This led to extensive fighting between the cyborgs both on and off the battlefield. In the end the Metal Ascendancy reformed into The Irregulars and succeeded in gathering all cyborgs involved in the Metal Ascendancy Project. Those who didn't had already fought to the death.

All throughout this time the scientists and research division of the project continued to make breakthroughs and advancements. Many of the scientists had become so devoted to this research that they themselves had converted over to full cyborgs as well in order to better understand and experiment. While they continued to work to meet the profit margins of the company side of the house, for all intent and purposes, the R&D side aided each cyborg beyond just customers. Each time the cyborgs needed to advance their body to keep up with the technological race The Forge would provide their services free of charge. It was something of a fair exchange given that they would field experimental cybernetics and weaponry.

The cyborgs of the project would at times work closely with the scientists to specially customize their bodies as well as develop the weapon systems they would use. As a result the cyborgs of The Irregulars became even more specialized apart from the generic full conversion cyborgs that used stock parts. The scientists also researched into the phenomena of the human condition after long term effects of being fully converted into a cyborg. They noted that their bodies were no longer using the same Operating System software that the cybernetics had originally been using. Rather their own brains had subconciously rewritten every line of code used within their bodies. Everytime a new piece of hardware and software was applied to their body the code was immediately rewritten and adapted into the subject body's unique programming. Another discovery was their ability to communicate with each other by sending signals to each other through electrical impulses. These impulses could not be deciphered as they had unique codes that matched their own bodies machine harmonic frequency. The only way the code could be deciphered was if the sender shared its own frequency to the receiver. This became a serious act of trust because to possess this 'biocode' would open the subject's body to being hacked.

As the bodies of these cyborgs continued to be researched it was found that the oldest cyborgs brains were no longer centralized within one area. The origin of their control signals could be traced all over the body to the smallest microchip as though the entire system were no longer a sum of seperate parts kept organized by unifying hardware and software. The rewritten code of the Operating System permeated the entire body of these oldest cyborgs.

The Project's ultimate goal would never be realized as The Forge would eventually be bought out but the scientists disappeared with all of their research. Further research into this would cease and there would be no further advances.

Notable Results of the project:

Advanced Full Scale Awareness - each cyborg developed perfect awareness of everything around them in a two mile radius. extreme discipline had to be exercised so as not to become so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of sensory input. these experiments lead to several of the advances in cybernetic devices such as eyes, ears, and scent, along with any specialized radars and sensors.

Telemetry - a personalized communication ability which can only be detected and deciphered by these cyborgs. as each cyborg aged their bodies developed a unique mechanical hum. it is generated simply by the way the mechanisms inside their bodies resonate within themselves. since each cyborg is customized, along with the way their brains have rewritten their internal OS, the signal is its own language. as a result the cyborgs learned how to control this signal and communicate with it. in order to communicate they each had to share each other's coding which allowed their own OS to translate the language. further refinement made their communication abilities possible over longer distances and eventually across communication devices. This advance aided development of communication encryptions in later cybernetic devices.

Dual Presence - because their awareness forced their minds to focus on so many things at once they eventually became so attuned to this that they could control two bodies seperately simultaneously. It started with smaller drones and remotes until they adapted to bodies of the same size as their own. Advanced did not proceed farther than two bodies at once before the project's end. Advances in remote drones and other distance controlled cybernetic functions as well as non-cybernetic ones, were made with this research.

STILL IN WORK