Path of the Hive Queen

They had all expected the first real battle of the war to be destructive, but just how destructive it had turned out to be shocked all of them. The shock and a mix of anxiety, unease and pride at their survival echoed through the psychic link, along with the loss of those that had died and the grief for them.

The city of Prekan was half in ruins. It looked like pictures of firebombed cities in a modern war — the World War, especially — more than looted cities in the Thirty Years' War or something like that. Galatea had shown them some pictures of both, once, using illusion magic to recreate the images stored in her databanks, among a parade of other various odds and ends she'd shown. The castle was actually leveled; only a small part of it still stood in any respect, and those parts were hardly intact.

A lot of people had died. They'd tried to evacuate the city beforehand, but it had only been a partial evacuation and far too many of the civilian population still lost their lives in the fires, magical effects and explosions, and all the other physical and System-enabled violence that had been thrown around. A lot soldiers had also died. The Esemen army was decimated; at least a quarter of their soldiers were dead, which should have meant its end as an effective fighting force. The Empire's losses were lower on paper, although they'd also lost the city, and far too many drones. It was the single most devastating battle they'd ever fought in terms of just how high the casualties the Hive had taken were.

As she'd expected before, Regina had felt the death and been far too affected to do anything else, at least during the 'hot phase' of the battle. It was fortunate Madris had already been healed.

Now it was over, though, and she had a few questions. Primarily about how Iseis had managed to teleport dozens of their most powerful soldiers out of the firing zone and dozens of kilometers to safety. The lightshow she'd produced answered part of it, of course.

Unfortunately, Regina still wasn't great with teleportation, but she didn't need to come to Iseis in person. Regina still had one of the Swarm Drones she'd modified to act as sort of a relay. Bringing it to where Iseis and Galatea were recovering after the battle was much easier, especially since she shouldn't leave the city herself right now, anyway.

"I suppose congratulations are in order," she said, trying to sound teasing rather than somber. The drone managed to mimic her intonation well enough. "You are a Champion now?"

Iseis was lying on a cot on a narrow shelf in a small room, but it was otherwise unoccupied. Galatea was technically next to her, but already moving around. The old elf seemed to have taken the healers' advice and stayed down for now. Regina wasn't as observant as if she'd been here personally, but with her attention focused on Iseis, even with the distance, she could sense she was still in pain.

"I was already more than halfway there," Iseis replied. She gestured. "I hope you will forgive me for not standing and kneeling in your presence, my Empress?"

"I'd rather you didn't," Regina assured her. "You need to recover. That was an impressive magical feat and I know channeling divine mana isn't easy on the channeler. I don't suppose being a Champion changes that?"

"No, although it does make it easier." Iseis sat up straighter, clearly not wanting to lie down anyway. "I knew Leian might do this, we had discussed it before and I was already marked by her mana. The timing wasn't planned, though."

Regina frowned. "I'm far from an expert, but from what I previously heard, it sounded like having the god's mana in you was the most important component in being a Champion. Or did I miss something?"

"No. You could say the system was … revamped, I suppose?" Iseis shrugged. "The Champions we are seeing now are somewhat different from what came before," she explained. "It's more properly tied into the System now. It's probably also why the other gods have so many of them now. Leian couldn't stop them from setting this up, but she did try to take advantage of it. Or at least, that is the impression I have."

Regina fell silent, still frowning in thought. This was important information. She knew they'd done things differently, but it was still good to learn a little more about it.

"Also, I won't stay Leian's only Champion for long," Iseis added. "She said she has the power to choose several more, and I doubt she will wait very long. If I may, you should perhaps prepare. Leian will likely be more open to suggestions than any other deity. Also, I expect Alianais will choose some of your allies or followers, as well. She's likely only refrained so far in order to choose appropriate moments. A new Champion can be an important trump card in difficult situations."

Regina nodded. The gods opposing them didn't seem to follow that tactic, at least if you excluded Prekan's king being 'chosen' just when he was in a position to take June hostage. But the gods also had more of them, it wasn't surprising they'd choose a different strategy that would rely on those numbers instead of focusing on key moments or individuals.

"Thank you," Regina said. "Is there anything else I need to know right now?"

"I cannot think of anything that you would need to know, my Empress. There are things that I am not sure I am at liberty to discuss, but nothing that will impact the war. And I would like to become more familiar with any new powers before I discuss them in detail."

"Alright. Then I'll let you rest. Thank you for fighting, Iseis. I appreciate that you risked yourself when you didn't have to."

"It was my duty," Iseis said simply.

Regina left quickly, since she did have a lot to do. She wasn't surprised that Iseis wasn't telling her everything; obviously, Leian had secrets that she wouldn't want shared with anyone not beholden to her. It was probably good operational security or whatever. Regina was fairly sure some of those secrets included backdoors in the System's architecture, and she was fine with not knowing for certain.

The next few hours were very busy for her. Regina split them between being in the capital and talking to people directly, over the psychic link, or focusing on her puppet drone and speaking to the people in that base. It was important for more than Iseis' location, after all. With the lost battle, the army's deployments had shifted.

They now held a defensive line at the eastern borders of the Empire, stretching north and merging with the defenses they had already established and manned there. The survivors of Prekan were being assigned to various outposts and units on this line, with the bulk of their stronger forces currently being in that outpost with Tim. Though outpost was a bit of a misnomer, it was a pretty big military base now, and already proved quite taxing to the nearby town in terms of logistical support. Tim would probably move soon.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Regina also looked at the city they'd left behind, of course. The Esemen would clearly like to make sure the Empire couldn't do that, but it was a losing battle for them. Especially directly after the actual battle; they just didn't have the capacity to bring down all of the Winged Drones she could send, let alone defeat all other methods. They'd put up a few blind spots to block scrying now, but that measure still wasn't very strong and didn't cover the whole city, or their whole army.

It was clear their army had taken command of the city, but that wouldn't go very well for them. This place was now twice the millstone around their necks it had ever been around hers. At least Regina saw quite a few of their men working at cleanup. Many were clearly wounded, and it wasn't hard to make out their hospital tents. If she'd been less upstanding they would've been a tempting target for an airstrike. Not that she would do that. And she wasn't planning to attack them right now at all, they were still quite on guard. The number of soldiers visibly keeping watch and being ready in case of attack was high. The Imperial forces in the region had taken a beating, and trying something now would probably only lead to more pointless deaths without accomplishing anything.

Regina met with Max and Ben in a new war room in their new capital. She'd traveled back as soon as she could justify it and as quickly as possible, but she'd still had to watch part of the battle from a flying drone. Right now, she was exhausted, but she'd been able to snatch a few hours of sleep here and there. Max and Ben both looked only marginally more rested. At least they didn't feel defeated, either.

Regina didn't ask them what they thought of the battle or anything like that. She could already sense the answer in the psychic link, and when she focused, she could tell what they'd been doing. They were all busy, so she needed to keep the meeting short. "How long until they move on from Prekan?" she asked instead, getting right down to it.

"At least a few weeks, in my estimation," Ben responded promptly. He'd probably expected the question.

"Their logistics are not as good as ours," Max added. "They will need to spend a bit of time just wrangling their army. And that's assuming they don't care about the city or its population. Which is probably wrong, there were political considerations, weren't there?"

"Presumably," Regina said. She spent a few indulging in imagining what the supposed king of Prekan might feel about what they'd done to his city. It was a shame he probably didn't have enough political clout to really create problems for the Esemen or the Westerners, even as a Champion. She wasn't feeling very sympathetic to the little traitor who'd taken diplomatic envoys hostage (again, why did this keep happening to her people?).

"They might move sooner, but right now, it doesn't look like they're preparing to set out right away," Ben said. "They will have to contend with the issue of desertion, too. If they try a forced march, their army will be in correspondingly worse shape. If they wait, we will have more time to dig in on the eastern front."

"So, your recommendation is to just let them come to us?" she asked.

Ben tilted his head. "We were always planning on being on the defensive on this front, regarding this army," he said. "Of course, we could attack them now, but then we run all the risks they did in trying to attack an entrenched position like the city, especially now. And frankly, there's not much worth fighting for there right now. Better to saddle them with the logistical issues."

Regina nodded again. That was what she expected him to say. The original idea had also been that if they managed to get an alliance with the dark elves, they could get the Esemen to send their soldiers to be ground between two fronts (or if not, maybe they would provoke an incident anyway). That didn't look like it would be happening right now, and it had always been a long shot. From the last messages she'd recieved, things seemed to be heating up in the Eternal Dark too. She still wasn't sure how Madris' injuries might play into that.

But it wasn't really why she was here talking to Max and Ben.

"Is it time to go ahead and send our other army on the offensive, then?" she asked.

"You mean the one gathering in northern Cernlia and eastern Nerlia?" Max asked drily.

Regina smiled at him. "Of course, which other army would I mean?"

They did have quite a few armies. Honestly, at this point getting good commanders for them was more of a bottleneck. And of course the assignments were fluid; the army she was referring to had a solid core housed close to the border, but also a lot of troops earmarked for it that were still dispersed, making them seem like part of the 'normal' defenses without making it obvious the Empire had prepared an army that could go on the offensive. And the bulk of any other armies she decided to raise would be made out of Swarm Drones, which the Hive could hatch and move around pretty easily. They weren't quite a bottomless well, but it was certainly much easier than recruiting human soldiers from the populations of the various nations could be.

"I would move the twelfth War Swarm up to support them as well," Ben noted seriously. "The dwarves are more than capable of covering their area."

Regina sent her approval, trying not to grimace at the name. The hive had chosen the names for their units composed primarily of hive drones, like swarms of War Drones (pun probably intended). She did agree that it was good to have a unifying name regardless of drone types, and there was little else but 'swarm' that would really fit. They didn't have an Aquatic Swarm yet, but she wouldn't rule out the possibility.

"Are we going to make changes to their leadership cadre? Also, does the army get a proper name?" Max asked.

"I'll think of something," Ben replied quickly — purely to stop Regina from getting the chance, she was sure. "And no, I wasn't planning on reassigning anyone. The command staff we have should be fine, especially with June included."

"I'll detail extra Star Guard for her protection, then," Max said.

"Alright then, that's fine," Regina said.

June wouldn't actually be in charge of the army. Janis was a bit of a special case, and they had a more formalized system now. You didn't just appoint a general because they had a high noble title. At least, that was the idea. In practice, a lot of their higher-ranking commanders were nobles with previous experience in commanding armies; they'd needed someone to appoint to the command positions, after all. And June was her apprentice, which counted for a lot. She wouldn't formally be in charge of the army or leading its day-to-day operations, but Regina fully expected she would get some 'command experience' of her own.

And of course, there were a few inevitable political appointments. At least usually, they meant people who were trustworthy and competent. Like putting a Delver leader in charge of this army.

"Owin probably has more experience than any of the other new generals we appointed," Max said, probably guessing her thoughts. "He's going to do fine. And he can work well with June."

"I know." Appointing him to the generalship of an army was a bit of a steep promotion, but not really more so than any other prospects. Regina had needed to honor the Delvers, she didn't want to toss a position this important to a Cernlian or Nerlian noble, and Owin had exercised independent command during the mission to the south, so the choice was obvious. It helped that she trusted him personally, but Regina was aware she couldn't make decisions like this dependent on who she was personally close to.

"I'll be giving him the news and start planning in earnest, then," Ben said, nodding. "They should be able to move out soon, but I'd rather have a proper campaign plan finished. They're still finishing up the latest wargame, I think. I'd have liked a bit more time for the army's leadership to mesh and prepare, but it's fine."

"Alright, I'll make sure those who should know are informed, then," Regina said.

Since there was a lot to do, they didn't bother to say much else, and the two drones soon left. Regina leaned back in her seat, looking at the maps they hadn't used for this conversation.

She spread out a map of the eastern regions of the Empire and the areas beyond it, looking at distances, rivers, roads, possible enemy strongholds. They also had some tunnels shown on the map, but she was under no illusions that the dark elves had given them all pertinent information, or that there weren't still a lot of tunnels they didn't know about.

It wasn't too surprising when Via warned her that Madris was talking about going back to the Eternal Dark, but Regina still had to make sure her frustration didn't leak into the psychic link too much.

Making sure everything was going smoothly for the war first, talking to Madris later, she decided. That was a conversation she wanted to have her full focus on. Though she already knew she wouldn't be able to talk her teacher out of whatever she'd set her mind to.