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Eusberia
Chapter 14. Swarm

Chapter 14. Swarm

It was already the middle of the day on this planet, and according to our Earthly London early morning, 09:00, June 23, 3998 Gregorian calendar, or almost a thousand years after the Pantorian invasion of sector 1318, also known as the human sector.

Our military transport ship «Zeus» of the cruiser class fell out of subspace and found itself in an unidentified planetary system. Preliminary data shows that the system consists of nine planets, hundreds of dwarf planets, dozens of moons, asteroids and a G-class yellow dwarf star.

Unfortunately for us, we were thrown out of subspace into the orbit of a protoplanet, an unformed “foggy” gas giant. We managed to adjust the orbit, shifting the flight path to a safer one, and experienced colossal overloads of 10G and higher due to the passage through the atmosphere of the protoplanet, after which the entire crew of the ship was seriously injured. Many of them could not withstand the overload and died. In total, about two thousand people became victims.

Over the next two months, we recovered and moved along the trajectory to the next planet with a suitability index of 9, and also having a mass and gravitational force close to that of Earth.

The cruiser's energy and fuel reserves were running low, and repairs to the ship's plating and internal systems were required. Fortunately, we had all the means to manually repair the hull of the ship before a complete repair in the shipyards, however, we still needed to establish what kind of planetary system we found ourselves in, as well as at least partially restore the ship for interstellar travel.

For some reason, the jump engine, after being thrown into real space, was completely deactivated and could not be activated, and moreover, the cause of the malfunction could not be established. Moreover, the jump engines also did not work on the infoprobes, which made it even impossible to call for help.

Also, strange energy fluctuations of the parent star disrupted the operation of all remaining internal systems of the ship, including the life support system, which caused many other malfunctions.

By the time «Zeus» entered the orbit of a habitable planet, the safety of staying on the ship was 80%. Several compartments were evacuated in advance due to the threat of depressurization and a faulty life support system.

The last thing we could do was enter medium-planetary orbit and evacuate the entire crew to the surface of the planet, but when the ship began the maneuver to enter orbit the planet, we encountered the first anomaly that we could not initially determine visually.

It seemed to me that this was some kind of fantasy, but what I saw was how out of nowhere three huge energy entities the size of entire continents appeared, which visually looked like clouds sparkling with lightning. Their behavior was definitely reasonable and meaningful. I did not expect that these energy entities could exist in principle.

They passed one after another through "Zeus" and drowned out the work of the ship's accelerators, and then artificially sent our ship into a collision with the planet, further damaging the plating. An order was hastily given from the bridge for the complete evacuation of the ship.

Within a few hours, hundreds of shuttles loaded with equipment, resources, provisions and crew undocked from the ship and lined up in a swarm formation on a trajectory of descent to the surface of the planet.

Having quickly researched planetary geography, we chose a desert for our landing site, which would guarantee us biological safety in case of a long stay on this planet, and we knew that we would definitely stay here for a long time.

However, those energy entities did not lag behind us and caught up with three shuttles, jamming their accelerators that were moving in the rearguard of the formation. The three shuttles slowed down as they entered the atmosphere and fell to the planet. Contact with them was lost, most likely they crashed.

The rest of the shuttles managed to avoid the attack of energy entities because by that time we had already entered the outer layers of the atmosphere, after which the shuttles sank to the surface of the desert. After a preliminary analysis of the composition of the atmosphere and making sure that it is safe for the human body, we began to develop a temporary base under the code name “Pharaoh”.

Due to a lack of resources, the fighters had to live out all their coming days in shuttles, but this suited them for now. Meanwhile, the droids, emerging from the shuttles, began to mine minerals and build a temporary base, while the command of the 127th Army was working on how to survive in the current circumstances and return to the Republic with minimal possible losses.

About a hundred thousand soldiers were not in the best mood after the disaster, but were still willing to work until exhaustion to return home. Meanwhile, the headquarters did not even consider the issue of populating the planet and creating a permanent colony, however, the task of returning to space was at the moment very difficult. External help from the Republic would not have hurt, but alas, now we were on our own.

We needed time to collect the necessary resources and build a spaceship. It was necessary to build a spaceport and begin construction of a transport ship in orbit of the planet. The only problem was that our database did not have the relevant data, performance characteristics, drawings, technologies and means to build the ship, and the engineers did not have the necessary level of training, experience and knowledge for such complex projects.

Even if we had the data and the specialists we needed, it would take at least ten years to build the ship. Such news would not have satisfied the soldiers of the 127th Army, and therefore we decided to keep silent for a while and start collecting resources and developing a plan for evacuation from the planet.

Soon another problem arose. Long-range reconnaissance detected the rapid approach of millions of insecticide-type individuals. A visual survey from drones showed us huge beetle-like creatures that seemed to be moved by a single mind, forcing them to rapidly move in a wave to the east. Visually, we have already seen that they were dangerous and a collision with them would disrupt the work on the development of the Pharaoh base in this desert.

The command of the 127th Army decided to organize a defense, after which tens of thousands of soldiers quickly found “fun” work. Military equipment, trucks, and reconnaissance drones with built-in AI began to leave the shuttles.

Preliminary defensive positions were quickly made while the droids dug quarries, processed resources, and built a base. Meanwhile, four divisions of twenty thousand men each began organizing defenses around the landing site. The task of defending «Pharaoh» fell to the second corps under the command of Colonel Calcord Fais, while the first corps remained in reserve.

The four divisions of the Second Corps were located in four defense sectors around the landing site and the Pharaoh base. The 5th Division occupied the northern sector, the 6th western, the 7th southern and the 8th eastern. Dangerous insectoid life forms approached the landing site from the west, but they were also seen in the south and even in the north in places where the mountains were located.

Long-range reconnaissance showed that the desert west of the “Pharaoh” was literally dotted with hives, where these insectoid creatures gave birth to their offspring. The hives themselves looked like huge sand anthills, wrapped in a blanket of beetles and bones of other living inhabitants of this planet.

It is quite possible that their main way of life took place deep underground, where other life forms that they hunted were most likely hidden. Scanning of the planet's surface showed that beneath these hives there was a whole network of underground tunnels, where there were also other unidentified life forms.

The beetles themselves, which we have so far carried the code name «Xorx», had intraspecific varieties, but their common feature at the moment is their black chitinous shell, as well as four pairs of stingers in the head area. And although the Xorxes were divided into many subspecies, the main one was a two-meter, six-legged “hunter” with sharp claws and mandibles on the head.

They also most likely communicated with each other, producing pheromones, and were very efficiently organized, distributing all sorts of tasks among themselves, which told us that we were dealing with social creatures. We also admitted that they could be intelligent, but at the moment we did not care about the legality of the black directives, we had to survive at any cost.

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Fifteen days later, that is, now the headquarters received information about the first clash with the Xorxes. Result: hundreds of killed insectoids. They were destroyed by long-range artillery fire before they could reach the first line of western defense. A column was sent to the site of the destroyed group of xorxes to collect biomaterial and examine the enemy’s bodies, after which parts of the insectoids’ bodies were sent to «Pharaoh».

And now I was standing in the middle of the sandy parade ground, covering my dark blue cap from the sand that was rising into the air due to the strong wind. Somewhere in the distance I could already hear the approach of trucks with the limbs of giant insects sticking out of their bodies. The bodies were still fresh, smoke was emanating from them and yellow liquid was dripping, which was most likely the blood of these creatures.

Heavy trucks stopped nearby, just ten meters away from me, and meanwhile I put a breathing mask on my face. The rest of the fighters did the same, surrounding the first car. There were dozens of machines themselves, and each one contained one Xorx body. The laboratory needed a lot of material, so it was ordered to take as many bodies as possible from the collision site and then carefully study them.

I went outside the headquarters to see with my own eyes what we are currently dealing with. And what I already see made me breathe a sigh of relief. These insectoids were not Zempzens as I initially feared, which means we still have to find out the degree of intelligence of these creatures and find a way to protect «Pharaoh» from them while spending as little time and resources on them as possible.

"Get them out."

One of the fighters shouted.

“Hold the hook and hook it to this thing.”

“Is this a leg?”

"How do I know? Just grab it."

Due to the fact that the droid operators were busy with the routine work of building a temporary base, the task of unloading the bodies of the insectoids was transferred to the reserve soldiers. It is unlikely that they were happy with the fact that they were forced to do menial work. Most likely, many of them fled to the army only because they did not have to be a cheap replacement for droids in industry or in the service sectors. The earth became a place where a person without knowledge and talent could either be unemployed or a soldier.

“Why are we even doing this?”

One of the fighters asked while examining the carcass of a huge insectoid from the side.

“Well, this is to study them. We’ll give it to the lab and they’ll see what’s going on.”

“Will we be given additional rations for this kind of work?”

“Dream on or swallow the pulp from the replicator."

“Swallow them yourself, and I’ll eat.”

With my arms crossed behind my back, I watched as the soldiers, with the help of another vehicle, dumped the carcass of an insectoid from a truck onto the sand. The fighters covered the dead body with film, and then loaded the insectoid’s body into another car, which drove inside the scientific complex that had already been built in a couple of weeks.

After observing the process for some time, I decided to go to this very laboratory that was erected on this planet literally the day before. The constructed complex was a one-story building, on top of which there were solar panels and a landing pad for the research compartment shuttle from "Zeus".

Once inside, the automatic door closed behind me, and the intermediate compartment was treated with disinfectants to protect it from the external ecosystem, after which I removed the breathing mask from my face.

Heading a little further, I went out into the same laboratory where I was met by the most cyborg, wrapped in a white robe, whose upper half of his face was human with glowing red eyes, and the entire lower part of his body was cybernetic.

“There you are, Zeonid.”

The cyborg spoke in a mechanical voice, putting the tablet on the table.

“I haven’t seen you for a whole week. What did you decide to do there at headquarters?”

“First, tell me how you cope.”

I said, seeing around me a complete mess of scattered shelves, tablets, test tubes, tools, equipment and other things, and there was also something spilled on the floor, or most likely it was a faulty air conditioner.

I am well aware that it is difficult for shipmen to settle down on planets, and therefore my question, although it sounded indifferent, was imbued with some concern for my subordinates.

“As you can see, everything is just wonderful.”

The cyborg responded surprisingly optimistically, apparently tuning his artificial voice to convey joyful emotions and not necessarily real ones.

“Without a ship we are like without a home. We will still need to get used to the current situation.”

“I understand you, Arman.”

I answered the captain of «Zeus».

“I see the guys are already grumbling outside about how bad it is for them here, but who has it easy now?”

“Yes, they are just children. If they served not on the Moon, but on Proxima, then consider that they went through Hell.”

The cyborg grinned. I nodded in agreement, understanding the conditions on Proxima and here, perhaps, something needs to be clarified.

Arman Homeric.

Gender: male.

Age: 144 years.

Race: human.

Subrace: Proximyrian.

Born on Proxima in the city of Gratsi in a family of bioenergetics workers. Due to some family circumstances, he ran away to serve in the research fleet. Traveled outside the Republic and was hired by the Republic Navy. Since then, he has been flying from one end of the Republic to the other for the redeployment of armies. Witnessed the Martian disaster. Became a cyborg at age 57, reason unknown.

This is information from his dossier.

All Proximirians like Armand have one distinguishing feature - their luminescent irises. For the majority of the population, they glow red, slightly less often yellow and very rarely purple, but at the same time the usual colors of the irises have disappeared.

Proxima is Arman's home planet and the first planet that became part of the Republic as a result of a full-scale sectoral war between the Republic and the Federation. That happened a thousand years ago, half a century before the Pantora invasion of the human sector, and generations later, the Proximirians’ hostility to the new government diminished, but for earthlings they remained the same light-eyes who were ready to fight for the black pyramid to the very end. Their reputation for frightening even their own relatives was eternal, and they actively used this reputation, and this despite the fact that they distinguished themselves best in bioenergy.

They constantly remind earthlings that they defended themselves for a long time until Proxima fell two years later, but this long-standing event no longer causes heated debate. Proxima itself turned out to be surprisingly advanced in energy; during the Republican invasion of their planet, the RAFOM soldiers met fire from energy weapons, extremely destructive and accurate. Before this, no one in the galaxy used energy weapons, at least humanity is still unaware of this.

The extremely developed energy planet Proxima had a very positive impact on the entire science of human civilization as such, and the Proximirians themselves became a respected part of the Republic along with the Martians, earthlings, Phedrisians, Kaingrainians and many other human subraces.

The crew of the ship "Zeus" itself was mixed and quite often changed its deployment, mainly acting as a purely transport ship despite the presence of serious weapons in the form of thermonuclear torpedoes and interceptor probes. The captain of this ship was Arman, who had been serving on this ship for more than a hundred years and had never descended to the surface of the planets for more than a hundred years.

"General?"

A girl in a dark blue uniform and a cap on her head suddenly exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?"

“Are you just from headquarters?”

I asked.

"Yes. I came here to monitor the work of the laboratory, and also to notify Captain Arman about the tasks.”

"ABOUT! Hello Yuna."

Arman said, waving his cybernetic pen at the girl.

“Yes, good afternoon, Captain Armand.”

The girl said seriously.

Yuna Sherwood, 29, earthling. The blue-eyed young brown-haired woman was born on the Earthly Isle of Man and currently holds the post of army administrator and is engaged in organizing logistics, systematization and collection of information, analyzing it and providing it to our tablets in reporting form.

«2++» on her shoulder straps they said that she bears the rank of colonel and is the only colonel in the 127th Army, which performs logistics and information duties for the entire army, having at its disposal a very modest staff of a thousand people, that at any time, if necessary, they can be deployed as a largbattalion.

Meanwhile, Yuna turned to Arman, approaching the cyborg a little closer with an order from headquarters:

“You have been given your first task. First of all, study the biology of this type of xorx, and then evaluate the degree of survivability from firearms. The headquarters will provide one squad for experiments in this area, but as soon as you complete the first task. Next, the headquarters plans to catch these individuals alive and...”

"W-wait."

Arman said waving his hands.

“You haven’t caught them alive yet, so why are you entrusting us with this right away?”

“In the west, an operation is just underway to capture a group of several individuals, so a live specimen will soon be delivered here for experiments. The study of xorxes needs to start right now.”

"Already?"

Arman was surprised.

"Arman,"

I turned to the cyborg."

“We need to find out the extent to which this creature is dangerous to us. Millions are moving here from the west. Because of them, we are forced to redirect resources to defense rather than to building a new ship. So you will have to lead a team of your pseudo-scientists and forget about space flights for twenty years.”

"Twenty years?"

Armand widened his red eyes and grinned.

"Just that."

I sighed after his words.

“Yes, just that, but in twenty years I will have time to die, and I would like to see my grandchildren on Earth. So do your job properly. You understood me?"

"Hey! I am not part of the 127th Army."

The cyborg crossed his arms, answering me in a dissatisfied tone.

“Why are you even ordering me around? Even without you I know what I need to do. So fuck off and plan your war against these giant bugs."

«It means yes.»

I translated his words into my language and nodded.

“Okay.”

I answered and turned to Yuna.

“This flyer knows what to do, you don’t need to monitor his work. Do you understand me?"

"Understood, sir."

“Okay, then follow me. We now need to resolve the issue of provisions and waste.”

"Yes, sir."

Yuna answered and trudged after me.

Soon, very soon, the seemingly simple extermination of a swarm of giant beetles will turn into a real war. And these bugs are actually not the biggest problem for us.