by Mark Latham
Hive- Beasts of Klaatu VI
The Outer Arm of the galaxy has long been thought of as an untapped frontier – a vast stretch of systems, some almost certainly habitable, with untouched alien resources. Unfortunately, those worlds are located beyond some of the largest asteroid belts ever encountered, and so perilously close to unstable red giants and several black holes that FTL jumps along the Outer Arm are hazardous and sometimes deadly. For this reason, STAR Industries were reluctant to fully explore the outer reaches, leaving the way open for their competitors to seize the initiative, if only they could hold their nerve.
The first mega-corporation to successfully explore the fringe of the Outer Arm was Ramirez Hyperdrive, later renamed Cygnus AeroTech after a series of mergers with colonial mining corporations and military contractors. Their initial forays into the far reaches of the galaxy were rewarded when they colonized the Cygnus system – a venture so successful that the five terraformed planets are on the cusp of achieving Core World status.
The most lucrative expanse of space on the Outer Arm, however, was the sub-sector secreted within the vase Klaatu Nebula. From their newly established system, Cygnus AeroTech began to assemble an exploratory fleet that could negotiate this treacherous expanse and harvest the wealth of alien minerals that lay within it. This would, they hoped, acquire them power and wealth to finally rival STAR Industries. They poured resources into the project, risking almost everything to crack one of the largest unexplored regions of space. And they succeeded, up to a point.
Into the Nebula
The Klaatu Nebula is actually the critical region between several overlapping gaseous bodies, and is one of the largest nebulae in the Outer Arm. Cygnus
A recent battle on the fringe world of Remura confirmed a potentially new strain of ‘Gun-Beast’. These large bugs fire gobbets of a napalm-like substance from their distended abdomens over incredible distances.
AeroTech, after several years of study, were able to navigate a path beyond the nebula, establishing a system of hyperspace beacons as they went, creating a safe path for future FTL jumps. This task took several years, but once completed it allowed manned expeditions into the systems beyond. What they found was a treasure trove of virgin worlds, ripe for the taking. The most promising system was named for the nebula itself – the Klaatu system – and long-range sensors had picked up high orichalcum, platinum, and thorium concentrations across the system, and identified at least two worlds in the habitable zones with water deposits. Before long massive mining and terraforming rigs were making their way towards the 12-planet system, light years ahead of any other corporation in what would surely become an interstellar gold-rush.
It was while conducting orbital examination of the super-giant Klaatu VI that a startling discovery was made, namely that the planet was not only ripe for terraforming, but also fostered alien life. Lessons of the past had taught mankind to proceed with caution in such circumstances, and eventually an endo-atmospheric exploration team was assembled to investigate the planet from the air, taking recordings and detailed scans as they went.
As the first expeditionary force passed over a mountainous region, they began to pick up multiple life-signs, increasing in number as the shuttle’s altitude dropped. Sweeping lower for another pass through a steep valley, lined by towering, conical rock formations, the crew finally confirmed visual contact – bugs. This news was met with utter dismay by the orbiting command vessel – contact with alien bugs prior to that point had never gone well, and these ones looked no better. They were akin to large crustaceans, scuttling about the mountainsides in droves, eyestalks waving and claws snapping in the air at the shuttle’s approach. The exploratory mission was recalled, and the shuttle began its ascent – and that’s when things took a turn for the worse.
As the shuttle climbed passed the strange conical mountain peaks, the crew noticed hundreds of small caves pock-marking the surface of the rock. From these, clouds of flying bugs began to swarm, and, too late, the crew realized that the mountains were not truly mountains at all, but gigantic nests harboring the strange aliens of Klaatu VI – bug-built structures resembling cyclopean termite mounds.
The creatures swarmed the shuttle, clogging the engines in thickening waves, until finally the crew were forced to crash land further along the valley floor. A distress beacon was erected, and the command ship, ATSS Compass Rose, received a brief transmission informing them that the shuttle crew were heading north, away from the mountainous hives.
Following standard protocol, the Compass Rose immediately sent word to the nearest STAR marine company, operating some 2,000 light years away. The Compass Rose sent full clearance to allow the marines to use their newly laid beacon network, and waited. The unthinkable happened – after checking in with STAR Command, the marines refused to respond. Thousands of light years away, via light-squeezed transmissions, a tense round of corporate negotiations began between STAR Industries and Cygnus AeroTech, in which STAR refused to send their marines into rival corporate territory without first agreeing a contract with an astronomical remuneration clause. The talks came to a standstill, at which point the captain of the Compass Rose, Helena Bergstrom, took matters into her own hands and organized a security detail to rescue the shuttle crew.
Landing an estimated safe distance from the hives and encountering minimal hostiles, the security detail set about tracking the shuttle crew, eventually tracing their ID blips to a remote crystal stalagmite forest. This in itself was of great interest to the landing party, who gathered a few samples of the strange rock before continuing their mission.
Finally, the ID blips led the security detail to a range of low hills, and a deep burrow where the shuttle crew had evidently crawled. With no comms response, the detail had little option but to investigate. Deep below ground, they found four survivors of the recon shuttle crew, their eyes strange and white, their minds seemingly useless. They twitched and moaned like zombies, and seemed to have lost all control of their higher functions. The security detail were about to carry the crewmen bodily from the cave when they were disturbed by a violent tremor from deeper below ground. A huge sinkhole opened in the center of the chamber, and a massive bug erupted through it – a larval, worm-like creature, at least 13 feet in diameter, with a gaping mouth filled with row after row of razor-sharp teeth. As soon as the first shots were fired, the creature emitted a high-pitched squeal that caused massive hemorrhaging in the closest men, forcing the remainder to flee the scene. From every side-tunnel, large, crab-like monsters scuttled out in pursuit, and after a running firefight with the creatures only two men made it back to the retrieval boat alive. As the suns dropped below the horizon, the entire planet seemed to spring alive with scuttling black shapes. The retrieval boat jetted away, shooting its way through a storm of flying crustaceans, and returning badly damaged to the Compass Rose, with a skeleton crew.
Captain Bergstrom had barely relayed news of the bizarre ambush by the bugs when her ship went into red alert. In minutes, fires raged across the vessel, and gunfire sounded in every corridor. The returning retrieval boat had brought with it deadly cargo – reddish ooze stuck to the hull, in which writhed hundreds of small, psychic larvae. Wriggling their way into the ship, they crawled into the ears and noses of sleeping crewmen, hijacking their neural functions and turning them against their comrades. These bug-controlled crewmen quickly began to transmit the horrific alien virus to their colleagues, vomiting worm-infested blood onto uncontaminated crew and bringing them swiftly under their synaptic control. Within an hour, the ship’s destruct sequence had been activated, and detonated, blasting the Compass Rose in half and sending the huge vessel crashing to the surface of Klaatu VI in flames.
Soldier-Beasts are large and powerful, a mass of talons, mandibles and crushing claws, protected by a thick carapace. They are carrion feeders, and can often be found clearing battlefields of the dead – both their own and the enemy’s.
Let the Bug Hunt Commence
; With the loss of the Compass Rose, Cygnus AeroTech lost heart in their negotiations with STAR Industries. STAR, on the other hand, were even more determined to wrest additional mining rights in the Klaatu system from Cygnus, as the discovery of the strange crystal mineral on the planet’s surface represented a sizeable scientific and fiscal opportunity. And so finally Cygnus relented, giving up valuable mining rights, and at long last the STAR marines were dispatched to the Klaatu Nebula – four full expeditionary units, including two from the famous 5th Arcturian Regiment, were sent with a list of prioritized standing orders: retrieve samples of the crystalline rock, capture a bug specimen for further study, and search the planet for survivors of the Compass Rose.
The marines touched down just two klicks from the Compass Rose’s tail section, and instantly set up firebases and field HQ. Three platoons were sent towards the wreckage in Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs), following the plumes of smoke that still smoldered a week after the crash. The remaining marines were split into patrols to search the surrounding landscape for mineral deposits and enemy activity.
Heading northeast towards the original contact site, it was two platoons of the Arcturian 5th that first encountered hostiles. Skirting the perimeter of the smallest hive-zone, they’d hoped to go undetected, but the heavy wheels of their Timberwolf APCs created enough ground disturbance to attract unwelcome attention. The large, crab-like bugs described by the exploration party scuttled from every cave-mouth, massive claws snapping in the air as they bore down on the marines. Carbine-fire bounced off the bugs’ thick, patterned carapaces. Grenades, although effective at slowing the bugs down, only seemed to attract more of their ilk as the explosions tore through the earth. As the intensity of the swarm increased, the marines fell back to their APCs and sped away from the mounds as fast as they could, eventually outstripping the bugs for speed. Unfortunately, they didn’t get far before a seismic disturbance ahead caused the APCs to ditch. A smaller bug patrol climbed from the newly opened fissure and began to smash into the APCs, battering them with their massive chitinous shoulders and tearing at them with huge crab-like claws. Uncertain of how long the APCs’ armor would hold, the marine specialists on board donned powered exo-suits and deployed outside, taking the fight to the bugs.
While one exo-suit specialist set about righting the APCs, the other three waded into close-quarter combat against the aliens. With their power-assisted servos, the exo-suit troopers proved the physical equal of the bugs, while their inbuilt flamethrowers, carbines, and grenade packs made up for their lack of numbers. The bugs’ massive claws proved capable of tearing through exo-suit armor plating, but the marines’ combat training gave them the tactical advantage. Three suits stood against more than 20 bugs, desperately buying their platoon enough time to get underway. Only once the APCs were good to go did the exo-suit specialists disengage, one of them irreparably damaged. Fire support troopers wielding heavy auto-carbines and railguns – the only weapons capable of penetrating the crab-beasts’ thick chitin armor – laid down covering fire. Even as the marines got underway and left the bugs behind, the sky behind them began to darken as swarms of flying aliens flocked from the distant hives. The beasts were nothing if not tenacious.
Elsewhere, the other platoons were also running into trouble. At the wreckage of the Compass Rose, three platoons drawn from the 3rd and 7th Magellan regiments forced their way into the huge sundered vessel. Picking their way through the dark, twisted corridors of the wreck, the fireteams picked up multiple vital signs from somewhere near the reactor room. Upon approach, a group of crewmen in engineering uniforms stumbled from the darkness towards them. The first fireteam attempted to escort the survivors to safety, realizing too late that they were no longer fully human, but were instead infected with virulent worm-hatchlings. The crew shambled forward, rapidly followed by more, who had previously been thought dead. Soon, every corpse in the engineering section was climbing to its feet and attacking the marines.
The marines on point were quickly overwhelmed – the press of bodies piled onto them, vomiting black blood over them. Unable to tell if any of the remaining life-signs were from genuine survivors or infected, Corporal Zander of the 7th Magellan gave the order to pull back. Retreating in good order, the marines quickly found that carbine fire did little to stop the infected crew unless direct head-shots were scored. Flamethrowers were brought up to the front, and any marine carrying a shotgun or frag pistol moved to the rear to blast apart their pursuers.
Outside, the marines realized that they’d been treading through hazardous material, likely containing microscopic bug larvae. That they were carrying parasitic organisms on their persons became the least of their worries, however, as larger, fatter larvae began to wriggle from the storeys-high wreckage, forcing their fat bodies from every hatch and crevice until they rained down onto the marines. Those stationed outside opened fire, but many of the larvae burrowed quickly underground only to re-emerge beneath the marines’ feet, biting through their fatigues with razor-sharp fangs. The marines scrambled back to their APCs in disarray, firing at a writhing mass of tunneler worms as they went. The crew, now zombies in thrall to the bugs, staggered from the ruins, throwing themselves onto the APCs. Worse still, the marines who had been lost inside the wreckage also emerged, their eyes white, firing their weapons at former comrades. With men down, and a serious risk of contamination, the marines high-tailed it back to the firebase.
It was the same for every patrol. The bugs had attacked anyone who had drawn close to their territory, driving them off with overwhelming numbers, and finally pursuing them across the rocky steppe. At the firebase, the marines regrouped in time to see bugs scurrying across the plain from every direction, and tens of thousands more approaching from the air. The marines set up long-ranged emplacements and fired relentlessly into the swarms while they waiting for air support to pick them up. As they fought, their own wounded began to turn, attacking them from within the base. As the battle raged, Corporal Zander found himself the most senior officer in the expedition, and gave the order to withdraw, leaving any wounded behind and abandoning masses of hardware.
Worker-Beasts, dubbed ‘death-shrimps’ by marines, are the builders of the gigantic hives in which their species lives. Akin to gigantic hornets, or winged shrimps, their tails are tipped with a wasp-like sting, capable of injecting one of the most virulent neuro-toxins ever encountered by mankind.
Infection
Back on board the cruisers, the medical teams worked around the clock to quarantine and screen every marine who had been planetside. Some quickly developed second-stage infections and were frozen in cryo-sleep to stop the alien virus from spreading. Any gear that had come into contact with the strange, worm-infested ooze was fired out of an airlock. Three Demeter-class cruisers full of potentially infected marines were sent back to the nearest STAR Command facility for further study, while one – the MSS Mako – remained to patrol the sector, forming a temporary Star Marine Expeditionary Unit (SMEU) from the surviving marines.
The STAR science and tech division discovered that the infectious larvae begin as microscopic organisms, and quickly grow into caterpillar-sized grubs. Those that do not find a host body to control continue to grow, until eventually they reach prodigious size – they are undoubtedly the same strain as the large tunneling worms encountered by the Cygnus exploration team. The creatures are aggressive and intelligent, displaying a strong sense of self-preservation. When they reach larger sizes, their ability to control biological organisms becomes remote – a psychic ability that intensifies the older the bug becomes. At adult stage, they quickly turn on each other, devouring their kin in order to grow stronger and, it is theorized, start their own hive. These bugs, although completely androgynous, were dubbed Queen-Beasts, and their species became known as Hive-Beasts (Xeno Praesepes Bellua).
REVENANT SLAVE-HOSTS
The most terrifying aspect of facing the Hive-Beasts of Klaatu VI is their ability to turn marine against marine,
and take full control of a human’s neural processes. At a basic level, this control is asserted through infection with the aliens’ blood or specially secreted synaptic fluid. These fluids contain tens of thousands of parasitic worms, which are the first stages in the development of the Queen-Beasts. As these worms enter the bloodstream, they take full control of the host’s hemocoel, flooding the body with neural suppressants, in turn allowing the parasites to latch onto the dorsal root ganglia and take complete control of a person’s bodily functions. If allowed to grow outside of a host body, the microscopic worms soon become small grubs, themselves able to burrow into a victim and pump more micro-parasites into the host’s system. Although the “brainworms” are not in themselves intelligent until they reach full maturity, they use their powers to induct a victim into the nest’s “hive mind,” forcing the host to act to defend the hive at all costs.
The host, while unable to access memories or even feel pain under the influence of the brainworms, does seem to pass on knowledge and training to the hive mind – psychically “possessed” marines can utilize all of their equipment and weaponry, albeit clumsily, while spacecraft pilots have even been forced to ditch their vessels into marine convoys by the pernicious hive mind.
A Rock and a Hard Place
Analysis of the various mineral deposits retrieved from Klaatu VI revealed high concentrations of crystallized thorium – one of the essential elements required to power hyperdrive engines – as well as rich seams of platinum, titanium, and orichalcum ore within the planet’s rock formations. Study of the Hive-Beasts’ carcasses led STAR scientists to postulate that the pure elements were a by-product of the bugs’ tunneling activities – the process of chewing out their vast nests creates a wealth of minerals that are completely useless to the bugs, but incredibly valuable to humans. If STAR Industries could find a way to exploit the bugs’ natural tendencies, the potential would be limitless. However, the Hive-Beasts were highly aggressive and highly organized, and represented a potentially disastrous bio-hazard threat.
