Fade

From NS2 community wiki

The Fade is a nightmarish and vicious Kharaa lifeform. It specializes in surgical strikes, seemingly appearing and disappearing in a blink of an eye, often leaving behind the bodies of slaughtered Marines. Known for its ability to travel through ethereal space, dubbed "Blink", it can render the Fade both invisible to the naked eye and invulnerable to most conventional weapons; along with razor-sharp blades for hands, the Fade can shred a Marine apart with ruthless speed and efficiency.

Background

These are the shock troops of the Kharaa: versatile, tough, and highly specialized to combat. Disturbingly humanoid, Fades demonstrate powerful melee damage – which when combined with the seemingly supernatural blink ability, make them powerful all-around brutes, whose cunning cannot be underestimated.

The Kharaa are so sneaky, it took some time for Frontiersmen to realize the blink ability existed at all. Fades seemed to appear and disappear with no rhyme or reason, penetrating seemingly air-tight defensive perimeters, or vanishing from a heavy fire fight without a trace. Marines soon reported these creatures "fading" away right before their eyes. Though we now understand there is a hive ability responsible for this phenomena, we are no closer to truly understanding how it functions.

A similar evolution to the Skulk's bladed feet, the Fade's arms end in long, deadly sharp blades. TSA scientists speculate that, left to their own devices, Fades might have eventually evolved some sort of opposable thumbs. Instead, the bacterium pushed them to develop these sword-like claws, that their ape-like arms swing in armor and metal shredding arcs.

The so called "blink" ability is one of the more contentious topics for scientists studying the Kharaa. One side believes that it is our observations that are incorrect, that there is an optical illusion of some sort at work, making Fades appear to teleport, apparently through solid matter. They believe that, at the most, entirely new bodies are created at the destination – a kind of variant of the redemption evolution. The other side believes that there is a phenomena similar to Frontiersmen phase gate technology at work … some organic, highly evolved ability that exploits the loophole in physics called the Kensky/Libovah effect. There are significant weak points in both arguments. But this phenomena undoubtedly exists: footage exists of Fades disappearing from one side of a wall, and appearing on the other, or instantly covering the space between them and their target.

Stats

Fade
- Health: 200
- Armor: 50
- Speed: 6.5
- Evolve Cost: 50 Personal Resources
- Gestation Time: 25 seconds

Abilities

Alien Vision
- Default Key: F
- Description: Alien Vision grants Kharaa lifeforms enhanced visual sensitivity, allowing them to quickly distinguish Frontiersmen and the terrain even in complete darkness.

Shadow Step
- Default Key: Shift (tap)
- Energy Cost: 10
- Description: Shadow Step is a rush movement ability which thrusts the Fade quickly toward its desired direction; the more it is used, the less distance traveled.

Swipe
- Function: Inflicts damage on targeted player or structure at melee range.
- Damage: 65
- Damage Type: Puncture
- Fire Delay: 0.65
- Energy Cost: 7
- Description: A high-damage, moderate rate of attack melee ability.

Blink
- Function: Sustainable controlled flight with forward thrust, also grants invisibility and invulnerability.
- Starting Energy Cost: 20
- Continuous Energy Cost: 9.8 per second
- Maximum Speed: 20
- Description: The alternate attack for Fade, it can phase its body into a parallel dimension, becoming both invisible and invulnerable to damage. While in Blink state, the Fade can rapidly travel in any direction as long as energy reserves permit. The Observatory's passive detection and Scan abilities can highlight Blinking Fades as energy signature trails, allowing Marines to predict Fade movement. Blink becomes available once Evolve Augmentation is complete on the first Mature Hive.

Stab
- Function: Inflicts massive damage on targeted player and moderate damage on targeted structure, while stopping all movement of the Fade.
- Damage: 160
- Damage Type: Puncture
- Fire Delay: 1.5
- Energy Cost: 20
- Description: A very high damage, slow rate of fire melee attack. After a short delay, the attack does massive damage to marines and can kill lightly-armored marines in one hit. The attack is relatively ineffective against marine structures and uses a lot of energy.