Biomass Profitability

• Devastation of Baal:

"Some of their devices were impressively destructive, much more so than the weapon-creatures employed by the swarm. But the efficacy of individual guns was irrelevant; the hive mind had a billion for every one employed by the prey. Its weapons were not dependent on chains of supply or minerals mined on faraway worlds. They required no specialist worker caste to create. Everything the hive mind needed, it grew within itself, and the prey always ran out of bullets before the hive mind ran out of bodies.

Still, certain prey required care, hence the lictor’s mission. The hive mind’s cell-bodies were numerous but not infinite. There was an optimal ratio of destroyed beasts to biomass harvested. Exceed it, and the consumption of a world would result in a net loss. Warrior creatures were dispensable, but the larger ships and complicated beasts cost time and organic matter to replace. If there was a way to shorten a war the hive mind would find it."