Gray conduits are the mainstay of most of Glacier’s operations, as well as acting as controllers for our more advanced technology and weaponry. These “conduits” work by manipulating Chaff to perform the tasks a legionnaire can do with a Nerve Harness, but in a far more controlled and repetitive nature. Think of it like a machine that folds boxes.
If we need boxes folded every single day, nonstop, we could very well rotate out legionnaires to do it by hand, around the clock, nonstop. But that’s a good way to make someone suck start a shotgun, because I know I damn well would if that was my life. Instead we create a system that does repetitive, necessary tasks for us. Gray Conduits are this same idea, but with Chaff manipulation; they can’t do the full range of actions, but they’re excellent a singular, repetitive tasks.

Gray conduits work using the following components:

• Gray matter/biological circuits.
• Circulating blood supply.
• Chaff reservoir.
• Simplistic Nerve Web implanted within the biological circuit. Think of it was a scaled down version of a Nerve Harness.

Work that is done by the Gray Conduit is, again, specialized and focused on a singular purpose or task. For this the biological circuit is preprogrammed to carry out this task unceasingly while maintaining slight adaptive capabilities to compensate for external factors.

An example would be the Gray Conduits aboard Glacier that manipulate and manage Koris.
In the event Glacier’s gravity center shifts, such as vertical or rapid movement, these Gray Conduits kick in to keep everyone’s feet on the floor or orient the push of gravity depending on the angle of Glacier. These also work to greatly nullify extensive G forces caused by Glacier’s movement.

Other examples aboard Glacier include reducing the impact of solid projectiles, bridging forces from the hull to another target, running the Soul Rend armor, and preventing damage from excessive heat/cold.

Gray Conduits are also in use within the main deck gun of Glacier to ensure it remains contained and operational. However, I am not going into depth about that here, that's nearly an entirely different subject. _{We may want to remove this part Acris. – Hansuke}

Typically, an average Gray Conduit is about the size of a standard U within a server rack, with all required components kept within the casing (the blood circulation is held within a closed loop). While that’s the normal size, Gray Conduits size can vary depending on their complexity. Some are standard sized, such as those within Glacier’s hull, while others are the size of a credit card, such as those used within weapons or drones. Others can even be the size of a single fingernail, or as small as a grain of rice, though these are examples of the highly specialized types that mostly still exist within lab environments.
For our purposes, all examples will be referring to standard sized Gray Conduits.

Chaff is fed into a Gray Conduit through one of two methods: Piping and intake vents.
Piping is normally our preferred method, whereby Chaff is kept within a closed loop reservoir and refreshed every week by automated systems. In the event the piping is compromised, the Gray Conduit can take in ambient Chaff via intake vents built into the chassis. However, even with ventilation filters this introduces possible contagions to the loop, a scenario that we’d rather not happen given how sensitive the biological components are. They'll continue to work, but they'll likely face degraded performance and sickness that requires a replacement of the biological components given enough time.

Note, I don’t expect you to memorize any of the following information. This is here only for those who find the information interesting, otherwise you are free to skip over and continue reading once you’re past the part that looks as if I slammed my face onto the keyboard.

Regarding the configuration of a Gray Conduit, we utilize a simplistic, direct language framework that adds a significant amount of abstraction.
As an example, let’s look at the configuration of a Gray Conduit that’d be located within Glacier’s hull. To keep it more generally readable, first we’ll look at the summary config used by the Gray Conduit. These configs determine the overall, high-level action the Gray Conduit oversees. Below each example line of this syntax will be the “plain language” explanation of what component it refers to.

========================================================

[Conduit = AHNE-E-L2-HA-S3-B5-N10-C39]
Aft Hull North East – External – Layer 2 – Hull Armor – Sector 3 – Branch 5 – Node 10 – Conduit 39
[BO-CS]
Blood Orientation – Chaff Subtype
[PS-SE]
Programmed Skill – Skill Efficacy
[BDL-US]
Blood Draw Level – Usage Efficacy
[PCS-EE]
Processing Clock Speed – Energy Efficiency
[AT-GC]
Auto Target – Glacier Control
[OC – HC]
Override Control – Helm Control

========================================================

Now with that summary config syntax, we’ll need to assign variables and values to these config sections, then present that information to the Gray Conduit in a way that it can make use of. The data we present to the Gray Conduit comes in the form of what we call a header/sum config.
Think of a header/sum config as a sheet of numbers and directions on where to put those numbers. When presented with this info, the Gray Conduit will begin assigning those values, which then determines the performance/function it has. This is also used by the governance system to coordinate, manage, and maintain the Gray Conduits it controls.

The syntax used for Gray Conduit Headers/sum configs is as follows:

========================================================

*+ = Declare/call variable to object property/sub-property

*> = Set value of declared/called variable

*^^ = Make variable readable at largest operational layer for system

== = Secondary characteristic of object sub-property

\ = Object sub-property to declare/set

\## = Object to declare/set

##/ = End of declared object

|| = Value of against declared ceiling

[] = Sub-object container

========================================================

With that in mind, we combine the first config, then the above syntax, and assign the required values.
The full header/sum config of our example Gray Conduit would therefore look like so:

========================================================

\##[[*+CONDUIT == *>AHNE-E-L2-HA-S3-B5-N10-C39*^^]]
\[*+BO*>B+ == *+CS*>Q]
\[*+PS*>DAMPEN_IMPACT == *+SE*>3]
\[*+BDL*>LOW == *+UE*>89.00 || 100.00]
\[*+PCS*>19 == *+EE*>90.00 || 100.00]
\[*+AT*>TRUE == *+GC*>TRUE]
\[*+OC*> == *+HC*>TRUE]
##/

========================================================

It takes time and practice, but once a legionnaire is familiar with the syntax they become capable of programming and adjusting Gray Conduits with relative ease.

Other uses of Gray Conduits include maintaining the integrity of Golgotha based weaponry, experimental personal Soul Rend armor, and some types of legionnaire armor. In these instances, much smaller gray conduits are used in a stacked, compact formation. These mini-conduit arrays are usually the size of a deck of playing cards and contain 6 separate Gray Conduits working in sync with each other.

In most cases, Quint and Aerrant conduits are used within Golgothic weaponry to stabilize the ammo and allow the weapon to fire without killing the user. Rarer, and much more costly Entropic Gray Conduits are part of a Golgothic weapon’s firing mechanism. _{Again, let’s remove these paragraphs. – Hansuke}

For Soul Rend Armor, Borlyte and Barlyte are used to create a plasmatic repulsion/disintegration field around the user. This type of conduit is extremely costly as it takes extensive work to use both subtypes even for a sentient user. To that end, we have to train the Gray Conduits to perform their tasks to an acceptable degree.

Gray Conduits are “trained” to use their Nerve Webs over a period of time using iterative learning. The conduit is hooked into an interface that gives it a goal and a simple dummy target that sends feedback to the conduit. Until the task requirements are met in full, the conduit does not receive the full “task complete”feedback.

Signs of small progress are sent back to the conduit which feed into the adaptive problem-solving tables that it builds. For most cases, this requires up to 500,000 iterations of attempting the task using its Nerve Web. The conduit’s processor adapts by putting failed methods into a “Quarantine” group, methods with some degree of success into a “Usable” group, and then runs iterations by applying the “Quarantine” methods with the “Usable” ones.

If a method from the “Quarantine” group does not contribute to any notes of success when used in conjunction with a method from the “Usable” group after a certain number of attempts, it is placed into the “Failed” group and ignored.
Depending on the skill to be used, this can take either a day, a week, or up to a year in the case of more advanced Gray Conduits.

Furthermore, once a Gray Conduit is installed the learned skill can be refined over time and amount of usage, adding to a Skill Efficacy factor within the conduit’s programming. Skills can therefore become highly efficient and powerful, at which point the conduit can be swapped out for use elsewhere and a new fresh circuit put in place so that it can begin learning.

As Gray Conduits are biological computers, there’s some idiocy fueled debate as to whether they are sentient. They simply are not, because sentience isn’t something you achieve by accident. Gray Conduits are comprised of biological circuits and components made up of lab grown proteins and muscle fibers, which have blood flow that’s handled by synthetic vessels and capillaries. You want to know what Gray Conduits look like when remove from the chassis? Believe it or not, they look like gray colored muscle fibers and gray colored nerve fibers, then a shitload of mechanical parts interwoven among all of it.

Know why they aren’t sentient? Because they aren’t physically capable of it, there’s nothing there to process awareness or anything akin to being alive, sensation, or feeling. Know how I know?
Because I DELIBERATELY CREATED a sentient lifeform called Glacier, and that requires an entire GODDAMN WALKING FORTRESS of components and systems TO EVEN HAVE AWARENESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. _{Again, not sure that’s info legionnaires need to know right now. And even then, try to word it in a manner that’s more professional and not… you. – Hansuke}

To those still wondering, I’ll reiterate: the blood used in tech such as Gray Conduits is gathered from blood tests taken during routine medical checkups. This blood is then taken for testing, and if there are no bloodborne pathogens or diseases, it’s cleaned through a system similar to dialysis before usage. Blood circulation within the Gray Conduit is achieved through a synthetic fiber heart valve, oxygenation of the blood occurs from normal ventilation, and if the conduit is within a sealed off containment area a recirculating air apparatus that cleans the air every few minutes is used.

There is an argument to be made that Gray Conduits are a severe weakness in our tech. If these fail, then a large portion of our advanced systems, including Glacier’s functionality, will immediately collapse.
I’d point out that you could make the same argument about a city losing all forms of electricity. No shit if that goes out they’ll be in trouble, and no shit if our Gray Conduits fail will we be in trouble. You may as well make the observation “If a truck loses its tires, that’s a problem.” you fucking moron. _{Acris, it’s an introduction manual, please dial back the hostility. – Hansuke}

Gray Conduits allow our Saturn Breakers to move with agility, they allow Glacier to scale vertical surfaces with ease, they allow our advanced weaponry and defensive system to work. To that end, they are built with an immense amount of redundancy, including self-contained, automated circulating Chaff reservoirs, air supplies, backup blood, and redundant programming. Gray Conduits can, in the event one of them fails, pick up the slack and coordinate themselves into a new group to cover the work of the lost unit until its replaced or repaired. This was built similar to how platelets work when clotting a wound; a system of converging healers that focus around a wound until it’s fully healed.

These are some of our greatest technological accomplishments.
Therefore, we needed to go further. We needed to create Gray Cores.

- FrW Dr. Acris Baddarick