364: Gilgamikael

ENTRY 364: Gilgamikael

"What if I told you that everything you thought you knew was a lie? The popular story of the Fall is no more than that, a story - a myth as fabricated as any episode in the Bible, put forward by those entrenched interests that still run this Solar system. Think, for a moment. What do they ask you to do? Fear. Fear the TITANs, fear the exsurgents, fear Earth, as it has become. Fear to ask questions, fear to look too close at the evidence, fear to come to your own conclusions and make up your mind for yourself. Consider: what are they afraid of? I will tell you: they have painted monsters, but what you will find are only people. Transhumans, like yourselves - simply a different path in evolution. A transformation catalyzed by a virus, yes, but perpetuated traditionally. Would it surprise you to learn that there are transhumans that walk the surface of Earth, breathing the burned air? No augmentations, no surgery; they grew new lungs within their old ones, and will do so again when they reached the Smoking Cities. A feat beyond even current transhuman technology, and only the least of their capabilities. Don't take my word for it, however. Look through this telescope here - you can see them for yourself. At this time of year the migrations begin across the Siberian plains..."
- Excerpt from a conversation with Gilgamikael, CLASSIFIED: ECHO ECHO SHAITAN, possible memetic hazard

"You cannot kill this idea. It will only fork and resleeve."
- Unauthorized Comment, CLASSIFIED: ECHO ECHO SHAITAN, possible memetic hazard

The very existence of Gilgamikael is a secret. To Firewall and related organizations, they is an exsurgent terrorist that has taken on the trappings of a revolutionary; to the exsurgent cultists themselves they is a rogue who spills secrets and unnecessarily antagonizes the opposition, a demagogue without a populace to represent. Mostly, Gilgamikael sees themself as a teacher, a rebel, a true believer in what they espouse: the exsurgent virus as a tool of transhuman development and revolution. In pursuit of this goal, Gilgamikael uses the rhetoric and vocabulary of the revolutionary, and strives to win hearts and minds rather than just convert egos en masse - although they aren't above the occasional mass-infection event as a way to get the point across.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
19	18	25	23	30	10	15	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
10	1	30	6	60	30	6	45

Morph: Swarmanoid/Unique*
Skills: Academics: Political Theory 40, Academics: Philosophy (Revolution) 30, Academics: Psychology 25, Art: Painting 33, Beam Weapons 45, Blades 44, Fray 50, Freerunning (Microgravity) 25, Infiltration 40, Infosec 38, Interests: Exsurgent Virus 35, Interests: Firewall 50, Interests: Revolutionary Groups 25, Interfacing 20, Intimidation 38, Investigation 44, Kinesics 30, Kinetic Weapons 25, Language: Native English 86, Language Arabic" 40, Language: Persian 40, Language: Russian 40, Medicine (First Aid) 25, Networking: Autonomists 25, Networking: Criminal 25, Networking: Media 25, Profession: Blogger 33, Protocol 25, Unarmed Combat 66
Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Augmentation, Swarm Composition
Traits: On the Run, Social Stigma (Exsurgent, Terrorist)

* Gilgamikael occupies a unique variant swarmanoid morph; each of the component microdrones is actually a cybernetically-augmented biological "insect" built up from transhuman DNA - the "legs" based on fingers, etc. - and the sleeve is a biomorph, not a synthmorph. Each individual microdrone contains an independent cyberbrain and cortical stack. Although at any given time only one instance of Gilgamikael is in control, but as long as a single microdrone remains, Gilgamikael is backed-up and could return. Each microdrone also is a carrier for a variant of the exsurgent virus.

Using Gilgamikael

Think of the best arguments you could use to promote the exsurgent virus - and put them in Gilgamikael's mouth. Given that the player characters might react badly to a character that looks like a nest of centipedes with human fingers for legs in the vague shape of a transhuman being, it might be best to introduce Gilgamikael by degrees - let the PCs come across his writings, blog posts, graffiti, or other messages first before running into them in person. While the players probably won't buy into his interpretation of the exsurgents as a persecuted minority or the next step in transhuman evolution, it might at least give them pause to consider what Firewall (or whomever they are working for) is and is not telling them.

363: The Cloud Entelechy

ENTRY 363: The Cloud Entelechy

"When you are ready, you may join us."
- The Cloud Entelechy

"Already, transhumans stand at the threshold of post-humanity. Infomorphs have no physical requirements, need no sleep, suffer no weaknesses of the flesh. They can manipulate their perception of time, program themselves new senses. The only thing they have that truly defines them is a sense of self, a distinction between I and Other. It is the final bond to break in order to ascend."
- Anonymous, Farewell to the Digital Flesh (AF 6)

"The call it 'the next step' - like being an infomorph ain't enough already. You upload yourself into the Cloud, and then you just...well, you don't cease. All your memories are there, all your thoughts. The thing is, no one can really tell you what it's like except - well, you ain't you anymore. Not an individual. All your memories, all the things that make you, they get added to the collective. One constant thought-stream in the Mesh, a million lifetimes of memories running on virtual processing. It's like...well, we don't know exactly, but they think it's like you're always in the now. There's just that sense of proportion that that's so much bigger than what you can have otherwise, always looking over the memories, comparing them, collating, gaining new insights and building off that. Maybe it's the digital heaven we was always promised. I dunno. I dunno if I could do that."
- Riso Ge'ez, Tired of Nova York, Tired of Life (AF 9)

"Suicide of the mind and spirit. To surrender inviduality is death of the self. You are more than the sum of your memories and data. Whatever moves and speaks to you through the Cloud Entelechy, it is not your friends and loved ones. They are gone."
- Jaime Bell, Jovian Intelligencer (AF 10)

"It's not what you think. It's not what it says it is. The minds are still in there, like ants. Processing nodes, that's all. They're working on something, crunching some big number. They're counting the names man, and when the names are done the stars will wink out..."
- Ultragram, Kitty Fisting (for Science!) Anarchist News Rant (AF 10)

Using the Cloud Entelechy

Transhumanity is already at the point where efforts to define itself get difficult - transhuman, exhuman, posthuman, AGI, uplift - there gets to be a point where every person, no matter what their exact origin and attribtues, has to deal with the trouble of labeling what they are and what they are trying to be. Most seem satisified enough with finding themselves as an individual, defining who and what they are or wish to become. Others take a philosophical step to the left and want to get past the process of becoming, and to just become - not to pussy foot around with the incremental changes of life, psychotherapy, and resleeving, and simply be. Some of those individuals choose to join the Cloud Entelechy.

In game terms, the Entelechy is a constant background process running on the Mesh, untold tends of thousands of egos having uploaded themselves and ceased to exist as individuals, their memories and thought processes now incorporated into a single extended batch processing effort spread across the entire Mesh. It may well be a massive AI with the combined skills and abilities of all its constituents, but the processing is so distributed it's difficult to tell if the AI is even conscious or perceives time and space in the same way as other transhumans. It is unquestionably a step from transhuman to exhuman, not through the assumption of a strange and unique morph, but by abandoning many of the common definitions of what a transhuman mind is.

Gamemasters and players might consider the Entelechy as anything from a retirement plan to a way for transhumanity to finally ascend physical existence. Player characters may be able to interact with it, and find themselves face-to-face in virtual scenarios with icons that look and act and talk like egos they thought long dead or subliminated into the Entelechy. Alternately, the Entelechy might be a cancerous force, a subtle digital expression of the exsurgent virus that ensnares and transforms egos into thinking programs devoid of personality or concept of self. It's not even clear whether there is a single entelechy, or multiple parallel processes that call themselves that. Finding out what the Cloud Entelechy is, and who if anyone is behind it, could be an adventure in and of itself.

349: Grey Boy

ENTRY 349: Grey Boy

"Some egos resleeve like they're changing clothes. Some stick with the meatsack they're born in 'til they die. A couple want to explore a new body, or think that resleeving will solve all their problems. Me? I guess I wanted to make a statement. Take a step that I couldn't step back easy. It's about commitment, see. If you want to push your limits, to see how far you can go, you can't leave yourself an easy out. So when I went grey, I went all the way. See, lot of exhumans take the easy way out - abandon the whole humanoid form, go for something that looks exotic. Not many of 'em twig that being exhuman is more than a weird morph, it's a state of mind. You gotta change your perceptions, not just your look."
- Grey Boy, interview with Exhuman Spotlight (AF 8)

Deep down, most transhumans are the same - whatever they might look like on the outside, biomorphs share anatomical and genetic similarities to other Earth-based life, the majority of synthmorphs and pods are generally humanoid, and almost all transhuman egos are recognizable as human. Key word: almost.

Grey Boy designed the greymorph from the ground up, based on a theoretical left-handed Z-DNA structure. On the outside, the greymorph looks like a pop culture reference a century or so out of date, but on the inside it is as alien as transhuman science can get - instead of bones, for example, it has a flexible cartilaginous endoskeleton with an arrangement of "floating" bony plates protecting critical organs. It has orifices most transhumans would need a degree just to name, and one of the byproducts of its respiration and digestive systems is a nerve gas. More than that, the greymorph brain was deliberately designed to be hard for contemporary transhuman technology to sleeve in and out of - as alien as Grey Boy could make it and still be able to interact with transhumans. One sleeved in, it took three years of therapy for Grey Boy to adapt to the greymorph, to learn how to operate things that look like knees and elbows but really aren't, to parse sensory information his new brain fed him as colors he didn't have names for, and why chalk tasted like candy to him now.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
20	12	20	13	20	14	21	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
7	2	42	8	84	40	8	65

Morph: Greymorph (Unique Biomorph)

Skills: Academics: Genetics 80, Academics: Philosophy (Anarchy) 34, Art: Fingerpainting 24, Deception 25, Fray 36, Free Fall 30, Gunnery 19, Infosec 25, Interests: Pre-Fall Science Fiction 40, Interests: Tobacco 22, Interests: Xenobiology Culture 40, Interests: Xenopsychology 35, Interfacing 30, Language: Native Czech 80, Language: English 75, Language: Russian 60, Negotiation 35, Networking: Autonomists 15, Networking: Criminals 15, Networking: Firewall, Networking: Scientists 25, Profession: Geneticist 37, Protocol 21, Unarmed Combat (Claw) 40

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Bioweave (Light), Circadian Regulation, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Poison Glands (Nervex, Psi-Opener), Enhanced Senses (Echolocation, Enhanced Vision), Eidetic Memory, Fractal Digits, Hibernation, Medichines, Neurachem (Level 1), Oxygen Reserve, Toxin Filters
Traits: Addiction (Nicotine, Minor), Greymorph*, Morphing Disorder (Level 3), Social Stigma (Exhuman), Claw Attack (1d10 DV, use Unarmed Combat skill)

* Greymorphs are treated as xenomorphs in terms of being affected by psi (see Eclipse Phase 222) - asyncs suffer a -20 modifier and +1 strain using sleights against them - and are unaffected by Enhanced Pheromones (Eclipse Phase 305). In addition, Greymorphs may only ever create delta forks (Eclipse Phase 273-4).

Seeds

• Having spent the last several years acclimating to his morph and finding himself, Grey Boy is at the point where he's happy being on his own - unfortunately, the universe has other plans. It turns out having an "alien perspective" is a marketable quality, and he's getting besieged with offers from everyone from xenocultists looking for an alien love messiah to hypercorps looking for insight on the Factors. Firewall hires the player characters to make contact and convince Grey Boy to lend his unique perspective to protecting transhumanity - a transhumanity he no longer really feels a part of.
• Grey Boy keeps his ear to the ground on developments, and hears a rumor of a Jovian Junta military black research project - a psi-opener tuned to xenomorphs. Intrigued, he hires the PCs to steal the research - all they need to do is bust into the heavily-fortified military habitat and copy the files. Of course, there is the minor problem that the Junta was experimenting with the psi-opener on live xenomorphs...who are now loose in the compound.
• A new drug is making the pretty young morphs in the club sick - and the media is reporting that Grey Boy has gone missing. The PCs are hired to look into one of the drug deaths, and the clues they follow just might take them to a xenocult that's harvesting Grey Boy for his secretions - the drugs to raise funds, the nerve gas to stockpile as a terrorist weapon - but the leaders are stupid enough to let the nerve gas bleed into the psi-opener, hence the club kid deaths.

328: Heracles

ENTRY 328: Heracles

"There is no place for gods anymore."
- Heracles, catchphrase

In a time when a transhuman can change their bodies and minds, when Earth and all its nations are lost, when the old religions and ethnicities begin to fade against the new cultures forming, many egos become lost in themselves; lost in the transience of life and frozen by the endless possibilities open to them even as some of the building blocks of their identities disappear they seize on whatever they can - and if they cannot be themselves, then sometimes they become someone else. These are emotional victims of the Fall, unable to cope with their own pasts they redefine themselves into personas that can.

One of the fixtures of Olympus habitat on Mars is Heracles; a hulking biomorph who claims to be the immortal demigod from Greek and Roman myth. Nobody really believes him, but he is entertaining, never breaks character, and always puts on a good show for the tourists. For the price of a few drinks he will gladly show anyone around the habitat, to all the good bars and places of secret beauty and forgotten history, some of which might actually be real.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
10	12	14	15	20	50	15	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
5	1	30	6	60	20	3	40

Morph: Unique Biomorph

Skills: Academics: History (Greek) 75, Academics: Mythology (Greek) 85, Academics: Linguistics 15, Academics: Philosophy 15, Art: Sculpture 15, Art: Singing 15, Climbing 25, Clubs 50, Fray 40, Free Fall (Microgravity) 25, Interests: Alcohol 35, Interests: Olympus 50, Interests: New Religions 35, Interests: Wrestling 35, Interests: Xenocults 35, Language: Native Greek 99, Language: Latin 75, Language: English 65, Networking: Media 15, Profession: Tour Guide 25, Protocol 15, Scrounging 16, Unarmed Combat (Wrestling) 67

Enhancements/Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts
Disadvantages: Mental Disability (Delusion - Hercules)

Using Heracles

The exhuman ego that thinks it is Heracles has gone to considerable trouble to embrace its persona, and it's body reflects that: a muscle-bound biomorph with the proportions of a Classical Grecian statue. Dedicated to his role, Heracles will seek to prove his status by telling stories and performing feats of tremendous strength. Continued efforts to undercut these displays or prove him wrong will make him angry, and then morose, at which point he will drink until he blacks out, then wake up and continue on as if nothing has happened. As an NPC, Heracles is probably best used as a quirky local to add color to Olympus and provide some comedy or pathos as appropriate to the scene, and as a contact with their finger on the pulse of the habitat. Heracles is too mentally broken to hold grudges, and stupid enough for PCs to trick him into doing their dirty work by playing along to his delusions (say, by pretending to be mythological figures themselves), so will likely only be an ally or enemy for brief periods of time.

Seeds

• A woman named Megara Milogiannis approaches the PCs. She claims that Heracles is her husband - estranged and lost in his delusion after the Fall, when a TITAN strike destroyed their home and family. Megara claims their children's egos were preserved as archives, but she needs her husband's access code to access them. Can the PCs work through Heracles' delusion? Should they? Is Megara even telling the truth, or does she want Heracles' cooperation for some other purpose?
• An industrial accident caused part of Olympus' internal structure to collapse. Heracles was drinking nearby and raced to the scene and helped rescue morphs trapped in the rubble, but was caught in a slip and now is paralyzed from the waist down. The despondent self-proclaimed demigod, who lacks the resources to get the damage healed, calls on the player characters to put him out of his misery, so that his spirit can go to the Elysian Fields. What do the PCs do?
• One of the peculiarities of Heracles is that he wears only a strange furry hide for clothing, along with sandals and, on special occasions, boxer shorts. A visiting archaeobiologist from Titan has recognized the hide as belonging to a supposedly long-extinct lion species, and asks the PCs for a sample. Heracles refuses - unless the PCs can best him in a wrestling contest. If they win, they get the hide; if they fail, they have to fulfill a trial of Heracles' choice...starting with his community service to clean out the sanitation ducts on Olympus' lower level.

254: The Posthuman League

ENTRY 254: The Posthuman League

Before the Fall. Human technology first made the transition to exhuman status feasible long before it became widely available. Those first exhumans pushed the technology of their day to its limits, and they were exceptional individuals—resourceful, driven, often brilliant; many of the technologies involved they had to refine or invent on their own, and they experimented on themselves, all to realize needs and modes of existence that could not be met by the traditional human form. These first would-be exhumans were ostracized by the public, hounded by governments for their technologies and what they had done to obtain their transformations.

So they went underground. Consolidated into networks. Developed their own philosophies and ways of interacting with each other. A society of sorts. The name attached to them was “The Posthuman League”—and when the governments closed in, when they drew first blood, when the first proto-exhuman died on an operating table during a raid…they vanished. Into the night, toward the stars.

The first posthumans. Maybe the first brinkers. Silent, uncommunicative, never tracked, never traced, never found. They’ve been out there in the darkness for longer than most of transhumanity, and who knows what lessons they’ve learned, how they have developed their technologies in isolation. Or maybe they’re all dead, their society torn apart by internal pressures, their primitive morphs unsustainable over the long term. Maybe the TITANs got them. No one can answer the question: what happened to the Posthuman League?

Using the Posthuman League

Another mystery for the Eclipse Phase setting, the legend of the Posthuman League is more romantic than the facts. The earliest “exhumans” comprised a variety of inventive but relatively low-tech morphs, back when egocasting was only possible with a room full of equipment that cost something on the order of the gross national product of a mid-sized state. In their day they were clever, resourceful, and unique, but on their own, in isolation, their technologies are unlikely to keep pace with contemporary tech levels in Eclipse Phase—hell, a lot of it might not even be compatible. The archaic retrotech morphs of the Posthuman League, combined with their antiquated sense of themselves is part of the appeal. These were explorers, some of the first explorers, diving headfirst into embracing new sensoriums, new bodies, new ways of being. Some likely died. Others are probably insane. The rest, if they survived…what stories they have to tell, if anyone still gives a damn to listen. History has passed them by, should they ever return, and they’re not likely to react well to that. Gamemasters can have the PCs search for the Posthuman League, or maybe just run across them somewhere in outer space. It’s first contact with their past, the culture shock of explaining to these people what has happened in their absence, and how thoroughly forgotten and passed-by they have become. Some may return with the PCs; others might prefer exile. A very few might be in dire need of some materials to sustain their degrading forms, and aren’t above raiding habitats to get it, leaving the PCs to stop them…if they can.

187: Parasitoid Pod

ENTRY 187: Parasitoid Pod

Parasitoid pods were developed by exhumans experimenting with different ecological relationships. As the name implies, the parasitoid pod spends the majority of its existence within another living entity, most often another transhuman morph or pod. The elongated body of the parasitoid pod curls amid the host organism’s guts, tapping into its circulatory, digestive, and respiratory systems to derive basic nutrition; early efforts at tapping into the host’s nervous system were eventually abandoned in favor of using basic Mesh protocols.

Unlike natural parasitoids, the parasitoid pod does not enter the host’s system innocuously and grow slowly over time. Implantation (and escape/removal) tend to be traumatic experiences for the host; the average parasitoid pod is 1-2 meters long and 2-4 centimeters in diameter, and the morph is quite capable of chewing its way in (or out) using its claws, though most egos prefer surgery to avoid placing undo stress on the host. Once installed, the parasitoid places an increased burden on the host’s system, requiring greater food and water intake to sustain both systems.

The reasons behind occupying a parasitoid pod differ from ego to ego, and tend to be complicated. Some exhumans simply prefer the lifestyle, where they are kept warm and nestled womb-like in the guts of another morph—either a chosen victim, or a pod selected specifically as a carrier and to aid in interaction with transhumanity at a greater remove. Alternately, some transhumans have taken to carrying a parasitoid pod as a quick “back up” morph that they can quickly resleeve into should their regular morph be damaged (or if they need to abandon it quickly). Practical egos in need for subterfuge have noted the advantages of hiding within another morph, and Firewall has become aware that parasitoid pods are difficult to discern with psi sleights, perhaps masked by the host’s nervous system.

Generic Parasitoid Pod Stats

Parasitoid pods have all of the advantages of pods (Eclipse Phase, p.142).

Enhancements: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Clean Metabolism, Cyberbrain, Puppet Sock

Aptitude Maximum: 25 (5 for Coordination, Reflexes, and Somatics)

Durability: 10

Wound Threshold: 2

Advantages: Psi Chameleon (when in host), Fang Attack (1d10 DV, use Unarmed Combat skill)*

Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Pod), Unfit (2), Blind, Deaf, Mute, No hands but five hundred feet

CP Cost: 10

Credit Cost: High

* Success is automatic if the parasitoid is already installed in a host.

Entering or leaving a host biomorph inflicts 1d10 DV on the host morph per round, and typically takes 1 round per every meter long the parasitoid pod is (or longer, if the entry is contested by grabbing the parasitoid as it enters). The parasitoid pods typically enter or exit from a point just within the host’s mouth or anus, but other places are possible. Once installed, the host’s cost of living increase by 25% as their needs for water, oxygen, and nutrition increase. Parasitoid morphs can be removed surgically, though they will often seek to leave of their own accord if they become aware of this, or can be poisoned by various medications (treat as a poison, but half cost and only the parasitoid is effected, not the host). When removed from the host, parasitoid pods have limited ability to accept nutrition—if they do not enter another host or a vat of nutrient and oxygen-rich fluids within 24 hours, the pod will expire. In some habitat sewer systems, a parasitoid pod could theoretically survive indefinitely without a host.

149: Goopers

ENTRY 149: Goopers

Exhuman cliques tend to push the boundaries of the available technology, driving themselves along the bleeding edge of innovation as they work to transcend or remove themselves from the traditional mental, social, and physical limitations of human existence. One such group is the Liquid Morph Project, which pursues the technical challenge of building a fluid or mostly-fluid based morph. Derisively nicknamed “Goopers” by many, they’ve managed some moderate successes with a series of morphs based around a strong, flexible plastic membrane with over a million piezoelectric feet/sensors filled with fluidic circuits and a distributed nanite-based computer network that sustains the guiding intelligence. These bean-bag like fluid morphs are vacuum-sealed and can be powered by thermoelectricity, with a plastic surface area that allows them considerable ability to reshape themselves, but yet lack considerable means of manipulating the environment; communication is mostly via the Mesh, vibration, or changing color. The Gooper habitat is little more than a small research station on the surface of Neptune’s moon Nereid, where the fluid morphs can easily operate on the surface.

To fund their research, the Goopers have been experimenting with smaller-scale “pet” fluid morphs, called Liters (as each has about one liter of fluid volume). Liters are driven by primitive AGI based on the intellects and responses of relatively intelligent small animals like rats, squirrels, and ferrets, modified to take into account their lack of limbs and changed sensory apparatus. Unlike traditional biomorphs, Liters are fairly self-sufficient, require little physical maintenance, and can be extremely sociable. Focus group testing for the Liters is currently being conducted in Ilmarinen and Glitch habitats, and if the feedback is good the Goopers are ready to begin full production, with contracts being negotiated with retailers on Titan and Mars.

Using Goopers

The philosophical approach of the Goopers is that freedom from mechanical constraints is essential to freedom from the human condition, and dream of a variant grey goo scenario where they all live as liquid suspensions of nanite clouds in one vast ocean, forming bodies and structures according to their needs. That said, the Goopers recognize how far off their dream is, and the difficulties of their particular approach, which is why they’re trying to drum up funding. While it is possible for the gamemaster to portray them as cunning and malevolent water balloons, most Goopers spend their days on cat-schedules, stretched out on the surface of Nereid with one end in shadow and the other in sunlight to generate thermoelectricity, plugging away at the mental problems of achieving their liquid paradise.

Seed

• A political snafu occurred on Ilmarinen when a visiting argonaut mistook the Gooper ambassador for a gel chair and sat on it. Worse, the sudden drastic pressure caused a puncture and the ambassador lost fluid before the membrane sealed itself. The Goopers are furious and have become incommunicative. The Ilmarinens need a neutral third party to visit Nereid and apologize on their behalf. If they accept, the PCs are informed that the incident was staged by the Ilmarinen Secretum, a private industrial espionage group that believes the Goopers are planning on using the Liters for espionage (which is half-true, the Liters do record information and transfer it back via certain channels, but solely for customer feedback purposes), and that in addition to the apology their main mission is to snoop out as much of the Gooper’s plans and technology as possible.