Neumono

A species that appears in AsteroidQuest

Appearance

A generic male and female Neumono.

The neumono are a mammalian, mostly rabbit-like species. They tend to be somewhat stocky, and particularly dense and heavy. Their fur color is typically blue, red or gray with varying degrees of saturation and darkness, although other colors are not uncommon. Their hands and feet are particularly large, with 3 toes, and 3 fingers and a thumb, all of which are particularly stubby, and not well suited for fine motor functions. Their teeth are shark like at the front, but quickly change to molars at the back.

Height

A rough graph of neumono height occurrences.

Neumono height has high ranges. Furthermore, the bell curve is lopsided. While the mode height is 3' 8", the mean is around 4' 4". Females tend to be a few inches taller than males.

Strength

In terms of raw muscle, neumono are stronger than humans. However, most of this strength is simply to offset how heavy and dense they are. In actuality, an average neumono's deadlifting ability is about on par with a human, and they are usually noticeably slower.

Hands

A hand with a simplified finger/thumb skeleton.

Their hands are more nimble than they appear, but fine motor skills are not innate, they must be learned. Even still, a neumono that works with his hands frequently still will have more trouble, varying on what specific tasks are involved, than most of the other species that have survived with extensive use of tools. Comparatively, a neumono that never uses its hands for anything more than basic grips will likely be on par with a human who wears an oven mitt.

Most notably, this is because, aside from the obstructive size of their hands with a limited wrist mobility, their fingers only have 1 joint aside from a knuckle, where humans have a knuckle plus two. This is partially offset by the bendability of their bones, but their evolution has had more need for hand rigidness over mobility.

In the end, a neumono-specific manufacturing line for tools, weapons and so forth is required moreso than most other sapient species. In the case of war, most neumono are still trained using standard, human crafted guns and weapons, for example using the claw of a finger to pull the trigger rather than trying to shove their finger in front of the trigger. It is far clumsier than properly fitted weaponry, but oftentimes the demand for neumono fitted gear outweighs the supply.

Internal Summary

They have a familiar setup of 2 lungs and stomach, the digestive tract of which is thorough. Several small hearts are spread intermittently through their body to pump their blood, which can hold enough oxygen to sustain most neumono's for a few hours without breathing. Instead of a single brain in their head, their brain is integrated throughout their nervous system. The upside is that a critical blow through a skull might not be fatal, but the downside is that a loss of limb or extensive damage to one may make the individual disoriented, slow witted, and other adverse effects. Furthermor, they're capable of complex thought, but with the brain spread out over the whole body, they tend to think significantly slower in general. The brain also emits many of its functions externally, which can be picked up by other neumono. This is elaborated further in the society section. With their anatomy as it is, despite their thorough digestive track, neumono's require a great deal of food comparative to their size.

Society

The biggest impact on society for them, is that their brains emit their thoughts outward, and other neumono are able to sense this from a varying range, depending on the force of thought/personality from the neumono sending, and the other neumono's sensitivity. They're not fully psychic, but they can grasp the general mood from strangers, and in the case of neumono they've been with and have bonded with, can be able to grasp simple thoughts like "going left" or "getting milk from the store."

When several neumono stick together, usually at least 10, they might begin thinking alike. When this happens, a Hive is possibly formed; a collection of neumono who tend to act as a single force. This can be jumpstarted by a queen, or more rarely a king due to females being the dominant gender, who has enough force of personality to act as a binding force. Still, hives can be formed, and continued, without the presence of a single leader. This led to other cultures giving them a dubious namesake "Neumono", a combination of "neurological" and "mono", which stuck over time, even for them.

Hives likely avoid each other, and allegiances between them are rare, even when it's in mutual interest. A hive easily gets in the mindset that other neumono should be like them. While they tend to be open to other species' cultures and personalities, they have a double standard that makes them completely closed off, if not outright hostile, to neumonos that aren't part of their respective hive.

Lastly, a neumono's personality may not meld with their hive, and they end up surrounded by people they dislike. This leads to them breaking off, to which the hive will consider that neumono 'rogue', as with any other neumono that is not part of a hive. While ones who are born outside of a hive can bond and be part of a forming hive as normal, ones that were part of a hive and broke off tend to be closed off to other neumono. There are exceptions, but they don't tend to have a large assortment of friends, as hive-members often do.

Neumono introduction of the Bio Armor

A suit of bio armor was first envisioned by a joint research between humans and belonosians (sheep creatures) approximately 28 years before first neumono contact. This form of psuedo-intelligent armor comprised of nanites on the inner surface area that would mold to fit evenly across ones form, but still was uncomfortable at best. The nanites fuse with the body itself in most areas - the more surface area someone has, the higher effectiveness it grants. The armor was weakest at the orifices, where they were made to be as least intrusive as possible, such that the user may easily perform body functions such as eating without having to take the whole suit off. There is no bio armor around the eyes, either, as that region is simply replaced with a visor, with a thin strip along the rims that is made to seal the visor to the bio armor.

Each nanite held a little bit of biological energy that could give and receive energy between itself and the user. When the user expended energy, the bio armor would give its own - it acted, in ways, like a battery to the musculature and many body functions, as well as an amplifier. Once the body heals itself, it begins healing and recharging the nanite's own lost energy as the last priority, yet still as though the armor was part of the user's own biology.

The benefits were significant when the bio armor worked. Special forces that had bio armor on underneath normal armor were regarded highly. However, the bio armor was expensive, dangerous, and only held moderate benefits considering the huge amount of resources and danger that went into them. Although they were never entirely abandoned by humans, but they were far from being a common sight.

It didn't take long after the discovery of the neumono to realize that their physiology was a far better fit, with the exception of fur. Testing occurred, and bio armor became a staple of high tech neumono warfare which involved smaller, elite teams.

Bio armor User Testing and Percentile Placement Exams (PBAT tests)

Though bio armor was rigid in how intense each suit was and did not go easy on its wearer, the construction itself allowed for a wide range of just how dangerous the suit was. Rough percentages were used for the tier of species it was designed for. A 50% neumono bio armor would only leave the tougher half of the neumono able to wear it safely, but given survival is mixed off of overall body physique, toughness, and mental power, an exact percentage is dubious. Hence, a Neumono that scored 52% on the PBAT (Physical BioArmor Test) would not be assigned to wear a 50% suit by any hive that followed any kind of reasonable safety regulations.

The initial tests itself are lengthy. Weeks would be spent monitoring the neumono's health during an assortment of tests made to test his or her endurance and willpower. This served a purpose not just to make sure that the neumono would survive at least the lower end of bio armor, but also to find the toughest in general - there were only so many bio armor suits with their high expense, and they have their greatest effect on the more physically enabled neumono.

A test of that sort was ill suited to give a percentage, however, so test bio-armors were made. These were the weakest sorts, usually at a mere 10-15% that would only give a noticeable change. Their purpose was to be worn by armor trainees that proved themselves in initial tests. Getting this far involved a hefty amount of training to begin with, so the bio armor for this was considered safe. During this phase, the neumono's health is closely monitored for the duration of the bio armor's fusion with the body. Rates of their hearts were monitored, how well the neumono's received it, how well they could function while the armor was placed on and so forth. From this, it was possible to interpolate an approximation of what percentage bio armor would kill them. Variance was generally +/- 3% as a rough estimate, but to be safe, default safety standards would not give a bio armor to an individual that did not have at least a 10% PBAT score over the bio armor in question.

Bio Armor Benefits

A 30% bio armor was standard, as this had the highest cost to benefit returns. Further up would hold slowly diminishing returns on effectiveness, yet exponentially high cost as the amount of nanites would get closer and closer to each other, yet not interfere with each other's binding.

A 30% armor yields, on average, a +74% weight increase for deadlifts. A neumono can run for 40% longer at a constant speed on a treadmill. Minor cuts and scrapes yielded a 143% increase to healing, while grievous injuries - lost limbs, 3rd degree burns - slowed down to 47% faster. Pain reception was often diminished, but the dangers of this, especially when combined with overcharging the body, often led to limited pain suppression.

Meanwhile, a 90% armor - rarely made for anything more than study and novelty - costed approximately 56 times as much as a 30% to make. Strength would increase by 180%, general endurance by 101%, minor injuries by 470% and grievous injuries to 167%. While these numbers were high, it was considered incredibly risky for even the toughest neumono to wear, and a neumono that could conceivably do it and make the most of the armor was often too valuable to risk, so 70~85% is considered the upper end.

Many of these performance numbers are partially exchangeable. Endurance can be exchanged for strength and vice versa, for example.