The Unity are a species native to the planet Mars or as the natives call the Birthworld. To the human invading Mars they are simply referred to as Martians.
Biology[]
The Unity are large crustaceans that come in various bioforms that are function-specific. They have a circulatory system which includes a sac that is largely muscle and functions like a heart located just below their upper carapace, at the midpoint of the body. It’s a vital point in which its cease in function would mean immediate death to a member of the Unity.
While lacking ears the Unity’s exoskeletons are covered with microscopic hairs which enable them to pick up vibrations in the air. Given how thin Mars air is, and that sound doesn’t well, the hairs are hypothesized to be incredibly sensitive. Due to being cold blooded, they do it emit any heat, and due to their carapace it makes them invisible to infrared vision. Neither do they possess any heart beats. Interestingly the species has the ability to see water in other creatures, which to them appears blue to their sight.
The internal anatomy of the Unity confound human scientists as the species blood is so not like anything they have encountered. Not only does it appear that the Unity can easily breath the carbon dioxide of Mars' atmosphere, but later it is learned that they breath nitrogen. And somehow can easily breathe the mostly oxygen atmosphere humans adapt to with little adverse effects and can function without discomfort in air pressure thanks to their thick shells.
Unity and human blood held no similarities beside being liquid. The blood of a Unity specimen is said to possess a dynamic viscosity less than a third of water, at a temperature of 1 degrees Celsius. Normally the blood of a Unity should be practically frozen in their veins in an atmosphere like Mars, yet despite the impossibility their blood flowed at a rate of three meter per second, which in contrast human blood flowed at less than a meter per second.
The species take their name from the racial gestalt hive mind that they possess, which they call the Unity. Through the Unity, every member of the species is connected, and never alone.
Members of the Unity are incredibly long-lived, and could live up to nine thousand years if they live a healthy life.
History[]
For untold millennia the Unity existed on Mars, living in subterranean cities. Their existence was unknown to humanity, who for generations had envisioned alien life on other planets. It was only until the early NASA days of rover exploration, was the Unity discovered. The feeds from the rovers documented the members of the Unity on the rare instances they were on the surface of the planet. Although those feeds were carefully controlled by the government, leading the public to assume Mars to be devoid of life by the public.
This conspiracy was instigated by a cadre of higher dignitaries at the United Nations, scientists involved in project related to colonization, as well as certain leaders of a few larger countries. The powers of be at the time, believed that the revelation that alien life existed on Mars was not in the best interests of the public. Though in truth the leaders at the time hid the truth to preserve humanity's ignorance of life beyond their planet. Colonization plans for Mars were being drawn up and would have halted if news of potentially sentient race already existed on Mars, in fact the leaders feared that there probably would have been public backlash and civil unrest decrying the space initiative as any colonization for Mars would have ethical implications on encroaching on another culture's territory like with historical situation of the Europeans and the Native Americans. But it ultimately boiled down to greed, as the United States, who was the main progressor for space travel would lose money invested in the endeavor.
The leaders they withheld the information on the Unity or Martians as they called, proceeding with their goal to colonize Mars for humanity, under the pretense of learning all they could about the aliens, as they did not known anything about the species. The first Martian colony was established, Bradbury, though to avoid chances of the aliens becoming aware of their colonization efforts the colony was established in a location far removed from any cave system or volcanoes. Once the colony was established, the humans sent covert teams to secure specimens of the aliens to study them.
Officially the U.N.'s policy regarding life on Mars was that it was nonexistent. They hoped to put off first contact with the natives long enough for Mars to be settled, so that humanity could have the numbers to fight the Martians should they prove hostile. A second colony Wellsville was established with the same parameters to avoid contact. And after a century which saw no contact between the species, the United Nations decided to set up a third colony was set up, New Meridian near the vicinity of Albor Tholus, a dormant volcano. The initial plan was to bait the Martians out to approach the colony, in an optimistic hope to establish peaceful contact. The only people who were aware of the truth about Mars were the Chief Administrators (CA) of the colonies who held certain protocols to follow and secure bunkers for their personal safety.
Unfortunately peaceful contact did not happen, as the Unity eventually discovered the outlaying farms of New Meridian, attacking the colonists. Essentially the humans were regarded as squatters by the Unity, though the aliens had no explicit hatred for the humans, as they felt immense pity for the humans, being individuals and alone. It was discovered that aliens could convert human brains to new bodies of Unity and become adverts to their spiritual awareness. Given that the humans were on their world, the Unity believed that they must conform to their standard to become one with their species, whether they wanted to or not.
When attacks on a farming settlement was reported to the administration of New Meridian. Once news about creatures on Mars reached the Chief Administrator who informed the other CAs, all communications with New Meridian were jammed to prevent knowledge from spreading. The information censor proved fatal, as it denied New Meridian much needed aid, The colony being the newest, was the least heavily defended, allowing the Martians to quickly overtake the colony, infiltrating into colony via underground tunnels, proceeding to kill the colonists, and claimed their brains to carry out their spiritual conversions.
A total of seven survivors escaped the colony, making their way to the second colony of Wellsville in hopes they they could warn them in time. The escapees though were followed, and the location of the colony was discovered. The militia there at Wellsville quarantined the survivors to prevent them from spreading panic and forced them to sign disclosures to ensure secrecy. Despite the warnings of the survivors that the Martians posed, the authorities ignored them, confident of their technology and weapons. Wellsville had summoned all outlying colonists back into its domes, under the pretense of a vaccine shot. The ineffectual political and military leadership led to its downfall, as even when signs of the Martians were encroaching on the colony's borders, they covered the information up blaming on gas leaks. By then colonists were ordered into their homes for safety concerns, but it proved to be a mistake, as the Martians had dug under the buildings in the colonies to effectively kill all those within. Again in a repeat of history, the original survivors from New Meridian were spared from the carnage along with three members of the surviving militia of Wellsville.
Even after the destruction of two colonies, the United Nations Security Council refused to admit its fault in the deaths of the colonists. Worse they still cling to the delusion of claiming Mars for themselves despite the fact it was apparent humanity had no right to Mars as it was inhabited and that anymore attempts would lead to even more bloodshed.
Instead UNSC capitalized on the casualties, making them martyrs to justify a cause to avenge the deaths, which the UNSC had so graciously caused in the first place, ignoring any accountability of their actions, to initiate a war of the species. They desired to intensify the war by brining more soldiers and equipment to wipe out the Martians and claim the planet without any pretense for coexistence. To top it off the military campaign was to be led by a pompous General Augustos who was little more than a decorative figurehead with a lack of understanding of the dire situation in Mars. A brazen plan was hastily made by the general to capture one of the leaders of the Martians from one of their cities. The very plan was flawed and would essentially mean a suicide mission for the soldiers heading to extract the specimen.
The war saw to humanity utilizing even more unethical means to achieve victory, one being the use of Bio Marines, genetically engineered slave soldiers that would fight humanity's war for them. Normally they would have been sanctioned for any missions by the Secretary General of the UNSC, they were illegally activated by the good general, all twenty four to fight a war on Mars.
It soon became evident that the higher ups of the military had wanted to start a war. The general believing the superiority of humanity, fully intended to wipe out the Martians. The capture of an alien leader was to negotiate an ultimatum was just pretense to escalate the conflict. The colonies established on Mars were necessary sacrifices to establish footholds on Mars, and the civilian lives as well as the soldiers were expendable.
In incite further hostilities against the aliens, General Augustos ordered a covert team of soldiers to capture a Martian leader, despite the lack of intel on whether the Martians had any leaders and the warnings of the sheer number of Martians contained within a city. In all the general ordered the men and women on the mission to their deaths. Unknown to the soldiers sent to infiltrate the Martian city, the good general called for reinforcements, summoning twenty-four BioMarines, developed to help humanity conquer the planet. Normally such a deployment was reserved for the Secretary General of the United Nations, but the general blind by his own narcissism gave the illegal order to have the supersoldiers sent to Mars. The human team as it turned out was a diversionary force while the BioMarines would under take the mission to capture the Martian leader.
The BioMarines managed to perform exceedingly, slaughter the Martians until they found a Aryghr. However despite all their strengths, the BioMarines were no match for the sheer numbers of the Martians, causing them to incurr some losses. Still the BioMarines captured their quarry, though oddly, the Martians did not pursue them.
Once the Martian was brought back to the last human colony of Bradbury, the Aryghr was taken to be studied and interrogated. The humans though still had no way of communicating with the alien, nor did any one believe it was possible. More or less the interrogation was to be little more than a torture session for the general to assert his, thereby humanity's dominance of Mars. However the general began to receive warnings from survivors of the previous colonies that they had sighted Martians within Bradbury having infiltrated through the water system. Not only that he was warned that the behavior of the Martians was atypical as they aliens did not attempt to retake the alien leader, suggesting something strange was happening. The general arrogant dismissed the survivors warnings, and determined that humanity had little to fear from the savage aliens.
It proved to be a fatal mistake as the Martian soon attacked Bradbury. The aliens had allowed the humans and BioMarines to capture the Aryghr, who used itself as a focal point to locate the human colony and send it location via telepathy not only for a rescue but to launch their own operation to capture the general. The Martian Drillers dug under the colony, sinking all the buildings into the sand, whilst their brethren created a sand storm as cover to attack the colony. The Martians laid waste to Bradbury in a mere few hours, killing civilians and claiming their heads. Even the BioMarines, who were assured of their strength fell to the onslaught until a mere four survived. With losses mounting for both the military and civilians a total evacuation was called to retreat to the Earth fleet in orbit.
Augustos having survived the attack on Bradbury, was brought before the very same Aryghr who had captured. Alongside him was a Gryghr who using human technology communicated that he was once a Chief Administrator of one of the human colonies, though had since been converted into a loyal member of the Unity. The Martians informed Augustos that they intended to converted all humans into their species, not just the ones on Mars, but desired to invade Earth. The Martians had long planned for this, having devised a way to reach the stars using the humans own ships using the intellect and knowledge of their new kindred to learn more about Earth. Hence why they systematically destroyed each of the colonies so that humans could come and bring a fleet. The human defenders at Bradbury too busy fighting the Martians, would miss that the Martians had packed themselves in the many dropships they brought. The Martians would be brought to the ships in the fleet as stowaways and once they were brought on board they would take every human brain and transfer their consciousnesses to new bodies for their invasion of Earth. The general was then taken to be converted so that his knowledge would serve the Unity.
By sheer luck one of the surviving BioMarines had noticed that civilian containers were on the military dropships and reported their presence to his commander. The soldiers managed to confirm that the containers had stowaways which they eliminated. They managed to warn the other dropships, though many of them had to be destroyed to prevent them from harming the fleet. Even with active purges, it was predicted that there was a high chance that the Martians were still hiding among the hidden crevices of the dropships.
Culture[]
The Unity ae born into many castes, represented into various colors and forms. Though such differences mean little to the species as they feel united and the same under the power of the Unity. They regard their functions to be a consequence of their bodies, and not some social state imposed by others. Despite their different roles each caste is just as important, from the lowly work, warrior or leader.
- Aryghr: The yellow leader caste
- Gryghr: The red worker/soldier caste
- Hryghr: The blue warrior/general caste
- Eryghr: The brown scientist caste
- Flyer: An unnamed flying caste.
- Driller: An unnamed tunneling caste.
Religion[]
The Unity are a deeply spiritual race, valuing their racial gestalt known as the Unity and oneness to be equated to a divine concept known as the Source of All. Due to this they feel compelled to share their unity with others, and join the Unity.
The method for this usually entails taking the intact brains of other creatures, and through the use of their superior biological sciences are able to transfer the consciousness of their victims into new bodies of the Unity. The process is not without problems, as those who are converted may feel discomfort and even fail to accept their new reality. Though it appears in most successful cases to be a phase, as eventually the new members fully accept that they are members of the Unity after experiencing the telepathic link.
The Unity appear to also have odd funerary rites for their victims, as in every case where they kill a human, either maiming them and decapitating the head, they almost always leave the torso neatly stacked together with its arms and limbs.
Sources[]
- Battlefield Mars by David Robbins
- Colony Down: Battlefield Mars Book 2 by David Robbins
- Species War: Battlefield Mars Book 3 by David Robbins