Submitted by @saberamane
Just watched Roanoke Gaming (on youtube) video’s on the Spartan’s of Halo and how, realistically, their augmentation could be done/what would need to be done for the ‘super serum’ to work. And just…the angst and hurt/comfort of that would be so good if, say…Desmond were to go through that and then be magically poof'ed to AC??
Each of the ancestor’s would surely see different uses and advantages of such strength and enhancement’s…but also the pain of them? Both physical and mental? Desmond would need a lot of loving and comfort.
Some notes taken from the video’s and lore, so everyone is on the same page without necessarily needing to watch the videos-(though you should, they are very good.)
Skeletal Augmentations:
At 14, the Spartans were already over 6 foot tall due to overhauling the pituitary gland to induce puberty immediately to ‘flash grow’ them, making them grow taller than normal at an accelerated rate, which had the side effect of weakening the bones as they grew too rapidly for proficient calcium to be placed applied to the growing bones.
This lead to a surgery to 'correct’ the fragility. Basically the bone is 'shaved’ before a carbide ceramic coating was manually fused to the bones, giving them support. This was described as feeling like the bones were made of glass and then shattering inside the body. No more than 3% of the bone could be replaced or the surgery would fail.
Surviving the initial surgery did not mean it was successful. While healing the body was under extreme stress, and could lead to shock, cardiac or respiratory arrest, leading to death. With the bone 'shaved’ it would encourage your body to begin rebuilding the bone, making the bone grow around the new ceramic coating.
The bones, after healing, are nearly unbreakable, withstanding hundreds of thousands of pounds of pressure before breaking.
If the surgery fails because more than 3% of the bone was lost and you don’t die, you will become paralyzed or debilitated because your white blood cells will necroes, leading to septic shock that will eventually lead to the rest of the body being infected with the sepsis.
This surgery makes Spartan’s very heavy and leaves a lot of scarring, as the surgery is highly invasive.
Muscle Augmentation:
More and denser muscle fibers, leading to faster stamina recovery as well as more overall strength, from some sort of injection.
A side effect of this injection could lead to an enlarged heart in 5% of subjects.
The injection feels as though the veins have been injected with napalm and are being torn out of the skin.
The muscle augmentation without the bone augmentation would allow the subject to contract their muscle with so much force they’d shatter their own bones.
Neurological Augmentation:
Quicker and more efficient communication between neurons, leading to faster reaction times.
Subjects can nearly see things in 'slow motion’.
Reaction time is 20 milliseconds, movements seeming nothing but a blur to other unenhanced individuals.
Running 38 mph is an easy feat.
Migraines can be a recurring issue.
TL:DR
Desmond is basically super human, but he got that way with a lot of invasive surgery and trauma against his will.
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teccup additions:
Roanoke Gaming has an entire playlist of Halo Lore and other videos if you’re curious.
For those not that familiar with Halo lore (which is understandable as Halo is a series that likes to put a lot of lore in the novels), the most famous of the Spartans, Master Chief, is a Spartan II. The games mostly focus on either Spartans from Spartan II (like Master Chief) or Spartan III (most members of Noble Team from Halo Reach are from SPARTAN III so if anyone wants to create a Halo x AC crossover that has Desmond be part of the Halo Universe first, you can put him as part of Spartan II or III training.
Either way, there are many ways to kick him to the AC verse but, on the top of my head, if you wish for Desmond to be part of the Halo verse before getting kicked into the AC verse:
The Isus could have been part of the Forerunners (an ancient species of extremely technologically advanced beings that had ruled over the milky way) and the Solar Flare hadn’t just hit the earth, it had hit EVERY part of the milky way by being the start of a chain reaction of every sun in the solar systems in the milky way.
Of course, we can keep the whole AC timeline intact with one caveat: the next Solar Flare would not happen in December 2012, it would happen in August of 2552 (if you want it to be a reference: August 12 would be Altaïr’s death day). This is an important month in Halo lore because this is the month when the Battle of Reach ended (which was one of the bloodiest campaigns during the Human-Covenant Wars (Covenants are the baddies who worship the Forerunners as gods so they’re kinda like alien-inclusive version of Juno’s Instruments of the First Bitch))
By setting it on the Battle of Reach, we will have the choice of letting Desmond be part of Master Chief’s storyline or of Noble Team’s storyline.
If we consider that the Calculations knew that Desmond would be in Reach during the time of the next Solar Flare, the device would be in Reach as well and the main point is to ensure Desmond gets to the Grand Temple there.
We can wave it off as there being Grand Temples all around the Milky Way, all connected to one another and Desmond has to activate one of them to activate all of them. Once all have been activated, the field will surround all planets with the Grand Temple (fertile planets filled with life) and will be spared from the chain reaction of Solar Flares.
Of course, this is not taking into consideration the possibility that the species in Halo lore haven’t noticed the incoming Solar Flare. To combat this and make Desmond have no choice, perhaps it’s something that only builds up towards the last few months (around maybe Feb or March?), not enough time to fully study it and combat it with confidence.
Anyway, the main point is that Desmond would come into contact with the Grand Temple in Reach and activate it.
From there, he will save the planets with a Grand Temple (but this does mean not all of the planets will be saved and any ships in space will not be saved as well) and he’ll be transported to whichever timeline you’d like him to be in AC.
Now, if you want a purely AC fic with the Spartan Augmentation added into the lore, we can go down this route:
The Great Purge happened when Desmond was 13 and the Farm will be hit
(Bonus drama: make Desmond have a fight with Bill who is trying to get them out and it ends with him running away but getting captured by Abstergo, hearing his mother screaming his name before the sounds of gunfire silenced her, replaced by screams all over the Farm)
Spartan II ‘subjects’ were 5 to 6 years old when they started their augmentation but Desmond was included in Abstergo’s own version of Spartan ‘training’ (either keep the name and make it something sort of an insult to Kassandra or make it a reference to Deimos who was technically Spartan or change the training name to something more ‘Templar-ish’) as an ‘experiment’.
He and the other Assassin children would be part of a special experiment to check if age is truly a factor in a subject’s surviving the augmentations.
Cross would have been a Spartan from an earlier iteration and he’s the first true success. He was augmented early (like around 5ish years old) and that’s how Abstergo decided they needed to experiment on different ages.
Assassin prisoners are free guinea pigs.
Of course, this means that Lucy is also part of the program as an innocent 12-year-old child. Perhaps even make her something like a sister to Desmond during their horrific augmentation, indoctrination, and training life together.
This would add more angst to the story if Lucy either dies during training or she is one of the successful Spartans who becomes loyal to Abstergo in the process, giving a more or less Cain and Abel setup between her and Desmond.
Either way, Desmond survives the training thanks to his higher-than-normal Isu genes and it’s because of his ‘abnormal’ gene makeup that Warren Vidic noticed him, taking him out of Spartan Training and making him become part of the Animus Project.
Same setup where Desmond relives his ancestors’ memories. AC1 plot ends with Bill being the one to rescue Desmond. From there, we go for the rest of Desmond Saga’s plotline which will end with Desmond using the device to save the world in 2012.
Lucy’s subplot, if we go for her living through the Spartan training, will end in Rome when she replaces Cross in the final showdown. Desmond will be the one to kill her and she dies in his arms. Whether they reconcile while she’s dying or she dies telling him that she hates him for leaving her will be up to you.
Either way, Desmond gets transported into his ancestor’s timeline after he uses the device.
Whichever setup you use, I believe that Desmond and his ancestors’ relationship would be similar in the sense that:
Altaïr would be the quickest to understand him because they have the most similar upbringing: children raised to be soldiers. Desmond would also recognize the Levantine Brotherhood’s rigid ranking system as familiar and would consider Altaïr as his team leader even if it’s only the two of them (Malik would be more or less his commanding officer)
Altaïr and Desmond’s relationship would be more akin to two puppets trying to be more than what their ‘masters’ expect them to be with Altaïr taking the lead as he’s more independent than Desmond who just accepts any orders given to him.
Ezio, on the other hand, would be the most awkward around him as he’s unsure of how to ‘handle’ Desmond. On the other hand, Desmond would totally be unsure of what to do when he’s around the Auditores and it would be easy for them to push him to stay and just… try to relax.
Ezio and Desmond’s relationship would be more akin to a ‘normal’ boy trying to befriend and understand a military kid. Ezio would most definitely spend his time trying to teach Desmond how to relax and have fun. (If this is an Ezio who knows who Desmond is thanks to Minerva’s recording, he’d also be the most protective)
Ratonhnhaké:ton would try to communicate to Desmond like he’s a wild animal at first because of how Desmond’s first solution to any problem they face is to kill the source but he’ll soon realize that Desmond isn’t acting like a wild animal but an abused one.
Ratonhnhaké:ton and Desmond’s relationship would be more akin to someone trying to help another person but not sure of how to do it. He also doesn’t have a similar support system as Ezio does and Achilles may do more harm than good thanks to his personality and how he handles his charges (ex: Ratonhnhaké:ton and Shay for different reason). Haytham is also a big red flag when it concerns Desmond as Haytham is a Templar.
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hello internet aliens, presumably of earth
cyberspace freaks me out but im trying to lean into everything i imagine it could be, like a place to meet fellow zine lovers and introvert punks and wandering idiots.
ive been living in my apartment for approximately 1 year, which is longer than ive lived anywhere since i was a child. im getting that feeling again to get rid of everything i own and hitchhike into the middle of the country. its like a static at the base of my feet that stays there even on my most sleepless nights when i walk in circles over all the bridges in the city.
i just turned 25 & can only describe the experience as a dilated sense of time compression, the swelling of every moment gone by in a blink once it’s passed, the way i didnt realize i had written hundreds of pages this year that all attest to a vague and generalized insanity.
in this age of commodification i think that i shouldnt give zines away for free or that i should publish all my musings (tucked away in a corner of google drive in comic sans so i remember language is all invented), but i think this right here is all i have the strength to do. i cant post anything in the void without thinking of the parasitic nature of the corporations that profit off my free creative labor, but i like you freaks.
this whole ‘existing in material terms’ seems too large to do without screaming into some kind of underwater.
going to go to the library now and hope any eyes who see this can know that the burdens of mortality are shared, and i outstretch a hand to you, fellow traveller.
peace to the living, eternal rest to the dead
-z
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