Biomech

Biomech artifacts are extensions of an alien machine Entity. Hive trees, conversion factories for the Entity, are protected by mechanical spider-like hunter drones, which also collect victims for the hive trees to convert. Scout drones are smaller explorers, roughly the size of a large cat, which seek viable victims, inject them with a tracking nanite, which the hunter drones use to locate and capture them.

Hive trees are the result of nanite corruption crossing over into plant life. They are used as energy production and storage factories for the machine Entity. Those trees which bear fruit have been converted to a more sinister purpose: supporting cocoons from which the Entity can more efficiently convert other host-species.

A hive tree resembles its host tree, but its leaves are slicked over with a thin layer of silicate, which act as photovoltaic cells. Power conduits gleam and strobe just beneath the tree’s bark, emitting unsettling flashes, pulses, and streamers of light. The bark is reinforced with thin metallic filaments, which act as a low-grade armor, while leaving the woody bark to act as natural electromagnetic shielding.

Elongated, pulsing sac-like cocoons, dangle from the thicker, lower branches, or bulge, tumor-like, from the girth of the trunk. These cocoons are made of a tough, fibrous material similar to kevlar, but somewhat more transparent. The steady orange-red glow from within is interspersed with twinkling and pulsing lights. The hazy silhouette of whatever creature may be in the process of mechanization can be seen in the murky depths of a cocoon, but exact details can not be made out (perhaps for the best for the casual observer).

Hive trees cannot move, and normally rely on hunter-killers for defense. As a last resort, the hive tree can lash out with its filament-infused vine-like growths. The Entity also uses hive trees to ‘evolve’ drones into either hunters, or hunter-killers if its own full production capabilities are not online.