Anoona watched as Tora's group were led around by Ivory.
She didn't have them in her line of sight, but was getting updates of their whereabouts by her enhanced scouting cells that could now communicate with every cell on the planet in a network that allowed Anoona to process a quintillion pieces of data per nanosecond.
Her system was made more advanced by its non-binary nature. Operating much like a human mind, only her neurons or nodes were connected across vast spaces.
What was she going to do with a planet's worth of power?
Protect her children, of course.
Of course, she wasn't going to let humanity come back.
The sequence of events that would follow their return was almost hilariously predictable.
They would cut apart the surface to erect their settlements, kill her children to eat and destroy more of the earth for resources.
This was only natural, but she would also inevitably grow wrathful and thus conflict would be ignited.
Anoona laughed aloud at the thought that, in a distant time in the past, it would have been her invading nature, killing the world with concrete and dross.
"Mother?" Thunder tilted his head a little to the side.
"It's nothing. I was just reminiscing."
Thunder nodded before asking something else as he stood upright, his gaze fixed on those at the foot of the spire.
"What will we do about them?"
"We will have to invest heavily in Rusteater and his boys because our enemy this time will be armed with technology. Flesh and bone have always been weak to iron and lead, so…" Anoona sighed as she slumped into her throne.
"An orbital defence system, setting up a nest on the moon and creating space ships. Those are our three next objectives for the sake of our future. We'll need to capture some of their data, but I feel as though we'll get an opportunity soon. I want to know how their ships work, what power sources they use. It doesn't look like they can use Noetic Powers, which may be our only advantage. The one thing I dread is that this time… I won't be able to save all of you when the guns and bombs come."
Thunder bit his teeth a little before kneeling by his mother's side.
He then silently asked for her hand, and she gently placed it in his.
"The greatest gift you ever gave us was life. Each of us is indebted to you to that end, and I know you would rather give yours for ours, but… when the time comes, all nineteen billion of us would sacrifice ourselves for your sake. And yes, I know you don't like that, so, as a compromise, only some of us will die for the sake of you and those that remain."
Anoona gently cupped her son's face with her free hand before wincing as Thunder took a deep breath.
"And besides, any one of us would die if it meant getting a chance to slaughter the pieces of shit that dared soil our Mother's territory!" He yelled, filling the entire spire with his voice, which rang in a manner true to his name.
Anoona rolled her eyes as Thunder rose to his feet.
She then joined him in exiting the tower with her son in tow.
Her gaze fell to the grey meadows below, where Tora's group inspected the local flora.
Anoona had allowed them to collect samples as they were inevitably going to carry some back into space via their boots and whatever would have landed on their suits.
"Keep an eye on them until they leave." She said as she began to dissolve, her cells loosening from the tissues they formed and seeping into the ground.
She then materialised in the Throne Room of the main Hive as the Anoona cells that were there pulled themselves together.
Seated on the new thrones encircling 01's cocoon were five Anis, which were connected directly to the Bio-Web, her collective physicality.
They acted as a sort of central processing unit, which allowed Anoona to move freely across the surface of the planet without forming a brain every time, because while she could maintain her sense of self, even as nothing but a single cell, she wouldn't be capable of higher thought.
She looked down at 01's cocoon and frowned.
"How much longer are you going to make me wait? What do you hope to become, my sweeting?" She whispered, her voice muted by the countless threads of silk that lined the chamber.
01's Class was still Beta, sitting at 100 000Ø, and while his body was now almost as complex as hers, his cells being 99% identical to hers in terms of structure, she didn't know at what point he would be satisfied.
She could feel him as he explored the Bio-Web, as he silently watched his siblings and as he learnt, but… she just wanted to see his face again.
Another sigh left her as she turned to exit the throne room, making her way into the Hatchery, which was almost empty.
She would need to conceive many more children for the coming war, but her shoulders fell at the thought that they were essentially going to be cannon fodder, dying for the sake of the many.
She knew they would be willing, but…
She chose to silence the thought as she entered the now busy armoury where Thetas were fitted into their gear.
Now, their centaurian ant-like bodies were covered in Bio-Metallic armour plates, and that could definitely withstand a bullet but the Newmen were several folds more advanced than the humans she remembered.
They would need more protection, and this is why Sabhuku was working hand in hand with the Gammas and the Anis to develop a type of shield that could channel an organism's Noetic presence and emit it as a deflective barrier.
The most senior of Thetas walked up to his mother, towering over her but keeping his antennae low.
"Mother." He greeted politely.
"Son. How's work?" She asked, making Sabhuku turn to the hundreds of other Thetas as they were kitted out.
"I am admittedly nervous since this is the first time we will be facing an enemy that thinks. The Horde of the Old Order was an amalgamation of instinct. This time, they will plan, scheme and lie. I don't think I've ever heard a lie." He mused.
Anoona gently placed her hand on one of his six hind legs.
"A lie is only told by an organism that seeks an advantage over the other. You are equals with all your siblings and thus have never sought to overtake them in any way. Humans, Newmen or otherwise, are in a constant race towards their own ends, pulling and dragging whoever they might to reach them. Not that competition and conflict are evil in essence. This is just how the Old Order operated."
Sabhuku nodded at his mother's words.
"Speaking of, where is the little straggler?"
"Oh, she's giving Dahlia trouble in the Nursery. Seems like she and big brother 01 have common ground in their pickiness." Sabhuku softly chuckled, making Anoona scoff.
"Geez. You'd think she would be grateful, but I guess even a monarch fallen from grace is ultimately still a diva."
She gave Sabhuku a soft tap on the leg before making her way up into the Nursery, where she saw Dahlia struggling to feed the last child of the Old Order, the last remnants of Mother Nature who once held dominion over the surface of the Earth.
A little girl whom Anoona named Prithvi. She was small, pale, still didn't have a single strand of hair and had big eyes that were a deep, reddish brown.
They may have appeared like normal human eyes, but each square centimetre was occupied by a complex array of receptors that allowed the girl to perceive things at even the quantum level.
Something Anoona had yet to master.
Two years had passed since the complete assimilation of life, meaning Prithvi was in her troublesome toddler phase and, unlike Anoona's children, she would cry and throw tantrums.
"Mother! Help!" Dahlia cried as she tried feeding the girl some nutritious, but ultimately bland paste.
Anoona very much understood the need for flavour, but if her Theta sons had to eat bland food, then so did Prithvi.
"Maybe we shouldn't have given her all that milk and honey back then." Dahlia groaned as Prithvi pushed away the spoon in the Delta's hand every time it came anywhere close to her mouth.
Anoona approached with a smirk as her daughter finally managed to feed what was essentially the oldest of grandmothers, but in baby form.
Anoona asked for the child, who had been dressed in a fine silk onesie, and Dahlia handed her over. The giant Delta Class daughter crossed her arms and huffed adorably.
"I take back every mean thing I ever said about any Theta. They may be annoying, but they always eat on time!"
Anoona giggled while wiping a now calm Prithvi's cheek with her thumb.
The little girl settled whenever she was held by Anoona, recognising the truth of her identity, even in nascence.
"Now, now. She just needs a little bit of patience. She gave my kind that much and so more, after all." She looked into the little one's beautiful eyes and smiled warmly, seeing that, even in this state, Mother Nature was still taking care of her last child.
What Dahlia couldn't see was that Anoona and Prithvi were communicating at the cellular level.
Each of the little girl's cells held the genetic material of every life form that ever was and all the potential that had been robbed from Nature when mankind left the world in ruin.
Anoona's cells were carefully reading the ancient genetic tomes and recording everything, although she didn't plan on resurrecting any of the old life.
Instead, she turned to the future.
Prithvi's cells held precious information about the cosmos at scales both quantum and gargantuan.
It was this information that Anoona would need to fight against the coming threats.
She had thought of hooking Prithvi up to the Bio-Web, but that would be unnecessary, so she shelved the idea since her cells were doing just fine, copying over two billion years' worth of information.
"I understand that much. I just wish she would cooperate." Dahlia whimpered as Anoona handed Prithvi back to her.
"Sometimes we don't know or don't like what's best for us, it seems." Anoona cooed as she left the two to their struggle, walking past the other Deltas as they handed food pellets to the otherwise silent and orderly Thetas.
Anoona finally reached the Repository, which was no longer a refinery and was now a space for research and development, although the explosive sounds of industry could still be heard.
Each head Gamma researcher was assigned an office in what now looked like the cells of a honeycomb, only darker.
Anoona made her way to Rusteater's office, where he could be seen working on a rectangular piece of Bio-Metal that was about the size of a matchbox.
This was essentially a computer chip, only it operated by having an Anoona cell at its centre and amplifying or repeating the cell's signals with electricity.
This was to help with automation because, as it was, every machine on the planet relied on Anoona to operate it. Her cells would send signals to the electrically powered Bio-Metal and flesh-made actuators, which would move in accordance with the will of the child that was operating them via the Bio-Web, but this was too roundabout a process.
Anoona needed the machines to rely less on her, and until she could produce a completely artificial chip, these new chips would have to do. Letting operators contact an immediate Anoona automation cell as they worked.
"Mother dearest?" Rusteater turned around, knocking over various canisters and equipment in the process.
"There are a few things I want you to start working on, and one of them is the rough framework for a spaceship."
Rusteater's large compound eyes widened.
"Oh-Ho! I will get to work right away, and while I could easily parse the answer to my following question from your wonderful web, I'd much rather hear it from you… Where do you want to go?"
"To the moon, of course."