I lay two more Gatherer drone eggs and order my first drone, which has finished growing, to morph into a Digestion Pool. Since I have already eaten and want to stay in the safety of my Hive Complex, I decide to develop my mental abilities. I focus on the connection to the swarm consciousness and explore it further to gather new impressions. After a while I notice an anomaly, I can sense something familiar but at the same time strange in the distance. It wasn’t there before and immediately catches my interest.

I concentrate more on the anomaly and try to build a mental bridge in order to connect to it. After a few attempts I succeed and establish contact to a foreign consciousness. The moment I succeed, I seem to awaken my counterpart. The connection is immediately strengthened from the other side and the entity subordinates itself to me. I am surprised, but instinctively feel that I have nothing to fear. I notice that the entity to which I have connected myself does not seem to have any intelligence itself and acts for me like a relay. I take from the entity's consciousness that it is a Spire, a living Sylv structure that increases the range of the swarm consciousness. In addition, I find the name of the Hive Complex in which the Spire is located. The name of the Hive Complex is “Hunter Hive Complex III”. I seem to have found an inactive Sylv outpost and judging by its designation there seems to be more.

After I calm down, I try to explore this outpost via the Spire. It seems to be in the center of the Hive Complex itself and is connected to several Sylv worker drones, which are in hibernation right now. In addition, the outpost seems to have a few more basic Sylv structures, which are also in hibernation. What concerns me however is that all of the combat-capable organisms in the outpost are missing, as if they were send off to defend against a threat. Only the non-moving structures and non-dangerous worker drones have been left behind and put into hibernation. Similar to my first hive complex at Elise's house. Now that I have successfully established a connection to it, I give it the signal to end hibernation and bring full functionality back up. While my wish is being implemented, I try to obtain more information. Unfortunately, there seems to be no intelligent synapse creature in the outpost that can help me. The Spire's memory is unfortunately very rudimentary and does not contain any other relevant information. However, from the state of the outpost I can conclude that it has been inactive for some time, so the primary hive cluster to which it belongs probably did not survive the threat that caused the withdrawal of the combat capable creatures. If I follow this theory, it could explain why I came into the world here in Everglade Forest without any Sylv creatures to protect me. However, I cannot be sure and will have to do further research. For that I should visit this outpost in person as soon as possible, perhaps I can contact more Sylv outposts from this one.

It will take quite a while for hibernation to end, but then I can finally proceed. Hunter Hive Complex III has a total of 12 worker drones for internal work, a Spire, a Digestion Pool, two Spawning Grounds and two Fungus Farms for food production. The Fungus Farms are sufficient to support the operating costs of the Outpost. On the other hand, any unit production from the two Spawning Grounds requires additional biomass, presumably obtained earlier from hunters stationed at this outpost. If I manage to gather some biomass and transport it to the outpost, I could start hunter production much faster. I order the dozen drones of the outpost to start digging a tunnel in the direction to my current Hive Complex. If possible I want to avoid traveling on the surface, as the forest is very dangerous.

I decide to collect some plants near my location that I can use to create my first hunters. I leave the tunnel again and start to collect some mushrooms and berries in the forest. I don't find very many and start collecting some green plants as well. During my venture I even find some smaller insects, crawlers and worms, which I eat myself. As soon as it gets too bright outside, I stop my work and retreat back into my Hive Complex. I was lucky and didn't encounter any dangerous animals this time. I even managed to unlock another new Strain, which I call Full Body Chitin Armor. This upgrades the regular armor of my creatures to a full exoskeleton. This increases resilience, but in return reduces flexibility.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I check the progress of the connection-tunnel between my Hive Complex and the outposts, satisfied that it will be completed in a few hours. The tunnel is quite small, but I would just about fit through with crawling. That will be enough, since I don't plan to use it personally more often than necessary and I want to have the tunnel built quickly. I go back to sleep and wake up some time later as the tunnel is completed. I immediately transfer my collected biomass and continue to sleep until I awake again to find that my order has been carried out. I order the production of as many hunters as possible and start moving myself through the tunnel. While I'm on the move, I sense that the production of two hunters is starting and there was almost enough biomass for a third. A pitiful number, considering that the outpost could create up to 48 small creatures at a time. But that will improve once I have enough hunters gathering biomass.

A few minutes later I arrive at the outpost and start modifying the growing hunters with my strains. I equip them with Rapid Regeneration, Lesser Improved Strength, Reinforced Hide, Improved Hardened Carapace and Ceiling Runner. I call this strain combination Elite hunter and plan to improve it in the future. In this dangerous forest quality pays off over quantity I think. I don't have enough experience yet to be sure, but that can be found out by try and error. After that I survey the outpost together with my drones in order to get a full overview of all the tunnels and discover that this outpost has two entrances, which are nearly fully closed of at the moment. I will change that as soon as my first hunters are ready but will keep this arrangement for the moment. Then I order four drones to keep working in the Fungus Farms of the outpost and let the others help expand my new primary Hive Cluster. I could turn this outpost into my new primary Hive Cluster and move everything over, but I like my old location and don’t want to abandon it. Therefore, I keep the outpost working as it is and concentrate on expanding my original Hive Complex. This also has the advantage that I thereby possess a retreat possibility in case of an attack.

Now that I am in the outpost, I try to discover other outposts from there with the help of the swarm consciousness. Unfortunately, I have no success even after half an hour and are forced to stop my attempts. Either there are no more Sylv bases in range or their Spires only ever goes out of hibernation for a short time. I will try every day from now on and hope to find more inactive Hive Complexes. I move back through the narrow tunnel to the eggs I laid and make myself comfortable there. With that I have nothing more to do for the time being and I go to sleep.

When I wake up, my next two drones hatch and I lay two more Gatherer drone eggs. I order two of the outpost drones to me and look at them hungrily. I can see from the outside that they have been modified with Strains and I can only get them one way. There is no significant loss of biomass either, as I will consume them in their entirety. I think about it for a second but conclude that I'm doing the right thing. With my claws I skillfully destroy the brain of the first drone and then start my meal, using my shredder teeth. Oh yes, very good! So tasty! I can see the new Strains, but I still need more material. I turn to the second drone and eat it as well. I order a third outpost drone to me for consumption and then I finally have all the unknown Strains extracted. I am satiated and now have the Optical Camouflage, Improved Vision, Improved Sense of Smell and Pheromone Glands Strains. The first Strain allows the creature to change its skin color to match its surroundings, making it harder to see, especially when it's not moving. The next two do exactly what their name implies and the last one allows the secretion and recognition of pheromones. This allows for simple communication outside of the swarm consciousness. However, I have no idea why the drones from the outpost have such a strain? Is the communication via the hive mind not always reliable?