Small Disclaimer: The Dreadnought Hyper Bio-Booster Armor and its Bio-Technological Nanites are mine. All other names, technologies, etc, are copyright their respective owners.

4.11 Lower Back - "Octopus" Manipulator Tentacles
Recently incorporated into the Dreadnought, the "Octopus" Manipulator Tentacles are exactly that: four telepathically controlled, telescopic, prehensile titanium/niobium-steel tentacles. They were purchased from the world's leading authority on nuclear radiation, Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius. Before being assimilated into the living armor by its Bio-Technological Nanites, the Tentacles were attached to a stainless steel harness--two curved pieces of metal, with small metal locks on either side--which encircled one's body from lower chest to waist. Rising up from the back of the harness was a long metal 'spine', with a series of small needles attached to each side. The back of the harness also contained the four sockets for the tentacles.

The 'spine' of the harness served as a neural link between the user's brain and the tentacles. When they were activated, the needles on either side of the spine would embed themselves into the user's spinal cord, and feed microscopic wires into his or her cerebellum. This connection enabled the user of the tentacles to control them via thought. Normally, the brain cannot recognize more limbs than the body already has, so how was this done? The answer to this question comes from the book "Eight Arms To Hold You", a personal work written by Doctor Octavius which describes the creation of his Tentacles. In it, he writes, "To circumvent the problem of controlling the tentacles I took a page out of the actual octopus's book. Octopi actually have a sort of mini-brain in each of their arms that helps them to move.

The main brain can decide, 'I want to go left and up that rock,' and the arms can find their own way there. My mechanical tentacles will work on a similar principle. Each will have their own artificial intelligence program. My brain will give them directions, and they will devise their own ways of following them." When the Nanites assimilated the Tentacles--after rewiring the living armor's Control Medallion such that both host and armor could accommodate the four extra limbs--the machine creatures broke down the majority of the harness, making it part of the Dreadnought's Bio-Plasmic Armor, and left only the main parts: the back of the harness and the spine rising from it.

Then, after modifying the spine such that it encased and connected directly to the Wraithbone spine of the Dreadnought, the Nanites replaced the needles in the spine of the harness with biological tendril links. These penetrate painlessly into the host's spine whenever the Dreadnought is summoned. Additionally, the Nanites drastically changed the Tentacles' control system, rewriting their Artificial Intelligences to be good-aligned and loyal to the Dreadnought and its host. Finally, when all of this had been completed, the machine creatures altered the structure of the Tentacles so that they could contract completely--leaving only their pincers visible--and then grew a storage pod below the living armor's wings to house them.

When not active, the four Tentacles cannot be seen; they remain contracted and housed within this pod. Once activated by concentration and force of will, however, the limbs will extend out to their default length, their storage pod opening to allow them to do so. Each tentacle, approximately five inches in diameter, terminates in three multi-jointed pincers. These open outwards like the petals of a flower, and are able to rotate in relation to the tentacle for 360ยบ, in a screwdriver-like twisting motion. Each tentacle segment contains four highly efficient electric motors equipped with a clutched, helical-gear train, independently mounted on frictionless gimbals and housed in four thin, overlapping layers of titanium/niobium steel.

The titanium/niobium-steel alloy is light, has high-tensile strength, a high melting point, and high thin-wall rigidity. Effectively a set of four extra limbs for the Dreadnought, the Tentacles can be used for any number of purposes, and they possess the following abilities:

Telescopic Length: At their default length, each tentacle measures approximately 6ft long. If the host of the Dreadnought wills it, however, they can be made to extend to a maximum length of 24ft.

Precision Manipulation: The three-finger 'flower' design allows for quite a bit of dexterity on the part of the tentacles. They can manipulate objects with precision, always a must for lab work and delicate medical procedures.

Delicate Touch: Housed within the large pincers at the end of each tentacle are a set of far smaller, finer pincers, designed for handling the smallest and most delicate of objects that the larger pincers wouldn't be able to handle.

Quad-Sight: Within the center of each tentacle is a small, yet extremely powerful camera, which takes the form of a blue-glowing light-emitting diode. Possessing almost all of the Visual Enhancements built into the living armor's Bio-Helmet, and able to transmit images directly into the host's brain, when the Tentacles' large pincers are open these amazing cameras can be used to augment the host's natural sight, or to bypass said sight should the host ever become blinded.

Inhuman Strength: If the Dreadnought possesses adequate bracing, the tentacles are capable of lifting roughly two to three tons. If used as a weapon in combat, each tentacle is capable of striking with the equivalent force of a jackhammer.

Wall-Scaling: By combining the intrinsic strength of the tentacles themselves and their specialized pincers, host and living armor can use them to scale stone, brick, or concrete walls by rending "hand-holds" in the surface of the wall.

Fast Travel: The tentacles can be used for traversing horizontal distances as well. At full extension, the Dreadnought can travel high above the ground as if on stilts, either using two tentacles, or four for a maximum speed of 50mph.

Sensation Feeling: When the Bio-Technological Nanites incorporated the Tentacles into the Dreadnought, the machine creatures extended the living armor's Perceptor Network to cover them completely. Refer to Subsystem 001 of System 4.2 for more information.

Before they were assimilated, the Tentacles derived their power from a small nuclear-powered thermo-electric generator, which could provide several hundred watts per hour for up to five years before its U-239 core needed to be replaced. Now, however, the Tentacles are powered via the Dimensional Coupler of the Dreadnought. Since the "Octopus" Manipulator Tentacles are a natural part of the Dreadnought, they need no regular maintenence or cleaning. Additionally, the titanium/niobium-steel alloy from which they are composed has been coated with bio-plasma, rendering them impossible to destroy with conventional weapons. If the Tentacles ever do become damaged, the living armor's Bio-Technological Nanites will regenerate them.

Once regenerated, the Nanites will reactivate the Tentacles for use. (Please Note: The "Octopus" Manipulator Tentacles and the Wings of the Dreadnought cannot be used at the same time. If this were to occur, the two systems might conflict with each other--the movement of the Tentacles might become restricted or, even worse, the living armor's wings could become tangled within them! Therefore, whenever the Manipulator Tentacles are active, the Dreadnought will automatically wrap its wings about the host's body like a cloak and then 'lock' them in place. Doing so completely exposes the living armor's back, thus enabling the Tentacles to be deployed fully without causing conflict.)