Torpedoes

12
The Hatchlings’ Return
The early theories about what had triggered
humanity’s first encounter with the
Hatchlings were wrong. It wasn’t the Terrans’
thoughts that had awakened the Night
Brood from their long sleep and encouraged
them to investigate with murderous
results. It was their violence.
Xenobiology
Somehow, the Grubs can sense violence,
the chaos that follows from things being
willfully disturbed from their ordered
states. They feel this dissolution on a level
incomprehensible to human beings, and
they feed on it. Once awakened by large
enough instance of violence, they pursue
it relentlessly, until there is nothing left to
violate. Then, presumably, they return to
their hibernating state to lie in wait for
something to disrupt their rest once again.
Grubs do not respond to natural interstellar
instances of destruction such as suns
going supernova or asteroids striking a
planet’s surface. As no will is involved, there
is nothing for them to react to.
As Grubs prefer planets that are generally
hostile to human life, it was not strange
that the Night Brood slept for as long as
they did. After all, who was going to fight a
war over a hunk of rock so far from any
hospitable climates? Otherwise, the Terrans
would certainly have encountered them
before they did. After all, wars were not
unknown to humanity.
Long after the wars that led to the
Empire’s foundation, the Terrans kept
pushing outward, always expanding their
sphere of influence. Once all of the best
planets closest to the Imperial core were
occupied, prospective colonists turned
their attention toward less likely lands.
Eventually a small band of colonists settled
in the Tau Albriton sector unwittingly near
a planet occupied by the Brood.
The Night Brood in Tau Albriton were
awakened by a massive battle between a
Clan Albitech fleet and a determined pirate
force. Rumor had it that these brigands
were backed by none other than House
Colos, eager to take over the sector, but this
was never proved.
Other Clutches, on Clutchworlds closer
to the Imperial core, had become partially
desensitized to the violence over the millennia,
having been exposed to relatively
low levels of it on a regular basis over the
centuries. So many years had passed since
they were last active that it was going to
take a great war to rouse these dormant
demons.
That’s exactly what the Imperial Civil
War did.
The Grubs Strike
Clutchworlds are scattered throughout
all of explored space and beyond. They certainly
pervade most of the Milky Way. When
the Civil War moved into full swing, it was
being fought on dozens of different fronts.
Inevitably, the swarms awakened.
Where they awakened, they attacked.
Smaller incursions that took place toward
the frontier where the Civil War actions had
been light were beaten back, although not
with some difficulty. Toward the Imperial
core, matters were grim.
The Grubs gained ground against the
Terrans in the most densely populated areas.
Suddenly, soldiers that had been fighting
each other one moment were battling
alongside each other the next. The escalating
destruction did nothing but instigate
more Clutchworld assaults. Eventually, after
having laid waste to some of the core
systems, the Night Brood’s attention drifted
toward Old Earth.
The Emperor absolutely refused to risk
losing the seat of the Imperial Throne. Although
such weapons had been banned for
centuries, Modestinus III ordered the
preparation of a doomsday missile, complete
with a monstrous matter/antimatter
warhead, to blast the Hatchling invasion
force into space dust before it could reach
the Terran homeland’s blue skies.