Aura Beasts

The Aura Beasts are deadly extradimensional monsters that are under the control of Nicolas Wrightson. In appearance, the creatures are the size of a large dog and look like a pink/red-coloured insect - with a double hook on their abdomen and the mouth of a lamprey. They are savage creatures and will attack anyone they sense without mercy.

Information
Nick Scryer first saw the creatures years before the events of the game, when he learning the psychic power called Aura Viewing. During the last part of his training, he sees the creatures floating around behind a glass barrier but - from Barrett statement that he has never seen the creatures others with the Aura View ability have claimed to see - Nick presumably ignores what he sees.

Several years later, when Nick was pursuing the General to stop him using an ancient artifact known as the Monolith, he arrives at a base in the Himalayas - run by the General's terrorist organisation (The Movement). After meeting master spy and former Mindgate elite agent Nicolas Wrightson - who was a master of Remote Viewing and was working for the Movement, but despised his role as simply been the General's 'guard dog' - Wrightson revealed that the General has gone to 'find glory in the depths of the mountain'. Wrightson also revealed that Sara (Nick's ally) was been held captive and gloated that she wouldn't be alive for much longer.

Entering the temple, Nick soon was confronted by the creatures. Invisible to the naked eye, the creatures would attack Nick until he shot them - which would disperse the attacking Aura Beast. However, it would attract several others to continue the attack. The only way Nick could see them beforehand was to use his Aura View ability. Finding Sara in a cell, Sara (who could telepathically sense the creatures) was attacked by one of the beasts before he shot it when it turned its attention towards him. As he tried to re-open the prison door after it had shut behind him, Wrightson managed to take over Nick's body. However, Nick managed to force him out. Sara, who had been seemingly unharmed physically by the extradimensional beasts, warned Nick that Wrightson seemed to have the monsters under his control.

Exploring further, the pair discovered they needed to get to the top of a tower within the temple - but the stairwell in the tower was filled with the Aura Beasts and was therefore impassable. However, Sara points out a weakness - the creatures are attracted to human's brain waves but repulsed by psi-energy. Giving Nick a psychotronic device that amplifies a person's psi-energy, she told him to head to the Satellite relay station nearby and aim the dish at the tower. The hope was that when Nick directed his psi-energy at the tower, the Aura Beasts would scatter.

After another encounter with Wrightson and after fighting his way through the Meat Puppets, Nick reached the relay station and carried out the plan. As hoped for, the Aura Beasts scatter as they are repulsed by the Psi-energy - thus allowing Sara and Nick to ascend to the top of the tower. However, they soon found there were more creatures - with Wrightson having attuned their senses to Nick and Sara's individual brainwaves in order to try and stop them. Nick managed to activate a signal that kept the Aura Beasts at bay - but soon encountered a more severe problem as Sara was taken over by Wrightson, with Sara's twin sister Tonya revealed to be a member of the Movement. With no option, Nick followed to try to save Sara.

Nick soon found Wrightson - having re-entered his original body, which was withered and attached to a life support system to keep it alive. Wrightson stated that the General intended to unlock the secrets of the Monolith, before stating only he deserved the power of a God. With his grip on his own sanity now slim at best, Wrightson revealed what he meant when he earlier stated he needed Nick - as he intended to 'rip out Nick's soul and use his body to take the Monolith for himself'. Declaring him insane, Nick began to battle Wrightson. The battle was tough, with Wrightson using the machine his life support was connected to to fire energy beams at Nick from several monitors - as well as summoning several Aura beasts to attack Nick. Nick perservered, however, and managed to defeat the Aura beasts sent against him and destroy the monitors - breaking Wrightson's control over the Aura Beasts in the process.

With the Aura Beasts now free of their mind control, they attacked Wrightson - much to his horror - before Wrightson and the remaining Aura beasts were pulled into the Ether from which the creatures had come from, presumably killing Wrightson in the process. It's assumed all of them were pulled in, as Nick doesn't encounter any more of the creatures.

Appearances
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (Video Game - PS2, Xbox, PC)