Assembly ooze

Assembly ooze

(Creature)

Type

Ooze
(technological)

CR

1

Environment

Any urban

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Alien Archive, pg(s). 16

An assembly ooze is an ooze with a nanite core suspended inside that disassembles anything synthetic and spits out whatever it or its progenitors were programmed to do.

Appearance

An assembly ooze resembles a silvery cube, though its amorphous form allows it to slip through incredibly small openings. It measures exactly 5 feet on each side and weighs 400 pounds. It moves with pseudopods. Random scraps absorbed by the ooze sometimes float near its surface before quickly disappearing into its form.

History

Assembly oozes are thought to have been first created on Bretheda as a biotechnological replacement for automation. They have spread across the galaxy after several assembly oozes had their embedded codes corrupted, escaped the ensuing purge and duplicated themselves. Assembly oozes are still used in some factories on Bretheda and its moons, albeit with heavy regulation.

Ecology

Due to sloppy programming, the assembly ooze's code is easily corruptible, causing the ooze to haphazardly disassemble all nearby mechanical devices and use the material to build random items. While assembly oozes are not actively malicious, they are considered a massive pest everywhere technology is present. When discovered, assembly oozes are exterminated, lest they destroy critical systems and leave behind new, hazardous devices. Assembly oozes usually ignore organic matter unless threatened, though androids and cyborgs still have to be wary of them as assembly oozes can target their synthetic parts.

An assembly ooze holding its maximum number of absorbed material can reproduce by binary fission, copying its nanite core and splitting its protoplasm; the new oozes then turn this material into protoplasm to reach an assembly ooze's standard size. A single assembly ooze could overrun a technology-filled place in a matter of days, leaving behind a heap of cheap laser pistols and smoke grenades. Because of this, they have sometimes been used as weapons, but this is also risky for the users as the assembly oozes can target their own escape pods as well.

Assembly oozes can be temporarily incapacitated by strong electrical fields and kept at bay by mystical force fields.

Some claim to have seen assembly oozes working together to construct large and complex machinery: it is unknown if they're being directed by a master or have gained their own collective sentience. Most engineers agree that, given enough material and time, a driven horde of assembly oozes can build anything technological.