DEBRIEFING OF CAPTIVE SPUG DRONE 18.02-B

TRANSLATED AND INTERPRETED BY DANE HAGGARDORN, DXS

I was on the world your people call Anegal Illimu when I died.  As I drank the life of my enemy, I heard the hivesong fail.  Your shift your posture; does discussing the Gray Feast upset you?  I honor my foes with swift and sure death so that they may be reborn.  Would you not extend the same courtesy?  But I digress…

My demi-hive touched down early in the cycle, and the Hive Queen sang the sweet songs of deployment.  Enraptured to her will, we prepared for invasion.  We cleaned and checked our weapons, patched our shells and sang the hymns of glorious combat.  You cannot understand the joy of obedience to the hivesong.  The queen is our mother and our leader.  She gives us love and purpose, and we honor her love with the fruits of battle.

Initial scans indicated only a small Gaia Prime garrison guarding your Khallat mines, and a platoon was sent out to secure the mining village.  Our Thetas had spent the night seeding the miners’ dreams with despair, and the perimeter guards fell to our shard rifles without even raising the alarm.  One by one, miners fell to our rifles as we sang in chorus with our Queen.  The grand symphony of death, song, and the Gray Feast drove us deeper into the outpost.

When my Alpha’s voice left the chorus I scarcely noticed, but when our SPUGnaut’s refrain fell silent, I felt our choir falter.  The Queen’s song changed – her voice grew urgent as she sang the dire hymns of betrayal and retreat.  We few who remained turned to leave the camp.  I had stopped to free one last soul when the inferno bombs erupted, destroying my hivebrothers and forever silencing my Queen.

My brothers turned their shard rifles on each other, but I was not able to smell their despair pheromones.  I was left alone on Anegal Illimu with no song, no queen and no purpose save to say alive.  Your recovery teams found me five cycles later.

I cannot tell you why my queen wished us to conquer Anegal Illimu, and I do not care.  Now that she is gone, I must find my own song.

What?  That is a strange question, and it is clear that your people do not understand mine.  I may not simply “join another hive”. They are not my brothers and their queen is not my queen.  I have heard that others of my kind have found employment among your people.  If you see fit not to terminate my life, I intend to seek such employment myself.