Night Raid

It had been a busy day for Marcus.

Wondering if he could make pottery out of the mold wax, he had been trying for hours to shape that substance in the shape of bowls and cups.

Sadly, the wax was too liquid to stand on its own before solidifying and once solid it was invariably stuck to what he had used as a mold.

After many attempts, he had finally found a passable solution: he had covered the rock he wanted to use as a mold with leaves, and then cover those leaves with the wax, which would stick to the leaves and not to the rock itself.

Late in the afternoon, the results of these experiment was a dirty, fragile thing that could hardly be called a bowl, although it could maybe be used as one.

But Marcus wasn't impressed by that result.

"Well, it'll do for now." he sighed, going back into his cave "But I gotta make some decent pottery sooner or later. Luckily there is a swamp nearby, so maybe there will be some clay there. And I could try to build a small oven in the cave."

As of late, he was focusing on making his stay in this new world as pleasant as possible. Housing, food and security were not a concern anymore, so he could try to get other less important luxuries.

Pottery, clothings and a few other things were what he was trying to get now. He also really wanted to get a bath, but the only pools of water he knew about were the swamp, which was quite dangerous, and the river that was guarded by the crystal horned deer.

Thinking about it... I could try to kill that deer. He thought I'm sure that I could get some good traits for my minions by eating it, and securing the river for myself would also be a good thing!

The only problem with that plan was the strength of that damn animal. He had seen exactly how powerful the deer was in its battle against the boxer crabs, and he wasn't sure if the hunter drones could kill it.

Uhmm... I could make a more powerful drone. He mused Maybe a warrior drone, made for fighting instead of hunting.

Following that line of thoughts, he accessed his mental database of genetic traits. In the past weeks he had learned how to do so at will, and he had also discovered many new things about his ability: apparently, most of the nutrients he ate went to some sort of "reserve" used to produce offspring. This reserve had a maximum cap that when reached kinda forced Marcus to produce at least one drone, but with an act of will he could also lay eggs before hitting that limit, provided he had enough nutrients stored to do that.

Gauging that reserve of energy was mostly instinctive and not really accurate: it was like trying to decide how much food you could eat before being full, but he was slowly getting the hang of it.

Right now he judged that he had enough energy to give birth to 5 worker drones or 3 hunters. It wasn't nearly the maximum cap, but he had enough food at hand to reach it if he wanted to.

Slowly and carefully, he started to think about the kind of characteristics the warrior drone could have.

Let's see... should I give it wings? No, for now let's just focus on making it strong... in order to fly it should be quite light, and that would decrease its power. But it should still be fast. Speed is always a good thing in a fight. So about the legs... should it be a quadruped? No, I don't think so... let's make it similar to a velociraptor. Since it can have six limbs, let's give it powerful, raptor like posterior legs. The upper ones can be mantis like scythes. And the middle ones... let's just make them very long. This way the soldier could be able to use them to balance itself, as well as run and fight on all four should it need more stability. And it could always use them to grab its prey and finish it with the scythe claws. Oh, it should also have a long tail for balance... but's let's make it barbed. Another potential weapon never hurts. As for the armor, it should be thicker than that of the hunters... and covered in spines.

The image of the creature slowly took shape in its mind. When it was finished, it looked indeed very dangerous, a reptilian creature that seemed like an armored mix between a velociraptor and a mantis.

It reminded Marcus of an alien straight out of an horror sci fi movie.

Well, it certainly looks dangerous enough! He thought, satisfied And I think I have just enough energies to actually make it... let's do this!

As soon as he made this resolution, he felt the sudden cramp he had learned to associate with the act of giving birth.

Grinding his teeth, he squatted in the middle of his cave.

"Now this is something I won't ever get used to!" he growled to himself "God fucking damnit! Why do I have to... uff! Fuck! Why do I have to go through this crap every time!?!"

Trembling and spasming, he concentrated on the task of pushing the egg out.

A few minutes later, he was sitting on the floor of the cave, panting, while a translucent egg was in front of him.

"Well, another one for the hive, I guess." he said, breathless "Now I need to sleep. This crap always exhaust me. The egg should hatch during the night, hopefully."

And with this resolution, he went straight to his bed, while giving a mental order to the drones to come back for the night.

He only left a Hunter drone out as a sentry, a precaution he took ever since he had discovered that the dragon lived nearby. After all, he didn't want that beast to catch him inside a cave while he was sleeping.

He was about to be really grateful about this decision, but not for the reason he had expected.

Ever since he had given birth to Cooper, Marcus had technically stopped dreaming. Or to be more precise, his "dreams" were filled by the collective consciousness of his minions.

Even now, while he was asleep on his mold wax bed, he could perceive all of the drones. Most of them were resting in the cave with him, with only one hunter out in the open on guard duty.

The hunter drone was feeling restless for some reason, and that anxiety was transmitted directly to Marcus, troubling his sleep.

The forest is quiet. The sun has just set, and every remaining light is disappearing from the sky. The air is still, not a single breath of wind is blowing. There is not a single sound. Apparently, no reason to be alarmed.

But the hunter drone still feels uneasy. It doesn't actually have enough of a consciousness to feel anxious for itself, but its duty is to protect the Queen and the Hive. That duty is absolute. The hunter drone must stay on guard and identify any potential danger to the Queen and the Hive.

The hunter drone is not smart enough to understand the cause of this sense of uneasiness on its own, but it can draw upon the collective consciousness of the Queen and the Hive to understand. The mind of Hive starts analyzing the situation.

The forest is quiet. Too quiet. The sound of the animals that usually moved out of their nest at that hour is missing. And since the air is so perfectly still, the hunter drone cannot smell anything.

Something is not right. The primary directive is to explore the surroundings, searching for potential threats. The hunter drone moves from the entrance of the cave, slowly walking uphill as silently as possible.

The hunter drone can see perfectly in the dark and notices some movements at the top of the hill. It can't identify what is it though, so it approaches it cautiously, one step at the time, making absolutely no sound.

There are some dark figures above the cave that are slowly descending, making no sounds either. They can barely be called humanoid: most of them have an hunched posture, and some even walk on all four like beasts. All of them, however, have the big ears associated with the gremlin-like creatures from the tower.

The hunter drone stares at them, the alarm it's experiencing resonating through all the mind of the Hive, when suddenly one of those figures stares at the drone with big, luminous eyes.

With a soft screech, the creature charges at the hunter drone together with a couple of its companions. But the hunter drone doesn't run away. Its duty is to protect the hive, and it will do so. So it charges at the attacking creatures, opening its mouth to meet them halfway, in a blur of fangs, claws and blood. The hunter drones bites hard, sinking its teeth deep into the flesh of the first assailant, but there are too many. In a few seconds, the hunter drone is swarmed by a dozen of those creatures, each of them biting it, tearing it apart...

Marcus woke up in panic.

Around him, all the drones started moving as well, reacting to his fear.

"We are under attack!" he cried, starting to run towards the exit... but then he stopped, his rationality finally affirming itself over his fear.

If I get out right now, those things are gonna be all over me in a heartbeat. He looked at the drones, that were now completely still, waiting for his orders The only chance I have at getting out of this alive is to keep them occupied while I run.

He gave a mental command and all of the hunters, save for Cooper, got out of the cave to confront the incoming creatures. They wouldn't keep them occupied for long, so Marcus got out right after them, with Cooper at his side and surrounded by the builders and the explorers. He then noticed another presence, scuttling awkwardly on the ground behind them: it was the freshly hatched larvae of the warrior, which struggled to keep their pace on its undeveloped legs.

Without hesitating, Marcus grabbed the baby drone and lifted it on his shoulder, while hurrying out of the cave.

In his mind, he could now see that the hunters were fighting against the invaders. Thanks to their coordination and their armoured hide, those drones were still resisting, but it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of those bestial gremlins.

"I have to get out of here!" Marcus muttered to himself, hurrying downhill... and then he stopped, frozen in surprise.

Right below him, he could see many figures slowly climbing the hill to reach the cave.

Judging by their shapes, they were the same breed of creatures as the one above him, but their numbers were even bigger. He didn't lose time counting them, but they couldn't be less than one hundred.

He was surrounded.

Uncertainty and panic paralyzed Marcus only for a moment, before his survival instinct, refined by weeks of living on this dangerous world, took the wheel.

"Inside the cave! Now!" he cried, running back. That would have meant trapping himself, but at least he would have been able to resist for a while since the enemies would be forced to come at him a few at a time through a narrow tunnel instead on ganging up on him and the remaining drones from all directions.

Not that he knew what to do once he was inside. There were just too many enemies, and it was a matter of time before they overwhelmed the few defenders.

If only he could call someone to help...

A sudden idea came to his mind. A really outrageous and risky idea, but one that might just work.

As he was running, he mentally ordered the two explorer drones to fly away. The two complied immediately, taking off the ground and flying downhill.

Now all Marcus and the others had to do was to resist for a few minutes.

While he was finally entering the cave, he felt the last surviving hunter he had sent uphill die, and he knew that now the beastly gremlin were about to come at him for all directions.

"Inside!" he shouted needlessly, as the other drones would obey to mental commands anyway, but he was too agitated to act completely rationally.

Once inside, he grabbed a couple of wooden spears he had made for himself and handed them to the builder drones, who then proceeded to block the entrance of the cave, spear pointed high against the invaders.

And it didn't take long for them to come. The first gremlin, a beastly, hairy thing similar to a hyena, was so savagely enraged that it literally threw itself at the spears, getting impaled for its trouble.

The others came as a wave, barely contained by the worker drones, who stopped them from entering the cave with their armoured mass, while the two with the spears poked at them from behind the defensive line.

Luckily for the defenders, the entrance to the cave was pretty narrow, allowing only a couple of those creatures to enter at a time, but unluckily those who did manage to reach the defensive line were fighting with a berserk fury that was almost overwhelming.

One drone fell. Then another. A small pile of bodies was forming, further hindering the attackers, but it was only a matter of time before they managed to break into the cave.

Cooper had joined the dwindling builder drones, adding his jaws and claws to the defense, but Marcus just stood in the back, with his mind focused on both coordinating the fight in the cave and simultaneously directing the explorers outside.

The two flying drones are flying to the bottom of the valley. The sounds of the battle are now barely audible behind them, but they know they have no time to lose.

With incredible speed, they fly directly to the small canyon where the dragon has its den.

The air there is tense, with a sense of impending danger that is felt even by the barely self conscious drones. But that doesn't stop them.

The two of them fly inside the canyon. The rocky terrain is littered with bones, and a stench of death and decomposition fill the place.

At the end of the canyon, there is a small cave... and something is inside. Something big, that is now moving, annoyed by the flying sound of the two creatures that so foolishly has entered his domain.

But the creatures have their orders... orders that to them are more important than their own life. One of them, following a mental command from the Queen, throws itself at the dark shape inside the cave, with all the speed it can muster.

There is a loud sound when the explorer collides with the hard scales of the dragon, and the small creature feels pain and dizziness as a result from the impact.

Four yellow eyes stare at the drone in a surprised disbelief. The dragon is so used to having no rivals that the sensation of being attacked is almost forgotten for him.

But the surprise only last for a moment, and with an outraged roar, the reptile snaps its beak at the drone, killing it instantly.

Then, with single minded fury, it throws itself at the other drone, which immediately flees uphill.

The small drone doesn't look back, but it can hear the sound of something humongous following it at an incredible speed, smashing every obstacle on the way.

Marcus smiled.

"Just as planned." he murmured.

There were only a couple of builder drones and Cooper left, not counting Marcus and the larvae of the warrior.

The gremlins were finally about to force themself into the cave, and as Marcus turned his attention back at them, another builder went down, torn apart by the claws and fangs of the attackers.

The gremlins rallied themself, preparing for the final assault... but then, a deep roar resonated, coming from outside, followed by the high pitched panicked screams of the gremlins.

The attackers that were already in the cave hesitated, confused by what was happening, and the defenders took advantage of it: Cooper threw itself in the middle of the creatures, tearing and biting all he could reach, while the last builder charged at them with its spear.

Confusion quickly turned to panic, and the attackers fled, rushing outside of the cave. Cooper and the builder pressed forward, not giving them time to recuperate, and Marcus followed them with the larvae in his arms.

Soon, they were all out. The army of beastly gremlins had all but broken down, its scattered remnants running in every direction like scared ants. The huge shape of the dragon, barely visible in the darkness, was pursuing them at its leisure, grabbing and swallowing the unfortunate humanoids it reached with a single bite.

Marcus and the surviving drones didn't hesitate: they immediately ran away as fast as they could, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and this place.

But, before disappearing into the night, Marcus couldn't help but turn once, giving the gremlins a furious look.

"Good riddance, you motherfuckers!" he said, flipping the bird in the general direction of the humanoids "You better not come bother me again… because I'm fucking done playing nice guy."