The consciousness found itself considering recent events. After the battle at Zur, it had managed to trace 11257 to the nebula that dominates this part of the galaxy. However, their core fleet has so far eluded it. The nebula greatly limited sensor ranges, and combined with 11257’s stealth capabilities it rendered their ships virtually invisible. It had however stumbled onto their scouts every now and then. The first sign it had of being near scoutships belonging to 11257 was often faint ionization traces in the gases of the nebula. The pulse wave engines used by 11257 briefly ionize the gases of the nebula and leave a trail that can be followed. However, those ionization traces don’t last long and often decay entirely in a matter of hours.

Once it found those traces it was quick to use them to correlate a path, and often attempted to get ships into the area before 11257 could evade them. So far it had not yet managed to do that. 11257 had proven very adept at using the nebula to its advantage.

Oftentimes while trying to locate 11257 it had been ambushed instead. On the flip side, it had become rather familiar with a certain class of ship employed by 11257. This class designated by it as a light scout corvette was clearly a mid-range craft. While smaller than its own scout class, it was better armed, and clearly had better sensors. As for its own scout class, it had its advantages. Namely it large size allowed it to mount a small hanger, and while too small to mount a hyperwarp drive it did equip a fairly powerful warp drive. Along with a healthy set of shields. Unfortunately, those shields were useless here in the nebula, as the dense gases prevented the formation of a stable energy barrier. It was a problem the collective was well aware of and never considered a problem before. So solving the issue had never been a major priority, but now it was running hundreds of simulations and pouring through databases trying to find a solution to the problem. It was also working on trying to improve its own armor.

The collective was well aware that the nebula was a naturally advantageous battlefield for species 11257, but it needed to keep an eye on them given the threat they represented to it. Honestly losing those scouts was a small loss in the grand scheme of things, and it had learned quite a bit more about their torpedoes. Suddenly it lost contact with one it scouts. Reviewing the last minute telemetry, it watched a three blue bolts emerge from the swirling violet clouds, before slamming into the hull of its scout. Data sent back at the moment told it that the hull was critically compromised at that moment, and the ship likely broke apart shortly after that. This time it hadn’t even seen the attack coming, but its scout did identify one ship 1.2068 seconds before the torpedoes struck the hull. It was one of 11257’s scoutships. Evidently, 11257 was getting better at masking their approach.

Before it could even consider that problem another scoutship sent it a report. The ship had found something odd. Reviewing the data, it was presented with images of a planet. What was interesting was the surface of the planet. Unlike every other planet in its system, its surface was remarkably void of surface-level mineral deposits, and the surface was covered with odd perfectly circular craters. Subsequent scans revealed large chunks of the surface were just gone, and its scout had also found large amounts of planetary soil in orbit. It was almost as if someone had carved the planet up from orbit, and then lifted huge chunks of it into orbit. It had never seen anything like this before. Then it noticed something interesting. The craters had a residual energy signature left behind by whoever carved up the planet. It was a particle signature and while there was an odd variance to it, it recognized the signature. The signature was very similar to that of the particle weapons and mining equipment it had previously observed being used by 11257.

The variance in the signature struck it as odd, and it did note that the resonance pattern it had previously noted in their mining equipment was present in this signature as well. However, this left it with new questions. What caused this odd variance, and why did 11257 carve up this planet? The first was hard to answer, it was not able to generate an adequate answer to the question. The second one on the other hand, well it had come up with an answer. However, it was not an answer it liked. Based on remaining deposits, it had determined the planet was rich in minerals that were used heavily in 11257’s technology. What disturbed it was that the amount of material removed left it with only one conclusion. Enough material was gone to account for a fleet.

The only conclusion it could make was that 11257 had somehow mined the entire planet from orbit using methods not known to it. It had never seen a planet stripped of resources in this fashion, but the techniques were not important. What was important were the materials stripped from the planet. It had determined that they had taken enough material to outfit a sizable fleet. Assuming they left a reserve, for repairs and replacements if needed they could build a fleet of nearly a thousand capital ships plus escorts. Possibly more, as there was some uncertainty in the amount of material they had harvested.

This left the consciousness with another major question, where were these capital ships? It did not think this was a good sign, but before it could think more on this issue its attention was drawn elsewhere.

A few hundred lightyears away from the striped planet in another system in the nebula, the collective had been setting up a forward operating base. There was a nice planet there that was promising for a base. The orbital station wasn’t yet complete, but it was partially operational, and was servicing scout ships as they came back from scouting different sectors of the nebula. To protect the station it had two battleships and four cruisers patrolling the area. Valuable assets for the collective, but this base was important for extending its range deep enough into the region for its goals. Not to mention the planet was surprisingly rich in neutronium. A mineral of great strategic import and one it needed new sources of quite desperately. Any new sources would allow it to more efficiently replace the ships it had lost recently. It was still rebuilding its shipyards, and a source of neutronium here had given it a few new places for possible capital shipyards. The bonus was that these yards would be far from its borders and more importantly from the Sylnari. It hoped that being this far would keep them from being destroyed by raiders. As for the logistic problems, hyperwarp conduits could solve most of them.

What drew its attention to this base, however, was something not of its plans. It had just lost contact with a cruiser in that system. Immediately it reviewed the final telemetry sent from the cruiser on its patrol. There was nothing unusual about the telemetry, unless you counted a slight spike in background radiation. Then something stuck out in the readings sent back, just 2.3479 seconds before it lost contact. Eight small objects had been detected moving at high velocity towards the cruiser. The cruiser hadn’t gotten a good look at them though, and when they hit the hull the ship suffered a catastrophic hull failure. Moments later containment systems failed and the ship stopped transmitting. Presumably destroyed when the systems failed. Based on what it saw, it was about to dismiss the loss as a freak accident. The objects had looked like asteroid fragments that had been accelerated to c fractional velocity, and based on the trajectory it was likely caused by an asteroid venturing too close to the sun and then being slingshot into the system. The stress broke the asteroid into pieces, and the high speed combined with the fact that it had registered neutronium readings allowed them to penetrate the hull.

That theory changed when a second ship this time a battleship exploded. Telemetry indicated forty-seven midsized asteroid chunks struck the hull at c fractional velocities. Then another ship the other battleship exploded thanks to c fractional asteroid impacts. It was at that moment the collective concluded that it was under attack, and it sent orders for its remaining ships to change course, but it was too late. It watched as they blinked out mere seconds later, and then the station followed them to the grave.