Riptor

Story

The result of UltraTech's research into genetic modification. They have spliced human and reptilian genes to produce a fighting creature with animal ferocity and human intelligence.

Dr. Erin Gupte, a brilliant genetic engineer at Ultratech, saw an opportunity to improve upon the Fulgore line and the Cinder initiative in a combat contract project. She worried that the cost of maintaining Fulgore and its inability to adjust to wildly different hostile environments would make the robot unaffordable. On the other hand, she believed that the Cinder initiative was just research and development and would take a long time to yield fruit. She thought that the ideal fighting platform would be a creature based on a ruthless, adaptable predator that had been enhanced and constrained by modern technology. It could feed off its victims for sustenance, sneak around and infiltrate places the Fulgore line would never be able to reach. Riptor was resistant to electronic interference, hacking, weather disruption, and even breakdown from as little as a grain of sand in the intake, nor would it take a decade of research to decipher the alien technologies the Cinder initiative toyed with.

The first batch of Riptor units was vicious and, even with cybernetic augmentation and programming, were utterly wild. They couldn't work as a unified unit because they couldn't be contained by shock, drugs, or control systems and tore anything they saw to shreds in a matter of minutes.

Erin investigated the issue, and despite the pressure from Ultratech's leadership, she concluded that her creations had no upbringing, no parenting, and only genetic memories to kill that she could not overwrite. They were born ready to fight, and without any other upbringing to guide them, they fought.

She scrapped the original Riptor assets and started over, giving the creatures even more enhancements. Erin began using her mind as a training tool for her new creations after appropriating surplus technology from the Fulgore project. She did this by simulating upbringing through directed thoughts and teaching the creatures the value of family and the concept of a pack.

Personality

Due to her reptilian nature, Riptor's personality is complicated. She is a fiercely brilliant hunter, and she leads her pack of Stalkers with absolute dominance and power. She's surprisingly perceptive for an animal, though she can't entirely control her baser urges, and all she wants is a juicy steak.

Playstyle

Riptor has a reasonably basic moveset, fighting mainly with rabid claw, jaw, and tail attacks, significantly improved with cybernetic augmentations. She can produce both a short plume of flame from her trachea and a long, mortar-like fireball from her mouth. She can also split her tail into multiple pieces that she can use to attack from a distance.

Appearance

Riptor's muscle mass is distributed in a more reptilian and less humanoid manner, giving it a smaller chest and thinner arms. Its eyes are slightly more prominent, its head is less pointed, and three flimsy spikes protrude from the back of its head. However, the most significant change by far is the cybernetic components. Metal bionics run down Riptor's back and down to the end of its tail, and its claws have blue energy enhancements. In place of its signature shackles are metal plates. The hexagonal patterns along its body slowly fade in and out from light blue to black, with bar codes and the UltraTech logo tattooed in several places.