The Lonely Scholar

This is the first part to my long project involving Grub my original story "Resist", where it shows the Drone with a simple background (I am currently working on a "scene" background). It is a full body portrait of my favorite character, the scholar of the Living Dead and the only one who never actually experienced death firsthand.

Grub was born in a relatively peaceful era, but that soon changed as it grew older. Regardless, the Drone was enlisted as a scientist focusing on human research. It received a wide range of education throughout its youth, focusing on physics, chemistry, biology, and human history/culture and soon became the leading authority on anything relating to humans. However, the war forced the Drone into hiding with its Eldest, the leader of the resistance. Grub's Eldest is a Monarch who was forced to defect when its mate went missing (Grub's Youngest), only being found later in a vegetative state with a missing eye, as well as evidence of experimentation. Eldest kept Youngest's condition a secret and pretended to still be searching for its mate so that Grub would not loose focus of its duties.

When a new nanocomputer was created for medical purposes, the resistance refitted the design in an effort to create supersoldiers that could endure, learn, and execute better than any soldier that had existed before. Their first test was on Scout, who was a high-profile Drone at the time and who's knowledge of the Hierarch infrastructural was deemed vital. Unfortunately, Scout received crude and experimental variations of the injection that made the transition more difficult, would not cooperate without the resurrection of its close friend Scratch. When they finally found the insane Drone's body, they injected the corpse with the serum of microcomputers and programmed them to reanimate the dead creature, adding the second member of the "The Living Dead". Seeing that neither Scout nor Scratch could really lead the squad, Grub was immediately incorporated because of the Drone's extensive knowledge of science and human culture, as well as potential leadership. Soon they were gathering more members, like the recently deceased Swift who was a master thief, and the quiet Desert Drone they called Duster. Though it was shy, Duster had quite the knack for technology, which was rather odd for a Desert Drone. Finally, Ty was added for its military experience, and became the ultimate leader of the squad.

Right when they group began its first operation, Grub was alienated by the others because of its strict moral code, as well as the fact that of the entire group, it was the only one who never actually died. The others believed that Grub could not understand their experiences and did not deserve to have the authority of lecturing them over moral responsibilities. The main issue that arose and ultimately even addressed by Ty was Scratch and Scout's relationship, which was growing more and more intimate. In the end, both Grub and Ty gave them their blessings, but not after multiple attempts to separate them by Ty.

Contrary to the squad's opinion, Grub is quite humble and shy, like any other Drone. But, the Drone does have an emotional side, one that its Eldest even compares to a Worker, yet instead of their cold hearts, it has a one that burns with compassion. Forgiveness is one of Grub's greatest qualities, as well as understanding. Grub is the Formic you want to be around if your confidence is lacking, or if you need a devoted friend. Soft spoken, gentle, kind, and wiser than it likes to admit, Grub will shape its very personality just to accommodate your needs.

For all these reasons, Grub is by far my favorite character. I love them all!.... but Grub has its heart in all the right places.

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Just as a clarification point, this has no relation to District 9