Substances
Radgoop
Radgoop, named for its radiation-like mutagenic properties, color, and consistency (and because Mech Morphix thought it looked kinda rad), is a glowy, lime-green, slightly translucent byproduct of the semi-organic landscape of the Scarred Wasteland, usually found in two forms: liquid and crystalline. Puddles, pools, and lakes of liquid radgoop are abundant in the Scarred Wasteland. They are often impure and tainted by external pollutants, and teeming with disease. The mutation aspect of such goop is highly unpredictable and, in most cases, lethal.
Underground pockets of radgoop that never rise to the surface usually crystallize into solid chunks. Such reserves are cleaner and higher quality, and can be turned back into liquid form through heat, effectively melting down the crystals. It is this form, imported from an allied Plague mine, that the NexMorph Enterprise utilize in their research.
Refined radgoop finds its use in the body modification industry, inducing various forms of controlled mutation, as well as in the cybernetics industry, where it serves as an alternative energy resource. Several N.M.E. constructs run on radgoop, such as NEXUS, Morphix's former temporary cybernetic body, and various mass-produced cybernetics including the Radioactive Robot and Mechanical Menace lines.
Radgoop can also be consumed, in both liquid and solid form; however, consumption of impure radgoop can permanently damage the user’s body and brain by uncontrollable mutations. Dragons who regularly consume radgoop, especially through unapproved forms of ingestion, may eventually exhibit a loss of sentience and turn into shambling horrors, similar in appearance and behavior to lesser undead. Consumption of radgoop outside of registered and controlled modification experiments is therefore outlawed in N.M.E. and most of their allied clans.
Stroylent
Stroylent (Straggon soylent) was a nutrition paste with mild regenerative properties, invented by the late Makron and used as sustenance for the Straggon cyborgs up until the invention of neurachem. It was designed specifically for Straggon consumption; one sip could keep a soldier alive and well-fed for several hours. The exact recipe was strictly kept secret for various reasons, but the main ingredient was processed dragon meat.
The paste was a foul-smelling, slightly reddish soupy sludge, often with chunks. Its strong synthetic scent was easily identifiable; most dragons would find it revolting, but Straggons were programmed to seek it out. Its production has been discontinued along with the Straggon Nexus hivemind system.
Neurachem
Neurachem, short for VCQ Neural-Chemistry-Altering Viral Strain Synthesis, is a radgoop-based substance replicating the effects of the mind-twisting plague that led to the creation of Vilomaxus Cruentu. It was developed by Neurachem the Recreator following the discontinuation of the second Straggon Nexus.