%$^£

The %$^£ are one of the antagonists and Minor Aliens in The Long Journey Home.

Description
Whatever they once were, the Dragons of Entropy and designated servants of Nush, the god of famine, now control basic android shells covered in a poor excuse of actual organic material. Those are needed to steer their mutating and organic ships they acquired after their imprisonment via an unknown source. There is reason to believe the ships are composed or covered in Substance 1994, the Sleaze, that freed the dragons. There is no need for a speech module and their main articulation is a gibberish of high pitched screams the TRANSCOM can't decipher on its own. All their bodies appear to use insectoid designs with one eye fully mechanized and the other being dead. These organic headplates seem to be trophies from dead Raxact that dared to challenge them in the darkness of the galaxy, similar to the tribute of shame to the crew of the Daedalus-7. With the mighty Horde reproducing quickly and raiding everywhere, this doesn't seem unlikely. This might also be the reason the Horde doesn't like to talk "about that". They don't deny their existence like others do.

Ships of the %$^£ appear later during the game and will attack the crew by default. They are most often found in uninhabited star systems with high radiation or far from civilized systems. When hailed they are willing to answer the Daedalus-7 crew but one question and show their terrible disfigured bodies before going on the offensive under the trumpet of their chilling screams.

It is unknown how many stars and worlds this dark armada has seen perish or hastened the perish of, but as it foretold its new rise upon the perish of a thousand and twenty races, it is likely there were another thousand that didn't make it.

At some point before their imprisonment the dark armada of star devourers visited the Cueddhaest homesector to feast upon its stars and the Cueddhaest still retain their fear over this deed, actually revering them as unkillable gods. Their coming hailed the formation of the Cerulean Dawn to go on the Crusade that would soon threaten the Maylaa empire during the great galactic migration. They wanted to find a way to leave this terror behind and reach the Nextplane.

Yet, their unstoppable advance and their constant consumption of stars came to a rapid halt during their fateful encounter with a fearless race willing to fight them to the death, the Tchansu. It was the Tchansu that denied them their freedom for the first time and who sowed the seed of their eternal fear in the Totem of Famine. For the mighty empire of the Tchansu, the army of their god Nush was just another test for their people and they fought them and ultimately bound their essence in a prison similar to the keystones for the Ceruleans. It is unknown if the Tchansu faced the same insectoid androids of today or if these so-called Dragons of Entropy appeared as dark energy, similar to the Ceruleans. It would seem unlikely that the Tchansu wouldn't have destroyed them if their existence was solely digital or organic and the current shell might have been chosen to intimidate the Raxact, an enemy they constantly face in the darkness today. It is just a puppet.

Aside of the Raxact, many other dialogs refer to these mysterious aliens, but outside of minor hiveminds among the Logos and the Cueddhaest, no one takes their existence serious. The Logos call them "Hunger" based on clues in their investigation. Those clues, however, are guided by circumstancial evidence and are thus prone to error. The actual source of the Hunger in the Gamma Quadrant is Substance 1994, which the Dragons of Entropy now help to spread in return for their liberation from the Totems of Famine.

It is the Tchansu ruins that first refered to them as "Dragons of Famine", but not as an embodiment of their god. It is an ancient army in service of their god Nush who they defeated and banished into their totems. The prophecies of the Cueddhaest also tell about the Tchansu totems, and that once you find a broken one, the related dragon is free and that the dragon wants to eat the universe. What the Cueddhaest don't know is that most if not all of the dragons are already free and the armada is back on the offensive. This is revealed in the Logos quest The Stars in our Sky. During the signal transfer, the initial text has the same gibberish as the Dragons of Entropy themselves, hinting that whoever helped to build their machine bodies and ships or they themselves are the source of the signal. The Daedalus-7 isn't able to find one intact Totem of Famine. The dark armada has already released all of them with the help of the Sleaze which still remains on several former prison worlds.

The description of 'dragon' has its origin solely with the Tchansu and isn't mentioned outside of the written Cueddhaest sermons before that. However, this might have evolved later to refer to any kind of 'god' for the Cueddhaest who had no need for speech during their first encounter with the ancient evil. The current iteration of their prophecy was written down far later. Even though the newly risen armada also calls itself the Hunger and the Dragon of Famine, it is doubtful it always used this denomination. It simply adapted the Tchansu's way to refer to itself in general communication and the also adapted the term of its new allies, Substance 1994, to bathe in the fear those titles carry.

The Wolphax rumor, that the Lost King went through a gate to defeat the dragons of entropy and also that more and more travelers report a feeling of hunger in the dark sectors of space. Similar the Cerulean Dawn mentions the term WITHERED DAWN when asked about themselves, but this might simply refer to their unworthy cousins, the Cueddhaest. The Crusade knows about the Entropy and the Tchansu, but might not care. They can't hurt each other.

Interaction
%$^£ always attack immediately, but can be hailed to start a conversation.

Language
The language of the %$^£ appears to be incomprehensible gibberish, but in fact it is encrypted with a simple substitution cipher. By substituting the letters with a mixed alphabet, the content can be decrypted and turned into readable plain text. Sometimes the TRANSCOM is not as clever as you might hope!

Talk
Greeting: Ask (Self): Ask (Gossip): Everything else:
 * We are Famine. Hunger! Your fear draws us! No flesh can satiate us!
 * And the dragon whose name is famine was cast out of the heavens. It roamed on the backs of a thousand final breaths, drinking from the stars until they turned cold. Yet this was not enough to satiate its thirst and hunger.
 * The oil that consumes was Famine's harbinger and salvation. Its hunger consumed the totems that kept the last of the great dragons bound. Screaming, it was freed. Screaming, it feasts. Screaming, it devours.
 * Where the dragon that is famine flies, the night goes cold. where the dragon that is famine feasts, no more shall grow. where the dragon that is famine leaves, none shall enter.

Show
Totem of Famine - The totem is removed and the %$^£ flee in terror, but mock the humans. It unlocks the "DRAGONSLAYER" achievement.
 * "The totem that binds, the totem that starves. This hunger can wait! When you are dust, this hunger returns!"

Combat
The %$^£ (or Dark Energy / Entropy / Army of Famine) will begin to hunt you down after your second meeting with the Cerulean Dawn, around sector 4/5. Before that a quick expedition might meet them early on in a high radiation sector. The Famine does prefer high energy systems as it seeks to consume all energy, but it also appears in standard systems. The only limiting factor to their appearance is the distance to civilization. The further a system is in the boondocks, the more likely they appear. For a race claiming to come and eat all life, that is a weak response.

Expect them to attack you every time they see you in a system once you are marked by them. There is also a chance to trigger another battle in the next system by a ship that "followed you" even if you killed the other. This is done by the game in a quest event to offer you a ship with a near 100% chance to drop a Broken Totem and to banish them with Siobhan later on. Broken Totems can only be repaired by her.

To escape their pursuit one has to jump into an inhabited sector. Don't make the mistake to jump back to where you found them, they will chase you again! They are clearly meant to challenge a well equipped late game player.

They mostly employ a fleet carrier tactic and reproduce them if too many die after a certain timer expires. Unlike the Wolphax though, their carrier is slow to attack and can't take as many punches. They don't use shields. The mother ship will spawn up to 6 smaller ships in three different sizes. The large ones deal shield damage, the medium ones hull damage and the small ones shoot rockets at the player. The mother ship is extremely slow and can only shoot to the front using bullets that ignore the player's shields. The spawned ships have the ability to spawn up to 2 smaller ships st a time, which makes them still very dangerous after destroying the mother ship. So try to defeat the mother ship first, continue with the large ships, then the medium ones and in the end the little ones to prevent them from reproducing infinitely. Your main enemy are the large ships as they destroy your shields and leave you vulnerable to all other attacks. All destroyed mother ships can drop a Broken Totem, which can be repaired to defeat them once and for all. But only the green highlighted event ship drops it near 100% of the time.

Damaged, Angle or Spread Weapon / IASA Laser
Your main enemy is the carrier, do not waste time with the small enemies as you can't focus them or outdamage their respawn rate. Try to get broadside or behind the mother ship to prevent its deadly torpedos from hitting you when the squadron drops your shield. Do not underestimate the use of the battle boost. Use it often to dive away from its heavy shots and the angry swarm.

If you got a good shield at this point (the Phased Crystal Shielding for example), it will absorb most of the swarms damage. And if the shield falls the Endurance can take many hits. Turn around and fight it with the other side until the first recovers. Avoid aiming at the swarm and only kill them if they block your shot and your charge is already at maximum. With a laser array the mother ship will die in roughly 5 volleys, even if damaged. At this point you can finish of the swarm one salve at a time... or two at once with good timing. The Phased Crystal Shielding should hold for the most part.

Concentrated Fire
The real danger of this fight is actually the third enemy type. But since it gets reproduced by the second largest ships instantly and those get remade by the mother ship in intervals, taking them out can wear you down over time and is pointless from the get go. Once you got a high capacity weapon that still fires a concentrated volley, your plan is to employ the standard anti-carrier tactic. Push away from the mother ship, take aim for the biggest escorts and destroy them with one focused volley of any rank 2 weapon. Do this two times to destroy both while evading as much damage as you can and changing shield sides. The mother ships main weapon will only neuter you if your shields drop. Quickly target and destroy the third enemy shiptype in a proper volley. Now ignore the last small ships, they cost time and don't harm you with shield.

It is crucial that you take any shot at the mother ship you can. However it will reproduce 50% of type 2 and type 3 ships after each interval. Immediately switch targets and one hit them. They can't reproduce of the bat, but if you take over 10 seconds, both will procreate, you don't want that. The type 2 ship is your main target as you don't want new type 3. Keep it up while pushing the mother ship with volleys inbetween. Your shield (especially a Phased Crystal Shielding) should hold through the fight this way. You win, without a scratch.

With proper equipment one can get away from a fight with barely a bruise.

"WA NPA BNJEKA. DTKCAP! YLTP BANP HPNWQ TQ! KL BIAQD SNK QNRENRA TQ!"