“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Stop worrying so much! You’ve seen how much thought we put into this, right?”
“Yeah, which is why I’m asking.”
“Ah, you’re such a worrywart. Just lean back, relax, and watch the money come in. This is foolproof. What could possibly go wrong?”
- Recording of two Crescent Thorn members, 2055
As it turned out, Chloe was a bit of a pervert herself. Sure, by far not as much of one as I was, she was pretty tame compared to me. Then again, most people were, and those that weren’t wouldn’t have danced around the point for this long.
In Chloe’s case, she was insanely awkward and insecure at the beginning. Which was to be expected, and I doubted that my being a whole lot more experienced helped in that regard. That said, she got over herself relatively quickly. And once she did, well… Needless to say, the entire evening was most certainly not what I originally expected from our first night together.
I didn’t mean that in a bad way. Knowing me, I probably would have tackled it very much like any other client, but Chloe broke me out of that mould almost instantly. She had this way of just completely blindsiding me in the best ways. And that made for a much better first time than I could have hoped for.
She also, as it turned out, had a bit of a thing for me making the rounds. I had already expected as much from her comments so far, but to have it said aloud was quite nice. Not that it was excessive, and not to the degree where she wanted me to actively seek out others, but within the confines of my job she did get off on the idea.
It was a new experience for me, but not one I disliked. Really, it gave me a kind of excitement that I have never really felt before. With clients it’s always obvious what I do for a living. Some even tried to get me to give it up and live with them, since they really didn’t like the idea of sleeping with someone that also slept with others, even if it was just in a professional capacity.
Chloe was the opposite, and that just helped so much. She accepted me for who I was, and even enjoyed it. I realised only after that first night, just how lucky I was. For a variety of reasons that was far too long to list, really, but in this case I meant in terms of her preferences.
It also wasn’t the only kink she showed a rather strong inclination for. After our first time we spent quite a long time just talking, and she confided in me that voyeurism and exhibitionism were both kinks she was interested in. Of course, she hadn’t tried anything like it before, at best maybe watching a porn holo or two. Knowing that, though, I decided to indulge her a little on our next night together.
And so, after I spent the day at the brothel with a few clients, something that had her really riled up by the time I got home, we decided to experiment a little with the bedroom’s capabilities of displaying different surroundings.
She wasn’t interested in actually going out there and trying something risky. At least not yet, by this point I wasn’t sure where things would go with her, although even with her quite enthusiastic approach, I doubted that she would go for it anytime soon. But it did make for quite some interesting experiences.
I had no inhibitions about being watched or watching others; by this point it should probably be clear that I was far from normal. But for her it was rather exciting, and I was a bit surprised she was so quickly getting used to the idea in general. Sure, the folk on the screens were all just computer generated people, and she didn’t want anything more than that, but it did seem to flick her switch.
The real kicker, however, awaited me and the rest of Us around halfway through our little exhibitionist fun.
So far I focused more on her pleasure, that being what I was used to, which had ended with my own needs taking a bit of a backseat. Not that I minded too terribly, she was insanely sexy and adorable and I wanted to make sure her first time, or in this case, second time, was worth remembering. She was new to all of this, and I wanted to make sure she was comfortable and enjoyed herself.
That changed when we took a short break for her to calm down a little. Chloe really did her best to keep up with me, but she was by far not as used to this as I was, and so we both decided to take things a little more slowly. During this break we got to talking, and after going back and forth a little bit, she suddenly, and out of nowhere, asked Us to be ourselves. To truly be ourselves, speech and all, to stop trying to make her comfortable and pay attention to our own needs for a bit.
That had to be, hands down, the best thing we ever experienced.
At first we were a bit hesitant, still unsure if we should push our luck this much. But Chloe really tried her best, and after she figured out what we preferred, which for a change was a bit of a rougher approach for the evening, something we normally didn’t go for that much, she did her best to acquiesce to our wishes.
It was suitably awkward, but neither of us minded, and so we got to see Mistress Chloe a little bit, which was damn fucking sexy. It wasn’t her preference, that much was clear, but it was also clear that she wanted to repay Us for our attempts to make her feel good.
With all that said, our second night together had gotten a bit more… messy, then I think either of us originally planned. Not that either of us were inclined to complain.
The evening ended with a nice cuddle session, Chloe still preferring that over the more strenuous activities. It was a nice end to an amazing night with our new girlfriend, and one we would never forget.
It was the day of the Hive expedition, and we had woken up first, right next to the gorgeous woman that had been part of our life ever since that first incursion in which we became a Samurai. It made Us realise just how lucky we were, not only in having met her, and Jenna, of course, but also with where our life was going in general.
Sure, there were some things that really fucking sucked. The whole Sarah episode and the death of some of Us were definitely things we could have done without, not to mention the idiots who decided it was a fantastic idea to fuck with the redlight district. And, of course, there were also the aliens who wanted to make a meal out of everyone.
But in the grand scheme of things, we were quite happy with how things had turned out.
Chloe was still a teeny tiny bit embarrassed everytime we woke up together, but that quickly vanished when she leaned over and kissed Us. We weren’t sure if that was just a thing with her general inclination to cuddle, or if she just really enjoyed kissing, but she managed to be even more of a kisser than we were, and that was saying something.
“Morning,” Chloe mumbled with a goofy smile, once we broke our kiss.
“Morning, love,” we replied, our face decorated with an equally silly smile, lovingly staring into her deep brown eyes, eyes we could get lost in for eternity. “Sleep okay?”
“Mhm… I had some really nice dreams. Strangely there is always this one girl who pops up in them. A really nice one.” She smirked.
We smirked right back. “Oh? Maybe you should introduce us.”
“Hm… Not sure. I kind of want her all for myself.” She underlined her statement by squeezing Us closer a little bit.
“She must be one lucky girl then, huh?”
She giggled, then leaned in once more for another kiss.
Reciprocating the kiss in full, leaning into her and giving ourselves to her completely, we embraced her, pulling her close. She answered in kind, and so we quickly ended up on top of her once more, a position we seemed to find ourselves in quite frequently, ever since our first time.
“So, today’s the day. Ready to squash some xenos?” She asked, when we eventually separated once more.
“You really know how to invite a lady to a date,” we said with a snicker, then smiled at her again. “We’re ready. Hopefully nothing else comes along to annoy us.”
“I think we’re good on that front. I am rather curious what the entire thing will look like, though. From the little I’ve seen in the meeting, it appears to be a bit of a mess to sort through.”
“True enough. But at least it’s a mess we can deal with.”
She made an agreeable noise, leaning back into the pillows. Both of us were quiet for a moment, before she spoke up, her tone slightly distracted.
“Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here. So much happened ever since I became a Samurai, and even more ever since I met you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy with where I am, but it certainly isn’t where I expected my life to go. Not only did I find myself a… girlfriend,” she blushed at the word, “My girlfriend is also a Hive-Mind made up of antithesis devouring Hexclaws that somehow manage to be insanely adorable. On top of that, we’re now living in a flying home in the form of a spaceship, owned by a woman we both very much have a crush on, with the hope of having her join our little relationship, if we’re lucky, and I also have more money than I could ever dream of. If I didn’t know any better, I’d be asking when the other shoe would drop.”
We snickered at that, nuzzling ourselves closer to her. “Life certainly can take some strange turns, doesn’t it? We never thought we’d be anything other than a Joytoy. The idea of being a Samurai is already more than we ever hoped to dream of, and even then, we’d never thought we’d end up the way we are. And while there were many things we could have gone without… We’re happy as well. More than happy, really. It almost seems too perfect. But we wouldn’t trade this for the world.”
We stayed in bed for a little while longer, just enjoying each other’s company. Neither of us was inclined to break the moment. Eventually, though, we decided it was time to get up. The day ahead of us was going to be eventful, and we wanted to prepare accordingly.
“Come on, let’s go,” we said with a smile, gently pulling Chloe up after Us.
“Yeah. I love you, you know?”
“We love you too. Very, very much.”
After some more kissing, because of course such a declaration had to be rewarded, we finally managed to leave the bedroom. Jenna was already awake, coming out of the shower. We exchanged some morning greetings, before Chloe and Us stepped into the shower.
We did hurry a little, and once we were done, we met with Jenna for a quick breakfast, prepared by Keity, Celine, and Joenna, before we made our way over to the cockpit of the Corvette.
Chloe gave all of Us we came across a good morning hug and kiss, which was just… Thinking was hard, at the moment. We were giddy like we’ve never been before, and it only intensified when we sat down in the command seats. With the cross between sleek sci-fi goodness and the more homey modern design, it made Us feel like we were about to venture into an adventure amongst the stars.
Since we would be joining the expedition soon, we had all dressed up in our Samurai gear. It made Chloe’s lap slightly less comfortable, considering her heavy armor, but we didn’t mind. And we would rather be ready for anything, just in case we had to act fast.
Glubber, the Samurai who had led the original meeting, had sent all of the participants a status update, as well as an invite to the Family chat rooms. We connected them to our virtual realm, running dual communications for ease of use. That also allowed the rest of Us to participate.
That had been a rather hilarious thing to witness. The Family chat room had a couple dozen people at best, Samurai and not, all there to coordinate and organise. After we had joined up, the chatroom suddenly ballooned to over ten times the size, every last one of Us present.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Of course, we limited ourselves to only a couple of Us who would participate actively, but for the rest it was an easy way to glean any important information.
After everyone had joined up, Glubber pulled us all into a call. Well, not the entirety of our Hive, that was just unnecessary, but Junior and Tiny were both present, as was the Queen’s Guard, Snuffles, and, of course, Bellona. The rest were all the Samurai who had joined the expedition.
“Welcome, everyone,” Glubber said as they began the impromptu meeting. Their voice was rather strange, bubbly and poppy, somewhat similar to hot tar. “As you have all been briefed, today will be the start of our expedition to deal with the Hive’s outside of town. Before we begin I would like to address a few commonly asked questions, just to make sure we are on the same page.”
They were quiet for a moment, before they continued. “First, why don’t we just bomb them? The answer to that is simple. It needs very little antithesis biomass to spawn even more Hives, bombing them would send tons of the stuff into the atmosphere to be transported miles away. The risk of creating dozens more Hives is much too big for us to seriously consider this as anything but a last resort.”
There was another moment of silence, perhaps to invite questions, perhaps just for Glubber to organise their thoughts. Nobody spoke up, though.
“Second, why aren’t the high tier Samurai dealing with this? Well, they are, in a way. The Hives we will be tackling today are well established and dug in deep. Even someone like Bahamut would have trouble decisively dealing with them without spreading more biomass. Additionally, New Savannah doesn’t have a big Samurai presence. Because of this, we have decided that it makes more sense for those who are not as well established yet to obtain more points. Once you all are more capable of dealing with such threats in the future, everyone in this city will be safer. So far the high tier Samurai, as many as we have anyway, have done their best to prune the antithesis. Hopefully, at the end of this expedition, such will no longer be required.”
“Pardon me,” a familiar voice spoke up.
It appeared Mask had found some time to join in after all. We weren’t sure if she was here with all her bodies, but from her comment when we met her a couple days prior, we thought it unlikely.
“Yes?” Glubber asked, allowing her to speak.
“Perhaps I am simply ignorant, since I am rather new, but why exactly do we not have more high tier Samurai?”
Glubber sighed, the bubbling sound a rather curious thing to listen to. “That would be because of the Hives in question. A few years ago we tried to eradicate them, but we were ill prepared and rushed our attack. Most died, some decided to leave right after. This time we are better prepared, have better information, and have pruned them as much as we could. That said, this is not a simple mission. The danger will be high, but so will the reward. You all are here voluntarily, we will not order you nor ask you to act against your wishes. But you also need to keep in mind that this mission is important and will allow you to obtain a veritable treasure trove of points.”
There was another long moment of silence, and we half expected some to leave. Nobody did, though. We took that as a good sign. Personally, we were all onboard with it. Chloe, Jenna, and the rest of Us were rather well established, we felt. We had made our experiences and we had the troops and capabilities to have a reasonable chance at this. Sure, we’d have to be careful, but that was always the case when it came to handling the antithesis.
“As for how we will tackle these Hives,” Glubber continued eventually, getting back on track. “Each of you will be in an assigned team, based on your skills and catalogues, as much as we know about them. If you are unhappy with your team, please let us know. That said, we can’t promise that we will be able to reassign you right away. As long as you are a part of this expedition, we expect that you will show at least a modicum of trust in our planning. We have spent a considerable amount of time trying to ensure that the disaster from the first expedition won’t repeat itself.”
Another pause left the call silent for a moment, before Glubber continued. “We can’t and won’t order you around, that is not how we operate. However, we expect that you will at least heed our words and give them the consideration they deserve. Those of you who are exceptionally new, will stay around the edges of the hives. Bahamut and myself will make sure you are safe, while you have the opportunity to obtain some points. Double-X, the Samurai responsible for scouting out most of the terrain, has just finished his newest map of the area. All of that is, of course, available to you through our main mission channels. If you have any questions, you will have the opportunity to voice them at the end of this presentation.”
A number of packages came across the call, each directed to one of the Samurai taking part.
“These are the assignments, your specific objectives, as well as the dangers you can expect to face. Let me be very clear. While we spent a long time making sure to find out as much as we could, we cannot guarantee that all the information is correct. Always be prepared to face dangers that you are not aware of. That is a lesson you should adhere to in general, and one that always helps to keep in mind. How you structure your teams, who will take command, if one does at all, and how you deploy is all left up to you. We are aware that most Samurai don’t work well with predefined hierarchy structures, which is why we won’t bother trying to force you to adapt to any. Finally, I have a few words for Legion and Myriad.”
That did surprise Us, and we made sure to pay attention.
“Legion, from the profile we have on you, you are better at defence than offence. We would like to ask you to utilise this strength of yours to fortify our command center. Take this as a real world lesson on what to do and how to approach it. Nobody is expecting you to be perfect, but every last bit of training you can get in those regards will come in handy in the future. Of course, you are still expected to deal with the Hive, and if you feel that you spread yourself too thin, feel free to pull out your troops to where you need them. If you do, please let us know, so we can adjust accordingly.”
“Okay,” Jenna said. Her voice didn’t make it apparent, but her body language made it quite clear that she felt a bit uncertain.
“Myriad, you are quite different from most Samurai we have dealt with so far. Hive-Minds are not something we typically see, very few go down that route, and even less cooperate with our organisation for various reasons. Because of this we aren’t quite sure how you operate, but if it would be at all possible, do you think you can have some of your drones patrol the border around the other Hives to pick off any stragglers?”
“To answer that, we should probably first explain a few things, just to make sure you know what to expect from Us,” we said, taking on a more serious tone.
“We are Myriad. That means more than just having drones. While I am their Queen and they follow my will, each of Us has her own voice. We are all individuals, to some degree, and we can all individually cooperate with you. It is the reason why we have all joined up in the chat. That said, we do have a hierarchy. Let me introduce you to the most important members of the chorus. The first is Junior, she is responsible for keeping the Hive organised. If you require any information about our status, you can ask her. Next is Tiny, she’s the central node for the Burdened, a group of Us that is responsible for organising, archiving, and distributing information. If you need to disseminate any important news, please contact her.”
We switched our attention to the rest of those present, our gaze sweeping across every single video window in our virtual realm. “She is also capable of getting any of you out of a sticky situation. If you find yourself cut off, feel free to send her a message. She can’t talk in person, so calls are a must.”
We let that one sink in for a moment, just so that everyone had time to mentally note it down.
“Then we have Bellona and Snuffles. Bellona is one of our Warleaders, in charge of organising our War Drones. She is our general in chief and responsible for leading our troops. Snuffles is the leader of our Feastmasters, she is responsible for cleanup and biomass distribution. If you wish for Us to watch the borders of the expedition site, she is the one you would want to talk to. We realise that this is quite a lot to take in, and we do apologise, but since you wanted to know more about how we operate, this is the most concise summary we can give you.”
There was a momentary silence, before Glubber spoke up once more.
“Good to know. Thank you for the information. I was informed that you are quite different from Hive-Minds like Mask, for example. But the details were not something that my AI would share with me. I will revise a few of our procedures to work better with that knowledge in mind. Before we begin, does anyone have any more questions?”
There were a couple of people who spoke up, mostly asking about aspects of their specific Hives, the group they were working with, what to do in case of emergency, the usual.
Our attention was drawn to a few Samurai who had a few questions for Us. Mostly about Tiny and how she could get them out of a tight spot. We explained to them who Tiny was, what she was capable of, and how she could help if need be.
Some wanted to know more about Us in general, which did surprise Us, then again, we were quite unlike most others. There were also some discussions between other Samurai, but we didn’t pay too much attention to that.
Soon the call was done, and we relaxed back into Chloe’s lap.
“You ready?” We asked the two ladies with a glance.
“As ready as I could be,” Chloe said, squeezing Us a bit tighter.
“Yep. Let’s get moving!”
Jenna pressed a few buttons, and soon the Corvette started to move. Our destination wasn’t too far, and despite the fact that Jenna had yet to get the upgraded thrusters, it would only take a couple of minutes.
Nevertheless, we used that time to prepare. Our Broodmothers had been busy creating more Hexclaws with the remnants of the biomass we had gotten two days prior, as well as some of the greenery that we had collected over our day of downtime.
Most of the drones we created were War Drones, for obvious reasons. But that didn’t mean we entirely stopped Hatchling production. A number of them had evolved over the last couple of days, even if most of those that did, had evolved into non-combat roles. There were some more specialised combat units, however.
One group had even gotten so far to fully change, becoming what Kaysa referred to as Hexclaw Gloomstalkers. They were primarily ambush predators, sleek and lithe, with a bit of asymmetrical design to them. Instead of four arms equally split in two on either side, they had one normal, clawed arm on the left, and two on the right, one slightly larger and stronger for gripping, one more lanky and dexterous, equipped with venomous claws.
Jenna had also made good on her offer to clean up the old industrial district. Well, a small part of it. After her drones were done refurbishing and repairing the brothel the day prior, before we had started our shift, she had begun to collect all the scrap she could to churn out more Sentinels. The Corvette’s production facilities had been running nearly non-stop since then.
By this point we had reached close to eight hundred voices, even after the number we had lost, and Jenna was close to four hundred Sentinels, even if a significant portion of that were her Tier 1 version. Her tier system had nothing to do with the system the protectors used, simply denoting the different revisions of her Sentinels. Her Tier 1 Sentinels were the earliest revision, which meant that they were slightly less capable, but with the numbers she had available, that was still a significant force.
“We should be meeting the fellow we are working with once we arrive,” Jenna said, checking something in her augs. “He’s going to arrive a minute or so after us, from the looks of things.”
“Who is that, exactly? We read the file, of course, but have you met him during the first meeting?” Since we had missed it, we weren’t quite sure about who was all part of this expedition, in a personal capacity.
“No clue, honestly,” Chloe said, absently caressing our belly while she was checking over the file in her augs. “I don’t think he was present at the meeting. Maybe he called in or something. He’s far more experienced, though. I’d say, let him call the shots.”
“Yeah,” Jenna agreed, “We might have gear and whatnot, but compared to him, we know next to nothing. And since he’s specialised in medium range area denial and crowd control, he probably knows how to react to emergencies much better than we could.”
“Fine by Us. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from him. We’ll probably get some Dream Learning implants soon, this expedition is going to take a few days, and in the downtime we can grab what we need to be better on the battlefield. Really, we should have done that already. Might have led to less dead during the gang war.”
Chloe put an arm around Us, squeezing Us gently. “Hindsight is always 20/20. You can’t prepare for any eventuality, Sera. And you did damn good with what you had at the time.”
We nuzzled into her, just taking a moment to appreciate our girlfriend. The thought alone, that we had a girlfriend, and especially one this overwhelmingly wonderful, made our stomach flutter.
“Thanks.”
“I agree with the sentiment, though,” Jenna chimed in, “I’ll also get some once I get some points buffered. Mainly I want to save up to upgrade the Corvette and maybe finally get my body mods, but not getting something important for the missions sounds like suicide.”
“Yeah. We’ll probably do something similar. Get enough points for the body mods, maybe something for the rest of Us. We could use some more bigger hitters, someone akin to Tiny maybe. We’ll have to check in with Kaysa when we get a chance.”
As we expected, the flight didn’t take long. The operation wasn’t too far away from the city, and soon we could see a smaller convoy of vehicles rushing by on one of the major roads, all going in the same direction we were going. From our position in the sky we could see the base of operations that the Family had set up already, with smaller groups further out.
The main camp was a bit less impressive than what we had first expected, a collection of tents and container housing, surrounded by a group of military vehicles. People were milling about, probably one or more PMCs of some sort.
Jenna brought the Bastion of Hope to a stop, hovering just above. She would unload a couple of her forces first, as well as Snuffles, her Reavers, the Sabertooths, and the Siverin Bile Spewers. They were much better suited for defensive duty, while the Sabertooths and Snuffles’ Reavers would be on perimeter guard.
Once that was done, we continued our trip towards the Hive we were assigned to. Most of Us had already finished boarding the shuttles that Jenna had put aside for our use, while she was already done loading her Sentinels up. The three of us made our way to the hangar and boarded our personal shuttle, this time not only accompanied by Junior and the Queen’s Guard, but also Bellona, Khernos, and Thanatos, along with a small contingent of their battalion.
Arriving near the meeting spot, the shuttles took off, while Evenlyn began landing the Bastion of Hope to unload Tiny and the Legion Enforcer. There had been some discussion about keeping the Enforcer closer to the headquarters, but while Jenna was willing to help with the defence, she also wanted a fallback point of her own.
The empty shuttles returned to the Corvette to be refilled, while we stepped out of our personal shuttle, inspecting our surroundings.
We already had a pretty decent idea of what the landscape would look like, from the map and all the information we had received, but getting a better in person look was always helpful. We also perused the informational package, noting everything of importance, internally planning out where to best position our different squads. Tiny would be of little use in direct combat, since the Hive had dug in quite deep, with only smaller tunnels leading up to the surface, but she could still come in handy, in case of an emergency.
Not long after we had started getting ready for the excursion, we could see a jeep driving towards us in the distance. That would be the Samurai who was working with us, and we watched him come closer.
Time to see who this fella was.