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"What the hell are you?."
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- "As the 'worker bee' of the hive, the Drone preforms a variety of utility roles."
- ―AVPE, Bestiary (Drone)
The LV-742 Drone is a unique variation of the Drone and Drone-adjacent Xenomorph caste observed across planets. Though there are simularities, there are also key differences between this and other castes.
Characteristics[]
Biology and Physiology[]
Drones are created from infected Oswoc.
Typically, quadrupedal hosts produce similarly quadrupedal aliens, but the Drone remains bipedal as if it arose from a human. They have soft, greyish mesoskeletons compared to other castes and small claws that cannot peirce armor. A single drone is far from a fearsome combatant and even marine infantry with standard gear can route them in a one on one fight. Drones are the second smallest adult Xenomorph form, dwarfing only the Runner. They have small dorsal tubes and small tails tipped in a single barb. They have smooth heads and are considered "simple" aliens as they come from simple lifeforms.
A drone attacks with a furry of claws and later, acid spit.
Acid Spittle[]
Drone with spittle pouches.
When adapted by the Queen, the Drone gains an acidic ranged attack in the form of fleshy spittle pouches on either side of the head. It can spit acidic from fair distances with these pouches and becomes the hive's only ranged organism. The acid itself is also special, being cystic. These cysts prevent any afflicted from healing properly (although Yautja have advanced enough technology to overcome this) as well as providing a favorable environment for any Chestburster that gestates within the host. The resulting adult alien with be Cystic, denoted by a bright red stripe running down the head carapace, and possess an additional vitality in comaprison to their standard bred siblings.
Hive Function[]
{{Quote|The drone has no armor, and is vulnerable to almost any weapon.|AVPE (Bestiary)}} Drones are essentially the workers of a hive. While other aliens engage in offensive battles with prey and defend the hive from attacks, a drone mostly concerns itself with tending to the queen and her eggs as well as gathering any comatose hosts left behind in the aformentioned battles. They are not combat adept, even sufficient numbers of Kriltic or Kurn can kill one, but when adapted can serve as ranged support for Xenomorphs who are. The drone is the sole alien who can produce Hive Nodes, which increase hive space and provide "regroup" points where Xenomorphs can gather and heal from battle.
Although the Warrior and Predalien are the hive's swarm castes, standard and heavy respectively, the danger a swam of adapted drones can represent should not be underestimated. This is particularly true if Eggs and Facehuggers have been adapted also, as drones would be readily available in large groups and easily replaced when killed.
Adaptations[]
Mature drones, called Warriors, have their own genetic adaptions to help facilitate battle.
Onslaught Genome Adaptation[]
A Drone after taking heavy damage.
When needed, human-hosted Drones can adapt to become more suitable for heavy assaults. Adapted traits include hardened chitinous ridges that enable them to penetrate tougher armors, a redundant vascular life support system, enabling them to continue fighting even after sustaining crippling damage including limb loss, and improvements to their already amazing abilities to regenerate themselves with the added assistance from Hive Nodes. The latter two abilities combine to enable the creature to regenerate lost limbs and return to perfect health fast through sustained healing at the Hive.
Cystic Drones[]
A Cystic Infused Drone.
Basic Drones can be made even more dangerous through the use of Cystic Acid on their host before implantation. These Cystic infused variants are much hardier than their more common brethren, and although indistinguishable from a normal Drone in infancy, bare a bright, reddish stripe dorsally down their cranium upon reaching adulthood.[1]
As it is not directly initiated by the Queen on the mature Drone's genetics, Cystic Drones are not neccesarily an adaptation.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Acid spitting aliens are a common adaptation seen in many individual Xenomorphs. The Spitter, for instances, developed acid spittle sacks as an adaptation to Yautja and Marine forces. It was said to be very similar to the Drone otherwise.
- The Praetorian is another Xenomorph caste that spits acid, though in vast quanties during melee.
- In Extinction, there is a clear difference in Drones and Warriors. They arise from different host and are not shown to be able to grow into different castes (Drones cannot grow into Warriors, Warriors do not grow into Praetorians, ect.), essentially making them static in their growth.
- This is likely due to when the game was released. In 2003 the metamorphic capabilities of the Xenomorph had not been well understood.