Gene-Hound (Purebred)

[Revised March 2, 2009]

The Gene-Hound is a transgenic chimera blend of Wolf, Blood Hound, and Rottweiler with a specially designed extra-sensory organ, sort of a complex bio-computer, tied into several of the gene-hound's other senses and organs (sinuses, lungs, taste buds, and skin) that it uses to sense and track transgenic mutants.

Before the Crash, scientists and law enforcement agencies utilized these hounds to track down genetically modified plants, animals, and humans that had escaped into the wild. A few other animals were gengeneered with the gene-hound's extra-sensory organ, but only the Gene-Hounds were known to survive the Big Death.

The Empire of Humanity military will often bring a gene-hound along on raids to pick out any mutant animals that may be trying to hide themselves as wild animals, or use them to track down any escaped military and/or political prisoners.

Size Level: 6
Build: Medium

Mutant Changes & Costs
Total BIO-E: 20, for Animal Psionics and Powers only.
Attribute Bonuses: +4 I.Q., +3 P.S., Brute Strength +3 M.E. and +5 Spd.

Human Features
Hands: Partial.
Biped: Partial.
Speech: Partial.
Looks: None. Appears to be a very thick and solid hound, with a large short snouted skull that is a cross between Rottweiler a Bloodhound, without the jowls, and with the erect ears and yellow eyes of a wolf. Their coat is medium length and consists of a waterproof undercoat and a coarse top coat. The fur is normally black with mahogany patches, but some variations have been know; light gray or a dark brown, or the very rare red.

Natural Weapons:
Automatically gets 1D6 Damage Canine Teeth
Automatically gets 1D4 Damage Running Claws
5 BIO-E for 1D6+1 Running Claws
5 BIO-E for 1D8+d Damage Canine Teeth
10 BIO-E for 2D6+4 Damage Canine Teeth

Unique Mutant Animal Powers:
Mutation Sense (Special!). This ability is automatic and constant, the gene-hound can sense the presence of mutant animals in close proximity.
Range: 15 feet, +5 feet per level of experience.
Base Skill: 60%, +3% per level of experience.

In addition, much like the Cell Reader, the hound can sense the genetic structure of an animal, human, or plant by coming in contact with some fragment of the subject (tissue, blood, seeds, etc.). The character can identify the type of animal from which it has evolved, as well as any genetic modifications or mutations and added genes from other species. The gene-hound can even identify a Shifter Mouse in disguise.

Gene-Track (Special!). Like a souped-up Bloodhound, by sampling some fragment of the target (tissue, blood, pollen, etc.) the hound can track and identify specific mutants over great distances.
Base Skill: 60%, +5% per level of experience. Roll once per hour to stay on track.

Mutant Animal Powers:
Automatically gets Advanced Smell.
5 BIO-E for Advanced Hearing
10 BIO-E for Advanced Taste
10 BIO-E for Leaping Standard
15 BIO-E for Beastly Strength
5 BIO-E for Extra Intelligence Quotient
10 BIO-E for Extra Mental Endurance
5 BIO-E for Extra Physical Endurance
5 BIO-E for Extra Physical Prowess
10 BIO-E for Extraordinary Speed
10 BIO-E for Predator Burst
10 BIO-E for Internal Compass

Animal Psionics:
Most Gene-Hounds tend to have few, if any, psionics.

Vestigial Disadvantages:
Automatically gets Domestication
-5 BIO-E for taking Color Blind
-5 BIO-E for taking Vestigial Tail
-5 BIO-E for taking Vestigial Ears
-10 BIO-E for taking Diet: Carnivore

[IN THE NEWS] The Great Escape

One of the greatest fears about Genetically Modified Organisms (both plants and animals), is that, one day, they might escape into the wild and taint the wild non-modified breeds. Well, it's happened: [newscientist.com]

"It's official: genes from genetically modified corn have escaped into wild varieties in rural Mexico. A new study resolves a long-running controversy over the spread of GM genes and suggests that detecting such escapes may be tougher than previously thought."

This has gotten me to thinking about how future gengineers might detect and track escaped GMOs. Enter the Gene-Tracker.

As soon as I read the New Scientist article, I had this idea of genetically augmented bloodhounds that could smell GMO plants and animals, much like some animals are supposed to be able to sense cancer and illness in people.

For more information in the GMO debate, visit these sites:

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/
• http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/sakko.html

Panacea-Goat (Genetic Chimera)

In the mid-21st century, pharmaceutical scientists had genetically engineering goats to produce a variety of drug proteins in their milk to treat various diseases and illnesses. In the years following the Crash, mutagens in the environment altered the goats so that they gained the ability to detect what disease or illness was affecting others and produce the appropriate cure in their milk.

Panacea Goats look like any other goat and tend to live among normal non-mutant goat herds. The only way to tell them apart is with a genetic test or a Cell Reader. Due to this these mutant goats are considered very rare.

It is rumored that the milk of these goats will grant an extraordinary long life, maybe even immortality, to anyone who drinks it regularly and thus these goats are a highly sought commodity.

Size Level: 6 (Medium)
Size: 4' long, 4' 6" feet tall
Weight: ~75 pounds
Hit Points: 20 (2D6+10)
SDC: 12
Psionics: See Aura, Cell Reader, Telepathic Transmission
Attacks Per Melee: 2
Damage: Horns 2D4; Hooves 2D4 (front only)
Mutant Animal Abilities: Panacea Milk (special), Immune to Disease & Illness
Average Life Span: 10 years
Habitat: Various
Notes: Panacea Goats have greater than animal intelligence, and may communicate to others with their telepathic transmission in short and simple words (yes, no, leave, sick, danger, etc.). Only females produce the Panacea Milk.

Panacea Milk (Cure Disease/Illness 85%): To produce this cure-all, the goat must first sample a bit of the patient's blood. This is usually done by the goat biting the sick being and drawing blood (1 hit point). This would normally heals within fifteen minutes. It will take 8-48 hours for the goat to produce the cure in their milk, depending on the severity and nature of the disease/illness, during which time the goat must consume a large amount of grass. There is an infinitesimal chance that someone might be allergic to the proteins in the goats milk, in which case hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylaxis, are possible. Fortunately, the goat will know this from their Cell Reader ability and will not produce any milk for them.

Empathic Transmission: (See Heroes Unlimited or Beyond the Supernatural)

[IN THE NEWS] Pharm Animals

In After the Bomb, the Spider-Goat was based on experiments done around the turn of the century to mass produce spider silk through goats milk. [1], [2], [3]

Now it's come out that a pharmaceutical company has produced a drug from a human protein extracted from the milk of genetically engineered goats. [4], [5], [6]

The process for producing ATryn involves scientists inserting DNA for the human antithrombin protein into a single-celled goat embryo. This embryo is implanted into a surrogate doe. The resulting transgenic offspring are able to produce high levels of antithrombin in their milk. This protein is collected and purified from the milk to produce ATryn, which is administered to patients by intravenous infusion.

So what kind of AtB mutant could we come up with with this? How about an animal that could produce almost any kind of curative drug. A veritable walking pharmacy. Given time, who's to say that scientist couldn't create goats that could produce multiple drugs in their milk, or even one that could sense what is ailing you and then produce the appropriate drug(s) to cure.

In mythology, a panacea, named after the Greek goddess of healing, was supposed to be able to cure all diseases, illnesses, and extend life...indefinitely. Thus is born the Panacea Goat.

[IN THE NEWS] We are becoming Homo Evolutis

Here's an interesting new article in Ars Technica:

At TED 2009, Juan Enriquez talked about the new human species emerging before our eyes. Thanks to an array of biological advances and our growing aptitude in robotics, we now find ourselves in the early days of the deliberate creation of what he called a new species.

We are already in the midst of minor improvements to the human body and mind; Enriquez gave examples of growing new tissues for successful transplant, programmable cells, and augmenting our abilities through robotics. As this trend accelerates, more and more aspects of the human experience, of the human life, will be capable of scientific manipulation. While some improvement may come post-birth, our understanding of DNA and biology may lead to something much bigger.

The day may come when we are able to take the best biology of the known animal kingdom and make it part of our own.

Read the full article: http://is.gd/iz1U

Other Juan Enriquez TED Talks:

• Decoding the Future (2003)
  
• Growing New Energy (2007)
• The Arrival of Homo Evolutis (2009)
  

Two Talking Rabbits...

Found a humorous comic strip at PartiallyClips which brings up the striking difference perspectives Fantasy and SciFi take on subjects such as two talking rabbits riding a flying rocking horse.
(Click on the picture to see the whole strip)

As the first rabbit indicates, in a fantasy setting such a subject is usually just accepted. 'Two talking rabbits on a flying rocking horse? Okay.'

Science Fiction on the other hand almost always demands an explanation. 'Two talking rabbits on a flying rocking horse? How did the rabbits learn to talk? How can a rocking horse fly?'

Both genres have their pros and cons, but at some point can't we just accept some of the things in Science Fiction without having to sit through a lecture by the author as to why something is the way it is?

Star Wars was pretty good at telling their story without resorting to giving us a technical thesis as to how Light Sabres worked, why there was gravity on the space ships, and how the the Force worked (well not until the Phantom Menace...). Some will argue that Star Wars is Science Fantasy rather than Science Fiction. I'll argue that the stories were just 'cutting to the chase'.

After the Bomb rides the line of 'cutting to the chase' and trying to offer up a technical explanation as to why there are mutant animals in the world. The plausible--but not definitive--explanation is given that it started out as a prank by a couple kids which got out of hand. Other than that, the game pretty much cuts to the chase that humanity is near extinction and that animals--both those mutated by the virus and those engineered before the Big Death--are rising up to become the dominate species on the Earth.

Do we really need to know why and how? No. However, our curiosity compels us to find out. And that, really, is the nature of Science Fiction; curiosity.

Run Rabbit Run

Been trying to come up with another story, so when I saw this picture today I decided to write the first thing that came to mind. It's probably crap, but it's practice...

** ** **

It was a wet and miserable Jersey night as I sat on an old crate waiting for my contact to arrive in the alley behind the Run Rabbit Run. My only companions a pair of wild rats diving for scraps in the kitchen dumpster. I don't know how the wild ones can stand the damp, but the cold drizzle seemed to find it's way through my coat and soak my fur underneath. My grandfather used to tell me that from what he remembered from his 'wild' years, before he was 'lifted' by the humans, it was instinctual; that he would just ignore the cold and the damp. Personally, I think he was full of it. He was an old fart and a little soft in the head, but my father believed him and would always listen to his stories over and over again. My father told me that most of the lifted couldn't remember the time before, while they were still wild, or at least they won't talk about it. Makes me glad I'm a third generation 'fur'.

Most of the 'furs' of my generation don't think about it because we're to busy trying to rebuild the ruined remnants of the old human world into a new world of our own design. One where we don't have to live in burrows and nests and kennels like out wild cousins. Those crazy inbred human holdouts up north and their subservient New Kennel lap dogs aren't making our lives any easier though. Most of the humans around here have resigned themselves to the fact that animals have started to take over and that the 'Age of Man' has reached its final chapter, but the Empire of Humanity acts like this planet is their birthright and no stinking 'mutant' animals--lifted or otherwise--are going to take if from them.

I guess that's why I decided to join the Cardanian Intelligence Agency as a field agent. A few years ago, the Empire started sending in covert espionage agents to hamper our progress. Assassinations, sabotage, poisoning water and food supplies, even trying mutagens to reduce the lifted animals back to wild beasts. Their campaign of terror went unchallenged for most of a decade until President Foxline approved the creation of the CIA to combat the phantom threat from the north. A threat the militia families couldn't answer.

So now I sit here in dark alleys in the Contested Lands waiting to receive information from our spies and then deliver it to my superiors for review. It's not a glamorous job, and certainly not a safe one--I have the scars to prove that--but I'm told that we've been able to stop a dozen or so attacks this past year, so I am proud of what I do even if I have to catch pneumonia once in a while.

As I sit in the dark and the wet I keep an eye on the street at the far end of the alley, I chose this location because it's a dead end--only one entrance to the street and one into the kitchen. If there's gonna be any trouble, it'll come from one of those two directions, and then, most likely from the street. The humans and dogs they send after us are usually not very creative and almost always go for the frontal assault. Once they sent a sniper, but dogs don't tend to know what the meaning of the word, 'stealth'. He made such a racket accessing the roof across the street from the meeting spot that night that my contact was able to sneak up behind him and take him out before he had his rifle fully assembled. I still have that gun back at my apartment as a memento.

Finally, at half past midnight the light thud of cat paws landing on the corrugated steel awning over the taverns rear entrance announced the arrival of my contact. Steve was one of the few who didn't shed their wild forms when they were lifted. This was a huge asset to the agency, since most Humans won't give an animal a second glance, unless it's doing something obviously uncharacteristic for a wild one. Steven was a pro though. Even when we meet up in a safe spot like this one, he won't drop the pretense of being a wild feline until he's absolutely sure the area is clear. On more than a couple occasions he's even fooled me.

Finally sure that we are not being observed, Steve hops onto the crate next to me and shakes the damp from his fur. I half-seriously ask if he was followed, and receive a cold feline stare in reply. Sometimes I think Steve is going to forget that he's more than a wild cat. After the exchange of code phrases I slipped the collar from around his neck and removed the microfilm tucked inside. I placed my prize in the concealed compartment in the butt of my knife and tossed a small plastic wrapped gift onto the crate at his paws, which he snatched up in his mouth before leaping down to the alley floor and skittering out into the night.

With my package retrieved I shook the wet from my coat and left the alley to enter the tavern through the front door. I had a few hours before my ride back to Cardania would arrive and the Bunnies at the Run Rabbit Run were a nice way to pass the time.