Jump 449: Factorio

Jump #449: Factorio
>Eight of Cups (Indolence), reversed: The realization that a matter thought to be important was actually of little consequence.
>Location: Desert
>Identity: Hive
Whoa, suddenly this feels like a flashback to Starcraft. Wait, if I spawn satellite hives and my main hive is destroyed, do I actually die or do I keep going through them?
>Drawbacks: (+600) F̶a̶i̶l̶e̶d̶ Successful Colony, M̶e̶g̶a̶h̶i̶v̶e̶ Minihive
My hive is small, and there's a nice population nearby. Maybe I should avoid poking them for a while, but at best that only delays my problem, not to mention I can't just start growing new hives everywhere. Quite frankly... I'll probably burn a couple of one-ups while I'm here.
>Siege Mentality (1500)
I need to be prepared when everyone comes. Because they will.
>Enemy Radar (1100)
And knowing where my enemy is will definitely help on the defense.
>Bamboo Technology (500)
On the other hand, emulating them - tool use, among other things - could be handy.
>Pheromone Control (Free, Hive)
But we still need to be able to coordinate, and pheromones are most useful for that.
>Genetic Imprinting (300, Hive)
On the other hand... wait, does this mean anything that I would pass to my descendants is passed to the members of the hive? Wait, do they keep human level intellect like I do? Is that even a thing that gets passed down?
>Stress Evolution (0, Hive)
Oh, actually this seems pretty neat. Neater if the hive repels an attack - it would be more resistant to that in the future. It's evolution, baby.

They expected critters to poke the colony periodically and the attacks repelled, as the pattern always had been. They did not expect one of the hives to launch itself upward on some sort of bio-rocket composed of bone and chitin, and land on a ballistic trajectory on the opposite side of the planet.

They expected they would escalate, because the thought of a mobile hive terrified them. They did not expect an eerie intelligence to guide the creatures once they'd established their dominance on another continent, and to have escalated in turn.

They expected their expeditions to burn out the hives, with the occasional casualties. They did not expect their expeditions to disappear without a trace, then reappear... subverted. Infested. Using their own technology against them, forcing them to abandon the colony and escape to space once more.

They expected to engage in pest control. They did not consider who the pests were.

About five years later, the hive(s) had evolved into an intelligent civilization and made peaceful contact with humanity, which perplexed the hell out of everyone...