The Collective

In the aftermath of the first war and during the second, the Red Weed was believed to be an attempt by the Martians to terraform the planet to the Martians liking. After the capture of one of the Overlords , it was revealed to humanity that the Red Weed was nothing more than a mistake. The machines the The Martians used, though superior in every way to the wildest dreams of humans at the time, were in fact little more than salvaged wrecks cobbled together. The resulting radiation and corrosion leakage infected the flora and fauna in the local area, mutating it.
The mutated masses had a connection, much like fungus. Every part connected to the whole.
Overtime, collections of this mutated mass coalesced into a rudimentary intelligence. As the Red Weed spread, infecting more life forms and adding them to itself, its intelligence grew as did its self awareness. The biggest leap in the evolution of the Red Weed, was when a cell of The Overlords fell to the infection after their facility was sieged by humanity, inadvertently letting the infection spread through the compromised environment. Soon after, it named itself: The Collective, and it had a simple goal.
Spread. Consume. Grow.

"Could they one day possess a greater intelligence? Perhaps. But so far we have not witnessed, nor have any reason to believe, their so called connective intelligence exceeds anything one could expect from a hive of ants. Yes, they pose a physical threat, but just because we are facing one highly intelligence foe does not mean we should go inventing another."

Albert Rinzert - High Xenologist at New Oxford University

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

The infection rate of Red Weed is extremely prolific. Flora is particularly susceptible to Red Weed, though primarily due to proximity to sources of exposure. Contact with Red Weed spores in the air, contact with Red Weed strands or absorption though tainted water and soil. Fauna's infection primarily comes through breathing in air tainted with Red Weed spores, though direct contact (particularly open wounds) as well as drinking or eating infected materials are also common.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The Collective are very adaptive when gathering the fuel they need from their environment, based on the host. Fauna are able to subsist and grow consuming plant matter but have a preference for fresh meat. It has been observed that fauna infected with Red Weed in the early stages will only consume a small portion of its pray before moving direct on to a fresh hunt. It is assume this is a biological imperative to feed the infection within them while spreading to new hosts which are left intact enough to also spread the infection.

Biological Cycle

The Red Weed infection progresses through several stages. The rate of progression is not universal and not all hosts develop past stage three.

Stage one: Infection Spores work their way into the host's system, multiplying rapidly and spreading from the site of infection into all systems, not unlike a bacterial infection.
Stage two: Mutation The spores begin mutating the cells of the host, much like a viral infection. Host's body is unable to adapt to sudden change in infection physiology, and infection spreads exponentially.
Stage three: Host Red Weed tendrils begin sprouting from the host, releasing a miasma of spores, spreading the infection to surrounding areas. Fauna's aggression levels heightened and self preservation suppressed to facilitate the spread.
Stage four: Evolution The host's body under goes extreme transformation, limbs change and new ones grow with a myriad of variations from grasping tentacles, pseudopods with gnashing maws or grotesquely swollen and clawed. The mutations are random and only partially dictated by the host's physiology.
Stage five: Divergence At this stage the host ceases to be what it once was. Hosts of a similar nature will gather and fuse together creating much large creatures, heightening their particular abilities. A small number of the hosts that reach this stage will form into almost living structures.The most common structures include:

• Capillary Spire
• Node

Origin/Ancestry

Mutation of Earth flora and fauna due to exposure to chemical and radioactive leaking from Martian technology.