Symbionts

A promising field of research, largely cut down in its prime, symbiotic lifeform augmentations, or simply “Symbionts,” are bleeding-edge technology that features bio-engineered parasitic lifeforms designed to take some nutrients and water from a host, in turn sharing with them one of many small augmentations.

Due to the NanoPocalypse, people are a bit leery of keeping technology inside their bodies that could possibly start thinking for itself, and the idea of sharing one’s body with another organism tends to have a visceral reaction from most of metahumanity, even when the creatures in question have proven fully benign. Ongoing issues with CFD have not helped, and most of the more obvious symbiont forms, such as the leech symbiont line, has been put into storage for a few years, until the market is friendlier to a new rollout. Turns out that you can have a cat head or a metal arm and people mostly shrug, but if you have some bug squibbling along your arm, people tend to react badly.

The remaining symbionts are almost entirely of the endo- variety, introduced into the host’s body and allowed to do their thing sight unseen. The larger ones can be "felt" moving from time to time, but that this is mostly psychosomatic. While the treatment is quite effective, it’s vital that the patient not be told what’s going on and that the wound be covered up, dressed, and undressed only by medical professionals.

Dangers of Symbionts

Symbionts are ordinarily quite safe. The base form is chosen for the low impact it inflicts on a host, and none do well if the host dies; they share the host’s biosystemic stability, after all. That said, when the life form is damaged, it tends to react somewhat erratically, usually pulling extra blood and nutrients from the host in order to repair itself. This process is gradual as the ally slowly turns truly parasitic, and it is easily overlooked for days, even weeks, before the effects become clear. In this situation, a medical procedure is needed to extract it, which the symbiont tends to struggle against. Once removed, most providers will apologize and replace it for free with a new, non-parasitic version as a token of good faith. Assuming you still want one of the things in you.

Eaten From Within

When the host takes resisted damage greater than their Body, or they enter overflow, the symbiont organism turns parasitic. This can also occur during a critical glitch while actively using the benefits of the symbiont.

While the symbiont is parasitic, the host suffers the loss of one box from their physical damage chart per week. Worse, this lost box cannot be healed until the parasite is removed.

Removing a symbiont turned parasitic requires a successful Biotech + Logic (12, 1 hour) Extended test.

Leech Symbionts

Though Genesis is leading the field of ectosone technology, UniOmni/Renraku were the first to introduce leech ectosymbionts. Leech symbionts usually feature one or more neural shunts that create a link between the nervous systems of the host and symbiont.

Carapace

Carapace symbionts possess a natural hardened shell and are implanted subdermally in critical areas (covering the chest and upper limbs), acting as a form of dermal armor. Careful clothing can conceal the leech symbionts from view.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥30,000

Notes: Gain 8 points of natural Armor. Your unarmed attacks inflict Physical damage.

This symbiont is incompatible with any other skin modifications.

Cleaner

For a long time, the only leech symbiont in use was the cleaner, which is simply a modern take on a procedure used thousands of years ago. Flesh-eating insects, usually maggots but sometimes small beetles, are introduced to a wound, where they consume only the dead flesh. They clean the wound in a matter of days far more thoroughly than modern science can with tools. The insects only eat necrotic tissue, avoiding any damage to living flesh whatsoever. As dead flesh has no nerve endings, the procedure doesn’t so much as a tickle. Unfortunately, people tend to react badly to the sight, so dressing the wound is vital to the procedure’s success.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥100

Notes: Cleaners are a temporary symbiont that provide a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to natural Healing tests until all damage is removed and a +4 Dice Pool Modifier to resist secondary infection until all wounds are healed.

Cypher

While most of the symbiont research is fairly old, there are a couple of new avenues that have started to show up. Some Emerged symbiotic leeches were discovered near power substations. When technicians went to perform routine maintenance on the software, they found that the firewalls of the local hosts were bolstered beyond what they should have been. This brought in some researchers from the parent company. With two weeks’ training, the leeches will boost the Firewall of a specific Matrix device. For this service, they only require sustenance from their host.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥35,000

Notes: Cyphers are a symbiont that provides a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to the Firewall rating. If the device it has been trained to protect is ever destroyed or swapped, it takes an additional two weeks to retrain them to protect a new device.

Glow

This leech symbiont is mana-sensitive, possessing spliced glo-moss genes. Whenever an astral form passes through the host body, the symbiont trembles and visibly glows. Glow symbionts have also been known to light up when passing through mana barriers, a ward, or in the area of a spell.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥40,000

Notes: Allow the host to make a Perception + Intuition (2) test, with a +2 Dice Pool Modifier.

If the test succeeds, the character feels the symbiont vibrate, and the leech glows.

Sac

This leech symbiont is essentially a living Chemical Gland, designed to release its compound into the host’s system with a neural signal. Each sac leech can only produce a single compound, chosen when purchased, and the selection cannot be changed. These compounds must be non-magical. The sac leech produces a single dose every twenty-four hours and can hold as many as two doses at once.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥30,000 + (Compound Dose Cost x ¥100)

Notes: Note that the implantation of a sac leech in no way provides immunity, or even improved resistance, from the substance for the user. The sac leech keeps the compound from leaking into the body naturally.

The sac leech’s cost is the base price of the gland plus an amount equal to the cost of one hundred doses of the chemical compound it produces.

The Availability of the sac leech is 6, or equal to the compound created, whichever is higher, and is licensed or illegal if the chemical carries such a flag.

A user may have several sac leeches. The sac leech may be connected to a cybernetic reservoir.

Endosymbionts

A more traditional approach to sympathetic life forms, endosymbionts, or “endodonts” in proper marketing-speak, are implanted into the body - typically either in the digestive tract or, more rarely, into the body cavity itself - where they attach to an organ, taking small levels of blood in return for the work they do.

The general lifespan of an endosome is 10 years, after which they pass through the body naturally and need to be replaced.

Endo-Booster

Connecting to the adrenal glands at the top of the kidney, the endo-booster quietly stores excess adrenaline, releasing it into the body during high-stress moments and staving off the onset of exhaustion in the process.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥30,000

Notes: Endo-Boosters reduce any Fatigue status by two levels, but remaining Fatigue (if any) lingers twice as long as the booster siphons energy to replenish itself. This is compatible with a Synthacardium augmentation.

Endo-Digester

One of the simplest of endodonts, the digester takes advantage of the inherently inefficient human digestive system. It is attached to the large intestine and feeds off waste material, converting it to assorted proteins that it can easily digest and share with the host. In essence, it acts as a second and stronger stomach, wringing more efficient digestion out of food and other matter. The process allows the host to make more with less and helps process water especially well.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥20,000

Notes: The host may reduce their food intake by 50% without harm (reduce the host’s Lifestyle cost by 10% if more advanced lifestyle rules are not being used), and they may double the time that they can go without water.

Endo-Electrocore

Rumor has it that the endo-electrocore was accidentally discovered in a Shiawase research laboratory built off the coast of Hong Kong. While on lunch, a scientist noticed that a variety of aquatic life was being drawn to the laboratory. She originally thought it could be new forms of technoanimal, and so she had a team capture specimens for study. The truth was that the animals were the host of an unknown endosymbiotic relationship. The new lifeform was extracted, and new testing began. When endo-electrocore is injected into a metahuman, they start to sense Matrix activity, such as signal direction and strength, and at times the type of device.

Essence:

0.05

Availability:

Cost:

¥20,000

Notes: The endo-electrocore functions up to a distance equal to (Body + Intuition) in meters. A Major Action is required to use endo-electrocore, then roll Perception + Intuition and check the hits against the Electrosense Table.

An endo-electrocore only provides information from the technosense column. This is a passive sense, with no broadcasting noise originating from the individual.

Endo-Electroreceptor

This lifeform can detect electromagnetic energy within a range of one meter, passing that information to its host as a small buzz in its nervous system. As a side effect, they’re always aware of magnetic north.

Essence:

0.05

Availability:

Cost:

¥20,000

Notes: A simple Perception + Intuition (2) test will reveal magnetic activity within one meter, such as that produced by current-powered devices, other than the host’s own gear.

Endo-Gain

These endodonts attach themselves to muscles and strengthen their resistance to damage. When people undertake physically tasking activities, they cause micro-tears in their muscle fibers. Endo-gain acts as a glue or bandage. The tear still happens, but the muscle doesn’t lose effectiveness, allowing a person to lift or carry more than normally possible.

Essence:

0.05

Availability:

Cost:

¥15,000

Notes: When calculating how much a character can carry, add a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to Strength.

Additionally, if a character makes a Lift/Carry test, they receive a +1 Dice Reroll.

Endo-Halcyon

This lifeform spends most of its life in a dormant state. It’s only when its food source is in abundance that it wakes to gorge itself until falling back into hibernation. It feeds on cortisol, which is the alarm system for individuals’ fight-or-flight mechanism. When someone starts to panic, more cortisol is released into the body, awakening the lifeform. It starts eating the cortisol and reduces the chance of someone panicking. It naturally multiplies until it is in harmony with its environment, meaning that it works with any augmentations. The only difference is that someone with, say, an adrenal gland may require more of the life forms within their body to reach that balance.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥25,000

Notes: Endo-halcyon adds a +1 Dice Reroll to defend against any panic-related test.

Additionally, endo-halcyon allows anyone with a Phobia (p. 130, Firing Squad) to spend Edge while near their subject of phobia.

Endo-Mender

A mender endosymbiont functions as a kind of living medkit. Its neural link to the user will warn them of any significant trauma. When the host takes Physical damage, the mender moves internally to eat dead skin, promote healing, and secrete antibacterials and coagulants to stop bleeding and prevent infection.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥10,000

Notes: When making a Natural Recovery, the host gains a +1 Dice Pool Modifier for the test.

Endo-Stalwart

This symbiont secretes a specially tailored neurotransmitter that subtly modifies the host’s behavior, making them slightly more resistant to fear.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥25,000

Notes: Apply a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to any tests to resist fear or intimidation. Some hosts have also noticed a slight increase in risk-taking behavior; at the gamemaster’s discretion, the character must make a Willpower + Logic (2) test to actively resist taking unnecessary risks or remaining in dangerous situations.

Slimworm

Slimworms were created as a smart anti-obesity medical treatment. They reduce and control weight by suppressing the appetite, increasing the body’s metabolism or interfering with the body’s ability to absorb specific nutrients in food (e.g., blocking fat breakdown and thus preventing fat absorption) without stressing the host too much by overmedication. As long as the abilities of the symbiont are not overstrained or canceled (by starvation), the host will preserve a certain weight and nutrition level (laid out by the symbiont’s design) no matter how much or little they eat. However, if the recipient undereats, they must go on eating binges at regular intervals to keep the slimworm from starving.

Essence:

0.05

Availability:

Cost:

¥1,000

Notes: Slimworms also provide a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to Toxin Resistance tests when resisting ingested toxins.

Gut Flora

There are thousands of these, most of which are so minor as to be useless to mention. Gut flora are unusual in that they can simply be swallowed in a solution and the stomach takes care of the rest, as they all have a long history of interaction and adaptation to the human body. Gut flora never turn parasitic, but tend to have a shorter lifespan than most symbionts, requiring the substance that they are designed to break down on a regular basis or they’ll die of starvation. Should they die off, they’ll be passed harmlessly through the body and a new dose may be taken to restore them.

The most common is Lactose Tolerance while the most cutting-edge is Allergy Resistance.

Lactose Tolerance

Numerous adults all over the world suffer from different levels of lactose intolerance. Especially pronounced in Asia, the condition has spread rapidly in the western world as natural milk began being phased out of most diets. Once the digestive bacteria in the person’s stomach have died, they can no longer break down milk sugars and suffer digestively from the consumption of this otherwise-healthy and helpful drink. Lactose toleration is the single most simple symbiont procedure, consisting of simply ingesting milk laced with the proper bacteria and, in fact, can be found in any clinic, most cafeterias and grocery stores, and even some vending machines. A single treatment can be preserved indefinitely with the consumption of roughly a liter of milk every two weeks, or it can be replaced when needed.

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥50

Allergy Resistance

By slowly introducing first a bacteria that can efficiently digest the material, then slowly ingesting small amounts of the allergen, the body can adjust for the normal vulnerability and gradually build up a true tolerance. Over the course of thirty one-day samples, starting from the smallest fraction and ending with a normal portion, the host can emerge no longer affected by the food in question. As of now, the process does not work for inhalants, such as hay fever, nor tactile exposure responses.

The host may ‘buy off’ an allergic negative quality that’s based on ingesting the substance, such as a soy or shellfish allergy. Only ingestible allergies may be so treated.

Mild

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥10,000

Moderate

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥30,000

Severe

Essence:

Availability:

Cost:

¥50,000