278. Plate Beetles

Plate beetles (actually engineered primarily from ticks) are large saucer-shaped arachnids with massive carapaces and very little else. They are limbless and immobile, consisting of a hypostome for sucking blood and a pocket of tissue feeding on that blood and maintaining their exoskeleton, which makes up over 90% of their mass. Placed on bare skin, a plate beetle will anchor itself (usually with the aid of non-toxic glue) and begin sucking blood. Attached, the beetles act as a form of ablative plate, absorbing damage.

Mechanics

Plate beetles are armor [Low]

They provide 6/6 armor, reduced by 1/1 for each hit.

201. Knitting Spores

The fibers of the knitting fungus spread throughout the body, encompassing everything beneath the skin into its weave. As a result, the body's tissues are held together more stubbornly, better resisting impacts and shocks, and limiting damage. The spores are engineered to not damage organs, but this limits the speed of their growth, and they usually take 2 months to fully spread. The spores would be destroyed by stomach acid if ingested, and would cause damage to the lungs if inhaled, so they are rubbed thoroughly into the skin, sending their initial sprouts through pores.

Mechanics

Knitting spores are bioware [Moderate]

Knitting spores increase wound threshold by one.

105. Dermalichen

The infamous debut of Marie-Smith Nguyen at the Elysium Gallery of Living Art was also the debut of a new type of body modification. A clever young biohacker had engineered the fungal substrate of lichen that live on human skin. Modifications to the fungal filaments allow for much a greater variety of form than found in nature, and modifications to the symbiotic algae and cyanobacteria for more and brighter colors. The fractal plates, bushes and mazes grown on a users skin are fragile: mature dermalichen growths are often used as form of conspicuous leisure, demonstrating that one can avoid any bodily stress.

Mechanics

Dermalichen are bioware [Low]

52. Gut Macrofauna

Marie-Smith Nguyen's debut at the Elysium Gallery of Living Art revived one of the stranger dreams of some small corners of bio-hacker society. Her piece was a carefully crafted papier-mâché pregnancy belly, open at the belly button, and filled with a hive of honeybees. Disaster struck when she tripped, shattered the hive, and the gallery was suddenly filled with angry bees. This gave some strange people strange ideas.

Every so often, a bio-hacker floats the idea, seriously or tongue-in-cheek, of going whole-hog with symbiosis, and engineering symbiotes that would put human bodies on the path towards becoming ecosystems. After the Elysium debacle, enthusiasm peaked as bio-engineers considered the possible benefits of playing host to a hive of eusocial insects. They would defend the body as their home, and pay rent in honey!

The only practical results from this brief craze is a biomod creating a thick skin pocket suited for a wasp nest. The wasps are engineered not to attack anything smelling like their host, but will otherwise defend their home with their usual vigor. Footage of their effects during an attempted mugging has gone viral, but the mod is illegal or discouraged on most habitats.

Mechanics

Any time the host is attacked and suffers damage equal to one wound, everyone in the immediate area is attacked by wasps. Treat as bees and gardener wasps from Panopticon.

35. Sensites

Another in the failed product lines of designer symbiotes, Sensites, unlike famine worms, offer direct, functional augmentation. Distilled from parasitic nematodes, Sensites have been heavily engineered for relative gigantism, and sensitivity to various electromagnetic spectrums.

Sensites are most commonly available in aerosol cans. To apply, a user simply sprays the eggs on bare skin. The little worms hatch, and migrate to the underside of the skin, where they live long, slow lives. Upon exposure to their pre-programmed spectrum of radiation, they begin to rapidly spasm. An experienced user can judge the strength of different fields, and, if the sensites have been applied in lateral lines, gradients as well. Overall, however, the sense is rough and outclassed by newer options.

Mechanics

Sensites are bioware [Low]

Sensites can be made to react to most electromagnetic spectrums. The user can tell overall strength and the direction of powerful sources, but with little detail.

12. Famine Worm

Designer symbiots were one of the most hyped failures of the biotech industry. Tailored micro and macro-organisms promised automatic, self-regulating augmentation, a tool that could merge with the body's complex systems. Many of these promises even came true. When it came to the market, however, biotech companies were simply unable to overcome the "squick" factor: their products were too gross for consumers. In the end, they were rendered obsolete by medichines and nanotechnology.

The famine worm was designed as a hedge against starvation, able to provide a package of calories when most needed, but the famine worm was also a genetically engineered tapeworm that very few people were willing to host. The worm was first offered to famine and starvation-response charities, where it saw some minor successes. The primary market was in militaries where potential hosts could simply be ordered to eat the eggs, however gross it seemed. Famine worms are no longer sold or supported by any company, but the freeze-dried eggs remain viable for decades and the genome has become public domain. You never know what you might find in some barsoomian supply-cache or old brinker hab.

Acquiring a worm is simple: just swallow a pill containing the egg. Once hatched, the worm anchors itself at the top of the intestinal tract. Like a normal tapeworm, it has a voracious appetite, eating from the digestive system of its host. Once it reaches sufficient size, however, it stops growing, and eats only enough to sustain itself. A famine worm can remain in this low metabolic state for years. If the host (and therefore the worm) ever goes for ~48 hours without eating any food, the worm dies, and begins a genetically programmed phase of rapid disintegration. The disintegrated worm is easily taken up by the intestines, providing a small but timely burst of calories and nutrients.