Mutons: Unit
Soldier
"Mutons are brutes, useless without direction, and have little thought of their own. But they are still an army, and that is all I require."
- The Battlemaster
XCOM Autopsy MUT00
Species: Muton
Unit Identity: "Soldier"
Codename: Nero
Alien Autopsy Overseer: Head of XCOM Research and Development Dr. Moira Vahlen
Audio Notes of Dr. Moira Vahlen
"The Muton is a species that appears specifically designed for combat. Even from initial conflicts these aliens tower over others and have a familiarity with a wide variety of weapons which appear to come as second nature to them."
"Until we know more about this soldier species, we must take care that our soldiers focus on removing these threats quickly, or risk being overwhelmed by these aliens. Curiously, it has been observed that none of these have been seen in command of anything, much less each other. It begs the question of where exactly these aliens are placed in the alien hierarchy and how much freedom they have to begin with."
Report:
Standing at over two meters tall, the Muton is no doubt a formidable sight, and my initial theory appears to be correct. These are aliens created purely for combat. I estimate they have the strength of at least five unaltered humans, and have a physiology that appears incapable of forming any sort of fat or unnecessary mass.
The eyes are also intriguing, because they seemingly have the ability to focus their vision towards a specific target at the exclusion of all else. This in theory would make their aim better, but in practice it appears to only be a severe disadvantage as the plasma rifles normally wielded by these Muton soldiers are poor substitutes for sniper rifles.
Mutons are not clones, but nonetheless have the markings of genetic modification on all of them, which implies that Mutons are born naturally, and not from tanks. I can only theorize as to why genetic modification is applied later, but every aspect seems to improve the physiology in some way. These Mutons are made to survive in any environment. Cold, heat, rain and snow will likely have little effect on them, which is a large reason why I believe the aliens are using them to this extent.
The brutish looks of the Mutons do seem to be reflective of its intelligence. The brain itself is not nearly as developed as the rest of the body, and most intact brains we recovered had sustained damage at some point, even if it was fixed later. They are fascinating in that they are a rare instance of brain in a place between sentience and bestiality, and what makes it more intriguing is that it seems to be intentional.
If you were to compare these Mutons to an intelligent animal, such as an ape, you would not exactly be inaccurate. To an extent, these Mutons appear to have been conditioned so much as to not be able to function without outside intervention. They can utilize complex tools and follow orders, but they cannot think for themselves and thus, they are tactically inferior to nearly any other species. At the same time, they are capable of speech and understanding commands, so I'm not sure it is accurate to classify them as simply sapient.
It raises the question then, if we can exploit this conditioning to either turn the Mutons against their masters, or somehow break their conditioning to make them remember what they once were. Whatever they were before they were assimilated into this alien Collective is long gone I believe, but some traces seem to remain.
Under the green armor these soldiers wear, are some kind of ritual tattoos and markings which indicate they had some kind of primitive culture. However, I cannot help but suspect that the aliens have exploited this little bit of culture the Mutons possessed, as some of the markings are identical to the alien glyphs we have seen and Patricia describe to me. Furthermore, many of the markings are brands, scars with few of them actually using some kind of ink, which lends evidence to the theory that these are not so much some kind of cultural tradition, but as a way to establish rank within the Mutons themselves, which of course the aliens would control.
It seems clear that we are dealing with what is essentially a slave species here, Commander, and I do not doubt that each and every one of these Mutons is disposable as they are only bred to live and die in war, and throw enough of them at us, they will ultimately prevail even if it costs them millions of these alien lives.
Addendum – Aegis' Notes:
Another educated guess, Dr. Vahlen, and you are closer to the truth than you realize. The Mutons are nothing more than tools. That is all they have been and all they will be. They breed, are conditioned for warfare and most will die. I do not personally consider them sentient, and thus they are a weaponized species little different from the chryssalids. A more apt analogy would be how you use dogs for various tasks. It is similar with Mutons, except they are more versatile.
You might ask what the point is of a species that has no individual thought, and the answer is as I said, versatility. They are designed for war, and can be enhanced as we deem fit. There are indeed Mutons that display heightened intelligence, which they would never have possessed if not for us. They serve to let us use disposable soldiers in war without risking more valuable forces, although that is not always ideal and leaders are sometimes required.
You are also correct in noting that Mutons are born naturally. Birth rates are exceptionally high among the species, and they reach maturity fairly quickly. Many Mutons die in training, but are quickly replaced by others. Genetic modification is only applied to those that have survived the conditioning necessary to become a soldier in the Collective.
While your assumption about the markings is well-founded, it is largely incorrect. The markings are not a signal of rank, nor a ritual of sorts we have preserved from their primitive culture, but a means of conditioning. Pain is a large part of the training, and any deviance was severely punished. Mutons who displayed any signs of resistance, insubordination or anything but complete obedience were branded or cut as punishment. The scars are not a sign of strength, but shame. Very often other Mutons would target a repeat offender for death and carry it out in what they perceived as a display of loyalty.
The one exception to this is the tattoos, which are designations of which division each Muton belonged to. Some Collective leaders did not participate in the process, but others did to help differentiate the Mutons they controlled from others. The ones you have fought thus far have been under the command of Sicarius. As this war progresses, it is likely they will be far more diverse and you should be aware that it is not uncommon for Collective leaders to specifically train their own divisions in a certain way, so a Muton under the command of the Battlemaster will likely be different from a Muton under the command of Caelior.
SPECIES ANALYSIS: 000111011010
ANALYSIS COMPILER: FEDERATION FOREIGN SPECIES ANALYSER J'YARROW
RESTRICTION: ANDROMEDON MILITARY COMMAND
SPECIES OF INTEREST: MUTON
MANUAL REPORT:
Once more the inferiority of the Muton species has been proven, despite our efforts and experiments. The Muton species is fundamentally flawed mentally, and despite the reports detailing the advantages of an intellectually enhanced Muton, the Ethereals and Hive Commanders seem determined to continue with utilizing an inferior species.
To detail the experiment, we took an entire batch of combat-ready Mutons, nearly ten thousand unmodified specimens, and attempted to apply some enhancements to increase their effectiveness in combat. Small implants initially proved successful, and helped stabilize uncontrolled pheromone outbursts, focus and concentration.
After an enhanced unit easily wiped out an unmodified unit, we proceeded with the next phase which was to attempt to enhance the brain itself. Unfortunately, as we expected, the brain is simply too weak to handle the intelligence-enhancing implants. The sheer volume of data forced into the mind is simply too much for a Muton to handle and all of them went insane and began attacking each other.
They were put down quickly, and we attempted to use the data recovered to try and modify the implants to control the flow of information in a less overwhelming manner. The next unit we attempted this on resulted in the same thing. One more attempt was allowed, and it ended in the exact same way as the first two.
The fact is that this species is dangerously close to becoming a liability if mismanaged. The Ethereals jealously refuse to increase the intelligence of any Muton that is not immediately under their control, or the control of the Sectoids. Why the Ethereals refuse to use the Sargon or Praetorian as a template for a soldier, and not a glorified manager is incomprehensible, and an irresponsible use of resources.
Thus, we proceeded with the final experiment before discarding the species altogether, and it did involve knowledge that was once used to create the Special Operators. Much of the batch died from experimentation, but we were successfully able to cybernetically enslave the Mutons to a command network, and they now reside completely under our command, and orders can be issued via central command center.
In light of this experiment, and due to the fact that the Ethereals refuse to improve this bestial species, the recommendation of myself and my entire team is that all Muton units under the command of Andromedons be enslaved to a central Andromedon-controlled network to take full advantage of what limited value this species has to us.
Letter intercepted by the Zararch, addressed to Aui'oliav'vitiary
I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be writing this, but I can't really ignore what I'm witnessing here. We live safe lives on Vitakar, and I don't really want to ruin that, but the more I spend in this Collective, the more I realize the just how sheltered we are. How much the Zararch and Aui'Vitakar hide from us and it's largely due to our own willing ignorance.
The Mutons are something I know we never discussed, not beyond the basics. They are main infantry of the Collective and all of us have more or less just accepted that…the truth is that the Mutons are nothing more than slaves for the Elders. They aren't a noble fighting force protecting us from the unknown, but a species composed of abused, conditioned and enslaved aliens with no purpose in life but to fight and die.
I'm stationed on the rocky hell itself now, the heart of where this species was found. All it is now is war camps as far as the eye can see. The entire planet is segregated into various sections based on sex, age and training area. There are entire facilities dedicated to the Muton females, where they breed day after day.
I've watched some of the births; mothers can give birth every eight weeks and the Overseers keep them running like machines. The moment the mother gives birth, the Muton babies are taken away and the scientists immediately impregnate her once again. It's not uncommon for mothers to simply die after giving birth due to sheer exhaustion.
I asked once what happens if too many die, and the trainer chuckled and said they never had to worry about that because "We never run out." Everyone on this cursed planet speaks as though these aliens aren't anything more than animals, only existing at the whims of the Collective and I can't believe that these are simply unthinking animals.
They speak, they have emotions, but they don't complain, they never ask questions. Defiance is met with branding, and insubordination is met with execution, usually at the hands of fellow Mutons. Children have no semblance of childhood and nurturing here. From the moment they can walk they are forced to run physical exercises to increase conditioning and strength. Many die at this point, and a sight that became frighteningly normal was walking through the children training grounds and seeing a line of small corpses who'd died of exhaustion.
In some ways it's a mercy. When Mutons fully mature they are forced into tests of endurance, strength and pain tolerance. Mutons are routinely shot randomly for no other reason other than to test them. The only way to pass this test is for the Muton to just continue whatever it was doing, no complaints or acknowledgement of what had happened. Anything else will result in the immediate execution of the Muton.
If this sounds unbelieve for no other reason than it's a waste…it honestly isn't. You can't comprehend the scale of this operation. For every Muton that dies in training, ten more will take its place. If the Muton manages to survive the training, they are taken somewhere and I presume they end up under one of the Collective officers. I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to.
A final irony is that the Mutons are so conditioned to this that they view it as only natural and right. They aren't beasts. I've talked with them, and they truly believe they are just inferior, deserving of whatever the Collective deems is appropriate for each of them. It's a sickening mockery of a species, punctuated by the fact that this training is overseen by none other than a Muton itself. A Sargon it's called, a Muton so brainwashed it commits these atrocities on its own.
I can't do anything here. But I can't stand by and watch this. I don't think anyone on Vitakar knows what is really done to the Mutons. Please take this to the Aui'Vitakar, make them investigate because what's happening here shouldn't be tolerated by anyone, let alone our supposed allies.
I've never asked for much, father, but please do this for me.
- Runi'julon'vitiary