Elder Cultivator

The third colony exploded. It happened a day or two before their ship arrived in the area, and humans were still talking about it.

Crossed Antennae immediately set about scouring the area, but she found only what she feared. Also a few human bodies, but those seemed to be from people of the Exalted Quadrant so that didn’t matter. But the main thing she found were tiny remains of the void ants.

She understood why they would do it, of course. The humans wouldn’t find any traces they could make use of. Nor did anyone have expectations of being rescued.

It wasn’t part of the plans. But perhaps it should have been. At the turn of the cycle, Crossed Antennae had to leave so many colonies to handle themselves because she could only be in one place at a time- but here, things weren’t happening all at once. The goal was very different.

Her people weren’t meant to be a buffer against the invasion of the upper realms. They were simply meant to watch over people and knowledge. If in the course of those duties they perished, it would have been acceptable- but they had neither been able to save those around them or themselves.

Though one of her daughters had saved a single individual, and they likely could have saved more. They just hadn’t thought it worthwhile.

Crossed Antennae had to think on this. Individual humans had value, just like individual void ants. It still had to be weighed against their overall mission, and their presence being truly discovered was a massive risk for themselves and the Chaotic Conglomeration. Even so, they were necessary to keep tabs on those who had agreed to follow certain rules in exchange for the knowledge of the Alliance- and to keep it out of the hands of the Exalted Quadrant.

Mostly, they should have expected that she would come for them. But how could they have, when even she didn’t truly know? It was a risk that almost seemed to lack any proper form of balance.

-----

“You two,” she said to the twins. “Be prepared to act if it is necessary. I will survey the situation.”

The colony had been monitoring a group of the Serene Pill Society… and Crossed Antennae also determined that was who they were fighting.

She dove into the fighting with her royal guard and other high ranking followers, but she did not immediately begin to assault the humans. Instead, they pulled aside some of the void ants.

“Bring me to your queen,” she declared. “I need a report on the situation.”

“Impossible,” replied the soldier she was speaking to. Crossed Antennae was about to remind him who was ultimately in charge, but the wording of the soldier gave her pause. The soldier continued. “The queen has perished. Senior queen, are you taking command?”

“Who can I ask about what is happening? Why are you fighting the humans?”

“I follow one of the royal guard. I can help you get in contact.”

That help was slightly sidetracked by having to finish taking down a human that they were in combat with. They were flinging fire everywhere, which could have been quite troublesome if all the heat didn’t come from the energy aspects. If they actually just lit the area on fire, void ants would burn to death. Focusing on unnatural levels of heat made things relatively safe for the void ants. At the very least, they didn’t all burn up.

The royal guard in question was burnt to a crisp on one side, though. That didn’t stop her from standing as straight as she could when Crossed Antennae appeared. “Queen. What is your desire?”

“Report. Why are you fighting the humans? Short version.” Fighting was still going on, after all.

“Our queen found evidence of this sect conspiring with the Exalted Quadrant. If their continued existence after the invasion wasn’t evidence enough.”

“Are there physical pieces of evidence?” Crossed Antennae asked. She dismissed the possibility that she was being lied to. “The humans may need it.”

“Unfortunately not. It was something only a select few of the guard overheard.”

“Point me to the highest ranking humans. I will help capture them for interrogation by others.” They had room for a couple more. “Then we will resolve the matter of the bodies.”

The battle was half over already, but not all of the humans were doing as poorly as the fire user. The Serene Pill Society had poisons, after all. Even if they weren’t necessarily made for void ants, sufficient quantities could cause them some issues- and a few humans had managed that.

“Bullet. Fire.” Crossed Antennae called the two of them forward. “Help identify the poisons being used- or otherwise come up with counters.” She sent a few soldiers back to the ship to report on the situation.

Then she set about trying to find the strongest remaining cultivator. It was an old man flinging about handfuls of powder… but any time he tried to broaden the spread with his energy the void ants congregating around him caused his efforts to fall flat. Without that, he nearly ended up poisoning himself. Void ants were dying by the hundreds and thousands, but their seemingly endless numbers kept him constrained.

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He was powerful, but he wasn’t that fast. Crossed Antennae didn’t know what the powder did, but it didn’t matter if it never got near her. She flew in from above, all at once chomping down on his energy while releasing pheromones to call off the attack. If the void ants tore him apart, he wouldn’t be much good as a captive.

Of course, there were some things he didn’t need- like the tendons in his arms which were currently trying to fling about death. She called upon the insights of her two most cutting royal guards to help deal with that, as her mandibles were insufficiently swift.

She continued to gnaw on the man’s energy, tearing it out of him as she made her way towards his legs. She was a bit careful with how she bit as he had gotten some of his powders on his legs, but a few void ants who were either insubordinate or extraordinarily brave worked with her to topple the man- away from the major clouds of poison. He probably wasn’t immune to all of those things.

In the end, about a quarter of the local void ants survived and they captured three humans in various states of functional. Everything except for their energy, of course. Crossed Antennae wasn’t gentle with that. Ripping energy out of people was hard on them, and they’d have trouble gathering any more for quite some time even in the best circumstances for recovery.

-----

Misi and Juli carried the captured cultivators into the ship, with restraints in case they could move or use their energy. Then they set about solving the issue of the bodies.

“We should just burn everything,” Juli said. “They already half started the process. It will obviously look like someone covering up evidence when we do it, but as long as it actually does… it won’t matter. You should set up a formation,” she said to her brother. “So that nobody will think void ants. It should leave little but bone dust behind.”

“You should start sorting bodies,” Misi said.

“Sure thing,” Juli agreed.

Bryndis looked around nervously. “I suppose I should as well…?”

“If you feel up for it,” Misi shrugged. “I can tell you’re not entirely comfortable.”

“Well, you know. Void ants.” She whispered the last, as if that would make a difference. There were probably some hanging out on her. Misi didn’t need to tell her that, though.

“Don’t worry. They understand how scary they are. But we trust them,” Misi explained. “And if there is some mistake, I have no doubt that Crossed Antennae will personally see to the execution of any rogue void ants.”

“Alright.” Bryndis frowned. “I’ve seen some of these people.”

“You can just go back to the ship.”

“No, it’s alright. We weren’t friends. I’ve dealt with death before. Is it odd I’m upset they survived this long and my sect mates didn’t?”

“Not really. Especially if they’re responsible for some of this. They might have been the ones to give you up.”

“... perhaps I should have let myself be captured, if it could have spared a planet.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Juli called from where she was shoving things aside to make room for Misi’s formation work. “They would have just gotten you and massacred everyone anyway. Remember, it’s never your fault if someone wants to kill you for being special.”

Bryndis tilted her head. “Is that… a thing people say?”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“Where we come from… most recently,” Juli shrugged. “Enemies always try to make those who are powerful but decent deal with themselves. But the kind of people who threaten innocents are just going to kill more of them later.”

Misi was crawling along the ground, carving temporary formation markings- there was no point in using expensive materials for a one-time activation. “They say that those who are going to die for something like that should at least try to die fighting to save people. Unless people are just asking for stuff. Then you can just trade it, make sure people are safe, and then deal with problems. Now then, let’s try to finish up before any neighbors come to investigate.”

-----

While flames of war sparked and grew in the western portion of the upper realms, Anton was dealing with the most important thing. It might not seem like a relatively small number of people in one system mattered, but they did. It wasn’t because they were entirely new, providing revelations into the cultivation of plants. It was because nobody else was there for them, so it became the most important thing he could be doing.

Like Moturn and Unov. The total population of those two planets had been only a small fraction of major systems- or even many planets. Yet that didn’t make them not matter. Likewise, even if Anton found only a few hundreds or thousands of sapient individuals in Klar’s system, people still mattered.

It didn’t have to be him, though. Soon, Anton would be introducing Lev to the plant cultivators. He’d just needed to be certain it wouldn’t seem like he was going to try to enslave them or something. That meant building up trust first.

The destruction that had swept over the planet had come to an end. The damaged regions weren’t suddenly recovered, but they were limited enough on a planetary scale that they should recover within a few years. Probably just about in time for it to all happen over again. Anton wasn’t certain what the frequency might be, but he’d observed a sort of pattern passing through the planets.

Bear Hug traveled with him back to their home, where the traveling algae walked right into the significantly larger mass out on the lake, flopping down like one would onto a bed.

“I’m tired,” Bear Hug said as a whole. “I don’t like being eaten. I’m going to go tell the briar patch that later. And I’m going to convince Helix to come live here.” They gestured towards a snail on the shore. “At least Rocky will be here for me.”

“That’s right,” Anton said. The biggest difficulty here was the lack of a network for the cultivators- no, for the people. Perhaps plants that gained sapience didn’t have the same need for companionship that humans did, but Bear Hug was a clear example that some of them cared about it. The briar patch was a clear sign of antisocial behavior, so there was also that extreme. “I can’t always be around. Though if I bond to the star…”

With an energy based language, he might just be able to talk to people in the system. It would be a bit of an excessive use of energy to reach a planet, but it could work.

Anton did a slight check of the system’s unity readiness. It wasn’t significantly closer than it had been before- but it was closer. Presumably, one of the minds that had been changed was Helix. Not that he intended to pressure any individuals. He didn’t want to push his attempt at Unity too often either, as he didn’t know what the reaction might be.