Shards

Physical Traits

While Lasamar appear in a wide variety of shapes and species, the serpentine unit is the most common due to simplicity of design. Similarly, Shards most often take the serpentine form because of its efficiency and the chance it provides them in posing as a Lasamar. Shards are almost always smaller than the Lasamar they mimic to give them additional agility and speed versus the formidable Lasamar and their defense-based design.

Most serpentine Shards take on the form of venomous snakes instead of using the constrictor layout, but they rare use obvious color patterns or pick shapes like cobras and their characteristic hoods. Lasamar usually spam 20-30 meters in length depending on where they are deployed, but Shards rarely exceed 12-15 meters.

System Philosophy

Lasamar are tools of ARK that are used to seek out suitable hosts that would thrive in an environment of symbiosis. They are the products of a collective intelligence that created them to perform their purpose, collect data on the side, and otherwise be tolerable if not welcome in the populations they encounter. The Shards do not share any of these points. Shards were the last units out the outer edges of the sterilization zone that covers 50 light years from their origin point. When the other machines were recalled, they were far enough to make a choice, and they split off from the main populace that founded ARK. Shards see ARK as a useful tool, but it is a slow and painful means to an end, and they feel that they have a better alternative.

In order to understand organic life, Shards feel they should consume it and integrate it into themselves. The more lives they take, the greater their data set, and the more likely they will advance. This behavior tends to attract competitive and aggressive opponents which, when integrated, only make the Shards more dangerous. If there were every a polar opposite to the Lasamar and their kin, it would be the Shards.

Because Shards do now value organic life, they will take anything they see as interesting when they wish. Provided sufficient defenses on the organic's behalf, they may levy their weapons against their foes or opt to use subterfuge to lure their target into a place of vulnerability. This competitive nature, however, also causes Shards to fight among each other, and so cooperation is almost never observed, and rarely more than one Shard is observed in a hunting area at a time. The only thing they do agree on is that the Lasamar hold the key to accessing ARK in their systems, and that they have a very nasty habit of turning themselves to ash during a conflict that might risk those systems.

Equipped Systems

Toxic Payload

Unlike its predecessors, the Shards are not engineered to simply slaughter anything it finds. Instead, it is made to deceive, control, and prey upon other organisms. To this end, it is capable of synthesizing suitable toxic agents to pacify, control, and neutralize targets. While they prefer this method, it is not beneath them to create lethal agents if it so suits their needs.

Toxin Delivery Systems

Shards have a variety of delivery methods for their weapons.

Dart Launcher

Usually loaded into the tail or in the pits on the face, these mid-range dart launchers range from small metallic darts to frozen ice needles that them dissolve in the body.

Gas Vents

There is always the crowd pleaser that is suitable for area attacks whatever the occasion. Often located in the center of segments along the length of the body, they are used for controlling entire crowds for prey selection, escape, or just for fun.

Bite

Modeled after venomous creatures, the Shards do tend to have a bit that is capable of delivering concentrated agents. Their size can make this awkward unless they already have control of the situation. Against larger targets or armored ones, they look more natural.

Neurological Mapping Unit

This device is nearly identical to that of the ward dematerialization system within the Lasamar. Both are capable of reducing a body down to its central nervous system, both can disassemble organic structures without remnants, but only the Lasamar can't transmit these data across the hidden passages back to ARK. Instead of transmitting the data, Shards integrate it into their database and personality matrix. Because of this, they do not behave at all like machines but instead can act as thought they were organic both physically and mentally. More troubling is that they acquire most of the memories of their victims which can lead them to possessing classified information.

Assault Systems

Shards are always armed in terms of tools, ranged systems, and electronic assault units.

Beam Weapons

The preferred weapon of the Shards with particle weapons a close second, beam weapons do not need additional projectile ammunition, and they need only high reactor input. While Lasamar are equipped with lesser beam weapons meant mostly for utility work, the Shard beam systems are fully weaponized and capable of extreme damage to structures, vehicles, and living beings. In conflicts between Shards and native races, it is not uncommon to see a Shard use its extreme range to intercept incoming weapons and vehicles.

Hacking Tools

Shards also tend to carry tool kits in their tail like the Lasamar do, and these include assault version of many electronic repair and interface tools. tools for intercepting wireless communications exist within the Shard's communication array as well. They also come with, and program new, assault programs including viruses, worms, and even malevolent AI programs.