"Peter F. Hamilton - A Night's Dawn Companion - The Confederation Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

modified their basic humanoid structure, equipping their feet with gripping claws,
giving themselves three forearms each with a specialist tool hand, etc. Most starships
carry one or two cosmoniks as crew-members. In extreme cases, a cosmonik will
abandon his humanoid form altogether, and transfer his brain into something like a
small MSV (multifunction service vehicle). In effect, he then becomes a short-range
spacecraft.


Mercenaries
Despite the relatively stable interstellar situation policed by the Confederation,
soldiers for hire are still a large business. Although there are no longer any land wars
or interstellar invasions, the requirement for limited тАЬspecial forcesтАЭ actions is at an
all-time high. Asteroid-settlement rebellions against their founding companies are a
frequent occurrence, with each side hiring mercenary groups to inflict strategic
damage against the other. In the case of the companies, boosted mercenaries are
usually employed to temporarily reinforce local police forces, while the rebels use
their mercenaries to strike against the companyтАЩs assets in another star system.

There also occur insurrections on stage-one colony worlds, which fall outside the
usual law-enforcement officer remit, allowing the development-company governor to
hire professional soldiers to quell the situation. Between such actions, mercenaries are
usually employed by the same development companies to act as marshals on stage-
one worlds, their specializations making them ideal for the kind of independent
tracking necessary at the frontiers of new planets.

Like cosmoniks, this group relies on extensive biomechanical augmentation to
achieve their professionтАЩs requirements. There is no standardization when it comes to
boosting the human form for combat; mercenaries range from fast scouts to what are
essentially biological tanks. Most mercenaries start with simple bone strengthening
and muscle amplification through either replacement or additional artificial tissue
grafts. Sensor enhancement is also a prerequisite, with implants wired directly into
neural nanonics. Weapon implants are not so common: boosted mercenaries tend to
modify their limbs to accept plug-ins or to improve normal handling characteristics.
 Exowombs
Perfected in 2065 so that couples with fertility problems could have children, they
were almost immediately adopted by wealthy women to avoid the physical strains of
childbirth and the limitations it temporarily placed on their lifestyle. Exowombs
played an important role during the divergence of Adamism and Edenism, and still
remain important to the expansion of both cultures.

Their first large-scale use was by the Edenists following EdenтАЩs declaration of
independence in 2090, when they were employed to increase the populations of Eden
and Pallas with germ plasma bought from Earth. This breeding program saw the start
of comprehensive geneering for Edenists, improving everyone on an equal basis. It
was also an opportunity to give every future Edenist an affinity gene.

They are not widely used on Earth in 2600, although Adamists began utilizing the
technology after the onset of interstellar colonization. Exowombs are employed quite
extensively by Adamists during the mid-term stage of a planetтАЩs colonization. This is
when the purely agrarian phase is being left behind and they are moving towards full