MANTEZ

## HISTROY

The mantez are a alien race first thought to be created by Dr.Mondo but turned out to be false. They are ant and bee like in nature but are neither. Mantez are the size of Defender fighters their exoskeletons are green and yellow. They have claws and sharp teeth they can fly even in space. They are hard to kill for ground soldiers but are a good match for fighters. The mantez live in Hives which very in size and numbers. Their are Trillions of mantez in the galaxy. Mantez were first encountered by humans in the year 2508 in which the conflict would be known as the Human-Mantez War. This war would last for untold years some believe it will never end only contained and defended against.

## **Society and culture**

A caste-based species separated into queens, workers, drones and warriors, Mantez were born into hives with each led by a queen. The queen laid eggs for the hive, and provided orders to each member of the hive. Mantez queens resided underground in the catacombs of each planet they control. From here, they commanded an entire planets worth of warriors. Queens took no more than 6 months to grow from a small egg to a considerable size. Drones were not known about for a long time when the war started. They are the ground troops for the hive they are the only members of the hive who can't fly naturally and for that reason are not part of the warriors caste. But a separate group of warrior. Mantez of the warrior caste were known as regular mante warriors. They had wings and a thick exoskeleton, and they were dedicated to warfare. Geonosians also had two sets of mandibles, outer and inner, which they used to gesture. For example, clicking the outer mandibles twice meant "Work Harder," and clicking both sets meant "Die." Geonosians also celebrated Meckgin, a day in which they celebrated the virtues of industry. Geonosians would get drunk by eating a special fungus which reacted with their stomach fluids to create a body odor which created euphoria.

Naturally industrious and barbaric, they were also known to take upon construction projects from outside parties, as was the case when Baktoid Armor Workshop approached them to design factories for the Trade Federation. Productivity was key to Geonosian society, and if not kept in check with enough tasks, hives could devolve into civil war and result in the deaths of thousands of Geonosians.

## CASTES

Their are several different castes in the mante hierarchy each serving a great purpose in the Hive. Highest to lowest ranked members are:

* **Queen Mothers**- She is the matriarch of all the mantez she is the size of a small moon. She is oldest of her kind. She lays millions of eggs a day. What makes her different from the rest of her race is that all her eggs will hatch into future kings and queens. She can no longer lay regular eggs she has lesser queens to do that for her. She has reached the final stage of her species evolution. There can only be one Queen mother at a time if she dies the whole species is in danger of being wiped out over time. If kings and queens are killed they won't be replaced. The queen mother is the only one who lays royal eggs. A lesser queen has the potential to evolve into a queen mother but would take many hundreds of years for her to grow to the size, and develop into a mature queen mother. If she is killed the cycle starts all over a again. It is not known how a lesser queen is chosen to become a queen mother. No queen mother has every been seen but the theories made by top imperial scientists suggest her existents.
* **Queen Mantez** (lesser queens)- They are the rulers of their hives and also are the mothers of all mantez in that hive. Except for the kings which are her brothers. Queens are the size of a small asteroid they can lay thousands of eggs a day. There are thousands maybe more queens in the galaxy. The older they get the more eggs they can lay. Queens like all their race can live forever. But because their warlike mindset the lower members of the hive don't live that long.
* **Kings Mantez**- They are smaller than the queens but bigger than five defender fighters. They have no control over the queens but do command everything else in the hive. They lead swarms into battle that is the only time a king has been seen. Most of the time the king is with the queen.
* **Hive Guardians**- They are the royal guards of the kings and queens. They are the size of two defender fighters. Their only job is to stay inside the hives protecting the queens camber and egg cambers. There are hundreds or even thousands in a hive the larger the hive the more Guards there will be.
* **Mutant Mantez**- They are the same as the regular mantez. But their colors are red and yellow. This variation is caused when mantez eat the bodies of humans it causes them to mutate into a more deadly mantez their also much faster and stronger than the other mantez. There are billions of them in the galaxy.
* **Regular Mantez**- Are the main mantez seen by the empire. They do most of the fighting they are the standard color of green and yellow. They number in the hundreds of billions and are the main mantez that make up a swarm.
* **Drone Mantez**- Are the only ground force the mantez have. They are a fairly new addition to the mantez race created by the Queen mother and passed on through to the queens. To handle the vast numbers of ground troops the empire have. They are the same height as a man and have two arms and legs and walk like a man. They have a head with four eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth, two hands with sharp nails. The drones do carry guns which look to be organic. Drones can also fly build hives and their own weapons they only fight on the ground. There are millions of them and they to are born from eggs.
* **Harvesters**- They are the work horses in the hives and swarms. Their job is to find food, feed the queens, and dig bigger hives. They also tend to the larva and eggs feeding and cleaning them. They number in the trillions and are the only mantez that don't fight.
* **Larva**- Are the baby mantez freshly hatched from eggs. They are weak and defenseless and require the harvesters to care for them for everything. They are millions of them in the hives. They are never seen outside of the hives.
* **Eggs**- By far the most numerous of all the forms of mantez they are the size of a human beach ball. The eggs are pilled into large rooms in the hive until they hatch into larva. Each egg contains only a single larva. The number of eggs in a hive are uncountable