New Scene - Cakes, Counts and Code-Spawn

Finally a day to myself! I've decided to add the new scene in before editing out the paragraphs of extra information since I'm really in the mood for it. I hope to get the scene mostly finished by the end of tomorrow providing I don’t get called in to cover more shifts at work. I started it last night and I'm already having fun with it which is always a good sign. 
If I had to give it a name it would be Cakes, Counts and Code-Spawn, though I doubt that will give you a great deal of insight into what the scene is about. I have a feeling you'll enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it. It's going to be a touch suspenseful, action packed and peppered with light hearted character interaction for a little comedy relief. I'll be introducing the Code-Spawn into Laythan's path for the first time. He will have to deal with this first ever terrifying encounter with a Code-Spawn while trying to figure out what brought them to such an encounter in the first place. You'll be as intrigued as Laythan is...

I'm guessing most of you are at a loss as to what a Code-Spawn actually is. It seems like an important detail to miss out seeing as Rheeven's path revolves around them almost entirely. I've only mentioned them very briefly so I'll go into a bit more detail. But before I do, have a listen to Equinox, since its the right mood with a similarly creepy monster to get you in the right mind frame.

A very advanced race called Code-Kind (a slang nickname that stuck) from a place known in infamy as the Kingdom of Codes, created the Code-Spawn completely by accident - And not a happy accident either. Like our own world they began to dabble with mechanical limbs for those who were unfortunate enough to have lost their own. It was a science that they perfected. Such was their ability to create mechanical parts for humans that "upgrades" soon became a thing of fashion. It prolonged life, strengthened all aspects of them, augmented their natural abilities. They learned how to grow bio-mechanic human parts that were a mixture of organic and machine and within a few hundred years, it wrote itself into their DNA like a forced evolutionary cycle - an unexpected side affect. But it was too late by then. Their physical appearance, though humanoid, was forever altered from the norm. 

The original rough Code-Spawn concept that inspired most of Rheeven's path.

This was not a problem on the grand scale of things, infact it had made the Code-Kind one of the hardiest races in human history. Veins of blood and oil, hearts like engines and brains crossed with circuits were not something to be looked down upon. The problem arrived in the form of a disease.
It was the first in human history to be both a human disease and a computer virus, affecting all aspects of their make-up. The epidemic took them quicker than the plague and was several times more contagious, transferable by all bodily fluids. It did not kill them but altered them irreversibly. The most notable and terrifying thing about the disease was that once it had a hold on its victim, it would claim it under a hive-mind (shared consciousness). No one knew where the hive mind originated or if it was some kind of morphic resonance. It was intelligent and destroyed its victims own consciousness completely. 

The result was millions of humanoid creatures with one mind all bent on the same thing, earning the nickname Code-Spawn. In some ways it acted as the ultimate upgrade. From the moment the disease entered their system their bodies adapted to a form that was strengthened, toughened and very difficult to kill. Their gender was all but lost, arriving at a strange middle-ground, for the sole reason that they no longer saw that type of reproduction as the most effective way of continued existence. The Code-Spawn condition was passed by infecting others and that, mixed with the insatiable human desire to reproduce, created an army of creatures all desperate to infect others, with the intelligence to do so.
Some argued that this was not a terrible disease and loss of humanity, but simply the next stage of evolution. However, when they started being used as a weapon against other worlds, all sympathy was lost.

So if Laythan has to face down a creature that can infect him as easily as spitting in his eye, you can imagine he's not going to enjoy the experience...
He must fight it off, yet if he’s not careful it could end in the loss of his own humanity and the downfall of the world he calls home. And still the question must be asked - why on earth, in a clean uninfected world, has he had to fight one in the first place?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Code-Spawn and their design. What do you think it is? A disease or an evolutionary cycle?