| ☆ ナオミ ☆ || l o l l i r o t ™ ( @ 2004-09-05 15:25:00 |
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Xenomorph Information
This is the second of three series of posts. Kept in my journal, for faster access.
Again, this post is cut into Sections to make navigation a bit easier.
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The xenomorphs start out as parasites technically, as their eggs are laid inside of living organisms by an organic "tool" created by a queen that is commonly reffered to as a facehugger. While inside the organisms, the embryo seems to cause an exchange of DNA and take on some traits from the organism it's inside, an engenius strategy for survival... When they go into a new territory, instead of needing to adapt themsleves, they "steal" traits from organisms already living there.
Anyway, the DNA Reflex is a great strive in evolution and causes a variety of xenomorphs to exist, the most common types would be the queen, drone - warrior, "runner", praetorian, and predalien.
Queen: The queen aliens are the heads of a hive, VERY intelliegent, gigantic, and powerful, these are easily the deadliest of all the xenomorphs. Whenever a new queen is born, once it reaches a certain age it leaves the hive and starts it's own, besides this and when the hive is greatly threatened, or the queen is really pissed, they seldom leave their egg sacks. The queens have two legs, a large crest on their heads, inner jaws, a gigantic tail in proportion compared to other xenomorphs, two large arms, two medium arms, and two tiny arms that don't seem to serve a purpose.
Drones - Warriors: There is sometimes a debate over whether or not the drones and warriors are the same thing, but for this I'll go with: they are different, but only in that a warrior is a larger and smarter drone, more of an individual that has more value for it's life. The drones are the most common type of xenomorph, often existing in hives by the hundreds or thousands. A drone stands on it's hind legs, has two arms, and has a long tail. The advantage drones and warriors have over some xenomorphs is that they are fast, great hiders, and strong. [Also, drones are Blind as well as Deaf.]
Runners: Runners are different individuals amongst the drones, sort of like the warriors. The biggest difference between runners and warriors is that runners are much faster, not quite as strong, they tend to have a reddish or brownish tint to them, and they're usually on all fours. They have all the things a drone does, except they usually use their arms as front legs.
Praetorians: Praetorians are like the royal gaurds of the hive. What happens is some drones, when they get older, start going through a metamorphesis and their pheramones change. Once their pheramones change they're either kicked out of the hive or killed, but if they're kicked out of the hive they survive on their own as they grow much bigger, develope a crest similar to a queen's, and their exoskeletons become much thicker and stronger. A praetorian looks similar to a miniature queen but with a tail still in the same proportions as a drone's and only two arms. Praetorians can stand on their hind legs, but because of how heavy they are they're usually on all fours. A preatorian is an incredibly jumper, but with their size they can't climb well.
Predaliens: Predaliens are what happens when DNA Reflex happens inside of a yautja/predator. A predalien is incredibly strong (though not as strong as a queen and only about as strong as a praetorian) and able to handle a lor before going down. A predalien is tan in coloration usually and looks very strange for a xenomorph, having a build similar to a yautja's, shiorter claws, a sharter tail, no inner jaws, sometimes hair like a predator's, and a face that looks like some sort of eyeless devil-pred. Unfortunately, a predalien is very slow and can't jump as well as other types of xenomorphs, but it can climb like a drone and is great at smashing things (not as great at slicing as others), they're like a tank of the hive, their major purpose would probably ultimately be the same as a praetorian's.
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Xenomorphs DO express a high level of intelligence, just they don't use technology like a human or yautja does, however, they can learn quickly (but they don't seem capable of using weapons). Examples would be that they learn about their enimies very fast, can learn to use some technologies easily (like elevators and buttons), will sometimes play games with their pray when they have enough of an obvious upper hand, can easily learn to relate things to others (switches to power, buttons to punishment, guns to dangerous long range weapons, closer weapons as possible dangers, and maybe ships to flight) if they've seen it before, and have been known to use human objects as bait.
Most drones are fairly stupid, but runners, warriors, and queens show good amounts of intelligence. Praetorians seem to show a varying amount of intelligence, and predaliens seem stupid but may have the capability to become very intelligent, most just don't live long that have had recorded records.
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Here's a list of defenses xenomorphs have, and then the names will be listed with a list of what attributes apply to them. Speed, incredible speed, acidic blood, exoskeletons, thick exoskeletons, thicker exoskeletons, incredibly thick exoskeletons, spear-tipped tails, short tails, long tails, inner jaws, claws, smaller claws, "wallwalking", ability to hide well, ability to jump long distances, strength, low strength (still stronger than a human), great strength, greater strength, and incredibly strength.
Drones/Warriors: Speed, acidic blood, exoskeletons, spear-tipped tails, inner jaws, claws, "wallwalking", ability to hide well, ability to jump long distances, and strength.
Runners: Incredible speed, acidic blood, exoskeletons, spear-tipped tails, inner jaws, "wallwalking", ability to hide well, ability to jump long distances, and low strength.
Queens: Acidic blood, incredibly thick exoskeletons, long tails, inner jaws, claws, and incredible strength.
Praetorians: Acidic blood, thicker exoskeletons, spear-tipped tails, inner jaws, claws, ability to jump long distances, and great strength.
Predaliens: Acidic blood, thick exoskeletons, short tails, smaller claws, ability to jump long distances, and greater strength.
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Tails: The xenomorph tails are ribbed and have strong, sharp tips like spears. A xenomorph tail can impale many things, even the average predator's armor, but doesn't have the great tearing power of their claws.
Inner jaws: Theoretically, this is believed to be the xenomorph's tongue. It has been viewed in a limp state with just supports this, but it has such strong muscles it can immediately become very rigid and tough, when used right these can even be launched through a yautja helmet.
Acidic blood: The xenomorphs have blood that has a very low pH level, so it's acidic. The acidity of their blood is very strong, but the blood of a yautja will nullify it (See "Aliens VS Predator: Prey") and there have also been gels developed by humans that will raise it's pH level to be that of water (See "ALIENS: Rogue").
Exoskeletons: This shouldn't need much explanation, many existing animals have these such as insects, arachnids, and many crustaceans.
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Besides the obvious host and food interaction, in the novels xenomorphs once infested the Earth and humans barely survived, technically they lost because they had to abandon the planet or die. Over time humans took back the Earth, but the xenomorph threat still exists and keeps popping up, so humans have began to study them thuroughly.
Humans study xenomorphs for many reasons, the major two being to try and use them as weapons, and another being to learn about new ways to defend against them. Over the many years great breakthroughs have been made and now there are many space colonies, so to speak, and labs that have captive hives.
Often things go wrong with the captive hives, and just studying them means there are often many casualties, but things have been looking up a little bit for humanity since the studies began, and today the queen's "royal jelly" (an excretement similar to a bee's honey if I recall correctly) is incredibly valuable on the black market (See "ALIENS: Rogue").
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Yautja can become a host or food just like a human, but it's a lot less common (fairly rare for them to become hosts). Other than that, yautja hunt xenomorphs for honor because xenomorphs and humans are the ultimate challanges. Because of the hunt, yautja actually did xenomorphs a big favor on accident and caused their spread throughout the universe, and now even a civilization like the yautja can't controle their populations.
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There are many types of aliens that never appeared in the movies or original games, but in the video game Aliens VS Predator: Extinction they introduced some, and so did the old action figures (which came with mini comics featuring the aliens). Examples of these would be the carriers, ravagers</b>, bull aliens, panther aliens, mantis aliens, and snake aliens.
I can't describe the ones that were made as action figures, but I can give descriptions of the ravager and carrier from the homepage for AVP: Extinction.
Carrier: An Alien unit that is morphed from an upgraded Praetorian. Carrier units can carry up to six Facehuggers on their backs.
Ravager: Morphed from a Praetorian, the Ravager is the most devastating Alien fighter. Any unit killed by a Ravager dies instantly, which excludes it from being used as a viable host.
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The alien hives have walls, floors, and cielings covered in a secretion from xenomorphs that the yautja would call te'dqi. The hives have many corridores and rooms, but the major ones would be the queen's chamber and the egg chamber. In the queen's chamber lays the queen's egg sack, which is believed to be able to be rebuilt if destroyed, well, more like recreated with special secretions from the queen herself. In the egg chamber drones, warriors, and runners attatch organisms to the walls with their faces and chest areas exposed, and they bring in facehugger eggs from the queen's chamber. When the facehuggers are ready, they come out and latch onto an organism on the wall.