Thump.... thump.... thump...

The Machine in the center of the room whirled to life, the glowing, orange-brown, head-sized Tiger's Eye glowing with its own inner light at the contraptions heart. The strange gem floated in the middle of a large, low concentration Armadillo alloy containment chamber, suspended by a strong magnetic field (author's note: Yes, Tiger's Eye can be magnetic). Getting the suspension field actually to work had been a struggle in itself. There was something about spiritual energy that messed with how magnetic fields worked, most likely because of how spiritual particles like to mess with electrons.

That wasn't to say they weren't compatible, but the constant bombardment of the spiritual particles coming from the Badger's Eye (Alpha's totally unique and inspired and "not in any way lazy" name for the large spiritual gemstone) quickly rendered most materials incapable of holding a strong magnetic charge.

The solution to this problem had been simpler than Alpha was expecting. Using spiritual particle's tendency to attract more (could this itself be a form of "spiritual magnetism"?), Alpha created a containment chamber formed from alternating bands of Armadillo alloy at varying concentrations. This forced the spiritual particles into "bands" where their concentration was higher or lower than normal, allowing him to install the suspension field without worry about it being overly affected.

The next step involved an outer shell Alpha nicknamed the "collector." The technique to capture light and energy using perfectly reflective surfaces had always been nothing more than science fiction, even for a civilization as advanced as the Federation. That was, until the discovery of a powerful radiophobic material called Kelvinite, ironically found in the heart of a dead star.

This super material repelled most forms of energy to an extreme degree, making it not only one of the best insolating materials in the known universe but also instrumental in advancements of such things as stealth technology and anti-directed energy armor. Its greatest use, however, was in the development of "mirror batteries." Simple in concept, these devices "trapped" energy-carrying particles in a state of suspension that allowed for long-term storage.

Other storage methods might provide greater adaptability or availability, but Kelvinite batteries were second to none when it came to sheer capacity and longevity. The area where Kelvinite batteries saw the most use was in the Space industry. Kelvinite batteries were used to construct most interstellar power cores, while smaller ones found their place in vehicle-mounted directed energy weapons. The largest Kelvinite battery in existence powered World Break's "Core Cracker"; the most powerful superweapon in the Federation, the Core Cracker could bore straight through planetary bodies in less than 10 minutes at full power, though it was most often used to "open up" planetoids for prospecting and processing. The sheer amount of energy required to fire the weapon was calculated to reduce the fueling Star's lifespan by nearly two decades.

Alpha's own Class-V Power core was one of the newer models that attempted to miniaturize the Kelvinite battery system typically found on larger Battleships. The new power core allowed smaller, more mobile ships, or in Alpha's case, his modified TAWP frame, to handle more powerful, energy-hungry systems such as the 'Gungnir' ION Cannon or Interplanetary scanners.

When Alpha abandoned his TAWP frame, he made sure to bring along more of the Kelvinite material than was typically necessary, as he had planned to expand his jury-rigged power core once he found a suitable power source. Repurposing this material meant he might have to push those plans back a while, but the AI felt it was worth it in the end. The resulting device was a kind of Kelvinite pseudo-battery; it wouldn't meet typical standards, but it was more than enough to store the spiritual "runoff" of the Badger's Eye, as well as prevent any more contamination of the surrounding area. More importantly, now that he had a way to store and direct the spiritual energy, he could start his experiments in earnest.

And in typical Alpha fashion, the first question he asked was, "can I weaponize it!?"

His first experiments proved... unfruitful. Taking inspiration from the 'Gungnir,' his first and most obvious attempt was to focus and direct the energy into a concentrated beam of destruction. Using the same principle as a more typical directed energy weapon, Alpha built various prototype directors. The first prototype failed spectacularly.

As soon as the super-concentrated spiritual energy escaped its containment and entered the barrel, the Armadillo alloy began to... mutate, for lack of a better term. The supersaturation of the alloy caused a violent reaction within its remnant biological components, resulting in an uncontrolled, bubbling growth that quickly consumed and assimilated anything it touched; it reminded him of how the higher concentration Alloy seemed to bound and fused with other metals so well, but much more aggressive and chaotic.

The resulting chaotic lump of pseudo-biological metal was difficult to remove and reform, several tendrils having even infiltrated and damaged the Badger's Eye containment shell. Looking at the damage that only a small amount of the stored (and still growing) energy had caused, Alpha began to sweat mentally. Maybe he needed to be a liiiiiittle more careful with unknown energy. The Eggheads back home would have probably kicked him out of the lab a long time ago.

After taking 3 days to clean up (and move the Containment Shell to a more secured chamber), Alpha restarted his experiments and discovered where he had gone wrong. In hindsight, he should have seen it coming, but his knowledge of spiritual energy was still incomplete, and he wasn't surprised he'd missed this simple detail.

He needed a heatsink. Or rather one that worked.

It wasn't that he'd forgotten something as simple and fundamental in a directed energy weapon as a Heatsink; rather, the ones he HAD used weren't effective. The design he had was based on the use of thermal and electromagnetic energies. Effective and useful, but "spiritual energy" didn't behave the same way as these other fundamental forces. For one, just because a substance was thermally conductive didn't mean it was spiritually conductive.

The aluminum nitride-based industrial heat-sinks Alpha was using were rated for transport-class shuttle engines and should have been more than enough to handle even firing the 'Gungnir' ION Cannon continuously for over 3 hours. Instead, it seemed like they had been bypassed entirely before being absorbed by the rampaging Alloy.

In fact, despite the clearly massive amounts of energy in the process, there was no evidence of any kind of thermal damage at all. This suggested that a "normal" heatsink wouldn't cut it. It was obvious that spiritual energy didn't just change matter but caused it to interact in strange ways. He would need to find a way to safely channel the energy and siphon off the excess spiritual energy that was inevitably absorbed and lost to the equipment.

A "Spirit-Sink," if you will.

The problem was figuring out HOW to make one. A proper heatsink needed two parts; a highly thermally conductive material to absorb and transfer the heat energy and a storage material that allows the heat to be collected and distributed. The most powerful known Heat-Sink ever created was found on World Break's Factory World and consisted of over 50,000 square kilometers of massive specially grown diamond pillars, surrounded by a 200,000 square kilometer Sea of a special gel, the recipe of which was only known by the aforementioned AI and a group of his most trusted Engineers and Scientists.

The entire construct took up over 10% of the Factory World's total surface area, and the eerie blue glow gave it the nickname "The Eye of Ascension," as any Star System that its glow fell on was sure to soon see explosive growth the likes of which the natives could hardly imagine.

His new "Spirit-sink" would have to follow similar principles. He would need both a material that could easily absorb and transmit the flow of energy, as well as one that could store it stably. Both roles of which the Armadillo alloy was proving unfit for. The Alloy didn't seem to be too incomparable with spiritual energy, per-say, but its semi-organic nature seemed to make it react unpredictably when over-saturated. The AI was starting to question if it had been such a smart idea to forge his new frame with so much of the material but quickly discarded the concern.

Yes, it was risky, but risk and reward went hand in hand. He'd not have made anywhere near as much progress as he had in the past few months, relying on more mundane materials alone. Maybe the alloy would have to be replaced eventually, but it would have to suit his purposes for now.

That just begged the question then, WHERE could he get more appropriate Spiritual Metals for his purposes? Other semi-organics were off the table even if he could find them (didn't want a repeat of the first test), and while his mining drones had been able to find some useful mineral deposits, the few spiritual samples he'd found so far remained... disappointing when compared to the Alloy.

He didn't even necessarily need new materials themselves either. He could spend months, maybe even years, experimenting, trying to figure out what he needed, but why try and do things from scratch when he could just as easily stand on the shoulder of Giants?

With a mental grin, Alpha turned his attention away from his musings and towards the "Guest Wing" of his base.

Federation Forward Base - A-001 - "Guest Wing"

High Baron Levi Ashdale, Lord of the Bloodriver Valley and member of the Halirosa Senate, watched the young man in front of him work his magic. The gentle blue glow of mana seeped from hand as it held the still weak woman up, his free hand slowly dripping the Spirit Beast broth into her barely open muzzle.

The young man wasn't like the other healers the Baron was used to working with. He didn't carry himself like a soldier and didn't have that "edge" about him that many other battlefield medics developed over the years. Nor did he carry himself like a true Adventurer. Sure, the boy was not afraid of blood or combat, the way he'd stood up to the strange intelligent Ant spoke to that, but his attitude and poise reminded Ashdale more of his estate Healer.

Calm, collected, and calculating, always looking for the best way to perform his duty in the most effective way possible, almost to the point of being oblivious to their surroundings. Good traits, to be sure, but ones more suited for a more controlled environment, not the battlefield. Why had the man decided to join the hunt? Sure, Ants were a major threat to Halirosa, but this SHOULD have been just a routine extermination, and they had plenty of healers, Adventurers and Army, sign up. Who could have predicted everything would go so wrong?

Baron Ashdale could feel his nails dig into the palm of his shaking hand as blood stained his fur. What kind of monster did they stumble upon? It wasn't too uncommon for the Queens of Ant colonies to develop some level of intelligence, even sapience if they're not exterminated too quickly.

But Soldiers? In his 300 years of life, Ashdale had never once heard of an intelligent Soldier Ant. Cunning, maybe, but not intelligent, not capable of making real choices outside of its "orders," let alone actually speak the common tongue.

Not only the strange soldier they had spoken to, either; even the Workers that periodically appeared to deliver food, water, and remove waste didn't carry themselves like mindless beasts. More than once, he had spied one of the Workers staring at them as the others moved around, watching them in a way he had only ever seen people do before.

And above all THAT, Ants taking prisoners?! Madness.

If they ever managed to make it out of this and make it back to Halirosa alive, Ashdale doubted he would even be believed if he reported that not only were they kept prisoner by Intelligent Ants but treated better than even some noble prisoners of war. He's likely to be labeled insane from his "traumatic" experience and removed from the Senate. The Creator knew that his rivals would jump at the opportunity.

Hell, even for someone of his rank and Nobility, to feed this many people on the amount of Grade-C Demon Beast meat they had seen over the last month would have severally hurt his Vault. Possibly only the Senate-funded Army could have afforded such a thing, and even then only for a small group of Elites.

Not only that, but other than when the Solider had spoken to the healer, Satori, none of the other Ants had so much as addressed them. No orders, no demands for ransom or bribes. The prison was even kept spotless, the food and other wastes cleaned every day, even bedding and spare clothes provided when one of the female adventurers had requested it.

Some of the others, especially the younger Adventurers, didn't seem to truly understand their situation. They only thought of using the "stupid ants" meat (many of who would never see such quality in their lives, otherwise) to further their strength and wait for rescue. The Baron knew better, though, and if the growing looks of concern on the more experienced prisoner's faces were anything to go by, others were starting to catch on as well.

What were they really dealing with here? Had a Queen simply developed some kind of Hive-Mind ability? Or were there more sinister forces at play? Maybe some rouge Cultivator or Mage was pulling strings behind the scenes. While extremely difficult, to the point it was seen as worthless, it wasn't unheard of for a tamer to gain control of a Queen (and thus the entire nest). Those that do succeed, though, either go on to become powerful Hegemon... or, more often than not, are hunted down by the major powers before they can become a threat.

The Baron's gut told him it was neither of these things, but he couldn't place why or what else it could be.

With a glance, his eyes wandered over the rest of the group, trying to ascertain what they might be thinking, and caught the eyes of the mysterious Dragonkin, standing off to one corner, his armed folded as he leaned against the stone wall. The Dragonkin stared back, unflinching, before barely nodding his head, a single finger, hidden from the rest of the room by his arms, pointing towards the large metal door that sealed their prison.

His frown deepening, Baron Ashdale pushed himself up from the ground, eyes turning towards the door just as the door slid open. As many times before, a small train of Workers flooded into the room, carrying food and other items. However, today there was change; once the last Worker had entered, a large shadow followed them in from behind.

It was the same Solider Ant from a month ago. How Ashdale could tell, he wasn't sure, but he was certain of it.

Gathering himself together, High Baron Levi Ashdale, Lord of the Bloodriver Valley and member of the Halirosa Senate, stepped forward to meet the Ant with all the dignity and poise his position could offer.

It was time for some answers.