Parasite (Puppet Master)
The Parasites are a species that feature in The Puppet Masters.
History
The parasites were stingray-shaped exoparasites.
The creatures were quite intelligent and developed a type of space craft which they used to travel world to world. Once arriving on a planet, they would attempt to descreetly infiltrate the host society. The initial infectees would attempt to behave normally and attempt to trick new hosts into positions where they would infect them with new parasites. This process would continue until the parasites dominate the environment. Infiltration and implantation of new hosts being their primary strength in combating enemies by compromising military forces to serve the parasites goals.
The extraterrestrial parasites initiated their planetary infiltration by arriving via a spacecraft in rural Ambrose, Iowa, where they began systematically subjugating the local human population. The stingray-shaped organisms attached themselves directly to the backs of human hosts, extending microscopic tendrils deep into the hosts' central nervous systems to completely suppress individual consciousness and override physical motor functions. Operating through a unified telepathic hive mind, the organisms compelled their controlled human puppets to display blank, emotionless behaviors while actively feigning normalcy to evade early detection by investigating government authorities. The parasites utilized their hosts to transport and distribute additional hidden crates of unattached slugs, actively expanding their territory across the American Midwest by infecting local television stations, emergency services, and arriving military personnel. They maintained their collective intelligence by establishing subterranean nesting hives, where infected hosts periodically gathered to touch tentacles and directly exchange memories, thoughts, and tactical data across the wider biological network.
Overview
In appearance, the Parasites were a non-terrestrial species of soft-bodied, invertebrate organisms that bore a striking structural resemblance to small, organic stingrays or skates. The creatures possessed a flattened, disc-like dorsal shape with translucent, gelatinous flesh that exhibited a pale, grayish-pink coloration, allowing internal fluid movements and underlying anatomical structures to remain partially visible. The anterior region of the main body tapered into a rounded head area, while the lateral sides extended into wide, flexible fins that rippled to facilitate crawling, swimming, and climbing across various surfaces. The ventral side of the entity was lined with a wet, adhesive mucosal layer and featured a central mouth structure housing sharp, microscopic feeding or anchoring apparatuses. Extending from the posterior end was a distinct, elongated, and highly flexible whip-like tail that lacked bony structures but possessed fine muscular control for stabilization. Most notably, the underside of the organism contained a complex network of thin, fine, root-like neural tendrils that actively extended outward to pierce human skin and interface directly with the spinal column of a host body.
The Parasites possessed the biological capability to seamlessly interface with the human central nervous system by deploying ventral neural tendrils that pierced the epidermal layer to wrap directly around the spinal cord. Upon establishing this physical connection, the organisms exerted absolute motor and psychological control over the host body, completely suppressing the human's free will while maintaining full access to the host's memories, linguistic skills, and professional knowledge. The species operated via a sophisticated, telepathic hive-mind network that allowed separate organisms to instantly communicate, share sensory data, and coordinate complex tactical movements across large distances without vocalization. They demonstrated a rapid asexual reproductive cycle, allowing them to spawn numerous offspring within localized subterranean nests to quickly increase their population density. Physically, the organisms exhibited high levels of flexibility and structural resilience, utilizing their muscular, finned bodies to scale vertical surfaces, swim through liquids, and firmly anchor themselves to a host's back with enough strength to resist manual detachment. Furthermore, when multiple infected hosts made direct physical contact through their parasites' tails, the creatures possessed the ability to rapidly transfer large volumes of stored data and collective memories across the entire network.
The parasites were, as already mentioned, stingray shaped and would attach to the back of the host where a tongue-like tendril at its mouth would drill into the neck and two suckers would control the nervous system. The creatures possessed a complete control of the host and were capable of creating a heart attack or other means to threaten the host should it wish to do so. Their forms were aerodynamic allowing them to glide through the air and use their tendril-like tongues, that can shoot out and pierce rocks, to aid them in movement. They could wrap their bodies and form a ball like shape where it would hibernate until a host would approach. The creatures reproduced completely alone and had a genetic memory which it passed to its offspring.
Once implanted by the parasite, the host would serve as the creatures puppet and benefitted from improved strength due to a stimulation of the adrenaline gland. They are also capable of taking far more punishment and damage from outside attacks then a normal human could but this is all done on the parasites part with the human having no control on the matter. Should the host be trapped or wounded, then the parasite can abandon the host and use its small form to maneuver far better than a host could do. While the parasites work on a collective goal, they are individualistic and do not possess a hive-mind. Information is shared either verbally or chemically through 'feelers' on the back of the parasite which connect to the feelers of another parasite.
The creatures were vulnerable to neurological diseases as their bodies were dominated by neural tissue. This served as the basis of their failure to conquer Earth in the movie, however, a single member of the species managed to survive briefly as it had developed an immunity but it was destroyed before it could reproduce.
Despite their use of 'conventional' forms of warfare, the parasites were known to be quite advanced and had used an interstellar vessel to arrive on Earth. The internal chambers of their craft appeared organic in nature with incubation pools where the parasites would roam freely and grow. While organic isolation pods were created to encompass humans who were 'immune' from the parasites infection in an attempt to combat this immunity.
Appearances
- The Puppet Masters:
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
