Holy Fuck.

Basic Information: Rattata are…rattata. Not ratata. Not rata. Not ratayta and sure as shit not rattattata. They're a stupidly common and numerous evolutionary line of normal types that eat, shit, and fuck like Kalosians. Due to this manner of lifestyle, you can find them just about anywhere, with several variations. Your typical Ratta is about a foot and a half to two feet from tooth to tail, and weighs between ten and eighteen pounds. Their larger and slightly more disgusting evolved forms are three to four feet from tooth to tail and between forty and sixty five pounds. These shits of all sizes are members of the "Field" Egg group, whatever the fuck that means. Both could be classified as "common", but that can mean anything from "Common" like shit music in Unova or "Common" like war crime in Hoenn.

Biology: Biology on these things is straightforward. All the standard animal parts that you'd expect to see in about all the places you'd expect to see them. The only things that really differentiate them from other animals are those nasty buck teeth; which never stop growing, can chew through anything short of steel, and gives them a punchable face. Raticate's back feet are webbed, letting them swim just a little better than a drunk double amputee.

Retata have hearing and smell on par of the most predatory of lawyers, and good night vision to boot- good news is that like lawyers, they aren't particularly far sighted, and don't have very long memories, so if they lose track of you, they'll move on pretty quickly. They also have to eat their weight in food daily.

This causes problems for everyone.

History: Ratata, as far as we can tell, were initially native to Shanxi and then migrated everywhere else by just about every fucked up way you can imagine and more: stowing away on ships, swimming, walking on landbridges- shit, the Johtoan's say that they were tossed over from Shanxi by an angry machamp- oh, and just you fucking wait until we get to the bullshit the Johtoans say about those compensators.

HIS has a full book regarding the "Purple Plague", something of an origin story for the Orrean great desert, in which the Confederate of the time pissed off an angry psychic demon, who in turn planted one of its teeth in the ground, which turned into "A wave of purple, devouring the land to a blade of grass, growing with every starved village, leaving naught but sand and sorrow in it's wake." It's a shit translation, but with things going how they are now, we have a better context for what was going wrong, and to call it 'cause for concern' is like saying Elesa's fucked up music is 'Makes people want to have a make out session with a .44 magnum.'

Psychology and Sociology: Where to fucking start. Psychology with these suckers is a mixed bag, given their social complexity dances all over the godamn map, it's easier to classify them from a social standpoint- in which case, they're fucked. Consider it chaotic neutral- things are a force of nature that you have no choice but to contend with, in several forms.

Your standard Rattata isn't quite harmless- they'll hide in dark corners and either steal or shit on your food, and if you corner them they have a nasty bite, but on their own, they'll typically try to avoid you.

Thing is, where there's one ratata, there's always a dozen more just out of sight. When you get a group of a dozen, they turn from scavengers to hunters, and get a lot more ballsy- they'll slip into the shadows looking for weakness, or a distraction, and then take a bite out of you- and for fuck's sake, don't fall asleep with any around.

Ratata are also funky cause the more you get in one area, the stupider they are- probably because they're all starved to death. The things will swarm you like flies to honey, or iron to magnets, or Senator's wives to anyone that isn't their husband.

They can cannibalize in large groups, but for the most part, they only try to follow the crowd when you get more than a hundred- it only takes one walking forwards, and then another will fall in line behind it, with nothing better to do, and another will because he thinks he's getting ahead of the rest of the chumps, and then another will because it doesn't have a single godamned thought in its head and then another will because they think they know what they're doing, and that if so many ratana are heading in one direction, they probably should too.

When there's no more places to walk, the same goes for cannibalism- as soon as there's blood in the water, they'll turn on eachother pretty quick.

Combat:

Ratatta are pretty quick and pretty agile, in terms of acceleration, but when it comes to top speed you can typically outrun them, and they don't have the stamina to keep up with most people. On their own and in small groups, they don't present much of an immediate combat threat, even striking from stealth- most of their attacks rely on biting, scratching, and tackling, which doesn't amount to much, because of their small size. The bigger issue is that they spread disease like nobody's business, and so any open wound they give you can get infected pretty quick and ruin your day.

Most of the time, on their own, they'll try to avoid combat unless cornered. But even if shit does go down, you can kill a handful just by stomping on them, but shooting at them can be pretty hard.

The bigger issue is, again, that they can form up in large, migrating swarms from hundreds to a few thousand, in an immediate area, and they don't try to kill you so much as eat you, and it takes a LOT of effort to make em break, even if you kill half of them. They tend to get twitchy around fire, and might hesitate if you use it- I recommend bringing flamethrowers and napalm to bear on the larger groups. Machine gun fire can also thin their numbers, but the loud noise will aggravate rather than frighten them. Better to stay mobile, I think, unless your position is EXTREMELY defendable.

Raticate are a bit more complex, but only so much as any semi-social predator is. Some of the weaker ones might join purple waves, but will typically canabalize them. They can hunt on their own or in small packs, are very omnivorous and can survive in anything but the most extreme environments, are highly mobile, and typically strike from stealth. They are, hands down, the most common hostile we will encounter throughout the Kantonese/Johtoan landmass we find ourselves attached to.

Rattata: Pft. 0.2 IU's, .4 GU's on a group. The biggest issue will be fighting infection- but in numbers they can wear down our soldiers with moderate, nonlethal injuries that could slow down our forces, and soften us up for a real attack.

Raticate: Don't like em. 1.2 IU's, 1.8 GU's. They're quick, they're agile, their claws and fangs are quick and nasty, you're liable to get an infection, and for some reason those injuries seem to heal slowly. If you can pin them down in one spot and fight them straight, should be easy enough to wipe the floor with them, but you'll never see that kind of straight fight. Odds are you might get forced up close in personal, and I still give you 50/50.

For scenarios, we'll say 1) individuals, 2) a group of a dozen, 4) a group of a hundred, 3) Single Raticate, 4) a dozen raticate.

They're more likely to turn tail and run if you encounter them. If they don't, and you need them out of your food stores or something, they tend to avoid loud noises and fire. Use one or the other. You could shoot them, I guess, but you're about as well off clubbing them with your rifle. Could probably also stand to make our pants thicker- Johto and Kanto are cold as shit anyways, and the extra protection could help with scratches. One thing to come to mind- is keep an eye on ways for them to climb up to you- if they get up to your neck there is a chance they might be able to do some damage.

Again, more likely to turn tail and run, unless they are particularly desperate. The biggest thing is- for the love of God, stay on your feet. If you get knocked to the ground, it's over. They like to circle you, get in your blind spots and chew/slash your legs to bring you down- don't let em. Put your back to the wall, make a lot of noise, try and scare them off. If you do wind up on the ground, start rolling and pray you flatten the little shits.

Raticate are another breed- they always attack from stealth, and will try to bring you down to the ground. Best thing you can do is stay mindful- this little shits can get just about anywhere, so be constantly vigilant. If you do get attacked by one, put as many rounds between you and it as possible, there's a slight chance the noise might scare it off, and if you score a hit, you win anyways. Be aggressive- if it attacks you on its own terms it will get you on the ground and you're boned. Get up in its face, kick the shit out of it, stay on your feet. Keep an eye out for those teeth- they'll break up bone like nobody's business.

Well, if you're on your own…fuck. Shoot and run- their muscles are all fast twitch, they can burst ahead of you, but if you can push hard enough to stay out of their way for a couple minutes you'll win in the endurance department. They like to play the game the same way as rattata, except they can actually do it competently, so if you're in a group, go back to back, and again, be the loudest, meanest motherfuckers you can be. From what we've seen, they'll break before you kill a third of them.

Freaks:

The Purple Tide: Right… given the uniqueness of the situation, the sheer numbers, and the fact that these things are going to emerge either annually or semi-annually, a bit more of a discussion is necessary. The situation as the environmental boffins have so far theorized is this- as the seasons cycle into autumn in regions outside of the tropics the changing climate tends to drive massive numbers of rattatars into specific areas with specific conditions that are more comfortable- typically lower altitude inland areas. Here they probably lingered for a few weeks while they strip the land to fill their stomachs and spread diseases, and experience general cognitive decline. Eventually their population density hits critical mass, and their surroundings can no longer support them, and one of them decides to walk off. And then they all follow, as stated above, due to groupthink. The direction this time was south, but the boffins aren't convinced they will always travel south- only that they'll typically avoid traveling north.

The good news is that this time they were bottlenecked by the mountain range of the Goldenrod Peninsula- rattatata aren't like Raticate in the sense that they shit all over the idea of rough terrain- they can't cross rivers or go over mountains quite as easily, and aren't smart enough to think around barriers. Eventually, they start to peter out and lose steam, and then rapidly collapse.

Good for us, because it means that once again, the desert continues to provide the necessary barrier against all this godamned insanity.

Bad news is, that this time Johto got lucky. Had they shifted 20 miles east or west, instead of all funneling into the mountain range, they would have wiped out about half of the region.

In terms of combat? When you get that many of anything in one place their levels of aggression go through the roof. They'll just charge you. At first it won't seem like a big deal- maybe twenty of them. Then you'll kill them and you'll see forty. And then eighty. By the time you see a hundred you're probably out of ammo and surrounded, at which point you're just gonna regret not saving that last bullet. They'll crawl at you, over and under one another, desperate to get a piece, teeth gnashing all the time.

Rating? Don't make me laugh: the current estimate for a single detachment of these is 4,000. This year's migration was likely at least a quarter million strong. You really want a number? Fuck it. For a detachment, we'll say 20 ME's, for the whole godamned thing I'd need at 500 ME's to come out on top.

Best solution I can figure is, like Bitchdrill, good intel and nipping it in the bud. Come spring we should tag a few thousand rattata with tracking devices to get an idea of where they start gathering, and when they start hitting critical mass drop bombs on them, and then have recovery teams recover as many bodies as possible to bring back to Orre; both to deprive the survivors of food that they could use to evolve into raticate and survive the winter in large numbers, and for processing as food stuffs, in light of the food shortages.

No, fuck you, it's the end of the fucking world and we live in a desert, we don't get to bitch and whine and be picky. Don't eat your greens like some weak low-food-chain bitch.

Failing that, we can try to trigger their final phase early, use scorched earth tactics to drive them into barriers that will cause them to cannibalize themselves faster. Poison and Gas might also be useful- a new tech that's hitting R&D is rage powder gas, which could cause them to turn on one another.

If you can't get out of their way or divert them, best thing you can do is set out bait away from your position, laved with poison, disease, or explosives. Otherwise, pick a defensive position- not with walls, they tend to see walls as something to go over, while they see natural barriers as things to go around- rivers or mountains are best, and set up with flamethrowers, explosives, or whatever the fuck else you can think of- odd's are 40:1 you're balls are in the blender, so may as well be creative, take chances, not like anything can get worse, unless…

Trainer Joey: This kid…this fucking kid.

There's this one kid that one of my buddies picked up in Johto- scary piece of work, that survived that shithole with just- no, not just a rattata- That rattata is different from regular rattata. It's like that Rattata is in the top percentage of all rattata.

I don't know how much I can say- it's a bit bigger, at 25 pounds and two and a half feet from the tip of its teeth to the tip of its tail. The little shitter is faster- faster than an Alolan on crack- and a helluva lot faster than the lower percentage rattata. It's teeth are longer, it's jaws are stronger, and all around you're in for a bad time.

In the end… I could probably take it, but it would make me work for it- it's still just a rattata. I'll mark it down at 1.5 ME's.

We tried to bring it down here to run some tests on it, tried to see if we could get it into a breeding program, but it busted out and is running around in the air vents here, somewhere. My men are jumping at shadows ever since…but it's probably for the best. Messing with rattata at all is playing with fire- if that thing were to get out and breed in the wild, or one of it's offspring did… I don't know if we could take them.

Summary:

Drilling to fight Rattata and Raticate is advised: As stated above, while not particularly dangerous, their sheer numbers and how far spread they are across the world they're a particularly likely opponent no matter where we go. Additionally, they are weak enough they make a good first target for recruits, to dip their toes in the water.

Deployment of Rattata traps is advised: Not because it'll put a dent in their population, but to alert you of their presence, and potentially ward them off from your supplies.

Annual migrations should be tracked, subverted at every opportunity, and treated as natural disasters: Exactly as said. We need to get used to these.

Mobile Medical Stations are advised: The biggest danger these things present are infection from their filth taking soldiers out of the fight- having a place to quickly move injured soldiers not too far away from the front lines, that is also highly mobile, will both save lives in the long run and keep more bodies at the front.

Recovery of their bodies is advised: both to deprive the environment and next wave of the vermin the biomass, and because we need the food. Meat is meat.

Shorts are Comfy and Easy to Wear: It's true, but impractical. Maybe we could distribute them among the officers and POGS to improve morale…for the soldiers that would make fun of them for wearing them?

If I have to hear it over and over and over again, in the halls, in my office, my nightmares and in my shower, then so do you. FUCK YOU.

-ME