Scarabs eating planet

They are marvellous things. In terms you might understand, they render matter down into raw energy, and use it to construct whatever they wish. If they are left to their own devices, they will reproduce exponentially. One of my colleagues told me of a world that had been entirely disassembled by them, replaced with a ball of endlessly recycling scarabs. Gravity worked against them – it ever will attempt to make planets from sufficient mass – but the scarabs fought.’ He smiled. ‘I would dearly love to see it. Amazing. Imagine that power under our control. We have so much to learn from the necrons, Decimus. So much.’ He tapped a metal finger against this temple. ‘Blasphemy, I know, but that does not mean it isn’t true, as I like to say.’

Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work