Immune Augmentation
Citizens of the Cobalt Protectorate who desire to travel beyond the Evermorn-Armoa Binary System face a dilemma in the form of susceptibility to diseases. The great distances and the slowness of travel imposed by the tyrrany of the speed of light, coupled with the weakening influence of phenomena like space radiation and damage from stints in cryostasis, imply that travelers between worlds and their offspring risk losing their hard-evolved resistance to their native pathogens. At the same time, the foreign peoples and environments of the Periphery and beyond carry their own pathogens for which the Evermornan explorer may have no native immunity. The intrepid explorer need not fear, however, as it never may be said that the top minds of the Protectorate lack for planning or ingenuity - especially in the fields of medicine and cybernetics.
An immune augmentation implant, often colloquially referred to as the 'smart shot' or 'adaptive vaccine,' is an implanted device that provides the reciever with a continuously updating roster of antibody-forming innoculations and boosters to ensure immunity to many of the most common diseases humans and their relatives might be vulnerable to. The smart shot forms one half of a comprehensive defensive medical strategy for the Evermornan on-the-go; the implant provides and maintains resistance against 'old world' diseases, while vaccines derived from genomili serum provides resistance against newly mutated strains or foreign pathogens encountered in alien environments.
Manufacturing
The current best standard for immune augmentation implants starts with a radiation- and rejection-hardened shell similar to those used to house the bioengineered electrophors used to power other cybernetic implants, though the device itself may require no such power to operate. A spool of protien-doped tape is wound through this shell, presenting only one small section of itself to the body at a time. The protiens on the tape are designed such that, when exposed, they cause the body's natural immune systems to produce antibodies, whether directly (i.e. viral shell protiens) or indirectly (i.e. mRNA snippets absorbed by the host cells). The tape slowly progresses through the shell, presenting new immunization sites to the body on a schedule set at the point of creation over the course of years and decades. Eventually, the spool repeats itself, providing boosters for previous immunizations rather than new ones.
Because of several dangers presented by the misuse of this technology, not the least of which being its potential use as a method of delayed release assassination, production of immune augmentation implants is carried out under the watchful eyes of trusted officials, including system government medical boards and elements of the Techguard. Luminescent markers, visible through the layer of skin under which the implant sits, show medical professionals where along the immunization circuit a patient is in case of a situation where this information is relevant (i.e. allergic reactions). Gaps must also be entered into the tape at intervals to allow a recipient time to recover, as otherwise the metabolic stress of the immune system facing constant challenge might prove too much to bear.
Social Impact
The subject of pacing and which immunizations to include in a tape for maximium useful coverage is a matter of constant debate. Some would argue that adding sections for diseases extinct in the wild is a waste of resources, while others would argue that it is precisely this rarity that makes resurgent strains all the more dangerous. Despite these issues, the advent of immune augmentation has been a tremendous blessing for those lucky enough to have been born in human-controlled space, as it represents a greatly reduced burden on the medical system without a sacrifice of natural defenses won over the course of evolution. Offering implantation to near-human allies of the Protectorate has also provided a boon to diplomatic efforts, as these gifts also allow two previously separated groups of human kin to comingle once more with much less fear of contagion.
Parent Technologies
Complexity
Immune augmentation implants are of a class of devices not constructible without the use of nano-scale auto-fabricators or similar technologies.
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