Nanobite Threat Level

Nanobites are classified into three threat levels which correspond to how they reproduce and how they are contained.

1. Blue
2. Green
3. Gray

Blue nanobites reproduce through consuming a single type of material only. Most blue nanobites used by the Order consume nanite feed and convert into prefabricated blueprints for mass construction. Blue nanobites are the safest to use and do not require any special containment protocols besides annual deviancy tests.

Weaponized blues can convert their target into corrosive acids or other deadly chemical processes and are used in specialized anti-armor warheads.

Green nanobites consume biological material to reproduce or transform into biological byproducts. These nanobites are typically used for terraforming or bio-engineering and must be checked daily for deviance. Green nanobite infestations can quickly go exponential and extinguish all life on a planet.

Research and development with green types are typically done on dead worlds so containment breaches are easier to control. Post-terraforming, greens are rendered inert via blues designed to target them.

Green bioweapons can target living things or consume material to create highly virulent biological agents. Green warheads are considered a strategic weapon and are only deployed to sterilize planets.

Gray nanobites indiscriminately use materials to reproduce and create no useful byproducts. These types of nanobites are used in strategic military applications. Grays can consume blues and greens, making counter-nanite warfare impossible.

Containment of gray outbreaks typically require thermonuclear to antimatter weapons deployment at the infested zone. Gray nanobites will eventually go dormant if there are no high energy sources to infest, and can break out again when the area is reclaimed.

Mass deployment of grays is seen as mutually assured destruction. Planets with uncontrollable gray infestations are quarantined and cracked.