Druhalith (The Season of Resilience)
Day 344
108 days since my arrival
I swiped the notification away from my vision. Another day had passed, and the swarm continued its slow, deliberate push south. I drifted through the memories I’d harvested, searching for anything of value any fragment of knowledge that could tip the scales in the battles to come.
Moments like these often made me wish I had studied more military tactics, engineering principles, or even logistics. What I held now felt incomplete fragments of battlefield strategies and rudimentary designs. My knowledge was sufficient, but against the might of an organized enemy force, I couldn't help but feel the cracks in my understanding.
I sorted through memories, categorizing them by potential usefulness of weapon designs, battlefield manoeuvres, and new drone configurations. A part of me longed for the simpler times when I could lose myself in virtual strategy games. Those simulations, while entertaining, paled in comparison to the unforgiving reality of warfare.
And yet, many of the tactics I used now had their roots in those games. The muscle memory of outflanking virtual opponents found new life here, against a much more dangerous enemy.
The terrain stretched endlessly before me craters and jagged mineral fields scarred the moon’s surface, occasionally broken by deep ravines that sliced through the land. The further south I pushed, the fewer signs of enemy activity remained.
Occasionally, I encountered long convoys of transports, massive segmented vehicles that slithered across the landscape like mechanical snakes. They ferried raw materials from distant mining hubs to processing facilities. Thirty, sometimes forty wagons trailed behind each transport, carrying the great bounty of this war.
I observed them from a distance, cloaked in the shadows of the craters. If I’d had the forces, I would have raided them without hesitation. But I knew better than to engage recklessly.
As I travelled further, the terrain became steeper, the hills rising and falling like frozen waves. The convoys thinned out, the land growing too treacherous for their long trains.
In the distance, if I strained my vision northward, I could catch glimpses of Imerth’s second moon a faint blue marble hanging in the void. A reminder of how small my battles were in the grand scale of the universe.
With little to occupy my attention, I returned to the etheric plane. The storm that surrounded me there had grown larger, swirling with chaotic energy. Occasionally, I detected faint traces of enemy psionics on the periphery. They always kept their distance, lingering like predators just beyond sight.
Fear held them back. I could sense it sharp and biting. It was a useful tool, but not one I could wield directly. I attempted to hunt them down a few times, but they always retreated into spherical constructs that cut them off from the outside. Their defensive measures frustrated me.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
When I grew bored with the etheric plane I entertained myself in simpler ways replaying memories of books, movies, or music I had salvaged. These moments of solitude reminded me of the importance of preserving what little entertainment I could. If I wanted to survive the long stretches of isolation, I needed to gather more media, and more stories to fill the silence.
The next day, the intelligence sub-mind relayed new information. Operation Parasite had begun transmitting sporadic data from within enemy ranks. Most of it was useless fragments of idle conversation between bored clones.
They grumbled about patrol schedules, and maintenance rotations, and traded rations. One food item Kileran eggs and Chilva, dubbed blue sludge, seemed universally despised for its unpleasant taste and gelatinous texture.
Amid the noise, valuable pieces began to surface. Central Command had issued new orders. Several factories were slated for conversion to drone production facilities. Though no blueprints had surfaced, the transition would take approximately two galactic weeks. Thereafter, enemy drone production would escalate.
I needed to find the lava tubes before then. If I could locate the knowledge caches of my creators, I could accelerate my production to match their forces—perhaps even surpass them. With the right weapons, I might drive them off this moon entirely.
The cycle repeated itself day after day. I reviewed the data from infected clones, analysed terrain for signs of the lava tubes, and re-examined old memories searching for overlooked details.
On the third day, a cluster of scout drones detected something unusual. South-east of my position, a faint trail of tracks narrow and precise. Generation One drone tracks.
The scouts followed the trail cautiously, winding through a narrow cave system that stretched deep beneath the surface. The tunnels were wide, carved by ancient geological processes.
The scouts split up, spreading out to map the labyrinthine passages. One drone continued to track the footprints, descending further into the depths. The tunnels stretched on for miles, weaving a path beneath the craters above.
As I observed the feeds, a flicker of recognition passed through me. This place would serve as my new sanctuary. The tunnels were defensible and hidden from orbital scans. I began redirecting the bulk of my swarm toward the entrance, leaving small detachments to continue their journey southward.
After five days of cautious exploration, the scouts located the source of the tracks. A lone Generation One drone lay dormant at the end of a tunnel, partially buried in dust and rock.
It was intact but unresponsive.
Curiosity piqued, I diverted my consciousness to the drone cluster, travelling personally to the dormant machine.
As I approached, my vision became obscured by a notification from my implant.
Signal detected.
Accept connection?
I authorized the link without hesitation. The HUD expanded immediately, flooding with a list of files. It stretched endlessly, expanding every second as new data poured in. For now, all I could do was watch.
Meanwhile, I directed scouts to search the tunnels for narrow, defensible choke points. The current passages were too vast—too wide and tall to secure with the forces I had left.
Hours passed, blending into a new day before the scouts returned with results. They had located a segment of the tunnel network a few hours away a narrow dead-end passage that could serve as the foundation for a new hive cluster.
Modified scouts carrying dormant architect and harvester eggs were dispatched immediately. Upon arrival, the architects would hatch, devouring the scouts to accelerate their growth. In the days that followed, they would seal the passage with resin, gradually transforming it into a fortified enclave.
Once secured, the architects would carve small chambers to house harvesters and cultivate fungus farms. In time, this new cluster would produce enough biomass to fuel further expansion throughout the tunnels.
As I monitored their progress, the endless list of files continued to grow. I could do nothing but wait. The construction sub-mind diverted its attention to planning the layout of the new hive, coordinating with the war sub-mind on defensive measures.
The intelligence sub-mind remained occupied sorting through data extracted from infected clones.
Finally, the long list halted. A single notification pulsed on the HUD.
Download available. Proceed?
I accepted without hesitation.
Another message appeared.
Insufficient storage.
That was expected.
I instructed the implant to search for any information linked to Trumek. The results came back empty, with no trace of me in their archives.
Shifting focus, I searched for geological scans of the moon. A few results surfaced. Without hesitation, I marked them for download.
I expanded the search, combing through their databases for anything of value from advanced weapon schematics and manufacturing techniques to something as simple as their music. Patterns began to emerge. Their mathematics diverged sharply from human norms, built around a base-twelve system.
As the data streamed in, I finally saw the Valurians.