Araknid

Araknids are alien animals that somewhat resemble Earth spiders mutated by the power of one of the Artifacts. Their home planet is unknown. They appear in Unreal 2.

Araknids appear as two variants: a smaller, yellow version that runs after its prey trying to bite it, and a larger, red version that jumps at its prey, trying to crush it. Araknids are relatively vulnerable to fire, making the Vulcan Flamethrower and Shotgun's incendiary slugs effective against the creatures.

Story
The game's fourth mission has John Dalton travel to Hell, also known as Eizo VI C, one of the planet Gaigan's moons in the Eizo star system. The Axon Research Corporation has set up a weapons research facility called Elysium on the icy surface. According to Sector Commander Hawkins the researchers have been working on an alien artifact, and it has been 18 hours since their last transmission.

Once inside the facility Dalton encounters the Araknids who have killed most of the staff. After searching the facility Dalton discovers the researchers tried to harnass the power of one of the Artifacts, creating a beam that changes animals' genetic structure, both enlarging and enraging them. Creatures, some native, but most imported from other planets (including the Araknids) are in cages and are waiting to be experimented on. The Araknids escaped and were transformed by the beam. A constant stream of new Araknids walks uses the beam to create a growing army.

After killing many Araknids, Dalton looks for the beam's source and meets a huge Araknid that functions as the mission's boss.

Spore Cannon
Isaak manages to create a "Spider Gun", or Spore Cannon from Araknid biological material. The weapon consists of an ejaculator tube filled with the biomass. The weapon's primary fire shoots an egg sac filled with many tiny Araknids that immediately cover the targetted enemy. The weapon doesn't do much damage, but is good at distracting the enemy. Its alternate fire also launches an egg sace, but leaves it closed. Once approached, Araknids will emerge from the spore and fight the enemy. A third fire mode, used by holding down the alternate fire for a while, will clone and release a sac, emerging a single, larger Araknid that will also attack nearby enemies.

Trivia
Before being cut, Unreal 2 featured a mission on a desert planet riddled with canyons and crawling with Araknids, reminiscent of the film Starship Troopers. Artwork from this mission later found a use in XMP's map XMP-Sirocco.