Scourge

The scourge was an aerial kamikaze strain of the zerg, bred to seek out and destroy enemy aircraft and starships by flying directly into them and detonating. Blind from optical degeneration and of unknown origin within the Swarm, scourges functioned as living anti-air munitions, capable of engaging targets in both open atmosphere and the vacuum of space. Catalytic agents within the creature's body allowed it to undergo a form of plasma metamorphosis on impact, converting it into a living bomb.

Biology and method of attack#

The scourge was a blind flier whose eyes had degenerated entirely, leaving it to locate prey by other means. On the ground it stood taller than a terran in CMC powered combat armor, but its purpose lay in the air, where it sought out enemy starships and dived into them. Catalytic agents within the scourge's body allowed it to undergo a form of plasma metamorphosis, causing it to explode like a living bomb on contact with its target. A single scourge carried enough explosive force to destroy a terran starfighter or shuttle outright, and a small group could breach the hull of a much larger starship. Because the strain functioned by physical impact and detonation rather than by any ranged weapon, it was equally effective in open atmosphere and in the vacuum of space.

The strain's principal weakness was its limited capacity to store energy. A scourge could remain aloft for barely a few hours before it required additional sustenance, which forced the Swarm to manage its deployment carefully. To conserve energy between engagements, scourges often perched on the backs of overlords. This habit carried its own hazard, as a scourge's explosive nature could damage friendly zerg at such close proximity if it detonated.

Scourges also displayed bat-like behavior in their resting state, hanging from creep-covered ceilings and swooping down on anything that disturbed them.

Evolution and production#

The scourge had a varied and somewhat confusing evolutionary history. It possessed a simple genetic makeup, which allowed it to spawn in pairs from a single larva, in a manner similar to the zergling. By the time of the Second Great War, scourges could be spawned directly from leviathans, the enormous space-faring zerg that carried broods between worlds.

By 2505, the Swarm appeared to have settled on dedicated scourge nests to handle the strain's evolution and production. Such nests were spotted within the infamous Bone Trench on Char, though it remained unclear to the Terran Dominion whether these structures actually produced scourges or whether pre-existing scourges had simply chosen to nest in them.