Horde of Alien Locusts: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

The alien horde approaches. They don't necessarily want to give us a [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]], or be [[The Virus]] and transform us, or what all... they're just into adding biomass by whatever means necessary and as fast as possible.

== [[Fan Fiction]] ==

* A fanfiction example in Brian Randall's [http://florestica.com/brandall/poe/index.htm Process of Elimination]. Aforementioned horde is original flavor, and pretty imaginative. It's a Ranma 1/2 fiction.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The swarm of metal locusts which Gort transforms into halfway through [[The Remake]] of ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still]]''.

* The invading aliens in ''[[Independence Day]]'' were either these or [[Planet Looters]].

** Given that President Whitmore was temporarily telepathically linked with the aliens, I'd take his word for it:

{{quote| "They're like locusts. They travel from planet to planet, their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on. And we're next."}}

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* The Dreen from [[John Ringo]]'s ''[[Into the Looking Glass]]'' novels

* The Posleen from [[John Ringo]]'s ''[[Posleen War Series|Legacy of the Aldenata]]'' series.

* The Swarm Mother from the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' shared-world anthologies

* The Chtorran ecosystem from David Gerrold's ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]''

* Slight variation used in the second of the [[Thursday Next]] series by [[Jasper Fforde]], ''Lost In A Good Book:'' Thursday's time-traveling father discovers a glitch in the timeline that, if it comes to pass, will result in all organic matter on Earth being reduced to a strange and sinister pink goo. It turns out to be {{spoiler|the result of nanomachines designed to convert inedible matter into food, only the nanomachines take over the planet. And turn us all into strawberry-flavored ice cream topping.}}

* The Arachnid Omnivoracity from ''[[Starfire]]''. Tabletop game and series of books co-written by David Weber.

* The Klikiss from ''[[The Saga of Seven Suns]]''.

** Also the Khleevi from her ''[[Acorna]]'' series.

*** Don't forget Thread from [[Dragonriders of Pern]].

* Greenfly, in [[Alastair Reynolds]]' ''[[Revelation Space]]'' 'verse, fall under the green goo variety.

* The Slaver Sunflowers. from [[Larry Niven]]'s [[Known Space]], are a vegetable version. They exist to turn all other life into fertilizer for themselves.

* The Unclean from the ''[[Star Trek]]'' series "Invasion!". They need three things: warp cores, for energy; new DNA, to re-engineer themselves into useful forms; and BRAAAINS, for intelligence. ([[Fridge Logic|Why can't they just grow their own?]])

* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''[[The Culture|Excession]]'' in the context of out-of-control self-replicating autonomous spacecraft, referred to as "Aggressive Hegemonising Swarm Objects". A common enough occurrence in the "[[The Culture]]" for the galactic community to have set up various task-forces and organisations to prevent them becoming too big. However, it's more common for the Aggressive Hegemonising Swarm to be composed of self replicating machines, rather than living beings.

** It also says something about the nature of Culture society when Hegemonising Swarms / Space Locusts are a common "villain" in Culture children's stories.

* The ''[[Tour of the Merrimack]]'' series has the ravenous, all-consuming Hive, who are among other things the only known species that can [[Mirror Chemistry|digest protein of either handedness]].

* The Forerunners in Andrey Livadny's ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' series were the first semi-biological creatures in the galaxy (possibly, the Universe). Composed of proto-matter encased in a magnetic bubble, they move in a giant swarm and consume all matter in their path, save for stars which are too hot. They reproduce by mitosis (i.e. division), and killing one usually results in the creation of several smaller ones. Like moths, they are guided by starlight but are smart enough to avoid getting too close. The Forerunners were responsible for wiping out three [[Precursors|Precursor]] civilizations 3 million years ago, the descendants of only two of these still remain, mostly unaware of their former greatness. They were only stopped by the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of an entire race of [[Fish People]], who suicide-bombed ''[[Earthshattering Kaboom|stars]]'' to burn the swarm until all their stars were gone, but all the Forerunners were dead as well. Even their natural enemies the [[Space Whale|entriphages]] could not keep the Forerunners in line. When the humans later found several inert Forerunners, a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] decides to see if they can be useful and has them [[Too Dumb to Live|revived]]. They nearly wipe out two battle fleets before being destroyed for good.

* The Ifrits of the ''Corean Chronicles'' are a slow-acting version of this, leaning toward [[Planet Looters]]. They create bridges between their current world and a new one, which is terraformed and then populated with all forms of life. They produce beautiful civilizations and art. The catch? The entire time, they're ''feeding on the [[Life Energy]] of the world''. Within a few centuries or millennium, they can suck an entire world dry of its energy before moving on to the next one.

** They actually believe this is a service to the universe at large. By doing this, they allow the world to shine like a jewel for a brief time, rather than lingering dull and unimpressive for an eternity.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** ''[[Lexx]]'' also had the Lyekka aliens in the final season, a group of very hungry plants with a mother ship roughly twice the size of Earth's moon that would attach to a planet and strip it of all bio-matter to feed their insatiable hunger. This again being Lexx the aliens are only destroyed after eating a large number of worlds, killing billions and nearly eating the Earth (though it still blows up).

* The Stingray creatures in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' 2009 Easter Special "Planet of the Dead".

*** I think the aliens you are looking for here is "the Cybermen."

* The Magog from ''[[Andromeda]]''.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** It might have something to do with the [[Our Zombies Are Different|Necrons]], as it's implied that Tyranids make a point of staying far away from Necron tomb-worlds. It would make sense when you consider that Tyranids and Necrons are polar opposites. Think about it: the Tyranids exist to continually grow and expand until they're the only living things left, while the Necrons exist only to exterminate every single living thing for their [[Eldritch Abomination|C'tan]] masters.

** ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' also has the Rak'Gol, eight-limbed alien monsters who can take on Space Marines in melee, and come in huge hordes. They are among the most dangerous creatures found in the game.

* The RPG ''Nightbane'' had Shadow Mantis/Locust which rather unsurprisingly are exactly this, except they eat inorganic material as well and are mostly wiped out nowdays.

* 2nd Edition [[Dungeons and Dragons]] contains a good number of these such as:

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The Zerg from ''[[Starcraft]]'' (based on the Xenomorphs and the Bugs from [[Starship Troopers]]) have a fairly similar approach, including the assimilation of new species into the Zerg swarm based on their useful traits -- although they were [[Brainwashed and Crazy|forced into this]] through Xel'Naga modifications, after previously being a race of docile, harmless worms. Though they infest and consume the resources of planets, their goal under the [[The Chessmaster|Overmind]] was actually {{spoiler|the achievement of physical purity by genetically assimilating the Protoss. The sequel gives more background information on the Overmind, which infested Sarah Kerrigan to eventually relinquish control of the Zerg swarm to her. This would thereby prevent an [[Eldritch Abomination]] from using them as an army for universal genocide}}.

* Smoke's ending in ''[[Mortal Kombat]] Armageddon'' has him fusing with his fellow Cyberninjas Sektor and Cyrax and doing the Nanomachine version of this.

* The Mycons of ''[[Star Control]]'' certainly qualify for this trope. Though they are a bit slower than other examples of this trope, they see it as their long-term goal to [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|convert all "Non" to "Juffo-Wup".]] They turn out to be {{spoiler|a terraforming biotech whose programming has drifted from its original purpose over thousands of years. Nice job breaking it, Precursors.}} Also the Slylandro Probes, which are a more urgent problem.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has the Qiraji, insectoid monsters under the control of [[Eldritch Abomination|C'thun]]. While they don't come from space, they were sealed away from the rest of the world for millenia, giving their sudden reappearance a similar effect.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The nanomachine version is used in an episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''. They species appears to be made artificially for a war from fifty-thousand years ago, and is meant to consume every planet they're sent to, spread to some other planets, and repeat until they're all dead.

* In ''[[Transformers]]'' we have the Insecticons, a literal swarm of alien locusts (and weevils and stag beetles). Unlike most Transformers, they don't live simply on energon. Instead they eat ''everything''--including, in the comics, meat.

** There is also a Shen Gong Wu that releases a horde of stone locusts that luckily are solely herbivorous, but really quick at it. It was found in the episode in which the [[Monster of the Week|once-appearing villain]] was a plant, not stoppable in any other way.

** The [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Changelings]] give off this particular vibe as well, what with their less-than-subtle similarities with to [[Starcraft|Zerg]]. The only difference being that they [[Emotion Eater|feed on love]] instead of ponies themselves.

 

 

== [[Real Life]]? ==

** But it's unlikely for many reasons one of their is for example that the will only be able to consume other things as fast as they move and receive energy so if they want to consume the earth it would take a while.

** And also there's always electromagnetic pulse from high alltitude nuclear weaponry, effectively using one doomsday weapon to counter another. Of course it'll render all other electronic devices useless as well, but it sure beats being converted into a "living" metalic pudding.

** Are not nanomachines simply metallic versions of bacteria or viruses? [[You Suck|How could humans possibly think they could develop a system of consumption and reproduction that is more efficient than billions of years of evolution directed towards that purpose]]?

*** Because evolution only selects for good enough, not good as possible. Many biological mechanisms are actually quite inefficient and could theoretically be improved significantly.

* And, of course, real-life locusts, which can totally destroy vast areas as they madly consume whatever they can before starving themselves back into depopulation.

* One could say that, from a cynical point of view, ''all'' life acts like this.