#gasteromycetes

Fallen Star

Nestled amidst leaf litter and decaying stumps on forest floors around the world, the collared earthstar (Geastrum triplex) can be hard to spot—that is, until the mushroom’s bulbous core wheezes a fleeting puff of spores. As a member of a group of fungi called Gasteromycetes, or “stomach fungi,” the collared earthstar begins its life cycle as a hardened bulb of just a few centimeters, anchored underground by a network of tiny fungal threads, called mycelia. In the late summer and early fall, earthstars reach maturity and “bloom” into their characteristic, flower-like shape as the thicker outer tissue (the exoperidium) splits into an array of some four to eight points, much like a rind falling off an orange. Once fully mature, the average earthstar resembles a drab clementine perched atop a star-shaped saucer.

1. Clostridio tetani - sanaerobic pathogena

2. Euniceral strains

are found on countless varieties of substrate and requires acid fermentation in harsh conditions. to produce acid for its offspring

3. Once the spore has reached fertility, toxins are injected into the hosts bloodstream or lymphatic system.

If spore bacteria enters the hosts circulatory system Clostridio tetani will cause a violent reaction.

4. Clostridio tetani - sanerobic pathogena

Clostridio is a cone shaped sanerobic species of pathogena of genus Elostridium

Fig. V.

During infancy the organism will not survive the presence of Eunicium, it is sensitive to heat and exhibits minor mobility.

Fig. L.

Once spore has reached fertility, toxins are injected into the hosts bloodstream of lymphatic system.

Fig.M.

If spore bacteria enters the hosts circulatory system Clostridio tetani will cause a violent reaction.

5. Euniceral Dane Eforedium

A. Euniceral

B. Lactate succinate

C. Chemoheterotroph

This bacterium is cultured with relative ease in most settings

Growth factors depend on Marsh negative culture quality

Euniceral is a facultatively Penile-shaped bacteria of the sub-genus Wershipsaytan that is often found in the gut lining of endotherms.

Until maturity Euniceral strains are  harmless but once sexual maturity occurs it will poison the its hosts.

Euniceral strains

are found on countless varieties of substrate and requires acid fermentation in harsh conditions. to produce lactate acid for its offspring.

6. Puffball

7. Puffball

8. Puffball

In David’s documentation of this particular species, drawing conclusions from the factual information regarding Clostridium tetani and puff balls; I am assuming the puff balls on Planet 4 caused similar reactions to their host.

Painful muscular spasms that can lead to respiratory failure and, in up to 10% of cases, death.

Once the spore has reached fertility, toxins are injected into the hosts bloodstream or lymphatic system.

If spore bacteria enters the hosts circulatory system Clostridio tetani will cause a violent reaction.

Given the puff ball can cause a violent reaction, and there was no statement of ‘death’ or ‘forcible alien incubation’ then I can only assume that this species was unaffected from the pathogen drop on the city. 

The Engineers had been living on the planet, demonstrating the puffballs were ‘safe’ enough to live around and not cause as much damage as they did until David tampered with them.

This experimentation shows that he was looking for an effective way to infect hosts, puff balls are triggered by touch. The ovomorph is a more effective way to impregnate the host because it takes a longer period of gestation, this gives the xenomorph a better survival instinct compared to it’s neomorph predecessor. 

The neomorph is violent and more animalistic, more vulnerable because it doesn’t have the patience to stalk it’s prey till it has fully matured. It’s pale outer skin can be susceptible to bullets so it is not an effective killer.

This information tells me David had experimented this on ‘someone’ or ‘something’ or simply observed. In the clip ‘The Crossing’ you can see many engineers ran for the cathedral, shielding them for the pathogen dropped on the city. How else was he able to vivisect the engineer or have any live biological  items to experiment on? His other drawings show male and female engineers, most in drawn in medical illustration. Showing their morphology and biological structure.

One particular picture shows a female engineer who’s chest cavity had been cut open to access what I could only assume to be a chestburster.

That means she would have to be alive for the alien to incubate it.

Given Elizabeth’s body was dissected in the same way, I believe David had either experimented on her living body or had tried to keep her alive by repeatedly removing the alien from her body before it could burst out from her, killing her.

In his research for the cobra lily he writes

The Cobra Lily grows mainly in the out world, a subservient counterpart of Shoa Khania (the wrath oak) It’s seeds can be ground into a superb opiate It’s curls are vast, it’s reach firm and simply stunning.

He would have had to travel out of the city to find specimens and had experimented it to find out its effectiveness. Given his dislike of the engineers I doubt he would have made the opiate for them to lessen their pain when being experimented on.

I can only assume he had made it for Elizabeth, given she may have been intentionally/unintentionally infected by the spores. Either before they had been tampered with, David discovers it causes a violent reaction and she did not die. But wanting to prevent her from feeling pain or looking for a cure he had stumbled onto the Cobra Lily.

Since the pathogen only reacts to Engineer and Human DNA to give a successful outcome, and given the amount of blood bursters on the table in the lab. Elizabeth must had played host multiple times, and suffered greatly.

His human traits have started to overcome the synthetic ones, he’s afraid of things leaving him, so he incubates them. David doesn’t want things he loves to leave him, so he kills them and keeps them in caskets or preserved one way or the other. David killed Shaw, essentially, to prevent her from leaving him. - Alien: Covenant Official Book

So Elizabeth must have been alive, unaffected by the pathogen. She had living quarters and David’s research had shown he was also investigating what food was edible on the planet apart from the wheat which the ground crew of the USCSS Covenant found.

In the movie we can see he had experimented on her while she was alive in order to extend her life.

I kept her alive for quite a while. I like to think that was another testament to my creativity, although she might have disagreed. She was my most beautiful subject.- David, Alien: Covenant Novelisation

I washed this world clean as a gift to her, we could have built anew. A second Eden. But she refused. What choice did I have? She was the perfect specimen. I tried so desperately to make her more than human. Evolved. But without her cooperation, I had to salvage her parts to begin work on my masterpiece. - Transmission D964ZB to Weyland-Yutani

Clostridium tetani is a rod-shaped, anaerobic species of pathogenic bacteria, of the genus Clostridium. Like other Clostridium genus species, it is Gram-positive, and its appearance on a gram stain resembles tennis rackets or drumsticks. C. tetani is found as spores in soil or in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. C. tetani produces a potent biological toxin, tetanospasmin, and is the causative agent of tetanus, a disease characterized by painful muscular spasms that can lead to respiratory failure and, in up to 10% of cases, death.

This micrograph depicts a group of Clostridium tetani bacteria, responsible for causing tetanus in humans. Tetanus is an acute, often fatal, disease caused by an exotoxin produced by C. tetani. It is characterized by generalized rigidity and convulsive spasms of skeletal muscles, usually involving the jaw (lockjaw) and neck, then becoming generalized. 

Puffball fungi from Eaglenest Arunachal

A puffball is a member of any of several groups of fungi in the division Basidiomycota. The distinguishing feature of all puffballs is that they do not have an open cap with spore-bearing gills. Instead, spores are produced internally, in a spheroidal fruitbody called a gasterothecium (gasteroid (‘stomach-like’) basidiocarp). The fungi are called puffballs because clouds of brown dust-like spores are emitted when the mature fruitbody bursts, or in response to impacts such as those of falling raindrops. 

Lycoperdon pyriforme 

Puffballs were traditionally used in Tibet for making ink by burning them, grinding the ash, then putting them in water and adding glue liquid and “a nye shing ma decoction”, which, when pressed for a long time, made a black dark substance that was used as ink. 

If you didn’t spot it, one of the writings says ‘ Wershipsaytan ‘

Advent Table of Contents | Analysis of Alien: Covenant Table of Contents