The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [5]
Margaret finally informed the captive colonists what the Klikiss had in store for them. The Llaro breedex was continuing its many wars with other subhives and also finding and destroying any enclaves of black robots it could find. In order to increase its numbers and expand its army, the breedex needed to fission — and for that it needed new genetic material. The Klikiss would slaughter all the colonists and use them as catalysts to create a much larger insect force.
Hearing this, the appalled colonists began to develop defenses and desperate plans. Davlin Lotze slipped away from the stockade and established a secret hideout where others could be safe. Once his sheltered cave complex was ready, small groups of Llaro colonists began to slip away, but only a fraction had gotten to safety before the Klikiss made their move. A large force of insect warriors marched to the stockade to kill all the humans, but the captives did not go down without a fight. They used makeshift defenses, explosives, and firearms to kill many of the Klikiss.
In the midst of this, Sirix led his black robots to attack the Llaro subhive. After so much damage had been done to his robots, he wanted to destroy every breedex he could find. The ferocious attack by the black robots, as well as the desperate fighting from the colonists, caused a great deal of damage to the Klikiss. In the turmoil, Orli, DD, Hud Steinman, and many others managed to get away. When they finally reached Davlin’s distant hideout, the refugees didn’t know where they could go or how they could find safety.
Margaret Colicos, though, had insisted on remaining behind. Back at the blasted stockade, she watched in dismay as the victorious Klikiss devoured the human survivors in order to acquire their memories and genetic material, after which the wounded breedex underwent a massive fissioning to expand its hive and recover from its losses.
Stinging from his defeat on Llaro, Sirix pulled his remaining robots to safety and tried to come up with a new plan. During his attack on the Llaro breedex, he had lost many of his irreplaceable comrades. While the Klikiss could recover from their casualties, black robots were unique storehouses of ancient experiences. PD and QT suggested an unusual solution — that Sirix should seize an appropriate manufacturing facility and build new black robots. These replacements would not have the memories of the lost robots, but they could become a key part of Sirix’s army. The black robots searched for a suitable facility they could take over.
Many of the Llaro colonists were Roamer prisoners, and they had not been forgotten. Tasia Tamblyn, Robb Brindle, and Nikko Chan Tylar (whose parents were both detainees on Llaro) flew a rescue ship to Llaro, expecting to see a handful of bored EDF guards and a lot of surly colonists and detainees. When they arrived, though, they ran into the Klikiss. Caught unprepared, Tasia’s ship was shot down; it crashed in a remote ravine, where it lay damaged, needing significant repairs before it could fly again. They were found by Davlin Lotze and taken back to the hideout, where they all made plans to repair the ship and fly away to safety, far from Llaro.
Just as they completed fixing the ship, however, the Klikiss captured Tasia, Robb, Orli, Nikko, and Davlin. They were brought back to the hive city and held as raw material for the next upcoming fissioning. Margaret Colicos and DD agreed to help free them. When another powerful subhive attacked the Llaro breedex, the chaos of Klikiss fighting Klikiss gave the prisoners the opportunity they needed. They had only to get back to Tasia’s repaired ship, load it up with the rest of the refugees, and go. Davlin remained behind, using Orli’s synthesizer strips to play a music that paralyzed the hive mind. After making it possible