Isekai Family Robinson: A slow-burn Isekai

The Hive Hears.

The Hive had only been in existence for a short while. But already it was entrenched in its new lair. Already it had consumed enough sustenance to spawn a Colony. Already it was thriving. A second Colony was already under way.

The Hive Hears.

Curious.

It did not have ears, but nevertheless sound came to it through one of its many sensory organs. The sound was harsh, harsher than the buzzing of its drones, harsher even than the brood-swarms as they fed upon the fat of the land and gave themselves up to be converted into the Colony. It was as thunder to the Hive's perception, but longer and with undercurrents of violence to it.

Curiousity.

Desire.

The Hive turned more of its sensory organs towards the sound. It came from many miles distant. It was not the rush of water, nor the stampede of hooves. It was louder. It was stronger. It was metallic, but also explosive, and it screamed danger.

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Curiousity.

Intense desire.

The Hive spasmed, the flesh of its chamber-walls convulsing and quivering as the unfamiliar sensation ran through it. It wanted. It lusted. Nothing before had been denied it, but this sound, simply because it was so far away, it could not grasp. It could not reach out, pull apart whatever was making the sound, study it, consume it, add it to the Hive.

It wanted.

It could not have.

Intolerable.

New directives emerged. Stores, accumulated in haste, were emptied. The brood-swarms shuddered as they came apart and added themselves to the already-forming Colony. More were generated. More were consumed. The process would still take days, even at the accelerated rate.

Intolerable.

Unavoidable.

Resignation.

There was another Colony already afield. Perhaps it would find the source of the noise first, and then return to the Hive to satisfy it.

But if it did not…

The Colony's primary directive was to expand, consume, return to the Hive.

To the one growing within its walls, The Hive added one more directive.

Discover.