SwarmFox Types (Patreon)

The Tiny Hungering Vulpines may be a single intelligence across a vast number of drones, but those drones are not all identical in shape. Her intelligence, however, is mirrored through every drone. Were you to separate a drone from the massed swarms both physically and mentally, it would change little aside what facts and figures that drone can recall. That new separate intelligence, once brought back to the swarm, will usually become just another drone again with little change aside her individual memories being accessible to the whole. As such it is hard to understand where the boundary between individual and gestalt intelligence does lay, at least in regards to personality and sense of self.

Her various drone bodies however all serve specific purposes within the swarm, be it physiological needs much like a body has with cells, her reproductive and growth cycle, or more cognitive uses of instruments to get the results her mind wishes. From left to right, we have many of her most common drone forms.

The Laval SwarmFox is the starting point for all of her Drones, recently hatched out of eggs ideally placed within hosts to incubate. These drones are incapable of speech, tool usage or any real strength. They are primarily used either as an intermediary state of growth, or are placed together in swarms from a few individual SwarmFoxes to vast carpets of small fluffy critters. Typically they are used to reach prey in otherwise inaccessible locations, such as by pouring out by the dosen from air vents in tunnels, or to overwhelm prey positions by sheer weight of numbers. Most notable of them though is their hunger: They are ravenous for their size. Lavae's got to grow, after all~

When a Laval SarmFox reaches a certain size her morphology changes and she becomes bipedal, and is known as a Proto-Vixen. Not quite anthropomorphic, nor quite an animal walking on two legs, this form is still unable to speak and has difficulty in operating complex machinery, but they are often used as quiet, small, unassuming actors to interact with some pacified prey where other drones are more busy doing specialised tasks.

The Sister Vixens are the maturity of the Proto-Vixens. With paws able to manipulate complex and fine items like hands, the newfound ability to speak complex language with a developed throat and a far more bipedal form, these SwarmFox drones are the mainstay of a healthy swarm. While able to handle most of the needs of the swarm themselves, their roles are often reserved for the starting of her reproduction cycle. Sister Vixens are capable of copulating with males (or similar) of other species and storing the genetic material within themselves, converting it for use themselves. Sister Vixens will frequently mate with victims many times in often highly advanced and stimulating methods, while they also continue to develop biologically, through either drinking milk from Keeper Vixens (and from lactating prey) or via the meat from victims too exhausted to copulate any further.

One potential development for a diverse swarm from the Sister Vixens are the Razor Jaws. These specialised SwarmFoxes are designed to chew their way through most objects in the swarms way, having strong jaws, highly sharpened and fast growing teeth that seem reinforced with minerals. These gnashing horrors are usually found chewing their way through bulkheads, walls and barricades put up by prey to keep her out. It is possible for a few Razor Jaws to gnaw their way through a reinforced space station door in surprisingly short time. They are known to gnaw their way through people even faster.

Another curious adaptation a Sister Vixen can develop into are the Grabby Paws. Where Razor Jaws rely in sharpness and mechanical forces to achieve results, the Grabby Paws are evolved (or mutated, depending on who one asks) to use brute force to overwhelm and restrain prey that has strength higher then Sister Vixens. With large meaty paws able to grapple most things and strengthened arms able to apply a shocking amount of physical power, these variants are perfect for restraining downed prey, overwhelming prey in physical combat, or stimulating prey that are subdued.

Once a Sister Vixen has collected genetic material from copulating, she will then continue her development, growing somewhat larger into a Breeder Vixen to assist her developing the genetic material she has harvested into eggs. These eggs will eventually hatch into more Lavae SwarmFoxes, the hosts genetics used to fill in recessive genes to enable the eggs to form, genetics that are then discarded later on. These eggs can survive when places into nests to keep them from falling too cold, however the gestation and hatching is far more rapid when the egg is laid into a female (or similar) victim. As such the Breeder Vixen will lay as many eggs as she can into her many restrained victims, preferably until they are filled to capacity. Victims that the Breeder Vixen deems unable to host more offspring are then typically consumed by the swarm, though such well serving victims are often 'rewarded' with a far more pleasant digestion.

At the apex of her development, a SwarmFox drone will become a Brood Mother. These larger forms can do it all; breed, feed and lay eggs in one package. These types of SwarmFox even have a breath ability: They can wrap their jaws around a victims muzzle and huff into the victims lungs, giving a gas from her own lungs that rapidly renders the victim in a short term passive state akin to numbed suspended animation, perfect for stealing them away to breed, and feed. They are used near the end stages of a swarming for the express purpose of spreading her numbers and swarms to new parts of the galaxy. Brood Mothers will find their ways onto ships and stations, and will grab a victim to steal away into her hiding place with a huff of her gas. If the initial victim is female, she will eat them whole and alive. If the first victim is a male, she will breed with him until the victim is at a point of exhaustion. once the male is consumed, she will then hunt and steal away a female to lay her new brood of eggs into. After doing this a few times, the start of a new swarm is well under way, and the entire ship, station or even planet is at risk. Once the swarm is getting underway, the resource requirement of the brood mother and realise returns for calories becomes less attractive to The Tiny Hungering Vulpines... and thus the swarm will devour the Brood Mother.

While much of the life-cycle f the SwarmFox drones is to increase their size, the Finder variant goes the other way. These harmless looking mute vulpines develop directly from Proto-Vixens and serve almost no offensive capability for the swarm and instead are typically found nearer the end of the swarming period. Their size and heightened senses allow them to rapidly find survivors and resistance from the prey she has swarmed. If discovered, such drones will typically act passive and observing, and will gladly accept food and petting. Make no mistake, though, she is a part of those vulpines as any other in her swarm.

Lastly are the Keeper Vixens, the metabolism of the swarm. Keeper Vixens form from Breeder Vixens that the Tiny Hungering Vulpines deem not the right time to turn into Brood Mothers. These large feral creatures cannot speak or operate machinery, and spend much of their time outside the initial swarming simply laying about either sleeping or being lazy in vast numbers. A collection of Keeper Vixens is called, by The Tiny Hungering Vulpines own words, her Larders. Having the ability similar to the Brood Mothers, these SwarmFox bellies are filled with the same suspended Animation gas, allowing her to put to a long and deep sleep anyone who is eaten alive. Those lucky enough to be grander her 'favour' are eaten alive by Keeper foxes to recover from either their breeding or egg-placing, the Keepr Vixen laying asleep among thousands to billions of other Keeper Vixens, plump bellies all filled with victims. Once the victim has recovered in their dreamless sleep, they will be spat out for another round of the SwarmFox reproduction cycle. Eventually though, once they are fully spent, the Keeper will swallow down the victim for a final time, before surprisingly gently digesting them alive. Victims excess calories that are digested are turned into milk for the rest of the swarm to suckle from the keeper vixen, ensuring the victim sustains a whole section of the swarm, even if for a single meal. The Tiny Hungering Vulpines takes great pride that victims that surrender themselves to her can look forward to centuries, even millennia, constantly being bred by Sister Vixens, implanted by Breeder Vixens and affectionately swallowed whole by Keeper Vixens, all the while being supported by the same source of nutrients that support the SwarmFoxes themselves: The victims own people.

As a creature of indeterminate size, The Tiny Hungering Vulpines drones of SwarmFox generally grow and shrink their sizes over generations to match their current prey scale. This may result in some planets temporarily having gigantic SwarmFoxes, and other planets having far smaller SwarmFox drones that can fit inside your pocket for a time.