Chapter 10: Siphonaptera?

Before departing to find another Hwee fleet, Paladin inquired, “In your various biospheres you must have those organisms that feed upon garbage and the remains of the dead? I know this is true for Earth. The Horde behaves as such.”

“We call them ‘scavengers’ or ‘carrion eaters’,” Shellie agreed. “They range from very large, aggressive, and dangerous to microscopic and usually innocuous. Some form of cleanup is essential for the cycle of life to continue.”

“Within the Confederacy, planets have scavengers, but the AIs have eliminated aggressive behaviors,” T’Bwinkel explained, “and the concept of scavengers as a problem is not in the awareness of most members.”

“So you are unaware that some ships of the Horde are followed by dangerous scavengers?” Paladin dropped a bomb into the discussion.

“We were unaware,” responded T’Bwinkel. “Please explain.”

“As I told you, in addition to our home world, the Hwee had colonies,” Paladin began, “and in one system, two were overrun before the futility of defending our colonies became evident. We had weapons and defenses, but the Horde’s numbers and ferocity were overwhelming. In an effort to stem the advance, scouts were sent to determine the source of the scourge. Eventually, far behind leading edge of their advance, one scout found a Horde-occupied planet that seemed dead, so they landed to investigate.”

“Several things were noted. None of the creatures you call Sa’arm were active on the surface, vegetation was of a low order and not present in large amounts, and large mounds of detritus seemed to indicate the extraction of ores. The scout had landed some distance from a tunnel opening and was about to investigate when a fleet of ships arrived. Of necessity, the scout waited, inert, hoping not to be noticed.” Paladin paused.

“The newly arriving ships,” he continued, “appeared identical to a variety used by the Horde, but they disgorged thousands of beings that were clearly not Sa’arm. They surrounded the tunnel entrance with huge numbers and waited. It seemed this was a practiced routine. When the first Sa’arm appeared, the newcomers attacked ferociously, three or four or more to each Sa’arm. And they began to eat them alive!”

“I’m visualizing piranhas attacking a jaguar or anaconda crossing a stream,” Shellie injected. “Let’s call them that.”

“The Piranhas overwhelmed the emerging Sa’arm, even though the Sa’arm were using their force knives. Each Piranha was too close to the Sa’arm’s body for it to effectively use its own force knife, and there were too many. In many cases, one Sa’arm unit’s knife would slice through the attacker and into another Sa’arm. If a Sa’arm had a gun, it couldn’t fire without hitting another Sa’arm unit.” Paladin stated.

“But the Sa’arm could tunnel behind them and bring more units to the fight,” Marcie countered.

“Apparently, the Piranhas have exceptional hearing or some other means of detection, because wherever a tunnel opened up, the voracious eaters were waiting to feast upon the emerging Sa’arm.” Paladin then explained, “The scout detected no electronic signatures from either the Piranha or the Sa’arm, but the Piranha clearly communicated audibly. We later extrapolated that they most likely could hear the Sa’arm tunneling.”