Manducater
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| Classification | |
|---|---|
| Structure | Field |
| Origin | Derived (Branch parasite) |
| Class | Primitive; Adapted |
| Characteristics | |
| Length | 2–2.5 m |
| Mass | 120–200 kg |
| First recorded | 2023 |
The Manducater is a branch parasite, a field organism of Derived origin, whose membrane bends light around its body and makes it close to invisible. It hunts alone and tracks isolated people for hours before attacking. Federation rules forbidding solitary movement outside held territory were introduced against it.
Description
A Manducater is a low, four-limbed animal 2 to 2.5 metres long and weighing 120 to 200 kg, with a long head and jaws suited to seizing and holding prey. It has no eyes, and finds prey by scent and by vibration through the ground.
Its membrane is thicker than that of other branch parasites, and its refractive index varies through its depth. Light passing near the body is bent around it, and the background behind the animal shows through. At a distance a still Manducater cannot be seen. At close range it shows as a slight distortion of whatever lies behind it, most visible at its edges and when it moves.
Heat changes the refractive index of the gel, and the effect fails under fire or when the membrane is heated. Rain and dust also break it up, as droplets and particles on the surface scatter light, and thermal imagers show the animal's outline faintly. The camouflage has not been reproduced by any human material.
Behaviour
Manducaters work alone, and do not gather other organisms around them. They follow a single person, usually someone walking alone or separated from a group, for hours, keeping out of reach and stopping when the person stops, and attack when the person is still or distracted. They rarely attack groups. Victims are usually dragged away, and most bodies are not recovered.
A Manducater can follow a person for 10 km or more, and has been recorded entering farm buildings, garden sheds and the edges of villages after its quarry. Dogs smell it and react to it, and in rural areas near infested ground a dog barking at nothing visible is treated as a warning.
Forms
The Adapted form, recorded from 2024, is slightly smaller and moves more slowly while it follows, which makes the distortion of its edges harder to see. It is also more willing to attack two people walking close together.
Genome variants
Humic Manducaters, in the Amazon, hunt from the forest floor, where the shade and the broken light make them nearly impossible to see. Aridic Manducaters, in the Sahara and Arabia, are rarer, since blown dust breaks up the effect for much of the year, and hunt mostly at dawn and dusk.
Effects
Outside infested territory, Manducaters have killed more civilians in the European Federation than most other parasites. Most were people walking, cycling or working alone in the countryside near infested ground: farmers, hikers, postal workers and people travelling between villages. Several member states imposed rules in 2023 and 2024 against walking alone outside towns in districts near infested ground, and school buses replaced walking routes in those districts.
Countermeasures
Federation military and civil-protection rules require anyone working outside held territory to move in pairs or larger groups, and sentries are posted in pairs. Units in infested areas carry thermal imagers, and in dry weather some patrols scatter fine dust or flour across paths and gaps in a perimeter, where a passing Manducater leaves a visible outline and tracks. Fire and RTG rounds kill it; small arms are largely ineffective against its membrane. Since 2024 farmers and rural workers in districts near infested ground have been issued with personal alarms, and in some districts with flare pistols.
History
The Manducater was first recorded in 2023, with the other branch parasites, after a series of disappearances of people walking alone near infested ground in southern Europe. The first specimen was killed by a burn crew, whose fire exposed it. H&A's Hyperbiology Division described the optical structure of its membrane in 2024. Attempts by H&A and by the European Defence Force to reproduce it for military use had not succeeded as of 2028.