Branch parasite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Classification | |
|---|---|
| Structure | Field |
| Origin | Derived |
| Class | Primitive; Adapted |
| Characteristics | |
| First recorded | 2021 |
Branch parasites are the field parasites of Derived origin. A Beckon produces them from the blueprints of assimilated organisms that the parasites have refined over centuries, until little of the original animal remains. Most branch parasites counter a particular human method of fighting. The Devourer was recorded from 2021, and the others began to appear in 2023.
Origin
Derived organisms are made only by Beckons, never by infection. They come from the same process that makes an Assimilated organism, carried on over a far longer time, so that the blueprint has been reworked many times over.
Forms
Each branch parasite exists in a Primitive and an Adapted form. The Adapted form is a reissue of the same blueprint, revised after the parasites' network has observed what worked against human forces.
Organisms
- Bolster: the largest branch parasite. Slow and heavy, it strengthens the organisms around it by amplifying the network's signals.
- Reeker: a fast, poisonous pursuer. It counters reliance on distance and fortification, and can drop onto a position from above.
- Summoner: calls reinforcements on a continuous cycle, and has little direct combat capability.
- Yelloweye: a flying organism with a glowing yellow eye, which attacks with corrosive projectiles from range. It counters elevated defensive positions.
- Manducater: bends light around its body, so that it is close to invisible. It counters visual detection, works alone, and tracks isolated people for hours.
- Devourer: a tentacled aquatic organism, fast in water and unable to support itself on land.
- Tozoon: burrows toward buried biomass and erupts beneath fortified positions.
- Burrower: a smaller digging organism that works against single targets.
- Arachnida: a many-limbed climber.
- Longarms: built around a long reach, against troops that fight in spread formations.
- Vermin: a small flier, common over infested ground, which sheds Gnats.
- Viscera: an evasive mid-sized organism, able to move in water.
History
The Devourer was recorded at sea from 2021, and was not at first grouped with other organisms. The other branch parasites appeared in 2023, most within a few months of each other: the Bolster, Summoner, Reeker, Yelloweye, Manducater and Tozoon were all recorded by the end of that year. H&A's Hyperbiology Division named them branch parasites in 2023, from its description of them as branches of the assimilated line, and showed in 2024 that each of the main organisms answered a method the armed forces had relied on against the parasites of 2020 to 2022: fire from range, fortified and elevated positions, radio command, observation and the sea.
The Adapted forms were recorded from 2024. Most reached their regions through the upgrading of organisms in Dispatcher storage rather than by new production.
Response
The European Defence Force's doctrine against branch parasites was written in 2023 and 2024. It sets the order in which organisms in an engagement are attacked, the Bolster first and the Summoner second; requires soldiers outside held territory to move in pairs or larger groups, against the Manducater; and covers the roofing of elevated positions, against the Yelloweye, and the listening for burrowing organisms under fixed positions, against the Tozoon. Most branch parasites carry a thicker membrane than the Inborn organisms, and are engaged with RTG ammunition.