Cutout

A cutout refers to a transhuman operative that conducts espionage, sabotage, and other covert activities. They are distinguished by their bio-synthetic shells capable of superhuman endurance, agility, and physical strength. As all cutout programs are highly classified, their full capabilities are the subject of considerable speculation.

The advanced biotechnologies required to maintain an active shell program, combined with their immense expense, makes it likely that cutouts are utilized exclusively on behalf of the great powers' intelligence services. Their suspected involvement, however, in certain activities believed related to various corporate conflicts, leads some to speculate that the use of the technology has spread beyond national governments.

Among the great powers, Japanese cutouts are designated Kara (殻), their Soviet counterparts Apparaty, German Werkzeug, and American Platforms, though field terminology varies by agency and theater.

In popular culture and with varying degrees of seriousness, many disasters, assassinations, and political shifts across the Orion Arm have all been attributed to cutouts.