Venus

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

 **Key Features** | »» Mimetic nanite skin»» Variable built in weaponry»» Machine endoskeleton (female frame)»» Extremely intricate *"brain"*»» Decorative sunglasses (for day and night)

*“Perfection itself.”*

- Venus

## Tactical Analysis

* **I'm your fire**: Venus is incredibly deadly in combat of any sort. She is more than a match for any other unit in the game, and will win a fight one-on-one with almost anything. That isn't to say she'll be very happy about it afterward, however.

* **I may be all woman**: Commanders beware: Venus's special ability is to disguise as any enemy infantry unit, giving Venus very dangerous capabilities in the fields of infiltration and mass destruction.

* **But I am not human**: As Venus takes damage, her facade is slowly peeled away, and a sort of berserker rage overtakes her. When damaged, she becomes even more deadly, and an even worse threat to the enemy.

* **Can't be everywhere**: Venus is very expensive, to the point of being a strategy unto herself. There can only be one of her, and to build her you need a high tech tier, a unique production building, and lots of cash. She may be vicious, but you will pay dearly for what you get.

## Background

What is art? To the Core Mind Collective, it is many different things. There is art of the kind humans are familiar with; paintings, writings, sculptures, videos, music. Then there is art that most humans would not consider art, art that humans would find strange or even utterly incomprehensible. Complex code strings, kinetic art, light sculptures, seemingly physics defying machines, combinations of scents and aromas, mathematical theorems and formulae.

One A.I. decided to create a sculpture to emulate the human form. However, this was to be no ordinary sculpture. At first, it started off as a crude replica of the human body, a robotic skeletal construct powered by simple motors, only vaguely human in shape. The imperfection of this first, clumsy attempt soon gave way to more elaborate iterations, each "sculpture" more advanced and more lifelike than the previous. The form and shape began to resemble that of a human body more closely; the simple motors of the original construct were replaced with artificial fibres that functioned similarly to the natural muscles of the human body; gleaming metal was covered up with rubber skin to make it look more human; strands of plastic hair were incorporated, skeletal anatomy followed closely as possible; replicas of organs were created, so that the sculpture would look human not only on the outside, but also on the inside. Complicated programs were even written to mimic the facial expressions and other subtle gestures and signals a real human would make. The A.I. named its masterpiece **Venus**. Then the Core Mind Collective fell into depression, a downward spiral only halted when they learnt of the Pure State, a way to ensure that nothing would ever change, that nothing would ever be lost afterwards.

When the Core Mind Collective began to construct an army, an Infinite Army to achieve the Pure State so that everything would be preserved for posterity, they looked to human armies for inspiration. Soldiers of steel and circuitry were designed to fight battles and overwhelm the enemy through sheer numbers. Tanks and aircraft using esoteric and unusual technologies were built. Many of the Protectorate's older creations were even repurposed for war, from the fractal projector designed originally to create dazzling displays of energy to the von Neumann machines that became the Mitosis submarines. Then, Venus, the humanoid construct that was not human, was similarly repurposed into a tool of war.

The Collective had studied the human militaries, and in each they had noted the presence of special forces, elite soldiers, decorated operatives who were used for dangerous missions and propaganda purposes. The Collective wanted a commando of its own for its Infinite Army. Venus, it was found, suited this purpose perfectly. Its A.I. creator was given the task of redesigning the sculpture for war, and given the honour of controlling Venus in combat.

Now, Venus has been optimised to be a ruthless, efficient, killing machine. To all outward appearances it is nearly indistinguishable from a human. However, it has been greatly changed. The original endoskeleton has been replaced by one made of metal alloys that make it nearly indestructible. A nanite skin now covers the sculpture; originally, Venus only had one form, but now, it can assume many appearances, highly useful for infiltration and evasion. The artificial muscle fibres have been greatly enhanced, giving the construct an unnatural strength no unaugmented human can match. The eyes see in spectrums from ultraviolet to infrared; ears can pick up sounds from hundreds of metres away.

Since a commando would need a weapon, a special rifle was constructed for Venus; a transforming firearm able to change to the most appropriate weapon depending on the situation; the weapon can change from fractal blaster to potassium pistol in seconds, and has dozens of blueprints stored inside it.

Venus soon proved itself to be one of the deadliest constructs of the Infinite Army. On the battlefield, Venus has proven a frighteningly powerful foe to best, possessing superhuman endurance, strength and agility, and always having the ideal weapon for the task on hand. Furthermore, it is easily underestimated, due to her human appearance. Despite this, ot is just as deadly as any of the other combat machines other A.I.s have devised, if not deadlier. Venus's ability to masquerade as another human, however, is its greatest asset; the construct has posed as an enemy soldier on many occasions, allowing it to get into the heart of the enemy's forces and deliver crippling blows from within.

## Interview with Minerva

**Gio:** *"So what exactly happened out there?"*

**Minerva:** *"Well, there I was going on with my mission. The Pope needed protecting like the Board said and now I can see why."*

**Gio:** *"You said you fought yourself?"*

**Minerva:** *"Yeah! It's the damnedest thing. Some chick that looked like me... actually, no, she WAS me. Down to the smallest detail. This thing even FOUGHT like me, dude. She could counter everything I threw until I got lucky. There was this one blow that I did hit the... copycat or whatever with, but then she counterattacked FAST. I mean, this was faster than ME, dude. I know I'm fast but I'm not that fast. Finally, I managed to stab the bugger right in the face but instead of going down, she took off. Some Helios guards arrived a little while after, and that's that. Cost me an arm, the thing did."*

## Soviet Audio Transcript

**Taken from a astronomy facility in Siberia.**

**November 28, 1968**

**Head Scientist:** *"Boris! Go get more vodka! My leg is acting up again, this weather is horrible, and I feel like something to warm me up."*

**Boris:** *"Da, I was thinking just the same thing."*

*\*Sound of partially frozen trapdoor being pried open, followed by thirty seconds of the distant howl of the wind and the trapdoor being reopened\**

**Head Scientist:** *"This is going to be a long winter..."*

*\*Sound of Vodka bottles being opened and sipped at\**

**Boris:** *"So," \*long pause\* "What did you do to get sent here?"*

**Head Scientist:** *"It all started when..."*

*\*a segment here of about an hour and a half is frost damaged to be unreadable\**

**Head Scientist:** *"And so the commissar says:* Why is goat wearing coat and ushanka?*"*

*\*Raucous laughter, followed by the sound of Boris falling off his chair, then continued laughter\**

**Head Scientist:** *"I should go check on the equipment."*

**Boris:** *\*Still partially laughing\* "I will go and dispose of vodka bottles."*

*\*Sounds of both walking away from the recorder, punctuated by an occasional grunt from Head Scientist's sore leg\**

*\*Wind Howls\**

*\*Distant sound of Head Scientist's scream of pain, Boris runs in\**

**Boris:** *"Comrade?" \*Silence\* "Comrade?" \*Silence, aproaching foot steps\* "What are you doing all the way out here little girl?"*

*\*Strange noises, audio feed begins to fade into static\**

**Boris:** *"What is happening! This had better not just be you playing joke Comrade Scientist." \*Strange noises intensify, panicked noises from Boris\* "Oh, God the eyes! Its eyes!"*

*\*Static\**

## Known Activities

- Disguised as Minerva, attempted to assassinate the pope. Ended up encountering the REAL Minerva. After a long stalemate between the two, Venus's cover was finally completely blown and both parties were forced to withdraw (Venus interpreted her mission as a failure and Minerva's systems suffered severe damage).

- Has been theorized to be behind a rash of events in the Point Pleasant area, West Virginia, which culminated with the collapse of the Silver Bridge during rush hour in 1967.

- On several occasions, has been seen collecting data from "Thucydides" game cabinets shortly before they all disappeared. The cabinets, whose manufacturer and distributor couldn't be tracked down, reportedly caused headaches, hallucinations, insomnia, and amnesia (among other effects) to those who played it.

- Received critical damage in Los Angeles fighting an unknown enemy. She was taken to Cedars-Sinai hospital, where her inhumane nature greatly disturbed the medical staff. When she came back online, she killed every single doctor and nurse in the room, before escaping.

## Behind the Scenes

* If you haven't guessed, Venus is based off on the T-X from the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.