Black Egg

All Annelid Eggs look alike until they open, except for the mysterious Black Eggs, a genetic experiment on the part of the Many. The new, unnamed form of Annelid they contain is laconically mentioned in the game, but never actively encountered.

Upon entering the UNN Rickenbacker, SHODAN informs the player of a number of Black Eggs spread throughout the first deck of the ship. She explains that these Eggs will eventually hatch a new form of annelid "which you will have no hope of destroying", and demands that they be destroyed.

The Eggs are similar to the standard Eggs of the Many, with the exception of being black and red rather than flesh-colored, and the fact that they don't open to release their contents when the player gets close. They also provide no loot. All of the sixteen Black Eggs have to be destroyed, otherwise SHODAN will not permit the player to access the main part of the Bridge of the Rickenbacker.

Trivia

 * Use of cheat command summon_obj to summon items, even early on, may cause an issue where the first destroyed Egg will not be counted, preventing the game from progressing when the last Egg is destroyed. The chance is rare, and the exact conditions have not been reproduced.
 * Fortunately, almost all of the time it is possible to avoid this. One has to load a savegame created before destroying any of the Black Eggs (ideally before entering Rickenbacker for the first time) and either recycle or use up a whole group of items (for example, all Medical Hypos) in inventory. Which group exactly could be determined by trial and error - it's recommended to use/recycle one group, destroy one Black Egg and see if the player receives Cybernetic Modules from SHODAN. If not, other group of items is the culprit, so after loading that previous savegame, another group should be used/recycled to finally determine which one is faulty and needs to get rid of. The end effect should be as planned, player receiving 2 CMs after destroying the very first Black Egg.