Note: Originally posted on August 5, 2021.

Subject Name: Armaloch

Homeworld: Unknown

Species: Armaloch

Gender: Male

Affiliation: Forceless Collective

Armaloch are an extragalactic, communal species of amphibious, humanoid arthropods with long tusk-like mandibles and an armored hide, with paleontologists comparing them to a rather obscure species of extinct sea arthropods (that many people have trouble pronouncing or spelling the name of in any language). They are not only adept swimmers, they can move at 80 kilometers per hour on land by curling up into a ball, similar to species such as Colicoids, Amanin, and Lurmen. They kill their prey by either shredding them with their claws, rolling over them, or ensnaring them with their mandibles and then rolling around until the prey is rocked to death. They are also surprisingly durable, as their chitinous hides can shrug off blaster fire, explosions and even slightly resist lightsabers (that said, it is still outclassed by cortosis, phrik, beskar, or other documented lightsaber-resistant metals; it's just enough to keep them from immediately being cut to pieces). However, this natural protection can still be worn down by repeated attacks in one concentrated spot before exposing their vulnerable insides. Another faster way to bypass this protection is through continuous concentrated heat, such as electrocution and immolation (the best analogy would be like boiling a lobster). And while they are suprisingly fast and have long-reaching attacks, they are strictly melee fighters.

In their original society, Armaloch were part of a hive mind with no individuality among single specimens, only driven by the survival and advancement of their colony. It took only a single specimen being possessed to enlist one particular colony into the Collective, and other colonies were conquered afterward. However, despite their loyalty to the Collective and developing minor degrees of individuality as a result of the possession (such as the one Armaloch who attacked the Seferite power plant on Barsemic exhibiting on inflated sense of invulnerability, before he was burned to death by Arcidus), some quirks of their original social structure show, such as individuals referring to themselves with first-person plural pronouns and each one only simply calling themselves "Armaloch" as if it were their name. Within the Collective's military build-up, Armaloch are frequently deployed as fast, heavy-hitters both on land and in aquatic environments.

Author's Note: My plans for the character that would become the Armaloch species didn't start off being based on an anomalocaris. The original idea was something like an armadillo or pangolin, but then I thought not only would it be too much like Armored Armadillo from Mega Man X, I was worried it wouldn't be freaky enough for the Forceless Collective (that was also part of the mindset of turning Fafniros into a ten-eyed cyborg dragon with human-like teeth). Then I started shifting my ideas to some more insectoid inspirations. I then thought of doing a pillbug, but afterward, I thought to go with something more underrepresented in fiction.