Stahlpest

Mindless, we think.

Without flesh, we drive you to the brink.

Space built, steel born.

We will take your ships and homes by storm.

Ever since the War of Stars, the Solar System has been flooded with recurring waves of Self Replicating Robots from Sirius, as the Mad Queen of Mercury's sinister forces continue to work in deep space. No one knows where these robots are being built, the original fleets from Sirius arrived and were destroyed long ago. But somehow, for whatever reason, hordes of mindless robots continue to descend on the Solar System, driving inwards towards the abundant warmth and metals of the Inner System's population. Though the War of Stars killed over 11 billion people, many analysts predict that by 500 PA, the Stahlpest will have killed more people than the entire war that spawned them.

The Stahlpest were created when Interplanetary Governance Council forces destroyed the 6 B.A.B.E. Warships the Mad Queen had left behind after her war, releasing her Self-replicating soldiers from their preassigned tasks. Without leader or orders, the robots operate in 'standby' mode, roving the asteroid belts in search of ores and scrap metal with which to replicated. Stahlpest 'breed' with each other, working together to design and build their best possible offspring. Stahlpest have changed throughout their trials into several distinct factions, those primarily composed of the 'Chompers' the 'Stompers' and the 'Queens'.

Chompers are the most common type of robots, having adapted to be less aggressive and graze on uninhabited asteroid, and the machine algorithms which design Chomper offspring have adapted to expand the model's sensor range, allowing them to detect hostile ships more readily, at the cost of lower the sensor's accuracy. This leaves them more vulnerable to shrapnel and space debris. Chompers are also bulkier and slower than other models, designed for slow transfers and stealth rather than speed or agility. There are an estimated 189 million of these 'chompers' currently in the Solar System. Most vessels choose to avoid them, but they are generally not hostile. Chompers are generally found alone.

Stompers contrast with the chompers, as their learning algorithms have told them to invest more of their effort into sensor accuracy, rather than detection. This coupled with their great maneuverability allows them to traverse the many dangerous debris fields of the Solar System. The stompers are much more aggressive than chompers, often attacking space stations or habitats in groups, afterwards breeding their numbers using the station's debris. After the War of Stars, no one has been able to identify the Stahlpest's communication codes, and thus the robots still identify all human vessels as hostile. The stompers attack shipping lanes and passenger vessels indiscriminately, and kill millions each year. Stompers also use mining lasers and saws much more than chompers, who are commonly found with digging and smelting instruments. There are an estimated 121 million stompers in the solar system.

The last example: queens, are the greatest outlier of the Stahlpest species, and many scientists predict that the ability to control or affect queens must be achieved to rid the Solar System of all Stahlpest's mindless plague. Queens have adopted a strange strategy to reproduction, likely from a bug or oversight in their original programming. Their goal is to make as many descendants of themselves as possible, and the robot will pursue that behavior even at the expense of the species as a whole. When a queen goes to 'mate' or build a new Stahlpest with another robot, they will bring resources for only half of another robot, forcing their partner to supply the second half. The robots have been previously programmed not to harm one another, but a glitch in the queen's programming has bypassed this protocol. After completing their offspring, the queen robot will attack it and reduce it to scrap before the new Stahlpest can fully activate, and the queen then possesses the original half or it supplied, as well as all the metals its 'mate' produced. It will then use half of these to produce another robot, (which will be allowed to survive) and the other half to repeat the cycle. In this way the queen can make the maximum number of its own descendants without wasting time doing things like 'work'. The 'queen mutation' must have occurred sometime in the past 12 years, and the percentage of stahlpest that inherit the mutation has risen to around 3%. There are an estimated 9.5 million queen Stahlpen in the Solar System.

Basic Information

Genetics and Reproduction

Stahlpest generally create offspringing pairs, connecting their AI to produce the most effective offspring possible. The AI use different strategies throughout their lifetime, assigning positive values to those that are the most effective. Using these values, they create their offspring with a mixed set of all the highest values the pair of Stahlpest can find. It generally takes between 8 and 27 days to produce a new Stahlpest.

Ecology and Habitats

Stahlpest are the first officially recognized life form to life exclusively in space, far from the gravity well of any inner planets. Stahlpest are also the first recognized life form to be non-organic.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Stahlpest consume regolith from asteroids, or scrap metals from broken spaceships or habitats to reproduce or make themselves replacement parts, and also use water vapor as fusion fuel.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Stahlpest are most commonly found in the Jovian asteroids, both the trojan and spartan groups. The central jovian system is home of several mega-packs of 'stompers' the most deadly form of Stahlpest, and large populations can be found closer in towards the Sun, either preying on civilian craft or mining and refining on lonely asteroids.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Stahlpest have active and passive sensors, which their learning algorithms can optimize for things like range, accuracy, or stealth. Stahlpest also communicate with each other, coordinating meetings for hunting, avoiding hostiles, or mating.

Origin/Ancestry

Stahlpest are feral forms of the Self Replicators used in the War of Stars

Lifespan

17.8 Years

Average Height

Between 10 and 17 meters

Average Weight

Between 20 and 100 kilotons

Average Length

25 to 100 meters

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