Lesser Man-Spider

> That was Madsen's pet project. Horrible things. He was so proud when he told everyone he got them to talk like parrots.
>
> Dr. Ikeler, Engineer, Former Kappa Facility Director.

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The Lesser Man Spider is an artificial Engineer Species of human arachnid hybrid created at the Kappa Facility. These grotesque creatures infest the jungles of Negro Island, having consumed most other large forms of life, including the island's surviving human population. The actual reason for their creation is not known, but is generally attributed to Engineer insanity. Their genetic makeup falls somewhere to 80% human and 20% of what is believed to be DNA derived from the Anapistula jerai, a member of the symphytognathidae species of spider local to South East Asia.

## Anatomy

The Man-Spider is mostly hairless, with leathery skin. They are endoskeletal, with a complete bone structure borrowing heavily from a human's. The Man-spider's first two pairs of limbs closely resemble human arms in appearance and structure, even ending in five digit hands with thumbs. The two rear limbs resemble human legs ending in human feet. These limbs are bulging with muscles and tremendously strong, granting the Man-spider climbing ability similar to a chimpanzee. These limbs are also used to hold prey in place during feeding.

Unlike natural spiders, the Man-Spider possesses a separate head rather than a cephalothorax, connecting to the thorax via an articulating neck complete with vertebrae, trachea and esophagus.

The top of the head features four eyes lidless, black eyes. The two forefacing eyes are well-developed, providing sharp colour imaging on par with that of a human's, as well as perception of ultraviolet light. These eyes are capable of moving, which, combined with the Man-spider's range of neck motion, allows for a tracking radius greater than 180 degrees. The two secondary eyes are of similar size, but are immobile, and specialized for detecting movement and gauging depth of field. Interestingly, the Lesser Man-Spider has two distinctly human-like ears attached near the maxilla, indicating that unlike natural spiders, the Man-spider's hearing is very poor and directional based, and acts as a secondary sense of perception rather than a primary one.

The lower part of the head features two jackknife chelicerae. These mouthparts are used to administer the Man-spider's venom and are extremely strong and sharp, being capable of piercing kevlar vests, and their size allows for even dry bites to be potentially lethal. On each side of the head, two pedilpalps provide tactile sensory information, assisting in handling prey and other objects around the mouthparts, where the eyes cannot track. It has been theorized that these pedipalps might also be used for communication between Man-spiders.

Beneath the chelicerae is the Man-spider's mouth, with a set of separate, disturbingly human-like jaws. Entirely different from natural spiders, Man-spiders consume solid foods, and will feed from a carcass directly rather than feeding on pre-digested internal tissues. This lines up with the Man-spider's basis of human DNA giving it other human-like traits, such as an internal skeleton and a more developed set of internal organs.

The Man-spider's brain is surprisingly human-like in size, shape and complexity, but no intelligent behavior has ever been described in the species. It possesses three separate lungs running on the underside of the abdomen, and a glenoid-shaped, four chamber heart located in the thorax. The intestinal tract is long and alongside the stomach makes up the bulk of the mass of the abdomen, owing to a diet of solid flesh requiring more time to properly digest.

## Offensive Capabilities

The Man-spider exhibits high degrees of speed and strength in short bursts, allowing it to pursue prey aggressively. Once it has overtaken it's prey, the Man-spider has several options. Commonly, the Man-spider will simply leap onto the back of the prey, using its body weight to knock the target over. From there, it will constrict the prey with its "hands" and administer a venom with its chelicerae. The wounds caused by these chelicerae will usually be fatal in of themselves, and the venom is administered to neutralize muscle tension and prevent the prey from struggling further. As the Man-spider is an opportunistic hunter, feeding will usually begin right away once the venom has been injected, with the prey commonly being left alive well into the feeding process, but unable to escape their excruciating death until blood loss forces merciful unconsciousness on them.

The Man-spider possesses several other offensive capabilities. The front-facing dorsal region of the abdomen houses a patch of large, urticating hairs which can be "fired" via muscular contraction with a measured velocity averaging 180m/s, granting them an effective ranged weapon. These barbs can only be fired once, however, and must be regrown over the course of several days before they can be used again. As a result, they are usually only used when the Man-spider perceives itself to be in danger. Each hair (more accurately described as a cord or cable) is about 60mm in diameter and can be as long as 150mm. Coming to a sharp point, these "spears" can be used to impale targets, where their barbs will cause significant pain and even injury should they be hastily removed.

The Man-spider's most impressive capability, however, is its ability to utilize spider silk. The silk woven by Man-spiders shares many of the properties of normal spider silk, with a tensile strength comparable to high-grade alloy steel and a toughness over 10 times that of kevlar. Its extreme adhesiveness means that once prey is entrapped in Man-spider silk, there is almost no chance of escape.