Protoculture and the Flowers Question

[Rabid Southern Cross Fan]

Well...to infect the planet of Earth in Rifts...all the Scientist would need (according to the Tv series portrayal of events) is some spores of the Flower of Life...as opposed to actual seeds. They seem to attach themselves to native flora and mutate them into the FoL (the plant is rightly called parasitic after all).

As for turning the seeds of the FoL into viable protoculture producers...well....no one but Zor knew how to build a Protoculture Matrix (or all those that did died long ago when the Zentraedi began the Robotech Civil War talked about in Khyron's Revenge). Without the Matrix and/or Protoculture Factory...you have a parasitic flower that slowly mutates your ecology (and probably native fauna over time as well).

[Adam of the Old Kingdom]

I thought they made a matrix after the (are towards the end of the) war with the Regent. thus some BME's with the SDF-3 may know how, if that is cannon.

[glitterboy2098]

the matrix being needed to make Protoculture is a creation of the novels.

in the show it is a non-issue.


personally i would assume that if your BME had a supply of lowers, they could refill P-cells, and make more provided they had access to the right parts.

now if you wanted to make a ton of them, you might want a matrix, but a few dozen a BME could make.

[Omote]

personally if a BME had a supply of fowers of life, I would say that is a start to the pricess but in now way an easy task to accomplish. You wouldn't be able to just put a bnch of FoL in a Protoculture-cell and start up you Cyclone.... no no no. There has to be some very hard technological do hick'ys that would be needed... IMO.

That is one reason I used the events of the Novels for a basis in my RPGs. Mo' stuff, described Mo better.

........................Omote

[Devjannz]

Well according to the original conversion book, the Flower of Life will grow on RIFTS Earth, but it cannot be within 100 miles of a Ley Line. For some reason, Ley Line energy interferes with the growth proccess (I hypothisized that it was because the Flower of Life feeds on small amounts of residual PPE as it's food source and that the energy of the Ley Lines causes a situation like overwatering a regular plant does. It dies.)

Once the plant matures, a properly trained Field Scientist should be able to create P-Cells for Mecha. Not sure as too how long that proccess should take though. (I would definately think about creating some new Science skills based around working with Protoculture).

[Rabid Southern Cross Fan]

personally if a BME had a supply of fowers of life, I would say that is a start to the pricess but in now way an easy task to accomplish.

Well...in the Tv series...it does not appear that the REF associates the FoL with Protoculture. The Commander on Scott's shuttle says that the Invid became aware of a large supply of active protoculture on the Earth and moved to retrieve it.

On the other hand...we (the audience) know that the Invid Sensor Nebula detects the spores of the FoL (not the protoculture).

The REF's knowledge of Protoculture is rather miniscule compared to that possessed by the Masters and Invid. Turning seeds from the FoL into protoculture products should be all but impossible (unless, maybe, the Invid taught the former REFers that started Norristown and established the protoculture depot).