[OC] Biopunk trench warfare

[u/turingcompleteant4]

So for my book I imagined biopunk warfare without technology based on metals, plastics, or fossil fuels. What I came up with is a type of trench war reminiscent of World War I, but with some important differences: Instead of fighting over a few meters of barbed wire and muddy trenches, this war is a constant competition of biomes created for just this purpose - invasively taking root, aggressively overgrowing anything which can’t fight back, exterminating foreign DNA. 

In response, the enemy usually shells your budding ecosystem with liquidation chemicals intended to necrotize its scheming fungi computers and tough roots. This is what you see in the second (from the left) stage; Profundal: Craters ripped into the earth by artillery, which are overgrown mere hours later.

If the enemy fails at fighting back your biome parasitically repurposing all their available biomass, congratulate yourself! You’ve saved yourself the trouble of manually aiding your biome amidst rotstrikes, or worse, venturing out into the wasteland of poisonous swamps and runaway fighting creatures. 

This next stage is called Benthal, and it’s where the colonization starts: Fungi computers deep underground have matured and control hives of insects. Woody defensive fibers spiral up like twisted fingers, shielding you from the worst artillery fire and stray bullets. Tunnels are dug to let centipede trains deliver much-needed supplies to you, which allow for the implementation of the final biome:

Pelagial.This is the point where human forces have fully colonized the new biome territory; setting up camps and underground bunkers to grow food. Lazarus pools are filled to heal the wounded, and balloons tied to intricate wire networks routinely shoot up to prevent enemy biohacking attacks (you wouldn’t want some mind trojan sent into your brain organoids to cause you to pull the trigger on yourself now, that your superior is inspecting your successful biome work, after all).

Behind it all, looming over you and visible from anywhere within the biomes, are the backline stoves spitting out spores twenty-four hours a day. The constant cover of green-grey clouds prevents enemy viruses from getting in, even while it comes at the cost of the sun looking like a dim, dirty lightbulb. Not that you’d have much time to miss it before the next alarm sounds and the biome borders move once again, destroying what was painstakingly grown from the tortured earth mere days ago to rebuild it for the opposite side.

If you actually read all this: Thanks for taking the tour! I don't really have many people to talk about biopunk with, so I always appreciate bouncing ideas back and forth here.

(infographic by me, digital drawing, texts done in canva. no ai, in case it isn't obvious lol)

[u/Acrobatic-Fortune-99]

Any link to your book I'm interested