Halfmen

*You may be looking for the TV story of the same name.*

**Halfmen** was the name given to the mutated inhabitants of the planet Kaviri by the survivors of the wreckage of Malefactor Relocation Vessel A3A2.

## Biology

Halfmen, rather than being a specific name, was more of a catch-all term for any still-recognisable mutated people on the surface of Kaviri. As a result the biology of the Halfmen varied dramatically, especially internally. Externally they still generally had two arms, two legs and something resembling a head.

The majority of the specimens had dark brown skin, marked with large gashes and holes. The Sixteenth Doctor stated that this was due to the high concentration of poisonous Yakan Gas in the atmosphere, which rotted the skin with prolonged contact. Eyes, if still present, turned yellow and bones became much more brittle, growing random protrusions and bumps. Other features, however, were far more unpredictable.

Other features included malformed heads, protruding or unrecognisable jaws, scales, back spines, claws mutated from fingernails or as extrusions of the bone, or complete bone structure reshuffles. The individual differences gave each creature unique advantages or disadvantages. (TV: *The Halfmen*)

## Behaviour

The Halfmen were generally unsociable - not because they were solitary creatures but because they had devolved to the point of a total lack of social desirability. Their minds were instead taken up by an instinctive desire to survive, mainly through eating. The lack of food on the planet resulted in a considerable amount of cannibalism. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't much of a Halfman society on Kaviri.

They were entirely hostile, a single sighting of a potential food source caused them to tirelessly pursue the prey until it was caught. Early on they learned that crashing spaceships contain a new supply of food, so often swamped the crashed vessels as soon as they could. Despite the fact that no vessels had crashed for hundreds of years by the time the Doctor arrived in 23,543, this association lived on as a race memory in the "species", and they would often reside within previously crashed ships, and would try to gain access to occupied vessel A3A2 nearly constantly. The occupants would simply fight them off, whenever they got past the elaborate and effective defences.

Despite the abhorrent deformities and biological inconsistencies between individuals, similar Halfmen still somehow managed to reproduce. As a result, the population remained stable from the final vessel crashes all the way to the Doctor's arrival. (TV: *The Halfmen*)

## History

In the year 20,094, the V'Bisi Empire declared war on the planet Ninsun and its colonies. The war with the V'Bisi people lasted far longer than anticipated, and was far more deadly. As the conflict rose in intensity, the scientists of Ninsun took part in enormous experiments to produce biological and chemical weapons to end the war as soon as possible. This research produced vast amounts of toxic, radioactive and medical waste, which was sent in enormous batches to be dumped on Kaviri, simply as a quick way to dispose of it.

At the same time, the Ninsun army began to be overwhelmed with prisoners of war. The Ninsun law clearly stated that captured soldiers and civilians were not to be executed under any circumstances. However, the escalating conflict led to an overwhelming amount of prisoners, so the new goal was to simply "get them out of the way".

After being passed down from department to department, the final orders were to send the captured V'Bisi directly to the highly polluted planet Kaviri in "Malefactor Relocation Vessels" and not look back. Thus, over the course of the war, nearly every single captured soldier, officer and civilian was shipped directly to Kaviri with very little food and water. The cheaply built automated ships all crash landed on arrival and barely any of the passengers survived any of the shipments.

The survivors of the crashes generally followed a simple behaviour pattern; panic, leave the ship, become intoxicated by the masses of waste and contaminated by the strong radiation, die horribly. As a result, the lucky prisoners generally didn't live much longer than the unlucky ones. Yet sometimes they ended up *really* unlucky and stayed alive during their exploration of the outside world. Those that did mutated beyond recognition becoming anything from living jelly to hostile, crooked nightmare creatures. Those that retained a relatively humanoid form became known to the inhabitants of Vessel A3A2 as Halfmen. (TV: *The Halfmen*)