We continued on our mission, trudging through the dimly lit subterranean tunnels for several hours, guided only by my nanites, as they searched the dank air for faint traces of the survey team.
As we passed through a seemingly infinite number of glowing caverns, we encountered several more small groups of Kryssik, but they were easily dispatched without issue before we continued on.
Inevitably, we ran into another large group of adolescent Kryssik, being accompanied by an adult, and they were quickly cleared, allowing me to absorb their matter and replenish our ammo again.
By this point, I had absorbed over two thousand pounds of Kryssik flesh and only burned through about one hundred pounds to create ammo.
This left me feeling extremely heavy, and focusing on condensing my nanites as much as possible so that I could retain my armored form.
After four more hours and several more isolated groups of Kryssik, we finally found the first evidence that we were on the right track to finding the survey team.
In a large room that split the main tunnel into four, slightly smaller tunnels, lay a battered communications beacon, exactly like the one in their last know location.
Its' metal spike was bent, with a large chunk missing, no doubt eaten by a Kryssik, and the glass light at the top had shattered, as if it had fallen out of someone's bag while they were running.
Despite the beacon being nearly destroyed, it was encouraging for the men, as until now they had been following me blindly through the tunnels, trusting "my nose" to lead us to the survey team.
After a quick break for a meal, we continued through the tunnel leading to the left, following the direction of my nanites.
Traveling onwards, we continue through the winding tunnels at a much faster pace, emboldened by the find of the broken beacon.
We proceed down the dank tunnel for close to another hour before finding another sign of the survey team, but this time the men felt despair rather than hope.
Coating the floor and wall of the tunnel in front of us, was red, human blood. The air was thick with the smell of it, seeping into the men's clothes and clouding my nanite's sense of smell.
I tell the men to wait in the tunnel before stepping forward into the bloody mess and looking for any signs of what happened here.
The walls and floors were covered in scratch marks, no doubt from a massive swarm of Kryssik, and there was a significant amount of yellow blood mixed in with the red.
However, even after exiting the other side of the tunnel and finding bloody drag marks heading down another tunnel, I couldn't find a single piece of flesh, bone, or even clothing.
I return to my men, filling them in on what I saw, to which all of the men's faces don somber looks.
After I give them a short moment to regain their composure, we walk through the blood and continue, following the drag marks into the next tunnel.
The blood trail continues for some time, weaving back and forth through the tunnel as though whatever was carrying them was struggling with the weight.
As we walk the men are completely silent, quietly praying that whatever took the survey team killed them before dragging them off.
We continue for another two hours, with the blood trail getting thinner and thinner until finally disappearing all together, when the man being dragged finally ran out of blood.
Despite losing the trail, the tunnel continued straight, so we kept moving forward, eyes and ears open for anything waiting to attack.
Eventually, only 500 feet past the end of the trail, the tunnel opened up into an enormous crystalline cavern, with a high ceiling filled with bioluminescence, and six foot thick pillars reaching up from the ground.
A loud skittering permeates the air of the cavern, informing us of the thousands of crystalline legs moving about within.
I tell the men to wait in the tunnel mouth as I begin to scout our enemy, as I had many times today, and I peek around a massive pillar before almost recoiling in astonishment.
What I had initially thought was an enormous cavern, now looked to be endless. The walls stretched away for miles with no end in sight, and the ceiling towered over me, making me feel extremely small.
In the center of the cavern lie an massive lake, with the width approaching three miles and the depth indeterminate.
On the banks of the lake were millions of spherical crystals, sparkling under the dim, bioluminescence coming from the vegetation surrounding them.
Despite being in awe at the sight, I quickly realized the danger that this cavern held, as I spotted an ocean of adolescent Kryssiks milling about, with thousands of adults of varying size standing over them like overseers.
I observed them moving about from my vantage point, seemingly cleaning and tending to the spherical crystals very carefully, leading me to assume they must be some kind of egg or cocoon.
I then watched as an adolescent Kryssik inspected an egg and started buzzing and dancing about excitedly, prompting an adult to make its' way over.
Before my very eyes, the adult pierced the shell of the egg, causing a sickly yellow fluid to spill out, along with a very small, soft-shelled Kryssik, which flopped unceremoniously to the ground.
I watched in amazement as the adult carefully pushed the newborn Kryssik back and forth with its' front claws, seeming to take great care not to harm the fragile creature, until finally, almost as if a switch had flipped, the small arachnid leap to its' feet before skittering off to join the swarm.
The adult danced with its' forelegs in the air, seemingly happy for the successful birth of another member of the colony, before moving off to repeat the process when another adolescent began buzzing nearby.
My eyes drifted through the cavern until I spotted another strange occurance.
I spotted a long line of the largest and most heavily armored Kryssiks I had ever seen, descending from the roof with each carefully carrying an egg in its' claws.
I followed the line all the way to the top of the cavern until I lay sight on a true monster.
Over a mile above the floor, perched high upon a roost of gold and gems, stood a Kryssik of unapparelled beauty and danger.
It must have been nearly 60 feet tall, with a shiny golden exoskeleton, close to a foot thick. Its' head was adorned by sparkling eyes that looked almost like faceted gems. And atop its' head sat six, golden spikes in the shape of a crown.
Below its' abdomen, the line of large Kryssiks waited, while every few seconds a large, crystalline egg would pop out of it and into the claws of a Kryssik below. The eggs were then carried down the pillar and to the shores of the lake where it would join its' siblings.
"This must be the queen." I thought to myself as I observed the monstrosity. "If we take that thing out, the entire nest will eventually die."
After thinking this I realized, we'd have to kill every single Kryssik within the cavern if we wanted to make it out alive, as I'm sure these seemingly intelligent creatures would want vengeance for the death of their queen.
Right as I'm about to return to my men, I spot another strange group of Kryssik near the water that almost makes me jump with joy.
Still alive, and guarded by a large group of heavily armored Kryssik, sat a group of 15 men, sitting quietly and observing the swarm moving around them.
"That must be the survey team!" I thought as I smiled with glee, expecting them to have been killed and eaten by now.
As I observed them, I noticed something very peculiar.
Every so often, an adolescent Kryssik would break away from the swarm and make a beeline for the survivors, only to be squashed instantly by one of the hulking guards surrounding them.
This seemed to happen endlessly, with the dead Kryssiks being instantly dragged into the swarm and devoured.
Content with my reconnaissance after seeing the remaining members of the survey team alive and well, I quietly headed back to inform my men of the situation.
After I finished describing the scene below, the men stared at me in disbelief, no doubt wondering how we'd be able to win a fight against million of the monsters after only a thousand of them had nearly emptied our ammo.
However, the Sergeant seemed to be in deep thought before finally speaking.
"You might not like this Lieutenant, but I think if we use you as bait, we have a real shot at taking out that queen."
I motioned for him to continue.
"You can make your body dense enough to withstand their claws and teeth, we've all seen that, so my plan is basically this..."
30 minutes later I begin to make my way down the slope leading to the lake, while my men stay at the top of the ridge to provide fire support, far away from the millions of gnashing teeth and sharp claws.
Right before I reach the bottom of the embankment, I jump off, falling the remaining ten feet and landing on the ground with a loud BANG, cracking the stone floor in the process.
The noise alerts the large army of Kryssik by the lake, and they all turn towards me before charging in a tidal wave of death.
I begin to sprint, topping out at nearly 100 miles per hour and closing the distance in seconds.
I crash into the swarm with an explosion of blood and body parts, sending both flying in all direction as my now 2,000 pound body plows through the adolescents uninterrupted.
I can feel claws and teeth trying to penetrate my armor, but after I had spent the last 20 minutes increasing the density of my nanites, they found no purchase.
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As I begin to be coated in blood and guts, my nanites are working hard, soaking up the gore like a sponge and converting it into more mass.
I can feel myself getting much stronger and much more dense as my nanites feast on the all you can eat buffet of bug guts until I finally catch sight of my target through the writhing limbs obstructing my vision.
I keep up the pace, still travelling faster on foot than any human had any right to be, making a beeline for the survey team and their hulking guards.
As I approach I notice a pleasant surprise.
Having been whipped into a frenzy by my assault, the guards were now too distracted smashing a killing bloodthirsty adolescents to see me coming.
"Perfect." I thought to myself. "Just what I need."
I cross the last 500 feet in an instant, before cocking my fist back and driving into the head of the closest guard with my entire momentum.
My fist collides with its' head, causing all 15 of its' eyes to pop out of its' head as the force from my fist sends its' head flying into its' abdomen and out the other side, coating a shocked survey team in a thick layer of yellow blood.
I move to the next guard, anchoring my left foot into the ground with spikes, and roundhouse kicking the Kryssik in the side, sending it sailing through the air.
Having created an opening in the line of guards, I rush towards the shocked survey team and reach forwards to grab two of them.
"Come on, I'm getting you out of here!" I say, but to my surprise, they back away from me, choosing to stay behind the guards before speaking.
"Please, you have to stop this! She just wants to negotiate!" Yelled a man who must have been the leader of the group.
"What do you mean negotiate? They're a bunch of bugs! And who's this She you're talking about?" I say.
The man opens his mouth to speak, but before he can give me an answer, he's interrupted by a loud CRACK above our heads as large chunks of golden debris falls from above, crushing thousands of adolescent Kryssik.
Silence falls on the entire cavern, as every single Kryssik within stops in their tracks and lowers themselves into the floor.
Before I can figure out what's going on, the massive, golden queen I observed earlier lands in front of me with an enormous BOOM, smashing hundreds of adolescents and sending tremors rippling through the floor.
I struggle to stay on my feet, and the entire survey team collapses to the ground and bows toward the monster when she lands, making an effort to be as low to the ground as possible.
When I finally regain my balance, I turn towards the hulking monstrosity, readying myself for a fight but she doesn't move, her head slowly swaying back in forth, almost like she's trying to figure out what I am.
The suddenly, she turns away from me to observe the carnage left in my wake, before moving past me and picking up the broken body of the guard I had kicked and cradling it like a small child.
A mournful groan echoes throughout the cavern as the queen seemingly mourns for her child, and the swarm of Kryssik vibrate around her, echoing her dispair.
She then carefully sets the body of the guard safely out of the way before turning back to me. She then starts to approach me, slowly lumbering across the carnage.
Suddenly I hear a distant BOOM accompanied by a whistling sound, before a 60mm anti-material shell impacts her head and ricochets into the ceiling, causing rubble to fall and bounce harmlessly off her exoskeleton.
Soon after the first, another cannon shot rings out, with the newest shell having similar results.
The queen whips her body around angrily, facing the origin of the cannon fire as if considering charging towards the vantage point where my men were stationed.
Thinking quickly I shout out "Hold your fire!" as loud as I could, causing the queen to turn her attention to me once more.
After waiting for a few moments without being attacked, she begins to approach me again, carefully avoiding stepping on the bodies of the adult Kryssik, until she's standing only a few feet away.
She lowers her massive head down to my height, allowing me to peer into her beautiful, red eyes.
Her head slowly sways back and forth for a few moments before I slowly reach out with my hand and touch her golden armor, without protest from the queen.
The instant our bodies make contact, I'm transported away from the bloody battlefield to an entirely different place.
I now stand in a place with no walls, only an endless white void that stretches endlessly to the horizon.
Above me is no longer a glowing cavern ceiling, but a sky filled with a purple galaxy, painted with the light of trillions of twinkling stars.
"Hello Humans, although, you're not really human are you." Says a motherly voice.
I whip around to find the source of the voice and find the massive queen standing right behind me.
"How are you speaking to me right now? And what is this place? Also what do you mean by Humans? There are only two of us here."
A sound similar to a chuckle resonates from her before she responds.
"Full of questions aren't we? But I guess that should be expected."
"The members of your "Survey Team" were just as confused when I brought them to this place."
"This is my mind scape. Millions of years ago the leaders of my people evolved the ability to connect the minds of other intelligent species with ours."
"This place is a combination of our two minds, with the white void representing your mind, and the sky above representing mine."
"It allows thoughtless communication between two beings. Both of us aren't actually here, we're still standing in that cavern amongst the bodies of my children."
As she said those last few words her voice seemed to grow sad before continuing.
"To answer your other question I referred to you as Humans because I can sense two consciousnesses residing within you, and after looking through your memories, confirmed this to be true."
"You must mean the woman." I said. "She's an AI designed to help me manage this new body I was transferred into."
"Ah then that answers the question of what you are." She said. "Human turned machine. How very interesting indeed."
"So why did you bring me to this place?" I asked. "I'm guessing you want to negotiate for something like the survey team said."
"You're correct." She replied. "I brought you here to try and save my species, and after looking through your memories and witnessing your good heart, along with your abilities, I believe you may be just the person I've been looking for."
I look at her strangely, inspecting her massive form before replying.
"I don't think you need my help to save your species lady, you look pretty capable of fighting off anything the Federation sends your way without much trouble."
She made another strange chuckling sound before replying.
"Yes, I do believe the Federation would have a hard time driving me out, but the threat to my species comes from something completely unrelated to our current predicament."
She pauses and seems to think for a moment before continuing.
"Allow me to give you a history lesson to put things into perspective."
Suddenly, the entire world shifts, until we're standing in a massive cavern filled with cracks that spew magma and sulfur into the air.
Around us a swirling swarm of Kryssik move in a clockwise motion, circling an enormous pile of eggs, almost a hundred times larger than the one the queen had laid.
Trillions of adolescent Kryssik move about, tending to the eggs, with the entire cavern filled with a buzzing noise, signaling the hatching of eggs.
Hundreds of thousands of adults gingerly step through the pile of eggs, helping along the birth of thousands of new adolescents every minute, while hundreds of golden queens laid eggs all around the cavern to keep the pile full.
"This was my home." The queen suddenly spoke. "A place so far away from Urtol, that it would take Humans thousands of years to travel to it with your current technology."
"My people lived here in harmony, feasting on endless mineral-rich magma until our bellies were close to bursting."
"It was a peaceful time for us, never knowing hunger, so we never had to venture to the surface and fight others to feed ourselves."
"And then that changed." She said as her tone grew darker.
As soon as she spoke the scenery shifted. The previously warm, Kryssik-filled cavern was now dark and devoid of life.
"A race of beings similar to Humans called the Eslik were happy to keep to the surface for millions of years, leaving us to live happily below the earth. But then they developed magic." She spat.
"They learned how to exploit the electromagnetic ley lines they flowed through the planet, allowing them to conjure feats of incredible strength and creation."
"Soon after discovering they ley lines they used their magic to siphon off and control the mineral-rich magma that filled them and condensed them into key points within their settlements, empowering them even further."
"Eventually, our food source dried up, thanks to the actions of the Eslik, and we were forced to venture to the surface to find enough food to feed our people."
The scene shifts to show a frightened-looking queen guiding her children out of the entrance of the cave, only to be met with fire and lightning raining down upon them.
"The Eslik refused to allow us emerge from under the earth, claiming that the magma draining away had been our fault and attacking us whenever we tried to escape."
"So, we took matters into our own hands."
The scene shifts again until we're standing on a cliff looking down upon a burning city nestled within a valley.
Screams echoed out across the valley, as three massive queens tore through scores of people, ignoring any attacks thrown at them in return.
"We weren't proud of what we did, but we had to do something or our people would die." The queen said sadly.
"My people feasted upon their flesh, filling bellies that had long been empty, before continuing onto the next settlement to begin again."
"My people who had once been peaceful, living off the bounty of the earth, had now been forced into a life of incredible violence and shame."
"When the Eslik finally responded it was a slaughter."
The scene shifts again and we're standing in a city filled with eggs, surrounded by several queens and millions of adolescents.
Slowly a sickly green fog spready across the ground, causing grass to wither and die and trees to disintegrate as it passed.
"They developed a new type of magic, combining several elements into one spell with devastating results." She says as the we watch the fog creep closer to the oblivious Kryssik.
When the fog finally touched the first adolescent, the Kryssik drops to the ground, writhing in pain, before its flesh melts out of its armor and pool on the ground, leaving an empty husk behind.
The cloud continues through the swarm until it dissipates, revealing a pile of dead Kryssiks and three dead queens.
"The spell was designed specifically to counter our exoskeletons, entering the body through the smallest of gaps and leaving nothing but our empty shells behind."
"But luckily, before the Eslik had finished their extermination, and with the help of a powerful, sympathetic wizard, my mother set in motion a plan to save our people."
The scene shifts for a final time to show a queen handing a tall, bearded man an egg before it lights up and vanishes into thin air.
"My mother entrusted my egg to a powerful spatial mage." She explained. "He agreed to help her save my people as long as the egg was sent off planet."
"Using his magic, he activated a complex teleportation spell, designed to search for a suitable home before delivering me to its' surface."
"When I hatched I was completely alone. No nurse to pierce my egg and lift me to my feet, no queen to mother me and provide me guidance, alone."
"I wandered through Urtol's caves for over a hundred years, scavenging what minerals I could, and hiding from the Stelken that called them home."
"Eventually, after consuming enough minerals to molt, I emerged into my queen form, unlocking the mind scape as my predecessors had before me and giving me access to their memories held within."
"I spent the next 4,000 years scavenging and raising my children, trying to keep them fed as best I could, but now I can sense that my eggs are drying up, and before long, I will die, with my children along side me."
Her tone change from sad to serious in an instant.
"That is where I need your help Lieutenant Clark." She then lowered herself to the ground as if begging for my help.
"I only have enough strength left to produce a single queen egg. I beg you, please allow me to entrust her to you, and help save my people just as the kind wizard did millennia ago."
I stood quietly for a long time, shocked by the mighty queen who now prostrated herself before me before responding.
"What makes you so sure I won't just squash the egg as soon as you lay it?"
She slowly rises back to match my height before moving her head in front of mine, peering into my eyes before responding.
"I know who you are. You may not see it within yourself now, but you are a kind hearted human, who cares deeply for the well being of his friends."
"I could feel your shame and guilt when I mourned for my children before. No cruel human would feel that way for one of my people."
I nod before replying with a light tone in my voice.
"All right, I'll take the job. After all, it's an entire species we're talking about. Plus, you don't seem half bad now that we've officially met!"
She lowers herself to the ground once more before responding.
"I thank you from the depths of my soul Clark. You truly have a kind heart."
She makes a motion with her forelegs as if to dismiss the illusion around us, but before she can, I interrupt her with a question.
"Before we head back, is there anything I should know about this queen? Anything she needs? What do your people even need to eat?"
She makes another strange laughing sound before answering my questions.
"She will be a patient girl, just like her mother and will not hatch until you will it. Simply knock twice upon her shell when you have found a suitable home and she will emerge."
"She will need lots of minerals to complete her metamorphosis into a queen, the best being gold or gemstones."
"The only thing I request of you is to help her through the hatching process and offer her your guidance. Stir her from her slumber and raise her to her feet like a true daughter of mine. She will have no people of her own on this new world so she will need your helping hand to make it through her difficult journey."
I nodded, having my questions answered to my satisfaction, and the queen raises her legs once more to bring us back to the real world.
Before she does however she speaks once more with a laugh.
"Oh, and one last thing. Queens bond for life, so don't break her heart."
Before I can respond , with a wink from the queen (can spiders even wink?) and a swipe of her forelegs, we return to the cavern, standing within a field of bowing Kryssik.