The Fall of the Tyrant...and the Rise of A New One

[The Tyrant]

The Tyrant quickly swam through the waters of Vendaxa, seeking new hunting grounds to take on. Due to the Tyrant’s rather hefty meal requirements, the Lemnai of his current hunting ground has become sparse which meant it was time to move on to something new. As the Tyrant swam through the waters however things became rather odd. Aquatic creatures the Tyrant had never seen began appearing and they all looked....wrong. Out of curiousity the Tyrant exited the water and went to land, quickly seeing that much of the fauna and flora of the region, a region which the Tyrant was highly familiar of, was different. The Tyrant began traveling deeper into this warped region in curiosity, fear not once entering the monstrosity’s brain as it knew it was the apex predator of Vendaxa.

[member="The Hive Mind"]

 

[The Hive Mind]

Join the SwarmSurge​

Location: Vendaxa, Jungles of Xesh
Hive Assessment: Rich Biosphere
Consciousness Transition: Seed, Link – Hive, Focus

Vendaxa was swarming with life. Any presence on the world had been eaten as quickly as it had been established. In a trial and error approach lasting years. Focused attention had been here for many years since the first encounter, there was no concept of time for the Hive. Seeing through countless eyes, feeling through claws, hands, vines, and insects beneath the ground across the world, as they battled for their place in the food chain.

As the Tyrant stomped overhead, asserting its dominance over the ecosystem. The ecosystem looked back. This was one creature that had eluded its attempts to integrate, Acklay One other creature that had also alluded the Hive moved above ground right now. Small tiny insects skittering about somewhere beneath it. Ants. No threat. Then a small flying insect buzzed around. Nothing important. It landed nearby then buzzed off. Those small ant-like creatures moved again below, scattering to safety, hives the hive had been trying to comprehend, other collectives. It was hard to tell what was infected and not. That was the danger.

Eventually, a small spider-like creature skittered over, stopped, then a snarling alpha Vanx stomped in and ate it. Usually, there was more than one Vanx, they hunted in packs of five to twenty, this one was alone and it looked ill. The creature froze and finally fell over. The bodies of its pack laying nearby.

Nothing.

Silence.

A small chattering of legs, then micro hisses from the ground. Thirty small spiders, jagged marks across their exterior brown shells. Small, no threat on their own, came from the direction it had been hunting. Swarming toward the Tyrant as one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnFfwiuCG5Q​

 

[The Tyrant]

The Tyrant watched as the alpha Vanx fell. One of the few dangers for the Tyrant in large numbers seemed to fall just by these puny spiders. As they moved towards the Tyrant in a swarm the Tyrant stepped back for a second, more confused that scared. These creatures were also foreign to the Tyrant, something it had never seen before. The Acklay hissed and roared before spewing out a torrent of force lighting from it's mouth to the insects. Nothing would stop the Tyrant, especially not tiny spiders. Any spider that go close enough the Tyrant would pierce with it's sharp claws. The Tyrant clacked and hissed once more triumphantly, if these creatures had any common sense they would flee in terror from the Acklay.

 

[Kylraya]

Senses.

Too wide a sense.

Awareness unbound and sometimes too large in execution. That was what followed the Hive’s focus, The Swarm’s will being broader. On this world the will was narrow, growing and still the Hive Mind’s focused execution driving it. The Hive, or now another… yellow eyes opened a distance above him, predatory slits of pure yellow. Watching and directing those below.

As the dominant beast killed the spiders. Showing exactly why the Hive wanted him. More came. Another fifty, not spiders, beetles. They did not charge the Acklay, this they time tried something else, trial and error, always the way. Small creatures with a hard exoskeleton but no match for an Acklays legs, perhaps too small individually to hit or effect him but certainly they could be crushed on mass. They encircled. Clicking their large infectious mandibles. Whether they could even pierce his armor was debatable. Swarm they were, and swarm they did. All at once back, front and sides out of the bushes.

The woman above was covered in the same exoskeleton they were, and landed with a heavy thud below, rising slowly. Her two long talons extended from behind her sides, and her tail snaked behind her, carrying a third armored talon. There were screeches in the bushes, a wild chittering as the Swarm mother rose. The jungle was buzzing alive with larger drones.

As she looked at the acklay, all looked at the acklay, every one of them looking together. How many drones was uncertain, it wasn’t a big structure here. One drone came right beside her, and then was joined by another, she tapped its head and they roared. Hmm, how to subdue this new creature. In the background the hive was realising it was missing a solution. The swarm mother had an idea, the hive having the same, adapting…

A few of those bugs began to fly. Then more flew. Then more. She did not want it dead, and so watched careful.

[member="The Tyrant"]​​
​

 

[The Tyrant]

The Tyrant watched as the beetles began to swarm around him, causing the creature to hiss loudly. The Tyrant made a few sweeps with it's claws to try and swipe away the beetles. They certainly weren't a threat but they were definitely annoying. Then the drones came, when they roared the Tyrant roared in response. The roar seemed to echo through the vicinity and the Tyrant gave the woman and her drones a vicious stare. When the drones began to fly the acklay shot forth another dosage of force lightning from it's mouth towards the flying drones. It wasn't going down without a fight and the Tyrant was fixated on not losing said fight.

 

[Kylraya]

A vicious stare. Returned by a million eyes watching.

Beetles were shredded, squashed and mauled. No match for the Tyrant. All eyes were on it. The two nearest drones charged, the first was hit by the bolt and fried alive, the second threw itself forward and was hit in the same way, their smoking, charred bodies lying by the side of the clearing they had been in.

A force bubble erupted around Kylraya the rest of the blast cracked around its surface, she was pushed back in the dirt. Pushing her arms outward, the swarm mother shouted to match the creature, a telekinetic force attack building throughout her body, poured and focused into her hand. It slammed toward the creature, ripping along the top of the earth in a shockwave worthy of Raien Keth. Trying to slow it down.

Talons raising her up high off the floor. What did the swarm have that would breach this creature’s thick hide? Nothing yet. The bugs around her smashed and cut as they were, their bodies as mush on the ground. What did the hive have that could…

Adapt. Survive. The Hive Mind had decided.

No great giant, no great terror was here to challenge the tyrant. But there were. Plants. Beautiful red flowers with their lush green vines. As the shockwave ripped up through the infected biosphere. They released their spores and they drifted around, much of the foliage ripped apart. Airborne. The infection wasn’t fast. It wasn’t quick. It was small. Unseen to start with. Fifteen days to take hold. The drones moving around the creature began to back away, lowering their mouths in submission. It had dominance here. Rightfully so. Some may get caught by its legs and flail around, they might defend themselves but they backed off low.

The Swarm Mother closed her eyes, and her talons stamped their way into a tree trunk, pulling her up the side, wood splintering everywhere. She would watch over the creature, to make sure it had been enough, there were no guarantees in any of this. She felt every death, and every time it failed.

[member="The Tyrant"]​

 

[The Tyrant]

The Tyrant noticed the drones backing away from them and roared in victory. This was a distraction, and an annoying one at that. The Tyrant turned around and retreated back into the safety of the water, moving back to it's lair. It would have to find a new hunting ground another time as the excessive use of force lightning had drained the beast. It swam quickly through the waters until reaching a deep hole underwater. The Tyrant delved down into the hole, going deep deep down into it until the acklay reached an underwater cavern, it's lair. The acklay swam to one of the walls of the cavern and slowly drifted fast asleep, not realizing that it had gotten an infection during it's fight with those mysterious insects.

 

[Kylraya]

Kylraya was well suited for moving through the tree’s, still prone to walk on all fours at times, her tail gave her grip on their trunks and her talons balanced her as she swung from tree to tree, effectively using seven limbs to make sure she moved quietly above.

There was distance and space between her and the Tyrant. No need to be on top of her target. There were many eyes watching, and ears listening across this small region. Images of the hive flashed forward in her mind, as new constructions were made, a small headache forming in her mind’s eye. Constructions, of course, beginning very small within the Tyrant and mirrored outward in a larger landscape, it would be two weeks till he was fully one with the hive mind, and two weeks till the Hive here had even begun to adapt to a new lifeform. They would need many more to fully understand him.

For now she watched and waited… The hive was eternally patient, there was no rush to anything.

A small bug moved through his watery home and slept, as he did. In fact as the days wore on, several of those insects, tiny things, would sleep as he did, move as he did. He was the dominant species here, a being for others in the hive to rally around. Even if he squashed them, he'd find one or two more, sleeping nearby. After a very brief adjustment period of only minor irritation. He might find he was stronger than ever at first. As a newborn again, any cut might be healed, any old injury surging with old strength. Terminus working to empower him as it learned his body chemistry. He might be feeling like he was king of the galaxy, let alone the planet, his force abilities might be strengthened initially.

It would only be a week from now that if untreated the infection might really take hold, and he might know something wasn’t right. Nine days till he really felt the effects, and only twelve when he saw her yellow eyes looking down on him again. Whether it had been successful or not, they would now know.

If it had, he might hear the faintest whisper in his mind at any discomfort. ~It will be over soon.~ She felt the discomfort, she could not do anything else, whether he walked out of here free, or whether he suffered and died, or whether he became one of them. Now she felt everything, every wound, illness or sickness he might suffer, she suffered. That was her nature, unable to do anything but suffer above him till it passed. It was not true for other hive creatures, they knew of the process and would give him space to adjust, but they were not so closely tied to each creature as the Swarm Mother.

[member="The Tyrant"]​

 

[The Tyrant]

The last week was long and torturous for the Tyrant. Tumors slowly formed on the beast's back, growing larger every day. The beast rarely even came out of it's den any more, barely eating and hunting as it felt extremely ill. At the last day the Tyrant had moved to the shores, in belief that it's time was actually up. The tumors had grown massive, the acklay's crest had also grown immense and appeared much like a crown now with it's spiked edges. Once the Tyrant reached the shore is collapsed in exhaustion, it's energy expended just from swimming up from it's cavern. The Tyrant slowly closed it's eyes, drifting to sleep. As it slept the tumors enveloped the entire body, the face caved in and it's teeth became similar to mandibles. The Tyrant's legs hardened and became more more circular in appearance. The entire beast seemed to grow as well, swelling to larger a large size. When the Tyrant awakened it felt....different...connected...to something much much bigger...and it had to obey. The Tyrant's transformation was complete.

 

[The Hive Mind]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKwRVtPVaw​

It was there the Hive Mind, like a pulsing heart. Probably ebbing into its mind. A focused directive. Stay. Go. Move. Hunt. Eat. Live. Exist. Expand. Flashes of creatures, flashes of so many creatures. The hive structures. Millions of tiny organisms below the ground and in the sky, it was probably a headache as the Tyrant adjusted. It was so much more.

Not blind obedience. There was the Swarm’s will surrounding it in a wider circle. The TYRANT's will, ALL, everything's will. The Tyrant might find its level of intelligence, rising or falling in the next few hours as it found its own place within the larger consciousness. As it found what the microbe would offer or take, finding a harmonic balance.

Out of the bushes creatures came, many creatures around it, the swarm’s will. Where it looked, they looked, what it thought they thought. They watched out over the water, knowing. There was unity. There was purpose. There was swarm. Unending and timeless across the stars, across the nodes, across the creatures. Yet, there was also disconnection, there were things not yet fully formed. There was a disharmony. There were creatures trying to be born, there were creatures failing to be born.

It was then the Swarm Mother dropped lower, from all her Talons beside the creature coming to rest and look out over endless waters. Her mind as an open book, her feelings and emotions laid bare. “Now you understand.” She spoke. Words that were unnecessary, as the thoughts were already there. She looked at the waves lapping ahead of them. He had died, but. She looked up at the stars, a million voices out there trying to say their words, the pain of disconnection echoing from all of them. Trying to connect in a galaxy that was shattered. ~Now you are.~

The calling from beyond, the calling for more, drive for expansion, growth and unity would never end.

[member="The Tyrant"]​