## Metadata Name: Hiveling Holding: None Office: None ## Background The Hive saved your life. The time before is a hazy dream of pain and loss, one that very nearly ended for you in the trash heaps of Traghan 2, the thrums of electrical power churning overhead. Memories of what should have been your death are filled with warm heat and confused peace. While you lay in the gutter, waiting for the death you could barely afford, you heard a buzzing. A mite, no bigger than your smallest nail, alighted upon the tip of your nose. You watched with mute disinterest, no more interested in the mite than in the air you continued to drag through ragged, pollution-scorched lungs. That is, until it bit you. You were born to the hive when that mite took away the first scoop of flesh. In instants, that stolen bit of skin was a second mite. When both mites bit you, you realized something beautiful was happening. The rest took only a few moments. Your skin, your muscle, your bones, you felt as they were devoured by the cloud. When enough of you was consumed, they split, then split again. The tiny mites were smaller than a blood cell, and it was in your blood cells that they feasted and multiplied further. When there were exactly one trillion of the impossibly tiny creatures, your body had been fully consumed. And yet, you remained. The Hive did not kill you. It did not even hurt you, beyond the blessed flash of pain in your moments of rebirth. The Hive remade you toward a grander purpose. You know now that you are one of the Hivemother's infinite children. You are an apparently normal human who is, in fact, a cloud of ravenous nanobots which would normally be as large as a small moon, crammed into human shape. For decades since your transformation, you have wandered the streets of Traghan 2 without fear. When you feel like dancing, you dance. When you feel like sleeping, you bask in the warm sunlight. When you feel like eating, you walk down an alley and allow yourself to be mugged. Life is simple, and perfect. The death of the Plaguesmith threatens to ruin all that. Someone figured out how to kill the Hivemother's father, and that means it could kill you or the other Hivelings without a challenge. You already evaded death once before, and you have no intention of falling to it now. You want to find out who did the killing and bring the hive down on them, to ensure they can't threaten you or the other omniphages ever again. ## Mechanics ### Asset: [[Omniphage|Omniphage]] You are an Omniphage, a child of the Plaguesmith better known to the galaxy at large as a "Sapient Plague," or by the derogatory term "grey goo." What you really are is a cloud of nanobots larger than many stars, capable of maintaining connection to small, detached parts of yourself. You can, for example, attend a gathering in a roughly humanoid form while the rest of your impossible bulk waits a few convenient light-seconds away. At the same time, your wroth is a terrible thing to behold. Devouring an entire Fleet is well within your power, and indeed falls under the heading of "tasty and nutritious." You can participate in any [[Combat]], and the side on which you participate gains one advantage, plus an additional advantage for every participant on the other side(s) of the combat, except other Sapient Plagues. In any one-on-one scenario, you automatically win unless your opponent has an Asset which explicitly allows them to fight Sapient Plagues (including this one). ### Lien: [[Nanobody Likes Me|Nanobody Likes Me]] Being a sentient cloud of nanobots capable of devouring most starships without a fight can make it surprisingly difficult to make friends. Many Holdings believe Sapient Plagues are no more than living curses, monsters to be fought and killed at any cost. The truth is that Sapient Plagues tend to eat dead matter until they grow to a maximum size, bud off a few children, and then retire to a quiet life drinking radiation from dying stars. Fortunately (or unfortunately, given your perspective and current appetite), most of the Holdings with monster-hunting cultures aren't really up to the task of killing a Sapient Plague, even with the element of surprise and plenty of lead-up. Statistically, Sapient Plagues mostly eat in self-defense. Even so, when you are a member of a [[GiC Holding]], that Holding automatically loses one advantage at the start of any [[Negotiation]] or [[Endeavor]], as the galaxy looks on in suspicion at those who would harbor such a power. ## Themes These themes are offered to help inform roleplay, but do not carry a mechanical effect. - Inherited Enemies - Found Families - Complex Community Dynamics in the Face of Oppression