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Protocyte

Reclaimer Protocite reclaimers form one such unique model line. These scorpion-like constructs serve as the backbone of their home’s ceaseless creativity. AI can conceive of endless possibilities for creatures and contraptions, and the surrounding star provides the energy for its experiments. The material resource required for this is polyfluid, a UPB-like liquid that can form any number of molecule chains, allowing the creation of any substance. Reclaimers provide a vital service as mobile recycling centers, capable of scaling any structure and gradually devouring it. They turn what they consume back into polyfluid via a complex internal system of enzymatic machinery and filters. Reclaimers then use their extruders to deposit the polyfluid in receptacles so the material can be reused. Most of the time, reclaimers keep busy recycling materials from completed experiments. However, they also serve as a frontline immune system, attacking and recycling protocites that operate outside acceptable parameters. With recent incursions into Noma, reclaimers have adapted to recognize and process hostile visitors.

Speaker A protocite speaker has humanoid features. Despite this appearance, its upper body, limbs, and head are reconfigurable. The construct can recreate a wide variety of physical features and mannerisms. Most speakers exist in a state of quiet determination, moving to and fro in an approximation of a sapient creature’s daily life. Speakers also interact with one another, and sometimes with other protocites, as a way of testing and evaluating various social simulations. Usually, after a speaker performs its assigned tasks, it powers down. A reclaimer then comes and grinds the speaker back into polyfluid. However, in every generation of speakers, several individuals are constructed with expanded data drives, insatiable curiosity, and no predetermined tasks to allow more autonomy than most. These “observer” speakers roam, watch, and guide other experiments. When they have reached the end of their life cycle, typically after several decades, such speakers seek Noma’s Core. Within this ancient nexus, these speakers are torn limb from limb, relinquishing data drives full of their accumulated experiences.