Chimeras are the most unique among the creatures of the Merigo coast. All of them are female, and conduct a form of parthenogenesis, and yet the child rarely if ever is an exact clone of the mother. Additionally, their offspring often show remarkable similarity to other animals in the area, and yet they’ve never been observed to copulate with the males of other species. The reason for this is simple: chimeras reproduce by consumption. Everything eaten by them gets repurposed to strengthen the next generation. We haven’t yet found an animal whose genes they couldn’t replicate. They’re a biological adapter cable, connecting everything from a sea sponge to a human.
While many rumors exist, the Merigan government denies any human experimentation related to chimeras. When asked about the prison escape on 17th of March last year they said all those death row inmates “must have grown wings, and fins, and so on, on their own”.
Start with: prisoner clothing; pack of cigars; poacher’s net;
+2 HP per template.
Fursuit
Ape Mode; Hearty Meal; +1 attack per turn
Blending In; +1 attack per turn
Go crazy. Go stupid.
A: Fursuit
Generate three random animals, and look into each one of them. Choose one as the base of your chimera operation.
You have the traits of that animal. Workshop them with your gm - try to aim for 2 abilities. If it can fly, you can fly. If it sees in the dark, you see in the dark. If it eats its partner right after it has sex, too bad. Examples will be provided at the end of the post.
Your animal base is reflected in your appearance (ex. cat ears for a cat; giant compound eyes for the dragonfly; weird skull shape for the hammer shark).
B: Ape Mode
When under extreme stress, the chimera part of your brain takes over. If you get reduced to 1 hp, your body transforms to resemble an animal even more. You get +1 attack per turn, and +d6 to any damage dealt. If you get reduced below 1 hp, you don’t die, but instead lose control of your character. A boss health bar appears at the bottom of the screen.
B: Hearty Meal
You can now hold [template] animal bases. By killing and eating an animal for the first time, you can take on its traits.
Your human biology still limits you; you can only use one animal base at a time. You can switch between your animals with a minute of focus. It is extremely painful - you suffer 1 damage. Your appearance either reflects the animal you’re currently using OR a strange combination of all your animals.
C: Blending In
Animals whose abilities you’re holding will naturally consider you one of their own. This is also true for chimeras. This doesn’t mean they’re friendly, just that they don’t see you as a human.
D: Go crazy. Go stupid.
You can now use up to two different animal bases at once.
Examples of Animal Bases:
Mantis Shrimp
+Enhanced eyesight - the number of your photoreceptors is tripled, if not quadrupled. You can perceive wavelengths between deep ultraviolet and far-red.
+Pistol punch - your arms have the same strike mechanism as the shrimp. Your hands can move as quickly as a bullet, if you want them to.
Tree Kangaroo
+Tree locomotion - on the ground you’re slow and awkward, but you can move with running speed when climbing or swinging yourself around.
+Balancing tail - longer than your body. Your sense of balance is unmatched. You cannot be tripped.
Narwhal
+Echolocation - you have the ability to produce sounds between 0.3 and 125 Hz, as well as use them to navigate through the environment.
+Deep diver - your blood and muscles are exceptionally good at storing oxygen. You can survive on one breath for 30 minutes.
Lionfish
+Water Jet - you can use a mouthful of any liquid to blow a jet of water at a nearby target. It confuses the hell out of animals.
+Neurotoxin - your body is covered in fin spines coated in neurotoxin. It’s fast acting, but non-lethal. Affected body parts are paralyzed for 1d6 minutes, and hurt like hell.
Armored Trapdoor Spider
+Web - you can produce a strong adhesive web.
+Tunneler - you can dig a human-sized hole in dirt in less than a minute. You can easily use your web to construct a trapdoor for said hole in less than a minute.
Kouprey
+Large horns - big ass horns. Count as heavy weapons.
+Even larger dewlap - it’s hairy, and massive. Helps in regulating temperature, attracting mates (only applicable to koupreys; I think it actively drives humans away), and deterring predators.
Ok, so, this post was heavily inspired by Terra Formars, the sci-fi manga running in Weekly Young Jump since the early 2010s, which I originally started reading (at the time, oh horror, fully genuinely) when I was about 14, circa 2016. I have revisited it recently, and caught up with the point where I originally dropped it (that is, right about the end of the Annex-I mission). The series, obviously and tragically, has a grip on my mind, considering I have now made 2 posts inspired by various aspects of it. Following my reread I have a lot of thoughts about it. I couldn’t allow this post to go live without me at least talking about it a little bit. You fell for it, this was a poorly veiled excuse to talk about the roach manga.
For those not in the know, a quick plot recap. Terra Formars takes place about 500 years in the future, at the tail end of humanity’s Mars terraforming effort. The method employed by humanity to achieve their goal was spreading moss and cockroaches across the surface of the planet to heat it up, eventually melting its ice and triggering a snowball effect that leads to the creation of an earth-like atmosphere. Unfortunately, humanity hasn’t foreseen that the cockroaches will evolve over the 500 years, taking on a giant humanoid appearance, and immediately slaughtering anyone sent to the planet. U-NASA prepares the Annex-I mission, made of 100 crew members all equipped with a MO operation - the ability to metamorphose into a half animal form - which they can use to slaughter the cockroaches.
Characters:
Akari - our protagonist. Boring. Bland. Spends 90% of his screentime aurafarming. Skip.
Michelle Davis - the daughter of the BUGS1 captain, she was born with ant powers, being the first person in history to have a naturally occurring mosaic organ. She falls into the unfortunate trope of being a sci-fi woman largely defined by the achievements of her father, despite being a very competent and intelligent person in her own right, but overall she’s probably my second favorite character. It’s fascinating to see all the ways she lies to each other about her own feelings, or the times where her strong emotionless mask breaks, and reveals a girl who never had a chance at a normal childhood, Her relationship with Akari is fascinating too, and somehow avoids the route of the generic protagonist romance (I do generally think that any and all fictional relationships are weakened the second you canonize them as dating - when 2 characters say “i want to see her/him happy”, but there aren’t any explicitly romantic sentiments there’s so much more Spice to it all). Genuinely just a solid character. Leave it to the misogynistic writer to trip his way into a surprisingly compelling female character.
Joseph Newton - the manga sometimes refers to him as Speedy Joe. His backstory is that he’s the heir of the Newton Clan, who have been conducting selective breeding for the last 500 years. There is a chapter cover where the author says that the Newton Clan is actually quite diverse, and it’s actually a total coincidence the ubermensch is a blue-eyed blonde-haired arian dream. He represents the Roma Federation on Mars, which I mention only to let you know there is a Roma Federation. And they have eugenics man on their side.
Ok, TBF, it is later touched upon the fact that Joe looks nothing like his father, because his father felt his own face proportions were off, so he purposefully found himself a woman who is a perfect arian looks-wise. I am so fucking sorry, the eugenics man actually has depth to him. He was born to a family where love doesn’t exist, because everyone is too obsessed with reaching physical perfection. And once that perfection was reached, they still had to compromise, and seek partners who “look right” (white, and blonde, and conventionally attractive). The ubermensch was dark-skinned, and had a hooked nose, and the society couldn't accept him like that. Call me problematic, I liked Joe. I tried so hard to hate him, because the premise of eugenics man is, admittedly, weird and stupid, but I did like him! I’m sorry!
He has a thing for Michelle, though I don’t think he’s in love with her. He very clearly seeks to get together with her just because she’s 1) buff, and 2) the miracle child of Commander Davis. He clearly struggles with the concept of love. His backstory included manipulating his friend group to drive his best friend’s girlfriend into a very lonely and depressive place, just so he could test whether it’s possible for him to trick her into cheating - he’s so bent by being part of the Newton Clan he doesn’t understand love, and only sees relationships as transactional. Human emotions are largely alien to him. Under the guise of a relaxed guy and a gentleman, it’s actually a real struggle for him to fit into a lot of societal norms.
Adolf Reinhardt - the manga keeps acting like he’s the shit, and the most tragic man alive, because he was made as a human weapon, and then after finding the only person who loved him, she cheated on him. I think he’s quite lame. The funniest bit he has is when he’s killed by the terraformers protecting his squad, and then it turns out that Germany implanted a bomb in him in case he ever dies. Not to kill the Mars roaches, mind you, but just in case another country wanted to steal their technology. So he explodes post-mortem and kills his squad. There’s also a panel where a terraformer punches him, and it cuts to him kissing his wife on earth, and it genuinely looks like he jizzed his pants from brain damage.
Eva - whom I mention solely to say she has the ability to regenerate, at one point gets exploded into a thousand pieces, and the author makes her regrow herself entirely from her boob. It is somehow both extremely badass and cool (amazing body horror, truthfully), and extremely fucking lame (of COURSE out of all the body parts it’s her tits that survived).
Xi - it’s so predictable the author gave the octopus camouflage power to a woman, so she can walk around naked all the time. She’s cool, though. Has a lot of strong moments.
Baos - has been given the powers of a sea squirt, so he can reproduce asexually. He’s not that major of a character, but he gets a mention due to being fun. Every Bao is a distinct person in their own right, because the only thing they have in common is genes, but they’re all also kind of suicidal freaks. I like them. At one point they try to emotionally manipulate the protagonists by mentioning what dreams each one of them has upon returning to Earth. They’re funny.
The entirety of the Russian squad - holy fuck I love them. They are too good for this manga. Genuinely just solid characters with fun dynamics. One of them has weed powers. They gave him weed powers. Weed isn’t even an animal. He’s just a weed man.
Asimov’s and Alexander relationship, and especially the flashback to Asimov’s daughter, where it’s revealed Alexander is married to her, is the peak of this whole manga. “God of War” Asimov going crazy when his daughter brings home some fucking russian twink, and beating the shit out of him. And after numerous attempts on Alexander’s part to fit in better, Asimov’s daughter and wife stand up for him, and beat the shit out of Asimov. And then it cuts forward in time to them being a loving family. So good.
When Alexander sacrifices himself, and Asimov finds out about it, it was probably the most emotionally potent bit of the whole manga. One of the few proofs that this author can write actual people.
A lot of the other squad members don’t get a lot of big moments to shine, but they’re consistently just fun to follow, and get interesting dynamics that make them pop from the crowd of 100 jobbers.
Ivan and Elena are siblings.
Nina and Aaron were married pre-mission, and both wanted the other to stay back on Earth.
Sergei is a big stupid oaf, and Anastasia is a nerd. This isn’t really a preexisting relationship, it’s just a good dynamic.
Every random background guy - they get a useless animal power (usually a mammal) and die instantly.
Powerscaling in Terra Formars is funny. Since so many abilities are based on insects, and insects tend to be small, the author uses questionable math to scale them up to human size. As such, if somebody has, let’s say, ant powers, and an ant can lift 100 times its body weight, they can lift 100 times their own body weight. Terraformers themselves can run at the speed of a F1 car from the first step they take. This makes everyone who’s not an insect, spider, or crustacean pretty much irrelevant by default, with a few rare exceptions.
Every other woman in this manga - they get a useless animal power and die instantly BUT they are given a name and a male character who can be motivated/traumatized by their death. This happens at least 4 times I can remember.
A lot of the chapters end on character sheets for various minor characters. Since Annex-I has over 100 crew members, this is a good way to give depth to the ones who aren’t among the top plot-relevant combatants. I mention this because I need you to know that every sheet for a female character mentions their breast size, including details about how said breast size changed due to various life events (pregnancy, getting old, so on).
Something tells me I ought to start with something positive, so let me just say I really enjoy the animal based power system (I mean, duh, this post is essentially me stealing the whole concept outright). It’s cute how obsessed the author is with insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Fights often stop for 2 to 4 pages just for the author to explain what animal trivia a certain fighter’s MO operation is based on. The Mantis Shrimp got included in the post specifically because I found out about it through Terraformars.
End of being nice. What a piece of shit plot synopsis. Terraformers as a species are perfectly crafted to be the perfect evil Other, engineered to elicit no empathy whatsoever. They are the ones who spill blood first, by attacking the crew of BUGS1 the second they touch down, these mindless brutes! Moreover, the narration keeps reminding us they don’t feel bad over doing so at all (a comparison that’s made often is that, the same way humans don’t feel bad stepping on a cockroach they find in their house, a terraformer doesn’t feel bad tearing apart a human being who makes it to Mars - we don’t register in their brain as equal creatures). Terraformers also, supposedly, lack individuality, and their solution to any problem they can’t solve with the raw strength of the individual is to throw themselves at it en masse, with no fear of death. The way it’s described reminds me of the way many right-wing folks talk about muslims. As this mindless army of extremists with no sense of preservation, blinded by a higher goal. The author doesn’t seem to realize just how often he contradicts himself either - he actually gives the terraformers individuality! They have leaders! They have a religion (which, btw, sounds so fascinating, but is not given any exploration at all, and is outright ignored by the crew of Annex-I), and within that religion there are individuals which clearly carry distinct roles. They are individuals. They aren’t just a mindless army of drones. But the author consistently reduces them to just that.
I'm sure all the terraformers look like very stereotypical black men for no reason whatsoever :)
Also, let us be clear, the terraformers are the victims here. They are time and time again painted as the attacked and the aggressor, but they are clearly on the defensive. We deployed them to terraform a planet for us, they developed intelligence, and made said planet their home. We then invaded that home, and, when attacked, painted them as the villains. The manga refuses to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Sure, it does sometimes paint certain factions within U-NASA as selfish, and driven by ulterior motives, but it refuses to ever paint humanity itself as evil. We are the good guys. We’re doing this for Earth. We need to solve overpopulation, and the only way is for us to regain control of Mars, which we have every right to treat as our private property! It’d be compelling if it was purposeful! It ALMOST makes a point of some kind!
I do believe some of the early chapters tried to paint humanity as being the underdog here, and, while Annex-I is outnumbered hundreds to one, whenever we follow our protagonists it rarely ever feels like terraformers are the threat. Akari and Michelle dominate nearly every fight. A lot of the time when the Annex-I crew aurafarms while slaughtering some roach, it just feels like bullying. The action is at their best when we actually focus on someone who struggles in any way against even a single terraformer. In this, the Annex-I infiltration arc shines, being possibly my favorite moment of the entire series. Especially, since it’s also a rare example of the MO operations having non-combat applications (sensing traps, resisting neurotoxin, so on - it’s neat!).
Important memory: Annex-I has what is known as the MARS Ranking to rank the roach capture capabilities of each crew member, with MARS standing for Martian Atmosphere and Roach Suitability. It’s a stupid name. The Roman ubermensch is #1 in the MARS Ranking, while Adolf is #2.
Some of the main characters of the Annex-I arc are driven to Mars after the AE disease ravages humanity, killing millions due to its 100% lethality rate. The disease originated on Mars, likely from the terraformers, and the only way to cure it is to gather life samples from the planet and bring them back. This, I believe, was meant to make the main cast slightly more likable, because the author eventually realized some of what I said in the above points. It worked to a degree, but I still feel like it’s undermined by the fact that we only got infected because we kept invading the damned roaches on Mars.
I need everyone to know that the AE bacteriophage has an ankh symbol on it.
It feels like the billions of dollars spent on both of the Bugs missions, as well as Annex, could’ve been better spent, idk, fixing the fundamental societal inequalities which make overpopulation the problem in the first place. Of course, I get that the elites don’t always work towards humanity’s best interest, and it does later become textual that a lot of the nations that make up U-NASA were less interested in taking over the terraformed Mars, and more in the relics of planet Rahab, as well as the military applications of terraformers and the MO Operation, but it still feels so forced. If it's the military application they’re after, there’s absolutely no reason for them to continue spending billions on Mars missions, when they can textually clone terraformers at home. And then invade the Middle East, or something.
The Chinese squad was actually sent to Mars with another goal yet - to kidnap Akari and Michelle. See, the bugs surgery works by transplanting the mosaic organ from a terraformer to a human. It is also inheritable. You can inherit the surgery, that’s how it works. Akari and Michelle are the first (and only, I believe) people who were born with a naturally occurring mosaic organ. Thus, they can access their animal transformation without drugs, and even undergo a second surgery for a second set of powers. It’s obvious to me why somebody would want to capture and study them. What I don’t get is WHY WOULD YOU FLY TO MARS TO DO IT. IT COSTS BILLIONS. JUST KIDNAP THEM ON EARTH. AKARI WAS LITERALLY FUCKING AROUND WITH RANDOM GANGSTERS IN THAILAND FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS.
Technically, since you already all performed the MO Operation in your countries, can’t you just, idk. Make babies. I can’t believe that a morally grey politician telling his astronauts to kidnap someone on Mars would be above a breeding program, especially in a setting where eugenics objectively works, and the Roma Federation keeps showing off their beloved perfect arian.
Important to note, the MO operation isn’t limited to just animals. One member of the Russian squad, as I already mentioned, has weed powers (i cannot stress how much I’m not doing a bit here, you have to believe me, he’s a zaza man), while one member of the Chinese squad has bacteria powers. I think it’s stupid, but the whole manga has now fried my brain to the point I do also think it’s kinda sick.
At one point the leader of my beloved Russian Squad, Asimov, calls Ivan, his underling, a “good communist”. Following that exchange I spent the whole manga believing Russia must be communist in this universe. I doubt this is true (he probably only said that as a joke), but believing so makes the series significantly better.
I mentioned planet Rahab, so I might as well expand on it - there was once another planet in the solar system (I believe? I think it’s textually not an exoplanet), which housed an intelligent species that later visited both Earth and Mars. We know this, because both planets have similar traces of intelligent life, mainly, the pyramids. Oh, you thought we were over with the colonialist racist bullshit? I fucking tricked you - we’re talking about ancient aliens now. They built the pyramids. They also uplifted us, and then, idk, left an uplifting miasma back on Mars. And made the roaches build pyramids too, post-mortem. Fuck you.
Important to note that after the Nippo-American alliance fails to send a rescue shuttle, our heroes are saved by a private equity, which created and sent out a rescue ship out of the goodness of their heart.
Technically China also sent a “rescue ship”, the purpose of which was the kidnapping of Akari and Michelle. The ship had the original Bao on board, who was an old man, and had small Baos the size of rats running around. Kinda sick.
Notably, the ships arrived within days of the mission starting, while the Annex-I took almost a month to get to Mars. This implies they were either sent simultaneously to the main ship, or booked it to Mars at some unserious speed. This doesn’t impact much, but clearly wasn’t thought through by the author, and the mental image of someone giving up on the mission and sending out a rescue ship before Annex-I even touched down is funny.
The arc on which I dropped the series ends on terraformers finally making it to Earth. Or, rather, they’ve made it here years ago by reusing the BUGS1 shuttle, and tricking U-NASA into believing they successfully shot them down upon entering the atmosphere. Then, years later, a bunch of terraformers simultaneously come out of hiding to spread chaos. This was quite a satisfying chapter. It felt like the roaches finally sending a meaningful counter offensive against the human threat, bringing the fight to our turf. They commit 9/11. Fly high, terraformers. I believe your fight for liberation will come to an end soon.
Conclusion: I don’t really know how to end this post anymore. Endlessly fascinating manga. 5/10.
If the worst thing for a piece of art to be is to be boring, then Terra Formars must be at least somewhat good, because I can’t stop thinking about it. Tune in for another reread in 10 years.
