Gernadders

**Language** | Any human language.

Kantoku Gernadders are the successors to the Turtle Death Legion, taking the lessons learned from the suicidal clone-soldiers and applying them with less pyrrhic intent. While their predecessors were merely Elf clones modified for obedience, Gernadders are produced en mass from a stock of DNA collected by Editi and her personnel through a variety of means.

## Biology

Unlike the Death Legion, Gernadders are not clones of a single person, but take their genes from a variety of sources, and no Gernadder is an exact copy of any one pilot. They are, in fact, neither human nor elf, but a new, custom-made species using a heavily butchered Human genetic template incorporating genes selected from a variety of sources. Their genetic makeup is allegedly "98% human, 1.38% boar, 0.6% sloth, and 0.2% potato", though this remains to be confirmed. As a result, their biology is considerably different from a human's. They average a minimum of 210cm tall and 170kg in weight. Their musculature and bone density is greatly expanded, making them exceptionally tough and strong. Areas of the body such as the neck and abdomen are covered in a subcutaneous layer that provides additional protection from stab and slash wounds.

They are omnivorous, though their metabolism tends to slow to a crawl when not on mission or training. During periods of activity, this can rise to a staggering 10,000 calories of required intake; enough food for four adult men, meaning that Gernadders on extended missions are required to eat anything and everything they can get their claws on should they run short on TE NutriPaste, even going as far as to eat the corpses of slain enemies and allies when struck with mad hunger (though this does add a certain evil reputation about being sent to purposefully kill and eat their targets in order to make an example of them). This ability to alter their metabolism also allows them to adjust their body temperature according to their environment, granting them an advantage to evading thermal detection at the cost of near torpidity. They can even use this ability to stop their own hearts, should a Gernadder be captured by the enemy.

They have an excellent sense of smell comparable to canines, and have high tolerance to poisoning via venom or toxins. However, their eyesight tends to fail at longer distances, and their colour vision is somewhat worse than a human’s, seeing in more muted tones. Their clavicle structure allows them to rotate their heads up to 270 degrees around, rather than the 60-80 degrees typical of humans. Their head size is somewhat smaller in proportion to the rest of their body, with small, beady eyes and a wide, flat nose and sloping forehead. Their skin is thick and mottled, and they tend to be hairless or albino. As they are overall quite ugly, they are usually required to wear ballistic faceshields to hide their visage when in the presence of Kantoku operators or Commando Catgirls.

Due to their fucked up and unstable genetics, Gernadders have a very short life expectancy averaging about 10 years.

## Intelligence

Unlike their standard Kantoku brethren, Gernadders tend to be actually less intelligent and imaginative on average, as these are not traits Editi saw as desirable in disposable soldiers. They are only semi-sapient; capable of conversing and reasoning, but only within the scope of executing orders, putting them on a level below human intelligence. Although Gernadders are not programmed with the explicit purpose of dying in battle, they do not have the capacity to feel pain or fear and think nothing of sacrificing themselves to accomplish their mission.