Intergalactic Summit

Greetings, IGS users.

As a medical researcher, I am occasionally irritated by persons coming into my office, and asking if I can design a bio-weapon for them. Most of them are capsuleers, with some ludicrous overblown megalomaniacal scheme to do heinous things to other people, for reasons that I do not care to know. But that's not unusual when dealing with capsuleers.

Instead, I wish to communicate my thoughts upon the subject of bio-weapons. Particularly synthetic bacteria, although the same points apply to viruses and other such.

Put simply, They are unrighteous, and anyone considering using them is a fool of the highest order.


Firstly, designing a bacterium, is an exercise in duplication. There are tens of thousands of worlds, with tens of thousands of species, already in existence, which produce substances capable of use as a bio-weapon, without all the rigmarole of designing one from scratch. Amnesiac shellfish poisoning as an example. Why attempt to create a bacterium from scratch, when there exists thousands of other bacteria that would fulfil that role just as well?

Secondly, a designed bacterium is relatively easy to reverse-engineer. All the genes used in its construction do something relevant to its function, and can be identified through simple processes. There aren't any extraneous genes that the bacterium picked up from the environment by chance. Every part of a designed bacterium does something, which makes counter-measures easy to design.

Thirdly, mutations in a designed bacterium make that bacterium dangerous to use as a weapon. A random mutation causing a change in function, mean that the intended effect may no longer work at all. Or alternatively, that the antidote no longer works on that bacterium, meaning that the weapon has gone out of control.

Fourthly, while it is possible to design a constructed bacterium that minimises or eliminates the two previously mentioned problems, such a bacterium would be an overblown monstrosity, ludicrously overengineered and ruinously expensive. Especially compared to the costs of isolating naturally occurring bacteria.

Thus, a designed bacterium is, redundant, inefficient, unstable, uncontrollable, and expensive.

A designed bio-weapon is a fools errand.


As for the application of bio weapons, there is only one, which is retribution against civilian populations. And given the difficulties of delivering a bio weapon to a planet, then it is far more effective and cheaper, to use such things as explosives, or other conventional weapons to achieve the same effect.

I do hear one suggested use for bio weapons. "But Doctor, it is so that the facility could be taken intact", says the person who wants a bio-weapon. Ludicrous. The same end can be achieved by other means. Especially if it is a science facility.

You see, most scientists are passionate about their work, and do not care much for politics. Instead of a ludicrous harebrained scheme to deploy bio-weapons against a science facility, swoop in and steal all the research data, it is far more effective to do things like this: Ask the scientist about the research.

"That's fascinating, Professor. But how did you solve the problem of X?" you ask the professor, and, being a Person of Science, the professor would be all too keen to expound upon their brilliance at solving problem X.


So, the design and use of bio-weapons is foolish and inefficient, and anyone considering it should be ashamed. Ashamed, I say!

Agree with this for a lot of reasons, some of them quite personal.

Indeed, it sounds as is.
However, there is one possibility that only bio-weapon can achieve. And this is selectivity.

Different groups of organisms have different genome. It is easy to show, that it is simple to find a certain gene coding a certain protein in a given group of organisms, that is unique to them. It means you could possible develop an agent that would attack only species with given DNA fragment.

Usage of such agent could be incredible efficient. Lets imagine, that you have a planet X, inhabited by smart, progressive species A, and that it was bombed and occupied by lazy hedonistic parasitic species B, who halted prosperity of species A. In order to restore glory of species A you have to remove species B from the planet without damaging species A.

But if you apply traditional weapons to parasites B, you will damage good species A, as a collateral damage. If it would be possible to create bio-weapon that could affect only parasites B without infecting species A this will be way more efficient an humane, as species A won't be affected by this. And parasites B will be sufficiently removed, because they won't be able to hide, or to fool weapon by changing their color, size, shape, or to change their documents, or mimic biologically by other ways to species A, they won't be able to lie to a bio-weapon, as it will be targeting their proteins that only their DNA codes.

What do you think, doctor?

That's pure hypothetical reasoning.

As Markus Error pointed out bioweapons are extremely unpredictable. The problem with bioweapons is not a too low efficiency, but a too high efficiency.

Ah, yes. Remember that time when the Blood Raiders used Insorum as a chemical weapon?

While I've had a Sabik doctor on my staff once before, and generally respect the medical capabilities of the Sani Sabik, there's a line between 'capable personnel' and 'someone to throw out an airlock and destroy the medclones of,' which is crossed the moment that person becomes a Blood Raider.

Given her history, I'd assume Valate is one of the latter.

The vitoxin agent is a bioengineered virus that infects cells and makes them produce a toxin (vitoxin). Vitoxin is lethal, unless countered with a neutralizing chemical particle (Vitoc), or cured with Insorum.

The virus mutates regularly according to patterns that allow the imperial producing firms to release new versions of Vitoc every time it does.

Which makes it probably the only bioweapon that is sufficiently clean and flawless that I know of today.

If species A was really that smart, species B wouldn't have gotten the best of them, huh? Therefore species B is the dominant being and the prime candidate for evolution.....


Also, Bio-weapon are by no means humane. Nor are they as reliable as you make them out to be.

Likewise.