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Description
The LOCUST is an original character from my current story project - the time-consuming IN LAK'ECH Mythos, still in initial stages of development.
As you can tell by his armor's design, it's inspired by a Grasshopper and some science fiction and tokusatsu influences. It's also partially derived from another design, that of the original " DELTA" armor, one of the 27+ armors from the Alpha-Omega series that I've designed last year in collaboration with . Each of them has an unique power and also play a major role in the IN LAK'ECH Mythos. The Locust's customized DELTA armor allows him the ability to create an control a great number of replicas of his own (that degenerate in a limited time). This ability to create an one-man army also affects its user on the course of the story - his extensive usage of the power not only leads him to continually experience the pain of death, but also to question the subjectivity of his own and of other sentient animals.

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THE INSECT SYNDICATE BEGINS
In the IN LAK'ECH Mythos, the LOCUST is a member of the Insect Syndicate, a semi-official enforcement/security group headquertered in Chinchaysuyu (equivalent to the northern Peruvian Coast), a State/district of Tahuantinsuyu (named after the original Inca Empire, in the IN LAK'ECH Mythos a larger modern State which spans from Colombia in the North to the northern regions of Chile and Argentina in the South, encompassing areas from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. It's divided into four "suyus" or regions, and the capital, Moche, is located in Chinchaysuyu). The Syndicate's leader and founding member, the ICHNEUMON, is himself the major military authority of the Chinchaysuyu region, and an official " MALLKI" Cyborg General (named after the Inca royal mummies, the Mallki are the highest military authorities of Tahuantinsuyu, each one is assigned to a suyu) from Tahuantinsuyu.
The Insect Syndicate was officially founded in September 2009, when riots had just resumed in the metropolitan area of Chinchaysuyu after Tupaq Amaru III, a popular, yet controversial figure who was a guerrilla leader, revolutionary indigenous socialist captain during the era of the Peruvian Empire (that was replaced by the Socialist Republic of Tahuantinsuyu in 1969, following the victory of Tupaq's fellows and the capture & execution of the Peruvian emperor, Urcon Verbo, a dictator who was more like a CIA puppet) and the eventual President of Tahuantinsuyu from 1979 to 2000, when he went missing (and reports of his supposed death began to rise). He returned on March 2009, and on April 1st was appointed by Tahuantinsuyu's current president, Herrera Humala (from the traditional Communist Party of Tahuantinsuyu, Humala took the position in 2006, shortly after Julio Huanca, the current president since 2005's elections, from the left, social-democratic opposition party PSP has resigned), as Prime Minister. This move was poorly received by several sectors of the international community as a threat to democracy, but the Tahuantinsuyuan government, like all others, really didn't let its own population take charge of any effective measure over the decisions that concerned their own living (can democracy even exist, if in the end most of the people that compose a mass society are rather obliged to live in these conditions than they do it willingly?), and through its security forces often committed human rights violations, supported by its own corrupt law system and perpetrated by it's police (it's what police does, afterall).

THE SAQRARUNA
Between 2009 and 2011, the ICHNEUMON and the FIREFLY were the only two members of the Insect Syndicate, however their main sponsor, SPECTRO, the head of the secret intergalactic    Saqraruna Organization (that operates in Tahuantinsuyu for centuries), already had interest in capturing, customizing other super-powered Alpha-Omega armors and recruiting genetically fit users to don these armors and operate within the Insect Syndicate, thus expanding it into an internattionally operating, semi-official/secret military & intel agency. Until May 2010, most of these were owned by the AXIS Institute, a private military academy (or rather bounty hunter academy), sponsored by the armors' so-called developers, the american military technology corporation ABEL Inc. and the Teutonic (German) Ulhaden Corporation. Because of inner disputes and the threat of exposing its darkest secrets, including it's role on international slave labor, the breeding of non-human hybrids and their release on "fringe areas" across the world for the political agenda of their own sponsors (basically, neo-liberalism, enhancement of dependence between "third world communities" and centralized corporations), the AXIS was closed and the ownership of each armor divided between different figures, some more and some less related to the aforementioned military companies. Before SPECTRO's minions could start the harvest, however, some armors (Psi, Iota, Epsilon, Alpha) have been previously located and stolen by traditional enemies of AXIS, like the inhuman lizard-man Cuetzpalin Paynal, and ultimately fell to the hands of independent, paramilitary anarchists across the globe, leading to the creation of an informal network of armed affinity groups. Other armors (Ni, Mi, Sigma, Pi) were held tighter by far-right nationalists.
The members of the Insect Syndicate operate accordingly to the orders given by their leader ICHNEUMON, who in turn operates accordingly to "the interests of the State of Tahuantinsuyu" as the MALLKI Cyborg General of the province of Chinchaysuyu. These interests are dictated by Tahuantinsuyu's Council for Advanced Scientific, Technological, Industrial and Energy Development, a not so public organ from the State which most recent public relations manager as of 2009 is a cyborg ("post-human") named Choque Illa. From behind, the council is merely a mask for the Saqraruna Organization, which leader, SPECTRO (reputedly, a "Yakuruna" alien. But in truth, a centuries-old Artificial Intelligence), has been a long-time ally of Tupaq Amaru III (even before he was called as such or had a human face. Tupaq the Tahuantinsuyuan leader is actually a vessel for an ancient Elemental God of Darkness). But that's a story for another day.
  Like with the MALLKI Cyborgs, the identities behind each Insect Syndicate member (if they have one) are hidden even among their own. Most of them live in Chinchaysuyu as citizens, but while activated for a mission, they dress up and only refer to each other with their respective "Insect identities". The public also have absolutely no contact to the IS missions or goals, all they've got to know is that they're some kind of Tahuantinsuyuan secret agent. Despite that, each member have a very different background, several of them aren't even of Tahuantinsuyuan nationality, and have been recruited under equally different circumstances (all, however, have been meticulously chosen and approached, and surpassed life-threatening tests).
  The true loyalty of the Insect Syndicate is to SPECTRO, someone they don't even know (save perhaps for Ichneumon, and after some time, the Firefly, the SCORPION and the HORNET). Like all, they also aren't used to the fact that their very armors haven't actually been developed by ABEL Inc or Ulhaden Corporation, instead they were given to personnel of these enterprises by a secret supplier named Archimedes (from a secret organization, the Novus Civilizatio), and both ABEL and Ulhaden were merely tasked to modify them and adapt them to human usage (the armors' raw material secretly comes from biomechanical aliens, the Dzolob and Aluxob, from the planet of Sothis, colonized by Archimedes and his sponsors). Of course they turned the armors' customization into their latest products, promising generations of super soldiers for the West (as long as the human subjects survived the usage of such armors. In several cases, they resulted in side effects, and that's why the AXIS Institute employed so many scientists and spent so many resources on investigating the armors, rather than just handing it to any physically apt agent), what inadvertently subverted the armors' original goal (at least according to the cryptic Archimedes) - these armors are symbiotes that interact with their users, and were "meant to bound to the most genetically apt human vessels". They have a major role to play in the ongoing process of Human Automation, and Archimedes has an untold connection to the Saqraruna.

DELTA
The armor which was modified into LOCUST's since his recruitment in September 2013 is the original DELTA armor, catalogued by the Ulhaden Corporation since 1978, supposedly developed in Ulhaden's main facility, located in Hamburg. The third armor of the series and the first owned by Ulhaden Corporation, it was originally trusted to Jorgen Zimmermann, who'd become the CEO of the same company after 1990. Before that, he used the DELTA armor as a vigilante who sabotaged Soviet industries and killed some select figures in order to carry out his own agenda - descending from a family which supported the Third Reich regime, they never surpassed the resentment of its downfall, considering it a betrayal of national values. Jorgen inherited part of such resentment, but his secret vigilancy against the USSR on Eastern Teutonia (Germany) ended up promoting another doctrine from which he could benefit at the cost of many others - neoliberalism. His sabotaging of soviet industries carried out the promotion of a fake dichotomy between "State" and "private" enterprises, what was taken as an advantage by the Ulhaden, especially when he took control of it. Jorgen was also supported by Wagner K, a right-wing bounty hunter from Brazil (who also has some dark connection to the Reich) who acquired major positions in the CIA-backed Military Dictatorship that ran the Brazilian government after a coup in 1964. This shadowy military leader, however, has managed to sever his ties to what became an internationally criticized regime, and still could make it into UN's defense committee. Jorgen, however, wouldn't keep using the DELTA for that long: in one of his campaigns against the Soviet industry, that took place in Chernobyl (even after years, no one found out this radiation catastrophe was planned by an one man army of clones), one of his replicas was infected with some carcinogenic conditions and fused back into him. When the diagnosis identified the problem, Jorgen may have realized he went too far on his anticommunist agenda (ironic he could only realize the problem when he was made, somehow, a victim), so he preferred to take a more comfortable position, leaving the armor to another employee, or agent, or test subject.
  In 1984, the armor was passed to Aleph Engberg, who fought in the Gulf War, and also associated with other ABEL Inc's agents (bounty hunters) on some missions. Engberg used the armor for ten years, and his extensive usage led him to a gruesome death considered an "unfortunate side-effect": he was torn apart one day, in an attempt to duplicate. The armor was passed to another businessman and industrialist, the italian Sergio Manfredi, in 1994. Manfredi owned the Dominati Fabrica, a vehicle developer, which ranged from farm vehicles to sportscars, and later even battle mechs, that had as some of its major clients the Italian police and the Catholic Church. Like Jorgen, Manfredi had shadowy connections, or just an admiration for nationalist authoritarianism and the nostalgia of a time he never lived, a time that could never be, but was at constant motion through the slavery of entire populations. The closest definition of Sergio, however, could be furutist. Sergio disappeared in 2000, and his 12-13 years old son, Vitorio, was adopted by Jorgen. Alongside the american ABEL Inc (which owned other super-powered Alpha Omega armors), the Ulhaden faced successive diplomatic failures that damaged it's reputation to the CIA and international security forces, including the traditional INTERPOL, and those would only be healed by a corrupt agreement between both corporations, that would become the sponsors of a Gallia-headquartered, international, private military academy - the AXIS Institute, the next legal owner of most of the super-powered Alpha-Omega armors. Like with ABEL, the Ulhaden corporation was a facade to the secret origin of the armors and even then suffered the deaths of several agents in the late 20th century, during the failed Operation: RED ISLAND, which ended with the destruction of Bermeja, an island at the Atlantic region of Mexico - the same event where Tupaq was trapped into the Absolute Darkness by some of his brothers and rivals, the Elemental Gods. This operation happened months after MILLENNIUM. A great intel was lost as well, and traditional corporations like the Catholic Church and private military forces under public facades, headed by UN's current secretary of security, Wagner K (a traditional ally of Ulhaden), were instrumental to forge AXIS and its own role in the international politics, while ABEL and Ulhaden should keep working on more armors and more tests. The secret breeding and enslavement of "demonoids" (non-human hybrids which AXIS claimed to be natural or supernatural, intelligent threats to humanity) within AXIS' grounds would keep its own atmosphere less suspicious to its inner staff.

"AXIS"
The DELTA armor was passed to an Ulhaden agent, Peter Petego, in 2000, who died in 2006, after one of his duplicates killed him. The case was classified an AXIS' student and agent corpus would never know of the event - alongside many others involving other "missing" students. The next official user of the DELTA armor would be decided that year after a series of physical, psychological and knowledge tests - but the future agent's identity would be preserved, as determined by AXIS' own rules. The Alpha-Omega series agents, like with the future Insect Syndicates, supposedly should never know who are their fellows behind the mask - they only refer to each other by the greek letters which name their armors. The only ones that know are some instructors, researchers or members of high level hierarchy inside the institution.
The next Agent DELTA is Klaus Neumann, a Teutonic man who hides obscure origins since 1988. He's lived since an early age in a variety of orphanages or streets in the range of Köln, Teutonia, and also other places like Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. He has never met his parents - versions vary on who they have been, about their fates and the reason he ended up there. How come a humble origin man was admitted into an international private military agency that owns super-powered equipment? He didn't question, and just accepted the invitation in 2006 - little did he know he had some major connection to AXIS' manager, Ephraim Frére, who despite a clergyman in his own right, had no official military or administrative experience - so how could him be the manager of such an institution? Klaus learned a lot of survival skills on the streets, one of them obeying uquestioningly when needed, and that preserved his reputation in AXIS, while performing missions on "risk areas" such as the Amazonian Jungle, which included killing some locals as a bait to attract a demon, later known as Cuetzpalin Paynal (from the nahuatl "fast lizard"), in one of his first known public appearances, in October 2008. The AXIS is a private bounty hunter academy that was hired by the Brazilian government on the occasion after series of landlords have been slaughtered, and their properties damaged. Urban areas and activities related to animal exploitation - fishing, rodeos, slaughterhouses, farms - were equally damaged, and messages were left written in the blood of the victims. The animals were often released, and in some cases transported to legal sanctuaries that claimed not to have any association with these acts or it's perpetrators. Within two months after the first actions, the government still failed to precisely identify the "serial killer", until reports of a super-fast, inhuman lizard-man started to pop out across international detective agencies employed for the case, and that's what triggered AXIS.
  Another conflict which involved Klaus and the Cuetzpalin Paynal happened in late September 2009, on the city of Moche, capital of Tahuantinsuyu and its Chinchaysuyu Province (Northern Peruvian Coast) - the same event which witnessed the birth of the Insect Syndicate. On the occasion, what the Tahuantinsuyuan government declared to be a domestic issue (concerning riots and protests against the naming of Tupaq Amaru III as Prime Minister and the changes which benefitted his party over the others), a cell of rogue agents which split from INTERPOL, led by ex-Belarusian KGB captain Vadim Valtheran, has considered an international issue not only because the Tahuantinsuyu was once again suffering "human rights violations, weakening or cooptation of press freedom and democracy", but because it "potentially held mass destruction weaponry" - something that has never been proved. The opposition answered in favor of the legitimacy of government, and considered international intervention a criminal act backed by foreigner corporations interested in exploiting it's own market and working class. The AXIS, however, was activated because the Cuetzpalin Paynal has been sighted alongside other Cuetzpalin (from the nahuatl "lizard", a race of reptile huanoids) "demons", and another variety of "shadow demons" were sighted patrolling the streets. Klaus operated in a mission accompanied by Agent ALPHA and led by Agent YPSILON. In the end of the mission, the Tahuantinsuyuan government stepped back on the decision it took months before, in April, and Tupaq went missing. The conflicts around Intihuaca, Tahuantinsuyu's administrative center at the heart of the coastal city of Moche, included many fatal victims, people killed by riot police and military. The rogue cell split from INTERPOL left two days before the conflicts ceased, after they've captured a member of Tahuantinsuyu's secret intelligence agency - Ollantay Melivilu Valtheran, Vadim's son - and brought him to Vadim's estate, a politically exiled colony. As for the Cuetzpalin, they've escaped into the South American jungle. But the AXIS agents didn't fail - they managed to confirm the fact that ICHNEUMON, the Mallki general of Tahuantinsuyu indeed use a customized BETA armor (supposedly developed by ABEL Inc, bought by the japanese military and stolen by a vigilante who exposed the japanese police's corruption and involvement with major Yakuza syndicates in 1974); that AXIS' agent OMICRON has betrayed the institution and become FIREFLY from the IS; that his mentor, Howard Fang, employed by Ulhaden and AXIS between 1993 and 2006, is involved with Tahuantinsuyu's council of advanced scientifical, technological, industrial and energy development; and that Agent GAMMA was also a traitor, and not actually a human, but a synthoid or a husk designed to match with the (DI)GAMMA armor (they failed, however, to find out the armor is more like a symbiote, as it could hint).
One of Klaus' latest missions for the AXIS was the disastrous Mission: SCIROCCO, that happened in 2010 and marked AXIS' irreversible downfall. On its' outcome, the Ulhaden Corporation failed to cope with international demands, and representing both ABEL Inc and the CIA, former agent NI, Lana Bridges (the adoptive daughter of ABEL's CEO, Joseph Bridges), has arranged with an international court special rights transferring the ownership and usage of some Alpha-Omega armors to trusted ex-AXIS agents, including Klaus Neumann, who would pursue a civilian's life in Germany after four years serving AXIS. Despite somewhat surprised for Lana's consideration, he couldn't just run from what was coming at him.

NECOC YAOTL, HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE INQUISITION
In June-July 2010, starting with heatened urban guerrillas taking place in urban centers across the globe formerly owned only by social inequality, distinct informal groups, armed with equipment previously only owned by official military or private bounty hunter associations have led to the destabilization of several nation States and the authority of bourgeois, "representative democracy". This process spread like fire, and the sponsors of slavery and a "modern colonization", such as the mass media which runs most countries and manipulate "public opinion" became confused with the lack of leadership or formal organization to frame this international revolutionary process, appealing to make a serious conspiracy from some facy prank accidentally thrown away by one of such paramilitary soldiers. In no time, the " NECOC YAOTL" (nahuatl for "enemy of both sides) became the name of any insurrectionary enemy of State persecuted across the globe by the alliances of diverse dictatorships masked as democracies. During this time, some of the Alpha-Omega armors have been stolen, salvaged or appropriated by unaffiliated personnel which the CIA deemed as an "urgent matter" under request of ABEL Inc, that also lost several equipment to looting by locals around some of their private, multinational warehouses. The Ulhaden, or what's left of it, under Vitorio and his new butler Marco , have rather sided with economically liberal think-tanks, alongside eurosceptic, nationalist and even neo-nazist/fascist fronts in Europe, supported by traditional and not so traditional sponsors, including a new Pope, Leo XIV, who replaced the last one, killed by Paynal on sight in April 2011. With growing support and a fear-based campaign, Leo founded international "Inquisitory Offices" on several so-called modern republics, handling weapons and authorities to shadowy, bigoted figures that used the "threat of terror" to justify their own terror and bring back the Dark Ages. In this situation, AXIS' ex-principal, Ephraim Frére, has risen from the dirt as the official "Inquisitor" of Gallia. He had a life debt to the new Pope, which some agents have identified alongside some of his own origins - like Wieceslaw Jozef Dziedzic, who'd become Pope, "Ephraim Frére" was actually Sebastian Bartosz, a Polish bishop from Suraz. More than that, he was a vampire, one that after the growth of support for communism - this time no longer as a matter of the polish working class, but of russian sovereignty over Poland - has escaped from his former battlefield and church, and went to Romania, where his father had some fortune. In Romania, however, he got lost and became a nuisance to locals, one which Wieceslaw would recognize from a great distance. Employing a bounty hunter, Wieceslaw had Sebastian brought back from the shadows, as he was needed to secure his own project, and become the facade for an initiative that if discovered could damage the Church's power relations - if it wasn't for Sebastian's new role, of a public puppet. Sebastian should just use part of the fortune inherited by his father to acquire an estate at Avignon, Gallia, where the construction of a military complex, the future campus of the AXIS Private Military Academy would take place in 2000. The Church's direct association to this modern bounty hunter association would be masked by Sebastian's new fake identity - that of Ephraim Frére, who was somewhat unrelated to the church's high hierarchy, and was more like "a landlord and businessman", who sponsored the military institute ou of his own interest. Sebastian had nowhere else to run to, he was in Wieceslaw's hands, for not only Wieceslaw knew of his vampire conditions - something that if exposed would have Sebastian killed - he found out Sebastian had an illicit relationship with a nun in 1988, and that she bore him two children, whom Sebastian had never seen before, as he left her behind. These children were identified by Wieceslaw and were under some sort of surveillance by his allies - the Opus Dei - who also made sure to involve them within the AXIS' schemes. His daughter, who lived at an orphanage in Gallia, was adopted at the age of 12, by a wealthy american weapons industrialist. His son, who lived at an orphanage in Teutonia, was jumping from an orphanage to another and would only get involved with AXIS in 2006.

In 2011, at the height of a "world war", Klaus used his DELTA armor to fight some gangs in Eastern Teutonia. By chance, he became associated to some so-called antifascist combatants, which actions were sporadic and mostly urban. In one of their struggles, he has been identified by other anarchists internationally involved with these struggles, among them the Cuetzpalin Paynal, who aware of Klaus' earlier association with a mostly fascist bounty hunter organization, didn't trust Klaus, and also advised his companions about him. Klaus fought against some Holy Roman Empire (the international institution defended by the Catholic Church under Leo XIV's command, it was also promoted by other groups unafiliated with the Church, alongside official and semi-official Inquisitory offices) forces, what sounded good enough for most anarchists, but still Paynal didn't believe someone like Klaus, who would obediently follow orders of killing entire indigenous populations on Brazil for the sake of making it a bait to call the attention of his true enemy, could be the next day a "socially conscious antifascist committed to the destruction of nationalism and the bourgeois dominance, and the building of the working class' emancipation". Still, Klaus lived and kept his armor - even though Lana found out his "criminal association with gangs", she gave a blind eye on him and on Nina (ex-Agent YPSILON) because they pointed out another armor previously owned by ABEL, the secret SAMPI, was still in use by another more dangerous criminal, Frére, and through Lana and Nina's investigatons discovered Frére was actually a polish bishop named Sebastian Bartosz, who was an old ally of Wieceslaw that he strategically put in charge of AXIS. That was, however, just a third of the truth. Klaus' past and the origins of his armor were largely unknown.

LOCUST
Neither Paynal nor Nina could tell if the Klaus they've seen among the atifascists (not only because he was completely bald, not like the hairy Klaus Nina knew on AXIS) wasn't a suplicate or not, but after some time, some street areas in eastern Teutonia became more populated by some of his short-lived duplicates who dared to attain independence. In September 2013, Klaus was approached by a figure who threatened him to come with the armor, and then tested him, before offering a contract which concluded his recruitment into the Insect Syndicate. At this time, Klaus had some divided reputation between urban gangs - he was accused as an aggressor, and had few friends who could help him get away from a beggar-like situation. It wasn't hard for him, who has been used to the life of a miserable warrior, to accept the offer. He just failed to see he wasn't chosen by chance or merit, but because he had some connection to a future recruit of major importance. And he still had to find out more about his forgotten past.

MORE INSECT SYNDICATE MEMBERS:

ICHNEUMON | FIREFLY | FIREFLY (2) | SCORPION | MOTH | MANTIS |
SPIDER | HORNET | WASP |

Description
The LOCUST is an original character from my current story project - the time-consuming IN LAK'ECH Mythos, still in initial stages of development.
As you can tell by his armor's design, it's inspired by a Grasshopper and some science fiction and tokusatsu influences. It's also partially derived from another design, that of the original " DELTA" armor, one of the 27+ armors from the Alpha-Omega series that I've designed last year in collaboration with . Each of them has an unique power and also play a major role in the IN LAK'ECH Mythos. The Locust's customized DELTA armor allows him the ability to create an control a great number of replicas of his own (that degenerate in a limited time). This ability to create an one-man army also affects its user on the course of the story - his extensive usage of the power not only leads him to continually experience the pain of death, but also to question the subjectivity of his own and of other sentient animals.

LIKED IT? Then FOLLOW ME and support my work throughout the social networks!
Behance | tumblr | instagram | facebook

THE INSECT SYNDICATE BEGINS
In the IN LAK'ECH Mythos, the LOCUST is a member of the Insect Syndicate, a semi-official enforcement/security group headquertered in Chinchaysuyu (equivalent to the northern Peruvian Coast), a State/district of Tahuantinsuyu (named after the original Inca Empire, in the IN LAK'ECH Mythos a larger modern State which spans from Colombia in the North to the northern regions of Chile and Argentina in the South, encompassing areas from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. It's divided into four "suyus" or regions, and the capital, Moche, is located in Chinchaysuyu). The Syndicate's leader and founding member, the ICHNEUMON, is himself the major military authority of the Chinchaysuyu region, and an official " MALLKI" Cyborg General (named after the Inca royal mummies, the Mallki are the highest military authorities of Tahuantinsuyu, each one is assigned to a suyu) from Tahuantinsuyu.
The Insect Syndicate was officially founded in September 2009, when riots had just resumed in the metropolitan area of Chinchaysuyu after Tupaq Amaru III, a popular, yet controversial figure who was a guerrilla leader, revolutionary indigenous socialist captain during the era of the Peruvian Empire (that was replaced by the Socialist Republic of Tahuantinsuyu in 1969, following the victory of Tupaq's fellows and the capture & execution of the Peruvian emperor, Urcon Verbo, a dictator who was more like a CIA puppet) and the eventual President of Tahuantinsuyu from 1979 to 2000, when he went missing (and reports of his supposed death began to rise). He returned on March 2009, and on April 1st was appointed by Tahuantinsuyu's current president, Herrera Humala (from the traditional Communist Party of Tahuantinsuyu, Humala took the position in 2006, shortly after Julio Huanca, the current president since 2005's elections, from the left, social-democratic opposition party PSP has resigned), as Prime Minister. This move was poorly received by several sectors of the international community as a threat to democracy, but the Tahuantinsuyuan government, like all others, really didn't let its own population take charge of any effective measure over the decisions that concerned their own living (can democracy even exist, if in the end most of the people that compose a mass society are rather obliged to live in these conditions than they do it willingly?), and through its security forces often committed human rights violations, supported by its own corrupt law system and perpetrated by it's police (it's what police does, afterall).

THE SAQRARUNA
Between 2009 and 2011, the ICHNEUMON and the FIREFLY were the only two members of the Insect Syndicate, however their main sponsor, SPECTRO, the head of the secret intergalactic    Saqraruna Organization (that operates in Tahuantinsuyu for centuries), already had interest in capturing, customizing other super-powered Alpha-Omega armors and recruiting genetically fit users to don these armors and operate within the Insect Syndicate, thus expanding it into an internattionally operating, semi-official/secret military & intel agency. Until May 2010, most of these were owned by the AXIS Institute, a private military academy (or rather bounty hunter academy), sponsored by the armors' so-called developers, the american military technology corporation ABEL Inc. and the Teutonic (German) Ulhaden Corporation. Because of inner disputes and the threat of exposing its darkest secrets, including it's role on international slave labor, the breeding of non-human hybrids and their release on "fringe areas" across the world for the political agenda of their own sponsors (basically, neo-liberalism, enhancement of dependence between "third world communities" and centralized corporations), the AXIS was closed and the ownership of each armor divided between different figures, some more and some less related to the aforementioned military companies. Before SPECTRO's minions could start the harvest, however, some armors (Psi, Iota, Epsilon, Alpha) have been previously located and stolen by traditional enemies of AXIS, like the inhuman lizard-man Cuetzpalin Paynal, and ultimately fell to the hands of independent, paramilitary anarchists across the globe, leading to the creation of an informal network of armed affinity groups. Other armors (Ni, Mi, Sigma, Pi) were held tighter by far-right nationalists.
The members of the Insect Syndicate operate accordingly to the orders given by their leader ICHNEUMON, who in turn operates accordingly to "the interests of the State of Tahuantinsuyu" as the MALLKI Cyborg General of the province of Chinchaysuyu. These interests are dictated by Tahuantinsuyu's Council for Advanced Scientific, Technological, Industrial and Energy Development, a not so public organ from the State which most recent public relations manager as of 2009 is a cyborg ("post-human") named Choque Illa. From behind, the council is merely a mask for the Saqraruna Organization, which leader, SPECTRO (reputedly, a "Yakuruna" alien. But in truth, a centuries-old Artificial Intelligence), has been a long-time ally of Tupaq Amaru III (even before he was called as such or had a human face. Tupaq the Tahuantinsuyuan leader is actually a vessel for an ancient Elemental God of Darkness). But that's a story for another day.
  Like with the MALLKI Cyborgs, the identities behind each Insect Syndicate member (if they have one) are hidden even among their own. Most of them live in Chinchaysuyu as citizens, but while activated for a mission, they dress up and only refer to each other with their respective "Insect identities". The public also have absolutely no contact to the IS missions or goals, all they've got to know is that they're some kind of Tahuantinsuyuan secret agent. Despite that, each member have a very different background, several of them aren't even of Tahuantinsuyuan nationality, and have been recruited under equally different circumstances (all, however, have been meticulously chosen and approached, and surpassed life-threatening tests).
  The true loyalty of the Insect Syndicate is to SPECTRO, someone they don't even know (save perhaps for Ichneumon, and after some time, the Firefly, the SCORPION and the HORNET). Like all, they also aren't used to the fact that their very armors haven't actually been developed by ABEL Inc or Ulhaden Corporation, instead they were given to personnel of these enterprises by a secret supplier named Archimedes (from a secret organization, the Novus Civilizatio), and both ABEL and Ulhaden were merely tasked to modify them and adapt them to human usage (the armors' raw material secretly comes from biomechanical aliens, the Dzolob and Aluxob, from the planet of Sothis, colonized by Archimedes and his sponsors). Of course they turned the armors' customization into their latest products, promising generations of super soldiers for the West (as long as the human subjects survived the usage of such armors. In several cases, they resulted in side effects, and that's why the AXIS Institute employed so many scientists and spent so many resources on investigating the armors, rather than just handing it to any physically apt agent), what inadvertently subverted the armors' original goal (at least according to the cryptic Archimedes) - these armors are symbiotes that interact with their users, and were "meant to bound to the most genetically apt human vessels". They have a major role to play in the ongoing process of Human Automation, and Archimedes has an untold connection to the Saqraruna.

DELTA
The armor which was modified into LOCUST's since his recruitment in September 2013 is the original DELTA armor, catalogued by the Ulhaden Corporation since 1978, supposedly developed in Ulhaden's main facility, located in Hamburg. The third armor of the series and the first owned by Ulhaden Corporation, it was originally trusted to Jorgen Zimmermann, who'd become the CEO of the same company after 1990. Before that, he used the DELTA armor as a vigilante who sabotaged Soviet industries and killed some select figures in order to carry out his own agenda - descending from a family which supported the Third Reich regime, they never surpassed the resentment of its downfall, considering it a betrayal of national values. Jorgen inherited part of such resentment, but his secret vigilancy against the USSR on Eastern Teutonia (Germany) ended up promoting another doctrine from which he could benefit at the cost of many others - neoliberalism. His sabotaging of soviet industries carried out the promotion of a fake dichotomy between "State" and "private" enterprises, what was taken as an advantage by the Ulhaden, especially when he took control of it. Jorgen was also supported by Wagner K, a right-wing bounty hunter from Brazil (who also has some dark connection to the Reich) who acquired major positions in the CIA-backed Military Dictatorship that ran the Brazilian government after a coup in 1964. This shadowy military leader, however, has managed to sever his ties to what became an internationally criticized regime, and still could make it into UN's defense committee. Jorgen, however, wouldn't keep using the DELTA for that long: in one of his campaigns against the Soviet industry, that took place in Chernobyl (even after years, no one found out this radiation catastrophe was planned by an one man army of clones), one of his replicas was infected with some carcinogenic conditions and fused back into him. When the diagnosis identified the problem, Jorgen may have realized he went too far on his anticommunist agenda (ironic he could only realize the problem when he was made, somehow, a victim), so he preferred to take a more comfortable position, leaving the armor to another employee, or agent, or test subject.
  In 1984, the armor was passed to Aleph Engberg, who fought in the Gulf War, and also associated with other ABEL Inc's agents (bounty hunters) on some missions. Engberg used the armor for ten years, and his extensive usage led him to a gruesome death considered an "unfortunate side-effect": he was torn apart one day, in an attempt to duplicate. The armor was passed to another businessman and industrialist, the italian Sergio Manfredi, in 1994. Manfredi owned the Dominati Fabrica, a vehicle developer, which ranged from farm vehicles to sportscars, and later even battle mechs, that had as some of its major clients the Italian police and the Catholic Church. Like Jorgen, Manfredi had shadowy connections, or just an admiration for nationalist authoritarianism and the nostalgia of a time he never lived, a time that could never be, but was at constant motion through the slavery of entire populations. The closest definition of Sergio, however, could be furutist. Sergio disappeared in 2000, and his 12-13 years old son, Vitorio, was adopted by Jorgen. Alongside the american ABEL Inc (which owned other super-powered Alpha Omega armors), the Ulhaden faced successive diplomatic failures that damaged it's reputation to the CIA and international security forces, including the traditional INTERPOL, and those would only be healed by a corrupt agreement between both corporations, that would become the sponsors of a Gallia-headquartered, international, private military academy - the AXIS Institute, the next legal owner of most of the super-powered Alpha-Omega armors. Like with ABEL, the Ulhaden corporation was a facade to the secret origin of the armors and even then suffered the deaths of several agents in the late 20th century, during the failed Operation: RED ISLAND, which ended with the destruction of Bermeja, an island at the Atlantic region of Mexico - the same event where Tupaq was trapped into the Absolute Darkness by some of his brothers and rivals, the Elemental Gods. This operation happened months after MILLENNIUM. A great intel was lost as well, and traditional corporations like the Catholic Church and private military forces under public facades, headed by UN's current secretary of security, Wagner K (a traditional ally of Ulhaden), were instrumental to forge AXIS and its own role in the international politics, while ABEL and Ulhaden should keep working on more armors and more tests. The secret breeding and enslavement of "demonoids" (non-human hybrids which AXIS claimed to be natural or supernatural, intelligent threats to humanity) within AXIS' grounds would keep its own atmosphere less suspicious to its inner staff.

"AXIS"
The DELTA armor was passed to an Ulhaden agent, Peter Petego, in 2000, who died in 2006, after one of his duplicates killed him. The case was classified an AXIS' student and agent corpus would never know of the event - alongside many others involving other "missing" students. The next official user of the DELTA armor would be decided that year after a series of physical, psychological and knowledge tests - but the future agent's identity would be preserved, as determined by AXIS' own rules. The Alpha-Omega series agents, like with the future Insect Syndicates, supposedly should never know who are their fellows behind the mask - they only refer to each other by the greek letters which name their armors. The only ones that know are some instructors, researchers or members of high level hierarchy inside the institution.
The next Agent DELTA is Klaus Neumann, a Teutonic man who hides obscure origins since 1988. He's lived since an early age in a variety of orphanages or streets in the range of Köln, Teutonia, and also other places like Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. He has never met his parents - versions vary on who they have been, about their fates and the reason he ended up there. How come a humble origin man was admitted into an international private military agency that owns super-powered equipment? He didn't question, and just accepted the invitation in 2006 - little did he know he had some major connection to AXIS' manager, Ephraim Frére, who despite a clergyman in his own right, had no official military or administrative experience - so how could him be the manager of such an institution? Klaus learned a lot of survival skills on the streets, one of them obeying uquestioningly when needed, and that preserved his reputation in AXIS, while performing missions on "risk areas" such as the Amazonian Jungle, which included killing some locals as a bait to attract a demon, later known as Cuetzpalin Paynal (from the nahuatl "fast lizard"), in one of his first known public appearances, in October 2008. The AXIS is a private bounty hunter academy that was hired by the Brazilian government on the occasion after series of landlords have been slaughtered, and their properties damaged. Urban areas and activities related to animal exploitation - fishing, rodeos, slaughterhouses, farms - were equally damaged, and messages were left written in the blood of the victims. The animals were often released, and in some cases transported to legal sanctuaries that claimed not to have any association with these acts or it's perpetrators. Within two months after the first actions, the government still failed to precisely identify the "serial killer", until reports of a super-fast, inhuman lizard-man started to pop out across international detective agencies employed for the case, and that's what triggered AXIS.
  Another conflict which involved Klaus and the Cuetzpalin Paynal happened in late September 2009, on the city of Moche, capital of Tahuantinsuyu and its Chinchaysuyu Province (Northern Peruvian Coast) - the same event which witnessed the birth of the Insect Syndicate. On the occasion, what the Tahuantinsuyuan government declared to be a domestic issue (concerning riots and protests against the naming of Tupaq Amaru III as Prime Minister and the changes which benefitted his party over the others), a cell of rogue agents which split from INTERPOL, led by ex-Belarusian KGB captain Vadim Valtheran, has considered an international issue not only because the Tahuantinsuyu was once again suffering "human rights violations, weakening or cooptation of press freedom and democracy", but because it "potentially held mass destruction weaponry" - something that has never been proved. The opposition answered in favor of the legitimacy of government, and considered international intervention a criminal act backed by foreigner corporations interested in exploiting it's own market and working class. The AXIS, however, was activated because the Cuetzpalin Paynal has been sighted alongside other Cuetzpalin (from the nahuatl "lizard", a race of reptile huanoids) "demons", and another variety of "shadow demons" were sighted patrolling the streets. Klaus operated in a mission accompanied by Agent ALPHA and led by Agent YPSILON. In the end of the mission, the Tahuantinsuyuan government stepped back on the decision it took months before, in April, and Tupaq went missing. The conflicts around Intihuaca, Tahuantinsuyu's administrative center at the heart of the coastal city of Moche, included many fatal victims, people killed by riot police and military. The rogue cell split from INTERPOL left two days before the conflicts ceased, after they've captured a member of Tahuantinsuyu's secret intelligence agency - Ollantay Melivilu Valtheran, Vadim's son - and brought him to Vadim's estate, a politically exiled colony. As for the Cuetzpalin, they've escaped into the South American jungle. But the AXIS agents didn't fail - they managed to confirm the fact that ICHNEUMON, the Mallki general of Tahuantinsuyu indeed use a customized BETA armor (supposedly developed by ABEL Inc, bought by the japanese military and stolen by a vigilante who exposed the japanese police's corruption and involvement with major Yakuza syndicates in 1974); that AXIS' agent OMICRON has betrayed the institution and become FIREFLY from the IS; that his mentor, Howard Fang, employed by Ulhaden and AXIS between 1993 and 2006, is involved with Tahuantinsuyu's council of advanced scientifical, technological, industrial and energy development; and that Agent GAMMA was also a traitor, and not actually a human, but a synthoid or a husk designed to match with the (DI)GAMMA armor (they failed, however, to find out the armor is more like a symbiote, as it could hint).
One of Klaus' latest missions for the AXIS was the disastrous Mission: SCIROCCO, that happened in 2010 and marked AXIS' irreversible downfall. On its' outcome, the Ulhaden Corporation failed to cope with international demands, and representing both ABEL Inc and the CIA, former agent NI, Lana Bridges (the adoptive daughter of ABEL's CEO, Joseph Bridges), has arranged with an international court special rights transferring the ownership and usage of some Alpha-Omega armors to trusted ex-AXIS agents, including Klaus Neumann, who would pursue a civilian's life in Germany after four years serving AXIS. Despite somewhat surprised for Lana's consideration, he couldn't just run from what was coming at him.

NECOC YAOTL, HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE INQUISITION
In June-July 2010, starting with heatened urban guerrillas taking place in urban centers across the globe formerly owned only by social inequality, distinct informal groups, armed with equipment previously only owned by official military or private bounty hunter associations have led to the destabilization of several nation States and the authority of bourgeois, "representative democracy". This process spread like fire, and the sponsors of slavery and a "modern colonization", such as the mass media which runs most countries and manipulate "public opinion" became confused with the lack of leadership or formal organization to frame this international revolutionary process, appealing to make a serious conspiracy from some facy prank accidentally thrown away by one of such paramilitary soldiers. In no time, the " NECOC YAOTL" (nahuatl for "enemy of both sides) became the name of any insurrectionary enemy of State persecuted across the globe by the alliances of diverse dictatorships masked as democracies. During this time, some of the Alpha-Omega armors have been stolen, salvaged or appropriated by unaffiliated personnel which the CIA deemed as an "urgent matter" under request of ABEL Inc, that also lost several equipment to looting by locals around some of their private, multinational warehouses. The Ulhaden, or what's left of it, under Vitorio and his new butler Marco , have rather sided with economically liberal think-tanks, alongside eurosceptic, nationalist and even neo-nazist/fascist fronts in Europe, supported by traditional and not so traditional sponsors, including a new Pope, Leo XIV, who replaced the last one, killed by Paynal on sight in April 2011. With growing support and a fear-based campaign, Leo founded international "Inquisitory Offices" on several so-called modern republics, handling weapons and authorities to shadowy, bigoted figures that used the "threat of terror" to justify their own terror and bring back the Dark Ages. In this situation, AXIS' ex-principal, Ephraim Frére, has risen from the dirt as the official "Inquisitor" of Gallia. He had a life debt to the new Pope, which some agents have identified alongside some of his own origins - like Wieceslaw Jozef Dziedzic, who'd become Pope, "Ephraim Frére" was actually Sebastian Bartosz, a Polish bishop from Suraz. More than that, he was a vampire, one that after the growth of support for communism - this time no longer as a matter of the polish working class, but of russian sovereignty over Poland - has escaped from his former battlefield and church, and went to Romania, where his father had some fortune. In Romania, however, he got lost and became a nuisance to locals, one which Wieceslaw would recognize from a great distance. Employing a bounty hunter, Wieceslaw had Sebastian brought back from the shadows, as he was needed to secure his own project, and become the facade for an initiative that if discovered could damage the Church's power relations - if it wasn't for Sebastian's new role, of a public puppet. Sebastian should just use part of the fortune inherited by his father to acquire an estate at Avignon, Gallia, where the construction of a military complex, the future campus of the AXIS Private Military Academy would take place in 2000. The Church's direct association to this modern bounty hunter association would be masked by Sebastian's new fake identity - that of Ephraim Frére, who was somewhat unrelated to the church's high hierarchy, and was more like "a landlord and businessman", who sponsored the military institute ou of his own interest. Sebastian had nowhere else to run to, he was in Wieceslaw's hands, for not only Wieceslaw knew of his vampire conditions - something that if exposed would have Sebastian killed - he found out Sebastian had an illicit relationship with a nun in 1988, and that she bore him two children, whom Sebastian had never seen before, as he left her behind. These children were identified by Wieceslaw and were under some sort of surveillance by his allies - the Opus Dei - who also made sure to involve them within the AXIS' schemes. His daughter, who lived at an orphanage in Gallia, was adopted at the age of 12, by a wealthy american weapons industrialist. His son, who lived at an orphanage in Teutonia, was jumping from an orphanage to another and would only get involved with AXIS in 2006.

In 2011, at the height of a "world war", Klaus used his DELTA armor to fight some gangs in Eastern Teutonia. By chance, he became associated to some so-called antifascist combatants, which actions were sporadic and mostly urban. In one of their struggles, he has been identified by other anarchists internationally involved with these struggles, among them the Cuetzpalin Paynal, who aware of Klaus' earlier association with a mostly fascist bounty hunter organization, didn't trust Klaus, and also advised his companions about him. Klaus fought against some Holy Roman Empire (the international institution defended by the Catholic Church under Leo XIV's command, it was also promoted by other groups unafiliated with the Church, alongside official and semi-official Inquisitory offices) forces, what sounded good enough for most anarchists, but still Paynal didn't believe someone like Klaus, who would obediently follow orders of killing entire indigenous populations on Brazil for the sake of making it a bait to call the attention of his true enemy, could be the next day a "socially conscious antifascist committed to the destruction of nationalism and the bourgeois dominance, and the building of the working class' emancipation". Still, Klaus lived and kept his armor - even though Lana found out his "criminal association with gangs", she gave a blind eye on him and on Nina (ex-Agent YPSILON) because they pointed out another armor previously owned by ABEL, the secret SAMPI, was still in use by another more dangerous criminal, Frére, and through Lana and Nina's investigatons discovered Frére was actually a polish bishop named Sebastian Bartosz, who was an old ally of Wieceslaw that he strategically put in charge of AXIS. That was, however, just a third of the truth. Klaus' past and the origins of his armor were largely unknown.

LOCUST
Neither Paynal nor Nina could tell if the Klaus they've seen among the atifascists (not only because he was completely bald, not like the hairy Klaus Nina knew on AXIS) wasn't a suplicate or not, but after some time, some street areas in eastern Teutonia became more populated by some of his short-lived duplicates who dared to attain independence. In September 2013, Klaus was approached by a figure who threatened him to come with the armor, and then tested him, before offering a contract which concluded his recruitment into the Insect Syndicate. At this time, Klaus had some divided reputation between urban gangs - he was accused as an aggressor, and had few friends who could help him get away from a beggar-like situation. It wasn't hard for him, who has been used to the life of a miserable warrior, to accept the offer. He just failed to see he wasn't chosen by chance or merit, but because he had some connection to a future recruit of major importance. And he still had to find out more about his forgotten past.

MORE INSECT SYNDICATE MEMBERS:

ICHNEUMON | FIREFLY | FIREFLY (2) | SCORPION | MOTH | MANTIS |
SPIDER | HORNET | WASP |