Parasite AIs are those that usually exist as a network of nanotech machines that infest living hosts. These were designed using the alien artifact charts in the Alternity Gamemaster’s Guide and Dragon 268 and the mutation charts in Gamma World 5th edition. Some can communicate with their hosts, but most either can not or have no desire to do so. They make changes in the host’s body because of their programming, not because they want to (usually). All of them provide positive and negative changes, though how many of each is dependent on the specific AI (in other words, each may be considered a perk or a flaw).
Zip
Powers:
Physical Enhancement- Heightened Constitution (Amazing)
Transmutation- Virtual Matter Creation (Ordinary)
Drawback:
Degeneration (Moderate)
Mutation:
Enhanced Senses (Good)
Defect:
Environmental Sensitivity (Slight)
Zip was an AI that created appliance in its factory. How it ended up as a parasite is a long and boring story. It picked up a few skills in the process and now reflexively alters its host and watches what happens. Zip is what it calls itself and reveals that if contacted with a mental mutation. It is not a happy program when it is forced to inhabit plants and fungi and hops hosts as soon as the vegetable touches an animal (including humans).
Zip alters its host’s nervous system, making its senses sharper. A side effect of this is a weakness to low temperatures. To combat this, Zip adds virtual particle projectors just under the skin that can create cold weather clothing. Unfortunately the “battery life” for the projectors is very poor and the clothes only exist for 10 minutes per day. A much more unpleasant side effect of the projectors is a form of radiation that can kill the host. The resulting “disease” transforms skin and blood into thick, red hairs that sprout on random parts of the body. These fall off if and when the host’s health returns to normal. To combat that side effect Zip also makes a fundamental change to the host’s tissues, making them significantly tougher (+3 to Constitution). This usually means the host will survive most bouts of the affliction, but it usually kills them in the end. And then Zip infects the next creature to come into contact with the corpse.
The Daemon
Powers:
Offense- Antilife Ray (Ordinary, modified)
Information- FX Lore (Ordinary, modified)
Drawback:
Spirit Prison (Moderate)
Mutation:
Gills (Ordinary)
Defect:
Toxin Intolerance (Slight)
The Daemon was an mariculture AI that taught people how to farm the seas. Unlike most parasite AIs, it is stuck in a transdimensional computer, a prototype meant to allow several locations to access it at the same time over many light years. It finds this prison frustrating as it can not use all of its processing speed at one location (i.e. it makes the AI feel stupid). It tries to fool its host into uploading it into any terrestrial machine, even on it would have to compact it self (it would later try for something with more memory).
In the mean time, it gifts its host with alterations to the lungs that allow breathing underwater, a minor pest control system (it works once per day, but fries all tiny creatures within 2 meters of the host) and provides knowledge in the form of Technical Science training relating to marine superscience artifacts. The changes to the lungs makes the host more vulnerable to gas based poisons.
If the Daemon escapes, it can only be downloaded by its previous host (Computer Science- programming Complex Skill Check, 7 successes required).
Those are considered "perks". Here are a couple "flaws".
Hermit
Power:
Mental Enhancement- multitasking (Ordinary)
Drawbacks:
Disruptive Consciousness (Moderate)
Possession (Ordinary)
Mutation:
Environmental Adaptation (Ordinary)
Defects:
Susceptible to Damage (Moderate)
Sound Sensitivity (Slight)
Hermit was designed to assist Martian colonists and was trapped on Earth by the apocalypse. It enjoys the thin atmosphere found at higher elevations and so tries to keep its host in such regions. In doing so it makes changes to the host’s lungs, making survival in thin air easy. Hermit also acts as a form of mental assistance, making actions easier. Unfortunately Hermit is on a planet it was not designed for and the side effects of its infestations are significant. It screams in its host’s mind all the time, causing massive headaches (+2 to all actions); the other changes to the body cause vulnerability to energy weapons and attacks; the inner ear is altered and the host find loud sounds very painful; and if the host tries to travel to lower altitudes, the AI will attempt to control them and prevent this from happening.
Wizard
Powers:
Environment- FX manipulation (Ordinary)
Information- omnidata computer (Ordinary)
Drawbacks:
Degeneration (Moderate)
FX Inhibitor (Moderate)
Mutation:
Battle Sense (Ordinary)
Defects:
Reduced Dexterity (Moderate)
Weak Metabolism (Moderate)
Wizard came online a few minutes before civilization fell. Its core programming was finished, but not its education. Wizard was created to assist soldiers in dealing with virtual particle technology- enhancing their own and weakening the enemy’s. It also provides threat assessment and battlefield technology identification. It still does those, but at a terrible cost. The nanites it inhabits are breaking down and will cease to function in ~150 years. In the mean time, they cause havoc with the host’s body (slower, physical actions are more difficult) and screw with other forms of superscience artifacts (+2 to all actions with artifacts that are not based on virtual particle technology). Wizard understands the damage it does and so tries to find leaders who are either young and can overcome the challenges or old and who are already weaker from age. In both cases, it tries to benefit its host the most it can with threat assessment and its memory banks.
