THE SWARM
Type Insect Omnivores
Habitat LV-KR 115, fertile grass and farm lands, or drifting through space
Size Around 15 centimeters each, but together they can form massive swarms a great many kilometers in diameter
Traits Swarm an area, consume everything there save for metals.
Dubbed space locusts by Colonial Marines, the Swarm either originated on or came to rest on planet LV-KR 115. For untold centuries they would ravage the grasslands for a season before going into hibernation for decades, only awakening when the lands were fertile once again. Between cycles, the company discovered the world and devised a method for creating self-replenishing crops there. The swarm awoke once more to devour everything. But with crops that could grow back after any attack, the swarm had no reason to go into hibernation. Instead their numbers grew exponentially until they blanketed the entire planet. The company was forced to bomb the planet with pesticides that rendered the planet uninhabitable. While severe in its solution, the problem was solved for LV-KR 115, but that was only the beginning. The term space locust seems to have been apt, as scientists have drawn a line across the Frontier of worlds that have suffered repeated ecological blights, and dormant swarms have been located adrift in deep space. It is possible that these insects drift in space for millennia before reaching new worlds to ravage. No one knows how many are out there, nor how many already lay dormant on fertile colony worlds, just waiting to wake up and begin the cycle again.
Habitat LV-KR 115, fertile grass and farm lands, or drifting through space
Size Around 15 centimeters each, but together they can form massive swarms a great many kilometers in diameter
Traits Swarm an area, consume everything there save for metals.
Dubbed space locusts by Colonial Marines, the Swarm either originated on or came to rest on planet LV-KR 115. For untold centuries they would ravage the grasslands for a season before going into hibernation for decades, only awakening when the lands were fertile once again. Between cycles, the company discovered the world and devised a method for creating self-replenishing crops there. The swarm awoke once more to devour everything. But with crops that could grow back after any attack, the swarm had no reason to go into hibernation. Instead their numbers grew exponentially until they blanketed the entire planet. The company was forced to bomb the planet with pesticides that rendered the planet uninhabitable. While severe in its solution, the problem was solved for LV-KR 115, but that was only the beginning. The term space locust seems to have been apt, as scientists have drawn a line across the Frontier of worlds that have suffered repeated ecological blights, and dormant swarms have been located adrift in deep space. It is possible that these insects drift in space for millennia before reaching new worlds to ravage. No one knows how many are out there, nor how many already lay dormant on fertile colony worlds, just waiting to wake up and begin the cycle again.
SWARM RULES
The size of a Swarm is measured in the number of zones it covers. The Speed rating of a Swarm is equal to the number of zones it covers. The Health of a Swarm is equal to 5 times the number of zones it covers. The Swarm cannot be killed. Victims can only flee from it or try to drive it off. If the Swarm’s Health drops to zero it has had enough and goes looking for easier pickings.CONTAINMENT AND TERMINATION PROTOCOL
Good luck. Try shooting them all you want, there are hundreds to take the place of every locust you might hit. In space, you can cook the dormant critters in your afterburners. Once planetside, fire, electrical conductivity, and lethal pesticides are the only means to deal with this spaceborne environmental menace.“Look at this beautiful thing! In all the systems we’ve ever cataloged we have never found anything larger than bacteria, but-but this … this is life. We found life.”
“Our first alien.”
Scientific Name
Voracia consumptus
Comments