Technological Terror
"Hush now, little one, close your eyes tight,
For the Borrower walks in the thimble-dark night
He creeps where the blankets don't cover you well,
And listens for heartbeats; he knows them by smell.
Tap-tap the window, scratch-scratch the floor,
He chooses a victim, then slips through the door
So cuddle in close where the lamplight still gleams…
The Borrower favors the ones lost in dreams.
Sleep if you must, but keep still in your bed,
He takes most from those who lift up their heads
Be quiet, be calm, 'til the morning is bright…
Or the Borrower finds you before it is light."
-Outer Rim childrens' rhyme, author unknown.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a vaguely horror-themed monster to serve as a plot point or antagonist.
- Image Credit: Link
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Name: Heartthief
- Designation: Semi-sentient
- Origins: Helix Privateering Co laboratories
- Average Lifespan: 350+ years
- Estimated Population: Scattered
- Description: A frightening, centipede-like creature that steals vital organs from its victims.
- Breathes: N/A
- Average Height of Adults: 1.3 meters
- Average Length of Adults: 2.1 meters
- Skin color: Usually bone-white, occasionally gray or pale green,
- Hair color: N/A
- Distinctions: Numerous legs, freezing venom, mimicking capabilities.
- Races: N/A
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Sensitive
- Boogeyman: Hearthieves are consummate hunters. Their freezing pincers, razor-sharp claws, and stealthy agility are superb for capturing and vivisecting lone victims, armed or otherwise.
- Fell Voices: Heartthieves can near-perfectly imitate sounds that they have previously heard, including speech.
- Silent Night: Heartthieves cannot be tracked or sensed by the Force.
- Stick Insect: Hearthieves' bodies are fast and deadly, but not especially durable. Their limbs can be easily shorn by bladed implements or lightsabers, and their bodies shot apart by ranged weaponry.
- Freakish Anatomy: Heartthieves are incapable of wearing armor or utilizing weapons intended for most humanoids, and probably wouldn't use them if they could. Their capabilities are limited to those that occur in them naturally.
- Diet: Carnivore
- Communication: Capable of learning and speaking most languages, but rarely speaks.
- Technology level: N/A
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A
- General behavior: As they are artificially-created life forms, Heartthieves have no culture, language, or broader belief system of their own. When not on the hunt, they can most often be found in cool, dark underground areas.
One of Helix's most nightmarish creations, the Heartthief is in fact also one of the earliest. Despite this, these creatures were (until recently) rarely seen in the galaxy, often dismissed as one of the many dark and fantastic legends that circulate in the galaxy's less-civilized corners. Even so, dwellers in remote communities know better.
Heartthieves go by many names in such places: Skimmers, Nightcrawlers, Moon-Dancers, the list could go on well beyond the scope of this document. Outside the scope of this document, too, is the ranhe of the Heartthieves' reign of terror. There is simply no way to know.
The exact provenance of these hideous life forms is unknown. Some speculate that they originate from nanogene-altered Taozin, a theory granted weight by the creatures' apparent invisibility to Force senses. Others believe that the first Heartthieves were originally humanoid life, taken and transformed radically by the organization they hail from.
The intelligence and sapience of these creatures is also a matter of some debate. Heartthieves can learn to understand most spoken languages. Even so, they rarely speak, and most often do so only to mimic voices and lure their victims. This they do with disturbing skill, and can imitate the vocal profiles of individual life forms after only brief observation.
Likewise, Heartthieves are capable of understanding and operating technology, though they never carry weapons or use armor. They can open doors, pick locks, sabotage security systems, or otherwise solve problems in a reasoning and intelligent manner. Nonetheless, the creatures seem to have no original culture, technology, or language of their own. Despite a roughly humanoid level of intellect, this lack of cultural and technological sophistication leads most towards a tentative designation of semi-sentience.
Many other details of their nature, from how they reproduce to what they eat, are (perhaps fortunately) still a mystery. Given that the creatures are never seen foraging for food, however, it is believed that they somehow draw sustenance from the blood and meat of their victims, and may occasionally eat leftover portions of their prey.
The creatures themselves are roughly man-sized, though their splayed, crawling posture can make them appear much larger in the eyes of their terrified victims. Each is supported by anywhere from twenty to thirty primary legs. These limbs are segmented and chitinous, in a manner regrettably common in arachnoid life forms everywhere.
Each such limb ends in a two-fingered "hand" that also features an opposable thumb. Despite their spindly, almost fragile appearance, these limbs are quite strong, able to propel their owner up walls, along ceilings, and across the ground with dizzying alacrity. These are also a Heartthief's first line of defense, used to restrain dying victims, perform precise vivisections, or inflict slashing injuries.
Below these are located a double-row of shorter secondary limbs. These are typically used to aid the creature in gripping onto sheer surfaces, and contribute towards the Heartthieves' reputation for incredible speed. While smaller than the primary limbs, the first two pairs of these limbs are equipped with heat-draining venom, which can partly or completely nullify thermal energy from whatever they touch. In most humanoid life, a chomp from these bladed mouthparts can drastically lower body temperature, resulting in hypothermia, paralysis, or nerve damage.
This capability is absolutely vital for the Heartthief's primary purpose, which is the collection of intact vital organs from still-living victims. Should it succeed in overpowering its prey in close combat, the Heartthief will usually attempt to dissect the unfortunate alive while they are immobilized by its venom. Many pairs of expert hands snap bones, pluck away flesh, and remove valuable portions intact. Under ideal circumstances, a Heartthief can wrap up a complete removal of preferred organs in under a minute.
The interior of a Heartthief's body is lined with semi-transparent blisters, into which these organs are placed. These blisters possess an exceptionally low ambient temperature, effectively refrigerating their valuable cargo and preventing decay for an extended period of time.
Many of Helix's early ventures were financed through the use of Heartthieves to obtain such valuable biomatter. As such, some planets have been terrorized by these creatures for decades, if not longer.
Yet, as the organization grew in power, Heartthieves somewhat fell out of favor, with simple sword-selling or weapons trading producing far greater financial gains at a more reliable rate.
Until recently, that is. As the vile Dzara attempt to tighten their grip on crime and corruption within the Blackwall, Heartthieves have experienced a sudden and terrifying resurgence. These creatures have been spotted again on worlds the galaxy over, claiming countless victims and scurrying away full of stolen cargo. They may been seen in virtually any Dzara-related enterprise, and serve as excellent spies, scouts, assassins, and of course, simple terror troops. Occasionally, they may also be deployed to abduct persons of interest alive and intact.
Heartthieves will typically attempt to avoid open combat against superior numbers, utilizing their flat bodies and quick movement to escape through routes inaccessible to most soldiers. Nonetheless, these creatures will readily attack lone or injured persons for the purposes of harvesting. Their cryonic pincers and flesh-ripping claws can often allow them to get the better of a lone humanoid, and as their reputation suggests, they rarely stop there...
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