In short, Virus: The Plausible Vector Version. :)

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 3:59 PM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 6:34 PM, Craig Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
Which in the limit gets you Sabmiqys. (And I'm astonished I both remembered that name, and spelled it correctly on the first try.)

Waaaaaay beyond what I meant. The AKVs are run by primitive dog-brain AIs, because if they were designed to be smarter they might rebel and refuse to risk themselves in combat (early models attacked by ramming). Of course, this doesn't mean that a few of AKVs couldn't have evolved a higher IQ, making *that* (rather than a broken radio or a bad line of code) is why they're still "alive" out there.

Adventure Seed: The PCs encounter an AKV whose attack first disables their ship's manuever drive and then - in an apparent last-ditch attempt to destroy them - collides with their vessel . . . but at a slow-enough speed that both remain largely intact. Naturally, the crew's first priority is to ensure their own survival, so it's a little while before they get around to investigating the embedded AKV. When they do, they find that it's AI brain appears to be dead. They may or may not (depending on their skill rolls) also discover that some of its control leads are intimately entangled with those of their own vessel. In fact, the different sets of leads almost appear to have been deliberately connected. Then their ship's computer starts acting strangely . . . as the AI tries to hide it's presence inside the CPU but keeps accidentally causing problems since it's not a perfect fit.

--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester
"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.
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Craig Berry (http://google.com/+CraigBerry)
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time." - William Blake