The Anima (1/2)

In the meantime, after everything got dark for Vesna, the fight didn't end for the humans on and above Zeta 2.

The planet Zeta 2 is a small exoplanet that has some research bases on it. Overall, the planet has only a small continent and is otherwise completely surrounded by water.

Zeta 2 possesses no independently evolved conscious beings. That was one of the reasons people decided to build a research base there and explore the planet more closely.

The Star System and Zeta 2 are very far from the actual battlezone, so they didn't expect an attack from the Anima, although two Warships of the Alliance were set up to protect the colony if an attack would still happen.

Then, when the Anima battleship suddenly emerged from the jump, the two Alliance Warships were the first to intervene.

Both sides launched their Interceptors and Bombers against each other and the colonists and scientists on the surface were warned and started evacuation and the construction of defensive facilities began fast on the ground.

On Zeta 2 there were around 400,000 human and some aliens, all preparing for the attack of the Anima.

War has shown the Alliance Civilians many times in the past how the Anima would proceed if they invade a planet and start assimilation.

The colony was therefore equipped with bunkers and ground-to-air weapons and prepared to defend the colony.

Meanwhile, another part of the colonists were evacuated to spaceships on the ground.

In particular, children, pregnant women and the elderly were evacuated.

In the end, the Anima Battleship was too strong and destroyed one of the Alliance Warships.

Meanwhile, the other tried to get as much time as possible for the evacuation on ground.

All 40,000 soldiers on the still remainig Alliance Warship knew this battle would be their last. Not all reacted determined to die and others panicked. But most were aware of their role when they joined the Alliance army. They knew that if they don't keep fighting and give the colonists time, they won't have a chance to survive.

The Alliance Warship positioned itself in front of the Zeta 2 and fired its weapons non-stop and all the fighter pilots started their engines and flew in their final battle.

The Anima eventually prevailed, as might be expected, and the Alliance Warship was destroyed in Zeta 2's orbit.

But their sacrifice was not in vain, as a total of more than 100,000 colonists managed to escape via civilian ships and the last of the fighter pilots fought the Anima Interceptors via orbit and managed a way for them to escape.

But for the other colonists, this moment was just the beginning of their struggle. They have no chance of destroying the Anima Battleship, but that's not their goal either.

Instead, they only have to resist the invading Anima Forces until an Alliance Fleet notices the invasion and reinforcements arrive. But that's easier said than done.

For one, all long-range signals from the Anima are blocked, just like any attack from them. The Alliance will only find out about the attack in a maximum of four days.

Second, once operational, the Alliance Fleet will need around five days to arrive in the System and support the resistance on Zeta 2.

So the colonists have to survive the invasion of the Anima for nine days. Their chances of survival are therefore very low, especially since the Anima has completely assimilated a world after three to five days on average.

...

It didn't turn out as the Anima expected, the colonists held out for more than six days and put up fierce resistance until the last day when their last bunkers were destroyed by the Anima bombers.

The Anima could have annihilated the colonists from orbit with their Battleship in much lesser time, but the outcome of the battle would not be as efficient as if they fully assimilated the planet.

Through a complete assimilation, the Anima gained all the colonists in the world as new drones, in addition to all the resources on it. The Battleship meanwhile would retire with some new Anima on bord, leaving the new world to itself.

The Anima on the world would then immediately begin constructing defensive facilities and weapons. When the Alliance Fleet arrives, they have only two options for dealing with the Anima on the assimilated world.

Either they try to liberate the world from the influence of the Anima. They could annihilate all Anima from orbit, causing the Alliance to annihilate the resources on the planet with it and lose resources for bombing. The alliance could also opt for a ground invasion here and send their ground forces to the planet with transports.

There, however, they would have to compete against the defence of the Anima on the world and, although they would conquer the world eventually, they would end up losing soldiers and materials in the attempt.

The other option is to withdraw and leave the world to the anima. The Anima would then recruit all the colonists in the world as new drones and a new planet that would start building Battleships, weapons and ammunition.

Both options are disastrous for the Alliance. They lose no matter what, the resources and the colonists on the world and if such an attack happens, a Fleet has to move towards the star system, which overstrains the military of the Alliance in the long run.

The Anima have always fought like this, they are an Force that strives for pure efficiency and knows no moral, ethical or other limits. That's why they won battle after battle after centuries of war against the Alliance.

The Alliance does not know why or where the Anima come from. One day they were just there, and that was the day the Galaxy would tremble.

The Anima have already assimilated hundreds of thousands of species and living beings and use their knowledge and skills to assimilate all life and form it into a Hivemind.

...

[Anima Vessel]

The Anima Battleship that completed the assimilation of Zeta 2 then jumped out of the System at the speed of light.

It was gone as quickly as it came.

But on the ship were a group of new Anima that are promising.

Even though every bit of emotion, personality and thus the individual has been removed from these recently assimilated ones, all organisms are still different.

Some are smarter, some have a talent for mechanics, and others are good with weapons. Every organism is flawed in this way, at least that's what the Anima think.

All life, each organism is a defective product in itself, constrained by its own Talents and Potential. To break this captivity, the Anima developed a complete Database. A database that stores all memories, all experiences and therefore all Talents of each Anima, after the moment of their assimilation.

The memories with an emotional background have been removed from it and what remains is the pure and complete knowledge.

The assimilation of the Anima works in two steps.

First, the organism is injected with a dose of Nanobots. The Nanobots destroy all defence in the body in seconds and then take over the brain and change it so that the being no longer has emotions and personality. In addition, a connection to the Anima Hivemind will be established and all consciousnesses of all Anima merge there together, they become The Anima.

Second, each Anima is implanted with an Omnichip in the cerebral cortex, which is used to grant all Anima access to the memory Database.

With it, all Anima learn everything that all Anima know in a few minutes.

A farmer who previously only knew something about cattle breeding and agricultural work, when assimilated will gain incredible knowledge of quantum physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, mechatronics and all other areas of life. This is the main reason why the Anima are centuries ahead of the Alliance technologically.

If both requirements of assimilation are successful, the organism will lose the imperfect individual and become a drone of the swarm that thinks logically and efficiently, an Anima is then born.

Furthermore, any anima will never actually die. Any consciousness after death will continue to exist in Anima for infinity and will be reused in fully mechanical drones.

This is all what happens when one is assimilated by the Anima, at least to the mind.

But then there is also physical assimilation.

In it, the imperfect body of the organism is altered and made more efficient for the function that the organism can most efficiently perform.

Depending on their purpose and role, the Anima receive the most efficient optimization for their body.

As a soldier drone, the drone gains weapon modules on its arms and its own shield generator.

As a technology drone, the drone receives a module on both arms, which is useful for repair work, the construction of ships and weapons.

There are countless other types of drones with corresponding optimizations that make their function more efficient and replace the imperfect body of the organism.

...

In the group of newly assimilated is a little girl with blond/golden hair and green eyes. The drone was given the designation "C 160495" and it was tested on its capabilities and was appointed to a "Command Drone".

Unit C 160495 has already passed both stages of mind assimilation and now only the body of the organism is being optimized.

As Command Drone, C 160495 will receive a Biomechanical left arm that will allow her to command a warship and operate on various tasks. It looks exactly like a normal arm, but it is completely black and yellow light is emitted from small threads all over it.

In addition, her Omnichip will be expanded, allowing her to execute more thoughts at once.

Finally, both eyes are replaced by Biomechanical components that increase her ability to coordinate and extend her view of the battlefield by far. They look like her former eyes but are instead of green coloured, yellow coloured.

Otherwise, her organs will receive a stability upgrade with which minor to moderate damage will not cause the death of the organism. Furthermore, the unit will not need to eat, drink and sleep anymore, she can regenerate her energy through a optimization made to her organs at a energy chamber.

The Unit will be given rights to a few dozen robotic drones. These are small hovering robots that can be used for battlefield analysis and espionage.

Unit C 160495 will be given command of Battleship 993200 on which she will demonstrate her ability to operate a Battleship and potentially decide if a a new role is needed or not.

...

[A few months later; Battleship 993200]

Unit C 160495 arrived on Battleship 993200 after some time and took control of the Class One Battleship 993200, which was badly damaged in a battle against the Alliance.

The Battleship only operates at 60% efficiency and lacks various Anima for the different posts.

The combat ship can only use 30% of its weapons and can only fly at 1/3 lightspeed.

In addition, the ship is short of 30% crew and 80% Interceptors and Bombers.

A difficult start for unit C 160495 which is on its way to the ship's base of operations chamber.

When the unit got there and entered the room everything was all black and nothing but a round yellow circle on the floor was in the room of the ship.

The unit moved towards the circle and a yellow interface lit up as she entered, which unit C 160495 controlled with her mind. However, she uses her left biomechanical arm to command the Battleship and all drones on board.

At her hand movements, the ship followed her commands, changing coordinates to the nearest star System, 0001388743001 - 87377718 - 320, also known as the Suran Star System, or Suran 7.

The unit decided the best way to repair the battleship was to assimilate an Alliance Colony. This gives her the Anima Drones she needs to balance her crew on board. At the same time, the unit gets the resources to repair and increase its amount of Interceptors and Bombers.

...

[Some time later; Suran Star System; Suran 7]

The colony on Suran 7 is a relatively new military colony with a total of more than 120,000 soldiers stationed there. There are currently three Cruisers in orbit of different species belonging to the Alliance.

The colony serves as a communications outpost in space, relaying classified information about troop movements, calls for help, and more. That's why the existence of the communication outposts is actually secret and the Anima shouldn't know about it.

But only recently there was a communication break on the station and the Anima was able to intercept the signals and speculate that it is probably a secret Alliance Outpost.

Unit C 160495 uses the information and decided to assimilate the Outpost.

Her battleship is missing around 50,000 drones and she should get enough resources if she captures the outpost. By the time the next Fleet arrives the repairs should already be complete, in the unlikely event of combat the Battleship would still be ready to fight a small Fleet.

Overall, their chances of capturing the outpost are 38%, making this the most efficient action the unit can do to get the Battleship back operational as soon as possible.

Unit C 160495 decided upon arriving in the System to send out reconnaissance drones and scout the location of Suran 7.

The reconnaissance drones confirmed the existence of an outpost and 120,000 individuals on the planet and about 30,000 soldiers on a total of 3 Cruisers of the alliance.

Battleship 993200 has already been repaired by 8% since arriving in the System and is therefore operational to a minimum that should just about suffice for the Cruisers.

Unit C 160495 then coordinated the combat ship towards Suran 7, but the unit will not simply fight the cruisers head-on, their firepower and number of interceptors and bombers simply is not enough.

Instead, the unit decided to load up all bombers with all available Ion bombs.

The bombers were then ordered to position themselves, camouflaged behind two moons, near the Cruiser.

After a few hours, the Anima Battleship was then noticed by the Alliance troops and they steered the Anima Battleship with charged particle weapons that started to glow in a red light.

When the Alliance fighters then wanted to take off from the Cruisers' hangars, the bombers came up behind the moon and steered towards the Cruisers at full speed.

The Bombers are used as suicide ships even though the Cruisers cannot be destroyed by them, the Ion bombs will still be able to paralyze the Cruisers for a few minutes.

More than enough time for the boarding troops, which unit C 160495 had previously prepared and now launched, to assimilate all beings on them.

The boarding troops on the black ships then, one by one, slammed into the hulls of the cruisers and the Anima on them started to capture an assimilate the ships.

There was some resistance on the Cruisers, but in the end all three Cruisers were assimilated and 23,000 Anima were added under the command of Unit C 160495.

Afterwards, Unit C 160495 immediately began continuing repairs on battleship 993200 and after two days the repairs were mostly complete and the Battleship is once again operating at 84% efficiency.

Unit C 160495 left some Anima on the Cruisers which began converting the Cruisers in space into Anima Interceptors and Bombers and some other components.

Meanwhile, Unit C 160495 began assimilating the Outpost on Suran 7. The Unit decided to save time and prevent a fight against Alliance reinforcements by Bombing and destroying large ground defensive facilities on Suran 7.

After that, the Unit decided to assimilate the world and started the invasion with a number of about 50,000 Anima.

The fighting lasted exactly four days, after which most of the organisms in the world were assimilated and unit C 160495 decided to withdraw from the System, especially after being warned by another Command Unit that there was a 95% chance that an Alliance fleet was heading towards Suran 7 and would arrive in one hour.

Unit C 160495 brought about 70% of all Anima on Suran 7 to Battleship 993200 and coordinated their withdrawal so that the Anima on the Cruisers and some already produced Interceptors and Bombers can all be loaded to the Anima Battleship.

After that she changed the coordinates to 0087473 - 31311123- 31 and jumped at the speed of light ...