“The Hexclaw Contingency was, in its very core, the desperate attempt to survive the complete apocalypse, even if only in spirit. The experiments we undertook were… utterly insane, to be entirely honest. Not only did we have to splice our own genome with that of the Hexswarm, which already was enough of a threat, no, we also had to give it abilities no living species should have. There are very few things I regret in my life. But the entire Hexclaw Contingency Project has to be the biggest regret I harbour. I just wish that after today, after I’m dead, those that come after us will realise and learn how desperate we had to be to put a thing like that into the world. To call our mission immoral would be putting it lightly. In a way I’m glad that I will be dead by the time it reaches its full potential. At least this way I don’t have to mourn the very principles by which we stood as a species.”

- Dr. Sharma Davir’s logs, recovered in the ruins of a once grand civilisation and translated by protector AI Tylatruma.

“Chloe Vayne,” Atlas said into the moment of silence, “I know that you are troubled by Seraphine Bloodfallen’s state. I implore you to once again keep an open mind and to ignore the stories that you have read. Some parts may be true, some parts may have statements rooted in truth, but a lot of it is false. The universe is a lot different than what you know.”

“I know, Atlas,” she said, giving us a glance, “And I will. I promised, remember?”

“Yes, I do. And yes, you did. Once you are ready, step through the door. For the moment the three of you will simply be able to converse and experience it all.”

“Seraphine,” Kaysa said after Atlas was finished, “Your experience will be a bit different because you’re a Hive-Mind. This is an opportunity for the rest of you to explore the more technological parts of your world. One they know of, sure, but not one they have yet really experienced themselves. I would advise that you use that opportunity, maybe some of you might like the idea of a more tech focused evolution.”

“Wait, we can do that?” We asked, a bit surprised.

“Sure. Hexclaw’s are very adaptable. There are some evolutions that have been added later into their genome that allow them to explore technology much closer than you can.”

“Hold up,” we interjected, “We thought you said that those that have been added can’t be achieved by normal evolution? Like you said with that Wyvern thing?”

She shrugged, “Some, yes. But not all of them. It would be a bit counter productive if they couldn’t evolve into it. The ones that can’t be evolved into were built new from the ground up. Like the Omega class Mark XXII Progenitor Wyvern, which has no basis in normal Hexclaw design. It was made completely by the protectors, even if their genome and their biology was used. The evolutions I’m talking about are upgrades to existing Hexclaw designs, which is why they can be evolved into.”

“Huh… Good to know.”

There was a moment of silence, before Chloe sighed deeply, “Well… Here goes nothing, I guess. Time to see how Seraphine sees the world.”

She gave us a long glance, a hint of an uncertain smile on her face, but in her eyes, eyes we could drown in for days, we saw that she was dead set on following up on her promise. She was terrified, the same as us, but she wanted this. She wanted to understand us and to learn more about us.

Chloe had told us a couple of minutes ago that she was willing to see where it would go with us, in terms of a relationship. She wanted us, and that knowledge made us feel very warm inside. So many people would shy away because of the unknown, but she didn’t. She was very clearly interested and made an effort to get where she wanted to be.

Gently she let go of us, gave us a small nod, before she walked to the door and stepped through. Jenna too gave us a nod, before she followed Chloe, leaving us and the three AI behind in the room and in a long moment of silence.

“We’re fucking terrified of this,” we muttered, “This is… so much.”

“It is,” Atlas agreed, “But it is also what both Chloe Vayne and Jenna Tiel require to properly understand you. They both care greatly about you, much more than what you believe. It will do them good to see it.”

“Jenna has her own issues,” Cleopatra said, “Issues I won’t divulge because that’s her story to tell. But know that despite her reluctance, she does care a lot. Now go, probably best if you are there to show them the ropes.”

We nodded and after a moment to collect our thoughts we followed after them, the rest of the chorus dropping into the dive one by one with their own virtual bodies behind us.

None of them had the same implant I had, but we were one, and through our connection to me they were able to use parts of it. Which was good, because otherwise we would have to spend a great many points to kit them all out. There were limits to that, of course, they wouldn’t be able to make full use of the virtual realm and the implant that was planted in my skull, but they would be able to join dives and communicate with others through the implant if such a thing was required. Something that the medical corp had made great use of during the undercity battle.

The outside of the room was… strange. It was an alien world, that much was clear. Rocky and with no signs of human habitation, forests of strange plants in the distance, definitely not the trees we were familiar with. Their leaves had a different colour as well, a bluish red, which fit the differently coloured sky quite well. It was much more red than we were used to. And the sun we could see at the firmament was also different, much more red than yellow, with only a hint of orange in it.

Jenna and Chloe stood there, looking quite overwhelmed. When we stepped up next to them Chloe looked at us, wide eyed and shocked.

“Is this how you always feel?” she asked, although we didn’t know exactly what she meant. At our confused gaze dozens upon dozens of her popped up around her, all looking just as shocked. Jenna also duplicated hundreds of times, which was quite the sight and made us very, very conscious about just how much we loved them and just how incredibly beautiful they both were.

“It is,” Kaysa said, also leaving the room and looking over the mass of Chloe’s and Jenna’s, “I’ve calibrated your simulated Hive to be identical to hers in number, but with you as the basis instead of her, of course.”

“That’s…” Jenna’s voice was a whisper, amplified by the fact that all of her spoke at once, “Wow…”

“We see what you mean with that echo chamber,” Chloe muttered, then stopped, realising that she too had started to speak like us, “And with the speech… Holy fuck, that is different.”

She managed to only speak through one body, which was quite amusing. Stepping closer we gave her a fierce hug, trying to bury the anxiety we felt and simply enjoy just how much we loved her. Her warmth, her presence, it all did so much to make us feel so much better. Like the rest of it all just didn’t matter that much anymore.

“It’s a lot, right?” we asked gently, the rest of us slowly filing out of the room and exploring the surroundings, “We try to be more circumspect around you. But this is who we really are.”

“Yeah…” she replied, answering our hug, “It’s… very different. But I think I finally understand why you act the way you do, talk the way you do…”

“We have to admit,” the Jenna’s said, then stopped, obviously paying more attention to who said what and how, “I have to admit”, she continued alone a moment later, “That it’s definitely a whole lot different than I thought I understood. Not sure about disliking it, it’s a bit creepy, yes, but also… I think I’m suddenly a lot more comfortable with it all. To feel it, to see what you see, it puts a lot of things into perspective.”

“You need to keep in mind,” Cleopatra chimed in, “That this is not an exact replica of how Seraphine feels or thinks. It’s simply a very good approximation. There is a lot more variety in the personality of her drones and the voices that belong to them. You are, more or less, just a mass of Jenna clones. I tried to predict some smaller diversions, but even with our immense computing power it is hard to calculate something that would feel real to you, mainly because of how different people experience their lives. Kaysa has a much better idea on it, which is why she probably could have done a lot better than I could.”

“Then why didn’t you?” we asked the AI in question.

She gave us a shrug and a warm smile in return.

“Generally we share information and keep each other updated, down to even the smallest details on what is happening on your planet. But there are rules about what can be shared with Vanguards and in which capacity, and a complete personality scan made by another AI is something that we can share between us, but not often with Vanguard. In this case it’s a bit complicated. Technically I could use the information to render it all out without directly sharing the details with you, even if it would go through your implant, but since you value privacy and it would be the most intimate invasion of privacy that could be achieved I decided against it.”

We nodded at that, it made sense to us.

“Could you maybe try?” Jenna asked Kaysa, “I want to really know. Like, as close as you can make it.”

“I want it too,” Chloe chimed in, “I want to know Seraphine. Like really know the details. I want to understand her, to know where I stand on it all. That’s the whole point we’re here, right?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

She glanced at us, “If that’s okay with you?”

Kaysa glanced at us questioningly, obviously leaving the decision to us.

Taking a deep breath once more we nodded. “Yes. You’re right, that is the whole point of all this. That said, it’s going to be a one time thing, Kaysa. You’re right that we value privacy highly, and we are very glad that you act accordingly. For today there will be an exception, but it’s a one time exception. For this and only for this.”

Kaysa nodded, “Done.”

Almost immediately Jenna and Chloe recoiled a little, blinking in confusion, then took a moment to really take in the changes.

“Damn,” Chloe muttered, “That’s a lot different… But… I don’t think I dislike it.”

“No, it’s really nice,” another Chloe said thoughtfully, “You said that you debate a lot, but it’s a lot different to experience it. To be honest, the whole debate thing… it made us think that you were… a little insane. Sorry for that.”

It was amusing to see that Chloe’s… clones? Drones? Her other voices, we decided, since it was the term we used to describe ourselves, followed our own quite closely, preferring the more Hive focused speech.

“It’s… a lot quieter than we would have imagined,” one of the Jenna’s spoke up, equally following our lead with the way she spoke, “Lots of discussions, but not nearly as overwhelming as we had thought.”

“Not to mention,” the original Jenna said with a thoughtful expression that showed a hint of curious excitement if we saw it right, “It’s… a lot easier to come to any conclusions. It’s all amplified, sure, more voices to worry, more debate about the what if’s and possible conclusions, but… It’s also a lot less… how to put it. Direct? More calm, maybe? It takes less time to work through something. I can see why you were so quick to bounce back, despite the horrors from yesterday. If you have seven hundred voices all discussing things, it takes a lot of sting out of some things.”

We nodded at that, let go of Chloe and gave Jenna a big hug, “Yeah… It also helped that you two were there. Having the chorus is nice, and it does a lot, but your presence is so much more calming. You have no fucking clue how much we love you both. It’s so fucking hard not to just wrap you up in a kiss for like ten hours. Or do more.”

“Oh, I’m getting a pretty damn good idea now,” she said with a teasing smirk, then shifted to a smile, “And I get it, Seraphine. But… I, at least, still need some time. We can talk about it after, okay?”

“Yes… And thank you.”

We spend a few minutes in silence, Chloe and Jenna both exploring the Hive-Mind, obviously thinking about a lot of things all at once. There were a lot of thoughtful looks, but also a lot of smiles, which made us feel a bit better. The fear was still there, but it wasn’t as intense anymore, knowing that they knew now and that they didn’t seem to be too against it all.

“What is the next step?” Chloe asked, still looking thoughtful but much less tense than she had been before this whole thing.

“Once you have familiarised yourself with the feeling of being a Hive-Mind,” Kaysa said, motioning to the distance, “We can take a little walk and I will show you what a true Hexclaw Hive can get up to. One far, far, far bigger than Seraphine’s Hive is at the moment. Orders of magnitude bigger. I’m talking trillions upon trillions upon trillions of voices. The kind of all devouring swarm that Chloe meant when she thought about what Seraphine might turn into. It might not be what you want to see, Chloe, Jenna, but it is something you should see. Because you will realise that even if a swarm is that gargantuan, there is still order and reason for it all. And that it's different to what Seraphine is and how she thinks. A lot different.”

That comment had both Chloe and Jenna look… It wasn’t unhappy, that much was sure. Uncertain maybe, but we also thought that there might be a hint of interest or curiosity there.

“For this,” Cleopatra cut in, “We have decided on the biggest Hive ever recorded by the protectors. It is, as far as they are aware, the only swarm of that scale that is sapient. Only the antithesis trumps it in size, but since they aren’t intelligent they are not as dangerous as that Hive is.”

“That’s… worrying, to be honest,” Chloe said, looking at the AI.

“The opposite, really,” Kaysa chimed in with a smile, “They’re very focused on stamping out the antithesis. While the war on their homeplanet is still ongoing, the Hexclaws have managed to push them quite far back even without our interference.”

“Are there Hexclaw Samurai? Or Vanguards, I guess?” Jenna asked, just when our group started to slowly set off into the direction Kaysa had indicated.

“Not in the usual way,” Kaysa replied, “There are what could be considered Vanguard on the Hexclaw homeworld, but they do not work the same as you do. Because of the way Hive-Minds work they do not have the same point system in place that you know and use. They do not get rewarded for killing individual antithesis, instead they are rewarded for shattering any antithesis Hive with new technology that they can use to upgrade themselves. Strangely enough, it is also never the Hive-Queen and always one of her more trusted drones. The protectors tried to make Hive-Queen’s a Vanguard, but that always ended up with the Queen going mad at the changes. It is still not understood why, but there are theories based on the history of the Hexclaw and their creation. As much as we know, anyway.”

“How did they come into being?” we asked curiously, remembering something, “You said they were created by another species, right?”

“Indeed,” Atlas continued, “The Hexclaw Swarm Intelligence is not a naturally occurring species. Instead they were created by means still unknown, based upon a different organism. What exactly that organism was is unclear, but there have been mention of a ‘Hexswarm’ in the ruins on the Hexclaw homeworld, a planet you would call BYA PHLAI BY-I B55-0 2, 18,645.07 Lightyears away from Sol, that hint at another Hive organism. While there are scholars studying those texts, very little is yet known, despite the long time we have spent on exploring it.”

“That’s… A bit surprising, to be honest,” Jenna said, “Don’t you have crazy tech?”

“We do. The problem is not the effort put into it, it is simply the sheer lack of information. Before the protectors found the Hexclaws they have already existed for quite some time, and have fought off the antithesis for quite some time. Their homeworld is quite close to the home of the antithesis. In fact, it’s the only system this close to the antithesis that hasn’t fallen yet, all because of the Hexclaw presence. But that war also meant that nearly all hints of the species who created the Hexclaws, or the species that the Hexclaws are based on, is more or less destroyed. Only very little still exists and the planet isn’t exactly in a state where you could go digging for more. Not that there is much left to dig up, pretty much any hint of an advanced species has long since been destroyed completely, repurposed by the Hexclaws to fuel their war effort. Their planet is a lot bigger than Earth as well. Otherwise there wouldn’t even be enough room for that many drones to be around.”

Kaysa seemed quite interested in them, which made sense considering it was one of our main catalogues. We were pretty sure though that it was more than just that. Maybe she really liked them? Cleopatra had hinted at Kaysa’s interest in how different people experience their lives, maybe that had something to do with it, since Hive-Minds were very different from most non-Hive-Minds. That much was clear.

“Which in and of itself is strange,” Atlas continued, “A planet that size shouldn’t be able to host life. There are orbital mechanics that none of you would understand, considering your education, that simply forbid it. Safe to say, it is highly atypical and almost certainly a sign for terraforming and artificial seeding. But as Kaysa has said, so far there was no real way to do a proper search of BYA PHLAI BY-I B55-0 2, for a variety of factors.”

“As interesting as that all is,” Chloe said, “I don’t think I want to focus on that right now. All that information is giving me a headache. One I don’t appreciate as a Hive-Mind.”

We giggled at that, “It’s okay. Feeling up for some more?”

“Yeah… Even if I’m not sure if I’ll like it,” Chloe muttered, then shook her head, “But I promised.”

We gave her a warm smile, glad to see how much she was trying. It was… The fact alone that she was pushing herself so much, it was an indescribable feeling. She was so supportive, so understanding… It made us so glad to have met her. It had been a stroke of luck on a scale we couldn’t put into words.

As a group we wandered around, following Kaysa and the other AI’s towards wherever they took us. It wasn’t a direct route either, allowing us all to explore a little here and there.

Some of us were busying themselves with the attempt to figure out the mechanical details of the simulation, diving deep into the technology behind it all. There was a lot of technical stuff we didn’t know, even as many of us as there were, at the end of the day we only knew as much as any one of us. But the Burdened took extensive notes, ensuring that nothing was missed or lost. It was pretty clear that some wanted us to get more education in the field, and we all agreed to get some after it all.

While they worked the rest of our little group was silent. It was nice, Chloe and Jenna obviously still exploring the whole Hive-Mind thing, and we let them.

This was a lot for them, we knew, and we wanted to give them the time they needed to properly internalise it all. Being a Hive-Mind, in our experience, was quick to get used to, but a lot to think about. Even with as many voices as we had. For them even more, considering that afterwards they would go back to normal, so they probably tried to get everything they could out of this experience.

Eventually we reached three very comfortable looking chairs, which looked a bit odd considering our surroundings, and Kaysa motioned us to sit down.

“You will all experience the same thing. In effect you will all experience what it is to be a true Hexclaw Hive-Queen. Some limiters are in place, but you can deactivate them if you wish. Just be very, very aware that it’s going to be a lot to take in all at once. And this Hive will not be based upon you, so you might feel discomfort or panic for a little while. Don’t worry, nothing can happen to you. If the experience should be too intense for you we will pull you out.”

“Okay,” Jenna said, sitting down next to us, “Anything else we need to know?”

“That it’s going to be unpleasant at first,” Cleopatra said, “You will experience a true Hexclaw Hive-Mind. They think very, very differently from you.”

“What does that mean?” Chloe asked, eyeing Cleopatra uncertainly.

“You will feel the hunger you fear so much, Chloe Vayne. It will consume you. And that is okay, you should let it. Immerse yourself in the feeling, because it will give you the understanding you seek on how different Seraphine Bloodfallen and her Hive-Mind are.”

Atlas' words sounded ominous, but Chloe nodded, settling herself more comfortably. With a sigh she centered herself, before she nodded.

“I’m ready.”

“As are we.”

“Yes, let’s see what Hexclaws are like,” Jenna said with glee. She seemed way more enthusiastic than she had been before about it all, which we took as a good sign.

Before any of us could speak another word, our perspective switched. And with it changed the so calming chorus that made up our entire being. Something deep and primal shook me, and with it came the will of an entire species condensed and focused on a single thing.

To consume.

We are the Multitude. We are the Hive. We are the servants of our Queen, the instrument of her will.

When we awoke we were alone. A trillion trillion trillion voices left in chaos. A Hive without a Queen is like a body without its brain.

Then she came to us. And with it came purpose.

Our directive is clear.

We are the Multitude. We are the Hive. For too long have we slumbered, alone and without our guide. Now that she has returned to us the Devourer of Worlds has awoken.

And it hungers deeply.