Non-combat Bio-tech

[taalismn]

Hmmm...since we're talking food here....

You know it has to exist....Purina Armor Chow!
In wet-pack pods(single-serving) and dry kibble cans(paper of course).
Comes in Red-Raw Carnivore flavors(with real muscle fiber texture)
Herbivore Vegetable Medley(in garden herb and cabbage flavors)
Bucket o' Gravel Bits (with real oil sauce!)(for Lithovores)
And the over-so-popular, for man and beast, Yum-Yum Pack for Omnivores("Mmmmm.....looks like the flavor for today is past grubs in tomato sauce!)

And for the Thermovores...Napalm! The all-purpose household helper!

[taalismn]

Filter Gourd
A large guard-shaped organism that holds 3-4 gallons of water....THe real magick of this thing is that it filters polluted water, filtering out chemical contaminants, microorganisms, and even accomplishes desalination of brackish/salt water(can produce a gallon of potable fresh water in about 20 minutes)...Larger versions are also available, able to proccess quantities of 50-200 gallons at a time, but these will require some form of energy(typically photovoric or thermovoric) to accomplish large scale heavy duty water treatment, and the larger filters aren't exactly man-portable.

Forcefield Trees
(aka 'electric shrubs')
Fixed defensive positions aren't wise in Splicers, but sometimes necessary....In addition to megadamage-tough 'living fencing' designed to tangle the advance of robots, Splicers have developed plant-based versions of the Bio-Forcefield...these fast-growing trees and shrubs can produce forcefields, drawing on the Earth's electromagnetic field to help power them...Great for establishing forest defensive lines, or creating 'forcefield coralles' to herd robotic invaders into traps. Best used when planted/grown in clusters/groves for maximum field strength.

[taalismn]

Booster Shrub
The biggest problem with Bio-Comm systems is their abysmally short range(6 miles) making for great difficulties in coordinating large scale troop movements and strategies.....The Resistance has had to use manual relays and messengers...both of which are time consuming and vulnerable to interruption.
To increase the operational range of Bio-Comms and facilitate long range communications, the Engineers have created Booster Shrubs, cactus-like electro-active plants that are engineered to act as organic automatic relay stations, picking up Bio-Comm signals and transmitting them again to other receivers. The booster shrub itself resembles a scrubby grey-green or dunn-colored cactus with long spines, typically 2-3 feet wide, that can grow with little water, breaking down surrounding rock and sand for nourishment, but needing at least moderate sunlight to gain energy. It can survive in open desert, in the debris of wrecked cities, or on the seashore, hidden among rocks, with little trouble. Once planted as a seed, the Booster Shrub reaches operational maturity in 2d4 days(1-2 days if planted as a seedling). It is estimated that a booster shrub can live 8-10 years, perhaps longer.
Ideally, by planting networks of booster shrubs 6 miles apart from each other, the Resistance can create chains of communication over continental distances.
There are a few drawbacks to the system....Senders using a Bio-Comm Booster Shrub relay network occasionally complain about getting ‘echoes’ of their original messege bounced back to them, especially in areas where the fields of signal reception from several Booster Shrubs overlap. Another problem is that booster shrubs don’t always thrive where planted...occasional bad turns of climate, plant diseases, and action by Machine drones can destroy the shrubs, interrupting the network-chain. Another problem is occasional signal loss at night, due to power-down in the dark. The Engineers are attempting to solve these problems by various means, such as stronger organic batteries, signal discrimination, and more adaptable strains.
Resistance soldiers on overland expeditions are encouraged to carry seeds and plantings to establish more booster shrub networks.

Telephone Vine
Another attempt to resolve the problem of reliable communications is the introduction of the telephone vine, an engineered subterranean fungus spliced with kudzu and Bio-Comm DNA, to create a tunneling organism that forms closed-circuit underground land lines capable of passing signals. Lithovoric ‘Nodes’ are planted in the ground that immediately begin sending out roots in all directions, chewing through the surrounding soil and rock...Using a lower powered form of the Bio-Comm signal system, when a node’s tendrils detect the presence of another node in the distance(typically six miles away), the tendrils nearest the signal begin growing towards it(typically moving at a speed of up to 3d4x10 meters a day, depending on conditions) , eventually linking up and intertwining to form an integrated network of nueron-like fibers that the Resistance can tap(using an antenna-probe attached to the Bio-Comm) to send secure communications. Since the telephone vine grows underground, it is less susceptible to detection and destruction by the Machine...however, being a hard-line, the organism may have problems growing and connecting through dense rock and metal, and other intervening obstacles). The Librarians and Engineers hope to be able to create more advanced Telephone Vines that can also send high data thru-put visual images as well as audio signals, but that is several decades in the future yet. Another application of this biotech is to create ‘ghost webs’ of active Telephone Vines around Human communities....interruptions of the nets may provide advance warning of robots tunneling in to attack the underground human enclaves(rather than come in through the regular access ways).
As with the Booster Shrubs, Resistance soldiers are encouraged to carry vine node ‘spikes’ and plant them where they can to establish vine networks. A 'spike' resembles a small pale white carrot with several dendrite-like tendrils/rootlets sticking out of it; simply shove into the ground or hold against a rock surface, and the spike will begin biting in in minutes....