The Colony on Meranda IV - Part 24

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This post started off as a one-off response to a writing prompt in the Freewriters Community. Then I wrote a part 2 (with the outcome literally determined by a coin toss).

But that naturally leads to a part 3, which is where this short series comes in. I felt that doing it in just one post really wouldn't give enough time to build up a bit of suspense 😀 Enjoy !

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Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio

Garrad was visible out of the corner of Dafang's eye. It was like he'd receded, just a mere irritant. Dafang was almost entirely focused on the hive mind of Meranda.

He'd acted as a repeater for Wardek's message that his mission had achieved the first part of it's objective. Something he was learning was that a telepathic message from someone or something he knew personally came through stronger and louder against the background noise that was the mental chatter of every living creature on Meranda. But the alpha Spineders always came through the loudest of all.

With Wardek's message passed to the community, the fear and sense of doom was changing. Dafang felt it as a kind of electrical expectancy, the slow, steady and inexorable build-up of a charge.

There was a distant voice... something external....

"Damn it, Governor, what the hell is going on ?"

With a wrench, Dafang found he could split his focus briefly. Most of his effort was still on the communication within the hive mind, but he was able to spare a little bit of effort for Garrad.

When he spoke, his own voice sounded vague, disconnected.

"Wardek has dropped a package, ASP-Brigadier. A single Spineder hatchling, now safely locked onto the largest Einheriar ship. It'll act as a kind of repeater. Watch."

The charge was ready. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew.

A Spineder voice spoke in his mind.

You are the focus, Dafang. Good luck.

He focused his mind on the Einheriar battleship. Then it was like simply flicking a switch.

The charge flowed through him. The will of every living creature in Meranda's hive mind, all focused on that ship. On the Spineder on the ship, sacrificing itself for the world.

The collective mental energy of a whole planet jumped through space like a massive bolt of lightning, so powerful it took physical form.

The battleship exploded. Not the kind of explosion you'd get if it was hit by a weapon. No, this was instantaneous, the whole ship became a total conversion bomb. Every molecule every atom, every quark and nilton was instantly converted from matter to energy.

The destruction was complete; the radius of energy was enough to swallow up the rest of the Einheriar squadron and vaporise every ship.

As his mind cleared, Dafang heard a dry voice in his head, a mental chuckle.

"That was close, but don't worry, it takes more than a pop like that to kill off old Wardek."

In an hour, Meranda would have a brief new nova in it's sky, brighter than the star itself for a few minutes.

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Previous posts in this series;

scholarandscribe worldbuilding freewriters scifi horror fiction proofofbrain slothbuzz vyb
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Wow! Explosive action! Amazing weapon... now... with a weapon ability like THAT on display at the cost of merely a single Spineder hatchling... scary!

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Thank you ! I had to think hard about how a hive mind would defend itself when it couldn't just undermine them, but also when humans and spineders started working together 😀

!BBH

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