Deterrent (parasite)
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Deterrent is both a structure and a class in parasite taxonomy. Deterrent organisms are created and called up by Nexus organisms, chiefly Dispatchers, and act as their tools. They have no real organs and no mind. A Deterrent surfaces from infested ground where it is needed, stays in place while it is in use, and is drawn back underground afterwards; it never moves across the surface. Deterrents are of Fabricated origin.
There are four Deterrent organisms: the Dispatcher Tentacle, the Seizer, the Kyphosis and the Sentry.
Characteristics
Between uses, Deterrents are kept in the living mat of infested ground, through which they receive signals from their Dispatcher. They can surface anywhere the mat extends, usually within a few seconds, and are withdrawn rather than moved when they are needed elsewhere. They are found only on infested ground, and in greatest numbers around Dispatchers.
Organisms
Dispatcher Tentacle
The Dispatcher Tentacle is a hollow tentacle through which a Dispatcher releases the organisms it holds in storage. It surfaces, pushes out the stored organisms, and withdraws. It carries no signal: only the Dispatcher's flower relays information. Tentacles of a large Dispatcher are up to about a metre across at the mouth, and can surface several hundred metres from the Dispatcher's base.
Seizer
The Seizer grabs and holds. It surfaces beside or beneath its target, wraps around it and pins it in place, and does not otherwise attack. Its grip tightens as the target struggles. Seizers are 3 to 5 metres long, and the larger ones can hold a light vehicle in place. A person held by a Seizer is usually killed by other organisms, or by the Kyphosis and Sentries around it.
Kyphosis
The Kyphosis is a tall, barbed body that bends and coils to strike. It slams, whips and crushes anything within reach, and is the main melee attacker among the Deterrents. It stands 4 to 8 metres tall when it surfaces, and its blows can break through the roof of a car.
Sentry
The Sentry fires corrosive projectiles at targets at range, and strikes at anything that comes close. The corrosive agent damages bone and steel as well as flesh. A Sentry is about 2 metres tall above the ground, and fires at targets up to 30 to 50 metres away.
Encounters
Deterrents surface only where their Dispatcher calls them, and military and clearance units use the positions of Deterrent attacks to locate Dispatchers. Ground where Deterrents have surfaced is marked on maps and avoided, in the same way as a minefield. Another Deterrent can surface in place of one that is destroyed, and operations against them are aimed at the Dispatcher that calls them.
Clearance units cross Deterrent ground in vehicles where they can, and on foot in spaced files, with the ground ahead probed or struck with charges to bring Deterrents to the surface before people reach them. Wounds from Deterrents are mostly crush injuries from the Kyphosis and corrosive burns from the Sentry, and the Seizer's grip breaks limbs and ribs. Soldiers resent Deterrent ground more than any organism that can be fought, as they do minefields.
History
Deterrents were first recorded in 2021, around the first Dispatchers identified in West Africa. The Seizer and the Kyphosis were described that year, and the Sentry in 2022. The name was given by H&A's Hyperbiology Division, which classed them in 2022 as a structure of their own, separate from Nexus and field organisms.