HarvestBugs

Preliminary geological analysis of lunar soil demonstrated elevated levels of tritium (circa 2007), an essential fuel for fusion energy. This motivated initial lunar expeditions by independent nation-states (notably US, China, and India). However, a permanent lunar base wasn't established until much later.

Regardless, tritium mining remained a central interest to lunar settlers. Traditional methods of collection and processing were labor-intensive and uneconomical.

The team at the Fermi Lunar Research Center (FLRC) were assigned with improving this process. Many other research groups had tried and failed to develop an alternative. Dr. Fermi, with a deep background in astrobiology, was inspired to take a bioengineering approach. Hive-mind research became prohibited in 2155, but Dr. Fermi was never one to let politics get in the way of scientific discovery.

Initial results were astonishing. The Synchronous Lunar Soil Filtration and Collection Microorganism was quickly adopted across the Moon (but its name was not). Often called HarvestBugs for short, they could detect even the smallest amounts of rare metals, depending on what they had been programmed to collect and bring back for processing.

However, independent swarms began communicating with one another. No lab findings had suggested this would be possible; each swarm was only supposed to be able to work with itself...