Zappers

Planet of origin: Terra
Main Eras of activity: The Wars of the 3 Kingdoms.
Manufacturer: ZapperTech, Terra
Usage: Physical augmentations and diminutions.

Zapper(tm) technology is almost exclusive to the use of the Terran Navy officers, altough some high executives of the Terran Conglomerate have managed to procure some "recreative" models to enhance their sex-life.

The first use of proto Zapper-Rays was for the Poser-Brother show. Where a low powered beam would cause physical changes to the character sleeping underneath. This version of the beam was abandonned. The changes took hours of exposure and were for the most part permanant. Since the product's goal was to be weaponized first and trickled down for GAS (growth as service) after the war, a slow and permanent was deemed high risk and a bad prospect for repeat business.

Military interest for physical augmentation stems from the firearms ban that was part of the Three Kingdoms Treaty. The Empire had it's cast system giving incentives for selective breeding producing Alpha and Omega warriors ensuring a large number of capable melee troops. The Amazon Hive on the other hand, had built lage cloning facilities on their major worlds, each producing a specialized clone type based on their planetary Mystresses gene pool optimizations.

The Teran Conglomerate wanted none of those, either for ethical or commercial reasons. Still their front lines needed the same level of muscle to stay relevant in case of conflict. A task force of scientists was put together to work on a new implementation of Zapper-Rays. One that could be carried on the field by officers to battle ready his squad if push came to shove.

Zappers come in all shapes and sizes, the most common model being the Terran Navy's officer N4D1N3 Mk.2 (Pictured above), with other models such as training Zappers, party Zappers and Battle Zappers each filling a niche role in the product line.

Side effects

Zappers are not without side effects and colateral dammage. Abuse of a growth setting or repeated zappings of an already enhanced character can cause the individual great discomfort and even put its life at risk if his or her internal organs or parts of the skeleton didn't grow proportionally to the overall body.

It has also been found that trace amounts of enhancement can last for weeks, or even years. Especially in the case of individuals who have been subjected to repeated doses in a short time, particularily when combining Zappers with Athletic training. The Zapper effect allowing the trainee to work harder, longer and recuperate faster helped in many cases for readaptation after injury or in preparation for a high risk mission. More cases of residual enhancement has been observed in ships traveling through or around the "Princess Nebula" of the neutral zone than in other parts of the galaxy.

Some individuals have also been diagnosed with "Zapper Addiction" Although the manufacturer has labelled the condition as a psychological addiction (to the feeling of power under enhancement) rather than a physical addiction to the product.

Zapper cross-overs

3K Wars era characters bringing back Zapper-tech to the earlier eras is not an unknown phenomenon. Bloopers Studios does keep some Zappers in their vault to resize characters who need a little "something more" to fill the role. These instances have led the manufacturer to issue a warning against the use of Zappers on characters having consumed Funky-Spice. Stating that results can be wildly unpredictable. This last statement seems to have motivated the FSRI to secretly acquire one for their own research, it is not known to this day if they succeeded.