90WISH

"The truth is much more complicated than you think."

This article is written from a Lore perspective. It contains spoilers and different reference materials might be contradictory.

90WISH, also rendered “90wish”, is an online underground scientific group who assembles advanced researchers from numerous technological fields. Rumors has it that they have access to research about Collapse Technology and derive their own discoveries from it. Persica, Lycoris and William are prominent researchers with ties to 90WISH.

Paradeus was sometimes called 90WISH before their true faction name was revealed.

History

On 1 November 1962, the prime minister of East Germany Otto Grotewohl ordered the Stasi and the Leipzig University of Karl Marx to mount an investigation of the site of the First Relic of Bleicherode, seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two, in hope of reaching similar results to the Soviet with the Moron relic constructs who had demonstrated their dissuasive power during the Cuban Moron Incident. The project would however be kept a secret from their Soviet allies, for whom relics research was of key political importance. By March 1963, the matter had been handled to Markus Wolf, head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, the foreign intelligence division of the Stasi. Wolf knew nothing about relics but diligently conducted a thorough (but dangerous) exploration of the seven-story high hollow left in the Nordhausen Caves by the extraction of the First Relic, only finding sets of triple grooves at regular intervals in the walls.

In 1965, Wolf had an opportunity to discuss the relics with his good friend Aleksandr Sakharovsky, head of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB. Sakharovsky revealed that the 16th Directorate was looking into ternary computers, which prompted Wolf to detach a team of electrical engineers and computer scientists to confirm if the grooves in the walls of the relic were connectors. On 19 December 1965, the relic produced feedback electromagnetic signals in response to electrical signals in the grooves, and the Leipzig University was tasked to analyze and decrypt these signals. Wolf officially renamed the relic electronic surveillance center and the First Relic Investigation Team "90Wunsch", in reference to the original codename of Listening Post 90 “Wrack”. “Wunsch”, “wish” in German, also alluded to Wolf's personal hope to see Germany and its people united again.

While the relic signals themselves would remain mysterious, the study of the relic led to the discovery of many new radio and electromagnetic field phenomena which were used to develop new electronic components and radio devices. Monitoring the relic had also led to the discovery of the Berlin Ground Station, the NATO listening post built at the Der Zauberberg mountain in the outskirts of Berlin. The Berlin Ground Station was styled as the most powerful electronic surveillance system in Europe, theoretically able to monitor all radio traffic within the entire Warsaw Pact and even jam and alter the high frequency signals used by Warsaw Pact internal command channels to give false orders to fighter pilots. 90Wunsch's mission then changed to the infiltration of the NATO intelligence system. Using their new discoveries, they easily sent fake information to Der Zauberberg and stopped them from overhearing real information. After radio espionage specialists from the Stasi joined the project, it was even possible to send fake orders to NATO Command. Full control over what Washington heard was crucial to the reunification of Germany in 1985, as the US would have been much less cooperative had they knew of East Germany's true economic situation.

After the ratification of the Relic Arms Limitation Treaty in November 1981, 90Wunsch was disbanded. Its data was destroyed or handed over to the KGB's 16th Directorate, and its members, now specialists in relic technology, either joined the United Nations to join their Relics Agency or one of the factions of the Cold War.

Decades later, the Leipzig University of Karl Marx was tasked by the German government to develop an advanced automation framework that would enable multiple robots to make complex decisions and work autonomously as a unit, an ambitious project meant to distance Germany from the industry-oriented designs favored by other countries in the race for automation. The project was given to automation postgraduate Persicaria, who recruited undergraduate AI student Lycoris in the project after he transferred from the Lomonosov State University of Moscow in 2040. The project was extremely difficult, but it gave Lyco access to special archives containing the relics data compiled by 90Wunsch. Lyco passionately plunged into decoding and understanding the data, spending the most part of two years taking complementary courses in information and encryption theory, complex analysis, mathematical statistics and electronic signal processing. Lyco's discoveries were the breakthrough necessary to achieve the project, which was presented in August 2043.

Lyco wished to share the newfound potential of confidential relics research with the international scientific community at a time where political instability made research more difficult, and envisioned a secret support network for scientists. Noticing that Persica and himself were assigned to the Automation Department Research Laboratory #90, and to honor the secret efforts of 90Wunsch, Lyco named the group 90WISH. He also used the password 90WISHROCKX for their shared server. The group was formally formed some time between 2045 and 2049 during World War Three and developed a core philosophy of pushing the various nations to develop new technologies instead of relying on brute force and amoral tactics such as scorched earth tactics.

In 2049, 90WISH split into two factions as some believed they had to go public while others wanted to maintain secrecy. Before a consensus could be found, articles revealing 90WISH's existence and extant of capabilities were published on the internet, claiming that 90WISH was open to sharing their private research in exchange for protection from the war. Some members of 90WISH organized the assassination of their former comrades. The Russian Internal Internet Security Bureau and Ministry of Internal Affairs caught wind of the events, and in turn let IOP director Havier Witkin know of two scientists whose lives were in danger, Persicaria and Lycoris.

Wanting to secure the knowledge of both for IOP, Witkin hired a PMC to rescue and escort them to IOP's headquarters, which succeeded though the PMC soldiers suffered casualties. The Ministry of Internal Affairs was also involved in the mission to secure Persicaria in the person of Berezovich Kryuger. Both scientists agreed to work for IOP under false identities as members of a company called Hermit, contracting with IOP. Hermit's work enabled several breakthrough in the development of CSD series Tactical Dolls, leading to the CSD-08A and CSD-08B models, the experimental IAD series and the ACD series. Persicaria would later adapt 90WISH's Zener Protocol to T-Dolls and resurrect an abandoned 90WISH drone project for her Technical Fairies.

90WISH maintained their secrecy after the war and achieved no public notoriety. By 2057, Persicaria found that 90WISH posed no more threat to her life and founded her company 16LAB under her true name. 90WISH was however still active and provided Lycoris with a Pike node integrated to the OGAS network, which he used to develop Elisa. 90WISH member William became involved in the events surrounding Operation Butterfly after 2062.