Just as I remember from before, I'm receiving the direct recollections of a broodmother.

Young, ambitious, and deeply driven.

The general impression of the pheromones I'm receiving is that they're laced with a sense of excitement for being able to set out and anxious anticipation of what lies before her.

Though, much stronger is the sense of responsibility towards all her brood she's leading and now has to create a permanent home for.

This princess is by no means new to this business.

While she doesn't have a swarm she can rely on, she has a decent amount of brood with her.

Ever since she ate her way free from where she hatched and consumed sufficient males to ensure a sufficiently wide variety to her offspring, she has continuously hunted prey to lay her eggs in.

Until now, they’ve constantly traveled through the underworld, consuming all that was edible, and then moving on.

Few nurses take care of the brood not planted within food, transporting them on the move, while many workers continuously carry what they can with them.

However, the princess knows that this can't go on.

She is aware that this lifestyle severely restricts their total numbers.

Not being able to feed all of them, having to... ugh, consume excess brood and eggs, so they can travel lightly and avoid food shortages.

Yes, this broodmother knows hunger, her small, malnourished state is a testament to this.

Eating just enough to guarantee that her laid eggs are in a useable state, and otherwise holding back on consumption, so as to not stir her body's production too much.

It's definitely not a favorable situation or a good time altogether.

Which is why this broodmother decided on a change.

No longer does this broodmother want to subject her brood to these cruel preservation measures, but actively work towards something better.

For this reason, she intends to settle down.

To build a place that will be theirs alone and allow her to garner enough food to feed not only her current brood, but all her future ones as well, so they may all be able to exist till the end of their last cycle.

To make this happen, she follows a certain plan.

During her long journey, together with all of her brood, she discovered edible mushrooms.

Not just edible, but greater weighs the fact that they could be cultivated in a suitable environment.

Which is why the broodmother chose this particular place to build her hive.

With this, a realization strikes me.

This must be a story of ancient days before the swarm started to settle down.

Or rather, right when it happened.

So she starts setting things up.

Not just fields, but all that is necessary to create the required logistics.

Storages, security checkpoints, and regular patrols to protect her fields.

Of course, there are setbacks.

She discovers how she was slightly off about what is required to make the fields grow, which ended in her having to cull half her brood to get the other half over this food shortage.

A decision I certainly couldn't have made like this.

Especially, as this naturally wasn't all.

No, this broodmother just doesn't get her respite.

Be it pests infesting her harvest, storage issues that threaten to spoil her supply, a whole water reservoir spilling and flooding the lower areas, there's always another backlash to her plan.

However, despite all these setbacks, she won't give up on her dream of creating a safe environment for her brood.

A place where they can thrive.

I'm really getting sucked into this story.

Not only because pheromones are always so intense, but because the described events are so thrilling to witness.

It's less a recollection and more of a sped-up journey through all these events.

Every single detail, no matter how small it may appear, meticulously stored for further generations, which she already kept in mind during all this.

This broodmother takes care of it all.

One moment, she forces a small invasion force back, then she surveys the building progress, and how well food production gets going.

And all of this while she was still handling her laying.

Particularly interesting are the interactions with the surrounding area.

Apparently, establishing a foothold causes severe reactions to the local wildlife.

Different from just passing by and taking everything there is, if you stay, the locals will at one point stop hiding away from your forces.

Therefore one has to deal with regular violent encounters.

This is of especial interest to me, as I think I can handle the building part when things proceed without backlash.

But as Chera showed me, unexpected problems are what can make you lose the ground below your feet.

The kind this broodmother has to deal with.

As all the creatures know right where the fledging hive is located, they have a target.

Quite bad are the attacks of some nest of particularly heavy bugs.

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Unlike the Formicea, these walking behemoths stand on eight short legs and have no further limbs, but instead a pair of extremely long, fierce, and durable mandibles.

At this time, the number of guardians is low, as workers are needed foremost for the various tasks in the base.

Thus, extremely fierce fights commence on a regular basis, not rarely to the disadvantage of the Formicea, against their enemies, who have the advantage in the narrow tunnels of the yet underdeveloped system.

The change comes when the broodmother discovers what they're after.

While they have no qualms about Formicea meat if they take them on, what drives them in is the mycelium and the feast it promises, transmitting its scent all over the place till the outer reaches of the hive.

Yet herein lies the chance.

In what can only be considered a bold move, she starves her whole hive by forbidding the consumption of the harvest.

Instead, she expands the fields and piles up a literal mountain of food in its center, while calling all of her guards away.

As expected, the bugs eventually drive themselves into the premises and greedily dig into the presented food.

They all gather, eating and eating until they fall into a food coma.

This is what the broodmother has been waiting for.

At her signal, all of her troops rush in from all sides at once.

They completely surround their lethargic opponents and get to attack them always at least three to one, in the worst case.

I'm fascinated to witness how she fights alongside them in this crucial time.

With claws of acidic poison that burns and corrupts any flesh it comes into contact with, overwhelming the victim with an overstimulation of pain.

Yes, it was all a lure.

A plan to get these things out of the tunnels and deal with them for good.

Even if these weren't all, their numbers should've been sufficiently culled.

Now she can make use of the meat to accelerate her own production, to not only make up for the losses but come above stronger than ever before.

And so she does.

Further, similarly nasty critters get eventually driven away, the building works to create channels for the water reservoirs near completion, and the mycelium is rebuilt and expanded.

Though, the greatest symbol of her success is the gigantic pillar in the center of the hive, where her precious brood will be safe, even from creepers that dig through the very walls, as they'll be in the open before ever reaching the core of her new hive.

Life is good and success is consenting to this broodmother's strategy.

But then a quake!

The world all around gets shaken, stirred, and ultimately half of the hive's outer layer simply caves in.

Primal dread hits the broodmother, as she knows just too well what kind of existential threat is approaching.

Of course, a terrorworm.

As if this poor broodmother wasn't already plagued enough.

If I thought the battle at the junction was bad, this takes it to a whole other level.

This one seems to be even double the size of mine.

Breaking right through the cave, this bundle of confused fury dangles right into the heart of the hive, seeking to consume what drove it here.

Almost suicidal, the drones jump at the threat.

It doesn't matter what kind of distance separates them, all the defenders take their respective fastest route that promises even the slightest chance of reaching this titan of doom.

Giving it their all to sink their sharp bits into its flesh and pin it in place, so its wake of destruction may be stopped.

If they already fall to their death, they'll at least try to do as much damage in their death as possible.

The battle lasts for days.

Over and over the brood strikes in turns at the titan of dread which is proceedingly growing tired.

Terrorworms are thought to travel forward, which the construction of the hive and the heavy assault of drones impedes.

Also, they're too primal to seek escape.

So over and over the worm lunges into the pillar hall, where the promised feast awaits it with mandibles and claws.

It's a battle of attrition.

The broodmother even distributes a unit to provide food from the mycelium to the fighters, so they may recover their strength.

Eventually, with both parties close to their end, it's the worm whose body simply gives out.

The broodmother surmises that would she not have boosted her troops with her hive method of living, their numbers would never have sufficed.

But they did, and her brood survived.

Victory is for the hive, but nobody cheers.

Too exhausted are the remnants of her brood.

Too many are dead, and too much must be done now.

In the wake of its demise, there's an articulate note about how the ground was probably only so well-suited to manipulate and build the hive upon because the terrorworm regularly passed through, shaking it up.

A task that will now fall upon the Formicea, as they will replace it in this region.

A task that will require consolidating the losses.

A great issue is that the flesh of terrorworms isn't directly edible.

But then she makes a discovery.

At the place where she dumped the remains outside the hive, the mushroom grows better than ever.

She just discovered fertilizer!

Incredible.

Without hesitating a single instant, she applies it to all of her fields.

And despite being outwardly incapable of doing so, she smiles.

This titan was the last to challenge her reign in this realm.

Her hardships are paying off.

In a cycle, she'll even have surpassed its strength before the worm.

She will prevail.

And her brood with her.

This is the story of the creation of one of the first hives.

A change of pace that subsequently changed the world with it.

From now on, hives will be the way to go for the Formicea.

Their strength will only increase, as their growing numbers give credit to their success.

Near the end, there's one last pheromone signal I receive to conclude this recollection.

A princess' pheromone mark so to say that identifies her.

Something like a signature.

Uma!