Hive Queen Quest: Biology of the Hive

Biology of the Hive

Overview

All drones and even the queen herself share a number of characteristics in common that mark their race. The first and most important is the fact that they are in fact, not insects, but warm blooded vertebrates which evolved from something more akin to an earth crustacean. They possess an endoskeleton and circulatory system to account for their large size, with their carapace serving as protective armor. The carapace of workers and queens are relatively soft and malleable, with only the warriors maintaining an exoskeletal structure capable of properly deflecting attacks. Their endo and exoskeletons are fused together at the joints, and the carapace is actually a rigid cartilage-like substance composed of a mix of living and dead cells, with dead cells composing the rigid armor and living cells making up the malleable, more dexterous segments. They all possess six legs, using the front two as manipulators and the rear four as legs, and four eyes, two compound and two forward-facing ocular eyes. Their genetic structure contains a massive amount of ‘junk data’ that cannot be passed down genetically in a natural way, but is instead purposefully altered prior to birth. This means that they do not evolve, but adapt on the fly. While entire hives are still technically subject to the process of natural selection, the development of individual bloodlines progresses in an almost Lamarckian way with adapted traits being passed on directly to the next generation. For queens much of this data contains an archive of genetic memory, granting the queen the knowledge of her predecessors. This is not conscious memory, but instinct that grants her the abilities to utilize biomechanical adaptations of the previous generation of queens. All members of the hive are born of an egg, but only the queens live through a larval stage, during which they consume many times their own body weight in food before encasing themselves within a cocoon.

Queen

The cocoon holds limited sensory capabilities, and is often augmented by a drone sent to protect the cocoon. With this limited knowledge of her surroundings the queen’s body will rapidly configure to adapt to any obvious environmental hazards before exiting the cocoon as an adolescent. In this stage the queen is small and agile, permitting her to travel with ease in order to find a proper nesting place. Once such a place is found, the queen can immediately lay a small number of stunted workers to begin construction of a proper hive. This process ruptures the abdomen and causes a rapid change in the chemical balance of the queen, causing the abdomen to swell in size into a bulbous egg sac. This causes a severe impairment to movement, but permits her to rapidly lay eggs as needed, and to alter the genetic structure of her unborn subjects to suit her needs, be it for combat, construction, or exploration.
On her head is a decadent headdress of porous bone connected directly to the brain. This serves as the transmitter of a two way telepathic link to her drones, permitting her to give commands, and see and feel through her drones. The link has a limited range that can be extended through artificial means, but has no natural ‘bandwidth’ limit. When a queen gives a command she does not direct every move of the drone, but instead impresses the mental image of the desired result. The drone will see that the way things are now is not the way the queen wants them, and will immediately go about fixing that. An appropriate analogy would be the use of your arms or legs. You do not give a command to them, you simply wish them to move in a specific manner and they comply. The queen’s carapace is usually much softer than her drones, and holds little to no pigmentation, making it a light grey or white color that varies with her diet. An average adult queen will stand roughly seven to eight feet in height, but her egg sac alone can expand to twice that in length.

Drones

There are several variants of drones for a queen to choose from, and these variants can all be augmented extensively.

1.	First Clutch Workers – Stunted in growth and abilities in exchange for very rapid development. Are used to start a hive and often succumb to the harsh dangers of their work or hazards of their new environment, dying off relatively quickly. They appear as normal workers, but smaller and often with pigment abnormalities in their carapace. They typically stand roughly four feet in height.
2.	Worker – Strong, determined, and efficient, workers are the life blood of the hive, distributing food, caring for new hatchlings, tending to the queen, building new parts to the hive, and anything and everything else that needs doing. While they are not suited for combat, if forced to do so their numbers are a quality in itself, and their powerful mandibles, which are designed to grind up rock with saliva to create natural cement, should not be underestimated. While the queen holds a majestic headdress that serves to convey her will, all of her workers hold a set of more humble antennae, which are used to sense vibrations in the air and ground to provide an excellent sense of hearing and direction while in darkened areas. Their front claws possess pivoting blades nearly a meter long that extend from the wrist. They can be used for combat, but are primarily used as simple tools, cutting down trees, tilling farm fields, climbing or hunting small game. Their carapaces usually hold a darkened green color that varies with their diet, and stand roughly 5 feet in height
3.	Warrior – Large and powerful drones used to protect the hive from danger of any kind. The warrior possesses heightened strength and stamina, but their larger size and weight causes them to move more slowly, and hinders their mobility. They often have difficulty with delicate tasks that would seem trivial to others, often coming off as clumsy when tasked with menial labor. The mandibles of a warrior is actually weaker than a worker in total force, but are sharper and elongated to serve more effectively in close combat. They have the same limb and eye configuration as other drones, but their antennae are armored and rigid, and have been adapted to detect various forms of radiation. Their carapace is not fully connected to their endoskeleton, but instead grows in overlapping layers. An injured portion of carapace plating can be molted and consumed by the warrior to rapidly repair damage, and a diet of trace metals will reinforce their carapace to be able to deflect most attacks. Their two front arms possess similar blades to the worker, with the difference that the muscles holding them are effectively spring-loaded, permitting them to be used in rapid, armor piercing melee attacks. Ranged weapons can be implanted to replace or compliment these blades, and various adaptations can be combined to give them a variety of options to employ in combat. Their carapace is typically a dark green or black, depending on diet and local foliage, and they typically stand roughly 6½ to 7 feet in height
4.	Thinker – On their own, the thinker resembles a bloated beetle with a two foot radius. Its entire body is a brain, with no sensory or digestive organs, and no method of independent movement. They must be fed intravenously, and their limbs have been adapted into bundles of nervous tissue that can be plugged into the bio-mechanical infrastructure of the hive, ships, specialty drones and other such things. They are capable of astounding feats of analytical prowess, making them the hive’s answer to the need for computers in an age of interstellar travel. The thinker’s powerful mind grant them the ability to influence and command your drones on your behalf, and they can micro-manage their daily tasks to improve the efficiency and overall performance of drones under your control, and in the event that your drones fall out of your range, they are capable of commanding them to accomplish the last order they had been given, and will instinctively seek to return to you, however they are far less effective when acting alone.
5.	Specialties – These are drones that can fit no other category. Often they serve more as infrastructure than drones, and can take on the form of anything from telepathy relays, to starships, to humidifiers and air conditioners. They typically do not possess a brain at all, but instead are controlled by thinkers, or perform their tasks through muscle memory. The appearance and size of specialty drones varies entirely on their role, and has no standard.

Adaptations

Most adaptations only apply to the modified part, but some will affect other parts of the drone, for better or worse. Properly configuring an adaptation without adversely affecting the drone’s performance may require a roll, but in most situations it’s just a matter of combining the desired adaptations to fill the role you want filled. The different categories for adaptations are determined by what organ or body part they pertain to. It is a general rule that only one adaptation can be applied to any one location. Some minor exceptions apply to limbs, or in very special cases.

Wings – These adaptations are located on the back, starting between the shoulders of the front two arms and ending just above the abdomen. The obvious use it for flight, but a plethora of other uses can be had.

Legs – An adaptation to the legs is assumed to apply to all four hind legs unless specified otherwise. Only one adaptation can be applied to any given leg. An adaptation is most effective if on all four legs, but by mixing two adaptations by applying each to only two legs a drone could become better-rounded at the cost of specialization.

Arms – An adaptation of the forelimbs opens the possibility of grafting mechanical components, such as plasma torches or ranged weapons, or the development of specialized arms suited for a given task, such as the secretion of toxins onto the claws.

Blades – The blades tucked under the forelimbs of workers and warriors alike can be altered in shape and size to serve as tools and weapons in all manner of situations, or removed completely to make room for larger arm adaptations such as heavy weapon grafts and industrial tools.

Mandibles – These adaptations offer a wide range of uses, and can grant a drone any number of useful traits. By default a worker’s maw is stubby, but powerful enough to crush stone, and holds saliva designed to create a natural cement mix out of the ground up powder. Warriors by default possess larger and sharper mandibles intended for piercing armor, and will effectively grapple a target if bitten successfully. Adaptations can both enhance these uses, or remove them in exchange for totally different uses and abilities.

Antennae – This category provides an option to grant the drone sensitivity to various kinds of sensory input, from faint sonic vibrations, to enhanced scent, to even radiation detection and more. This option can be the difference between a reactor maintenance worker and a hyper alert recon warrior.

Carapace – This category applies to both the exo and endoskeleton. Because the two are linked together at the joints, altering one will alter the other as well. Unlike other adaptations, the carapace can be altered in a two ways at once, pigment and structure. Pigment alterations can provide camouflage bonuses, but clever, more niche uses could also be devised. Structure determines shape and malleability. A more malleable carapace will grant more dexterity at the cost of durability and vice versa. Structure determines overall shape, which can be used to assemble natural tools built within the carapace of drones, or to assist with camouflage and other uses.

Specialties – A specialty drone is a blank slate, and is not guaranteed to have all categories available, if any at all. In most cases, specialty drones are often built around a few incredibly specialized adaptations. For example, a fighter drone would likely hold an adaptation for a thruster graft, a highly specialized EM antennae adaptation and a ranged weapon graft, with little else at all, while something like a Telepathy relay would hold only an antennae adaptation. A full grown FTL capable starship, however, would likely hold many adaptations suited only for a drone of its size and purpose, and may even be comprised of other, smaller specialty drones, depending on its complexity and size.