Canoptek Scarab

"Take my advice, if you hear the chittering of Scarab wings, just run, and keep running ‘til the sound is gone. Don’t stop, and don’t look back. If one of your squad mates starts screaming, it’s because the Scarabs are on him, and you’ll die right alongside if you try to help. I’m not saying you’ll be able to outrun the devils mind. Even goin’ full pelt and with a head start, you’ll lost ground pretty quickly. Best you can hope for is that you can run faster than the rest of your squad: but then no one ever said life in the Imperial Guard was fair."

- Quartermaster Kross, Cadian 312th; Executed for dishonourable combat 777.M41

Canoptek Scarabs are small, silver, beetle-like Necron constructs designed to break down organic and non-organic matter into raw energy. This energy can then be woven into fresh forms at the direction of the Scarabs’ controller. With their swift, darting movements and their high-pitched chittering, Canoptek Scarabs appear to mimic the behaviours of true organic invertebrates. However, they lack for a true hive mind. A swarm of Scarabs has no more intelligence than one Scarab alone – which is to say none at all. All they are driven by are simple instructions and even simpler instincts. However, Canoptek Scarabs are still fearsome enemies in swarms due to their horrifying nature as mindless feeding machines.

Role
In the confines of a Necron tomb, Canoptek Scarabs will often busy themselves stripping down destroyed or damaged components which can then be remade as replacement part, or else as further Canoptek Spyders, Wraiths or Scarabs to oversee and manage the tomb’s functions. Almost anything can be replicated in this fashion, providing that the wellspring of energy is sufficient for the task at hand. Given time, suitably large swarms of Scarabs can consume an entire hive city, and all its inhabitants; thereafter using the purloined energies to create anything from a Necron battlefleet or another fully functioning Necron tomb ready for habitation.

Essentially mindless feeding machines, Canoptek Scarabs are typically controlled by interstitial carrier waves from Canoptek Spyders or Wraiths. If this signal was to be disrupted or jammed, Canoptek Scarabs simply revert to their most basic instincts and devour anything in their immediate vicinity – even other Scarabs or Necrons. However, the interstitial interfaces are incredibly difficult to detect, let alone disrupt. Should the controlling entity be destroyed, another automatically assumes control within moments. Even if the enemy can completely remove the carrier waves, this often creates a far greater problem than before. The Canoptek Scarabs will no longer operate under the Necrons direct control, as part of their reversion to base programming, they will expend any accumulated energy on fashioning even more Scarabs; thus creating a voracious self-replicating swarm that only something of the order of saturation bombardment has any hope of exterminating. It is of note though that Scarab swarms possess the ability to both burrow and fly efficiently, not only allowing to avoid enemy fire better but to also be able to strike the enemy from an unexpected direction in a surprise ambush.

A Necron Overlord will often begin a battle by unleashing a swarm of Canoptek Scarabs that is so thick it can blot out the sun, hoping that the foe will waste much-needed ammunition lasting the scavengers apart before the true assault is launched. Indeed, a particularly canny Overlord can determine the resolve of various enemy formations by how they react. Hardened troops will the see the Scarabs as the slight threat they are, destroying or driving them off with disciplined volleys of firepower. Other enemies will be driven mad with fear by the pervasive drone of the swarm’s wings and the sight of the moving carpet of death, or even overwhelmed and devoured by the chittering tide. Either way, an observant Overlord can glean valuable information as to where the strongest pockets of resistance lie and plan his attack accordingly.

However, where Canoptek Scarabs truly come into their own is when unleashed upon enemy tanks and other vehicles. Once a Scarab has latched onto a hull, it begins to feed, breaking down the victim vehicle’s armour plating into wisps of energy and leaving it vulnerable to attacks from other sources. If not quickly destroyed or driven away, – if such a thing is possible due to their overriding program to never fall back – a swarm of Canoptek Scarabs can even burrow their way through the hull using their entropic abilities; turning the mighty engine of war into a horror-filled prison for its soon-to-be devoured crew.

Canoptek Spyders are able to act as Scarab hives, as they can produce hosts of Canoptek Scarab and nanoscarab swarms within their abdomens. These Scarabs are often then sent to effect repairs upon nearby Necrons, or directed to consume enemies, their weapons and their armour.