This sounds awesome and I can really visualise what Cybertron could look like. So is the hostile mutation a naturally occurring thing like the planet equivalent of an autoimmune disorder? Or did the society of gut flora decide to mess with things they shouldn’t?

Just out of interest have you heard of Wayne Barlow’s Expedition? Not saying ‘this idea reminds me of X!’ In that way but whenever folks world build alien planets I wonder if they’ve heard of this book.