Black Harvester
Created by design or by accident? Both options seem unlikely. If black harvesters were deliberately created before the Final Wars, they were the creation of someone with a deep hatred of biotech, yet who was prepared to create biotech creatures to destroy that technology. Accidental creation, though, would require the coincidental coming together of dozens of different strains of nanotech assemblers and viruses that just happened to construct a creature that can digest biotech tools and implants. Most citizens of the Gamma Age don’t spend time worrying about the black harvester’s ancestry, though; they’re too busy trying to kill the damn thing before it injects them with venom and chews their biotech implants out of their bleeding chests.
Basic Information
Anatomy
A black harvester is a giant scorpion, about 10 feet long and 6 feet wide. Its carapace ranges from a dark red in colour to a bruised black, or a sickly green. Some have been known to change colour to better blend with their surroundings. A black harvester's pincers and tail stinger gleam with flakes of organic metal, and a slightly bioluminescent slime drips from the small trapdoor mouth on its underbelly.
Genetics and Reproduction
Nothing is known of how black harvesters reproduce or what growth stages they go through. There are no reliable accounts of anyone ever encountering an immature harvester. Nor has anyone ever found the remains of a black harvester that appears to have died of natural causes, only of violence. This has led to many stories that black harvesters simply spring up from the sands fully formed. While this is unlikely, some scholars have speculated that harvesters might have unlimited lifespans but be unable to reproduce. This gives some hope that maybe, one day, they can all be wiped out once and for all.
Ecology and Habitats
Black harvesters are most frequently found in desert environments, but can be found anywhere there is accessible biotech. Any other animals in an area with a resident black harvester will either die or soon move somewhere else.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Black harvesters are carnivores, but their main source of sustenance is not animal flesh but biotech, especially grafts and implants designed to attach to the human body. Biotech factory organs inside the creature break biotech devices down into component parts, then dissolve those parts into nutrients that feed the harvester and replenish those same factory organs. Other biotech devices within the creature sense the chemical and energy signatures of thousands of different biotech designs, allowing the black harvester to smell biotech in its vicinity. Still other internal biotech organs allow it to shut down those devices with a specialized energy pulse. This leaves users of biotech implants stunned and in pain for several minutes, during which time the black harvester rips them apart to find its sweet bioware prey.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
A black harvester’s digestive system courses with immuno-suppressant hormones that break down any implants it devours. These immuno-suppressants can be drained and preserved with care for use in the biotech implantation process. See the sidebar for game rules information about this procedure.
from Clash of the Titans movie poster
Origin/Ancestry
Mutated scorpion
Lifespan
Unknown
Conservation Status
Although there are no governments in this area of the world strong enough to enforce any kind of conservation efforts for anything, even if there were, none would try to preserve black harvesters. The people of the Gamma Age would like to see nothing less than the complete and total eradication of all black harvesters.
Average Length
10 ft
