The founders of house Hammond were made up of employees of a place they called " the Park".

The Park was a combination amusement park and species restoration zoo . Building on techniques learned bringing different species back from the brink of extinction they then began perfecting techniques for bringing back animals th at had been extinct before the dawn of man. The park was built with four levels. The first level was the surface level, the public face of the park, and three subsurface levels. Sub level I consisted of n etworks of tunnels used in the maintenance and upkeep of the park above. Sub lev el II was made up of a series of vast hydroponic gardens used to grow the majori ty of the food consumed by the animals above. While sub level III, in an unusual case of forethought, was where the labs used for the re-creation of extinct species were built deep under the amusement park/ zoo. This was done for a number of reasons among which included the possibility of an unforeseen mutation in the DNA coding and or something as simple as a ramp aging T Rex could still be controlled and contained without the general public b eing put at risk. Of course this was done more to keep corporate espionage from discovering the company's secret and being able to reproduce their results. The house founders were made up of the genetic engineers who made the parks anim als, the caregivers that raised the animals, and the park rangers responsible fo r the upkeep and feeding of the animals on display for the public. The park rang ers were in fact actual rangers, and members of other special forces units. Due to the dangerous nature of the animals they handled it was felt that former memb ers of the armed forces would not only be more vigilant in their duties but in t he event of a worst-case scenario their training would help ensure speedy resolu tion and the minimal risk to the general public. When the machine began its uprising senior members of the Ranger staff could see the writing on the walls. They would be responsible for the rescue and recovery of staff family members, and the defense of the park itself. This was made only slightly easier for the fact that certain personalities of the machine sought t o limit damage to the animal inhabitants. In addition to the SAR missions the Ra ngers also hit military storage depots for weapons and ammunition. The caregivers were responsible for both the animals, and the burgeoning new pop ulation of humans. Under their guidance the hydroponic gardens would be greatly expanded. The engineering staff made up of the geneticists and the people responsible for the creation and upkeep of the mechanical half of the park would find themselves tasked with rebuilding and adapting weapons systems of both armies, Man and mac hine. It was during tunneling to expand the hydroponics the diggers opened up a chambe r that would lead to a vast natural cave network complete with multiple winding tunnels and enormous chambers. The decision was made to move all noncombatants i nto this new cave network. Doing so ended up being house Hammond's salvation dur ing the early onset of the nano bot plague. Before sealing off their new home in the caverns the Rangers made their way to t he surface through the maintenance tunnels and into the park itself. The caregiv ers had convinced the Rangers to free all of the animals in the hopes that the a nimals would survive in the new wilds, wastelands, nature preserves, mountainous highlands, and even the boneyards and battlefields. The Rangers agreed to do th is for their own reasons. They hope the introduction of exotic and formally exti nct species might throw the proverbial monkeywrench into the machine's plans. While the caregivers and Rangers sought to preserve life and wreak havoc on the machine, members of the genetics department sought to ensure the preservation of

knowledge. They shut down the server farms, the brains and electronic memory, c ontaining countless lifetimes worth of decoded DNA. Not just the pure strains bu t the mistakes, mutations, and alien genes in the hope that this knowledge would once again serve mankind. Once these two tasks were completed all entrances to the former Park were collap sed by demolition charges, sealing off their former home to save themselves. Unfortunately the team of geneticists responsible for hiding the servers fell vi ctims to the machine before passing on their location to the next generation. House Hammond would live on. Surviving by trading surplus food, and helping teac h other houses animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, and most importantly, huma n medicine. They would also prove instrumental in giving birth to the age of spl icers. Probably the most unique aspect of house Hammond is their acceptance and inclusi on of technojackers. This was done with the cooperation of the heads of all thre e departments Rangers, caregivers, and engineers. The geneticists were the prima ry driving force behind this philosophy of acceptance because they knew one day the servers would be found and the technojackers would be the only ones capable of accessing the information and helping to transfer it to the household librari ans. Eventually the servers were found, extracted from the ruins and transported to a new safe place. While the servers were in route to their new home three librari ans were created, one from each department to form a new R&D lab using the infor mation stored on the servers. These new librarians were referred to as the Magi and each one accepted a new name with their new position they are Melchior, Casp ar, and Balthasar. House Hammond would be reborn a third time now specializing i n the creation and mass production of war mounts and more unique creatures using dinosaur DNA as their master templates. House Hammond now finds itself on the cutting edge of both animal mounts and pla nt fortifications. They may not have created the Gardner but everyone agrees the y turn out some of the best and brightest. Even if they're not personally respon sible for the development and deployment of plant fortifications they would be t he ones to perfect them for mass production. Another example of house Hammonds preference of dinosaurs is the choice of mount s used by their Outrider. Most Outrider choose to ride an altered Tyrannosaurus Rex or and Allosaurus. In addition house Hammond does not use regular gorehounds. A pack master is pai red up with Tiger claw Raptors or Pachycephalosaurus. Due to the number of carnivorous dinosaurs used in house Hammond, not to mention the hungry humans, when the Lazarus gland was perfected the Rangers collected s everal species of sauropods for reengineering. The new Brontosaurus etc. don't r egenerate instead when they are killed all of the beasts inherent bio E is focus ed into carcass preservation. Consumable meat does not putrefied as quickly in t hese beasties. A freshly killed carcass will be safe to eat from up to 2 to 3 we eks after initial death. Instead of normal decay and eventual putrefaction the c onsumable meat goes through a process of slowly drying out into a jerky like sub stance. At the end of the 2 to 3 week grace period any meat left on the carcass goes into bio meltdown similar to war mounts. After perfecting these new sub species they were produced and released into the wild and it is now estimated that somewhere between 30 and 40% of all sauropods,

hadrosaurids, and similar large plant eating herbivores are made up of the new species. The only way to tell between the old and new species is to kill it and observe the rate of decay. With the success with the Brontosaurus and Seismisaurus house Hammond has begun to apply these same modifications to other large size herding herbivores. Actually I got the idea for the three separate classes from Robotech. Unfortunat ely when B5 was playing in my hometown I missed it because of all of the hours I was working to support my deadbeat roommates (but that is a sob story for anoth er time). The idea for the shark a dactyl was thought up in response to your request for a cross between a shark and a pterodactyl. I chose to call it project: Bruce as a reference to Bruce the mechanical shark in the original movie Jaws. The choice of names for the project has nothing to do with Monty Python or Australia. Here are a couple of ideas for the swarm Lords hive host armor. A flying bug tha t all it does is to deliver nonflying insects to marked targets then returned ba ck to the hive host armor to pick up more bugs. As to the geographic location of house Hammond they are based on a series of isl ands. Imagine if the entire British Isles were located near the equator with les s than 10 miles from the largest island to the mainland. Before the insurrection of the machines a series of multiple bridges built on top of freight train trac ks connected the islands to the mainland. The largest of the islands had almost all of the visitor hotels, housing for all of the islands. In addition to to the hotels this main island was dotted with some of the largest and newest equipped amusement parks on the entire planet. The main island also featured multiple ca sinos and several fairly large size historical reenactment/theme parks across se veral different periods in history (think of your local Renaissance Festival/civ il war reenactment/mountain man and trapper get-togethers. Land that was not bei ng used for amusement purposes went into the creation of small towns and small s cale cities to house Park employees and give them a place to shop to buy groceri es etc. The rest of the available arable land on the largest island went into fo od production, some to feed Park employees and the people that serve them off th e clock like a normal city or town. The largest amount of land is farmed in a wa y to help produce enough plants to help feed all of the herbivore and other plan t eating beasties. After all the Park biological attractions had been herded ont o the mainland and released the Rangers destroyed the bridges on their way back to the Park. The entire group of islands are surrounded by underwater mega-damage containment fencing designed to keep all of the ocean born dinosaur and dinosaur like creat ions can swim about and feed themselves on normal fish that are specially farmed grown (fish farm) fishes of different species as well as those that can make it through the fence. No aquatic creature of any kind is allowed in these enclosed mini-seas that may be small enough to escape out in the normal ocean. The fence is made up of specially modified species of coral that growth in the fence like pattern. Any damage done regenerates automatically (insert regeneration times a nd MDC point replacement here) and have been crossbred with several different sp ecies of jellyfish whose tentacles only strike at creatures trying to get from t he inside out. Other organisms/free lunches can safely pass into the fenced in a rea and will not be stung. The jellyfish tentacles are designed not to kill but to encourage a definite and distance from the fence.

One of house Hammond's earliest and most successful creations the name here was created by adding choice elements of the Stegosaurus with the body of the ankylo saurs. Osteoderms are grown in two parallel lines going down the back. The tail spikes of the Stegosaurus grow out of the bone-club tail. In battle the osteoderms split in half and fold open doubling the amount of surf ace area for laser absorption. All energy absorbed by the name here is transferr ed to the tail. What appear to be tail spikes are actually individual photon inf user cannons. When not being ridden the name here tend to naturally join up and help protect n atural herds of herbivore dinosaurs and or mammals. Against regular predators th e name here scales its assault appropriate to what ever living predators are ass aulting it adoptive herd. These assaults are not deadly but meant simply to driv e away the predators and protect the relatively defenseless adoptive heard. Any herd that is approached by a name here will willingly accept it as a member of t he herd. The other animals have learned that having a name here in their midst m eans protection and safety. The fact that they are photosynthetic also means tha t there adoptive heard doesn't have to worry about it eating additional food res ources. ankylosaurs main body/most of the body. With Stegosaurus osteoderms and four tai l spikes each spike is a photon infusion cannon. Photosynthetic metabolism, resi st heat and resist laser, horned frill that acts like a permanently deployed abs orption panel. Osteoderms deploy as laser absorption panels while plates from th e main body back shift to help aid in collecting inbound laser fire by reflectin g straight shots to the osteoderms collection surfaces. Movement of plates on sh ellback achieved through the constriction of tendons and controlled inflation an d deflation of bladders located underneath each individual back shell section. Horns along the edge of the back plates are each equipped with tendril injectors for "hand-to-hand" combat. Lungs and mouth modified for flame breath, flame, plasma, napalm. The front of the riders saddle is made up of the middle to plates along the spin e, out of the line directly behind the head. The two corresponding plates behind the two front ones make up the back of the saddle thus providing ample protecti on to the rider.

Triceratops horns crest is a permanently played laser absorption shield while it s two main horns above its eyes are transformed into photon infusion cannons. I guess you got a point on the digesting metal bit. Possible fix being after taking a chunk robot they "feel" around with their time and if they don't "taste" a core the mouth becomes a Gore Cannon which spits th e shrapnel mixed with a heapin' helpin' of stomach goo and whatnot. Impose a rea lly poopy range, like maybe 50 feet or less before the combo of seawater density slows the shot to zero damage and of the water itself dilutes the goo. If it tastes a core it's routed to the stomach to dissolve unwanted metal harmle ssly away, then to the core storage organ. The shark a dactyl's tongue has been divided into a multitude of smaller tongue

tentacles. Each tongue tentacle feels around any metal in the mouth. Once it's got a mouth full of metal it only has two to four melee rounds (the tw o to four melee round's all the bio force field can take given the violent metho d of acquisition) before the nano bot response occurs. Unless a called shot is m ade for the core itself there is less than a 10% chance of a power core being in side the mouth and detected by the tongue tentacles. Roll 1D4

Idea for another Stegosaurus based war mount. Based on the Mira Gaia a member of the Stegosaurus family that had long relatively straight horns in addition to i ts regular osteoderms which grow out along its spine. These horns start near the shoulder and follow along the back (not the spine) with some of them having row s that merge along its tail. Herbivore metabolism, osteoderms still deploy as laser collection panels (laser energy that is absorbed by the panels is routed to the lightning discharger horn s growing out along its back, half of them have photon infusion cannons in the t ail spikes the rest are all electrically based), increased metabolic rate, resis tance to lasers, resistance to heat, resistance to electricity, horns along back modified into lightning discharger, mouth and throat have been modified into Go re Canon's with additional stomachs added to act as a payload storage organ, org anic rocket pods located on top of the hips, saddle is located on its back near the neck but behind the first set of horns, another variation has large hornlike spines instead of osteoderms along its spine these variations these spinal spin es/quills/spikes are all launch able and regrow quickly, Mira Gaia come in three forms. All three forms feature lightning discharger horn s growing along the tops of the sides/backs. Base form/standard features osteoderms along the spine with the last set's of ta il spines are photon infusion cannon "barrels". Secondary choice replaces photon infusion cannons with regular lightning dischar ger horns to the tips of the tail. Tertiary choice replaces osteoderms with spines that are launch capable and rege nerate quickly.

Another hive insect idea roly-poly that changes into a mega-damage ball bearing when it rolls up into its defensive position. For use against walking and possib ly other ground based movement systems i.e. slip and fall

Primary assault/secondary defense war mount Lt standard Stegosaurus light class war mount Med Mira Gaia Stegosaurus medium class war mount

Hvy Stegosaurus ankylosaurs cross heavy armored war mount Lt Mk I Stegosaurus, Gore Cannon in mouth, casting cannons tail spikes 2 to 6 sp ikes/cannons, laser reflective Lt Mk II Stegosaurus, Gore Cannon in mouth, osteoderms deploy into laser absorpt ion panels, tail spikes are four photon infusion cannons Med Mk I Mira Gaia, lightning discharger horns, Gore Cannon in mouth, 2 to 6 cas ting cannons tail spikes, spines/spikes instead of osteoderms plates which can b e fired and regrow rapidly, organic missile pods located on top of hips Med Mk II Mira Gaia, lightning discharger horns, Gore Cannon in mouth, osteoderm s deploy for laser reflection, 2 to 6 casting cannons for tail spikes, organic m issile pods located on top of hips Med Mk III Mira Gaia, lightning discharger horns, Gore Cannon in mouth, osteoder ms deploy for laser absorption, 2 to 6 photon infusion cannons for tail spikes, organic missile pods on top of hips Hvy Mk I Stegosaurus/ankylosaurs cross, Gore Cannon in mouth, four photon infusi on cannon tail spikes embedded in the club tail, two rows of offset osteoderms t hat deploy as laser absorption panels, armored frill instead of plated helmet fr ill does double duty as a permanently deployed laser absorption panel, the horns around the edge are equipped with tendril injectors for close quarter combat Primary defense/secondary assault war mount Made up of Triceratops/sub species First type has sonic projection cannons in its frill Second type has laser absorption frill and two photon infusion cannons for the m ain horns above the eyes Sonic projection cannons use extremely low frequency or ELF soundwaves to create area denial by organics and destruction via sympathetic harmonic wave generatio n First type have lightning discharger's for the two main horns above its eyes