Lucifer-7

The meteoroid that caused the Canterbury Event of 1178 missed the rim of the Moon and hit the Earth. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of that Earth, the incoming piece of rubble was a microscopic, adaptable, collective intelligence that uses hosts to interact with the large-scale world. Within a few decades, the last humans were infected, and a stagnant but perpetual peace fell across the planet. Life continued much as before, absent unnecessary things like art or emotion, as the Canterbury Plague (see below) piggy-backed on the agricultural societies of the world while it contemplated the mathematical and physical mysteries which interested it.
When the Banestorm momentarily connected Lucifer-7 and Homeline, nine farmers from Almohad Spain were dropped into the Sahara. While the Tamanrasset garrison brought them into custody quickly, they missed the strange cargo the peasants brought. Fortunately the small portions of the alien presence in their bodies is not specialized to reproduce, and can only infect one new person a month after an initial burst of growth. It has also been busted down to less-than-human intelligence after being cut off from the bulk of its units. Instead of marshalling its forces so it can eventually grow exponentially, the Plague stupidly sends hosts back out into the desert when an opportunity presents itself, looking to contact home and usually dying. It's also very poor at picking hosts, and has so far only infected people near the bottom of the fort's chain of command. 
Infinity's plan is to eventually send the farmers to Coventry, and in fact that should have happened by now. However, the Plague has managed to co-opt enough people that they can confuse the issue. For now, the collective is still in hiding on the base. However, while it can access the memories of those it rides, its lack of intelligence means that it's not very good at the jobs it has to handle if it wants to be inconspicuous. So far the fort's commander thinks the growing incompetence of his people is just a regular discipline problem, thanks to boredom from being stuck out in the middle of nowhere . . .
== The Canterbury Plague ==
Being infected by the Canterbury Plague is a meta-trait. While on any timeline except Lucifer-7, victims are Hidebound [-5], Incurious [-5], have Low Empathy [-20], Time Sickness (Very Severe, Acute) [-20], and a Slave Mentality [-40], but in return receive Clairsentience (Increased Range ×2, Visible, Only through other Plague-infected -20%) [40] and Dominance (Bite, Only once per month -50%) [10]. The total point cost of this meta-trait is -40 points. 
In the unlikely event anyone ventures to Lucifer-7 while dealing with Tamanrasset, the millions of other Plague-infected remove the Hidebound and Incurious disadvantages and gain the Eidetic Memory and Enhanced Time Sense (1) advantages, turning the meta-trait into an advantage worth of 20 points.
==References==
* "The Ahaggar Banestorm" by Paul Drye (Pyramid 2: 2006, 1116.1.html)
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