That's what a buzzer *is*. It's a weapon (/tool) with a specialized hive specifically designed to shoot it out (in combat). :) A weapon mount is more like Spiderman's web shooters than Robocop's holstered pistol, though, because you can't remove it. It fires from wherever it's attached. Given the size of a buzzer, you probably can't easily conceal it on many morphs, but that's really a GM decision. Madfable, what exactly are you hoping to do? :) Saboteurs shot from the palm? Taggers?

I don't actually see rules for how fast hives produce swarms; 1/hour seems generous already. If you need more than 3 (persistent, autonomous) swarms at once, you may be in a bad situation. :D It sounds like you're worried about the 'magazine capacity', so yes, I'm sure you could carry additional swarms in some kind of container. As I said before, I certainly agree there's room to implant the specialized hives (and implant nanoware certainly uses them); I just don't really see the point, above and beyond what buzzers do (the additional range is nice). Still, to each his own. I'd probably ask the GM to use the same concept as for implanted nanotoxins, except they're near the skin surface and can be released. Easy, simple, same basic cost as the external spec. hive ([Mod]+cost of swarm). Versus a buzzer, you're basically trading concealability for range, which is fair. :)

I had a Lost character who had a dozen nodes down his back, each a gateway to an implant that aerosolized nanite clouds, chemical weapons, and pathogens. He was an exceedingly capable doctor, and he enjoyed using that knowledge to develop more efficient ways to "deactivate" people. Don't see why it isn't possible.

It depends on what sort of hive they are, and who made them, and for what purpose. If they're just general hives, they're going to be fairly non-descript boxes with a few hatches in their surface. If they're particularly high end and fancy, they might minimize even these, so the thing looks like a perfect, smooth cube. If they're larger, more heavy-duty general hives, I imagine a fairly sizeable disk with ports all along its surface, resembling a smooth piece of dead coral, which, when activated, extends rods from all of its openings to emit the swarms, or to insert them into a canister for later use. If they're specialized hive, they could be as simple as something resembling a metal golf ball, or a long, thin soda can (and could even be stored in a similar manner). Given that these are being smuggled, it might be fun to let the characters discover something and it refuses to respond to radio signals from them. "You find a box with twelve long, smooth metal cylinders, each approximately an inch and a half in diameter and six inches in height. They are clearly intended to open at one end and have no obvious markings beyond a decorative red decal along their side. They clearly include some form of radiation shielding and are currently inactive, as t-ray and thermal scans yield nothing. Their voices refuse to respond."

Madfable wrote:

Can hives actually be placed inside morphs? Bio or synth?

I would say yes. Obviously easiest to do in a synthmorph, but having a modified exocrine gland that includes an implanted nanohive would seem to be within normal EP tech. While the swarms described in the gear section are intended for air/normal environment use, I can imagine nanoswarms adapted for survival in bodily fluids too. In a way, this is after all what medichines and nanophages are (however, I suspect they are replenished by injections rather than a hive. After all, carrying around a hive is taking a certain amount of risk if it gets hacked...) As for appearance, hives can likely look like anything. From a practical standpoint most will be very visible thanks to heavy AR tags indicating that they are active, what kind they are, warnings of active nanofacture, certificates of safety testing etc. - people tend to react badly (flamethrowers!) against unknown nanohives. For good reasons.

I'd argue that a hive implant isn't a huge risk, really, as long as you don't allow it to be controlled via wireless controls, as per cortical stacks. Medichine production could be entirely an offline deal, or something that can only be turned on or off, not modified (again, as per cortical stacks).

Well there is a bunch of issues: - Hive require materials to produce swarms - Cornucopia Machines should be big ( so no exotic materials production capacity on the run) - Hacking a "Hive" to feed on host could be dangerous... (Evil) - etc.