Batboy

A bat spliced with human DNA to make it more intelligent, larger, and capable of assisting humans fight the alien invaders to take back Earth for its native populations.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Imagine a human-sized bat capable of bipedal human locomotion as well as flight, and you will imagine a Coalition Batboy.
They have a wingspan of over 6 meters (20ft) and their wing membrane stretches between their fingers, under their arms and to their ankles. They also have a membrane between their legs, incorporating the tail. Mutant Bats born in the coalition have their wing membrane removed from their legs and tails such that it connects to their torso only as far as their hips. This enables them to wear standard issue clothing on their lower bodies and open-sided tank tops on their upper bodies.

Biological Traits

As a heterothermic species, mutant bats are capable of lowering their metabolism during their downtime in ordert to save energy. It is in their nature to do this daily, but with their human DNA they don't need to do so. Having said that, most mutant bats enjoy lowering their metabolism as a means of relaxation, especially when they get to spend it in a cluster of other mutant bats in close physical contact.
The mutant bats call these clusters "sleepovers," but other coalition soldiers have taken to call these "orgies." The Batboys do not like this as it implies a sexual element that just isn't there.

Genetics and Reproduction

As with all mutant animals, they can only reproduce with other mutant bats.

Growth Rate & Stages

Mutant bats reach physical maturity in about four years, which is about twice as long as a Dog Boy, with another two more years needed for their mental and emotional maturity to follow.
Since they enter coalition service at about the age of six (6) they have a much simpler view of the world than a human recruit.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Mutant bats have an affinity for shellfish and large arthropods. They especially like anything that stings, as it brings a wonderful flavor that can't be reproduced any other way. They also have a sweet tooth and love syrupy sugary things.
Taverns that cater to BatBoys know to keep vials of venom on hand to put in their drinks.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Mutant Bats are social by nature. They enjoy being physically close to others during their downtime but prefer to hunt silently when on mission, which usually means alone, because they can literally hear everything. Because mutant bats enter service at at about age six, they still have a lot to learn. This severe lack of life experience results in a certain naive trust in whatever they learned from the Coalition. It also results in a potential culture shock should they ever come around to questioning what they've been told.

Domestication

Mutant bats come from the Pallid Bat of North America (Antrozous pallidus). The first choice of species was the Mexican Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) primarily because of its social tendancy to stay in large colonies and its superb echolocation abilities, but also because of its amazing airspeed. Of course, it helped that it was readily available to the scientists at the Lone Star facility. The coalition scientists were counting on this social aspect to provide a sense of pack loyalty similar to that of Dogboys. Unfortunately, it resulted in creatures too reliant on a large social structure. They suffered mental stress, poor performance, and outright cowardice if they did not take flight with at least a dozen others. The coalition's hopes for a natural flying soldier were dashed.
The pallid bat was the second choice because while it is also a highly social bat, sharing colonies with up to 100 others, it hunts alone. Found just to the west of Lone Star, these bats were also easily acquired. The pallid bat uses echolocation to fly and avoid obstacles, but does not use echolocation to hunt. It hunts by cruising low to the ground and pouncing silently on prey located using its superlative hearing. It turns out this was just what the coalition needed. The mutant bat program, Mk2, was a great success; harnessing the natural predator instinct of the bat's hunting style as well as its keen hearing. An unexpected boon of the pallid bat source genetics is its poison resistance. Apparently, the pallid bat's natural missense mutation means that most (natural) poisons have no effect on it. Another unexpected trait carried over with their pallid bat genetics is the collection of glands on their upper lip that emit a skunk-like scent. Luckily they only produce that scent in self defense and can control it.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

The coalition has learned to rely on its Batboys for night patrols and precision air raids. They are the only coalition force capable of flying at high speed through the Bullarum infested atmosphere at altitudes that would cripple a SAMAS.
They are trained to use conventional armaments with traditional telescopic sights at most and at handling grenades. They are also adept at using daggers and garrots for quick assassination-style kills from the air on unsuspecting ground targets.
In fact, Batboys have been so effective at removing lookouts, guards and sentries prior to a ground assault that the coalition's enemies across the continent have had to adopt anti-bat defensive measures.
Mutant bats are heavy for flight-capable creatures, so their gear must be minimal at best and they rarely wear anything more than plastic breast-plate armor when flying combat missions. Their wings are likewise unprotected and are an easy target. Because of this, Batboys are rarely employed in daytime missions or missions that can not take advantage of their stealth.

Facial characteristics

With the exception of their enormous ears, the heads of mutant bats are not too different from those of mutant dogs. They have an elongated snout with two pair of fangs and rather spiky molars.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

A product of Lone Star, Batboys are surprisingly far-flung. They do not possess the innate loyalty of Dog Boys so the idea to leave the coalition is far more likely to occur to them. Besides their jingoism, their desire to return to their roostmates is really the only thing keeping them coming back. As one might expect, if a batboy were to defect, it would usually do so with several members of its roost. With their freedom of flight, this has led to ex-coalition mutant bats scattered across the continent.
The largest non-coalition colony of mutant bats is in Tolkeen. There are also about a dozen or so in the Lyn-Srial settlements of the Grand Canyon area.

Average Intelligence

Mutant Bats are almost as intelligent as Dog Boys, which is to say almost as intelligent as an average human. Exceptionally intelligent mutant bats can be smarter than most humans in just the same way that exceptionally stupid humans can be less intelligent than most mutant bats.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The coalition wanted to harness a bat's echolocation ability to counter the magical darkness commonly used by humanity's foes. They got what they wanted.
Mutant Bats are capable of echolocation. One of the byproducts of the size of Bat Boys is that they are incapable of producing ultrasonic sounds above 30kHz. However, they make up for this with the ability of producing sounds within the human hearing range of less than 20kHz. This lower frequency allows them to map their surroundings out to 10 meters and detect objects as small as a grape out to 5 meters, which is a great improvement over their full-bat progenitors. Furthermore, they are capable of shouting louder than 120dB. A click at that volume is enough to distract or even stun someone nearby. Anyone with unprotected hearing is distracted up to 3 meters away. A single adjacent opponent can also be stunned with the same attack.
Their eyesight is poor, especially during the day. They have difficulty making out details beyond 100 meters and must wear sunglasses in bright light. Most batboys will install enhanced cybernetic eye replacements at some point in their service.

Civilization and Culture

Beauty Ideals

With large dark eyes and amazing corn-silk hair, mutant bats are eye-catching. If it weren't for their ludicrously enormous ears, and somewhat pronounced snout they would be on everyone's most attractive list.
And when they smile, their very sharp upper and lower fangs are there for all to see.

Gender Ideals

Mutant bats inherit their sexual dimorphism from their human genes alone. The presence of a pair of breasts is the first and sometimes only means of telling a female mutant bat from a male. There are other cues in the facial structure, such as a male's more prominant brow ridge that aid in this distinction.
Female mutant bats are therefore likely to wear eye makeup to help set them apart and it is not unheard of to see one redden her lips as well, although that is far less common.

Courtship Ideals

Male and female mutant bats will spend their downtime together, getting close and content to just be close. Humans would call it snuggling, but mutant bats do that with each other regardless of gender anyway. But as part of courtship, a male will find a female he likes and will make sure to be by her side. If the female approves of him, she will usually let him know during their next active time.

Relationship Ideals

Mutant bats inherited the social affinity of both their human and bat forebears. They pay little heed to insults and are quite content to jostle and compete for everything from the best place to sit down to the best mission assignments. As eager as they are to attain what they see as best for them, they are also just as eager to let it slide if they don't get it. Rarely will you hear a mutant bat feeling sorry for itself.
Because of this they make somewhat annoying yet very good friends.

Common Dress Code

Mutant Bats need to wear special wingsuits when they want to fly. Since they have had their wing membrane surgically removed from their lower bodies at birth, they need to wear a special suit that makes up for that loss in order to have an adequate amount of flying surface area to glide and control their movements. This suit is equipped with a membrane between their legs, incorporating the tail.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

A mutant bat can hear an insect walking from across the room. They have no trouble hearing anything someone would say to them, so it is very rare for them to raise their voices to each other. in fact, they usually communicate to each other at volumes and frequencies too low for humans to even hear.

Common Taboos

Don't flick the ears of a mutant bat. Just don't.

History

After the success of the mutant dog program, the scientists at Lone Star looked to see what other animals they could recruit to help push back the supernatural hordes. Bats were their very next choice, since the lack of an aerial combat force was the Coalition's most glaring weakness. After several unsuccessful attempts, the mutant bat program became a notable success.

A Pallid Bat, the genetic source for the Coalition's Mutant Bat program:

Pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) by Merlin Tuttle

Names

Bat Boys tend to like adopting comfortable and traditional names (I use popular names from the 1920's)

• Sophie
• Thaddeus
• Belvedere
• Heathcliff
• Zelda
• Ethel
• Daisy
• Buchanan
• Myrtle
• George
• Meyer
• Gladys
• Virginia (Ginnie)
• Rose
• Walter
• Arthur
• William
• Francis
• Roy
• Gertrude
• Mabel
• Nellie
• Mattie
• Hattie
• Eugene
• Edgar
• Chester
• Floyd
• Maude
• Flora
• Oliver
• Sibyl

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  Scientific Name

  Antrozous Pallidus Sapiens
  Lifespan

  30 years
  Average Height

  1.5 to 1.7 meters (5 to 5-1/2 feet)
  Average Weight

  50kg (110 lbs)
  Average Physique

  Slim with a powerful chest, mutant bats look almost cartoonishly top-heavy.
  Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

  All mutant bats have silky golden blond hair. In a nod to their human DNA, the hair on their heads is long and flowing and their faces are mostly hairless (except for the peach fuzz found on all human faces), while their bat DNA gives them short but soft fur over the rest of their body.