Cybernetic Skull and Cortex (Archive XL)

KNOWN ISSUES

Make sure the Cyber Skull is equipped in the Equipment Ex wardrobe for it to appear properly. All facial cyberware, facial hair, and facial tattoos will still show with the skull equipped so they must be removed. May clip with high collared clothing items.

ACQUISITION

Use item codes (in comments) or purchase from Yevgeniy's 2nd Hand virtual atelier

LORE

Cybernetic enhancement that encases the brain in a full steel and carbotanium alloy shell replacing the skull and face. Also replaces the cervical vertebrae with a cybernetic neck that offers increased protection to the spinal nerve. Besides the obvious physical protection provided it also upgrades the visual, auditory, somatosensory, and olfactory systems. The cyber skull is the pinnacle of chrome enhancements that will improve ones combat survivability and effectiveness more than any other singular piece of cyberware.

LORE CONT.

However all of this comes at a terrible price...the users humanity. Many rippers refuse to install this cyberware because of the immediate deterioration of the recipients psyche. The onset of cyberpsychosis symptoms can be immediate because the chrome is physically fused with the spinal nerve and cerebral cortex. While chroming motor or secretory nerves may take years to manifest cyberpsychosis symptoms the chroming of the brain is far more damaging to the psyche. The physical shock to the limbic system often causes drastic emotional and behavior swings and delusional thinking.

The few who make it through the physical toll of the initial install then have to endure the mental anguish that steadily builds the longer the Cyber Skull is chipped. With no human face you can no longer smile at another parson, kiss a lover, or eat your favorite meal. Every human you interact with will look into your metallic face and see nothing but a mannequin. With no ability to relate to the humans around you and relying on IV drips for sustenance you begin to lose the things that make us human.

Due to these factors the only gonks usually crazy enough to chip the Cybernetic Skull are corpo special forces operatives and Maelstrom devotees. Operatives who are seen as dispensable or already on the brink of cyberpsychosis are selected by corps for Cyber Skull installs. They are then sent to one of the many shadowy proxy wars fought over dwindling resources in the pillaged 3rd world. Under the added trauma that