HIE-300-CZE (The Bad Idea)

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History > -13.7Gy to -7000 AT: Preterragen Era
Sophonts > Xenosophonts > Muuh
Sophonts > Xenosophonts

Unconfirmed HIE-300-CZE
Image from Aaron Hamilton
Predatory species provolved by the Muuh; hopefully extinct.

The Hamilton Institute of Exopalaeontology has given this species the designation HIE-300-CZE, even though no homeworld and no confirmed remains or artifacts have been discovered. A small number of Muuh artifacts from this era have been preserved; some poorly preserved objects appear to be tactile sculptures of portions of the anatomy of these creatures, but these may be fictional or imaginary in nature.

According to Muuh history/mythology, this was the fifth species provolved by the ancient Muuh, on a Gaian-type planet orbiting a star located (at that time) deep within the Perseus Arm. This event occurred approximately 25 million years ago. The experiment was generally regarded as a failure, as the species was regarded as over-aggressive and too unstable to thrive as an advanced civilisation.

The race destroyed itself a few tens of thousands of years after provolution, apparently using genetically engineered microbes. As the HIE-300-CZE inhabited a warm, Earth-like world, their experience of time was much more rapid than that of the Muuh, and events unfolded much too rapidly for the Muuh to follow in real time. For this reason the Muuh constructed artificially intelligent observer drones, capable of recording events on the HIE-300-CZE homeworld and then replaying them at a suitable rate. The final war occurred too quickly for the Muuh to intervene.

As far as can be determined from the limited evidence available, the HIE-300-CZE were tripedal but otherwise limbless. They possessed a pair of long branching toes on two of their 'feet' that could be used for manipulation. A large frill of photosynthetic surfaces ringed the rear part of the horizontal body, which also contained a circular maw. Height unknown. According to the somewhat unclear Muuh records, they were both partially autotrophic and aggressively predatory.

The Muuh have preserved a number of alternative names for this species, some poetic (the Flower-biter-scratcher-killers) or cynical (the Screw-ups, the Bad Idea) or cautionary (the Avoid-at-all-costs). The label 'Bad Idea' was simply the first name that Terragen investigators encountered, and by convention this is the name in general use.

Some myths preserved by the Muuh suggest that the Bad Idea launched a few interstellar probes before their demise; although these were unmanned, it is possible that some form of genetic material may have been contained within. If the Bad Idea species was as advanced in biotechnological science as some of the stories suggest, it is possible that this species may have arranged for some of their own DNA to be transferred to a distant location, unknown to the Muuh; if so, this might explain some of their later tales concerning aggressive plant-like raiders on the edges of their sparse empire, and maybe even some similar tales told by Terragen explorers on the edge of the Perseus volume.

Unconfirmed HIE-300-CZE