A young Lady's Journey to become a Hive-Queen

“There are many ways a Vanguard can increase their combat effectiveness. Of course there are also many ways in which a Vanguard can better their normal life, or the life of those near them. Many Vanguard instinctively figure out the balance they need, although some, of course, focus too much on either the one, or the other. Interestingly enough it is extremely rare for Vanguard to focus too much on their personal life, and too little on fighting the antithesis, while the converse is quite prevalent.”

“Do you push one way or the other when helping your Samurai pick out what exactly to buy?”

“No. Some of my brethren take some interest in trying to help their Vanguard with the little details of their lives, but generally we don’t push at all. Unless, of course, our Vanguard finds themselves trapped in a situation in which their current equipment gives them an insufficient chance to survive.”

“So you don’t push either way. What happens if your Samurai over commits on one end?”

“Then we advise. In most cases their over commitment does not negatively influence their abilities to fight off the antithesis, or their personal lives. Of course, there are, as there always are, some exceptions. It becomes tricky when a very combat focused upgrade starts negatively impacting their personal lives or relationships.”

- Excerpt from an Interview by Dave David Davidson with Techytron, Personal AI of the Samurai ElectrodeManiac, 2032

I was woken up by a strange feeling. Groaning I shifted, trying to get a grip on what was going on. I had a pretty weird dream, watching an army of strange creatures take care of a city that had just endured an incursion.

Wait, strange creatures? And what was this strange feeling?

Taking a moment I took a deep breath, sorting through my thoughts. It took me a couple of moments to remember the previous day and realise that I had watched my own drones work while I was still asleep.

I could feel them, of course, they were part of me. Or rather should I say, we were a whole.

Hold up. Something was wrong.

Yesterday they still felt distinct to me, despite our connection. Yes, they were part of me, but only to a degree. Now things had changed. It wasn’t that I was supervising them, or even splitting my attention to controlling them, I was them.

We were a whole, a chorus of voices controlling multiple bodies.

That was kind of a fucky thing to think about, but it also felt… natural in a way.

There were some outliers, the Queen’s Guard to be exact, and of course the Hive Princess. They were different, part of… us, but removed.

Okay, okay, there had to be some order to this. We were the whole, yes, but I, individually, was still the Queen. There had to be some kind of distinction, if only for the sake of others interacting with us.

The Queen would be me, while the drones were not. They were part of the whole, but not the leading authority, that squarely belonged to me.

“What a fucking mess to wake up to,” I muttered.

Good morning. How are you feeling?

“Weird. I am me, but I am also us. We are a whole, no longer a single person. I knew that strangeness would come, but it’s a lot weirder than I had anticipated.”

It was a bit weird to think of myself just as myself. Sure I was still the same as before, but I was no longer alone in my head.

Which, come to think of it, was an insane thought to have.

“Do I need to visit an asylum or anything?”

The comment was more meant for myself, but Kaysa answered it regardless.

No, you are quite normal for your circumstances. Not exactly what I had been expecting, but also not widely out of the expected.

“Grand…” I muttered, rubbing my face.

The whole thing was a shit show, yet despite my misgivings it also wasn’t that I was feeling bad about it. Yes it was weird to think of myself as a part of a whole, but it could also have been worse. We were a grand chorus, many voices arguing and debating, but at the end of the day I was still me, and I was the asshole in charge.

“So… I guess this is the full thing then? Not the budget Hive I had before?”

Yes, your Hive-Mind upgrade has finished. You are now the Hive, the whole with all that entails and it will probably take a little to get used to. But you are still you, or rather, the entire Hive was built upon you as a foundation.

“Well… Hopefully I don’t creep the fuck out of Chloe or Jenna…”

That thought threw the chorus into disarray, every last one of us panicked at the idea. We would have to really keep ourselves in check.

One upside though was that I now no longer had to micromanage the whole. The drones were me, but they were also individuals. Individuals bound to me and to me alone, we were one, we were the chorus, and they would act as I wanted them to act. Instinctively. We didn’t need to split our attention any longer, even if we still could. Now we were myriad in nature. We were Myriad, as true to the name as it was possible to be.

“Well, nothing for it,” I muttered, then sat up and looked around.

I found myself in a rather large room, larger than my entire old apartment. There was a large wardrobe on one side, and a giant bed that took up the majority of the space. At the moment I was alone, which just hammered home just how big the sucker was. You could probably fit four people on it, with room to spare.

From the looks of things it seemed that I had slept alone on it. Not that I would have minded Chloe’s or even Jenna’s presence at all.

Again the chorus rose as one and an emotional tidal wave I had never experienced before rushed through me, almost knocking me back down.

For the last couple of hours down in the undercity I had been suffering from emotional hypersensitivity and I had hoped it would go away once the upgrade was complete, instead it felt like our entire purpose had been boiled down to one singular thing.

The love for both Chloe and Jenna.

We loved Chloe and Jenna. We loved them deeply. Which was a lot of love to give, considering that right now there were over seven hundred of us.

And every single one of us loved them as much as it was possible to love. It was an echo chamber of emotions, a self-reinforcing cacophony of love and affection that was almost paralysing.

“This is so fucky,” I muttered as I pushed away the blankets, revealing that I was naked. My tail was missing too, although my senses made it clear that my ears weren’t.

Something the matter?

“Yes, something is the matter. You could have warned us that our emotions would be so hella fucked up. I mean, my emotions, fucking hell!”

I did say there would be changes. How those changes would look I couldn’t know, which is why I never specified.

“Yeah well, we, ugh, I,” I groaned out between clenched teeth, “already know I liked Chloe and Jenna a lot. Probably loved them even, if I was honest with myself. And now I have a chorus of seven hundred voices who all love them. Like, really love them. Bad novel level of love. That kind of shit can throw your head into chaos, you know?”

Curious. Not something the protectors have any records of, then again, not many Vanguard decide on the Hive-Mind path. It will be noted for future reference and warning. Outside of that, might I perhaps give some advice?

“Depends on what that advice is,” I muttered in a bit of a bad mood.

Physically I felt fine, more than fine even. I was well rested and the chorus was happy which made me happy. Which on second thought might be a bit concerning, but at the same time this was our life now, my life now.

My misgivings were… mental, in nature. I agreed to this, knowing full well that changes were coming, but I hadn’t expected this. It wasn’t that I was unhappy with the obsessive and undying love that we felt. But it did concern me what we would do if something happened to them. It could break us, easily.

I understand that you have just woken up to extensive changes, but perhaps you shouldn’t fight them. They are part of you now, so maybe you should accept them and see what the future brings.

I was just about to snap at her, when I stopped myself. She was right. And while it did throw my worldview a bit out of whack, it wasn’t bad. I had, at the end of the day, wanted this. Or a version of it. At the time I might have been a bit hasty, exhausted as I was and with the need for points, but I still agreed to it.

And it wasn’t all bad. I no longer needed to do everything myself. I had a whole Hive to fall back on. Kaysa was right. Maybe this wasn’t as bad as my first reaction to the whole change had made things out to be.

“Huh… Still, I’m not sure I like that I instinctively refer to myself as us. It’s strange.”

For a time it will be, yes. But I don’t doubt that you can get used to it. At the end of the day, you are still you, the same Seraphine Bloodfallen you were before, just a bit different now. Nothing about you, personally, should have changed, unless there is something that you haven’t mentioned yet.

“No, nothing else is amiss. I still feel like myself. I like the same things, dislike the same things. Honestly, I’m mainly worried because Chloe was pretty clear that she wasn’t a fan. And I don’t want to make her unhappy.”

We could feel all our bodies blush a bit at the thought, which I didn’t even know was possible for the Hexclaws.

She will understand. From what Atlas tells me, she has spoken to him about it at length after she had some time to work through it all. Of course, I can’t tell you anything specific without her consent, but I don’t think you need to worry too much.

I took a moment to think it through. That was good to hear, but I still vowed to keep myself in check. The chorus may complain and whine all they wanted, I was still the head asshole in charge.

Or maybe I was going about it the wrong way?

The chorus didn’t complain. They didn’t whine. They thought the same way I did. They agreed with me wholeheartedly. It was a level of support and understanding that I’ve never felt before. It was new to us, but it was… calming.

I, and the entire chorus by extension, wanted to make both Chloe and Jenna happy. But that didn’t require me entirely shutting out the rest of what I now was. I needed to find some balance, a middle ground. To be part of the whole while remaining entirely myself. Which, okay, I was still myself. But I was worried that that might change in the future, if I wasn’t cautious with it all.

Perhaps that worry was misplaced. I was still me, and the chorus agreed with me. They debated, yes, on the best course of action, a collection of seven hundred odd voices trying to help me find the best part forward, but they weren’t suggesting anything that went even remotely against my wishes. Some ideas were discussed, but only to explore all avenues. None were seriously considered, simply mentioned to keep a track of everything that might come. The whole was just that, a whole. United and one, focused on how I could improve my life.

We were the chorus. And we worked together in harmony.

Shaking my head I decided that for the moment we would try and see. As a whole. While I was new to this, so was the rest of the chorus. And while we were all a little different, we were all me at the core. The understanding the chorus showed proved that beyond a doubt.

“Okay, if you say so. Still, it will take some time to get used to this whole thing.”

Of course. For the moment, Vanguard Chloe and Vanguard Jenna are downstairs, entertaining Vanguard Chloe’s parents. You may want to join them.

“I remember her mentioning something along those lines… Well, to hell with it. Shower first.”

Finally getting up I noticed that my tail and my clothes were neatly sitting on the nightstand next to the bed, freshly cleaned from the looks of it. Leaving them where they were, I got up and made my way to the shower, directed by Kaysa.

While I showered, I took stock of the rest of the chorus. Or rather, we took stock together, one whole working together in unity, mapping out the whole and reporting in, one by one, at the speed of thought. It made it a lot faster and easier to keep track of it all. Alone I would have never managed it this thoroughly.

The Najav, our protector, reported no issues, nestled below the house. It had taken a bit longer than the rest to leave the undercity, mainly because it and the Reavers had been busy churning out more of us. They weren’t finished yet, but the Princess had decided that it was enough for the moment after some discussion with Kaysa. More Hexclaws meant more voices for the chorus, and as I was still finishing my upgrade they decided that it would be more helpful to limit us, then to grow and multiply.

The War Drones were stationed outside, standing guard next to Jenna’s Sentinels. Only six of them were present, the rest were with her mobile base which was stationed outside of the little town we were in.

The Queen’s Guard was standing guard in the living room with Jenna, Chloe, and her parents. Invisible of course, wouldn’t want to make them uncomfortable. That was the main priority for all of us. We wanted them safe, secure. But we also didn’t want to unsettle them. That was our first, and most important priority.

A couple of us were scattered around the house, keeping an eye on things and cleaning. The Princess thought that it would be a good idea to have some more diverse evolutions, if only to serve me, the Queen, and of course Chloe and Jenna, who the chorus thought of as the Concubines, which… was weird to the extreme for a slew of reasons and I quickly put a stop to.

A couple of seconds of debate later we settled on the Knights as a reference. Not what I would have called them, but I didn’t see an issue with it, and many of us seemed to like referring to anyone connected to the hive in terms of a royal house. Which did make sense in a way.

It did hammer home though that while they all were based off of me, they weren’t identical copies. Each was a bit different, united into a grand chorus and our service to me, as their Queen. Perhaps that was where that imagery came from.

The rest was outside of town with the Legion Enforcer, hidden away to not scare anyone. We would need to think about transportation soon, with this many bodies deployment would be problematic.

While we could have listened in on the conversation between Jenna, Chloe, and her parents we decided not to. Privacy was important and we didn’t want to intrude. That was our second priority, to safeguard their privacy and personal life. It gave me hope and made me feel… content.

Of course I could override them at any time, I was their Queen and my will was absolute, but it was still better if we could all agree on something without me needing to go full tyrant on them.

Regardless, the shower. It was fucking huge. Like, insanely huge, easily bigger than my bed at home. It didn’t take long for me to find just the right temperature, making me sigh with bliss.

Then blush fiercely when we realised the whole chorus had followed the sigh. Only those slightly disconnected from us had managed to suppress the unified expression. They were as loyal as the rest, but they had more agency than the others. Which was good, as they could step in when we were compromised.

While I showered I talked to Kaysa in the virtual realm, although for this I once more dipped into the chorus to talk to her as a whole.

It was the wrong expression, technically. I didn’t need to dip into the chorus. I was the chorus, we were a whole in a single person. But I could choose to ignore them. To do what I wanted to do, without their input. That was what it meant to be the Queen, even if all of us could do something similar. The others couldn’t quite disconnect themselves as I could, however. We were one, and the more I listened to the chorus, the more I immersed myself in the whole, the more I became confident that we could all work together to achieve the goals I wanted to achieve.

“So, we have,” I checked our point total, a tad surprised by how much we had gotten out of the cleanup, “Just shy of 18k points. There are a couple of things we need, primarily some form of transportation. Then there are the body mods we talked about earlier. Not sure if our points are enough for that, especially considering the transportation issue. You also mentioned the whole learning thing, which we should probably tackle now that we have some time.”

Let us begin with the teaching programs, since they will most likely take the most time. There are three main ways you can use to learn new things in relatively short order.

The first is pretty straight forward, have one or more of your drones go through various exercises to learn whatever you wish to learn. To that end I would recommend a tutoring program and preferably some central place in which you can learn. It will probably take the longest, considering that you would need to learn the skills you are looking for manually, but it would also be the cheapest. There is also the issue of skills you could not learn yet, since you are missing either the features or drones for it, such as flying.

The second would be Dream Learning. In effect it means installing a small implant that would alter your dreams, basically a form of an enforced lucid dream, to teach you various things. It will take some time for you to learn the skills you wish to learn, but it would be a lot faster than the first method already. It would also directly impact the entire Hive, rather than just one drone who would then need to forward the knowledge.

Last is the quick and dirty, downloading knowledge directly into your head. This is the route we have taken for your personal healer and the medical corp, which sidestepped the usual issues. We could do similar now again, just know that those drones might be adversely affected in the future. It is by far the quickest option, but since you are not bound for time, I would discourage this option.

We took a moment to discuss it while I showered. The last option was immediately rejected, we didn’t need to rush things and we didn’t want anything adversely affecting the whole. That could lead to massive problems down the line that could be easily prevented.

It was an option for emergencies, for when we were in a situation we were ill-equipped for and needed immediate and drastic change. Outside of that, however, it would be disregarded.

A part of us began to keep track, their purpose was to archive and note our decisions. They would be our library, the root of our knowledge, and they would ensure that we would be aware of what needed doing and how to achieve it. They were the Burdened, and their task would be to ensure that nothing was missed or forgotten.

The Dream Learning sounded nice, but we weren’t sure if it was the best option to take right now. There were some things where it would make sense, especially considering the fact that we knew that knowledge from the whole would be disseminated at reduced efficiency, so for things such as combat and things we couldn’t yet achieve on our own it might be our go to. But there were things we could learn without. The question was what did we want to learn?

Three priorities were clear, close quarter combat, general targeting and aim training, and weapons knowledge. If possible we wanted knowledge about as many weapons as we could get our hands on to ensure perfect combat effectiveness in the field, even if we had to use improvised or outsourced weaponry. That went both for the drones and myself, since I had realised that I was quite fucked in regards to combat.

In the same vein, stuff like advanced medical training, anatomy, and things of that sort would be a good choice to complement the knowledge we already had from our healers.

The Burdened and I would be the ones to get the Dream Learning implants. It was to ensure continuity and access to the knowledge should I be compromised, as I was not a Hexclaw. We didn’t know for certain, but it might pose problems in the future, and that had to be remedied as quickly, and thoroughly, as possible.

Of course since I wanted to return to my job eventually, at least as things stood right now, anything to do with my job would also be welcome, even if the chorus was a bit torn on the issue. Many of them did not share my appreciation for the pleasures of the flesh, mainly because the drones they inhabited couldn’t feel it. There were many who were curious, and some I might even invite to join should a client want to, but that was not that important right now.

None was against my job, but it was clear that it wasn’t a priority for everyone, which was the first time we discussed a topic this thoroughly. It once again reaffirmed that we weren’t carbon copies. But even those would still conform to my wishes. They just ended up thinking more about efficiency, then actual pleasure first. It was a useful perspective, even if it wasn’t one I could share with them.

But that was what the chorus was for. To ensure I had the proper perspectives, that I could see things beyond just my understanding, as much as it was possible considering that they were based off of me.

Then there were other things to think about. We had never enjoyed proper education, nor had we enjoyed training in other fields than sheet work, which could come in handy for the future. If only to help the district along.

“Would it be possible to buy teaching drones? We don’t mean stuff controlled by you or another AI, we mean drones that could be part of the chorus but could help teach others.”

Of course, there are options for that, although none from the original Hexclaw genome.

Which meant if we decided to broaden our knowledge base we could teach those in the district. It was a priority and one we would take seriously.

Something to note for the future.

“Cooking,” I said aloud in the shower, more a stray thought really, “That is something I want to learn.”

The chorus of course incorporated my idea, noting it for acquisition in the future. The Burdened were already noting down litanies of ideas, a whole plan of action taking into account thousands of important factors and priorities of various importance.

“Okay,” we focused back on the virtual realm, “We think we need both Dream Learning and the first method. Dream Learning for important things like combat and such, the other for less important things that might be useful in the future. Mechanical knowledge, academic knowledge, cooking, medical know-how, that kind of stuff. The problem would be finding a place in which we can learn.”

Maybe you should discuss it with Vanguard Jenna then, she has already decided on buying the Legion Corvette and with the points she is planning to spend on it there would be more than enough room for one that your drones can use to learn.

“Good to know. Now, the transportation issue. That is probably the biggest priority in the short term, should we need to mobilise.”

There are several options available to you. For fast ground based movement the Mark III Carrion Shellwalker or if you are looking for a single big purchase to transport all your drones the Mark VI Carrion Swarmcarrier.

The Mark III Carrion Shellwalker is a smaller drone, capable of transporting around forty basic Hexclaw drones, or a few less of the bigger varieties. It is designed to be a quick deploy transport that can scale a wide variety of terrain without much issue and even has limited burrowing capabilities. It comes in at 1250 points per piece, but the low point cost does indicate the general combat capabilities.

The Mark VI Carrion Swarmcarrier could best be described as a large centipede with a bulbous body that can carry up to two thousand drones. It is a bit slower than the Mark III Shellwalker, but has better burrowing capabilities. Loading and unloading it is quite fast, since it can open up its shell every couple meters to allow entrance and egress. At 5800 points it is quite expensive, but while not designed for combat can deal with most lower digit antithesis quite handily.

Again we took our time to discuss the options. Both sounded valuable in their own right, but neither jumped at us as a solution for what we had in mind.

The chorus also reminded me, which was quite jarring, that we didn’t need to buy any right now. Short term didn’t mean immediately, and perhaps we would benefit from taking more time on the issue, or talking to the others about it.

“Hm… Consensus is that we should talk to the others, which… I kind of agree with. It’s weird that they needed to remind me of it.”

They are you, Seraphine. The Hive is more than just an easy way for you to make points. Remember that they have your best interest at heart, which sometimes means reminding you of things that you forget or ignore. Listen to them and learn. But very well. I have some more options for airborne transports, if you wish.

I shook my head, “Not right now. For the moment we want to take things slow and relax a bit.”

Understood. On an unrelated note, Victor has tried to contact you numerous times, asking if and when you would return to your job.

I frowned. So far my plan had to go back eventually, I did like my job. But the chorus was quite undecided on that front, mainly because of worries how Chloe and Jenna would react.

That sparked another debate on if we should even broach the topic with them, or if we should wait until we could talk to them about our relationship in general. While many were quite emotional, the rational ones did point out that so far we still were only friends with nothing binding us together yet. To jump to conclusions would be unfair to them and unhelpful.

Of course the counter point was that if either of them didn’t like the idea of us doing our job, it might hamper our relationship from the get go, although this line of reasoning was quickly dismantled considering that both were aware of what I did for a living, and so far neither has commented. Chloe even seemed pretty enticed by the idea of me having my clients, if her reaction to the soldier I took on at the gate was anything to go by.

No, we have to talk to them. As much as we might worry, our ideal relationship, be it friendship or otherwise, should be built upon communication. Not guesswork that led us nowhere and might end up in disaster. I liked my job, and I would love to continue doing it. We were changing what it meant to be a joytoy in the direction I always wanted. If Chloe or Jenna were against it, then we would reconsider. But unless they specifically told me not to, we would continue with the plan of returning to our normal life, which meant doing the job I’ve been doing for as long as I was working for money.

We ignored the deep pangs of pain that came with the thought that they might not like it, or that they might not feel the same as us as we did, should I continue to be a joytoy. But we would deal with it when and if that time came, not before. As much as we wanted to ensure that everything went smoothly, we couldn’t prepare perfectly for every eventuality. If only because it would drive us insane.

“I think I will. Let him know that we, uhm, I will contact him in the next couple of days.”

Very well.

I stayed under the hot water for a while longer, enjoying the feeling. I had already finished up while we were discussing things, but I simply wanted a moment for myself. It felt nice to simply relax under the hot water and it washed away the tension I had felt over the last couple of days of constant fighting and survival. A tension I hadn’t even realised I still had yet. Only when I felt truly relaxed did I step out. Now I was ready for the days to come.