Literature / Swarm on the Somme

Blackwave you really have a talent for creating fictional universes where mankind is utterly fucked beyond comprehension.

—AH.com user Father Maryland on this timeline

Swarm on the Somme is an ongoing Alternate History Web Original story series in the Alien Space Bats sub-forum of AlternateHistory.com, started in early autumn 2009.

The story is essentially a typical tale of Earth being invaded by a Horde of Alien Locusts, while unprepared humanity tries to unite and rally its forces against the Planet Looters. BUT this time, it's not set in the Present Day, or Next Sunday A.D., or World War II. This time, it occurs in the earliest months of World War I.

You can read the main thread here or the newer, episode only thread, here.

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Provides Examples Of:

• Aliens Are Bastards: The Grex. Made worse by the fact that they're a highly intelligent Horde of Alien Locusts.
• Animal Nemesis: Australian soldier Deckard's hunt for Big Edward, an abnormal size "Bull" Decabite Grex.
  • Adrian Carton de Wiart's safari-esque hunt for the Alpha Wraith, Sneaky Willy,
• Ax-Crazy: Anita Roux and her gang.
• Badass Crew: "Monty's Marauders". Also Erwin Rommel's, Gheorgiy Zhukov's and Mustafa Kemal's squads.
• Badass Normal: What every soldier on the front has to become just to survive.
• Belief Makes You Stupid: The Grex hive mind view humanity's religions as self-delusions.
• Blood Knight: Rommel and other German soldiers consider private Hitler a raving Conspiracy Theorist, but no one doubts that he is one hell of a Roach slayer !
• Bloody Hilarious / Black Comedy / Gallows Humour: A fairly large amount of it, but quite understandable, given the situation.
• Bug War: An Alternate History-flavoured version.
• Call A Tank A Land Dreadnought : Well, it is an Alternate History story, and tanks were just being developed and had no official name yet when the Grex arrived.
  • The American soldiers fighting the Grex infestations in California and Utah invent parafin and gasoline bottle bombs. They name them "Teddy Tonics / Roosevelt Rum", in honor of former president Roosevelt (who payed a visit to them in order to boost their morale).
  • The submachine gun created by John T. Thompson and issued to American soldiers in California is called the "California Typewriter".
• Captured Super-Entity: The Germans managed to capture a live Grex Warrior to be study. The creature eventually escaped after it slowly evolved into a larger and stronger strain.
• Cool Airship: The German army zeppelins are modified into Luftkreuzers, which are better armoured on the outside and are equipped with light naval cannons and lots of reinforced machine gun nests in addition to bombs. Given the weight and gas issues of airships, they're not terribly effective and are quite vulnerable - but they still offer a valuable source of defence against the Grex. One of these souped-up zeppelins even has a Gunship Rescue moment, when it comes to rescue Erwin Rommell and his mixed German/Austro-Hungarian company from the completely besieged town hall in Brussels. Yeah, Belgium is pretty much a complete wasteland by that point.
• Cool Train: The armoured trains used by the Americans and Russians are positively badass and armed to the teeth. Still, they need to be often carefully guarded and protected from getting hijacked by Grex-infected soldiers posing as normal humans.
• Crapsack World: And how ! It's bad enough that the first global industrial war started raging on. Now humanity has to fight for sheer survival of life on Earth. The Grex know no mercy. Industrial resources and human reserves are not easy to acquire or in endless supply. And everything takes time to produce, as the author points out several times.
  • One of the readers of the thread even declared in one post, that only Warhammer 40,000 can rival these stories in terms of sheer bleakness and "grim-dark". Another one noted, that "if humanity eventually wins, its psyche is going to come out of the conflict very, very scarred".
• Dare to Be Badass: You've got unarmoured and in every way vulnerable human soldiers fighting with WWI bolt-action rifles and simple melee weapons against merciless and ferocious Eldritch Abominations which have an evolutionary advantage of millions of years and a lot of experience in conquering advanced interstellar civilizations and assimilating them.
• Darker and Edgier: It's a World War I version of your typical Bug War. That hardly sounds cheerful.
• Deadly Gas: Chemical warfare is frequently and practically use non-stop against the Grex. But the Grex are becoming more immune to the gases and forcing humanity in creating more deadlier chemical concoctions.
• Decapitation Presentation: Deckard's achievement over killing Big Edward by taking its head.
• Deconstructor Fleet: Remember all those Alien Invasion stories where humanity eventually manages to outwit the invaders with some cunning technology, easily liberates the Earth in a month or so, and everyone then rejoices in a nice big happy ending ? Well, this is not one of those starry-eyed stories.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: And how, with (completely accurate) historical famous people like U.S. president Woodrow Wilson holding extremely racist beliefs. The whole alien invasion thing does wonders for various national and ethnic rivalries issue though once former enemies start realizing they have to unite to win.
• Determinator: The British start taking the Roaches more seriously after they steal one of their battleships from a Belgian harbour, try to infest London with fresh Grex cocoons and nearly pull off an assasination of Edward VII.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt pulled off in punching a Grex Warrior in the face.
  "Come on! Who else wants to punch a demon on the nose?!"
• Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: Averted.
• Enemy Mine / Fire-Forged Friends: The various nations were reluctant to help each other in the first weeks of the invasion, but a month or two later, the British, French, Dutch, Belgians, Canadians, Americans, Australians and Japanese are co-operating not only among themselves, but occasionaly with troops of the Central Powers as well, if the situation calls for it. Tsarist Russia made peace with the Central Powers and then received Turkish, German and Austro-Hungarian reinforcements. A notable squad in the western front is Monty's Marauders, consisting of veteran soldiers from virtually every nationality present on the front. Led by Bernard Montgomery himself, no less. The Entente and Central Powers haven't officially made peace yet, but it's bound to happen very soon. Both sides finally made peace after the German General Staff took over control of the German government and removing Kaiser Wilhelm from power.
• Fantastic Slurs / Nicknaming the Enemy: The Grex are called Roaches, Les Cancrelats, Schaben, Zhuki and Oni by the various nationalities. The various Grex castes and subspecies also receive numerous nicknames, including "Warriors", "Locusts", "Stingwraiths", "Bombardiers", "Bulls", "Wireworms", etc.
• Flat "What": Anita Roux's Last Words when the Grex hive mind flat out told her that everything she had done for them was over a delusion and had only served to help in destroying her species.
• Genre Savvy: One of Charles W. Ryder's soldiers, a reader of horror serial magazines, berate a talkative soldier for saying that there is nothing here while in the Grex-inhabited Muir Forests and that saying that would get him killed. After he said this the other soldier shrugs off, but is quickly taken away by a Grex.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: Every single historical figure has their badassery levels turned up to eleven. Notable examples include Churchill, Hitler, and Erwin Rommel.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson gets one to an almost strawman extent, who upon hearing of a Grex incursion into San Franciso rejoices in the idea of the city being purged of colored people.
• Hive Caste System: The majority of the Grex are of different specializations. The Grex breeds that are known so far:
  • Scarabs - Yellow-colored beetles that serves as virus carriers in infecting humans and transforming them into Grex-human hybrids.
  • Warriors - Common Grex infantry.
  • Decabites - Also nicknamed 'Jabberwocks' by British soldiers, they are an answer to armor or fortifications and are capable of spitting acids.
  • Locusts - Grex flyers that are fast and capable of dogfighting with aircraft and attacking ground forces.
  • Stingwraiths - Grex assassins that can psionically immobilize all people in a small radius and have active camouflage.
  • Bombardiers - Building-sized Grex that acts as literal living artillery.
  • Wireworms - Grex sub-species that resembles living barbed wire strands.
  • An unnamed Grex species that serves as living bombs.
  • "Bull" Grex, or "Veterans", are individual Grex that, as a result of their age and perseverance, are generally larger and tougher than normal Grex. Some of these earn reputations and names, such as Big Edward, a Bull Decabite, and Sneaky Willy, an Alpha Wraith.
• Hive Mind: The Grex to a large extent.
• Hope Spot: Perhaps, if the miserable little beings were now going to step things up, it would be appropriate to respond in kind.
• Hopeless War: While humanity isn't completely defenseless or unsuccesful in holding the Roaches at bay, it's certainly not winning either. At least not yet.
• Horde of Alien Locusts / Planet Looters: The Grex, short for Entomogrex impurus, meaning "vile insect swarm".
• Humans Are Bastards: But those who are constantly like this are usualy killed off sooner or later.
• I Did What I Had to Do / Shoot the Dog / Sadistic Choice: Grex infectees are essentialy doomed and the only way you can help them is by putting a bullet in their skull. There are several scenes where people are forced to do this to their own family relatives, including children.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: The Grex only discovered Earth by chance and that the invasion force is merely a scout force for the much larger Grex hive.
• In the Past, Everyone Will Be Famous: Younger versions of Bernard Montgomery, Erwin Rommel, George Patton, Charles de Gaulle, Adolf Hitler, Gheorgiy Zhukov, Joseph Stalin, Mustafa Kemal and others appear prominently. There are also supporting and cameo appearances by Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, H. P. Lovecraft, and even a certain Red Shirt Austro-Hungarian private named Bela Ferenc Blasko - known later in Real Life under the pseudonym Bela Lugosi.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Happens a LOT to any throwaway human characters.
• Last Stand: Many, and we mean many. Hell, almost every confrontation with a group of Grex has this vibe to it.

• Mistaken for Gods: A Satanic cult in France starts worshiping the Grex as instruments of Lucifer. The Grex see them as useful saboteurs and infect them so they slowly turn into dangerous Human-Grex Hybrids.
• Mood Whiplash / Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Quite a lot.
• Mordor: The Grex infested areas slowly morph into this with each day of the ongoing infestation, becoming a Death World full of deadly lifeforms created from assimilated Earth organisms. Even mundane looking plants (including trees) can actually be a plant-like sentinel species of the Grex, ready to grab and devour an uncatious bypasser.
• More Dakka: Used prominently and even referred to as such literally, as a codename for this procedure.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast : Seriously, The GREX.
• Officer and a Gentleman / Cultured Warrior: Most prominently Montgomery, Rommel, Kemal and de Gaulle.
• Organic Technology / Applied Phlebotinum: A staple of the Grex, it has many Nanotech-like properties and can assimilate non-organic technology and living beings alike. It can even assimilate a steam-powered battleship to make it go faster. The Grex also use all sorts of organic bullets and Abnormal Ammo, all very effective due to Applied Phlebotinum enhancements.
• Poirot Speak: Used to add flavour to people of the various nationalities present in the story.
• Posse: The posses in the United States don't last very long against the Grex, especially in trying to eradicating Grex nests.
• Real Trailer, Fake Movie: Three written ones so far, courtesy of the thread on AH.com that specializes in this very trope.
• Redshirt Army: The Imperial Russian army. Until they decide that they're the ones fighting the Grex, NOT the Tsar and his generals in St. Petersburg, and any officer who decides to enforce the 'will of the Tsar' will eat a bullet.
• Rose-Tinted Narrative: Averted. The author of the series has no qualms about showing the various prejudices and racist tendencies that were still an accepted part of everyday reality in the early 20. century. Often, Humans Are Bastards to each other, even in the face of iminent danger. A hidden Aesop is present : Humans can only survive and be victorious if they put aside their differences and unite against a great threat.
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The Grex as Communists, but only in a very twisted way, as observed by communist human characters, such as Leon Trotsky.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: A Grex infectee addresses Allied command, and tells them that they cannot win and should therefore just save everyone a lot of trouble by surrendering now. Churchill responds by emptying a revolver into him, while stating that they don't negotiate with cockroaches.
• Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility : Well, it's got an Alien Invasion during World War I - definitely Type X and Rule of Cool / Rule of Drama. The descriptions of 1915-level tech and its effects on the alien invaders are very believable though.
• Shout-Out / Homage: Too many to count. Some go to nearly The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson levels, but take care to not completely shatter the atmosphere of the early 20. century.
  • A propaganda short meant to bolster the public's courage against the Grex ends with a recruiting address and the question "Would you like to know more ?" above it.
  • A Scottish soldier after gunning down an attacking Grex: "Ooh, they're goin' to have to glue ya back together— IN HELL!"
  • The Grex themselves seem to draw many elements from the Bugs, Tyranids and even the alien monster from John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).
  • A London bum is attacked by the little yellow Grex "scarabs", but his faithful dog kills most of them in time and sniggers cunningly. His name is revealed to be Muttley.
  • One of the updates set on the western front features an amusing conversation between three British soldiers, who are very obviously identical to the main cast of Blackadder Goes Forth.
  • A Gatling gun installed on one of the American armoured cars is nicknamed "Little Miss Painless". Also, a lower ranking officer utters "If it bleeds, we can kill it !"
  • And, of course, the "More Dakka!" command.
  • "SUFFER NOT THE COCKROACH TO LIVE!" Said by Adolf Hitler, no less.
• Starfish Aliens: Though the Grex are mostly insect- or crustacean-like, their inner biology and more specialized castes created from assimilating other organisms are biologically downright bizarre.
• Tank Goodness: The early tanks featured in the stories are even more awesome than their real historical counterparts. Justified because of the monstrosities they have to deal with. In addition to cannons and heavy caliber machine guns, British tanks are also equipped with flamethrowers and armored plows for crushing Grex. The French tanks have not only flamethrowers, but chainsaw-like contraptions for literally cutting through swarms of Grex warriors. And the Germans had flamethrower armoured cars until they reverse-engineered captured British and French tanks.
• Taking the Bullet: Woodrow Wilson saves Teddy Roosevelt from a Grex assassin.
• Telepathy: Rasputin.
• The Ahnold: A machinegun-loving Austro-Hungarian soldier appearing in several chapters. Named, appropriately enough, Ernold.
• The Mutiny: An entire Russian column revolts after they had it with the captain shooting 'insubordinate' soldiers.
  "They can't shoot us all. We'll show who is fighting out here for the Motherland."
• The Swarm: Guess.
• Throwaway Country: No one seems to particularly care when Luxembourg is overrun by the Grex.
• Too Dumb to Live / Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The human armies vastly underestimate the cunning and intelligence of the Grex in the first weeks of the conflict. They eventually recover from the hard-earned lessons and gradually start innovating their tactics and equipment in order to better respond to the worldwide threat.
• Tunnel Network: A unit of the Royal Engineer tunnelling companies discovered that there is a massive Grex tunnel network right underneath the Somme. However, that is only the main hub of the Grex hive and it is undoubtedly possible that the tunnels stretch elsewhere as well.
• Velvet Revolution: The Russian Revolution occurs two years earlier and the Russian government is now led by Lenin and a communist/socialist coalition focusing on battling the Grex. However, there are still discontent from the now-remnants of the Tsarist regime and military under their new leadership.
• War Is Hell: To almost literal levels.
• We Have Reserves: Sadly, this is more true on the Grex side of the war. Humans are starting to suffer shortages of manpower, and "supplies" of fresh soldiers are getting hard to come by, especially in the most infested areas.
• What Measure Is A Human / What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Invoked a lot by the characters, both Grex and human.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Given the common enemy in the Grex, the leading powers try to put up a unified front in the defense of humanity. Unfortunately, setting aside differences and fighting the aliens off is shown to be a lot harder than it seems thanks to socio-political squabbles.
• World of Badass: What the most Grex-infested front lines have become, in order for the soldiers to even survive.
• You Will Be Assimilated: One of the methods used by the Grex to replenish and innovate their forces.
• Zerg Rush: The Grex play this horrifically straight, to the extent of destroying their own co-fighters in a whim of an eye, if it can earn them any tactical advantage.

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