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Lias Fish | |
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Biomechanically Augmented Creature | |
Powers | |
Tools |
Teeth
Serrated Fins Rocket Launcher |
Location |
Aqua Magna
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Pronunciation |
lee-uhz
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The Lias Fish is a large plesiosaur-like biomechanical creature found in Endless Ocean on Aqua Magna. Distantly related to the biomechanical sauropods of Bota Magna, these creatures were augmented with mechanical modifications by the Great Beings before the Shattering.
History[]
The Lias Fish was one of millions of organic species native to Spherus Magna when the Great Beings began their experiments. A sample of several dozen specimens were taken to a subaquatic laboratory in the Great Sea run by the Great Being known as Aurelia. Aurelia was obsessed with the fusion of organic and mechanical components, and grafted several mechanical augmentations into the Lias Fishes' DNA before releasing them back into the wild, where they quickly outperformed their organic counterparts, all of which went extinct within three decades of the original experimentation. Aurelia continued to observe the Lias Fish until she eventually joined the effort to create the biomechanical worker drones meant to inhabit the Great Spirit Robot.
Many Lias Fish were killed in the Shattering, but a sustainable population survived on Aqua Magna, where they began to repopulate what would eventually be called the Endless Ocean. They flourished on the new ocean planet, until the Great Spirit Robot crashed into the surface on its way to restore the shattered planet of Spherus Magna. The resulting cataclysm devastated the Lias Fish population once more, bringing them to the edge of extinction. This situation was made even more dire when the presence of the damaged robot began to produce mutagenic properties in the water around it. Mutated Lias Fish were particularly violent and possessed additional abilities that made them especially threatening.
While the Great Spirit Robot was on Aqua Magna, some Lias Fish began to move into estuaries along the coastlines of Mata Nui and Voya Nui, due to those environments providing greater protection for their young. They were driven off Voya Nui before the Cord was shattered to allow it to return to its place in the Southern Continent, and later off Mata Nui when the Toa Nuva awoke the Bohrok to clear away the island so the Great Spirit Robot could leave the planet.
After the Great Spirit Robot left, the Lias Fish population began to recover, and the variant created by the Pit Mutagen slowly started to die out. When Aqua Magna was pulled back to reform Spherus Magna with the other fragments, the protocols the Great Beings had put in place when they created the Great Spirit Robot prevented another near-extinction event. Since the Reformation, the Lias Fish have been thriving in the Great Sea.
Abilities and Traits[]
The average Lias Fish is about eleven feet long and characterized by its small, pointed head; long neck; stubby tail; and broad body lined with three sets of large flippers. Its scales are often small and slimy, closer in texture to a fish than most large reptiles. Lias Fish are below-average swimmers, with their long necks making it difficult to move quickly unless they are kept pointed straight ahead and tails that are too short to be of use.
Since the Great Beings' augmentations, all known Lias Fish have at least one eye replaced with a mechanical eye that grants them thermal vision, propellers on their necks that increase their swimming speed, an articulating rocket launcher on their back similar to Cordak Blaster, and strange ports for connecting to a currently unknown piece of Great Being technology. These modifications have been encoded into the DNA of the Lias Fish, so that all future generations after the original experiments carry the same modifications.
Lias Fish naturally possess a mouth full of needle-like teeth, and the edges of their flippers are serrated and are used to slice along the sides of larger creatures that might attempt to attack them. Their Great Being-given rocket launchers are able to be used both underwater and on land. The projectiles fired from the launcher are explosive and possess enough yield to dissuade most predators, though they are most often used to expose hiding prey. The launcher is capable of creating new rockets over time, if provided with the appropriate raw materials from its surroundings.
Some Lias Fish have a genetic anomaly that grants them mild control over the element of Water. This typically manifests by being able to produce scalding bursts of water from their mouths, though some have been known to be able to make adjustments to the currents around them to make swimming easier and, in one extreme instance, produce a massive wave to capsize a sailing vessel it perceived to be a threat.
Mutated Lias Fish[]
Lias Fish that were exposed to the Pit Mutagen would often develop vicious fangs, hardened scales, and the ability to secrete paralytic poison into the water around them that allowed them to catch substantially larger prey than non-mutated Lias Fish. Along with these new abilities, Mutated Lias Fish developed a much more aggressive and violent mindset.
Behavior[]
Social Behavior[]
A pack animal by nature, the Lias Fish tends to travel in pods made up of eight to twelve immediate family members. These family units are matriarchal, following the lead of the oldest fertile female member of the group, and consist of a handful of breeding partners and their offspring. When young female Lias Fish reach the age of seven, they are typically driven out of of the pod or killed by the current matriarch. These cast offs either form their own pods, or attempt to seize control of another existing pod from a weaker matriarch.
Occasionally, two pods' will be drawn into conflict with one another by overlapping territories. Due to the augmentations made by the Great Beings, these conflicts can be particularly lethal, and if things escalate to a fight both sides will be slaughtered and the survivors will attempt to form a new pod. These amalgamated pods often collapse in time, as residual tensions make it difficult to establish a new sense of order and authority within the pod.
Position within the Food Chain[]
Lias Fish will eat most small fish, squid, and clams. Before their biomechanical augmentations, they typically hunted by lying in wait and snatching prey as it passed them by, or by scavenging clams and other slower prey. After their augmentations, they were able to take a more active approach to hunting, using their rockets to destroy natural barriers that smaller prey might attempt to hide behind and their propellers to more easily catch faster prey without needing to wait for it to come by them.
Two primary predators of the Lias Fish existed: the Giant Squid and the Ancient Sea Behemoth, one of the only creatures large enough to actually consume a whole Lias Fish by itself. After the Lias Fish's augmentations, the Ancient Sea Behemoth tended to leave them alone in favor of easier prey, which Aurelia predicted would have caused the population to balloon to unhealthy levels within a century had the Shattering not devastated the population. Meanwhile, the Giant Squid was able to adapt its hunting methods, using its superior speed to evade the Lias Fish's rockets and get in close enough for the kill.
Some pods of Lias Fish have been seen to follow lone sharks during periods of food scarcity or while travelling between areas where they are best suited to hunting, scavenging what remains after the shark consumes larger prey.
Mutated Lias Fish Behavior[]
Lias Fish altered by Pit Mutagen are particularly aggressive, and will attack almost any creature they come across (especially when hungry). Unlike normal Lias Fish, the mutated variant will attempt to eat anything it kills without regard for size or nutritional value. They have been known to be especially territorial when they come across other Lias Fish, and will viciously attack a normal pod. As such, mutated Lias Fish are solitary, and have never been documented cooperating with other creatures.
It is unknown if Lias Fish affected by Pit Mutagen are capable of reproduction. No mating pairs have ever been discovered, and given the radioactive origins of the Pit Mutagen it is entirely possible the mutated variant is sterile.
Trivia[]
- The Lias Fish is named for the Lias Group, a sequence of rock strata found in Western Europe, and the location of the discovery of the first complete plesiosaur skeleton. In universe, the name is derived from the Matoran word for "neck."