fuck yeah inspectors rambling about a creature idea i had on the topic under the cut, i think they are super underrated
Okay so @csabyssallight has that iterator OC that is gigantic compared to normal cans, and at some point in our convos they implied that with all that extra room, it's possible something even bigger than inspectors lurk within... and it gave me ideas.
Inspectors are a challenge but not too hard to defeat, just find cover and pelt them with projectiles if no explosive spears to kill them in one hit are around. An animal wouldn't really know that, but what about ancients or smarter creatures like scavengers ?
Just like we now have elite scavengers and terror-long-legs, it could be possible for larger structures to host something more threatening than usual: Hecatoncheires. The picture above is to scale, these beasts are absolutely massive and while they may not be suitable for smaller or tighter cans (and even larger ones rarely sport more than 2 or 3), these living siege weapons can orchestrate defense responses on top of personally dealing with threats, especially since they are more dexterous and got better aim.
Smarter and way bulkier than inspectors, hecatoncheires can choose to move projectiles near sensitive areas, use the terrain to their advantage (such as throwing intruders at the transform arrays electric coils) and tend to give up chase less easily. Their cheer size makes close combat even harder as they can slam things against the wall when not straight up crushing them if they are small enough. Their main drawback is their size that makes it harder to leave large areas, but they can send inspectors after you (or something else, I could see iterators having antibodies that work like leeches or spitter spider darts). Iterators already feel pain with the death of inspectors, so killing an hecatoncheire probably will straight up cripple them for a moment; perhaps one dying while aggravated could send a distress signal that will make defense organisms travel to the threat's last known location...
Fortunately, like their smaller counterpart, they will not attack unless given a reason to. Idle, they just float along their patrol. They will sometimes pull creatures away from dangerous terrain, especially inspectors. They're probably smart enough to remember which creatures caused trouble and which ones are harmless when not beneficial; I could see one being able to do precise things such as handling tools or even understanding the rules of a simple board game !
