Biomatter Hordes



Sporecast

Summary
Faction: Warlord/Other Philosophy: Devour and Grow Home Planet: Unknown

Description
The BioMatter hordes are a mysterious species from the far edges of the galaxy. They have no technology, and rely solely on tooth, claw, and biological replicas of conventional weapons. The BioMatter travels through space in BioMatter Spores, collections of hibernating biological material encased within an asteroid. Upon landing on a planet, the crash impact spreads this BioMatter all across the world's surface. If the BioMatter comes in contact with any living thing, it leaves hibernation and consumes nearby organisms like an ameoba. Once it has gained enough mass, the BioMatter mutates into one of three forms, Warrior, Feeder, or Birther. As the BioMatter continues to spread, feeding or mutating all life it encounters, any planetary defenders are swamped by the never-ending hordes, while the dead from both sides are recycled into new BioMatter creatures. After a planet has been totally consumed, its entire surface covered by a network of Birthers and Feeders, new BioMatter Spores are created and released, launched from the planet to infect new worlds.

Since the initial outbreak of BioMatter, new varieties and organisms have appeared or taken new roles. For example, the Slicaurs Warrior organism only began to appear after BioMatter had encountered several races who used melee weapons in combat. Seemingly in response to that, the Slicaurs have long, sword-like bones at the end of their arms, rather than hands. This ability to adapt to new enemies after only a few encounters strikes fear into the opponents of BioMatter.

The newest forms of BioMatter have shown a truly frightenning capability - intelligence. These new organisms now have tactics and planning capabilities. The new Hive Lord can even communicate with other races, which during the Sentience Encounter resulted in an alliance between the Hordes and the IAE and Necraal.

First Contacts
Encounter Codename: Outbreak A BioMatter Spore crash-landed on Mitacen, the location of Research Base 738 of the Mardle Empire. The scientists took a sample of the BioMatter, only to have it mutate and wipe out the whole research staff. Although the creature was terminated by Security forces, there was no time for the base to prepare itself for the sudden attack of an enormous BioMatter force. The base was unable to enter lockdown, and was quickly overrun, with the nearby city falling a short time later. Data on this attack was recieved from the only survivor of the attack, a notable captain who had beamed down only a few hours prior to the attack.

Encounter Codename: Gauntlet A colony on Qualiot had just been established by the Flewrits when a BioMatter Spore crashed down on the planet. Luckily, a captain on a pitstop was tasked with surveying the crash site. When the captain arrived at the impact crater, it had already been filled with BioMatter Birthers, still growing into maturity. The hive immediately began producing BioMatter orgaisms, and the captain barely escaped to inform the colonial governor. The colonists were then evacuated down a narrow canyon that led to the spaceport, fighting constant BioMatter attack as the Hive grew in strength. Data on this attack was recieved from the surviving colonists, who managed to escape on a shuttle just before the planet was toatlly overwhelmed.

Encounter Codename: Assault The Battle of Ozelion is the largest battle yet in the war against BioMatter. The sparsly populated planet was hit by a BioMatter Spore near the equator, in what was an incredibly lush jungle region. With so much organic material present, an enormous hive quickly developed. The planet was evacuated by a Warbot fleet in the area, which beamed down all its ground troops for a last-ditch effort to save the planet while more rienforcements were called in. After an enormous battle, where the Warbot defense line was pushed back nearly to the command center, air support arrived, enabling the hive to be cordonned off. An orbital strike was then used to annihilate the hive and end Ozelion's infection. Data on this attack was recieved from the Minomit commanders of the Warbot forces.

Encounter Codename: Laboratory The world of Phrytaurs was the location of a large Salatran Science Center that specialized in genetic research. They decided to take some sample BioMatter creatures from Qualiot, a previously infected planet. However, there was a security breach and several organisms escaped. The escape creatures were Mutarior, organisms that possess and mutate their enemies. The Salatran scientists were quickly killed and possessed, while the rest of the lab containment systems were destroyed by the escaped creatures. Fortunately, a single captain who had arrived at the lab earlier managed to initiate a lockdown, before escaping through a vent. The planet is now under quarantine, to be left uninhabited until the BioMatter organisms left inside the lab have all died. This is the first recorded sighting of BioMatter's ability to possess and mutate other creatures. Data on this attack was recieved from the science center's security cameras, the few cameras still functioning are now used to monitor the BioMatter organisms that remain in the complex.

Era of Fallen Worlds
After the Phrysaurs incident, 13 inhabited worlds have fallen to the BioMatter hordes. On 11 of these planets, there were no survivors. These planet's fates were only discovered when spacecraft from other worlds arrived in-system, only to find a destroyed planet. The following two encounters are the accounts of survivors of the two other planets.

Encounter Codename: Survival The planet Rotunin was a free port, a privately owned world controlled by a powerful Fadyo trading company CEO. Though the planet had a multitude of planetary defences, these systems were designed to destroy enemy spaceships, not BioMatter spores. The major cities quickly became warzones between the few ground-based military units and the BioMatter forces. However, the city provided cover for the civilian survivors, some of whom were able to evade the BioMatter hordes and make it to the various landing pads in the cities. Data on this attack was recieved from the 23 survivors, who managed to flee to rescue points.

Encounter Codename: World Eater The second account of survivors of an infected world is from the planet Dralix, a colony of the Dragonetera. The colony was totally destroyed by a BioMatter assault, and the planet was covered by BioMatter hives and creatures. A survey and salvage team from an orbiting Dragonetera fllet unfortunately flew too low, and was attacked by a set of enormous tendrils, which pierced the ship's exterior and dragged it down to the surface. Though the crew survived, their communicator was damaged in the crash. After successfully repairing the system and sending a distress signal, the Dragonetera crew was able to escape the consumed planet. This was the first record of a planet after its destruction byBioMatter. Data on this attack was recived from the surviving crew members of Dragonetera Survey Ship 17.

Encounter Codename: Bio-Disaster A Santix Supership aws surveying an icy planet when a party of Santix drones came accross several BioMatter Spores, frozen in the ice. A scientific race with no prior knowledge of BioMatter, the drones delivered samples to their masters on board the ship. Soon, however, the Santix were mutated, and the infection quickly spread. As the drones used by the Santix are biological in nature, nearly the entire drone crew was mutated or killed. With the ship's systems failing, a single drone managed to initiate a self destruct of the ship, destroying the BioMatter aboard and letting the rest of the Santix know of the horror that is BioMatter.

The Task-Force
Following the Era of Fallen Worlds, a peacekeeper summit decided that immdiate action to oppose BioMatter was necessary. To this end, an Anti-BioMatter Task Force was created, a force that would respond to any and all BioMatter attacks on allied worlds. The force is comprised mainly of Diabloian, Fadyo, and Murderos troops, while other races, such as the Dragonetera, the Salatrans, and the Flytals fund and arm the force. So far, the Task Force has been successful on five of the six attacks it has responded to. The Force is trained and maintained on the Diablos-held world of Telinchov.

Encounter Codename: Judgement Day After the first four victories of the Task Force, peacekeeper spirits were high. But when a BioMatter spore landed deep inside Diabloian territory, the sense of calm was shattered. A nearby Diabloian contingent rushed to the planet, but by then the infection had taken root. With the primary units of the Task Force out on the edges of the peacekeepers empires, the small group of Diabloian bio-troopers were the planet's only hope. Events quickly turned sour when BioMatter tendrils started dragging ships out of the sky, an ability seen in the World Eater encounter that was passed off as a fluke. Luckily, the intervention of Diabloian Specialist Heimdall saved the planet from destruction. Heimdall set off a powerful explosive inside the hive, ending the infection. Encounter Codename: Sentience Part1 The Flytal world of Yintil was hit by a BioMatter Spore near its north pole. Realising the danger, the Flytal governor sent a distress signal to the Task Force. The Force arrived in time to stop the colony from being overwhelmed, and began a long, pitched battle against the BioMatter hordes. As the battle raged, a peacekeeper captain who entered the fray made a horrifying discovery. While on a routine mission to rendevous with a Task Force outpost, the captain was captured by IAE and Necraal troops, who had secretly landed on the far side of the planet to assist their new ally. Part 2 When the captain managed to escape captivity with a Fadyo special forces operative, the two discovered that the new ally of the IAE and Necraal was none other than BioMatter, now mutated into new and self-aware forms. After witnessing the three races meeting at the IAE base camp, the captain and operative rushed back to the Task Force, only to find that the IAE and BioMatter assault had already begun. The Task Force was quickly overwhelmed, and a short respite at the Command Bunker ended with a Doomtrooper and Hive Lord attack. Only the Fadyo operative and captain managed to escape, while the Diabloian captain Varth and his subordinates were taken prisoner. Encounter Codename: Orbital The Zaretians had maintained a small military base on the planet Hilshir for several decades. It existed on the very edge of their empire. That made it a perfect target for a BioMatter attack. A new, never-before-seen organism was the center of the attack. The organism was a massive, floating Birther hive, about the same size as a Diabloian cruiser. The vessel, for it operated just like a spaceship, attacked by firing Bio-Spores to destory targets, and then began to launch waves of warrior organisms at the base from its every orifice. With an IAE intel frigate standing by, which totally blocked all Zaretian communications, the planet seemed lost. However, the successful reclamation of a BioMatter-taken power plant allowed the Zaretians to destroy the BioMatter vessel with their planetary laser. Just on the verge of victory, a second, even larger BioMatter spaceship entered the atmosphere directly over the base, along with a fleet of mutated Bio-Spores. Only a single Zaretian drop-ship escaped.

The Spreading Menace
With the task-force in ruins, and the full power of Sentient BioMatter revealed, peacekeepers and warlords alike braced for the worst. It did not take long for a new offensive into peacekeeper territory to begin. As rapid as it was brutal, a series of attacks into the very edges of the peacekeeper empires found worlds unprepared for the Horde's new tactics. BioMatter was attcking from all sides, not only from the land, but the sky; and as its newest victims discovered, from below as well. Encounter Codename: The Horror The first planet hit by BioMatter's newest offensive was Taldrin, a small Acropolan colony near the edge of their great empire. Far away from the battles between the Acropolans and their mortal enemies, the Conkirites, the colony was unprepared for the terrifying assault of BioMatter. None of the planet's inhabitants survived.

Encounter Codename: Total War A Diabloian-held world was next to find itself within BioMatter's crosshairs. Luckily for the civilians on-planet, the Aeveria Confederation had a battlegroup orbiting a nearby star system. The Confederation's troops established a base on the planet, and managed to evacuate a sizeable portion of the civilian population. Sadly, BioMatter had tunneled deep into the planet's crust, and while the Aeveria forces had managed to hold their own against the BioMatter Hiveships and infantry, a swift attack from below their own base crushed all ground-based resistance, leaving only a few remnants of the Aeveria force alive.

Encounter Codename: Hunted A sizeable Nepharian colony was destroyed from inside by BioMatter, in little over five hours. The BioMatter Hordes tunnelled into the planet and grew in power rapidly, all without the planet's population knowing. Even more terrifying, small BioMatter parasites infected leading officials of the colony, only revealing their true nature after gathering all un-infected Nepharians together. This systematic slaughter is the first, but probably not the last, time BioMatter infiltrates a planet's occupants.

Basic Warriors
Warriors come in a multitude of forms, from the lowly Ramorphinds to the powerful Gaularins. They all share a common purpose, kill anything that moves, so that the Feeders can consume it. The general types of BioMatter Warriors are, in order of power: Click on any creature for more information.

Mutants
The BioMatter hordes also contain a variety of creatures mutated by the Mutarior organism. These various creatures belong to a variety of Epic War races, yet all share one thing, they serve BioMatter unflinchingly, under control of the Mutarior embedded inside their brains.

Special Creatures
Aside from their basic troops, BioMatter forces contain several creatures with more specific roles. There are the shooters, who attack enemies at range from behind the main horde; Feeders, who collect organic matter from behind the frontlines; and Epics, who provide the horde with seige engine capabilities.

Sentient Creatures
After the Sentience encounter, new and even more powerful BioMatter organisms have joined the hordes. They exhibit new living weaponry that closely emulate the conventional weapons of other races. These new creatures primarily are unique, however, in that they are intelligent, and thus capable of tactics and planning. They communicate with other Sentient BioMatter via limited telepathy, while instructing non-sentient BioMatter through a system of shrieks, howls, and roars. Leading these new creatures is the Hive Lord, the only BioMatter subspecies able to communicate with other races.

Birthers
The most common sign of an infection, Birthers are like gigantic fungi, stationary mounds of biological material, connect to one another by tendrils. They form enormous collections of interconnected Birthers that choke valleys, dry lakes, and straddle mountains. They recieve organic material from Feeders, which they then use to make new BioMatter Warriors, Feeders, and Birthers, which are released through the large pores dotting their surface.

Hiveships
The BioMatter equivalent of warships and cruisers, BioMatter Hiveships are actually a colony of birthers that, rather than be fixed to a planet's surface, fly through space by spitting debris from engine-like clusters at their ends. The inside of a Hiveship is believed to be a massive living factory, collecting space debris to transform into fuel and organic matter from planets to form massive armies. It is currently unknown how Hiveships manage to remain aloft while within a planet's atmosphere. The vessels' primary weapons seem to be launching the smaller BioMatter organisms it produces at high velocity, in some cases creatures the size of tanks have been spit at enemy targets.

Abilities
BioMatter organisms have a variety of abilities not seen on other creatures in the galaxy. These abilities give them the edge in any fight.

Mutation
All BioMatter organisms are mutants, different varieties of a specific DNA code that varries based on their size. During their initial growth, either in a Birther or after the crash of a Spore, BioMatter creatures mutate into a form that best uses their mass. This allows even a small amount of BioMatter to develop into a strong, cohesive fighting unit.

Feeding
The BioFeeders and Birthers are unique in their ability to consume living material, and reconstitue it into a BioMatter organism, often within a few hours. This allows them to clear large areas of plants and animals, and build enormous armies out of their mass, enabling the BioMatter's swarm style of combat.

Possession
Some BioMatter organims, the Mutarior, have been seen to be able to possess the corpses of enemies. Although usually enemies are just consumed and used to feed the biological war machine, fallen captains or other creatures with weapons that the BioMatter hordes cannot copy are often possessed to add their arsenal to the BioMatter force. The Mutarior connect to the nervous systme of their victim, and secrete enzymes that repair their quarry's wounds and partially mutate them into a stronger form.

Space Travel
Though most races in the galaxy have space travel, BioMatter is the first species to travel through space without even leaving the creature stage of evolution. After a planet has fallen to BioMatter and been consumed, the warrior and feeder organisms are fed back into the Birthers, which blend their organic material with rock from the planet to make BioMatter Spores. The organic material enters a hibernation state before being launched off the planet's surface by special Birthers, to drift until it lands on a suitable planet for infection. Once it has landed, the infection cycle begins again.

Bio-Weapons
The new Sentient BioMatter organisms are all armed with weapons that at first glance seem like the standrad weapons of other races' soldiers. Upon closer inspection, however, the weapons are in fact totally biological, supported by cartilage, encased by skin, powered by spring-like muscles, and sighted by evil-looking eyes. The users of these weapons are specially bonded to them, allowing the creature weilding the weapon to fire with a thought.

Telepathy
The Sentient members of the BioMatter hordes now have a special way of communicating, limited telepathy. Organisms within 20 meters or so can instantaneously share thoughts and emotions. Though the hordes have no language, a mixture of feelings and pictures allow them to easily tranmit attack plans, recon information, and more to each other and the hive in general.

Allies
The IAE

The Virisus