The Queen, or Queen Bug, is one of the leadership caste of the Bugs and plays a vital role within their hierarchy.
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Starship Troopers novel[edit | edit source]
The Queen of a Bug colony is the progenitor of an Pseudo-Arachnid colony, whose sole function is the production of its members. No Queen has ever been seen by any members of the Terran Federation; though it is thought that they cannot move of their own accord.
History[edit | edit source]
On an unfinished Pseudo-Arachnid advance base of Planet P in Operation Royalty, the Federation's drive to capture the Royalty-class Bugs have resulted in no live Queens captured — all of them chose suicide rather than imprisonment. During the course of a mission attempting to capture queen and brain bugs, the bugs kill the queens rather than allow her to be captured. Starship Troopers
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles[edit | edit source]
In terms of appearance, the creature shares some of the elements seen amongst certain types of Bugs such as the Warrior Bug with a large beaked type mouth with a crowned head though its body was much more elongated in order to accommodate its role as a breeder. It has two large limbs that it can use to grasp the ground along with two smaller ones to hold prey as well as six smaller legs to move across its environment. Similar to the Brain Bug, the Queen Bug is quite intelligent and capable of using tactics such as hostage taking in order to protect itself from enemies. Due to its very important role within the Arachnid hives, it is typically very heavily guarded and in locations that are very heavily defended. In fact, it made use of a special type of Royal warrior subspecies known as the Royal Guard Bug.
The Queen Bug is capable of laying up to seventy five eggs per hour with this amounting to one thousand eight hundred eggs per day. This meant that she was noted as being the master of the entirety of the Arachnid race.
History[edit | edit source]
- "Since we landed on this rock, I know you troopers have heard the scuttle butt concerning a Queen Bug. I'm here to tell you that... the rumors are true."
- —Sky Marshal Sanchez
The existence of the so called Queen Bug was first established during the Klendathu Campaign. Since landing on Klendathu, many within the Mobile Infantry began to hear rumors of a Queen Bug though nothing concrete had been established on its existence. The Roughnecks along with Echo Squad were part of a briefing with Sky Marshal Sanchez, who revealed the nature of the creature to the troopers. After establishing its existence, the Sky Marshal informed them that their mission was to terminate the creature. As a frontal assault would alert too many of the Warrior Bugs, it was decided that two power suit equipped squads would be deployed behind enemy lines to exterminate the Queen Bug.[episode needed]
During the infiltration mission, the Queen commanded some of its forces to capture psychic trooper Carl Jenkins. When the Roughnecks discovered the Queen Bug, trooper Johnny Rico attempted to gun it down but the large creature revealed that it had trooper Jenkins within its hold and used him as a hostage to protect itself from attack. This distraction allowed it to attempt an escape from the Mobile Infantry squads sent to kill it. To preserve itself, the beast quickly fled into a nearby Transport Bug and left Klendathu. Trooper Jenkins later revealed from his encounter with it that the Queen was heading towards Earth.[episode needed]
The Queen's ship was eventually tracked down by the Valley Forge but it was discovered that she had been using a number of decoy ships in order to hide her location. The Roughnecks managed to locate her on a Super Transport Bug where they boarded the ship so that they could plant explosives to destroy both it and the Queen as the living starship entered the Earth star system. The troopers of the squad managed to succeed in their task and destroyed the giant Bug vessel along with the Queen. During the celebrations on Earth, however, Carl Jenkins received a mental imprint that showed the Queen Bug still alive and told Jean Razak that it was somewhere on Earth's surface.[episode needed]
Despite trooper Jenkins findings, many believed that he was mistaken and that the Queen Bug had been killed. This was because there had been no recent Arachnid activity and no other member of Military Intelligence's psychics picked up any activity from the Queen. Thus, the war was considered officially over.[episode needed]
The queen was alive and was planning to assault earth. New bugs who can camouflage into human form are developed by queen and that is how bug activity goes undetected on earth.[episode needed]
Starship Troopers film universe[edit | edit source]
The Queen was a species that the Arachnids wanted to keep a secret from the Federation. In this case, if her hive would be threatened, the Warrior Bugs would then be ordered to kill the Queen. However, Carl Jenkins and his Elite Guard were able to capture the Queen before she could attempt suicide. Carl and the Federation High Command believed the Queen wasn't as intelligent, like a Brain Bug, and Carl believed he was smarter than the Queen. The Queen then proved of her intelligence by slaughtering all personnel (except Jenkins) and took control of the John A. Warden to prepare for an invasion of Earth.[1]
Starship Troopers: Invasion - "Mobile Infantry"[edit | edit source]
During the Battle of Fort Casey, Major Varro and his team did not know that the Queen was captured. After clearing a Bug hive, Hero told his men that Brain Bugs likely killed the Queen when the troops neared her chamber during the raid on the hive. This was not true as the Queen had been already captured and enroute to Earth onboard the John A. Warden. Starship Troopers: Invasion "Mobile Infantry"
Starship Troopers: Invasion[edit | edit source]
A Queen Bug was captured in Fort Casey by the K-12 team from Mobile Infantry under the order of General Carl Jenkins, the minister of Paranormal Warfare. Jenkins later collected the John A. Warden from Captain Carmen Ibanez and used the ship to transport the Queen for further experiments.
However, things started to go wrong as Queen was more powerful than the expectation. The Queen not only "hacked" and attacked Jenkins' mind, but send an army of Warrior Bug, killing all the crew onboard John A. Warden. Later, the power of the ship was shut down by someone, probably by Jenkins.
After a joint force of A-01 and K-12 team, lead by Lieutenant Tony Daugherty and Major Henry Varro respectively, was onboard the ship, they reactivated the generator, giving the Queen a chance to take control of the ship again. After the Queen destroyed the Alesia when the Marines was going to retreat, she turned on the warp engine, setting the course to Earth for an invasion.
When approaching the Earth, the Queen destroyed the ships trying to intercept John A. Warden. The A-01 sniper Trig tried to kill the Queen from an air duct, only to temporarily disable the Queen from controlling the ship and allowing Ibanez to let the ship crush-landed on a mountain instead of Paris.
Later, during Varro and Jenkins' confrontation with the Queen, Daugherty's body was used to communication, demanding Varro to hand over Jenkins. Varro told Jenkins to leave and tried to kill the Queen, but failed. General Rico arrived the scene later and stabbed the Queen before he escaped to the shuttle. Later, the Queen was killed in the destruction of John A. Warden, after the time bomb on the engine, set by Mech, detonated. Starship Troopers: Invasion
Queen's Gallery in the Film Universe[edit | edit source]
Add a photo to this gallery
Notes[edit | edit source]
- In the film universe, the Queen is able to use her tentacle to control/hack machines. Starship Troopers: Invasion
- Shinji Aramaki stated that he intended to make the Queen and the film Starship Troopers: Invasion as accurate to the original 1959 book as possible.[1]
- In the film universe, it is unknown if there is a single Queen Bug or multiple. The Queen is a species the Arachnids kept secret from the Federation, although when Varro stated there was "a Queen at Fort Casey", there may be multiple Queens spread across the galaxy. How many existing Queens are left is unknown.
- In addition to commanding Arachnid colonies, it is unknown what the sole purpose of a Queen in the film universe is. Although Queens can lay eggs to produce more Arachnids, the Warrior Bugs can breed amongst themselves to produce more offspring as stated in the first film and some comics by Dark Horse. The Queen may be best at producing deadlier breeds such as the Plasma Grenadier Bug and Chaser Bug; and more possibly, laying more Warrior eggs to grow their colonies more quickly than Warrior Bugs can alone.
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Starship Troopers (novel)
- Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy
- Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles
- Starship Troopers: The Miniatures Game (mentioned only)
- Starship Troopers: Invasion
- Starship Troopers: Invasion "Mobile Infantry" (mentioned only)
References[edit | edit source]
