Chapter 423: 423 I Understand Now

[That reminds me of the Klem Warriors and the smaller bugs. They do the same things over and over. No matter how often you kill them, they will keep doing what they were directed to, and only the larger ones will adapt or try to force you to stop messing with their system. Like, if you keep burning away Swarm who are trying to gather biomass, they will keep trying to get into their designated area to collect it and won't stop their mission to do anything but defend themselves.] Colonel Klinger pointed out on the Command Channel.

[You think that their minds have become more like the drone class of Klem, completely task-oriented but lacking the individual directions to make the sort of varied decisions that humans are best known for? Like a simple computer program where then NPCs can only react within predictable parameters?] Nico asked, relating the behavior of the infected humans to technological problems that she understood very well.

[Yeah, that sounds about right. They can do what they were doing, and a few other things, and react to your presence, but only in the ways that they already know. They're just lacking the extra bit of creativity and initiative that makes humans human. All of the Klem are like that, except the Behemoths.] Colonel Klinger agreed.

[And the Queens.] Max added, thinking that he had found the root of the issue here. The humans of the planet had been modified to act more like Klem, but they had lost too much of their individuality to continue working together as a society. They lacked the leadership to direct them, and the virus that changed them hadn't created a Leadership Caste as Klem had.

At least, not yet.

Perhaps that was what the Klem horde was waiting for, a Queen to be born so that they would have guidance and contact with the outside world. That simply could not be allowed to happen, though. Max would destroy the planet before he allowed word of this disaster to spread through the Klem territory. If they realized that they could simply convert humans to their cause, they would begin targeting highly populated worlds to convert instead of lightly populated or uninhabited ones to colonize.

Humanity had enough issues right now. They didn't need to add to them.

The question was, what should they do next? Grab a sample to analyze and leave, or should they continue onward on the planet and try to isolate the origin of the problem in case the Klem already knew how to replicate it?

[How are we doing with the samples? Do we have a spread pattern yet?] Max asked an hour later when he finally decided that he couldn't make a proper decision without that last bit of information.

[Initial mapping indicates sixty-four points of upper atmospheric distribution. We have obtained samples from water features and unmutated animal life that should give us a good handle on what the original strain looked like.

It was very much intentional. I have recovered data from the government buildings that indicates that they deployed it as a Klem countermeasure, billed as a vaccine that would camouflage them from the Klem, and prevent the spread of the alien invaders.

There is no indication of what went wrong, but we have the human trials data, and it is nothing like what we see here.

The samples say that it is the same virus, though.] Nico reported.

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Again, Max wondered how so many smart people could be so stupid. Of course, viruses mutate to increase their spread and develop unexpected side effects. But that is all in the past now, and this planet is beyond saving.

[Cutters, to our position, we are withdrawing from the planet.] Max ordered, readying the Regiment to leave this Klem-infested rock.

There wasn't much more that they could learn here except for the finer details of the timeline that led to the mistake that doomed their civilization, so it was time for his men to leave.

But not without undergoing exceptionally thorough decontamination. He really did not need his pilots devolving into mindless drones on him.

The Klem began to swarm when the Cutters came into range, instinctively knowing that the presence of human ships on the surface meant biomass for them to consume and encouraged by the Behemoths in the nearby city.

[Defensive positions, this will be a combat extraction. Prepare for the arrival of the first wave of Klem attackers in 90 seconds.] Max ordered his pilots.

Combat extractions were never fun. Too much could go wrong, and it was a risk to the ships, but there weren't many places that they could go on this continent and not attract a large number of Klem when they tried to leave, so now was as good of a time as any.

Each Battalion was clustered into a defensive arc, facing the city where the first wave of attacks would come from, allowing their rear lines to fall into the cargo hold first and then cover the front lines as they collapsed inward and followed them into the Cutters.

It was a well-practiced routine, and they had practiced a dozen variations for different scenarios, so every Pilot was confident that they knew what they were doing, even in the heat of battle. The only issue would be keeping the Klem off of them long enough to actually get in the ship without it being swarmed.

The Cutters came in fast, opening the bay doors before they were even on the ground and welcoming their first occupants before their gravity control systems had even stabilized them on the surface.

The high-speed maneuver had bought them some time, and the closest Shredders were still five hundred meters out, but it would take at least one minute to get an entire Battalion into the ship. The doors were wide, and they could enter from both sides if they wanted, but the space in the bay was tight, so the Mecha that weren't on defense needed to get to their storage racks immediately to make room for the next arrival.

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