Characters / The BETA

This is the character page for the BETA, the main enemy faction in the Muv-Luv Alternative setting, including spin-offs.

Spoilers ahead.

The BETA in general

The BETA (Beings of Extra-Terrestrial Origin and Adversaries of the Human Race), are the main enemies in Muv-Luv Alternative and its spin-offs. In the Alternate timeline, they were first spotted on Mars by a probe in 1958. They arrived on the Moon in 1967 and, after a brief conflict with humanity's space forces known as the First Lunar War, invaded Earth in 1973, making humanity abandon the Moon. They quickly spread from their landing point, Kashgar, and proceeded to invade the Eurasian, Middle Eastern, and Asian regions; when they finally reached Japan in 1998, 36 million people were killed within a week. By 2001, the world population was down to about 1 billion people.

The BETA vary greatly in size, with the smallest identified strain (Soldier-class) being around 3 meters tall, and the largest identified strains (Fort-class) at over 60 meters tall. They cannot fly, but the Laser and Heavy Laser-class BETA shoot down anything that does, rendering aircraft useless and making any aerial military operations much more difficult.

• Adaptive Ability: Once they interact with a Hive Reactor, the Superordinate gives them information to adapt to human strategy.
• Body Horror: The civilian population is kept in the dark as to what BETA look like, for the sake of morale. The reason being that BETA are, on the whole, very disturbing, with a bizarre mix of alien and uncomfortably human looking features.
• Bug War: The whole conflict against humanity.
• Colony Drop: How they invaded the Earth: launching enormous pods filled with BETA from the Moon.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: They gave one to humanity as a whole, excluding islands and the USA. It's the main reason why there are only 1 billion people now. The invention of the TSF helped level the field somewhat.
• Friendly Fireproof: The Laser and Heavy Laser-Class BETA cannot shoot other BETA, ever. Subverted with the special strain "Laser Fort-Class" who shoots through BETA.
• God Guise: The cult known as Allegiance believe them to be the servants of God. As such, they advocate the creation and acceptance of BETA derived technology.
• Hive Mind: The main reason humans cannot communicate with them. Thanks to it, they can be very organized and can adapt their tactics against the humans.
• Human Resources: The BETA can recycle their own, as well as humans, into more of them. The Soldier-class Venator strain in particular is made by recycling humans.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Anti-personnel BETA are fond of this, messily devouring humans they find.
• Inscrutable Aliens: The first four Alternative Plans were made to attempt to communicate with them. They cannot talk to humans and their biology is impossible to understand. The only things known about them are that they are a carbon-based life, and do not consider humans as a form of life. Their true nature is that they are a self-propogating biological mining system, harvesting materials to send back to their creators, who are a different race of intelligent, silicon-based lifeforms.
• It Can Think: Not at first, but when humanity began to win multiple battles against them, they use military tactics such as digging underground to hide from bombardments, using the Fort-Class for transportation of troops, advancing while hiding behind dead Destroyer-classes' shells and deprioritizing anti-laser / decoy ordinance.
• Puny Earthlings: Their raw physical power can easily destroy the human military, including the TSF.
• The Speechless: They cannot talk at all. The BETA Superordinate can communicate by using an Esper as an interpreter.
• Starfish Aliens: They have very little in common with humans, and the tallest strain can reach 66 meters. The only exception is the Soldier-Class, which is actually a human-based strain.
• Uncanny Valley: they would be a lot less disturbing if various body parts, such as the mouths, arms, and legs of various strains, didn't look eerily like a human body part stuck on an alien body.
• We Have Reserves: The sheer number of the BETA helps them to resort to such tactics.
• Zerg Rush: Their main tactic. Individual BETA can be taken down relatively easily: the problem is the 10,000 other BETA that are behind the one you just shot. It's repeatedly said that the greatest weapon the BETA possess is their sheer numbers.

Common strains

This list regroups most of the BETA seen on Earth.

Warrior-Class / Barrus Naris

One of the smaller strains, and the least deadly. Very lightly armoured, most human weaponry will work against them, however they have a great speed, making them difficult to hit. They are solely anti-personnel and cannot destroy vehicles or TSF's.

• Extra Eyes: The reason they are so good at detection.
• Fragile Speedster: The easiest BETA to kill, but also the fastest of the anti-personnel BETA.
• Innate Night Vision: They have no problems to see in the dark, even in the dark hallways of the Yokohama Base.
• Off with His Head!: They have a single arm, powerful enough to take a human's head off with one swing.

Soldier-Class / Venator

The smallest strain amongst the BETA. While they slower than the Warrior-Class, they can still overpower the average human, but they are still vulnerable to most firearms. Also anti-personnel.

• Eaten Alive: Their primary weapon is their jaw, which they use to bite through things in their way... humans included.
• Human Resources: It's the only BETA solely made with organic materials from Earth, hence their late appearance in 1995.
• Knight of Cerebus: One of the first BETA Takeru gets to see, in a horrific fashion.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Even though they don't appear at all in TSF battles, Alternative!Takeru dying against them causes his Extra self to panic when BETA are approaching or showing up, due to causality giving him memories of his original self. It gets worse when Marimo is killed by one of them.
• Stealthy Colossus: Doesn't make any noise while moving.
• Super-Senses: They have a very good detection capability for spotting humans.
• The Nose Knows: Their main method of locating things.

Tank-Class / Equus Pedis

The most widespread strain on Earth, and the most present at battles. Even if they are a small strain, their mouth can bite through TSF armor, explaining why they are always seen in groups. Mostly anti-personnel.

• Combo Platter Powers: Anti-personnel, but with large numbers they can take down TSF's by biting their way to the pilot.
• Eaten Alive: The fate of their victims.
• Extra Eyes: Like the Soldier-class, it helps them to locate humans.
• Fragile Speedster: Downplayed. They can be taken down with infantry, but their large numbers cover that weakness.
• The Swarm: Always in groups, ready to take down people and TSF's.

Laser-Class / Lux

While smaller and less numerous than many others, the Laser-Class are among the most dangerous BETA due to the powerful energy beams they shoot.

• Anti-Air: Since no BETA can fly, the Laser-Class serves to remove humanity's air superiority. They're so good at their jobs that air warfare became obsolete almost overnight, necessitating the development of the TSF's.
• Energy Weapon: They exist for one purpose only: to shoot powerful beams that melt anything stupid enough to fly within their line of sight.
• Glass Cannon: They are pretty fragile, all things considered, but their lasers can shoot down just about anything within 30 kilometers.
• Go for the Eye: Their weak point is their laser-firing "eye". Get a good shot there and the BETA will drop dead.
• Human Shield: one thing humanity has learned is that Laser-Class BETA will never shoot other BETA. As a result, standard strategy when a Laser-Class is present is to put another BETA between them.

Heavy Laser-Class / Magnus Lux

Among the rarest of the standard BETA strains, they are a larger, stronger variant of the Laser-Class. Their beams are even more powerful, but they also take longer to recharge between shots.

• The Dreaded: Heavy Laser-Class are top priority targets on any battlefield due to the immense firepower they possess.
• Elite Mooks: Their firepower is several orders of magnitude higher than a standard Laser-Class, but they are also correspondingly expensive for the BETA to produce, meaning that there aren't as many of them as other strains.
• Energy Weapon: They possess even stronger ones than the standard Laser-Class, though as a trade off they take longer between shots.
• Go for the Eye: like the normal Laser-class, their laser-firing "eye" is a weak point. They do have protective coverings that can defend against weaker weapons, but they can't fire their laser with the "eye" closed.

Grappler-Class / Medium

Large, crab-like BETA that make up the majority of their anti-armor weapons. These are the usual targets TSF's have to deal with at close range.

• Eyeless Face: their faces don't appear to have any eyes, making them look even more unnerving.
• Giant Enemy Crab: They are most similar to crabs (if crabs had a head and mouth attached to a long neck on their rear).
• Power Pincers: they possess two pincers made of material that is somehow a 15 on the Mohs hardness scale. For comparison, diamonds only rate a 10 on that scale. The pincers are strong enough to crush all known metals like tin foil.

Destroyer-Class / Ruitare

Large beetle-like BETA with hard shells. They exist for one purpose: running forward very fast and bulldozing anything in their way.

• Attack Its Weakpoint: their armor is incredibly tough, but it only covers the front. Attacks from behind are very effective.
• Healing Factor: Among the few BETA to possess a healing factor. It isn't enough to regenerate mid-combat, but a Destroyer that isn't completely killed will be back up and running long before any other BETA strain.
• Lightning Bruiser: they are fast, and their shells are nearly invincible. Their one weakness is they are not very good at turning.
• Ramming Always Works: ramming into things may seem like an extremely simplistic tactic... but the Destroyers have their name for a reason. A TSF run over by a Destroyer is scrap metal.

Fort-Class / Gravis

Standing at 66 meters tall, the Fort-Class are the largest BETA seen on a typical battlefield. Though slow, they are also heavily armored and possess tremendous strength.

• Asteroids Monster: They can carry several smaller BETA within themselves, so pilots have good reason to be wary around Fort-Class corpses.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Their main weapon is a scorpion-like stinger that can punch through TSF armor like tissue paper, and sprays a highly corrosive acid for good measure. It can also attack in any direction, not just forwards.
• Mighty Glacier: They aren't nearly as fast as other BETA strains, but TSF's have a tough time taking them out and have to resort to targetting joints and other weak points even with their strongest weapons.

Special strains

This list regroups rarer, seldom-seen BETA strains.

Carrier-Class / Megaworm

Absolutely enormous worm-like BETA that burrow through the ground and can carry tens of thousands of BETA within them. First seen during Operation Cherry Blossom.

• Nigh-Invulnerable: Even battleship bombardments do almost nothing to their hides. Only one has ever been killed, and that took an S-11 bomb down its gullet.
• Sand Worm: giant worms that burrow through solid rock like water. They can even dig through hive walls, which otherwise require WMD level weapons to breach.

Gate-Class

Giant living doorways used by the BETA to guard the deepest parts of their hives. They possess very little intelligence, but are incredibly durable.

• Crippling Overspecialization: They can open, and they can close. That's... really it. The BETA operate it by injecting two kinds of compounds into its "brain", one which opens it and another which closes it.
• Dilating Door: They resemble circular schpinters large enough to march thousands of BETA through at once.
• Made of Indestructium: No man-made weapons are known to be capable of breaching a Gate-Class BETA... nor for that matter are any BETA-made weapons.

Superheavy Laser Class / Laser Fort-Class

A hybrid BETA combining traits of both Fort-Class and Heavy Laser-Class strains. Possibly the single most deadly BETA strain ever seen, they are fortunately extremely rare, with only a handful of specimens ever seen.

• Friendly Fire: Unlike its lesser brethren, it will shoot through other BETA to get to its targets.
• Fusion Dance: It basically looks like an oversized Fort-Class with multiple Heavy Laser "eyes" on it.
• Master of All: It combines a Fort-class's durability, size, and giant acid-spitting stinger tail with a Heavy Laser-class's powerful beam weaponry. It is the only BETA that can fight at both long and short range.

The Original Hive's core (Walking Spoiler warning)

The Superordinate / Core / Target A

A commander-type BETA that controls and directs all other BETA within its sphere of influence. It appears that only one exists per planet the BETA are present on. It is the only known strain to possess advanced intelligence.

• Big Bad: It is the leader of the BETA attacking Earth.
• Combat Tentacles: It can defend itself with huge numbers of powerful tentacles capable of breaching even the Susano-o's Rutherford Fields and armor. These tentacles can also take control of both machinery and flesh they pierce into.
• Hive Queen: It's in control of the BETA hive mind, with its orders disseminated via the hive reactors. Destroying it heavily cripples the BETA on Earth.
• It Can Think: It is capable of devising new strategies and technologies for the BETA to use in their work, though its thought processes appear limited to defending itself/the BETA and mining resources.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: In a dark analog of Asimov's First Law of Robotics, it claims that the BETA would never begin harvesting operations on a planet where living creatures are present. The problem is that it only recognizes silicon-based life as "life", so Earth is a completely dead wasteland as far as it's concerned. Takeru makes a token attempt to convince it that humans (and other carbon-based life) are alive but doesn't get very far.
• Walking Spoiler: it is encountered at the climax of Alternative and the conversation Takeru has with it reveals much about the BETA.
• You Will Be Assimilated: its tentacles can burrow into either machinery or flesh and seize control, as the first step of "recycling" new resources into more BETA.