Bioweapon
Bioweapons or biological weapons are biological toxins, genetically engineered organisms or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi utilized with the intent to kill or incapacitate populations of sentient beings, animals or plants and reduce the habitability of planets as an act of war. Biological weapons (often termed "bio-weapons", "biological threat agents", or "bio-agents") are living organisms or replicating entities (viruses, which are not universally considered "alive") that reproduce or replicate within their host victims. Entomological (insect) warfare is also considered a type of biological weapon.
Biological weapons may be employed in various ways to gain a strategic or tactical advantage over the enemy, either by threats or by actual deployments. Like some of the chemical weapons, biological weapons may also be useful as area denial weapons. These agents may be lethal or non-lethal, and may be targeted against a single individual, a group of people, or even an entire population. They may be developed, acquired, stockpiled or deployed by stellar governments or by non-governmental groups. In the latter case, or if a government uses it clandestinely, it may also be considered bioterrorism.
Stellar governments known to use biological weapons include the Bacterian Empire, who employed bioweapons extensively during the First Bacterian War.
