Terabyte

The **terabyte** (*Terrananotermes alius*) is a species of termite that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the open woodlands, grasslands, shrublands, scrublands, and deserts across North America to help boost biodiversity. A terabyte colony lives in a large "tower", about 6.5 ' (2 meters) tall (roughly 200 times their own weight), which they build, and is composed of a number of different castes, each with its own role to play. The various castes of terabytes all have different appearances, but most follow the same basic body plan. Only the transporter caste has functional legs: the others have vestigal legs, or none whatsoever. Several castes including gum spitters and rock borers have disproportionately large heads, giving them more room to generate their chemical weapons. Most terabyte castes have "internal chemical factories" allowing them to generate a wide variety of chemical weapons and tools. Some chemicals secreted by different terabyte castes are acid-based, others are glue- or gum-like, and still more function similarly to cement. Terabyte society has rigourously defined roles for every individual: all terabytes are divided into biologically-distinct castes, each of which has an important role to play. As they are legless, most of the castes are carried from place to place by transporter terabytes. The founder of a terabyte colony is the constantly-reproducing queen, who spends her life in one of the underground nests. Terabytes are highly territorial and aggressive. Terabytes are herbivorous animals, and subsist on a type of green algae which is found on the surfaces of oases, and on the bodies of garden worms (*Algapedibuvermis inaquosus*). To gather algae, terabyte war parties often march towards nearby pools, where they immobilise garden worms and cut the algae out of their flesh. This algae is farmed and grown by the terabytes in the greenhouses of the towers they live in. The terabytes are often preyed by a wide range of insect-eating animals such as American aardwolves, American aardvarks, American pangolins, North American giant anteaters, North American tamanduas, and among others. The conservation status of the terabyte is **Least Concern** due to successful conservation efforts, the terabyte's wide range and its tolerance to many of the human activities.

## Castes

### Queen

As with other termites, there is only ever one queen in any terabyte colony, and her job is simply to breed, producing more terabytes of every caste. She must produce offspring constantly, at a rate of at least one egg every three minutes, in order to ensure a high enough population level for the colony to survive.

### Transporter

The transporters are the most important caste of terabytes. They do not have a single specific purpose, but as they are the only caste with functioning legs, they are an essential part of terabyte "society". Their main function is, as their name suggests, to transport members of other castes to where they need to be.

Transporters also perform other tasks such as using their saw-shaped front legs to cut algae from garden worms which have been immobilised by gum spitters. Terabyte hunting parties are mainly composed of transporters, only a few of which carry gum spitters, suggesting that transporters are also supposed to capture algae from garden worms by simply overwhelming the worms by sheer numbers.

### Builder

Terabyte builders construct the towers which colonies live and farm in. Builders gather sand grains, carcasses of their comrades, and their own faeces, and cement the particles together with a secretion produced in their internal chemical factories. Builders also spin the tower windows out of a clear polymer.

### Gum spitter

The gum spitters, glue spitters, or warriors exist for attack and defense. Their large heads generate chemicals which can be squirted from nozzles to fight enemies and secure targets. Their most important purpose is to spit glue at garden worms, immobilising them and allowing transporters to harvest their algae, which is essential for the herbivorous terabytes to grow food. They may also fight off other terabyte armies.

### Rock borer

Rock borers closely resemble warriors, with their disproportionately large heads. The reason for their head size is the same: they produce a chemical, a type of acid, which they use to soften limestone rock and carve out tunnels, shafts, and chambers to reach subterranean water reservoirs, which are located about 65.5625 feet (20 meters) below the desert surface. They are aided in this by biters.

### Biter

Members of the biter caste have large, powerful jaws, which they use to bite through limestone which has been weaked by rock borers, creating tunnels to the water reservoirs.

### Water carrier

   Water carriers have a dramatically different appearance to other terabytes, with tiny heads and translucent striped bodies which become enormously distended when they are full of water. Once placed near a reservoir, their job is simply to drink and drink until they are full, when the transporters bring them back to the tower and place them in the algae farm, where they eject all their stored water to hydrate the algae.

### Nurse

Nurse terabytes scrape up quantities of green algae from the farms and are carried deep into the nests below the towers, where they feed the algae to the terabyte queen.