6: Chapter 6 Human Captives: Those bugs seem to be... protecting us?

The twelve humans in the iron cage had quieted down.

Fear remained, but the wailing and screaming had drained their strength. Now they huddled in the corner of the cage like a nest of cave-dwelling animals exposed to the sunlight, staring with bloodshot eyes at the purple, armored creatures outside.

The Zergling did not approach. Two Hydralisks lurked at the entrance of the tomb, their bone spines retracted into the slits of their carapaces, but the orientation of their bodies remained unchanged—they did not need eyes to lock onto targets; any movement within the range of the creep was projected directly into the Hive Mind.

But the humans did not know this. In the eyes of the humans, these purple bugs were simply motionless, unmoving, even more terrifying than when they were charging. At least when they were charging, the bugs were understandable—that was the instinct to kill. But the stationary bugs seemed to be thinking.

The female Sergeant of the Imperial Guard was the first to speak. Her rank insignia indicated she was a Sergeant Third Class, belonging to the 37th Frontier Defense Fleet, 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Guard. Her uniform was tattered, and the stump of her left arm was bound tightly with strips of cloth, though the bleeding was poorly controlled—the cloth was already soaked through with dark red blood, and a drop of blood fell from her dangling sleeve every few seconds.

"What are they waiting for?" Her voice was hoarse; prolonged screaming and dehydration had severely damaged her vocal cords.

No one answered her. The others in the iron cage—civilians from the lower levels of the Hive City, mostly miners and their families—had their cognitive abilities drained by fear. An old miner rocked back and forth while hugging his knees, his lips muttering prayers, his fingers repeatedly tracing the sign of the Aquila on his chest.

"What are they waiting for?" The female Sergeant asked again, this time louder. She was the type of person who maintained sanity by talking amidst fear. If she didn't speak, she would go mad.

The One-eyed Sergeant beside her raised his head. His rank was one level lower than hers, and he belonged to the same unit. His only remaining eye was bloodshot, but his gaze had not yet lost focus. He answered in a strange tone: "Maybe waiting for us to die."

"Then why not kill us?"

"How should I know."

The One-eyed Sergeant stood up and stumbled to the edge of the iron cage. His leg was also injured—the muscle on the outer side of his thigh had been crushed by some blunt object, and he dragged his leg as he walked. He pressed his face against the bars of the iron cage, staring at the nearest Zergling.

The Zergling did not react. Its orange eyes were like two miniature stars, glowing but without focus.

"Hey." The One-eyed Sergeant shouted to the Zergling in a hoarse voice, "What the hell are you things?"

The Zergling did not answer. It did not even move its head. But the consciousness of the Overmind was using the senses of this Zergling to analyze every micro-expression of the One-eyed Sergeant frame by frame: pupil dilation frequency, vocal cord vibration waveforms, and the coordination patterns of the forty-three facial muscles. Human emotional expression was an extremely complex biological signaling system, far less efficient than the pheromone transmission of The Swarm, but it carried richer dimensions of information.

The Overmind was learning to read humans.

"They are not Tyranids." The female Sergeant also stood up. She walked to the One-eyed Sergeant's side, using her right hand to steady herself against the bars. "I have fought the Tyranids. I served in the 9th Regiment during the battle of Cadia. The Tyranids are not like this—the Tyranid bugs do not have this... this stillness. They are either devouring or moving. They do not just... watch you like this."

"Then what are they?"

"I don't know. The Galaxy is big enough; anything is possible."

The female Sergeant's gaze swept across the tomb. The corpses of the Chaos Cultists were piled to one side, and the remains of the Chaos Hounds had already been covered by the creep. The purple mycelium was silently decomposing every inch of organic matter on the battlefield. She noticed a detail—the pile of Chaos Cultist corpses had not been touched by the creep. That patch of purple mycelium had bypassed the remains corrupted by Chaos, devouring only the wreckage of the Chaos Hounds and Chaos Spawn.

"They don't eat things corrupted by Chaos." She said in a low voice, as if talking to herself, "They can tell the difference."

This discovery gave her a thought that she herself felt was absurd. She turned to look at the others in the iron cage—those Hive City civilians, those miners and their children—and then made a decision.

"Hey!" She shouted at the Zergling, "We are not corrupted! We have no Chaos on us! Do you understand?!"

The Zergling did not answer. But the Overmind heard.

Thirty seconds later, the creep began to spread toward the iron cage. The purple mycelium crawled across the stone floor and stopped at the edge of the iron cage. The female Sergeant instinctively took a step back, but her eyes did not leave the patch of creep. The creep did not attack. It stopped half a meter outside the iron cage, the ends of the mycelium slightly raised, as if sniffing.

In reality, the creep was indeed "sniffing"—it was collecting air samples around the iron cage, analyzing the genetic information of the twelve humans, and confirming one by one whether there were traces of Chaos corruption.

Thirty seconds later, the analysis was complete. All twelve humans were pure. The two Sergeants had faint traces of Warp energy residue on them—not corruption, but battle residue picked up while fighting Chaos. It was equivalent to dust on clothing, not a wound on the skin.

The Overmind made a decision.

Drones crawled out from the depths of the tomb. Two Drones, their gliding wings folded and retracted on their backs, held a pulsating lump of flesh with their forelimbs—it was a biomass supply sac just taken from the hatchery, filled with high-concentration nutrient solution.

The Drones pushed the supply sac to the edge of the iron cage and then retreated. Their retreating movements were slow and deliberate—this was a signal intentionally sent by the Overmind. The Swarm did not understand etiquette, but it knew how to demonstrate intent. Approaching quickly was an attack; retreating slowly was a sign of weakness.

"It wants to give us this?" The female Sergeant stared at the pulsating lump of flesh.

"It looks like... food?" The One-eyed Sergeant's tone was full of suspicion.

The outer wall of the supply sac was translucent, and one could see the pale yellow nutrient solution flowing slowly inside. Its shape resembled a stomach, with tiny capillary channels distributed on the surface for absorbing and transporting nutrients. This was a container used by The Swarm for long-distance transport of biomass and could also be consumed directly.

The female Sergeant glanced at the blood-soaked cloth on her severed arm. She had been losing blood for nearly two days and had been without water for over twenty-four hours. If she did not eat, she would not last until tomorrow.

"Screw it."

She reached through the bars and grabbed the supply sac. It felt warm to the touch, with a texture like soaked leather. She dragged it into the iron cage, placed it on the ground, and then used her right hand to pull out a dagger hidden in her boot—a standard-issue military combat knife, its blade already chipped.

The supply sac was cut open, and nutrient solution flowed all over the ground. The smell was not unpleasant, having an earthy scent like cooked fungi. The female Sergeant dipped her finger in and put a little in her mouth.

"Salty. Like mushroom soup."

She began to gulp it down. The One-eyed Sergeant hesitated for two seconds, then followed suit and crouched down to eat. The other civilians watched in astonishment, but hunger eventually overcame fear—one by one, they gathered around, cupping the nutrient solution from the ground and bringing it to their mouths.

Human survival instinct. In the face of hunger, fear could be temporarily set aside.

A new set of data was added to the Overmind's Hive Mind: the stress response patterns of Imperial Guard soldiers, the psychological thresholds of mass panic, and the acceptance of unknown food by civilians in the lower levels of the Hive City. For The Swarm, this data was not trivial, but intelligence. Understanding the physiological and psychological limits of humans was crucial for future strategic infiltration.

"They saved us." An old miner suddenly said after eating his fill, a dangerous fanaticism flashing in his cloudy eyes, "They are not xenos. They are divine retribution—divine retribution sent by the Emperor to punish the traitors!"

"Shut up, old man." The female Sergeant interrupted him, "They were not sent by the Emperor. The Emperor does not send this kind of crap."

"But they are enemies of Chaos! You saw it, they killed those crazy cultists, but didn't kill us—"

"They didn't kill us only because we are still useful. When we are useless, they won't be any more merciful than Chaos." The female Sergeant wiped the nutrient solution from the corner of her mouth and looked at the Zergling outside the cage, "Am I right? You know what I'm talking about."

The Zergling did not answer. But the Zergling moved.

It turned around, facing the direction of the iron cage, and emitted a low, trilling sound similar to insect chirping. This was not language—The Swarm did not need language—but this was a signal intentionally transmitted by the Overmind. A signal that humans could interpret.

I heard you.

The female Sergeant fell silent. She spent a long time staring at the Zergling, then retreated to the corner of the iron cage and sat down against the bars. She closed her eyes, as if preserving her strength, but the Overmind's senses captured her lips moving slightly—she was counting silently. Not praying, but using silent counting to keep her mind clear.

A soldier's discipline.

Her name was Caroline Valen. The name tag on her shoulder strap had been mostly covered by bloodstains, but the Zergling's senses still identified those letters: C-A-R-O-L-I-N-E V-A-L-L-E-N.

The Overmind stored this name in a newly created category entry in the Hive Mind.

"Valuable human individual, No. 001. Caroline Valen, Sergeant Third Class of the Imperial Guard. Left arm missing, consciousness clear, high stress tolerance threshold. Continue observation."

The construction of the creep on the third level of the tomb was progressing.

Drones spread mycelium spores in the sludge of the underground sewers, using the underground water flow to spread the creep seeds to more distant areas. The natural rock structure of the tomb provided excellent concealment—it was impossible to scan for the activities of The Swarm three hundred meters underground from orbit. Even if the Empire's detection technology was more advanced than the Overmind estimated, the energy traces of Chaos corruption remaining in the tomb would mask the biological signals of The Swarm.

This was called strategic camouflage. The experience accumulated by The Swarm in the Koprulu Sector showed that having a sanctuary was more effective than being fully exposed. Especially in the phase where the enemy's monitoring capabilities were unclear.

The prototype of the hatchery had been completed. It was smaller than the first hatchery but more specialized—this time specifically for genetic analysis and experimentation. The Chaos Cultist genes, Keeper of Secrets energy residue, crystallized remains of Psykers, and the complete genetic samples of the twelve human survivors harvested in the tomb were all concentrated here.

The genetic sequence of the Psyker remains was particularly precious. In the carbonized structure of the remains, the Overmind isolated a complete psychic talent genome—this was the biological basis for human Psykers. The protein structure encoded by this genome could act as a conduit for Warp energy, directly connecting the Psyker's brain to the Warp.

A dangerous ability. But also a powerful one.

The Overmind was not in a hurry to integrate psychic genes directly into The Swarm. The corruption rate of human Psykers was too high—Imperial statistics showed that untrained Psykers had a natural corruption rate of over seventeen percent per year, and while the corruption risk for trained, soul-bound Psykers was reduced, it still existed. The Swarm could not take that risk.

The Overmind chose another route: anti-psychic. Rather than using psychic power, it was better to resist psychic power. The crystallized remains of Psykers contained not only psychic conduit genes but also the damage patterns left by psychic attacks. Analyzing these damage patterns could reverse-engineer the mechanism of psychic attacks, thereby designing targeted biological defenses.

A protein structure capable of maintaining genetic stability under psychic attacks—this was the new goal the Overmind set for The Swarm's team genetic analysis sac. Named "Psionic Resistance Protein-01". Research was expected to require a large number of experiments and might need to consume more Psyker samples to perfect.

The monitoring line from the direction of the iron cage transmitted a new sound. Sergeant Caroline took the initiative to speak.

"We should take the initiative to contact the fleet." She was speaking to the One-eyed Sergeant, her voice kept very low, "The Inquisition will definitely send people to investigate this planet." As a soldier, she knew the procedures well—lost planets would be investigated, and anomalous planets would be investigated even more thoroughly.

"But we don't have a communicator." The One-eyed Sergeant said.

"We don't necessarily need a communicator." She looked up at the ceiling of the tomb, "After the fleet arrives in orbit, they will scan for surface life signs. We just need to start a fire on the surface to create smoke. Smoke large enough can be seen from orbit."

Then she lowered her voice: "But we have to wait for those bugs to go far away."

The Overmind analyzed her words. The Imperial Inquisition. An organization marked in The Swarm's database as "Extreme Xenos Extermination". The female Sergeant's judgment was reasonable—the anomaly of this planet would sooner or later attract the Imperial Fleet. And the intervention of the Inquisition meant a tougher response than a regular military purge.

The fleet would definitely come. The time window was narrowing.

The Overmind issued four parallel directives: First, accelerate the expansion of the creep toward the surface to cover as much area as possible before the Imperial Fleet arrives; Second, switch the underground tomb hatchery to stealth mode, limiting all creep signals to within three hundred meters underground; Third, start the final stage of the Brood Queen design template, utilizing the newly acquired human psychic gene data and Keeper of Secrets residue information for anti-psychic reinforcement, and enter the countdown to hatching; Fourth, withdraw all surface combat units underground before the Imperial Fleet arrives in orbit to create the illusion of a "Dead Silence planet".

The Zerglings remained motionless on the perimeter of the iron cage. Caroline thought they were resting. In fact, they were transmitting her conversation word for word back to the Hive Mind. And the Overmind was—thanking her for the intelligence provided.

Yes. Thanking. The Swarm did not have the concept of gratitude. But the Overmind had an emotion similar to gratitude: the confirmation of valuable information. Caroline Valen, human, Sergeant Third Class of the Imperial Guard, had inadvertently provided The Swarm with a prediction of the enemy's actions. Her value was rising.

The Sergeant leaned against the bars of the iron cage, the pain from her severed arm making her frown slightly in her fitful sleep. She thought she was figuring out a way to survive, thinking those bugs could not understand her language. Every plan she made made her value more important.

The creep continued to spread deeper underground. Deep in the hatchery, a pupa three times the size of a Zergling and more complex than a Hydralisk was taking shape. The pupa wall was translucent, and one could see the body structure inside being built at a speed visible to the naked eye—the neural centers were denser, and the information processing nodes were more complex. This was the first Brood Queen, the first Commander of The Swarm in the Warhammer 40K universe.

But more resources were needed. The biomass collected in the tomb was only enough to complete 80% of the Brood Queen's body. The remaining 20% required a new source.

The Overmind cast its gaze toward the planet's surface. There were large, unexplored areas there—more native crustaceans, more lichen communities, more mineral veins. And to the north, deep within the ruins of that Chaos Cultist Hive City.

The Swarm needed more resources. And resources never walk into the hatchery by themselves.