Ouroborous

Ouroborous is a character from The Gradual Massacre

Items/Abilities:
Rapid life cycle, high reproductive rate, fast metabolism, corrosive saliva, thousands of eyes, teeth, and claws, pheromone-based communication, and a collective screech that is overwhelming to lesser minds.

Description:
An Ouroborite is a carnivorous insect that is about 4-6 inches long and vaguely resembles a prawn. Ouroborites have voracious appetites, various natural weapons, and a brief six-hour life cycle starting from when they hatch from their egg. It has red-orange carapace and dozens of short, spindly legs in two rows along its yellowish underbelly. It has two sets of strong barbed mandibles arranged in a crosshair in front of its mouth, and two smaller, padded mandibles that help pry food off of of the crosshair-mandibles and easily swallow it. It also has a long, thin proboscis that is abrasive to the touch, which helps it flay soft flesh off of its prey. Harder materials are torn apart by its slightly-corrosive saliva, which it spits onto its prey before devouring it, and its two barbed claws that fold against themselves like a mantis when they are not in use. An Ouroborite sees through two small, beady black eyes and four long antennae, two on each side of the head, one above the eye and one below. It also has smaller, less sensitive antennae along its sides. On its flanks are two thin, papery wings that are encased in carapace when not in use, like a beetle. (After the second hour of their life cycle, Ouroborites become too heavy to fly with their wings, but if they leap into the air they can get a small boost by flapping them rapidly.) An Ouroborite also has long, smooth black stripe along its underbelly that makes a piercing screech when scraped with its legs, and a series of holes that spew pheromone gas for communication. To anyone without the proper receptors, this pheromone gas is a very mild neurotoxin. A small concentration of pheromone gas is harmless, and only causes a sluggish feeling, but as the gas thickens it becomes more potent. Its tail ends in a cluster of fishhook-like barbs. Ouroborites also secrete a clear purplish fluid made mostly out of the blood of their prey, which thickly coats most of their carapace, to allow for heat retention. Ouroborites are attracted to the smell of each other's fluid coating, and so they will viciously attack anything that gets coating on it, including each other. Fortunately, they are barely sentient.

Although a single Ouroborite is certainly dangerous on its own, it has such a brief lifespan that it cannot possibly survive for more than a few generations before running out of sources of food and dying. To overcome this, a swarm of Ouroborites managed to create a recursively parasitic relationship with itself, the parts of the whole constantly devouring each other for nutrients and energy to survive and reproduce, creating a small-scale self-sustaining ecosystem collectively known as “Ouroborous.” Although slow-moving and not terribly intelligent, Ouroborous is extremely difficult to kill, because any wounds that are inflicted on an individual Ouroborite is neutralized when said Ouroborite is quickly devoured by the others for energy, followed by who- or whatever inflicted the wound. Although the screech of just one Ouroborite is annoying at best, the screech of hundreds of them all at once can be overwhelming and terrifying, and can cause insanity in lesser minds. If enough Ouroborites spread the same pheromone, Ouroborous will collectively become more focused on the task at hand, generally imminent danger to its continued survival. Otherwise, Ouroborous is little more than a large swarm of Ouroborites, unable to act as a unit beyond collectively moving in more or less the same direction.

Biography:
Ouroborites are the result of a long chain of failed genetic experiments that occurred (or are to occur) in an alternate future timeline of Earth. Their focus was to create entirely new macroorganisms, or creatures that are visible to the naked eye, rather than the traditional genetically-engineered microorganisms. Eventually, through extensive research, testing, and splicing the DNA of failed projects together, a barely-sentient insect was created. The scientific community was astounded by the final result of the project, but the organism was rather unremarkable. A conclusion was reached that there was one exciting new possible use for the new lifeform: Since it was created from entirely new DNA that did not exist in the genetic code of anything else on Earth, the insect could be used to research, or even prove the theory of evolution. An experiment was devised in which a sample of the organisms' life cycles were artificially accelerated to an extremely rapid pace. Sample organisms would hatch, reproduce and die in under an hour, and samples were regularly collected to test for the minute changes in their behavior and DNA. However, as the as the experiment progressed, more and more mutations occurred, some of them drastic. The sudden appearance of larger specimens, longer lifespans or additional sets of limbs were observed as the experiment progressed. These mutated specimens almost always became the top of the contained food chain.

Evolution is in itself chaos at work. When anomalies and mutations occur, they are “tested” against the surrounding world. If they give the organism an advantage, they are passed on to future generations. Slowly but surely, advantageous traits are allowed to grow as organisms with favorable traits produce offspring with more potent versions of the trait. But when evolution is sped up, the chaos is worsened, and anomalous traits are arbitrarily included in future generations. For the insect specimens, the only way to create a biological edge was with natural weaponry.

So, had the experiment not been performed confidentially, outsiders might have noticed when anomalies became more and more frequent, and more and more drastic, such as the sudden introduction of pheromone gas, or the appearance of entirely new organs such as wings and mandibles. There might have been outcry for the experiment to be stopped, but as it was, the researchers were too focused on results and profit, and the experiment was allowed to continue. Finally, the hideously mutated organisms reached a point where they were able to break free of their simulated habitat, and devour the entire team of scientists, guards, and the entire research facility. The surrounding town followed, and the towns surrounding that town, and eventually cities, and eventually countries. As a species introduced to an alien habitat, the specimen had no natural predators, barring each other, and so they ravaged the planet, a cancer at a macroorganic scale.

Fascinated by mankind's capacity to destroy itself, The Controller plucked a sample of “the Ouroborous” from the alternate future Earth, deeming it a very interesting addition to his roster of combatants.