=Green Death=
**Posted by:** Kieran Glavin, Register <**__Info__ __Msg__ __Rep__**>
The terrorist group Twilight—short for Twilight of the Machines—originates from neo-primitivist ideology that blames the Fall on unrestricted technology. Adherents aspire to the predictable neoprimitive ideal of “a retreat into darkness,” calling for the abandonment of all advanced technology and a return to mortality. By all, they mean all. Once Earth is reclaimed, all uplifts must be “downlifted,” all AGIs and AIs must be erased, all stacks must be destroyed, all knowledge of higher math and writing must be removed by psychosurgeons, the psychosurgeons then must kill themselves, etc. Those not willing to “de-trans” themselves will be made mortal by force. Twilight is so hardline that it serves as an intersection between non-uplift neo-primitives and radical bioconservatist hate groups. Twilight is infamous for a string of terrorist attacks on uplift centers, minifactories, body banks, genetics research labs, and similar technological targets.
What’s really unique and dangerous about Twilight is its practical methodology for erasing a millennium of progress. Jon Derrickson, the group’s founder, was an accomplished nanoengineer before the Fall, and he acknowledges that cavemen won’t be able to solve the reclamation problems of ecological devastation and remaining TITAN war machines. Derrickson calls for a “push through” method, embracing postsingularity technology to carve out a safe space in the universe for mankind’s rebirth. Twilight members are encouraged to learn the devil’s tools so as to tear down the devil’s house, a strategy lifted from other fundamentalist terrorist groups where violating technological taboos is forgivable so long as they advance the cause.
==From Derrickson to Gao==
Derrickson was recently captured by Pathfinder Security while trying to infiltrate the Pandora gate on the exoplanet colony Haplopelma. His ego is now held in cold storage and remains unavailable, but our investigations suggest he was trying to establish a new gate link to Solemn. The plastics-consuming xenobacteria infesting Solemn’s biosphere are widely revered as the neo-primitivist’s idea of heaven. Though there is a group of neo-primitivists settled on Solemn, the Love and Rage Collective has barred them from returning through the Fissure Gate due to the potential of contamination. We believe Derrickson was hoping to find a new path to Solemn to obtain the xenobacteria for Twilight’s terror purposes.
In Derrickson’s absence, Joanna Gao has taken up the mantle of her deceased leader. Gao, a former astrobiologist for Gatekeeper who converted to neoprimitivism after an exoplanet encounter with TITAN machines, was probably the source for the blue box gear Derrickson was equipped with.
==Disaster at Eugene==
Eugene was a small salvage-and-repair operation of roughly 50 transhumans working in Earth orbit. Frequent dealings with abandoned spacecraft and derelict habs meant the spacers were familiar with TITAN technology. We’ve also long suspected them as a weapons-dealing hub for Fresh Kills, but Firewall could never find enough evidence to warrant interest. Gao is recorded as having left on a shuttle from Vo Nguyen to Eugene just a few days after Derrickson’s capture. Before leaving, we believe she withdrew a large amount of funds from Twilight’s secret accounts.
A short while later, nothing of Eugene remained but a burned-out shell. Forensic investigation is still underway, but we are confident all of Eugene’s residents are permanently dead. Autopsies revealed that implants, vacsuits, habitat systems, and anything else that ran on electricity was forcibly disassembled at the molecular level. The nanomachines appear to have left flesh alone, but the frozen dead were riddled with free radicals released into the blood as their stacks were taken apart. Disassembly appears to have occurred so fast that exothermic reactions burned the flesh around implants, molecular abrasion occurring quickly enough to generate scorching heat. The only known source of such advanced nanotech is the TITANs themselves.
Here is what we believed happened: the capture and perceived death of Derrickson (neo-prims do not believe in ego storage, forking, or farcasting) prompted Gao to proceed recklessly. Gao traveled to Eugene for a weapons deal in recovered TITAN nanotech. After the deal, Gao wanted to test if she could reprogram a TITAN swarm into a neo-primitivist smart weapon. As the salvagers on Eugene can attest, it worked.
==A New Green==
Talk on Twilight message boards now raves about GREEN: Green Revival Ecosystem Engineering Nanobots. Details are sketchy at best, but Gao and peers are promising a tool that “will forever cleanse the Earth of TITANs and the stars of technofascists.” Recruitment is up, and the Twilight cells around the system are growing ever more radical, rallying around the motto “Revenge for Jon; a home for his children.” Firewall is concerned. First, we do not understand how Gao has managed to reprogram a TITAN nanoswarm. Such swarms are deadly enough without transhumans figuring out how to control them. Second, there is no guarantee that reprogramming a swarm into GREEN fully eliminates either TITAN influence or the exsurgent virus. Even if the reformatting is 100% successful, the swarm would have to be completely devoid of inputs. To take back Earth and avoid backhacks, the anti-synthetic swarm would have to be completely mesh autistic. In short, it is a completely rogue, unstoppable nanoswarm by design.
This is all complicated by Twilight’s ideology, which makes every transhuman population center a target. Conflicts between different flavors of neo-prim and biocon philosophies might even prompt the group to use GREEN on other bioconservatives. And as if that weren’t all enough, the working group has linked several instances of forknapped scientists around the system to local Twilight cells. We suspect Gao and her cabal are looking to exploit GREEN as much as they can. Evidence on Eugene suggests that the GREEN swarm ate itself after it was done, unable to differentiate its own nanobots from other technology. This would limit the potential of a GREEN swarm on a planet-wide scale, and Twilight appears to be kidnapping researchers to find a solution.
Gao’s current location is unknown, but it is just a matter of time before we see GREEN deployed again.

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