A while back,

The ant queen's corpse dominated the colony chamber like a monument to brutal efficiency—fifteen feet of chitinous bulk, ichor still seeping from crushed skull, mandibles frozen in death-scream that had echoed through tunnels.

Three Adepts stood around the massive body, their expressions reflecting different thoughts as they assessed the spoils of Clear Light's Eve's most significant kill.

"Is it in there?" Atheon asked, his tone professional despite the exhaustion radiating from every movement of his.

"Already confirmed present," Vaelith replied, his enhanced perception having identified the telltale energy signature emanating from the queen's thorax. "Hmm…. A significant density. Probably a rare type of it's this bastard."

Goba knelt beside the corpse, his massive hands surprisingly delicate as they worked through chitin plating toward the core's location. "Her coordination ability, stated from the reports requires a mental processing beyond a standard hive-mind operation. She was directing spawns, managing her colony logistics, adapting tactics in real-time—that's cognitive capability, not just instinct."

His fingers found it—embedded deep in the thorax cavity, nestled among organs that had managed the swarms intelligence, coordinated attacks and transformed simple insects into an organized military force.

The core emerged slowly, carefully, Goba's experience with extraction preventing fractures that could corrupt the ability matrix.

It was beautiful in the way dangerous things often were.

Dimly lit red, a lustrous surface catching the lamplight, internal structure visible through the translucent outer layer—complex neural patterns suggesting a sophisticated mental processing capability.

"Mind control ability core," Goba identified immediately, his Adept-level knowledge recognizing the signature patterns.

Atheon's expression tightened. "Such a waste. The core's dangerous, has limited utility and mind-based builds are—"

"Suicide against Crawlers," Vaelith finished, though his tone carried interest despite the acknowledged risk. "Mental contact with Shroud-touched entities produces madness in ninety-seven percent of documented cases. Only specialized mind-types with extensive defensive capabilities can safely engage Crawler psychology."

"Which none of us are," Goba confirmed. "I'm not. The fist of men is literally named the fist of men for a reason as his built for close-combat durability. And you—"

Vaelith was already walking a knife's edge with his Silver Tongue. Pushing further—into outright mental domination—would drag him into the realm of psychic contest, a battlefield where Crawlers held an innate, structural advantage over him.

His Silver Tongue worked through social engineering, through verbal manipulation that exploited human psychology and created emotional vulnerabilities. It was a social ability masquerading as a mental one—dangerous to humans, useless against Crawlers who didn't process communication the same way.

But mind control was different. Was a direct mental intrusion. It required establishing a connection with the target's consciousness, navigating their thought patterns, imposing an external will on their internal processing.

Against humans, it would be devastating, Vaelith calculated. Against Crawlers, it would be opening a door into their alien madness that my mind couldn't survive.

He'd heard the stories. Mind-type specialists who'd attempted to dominate Crawler psychology. Who'd established a mental contact expecting to find animal intelligence they could overwrite.

Instead, they'd found something else. Something incompatible with human cognition. Something that looked back and infected rather than being controlled.

Most went catatonic within minutes. Some screamed until their vocal cords tore. A few managed to communicate warnings before their minds completely fractured—descriptions of geometries that shouldn't exist, of thoughts that ate themselves, of consciousness that operated on principles fundamentally opposed to human neural architecture.

The Shroud corrupts, Vaelith understood. Its creatures carry that corruption in their very being. Touching their minds means touching corruption directly.

And I'm not desperate enough to risk that. Not yet.

"So what do we do with it?" Atheon asked, his tone suggesting he already knew the answer and didn't like it.

"Standard procedure," Goba confirmed. "Core goes to House Aurin as part of contract negotiation. They're securing those kids, they're providing some support. High-tier cores are acceptable payment for services rendered."

"That's—" Atheon started, frustration evident. "—your just gonna hand valuable Republic resources to mercenary contractors who'll sell it to highest bidder without regard for any strategic implications."

"That's just pragmatic allocation," Goba cut in. "We can't use it. Our people can't touch it without frying themselves. Keeping it means warehousing a volatile core that gives us nothing in return, all while praying we someday stumble on a mind-build specialist. Or—"

He lifted the core, its red glow throbbing like a slow heartbeat.

"—we liquidate it. Convert potential into certainty. Favor with House Aurin. And frankly?" He shrugged. "I'm broke. And they've got this new silk bedsheet line on sale—ridiculous luxury. Absolutely worth dying for."

"House Aurin serves profit interests," Atheon argued.

"Which aligns with Republic interests when contracts are structured properly," Goba replied. "Captain Selene has maintained security in her own ways throughout this crisis. That service deserves compensation. House Aurin deserves compensation."

Vaelith remained silent, assessing whether inserting himself into this debate served any purpose.

The core's valuable, he recognized. But Goba's right—I can't use it without risking mental corruption. My remaining subordinates lack the cognitive framework for a safe mind-build development. And arguing for keeping it just creates political friction with no practical benefit.

Better to let House Aurin take it.

"I have no objection to the proposed allocation," Vaelith announced neutrally.

Atheon looked at him with surprise and suspicion—clearly recognizing that Vaelith agreeing with anything Goba proposed was unusual, wondering what angle was being played.

But there was no angle. Not this time. Just pragmatic acceptance that some battles weren't worth fighting.

"Then it's decided," Goba said, already moving toward departure. "I'll present the core to Captain Selene before my forces leave Vester. She can determine how House Aurin wants to utilize or distribute it."

They departed the colony chamber, leaving the queen's corpse to be processed by work crews who'd extract the remaining useful materials—chitin plating for armor, ichor for chemical processing, organs for biological research.

Nothing wasted. Everything utilized. That was survival economy in Republic outposts.

-----

The colony's tunnels had produced predictable haul of cores from dead worker and soldier ants—dozens of them, scattered throughout the complex, small glimmers of potential among insect corpses.

Most ants didn't drop cores.

The hive-mind structure meant individual ants were more like cells in a larger organism than independent entities. Their consciousness—such as it was—existed as distributed network rather than discrete units.

Like fingers on a hand, the comparison went. Individual fingers don't have separate minds. They're extensions of a unified whole.

So most ants died without producing cores. Their essence simply dissipated, returning to whatever collective pool the hive maintained, leaving only biological remains.

But some ants—the larger soldiers, the specialized defenders, the individuals that had developed beyond basic worker programming—those occasionally crystallized cores upon death.

Strength cores, primarily. Basic enhancement that improved physical capability, increased durability, provided foundation for combat-focused builds.

Common drops, soldiers called them. Useful but unremarkable. The kind of cores you absorbed early in development when there was no other choice. It would probably be shipped of to the next fodder recruits who would scramble for the brief feel of power it brings.

The recovery crews worked through tunnels systematically, cataloging cores, assigning them based on established protocols.

Soldiers who'd fought in the colony got first selection—reward for risk, compensation for trauma, recognition that they'd earned spoils through direct combat.

The cores were currency, motivation, and evolution compressed into crystalline form.

And the dastardly night, for all its horror, had produced a substantial haul.

-----

Adam moved through the convoy compound with barely contained excitement, his usual tactical caution overwhelmed by sheer joy at his Academy selection.

I made it, he kept thinking, the reality still not fully processed. I'm going to Central. Getting real training. Escaping Vester's political clusterfuck.

He'd been Bright's intelligence officer, the one who gathered information, who maintained networks of informants, who traded gossip for strategic advantage.

Shows what I know, Adam thought, grinning despite exhaustion. Shows that intelligence matters as much as raw combat capability any day.

He was heading toward a medical tent—planning to check on his friends, compare notes about the preparation, maybe discuss what Central would be like—when he heard voices from the command post.

Adept Goba's rumbling bass. Captain Selene's professional alto. Discussing something that made Adam's informant instincts activate automatically.

Shouldn't eavesdrop on Adepts, his rational mind warned. That's an excellent way to get killed for knowing too much.

But his curiosity was stronger. His intelligence-gathering habits too ingrained.

He positioned himself near the supply crates adjacent to command post, not obviously listening but definitely within auditory range, his enhanced cognition core helping process the conversation despite attempting to appear distracted.

"—queen's core," Goba was saying. "Mind control. High-tier. Dangerous against Crawlers but potentially valuable for human-focused operations."

"House Aurin appreciates the consideration," Selene replied smoothly. "Though I admit, finding a suitable recipient will be challenging. Mind-based builds require specific frameworks. Most of our contractors prefer straightforward combat enhancement."

"That's the universal problem," Goba agreed. "Mind cores are powerful but specialized. Can't just slot them into standard combat matrix and expect synergy."

Adam's enhanced cognition was already running calculations.

Mind control core, he catalogued.

I have a Mental Dampening core, Adam recognized with growing excitement. From his study, it reduces mental intrusion effectiveness, and makes his thoughts harder to read or influence.

But it could also work in reverse. Could reduce his target's mental defenses. Making their consciousness more susceptible to external control.

And I have Enhanced Cognition. Processing speed. Analytical capability. The kind of mental agility that could navigate another person's thought patterns.

Mind control as base ability. Mental Dampening as security-breaker. Enhanced Cognition as navigation tool.

That's a fucking synergy.

Still, those dreams remained distant—half-formed phantoms he'd once nurtured in quieter moments. Right now, he was awake, painfully so, mired in the unbroken nightmare that was the Shroud, where hope felt less like a destination and more like a cruel memory he refused to let die.

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