The Vergil Collection

[Fairchild]

Overview

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Vergil is a nanodrug designed and first manufactured at a now no longer existing Cryer subsidiary Wisp Innovations. In essence, it works as an interface between a human brain and any Neural Net-enabled electronic device such as a PAD (Personal Access Device), a subdermal quantum coherence chip or a console. A Vergil network is comprised of a large number of spider nanobots known as nodes which are introduced into the user's organism by drinking a required amount of the drug. These nanobots settle within the user's brain synapses and capture neural signals within the brain. Nodes form a network communicating with a Vergil core - an aforementioned Net-enabled device - where a specially programmed translation layer provides a high-level programming interface. This allows the user to perform many complex tasks with as little as a thought.

Act I: A Study In Violet

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The two people most involved in the research and production of the Vergil nanodrug are a neuroscientist and microbiologist professor Nikita Nagrebetskiy and a Corsair ex-security pilot and agent Pincoya Martinez. In the first chapter of the Vergil story, they both work at Wisp Innovations - Nagrebetskiy as the Wisp Head of Research and Martinez as a supervisor of the Security Division under the alias of Jera.

First Contact
Jera is approached by an O'Rhu Cell pilot Axisdeus. She discovers the existence of an alien bacteria which, as she's told, could be potentially interesting to Wisp. She subsequently requests a larger sample of those bacteria.

Project Eden
Discovering the usefulness of the - now named - Vergil bacteria, Wisp needs to construct an expansion to their headquarters at Atka Research Station. Samura is contracted to assist in the deliveries.

Partnership
Wisp partner with Ageira Innovations to manufacture the mechanical part of the nanobot and write the first software for the new technology.

Fear and Loathing
The professor realises an important flaw in the Vergil design - the device is not secure enough to fully warrant that the user always remains in control. Nagrebetskiy determines that a good solution would be if the software responded to certain brain patterns such as panic or fear and provided the user with a master override. However, such brain patterns first need to be induced and mapped. Fortunately, an Outcast prisoner and a good dose of a nerve agent help solve the issue.

A Liberated Mind
The first, test batch of Vergil is complete and Jera first experiences the calibration process.

All That Remains
Two disastrous situations happen at the same time. Cryer unleashes a corporate takeover on Wisp and the professor faces the possibility to lose all rights to his research. He's also faced with a result from his medical exam, informing him of a kidney cancer in his body. Fortunately, they both figure out a plan to make things right and escape.

Act II: Hardwired

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A few months pass. Jera, now under the alias of Fairchild is on the run, fears that Cryer might catch on to her. The professor, with Fairchild's permission, uses her body to see and experience the outside world and continues his work on Vergil, now without a lab and an army of interns. He eventually tightens up the security of the software even more, making sure neither him nor Fairchild could be tracked. Now stuck in a race against time, Fairchild and the Professor want to release an open version of Vergil to the world dealing a strong financial blow to Cryer, before the pharmaceutical giant manages to commercialise their own.

Seeking Allies [1] [2]
Fairchild reaches out to a group of Freelancers known as Forlorn Hope. They are unable to help her, however through an acquaintance known as Paragon she gets in touch with the LSF Agency 404 and meets their leader, Avery Reeves.

Humanity's Shadow
Fairchild attends a meeting with Avery Reeves, to introduce him to Vergil and acquire aid in the manufacturing of the first few batches of the open version of the drug.