Micro Xenomorphs

A concept I have had for years but never been able to come up with a good story to use it.

Inspired by the Kenner Aliens toys, Indian in the Cupboard, Mimic, and Monster in my Pocket.


concept: A world where Xenomorphs are real, however they are the size of the Kenner toys, the same odd forms, and even various new ones based on the premise of more closely resembling their hosts. Including deer, elephants, ect...

Backstory:
There has been a massive plague spread by rats. Similar to the movie Mimic scientists develop a "predator" to infest and kill the rats and mice, however they also program this perfect killer to (self destruct). The Xenomorph that results from rats and mice is the "Scorpion Alien" from the Kenner line. However the genetic plasticity of the organisms results in them finding other hosts and developing Queens (originally the eggs are produced in labs only, and the organisms were never meant to reproduce on their own).

Biology:

the Xenomorphs like their main franchise counterparts have a Queen, hives, eggs, and face huggers, and like the Kenner universe their forms more closely resemble their hosts. However things change drastically from there.



Facehuggers: The drones of the hive will often carry eggs out into the wild to better enable the face huggers to find larger hosts to infect. The face huggers come in a variety of colors; the colors do not influence the resulting adult, and is meant only for camouflage. However smaller hosts may be captured and brought into the hive.

  Facehuggers can infect hosts in one of three ways.
  *1: Traditional: on small creatures such as mice, rats, praying mantis, small birds, ect..the face hugger or a drone may paralyze or otherwise immobilize a host. At which point the face hugger latches onto its face and forces an embryo down its throat. This method of infection almost always results in death. The growing embryo acts like a tapeworm until reaching maturity and then eats its way out of its ever tightening space.

  *2: Passive parasite: some face huggers, those camouflaged usually, intentionally allow themselves to be eaten. Green ones hiding on grass, swimming around to get fish to swallow them, or plant their embryos in fresh meat to await scavengers to swallow it. The last one is rare with the first plant method more common. However some hives have a mutation where the embryo infects a first animal host, then goes dormant in its meat, sometimes after causing suicidal behavior in the smaller hosts, (similar to many real world parasites) to cause them to be easier prey to larger hosts. The resulting burster then passes through the digestive system of the larger hosts and is deposited in its droppings during a pupae stage (to camouflage it among the feces) after sampling the larger predatory creature's DNA for its adult form.

  *3: Aggressive infection: these specialized face huggers (which tend to be black in color) have a scalpel sharp point to their ovipositors. They hunt down other creatures and quickly latch onto any exposed soft spot that passes near them and implant the embryo right in the flesh. This is very similar to many real world insects. This can be fatal to smaller creatures like caterpillars and shrews. Although this type of face hugger rarely attaches to such small animals. It more typically with latch onto the sides, backs, and legs of much larger animals such as deer, dogs, cats, boars, pigs, humans, ect... it grows like a maggot would. It samples the DNA until reaching its "chest burster" size and then eats its way out and somehow instinctively heads towards its hive.


Morphological differences:

  Unlike the main franchise versions these small versions don't have as strong of acid blood (not realistic given their smaller size), instead it has an acidity more akin to citrus fruits. So while effective in spitting in the eyes of potential predators, blinding potential prey/hosts, its not as dangerous to them or their environment. It also has a chemical similarity to peppers causing a burning reaction. This was all by design as their creators didn't want their infestation removers to be destroyed by other animals, and to work as a defense mechanism against the mice and rats while infecting them. The original models (which still result from mice and rat impregnations) can also explode throwing this pepper spray acid everywhere to deter and blind other rats and mice making their easier targets for other face huggers.

  Queen Alien: Any mammal may produce a queen under certain circumstances, Queen facehuggers are rare, and specially produced by the Queen. The first Queen came from an infection on a human. large Pregnant mammals will always produce a Queen regardless of the face hugger in their intestines or latched into their skin. The hormones produced the original mutation; however for unknown reasons the smaller mammals wont produce a queen through the traditional method of impregnation unless a special Queen face hugger is used.

  Like the Kenner line they take on more qualities of their hosts.

  the toy line as is: Left side alien, right side what it comes out of. Also placed in order of discovered.

  Scorpion Alien: Mice, Rats, Shrews (common)

  Warrior Alien: Humans, Chimpanzee, Bonobo. (first sighted in major cities, displays cunning and tactical abilities. Is now a major health watch concern given tainted meat and aggressive face huggers in rural areas and cities)

  Gorilla: Gorilla, Orangutan *orange color*, Baboon (first spotted in North American zoos, as hives in the cities have begun to send face hugger carrier into them, seemingly intentionally to produce stronger hive warriors)

  Bull: Cattle, Oxen (a major concern on ranches, as they will both use and lie dormant in cattle)

  Boar: Pigs of all types with some minor color variations. (spotted around the same time as the Bull type, another major health concern for farms).

  Rhino: Rhinocerous, (appeared like the Gorilla in zoos originally, slower and lower intelligence has resulted in them being easier to spot and appearing outside of hives as guards)

  Crab: Large crabs such as rock crabs. (appearance on coastlines alarmed people as this was proof they were adapting to aquatic environments and to invertebrates).

  Mantis: Praying Mantis *color varies by type* (as a larger insect its no surprise it would be one of the first insects to be used as a host rather than simply prey).

  Cougar/Panther: House Cats, smaller wild cats (given how common cats are it is a surprise these weren't discovered until after two invertebrates and several zoo animals). These mutations are always born as "twins", the larger one carries a smaller semi-aerial chest burster on its back. This will launch "once" and eventually grow into a new Cougar/Panther *minus having another on its back*. The original will not re-grow another one ever. Its not certain why this happens either.)

  Snake: the toy line version appears from Cobra, Bull Snake, Coral Snake, Copperhead, and various vipers. Morphological variations such as a longer spike covered tail tip appear from Rattlesnakes. Same size with no hood from Garter snakes; Larger no hood types with a pair of arms form from Pythons and other larger constrictors. (Snake types, the first recorded reptile infection, appeared, or at least first recorded on a farm in the mid-western USA. They have since appeared in zoos, homes with pets, ect...due to a snake's biology these tend to be found mostly thanks to the infection of mice being controlled to be easier prey. It may be related to this same mutation, or simply a coincidence).

  Arachnid: Tarantula, Bird Eating Spider (all other spiders are simply too small to be used as hosts. These started to be spotted when the hives spread into the South Western USA).

  Warrior 10": *Unknown* (these have been spotted and captured for study in some rural areas, mostly in the pacific North West. Their leg difference and head difference is curious, and mysterious. No "lab experiments" have resulted in one births them. Scientists speculate that given the leg structure and long arms that it may be the result of a large bird like a crane. Others have a less believable "hypothesis" claiming its what happens when a sasquatch gets infected; owing to its similarity to the human born ones and greater size. Although the size of the animals has seemed to have little influence on the size of the resulting xenomorph before.

  King: Produced in lab experiments only, the result of attempting to produce a sterility enzyme to the queen face huggers. The Kings are stronger, can't reproduce, but are less intelligent and all other Xenomorphs attack them on sight, and vice versa. Produced as a means to try and eradicate the infection; although given that's how the Xenomorphs came to be in the first place few have permitted their release outside of tightly controlled circumstances.

  Flying Queen: Parrots (this has created a major concern, as every infection of a parrot has resulted in a flying queen. As in one that can fly around and lay eggs. Although they are immobile while laying eggs, they can always take wing again. The only saving grace is they aren't very good at flying. While in North America and the result of a hive getting into a pet store, more tropical regions have expressed concerns with trade from North America out of fear of the very small face huggers, chest bursters, and tainted meat getting across boarders to areas with large Parrot populations).

  Winged Alien (knock-off toy): Featherless Chickens (only created in labs, intentionally infection of GMOs for various purposes. Featherless chickens, chickens modified to have no feathers ended up producing this weird metallic colored creature which seems to have eyes spots, and sports a pair of armored wings; useless for flight, but great for defense. Found to be hostile towards other Xenomorphs and fairly good at killing the basic drones; however like the King the other Xenomorphs are hostile to these as well and turn on them.

  Spiney Alien (knock-off toy): Newts and Salamanders, (not found in the wild, these were created in a lab much like the King and Winged Alien. In the wild Xenomorphs attack and kill newts and salamanders as food, like most amphibians as the face huggers have a hard time gripping them and their skin poisons trigger aggression in Xenomorphs to kill them. However frog and toad ones should have been produced if amphibians could be infected. A lab experiment didn't get any frog or toad ones to develop as the subjects died prematurely for some reason. Newts and Salamanders however produced these awkward creations. They unlike the GMO models weren't attacked by other hive mates, nor were they aggressive towards them. However their physiology is awkward, near useless on land and even awkward in the water. Only a handful were produced).


-Note: the Runner Alien appeared around the same time as the Bull and Boar type, resulting from the infection of dogs (any breed). They are also fairly common.