04 had a near-perfect recollection of the moment he was born.
It was as if he had been waiting an eternity for what would eventually be a life of duty and diligence.
He remembered seeing his siblings squirming alongside him as they lay in a puddle of murky water and chunks of flesh.
Pieces of dark, rubbery meat which could only have been life for them by the one above them.
Their mother, Anoona.
A name which 04 knew more certainly than anything.
She looked at her newborns through weary eyes as she sat in a dark, damp space—the hill she had been reborn in.
She glanced at 04 for the briefest moments, and this was enough to motivate the vaguely ant-shaped being to grab a nearby piece of flesh.
He promptly ate it, drinking up the water around him along with his siblings, who did the same.
They were the first of the Theta class and would be the ones to build whatever their mother pleased once they were big enough.
04 understood this as well, so even when the meat finished, he began gnawing on the rubbery surface of the now-empty pool, which made his mother softly chuckle, a sound which made his tremble with joy.
Anoona grabbed some more meat, which was piled up to the side and placed it in the puddle for her sons to eat, and while 04 ate, he caught a glimpse of his older brother.
01 was an enigma, even to the newborn 04.
04 was telepathically linked to his brothers and mother, meaning he could vaguely sense their feelings.
This wasn't the case for the first Beta class child, who latched onto Anoona and greedily drank from her bosom.
04 wondered what plans Anoona had for him.
He chose to wait for time to tell and ate.
The Thetas ate for hours, then days.
Eventually, they grew to be two meters tall, meaning they were too big to fit in Anoona's humble abode.
They now camped in little burrows around the hill while Anoona worked on her plans for the future.
[Brother, I'm sensing a threat about half a kilometre to the south.] 02 spoke, raising his head and scanning the horizon with his compound eyes.
Orbs of dark blue that perceived every form of light, glowing faintly in the night.
Each of the Thetas was also equipped with arms that were able to carry fifty times their body weight.
Their humanoid top halves and antlike lower halves were clad in hardened exoskeletons which, like their mother's, were made from a composite of carbon and metal.
04 and 02 pinged Anoona that they were going for a walk, and she approved their trip with a ping of her own, a little noetic wave that washed over them.
The two made their way south beneath the moonless starry sky, walking over writhing tendrils that delivered fluid rot across the twisted jungle surrounding the Stygian Crater.
The air was still putrid, but the lungs of the Thetas were designed to specifically filter the chlorofluorocarbons and carbonic gases, leaving only pure Oxygen for them to breathe.
This was achieved by having each lung divided into strata that filtered out the air to increasing degrees.
The waste would go on to be used in their bodies' other functions.
Their stomachs were equally complex, being made of incredibly durable but flexible ceramic complexes that allowed them to house the acids strong enough to strip the toxic food and water they ingested until it was able to be processed.
The two Thetas eventually reached the threat 02 had sensed, and so they carefully ascended a mound of dark flesh to see a creature that was a hippopotamus, only its head was large and dome-shaped, being covered in a hardened outer layer.
It looked like an adolescent that had gotten separated from its herd, seeing as it stood only three meters tall and weighed about a ton.
Which made it the perfect prey for the Thetas.
[Leave this one to me.] 02 pinged before emerging from a cluster of tendrils, revealing himself to the creature, which let out a loud bellow, warning 02 not to get too close, but the Theta approached it regardless, as 04 kept a cautious eye on the scene.
02 then took a deep breath, and his muscles tensed up.
Like his mother, his every movement was driven by thick strands of hardened muscular tissue that could lock into place when contracted, allowing them to store incredible amounts of energy.
They could then be bolstered by the fact that the Thetas could focus their Noetic Energy to effectively multiply the force they could generate.
After seeing that 02 wasn't retreating, the creature charged towards the Theta only to get punched in the head with so much force that its entire skull exploded, leaving its body to limply tumble to the side.
04 had grown to admire that about his brother.
02 was always so efficient, so precise.
He dragged the corpse to his brother, and the two ate it quickly before standing to survey their surroundings.
Seeing nothing of note, the two let out unguarded breaths.
[Come, let us return. Lest we encounter the rest of the herd.] 02 nodded to the north before leading his brother back to the hill, where they found their mother sketching something on the ground while cradling 01.
They joined the other Thetas in looking at what appeared to be a diagram showing what she wanted her nest to look like.
It was shaped like a beehive, only it was underground.
"Mmm…" She hummed, her eyes darting back and forth across the crude drawing.
04 enjoyed watching as she deeply and thoroughly thought about things.
He wondered where she had attained such foresight and patience, and it was here that he got his answer.
[I once lived in this world. In a time before all you see around you existed. I was a man, a human, and I lived among several billions.] This was the first time she communicated with him in something other than a simple ping.
And, although her answer was matter-of-fact, 04 was grateful she had answered his curiosities at all.
But it felt like she had done more than that.
He felt like she had deepened the connection she had with each of her sons.
It was then at this point that Anoona blinked out of 04's perspective.
She had been testing just how completely she and her children were connected, and it seemed as though she could very well control their bodies if she wanted, but she saw no need to. Not yet, anyway.
And as for what she was thinking so deeply about, it was the number of eggs that were filling her stomach.
She didn't express any pain or discomfort, but the could feel thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of eggs swirling in her stomach.
This had happened because she had consumed so much biomass, her body began rapidly producing eggs, only stopping when she willed it so.
She couldn't spit them all out yet since she wouldn't be able to feed them all, hence he current distressed state.
Adding onto this was 01, who relentlessly fed on her, draining her of nutrients which she couldn't regain since her stomach was essentially full.
She wondered if she could wean him off and feed him regular food, and so she turned 02.
"Umm… could you catch something for your older brother?" She tiredly sighed, making the Theta nod.
He rushed down the hill and made his way east.
Anoona then sat back and transmitted her plans for the nest to her sons.
"You have all walked these lands. Where do you think we should build our base?" She asked even though she knew their thoughts.
Part of her just wanted to hear someone else's voice, and so 05 spoke, pointing at a flat patch of land just north of the hill.
[The ground there is solid, and there are a few underground water pathways we could divert to supply the nest.]
Anoona nodded before then asking something else.
"How strong do you think you'll need to be to dig to the required depth?" She asked while gently thumbing 01's feathery antennae.
The Thetas all let out thoughtful hums.
[Ten times as strong, which will require several tons of biomass.] 05 answered, making 04's own antennae stand briefly.
[02 and I suspect there's a herd of creatures to the south. If we launch a coordinated attack, we may be able to slaughter the entire group.]
The other Thetas nodded, making Anoona nod as well.
"Alright. All of you will mount an assault. Then you will feed."
The Thetas all stood, only for Anoona to shake her head.
"Not yet. Wait until 02 gets back." Something akin to a smile flashed on her face, making the Thetas immediately return to their sitting positions.
02 eventually returned with half of the corpse of a small creature that was covered in jagged metallic spines.
It was clear that he had punched whatever it was so hard that half of its flesh was rendered unusable, but his brothers didn't question it.
The corpse was given to Anoona, who tore a piece of flesh and placed it near a waking 01's mouth.
The little child opened its mandibles and took a bite of the dark flesh, only to send out a massive noetic wave as it cried.
"Oh! Sorry! I guess he's a picky little one." Anoona giggled as 01 loudly screeched in distress.
04 shook his own head as he grabbed the carcass at her side.
He then tossed it to 08, who ate it in a single bite.
"Alright, alright. You can all go." Anoona softly sighed, but this made the Thetas freeze.
[Who… who will stay here with you then?] 02 asked as 01 finally calmed.
Without looking away from the firstborn, Anoona answered softly.
"I understand your concern, but we must act swiftly and efficiently. Go. Claim what this world has to offer and unleash your full potential. Then you will be able to protect your siblings and me fully."
The Thetas all nodded before finally standing and making their way south with 02 in the lead.
Anoona split her perspective between herself and 04 again, and she watched as her sons walked beneath the pale light of the rising sun.
Their eyes were like focused beams of cyan light that pierced through the horror of the new world.
They didn't speak to each other and walked at a fair pace to conserve energy.
They travelled for about three kilometres before coming across a herd of about three hundred hippopotamus-like creatures.
They seemed to serve the ecosystem by crushing any biomass they travelled over, letting the nutrients seep into the flesh below and enriching the putrid rivers below.
They grazed on the hardened tendrils at their feet, creating holes for smaller creatures to use when they needed water but didn't want to get too close to the Stygian Crater itself.
02 beheld the herd with unshaking eyes and breathed.
[Leave nothing alive.]
His brothers immediately bolted forth, startling the herd, yes, but the fourteen of them split up and kept the creatures from fleeing in a unified direction.
Then, the assault began.
Although the Thetas only had an Ostraka of 100Ø, this just meant that the reach of their Noetic Presence was really small.
Unlike that of their mother, which could go for kilometres on end.
They, on the other hand, could focus their Noetic Energy into their body, allowing them to amplify their strength and speed.
With this, they were able to punch holes through leathery hides that were inches thick and crush bones.
The knowledge given to them by their mother allowed them to deal lethal blows to organs and limbs, while their own innate robustness allowed them to take hits from the creatures that could crush tanks.
02 was the most adept.
He adapted incredibly quickly and killed dozens of creatures while also coordinating his siblings, who eventually killed the last of their prey.
And then, when their surroundings were nothing but corpses… they began to feed.