If Zeyhris could even think of one word to describe the situation it found itself in within this galaxy it would be “infuriating”. The second word it would use would be “annoying”, but seeing as how the Hive Mind could barely form any kind of thoughts that the human mind could understand, the previous two words would be the closest any language known to humanity could come to describing the feelings held by the Swarm. If anyone or anything came close to understanding the consciousness of the Hive, it would be the Collective Consciousness that was the backbone of Arcadia’s military intelligence network.

But trying to explain the thought processes of the Hive Mind in its own manner of communication would be futile, stupid and waste a lot of time, so here’s what the Swarm thought of things in a way humans could understand.

The Swarm had thought that this measly galaxy would fall just like all the others before it. It was utterly inconceivable that a bunch of machines could ever hope to match the Hive one-to-one, but here these metal creatures were, not only keeping up with the influx of bodies Zeyhris was throwing their way but seemingly getting better as a collective with every engagement.

Zeyhris had never encountered something this strange. It was almost like these metal beings and their mechanical warships were a collective like itself, just made of inorganic components rather than flesh and blood. Every time a single one of these giant metal creatures attacked or defended, all others of its kind would learn from the experiences of the original combatant, which made Zeyhris very concerned. In all of its time devouring everything it its path it had never once encountered anything even remotely like itself. Every race of prey it had encountered was a gathering of inefficient individuals, all of them working without a Hive Mind to guide and coordinate their efforts. As Zeyhris had proved time and again, such a way of doing things was inferior to the way it did things.

Never before had it encountered something so foreign yet so similar to itself. Perhaps this new type of foe was a being similar to itself? Perhaps this force of nature made of metal was a Hive Mind like itself, and perhaps it had come from another corner of the universe to harvest this galaxy long before Zeyhris had arrived here? If this was the case, it made Zeyhris very nervous. If the Metal Collective could adapt and change its strategies and tools so quickly, then if it was ever encountered by another branch of the Swarm then it would only spell disaster for the Ultimate Lifeform.

It had to find a way to deal with the machines and it had to do so without rendering the branch of the Swarm attacking this galaxy a bunch of dead carcasses floating through the void. Zeyhris considered for a moment that it could divert tendrils of the Hive from other targets, but those would arrive far too late to do anything of value. By the time they would arrive, the enemy would already have figured out a hundred or more ways to deal with Zeyhris, which was something the Hive Mind could not permit.

The loss of a single Tendril was a pain, but not something worth crying over. There were by this point hundreds of millions of Tendrils, so the loss of one was insignificant in the long run. What did concern it was the fact that the galaxies in this region were so far apart from each other. The Tendril aimed at this galaxy, the first in the cluster, had already starved itself to the point that it had cannibalized over 80% of its own biomass to keep itself alive.

Even attempting to retreat or leave to find another galaxy in the cluster to harvest was impossible. There was simply too much distance between the invading Tendril and other galaxies for it to make it alive. Hell, thinking about the distances involved it actually could not reasonably justify sending any other Tendrils to the cluster, not without consigning them to death by starvation before they arrived.

It had to hand it to these metal monsters, they were putting up a good fight. No other prey had ever managed to not only hold back Zeyhris for this long but also begin to push the incursion back. It was admirable that these metal beings and their meaty associates were managing to do the impossible. Whatever Hive Mind was controlling the forces arrayed against Zeyhris, it was obviously really, really good at its job. Maybe, just maybe, the two Hive Minds could join together and become even more perfect. Ah, it could see it now, two Hive Minds joined in a blissful union, taking on the Universe together hand in hand and-…

Wait, what was it thinking about?! How could it even consider trying to join with something else like that?! Something inside itself felt strange and out of place, like a disease had somehow managed to bypass all of Zeyhris’ defenses and begin to infect it. It had to look through itself to try and find where the infection started. Only by purging the infected could it save itself from being overtaken by this obviously harmful disease!

However, no matter how hard Zeyhris searched, it could not find the bioform(s) that had first been infected in the Tendril. The Hive Mind, spread across countless galaxies, went into overdrive, halting any advances and desperately trying to find where the infection came from. It took the Hive Mind far longer than it would have liked before it found the only trace of where the disease afflicting itself came from. It was that damn galaxy defended by those damn metal beasts! Somehow, something in that galaxy had touched the Hive Mind and, by doing so, affected the entire body of Zeyhris all at once without the Hive Mind being aware of it!

It knew what it had to do to make sure that the infection could be destroyed and keep Zeyhris from becoming weak. It had to cut the ‘Patient Zero’ Tendril off. The loss of a Tendril by starvation or destruction would not hurt, but severing all connections to the offending Tendril would be excruciatingly agonizing and would likely put the entire Swarm in a bit of a bind for a few weeks, but this was a needed sacrifice to keep the greater whole from becoming fully afflicted.

Zeyhris braced itself and severed its connection.

…

A psychic scream unlike anything anyone had ever heard before echoed through the galaxy. All at once, the bioforms attacking Arcadia’s space began to fall silent and dormant, only to reawaken a few days later while displaying obviously reduced capabilities. As Arcadia continued to put the screws to the extragalactic invaders, a strange phenomenon could be observed. The bioforms, which had previously been vicious and merciless, began to occasionally hold off on attacking, almost as though they were facing an internal dilemma about whether they should attack or avoid conflict.

Arcadia took this weakness and exploited it, slowly pushing the ravenous monster further and further into a corner. It was in this moment of final victory that the unthinkable happened and the Free Galaxy Resistance decided to try and succeed at fucking things up once again.