The director sat at his desk, chin resting on his interwoven fingers, eyes closed. But, he was not resting, instead, he was using the complex circuits woven into his brain by tiny nanobots in his blood to communicate directly with the central AI of his space station.

He asked.

The AI replied.

The AI informed the director, a note of satisfaction in it’s electronic tones.

The director directed the AI.

High above a verdant world, above its rich Earth-like atmosphere, a tear in the fabric of spacetime appeared. It was a tiny rift, no larger than a child’s hand, but, in rapid succession twelve golf ball sized metallic spheres shot through the rift. Only a few seconds after it formed, the rift closed, leaving no trace but the twelve metal spheres falling to the ground far below.

The spheres were tiny reentry vehicles that burned brightly as they streaked down towards the planet below. Their heat resistant ablative layers charred, but their contents were unharmed. As they slowed and cooled, they began to release fine furry strings that caught the air and acted as parachutes, slowing the spheres until at last, only a mile above the ground, they burst open, revealing their contents.

Scattered widely by orbital mechanics and turbulent air, twelve metallic wasps uncurled their bodies and wings. They caught the air coming to a stop within a few thousand feet of the ground and hovering briefly to assess their location. These large wasps were slender except for a bulbous fat rear with sharp stinger. Six inches long unfurled the wasps had four wings each that blurred as they imitated dragonflies. But the wasps were not living, rather they were high tech drones. The computers inside their heads surveyed the landscape, searching for their targets.

They didn’t have much time, though their batteries could have kept them going for hours. Their systems were under assault, errors and data glitches were already building up. Each drone wasp had multiple redundant systems, but on average they could all be expected to fail within an hour. Unshielded electronics died when exposed to magic, the effect more corrosive than hard radiation.

But a solution had been found. Electronic systems could survive inside a living creature because living creatures naturally emitted a defensive aura that protected the circuitry from the harmful effects of raw magic. It was not safe to send living creatures into a new world, possibly spreading viral or bacterial contamination, so it was decided that the drones would infect one of the native species already living on the world.

In short, the wasps were designed to create cyborgs. Cybernetic nanotech implantation was commonplace in the world which these drones came from, but it was usually done during pregnancy. An adult’s immune system would try to reject the process and that could lead to death.

This problem could also be dealt with, using eggs. Eggs contained healthy fetuses that could be carefully introduced to nanomachines as they matured. Safe within an egg, the nanomachines could work slowly to invade the animal as it developed, protected from magic by the living tissue of the egg itself. Once the robot wasps delivered their payload, the nanotech would hijack the bird’s brain and they would grow to be cybernetic drones that would survey the world in safety from a literal bird’s eye view.

Thus, the robotic wasps began searching for nests and any bird egg large enough to serve as host. Too small and the egg would break under the 15ml injection of nanomachines. Seven wasp drones managed to find and successfully inject a large enough egg before their systems failed. Four either failed to find a large enough egg in time, or in one case, wasted their payload on something rather strange, injecting a giant insect egg.

The last robot wasp was shocked by a near miss by a stray lightning bolt. The discharge almost, but didn’t completely, fry its tiny little circuits. Seriously damaged, the drone woozily flew into a nearby cave, barely able to stay afloat. Inside the shallow cave, seemingly dug out by some giant clawed creature, it found an enormous egg.

Too damaged to do anything else, no longer “thinking” clearly, it decided that the oversized strange egg was a valid target. With its figurative last breath, it landed on top of the egg and managed to puncture the thick leathery surface of the egg with its stinger. The drone delivered its payload of nanobots and a last bit of glue to seal the tiny hole, then it retracted it’s stinger and shut down.

Less than an hour later, Ashe, the half elven hunter, frowned at the odd metallic wasp sitting on top of his prized treasure, a dragon’s egg. What was this wasp, and why had it died on top of his valuable prize? Ashe stuffed the wasp into a tiny pouch, careful to only touch it with a cloth. He’d give it to his team’s mage later, he decided, he was far more concerned about the egg.

Was there a faint grey discoloration on the area directly under where the wasp had died? Ashe couldn’t find any hole in the egg, though there was a dimple of some sort, it didn’t look like it had been fully punctured. The egg was still warm, and on resting his head against its surface, he could hear a faint heartbeat.

The egg was a month or so from hatching then, Ashe calculated. There was time to get it to where it needed to go before it hatched, and more importantly, it was still alive. The strange wasp probably hadn’t harmed it. And if it had, well…

Ashe planned to pretend he’d never seen the wasp until after he was paid. He was looking at a massive payday, why would he admit there might be some sort of problem? That discoloration was already starting to fade a bit, whatever it was, he hoped to hide it until it faded completely.

“You found the egg?” Leonard, the mage whose magic thunderbolt had damaged the robot wasp, asked. Ashe had spotted a female dragon and tracked it to it’s nest. Leonard had used magic lightning to stun the dragon, and then while she was weakened, he’d put her into a magically induced sleep so they could safely steal the egg. Inadvertently that lightning spell had also damaged the robot wasp, but no one had noticed it at the time.

“Yeah it’s here,” Ashe replied, bringing the egg out, carried in both hands. He showed the egg to Leonard, carefully putting a hand over the faint grey splotch to hide it. “Check it with your magic, sir?” Ashe asked the mage, respectfully. As the representative of their employer, and a skilled mage, Leonard was the team’s natural leader. Ashe was willing to be deferential, even as he tried to hide the evidence of possible contamination.

“Looks like a healthy male,” Leonard confirmed after casting a quick Analysis spell. Ashe was pleased. Setting the dragon egg down in a padded chest they’d brought for the purpose, Ashe carefully set the discolored side of the egg so it was hidden.

But, after hiding the evidence, Ashe felt a tinge of conscience and coughed. “I found this near the egg,” he admitted, though he omitted the fact that it had actually been on top of the egg. Ashe brought out the strange metallic wasp gingerly, still wrapped in a bit of cloth. “Think it could be dangerous?” He asked, “I wouldn’t want there to be any problems with the egg, sir, but I figured I should show you, so you could know about it.”

Leonard frowned at the large wasp. “Well, dragon eggs are pretty sturdy, I’ve heard of parasitic wasps before, but they usually target insects? But this is certainly worrisome, Look at the distended rear section, it’s hollow… did it lay eggs somewhere?”

Ashe had not noticed that, he’d not been brave enough to actually hold it with his hands like Leonard was. “It looks metal,” Ashe added unhelpfully, thinking of where he’d found it. Could it have laid eggs inside the dragon egg? It would explain the discoloration… Ashe felt sick. Should he suggest they examine the egg closely, perhaps continue the expedition and look for another egg, just in case?

“It is metal,” Leonard said thoughtfully, tapping it with a well manicured fingernail. “Perhaps it is a golem? Could someone have used it to try to find a dragon egg? It looks a little charred, could it have gotten damaged by the mother dragon? If it wasn’t a real wasp then it wouldn’t have eggs, maybe the bottom part carried some sort of fuel source and it ran out? I’m not detecting any signs that this was ever alive.” Leonard mused. “Either way, let me keep it, I'll give you a gold talen for it,” he offered.

Ashe was immediately cheered, an extra gold talen? His honesty had paid off, Ashe reflected. If he’d kept the wasp hidden he’d have felt guilty, and he’d be a gold talen poorer. If Leonard said it wasn’t a real wasp then there wasn’t anything to worry about, Ashe told himself. “Of course, sir, it’s yours. Thank you,” he said gratefully, accepting the gold coin.

Leonard nodded and pocketed the strange metal wasp. “Alright, this mission has been a success, let’s head back home.”