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Encyclopedia Hyperia: Bio Reapers


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[size="2"][b]DISCLAIMER: [/b]The following is entirely a work of fiction, and meant to kill time whilst waiting for the server to come back up.

Enjoy/Ignore/Wail Tears of Abject Despair as suits the reader best. :)[/size]

Article Excerpted from the Encyclopedia Hyperia. Copyright ©2452 All rights reserved, GETCo Publications.

[b]ENTRY: Bio-Reapers[/b]

Bio-Reapers are a common name for a class of feral humans often thought to have originated from rogue Freespacer clans at the farthest edges of human exploration. Since the end of the Gate War however, they have been found with increasing frequency closer to established trade routes and less remote resource fields.

SOLSEC has classified various groups of Bio-Reapers according to their relative strength and numbers; usually, they work alone or in two-ship pairs, and only rarely as part of a larger coordinated effort, as they have been known to turn on each other. The weaker groups called "Bio-Harvesters" and "Bio-Rippers" will likely gang together to overcome stronger targets, whereas "Bio-Extractors" are often known throughout a sector as ruthless and dangerous enemies.

They usually operate run-down relic ships from the Gate War era or earlier, with a few notable cases of operating what some Freespacers and deep space explorers and surveyors call "Clusterjunkers": capital ship class vessels made out of the accumulated hulks of captured or destroyed ships.

Clusterjunkers are rarely seen, and are possibly analogous to the Freespacer void-moots, where a grisly trade in human organs and extracted DNA is carried on; and where no waste of human remains is tolerated, the even grislier practice of cannibalism is widely believed to occur in Bio-Reaper populations.

First-hand accounts of meetings with Reapers exceptionally rare, given their often violent reaction toward outsiders. They have been known to trade with the somewhat less "feral" Freespacers and Psionics, and on rare occasion, with Red Dragon tongs for mechanical supplies and weapons that they otherwise cannot source from their victims, in return for exotic biotech derived from their bizarre DNA extractions. It is rumoured that Magister Magna Vinda of the Sabine is not above using the Red Dragon as intermediaries to gain access to useful biotech, and of course, Progen gene maps.

Attitudes of the main branches of humanity toward the Reapers are as can be expected, ranging from outright policies of extermination on sight to guarded engagement.

The Progen Republic has had a particularly aggressive campaign against Reapers and indeed, they are relatively rare in Progen space. Proconsul Gracchus Octavius Severus, representing the Odin Rex system in the Progen Senate, has made it the hallmark of his career to "exterminate the stench of biological pirates", chalking up some 12,000 Bio-Reaper kills in his six iterations.

The Shinwa typically avoid going out of their way to engage them, but have isolated them back to particularly hostile or un-traveled space, such as highly dangerous space behind the Intazatlan Line in Xipe Totec, or the deep space beyond Fenris Prime.

EarthCorps has been somewhat less aggressive, viewing the Bogeril of Alpha Centauri and the gathering Progen presence in and adjacent to 61 Cygni as greater threats to Terran security.


[b]Bio-Reaper Practices.[/b]

Based upon forensic evidence collected by explorers and Hyperia scouts, some basic patterns to Reaper activity have been identified. In a typical Reaper encounter, a targeted ship will be disabled, with a particular focus on disabling life-support and secondly, warp drives. Reapers will then attempt to board the targeted ship to remove the carcasses of their kills, and jumpstart the ship and take it into custody. Failing that, they may attempt to remove various core systems. Especially unlucky crews will often be found decapitated, with their skins peeled from their bodies, turned inside-out, and various organs removed.

The reputation of some Bio-Reaper groupings is so bad in some sectors... that some traders and explorers have been known carry small arms with sufficient ammunition to end their own lives if they have no other alternative to falling prey to the Bio-Reapers.
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The Reavers from Firefly were partly what I had in mind, mashed up with what I remember from EnB Live lore about these guys.

But now that you mention it, the Bio-Rippers may well have been the inspiration for Firefly's Reavers.

Interestingly enough, I think EnB borrows somewhat from the Cowboy Bebop a bit with the hypergates and such :D
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