Sometimes known as a ‘Phalanx Seraph’

As part of the Elysian revitalization of its war machine, it was thought necessary to refresh what could be considered Elysia’s most dangerous weapon – the Seraph biological weapon. The S19 works on a rather different model than previous designs, focusing on not creating largely solitary killing machines as with earlier models while following a different line of development from the S17 hive-mind weapon. Instead, the new Seraph is designed to work in a unit or ‘Phalanx’.

The S19 is the most human of the models so far, standing six foot tall and looking effectively human – appearing as a completely white and hairless male - albeit with a considerably ‘alien’ look with somewhat bulbous eyes and an unusually large mouth. Its body contains few organs and a decentralized nervous system with most of its bulk taken up by muscles, a strong skeleton, and its flesh. It flesh is damage resistant, designed more to protect against energy attacks rather than kinetic with great resistance to even rapid energy changes such as those produced by energy weapons. It is especially designed for increased regeneration capacity compared to earlier models, capable of regenerating large portions of body such as limbs or even the head (thanks to the decentralised nervous system) within minutes of injury.

Related to this is its ability to ‘bud’ additional Seraphs, normally out of their back, in order to keep the number in their Phalanx as constant – if one is destroyed another is ‘budded’ to take its place. This budding takes around half an hour, and requires the skin of the back to be unobstructed. The memories and skills of the ‘parent’ are passed on to the ‘child’.

A S19's skin is also capable of changing color, a limited chameleon affect – not enough to create invisibility but enough to greatly aid covert operations.

Compared to earlier models, it is physically weaker, capable of lifting only around two tonnes, but compensates by being faster – capable of achieving intense bursts of speed and seemingly impossible examples of reaction times and reflexes. While they are actually designed in order to use weapons and indeed armour, these Seraphs also have natural weapons – they have claws which contain a powerful acid secretion, and a highly powerful bite with its saliva operating again as a powerful acid. It also has considerable senses: beyond eagle-like and infrared-range eyesight, a hearing ability far above human, and an advanced olfactory sense, capable of being used to track individuals. This model also has a natural form of radar and radio-communication. Lastly, the S19 can enter into a form of hibernation where its metabolism is vastly reduced allowing for long term storage.

The mentality of the S19 is designed to deserve as an effective fighter within a Phalanx. As such, while possessing a full ‘solo’ mentality, it can use its telepathy to activate a ‘hive-mentality’ in which all the individuals of the Phalanx are linked and thus capable of perfectly co-ordinating their actions, creating a completely fiendish military team. The S19, however, can operate independently of the Phalanx if needed and its intellect is roughly equal to that a human, but lacks emotion. It's mind allows for has superior reaction time and tactical ability, with video-spatial ability far more advanced than that of humans. In addition to this, S19s have a huge amount of data pre-loaded regarding tactics, weapons, fighting styles, as well as information on possible enemies, their weaknesses, and effective tactics that can be used against them. Specialist knowledge can be downloaded before a mission using ST technology. Beyond the hive-mind use, the S19 is capable of telepathic communication at a distance of 18km, but does not use its telepathy offensively. Instead, it was created having considerable telepathic defense.

The Phalanx is a unit whose numbers in term of members actually varies – it can be either 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 or 200. Larger units are possible, but not so far developed. S19’s can also be used solo or in pairs, but they will not be at their most efficient. The 'hive mind' of the Phalanx extends for fifty meters between individuals, but allows the use of other member of the Phalanx as a relay system. These units can be used for many purposes, from crewing a ship to infantry, from covert operations to a strike force. Their ‘training’ and equipment is altered to make them effective at their tasks. The S19 can use any equipment an Elysian can – indeed when inside Infantry armour it is impossible to tell a Seraph from an Elysian, however it is adept at using the weapons of the infantry and can even operate power armour and pilot vessels.

Zakalwe created this article on 2007/02/26 14:14; Wes approved it on 2007/02/28 13:59.