Augmented Neural Interface

Developed by Clan Ashen Corsac during the Wars of Reaving, the Augmented Neural Interface is an evolution of the older Enhanced Imaging Technology. It is used exclusively by the Corsacs as they have so far managed to successfully defend the technology from all challenges to appropriate it. ANI is used by all Corsac ProtoMechs and see some limited use among its MechWarriors, especially with older Warriors.

## History

Work on the ANI began in late 3067 on Tiegel on the initiative of Ophélie Delacroix, a neuroscientist from Grenze who had heard of the Enhanced Imaging technology and took it as a challenge to find a solution to its long-standing inherent issues. Namely, Enhanced Imaging was seen as worthless by the Corsacs, because they viewed as foolish the idea of throwing away a Warrior's whole career for just a few years of increased performance. This low lifespan in EI users was caused by the combination of two things: possibly lethal neutral feedback when a Mech took damage, and steady mental degradation in the user's entire neural system due to the EI implants taxing it past its normal human limits. With those hurdles clearly outlined, Ophélie's work was set.

Work was somewhat slow in the first 3 years, as it was mostly just the personal pet project of one scientist - and a Freeborn at that - and did not progress past theoretical frameworks and simulations. Moreover, the first stages of the Society's coming uprising were a considerable distraction, as was the deterioration situation in the Homeworlds. Eventually though, the project caught the attention of the Corsacs' Scientist General, who found the theoretical framework to have a lot of merit upon review and allocated significant resources for it. Part of the motivation behind it was that due to the Clan's small size compared to its many neighbors and its constant involvement in active battlefields, the Clan would need any (honorable) edge it could get to maintain its fighting forces and avoid crumbling to nothing by attrition. Urgency then raised dramatically when the Wars of Reaving picked up in earnest, with mass genocide being committed in the Homeworlds, the Society unleashing its bio-engineered plagues, and the Corsacs' ranks being swelled by a disparate coalition of Homeworld warriors that had been abandoned and left to die by their Clans, including many ProtoMech pilots who all used EI by default.

Significant breakthroughs were achieved in 3073, but it wasn't until 3076 that production models were ready to leave the lab testing phase and be cleared for serial production for ProtoMechs and BattleMechs. The first mass use of ANI would be with the Einherjar ProtoMechs introduced by the Corsacs in 3078 to replace the ragtag mix of EI-based suits it had acquired from the Homeworlds. Another rather infamous Mech equipped with it by default was the Elder Leviathan, a monstrous OmniMech designed as a successor to the venerable Leviathan BattleMech.

By the turn of the 32nd century, ANI would become a fairly standard sight among older Corsac Warriors, as well as among the more fanatically driven elite Clusters, though it being a lifelong commitment would make it not entirely popular among the less dedicated Freeborn Warriors

## Process

Outwardly, the ANI process looks no different than EI to the uninformed observer, as ANI users bear the same visible, glowing marks as EI users from the fiber-optic wire mesh implanted below their skin. This is where the similarities end however: on the surface. ANI Neurosurgery include the rewiring of pain receptors to release adrenaline and a small amount of endorphin when neural feedback from damage to the user's Mech occurs. In a typical EI system, this feedback could cripple a pilot with pain, but in the ANI system it instead gives a second wind. An unfortunate result of this is that it often tends to make pilots develop unhealthy thrill-seeking or even masochistic streaks, but this is seen as a lesser evil than them being stunned in the cockpit, and still much more manageable than the full-on insanity that sooner or later overtakes traditional EI users.

Pain was not the only danger of traditional EI systems however, and a pilot could be killed outright by the electrical feedback from damage to a Mech. This was fixed in the ANI system by including a laser-optical data relay between the pilot's seat and the rest of the Mech. Electrical signals from the Mech are converted to optical data from the frame node then back to electrical when reaching the seat node, which acts as a hard surge breaker physically preventing lethal levels of electric feedback from frying a pilot's brain. Though this creates a certain amount of lag, it is measured in low milliseconds and does not affect performance in any real significant manner.

Before implantation of the ANI, neural stem cells are harvested from prospective pilots and carefully stored by the Scientist caste. These neural stem cells are then artificially grown in somewhat large numbers in vitro using neurospheres, then periodically re-injected to combat any and all degradation of the pilot's neural system detected by regular medical check-ups. This system ensures that the body will never reject the stem cells graft and allows to stave off neural degradation theoretically indefinitely, but this is conditional on the Clan's logistical and medical infrastructure remaining intact.

## Notable Users

***Hannah Faust***

* By the end of the Wars of Reaving and the Jihad which raged in parallel, Hannah Faust, the first Khan of Clan Ashen Corsac, had reached her sixties. Having fought for over 40 years straight, Faust was positively ancient by the standards of Clan Warriors, and the effects of age were starting to weigh her down and slow her reactions slightly. She was one of the first high profile Corsac MechWarriors to take ANI implants in 3083 to allow her to slash down reaction times even further than in her prime. Hannah proceeded to demonstrate continued mental stability for the next 10 years, proving the system worked as advertised, until her death during the Grand Repudiation. It is sometimes said that she had simply been putting on a mask and hiding the mental damage by the system, as she seemed to change completely in the weeks leading to the Grand Repudiation, but most agree that her erratic and violent behavior was due to the much more mundane mental shock of her Amaris lineage being exposed after 30 years of hiding the fact.