SHADOW DEATH CLOUD

	class:	Storm
	type:	Planet Killer
	length:	N/A
	mass:	UNKNOWN
	crew:	YES - unknown
	troop:	N/A
	fighter:	N/A
	power:	Hyperspace Tap
	duration:	Infinite
	weapon:	Multi gigaton missiles Shadow nano-bots Cold Freeze device
	defense:	Shadow Death Ray and Quantum Bolt defense turrets Shadow bio-armor Shadow shields Shadow nano-bots

One of the most terrifying of weapons seen by the eyes of man is the Shadow Death Cloud.  This cloud was used by the Shadows to destroy dozens of worlds and again by the Drakh on Daltron VII and they almost succeeded in using one of these clouds to destroy the planet Earth last year.

The Shadow Death Cloud consists of several layers.  The outer layer of the Shadow planet killer is its trademark black cloud that completely obscured the mechanism's inner workings.  This cloud would appear to be comprised of nano-robots, capable of devouring all the usable matterials, biological and otherwise, from any planet.  These nano-bots are not true robots however, but instead biological organisms.  These bio-nanites appear to devour a planet's raw matterial in order to fuel and sustain this terrifying machine.

The inner workings of the Death Cloud did not come clear until recently.  The inside mechanism of the Death Cloud would appear to be a larger, web like construct that expands from a very compact form, to envelope an entire world.  Once a planet is locked within the grip of the Death Cloud, the mechanism's offensive systems go to work.

Unlike the Volron Planet Killer, which used a massive energy bolt to blow a planet to kingdom come, the Shadows take a much more conservative approach to destroying a planet.  Using multi-gigaton missile-like projectiles, the Death Cloud fires these projectiles at the planet and they burrow down through the planet's crust and detonate once they reach a planet's core.  This literally turns a planet inside out, transforming it into a radioactive, molten wasteland.

While in its molten form, the bio-nanites strip the planet of any and all organic and useful inorganic matterials and uses this to sustain the Death Cloud.  Once a planet has been strip-mined of all useful matterials, it is left little more than a ball of molten rock in space.  It is at this point that the Death Cloud, as a final planetary harvesting operation, strips most of the thermal energy from the planet's mass, leaving it a cold lifeless world.  Following this, the cloud moves onto its next target.

When a Shadow Death Cloud leaves a planet, that planet is left as little more than a cold dead boulder in space, all organic life, in any form having been devoured and with no chance of life ever springing up on that world again.