Locusts
The LCST (Localized Civilian Safety Taskforce) began as a rapid response option in the case of massive destruction or wide spread danger to a populous. The original conceit was to give civilians a tool to use should their local area or city come under attack by a malevolent force (be it inter-dimensional or alt human in nature). Using trillions of insect sized robots, a “swarm” would be deployed to an effected area, where groups of these units would combine to form power suits civilians could use to defend or support each other. The units were to come in four styles, (below left to right) Alpha, Gamma, Kappa, and Omega. Each form would be based off how many of the individual swarm bots flocked to a given individual; the more robots, the larger the form they could build.
In time, that effort was bastardized, as the LCST creator Professor David Halison grew older and became more convinced the LCST units could be used to preemptively end not just individual crisis, but global issues; only at the cost of a minor percentage of the populaces individual’s freedom. The LCST would soon take a more devastating turn, becoming widely known as LOCUST units, for their tendency to fall as a swarm on an unsuspecting populace to “recruit” (more kidnap) individuals to serve as “pilots''. The LOCUST design dictates that an individual must be inside the unit for it to work, originally to act as a guide and mind for the unit. Now though, they have become more like a skeleton for the unit to form around so it could move independently. An onboard AI takes over all piloting needs, serving at Halison’s pleasure for his own ends. The individuals trapped inside can be kept there for weeks, some even dying from a lack of food and water while inside the units.
The LOCUSTs have most recently been hitting smaller targets in the mid west and mountain ranges; medium sized cities down to small villages. The Pacifica Watch has had the most conflict with them, working hard to try and save the people trapped in the unit, as well as mitigate the damage done by the LOCUSTs. Long term, the hope is to find Halison, but that is a much taller order than would be thought; Halison disappeared before the LOCUSTs turned, leaving some to speculate whether he’s involved at all in their new malevolence.