The following is a set of selections from Edic Derr Zane's bestselling nonfiction book Behavioral Notes From My Observation of Hundred Colonies. Derr Zane one of the world's first and foremost Hundred biologists.
“I was fully aware of the risks associated with my line of research from the instant I took my job. Some older, more experienced, perhaps more traditional researchers would say that I have been compromised, that my lack of total objectivity will ruin me as a scientist, but in all honesty nothing could be further from the truth. My past experiences have, I believe, thrown a high-octane fuel on the already-kindled fire to understand and comprehend the nature of my foes, to know the Hundreds so that we may better destroy them. …”
“Let us begin with some brief anatomy and basic behavior descriptions. The full-grown hundred may be three point five to five meters long, generally erring on larger rather then smaller. They are, in color, a moderate tone of gray that borders on yellow at times, and turns rather red near the mouth. The hundred is composed of multiple spiked, soft plates that begin after the mouth. The first of which is known as the rhinal plate, as it contains the nasal cavity, and the second of which is offset and known as the coronal plate, which is more pronounced on females then on males.
Now I must take the time to debunk an oft-told myth of the Hundreds, that you can determine the age of one simply by counting the plates, as if they grow a new plate every year. In fact, the Hundred is born with all the plates it will ever have during its life, which is why if you ever get a look at a newly-born Hundred, you will notice it is made of layers upon layers of shiny mirror-like ridges, which rather gives it the looks of a set of razor blades capable of slicing flesh to ridges, is fortunately quite soft and easily pierced. …”
“The Hundreds, my observations have told me, are primarily social and aural creatures. I have been fortunate enough to witness, on multiple occasions, a behaviour exhibited uniquely by the Hundreds, which I here term “howling”. This occurs when a single member of the species has left its factory for some time, perhaps to scavenge for new food sources or possible factory sites, and has some important message to relay to its fellows at the back of the tunnels. To do this, it lays down on its upper belly and straightens its legs, stabilizing its massive head with its four arms.
At this moment, the whole of the Hundred’s unusual anatomy makes sense: It entire body is an amplifier. A combination of several factors allows for sustained bellowing, up to seven minutes and forty-five seconds, as I have timed. This noise is so loud and precisely aimed that I have no doubt it would carry into even the deepest of tunnels. I have also seen this used a defensive mechanism. …”
“I had the good fortune to be allowed into a Factory which the AED had recently exterminated. I was forced to improvise a little with the gas mask- to think they wouldn’t carry one suitable for a Lurk!- but it did allow a fascinating chance for study. I examined multiple chambers including large family dens, with ten to twenty dead Hundreds in each one, large dark pits (seemingly with no purpose whatsoever), several large shelved rooms, which each shelf packed with embryos, nursery pits for the very young, long halls lined with a fungus which is the Hundred’s main sustenance, and a large and impressively designed Amphitheater. This must have been filled at the time of the gassing, as many and many Hundreds were perched along each seat, dead, drooping with their gaping mouths lying open and their large, haired tongues hanging out. It was a most impressive site to behold.
There were also, of course, the tunnels, which were smooth on the ground although with rather irregular ceilings, which stretched on for miles and further then the AED teams cared to investigate, and I even had the privilege of seeing the Matriarch’s chamber, which was only barely dwarfed by the Amphitheater in scale. There on a platform lay the Queen, splendid in a horrific way, dead as a black dwarf, her feet splayed out behind her. The room was lined, as I believe is custom, with thousands of embryo-pods, proven sterile. After a while these begin to gain an unusual smell, and once it is realized that they will never produce children, they are taken to the Matriarch’s chamber in order to perfume it. Had I not been wearing the mask, I’m sure the scent would have proven overwhelming.”
