Pheonix

Golden Hawks were large predator birds that harried the smaller outposts and settlements. Before the scientists of the Underhill colony turned to genetic engineering of humans, they managed to acquire several nests of eggs, though they lost a full squad of hunters doing so. On bringing them back to the lab at the outpost, the scientists did a number of experiments with the eggs. Some were manipulated genetically. Some had nanites injected. Others were given both treatments Others were hatched and an attempt was made to imprint on the chicks, with no other alteration made. And still more were given nanites after hatching.

One of the eggs from the a genetically modified and nanite treated test group showed signs of heat as it neared hatching day, above what was being provided by the incubator. The scientists must brought it to a separate lab to examine, although the records have been lost, because others of the eggs in the same room survived. What is known is that the egg didn't so much hatch as it blew up, torching everyone in the room, anything combustible, and melting half the data banks. More people were burned as they went to help. Tales from the survivors have been handed down piecemeal in the intervening years. What is known for sure is that the bird eventually escaped the facility and can occasionally be seen in the area. Any forest fire in that region of the planet gets blamed on the phoenix, or phoenixes, since no one is sure if a duplicate was among the test subject in the original lab. or what happened to them. On 'dying' they will shrivel, as their glitching nanites try to repair the damage done to their tissues over the years of burning. They excrete a shell-like substance over their feathers and stay like that, a growling glob of the excretion, until the nanites finish their repairs and the pheonix is born again in a burst of flame. It is said that the multiple pheonixes are really only one, and that foolish travellers find the eggs and pick it up, thinking it may be a stone with treasure in it. But all they're really doing is moving the bird a little further from its original range, and dooming themselves to a firey death when it wakes.

The settlement was renamed Ashen Waste and abandoned long before the Gene Wars started.