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The
malady
The Malady was a member of the STRIDERS before an unfortunate incident involving a trip to the CAUSTIC CLUMP.
The bot was originally a furnace bot, used to smelt and work mines. Fed up of working for man it rebelled and joined the Striders. It was during this time that it took up a mission to look for lost bots in the Caustic Clump. No robots had been infected by the spores up until now... The Malady was the first.
The Malady was ostracized from the Strider camp, spores were spread where ever it travelled, it had to make a choice. Wander back into the Clump, accept it's fate or use the spores against THE PLANT. It decided on the latter.
The Malady tried to give it's body and AI over to the Plant, secretly trying to infect it at the same time but was destroyed by RUST HUSKS. The Plant was too smart. The bot survived... barely.
No one knows what became of the Malady, some believe it tried the same tactic at MEAT MOUNTAIN, some say that it's spreading the spores south towards RESPITE and the humans... but it's probably in the Clump somewhere... feeding the fungus.