“What, what just happ…” suddenly she felt his surrounding turn from a previously neutral pressure to a heavy weight, he began to toss and turn shoving at what he had originally thought was a long darkness around him until he bumped up against something “what!” he began as she went still momentarily stunned by the sense of touch. The pressure grew even heavier as something inside her started burning she began spasming and flailing at his surrounding without much luck until he suddenly felt the sense of warmth return with a jolt, “whoa!” he shouted before something tore and she fell.
“Well…that was…good? What am I supposed to do now?” he looked around and was momentarily blinded by the light until his eyes adjusted, the first thing she did was inspect himself for injuries and defects as his instincts instructed him to and his immediate surroundings for his fellow siblings, “I look…odd?” from what he understood she was supposed to have limbs six thrusters and a flexible body perfect for tight turns, at least that is what he understood from the scrambled information his instincts were feeding him. she checked himself over, then did so two more times to confirm.
“Okay? So, I have six limbs, no thrusters and a distinctly hard exoskeleton.”
“…”
“What!?”
The second thing she noticed which he probably should have noticed sooner was that she was not in fact in space, “how! I’m not excavation drone! I don’t think?” he said puzzled, “had I misinterpreted my own instincts?”. “No, I most definitely did not.” she finally decided “but then what happened, why am I… alone?” as he finally lifted his gaze to look around, she noticed a distinct lack of siblings “great. Another question to the list I suppose.” He thought as he sighed. “Wait…did I just.” she attempted to copy what he just did a couple more times “there’s an atmosphere here (also did I just sigh? I have lungs?)! Then I could only be in one of two places a planet or a human ship” he hated humans, she had since before he hatched it was drilled into his instincts so far deep it came naturally.
As he continued to look around, he confirmed the walls where in fact rocks, “okay so I’m on a planet with an anomalous body and absolutely no idea what to do. Great.” The second he questioned what to do words began to fill his mind “hello” a calm and clear voice spoke in his mind, he instantly relaxed he knew this as his hive queens voice, “this is a recorded message set to trigger on your hatching, as you might have noticed you are not in a standard configuration for your cast.
Do not worry this is an expected outcome as your body adapts to its current environment before fully maturing.” Well, that was comforting at least she didn’t have to worry about being a defect of some kind! The voice continued.
“There are many things I wish I had the time to explain but there is not nearly enough food or time to encode it, what you need to now is simple if shocking.” Okay now he was growing worried. “You and any surviving siblings are likely the last remaining of our kind”.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“What!?how! that can’t be right there has to be some mistake right!? did she misspeak?” she frantically looked around him desperate to find a trace of his siblings and to his horror and immediate regret she did. “NO, NO, NO!” as he looked around him, he saw dozens of eggs grey and lifeless all around him, she heart sank but then the voice returned again. “Each of you has been given mind and body modifications to help aid you in your new environment, you are no longer in the same universe you came from” before his mind had time to catch up and question what that meant images of a giant goliath hive queen staring at a large amalgamation of flesh with a vaguely spherical opening along with it’s meaning entered his mind in a tidal wave of knowledge.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Each of you have the capability to shift your forms to fit your environment’s needs, your one and only goal is to survive and grow in this new world, the colony depend on it our swarm depends on it, secure your selves safety in this new world and survive, good luck my children.” And with that the message ended and he was left in silence. His legs wobbled like a light breeze might be enough for him to keel over.
“Why?”
/////////
Thea didn’t know what she could do, apparently the blessing had worked though it left her a bit tired it had allowed her drone to successfully hatch. Immediately after their hatching they began to inspect themselves and she could tell the moment they heard her pre-recorded message as they began to wildly turning this way and that searching for any siblings.
her heart sank as she realized what the hatchling had realized they were the only one apart from her (which was questionable seeing as she is "guardian" and couldn't lay eggs she tried!) to have survived the transport as far as both her extensive searching before and even during the hatching process. this little drone would have to rebuild the entire colony, no the entire swarm on their own.
she had attempted to connect to the drone but something unexpected happened.
warning! the entity you are attempting to contact with does not have necessary (skills) to communicate to guardian entities.
do you wish to proceed?
Y/N
after a moment of panic at the message she read through it and surprisingly understood it.
"how can I read this the swarm doesn't have any written form of language like the humans yet I understand it's meaning completely" she supposed she should have noticed this sooner, i.e. with the first message but she had been panicked and didn't question it at the time.
after carefully reading it she hesitantly accepted and was immediately contacted by another mind but this time it was not the foreign messages but the little hatchling Infront of here.
"hello! can you hear me?"
"..."
"I suppose I should have guessed from the message" she floated around dejected and unable to do anything to help.
"no wait i can do something, i 'blessed' him earlier and it had some affect. yes I can do something." her voice hardened with determination, even if they couldn't see, hear, or interact with her only member of her colony was without her she would help even if she went unnoticed.
/////////
Eagen was very, very, very bored! he had been sent out along with a few others to check out some mana pulse or whatever but had yet to find anything, worse yet the mage that was sent with them was about as incompetent about the jungle as they got and with absolutely no concept of subtilty he had hit his head on branched a total of four times! incompetence aside he hasn't even located the source only muttering to himself every now and then.
one of the scouts abruptly stopped Markus he thought, he liked Markus quiet and dependable as well as being a very good scout.
"mark what is it?"
"over there." he pointed towards a small hill that seemed to lead into a cave entrance.
"was that there before?" asked Eagen a tad puzzled. he could have sworn this area hadn't had any caverns and yet there it was.
"no, none that I've seen anyway" answered Markus uncertainly.
"hey kid get over here"
"I have a name you now." grumbled Jackson the mage as he walked over to them occasionally stumbling over the rocks and plants.
"yeah, yeah now check that for me will ya" he said as he pointed to the cave entrance.
"was that there before?"
"we don't know, now check it."
"fine." Jackson sighed as he began to sense the mana distribution around him.
"yep that's it, mana levels are definitely higher in there than out here. are we gonna go in?"
"yeah but not now." he grumbled as he walked over and began to gather some sticks, "but not today, it took us long enough to find this and the sun is going down. I don't know about any of you but I am not going down there in the dark."
and with that they began to unpack and prepare a camp.
"this better be worth it" grumbled Eagen.