Mycon

The Mycon are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. Physically they resemble fungi that thrive in extreme, hostile enviroments. Mentally, they resemble a fractured mirror. Their technology is organic in nature.

The slow Mycon Podship is not generally considered a very powerful vessel. As its main weapon it launches blueish-white spheres of "semi-sentient" plasma that homes in on the enemy, but starts to diminish and weaken over distance. The plasma's rate of travel is low enough that the Mycon can actually kill themselves with poorly-judged firing during gravity whip manoeuvres, as the Podship swiftly overtakes and collides with the freshly-launched bolt. Also, it is well-known among advanced pilots that skillful manoeuvring allows one to use the plasmoids against the podship itself. The Podship's secondary battle feature is regeneration, which allows the Mycon to replenish some of their crew, consuming a full battery charge in the process.

Template:Spoilers Template:Infobox Star Control race The Mycon are very mysterious. Their infernal fungoid bodies (0.5 to 3.5 m tall) appear simple enough, but this is deceptive. While revitalizing when taken out of a deep freeze may be explainable by their biology, a capability to perform genetic modification on themselves by thought isn't. According to the Umgah, there's no way that the Mycon evolved. They are artificial. How, when, and for what purpose, nobody knows. Mycon reproduce by budding and offspring apparently reach instant maturity.

Mentally, Mycon are hard to understand. A coherent Human-Mycon conversation appears to be an impossibility; Mycon responses seldom seem to have any relevance to what's said to them, and often are just ramblings that don't even acknowledge the presence of others. From what they do say it appears clear that the race is some kind of a hive mind with racial memory. Mycon receive select memories of their forebears at birth and dead Mycon from millenia ago have been known to achieve momentary dominance to speak with the voices of their living descendants, the only time a Mycon will refer to itself with the word "I".

A central concept to the race is the Juffo-Wup, the hot light in the darkness. Whatever it is, there's a definite fervent streak associated with it that seems to be as close to religion you can get with their way of thinking. Mycon live for it, and only for it. Juffo-Wup seems to be a positive thing, connected to them and/or their spread. Related are the Non, what is not Juffo-Wup, and Void, what Non that doesn't become Juffo-Wup must become. Needless to say, the Mycon attitude is expansionist and hostile.

While individual Mycon may appear insane to a human, as a whole the race is capable of clearly purposeful movement and pursues large-scale objectives. The nature of those objectives is not clear, however. The Mycon have existed for a long time, apparently several times older than the Sentient Milieu, but has not expanded its sphere of influence very far in that time. One theory is that the race is broken, still basically functional but its original orders eroded or perverted over time.

They only live in extreme, hostile environments they create for themselves by implanting Deep Children (terraforming devices) under the planet crust. Only certain kinds of planets are optimal for this operation of theirs, and the "impregnation" of a planet is a holy Mycon ritual. The target typically is a blue, life-bearing planet, and the outcome is known as a "Shattered World". What or who originally inhabited the planet is not relevant. They are the Non.

Mycon in Star Control 2

While in the first Star Control the creatures had little backstory and Star Control 3 is largely ignored by the fan community, the Mycon were detailed extensively in the second installment. During the second game, they serve as unattended combat thralls of the Kzer-Za, who are otherwise preoccupied, and only concern themselves with the spread of Juffo-Wup. It is revealed that the Mycon spread was originally responsible for the cataclysmic destruction of the Syreen homeworld and the almost total extermination of their race. When the Syreen find out, they react accordingly, and a retaliatory trap was a rousing success and inflicted grievous casualties to a vast Mycon fleet.

Quotes

• "I died of general misfunction 57,283 years ago."
• "When Juffo-Wup is complete, when at last there is no Void or Non, when the Creators return, then we can finally rest."
• "`... planetary transformer biot 94-18: take your place at the dais...'"
• "Juffo-Wup fills my fibers and I grow turgid, violent action ensues..." (upon attacking)