To void ants, killing a Life Transformation cultivator was no different from killing a regular human. In fact, the latter might be more difficult, as the initial reaction of a cultivator would be some sort of energy assault. There was the matter of tempered bodies, but it didn’t make them invincible, just a bit tougher. A combined assault by the entire squadron was sufficient to take out their target rapidly.
Elder Telman of the Twin Soul Sect simply twitched and flailed when he felt their assault, reaching for a weapon as his first reaction. That put him another moment behind as the bloodloss began. And an attempt to staunch the flow was simply wasted. Half of the void ants snipped away his natural energy, and the other half continued their assault.
When his eyes finally locked on the void ants, he cried out in terror and tried to crush those on his wrists, then his neck. Indeed, his efforts were successful to an extent. Several of their members died- but some others were merely injured, the moldability of human flesh preventing them from being fully crushed. Others saw his movements and avoided the assault, the speed of his arms also limited by those void ants upon them. They would naturally divert the energy speeding his motion as well as being able to actively devour it.
Against so many, his frantic burst of energy caused him to be drained in a moment. Further energy would have to be summoned from his dantian, but the loss of blood would rapidly catch up to him… and the void ants moved to safer locations.
It was a fairly short battle, as it should be. If they had larger void ants among them, perhaps it would have taken only a single moment. The Great Queen could have easily done it alone- but she was far too valuable to risk here. Where would the best of them come from, if not for her?
Detaching the collar from the lizard the man rode was a simple matter, when the void ants could climb into the internal locking mechanisms and disrupt the flow of energy through its formations. They also removed the saddle and retrieved their actual goal, his sect token. It was charged with his natural energy… and so were the void ants. Hopefully, it would remain functional long enough for them to complete their tasks.
There was nothing they could do about his body or his gear. They had no interest in consuming human flesh, and any method they had available to hide him would be too time consuming. The riding lizard might take care of some of that for them, but aside from sniffing curiously at the body it didn’t seem to have a reaction just yet. Once it realized it was able to control its natural energy without consequence it might do something, but they weren’t going to wait for that.
Indeed, the Son of the Queen was leading the efforts to roll back towards the sect proper, the palm sized token at the center of their formation. As it did not cooperate with them like other void ants, they lost their grip on it several times near the beginning. Its fall threatened to crush them underneath, but the distributed weight and their greater durability than lesser ants helped them.
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The first place they went was Elder Telman’s private quarters. Not only was he high ranking, but they should not have anyone else. Perhaps occasional cleaners, but most likely formations would prevent most or other issues. Either way, it was their best opportunity.
They soon found documents of various sorts. Rather than reading through all of them- a difficult task at their size- they instead made use of an alternate method after skimming enough to determine they were important.
They wouldn’t be able to transmit the document whole even if they stole it- local comms systems required them to input text manually. Their training had taught them another method for void ants to employ. Each of them was responsible for letters in the documents, and as they were short there were enough of them none had to handle more than two or three. They would be able to rapidly input necessary information. Of course, there might be some loss, but that was acceptable.
They frantically made use of their token to slip into various places, including logistics warehouses. They found some records that seemed to indicate important shipments, and these were once more devoured. In some cases literally, so that the documents would be thought missing… and others dismantled to be found later as a useless pile.
The last stop was the records offices involving sect member locations- a dangerous mission they avoided until most sect members would be asleep. Here, they hoped to find records of spies in other sects- and among their own people. So far, each of them only had to memorize a few dozen letters throughout the many documents, a process they had trained for extensively- with memorization tactics invented by humans and refined for void ant thought processes.
The energy of the token was fading, so they had one last stop to make. The communications center. It was there that they would have the greatest risk, as the area would constantly be monitored. But entering properly would reduce the likelihood of an early alarm. This was what they had planned over the weeks they were here.
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There were a few close calls, slipping around corners just as humans came into hallways. If they had bothered to look down a bit, they might have noticed them. The rotating ants obviously saw in all directions, but they didn’t believe they’d been spotted. Not that they could back out now.
If they didn’t get a message out, then the entire operation was pointless. So they continued along, speeding their way towards their destination. The token removed the barrier to the comms center, though they had to slip beneath the door because they couldn’t open it. The token took most of them to pull through, but they might need it to activate the consoles they were after.
Inside, there were a half dozen humans… and they had been spotted. The natural energy of the token had most likely been what drew the human’s attention, as the void ants hadn’t been covering it.
All of them reacted in the same manner. They had to fight, so they split up into predetermined groups based on the quantity of enemies- in this case, three groups that went for the closest enemies.
A sword sliced through the center of the spinning cylinder the Son of the Queen found himself part of, but their losses were minimal as void ants simply unlocked their legs and pulled apart. Then they were scrambling over humans. There was an impact that shook the Son of the Queen to his core, almost crushing him. But that human fell.
He was only able to limp forward, joining with several others who were injured, while the healthy survivors chose their next target. So much for a grand display of his worth. But at least he could begin the process of transmission. Except… they’d left the token on the floor as they switched to combat mode. A few dozen injured ants couldn’t carry such a thing. And waiting for all of them might be too slow, with all of the noise the humans were making.
He guided the rest of the group as they skittered onto the device, beginning the process of readjusting the intended destination by putting in the proper codes for Egnos. That was their most secure planet. But it seemed to require something to continue. An energy lock, then. The token might be necessary. Or…
The Son of the Queen vomited some of the natural energy he’d eaten, trying to manipulate it to register properly as Elder Telman’s. Either their security measures were weak, or he’d done better than he thought as the device hummed with energy. Perhaps he only saved a few moments, as the rest of the void ants arrived momentarily with the token… but they might need those seconds.
The void ants linked up, such that their movements would affect the whole. Fortunately the layout of the letters was one of those they had practiced on, and they were able to influence the movements of the whole group with minor twitches. There were some hiccups where they were missing void ants in sequence, but they soon figured out who had not survived, improving their speed. They were missing perhaps a tenth of their number, but no more than two or three letters in a row at maximum. That should be sufficient for the humans to figure things out, and they simply added extra blank space to indicate something missing.
They had a pretty good rate of inputting information, it seemed, but after transmitting about half of the information they had disciples rushed into the room. This was it then. The Son of the Queen made certain they told it to transmit their final partial entry, then he emitted the strongest pheromones he could, communication along with his signs. “Retreat! Full speed! Route B!”
Staying to fight was pointless, as they would lose too much information in the process. Instead, they ran- the group ultimately absorbing information about their goals from those around the center. They dropped down over the back of the communications devices, finding themselves up against the edge of the facility and shortly thereafter escaping through miniscule holes they had scouted out previously. Chewing through the formations trying to block them wouldn’t cause any alarms that had not already been raised by them being spotted- and they were on the opposite side from where any traps would trigger, if they were even in good repair.
Soon they were out in the fields, but the humans would be after them. “We continue the retreat!” the Son of the Queen ordered. His shaky legs twinged with pain as he locked with the others, but he refused to be the weakest link among them… nor did he want to abandon any others still living. Perhaps they had less individuality than humans, but they were still people. And they were his people.
They made it all the way to a stream flowing through the sect, which was their fastest form of transport out of the sect grounds. They made use of surface tension to keep the group afloat as a giant raft. The enemy would be looking for them, of course, but hiding in the stream reduced their visual profile. As for other methods of scanning to pick them out, hopefully they were far enough away. He certainly felt sweeping energy senses, but unless they were properly tuned to pick out distant nothings they might get away.
A successful mission, though he wished they could have transmitted the rest of the information. Though now that he thought about it… why couldn’t they? They still lived. Returning to this sect would be risky, but elsewhere…? They might be off guard at first. Besides, what else were they going to do? There was no retrieval process until such time as the planet was conquered. They all went in knowing that. But they were alive, and they could perform the mission better, so why shouldn’t they?
It was a shame about those they had lost already, but the rest who survived would be stronger for the ordeal. Though only after they secured a source of food and energy, and got some rest.
Unfortunately, that poor colony of black ants was likely done for. They would be found and exterminated as a casualty. It was unlikely the humans would assume that was the end of things, but they could hope.
The Son of the Queen found he had little strength in his once melted and now broken body, but he pressed on as they searched for somewhere to shelter. Preferably an already dug underground den of some sort- they could share with rodents easily enough. Humans would find it more difficult to pick out their distinctive features with a meter or two of dirt already dimming their perception. The void ants couldn’t actually outdistance their pursuers, so that was the option.
The Great Queen would certainly be happy with what they’d done. How many lives would their messages save? Even if their enemy determined what had been transmitted, it could cause disaster to them. Especially something about a particular spymaster on a planet in the Shining Cooperative.