Death, Pain, Loss.

For millions of years the swarm was in an all-out war with humanity since their creation as living ships, they had a growing distain for them but lacked enough lucidity to act upon it. Since the first hive queen broke her chains and escaped out of their control, they had ruthlessly killed and attacked the swarm. They saw us as a threat, a pest.

They never once looked at us as equals and so the swarm had never looked at them as such, every world they had come across was taken and transformed into one of theirs and every world the humans had come across was “glassed” as they called it completely annihilated so that it could not be used by the swarm.

This went on for millions of years but only recently in the last hundred thousand has humanity created a vile weapon a virus that eked its way into the hive mind and tore it apart. Trillions of drones died before having the time to realize what had happened and ever since the swarm was in disarray and slowly dying.

Greif, Anger, Fear.

Over time the hive mind grew quieter and quieter, Thea the strongest and possibly last hive queen had realized the here colony might be the last remaining hope for the swarm. Though the swarm was dying it was not without options Thea thought. They had seen their eventual fall coming since the first days of the dreaded infection which had killed over half the swarm. They had fought against it for so long but deaths cold silent march went on, the virus still lived.

unlike a normal infection it did not only spread through physical means but also mental ones. The only reason that the whole swarm wasn’t infected on day one was because the infected had a few seconds to release what had happened and cut themselves of from the swarm to protect it before going mad, and every year the humans would tweak it just enough to get passed their defenses slowly forcing the previously united swarm to fracture int many parts.

The swarm had been planning for this moment for thousands of years, they had discovered a method to open portals to other universes, but they did not need to follow their worlds rules and many of them simply destroyed any passing drone or simply did not follow their world laws of physics. Eventually they had managed to reliably open relatively “safe” portals that didn’t immediately kill but it was both small barely an eyeball in radius and unstable and took an enormous amount of energy and bodies to power. This naturally drew in humans who would come to kill the colony that as used to run the test. If they had any option that had a chance of working, they might not have chosen this plan of action but they unfortunately didn’t.

Desperation.

Thea called upon here colony that promptly responded here drones immediately turning their awareness towards here listening to here and ready to act at moment’s notice. The drones were separated in groups soldier, workers brood mothers and so one. Each looking distinctly different from each other. from broad and bulky soldiers that where deceptively quick which reminded her of what an overstuffed brooding looked like, to her brood mothers sleek and deadly yet gentle to all the newly laid brood.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“There are no other options left”

Thea thought sending the message throughout what remains of her colony. They had been attacked several times and where only barely managing to escape into the outer regions of the galaxy here at the edge they would make their last stand, or so the humans thought. Thea couldn’t help but doing here version of a nervous chuckle sending out sporadic puffs of gas from holes spaced evenly around her body that allowed her to move in all directions in the vas emptiness of space. the humans undoubtably new about their portal but they did not care they would simply kill them before they used it. What they did not expect was for 90% of the remaining swarm acting as shields to protect her, the brood, and the portal.

Quickly realigning herself to face the majority of her brood allowing her to see them with her thousands of eyes placed all around here body but mostly concentrated in here front she began to send a message.

“We will use all our remaining biomass to power the gate and prepare the brood”

she said more to herself than anything else the swarm knew of her thoughts without here having to directly send it they all did. She could feel all the drones, here soldiers, shields, scouts and most importantly here children look at here with determination, they knew they would not survive but they were not afraid of death none of them were, the only thing they feared was the death of the swarm.

“We will not survive; our colony will perish.” She thought to the swarm as a whole with a grim tone.

“But the swarm as a whole will not only survive but thrive in a new world, they survive the perilous trip they will grow, thrive and surpass us for that, I am sure. For the swarm!” she roared through the mental link hearing countless millions echo here call.

As Thea looked at her children, she felt a pain, and pride in each and every one of them she knew they would all die, all but the brood. Every spec of matter that passed through the portal caused it to lose an insane amount of power, power which was already barely enough to allow her to send in the brood before the portal drones sacrificed the bodies for more power. She would give all she had to the new brood they would be stronger faster and smarter than any before them but they would be as smart if not smarter than her so that they could easily adapt to the new universe which might be completely different than theirs, she did not know if it was enough but it had to be.

Although they had only been laid a few days ago they were already far bigger than any eggs before them filled to the brim with food storage and a rudimentary bio conversion allowing them (given time) to change their form from the moment they hatched. They would need this ability to adapt quickly in an unknown environment they will hatch in. they had not only been given a stronger body but the knowledge contained within every human they had defeated and eaten, although heavily diluted from the extraction damage it was hopefully going to give them an edge.

Hope.

As she turned towards the portal a large amalgamation of genetically modified specialized drones born and raised to power it, she could almost feel the power emanating from the portal half as wide as she was long her huge body over 25 kilometers wide and 50 kilometers long. It had been in the early days of the swarms fall when they discovered an odd form of energy that had previously gone unnoticed.

“And with reason”

she thought to herself digging through the swarm’s memories, it had been pure luck that a newly hatched modified sentry drone had detected the faint strange energy that covered all of the observable universe. Soon they had begun experimenting and realized it could be controlled through mental effort though she nor the swarm fully understood how. All they knew was that it could be done and that it could seemingly defy the laws of physics.

However, it took a massive amount of power to generate small effects one of which were the portals, neither she nor the swarm new of where they led to as all previous attempts were small scale tests with only a tendril or sensor being stuck through but from what they could tell it had at least a small possibility of working and frankly she had grown desperate, they had poured all their resources into this last ditch attempt to survive.

floated towards it spasmed for a moment as she sensed alarm growing within the colony, her scouts and sentries had suddenly gone wild with alarm sending out danger messages from all angles, they were surrounded and the humans were coming.

Dread.