Phytozoids

In 2037, a technique was discovered to give an animal the ability to use photosynthesis like a plant. This new, genetically-engineered life-form was called a phytozoid.

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Life among the stars. The original goal of phytozoid research was to make it safer to travel for long periods of time in outer space, and to settle on planets such as Mars, where the magnetic field is much weaker than the one on Earth. Normally, cosmic radiation causes various diseases to animals. But in that same environment, plants thrive.

The process of creating a new phytozoid species usually takes 3 to 6 generations, so the most successful experiments were all on short-lived insects and mice. The long-term intent of this technology was to create phytozoid humans to help with space exploration - but unfortunately, by the time the Flare hit, the technology wasn't ready yet.

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Before moving to human trials, the scientific community agreed the technology first needed to work on our closest genetic cousins, chimpanzees. Unfortunately, a generation of chimpanzees takes about 15 years - so it would take a total of 45 to 90 years for the chimpanzee experiment to reach its conclusion. Even if the trials started in 2037, the Flare happened in 2083 - only 46 years later.

However, it has been 20 years since then, so even though there is nobody left to conduct the experiment, if the chimps survived, there is a small chance they have reached maturity...

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The Talas colony. In 2054, 29 years before the Flare, the first colony of phytozoid ants was sent to the Talas Crater, a 30km wide basin within one of the lowest points on Mars, where the atmosphere is the thickest and the most stable: the Hellas Planitia.

According to scientific estimations of the time, it should take the ants about 50 years to terraform the crater, and make it livable. It has been 49 years since then, and a trip to Mars takes about a year... so nowadays, many survivors of the Flare are looking for a way to make it to Mars. Scavs believe, if they make it to Talas, they can start a new life, free of the dangers of the wasteland.

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Phytozoids on Earth. A number of phytozoids were kept on Earth - in labs and zoos. However, when civilization broke down, and the hardlight barriers keeping these specimens quarantined shut down, they started wandering around. The post-Flare world might have been hostile to humans and to their technology, but it was the kind of environment phytozoids were designed to thrive in.

And so they did. Empowered by the powerful solar radiation, and with no real predators in the wilderness besides each other, the phytozoids quickly spread from just a few thousand individuals, to millions and billions. Earth is now their planet, and it will likely stay that way until the magnetic field is restored, in 7000 years.

Without the oversight of the scientists who originally created them, phytozoids also started experiencing wild mutations - phytozoid ants quickly grew to the size of a horse, for example.

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1d6	Adventure Seed
1	A former A.E.G.I.S. scientist quit the organization because they didn't want to go along with his plan: accelerate phytozoid research and start human trials immediately. Now, he sends robots to kidnap scavs so he can transform them. Someone close to the party, or the player characters themselves, got captured!
2	The Collective wants to continue phytozoid research, but to do this, they need someone to go to the lab where the chimpanzee tests were originally conducted. What happened to the research... And to the test subjects?
3	In 8 months, there is going to be a short 3 weeks window for a Mars transfer - it will be the perfect time to launch a shuttle to the Talas Crater. Only one problem - Earth only had two spaceports, and they were both at the top of its two space elevators. So, the party will need to travel half the world, to Singapore, and then climb to what remains of Awan Bandar. ...And they probably aren't going to be the only ones with that idea.
4	A rumor about a strange, red-furred giant ape has been spreading among scavs. Is it just the newest take on a bigfoot-like urban legend, or is there a new type of phytozoid?
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