Chapter 241: When to Stay Away
The Xyl’thari Brood was a faction that spanned hundreds, but not thousands, of planets. Grand periods of conquest earned the faction a fearsome reputation with their galactic neighbors, but it was to their great shame that they had yet to extend their reach further across the stars. A series of unfortunate clashes with multiple greater factions had prevented their World Swarms from expanding beyond their current limits, putting them at an impasse that had lasted tens of thousands of years. Still, even those that bested them in individual faction battles refused to disturb the swarm by challenging them for territory in return.
The Brood periodically sought to continue their expansion effort, despite being boxed in, as was their nature. The Xyl’thari were a species that had one defining instinct from before their integration. To swarm and spread.
Each generation gained the opportunity to form a World Swarm and seek new land, but the time in between was growing greater and greater. The cost to the faction escalated with repeated failed declarations as a sort of protection against ineffective harassment of other factions. After a thousand years, the quantity of credits necessary to redeclare would have been better leveraged in countless alternative ways, but the Xyl’thari Brood existed to expand. They could not be denied forever. They simply accumulated more credits while seeking smaller conflicts for easy victories to reduce the prices imposed upon them.
As they waited to accumulate the credits for the more advanced declarations that would allow them to actually spill the real blood of their rivals, the First Broods kept an eye out for other openings. Faction events were a constant source of experience and resources, but they often required individual participation. The Brood preferred large-scale conflict. Swarms were how they had always existed.
Sometimes the rewards for claiming isolated territories were worth the penalties that came from losing adjacency bonuses. That was actually when they were at their best, swarming upon those who had never met a Broodling. Even if they lost the territory later, the victory itself helped reduce other tolls, and there would be time to seek reimbursement by harvesting local resources and sending them back to their protected Core before abandoning the territory.
Kyl'raxi was the leader of the current Fresh Brood. The Soulblood of Kyl'raxi echoed with the great conquerors of the early generations, preordaining his dominance. The day that their Soulblood awakened, they were presented with class options that made the First Broods shake with anticipation. Since that day, Kyl'raxi trained with the Fresh Brood for the sole purpose of conquest. The day of their first blooding was highly anticipated among the others of the Xyl’thari, for the entire faction’s future would benefit from their success.
It had been nearly two Grand Cycles, 500 standard days, since Kyl’raxi’s training had begun. It was just the beginning. Hundreds more cycles would come in the future before they would be unleashed. They had also gone on two individual excursions and held the highest level of the Fresh Brood thanks to relatively high placements on the temporary leaderboards. Few other factions had such a promising candidate, even among the distant stars, but it should have been some time until a true conflict would arise.
When a surprise opportunity appeared, with a new faction forming on an unassimilated planet, the Xyl’thari Brood couldn’t help but enter a bloodfrenzy. A swarm had to be formed immediately. The limitations presented by the newborn faction meant that only the Fresh Brood was eligible for combat, but that didn’t matter with Kyl'raxi at the lead. It took them seconds to decide.
A quick victory over primitive beings that had stumbled into the community unprepared would result in hundreds of cycles to establish their own territory and compete with the planetary sponsor to steal their prize away. It would be a planet acquired for an enormous discount with plenty of guaranteed time to collect resources and experience.
Kyl'raxi just hoped that the infantile faction had managed to claim enough territory to sustain the entire Fresh Brood once they were projected into the planetary shield. It would be an astronomically rare chance for outsiders to an assimilation to be able to participate at all, let alone the early stages, and they would take every advantage they could get.
As the Fresh Brood manifested on the neutral battlefield, Kyl'raxi grew feverish with excitement. The thin air stung their facial sensory sacs; it was a dry, metallic tang unlike anything they had experienced on their nurturing Core planet with its limitless humid plains and the plentiful natural resources that their pre-mana ancestors soaked within. Squinting through nictitating membranes, they surveyed the dry, hostile, and alien vistas.
The landscape stretched into a desolate tapestry of rusty reds and dusty oranges. Jagged rock formations, like stained ribs of colossal creatures, breached the surface of the dry valley between the two factions’ staging points. In the distance, an enormous mountain loomed like an imperfection in the general shape of the planet. A weak wind whipped through the hollow in front of the Xyl’thari’s forces, naturally eroding the surface layer and smoothing the ground as it carried small puffs of dust, hinting at the remnants of a thin atmosphere.