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

Chapter 67 – Six feet under

“Some sayings just transcend time.”

  -  Quote from the Samurai Forums

As Jenna had expected, the Hive did act up quite a bit. She was able to stand her ground and clear out most of the force that had burrowed to the surface, but down here, we had to deal with a fresh onslaught of xenos. Some of the caves we had cleared were also beginning to fall, and we had to pull back a few of our groups to prevent any unnecessary deaths.

Because of that, we had to start sending the rest of Us deeper into the tunnels, which meant less of Us cleaning up the stragglers up top. It made the entire expedition that much harder, but we forced ourselves to keep calm. Bobby began to organise with Bellona, Kharon, Thanatos, and Snuffles, Junior making sure that everyone knew everything that was needed.

Our Hive also wasn’t the only Hive that was showing increased signs of activity. It appeared that the expedition was hitting a wall all across the area. Glubber came on the horn and began to organise a more orderly defence, pulling some groups back to the Headquarters. With Jenna’s defences there, it was the most secure place for the newbies, and we kept an eye out on Mask through one of our Siverin Bile Spewers.

She had done well for herself, from the looks of things. Her gear was much higher grade already, although it was obvious that she wasn’t a combat specialist. From what we could tell, she was using smaller weapons to deal with the aliens, less focused on taking out entire groups at a time.

Tiny also began to move in deeper, trying to cut off bigger groups of bigger models, with mixed success. While she wasn’t harmed much, the antithesis were starting to mobilise more groups, and, considering the limited space in the tunnels, Tiny was having a hard time getting to them.

Our group met resistance as well, and soon we had to fight off a rather large horde of xenos, streaming towards us from deeper within the tunnels. Chloe grabbed a few cheap barricades and turrets, not enough to take care of it all, but enough to help us defend our cave.

With a wide, sweeping motion, we killed a huge chunk of the horde with our PRISM, before we placed a Hard-Light construct next to the front. It was a sort of self-moving polearm thing, not that great, but it was semi-autonomous, even if all it did was swing around widely. Luckily for Us, though, antithesis weren’t all that smart, so it was enough to kill a few of them.

Bobby pulled out a massive weapon, aiming it at the tunnel. “Get down!” That was the only warning we got, before he pulled the trigger, sending a massive beam of flaming hot death into the horde.

It was quite the sight, but we didn’t have time to admire it. With the help of our Lance and the PRISM we began to pick off the few aliens on their side that survived, while Chloe had a massive machine gun in hand, holding down the trigger and sending a flood of lead down range, cleaning up those that managed to escape Bobby’s laser of destruction.

“My Queen, we have spotted a group of aliens on their way to flank you. We have dispatched a squad to deal with them, but best keep your eyes open.”

Bellona contacted Us, and we immediately turned towards the tunnel the xenos would come out of. Our War Drones repositioned themselves, while we took a step behind Jenna’s Sentinels. Bobby and Chloe had the front in hand, so we focused on making sure we wouldn’t be surprised.

True to Bellona’s words, it didn’t take long for another group of xenos to show up, quickly followed by a few of our War Drones. Now surrounded, the xenos didn’t stand a chance, and we quickly dispatched them.

“Kaysa, can we put a smaller Devouring Rose down? We need some way to keep the xenos at bay.”

Yes. The S-Variant of the Mark VI Devouring Rose can move to where it is needed. It won’t be fast, but it’s the best you can do to deploy them from range at the moment.

“Can’t we get an upgrade that allows our drones to spend points?” We asked, while we turned to kill another group of xenos with our PRISM, before we quickly took a step behind one of the Sentinels to escape a stray quill flying our way.

You can, at least in a way, but it is not an optimal purchase. Really, it would just be a stop gap measure until you can upgrade your Catalogue to Class III and get the proper upgrade.

“We don’t care, if we can, we’ll do it.”

Very well. You won’t technically be able to have any of you purchase anything, but you can grab a stealth focused Hexclaw for the job, that can use your points. It is not a combatant and will not survive any altercation.

“Doesn’t matter, do it. Get, we don’t know, a dozen or more of them. How expensive are they? Hey, Chloe, look out, on your right!”

Chloe reacted immediately, and killed off the small group of Threes that used a boulder to sneak past the main front. “Thanks, love!”

We smiled at her comment, making our heart flutter.

125 points per Hexclaw. As I said, these things are not combat rated.

“Get them, quick.”

New purchase: Mark IV Hexclaw Spotter x12!

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We took a moment to marvel at the amount of points we had already made back in the short time we’d been fighting, before we turned our attention back to the xenos.

The twelve eggs that appeared behind Us hatched immediately, and Junior didn’t waste any time coordinating them. The Spotters turned invisible, before they ran off. True to Kaysa’s words, they were not combatants, smaller than a cat and similar in build, even if they were not nearly as cute, their only defence was remaining undetected.

We dismissed them, trusting Junior to place them where they were needed. After another quick conversation with Kaysa, we turned to Bobby and Chloe, who were still mowing down the incoming horde. “Get down, we’ll get something to stop the flood. Kaysa, now!”

Ignoring the ping, we sent another wide Hard-Light blade through the horde of xenos, before a giant egg appeared in front of our group, cracking immediately, and revealing a mess of tentacles. The Devouring Rose began to snatch up dead xenos and munch down, while its tentacles began to spread out and seal off the entrance.

“Check your ammo!” Bobby called out, using the momentary lull to reload.

The Rose worked fast, but it wasn’t a permanent solution. Mainly, because we had to get through that tunnel to hit the next node of the Hive. Turning, we checked on the rest of our forces. One of our War Drones had been badly injured, and was already transported back by two others. 

“Kaysa, a dozen War Drones.”

Another ding rang out that we ignored, turning our attention for a moment toward our Virtual Realm and checking over the situation across our Hive. Snuffles had engaged a bigger group up top, together with her squad, cleaning up the xenos and loading the biomass onto more shuttles. 

Bellona was busy holding a massive horde in one of the caves at bay. So far she was winning, and we could see one of our Spotters being en-route to help her. Kharon and Thanatos were doing similar in another set of caves, although the main front appeared to be around Bellona.

Tiny had finally gotten the drop on one of the larger groups in a larger cave deeper in the tunnel system. We nodded to ourselves, she would keep the aliens busy there.

The other Hives… It wasn’t that bad yet, while Glubber had pulled out some of the groups, they were getting on top of things, with the help of equipment handed out by Glubber themselves, Bahamut, and another Samurai that seemed to be a late entry. Tentacles wasn’t a name we’d seen in the chat before, although remembering Blitzer’s comments during the undercity incursion, we had a rough idea about how powerful they were.

Once our group was ready once more, we ordered the Rose to make a way for us to advance. It had already buried quite deep, working as fast as usual, taking over most of the tunnel. The Roses were a bit different from the rest of Us, they didn’t have a fully sentient voice, more a sophisticated instinct. It made sense, they weren’t meant for permanent defence, more a temporary measure.

With Bobby and Chloe at the front, we continued our way, leaving a couple of War Drones behind to secure the cave. We were near a thousand voices by now, and we would need much more to make sure we could get through this expedition.

Of course, it didn’t take long before we ran into yet more aliens, it appeared as if we were getting deeper than we initially wanted. That said, with our new ears we were able to map out the tunnels quite a bit in advance, even if it wasn’t a perfect solution considering all the noise that made the echolocation image a bit fuzzy.

With a flick of our left wrist, we projected yet another shield in front of Bobby, who took the moment to switch weapons to another shotgun strapped to his back. We were almost certain this was a new weapon, but we couldn’t be sure, and really, it didn’t matter that much. Once our shield fell, he immediately began to pepper the model Threes and Fours in front of him with shrapnel that began to eat away at the corpses.

“Myriad, how many of those tentacle things can you get?” he asked after he decimated most of the aliens directly in front of him, switching to a pistol to kill the remainder.

“We can get Roses for days, they are variable in cost and application. Not a permanent thing, though, they’ll starve sooner or later,” we replied, then took a step forward to kill a model Nine-V that was waiting for our group to get closer.

Our new ears were amazing.

“How long can they last?”

We couldn’t answer immediately, having to defend against a shower of quills, courtesy to a group of model Fives. One of our Assassins dashed forward and ripped them to shreds, only to catch one of the pinwheel projectiles that denoted a model Fifteen.

“Fifteen!” Chloe called out at the same time, turning towards another tunnel, one we couldn’t see into yet from our position further back.

“They can last a couple hours, if they get enough xenos to munch on,” we finally told Bobby, while he and Chloe started to lay into the bigger antithesis model.

“Place one at each cave we’re clearing. Something tells me that they’ll have all the food they need.”

We nodded at that.

The Assassin that was hit was wounded, but still alive. She lost one of her arms, which sucked, a lucky projectile having hit her directly in the shoulder joint, all but shearing it off. Nevertheless she didn’t back down, ripping the remainder of her arm off herself, as it was far too damaged to heal, before she jumped back into the fray, swiping and slashing and kicking and cutting at whatever tried to get close to Us.

The tide turned, when Chloe once more pulled out her grenade launcher, turning the cave into a wailing prison of resonating sounds. We were so glad that our ears could filter the sounds, otherwise we definitely would have suffered permanent hearing loss after this expedition.

Projecting a giant cube that took up most of the eastern side of the cave, we crushed a large group of xenos, enabling Chloe and Bobby to clean up, while Jenna’s Sentinels cleaved through the last aliens that tried to snap at us.

[Buckshot Bobby:] Do we have a more up to date map of the tunnel systems? The outer circle here might be smaller than anticipated, we’re running into large groups of aliens already.

Keeping an eye on the Family chatroom after Bobby’s comment, we quickly purchased a D-Variant of our Devouring Rose. It would be able to survive for longer, as it had a slowed metabolism, perfect for entrenching itself somewhere. Not that it would be able to live forever, but it would hopefully last long enough.

[Double-X:] Trying. Xenos reposition a lot. Can’t get a perfect read. Might have models that scramble readings. Will update.

That wasn’t good, but also not entirely unexpected, we thought. Either way, it meant that we would have to do things our own way.

“Kaysa, we need a scout. Maybe like the one we got to scout out the Hive in the old industrial district. The one where we found the model Twenty-Ones. We need a couple of those, and possibly more Meerkats.”

That can be done, however, I feel it prudent to warn you that you are approaching the threshold at which the pain limiter will be deactivated.

We grimaced at that, that would be bad. We had somewhat gotten used to the cold and overwhelming feeling of losing a voice, but that was without having the full pain feedback. And it made sense, we were just above a thousand voices by this point, between all the Hexclaws we purchased, and all the Hexclaws birthed by our Broodmothers.

“Well, fuck. How many voices can we still get before that happens?”

I would recommend deactivating it before you hit over one thousand three hundred, although it can be pushed back until you hit one thousand five hundred. I do believe it would be better to do so manually beforehand, however, to allow you to get used to it. It is not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.

“Okay. Get those scouts, we can’t do without. We’d get there sooner or later anyways, and we’d rather not risk getting overwhelmed just because we worried too much about that.”

Understandable.

More notifications played out that we ignored in favour of doing another quick check of our forces. Bellona, Kharon, and Thanatos were still holding the line, slowly pushing the aliens back, now that they had the Spotters to help them with purchases.

Tiny had destroyed most of the bigger models she ran into, and was starting to do a sweep around the core of the Hive. She was raising hell with the xeno population, but since she kept to the other side of the Hive, that meant we didn’t have to worry too much about aliens coming our way.

Shiarex had dealt with the model Twenty-Three in spectacular fashion, more or less devouring the thing whole. Really, we were a little envious. Maybe one day we’ll have a dragon to call our own.

Other than that, things were still going okay, only one Hive had to be fully evacuated, forcing Glubber and Bahamut to step in once the group clearing it out was beginning to become overwhelmed. The others were able to continue on their own, once the main horde was dealt with.

Bobby and Chloe made sure their weapons were reloaded, and after our Devouring Rose was sufficiently entrenched in the cave, we began to make our way into yet another tunnel leading away from the center of the Hive.

The fighting continued, hours upon hours spent killing xenos, we could feel ourselves become exhausted, both mentally and physically. After the Hive had started acting up, our progress was slowed significantly, with a lot more time spent clearing out the aliens. 

We could feel our attention slipping, many of our projectiles missing their targets. The rest of Us was in a similar state, with Bellona being hit the hardest. 

She and her squad had to fight off an ever growing wave of antithesis almost nonstop, and even with the help of two Devouring Roses and a hefty amount of reinforcements, they had lost a lot of their War Drones. It was to the point where Tiny wasn’t able to keep up with the memorial entries.

We really wished we could get the upgrade to save our voices soon, so many of Us were vanquished today. And even though all of Us knew that was a possibility, and many of Us were ready to die to protect our Hive, it was deeply unsettling and unpleasant.

Standing behind a Sentinel, we watched Chloe kill the last xenos in the cave we were clearing, before moving to place the bomb in the middle of the Hive-Structures. One of our War Drones fired at one of the eggsacs, killing a model Three that was just about to slip out of the strange organ.

“Are we there yet?” we muttered, suppressing a yawn.

Bobby snorted, looking our group over. “Yeah, I think it’s time to call it a day. It’s already 9pm, and I can feel myself making more and more mistakes. Can you keep some of your drones down here to keep an eye on things while we rest?”

“We can try, but we are all pretty tired. The Roses can stay around, but the rest of Us needs some rest. Maybe Jenna can keep some of her Sentinels around?”

“Sure,” Jenna’s voice came over the call. She too sounded tired. “I have more than enough to go around by this point, and with the Corvette and the Enforcer the fallback point should remain relatively safe.”

“Good, then we do that. Bloodhound can put down some defences, just in case, before we take a break.” He stretched and yawned.

“I can do that,” Chloe said, throwing her weapon to the side where it vanished, before another one appeared in her hands and she checked it over. “I have the points for that.”

“Okay. Then let’s get back. We made a lot of progress today, even if it was less than I originally wanted.” After a moment he turned his attention to the Family chatroom.

[Buckshot Bobby:] We’re calling it a day. Legion will keep a couple of her Sentinels around the tunnels to make sure nothing is going to come through. If you have anyone else who is fresh and wants a shot at it, they can go through while we rest.

[Bahamut:] I’ll go with some of the newbies around the edges. Thanks for the hard work. Go get some sleep, tomorrow will be even more exhausting.

The way back took longer than we anticipated, mostly because all of us were on edge and didn’t want to be surprised. That first encounter with a stealth model was still fresh in our minds, and by this point we were far more tired than we’d been then.

On the way we found two smaller groups that we dealt with quickly. As much as we had to fight off hordes today, we did seem to make some progress. Even with the antithesis ability to replenish quickly, there was only so much they could do to produce more models.

Eventually we made it outside, where a shuttle was already waiting for us.

“Do you have a place to sleep?” Chloe asked Bobby as we boarded.

“I have my Jeep. You?”

“We have a luxurious bedroom on the Corvette. You can have a bed as well, we can split up the room for privacy.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I prefer to keep to myself. Wouldn’t want to intrude on your lasses beauty sleep.”

We laughed at that, “What a gentleman.”

“What can I say?” Bobby replied with a grin, before he yawned again. “Good work out there today. But don’t expect shit to get easier. Better get some proper rest, tomorrow will be a lot worse.”

We nodded, and with a final temporary farewell, we boarded the shuttle and made our way back to the Corvette.

“Fucking hell, I’m beat,” Chloe muttered, leaning back into the uncomfortable chairs of the shuttle.

“Tell Us about it… What a mess today was…”

“Good for points, though.”

“True enough…” We yawned, stretching lavishly. Even with all the purchases, we were sitting at well above 90k points, almost 100k. “Can’t wait to get some rest. Tomorrow will be worse and even with all our points, we really aren’t sure what to expect.”

“Yeah. Well, that’s a tomorrow problem. Today is some cuddling and some sleep.”

That was a plan we could get behind, and we leaned over to get in on the cuddling a little early.

We arrived not long after, and after disembarking we met up with Jenna, who was in much a similar state. The rest of Us also found a place to rest, although most of them preferred to keep close to the Hive, in case they were needed. Bellona organised guard rotations, and by the time the three of us made our way into the showers, to get rid of all the grime and sweat, the rest of Us were already sound asleep.

The shower went by quickly, neither of us was inclined for any fun, much too exhausted for that. Once we were done, we headed towards the bedroom, although we took a moment to speak to Kaysa about the whole Dream Learning thing that we wanted to get.

“Dream Learning. What do we need to get, and what can we learn with it?”

Thanks to your Hexclaw control implant, you only need to get a minor upgrade. That would also allow some of your voices to utilise it for various training regiments. It is a bit limited in what it can offer to the rest of you, but it should still be useful in the long run.

For your current situation, I would recommend a training course for polearm fighting, general CQC training, movement, some shapeshifting training, just to make sure you are ready when you get it, and perhaps some flight training, should you later obtain wings for yourself. You can’t get all of that done in one night, which is why I would recommend focusing on the fight training at first, just to make sure you are ready for tomorrow.

“Sounds good… Do we need to get everything all at once, or can we get the other things later?”

There is no need to purchase it all right now.

“Alright. Then get that training course for fighting. We’re too exhausted to think about what we might need in the future, and the rest doesn’t sound immediately important.”

Very well.

We only barely even heard the notifications, before we collapsed into bed. 

Good night, Seraphine.

That was the last thing that we heard, before we fell into a deep slumber with strange dreams teaching Us all about how to fight properly.

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