Have you ever wanted to see a bear with a duck bill? A hamster with a scorpion tail? Have you considered replacing your arms with wings? Just like any major purchase, you should try it before you buy it!
Welcome back for more Terraforming, I am Randal, and here is the latest conspiracy theory about World Builders Intergalactic (WBI) making its way through the known worlds.
While WBI primarily operates in the luxury moon industry, and has created what they hope to be the next major sport, they also have presence in the field of genetically engineered biology. Originally considered an R&D vector of WBI for what ultimately became their biodroids, manufacturing and maintenance of biodroids became such a huge endeavor that they were forced to spin it off as a separate company to maintain appearances to certain clients, governments, and banks. This offshoot grew and evolved from creating androids to programmable biological entities, as well as destruction and maintenance of both, eventually coming to be known as Biological Entity Creations before it was targeted as a leading offender of android enslavement. Although they were cleared of any wrongdoing in the courts after removing the appearance of sentience from their creations (and dropping the term android from all paperwork), there are still dissenters (both inside and outside the company) that would love to see them, and their parent WBI, lose everything.
Through partnerships created by buying and merging a number of experts in the field, WBI created an organization that looked as though it was new to WBI and operated like an independent organization that was trying to perform for the betterment of the clients first, board of directors second. Comprised of some of the most renowned geneticists, biologists, and roboticists (not to mention an army of grad students, interns, and zoo specialists), this new engine of progress was officially formed as Genetics, Engineering, and Biology Studies (dubbed GenEngBio, or GEB for short) with the mission statement of “We help undo thousands of years of technological reprogramming of simple biological life.” This lofty goal leans on the premise that they are doing nothing but creating life-like “animatronics” (of present and extinct animals) so that people may come to their showroom and view them “as they originally appeared in nature.”
The GEB showroom is one of the WBI’s Trellidon moons, completely terraformed to be similar to that of ancient Golarion (albeit scaled for the diameter of the moon; a minor, but subtle touch). Through the use of their technology, they have faithfully recreated hundreds of species found around the planet, soon to be in the thousands (going so far as to scale them relative to the moon as they originally were to Golarion). Proud of their accomplishments, WBI and GEB have begun transmitting announcements, advertisements, and invitations to all of the known worlds that they showroom is open for business to all who would see pure, primitive, nature. These announcements show off the excited faces of rich and beautiful patrons and celebrities enjoying themselves at the week long grand opening ceremonies of “Little Golarion” (many people still refer to it by the expectedly unoriginal name GebPark). Little Golarion is “a wonder to behold” where you can “see Golarion’s ecosystems in their prime before intelligent life altered and ultimately destroyed it.”
Designed less like a zoo and more like an open safari refuge, visitors are able to fly around the moon in special shuttles that the creatures are programmed to ignore. Additionally, guests with VIP access are allowed to land their shuttle and interact with the wildlife in their natural surroundings, experiencing raw, primal nature as never before (while completely safe in a controlled and programmed environment). While most visitors treat Little Golarion simply as an over the top, larger than life (perhaps life-sized?) zoo, there are those VIP guests that take the park too far and use it to live out fantasy of hunting down rare or extinct creatures without worrying about breaking any laws. While rumors of some of the strange things done by some of the more influential guests abound, GEB dismisses them as flights of fancy that can easily be disproved by watching the security footage from each shuttle. They also deny that they are in negotiations with parent WBI about reality shows based on survival on Little Golarion. Instead, they choose to focus attention on the fact that they are working with delegates from each of the worlds in efforts to open more parks to share all creatures of all worlds.
Recently, news organizations have been circulating a story that a deceased engineer of GEB has surfaced and possesses criminally damning information about GEB. It had been reported that she was the first, and only death related to the creatures used on Little Golarion, a proud point that has been heralded as evidence that they have perfected their craft. The report indicated that she was disgruntled over a lover and that she reprogrammed a dire boar to attack them, only to have it go berserk and kill her instead. While information on what really happened has yet to come to light, pieces of evidence against GEB, and some against WBI have been leaking out slowly. While both organizations stand by the original death report, stating that this is a hoax, they refuse to comment on any of the information leaked.
One such leak is that for the right price, VIP guests can be taken to the interior of Little Golarion, where the labs are, to areas off limits to employees, and are allowed to tinker with the creation of creatures. As the creatures aren’t technically living beings, creating variations on them isn’t a crime, although it isn’t part of the reported business venture. The purported crime is that these guests create these altered or hybrid creatures and test them against real animals and sentient beings to see how well they perform in combat and hunting tasks. The accusation is that they are then purchasing their favorite version to be used as hunting partners or, worse, in military exercises. Both of these are crimes on most of the civilized worlds, as breaches of morality when dealing with both primitive creatures and acts of war. GEB and WBI laugh these accusations away, as clever storytelling and conspiracy theory. Yet still more, darker, crimes are hinted at, such as using the processes to alter visitors’ bodies, or more insidiously, create entirely new ones …
That’s all the news floating around this week, did I hook you with that (almost) bait and switch introduction? Perhaps next week we can hear more of the story as the engineer reveals herself, or perhaps we will take a look at WBI’s latest trending vacation activity … ring surfing!
Genetics, Engineering, and Biology Studies
Recreators of Life, Engineers of Hope, Students of Nature
Leader: CEO Gluksunk Pok
Headquarters: Little Golarion, Trellidon
Little Golarion
Natural Recreation Moon at Trellidon
Diameter: x0.66
Mass: x0.66
Gravity: x1
Location: Trellidon
Atmosphere: Normal
Day: 1 day (artificial, moon); Year: (moon)
