Hiving

The term **hiving** is used to refer to the act by which the Eyustaki convert cities, organic matter, and living things into mass for Alnatoid hives. Areas converted through this process are known as "hives".

## Process

The process of hiving begins when a capable ship is in position over the targeted area. Though usually undertaken when not engaged, there have been a handful of reports of a ship beginning the hiving process while in the midst of a battle. Some ships, like the Type-31, don't partake directly in large-scale battles and instead are specifically deployed to hive small areas of a battle, giving Alnatoids a tactical ground advantage.

Hiving commences even in areas with large amounts of Alnatoids, as the gaseous beam used to hive doesn't affect the insectoids. A hiving beam is fired for anywhere between 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on the amount of organic material in the area. The yellow spores emitted by the beam, dubbed the "Eyustaki virus", quickly stick to and begin converting organic material into a yellowish, slime-like substance. The time it takes to convert organisms varies. For example, plants can be fully converted within an hour, while humans may take days to fully break down. Hives require an atmosphere to grow, but the level of atmosphere doesn't seem to matter, with hives on Mars growing in the planets open-air despite a low level atmosphere.

## Conversion

The spores emitted by a hiving beam immediately attach themselves to organic material, beginning the conversion process. The amount of exposure required to convert varies greatly and is still poorly understood. Minimal exposure to the virus can be enough to convert large trees, while some small plants in the middle of a hive have been seen to completely resist the affects of the virus. Once the spores attach, they quickly begin changing the material to a yellowish, sticky material. The virus will begin to spread to other parts of an organism, converting it to the same material. Once the majority of an organism is converted, the material will slowly morph into a yellowish slime and collapse to the ground. It will then seek out other converted organisms, merging together to create a hive. However, when the change from solid to liquid slime occurs, the unconverted parts continue to be converted but will stay as the solid material rather than slime. It's not known how or why these parts aren't broken down into slime.

Initially, it was believed that the slime would emit spores of its own. However, this was eventually disproved.

The slime can attach to and spread on non-organic materials like cement but will only slightly corrode it rather than convert it, though the material will usually take on the same yellowish coloring. Once big enough, the slime will again begin to harden and create "bubbles" across its surface. These bubbles are Alnatoid cocoons, growing as many as 50 in a single bubble. The Alnatoids take roughly two months to grow, at which point they will hatch from their cocoons. The amount of cocoons varies by hive size, with city-wide hives hatching hundreds of thousands of Alnatoids. After roughly a week, the slime will again harden and grow bubbles, thus restarting the process.

## Effect on Humans

Human beings react differently to the Eyustaki virus than other organisms.

### Ingestion and Inhalation

Ingestion or inhalation of the virus is always fatal. The virus will grow inside the body, slowly converting a persons insides into the sticky material and eventually slime. Death usually occurs well before the slime stage, with most infections starting in the lungs and quickly spreading to the heart, but there have been sporadic cases of people living well into the slime stage. Interestingly, the exterior of the body will not be affected until the inside is completely converted.

### Physical Contact

Contact on human skin is less fatal than ingestion and inhalation, although still extremely dangerous. When physical contact is made with skin, the virus will "burrow" into the body from the contact point, resulting in a yellowish circle around said point. The virus will then begin converting the insides of that part of the body, slowly moving through the entire body until entirely converted. The contact point will usually be converted to slime first, followed by the rest of the body. If the virus is removed before it can begin to burrow, the subject will usually live.

### Spread

The virus will spread like any other flu or virus once in the lungs. This leads to the spreading of the virus in non-hived areas, as once in Humans new spores can be created.

## Aftermath

Hived areas can, in fact, be reclaimed. This is done by use of flamethrowers and other heat-based weaponry. In the immediate aftermath of the Human-Eyustaki War, Human governments invested heavily into the reclamation of hived areas on Earth and Mars. However, due to the substantial effort required to reclaim even small hives, most governments had make reclamation a low-priority in the decades following the war.