Life is anything but simple in Spatium Sperma, and once you get used to the simple facts, like living inside a gigantic organism, being enslaved in perpetuity, or having been turned into a living, sentient and sapient cell, you find out that things are even worse. Most people won't ever have to face such hardships, in fact they could probably go for thousands of years without really being in danger if everything goes humanity's way. We have seen that such a thing is usually anything BUT the norm, though.
For those that face the dangers of the `Predator', there is one itsy bitsy little problem, though.
*EVERYTHING* is a danger inside the `Predator'.
Humanity's old weapons that they used against themselves are as good as scrap in the modern world. Most of them were left untouched by the `Predator' during assimilation, and that was simply because they held no real use in today's world.
Solid round weapons of any kind? Sure, you can make another person `feel' pain as they get shot, but in truth the bullets will enter, then exit without a problem.
Cutting, crushing or piercing melee implements? Hardly any better. They may do some minimal, and very much temporary, damage, but all of them, especially the blunt weapons, would be a bother at best and beyond useless at worst.
Explosives, flamethrowers or even energy and experimental weapons? Some of those were converted, especially weapons that had to do with heat or cold above all else, alongside any weapon dealing with acid or poisonous substances. But by and large? More of the same.
A Human's modern `skin' is perfectly maleable, stretchy and bendable to be either pierced, cut or crushed, and even most extremes in the form of hot and cold temperatures, as well as caustic forms of damage, cannot harm the modern human being. Human Cells are largely impervious to damages that would be considered lethal in the regular world outside.
Such damages include simple falls: Those with fear of heights, beware, for now you may be afraid, and end up terrified as you fall from an insane distance, but you will end up hitting the ground without suffering any pain at all. All that fear and yelling ending in nothing more than shame when you realize nothing happened.
That is not to say they are invulnerable, though. In fact they are far, very far from it.
Dangers from working areas come to mind as the first contender to many young Human Cells' security; temperatures that could easily rival a sun's surface are common in many foundries and factories, and while they are uncomfortable at a distance, very close up they WILL burn a person to a crisp. Same with many acids and other methods of purifying or materials can, and will, melt a Human Cell to their base compounds.
Ignoring what could be considered as the most `mundane' danger, the areas close to a World Ship tend to have many imperfect sections that have not been assimilated correctly, or that the `Predator' largely ignores. Many of these areas have damaged components, like gravity pads that will splat whoever uses them, or teleporters that will do much the same. Also, while regular metal may not kill or harm you now, but the biometal created by the `Predator' is sharpened to the molecular level if they are broken or generated right, and spikes, as well as jagged edges, of barely formed biometal scrap is sure to end your life for a short while, and it won't be painless either. With many areas poorly illuminated and with the surfaces left to grow as they please, it is not uncommon for many young Human Cells to cut themselves in half or for them to be impaled.
Simple, basic dangers aside, we delve deeper and find many trials for the regular Human Cell:
Stinging tentacles that inject either venomous substances to destroy you from the inside, sting you with electric organs that will fry you and boil you, or just spit weaponiced fluids, slam into you with mace like spiked tips and more.
Gigantic Macrobacteria, native to the `Predator', that should aid you, instead trying to eat you because, as a `free agent', you are still considered an intruder.
Trap doors that are designed to spit intruders into lower, more dangerous levels. Small alien organs that may confuse or even temporarily mind control you. Nests of `beneficial' bacteria or creatures from the same dimension the `Predator' occupies that care not for who or what you are, only that you may be their nest lunch.
So many features of the `Predator' are danger incarnate that they are impossible to be enumerated, but these are good examples. They do pale in comparison with the real danger of this new world however.
And no, this danger doesn?t originate from the Betrayers themselves, as those individuals have yet to permanently kill even a single human.
The greatest threat to Human Cells are the mega viruses that populate this organic world.
From small, horde-like young of many species of macrobiota, to the titanic, sky scrapper sized, if not large, mega bacteria that could easily endanger a whole city by themselves. These monsters are everywhere, they sometimes pose a threat big enough for the `Predator' to order them cleared, or you'll be temporarily digested along everything close to these bastards.
Viruses not only come in an insane number of variations, with just as wide arrays for forms and abilities, but all of them are virtually invulnerable to old world technology, even those that could be bothersome for people in the modern day. Just like humans, these viruses ignore kinetic weapons and anything else that was ever considered standard, and with their numbers even the weakest monster is capable of tearing a group of Human Cells apart without really much effort.
Then you add the bone armor, crystalized oxygen barriers or solid cartilage carapace that some possess, and you have walking tanks that could stop a whole army back on Earth. That is if you completely ignore the fact that a single bite of these bastards is usually able to hurt one another, and not even a nuclear bomb would dent their surface, much less their armor.
To add insult to injury: Even the most armored monster is insanely fast for its size.
Think back to old Kaiju films. Those things, gigantic and slow? Yeah, if they were possible in real life, gigantic beasts would be lumbering, but dangerous. In Spatium Sperma? Titanic beasts will be so fast you will be squashed before you blink, unless you pay attention.
As such humanity has developed a very simple way of fighting.
You NEVER stay your ground.
Every room, even those inside the World Ships, have many platforms and levels to go up and down from. Many pieces of equipment allow people to grapple around, while many mutations or natural abilities grant great jumping skills to bounce from one place to another.
Staying put and laying down suppressing fire is only okay in extremely snug corridors where the enemy size and numbers usually boxes them into a kill zone. There, standard tactics are still king.
Almost everywhere else in Spatium Sperma?
Jump, run and gun.
For this purpose weapons similar to those used during the (brief and ineffectual) fight against the `Predator' have been adapted for human use. Many originally called these weapons `super soakers wannabees', at least until they found how useful they were.
Backpacks filled with a heavily toned down compound, a mixture that comes in various (usually glowing) mixes, is loaded into a firing mechanism. These weapons, capable of shooting wads of solid liquid ready to melt in contact with anything organic (or dissipate if they hit the `Predator'), are capable of damaging Macrobacteria of many types, quickly turning their bodies solid, calcifying them and then shattering their remains! Even bigger creatures can suffer localized calcification, going through a slow death, part by part, as their bodies are deprived of vital parts to continue functioning.
Even melee has been modified this way.
Spears are created to penetrate tough lightly armored enemies, getting between the cartilaginous surfaces by slightly bending the edge before deploying a payload of the mixture within the backpack they are connected to. Just like an injection, these penetrating weapons push the contents exactly where they must be, creating critical damage deep within the creatures they pierce.
Axes are designed to cut through exposed flesh, cartilage and bone will eject an extremely short lived stream of superheated steam from the backpack it is attached to. This steam works like a heated edge; cutting through armored viruses as if they were flesh and blood, easily dismembering as the axes of old were meant to.
Hammers haven't changed: They are brutal, armor destroying weapons that can crush even crystalized oxygen plates, injecting a shockwave of dispersed solution in aerosol format in a singular, precise attack. This turns the impact into a very close imitation of an old school hammerblow as the impact is cushioned for the one delivering it, but the enemy tanking the hit suffers a high pressure blow as the crystallization of their body, pain and the force behind the impact throws them around, damaging a large area.
As for swords? Much like in real life, they are meant for anything: The tip can pierce and inject a dose of the solution. Their edges cut like those of an axe and their pommels are designed to deliver a blunt impact similar to hammers. Masters of none, these jack of all stats are great for every encounter, but will never be as good as the specific weapon they are imitating.
Firearms are the same: Rifles and pistols deliver stable firepower depending on their type. Shotguns blast many pellets across a large area. Explosive weapons are meant to basically lob water balloons full with what in this universe would be considered a war crime from long range. Sniper Rifles solidify a large dose of the chemical into a needle like form to penetrate the target and deliver maximum damage.
Every weapon has a use, and all of them fire basically ice cubes that melt on the way, and much faster on impact.
Even bows, simply designed to fire small syringes, can deliver some of the most damaging injections you could ever imagine.
But all of these weapons are made with mobility in mind: You move, you fight, you pause to assess your situation *IF* you have time, and then you crush your enemies.
Never allow them to overwhelm you, no matter what they are.
What could be dangerous inside a super organism so big that a person would easily pass a cell? Everything. How do you fight it? By being careful and weaponizing everything you can.
A quick snippet of how many things could ruin your day in Spatium Sperma and how THAT particular problem made humans adapt ways to fight back.
