Chitterlings
"We've never been able to communicate with them, they attack us on sight. They're only really dangerous in large groups, but they're dangerous enough that you have to defend yourself. Their bodies are infused with methane and oxygen, highly enriched and very unstable. The slightest spark causes and explosion, and the boney plates embedded in their hide make an effective shrapnel. So... if you want to imagine what it's like dealing with chitterlings, imagine homicidal armadillo-molerat-cockroach hybrids hopping down a corridor and shooting tiny needles at you with glass guns. They'll kill you if they get a good ten, twelve shots into your vitals, maybe put out an eye... so you shoot back and suddenly they're sentient grenades. They have no sense of self preservation, they WANT to blow up next to you. And then, when it's over, you've got a lot of wounded men, maybe some dead, and a whole lot of questions. Then there's the infestation."
~Commander Simeon Kim, AetherTech Solutions
Pests
Chitterlings are tiny beings that combine almost evenly characteristics of terrestrial insects and mammals. They have a head directly connected to a larger body, forming a pear shape from which four limbs protrude. The legs are optimized for an awkward-looking, side to side hop that is surprisingly quick and appears maximized for low G environments. It resembles the bouncing gates of the Apollo crew as they hopped around the moon, but much faster. Their ships appear seemingly out of nowhere, and are packed with an improbable number of the little aliens. They are vicious, but their weapons are weak. They have bony silicone osteoderms embedded in their hide and aluminum oxide scutes.Methane and Silicone
Chitterlings' metabolisms are high, about equivalent to rabbits on Earth. Their "blood" is gaseous and their 'blood cells' are a fine methane-cobalt powder. It functions much like human blood, with the blood cells propelled by the methane cloud pumped through their bodies by an organ something like a two-chambered heart. Inside their bodies, it is an ideal environment to keep it stable. The moment the blood 'leaks,' however, the cobalt dust reacts with any friction and ignites. The fire will travel down the stream almost instantly into the wound and into the pressurized biology of the Chitterling. It then explodes, their osteoderms, bones, and jagged pieces of their scutes are flung in every direction like a living, sentient, malevolent grenade.Psychology
In battle, Chitterlings try to get close and explode. They don't seem to have any sense of self preservation, and they are indiscriminately homicidal. They also don't seem to be trying to kill with their weapons themselves, the drugs coating their needles appear to be synthesized for the species they intend to fight and cause drowsiness, degrading their ability to fight. It's only with several hits, often a dozen or more, that the risk of death by poisoning is evident. When they get close enough, they voluntarily explode with force and shrapnel roughly equivalent to a hand grenade. This is an incredibly dangerous attack, and always fatal for the Chitterling. Chitterlings appear to have the memories of their parents as well as partial memories of any creature in which they gestated, and if left alone on a starship (for instance, if all of the crew is dead and the Chitterling boarding party has moved on) they will rapidly adapt and convert it for their needs. It's possible if not likely that they don't build their own ships, and all of the ships that they operate may be those that were unable to fight them off. If a living creature is host to the spores of an osteoderm without removing it and purging it, the Chitterling takes HT+7 hours to grow and then rips its way out, likely disabling whatever limb it was embedded in. An exploding chitterling deals 8d (4) pi ex 3 yds.Reproductions and Infestations
The Osteoderms embedded in their skin aren't just for protection. They contain spores, most of which don't survive the explosion. The spores that are embedded in the center of the little bone tend to survive, and then they wait. If embedded in flesh, they begin growing immediately, creating new Chitterlings within a few hours. If flung into some out-of-the-way corner, they lay dormant, sprouting little cilia which constantly pulse and wave, drawing dust into the cores of the bone. When it reaches a critical mass of discarded organic material, the spores activate and begin growing a new Chitterling. A Chitterling Infestation is colloquially known as 'space herpes' due to the slimy, acidic red-and-black mass the osteoderm becomes when the spores sprout before they gestate a Chitterling.Technology
Chitterling Glass Gun: A gun made of hi-tensile silicon composites with several chambers in a fairly complex mechanism. They keep iodine in one bulb and hydrogen in another, which are drawn into a bulb at the back of the gun by valves that open when pressure in the central chamber is low enough, ensuring that the weapon is always 'primed.' When the 'trigger' is pulled, it launches a needle in a puff of black smoke. The Chitterlings are experts at biology, or so it would appear, as their needles are tipped with toxins that cause drowsiness in most species and are usually custom-tailored for the species of the ship that they are boarding. Damage 1 pi; Acc 1; Range 30/60; Weight 1/0.01; RoF 1; 6(6), ST 4; Rcl 2; Cost $600; LC 2.
Comments