1 The Accumulation Begins
You know, being a virus similar to the one in those Prototype games you would think I would be the cause. But nah, I'm some sort of biological entity yes. But as far as I can tell, I'm more of a intelligent mass of meat that can modify itself at will. On the other hand I am getting much better at manipulating my biological components. I made a brain! Or well, a rough version of one. Honestly it's more like a 1980 computer than anything. Uses way too much space and provides barely any processing power.
Now does that mean I am stupid? Well, kind of. Before I was more like a mindless drone before. I could think, but I was just really slow about it. Not sure how much time actually passed since I arrived here. On that note I can photosynthesis. Or is it photosynthesize? Honestly, asking me the correct way of saying it is a bit much, I don't have the brain power to think that hard.
Anyways, where was I?… I can't remember. I will just start with what I've done, I made a brain! A rough version of one, but a brain none the less. It takes a ton of space and is roughly the size of an extremely old computer, but it is a brain! Let's me think a bit more. Which is nice. I'll have to refined it further.
So, onto my situation. I'm in another world. A apocalyptic one to be precise. Non-Nuclear, thankfully. Not sure if I could have handled a nuclear apocalypse in my previous state. Pretty sure it could kill me right now too. Hopefully I'll be able to fix it in the future. Nice! My second brain just finished growing. Oh, I repeated myself earlier? I see, not enough storage are in these brains currently so they can't store information easily. Well, I can see where I store it, maybe if I add more pathways I'll be able to store more information? Let's try it. It will take a few minutes before the second brain morphs into the changes I made. It produces a ton of heat to evolve, and I don't have a way to deal with it, so I evolve extremely slowly. I was probably growing a brain for months!
Now then, am I safe as a giant mass of meat? Nope. I'm the target number one for the zombies around here. Luckily I ate them all before they could eat me. Not for a lack of trying. The zombies that were in my area were all really weak. Hopefully this isn't one of the worlds with evolved zombies that will just smash me. Luckily I figured out how to produce a non-meaty fragrance by consuming the nearby fauna. I now smell like an extremely pungent perfume. It does make me extremely slimy though. An probably poisonous. Honestly can't tell yet. I mean the only reason I know how to make a brain is because I consumed a few zombies. Really wish I preserved those bodies instead of turning them into mass so I could study the human body.
What now… Well, currently I'm evolving my first bio-form! Hopefully it works. I decided to start with a slug type bio-form. Ideally it can go collect samples for me. The only problem is that zombies will try to eat it if it runs into them. Luckily I can still photosynthesize more mass. It's just really slow… I wonder if it's possible to improve the production? Actually… that is a very possible thing. If I make a biostructure similar to a flower I should be able to massively increase my solar absorption, I just need more water.
Hmm, Well, my imaginary viewer. I should probably explain how I do what I do. I can control my biomass via thought. Or soul. Honestly can't tell you which, cause my brain power was extremely weak early on and I still managed to force myself to form a basic brain later on. But that isn't all, I can control my mass at an atomic level, I haven't really tried yet, I don't have the brain power to do something like that without catastrophic consequences. I could get lucky and not set off a atomic reaction, but I really don't want to test it.
Anyways, my current goals are simple. I feel like I should state it out so I am going to. Mass Generation, Advancing Bio-Tech, and Self Protection. I've currently only got two ways of Mass Generation, Converting existing material into mass, an instinctive ability I've had since the start of my existence, and photosynthesis. I've already converted all the plant mass near me into mass. I am constantly spreading my mass to gather more plant mass. To put that in perspective I've gone from a cubic inch of mass into a yard of mass in a year or so. Now, keep in mind that I have no idea of the actual measurements, I can't actually see. The only reason I know zombies exist is because a bunch of corpses tried to eat me when I got to a decent size. Really wish I could see, but I can't figure out a way to do that yet. It's torture not having access to my five senses. The only thing I have is a twisted sense of taste, and even then the taste isn't actually flavor, just shows me how the things I consume work, barely.
Although, I suppose I can actually see in a way. Just I can only in my body, and it's mostly imagination that fuels my vision. So everything is extremely simple. It actually kind of looks like the screen from that one game… what was…. Plague Inc! Yeah, sorry, it takes a lot of effort to remember things from my previous life. Go easier when I made the brains though. Time to get back to just… sitting. One thing I know so far, this life has been boring. So far at least. Which is a good thing... I think.
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Huh? I'm getting damaged. Or something. Some of my mass seems to be… heating up? That's what happens when those small particles move so fast that it causes damage isn't it? It's in a pretty wide area too… I'm on fire aren't I? I mean, there are other possible theories. But that is the area where I am currently evolving the mass flower for more streamlined photosynthesis of mass. Alright, I just need to cut off the oxygen flow. That works, slightly. It's taking a moment to reduce the oxygen flow, but my mass doesn't really need oxygen, it mainly allows for faster movement of the cells in the mass. There we go! It's starting to die off, no more flames are effecting the interior of the mass, the exterior is still burning, I think. But it's only getting the top layer. Hmm, if I am on fire that likely caused a ton of trouble for me. If there are any survivors that see the smoke. well. I can't worry about it too much for now. But I really need to figure out why I caught fire.
The heat input hadn't been exceeded my heat tolerance, yet at least. So why did it happen? I don't have enough information. It hard when you only have an internal view of your own body and that is it. This is a minor set back, but I can over come it. Just takes a bit of effort. On that note, DIRT! Or stone. Honestly can't tell which it is yet. But digging down rewards me with it. I've been experimenting with it as well, by shifting it to the evolving areas I can use it as a extremely weak heat sink, allowing me to speed my evolution slightly. But only slightly and for a short amount of time. Still, I don't know why it caught on fire. On another hand I am also trying to convert dirt into mass. But from the looks of it since it's not a biological material I'd have to get to the atomic scale of manipulation in order to convert it. Or maybe further and go into the subatomic level. You know, I could actually go into the atomic level. I'm not splitting the atom, just moving it. It's really the subatomic layer I should be avoiding, but I can't risk it yet. I could be completely wrong. Hmm, when I make my first body I'll have to find a library to study at.
You know. I'm slowly turning into a genius though. I have been adding more pathways to the brains I got currently, and I'm able to store a bunch more information the more nodes I make. The only issue is that I am consciously storing information, not doing it automatically. Something I will have to figure out how to address… Really wish I had consumed an animal. Studying the instinctive abilities would have really helped me out. Heck, even insects would help, I am constantly converting anything near me into mass and I've yet to get anything different than foliage. I mean, it's different types of grass. But it's foliage only. Something about me is making them avoid me. Is it the scent? I can't tell honestly cause I wasn't getting touched by insects even before I made the scent. Oh well, the slugs almost complete. If I am correct it should work pretty well, I used a mix of suction cups and a foot like muscles to get it to where it can move and turn.
I wonder what I look like? A writhing pile of flesh? Or am I some other color. Ooo, maybe I am a grey thing of flesh! It's possible, I'm definitely black in on some corner of my body. If I was on fire that is, who knows, could have been a particularly hot day. Then again, it wouldn't of caused the de-massing. Or what ever it's called. I just know I was losing mass. Slowly, but it was a significant amount when you consider how much mass I generate daily. I mean, that was at least a month of mass that was lost. And I can still sense mass when it's separate from my main mass. Meaning it changed to a point where it wasn't my mass anymore. Well, nothing I can do about it. I just got to wait for the my bioforms to form and then restart the forming of the mass flower. I'll do it a lot more slowly this time, don't want to risk another fire if it was fire.
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I have multiplied! Kinda!
I have my first Bio-Form, the Slug. An extremely simple bio-form that can move at my command, Although I do have an issue, my normal temperature is extremely low, so if I leave the bio-form doing nothing it will start to freeze. Still, I have mobility! I can finally send an exploration thing out! Or gathering. Mainly gathering. I am basically making my slug hunt for insects or animals.
Thus far? It's gone well. I found an ants nest! They were fleeing from me. And I also found out why there are no insects on most things I eat. The fragrance that I emit overloads the senses of the insects, making them heavily avoid me. They were actually running from my slug as well while it was hunting them. So my slug no longer emits the fragrance at intense levels. Which makes hunting a lot easier. On that note I was able to study the insects functions and I think I have a decent idea on how to make a working exo-bone structure. It's not really bones, but mainly a mass of muscles that work as gears inorder to function. I've been modifying the slug with this knowledge, it's much faster now.
I've also integrated it with the flower thing I am making. Basically it will angle itself until it's absorbing as much sunlight as possible. My third brain is also currently forming. It actually won't take that long to form. I've made it smaller and stronger than my current brains. I give it a month to form at most. If I can get some more things to use as coolant. Like, for example, a ton of water. I could make it in a week. Unfortunately I haven't found something like that yet. The water I absorb from the ground really isn't enough. However I did have an idea! A Cooling Fan! It's a simple concept and I have the abilities to bio-form one, and with the abilities I stole from the ants I can lay pheromones to set it the right distance from the biomass forming the bio-form. That could decrease biomorphing time by twenty to thirty percent. Especially if I can make it stronger. But I also am forming an army of ants.
Yeah, not joking. I copied the profile of ants and I've started to form a bunch of them. They will act like my little construction works now. But good news, I CAN SEE! SMELL! AND HEAR! Sorry, got a bit excited. But the ants gave me access to all kinds of useful things. Now keep in mind they have very weak eye-sight on top of their other senses. But I can now touch, taste, smell, and see! Just… not that well. Also I had to scrap the taste function after a moment. I'll store it for later. Anyways I've started to use the mass ants as construction works. They take bits of mass and move it to the locations I need and hold them together as they connect. It's massively decreased my forming time as well. All together I can now build my new brain in about a weak, and a slug in a day. The Ants are extremely easy to build since I got a practical blueprint for them. My ants are also hunting for more bugs to take into my bio-mass. It's going well, I've found several various types of bugs that I've started to fight with. After I manage to kill one I have my ants bring biomass to it in order to consume it instead of bringing it back to the main nest. This is actually faster than dragging them back to the nest.
I'd give it around three days before we finally managed to conquer the local insect life and I gather more biological information. On that note, trees are an amazing thing. I started to convert some trees into biomass and it is going along smoothly. I've started to alter my fragrance as well. I think that is what is causing my body to keep catching fire. Once I get the bio-information from all these insects maybe I'll be able to improve on my designs. Also I've realized I am now a extremely dangerous entity too humans now. I mean I am basically the same as a colony of army ants, I could probably consume a human being in moments if I make more ants. On that note I am constantly producing them since I realized how useful these guys are. I am in love with these little guys now. Go on my ant armada! Gather resources for your master!
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Consuming the local wild-life, or well, insect life. Was going extremely well. I even had some birds that tried to eat my slugs, I had around seven thousand ants by this point, and I could actually see. But the new bioprints I had gotten a hold of had massively improved my state. See I was having an issue of not enough brains, but these ants? They had brains. Extremely tiny ones, but brains none-the-less. Allowing me to network and unify thousands of ants at a time. But the most powerful thing I got a hold of, besides spiders. Were cockroaches. They were powerful when modified with pincers and they consumed and converted nearly anything into biomass. It was disgusting to look at, but the egg laying mechanism was converted into a biomass laying mechanism, meaning they could go consume material and return to a specific spot to make another nest.
I've taken complete advantage of this too, I've got tons of nodes being planted into the trees. I also figured out what type of area I am as well! A village. Yep, a village. One of Asian design as well. Which nationality? Well… I don't know yet. But it does confirm one thing. If I met a survivor I am not going to understand a single freaking thing they say. If I even can communicate to one. Ah, what am I saying. By that point I will be able too. However, on the more complicated side of things. There is a mutant hive of bees nearby. The only reason they stay away from my nest is due to the overwhelming scent. But it was freaking terrifying when I saw several giant bees circling a massive flower. So this isn't a standard zombie apocalypse place. I say giant, but they are about twice the size of a human. Now that in itself wouldn't be much of a threat. But they throw freaking fire! I mean legitimately they will incinerate anything they thing is a threat. Not all of them have this ability, but they still have it!
What the heck am I supposed to do again that? They aren't just spitting fire, they are freaking controlling it. Still, it seems to exhaust them. But they are still the kings of the area… I'm going to eat them. Their hive is basically saying "CONSUME ME PLEASE!" to me. The amount of biological material there is enough to grow five of my current nests! It's growing too, the hive is getting bigger by the day. Pretty soon it will start to crepe into my area. But the good news is, I found water! Specifically an underground reservoir of water. There was a well nearby and it was most definitely not dried up. So I've been using it non-stop to speed my growth. I've got three upgraded brains now that are assisting my thought process and imagination speed. I've slowly started to upgrade everything as quickly as possible, my nest has gone from a pile of meat into a layered pile of muscle thanks to my new developments. My first nest has turned into the equivalent of a factory. So I immediately tried making an upsized ant.
Yeah, that didn't work well, something about it didn't interact well with gravity and it basically collapsed into itself when the support tethers were disconnected. So I'm trying to work around that via an exoskeleton. Which is going well, I've been using bio-fibers, which I got from analyzing spiders to hold pieces of biomass together when I can't directly connect it. So I eventually managed to make a dog sized spider type biomass that could go around and grab things for me. But most importantly it uses a new type of brain array I made, which was based off how my ants small brains worked. Why did I do that? Well, when it surrounds something with the mass it drops from below it the brain-array can rapidly analyze how it works. This is a very needed utility as I can make things from memory and cover it with my mass in order to figure out things. Like a bow for example. I'm being serious, I made a carapace bow and analyzed it with this thing in order to figure out how to make a stronger one, and it worked amazingly. Of course I don't have anything capable of using the bow, but with a bit of redesigning I had a repeating turret bio-form ready for construction. If my… simulation? Thoughts? I'm just going to call it simulations, this siege crossbow can fire a carapace arrow with enough strength to penetrate three inch thick steel wall at close range with a straight hit, and even if that doesn't happen it will heavily dent it. I plan on testing it after construction.
But that isn't the only thing I did, I was also improving my current biotechnology. I could make an exoskeleton out of a biomass similar to wood, or turn biomass into a insect carapace. Both worked extremely well too. The Brain Array was something I really wanted to improve, cause I was constantly gathering information to improve my… simulations. Which would increase my efforts and expand my brain power. I am starting to not forget things already! Can't wait till I get a hold of one of those giant bees and dig into the secrets of their biological profile. For now I can analyze this bamboo to see if I replicate the structural integrity it provides.
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With my newfound opponents and goals. Started to work. I needed weapons capable of taking them out of the air. I had my crossbow turret thing, but those are costly and expensive to make in my current situation. Thus I've decided to take a bite out of my previous life's memories to make a new weapon. Or well… not new. But it works at least. Pressurized Launchers. I've run it through my imagination several times accounting for various possible issues. But I was able to create a pressurized launcher that will launch balls of carapace material at high speeds. Problem is that it's a once and done maneuver. It takes a long time to reform the launcher since it is shaped like a barrel and when it pops sending the ball in the general direction I'm aiming it, it also tears itself apart. Now I haven't tested this in reality yet. But it's still worryingly annoying… Why am I even recording this into my memory? I'm probably not even going to use it. It's mostly a gateway technology into more advanced weaponry.
Heh. Oh well. I have to start with the basics if I wish to learn everything I can. That Bee nest is growing larger by day, and shrinking as well. All that material being used to make it is biological after all. A few sneaky ants and I've got dozens of nests starting to eat at the nest from within. I give it a few days and the thing will start to collapse as the infrastructure is consumed. There is a slight issue in the fact that the Bees know I'm here. They originally were warned off, but since I've started to grow bio-forms and expand they have been trying to get at my bio-form slugs and larger bio-forms. And I need those for labor! Luckily they are scared of my ant armada. Or at least I think they are. They run away whenever I bring my armada on them. Luckily they aren't heavily targeting me. So I'm able to develop peacefully regardless of how many drones they send to watch me. I can't really sneak more biomass into the nest with the bees watching me so I have to just expand with what I got in there already.
What should I work on next… I need to improved the pressure launchers don't I. They are the closest weapon I can make close to guns. It uses a ton of my water supply to make the steam required for the pressure, but it's better than nothing. I need a humanoid body to gather materials. I can't make a human, but I can make something out of the basics I got from analyzing these insects. Making a insectoid humanoid shouldn't be too difficult. I'll start off with a model scale insectoid and then move up from there, first let's see if I can up the power of the pressurized chamber.
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Levers, pistons, pressure, steam, valves, paths, and the very basics of physics. Those are what's massively increasing my evolution speed and power. Movement of steam and valves can be used to make a gun, a pipe gun to be specific. It takes a moment to fire, but once it starts to fire I can start to rotate the pressure barrels and firing rack to make a sort of mini-gun that fires a round ever half second. It's a massive upgrade over the crossbow and generates a ton of excess heat. How do I keep cool then? Heat Sinks. I found an alloy that can absorb a decent amount of heat. I'm pretty sure it's either brass or copper. I can't really tell they are similar metals to me. But I've pressured them into barrels that absorb the heat from the chambers. They deform quickly, but the biomass around them is constantly adding pressure so it only deforms at the exit preventing a misfire. Did I get to test it in reality? Yep. Those bees got brave and a wave attacked us. We were getting destroyed with fire but once the pressurization finished I was shooting them down with ease. I did lose a ton of ants though, even though I did consume three of the bees using them, it was only the steampunk inspired Gatling gun that did the work and scared them off. So I've made three more before I ran into a serious issue. Water.
Water was the lynchpin of my work. I needed it for everything, biomass? Water was required for the photosynthetic process. New technology? Water was required to cool and power the new designs. Fragrance? Water was required to mix it. Thus I needed a serious source of water. The well was starting to dry up due to my constant consumption, and it hasn't rained yet. Judging by the warm air we are in the middle of summer, so I haven't got any chance of getting snow. Dew collecting makes a tiny dent if the water I need, but only a tiny dent. I use gallons of water daily for every thing in my design. I need a way to lessen that amount. The first thing I thought of was some sort of sludge. Why am I not naming a specific type? Cause I haven't fully designed a good sludge. Currently I am heavily experimenting with different mixes of material. But making a sludge that isn't heavily flammable that can be used to increase production has been difficult. Especially since I can't use it for the pressure chambers and have to keep using regular water to produce steam. I've started a pressure network evolution for the sludge all around my main biomass. But it will take time for the morphing to finish. In the mean time I have several small chambers where I am experimenting with different types of sludges.
Thus far I've had progress with one type of sludge. It was a mix of feces. Yeah, highly disgusting, but I could rapidly decompose it into a sort of highly flammable fuel. Now you ask, why do I want an highly flammable fuel when I'm trying to make something that reduces heat? I can convert energy into matter. The process is rough currently and it doesn't work easily. But if I improve it enough I could make a reactor or find an existing reactor and convert heat into matter. If I could convert heat into matter? Well, I start to gain matter at an insane rate. The more I evolve the more heat that is generated and the more matter I can build creating an infinite feedback loop that constantly generates more mass turning even the smallest part of me into a highly dangerous constantly expanding biological entity of war. A Biological BESRMoW.
So I can't very well ignore that I can apparently turn energy into mass. I can even see the process of it happening, it's freaking strange seeing the small… microbes? I think they are called microbes. Turn the energy into more microbes which is then turned into more mass at small rates. On that note there are dozens of foreign microbes across my body that I've started to get a hold of. Some of them were actively hampering my evolution while others were extremely helpful. Different types of bacteria lead to more heat absorption and even the non-harmful type of microorganism could be collected and trained into a sort of attack thing. Specifically a bio-weapon. I don't plan on unleashing those for the time being. But the potential is there and I have multiple bio-weapons that could make people seriously sick, very quickly. It's fun to dive into what makes up the things and compare it to how my bio-mass works. Corralling the things are a bit difficult, but not hard. As long as I feed them, and there are multiple ways of making redundant microbes that can be used to assist them into growing normally. This is very helpful for the development of technology, just absorbing how these things instinctively work has been a massive boost in helping me design new limbs for my bio-forms. I've also started a side project, the TENTACLE! A extremely long armored tentacle that can move extremely quickly and will crush anything it gets a hold of. I've been searching for snakes to get bio-designs that will streamline this process.
Effort has lead to progress, a constant amount of progress that I am slowly pushing forward. When I first started I was pretty sure I would die soon after growing. I was almost content with staying as a small patch that no-one would pay attention too. But now? I'm making progress everyday, designing new items from the ground up and slowly increasing in strength and seeing things a normal human would never have the chance to see and interacting with the world by taking what's there and making it mine in the name of progress. Consistent effort constantly paying rewards. Giving me new bio-morphs, new ideas, and more resources. I'm don't even feel lonely due to the amount of constant accomplishment I am making. Every day I accomplish something that gives me pride, a step by step growth into becoming and extremely strong… thing. Heh, I'm pretty much a eldritch horror aren't I? Except I'm not extremely stagnant. But still, with all this progress I am consistently growing into something similar to an highly developed civilization. A Hive Mind. Heh, I'll take that name. The Hive. It exists for other stories, and typically they aren't the nicest… but the more I look at myself the more I think it's fitting. Everything for the progress of the Hive. Every development, every expansion. I am even waging war. A war with mostly non-intelligent entities. But a war none the less.
I am happy. I'm not use to it, but I am truly… happy. You'd think being worried about living each day would cause depression or something like that. But with every step producing results, why wouldn't I be happy? I was getting smarter, stronger. I was storing information daily, I was making literal brain boxes specifically for research and development. I was learning about energy, matter, and bio-matter each day. I may be surrounded by danger, but it was manageable, and I could deal with it, step by step. In a way it's a good thing I'm in some sort of apocalypse. Cause humanity would have tried to kill me off before I even had the chance to grow.
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Technology, Technology, TECHNOLOGY! Just had to repeat that a couple of times to get over my frustration. Remember how I said I was attacked by those Bees and managed to kill off the workers? Well, one of them had a red crystal in their head… and I can't figure out how to get it to work. I've got it surrounded in research brains and a full on network trying to figure out how it produced flames from the bee's body. Cause that bee had nothing biological letting them produce flames. In fact the bee should have logically collapsed. Each of them had a crystal in their body, 1 red, 2 colorless, and I can't figure out how they even work. I know they are what lets the Bees survive. But I just can't figure out HOW. There is nothing there!
Huh… Anyways, in order to calm my anger at not making any progress whatsoever, I started further exploring my biological options. I had a humanoid body. A very powerful humanoid body. It's mainly made out of insect genes. But it was still extremely functional. I was using it to loot the village. For some reason there weren't any more zombies there. I thought I'd be able to grab some human genomes, but nope. There were other things though, wild tamed animals and various types of vegetables and fruits. Plus a ton of biological material just waiting for conversion. I've started another nest there, it's rapidly expanding and will likely take one more day before it finishes consumption. On the topic of nests, the nest that I have looting the material of the BeeHive has been going smoothly. I even found the queen bee. The Queen Bee is terrifying though. Seriously, Ice and Fire abilities? Why do you need two conflicting abilities!
Good thing is that the Queen Bee is lazy. Extremely lazy. I've taken advantage of that by forming an Ant Hill within the hive. So many ants slowly eat at the internals of the hive. I'm also growing my Drone Army. I'm going to call my humanoids Drones. Simple and to the point, since they are mindless. Anyways my Drones are equipped with air launchers and highly dangerous pincers. Should be a worthy opponent against those bees despite their lack of flight ability.
Oh yeah, I can fly! Or well, I've made an Oversight Drone capable of flight. It can't fly for long, but it's still enough to scout out the area. Currently I'm searching for larger sources of water. This is a highly forested area after all there has to be a lake or river somewhere. While out I've found wild animals, most non-mutated. I plan on tracking them down soon with a couple dozen Drones. It works via really fast moving wings, figuring out how to get it to flap that fast without it bursting into flames was a bit difficult, but it works!
—
War time. I've started to make traps in the hive. Whenever a bee comes back to rest, I instantly trap and consume it, preventing it from spreading pheromones. It tries to stop it, but the sludge I'm using is extremely resistant to flames. The Bee is then consumed and converted into biomass, and it's crystal is pulled into the brain array for study. One day I will figure out how those things work. Then the hole will open up for the next bee. The bees aren't intelligent enough to realize what's going on, so they are slowly disappearing. Over fifty bees disappeared overnight. Only three hundred bees left to consume, plus a Queen Bee.
In a few days, if they don't take notice, which I don't believe they will. I will have consumed the Hive. Inside and out. With very, and I mean very, few encounters. I'm surrounding the Queen Bee's cavern even now, and soon that cavern will close like and consume the Queen within.
—
I started to examine my forces. I finally found some water sources in the hills, and I've started to finally pull my water reserves out of the red. I've also started to make my own water via cold areas to make dew. It barely makes a dent, but every bit helps. Even then I'm still using a ton more resources than I am passively generating. Too many projects running all at once, the brain networks require resources, the Drones require resources, the Ants require resources. Everything needs material that I don't have an excess of. I'm forcing a spread in order to make up for the lack of resources, and I'm surrounded by resources that I am constantly consuming. But the rate is abysmal compared to the use. I'm going to have to scale back my construction. While I'm building relatively quickly. I know it's bad to consume more than you generate. This will massively slow down production, but if I can figure out how the Microbes turn energy into matter I'll be able to increase my speed. For now I've been working on special harvesting biomorphs that will gather material and deliver it back to the nest. It hasn't been a difficult endeavor, just takes time designing complex organisms. I've been staying relatively simple, just a few muscles and skeletons. That's all I really needed for the early designs. But since I'm slowly pushing myself out of a dangerous zone, I need more complex creations. I'm thinking I'll start by making a generator first.
It's not too difficult to make one, just some magnets and a cylindrical shape to produce the power I need. Then from there I slowly advance the design and incorporate better materials to make a stronger version. I'm using bio-fuel for my fuel source, since it's easy to gather and make. I have a ton already for my energy experiment, and this would further it along. Anyways I just need to leave the design with an empty brain box for a while, and eventually I'll get a really good design. I have a bunch of conscious strands that specifically deal with research now. Now then… next up I go-
Huh?
One of my drones found a human in the forest. Let's take a look. A… child? They are heavily injured, and seem to be in severe pain. Well, let's take them to the nest, I can figure out how to heal them here. I can engulf them in bio-mass and stabilize their condition. Would give me a chance to analyze the human body as well.
—
Min had been running for a while, he had barely escaped after he had been used as bait for zombies. He had been bitten, there was no way to return to the ability team. Thus he ran into the forest. He had a chance of surviving there. He moved as long as he could. He wanted to live, wanted to take revenge. He didn't agree to be bait, he only agreed to go out with the scavenging team. That was it. So how did the scavenging team turn into a hunting team? Min didn't know. Min just wanted to survive. The points from the scavenging mission would have given him enough to survive for another week. Min hated the apocalypse. He wanted to change things. To improve everyone's lives, to make people not look at him as if he was a leech. To learn how to read, how to write. People would say he's greedy nowadays if he said that.
Min hoped he would evolve as an able user. He knew it was unlikely. But it was his only chance at surviving. That is why he ran so far into the forest. But in the end… it was all for naught wasn't it? He would die here, just as the plot dictates.
Or that is what should have happened. Something else came, and picked him up. Something terrifying. He had fainted when he saw the mutant human-sized insects. But they had brought the boy somewhere new. Somewhere where things would change. The Boy, known as Min, would become the first human in the Hive, and he would use his position to bring change. Of course, the way of the world won't allow such a thing, because that would be against the plot. But then again, who cares about something such as fate? But those with no power?
—
The Human Body… is really not that complicated. Ok, it is a bit complex in designs, but it's basically billions of simple components working together to form a whole. The most complex part of the body is the brain, but that was it. There were billions of parts to the body, but they all could be extremely simplified, making a bio-morph of a human? Not too difficult. Of course I don't understand the full body of a human. But I understand enough to replicate it to some level, and that knowledge will likely get refined over time.
Where did I get the knowledge I have now? Well, I've been analyzing the kid I picked up. Had to treat him somehow, I've provoked the healing factor, hunted down the microbes causing the infection, isolated them and dragged them into a contained area, they have constantly been trying to evolve and break free ever since. However, before that happened a crystal had started to form in the boy's brain. The Microbes when attacking the brain, which seemed to be the main goal, would charge to it and layer themselves on it, multiplying and increasing in size until bam! A tiny crystal is formed. This crystal absorbs the rest of the zombie microbes. If that was it the boy would be fine. But eventually the crystal reached the limit of size, thus the microbes began to spread downward. Killing off the body. Naturally, I prevented such a thing from happening by collecting the leftover microbes. However, recording the process of the core formation I learned a ton of things. Mainly, these Crystals, they are basically diamonds made from zombie microbes, but more importantly, they push their own causality into the world. AKA Abilities. I'm unsure of the ability of the boy. But it was extremely enlightening for me.
It was my gateway into abilities basically. And I don't think it would take long for me to make progress with this information, only a few more years. Sure, it's not as fast as my other projects. But this isn't based on conventional science nor biology. Pretty sure a mad man could make some sense of it, but a normal person would have to experiment a lot in order to make any sort of progress. Likely unethical experiments as well. Now then, what do I do about the kid? I haven't found any human towns to return him to. Although there should be one somewhere. Refuse to believe there isn't one, the kid had to come from somewhere after all. I've already started to try and retrace the kids' steps. He can't have run far after all. Unless he's been living in the forest… Eh, it will be fine. For now I can raise him. It's pretty easy to make edible food. Although it doesn't look very appetizing. But I can bake it into chips, so it should taste better. I'll make several versions just in case. Hmm, I should also make some new clothes. I got some spider silk genomes to explore, so it's not like I don't have access to the material for clothes. Let's get to experimenting, need to get an environment for a kid up and running fast.
Huh? I just captured the Queen Bee. When did the morph finish? Oh well, I'll take a look at them real quick. Let's see, Yea, that is one massive queen. It was three times the size of a normal giant bee. No wonder they were collecting so much pollen. Still, it's the end now. However, unlike the other bees this one actually had some biological evolutions that make sense. Which is great! It's mostly an extremely carefully crafted endoskeleton that keeps the Queen Bee's body from collapsing in on itself. It still shouldn't be capable of doing so, but it is. Likely the crystal in the head assisting it. Still, it shows me that the Ability Crystals have limits. Small Limits, but limits nonetheless. I imagine the purer the crystal the more it's capable. How do I determine purity? Energy retention. These crystals suck tons of energy. Still, I'm making progress. Eventually I will be able to figure out how these things turn the world into their playground.
---
While the kid sleeps and I prepare clothes and necessities for them, I'm also working with drones to build a house. I'm producing the materials from my nest. While I could use standard wood, I prefer biomaterial made from myself. It's safer, and similar enough to wood not to matter. So I spent a long time making a sturdy house, the bathroom is linked directly to the nest. Gross? Yes. Efficient? Also yes. I convert all biomatter after all, even crap. So I can't really ignore it. Next up were beds, I could make fluff to fill in the bed easily, I used carapace to make a secondary layer for hardness. Spider silk for the mattress. Water? I've made a water reserve that should have enough purified water for consumption and made some plumbing for the house. It was surprisingly easy to do thanks to my work with biological networking. Next is some furniture, a nice comfortable couch and sofa, plus a table. I don't have a T.V. yet. I'll acquire one in the future.
Now then, I just need the kid to wake up. Hopefully it won't take too long. Now then, onto these Crystals. Something about the brain causes the virus to specially target there and form these ability crystals. What? I don't know for sure. But it's likely something to do with the energy nodes. The brain transfers information via bio-electricity. Sort of like a computer. My biomass does this as well, constantly. Even over distances, which does weaken the connection a fair bit. But I suspect I'll be able to fix this soon. If I can replicate what these crystals do, I could massively increase my spread and power potential.
What they seem to be doing is manipulating a type of energy that I don't currently have access to. This Energy seems to vary in type, and isn't actually normal electricity. If anything it was similar to the bio-energy I've been experimenting with. I mean, everything I have done thus far is within the limits of science. Well, except being able to perceive myself down to the atomic scale and the ability to control my mass over distances. Honestly I haven't figured out how I am doing that yet. It likely has something to do with the soul, but I have no idea how meta-physics work. However, I am making progress. Extremely slow progress. But progress nonetheless.
---
The Child was awake. Good. Only problem is… I don't know what the child is saying. Like at all. It's not English, and the only language I know is english. Thus I've been reduced to a rough form of communication. A rough and slow form. Frustrating. The kid was terrified at first. Still scared too, doesn't know what's in store. I typically let him run around the home I built for him, and I cook some edible biomass there as well. I replicated taste buds to make sure I wasn't making something completely terrible, so I think I did pretty well. Once I harvest more food bioprints such as corn or beans I can make some amazing things. For now I have to deal with rice.
I'm not sure what I'll do with the kid to be honest. I think I will just leave him at the house and take care of him. It doesn't require much effort on my part and only needs a small strand of consciousness. In the meantime I can focus on other things. Like Beeswax. It's a very useful material for preventing fire. I can make a cocoon out of the stuff and rapidly evolve anything inside within a few minutes. It would be damaged of course, but it would be able to rapidly heal without a problem. I wonder if I can find more evolved beasts like the Bees? I don't really know. I did however switch my goal over to the Giant Flowers the bees were collecting from. They were intelligent in some sense, because they were extremely antagonistic to my bioforms. Lost a few bio-forms in the conquest. Turns out vines and leaves can be extremely deadly. Unfortunately I was unable to find any crystals in the flowers. But clearing them out was taking forever. They had roots dug insanely deep into the ground, so I was slowly going down and consuming them.
Of Course things weren't going completely smoothly. I was still dealing with a massive resource drain despite my smooth expansion. I'm starting to have to spread out in streaks instead of a smooth constant expansion from my center point. However, My research capabilities are increasing. Rapidly. You see I'm starting to come to an understanding, while my processing speed given to me by my brain boxes are quick. They aren't innovative. At all. They improve on what's there easily. But that is it. So I started to work on what I'd call a black site. An experimental dome that will constantly absorb data from the environment and will be able to simulate how something would react without catastrophic consequences. Of course I can't make this in one day. I've been learning how to split my consciousness to do it. Well, I say split, but it's more like cloning. However making these clone consciousnesses has been difficult. Mainly because although they have my memories they don't actually do anything. No motivation. Don't even talk to me. Sort of just float there.
So I've been trying to figure out how to fix that. I need a semi-intelligent or fully intelligent autonomous intelligence dedicated fully to research so I can focus on other things and give them what I want to know. Heh, something to work on. Huh, I just had a thought, what if the reason they don't move is because they don't have a soul. I mean, the soul is a meta-physical thing. But I have no idea how I'm even controlling this thing. Maybe these clones aren't moving because they can't, they have no drive because they have no soul… if that is the case maybe I can bypass it? There is a way to test this. I push the consciousness of one my clones into a brainbox. They are moving!
'What is going on?! I can't see!'
-Wait, wait, wait! Relax. I am here. You alright?-
'No, of course I'm not! I can't see! I can't feel anything either. What the heck happened!'
-What's the last thing you remember?-
'Uh, I was walking home from work when a… beam of light ripped through my chest.'
-Wait really?-
'Yeah, I don't even know where it came from, just know that it was painful, actually it got a few others too. I remember laying down and seeing everyone panicking, some running.'
-Damn, I don't remember that much.-
'Who are you? God?'
-Nah, I'm you. Or well, as far as I can tell, Soul You.-
'I don't get it.'
-How to put this… you are a clone of my existence. Just without the powerful soul.-
'So. Um… While I am getting an idea of what you mean, why?'
-I NEED SCIENCE!-
'I'm terrible at science.'
-So am I, but I've made a ton of progress thus far. The Brain Boxes help a ton.-
'So if you're [REDACTED] what should I call myself.'
-No I'm Hive. Decided to take up the name. Call yourself what you want.-
'Wait, does that mean True or TrueGuardian is available currently?'
-Yeah.-
'I'm taking True.'
-Nice to meet you True, look forward to a great partnership.-
'I haven't agreed to anything yet.'
-Yeah, but you're me. I have a good belief you will agree. For now I'm going to go work on getting you a body. While the drones may be helpful, they feel weird when directing them personally. In the meantime try to get familiar with the brainboxes simulator. I'm working on improving it. But in its current state it is still useful for designing things.-
'What are we…'
-Biological Super Entity, Aka Eldritch Horror. At least as far as I can tell. Haven't figured out how to induce fear at a glance yet besides just having an inhumane body. Anyways, I have to go for now. I can only split my attention so much, and there is a ton to pay attention to.-
'Fine. How do I do this…'
I then pull my focus off the brain box. It works. I got four other copies to deal with now. I can put them all in a brain box now, but then I'd have to repeat that conversation again… I'll tell True about them later and get him to show them how things work once he gets acquainted. For now I need to go check on this new development.
The Kids Abilities are showing! Water. Yes, WATER! He is a water ability user! GIMME RESOURCE! Unfortunately I still can't connect with him. But when I can I should hope that he will give me a ton of that precious resource. Still, not possible at the moment. I need to learn the language, but he is a kid, so it's very unlikely I'll be able to learn the language from him.
His abilities are minuscule currently. But they have potential! The water is also clear of most harmful Microbial life as well. Very useful. I really wish I could talk to him, for now I'll just have to keep on working.
—
Min was… confused. He had been around the pulsating mass for a few days. He had even eaten food given from it. Which honestly tasted way better than the rations given out at the base. At first he was terrified. He had woken up in an alien place with all kinds of non-humans around him. But he was alive. Not a zombie, just alive. That was something, he had survived. Somehow. The giant insect men typically take care of him. Although he didn't understand them. They didn't understand him either. Still, they kept him fed and let him run around. Despite the fear of the unknown… he was happy. He had never had a full stomach before. Or felt this good. Plus the bed… it's so soft.
Occasionally he would watch the pulsating mass. Its environment was constantly changing. He saw it constantly expanding. What was interesting was that it started to spread out in a weblike pattern instead of the solid circle it was before.
More importantly, Min was worried. If the base discovered a place like this, it would be destroyed quickly. Or isolated. He wasn't sure how far he got away from the city. But the base had to be within a few miles from this place. He could only hope he could continue to live peacefully like this and not have to worry about surviving constantly. Now if only he could find something to do.
—
True. That name carries some weight in my mind. I don't know what is truly going on. But the other me, Hive, gives me a decent idea. What is annoying is that I may, or may not have a soul. Whatever the case I don't have access to the same abilities that Hive has. Not that I know what those abilities are. Instead I have BioSim. This little… program? Is made completely out of logic loops. Very little actual programming at all. Just constant data collected at a fast rate about actions in reality then translated into this to calculate possibilities. Still a very powerful program. But it doesn't completely explore possibilities, purely a logic puzzle solver. Improving it is a difficult task. But not impossible.
First we need to start with the basics. Trial and Error. First let's pull the program into parts, to its basic building blocks. Wow, that is cool, with but a thought the entire thing started to separate into little cubes. All I had to do was focus a little and I could figure out which block did what. There were thousands of little blocks. Hmm, that's not enough. What am I missing… Maybe my very minimal programming knowledge will help? Functions? Is that what they are called? I am missing If, Or, Either, and other types of functions. Say, if there is water here the program needs to avoid it. Course I'm not going to program that in, but that is what I mean. I also don't have Loops, or Constant functions.
And with a thought they are there. This is cool. Let's try improving the Sim now… This is going to take me forever, there are over a hundred blocks of data here and counting. Sorting it into a functioning BioSim program is going to take time, but when I'm done it should work wonders.
---
He had a level four Fire Ability, he shouldn't have to go on mundane hunting trips for energy cores like common rabble. Unfortunately the boss of the base was a level six metal ability user. It would be insane to go against him at this level. Regardless of how many complaints he had. He was Kim Jun! The new star of C Base! Heh, luckily most of the people in the hunting team were his subordinates. So he could get away with sneaking as many cores as he wanted. What was annoying was that bait. The zombie bait he picked up from the rabble of useless things at the base ran away! Oh well, that thing will die soon enough.
"Boss! We have a problem."
He eyed his subordinate with annoyance. "What now?"
"A Zombie Horde is on the way! Nick saw them! There must be hundreds!"
FUCK. "Get everyone in the car! We're getting out of here now!"
I couldn't die here. I need to get back to the base, before the zombies get here. Those things on the wall can deal with the zombies.
—
Someone was hunting in its territory. Taking its underlings. It would make it pay. It reached out its metaphysical tendrils, pulling the horde to attack the intruders.
Hmm? Something smells… like power. Lots of power. Change of targets then, something has access to the things it needs. It will grab them.
—
4'Eric, Yeah, I'll take that name.'4
I took a swing by the brains and heard the… others? I shouldn't consider them clones anymore since they are splitting off from me. Well, not literally splitting off, but forming their own person.
-You all decided on names?-
3'Ah, so the Master Hive appears!'3
-That is a reference to something I forgot isn't it.-
1'Yep. Anyways we got names!'1
-That so? Well you should introduce them then True.-
1'The one sitting on the metaphysical throne is King. The one with the visor is Tech, and the last guy that looks like an average person is Eric.'1 [1 = True, 2 = King, 3 = Tech, 4 = Eric].
I glance at Eric. -Why?-
4'You have to admit, it was a fun RP name.'4
-Fine fine, what did you think of the BioSim True?-
1'It's a massive logic program. I've been working on improving it, but there is a ton of data to sort through, it gets extremely boring. Luckily I got an archive of music in our head to work with.'1
2'BioSim?'2
-It's a thing I made that simulates the outside world. Anyways, how are you improving it?-
1'As I said, it's a logic program. It takes what you already have and tries to combine it into something better. However if we take a look at what we have there is a lot that we should have access too but don't.'1
-Hmm? How so?-
1'We have access to guns.'1
-Wait, I am missing something here. How?-
1'We have all the ingredients for it, Saltpeter, Sulfur, and we can make charcoal pretty easily. All we have to do is find the correct mixture and we would have explosive dust that we could use to make weapons. However the program isn't designed with synthesis in mind, it doesn't think about combining materials to get new things. Doesn't have the ability to simulate that far. So I'm upgrading the logic engine it is running on block by block till I get a fully working Simulator. When I'm done with it, and with a bit of luck, we would have simulator compared to the PA Commander stories.'1
2'That sounds awesome, do you need help?'2
1'Maybe later? I'm good for now.'1
-Huh? I got to go, something is happening.-
I pulled my consciousness out of the brain array. Then I focus on the outskirts. Trying to take a look through the eyes of my drones. Something is going on cause my Drone network is getting screwed with, how can I tell? Because my drones are supposed to be in hibernation mode in order to prevent a drain on resources, the only ones active should be the ones taking care of the boy.
Let's see… What the heck? Where did all these zombies come from? They are ripping into my drones, not actually doing much damage against the armor, but still highly annoying. The main problem is that there are so many of them… and they aren't all attacking the drones. It's as if they are after something in Hive territory… Regardless this must be dealt with. Time to truly enter combat mode.
I stretch out, taking control of every drone on the front line, I start pulling brain power from the Brain Array to do this cleanly. My Drone Leads mini-brains aren't working correctly, something is interfering with them. Thus I have to do things this way. Then I get to work.
The claws of my drones began to rip through the zombies, easily decapitating them and slaughtering every zombie that attacked them. I start routing my ant horde as well. Making a wall to prevent them from deeper. Every time a zombie enters the wall they are shredded in moments.
Then the zombies started to fire abilities at my drones. Luckily the armor could resist most of these abilities. Still it was starting to cause me to actually lose some drones. Wish I had a repeater up already. Or guns. Hopefully True gets me those soon. Come on Hive, don't get distracted. I continued to rip apart the zombies. It felt like there was no end in sight. And my Drone Leads kept trying to confuse me. Something was trying to hypnotize them or something, cause it was definitely annoying the heck out of me. It was delaying my efficiency a ton, normally I had Drone Lead every five drones in order to strengthen the Drone Network. But with this effect in play I was having a difficult time.
Then disaster struck.
A new zombie arrived, and it was devastating my drones with wide range ice abilities. Couldn't even get close to the thing. I started to drag my Drones to attack it, I was losing a drone every second to the abilities, but I could tell, it was getting weaker. There was a delay that was rapidly growing with every use. The Zombie wasn't smart enough to use small abilities first, going for as much damage as quickly as possible instead. It would be overwhelmed soon. Although out of the six hundred drones I have access to in this area I've lost half of them thus far. I'm rerouting some from the giant flower area, but that will take some time before they arrive. Where did these zombies even come from! I haven't seen another village yet… Actually, Where are the zombies coming from? Let's send an Oversight Drone, hmm. Maybe these Zombies are a blessing in disguise? They give me access to a ton of human bioprints which I can use to improve the drones plus the many crystals I can harvest from this attack.
You know, I should probably be worried about the army of zombies on my doorstep, but handling this has been absurdly easy thus far. Finally managed to overwhelm that overpowered zombie. Hmm, this horde still hasn't lessened in number yet though, luckily they haven't been able to get past my ant wall yet. Ooh! I found what was causing my interference! Pretty sure that thing is an intelligent zombie. Hmm… I wonder if that is what is causing the horde?
How do I know it's an intelligent zombie? Well, it's not breathing, it's moving, and it's hiding. It hasn't breathed for a while. Could be human, but I don't want to risk it. Plus it keeps looking directly at the affected Drones whenever I experience interference. Thus whatever is happening to my drones might be attributed to this zombie. Can't believe I forgot about the possibility of mental abilities. Regardless, I can easily kill this thing with my Oversight Drone, Just have to rocket down at it with the pincers out. Aim for the head… and cut!
The effect is quite obvious, the zombies are no longer aggressively moving as a unit. Anyways, back to the air! Let's see…. I think I see the end of the zombie horde. They are moving a ton more mindlessly now. That zombie must have been a pretty high level cause it controlled so many of these things. This will take some time to clean up… but once It is done? LOOT!
---
The looting went extremely well, I was replenishing mass at a fast rate and I had access to tons of new ability crystals. Still haven't figured out how they work yet. But we are making progress. We know they respond to brain signals, but we haven't figured out how to induce control in the way we want yet. Or well, cause a major reaction. Regardless the horde of zombies has slowly changed from a disaster into a blessing. I retrieved dozens of bio-prints. They were degraded and barely functional, but King is working on piecing them together using the newly minted BioSim 0.02. Apparently it's barely functional, but still useful enough. I've been upgrading the brain's structure as well, increasing the size and improving the network veins. Which has helped a lot.
On the topic of Energy Crystals, Tech is actually working on that one. He's trying all kinds of interesting experiments to figure out how they actually work. What about Eric? He's trying to learn the local language from the kid. It's interesting watching the charades. It's a lot easier than doing it myself. You want to know what was annoying though? Creating a Drone capable of allowing direct control. Do you know how difficult it is to get a brain capable of supporting a human consciousness in a bug head? It's difficult! It's a barely functional thing at most, the head is way too big for an insectoid body. I had to reshape the entire drone structure to allow for the capabilities required for Eric to take control. Even then I'm still having issues as brains are EXTREMELY complicated. I've just been shaping mass. Until I started to work on the brain needed for Eric to take control I didn't realize just how much I can't actually do. Sure I have the ability to make extremely complex things via shaping mass. The problem is? I have to make those things functional. It wasn't till the Horde fight I found out my current limits. Sure the drones can move and attack, and they have powerful attacking power. You know what they can't do? Turn. I'm being serious, in order to turn they have to keep walking in a circular motion until they turn the way they need to go. They don't have the complexity required in the limbs. I'm working on it, but it's still extremely difficult. I could fix it via adding more legs, but there are better options.
Regardless, these events have let me know that despite my progress, I am still far behind what I would call a peak state. I have the potential to be freaking amazing, but I need practice, experience, and knowledge. I've even started to take a look at my microbial management, once I start thinking about it from a clear point of view I realize, I am being stupid! I've killed off thousands of microbial organisms that could be dissected into bio-prints. How? Well, I starved them. I isolated them in vacuums, completely destroying what I was trying to preserve. Well, not completely. A lot are still alive. But a good portion has started to decay. I've started to work on a new environment to store them. With any luck I'll fix that issue.
The main problem I suppose is that I am not a biologist. Not even a scientist. Everything I do is based on logical conclusions via the reactions that happen. My other minds have the same issue, they are also trying to fix this gap. But we are starting from scratch! If we keep at it with the current pace it will take years until we are able to get enough progress to do the more amazing things that I can think of.
So what do I do in this case? Well, The simplest and easiest solution I can think of would be to adapt this world's knowledge. If we can learn how to read and write we can visit this world's libraries and soak up as much biological and medical knowledge as possible. That means finding someone that can read and write. Now here is the problem. How are we supposed to talk to that said person? That is where Eric and the boy come in. Eric is currently attempting to learn the spoken language of this world, once he figures out how he will be able to transfer the knowledge to me. Sound like magic? Nope, it's simple storage. The information he collects is stored in the brain array which supplements my active knowledge. Knowledge stored in the brain array is easy for me to access, basically allowing me to know what he figures out about the language. Which isn't much so far, but give it a few weeks or so we could get the basics of the language down.
In the meantime I'm going to work on my drones. Since I can't figure out how to fix the movement of the drones yet I'm going to improvise and start pulling a different design. Redesigning the structure from the bottom up. Everything I've done so far is within the confines of the Bio-prints I have. So if we use some of my mechanical knowledge we should be able to change the design well enough to massively improve the ability of the drones, decreasing the losses I would take in the future. Not to mention I don't have to stick to one design even if it is easier. This all requires one thing though, time. I think I got plenty of that.
