Queen World of the Insectoid Empire
Brood Chamber of the Hive Mother
Fourth Cycle, 384.91 years, Insectoid solar calendar
June 8th, 2176 A.D.
The Hive Mother watched the projection coming from Bandit-Friend's thorax, enthralled by the strange visual images as she quickly looked at the ichor-stained black carapace to find the origin source. She could not discern where it was coming from and she resumed looking at the floating images, wondering if the animals would give her the secret to making such projections herself.
The animal drone in space was sharing thoughts with him, and she marveled once more at the cleverness of the animals for finding ways to share thoughts among themselves and their machines despite not being able to access each others minds.
The animals had been attacking the traitor ships and destroying them, using fighting tactics she had never seen from them before. They did not swarm the traitors and get close like they had always done in the other battles.
This time, they fought from longer ranges and used much smaller ships that fired long-ranged missiles of incredible power. Their ships would attack and then retreat, leaving behind them many destroyed and damaged traitor ships while losing none themselves.
The machine-animal ships that had been the bane of the old Hive Mother’s existence, the ones she called spirit ships, entered the battle and targeted the eight Hive ships in the center of the smaller traitor swarm.
Bandit-Friend quickly made claw signs as the spirit ships began firing strange, slow-moving missiles at the eight Hive ships before flashing back out.
~ Look, Hive Mother. Now you will see why you wanting to make peace was the correct decision. ~
She felt the threat within Bandit-Friend's thoughts, feeling her anxiety increase as she resumed looking at the large missiles that had been fired by the spirit ships. They suddenly seemed to explode, much too far to cause any damage to the traitor Hive ships.
The projection changed perspective, zooming in to better see what was happening. There were thousands of small, metallic stingers that stabbed into the Hive ship hulls, almost seemingly in a specific pattern as they penetrated deeply.
What is this?
Her confusion grew when they did not explode, and she was just about to ask Bandit-Friend what the point of them was when she felt her thoughts freeze in shock. Before her very eyes, she saw the sections where the strange stingers had hit, turning opaque before imploding and then ejecting the insides of the Hive ships as massive parts of the hulls failed.
She felt paralyzing fear at the sight of the eight Hive ships suffering catastrophic decompressions as tens of thousands of drones streamed out from the interior. The most powerful ships of the empire were being destroyed in seconds as she watched hundreds of thousands of her tricked daughters dying as they froze before bursting in the vacuum of space.
She was snapped out of her shock by panicked thoughts from the Hive Mother within, imploring her to share thoughts. She let her in, still unable to comprehend what had just happened as she continued to stare at the now dead Hive ships tumbling out of control.
The Hive mother slowly looked at Bandit-Friend, seeing him in a different way as she felt afraid of him for the first time. With great difficulty, she made claw signs to ask him as her ancestors within clamored for the truth and sent waves of fear that threatened to cripple her.
~ This is not a trick, nor is it a falsehood, Hive Mother. We discovered the secrets of your hulls, and can now revert them back to their original state. We know the sounds you use to harden them, and we use your own technique to cause the hulls to collapse wherever the darts hit.
I told you; you are fortunate to have made it known to Aurora that you desired peace with the animals; otherwise, it would be all your ships facing these weapons, and your empire would have been no more.
This is not the only weapon we have developed, and there is nothing you could have done to prevent us from turning you into a single-planet species, forever banished to one world, forever denied access to space. ~
The clamoring within her stopped as her ancestors finally understood what the machine animal was telling the Hive Mother. The animals would have destroyed their empire and condemned them to being hostages to a single planet, denying them their rightful place among the stars.
They also realized that the machine animal made it clear that they would not have exterminated their species. Even after all they had done and the countless animals they had killed, they would have shown mercy to their enemies and allowed them to still live instead of killing them all.
A great shame came from them, almost making the Hive Mother collapse under the weight of it as it overwhelmed her. She felt the same as they did, and all the wrongness they had done for so long to the animals became almost unbearable as she realized that they would have shown them a mercy they did not truly deserve and never would have reciprocated if they had such a weapon to use against the animals.
We knew the persecutors would come for us, and we came here as strangers, taking suns and worlds that did not belong to us. Our thinking that all animals were a threat to us was based on our experiences with the other animals, and we refused to consider it might be otherwise with these animals as we attacked their Hives instead of trying to make peace with them. Look at us now, daughter. We are fighting amongst ourselves while the new animals just showed us their true power and ability. Our most powerful ships are now like clay to them, and we would not have been able to stand against them when they came for revenge. We do not deserve their mercy, and our fate of extermination is justified, for we are unworthy of such considerations after all the wrongness we have done.> She felt the truth of the thoughts coming from the Hive Mother within as she stared at Bandit-Friend, who had saved her and protected her willingly when the traitors came to cull her, even though he had no obligation to do so. She made claw signs to him, wanting to curl up into a ball and hide from the machine animal as the guilt and regret of her ancestors within joined with her own and threatened to subsume her. Bandit-Friend remained still, staring at her with the mirrored faceplate that had remained down since the traitors came to cull her. He lifted a claw and touched the side of his head carapace, causing the mirror to lift and expose his face. She could now see his yellow eyes as they stared into hers, and it took all her power not to look away from them in shame. He lifted his claws and signed to her slowly, as if wanting to make sure she understood his thoughts clearly. ~ No. I have decided you are my friend, which makes you worthy of my protection. You are not my Hive Mother; Aurora is, and she told me that she loved you and wanted to make a new way forward with you. I shall remain, and so will my animal friends who have come to save us. You need to understand something about these animals who have come. They are not like the other animals; they will not leave us behind even if I told them to leave. You are stuck with us now, Hive Mother. You have become our friend, and we will fight for you and the peace we will make between us because that is worth fighting for. ~ He raised his hand again, and the mirrored faceplate went back down, covering his now grimacing face. He turned away from her, and the projection came out of his thorax again, showing the ongoing battle between the traitors and the animals. The animal ships had stopped attacking, and the two traitor swarms they had broken apart were now combining into a single sphere swarm to confront them, no longer coming to the planet so quickly as they turned to face the animal ships behind them. The other two swarms that had been coming from the outer system just passed the boundary into the inner system, and they would soon come up behind the animal ships, trapping them between three swarms. She found herself feeling sadness for the animals who had come to save her, believing Bandit-Friend when he told her that they would not leave even if he asked them to. She felt the Hive Mother within sending thoughts that mirrored her own. We wanted peace; we did not even have weapons on our ships, for we did not know there were others among the stars, and we had been alone for so long. When the persecutors first came, we were terrified, but we did not think to attack them. It was only when they came back that we forever changed our thinking as they destroyed our Hives and killed our trillions of daughters. If the animals protecting you now had been the first, maybe we would never have become as we did, and we could have made war against the persecutors together. Perhaps we would still have our birth world, and our empire and animals such as these would have joined together to become one and live in peace. You must make this happen, Daughter of ours. The only way to receive pardon for all we have done is to survive what is to come and make a new way for the Hives. We must prove to the animals that we can change and become worthy of joining with them. Please, daughter, we cannot bear this shame anymore. Help us unburden ourselves so we may rest in the world of the dead in peace, free from the wrongness smothering our spirits.> She sent thoughts of love and understanding to her suffering ancestors, promising them that she would do whatever it took to help them find the peace they needed in the world of death and to make a new way for the Hives. Her sister had shown it to be possible to make peace with the animals, and Bandit-Friend had proven these animals to be different. Her resolve hardened as she stared at the projection. She had to help her new animal friends somehow, and she was done with being only a watcher as others determined the fate of her empire. What would the animals do? She thought to herself as she left the brood chamber and entered one of the drones in the command chamber of the primary Hive ship within the loyal swarm. She looked at the viewer and organized the information being displayed on it. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. If only she could take over both command drones on the traitor ships at the same time, she would be able to attack them from within and cause the traitor swarms to turn on each other. Her sister queens would not be able to break the conditioning; only a Hive Mother had the power to do so. The thought turned into an idea, and she returned to herself in the brood chamber. On the projection, the traitor swarm had joined into a sphere, and they started launching thousands of missiles at the animal ship. They needed her help now. Looking within herself, she accessed her inner ancestors and began to harness their combined mental power. Soon, her skull felt too small for her mind, and she sent a desperate plea to her sister across the vast distances, begging for help. * * * Aurora was in the command chamber of her Hive ship, waiting for the last of the systems to be checked before making the journey to the animal outpost to meet with Admiral-Friend and share thoughts with the other animal envoys. Aurora gripped the bench to prevent herself from falling, the power of her sister's thoughts making her reel under the onslaught. She felt the fear and desperation of the thoughts, and she quickly tapped into her ancestors within, harnessing their power to respond. Suppressing her instinctual desire to prevent exposing herself, Aurora let down the mental blocks and allowed her sister into her mind, who entered in a panicked state. The fear and anxiety that flooded her thoughts made it very difficult to make sense of what her sister was trying to share with her, but she carefully parsed through the shared thoughts and soon understood what was happening. Aurora felt her sister leave her mind, and she almost fell over from the sudden departure as the large void left by her sister's absence disoriented her. She steadied herself and sent her mind out, looking for the nearest focuser to connect to so she could go to her sister, who needed her. Finding one, she quickly activated the animal recorder device she always carried with her. She made claw signs to it for some time before giving it to an attendant drone and ordering it to bring the recorder to the Hive Nexus and give it to the machine animal station at the animal communication device installed there. The drone scurried off to carry out her commands, and she reached back out to the focuser she had found and began to send her essence to it. * * * “Holy shit.” Michaels looked quickly at his XO, hearing the disbelief in her voice as she continued to curse, her fingers flying over the holo screens in front of her as she sent the rest of the available frigate squadrons forward. “Send half of the destroyers too, Miriam.” He ordered before looking away from her and back at the holotank. The twelve frigate squadrons were already leaving the battle lines, leaping forward as their engines blasted at full power. Four seconds later, seventy destroyers surged forward as well, leaving him with the other seventy destroyers and reducing the combat power of his battle lines by a significant margin. They had no choice in the matter; the two thousand Insectoid missiles heading towards the fleet had made it for them. The first wave of bombers released their payloads just as the Insectoid missiles reached the halfway point and were now turning to head back to their motherships. The second wave of bombers was almost at their release points, and he wanted the fuckers who had fired the missiles gone. “Naomi, I want the second wave to target the ships that fired the missiles at us if any of them survive the first bombing run. I want them gone; is that understood?” ~Understood, Captain. I will take over the targeting preferences to ensure none of those ships survive. ~ “Thank you, Naomi. Tactical! Have the escorting starfighters join with the frigates and destroyers after they release their countermeasures; they can help shoot down the missiles and pursue any that make it through the screening force.” “Aye, Captain. Sending the new orders to the squadron leaders now.” The Insectoid missile volley was now 20,000 kilometers from the three frigate squadrons that had been sent to cover the bombing waves, and they opened fire with their long-range particle weapons, the invisible beams mocked up as blue lines on the holotank. Dozens of missiles blinked out as the beams found them, and the Insectoid drone pilots began executing evasive maneuvers as they quickly closed the gap between them and the first frigate screen. The holotank soon became a dizzying riot of blue lines appearing and disappearing as the display showed the particle beams being fired at the rapidly approaching missiles. The Insectoid missiles reached the 15,000-kilometer mark, and the first of the twelve frigate squadrons finally entered their maximum engagement envelope, the seventy destroyers right behind them. The newly arrived frigates and destroyers began braking maneuvers to slow down and increase the engagement time as they started tracking and firing at the oncoming missile wave, the captains letting their battle AIs handle the point defense systems. Dozens of missiles a second were being destroyed, but the red wave barely looked any smaller as it ominously drew closer to the blue fleet icons on the holotank. ~ Captain, the first wave of P-20 missiles will exit the countermeasure field in four seconds. ~ “I want to see, Naomi. Split-screen the holotank, please.” The holotank increased in size, and half of it changed to display the targeted enemy sphere formation. A second later, the missiles emerged from the blob of interference and bolted for their targets. The sphere formation was firing wildly as it tried to shoot down the missiles suddenly emerging from the interference of the countermeasure pods less than 200 kilometers away and heading right at them at speeds in excess of 150,000 kilometers an hour. Sixty-two Insectoid cruisers simply vanished under the onslaught as the surviving missiles slammed into them, and another twenty-three cruisers were severely damaged, the large gouges in their hulls bleeding frozen gases and drone bodies as they fell out of formation. A warning alert sounded, and Michaels looked at the other screen as large red numbers displayed the distance of the incoming Insectoid missile wave. They were now 11,530 kilometers away, and the numbers were dropping precipitously as the frigate and destroyer screens unleashed a maelstrom of energy weapons and grapeshot on the rapidly closing swarm of missiles. The starfighters finally caught up and started targeting the Insectoid missiles from behind with their rotary plasma turrets, dialing down the power output to increase the rate of fire as they sent thousands of plasma bolts into the massive wave. “Naomi, have the second wave of bombers bug out and take the long way around after releasing their payloads. I don’t want them getting caught in the crossfire trying to go through that shit. Take over the targeting and get rid of those missile throwers.” ~ Understood, Captain. ~ No longer able to monitor everything that was going on, he focused on the approaching missile swarm, trusting Naomi to handle coordination of both the missile targeting and the bomber withdrawal. Over eight hundred missiles had been shot down, and the hit rate was increasing as the missiles passed the 9,000-kilometer mark and entered the optimum engagement range of the still-braking frigate and destroyer screens. Over thirty friendly icons flashed yellow as they ran out of grapeshot canisters, rapidly followed by flashing indicators of their particle beam turrets overheating and turning to slag from the furious rate of fire they were being subjected to. Michaels was just about to order them to fall back to the battle lines when the yellow icon blasted their engines at full thrust, the ship updates indicating the activation of the secondary weapons systems as they leapt forward to intercept the oncoming blob of red icons. Angrily cursing them for their stupidity, he zoomed in to see what the hell they were doing before slamming his hand on the command override frequency to order them to abort and return to the battle lines. He paused as he saw the results of their mad charge into the swarm, the sheer destruction he was witnessing momentarily stunning him into inaction. Firing broadsides from both the port and starboard plasma turrets, railguns, and 30mm heavy Vulcan cannons as they penetrated deeper into the swarm, the frigates and destroyers were shooting down dozens of missiles a second as the Insectoid drone pilots tried to evade the sudden danger among them. The incredible bravery being displayed touched him deeply, but his anger returned with a vengeance as he saw dozens of missiles pivoting to target the ships within the swarm, and he practically screamed over the open channel as he inwardly cursed the captains of those ships for their foolish bravery. “Get the hell out of there! You are to return to the battle lines now, or so help me God, you will wish you never made it back after I am through with all of you!” He left the channel open as he looked at his XO, who stared at him with shock at his outburst, having never seen him so angry before. Looking back to glare at the zoomed-in screen, he winced as six frigates and four destroyers were destroyed by multiple missiles slamming into them. The yellow icons turned gray and were listed as Zeta status, indicating the complete destruction of the ships. Continuing their attack run, the surviving frigates and destroyers weaved a path of destruction through the swarm before finally exiting out the back end and breaking apart in a starburst pattern as they fled for open space. Seeing the tally of gray blinking Zeta icons infuriated him as the list of destroyed ships appeared on the holotank. Fourteen frigates and eight destroyers had been destroyed, and another nine ships were listed as combat ineffective. A part of him was reluctantly forced to acknowledge the effectiveness of their suicidal plunge into the missile swarm, and his anger turned to deep regret as he continued to stare at the blinking Zeta icons, wondering if any crewmembers survived the destruction of the twenty-two ships. They had shot down five hundred and thirty-seven missiles, effectively eliminating over half of the remaining swarm and severely disrupting the rest as they were forced to evade, squandering their precious thrust advantage and allowing the battle AIs to increase their hit rates against the now much slower-moving missiles. He thought of the crew on those destroyed ships, adding the numbers in his head as he tallied up the losses. He felt a wave of nausea as the number came to life, taunting him with a sea of featureless faces as his inner voice whispered the number and it echoed in his mind. 3,280. He looked back at the holotank with haunted eyes, his chest growing tight as a familiar, deep regret squeezed him like a vise and threatened to cause a panic attack, something he thought he had gotten over after all these years. The last time he felt like this was after the battle of the Eleania, when he desperately searched his mostly destroyed ship for survivors, clinging to a hope that would never be realized as he searched for air pockets and sealed bulkheads in a ship that was over 83% opened to the vacuum of space. He refused to believe the two hundred and sixty-eight crewmembers that reported in after the battle were all that remained out of the eight hundred and fifty crew complement of the Saratoga, and it took him a long time to finally accept their deaths and his inability to protect and save them. He concentrated on his breathing as he focused on the holotank and pushed down the old feelings. Fight for them now, grieve for them later, he thought to himself as the now much slower and disorganized missile swarm tried to get through the blocking force and retarget the battle line. They were forced to run through the gauntlet of frigates and destroyers for twenty-two seconds as they reached the screening force and thrust through an almost 1,000-kilometer-long shooting gallery. Less than three hundred missiles made it through the screening force, only to have the waiting starfighter escorts of the second bomber wave ambush them with a palpable fury as they sought revenge for their fallen comrades. The starfighters of the first wave were still chasing after them, and the now much smaller missile swarm broke apart as the surviving one hundred and thirty missiles activated their boosters and desperately tried to get away from the starfighters who were hunting them down mercilessly. Fourteen seconds later, Michaels yelled out over the still-open command override channel as the last ninety-six missiles reached a thousand miles from the fleet, still being chased by the vengeful starfighters. “All starfighters, bug out and fall back! All ships, allow your battle AIs to take over and coordinate point defense efforts!” He heard the whirring of the point defense turrets being activated throughout the Mei Zhou as the lights dimmed, the reactor's control system diverting all available power to the point defense system and grapeshot turrets lining the hull. The lights dimmed further as Naomi began firing particle beams, targeting the three jinking missiles heading directly for the Mei Zhou. Michaels gripped the arms of his chair, seeing the white knuckles of Miriam’s hands out of the corner of his eye as she did the same. The loud booms of the grapeshot canisters being fired could be heard reverberating throughout the ship as Naomi added them to the mix, the three missiles still targeting them finally entering the maximum engagement envelope of the grapeshot turrets. Boom-boom-boom! Michaels stared at the holotank as the point defenses continued firing, looking at the tracking numbers blinking in red as Naomi calmly called out the ranges and time to impact. Boom-boom-boom-boom! ~ 217 kilometers, nine seconds to impact. ~ Boom-boom-boom! ~155 kilometers, six seconds to impact. ~ Boom-boom-boom-boom! One of the three missiles flared as it got shredded with grapeshot, followed by another successful interception less than a second later. Michaels reached over and grabbed Miriam’s hand, wanting to feel the comfort of a friend before death came and took them. He felt her respond as she desperately clenched his hand, digging her nails into his palm as she murmured a prayer in Hebrew. Boom-boom-boom! ~ 92 kilometers, brace for impact. ~ Please, God, protect my crew. Boom-boom-boom-boom! Michaels closed his eyes just before the last missile impacted and tossed the ship like a toy boat, still holding Miriam’s hand as he felt the pain of his rib cage breaking against the harness before the world went black.