t. cheat sheet

[lloydology]

DEBRIEF: TARAXA
	STATS PLANET: Rax, Rak's (from Guriyaa raku, 'basin, pond') HABITAT: swampland, equatorial forest SIZE: avg 5.5cm length x 3cm width COLOR: beige or off-white; red ('Mother' designation) DIET: varied carbohydrates, fibrous plant material LANGUAGE: n/a WARNING EXTREME THREAT. All recruits encountering Taraxa or Taraxa hosts should always go in pairs; brain scans should be performed before and after known contact and brain scan results should be submitted to team for peer review. Vulnerable to heat and to death of host. Can be destroyed through salt, fire or decapitation. Possible to communicate through psychic means; recruits are advised not to communicate with 'Mother'-designated Taraxa.
INFORMATION Rax is a medium-sized, water-rich planet orbiting a G-type main sequence star named Kaya. It has a wealth of biomes, an oxygen-rich atmosphere and plentiful fauna and flora. When the Gu'riya'a arrived on the planet, they intended to colonize it. Scout groups made contact with Taraxa colonies, however they were initially dismissed as non-sentient fauna. Guriyaa scouts collected Taraxa foragers as samples; how the first host was made has been lost, but all likelihood points to a containment jar tipping in the night, releasing a Taraxa long enough for it to crawl into a Guriyaa ear canal. By the end of the contact year, all scout troupes on Rax had been infested. Fifty years later, the entire Guriyaa race was effectively enslaved. To take a host (in Taraxa parlance, a hosting Taraxa is said to be 'walking'), the Taraxa crawls in through the ear canal or nose, releasing a powerful relaxant/neurotoxin to calm its victim. Piercing through the inner ear or the soft bone in the nasal canal (in humanoids), they enter the brain cavity and take up residence there, feeding on the host's naturally replenishing blood supplies. They use their natural ability to direct neural impulses to take control of brain functions, effectively 'inhabiting' the host. At this point in the process the host's original personality is wiped away completely, permanently. Typically, the Taraxa stay with one host for the duration of the host's life, though they may change hosts for purposes of self-defense or social status. As the only sentient species on their home planet, the Ta'Rax'a ('pond slugs', so named by their discoverers) formed hive societies around an egg-laying Mother, her harem of breeding males, and an army of genderless workers. Typical colony setting might include deep marshes and jungle pools, as high humidity is necessary for a Taraxa to thrive. These Taraxa communities shared a hivemind with their Mother, though individuals could use their antenna to transfer neural impulses and thereby communicate. After the enslavement of the Guriya'a, the Taraxa were swift to mimic their host's looser social structures, with individuals seeking productive careers in all the fields their hosts were known for, from science to art. Mother Taraxa, still able to coordinate hivemind structures through host bodies, became the nucleus for this new, freer way of living, and on Mother-led ships the Taraxa spread through their home galaxy. Contemporary Taraxa are not necessarily a conquering race, though they are classified as a parasite. After an expansive millennia following their First Contact, the Taraxa began to manufacture new hosts rather than conquer new races, and now most native Taraxa take on Guriyaa, Surei or Labxi bodies. (Note: non-hosted Guriyaa or Surei are no longer known to exist, though independant Labxi society continues. Relations between the Labxi and Taraxa are openly hostile on the Labxi side, though the Taraxa have agreed to cease all production of new Labxi hosts.) ALASTAIR has enjoyed relations with the Taraxa through its long history, mainly as infiltration agents; however following Zymandis' addition of Taraxa to its ranks, all employment of un-bonded Taraxa has ceased, and all new Taraxa agents undergo a strict vetting protocol.