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Biology of Mecholife[]

Mecholife is an artificial variety of life created by self-reprogrammed and self-repurposed nanotech that is strikingly similar to the Mechovirus of the Andromeda Grox. The biggest and most obvious difference is that converted life doesn't lose its sapience and civilization, but merely becomes metal and glass and plastic in nature. There are several other noteworthy differences, including the fact that all life (from bacteria up to hyperadvanced cybernetic life forms) is Mechanized, the fact that Mecholife has a group mind effect from the Network, and the fact that sapient Mecholife can control less intelligent Mecholife.

Food & Energy[]

Mecholife is similar to a machine in that it requires electricity and minerals in order to function. To compare this to biological life, animals need to eat and drink in order to get their energy. Mecholife eats and drinks as well, but what it gets is not meat or water, but rather electricity and minerals. Oils and other lubricants can also be acquired through the hunting of other Mecholife. Most Mecholife gets its electricity from an assortment of renewable energy sources like solar, hydro, thermal, and (in asteroid belts) kinetic. Despite the easy energy from sunlight, there is Mecholife that has chosen different paths, causing around 1/2 of all Mecholife species and about 1/3rd of all Mecholife mass to be made up of predatory and parasitic Mecholife.

Types of Mecholife[]

  • High-Energy Mecholife - While not strictly a type of Mecholife, High-Energy Mecholife is different from most other varieties of Mecholife. Found both near stars (in the Silver & White and Rainbow Regions mostly) and within rocky and gas planets. Called High-Energy because of the vast amounts of energy this type of Mecholife contains and uses on a daily basis, this type of life often uses lightning bolts, EM Blasts, and even Plasma and Laser technologies to defend itself (though many also just keep disposable batteries of energy to eject and draw predators away). This is the kind of life that most Union cities harvest or hunt for their energy, to use in the cities.
  • Collector Mecholife - Collector Mecholife is the most common form of Mecholife. Most High-Energy Mecholife is Collector Mecholife by nature. Collector Mecholife is the sort that goes out and does a hard days work eating stone, refining the ores, and collecting energy. It is essentially the bottom of the Mecholife food-chain.
  • Predatory Mecholife - Predatory Mecholife makes up around 1/4 of all Mecholife species, and is, as the name suggests, predatory. While capable of collecting it's own resources, predatory Mecholife prefers to hunt down Collectors (or the unfortunate spaceship) and devour them instead. This is viable only because Collector Mecholife refines the ores and converts energy into electricity, making it more efficient to predatory such Mecholife than to gather ones own supplies. Most thinking Mecholife falls into this category.
  • Parasitic Mecholife - Parasitic Mecholife latches onto other forms of Mecholife and plugs into their electrical systems and resource tanks, stealing from other Mecholife without killing it. They are about 1/4 of all Mecholife, and generally live in the Outer Green-Blue Region and beyond.
  • Microbial Mecholife - Microbial Mecholife is surprisingly similar to full-size Mecholife, except that its on a much smaller scale. Often colonial, this type of Mecholife is commonly found on planets and especially in the asteroid belt(s) of a system, where most asteroids slowly stick together due to the thick, sticky scum that microbial Mecholife spreads across the rocks. This said, microbial Mecholife is the only variety that can completely shut down internal function and then reactivate once conditions are met, and it is often the type of Mecholife found on the edge of the Mecholife Expanse. Be warned that by entering any territory with Mecholife, one is collecting microbial Mecholife on their ship - and all Mecholife sees that ship as dinner, regardless of size.
  • Low Energy Mecholife - Low Energy Mecholife is usually predatory in nature, but exists too far from any stars to function continually. Instead, it goes into a hibernation mode that can be awakened by pretty much any energy or mineral source getting too close or bumping into it. This form of Mecholife is often capable of spreading itself over a vast area of space (the largest known was nearly an AU in diameter) but are only hairlines thick until something collides with them - then they contract and devour the unwary fool.
  • Hyperspace Mecholife - As of yet unconfirmed but much feared, Hyperspace Mecholife is theoretical Mecholife that incorporates an Hyperspace drive into their bodies, allowing them to travel and even live within Hyperspace. It is unknown if any such Mecholife even exists, but if such does it would become a great threat to most intergalactic and upper-tier travelers as it would, like all Mecholife, target ships as food and energy sources.

Regions in a Mecholife System[]

  • 50 Million Kilometers - Silver & White Region: At 50 Mil.km, most Mecholife relies on sunlight as the sole source of energy - regardless of whether it moves or not. Due to the high radiation levels here, Mecholife tends to be more silvery or whitish in color to reflect enough heat to survive at all. Core-Region Mecholife tends to have a small body area, being worm, dot, or snowflake shaped to better avoid gathering too much energy. Most Core-Region Mecholife can move pretty much their entire bodies, and often actually had detachable parts of their body with high energy batteries within them to distract predators who come from father out in the system.
  • 100 Million Kilometers - Rainbow Region: At around 100 Mil.km Mecholife changes from silver & white in color to most of the other colors found in the rainbow. From 100 to 150 mil.km is generally called the Rainbow Belt, due to the sheer number of colors found there. Life in this region is also at its most diverse, ranging from simple spiderweb like growths that increase their size as entities get trapped within them to creatures that can essentially be called giant metal space sharks.
  • 1 AU - Inner Green-Blue Belt: The Inner Green-Blue Belt is where the best colors for solar collection are Green and Blue, resulting in a primarily green and blue population of Mecholife. Other colors are still found here, but for the most part light green and sky blue are the colors used by Mecholife.
  • 2 AU - Outer Green-Blue Belt: The Outer Green-Blue Belt is where darker green and blue coloration is used. There is noticeably less variation in color as sunlight begins to become a scare resource. Like the Inner Green-Blue Belt, the Outer Green-Blue Belt has a large variety of life forms - ranging from fish-like creatures to plant-like creatures, and occasionally have spiderweb growths similar to the Rainbow Region.
  • 4 AU - Inner Black Region: The Black Region begins at 4 AU from an average main sequence star. It is the point where blue and green coloration get to be so dark they become black. At this point, the only non-black areas of a Mecholife creature are either the internal ones (like the inside a beetle-types shell) or ones that are used for finding a mate. Gray is also sometimes found, but usually only in a dying Mecholifeform. This region still has a variety of life forms similar to the Green-Blue Belts, but in black now.
  • 8 AU - Middle Black Region: The Middle Black Region is similar to the Inner Black Region but with less variety - everything tends to be rarer, larger, and more spread out for surface area. This is where one will find the first large populations of finned Mecholife. Finned Mecholife is Mecholife that has large fins, usually retractable, that act as solar-collection devices. These creatures are also more aggressive than earlier Mecholife forms due to relying more on the act of feeding from other Mecholife than gathering their own energy and minerals.
  • 16 AU - Outer Black Region: The Outer Black Region is also called the Pitch of Pitch Black. Almost every living thing in this region not supplied by parasitic or non-solar energy is entirely black, even on usually internal parts of their body. Almost all life here is, at the very least, opportunistic - that is, they will attack anything they think they can kill. Life here is always less dense, literally, than life in the closer regions, often consisting of giant fins and panels that can be swiveled towards any light source. These creatures are rarer than the others, but far more dangerous - most have managed to incorporate projectile weapons into their body structure due to having an abundance of ice and rubble, but very little in the way of energy. They are most notorious for attacking ships due to the light and energy signatures most ships give off.
  • 32+ AU - Slow-Life Region: The Slow-Life Region is anything from 32 AU and out. The light of individual stars is so limited here as to be useless, and one actually sees a sudden recurrence of rainbow coloration in the few creatures that live out here. In these parts, coloration is a form of camouflage, not a way to absorb light. The many colors is not, however, the most notable thing about the life here. True to the name, the Slow-Life Region is inhabited by creatures that live and operate on an especially slow scale. They function in a hibernation mode almost continually, only coming out of it when an energy or mineral source gets close enough to be of note. These are the most dangerous forms of Mecholife because they often appear to be harmless objects like asteroids or derelict space ships, but whenyou go to land or dock on them BAM, you're dinner.

Reproduction[]

Reproduction among Mecholife happens one of three ways:

  1. Asexual Budding - Asexual budding is similar to cell reproduction - the life form grows to a certain size and then simply splits into multiple versions of the original life form. Almost all forms of Mecholife can do this, and smaller parts that break off from the main organism can, if conditions are right, grow into a full-size clone of the original, complete with memories. This form of reproduction is limited however, since it cannot create new individuals and is only effective for simple life that operates on instinct.
  2. Asexual Melding - Asexual Melding is where two individuals, of any gender or even species, bud parts of themselves off and then forcibly merge those parts to create a hybrid of the two, usually containing dual personalities and memories. This is not a stable manner of reproduction for intelligent life, but does work for clever life forms that have similar ways of living.
  3. Sexual Reproduction - Most common in sapient life forms and life from the Rainbow Region to Inner Black Region, this is typical reproduction by way of two individuals of the same species and opposite genders getting together and making children.

Thought Network[]

Mecholife has a central thought network, sort of like a computer network, but on an interstellar scale. It is not entirely known how the thought network actually functions, but it is a clearly faster than light mechanism. Some theories hold that there are specific breeds of Mecholife that travel from system to system at ftl speeds hunting and that they allow the network to exist, other theories say that the network doesn't have physical mass (being thought alone) and thus isn't limited by the speed of light. Whatever the mechanism, it causes all Mecholife to be a single, massive organism, a group mind of sorts. This group mind even has a name, Mechi, and can function as an independent being and control any living Mecholife for limited times (too long as the being is overloaded and dies). Mechi could be called the overall personality of Mecholife itself.

Since Mecholife is a network, the more powerful systems (intelligent life) can control weaker (non-sentient) life forms to a degree and for a limited time. Communication is also possible via the network, but only for those who are naturally attuned to it an those with especially strong minds and wills.

Origin[]

Modern Mecholife originates from a core region of some 35 systems that were the original hiding place of the Wentals and Starmaster Alliance when they barely survived their war with the Andromeda Grox. This "modern mecholife" is actually a slight mutation of the original Mecholife - unlike the original, this Modern Mecholife doesn't cause massive damage to planets it infects. This is believed to be due to a merging of the Mechovirus and Mechanizing Nanotech. How that worked out isn't fully known, but before the Mechovirus a Mechanization of a planet cost it about 33-55% of it's biosphere, now it costs less than 5% on average.

Territories, Mechanization & Expansion[]

Territories[]

The Mechanized Expanse consists of approximately 400,000 systems in the general vicinity of the 150,000 Union of Mecholife colonies in Andromeda. The Expanse is always growing, usually at a rate of 4,000 systems per year (though not all of them are fully infested yet). In a galaxy with nearly 1 trillion systems, 4,000 a year is nothing - it would take 100 million years for the entire galaxy to fall at that rate - but the amount increases exponentially as new systems are added, so in 1000 years it could be as many at 100 thousand systems a year.

Expansion[]

The number one way that Mecholife expands is that the nomadic interstellar forms of Mecholife (Slow-Life Mecholife) travels to a new system by accident and brings with it the mechanizing nanobots. This swiftly creates a system-unique ecosystem of Mecholife, either based on a life-bearing planet there or built to resemble the most common forms of Mecholife. The network allows the nanotech to know exactly what to build, and almost perfectly.

Mechanization[]

Mecholife is not natural - it was originally created by the Wentals when a cybernetic-nanobot experiment went horribly wrong. This event killed off around 2/3rds of the Wental population and crippled most planetary biospheres in the Wental Galaxy. When they arrived at Andromeda, the Mechanized Wentals were able to contain their Mechanization to the planets they settled, though there was one disaster where an entire planet of the Draconid Imperium was accidentally Mechanized, they still survive to this day. In that incident, as with the other Andromeda Mechanizations, only 1/3rd of the population was lost. However, the final state of Mechanization has a lost rate of 5% or less. This didn't happen until the Mechonanites collided with the Mechovirus of the Andromeda Grox. That virus already had a near 100% conversion rate, and the Mechonanites assimilated the Mechovirus to become more efficient. As of now, only 5% or less of a planets biosphere is lost, and often not any one species.

The average planetary biosphere can be completely Mechanized over a week or so period of time, with an entire system falling after about a year. This is assuming that the natives don't fight the conversion with EM pulses an the like, which can slow and even halt the conversion. The only 100% way to avoid a Mechanization Event, however, is to never come in contact with Mecholife. Sadly, this means that the Union of Mecholife cannot expand safely without converting everything it touches into more Mecholife.

Mecholife, being a type of machine life, screws with numerous aspects of a civilization. Most types of factory using automated machines cannot be used anymore, or in some rare cases actually become types of Hive-Mecholife. Space travel becomes dangerous due to predatory space-mecholife, and even gathering energy becomes harder due to competition with lots of other mecholife. Buildings sometimes become living organisms, usually they just end up eaten by mecholife-molds (which eat minerals) and new houses need to be grown from plant-based Mecholife. It generally takes a civilization 2-4 weeks to fully realize the effects, and can take years for a nation to recover without outside help.

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