181. Dogbots

Once Fa Jing released their animalware cybersuites, it was only a matter of time before augementicist took things to the natural conclusion and placed their dog's newly cybernetic nervous systems into robotic bodies. Essentially synth morphs for dogs, dogbots have become hugely successful among those looking for guard or combat animals, because their robot bodies can be easily modified. As dogbots have become popular, versions of animalware cybersuites and robot bodies are being developed for all common species.

Common variants include synthetic masked versions, designed to catch their opponents off-guard, heavy versions with better armor, and hellhound versions with flamethrowers in their mouths.

Mechanics

Dogbots are treated as robots physically, and animals mentally. [Expensive]

Movement Rate: 4/40 Max Velocity: 40 Armor: 14/12 Durability: 40 Wound Threshold: 8 Mobility System: Walker

Enhancements: Cybercortex, Cyberclaws, Light Combat Armor, Enhanced Smell

165. Tall-Dogs

TITAN bred tall-dogs wander the deserts of Mars, ranging far from the TITAN Quarantine Zone. Physically, tall-dogs resemble the maned wolves of old Earth, walking on stilt-like legs. They also, however, have toothless jaws and meter-long, prehensile, blood-sucking tongues.

Tall-dog behavior is defined by their apparent lack of consciousness, with behavioral patterns that remind many of insects or robots, not mammals. They are nonetheless social, although they do not form any permanent or even semi-permanent packs. Tall-dogs maintain contact with each other through constant ultrasonic howling, sharing information about themselves and their surroundings. When they are in a secure position they will attempt to breed. They are hermaphroditic, so each member of a pair will impregnate the other, then they separate. Like normal wolves or dogs, they will dig a den to give birth in, although they always give birth to twins. Tall-dog pups grow almost as fast as they can be fed, usually reaching maturity in a month.

They hunt primarily through ambush. If one picks up the scent of prey, it will follow from a distance, staying out of sight and following the scent trail, while howling to draw other dogs. Once enough dogs have joined, they rush the target, piercing it with their tongues and killing through rapid blood-loss.

Sequencing of the tall-dog genome has revealed a disquieting fact: the dogs do not seem to have been engineered, but rather, even their most extreme traits were formed, somehow, through selective breeding.

Mechanics

COG 5 COO 10 INT 10 REF 20 SAV 5 SOM 20 WIL 10
INIT 8 SPD 2 DUR 35 WT 7 DR 53 LUC 20 TT 4 IR 40

Skills: Perception 80, Unarmed Combat 60, Infiltration 60, Fray 60, Freerunning 50
Enhancements: Bioweave (Heavy), Claws, Echolocation, Enhanced Vision, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Respiration, Temperature Tolerance

Sleights: Unconscious Lead (Constant)
Movement Rate: 6/40
Attack: Tongue 1d10 + 2 DV, AP −1
Armor: 3/4

143. Hulderhund

Titan is far rimward, cold and distant from the greater mass of transhumanity. Nevertheless, thanks to the Commonwealth's One Mind, One Body policy and friendly liberalism, the Titanian population is growing quickly. The hulder, the nomadic herders of caribou across Titan's cold, carbonaceous surface, see in this growth the slow loss of the wildness of their herding grounds. As a part of their cultural experiment, as welcome companionship, and as an early stage of preparation for predicted altercations, they created the hulderhund.

Like hulders and their caribou, hulderhund blubbery skin makes them appear cybernetic on the surface, but they are entirely biological, engineered from Titanian Autonomous University smarts. Like the caribou, hulderhund eat the natural carbonaceous compounds from Titan's surface, and participate in the AR hallucination of Earth's tundras. Hulder train them in herding, but otherwise keep them for companionship.

Mechanics

Treat as smart dogs with the addition of  fractal digits, long-term life support, and temperature tolerance (Cryonic) [High]

58. Zeroes

As Smarts were to uplifts, Zeroes were to bouncers. While Smarts were bred for intelligence, Zeroes were bred for health in zero and micro gravity environments. Zeroes were some of the first animals bred/engineered for off-Earth environments, as well as some of the first testbeds for early medichines.

Zeroes were at first broad mixes of dog breeds, combined for maximum diversity. All Zeroes were inoculated with medichines, providing a constant stream of information on the health of their hosts. They were prone to the usual health problems that come with zero/micro-gravity, but were kept healthy by the intervention of their medichines. The less medichine intervention any dog required, the larger their genetic contribution to the next generation. In this way, the dogs were slowly adapted to zero gravity, minute medichine-sourced records of their development were made, and the dogs maintained excellent health.

The descendants of Zeroes can still be found as pets throughout the system, popular mostly among wealthy Lunar citizens in micro-gravity habs. The unusual flexibility and dexterity of the breed makes them keen competitors in agility competitions.

20. Smarts

Not to be confused with smart dogs, smarts are the result of a century-long selective breeding program. The project was begun in the 21st century as a means of investigating intelligence. Researchers bred mixes of the most smartest dog breeds, then began a breeding program aimed solely at increasing their performance at special, dog-oriented IQ tests. Dogs scoring above average when tested bred the next generation, resulting in a steady increase of measured intelligence.

The program itself never deviated from selective breeding, but they provided the basis for a great deal of genetic engineering. Smarts provided much of the fundamental research allowing for smart animals, uplifts and mentons. Samples of every dog's genome were kept and maintained, allowing researchers to track the genetic basis for the changes they were seeing. Smarts themselves were ultimately supplanted by the smart animals and uplifts they spun off, but the project is nonetheless maintained by the Titan Autonomous University.

Plot Hook: Not all of the genome records of the smarts program made it off Earth. A reclaimer data miner has uncovered the location of a hardened server that may hold the complete records. The data would be worth a small fortune in rep or credits to several hypercorps, the argonauts or the Titanian Autonomous University, but the players must retrieve it first.