[Unknown_Enemy]

Infestation.

My vision fails.
Space curves itself around me as I enter the unexplored warp point.
I am blind for an eternity of a microsecond.
Then Information floods me.
I have arrived in a new system, and all my sensors begin immediately to collect data, searching suitable worlds for colonization.
Without warning, a proximity alert erupts in my mind as light shining in darkness.
An object is on collision course with me.
I dodge. I feel pain while 25g acceleration rupture my body.
The object adjusts its trajectory in interception course with me. I cancel all safety limitations by accelerating to 32g. Some of my organs begin to fail, I disregard the pain and begin transmitting my situation to the Overmind. Seconds later the object chasing me explodes at a distance of less than 3 kilometers from me. The bLast wipe out half of my engines, and a large part of my supply. I realize I am crippled, and dying. I try to set course for the warp point to escape this cursed place.
Then my long range senses show me 2 similar objects launching from what I thought to be an asteroid.
I turn all my senses toward the incoming projectiles.
I will scan them and transmit all I can until my death.

Back on Eden, the Overmind had observed early on that a colony would need a minimum of a million individuals to get a communal mind able to both regulate itself and stay One with him. That is why colonization ships and starliners were designed to hold that amount of population. The telepathic ability was invaluable to transmit simple data, but the amount of energy required to merge a mind into the Mutiplicity vastly exceeded the strength of any individual far from a colony. In fact, the Master of Eden rarely called to all Parts of him. But this day, minds from all colonized worlds assembled and merged.

We shared the death of a part of me.

After the first guided projectile left him crippled, the explorer waited for death while scanning the incoming missiles. Then a miracle occurred. The second missile fizzled, and failed to detonate. It almost hit Eden's son, missing him by a mere 500 meters. The weapon was fully scanned, and the data was transmitted immediately to the Collective, just in time before the second missile rammed the ship, detonating inside the explorer. All living creatures born from Eden helped to analyze the data. Soon, it was proved that the projectile was a living creature, designed to destroy anything in its suicide. The technology used was very similar to what was used on Eden, and was quickly understood. More, they were launched from an object, classified as a spaceship which contained very few organic material. No communication attempts were made.

We wanted to force a contact, but events unfold very differently, to say the least.

Several armed explorers from the Mind were send in this area. All of them were equipped with crude devices designed to throw a cloud of very small projectiles versus an incoming object, as well as lightning beams should they need to counter attack. The simple but effective missile defense should give enough time to these explorers to initiate communication. They were also born recently, bearing the latest biological advances and acute intelligence capacity. Some of them explored several warp points, finding no traces of the aggressor. But one jumped right in a system where was lying a nest of the beasts : a lone alien colony. Staying at safe range, the Hawk of Eden was not able to establish a contact. He received thousands of Messages, he send many, but the alien specie just seemed not to be listening to him. Analysis showed later that all incoming Messages were threat, menaces, intimidation attempts and insults. Puzzling indeed, as such demeanor was only seen with low level mammals, such as monkeys trying to intimidate each other. Last, a lone alien ship was spotted cruising in an otherwise inhabited system. The Hawk of Eden rushed on interception course, in an attempt to capture a sample of this alien specie. Alas, the enemy ship attempted to ram him, so the Son of Eden had to destroy it. However, the explorer brought back remains of the hulk to the nearest colony.

Parasites.

The unknown specie was using radio and hyperwave signals for communication. The Multiplicity started to decode their transmissions, while also studying some badly damaged alien DNA from the hulk. The Collective soon discovered the alien specie called themselves the Xi'Chung. They seemed to consider all life their property to use. The missiles they used were apparently a life form from another world which had been mutated to serve their purposes. In fact, they were denying sentience to all but them, and were using and morphing all others to suit their needs. The Overmind frequently modified some species'DNA to enable them to Ascend within Him. But what the Xi'Chung did was not evolution, it was evilution. Obviously, the Xi'Chung were a parasitic race that were out of control. In all biospheres, parasites had their places in the ecosystem. And if such a specie broke its bonds, it usually killed his host, ensuring its own death in the process. Considering the Xi'Chung particular case, the Overmind concluded they had avoided their fate using space faring, which enabled them to find some new hosts to infest. In effect, they were infesting planets, subverting entire ecosystems.

Getting to this conclusion proved to be the hardest part. As the Collective was realizing what sort of specie was the Xi'Chung, planetary wombs started to grow new breeds of Eden's Hawk.

Natural order has to be restored.