Kōkū-gao

Kōkū-gao Heishi (口腔顔 兵士 (lit. Mouth-face Soldier)) are a further realization of disposable, mass-produced gene-soldiers. Unlike the Nekommandos or Gernadders, which are intended to be capable of surviving and performing their functions for at least few decades, Kōkū-gao have a lifespan of six hours after they are deployed. They have no personality or intelligence and are meant for nothing else other than indiscriminate killing. Because of their behavior, they are often referred to as "Gaki" (餓鬼) or " Ohaguro" (お歯黒) by imperial soldiers. The period from their deployment to their expiration is semi-officially marked as the "Six Hours of Slaughter".
The Kōkū-gao were created by the Imperial Science Academy to address concerns over lack of a sufficient fighting force in the event that invasion of China became necessary to control the highly unstable situation brought on by the Great Hibernation. As the Empire placed a premium on the lives of its human subjects, there was a reluctance to use human regiments for expeditionary military operations, and the Tsumiheishi were too resource-intensive to produce in sufficient numbers to replace ground troops entirely. Thus, Japan found a need to procure a large army to protect its land holdings without depleting its limited population in costly land battles.
The Kōkū-gao were created to fill this number gap. They are intended purely for aggressive pushes in which huge losses were the expectation. They broadly resemble humans, having a single head, two arms and two legs. All four limbs are used to move across the ground. The hands and feet are large and end in long black talons. Their skin is a greenish-grey color often coated in a thin layer of slime. They lack facial features of any kind, the whole of the face instead being taken up by a large mouth filled with needle-like teeth. Kōkū-gao have two seemingly normal human ears on either side of the head, but due to human hearing being rather unremarkable, this is not their primary sense. Instead, they use a form of infrared vision to find their targets, granting them a means of vision unobstructed by darkness despite not having any visible eyes. Most cranial space not taken up by the oral cavity is dedicated to supporting this visual system, and as a result the brain of the Kōkū-gao is much smaller than its overall head size would suggest. 
Kōkū-gao are vat-grown and deployed directly from their growth tanks. They have a lifespan of six hours, during which they will attack and kill anything they can get within reach of that is not another Kōkū-gao. Though they will often use their jaws as weapons and may appear to devour their targets, Kōkū-gao lack digestive organs of any kind. In place of a stomach, Kōkū-gao have a sac filled with corrosive gas. An enzyme released on death will cause the lining of the sac to decay explosively, causing the carcass to detonate and spread the gas across an average 4 meters from the place of death. Once outside the body, the gas' effects are degraded to that of a lacrymator, causing severe eye and respiratory pain, skin irritation, bleeding, and temporary blindness. In this way, any hopefully demoralized and disoriented survivors of the initial assault of Kōkū-gao will be softened up for the second wave of Tsumiheishi shock troops. They are of limited use against properly fortified positions and useless against armor, but are excellent for clearing wilderness and urban areas, which would be difficult and costly to do with valuable human or Tsumiheishi troops.
Such abominable creations, although products of the Imperial Science Academy, were only made possible by the bioengineering work pioneered by Editi Eadrom.
Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:TE Species
Category:Japan