These weird airships have been living in my head rent-free for as long as I can remember. The story goes that an alien pathogen accidentally brought back to earth from a British spacecraft journey through the upper atmosphere of Venus in the 1890s infects earth, causing dramatic mutations in many insects and sea creatures. In this case, the species is Endoxyla Vulumnus and it’s the metasoma that grows extremely large and fills with biologically produced hydrogen.

The royal navy captures them and turns them into airship observation platforms. I wrote heaps about it when I was a teenager. I don’t anymore, but the airship things never leave my mind lol.

I think my inspiration came from learning about honeypot ants when I was a kid.