The hivemind is conquering for me?

”Hello everyone. Thank you for coming this evening. I see many faces I recognise here tonight and more new faces. I am your host and the owner of this establishment, Sophia.”

Sophia paused as a small round of applause went around the club, the speech she now had to speak was a stark contrast to the one she just gave. More scripted, less real.

”Thank you, Thank you. Now tonight you have all been invited to celebrate the birthday of someone very special to my heart, A man who at the young age of nineteen has already become a sentinel of Spartari. A man who is out fighting against the Drakoshi as we speak. A man I am honoured to have in my life. Sentinel Apollo Lambdason.”

”Hyllus-Lambdason!” A drunk red haired heckler announced from the other side of the room before going back to her drink.

Sophia ignored that and simply smiled.

”I know a great majority of you here tonight are here for one single reason, to celebrate the life of a man that has become important to us all in one way or another, but I also know this is Spartari and some of you are here for... More personal reasons. To you I shall say this. I am in charge of Sentinel Lambdason’s finances, so do not bother others tonight who are here to enjoy themselves, come find me and we can discuss what needs to be discussed. I shall resume the music now and everyone can have a round of drinks on the house. Have a wonderful night.”

Sophia then moved from her elevated platform as the music started up again, drowning out the applause. Using Apollo’s surprising status as a Sentinel was going to make life easier for her in some ways and more difficult in others. She didn’t particularly like using such a wonderful day as today for business, but she had to do what she had to do.

Her speech clearly worked too as no more than a few steps away from her private booth, a man and woman, mid sixties, yet with a hint of youthful biomass scent blocked her way. She instantly recognised them, they were two of many whom she leaked the address of Sentinel Lambdason to. They then found her contact for the fake admission passes and now here they were, taking the bait.

”Lady Sophia? A moment of your time?” The well dressed man spoke, a smile on his face, clearly thinking he has won a jackpot.

Sophia smiled back at the man, putting on a seemingly clueless front. ”Of course, of course. Why don’t we step into my booth? I have a feeling you two have something quite important to tell me, it would be unwise to keep you waiting.”

...

Jewel was busy.

While she was always active, her limbs constantly looking for new biomass to devour, she was extra busy lately. From collecting extra biomass to rebuild her destroyed prime, to the Ker’min prey showing their spikes and launching a series of counter attacks in the trillions. That human robot god had become active again after their last encounter with it biting at a splinter fleet here and there. And even the Adronox were leaving their single galaxy to begin attacking some splinters she had around their galaxy.

She was very busy, fighting them all. Devouring them all. Destroying them all. But just for today, she was on autonomy mode. Her consciousness was not spread across herself as heavily as it had been. She couldn’t, wouldn’t. Today was special.

Looking out through space to where Apollo last activated his brand to look directly at her, she looked back. Her emotions were emotion. Just one thing. Love.

599229067 seconds.

That is how long it had been since she found the one thing in the universe that mattered more than the need for survival. To feed.

599229074 seconds.

That is how long it had been since she discovered what love was. What Apollo was. Her one. Her everything. Her mate.

Looking out through space with her perception. She wanted to see him. She wanted to break reality, expend thousands of years of collected energy. Force the tendrils she traverses to rip through that galaxy right to him. To hold him. To love him.

She wanted his offspring. Billions. Trillions. Quadrillions. One. She wanted his genetics and hers to mix to create life. New life. Her body, bodies, yearned for it more than her hunger, her all consuming hunger.

But she didn’t. Not because it would hurt herself, but because it would possibly hurt Apollo.

A memory of a few months ago began to linger in her mind. Of the weak prey who came to her about what had happened to Apollo. Why he needed to stay away, just for a little bit longer.

For him she would do anything. For his safety she would do more. And while she wasn’t pleased about following foresight, even though she also has that power at her disposal at a moment’s notice, if Apollo’ time was fractured by his encounters with the antithesis. He needed time to slow down for the universe to realign.

As Jewel continued to look out into the vast emptiness with her unique perception, she felt her thoughts begin to contradict themselves. Just a peek. See what he is doing.

This wasn’t good. She couldn’t have overwhelming thoughts like that, it interrupted her subconscious control. She needed a distraction, but one still filled with Apollo’s love.

Positioning her 80 ft body, she got comfortable before suddenly slumping over.

A moment later, she was closer to Apollo. In the same Galaxy as he was. She could practically feel his connection to her now, causing her 8ft6 half Psionic energy body to shudder with delight.

Her perception looked through the small planet she was currently on, Apollo-minor, and looked towards the location she found her mate. Raising a hand to her chest she smiled as intense emotion began to surge through her being once more.

But she was not here for that feeling, though she was enjoying it.

Walking for a few miles up to the surface as her drones and warriors became active with her presence, Jewel found a small enclosure. Inside was one of her favourite pastimes and gifts Apollo had given her.

A bloodbath of tiny proportions. A constant battle of life and death. Her pet project. Her Urap farm.

Jewel had never thought about cultivating biomass before. Before Apollo came into her life, she saw harvesting resources as a prey function. Something the weak do while staving off the inevitable end, her.

The Uraps, however, were fun. She actually got enjoyment from finding the strongest amongst them. The small shelled creatures Apollo had brought her were not so small anymore. The largest amongst them, the top predators were almost half a meter long. Their rapid evolution was something Jewel enjoyed watching. It was like seeing a scaled down version of herself.

Apollo truly knew her so well, bringing her a gift that she truly enjoyed.

’We love him so much...’

Reaching down with her mind, she brought one of the big Uraps to her face and inspected it. Functionally it was still very similar. With its enlarged size, its shell had become slightly softer, less durable, but in its selected enclosure, it didn’t need to worry about other predators, mostly...

Jewel brought the Urap to her arm and positioned its teeth towards her arm.

She felt it chomp down and pierce her skin. The bite force was getting stronger, but the teeth themselves had not changed much since the previous generations. This was slightly disappointing, but from what she understood about farming from the beings she had devoured, was that it takes thousands, tens of thousands of generations for a crop to change without genetic modification.

Jewel could wait that long, she enjoyed watching the mini war from time to time and thinking about Apollo.

Grabbing the floating Urap from in front of her with her hands, she positioned the creature so she could see its face, where all the best gooey bits were, before chomping down on it. She enjoyed the crunch and the less aquatic taste of the creature as it has become more adapted for land at this point with stronger, more biomass rich muscles.

It still annoyed her slightly how small her mouth was in this form, but feeling Apollo’s lips pressed against her own was more than worth the difficulty eating. Her attention then turned back to the Urap enclosure, with her killing the apex, nature was taking its course hastily as others scrambled for the top position. It was a deadly affair. One she watched while munching away without a care in the universe.

After finishing her mini meal, she felt her mind rejuvenated. Taking a moment to perceive where Apollo would be at this moment, she felt herself smile.

”We are lucky to have found you all those years ago, our everything. We love you, We will see you again soon.”

Jewel’s mating body then collapsed to the ground and was swiftly carted away by an entourage of awaiting drones as she returned to her main body, ready to continue her devouring and await her mate’s return.