The Kamakiri were first encountered by the YSS Aeon in YE 31.

Kamakiri are artifical silicon lifeforms created by a long dead race. They are endothermic drawing their energy from heat sources, and solar radiation. They are a hive species, and while they are intelligent they are not truly sentient. They come in two varients: Regents, Drones.

The Kamakiri were originally created to build and maintain the infrastructure, buildings, cities of their creators. Their primary directives are very simple, protect and maintain the structures of the makers. When their creators needed a new structure they would send a command to the Regent in that area. In the instance of needing a new city, they would take a Regent to the site and provide it with materials, instructions of what to build. The creators died in a cataclysmic war with creatures from another world; eons ago that blasted their world out of its orbit. The Kamakiri went dormant when the temperature dropped below their level to operate. When the planet was captured by the star in UX-27 System and the temperature rose, the Kamakiri revived. The Regents remember the war, and will direct the drones to protect their homes from anything that threatens them. Kamakiri can not build sophisticated devices, as this is not part of their programming.

At temperatures of 35ºc or higher the Kamakiri can remain constantly active. At temperatures 10-25ºc the Kamakiri experience periods of dormancy to recharge by absorbing solar radiation. At temperatures below 5ºc the Kamakiri go dormant. Temperature upper limit is around 100ºc at this level Kamakiri internal processes begin to malfunction.

This is the Kamakiri primary sense. Their echo location is refined to the point where they see with sound, and can make out fine details.

This is the Secondary visual sense used by the Kamakiri. With this the can see temperatures of things around them. They also use this to identify structural defects by the difference in temperatures, and for identifying heat sources.

Kamakiri can see in the normal light spectrum, this is used rarely. Usually when performing cosmetic detail work.

Kamakiri hearing is geared towards the upper half of the normal audio spectrum.

Kamakiri communicate to those in the immediate vicinity using short compressed audio data pulses. Which to normal people sounds like chirps.

Kamakiri communicate over longer distances using compressed radio pulses. This is used to communicate over broad areas, or to large numbers. This is how the Regent communicates with drones across the lattice.

Regents have two purposes. First they produce other Kamakiri regents and drones from raw silicate materials. A Regent can produce ten drones an hour provided sufficient raw materials exist. Second they guide the drones activities.

Basically a large hexagonal object. Two sides have protrusions where manufactured drones emerge. Regents are incapable of moving independently. If they need to be relocated, they direct drones to move them. The head of the Regent is located centrally on the top but can swivel 360º.

Drone Kamakiri are the workers, they gather material for building, build structures as directed by the Regents, repair damage to strutures, and defend the structures and Regents.

Drones stand 1.4m tall and 2.2m long. They are hexapodal, the two forward limbs possess sharp blade like protrusions. These are normally used when shaping the liquid silicate but they can be formidable weapons. Their exoskeletal and possess a strong silicate carapace. They resemble praying mantis which is why the Aeon crew named them Kamakiri. Drones are strong, fast and capable of leaping up to five times their height.

See Damage rating for an explanation of the damage system. Forward limb blades: 2 Armor scale Carapace: 5 SP

Drones consume raw silicate material and liquify it. They then extrude the silicate in different forms depending on the needed form for the task at hand.

The lattices resemble large three dimensional snowflakes. The ones on Rogue are approximately 10km across. They are identical in layout to each other. They are basic “towns” that would have been lived in by their creators. A standard lattice has around 5000 drones in storage under it, and several hundred that tend to the lattice on a daily basis.

The Kamakiri lattice on Takara is the result of a regent that fell to the planet on a chuck of Rogue when the planet entered UX-27. The lattice is only 5km across.