Lesya snorted.

"Getting to the end of our list. Wings, most of them very visible; also most of them combinable. They're very significant changes, so if you pass on them that would reduce the load enough for extras of anything that's well-distributed in the body, like the cell lines, muscoskeletal systems, or ancillary systems."

"Let's look at ancillaries, that's stage 13, right?"

"Correct. Only five, one experimental, and you can choose two. Adding extras is particularly high-load and not going to be reliable unless you drop short on musculoskeletal systems or wings. Making yourself poisonous to eat is the new variant."

"These are... extremely tempting. Genetic seeds and Immortis gland. Pencil in the other two, antibodies and antifreeze. And let's look at wings."

"Six varieties of highly visible external wings, one of them experimental. There's no way to conceal these short of heavy coats. But any three can be combined well, other than the experimental angel feathers."

"Have you considered making variants that can be painlessly cut off and then force-regrown over the course of weeks or months?"

"Hmm. Not that I can remember. That's a good idea. There are also three varieties which can be concealed - insectile distance wings, hunchback full wings, an experimental set of fast-deploying inflated wings that have limited use-time and substantial recharge."

"The angel wings are just cosmetic, relative to the batlike variants?"

"Correct. The initial deployments found their flight capabilities limited, but we believe we've fixed that for the second iteration and they should be unspecialized but adequate as generalist wings."

"I think I'd rather not be visible, so I'll pass on all of those. Given the heavy weight, I'll take the jet and the swim fins. Can the stealthy hunchback wings be concealed with the body-shape changes I'm taking on? Masking gait etc.?"

"Imperfectly. But it helps significantly."

"Then I think I'll stick to the insectile ones that fold up. Half an hour to deploy, so I won't be using them for escapes, but I don't think I can entirely resist. The acrobatic maneuvering set look fairly small and collapsible, have you considered getting those to the point where they can be concealed?"

"It's in development, but not ready for live trials yet."

"Fair enough. Nothing else here, so... I guess I add the two ancillaries?"

"That shouldn't pose any problems."

"Okay, armor. The flexible fiber and subdermal plates. Brain armor, heart, and windpipe. And... the enemy use advanced electronics, right? Better take the anti-laser plating. What's experimental?"

"Two variants on the grounding organ - one for microwaves and other radiation, one for extreme heat. And face and neck armor that hasn't been noticeable externally on either of the two test subjects so far."

"None of those is tempting, really. Pencil in the widespread cushioning and the lung armor, and let's move on. Skin we already covered."

"Do you want to consider the swimming enhancement to the skin?"

"Ah, pencil it in, I guess. I can come back for a broad pass."

"Weapons, then. Quite a number of options. Currently experimental are the weaponized immune system, the heel spike, and a number of bioelectricity variants we couldn't get to work quite right with the care package. You'll want to take the firearm, to launch bio-drone rounds. Possibly two."

"Weaponized immune system?" He took a sheet of paper with details.

"Ah. It occurs to me you could do this with broader chemical synthesis. If this works, and the hormone control works... Especially combined with some of the synthesis going on in the bio-drones."

"That's an intriguing idea, we'll consider it. Possibly even on your team."