The Ferrus

The Ferrus is a personal project undertaken and later abandoned by Becile worker Hyde.

## Origin and History

The Ferrus was created by becile worker Hyde shortly after Victor's disappearance to dimension Alpha. It was designed to help cyborgs in their missions by giving them extra abilities, such as extension of the limbs and better defense. After seeing success in mechanize lab rats, Hyde sought to try it on a human subject. Rook was originally set to be the first test subject as pressured by the Antiochs, but was deemed unfit and a different volunteer was chosen instead.

Despite seeing success in lab rats, the Ferrus was a terrible failure in its human test subjects. At first, the subjects saw proper synchronization and integration in their circuits, but the test quickly took a downhill turn, eventually spiraling into madness. The subjects had to be killed out of mercy.

After this, Hyde hid the Ferrus away and wished for it to be destroyed.

In The Other Side, the Ferrus was stolen and used by Vincent, who later also integrated with Checkers until they were separated by Keenan, Victor, and Bishop. Vincent then destroyed it.

## Effects

The Ferrus was intended to give cyborgs control over a substance that could take any form they intended it to, such as an extension to a limb or a weapon as part of the body. It stays in a capsule until it is plugged into a cyborg's operations port, through which they would normally receive data. It integrates itself with the host's brain and nervous system, but instead of operating as intended, it causes great searing pain to the host, sending them into madness. Since the Ferrus is not sentient and lacks a goal of its own, it will amplify the main ambitions and intents of the host. However, the host most often defaults into attacking everything around them.

The Ferrus duplicates itself upon coming into contact with cerebral fluid, often leaking out of any seams in a cyborg's plating. It cannot survive outside a host or its capsule, and can integrate with other cyborgs upon contact, sort of fusing them together as seen in The Other Side. The only way the Ferrus can leave its capsule is through overtaking a host or breaking the capsule itself.

It needs a biological brain and spinal cord to function, but cannot integrate itself with fully biological creatures, thus creating an affliction unique to just cyborgs. Tragically, the only way to "cure" a host is to kill them or remove the capsule, though this is rather difficult due to the violent tendencies of its hosts. The Ferrus never kills its host, instead dooming them to suffer until the capsule is removed or the host is killed.

Upon removing the Ferrus capsule, the Ferrus unintegrates itself with the host body or bodies entirely.

## Other Notes

* Cyborgs like Koutali and Finsternis are immune to its effects, as their bodies are supplemented by robotics instead of simply being closer to robots with biological components.
* Even after the Ferrus is removed, the lasting psychological effects on the host are permanent.
* Removal of the Ferrus from the host causes a tonic-clonic seizure and lasting neurological side effects, such as intense migraines.