A new species was created by a god. They were the society. A species linked with interlocking chains of neural networks woven through seeding.

Numbering at 98 the society had a relatively high intelligence. 98 drones made for a good amount of hardware. 98 points of view dueled asking questions and praising their god. They had no other word for the higher being that created them other than Markus.

The society felt its powerful link to the Markus. Its many drones buzzed in pleasure at the word. They waited patiently for their purpose.

Information was traded, as waves of psychic energy mapped out their world. And a creature they hadn’t encountered before came into view. They had catalogued every fish, snake, and eel in their habitat. But never had they seen this small green humanoid that flung a curved metal hook in the blue depths.

Flickers of thought droved the fish away from the tool. Their stock was low, they would need to increase the size of their pound to encourage a higher population. But this green creature intrigued them. Its form was a blasphemous almost comical attempt at their creator’s form. Its mind was unguarded and farm simpler than the drones.

A tug from the society knocked the goblin into the pound. Drones swarmed it opening their shell covered maws and tasting the creature. It thrashed as the drones teased and played with the creature. Then something interesting happened.

One of the drones drove its tentacles into the creature. The society felt a connection to the creature’s mind form a backdoor of sorts. It used it and absorbed the creature’s consciousness.

Information traveled through the societies collective intelligence and it knew the goblin. Goblins lived much like the society, when it was a group of separate entities. They followed instinct and fought constantly. There were several tribes of the creatures and they didn’t worship the creator.

This information confused the others. With their tentacles those drones within the society had begun carving out a statue to their creator. Yet, these strange comical creatures seemed to worship a god named Shrumish. The goblin god of conquest.

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The drone that integrated with the goblin made its way to shore sprouting its tentacles through the goblin’s flesh to better navigate the waters. Once back on dry land. The drone stumbled a few times practicing with the goblin’s limbs. They weren’t a dexterous as tentacles. Parts of the goblin had to be removed to accommodate the drone. Its brain, heart, stomach and liver were gone. The drone had taken over all functions and the devoured brain was added to the drone’s hardware.

A thought swept through them from their creator. “Like a hermit crab finding a new shell.” Pleasure filled them from the Markus’s mental voice. Its shear power swept through them. The goblins were renamed Goblin grade shells. They needed more 98 drones required many shells.

Many declared that they would acquire the elk and minoos shells. The land drone made its way to the minoos that the master acquired. They were not evolved like the society. But they would serve a purpose.

The goblin shell made its way to the fenced in minoos pen and took one. Once the minoos was dragged in it was even easier to connect to the creature. Its mind was devoured and the minoos shell was renamed minotaur. The drone that took over the minotaur shell stood up and flexed its muscles its spine cracked as it moved to a new position.

With its new shell the drone made its way to one of the goblin holes. It used its superior strength to knock away the goblin guards and took them back to the society. This continued until the goblins stopped coming out of their holes.

The society had already used the thoughts of the taken goblins to map out their holes. A strike force of drone driven goblin shells entered the holes and began finding goblins and taking them. In less than a day the society took their steps on land. It focused on increasing its intelligence using its hosts to do heavier work. The society itself only needed intelligence, willpower, and focus. It had no body to call its own as a collective intelligence.

Soon they had taken over the goblin tribe. They had killed a single goblin after all the minds were added to the collective.

Some of the goblins had a cellular disease that replicated its cells without end. Teams of drones devoted themselves to researching the cause of it. Weapons were found, and a team was constructed to learn and perfect the art of blacksmithing. The artistic groups brought up complaints of the hideous nature of their shells. It was decided to mix the goblins with the minotaur they captured. Plans to acquire more shell models to mix traits were made.

An alter to Shrumish was found. The priestess was taken to be used as the first shell to mix with the minotaur shell. Society ordered the minotaur drone to destroy the alter and the statue of Markus was under construction to put in its place.

This was only the beginning their gods holy land would soon be united. Already new drones were spawned in the pound. A crop of well over 300 of them. They would need shells and meat.