Alpha rubbed his claws as he stared at the several piles of equipment scattered around the "treasure room." Several Sub-AI-controlled Ants moved around the rooms, meticulously sorting and cataloging each item. It wasn't often that these protocols got such a workout; often, they were used to simply mark and organize various natural resources. It was rare to find any Sapient Civilization more developed than 15th or 16th AD Old Earth, but when they did, they were often remnants of the Second or even First Federation. Thus very few showed any significant technological deviation worth paying attention to.
Of those that did, the Federation found it was often worth paying attention to; several significant advances, such as SEAU-05, Terraform's world-shaping technology, had their origin in deviant Xenotech. The loot collected from the army was much less "advanced" than what he used to, consisting of mostly cold weapons and primitive armors. However, Alpha's experience in this strange world made him hesitate to toss anything away; who knew what seemingly ordinary-looking dagger would later turn out to hold some bizarre secret.
One thing he had to admit, though, which confused him, was the abnormal amount of jewelry and other, seemingly ornate, objects collected. While it wasn't uncommon to see upper-class soldiers flaunt their status in more primitive worlds, the modern military theory held that such things were a liability on the battlefield. But the sheer number of the objects suggested there was something else going on here; the gathered jewelry created a small mound that would make a dragon grin. It seemed that every soldier carried at least a small ring, the simplest made of smooth, polished stone of some sort, while the more ornate were a mix of known ionic metals and gems.
The obviously more well off, such as the older Wolf among his prisoners, had been decked out in a variety of different pieces. Even stranger, several of the more expensive looking armor and equipment were studded and gilded with various shiny alloys and gems, looking like they belonged more in a parade than the battlefield.
And yet, these very ornate seeming objects remained in the best condition compared to the more mundane and beaten equipment. Alpha suspected more spiritual energy shenanigans, but he didn't have enough information to work with.
Lucky for him, his "guests" were a chatty bunch. Thus he was quickly making progress on his Lexicon. Alpha was thankful for this, at least, one of the most tedious and slow parts of his job. When a miles long battleship suddenly warped into low orbit over your planet's capital with the weapons charged, people tended to either not stop screaming or go very, very quiet. The General had often chastised Alpha's lack of clandestineness, but Alpha had always been firmly in the camp of 'shock and awe.'
All of the politics, maneuvering, and diplomacy in the world didn't matter when overwhelming force was the quickest and easiest route to victory. Alpha's job was to drop in, scout out the area, suppress any resistance, and leave the politics to other Conquerors who were better suited to the role, like Articulate or Assassinate.
SEAU-01: Star Conquer, The Spearhead.
SEAU-02: Articulate, The Guiding Hand.
SEAU-03: Assassinate, The Problem-Solver.
SEAU-04: World Break, The Destroyer.
SEAU-05: Terraform, The Worldmother.
Each of the Conquerors had their own roles to play, each their own design and goals.
That being said, Alpha had never been in this kind of situation either, cut off from the Federation and deprived of most of his "toys," the AI was surprised to find some trepidation for the future in his heart. Maybe he should have taken the General's advice and learned to use a softer touch in these kinds of things.
... Na.
At the end of the day, Alpha was Alpha. That didn't mean he was foolish enough to just charge at the world's Powerhouses, peashooters blazing, but he wasn't the cloak and dagger type. Enemies were enemies, and allies were allies; the AI had a job to do, and he was going to do it. For now, though, he would rebuild his power, gather information, and then get back to doing what he did best.
Next on his checklist was logging all of the different cold weapons. The range and variety were typical for what the Federation had come to expect in a pre-firearm civilization, mostly bows, swords, and various spears and polearms. There were only so many variations of cold weapons suited for a humanoid form, another reason Alpha preferred the versatile TAWP frame. Scattered through the collection were a few more exotic examples, as well.
The most "common" of these were dozens and dozens of thin, forearm length needles. Alpha would have been hard-pressed to even guess they were weapons had he not observed several soldiers levitating groups of them, sending them flying towards their targets with surprising accuracy. One particular adept individual had controlled over a hundred of the needles at once, weaving them through the hoard in a dance of death that left even Alpha impressed.
The strangest by far was an Anchor. The mountain of a man who had wielded it had alternated between swinging it around by its heavy chain like a flail and swinging it by the "handle" to clear dozens of enemies at a time. The large, solid metal "weapon" had even acted as a decent shield as they covered their eventual retreat. In fact, their group had been one of the few to successfully escape, the man having lodged his anchor deep into the earth, blocking the tunnel and significantly reducing the number of Ants that had been able to follow after them.
Like the armor, several of the obviously higher quality weapons were studded with various gemstones or seemingly ornate flares. A few tests later revealed that most had very minute spiritual signatures, further lending credit to Alpha's theory that they were far more than just decoration. They were nowhere near the level of the large Tiger's Eye the AI had dug out of the badger-like creature, but could they somehow be related? Alpha made a note to try exposing several gemstones to the Tiger's Eye and studying the reactions. For reference, he even pried off several of the larger gems from some of the equipment for further study.
The next pile was mostly books, scrolls, and various other types of documents gathered from the "basecamps" and officers. While he had the spoken Lexicon almost finished, Alpha had yet to even start on the written. Strangely, there seemed to be two or three dominant writing styles at play. The first appeared to be the common language and made up the bulk of the documents, though Alpha couldn't place WHAT he had exactly; for all he knew, most of this could be erotic furry novels.
The second seemed to be some kind of code or military language. It was similar to the first, but only in what Alpha could describe as "shorthand." Most of the more critical looking and official documents were written in this style. Again, he didn't have anything to compare it to at the moment, but if the formatting and style were consistent with what he knew, they seemed to mostly consist of supply and requisition lists, as well as instructions for each individual group.
Stranger still, if Alpha's systems weren't malfunctioning, both the standard and military scripts seemed to share some similarities with Federation Common. Nothing immediately apparent, but like comparing Chinese to Korean, there were obvious similarities in structure, form, and grammar. Could this be even more evidence that this world had Federation contact in the past? If so, why was there no record of it? True, a lot of information was lost during the Hunter-Wars of the First Federation, and then again during the Nano-Plague of the Second, but Alpha found it hard to believe that a place like this world could have remained under the table all this time.
The third group of documents was stranger still. The writing was wholly different than either the common language or military script, constructed mostly from a chaotic mix of swirling patterns and incomprehensible symbols. The recording method was also different; where the previous two were mostly comprised of primitively bound books, scrolls, and letters, every piece of the swirling script was of much higher quality.
Not only were the books bound in a method that was reminiscent of more modern techniques, but the paper quality was much higher as well. In fact, of the half dozen or so larger swirling documents, not one seemed to be damaged, stained, or otherwise marred, despite being pulled from piles of corpses after a long and bloody fight.
Even more telling, analysis of the script revealed it to be the same, or at least very similar, to the swirling patterns and what he had assumed to be decoration, often found on the more ornate weapons and armor, even some of the strange weapons found in the Valley. Alpha's instincts started to tingle as the data continued to be gathered and connected.
The AI wasn't sure HOW, but it was pretty apparent that there was more going on here than was immediately apparent. Alpha quickly filed the data away and transported the swirling documents to the lab cave for further study.
The last pile of loot was dedicated to the more... esoteric items. Alpha wasn't totally sure what half of the things were even for. But the fact that several were marked by the same swirling script told the AI that they weren't simple curiosities. The most common by far had been a small, round, wooden plate, carved with the swirling script and inlaid with some kind of silvery alloy. Considering that most of the Soldiers seemed to carry one and that he'd witnessed several collecting the object from the bodies of their fallen, Alpha's gut told him they were some form of identification. Maybe primitive dog-tags?
But then why use the swirling script? More questions.
The next most numerous had been various amphoras and jugs filled with different kinds of, what he assumed, were medication. Most took the form of powders or compressed pills, while a few were more... raw, being filled with different varieties of dried roots, leaves, and in some cases body parts.
For all he knew, though, they could be magical Meth. Off to the lab they go, as well.
The remaining items were a mix of strange and unusual things. This one was a foot long, rigid eagle's claw, seemingly fresh, but reinforced with metal strips engraved with swirling script, its claw clutching a half-fist sized ruby. Over there, a Hand-mirror that seemed to float and turn on its own. Whenever an Ant-bot walked by, it turned to follow them before "resetting" after the Ant moved far enough away. In that corner was a plant vase with a small tree in it.
Of all places, the pot had been found in the helmet lining of one of the seemingly inconspicuous soldiers. The helmet had been discarded in the escape, but after a few hours in the loot pile, it was suddenly destroyed as the hidden plant rapidly expanded. Spatial compression wasn't anything new to Alpha, the TAWP, and to a lesser extent, the CRAB employed basic spatial compression technology. Still, it wasn't something he was expecting to see in such a "primitive" world.
Whether or not it was a trap planted (hehe) to punish someone for their ill-gotten goods or it was something intentionally hidden by the soldier, Alpha didn't know. If it was something valuable enough for the soldier to bother with spatial compression, however, then it was worth keeping an eye on.
The last item of any particular note was a small crystalline flower, seemingly made of glass. On first inspection, the glass flower didn't appear special in any way. It had appeared as mere decoration in the hair of a long, black-haired woman, one of the healers on the backline. Once the group had begun to get overrun, the woman had plucked the flower from her hair and tossed it into the fray. A moment later, hundreds of wrist-thick crystal vines, viciously barbed, began to tear their way through the ant swarm, even clogging the tunnel, allowing the rest to escape.
After a few hours, the vines had retracted, and the Flower had fallen to the ground. To Alpha's surprise, the strange object seemed to hold some form of intelligence, as it then began to attempt to burrow its way into the ground. Thankfully, one of the Ant-Bots was nearby at the time. The Crystalline Flower had tried to resist, but whatever it had done had exhausted it, and coupled with the Ant-bots durability, it was quickly subdued. The Flower had "behaved" since its capture, but if, whatever it was, decided to become active again, it could cause a lot of damage. Thus Alpha had been quickly isolated the object and placed it under constant observation.
As he stared at the strange Crystalline Flower through his monitoring device, every so often, Alpha could swear he saw it twitch...
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Thanks for the chapter.
WOOO CHAPTER!
nice.