mother of all races

after a long time...

When Arthur mentioned those days to other family members, he would always show a faint wry smile.

It is very sure that those days were very important for Lin Xi and Xavier, but it was quite difficult for Arthur.

The new lair promised by Xavier to Lin Xi was built quickly-considering Xavier's current physical condition, this is a matter of course.

Xavier easily used his modified sharp forelimbs to dig out a new nest with a complex structure inside the original cave.

Not only that, but it also re-fortified the entrance to the cave.

Even if there is another storm, the hole re-reinforced with special secretions and gravel will no longer have any possibility of collapsing.

As for the goods left by humans, they were placed in another room. After sorting out, their number was only about one-third of the original. Not to mention Lin Xi, even Arthur felt very sorry.

Of course, compared to the original outer cave, Xavier paid the most attention to the new nest it dug.

It was a miraculously vast project (for which Xavier even had to shed his blunted forelimb shell every three or four days), under the complex structure, the nest was extremely spacious and closed, with countless intricate and complex structures. The vents ensure humidity and ventilation, and also fix the temperature of the nest at an exceptionally warm value.

The exceptionally insect-friendly climate of planet AS192 also did it a favor, and it quickly built a perfect nursery.

Of course, the coziest area of ​​the cave, before some important procedure, could also be called... the wedding room.

The significance of this stone chamber is so great that Xavier didn't even let Arthur touch this area, everything was excavated by him himself.

During the whole process of building the lair, Arthur vaguely felt that some kind of change that he could not understand had taken place between Xavier and Lin Xi...

The most obvious of these is that Arthur finds himself routinely being chased out of the cave by Xavier.It will be asked to collect materials around it, and it will also be asked to go to the ruins of the Helios to collect human belongings... But to Arthur, these tasks seem to be purely to keep him from staying in the cave.

Even Lin Xi, who has always loved it quite a lot, didn't comfort it like before when faced with this situation...

Of course, Arthur didn't know that Lin Xi and Xavier's current behavior was purely for Arthur's safety.

At least in Lin Xi's memory, there is almost nothing more irritable and dangerous than a male heterospecies that is building a nest and courting a mate.

And the upcoming special union between him and Xavier will hardly allow the existence of another male xenomorph.

It's just that these things are somewhat too complicated for Arthur now.

For example, on the day the lair was built, Arthur had to face a particularly cruel order...

He was ordered to leave his brand new, beautiful, cozy nest and go somewhere else for a few days.

Of course, in Lin Xi's words, let it go somewhere else to relax.

"... You have worked hard during this time, you can hunt some fresh prey freely, and you can also explore other areas... After everything is completed, you can come back. At that time, you will be safer than now , and won't be so lonely."

Lin Xi caressed its wings with a delicate expression, and the words that told it seemed to be in his ears...

But Arthur would never forget how Xavier, who was more impatient than usual, looked at it behind Lin Xi.

Xavier was scary and seemed to loathe Arthur's presence more than ever.

But even so...

After flying around outside, Arthur still flew back involuntarily.

It's just that after it flew back, it found that the entrance of the cave was completely sealed by special mucus and countless finely crushed stones.

"..."

Arthur walked around the closed cave entrance several times before slowly finding a place to lie down.

It can vaguely feel the breath of Xavier and Lin Xi (the smell of both of them has become particularly strong now, and there is also a faint strange hormone), obviously, they are there after sealing the cave head.

In fact, from time to time, Arthur could still hear some sporadic movements coming from inside.

Arthur listened quietly to the voice inside, and the strange restlessness seemed to affect it too.

"Hiss...Lin Xi...hiss...Xavier..."

It hissed at each other, but neither of the two inside paid any attention to it.

So it had no choice but to squat on the rock and look through a notebook it had brought out before.

Lin Xi said that if Arthur wants to return to Earth, he needs to learn human language like Xavier.

Thinking that Lin Xi would bring it back to Earth, Arthur was also working hard.

It's just that since the TV and movie players were smashed in the storm, the only thing it can use to learn human characters is the various materials and notes left by the crew of the Helios in the wreckage.

And what it is holding in its hand now is a Sunu cultural record from Professor Ando.

The book was rather esoteric and not really suitable for reading, but Arthur didn't know this.

It opened the book, stretched out its insect limbs, clicked on the words on it, and read word by word.

Coincidentally, what it was looking at at this moment was the scene of the Star Butterfly Marriage recorded by the Sunu people.

……

【...According to the records of the ancients, the mating of star butterflies has a complicated and elusive complex procedure.

Especially in the case of a bug marriage where both parties are star butterflies, the whole procedure of bug marriage will become more complicated...]

[Because of the gradual extinction of star butterflies in modern times, the most detailed records we can find so far come from 400 years of Liuliu.An extremely exploratory Sunu priest took a peek at the most sacred insect marriage at that time, and it was executed afterward, but he still left a detailed statement before he died...]

[...The combination of Star Butterfly and Star Butterfly is filled with a lot of dancing and singing. The sound spectrum of each sound is difficult for human beings to describe and hear. It can only be recorded through specific sacrificial utensils.Sometimes this kind of sound doesn't even use air as a medium...

Instead, it uses the bedding material inside the wedding room, the secretions covering the surface of the female insects, and the large amount of jewelry and metal collected by the male insects to please the female insects as the transmission medium...]

[After the long and complex chant is completed, the males begin a series of dances, their wrinkled wings fully unfolded and flashing with various markings and colors.

At this stage, anyone who directly saw the star butterfly's wings might be driven into madness by those shining markings.People on Earth have no scientific theory to explain the reason for this madness...Of course, considering that the most recent records are all recorded 400 years ago, and the object of the narrative is the priest who is about to be executed, the scene it depicts has It is most likely just an illusion or imagination that it said out of fear. 】

【…After dancing and singing, the base of the male's wings will have a coral-shaped perfumer that will slowly protrude, and a large amount of aroma that the female feels joyful and dizzy will be secreted from the perfumer.

Before that, it is very likely that the dance of the male worms released the aroma from the incense emitter by flapping their wings and affected the female worms.This smell is quite long-lasting, until about a month, the female star butterfly will still maintain this strong smell, this mechanism can well drive away any potential competitors... Immediately afterwards, the male Slowly approaching the female, it circles and dances in front of it.

If the female does not express any rejection, the male will slowly land on the back of the female, and its wings will gradually retract and completely wrap the female. Female wings.At this moment, even if the female suddenly changes her mind and wants to escape, it becomes extremely difficult...]

[Of course, we can see from our existing information that this kind of double insurance may also be due to the particularity of the star butterfly itself. The process of insect marriage takes a long time, and the male insects will become extraordinarily vicious and cruel.Similarly, females who have exhausted a lot of physical strength will also become extremely restless. If the males cannot control the females as much as possible, the latter is likely to escape directly from the control of the males, and then due to strong hunger , directly phagocytize male insects into nutrients.

In the records of the Sunu people, similar things have happened countless times, which may be the reason why the star butterfly is finally on the verge of extinction.

But in any case, there are still a small number of females and males who have mastered special skills for bonding.

When the emotions and preferences of both partners are fairly matched, the male will rein in his violent tendencies while the female will work hard to restrain her appetite.

After being fully controlled, the female crawls down, her lower abdomen swells, revealing the splice organ that has been hidden in her body before, and the male also bends her abdomen to connect to the female's body.

In the next 10 days, they will repeat similar procedures until the female can clearly feel that a new life is being conceived in her abdomen...

And until this moment, the originally completely sealed insect marriage nest room will be broken from the inside.

And if the male insect in the insect marriage is lucky enough not to be swallowed or killed by the female, it will rearrange the nest used for the insect marriage and organize it as a new nursery.

In the next few days, a large number of eggs will form in the female's body, and they will not be excreted from the mother's body. After leaving the mother's body, they will need about 10 days for subsequent development.

And in this process, the males will be very eager to prepare abundant food for the females... After a successful insect marriage, the males and females will form a fairly stable pair, and their population will become The most powerful biological species in the entire region...]

Arthur finished reading the text with some difficulty, trying hard to distinguish the words in it, somewhat absent-minded.

From time to time, Arthur could hear some voices that he cared about... It seemed to be from Lin Xi's crying, or... Xavier's groaning?

And it sounds like Xavier is doing something bad to Lynch.

Those voices, as well as the faint vibrations transmitted through the rock wall, made Arthur feel nervous.

Finally, after hearing Lin Xi's long cry again, Arthur jumped up and rushed directly to the door of the closed lair.

"Lin Xi? Lin Xi... hiss..."

As a result, just when it was trying to figure out what happened in the completely enclosed lair, Xavier made an extremely piercing expulsion sound.

Across such a thick rock wall, those voices still pierced Arthur's heart like a knife. He trembled with fright, and uncontrollably spread his wings and retreated far away to the side.

After pulling away from the cave for a long distance, Arthur stopped with lingering fear.

really weird……

Arthur couldn't help thinking that it always felt that the oppression that Xavier brought to it seemed stronger than before.

If it was said that its submission to Xavier in the past was more due to the size of the other party and the fear of large similar species, then this time this indescribable submission came from the gene itself.

Although Arthur still didn't understand what happened, at that moment just now, Arthur already had a strong intuition rooted in his blood: Xavier and it had become completely different individuals.

even……

Xavier can completely control everything about it.

If it was said that Arthur in the past had more or less uncontrollable small thoughts, and would intentionally or unintentionally compete with Xavier in front of Lin Xi, this idea has been completely annihilated now.

That's Xavier, unless the worm mother gives orders directly, then Xavier is completely irresistible, that's its leader...

Thinking of this, Arthur rubbed his forelegs and took a few steps back.

Because it could feel, in this moment, Xavier would only wish it were as far away as possible.

Arthur shook his tentacles, drooped his wings, and walked slowly into the distance.

It returned unconsciously to the ruins of the Helios.

This is where it was born and where it is most familiar.

It's just that the Helios, which was completely exposed on the surface before, has already covered almost two-thirds of its volume under thick sand and dust due to the blowing of the storm.

It is estimated that if there is another storm, it will be completely buried under the deep ground.

But even so, the ruins of the Helios are still Arthur's favorite place.

Everything there is familiar to Arthur, and it can find many things about the earth from time to time...

And Arthur loves Earth.

Arthur took a few steps forward slowly, and just as it was about to enter the ruins as usual, its movements stopped suddenly.

"..."

Arthur opened his eyes and carefully observed the ruins of the Helios. Near the tail of the spacecraft, there were some twisted marks on the originally flat sand, which looked like countless octopuses walked on it. On the surface of the Shenhao, a dark hole had already appeared in the originally smooth metal, and the internal components and structure were completely exposed.

Although the Helios was just a spaceship, the hole fell on it like a huge wound, which made Arthur feel heartbroken.

Arthur knew very well that just before it left here last time, this hideous hole hadn't appeared... Whether it was before or after the storm, Arthur was always full of affection for the place where he was born, even in normal conditions. When the entrances and exits of the spaceship have been buried, it will try its best to choose vents or windows as passages for entering and exiting the spacecraft, instead of directly tearing the outer wall of the Helios directly as simple and rude as it is now.

Something appeared.

And Arthur can guarantee that that thing is definitely not a creature on AS192. That kind of creature is not interested in a metal object without any color like the Helios.

Almost at the moment when he saw those strange traces, Arthur immediately erected his tentacles, and then turned his head suddenly.

Rooted in its body's premonition of danger, it planned to escape immediately.

But even so, its movements were still half a beat slow.

At the moment when Arthur was about to run away, several crooked shadows appeared around it.

Those things were the same as before, still looking so disgusting and twisted, the semicircular black head and the slender metal tentacles below shook slightly, looking like jellyfish made of metal.

The red light spots are like eyes, flickering non-stop under the hard mask made of organic materials.

They seemed to be staring at Arthur in front of him.

Arthur shook the tentacles on the top of his head. It couldn't organize its own language, but it was so disgusting with the creatures in front of it.Dealing with this special metal monster is not once or twice. Before that, Arthur was quite afraid of these things, but the time at the No. 23 biological test site made Arthur full of confidence in himself.

It erected its body high, and raised its worm limbs towards those monsters.

The ferocious thorns stood up, and the white carapace modified by Lin Xi's blood shone like a fine pearl under the bright sunlight of the alien star.

Then Arthur turned his head, and it screamed menacingly at the machinery that was gradually approaching it.

Well, just like before, these mechanical warriors did not respond to its hissing at all.

Arthur stretched out his mouthparts in dissatisfaction, imitating the appearance of Xavier in his memory, and spit acid on the sand.

However, if Xavier or Lin Xi were here, they would never be as relaxed as Arthur is now, and they should also be able to sense that something is wrong with the current situation.

Arthur's movements are very light, and his perception of danger is so keen, it plans to leave the first time it senses something is wrong, but even so, these mechanical warriors still found it - this is absolutely impossible Coincidentally, these mechanical warriors have already been waiting here to ambush it.

This is a trap.

However, mechanical warriors are completely command robots. They don't have intelligent modules at all that allow them to ambush here silently like they are now...

But now on this planet, there is only one person who can predict the arrival of alien species and launch an ambush against them - Hal.

The sunshine of AS192 quietly shone on this colorful land, and the breeze slowly blew past Arthur, the mechanical warrior and this brand-new land, and a burst of colorful sandstorms rose up.

Arthur quickly stopped his useless neighing. It stared vigilantly at the mechanical warriors around it, and the mechanical warriors also completely stopped after surrounding it. If the red searchlights under their masks were not still flashing, they would It looks like it's dead.

Arthur slowly tightened his wings, and for a moment, he almost wanted to slap his claws at these mechanical soldiers regardless of his previous behavior.

Then it will kill heartily, like in the secret room of the underground facility, and then cut up this group of uncomfortable metal monsters...

But a strong intuition kept screaming in its body.

Arthur couldn't help but look at them more.

Then, Arthur found out.

These mechanical warriors surrounded by him seem to be different from the individuals it has come into contact with before. They are larger in size, darker in color, and have many more mechanical tentacles than before. At the joint between the mechanical tentacles and the hemispherical head , and there are some extra sticking out, like spider legs, and now those slender metal legs are shaking in the wind.

After an unknown amount of time, one of the tall metal monsters suddenly rushed towards it.

Arthur immediately went up to meet him, but the moment he came into contact with him, he knew why he had such an ominous feeling before...

Although these mechanical warriors have a similar shape to the previous ones, the materials they use are completely different. Arthur's forelimbs can easily cut the previous ghost-type mechanical warriors into two.But at this moment, when its forelimbs landed on the helmets of these mechanical warriors, it only produced a flash of sparks.

A deep scratch appeared on the surface of the helmets of those mechanical warriors, and the damage percentage flashed on the screen under the masks.

But just this kind of injury doesn't make them stop.The moment Arthur was wrestling with one of the mechanical warriors, several other individuals also rushed forward, and their powerful metal tentacles wrapped around Arthur's body.

An ominous red glow appeared on the surface of the spider's feet under the head.

That's a portable high-performance laser cutter.

Arthur forcefully tore open a metal tentacle, and the moment he was about to escape, he suddenly let out a long hiss.

It turned its head back 180 degrees, and then saw the wound on its back: a slender and hideous black mark landed directly on its back, and one of its wings hung down like that. Below its shoulder blades, the junction of its back and wings was already scorched black.

In this way, these mechanical warriors directly cut Arthur's wings off his body with a cutter.

Arthur was stunned. Before it could react, more intense pain came.

It turned around and found that one of the mechanical warriors was tightly wrapped around its forelegs, forcing it to stretch its joints.

And those laser cutters with red light spots fell directly on its joints.

Arthur struggled frantically, but under the siege of countless mechanical soldiers, its struggle gradually subsided.

After more than 10 minutes, those mechanical warriors slowly scattered away from the white alien.Their body surfaces are more or less covered with traces of corrosion.Two of them have already lost their ability to move...

Their losses are quite heavy, but for such monsters, whether it is the death of their companions or their own injuries, it seems that they don't need to care about it. They waited for a long time, and some of them even It spread out slowly and patrolled around for a while.

The previous series of tortures for Arthur, including cutting its forelimbs and wings, were all to make Arthur scream for help.

Generally speaking, the scream of an injured individual will attract more alien species...

It's just that Hal, who remotely controlled these mechanical warriors, didn't know that Xavier and Lin Xi were engaged in another extremely important activity at this time, and they didn't notice Arthur's injury.

After waiting for a long time, the mechanical warrior found that there were no more individuals meeting with this alien species. Their red electronic eyes flickered under the helmet for a while, and then they bent their metal tentacles to hook the motionless Arthur, slowly Go in a certain direction.

In the end, their figures disappeared beyond the horizon.

At the same time, in the cave on the cliff, Lin Xi suddenly opened his red eyes, sat up suddenly, and stretched out his hand.

It vigorously pushed away the mucus that wrapped it, and then slipped out from Xavier's wings.

Xavier let out a hasty cry behind it, impatiently stretched out his thick and ferocious claws, trying to drag Lin Xi back.

"hiss--"

Lin Xi turned her head and subconsciously yelled at Xavier.

After a while, Lin Xi adjusted from gold to human language. It turned its head and looked in the direction of the ruins of the Helios from a distance through the thick rock wall.

"Arthur..."

It murmured in a low voice.