The formal position of the Terran Accord is that Terran technology is inherently superior and that xenotech is unfit for use in the Accord, particularly by the Cosmic Navy. This stance, while likely an implicit assumption by any sufficiently patriotic Terran before first contact, became a major focal point of Terran propaganda following the discovery and conflict with the Rinans. Given their collectivist technologically minded culture, Rinans posed a theoretical threat to the corporate hegemony over technological production, and thus as anti-xeno/Terran supremacist rhetoric escalated along with the conflict, xenotech was condemned for being both unpatriotic and of inferior quality.
In actual practice, many cutting edge developments in Accord technology in the immediate lead-up to conflict with the Affini were achieved via reverse engineering of xenotech. Such research is a matter of utmost secrecy, conducted in black sites by the OCNI, then typically field tested in military and covert ops by operatives or military assets unaware of their origins.
During the course of Affini expansion through the galaxy, one of the species that they encountered prior to Terrans were an arthropod-like xeno species called the Quinoth in Terran Standard English. Another species that attempted armed resistance against Affini Domestication, debris from a Quinoth ship (or potentially ships, indeterminable due to structural damage) was recovered at the fringes of Terran space by the OCNI, theorized by OCNI researchers to be a consequence of a drive malfunction or blind jump gone awry.
Quinoth technology was more advanced in a number of areas compared to existing technology, and the potential existence of aliens more technologically (and, as a possible result, militarily) capable than Terrans presented a massive threat to the Accord both externally and internally. The conquest of the Rinans had provided perceived legitimacy for massive expenditures on the Cosmic Navy, which otherwise existed as a mercenary group for the protection of corporate colonial interests. Moreover, with the government having leaned into Terran supremacy as an ideological platform, the potential existence of more powerful aliens could undermine the current government's base of support amongst both the population and large and corporate backers.
For these political reasons, the OCNI maintained strict information control around the existence of the recovered debris and proceeded to study it under absolute secrecy, with the intent that any technological advancements achieved as a result would be monopolized by hardline Accord loyalists.
(Lore Credit to Miss Praxis)
With concerns about encounters with the species that produced the recovered technology and other potentially advanced alien species with actual hostile intent (unlike the curious and peaceful Rinans), the OCNI were effectively given carte blanche freedom and unlimited resources to produce whatever they wanted. As a result, the OCNI achieved a number of radical technological leaps in the years immediately leading up to conflict with the Affini and throughout the course of the pacification campaign. That said, given the difficulties of reverse engineering entirely different technological conventions and architectures, such progress was extremely unpredictable and conducted largely via trial and error. It also occurred at the expense of the lives of horrifying number of Terran test subjects, as OCNI philosophy treated human life as just another resource to exploit and ethics as a distraction.
OCNI R&D (and R&D programs conducted by private companies secretly controlled and operated by the OCNI) achieved breakthroughs several focus areas during this period, including - but not necessarily limited to - the following:
- Hypermetric Technology, including:
- Hypermetric Telecommunication (Ansibles): While Terrans had previously developed hypermetric jump drive technology, FTL telecommunication was not available, with high-latency FTL data transfer achieved by small autonomous drones with jump drives making trips to transport physical data storage media from one place to another - analogous to shipping a truck load of hard drives. The OCNI achieved success in developing very low bandwidth portable hypermetric communication devices which could send and receive messages by standard protocols. (First showcased in Lost in Eden)
- Biomedical Engineering, including:
- Bioweapons: OCNI research into chimeric living weapon development served multiple purposes for the organisation: it provided an opportunity for testing esoteric recombinant DNA modifications that may lead to more general purpose applications, produced assets for theoretical deployment in unusual tactical conditions, and provided a horrifying means for sadistic officers and politicians to dispose of political prisoners. (First showcased in Łamia Domestication Guide)
- Complete Cybernetic Conversion: While research into the development of general purpose, AGI equipped weapons platforms had been the holy grail of military research for multiple centuries, the arrival of the Affini created an urgent demand for vehicles and anti-boarding close-combat units immune to airborne xenodrug sedatives. Cutting corners to achieve drastically accelerated deadlines, other medical and military research initiatives were gutted to develop a process to directly convert Terrans into pseudo-AGI modules (used primarily in ship systems), and eventually in complete anti-Affini cyborg weapons platforms. (First showcased in Unit 7.322 (aka Tess))
- Direct Bi-Directional Neural Interfacing: While piloting tanks and other forms of VR/AR technology previously existed in the Accord, this technology involved providing sensory stimuli (such as projected images on a screen) and interpreting the resulting peripheral nervous commands within the virtual context. The OCNI's xenotech based neural interfaces provided to elite operatives could directly produce sensory stimuli within the brain and interpret thought-based inputs, augmenting their reaction times and capabilities beyond those of a regular Terran. (First showcased in Black Start)
- Flash Cloning: An area of active research during the Terran Domestication War/Pacification Campaign, intended for replenishing captured troops and defectors with trained and loyal soldiers. Research program was halted by Affini capture of research sites. (First showcased in More the Merrier)
- Artificial Intelligence, including:
- Integrated AI Neural Implantation: With the use of direct neural interfacing, adaptive artificial intelligence programs could be integrated into a cybernetic brain implant to act as an interaction layer between conventional Terran technology and neural input-output channels, in addition to providing normal virtual assistant functionality. (First showcased in Black Start)
- Artificial General Intelligence (Sapient AI): While the required processing power and data storage required for theoretical development of AGI had been available to Terrans for centuries before Affini arrival, advancement in this area was strictly controlled due to cultural narratives around the hostility of theoretical artificial sophonts incorporated into the hardline anthrochauvinism that emerged victorious within the factional violence leading up to the formation of the Accord. Any deliberate AGI development efforts were strictly scrutinized and required to incorporate so many safeguards against autonomy that they were doomed to failure, and any accidentally developed nascent proto-AGI were expunged upon discovery as potential existential threats. With the use of Quinoth (and later, salvaged Affini) computing technology and lifted regulatory restrictions to combat the existential threat of the Affini Compact, AGI research projects increased exponentially in scope and resources. (First showcased in Unit 7.322 (aka Tess))