Jeff M. Hopper
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I found this little biological darling while doing some research and wanted to share. As a template for an Animal Encounter, it would work fairly well I think.
Rhizocephala Barnicle
Rhizocephala Barnicle
Real Life Monsters
- Thread starter Jeff M. Hopper
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Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
There are a fair number of insects with similar properties, and of course, there is always the lamprey as well.
Fortunately things like that need a long time to evolve to a specific prey type. A casual encounter between an extraterrestrial version of this and a human is likely to be uneventful. Differences in chemistry alone would prevent anything like that from inhabiting a human host for very long. I hope ...
Non-adapted parasites can cause great damage even tho' they don't actually survive the experience. A number of kinds of schistosomes don't actually thrive in humans, but will infest the skin for short periods (doing considerable irritation), before dying.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimmer's_itch
Thus the "very long" comment. That doesn't mean, of course, it can't come bursting out of your chest or ear ...
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
You might want to look up Guinea Worm Disease.
Please keep in mind guys that Earthly parasites share our chemistry and a whole bunch of DNA; they are not the product of an alien world. They've essentially shared billions of years of evolution with us where an alien would have not spent any. Unless your Ancients effectively transplanted whole ecosystems, not just humans, there is very, very little chance that an predator, symbiote, or parasite on an extraterrestrial world would be able to tolerate Earther chemistry. In the ATU, the Ancients had to do a lot of genetic engineering to humans to afford them any chance of survival, particularly where they were able to without continued Ancient help.
Now this doesn't make for any fun in a serious game
so maybe some leeway should be allowed. A little gene-stealing or convenient hybridization could provide the necessary ability. Mad scientists are prevalent and need something to keep them from getting bored and building death rays; universal parasitic xenomorphs could be a rewarding pursuit.
Now this doesn't make for any fun in a serious game
so maybe some leeway should be allowed. A little gene-stealing or convenient hybridization could provide the necessary ability. Mad scientists are prevalent and need something to keep them from getting bored and building death rays; universal parasitic xenomorphs could be a rewarding pursuit.Hmmm. While it was fictional, I did read a story where human explorers visting a planet were attacked by some sort of parasite predator... the predator died, incompatible body chemistry, but so did the human.
I would be inclined to have a few planets in my game to have some of these parasite predators. The warning satellite has ceased to function.
I would be inclined to have a few planets in my game to have some of these parasite predators. The warning satellite has ceased to function.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I see no problem with assuming that the Ancients transplanted portions of Earth's ecology to other planets without life in an effort to seed them for future endeavors. I also have no problem, given the number of years into the future that the Imperium is supposed to be, with earlier seeding efforts by early Earth star explorers, which may have developed in nasty ways. I also allow for other early Space-faring races in my own Traveller universe.
If you consider a planet that would be at roughly the stage of Earth in the Ordovician period, with sea life but no land life, and abundant CO2 in the atmosphere, seeding the planet with Earth plant life, following by a later seeding with the appropriate animal ecology, would be a quite viable proposition. If done by the Ancients, the potential of nasty predators and parasites based on Terran DNA, but not found on Earth, would be fairly high.
See of Murray Leinster's books on Project Gutenberg exploring the seeded planet idea.
If you consider a planet that would be at roughly the stage of Earth in the Ordovician period, with sea life but no land life, and abundant CO2 in the atmosphere, seeding the planet with Earth plant life, following by a later seeding with the appropriate animal ecology, would be a quite viable proposition. If done by the Ancients, the potential of nasty predators and parasites based on Terran DNA, but not found on Earth, would be fairly high.
See of Murray Leinster's books on Project Gutenberg exploring the seeded planet idea.
Canon suggests the Ancients had a liking for certain Earth forms - they found primitive humans useful and did experiments on primitive canines. However, they dropped both the Vargr and the humans on worlds that already held native forms.
There's nothing to suggest the Ancients had a preference for Earth life in general over other life in their terraforming effort. Having no particular aversion to mixing life forms from different worlds and given their experimental bent, it's likely that they experimented, taking whatever forms from whatever worlds and applying those that seemed most suited to the world at hand, perhaps seeding a world with life from several different worlds to see which would survive. In that case, Earth life might be out there, but it's likely to be rare simply because there were a lot of other choices available too.
(An interesting question is whether they took proto-sapients from other worlds and spread them around too, or elevated species from other worlds.)
One of our nastier problems is baddies that hop from another species to us. Given that we're likely to take our favorite domestic animals along with us as we settle elsewhere - and maybe even some of our favorite hunting animals, and likely some of our more adaptable pests - that problem is likely to continue. Any world with humans and domestic animals is a world in which new diseases are likely to appear. Even if we haven't settled it, we may well have left rats, roaches, flies and the like behind to spread, and diseases native to them may mutate into forms that threaten us. The problem for the far future is that there are just so very many worlds and so very many people and Earth-descended fauna out there that the opportunity for mutation will be pretty high.
There's nothing to suggest the Ancients had a preference for Earth life in general over other life in their terraforming effort. Having no particular aversion to mixing life forms from different worlds and given their experimental bent, it's likely that they experimented, taking whatever forms from whatever worlds and applying those that seemed most suited to the world at hand, perhaps seeding a world with life from several different worlds to see which would survive. In that case, Earth life might be out there, but it's likely to be rare simply because there were a lot of other choices available too.
(An interesting question is whether they took proto-sapients from other worlds and spread them around too, or elevated species from other worlds.)
One of our nastier problems is baddies that hop from another species to us. Given that we're likely to take our favorite domestic animals along with us as we settle elsewhere - and maybe even some of our favorite hunting animals, and likely some of our more adaptable pests - that problem is likely to continue. Any world with humans and domestic animals is a world in which new diseases are likely to appear. Even if we haven't settled it, we may well have left rats, roaches, flies and the like behind to spread, and diseases native to them may mutate into forms that threaten us. The problem for the far future is that there are just so very many worlds and so very many people and Earth-descended fauna out there that the opportunity for mutation will be pretty high.
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