Attack creatures in an alien invasion

Think about it. How about a spin on the Alien Invasion story instead of ground troops attacking human cities, invaders send out attack creatures to destroy resistance and hunt humans.

Anyways, suppose you were on of the invaders manufacturing the attack creatures, how would you design an attack animal that would target humans, devastate cities and oppose any form of resistance?

Let you imagination go wild about your alien creatures and monsters. Describe their abilities, appearance, powers and it design.

So you are basically using biologicals to do the fighting as weapons and units. Sounds like a lot of cheesy sci-fi. Earth Defense for game series uses giant killer mutant bugs and monsters for example. But that is more schlock B-movie style.

You are pretty much looking at the Zerg or Tyranid approach from Starcraft and Warhammer 40k respectively.

Sounds a lot like the Earth Defense Force games. You start with tank sized giant ants that either bite you or shoot acid out of their rears and spiders that jump and do the same with caustic webs and eventually work up to bees that throw 20 foot stingers and flat out dragons.

But if you want something original? A city bus sized monitor lizard-alligator hybrid. They're amphibious, social, intelligence, and possess hide that absorbs vibrations. They tend to live in the depths of the oceans making exterminating them difficult.

You could also go the "Organic Cyborg" route. That is some sort of organic-based technology either mimicry of more traditional hardware such as artificial tissues or organic materials that impart abilities normally associated with the more traditional cyborg.
So take Bel's giant lizard and you can use it as a base plan and modify it to suit your needs as they arise.

A type of biomimicry would be ideal. You mimic naturally occurring forms help fulfill specialist roles by adopting some traits and modifying them to your use. To go back to the Earth Defense Force example. They use common black ant species of the variety that can spray formic acid. Formic acid is found in several forms of wildlife both flora and fauna. Now you want that to be nastier? You hand wave away for your life form to say spray sulphuric or Hydrochloric acid. If you are feeling pure evil Fluoroantimonic acid.

You basically sit down and look at what you want to do and for lack of a better word, build the monster you want for the job.

I could give my ideas:

Take the Locust from Gears of War for example. They tame indigenous creatures from Sera's Hollow to form war machines to attach the COG. The Drones are known to create crude assault rifles from their technology level while higher-level Locust members rig technology to the creatures.

Another way of seeing it is to abduct and alter. The Chimera from Resistance uses a virus to infect thousands of humans and subject them to artificial evolution, creating a diverse army of creatures. This also applies to the Flood from Halo, the D-Reaper from Digimon Tamers and the Reapers from Mass Effect

Cyberize the critters is another approach yes. Cyberized war dogs or genetically modified war dogs. In Starship Troopers I think it was, they had to breed and genetically alter dogs in a certain way to deal with arachnids.

You could borrow the premise of the film "Species". Earth scientists receive a message from aliens explaining how to splice human with alien DNA (which is manufactured synthetically). The result is a "Trojan Horse", a shape changing predator intended to cripple the human race in preparation for an invasion.

Imagine as you will, a amorphous, amoeba-like creatures that is capable of creating organic constructs and weapons out of its own biomass. It can form congregate into larger beings by joining with each other.

The creature can specialize itself at cost of regeneration and amorphous shifting. Shapes like humanoids, gliders and other creatures that it can take permanent shape with its own perks and abilities. It has a hive mind that allows coordination and tactical strategy in a mass.

It can take form of polyp for reproduction and replication. It can survive being shot by many rounds that isn't plasma or energy-based weapons. It can enter any space, no matter how big or small.

That thing would have a huge appetite.

Edited by DeMarquis on Dec 20th 2018 at 9:10:26 AM

I'm reminded of the Vom from the Humanx Commonwealth novel Bloodhype, but that thing is intelligent, all-consuming, and completely uncontrollable, as the evil folks in the book find out the hard way. It's generally a bad idea to unleash Eldritch Abominations; it never works out well for anyone involved.

Arthropods are structurally very stable and powerful (for their size) so using something based off of them might be a good idea, perhaps giving them an extraordinarily light yet strong carapace to bypass the whole weight issue and as for oxygen, how about multiple lungs with sphincters that can breath in and out and a complex closed circulatory system.

If you want flying creatures, I'd go with something with a design similar to a massive bird-of-prey with hexagonal pneumatic bones and sacks filled with lighter-than-air hydrogen gas. This same hydrogen could also be used for fire.

For a more underhanded, psychological approach, they could genetically engineer an organism that looks like human children to prey on our built-in reluctance to harm them and could either explode or tear us apart when we hesitate.

If we are going fully biological tinkering I would find a way to make the giant bugs have lungs and a blood system more efficient at transporting oxygen. That way they can exist in larger varieties. Though I would think some sort of hard-shelled killer ant the size of a Shetland Pony would wreak some havoc nevermind a whole swarm. So yeah improve their lungs sounds like a good idea to me. Make sure you have some sort of ranged attack creature and at least a few flying varieties to boot.

You can certainly make an exoskeletal creature and have it walk around fine. Due to how moment of inertia works an exoskeleton can offer more structural strength than an endoskeleton.

However, to save weight you'd need to thin the exoskeleton so much it's not effective armor anymore. You'll need protective tissues over the exoskeleton and now it's not really an exoskeleton anymore.

Bel: Or get creative with layerings like with the basher type mantis shrimp or how abalone shells have very thin and light but surprising strong shells. The US was looking at the abalone layering as a way to create lightweight ceramic composite armors that could possibly flex and bend. You could also do something creative like have their exoskeletons artificially impregnated with metamaterials. Carbon Fiber Chiton TM for the win.

Unless these creatures come with their own technology, they wont last long after encountering the armed forces. That's why I think a covert approach would be more effective. Let the humans create what is effectively a sleeper cell, who can spread before the humans become fully aware of the threat.

If you've got organically grown CNT then you're capable of growing 50 Foot Whatevers.

At that point it's fatty tissues are effectively armor.

Going back to the alligator/monitor lizard thing, reptilian creatures would also be useful as cold-blooded creatures require less food than warm-blooded ones and when they do eat more of it can be channeled directly to size.

However, you then run into the issue of heat management. A possible solution to this could be giving them a layer of insulating body fat that's actually mostly comprised of hollow spaces which stores the warmth they gather, to which the heat is carried by the blood to the organs for increased levels of physical activity. And of course give also give them pneumatic skeletons (with a structure similar to carbon nanotubes or hexagons) for improved strength, speed and weight bearing.

Edited by Kaiseror on Dec 20th 2018 at 9:32:05 AM

An idea for a flying creature. It is a stingray-like glider which can levitate and glide through the air. Its tail can be used as a whip, directed energy, sting gun and lance. It can release a frost breath designed to temporally halt enemies, it can shoot blasts from its mouth and a bite that can stun troopers.

Its shape and size allows it to carry creatures and drones on its back despite its own apparent weight. It can deploy mines by laying it from its sac at the bottom. On its wings are rapid-fire cannons the release energized flechettes and can discharge extremely weak and accurate optic blasts from its eyes.

Sounds really metal.

If you want something less flashy but more devastating you could go with massive swarms tiny creatures that tear apart anything in their path. An organic Grey Goo scenario basically.

This reminds me of an idea I had a while back:

A group of aliens sent out a "garden ship" to colonize Earth centuries ago (before humans had radios-they weren't aware of our existence). The Gardener is an automated ship sent to go to a planet, terraform it, then clone a bunch of creatures to live on the planet.

The Gardener comes to Earth and realizes the humans aren't going to let it colonize, so it begins messing with DNA of creatures to fight us (as well as using its terraforming technology as weaponry).

I could alien animals being left behind and becoming an invasive species after a thwarted invasion, either deliberately as a final f#ck you or simply abandoned during the retreat.