Path of the Hive Queen

Unfortunately, the hive only had two flying mounts so far. Regina had actually told Ada to keep riding other Winged Drones in the hope that they would get the same Evolution. Only ones at higher levels who were both close to Evolving and strong enough to carry a rider, of course. She was also having other scouts trying the same thing.

In the meantime, their ability to get sapient hive members in the air was still limited. Regina wasn’t going to take the risk of flying to any place far out herself, especially not alone. The new Drone Witch Template might also come with wings, like the Drone Attendants, but they couldn’t be sure yet, and it would probably take some time for them to be able to use them, too.

All of this meant that the only way for any significant number of drones to get back to the village in time was walking. Well, except the Winged Drones, of course. Regina recalled two-thirds of the flying drones with the southern army, but she left most of the War Drones and even the sapient drones down there. After deliberations that took far too long, the various leaders had agreed to send a number of fast, high-level squads as reinforcements, while the bulk of the army continued on to secure the southern march.

Regina had dithered for a while on which drones to leave with them and which ones to recall. In the end, she decided to keep Tim with the humans, since he was already doing a good job at dealing with them, and she trusted him to handle any issues that might come up. She recalled Ben, most of the Shooters and about half of the Warriors, though. She told Ben to take one of the Winged Drone Mounts, while the others would be following with the help of other Winged Drones. She had more than enough control over the War Drones to have them march back even without a sapient drone to supervise.

The army kept moving south, with Ada in charge of scouting for any remains of the enemy army or any other hostile forces for now. In the meantime, Regina turned her attention closer to home, to fortifying the castle and the village.

She was a bit surprised when she told Baron Neralt what was going on, and he immediately suggested they evacuate the village and take shelter in the castle.

“That’s what it is for, Milady,” he explained. “Well, besides guarding against any potential incursions from the forest, naturally. The fort is much easier to defend than the village. Even with your new explosives, it will be a much smaller perimeter to cover. It is also a good chokepoint to limit their superior numbers, and the surrounding river might help to defend us against other dangers, as well.”

“I understand that, Lord Elric,” Regina answered, frowning. “I’m just not comfortable with the thought of abandoning the village. Even if we can move all the people out, what’s to stop them from burning down the houses? Or torching the fields?”

“They could try that anyway, even if we make our stand here,” Max pointed out. He was standing half a step behind her, facing the baron and turned so he could keep the two knights with him in view. “Although I suppose that it would be harder that way, and easier for us to protect them.”

“You make a good point,” the baron conceded. “It would be quite the blow to lose the houses, and the year’s harvest. But I feel confident that the marquis would send us support.”

He’d better, Regina thought. My drones can live off grass and everything in the forest, but the human villagers can’t. Wasn’t there some old saying, something about food being the first casualty of warfare?

“If it was a much bigger army or a stronger threat, I would certainly agree with you, Baron,” Regina said. “As it is, I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

He frowned. “I think the risk of people dying is more than enough to advise caution.”

Regina sighed and considered for a second. Then she shrugged. “I certainly agree with you about evacuating the village and taking all the villagers to safety inside the castle, Lord Elric. I don’t know if abandoning it completely in terms of our own fighters is a good idea, though. For one thing, it is much better terrain for my hive to fight, too. Swarm Drones work in groups, as the name says. Relying on chokepoints isn’t a natural tactic for us. It might also be better to have some more space to drop bombs.”

Neralt frowned again, but he looked thoughtful.

“Perhaps we should discuss this in detail when Ben arrives?” Max suggested. “He’s the one who’s going to actually command our War Drones, and he has the Skill for it.”

Regina nodded. As a Drone Commander, Ben had gained a Skill that would be useful in leading other drones into battle. It was simply called Commanding Drones, and gave a buff to both other drones in his vicinity and drones under his command (though how the System determined which ones that applied to, she didn’t know). Unfortunately, it had the quirk of only working in a real combat situation, not training. She supposed it would have been a bit overpowered otherwise.

Their impromptu meeting broke up, and Regina checked on Ben and the others’ progress. They were well on their way. She also focused on the scouts, mostly Winged Drones, that she had sent in the direction of the new incoming threat. The hostile army was still marching towards them, apparently staying together instead of detaching many squads. At least, she hoped she wasn’t missing any hidden fighters.

This army still seemed smaller, but it was moving at a quick pace, and she suspected that its average level was higher than she’d previously thought. If other lords or factions had sent a few fighters to support it, that could easily be the case. She didn’t know if it had been deliberately made to appear less threatening for anyone scouting from afar, but it was possible.

Once again, Regina cursed the fact that you apparently needed to be within a particular distance of someone else to see their System pop-up. She now had a high enough level that she would probably be able to see many of their soldiers’ levels, although the elites and leaders would probably still be out of her range. But she supposed that was okay, she’d see their Classes when the actual fight was about to start.

In the meantime, Regina checked in on their other army further south regularly. They made their way towards the neighboring march’s border, moving more slowly now, but still at a decent pace. They’d reach the first of the local villages quickly, and the first town soon after that. That would only raise more issues to deal with, of course. She still wasn’t sure what they would do about occupying those settlements. While they had a preliminary agreement, she was a bit concerned about how things would turn out. Though, to be fair, that was partly her own fault.

Regina felt like she didn’t want to just beat her enemy and then simply retreat. I’ve won this territory, dammit, I don’t want to just give it up! She sighed and kneaded her temples. Which might not be a good reaction. But, realistically, it would probably be a bad idea to give up on further territorial gains and be content with the small one I currently have, especially considering this civil war and the long-term situation. I might not need it to feed my hive, but it won’t hurt, and more land would be a source of resources. She shook her head. Assuming I can come to some kind of beneficial terms with the people living there, anyway.

A small part of her, presumably from her Hive Queen side, pointed out that she didn’t need to give any consideration to the local humans and that they could even make good ‘supplies’ in a pinch. But she ruthlessly quashed that voice. Even disregarding all ethical considerations, something like that would just be stupid in the long term. She’d decided to work with the people of the current age, at least to some extent. Well, some people, at least. Regina smiled to herself slightly. That meant that she should build a good reputation, not one as a monster or tyrant. Well, maybe to a smaller degree, but she still needed to offer big carrots to go along with potential sticks. And it wasn’t like she didn’t have good options for that.

Regina caught a nap for a few hours, since she suspected that she’d have to stay up for a while. Then she looked in on her flying drones before checking in with Tim and Janis and making sure that they had things handled. The human army had already sent some fast outriders ahead, which she was watching over with some Winged Drones, and they’d reached several border villages. Those didn’t seem to be too well defended. Clearly, the local lord had mustered most of his soldiers for the army he had just lost. Otherwise, they reminded her a lot of the villages she’d seen traveling the local barony, though none of them were as big as Forest’s Haunt. They were all built of mostly wooden homes and surrounded by fields, preparations for the harvest clearly well underway.

Make sure that all civilians are treated well, Regina told Tim and Janis. I may not have much personal experience here, but I do know a little about how medieval armies behaved in history. I don’t want any war crimes to occur. Or anything that unnecessarily sets them against us.

If any human soldiers did turn to looting, or god forbid, rape someone, there wasn’t much she could directly do, but hopefully making their stance clear to their allies would help.

Of course, Janis agreed. Regina could sense the flash of curiosity she felt. Someday, I’d like to talk about the history you remember in more depth.

Sure. You might help me get rid of some mistaken notions, too.

They would also finally catch up to the group of gnomes Ada had spotted before. While the Delvers had fought with the southern army and died or been captured along with the other soldiers, the gnomes hadn’t been there. Apparently, they’d stayed behind the army, probably avoiding the battle. And Regina had been too distracted by what was happening during the battle and after to pay much attention to anything south of the battlefield.

We’re going to soon be out of your range, aren’t we? Tim asked, sounding concerned.

Regina started. She hadn’t quite turned away from him and the others she had contacted, but she had withdrawn to ponder her own thoughts for a moment, basically putting them on standby. It was a good sign that he’d managed to send her a message anyway. Hopefully, that meant they could figure out unprompted communication with a bit of time and effort.

That’s true, she said after shaking off her surprise. I’ll be relying on you to act on your own, without my direct guidance. Not that I have been giving you much of it, to be fair.

She could feel his unease. She understood that no drone liked going outside of her radius, even if Tim had done it before. Regina even sympathized; she didn’t like having her drones outside of her range, either. But the situation demanded it, and she couldn’t very well keep them close to her at all times, especially not now.

Don’t worry, Regina. Janis seemed confident. We’ll manage things.

She smiled, although they couldn’t see it. Of course. Good luck, everyone.

Then Regina straightened up and made herself go about her business. She was tempted to keep checking in on the group and obsessively monitor how they moved further and further away and her connection started being stretched thin, but she wasn’t going to do that to herself. Besides, she had more important things to worry about.

Regina checked on her most recently hatched drones, then secluded herself in a house and started using her Basic Conjuration in bulk. Luckily, her mana regeneration wasn’t that bad, currently — slightly above what she had before her latest Ability and level, probably. She still had to manage it carefully. So, she only created some alcohol and made some of her shoddy, improvised dynamite. She’d experimented with it quite a bit over the last few weeks, but she was still far from happy with it. At least she was satisfied that the explosive she made wouldn’t detonate in her drones’ hands, at least not easily.

She’d already made some reusable coverings with simple seams they could fit inside of. Packed in a few blankets and, for good measure, buried in the dirt, they wouldn’t pose much of a danger of hurting anyone and could be stored or even moved carefully for a longer trip. Even if a grenade that detonated prematurely wouldn’t be much use in the best case.

After carefully materializing and tinkering with dangerous substances, Regina stretched her arms and worked the kinks out of her neck. She decided to take a walk around the perimeter of the village and check on the defensive measures they were taking.

The hive still had enough War Drones here that digging ditches went quickly and easily. Regina had chosen not to try to build a moat, even if it would be a nice exercise for her new Water Manipulation Spell, but there were still a lot of things they could do.

She also had to admit that she was looking forward to testing out her own skills and new complement of Spells against real attackers, especially Water Manipulation. Plus, this time, she presumably wouldn’t have to worry too much about using Fireball.