Aurora 4x
Fiction => Aurora => Rabid_Cog's Fiction => Topic started by: Rabid_Cog on February 18, 2013, 02:05:49 PM
-
Introduction
“A little more to the right” US ordered the two drones carrying the big, bulky console. Obediently, they shuffled a bit in the indicated direction, groaning under weight.
“On second thought, rather move it over there” she said, pointing to the other side of what was soon going to be Swarm Hive’s new command chamber. The two drones groaned even louder. “And hurry, the launch is happening in less than an hour!”
The little corner of Lambda Hive that had been the previous Swarm Hive had been cramped back when all they had to do was manage a few factories and all the problems were dealt with on site, but a steady influx of volunteer infertiles and assigned drone workers meant that the tunnels were steadily overflowing more and more. Eventually, as efficiency began to suffer, Swarm Command was moved to an extension of the Academy. For obvious reasons, expanding on the surface was far easier than tunneling out new passages underground.
Of course, US hadn’t minded the bit of distance this gave her to the other queens at all. Security was a little better here and the proximity of Infertile students nearby gave IM a source of close, moderately trustworthy labour.
“US, the shipyards send word that they are almost ready for launch. If we want to watch, we are going to have to hurry” PC shouted from the doorway.
“Almost done, just need to get this screen connected” US replied. “Where’s IM?”
“Out back in the Memorial Garden.Again.”
“PC! I told you not to call it that. It’s just a pile of bloody rocks! Why is she moping around out there so much anyway? I swear the fresh air here on the surface is addling her brain.”
PC shook her head. “She isn’t moping, she’s… thinking. Puzzling even.”
“Well, whatever she’s doing, get her in here! She’s going to miss the launch!”
IM sat quietly on the ground, sipping water from a flask and breathing in the fresh air of the surface world as she stared at the small cairn of stones and pondered its meaning. It was nothing more than eight roundish stones stacked on top of one another, apparently in remembrance of HN-31 and her team. At least, that was what the drones had said.
The Henry Hudson had… been lost. Struck by a stray micrometeorite in deep space, IM and the rest of Swarm Hive could do nothing but listen powerlessly to the distress calls as the surviving crew slowly died from asphyxiation and cold. The Sir Francis Drake had taken over a month to reach the tumbling wreck and by then it was cold and silent. There had been no survivors, not HN nor any of her team that were being transported to their next survey location. Their bodies were only recovered long enough to make positive identifications before being ejected back out the airlock. To IM, it served as a brutal reminder of the harshness of space.
The little pile of stones was the real mystery, however. For even though everyone knew drones lacked the ability to take initiative or make decisions on their own, they had somehow gotten it into their heads to erect this little memorial. Nobody had told them to do it, not one of her infertiles and certainly not a Hive Queen. And yet here it stood.
The others were mostly ignoring it, even though the implications were mildly troubling. It meant that the drones understood the importance of what HN was doing and possessed the emotional investment to want it not to be forgotten. Perhaps most distressing was the fact that no order they had could in any way be interpreted to have them do this. They showed initiative, something they weren’t supposed to have.
‘And if they have their own initiative, for what do they need Queens, besides as egg factories? Why don’t they just lead themselves?’ IM wondered.
“IM!” a voice carried faintly from the entrance of the facility a few hundred meters away, breaking the silence and interrupting her thoughts.
“What?” IM shouted back, mildly annoyed, as the figure of PC came running over. Why the silly queen hadn’t just sent a drone was beyond her.
“You’re going to miss the launch!” PC shouted. “They aren’t going to wait for you!”
“I have time, it’s only…” IM replied and fished a chronometer out of a side pouch. Immediately she sprang to her feet. “Hell, have I been sitting here this long already? I’m on my way.”
A lot of things had changed in the last three years. Most important of them all, the first two prototypes of a new Transnewtonian engine had been delivered. Through some miracle of science, it converted raw nuclear energy directly into thrust. Not the safest proposition, but it worked like a charm. Soon, the first two ships mounting these engines would be completed and ready for operations in deep space. The first was the Myrkul II class freighter. Essentially the hull of the old Myrkul fitted with the new engines.
The second ship was the one that was really exciting. It had been a brand new design by PC, mostly, and it, the Balor class, was slightly larger than the old Swaard class survey ships at 2300 tons, but in that space it fitted roughly the same loadout that the Swaard had carried except for two (2!) of the fastest, sleekest, most powerful engines the Swarm had ever produced. It was, in reality, a big prototype. The exact capabilities of the engines were as yet unknown.
US watched as a drone crawled out from under the monitor and nodded at her. Everything was connected and ready to receive the data stream from the shipyard.
“US! Are we ready?” IM shouted down the corridor. The security doors hadn’t even been installed yet, but there was no time to wait for such luxuries.
“Almost, just booting up!” US shouted back and she could hear the skittering sounds of the others claws coming closer.
The screen flickered to life just as PC and IM rushed in and took their positions near the centre. The room was crowded with infertiles and drones, all curious to see the big event.
“Fuel valves are nominal” the emotionless voice of UU-78-OLP, assigned captain of the Endymion, the new Balor class vessel, echoed over the speakers. “Checking injectors… Fuel injectors nominal.”
They were in time, but only barely. The ship was already going over its final pre-launch checklist.
On the bridge of the Endymion, things were tense, to put it mildly. They were flying an untested ship with untested engines operating on untested principles based on untested theory. And if things went wrong…? Well, they were NUCLEAR thermal engines and nothing with the word nuclear in ever went wrong gently.
“Coolant systems nominal” UU-78 reported methodically over the comms system to the eggheads in the control room aboard the shipyard. The one comforting thought she had was that if things did go horribly, catastrophically wrong the moment the engines powered up, those same eggheads who built the thing should still be inside the blast radius.
“All systems good to go” was finally transmitted from command as she reported the last of her systems functional. “Two minutes to launch. Initiate drive power.”
“Power up the engines” she commanded, her claws digging into the sides of her command chair. The first place that things could go wrong was the moment those drives got a taste of power…
“Launch in 5… 4… 3…”
“I hope it doesn’t blow up!” PC quipped.
“2… 1… releasing clamps.”
As the ship was being launched from the shipyard already in space, the launch itself was nothing like the spine-jarring, filling-rattling ordeal that was a conventional planetside launch using rocket motors. Instead, it consisted of nothing more than a sequence of pops as the docking clamps blew off (in a very carefully calculated fashion so as not to accidentally propel the ship into its moorings) and a gentle tug as the maneuvering jets slowly pushed the ship out of its slipway.
A rousing cheer echoed through Swarm Hive from drones and infertiles alike. Nothing had exploded yet, and, all things considered, that was a very good thing.
IM quickly ordered silence as the captain of the ship spoke again. "We have cleared the yard. I repeat,Endymion is clear of the shipyard."
"Roger, Endymion, proceed with the first phase of testing."
Some activity became visible on the ship as it prepared for acceleration. At the moment it was doing little more than coasting.
"Why are we doing these tests anyway? I thought we already put this ship through its paces in the dock" one of the other infertiles asked.
IM turned to her. "Because this will be the first full scale test of this propulsion technology."
"And we have no actual idea how fast this thing will go" PC added. "Faster than the old Hecatesdefinately, but the question is how much faster?"
"How fast do you think?" US asked with a sly smile.
"Well... if I had to guess, we will probably reach five hundred clicks per second. It's designed for speed, though, so we might even make a thousand!"
"No way it will hit a thousand" another infertile said.
The concept of gambling was completely alien to the Wrix - since their concept of ownership was a bit off by our standards - but if it had not been, then at this point a furious frenzy of betting would have broken out, most likely with US-93 acting as bookie. As it was, they simply settled for arguing.
"Everybody shut up!" IM eventually shouted. "It's picking up speed!"
"Speed at hundred kilometres per second..." the pilot of the Endymion said impassively over comms. "Hundred and twenty... hundred and fifty... keep pushing the power up slowly... hundred and ninety... two hundred."
There was another short cheer from the command room. Two hundred was twice as fast as the fastest Wrix vessel had ever traveled and it had been phase one for the Endymion.
"Confirm, Endymion. Report power levels" the mission control unit ordered. In time this would fall under Swarm Hive's responsibility, but for ease of management, it had been left in the hands of the shipyard's own control centre for this test.
"Power levels at... holy crap! We're only using four percent of our juice!" the chief engineer on board the Endymion reported back, excitement creeping into her voice.
"Roger Endymion, but please give exact values."
"Uh, sorry, 4.5318% of maximum power."
"Roger. Proceed to phase two."
An undercurrent of murmured excitement was sweeping Swarm Command. Phase two involved pushing the engines up to half power or five hundred kilometres per second, whichever came first.
The pilot locked the throttle as the ship settled in at its new speed of 500 km/s.
"Hmph, that was easier than expected" UU thought to herself. The helmsdrone had, in anticipation of the somewhat larger power requirement that was going to be needed, pushed the engine power levels up quite quickly before realising that far less power was needed than was expected. The net result was that the targeted speed was reached far quicker than anticipated.
"Control, this is Endymion reporting phase two complete. Speed is five hundred, over" the captain reported.
"Report status and power levels, Endymion" Control responded.
"Nothing much to report, bit of vibration but nothing serious. As for power, it seems we are at..." UU checked her command console, "9.2543% of maximum. This bird has some serious power, I just hope the frame can hold it."
"Your concern is noted, UU-78. Continue to phase three."
Phase three was what scared UU-78 most. It involved pushing the engines to full power to see how fast the ship could go.
The speed went up and up. It passed a thousandkilometres per second without even noticing. Thousand one-hundred.Thousand two-hundred. Thousand three-hundred. And still there was more power to give.
In the control room aboard the Gamma Yards (bit of a misnomer as the shipyards had long been under the control of Swarm Hive. Still, the name had stuck) the atmosphere was tense as well. Though their lives weren't on the line as those on board the Endymion were, they all wanted to see success.
In the corner, mostly unnoticed, sat a drone manning a rather less than important console. Despite his unimportance to this endeavor, he was especially nervous.
"Confirm speed one point seven kilos per second, Endymion. Report status and power levels" the operations commander in the centre of the control centre said into her headset.
"40.144 percent power, Control" UU's voice came back. "But the shaking is starting to get noticable. I'm worried about our structural integrity if we go much faster."
"Do you believe your ship to be in immenent danger?"
There was a short pause over the line. "Negative, Control."
"Roger, Endymion. Continue to increase power."
The speed continued to increase, and with it the vibration on board the ship. It wasn't long before it started to get visible even over the comms link. At just over two thousand kilometres per second (back in Swarm Hive, a large cheer had erupted), the Endymion once again reported in.
"Control, we are at 2064 km/s and 73.725% power but the vibration has gotten so bad I feel it is unsafe to continue. Permission to abort phase three."
"Confirmed, Endymion. Your objections have been noted and you have per... please hold, Endymion. Emergency transmission from Gamma Hive inbound."
The drone in the corner blanched and held the little disc tighter in his hand. This was what they had been afraid of.
Gamma's face appeared on a second screen, next to that of the commlink to the ship.
"Endymion, ignore your previous orders from Control. You are to proceed with phase three at all costs" she stated simply.
"Gamma, your Majesty, with all due respect, this ship is not under your command and you cannot give orders here" UU replied carefully.
"Perhaps not, but we control Swarm Hive and Swarm Hive commands you. I am not alone: Kappa, Rho, Sigma and the entire Epsilon Conglomerate are in agreement with me on this. They should already be sending their confirmations of this."
Green checkboxes with hive names began appearing on the bottom of the screen, denoting hives who have signaled their agreement. A very notable red checkbox immediately appeared named 'Swarm' but everyone involved was aware how little that really meant.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider. This ship is valuable and this test..." UU tried but Gamma cut her off.
"This ship's only current value is in its capability to test these engines. Now increase power to 100% or don’t bother coming back!"
UU only stared at Gamma for a few seconds before finally shrugging. “I guess you are the boss. Endymion, confirming continuation of Phase Three. Helmsman, let’s die gloriously, shall we?”
The corner drone inside the control room was shaking as he slipped the disc into the slot next to his console. So much so, that the drone next to him grabbed his arm.
“Pull yourself together dammit! You’re going to arouse suspicion!” he hissed.
The corner drone pulled his arm away and hissed back, “Let go! I’m fine. This is my task.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Activate it. We are all ready.”
“Only if things go wrong. It might still be okay” the corner drone replied.
His neighbor only shook his head as he turned back to his own console. Over the comms system, they could clearly hear UU trying to keep the ship together as the speed climbed.
“2100 km/s, 81% power, but the shaking is really bad… 2110 km/s… 2120 km/s…”
An edge of panic was creeping into her voice. The word ‘NUCLEAR’ kept flashing through her head. If the engine shielding failed they wouldn’t even have time to realize it had done so before they all turned to gaseous form. Unless only the radiation shielding cracked, in which case they would get to experience a slow, agonizing radiation death.
UU shook her head and focused on the speed indicator again. “2130 km/s… about 88% power… 2140 km/s”
The speed was going up far slower now and the increased stresses on the ship frame made them squeal in complaint. Somewhere from deep inside the ship’s hull a loud clank echoed through the hull. UU just hoped it wasn’t something important.
“2150 km/s… I can’t believe we’re still alive… 2160 km/s… come on baby, just a little bit more… 2165 km/s, 95% power…”
So close… so close… her hearts were racing and her entire body would have been shaking if it wasn’t already being thrown around like a ragdoll by the shaking ship.
“2170 km/s, I think this is about it control, we are at 98% power…”
“Keep going!” Gamma commanded over the comms. She still hadn’t broken her connection.
“2171 km/s… 2172 km/s… 21…”
Suddenly, a massive jolt shook the entire ship, snapping off several of the less well fastened fixtures on the bridge and sending a number of drones tumbling. A cacophony of metal screeching and grinding against itself from somewhere deeper within the ship nearly deafened her.
“Shut it down! Shut down the engines!” she screeched above the noise, but the helmsdrone had already reacted and cut the throttle. The ship lurched a bit as the engines powered down and then everything was quiet and still.
“Damage report!” she demanded.
“We’re working on it” one of the drones responded, its arms tapping rapidly at its command console, “but with only backup power its slow going. Doesn’t seem like we had a catastrophic hull breach though, because we are still alive.”
“Thank you genius. I suppose next you’re going to tell me we lost comms?” UU replied sarcastically. The little comms screen on her chair was pitch black.
“Huh. Guess we did. I’ll add that to the list” one of the other drones said.
“No, sorry, that was me!” one of the infertiles on the bridge responded. “Pressed the wrong button. I’ll have it back up in a jiffy!”
“It’s time!” the second drone hissed at the first.
“Not yet! We don’t know what happened!” the corner drone hissed back. The entire command centre was in an uproar, drones and infertiles rushing everywhere as they tried to figure out what had happened. Nobody even paid attention to the argument in the remote corner of the room.
“I think it’s pretty obvious what happened! The Endymion is gone and it’s time for us to act!” He reached across to his partner’s console, but was batted away.
“It’s my job and I’ll do it! Just give me a second to prepare myself, dammit! This is a pretty big step for us.”
“Then press the damn button already!” the second drone shouted. In the confusion, nobody but an infertile rushing past on some errand even noticed. She stopped and stared at them for a few seconds, but when the two drones only stared back, she continued on her way.
“Look what you almost did!” the corner drone hissed, barely audible now.
“It was you, wasting time!” the other replied.
“No!”
“Yes!”
“Control, this is Endymion” the loud, if slightly haggard voice of UU-78 sounded over the comms speakers and the entire room went quiet. “We are alive, if a bit shaken up.”
“Roger, Endymion!” the Command infertile responded. “What is your status? Are you heavily damaged?”
“Umm, we’re still busy checking, but so far it seems the major damage occurred in one of the cargo bays. We’re not exactly sure why yet, but it seems some of our supplies got loose and smashed two bulkheads into the neighbouring cargo bays. There is some hull damage, but no major breaches so it seems we are okay. Ironically, part of our damage control network seems to be the only serious damage.”
“You’ll be able to bring the ship home?”
“Seems like it. We checked the engine and its shielding as best we good and it seems completely untouched. And after checking our computer records, we have some good news, Control.”
“What would that be Endymion?” the infertile asked eagerly.
“For exactly 0.3 seconds the Endymion was at one hundred percent power and reached a speed of 2173 km/s. Phase Three was a success.”
This elicited a round of laughter from those in the control room.
“Good job, UU. Bring her home as soon as you are ready.”
In the far corner, a drone breathed a sigh of relief and quietly slipped a disc back into its vest pocket.
After returning to dock it turned out that the damage to the Endymion was caused by a small part of the structure of the ship that hadn’t been properly installed and had given way under stress, causing some secondary damage when the stack of engineering supplies that had been attached to it suddenly became a kinetic missile. The sources of the vibration – some of them badly installed parts, some simply badly designed due to lack of experience with such high speed craft – were tracked down and eliminated with the help of the numerous sensors that had been installed all across the ship. In another ironic twist of fate, one of these very sensors turned out to be a major contributor to the problem. Within a matter of weeks, the Endymion was fully repaired and overhauled and on its following test easily reached 100% power with only very minor vibrations.
OOC
A bit of fun to commemorate my return. This all takes place before the actual start of my game and just serves as an introduction.
Obviously a few things have changed since we last saw the Wrix a few years ago. Most of the main players are still there, except, obviously, HN and her crew of geologists. RIP HN-31. The biggest change is that of the star system Home itself. By necessity, I was forced to reroll a new suitable system and populate it accordingly. The important worlds are still there, details can be found in the other thread (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,5660.0.html).
The Wrix technology has improved a little in the few years that have passed and they now have access to Cryogenic Transport, Construction Brigade, Nuclear Thermal Engines and the two engine types currently fitted to the Balor class (Endymion) and the Myrkul II.
I have not really altered the industrial capacity of the Wrix, leaving their total factories and mines as is, but I have also not altered their mineral deposits or mineral stockpiles AT ALL. This means that industrially, the Wrix are nearly exactly where they were when I last left off. It was just simpler this way than trying to gauge how much production would have occurred.
The Wrix will start with three ships: the Sir Francis Drake with conventional engines, the new Balor class starship, the Endymion and the brand new Myrkul II class freighter, both fitted with the new Nuclear Thermal engines. The Hudson had been lost to a collision with some bit of space debris.
The Wrix have not yet had time to apply their cryo transport or con brigade technologies, but both of those will get implemented shortly, especially with the recoverable facilities on First Stop. In addition, if you had read the construction thread (where I built the system) you might have noticed that I had accidentally dropped a big fat ruin on Wrixom itself. By accident. For now, I’m going to ignore this ruin as the Wrix are not aware of it, but it does exist and may be found at some point in the future. I may either bring it in purely through the power of narrative, or I might create some arbitrary rule to determine when and if the Wrix discover this treasure trove. Who knows what direction my whims go?
The solar situation (sun cooling down) is still a narrative only mechanic and doesn’t actually exist in the game. I have, however, lowered the temperature of Wrixom slightly by altering the atmospheric composition to simulate the cooling planet. Still within tolerances, but its effect is noticeable. Since we last saw the Wrix, the Home star has slowed its rate of cooling, but nobody knows whether that will last.
The various research facilities work on improving the NT engine designs in order to increase fuel efficiency.
So… that’s it. I will probably only do fluff pieces occasionally as I am rather eager to progress the game and see what happens.
-
1 January 2021
Our story starts with the launch of the first Myrkul II. It’s design is very similar to that of the old Myrkul class but the engine had been replaced with a new Nuclear Thermal design allowing much greater speed. As such, it is a freighter capable of carrying 5000 tons of cargo with a mass of just over 10000 tons. During testing, the ship achieves a top speed of 930 km/s, slower than the new Balor class, but still firmly dumping the old Myrkul design into the ‘completely obsolete’ box. Kappa’s new engines might have taken their time to arrive, but they sure delivered. Gamma Yards is also ordered to begin replacing the Drake’s old pair of conventional engines with a single NT engine. Some napkin math by PC indicates that with the refit, the Drake might be even faster than the Endymion due to its far lower mass. The Swarm Yards begin construction of a variant of the Myrkul II, the Myrkul IIB, where the cargo holds are reorganized slightly to hold the new cryogenics berths. These will be used to transport drones en-masse to other planets.
On the planet, plans are made to sink a few new mining shafts at some of the more inhospitable resource areas using the automated mines pioneered by Omega. At the same time, construction starts on several new factories.
The team of xenologists that had returned from First Stop begin teaching a larger group of drones at the academy how to repair and reactivate the alien structures, with the idea of eventually sending them back to the planet to bring the old buildings back online if they are able. Gamma, of course, sponsors everything.
-
6 January 2021
After undergoing several tests and a minor refit, the Myrkul II is finally tasked with shipping infrastructure to First Stop.
11 January 2021
In a rather surprise move, the Epsilon Group also launches a ship. While Swarm Hive had been aware that they were busy with their own ship production, what is surprising is that planetary sensors read the ship to be double the size of a Myrkul.
After several frantic minutes of panicking, contact is finally established with the Epsilon Group and it is confirmed that the ship is indeed a vessel designed to transport drones. However, construction had already started before the new cryo berths had become available and as such the ship used the more conventional, if far less efficient, system of simply carrying sufficient provisions and having enough living space for the drones en route. It also includes a few quarters of increased luxury for the transport of Hive Queens.
OOC
The Epsilon Group represents all my civilian shipping lines. With the new patch, civvies are now designing their own ships. Too bad they start off with a bloody spaceliner ::)
-
21 January 2021
Epsilon launches another ship, a freighter three times as large as a Myrkul. When asked about the size of her vessels, Epsilon simply stated "We want to get everyone off the planet, don't we?"
22 January 2021
Observation reveals that while Epsilon's vessels are far larger than that of the Swarm, they are also far slower. An agreement is reached whereby the Epsilon Group would handle bulk transport and regular shipments such as supplies while the Swarm's freighters handle smaller, time-critical shipments. The agreement suits both parties.
10 February 2021
A group of Hive Queens meet with IM electronically to discuss the worsening mineral situation. While Wrixom is in no danger of running out of minerals any time soon, stockpiles of Neutronium and Mercassium are running low with Mercassium being dangerously low with only 600 tons remaining. Luckily, this is due to all the new science facilities being constructed recently and production is currently greater than demand so the stockpiles are growing. It is used in the construction of cryo berths, however, and as such it remains a concern.
Of perhaps greater concern are the Gallicite and Vendarite situations. Both suffer from low production due to scarcity and high consumption due to construction.
The best source of Vendarite is clearly determined to be Rube with over a hundred thousand tons of easily accessable ore and the added bonus of also containing significant amounts of Mercassium, also easily accessable.
Unfortunately, Rube contains no Gallicite. The largest, most easily accessable deposit of Gallicite in the system is, in fact, the planet targeted by the Swarm to be its new home, the third planet around Home-B, their sun's binary companion. This planet, henceforth to be called New Wrixom, has good Vendarite deposits but its Mercassium deposits are very deep and difficult to get to.
Neither New Wrixom nor Rube contain any Neutronium.
Eventually it is decided to focus all efforts on New Wrixom as it will be most able to sustain large scale mining operations and to ignore Rube until Mercassium once again becomes critical. As an addendum, it is decided to order the Swarm Myrkul II to begin transferring infrastructure to New Wrixom, but to leave the Epsilon Group doing transport to First Stop. The Swarm freighter's higher speed will make the vast distance to New Wrixom far less of a problem and it is imperative that both First Stop and New Wrixom are developed as soon as possible.
OOC
I feel like I'm skirting the edge of a mineral catastrophe. Four minerals with the potential of becoming significant bottlenecks in the near forseeable future... I don't like it. The Mercassium crunch is especially harsh, even though net production is positive. I still need it to build colony ships, but I really want to get a couple of research facilities down. Choices, choices...
-
20 February 2021
The Sir Francis Drake completes its refit at Gamma Yards. Due to mineral shortages, no further construction is started.
During tests, the little vessel reaches speeds of 2631 km/s, setting the record for fastest spaceflight. Gamma is very pleased that her ship is now faster than the Swarm's ship, even if it is far smaller.
In other record-breaking news, Epsilon breaks the record for the largest spacefaring vessel ever constructed when it reveals its top secret (Lambda knew but felt it too unimportant to inform Swarm Hive and risk burning intelligence assets) project and a ship of over fifty thousand tonnes takes up orbit around Wrixom.
IM's only comment was "Damn, Epsilon isn't screwing around."
2 March 2021
"It's a power play, but I don't know to what end" US explained. "Sure, she can impress the hell out of anybody, but what does she think she will gain?"
IM shrugged. She and US were sitting in the new bunker below the new Swarm Hive. Their topic of conversation was Epsilon and her grandiose display of transporting capacity. IM had become worried that Epsilon was gunning to replace Swarm Hive.
"If anything, this is good for us on several fronts" US stated.
This made IM give her a sceptical look.
"How is Epsilon completely showing us up with less resources at her disposal a good thing for us?" she asked.
"Firstly, she is almost guaranteeing the Wrix' ability to get off this rock before it freezes, so we are free to focus on fixing these mineral problems we will be having shortly. Secondly, she is drawing attention. Do you remember how I told you that several of the Queens would have your head on a pole given half the chance? Well, they care substantially less now. Epsilon is the new target of their jealousy."
"So you are saying we can ignore her?" IM asked.
US thought for a few moments before replying. "Perhaps not quite. If their evacuation is assured and we no longer provide anything then the Swarm will be disbanded. With extreme prejudice. But we have hardly been idle recently, have we? If anything, we are busier than ever!"
IM nodded slowly and stared vacantly at the big jammer humming in the corner. This time they had had it checked for recording devices from top to bottom. Lambda's recorder had been discovered - and had explained much - when they had moved to this hive. It had kicked up a small smegstorm, but by that time Lambda was so integrated into their computer systems that it hardly mattered. At least security was tighter than ever.
"I suppose it is also the ban on warfare we enforce and the scientific breakthroughs we made and gave Epsilon for free that has allowed her to construct these vessels without having to worry about being attacked by some jealous Queen" IM admitted.
"Exactly! But her biggest advantage is her total lack of accountability. Everything we do is second guessed by close to a hundred primadonnas who all think they should have our job. Epsilon does whatever the hell she pleases whenever she pleases. If she just decided to evacuate her own hive and leave everyone else then there is almost nothing anyone can do about it. For that reason alone, she will never replace Swarm Hive."
-
21 March 2021
Using its new transport capability, the Epsilon Group reestablishes its mining colony on Rube with the Swarm's blessing. This neatly solves the Mercassium problem as the mineral can now be extracted without investing Swarm assets, it only needs to be shipped every once in a while. Epsilon had drawn the line at both mining and transporting the minerals for the Swarm.
21 April 2021
A startling new suggestion is made to a meeting of Queens by some infertile from Nero Hive few had ever heard of before. Instead of trying to get offworld before Wrixom can no longer support Wrix biology, why not just change Wrix biology? The idea is radical, but the infertile, LA-14-OZF, is almost certain that it is possible with some research.
After some discussion back and forth it is finally rejected due to the research time that would be required to make it viable. It is decided to rather stick with the current direction than risk everything on some plan that may or may not be able to achieve success.
It is at this point that IM remarks that these same biology alterations can be made to make New Wrixom and First Stop, both of which are mildly hostile to Wrix, more pleasant places to live.
In the end it is agreed that while the idea will not be implemented immediately, it will be considered again in the future.
-
16 August 2021
Research is completed into the improved efficiency engines. This provides no speed advantages but less fuel usage means longer range and smaller fuel tanks. The next project is finding a way to use the new TN materials in the construction of starship hulls, to make them lighter and stronger. It is hoped that this will serve to make larger ships more viable. It is decided NOT to develop a working prototype with this technology as the gains are too slight to justify the time expenditure.
Unfortunately, there are no infertiles available with any proficiency in working with Duranium so LA-14, the geneticist, is put in charge of the project.
8 January 2022
Development of a new alloy is completed that is both workable and extremely durable. It is considered a quantum leap in armour technology and it isn't long before every hive on the planet starts refitting their armored vehicles with it. The fact that every hive has equal access to the technology does help to prevent any trouble from arising.
One of the researchers from the earlier fuel efficiency research believe they may have found a way to increase power by sacrificing a bit of fuel efficiency. Follow up research is authorised.
-
3 March 2022
The Myrkul IIB finally launches from the Swarm Yards orbiting Wrixom. It is a freighter that has been reconfigured to transport live cargo in suspended animation.
As its first mission is being planned, Gamma contacts Swarm Command and demands ownership of the vessel, citing a clause in the agreement reached over First Stop. At first, IM protests, but a quick check of the logs from several years ago reveals that Swarm Hive had indeed promised Gamma the first vessel capable of transporting large numbers of drones to come out of its shipyard. Defeated, IM is forced to give in and orders the vessel handed over to Gamma who immediately begins transporting large portions of her hive to First Stop.
The shipyard immediately begins construction of another Myrkul II class freighter. Infrastructure is not being transported quickly enough.
26 August 2022
A proof of concept model is delivered by the researchers working on the high powered engines. Unfortunately one of the findings of the team is that such engines would NOT be suitable for fitting to civilian craft. As such, it is decided not to proceed with a full scale prototype and instead the researchers are assigned to work on some new toys for themselves which would likely help them work faster in the future. Unfortunately, a lot of work would still need to be done.
Edit: OOC
I hate biology researchers! It's the most useless field and you always get the most researchers for it. Not having a construction/production researcher is REALLY annoying.
Forgot to post this OOC last time.
-
21 September 2022
The second Myrkul II slips out of Swarm Yards. It is immediately assigned to begin shipping infrastructure to New Wrixom while a second Myrkul IIB begins construction in the shipyard.
26 February 2023
The last planned mining shaft is sunk near the frigid arctic circle and work begins on a new research facility. Mercassium had accumulated sufficiently to allow its construction.
6 September 2023
By this time, due to the work of Gamma's Myrkul IIB, First Stop has over a million drones on it. In exchange for the promise of future Mercassium shipments, IM agrees to use one of her Myrkul II's to transport mining equipment to the planet. With an availability of 0.6, it is one of the best sources of Mercassium in the solar system and the Swarm cannot allow petty grievances to get in the way of progress.
-
22 November 2023
After over two years of training, planning, equipping and shipping drones and equipment piecemeal to First Stop, the 1st Construction Brigade is finally on the planet. Under great scrutiny by the other hives, they begin excavating the ruins. Gamma had agreed to allow observers at the dig site from other hives in the Swarm in exchange for full rights to whatever was found.
OOC
Yes indeed, I have cheated a bit and moved one of my construction brigades to First Stop using SM mode. I figured since I can theoretically transport drones and their equipment and I do not need to do a combat drop, why do I need the military transport tech? Surely freighters and colony ships can move a brigade given enough time.
Of course, if I hit a vault of bots I'm going to be in trouble. Oh well.
Also, there are now 10 salvagable installations on First Stop thanks to the recreation of the system.
26 November 2023
The second Myrkul IIB is completed. The Swarm is finally able to start moving drones to New Wrixom which has already had several thousand tons of life support infrastructure deposited on it. After a quick meeting it is decided that a multi-hive drone contingent will be sent to the planet to begin preparing proper hives. Of course, Gamma is omitted from this group, but with her own colony vessel she is hardly bothered.
-
7 December 2023
"Why was this thing made a priority? It looks like a garbage heap" drone GFT-51180 asked his fellow member of 1st Construction Brigade.
"Original surveys determined it to be some sort of deep space scanning structure. That means it is most likely military in origin. And you know what that means" GPT-51161 replied.
"Military tech. Yeah, I got it. So are we ready to switch it on and see what we got?" GFT asked.
"Generators are hooked up. Go ahead" another drone replied.
"Rogeo."
GFT stuck his bony arms deep inside the open metal panel on the side of the building until he reached the two wires he was looking for. After bracing himself against possible electrocution, he gingerly touched them together. There was a loud crack as the charge jumped between them and a soft hum began eminating from the building. On top of the structure, an alien doohickey began rotating.
"That was anticlimactic" GPT said.
"Yeah. Next building?"
"Next building."
OOC
The deep space tracking installation gives me a second pair of eyes in the system. Not particularly useful yet, but its still worth more than a single factory.
-
27 February 2024
After numerous failed attempts at repairing a second tracking station, it is concluded that the structure is beyond repair. Effort continues on the next structure.
7 March 2024
Another research facility is inaugerated on Wrixom. This puts the total number of research facilities on the planet at 6.
8 April 2024
"So it has power. Now... what is it?" GFT asked.
They had managed to get the latest facility up and running, the only problem was they had no idea what it was supposed to be. Inside were syringes, tubes and tanks of all kinds, but no clues as to what they were supposed to do.
"No clue. Hey, GII, did you find any databanks inside?" GHT shouted at a drone coming out.
"Just one" the drone replied. "Just appears to be a list of gibberish."
"Gibberish? Are you sure you ran it through the translator correctly?" GFT asked.
"Dead sure. We're gonna have to send it back to Wrixom and get the eggheads to check it out."
GHT sighed. "Gamma isn't gonna be happy. She wants to keep everything we find."
GII just shrugged. "She can keep it, but that isn't gonna help her much. Oh, I also suggest we send a floorplan and a description of the place along. Who knows, maybe somebody back home can figure out what this place is."
-
9 April 2024
LA-14's hands shook as she read the printout. As she flipped the pages, she became more and more sure.
“Do you know what this means?” she asked softly.
“We were kind of hoping you could tell us” US replied. “That’s why we had you flown in from your rather busy work. We’ve managed to determine those words could be some kind of chemical compounds, but none of our infertiles had any idea what they could mean.”
Gamma had finally relented and passed the data from the find on First Stop on to Swarm Hive. Some drone had also been a little creative with interpreting her orders and included a highly detailed floor plan of the structure.
“This” she said, tapping the stack of pages, “is confirmation of all my theories. These are not simple chemical compounds, they’re proteins. And if I’m not mistaken, they have some sort of DNA altering functionality.”
“So these are plans for some kind of bioweapon?” US asked, alarmed.
LA just waved her off. “I suppose it could be used as a rather weak bioweapon if you were determined to do so, but I have a different theory. I wasn’t quite sure, but after looking at the floor plans of that place I’m certain.It looks rather like some kind of twisted medical facility, I think a genetics treatment centre.”
“A what?”
“Genetics treatment centre. A place that alters your genetic code.”
US just gave her a blank, if slightly horrified, look.
“Look, all you need to know is that using this place we can probably alter drones to be able to walk on First Stop or New Wrixom with NO environmental gear. No rebreathers, no heat suits. Nothing.”
US turned thoughtful for a few seconds. She wasn’t generally slow on the uptake, but this was downright alien.
“So what you’re telling me,” she said, “is that we can adapt ourselves to the conditions on other planets?”
LA smiled. “Yes. Among other things...”
OOC
A genetics facility. Oh boy… this changes things a bit. I had originally intended to use terraformers to nudge First Stop and New Wrixom into the fully habitable range, but this gives me other options. I know genetics things are generally too garbage to make them worth the research time, but here I already have a fully functional genetics facility. That saves some construction costs. And I’ll have to research terraformers first anyway.
Also, storyline wise, this is the first possibility the Wrix have discovered of surviving their global freeze without leaving their homeworld. It will probably trump some fantasy of perhaps one day altering the atmospheric composition of an entire planet.
Meh, I’m torn.
-
24 May 2024
The first of two twin potential military structures on First Stop is found to be beyond repair. Although schematics, or at the very least derived schematics, of what the structures are supposed to look like are available, some of the required components simply cannot be manufactured due to a lack of the correct materials or skills/production processes.
29 May 2024
Using salvaged components of the other building, the second twin comes online. The long light strips coating the roof flicker several times before finally settling into a bright, even glow.
“What is this place?” GFT asked, somewhat awestruck by the complex machines that seemingly reached up to the roof.
“Dunno, factory of some kind if I had to guess” GHT replied and pointed at what appeared to be a mold of some kind along the wall.
“No way. I worked in a construction factory back on Wrixom for three years after I was born. This looks nothing like that” GFT replied.
“Alien factory?” one of the other constructors guessed.
The sound of running skittering claws came from deeper inside the facility. From around one of the tall machines came a drone running and carrying a very unmistakably shaped elongated metal object with stabilizing wings.
“Hey! Look what I found in… whoops!” The drone stopped mid-sentence as one of his claws hooked onto some of the machine parts lying all over the floor and sent him sprawling. The other drones scattered behind the biggest, most solid bits of machinery they could find as the missile hit the metal floor with a loud clang and skidded to a halt. A few seconds passed before anyone moved.
“Be careful with that you imbecile! It could have had a nuclear warhead!” someone shouted from behind a machine.
The fallen drone got up and dusted himself off.
“No, it’s fine! It’s just the shell of the missile, see? No engine and no warhead” he shouted back as he picked up the missile and pointed the end at the drones now peering out from behind their cover. This allowed them to see right through the empty missile shell.
“Phew, that was close” GFT commented. “And now we know what kind of factory this was at least. I think Gamma is going to be very pleased.”
30 May 2024
Gamma was decidedly less pleased when she discovered that not only did the facility contain no functional missiles or components, all databases had apparently been wiped and/or destroyed with military precision. Someone had clearly abandoned the facility and had not wanted to let any technology be captured.
OOC
Ordnance Factory.Useful as a plot device, but not for much else. Later, when war is the order of the day, then maybe I can put this bad boy to good use.
As an aside, yes I am aware that a size 1 missile should weigh about 5 tons and cannot be carried by a single drone, even if it’s only the casing. The missile the drone found was actually a bit of ordnance used by the ground forces, not starships. Those missiles would have to be considerably lighter and may as well be built by an ordnance factory.
-
20 September 2024
There was a final flash of light as the laser cutter finished its last incision and switched off. The glowing metal of the wall down in the basement of the ordnance factory rapidly cooled from white hot to a dull orange and a large team of drones began pulling on the cords already imbedded in it. The sound of tearing metal echoed through the large storage room as the last part of the wall slowly toppled over and crashed to the floor with a heavy crunch of crushed scrap.
“Why would anyone put a vault behind a wall?” GFT asked as they began converging on the massive metal doors now revealed.
“Isn’t it obvious? This is where all the missiles and weapons are stored” GHT replied. “Hiding it behind a false wall seems like a good way to prevent it falling into enemies’ hands.”
GFT shook his head. “The wall was two feet thick and made of solid duranium. There was nothing false about it.”
“Be quiet and see if you can figure out a way to get it open.”
GFT and GHT were brothers, as were all of Gamma’s drones, but they shared a special bond. Their eggs had been laid within seconds of one another and as such they could almost be considered ‘twins’. It was only after beginning their training at the Academy on Wrixom and being free of the throngs of drones that form the workforce of Gamma Hive that they had found one another and had been nearly inseparable since. Despite their differences, both claimed that their close cooperation improved productivity.
“There is some keypad thingy over here, imbedded into the wall” a drone called from off to the side.
“And I found some writing on the doors” GHT called back.
Drones scurried everywhere, but it wasn’t long before a drone who had learnt the language reached the writing. A large group were already clustered around him, curious what the strange markings said.
“Hmm, this is a bit tricky” he stated and scratched his head. “That over there means ‘war’ or ‘fight’ and this word is ‘storage’ or ‘containment’, but I’m not sure what the rest of it means. Most likely technical jargon of some kind. Oh, and this bit at the bottom means ‘Do not open’ or ‘No access’ or something.”
“Do not open? That sounds ominous” GHT said.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much” the translator drone said. “These aliens stuck that warning on anything that wasn’t supposed to be interacted with on a daily basis. It probably just means that access is restricted to certain members of their society.”
“Is that a fact? I still say something isn’t right here” GFT said from the back of the group.
“Are we going to have to get the eggheads back here to check this out?” another drone asked.
“No” GHT stated with finality. “Gamma wants this kept a secret. Besides, it will take too long to get them here. Our Queen wants this open pronto. How’s the keypad look?”
“Unpowered.Or possibly just busted. Or perhaps not a keypad at all, I have no idea” the keypad drone called back. “Regardless, it’s not doing anything when I press these things that may or may not be buttons.”
“In that case let’s just grab the laser drill.”
The laser slowly came up and positioned itself directly over the centre of the big metal doors.
“The advantage of cutting through doors instead of walls is that you don’t need to remove the whole thing” GHT lectured as he and GFT watched from off to the side. “If you can reach the locking mechanism, then just removing that allows you to manually open the door pretty easily.”
“I still don’t like this” GFT replied. “It’s a bit silly to have the locking mechanism exposed if it’s supposed to be keeping people out, isn’t it? I can think of a hundred ways to protect it, or at least hide it. Maybe it’s supposed to be keeping something in…?”
“Like what?” GHT said laughing.
Their conversation was interrupted by the flash of the laser cutter quickly and easily zipped through the lock. Several drones in heat resistant gear crawled through the hole as soon as it had cooled down a bit and it wasn’t long before a few loud clanks reverberated through the room. The drones had manually slid the locks back.
Several other drones began pushing, slowly easing the door open until a small crack of blackness appeared between the two massive doors.
“See? No big scary monster has come charging out” GHT mocked. “What do you see inside?”
“It’s too dark to see anything. Wait, no, there is some sort of light…” the drone at the door began, but stopped due to his head having exploded in a shower of chitin and brains.
Then everything went to hell.
Four legged spider-like metal droids began pouring out of the crack in the doors, each with a tail mounting what seemed to be a small light. Whenever the light flashed, however, it blew holes in whatever was in front of them.
Drones scrambled to get out of the way while the few that were armed tried to return fire and cover their comrades. The droids seemed to prioritize them and even went so far as to fire a second shot to destroy their weapons after killing them with the first. GFT and GHT found themselves crawling rapidly towards the exit as drones and shelves around them exploded in blasts of metal and viscera.
Before they could reach it, however, a spider droid dropped down right in front of them, its tail light glowing ominously. Thinking quickly, GHT leapt over its domed metal body and began grappling the dangerous tail, which flashed and knocked a chunk out of the floor where he had just been lying prone.
“Don’t just lie there, help me!” he shouted at GFT who was still lying there, paralyzed with shock.
At his brother’s urging, GFT began moving and also leapt for the thing’s back. The domed shell was hard and slippery, however, and he struggled to find purchase as it tried to throw them off or bring its deadly tail weapon to bear. GHT was managing to force it up, preventing it from depressing low enough to hit them, but it was taking all his effort.
GFT managed to hook his foot claws around the edges of the metal shell just as the monster crashed into a pile of rubble in its frenzied attempts to throw off its unwanted passengers. Though his claws could do nothing against the hard back of the creature, he instinctively scrabbled at anything that seemed like a weak spot. The four tubular ‘eyes’ at the front… some exposed wiring at a joint… it wasn’t long before the metal spider was blind and crippled but still it refused to die. It was like riding a tiger. As long as they clung on to its back it couldn’t hurt them, but the moment they got off that little tail would swivel and blow them to pieces.
“This isn’t working!” GFT shouted in panic.
“When I say now, jump clear!” GHT shouted back above the din of drones dying and metal being shredded.
“What about you?” GFT asked.
“Shut up and do what I say!” GHT screamed back.
He seemed to compose himself momentarily, then reversed his efforts, pulling the tail down to aim as low as possible, right at his twin.
“Now!” he shouted as the little light began glowing brighter.
GFT jumped clear just as the light pulsed and a beam of the invisible energy punched through the creature’s own back, blowing its insides across the floor. He landed hard, pain lancing through his side and a quick glance revealed that his jump had been less timely than he had anticipated. The chitin at the side of his chest was exposed, the flesh seemingly having been ripped away.
“What’s the matter with you? Run!” GHT shouted as he landed next to him.
“I’m not going to make it. You run, I’ll try to slow them down” GFT said in a pained voice.
GHT just slapped him on the head and began dragging him towards the exit. “There is nothing wrong with your legs, so move! Enough drones have died today.”
The drones escaping from the factory along with GFT and GHT quickly spread the word and a thin defensive line was formed outside the alien colony. Now, better armed and better prepared, the constructors began to have better luck at holding the mass of spider droids back. Unfortunately, the latest escapees reported even bigger things coming out of the vault as they fled and a quick tally of numbers revealed that they had already lost 35% of their number.
OOC
Yep, I opened a vault. Yay. I can see a lot of casualties in my future.
-
21 September 2024
"For some reason the spiders opted not to hit us in the confusion. Only reason we can think of, and this is supported by eyewitnesses from the vault room, is that they have something bigger they are busy getting out of the vault. Possibly multiple bigger things. This has given us a chance to regroup and form a defensive line. Not that I think that will be more than a speedbump for them if they really come at us, especially with some bigger toys.
"Food and other supplies would be nice if this turns into some kind of siege, but starvation doesn't really seem that big a threat right now at the rate at which these things can kill us. So yeah, that's our situation right now" GFT finished and patiently waited for a response from his Queen and IM. The injuries he had sustained during his escape from the vault prevented him from continuing to fight in the front line so he had been relegated to organizational duty which included keeping the Wrix back home up to speed.
"So you don't think you will be able to defend the colony if the spiders decide to push out?" IM asked.
"Not a chance in hell. Though we have had some basic combat training, the 1st Constructors are not a front line combat unit. We need reinforcements bad."
"You need to do something right now!" Gamma screeched at IM over the comm link. She was looking somewhat ill.
IM paused for a moment before replying. "I'll get back to you shortly. Don't go far."
She flicked off the display and after making sure that the voice was also muted she turned to US and PC who had both been hiding in the shadows, out of sight of the recorder.
"Well? What do we do?" she asked.
"I thought it was obvious enough that no discussion is needed" US stated. "Let her burn."
"Woah, you want to let the spider bots take the planet?" PC asked.
"It's Gamma's planet. She was a bitch when we wanted access to the ruins on the planet, so now we let her stew in her own mess."
"That's cold" PC replied. "And just a bit spiteful, wouldn't you say?"
IM drew back their attentionwith a wave before speaking. "As much as I would like to leave Gamma to rot, I'm afraid it simply isn't an option anymore. US, how many mines worth of machinary have we shipped to First Stop?"
"Ten" she admitted grudgingly.
"And we only did that because we needed the Mercassium. No, even though we can get the Mercassium elsewhere, First Stop is by far the most accessable source. We cannot afford to have those spiders have it" IM stated.
"Besides, at the moment we have safe landing zones and large supply stockpiles. If we let the spiders overrun the place we will have to eventually establish a beachhead all over again" PC added.
"Doesn't help us much" US replied. "We have no way to effectively get the army there."
"Can't we load them in the colony ships? Like they did to get the 1st Construction there?" PC asked.
"Look, 1st Constructor had forever and a day to casually get themselves and their equipment there and get reorganized. The problem is, our colony ships cannot load a full division for transport, never mind their equipment. We can stick weapons in the freighters, but those take up to ten days to be fully unloaded. A single spider that gets inside during that time and they could set off the whole load, blowing all our reinforcements sky high. Face it, there is no way to get organized, combat ready troops there within a month, much less a week. And to be honest I don't think First Stop is going to last a week."
"Alright, US, you made your point" IM admitted. "We can't get any significant number of troops there any time soon. But we have give whatever assistance we can to destroy those spiders."
"Perhaps we don't need to get troops there" PC interrupted. "There are over a two million drones on the planet at present, why can't they fight?"
"Untrained, unarmed and leaderless? That'll be effective" US replied sarcastically.
"Nothing we can do about the training, but we can provide the leadership pretty easily. As for the weapons, I'm sure we can include a few crates..." PC suggested.
"Oh, they are not unarmed" the comms unit interrupted unexpectedly.
IM rolled her eyes. "Hello, Lambda, we weren't aware you were listening."
"Assume I'm always listening. You won't be far out" Lambda replied. "Now, as I was saying, Gamma's drones on First Stop aren't unarmed. On the contrary, they are armed to the teeth."
"May I ask how you know that?" IM asked.
"Let's just say a little birdie told me that their Queen's been cramming every spare square meter of Epsilon's transports full of personal weapons every trip. By my calculations they should have enough guns to arm almost half the drones there. I suspect Gamma wasn't going to trust the Swarm to leave her planet alone."
"And you only tell us this now?"
"I would have told you if it had become relevant. As long as no military action was planned for First Stop, why would her drones being armed be of any relevance?"
"How would you have known..." her voice trailed off as she realised what she was saying. "Fine. Now get off the line, I'm going to recontact Gamma and get this sorted out."
"Ah, there is one more thing before you go...
"Yes. Arm everything with legs and get them organized as best you can" IM instructed Gamma's drone over the viewscreen.
"Arm them with what?" Gamma protested.
"Shut up, Gamma, we know you've been shipping weapons by the freighterload" IM replied, for once too irritated with her to play nice.
This made her silent. Still seething at the dismissal, but realising that she needed the Swarm slightly more than the Swarm needed her at this point.
"We will be transferring some infertiles with training in leading drones in combat with the Endymion and the Drake. They should arrive shortly. You are welcome to send whatever military leaders you want from your hive along, Gamma. Just make sure they are at the Academy in six hours."
Gamma just ground her teeth in annoyance.
"However, all of this comes at a price" IM added.
Gamma's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"I want to move fertile queens from several other hives to First Stop to establish hives there."
"Absolutely not."
"Gamma, this is not negotiable, nor is it some flight of fancy. If our front lines fail, we will need additional strongholds on the planet. By seeding new hives there we not only give gain these strongholds, we gain additional sources of drones in case we need to regroup or even perhaps wage a guerilla war against these machines. Surely you can see the wisdom in this?"
"The only reason I call this a price is because this will not be a temporary measure. When the spiders are defeated, their hives will remain theirs and they will join the Swarm peacefully as full members."
There were a few moments of tense silence as Gamma weighed her options. In truth, she didn't have many. Besides, a single hive would hardly be able to ever fully utilize a single continent, much less a entire planet.
"How many hives?" she asked, and IM knew she had her.
"Ten. Nice round number."
"Fine. But they stay away from my ruins."
"You mean the ruins currently crawling with spider robots? Yeah, I think you're okay there" IM replied.
"And one of the ten is a queen from my hive" Gamma insisted.
"Naturally" IM answered.
OOC
This brings me to a special ability of the Wrix I had not yet mentioned. For the sake of full disclosure, I had always intended them to have this ability, I just never thought it would ever be useful or relevant due to the supremacy of nuclear weapons when it comes to planetary control. Just goes to show, huh?
Special Ability: Drone Hordes
If given five days organization and equipping and sufficient weapons (determined through rp, but there is generally considered to be more than sufficient in most cases), the Wrix are able to convert their population to Low-Tech Infantry Divisions at a rate of 100k - 1 division. They can convert as many as their weapons/population allows at once and this ability can be used as many times as needed, as long as five days pass first. These divisions CANNOT be used as cadres, but can be converted back into population if they are no longer needed. If so, they recover a percentage of their population equal to their readiness.
I know normal divisions are only 10-20k troops, but the increased numbers reflect the lack of training and general inferior armament these troops would have. I also know that this effectively makes any significantly populated planet completely unconquerable bar massed nuclear strikes, however, I feel this kinda makes sense since the Wrix are killing machines with no regard for their own lives. Sucks to be an invader.
-
23 September2014
GHT was among the few - the very, very few - who could boast that they had killed one of the spider bots and lived to get any actual boasting done. This made him the most experienced drone in 1st Constructor in fighting these metal monsters and its leader by general consensus. Temporary leader, anyway.
"News?" he asked the comms drone. They'd been camped out in between the alien ruins and the colony in order to provide some measure of protection. Exactly how much good they would do was debatable.
"Negative. Scouts report the ruins are still crawling with the spider things, but they can't get close enough to gather any more intel. Best numbers estimate we can get is 'buttloads'."
"What about our sentries on the other side? Any word from them?" Since his division would be spread far too thin if they tried to surround the ruins, they had settled for stationing individual scouts around the perimeter to act as early warning if the spiders tried a breakout.
The comms drone flicked a few switches and pressed a few buttons. "Not a peep. And they're still checking in, before you ask."
"Good. Carry on then. We just need to keep these spiders busy until GFT can get those colonists' asses in gear. Then we might have a fighting chance."
24 September 2014
GHT was lying in a shallow trench as close to the ruins as the 1st had dared to build them. While fighting was not their strongpoint, entrenching was and his division had spent most of their time since their escape from the vault building fortifications as quickly as possible. Mostly trenches, pits and other quickly built obstructions.
"You see what I mean?" the drone asked as it took back its binoculars from GHT.
"Yeah, they're up to something. Most activity we've seen in a while."
"Wait, what's that?" There was a glint of light reflecting off metal from somewhere deep inside the ruins. It seemed too big to be a spider.
GHT snatched back the binoculars, nearly strangling the drone with the strap, and peered through them. "Oh smeg" was all he said before scrambling back through the trench on all fours to reach the main defensive line.
The drone picked up his discarded binoculars and checked for himself. A massive spider easily ten feet high was slowly making its way out from between the buildings towards the 1st. It seemed to have numerous short protrusions ending in the same little tail lights that the throng of small spiders swarming around it possessed, but its own big tail had a a massive light on it.
"Oh smeg" the drone agreed.
OOC
If the 1st Constructors can survive the fighting on the 25th of September, then they get all the infantry divisions to assist and I will possibly pull them out of the fight. But only if they can survive. If the colony falls, then the spiders massacre everyone before they are organized. I'm going to commit 10 infantry divisions to start with for 1 million population. This should be enough to beat back the spiders pretty handily.
-
25 September 2014
The fighting as the spider approached was strangely subdued, as if the spiders were uninterested in the armed drones arrayed against them behind trenches and barricades. Drones popped out from behind their cover and fired at the mass of spidery forms surrounding the 'big spider' and several of them exploded or fell over. Only a few spiders returned fire, and their weapons mostly impacted harmlessly against the thick barricades the 1st had erected. Even when the big spider fired its tailgun, it mostly hit dirt.
This slow crawl approach continued until the spiders reached the edge of the trench system, whereupon several spiders entered the trenches themselves. This proved to be a mistake as the 1st had made the trenches just wider than a spider bot so they couldn't cross them, but too narrow for two to pass side by side. In addition it provided the Wrix, who were excellent climbers, more avenues of attack as they could come from above and behind, both areas where the spiders' tail weapons seemed to struggle to shoot properly.
"Why is it just sitting there?" GHT asked. The big spider had been standing at the edge of their defensive position for some time now, occasionally firing its big tail beam at targets of opportunity.
"If it began crawling over our trenches, its escorts would be channeled through our trenches, leaving it vulnerable. That's why we're here, remember?" the drone hiding next to him replied. There were about eight other drones with them, all packed to the gills with explosives and with only one goal: bring the big spider down!
"Why doesn't it just go around us?" one of the other drones remarked. "There's plenty of room. If we leave the trenches we're dead."
"And our plan isn't exactly optimal" GHT continued. "If we had any other options I would be trying those first. Sitting in plain sight, slowly bleeding escorts seems like the worst possible choice."
Time passed and little changed. A slightly larger wave of spiders crawled into the trenches, but several minutes later the survivors crawled back out. The 1st were giving them the fight of their artificial lives. Still the big metal spider just stood there.
"Wish it would move" one of the drones said. "I'm aching for a chance at blowing it to pieces."
"You and me both" GHT replied. "Be right back, want to check something. Shout if anything happens." He crawled backwards along the barricade that was serving as their cover until he disappeared out of sight towards the closest comms unit.
The big spider lurched as one of its legs lifted up. Jerkily, it began moving... backwards.
"Hey! GHT! The thing's moving! I think it's running away, though!"
"Damn! I wanted to carve a really big spider notch on my chitin tonight" one of the rear drones remarked.
"Hold up, I see something moving in the ruins" the front drone said. He took the pair of binoculars helpfully offered from behind and peered through them carefully. "Oh smeg, I think we might be in trouble."
"What?" the drone behind him asked.
"I see four... no, five... no... no, about five of those big spiders coming out of the ruins. Each with their own little swarm of smaller bots."
GHT came scrambling back and fell into his position, a big grin on his face.
"What are you smiling about? Have a look through these" the front drone asked and handed him his binoculars.
GHT just waved it off. "I know, I heard you shouting."
"You realize that we're going to get swarmed, right? Our little explosives trick won't work on all of them."
GHT turned his head to look at the drone, his grin stretching even wider. "Oh, somebody is going to get swarmed all right, but it isn't us. Just got off the comms with the colony. There are a million drones on their way here, all armed."
OOC
Huh. Pretty anticlimactic in the end. Nobody lost any readiness in the fighting. Now I get 10 infantry divisions, as ordered.
As you might have noticed, I have fluffed it such that the spider bots are expendable and can be destroyed without requiring loss in readiness. Only really large scale destructions or destroying a big spider require a loss in readiness.
-
30 September 2024
With the aid of the militia, a full cordon is formed around the ruins. The spiders seem strangely content to sit tight and there is no further sight of their big spiders, and the Wrix are content to hold the cordon. Several small skirmishes are fought inside the Cordon against small groups of roving spider bots, but there are few casualties on either side.
All in all, five strangely anticlimactic days pass.
5 October 2024
The reason for the lack of apparent action by the spiders is discovered. While working on improving the fortifications of the Cordon, the 1st Constructor accidentally breaches an underground tunnel and several spiders immediately swarm out. They are quickly put down by the militia reinforcements and an armed investigation of the tunnels begin.
The tunnels appeared to be an ancient mining network that the spiders were reopening and widening, most likely to tunnel underneath the Cordon. This proved to be a mistake. The Wrix were excellent tunnel-fighters and the spider bots had some difficulty in traversing some of the rougher and more vertical parts. The cramped conditions and lack of clear sight lines also hampered the powerful tailbeams of the spiderbots more than they restricted the Wrix, who were both armed with light weapons and were very proficient in close range combat.
As the Wrix zerged through the tunnels, destroying everything in their path through the judicious use of numbers and explosives, whatever controlled the spiders made its second mistake. It decided to deploy one of its big spiders to guard an important intersection against the oncoming horde.
The Wrix vanguard was quickly beaten back; they knew a death zone when they saw one and that was exactly what the what the large, open, natural cavern that formed the intersection was. While they could probably have rushed it with weight of numbers, the casualties would have been great and victory not assured. Besides, other options were available.
The Wrix advance stalled for a day as they resupplied and got their wounded evacuated. They also, with the help of a few drones from 1st Constructor, worked to open several smaller shafts and mainenance passages that had collapsed over the ages. These allowed them to flank the main intersection held by the big spider bot.
They also provided a new problem, however. The passages were too narrow to support a sufficiently large force moving through so they could not effectively bypass the intersection without the risk of being cut off. While it did permit them to attack the intersection directly from multiple sides, between the multiple powerful beam weapons of the big spider bot and the swarm of smaller spiders guarding it, casualties would still have been unacceptably high.
The optimal course of action was fairly obvious to any creature with any sort of experience in subterranean fighting.
Several volunteers were dispatched along the secondary tunnels, armed to the gills with explosives. They crawled out of the maintenance hatches and rushed the intersection from close range and from multiple directions at once. One or two even made it inside the large natural cavern before setting off their explosives along with several other strategically placed shaped charges in the secondary tunnels, killing themselves and collapsing the entire cavern, burying the large bot and several hundred smaller spider bots under a couple thousand tons of rock.
This denied themselves the intersection and slowed down their advance, but it was the first kill of the big spiders with little to no casualties and forays through the side passages, though slower, was were no longer under threat of being flanked.
OOC
My construction brigade activated an automated mine in the middle of the fighting, which was the inspiration for this bit of story. In addition, the enemy suffered their first casualties! This has made me switch to attacking instead of just defending. Hopefully the damage they've suffered is enough to give me an edge despite my attack being half my defence.
-
10 October 2024
The Wrix continued to press the attack below ground as the Cordon held firm above and their superior numbers were really telling, despite the lack of heavy weapons. It seemed that whatever intelligence governed the spiders had trouble adapting to the Wrix fighting style and kept trying to draw the fights into close quarters engagements, despite being completely outclassed at this kind of warfare. If it had attempted to draw fights into the wide open spaces on the surface, its superior weaponry and range could have caused the Wrix serious casualties, but in close quarters the Wrix were masters of the flanking maneuver and they could compensate for their lack of heavy weaponry with handheld explosives.
The large, central shaft of the mines was taken by the Wrix as the machines were forced to withdraw their large spider bots to more defensible ground. One, however, was cut off and, after a lengthy engagement, destroyed by repeated grenade and sticky bomb attacks.
15 October 2024
The underground forces continued to take the mine from the Spiders, one tunnel at a time, but with most of it now under their control, progress slowed. The remaining positions still under Spider control were all heavily defended and had natural chokepoints.
At this point, it was decided to break the Cordon and send the above ground units to attack in order to further split the Spider forces. There were casualties as the militia had to cross the open terrain to the ruins themselves but with most of the spider bots deployed below ground to stave off the Wrix advance, they were somewhat trivial considering the mass quantity of drones on the offensive.
The effects of this decision were seen underground as a large portion of the spiders vacate the tunnels to assist in the surface defense. Two large spiders, being slower to leave than their smaller brethren, are caught out of position by the advancing Wrix horde and destroyed. According to the best estimates by Wrix intelligence, this leaves only one or two large spiders unaccounted for.
-
20 October 2024
The spiders were in full rout, but have nowhere to run to and settled for making last stands in the numerous structures that comprised the ruins. Care had to be taken not to damage the buildings themselves.
The last big spider was trapped inside one of the structures by the surging Wrix horde and in a rather anticlimactic battle, is completely destroyed. Damage to the building was relatively minor.
The vault itself was collapsed as the Wrix forces drew near, sealing whatever secrets they held inside. Plans are made to excavate it, but expectations of recovering anything intact are low.
Total casualties for the campaign on First Stop? Less than fifty thousand.
As was decided upon, ten hives are established on First Stop across the planet as offshoots of their original hives. The ten largest and most influential hives on Wrixom, including Kappa, Gamma, Delta, Lambda, Beta and Rho select their fertile queen and have them ferried to the planet. They are supplied with some infrastructure, some drones from their parent hive and put in contact with the now over two million strong Gamma colony. This creates a rather interesting situation. The ten new hives are adamant about their own independence, but at the same time they need support from their mother hives to survive on this alien planet. On the other hand, the hives on Wrixom insist that the offshoots are still a part of the original hive, despite having their own queen, but have no way to enforce any orders nor, for that matter, any real orders to give. An uneasy truce is eventually reached where neither side talks about the situation and each believes their version is true.
OOC
Spoilers defeated. Little to no casualties. I think ten militia squadrons were a bit overkill.
-
25 October 2024
Further exploration of the tunnel systems beneath the ruins reveal a cache of mining equipment. About half of it is set up to operate completely autonomously, just needing a control unit of some kind. No time is wasted in having a few properly prepared drone brains transported from Wrixom to run the machines. They were perhaps not made to operate under such circumstances, but a bit of juryrigging by the 1st has them ready to receive brain transplants.
OOC
1st Con Brigade activated a mine. They've been having a lot of success. I like it. I've also noticed something strange, for some reason the locations of all the JPs in the system have become known to me. I can't do anything with them because of not having jump tech, but I know where they are. Did I take the data off the spoilers? Regardless, I'll deal with it when the Wrix have a possibility of figuring out what they are.
-
;D nice story so far. The GM-facility from earlyer has some implications the swarm didnt yet consider i think for example making Infertiles fertile by correcting theyr code. One thing that will bite the wrix is that the ecosystem of theyr world will suffer far earlier then them.
Take earth, cooling or heating makes the usage of certain important plants and animals rather tricky. Cooling especialy would mean that you cant produce say wheat as far north as we do now yet its one of the western worlds mayor food sources. Bees also suffer and they are needed for fertilizing many of our crops.
Also i think your Construction brigade extracted the Jump-point-data from the restored observation facility. Iirc you can extract this kind of data. Look through the logs could be that you also got data on other stuff like genetics.
-
OOC:
It is actually something that I have considered, even if the Swarm hasn't. There are three major impediments to them actually coming to that conclusion.
1) Gamma is currently in firm control of the facility, and she is at least mildly opposed to Infertiles having any power whatsoever, nevermind being able to reproduce again. So no chance of investigating the facility or even a reason to give it much thought.
2) The only data the Swarm possesses about the facility are some tidbits of information collected by a bunch of engineers. Enough to confirm genetic manipulation as plausible, but not enough to actually give any data. If someone like LA got a good look at the place, sure, why not? But that is unlikely to happen until Gamma thinks it is necessary. As an aside, if LA ever got a good look at the facility, I'm going to give the Swarm the genetics base tech on the spot.
3) LA herself has no real interest in becoming fertile. Does she want to produce some form of offspring? Yes. But she is perfectly happy to settle for tube-grown mutants and the like. As such, this is not a major direction of interest for her.
Besides, the idea of infertiles and fertiles are kind of etched into the Wrix psychology. Infertiles generally accept their lot and find more productive outlets for their energy.
As for the environmental problems of the sun cooling, you are absolutely correct. The hives themselves are internally heated and by moving deeper the Wrix can stay warm for a long time. The biggest problem is in fact their food supply and the effects of both the cooling sun and the increase in their numbers are starting to be felt. Of course, it is a case of "eat everything now, its gonna die soon anyway" so they will last for a while even after their rate of hunting is no longer environmentally sustainable.
And before you ask, yes, they are seeding their new planets with edible lifeforms that can survive there and like any intruder species, they are spreading like wildfire. The other planets do have lifeforms of their own, but generally mostly primitive organisms and plants. Not so good to eat, but good to serve as food for other creatures.
-
16 January 2025
"So what's the latest?" IM asked her gathered group command group. The Swarm had long since passed the point where an individual was capable of performing all the necessary leadership tasks and delegation had become the name of the game. Still, it was a sort of learn as you go along experience.
"Minerals are looking good" US reported. "Stockpiles are growing and industry is proceeding at full steam. At some point down the line we are going to start exhausting the mineral reserves of the planet, but offworld mining is beginning to get up to speed. Hopefully that will be able to pick up the slack."
"Good news. Keep me posted. LA?" IM asked the infertile sitting on the other side of her.
LA-14-OZF was a relatively recent appointee to the role of Science Chief. It was more a of a liaison position, since she was also head of the research project. She only came in to Swarm Hive once a month or so to discuss recent developments. As most of her work was completely incomprehensible even to the rather intelligent PC, she usually said little.
"We are making progress. A few minor breakthroughs, but nothing really substantial or of anything but academic interest. However, I have been going over some of the data we recovered from the data banks of the facilities on First Stop. There appears to be some encrypted data. Gamma must have missed it or thought it was corrupted."
This made IM perk up. "Encrypted you say? Are you sure this isn't Gamma sending us a computer virus?"
"Ye-e-es..." LA admitted tentatively. "I had considered that, which is why it's not on a device connected to any network. Well, that and for security reasons."
"Then have you had any luck in cracking it?" US asked.
"None. I need more information or a LOT more time."
"Then can I go next?" PC piped up. She was in charge of all things spaceship.
"Fine, what is it?" IM asked.
"We need a spaceport."
IM sighed and shook her head. "For the last time, PC, that is not how these meetings work. You tell me what's going on and THEN we decide on what is needed."
"Well, we need a place to assist in loading and unloading cargo from our freighters. At the moment, our freighters spend more time loading than they do traveling. It can take up to ten days to fully load a ship but they can travel between Wrixom and First Stop in just over half that."
"And I assume you already worked out some plans for one of these structures?" US asked.
"Yes, I did. But I've been thinking. Perhaps there is a way to mount the loading equipment directly on the ship? Then they will essentially carry their spaceport with them...!"
OOC:
Getting fed up with the long loading times. Next construction project will be a spaceport. On a related note, next research project will be cargo handling.
-
26 January 2025
Construction is completed on a third colony ship. Another one for the trip between Wrixom and New Wrixom. The evacuation is now proceeding apace. Still not quickly enough to beat the population growth of Wrixom, but if all drones are not evacuated then that is fine as well.
11 February 2025
Some headway is finally made in reopening the vault as several computer components that had survived the collapse were recovered. It will take a long time to analyze their contents, but preliminary analysis suggests that the spider bots were controlled by some kind of "artificial intelligence". It seems to point to something capable of thinking with no biological parts, but analysis will have to be done in order to be sure. Regardless of what it was, it is theorized, based on the combat strategies observed, that it was originally designed to fight opponents employing different fighting strategies than that of the Wrix. It was also insufficiently capable of adaptation.
Unfortunately, Gamma's high hopes for a technological windfall in the vault is dashed as it appears that everything of value had separate, backup explosive charges detonated. No technology could be salvaged.
OOC:
Another facility unable to be recovered. Knew my lucky streak couldn't last.
-
30 April 2025
It is decided to dismantle one of the construction factory complexes on Wrixom and move it to New Wrixom to start construction there. It will be very slow going, but hopefully it can begin building more factories by itself.
20 May 2025
A hidden cache is found after some time clearing one of the outer mining shafts of a cave-in. Inside, several thousand tons of stored tritanium is found, all neatly stacked and covered. Along with this, some old computer records are found, but they appear to have been corrupted over time. This is a bit strange, as they were very well stored inside protected coverings, but it seems the ravages of time cannot be held at bay.
Almost dismissively, Gamma forwards the data to the Swarm's research facilities. There was nothing to be gained from keeping it kept up the appearances of full cooperation.
With this, the 1st Constructors believe that the alien ruins have been fully exploited and all structures either reactivated or torn down for parts. Since no easy transport home is available, the constructors are kept on First Stop to assist with setting up industrial operations.
OOC:
4000 Tritanium. At first this seemed like a rather pathetic find, but checking my mineral amounts again it seems as if I am actually starting to run low on this stuff. Wrixom has plenty to mine, but only has a 0.2 accessibility. First Stop has 0.9 accessibility and a metric crapton of the stuff to mine, but mining operations aren't really expansive enough to sustain factory construction back home. All in all, this is a nice little boost that puts off at least one mineral crunch for a year or two, most likely far more.
-
14 June 2025
While waiting for a test to finish, LA, in a moment of boredom, peruses the 'corrupted' data that Gamma sent back from her latest find and makes a rather interesting discovery. The data itself appears very similar to the other set of data she had obtained from Gamma before that had turned out to be merely encrypted. In fact, as she ran a few computer programs, she realized that there was no corruption at all but that all of the data was merely encrypted.
18 June 2025
"I did it!" LA reported to a sleepy IM over the comms link.
IM yawned. "What?" she asked in a tired voice. "And why did you have to tell me this at 2 in the morning?"
"I cracked the encryption I told you about in the last meeting!"
IM stared at her bleary-eyed. "And it only took you... what?... six months? Yay. It will hold till morning."
"IM, I am perfectly aware of the time. And if it the results could hold till morning, I would have done so, now please listen" LA chided. "The reason I was unable to crack the previous encryption was due to the corruption of the data. I simply didn't know what was legitimate encryption and what was simply corrupted data and this threw off all my code breaking methods. The new data, however, is completely corruption free and gave me enough of a sample of the code to finally begin cracking it properly."
"Get to the point."
"The new data is just some transport logs and stuff, fairly mundane. The real dynamite is the previous bit of garbled data we got from Gamma. Most is corrupted, as I suspected, but I have managed to salvage parts of what appears to be some travel logs."
IM was silent this time, her sleepy brain trying its best to figure out all the possible implications of this information.
"There were references to four locations throughout the system, but they don't correspond to any known orbital bodies. They may have been space stations or something out in the outer system" LA explains.
"It's the fifth location that is really interesting, however. Guess" she grinned.
"Uhm... New Wrixom" IM tries.
"Close. But only half right. Wrixom itself. There may be another ruin right here."
-
30 June 2025
IM grumbled as she fastened the straps holding her in place inside the small lifter. She was way too busy to be flying around, visiting some 'specialist' but her doctor had insisted. And why couldn't the damn specialist come to her?
"You ready?" the pilot asked his VIP passenger over his shoulder. She grunted a confirmation and the pilot turned back ready the craft for launch.
Exhaustive - but secretive - searches of Wrixom had revealed nothing. No ancient alien ruins or long dead technology. Not even a single spider robot. Talk about a wild reaper chase.
The craft shuddered as its VTOL engines fired and started to carry its weight.
"Sit tight. We'll be there in a jiffy" her annoyingly jolly pilot announced cheerfully.
The inside of the lifter was small, with barely enough room for four seated drones, two facing front and two rear. The small cockpit with barely sufficient space for the pilot and co-pilot was accessible through an open hatch in the front centre of the passenger compartment.
IM stared out the small window in lieu of having nothing else to do. Something was bothering her, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was. Then she realized. The sun was on the wrong side of the aircraft.
"Excuse me? Why are we heading south?" she asked the pilot.
"Because that's where your appointment is, isn't it?" the drone answered happily.
"No, the specialist is in Rho Hive, and that's north" IM answered, flexing her claws. This could have just been a case of incompetence or an innocent mistake, but she doubted it. And if this was something more sinister as she suspected... could one queen take on two drones in physical combat? Maybe. She certainly had the size advantage, but the space here was cramped. It could work against her.
There was a soft click as IM released the buckles of her flight harness. Her hopes of maintaining the element of surprise, or even having a chance at fighting, were quickly dashed as the co-pilot stuck his arm holding a pistol through the hatch and pointed it right at her.
"Please don't move around while the vehicle is in motion" he said. It was the first time the entire trip that he had spoken and IM was surprised at how soft and gentle his voice was.
"If you fire that in here, we all die" IM stated.
The co-pilot gestured towards her seat. "Low velocity. Please refasten your seatbelt."
IM stared at the pistol for a few seconds before relenting and refastening her harness. Her mind was racing, trying to think of who could be behind this. Gamma had no love for her, but this seemed a bit... subtle for Gamma's tastes. Kappa had been biding her time for a long while, that much she knew. Could she finally have acted? Lambda certainly had the capability to pull this off, but she was on her side! At least, she was supposed to be on her side.
A peek out the window revealed that they were now traveling over the ocean. This raised another thought. Why hadn't they killed her yet?
After what seemed like hours of no sound but the rumble of the lifter's thrusters, the sound changed. The lifter lurched as the pilot steered it towards a landing site not visible from either of the small side windows. There was a shudder as they touched down.
"So what now?" IM asked the co-pilot still holding the gun on her. "Time to kill me?"
"Oh calm down! Nobody is going to get killed. We're just gonna show you something" the pilot replied as he climbed through the hatch and struggled to open the side door. IM considered making her move while the other drone's shot was blocked, but the pilot's tone of voice stopped her. He sounded a little exasperated, if anything.
"Why couldn't you have sent me a video?" IM asked snidely.
"Cos no video is gonna do this justice. Now come on" the pilot replied as he cracked open the door and crawled out. A blast of cold air flooded the small craft, making IM shiver. She shot the gentle drone a quizzical glance but he just gestured towards the exit with his pistol. Shrugging, IM undid her harness and crawled out of the ship into the cold.
Once outside, she saw that the ship had landed at an old mine, long abandoned. A thin layer of fine snow covered all the machinery. As she shivered in the cold air, she decided her immediate plan was to quickly kill the outside drone and ambush the one holding the pistol as he left the ship. However, when she looked around to find her erstwhile pilot and kidnapper, she found him standing next to her, holding a coat out to her. He was already wearing his.
"Uhm, thank you?" she said, confused as she took the coat from him.
He smiled at her. "Hope this keeps you warm enough until we get inside. Sorry for the kidnapping thing, but secrecy yada-yada. You know the deal."
"So this is Lambda's doing? Is she waiting for me?" IM asked.
"Not... look, don't worry who is behind this. Just accept it at face value, okay?" the pilot replied mysteriously.
Behind her, the second drone crawled out of the lifter unopposed. "If you don't do anything rash then we can dispense with the weapon" he stated in his gentle voice, the pistol already holstered.
IM ignored him, too busy putting on her coat. As soon as she was finished, she set off towards the main shaft, but the pilot called her back.
"Not that way. We sunk a shortcut recently. Saves some travel time" he said.
IM followed the two drones to a small, crude-looking elevator off to the side. IM had to duck her head to fit inside and the two drones climbed in next to her without even thinking twice. She briefly considered killing them right there, but that would simply have left her all alone in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to fly her only way out. Besides, just because the place looked deserted didn't mean there weren't any other drones around, watching them from out of sight.
The elevator descended for what seemed an eternity before coming to a halt inside a dimly lit rocky corridor which seemed to have once been part of the mine. Directly opposite the elevator was a pitch black doorway broken into the side of the tunnel.
"After you" the gentle drone said, gesturing to IM. There was no sign of his pistol.
"No, I insist" she replied.
The two drones just shrugged and headed in. She entered behind them, her eyes adjusting as best they could to the darkness. She could see little, but there was a feeling of space that was quite unusual for being so far underground. Then there was a click and the hum of a generator starting up and light flooded the area, momentary blinding her. When her eyes recovered, the sight took her breath away.
They were on a ledge near the roof of a cavern so large that the large spotlights set into the edge did not illuminate the opposite side. Inside were structures of a make and material that was unknown to her.
"These are the ruins we've been looking for for months! And they're massive!" IM finally exclaimed. The two drones just nodded. "Why didn't our ground sonars pick it up? An open area of this size should have been visible from orbit."
The jolly drone walked over to the edge of the ledge and partly lifted a thick grey rubbery substance off the wall. "Dampers. The whole cavern is lined with it. Absorbs sound vibrations in such a way as to make the whole place look solid. We only by accident about two months ago. We were mining a few trace deposits left over in the mine when we accidentally broke into this place" he replied.
"Who are 'we'?" IM asked suspiciously.
"Nobody you need concern yourself about" the co-pilot responded quietly but firmly.
"Then you should be aware that this will mean war" IM replied. "If it is discovered that one hive is trying to keep a discovery of this size to themselves, you will be the target of every other jealous queen on the planet. If you give this over to Swarm Hive maybe we can..."
"If any Queen discovers this place, it will lead to a war that will destroy the Wrix" the co-pilot stated cryptically. "Their greed will allow no other outcome. Swarm Hive will never be allowed access to these ruins."
"You know, you sound a lot like Lambda. Is she behind this?" IM asked.
The drones ignored her question. "We need to decide what to do with this place. As long as it stands it is a potential time bomb. The only way to assure our survival is by destroying it forever."
"You want to blow it up?" IM asked incredulously. "Think of all the technology, resources and stuff we would be losing out on!"
"That exact mentality is the reason it needs to be destroyed. No hive will want to miss out on it and they will fight to possess it" the co-pilot answered her calmly and took out a small remote control. "The explosives are already in place."
"Then why even bother bringing me out here to the middle of freezing nowhere!?" she demanded.
"You must witness the destruction. The search for this place is consuming too many resources. Resources that need to be put towards getting as many Wrix offworld as possible."
"And," the jolly pilot added, "we figured you might be able to think of some alternative. It's not like we WANT to blow up potentially groundbreaking alien technology."
IM paced back and forth as she considered this. Was there an option that would make these drones happy and let the Swarm get access to the ruins? Perhaps...
"Would you be opposed to Swarm Hive obtaining these resources and technologies?" IM asked.
"No, if that were possible. But we cannot risk the other Hives discovering this place."
"How about this then" IM suggested. "You keep the explosives in place. They can be detonated at any time, right? Why not see how much we can get out of this place before we have to press the button. I'll send a trustworthy team to examine the ruins. Maybe we can salvage something."
The two drones looked at each other and shrugged.
"That seems agreeable" the gentle one said. "One condition. You send no drones, only infertiles, and we will provide the manual labour."
"Then I have a condition as well" IM cut back. "I want to know who I'm working with. Which hive are you? Lambda? Sigma?"
"It really is best for your safety and perhaps even sanity if you don't know" the pilot replied.
"Now I definitely want to know. Either you tell me who you work for or I go back and do my own research. Might be a little less secure..."
"I am from Rho Hive and he is from Beta Hive. Does that satisfy you?" the gentle drone interrupted her.
"Wait, so two hives are in on this? Then..."
"She's not going to be happy unless we tell her what's going on" the pilot said.
"I suppose you're right" his friend admitted.
"We are both from a group called the Drone Collective, a group of drones who have realized that the Hive Queens, if left to their own devices, will most likely lead our race to ruin. We operate independently of our Hives."
IM stared at her pilot, her mouth hanging open. It took several seconds for her brain to process. "Bullsmeg" she finally said. "Are you trying to tell me that you are free drones?"
The gentler drone answered. "We are still loyal to our Queens, but we realize that if aware of all the facts, they would make decisions that would not be in their own best interests. As such we only tell them what they need to know."
IM's mind reeled. "This isn't possible. Drones can't act on their own initiative. They don't have the mental capacity" she repeated what she had been taught to believe from her hatchling days.
"That's not very nice. Are you calling us dumb?" the jolly drone mocked. "But in all seriousness, we have had the brainpower - and have been using it - for a very long time. Think about the complexity of the orders you have been giving drones your entire life. Have you ever encountered a situation where the drone couldn't figure out what you wanted?"
"That's different! You have the intelligence, you just... don't... have the initiative..." IM tried to argue but faltered. Her own arguments were sounding very hollow to herself, especially since she was arguing with proof that she was wrong.
"That is a superstition that is believed by far too many" the gentler co-pilot added. "Drones, I mean."
The flight back was very quiet. The two drones had sworn her to secrecy about their group and IM was intending to keep the secret. She had no way to know which drones in Swarm Hive were loyal to this group, for all she knew it could be all of them. Hell, for all she knew all the drones on the planet were part of this group and the Queens were just allowed to pretend at running things while they didn't mess up too badly. For all she knew...
For all she knew, her entire culture was a lie.
OOC
Phew, holy wall of text, Batman! So there we have the introduction of a new player, the Drone Collective.
In case you hadn't guessed it, they were the ones with the disc in the first post. At the time, there was a pretty strong faction inside the Collective that was in favor of abandoning secrecy and taking control by force by sending a broadcast to all the drones they could reach (that was the disc). Eventually, the Collective decided that they would only continue with this course of action if the Queens proved themselves truly incapable of ruling by performing some gross act of incompetence or greed, such as destroying the Wrix' first TN-engined ship through greed or over petty grievances. Luckily, that never came to be and there was no attempted insurrection.
I had wanted to work this bit into the story, but it was pretty long already, so I skipped it. Still, the first part does warrant some explanation so I put it in here.
-
27 December 2025
IM held the piece of paper like it was a poisonous snake. A poisonous snake made of pure gold. Every greed neuron and every fear neuron in her brain were firing simultaneously. To the casual observer, she was sitting deep in thought in 'her' garden - the one with the rocky memorial - as she often did, but the truth was she was completely and utterly stunned.
The Swarm had nearly torn itself apart in greed when a small handful of intact alien structures had been found on First Stop, a completely different planet. Now, according to this report, the Xenologists she had dispatched in the utmost secrecy had revealed over a hundred intact structures in the Swarm's own back yard!
She was very tempted to just have the button pressed to bury the whole lot of it under a mountain, to be forgotten as rapidly as possible. She knew this was going to end badly. Horribly even. A war to end all wars, especially with the new advances in TN technology.
Then she considered the Spider Bots found on First Stop. Ten times as many structures, so ten times as many bots seemed a safe guess... Holy smeg. That many bots could pose a significant threat to Wrix life, if the Hives did not work together to defeat them. Perhaps more dangerous was the fact that there was no way she would be able to keep such an attack a secret. And once the Hive Queens heard of Spider Bots on Wrixom, even the densest would be able to put two and two together.
She crumpled the paper in her claw as she pondered her options. The fact of the matter was that she didn't really have any. Blowing the mountain would be detectable from very far away, and questions would be asked. If it became known she had been involved with the decision to destroy the place, she would most certainly be killed. On the other hand, if she just covered it up and left it, it would always be hanging over her head like some kind of edged weapon. The risk of it being discovered would always be there and if it was, Swarm Command would most likely be the first to get nuked as the Queens vie for power.
Unfortunately, if neither of those two options were feasible, exploiting the ruins was even less so. The risks both for herself and the entire Swarm were immense if a swarm of Spiders got released.
"What should I do?" she mumbled to herself in desperation. Sometimes she wished she had never taken this stupid job. It had cost her her health, her eye and will most likely one day her life once the Swarm is safely evacuated and dissolves.
And in that, she saw her solution. If she was going to die anyway, why bother worrying about taking risks? In fact, it was a long shot, but perhaps her own salvation lay in those ruins, some way to unite the Swarm forever.
She took out a pocket communicator and adjusted its recipient. It patched into the Hive's communications network and as such was hardly secure, but it didn't matter. She didn't need security since she only said one word into it.
"Go."
OOC:
This ruin report was a doozy. Hundred and twenty abandoned installations. There is no way I'm going to be able to swing this story-wise without some form of civil war. Unfortunately, there is no way I'm going to be able to swing a civil war without severely messing up my chances of getting offworld in something resembling a reasonable amount of time. Oh the woes of literary endeavour.
Edit: Also, it seems I missed this but the Spaceport was completed at some point as well. Started with a new research facility since minerals had stockpiled a little bit.
-
OKAY WOAH, WHERE ARE WE?
As we've hit a new year, I think it's time for a recap. With pictures. Note that the pictures will be from a tiny bit ahead in the future where my game is currently.
System
(http://s8.postimg.org/4nar32amt/New_Wrixom.png)
The Home system has a binary star configuration, with a sizable central star and a much smaller secondary star. Wrixom, First Stop and Rube orbit the primary, which, in game, is cooling down slightly over time. This is simulated by me adding some anti-greenhouse gasses to the relevant planets every once in a while. New Wrixom is the intended destination for the majority of the Wrix as it orbits the secondary which is not cooling down. So far, none of the other stellar bodies have been exploited as I have been able to obtain sufficient minerals from these four. This will most likely change as soon as production begins in earnest.
Spaceships
(http://s10.postimg.org/3y1byc8s9/Ships.png)
The only two non-civilian ships are the Endymion and the Sir Francis Drake. The Endymion is fitted as a geo-survey craft, but also served as a test vessel for the first generation of TN engines. It is under the control of Swarm Hive. The Drake is nothing but a courier vessel with no fitted function under the command of Gamma Hive. It has been retrofitted with the same TN engines used by the Endymion and is actually slightly faster now. Both of these ships have been whiling away the days sitting in spacedock for lack of anything else to do.
The Swarm-owned civilian fleet consists of two small Myrkul II freighters, each with 5k cargo space and three Myrkul IIB freighters refitted to carry living creatures (colonizer ships). Each handles 20k colonists. Neither of these designs have cargo handling equipment, making loading and unloading painfully slow. In addition, one of the colonizers is actually controlled by Gamma and is permanently busy shipping her Hive offworld to First Stop.
Epsilon and her allies in the Epsilon Conglomerate have a total of 4 small freighters, 2 large freighters and 2 colony ships. These are my civilian shipping lines. It should be noted that even the smallest of these freighters is double the size of a Myrkul II. At the moment, I've gotten ahead of the infrastructure curve so the freighters are mostly just sitting idle while the colonizers scramble frantically to get as many drones off Wrixom as possible.
Industry
(http://s17.postimg.org/e3hmw2sgv/Industry.png)
I am ticking along nicely, with good industrial growth. Wrixom's industry is above. First Stop has 18 mines and a few assorted other structures such as a Genetic Modification Facility salvaged from the ruins I found there. New Wrixom has 4 mines and a construction facility slowly building more construction facilities.
Mines
(http://s15.postimg.org/i3hh9sziz/Mining.png)
Mineral-wise I'm doing okay. Nothing is screaming out ABOUT TO RUN OUT and I have decent amounts left to be harvested at at least average availability of everything somewhere. Hmm. That sentence made no sense. Let's just say I'm mining more than I'm using and that doesn't look like it's going to be changing soon.
My GFTF (Ground Forces Training Facility) has been doing nothing but churning out Construction Brigades since each of them provide as much production as a construction factory.
Research
(http://s3.postimg.org/6975kbjsz/Research.png)
I'm up to six research facilities with a seventh in the pipeline. I am aware that this is quite low, I'm actually hoping to loot one or two from the ruins of Wrixom if I could do that without setting off some cataclysmic Precursor event. It is perhaps a little unclear what researchers I have so here is a little summary of the best in each field.
Biology/Genetics: LA-14-OZF - 35%
Construction/Production: N/A :(
Defensive Systems: TP-73-VOW - 15%
Energy Weapons: DD-73-QJL - 25%
Logistics / Ground Combat: EK-73-RKM - 10%
Missiles / Kinetics: EF-48-MBJ - 10%
Power / Propulsion: DP-35-PNT - 15%
Sensors / FC: SY-19-ENN - 10%
So I have at least one of everything except for C/P, arguably the most important one. Sometimes I hate the RNG. My plan for the future is to complete research 240 then get Cargo Handling before designing a bigger and better transport. After that I'm not sure. Note that the picture is from a bit ahead in time.
Factions
No image since this is more the RP side of things. I'll give a brief rundown of each of the major factions and what's up with them.
Swarm Hive - These are our main characters, IM, US, PC and so on. I'm actually including Lambda and her hive here at the moment as she has aligned herself with the Swarm, at least for now. With access to Lambda's expertise and assets, security at the hive itself has been significantly improved from 'leaky as an empty hole' to 'leaky as a sieve'. At least they now have safe areas where drones are not allowed to go. US and PC both have a little secret - they are fertile, unlike IM and all of the other queens in Swarm Hive. US was the previous Hive Queen of Delta Hive before she went looking for greener pastures and PC was a leftover queen from Beta Hive when a succession happened. If she had stayed, she would have been killed. It should also be noted that IM is from Lambda Hive and as such is technically a daughter of Lambda. The Wrix aren't big on family connections, though.
Gamma - Gamma Hive is currently the most powerful Hive in the system. I say 'in the system' since a significant part of her hive is currently deployed to First Stop. However, that alone makes her the most powerful Hive; no other hive controls an entire planet. As part of an agreement with the Swarm she has been allowing other hives to expand to First Stop, on the condition that none of them contest her hegemony.
Kappa - Though it used to be the most technologically advanced Hive on Wrixom, the proliferation of Swarm-controlled research facilities have greatly marginalized Kappa Hive's influence, and by extension that of its queen. Kappa was the original founder of the Swarm and discoverer of the cooling-sun phenomenon, but was masterfully out politicked by US (then Delta) some time ago. She has a grudge against IM and the entire Swarm Command for having 'stolen' the Swarm from her, as well as a spiteful and vindictive personality. While she is toeing the line for the moment due to the recent success of the Swarm, she remains a vocal opponent to IM and patiently waits for the day her hive is out of danger and she is free to act. An ally of convenience of Gamma.
Lambda - Lambda is a bit of an oddity. While she has been aiding Swarm Hive for several years now with intelligence and counter-intelligence assets, her motives remain mysterious. She is known as the Spymaster among the Queens and knows much, but rarely interferes.
Epsilon Conglomerate - The EC has assumed its role as the 'civilian' arm of the Swarm. It consists of Epsilon Hive and a few smaller hives that have allied themselves and pooled resources. Even though it is technically a competitor to the Swarm, its members remain members of the Swarm in an extremely convoluted set of allegiances and responsibilities. It helps, of course, that the EC has undertaken the bulk of the evacuation, including shipping more infrastructure to the new colonies as they become required with their fleet of massive freighters. The EC also owns the mining outpost on Rube, though they exchange most of the TN minerals extracted with the Swarm for vast quantities of more common resources.
The Drone Collective - This is the most secretive group to date. Even Lambda appears not to have discovered their existence. They claim to consist solely of drones that have come to realize the fallibility of their queens and as such have begun to take actions without their queens knowledge to ensure the survival of the Wrix. It appears to consist of drones from a variety of different hives working together. If that is the case, it is quite plausible that their numbers have swelled significantly since the different hives have started working together under the Swarm. At the moment, the Drone Collective act as guardians of the ruins secretly found on Wrixom.
Updates are going to be a bit more widely spaced in terms of in-game time from here on and I'm not going to comment on every construction project that starts and finishes. Everything that is happening has basically happened before so it isn't that interesting. Think of it as a research/construction/preperation/exodus montage. I'll still put it in when something interesting happens.
-
2 January 2026
As her project is almost complete, LA-14 hands off the work of implementing her findings to her protégé, GY-66-BPR, an infertile that has shown an uncanny gift with the subject matter of production processes. It is hoped that this will increase research speeds by approximately 20%. LA intends to spend her time working more on genetics, perhaps even touring the recently discovered Genetics Facility on First Stop if Gamma allows it.
OOC:
YES YES YES YES!!!! I have finally gotten a scientist with a skill in Construction/Production!... right when there is 40 rp left of the 5k project I started several years ago. Yay. But still, at least I'm now better set up for the future.
12 January 2026
The final implementation of the advances developed by LA-14 is completed. All laboratories are now equipped with the new scanning devices and research speeds have accelerated. The laboratories are turned over to the expertise of EK-73-RKM as she has proposed a method of miniaturizing the loading and unloading equipment of the spaceport, hopefully increasing the ability of freighters to perform this function themselves.
-
24 January 2026
"Can I speak to you for a moment?" US asked with her head peeking into IM's office.
IM grumbled and looked up from a stack of paperwork in front of her. Bureaucracy created paperwork with equal vigor, no matter which race you were.
"I'm busy. What is it?" she snapped.
"It's important. There is an irregularity at one of our mines, and I have no idea what to make of it" US replied, stepping inside and ignoring IM's mood.
IM sighed. "Explain."
The other queen dropped a single page in front of her. "This is a request for some equipment to be shipped to one of the southern mines. It was misfiled, but that is not what was odd. This mine has been closed for several years. Mined out."
IM could feel her hackles rise. She knew exactly what mine US was talking about.
"Perhaps the request was just dated wrong? That would explain the misfiling" IM tried to explain.
"I considered that" US replied, "but the nature of the equipment is also a bit strange. Collapsible barricades, a few advanced computers, not the kind of things you would really need on a mine. Besides, I went around and asked some of the pilots, and one of them admitted to me that he had dropped off a few things there."
Dammit! Why couldn't the Collective had kept things quiet? Perhaps they weren't as widespread after all...
"Do you think it could be one of the other hives undermining us, so to speak?" IM asked quietly, but US shook her head and pointed at the walls and ceiling, mouthing 'bugs'.
Then she pointed at the symbols on the page until she spelt out 'Lambda', before shrugging in an exaggerated fashion. IM nodded slowly, more to give herself time to think than agreement, but US took the motion as an affirmative.
"I don't trust her" she growled softly, "so I'll keep an eye out. Maybe do a little digging of my own. You know..." She winked.
Double smeg, now US was going to send a few of her Delta drones over to take a look! This could ruin everything and force the Collective to blow up the whole find! She had to run interference...
"Don't!" IM said. "It's too risky. Let's just keep our heads down and keep going. How much damage could a few left over minerals do, anyway? It's not like we were using them."
US frowned at her boss. This wasn't like her. Then her face relaxed and she just shrugged.
"Alright, if you say so" she said and headed back out, taking the page with her.
IM breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back in her chair as US left. Unfortunately, US had been playing politics for longer than IM had, and she had no intention of letting things go. Now, she just wanted to find out how IM was involved with it...
OOC
I'm sort of back after a bit of a hiatus. We'll see whether I will keep this going or get bored with it again.
-
7 February 2026
A storage area full of automated mining equipment is discovered in the ruins under Wrixom. It appeared as if they were some of the machines used to excavate the underground area. They are quickly shipped to a new mining site and started, the sudden appearance of an entire mine's worth of automated equipment cleverly 'disappeared' in the paperwork of Swarm Hive by the Collective.
19 February 2026
Three times US had sent out a few clandestine drones to check out the suspicious southern mine and three times they had returned saying the place was quiet as a grave with nothing going on. And yet the last time she sent them out was after she found an actual load of heavy duty industrial equipment that was to be delivered to that exact mine! The drones guarding it of course had no idea what it was for or where it was headed, and when she came back after trying to find someone who did, the consignment had disappeared without a trace.
To make matters worse, IM treated her like she was mad whenever she brought it up. The only conclusion that made sense was that Lambda or one of the other queens in Swarm Hive were trying to frakk with her mind. Well, she'd show them. She would ignore it completely.
The Drone Collective breathed a collective sigh of relief when she expressed these sentiments to one of their members in her ranks. All it would have taken for their illusion to fall apart was for her to notice that no matter which drones she sent to the mine, it was always the same three who reported back. The same three who were guarding the industrial shipment and promptly slapped a 'priority shipment' sticker on it the moment her back was turned.
7 March 2026
Several of the structures in the 'Wrixom Ruins' were fully disassembled for study, but were found to be of little technological use. In order to get rid of the clutter of the disassembled building components, they were snuck into Wrixom's infrastructure stores and the stock lists were altered. Unfortunately, this pretty much doubled the stockpile, so it would perhaps not be so easy to hide.
OOC
380 infrastructure recovered. This is good, it means I can continue expanding my offworld colonies without having to waste time building infrastructure, at least for a while.
NEW
17 April 2026
Power is restored to a strange looking facility in the Wrixom ruins and is found to have once been used for scientific research. Its databases are in bad condition, but while large portions are corrupted due to age, enough of it is recoverable to assist in bringing all the strange equipment in the lab back to operating condition. The data it contains also seems to hint at the ability to travel between stars, but provides no information on why the city was built underground or why it was abandoned.
The facility itself is staffed by Collective drones in contact with their counterparts working in the legitimate laboratories across Wrixom. It is decided that it will assist with any research that aids in moving the maximum number of Wrix off their doomed world, such as the current loading equipment miniaturization technology. It results in a significant - albeit unnoticed - increase in research and development speed.
None of this information is shared with IM or any of the queens as the Collective decides to keep the knowledge secret, for now.
NEW
-
2 July 2026
Wrix scientists under the leadership of EK-73-RKM develops compact loading and unloading that can be installed in a spacecraft to assist spaceport-based facilities or perform all such tasks in case no spaceport is available - as is the case on all the current colony worlds.
Gamma makes an immediate demand for her Myrkul colony vessel to be upgraded first, but IM gives her the metaphorical finger and immediately orders one of the Swarm Hive's Myrkul's upgradedas soon as current construction is finished. The plan is to alternate upgrades between the bulk and colony variants of the venerable transport ships so that immigration would not outstrip the available life support systems.
In order to keep the refits as small and simple as possible, the refit would involve replacing a fuel tank on each of the two Myrkul designs with the cargo management system. Some concerns were raised by PC about the consequences of reducing their range by half, such as that they can no longer reach the outer asteroid belts with sufficient fuel for a return trip, but IM overrode these concerns. The Myrkul's were nearing the end of their useful lifespan anyway and these refits were a stopgap measure at best. To mollify her, PC was asked to develop a new, larger freighter over the course of the next six months.
Future research is directed towards an industrial overhaul of current TN factories, as GY-66-BPR believes that the current processes they employ make suboptimal use of resources.
OOC
Cargo Handling complete, but the shipyard only finishes what it is busy with next year. Bit of an oversight on my part there.
7 September 2026
Four strange machines are recovered from a hermetically sealed chamber deep in the ruins. According to databases recovered so far, they should some kind of engines, but nobody can figure out how they work. They do not appear to generate any thrust whatsoever. Additional tests are scheduled.
On an unrelated note, the Swarm Yards lay down an additional slipway to increase the rate of construction. PC also completes her design for a new transporter chassis. Her new design, named the Beshaba, is designed for flexibility right off the bat. The '-F' variant has 25000 cargo space (measured in Wrixian standard units) in a single, vast hold while the '-C' variant instead sports cryo chambers to keep 50000 drones or queens in suspended animation.
PC proudly states that the Beshaba is going to be the first true evacuation vessel of the Wrix, at least as soon as construction is started.
8 September 2026
Tests determine that the engines are still in functional condition, despite their age. They just don't seem to do anything. They hum, draw tons of power, then just switch off. The Collective is very puzzled.
OOC
Take a wild guess what kind of engines these are. And I got 4 of the things! I think I'm going to scrap 3 to boost my research (that will work, right?) and keep the other one to actually fit to my ship. It seems I can actually fit these things without ever researching jump theory, and since my alien ruins have revealed all the jump points in the system, this could result in me leaving the solar system in as little as a year! The question now is, do I want to?
-
2 October 2026
An intricate factory is recovered that appears to have been designed to produce complex aircraft at an incredible rate. Unfortunately, its databanks are wiped clean, leaving behind no blueprints, and the Wrix own aircraft are incompatible with it. Still, it provides a decent glimpse into alien architecture and construction processes.
OOC
Fighter factory recovered. Wish I could snag a couple more research labs or mines.
3 October 2026
DP-35-PNT sat and dozed in the small, cramped, air-transport as it soared through the night sky. The hum of the small craft's turbine engines always made her cozy and sleepy. She could name every component in them and had even designed one or two herself. Engines was what she did. At least, what she used to do until the rather sudden and extremely vague transfer order to the rear end of nowhere. Those in charge did as they did and the scientists like her begged for budgets, or in this case, access to the TN laboratories and equipment.
The tiniest change in the tone of the craft's engine woke her up. It was on final approach.
Left forward injector is out of alignment she thought to herself as she rubbed her eyes and released her straps. Not critical, but could cause problems if not checked out.
She peered out the window, trying to see where the now slowly descending craft was headed, but saw nothing but blackness. Strange.
Puzzled, she crawled through the port to the cockpit area and addressed the pilot.
"Everything alright?" she asked.
"Doing just fine, ma'am. Coming in to land right now" he replied.
"I don't see any lights. You sure this is the right place?"
"Please return to your seat and refasten your seatbelt to prevent injury" the co-pilot stated calmly, completely ignoring her question.
For a moment, she stared at the pair, trying to figure out what was going on, before shrugging and returning to her seat. All this clandestine stuff was beyond her and it wasn't like she had any enemies.
The landing proceeded smoothly, with a small circle of lights lighting up seemingly at the last minute and only staying lit until the small craft touched down on the tarmac.
Once all three of them had disembarked and wrapped up against the bitingly cold wind, DP-35 finally took the opportunity to look around. It appeared to be an old mine of some kind, complete with rusty machinery. Her welcoming committee consisted of... only drones? Very strange. At least in the modern non-hive-centric Wrix society.
"How was your flight?" one of the drones asked. He was wearing a mottled coat and holding a rather large pulse rifle in his claws.
"Boring. Why am I here?" she cut back. Discomfort always annoyed her and the cold was quite uncomfortable, even with the thick greatcoat. Her claws and face was still uncovered.
The armed drone gave a brief grin. "We have something to show you. Two things actually. Well, five things, technically, but four of them are rather similar. Shall we take this inside?"
"Let's. Who are 'we'? she asked as they began walking to the small elevator off to the side.
"Ah, that's... complicated" one of the other drones replied.
DP sighed. "Isn't it always? At least tell me whether you're working for Swarm Hive or not. Not that I particularly care, mind you, they might just get a tad upset if I just disappear. Premiere propulsion expert and all."
"Not exactly" the armed drone replied as a few of the drones joined them in the elevator. "But we have their best interests at heart."
What have I gotten myself into? she wondered idly as the elevator started to descend.
-
7 October 2026
DP-35 begins making inroads into discovering the functionality of the four strange engines. Her progress is hamstrung by one important fact, however: the Wrix simply do not have the science to even begin to explain what they do. Guided by some vague notes and recovered documents from the Ruin Science Complex computers, she eventually manages to determine that the engines are some kind of... warp devices which can only be used under very precise conditions. Where or what these conditions would occur, however, she has no idea. Still, the implications are staggering.
The drones agree to put the RSC fully at her disposal to develop this new branch of science. A comprehensive understanding of it is expected to take a really long time though.
OOC:
Starting research into warp theory with 1 research lab for ~RP reasons~. The idea of refitting on of my scout craft with one of the warp engines is starting to grow on me. I'm just rather afraid of accidentally activating some TN tech NPC races/Star Swarms right next to my home system, especially since I have no real way of using any neighbouring systems yet. Curiosity would be the only reason to attempt this.
22 October 2026
Excavation of a strange pipe leads to the discovery of two large tanks embedded into the foundation of the ruins. Analysis of their contents determines it to be pure sorium-based fuel, still usable. The smaller tank, holding just over 4 million litres, still has a functional pump and monitoring equipment and can immediately be put to use. The second tank's pumping system had been destroyed by a rare structural collapse and a new system would have to be jury-rigged before the tank can be used as a fuel supply.
The Collective keeps this find to themselves, as it gives them both the ability to undertake their own space missions (if they can find a starship!) and access to an extremely valuable bargaining chip. The smaller tank alone holds just less than double the total fuel stockpiles of the Swarm.
-
2 January 2027
After much difficulty due to efforts not to damage the surrounding structures, the second tank is hooked up to a makeshift pump. Surveys and some calculations determine that the tank holds almost ten million litres. The Collective now has access to fuel supplies that far, far outstrip the rather meager stockpiles that the Swarm have produced so far. The Collective is undecided about what to do with it, but since they have nowhere else to put the fuel anyway, they leave it as it is for now.
12 January 2027
Another Myrkul drone transporter is completed. The process of refitting the entire transport fleet with the new system is started immediately. The refit itself is relatively quick, taking only about 2 weeks, but is a severe disruption of the ships' supply routes.
27 January 2027
The first Myrkul II is refitted to the Myrkul III design with cargo handling equipment. It is expected that a full refit of the fleet will be completed by approximately the end of April, if all goes well.
1 March 2027
Now armed with some very basic understanding of warp theory, DP-35 is given permission to disassemble one of the warp engines for study. As rare and valuable as they are, being able to reproduce them as soon as possible would be even more valuable.
Unfortunately, while disassembly gives some insight into replication of the technology, it provides no new advances in understanding of the theory upon which it operates.
OOC
Disassembled a jump drive. Got 50-100 RP in each of the component techs, but nothing in Jump Theory. Oh well.
-
26 March 2027
The EC mining complexes on Rube are expanded with some new equipment as part of the Epsilon Conglomerate's aggressive growth strategy. Whether anything further will come of it is unknown as yet.
7 April 2027
Wrixom goes through one of the coldest times in recorded history as it experiences as sudden drop in average global temperatures. Weatherologists speculate that it was caused by a sudden drop in greenhouse containment due to some peculiar weather systems with insufficient solar energy received from Home, their star, to make up for the loss.
The weather also means food is becoming less plentiful and the hives discuss establishing farms and other self-contained food production facilities on First Stop and New Wrixom. Gamma had already embraced the new technology and while First Stop was not yet fully self-sufficient, supply requirements were already vastly lower than was to be expected from an approximately six million strong colony with more plans in the pipeline for further expansion. The secondary First Stop hives were already busy trading resources for food.
Unbeknownst to the other queens, Gamma also takes this opportunity to begin final preparations for her own move to First Stop. She did not plan on abandoning her holdings on Wrixom, but the weather was far more pleasant to her aging body on her new planet, even if the air was a bit thin.
29 April 2027
Exactly on schedule, the last Myrkul IIB class colonist transporter has its cargo handling equipment installed. The whole transport fleet is now refitted and working faster than ever, moving drones and production facilities offworld. On paper, they are already outdated and outclassed by the Beshaba class, but it will take a long time for the Swarm Yards to be ready to begin production of these monstrous vessels. With the cold starting to be felt, even in the traditionally 'warmer' areas, the pressure is on.
-
9 May 2027
A new tunnel is uncovered leading deeper into the ground, riddled with life-supporting equipment. It seems as if it used to function as a type of bomb-shelter or something, although why a bomb-shelter was needed when the entire city was already deep underground is a mystery. Mapping and recovery efforts commence immediately.
OOC:
240 infrastructure recovered.
19 May 2027
Deep below the ruins of Wrixom, at the end of a long tunnel an amazing find is made. A deep fissure in the crust from the planet's mantle allows magma to push up deep into the crust. In time, it would probably have formed a volcano or other geological event. As it was, someone had 'capped' the fissure many many years ago with a machine of mindboggling complexity and resilience. Constructed almost entirely of nearly pure Duranium, the massive black construct worked to 'sieve' the magma as it flowed through, filtering out useful TN and conventional metals, before transporting the already pseudo-refined lumps of filtered metal to the main complex. Unfortunately, while amazingly there appeared to be no structural faults with the MagmaSieve despite the long contact with molten rock, the inside of the device had completely gummed up as the magma had cooled. It appeared as if it would require plenty of continuous maintenance and cleaning to keep the thing functioning.
OOC:
Mine recovered. But I'm sort of running with a theme here.
29 July 2027
With the last of the gummed up works cleaned and a few minor repairs, the MagmaSieve slowly starts to churn away, sucking up magma before filtering it for useful compounds and ejecting it some distance away. The seismic disturbances threaten to give away its location, but sneaking a few sympathetic drones into the low priority tasks of monitoring the sensors proves to be a simple solution to the problem.
More interestingly, a secondary function of the MagmaSieve is discovered. As well as extracting metals for production, it also filters out the gasses emitted by the molten rock, including oxygen, nitrogen and numerous other toxic gasses, separating and stockpiling them on an industrial scale. No containment tanks for these gasses are available besides the Sieve's own small tanks, so gas production is turned way down to only supply the air for the underground ruins themselves. This vastly reduces the pressure on external intakes and it is hoped that it would reduce the chances of discovery by the other hives.
OOC
Terraforming Installation recovered. I've fluffed it that even though the MagmaSieve doubles perfectly as a Terraforming Installation, capable of dispersing a wide variety of gasses into the atmosphere, nobody in the Drone Collective considered the option and they have not informed any of the queens.
-
19 August 2027
Further exploration of the deep tunnels reveal traces of two more MagmaSieve devices! Unfortunately, it seems that in the many many years since they were last manned, the majority of both had collapsed into the magma sea and were now unrecoverable.
OOC:
Found two quick facilities beyond repair.
9 October 2027
Elsewhere on Wrixom, Swarm-led research efforts make a breakthrough in new TN construction methods. Application is expected to increase production of existing industry by up to 20%. It is believed that vaguely similar processes can be applied to mining to increase output and this is slated to be the next avenue of research. It is important for the Swarm to get maximum use of its existing industry as most of it will need to be transported offworld at some point.
OOC
Research into Con 12 completed.
1 November 2027
"...so basically, it should be possible to travel to other Solar Systems. Probably. Theoretically. Maybe."
It wasn't the first time IM had visited DP-35 in the depths of the Wrixom Ruins, but it was the first time she had had something of substance to report.
"But you don't know how it works?" IM asked. They were wandering through the vast underground city as they spoke.
DP sighed. "It's way more complicated than that. I know the basic... idea about how it works, but the math doesn't work out. It shouldn't work, mathematically, but I suspect that merely means that our current understanding of physics is inadequate, if not plain wrong. Not that that would surprise me, we've already picked up a few things we can't explain."
"Such as?" IM asked, almost dreading the answer. Drones were busy all around them, cataloguing every detail of the place or just shifting rubble or mechanical parts. It was eerie to see them working on such complex and sensitive tasks with no queen oversight. She had gotten so used to the way it worked at Swarm Hive.
"Oh, just a few edge cases. Light, not behaving as it should under certain conditions, gravity not measuring exactly what it is supposed to, a few unexplained phenomena on the subatomic level, that kind of thing. Nothing noticable."
"And having these discrepancies is normal in science?" IM questioned sceptically.
"Pretty much. One can never know everything" DP-35 replied.
They walked in silence for a while.
"Wow, other stars, huh?" IM remarked, gazing up at the buildings vanishing into the darkness above her. "Never even considered leaving our system in my lifetime. Just been focused on getting us past this damned ice age we have coming."
"I know what you mean. I was thinking we could maybe develop and send out a few generation ships at best. After all, we are going to have to do something with all those evacuation ships once Wrixom is left behind" DP mused.
"Yeah. Although now it looks like we might have a new use for them. Say, could we actually use these things?" IM asked as a sudden idea sprang into her head.
"You mean the alien jump engines? Um... I guess. They appear to still be functional, if that is what you are asking" DP said.
"No, I mean, can we hook them up to a ship and use it to go to other systems? Or do we need something else?"
This elicited a bark of laughter from DP. "Hah! They're almost half the size of the Drake! What ship do you plan on attaching them too? And no, before you ask, they are not powerful enough to jump a Myrkul."
"What is their capacity?" IM asked.
"Hard to say. Five to six thousand tons if I have to hazard a guess based on what evidence I have" DP answered.
"So it can jump the Endymion pretty easily. Can we strap it to the ship somehow?"
DP shrugged. "You will have to ask a ship designer that. But I suspect it will be difficult, simply due to the size. You can't just chain it to the ship and expect it to work right. There are structural stresses that need to be considered."
"But there is no reason we can't use this on one of our ships, right? The technology is compatible, or whatever" IM said.
"All it needs is electricity and what amounts to a button press. So yeah, I'd say it's rather compatible" DP remarked.
IM grinned. An idea had begun to form in her mind. Something amazing. Now if only she could get PC in on things somehow without having to tell that airhead everything.
-
4 November 2027
"Why do you want a new ship?" PC asked. "What's wrong with the Endymion? We can crank out a couple more Balor classes if you want."
IM waved her off. They were sitting in the section of Swarm Hive that PC considered her 'office'. She did all her designing there and sketches and diagrams of wings, engines and hulls littered every available surface. "The Balor class was designed as a test bed for the new TN engines. It's obsolete by now."
PC waved her claws in exasperation. "That's why we stuck a full sensor suite on the Endymion! So that it has some other uses besides 'test bed'. How can you say it is obsolete? It hasn't done anything these past few years besides run a few trials."
"Exactly my point. It isn't suited for anything we might need it for because it lacks utility. That's why I think we should build a new, bigger, better ship."
PC just stared at IM skeptically.
"Here is what I'm thinking. We design the ship with all the same sensors as the Endymion, maybe a few extra, and then we also give it a nice, big, utility bay for whatever else the eggheads might come up with at a later date. You know, give it some modularity" IM explained.
"Uh huh. And how big do you propose we make this 'utility bay'?"
IM handed PC a scrap of paper.
"I was thinking we use these dimensions, and put power couplings here, here, here and here, making sure they can provide at least this amount of sustained power from each" she said, pointing out the values and locations on the sketch.
"Wow. That's... oddly specific" PC remarked. "Is there something specific you want to be able to fit in there?"
"No, no, not at all, you just have to start somewhere, you know? Once we have this, we can design all the equipment to fit in there. Once we have some equipment, of course" IM said quickly. "Can you do it?"
"Doesn't seem all that tricky. I will probably just take the Balor's design and move a few things around or something. But what aren't you telling me, IM?"
IM sighed. "PC, in this case, let's just say that it is better that you don't know. But it is important. More important than you can imagine..."
OOC:
I'm starting to set the stage for designing the first jump capable Swarm vessel. I've decided against simply strapping an alien jumpdrive to the Endymion simply due to how massive it is. Simpler to just build a new ship. Easier to fit that rp-wise, as well.
24 November 2027
A second MagmaSieve is recovered intact and in functioning condition. With lessons learnt from the previous one, cleanup is far quicker and it isn't long before it also starts churning the magma, filtering out minerals and gases. On an unrelated note, some additional research labs are completed by one of the smaller hives. These things are going up like toadstools.
OOC
Another automated mine and terraforming facility is recovered. Sounds like a MagmaSieve to me.
-
24 December 2027
Epsilon's mining complex on Rube is expanded. Mercassium levels on Wrixom reach critically low levels, threatening to slow production. Luckily, there are significant stockpiles awaiting transport on Rube. One of the Myrkul III's are diverted to do the pickup.
30 December 2027
Following the pipes leading out from the fuel tanks, an underground fuel refinery is discovered among the ruins. It appeared to have been automatically converting its sorium stockpiles to fuel for many, many years, hence the reason both its main and overflow tanks were completely full. It was only then that its emergency systems shut it down to prevent damage to the fuel system. In the years since, its sorium tank had been ruptured and whatever had remained is lost.
5 January 2028
The first local construction on New Wrixom is completed, a Construction Factory to assist in future production. Coincidentally, another Myrkul III freighter is also completed. Mostly outdated, it will still help to fill the gap until the construction of the first Beshabas start.
OOC
As soon as the Beshabas start rolling off the production line, we can kick this evacuation into overdrive. Until then, I'm just setting the stage, getting a things in place. Retooling time is really slow, though :'(
-
20 January 2028
IM sat in her 'office' and looked at the paper the drone had handed to her without a word before vanishing around a corner, and puzzled over its meaning. It was from DP down in the ruins, that much was certain.
'Further analysis of objects reveal additional requirement for operation. Very specific set of local circumstances required in order to achieve functionality.
Originally thought object created local conditions; hypothesis was revealed to be erroneous. High probability of natural existence of conditions, but location unknown. Methods to determine location unknown. Exact conditions required unknown. More work required.
Note: Key factor is gravity.'
The 'objects' were clearly the jump engines DP were working on, but what was the deal with these 'local conditions'? Why would the aliens build such engines if they couldn't work? And these weren't prototypes, either. This was an established technology. Clearly these conditions had to exist somewhere.
'Location' gave her an idea, though. It reminded her of a sleepy conversation she had had with that biologist, LA, about three years ago.
She tapped a few keys on her computer and brought up the old report on the file that had originally been discovered on First Stop, the one that had lead to the search for the Wrixom Ruins in the first place after LA had cracked its encryption.
There. Besides Wrixom, there were four more locations of note contained in the document which had originally been a navigational chart of some kind. They were all quite far out, however.
Could it be? Could those be the locations of the 'specific set of local conditions'?
Sending a ship wouldn't help. They had no idea what they were looking for. The truth was, the only way she could figure out if her hunch was right was to activate the alien engine at that location.
So basically, she could not know whether the new ship class would be worth it until its construction finished. What a catch-22.
30 January 2028
Due to some last minute design alterations, it is decided to significantly increase the operational range of the new vessel - now named the Azazel class - by increasing the size of its fuel tanks and increasing its fuel efficiency. The 'civilian' engines employed by the Myrkul's are deemed too slow and bulky, while the more compact and powerful engines fitted to the Drake and the Endymion are simply too fuel-hungry and lack the range required. Eventually, the Swarm Academy is tasked with developing a new generation of engines that take the middle path between power and fuel efficiency.
The other hives make only a minor issue of this. They are mostly busy planning their hive placements on New Wrixom and organizing their logistics for the move. Transport space is still very limited, so prioritization is essential.
OOC
Four research labs are switched to developing a new engine.
-
25 February 2028
Designs for the new engine arrive at Swarm Command and the Swarm Academy continues its work on improving mining technology. The final schematics for the Azazel Class are drawn up and the Gamma Yards begin retooling to construct the Azazal Class after laying idle for a long time.
OOC
Engine research completed. Retool for the Azazel started.
21 March 2028
"IM, we have a slight problem."
IM sighed and rubbed her eyes before looking up from the latest production figures on her desk. PC was peering around the edge of her doorless doorway with a look of consternation on her face.
"What?" she asked simply.
"There has been a slight mixup with the shipments to New Wrixom. It's a bit of a crisis" PC explained.
"How can a 'slight mixup' result in a crisis? You know what? Nevermind. I'm coming" IM said. "Explain what's going on while we walk."
In the short walk to the command section, PC explained. With the temperatures dropping and the pressure to evacuate increasing, Swarm Command had been under significant pressure from the Hive Queens to transport their drones to New Wrixom so that they could start setting up hives there and PC had been doing her utmost to fulfill their demands as well as she could, but between being harassed by the Hive Queens and having the design IM's new ship, some things slipped through the cracks. Specifically, the infrastructure shipments necessary to support life on New Wrixom. Now supplies were running low and there were too many drones for the oxygen scrubbers to be able to keep up and fights had started to break out.
"... and US is in the command chair trying to sort something out, but it's a big mess!" PC finished as they stepped into the cavernous command area.
"US, what's going on?" IM demanded. "What went wrong?"
US snorted. "This airhead shipped too many drones to New Wrixom, that's what went wrong" she said, pointing at PC. "And now we have about forty Hive Queens exacerbating the situation as best they are able, egging on fights and outright theft between hives."
"For goodness sakes, I'm not in the mood for this!" IM exclaimed. "Can't we just pick them back up and bring them back to Wrixom until there is enough infrastructure in place?"
"That's the problem. The Queens have all ordered their drones not to budge. To make matters worse, the drones still on their way from Wrixom have made it clear that if we tried to make their ships turn back they would take control of the ship and make it drop them off on New Wrixom."
IM threw her claws up in frustration. "Are those drones stupid? If they get dropped off on New Wrixom they would either asphyxiate or starve! How can they follow orders so damn blindly?"
This drew strange looks from both PC and US.
"Uh, IM, they are just drones" PC said. "They do what they are told."
Of course, IM thought. She had gotten so used to the drones from the Drone Collective she had forgotten how fanatically loyal most drones were. She was going to have to sort this out with the Queens directly.
OOC
Some unrest on New Wrixom due to overcrowding. It seems I had been shipping population to New Wrixom faster than I had been shipping infrastructure. I will have to rectify this.
-
27 March 2028
Speaking to the Queens yield no result. While all of them agree that the overpopulation problem on New Wrixom must be addressed, each is of the opinion that the other hives should yield and put their drone transportation on hold. Competition to get settled somewhere away from the rapidly cooling Wrixom is intense, and relatively few drones can be transported each trip.
As an alternative, the Myrkul III 001 is assigned to transport infrastructure to New Wrixom on a permanent basis.
15 April 2028
"My dear IM, I am not 'in bed' with Gamma, as you so succinctly put it" Epsilon said and grinned on the large screen in the command room. "It is simply a matter of Logistics."
IM was not in the mood for clever words. The situation on New Wrixom was steadily worsening and to top things off, she had discovered that part of the reason for that situation was Epsilon prioritizing infrastructure shipments to First Stop, despite a clear lack of crisis there.
"Logistics? I'm not sure I follow" she seethed.
"It's simple," Epsilon replied, "First Stop is closer. Closer means shorter turnaround times for my ships, which means more tonnage transported. I mean, you did say you wanted Wrixom evacuated as quickly as possible, right?"
IM sighed. Epsilon was twisting her words, but what she said made sense. It was also clear what she wanted, though.
"What if we provided a little incentive for you to ship to New Wrixom instead? Just to compensate you for the extra travel time, of course" IM asked.
Epsilon widened her smile, revealing her rows of razor sharp teeth.
"Just tell me when and where you want it delivered."
OOC:
Civilian ships are transporting only to First Stop. Contract for infrastructure to New Wrixom put up.
Additional Note:
Naturally, the phrase "in bed with" someone, meaning to collude in our language, does not exist in the Wrix language, nor would a direct translation make sense in their culture. Only the queens have something resembling 'beds' and getting in to someone else's serves no purpose - the Wrix understand the concept of 'sex' only as it applies to several of the other species on their planet - besides possibly becoming a meal. A more direct English translation of the phrase IM used would be "to let her take the food from your mouth and boss your hive around". It sounds better in the original Wrixian.
-
10 May 2028
With the help of Epsilon's transport fleet, sufficient life-supporting infrastructure is rapidly ferried over and drones stop dying in droves. The crisis has been averted... for now. Still, the queens each blame the others' greed for the event and relations noticeably sour between the hives. They are too far along to do anything about it, however, stretched across two planets as most of the hives are.
For now, IM has prohibited any of the Queens to move to their secondary hives on New Wrixom, ostensibly because the hives were not properly and securely set up yet (none of them bought this) but mostly to prevent them from going to war with each other the moment they no longer had external threats to worry about (and all of them knew this).
10 June 2028
As another Myrkul III silently detaches itself from the Swarm Yards, the Drone Collective discover four large prefabricated component... blocks. Honestly, there was no other way to describe them. They consisted of scores of smaller components all fitting together perfectly to form large eight foot by eight foot blocks covered in thick plastic. Closer examination of some of the components reveal them to form a part of some kind of starship damage-mitigation system, with each block most likely being one starship worth of components.
OOC:
4x Damage controls recovered.
-
30 September 2028
Over the past months, several more facilities are recovered from among the ruins on Wrixom by the Drone Collective. At the same time, a small hive named Nero finishes their own research facility. While not exactly commonplace, by now the facilities were accessible to any hive with the willingness to commit the resources to construct them, their plans being freely available and Swarm Hive doing their best to make the necessary resources available.
However, the desire to build more was tempered both by the shortage of Mercassium and the knowledge that any resources committed to their construction would be stuck on Wrixom after the evacuation until the transport capacity became available to move the equipment to their new hives, and they were low priorities.
15 October 2028
"I still don't get why you had this built" PC said.
"I already told you. Utility. Like... rescue missions... and stuff."
IM and PC had taken a trip up to the Gamma Yards to watch the keel of the first Azazel class vessel laid. It was also the first time either of them had visited the shipyard or even went into space.
"Are you sure there isn't something you should be telling me?" PC asked.
"Like what?" IM replied innocently.
"Like that you are trying to sneak something into space that you shouldn't be? Something that fits neatly into that massive bay you had me include in the design. Something like... oh I don't know... some kind of device you have been developing in the utmost secrecy?"
For a moment IM felt a cold chill pass down her spine. Did PC know something?
"What kind of device?" IM asked in a quiet voice.
"Look IM, I'm not stupid. You might have fooled US, but I know you've been sneaking off to one of the research facilities and smuggling them equipment. I've seen a few of the suspicious shipments going out."
"Oh?" IM asked carefully. She still couldn't tell just how much PC knew. Or how.
"Yeah. US thinks you are shipping all that crap to some mine down south but I've had a look at some of the satellite pictures. That place is dead. You aren't fooling me" PC said.
Inwardly, IM breathed a small sigh of relief. PC had it completely backwards.
"Originally I thought it was a big nuclear bomb or something, but it's too big for a single missile and too perfectly shaped for a rack. Those power outlets are also a little exact in their requirements, you know what I mean?"
After a while, when IM didn't respond, PC continued.
"Look, all I'm trying to say is I don't mind. I don't want to know what it is. But I just wish you wouldn't treat me like an imbecile. You could have just given me a few details or something! I'm worried that the moment you plug whatever it is the scientists dreamed up for you in, the whole power grid is going to burn out or something and your precious ship is going to be left dead in space and it is going to be my fault!"
IM grinned to herself. PC was so naive, really, it was cute. Or at least, it would have been if the Wrix had any understanding of the concept beyond 'edible'.
"PC! Relax and trust me, I'm not an imbecile either. I know what I'm doing. We won't install any 'devices' without making sure the power system can handle it first."
PC visibly relaxed as she leaned against the railing.
"Sorry. I've been a little tense lately. I just like getting things right."
"Don't worry about it. Now come on, I still want to go for a spacewalk before we go back planet-side. "
It was only after IM began walking off that PC called after her.
"Wait a second, who's 'we'?"
OOC:
Retooling of Gamma Yards complete. Construction of Azazel class ship started. I'm going to strap a jump drive this bad boy and send it out to explore the neighbouring systems. Want to start planning my future layouts so long. Of course, Jump Theory research will only become 'available' AFTER I've done my first successful jump. And the resulting information is made public for the Swarm.
-
12 November 2028
A Myrkul freighter is retasked with starting to ship Automated Mines to planet B1 to mine Neutronium.
22 November 2028
Another Myrkul is launched and immediately assigned to assist in transporting Automated Mining equipment to B1. Construction of another Myrkul freighter is started.
2 December 2028
A breakthrough is made in mining technology. A new type of drill using sonic vibrations is developed that is expected to increase mining yields by 20%.
15 December 2028
IM was sleeping when the alarm klaxons began blaring. What exactly they meant, she couldn't say, never having heard of them before now. Grumpily, she got up and headed for the command centre to see what was up.
"What's going on?" IM asked PC, who seemed to be there at the oddest hours.
"Didn't you hear the klaxons?" she asked, just a bit panicked.
"I didn't even know we HAD klaxons. What the hell do they mean, anyway?"
"Spider Bots!"
"Here?" IM asked and glanced behind her nervously.
"No! There!" PC explained, pointing at the blinking red blob on the map screen. It was currently set to view somewhere on the southern continent. "They've overrun Phi Hive. We have no idea where they came from."
smeg. IM could imagine where they had come from: Phi Hive was close to the Wrixom Ruins.
"Any forces in the area?" she asked, peering intently at the map screen.
"Some. I've told a few units to get ready to begin moving down..."
"A few?" IM asked, incredulous. She was staring at the map and the blinking icons around the edge of the map. Sigma, Upsilon, Iota, Beta, Alpha. None of those hives would be able to defend themselves against the full mass of the bots. "Send the lot! Every single armed drone we have, get them down there! Those hives are in danger!"
OOC:
Oh poop! Vault of robots disturbed on Wrixom.
-
20 December 2028
For some inscrutable reason, the Spiders limit their movements during the next week to reconnaissance sorties against the neighbouring hives. Local defenders intercept them successfully.
The truth dawned on IM even as she stressed about the fate of the drones at the excavation site. The Spiders were blind. Not the in the literal sense, but they had no satellite imagery or even aerial recon to work with. They had no idea what was going on beyond the range of their sensors and no way to find out beside sending out scouting units.
This had given the defenders time to rally. Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of armored vehicles had been moved down from Swarm Hive-controlled bases from around the globe. Thousands more were scheduled to arrive soon.
The satellite images warned them the moment the Spiders began moving, and by the time they arrived at Sigma Hive, the bulk of the Swarm armed forces were waiting for them.
Between supporting artillery fire and the dug-in positions of the defenders, the Spiders were driven back with terrible casualties.
OOC
Defence only. Robots suffer 30% casualties. No friendly casualties.
25 December 2028
Confident after the defence of Sigma Hive, the Swarm begins the counterattack. Based on satellite photography and a few reconnaissance missions, the Swarm Armed Forces believed they had found the origin of the spiders. An armored thrust is executed to cut off the bulk of the spiders and possibly destroy whatever is controlling them.
It turns out to be a deception.
The Wrix armored columns make rapid progress with minimal resistance, until they reach the perceived origin and find only a dead-ended canyon. Time is wasted searching the area for any underground access points, but, not surprisingly, none are found.
After a few days of this, spiderbots are reported near Alpha Hive. This came as a complete surprise. They had, apparently, undertaken a massive deception operation and fooled the Wrix as to the direction of their movement. Now, the only choice was an emergency evacuation of Alpha Hive and consolidation of whatever forces could reach Beta Hive in time to stop the near solid mass of robotic monsters.
OOC:
It seems Aurora spawns 2 populations when you open a vault, one of them is the military units, the other is empty. I attacked the wrong one.
-
Oops. . . a wrench in the works. . . . is "the button" about to be pushed on the tech center???? :)
-
26 December 2028
Alpha Hive is evacuated barely in time before its tunnels are swamped with a multitude of crawling metal bodies. Everything alive left behind is killed. Alpha Queen takes shelter at Beta Hive with the remainder of her drones, and for the first time in the living history of the Wrix, two Hive Queens are present inside the same Hive structure. Perhaps because many of the drones had had some experience in working alongside drones of other hives, or perhaps because some of them had been born in Beta Hive in the first place (including Queen Alpha herself), relations remain cordial with Alpha accepting her position of refugee with surprisingly good graces.
Of course, it could also have been the swarm of death machines headed their way that gave both queens a bit of perspective on the matter.
28 December 2028
The Spiders smash into the hastily erected defences at Beta Hive. The initial wave breaks through the outer defences, overrunning several factories before they are stopped at the edge of the great hive structure itself. Casualties are horrendous on both sides in the subsequent assault waves, but a combination of the fixed defences of the great hive mound itself and the cramped tunnels underneath that the Wrix are so adept at navigating allow the defending for
-
*30 December 2028*
The Spiders switch strategy and withdraw a short distance. They bring great behemoths to bear and begin to bombard the great hive structure from a distance, blasting large chunks out of what is essentially a mountain. The hive returns fire, but it is outgunned and one by one its emplacements with sufficient range are silenced.
After the 3rd cave-in inside the hive, all the remaining defenders sally forth to defend their queens. This time the open terrain favour the spiders and terrifying casualties are caused among the Wrix. Even drones armed with pistols join the fight.
Then, as the losses start to mount, a rumble is heard in the distance, steadily growing louder. One of the spider behemoths explodes as one of Swarm Command's tank divisions joins the fight. They had pooled all their fuel and logistics trucks from two other divisions into this one division and had been driving for 3 days straight, stopping only long enough to refuel. Tanks that had broken had been left by the wayside for the remaining divisions trailing behind to pick up.
And thanks to this, they arrived just in time to swing the battle.
*31 December 2028*
"Our forces have begun mopping up operations. There are still Spiders out there in the jungle, but they are scattered and isolated. Their main force was broken and annihilated."
Beta looked tired, IM thought. More tired than she had ever seen any other queen before. She could not have slept much during the bombardment.
"That is excellent news, Beta. Your hive has done well to withstand the assault" Gamma congratulated her.
"It was only thanks to Swarm Command's Armoured Division. They truly saved the day back there" Beta replied.
"Indeed. Now the only question is, where did these things come from?" Kappa asked. It was the first time in a while that she had joined one of these conferences. The fact that had happened at a time when IM appeared to have lost control of the situation did not seem to be a coincidence.
"Swarm Command is combing the wilds, looking for the source of these machines. Meanwhile, we have fortified all the nearby hives in case of a second force of Spiders" IM replied.
All the Queens gestured a tentative affirmative to this, but IM could see the greed in their eyes. She could tell what they were all thinking: on First Stop the Spiders erupted from the ruins. If there were Spiders on Wrixom... that meant there were ruins on Wrixom. Ruins filled with delicious technology and resources. It was no coincidence every Queen had 'volunteered' as many military divisions as they could spare to the area.
If only they knew the truth...
-
3rd January 2029
Lambda was irritated. Now that the danger seemed to be over, Beta had started making noise about kicking out Alpha from her Hive. Which was bound to happen sooner or later, but the ungrateful bitch wanted Alpha's old territory back as 'payment' for her stay.
"Probably worried that it contains the Vault" she muttered to herself.
"What's that, your Majesty?" her serving drone asked.
"Nothing. Talking to myself. Be quiet" she cut back.
"Yes, your Majesty."
Not that the territorial concerns of two squabbling southern hives overly concerned her, but Alpha had threatened to reveal Lambda's role in the old Beta's coup. Not that she had a role, which pretty much everyone knew, but the details. Communications channels and methods. Negotiation strategies. If it got out it the other hives would significantly sharpen up their counterintelligence security and that would impact Lambda's own information gathering.
Tsk. And now IM insisted on meeting her in person on some 'emergency'. Like she did not have enough problems of her own to worry about.
"Your Majesty, the Governer of Wrixom has arrived. She is ready to be shown in" a drone reported.
Lambda merely gestured to let her in and the drone scurried off to bring in IM-39.
"Yes, IM? What can I help you with?" she asked as IM stood in front of her. Lambda couldn't help but notice that IM seemed exceptionally nervous.
"Mother. I'm in trouble. And I need your help."
Lambda was taken aback. 'Mother'. It was a very rarely used word in the Wrix language. It was very similar to 'My Queen' but the connotations were of groveling and loyalty. Usually it was only used by Fertiles that had been caught plotting against their Queen, trying to escape their execution.
Her eyes narrowed. "What did you do?" she asked quietly.
IM took a deep breath. "I'm the one who released the Spiders. By accident."
"Go on..." Lambda said softly.
"There are ancient ruins on Wrixom. A vast complex. It absolutely dwarfs the ruins on First Stop. And my agents found it."
Lambda's head was spinning. She had always considered herself to be one of the most well informed individuals on the planet, but here were no less than 3 earthshattering revelations in a single paragraph.
Wrixom had a vast complex of ruins.
IM had her own loyal agents.
And Lambda herself didn't know either of the above!
"How...?" was all she asked.
"Listen to me, Mother, you cannot have the ruins. Nobody can. If knowledge of them got out, we would have armaggeddon. Forget the cooling sun, the Hives would tear each other apart in an attempt to get at the technology there. And it won't save them."
Lambda shook her head, trying to focus. One thing at a time. Ruins first. "You've analyzed the ruins? What did you find? Where are they?" she demanded.
"What we've found there, it changes everything. But not in a military way. Whatever hive took the ruins would paint a target on their own back. All the others would stop at nothing to destroy you. The entire area would get nuked to slag within a week. You KNOW how Queens think. 'If they cannot have it, nobody can.'"
"Where is it!?" Lambda demanded again, shouting this time.
"Are you listening to me, Mother? If you take that technology YOU WILL DIE! AND WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE IT!"
Silence. Then a low growl starts from the drones around Lambda. Sensing their mother's mood. IM stared up at her, knowing that a single word would have them tear her to pieces.
Then Lambda took a deep breath and gestured at the drones to back off. "So you would withhold it from even your own mother to save the race. How noble of you. You make some valid points, but I will decide how this hive proceeds. Now what was it you needed from me?"
"I'm going to give you the location of the Ruins..." IM began.
"You just said you cannot allow me to have them!" Lambda shouted in exasperation.
"... and then, once you find them, you are going to give them to Swarm Command to exploit for the good of the entire Swarm."
Lambda paused. She tapped her claw against the counter next to her, thinking. Her initial instinct was to have IM torn limb from limb for her impudence.
"Why?"
"Because its the only compromise that will not lead to war" IM replied.
"Why not find it with your own assets? Claim it for Swarm Command?" Lambda asked. "Why not simply skip the middle man?"
"Swarm Command does not have assets. What it has is a ton of dronepower on loan. And I can guarantee that whatever hive's drones first step foot in that ruin will have orders to claim it for their hive at all costs."
"And those 'agents' of yours? Did PC-49-LQN or US-93-OSS manage to start their own little nest in your basement without me noticing?"
IM shook her head. "I can't tell you."
Lambda was silent for a moment, then sat back and smiled. "Taking a page out of US-93's book, I see. Yes, this is how she got the additional research facility accepted by the Swarm. How she broke Kappa's monopoly on research. And in hindsight, a positive move. None of us had the slightest inkling of what it takes to evacuate our homeworld back then. Now even the smaller hives are constructing their own science facilities with the help of Swarm Command, and all hives benefit from the technological gains achieved."
A pause. It stretched on and IM just began to think that Lambda was going to reject her offer after all when she spoke.
"Alright. But I have a few conditions. First, I want a full inventory of everything that you found in the ruins. I want to know what I am giving up."
"Done" IM replied immediately. That one was pretty much a given.
"I want first look at anything new you find. And the opportunity to then revise or cancel this agreement as I see fit, with the ruins turned over to me immediately should I desire it."
"Lambda, that's exactly the kind of thing..." IM began, but Lambda continued without listening to her.
"Thirdly, I want at least half of all drones deployed to investigate and man the ruins to be mine, in order to enforce the previous point."
"One third. Best I can do without the other Queens outright invading" IM replied. Dammit, Lambda drove a hard bargain.
"Very well. Lastly, I want the identities of your agents. I need to know who I am working with" Lambda said.
"I can't do that" IM stated firmly. "I would be betraying their trust and I need them still."
"Then there is no deal" Lambda said gently. "And I would have to kill you to make sure you don't give any of the other Queens the same offer."
"How about if I offer you a secret instead?" IM suggested.
Lambda sighed and got up. She walked over to a counter and poured herself a cup of water. "I know a lot of secrets already. Odds are I already know what you plan on telling me."
"How about if I guarantee you that you do not?" IM said with a smile.
"Really? Alright, you have my curiosity. Not in the secret, mind you, but in how you think you can guarantee that I do not know it. It feels rather like a challenge!" Lambda grinned and swirled the water in her cup as she sat back down on her sofa.
IM took a deep breath...
As the engines of her small shuttle craft spun up, IM-39 considered her options. With Lambda on board she could finally openly investigate the ruins. And perhaps reestablish contact with everyone that had been inside when the Spiders erupted.
"Or whatever is left alive of them..." she mused.
Three weeks. Three weeks since the last contact with the Drone Collective operatives stationed in the ruins. Three weeks cut off from the outside, with no food coming in or any information what was going on, surrounded by deadly mechanical Spiders.
Even if they were all dead, at least she could still recover the Jump Engines.
Lambda sat in her chamber, the cup of water still held forgotten in one trembling claw. Her eyes were still transfixed on the door where IM had left, wide with shock.
IM's last words to her kept running through her head.
The Drones. We think they are stupid, mindless and of unwavering loyalty. They are none of those things anymore. They are starting to think. They starting to choose. And they are starting to wonder why they keep choosing to obey us.