Sunday, January 7, 2018

Installing Implants

How we go about installing the many implants known in the Solar System is not often given too much detail. In general, the upgrading process is not something most care to think about. But before Healing Vats became ubiquitous, and even now in places where they cannot be found one way or another, there were other forms of "installing" implants. This complex and messy topic is usually ignored in favor of promoting "safe" and "clean" installs and upgrades at your favorite corporate owned mod shop or open-source, public access medbay. But a Firewall Sentinel should familiarize themselves with the alternate ways implants can be handled, both so they can install in a pinch and know what potential opposition is doing. Illegal mod shops are a not-uncommon X-risk vector.

Software plug-ins for Infomorphs and Cyberbrains are the simplest. This can be done in moments with just about any software. Infomorph upgrades are most complex which require formatting to a particular Ego and require an integration suite of software to pull off. This can take days depending on the complexity of the Upgrade - so most are done in Simulspace time dilation, adding another set of equipment you'll need. Other than the software tools, however, most of this gear is pretty standard. And infomorph running on basically any server with a mesh connection can do this integration on their own or with a partner. This can make tracking such software mods a real pain.

Bioware is a different issue. Usually this sort of thing is handled entirely by a Healing Vat. The ability to permeate all tissues of the morph and provide micro-scale editing and healing can't be underestimated. Some bioware can't be installed at all without a Healing Vat, unless you start from scratch and program a new Morph with the DNA to develop it naturally. Minor bio- or neurochemistry modifications are pretty simple. Medical injectors filled with retrovirii or medical nanos can "install" such changes fairly quickly, and a few doses over time can ensure their permanence. Any idiot can follow the instructions to inject, though getting into the brain via eye socket or nose can turn a lot of stomachs. Glands and organ implants aren't too hard, it'll take about an hour for a medical maker or other form of wet-fab to clone the right part from blueprints. The messy part is the install. This will require somebody else to perform Implant Surgery, a process which can take several hours, to get everything transplanted right. Even with modern medicine, there's usually a short recovery time.

Full-body bioware, like muscle augs, chameleon skin or bioweave armor can be implanted out of a vat sometimes too. This involves a lot of treatments from head to toe, however, and is about as convenient as climbing in a tub full of nanos anyway, most people don't bother. The process to thoroughly install can take an hour or two, but expect it to take longer for the mods to actually fully manifest.

Cyberware is, in some ways, much simpler. Any piece of cyberware can be installed outside of a Healing Vat by a professional. The only downside is that it's all surgical. And a lot of cyberware is heavily neurological, meaning a lot of complex work to be done. But, it can all be done on a slab. This is why you see not just anti-genemod groups like the Jovians sporting old "chrome". A street gang might not be able to afford a jailbroken healing vat, medical-scale cloning and a proper environment to install bioware. But they can probably find a fabber and some rubbing alcohol to sterilize, so you'll see them adapting a lot of cyberware alternates to systems like enhanced hearing and vision on top of cyberlimbs and the like.

For small, non-invasive implants, basic stuff like a new set of access jacks (assuming you already have a cranial computer), ghostriders or liferecorders, you can get these placed in the body in a couple hours and get stitched up. Unfortunately, a lot of cyberware involves hooking into or going near your brain, as discussed above. This is slow, delicate work. The fastest (not necessarily the best) surgeons can get this kind of work done in 6-8 hours. A more realistic timeframe is about 12 hours, and none of this accounts for recovery time. Twelve is also a hard minimum to a serious structural mod, like a Hardened Skeleton. And expect to be down for at least twice that long on the other end.

Now, installing Nanoware is both a lot easier, but also trickier. Assuming your actual nanos are all in order and undamaged, they can be applied basically anywhere via all kinds of methods. Nanodrugs, direct injection, etc. However, because they're so tiny, they're also slow. It can take upwards of twelve hours of steady introduction for medichines to fully circulate in the body and be settled in. Same with something like Nanophages or Oracles. The upside here is that there's no surgical element a lot of the time. Once they've been introduced to your body you can get up and go - the only thing you're waiting on is for them to take full effect. This can be a little disorienting for some kinds of nanoware though, so I'd recommend sleeping on it. Nearly all these units are pre-programmed by default, but having somebody skilled with Nanomedicine around to make sure everything is working fine won't hurt.

On the other hand, some nanoware involves physical integration. Wrist-Mounted Tools are flexible sure, but they don't just assemble themselves inside your wrists - or else they could assemble themselves other places. This sort of stuff does involve implant surgery. It might be a bit quicker or cleaner than with cyber or bioware, but you'll get cut open nonetheless. A healing vat does it much easier, but a surgeon can do it in somewhere between 8-12 hours depending on what you're getting installed. Finding back-alley doctors willing to implant a nuclear thermocouple in your guts is another matter. This is what keeps jailbroken nanoware from running wild - lack of expertise. Nanomedicine is still advancing, and is fairly prestigious. Finding somebody who knows what he's doing can be hard, and while some of them are sure shady, they won't be hanging out in the same places are your regular chop-shop guy.

Robotic Enhancements are much simpler. Synthmorphs don't start bleeding out when you pop their outer shell off with an allen wrench set. They also have their own anaesthetic. Any robotics tech with a fully stocked tool kit and a fabber can install these augmentations. How long it takes depends on the aug and it's complexity. Stuff which integrates heavily into cyberbrains is much more sophisticated work than bolting a new layer of armor on. And don't get me started on the waiting time involved for Brain Boxes... The real problem is that IP protection on Synths can be a lot worse than some bios for the advanced ones, meaning shit like proprietary tools and non-standard sizes. Cheap mass-produced models can go too far the other end, cramming augs into a Case is often like trying to hot-rod your ghetto hoopty. You'll look real cool with a machine gun weapon mount right up until the servomotors in your legs blow out because the morph wasn't calibrated to handle the extra weight.

-B0n3z, Firewall Register

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