Post by Nyghtingale on Oct 22, 2015 23:20:20 GMT -5
The Hive
The Hive is a completely alien entity to almost everybody. Although it is clear where they came from, it is unclear how they eventually came to be. Anybody can tell that each caste of the Hive has a remarkable resemblance to the stomatopods of earth. There have been six recognized castes within the Hive, and all of them have a purpose and position. It all starts with the Queen, who is obviously the largest and most intelligent creatures within the Hive. Queens live at the very bottom of every Hive in massive royal chambers that, if anybody ever saw it, would look like a massive cathedral. With sweeping pillars surrounding her, allowing access to the upper reaches of the Hive, the Queen settles in the middle of her Hive and directs her Hive and expanding her Hive by increasing the Hive’s population. From the Queen eggs are produced which are moved away in to a Hatchery chamber where the eggs are kept warm and damn, protected and nurtured. They are cleaned, guarded, and kept in good health by nursery workers. Within two weeks the eggs will hatch in to larvae which are then moved in to a Nursery chamber nearby to separate the eggs from the new hatched larvae. Eggs that have not hatched by this time are cannibalized to make room for more eggs. The larvae look completely benign, nothing more than baseball sized, slimy, fleshy globes with two large black eyes set upon one end and small tiny slit like mouth beneath the eyes. These larvae are also watch over by the same nursery workers (old larvae workers whose larvae have moved on are cycled in to the Hatchery Chamber again). These larvae remain like this for another week, being feed preprocessed food that the workers masticate then regurgitate before feeding to them. At the end of that week, the fleshy little globes harden, their flesh stiffening and their bodies becoming rigid and completely immobile. These pupae are then moved to special chambers at the top of the Hive, nearest the surface. They are stored here in multiple chambers, and left completely abandoned. After a month of pupation, the pupae will crack open and out will crawl spider like creatures that have a body four inch wide bodies with a leg span of six and half inches on each side (seventeen inches wide total) will the total length of the small instar is twelve inches. The instar stage of the insect lasts for about three months, and during this time they (and at all others) they rule the upper two levels of the hive and the above surrounding area. They do a lot of the building around the Hive where they reinforce the walls by secreting a saliva that hardens to reinforce the walls of the hive and do this for six hours every day, while the rest of the time they spend above ground foraging for their own food which they need a large amount to fuel their rapidly changing bodies. After the three months, the instars will molt their skin and become true workers of the Hive or possibly warrior who protect the hive and hunt for the food of the other castes of the Hive.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with the darkness of other people. -Carl Jung
Post by Nyghtingale on Oct 22, 2015 23:22:50 GMT -5
The Larvae, hatched from eggs laid by the Queen. They are immobile and completely dependent upon the Nursey workers who guard them, feed them, and protect them until they can pupate in to Instars.
Danger Level: None
Special Abilities: None
Last Edit: Oct 22, 2015 23:41:26 GMT -5 by Nyghtingale
Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with the darkness of other people. -Carl Jung
Post by Nyghtingale on Oct 22, 2015 23:28:58 GMT -5
Instars live for three months, working around the clock. They six hours working upon the Hive, carrying small rocks that have been broken apart by the larger worker caste and helping to get in to places to high and dangers for the workers where they use their saliva to coat the walls and reinforce them. They are weak and expendable, and even considered so by the Hive itself.
Danger Level: Minimum
Instars are not very dangerous, having fairly weak carapaces that could be broken with very low caliber weapons or even a good swift kick. However, they have strong mandibles that can chew through armor and stabbing legs and they have a tendency to attack in large swarms that can quickly overwhelm an enemy.
Special Ability: Salivary Excretions
Last Edit: Oct 22, 2015 23:43:33 GMT -5 by Nyghtingale
Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with the darkness of other people. -Carl Jung
Post by Nyghtingale on Oct 22, 2015 23:57:29 GMT -5
The Worker Caste
The worker caste are the most abundant caste of the Hive after the Instars, and it is their job to do everything the Hive needs on a daily basis. They take care of the eggs, larvae, and pupae by cleaning them and feeding them by scavenging for food outside the Hive. They are the first caste to wield the formidable mantis shrimp like appendages the Hive is known for and use these for constructing the tunnels and caverns of the Hive. They have little to know intelligence, and work at their job tirelessly and relentlessly to the point of even ignoring outsiders in the Hive itself. Only after somebody has proven themselves a direct threat to the Hive will the worker caste respond, attacking the intruder. Their carapaces are fairly weak, compared to the high ranking castes and only able to with stand small caliber fire arms (up to 38 Special).
Danger Level: Moderate
The Worker Caste will typically ignore intruders until or unless they have already been proven as a threat to the Hive itself. They have little intelligence, but are extremely fast and nimble. Their only attack is to slash or stab with their mantis claws which are powerful and strong enough to slash through flesh and weak leather armors easily. However a few power smashing stabs will also punch through even stronger metal armors.
Special Abilities: Salivary Excretions
Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with the darkness of other people. -Carl Jung
Post by Nyghtingale on Oct 23, 2015 0:15:07 GMT -5
The Warrior Caste
The Warrior caste bring a whole new level to the meaning beautiful but deadly. They have brilliant colors of blue and red, along with many others upon their carapaces to warn others of their dangerous nature. They have no other job but to protect the Hive at all costs, and are well equipped to do so. Their carapaces are heavy and quite capable of with standing everything except an armor piercing round, while their claws are easily able to slice through sheets of metal and bone like silly putty. They do not perform fancy tricks but will charge the enemy, usually two at a time followed with a few workers before getting in close and personal to slice and and dice any intruders in to the Hive on sight.
Danger Level: High
Special Abilities: None
Last Edit: Oct 23, 2015 0:15:20 GMT -5 by Nyghtingale
Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with the darkness of other people. -Carl Jung
Post by Nyghtingale on Oct 23, 2015 0:24:59 GMT -5
The Praetorian Caste
The Praetorian caste are horrific monsters of death. With a carapace able to with stand just about anything you can throw at it, they tower at eleven feet tall. They guard the Hive entrance, as well as any key locations with in the Hive. Specifically, they guard the Queen herself, with two guarding every entrance in to the Queen's chambers and several stationed about the room itself. They can not, like the lower worker and warrior caste, climb upon the walls and ceiling because of their weight. They attack at range with blast of acidic saliva, and in close combat they will attempt to slice through their opponents with mantis claws capable of ripping through inches of metal or by smashing their opponent with their massive front legs and pulverize them in to the ground. They have vestigial wings upon their backs, however are unable to fly anymore after mating season. Praetorian caste are the only males of the species, with workers and warriors being considered as infertile females. They are the lucky ones who get to breed the female, then protect her as she lays her eggs and directs the Hive.
Danger Level: Extreme Praetorian caste are extremely durable, able to with stand just about anything that is thrown at them. They are essentially living tanks, able to take the most brutish pounding while delivering the exact same. Their weakness is the slow maneuverability and size inside the Hive which limits them to almost a stationary spot.
Special Abilities: Ability to spew an acidic saliva
Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with the darkness of other people. -Carl Jung
Post by Nyghtingale on Oct 23, 2015 0:52:42 GMT -5
The Queen
The Queen is the heart and nervous system of the Hive. She is their goddess and their life. With out a Queen, the Hive would be thrown in to chaos and die. It is why every single member of the Hive would gladly sacrifice themselves for their Queen. The Queen is not only the most important member of the Hive, where she settles in the Royal Chamber in the very center and at the very bottom of the Hive but she is also potentially the most powerful. Queens are not simply made, they are born. A very extreme few Eggs will be laid, each with a potential Queen inside and are stored in a small special Hatchery directly below the Royal Chamber. Here, the eggs are keep cool and moist where they can sit and wait four years to hatch. The eggs will all hatch enmasse, and the larvae Queens are feed and cared for with out end until they pupae. Once they are pupated, the Queens hatch out directly past the Instar Stage in to a miniature worker like stage. They then begin to show their capabilities, with each Princess competing not only with the other Princessess, but with the true Queen herself. For the next two months, the Hive will be in a constant state of chaos with each Princess try to take over and subverting some Hive members to her will, until finally the Princesses leave the Hive. Each Princess will take the few Hive members she has subverted to herself, along with a Praetorian who will be her first guardian and mate (these are selected by battles between the Praetorians, but settled when then Princess chooses her own. The Princess with the most Hive members she has subverted gets her first choice and the Princess with the least gets the last choice), and leaves the Hive to begin building her own, where she will tunnel down with her cohort and begin building a new Hive. Here she will finally pupate again, and emerge a few weeks later as a fully mature Queen and begin to lay eggs.
Danger Level: Extraordinary
Queens are extremely different the rest of the Hive members. She is massive, at lengths as long as a school bus (for young Queens) to three or four school buses long. She is relies almost entirely upon her Hive for survival, dedicating her time to producing offspring and directing the Hive. However this by no means cause to underestimate the Queen, as she is just as lethal as the rest of her Hive. Her mantis like claws are easily powerful enough to rip open a tank, while her body is not as heavily armored as the Praetorians who guard her can easily withstand small arms fire. She is not very agile, but can run at amazing speeds by getting all of her legs moving together in unison. She is capable of understanding limited speech, or maybe it is simply the basic most simplistic of thoughts of the beings around her as it is presumed that she speaks to her Hive through some sort of Telepathy. Queens are extremely intelligent, capable of planning and fore thought and even limited conversation with other beings through simple thoughts and feelings. Rare is it to meet a Queen and survive such an encounter, but even more humbling would it be as the different, alien like consciousness before you shows a completely separate style of living that the rest of the species seem to have difficulty understanding.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with the darkness of other people. -Carl Jung