# Neural Weapons: Attacking the Augmented Mind

## Overview

Neural weapons target the BCI — the computer inside the human brain. In a population where 78% of adults carry neural interfaces, the BCI is the most widespread vulnerability in the city and the most intimate attack surface in the history of warfare. Neural weapons don't damage the body. They compromise the mind.

## Weapon Categories

### Neural Disruptors
The most common neural weapon. Neural disruptors broadcast electromagnetic pulses tuned to the frequencies used by BCI antenna arrays, overwhelming the BCI's input channels with noise. The effect on the target: immediate loss of augmented perception, severe disorientation as the brain's augmented functions shut down, headache, nausea, and temporary cognitive impairment lasting 5-30 minutes depending on exposure duration. Non-lethal but debilitating. Neural disruptors are standard equipment for all corporate security forces.

### Signal Hijack Devices
More sophisticated weapons that don't disrupt the BCI but infiltrate it — sending unauthorized commands to the bridge chip that the BCI interprets as legitimate input. Effects range from injecting false perceptions (the target sees, hears, or feels things that aren't real) to overriding motor control (the target's body moves against their will). Signal hijack requires knowing the target's BCI encryption keys or breaking them in real-time — a task that quantum computing makes feasible for well-resourced attackers.

### Memory Weapons
The most feared category. Memory weapons target the BCI's memory interface — the system that bridges organic memory and digital memory storage. A memory weapon can: erase specific memories (by disrupting the consolidation process), implant false memories (by stimulating the hippocampus with fabricated experiential data), or scramble memory access (producing a state where the victim can't distinguish real memories from confabulation). Memory weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction under the Corporate Warfare Convention and their use is grounds for economic sanctions against the deploying corponation. They are used anyway, in classified operations that are never acknowledged.

### Kill Switches
The theoretical ultimate neural weapon: a signal that triggers the BCI's bridge chip to deliver a lethal electrical discharge to the brain. Kill switches are believed to exist as classified capabilities within at least two corponation security services (Arcturus and Axiom are the most frequently suspected). No confirmed deployment has ever been documented. The possibility that every BCI contains the hardware necessary for remote termination — and that the only barrier is the software authorization to use it — is the most disturbing implication of universal augmentation.

## Defenses

Faraday clothing provides the primary defense against neural weapons by blocking the electromagnetic signals that carry the attack. For augmented individuals without Faraday protection, the PCL's security features provide a software defense: intrusion detection, signal authentication, and emergency shutdown protocols that disable the BCI entirely if an attack is detected. Emergency shutdown is safe — the brain continues functioning without augmentation — but leaves the user temporarily unaugmented in a world that requires augmentation to navigate.

Kyle's katana provides a unique neural weapon capability: its resonance blade generates electromagnetic interference at close range that disrupts BCI operation in anyone the blade contacts. This makes the weapon effective against augmented opponents even without a lethal strike — a cut to the arm that disrupts the target's BCI is as tactically significant as a deeper wound.