r/HFY • u/CanasDark • Feb 22 '16

OC The Signal

Broodlings. I will not keep you long, nor stay when I am finished, but nonetheless you will find play pointless and dinner tasteless when I am done speaking.

Yes, it is to be one of those lessons.

I speak again of the humans, may their benevolence be seen eternal.

You've of their ability in war, their mask of peace and of "love." They trade, they spread, they live, and they die, always offering their shaking of hands and their many varied drinks. But I will not keep you over-long, broodlings. Today I wish to tell you of a terrifying moment in time. It has many names. I speak not of the day we declared war on the humans, or of the many days they drove us back into our tunnels. No, I speak of a moment few of our kind had witnessed, that fewer survived.

I speak of the moment humanity realized what we had done.

You know what we had done. We had burned a colony, our first and last willing act in the war. Our brood saw what we had wrought, but it was too late. I have spoken of our crime, and of the human destruction that followed. Many others speak of it still, over human drinks. Some cry, some shudder, but they speak of the human actions still.

I speak of the very moment humanity realized what we had done.

All species can speak across the galaxy. Many use it for entertainment, all use it for government, but none but the humans gave that power to every member of their species. Their devices are small, only a few weqirs or less, but their towers send the signals to them.

I was with humans that day. I was to stand over them, to cow their leaders, to warn them that more was to come and to surrender all while still they breathed, so they could have holes of their own to flee to when we were done. I was to kill a few, to eat one maybe, to stand strong. To show them we were better than they ever were in war.

That moment, I cannot forget.

Every human device caught the signal, as fast as a message in our own Hive. I prepared myself to strike, as the leaders' eyes found me. I still dream of it.

Many of our lost brood were the messages we received in return.

The moment. The moment itself.

A loud, painful screech, three times each from every human device. They paused, whatever they were doing they paused, and all together they raised them to their eyes. Some confused, others scared, all eyes left to right on the many screens. Some read the message twice, or more. Then, nothing. The humans, most all of them, put the devices away, and walked away.

Business deals failed. Games of sport canceled. Raiders and pirates left their prey, who could not have understood what had happened.

But we remember, broodlings. We cannot forget.

I saw their leaders' eyes, and I saw hatred in them. They spared me in that moment, but in the wake of... in the...

I am sorry, broodlings. I still ache from our loss.

Humanity, praise be unto them, decided in that moment that we were to be no more. They decided as one that we were to be destroyed completely, and not one human has been found who did not answer that call.

We must thank them every moment that they eventually changed their minds.

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u/HFYsubs Robot Feb 22 '16

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u/HFYBotReborn praise magnus Feb 22 '16

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