Virals: These are the results of infection by a man made viral agent that causes enough neural degradation to make a victim lose most cognitive functions and become highly aggressive. Necrosis of extremities and loss of pain reception is also a highly common symptom. These zombies are dangerous, but epidemics tend to either be contained or burn out on their own before they can overtake a planet's population.
Cybernecrotics: With sufficient augmentation, a body can operate even when clinically deceased. However, the brain will be damaged beyond repair and unable to control its motor functions unless implants capable of preserving the brain are implemented. One unusual use of this technology is to transport wounded to safe areas where they can be revived or recycled. Seeing a horde of dead soldiers or even war organisms stumbling back to base can change one's outlook on life.
Reanimate Warhead: This weapon was developed by Morokoth and used during their wars. The weapon is a warhead that carries a nanoswarm capable of rapidly reanimating and repairing organic matter by drawing power from capacitors in the warhead. The reanimated flesh becomes heavily corrupted as a result of the nanomachines, so its medical applications are limited, but it makes for a very terrifying weapon. Morokothi soldiers often have special collars that injects a preservative made to increase the odds of reanimating with one's wits intact. The rest will either rise as mindless killers or simply enter a gruesome death rattle.
Hive: The origin of this highly infectious and intelligent nanovirus is a mystery. All that is known is that it is one of the most dangerous forces in Occupied Space. Once infected, it takes a very short amount of time for a victim to come under total control of the gestalt entity in control of the entire swarm. Its lethality comes from its ability to infect both organic and inorganic structures, often merging the two into a single war machine. In order to communicate across interplanetary and interstellar space, it must infect and transport black boxes, communication devices that use a series of nanoscale wormholes to access Transnet. Although Hive was beaten back during the Great Pyrrhic War and all known infected black boxes have been destroyed, it still lurks between the stars and at the edge of Occupied Space. All it would take is one infected black box to start the epidemic all over again.
Fungoids: It all starts when a spacecraft equipped with a Zerospace Breacher crashes into a planet, momentarily loosening the stability of the surrounding dimensions. The immediate area becomes a Zeroground, home to numerous anomalies that pose a constant danger to the living. Those that aren't killed are slowly altered by anomalous radiation. The most dangerous anomaly affected organisms are spore producing fungi. These spores will latch onto other organisms and begin attacking the host's tissue. Eventually it will gain control of the nervous system and will drive its host to infect more organisms before congealing to a damp place and releasing more spores. Thankfully, the rest of the anomalies keep these mutated fungi within small patches of infected territory.
Revenants: These entities are created from exposure to certain alien artifacts, often ones possessing intellects of their own. The nature of the revenant will vary depending on the artifact. Some will become empowered in order to inflict as much death as possible. Others are convinced they serve a divine purpose and will often achieve great things. Most, especially the Demon Blades, will simply give their host the power to fulfill unfinished business, slowly taking over the user in order to hunt down rival artifacts.
Tetsuo: This is a nanovirus of entirely alien origins, and it has the capability to be just as lethal as Hive. It starts as an airborne pathogen, but from there it can spread from practically any other vector. During the first stage of infection, the host breaks out in dermal growths and rashes that are a constant irritant, suffers from heavy fevers, and quickly realizes that sleep is a thing of the past. By stage two, their skin become red and blistered to the extreme. Hosts will often black out, only to awaken with pieces of metal and machinery fused to their flesh. From there, it's only a matter of time before stage three takes hold. At this stage, the virus is in complete control. Unlike Hive, its control over the host's physiology is absolute, allowing much greater flexibility in its metamorphosis. Fortunately, the Tetsuo virus has been contained within a single planet. Unfortunately, the planet is covered in flesh highways and massive techno-organic spires while forces maintaining the quarantine are holding off on glassing the planet for both PR reasons (there are a few high priority survivors, apparently), and so they can study it and possibly use it against Hive. It doesn't work out too well.
Cybernecrotics: With sufficient augmentation, a body can operate even when clinically deceased. However, the brain will be damaged beyond repair and unable to control its motor functions unless implants capable of preserving the brain are implemented. One unusual use of this technology is to transport wounded to safe areas where they can be revived or recycled. Seeing a horde of dead soldiers or even war organisms stumbling back to base can change one's outlook on life.
Reanimate Warhead: This weapon was developed by Morokoth and used during their wars. The weapon is a warhead that carries a nanoswarm capable of rapidly reanimating and repairing organic matter by drawing power from capacitors in the warhead. The reanimated flesh becomes heavily corrupted as a result of the nanomachines, so its medical applications are limited, but it makes for a very terrifying weapon. Morokothi soldiers often have special collars that injects a preservative made to increase the odds of reanimating with one's wits intact. The rest will either rise as mindless killers or simply enter a gruesome death rattle.
Hive: The origin of this highly infectious and intelligent nanovirus is a mystery. All that is known is that it is one of the most dangerous forces in Occupied Space. Once infected, it takes a very short amount of time for a victim to come under total control of the gestalt entity in control of the entire swarm. Its lethality comes from its ability to infect both organic and inorganic structures, often merging the two into a single war machine. In order to communicate across interplanetary and interstellar space, it must infect and transport black boxes, communication devices that use a series of nanoscale wormholes to access Transnet. Although Hive was beaten back during the Great Pyrrhic War and all known infected black boxes have been destroyed, it still lurks between the stars and at the edge of Occupied Space. All it would take is one infected black box to start the epidemic all over again.
Fungoids: It all starts when a spacecraft equipped with a Zerospace Breacher crashes into a planet, momentarily loosening the stability of the surrounding dimensions. The immediate area becomes a Zeroground, home to numerous anomalies that pose a constant danger to the living. Those that aren't killed are slowly altered by anomalous radiation. The most dangerous anomaly affected organisms are spore producing fungi. These spores will latch onto other organisms and begin attacking the host's tissue. Eventually it will gain control of the nervous system and will drive its host to infect more organisms before congealing to a damp place and releasing more spores. Thankfully, the rest of the anomalies keep these mutated fungi within small patches of infected territory.
Revenants: These entities are created from exposure to certain alien artifacts, often ones possessing intellects of their own. The nature of the revenant will vary depending on the artifact. Some will become empowered in order to inflict as much death as possible. Others are convinced they serve a divine purpose and will often achieve great things. Most, especially the Demon Blades, will simply give their host the power to fulfill unfinished business, slowly taking over the user in order to hunt down rival artifacts.
Tetsuo: This is a nanovirus of entirely alien origins, and it has the capability to be just as lethal as Hive. It starts as an airborne pathogen, but from there it can spread from practically any other vector. During the first stage of infection, the host breaks out in dermal growths and rashes that are a constant irritant, suffers from heavy fevers, and quickly realizes that sleep is a thing of the past. By stage two, their skin become red and blistered to the extreme. Hosts will often black out, only to awaken with pieces of metal and machinery fused to their flesh. From there, it's only a matter of time before stage three takes hold. At this stage, the virus is in complete control. Unlike Hive, its control over the host's physiology is absolute, allowing much greater flexibility in its metamorphosis. Fortunately, the Tetsuo virus has been contained within a single planet. Unfortunately, the planet is covered in flesh highways and massive techno-organic spires while forces maintaining the quarantine are holding off on glassing the planet for both PR reasons (there are a few high priority survivors, apparently), and so they can study it and possibly use it against Hive. It doesn't work out too well.
