The Chamax: Gotta Love To Hate 'Em!

[sabredog]

You know, I just had an outstanding Traveller session last night and another planned for all day Saturday, and all this talk about the Chamax bugs is really getting me fired up to unleash them again. Once my tradewar is settled the players are going to be gently herded in the direction of an unexplored subsector and I think I'll use this thread's info to set them up to run into everyone's favorite eating machine.

I'll have them find Chamax (which, since I don't use the OTU they will have never heard of or know about), and go from there. They will be the crew of the Shaarin (well, Rebel Belle actually) and we'll see how it all goes. They'll survive I'm sure...some of them...but an Aliens-ish adventure will be just the thing to cleanse the palate of ship battles, boarding actions, and cargo hijacking.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Adventure Seed continued (err.... a clue/hint);

Ancient solidified hiver secretions have properties similar to amber. Ditto with their predators. Ling Standard (or Susag or whoever) is willing to pay handsomely for a sample.

 

[epicenter00]

Aren't Chamax social creatures, like insects?

If so, perhaps the predator of the Chamax aren't fearsome creatures able to defeat Trepida grav tanks. While there's a few takes on this idea, in the tradition of the Chamax, I'm going to choose the most creepy and disturbing.

The Less Creepy Option:

The Chamax Predator (henceforth referred to as the Predator), has evolved to prey on the Chamax. During mating season, when the Predators mate, the fertile females hold clutches of up to a dozen eggs held within an ovipositor. This long, very sharp proboscis-like ovipositor is very strong, armor-piercing (it would be good enough to jab through anything short of battle dress).

The female simply finds another nest of Chamax (more on this "another" thing in a bit) and finds a Chamax, whereupon it attacks the Chamax and jabs its ovipositor into Chamax's head. The Chamax are described to be very durable - it would survive this jabbing to the skull. Like most creatures, the Chamax cannot register pain inside of brain, so the eggs are laid into the Chamax's brain. The female, it's job done, allows itself to be killed as the ovipostor, continues to function even when the rest of the creature is dead or it's detached (think like various mating male spiders or a bee's stinger).

The eggs mature inside of the Chamax's brain and during this time, the eggs accquire the pheremone-scent (and any other biological cues) that the Chamax use to identify fellow brood members. During maturation, the eggs extend fibrous tendrils out from the brain into the body of the Chamax, feeding parasitically upon the Chamax's tissues (the Chamax doesn't feel this happening as the eggs paralyze the pain receptors). Eventually, the eggs grow to a size where the Chamax's brain functions are seriously impacted and the Chamax falls into a comatose state in some corner. It's still putting out the right biological cues, however, so the Chamax don't kill it. Eventually the eggs burst forth from the infected Chamax's skull and now the young, which are recognized broodmates by the Chamax, are free to wander prey at will. Like dragonflies, the immature predator form is not very large and can remain this way for most of its life until mating time. These immatures are not strong enough to prey on full-sized Chamax, so they tend to prey on the young of the Chamax, requiring very large brood sizes to survive the voracious predators.

The Really Creepy Option:

The Predator to the Chamax have a symbiotic relationship with a lifeform analogous to the Cordyceps fungi on Earth. The Predator simply waits in a nearby tree or something, then "spits" saliva/toxin onto the Chamax (it can do this from some distance away like 10m). The Predator then turns and runs like heck from Chamax. This saliva is rich in spores of the Cordyceps-analogue.

The fungi extrudes mycelia then start to grow inside the Chamax’s body, consuming soft tissues but avoiding anything vital. Eventually, when it is mature, the fungi seize control of the Chamax's brain, making it able to "smell" the Predator. The Chamax goes wandering off looking for the Predator. It rarely makes it all the way to the Predator, instead dying some distance away, but out of the broodsite. The Predator can smell the mature fungi and comes looking for the dead Chamax, which it feeds upon. As part of the symbiotic relationship, the fruiting bodies of the fungus (now mature) are carefully removed and stored in the predator's "toxin sacs" to be used on future Chamax.

A single Predator moves into an area with a nest, burrows to make a home, then spends most of its time near its bolthole "spitting" on Chamax (then it retreats to the bolt-hole to hide from the Chamax). To keep the Chamax from invading, it extrudes a kind of natural epoxy resin (why it was so annoying to the sophonts) to strengthen its bolt-hole. As the fungi takes a few days to mature, the Predator usually "spits" on a lot more Chamax than it strictly needs to in order to ensure a constant food supply - a few Predators preying on a single Chamax nest can wipe it out in weeks.

 

[sabredog]

Aren't Chamax social creatures, like insects?

If so, perhaps the predator of the Chamax aren't fearsome creatures able to defeat Trepida grav tanks. While there's a few takes on this idea, in the tradition of the Chamax, I'm going to choose the most creepy and disturbing.

The Less Creepy Option:

The Chamax Predator (henceforth referred to as the Predator), has evolved to prey on the Chamax. During mating season, when the Predators mate, the fertile females hold clutches of up to a dozen eggs held within an ovipositor. This long, very sharp proboscis-like ovipositor is very strong, armor-piercing (it would be good enough to jab through anything short of battle dress).

The female simply finds another nest of Chamax (more on this "another" thing in a bit) and finds a Chamax, whereupon it attacks the Chamax and jabs its ovipositor into Chamax's head. The Chamax are described to be very durable - it would survive this jabbing to the skull. Like most creatures, the Chamax cannot register pain inside of brain, so the eggs are laid into the Chamax's brain. The female, it's job done, allows itself to be killed as the ovipostor, continues to function even when the rest of the creature is dead or it's detached (think like various mating male spiders or a bee's stinger).

The eggs mature inside of the Chamax's brain and during this time, the eggs accquire the pheremone-scent (and any other biological cues) that the Chamax use to identify fellow brood members. During maturation, the eggs extend fibrous tendrils out from the brain into the body of the Chamax, feeding parasitically upon the Chamax's tissues (the Chamax doesn't feel this happening as the eggs paralyze the pain receptors). Eventually, the eggs grow to a size where the Chamax's brain functions are seriously impacted and the Chamax falls into a comatose state in some corner. It's still putting out the right biological cues, however, so the Chamax don't kill it. Eventually the eggs burst forth from the infected Chamax's skull and now the young, which are recognized broodmates by the Chamax, are free to wander prey at will. Like dragonflies, the immature predator form is not very large and can remain this way for most of its life until mating time. These immatures are not strong enough to prey on full-sized Chamax, so they tend to prey on the young of the Chamax, requiring very large brood sizes to survive the voracious predators.

Part of the predator problem is figuring out a predator that was also enough of a nuisance to the Chamax sophonts that they had to eradicate it. Your critter here probably wouldn't work for that unless it injected it's eggs into other species...or what just a big nasty thing that stung people and crried off their children and livestock.

But would be an excellent predator that contributed to helping keep the bugs' population in check until whatever apex predator it was that the loss of tipped the balance was eradicated.

But what about this: instead of attacking the hunters - because as it says in the adventure, the hunters go pop when punctured by something having the ability to puncture them enough an ovipositor would need to have - the predator goes straight for the maternal.

The predator uses the same radio-sense the other fauna in the ecosphere seem to use to find the maternal buried in her lair. The predator starts digging down but exudes a strong pheromone identifying itself as a hunter. It could even mimic a hunter's overall appearance like those spiders that look like ants.

So it digs down and before the maternal can get away or alarmed, which hopefully the pheromones helped avoid the ovipositor stabs down into the maternal's eggsac. It injects it's eggs which are encysted to prevent any damage to them by the maternal's immune system.

The predator might be assaulted and killed now by hunters, but it achieved it's biological imperative so who cares.

The eggs' cysts have a secretion on them analogous to the fungus you described which exists in a commensal relationship with the predator. It doesn't kill the predator because the predator's immune system protects it (at least for as long as the predator lives, but the fungus gains the ability to get a free ride directly to a great place for it to thrive. Because the bug predator also digs burrows, or maybe uses the abandoned burrows of chamax bugs it picks up the fungal infection as it crawls around in them.

The fungal infection has the same effect on the maternal you described, except it doesn't kill her - it only suppresses her immune response to protect the fungus - it also protects the predator eggs as the young break out of the cysts as a bonus for the predator. By suppressing the immune responses of the maternal stays alive and producing eggs that both the fungus and the newly hatched predator young both eat. As the young predators grow they also eat their smaller siblings until just a few large ones remain staring balefully at eachother waiting to chew their way out of the maternal.

The hunter population dies off as less eggs make it out of the maternal and by that time the young predators chew their way out and the fungus consumes the rest. If this is also timed to the seasonal changes Whipsnade postulated then any remaining hunters that could threaten the juvenile predators heading out of the burrows will either be dead or in hibernation.

And then the whole cycle begins again as the biggest predator chases the others out of the former chamax bug burrow and claims it as it's own...gets "infected" by the fungus and reboots the cycle.

 

[rancke]

The Chamax Hordelings are tough and nasty, no doubt about that. But they are just flesh and acid; I don't think they'd stand against Trepida grav tanks or (grav-equipped) battledresses. The problem really only arises when hapless adventurers (or hapless unprepared marines ) get taken by surprise.

Fortunately (for GMs ), grav tanks and battledresses are expensive. So what's the minimum you'd need to clear out those nests? Say the Chamax Reclamation Project issues a call for a planetary decontamination team to root out the infestation and make Chamax a place fit for terraforming crews to live and flourish (Assume reasonably accurate specs for the hordelings are available; another ticket might call for a scouting expedition to Chamax first). What would be the winning bid? What personnel and equipment and what tactics would it call for?


Hans

 

[sabredog]

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!


Robots equipped to find and enter burrows and spray the maternals down with some kind of bug killer. Or spray her with a fungus agent like the one described above that acts as a natural killing agent. Or just sprays her with a pheromone agent that makes her smell tasty to the hunters?

Whatever you do if you can find the maternals and kill them that's all you need. Maybe some kind of killing radio wave hat frenzies the hunters so the palace guard turns on the maternal in the nest?

 

[rancke]

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!

Rejected for budgetary reasons!

Robots equipped to find and enter burrows and spray the maternals down with some kind of bug killer. Or spray her with a fungus agent like the one described above that acts as a natural killing agent. Or just sprays her with a pheromone agent that makes her smell tasty to the hunters?

Requires research.

Whatever you do if you can find the maternals and kill them that's all you need. Maybe some kind of killing radio wave that frenzies the hunters so the palace guard turns on the maternal in the nest?

That sounds cheap. But can you deliver? We're in a hurry, so if we award the contract to you instead of another firm, we'll want some penalty clauses for failure to complete on shedule.




Hans

 

[sabredog]

Requires research.

No it doesn't! Spray her with chum made from BBQ ribs! Mmmmm...ribs....

By the time the hunters start asking themselves "Does this taste funny to you?" it'll be too late.

For radio waves play loud gansta rap and drop cheap pistols and gold chains in the holes. Paint half the hunters red with remote robot sprayers and the others blue. Problem solved. :rofl:

 

[Blue Ghost]

You people are killing me.

 

[Icosahedron]

How about if the Predators are Chamax Chamax - Hordes of (flying?) octopod pseudo-locusts that overrun the Chamax in the same way that Chamax overrun humans, burrowing into the chinks between the Chamax armour, or into the eyes, mouth, etc.

The swarms of radio-sensitive/radio-emitting flying creatures would play havoc with flight-control systems and would be a nuisance.

Or better still, maybe the predators are a worm-like parasite that is eaten by the Chamax and devours it from the inside - and maybe it devours domestic livestock too - hence its eradication. Simple is best.

 

[Whipsnade]

Simple is best.

Icosahedron,

Simple is best, that's why it's my favorite.

Sadly, DA5 explicitly tells us why the Chamax carnivore was eradicated; it dug into the underground burrows and galleries of the Chamax sophonts looking for Chamax bug maternals.


Regards,
Bill

 

[veltyen]

Simple is best, that's why it's my favorite.

Sadly, DA5 explicitly tells us why the Chamax carnivore was eradicated; it dug into the underground burrows and galleries of the Chamax sophonts looking for Chamax bug maternals.

Simple is best.

One thing that may be being overlooked is that the carnivore would need to attack in such a way that the armour and resilience was useful in defense.

Any other vector of attack and the relatively expensive cost of the additional resilience would not be paid. The first brood of "naked" chamax would be highly successful compared to its competition. This could be answered by perhaps constant chamax on chamax conflict as well, but inside species this tends to end up very specific rather then excessive general resilience.

 

[kafka47]

Here is a frightening concept**...what if the Chamax could metamorphize into different species...could the larva of one dead form be dormant in the body of the living species thereby perpetuating its lifespan. Sort of like how wasps lay their eggs in the body of other insects. Perhaps, Gamma Chamax live on in the bodies of Beta Chamax and only at death do the chemical processes allow gestation to take place?

**for players that is...

 

[Ran Targas]

A nasty critter I came up with is a fungal lifeform that infects the lungs of Hivers, starting as spores and ending as an mass of bubblegum that could throw out pseudo-pods and slither about. The players found it in a Hiver starship left adrift after the crew died of infection.

This kind of parasite could prey on Chamax, bypassing all the claws and armor, spreading through a colony as fast as contact between individuals occurs. And when the host dies, it goes dormant or creates cysts, waiting until another victim wakes it.

 

[Brian Smaller]

I used the Chamax/Horde adventures in a subsector of my own devising in my Traveller campaign set three sectors to rimward of the Solomani Rim. Didn't have to worry about Darryans, Imperials or Zho then