Onyx stepped forward and approached the item causing her foresight to blank. It looked like an egg? Only the egg was covered in these strange white crystals and was constantly oozing a clear liquid.

Onyx sniffed the air as she approached. The liquid smelt familiar, but for some peculiar reason, her mind was drawing a blank in this moment. She did realise that the scent of the eggs liquid was on the insects mandibles. It had been drinking the liquid so it wasn’t its egg...

Onyx approached the wet egg and knelt down next to it confused as to why this thing was blocking out her foresight. Once she was standing next to the egg, it suddenly began to move.

Onyx became curious and got closer to examine. As she did, the wet oozing egg suddenly began to open from the top. Onyx went to look what was inside and realisation and surprise washed over her. "Oh its-" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

As her mouth opened, a small creature burst out of the egg and latched onto Onyxs face, forcing itself into her mouth.

Onyx just stood there paralyzed allowing what was happening to happen.

...

A few minutes later Onyx was licking her lips. "Mmhh~ Quite tasty." She thought aloud as her foresight came back. "I cannot believe one of the queens decoy eggs were here!"

One of Jewels failures. The eggs she spread out as decoys to lure people. She had told this to Apollo before there first time together. Apollo would love to hear this story when she finds him.

Though she also frowned as she looked at the eggshell. The white crystals had done something to the bioform inside. It corrupted its genetics. Turned it feral. It had no connection to the hive, no loyalty, but still it had its genetics inside of it. Meaning that Onyx’s power would have worked on it...

If a mammal had managed to get here before that insect and become a host while Onyx was on the planet and it mutated while being feral? Apollo would not have been safe...

The thought left a rage bubbling inside of her. Something had twisted a bio form against their mate. These white crystals... She wasted no time. They were too dangerous to Apollo. They had to go.

Not wanting to touch the white crystals even though she felt no threat from them, Onyx turned back into her stalker form and opened her mandibles wide before regurgitating her stomach acid over the egg.

She watched as the entire thing, crystals included, began to liquify. Her mandibles clicked together, rage still building in her calmer state of existence. These white crystals were her enemy if she saw more They would be destroyed.

Though a question did linger in her mind. When Jewel scattered those eggs, the Psionic tendrils to this galaxy were not even close to being here yet, which made her ask. ’Just how did it get here?’

...

As we entered the bunker, everyone was looking around with curiosity, except for Rhapso and Nerissa who I could tell were concerned. "I have no data on the species of origin for this structure..." Nerissa stated.

"it could just be one of the species the founders purged before they begun to make records?" Rhapso followed up, but Nerissa didn’t reply as she continued to look around.

"This place looks creepy." Gabrielle said as she held onto my arm. I chuckled before yelling out. "Sithrik, are you still here?"

The sound of something falling in the distance clanged out before a few moments later Sithrik appeared. "Apollo! You are back. And you brought the others. Come I have explored the majority of the bunker, it is vast.

Sithrik began to give us the grand tour. The place was meant to be a bunker, but it also looked like once upon a time, it was a place people genuinely lived in for an extended period of time.

There were individual rooms with what looked like bed frames. A lounge room with a table, chairs. Everything had eroded away with time, but I could picture a bunch of aliens roaming around having a grand old time in this place.

Sithrik then explained that there were a few places she couldn’t access the doors being locked tight and she didn’t want to break or burn anything while alone and underground. Those could be explored later anyway.

As we arrived in one room, white lights suddenly turned on making the room less eerie. Looking around the closest thing I could picture was a kitchen and dining hall. With the lights on, the group spread out, investigating everything.

I opened a cuboard that inside was cold if the ice was anything to go on... Power was still operational after who knows how long? This bunker was something else.

*BwomBwomBwomBwom*

A noise suddenly started sounding, drawing everyone’s attention. Looking towards the direction of the noise. A bright beam of light was coming out of a device on a wall and was in the process of going over Rheas body from head to toe. I instantly became alert.

When the light finished Rhea looked fine, but what shocked me was.

"Anthropinon gonioma anichneuthe. Chaire, xene. Lege pros synthesi."

A voice spoke. Robotically, but I recognised the language, vaguely.

Turning to Rhapso and Nerissa, they clearly did as well as they rushed to the device.

"W-What was that? Am I dead?" Rhea asked as she was pushed to the side.

I walked over and patted her on the shoulder. "No, you aren’t dead. Thankfully. It looks like you were scanned? And this machine suddenly spoke ancient Spartari?"

"It was 100% ancient spartari. I recognised the word Xene. Stranger or foreigner? Or guest? One of them at least. Though the rest of it I couldn’t understand. Perhaps a weird dialect?" Gabrielle suddenly declared.

I then turned back to Rhapso and Nerissa as Rhea hugged my torso. "The Praetorian Order learns Ancient Spartari to understand ancient texts don’t you? Did you make sense of what was said? Guys?"

Rhapso and Nerissa were locked in scanning the device in the wall doing something with their armour. A few moments later, Nerissa seemed to come to.

"What? Oh. Yes. Well it was ancient Spartari, but the translation was a little dodgy. The closest translation is ’Human genome detected. Greetings, guest. Speak for synthesis.’ This is a find of significant proportions. This place needs keeping secret even more so now. Once the war is done. My order will be stripping this bunker apart for information to how an alien bunker has Ancient Spartari language in its programming’s lexicon."

As she said this. The machine spoke once more.

"Data gathered. New Human dialect detected. Set this to standard for guest?"

"How the... But it didn’t even..." Rhapso muttered to herself. I then removed Rhea from my body, Willow taking my place and pushed Nerissa and Rhapso to the side gently.

"Yes, set language detected as standard." I spoke. A few seconds later.

"Confirmed. Welcome human guest. Please speak for synthesis."

I looked around curious before seeking clarification. Deciding to take Ronnie’s words to heart. I spoke honestly with the machine

"Machine, can you clarify what you can synthesis? I will tell you the truth. My name is Apollo. We are not classified as guests. We have found this place by chance, your creators are not here and haven’t been for at least a few thousand years."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Explanation for system corruption clarified. Thank you, Apollo. Human neo-species. Clarification of query. This machine can synthesise biological matter. Primary function. Food. Using a genetically modified algae with a wide array of nutrients. Warning. The algae does not contain enough of bio minerals for human needs. For long term use external supplements of what you call Vitamin D, C and K are suggested for health benefits. Shall I demonstrate synthesis for clarification?"

I nodded my head. And the machine clearly saw it and knew what it meant before I spoke. "Understood. Your body is above peak for human. Synthesising high caloric protein based on human preference in systems.

A flash of light later an aroma suddenly began to waft through the room. Out of the machine on the wall, a tray suddenly pushed outwards and the scent instantly make me salivate. ’It smells like dino nuggies?’

"Six Hydradon steak cubes synthesised medium rare. Each slightly modified to contain two hundred grams of protein. Sufficient in keeping your muscle mass energised."

Picking up one of the cubes, I took a whiff closer. It smelled slightly different to the beasts I killed under Alexandria, but similar. Confirming my suspicion about what Nerissa told me about the creatures de-evolving.

"Apollo, you aren’t going to actually eat that are you? This is alien technology, it could poison you for all we know." Gabrielle spoke up, but as I turned around I already put the cube in my mouth.

"It’s really good. *Gulp* Man, that is tasty. Anyway, I’m resistant to poison. You guys go ahead, I’ll try and see if the machine has more answers for us. Don’t worry I’ll report anything I can figure out and when I catch up."