Project Alderon
Project Alderon was a nanocybernetics system developed by CORE Nanotech in collaboration with Raven's Black Research division for Calamity Mitigation operatives in the mid-23rd century. It was intended to act as a significant upgrade to the combat capabilities of organic CMI operatives. The program was later discontinued by Black Research on the orders of Director Shannon Taylor, citing the instability of the system and its inherent risks, but CORE secretly continued to develop the project until the Conway Incident forced Raven to intervene. The project was overseen by Dr. Elliot Morley, a senior CORE Nanotech researcher.
Mechanism
Alderon nanobots are extremely sophisticated, with little to no safety guardrails. They are capable of self-reconfiguration and adaptation to combat demands, and deeply integrate into the user's body and nervous system. They are able to significantly enhance speed, agility, strength, and physical resilience, nearly instantly repairing physical damage by recycling damaged tissue, and they also render the user able to metabolise nearly any material in order to assimilate it into their body. For example, by consuming metal, users can effectively grow protective armour.
The nanobots can also enhance the user's nervous system and sensory organs. It is able to enhance eyes with multi-spectrum vision, make the user able to sense and control RF, create internal radar systems, and more. They effectively progressively turn the user into a machine, and are impossible to remove from their body once they spread, as they replace tissue.
Alderon nanocybernetics also render the user extremely resilient to damage, granting them effectively superhuman abilities. Even high-power energy weapons and explosives may not be able to damage individuals with military-grade nanocybernetics due to their high rate of self-repair; it is necessary to use GRID or Oblivion beams, a relativistic railgun with KS-Type (kinetic shredder) ammunition, or tactical nuclear weapons.
Security
The nanobots were stored within an injector for deployment and would not activate and bind to an individual without an activation code being entered, which provided control over their deployment. These injectors were stored and transported under heavy guard, with a similar amount of protection to WMDs, as they essentially were WMDs. They also incorporated a RAC-based cryptographic kill-switch system to enable them to be remotely deactivated.
The injectors could also only be used to deploy to one individual, for security reasons. The dose could not be split or replicated. Once they were bound to a target individual, they could never be rebound to another; and they could only be deactivated (permanently) via the kill-switch signal. However, by the invasive nature of nanocybernetics, deactivation was guaranteed to kill the user.
Fate
After Dr. Conway's escape from the facility and its resulting consequences that were traced back to CORE, Calamity Mitigation operatives assaulted the CORE Nanotech facility, seizing the remainder of the project data, executing the remaining scientists on the spot, and destroying the laboratories with antimatter charges. This was done partly to ensure all classified technology was accounted for to prevent CORE from manufacturing another Alderon system, and partly to send a strong message to the company to fall in line or to face far more serious consequences. This effectively rendered Dr. Conway the only remaining living example of the technology and prevented CORE from producing new Alderon nanobots.