#techno-organic

Techno-Organic Alien Frequent Foe Magus (E-616)

First Appearance: New Mutants #18 (APR 1984)

Attributes / Powers: • Magus was the ruler of Kvch, home world of the Technarchy. • Techno-organic form with a black body covered with gold circuitry. • Techno-organic shapeshifting, conversion, and size alteration. • Superhuman strength. • Energy absorption. • Limited telepathy. • Self sustenance. • Interstellar flight.

Throughout the known universe, there is one threat feared above all others: The Brainiac Swarm. For millennia legends have told of this unstoppable horde of techno-organic monstrosities, of how they would descend upon a planet without warning to abduct wildlife, innocent civilians, or even entire cities.

What would become the Brainiac Swarm began with a single man named Vril Dokks on the planet Colu. The Coluans had long practiced augmenting themselves with cybernetics, but Dokks took this idea to the extreme. The more parts of his body and brain he replaced, the more he began to think himself above other Coluans and their laws. Threatened by Dokkks’ growing power, the ruling class sent their forces against him, but he fought back with the robotic army he had built in secret. After much fighting, it was mutually agreed that Dokks would leave the planet. He uploaded his brain to a massive living starship of his own design, then took off to search the universe for new things to study and new technologies to acquire.

Today, what remains of Vril Dokks’ consciousness is decentralized across its city-sized hive-ships, from which it commands its hordes of drones. The drones come in many different models–attack drones, infiltrator drones, harvest drones–each with their own highly advanced tools and weapons. But all are composed of semi-organic nanites that make them very difficult to harm and very quick to heal. And the hive mind can speak through any one of them should the need arise.

...This accomplishment, a first in the field, has implications for efforts in regenerative medicine, drug delivery systems, and diagnostic tools.

"With this discovery, we can think of engineering fabrics or tissues that can be sensitive to changes in their environment and behave in dynamic ways," says Freeman, whose lab is in the Applied Physical Sciences Department of the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.

...

Without using natural proteins, the Freeman Lab built cells with functional cytoskeletons that can change shape and react to their surroundings. To do this, they used a new programmable peptide-DNA technology that directs peptides, the building blocks of proteins, and repurposed genetic material to work together to form a cytoskeleton.

"DNA does not normally appear in a cytoskeleton," Freeman says. "We reprogrammed sequences of DNA so that it acts as an architectural material, binding the peptides together. Once this programmed material was placed in a droplet of water, the structures took shape."

The ability to program DNA in this way means scientists can create cells to serve specific functions and even fine-tune a cell's response to external stressors. While living cells are more complex than the synthetic ones created by the Freeman Lab, they are also more unpredictable and more susceptible to hostile environments, like severe temperatures.

In Dark Rising (S1 EP3) he reacts to the beeping of the monitor as an irritating and it hurts him badly. The other two were fine and didn't react in any way

And he's so smart, the way he was able to fix the error on the base's systems in episode two so quickly and how he's so good at hacking and all throughout the show

And then he can understand Bumblebee like the others. Like, I hate that we don't have a techno-organic side arc cause this is the latest time the concept was used but not explored either (I don't think any recent show has shown a character to be a possibile techno-organic sadly)

The only show that's shown to give a backstory that could work for Raf is Sari's from Animated; and even though protoforms seem different in Prime from what Animated has, I'd like to believe it could still be the same concept, just without the key. And since the events of Prime happen so quick in around a year, we don't see Raf grow and possibly develop a new ability/show Cybertronian parts

I wish we could see how he and Bumblebee would do interacting with Soundwave. I'm curious what could happen

Edit: Still episode 3. It seems groundbridging had an effect on his bones, making them 'vibrate'. Perhaps the energon/wave energy particles of the groundbridge had an effect on his Cybertronian side?

And something that has remained in my memory: when he got affected by dark energon. In episode three, Starscream reveals his hypothesis of energon particles not mixing well with humans being true, and although my memory of that episode is very blurry, I think Raf fared better with dark energon than one would assume a human ever could. Because Fowler reacted badly to normal energon, dark energon could have kiIIed him quickly. With Raf being half Cybertronian, he was able to survive and only got sick

So... for some reason I got the idea to create an alien species in the Transformers world that also is a mythological creature to Cybertronians?

“Long Runners” as they are called in the myths, are creatures with the top half of a Cybertronian and the bottom half of an organic. They can jump miles with a single bound and can cross mountain ranges in mere seconds. They come out in white when Cybertron is prosperous, and protect those living on the planet. When Cybertron is filled with strife, however, they come out in black and eat the worst Cybertronians in every city. That is the myth.

In truth, Long Runners are a techno-organic species that live on the planet “Tall Tree” and are about the size of an average Cybertronian. They can, in fact, jump miles with a single bound and cross mountain ranges in mere seconds, but that is only in Cybertronian terms. On their planet, they are practically insects compared to the enormous lifeforms and landscape. They developed their speed and jumping ability to protect themselves from predators and traverse the landscape.

The colour changing is a result of their bodies reacting to how much light is hitting them and shifting itself to suit the situation. When it’s light, their bodies are white with blue stripes, then while it’s dark their bodies turn black with orange stripes. This colour change helps keep them camouflaged on their planet. The stripes are invisible to all except their own species and those they reveal them to.

The myths started when a Long Runner vessel crashed landed on Cybertron. While the Long Runners were on the planet, they encountered some Cybertronians being attacked by a hoard of scraplets and carried them far away to safety. That is where the ‘protector’ part comes from. 

A while later in a dark mine, one of the stranded Long Runners encountered some miners who became incredibly frightened of the Long Runner’s sharp teeth and claws. Despite not harming anyone, the ‘eating’ part of the myth was created. Eventually, the Long Runners were rescued and didn’t return to Cybertron.

Cybertronian culture did affect them however, as the species began to get into the habit of wearing armor for protection, and face masks to hide their sharp smiles.