Beetles! Big Bad Ones!

More monsters, now in holographic shiny form

The question of “where the hell did they hide these things” is one often uttered when the Monster Makers and their horrific creations seemingly spring from nowhere, spilling out of dark residential dwellings or pushing aside plating panels, but the Bulwark Beetle’s creates the most head scratching. Built as a living, mobile fortification, it boggles the mind how one, let along a whole swarm, could ever go unnoticed. Bulwark Beetle’s are not fast, they are not stealthy, they are not even particularly heavily armed, what they are is durable.
The best outside analysis of the Bulwark Beetle suggests they were designed to explicitly draw enemy attention and fire as they modestly trundle toward the front lines. Thick carapaces effectively shield them from melee attack, low-to-mid calibre projectiles, and has even proven startlingly resilient to prototype personal beam weaponry. Even when an attack penetrates, the Monster Makers modifications further protect them. Their internal biology has been drastically simplified, and redundantly repeated through it’s prodigious bulk, meaning even internal trauma can be shrugged off, at least for a while. It’s not thought that the Monster Makers put much stock in their long term survival, as captured Bulwark Beetle specimens show little ability to heal from even moderate wounds and expire quickly without regular metabolism balancing injections.

Big nasty beetle is all most people who encounter a Bulwark Beetle have to say about it, those that have actually seen one say they tend to be about the size of a horse, or rather a horse carrying a shed on its back. Only an entomologist might be able to point out the distinctive sheen of the Shiny Leaf Beetle, magnified to horrible proportions, but that is just the surface. The Bulwark Beetle’s (un)natural weapons are usually concealed beneath it’s shell, only emerging to strike, the most intimidating of which is the imposing sting. Clearly some sort of scorpion genetic material was used in their creation, and thanks to directed tampering, the old rule of toxin potency decreasing with size does not hold true. The monster is uncannily adept at finding gaps in even advanced armour, though if the sting proves ineffective, it is left clumsily pawing with oversized claws, likely sourced from some large burrowing mammal.

Visual Inspirations: The Shiny Leaf Beetle, the Yellow Fattail Scorpion (not just for the stinger, but also the chitin pattern), and the Nine Banded Armadillo, for the claws, parts of the head, and further shell reinforcement.