305. Engorged-with-Wealth

Engorged-with-Wealth is the one of oldest residents of Ceres, and certainly the oldest neo-cetacean. He predates the rise of the Hidden Concern, and has run the same protection racket for decades. Relations between Engorged and the Hidden Concern are cold and professional, with the latter tolerating the business and territory of the former in exchange for a percentage.

His primary means of enforcing payment is by threat of being devoured. His digestive system has been substantially retrofitted, with BTX2-laced saliva and a powerfully muscular stomach capable of rapidly flooding itself with acid, like a crocodiles. Any biomorph can be swallowed whole, with cybernetics and stacks simply regurgitated and all else dissolved. His gaping mouth suddenly engulfing them out of the darkness is the last thing many defaulters have seen.

Engorged also has a cult following as a singer. While traveling from settlement to settlement collecting payments he also almost constantly singing, improvising long, deep dirges that remind many of gregorian chant.

Mechanics

Morph: Neo-Whale

Motivation: +Wealth +Survival -Law and Order

COG 15 COO 20 INT 20 REF 20 SAV 15 SOM 25 WIL 15
MOX - INIT 9 SPD  1 LUC 30 TT 6 IR 60 DUR 100 WT 20 DR 150

Active Skills: Deception 45, Fray 75, Infiltration 83, Intimidation 78, Networking: Autonomists 45, Networking: Criminals 68, Palming 50, Perception 60, Scrounging 40, Swimming 90, Unarmed Combat 85

Knowledge Skills: Academics: Genetics 50, Academics: Psychology 50, Art: Singing 50, Interest: Criminal Groups 50, Interest: Music 60, Interest: Music 60, Interest: Rumors 60, Interest: Uplift Clades 60, Language: English (Native) 90, Profession: Loan Shark 50

Ego Traits: Anomalous Mind, Heightened Instinct, Social Stigma

Reputation: g-rep 75

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Crocodile Stomach (treat as Digestive Symbiotes), Drug Gland (BTX2), Echolocation, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Gill, Hydrostatic Pressure Adaptation, Temperature Tolerance (Improved Cold), Toxin Filters

229. A Plan for Ceres

The Hidden Concern maintains a stranglehold on the extraction of water from the Hidden Sea to the surface 100km above, a grip granting them both wealth and control. The neo-octopus cartel has played their position into greater and greater degrees of wealth and control, becoming one of the wealthiest and most powerful groups in the system, and the masters of the dwarf planet. The neo-octopuses do not collect wealth and power for its own sake, they have a dream, a grand plan for Ceres.

The Hidden Concern intends to contain the entire dwarf planet within a planet-sized greenhouse, raising the temperature, melting the ice, and creating an aquatic paradise for cetacean and octopus mercurials. Ceres will be contained within a translucent self-repairing bubble halfway between plastic wrap and denim. The bubble will be kept inflated by an Earth standard atmosphere, simultaneously preventing atmospheric escape due to Ceres' low gravity. Supplemented by a solar mirror, the bubble will be the basis for a greenhouse effect, melting the planet from the outside in. If all goes well, the result will be a tropical ocean more than 100km deep.

This endeavor is on the scale of the terraforming of Mars, and arguably more difficult. The Hidden Concern do not currently have a definitive plan for the creation of their atmosphere. Even if the atmosphere can be created, the length of time to melt even a portion of Ceres' massive ice sheet cannot be calculated with precision, but centuries is likely. The Hidden Concern are in a position to begin, but who can predict the next decade, let alone century?

53. Hellsquid

Attack dogs, tools of assassination, and pride of the Hidden Concern, hellsquid are the boogeymen of Ceres' icy depths. Hidden Concern scientists, liberated from their corporate uplifters, brought stolen information and expertise on the uplifting of mollusks to their new home on Ceres. Seeking to consolidate control of the dwarf planet, they began splicing the genomes of Humboldt squid.

The hellsquid are engineered with an eye towards ambush combat and assassinations. Their chameleon skin renders them virtually invisible in the gloom, and their barbs are usually paired with eelware or poison glands of BTX or twitch: once they grab you, fighting back is impossible. Usually deployed in schools, their swarming has taken down whales.

Mechanics

Hellsquid are smart animals [High]

COG 5 COO 10 INT 10 REF 25 SAV 5 SOM 25 WIL 10 

INIT 8 SPD 1 DUR 35 WT 7 DR 53 LUC 20 TT 4 IR 40

Skills: Swimming 50, Fray 30, Infiltration 30, Perception 30, Unarmed Combat 40
Enhancements: Bioweave (Heavy), Chameleon Skin, Claws, Eelware OR Poison Gland (BTX OR Twitch), Hydrostatic Pressure Adaptation, Toxin Filters, Temperature Tolerance (Improved Cold)
Movement Rate: 6/40
Attack: Claws, 1d10 + 2 DV, AP −1
Armor: 3/4