Cartographing an Alien Landscape: An introduction to the nature of Insect Spirits
by Lt. John „Prospero“ Ashcroft, 3rd Astral Recon and Support.
Recorded at the First Joint Forces Bug City Symposium held at the Wrigly Dome, Chicago, 2056.
When looking at Insect Spirits, we are tasked not only with the problem of that which we do not know, but also the many misconceptions and prejudices regarding these entities that abound. Most personnel that has to deal with them directly, especially the mundanes, tend to see our opponents as insects of a very large and dangerous kind. This, however, is pretty far from the truth. The beings we are facing here are spirits first and foremost, astral constructs that only subject themselves to the paradigm of insecticism, just as the group categorized as Spirits of Man styles itself after our outlooks and mannerisms. They are only pretending to be insects, so to say. That is why we should ask ourselves the question why they choose to do so.
If we follow the reasoning of Laurent, Greenbaum et al. that the Astral is an expression of earth's manasphere, important aspects of our planet will form something like an astral echo. It seems quite logical that the insects, being the most numerous and diverse order of animals there is, will also have a strong astral representation. However, this is not true for similar copious life forms such as bacteria or plants. Instead, metahumanities' impact on the Astral seems disproportionally large.
This might be explained by Millar and Sorenson's Theory of Mana Manipulation through the Collective Subconsciousness. According to it, the Astral might be influenced by the accumulated “background noise” of people's thoughts, thus being more a representation of our earth's spiritual side than the biological one. Any followers of shamanistic teachings in the audience may now feel free to shout “Told you so!”.
It seems quite obvious that the subconciousness does have an impact on mana manifestations if we look to spirits summoned by metahuman conjurors. A very high percentage of these astral constructs have predominantly anthropomorphic features, even if they are supposed to represent abstract concepts such as the elements. Thus, it is not inconceivable that even so-called mundane elements of our planet's mana sphere could have a certain influence on phenotypic expressions of the astral plane. Furthermore, this would also suggest that the long-suspected hive mind of insects rivals the “willpower” - for lack of a better term – of our individual selves.
I hope I was able to make clear that Insect Spirits are neither demons from some kind of hell, nor a magical weapon of mass destruction. They are dangerous and a threat to metahumanity, but ultimately just a natural part of our world like their mundane counterparts. Mankind has always been in conflict with nature, and this is simply a new round in this age-old battle.
However, there is a very important point to Insect Spirits that sets them apart from other dangers in our point of view. It is their disposition to actively seek us out, to become a part of our society and to subvert it from within that scares us so much. This is completely unrelated to their biological counterparts, who certainly have no idea about what they are doing when they crawl through our living room. Insect Sprirts, on the other hand, make a conscious effort of becoming a part of metahumanity, and making us become a part of theirs. The Universal Brotherhood incident has taught us that they prefer human hosts even if animal ones would be more readily available and the risk to themselves would be smaller.
The fact that the Universal Brotherhood concept appealed so much to the Insect Spirits that they made it a part of their living proofs that they have a certain understanding of metahuman ideas and can actually interact with us on this basis. The creatures that are uniformly regarded as being strange, alien and incomprehensible might be closer to us than we are currently willing to admit. Actually, the virtues promoted by the UB, including concepts such as cooperation, harmony and self-sacrifice, are things that insects of the hive-building variety practically embody. Even this event's esteemed chairman-in-absence, Mr. Damian Knight, would certainly agree on them, judging from his Address to the Cooperation in the Light of the recent Events in Chicago.
Also, we have to keep in mind that human individuality has been identified as a great source of problems by the military, the corporations and other institutions alike, and over the decades there have been countless tries to eliminate this chaos factor from the equations. Now, the UCAS military as well as Ares Macrotechnology are without doubt shining exceptions here, but their representatives will certainly agree with me that the competition treats human resources much worse and is quite willing to exploit them in any way possible.
These points relate to the behavior of the Insect Spirits in a startling way. It might just be a coincidence, but I feel that we should not dismiss any possible explanations at this point. Thus, please consider for a moment the possibility that the metahuman subconsciousness could also have an impact on the nature of these seemingly unrelated spirits. What if the insects' hive mind could be capable of giving spirits a paradigm they could embody, but not a purpose for them to fulfill? What if another strong force would then bleed into their being in order to fill this emptiness?
Now, this is all just speculation on my part and scepticism is advised, but it is a fact that Insect Spirits have tried again and again to fuse with metahumanity, and despite our best efforts they could not be stopped yet. Maybe they are doing it in order to become something that is larger than the sum of its parts. Maybe they try to fulfill what we are only dreaming of.
Thank you for your attention.
Note: Lt. Ashcroft's integrity was called into question after this highly controversial speech, but Internal Affairs did not manage to question him anymore. He suffered serious injuries and a psychological breakdown during a mission soon after and went AWOL as soon as he had recovered. Rumors are that he has found refuge in the so-called shadow community.
