Armus
| Intelligent Lifeform Index |
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| Armus | |
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| Four Letter Code | ARMS |
| Federation Status | At War |
| Planet of Origin | Vagra II |
| Encountered | By the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D on Stardate 41601.3 (TNG: Skin of Evil) |
| T/E Rating | T0/E0 |
| Current Tech Level | WR |
| List of Named Armuss | |
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A unique but destructive life-form resembling a living oil slick but able to alter form into a variety of shapes, including a humanoid-like form and a thin shielding large enough to envelop a Galaxy-class starship's shuttlecraft. Armus was created as a byproduct of the Vagran's ridding themselves of their undesirable emotions, and, as the literal skin of their evil, Armus can create formidable energy fields which affect passing vessels, or nearby people. Armus is most known for brutally killing Lieutenant Tasha Yar on stardate 41601.3.
Armus was a malevolent entity created by an unknown race.
Armus was born as a by-product 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 black viscous liquid that could also assume a vaguely humanoid shape. Tricorder scans could not register the substance Armus was composed of. Armus was also capable of enveloping humanoids and incorporating them into the liquid, where they would remain conscious while in liquid form. Armus was impervious to phaser fire, and Data theorized it was, in fact, feeding off of the phaser energy. Captain Picard also assumed Armus was immortal.
After the initial abandonment, Armus was left in a state of undirected rage. However when the rage was focused, Armus was capable of generating around itself an intense undefined force field. With this energy field it was capable of blocking sensor scans, communications, and transporters. It was also capable of using psychokinesis and teleportation on at least humanoid-size organisms within the field. Armus was also capable of inflicting energy discharges that caused synaptic damage to humanoids, killing them. Presumably this field was also responsible for causing the nearby Shuttlecraft 13 to experience a massive systems breakdown and crash land on the planet in 2364.
Armus waited for someone to arrive for the rescue of the two shuttlecraft passengers in order to sadistically torture them. After killing Tasha Yar, Armus expected to feel amusement, and 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 enough to allow beaming the shuttle occupants and himself off the surface. The shuttle wreckage was destroyed with a photon torpedo to prevent any possibility of Armus leaving the planet, and Vagra II was declared off-limits. (TNG: "Skin of Evil")