Alien Evolution System

Chapter 211 - Collective Return

The Collector heard the White Voice ring inside of its processing unit in mental communication akin to psionic telepathy. However, the Collector could immediately tell that this voice was not 'alive' as it had been during the time the Collector had been transported into the White Voice's psionic space when it had first obtained the Jotnar's Shard of Succession.

"(My breath you wish to shape, and as a bearer of a Shard, I grant you access to this fragment of mine body. Secondary Life Authority is granted to you. With this, you are free to mold primal energies to shapes and forms of your desire)"

The Collector's gleaming white shard above its head sparked for a moment, lighting up in the murky water of its Command Chamber before dimming down to its usual shade of bright but not overwhelmingly flashy luminescence. 

This was a pre-programmed response meant to be relayed to any creature bearing a Shard that wished to tap into the primal energies of an environmental marker particularly concentrated with the energy source. The nature of 'Life Authority' was something the Collector did not fully grasp, but it did know now instinctively that it could shape the primal energies outside of the presets the mountain had locked into it, allowing it to freely customize golems.

When pondering this message more, the Collector came to the hypothesis that not all creatures that wished to harness primal energy was granted access of its full uses. Certainly, it seemed that all specimens could tap into the immense, concentrated corepoints of energy within significant environmental areas such as the Rift mountains, but not all specimens could actually use that energy fully.

Likely, those that could access it to larger degree were beings like the Old Gods and now, the Draconids. Yet none of them possessed the ability to actually shape the primal energy around them, they merely took it within themselves.

It was apparent then that the Collector, by virtue of possessing a Shard, was granted greater access to primal energy, which allowed it to question further the nature of the energy itself. Originally, the Collector had thought primal energy simply a 'colorless' type of energy that could be used to power anything such as the evolutionary cocoons of the goblins or far simpler functions such as simply reinforcing the body.

But now, the Collector was beginning to recognize that primal energy had a link to life. The 'Secondary Life Authority' granted to the Collector could not create entirely new biological life forms, only golemic approximations, but there was further as of yet hidden potential for primal energy to create life itself.

Growth of muscle fiber, bone, circulatory systems, neural processing units, and the like were all possibilities for primal energy, though the Collector was as of yet unsure as to whether it could be used to create entirely new psionic profiles.

In words of those native to this world, the creation of a 'soul'. Whether this was part of a higher level of life authority was uncertain. However, the Collector predicted that the being known as the 'Facestealer' possessed this, and by devouring it and assuming said power, the Collector truly could approximate the Collective itself as a backup in the case that the Collective could not be reached.

For now, though, the Collector made liberal use of its newfound control over primal energy. It began to shape operational matrices for the Striders, replicating the behaviors and movements that they would have had in the Collective.

Extreme aggression. High speed reflexes. Wariness and sensitivity to the surroundings. A keen understanding of danger and a willingness to utilize mobility to retreat or escape. A tendency to travel in swarms for safety and enhanced offensive capabilities. A tendency to target the wounded and weak or those isolated.

All of these behaviors, the Collector inserted into the Operational Matrix it created, and countless tendrils injected mana threads of primal energy inside the Strider specimen, infusing it with the programming that would allow the specimen to move and interact with the world around it.

Once the mana threads were inserted, forming a glowing network of white, vein-like lines around the quadrupedal creature, the Strider was lowered into the healing waters, stabilizing the creation process before it was raised up and allowed to leave.

The Strider landed expertly on all fours and stretched its muscles in a bow before fluttering its wings, shaking off excess moisture. It clicked its mandibles and left the Spawning Pool after the Collector gave it the same temporary command to guard the Main Bay.

The Collector clicked its mandibles, pleased. It could now freely create Collective units it was familiar with, though it could not create units that had special adaptations that the mountain's raw materials could not replicate.

Basic physical functions granted by such fundamental building blocks such as muscle fibers, bones, and nerves, the Collector could replicate, but higher level adaptations that required the creation of specific chemical cocktails, high levels of psionic energy, and physical abilities that exceeded the limits of the mountain's materials, the Collector could not fully fashion.

Thus, the Collector was left with spawning only basic units, but even these would be far more useful than the slow, lumbering and clumsy design of the golems. The Collector was also limited by a maximum number of presets it could input for the Vanguard unit, and this maximum capped out at ten unique specimen types, though this was subject to increase as the Collector developed more psionic capabilities.

  The Collector therefore began further creations.

It booted up all of its Spawning Pools and began mass creations of Striders. It then started to formulate and create the operational matrices of three additional units.

Spitters. These were arachnid-like units that utilized eight hydraulic fueled, segmented legs ending in serrated claws to track along any surface at high speeds, granting them leverage for their fleshy, orb-like bodies to spit spines at impressive speeds. They possessed stalks with eye clusters that could track even the faintest of movements at considerable distances so that their spines always struck true.

This was the origin of the Collector's Spine Spitter adaptation, though the Spitters had to devote far more biomass to the construction of their Spitters, their entire main body being a vessel for spine creation and delivery, limiting them nearly solely to ranged combat.

Breakers.

These were far heavier quadrupedal units than the Striders. They were thickly muscled and plated in heavy amounts of layered carapace that granted them weight necessary for their primary purpose: engaging in powerful charges to break enemy defensive fortifications. They possessed incredibly powerful hind legs engorged with coiled muscles, and this was where the Collector's Coilbooster adaptation was sourced from.

With coilboosters, they could use their heavy weight and plating like a battering ram, and once they broke through an enemy defensive line, they could wreak havoc with enormous scythe-like blades that were repurposed from sizable tusks that the original species possessed before they were uplifted into the Collective.

Abductors. These were larger flying units that were insectoid in appearance, possessing bulbous abdominal sacks that could carry units or toxins, though because the Collector's current limitations, these sacks only possessed unit carrying capabilities. Their thickly muscled, wide necks housed a prehensile, extendable and retractable tongue of pliable muscle matter – the source of the Collector's Pliomatter Tendril adaptation,

These tendrils possessed a hooked spike at their end meant for gouging into enemy units and abducting them into acid filled stomachs or dropping them into the Collective swarm. These tendril tongues could also be used supportively, retracting the spike and replacing it with an adhesive covered bulb that wrapped around allied units to whisk them away to safety.

These units, the Collector began to mass produce, and it spent the next twenty four hours constantly mass producing them.

In the meanwhile, the Collector had mentally signaled the carrier unit of the goblins to engage the rest of the swarm to sharpen their combat senses in sparring, and the fighter specimen known as Kui taught them in his style of fighting while the elites known as Goromir and Kandak taught their own styles as well.

At first, the swarm was surprised by the sudden influx of strange new creatures, but they became used to them, and a few of the goblins even formed some level of affection with the new units, treating them like pets.

In hour intervals, the Collector had to slow down its spawning process for it would overload its psionic capabilities, causing its nerves to suffer damage and its spirit roots to degrade. This required ten minute rest periods where it would 'cool down', and then it would boot up its production process again.

Until it had a sizable force ready for deployment, the Collector would not stop, for once it was detached from the Command Chamber, the Fortress Vanguard was only capable of spawning basic golems remotely, requiring the Collector's direct presence to create Collective units.