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Frodo had inherited the device. It was the original SR001 model, made in the technomagical laboratory of Sauron Industries, and the most powerful of the nano rings. Earlier models, such as the HR009’s and DR007’s had been built by the combined team of Sauron Industries and Celebrimbor Research. CR had gone on to make the ER003’s, with an in-built genetic pattern matching capability limiting their effectiveness to Elves and minor demi-gods. Unfortunately, CR had used sub-molecular patternform techniques developed by Sauron Industries, little realising that these had trapdoors, designed by SI patternform programmers, that allowed later nano rings, such as the SR001, to assume command and control functions. Even so, these devices were powerful and much sought after by specialists and while the SR001 was lost and inoperative, the ER003’s were much used.
Gandalf was a Maiar combat operative, or Istari, with specialist mini-people knowledge and enhanced firepower capabilities. When he discovered what Frodo had, he sent Frodo and a support team of dietary consumption specialists (a.k.a. “hobbits”) to take the SR001 to the remote mountain magical-industrial complex of Rivendell Life Sciences, where the Elvish researchers working for Elrond, chief executive and main stockholder in Rivendell Life Sciences, would develop a policy for dealing with it. Gandalf would travel separately, relying on his personal bio-transport unit, Shadowfax, to get him there.
Frodo and hobbits encountered a number of Sauron Industries’ biomagical weapon systems on the way. Some, like the mutant lignin life form living in the Old Forest, were very early models, dating back to SI’s predecessors MorgothCorp and Angmar Biomagic. Others were SI’s own creations. Deadliest were the Nearly Autonomous Zoö-Genetically Upgraded Lifeforms, or NAZGULs. These were sentient biomagical constructs, based on human DNA, equipped with visible and IR radiation detectors, as well as…
<many pages of design specifications for NAZGULs, ORCs (Opponent Repression Construct), WARGs (Wolf, Augmented Rideable Grade) and other Middle Earth creatures later…>
… “Damn,” said Aragorn, as he examined Frodo’s wound. “Looks like you’ve been infected by a synthetic virus of some sort.”
“What do you mean?” asked Frodo. “He stabbed me with a dagger and the point broke.”
“Yes, but the dagger was just the insertion device. The tip was designed to break off and infect you with the virus.”
Aragorn checked his diagnostic kit’s readouts. The kit recognised the virus but since it was so old, a Gondor SX004a, standard issue to Gondoran squaddies three hundred years ago, Aragorn knew it could only delay, not cure the infection. Frodo’s life signs did not look good – raised heart and respiration rates, low blood glycogen levels, fluctuating core body temperature – suggesting the virus was acting quickly.
“It’s a mutated retrovirus, developed by Sauron Industries from earlier MorgothCorp models,” Aragorn told Frodo. “Basically, the virus re-writes the genetic code in cells of the hypothalamus, making you more susceptible to external suggestions.”…
<… the reader yawned. The technobabble was getting to him. If there were too many descriptions of exotic, imaginary gadgets and the book would be closed, for good…>
… Elrond, CEO of Rivendell Life Sciences made the keynote speech at the conference. He presented the basic options open to the opponents of SI’s plan for corporate dominance. Input from Gandalf and the RLS special projects team contributed to the final plan.
Frodo would go to Mordor, SI’s technology park and use the powerful Orodruin geothermal furnace to destroy the SR001. Frodo accepted the mission. A combat team would escort him. It consisted of Aragorn, special forces operatives seconded from Gondor, Erebor and Mirkwood and the dietary consumption specialists. Gandalf would be OC with Aragorn as his XO.
Frodo was given a suit of KDC308v combat armour. The suit, developed by the now defunct Khazad Dynamics armament works, was made out of MITHRIL (Micro Injected Titanium High Resistance Integrated Links). It was one of Middle Earth’s best pieces of kit. He was also given a Standard Target Identification Neo-Glaive or STING personal weapon, with special circuitry to detect any system showing Sauron Industries’ technomagic signature.
Aragorn had his own personal weapon, an ANDURIL (Anti Nano DNA …
<… the reader jerked awake. Shame, he thought, once he had gathered his thoughts. Nice plot but the mock technology was getting in the way. He closed the book and looked for something else to read…>