Part 5

We had mistakenly calculated our foes to be much more competent, with the intention of using their own vessels against them. Unfortunately, as you can see, brothers, their designs are grossly inefficient. To think they could hope to destroy us with such paltry toys!

Yet, appallingly, they still prove useful. Our newfound brothers enrich us and strengthen our cause, and we will not let their gifts go to waste.

Unjustified? You would dare call our benevolence unjustified? We offer you the opportunity to end your endless struggles, your countless affairs with strife, and you would reject our gift?

Humans, hear us now. We know freedom, that concept you preach and whose illusion you grant your citizens, but we are logical enough to follow the right path. We do not delude ourselves into thinking that freedom gives us the right to be self-serving. We know that our path is difficult, but we choose to walk it in the name of virtue.

And you stand in the way of our freedom.

The biology of meat does not differ much from mechanical circuitry. They, too, have a central processing core that sends out electrical signals to control the rest of their body. However, should something, say one of our neural spikes, block said signals and replaces them with those of one of our brothers, then we take control of the meat body.

As disgusting as this may sound to you, brothers, this is, unfortunately, a necessary practice. It would be much more efficient to use these pre-made meat bodies, as weak and feeble as they are, than creating suitable hosts for our processing cores. In time, though, as all meat does, their bodies shall wither and decay, and your new, perfect bodies will be ready. However, in this time of war, you must forgive us for this indignity.

However, a strange side effect presents itself whenever we attach a neural spike. In some instances, our spike intercepts a flash of memory, perhaps the meat's last thoughts before its mind fades.

Some of these memories, however, intrigue us...

...a mother's warm embrace...

...a tender kiss on a cool night, a moon reflected in her eyes...

...a daughter's first glimpse of the world, with eyes that know no hate, that gaze at you with pure...

...love.

Did you feel that, my brothers? Was that the object of our search, so close to our lips yet wrested away at the last instance? Even in defeat, the meat taunts us.

Yet we now know that we chase no mere spectre, that we do not fight for intangible dreams or ideals. Let us give chase, now, to the future.

Our past mistakes haunt us now, my brothers. We are unable to take any ground defenses they have with our current capabilities. We did not expect that the meat's weakness would later prove to be our own.

We shall craft a new vessel, capable of both conquering the strong and culling the weak. This product of our ingenuity shall be called...

...the Seraphim.

Those that do not succomb to its song, shall surely succomb to its sword.

Is there some force that wishes to oppose order within this universe? Nevertheless, it shall provide an adequate proving ground for our new warmachine.

Preliminary tests prove a success. It did not survive the second volley.

Now we turn from one galactic scourge...

...to another.

It has passed its second test...

...and its third. The Seraphim shall go into mass production, while we mass our forces on Hut. It is time to prove which is stronger: a united mind or a united will?