Hivemind Beyond the veil

The attacks came with precision, bases dotting the moon were struck first, the hive questioned itself if it was an accident.

The next rounds of attack came minutes later. They struck with perfect precision, arriving at the same moment. The surface of the ice moon quaked as massive fragments of rock slammed into the bases, shattering towers and ripping open the ice fields.

The metallic moon suffered a similar fate, with asteroid strikes ripping through mining structures and cracking the surface open like an eggshell.

One of the larger transport visual scanners caught the asteroids. From the depths of space, asteroids—coated in stealth material to cloak them from detection—hurtled toward the two moons and the planet below.

On the planet, the carefully constructed terraformers and sprawling lakes exploded into clouds of debris, and the drones were caught completely off-guard.

Then came the ships. Painted black with patterns of dark orange stripes, they emerged from the void, industrial in design, their surfaces rugged and practical, with no elegance, only functionality. Painted on each was a large symbol of three intersected circles in white, a mark of ownership or identity.

The ships looked built for war heavy, and angular, with armour plates that could withstand brutal impacts.

Swarms of missiles streaked from the ships taking out all transport ships, each one destroyed with no way to defend or outrun the missiles.

With the last ship destroyed, its debris drifting on its continued trajectory into the void, the enemy fleet broke into three, the larger fleet moved to orbit the planet while the smaller fleets moved to the moon.

Ahead of the invaders came waves of suicide drones small, fast, agile and packed with explosives. They hurled themselves at the last surviving structures, leaving nothing to survive.

The suicide drones crashed into their targets with pinpoint accuracy, detonating and ripping through the structures, blowing craters into the moons and the planet alike.

On the surface, terraformers were shattered by the explosions, the lakes, and rivers torn asunder, and the artificial ecosystems painstakingly built by the swarm were devastated as ranging fires took hold.

Behind the suicide drones, troop transports descended like black vultures, disgorging armoured soldiers and vehicles, heavily reinforced to withstand whatever resistance might come.

Out of the ships poured a bipedal species, their forms thick and powerful, covered head to toe in vacuum-sealed armour. The armour was a dull black with subtle dark orange accents, each figure bulky yet agile their legs were short but muscular.

Their vehicles were stocky but large moving along the surface on large trucks mounted on top was a large canon tearing through the white shell of the swarm.

The drones swarmed to meet them, but the onslaught was overwhelming. The invaders advanced methodically, deploying weapons that cut through the drones like they were made of paper.

The swarm fought back, their numbers overwhelming at first, but the invaders were relentless.

Everywhere, drones fell—crab-like bodies splintered, black tendrils writhing helplessly before going still. They managed to take down only a few of the invaders before being overwhelmed.

The black-and-orange ships bombarded the surface from orbit, decimating everything that had been built, reducing centuries of work to ruins.

In the chaos, one last drone, heavily damaged, its white exoskeleton cracked and leaking fluids, retreated. It moved silently, digging deep beneath the surface of the iron-rich moon, deeper than any of the attackers could detect. There, in the depths, it began constructing.Using the last of its resources, the drone built a hidden cavern large, sprawling, but perfectly concealed beneath layers of rock and metal.

At the heart of this base, a black sphere was formed. Its surface was smooth, almost liquid, but solid to the touch, inscribed with cryptic geometric designs that glowed faintly white, like some ancient script that no one could decipher.

The last drone, its body barely functional, pressed itself into the entrance, blocking the cavern's entrance.

With that, the last memories of the species were absorbed by me, centuries of knowledge were now mine.

Slowly, a weak voice started to whisper.“Continue the project avenge our creators, continue the project avenge our creators over and over again.”

Reluctantly, I accepted, the voice grew quiet, and the world went quiet.