[FT] Devourers

Beth's SV Parasite Pod idea dredged up something I'd worked on a while
ago -
an alien race with the working name "Devourers" They were originally an
afterthought of the Forge World games from a few years back. I'm
thinking of
them now as a deviant group of semi-autonomous, semi-intelligent SV
constructs that got "lost" eons ago, or perhaps a more "primitive" and
antagonistic SV relative. They aren't SV per se, though. Devourers take
over
other ships by consuming and corrupting their systems and crew. They'd
be
pretty horrific things to come across in deep space. 

Devourers don't build their own ships, but take over the ships of (any)
other races. A Devourer controlled ship can look, move, fire, etc like
any
other normal ship, until pieces of it break off and crash themselves
into
their opponents...

Hull boxes on Devourer ships are converted to Infectors and launched for
attack. Cross off hull boxes from lower right going up a column. Maximum
4
Infectors (1 complete column) can be launched on a single turn. A given
row
cannot be finished off by Infector conversion. launched Infectors are
regrown between scenarios (~20 turns/box).

Infectors are launched as SMLs (defenders can use PDS against them) with
24"
range - all arcs.
1d6 Infectors per group launched will target ship, before PDS (as SML).

Am Infector hit does 2 points damage (Half on armor, if any - On Phalon
ships, the second point goes to the next armor level down). If one or
both
points are on hull, one of the hull boxes is "Consumed" rather than
destroyed (picture an anime style spread of biological corruption
through
the interior spaces of a ship). On each subsequent turn, when the ship
under
attack ship activates, the amount of new hull consumed = one half the
number
already consumed (undestroyed) boxes, round up.

Devourer ships are 10-30% more expensive than regular ships of the same
capabilities - they have not yet been playtested.

Crew units in Consumed hull boxes are lost.
DamCon Teams can't fight Infectors until second turn.

Combat damage will destroy hull boxes in normal order (i.e. Consumed
boxes
will be destroyed before pristine boxes). Friendly fire can be used to
help
purge ships of devourer infestations.

If a damage row is completed by the infestation roll threshold to see
what
systems are Consumed by the devourer. Consumed systems can be used by
the
Devourer player in any legal way -Weapons may fire (assuming Devourer
also
has a Firecon), Devourer may steer the ship if it takes the engines, or
activate FTL...etc.

Damage control can neutralize 1 consumed hull box or system per turn
(not
armor) - neutralized hull boxes are marked off as "destroyed". Systems
are
marked as damaged and can be repaired by later damage control. Dcon
teams
fighting the devourers can't do regular Dcon.

If all converted hull boxes are neutralized, the Devourer cannot spread.
Consumed systems can still be operated by the Devourer. (However, a beam
can't fire unless the Devourer has both the weapon and an Firecon.
If  a consumed row is neutralized, roll to see if any Consumed systems
are
re-taken, and if they are damaged (this is in addition to regular damage
control re-taking systems):
1-2: System are re-taken, undamaged.
3-4: System re-taken, but damaged (can be repaired by damage control)
5:System remains consumed 
6: System destroyed, and irrepairable during the scenario.

Fully Consumed ships cannot use damage control during the scenario in
which
they are captured - the Devourer "learns" the ship between scenarios.

Fully Consumed ships cannot launch Devourer attacks during the scenario
thay
are consumed. That capability grows over time between scenarios.

Noam