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On The Subject Of Metamorphosis And Evolution

Nomads, since their first appearance over 20 years ago, have been frantically researched and studied in hopes to unlock their secrets. In some areas, their secrets have become widely known and used to propel humanity into a new golden age of technology. In others, however, their secrets remain just that, secrets. The one thing that isn't known to any human, or at least no human free of Nomad control, is the structure and lifecycle of a Nomad.

Nomads, as part of their very nature, are almost incomprehensible to humans; their entire anatomy is like nothing humanity has ever been subject to. Nomads have many forms each with their own abilities and these forms have been given different names by different groups - and even have their own names among the Nomads.

Nomads can range from being extremely reclusive to adventurous and sociable. Each individual Nomad can possess its own personality and their speech reflects that. It would seem that depending on the form they take, the more developed they are. They are seemingly capable of switching between the forms once the individual has grown to be capable of using it. The criteria of what a Nomad must do to be able to take shape of a new form or how they switch between them isn't known to humanity and, given the lack of Nomads that prefer to talk about their species, there is a good chance that those secrets will never be unlocked.

Once a Nomad develops to take a larger form it still retains the ability to switch back into its former body, or shell. There appears to be exceptions to this, however. Once they have reached a certain stage in development they become seemingly stuck in that form or body until they grow the strength to continue on their path and evolve further. This would not only explain why the small warforms are significantly more common in Alien Space, but it would also explain why the larger forms take a significantly higher amount of punishment before shrinking into dust.

Expanding on this, we need to consider how Nomads are formed, created, and how they evolve. It a glance it would seem that Nomads are like us, with the exception that they are born spacefarers, in the sense of reproduction and sustainability. The core thought would be: 'If we kill one it will die, and that is how humanity will purge their species.' If that was how they worked and things were that simple, there is a good chance they wouldn't exist anymore as humanities numbers and firepower would quickly overwhelm them. This is, however, not how they work. Nomads are infinite and they continue to go on even after they are 'killed'.

Destroying a Nomad Warform is more akin to displacement over death. Once destroyed a Nomad momentarily loses its connection to the Nomad hivemind and it must spend a while to reconnect and rebuild itself. Depending on the warform, the longer or shorter the amount of time it must spend to reconnect and reassemble itself. A small navigator form can rebuild itself in a matter of hours, whereas the huge mind nodes like the "Marduk" have a detrimental blow when destroyed as they can take days or weeks to rebuild.

The Mindshare isn't just like a central hub that every Nomad connects to like a computer to the neural net, it's made up of a large network of different nodes that all lead to an epicentre where all commands and directives are given out from. Each small warform will 'connect' to the next warform in the chain. Its akin to a long line of wires, daisy chained from the main outlet. If you destroy the socket, everything connected to it will be rendered severely weakened until the connection is re-established.

The smaller forms, for this reason, tend to be more cautious and curious, entities that we'd refer to as Children. They are inexperienced and have yet to evolve into matured 'adults'. Nomads are created from Silicon matter are therefor do require raw material to be created and reformed, they are not made from an absence of materials or magically warped into existence. This creates the question of how they are created. While it's not strictly known, there are some very well accepted theories among top xenobiologists from around the colonies. The most common one to encounter is that the Nomad forms are weaved or grown into a particular shape for a particular purpose.

The idea of them being grown like plants for a Nomad to control like a drone is mindboggling as it goes against anything ever encountered before by humanity. One of the main reasons for this theory is that once a Nomad 'dies' in combat, it takes a while to rebuild itself, but then it will re-emerge from one of its hives as if nothing has happened and it will once again go about its duties, learning in the process.

As the Nomads grow older they undergo what is considered to be Metamorphosis rather than Evolution. They spend some time away, only to return a bigger and more powerful version of themselves, often with an increase in aggression as well. Due to retraining the same personality and consciousness, this is not true evolution, but rather a sudden transformation in body and form - hence Metamorphosis.

The evolution factor comes in when we take a broader look at Nomads on the whole and how they've changed over time. When first encountered they were simple beings only possessing a few forms among their entire species. In less than a decade that amount had doubled, and now it has almost quadrupled. The Nomads are adaptive and resourceful and realise their needs change as humanity does.

Their smaller strike craft have a very high range now, with each one serving a very specific purpose. Their larger warforms have taken on numerous extra roles both within the Mindshare and in terms of combat roles. As a result, the amount of combat-ready warforms has increased drastically and the shared load on the Mindshare has been divided up many times to accommodate for this. In recent times newer warforms are showing, ones never before seen by human eyes, and they are carrying a much stronger punch than expected.

Nomad Warforms - The Navigator

The smallest, and by far the most common, form to witness is known to humans as a Navigator. These fragile entities are the quickest of all Nomad forms yet witnessed and their entire purpose is, seemingly, akin to a scout. At a glance, these entities often appear to be nothing more than autonomous drones with a fight or flight response to all situations that occur around them - with the most common response being the latter option.

However, there is more to these creatures than one would assume just by looking. The Navigator is the form assumed by all newly developed Nomads for when they first leave the hive. They are like children being let out into the world with only a warning - a warning to be careful of the creatures that roam the voids around them. This is where the fight or flight response comes into action. Like Children, most will flee at the sight of a potential threat, but there are some that will bite. It is this unpredictable nature that makes them so hard to understand and, by extension, trust.

The Navigator's main purpose is to roam the voids close to its home/point of origin to gather information, both for itself and the hive. By gathering information for itself it continues to grow and learn. It is this process that allows it to begin its ascension of the chain of evolution within the Nomad Hierarchy.

Nomad Warforms - The Labraid

The so-called "Labraid" is the second smallest warform yet to be witnessed in use by the Nomads. At a glance, it is identical to the Navigator, and thus it is often hard to discriminate between them. The difference that allows us to tell them apart is their speed. While the Labraid is certainly not slow, the Navigator is far quicker and agiler; fitting for its role.

The Labraid is more durable and resistant than the Navigator and thus is significantly more likely to be seen engaging with the humans and AI throughout the Omicrons. The Labraids makes up the bulk of the Nomad fleets and is a staple of every attack they perform. They act likes drones defending a hive from attackers, attacking in swarms with a scarily high amount of ferocity.

The Labraids are more likely to be seen hunting in packs and acting autonomously. While, like the Navigators, they are still developing, these forms have a much higher Nomadic unity between each other. Unlike the Navigators, these entities prefer to stick together, following a 'safety in numbers' ethos. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but this is the most common behaviour to observe.

While they do carry a higher amount of unity between them, compared to the other forms, each one still has its own sense of individuality within the hivemind. Like the young creatures they are, they continue to learn and evolve, eventually changing into a new form altogether. Unlike the greater forms, these Nomads are still in a state at which they can change between the various states of evolution that they have acquired. This is akin to butterfly being able to revert back to a caterpillar just because it has been a caterpillar in the past. Most organisms do not function like this, but this is an ability the Nomads have during their early stages of development.

Nomad Warforms - The Adad

The "Adad" Void Archon is aptly named given its role. The Adad is the Nomad 'bomber' as humans would understand it. Unlike the first two forms, the Navigator and Labraid Voidrunner, the Adad is slower and bulkier. It lacks the swiftness of its predecessors, but makes up for it by the drastic increase in power.

The Adad was initially created to combat the increasing amount of warships roaming around the Nomad home sector, the Omicrons. The Bounty Hunter Guild Core and The Order were the first two major factions to arrive within the Omicrons. These factions had just as much desire to kill the Nomads as each other, and the Nomads lacked any significant firepower to take on these new hostiles.

This warform, however, was first seen in the year 800A.S. when a swarm of them destroyed the Zoner installation, Freeport 7. This started the chain of events that instigated what became known as the Nomad War. Almost thirty years later, these forms are in use, but their successors are not far away, sometimes being seen in the core Nomad systems.

Nomad Warforms - The Sascya

Aptly nicknamed "The Nomad Assassin", The Sascya has played a vital role for countless years. Serving as a backbone for the Nomad fleets, this agile entity served one purpose and one purpose only. To kill. They function similar to the Labraid with their ability to swarm a target, but unlike the Labraid, these forms are much more likely to be seen far from home.

In behaviour, they seem to act more akin to the Navigator in their curiosity. They can act playful and childish and then suddenly out of nowhere become aggressive and territorial. This would suggest that there may be something similar to hormones at work within Nomads, but it is impossible to tell if such a thing exists within their anatomy.

The unique part about the Sascya, is how it tends to 'hunt'. While swarming is an effective method, it is not how they are most often observed. Unlike the Nomad forms, this one tends to find it's prey while roaming the voids alone. This directly contrasts the most commonly observed Nomad behaviour.

The Sage

The Sage

The Sage

The Sage

The Sage