The Necroid is a small creature resembling a mass of sickened flesh and tendrils. They can be found on planet Decima-TUZ195A and in the surrounding asteroids.
The life cycle of a Necroid begins when eggs are laid inside a host’s carcass. The insides will naturally provide a warm environment for the bug-like eggs, which will begin wiggling and squirming when their hatching approaches. Once the offspring hatches, a good 78-106 offspring, resembling small, pathetic bug-like larvae that’ll begin feasting on their former home; the carcass. Most of the offspring will not live long enough to gain a host. Once the offspring are full from their feast, they spread out to begin their journey to get a host.
During this time, the larvae grows into the disgusting mass of flesh with tendrils we unfortunately know. While a Necroid doesn’t have a host to feed off of, they will instead resort to capturing and consuming other prey their size. These prey are too small to become a host, so they are simply consumed.
When a Necroid finds a suitable host— whether it be a small animal, or an adult human— they spring into immediate action. They quickly attempt to latch onto their host and swiftly apply numbing agents through their tendrils, which will dig through the tissue of the unwitting target. When and if the numbing agent is applied, the target’s own body will cease to properly function. According to scientific research, the numbing agent applied by Necroids does not oppress pain or render the individual unconscious, but simply ceases all movements.
With their victim fallen, the Necroid joyfully begins their journey to the brain of the host, entering from the back of the head (preferably the occipital bone). Driven by an instinctual desire to merge with a greater being and a higher intellect, the Necroid’s disgusting tendrils methodically dig, cut, and slashes to reach the cerebral confines of the host’s head like a surgeon, trying to keep their victim alive. Once the Necroid reaches the cerebral, they gently latch onto the brain and insert their tendrils into the sides of it, injecting their own genes and DNA into the host.
This results in the transformation, contortion, and manipulation of the host’s physical form and body. Blisters begin to appear and visible mutations make themselves known. Bones become sharp and extrude from the body, usually the palm of the hand. Other mutations may occur, such as the loss of the lower jaw, the addition of multiple eyes, and extra arm, or the loss of arms and addition of tendrils. The host is conscious during this process. An individual infected by a Necroid is named a “Necro-humanoid.”
More than one Necroid can take residence in a host. This results in the further mutation and manipulation of the host, resembling nothing like their original figure. These instances of more than one Necroid controlling a host are named “Dinecro-humanoids,” “Trinecro-humanoids,” and so on and so on (The same pattern applies to animals, but without “humanoid”). The more Necroids in one host, the more manipulated the body is.
Once the Necroid has control of the host, they look for larger prey to feast on. The nutrients from the flesh is shared among the Necroid and the host, in which the parasite is given most of the nutrients and the host is given the bare minimum. Dinecro-humanoids and above require more nutrients due to the presence of more parasites. This leads to them being more aggressive and desperate than the regular variant.
After just a while, the Necroid-humanoid will search for a large individual to kill and lay eggs inside. This is considered a “nest” of sorts, as they patrol the surrounding area and regurgitate a sort of fleshy tumor that grows among the area. Stepping on this tumor alerts the Necroids and Necro-humanoids, who will quickly rush to the location where the tumor was disturbed and eliminate any near by organisms. The tumor itself can grow on almost anything, there have been cases where machines were rendered unusable by it. In other cases, the machines themselves seemed to be controlled by the growth and formed their own nervous system.
When a Necroid-humanoid’s host dies, whether it be through natural means or an outside force, they quickly abandon the body through the hole they made at the back of the head and retreat or look for a new host. There are rare occasions where, even with a dead host, the parasite continues to use it. This is unexplained as of now.
When a Necroid itself dies, it’ll disperse into an acidic slime-like liquid that, according to researchers, is nearly identical to human stomach acid. The only difference is that it is much thicker and more acidic.
As of now, there have only been cases of wildlife and humans being hosts for the creatures. It is unknown what will happen if one uses a non-human as a host.
The Federation and UCoM desperately tried to conceal the existence of Necroids, but the Avali grew suspicious.