You are the controller of a large research space station

>the reliability of such soldiers is notoriously shitty
[citation needed]
No, your fiction is not a reliable citation.
What you fail to understand, as most people talking about genetic engineering "versus" cybernetic enhancement do, is that those who are genetically engineered have a higher cap on viable cybernetic enhancement, giving you more bang for your buck, as it were.

>[citation needed]
Unless I can literally create minds from the ground up (better than in Eclipse Phase) without any need for development I will never put my stock in babies. Too much problems - starting with human rights activists and ending with babies having talents lying is say creating poetry instead of being soldiers.

I'll better take people who do this work willingly.

>is that those who are genetically engineered have a higher cap on viable cybernetic enhancement
That depends on what kind of enhancement we do. There is no reason to gengineer muscles if we gonna replace them completely with cybernetics.

But yeah if we go with most close to real life situation it probably will be a blend where some parts are gengineered and other are replaced with cybernetics depending on what is more effective, cheaper or more reliable.

The issue with having volunteers is that many people have complicated alliances as opposed to raising children.

Children are easy to manipulate as opposed to adults as early minds are moldable. Raise them in a fanatical state and watch as they are some of the most loyal soldiers.
But avoid two things
1. Avoid lieing to them
2. Treat them well

Raising also allows you to do genetic engineering easier.
Then enhance further with cybernetics and biotech

Ask a committee of investors what they want to see in them.

Yes they are more complicated than children. It also means that while they are easier to sway to the side the total change is much harder because there is much more stuff that needs to change before they start murdering you without any regrets.

Fanatics are good for a total war scenario where the only thing you need is to eradicate everyone. Though why you'll need to super soldiers for that and just don't drop a couple of nukes is beyond me.

For more nuanced world I'll want someone with brains and critical thinking on site. For the moment when everything will go not according to plan.

>starting with human rights activists
Nonexistant and/or totally unimportant. Chinks are doing rudimentary stuff -right now-, and there have always been people whining about the future.

>and ending with babies having talents lying is say creating poetry instead of being soldiers.
Spoken like somebody who has no idea what makes a good supersoldier. A proper supersoldier is a multitalented individual with more abilities than merely shooting. They are a warrior of culture as well.

>There is no reason to gengineer muscles if we gonna replace them completely with cybernetics.
Think of it like this: The average human brain is only optimized to handle 1.00 worth of muscle. If they get hit with 2.00 worth of muscle, there's probably going to be at least some mental disconnect to worry about. On the other hand, if the brain is already optimized to accept 2.00 worth of muscle, then upgrading the arm with a metallic version that's more durable, has more abilities, etc. means there won't be any disconnect to speak of.

Give them a lot of testerone injections and make them watch porns. And then... Remove their penis...!

>Mix of genetic engineering and cybernetics.
This user knows how it's done.

Sell station
Invest in fastest ship in the universe
Get outta there

Whoever hired me will be so pissed they develop super soldiers to catch me, when they finally do I say "look I did it" and by contract they have to pay me.

>have to make all soldiers look like gorgeous models because investors like it and otherwise would stop funding if you don't pander to them

>Nonexistant and/or totally unimportant. Chinks are doing rudimentary stuff -right now-, and there have always been people whining about the future.
Exactly - rudimentary. The moment there will be something substantial you'll see a lot of shit thrown their way and other big countries using everything up their sleeves for that. Human rights activist will work as a good path for approaching shutting down your venture.

>Spoken like somebody who has no idea what makes a good supersoldier. A proper supersoldier is a multitalented individual with more abilities than merely shooting. They are a warrior of culture as well.
Not all people like to do what they do well. For different reasons. You can't be sure that all of your baby soldiers will grow up to like their work or at least accept it. So you'll need to have retirement plans for them (even if they include shooting them on the spot).

>Think of it like this: The average human brain is only optimized to handle 1.00 worth of muscle. If they get hit with 2.00 worth of muscle, there's probably going to be at least some mental disconnect to worry about. On the other hand, if the brain is already optimized to accept 2.00 worth of muscle, then upgrading the arm with a metallic version that's more durable, has more abilities, etc. means there won't be any disconnect to speak of.
That's muscle memory and training. Or full on mental programming.

Also avoid making female super soldiers

A sniper rifle and/or rocket launchers do as well a job and don't come with as much emotional pressure

Men are just simpler and more built for battle

Core recruitment will involve orphans or debting families into giving up children. But adults can also be recruited, even if they are less effective for the fortification.
Start with permanently fortifying drugs, aimed to be introduced alongside the persons growth spurt, but can be used later in life.
Proceed with training to build their foundation(months), resilience and technique.

Then do a dangerous reformation, a mutation if you will. Where the nerves are "stretched", the muscle fibers are rebuilt, but most importantly: Their core chemistry is altered to extreme resistance to toxicity, to allow temporary drugs to be administered for the real Super Solider part.
So without their concoctions, injections and potions they are merely a little super. With them, you get 10 men in a single body.

Side effects include: Reduced empathy, uneven mutation, chemistry education to truly make the mutant self sufficient, high mortality rate if mutation secrets are lost or degraded, extremely extended lifespan.

Alright, from my varied reading on all things supersoldiers what we need is;

. A good base, whether they're stolen as kids and trained or created in a test tube,

. Super crazy genetic engineering crap like Space Marine Gene Seed to make them faster and stronger than the rest

. The best of the best in cybernetic enchancement, give them targeting AI in their mind and shit like that, give them exoskeletons to buff their already crazy genetic baseline and to make them sprint and jump faster and further.

. Give them training and mindwashing shit from birth, upload tactics into their head like Neo learning Karate in The Matrix but also with training on all kinds of weapons and shit.

. Give them power armour ontop of their OP shit, preferably with shielding.

. Give them the best fucking weapons and equipment going, great communication, equipment to hack shit, break through defensive positions etc

.Give them the support they need, Chief had Cortana, Marines have their slaves/serfs and our guys had better have the right support.

Anyone got improvements?

Well I have two different departments for one thing to keep morale and a nice bit of competitiveness going good.
One department is involved in excessive cloning and gene tampering along with fancy shmancy trait testing, like extra leg muscles and arms or 12 penises or some shit.
The OTHER department has an expansive testing facility with a cluster of varying eco-domes to simulate, THEY splice weird and exotic animals for funsies.

Now the fun is that Department two is designed to test and BREAK Department 1's toys. Its all good fun, we use the facilities to test new mutations, adaptions and develop some A-grade mutants of all favours till we get a nice all-purpose master race one.
Plus we make money on the side making mega beasts.
Also rockin Christmas parties.

>Gas the clown.

We should make soldiers as varied as actual soldiers
I propose 3 types

> Strike squad/kill team
Outfitted to deal with targeted assassination and break lines
> body guards/ vanguards
Soldiers designed to protect an higher up
> minions
Super-super-soldiers designed to protect station
For when the deal goes south

How exactly would they differ if not in gear and training?

If the soldiers were to be genetically modified maybe give the body guard types something like increased endorphine production when they are near the person they have to protect.
They'll really like their targets ensuring they will do their best to protect them.

There could be problems like them eventually having to part with the subject once the job is over (if they aren't protectors for live) which could cause some major stress, not to forget the risk of them literally falling in love with their endorphine dispenser.

Maybe they are more large and square.
And very obvious, the major part of having a bodyguard is scaring people away

People in this thread keep talking as if the only options are babies or volunteers. So short sighted.

Children are unreliable. Their bodies may not age ideally and even if they do, some of them might not grow up to be emotionally fit for battle. Considering the time and staff investment involved with raising children, it's just not a sound risk to take.

As mentioned before. volunteers are unreliable. For every 5 Captain Americas you make, you'll have 100 thugs that'll sell away your secrets in a heartbeat. It's great if you want just one extra special super soldier, but I have a feeling we're looking for a proper army.

What you need to do is lab-grow a full adult human, then implant the memories of your most capable soldier. You've got the benefits of being able to shape the body to whatever ideal you need, complete predictability and training (provided you keep the original as part of your staff), and you can develop different bodies or use different minds for different purposes.

That's not even getting into the ability to be mass-produced.

Alternatively
Have all the bodies just be platforms for an ai
Like flesh robots
Fully synchronized team of death robots.

But if you do do bodyguards have them be human. That way you can psychologically manipulate them

mix of genetic engineering, nano-machines, and cybernetic implants and prosthetics if needbe.

They will probably be expensive as fucking hell, but should be worth it.

Oh, can't forget top-quality training and To raise them as people so they don't become vengeful autists

Start young and train them to be solid sneks until they're matured.

Cheap and easy.

Go watch the movie "Soldier" with Kurt Russell

>no eldar babes on my space station

Forgot image

>then implant the memories of your most capable soldier.
Image it: A army with daddie issues.
Regardless of template, you now got a tainted army, with some deep structured flaws.

I would say its on the surface better than a trained orphanage, but its not really.
Then again: Most fiction seem to want "its a lie" to be the core rebellion reason.

So you just don't lie
AsSaid

well, the old captain america stance of making sure you find stable and good natured volunteers seems like a decent starting point

the whole "recruit and train a bunch of psychopathic murderers" angle never seems to end well

Embark on an extensive neuro-surgery program to produce fanatical loyalty without downsides. Obedience that focuses rationality instead of destroying it, opens the mind to creativity yet immunizes it against dissent.
Then expand into reducing sleep/fatigue, zen body control, reducing fear and different perceptual hacks. Theoretically the human eyeball could get eagle-level resolution by simply recombining the info better in the brain.

That's the main goal. Everything afterward is icing.

Reducing fatigue is probably most important in any near-future setting, so I'd aim for genetic tweaks or maybe just robot legs. Then equip them with the sci-fi basics according to mission area.

Easier to gene improve the entire population then pick soldiers from that.

I'd say find some orphans, just old enough to remember their old life but young enough to grow up hating anyone who'd ruined it, and subject them to agonising medical experimentation, then brutal, oppressive, and degrading training. At the end of it, we'll have a cadre of supersoldiers, fuelled by rage. One or two might escape in the process but I don't forsee that ever coming back to bite us. I mean, hell, we've got all the rest of the super soldiers, what could go wrong?

Honestly, you are in Space and have money for shit as it seems.

You know, all those guys that say cloning, bla bla, orphans, yadda yadda, cybernetic veterans.

Honeslty those guys loose track of the cost=efficeny balance. You obviously got the technology to go into space as you please (more or less).

I'mma tell you what you do, reduce the human factor to be as small as possible. while keeping up the human on field judgement as high as possible. You know humans are Expensive and training, altering and breeding them costs a lot of money
>But you just said we shit money...
yeah i know but think like this. the less money you spend on a fighting unit, the more money you have to buy MORE units.

So, what you do with your solders is simple. You give them
Semi-autonomous AI assistants one for each.
And some sweet ass low-autonomy, mass produced, modifiable combat drones/proxys.

So what you gonna do is simple, you let your meaty flesh human soldiers train with their AI-assistant and while doing so the assistant gets to learn to support his human master as he needs it. You train your human soldiers to control your drones, or proxys it more fitting in this case.

Best sort of control would be by direct neural interface of course.

And here comes the best part, your soldier does not control just one of their mechanical buddys, they get to control around 3 to 6 and swap between them while their AI buddy keeps the rest in usefull positions.

And your expensive human + software equuipment ?
Mate
you put them into orbit on multiple ships and keep connection to the battlefield by laser + radio based communication.

Your not so expensive combatans are mostly safe, you can mass produce combat forces and even if some of them gets destroyed, chacnes are that the soldiers mine still hase some proxys nearaby that can keep attacking.

You guys are going about it all wrong. The key isn't raising them from birth, or cloning them, it's taking normal soldiers and giving them elite training regimens and equipment.

First! The training. Give them the very best training in the world. Make them do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10km run EVERY SINGLE DAY!

And that's where you are wrong, such extensive training takes time, and money while you have to pay food and stuff for your soldiers.

Also, this sounds more like a regular training exercise. you forgot fighting Monsters on a weekly basis while training, barehanded and without healing rests

And that's why i my cost efficient system is superior

A manga reference, sasuga user.

Now back to me - back to RL. Modern soldiers already do that. Any average athlete can, although consistent-distance endurance runs are poor form for training.

Practically speaking that is the worst idea I've ever heard.
Dramatically speaking though, it's perfect.
Take my money.

So, the question is. How does your average PC beat somebody who has top scores in all stats?

Like this Overhelming numbers

Bioengineering.

Depends on how one way the process is, and what the costs are.
I.E If you can't gene manipulate, due limited ability to do so, or tech limitations, you move to the next best thing: Long term steroids.

>Jamable drones
So basically useless if you fight anything that is stronger than a 2nd world nation.
Great going.
You now got a merc army, that isn't good at its thing.

Killable low quantity, high cost meatbags.
Great going
You now got fertilizer

How long do I have to work with? Months? Years? Decades?

I would develop mind-control technology so that I can just hijack alien organisms and use them as soldiers.

No need ro re-invent the wheel, right?

Your ideas aren't compatible with a super soldier program. You need to condition them to kill anyone without hesitation, with positive and negative conditioning. That is mutually exclusive with truth and well treatment. The life of a soldier is filled with a lot of shit and not a lot of honesty.

The fact is anyone conditioned for that long with no experience outside will invariably break down when exposed to something outside your conditioning. They have no frame of reference on your space station for the idea of wildlife or uninvolved civilians or a million simple concepts a grown man will have. Unless you have something to force them they WILL go awol the moment they see the kind of normal life you never gave them a chance at, unless they're so psychotic it'll affect their performance.

You start with a healthy and mentally well adult, and one there of their own volition. Anything less will mean that invariably one of them will attempt to kill you or escape.

Full replacement cybernetics. Artificial joints with greater flexibility. Artificial muscles of greater physical power and speed. Artificial eyes that can process infrared and ultra violet. Shield it from electric and magnetic attacks with an artificial skin. If someone needs to go under cover it'll look reasonably human.

Layer on a modular armor and weapons system. Short range weapons, long range weapons, whatever you need.

Just make Xenomorphs.

You need to keep the fight on your terms as much as possible. Your more likely to win with traps and dirty tricks then with an honest bullet if they really outclass you.

Army of robots with an absurd amount of programing to prevent them from reprogramming themselves or being a threat to you in any way. Unless you're fighting the Necrons, they should serve you well.

And in five years there'll be a crack and a shit ton of exploits.

Yes faggot, they are very compatible with the idea.
Honesty breeds a chain of commands. Lie just breeds a revolt at first sign.
You are also imaging basic conditioning to be sitting in a cell for years, and then kicking them out after that.
Why do you have no frame of referance about training, indoctrination? Or acceptable losses during training?

Even 40k understands the chain of promotion: Scouts -> Spaces Marines -> Veteran Marines in higher tier companies and positions

>tfw you become the adobe of super soldier productions

pulling a Shocker seems like the best solution to me

give them cybernetic enhancements and power armor, as well as an AI assistant
base the assistant off a psych profile, make it their ideal waifu, have her exist in their implants and armor
if they do a good job, they get rewarded with time in a VR sim with her

>Tasked with a super soldier program
>Volunteers only
>Veterans only
>That pass psychological screening
>That have a high combat proficiency.

We shall call this operation: MR. RIGHT

Two words: Machingun Arm.

>No women in combat (weaker and less intelligent).
>Only Euros, Select MENAs, select South Asians, and Far East Asians are eligible. Keeping Niggers and other shieetskins out.
>Future military campaign is steamrolling Africa

No compromises. Everything should be perfect. Those who disagree can either resign or be fired by being thrown out the airlock.

I assume the goal of such a program is to luck into creating our master chief, doom guy, solid snake, etc.

also brainwashing, these soldiers need to believe that they serve god himself and anyone who opposes them is a servant of evil.

you should have said
>fired(out of an airlock.)

ya fucked up

Honestly this is what my Traveller character is currently doing, she's a super rich scientist turned arms/information dealer and creates super solider enforcers.

First: hires homeless and the down trodden from planets and stations, the reason for this is ex military and other such types have too much of a paper trail.

Second: physiological reconditioning for loyalty and obedience, including trigger words for undercover work.

Third: extensive cybernetic augmentation, full body cyborg if necessary, guns, blades, and most importantly monitored and highly explosive kill switches embedded in the neck.

So far highly effective, has only had to space one out of the thirty four made so far.

I would clone the player characters.

I make killdroid proxy soldiers. Why bother making meatbags that need to heal or breathe or use vehicles?
Let's just have remote controlled drones that can do the job while leaving all the training back at base.

Then I have them be piloted by underaged korean and japanese schoolchildren, for maximum efficiency.

I'll assume for the purpose of the exercise that I'm predestined to succeed. Anyway,

For the control element I go with a dual upload/AI approach. I want the uploads to be able to download to artificial bodies for off-duty. Also mass copying and putting some or all the experiences back into the same body.

The AI I evolve to handle more and more complex decision making, more and more promptly. The uploads are basically more limited AI but their speed can be improved.

Actual chassis are everything from swarms of micro/minibots through humanoids (think nanosuit-like warbots without a squishy organic inside) through vehicles from technicals through tanks, fast movers air and space, sea, space, up to battleships and industrial swarms.

As much as I can impart anything on them, it's a deep respect for life, absolutely no problem with fighting in defense and general well wishes for everyone.

At some point I take a vacation after kickstarting the Culture as a maximum fuck you to the military-industrial complex.

Plenty of strategies for making them, but you've also got to keep them. Be honest about what they are, and make their enhancements removable or reversible. Offer them the ability to leave the program at any time and have their tech removed, but give them plenty of reasons to stay in. Cater to every desire, light duty schedule, make them feel like they're lucky to get whatever they want for weeks on end in exchange for the occasional mission. Unless you're doing consciousness level changes that makes slaves, this is much more important than minor differences in creation.

Cruel as F!

I get a bunch of volunteers and screen them, physically, mentally, normal stuff. But I let most through, only really disallowing psychos and physically defectives.

Then give them exosuits, with only minimal cybernetic enhancement to allow interfacing with them and to keep up with the enhanced strength and reaction speeds.
The suit itself would be as robust and have multiple redundancies as possible, and the goal would be to have it be the "ak-47" of suits: comparatively easy to fix, replace parts for, and to service, while still doing the job.

They would receive elite forces training with and without suits, and psychological hardening to adverse stimuli and situations.

My opinion is that strength of mind and force of willpower, in conjunction with teamwork, is what makes soliders super. Gadgets and toys come second to being able to train and equip large forces of competent soldiers who can hold their own against even superiorly equipped foes, and defeat them with numbers and guts.