A Joytoy’s Journey to become a Hive-Queen [A SCS Fanfic]

Chapter 80 – Danse Macabre

“The most important thing during a fight is to keep a level head. No matter how outmatched you are, if you can keep calm while your opponent doesn't you will at least have a chance at victory. Or if not victory, then at least a chance at escape.

That said, a chance doesn’t mean a guarantee, and while keeping a level head is always advisable, sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where no amount of training will help you. There are threats out there that are far, far beyond what any soldier should ever face, and those aren’t only antithesis related.

If you find yourself in a situation where a Samurai starts losing their head, I advise you to run, and fast. Even if you aren’t the target of their ire, Samurai have a talent to flatten an entire countryside on their mission to repay whatever has angered them. Most will try to help you, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.

In this job it’s often important to keep as close an eye on your allies as it is to keep an eye on your enemy. Never forget that most Samurai are civies with no training in combat and discipline. And civies often make bad choices.”

  -  Major Kethar in a briefing for the 12th Defence Corps, 2047

To say we were exhausted would be an understatement. After days of nonstop harmony and fighting, our mental energy, as well as our biological batteries, was drained. Still, we forced ourselves to endure, trying to cope with the collective headache that kept creeping in.

The antithesis wouldn’t wait just to give Us some time to rest. And with the sheer numbers of xenos now pushing their way out of the ground, we didn’t have any time to waste.

Bahamut’s guess turned out to be correct. It was a model Twenty-Four-H, although the H variant nomenclature might be a bit misleading. The Fifty-Four-H we faced in the simulation was a variant specifically designed to fight Hexclaws on the Hexclaw homeworld, this one was less designed to face Hexclaws, and more swarms in general.

Glubber postulated that it might be a reaction to Nym trying to get her swarm of critters in there. It made Us idly question why there were so many variants around. That wasn’t something that the media typically displayed.

Variant models are far more widespread than you’d think. While any fresh incursion wouldn’t show any variants in the first 24 to 48 hours, every antithesis Hive will eventually start to specialise and adapt to the specific situation they find themselves in.

This Hive cluster is a good example of this. They’ve been around for a couple of years and are likely the reason for the stealth incursion during which you became a Vanguard. Stealth incursions are already unlike normal incursions, which makes a degree of specialisation more or less a guarantee.

That did make a lot of sense, we supposed. And if the numbers Kaysa was giving Us were anything to go by, the trend was only rising. Antithesis who already had a foothold on Earth were more likely to adapt, and that meant that it was likely to keep going in that direction.

As good as that was to know, it didn’t really help much here, and we mentally chastised ourselves for getting distracted. It was hard to keep focused, but that was no excuse for sloppiness.

The problem was not just the Twenty-Four-H. The antithesis had used the last few days of the northern Hive being under lockdown to cook up more models. One of which was somehow able to block certain scanners and the like, which is why we hadn’t seen anything up until now. And even now it was scrambling our scanners something fierce, making it hard to get a proper look at things.

We observed the situation, our forces on the march. Jenna had given Us all the shuttles she could spare, sans two that she needed for her own troop movements, and we were rushing to get everyone loaded up and shipped over to the other Hive. Our Hive-Queen was already on her way, trying to find the biggest threats.

The Legion Enforcer and the Bastion of Hope were also moving, opening up on any of the antithesis that made their way out of the Hive from a distance. Artillery fire rained down upon the alien hordes, the Legion Enforcer trying its best to decimate as many of the enemies as it could from range. The night sky was lit up with a variety of tracers, the Corvette’s weapon systems homing in on the flocks of arial units made up mostly of model Ones and Twos; if this was any other day we would have stopped to admire the scene, looking straight up like some of the sci-fi holos on the net.

With an effort of will, we forced ourselves to concentrate on the fight at hand. Some of Us were arriving early, mostly the Envoli and the faster ground units, such as our Feastmaster and her squad. They had a lot of aliens to contend with, even at the edges of the Hive.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The larger models had burst out of the core of the Hive, opening up the way for the smaller models to come pouring out, and there were a lot of them. Nym and Jenna were already trying their best to keep them in check, Spark also flying overhead, raining down death and thunder and enough electricity to scramble some of the sensors closer to the Hive itself.

With our Protector still healing, we could not rely on her in a melee brawl, which was a major problem for Us. She was still able to lay down supportive fire with her long range kinetic weaponry, but that was dangerous to our ground troops, even if she was a pretty good shot thanks to all her targeting systems.

The first large-scale clash only occurred a minute or so later, when the first shuttles arrived, unloading our troops. Immediately we were sat upon by hordes of model Threes and Fours, while our Envoli Vultures and Raptors tried their best to hunt down any model Ones and Twos who managed to escape the anti-air fire from Jenna’s army.

It was pure chaos, the harmony too exhausted for anything else. Brute force was all that we could offer, falling back onto our Hexclaw instincts, our ferocity, and the desire to crush the antithesis wholesale. Typically we would have preferred something more calculated, since an approach like this meant far more losses, but at the moment we simply lacked the mental energy for the finesse that would require. All we could do was try our best to keep the xenos from getting too far.

Then the Legion Enforcer began its second artillery run, now in a position where Jenna did not need to worry about hitting our own troops. Shells rained down on the Hive with reckless abandon, explosions ripping apart large groups of xenos. An idle part of Us realised that this approach would require more cleanup, with all the biomass being thrown around, but at least the explosions were not big enough to spread them too far.

Chloe and Bobby were also making their way over, scouting the edges in Bobby’s Jeep. Nym was sending some critters, but by far not enough to make a big difference, and nobody else was available to help out, since they were still dealing with the other Hives. We could see Shiarex flying over, which meant Bahamut would not be far, but with all the large forms we could see pulling themselves out of the ground, we were not sure how much she could take part in dealing with the smaller xenos.

Her strength lay in dealing with big models, not in trying to crush entire hordes of smaller antithesis.

Despite our quickly mounting losses, we managed to put up a defensive line, from which we were able to advance further. All we wanted was to finally finish this fucking expedition, and we had to actively hold ourselves back from going too hard on the offensive. With how tired we were, that would very likely end in our downfall.

Our Hive-Queen had engaged the Twenty-Four-H, supported by long range fire support from our Protector. She did not have an open field of fire, however, and that meant that any help would have to come from the rest of Us. We did our best to send as many troops as we could to support her, but the Twenty-Four-H was not the only main threat.

It did not take long for the other large models to be identified, mostly made up of Twenty-Ones, a few Twenty-Threes, one of which was a V variant, which made it very dangerous to engage, and a model Twenty-Two.

The last one looked far bigger than it should be, although Double-X quickly informed Us that it was not a variant of some kind. It had simply grown much bigger than was typical, which was better than the alternative, but still not a good sign. It meant that they had biomass to spare, and that was not good.

The most dangerous out of all of them was a model Sixteen-K. Not because it was the most capable fighter, but simply because of its intelligence and its capability to scramble our scanners over quite some distance. It was, in fact, the reason we had not been able to scan deeper into the Hive, and it seemed to be their central control node.

With it now present on the surface, our scanners began to act up, and even Double-X and Snapshots equipment started to falter. That was not good, we needed a good overview to keep the others updated. There simply was not enough concentration left in Us to keep everyone on the same page properly otherwise.

Despite the fact that the Queen’s Guard would normally never leave the Hive-Queen’s side, she sent them to deal with the model Sixteen-K. With nobody else to take care of it available, they would be our best bet at putting it down quickly. Shiarex was focusing on dealing with the Twenty-Three-V, which seemed to be a threat even to the big mecha-dragon. That did not bode well at all.

Truth be told, at some point we kind of lost coherence, mostly acting on autopilot. The battle became more and more a blur, just trying to deal with any antithesis that tried to make their way out. More and more the harmony fragmented, until it started to dissolve entirely, leaving all of Us to fend for themselves.

With ferocity I cleaved my way through the smaller models, ripping them apart and leaving their dead and dying bodies behind. Once more shifting, something I had only gotten better at, I took on a form similar to Snuffles, rushing forward fast and hard.

Thinking was a bit hard, the chaos in the chorus distracting, but I did my best to keep it together. When I judged myself close enough, I pounced, shifting my form midair, and crashing into the model Twenty-Four-H firing strange quills at the defenders in the distance, a barrage of tentacles whipping out at anyone closer. Now in the form that was a mix between Najav and Hive-Queen, I bowled the thing over, my claws finding purchase.

The model Twenty-Four-H was a strange thing, a forest of tentacles all connected to a somewhat feline main body, like a weird cross between a model Six and a model Three. It was powerful and well protected, both due to its natural armor and the tentacles that it could utilise to block my attacks. I had trouble getting a proper perspective on it, with no apparent front or back, although after a moment I saw what passed for a head at one end. Not that the alien seemed to care much from which side I attacked.

The large fucker reacted immediately to my attempts at pushing it to the ground, using the momentum of the fall to kick itself upright and pushing me away. I managed to keep myself clear of the retaliation attack, but only barely, and despite my best attempts to find my balance, the alien didn’t give me the time for it. I had to take a few steps back, forming a pincer with one arm to block its weird tentacles, trying to find an opening.

Its attacks were relentless, and I could feel myself being pushed back more and more. If I didn’t change my approach soon, it’d exhaust me before I had time to deal with it. With so many of Us close by, Tiny didn’t have the clearance to take potshots at it at the moment, which meant I had nothing to rely on but my own strength.

Taking a chance, I waited for its next attack, hoping for it to over commit. When I saw an opening, I quickly shifted once more, turning into the form of a Spotter, small and nimble. This body wasn’t made to fight, but all I needed was a way to get closer.

Jumping over the tentacles, quite often only escaping the trashing attacks by the skin of my teeth through more luck than skill, I got under it, shifting again, and gripping the thing with powerful arms, pushing it off the ground and onto its back. The long form of a Sottornos Reaper was very helpful in this regard, and it enabled me to keep it pinned down.

Its tentacles didn’t relent, of course, and I howled at the feeling of them slapping me hard and fast. Even with my armor I could still feel the powerful hits, sipping away at my already pretty fragile focus. My head formed into that of a Progenitor Reaver, and I began to bite at its less armored underside in a bit of panic.

My fangs tried to find purchase, leaving a few gashes, but the antithesis didn’t give me the time to get a proper hit in. Struggling, it managed a pretty good kick, hitting me straight in the chest. Air was pushed out of my lungs, making me see stars for a brief moment, its powerful limb pushing me away and dislodging my hold on it.

Disoriented, I scrambled, desperately trying to take a deep breath and to get to my feet, when I felt it land on me, its sharp claws digging into my back as if my armored carapace wasn’t even there.

The model Twenty-Four-H had a somewhat feline build, even if it was only a very vague approximation, and that made it easy for the thing to hold me down like a lion would its prey. My attempts to maybe force it away by thrashing at it with my many limbs were fruitless; not only could I not get a good angle on it, it was also far too nimble in its current position for me to hit it properly.

Panic began to rise when I felt it rip off one of my limbs and I screamed, its tentacles hammering into me with brutal force. I tried desperately to shift, to maybe escape it that way, but it managed to keep a hold on me, slowly whittling away at my biomass.

Then the tables finally turned. A brief lull in the activity around me allowed Tiny to line up a proper shot with her autocannon, blasting out a good chunk of the Twenty-Four-H’s side. The explosive round sent it sprawling to the side, and finally I was able to take a proper breath, scrambling to my feet with my ears ringing.

Not giving the fucker any time to recover, I threw myself at it, shifting into a Najav once more. The attack lacked any kind of finesse or aim, more a desperate attempt to finally get the upper hand, but it did the trick, my pincers gripping a few of its tentacles and brutally ripping them out.

It sent the antithesis stumbling to the ground once more, its wounded flanked exposed to me, and I took advantage of it immediately. I didn’t have Tiny’s flamethrower or autocannon, nor did I have the same kind of flame breath attack that I had enjoyed during the simulation even in my Hive-Queen form, but I did have a maw full of teeth and enough biomass remaining to form two more scythe-like arms between my pincers, which were still holding the thing down.

The alien writhed under me, trying to escape my clutches, but for once I had the upper hand, and I pushed the advantage as much as I could. With huge bites I devoured as much as I could, leaving massive wounds in its side, forming barbs on the scythes and the pincers and ripping out as much of its flesh as I was physically able.

I was distracted for a moment when Shiarex flew past me, the Twenty-Three-V held in its claws, smashing the alien into the ground. 

Even that small moment of distraction was enough for me to miss the second Twenty-Three following after, however, crashing into me and ripping me away from the Twenty-Four-H. The world turned and spun, and for a long moment I didn’t know up from down. When I finally came to, I saw the Twenty-Three that had tackled me already involved in a brawl with Shiarex, who had turned to help me.

The Twenty-Four-H was also already trying to get up, even wounded as it was. That was not something I could allow, and with a groan of pain I once more scrambled to my feet, taking the form of a Reaver, dashing over as fast as I was able. Which, truth be told, was quite a bit slower than I would have preferred.

Nevertheless, I was able to reach the damn thing before it had the time to make for the hills, or to try and stop me. Just before I impacted, I shifted into the long, snake-like form of a Sottornos Reaper, wrapping myself around the wounded antithesis, forming barbs all over my carapace.

With a roar I tried to push it down, finding it much easier now that the Twenty-Four-H was wounded, and with a few rapid bites I managed to dismember nearly all of its tentacles on its left side, leaving another set of deep gashes.

It tried to buck and resist, its remaining tentacles hopelessly thrashing at me. Quills shot out in all directions, but none managed to pierce my reinforced carapace, which was a small mercy. I laid into it as best as I could, devouring any biomass I could get into my maw, the taste driving me wild in my mentally compromised state.

I wasn’t quite sure what exactly happened for the next little while, my mind far too muddled for it all. While it might have been wounded, it was a powerful adversary, and only thanks to the training I had gotten through Dream Learning, was I able to properly fight back.

Eventually, though, I managed to get one of my limbs into its… well, I’ll just call the fucking thing a throat, even if it was hard to identify anything on the misgrown salad, and cut into it deeply. It was already bleeding profusely, and this just settled things. Stumbling it tried to get up, to escape my grip, but I didn’t let it, coiling myself up around even harder, mentally screaming for it to finally fucking die!

Then I heard something crack beneath me, and suddenly all the movement stopped. We lay there, I wasn’t going to give up the advantage in case it was feigning defeat, my breath coming raggedly.

After a long moment of silence, I finally heard the little ding from the incoming notification, proving that it was dead. I didn’t pay any attention to what it actually said, there was no way I could focus on small little details like that right now. Letting go of the crushed fuck, I took a few more bites out of it, partly to restock my biomass supply which had taken a pretty good hit, and to heal myself up a bit. It would take a moment for my wounds to heal, but this fight wasn’t done yet. The Twenty-Four-H was only one of many larger threats, not to mention the horde of smaller models, and I couldn’t afford to waste any time.

It took way too much effort to get back up again, and an even longer moment to focus on my surroundings to try and find the next target. Shiarex was still dealing with the Twenty-Three-V, the non variant one that had attacked me already dead. The big T-Rex was wounded, but it still held on, and now the Twenty-Two seemed to have joined the fight.

Or maybe Shiarex had involved the walking Hive. It was kind of hard to tell from the fight, not that I particularly cared about the exact reason for the threeway brawl all too much.

“Kaysa,” I said, my voice a brutal rasp, lacking any of the friendliness the rest of our Hexclaw bodies had, “I need something to keep me going…”

Of course.

Thanks to my upgrades, I didn’t need to drink the stuff, which I thought was a blessing. Then I could feel the wake up drug being injected into my veins and I decided that that thought could go fuck itself. While I didn’t have to contend with the absolutely foul taste of the stuff, the feeling of it getting pumped into me was somehow even more unpleasant. Sure, it did the trick, but fucking hell, I would let Kaysa inject something into me when absolutely necessary.

I blinked, trying to come to terms with the sudden burst of energy I felt. It hit much harder than any drug I’ve ever taken, making me stumble for a long moment. My body felt refreshed, although my mind was still exhausted. That would be bad, especially long term, but that just wasn’t something I could worry about at the moment.

Focus, Seraphine, focus! You have a fight to win, come on, get it together!

Feeling marginally better and not wasting another moment, I dashed forwards, trying to get to the rest of the model Twenty-Threes before they had any time to get past our defences.

Tiny was doing her best from range, the Twenty-Threes were big enough for her to hit semi-reliably, but that didn’t make it much easier. They certainly were trying their best to rip as many of Us apart as they could, and I mentally berated myself for not trying harder to get the Hive-Mind upgrade that would allow Us to retain our voices. At least we’d be able to get it after this mess, I was pretty sure by this point we should have the tokens that we needed.

Banishing those thoughts from my mind, I shifted my form once again, ramming into the closest Twenty-Three, and making myself as big as I could. Without much preamble I clawed into it, fangs and claws ripping open its armored side. For good measure I roared, just to get some of my frustrations out, and together the two of us tumbled to the ground.

I clambered to keep the upper hand, using every limb I had available to me to inflict as much damage as I could. Maybe it was the rush of energy, maybe it was all the frustration and the wish to end it quickly, or maybe it was simply distracted; whatever the case, I ripped through the massive alien like tissue paper.

With big bites I tore chunks out of it, before I left the dying model Twenty-Three behind to pounce the next one. It was already coming over, probably to help deal with me, but that suited me just fine. This way I didn’t have to hunt down my prey.

Despite my ferocity, the fight started less than stellar, the massive T-Rex-like alien managing to kick me hard in the chest, stealing the air from my lungs. I tried to recover, but it pushed its advantage, just as feral in its style than I was. I roared again, or tried to at least, my lungs still burning from the sudden absence of air, and threw myself at it in an attempt to push it over and to the ground.

It didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it. The Twenty-Three had opened its maw, and in my hazy state of mind I didn’t realise it was biting down on some of my limbs, now that I got closer. With a heavy yank it ripped the limb clean off, making me scream in agony.

Thoroughly pissed off, I returned the gesture, winding myself around its powerful midsection. My many, many smaller limbs, all equipped with sharp blades and barbs, burrowed themselves into its back, thrashing and clawing for all I was worth. It made it harder to shake me off, but it didn’t really hurt it either.

In an act of desperation it threw itself to the ground. Still coiled around it, that crushed me pretty good and my vision went black from pain for a moment. Only barely did I keep conscious, flailing around with everything I had. Something must have hit something important, since it flinched back. Even in my compromised state of mind, I didn’t let the opportunity slip past me, relying entirely on the training hammered into my skull through the Dream Learning process.

With all the strength I could muster, I managed to get two of my claws in its face, then pulled hard. Antithesis didn’t make any sounds, typically, but now the Twenty-Three was giving off a strange gurgle. I kept up the pressure, pulling its maw wide open, not relenting even for a moment, before there finally was a crack and its body gave out.

I overbend its maw to the point I more or less ripped off its lower jaw, forcing it to try and get away from me. That was all that I needed to finish off the fight. With its maw, one of its best weapons, inoperable, I jumped it one last time, closing my own massive jaws around its neck, writhing left and right and ripping it apart.

The Twenty-Three hit the ground and I took a moment to take a few deep breaths.

My victory didn’t last long; before I had even time to get fresh air back into my lungs, the world flipped upside down again, and pain unlike anything else rocked my body. When the world finally came to a stop, I found myself a couple dozen meters away, every last fiber of my being complaining about the mistreatment.

My vision was blurry, and I groaned while I tried to get my bearings, heavily falling onto my stomach. With my feet now under me, I tried to get up. That attempt was thwarted when a heavy weight jumped on top of me, sharp claws digging deep into my armor, and once again all I could see were stars for a very long moment.

The weight vanished a moment later, the sounds of mechanical weapons going off the only indicator who my miraculous saviour was. From the corner of my eyes I could see Shiarex landing heavily on the Twenty-Three that had jumped me, turning the large alien to paste on the ground.

All the back and forth had taken a toll on me, and despite the energising bullshit Kaysa had so kindly given me, it took me far too long to get back up again. I was still in a lot of pain, even if it was slowly healing, and it made thinking hard. 

Utilising this moment to check up on the state of things, if only to distract myself from my misery, I found that we were slowly pushing the aliens back, mostly thanks to Spark playing living thundercloud.

I was just about to get up and find the next big alien to kill, when a rush went through Us, a shock that went far beyond anything else. A scream tore through the night, and every single one of Us locked onto the source instantly and in one smooth motion.

Thoughts failed me, everything else lost any and all meaning, the only reality occupying me at that moment was the scream that chilled me to my bones. My vision went red, my mind utterly blank, and despite the exhaustion I shot up, breaking into a full sprint, pushing every last muscle hard enough to tear.

That scream belonged to Jenna. And she was in a very bad situation.

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