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

Chapter 74 – From Joytoy to Hexclaw Hive-Queen

“Body modifications are quite the common thing amongst Samurai. Even the earliest Samurai quickly left the realm of the human body behind, opting for more efficient ways to survive. The way these body modifications might look depend on the Samurai in question. As with everything relating to Samurai, no two Samurai are identical.”

  -  Dr. Steven Johansion, in an interview with ‘Samuraiz’

I looked at the addition in the broodmother room, a rather sizable installation in the far corner of it. It didn’t look too different from what the broodmother rooms looked like, although there were some differences, the most obvious being the bed-like structure in the middle of it.

After some back and forth with Kaysa, I had decided upon a more dedicated Operations room. I could have gone for a specialised broodmother room that could be used for normal Hexclaw production afterwards, but, considering that I might want some additional upgrades in the future, a more dedicated room sounded more useful.

Not to mention that Jenna and Chloe could use it as well, if and when they wanted to get their body mods.

“It looks surprisingly comfortable,” Jenna mused, standing next to me. “I had envisioned something a bit more alien looking, but I suppose with how adaptable your stuff is, it makes sense to make it look more inviting.”

I giggled at that, stepping inside. Taking my time, I checked everything over, inspecting all the different things Kaysa told me I would need. A lot of it was in stark contrast with the rest of the room, looking more like human made medical machines. Then there were the additions from the Vi’xan Catalogue, which were definitely on the more freaky looking side.

With a mental query, I contacted the rest of Us, letting Kaori know that they could start sending more biomass my way. We had more than enough of that, and while I had been a bit uncertain if I wanted to use the biomass we’d gotten from the antithesis, there really wasn’t a reason not to. As icky as the thought was, effectively there was no difference between using that and getting more biomass with points.

“Want me to stick around for a while after you get started?” Jenna asked, coming up next to me and giving me a smile.

“Yeah… I think I’d like that a lot.”

I was grateful for her presence here, it made the entire thing feel less overwhelming.

Sitting down on the bed, I tested it for a moment, before I lay down. As I had already expected, it was comfortable, even if it wasn’t as comfortable as the beds in our bedroom.

After our bath, I had gone over what things I wanted to get exactly with Kaysa. She had given me some options for different things and features, many of which I had decided to add. There was a limit to all of it, of course, since it was still Class II, but it would enable me to get further upgrades later down the line with little in the way of additional costs.

The primary concern was combat power, of course. To that end, we had made sure that I had everything I needed to achieve various combat forms, while also not losing sight of the more casual applications. I was a bit surprised to learn that I would need to get some Dream Learning courses for proper body control, since it would be a lot different from what I was used to.

Mentally going over the list again, I nodded to myself. I was happy with those changes, and going over all the different things I’d be able to do did make me feel a lot less anxious about it all. Jenna’s presence helped a lot with that as well.

Some of the Nursing drones entered, giving both of us warm smiles, before they started to prepare for what needed to be done. Most of the equipment could run on its own, but having some supervision wasn’t a bad thing. In that way my situation was unique, since typically Samurai who would go through this, didn’t have any way to personally keep an eye on things.

I would be able to do that, since even while I was out I could keep in touch with the rest of Us. It was another thing that helped quell my worries. 

Of course, I would have to go through the Dream Learning courses first, but that would only take a couple of hours. And since I would be in this room for a couple of days, I would have plenty of time to connect with the rest of Us and help with the war against the xenos.

Jenna watched me with a warm smile, taking one of my hands into her own, just being there. Really, this shouldn’t be such a big deal, but to me it was, and I was thankful that I wouldn’t have to go through it on my lonesome.

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“Once things get underway, it might look a bit alarming,” I told her with a smile of my own that wasn’t entirely able to hide all the anxiety I felt underneath. “In effect, the upgrade will eat up my old body, before it shifts to transform the rest of it once I get enough Hexclaw DNA in me. Just don’t get alarmed, yeah?”

She laughed, a warm and comfortable sound like windchimes in a breeze. “Don’t you think I should be the one comforting you?”

“I just don’t want you to think things are going wrong,” I shot back with a mock-annoyed tone, before I broke out in giggles of my own.

“You worry too much, Sera. Now, if you’re ready, do you want to start?”

I nodded at her words, taking a deep breath, before I forced myself to relax a little. “Yeah… Let’s get this over with. The sooner, the better; the antithesis won’t wait for me to get a grip.”

With a smile, she nodded slowly. “Yeah. I’ll stay as long as I can. Now get going, before you change your mind.” Her teasing smirk made me laugh, and I settled in.

“Okay, Kaysa. Hit it. No time to waste.”

Very well. In a moment you’ll lose consciousness, so please don’t be alarmed.

I didn’t even get the time to give her a snarky reply, before I suddenly felt very, very tired, and my eyes snapped shut without me wanting to.

We kept a careful eye on the Hive-Queen’s body, through the Nursing drones near her. It might be unnecessary, we did trust Kaysa after all, but it cost Us nothing and reassured Us a little.

The process was a lot slower than we had expected it to be. Not that that was too surprising, Kaysa had told Us that it would take a couple of days. Still, we wished it would be a bit faster.

Jenna made good on her promise, staying by her side for a very long time, time we spent chatting with her through the Nursing drones. It was nice to have some time to talk to her as a whole. Of course, there was not much of a difference between talking to her individually and as a whole, we would still all recall the conversation afterwards. But, as small as it might be, the difference was there, and it was so nice to all be able to converse with her at the same time.

And it would not impede our progress on other fronts, so there really was no reason not to do it.

Bobby and Chloe had taken some time to discuss the changes with Us, through some of our War Drones, coming up with a plan for a different approach. With Us being much more capable at dealing with the xenos now, they had decided to split up, taking charge of one battalion each. It made it easier and faster to clear out the aliens, especially with the increasingly treacherous terrain.

While we might not have any issues, due to our ability to scale the uneven caves, they were less fortunate, relying on our help in that regard. Both had their own ways to make their way, of course, but having someone watch their back while they climbed through the chaotic caves was very helpful. 

The Protector was still deeper in the Hive, dealing with any larger models that showed up as best as she could, but it had already become apparent that that was a growing issue. We kept in touch with the Family, updating them on everything we found, both by the Protector and our Silthens and Envolis, ensuring that nobody got surprised too badly.

Halfway through the second day, we were just clearing out another cave on the border on the Inner circle, disaster struck. One of the other groups got surprised by a couple model Nine-Vs and a model Nineteen-K while they fought their way deeper, planning to crush the Hive directly.

While they managed to fight off the model Nine-Vs, the model Nineteen-K managed to evade their sensors, capable of masking itself from the scanners. One of them was killed outright, while two got gravely wounded.

We immediately sprung into action, our Protector moving over to extract them from the situation, while our Medical corp changed course, hoping to get there in time. It halted our assault for a moment; without the Protector nearby, we didn’t want to risk delving too deep.

It took longer than we wanted to extract the group, as they were trapped in a now half-collapsed cave. They were able to get some medical equipment on scene, thanks to the last member of the group, a Samurai called Virillion, but we still wanted to get them to our Medical corp to ensure they were missing for nothing.

The first would survive, but the second Samurai had suffered severe brain trauma in the attack, damaging their implants connecting them to their AI. That in and of itself wasn’t a problem, the chip could be replaced, but it did leave them in a very precarious situation. They needed help and fast.

We focused our efforts on helping as much as we could, sending our Envoli and our Feastmaster’s Squad over to secure the area. Luckily Virillion was able to stabilise them somewhat, but considering that the Samurai who was wounded was the one with their primary medical catalogues, Virillion didn’t have the necessary catalogues to get them proper help. And sadly they were missing the tokens to upgrade their own catalogues.

After our Protector had extracted them, we placed them in the care of our Medical corp, who did their best to help. It would take some time, but with Virillions help, as well as the help of Glubber, they would at least survive, which made Us let out a sigh of relief.

The attack did derail the Family’s plans, however, and so they had to adjust. Mask actually volunteered to help out with keeping the aliens at bay, considering that she had gotten quite some gear in the meantime. She really had put in the work, and had even earned herself a proper name.

Neuron Salvation did feel very fitting for her, and we did approve of it.

Of course, she was not the only one that volunteered, many of the newbies who had gotten more points and gear were eager to help out. Bahamut made very sure that they were not in too much danger, especially now that one of the more experienced Samurai had been killed.

We already did not have that many Samurai in New Savannah, and this expedition was partially used to push those we had to grow. Losing even one Samurai, while not unexpected, was a blow.

With the rescue mission a success, and the Hive being reinforced by others, we returned our attention back to our own battle. We had not sat idle, of course, with our multitasking capabilities we were more than capable of dealing with both issues at the same time.

Together with Chloe and Bobby, we continued our work, carefully scouting out the caves and dealing with the antithesis. Our main concern was the still increasing antithesis activity, which made everyone taking part in the expedition wary.

By the end of the second day, Bahamut and Glubber had given out orders to not push too deep yet. They wanted to do another scanner sweep to better understand what was going on, since even the high powered ping from earlier had not penetrated to the deepest parts of the Hives.

Double-X and Snapshot were the ones in charge of planning the scanning, helped by three of the newer Samurai who were slowly specialising in that field as well. For the entire night they worked, while we continued our onslaught. Of course, even we needed rest, so we set up rotations to allow all of our bodies to recover from their exhaustion.

Bobby slept in his Jeep once more, while Chloe returned to the Corvette, spending some time with Jenna near the Hive-Queen, before they both headed to bed as well.

The Hive-Queen herself was still going through Dream Learning courses, having decided to get some additional courses in while she could. They were not critical for our operations, but since she did have the time, and the rest of Us could benefit from them as well, it was a worthwhile investment.

Over the next couple of days the situation worsened more and more. The antithesis were obviously getting some influx of biomass from somewhere, considering how many models they managed to make, but nobody was able to figure out where from.

Double-X and Snapshot had done their best trying to scan as deep as they could, but something was interfering with their equipment. It was pretty obvious that the antithesis had some way to shield themselves, although we could not be sure what models exactly were responsible.

Some theorised that it might be another Nineteen-K, although that seemed unlikely, considering that they weren’t able to blanket an entire area. If only Nineteen-K’s were responsible, they needed six dozen at the very least, likely more, and that just did not seem likely.

Our Protector did her best to help with the scouting, clearing out as many of the high digit models as she could. But, while she was powerful, not even she could get to all of them, lest we agitate the Hives too much. With no concrete information of what awaited Us below, we had to keep a careful balance.

Only by fluke did we eventually discover where they got their biomass from. Three days after the Hive-Queen had begun her operation, our Protector broke into a cave not far from the core of the Hive, filled to the brim with antithesis biology.

After checking in with the Family, it quickly became apparent that these were antithesis biomass farms, something they apparently built when they had the time to settle in. Originally we thought that there might be another big cave under the whole area, similar to what we had found during the undercity incursion, but, while we could not rule that possibility out entirely, we had not found anything of the sort so far.

It posed a rather substantial problem, since these biomass farms had to be dealt with quickly and decisively, to prevent the antithesis from growing too fast. The problem was, that we could not pinpoint the location of any other farm, this one was certainly not enough to supply the entire area with biomass, so there had to be more.

Our Silthens did their best to scout out the area, but even with their help it was a rather dangerous and slow endeavour. We had to check every known cave for any more farms, and there were a number of tunnels and caves that were unknown to Us, which meant an even broader search.

Things became even more problematic, when the first models in the twenties were sighted by our Protector.

So far, we had considered the possibility, but without any sufficient evidence we could not plan for it. That changed, when our Protector ran into a group of model Twenty-Ones, accompanied by a model Twenty-Two, trying to burrow their way out of the Hive.

She did manage to kill them, but not without suffering significant wounds. Her left pincer got nearly ripped off entirely, and the Twenty-Ones managed to pierce her armor in multiple locations all around her thorax, forcing her to retreat.

It was a shock to Us, she was our most powerful member, and up until now nothing had managed to hurt her this severely. We revised our approach, pulling back slightly and searched for another way to deal with the situation.

After some deliberation with the Family, we finally decided to utilise our Silthens more actively. They could easily spray toxins and flesheater nanites into the farms, which would erode them over time. With no other way to get the farms, we sent them out the next morning, being very careful about what we encountered.

The plan seemed to work for the most part. With our Protector out of commission, Bahamut and Glubber were the only ones who could decisively deal with the higher digit models, and they could not get to them easily. It pushed Us to take great pains to ensure that our Silthens remained unnoticed.

After we destroyed roughly half of the farms we found, things were looking up, the antithesis scrambling to push Us away and protect their bio-farms. It was about that time that disaster struck once more, and nearly all of our forces near the northern Hive were wiped out.

At roughly the same time, the other Samurai who were dealing with the antithesis in that Hive, were suddenly pushed back, most of them wounded. Nobody seemed to know what exactly had hit them, but it was clear that there was no way for them to stick around.

Whatever was responsible was very stealthy, almost invisible and undetectable by the scanners. Any attempts to identify the threat went nowhere, and the Family put the northern Hive under lockdown, only allowing the remainder of our Silthens to get in to try and deal with the remaining farms while they scrambled to figure out what was going on.

After our third expedition failed, we decided to stop, not wanting to risk even more of Us. The situation was dire, and nobody was certain about how to proceed. The Hives were now in full swing, agitated by our attacks, giving even Us trouble as we tried to defend the caves we had already liberated.

We held the front as best as we were able, but things were quickly going south with no immediate way to deal with the issue. The only good news was that the Hives now had less biomass to work with, which did seem to slow them down rather rapidly.

It was a small mercy, but sadly not a very helpful one. As time went on, defending against the tide became easier, but we still were in no position to push deeper. Not that we stopped trying, careful as to not risk too many of Us, but our progress was at a near standstill.

What really hurt Us was that we couldn’t reliably get the biomass out of the caves anymore, with most of our troops needed to defend. With the front lines in flux, we couldn’t hold a position long enough for the few of Us still on biomass duty to get enough out to replenish our forces, and with our own dead bodies starting to form walls of decay, our whole slowly dwindled.

Bahamut and Glubber did their best to organise everyone, but we were at our limits with how much we could contribute. We put down Devouring Roses where we could, trying to make it as hard as possible for the antithesis to fight back while we replenished ourselves, but that was only helping so much.

In some ways the Roses made the situation even worse. Boxed in as they were, the antithesis tried desperately to break through, and while they lost a substantial amount of their forces, they also were able to retrieve much of that biomass and would eventually break through our defences.

All we could do was to wait for our Hive-Queen to finish with her operations, and that would still be a couple of days. The longer the expedition went on, the harder it became, and eventually we would succumb to exhaustion as our dwindling numbers no longer got any time to rest.

With a mental grit of our teeth, we redoubled our efforts. We would endure. We would make sure that we could survive until our Hive-Queen was done. At this point it went beyond just the necessity to do so, it was a war between two swarms, and our pride as a Hive-Mind began to surface, pushing Us ever harder.

We would see the antithesis perish, that was for certain.

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