Silently it ticked, as it observed the two individuals in the main historical room of the temple. It was completely invisible, a camouflage technique that it had grown to admire over several centuries. Though, as long as it is completely still. If it were to move, there would be a slight shimmer in the light, so much so that it can be seen as a shifting outline on the wall, before a pillar or simply on the floor. How ever it is seen, from any direction, it would vaguely be visible.

But it cannot risk to be seen by these individuals that wear clothing of separate color. It was able to identify that the one with pointy ears wore a uniform with a collar of gold. The other, skin of blue also wore a similar uniform but their collar was blue. The shoulders of their uniform jacket were the only thing that was the same, as they were the color of gray. It also noticed the badges that they wore over their left breast on their jacket. A device of communication.

It had not seen technology as this for a long, long time. It had also identified the devices in their hands. One that was used to scan and collect data. Other had information on it, information that seemed rather important to the pointy-eared one. And then it heard the name of its species from the pointy-eared one, who said it to the blue one. ‘Vezda’.

‘So they know of my kind,’ it thought. ‘Then they are aware of our abilities.’ This did not bode well with the creature. Thus it would quietly descend the stairwell and follow the path it had taken so many times to descend further and further into the temple.

‘To think that I was assigned to this miserable planet, to look for valuable resources for my people, only to be trapped here for centuries.’ It thought as it continued, where it crossed a barrier that went from walls of construction, made from sandstone bricks, to walls made by tools that were used for mining.

‘To possess their great leader,’ it continued to think. ‘To possessing this powerful, illusive creature. I had never truly thought that I would fail in my mission. But to stumble upon creatures such as this, and that it took considerable amount of years and effort to possess one, I would have thought that my kind would have come to inquire about my mission, so that I can reveal these creatures to them. Where I may have failed in one mission, I may have succeeded in another.’ Now that it was far away from being discovered by the intruders above, it no longer had reason to be concealed.

As it dropped its camouflage, passed through the threshold to a massive chamber. It stood there, in the natural light that emitted from stones that glowed brightly of amber color, which complimented its sienna-brown, glossy chitin body, running through shades of wet coal where its plates overlapped. It’s head was narrow, ending with needle-fine snout that housed a coil of weaponized muscle, half a dozen of tongues that can reach to the chamber floor. Which is impressive to say when the creature stood almost seven feet tall, where the full length of it from head to tail was thirteen feet and five feet across the body.

It was a quadrupedal creature, but technically insectoid for that it did have six limbs, but four were used for running and the other two, smaller in length and width, were used for gripping, stabilization, eating or in some cases, ripping flesh off of bones. To best describe the limbs, they were long, ending in sickle-like claws that scraped the ground when it moved quickly. But when it activates its camouflage ability, it definitely moves more carefully and quietly to avoid detection.

As for that stealth ability, the outer shell exudes a biological compound that is barely-there, that warped the light. This is what gave these creatures the ability to ‘cloak’, although not entirely perfect. When completely still, it can be missed. But if one were to look hard enough, and it would have to be keen eyes, they could see a watery distortion of the air, like a ‘heat-haze’.

‘I know I could just simply leave this planet. But…’ It’s trail of thought was interrupted when it noticed a slight movement far ahead into the chamber. ‘She is still alive. Impressive.’ It thought as it began to venture further into the chamber where it would come up to a much larger being than its own.

Unlike itself, this creature was monumental in size but also quite immobile for what she is. She was practically as big as a Class 17 Cargo Shuttle in both length and width with quite differences. Attached to her would be her enormous egg-sac, although it was rather…empty. Her protective outer shell was that of a fortress, or best described, strong as ablative armor. She was striped with the sienna-brown, obsidian-black glossy color of her triple-layered chitin body. She had essentially the same number of limbs as her children, but with the massive egg-sac attached to her, she was indeed quite immobile.

Her size comparison to her children was that she was massive. If she were standing, she would be an impressive twenty-five feet tall. From her head to the very end of her egg-sac, roughly over fifty feet. And if one were to be curious as to how big that egg-sac was, the width across the egg-sac would be roughly over thirty feet. She was a massive creature.

Her head was slender and narrow like her children, but with a crown-like carapace, larger, more ornate and with a bio-luminescent sections that shown her royal position. Although, that bio-luminescent was rather dim in her current state. And it was all due to a device that was nothing like anything in the chamber, or the temple itself on the planet, that sat just outside of her range to touch or destroy. As for her children…well… ‘It’ was the only one.

‘Why. Have. You. Returned. Skeer?’ The queen had asked through her telepathic communication, her head moving ever so slightly, evident of her current state. Evident of the pain she was in, where she only moved her head in such small, short movements.

Skeer approached the device where he activated the screen and began to configure it. ‘We have uninvited guests in the temple. As much as I prefer to keep the storm above the temple, it is far too destructive in its current state. Nevertheless, I must speed up the storm, make it arrive much sooner than planned.’

‘You. Fear. Them.’ She telepathically transmitted, one that he wished he could destroy as he audibly hissed at the word ‘fear’.

‘I fear nothing, Queen. I simply do not want them to interfere with my plan.’ He finished the programming and initiated the update to the device before he placed the screen to sleep. He then tilted his head up to look at her. ‘Have you reconsidered?’

There was a pause, where she was clearly in thought of their previous discussions. ‘I. Do. Not. Know.’

‘It is simple, my Queen. I will deactivate the suppression this device has on you, your abilities and your reproduction systems. As long as you create me an army of soldier insectoids that will follow my commands.’ Skeer explained to her, for he has lost count of how many times he had said this to her.

‘It is. Not that. Simple.’ She began to repeat her own explanation. ‘I am. Their Queen. If you. Try to. Order them. A simple. Soldier of. The Hive. They would. Be confused.’

A more audible, screech mixed with the hiss emitted from his mouth, followed by frustrated ticking sounds of his mandibles. ‘It is not that confusing! Yes, they would follow your instructions as you are the Queen but you would be following my instructions! Thus, they would be following me! How difficult is that?’

‘More so. Than you. Think.’ She replied.

Skeer then began to step away from the device, to show that he had no intention to deactivate the suppression field on her. ‘Then, in a few years or perhaps months, my queen. You will die. So I hope you consider that you would be ending your species if you do not accept my deal. Think about it, while I go deal with these intruders….’

Elidia sighed heavily as she was mere inches away from the sandstone wall where the glyphs were etched into. She had started to grow frustrated and impatient. The information was there. But she could not figure it out. For whatever the reason, after this creature from space had visited these people, the way the history is written has changed. She could not understand why. And for that, she let out a groan of frustration before she pushed herself away from the wall. She needed a break.

“Something the matter, Lieutenant?” Riov’s voice came quite clear, despite the fact that he was clearly across the room. His voice only seemed to have boomed when she saw him poking his head out from behind one eight large pillars that clearly were more than for decoration.

“I am just taking a moment, sir. After this being came down, what ever is written after is just…different from what was written before.” Elidia pressed her back into one of the pillars on her side and leaned back into it. “It’s almost like it is in code or something.”

She could hear Riov make his way to her and in a matter of seconds, he was about a foot away from the wall where he began to study it himself. Then he turned to look right at her. “You are onto something, Lieutenant. It is written in code.”

Elidia frowned as she pushed herself off the pillar to stand by his side. “What do you mean?”

Riov began to point out some sections. “Here, it seems to inscribe how their ruler became more prominent and active in the construction of the temple. Almost as if praising them. But here,” he gestured at the same section but pointed at some subtle changes to the glyphs. “See how this glyph is almost identical to its counterpart, but there seems to be some notches added to it.”

Elidia looked hard until she could see it herself, and then she began to example the rest of the glyphs where she began to see a pattern of the notches. “It’s like…braille.” She pulled out her tricorder and began to search the settings, configure the scanner and then she scanned every single glyph. It took her almost an hour to scan them all but when she was finished, the tricorder was able to decipher.

“The leader is a lie. He is killing us. All he wants is the ore under the temple.” Elidia read from the tricorder, only to look up at Riov. “He mined them to death?”

Riov let out a heavy sigh and before he could say anything, he heard a faint yet clear roar of thunder. “No. That cannot be.” He hurried towards the temple’s entrance, with Elidia right behind him.

She stopped right by his side at the entrance, where they can clearly see the dark cloud of the storm in the horizon. She could faintly see the flashes of the lightning and how it lit up the massive swirls of sand. If any comparison, it was basically a massive hurricane on land, or something way, way bigger than an EF-Five tornado. And the flashes from the lightning only made it more horrifying, when it was all that illuminated the swirling sands of death. At least what Elidia would describe, when she remembered the sheer windspeeds that storm produced, that the sand at those speeds would just shed the skin and muscle off the bones.

Elidia heard the chirp of a commbadge and realized that Riov had tapped his and she did not believe it but she heard a tremble in Riov’s voice. “Mr. Ortiz! Mizu, K’Roll! Respond!” But all that came back was static. The storm was not that close to pose too much danger, yet, but it was apparently close enough that it was interfering with comms. Close enough that they need to leave. Now.