The revtion about the core systems of the Swirling Swarm wasn’t entirely new information. They had been seen in the past scouring other systems, returning with their plundered resources to their own systems. That would have all made perfect sense if that was where it ended. Repeating that process by raiding others again and again could have been repeated indefinitely if their numbers were small, at significant cost to those around them of course.
There was, however, a simple assumption that had been left out, so basic nobody had needed to consider it before. Raiders would take what they could to supplement their own resources, either to make up for shortfalls or to increase their own wealth. It simply wasn’t feasible for that to be their <em>primary</em> source of resources. At least for food, they had to provide <em>some</em> of their own, right?
Velvet wasn’t sure if she’d seen a field of crops on any of the previouss she had visited. Even if they did have them, they clearly weren’t sufficient. Nor was anyone bothering to do things like make a <em>sustainable</em> living.
Their cores were dead. And they just kept going… out and out, never stopping. The reason that the Trigold Cluster didn’t think they were such arge threat was probably because they <em>hadn’t</em> been. Not in previous millennia. But as centuries dragged on, a bit at a time they kept expanding.
It was bad enough that Velvet was seriously considering asking Aconite to devote more resources to her n. The one that might wipe out the Swirling Swarm and everyone who ever came in contact with any of them… and those who got near <em>those</em> people. The n that might wipe out <em>everyone</em>.
She was considering it. Maybe she would suggest it still. But she believed there to be enough time to respond still. Somehow. They were strong, but limited… to some extent. Yet they never seemed to end their conflict, and they never lost enough to actually get pushed back.
Velvet sent her initial messages, trying to take as neutral of a tone as possible. It was better not to think about however many systems had beenpletely exterminated- with the many more that were currently under their careless upation. The point was, her part of the n couldn’t continue. There weren’t any proper core worlds to spy on. And none of the Swirling Swarm had been bothered enough by what had happened to even make a note somewhere.
The one point of light was that this lowered the maximum poption the Swirling Swarm had from near infinite to <em>half</em> of that or less. Howforting. Velvet could start killing them now and she might finish within ten or a hundred million years.
The few human cultivators that hade along on the same ship weren’t much help. Their morale was just as devastated as hers. The royal guard didn’t make her feel any better, but they <em>did</em> get her back on task.
“Resources must be refreshed,” one of them said. “Energy and food stores are not endless. Unless you mean to handle all of that yourself.”
Perhaps she could. At least, in terms of energy- which was also food for the void ants. As a Domination cultivator, her anchor was a ce where light from certain stars crossed, far away in the Little Alliance. That distance didn’t matter, at least not to any significant decree. The point was, it replenished her power- mainly sourced from Devotion. She didn’t need to get it from a particr ce.
“We will make calctions,” Velvet said. “To estimate the size of this void area, how long it will take to travel, and whether we can cross all the way through safely. As it is, searching the whole area is a fruitless task. At best… we could hope to stumble across the anchor randomly.”
She wasn’t even sure it was one that would remain in a single ce. Anchors weren’t generally meant to be mobile, but that didn’t mean they <em>couldn’t</em> move. Actually, if one went back to the origin of the word they most certainly did- at least asionally. Domination cultivators weren’t ships, but Velvet had numerous examples of anchors moving. Technically, Timothy and Catarina’s anchors never stood still. Not in rtion to the stars they orbited around, thes, or neighboring systems.
None retained an absolute location. Yann’s anchor was self-mobile. Koronis’ anchor- a neb- had certainly bent and deformed normally. The anchor of Zaur Beridze had been sted off of the by Durff. It was too bad that at the time he hadn’t been strong enough to shatter it. That would have saved them a lot of troubleter on.
Velvet needed to find whoever was most prominent among the Swirling Swarm. Would they be on the inner edge of the ring she imagined, drawn along at the rear of the mass… or at the outer edge, leading the charge? She needed information, and she wasn’t going to find it in dead systems.
-----
“Hey! Hey! Anton! I just heard something important!”
The yelling individual was of course Bear Hug. Their energy was <em>very</em> enthusiastic.
“Is that so?” Anton asked. “Go ahead and tell me.”
“I just heard- and this is all the way up in the Scarlet Alliance- I just heard about the spying mission in the Swirling Swarm. They did a lot of bad things and <em>didn’t</em> do a lot of good things! The Swirling Swarm. Not the spies, though I guess they <em>also</em> didn’t nt anything. But it wasn’t theirs. Umm… a lot of people are dead. Ands.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the vition.
“Yes,” Anton said evenly. “I heard.”
“I mean <em>so many</em>! A whole core! Hundreds of systems, maybe!”
“I have already heard this,” Anton said. “But I agree it is awful.”
“What? But I just heard it! And then the information came all the way from there to here!”
The truth was that Anton had heard it earlier because the information hadn’t been told to Bear Hug immediately. However, there was another truthful method where he heard it a bitter. “The distance to here from Velvet isn’t actually significantly different from her to the Scarlet Alliance,” Anton noted. At the very least, the core systems were further north in the upper realms. She was far east, and while not quite on the border not as far from it. “Information reached me from there already.”
“Oh.” Bear Hug looked slightly disappointed. “So what are we going to do?”
“Well, <em>I</em> can’t go to the upper realms. So I won’t be much good on any sort of search. And I do not intend to destroy popteds across the border unless we absolutely <em>have</em> to. I think, however, that I will be finding a nice perch at the southeastern end of their territory for an experiment.”
“What sort of experiment?”
“I wonder if they can learn that an area is forbidden without anyone telling them,” Anton said.
Specifically, Anton would wait for raiding parties to leave their systems. Then he would destroy them. It would take a long time, as they were often quiterge, but if he had a few days he could take down an average one. And he <em>would</em>, as that was the time to transit between systems. At least, when using older ships and having to move en masse.
Anton did need to clear his intent with the Alliance, but he really didn’t want to wait for the problem to fester any further. He had been hoping for some sort of resolution in the next decade due to locating the anchor- or anchors- but that was seeming infeasible. Though perhaps Velvet or someone else might stumble upon an important morsel of information, there were too many ces to search. Less, now, but it was also less clear where the relevant information <em>might</em> be.
-----
Xiopia was a terrible, terrible system. Its stars were small red dwarfs, and the itself wasn’t much good. It was big, certainly. They packed a whole lot of Swirling Swarm people on it. That might be for the best, because otherwise it would have been deathly cold.
There was the slight problem that its soil quality was so atrocious that nobody could grow good crops. It had a thin atmosphere and high gravity. From what had been observed, humans tended not to survive their early years. If they did, they had be cultivators. A harsh environment, but they would ultimatelye out stronger, capable of reaping their foes.
The queen was kidding about that part, of course. They woulde out stunted and crippled. Unnecessary coddling could harm the development of a brood, but first a minimum threshold had to be reached. Certainly, those with great determination would survive. They always did, everywhere. Human will surpassed rational understanding in many cases.
It was a good thing the void ants were aware of how to harvest certain kinds of nutritious fungus, or they would have simply not been able to sustain themselves on the ambient upper energy. It would have been a shame, if Devours Viins had not been able to fulfill her namesake. Technically, she hadn’t earned it yet- but her intentions were pure. Her name had not been shared yet.
Devours Viins dragged herself along. Her eggying quota had been achieved this week. She was unwilling to outpace their current resource gathering, nor to sit around and rely on her underlings to achieve all of their tasks. Slightly more than double gravity wasn’t unbearable for void ants, but it sure made flying much more difficult. Thus, Devours Viins walked like a plebian.
Void ant queens tended to keep their wings now. The limitations that forced them to give them up were easily surpassed by a thriving colony. Space and food were easily managed by a good work crew.
Devours Viins did trust her people to do their jobs… but not all of them were as good at understanding human speech as her. They were younger, among other things. Queens also had a higher rate of learning, a jumpstarted development process. Nutrients and energy were provided generously, such that they could be up to their tasks of leadership.
The human coborators on Xiopia had been extremely unfortunate in their early months of infiltration. Some had been murdered, though without revealing their tasks. They simply appeared too meek, despite their infiltration training. Others had been drawn away to different districts- perhaps they would regain contactter. Still others had been recruited for expeditions. Raids.
Refusing to go would be far too suspicious. Indeed, joining on one of the ‘expeditions’ would provide the Alliance useful information on the activity of their foes. If it was possible to tilt the favor of battle against them, the agents would do so.
It was important for Devours Viins to provide proper support to her human allies. Thus, she was making her way to one of the ships that was being prepared. Sometimes human ships left all at once, without going through sensible preparations. The leader of this one was shaking down surrounding Swirling Swarm members for additional troops, food, and weapons. The queen thought that the one running it was more sensible than most.
Either way, that took time. Devours Viins could ask what traits would be most desired in support staff… or if the humans wanted to continue alone. She didn’t think it was wise, but she would respect that decision if they made it.
Normally, humans didn’t notice void ants. After all, they were nothing. Mixed in among hundreds or thousands of auras just in the nearby block, void ants would be less than nothing. Nobody would pay attention to the ground at their feet except to watch for sneaky humans. Not when chest and neck level were full of vital points that other Swirling Swarms members could attack.
They were terrible ‘allies’. Devours Viins honestly didn’t know how they sustained their numbers. It really didn’t make sense.
Madiha was found squashed in among a bunch of other humans. It took Devours Viins three nips to get her attention. Two more to convince her to vacate the alley where they were for some reason waiting for a trip that would happen <emter</em>.
Void ants werefortable with close proximity, but the Swirling Swarm was a bit much. Except here where it was too cold for them to survive otherwise, perhaps. Xiopia was a terrible.
“What support do you need?” Devours Viins asked from eye level. “I will provide troops as needed.”
Madiha didn’t look very confident that she would get what she needed, but she did make a few requests. Devours Viins hoped she had some who were already trained up, because there wouldn’t be much room to raise new people on the ship. And void ants already didn’t take much space.
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