Swarm Core
FERAL TECHDestroying a swarm core is less like fighting a machine and more like fighting an avalanche.
Field Assessment
A room-filling mass of billions of nanobots. Surface ripples constantly with coordinated microscopic movement. Inside, darker masses are visible â denser concentrations functioning as semi-independent sub-clusters. Extends pseudopod-like projections through adjacent corridors, probing for material to absorb. The defining danger: cascading fragmentation. When damaged, a swarm core fragments into large clusters, which fragment into medium clusters, which fragment into small clusters â each retaining full function.
Not intelligence â emergent coordination from proximity-sharing protocols at critical density. The machine equivalent of a murmuration. Organized without being directed. Dregs infrastructure committees treat sealed cores the way surface cities treat unexploded ordnance: mark the location, restrict access, and hope nobody opens the door.
Diagnostic Signs
Low-frequency hum felt in the chest before heard by ears. Electromagnetic interference on all frequencies. Corroded surfaces in a wide radius. Smaller feral tech orbiting at distance, drawn by mesh signals but unable to approach without absorption.