Biomatter Swarms



Sporecast

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.

One of the most notable things about the Biomatter is the speed in which they adapt and evolve. Within just a few weeks of encountering a foe, the Biomatter will have already begun showing new adaptations and breeds designed to counter the enemy; within a few months, the hive will typically have changed its entire anatomy around in order to defeat its enemies. This adaptability is one of the most dangerous traits of the Biomatter, and is one of the main reasons that they have been so successful.

First Contact
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 Flytal 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 by BioMatter. Data on this attack was received 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, Aeverians, 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. 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. Realizing 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 Flytal 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 Flytal operative and captain managed to escape, while the Diabloian captain Varth and his subordinates were taken prisoner.

The Spreading Menace
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.



The Hives
The Biomatter, unlike the sentient races of the galaxy, do not have a single, unified leadership. Likewise, they are also not centered in one vast region of territory. Instead, individual hives of Biomatter exist in different regions of the galaxy, each under the control of a different hive mind. No hive is exactly like the other, each has different mutations, unique breeds, and particular physical traits, all derived from the biomass they have absorbed or evolved to defeat their foes.

The inner workings of the hives and the hive minds are a topic of constant debate, theories, and conjecture. It is known that once a swarm of Biomatter have left the influence of one hive, that they will then attempt to form a new hive and hive mind. While it is obvious how the hive is formed, the process of creating the leader of the hive is unknown, and the few attempts to learn how have been unsuccessful. How the hive mind is able to project its influence across light years of space is also unknown. Given that a live hive mind has never been found or captured, it is unlikely that these questions will have answers anytime soon.

There are currently five known active hives: Fafnir, Piru, Asag, Orthrus, and Ammit.

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.

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.