Creatures of the Swarm

[Toa_Good_Guy]

I was playing Destiny 2 the other day and I was running around the moon fighting the Hive. As I continued I thought “wouldn’t it be cool if I made a Bionicle horde enemy inspired by the Hive and write it into my fanon?” Well now here we are. I plan on updating this topic with new variations as time goes on. The Hive only has 6(?) different variations, but my Swarm will get as many as I make.

Below are dropdowns for each variant, it includes a picture, backstory, and build overview.

Amongst the ruins of the Matoran Universe, the Lurkers haunt what remains of the old world. Byproducts of mutagen exposure, they migrated into Karda Nui at an unknown time and burrowed into the cavern roof, sleeping, until that fateful day when Makuta was destroyed. After the destruction of the MU these creatures awoke, ravaging what remained of Karda Nui and eventually haunting the ruins of Metru Nui.

When designing the Lurker, I immediately had a Hive Thrall in my mind. I tried to capture the same feel while making it feel unique and original. I also wanted to use the Scarox head piece somehow and I think I did rather well with that.

Out of all the horrific creatures of the Swarm, none is as ruthless and formidable as the Butcher. Serving as the staunch defenders of their hive, Butchers wield a chitin cleaver and exoshield, both able to withstand blows from protosteel weaponry and even elemental attacks. They evolved to have one eye instead of multiple. While this seems like a disadvantage the one eye forces them to focus on one thing at a time, improving their concentration in battle and making them a formidable creature to duel.

The Butcher was quite obviously based off of a Hive Knight. The head was the hardest part, deciding how to make a unique custom head that fit three eyes was challenging. Eventually I settled on one eyeball and used a tan Huna instead. The torso is a metru torso with a “Vehicle, Brush Holder for Street Sweeper with Tow Ball Socket” according to Bricklink. I chose this piece because it added some nice upper body bulk and had a tow ball connection for the head (which also uses a tow ball piece for the neck).

When the air stinks of carrion and disease, The Defiler is not far behind. The Defiler is a one of a kind creature, handcrafter by the Hivemind to carry out one task, to assimilate and destroy Toa. The Defiler is the only Swarm creature to make out of the MU, set on plaguing the planet with its virulent presence. And plague the planet it has, numerous rahi and animals have already succumbed to this disease incarnate, rotting and swelling up with vile blisters that violently explode into infectious bile. Fortunately no sentient lifeform has made contact with The Defiler, though a few eyewitness reports claim to have seen a tall rancid creature with tentacles protruding from its chest, slaughtering and assimilating the wildlife. If The Defiler is not stopped, it will pave the way to the Swarms conquering of Spherus Magna.

The Defiler predates the Swarm as far as its build goes. It was inspired by Nidus from Warframe and I built it last year(?). However its old backstory was trash and it was kind of useless in my current story so I decided to add it to the swarm. The highlight here is the Radiak mask shoulder pads and the opening and closing head.

Backstory: Long ago before the GSR crashed on Aqua Magna, these fools were actually a hive minded crustacean species feeding off of dead sea life and sea flora, meaning they are fully organic. However when the GSR crashed, these creatures were drawn to the mutagen leaking from Karda Nui for some reason. They began to grow bigger and evolve, eventually supplying it to the rest of the Swarm, seeing it as the future to their species survival. They ended up burrowing into the cavern roof of Karda Nui, digging elaborate tunnels like ants and ended up hibernating for almost 100,000 years. However, after the destruction of the MU, the Swarm has awoken, and has left their holes and tunnels to prowl the old world. They visit island after island, ruin after ruin, to ravage, destroy, and kill anything they come across. They use what they take to further their evolution, eventually creating their own synthetic protosteel from chitin and a modified version of the mutagen which is used for shields and weapons. The mainly haunt Metru Nui’s ruins, working their way deep into the city and slowly converting it into a hive. Should they find a way out of the MU, Spherus Magna would be consumed in a storm of chitin and ichor.

Since I can brainstorm only so many new variants, feel free to make suggestions and come up with new variants (this also means you can build your own and post it down below and I’ll have a look). I’ll build anything you give me so long as it fits within the Swarms theme and aesthetic. Once I have enough I plan on making different “broods”, i.e. the swarm creatures with different color schemes, weapons, and armor arrangements.

[Rukah]

Nice mocs
They’re super creepy.

[cynic1987]

Fantastic would be neat to build them too would just have to figure out color schemes based on the major parts since most of the parts dont come in that dark tan.

You will need some kind of titan for the queen, I think something like a xenomorph queen would fit well, but more crab like. or you could be less clique with the hive mind idea and make the central consciousness something like coral or a mass configuration of the dead bodies fused together

[Kamoranova5]

Creepy

[Toa_Good_Guy]

The tankiest of the Swarm, the Bruiser is the hives dedicated architect and heavy lifter. It evolved to grow a pair of muscular appendages to act as legs and anchors when it performs labour. The two claws on its legs allows it to anchor to cliff faces and roofs while it sculpts and builds additions to the hive. Its smaller arms are used to grab and transport items like building materials and eggs. But they aren’t just the caretakers of the hive, they are named Bruisers for a reason. In combat the Bruiser uses its legs to stomp and crush its opponent. One full power stomp directly on its opponent is capable of shattering protosteel armor. Its legs are nigh invulnerable to attacks due to the thick protochitin armor plating. It also uses its smaller arms in battle to rip and shred enemies who get too close to the Bruiser. The Bruisers armor is almost impenetrable, sporting very few weaknesses. Its only notable weakness is the exposed shoulders, where the arm connects to the torso. Its is possible to sever its massive legs, but doing so will cause it become angry. It will furiously crawl across the ground astonishingly fast with its forearms to deliver one final blow, a suicidal explosion caused by a reaction between its toxic blood and an instantaneous bile build up in its body after its wounded. In short, the Bruiser is a master of architecture and destruction. It is also a subspecies of the Lurker.

When designing the Bruiser I had a workhorse for the Swarm in mind. Since the Lurker is the drone of the Swarms hives, I thought to make this a subspecies of the Lurker. However I also had to implement combat features into it as all Swarm creatures are viable combatants, whether it be the well armed Butchers, or the scrawny Lurkers, they all have integrated weaponry in some way. For the Bruisers, they stomp, smash, and explode. I was going to add green “sacs” on its back to act as the bile build up that happens before it explodes but I had already rendered it and my computer takes forever to render so I was going to stick with what I got.

[Rukah]

Nice. I like the kaukaus as claws.
Wouldn’t want to come across him in battle…

[Atobe_Brick]

Nice mocs; the heads on all of them are quite clever

[Toa_Good_Guy]

Watch the skies traveler, for when the skies darken with the fluttering of a thousand wings, there are Gargoyles. The fastest and most nimble of the Swarm, the Gargoyle was designed for overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers and a barrage of chitinous mandibles until they are nothing but shreds of metal and. The Gargoyles mandibles are capable of opening to unholy widths and gouge huge chunks out of armor and stone. This makes them particularly useful for hollowing out caves for the Swarm to build their hives. While weak on its own, the Gargoyle is a deadly threat in mass quantity. You’ll never find a Gargoyle on its own, they travel in swarms of hundreds or even thousands, allowing them to massacre an entire army in minutes or reduce villages to rubble almost instantly. They are also capable of spitting corrosive bile from their mouths. There is no fighting a swarm of Gargoyles, yet there is no running. Should they find you, all you can do is sit and prepare for your swift and gruesome end.

The Gargoyle was tricky. I ended up reusing the body I built for my Ice Bat but tried to bulk it up so the moc didn’t look like a bobble head. Its traded off its mouth for a pair of mandibles that can open really wide and fit an entire metru head inside of its face hole. This wasn’t anything too special, but I needed a flyer for the Swarm so this thing was born.

[Rukah]

Freaky.
Nice job though