A Joytoy’s Journey to become a Hive-Queen [A SCS Fanfic]

Chapter 18 – Twenty-One problems

“The human mind is quite strange when it comes to our perceived relationship with everyday objects. Many people often attribute human emotions to different items they encounter in their day to day life. Now imagine that, but the item in question is a living weapon, created to kill antithesis. Would it be such a stretch to imagine that the Samurai it belongs to becomes attached?”

  -  Dr. Steven Johanson, Doctor of Psychology, 2043

Atlas and Janus have identified the Hive in this building. From the active surveillance systems still functional it appears that it has grown quite a bit since it was formed.

Kaysa put a map onto the big virtual screen in my virtual space. My inner self examined the map closely, at this point the switch between reality and virtual space felt nearly seamless to me. Honestly, I actually preferred using it, since this way I didn’t clutter my HUD.

It also helped Chloe and Jenna, since we could all use the same information pool and stay fully up to date.

“Industrial district, hm? Not that I’m surprised, that is close to a food factory. A street over should be food storage as well, not that I think it’s still around. Bit surprised though, I would have thought they would have settled into the active food factory itself.” I muttered, mainly to myself, but I did still send my ruminations to Chloe and Jenna. Of course in virtual form, my real me was busy keeping her senses sharp, and I preferred to keep it that way.

“What’s the area like?” Jenna asked, studying the map I was sending her.

“Lots of big storage buildings, industrial complexes, big parks of asphalt, half of them filled with old containers and broken down trucks. From the corner the antithesis picked I would imagine there was a fuckton of food to have, and not a lot of dangerous materials. Kaysa?”

Kaysa was also in my virtual room in her elven form, and she nodded at me. That is more or less accurate. It is very unlikely that there are any dangerous materials remaining, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally blowing yourself up. 

“Is that such a problem? I wouldn’t think food factories have shit like that around,” Chloe muttered.

“Oh, it is. We have an industrial building catch fire from chemical contamination every couple months. The shit that’s produced here is the kind of cheap ration bullshit you sell to the less fortunate, so they don’t care much for quality.” While I spoke I quickly scoured the net, what I could anyway, the connection was a bit wonky out here, and pulled up two examples of an industrial building going up in flames.

Jenna and Chloe both got a little green, and I shrugged. This wasn’t exactly news, and truth be told I had long since giving up on giving a fuck since I knew I wouldn’t live long enough to die from those chemicals anyways.

Now things were different, of course, but I still had a hard time to properly internalise this new reality.

“Anyways,” I said, before I went on another tangent, “This ain’t the best case scenario since we will have a big open field to contend with, but maybe Chloe can set up some barricades?”

The woman in question frowned in concentration, “It’s not impossible, if we get the time to plan ahead. Would need to know how the area looks, specifically, before I can decide on what’s best.”

That did make an awful lot of sense, so I shelved the discussion for the time being. 

The way to the Hive was surprisingly quiet. Mind you, we did find a good amount of xenos, but I had actually anticipated more issues. Most of the groups we had to fight off were rather quickly dealt with, mainly thanks to Snuffles help. The main problem was keeping an eye open for model Nines. I didn’t have a reliable way of tracking them yet, and the closer we got to the Hive, the more I felt like something was afoot. From the description Kaysa and Chloe had given me I would have assumed more higher level models would be around, but that really wasn’t the case.

“I don’t like this,” I muttered in the virtual call, my avatar standing in front of a large array of maps, info screens, and data dumps, not that I understood half of it, but it did make me feel cool. “This is too easy.”

“Agreed,” Chloe muttered silently as she peaked around another corner, Jenna and me closely behind her. She checked the area for xenos, not that I could detect any, and gave us the all clear before she continued moving forward, rifle at the ready.

At the next corner she stopped. We were very close to the Hive now and I could already see semi-open areas filled with trash and debris of old buildings. The entire area looked even worse than the redlight district, as if nobody had been around in years to clean up.

“Well, look at this,” Chloe muttered, then ducked down and motioned us to move closer. Jenna and I stuck behind her, but we peaked around the corner. The area was much as I had expected to find it, a big open area with a few old containers laying around and broken down cars decorating the road side. Piles of trash were laying around, offering some limited cover. In the distance was the building in which the Hive had nested itself. That was quite obvious from the xenos stalking around, some coming out of the building, some others dragging… some shit inside, I wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was, but apparently it served as biomass. On top of the big building sat two giant forms, both winged and intimidating.

Kaysa marked them both in my HUD as model Elevens.

“Well, fuck…” I muttered, then scanned around the area, “That is going to be hard to deal with…”

“Rest should be fine though,” Chloe said, checking out the groups of smaller models, “We can set up some defences around the area then start by taking out the Elevens. Once they are dealt with, as long as we can set up a killzone, we can lure them in. At least I hope.”

It was a better plan than I had, so I nodded and turned to Jenna, “Do you think we can take on the Elevens? I think my Hard-Light Lance should be able to deal with them if I can hit them, but what about you?”

She frowned, thoughtful, “I think I can deal with it. Cleopatra said I have some arrows that could take it out, but I would need to hit it rather precisely.”

“If you can do that I think we should be safe. I have some ideas with the space we have available. Will take some time to set up, though.” From her expression Chloe was already halfway done planning the exact positions, and Atlas was already creating a 3D render of the area and her plans within the virtual space. It was updated in real time with Chloe making changes, moving some barricades around, placing and moving turret emplacements, and generally doing a rather good job at putting together a reliable kill zone.

Markers popped into existence on the map, denoting the position of my Hexclaws, Jenna’s Sentinels, priority defensive positions, that kind of crap.

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“Damn, you move fast,” muttered my virtual self, “Kaysa, can you make sure to time the activation of my Lance with Jenna’s bow shot?”

Of course.

“Grand… Okay, let’s get moving. Chloe, need some help out there placing shit?”

She tilted her head, then shook it, “I don’t think so. Best thing you can do is keep the aliens in check and notify me of their position. I need to be a bit stealthy for this to make sure we don’t antagonise the Hive before we are ready.”

“I can do that, Kaysa, map markers.” True to my command soon multiple red dots appeared on the map where I could see xenos.

Without another word Chloe started to move, low to the ground. I kept my senses as sharp as I could, taking in every little detail, to not accidentally miss an alien that could sneak up on her. The set up took ages. Chloe had to be slow and methodical to not surprise any xenos, and a couple of times had to spend quite some time hiding behind piles of trash when multiple xeno patrols marched past her.

While she worked, and I played surveillance camera, Jenna seemed restless next to me. I smiled at her, and took her hand, squeezing it, to calm her down a bit. It seemed to help, even if her heart rate didn’t subside much, but she did give me a warm smile in turn.

Finally Chloe was done and slowly made her way back to us. Only when she was back behind the corner we were hiding behind did she relax a bit, sighing deeply.

“Okay, I think we are ready. Once you take out the Elevens I activate the lure, okay?”

The both of us nodded, and moved up. Jenna took out her bow, then caught a rather impressive looking arrow out of the air, before she took aim. I followed suit, aiming at the second Eleven.

“On your mark,” I said, “I’ll time it with your kill.”

She nodded ever so slightly, before she sighted the enemy. After she made some adjustments, she fully drew the arrow back and exhaled. It was clear that she wasn’t an expert, but I was pretty sure Cleopatra was helping her a bit. Then she let fly, the arrow moving much faster than I had anticipated.

I was ready of course, and a moment later my own Hard-Light Lance Emitter shot out a rather big lance made of Hard-Light. Jenna hit true, her arrow exploding the upper half of the model Eleven, while I hit my own target, just not as precise as she had been. I clipped its wing and sent it careening to the ground. 

“Fuck!” I muttered, then took aim at the nearest alien, the Eleven behind the building at the moment. Chloe didn’t wait and moved up. Suddenly every alien in the area looked in our direction, before dashing forward. The night lit up with gunfire, the few dim street lights utterly outclassed by the muzzle flashes of dozens of smaller turrets, before Chloe’s rather sizable rifle started spitting bullets into the horde of oncoming xenos. 

I moved out of cover and knelt down next to one of the barricades that Chloe had placed near us, hands stretched out and firing sweeping Hard-Light blades and Lances into the mess before us. Luckily for us the lure messed with the aliens in some way, most of them didn’t even try to hit us, just blindly running to their death. Then Snuffles jumped in, leaping over most of the defences and taking off at a run towards where my Eleven had gone down, swiping long tails to crush the aliens in front of her. Jenna’s Sentinels were right behind her, moving up to the front and taking on defensive positions, while my Hatchlings spread out through the chaos and jumped smaller aliens, killing and feasting as quickly as they could.

It didn’t even take a minute before the horde coming at us had been decimated and the battle slowly turned.

I was vaguely aware of Snuffles jumping the wounded Eleven behind the building and crushing it, while we fought off the tide, killing more and more xenos. Not even five minutes later Chloe’s weapons were silenced one after another, no more targets in sight.

I looked around, trying to see if there wasn’t some kind of surprise waiting for us, but the area was quiet for the most part. 

“That was… easier than expected,” I muttered, “Too easy, really. Kaysa, do I have some kind of recon drone?”

You do have a Hexclaw Drone that could do the job. It costs you 75 points. Would you like to buy it?

“Damn, that’s steep. Yeah, sure, I’ll take it, need to know what the fuck is up with the Hive.”

It is the markup for a pregrown Hexclaw.

New purchase: Mark III Hexclaw Shadow!

Points reduced to: 1047

A small-ish egg appeared next to me, soon revealing a cat-like Hexclaw that shook itself once free, before giving me a growling meow and taking off towards the Hive. A couple meters into its trip it turned invisible, and Kaysa pulled up its data feed in the virtual space.

The building the Hive had chosen to grow inside of was an old thing, one of those first gen buildings, made when the city had been built after it was clear that Savannah would be flooded. It did mean that it was built into the foundational stuff, which meant that it would be really hard to get rid of the Hive, should it spread out.

On the plus side though it meant that it was rather unlikely that it would spread too far, if it went the path of least resistance and didn’t try to burrow through the reinforced concrete of the foundation. One could hope, at least.

My little cat thing drone made its way towards the Hive, dodging the few antithesis crawling out of the building on the way, before slipping into a smaller opening to one side of the main entrance. It didn’t take long before it found the first bits of antithesis hive structures. Bits of antithesis hive structure that quickly grew into a massive growth, the further my drone got into the factory.

“Not liking this,” I muttered.

After it took another corner it stopped. In front of it was a massive chamber filled to the brim with weird alien egg sacs of all shapes and sizes. And some of those were large.

“Really not liking this. Kaysa?”

Among the other antithesis present, I can see four model Fourteens, one model Eighteen, and three model Twenty-Ones being grown. That would explain the rather weak defence the Hive had shown so far. These things are not cheap or quick to grow.

“Well, fuck,” I said, looking at my friends, “We have a problem.”

Both Chloe and Jenna grimaced at the sight, obviously not liking it any more than I did.

“A big problem,” Chloe said, “There is no way in hell we can deal with those if they get out.”

I nodded, having come to the same conclusion. A model Eleven was already a big ask, the only reason we could deal with them so quickly was that we surprised them. But these guys?

“Do we have anything we can do here?”

Jenna shook her head, “I have nothing.” I figured as much.

“I have some idea, but I am really not sure if it would work,” Chloe muttered, then looked at the both of us, “I have a bomb, a big bomb that is very expensive. Issue is, I don’t know if it would be enough and I have no idea how to get it in there without the Hive noticing and waking up the growing aliens. They might not be fully grown yet, but according to Atlas they are far enough along that them being birthed early is a real possibility.”

Now I was the one to grimace, really not liking the implications. “What should we do then? I don’t think we can afford waiting for a higher tier Samurai and the others aren’t much better than we are. Maybe Shrapnel can do something?”

There was a moment of silence. Finally Jenna spoke up, “Chloe, how big is the bomb?”

“Uh… Around my height, but much, much heavier. Nothing we could easily carry.”

“And can it deal with the Hive?” Jenna continued, face creased with a thoughtful frown.

“I guess? I don’t think it can take out everything at once, but it could at least deal with the Hive itself and hopefully really do a number on the aliens.” Chloe said, glancing at Jenna, “You got an idea?”

“Maybe. I have something that we might be able to use to combine with your bomb, to really make sure the Hive is dealt with.” Jenna said, then sent some files Chloe’s way through my communications suite. It was some kind of datasheet that I couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“How are we going to get it in there though? You aren’t planning on running in and suiciding yourself, are you?” Chloe asked, genuine worry in her voice.

Instead of replying Jenna looked at me, “How strong is Snuffles? Could she carry it?”

My eyebrows rose. “Uhm… Not sure? Kaysa?”

Snuffles could indeed carry it inside. The problem is that not even it is fast enough to escape before the bomb has to be detonated, if you wish to deal with the Twenty-Ones.

I frowned. That meant Snuffles would die. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that. Not only was she my best weapon at the moment, she was also alive. Maybe not sentient, but alive.

“If it works… I’d say go for it,” Chloe said, giving me a sideways glance.

A part of me wanted to protest, but I really didn’t have many good arguments to bring.

“If these things get fully grown we’ll have entirely different issues,” Jenna threw in, obviously noticing my hesitation. And she was right, of course. Still. This didn’t quite sit well with me. My frown deepened and I looked over to where Snuffles was still busy dealing with some small fries.

Finally I sighed, “Fuck it… If it helps the district…” I muttered, shaking my head, “If it works I’m in. Sucks, but what can you do.”

Should I be concerned about introducing more intelligent or sentient Hexclaws to you?

“Probably? It’s a problem for future me anyways,” I muttered, then looked at Chloe, “So, you get the bomb, Snuffles carries it inside, then we detonate it?”

“That’s the plan,” she said, giving me a warm smile.

“Then let’s go. The more time we waste the more time they have to grow. Last thing we need is them suddenly waking up.” I said, a bit of determination crawling into my tone. Snuffles was alive, yes, but at the end of the day, she was literally made to be a tool and a weapon. In a way she really wasn’t that different from the Devouring Rose and I threw that thing aside without even a second thought.

“Good. Cleopatra, upgrade the catalogue. I do have the tokens for it, right?” Jenna said.

“Tokens?” I asked, not entirely sure what she was talking about.

Tokens are a form of currency you can earn. They are usually given for extraordinary feats performed, such as taking out a higher digit model, or the destruction of a Hive. Tokens are mainly used to upgrade Catalogues to higher classes.

“Aha… Good to know.”

“Ready?” Chloe asked with a glance at the two of us, and we both nodded.

The next moment a giant box appeared next to Chloe, as she had said roughly her height, but much, much thicker. Some panels fell off, revealing a rather curious looking object beneath. It didn’t quite look like a bomb, not how I imagined a bomb to look like anyways.

Without my prodding her, Snuffles came over and gripped the giant thing with her massive powerful back limbs, gently pulling it on top of her. It looked a bit ridiculous, but from the strain it was clear that the bomb was as heavy as advertised.

I gave my favourite alien attack dog a smile, “Well, it was nice working with you. Thanks for everything.”

Snuffles just looked at me, then shook herself, before she turned and started her way into the Hive. I followed her with my gaze, still feeling rather unhappy about the situation, but I reminded myself that this was for the good of the district.

“We gotta move, that is a big bomb," Chloe said and motioned us to follow. We all quickly walked away until our AI’s notified us that we had sufficient distance. From out here the place looked almost peaceful, if one would disregard the alien corpses.

I watched Snuffles make her way deeper and deeper, fighting off smaller xenos that the Hive started to send out when it noticed the intruder. Deeper and deeper she went, meeting more and more resistance, but she didn’t let them stop her. Then, finally, she reached the center chamber.

“Goodbye Snuffles," I muttered. I looked at Chloe, just as I saw the entire Hive wake up, aliens of all shapes and sizes slipping out of their egg sacs. Snuffles jumped down, landing in the middle of the cavern with a ferocious challenging roar. Then my link cut and the ground shook, nearly knocking us off our feet. A loud explosion deafened me and the entire building in front of us came crashing down, while a giant wall of fire rushed out on all sides, melting steel, stone, asphalt, and whatever else was used to erect it.

Debris rained everywhere and as I watched I saw my point counter increase sharply. It had already sat at a good thousand, but now it shot past the two thousands, then the three thousands, finally settling at 3941.

“Fucking hell!" I yelled, before things started to settle down. Flames licked at the remains of the building the Hive had built up in, a couple xenos came crawling out before dying from the flames.

Just as I thought it was over, something exploded out of the ruins, landing on the open area before us. It was big, heavily wounded, and on fire. And against my hopes, it wasn’t Snuffles.

That is one of the model Twenty-Ones. Under any other circumstance I would strongly advise you to run, but as there is nobody else to deal with it, and it is already wounded quite significantly, you still stand a chance.

“Fuck!" I muttered, and immediately began to open fire on it with my Lances. The others followed suit as we split up to present less of a target. The model Twenty-One was dazed and wounded, but it was still resilient as fuck. It took a couple of steps before it stumbled, seemingly trying to get stable footing.

Each Lance I fired did seemingly fuck all, so I switched my approach, “Chloe, Nades!" I said and put a giant Hard-Light construct around it with my Pristine Fortress. Jenna immediately followed suit, putting a second Hard-Light construct around it, just to make sure.

Chloe didn’t hesitate and soon nade after nade rained down on the thing, until something much bigger appeared inside the constructs and exploded with an intensity that shattered both Hard-Light constructs like glass.

I had to hold my ears from the sound and by the time I looked at where the model Twenty-One had been, I saw nothing but a pire of flame. Something moved inside it, crawling, silently wailing, but then it stopped, laying still.

“Is… Is it dead?"  I could hear Jenna’s tense voice and was about to lay into her for jinxing us, when Kaysa piped up.

It is. Congratulations, you have just defeated one of the most dangerous models you could face in your early career. Even higher tier Samurai often have problems against a model Twenty-One, especially if it has its pack to support it.

“Damn fucking straight," I muttered, then glanced at my point total and did a double take. 4641 points! That thing was worth a lot!

I haste to point out that in the future I do not recommend such reckless action. If you wouldn’t have weakened the already weakened and underdeveloped Twenty-One before you, before you exploded the equivalent of an Air to Ground missile on top of it, you would all be dead.

“Yeah… Fuck that…," I said, then looked at the others. “Everyone okay?" 

“Yeah," Chloe said, coughing a bit, and looked at the destruction in front of us, “I’m okay.”

“Me as well," Jenna added with a nod, “Just hope that’s the last of it for now.”

We took a couple of moments, trying to catch our breaths, before we took another look around.

“We should probably try and see if we can’t deal with the rest of the biomass,” Chloe muttered, “Wouldn’t want a second Hive to show up.”

I nodded, then stretched, “Yeah, but let’s hurry. I could really use some rest and I wanna see how the others are doing.”

Both Chloe and Jenna nodded, and as a group we started making our way over to the remains of the battlefield to dispose of the bodies. It was tedious work but it was important. Luckily it didn’t take long, most of the alien corpses had been caught within the blast radius, leaving nothing but piles of ash.

“Finally,” I muttered, when we all grouped up again, “Now, let’s head back. I need sleep.”

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