The Diatom Complex

Personality: 

The Complex is a hivemind, each individual component is an extension of a body made of millions of other diatoms, and they are driven by a simple code. Gather, Explore, Discover. As such each extension is curious and inquisitive, and even with most of them being unable to speak, they will ask questions to anything that will answer. For the most part, individuals are just little creatures, wandering around and poking stuff. The exception is Neuras, the long spindly “thinker” cells that will receive and process information, and are often far less amiable.

Strengths & Abilities: 

• MANY - Diatoms are seldom alone, and all of them are expendable. They live and die for the whole and the whole lives and dies for them.

• MINDFUL - There is a distinct calm to the diatoms, they were designed to respect danger. They will run when they need to.

• MOBILE - The Diatoms are completely undetectable by a lot of normal means, and they are fast, tracing erratic patterns through space at the speed of light. 

Weaknesses & Flaws: 

• TRUST - Diatoms are naturally willing to go along with other living things, and many have a particularly strong Follow instinct for anything that moves. You could lead them on any path.

• TRIBE - Individuals are not strong, if a Diatom is ever alone, it will die. On top of that, every Diatom is built full of water and simple carbohydrates.

• TRAVEL - As fast as the Complex can move, it is entirely dependent on water. If it runs out, it will dry up and go dormant, drifting through space until it can find a water source.

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History/Summary: 

The Silicon Valley is the only habitable spot on a planet composed almost entirely of ocean and trench. The people of that planet were at war for a very long time, until much work and talk united five tribes behind a single cause: space exploration.  The Diatoms were conceived among this peace, nurtured and grown in the vast ocean until it could one day leave the heavy atmosphere and explore the stars for the inhabitants of the planet. 

But sabotage and mistrust were rife among the people who were constructing the space farer, and in the silent scuffling for advantage, the components of the project that were meant to bring them home were lost. So when the complex took to the stars it did not come back.

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Description & Visual Reference:

Practical Details (i.e. quirks, ways of speaking, etc.)

• The complex follows a routine, they travel from solar system to solar system and investigate all of the planets. At every planet they come across, they will take Samples, a process that is incredibly odd but ultimately does not do any damage to the planets they come across. 

• The first step is to enter orbit, and the main body will remain up there to drop pods from its radular slit. Each of those little pods contains a couple of scouts, a commanding Neuras, and the seed for a Cannon. Over about 20 days, the seed will transform the landscape around it, covering the terrain in silica as defenders and different kinds of scouts and collectors are constructed and sent out to get samples and fuel. All they really need from a planet is water, anything else is merely curiosity. 

• By the end of 20 days, the camp will be mature and the launch cannon will be complete. From that little seed there will rise a propulsion structure the size of a five story building. That is all that will remain after it launches everything else back up into the atmosphere to be snapped up by the Diatex up in orbit. Sometimes, if the conditions are right, these massive glassy structures are preserved by the atmosphere rather than crumbling over the course of a couple weeks, and it has confused a lot of archeologists.