HQQ Completed Research Catalogue

Thread 4

Legs – EM sensitivity, the small sensors on the legs of the dissected predator are adapted to detect and home in on electric fields to find food underground. Drones with this adaptation will be able to sense electric currents at a distance at the cost of speed.

Antennae – Olfactory enhancement, dissection of the alien predator has revealed that it is actually blind. Its head is covered in powerful olfactory receptors capable of following a scent at great distance. Drones with this adaptation would be able to follow the scent trail of known creatures or objects at great distances at the cost of other senses. By further dulling other senses the effect can be boosted.

Mandibles – Vocalizer, observation of the human has granted the knowledge of creating a replica mouth capable of forming verbal speech. The mandibles have been reduced in size to form a single layer of chitin analogous to teeth, with the vocal chords and tongue needed to form language. Drones with this adaptation can speak verbally with other races in their own language at the cost of utility.


Thread 5

Internal – Filter lungs: A set of additional lungs mounted along the side of the abdomen filters spores and undesired particles from the air. The lungs inflate, pulling in the air through filters along the abdomen, and then slowly process it through a series of bladders as the air is slowly exhaled. In closed spaces this drone can serve to purify infected areas, or serve as scouts in areas of extreme biological hazards. The lungs are unarmored, and vulnerable to attack or accidental injury.


Thread 9

Unity Salvage – Disassembly of the Unity drone has provided great insight into its operation. The drone itself is a very rudimentary intelligence that blindly obeys commands from its deploying ship in a manner not unlike your own thinkers. These commands can be interpreted poorly or with unexpected results if the drone encounters anything not detailed in its instructions, and will often react to such unforeseen events in a violent manner. The drone contains a number of powerful technology that should keep your thinkers busy for quite a while.

Human Environment suit – The human environment suit appears to contain several layers. Unfortunately these layers have been heavily damaged from the previous user’s violent demise at the hands of local predators. The first layer appears to be some kind of constrictive fiber weave that quickly absorbs liquids. A number of microfibers sewn into the fabric seem designed to monitor the user’s vital signs, and several such fibers seem linked into the suits various functions, which seem to offer the user a limited form of control over the suit. When torn, the suit “bleeds” a thick black fluid that quickly hardens over the affected area, creating a vacuum seal and make-shift cast, while several secondary layers of fabric constrict and harden when exposed to sudden and violent blunt trauma. A small device on the back serves as an artificial lung and waste disposal system, filtering waste water to a drinkable state and processing carbon dioxide into oxygen using a small culture of micro-organisms.

Herd Beetle Dissection– The Herd Beetle’s biology seems to be built like a massive lawn mower, with a series of blunt teeth lining a long, flat mouth that runs under its body. The beetle’s carapace is a massive layer of hardened bone that is endlessly added to with more and more layers growing over it as the beetle ages. Judging by the number of layers on the current sample, you can guess this beetle was nearly a hundred years of age. The beetle’s carapace is incredibly durable, but also tremendously heavy. It would be useful on larger drones, and as a component in ship hulls and bunker defenses, but it is far too heavy to be used in your current drone designs.


Thread 13

Human Dissection
Your study of the dead humans from the Angel has proven rather interesting. They appear to be incredibly sensitive to their local environment, and their bodies are regulated by a complex and fragile mixture of chemical and electrical impulses. While you can’t be sure until you can perform tests on a live specimen, and preferably a large number of them for control purposes, you theorize that manipulating these subtle balances of chemicals and electrical signals could grant some control over a human’s behavior. In addition, you have taken note of the various locations of critical organs, increasing your combat effectiveness against humans.

Conductive Armor Plating
Conductive Carapace: An interlocked network of woven metal microfibers that direct electricity away from critical areas. It instinctively reacts to incoming damage to complete circuits and direct energy in ways that do not damage organs or cause a decrease in drone performance. It is lightweight and mitigates energy damage, but does nothing against physical or thermal damage. 4N 15M

Ballistics
Study of the variety of projectiles used by the humans has granted insight into methods of developing new ammunition types for projectile weapons to mimic those you have faced.
Armor Piercing: Standard solid chitin slug deals raw kinetic damage.
Acid: Hollow slug filled with acid bursts on contact, coating the target in caustic acid to burn through armor and skin. Reduces target’s armor effectiveness and causes lasting chemical damage.
Hollow Point: A copy of the human ‘Hollow Point’, this slug expands and shatters in the wound, causing massive lacerations against unarmored targets, but is incapable of penetrating armor.
{LOCKED} Explosive: Grape Shot slugs explode on impact, causing explosive damage to the target and hitting adjacent targets with high impact shrapnel. Melee range AOE that causes heavy kinetic damage to unarmored or lightly armored targets. {REQUIRES GRAPE SHOT RESEARCH}
Incendiary: Hollow slug filled with volatile chemicals that ignite on impact, coating the target with a burning adhesive jelly. Ignites the target and does lasting thermal damage, but has little penetrating power.


Thread 14

Grape Shot
This strange local fruit bursts open violently when disturbed, hurling sharp barbs in all directions. By isolating and altering the naturally explosive properties you have been able to produce a potent, compact explosive charge that can be delivered in projectile form.

Fungal spores
These spores infect and attack the bodies of nearly any life form and are astoundingly adaptive. They take root in and alter the behavior of the infected to assist in the spreading of the fungal spores to new locations.

Cyclotron particle beams
The Cyclotron uses a ring of superconductive magnetic coils to accelerate a bolt of particles to near light speeds. Each shot requires a short charging time, and the weapon itself is frail and prone to failure when damaged. It makes up for these failings by offering a high powered, accurate long range weapon.

Slip Drive
A deceptively simple device attached to the enigmatic crystalline Void Shard. You are still no closer to understanding the crystal itself, and in fact are now less certain that it is even possible to do so, but your understanding of its use now permits you to attach the Slip Drive to any single ship, as well as gaze into the twisted void of No Space.


Thread 15

Oxygen Recycler
An artificially engineered culture of bacteria designed to replenish a drone’s oxygen supply, letting it hold its breath for extended periods of time while removing the need for bulky air tanks or breathing tubes.

Unity Computer
Through elaborate testing and examination you have been able to put together some of the Unity computer’s design. It operates as a series of interconnected entangled particles, providing the vast amount of computing power required for a fully sapient mind. A series of more conventional circuitry surrounds the quantum computer core, providing more precise computations than the more abstract quantum processor is capable of. While the computer itself is not enough to reverse engineer, it should help put you on the right track to designing your own such processors, which would offer thinkers a much more robust grasp of nature, increasing their adaptability to new situations without your guidance.

Ceph Cloaking Field
Very Slow (Fast with the aid of Coil)
Huey and Dewy have made excellent progress with the cloaking field, and your thinkers have gone over every inch of the device. It is a mixture of technologies designed to avoid detection. An array of projectors bend light slightly to curve around the ship instead of bouncing off, while heat sinks absorb radiant heat and match the background radiation and a complex system of speakers counter the sound waves of crew and ship activity while in the atmosphere, muting the sound of engines or equipment.


Thread 17

Mimetic skin
The Ceph skin is composed of a matrix of multicolored chromatophore cells bunched into clusters. At will, the Ceph can expand or contract certain cells to create any pattern or color desired. In addition, small bundles of muscles are layered just under the skin, and are capable of instinctively replicating most surface textures it is in contact with.


Thread 18

Skyl dissection
While the Skyl biology is rather interesting, you focus your attention to the complex array of microscopic machines that hold it together. When the Skyl void crystal was destroyed it appears that the machines lost power and began to fall apart from their arrangement. While they are currently inert, you were able to salvage them from the bodies. Each mechanical cell appears to still be intact, but they have lost their structure like dried out sand. The skulls of the Skyl samples each have a larger device near the base of the skull which catches your interest.


Thread 19

Giant Crab dissection
This large armored predator is capable of using its single long claw to attack from almost any direction. It possesses a single, large lung capable of filtering oxygen from water as well as breathing air to a limited degree.

Biomechanical engineering
The science and art of grafting and altering your drones is a well-practiced and simple task, grafting and altering other forms of life is far more difficult and unpredictable. With your new understanding of alien life you now feel confident in the potential of manipulating alien life to suit your needs. Instead of changing your drones to suit the situation, you can now force the situation to change to suit you.

New technology unlocked
Sedative pheromone: This mild mind altering substance is designed to block the chemical impulses that often result in a violent fight-or-flight response, easing panic and helping to calm the subject. While it is most effective on humans, it should show some limited effect in other life forms, although it remains untested.


Thread 21

Extended nature study
Using your new drones you should be able to quickly cover the remaining areas of jungle and study the rest of the local life, especially the various forms of worm that seem to fill the soft soil of the area.


Thread 22

Union culture research
Photonic matrices for dummies – A large volume detailing the technology of 3D holographic projector displays.
A comprehensive guide to the Colony Wars – A detailed account of the war between the Earth Confederation and the Colonials who would found the Union of Independent Colonies. Features detailed accounts of major battles and events, as well as an analysis of the socio-economic forces that lead the human race into one of its most bloody conflicts, and the resulting repercussions.
Foundation – The book details the efforts of a small colony as it struggles with the collapse of the greater galactic government. The book is filled with awards and praise marking it as an example of great human literature of distant past, written before humans even left their home world.
2001: Space Odyssey – A work of historical fiction detailing the journey of a slower-than-light space craft as it drifts to an alien artifact in the human home system. The crew is tormented by an artificial intelligence, indicating that the human’s fear and disdain for sapient computers even pre-dates their creation of them.
Bettering yourself: A guide to galactic harmonics – An interesting yet highly unscientific “journey into the greater galactic consciousness.”
Ender's Game – Humanity is attacked by an unknown alien race called “Buggers” and are nearly driven to extinction. After many years of preparation the humans place their military in a brilliant young child named Ender who proceeds to exterminate the Buggers, destroying their home world in the process. You don't like this book very much…

Carbon liquid
This liquid substance appears to be a kind of carbon based crystal life form. The colony is capable of rapidly assembling their form to suit its needs, gathering data of its surrounds and food in a collective manner as one organism. You wonder if its abilities could improve your own if used properly.


Thread 23

Panic gas
This potent gas directly triggers a sense of overwhelming danger and dread in the subject to create a mind numbing desire to flee the area as quickly as possible. While your current research shows that it should be quite effective against a variety of life forms, you are unsure exactly how they would respond without first hand field testing. Results may vary widely depending on the targets state of mind, psychology, or training.

Hallucinogenic spores
This fungus is similar in nature to the deadly sea spores, but is far less lethal. While there may be some danger in overdose, the spores seem to cause a variety of vivid hallucinations from visions of nightmarish horrors to perceived visions of the future and everything in between. The spores are short lived, but are small enough to be invisible to the vision of most creatures, or appear as little more than dust.

Paralytic barb
The powerful toxin of this flower is fired from a small barb like a dart gun. While the barb itself is useless against even basic protection, the toxin can be loaded into a projectile or hypodermic blade with ease. The toxin itself is fast acting and long lasting, knocking out the victim long enough for the plant to digest the prey, or in the case of your hive, long enough to retrieve and capture safely. The toxin is a venom, and must be injected directly into the blood stream for it to have any effect.


Thread 24

Regeneration Tank
With your new understanding of both alien biology and the operation of the medical tank, you can now construct your own Regeneration Tanks. These large, protein filled membranes are capable of stimulating cellular regeneration to heal wounds and scaring, as well as perform extensive surgical procedures with a greatly reduced risk of injury. The tank can be prepared in a moment’s notice to accommodate any creature with a biology you are knowledgeable of. The tank can also be used to store bodies for later study, and perform autopsies and dissections at a rapid pace with far more detailed results. (50N)

Net Gun
This simple weapon uses compressed gas to silently fire a large cellophane slug. Upon hitting the target the slug bursts open, ensnaring the target in a half-liquid membrane that quickly hardens into a cocoon.


Thread 25

Skyl Data Cubes
Using the broken one retrieved from the ship sped up the process to some degree, and allowed you to open it up without fear of damaging data. The cube appears to utilize a suspension of deliberately aligned and attuned semi-solid crystalline particles arranged in an intricate pattern to hold photons in place, releasing them only when the data is requested. The result is a highly complex device capable of storing data indefinitely, but once retrieved it cannot be accessed again, destroying whatever data it held upon retrieval. According to the data within, this was in response to their enemy’s incredibly effective methods of intelligence gathering. The cubes were used to store sensitive information that needed to be seen by only a single individual, or in this case, to be stored over an extended period of time without data loss. Your thinkers have analyzed the data within, erasing it from the cube in the process. It holds an overview of Skryl biology, society, and technology, as well as an overview of their history, rebellion, and subsequent destruction by beings they perceived as gods.

Raligha native language
The strange drumming language of the native creatures has been decoded, although until you can actually get some experience with it in conversation there are bound to be at least a few minor kinks in your translations. You doubt you could manage to put your claw in your mandibles too much though, after all, they seem to worship you.


Thread 26

Ancient Star chart
Your Translation of the ancient star chart found on Raligha has been complete. When you noticed the similarities between the language on the chart and the Skyl language, you expected it to have boosted your efforts, but they do not seem to be related. The characters are almost identical, but there is no correlation at all between their meanings. It is as if the characters were lifted from another source and repurposed.

The chart itself is a chronicle. An overview of the history of a great stellar empire dating back for thousands of years. Most of the inscriptions show a brief history of the empire and its endless war against an alien threat. The war was fought for countless centuries until a brief respite was achieved, but it was clear that the war was long from over. This ship was built to carry a thousand queens from a thousand dynasties away from the every encroaching front of the war, and here it landed, nearly seventy thousand years ago, from your estimate.

At the end of the tablet is a series of instructions on accessing the ship's systems, as well as a series of coordinates that seem to be nearby, just on the far side of the neighboring nebula.


Thread 27

Psionic disruptor
This device, when activated, creates an overwhelming psionic signal that is capable of drowning out tachyon based communication, disrupting any drones and causing mass confusion to psionically sensitive subjects within its range. When attached to a standard relay, such as a drone, it can be broadcast in a cone with a range of several kilometers, with the effect decreasing in potency as the range increases.

Plasma funneling
By projecting a vortex of magnetic fields towards the target, plasma can be funneled into a more focused area at longer range, preventing plasma plumage. Increases range of the Plasma Lance.


Thread 28

Lyle’s Combat armor
This suit is a marvel of weapons technology, offering a compact, flexible, and lightweight platform capable of protecting the user from a wide range of dangers and damage, while holding all manner of deadly devices and useful gadgets. By using the multi-layered weave design the suit uses, you should be able to layer up to two kinds of armor on your drones, letting them make use of two kinds of carapace at once.

Cybernetics
With an astounding breakthrough on the part of your thinkers, you have managed to unravel the various intricacies of Lyle's cybernetic limbs. Much of the tech involved is already understood by you with a fair amount of confidence, such as the crafting of artificial muscle, and the nature of interfacing with the human nervous system. With this you will be able to change the layout of your drones after their birth through surgery, or implant biomechanical alterations into not only your drones, but other life as well, including humans. Your cybernetics are built from a mixture of engineered organic materials and metallic machinery, and while they require nutrients to build, do not have an upkeep cost as they are maintained by the subject’s own metabolism, which may be accelerated as a result of augmentation.


Thread 29

Magnetic Levitation
These powerful magnetic pads use an intense electromagnetic field to ionize the surrounding air and provide thrust, allowing it to levitate just above the ground.

Ceph thought shell
This complex device contains a bundle of nerves running into the higher brain of the host Ceph and into a large central processor. The processor itself is mostly organic, and combines the sensory input of all the small brains within the Ceph body into a single consciousness. There are also several oddities within the shell. Your scans detect a tiny implant of unknown composition within the “brain” of the shell that seems to give off very low tachyon emissions. The shell itself is not all that dissimilar to the design of your own parasite, and you think that you could have a parasite drone fulfill the duties of the central brain of the shell without too much trouble.

Microbial cultures
These samples were taken from the jungles of Raligha, and contain a wide range of chemical compounds from a wide range of flora and fauna alike. Many are inert, or at least do little to help or harm, but several show great promise for future use.

[Whole bunch of bioweapons]

Atomics
This exceptionally powerful warhead is expensive to develop, but is absolutely devastating. Can be loaded into missiles, placed as bombs, or used as a self-destruct for ships or hives.


Thread 30

Compact hull design
The same principles of the multilayered carapace, but on a larger scale. This allows your ships to be equipped with up to two armor types of different kinds at once.

Vibroblade
By incorporating the vibroblade into your warriors, they now are capable of utilizing small micro muscles to vibrate the blade at a high enough frequency to assist in cutting through material, increasing their armor piercing capabilities.

Reactive armor
Through a series of reactive muscle fibers within the carapace your drone can absorb kinetic attacks with far greater efficiency than normal, but at the cost of being more vulnerable to energy attacks.

Cryo spray
This is now available as an alternate ammo for the chemical or plasma spray weapon.

Missiles
These powerful guided missiles can be loaded with a wide range of deadly warheads. The missiles are loaded within disposable missile racks, and ammunition must be paid for after firing, however, they offer a wide range of powerful weapon systems.


Thread 32

Nanomachines
Based on the scattered notes and few remains of skyl technology, these microscopic biomechanical devices are capable of being programmed to fulfill a wide range of tasks.
[Smart Scabs – All drones heal from wounds in 1 day if within a hive and all subcapital ship damage is repaired in 1 day if given access to a pylon]
[Gray Goo – Excess nutrients can be processed into metals at a rate of 2N to 1M]
[Hive Creep – Hive infrastructure now spreads autonomously without the need for workers to cultivate or build]
[Overharvest – Hive infrastructure can now be ordered to supplement nutrient income by spreading and devouring the surrounding landscape. Growth and income peak at 50% planet consumption.]

Grenade launcher
This simple yet effective weapon system contains two components, an explosive device that can fit in the hand or claw, and a tube that can launch it reliably at a distance. The grenade can be thrown, tossed, rolled, or simply placed as opposed to shot from the launcher if needed. The grenade deals explosive damage, as well as an additional damage type depending on the type of grenade.

Ultrasonic Sledgehammer
Designed to be used to breach doorways and walls, this fist-mounted device uses a burst of ultrasound to annihilate a physical object. While it is intended for use in demolition, it is frighteningly effective against live foes as well. The sledgehammer takes the form of a large chittinous piston on the arms of a drone, which pull back to ready for an attack, and then fire forward, causing a short ranged shockwave to erupt from the large ‘fist’. This replaces a drone’s blades. (6N 10M)

Drop pod
Drop pod launcher - A compact launch bay that manufactures and launches cheap, disposable heat shields capable of dropping a drone safely from orbit. Each drop bay contains 50 medium sized launch tubes, and 25 large, but is capable of making and storing enough pods to launch any number up to the maximum the ship hull can hold. Every medium pod costs 10M to deploy, while large cost 20M (50N 100M)

White Crystal
This device shows a number of uses. The most obvious is that it appears to serve as a kind of data storage similar in nature to the Skyl datacube, but through the use of tachyons, as well it appears to function as a kind of control system for some joint hive-skyl devices, and offers a translation between hive thought and skyl language. It also appears to have a slight side effect in that it appears to bolster the mental connection when held and connected to, although this feature will require more research, as it appears to be an unintentional effect.


Thread 33

Flak Jacket
During the disassembly of Lyle's suit, you found an interesting layer of dense fibers that are extraordinarily resilient to kinetic damage. You have it set aside to have your thinkers take a closer look at it later.


Thread 34

Rapid nano-assembly
Advanced construction techniques utilizing nanomachine filled paste to bond materials together on a molecular level allows for the construction of ships and buildings at a much more rapid pace.

[Nano-manufactory – While your workers are capable of efficiently providing for any and all labor you require, construction is still dependent on the growing of tools and the shaping of small components normally created within vats or shaped by workers. By employing large amounts of biomechanical nanomachines held within large centralized vats, this limitation can be removed and construction projects rapidly accelerated. Passively reduces time of all surface construction to a minimum of 1 day, depending on worker availability.]

Medical nanomachines
Uses injectable nanomachines to assist in healing wounds or performing surgery, reducing the time required for medical procedures and allowing for far more advanced medical care in the field.

[Smart-blood transfusions – Medical procedure times no longer accumulate with multiple procedures for non-hive life, and instead use the longest time]

[Bio-salve – The biological interface can now administer a regenerative salve capable of disinfecting and healing minor wounds, as well as stabilizing more serious wounds]

Skyl controller chip
This small chip in the Skyl skull is all that remains of the complex network of nanomachine based medical systems. The device itself works in a similar capacity to your own parasites, but offers the controller extensive control over rapidly reprogrammable nanomachines capable of a wide range of tasks.


Thread 35

Quantum Communications
By utilizing a complex and highly delicate system of quantum entanglement between particles, a link can be built between two devices, allowing them to pass on data instantaneously regardless of distance. The device cannot be jammed, intercepted, or disrupted in any way, but holds a number of limitations in that it is both inefficient in its bandwidth, and highly expensive.
The quantum communicator cannot transmit or receive psionic communications, and lacks the capacity and nuance to directly control a drone.
[sample device consumed – blank C class relay]


Thermal Imaging
Medium
This compact visor display built into the helmet of Lyle's suit is capable of detecting heat, turning it into a color-coded display to highlight sources of thermal energy. It is blinded in extreme temperatures, and can quickly become useless in certain situations, but when used in conjunction with other sensors it offers a powerful method of detecting and tracking a target.

Ballistic armor
Ablative plates connected to sensors and layered over interlocked hollow compartments provide a dedicated defense against explosive force and missiles, as well as offering a slight benefit against kinetic damage.

Bulkhead
Filling space on ships normally reserved for tactical modules with super dense armor of varying types drastically increases a ship’s durability in combat.


Thread 36

Immolator warhead
[Can only be fired from cruise launchers]
This devastating and highly unstable warhead is capable of destabilizing the surface of a planet to cause planet wide destruction, triggering violent geothermal activity and weather patterns and rapidly turning the planet’s surface to molten slag and rendering it totally uninhabitable. The production of the weapon itself requires a lengthy and highly expensive process of condensing highly unstable exotic matter that is far too volatile for productive use and encasing it within a powerful magnetic field held within a shielded canister. Upon detonation, the canister releases the supply of anti-matter within the planet’s crust, causing a chain reaction of matter-anti-matter annihilation that ignites any atmosphere, immolates the surface, and obliterates any sign of infrastructure that may have existed.
(500,000N 500,000M[Ship])

Molecular disassembler warhead
This warhead disperses a cloud of nano-disassemblers that promptly utilize all sources of metals and nutrients to replicate more disassemblers, which do the same. The process quickly reduces any infrastructure, ships, and life to dust in a chain reaction that can spread across entire cities. The nanomachines require a minimum amount to reach a critical mass before they begin to deactivate, but even a small warhead can potentially spread across a wide area.
(500N 500M[Ship])

Thermal Blade
Conductive polymers are added to the combat blades of your drones. When an electrical current is passed through the blade it quickly increases in temperature until the blade itself begins to glow. All drones equipped with combat blades gain the capacity to penetrate thicker armor by allowing them to slowly burn through dense metal plating. This passive upgrade stacks with the Vibro-blade passive upgrade.

Laser cooling
This concept uses a laser to bounce particles in an object back into place, effectively nullifying the energy within the object, cooling it to potentially extreme temperatures at a distance.

[Ventilation ray – Improvements in ship construction passively reduce the heat signature of all hive space craft by allowing some of the heat to be beamed away from the direction of enemy sensors instead of radiated into space and increasing the amount of time it can spend under cloak.]

Ion cannon – This focused energy weapon is in essence a combination of CIP technology, a plasma lance, and a particle beam rolled into one device. It utilized powerful magnetic fields to funnel a stream of high energy particles at a target to cause the effect of a highly focused EMP on enemy electronics and sensors, wreaking havoc on the target’s sensors and other systems. While shields and conductive armor are highly resistant to it, the Ion cannon can pass through other forms of armor undeterred.


Thread 37

Psionic fortification
A strange mixture of organic components assembled into a crystalline matrix, the strange white crystals not only can serve as a kind of memory storage device, but also as a component in a psionic relay. When incorporated into a drone, it replaces the portion of the brain maintaining the psionic link to the queen and serves as a mixture of fuse and signal booster, allowing the relay to broadcast to drones suffering from psionic jamming, and can protect itself from jamming by cutting off its ability to receive thoughts.
The process of installation does not cost anything, but requires a white crystal be implanted into the selected relay to function.

Liquid metal sculpting
With the advent of new technology in metallurgy, your drones can quickly and easily shape the metals used in larger construction projects, greatly decreasing the time required to complete a capital class ship.

Psionic Shroud
By utilizing the aura of silence given by the dead and lifeless remains of the void crystals recovered from hive battles, your drones have developed a way to mute psionic chatter. Drones within the same psionic network will still be able to communicate, however to any unrelated hive the thoughts and images become foggy and nondescript, easily blending in to the background noise of the universe.
The shroud itself requires extensive effort to extend the minor aura of the broken crystal to make it powerful enough to use. The resulting proposal is a building comparable to a docking pylon in size, capable of hiding the thoughts of every drone on an entire planet.

Gun ports
This simple but highly effective concept was inspired by the tanks and heavy combat equipment of human militaries. Small muscle clusters are grown along the sides of large drone carapaces, allowing a large drone to hold 2 large weapon grafts, and up to 4 medium weapon grafts.

Rejuvenation gene therapy
Genetic immortality is something your kind often takes for granted, while many other races sprint to the grave. This serum injected directly into the spinal column raises the hayflick limit of the subject’s existing cells, allowing for the body to replenish body cells that would otherwise decay, effectively increasing the subject’s life span. Repeated injections or the implantation of a parasite are required, as new cells will not have the raised limit.
Extended use may cause minor cases of brain cancer. Your thinkers recommend more rejuvenation therapy for treatment in such rare cases.

Weather Spire
This massive spire is capable of adjusting and analyzing local weather patterns on planets with an atmosphere, and is capable of generating an atmosphere on planets capable of holding one. Its primary use is as a method of terraforming, adjusting a local planet to be more hospitable to life of the hive’s choosing, scrubbing the air of toxins, and balancing the oxygen and CO2 levels, as well as adjusting weather patterns to be less hostile, causing precipitation to fall at desired locations for desired amounts of time, breaking storm fronts before they can form, and adjusting for geological patterns and solar activity to maintain climate balance.

Photosynthetic cells
By adapting the capacity most commonly found in fauna to produce nutrients from solar rays, you can now build stations in heliocentric orbits of local hive controlled systems capable of utilizing the radiation of stars to produce moderate amounts of power and generate a steady stream of nutrient income. Each station utilizes a thin membrane of photosynthetic cells several kilometers in diameter to collect and store energy, which is then processed into nutrients. The nutrients are then transported by shuttle or ship elsewhere to feed the hive’s many growing needs.


Thread 38

Cellular acceleration has had a critical breakthrough!
By using advanced medical technologies to assist and boost the cellular metabolism of an organism, clones can be made to develop much faster than normal. All cloning projects require half the time. In addition, the critical breakthrough of your thinkers has resulted in the boosting of related research efforts. The time requirement for Genesis Project and Genetic Tapestry have been reduced.


Thread 39

Blimp Walker dissection
This creature has found an interesting way to adapt to the high gravity of its native world, growing large sacs of helium to help support its weight. The air sacs used to float are of little importance with the hive’s more advanced methods of floatation, but you find the design and implications of these strange quills rather fascinating. The beast itself appears to be mostly supported by the air sacs, which it fills through a complex chemical process that produces helium from a mixture of food and by swallowing large amounts of air and filtering it through special glands in the head, while the legs contain several large vacuum-like mouths that uproot foliage as it walks.

Minesweeper dissection
An endurance hunter, the minesweeper is built for low speed, long distance moving. While incapable of high speeds, it can track a target to exhaustion, likely over several days. Despite its normal moda operandi, it possesses an ace up its sleeve in the form of a powerful gas-propelled barbed projectile that can be launched from a hollow tube running from the base of its throat connected to a powerful third lung that runs the length of the creature’s body and typically serves as a method of maintaining buoyancy, filling it with helium stolen from killed Blimp Walkers which allows it to move quickly for long distances. After firing its barb it is nearly crippled, forcing it to quickly find a new source of helium, or suffer from the strenuous gravity.

Leviathan dissection
A strange and vicious apex predator, the Leviathan likely feeds on massive filter feeders or other large aquatic animals judging by the contents of its stomach and the shape of its teeth. Interestingly, its body is not well suited to swimming by most accounts, and its muscles are poorly adapted for long term activity. The creature is covered in a thick hide of condensed blubber that forms into an armor-like hide, and seems to grind this shell of tissue against rocky surfaces for some purpose, possibly as a grooming ritual, a kind of mating dance, or simply to mark its territory. With its slow swimming speed and poor stamina, the creature relies on an interesting adaptation to hunt. A large cluster of twisted nerves, muscles, and bones in its head fires off a powerful combination of high-frequency sonic vibrations and intense electrical pulses to disorient and stun nearby creatures. To your drones, the shock overloads their finely tuned senses, causing them to black out as their bodies effectively reset, a defensive measure adapted to countering mental attacks from rival queens. In other life, you suspect the effect would be less potent but longer lasting, causing loss of balance, nausea, and muscle spasms, as well as other symptoms depending on the species.

Genetic tapestry
Mastery of the art of genetic engineering has reached an entirely new level for your hive. While you were always adept at the nuances of genetic alterations, this new level of understanding allows you to tamper with the genetic code of living creatures at a whim, mixing and matching genes of alien and drone dna in ways that most would consider impossible. The Chimera is the result of this strange and terrible knowledge.

Unknown alien dissection
With the dissection of the fallen aliens you have learned much of their biology, and their technology. The creatures are purpose-built for combat, utilizing drastic and invasive implants to enhance their abilities with a great focus placed on mobility. What you perceive as the head is a simple collection of sensor clusters hidden beneath a protective armor plate composed of a substance similar to human Transparasteel, which functions similar to a large directional ear. The creatures themselves see primarily in the infrared spectrum and a highly sensitive method of echolocation with an incredibly complex hearing organ that takes up most of the head. They speak using a series of bones that line the back like a mane, and are decorated in vibrant paints that are composed of small traces of thermal pastes, apparently designed to reflect or absorb heat as a form of decoration or designation of rank. The bones themselves are hollow quills not unlike a feather, and are rooted by an anchor of small muscle fibers that allows each bone to move independently, bumping into one another to create complex melodies and rhythms like a wind chime. Their bodies have no detectable vulnerability to a vacuum, and are completely air-tight. They have no mouth or stomach, but several small mechanical glands indicate nutrients are introduced intravenously. The flight system, a series of pressurized air jets, are linked directly to an artificial cardiovascular system, using the same methane rich mixture that is within its own lungs as thruster fuel.

Genesis Project
By seeding a world with specially designed plants, you can quickly jumpstart a planet’s ecosystem and make it habitable for a carbon based life. The process requires your drones to spread massive amounts of nutrients and place specialized seeds in strategic positions across the planet, taking up a massive nutrient upkeep. The upkeep tapers off as the ecosystem slowly becomes self-sustaining.

[New clone type unlocked]

Chimera
Simply put, the chimera is an abomination of science. A horrendous mix of drone and alien dna that results in a grotesque but highly effective and independent drone capable of functioning alone for long periods of time much like a hybrid, but with the genetic diversity to use adaptations from the drone adaptation list. Their general appearance and upkeep cost is determined by the alien dna used to created, plus any adaptations added, rounded down.

[New technology unlocked]

Malleable genetics
By forcing chemical reactions through newly understood processes, you can force your drones to undergo a process of mutation, causing them to shed or grow adaptations even beyond the boundaries of your hive. Any drone within range of your psionic network can be made to pupate, encasing itself into a cocoon and undergo a metamorphosis. A drone can be changed from any drone type to any other drone type of the same size and chassis class in this way. The process takes a day, during which the drone’s upkeep is doubled. If the drone does not have access to hive nutrient reserves it must consume the needed resources.

Your mastery of genetics is not even bound to your own race. With your now total knowledge of genetic structures you can even force alterations in alien life. If a non-drone subject is implanted with a parasite that is connected to your psionic network, you can force the subject to mutate from one clone type to another, if it is not a clone it counts as a Replicant for statistical purposes. In this way, you can mutate a replicant into a hybrid, a hybrid into either a repicant or chimera, and a chimera into a hybrid. You can also force a chimera to shed or grow new drone adaptations as if it were a drone undergoing metamorphosis. The process takes a day, during which the subject’s upkeep is doubled. If it does not have access to the hive’s resources it must find the resources by other means.


Thread 40

Sea Stalker dissection
Through a mixture of high performance hydrodynamics and water jets, this creature is capable of evading and pursuing targets for long periods of time, but it does not hunt, instead following slower predators at a distance until they make a kill, and then stealing the spoils and discarded refuse. You should be able to easily mimic the shape and mechanics of this creature in your own drones.

Solar collector miniaturization
This module allows a ship to serve as a mobile solar collector, gathering energy from a star to be converted to nutrients by way of photosynthesis. Each module unfurls into a multi-kilometer long, slender sail trailing from the hull of the ship, hindering movement and making the ship unable to blink, shield, or cloak. Once the ship has deployed its solar array each collector has a nutrient income of 400N per day. (1,000M)
In adition, research in miniaturization technology has improved the efficiency with which you can build the larger and more stationary solar array.

Alien study [Scavenger]
With a parasite implanted and its mind open to you, you have been able to gather a variety of data from the living Scavenger.

Carbon nanostructure construction
A combination of carbon nanotube weave and diamond filaments are used to improve the durability of your armor, increasing the durability of your ship hulls passively. In addition, this has led to new avenues of construction techniques.

Smart Mines
Nanomachines work together to form into roots and vines made of metal that grow across a planet and sprout from your hive infrastructure. The roots seek out and disassemble any source of metals that are not a part of the hive, and pull them to the surface, using them to continue building the roots and to form gained metals into ripe, fruit-like bulbs ready for easy and convenient harvest by passing drones. Your hive infrastructure is now capable of very quickly extracting metals from the crust of a planet or planetoid at a rapid pace at no additional upkeep cost, replacing the need for dedicated mining drones. Overharvest will now also strip a planet of all metal.

Razor mine
Fitted to either the back like a utility adaptation, or to an equipped tail like a blade, the Razor Mine fires a harpoon of chitin lined with a shaped explosive. Upon contact with an enemy, the barb will detonate and send spinning microscopic blades in all directions to deal massive amounts of damage to soft targets. The harpoon itself is armor piercing, but the blast cannot harm armored targets. A tail can hold 5 barbs bundled together, and can be fired at short range. A medium drone can hold 10 barbs on its back, and can fire them in an arc to deploy them at very short range to create an anti-personnel minefield. Large drones can carry 2x as much in both cases. A drone can be equipped with both a tail and back mounted Razor Mine, and it pays the upkeep for both as individual adaptations. Small drones cannot equipped this due to size limitations.
In addition, hive creep now can grow Razor Mines in the form of bushes and small fields, aiding in defense against attack.


Thread 41

Bored chitin slugs
By improving the shape of your kinetic slugs, as well as increasing the spin imparted to them as they leave the weapon, you can improve the armor penetration potential of your kinetic weapons. A kinetic weapons now deal more damage to armored targets. [passive upgrade]

Siren
Taking the form of an elaborately shaped head similar to a radar dish, this adaptation allows a drone to emit a powerful mixture of sonic frequencies and directed electrical pulses to cause severe disorientation to a target. The effect causes blackouts to your own drones, but the drone is immune to its own effect, and the pulses are shaped to prevent friendly fire. Causes nausea, loss of balance, and muscle spasms to subjects in a 45 degree cone in front of the drone with an effective range of roughly ten meters, depending on atmospheric conditions. Long term exposure can cause seizures, irregular heartbeat, and may lead to cardiomyopathy.

Microfactory chambers
Using advanced compact assembly designs lifted from human industry and combined with your own biological and nanomachine based assembly processes, you have developed a relatively effective method of manufacturing small craft within the hull of a ship. A ship equipped with a microfactory will automatically replenish any lost strike craft it carries, or if it is assigned to a fleet, it will automatically replace any lost strike craft within the fleet itself. Hive ships gain this ability for free, while other ships must be equipped with the chambers.


Thread 42

Quantum Entanglement engineering
By experimenting with the basic nature of quantum entanglement your thinkers have been able to unlock a more advanced understanding of the technology that holds together the fabric of local alien society, human and otherwise. While you suspect you are still catching up to some of the most advanced technology known to mankind, you have already surpassed what is widely available.

Thought muffler
By utilizing your new understanding of crystalline brains you have been able to adapt your understanding of the psionic shroud into a more compact and reproducible form. While it is nowhere near as effective, it is capable of muffling the thoughts of your drones to any psionic sensitive beings not attuned to the hive, causing them to blend in to the background noise of the universe and making them more difficult to detect mentally. This is a passive upgrade that affects all drones utilizing your newly created crystal neuron technology.

Photonic Blaster
By utilizing a series of lenses and carefully adjusted electromagnetic pulses, a beam of intense light is chopped into pulses, forcing photons to collide and form into temporary molecules. These photonic molecules are capable of behaving as if they held mass, and interact with other matter, causing intense burns and localized radiation. The bolts of molecular light do not travel at the full speed of light so long as they hold together, but break up on contact, causing a bright multi-spectrum flash and small shockwave that burns and ruptures the target.


Thread 44

Neural crystal fractals
The crystalline structure of your newly adapted neural computers can be altered even further to hold a fractal design, offering new benefits to your thinkers, and opening up new options for other drones.

Blaster Cannon
Simply a scaled up blaster, the blaster cannon offers a heavy direct fire weapon capable of being deployed by a large drone.


Thread 45

Pillar lung
In areas where microbial life is abnormally abundant, such as the deep oceans of Huron, filter feeding can be a beneficial thing, and the Pillar lung has evolved to do just that on an almost industrial scale, sifting through sand and silicate for refuse and remains, and water for bacteria and microbes alike. They seem capable of detaching from the ground, although they rarely do this, and using their filter mouths like jets to move through the water. When an area is devoid of food for too long, it will erupt from the ground like a rocket and launch itself to new pastures, where it will drill into the ground and begin filtering. In a way, the Pillar lung’s survival strategy is not unlike a giant, jet powered Roomba.

[New construction option]
Filter towers
A large underwater pylon built to extract raw nutrients from the microbial life of the surrounding ecosystem. Can only be used on planets with bountiful biospheres and deep oceans capable of supporting large amounts of microbes. Provides between 100 and 500 N per day, depending on the local environment. (500M)

Strider
This large creature is slow and clumsy on the ocean floor of Huron, and while its shell is thick, it still is very vulnerable to attack. To help protect itself from most predators, and to help it catch prey, it has developed a rather interesting adaptation. Across its body, and along its tentacles are a number of glands that construct to fire a potent neurotoxin. The toxin itself can be injected via a number of spines along the tentacles, but can also be absorbed through the skin, or inhaled. In small doses, it causes the rapid decay of muscle control, searing pain in the area of contact, and a comatose state. At higher doses, although not much at all is needed, the toxin causes violent muscle spasms and seizures before leading to respiratory failure and cardiac arrest, causing death in minutes and loss of motor control in mere seconds. In addition to the potent toxin, the Strider utilizes a high pressure gland and dexterous nozzle to aim and fire clouds of the toxin.

Ballast Stalk
The thin, wispy strands that drift from these large stalks are built like straws, hollow within and covered in tiny, razor sharp barbs. When the threads make contact with something two things happen, the first is that the barbs fire out, unfolding themselves from an inverted resting position by inflating with a potent toxin borrowed from the Strider and driving the barb deep into the skin of the prey like a drill, and the thread itself contracts along the side that made contact, causing it to wrap around the prey and make contact with as many barbs as possible while ensnaring it in a tangle of toxic thread. The stalk does not produce this toxin, but it has become immune to it, allowing it and its symbiotic spider-like inhabitants to capture and kill passing striders to harvest the toxin.

[New Bioweapon discovered]
Tetrochlorotoxin: A potent, highly evolved form of neurotoxin that holds far more potency than normal, less refined forms of neurotoxins found in the natural environments of most worlds. It possesses potent side effects in addition to the usual paralysis, including muscle cramping, seizures, and cardiovascular failure. It can be absorbed through the skin, or by injection, and is lethal even in small doses if not treated immediately.

[New Hive creep abilities unlocked]
Barnacle: Your hive now produces large growths along ceilings in areas of high traffic which lower a number of thin tendrils of thread intended to ensnare intruders. In addition, the surfaces of hive walls grow variants capable of firing similar tendrils at passing hostiles, ensnaring them and hampering movement, even if it is too well armored to inject its toxin.

[New Adaptation unlocked]
Spitter gland: A small gland located beneath the mandibles of a drone that allows it to spit gaseous or liquid toxins, allowing it to deliver acidic or biological weapons intended to be inhaled or absorbed through contact. If firing a liquid such as neurotoxin or acid, it can fire a fine misty stream up to a meter away, if firing a gas, it can fill a meter cubed area with a single deployment. The gland requires time to refill its payload between shots, but is undetectable via visual inspection. Range and area of effect is 5 meters for large drones. Small drones can equip this adaptation, but cannot store payloads capable of inflicting lethal injury or major harm on most creatures alone. (3N)

[New adaptation unlocked]
Stinger whip: A long, high strength thread is held behind the mandibles like a tongue, allowing it to be aimed easily and fired quickly. When fired, it unravels at once and stretches to a length of three meters for medium drones, or ten meters for large drones, and can pull up to two tons before breaking, although it can be cut or torn easily by other forces. Coating the whip is a layer of millions of tiny barbs that trigger on contact. The whip will attempt to wrap around anything it hits, and if the barbs are able to pierce the object, it will stick to it by anchoring the barbs within it, and inject any applicable bioweapon. Once deployed, the drone can reel in the whip, or detach it if needed. A detached whip will continue to wrap around and sting any applicable target that it comes into contact with for several hours, before dissolving. (5N)

Psionic implantation
Part genetic mutation, part cybernetic implant, this procedure injects a solution of psionic sensitive neural crystals into the subjects brain, where they take root in the occipital lobe, and then spread from there to form into the equivalent of a moderate relay. The relay is sensitive to, but not included in the network of the hive, meaning the subject cannot be used to pass orders to drones or extend hive network range, but the subject is sensitive to psionic activity, and can pass on orders through the queen, should they be permitted, as well as gaining the other benefits of the enhanced moderate relay. The alteration causes minor mutations and deformations in the skull and skin, generating small quill-like spines used to conduct, receive, and transmit psionic signals that sprout from the skull. Small scab-like layers of hardened skin grow around the quills to protect it, and the quills themselves are hinged, and can be folded flush against the scalp. May also cause minor skin discoloration near the eyes and temples, and pronounced veins visible under the skin due to an increase in blood flow to the head. Apart from direct visual confirmation, the modification is not otherwise detectable by medical testing, and does not impart any control over the subject by a hive network.

Enhanced Psionic sensitivity
While until now you had no idea of the practical implications, with the help of Dr. Vaughn and the remains of the White Queen’s relay, your own hive’s technology has been given an unfathomable leap. The process seems simple now, as even in its state of quasi-existence, the tachyonic particle that is used to transmit the thoughts of the hive can and does interact with normal matter, albeit in a nearly undetectable and infinitesimal way. By using these nearly nonexistent markers, your medium and advanced relays can now detect the faint echoes of other sapient beings near the relay. Any medium or advanced relay can now detect the presence of sapient life up to a kilometer away, and can detect its general position within fifty meters up to two hundred and fifty meters away. At ten meters or less, you can gleam faint hints of the creature’s intent and general disposition, allowing you to determine hostility, as well as a vague notion to its state of mind.

Gravity reflection
By using layers of super-cooled metallic foils of a highly precise composition and a strong electrical current, you are able to adjust and alter gravitational fields, if only slightly. This technology has opened a wide range of potential applications, from new thruster designs to artificial gravity and more.


Thread 46

Scavenger gunship
While you had expected to spend several days scouring the ship’s interior, you quickly find everything to be surprisingly familiar to you. With the memories of the captured officer, the layout and design of the gunship comes to you with the familiarity of years of use, and while he had no direct knowledge of the technology within, you do know how everything is operated at the very least, granting you a small boost to any efforts to research the technology within.

Flash Cloning
While it may not be as efficient or effective as waiting for a clone to grow naturally, sometimes you simply lack the time needed to develop a clone properly. When starting a clone project, you can pay the clone’s per day production cost x10 to rush its development. The clone’s production then takes only a single day, but a roll is required to avoid defects or errors in its genetic code that could result in decreases to its physical or mental abilities, disfigured physical traits, or even the loss of the clone. While some kind of error is highly likely, in most cases it will be a minor inconvenience. Regardless, such clones are best used as a temporary measure, to be replaced when a proper one is available, or to serve as expendable units.

Anti-orbital pulse cannon
By altering the interior design of your anti-orbital batteries to utilize the design of the blaster, you have found that you can squeeze both more range and power from your defenses. While accuracy may be slightly hampered at longer ranges, the increase in the rate of fire and the improved range seems to more than make up for the marginal loss in accuracy. Your anti-orbital batteries are now capable of firing on targets in medium range orbits, and can fire at targets in high orbits with decreased accuracy, as well as dealing improved damage to targets in low orbits or at sub-orbital altitudes.


Thread 47

Ralighan biology study
The have had utilized the panic of the invasion to procure a sample of the local life for study. The biology of the natives of Raligha seems to be rooted in a predatory role, likely adapting as pack hunters before growing in intelligence. Interestingly enough, you find signs of the Gardener’s own genetic data within the native, indicating some level of alterations or experimentation, possibly even leftovers from past research in psionic implantation, although no native seems naturally psionic.

Predictive combat algorithms
By using the vast network of the hive to analyze the fine movements and instinctive quirks of your enemies, your drones and clones can anticipate the movements and actions of well-known opponents, allowing them to position themselves in such a way as to be the least likely to be hit with incoming fire while gaining an advantageous position from which to return fire. There are limitations, however you only gain an advantage against enemies with training and biology that is familiar to you and you must be aware of the enemy to predict its actions. Replicants or non-drone agents must be connected to the hive network via parasite or psionic implant to receive any benefits.

Mantle excavation
Using a mixture of powerful nanotechnology and expansive, global hive creep, you are now able to dig past the crust of a world to reach the metal rich mantle beneath. This process can bring in vast amounts of metals, but can lead to damage to the planet’s ecosystem.


Thread 48

[Special Project Finished]
The strange abnormalities discovered within the Obsidian Queen’s ships seem connected to a kind of hive creep, based on what seems to be a highly aggressive form of alien flora. In a manner that seems to be almost reminiscent of the spores of Leeland, but in a far more advanced and weaponized fashion, the ships of the Obsidian Queen contain clusters of potent spores which, when mixed with any non-hive life, will begin to consume, spread, and assimilate any found nutrients into hive structure, spreading creep in a fully autonomous and aggressive manner that seems programmed to automatically overharvest a planet. Integrating this new technology into your own hive would take some time to do safely, but it has also revealed new avenues of research that you thinkers were previously stumped on, or had outright missed.

Suncaster
By wrapping a metal slug in an envelope of magnetic fields containing a layer of super-heated plasma, this weapon is capable of dealing a tremendous amount of damage. It specializes in armor penetration, but is heavy and unwieldly, inferring penalties to the drone that equips it.

[New weapon unlocked]
>Plasma Cannon
A hybrid of slug thrower and energy weapon, this weapon utilizes a magnetically charged bullet to contain a payload of super-heated plasma, permitting a drastic increase in range over other plasma based weapons. It is bulky and unwieldly in combat, and any drone not equipped with a heavy carapace cannot move while firing the weapon. While it is perfectly adept at obliterating soft targets, it is designed to be most effective against heavy armor, and is considered a support weapon, fired from fixed positions, heavy drones, or from the backs or tails of large drones.

Variable strike weapon
By utilizing a complex and highly compact compartmentalized ammo storage system within a the weapon, a projectile weapon can be made to switch rapidly between multiple different ammunition types. As your thinkers take apart the device, they recover and isolate samples of some of these different ammo types for further study. Projectile weapons can now hold a total of three alternate ammunition types in addition to the default.

Privy coat
By integrating the technology of the specially designed smuggler device into your own drones and technology, you can adapt the hive to be more difficult to detect with standard security scanners, obscuring cybernetics, mutations, and weapons carried by drones, clones, or agents of the hive. This effect is passive, but stealth oriented adaptations and augments, such as mimetic skin or semi-fluid bone tissue greatly improves the effect. The specialized stealth suit provided with the mimic skin augment now also functions as a privy coat.

Magnetized slugs
By utilizing a complex array of electromagnets to subtly adjust and polarize the metals within a fired projectile, your weapons are able to reduce the effects of various conditions that impede accuracy, such as recoil, weather conditions, or to help zero in on vulnerable locations in armor. All projectile weapons gain increased accuracy and armor penetration against targets utilizing metal armor. (passive)

Gravity foils
These metallic wings are able to alter gravity fields directly around the drone, granting a silent, fast, and highly maneuverable method of flight. Large or heavy drones can make equal use of it, although they are slower and less maneuverable. (8N 10M)

Boarding pods
This simple pod launcher is a modified version of the drop pod launcher, and is capable of firing specially designed pods capable of penetrating the hull of a space craft, allowing the drones within to enter and assault the crew within. The target ship’s shields must be down first, and there is a risk of missing the target and losing the drones if the ship’s engines are still operational. An unshielded ship that is tethered to the launching ship via a ship grapple will automatically succeed. The statistics are the same as the Drop Pod launcher, however the boarding pods fired are specialized, and are large sized, making use of thicker armor and specialized internal protection systems to absorb the impact with the target hull. Each pod carries 20 medium drones and costs 50M to fire. Large drones cannot be deployed in this way, as they do not fit within the confines of most ship corridors, and cannot fit within the newly designed pod along with the needed armor and safety systems.

Ground-orbital mega-construction
By constructing a station in orbit of a planet, and stringing a cable between it and a ground station, you can create a tower spanning from the surface of a planet into orbit. Such a structure is expensive and fragile, but offers a number of excellent benefits.


Thread 49

Psionic reading
By further tuning your senses to ambient tachyonic fields and focusing small bursts of psionics, you can actually gather meaningful data from a creatures mind from a distance. Any creature you are aware of within 50 meters of a medium or advanced relay can be targeted, gathering surface thoughts and emotions from the creature. There is a chance the target will sense the reading, manifesting as a feeling of paranoia and the illusion of distant sounds and voices. The more aware the target is of your attempt, the greater the chance for the target to sense the reading. If the target is fully aware of your capability and intent, it may attempt to resist the reading.

Kata
Using the data gathered from your thinkers observations of enemy actions, your clones and non-hive agents implanted with a parasite or connected to your network can now respond instinctively to a wide range of combat situations with the same reflexes and devastating efficiency of your warriors, granting a boost to general performance in combat.