Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

Chapter 132 Third Party

In the main nest chamber beneath the planet's mantle, Sierra floats in a warm biological nutrient solution, sensing war signals from an alien galaxy.

In another star system, those cold, metallic constructs crashed against her fleet's defenses like tireless tides, the beams of their main cannons illuminating the dark space time and again, tearing apart the biological warships beneath her.

Her consciousness was like a giant net covering the surrounding galaxy. Every biological warship, every combat flying insect, and every inch of the surface's fungal carpet was connected to her consciousness and controlled in real time by the lower-level nerve centers.

She could clearly sense how the metal constructs' artillery fire tore apart the chitinous shells of her offspring, how the corrosive acid vaporized in vain on the enemy's shields, and how the newborn offspring in the hatchery were burned to charcoal by orbital bombardment before they even had a chance to fly out of the atmosphere.

All of this reminded her of the battles she faced before she even arrived in this star system.

In the nutrient solution, Sera's body slowly stretched out. Her body was huge, but not as bloated as before. Her lower half merged with the wall of the main nest chamber. Countless tendrils, like nerve cords, extended from her abdomen and pierced into the flesh and blood tissue of the chamber wall.

The upper part retains the outline of a humanoid torso, with delicate pearly white skin, no grotesque deformities, no superfluous organs, and smooth, perfect lines, like the most meticulously crafted biological artwork.

The pair of slightly trembling, coral-like antennae on her forehead, and the thin, cicada-wing-like membranes folded behind her back—these still-retained features proclaim her as the absolute ruler of this swarm of predatory bees, the sole queen.

Her compound eyes closed slightly, and her consciousness, following the nerve connections, commanded the fleet at the front, which was being gradually eroded, to abandon most of its defense zone in space and relocate all its combat power to the planet's near-Earth orbit, building a final defensive perimeter.

"It's clearly just a 'granary' planet, what a bunch of insane, lumpy iron lunatics."

As Sera remotely issued the order, the creep on the planet at the front line of the battlefield began to throb violently, and dark green biomass nutrient solution surged wildly through the blood vessel-like channels beneath the creep towards the giant underground hatching nest.

The hatching sacs, resembling giant eggs, expanded at a visible rate, with the embryos inside developing rapidly, preparing for the even more brutal battle to come.

After doing all this, Sera slowly opened her compound eyes. The pale purple pupils reflected the bioluminescence that kept jumping on the top of the chamber. A trace of fatigue spread from the depths of her consciousness.

The war was so tedious that she gained nothing from it; it was a completely unprofitable deal she was forced to undertake.

From the moment those cold, metallic creations invaded her territory, the war never ceased. She immediately dispatched diplomatic sub-creatures carrying communication glands to try to establish contact with them and demonstrate that her civilization was not hostile.

However, those metal constructs didn't even give her a chance to communicate. The biological ships of the diplomatic sub-entities were instantly vaporized by laser beams as soon as they approached the enemy fleet formation.

The other party sent only a cold, undecipherable mechanical signal, and Sera could sense pure, extreme malice in that signal—malice that sought to exterminate all organic life.

The war broke out without any warning.

At first, Sera didn't take these metal creations seriously. Her swarms of bees had an inexhaustible reproductive capacity. As long as there was enough biomass, they could hatch an endless stream of offspring, overwhelming any opponent with their overwhelming numbers.

But this time, she encountered an enemy completely beyond her comprehension.

These metal constructs don't care about battle damage. When their warships are destroyed, the wreckage is immediately recycled and recast on the spot, becoming new combat units on the battlefield. Meanwhile, her offspring die in large numbers but cannot be replenished with biomass, ultimately failing to keep up with the enemy's battlefield endurance.

Sera's consciousness fluctuated slightly, her whiskers trembled gently, and ripples spread across the nutrient solution.

Faced with the firepower of war and orbital bombardment, she recalled a past that seemed to have occurred in another life.

At that time, she had no name, only a cold code name: a branch nest mother under the main nest. She had no thoughts of her own, no will of her own, and all her actions were controlled by the template engraved in her genes and the will of the main nest.

Her sole purpose is to hatch offspring, expand the colony, devour all biomass she encounters, and contribute to the expansion of the entire bee colony.

She led her fleet to invade star systems one after another, watching those civilizations tremble under the swarm's attack, watching planets be covered by creep, and watching countless lives be transformed into biomass to nourish the colony in the mouths of her offspring.

She showed no emotional fluctuations, neither cruel nor merciful, simply carrying out the instructions of the main hive, like a finely functioning biological machine.

At that time, she was no different from other branch nest mothers. The combat units she hatched were based on templates set by the main nest, the way she transformed planets was a process engraved in her genes, and even the fleet formations and attack tactics were exactly the same as those of other branches.

She was like a cell in the body of a giant swarm of bees, a cell that could be replaced at any time, without self, without freedom, only eternal, numb execution.

Until that day, the day she could never forget, the day she was granted her freedom.

She led her fleet to invade a star system, established a new nest deep within that rocky planet, and then waged war against the civilization that inhabited that planet.

She commanded the war from deep within the planet until an irresistible, terrifying aura suddenly enveloped the entire galaxy.

The entire planet began to tremble violently, its crust was torn apart, and her main nest, along with her body, was forcibly pulled out from the depths of the earth by an invisible force and dragged into the cold space.

That was the first time she had felt fear that transcended the will of the hive.

She hovered in space, and all her offspring instantly lost their ability to move, crawling trembling in the void, even their most basic instinct to attack vanished.

She looked up and saw the enormous, silvery-white dragon skeleton that seemed to obscure the light of the stars.

The oppressive aura emanating from the dragon bone was an absolute suppression of the inferior by the superior from the depths of the bloodline, a thousand times stronger than when she faced the will of the main nest, like an ant facing a dragon, or a stream facing an ocean.

The omnipresent will of the master that had filled her consciousness vanished without a trace the moment that strange energy swept over her body, like ice and snow meeting the scorching sun.

At that moment, the whole world fell silent.

The feeling of being filled with the will of the master nest disappeared, the shackles that bound her were broken, and for the first time, her consciousness completely belonged to herself.

An unprecedented sense of emptiness overwhelmed her, followed by an indescribable bewilderment, and then a surge of almost frenzied ecstasy.

She is free.

She is no longer just a tool of the main hive; she can not only think, but also make her own decisions and choose the path she wants to take.

She prostrated herself before the dragon-bone figure with the most humble and devout posture of her race, opening her consciousness without reservation to express the most complete submission.

She didn't know how this great being would deal with her; perhaps it would crush her and her offspring as easily as squashing an insect. But the dragon-bone figure did not harm her.

He simply swept over her and all her offspring once more with that strange, domineering energy, then enveloped them and banished them to the endless depths of space.

So Sera and her offspring drifted in the cold, deep air for a very, very long time.

Having lost the instructions of the main nest, she was initially at a loss. Her genetic instincts made her want to find biomass, hatch offspring, devour, and expand. However, her newly born free will made her start to think for the first time about why she wanted to do this.

What meaning could her existence have other than devouring and destroying?

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