Building a Butcher: Engineered Forms of the Transhuman War

The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other poor bastard die for his.

Throughout the war, engineered forms were used to offset the severe manpower disadvantage that the PDT faced. While fighting at longer ranges favored ODI due to their numerical advantage and heavily-armed exoskeletons, close-quarters engagements with transhuman infantry would result in catastrophic casualties for ODI troops nearly every time it was attempted. The PDT never seriously considered the use of armored exoskeletons, since they almost universally block shifting, and dragon forms could easily carry the weight that exoskeletons did.

Somewhat less-discussed than the exotic dragon forms developed for combat are the varied engineered human forms used throughout the war. While SIBs were the face of PDT human-form troops, they were not the only such forms used during the war. The HP- and I- series forms were used to great effect in their niches, though by nature of being niche they are somewhat less well-known.

This list discusses “primary” forms— those deployed in huge numbers during the war and intended to serve as the most commonly taken forms for their users. Many of these forms had iterative and specialized variants that were used in smaller numbers, and many other specialized forms were developed and used but did not see widespread deployment.

Humans

SIB

Standard Issue Bodies, or SIBs, are the ever-present militarized human form issued to practically every servicemember in the PDT. They are of average height and have an athletic build, but have no visible augmentations beyond draconic eyes. SIBs lack any massive physical improvements, and are instead designed for generic endurance and sharpshooting. Their primary modification is invisible: an extensive CBRN protection suite, designed before the war began when planners assumed that essentialist rhetoric would eventually result in the use of chemical or nuclear weapons. Other modifications include the standard draconic extras (eyes and insulation), and decent resistance to impact-induced blackouts, a feature intended to improve the odds that troops can remain conscious to shift if injured. All these augmentations come at a cost, in the form of increased caloric intake: at rest, SIBs need to eat around 4000 calories a day to maintain weight, and upwards of double that in combat.

A SIB’s CBRN suite has multiple factors. The first is that they completely lack the TRPA-1 ion channel that makes mammals susceptible to most irritants, like capsaicin and tear gas, and an enhanced liver provides excellent protection against blood toxins, at the cost of making SIBs unable to get drunk or high. An immune system developed from crocodilians makes them extraordinarily hardy against disease, and buffering compounds in the eyes and skin make them extremely resistant to blister agents. They lack protection from choking agents, or blister agents that affect the lungs, so in CBRN environments they must wear respirators that cover the nose and mouth.

Protection from nerve agents is provided by a genetic modification that causes them to produce butrylcholinesterase, or BCE, which neutralizes organophosphate and carbamate nerve agents. Historically, BCE was well-known since the 1610s, since Spinetails produce it as a natural antidote to their own venom (itself an organophosphate), and BCE autoinjectors can be found in nearly every modern first-aid kit in case of accidental pricks. However, there are some long-term health concerns with constantly dosing BCE, so in practice it is only used reactively, not as a prophylactic. In SIBs, which are designed for it, this is a particularly potent alteration, providing near-total protection: A SIB’s LD50 for most nerve agents is enough that you would have to drink a shot of the pure toxin to risk death.

Radiological and nuclear protection comes from genes taken from deinococcus radiodurans, an extremophile bacteria. As a result, SIBs can withstand mind-bogglingly massive doses of radiation with no ill effect besides needing to eat more calories. This modification was so successful that nearly every engineered form developed after the SIB has included radiation hardening, even civilian forms, as it can be applied via a single trivial genetic modification.

SIBs are very heavily modified from baseline for the amount of compute power available at the time of their creation, making them the single most expensive form deployed in the entire war. As a result, their schema had very little space for personalization, or even gender— there are notionally male, female, and nonbinary versions (the -A, -B, and -C versions, respectively), but it’s often remarked that the -B stood for “butch”. This improved somewhat in later models, but early in the war, it was often difficult to tell apart any two individual people wearing a SIB.

HP-Series

HP (High Performance) forms are humanoid bodies that were designed for a single specific application, almost always to the detriment of their usefulness outside of that niche. Unlike most other military forms, their schemas are designed to build on top of existing forms, keeping design costs low and allowing users to look like themselves while using them. HP forms are typically used in combination with other human forms, only using the HP form when its niche is useful and immediately shifting out of it when not.

• HP-F: Designed for high-performance flight, HP-Fs have a number of augmentations (much like those of a anti-G suit) that allow them to comfortably endure extreme G-forces without losing consciousness, including extreme negative Gs. Additionally, they are vastly more resistant to altitude sickness than baseline humans, but these modifications severely reduce their ability to perform cardiovascular exercise.
• HP-A: “Athlete” forms designed for superlative physical speed and strength, these were what most ODI planners envisioned when the Hodgson papers were initially released. However, they are extremely calorie-hungry, even more so than the already demanding SIBs. They also have some serious cardiovascular issues, requiring a consistent replacement schedule every few thousand hours to avoid strokes.
• HP-N: Naval forms created for underwater use, these include pressure adaptations taken from cetaceans and a dragon-derived oxygen bladder. Their oxygen bladder replaces a lot of their intestines, preventing them from eating anything other than liquid foods.

This is not an exhaustive list of the HP series; over the war, 137 different forms were submitted for evaluation and given HP designations. Despite the large variety, the F, A, and N forms are the only ones that saw widespread use; many of the more exotic members of the series suffered from uncanny valley issues.

I-Series

Designed for intelligence work, both overt and covert, the details of I-series forms remain classified, but much information can be gleaned from public sources. They generally appear no different from the humanoid baseline they’re meant to imitate (draconic or cishuman), but include hidden augmentations, like neurotoxin stingers or flame organs. Covert forms were often built to exactly duplicate existing individuals without their knowledge (a fairly serious taboo), and included biothaumic damping mechanisms to prevent them from appearing as transhuman to thaumic scanners. They were often specifically created for individual missions by the UID and various other PDT intelligence agenciecs, and were famously used in the assassination of Autarchy President Quan Min in 1766.

The one declassified I-series form is the I-503, designed for interrogation resistance and distributed to personnel at risk for capture by ODI forces. The 503 makes use of a “manual disconnect”, allowing them to turn off their ability to experience pain. This disconnect involves the death of nerve cells responsible for transmitting pain signals, preventing any surgical or magical attempts at reconnection, and was intended to dissuade the use of torture on prisoners of war. It wasn’t quite perfect— the disconnect has a reputation for being easy to accidentally trigger, requiring a full rebuild of the form to reset it.

Dragons

Prior to the discovery of the Hodgson rituals, dragons had been more or less rendered obsolete in combat. Certainly, they were still useful in a pinch, and were particularly intimidating in close quarters where they could function as organic flamethrowers, but by and large transhuman militaries used dragon forms only for their mobility, not firefights. Dragons were too large to efficiently armor with heavy ballistic plates like humans, and even single gunshot wounds could ground them.

Of course, that changed after 1756, when the discovery of the mathematical theory behind shapeshifting magic resulted in the ability to produce engineered forms. Transhuman militaries were eager to take advantage of engineered dragon forms for military use, developing a few primary forms before the war began, and a much higher number of variants and niche forms as the war progressed. The vast majority of transhumans who fought in the war took on three or more militarized forms for wartime use, often taking duplicates of the same form to allow them to continue fighting through injuries (though this practice was not common early on).

Shatterscales

The single most common military form used by the PDT, Shatterscales were ubiquitous during the war. They are muscular wingless quadrupeds, with a seed created from the Polynesian Island Drake. Shatterscales were considered the face of the PDT for most of the war by both sides, and were depicted extensively in media.

Their primary augmentation is the scales from which they get their name, which shatter when stuck with sufficient force. Grown from iridescent silicon carbide crystal and given an aramid backing membrane via a novel thaumic biosynthesis process, their scales are equivalent to heavy ballistic plating (and in fact, are made of the exact same material). Of course, all that armor is heavy, but Shatterscales are built to carry it, resulting in their bulky builds. Like most other dragons, they have an oxygen bladder, normally used to provide oxygen for their flight muscles and fire. Since Shatterscales need neither of those, they instead use it to maximize their blood’s oxygen content, ensuring that they can perform near-maximal exertion for hours without tiring.

For their fire, Shatterscales spit a stream of molten thermite, derived from Rockwyrms. Since this doesn’t need an external oxidizer, they don’t suffer from the phenomena where exercise, flight, and fire all drain the same resource— the dragon’s oxygen bladder. Shatterscales can produce a prodigious amount of the substance, and can easily replenish their stores by simply eating iron oxide and aluminum powder.

At the start of the war, Shatterscales were effectively invulnerable to any of the small arms used by ODI infantry, and could only be threatened by larger anti-materiel weapons or sustained heavy machine gun fire— their durability was largely thought to be PDT propaganda until they were first used in combat. This would change after the first battles of the war, as ODI began to issue anti-armor weapons (particularly HEAT underbarrel grenades) in large numbers.

Shatterscales are often discussed as an example of pre- and early-war transhuman psychology, as they are almost single-mindedly oriented around alleviating a dragon’s most glaring weaknesses (vulnerability to gunfire, poor endurance, very limited stored fire), not amplifying their strengths. Later iterations, particularly the L2 and A2 variants, would reduce protection in favor of speed, and trade endurance for more powerful and longer-range fire.

Snapscales

Often derisively called a “Shatterscale with wings”, Snapscales are pre-war designs that trade the Shatterscale’s immense durability and endurance for flight and aquatic capabilities. While they are good flyers and swimmers, their reduced scale thickness means that they can only take a single hit from small-arms fire per scale; repeated hits to the same location (or higher-power weapons) almost always penetrate. Rather than a Shatterscale’s thermite, they fire explosive oxyacetylene bolts derived from Furies. Mid-war variants focused on improving the range and velocity of the dragon’s fire, nearly doubling its effective range by 1764.

Snapscales were not particularly popular outside of cavalry or amphibious troops when they were first introduced, as they were neither good flyers nor well-protected, and their relative fragility compared to Shatterscales resulted in their name. Today, their design is considered prescient, and they became more popular in the middle years of the war, where their combination of all-aspect mobility, durability, and long-range fire was desirable.

Loddies

Loddies, properly called LODBs (Low Observability Dragon Body), are a dragon form uniquely designed for stealth and reconnaissance. They are an early-war design, created in the weeks following the Saigon disaster and the invasion of Panay. Initially, they were a closely-guarded secret, but they were eventually deployed in large numbers. Loddies are feathered wyverns based on the Frillcrest’s body plan, relying on their high-efficiency flight to give them long loiter times, but making some minor aerodynamic improvements for speed.

Visually, the distinctive trait of a Loddy is their universally matte-black feathers, but their actual primary feature is radar stealth. The feathers use a combination of organic split-ring resonators and iron nanoparticles to absorb most radar emissions sent their way; a modified biothaumic system provides the effect of a rudimentary radio invisibility working to eliminate the rest of their radar return. Their feathers also make them very quiet fliers, and they lack the leathery wingbeats of other dragons.

For fire, Loddies spit a mass of gelid magnesium (magnesium flakes in an oxygenated mucus). While it’s not particularly effective in an anti-infantry role compared to most other dragonfire, it is blindingly bright and sticks to moving objects (or victims), allowing it to act as a marker for allies and blind enemies while the dragon escapes.

Sprinters

A departure from forms designed for direct combat, Sprinters are built solely for speed. They are medium-sized winged quadrupeds with lithe builds, powerful angular wings, and sleek, aerodynamic forms. Standard Sprinter variants are typically a matte aerospace grey, but today they can be found in a variety of colors, and have proven quite popular among civilians in a post-war world.

Sprinters were intended to function as transports, moving troops between any two points with maximum speed. In this they were fully successful; they are far and above the fastest dragon species, capable of achieving 180 km/h in sustained level flight, and consistent running speeds of 120 km/h on flat, unobstructed ground. While they are very fast on an individual level, they lack the airlift capacity of other dragons, and cannot carry more than a few hundred kilos.

“Sprinter” is an intentionally deceptive name chosen to mislead enemy intelligence about PDT troop movements: they can maintain their top speeds for hours at a time thanks to a powerful oxygen capture system. They also include an extensive CBRN suite in order to facilitate movement through contaminated combat zones, though they do still need to wear respirator masks for protection from choking agents and certain blister agents.

Sprinters use the same Rockwyrm-derived thermite that Shatterscales do in order to fully dedicate their oxygen bladder to physical exertion. While they maintain the improved range of the Shatterscale, they do not retain its impressive production or capacity. Sprinters can only use their fire two or three times before exhausting their supply, with nearly a full day required to refill their stores.

Shiftscales

A mid-war design, Shiftscales are specialized for camouflage, endurance, and ranged combat rather than the CQC brawling that forms like the Shatterscale already excelled at. Shiftscales are winged quadrupeds that make use of a Cuttlewing’s transparent scales and chromatophores to flawlessly blend in with the environment in both the visible and infrared spectrums. They include the long-range oxyacetylene bolts developed for the Snapscale, and use a mixed human-dragon brain in order to reduce their need for sleep. They were the last primary form to include a comprehensive CBRN protection suite, with later primaries only retaining protection against nerve agents and radiation.

Shiftscales were generally liked by PDT troops, who typically retained access to both Shatterscales and Shiftscales simultaneously. Shiftscales were used for mobility and concealment in long-range firefights; Shatterscales were used up close. Towards the end of the war they became largely obsolete, as so much of their design space was spent on their CBRN protection; high-mobility Bladewyrm variants or late-model Snapscales were often used instead as they became available.

Bladewyrms

The last major new form introduced by the PDT, Bladewyrms represent the peak of transhuman wartime development. They receive their name from the term used by the Russian troops who first encountered them, which literally translates to “blade snake”. Originally named the Swordtail, the new name stuck (despite the fact that they are drakes, not wyrms). Bladewyrms are responsible for more enemy casualties than any other engineered dragon species, and had a fearsome reputation among ODI troops by the end of the war.

Bladewyrms are designed for a singular purpose: killing exoskeleton-equipped infantry quickly and efficiently. They are relatively small dragons, with long, thin tails (nearly twice their body length) tipped with their eponymous blade, and a distinctive ridge of scales along their neck and the base of their tail. Similar to Shatterscales, they use silicon carbide scales with an aramid backing, but their scale thickness is minimal: enough to protect against scattered hits from small arms and glancing hits from light anti-material weapons, but no more. Unlike Shatterscales, their natural weapons (fangs, tail, claws, and horns/spikes on some variants) are also made of carbide. In combat, they use their tail like a combination of whip and spear, driving the point of the blade through vulnerable areas, using the edge to slice unarmored flesh, or using the hooked back edge to pull targets into their fangs and claws. A well-acclimated Bladewyrm can “throw” their tail blade with with centimeter accuracy, even looping behind targets to slice at the neck or spine.

For their fire, Bladewyrms use a biometallic EFP, which uses a high explosive (in this case, ammonium nitrate) to propel a slug of metal at extraordinarily high velocities. It has extremely short range, only a few meters, but can easily punch through the thickest ballistic plates on infantry exoskeletons, and even some armored vehicles. Refueling requires the dragon to consume metal (usually copper), without which they can only produce a small cone of low-temperature smoky flame. Designing this organ system represented an extreme computational expense, and was only possible with the optical computing clusters built later in the war.

The final key to the Bladewyrm’s effectiveness is engineered fast-reaction motor neurons and muscle fibers, providing speed, agility, and reaction time that rivals or exceeds the best nature has to offer. Despite rumors otherwise, they do not perceive time as moving in slow motion, but they are shockingly fast, especially in the CQC environment they’re designed for. In combat, they usually rely on obscurants to close with the enemy, using their sense of smell and IR photoreceptors in the absence of visible light.

Bladewyrms have been mildly controversial since their introduction. Most forms before them had not been designed specifically to kill infantry (though they were typically very good at it); the Bladewyrm being openly designed as a purpose-built killer was uncomfortable for some. Additionally, while they were designed for use against heavily-armed and armored power infantry, the PDT never shied away from using them against light infantry, the result of which was often described with various gruesome analogies. ODI never managed to develop a serious man-portable counter to the dragons for the duration of the war; powered exoskeletons simply could not provide the reaction time needed to counter them, and without exoskeletons their infantry would be unable to carry the weapons needed to defeat armored dragon forms.