[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.