First-Among-Equals

The First-Among-Equals is a cast of Spider Aliens bred for the purposes of acting as spokesbeings in their dealings with other races and commanding their invasion forces throughout the galaxy. The First-Among-Equals’ posts range from Spider Alien bases, to vessels, and conquered worlds.
=Ruling Tapestry=
The First-Among-Equals were present anywhere that the Spider Aliens had an interest, be it an base, a vessel, or conquered worlds, and, like strands on a web, they kept the empire linked.
==Deceiver==
In an arena on an alien world far beyond the confines of the Milky Way Galaxy, moments after an X-O Commando warrior defeated a combatant in X-O Wolf Armor, a First-Among-Equals informed the Commando that they were aware he poisoned the warrior before the contest, and that such treachery would prove valuable for the task to come. As they walked down a long hallway and the First told him that by the rules of trial-by-combat he won the right to lead the expedition to Earth, the Commando felt honored, but then the First warned him that honor had little place in his mission of infiltration and subjugation.
Upon entering a laboratory where scientists had assembled Shanhara, a Manowar Class Armor, the First shared with the Commando that, as their vitality had slowly diminished and their ability to reproduce dwindled, they needed new genetic material to preserve them and create a warrior capable of surviving the armor’s effects. When the Commando mentioned the rumors that Shanhara drove all who donned it mad, the First acknowledged their veracity and said that they had to instill individuality into their genetic make-up to cope with the armor’s artificial intelligence, but, once that was achieved, they could create an army capable of ensuring their continuation for millennia. When the Commando laid eyes upon Aric Dacia, a 5th Century Visigoth the First told him they procured during their first scouting mission, he could not resist expressing his disgust at his appearance. While the First concurred with the Commando that Aric was a vile creature, he revealed that, as a race, they desperately needed his traits of individuality and adaptability to survive.
After the First shared their plan to manipulate his body for him to pass for human so he would secure a base of operations and procure tests subjects for genetic experimentation once he infiltrated Earth and their society, the Commando underwent an extremely painful process that altered his features into those of a human female. Several days later, as the First prayed that the alterations passed scrutiny while a scout ship departed for Earth, the surgeon responsible for the Commando’s alterations assured him that with the enhanced human sex pheromones and genetic mutagen in the X–O Commando’s venom they were confident of success.
==Retribution==
Ten thousand years ago on the Spider Alien homeworld, a planet beyond the boundaries of the Milky Way Galaxy, two First-Among-Equals and their worshipers waited in an immense forest on the surface of the planet for the time to come for a large silicon-based plant to give birth to the golden Manowar seeds.
As its limbs moved, a first pointed excitingly up to the tree and alerted his companions that the time had come. While the firsts performed a ritual for an event they waited a millennia for, the worshippers worked in unison to form a small cradle device that would serve as a receptacle for the seeds using high-tech equipment and the bodily secretions from their hands and mouths. As the tree continued to move, its limbs wrapped around each other while the foliage fell by the side, the worshippers placed their cradle down near the base of the tree just as a small fissure opened and released two small pods. As the firsts led the others away in a single file with their boon and they boarded a hovercraft that flew away from the garden, the tree withered and died.
While the hovercraft descended on a landing platform, two High Priests stood nearby to receive the incoming party, and as the worshippers filed passed them with the pods, they performed a ritual. Making their way through the labyrinthine temple to the lower levels, the priests came upon a receptacle by a doorway and secreted a fluid from his fingers that opened the entrance. While the priests and worshippers made their way though the hangar deck, other arachnoids hurried to get two alien ships prepared for take-off.
Inside the red room in one of the ships, a priest stood vigil while the other attached small metallic devices on a pod on the chest of a bipedal arachnoid. As the priests watched in amazement while the seed metamorphosed and increased in size, tendrils protruded from its center and groped about the room and integrated with different sections and devices, including the biped. As the pod took the shape of the upper body and helmet of Manowar Class armor and continued to make adjustments while it grew in size, it wrapped around the biped and their consciousness joined together. While the priests observed as the armor continued its integration and performed a ritual, their vessel assumed a standard orbit over the planet Earth.
Category: X-O Manowar
Category: Groups