The Stars are Fire
These tiny silvery insect-like creatures range in size from a sub-millimeter to up to 30 cm (1 foot) in diameter, emitting short pulses of violet-colored laser light to sense and sample their environment. Composed of organic silicon wires and wafers, and self-assembled or evolved in some unnamed lab or spacecraft wreck, silicon parasites are vermin that working space stations and spacecraft have learned to hate. Despite taking steps to avoid transfer, a ship may only learn they have silicon parasites when a swarm boils up from a crack in the cabling or seam in the deck plating after being agitated by a high-G maneuver or some other disturbance. If that disturbance is combat or some other dire emergency, silicon parasites thrown into the situation makes everything worse.
Motive: Defense, harvest electronic materials necessary to self-replicate.
Environment: Usually on spacecraft and space stations in groups of up to twenty (Space)
Health: 6
Damage: 3 points
Armor: 1
Movement: Short; climbs a short distance each round
Modifications: Speed defense as level 4 due to size.
Combat: Only "large" silicon parasites are a danger to most creatures. When four or more parasites coordinate their attacks, treat the attack as that made by a single level 4 creature that inflicts a moderate wound (5 points), and on a failed difficulty 4 Might defense roll, an attack that holds the target in place until it can successfully escape. A held target automatically takes 5 points of damage each round, or even more if other silicon parasites in the area pile on. Silicon parasites can operate in complete vacuum without harm.
Interactions: By and large, silicon parasites behave like social insects, though some claim that large numbers of them have acted with greater intelligence and forethought than mere unthinking insects can manage.
Uses: A swarm of silicon parasites floods into the hold and makes off with an important device, dragging it into the crevices and walls of the spacecraft or station. Loot: Swarm nests often contain a few valuable manifest cyphers or working pieces of equipment.
GM Intrusion: The silicon parasite flashes its sensory laser directly into the character's eyes, blinding the character until they succeed on a difficulty 4 Might-based roll as their action.