248. Pod Feed

Pods are not built to last. They are cheaply cloned organs held together by cybernetics, and require extensive regular maintenance. Pod feed is a special food supplement designed to prevent common pod problems. Just as comfurt delivers anti-depressants and anti-psychotics in the form of tasty yogurt, pod feed delivers anti-rejection drugs and purpose-built proteins. Pod feed takes the form of a powder, intended to be mixed into drinks or other foods.

The project is open source, begun and still maintained by the Argonauts. The feed is designed to be producible by everyday makers. Regular use by non-pods can spur the development of a number of immune disorders.

243. Jerrys

Neville Orsonglass was overjoyed and then dismayed at the positive response to his "ultimate survivor" rat-based biomorph, the jenkins. He became embittered as it became clear the morph was not being used for its survivability, but for its ability to tolerate high doses of drugs. Eventually, he elected to take the lessons learned from the jenkins and apply them to a new morph, this time starting with the genome of the naked mole rat.

The result are called jerrys, after the classic cartoon, and for their virtual indestructibility. They can eat anything, digest it efficiently, and store the energy effectively. Even without medichines, they are very difficult to poison. Their thick skin makes them difficult to hurt casually. What Neville has brought to his design that is truly new, however, is its unique metabolism, adapted from naked mole rats. The morph can transition seamlessly between high metabolic, low metabolic, and hibernation states depending on the availability of food, oxygen, and the ambient temperature, moving from a high-activity state in terrestrial climates, to a low-activity state when experiencing deficiencies, all the way to hibernation, if necessary.

The morph has become popular in rural Mars, where it allows for the closest thing to primitive survival possible. Gatecrashers with reasons to avoid synths have also been experimenting with its use.

Mechanics

Jerrys are pods.

Enhancements: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Bioweave Armor (Heavy), Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Digestive Symbiotes, Efficient Digestion, Enhanced Respiration, Fat Storage, Hibernation, Organ Redundancy, Temperature Tolerance, Toxin Filters
Aptitude Maximum: 30
Durability: 45
Wound Threshold: 9
Advantages: +5 INT, +5 REF, Bioweave Armor (3/4)
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Pod) trait, Unattractive (Level 2 ) trait
CP Cost: 35
Credit Cost: Expensive (35,000+)

175. Grafted

The Universal Grafting Standard (UGS) is an attempt by Ecologene to standardize compatibility of engineered tissues. Anything meeting the UGS is guaranteed to be compatible with all other UGS compliant bioware on every level, from blood types to epigenetic relationships. The standard is far from universal, however, as open source groups see it as a way for Ecologene to gain control over the market, and competing hypercorps are in no hurry to build to a competitor's standards. Currently only Ecologene products meet the standard.

The grand promise of UGS is the greatest possible ease of morph design and augmentation. Installation of bioware typically requires for time in a healing vat, surgery, or gene therapy, each of which is either expensive, risky, or takes large amounts of time. UGS compliant bioware can be installed through a rapid surgery procedure or accelerated gene therapy. UGS compliant morph designers can simply combine UGS compliant parts for easy customization, allowing medichines or a short soak in a healing vat to fill in the gaps. These cobbled together morphs are called grafted.

Grafted morphs are not well liked. UGS compliance means they are all virtually genetically identical, opening up the possibility of diseases ripping through the population, a specter most transhumans think of as having been left behind a long time ago. Despite being predominately biological, grafted have many of the qualities of pods, depending on basic biomods or medichines to maintain health, and with scar tissue marking the seams between parts.

Mechanics

Grafted are considered pods, although they lack most of the cybernetic interfaces pods require.

Enhancements: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Augmentation, Puppet Sock
Aptitude Maximum: 30
Durability: 30
Wound Threshold: 6
Advantages: +5 to one aptitude of the players choice, UGS Compliant*
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Pod)
CP Cost:5
Credit Cost: Moderate

*Grafted can gain new bioware from Ecologene catalogs, which is 20% more expensive than other brands, but can be installed with nothing more than a first-aid kit and local anesthetic. The morph will integrate the new ware at the speed of a healing vat, or twice as fast if equipped with medichines.

102. Dromaeosauridae

Among neo-avians (particularly militant and/or mercurial neo-avians), dinosaurs are popular as symbols of strength and power. Some even come to prefer paravian dinosaur morphs over their own native bodies. Most popular of these morphs are the dromaeosauridae, commonly called raptors.

Dromaeosauridae pod morphs come in three models. Deinonychus are roughly human sized, velociraptors are smaller, the size of typical neo-avians, and utahraptors are larger, comparable to a large bear. Dromaeosauridae are feathered but cannot fly, have teeth instead of beaks, and their forearms are altered to make hand-like manipulators. The mercurial avians among whom the morph is popular often turn their large hooked foot-claws into artwork, painting them in bright patterns or beautifying them with scrimshaw.

Mechanics

Dromaeosauridae are all pods.

Deinonychus
Enhancements: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Claws, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Augmentation, Puppet Sock
Aptitude Maximum: 30
Durability: 35
Wound Threshold: 7
Advantages: +5 REF, +5 COO
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Pod), Non-Mammalian Biochemistry
CP Cost: 20
Credit Cost: Expensive (20,000+)

Utahraptor: Treat as a deinonychus with the enlarged size trait.

Velociraptor: Treat as a deinonychus with the reduced size trait.