CTD - Spawn

[Magstar]

Oooh, Spawn research could eventually come to the revelation that "Spawns are not creatures, they are weapons designed specifically to wipe us out."

[Cpt. Boxershorts]

If we go this route, the Viper ctd will have to be rewritten...in it, the Spawn race is a native of the same planet, and they have a symbiotic relationship.

 

-The Captain

[Robo Dojo 58]

If we go this route, the Viper ctd will have to be rewritten...in it, the Spawn race is a native of the same planet, and they have a symbiotic relationship.

 

-The Captain

It won't have to be changed too much. The Spawn can still have a symbiotic relationship with the Viper, except that the Spawn has been upgraded/bred/trained to specifically kill humans. Heck, the Spawn could be like our dogs for the Viper race. (Snake's best friend )

 

Pet, mate, weapon of mass human extermination, the Spawn would have it all!

[Otterboy]

You would be amazed wht the human body can do in a certain framerate and whilst 4 seconds is a little bit fast you can ceartainly come up with thigs that can argue for a very fast reaction.

 

Following on from what is in this thread there is a heck of a lot of human DNA that as far as we know does nothing at all, over 99% in fact. This fact could fit in very well with the idea of the overmind uisng some sort of genetic data from the ammonites to create a new weapon created to attack us specifically.

 

First off you need to trigger the rage of the zombies, wouldnt be too hard to come up with something along those lines. Say a combibnation of neurotoxins that target specific brain functions to induce a rage against former allies.

Research on the toxins themselves suggest that the rage is triggered and would normally just cause the soldiers to kill aliens in a toxin induced frenzy. However other components of the toxin seems to affect perception and memory segements of the brain. This has lead to the hypothesis that the zombie may indeed be attempting to kill aliens in a frenzy as the first set of toxins would induce but the second set of toxins has caused his perceptions to be altered and now allies seem to be aliens and aliens seem to be allies. Unfortunately once affected the only viable solution is too disable the afflicted, either through stunning or killing.

 

But the most amazing affect of the toxins is the creation of a new chrysallid in an incredibaly short time frame. Stuides upon various chrysallids seem to show them at various stages of development varying from almost complete alien tissue to almost complete human tissue.

It seems that the intial chrysallid that emerges from a new victim is almost completely human, only the brain structure, external apperance and appendages are synthesied by the new chrysallid but rapidly the human tissue is converted into alien tissue, the entire process taking around 5 minutes from our best estimates.

 

Whilst the exact mechanisms of this are unknown it can be hypothesied from current human anabolic data and interesting toxin elements.

The toxin contains small amounts of what seem to be globular proteins, these show remarkable similarity to many classes of human transcription regulation proteins, upto 75% in some cases. These regualtors seem to bind to areas of DNA previoulsy thought to be junk DNA. A few also bind to areas that control cell growth and the synthesis of keratin like substances.

 

Following from this it is hypothesised that intially the toxin causes the rapid production of the outer chitinous layer of the chrysallid from the natural keratin producing enzymes found in our bodies, this is achieved very quickly to provide defence for the the rest of the changes over seen by the regualtors that control the previous junk DNA. The result of this is that a chrysallid like organism can be formed in a matter of seconds.

 

Unfortunately there is no defence against this attack, the homology of the toxins to many vital enzymes and DNA regualtory substances means that any attempt to vaccinate or indeed treat a victom would inhibit fuctions vital for life and death would follow rapidly.

 

It seems the only way to avoid a transformation is too avoid the toxin at all costs.

 

Just came up with that quick so there may be typos and i had to make it simpler than what i had orgionally

Doing genetics at Üni means i was talking about stuff i imagine you wouldnt know about ::

[MagicAndy]

A little technical I agree, but it seems plausible and viable. Anything that will finalize this neverending spawn debate can only be a good thing.

 

Has a method been decided? If not I think its time to put the various theories to a poll and get this spawn down on paper.

[Breunor]

I personally think the genetic binding/mutation theory works fine, it's a matter of how much text you want to make it into.

[mikker]

this would also help later in a "you are the alien" POV gameplay, as this explains why you can't get Spawns from the start. You would have to research the entire human DNA string to make them usefull.

[Robo Dojo 58]

It appears that a few spawn could eliminate the entire world. So I think something like this should be added:

 

The rapid production of such a creature leaves an incredibly sloppy reproduction of its genetic code. Preliminary analysis shows that the spawn has multiple copies of certian genes in every cell, most likely to increase it's ability to reproduce for additional generations. But even with the added protection, a single spawn can only survive a few generations, before its offspring can't reproduce or survive because of the defects. Our best estimates show that an average load of spawns can infect no more than a few hundred people, before they need to be replenished with fresh blood.

 

"We are completely baffled why the aliens didn't make the spawn capable of surviving much longer. Perhaps it's a safeguard for themselves. But we aren't going to complain about it." - Head Researcher

[Guest KillZone]

Well I came up with this rough draft today...nothing great but it came to me while I was drawing a Chryssaild at school...of all places..

 

"Spawn venom is an oddity in the field of reproduction. While many creatures have either constant reproductive abillity through their life or at certain times of the year, Spawn can only reproduce for a certain amount of time.

Much like human teeth, the production of the venom stops after a certain age. For a Spawn, this isnt years, but minutes and after days the venom glads have dried up completely, this means that Spawn would only be able to infect a few hundred people before they became impotent for life.

THis leaves an obvious question: Why would the aliens use such a sexually retarded creature? Why not use something more capable of widespread infection?

The only answer we have is that Spawn have been "tampered" with, on the genetic sale, so that they are easily manageable by their controllers."

 

Still needs tweaking but anyone like it?

[Guest Azrael]

CURRENT TEXT - REVISED

 

RESEARCH COMPLETED: Spawn

 

HEAD OF RESEARCH PROJECT: [HARRY DRESDEN]

 

SPECIFICATIONS:

WEIGHT:___________________ [250 lbs]

SIZE:______________________ [7’ on average]

TYPE:_____________________ ALIEN LIFE FORM

OTHER:___________________ Able to infect humanoid species and reproduce within the timeframe of a single combat situation.

 

This horrible creature is extremely resistant and able to shrug off large amounts of damage due to its naturally ablative chitinous hide. Apart from the point of being extremely effective as a biologicalterror weapon due to its combat abilities, it also has the ability to inject any sufficiently large creature with an extremely fast acting bacterial infection. This infection rapidly spreads through the host’s body, destroying the natural DNA in the cells and replacing it with modified Spawn DNA. This rapid destruction of cells causes the victim to enter into a homicidal berserk rage. After an apparently random period of time, or when the host reaches the point of death, the remnants of the victim’s skin is sundered by an emerging, fully formed Spawn.

 

This Alien monstrosity has several unique features that are not found in any Earth native life form. Due to combination of features and the odd physical makeup of the creature, it is the theory of the Research Division that this creature was created for use as a living biological weapon. The Spawn appears to be of only animal level intelligence, unable to comprehend orders or directions and completely incapable of any level of social interaction. It appears that they are released to run wild and cause as much havoc as possible. Due to lack of an obvious control mechanism, they must either have an instinctual revulsion to the other alien races, or the aliens have a means of control that we are unaware of at this time.

 

The Spawn physical makeup appears to be designed to allow it to have the longest possible lifetime in an extremely hostile environment. It is very quick, flexible, and agile, allowing maneuverability easily equal to anything on earth. We have clocked the Spawn running at up to 48,28 km/h for short distances. The chitinous hide plating of the creature gives it a natural ablative covering that tends to break up, redirect, or scatter most known forms of projectile or directed energy weapons.

 

The Spawn is also very strong, able to penetrate most known types of armor plating with relative ease. It appears that the creature has thermally sensitive sections in its face plating and at the extremities, which allows it to hunt prey based on thermal triangulation. The claws of the alien have a very peculiar concave serration. This means that wounds caused by a Spawn attack tend to be very wide and bloody, but not very deep. The most dangerous property of the Spawn, however, is its neurotoxicological venom.

 

The creature’s claws are coated with a thin layer of venom that is refreshed whenever the claws retract into the aperture over the hands. When attacking prey, the Spawn introduces this neurotoxin into the victim through minor wounds caused by the claws. The venom quickly spreads through the victim’s body, where it induces a two-stage transformation. The first stage occurs as the venom spreads to the brain. Once there, it induces a homicidal rage and triggers the production of chemicals to radically increase cell production. The victim becomes overwhelmed with a need to destroy members of its own species. It is apparent from the battle reports of Spawn attacks that victims immediately assume the mindset of a Spawn while the second stage of the poisoning continues. During this stage the poison attacks the bone marrow and lymph system of the victim and alters the DNA structure of new cells to a Spawn template. The other chemical markers of the cells are relatively unchanged, thus preventing immune reactions to the new cells. The new Spawn white blood cells begin attacking the other normal cells of the body, while the Alien cells work to replace the losses. This induces a rapidly accelerating physical change in the victim. Within a period of a few minutes, most of the major organs in the victim’s body are undergoing the mutation into Spawn equivalents.

 

The spike in cell production induced by the venom would be very beneficial in medical uses, if a means to separate it from the other effects could be found. Current tests indicate that the increase in cells is so rapid that the victim’s blood pressure from the increased volume practically doubles over the course of a minute. This increase in cell mass causes the host’s body to rip and split open after a random period of time. The natural cell growth and replication will result in the creation of a new Spawn within minutes, barring outside influences.

 

It has been discovered, however, that the application of heat in any form (including the heat of bullets, lasers, and all other known forms of ranged weapons) causes an exponential increase in the rate of transformation, resulting the completion of the transformation cycle in mere seconds.

 

“It was bad when Pete got hit by the thing, it was worse when he started to attack me, but the scariest part of all was when I put him down, and a brand new monster emerged from his bullet-riddled corpse.” – Pvt. William Marshall

[The Master Maniac]

Hmm, very cool. A couple last-second niggles:

 

Judging from the sheer size of this puppy, I'd think that those claws of his would easily cause a great deal of grief. Even relatively small claws, such as a "big" cat's, for instance, can cause some seriously deep wounds. Perhaps saying that the laceration is not only incredibly wide, but deep and jagged as well, would make the Spawn sound appropriately threatening. Well, not the idea that one of those guys can painfully possess a human body isn't threatening enough, of course.

 

"Things got real bad from there--the minute the craft touched down, we were swamped by these...these...things. When they got him, I just couldn't believe it. The thing'd ripped him up good. A squadmate kept on yelling for me to stop, but I could barely hear her voice, I was already so far away. I just kept on running towards him, trying to help...couldn't believe it when he came after me. I would have been just as dead as he was hadn't she gunned him down for me. In an instant, the man I'd once known was gone--the moment she'd pulled the trigger, another one of the freakish mutants had shredded itself clean of his corpse even before he'd managed to hit the ground. Imagine if these bastards got loose in a major city or something...it would be...it just ain't right."

 

Thought I'd take a crack at some extra fluff text, there.

 

edit--okay, just now saw that there's already fluff text there, but what the heck?

[Guest Azrael]

SPAWN

X-Net://Pegasus.net/Alien/Species/Spawn

 

This horrible creature is extremely resistant and able to shrug off large amounts of damage due to its naturally ablative chitinous hide. Apart from the point of being extremely effective as a biological terror weapon due to its combat abilities, it also has the ability to inject any sufficiently large creature with an extremely fast-acting bacterial infection. This infection rapidly spreads through the host’s body, destroying the natural DNA in the cells and replacing it with modified Spawn DNA. This rapid destruction of cells causes the victim to enter into a homicidal berserk rage. After an apparently random period of time, or when the host reaches the point of death, the remnants of the victim’s skin is sundered by an emerging, fully formed Spawn.

 

This Alien monstrosity has several unique features that are not found in any Earth native life form. Due to the combination of features and the odd physical makeup of the creature, it is the theory of the Research Division that this creature was created for use as a living biological weapon. The Spawn appears to be of only animal level intelligence, unable to comprehend orders or directions and completely incapable of any level of social interaction. It appears that they are released to run wild and cause as much havoc as possible. Due to lack of an obvious control mechanism, they must either have an instinctual revulsion to the other Alien species, or the Aliens have means of control of which we are unaware at this time.

 

The Spawn physical makeup appears to be designed to allow it to have the longest possible lifetime in an extremely hostile environment. It is very quick, flexible, and agile, allowing agility easily equal to anything on Earth. We have clocked the Spawn running at up to 48,28 km/h for short distances. The chitinous hide plating of the creature gives it a natural ablative covering that tends to break up, redirect, or scatter most known forms of projectile or directed energy weapons.

 

The Spawn is also very strong, able to penetrate most known types of armor plating with relative ease. It appears that the creature has thermally sensitive sections in its face plating and at the extremities, which allows it to hunt prey based on thermal triangulation. The claws of the Alien have a very peculiar concave serration; this means that wounds caused by a Spawn attack tend to be very wide and bloody, but not very deep; as it is not in the creature’s interest to kill its victim. This is because of the most dangerous property of the Spawn, its neurotoxicological venom.

 

The creature’s claws are coated with a thin layer of venom that is refreshed whenever the claws retract into the aperture over the hands. When attacking prey, the Spawn introduces this neurotoxin into the victim through minor wounds caused by the claws. The venom quickly spreads through the victim’s body, where it induces a two-stage transformation. The first stage occurs as the venom spreads to the brain. Once there, it induces a homicidal rage and triggers the production of chemicals to radically increase cell production. The victim becomes overwhelmed with a need to destroy members of its own species. It is apparent from the battle reports of Spawn attacks that victims immediately assume the mindset of a Spawn while the second stage of the poisoning continues. During this stage the poison attacks the bone marrow and lymph system of the victim and alters the DNA structure of new cells to a Spawn template. The other chemical markers of the cells are relatively unchanged, thus preventing immune reactions to the new cells. The new Spawn white cells begin attacking the remaining Human cells of the body, while the Alien cells work to replace the losses. This induces a rapidly accelerating physical change in the victim. Within a period of a few minutes, most of the major organs in the victim’s body are undergoing the mutation into Spawn equivalents.

 

The spike in cell production induced by the venom would be very beneficial in medical uses, if a means to separate it from the other effects could be found. Current tests indicate that the increase in cells is so rapid that the victim’s blood pressure from the increased volume practically doubles over the course of a minute. This increase in cell mass causes the host’s body to rip and split open after a random period of time. The natural cell growth and replication will result in the creation of a new Spawn within minutes, barring outside influences.

 

It has been discovered, however, that the application of heat in any form (including the heat of bullets, lasers, and all other known forms of ranged weapons) causes an exponential increase in the rate of transformation, resulting the completion of the transformation cycle in mere seconds.

 

“It was bad when Pete got hit by the thing. It was worse when he started to attack me, but the scariest part of all was when I put him down, and a brand new monster emerged from his bullet-riddled corpse.” – Pvt. William Marshall