Pods

Despite the advances in biotechnology, the hyperelite still need caretakers for their children and infirm. The ayah pod morph is designed to fulfill all nurse and caretaker functions. Rather than trust lowerclass transhumans, hyperelites prefer AGI servants sleeved into ayah morphs, especially in polities where AGIs have few, if any, legal rights.

When pods were first introduced, non-specialized models were favored due to their low cost and quicker production time. Basic pods are essentially a lower cost pod version of a splicer morph. To keep expenses down, this pod has slightly more mechanical parts than most other pods. As a result, it has more obvious cybernetic components.

Critters are pods either genetically hacked together from various animal species or simply biosculpted to appear as such. Originally popular among hyperelites who preferred smarter and distinctive AI-operated pets, they were also sometimes deployed on a covert basis as bodyguards or spies disguised as smart animals.

Diggers are worker pods customized for archeological work. They are used for surface surveys, excavation, and general physical labor by xenoarcheological teams. Their hands are modi ed digging claws, adapted from the genetics of hole-digging creatures like moles and aardvarks, though still flexible and useful for grasping and fine manipulation.

Given the popularity of octomorphs even among nonmercurials, morph designers have sought out a similar morph that is operable in zero g and also designed for speed. Its streamlined form resembles a stylized squid and this morph can move swiftly in both water and air.

The handiwork of scum genehacker Neville Orsonglass, the jenkin is a byproduct of desperate measures taken during the Fall. The original model was simply the designer's attempt to keep him and his crewmates alive on a ship with failing life support and recycling systems.

Novacrabs are a pod design bioengineered from coconut crab and spider crab stock and grown to a human size. Novacrabs are ideal for hazardous work environments as well as vacworker, police, or bodyguard duties, given their ten 2-meter long legs, massive claws, and chitinous armor.

Pleasure pods are exactly what they seem—faux humans designed purely for intimate entertainment purposes. Pleasure pods have extra nerve clusters in their erogenous zones, Fine motor control over certain muscle groups, enhanced pheromones, sanitized metabolisms, and the genetics for purring. Naturally, they are crafted for good looks and charisma and enhanced in other areas as well.

Developed by the genehackers of Fortean, ripwings are neogenetic avians, incorporating genetics from a range of flying creatures, some of them prehistoric pterosaur genes acquired from Sky Ark researchers, along with some original genetic traits. These transgenic amalgamations are larger and sturdier than standard neo-avian morphs.

The samsa was the first attempt to create a combat pod model with a terrifying appearance. The samsa is an intimidating, two-meter-tall, four-armed, fourlegged, humanoid insect. Samsas are an unsettling sight to many transhumans. They are most commonly used by mercenaries and enforcers in the rim.

Scurriers are pods developed from the non-sapient extraterrestrials known as sciurids (p. 172, Gatecrashing). In appearance, scurrier pods are similar to raccoon-sized flying squirrels with a lash-like manipulator rather than a fluffy tail, though still regarded as highly cute. They make excellent climbers and are capable of gliding due to the membrane between their limbs.

Originally developed for joint-nation peace-keeping missions and border/enclave security roles, security pods were essentially mass-produced AI-operated soldiers. For obvious reasons, they fell out of favor during the Fall, but they are slowly regaining acceptance. They are a favored morph by mercenaries for infiltration and guerrilla warfare purposes.

The space marine variant of the security pod was optimized for orbital skirmishes, boarding actions, suppressing asteroid miner revolts, and other spacetheater operations.

Designed specifically to compete with popular mid-range morphs like the menton and olympian, the specialist pod is cheaper and faster to create than a biomorph. It also offers the user a high degree of customization.

Optimized for vacwork, this pod is preferred in situations where novacrabs or synths don't fare as well socially. The vacuum pod is based on the bouncer morph and looks superficially identical to one.

Designed by autonomist xenobotanists as an experiment in developing a cyberbrain/planimal interface, whiplash pods are bioengineered from planimal stock found on Sunrise (see Exotic Life, p. 130, Gatecrashing), with other transgenic features (see Whiplash, p. 173, Gatecrashing).

Part exalt human, part machine, these pods are virtually indistinguishable from humans. Worker pods are often used in menial labor jobs where interaction with humans is necessary.