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Overcharge
This is a deliberately destructive biostimulant cocktail designed to greatly amplify the capabilities of the baseline body. It is often considered to be the 'last gasp' of the pure baseline warrior concept.

Allegedly originally designed by a fairly small well equipped outpost in the fringe after recurring raids by violent nearbaseline semi-hider clades, Overcharge is a fluid that must be injected into the aorta so as to prevent cardiac arrest while assuring proper dispersal through the tissues. Not only does it magnify the biochemical twitches that trigger muscle action, it dampens pain and increases focus and concentration. With proper neurochemical matching, there are no other short-term side effects, but unmatched Overcharge can lead to various forms of mania or other psychoses, as well as twitching and other physiological symptoms.

The only real problem with Overcharge is that it's fatal. The baseline biosubstrate can only withstand so much force before parts begin to degrade, sometimes violently, and the neurochemical 'boosting' is accomplished in part via 'burning out' transmitter ion pumps, leading to a slow, irreversible degradation in neural transfers.

While this was used by the aforementioned outpost as a boost to counter some of the illicit augmentation of the semi-hiders, it was primarily meant as a spoiler device. Once the invaders noticed the enhanced capabilities of the baselines, some of them immediately began utilizing its capabilities. As the degradation was deliberately designed to be slow and lingering, some 95% of the invading clades were using Overcharge before the side effects began showing up among the early adopters.

It didn't save the outpost, but it did give them revenge, even after their demise.
 
Appears in Topics
AugmenticsMiddle Tech / MidtechOrganic/Biotech
Personal Weapons
 
Development Notes
Text by John B
Initially published on 12 April 2005.

 
 
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