334: Filtermouth

ENTRY 334: Filtermouth

When you get enough transhumans in a confined space, air quality quickly becomes an issue. Yet transhumanity has had to deal with issues of air recycling and filtering for hundreds of years, and nearly every habitat designed to host biomorphs has considerable systems in place to ensure proper air quality - oxygen levels, gas mixture, particulate levels, humidity, temperature, everything worked out ahead of time. Maintence schedules were built around regular cleaning, filter changes, and repair to ensure continuous use for decades of regular use. However, many habitats - particularly scum barges - have never seen anything like "regular use." Overpopulated, understaffed, and ill-equipped with replacement and repair parts; faced with unexpected strain from industrial gas emissions and delayed maintence, many smaller habitats are a kludge of "temporary" repairs and 3D-printed parts on seriously over-worked stations. Many scum barges in particular have poorly-ventilated zones and regular "bad air days" when part of the system is taken offline to conduct emergency maintenance, forcing resident transhumans to make do with filtermasks or portable air supplies, and many habitats in the Main Belt are noted for their low air quality and pollution.

Filtermouth bioware implants were designed as affordable, limited-action toxin filters in response to low air quality; unlike mechanical air filters which eventually need replacing or recharging, the filtermouth uses a unique self-flushing mechanism to cleanse itself of particulates. While not a complete solution - the manufacturers suggest coupling the augmentation with an oxygen reserve or respirocytes for low-oxygen areas - the filtermouth can effectively block toxins and bioparticulates (particularly mold spores, fecal matter, and airborne bacteria and viruses), considerably improving the user's quality of life.

Feedback on the filtermouth has been mixed, however. The changes to the structure of the nose, mouth, and throat make some basic transhuman activities like speaking, kissing, and oral sex almost impossible, though some transhumans have replaced their tongue with smaller, longer tongues that partially alleviate these issues. The Europan Choir in particular has slightly modified filtermouths that accomodate the different gas mixture used at their depth, and uses a modified throat-singing technique to astounding effect. Other habitats that have gone over to filtermouths out of necessity are strangely quiet, with most vocal communication having been replaced by Mesh-based communication and messaging.

Mechanics

Filtermouths are a bioware implant that modify and partially replace the user's mouth, nose, and throat, adding in a series of biological filters that trap and drain off the majority of particulates and potentially hazardous materials. They function identically to toxin filters (Eclipse Phase 305-6), but only for airborne pollutants. The filtermouth augmentation blocks use of the tongue unless the user opts for a cosmetic augmentation (Trivial cost) for a narrower, longer tongue. The cost of the filtermouth implant is Trivial.

Seed

• Filtermouths have been mandatory on the Manitou scum barge for six years after a partial failure of the air filtration system. All new biomorphs on the station have to have them installed, with the station authorities underwriting the cost of the implant and surgery. However, a crusading blogger believes that air quality in the station has actually been breathable for the last two years, and that hypercorp interests have kept the filtermouth installations in place as part of a long-term, subsidized social experiment in what a society without speech would develop as. Unfortunately, the blogger died (not so mysteriously - a robotic elephant stepped on him during the middle of a sex vacation) and their research data has been dead-dropped in the PC's laps. Will the PCs uncover the truth, or use it as blackmail material?

164: Molly 8

ENTRY 164: Molly 8

Even Firewall makes mistakes. Molly 8 was trained as an asset, one more orphan of the Fall that nobody would miss if things went wrong, but with skills and dedication to the cause. She volunteered for the Experimental Psi-Implant program. Nothing was ever quite clear to her after that.

Molly 8’s escape from Firewall containment was messy. Her mental state since then has continued to degrade, though she remains generally functional in society. Instincts or the remainder of her training convince her to change her face and name frequently, to seek out the edges or lowest levels of society, and to generally keep on the move. She no longer remembers who exactly is looking for her, but she knows it has something to do with her powers.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
12	13	15	15	8	12	50	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	100	10	200	40	8	60

Morph: Remade

Skills: Academics: Neurochemistry 60, Academics: Linguistics 60, Blades 45, Climbing 55, Clubs 45, Deception 80, Disguise 65, Fray 45, Free Fall 45, Freerunning 45, Impersonation 65, Infiltration 60, Infosec 60, Interests: Firewall 55, Interests: Psi 55, Interests: Psychiatric Drugs 55, Kinesics 45, Language: Native English 85, Language: Korean 50, Language: Spanish 50, Language: Mandarin 50, Networking: Criminals 40, Palming 45, Perception 55, Profession: Scrap Merchant 55, Profession: Spycraft 55, Spray Weapons 25, Unarmed Combat 55

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Circadian Regulation, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Eidetic Memory, Enhanced Respiration, Experimental Psi-Implant, Temperature Tolerance, Toxin Filters

Traits: Addiction (Psike-Out, Major), Exceptional Aptitude (WIL), Mental Disorders (ADHD, General Anxiety Disorder, Insomnia, PTSD), Neural Damage (Dyslexia, Mood Swings, Synaesthesia), Uncanny Valley

Experimental Psi-Implant

The experimental psi-implant administers is a combination of dozens of drug glands tied to specialized medical sensors and a computerized controlled center. It releases controlled doses of various psi drugs into Molly’s system, either on a preset schedule or on command. At any given time Molly 8 has 3 different doses of Psi-Opener running through her system, giving her access to 2 Psi-Chi and 1 Psi-Gamma sleight (determined by the gamemaster); Molly can also voluntarily activate a dose of Psike-Out once every hour. A command override signal to the implant will cause it to release a dose of Inhibitor once every six hours. It was hoped that the continued circulation of psi-drugs would enable Molly 8 to develop Psi skills, but instead the continual mental stress and her constantly changing brain chemistry have left her almost insane.

Seed

• Molly 8 was a failure. Molly 9 was a success—but she went rogue. Molly 9 is smart enough to time her psi-drug intake, and knows exactly when she’ll have what sleights available to her, and is working to upgrade herself even further, by stealing a tech device that might grant her access to exsurgent-only psi sleights. Firewall wants Molly 9 brought down, but she has already defeated three teams. As far as Firewall can see, the only hope is to recruit Molly 8 to help hunt down her “sister”; maybe then the player characters will have a chance.

124: EasyGraft

ENTRY 124: EasyGraft

The history of transhumanity is littered with dead-end technologies, products and approaches which for whatever reason did not catch on and were eventually bypassed and forgotten. This has shaped human culture and technological progress considerably over time and can have far-reaching consequences—even today, most Martian and Lunar wheeled vehicles use a control interface derived from 20^th century automobiles, for example. Dead tech tends to stick around for quite a while, long after its marketable heyday, but is generally doomed as the lack of new material, development, and replacement parts render functional units scarce and eventually obsolete. This is particularly a problem when it comes to personal augmentations; no one wants buy cyberware that’s been discontinued, without a warranty and with no follow-up tech support if the software goes buggy. Some communities exist on the Mesh that take a DIY approach morphs saddled with dead tech, building their own updates, mods, and upgrades, but users accept these patches and tweaks at their own risk—the Mark I cyberbrain scandal resulted in more than fifty egos being permanently damaged due to a simple “security upgrade.”

EasyGraft is a dead tech that can still be easily found in many markets, particularly on Luna where it was most popular, though the supply is gradually dwindling. Inventor Malak Tuun had a dream of creating entirely modular biomorphs from cooperative symbiotoids. To raise the funding to produce a full-scale working model, Tuun marketed EasyGraft as a proof-of-concept precursor technology through their microcorp Biosnap, which achieved mild popularity in the inner solar system, but could not compete with the big hypercorps and eventually folded. The core concept of EasyGraft was the Universal Bioport (UBP), an artificial neuromuscular orifice that could be installed nearly anywhere on a biomorph, and which acted as an interface and anchoring point for EasyGraft modules, genetically-engineered symbiotic organs which provided benefits and expanded capabilities to the users. Unlike standard bioware, EasyGraft modules could be swapped out with relative speed and ease in a few minutes without surgery—even between users; unfortunately, they had a very limited range of options, were particularly vulnerable to physical trauma, and had logistical problems delivering units to customers, and so never quite became popular enough for Biosnap to succeed.

Mechanics

EasyGraft consists of the Universal Bioport (UBP), and individual EasyGraft modules which reproduce the functions of standard bioware.

Universal Bioport: The UBP is an artificial orifice and anchoring point, which outwardly resembled a ring-like ridge of flesh about an inch in diameter. Every EasyGraft module contains a rounded cartilaginous protrusion, when set into the orifice, the UBP sphincter contracts and holds the module in place, bringing the neural and circulatory contacts on UBP and module together; glands in the UBP secrete a light adhesive at the edges of the contact point to further anchor the module and keep out air and germs. UBP are often prone to infection, and users tend to cap them when not in use to prevent foreign material from falling into the orifice. A user can have multiple UBPs installed. [Low]

EasyGraft Module: These artificial organs generally resemble sculpted lumps of flesh, or in the case of sensory augmentations may resemble eyes or other structures. All Enhanced Senses (Eclipse Phase, p.301), Drug Glands (p.304), Hyperlinguist, and Math Boost (p.301) bioware are available as EasyGraft modules. As they are located on the outside of the body, EasyGraft modules may be vulnerable to targeted damage (gamemaster’s discretion), and can be forcibly removed with a successful SOM Test. [Low]

091: Seanav

ENTRY 091: Seanav

“Slow free-fall through the dark waters, pressure climbing, cold creeping in as the diver sinks; in the midnight expanse absolute direction is tenuous, a gulf of kilometers between reference points, space enough to get lost in, to drift unknowingly from the course on some subtle current, with no way to find the path back home…”

– Xene Ye, final journal entry recovered from cortical stack

Direction sense implants, despite the name, consist of more than a single new sensory organ. Most of these bioware implants combine moderate boosts to several peripheral senses already present in the transhuman body, combined with selective memory routing options to emphasize path-recognition and retention. In conjunction these provide the user with excellent mapping skills; even outside the context of physical motion a user presented with a map or maze will be able to mentally navigate the pathways with relative ease. In three-dimensional environments, however, these typical augmentations are insufficient; routes are too fluid and complex, subtle sensory cues often overwhelming or nonexistent. Biotechnicians on Europa have addressed this shortcoming with an accessory bioware implant: the Seanav.

Seanav was developed as an adaptation and refinement of the gyromagnetic organs discerned in some of the larger examples of Europan native lifeforms, though xenobiologists believe some similar principle may be at work at all level down to certain of the native bacteria. The Seanav provides a heightened awareness of the body’s movement as a series of vectors; in addition to any specific routes the user took they retain a clear impression of the absolute distance and direction from their current position to their starting reference point. For example, in navigating a complex underwater cave system a standard direction sense user may have trouble remembering the exact series of caverns they entered by, particularly if a cave-in prevented them from exactly retracing their route, but a Seanav user would retain a clear impression of the distance and direction between their current position and the entrance, no matter which route they were to take.

Mechanics

Seanav is an augmentation available for characters with the Direction Sense bioware implant (Eclipse Phase, p.301). With Seanav and Direction Sense a character may navigate in undersea and deep space with only a -10 modifier (instead of the normal -30 modifier). [Low]

Using Seanav

Aside from the mechanical advantage, the Seanav implant exists to make the players and gamemaster’s lives easier—getting lost has its benefits from a story standpoint, but generally speaking it is good for the PCs to at least be able to orient themselves and move in the desired direction, at least to keep a session from stalling out as players try to sort out what to do next. From an in-game standpoint, Seanav is one possible incentive that gamemasters can provide to player characters in an underwater or outer space setting, particularly Europa. Many hypercorps or local power groups looking to hire outside morphs could provide the augmentation gratis as a sign-on bonus for taking the job; local habitats looking to attract settlers could do the same.