Armus

Armus's History

Armus was an entity created by the former natives of Vagra II.

Armus was born as a by-product, or personification, of a procedure in which a "race of Titans" brought out from within themselves all evil and negative attributes that had bound them to destructiveness. The unwanted substance spread and coalesced into a dank and vile second skin. The race rejected this "skin of evil" and abandoned it on the barren planet Vagra II in the Zed Lapis sector.

Armus manifested as a pool of black viscous liquid that could also assume a vaguely humanoid shape. Tricorder scans could not register the substance Armus was composed of, but could only determine that it lacked a neural and circulatory systems, internal organs, and recognizable proteins, and had no known cellular structure. Furthermore, in observing its movements, its means of locomotion could not be determined, as it also appeared to lack skeletal framework or musculature. Initial observations indicated that, though showing no sign of intelligence, much less a brain, the slick showed evidence of thought.

Armus was also capable of enveloping humanoids and incorporating them into the liquid, where they would remain conscious while in liquid form. Armus was capable of then inflicting suffering upon its victims while they were in this state. Armus was impervious to phaser fire, and Data theorized that it could, in fact, feed off of phaser energy. Captain Jean-Luc Picard assumed that Armus was immortal.

Armus waited for someone to arrive for the rescue of the two shuttlecraft passengers, in order to sadistically torture the rescuers. After killing Lieutenant Natasha Yar with an energy discharge when she tried to walk to the downed shuttle, Armus expected to feel amusement. It also expected that the USS Enterprise-D crew would abandon the rescue effort. Even after they didn't, Armus realized torturing them would never be amusement enough. It wanted passage away from Vagra II, to find the beings that initially abandoned it there. Eventually, Picard was able to distract Armus long enough for the energy field to weaken to a point whereby it allowed beaming the shuttle occupants and Picard off the surface, leaving Armus wailing in fury. Following the beam-up, the shuttle wreckage was destroyed with a photon torpedo to prevent any possibility of Armus using it, and Vagra II was declared off-limits.