The Swarm

“You might feel invincible after trainin’, but this is real life now, and it ain’t nothin’ like your precious little simulations. Ain’t no test scores here, and ain’t no do-overs. If those monsters bring you down, chances are you won’t be gettin’ back up. They might look like nothing more than big bugs— Hells, they might even act like it—but they’re not. No way. No more’n I am. They might not be smarter than you, or faster than you, or even stronger than you, but by Hylax, they are meaner than you! Don’t think twice about killin’ ’em. You can bet your nethers they’re not thinkin’ twice about killin’ you.” —Zinka Tan, SDF drill instructor

There are races that live in balance with their ecosystem, and then there are those that consume it, devouring everything in mindless expansion. Such is the case with the Swarm.
Originally called the kucharn, the race now called the Swarm evolved as a series of hives, each colony a collective consciousness in which the individual bug-like components acted as drones, without agency of their own. Efficient, voracious predators, each worshiping its own patron deity, the hives competed constantly with each other, until one learned the trick of subsuming another colony’s intelligence into its own. This new collective quickly overwhelmed the others, and before long it had stripped its birth planet bare with its reflexive hunger. This might have been the end of the Swarm, had it not come to understand the principles of spaceflight. Tearing itself apart into component pieces, rising above its all-consuming hunger to twist its own genome, it crafted biological warships capable of carrying it through the stars, descending on world after world to devour, destroy, and absorb.
The Swarm’s millions of individual units remain divided into subcolonies with a certain degree of autonomy, but like the drones themselves, their decisions are more akin to complex programmed reflexes than true thought, constantly overridden by the directives of the master identity. While they’re capable of operating independently when sent out on scouting missions, both individuals and entire subcolonies are subsumed into the gestalt when they return within telepathic range of the hive. The overarching Swarm consciousness—while capable of nigh-unimaginable data processing, leaps of induction, and even the ability to slowly modify its own biology to create powerful weapons—remains fundamentally unreasonable due to an overwhelming, instinctive impulse to blindly expand and devour. Attempts to negotiate with the Swarm always fail, and only massive force can deter it from descending on a world and stripping it of biological material before moving on. In its view, every other organism in the universe represents a threat, and all threats must be destroyed.
Strange, then, that a freak mutation should lead one subcolony to split off and flee its ravager-parent, becoming the peace-loving Shirren. While all races rightly fear the arrival of the Swarm in their space, shirrens find the idea of being once more subsumed into the Swarm’s hive mind even worse than the prospect of annihilation.

Basic Information

Ecology and Habitats

Similar in physiology to insects and other arthropods, Swarm components have chitinous exoskeletons and segmented bodies. Most have multijointed digitigrade limbs, although some components have adapted these body parts into specialized forms. Beyond these fundamentals, the Swarm species is only vaguely homogeneous. Within the species are thousands of evolutionary branches, most engineered to serve specific purposes. Forms vary widely depending on a component’s role in the hive. The most numerous components are humanoid in shape, with multiple limbs used as arms or legs, or both. These insectile aliens come in forms as varied as the squat, beetle-like generator drone to the ferocious, winged thresher lord, up to starship-sized components.
Few species in the galaxy can hold a candle to the Swarm’s uncanny ability to adapt. The Swarm does more than acclimate or modify for success—it has the fascinating and terrifying ability to isolate the DNA of anything it consumes and integrate various aspects into the Swarm genome. This talent is similar to that of Castrovel's ksarik, but the Swarm’s assimilation is more complete and longer lasting. The Swarm also finds applications for harvested genes, in combination with preexisting arrangements, that lead to entirely new components.
This assimilative genetic ability isn’t limited to only intelligent or complex prey. The Swarm can just as easily incorporate a plant’s ability to photosynthesize food and a fish’s ability to breathe underwater. When a Swarm component subsumes any prey’s DNA, the genome is taken back to the hive to be analyzed. Components known as programmers access and isolate various aspects of the DNA, learning to activate or deactivate sections as desired. Programmed Swarm larvae then mature into forms that employ a mix of traits the Swarm finds useful. It’s this ability that led to the multifarious varieties of Swarm components and their living biotech. Using this biotechnology, the Swarm has genetically modified its components to provide any and all of the hive’s needs. Further, the Swarm maintains genetic records to allow recombination into new forms as its needs evolve.
Even though the Swarm has a spoken language, which shirrens also speak, components rarely speak aloud. Among one another, components communicate via a mix of body language, pheromones, and telepathy. Some components use pheromones to communicate simple concepts, the most common being a warning of danger, while others can use pheromones against other species, deploying chemicals to instill false emotions, such as terror. Body language is used to convey messages that are more complex, such as directions to a location. Multifaceted communication requires more effort and most often relies on telepathic contact. It is through the combination of these forms of communication that a hive mind is formed. This communal mind can allow thousands of components to operate in a synchronous, wavelike manner as they each respond to the same stimuli in a chain of communication.
The Swarm doesn’t experience emotions in the same manner that most other species do. One component has no affinity for another—each is merely an appendage of a greater whole. Swarm warriors feel no hatred or anger toward their foes, only fearsome determination. Components fear neither pain nor death. Each component knows and seeks to fulfill its purpose, with each component working toward the Swarm’s overarching goal to consume and assimilate. Although many components are sapient and capable of communication with other species, the Swarm views other beings only in terms of its goals. It’s rare for any objective to require cooperation from non-Swarm species. Most components can’t be bargained with, and an alliance can be formed only when the Swarm’s aims align well with a given proposal. However, anyone who allies with the Swarm can be certain they’ll be betrayed as soon as the Swarm’s needs or goals change. The Swarm seems as unconcerned with its reputation as it is with losing millions of individuals to a conflict. Ultimately, the Swarm always does what’s best for the Swarm, including consuming its own dead.
Some think this callousness makes Swarm components little better than mindless monsters. However, these creatures form a complex commune concerned with only its own survival and ascension, and as such they act neither cruelly nor needlessly. (Those who have survived a Swarm attack might disagree with both claims.) The Swarm simply operates without morality or concern for anyone or anything outside its hierarchy and resource needs.
The Swarm also exists, seemingly, to grow. Scientists say the Swarm expands its number in a variety of ways. Certainly, evidenced by programmer components and vast instances of chromosomal manipulation, the Swarm uses genetic engineering. Some components reproduce through cloning, while others are known, through vivisection and postmortem dissection, to have the ability to reproduce sexually or asexually. Some can change sex to fertilize their own eggs. Popular among nonacademics is the possibility of the Swarm having “queen” components that exist to lay eggs and expand the species, but no firsthand accounts exist of these theoretical queens. In any case, most Swarm components exhibit no distinct sex or gender, externally or internally.
Swarm programmers are vital to the reproduction and development of other Swarm components. Whenever nests of Swarm eggs and larvae have been discovered, programmer components have been present. Programmers not only care for and protect the growing larvae, but they also edit their genomes, each using its syringe-like proboscis to activate and deactivate genes, ensuring larvae develop into a desired component. Components that act as genetic repositories work in partnership with programmers, essentially serving as curated banks of DNA from subjects the Swarm has consumed.
Swarm larvae develop substantially faster than the young of most other species, reaching full maturity within as little as 60 hours. Once its genome is edited, the larva rapidly transitions into a brief pupal stage. During this time, the larva’s body completely liquefies within its cocoon, reorganizing into a fully matured component. When larger conglomerations of components are needed, such as to form a living starship, entire groups of larvae are programmed together, each maturing for the role it needs to take. In some cases, the transformation causes the larva to lose anything resembling individuality and mobility, becoming more like a part of a living machine or device than an individual being. Pact Worlds labs have found that larvae allowed to mature without genetic editing eventually become programmers.
Exactly how the Swarm decides to program larvae is also unknown. However, the hive mind allows a given arm of the Swarm to understand its needs with great speed and efficiency. In times of war, which means almost always, scouts—especially mindreapers and similar components—return with genetic material and information directly from the minds of potential foes. The Swarm uses this collected intelligence to inform its needs in the upcoming conflict.

Additional Information

Social Structure

The Swarm is of one mind and one purpose, and its society’s hierarchy is based on purpose and efficiency rather than politics or status. Every component is optimized for its role and duty in the Swarm’s primary drive to conquer and consume. The Swarm views every other species—plant, animal, monster, or person—as a target for consumption. Its society centers on the principle of defeating resistance, devouring resources, and harvesting DNA. This stored genetic material is, in a way, the only record the Swarm keeps of its conquests.
Only advanced civilizations have a chance against the Swarm’s biotech and adaptive abilities. Few living beings can effectively resist the species, much less pose a substantial threat to it. Despite this, the Swarm is ruthless in its application of overwhelming force. The Swarm hits hard and fast, and then acts to accomplish its short-term goals with brutal efficiency.
Species that fight back against the Swarm rarely succeed. No one believes success, such as The Pact Worlds and The Veskarium recently enjoyed, indicates the Swarm is truly defeated. The Swarm’s numbers are always growing, and the creatures’ ability to quickly adapt to any situation means the Swarm inevitably evolves in ways that allow it to outmaneuver foes. Military leaders in the Pact Worlds and the Veskarium trust the Swarm is only regrouping, evaluating its defeat at the alliance’s hands and rebuilding for another, more overwhelming offensive.
Although a unified species, the entire Swarm doesn’t remain together in one region of space. Instead, units of the Swarm, called subcolonies, separate to travel to various targets. In the Pact Worlds and Veskarium’s war against the Swarm, the initial battles occurred in both nations at nearly the same time as separate subcolonies attacked each region. Authorities have assumed that the loss of too many individuals from each of these subcolonies is what caused the Swarm to retreat. However, even the most optimistic military leaders do not doubt the Swarm has replenished its losses from the war and is now biding its time, waiting for the next opportunity to attack.
One reason for the Swarm’s rapaciousness is its unbridled growth. It uses all its resources to expand both the quantity and diversity of its components. All Swarm machines are such components as well—the Swarm travels in living starships and invades feeder worlds in such vessels or from larger craft via living dropships. Specialized components serve other roles in invasions. One example of a utility component is the mining unit known as an extraction drone. An enormous, ticklike creature, the drone latches onto a planet and removes its mineral resources, storing material within its body for later use. Another example is the smaller generator drone. This round, beetle-like component uses insulated glands throughout its innards to absorb environmental energy from a multitude of sources: light, heat, electricity, and so on. That energy is then converted into emanations that other Swarm components can use for nourishment instead of consuming biological material. Generator drones are used mainly to feed Swarm components during extended periods of space travel or to power larger Swarm machines that couldn’t otherwise receive enough nutrients through normal feeding.
The Swarm has no need for manufactured weapons, as Swarm programmers simply create weaponized components. Either a component intended for war is born with martial capabilities, or symbiotic components join together to form a fighting unit that acts as one body and mind. In some cases, specialized components act as doctors, surgeons, or engineers. These specialists facilitate the symbiosis that allows the Swarm to create conglomerate components, from assault vehicles to starships.
Weapons can range as much in size and variety as do the various subspecies of the Swarm. A corrovox’s acid-spewing arm cannon is a separate Swarm component grafted onto the corrovox. Conversely, a mindreaper’s arm spike is an inborn weapon. Some components can be modified to function as equipment for other species. Crafty and brave (or foolhardy) salvagers sometimes follow the Swarm to harvest organic weapons from active conflict zones before the Swarm can consume its dead. An extensive gray market exists for Swarm biotech, although this tech is illegal (and thus black-market material) in some places.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

The Swarm is nomadic, each subcolony concerning itself only with its own targets, moving from world to world and system to system. If the Swarm seems to be holding territory, that’s only because it has yet to accomplish its intent in an area—something remains that the Swarm wants. Once the Swarm has gathered all the resources in a star system, including the genetic material there, it leaves, and little of value remains. Soon after, the Swarm attacks another target.
Its nomadic nature, coupled with its high adaptability, means the Swarm can be found virtually anywhere in the galaxy. Though it rarely settles as a whole, the Swarm has been known to use stripped feeder worlds for nesting, especially for extensive component-building projects, such as new starships. The species prefers cold, rocky planets for this purpose, and it usually nests underground or in deep craters, canyons, or sinkholes. Those components required to program and care for the eggs and larvae remain. After the larvae transform into desired components, the whole group leaves to rejoin the hive.
Since no arm of the Swarm holds any permanent domain, it’s hard to tell how far the species has spread. Given its coldblooded efficiency, the Swarm might have established footholds across the entire galaxy, but no definitive data exist to make a determination on this speculation. Any civilization sophisticated enough to have a means of tracking the Swarm rarely survives contact with the creatures long enough to disseminate any meaningful information to others.
However, it is a well-known fact that the Swarm avoids a specific star system in The Vast that has also proven dangerous to other visitors. Named Yebeon, this system consists of seven planets, four of which harbor simple life. The resource-rich system is a perfect target for the Swarm, and several subcolonies have targeted nearby systems in the same star cluster. More than a few explorers have traveled to Yebeon to learn why the Swarm has circumvented it, most hoping to discover something there that can be used to deter Swarm attacks, if not defeat it entirely. None have returned. Garbled comm signals from Yebeon are the only evidence that anyone has ever reached the system or the planets there.

Civilization and Culture

Major Organizations

The Swarm exhibits no obvious factions or castes. Each component serves as a cog in the central machine—and a well-oiled machine it is. For all its violence, the Swarm suffers no internal bickering or strife. Each component is optimized for its task and exists for a specific purpose in the Swarm’s seemingly simple scheme. The species is, however, split into distinct branches of components grouped together to fulfill a unified purpose.
Scouting forces consist of quick, stealthy, and tactically minded components. These forces travel the galaxy in search of feeder worlds, bringing back gathered intelligence to the main subcolony. Often encountered in groups without other military components, Swarm scouts serve as a dire omen. People who find such forerunners on a planet do well to ensure the creatures fail to return home, but even then, it might be too late—the fate of the world is likely to be already decided. When inhabitants of a world find only evidence of Swarm components that have already left the planet, a larger Swarm invasion is inevitable.
The Swarm’s military components serve as invasion troops. Heavily armed and armored forces take major targets and overwhelm local defenses, while weaker components work in numbers to pacify softer targets and mop up after major assaults. Engineer components solidify supply lines and establish bases, working with the military units to cordon off areas for resource harvesting. Major military components are often large and frightening. Thresher lords are, for example, shock troops meant not only to flay foes but also to demoralize them. Tank-like dissolvers spray fiery acid, inflicting horrifying burns. Corrovoxes and similar Swarm components make up the rank-and-file units of the invasion legions.
The Swarm also has a branch of utility components. Living starships that serve the Swarm fall into this category, as do its nesting components, including programmers, which control population. These components form a “working class” that consists of those meant to provide services for their kin. Such components can be like automatons or machines. Those components in this class that can’t fight back against attackers also don’t attempt to flee from danger, and biologists debate whether these components are even sentient.
As the Swarm continues to ravage the galaxy and integrate aspects of its victims, there’s no telling where its constant evolution might take the species next. However, it seems that the Swarm’s harvesting of genetic material for forced evolution isn’t always beneficial to its purpose. It’s possible that such aberrant assimilation led to the shirrens’ split from the Swarm. Notorious defectors from the hive, these Swarm variants mysteriously gained their own sense of individualism and, upon realizing the horror of their species’ voracity, fled to cultivate harmony with other species. Some malfunction in the Swarm’s next alteration might spawn another distinctive branch that wishes to defect, or worse, decides to break the hive mind or even destroy the Swarm. If any creatures might be able to hold their own against the Swarm, it’s those from within the hive itself. Some of the Swarm’s foes hope for such a new aberration, as it might be the only hope of an ultimate end to the Swarm’s threat.

History

The ravenous, locustlike Swarm began in the distant past as a species known as kucharns—a simple, low-tech society of intelligent insectile creatures who occupied a small planetoid in the Vast. This kucharn home world was the fourth planet from its star and the only one harboring life in the system. On this world were a number of distinct hive societies, each with a distinct unified consciousness, culture, and societal hierarchy. The hives skirmished with one another over limited territory and waning resources on their tiny planet, but no one hive ever overtook and exterminated another.
Despite millennia of war culling their numbers, the kucharn population continued to grow, and their home world neared the limit of its ability to sustain them. Then, everything changed: one hive developed the ability to assimilate the knowledge and DNA of those it consumed. It’s still unknown to anyone, perhaps even to the Swarm, from where this capability sprang. Some scholars theorize kucharns have always undergone rapid evolution in competition with one another, and that this new adaptation was a new phase of the species’ biological arms race. Many scientists believe one hive made a leap in systematic genetic manipulation. Fringe intellectuals and pessimistic mystics suspect interference from a powerful (and likely evil) extraplanar being, such as a demon lord.
Whatever the cause of the alteration, this newfound aptitude gave the augmented hive the power to overwhelm the others. It destroyed and consumed its enemies, optimizing its individual members as they inherited new, enhanced capabilities from the DNA of their prey. This hive eventually tipped the power structure in its own favor, wresting control of the entire planet. In short order, it had completely eradicated rival hives.
The new kucharn had an insatiable appetite for prey and resources. Despite their newly enforced unity, they quickly consumed their home world’s resources. With the knowledge and experiences of millions of individuals now working in tandem in a single hive mind, the species evolved rapidly. Unified focus allowed kucharns to master a unique version of biotechnology. As they outgrew their planet, kucharns took to spaceflight and began dismantling other worlds in their native system. Those resources dwindled as well, but the voracious kucharn set their sights on the stars and the countless lush worlds among them.
Limited speeds in astrogation isolated kucharns in their corner of the galaxy. Although living kucharn starships could hibernate over centuries, carrying other kucharn in suspended animation to nearby systems, the larger galaxy was out of reach. Then came the Signal. A generation of kucharn was born to the dream of the Drift. Among these, some were engineered as symbiotic Drift engines that could incorporate themselves into existing kucharn starships. In such living carriers, kucharns leaped across the void to consume and assimilate. With Drift beacons appearing and being constructed all over, the galaxy became more and more open to kucharn dominance. Species that ran afoul of kucharns dubbed them “the Swarm” for both their insectile appearance and their overwhelming onslaughts.
Life-containing planets, which the Swarm calls “feeder worlds,” are primary targets as the Swarm moves from system to system. When the Swarm arrives, it attacks any sites of potential resistance first. Then, conquest assured, the Swarm consumes everything it can use, wasting nothing and storing what isn’t immediately needed. When the Swarm leaves a system, only husks resembling planets are left. The devastation is often complete, leaving nothing useful or animate behind.
The Swarm and its hive mind continue to evolve. Its ability to incorporate new DNA as it consumes various flora and fauna allows the Swarm to continually optimize. It develops new individuals—components, as they are named among the Swarm—for specialized roles. As it erases more and more life from existence, the Swarm continually grows in size, diversity, and power.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Threat of a Swarm invasion is a distant but always looming worry on the minds of most sapient species throughout the galaxy. It has been only a little more than 2 decades since a Swarm invasion forced the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds into an alliance. Two major powers made peace in an ongoing war to push back the onslaught, proving the Swarm is not to be taken lightly. It is an insatiable, ever-growing force that can evolve and adapt to nearly every situation. Cynics believe defeating the Swarm once and for all is impossible, and that other species must be content with holding the Swarm back for as long as possible. To such fatalists, the consumption and assimilation of the entire galaxy is merely a matter of time for the unstoppable scourge that is the Swarm.