Trog

**Trog or ‘Troggie’**

A hive minded insectoid that lives under the tunnels of Tranquility, has several distinct classes and also serves the White Knight Empire.  Their ability to tunnel swim throw the soil, make them scary enemies for Marines in training, as they can come at you from any direction, forcing all trainees to maintain a 360 degree situational awareness.  The Marine Cadet’s often face the Guardian Class, who have only minimal sentience but are highly territorial.  Given their insectoid nature, this alien species is capable of climbing on walls and tunnel ceilings.  They communicate with pheromones, chemical scents that communicate various emotions and commands to their hive brethren.  They have a hardened carapace to protect their bodies, horns and six appendages.  These aliens cycle through various classes of Trog throughout their life.  Further, since the White Knight has ended the historic internal hive wars, the Trog population grows extremely large.  In fact, the Human Marine Cadets killing the Guardians actually proactively thin the herd so that the hive at large might live within its resource constraints.  This tunneling ability makes them perfect to assist the White Knights in various mining operations in the Tranquility System and elsewhere.  They also assist in maintaining the cryogenically frozen Marines, dig the multitude of interlocking defensive caves and warrens and form the bulk of the planets defensive force.  Given their hive mindset, the individual Trog’s are closer to each other than what humanity is capable of understanding.  The closest thing to describing their relationship would be the relationship between human twins, and even that pales in comparison to the depth of their bond.

* Great Parent- These are presumed to be members of the Trog ruling class, though not much is known about the Trog social hierarchy.
* Great Grandparent- A Trog which is pregnant and intended to give birth to a new nest, expanding the race.
* Guardian Class- A class of Trog that is barely sentient, but highly territorial and is used to defend the hive and protect the queen.  That is not to say that they are stupid, and there are many dead Marines who confused the two.  They have a primal desire to kill anyone that intrudes upon their nests, which they view as anything or anyone not capable of using pheromones to communicate with them.  This class of Trog is known for its massive size, which undoubtedly lends to its defensive tasks.  This class of Trog occurs at the end of its lifecycle.  Given their many years being used as living training aides to human Marines, the Guardian Class are intimately aware of the various weak spots of the human anatomy.  Further, this class of Trog has metal tipped claws which make them even more dangerous in close quarters combat.  This class is approximately nine plus feet long with a three segmented body arrangement similar to the head-thorax-abdomen of Earth insects.
* Leader and Planner Class
* Scribe Class- This class of Trog is smaller than the Guardian Class, more lightly colored and lacking the halo of sharp horns on its cranium.  Their carapace is dark black, but covered in fine red hairs that looked surprisingly delicate under artificial light from Marine Combat uniforms.  This is an earlier stage of the Trog lifecycle.  This class of Trog is capable of ordering the Guardian’s into a dormant state, effectively rendering them a de facto generalship. This class is approximately seven feet long with a three segmented body arrangement similar to the head-thorax-abdomen of Earth insects.  It carries itself on three spindly pairs of limbs that ended in flexible suckers, which are similar to an elephant’s trunk.  Its antennae are known for their featherlike softness and are used to communicate and touch nest siblings.  It has two glassy black bulbs that the Marines assume are eyes, though this has never been confirmed.
* Specialist Technician Class