The Centurion Microphage
**** Life ** Time **** Entropy (Order) *** Mind ** Prime **** Forces
Requires minimum of Med 4, Tech 4 to create; Med 3, Tech 3 to administer; Med 5, Tech 5 to modify
Minimum: 6 successes (in extended rote)
Without soldiers, wars could not be fought. In any offensive strategy except the human wave attack, winning a war becomes significantly less than probable without seasoned soldiers. Unfortunately, turning green troops into seasoned veterans takes time and battlefield experience. The cost of seasoning green troops tends to deplete the soldier population at a rate that can easily overwhelm the ability of the accession and logistical infrastructure to support, and mandatory national service obligations tend to expire just about the time the trainee knows enough to become useful. The veteran population, too, loses members: old age, lack of satisfaction with military life, civilian attachments, and inept or unlucky commanders have traditionally taken their toll where armies could least afford to lose members.
Take note, overworked recruiters and retention officers, of a revolution in armies. The Centurion Microphage overcomes the issues commonly associated with career soldiers at a fraction of the cost. , the Centurion microphage promises to do for soldiering what the internal combustion engine did for personal transportation. Traditional armies, with their constant demands for infrastructure and benefits will soon be relegated to the pages of history.
Centurion allows for the most realistic training to date: actual battlefield conditions! Why settle for simulators when combat missions provide no lasting damage to trainees? In actual field campaigns, mortality rates have dropped by over 97 percent, thanks to the remarkably enhanced damage control and self-repair function that the microphage provides to even the greenest troops. Not only does the regenerative effect provide confidence, but new troops benefit from having survived actual combat. Healthy and resilient, the extra vitality of Centurions quickly heals all non-fatal damage; as a side benefit, that same extra vitality possessed by every Centurion speeds the healing of those fallen comrades-in-arms around him or her as well.
Just as the Centurion microphage repairs damage, so too does it act to repair and actually prevent tissue degeneration due to aging processes. Using the baseline template recorded shortly after its introduction to the host, microphages meticulously maintain cells of the body. Muscle tone, brain function, and organs perfectly maintain their state of health for the life of the Centurion. The microphage maintains the body’s capability to serve as long for as the soldier chooses to remain on active duty, often through extended campaigns significantly outlasting the more traditional 20 or 30 years associated with conventional troops. With each Centurion, since old age has become obsolete, mandatory retirement has become a thing of the past.
There is no question wherein lies the loyalty of a Centurion. Centurions choose to serve, and continue to choose service, for the astoundingly low price of C-rations and an occasional 3-day pass to remind them just how good they have it. Not only is the Centurion mind loyal, but the body is loyal as well. Commanders, no longer need you lose sleep over the loyalty of soldiers in the face of capture. Indeed, a captured Centurion becomes almost as deadly to the enemy as a fully armed Centurion; when denied the daily C-ration to power Centurion enhanced vitality, fail-safes within the microphage draw the very life-force from all those around the Centurion. Thus, an enemy prison camp becomes a deathtrap until such time as the Centurion is provided with C-rations, kills the camp, or otherwise wins release. And, in the unlikely event that a Centurion should choose not to return at the end of leave or a pass, that same microphage fail-safe works to isolate the AWOL from the civilian world. Indeed, when faced with unending years of isolation born of the certainty that any person getting too close will die, most absentees willingly choose to return to re-indoctrination and the companionship of their units.
Whether building a full-fledged army or an elite private security force, choose Centurion for a lifetime commitment to service.
Active Mode Merits and Flaws (With C-Rations)
Merits: Spark of Life (5); Unaging (5 pt)
Flaws: 4 pt Physical dependence (on C-Ration); 2 pt Obsession (Next meal); 2 pt Obsession (next leave/3 day pass); 1 Pt Overconfident; 1 pt Dark Secret (Technocratic past)
Failsafe Mode (Without C-Rations):
5 pt Spark of Life merit becomes 5 pt Psychic Vampire flaw;
1 pt Dark Secret (Deserter/AWOL);
Stage 1: Preparation (Min. 3 successes required) Time and Entropy determine the optimal cell configuration. Life repairs tissue/cellular damage, fully healing and rejuvenating the body. Prime fuels the pattern. If halted at this stage, body resumes normal aging processes, with an effective biological age somewhere in the mid-twenties with perfect health.
Stage 2: Indoctrination (Min 3 successes required) Life and Entropy (order) establish the regenerative microphages which duplicate the “Spark of Life/Psychic Vampire” merit in the host and create the physical dependence flaw. Mind creates thoughts of invulnerability, an obsession with C-rations, and an obsession about time off. Prime Fuels the pattern.
Stage 3: Maintenance Mode: (Automatic with C-Rations) Since body “improvements” effected through use of a Life 4 effect are not intended to be permanent, the Centurion microphage causes pattern leakage after a day. By eating C-rations, an artificial foodstuff created by conjunctional Life/Entropy/Prime effect (basically, Tass with a specific resonance), pattern leakage may be put off for a day.
Stage 4: Failsafe Mode (Automatic without C-Rations) Damage from pattern leakage begins. Microphages, still programmed to repair the host but lacking the specific resonant tass with which they were designed to work, improvise by attempting to scavenge life-resonant tass (life-energy) from those around. While strong enough to affect simple life-forms without prolonged contact and disrupt the natural healing processes of complex life-forms, prolonged physical contact must be maintained for the microphages to draw “contained” life-energy from a human at the rate of one health level an hour. Successfully causing damage with either a life effect (to free liberate life-energy for the microphages to consume) or a conjunctional Life/Prime effect (to create Life-resonant tass, which can then be consumed) temporarily sates the microphages and creates a reserve from which the microphages can draw. In the event the host is damaged, the microphages draw directly from the stored life-energy to repair the host.
Stage 5: Emergency Repair Mode (Automatic when health level drops to crippled or lower) Microphages attempt to repair damage using Life to draw from the life-energy reserves, if any are present. In the absence of life-energy reserves, a conjunctional Prime/Life effect begins converting stored quintessence into health levels as quickly as the Avatar can channel quintessence. When no quintessence is available, Forces/Life effect begins converting thermal energy into life energy; damage levels caused by contact with the super-cooled body of the host are immediately applied to repairing the host. The super-cooling effect also occurs when microphage-laden blood has been separated from the host body; damage potential is two to four times the health levels lost
Stage 6: Crash Mode (Automatic when health level drops to incapacitated or lower) In a last-ditch effort to save the host, the microphages use a Life/Entropy effect to convert physical attributes into health levels. One point each of strength, stamina, and appearance are converted into health levels per turn until either the host regains consciousness or runs out of attributes to cannibalize.
Removal of Microphage: (Requires Med 5 + Tech 5 to attempt)
- Microphage Research (6 successes on skill roll)
- Isolate microphage (Time/Life) min 6 successes
- Purge host (10 levels of damage, to microphage only)
Reprogramming the Microphage
- Reengineer microphage (Life/Entropy (Order)/Prime) 3 successes
- Reintegration (6 successes)