“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

- John W. Campbell Jr., later attributed to Edward Aloysius Murphy Jr.

The set up didn’t take long, the building Chloe had chosen for our little plan was about as perfect as we could have hoped for in this trash pile. She and Blitzer got started on setting up barricades, turrets, traps, and whatever else Blitzer had in his vast collection of catalogues. Of course we had to cheat a little by combining as many catalogues as possible, but that wasn’t as easy as I had thought.

In normal circumstances combining catalogues is quite situational and heavily dependent on the catalogues in question. Your case is quite unique, as your Hexclaw Swarm-Intelligence Catalogue is quite unique, enabling you to circumvent most of those restrictions that usually hold people from going too far.

“Damn,” I muttered.

It made sense in a way, though I didn’t like it. Not that I had time to dwell too much on the issue.

Jenna contributed some of her Sentinels to our defences, plus a couple of items from her Sentinel Legion Catalogue to help fortify the area a bit. It wasn’t much, but more than I could contribute. We talked about putting up some Hard-Light defences for a moment, but decided against it as they were quite expensive for very little improvement in defensive strength of this caliber.

My task would be to make sure we would be unscathed when we entered the Hive later.

Once we had set up and were ready to begin, we all walked a little ways away from the bunker. Our plan was to sneak in while the xenos were busy with it, so staying close to it would be counter intuitive.

“Okay, everyone ready?” I asked.

A round of nods indicated that they were, so I turned towards the entrance. “Remember, we will just go in, find the center, plant a bomb there and then fuck off. Simple, easy, and quick. No heroics or anything.”

Chloe turned on the lure and we got ready to head inside, just waiting for the xenos still inside to come out. This would be easy, right?

Of course that was the moment where things went completely off the rails.

At first things went as planned, more and more xenos came out of the Hive, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes, one or two Nines, everything was as expected. The problem was that instead of slowing down or thinning out, the mass of xenos coming out just increased more and more, until a veritable flood of aliens broke through the hole in the ground.

“What the fuck?” I muttered. The Hive had looked to be a smaller one, even with the increased activity around the entrance. Now though, things reminded me of the gate situation near the inner city. The defences near the bunker started spitting bullets, grenades, lasers, and whatever else they had at their disposal, but the flood of xenos just didn’t want to stop.

“Okay, something is wrong, we need a change of plans. Chloe, can you deactivate the Lure?” I asked, a little panicky.

“Uh, I can, but then we will have to fight them head on,” she muttered.

I frowned, “Fuck… We need to deal with them now. Kaysa, Devouring Rose, something fast acting and a bit more expensive. Do I have one that can churn out Hatchlings later?”

You do. The Devouring Rose Variant H is capable of producing more Hatchlings, although much slower than any Progenitor Hexclaw could.

“That’s enough. Let’s get back to the bunker, we need to kill those xenos!”

The others didn’t comment, all of them immediately following my lead to head back to the bunker. And good thing we did. It was already apparent that soon our defences would be overrun. No way in hell could we deal with this many xenos without them, especially since from Chloe’s comment things would break out into an all out brawl once the lure was destroyed.

I didn’t think long, immediately conjuring up a large circle above the horde of aliens, which I sent down to flatten them. Jenna copied my approach, and soon we squished quite the number of xenos, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

“We need something to block off the Hive. Preferably something that would allow us to deactivate the Lure.” I muttered in the virtual realm, while my physical self was busy killing xenos.

My Hatchlings were busy jumping any alien trying to split from the horde, but they were increasingly overwhelmed.

“Kaysa, if I go ahead and try to block the Hive with a Devouring Rose, how many points do I need to pump into that thing for it to do its job properly?”

The main issue is the amount of antithesis still coming out of the Hive itself. Considering their numbers I calculate that a Devouring Rose worth 2000 points should be the bare minimum.

“Good. Chloe, you are in charge of the defences. I’ll be quick!”

Before anyone had time to comment I separated from the group, a smaller contingent of Hexclaws and two Sentinels following me. I didn’t waste any more time by trying to kill any xenos, instead just running over to the entrance.

When I arrived there I could see bigger models pulling themselves out from deep within. “Fuck! Kaysa, I think I need a bigger Rose!”

Or multiple. You have enough points for two Variant H’s if you work together with Vanguard Jenna.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Jenna!” I asked in the virtual realm, “I need like… a thousand or so points and your Sentinel Legion Catalogue!”

“Just get them, we settle accounts later!” she replied immediately.

Please get closer to the entrance.

For a moment I wanted to snap at Kaysa for even asking something so dangerous, but then again, the Rose was an imobile defender and the aliens didn’t seem to notice me.

“After this I need a drink,” I muttered to nobody in particular, before I began running towards the entrance, directly into the alien horde.

That is enough.

New purchase: Devouring Rose (Variant H, 2000 points) x2!

Points reduced to: 147

The moment I saw the giant alien things appear in front of me I immediately turned around and ran back again, unwilling to spend any more time this close to a wave of antithesis.

Once I had put some distance between me and the angry alien mob I looked back, watching my Devouring Roses work. They were much bigger than the first one I had gotten yesterday, but they were also different. Not in terms of looks, but the feedback I got from them was different. Most importantly, they didn’t share the deep and primal starving hunger that the other one had felt, and secondly they were capable of churning out Hatchlings, which came across as a really weird wish to have babies. I immediately muted their feedback channels, that was just too fucky a thought to be bothered with right that second.

Both Roses entwined their tentacles, completely blocking off the entrance, finally breaking off the flood of xenos. It wasn’t a perfect solution, and inside the Hive there was a lot of fighting, with my Roses burrowing their tentacles deep in an attempt to kill as many xenos as possible.

It made my point counter jump up quite significantly, it wouldn’t take long until I made back what I had spent on this.

Confident that the defences wouldn’t break, or at least as confident as I could be under the circumstances, I turned around once more and ran back to the defences. I was just about to relax a tad, thinking we’d at least be in a recoverable position, when I heard Blitzer shout obscenities in the call.

“Dragon Queen’s tits! Okay, bad news, whatever the hell we did here stirred the hornets nest! I just got reports from some people in Wasps territory and the hive just started acting up and spewing xenos!”

“Well, fuck,” I muttered, trying to adjust to that news.

“How?” Chloe asked, “Like, this lure is by far not powerful enough to reach there and we aren’t exactly next door. How did we piss them off?”

That was a good question, one that I didn’t know any possible answer for.

“What should we do?” Jenna asked, ignoring Chloe’s question for the moment, “Should someone head over?”

“This Hive is cut off for the moment,” I threw in, “I say deal with the flood here, then head out and see where we can help.”

“We better hurry. I get more and more reports of xenos showing up,” Blitzer muttered, voice tense, “We don’t have time to fuck around, otherwise we will find out.”

“Okay, you can head out and see where the biggest fires are. We will clear up quickly, then follow.” Putting action to word I conjured another giant disk over the remnants of the flood when I got close enough, one that Chloe immediately summoned more nades into.

Aliens died in droves and my points jumped up again.

“Kaysa, what options do I have for quick army building?” I asked while jumping over some debris to reposition myself, one arm already pointed towards the aliens and another sweeping Hard-Light blade springing into existence and decimating another couple of xenos.

You have two immediate options available to you. The first is to procure a number of smaller Progenitor line Hexclaws, while the second is to buy a bigger Progenitor Hexclaw, something along the lines of the Zaitron or the Najav.

Before you decide however, I want to point something out. The behaviour of these Hives is anomalous, not only can they produce way more antithesis than they should from their apparent size, but they also somehow are aware of what happens at the other Hive. Considering the lack of model Seventeens and the smaller model Sevens, who would usually be responsible for this kind of communication, I calculate good odds that there is some kind of underground connection.

“Fuck!” I muttered, then threw another sweeping blade into the mass of xenos, while I slid down a small hill towards Chloe and Jenna, conjuring up a shield to protect them from a projectile some model Five threw at them. That thing was dealt with by my lance roughly around the same time I hit the ground running. “Okay, options for that?”

If you wish to both be able to build an army and to find out more about what might be hidden beneath the ground I would recommend to you the Delta Class Mark IX Progenitor Najav. For that you would need to use some points and one of your tokens to upgrade your Hexclaw Catalogue to Class II. Of course you can also upgrade it with the help of Vanguard Jenna, Vanguard Chloe, and Blitzer.

“Sounds fancy,” I said, running over to Chloe and Jenna, breath laboured, “What can it do and what do you need the others for?”

The Delta Class Mark IX Progenitor Najav is roughly the size of a large bus, excluding the limbs. It is roughly equivalent to a Scorpion, although with some changes. Its main features are its upgraded Hexclaw Hatchery which can produce roughly half a dozen Hexclaws every fifteen minutes given sufficient biomass, its pincers which are capable of crushing tanks without much effort, as well as a biological flamethrower of sorts. You lack sufficient education to understand the underlying principle, and we don’t have the time for you to learn it, so to put it simply: It can burn down a lot of antithesis in a very short period of time very well.

With the help of Vanguard Chloe, Vanguard Jenna, and Blitzer I would be able to upgrade the following: Integrated high fire rate weaponry, on top of Hard-Light based weaponry from your own catalogues, upgraded external and internal armor courtesy of Vanguard Jenna’s Sentinel Legion and Legions Armory Catalogue, much decreased growth period thanks to Blitzer’s Agriculture and Fleshmender Catalogues, integrated Sentinel factory which would replace one of the two Hexclaw Hatcheries to increase output of Vanguard Jenna’s Sentinels and would be able to produce smaller items from Vanguard Chloe’s catalogues, as well as a slew of minor additions and upgrades that would be too long to list here.

“Really starting to love the Hexclaws ability to adapt.”

Indeed. They are quite the fascinating members of the galactic community.

I ignored her for a moment, while I helped Chloe and Jenna fight off the aliens. Blitzer was already off to help where he could, but he was still in our call. “Okay people, I have something big and expensive that might be able to help, but I need your help for it. Kaysa, how much is that thing?”

11730 points.

That… was a bit more than I had expected, but between the four of us we should be able to manage.

“Okay, very expensive. She can send you the details, are you okay with it?”

“Just do it! We don’t have the time for a discussion and if it helps then fuck it,” Chloe said immediately, then pushed me and Jenna to one side to prevent a model Five from hitting us square in the chest.

I rolled twice before I finally got a grip and righted myself. It took two attempts before my Lance hit the Five and killed it.

“Uh, I guess? Just… I want to be repaid for this!” Blitzer said, obviously a bit distracted.

“You heard them, Kaysa. Hit it and make it good!”