How Would You Try To Destroy the Xiticix?

[say652]

Long range missile bombardment.
Then flybys by powerarmor.
Followed by ground units.
Ending in setting explosives in the remains of the hive to prevent them from coming back.

Also maybe ultrasonics would hurt them likr normal bugs.

If all else fails release Chuck Norris.

[eliakon]

Hit the hives with high yield carpetbombing, including napalm/plasma, cluster bombs, nerve gas, and if you can recover the formula ZK-12 this is the time to use it.

Then when the survivors of the initial bombing go wild and fly out in hordes to attack things, that is when you start droping the nukes (and I mean the big 1d6x100 MD to everything in 3+ miles nukes)

Once you have thinned out the hive, more chemical attacks and sustained bombardments.

If you have access to magic I would be using summoned elementals heavily (especially earth elementals to come in from under the hive, and air elementals to pick of bugs (hard to fight air elementals)). Teleportation of bombs/chemicals directly in the nurseries, egg chambers, and queens rooms will also help.

I would also be using the NGR micro-bot technique, though I would be targeting queens (If I can kill all the queens and nannies a hive is pretty much dead, they just don't know it.)

[flatline]

I would also be using the NGR micro-bot technique, though I would be targeting queens (If I can kill all the queens and nannies a hive is pretty much dead, they just don't know it.)

They don't have some way of replacing a queen like other insects do?

--flatline

[say652]

Ok team time people.
One character per player. No imma cs general and hit the button from chi town bs.

Obviously no limit in power, magic, etc. Semilegal if possible.
Sooo lets kill a Xiticix Colony.
My entry.

Powersurge immortal godling level:2
Aps:Electricity.
BrickTricks.
Slow motion control.
Quantum Teleport.
Radar.

Megapower: Godlike hitpoints.

[taalismn]

Mega-Naplam; that stuff BURNS, it STICKS, and it LASTS. Use missile boating to thin down aerial combatants, artillery to open up the hive tops and sides, and once you've cleared a path for the heavy air support, send in converted DHT aerial tankers to lay down incendiaries. If you're lucky, maybe you get a nice firestorm going that will suck the air out of more of the hive(s) and asphyxiate a few more bugs. Then start dropping your heavy poisons and nerve agents in afterwards when the bugs start re-opening the hive secure sections and draw in fresh air.

[Shark_Force]

I would also be using the NGR micro-bot technique, though I would be targeting queens (If I can kill all the queens and nannies a hive is pretty much dead, they just don't know it.)

They don't have some way of replacing a queen like other insects do?

--flatline

they do. it involves grubs that haven't fully developed, as i recall.

no nannies, you're not gonna raise those grubs into a new queen.

of course, that still relies on getting *all* the nannies *and* queens *and* grubs that can develop into either. not exactly an easy task.

plus, it leaves the hive to probably still do a lot of damage. but at least their damage will be limited rather than growing indefinitely and probably spreading across the entire megaverse through random rifts.

[Svartalf]

Hit the hives with high yield carpetbombing, including napalm/plasma, cluster bombs, nerve gas, and if you can recover the formula ZK-12 this is the time to use it.

Then when the survivors of the initial bombing go wild and fly out in hordes to attack things, that is when you start droping the nukes (and I mean the big 1d6x100 MD to everything in 3+ miles nukes)

Once you have thinned out the hive, more chemical attacks and sustained bombardments.

If you have access to magic I would be using summoned elementals heavily (especially earth elementals to come in from under the hive, and air elementals to pick of bugs (hard to fight air elementals)). Teleportation of bombs/chemicals directly in the nurseries, egg chambers, and queens rooms will also help.

I would also be using the NGR micro-bot technique, though I would be targeting queens (If I can kill all the queens and nannies a hive is pretty much dead, they just don't know it.)

What's formula ZK 12 ? where's it from?

[Blue_Lion]

Not sure the traix bomb bots would work. They work against the gargoyles because they ignore them the Xit strike me as the type that would attack anything that is moving and does not smell like them in the hive.

[eliakon]

Hit the hives with high yield carpetbombing, including napalm/plasma, cluster bombs, nerve gas, and if you can recover the formula ZK-12 this is the time to use it.

Then when the survivors of the initial bombing go wild and fly out in hordes to attack things, that is when you start droping the nukes (and I mean the big 1d6x100 MD to everything in 3+ miles nukes)

Once you have thinned out the hive, more chemical attacks and sustained bombardments.

If you have access to magic I would be using summoned elementals heavily (especially earth elementals to come in from under the hive, and air elementals to pick of bugs (hard to fight air elementals)). Teleportation of bombs/chemicals directly in the nurseries, egg chambers, and queens rooms will also help.

I would also be using the NGR micro-bot technique, though I would be targeting queens (If I can kill all the queens and nannies a hive is pretty much dead, they just don't know it.)

What's formula ZK 12 ? where's it from?

Plot Device level bio-agent from Rifts Adventure Book 01. It is deadly to almost everything and was used to wipe out a (small) hive in the adventure. In theory the adventurers destroyed it.....but I can think of several ways to get more of it.

[kaid]

Not sure the traix bomb bots would work. They work against the gargoyles because they ignore them the Xit strike me as the type that would attack anything that is moving and does not smell like them in the hive.

Xiticix though if you can mimic their pheremones you can basically walk power armor past most of their non soldiers without them even blinking. Something small like bomb bots if they had the right pheromone scent would pass without question by anything except maybe the queen and thats only if the queen actually noticed them. Even sans pheremones its very possible they would be simply small enough to simply be ignored by all but the queens/young queens. It is also why I would tend to go with ones that had small laser drills instead of explosives. Less chance of anything really obvious and noisy to get the bugs looking.

Also could be a good way to map a hive to figure out where the queen was.

[taalismn]

Depends how fastidious the Xits are about vermin like rats and cockroaches. THey might be like humans in that they prefer to eliminate even small vermin from their residences, or they could regard small critters like living garbage disposal in cleaning up waste in places a Nanny or Worker can't get at. I wouldn't be surprised if the Xits brought an entire ecology of lesser vermin(like skin mites) along with them, but which are too small and harmless(to humans) to merit mention in the books.

[say652]

So control insects and arachnids comes full circle.

[eliakon]

So control insects and arachnids comes full circle.

I am not sure that a control insect power would work on the Xiticix. Personally, I would say that they are not insects in the same way that I would not allow a control animals power to control dogboys.

First because the power says that it works on 'ordinary insects' And I don't think there is much ordinary about giant, psychic, intelligent insctile monsters from another universe.

Second because the Xiticix are never actually called insects (AFAIK). They are called insect like several times, but they are not true insects.

[say652]

But combined with Growth you could have Xiticix Armor!
Cool factor over 9000

[say652]

Or Giant size Xiticix!

[Hotrod]

Alright, Say652, you're on! You can keep your godling and everyone else's massive bombardments. I'll do it with...

a Rogue Scientist and a psi-ghost (or other infiltration specialist).

Here's what I'd do.
1. Get representative samples of a couple different hive pheromone glands (the IFF identifier for the bugs), buying them from some wilderness scouts or psi stalkers.
2. Mass produce each type of pheromone (might take some doing, but you wouldn't need a precise match) with the Rogue Scientist.
3. Infiltrate a bunch of dispensers filled with rival scent into a hive with the Psi-Ghost.
4. Dispense the spray remotely.

All of a sudden, the bugs sense a massive rival hive incursion. Smelling a rival hive's pheromones on other bugs around them, they start attacking each other, resulting in a wild free-for-all. Some will likely survive, sure, but the populations will be severely depleted, weakening the hive and leaving them susceptible to a more conventional approach.

[flatline]

How would you keep the bugs from finding your dispensers and removing/destroying them before you remotely activate them?

--flatline

[Hotrod]

How would you keep the bugs from finding your dispensers and removing/destroying them before you remotely activate them?

--flatline

If they destroyed them, that would release the pheromone. If they moved them, a simple tilt switch could activate them as a secondary trigger. That might work even better, if the bugs are responding to foreign objects in force. All the infiltrator would need is an arming timer to avoid activating it prematurely.

In any case, all this discussion of massive amounts of ordnance or legions of disposable troops against a mass-reproducing race that lives deep underground seems to miss the point. You won't beat the bugs by having more disposable troops or disposable firepower than the bugs do. Their very nature stacks that deck in their favor. A better approach is an asymmetric one, where you use their nature against them. People can think beyond their basic instincts and come up with creative solutions. Xiticix can't; they simply want to consume, breed, and spread, and they only use their own natural tools.

[eliakon]

How would you keep the bugs from finding your dispensers and removing/destroying them before you remotely activate them?

--flatline

Well the Xiticix seem to have a weird mimimal response to small groups. So if you have 1-8 dispensers they are not nearly as violent in their response. Size could also be a factor (there is a question of just how large something has to be before it will be noticed, and if noticed trigger an alert)
Especially since it says specifically that non-xiticix intruders are ignored by the lower caste members if they smell right. While this wont fool the warriors or the like....it can be enough to infiltrate the hive.

[Blue_Lion]

How would you keep the bugs from finding your dispensers and removing/destroying them before you remotely activate them?

--flatline

Well the Xiticix seem to have a weird mimimal response to small groups. So if you have 1-8 dispensers they are not nearly as violent in their response. Size could also be a factor (there is a question of just how large something has to be before it will be noticed, and if noticed trigger an alert)
Especially since it says specifically that non-xiticix intruders are ignored by the lower caste members if they smell right. While this wont fool the warriors or the like....it can be enough to infiltrate the hive.

Typicaly out side the hive yes not in the hive, in the hive if you are not one of them you are dead.

[Hotrod]

How would you keep the bugs from finding your dispensers and removing/destroying them before you remotely activate them?

--flatline

Well the Xiticix seem to have a weird mimimal response to small groups. So if you have 1-8 dispensers they are not nearly as violent in their response. Size could also be a factor (there is a question of just how large something has to be before it will be noticed, and if noticed trigger an alert)
Especially since it says specifically that non-xiticix intruders are ignored by the lower caste members if they smell right. While this wont fool the warriors or the like....it can be enough to infiltrate the hive.

Typicaly out side the hive yes not in the hive, in the hive if you are not one of them you are dead.

I'm confident a psi-ghost could get in, drop off a few packages, and get out. You could also coat the dispensers with the right smell on the outside.

[eliakon]

The best option though still seems to be using some sort of remote viewing method to target teleportation assassination of the queens.
If you can kill all the queens in a hive, and prevent new ones from taking over the hive will die out on its own (this takes 40+1d6x10 days...but if you can keep them queenless for three months, they will all die.)

The Queens are the only ones that can fight back against assassins/forward observers from the Astral plane (they have empathic transmission as their sole means of targeting an astral being). The fact that they can not effectively respond to astral threats suggests that your best bet is to use Astral projectors to get your 'targeting' information for your attackers, who will then teleport bombs to their locations. (I would suggest either chemical weapons, or small nuclear/fusion charges). Yes this does mean you need to kill between three and 101 targets per hive complex.....but you are likely to get multiple young queens with each bomb attack, and its a lot easer task than killing (tens of?) millions of warriors in combat.

[eliakon]

How would you keep the bugs from finding your dispensers and removing/destroying them before you remotely activate them?

--flatline

Well the Xiticix seem to have a weird mimimal response to small groups. So if you have 1-8 dispensers they are not nearly as violent in their response. Size could also be a factor (there is a question of just how large something has to be before it will be noticed, and if noticed trigger an alert)
Especially since it says specifically that non-xiticix intruders are ignored by the lower caste members if they smell right. While this wont fool the warriors or the like....it can be enough to infiltrate the hive.

Typicaly out side the hive yes not in the hive, in the hive if you are not one of them you are dead.

Since the book explicitly says that they act like this inside the hive (in the section on infiltrating hives in fact) I am going to assume that they do indeed act like this inside the hives....

[Blue_Lion]

How would you keep the bugs from finding your dispensers and removing/destroying them before you remotely activate them?

--flatline

Well the Xiticix seem to have a weird mimimal response to small groups. So if you have 1-8 dispensers they are not nearly as violent in their response. Size could also be a factor (there is a question of just how large something has to be before it will be noticed, and if noticed trigger an alert)
Especially since it says specifically that non-xiticix intruders are ignored by the lower caste members if they smell right. While this wont fool the warriors or the like....it can be enough to infiltrate the hive.

Typicaly out side the hive yes not in the hive, in the hive if you are not one of them you are dead.

Since the book explicitly says that they act like this inside the hive (in the section on infiltrating hives in fact) I am going to assume that they do indeed act like this inside the hives....

guess I was wrong do not remember that part of it. Do remember that infiltration was typically done with a clan of psistalkers that use pheromones to move unnoticed.

[boxee]

Step one get really smart guy to build flying powered armor.
Step two get the CS to launch nuke at The Island of Manhattan.
Step three guy in flying powered armor guides nuke through tear in space.
Step four nuke hits central hub all Xiticix fall over.
Step.....
Wait no that's the Avengers.....

Ok ok wait...... ummmmm

Step one have rogue scholar find magic box.
Step two transport magic box on a sub to island.
Step three open box cover eyes.....
Damn it! That's Raiders of the lost arc.

Hummm, OK I got nothing....

[Premier]

How would I “ideally” destroy a large colony of Xiticix?

From the aspect of magic (Techno-Magic preferably). This approach has the greatest chance of success as it encompasses innovations and supernatural methods that Xiticix may not “easily” account for or truly experienced. Approach the bug colonies like a pod of dolphins or whales do when they seek to trap fish into bait balls. Will explain below

Stage 1: Scout the enemy colony as best as you can with clairvoyance first, astral projections, TW PAs equipped with teleportation and coordinates given to them by Psionics & Mage visionaries, TW drones with seismic sensors, etc. Don’t engage, just scout and get out of there quickly. Preferably Drones first as to not give the Hive Queen anything to psionically probe and get a clue as to what exactly is going on. Objective: identify and map the –mean- of the colony’s hive radius and most outer structures.

Stage 2: Develop armored TW burrowing strike tanks (These are your Land whales sort of speak) that can swim through deep rock and soil, either by displacing the earth in front of them magically or have mages do it as someone pilots them. The key is they need to move fast and agile through land and need to be able to house several mages for the attack to sufficiently work. One mage to displace earth, one mage to open teleportation portals, another mage to import lava.

Stage 3. Launch TW PA squadrons & TW bombers high above the targeted hive, ready for bombardment, hold payload until signaled. Create a slight distraction to garner attention, but nothing to make the hive totally panic. Example: Teleporting several large, heavy MDC wargolem like constructs deep into the center area or somethings that will take considerable amounts of damage, cause enough ruckuss and draw the Xiticix deeper into the hive to deal with the threat, not out.

Stage 4: Underground TW “Land Orcas” are deployed and begin to create a wicked bowl of lava that surrounds the hive, from below and around it to create an underground barrier that forces the hive to heat up and unable to burrow anywhere for escape. Continue to fill in the bowl with lava as needed and allow it to close in closer to the hive by displacing and or teleporting earth away, excavating large tunnel pathways to the hive from below and along its roots. Then give the signal.

Sage 5. Bombard the surface with Fuel air explosives, open up dimension pockets of lava from volcanoes and also teleport lava onto the surface of the hive to cook them from above. Pound/Spam them with everything you want to heat them up (i.e.: explosives, napalm, nukes, lava portals, etc.,), they aren’t going anywhere. Sandwhich them between the lava bowl surrounding the hive below and the surface lava and heavy pounding from above. Keep the lava pouring in after each wave of bombardment. Even if the Xiticix seal off tunnels, they are going to be cooked or inevitably roosted with bombardment and then cooked as the lava continues to seep in, just give it time. Have the TW PAs deploy and pick off any Xits that –might – manage to escape the hot kill-zone soil (shouldn’t be many as the surface should now be well layered in lava and being rained down upon with heavy bombardment of all kinds). Have Mages move soil from the safe distance of armored Hover barges escorted and protected by aerial TW PAs and TW converted Gunwolves.

Sage 6. Repeat, Repeat, repeat until you have nothing left but a bowl of lava and cooked bugs.

That's my first approach if I could use magic via Lazlo or FOM.

[torjones]

Iirc, the population of a hive that was full was 200 million on the low end, and 500 million on the high end.
Aftermath mentions that the hives on Rifts Earth are full.

Do we know how much land area these Megalopolis are supposed to cover? Are we talking something the size of New York City (300-ish square miles of land area) or are we talking Manila (the densest human population in the real world) of 1.6 million people in 15 square miles?

[Shark_Force]

In any case, all this discussion of massive amounts of ordnance or legions of disposable troops against a mass-reproducing race that lives deep underground seems to miss the point. You won't beat the bugs by having more disposable troops or disposable firepower than the bugs do. Their very nature stacks that deck in their favor. A better approach is an asymmetric one, where you use their nature against them. People can think beyond their basic instincts and come up with creative solutions. Xiticix can't; they simply want to consume, breed, and spread, and they only use their own natural tools.

hey! my crazy scheme was to basically force the xiticix to fight magically-generated enemies of approximately equal strength (if they were at full) in a huge radius using a ridiculously improbable collection of sorcerers with very specific spell proficiencies to create ridiculously powerful scrolls, and some minions that can read scrolls. while hiding in a nigh-impenetrable box that can only be accessed from a mystic portal roughly 15 miles away.

that's pretty danged assymetrical

[rat_bastard]

Drones with napalm - p sprayers.

[boxee]

Send in Erin Tarn.
Either you get rid of the annoying bugs or you get rid of the annoying Erin Tarn.
This is a win win people get behind me on this show your support!

[Killer Cyborg]

Send in Erin Tarn.
Either you get rid of the annoying bugs or you get rid of the annoying Erin Tarn.
This is a win win people get behind me on this show your support!

Or you get 2d6 Erin-Tarn-POV books on the Xiticix, because it turns out that the bugs just ignore little old ladies, letting them wander through their territory at will.

[say652]

Alright, Say652, you're on! You can keep your godling and everyone else's massive bombardments. I'll do it with...

a Rogue Scientist and a psi-ghost (or other infiltration specialist).

Here's what I'd do.
1. Get representative samples of a couple different hive pheromone glands (the IFF identifier for the bugs), buying them from some wilderness scouts or psi stalkers.
2. Mass produce each type of pheromone (might take some doing, but you wouldn't need a precise match) with the Rogue Scientist.
3. Infiltrate a bunch of dispensers filled with rival scent into a hive with the Psi-Ghost.
4. Dispense the spray remotely.

All of a sudden, the bugs sense a massive rival hive incursion. Smelling a rival hive's pheromones on other bugs around them, they start attacking each other, resulting in a wild free-for-all. Some will likely survive, sure, but the populations will be severely depleted, weakening the hive and leaving them susceptible to a more conventional approach.

so hit things until you say run. I got this.

[boxee]

Send in Erin Tarn.
Either you get rid of the annoying bugs or you get rid of the annoying Erin Tarn.
This is a win win people get behind me on this show your support!

Or you get 2d6 Erin-Tarn-POV books on the Xiticix, because it turns out that the bugs just ignore little old ladies, letting them wander through their territory at will.

"Stay ye back Satan!!!!!"

[Library Ogre]

At a thought, I might look into the chemical composition of their resins. If you can find something that will effectively break down their resins, you can do a lot of damage with aerial spraying and chemical payloads. Imagine using artillery to deliver tower-busters. Use a small bot as a spotter, drop a few shells at the base of a tower, and watch it droop, drop, and smash the ground.

[Phaze]

-Nuke the spires and bring them down from High altitude.

-MOAB the resultant swarm.

- Open a rift to a molten world above the colony... and let the fun commence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xvsxarw-J0

Now to find my aluminum can melting furnace.

[say652]

Cause everyone plays like 500 to 600 characters in a game. Pffft

[Killer Cyborg]

I would try to destroy the Xiticix with sarcasm.
Because that would really work.

[eliakon]

Cause everyone plays like 500 to 600 characters in a game. Pffft

Well the original poster ask about if we were the leader of a large enough force to be a credible threat.....
That would sort of imply that he is asking for opinions on how to use large forces to fight the Xiticix and not how a single person/party would go about doing so. That would, to me at least, suggest that I don't have to play every single person in my hypothetical force. Just that I have to (for what ever reason) be the person that is able to give orders. (The General of a force instead of every single soldier in other words)

[torjones]

At a thought, I might look into the chemical composition of their resins. If you can find something that will effectively break down their resins, you can do a lot of damage with aerial spraying and chemical payloads. Imagine using artillery to deliver tower-busters. Use a small bot as a spotter, drop a few shells at the base of a tower, and watch it droop, drop, and smash the ground.

Wouldn't that be kinda pointless because 90% of their structure is underground? I mean, it's not entirely pointless because you would take out the 10% that's above ground, but it would also make it harder to get to the real problem, which is all the stuff that's underground.

[eliakon]

At a thought, I might look into the chemical composition of their resins. If you can find something that will effectively break down their resins, you can do a lot of damage with aerial spraying and chemical payloads. Imagine using artillery to deliver tower-busters. Use a small bot as a spotter, drop a few shells at the base of a tower, and watch it droop, drop, and smash the ground.

Wouldn't that be kinda pointless because 90% of their structure is underground? I mean, it's not entirely pointless because you would take out the 10% that's above ground, but it would also make it harder to get to the real problem, which is all the stuff that's underground.

Well if we can cause the resin to 'unbond' we might be able to collapse the underground tunnels as well.....

[wyrmraker]

At a thought, I might look into the chemical composition of their resins. If you can find something that will effectively break down their resins, you can do a lot of damage with aerial spraying and chemical payloads. Imagine using artillery to deliver tower-busters. Use a small bot as a spotter, drop a few shells at the base of a tower, and watch it droop, drop, and smash the ground.

Wouldn't that be kinda pointless because 90% of their structure is underground? I mean, it's not entirely pointless because you would take out the 10% that's above ground, but it would also make it harder to get to the real problem, which is all the stuff that's underground.

Well if we can cause the resin to 'unbond' we might be able to collapse the underground tunnels as well.....

Formulating the unbodnign agent as a time-release compound would work as well. Aeroslized, it could be drawn into the hive by the forced air currents, and when the time hit, most of the hive would cave in and collapse.

[Kagashi]

I may have missed it, but is there a canon bio or chemical agent mentioned anywhere? I could have sworn there was a HLS where there was one but the results were inconclusive. I guess the fact the bugs are still around, it didnt work.

[Riftmaker]

Can we dump some radioactive waste on the developing young after killing the queen?

[Shark_Force]

Can we dump some radioactive waste on the developing young after killing the queen?

nah, this is basically a comic book setting, so radioactivity doesn't kill things or give them cancer, it turns them into the incredible hulk. you wouldn't like the xiticix when they're angry

[Mack]

Also, there was this solution.

Mass formation of FQ Glitterboys. Start on the edge of Xiticix territory, let the bugs impale themselves on the boomguns, then advance a few miles. Rinse & repeat. The key is to advance very slowly and cautiously. It's one of the only "attrition warfare" approaches that humans could use.

[Hotrod]

Alright, Say652, you're on! You can keep your godling and everyone else's massive bombardments. I'll do it with...

a Rogue Scientist and a psi-ghost (or other infiltration specialist).

Here's what I'd do.
1. Get representative samples of a couple different hive pheromone glands (the IFF identifier for the bugs), buying them from some wilderness scouts or psi stalkers.
2. Mass produce each type of pheromone (might take some doing, but you wouldn't need a precise match) with the Rogue Scientist.
3. Infiltrate a bunch of dispensers filled with rival scent into a hive with the Psi-Ghost.
4. Dispense the spray remotely.

All of a sudden, the bugs sense a massive rival hive incursion. Smelling a rival hive's pheromones on other bugs around them, they start attacking each other, resulting in a wild free-for-all. Some will likely survive, sure, but the populations will be severely depleted, weakening the hive and leaving them susceptible to a more conventional approach.

so hit things until you say run. I got this.

No, that's the whole beauty of it. There's no need for hitting things or running. It's victory by science: the enemy fights and kills itself.

[Library Ogre]

At a thought, I might look into the chemical composition of their resins. If you can find something that will effectively break down their resins, you can do a lot of damage with aerial spraying and chemical payloads. Imagine using artillery to deliver tower-busters. Use a small bot as a spotter, drop a few shells at the base of a tower, and watch it droop, drop, and smash the ground.

Wouldn't that be kinda pointless because 90% of their structure is underground? I mean, it's not entirely pointless because you would take out the 10% that's above ground, but it would also make it harder to get to the real problem, which is all the stuff that's underground.

Well if we can cause the resin to 'unbond' we might be able to collapse the underground tunnels as well.....

Formulating the unbodnign agent as a time-release compound would work as well. Aeroslized, it could be drawn into the hive by the forced air currents, and when the time hit, most of the hive would cave in and collapse.

Also depends on the nature of the unbonding... an exothermic unbonding might cook 'em where they are. If you can sublimate the resin (or elements of the resin), then repeated applications are going to drill down.

Really, I think the bugs aren't going to last once people start concentrating on them. While they're a menace, certainly, they're not exactly the most flexible of menaces, and their tendency to form islands means that, if you can exterminate a hive faster than they can spawn a new one, you're going to win.

[rem1093]

Kill some, then turn them into robots, (like the NGR do with some Gargoyles). Then have them carry Thermobaric explosives, witch they detonate a key locations in the hive
Or you can have some mining robots tunnel to key locations under the hive. then set off Nukes at the locations, creating a earthquake, and bring the hive down on itself.

[Shark_Force]

Also, there was this solution.

Mass formation of FQ Glitterboys. Start on the edge of Xiticix territory, let the bugs impale themselves on the boomguns, then advance a few miles. Rinse & repeat. The key is to advance very slowly and cautiously. It's one of the only "attrition warfare" approaches that humans could use.

funny, i recall that thread discussing a variety of ways that the attempt to use a formation of glitter boys would ultimately kill a lot of bugs, but would probably either end with the glitter boy formation being crushed under sheer weight of numbers or retreating after killing a bunch of bugs on the border of bug territory.

which would most likely result in a retaliatory swarm from the xiticix.

[Mack]

Also, there was this solution.

Mass formation of FQ Glitterboys. Start on the edge of Xiticix territory, let the bugs impale themselves on the boomguns, then advance a few miles. Rinse & repeat. The key is to advance very slowly and cautiously. It's one of the only "attrition warfare" approaches that humans could use.

funny, i recall that thread discussing a variety of ways that the attempt to use a formation of glitter boys would ultimately kill a lot of bugs, but would probably either end with the glitter boy formation being crushed under sheer weight of numbers or retreating after killing a bunch of bugs on the border of bug territory.

which would most likely result in a retaliatory swarm from the xiticix.

Yea, I view it as more of a long term operation (many months to a year) to thin the bug's numbers. That's why the formation would have to be very judicious managing how far into Xiticix territory they go, and be ready to back up in a hurry. As long as they don't get overwhelmed, they should be able to kill the Xiticix at a rate that exceeds the bug's ability to hatch new ones.

And, of course, this requires a huge expenditure on the part of Free Quebec.