Chimera (Resistance)

The Chimera are a mysterious and hostile alien species and are the central antagonists of the Resistance series. Originally, the Chimera were mistakenly believed by humanity to be the creation of Russian experiments, due to the fact that their invasion originated from Russia. In reality, the Chimera were of extraterrestrial origin and are following their own agenda, namely their subsequent invasion of Earth and attempted extermination of humanity.

Physical Traits
The Chimera encountered on Earth are not the natural or "Pure" form of the species, having been created by fusing human and Chimera DNA through the use of a viral bioweapon. Physical characteristics of the various forms of Chimeran mutants include having between two to six gold eyes, greatly varied anatomies, and grayish-green skin. Their metabolism is approximately twelve times that of a normal human being, granting them extraordinary regenerative abilities, as well as enhanced speed and strength. The side effect of this trait is that their bodies tend to generate large amounts of heat, which can literally cook them from the inside out. In order to counteract this effect, Chimeran soldiers are implanted with large artificial cooling devices that attach to the back (though some later strains like boilers and hags were created to survive unaided in warmer climates). Furthermore, the regeneration ability is somewhat limited and can only save them from minor injuries, as opposed to critical injuries (headshot or organ damage).

Both the "Pure" Chimera and their mutant strains tend to thrive in very cold temperatures, and there have been successful attempts by the Chimera to alter the Earth's climate to suit their needs. As a direct result, temperatures in certain locations such as London have been reduced to sub-zero, resulting in those areas being frozen during summer months.

The genetic make-up of the Chimeran virus  appears to have been specifically designed to attack and modify human genes. It is noted that all Chimeran strains are apparently male, with female strains only being used later in the war for Europe.

Reproduction
The Chimera reproduce through parasitism, converting other species into various Chimeran soldiers by sending Crawlers and/or Spinners (both being small, insect-like Chimera) in a Spire missile to infect any creature near the crash site where the Spire lands. The conversion process (which normally goes very slowly) is greatly augmented with many giant conversion centers, which also, artificially, speed up the conversion of massive amounts of Humans into Chimera.

In Resistance: Fall of Man, it appears as if conversion centers are where all humans infected with the Chimeran virus are taken to be transformed into Chimeran soldiers. In Resistance 2, however, the Chimera only use conversion centers to create their more advanced troops, and they appear to now be located within Chimeran Towers and warships of the Chimeran Fleet, instead of being in separate buildings altogether. Most of the general population of areas they take over are now converted into Grims by Spinners; Captured soldiers appear to be taken to these conversion centers, perhaps because they are more battle-hardened than most civilians.

Psychology
The psychology of the average Chimeran troop appears to be very limited, with only the Angel caste (and now Daedalus) having advanced thought. However, SRPA file XX458198 suggests that normal Chimera may in fact retain vestigial memories of their previous life. The objects detailed in that file were normal items such as soap bars and toys, which were found to be carried by the Chimera that had been killed in battle. There are however ferel Chimera that are no longer apart of the hive mind such as Leapers; Grims; Leeches; Krakens; and Widowmakers. It is unknown as to why this is, and this is only seen after Resistance 2. Chimera are not really capable of common thought, but they are quite intelligent when it comes to military actions. In Resistance fall of man, when all of the Angels are killed in the Centrel tower the Chimerain army begins to fall. This is seen again in Resistance Retribution when the Final boss is killed. The Chimera begin to fade off in France. When in Resistance 3 the Chimerain Wormhole was closed, the whole Chimerain military began slowly dying without a fight. This is because the Wormhole lead directly to the chimerain home world, were the Pure Chimera lived. Even Daedalus was being controlled by them. The quote "They are calling to us, can you hear them, it is beautiful." Is uttered by both Daedalus and Nathan Hale. This is due to the fact that the pure Chimera can communicate telipathically, and are therefore responsible for organizing and controlling the entire Chimeran army.



Military
The Chimeran military is made up of many different breeds of Chimera and models of drones that the chimera use for jobs that they normally can't do, like scouting or being used to attack humans behind the frontlines. The Chimera at first used conversion centers to convert humans to make their armies stronger by using carriers to collect infected humans. Over time however, the conversion centers were phased out, and so the Chimera simply started to convert humans using Spinners; but Spinners could only turn humans into Grims, and leeches, so they put conversion centers in their battleships. There where already centers in the Chimeran towers that received infected humans the old way. The Chimera also make use of many other types of warmachines, like Stalkers, Hammers, Burrowers, Dropships, and their many, many forms of airships.



Origins
The precise origins of the Chimera are unknown, but it is known that latest 65 million years ago (during Dinosaur Ages) a race of beings, presumably the original or "pure" Chimera, had colonized Earth, establishing a foothold on the planet. During this era, the Chimera came into conflict with another alien race. It is unknown what the outcome of this war was, but evidence suggests the damage dealt to the Chimera was devastating; the Chicxulub Crater was created as a result of the conflict, and the effects forced the Chimera to completely abandon Earth.

Return
65 million years later, the Chimera returned to Earth during the Tunguska Event of 1908. Their arrival was initially interpreted as a small asteroid or comet strike; the object descending through the Earth's atmosphere was presumably a spacecraft or capsule. Evidence suggests that the Chimera planned the return to Earth since the time of their departure, as shown by the presence of the Chimeran Tower network that was buried across the world. Some towers even happened to be under major population centers, such as London, Paris and New York.

Initially showing little open activity for almost two decades, the Chimera made themselves known in 1927 and began their attack on Russia. Despite the Russians best efforts, including vaccinating their soldiers with the modified Chimeran Virus, by the early 1940s, the Chimera had completed the conquest of Russia with very few managing to escape. Initially, knowledge of the Chimera's existence was completely unknown to the rest of the world due to Russia's strict isolationist policies. However, Western intelligence agencies became aware of strange events transpiring in Russia, such as abnormally cold weather changes, but erroneously believed that the Chimera were the byproduct of a Russian military experiment gone wrong.

Chimeran War
During the 1940s, the Chimera patiently amassed their forces before breaking through the Russian defensive perimeter spanning the entire country and swiftly invading Europe in December 1949. In a matter of weeks, continental Europe was conquered before the United Kingdom, the last European nation, was eventually invaded after the Chimera dug under the English Channel, easily overwhelming its defenders. Noted changes in the environment/climate of Britain and the excavation of many Chimeran towers by the Chimera happened shortly after their brutal takeover of the country. It was not until the intervention of the United States and the large counterattack that the Chimera suffered their first major defeat when the British Tower network was infiltrated and destroyed, resulting in the loss of the entire Angel caste and the subsequent death of every Chimeran creature in the British Isles. The rest of western Europe was liberated shortly afterwards.

Despite these setbacks, the Chimera were quick to learn from their failures and made progressive changes in creating newer and stronger strains, and made use of advanced technology to continue their onslaught over the western hemisphere. With the fall of the Angels, the Chimera came under the leadership of Daedalus, a former human being known as Jordan Shepherd who was a severely mutated byproduct of an American attempt to create anti-Chimera supersoldiers. It was under Daedalus that the Chimera were able to invade Canada, Africa, and South America within two years before setting their focus on the United States. The Chimera intended to activate the tower network across the planet, and sought to reach the inactive towers remaining in America. Ultimately, the Chimera invaded the U.S. on May 15, 1953, deploying a large fleet of Chimeran airships which totally decimated the country and its military within over a month. By this time, the Chimera activated the tower network and channeled its energy towards the Chicxulub Crater which was being harnessed by the Chimeran fleet's flagship. What was left of the human military attempted to stop Daedalus and the Chimera by destroying the fleet with a fission bomb. However, the detonation of the bomb only served to "kick-start" the tower network, causing a large energy surge that opened a wormhole in the Earth's atmosphere. This wormhole led to the home system of the Chimera, presumably allowing for the Chimera to send numerous reinforcements to Earth.

Occupation of Earth
By 1957, the Chimera had taken total control over Earth. As a result, the Chimera, for unexplained reasons, had forgone the need to capture and convert human beings (possibly due to the Hale vaccine which canceled the effects of the Chimeran virus) and subsequently began an extermination campaign to wipe out what remained of the human race, and with the goal of terraforming Earth into a frozen wasteland using massive orbital weapons known as terraformers. The wormhole above the New York Tower would then be used for its sole purpose: to transport countless numbers of Pure Chimera from their homeworld to Earth. Furthermore, the Chimera have for unknown reasons removed some Chimeran strains, such as Grims and Leapers, from the Chimeran military structure, and consequently becoming "feral" and hostile to their own kind. A possible explanation for the hostilities between military Chimera and the feral strains can be identified as an issue of expired usefulness.

Following the Chimeran War, and the opening of the wormhole to the Chimera's home world, the Chimera on Earth had potential access to a near unlimited flow of Pure Chimera reinforcements to fight against small pockets of human resistance. Previously the wilder, more aggressive Chimeran strains had been useful in providing a more random and unpredictable fighting force to weaken and hinder humanity. However, once any real opposition to the Chimeran occupation had been reduced to small bands of survivors, they lost their usefulness and became the targets of a purge focused on removing the less advanced strains of Chimera. What remains unknown is how far this purging would have extended. It is possible that once the Pure Chimera retook and resettled the Earth, other strains would face elimination for the same reasons. This reinforces the image that the impure strains of Chimera were simply a means to an end, paving the way for the domination of the Pure Chimeran race.

By August 1957, the Chimera were dealt a sudden and devastating blow when some of the remnants of humanity launched a desperate attack that destroyed the New York Tower, closing the wormhole and ending the Chimera's terraforming process. The attack on the terraformer in New York appears to be humanity's own turning point as temperatures change rapidly on the Eastern Coast of the United States just as human resistance fighters across the planet are reporting their successes against the Chimera, who appear to be at a severe in-cohesive state. Over time it became apparent that humanity may have finally won the war against the Chimera and humanity began to rebuild Earth's nations.



Overview
The Chimera use a biological weapon that converts humans (and perhaps other creatures) into Chimera variants. The virus is spread through contact with a carrier strain, such as the Crawler or Spinner. The virus imparts great healing, lightning-fast reflexes, and a highly efficient metabolism. However, their supercharged bodies generate such a massive amount of heat that most Chimera need to be refrigerated constantly, lest they literally stew in their own juices.

Variants

 * Abomination
 * Advanced Hybrid
 * Alpha Grim
 * Angel
 * Boiler
 * Brawler
 * Brute
 * Burrower
 * Carrier
 * Chameleon
 * Chrysalis
 * Cocoon
 * Crawler
 * Daedalus
 * Executioner
 * Fury
 * Gray Jack
 * Grim
 * Hag
 * Hardfang
 * Howler
 * Hybrid
 * Impaler
 * Kraken
 * Leaper
 * Leaper Pod
 * Leech
 * Leviathan
 * Mauler
 * Marauder
 * Menial
 * Mother Spinner
 * Overseer
 * Pure Chimera
 * Primarch
 * Queen Leaper
 * Ravager
 * Roller
 * Siren
 * Slipskull
 * Spinner
 * Steelhead
 * Swarm
 * Titan
 * Widowmaker