Bug (The Galactic Navy Officer Becomes an Adventurer)

The Bugs are an alien species native to the Milky Way Galaxy.

Biology
Bugs are intelligent lifeforms that resemble large insects with various types. The most common type resembles an upright cockroach walking on its hind legs. This Bug type is covered in body hair and has a hard outer shell. These Bugs are known to be extremely filthy and covered with fleshy outgrowths and parasites inside and outside its body. The Bug type is quite brutal and sports a much higher combat ability compared to humans. It is said that engaging the Bug in close quarters combat was an exercise in futility. But during the past thousand years of war, humanity has worked hard to bridge the gap, and presently, it’s now possible for Galactic Navy soldiers to match them in hand to hand combat.

Background
The Bugs were the first intelligent lifeforms that humanity encountered. Contact with the Bugs began in the year 1254 of the Imperial Calendar, on a backwater colonial planet with agriculture as its main industry. The planet known as Vesta was located in the Arturo star system and had a population not exceeding 200,000 citizens. It had no stationed military force and only possessed minimal defense facilities.

The quiet colony received an unexpected surprise when the Bugs warped out into the system with a fleet of sixteen warships that proceeded to bombard the major cities from satellite orbit. After crippling the human colony's infrastructure, the Bugs began their descent with scores of landing craft.

The colonists lacking weapons to defend themselves were easily routed, and all 200,000 of them were killed without exception. Ten days later, the 2nd Fleet of the Imperial Galactic Navy arrived at the Arturo star system in response to the FTL distress calls from Vesta. They destroyed the Bugs fleet there and wiped out all the invaders that landed on the planet. There were no survivors on the colony only horrific hellish images of the alien's occupation of the colony that were recorded by various security cameras installed on facilities throughout the planet. Since then, humanity and Bugs have been locked in a never-ending war for thousands of years.

In the year 2248 IC, the Bugs attacked the Tau Vegas 2 Star System. The Brigadier General Iris Conrad of a Imperial vessel sacrificed herself in order to buy time for 20,000 colonists to escape under the attack of multiple Bug fleets. She did so by taking the helm of a single heavy cruiser and engaged the Bugs. At the end, she fought the invaders in close quarters combat when they boarded she vessel. Despite the odds she stalled them enough and managed to blow herself and her ship destroying enemy fleet. Her actions immortalized her as the Empire’s hero with a warship, a Galaxy-Class Battleship, named in her honor.

In the year 2258 IC, and the Human Imperial Galactic Navy warship named Iris Conrad had been engaged in a long term exploration and reconnaissance mission for more than two years. Its mission was to locate the mother planet of the Bugs.

Culture
The Bugs are portrayed as a merciless enemy who had a penchant for cruelty and enjoyed feasting on human flesh. The Bugs also possess technology which gives them hyperspace navigation capabilities, but the Empire is slightly ahead on that front. The most fearsome thing about the Bugs is their sheer numbers.

Bugs usually target colonized planets which they swarm by seemingly endless numbers of Bug fleets. According to studies done by experts, the ratio of humans to Bugs is about 1 to 6. Strangely from evidence of captured and investigated Bug colonies, there doesn’t seem to be any specialized reproduction facilities. So far the total number of colonies seem to be on par with those of humanity. From the investigation there is theory that some sort of large-scale breeding facility exist on the Bugs homeworld and that discovering and destroying it may end the endless war.

Technologically the Bugs were inferior to humanity though they possessed artificial intelligence and spacefaring vessels like the basic BG-1 light cruiser. These vessels still sported tremendous firepower, and there were rare instances of a ship surviving a battle after getting severely damaged. Other classes exists like the BG-IIIs. A BG-X battleship was another class was a standard no human ship could win against.

The Bug are aware their technology is inferior to humanity and on occasion attempt to acquire human vessels for study though their attempts have been met with failure due to the self-destruct safeguards of the Empire. When it came to the Bugs, there is no way an attack with them will end with two fleets engaging. Once a Bug fleet fails to return after attacking a certain sector, multiple other fleets will keep swarming said sector until it is completely ravaged.

There was a claim saying that the Bugs might have captured a great number of humans and brought them back to their home-world where the Bugs apparently raised humans akin to livestock and were treated as gourmet foodstuffs. Which would explain as to how Bugs are capable of speaking human language, as there have been many reported missing after attacks on colony planets.

Appearances

 * The Galactic Navy Officer Becomes an Adventurer Volume 01 by Itou Atsuhiko (2017)
 * The Galactic Navy Officer Becomes an Adventurer Volume 02 by Itou Atsuhiko (2017)