Design your own freaks !

[Rabid]

Okay, people. I have a story idea.

So, basically, Alien scouts see our planet, says “hey, cool, this planet for our Empire, that'd be kickin' rad !”, and launch a fucking bio-virus-spore-whatever-terraforming-weapon on us that wipe basically all life on the planet to replace it with their own, leaving an atmosphere loaded with aliens spores and bacteria that'd eat you alive if you were not adapted to it ; and then they leave the system, in order to return within twenty years with a real colonization fleet (Yes, they are dumb).

Too bad for them, not everything is dead, and besides the governmental-scientific-artistic-”last hope of mankind” bastards shut in their deep underground bunkers, and some crazy, crazy survivalists, some humans have survived the giant “fuck you, we're taking your shit” from the aliens, with some slight after-effects :

They are now mutants, freaks, abominations.


So, I have Planned for around one hundred individuals having mutated and having survived it, but right now, I have only three mutants designed, with their associated powers :


The first one will be the main focus of the story, as he basically divide himself in two exact copy of himself, with all the memories and competences etc... each month (do the maths...). Plus as a secondary power he can eat pretty much anything, even dirt, assimilate what he need to in order to survive and poop the rest. Also very resistant to ingested poison (if not invincible).

The second one is a mutant which has control over its body to the sub-cellular level, being able to consciously rewrite its own DNA, or control what chemicals are to be controlled by its cells : in short, he could modify itself so as to be a living tank with diamond armour if he felt like this. Oh, and if he “absorb” a living being, he is able to assimilate it, down to its memories and biological capabilities.

The third one remain pretty human, but he has seen his perceptions altered, so that he can now not only see in infrared and UV in addition the visible spectre, his skin allow him to perceive the electrical currents and the magnetic fields around him, such that with sufficient training and in good environmental conditions he could be able to follow the electrical exchanges happening inside someone's brain : that doesn't mean he can read your mind, this only mean he can do a Functional MRI on you. With his skin.



So yeah, I have those three guys, but I'd need to have at least a dozen more in reserve, if only to be able to say “Oh, we have encountered this mutant that wouldn't cooperate. He had [X] power.”.

Does any of your juicy, juicy brains have any cool idea that aren't also totally retarded (compared to the totally retarded power I have already mentioned before) ?


And before you ask, no, I will NOT have a mutant being able to shoot laser beams with its eyes, even if it would be freaking cool. I'm not going for a ripoff of the X-mens.



Concerning the story itself, I'll throw a bone to those that will not have guessed it already : Spoiler

Basically, by the end (after the end of the story) the unsuspecting Aliens will find themselves against dozens of billions of very pissed-off and resilient mutants able to replicate themselves at will, with a proto-hivemind, the capability to control their mutations to adapt themselves to changing situations, immune to radiations and fighting with nuclear weapons on the ground, with crude bio-spaceships serving as weapon platforms around the Earth-Moon system.
Think human Tyranids.
"My God ! What has Science done !"

They'll never know what hit them.

[Purple]

All I can say is that I don't see the 2nd type working as you described. I am not a biology expert, not even by a stretch but I don't believe DNA works like that. As in, you can't inject a living human with elephant DNA and have him grow a trunk. You could do it if you injected an embryo, but after that its all over.

Now, if we ignore science and just go into writing mode I have to say this has potential depending on how you write it. I can't think of anything else you could add really. 1 is a human amoeba, 2 is a shape shifter and 3 is not much use to anyone. What I can do however is comment on your ending and plot as outlined in the spoiler.

Bio tech really, really sucks. Bioships and things like that are implausible to say the least. And while some people enjoy them others might just call it bio wank. So it's a thing of taste. The real problem is making the whole thing believable. As in, how do your mutant freak things resist enemy weapons? How do they get any of their own? What is stopping the aliens from just bombing the planet from orbit or just plain picking up and going somewhere else? The aliens will presumably have air support and tanks and stuff. How do your mutants resist that without it being to wanked up to live (I am thinking instant shape shifting levels of stupid here).

The more I read this. The more it all sounds like the plot of a B rated space invasion movie. Right there next to the attack of the giant piranhas and Mobby Dick walking on land jumping over mountains.


Keep in mind one thing thou. This forum is the gathering place of intellectual people who like to pick apart SF stories. We are not exactly representative of the average crowd. So take our comments with a bit of salt.

[madd0ct0r]

on a low level (ie believable) you could have anti-freeze man, deep-freeze man, photosynthesis man and iron man.

ie someone who can survive horribly low temperatures safely, someone who can freeze solid, melt and restart his heart, someone who's pretty obvious and someone who can secrete metals picked up in his diet.

other avenues for exploration might be intelligent fungal infections, being able to spray alcohol/poison/combustion on mixing chemicals; hooves, avian bones, sonar ect.

[Simon_Jester]

Okay, people. I have a story idea.

So, basically, Alien scouts see our planet, says “hey, cool, this planet for our Empire, that'd be kickin' rad !”, and launch a fucking bio-virus-spore-whatever-terraforming-weapon on us that wipe basically all life on the planet to replace it with their own, leaving an atmosphere loaded with aliens spores and bacteria that'd eat you alive if you were not adapted to it ; and then they leave the system, in order to return within twenty years with a real colonization fleet (Yes, they are dumb).

There are non-dumb reasons to do this. If it costs significant energy to sling colonization fleets around, you won't want to haul your colonists around with your scouts, any more than there were huge wagon trains of settlers immediately behind the handful of scouts and trappers who penetrated deep into the American West in the early 1800s. It takes time and commitment to get large groups of people and equipment moving, and very seldom will such an expedition assemble before they know they have a place to go.

Interstellar travel speeds can matter too.

[mr friendly guy]

If you want a freak, I suggest you look up images of the Negation Lawbringers. They look fugly as hell. Most have a combination of energy powers, superstrength, invulnerability, teleportation, minor shapeshifting etc. You can give your freaks those type of powers but weaker levels, because one Lawbringer can wipe out an entire planet. So for your freak which is overly muscular you make them stronger than the freak which is thinner, but give the thinner one other powers as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawbringers

wiki has a description of the lawbringers, but it doesn't do them justice. You have to see them animated in the comic book. I suggest you, um search for Negation war #2, and the last page shows the Lawbringer army invading.

[Rabid]

Bio tech really, really sucks. Bioships and things like that are implausible to say the least. And while some people enjoy them others might just call it bio wank. So it's a thing of taste. The real problem is making the whole thing believable. As in, how do your mutant freak things resist enemy weapons? How do they get any of their own? What is stopping the aliens from just bombing the planet from orbit or just plain picking up and going somewhere else? The aliens will presumably have air support and tanks and stuff. How do your mutants resist that without it being to wanked up to live (I am thinking instant shape shifting levels of stupid here).

- Bioships : Not "bio-wank", only the integration of "normal" (Inert) techs with biological parts. Like, the superstructure will be Inert, as will be the hull and the drives, the weapons themselves will be Inert, but "targeted" with the aid of some bio-parts ; the "crew" will be part of the ship, the ship itself being commanded by biological/enhanced brains plugged in some crude computers (the manufacturing capability of the world will have been severely impaired in the higher-tech domains)

- How do the Freaks troops resist enemy weapons : well, mostly they don't. Like a lambda human being, when you shoot at a Freak trooper, it die. The only major difference is that a Freak as a bit more resilience, because it will a been engineered with more redundant organs, and a limited ability to regenerate (damaged organs or limbs can be regrown in a matter of weeks). However, they make up for it by having typically numerical superiority, and the generalized use of human-wave tactics, being able as they are to replace their losses really fast : a Million+ force can be re-grown in less than a month, equipment included. In fact, it is the equipment which is the limiting factor, some commander having already devised strategy allowing them to send a constant flux of troop at the enemy, in order to lead the ennemy to attrition.

- How do [the Freaks] get any of their [weapons] : If their is a thing the Freaks do not lack, it is manpower. As the infrastructures haven't been destroyed, you'll see billions of workers churning out at an infernal pace biologically-possessed T-55 (Now with improved Hivemind Datalink and improved auto-loading capacity !), airplanes, missiles, small-arms, nuclear weapons, etc... With the help of the Remnants of the Old World, obviously. The only limiting factor being the ability to extract enough resources from the environment to build all of this stuff. A real logistical nightmare, even more so when almost all the competences necessary to run all these factories and build all of these weapons have to be painstakingly re-learned.

- What is stopping the aliens from just bombing the planet from orbit [...] : Because ideally, they would want to live there.

- [...] or just plain packing up and going somewhere else ? : *grin*

- How do your mutants resist that without it being to wanked up to live (I am thinking instant shape shifting levels of stupid here) : The rules are :

* "shape-shifting" is a slow process (the more complicated the change is, the longer it will take) that can't be done in the heat of the action.
* "mitosis", on a human sized subject, takes between one to three days, sometimes more depending on its complexity.
* "regeneration" is relatively slow, a simple bullet wound taking maybe six hours to completely heal if it hasn't damaged something critical. As the "auto-heal" capability is a conscious action on the part of the subject, if a Freak fall into coma, or something like that, if he isn't critical (as in "he isn't the sole repository of some precious knowledge/information/etc..."), he will generally be put down, or "absorbed" by another freak in some case (so that is "consciousness" isn't lost).

A bullet to the head will still kill them. As will massive trauma in general. They just stand better odds of surviving minor wounds, and aren't susceptible to infection-related illness (in general...).

on a low level (ie believable) you could have anti-freeze man, deep-freeze man, photosynthesis man and iron man.

ie someone who can survive horribly low temperatures safely, someone who can freeze solid, melt and restart his heart, someone who's pretty obvious and someone who can secrete metals picked up in his diet.

other avenues for exploration might be intelligent fungal infections, being able to spray alcohol/poison/combustion on mixing chemicals; hooves, avian bones, sonar ect.

Interesting. I can maybe use some of those ideas, yes...

[Rabid]

If you want a freak, I suggest you look up images of the Negation Lawbringers. They look fugly as hell. Most have a combination of energy powers, superstrength, invulnerability, teleportation, minor shapeshifting etc. You can give your freaks those type of powers but weaker levels, because one Lawbringer can wipe out an entire planet. So for your freak which is overly muscular you make them stronger than the freak which is thinner, but give the thinner one other powers as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawbringers

wiki has a description of the lawbringers, but it doesn't do them justice. You have to see them animated in the comic book. I suggest you, um search for Negation war #2, and the last page shows the Lawbringer army invading.

My Google-fu is weak for I can't find sufficient data on this comic-book. But the concept is noted, and may be exploited.