The Machine Mother's Touch

[The_Godslayer]

LOCATION: OMICRON KAPPA / PLANET GAMMU / SECTOR NULL-5A
TIME: 02:05 / PLANET GAMMU 18TH TIMEZONE
DATE: 27 DECEMBER 835 A.S

---

A blizzard howled over the North Pole of Planet Gammu, battering the unassuming Cerulean outpost. The solar panels had finally frozen over, left unattended. Only small flickers of power ever coursed through the station itself anymore. Through the frozen doors, down the hallways, various levels of disrepair were to be seen, alongside cables crisscrossing through the hallways. As the hallways converged at the former site of the laser drill, the cables become thicker and more numerous, and their façade as merely damaged infrastructure begins to slip, pulsing and twitching with the demands of energy and the strange mechanical blood that the hive subsisted on.

Upon reaching the former site of the laser drill, though, there's simply the faintly glowing walls of the large Da'am K'Vosh structure it was meant to drill through, and a downward hole lined with cables and a tough, silver slime. The living nature of the hive becomes apparent if one lingers too long at the edge of the pit, the faint heartbeats of the self-replicating machine just barely audible.

Down the hole, a tangled network of tunnels emerges, like an anthill, populated by the occasional fightercraft-sized worm, and a vast assortment of maggot-like machines. Navigating the dizzying maze of burrows ends in a large, central cavern kilometers below the surface of Gammu. The laser drill had been converted into a beating heart hanging from the ceiling, and hundreds of thousands of thick bundles of the cables visible throughout the rest of the compound connected to the heart of the hive. Rhythmic flashes and the now-deafening beating of the heart illuminated the central cavern, and glittered on the cocoon found at the bottom. The brief flashes of light from the heart illuminated Helena's three Lieutenants: The massive armored centipede Kenny; the titanic tusked beetle Christopher; and the gigantic bloated isopod John.

This communion of distorted, oversized, mechanical bugs rested a close, but still wary distance from the cocoon. Silence ensued as their voices were communicated in an internal network, upkept by the being inside the chrysalis in front of them. Kenny was in the process of being admonished by the other two, as they cited Kenny's vitriol to having lead to an excessively forceful assault on the outpost assigned to him. Kenny had no direct retort, instead deflecting to a minor slip in the mechanism which they used to cut off and usurp the greater Gammu AI network. There were no secrets, however, and John was the first to remind Kenny that his share of cutting out the Gammu AI network was also discovered by a particularly observant Gammu, and yet he still overran two outposts with naught but Embraced, the infested and converted Gammu bodies, of which John was fairly fond of creating and commanding, twice the share of the other two.

Christopher had no leeway for his centipedal brother, either, citing having used exactly the same strategy of swimming through the ground with burrowed hellhounds and flooding the outpost. To this, Kenny had a defense, citing that no Gammu realized their disconnection from the Gammu AI network until it was far too late in Christopher's case. Bickering ensued after Christopher mocked Kenny's not knowing that Planet Gammu had no native fauna.

Their childish argument was brought to an end by the voice within the cocoon.
"That mistake can be forgiven. Each of you were born mere days ago. There are things you won't know."
Kenny's cognitive mocking of Christopher upon this minor victory was cut short as Helena continued.
"Kenny, you are overly sadistic, and your strategy suffered because of it."
Kenny responded that it was right to hate his mother's enemy. They deserved to die in fear. His body shuddered with rage.
"I know, I know~"
Kenny relaxed only slightly. He begged to be unleashed, to hunt every enemy of his mother across this planet. His fantasies of subjugation were cut short.
"Mommy loves you exactly how you love her, sweetheart. But we need to be quiet. You'll get to bite and rip all you want when we're all strong enough."
Kenny insisted that he was strong enough, but was silenced.
"Shhh~, you don't need to rush ahead. You're still weak in strategy. You need to get stronger too."
Kenny was finally silenced, retreating to sulk. Christopher and John offered only silence, having picked up on the insinuation that they were also too weak.

The heartbeats passed the time steadily, no Lieutenant daring to voice an idea, and Helena having nothing to say herself. Finally, seeing that they were being tormented by the silence, Helena gave them a command.
"Take the networks and keep yourself nearby the outposts. The Gammu will notice that they've gone silent. They'll come to investigate. You need to deny information for as long as possible so that we can grow our strength."

The Lieutenants rose and each crawled towards different tunnels.
"Mommy's relying on you."

The mechanical infestation into the planet was getting deeper, minerals being consumed and transformed by the heart of the hive, fueling the expansion. John von Neumann would be proud.

Once he was finished being horrified, that is.

---

I'll do something about my superiority complex when I cease to be superior.

"Whatever happened to catchin' a good old-fashioned passionate ass-whoopin and gettin' your shoes, coat, and your hat tooken?"