Morph Logs : Sil'fer

[Gunbladelad]

(//oorp : Feedback thread)

Birth...

The entity ventured from the spawning grounds. It instinctively knew where it was, and that it would return time and again, in it's search for knowledge. Here, it's link with the Mindshare was strongest, until it could find the home of it's kind and truly join the Mindshare.

The 3 planets in the system had no names - it's kind had no need to name them, as they were of no use to them. They lacked the nutritional grasses the creators had made to sustain it's kind. There was, however, a space-borne structure, that emitted energy it could ingest to sustain itself, but not enough to grow.

As the entity approached the structure, a word came to it, over the tenuous link to the mindshare - "Shrine". It sensed various alien life forms - all of the same species - inside the structure, infesting a small part of it, although the emotions emanating from them seemed to be wonder at witnessing a newborn of it's species. The entity took sustenance from the emissions emanating from one end of the structure and instinctively went to a location it knew would quickly take it to a distant region of space to begin it's search for knowledge.

---

The first journey...

The entity approached the anomaly that would take it to within range of another star. It was beside the solitary planet near it's birthplace. The journey through the anomaly would be mere seconds, rather than the years it would take to travel through the darkness between stars

Anticipating much learning, the entity plunged into the anomaly. When it emerged in a large asteroid belt of what appeared to be frozen liquid, if found that it's already weak link to the Mindshare had faded to almost nothing. Seeking reassurance, it dived back into the anomaly.

As soon as it emerged again, it could knew something was wrong. Rather than the brightness of the birthplace, it was in a dark, polluted place. It registered immediate warmth, followed by pain. The dark region was hurting it. The enitity headed towards the faint glow of the nearest star, seeking it's healing warmth and light. As it was emerged from the darkness, it realized it wasn't moving through asteroids, but what seemed to be simplistic, but broken and twisted, structures. It stopped beside one of them in the light to examine it. The structure appeared to have been created from melting and combining minerals found on many planets in this region of the galaxy. Movement, and the bright glow of fear emanating from somewhere nearby distracted it from it's investigation.

It found what appeared to be a small intact structure housing a bipedal life form moving through the debris. As soon as the entity went in front of the structure to examine it, the biped's fear rose, and the structure changed direction, heading for another, larger, structure nearer the nearby star. As the entity was planning on going to the Sun for it's healing light anyway, it decided to follow the biped and the curious structure.

As they approached the larger structure, more and more small structures became detached from it, and all of them were coming towards the entity. They all emanated fear, aggression and hate. The entity changed direction, deciding to leave it's analysis for a later time. Giving the large structure a wide berth, it approached the Star, absorbing it's energies.

The entity remained there for a time, observing the solar system it was in. There were 2 large clouds of darkness, and 3 planets - one of which had a moon, and seemed to have an abundance of life. It noticed a small debris field between the 2 dark clouds, apparently caught in the gravitational pull of something it couldn't sense at this range. It decided to approach the debris field and found another anomaly, as well as several of the bipeds in their mobile structures using it for passage. It held it's distance so it wouldn't alarm the bipeds too much, then, when there were none near the anomaly, it dived through.

---

The elder

The entity had explored several systems using a network of Anomalies, and by chance it found itself in the same system it first found itself after leaving the birthplace. This time, it sensed one of it's own kind, and a strenghtening of the mindshare. The entity reached out, and recieved an image of one of the planets in the system - a lush, green planet with liquid covering much of the surface. It went to the planet and found one of the more mature members of it's kind. The elder introduced itself as "Annukai" and began to share knowledge.

Through the Mindshare, it learned much about the region and it's kind, but not how to reach where they currently called "home". Among the knowledge was the name of it's own kind. Their species was called the "Slolom K'hara", and the bipeds called themselves "Human". The Humans were invaders to this region of the galaxy, having originated elswhere, and had destroyed or stolen many sacred relics that would have given the Slolom K'Hara clues on how to find the creators, as well as much more knowledge. Some of the knowledge had been used by the humans, to create structures that were capable of anomalies that created "tunnels" to nearby regions of space - similar to the gateways the creators had left. Annukai showed the entity how to activate the human-made machines, that the humans called "Jumpgates".

One thing Annukai held back from the entity was how to find the home of it's own kind. The entity was still too young to find it's way there. The entity realised that "Annukai" was a name - to differentiate itself from others of it's species. The entity searched itself for a name. While it was considering this, it became aware of many of the mobile human structures gathering near the planet. "Darkname, Erie", came the thought from Annukai, identifying the name humans had given the planet. Feeling sheltered by the elder, despite the fear and aggression emanating from the humans.

The entity had just decided on it's own name - "Sil'fer" when one of the moble human structures, sent a painful surge of energy at it. When the entity quizzed Annukai about the attacker, Annukai sent back a single word, "Ship" before emanating a massive wave of rage that the humans would attack a youngling. As Annukai sent destructive waves of energy at the human "ship", more and more of the human ships began to attack. While most of them focused on Annukai, the initial attacker focused on Sil'fer, causing more and more pain, until Sil'fer's body was unable to cling to life.

As it's thoughts began to dissipate into the Mindshare, Annukai sent one comforting thought to Sil'fer before proceeding to exact revenge on the humans.

"Rebirth, soon..."

With this, Sil'fer knew that it would "live" again soon, and be reborn in a new body, similar to the one it had just lost.

---

Conflict...

Sil'fer's next encounter with Annukai was a few short hours later. Having been reborn after the previous body's death had proved to be painful, but blessedly short. It used the knowledge Annukai had imparted to activate the human "Jumpgate" in the system the anomaly from the birthplace lead to. It lead to a region of space cloaked in darkness, with oddly-shaped asteroids, and there were many human ships within range of Sil'fer's sense. Further still, Sil'fer sensed Annukai's presence. The image of another planet with a star beyond it appeared in sil'fer's mind, showing where Annukai was.

As Sil'fer set out to rejoin Annukai, it became aware through the Mindshare with several other young Slolom K'Hara, scattered throughout the system. Annukai had been attacked and forced through a rebirth itself by the humans, and in retaliation, Annukai had attacked the planet in this system with a massive infestation of humans. Once again, the humans were hunting not just Annukai, but the other young Slolom K'Hara in the system.

Annukai imparted knowledge on the younger Slolom K'Hara, teaching them how to disrup the human high-speed transportation network close to the star, and instructed them to disrupt the human search effort. Sil'fer joined with one of the other young and disrupted the networks in several occasions, taunting the human ships by hiding in the dark cloud that it had emerged into and using it to lose the human ships.

Over the next hour, one by one, the other young had their host bodies destroyed by the humans, each time causing a backlash through the Mindshare that confused Sil'fer, enraging Annukai with each "death" to the point where Annukai bravely, but futily attacked the main bulk of the human attack ships. Sil'fer, also inflamed with rage raced towards the elder to aid Annukai, but unfortunately arrived barely in time to witness Annukai's body be destroyed by the human ships with it's own senses.

The backlash from the mindshare from Annukai's body's pain at being destroyed proved to be so great that Sil'fer passed right through the now-substantial group of human vessels before it could regain it's wits. Sil'fer immediately knew that it didn't want to undergo another rebirth and started trying to escape the humans. Survival was important to Sil'fer, and it knew that it would be unable to avenge any of the "deaths" of the other Slolom K'Hara. Fortunately, Sil'fer's appearance appeared to catch the humans by surprise, with many of them not even reacting to it's presence. Several of the smaller human ships gave chase, however.

Eventually, Sil'fer had managed to gain enough distance from the humans to hide from their search attempts. Watching the humans, Sil'fer resolved that it would monitor the humans in this particular small cluster of stars, to learn as much as it could about them. These particular humans had caused much pain and suffering to it's kind, and once Sil'fer had learned and grown, it would ensure the humans paid in kind. Sil'fer also sensed that the planet Annukai had attacked also had something of great importance to the Slolom K'Hara. This planet would serve as the focus of Sil'fer's investigations of the humans.

---

Return...

Silfer left it's investigation of the star system and the curious planet and began to instinctively wander to other systems. It needed the strengthened connection to the Mindshare near the Shrine to communicate all it had learned. It wandered through several systems before finding a system with a bright pink nebula beyond a green Gas giant.
Instinctively, Sil'fer knew it had found the route back to the birthplace, and the Shrine. The system seemed to be surprisingly devoid of human activity, with only a few remnants left from past human activity. As Sil'fer explored the system, it sensed occasionally human curiosity somewhere close to where it had entered, but the sheer size of the system meant that the chance of the humans detecting Sil'fer were minimal.

Eventually, Sil'fer made it to the creators' gateway to the birthplace, and spent some time ordering it's own thoughts before going through. It did notice, however, that the creator's gateway appeared damaged, but was still operational It didn't seem to have the power to create an anomaly large enough for an Elder such as Annukai to enter, however.

Sil'fer activated the creators' gateway, and examined the gateway in the birthplace. While it looked largely intact, it seemed to be incapable of opening the anomaly back to the other gateway. Sil'fer decided it would examine the other gateway next time, as it was more likely the damaged one at fault. With that, Sil'fer headed directly towards the shrine. It now knew that the Shrine wasn't truly a structure, but a life form left by the creators to monitor the birthplace, and to nourish the young. Sil'fer also knew now how it was capable of latching onto the Shrine.

Once it had attached itself to the Shrine, Sil'fer again became aware of the aliens infesting the Shrine. It now realised that the aliens here were none other than the bipedal humans, but rather than emanating fear, hate and aggression, these ones emanated love and awe at Sil'fer's return to the birthplace. These humans almost placed as much reverence on the Slolom K'Hara as Sil'fer felt towards the creators.

Humanity was by far a far more curious species than Sil'fer had observed in it's first journey out from the birthplace, and resolved to attempt to find out more about the species as a whole. Those in the star cluster it had been in would be investigated first - Sil'fer hadn't forgotten about the pain those particular groups of humans had caused it.

---

Hive

Sil'fer's next outward bound journey was one of pure exploration. It ventured through many systems and saw many different styles of human ships. Each cluster of stars it visited seemed to have different shapes dominant in the designs. While two cluster's ships seemed to have stylised "wings" at the rear of many ships, while another cluster's ships seemed to have downward-pointing spines at the front. Yet another cluster seemed to prefer bulky forms with bulges on the top of the ships. In all these systems, Silfer kept a considerable distance from the orbital plane to avoid detection from the human ships, only going in to venture through the anomalies to other systems.

Eventually, Sil'fer found a star that had an active mindshare close to it, and there was no human activity within range of Sil'fer's senses. Aside from the star, all that was visible in the system was a single planet, 2 anomalies and a small nebula.

The mindshare presence seemed to be localised around the small nebula on the opposite side of the star, so Sil'fer headed there. Once it entered the nebula, it picked up joy that a youngling had made it this far, but there was some other emotion there too, that Sil'fer could't quite identify.

There was many Slolom K'Hara here, some of which were entering or exiting a hive-like structure. Sil'fer approached the hive, only to be repelled by the mindshare. 3 clear words came over the mindshare, so clear that almost every Slolom K'Hara in the nebula must have sent it as one. "Learn, grow, return". Sil'fer knew that it could come here for safety, but would be denied access to the hive until it had learned enough, and strengthened it's link to the mindshare enough to grow. Silfer spent some time sharing it's knowledge with the mindshare and even relaxing among it's own kind.

Eventually, Sil'fer decided to return to the distant star cluster, with the curious planet and hostile humans who had killed so many young's bodies, to learn as much as it could about them.

---

Investigation...

Over a period of time, Sil'fer slowly investigated the planet and the structures in orbit around it. Such an investigation was dangerous, as the humans would always attack the moment Sil'fer was spotted. For some reason the planet seemed highly important to them, possibly due to the sheer amount of humans there.

One thing Sil'fer did find out, however, was that while the humans were vastly numerous, they were also a divided and conflicted species, fractured into many groups. Most of these groups would attack and kill some other groups, but tolerate others. They did, however, occasionally join forces to hunt down any Slolom K'Hara that were spotted.

While many of the humans had seen Sil'fer in the region, several of them left it alone rather than attack. Those that attacked most often seemed to have similar markings on the outside of the vessels, while those that didn't attack were vastly varied in both their ships and markings.

During this time, Sil'fer encountered several other young Slolom K'Hara, although most of these went on to explore other star clusters and were only encountered once or twice. One that was nearly as persistent as Sil'fer in it's investigation of this particular cluster of stars called itself "Do'Kran". On their first meeting, Sil'fer had felt such a kinship with Do'Kran that it had decided to lead the younger Slolom K'Hara to the hive it had previously discovered in a distant system. Over the next few weeks, between the two of them, they were able to sense several artifacts left by the creators on the surface of the planet the humans called "Manhattan", but were unable to pinpoint the locations. There was simply far too many energy emissions on the surface for them to actually find the artifacts.

Each investigation was followed by either a rebirth if Sil'fer was careless, or a journey back to the Shrine. Regardless, Sil'fer felt it's link to the mindshare slowly growing over time. It was finally starting to get a sense of where the Slolom K'hara called home.

---

Pursuit...

Sil'fer was investigating a solar system relatively close to the one at the centre of it's investigations, when it sensed up several emmissions from human ships. It had learned that some of these emmissions were used by the humans to communicate with each other when in different ships. Fear and hate emanated strongly from the humans, and Sil'fer knew that they were looking for it.

For some time Sil'fer observed the humans from a distance while they franticly searched for it, knowing that Sil'fer was close, but seemingly unable to find it. Many of the humans seemed unable to think of searching above or below the orbital plane in most solar systems, and Sil'fer had used this to it's advantage on many occassions. One of the human ships finally got close enough to Sil'fer to physically see it and with several frantic communication emmisions, the other human ships began to close in on Sil'fer's position.

Not wishing another painful body "death" and subsequent rebirth, Sil'fer fled directly towards a nearby anomaly and plunged into it. The humans followed, and Sil'fer proceeded to head towards another anomaly - this one leading to the star system it had investigated so much. With the humans pursuing, it sensed it's best chance to evade them would be in one of the darker regions of in that system. Sil'fer made it to the anomaly and started to flee towards a dense cloud of matter near the smaller dry planet with a moon.

As Sil'fer drew within sight of 2 human structures, it realised that some of the humans had somehow gotten ahead of it, and was forced to evade multiple energy projectiles. With more humans actively hunting it, Sil'fer knew it's chances of survival were slim and fled with redoubled effort for the dense cloud of matter.

Sil'fer had barely got into the cloud when a white glow of dangerous energy appeared in front of it. It had stumbled onto one of the larger human ships, this one itself hiding in the particle cloud. As Sil'fer evaded the attacks, it noticed the large ship had different markings from the small human ships chasing and that it also attacked Sil'fer's pursuers.

Deciding that this was likely the best way to throw off it's pursuers, Sil'fer exited the dense cloud and turned to go past the larger ship again. This time, however, the large ship was prepared, and it's weapons were accurate this time. Trapped between pursuers and accurate attacks, Sil'fer had no choice but to be reborn again.

---

Hunters...

Sil'fer had been exploring a system close to the one containing the curious planet the humans called "Manhattan" and was returning to the Shrine to communicate all it had encountered to the Mindsare when a group of human ships began to chase it. Unusually these humans seemed to be less accurate with their energy discharges than they usually were and Sil'fer could sense from the human emotions that it was deliberate.

Sil'fer attempted to get away from the humans but before long was forced towards a larger human ship hiding in a debris field close to Manhattan itself. This ship was similar to some of the larger ships in this particular cluster of stars, but seemed to be markedly different somehow. The emotions from the humans on the ship varied wildly. There was fear, hate and hostility. The overwhelming emotions however were confidence, and something else. Something predatory. The joy of hunting prey and toying with it.

Silfer spent some time attempting to evade the large human ship, fearful of what the humans were planning, but the smaller ships kept herding it back towards it. Eventually some new form of energy emanated from the large human ship, trapping Sil'fer and stopping it from moving. A projectile shot out of the large human ship, puncturing into Sil'fer's body and lodging there. Within moments, Sil'fer could feel a regular pulsing energy emanation from the projectile, and after a couple of these emanations, the energy field holding Sil'fer suddenly vanished.

Wasting no time, Sil'fer fled from the humans and this time, they didn't pursue. Instead there was a surge of joy and pride from the humans on all of the ships present, and Sil'fer was certain that it was to do with the object that was now imbedded in it's body. Until it could find some way of removing the object, it dared not return to the Shrine. The pulsing emanations meant something, and Sil'fer was certain that they were stong enough for the humans to detect it from a great distance.

---

Retaliation...

Several days had passed with Sil'fer remaining in the star cluster, never staying still for long. On the few occasions it remained still near the stars themselves to absorb the energies, human ships began to appear close to the edge of Sil'fer's senses. A serious concern for Sil'fer was that it seemed to be the same ships, or at least, the same humans, that appeared time and time again.

Eventually Sil'fer's rage with the constant human presence grew to the point it started towards the latest human ship, which appeared to be the same large one that had implanted the object previously. As it got closer, it sensed a smaller human ship close to it, the humans on it emanating hostility towards the larger vessel. Sil'fer charged between the vessels and started to dart around them, emanating hostility of it's own.

The smaller ship began to send energy towards Sil'fer, damaging it's body, so Sil'fer, now enraged, sent pulses of it's own energy back to the human ship while darting around the larger one. Sil'fer sensed emanations going between the two human ships, each one seemingly raising the hostility between the humans on each one. Those emanations weren't important, however, and defending itself from the attacker was.

Eventually, the smaller ship caused enough damage to Sil'fer that it's body started to break down and cease to function. Feeling a wave of dismay from the larger human ship, Sil'fer realised that when it was reborn again, the human device would no longer be there. This rebirth, while still painful, would be one to welcome. With that in mind, Sil'fer welcomed the pain of this "death" and dived into it's weak link with the mindshare

---

Ruins

Sil'fer had begun to explore the systems near the Hive it had previously encountered. It didn't want to encounter the humans that had hunted then released it again. Somehow Sil'fer knew that the human actions could only have dire consequences for it's kind.

On one of the journeys between Star clusters, it encountered 2 young morphs, both less than a week old. Feeling strength in numbers, they ventured through an anomaly in the system with the Hive that Sil'fer hadn't previously explored. In this new system, there was a mindshare, but it seemed undeveloped, and emanating pain. Sil'fer and the other morphs ventured towards the strange mindshare.

When they eventually arrived, they encountered a series of crystaline structures. Sil'fer instinctively knew it was a slolom K'hara city and was about to send the thought, "Home" to the two young morphs, when it realised the brightness and stars were all wrong. Reaching out with it's senses, Sil'fer began to sense humans infesting a structure attached to the ancient city with a few small groups of humans inside the city itself.

Directing the two younger nomads to a massive asteroid near the ancient city, they observed the city itself and humans for some time. Curiously, they had not been detected, despite several human ships passing well within sight. Sil'fer surmised this was possibly due to the still-active Slolom K'Hara energy emissions coming from the city. From what they could sense, it appeared to be that the humans were destroying the area of the city they in, and carrying parts to the structure they had erected.

With the desecration of the ancient city, Sil'fer knew that the humans near "Manhattan" would have to wait. With all the knowledge and history being destroyed and looted by the humans, Sil'fer knew it would have to find some way of stopping them.

---

Gathering

Some time later, what humans call "weeks" Sil'fer felt compelled to return to the Hive, called there through the mindshare. Upon it's arrival it met several other morphs, all of which it had encountered before in it's journeys. Do'Kran, the oldest morph Sil'fer knew aside from itself was there, as were Zuu'thuzu, Rii'Pa and Apsu. Apsu was the youngest of them all, only recently having spawned from the Birthplace, and still had much to learn.

As they were there, Sil'fer felt a wave of pain coming through the mindshare, coming from a nearby system. Apsu and Rii'Pa seemed to have been unaffected by the wave of pain, but as they were the youngest two, their link with the mindshare was the weakest. With youngest 2 morphs, Sil'fer headed towards the anomaly to the system with the ancient ruins, certain that the wave of pain was coming from there.

Sil'fer and the other morphs entered the system, and Sil'fer felt a stronger wave of pain hit it, with the pain clearly coming from the ancient ruins. Even the 2 younger morphs seemed to be temporarily affected by it this time. Without hesitation, Sil'fer and the others headed directly towards the ruins, evading the seemingly endless supply of ships the humans seemed to have in this system.

Once they arrived, they took shelter in the shadow of the asteroid Sil'fer had previously used in this system and examined the damage the humans were doing to the ruins. Using it's own knowledge, in addition to some from it's link to the Mindshare, Sil'fer was able to work out that the Humans had stumbled into, and were excavating a part of the ruins that held active Slolom K'Hara embryos, and were destroying them during the excavations through sheer brute force and when attempting to dissect any tissue they found. Sil'fer doubted the humans were even aware of what they were destroying in the attempts to study them.

This desecration couldn't be put back until Sil'fer was more mature. Sil'fer and the other young morphs returned to the Hive and sent out a united call for help through the Mindshare.

---

Onslaught

Sil'fer's call through the Mindshare had proved to be a success. More young morphs than it had ever met gathered in Chester, and the Mindshare made it aware that several thralls - humans possessed by Slolom K'Hara entities - were also coming to assist. Most of the Morphs it had met in recent months were present, although Apsu was absent.

Most of the morphs proceeded through the anomaly, while Sil'fer remained behind to briefly assist a newly-born morph, Vir'Nakit, learn how to project energy in a way to damage the human vessels, and how to sever the human's parasitic link to the Slolom K'Hara city. While this was happening, it sensed through the Mindshare that the other morphs were being attacked by the humans on the other side of the anomaly. There was backlash through the Mindshare of 3 of the young Morphs being forced through a rebirth, while the others survived and headed towards the city.

The thralls also sensed the deaths of the morphs, and suggested through the Mindshare that they arrive to clear the other side of the anomaly of humans so that Sil'fer and the youngest of the morphs could make it through safely. While waiting, Sil'fer passed much of it's knowledge to the youngest morph, and learned from the thralls, including much more of the human languages. The thralls called themselves "Das Wilde", and had largely originated in an area the humans called "Rheinland", but had been forced to occupy other systems some time prior - almost 20 of what the human aspects of the thrall's minds referred to as year - before.

Before long, there was a burst of joy from the Slolom K'Hara who had survived the human attack. They had succeeded in seperating the human structure from the city and escape intact. The Thralls arrived shortly after and cleared the anomaly for Sil'fer and Vir'Nakit. They passed through the anomaly and joined with the thralls before heading towards the city to ensure that it would be safe for some time. Waves of gratitude emanated from the Slolom K'Hara city.

While on the way there, something came through the Mindshare directed at Sil'fer, and it started to dream. When Sil'fer awoke, it found that several hours had passed, and the Slolom K'Hara and thralls had completely disrupted the human attempts to reconnect their structure to the city, and had since dispersed. Sil'fer returned through the anomaly to the system with the hive to find some of the others there using the hive's link with the mindshare. Sil'fer remained there for some time communicating with the others, then set off to explore other systems once again.

---

Abandonment...

Since the detachment of the human structure from the ancient Slolom K'Hara city, Sil'fer had begun to explore different systems once again. At present, it was in the region of space where the humans often used ships with stylised back-swept wings. The humans called this particular cluster of systems, "Kusari". A name Sil'fer had learned while communicating with the thralls.

The system it was in was notable for it's for a large asteroid that seemed to have a structure built by the humans on it orbiting the star. However, Sil'fer sensed a mindshare presence on the structure. Reaching out, it found that the structure was occupied by thralls, but these ones repelled Sil'fer, insisting that it wasn't welcome there until it had matured. Sil'fer sensed several anomalies and proceeded towards one that would likely take it to a new area of space.

It emerged into a dark green nebula, filled with long jagged asteroids. Sensing a larger gravity well nearby, Sil'fer headed in that direction. Upon arriving, sil'fer's sensed a hive, similar to the one it had approached several times before. However, this one seemed to have been inactive for a while, and lacked a power source. There was also a lack of any other Slolom K'Hara anywhere nearby, and the only mindshare presence it could detect was in a nearby system. It knew through it's link that the Slolom K'Hara through that anomaly were fighting humans.

Sil'fer spent some time exploring the system, searching for any clues as to what had happened to this hive, but finding none. The humans Sil'fer sensed through the 2 other anomalies that it had detected would likely know something about what had happened here. Intending to stop and question one of the humans, sil'fer dived through one of the anomalies.

It found itself in another green nebula, heavily populated by at least 2 opposing groups of humans, and smaller attack groups of more mature Slolom K'Hara. All were concerned with battle and Sil'fer approached a gravity well close by to find an icy planet populated by humans.

As Sil'fer approached the planet, a literal swarm of human ships decended on it, sending massive amounts of energy towards it. Diving into the mindshare link, Sil'fer awaited it's next rebirth...

---

Sphere...

It had been some time since Sil'fer's last rebirth, and it had been returning to the region close to the abandoned hive often. It had learned how to largely avoid most of the humans in the system where it had been forced through it's last rebirth. On this occasion, Sil'fer sensed one of the creaters' gateways, along with a larger number of the elder Slolom K'Hara.

Going there, Sil'fer encountered a clear region in the nebula around the gateway itself. It even lacked the asteroids that permeated the rest of the nebula. There were many Slolom K'Hara around this point, including several larger more powerful elders. None were even close to the mass the elder, "Annukai" had amassed when Sil'fer had last encountered it, but they were formidable enough that the human ships avoided this region. Sil'fer communicated with the Slolom K'Hara in this area, then proceeded through the gateway.

On the other side of the gateway was an immense structure, which Sil'fer sensed engulfed an entire star. Communicating with the mindshare, it found out that this had been made by the creators to provide energy for the Slolom K'Hara, and to sustain the mindshare itself. However, humans had invaded the structure sometime ago and activated an ancient gateway belonging to the creators themselves, which had caused immense damage to the Slolom K'Hara city within, and "sucked" almost all of the Slolom K'Hara within into it. This event had massively damaged the mindshare and forced the Slolom K'Hara to search for a new power source, and a new home.

Sil'fer communicated all it had learned with the Slolom K'Hara on the outside of the structure, and through the mindshare it realised that Sil'fer had ranged the widest and furthest of all the Slolom K'Hara young. It's experiences and exploration had enriched the mindshare enough that was now being shown the route to the new home of the Slolom K'Hara in this region of the galaxy.

Soon it would be time for Sil'fer to rest and grow, embraced in the home of the mindshare itself.

---

Dur Shurrikan

Sil'fer had negotiated it's way back to the hostile system and ventured through 2 anomalies and found itself in a small asteroid belt. Almost instantly it sensed a surge of energy nearby from what looked like it was half asteroid, half crystal. Almost as quickly the energy vanished, as the guardian structure placed there by the Slolom K'Hara recognised Sil'fer as a youngling.

Opening it's senses, it felt the source of the mindshare cloaked within a nebula some distance away. Sil'fer began to head directly towards the mindshare, but the mindshare revealed that the path was dangerous. The Slolom K'Hara had constructed an immense network of explosive crystals to defend their new home. Images of 2 different paths flashed into Sil'fer's mind. One was through one of the creators' gateways in another section of the system, concealed by another immense nebula. The other was a series of structures, similar to the humans' high speed network they used between their stationary structures. Sil'fer journeyed towards gateway and activated it.

Sil'fer emerged beside an immense city, identical to style to the ones that the humans had been desecrating, but much newer and massively defended. Waiting outside the city was "Ts'jil", one of the youngest morphs to find it's way here and mature.

"Sil'fer, acceptance, growth"

With that brief welcome message, Sil'fer entered the city to rest and to grow.

---

Growth

Sil'fer emerged from it's rest feeling refreshed and substantially more powerful. It focused it's awareness to the changes to it's body. It had gotten longer, and grown numerous more spines, all of which were capable of focusing destructive energy towards any foes.
Sil'fer emerged from Dur Shurrikan and and tested it's new-found strength some distance from the city. The destructive energies it was capable of discharging had changed and become uniform in appearance. They would do well for protecting any young morphs Sil'fer encountered. Satisfied with it's growth, Sil'fer left Dur Shurrikan and departed towards the Hive

Sil'fer then spent some time, roughly what humans would call 2 months, alternating between aiding Do'Kran, assisting Morphs, and exploring the void between systems. The impulse to change to a new form had come to Sil'fer. Returning to the Hive once again, it focused it's change to become more compact and powerful. When it emerged from the growth chamber this time, it's numerous spines had merged to become 3 fins. The destructive energies it could project now would be enough to damage, if not destroy, the larger human vessels that had plagued it and the young Morphs in the time since Sil'fer's birth.

---

Strength

Sil'fer had spent much time exploring the star clusters, and on this occasion, found itself at the Gateway leading to the Birthplace. Some human vessels had been close to it, draining resources from the asteroids in the nebula that concealed the gateway. Sil'fer had pursued them not just out of the nebula, but right through one of the anomalies into the system.

Satisfied that the humans were in no hurry to return, Sil'fer returned to the gateway. Having a secure link to the mindshare, it examined the gate closely, trying to work out if there was a way to restore it to full functionality. Eventually, Sil'fer was able to work out that one of the power modules had been dislodged in whatever occurence had damaged the gateway. Sil'fer began to search for the power module.

Eventually Sil'fer found the power module close to the edge of the nebula. Thinking to temporarily absorb the Power module intact in order to take it back to the gateway, Sil'fer approached ancient device. As it's outer membrame touched the module, a massive surge of energy leapt between them with such force that Sil'fer awaited the pain of another rebirth. The rebirth didn't happen and Sil'fer, in agony, dived into a dream to escape the pain.

Some time later, Sil'fer awoke deep in the nebula. Sensing change, it examined it's body. Somehow the energy discharge had been enough to trigger another growth in Sil'fer. It was now substantially larger and more powerful. Satisfied with it's new strength, Sil'fer returned to the gateway to the Birthplace.

At the gateway, it attempted to activate the ancient systems so it could revisit the birthplace. The gateway didn't respond. Several attempts later, Sil'fer was able to work out that the gateway lacked the energy to produce an anomaly large enough for it to pass through. There would be no more journeys to the birthplace for Sil'fer, but it would defend the gateway for all the young Slolom K'Hara.

---

Where logic won't work, I will.