Path of the Hive Queen

Tim had not expected to meet Kiara Lyns, or anyone else, on this outing. It wasn’t the first clash between his Hive’s forces and that of the neighboring marquis’ army, which had drawn closer and sent more and more soldiers out over the last few days. This had been an uncommonly large force, though, and he wondered what Relains had intended with it. Probably to sack some nearby settlement. Luckily, they had been able to follow its movements with the help of Winged Drones scouting from the sky, and overall, things had gone as well as expected. Except for the other human army showing up at the conclusion of the fight.

Tim hadn’t been particularly concerned. While he was confident in the Starlit Hive’s ability to take on this threat, having some allies nearby certainly shouldn’t hurt. And Kiara Lyns had seemed reasonable enough.

Unfortunately, it only took a short conversation and a few minutes’ walk to the camp to realize that things wouldn’t be so easy. John Cern, the Cernlian noble who had apparently been put in charge of this force (he resolved to find out if there was a connection to the name), clearly didn’t like him or the other drones. Tim didn’t know if it was bigotry against non-humans or non-humanoids, or just that he felt shown up by Tim and the drones in his group. In any case, they tried to start a conversation, but it was stilted and tense, and the last few meters passed in silence.

Finally, they reached their current camp. It probably looked odd to the visiting humans. There were only a few rather flimsy tents, no central storage for food or anything (although they had a few caches of food stores, mostly dried monster meat and dried plants), and there were Swarm Drones scurrying about all over the camp. In fact, a good part of the Hive’s total forces were gathered here, including about twenty sapient drones and several hundred Swarm Drones. The actual numbers varied a bit as some went out to scout, on a few patrols, or to scavenge for food.

“Wow,” he heard Kiara mutter quietly, and Tim couldn’t help but grin. But he was facing away from her or the other guests at the moment, so they wouldn’t be able to see it.

“I thought there were only a few dozen of these ‘drones’,” John Cern said quietly to someone he couldn’t see, though not quietly enough for Tim to miss it.

They were met by a gathering of other sapient drones, who brought a few of the higher-level Swarm Drones along, as well. Tim patted the neck of his own mount and dismounted.

The Hive only had two evolved Winged Drones who’d turned into these, and both of them were the ones Ada had used for her aerial scouting trips. That implied that a drone’s circumstances and actions did influence how their Evolutions turned out. At least it meant they would hopefully get more of the Mounts, and other useful Evolved Classes as well.

Ada herself was among those who greeted them, smiling cheerfully at Tim and not bothering to hide her curiosity about the humans. She was accompanied by Tia, who had much the same reaction, as well as Dan, Zoe and a few other drones Tim didn’t know quite as well.

Tim quickly made the introductions, trying to be as polite as possible under the circumstances without giving too much away or showing any weakness. He could tell that most of the humans in the group around Kiara and Cern seemed a bit bemused and clearly had difficulty trying to figure out the ranks or hierarchy among the drones. Quite a few openly stared at the various Swarm Drones, as well.

Finally, Cern cleared his throat. “You have an impressive camp here, Sirs and, er, Ladies. I can see why the enemy is being cautious about pushing into this area.”

“Thank you!” Tia replied with a bright smile. “Your little army looks impressive, too. I’m sure we can use the reinforcements! Especially if we want to finally crush that marquis’ troops quickly.”

He blinked, then nodded, although his expression remained a bit stiff. Tim would have found it funny if the diplomatic effort wasn’t so important.

Just then, he felt the familiar sensation of his Mother paying attention to him, connecting with his consciousness via the psychic link the Hive shared. Oh, it looks like I missed a few things, she said. I was conferring with Anuis and some of the others about tactics.

Tim nodded slightly and concentrated on what had happened, doing his best to push the memories through the link at Regina. They had been working on doing things like this, but it was still hard.

When he finally focused back on his actual surroundings, he caught the look Zoe gave him and ducked his head, before he made himself straighten up again. At least their human visitors didn’t seem to have noticed that he had suddenly turned less responsive or engaged, or if they did, they didn’t show it.

There was some more back-and-forth, before they finally settled on where the humans would be setting up their camp, on the field beside the drones. Tim lingered around the edge to watch, catching a speculative look from Kiara Lyns. He smiled politely but didn’t try to engage her.

“Janis is going to come with the next wave of reinforcements,” Tia said quietly as she stepped up to him.

He crooked an eyebrow, and she shrugged slightly in response. “Our Queen just contacted me to talk about the distribution of the new additions to the Hive. She said she was sending another two hundred or so drones to us, so we can face the enemy army in an actual battle.”

“That is going to leave the village pretty thinly defended,” he replied, frowning slightly.

Tia shrugged. “She’s going to stay there, along with Max. And I believe most of the elves remaining. Apparently, since things are happening out here, they’re not getting recalled as quickly. Besides, she’s increased the size of new clutches again, so there’ll be a lot of new drones.”

Tim nodded, relaxing a bit. “This does mean interacting with our guests is going to fall to us,” he muttered.

Tia grinned and bumped his shoulder affectionately. “Well, I guess you shouldn’t have let anyone know that you’re secretly good at diplomacy!”

Tim feigned a groan and rolled his eyes. Then he returned her bump and went off to talk to the other Warriors, check on their more volatile supplies and make sure things were organized properly.

Luckily for Tim, it seemed their guests weren’t particularly eager to interact with them, either. He did see a few knights and soldiers wandering over, and some struck up conversations with the drones, but many left again relatively soon. He supposed that the Swarm Drones’ inability to converse might play a part in that. Despite himself, Tim was curious what sorts of rumors were swirling around in the human camp. He was almost tempted to sneak there and try to listen in, but common sense prevailed. He knew his stealth wasn’t good enough for a challenge like that, and it definitely wasn’t worth the risk of engendering mistrust or damaging their relationship.

The evening passed quickly with various tasks, and Tim decided to go to bed early. He swapped watches with Tia and Ada, ensuring that at least one of them would be awake at all times in case something happened.

Fortunately, there were no serious incidents, either that night or the following morning. Some time later, the promised reinforcements arrived. Tim went out to greet them with most of the other drones, watching with a hint of pride as the almost two hundred Swarm Drones marched towards them, along with a few sapient drones, some Winged Drones flying overhead. The Swarm Drones immediately started setting up a rudimentary camp, though many of them just sat down in neat ranks to wait until they would be deployed. They must have departed during the night, but he supposed that they’d probably gotten enough sleep beforehand. He knew that Swarm Drones spent a lot of time napping when they didn’t have anything to do, a tendency that helped to conserve their energy and reduce the resources they cost the hive.

Janis greeted them cheerfully. She didn’t look as exhausted as the quick march would suggest, considering she was a mage and not focused on physical stats, so Tim suspected she’d ridden on War Drones.

“It’s good to see you again, too, Janis!” He smiled, the other drones nodding in agreement. “To be honest, I’ll be glad to have you along to deal with the humans.”

She laughed. “Not a sentence I ever thought I would hear. But don’t worry, I will try my best.” Then the amusement slipped from her face and he saw her eyes widen slightly as she looked at something behind him.

Tim turned to watch Kiara Lyns arrive, accompanied by a few other humans. John Cern was absent, interestingly enough. Turning around to glance in the direction of the human camp, Tim saw him talking and gesticulating to another knight there.

“Lady Kiara,” Janis greeted her former boss, stepping forward and bowing her head. “I am happy to see you again, and pleased to see you looking so well.”

Kiara nodded and smiled in return. Their gazes met for a long moment, and Tim had the impression of something passing between them that he didn’t understand. “I’m quite pleased to see you again, as well, Janis,” she finally replied.

Tim cleared his throat softly. “Perhaps we should all meet for a proper council, in, say, half an hour? Until then, I’m sure there is a lot the two of you would like to catch up on. I and the rest of us will work to get our new arrivals settled and prepare.”

Kiara blinked, turning to him, and nodded. “Of course, Sir Tim.”

He led the others away, deliberately not looking back to watch Kiara and Janis stepping away and starting to talk. He could still hear them, though. While their conversation started off a bit stiff, it soon turned livelier and more relaxed.

Tim wondered for a moment if there was anything more going on there beyond the surface, then shrugged. Social interactions in a human cultural context were opaque to him at the best of times. It would be good for the Hive if the two girls were close, and that was all that really mattered to him.

About half an hour later, they met in a tent the Cernlians put up between the two camp areas. Why they brought that much canvas and poles with them was beyond him. But at least it gave the meeting a nice ambiance. Tim attended it with Tia, Ada, and Zoe, while the other drones were watching the Swarm Drones. Janis came too, of course. He recognized two knights with Kiara, Willard and Richard, Janis’ great-uncle. John Cern came accompanied by several more well-dressed men, presumably nobles. Hopefully, at least some of them would have actual military credentials. Although I guess I can’t judge, he admitted to himself. I barely have a few months experience with combat, or life in general, never mind actual strategy.

Introductions took a while, and he tried to pay attention to every name. They hit the first snag when Richard spoke up.

“Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but notice that Janis has somehow acquired a last name.”

Tim glanced at Janis, who looked at her uncle and seemed a bit abashed. “This is due to her joining the Hive,” he said. “Rest assured, she didn’t elope to get married or anything.”

There was some laughter at his comment, though he didn’t know how real or politely feigned it was. At that moment, Tim was glad that none of his or the other drones’ names had changed according to the System, although he couldn’t fathom why it would only do that with integrated outsiders. And only sapient ones, apparently, since Dark and Arcanis didn’t get a last name, either.

Richard looked like he wanted to ask further questions, but refrained. After that, the meeting finally got started. They took stock of the forces they had, then compared notes on what they could tell of the enemy forces, and proceeded to discuss what to do about it.

Tim got the impression that some of the humans were a little miffed that he and the Hive had so many more combatants. Telling them that individual War Drones were weak and would easily die to an average human soldier if they didn’t have numbers on their side might have assuaged that feeling a little.

“I’ve heard tell that you have powerful explosive magic at your disposal,” Cern said.

“Yes and no.” Tia shrugged. “We do have explosives, some of which are quite powerful compared to what you might have known before, as far as I can tell. However, it’s not exactly explosive magic. Our actual source is something we would prefer to keep confidential, though. I’m sure you understand.”

Tim noted that Kiara or her father didn’t seem to have told him of her suspicions that Regina was using Conjuration magic (which happened to be true, of course). He wondered if she had even told the marquis. Probably, but he clearly hasn’t shared it with all of his allies or vassals, if any.

“You have very good intelligence on the enemy forces’ composition and movements,” Sir Richard noted at one point. “The flying drones we’ve seen outside, I assume?”

Tim and Ada nodded, but they didn’t give any more details.

“They do seem to be slightly stronger than we were anticipating,” he continued. “Perhaps about equal to our own force. Of course, it is always hard to gauge such things without detailed information on Classes and, especially, levels. But with your help, I am confident we can take them.”

“It also implies they might have been reinforced from further afield,” John Cern commented. Nice to know he does have a brain, at least, Tim thought privately, but tried not to let the thought show. “There might even be more soldiers lying in wait somewhere.”

“I’m confident we have a good overview of the surrounding area,” Ada said.

“They also have a few gnomes, with them, at least,” Tia said.

That caused a stir among the humans. “Are you quite sure of that?” Cern asked.

Ada nodded. “Yes, we have confirmed it.”

“Fantastic,” he heard Willard mutter. “Gnomes poking their noses in is just what this situation needed. As if this war didn’t have enough politics already.”

Tim leaned back in his seat (the humans had brought folding chairs) and listened while the discussion continued. Then he stiffened as he felt a familiar presence in his mind. Beside him, several other drones did so as well.

The southern army has started moving, Regina said. This time, they’re not just sending scouting groups or single companies. In fact, they seem to be pulling in all of those they have currently detached. I’m leery of putting our scouting Winged Drones too close to them, but the general movement is very clear. They’re advancing.

Tim nodded, looking up at the others. After a moment of hesitation, he made one of the War Drones outside the tent scratch against a post, then excused himself to step outside. He spent a minute scratching its head and making a few noises, before he entered the tent again.

“I have news,” he announced. The others all fell silent and turned their full attention to him. He could see Tia fighting not to smile at his antics. “Marquis Relains’ army — or whoever might have contributed to it — is breaking camp and moving. They’re coming closer.”

“Time to meet them in battle,” Kiara said. She had straightened up and was smiling slightly, although he could tell tension lurked underneath.