The next step

Silence dominated the room. The room has dropped by a few degrees. This of course, did not happen but it certainly sent a chill to some. Was it a bluff? If there are those who felt strongly about their mission, how would they feel about deserters? Especially when all the people in this room contained evidence of an alien invasion. Any one of them could alert the other enemy and reveal their plans.

Hikaru guessed that this was probably a bluff to round all the traitors. There were advantages in letting those people go. There would be a more productive work force as motivated individuals are left behind. Those left in the group would be more efficient and less likely to make mistakes. There also wouldn't be any casualties in a battle between the renegades and loyalists.

However, Hikaru believed the risks outweigh the benefits. It was far too risky to let any one of them go. Even if they promised not to tell, if they made a mistake and revealed their existences, they'd be captured and tortured for intel. The humans would unveil their strengths and weaknesses.

"Of course, I can't help it if our instincts are too strong. The moment we sense dissension, we might lose control and kill you where you stand."

…

"The same happens if you are too careless and give into your impulses. If you put us at risk, you'll be expunged. So, I hope that we all cooperate until our mission is completed. Any questions?"

Daichi was referring to a discussion that started before Hikaru arrived.

"I got a question." Kazumi responded after skipping a beat.

"Do ask."

"So, what you're saying is, I get to do whatever in my free time as long as I help you guys out?"

Kazumi's level of obedience was in normal ranges but his impulse to kill was much stronger.

"Yes. However, please hold back from killing anyone without authorization. The killings have been sloppy and that's not including the first kill after awakening. It's been brought to my attention that the locals and police have already found bodies of victims and a few of us have been identified."

Hikaru noticed something and signaled with his palm for permission to speak.

"I didn't notice any of this on the news this morning. Do we have friends in the police force?"

"Yes, that's correct. Although there's not enough of us in the police force to do anything yet. However, plans are already set in motion. If you are discovered, lay low until the heat dies down. So far, there's been no issues with consuming human cuisines, but more time and testing are needed before we can be sure. If human food is discovered to be safe, I would prefer you to eat that instead to avoid risks of detection."

Daichi knew that the scope of programming compliance in the parasite genome was vague and was not translated properly. Therefore, he could not force complete compliance and it was better to regulate their primal urges than to risk insubordination. He did not worry much about most of the higher ranks, but the lower ranks were the bulk of their reconnaissance force. He could not risk losing manpower as the first phase of the invasion was the most difficult. In the first phase, the number of parasites were at its lowest compared to the rest of the mission.

"Meanwhile I will put everyone into harvest teams to prepare food at a few nearby locations. Although at this stage, please ration the food to human meal portions. In this time, I and a few others will supervise your skills and abilities. Depending on our judgement, some of you will stay in the harvest team while others join various other teams like the communications division, recon, security, elite task force, and so on. Before we go into other agendas of the day. We need to choose names so we can be referred to easily."

Hikaru blinked. He was not expecting a topic of that nature to come up, but he did wonder about it before. It was a small matter but still important as everyone needed to be labelled for smooth coordination.

"Why don't we just use this body's name then. I don't care what you call me but if anyone insults me," Kazumi stepped his foot on his seat, hanged his arm on the back of the chair and pointed his index finger with the other hand. "I'll f-ing kill you!"

…

"Then for convenience, call everyone by their first names and drop the formality. I'll start first, my name is Daichi, I'm the officer of Midori-ku ward."

"Botan, second-in-command officer." A 1.8m giant spoke. Hikaru recognised the tall bloke sitting next to Daichi, he was known for being the tallest middle schooler even though he was in year 8.

Daichi looked to his left.

"Ikuyo, wave controller." Her quiet voice spoke. She had long black hair obscuring her face, but one could see her pale skin and ghastly eyes through peeks in her fringe. She wasn't in the same year level as Hikaru, so he wondered if her appearance was because of her poor diet upon awakening or if she was always like that.

"I'll set up a chain of command in the future so that sensitive information doesn't get leaked out easily, but I suppose it's fine for you to know who our communication tower is. Ikuyo can transmit and receive waves to communicate with any parasite. If anything happens, contact her first to send an alert. However, for most cases, we can thank humans for their convenience. Later, I will write up important phone numbers for you to add but you still must contact Ikuyo for emergencies. She will report directly to me."

"Hikaru." They continued clockwise and once everyone spoke their names, Daichi clapped and showed everyone their names written on the whiteboard. They were split up into two lists.

"These will be the groups you are in for harvesting expeditions tonight… Yes, Hikaru."

"You said you were the officer of this ward."

"Yes."

"Then, there are other officers in other wards and cities."

"That is correct."

"Have you communicated with them?"

"Yes, we've contacted each other last night via our wave controllers"

"What did they say?"

"That everything's going more or less fine and we're ready for the next step."

"And that is?"

Daichi paused for a moment before answering. "Increasing our numbers. Our mission is to take over this planet. We are to do this whatever means necessary but to leave most of Earth's habitats intact for terraforming. We need to eradicate resistances from the dominant lifeform but spare a few if possible.

"The first step is to regroup; the next step is to bolster our ranks."

Up went Hikaru's eyebrows.

'How are they going to do that? Reproduction?' He thought.