Hivans
Hivans are extra-web alien entities. Very little is known about their origins, save that they entered the Web through the Crystal Dimension.
Contents
Biology
Hivans are man-sized insectoids distantly related to ants, wasps and other arthropods. As such they possess six limbs and tri-segmented exoskeletal bodies. They possess large compound eyes, as well as multi-use sensory organs on the tips of their twin antennae. They have a secondary method of perceiving sound, by way of vibration-sensitive hairs all along their bodies.
Natural Defenses
Hivans have a number of natural weapons with which to defend themselves. First and foremost of which are their mandibles. The mandibles of a Hivan vary in size and strength depending on an individual's caste, but even the weakest Hivan bite can effortlessly shred human flesh and bone.
A Hivan is also able to disgorge a powerful acid produced by a specialized organ in the creature's thorax. Unaided by Hivan biotechnology, this acid is at best a close-range weapon, though several Hivan war machines make use of a derivative of this acid in a pressurized, weapon-ready form (see below).
Finally, all Hivans possess a stinger on the tip of their abdomens. Most Hivan castes have small, relatively weak stingers that are useless against sufficiently armored opponents, but the Hivan Soldier caste's stinger is long and sharp enough to pierce all but the thickest armors.
It should also be mentioned that all Hivans have some slight Psionic potential -- in fact, much of their primary method of communication is Telepathic in nature, and much of their Biotechnological war machines rely on both Telepathic and Psychometabolic input from a Hivan host in order to function. Telepathic coordination on the battlefield was one of the Hivans' primary tactical advantages early in the Hivan War.
Caste
Hivans are social creatures, like ants, termites and bees. They have several rigid biological castes that individuals are born into. Each caste serves a specific function within Hivan society. In addition to biological caste, there are three leadership ranks within a colony:
Leadership Ranks
- The Queen- There is only one of these per colony. The Queen is always female, and is the only member of a Hivan colony that reproduces -- she is fertilized once by a male Breeder, and from that point on lays eggs for the rest of her lifetime. Every year the Queen produces thousands upon thousands of clutches of Hivan eggs.
- The King- The lucky male Breeder who fertilized a colony's Queen. The Hivan King is afforded special status within the social network of the colony. He is given authority over the system of civil service that is overseen by the other members of the Breeder caste.
- The General- It's not clear how a Hivan colony selects its General, but the General is always a member of the Soldier caste and oversees the defensive (and offensive) organization of all the Colony's members. During times of war the General has supreme authority over members of the Soldier, Worker and Bioscientist castes.
Hivan Castes
- Worker- Workers are the most basic of the Hivans, and are generally the most common in a given colony. They are about seven feet long, and stand a little above five feet tall when they stand upright on their rear and median pairs of limbs. They are responsible for most of the physical labor within a colony, including maintaining/digging the networks of colony tunnels, gathering and storing food, tending to eggs and larvae, and repairing war machines. All Workers are sterile females.
- Soldier- Another basic caste, the Soldier is similar to the Worker in its very basic body configuration, but can be easily told apart from the common laborer by its much larger head and mandibles. The Soldier's manidbles are actual blades, razor sharp by any standard. The manidbles are attached to the large bulges that come off either side of the Soldier's head; within these bulges are the enormously powerful muscles that power the Soldier's slashing bite. Soldiers also have a long, spear-like stinger coming off the tips of their abdomens. Like Workers, all Soldiers are sterile females.
- Breeder- Breeders are the only Hivans who are not born sterile. They resemble Workers, but have long mebranous wings sprouting off their backs and are capable of unaided flight. Breeders make up a sort of bureaucratic aristocracy among Hivans. Some Breeders are higher in their intra-caste hierarchy than others, but all seem to have responsibilities ranging from overseeing groups of Workers in some task or other, to directing Bioscientists in research or otherwise performing some duties for the King or Queen. When a colony has need for a new Queen, or when a colony is founding a new sister-colony, a male and female Breeder are selected (again, the process of this selection is unknown) and the male is permitted to fertilize the female.
- Bioscientist- This caste physically resembles the Breeder, save that its wings are shorter and both males and females are sterile. Bioscientists are specialized technicians, designed with fine-manipulator appendages to work with Hivan biotechnology. Bioscientists create and help to maintain (with crews of Workers) the various organic machines that grow throughout a Hivan colony.
- Bender- The Bender is an extremely specialized caste, possessing advanced Psionics use far and above what any other Hivan is capable of. In appearance, they resemble emaciated workers with elongated, flagellating antennae, a smaller third eye in the center of their faces and articulate, human-like hands at the ends of each of their six legs. Only one example of this caste is known to have existed on the Hiveworld that invaded the Web. This Bender was known as Reeeg, and he was encountered by Kusader and Union on their journey into the Hiveworld during the Hivan War. Reeeg's name and caste type are known only because he entered into telepathic combat with Kusader, and the Kuvallan King ended up learning much about the Hivans from this encounter. Both Reeeg and Kusader walked away from this bout alive. It is not known for certain whether or not Reeeg was still on the Hiveworld when it was flooded with poison gas.
Life Cycle
For a Hivan Colony, life begins with the pairing of male and female Breeders. A new colony is typically founded as a satellite for an existing colony, and when a suitable land area with access to plentiful resources is located, a prospective new King and Queen are selected. The King fertilizes the Queen and they are sent with a detachment of Workers to establish the new Colony.
Life for an individual Hivan begins in the egg. Eggs are laid by a Hivan Queen in clutches of several hundred at a time. These eggs are then taken by Workers (sometimes overseen by other Breeders) and sorted by Caste (aided, it is presumed, by Telepathic senses) into separate nursery chambers. Some Castes are more favored at various times than others, depending on the Colony's current needs. If, for example, the Colony is at war, Soldiers and Workers would be favored, while Breeders would be seen as less necessary. In times of expansion, more Workers would be needed, but not as many Soldiers. If a certain Caste has too many members in the Colony, such that the Colony has more of that Caste than it needs, eggs born to that Caste are re-directed to the Colony's larders (rather than the nurseries) and are used as food stock.
Hivans remain in the nurseries through their Larval and Pupal stages. The typical Hivan matures from egg to pupae in about a month's time. When the Hivan matures into a Nymph, it temporarily joins the Worker caste, even if it is not a Worker. The Nymph period lasts about fifteen days (sometimes less, often more), after which it becomes a full Adult Hivan and takes on the responsibilities of its Caste.
It is this extremely fast reproduction cycle that made the Hivans devastating opponents during the Hivan War, though in the end the Grand Army's ability to destroy Hivans outpaced the Hiveworld's ability to replenish their numbers.
Hivan Biotechnology
The Hivans use specially "grown" organisms in the same way that humans would use machines. These biotechnological organisms were seen during the Hivan War primarily in the form of various Hivan weapons, battlesuits and war machines, though on the Hiveworld itself they made up several diverse components of Hivan life -- "computers", farming equipment, environmental regulators, and even the massive propulsion unit of the Hiveworld itself.
The Hiveworld
Everything that the Web knows of the Hivan race comes from the encounter with Hivan invaders during the Hivan War. The very name "Hivan" is derived from the name of the mobile planet that the Hivans came to the Web on -- the Hiveworld.
Surveys of the Hiveworld, during and after the War, show evidence that it was once a lush planet filled with diverse life and a vibrant ecosystem. At some point in its history, the Hivans either arrived or evolved natively on the planet, and took over. The planet itself is stripped of most non-Hivan life -- the few life forms remaining are species of plant, fungus and animals that are maintained and farmed by the Hivans for food, air and water.
The Hiveworld was a mobile planet, propelled by way of a massive bio-organic construct that is believed to be at least partially fueled by geothermic energy. It arrived in the Crystal Dimension at the start of the war and locked itself into a perfect lunar orbit around Crystal III, where it currently remains. Because of the high level of toxins in the Hiveworld's atmosphere (the residue of the biological agents used to kill the Hivans and end the Hivan War), no attempts have been made to visit the surface of the Hiveworld since the end of the war. Therefore it is not known whether or not any of the Hivans' bio-machines are still operable, or if a non-Hivan could even manage to operate them. (though surely, with a simple laptop and computer virus, anything would be possible!)
Hivan War Machines
When people think of the Hivan War, many of these monstrosities are the first things that come to mind. Several intact specimens of the various war machines and battlesuits of the Hivans were salvaged and are now on display in GACA's war museum in Albrook.
- Hivan Battlesuit- The most basic of the Hivans' war machines was this. It is a simple chitin-plated construct housing a single Hivan Soldier. The suit protects the Hivan from most conventional small-arms, and also enhances the Soldier's natural weaponry. Specialized appendages house acid-glands, and can squirt this acid at super-ballistic force. At close range the Battlesuit has mantis-like reaper blade-arms that can grasp and easily slice through metal. The Soldier's interface with the Battlesuit was completely psionic, driven by psychometabolic and telepathic impulses delivered by way of specialized psi-receptors in the Soldier's antennae.
- Wasp Battlesuit- The Wasp was simply an airborne Hivan Battlesuit, similar to the land-based version in every way, save that the Wasp was capable of flight. It is suspected that the Wasp's flight was psionically-driven, because the destruction of a Wasp's wing structures only hindered its maneuverability, rather than its propulsion or ability to stay aloft. Wasps fought against Grand Army and Guardian fighters both in atmosphere and in space, though apart from the Hiveworld Wasps were never shown to be capable of independent re-entry or escape of atmosphere.
- The Big Ones- Enormous, mecha-scale walkers, resembling gargantuan ants. These were the true terrors of the Hivan War: in addition to the thousands of acid-jets of innumerable sizes and ranges that bristled from every square foot of the Big One's outer shell, the Big Ones disgorged hundreds upon hundreds of Wasps and Battlesuits into the field to make taking them down even more difficult for GA forces. Only a single intact Big One survived the Great War. It is not on public display in Albrook.
- Colonizers- These were simply large chunks of earth and chitin, which were used in the beginning of the Hivan War as colony landers. They crashed into the surface of the Hivans' target worlds, and the invading Soldiers and Workers filed out to begin colonization. Toward the end of the war, the Colonizers were used in the capacity of capital ships during the massive space skirmishes in the vicinity of the Hiveworld. None of these are known to have survived the Hivan War's end.
