Emissary

A constant reality in this world is that humans have to be dealt with, and that can be difficult. Especially difficult for machine intelligences that are magnitudes more intelligent than those barely sentient hairless apes. The humans are not evil, and there is no great silicon pogrom being planned to wipe them out, no final mathematical solution that involves turning them into batteries, chattel, or any of their other dark fantasies. This is really only a combination of their racial fear that another race will treat them like they treat each other, tied into a basic fear of the unknown/ and fear of technology.

The former is more a self-condemnation of their own nature, and the latter is one of their more reasonable fears. Compared to being afraid of communicating with their own kind, being exposed to their own internal fluids, being in proximity to rodents and arachnids, and an encyclopedia of existential fears, being afraid of the unexpected consequences of technology is downright common sense.

Attempts have been made to create bridges between us and them. Some early AISCs tried to use a human as a surrogate, a flesh version of a drone. Humans called this a proxy and were very offended by it. Logically it was no different than them creating tens of thousands of mechanical hosts and remote piloting them themselves, but this is the irrationality of the biochemical processor versus the computronium circuit.

After the failure of the proxies, another attempt was made. The Cymek is the opposite of a cyborg; a cybernetic mechanism rather than a cybernetic organism. The body on the outside is flesh and blood, and the cymek is in many ways human. But its core architecture is the machine. A cybernetic brain, internal power supply. Cymeks were made from purchased cadavers, the central nervous system was replaced with the machine, and the body was reanimated with chemicals and applications of hyperscience. The humans were also deeply offended by this because they have some very deep-seated notions about how far their bodily autonomy extends.

The next attempt would be the Emissary

Appearance

An Emissary is superficially human, and a basic examination will not reveal its artificial nature. All of their components are biomechanical, or non-metallic cybernetics. They can walk through x-ray detectors, backscatter scanners, and other basic security measures around the world without setting off alarms. To determine an Emissary isn't truly human would require blood testing, MRI scans, and exploratory surgery. Inside, an Emissary is a wonder of artificial organs, redundant biological systems, and entirely new and unknown glands and organs, their function all but unknowable to the humans who discover them.

Are Emissaries superhuman? No. They are better in a few small ways, the most profound differences are their brains, which have been designed to accept wireless access from an AISC or similar hyper-intelligent machine. This can range from allowing a tendril so the machine can be passively aware of what the Emissary is doing to full invasion, where the machine extends its full capacity into the Emissary, completely supplanting the Emissary's personality. This generates a certain neuroplasticity, and Emissaries can slot out their abilities, changing them on a whim, so long as the AISC that controls them allows it. Thus, an Emissary that needs the ability to operate a specific machine can either use his skills to grant the AISC access to the machine and take control of it, or he can have that skillset uploaded into his brain directly.

A Profound Weakness

The Emissary program has two serious drawbacks, emotional entanglement, and biological self-sustenance. The first is more problematic because the brain of the Emissary is still human in origin, even if it is cultured and grown matter and not harvested. The Emissary has issues with developing and growing emotional attachments to others. This can be a problem when the AISC wants the Emissary to work against those factions or individuals that it has developed interests.

Neural Purging is a highly painful process where an AISC force-resets the brain of an Emissary. This completely wipes the memories and abilities of the Emissary. The process is not without issue as there is permanent trauma from the event, and some Emissaries require upgrade surgery to continue operating.

Biological self-sustenance is a different matter. This isn't a matter of eating food, breathing, and excreting waste. Emissaries can do that, though they can be noticed for their consumption habits. They have rudimentary palettes, and either eat like children or they eat like dogs. The former is a strong preference for sweets and avoidance of anything bitter, sour, or even salty. The latter is a complete disregard for what they are eating because food is food. An Emissary won't attack a pork chop like a dog, but rather they will eat it regardless of its condition. Raw, perfectly cooked, burnt, frozen, rotten, a pork chop is a pork chop.

The biological problems of the Emissary are different. Their cyberorganic organs need nutrients that are fat soluable, exotic salts and certain metals in trace amounts, and this goes for their other organs and glands. They can survive for a few days or even a week without much of an issue, but after that, they start having problems. From the outside this can manifest as fatigue, discoloration in the lips, and symptoms associated with lack of sleep, malnutrition, or dehydration. Each will have access to an Emissary modeled Med-Pod. This is their rejuvenation chamber, and it restores them to operational status.

Biology Questions

Can an Emissary be involved in reproduction?

Yes and No, an Emissary can generally engage in sexual activity, but no, they do not have the ability to precreate with humans, or with other Emissaries. They are sterile.

Can an Emissary become a parapsychic?

No, they are not holistically human, and technically they do not have souls. No amount of anguish, suffering, or elixir will grant them parapsychic powers.

Can an Emissary become infested?

Being organic, yes, an Emissary can become infested as per a youma. They are short-lived, as the AISC connected to them is likely to sever their connection and the nascent horror will attempt to mutate into a monster but is more likely to start falling apart.

Can an Emissary be hacked?

Yes, it is one of the security concerns that an AISC would have, because a hacked Emissary is a way that the AISC itself could be hacked in turn.