252. Solemn's Seeds

Firewall's new society will require an industrial base, but Solemn is hostile to both nanofabrication and traditional industry. Like with the other Solemn proposals, their solution is biological. An egg, containing a genetic blueprint of the item to be grown, and the needed feedstock.

All of the costs of nanofabrication are up-front, which has advantages and disadvantages. An egg does not require a power source, as it contains what energy it will need in the form of fat, and does not require a continuous source of material, as again it contains what it will need. Once an egg has been "laid" it remains viable for ~3 years, or if stored properly, indefinitely.

The current difficulty with the project is the creation of an egg-layer. To be viable on Solemn, some sort of animal or organ must be created, capable of translating nanofabrication blueprints into a genetic code, then creating and laying the egg. The eggs created so far have all been essentially from scratch, with blueprint translations requiring touching-up and experimentation.

Mechanics

Organic but non-living objects can be grown in an egg at a rate of 2 hours per cost category of the item. Living things (such as morphs and animals) can be grown in an egg at a rate depending on their size: 1 year if small, 1.5 years if normal, 2 years if large.

251. Skin-Suits

Solemn is one of the most habitable exoplanets discovered, but it is not without its environmental hazards. in particular, temperatures ranging from freezing to literally boiling. As part of the Solemn Initiative, Argonaut work-groups have designed a biological alternative to hazmat, vacc, and combat suits. Skin-suits are all those in one package, but have yet to catch on.

Skin-suits not only replace combat armor, but act as environmental protection against dangerous gasses, non-breathable atmospheres, high and low temperatures, and allow for digestion of a greater array of foods. In fact, the suit effectively takes over a number of the body's tasks, using a feeding tube, breathing mask, catheter, colostomy, and associated recycling systems.

The suit designers have done their best to shy away from biohorror. From a distance the suit looks like tight leather with protective sports gear. Looking closer, however, reveals that the "leather" is a living hide, and that the helmet, knee pads and other extra protection is chitin, melded into the hide. The face is minimal, as early attempts to maintain a human face fell deep into the uncanny valley. Instead, the mouth is almost invisible when closed and the ears and nose are simply small openings. They eyes are large, blank and reflective, looking like insectoid sunglasses.

Mechanics

Skin-suits are armor [Expensive]

A skin-suit provides 11/11 armor (equivalent to carapace armor, stacks with bioweave), as well as purifying air to human-tolerances (equivalent to enhanced respiration), providing improved insulation (equivalent to temperature tolerance) and expanded options for sustenance (equivalent to digestive symbiotes).

The primary variant is designed for vacuum (with vacuum sealing and oxygen reserves). Medichines are also common, as the suit can be healed just like a morph, but requires a special variety, and does not benefit from the medichines of the morph wearing it.

250. Biots

AIs piloting biological or mostly biological morphs is not a new idea, as, pre-Fall, pods were inhabited by AIs more often than egos. To survive on Solemn, a morph must be biological through and through, meaning no cyberbrains, and that means the development of AIs with animal nervous systems as substrates. The result so far are biological robots dubbed "biots".

The form of a biot is deliberately designed to echo a typical synthetic chassis with a rigid exoskeleton of bone plates or chitin. They are multipurpose laborers first and foremost, with 4 dexterous arms and 4 strong legs, looking like a sort of ant-centaur. They function as servitor or automech robots in most ways, with the downsides of requiring food and sleep.

 Although their nervous systems are designed to remain stable, so as to preserve their AI, plasticity does ensure change. Biots are still new, but simulations suggest models over five years old will be significantly better at any tasks regularly performed, and that those over ten years old will have gained a much improved talent for fuzzy logic. The downside is a decrease in skills that have gone unused.

Mechanics

Biots are treated as robots [Expensive]

Movement Rate: 4/20 Max Velocity: 20 Armor: 11/11 Durability: 40 Wound Threshold: 8 Mobility System: Walker

Enhancements: 4 Legs, 4 Arms, Biot Brain*, Carapace Armor (11/11),  Circadian Regulation, Clean Metabolism, Enhanced Vision,

*Biot AIs cannot be switched out or upgraded. They come with Profession; Laborer 60, Perception 40, Freerunning 40, plus one combat skill at 40.

249. The Solemn Initiative

Solemn represents a great opportunity in the form of a great problem. The exoplanet's unique ecology devours metals and plastics, and with them the foundations of most transhuman technology. Solemn is therefore of interest not only to scientists, but bioconservatives and neo-primitives, who see it as a new Earth, and the best chance for a natural life.

Protection in the form of repair swarms and anti-microbe swarms is sufficient for the short-term, and with improvement, might allow for indefinitely functional tech. Firewall, however, has decided that it would be better for transhumanity to solve the problem the hard way. Firewall, with the help of Argonaut agents and sympathetic bioconservatives, has been pushing a plan for Solemn based on new forms of biotech, recreating the functions of synthetic technology in organic forms.

In the far-future, Firewall envisions a biotech-based transhuman society, distinct from the more synthetic mainstream, with different strengths and weaknesses and therefore subject to different modes of failure and existential threats. Anything that could wipe out one would not likely be as effective against the other.

Plot Hook: Firewall's plan is much more appealing to bioconservatives and neo-conservatives than to most scientists and explorers. The player characters discover that Firewall supported the recent neo-primitive attack on the Solemn science station, as part of an earlier version of the plan to establish a new outpost of transhumanity. It is up to them to decide how to handle this sensitive information.