Wrakbar

Large species of wasps native to Tebburus.

They will attempt to build hives out of a large range of materials, often some sort of tree bark. They have also been observed in mushrooms, the ground and even stone. The latter case is quite rare, but these hives will often last a very long time due to the very effective protection through the sheer strength of the rocks. 

The wrakbar actually float mostly using the Taidakic Field, but they have wings as well assisting them produce enough lift for flight. They can also sometimes be seen moving large prey items to their hives using the wings. One wasp can produce a large amount of lift, but for larger prey such as animals, many wrakbar can cooperate to lift much greater weights. 

Other than obtaining food, they will rarely attack other creatures for any other reason apart from self defence. The wrakbar will only attempt to attack Suons if they feel the suon might destroy or damage a wrakbar hive. However, the wrakbar also have a large appendage which they use to administer poisons in the target creature, which can be dangerous. While the WDA has developed an antidote, the poison has a fairly high kill rate particularly in smaller creatures. After attacking, they will not be able to sting again for several weeks while the wrakbar's glands manufacture more poison and regrow any detachable parts used in the stinging process.

The wrakbar are not capable of preproduction on their own, they have a queen which will produce all the larvae of the hive, and as such serve a primary role in the hive. Though any drone can begin a metamorphosis process and turn into a queen, they would need a significant number of other wrakbar to help them obtain enough food. Queens are not capable of flight or even meaningful locomotion, and they become a fairly large component of a hive. With a large amount of effort, they can move themselves within a hive through specialised tunnels that the worker forms would have to dig manually. This is normally done when the hive expands and they need to move the queen. 

If the queen dies, it is consumed and another queen will be formed. The vast majority of the hive will assist the new queen to grow.

A much larger version of the wrakbar has been bioengineered by some suon nations of the Tebburus Unification War to attack enemy forces. These would consume enemy forces by converting any soldiers killed into new hives. Attacking in large swarms, they were difficult to counter without some sort of toxic gas (often a type of bugspray which can also effect suon physiology) or methods that produced very loud sounds or decrease the Taidakic field density (which made it hard for them to fly). This bioengineering project was highly ethically questionable but not all nations cared to follow rules of ethics. Deployed incorrectly, these engineered wasps might attack the deploying side instead so they were often used alongside some sort of powerful bugspray, but at that point the bugspray might have had an effect on some allied soldiers as well.



Cover image: Atmospheric Frigate by Tankium

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