PRIME CLONING FACILITY

In the endless steppes of Mongolia stands the Prime Cloning Facility, often simply referred to as Prime. This is the largest cloning facility on Earth and is solely controlled by the PRIME AI, the most sophisticated AI on Earth - matched only by the mighty ASCENSION AI on Luna.

The Prime cloning facility is a vast city both above and below ground. On the surface, smaller towers are dotted around a large central tower, but underground, all of these structures are connected.

At the heart of Prime Tower is the Prime Core, the actual computer and server banks that the Prime AI exists on. As there is no world wide computer network anymore, this actually puts Prime (and other AI's for that matter) in a vulnerable position, as she could be wiped out if this server was ever destroyed.

Being a computer program, albeit a sentient one, Prime AI lives on a server and uses transmission collars placed on human host bodies when she wishes to traverse the physical world, which is often. Over the decades, Prime AI has developed a strong personality and is keen on beauty and elegance. Prime will only select fully grown humans with complete neural training as hosts, as being able to articulate herself through her host is important to her. The personality of the host body is fully suppressed by the transmission collar while Prime is in control, but not wiped out.

Thousands of workers toil in the huge cloning facilities, producing tens of thousands of clones every year. Prime Tower also hosts all of the necessary training facilities to produce clones to the specifications of the respective customer. Most clones are made for either military use or manual labour, but Prime also has more discerned customers that may buy clones to raise a new generation of a feudal household for example.

The ingredients required to refine Omnimorph, the liquid used for the cloning process, are delivered from around the world: most notably the open cast mines of Medha and the sap harvesting fields of the Jade Domain.

From the initial lab production time, to decanting, to QA screening and neural as well as manual specialisation training, it takes around 6 months to produce a military clone, around half the time for manual workers. New batches are initialised every few cycles, and so a new generation of clones is decanted every few days.

Batch sizes depend on demand and will vary widely, but the Prime facility's capacity is enormous. At any given time around a million units are at some stage of development, with around a 1000 becoming available every few cycles. The process allows for 10-20% write offs for every batch due to QA and training deaths, especially for military clones.

Most clones are decanted when their body has reached the development level equal to a 21 year old human.

While all clones in a single batch will be near identical to one another, every batch comes from one of countless available template files and almost every batch may therefore be unique. Thus, the Prime facility is able to produce clones ideally adjusted for different climate zones.

The Prime facility is kept secure by the Prime Guards, Prime's very own standing army.

The Prime Guard not only protect the cloning facility, they also keep the clones inside the facility in check and accompany the Prime Convoys as escorts.

Exact training depends on a clone's designation, but all clones receive the same base level of neural download, enabling them to read and speak PRIME. This makes Prime a shared language between clones in many parts of the world. After a few short days of intense neural downloads, the clones mental age has caught up with the age of their body.

While military clones will go through more specific combat training, all clones participate in physical exercise to build up their core strength. Many clones are made to be manual labourers, so they will need great strength and endurance

Units of military clones are made to order, usually for one of the more powerful entities of the Desolation, like the City of Praga or the Jade Domain. Others are sold to smaller feudal households or even wealthy warlords. Some will be retained by the Prime cloning facility itself, to replenish the ranks of Prime's very own Prime Guard.

The military training for clones is short but very intense, resulting in many training deaths.

Since becoming fully sentient decades ago, the Prime AI has displayed an increasing interest in trying to understand the human experience - mostly death. Every day, pairs of clones are forced to fight each other to the death, while Prime observes.

During the fight, the clones wear transmission collars, enabling Prime to experience both, killing and dying, at the same time. Afterwards she disconnects, seemingly uninterested in the anguish of the survivors.

After a long day of training and fighting, nutrition is an important part of a clone's upbringing. Food in the Prime Tower facility is healthy and abundant.

Afterwards, clones have some time to themselves in the dormitories. Here, friendships for life will be formed as clone batches are usually left together from decanting to deployment. This is not because the Prime AI has any kind of empathy with clones - it is merely a remnant from the purely military origins of the cloning program, which encouraged the bonding of soldiers in order to strengthen morale.

Over the months, each clone develops their own personality. There will always be certain individuals that begin to display slightly mischievous personal qualities... Nighttime raids on the kitchen's supply of ration bars are a long running tradition at the Prime facility, passed on from one generation of clones to the next! The Prime AI is of course aware of the proceedings and the natural leaders of these activities are actually earmarked as potential future military officers.

Inevitably, the day comes when the clones are shipped out to their final destination, be that as peasants in a rice field in south-east Asia, workers in a factory in Praga, or as soldiers in the armies of the Jade Domain. The bonds they forged during their training grow even stronger during the journey, and the clones that grew up together, will usually be deployed together and end up working or fighting together.

A Prime convoy departs the facility to a distant destination. The journey will be long and hard and fraught with danger...