Vintull

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*A planet whose equilibrium between hot and cold has been scoured clean by viral blights. The enigmatic Vintullers seek living things to infect.*

## Vintull

Icosahedral Viral World

A Vintuller

## Planetary Data

A frontier planet of the Sekhayan Empire, the most prominent feature of Vintull is when one sees its shape. The planet itself is an icosahedron the size of an average planetary celestial body. It has been found out that an ancient civilization occupied the planet and bulldozed it into its current shape, although the original race us currently unknown. Another oddity is that Vintull orbits a red dwarf, and is tidally locked, which means one side is constantly scorched into a desert with high volcanic activity due to the pull of the star, another is completely covered in kilometer-high glaciers, with a habitable strip of land in the middle.

However, the habitable strip is a barren wasteland covered in muck and sterile soil, stretching across the planet's terminator like a festering wound. No life at all, let it be animal, plant, or even bacteria survive in this world due to a very tiny but numerous reason.

The incredibly varied and mutable virus species currently lying dormant on the surface and below it are thought to have killed any kind of native life residing in this planet. How many viruses managed to evolve is beyond current understanding. These viruses are extremely virulent and unconventional, more similar to machines than natural viruses. They can infect and kill even the toughest beings, with only robots being immune to the viruses. However, nearly all these killers in Vintull are currently dormant due to the lack of living things to infect and reproduce from.

Due to the danger this planet poses, the Sekhayan Empire has set up a quarantine around this planet, with only a select number of ships being allowed to approach the world to maintain a scientific base in orbit, although the actual purpose of the facility is unknown.

### *Inhabitants*

The Vintullers are an odd species, if they can even be classified as living beings. Their only organic organ is their head, and the rest of their body are actually complex mechanisms made out of giant proteins that the head makes while growing, which can vary a lot. They have a blue, chitinous icosahedral head hosting a single slitted green eye; and most of the times with an elongated tube for a trunk that houses unseen appendages, two small legs almost incapable of movement and a pair of wings. They have no internal organs, only a cytoplasm on the heads that can re-purpose at the whims of their DNA, acting like a brain. These aliens are able to survive in many conditions, such as high and low levels of temperature, pressure and radiation.

These beings are able to hijack the cells of any living thing, forcing the unfortunate creature to produce more Vintullers after their DNA has been forcefully injected into their prey by a stinger in their trunk. Fortunately, Vintullers aren't very intelligent, and most can be fooled easily.

These beings, and all the viruses that live with them, are currently contained within Vintull's gravity well. There have been known cases of a band of criminals trying to get a hold on one of these beings, only to die either by disease or by the Vintullers. However, the more ghastly results come when the denizens of Vintull are take off the planet, where they have sterilized entire stations of any life whatsoever, leaving only Vintullers standing. Due to their destructive capabilities, terrorist organizations occasionally try to invade the planet, with (mostly) unsuccessful results. But unknown outbreaks of mysterious diseases and walking viruses are still heard of...

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Vintull has low gravity and high launch power, but garbage blocks tend to stay in that state for longer.