The planet of Khara has been locked in an unending war for generations. Two primary factions, the Eastern Alliance and the Union of Vosa, stood on opposite sides of a desolate no man’s land called the “Scorched Scar.” This miles wide hemispherical trenchline divided the planet in two, even the ocean’s in this divide was a graveyard of ruined battleships. Fear of nuclear apocalypse was a part of life in Khara and despite the decades of bloodshed, the war showed no signs of ever stopping.

In the midst of this conflict, a small comet landed in the Bellos Rainforest of the Eastern Alliance. This was completely ignored until three years later. A man finally reported sighting a colorful creature, part man, part insect at the edge of the wilderness. It spoke intelligibly but in broken sentences, having claimed to learn the local language by listening from afar. This would be the first official record of Caedadid contact on Khara. At first, government officials and scientists were distrustful of the alien creatures, thinking it to be a strange ploy by the Union. Initial interactions were not on friendly terms. The trigger happy soldiers of the Alliance, wounded their initial contact, wounded but did not kill. The Caedadid’s constitution caught them off guard as did its unstoppable rampage afterwards. It was taken by surprised, having witnessed firearms for the first time, but quickly adapted, dodging the bullets mid air. With lightning speed it covered any distance in a blink of an eye and speared the soldiers through their body armor with the ease of a greased harpoon through a fish. Surprisingly, the diplomats were able to calm the creature down, it showing a great willingness to communicate.

At this point the Alliance was fairly certain the Caedadid could not be of Union origin. Amazed by their inhuman combat capability, an agreement was struck with the, at the time, small hive. The Alliance agreed to allow the Caedadids to use the rainforest as a reservation so long as their population could be drafted for the Great War. The Caedadids were mostly satisfied with being given the small plot of land, for now, and agreed. Though the Caedadids were difficult to manage and train, their addition to the Alliance forces would prove to be devastatingly effective against Union forces. Initially the Alliance only had enough for small squadrons of Caedadids, but their effectiveness was proven quickly. The strike teams were easily able to fly past Union outposts and cause untold havoc within their borders. Lightning fast hit and run tactics, left trench lines crippled for Alliance reinforcement to sweep in. Ground was gained faster than in the last thirty years of fighting.

Meanwhile the Bellos rainforest was quickly overfilling with Caedadids. Locals near the forest complained of rampant invasions, as rogue Caedadids came out of their borders to eat from their land. Such complaints fell on the deaf ears of the Alliance military who were thirsty for more of these “wonder soldiers.” Likewise, with the forest running out of room and food the Caedadids were more than happy to leave the confines of their forest prison to join the army.

The Union of Vosa was aback by the Alliance's new “abominations.” bunkered bastions that had lasted for decades had to be ceded as their scientists attempted to invent new ways to deal with these new insectile foes. The invention of sonic weaponry turned out to be highly effective in disorienting the Caedadid’s over-keen senses and temporarily slowed the assault. However their ultimate salvation came in the finding of Caedadid eggs in their territory left there after guerrilla attacks from Caedadid strike teams. The Union created breeding camps on their isolated mountain scapes, where they would raise and train Caedadids of their own.

A decade had passed in this way. Now both the Alliance and the Union had the numbers needed to deploy entire battalions of Caedadid. A huge battle at the Scorched Scar was culminating. Propaganda from both sides calling it the “Battle for Khara”, the last significant battle of this war; this would later be renamed the “Slaughter of Khara.” Both sides met with a massive swarm of Caedadid soldiers bolstered by their own significant manpower. Soldiers from both trembling at the cloud of bugs that covered the sun from the sky. Things went awry almost immediately. Caedadids instinctively do not fight each other and no amount of training or brainwashing changed this. Instead, the swarms flew past each other, going for the Kharan forces on the other side. The armies of Khara had expected to provide cover from the backline, as the alien forces fought in the front, they were not prepared for the sudden assault. In the chaos of battle, the two swarms eventually merged into a singular mass, their attention spans too impatient to keep track of which side was who’s. The whirlwind of buzzing wings began to slaughter Kharan soldiers from either side without discrimination.

The Alliance saw this as a betrayal of contract and confronted the Caedadid leadership at Bellos Hive. Likewise, the Union of Vosa instigated their own disciplinary actions on their breeding camps. Both Caedadid populations responded violently.

The denizens of Khara found themselves in a new war. The Alliance, unused to fighting Caedadids up until now, found themselves completely unprepared. Their Bellos border defenses, already crumbling from ignoring the Caedadid infestation, collapsed overnight as the shoaling swarm flooded out without restraint. As for the Union, Vosa’s breeding camps broke down one by one. At first Union officials thought that Vosa’s harsh arctic mountains would contain the Caedadids from going any further but, they quickly learned that Union Caedadids were different from Alliance ones. Born in arctic climates, they were adapted to the freezing cold. Instead of a prison, the mountains became their fortress.

Khara’s experience in wars of attrition fell apart at the Caedadids’ swift and overwhelming warcraft. Their slow, yet reliable supply lines were designed for reinforcing a single front but the Caedadid’s rapid mobility made the decades of defensive infrastructure useless. Slow, bunker-breaking tanks were easy prey to the insectile marauders and bombers designed for strafing runs found the grounds clear as soon as the Caedadid’s heard their turbines from miles away.

The Alliance found themselves powerless as their territories became cut up and isolated. Pushed to the breaking point, it authorized the use of nuclear warfare upon its own borders. As entire countrysides of Caedadid were cleared out in the apocalyptic explosions, the high of this “victory” pushed the generals into frenzy. In what can only be described as a moment of irrational spite, they fired their warheads upon Vosa while the Union was distracted by their pest problem.

The Union for their part had actually been holding their ground. Years of fighting Alliance Caedadids alongside having invented anti-Caedadid weaponry gave their forces the edge they needed to at least hold their ground. This hope was dashed as doom rained down from the sky, too distracted to utilize their missile defenses, this decimating their secure positions.

Of course the true folly of their act would kick in but a single year later. Khara was now a husk of blighted planet, barely livable. As the Alliance tried to salvage what they could, the next generation of Caedadid’s adapted resistance to the radioactive atmosphere. Khara’s soldiers could not fight in the poisoned battlefield as they vomited up their insides from breathing in the toxic air. The last President of the Eastern Alliance took his own life knowing he had doomed the planet.

Khara’s people now live in tiny huddled groups cloaked in broken containment gear to protect them from the bleached lands. Citizens of the former Alliance travel in the dark shadow of nuclear winters, scouring the land for any supplies they can find while living in fear of the monstrous super soldiers that hunt them. Vosa still stands, at least in name. They live united, in the underground bunkers of broken mountain tops, sending out scout parties on suicide missions to hunt for food, an act becoming harder every year as the Caedadids ravenously devour the ecosystem outside.