3 Reunion

"I think I was a little bit over-eager to escape. I am completely exhausted" Bea the Beetoid said to Moon. After the brave female Antoid rushed to battle she flew away with everything she had. Bea has always been a very good flyer, so she soared through the skies, leaving the battle behind her.

She wasn´t in any real danger because she could have flown away at any point, but she wanted to wait for good timing so that she might be able to help someone, which came in handy.

After they flew for a while Bea had to rest, so she landed near the mountain top of the Heavy Mountains, that bordered the Hive. Even from here, they could see the smoke and fire that was currently destroying their once beloved home.

The Mammals took away almost everything they had. But still, they were insects, giving up wasn't part of their species.

Bea was standing tall with her 1.5m height a few steps away from the little Antoid. She wanted to give him some space and also needed to recuperate as fast as possible.

Bea was a gorgeous female Beeling, with clear cut yellow and black stripes across her body. Her faceted green eyes complemented her swirly feelers. Her translucent wings shimmered whenever the sun shone across them and a small but soft pelt covered her from head to toe.

The two of them were mostly safe up here, other than from Birds, but luckily the attack this time consisted only of Mammals. If the Birds had helped them probably no one would have escaped.

Birds and Insects were mortal enemies after all.

"Little one, I still need to rest and the fastest way to do this is by sleeping. Are you strong enough to stay on look-out while I sleep for around an hour? After that, I can fly us down again and from there we shouldn´t be far from the swamp. If the clouds weren´t in the way we could see it from here." Bea asked the little Antoid.

Moon looked at her, not knowing what to say. He lost his Mother today and he didn´t know if his father had survived or not. All moon was capable of producing was a small sound of his approval.

While the Bee went to sleep Moon started thinking about his life, future, and past alike. He was currently 13 years of age, not too young, but not old enough either. He still had to shed his skin 3 more times to be a fully grown Antoid, and until then he couldn't even start thinking about fighting anything serious.

He lived a very fulfilling life as the son of a queen. All he had to do was be a good son do well in school and essentially as his needs would be fulfilled. His parents were two of the most amazing people he knew and they did everything they could to make the Hive the best place it could be.

Sure, neither of them were perfect, but they were honest to Hive good workers, politicians, and family. Moon couldn´t have been more proud of his parents. So he decided to do what every good Insect would do. Make his parents proud, dead or alive.

An Iron will, inherited from his long family line of strong-willed Ants, started welling up inside Moon. "I will build the best Hive, make us Insects as strong as we can be so this doesn't happen again. I won´t back down. We will make this happen. All the other Animals will start fearing us. Mammals, Birds, Marines. We will teach you that you don´t fuck with Insects."

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Meanwhile, in the new location of the soon-to-be Hive, Jakob was examining their surroundings. They stood in the middle of the Swamp, lots of wet ground, weeds, reeds, different types of small animals, and some trees were around. Nothing too dense that would make it troublesome to walk to and from places, but dense enough to obstruct some vision and give lots of materials.

Jakob was in his prime years. Antoids could live up to a hundred years and he didn´t even scratch the 40-year mark yet. After their last shedding Antoids couldn't regrow lost limbs or repair any extensive damage to their exterior.

Jakob was a constructor though, having never fought a single fight in his life other than the war for his wife, which was more metaphorical than physical, although not excluding the latter, so he didn´t have any damage to his body.

Looking around he saw that all the Insectoids were already busy making preparations. Nightfall was coming in soon, and although they didn´t have any troubles sleeping on the ground, which was unavoidable anyway, they preferred a Hive type structure.

Tzkrrt, his friend the Dungbeetle, was busy collecting mud and dirt, making it a big spherical structure, and afterward cutting it into bricks. Dung beetles unique attributes made it so once they found the right mixture of dirt and other materials their material ball would harden quite quickly and was usable as building material.

Jakob had long and hard arms, covered by a big layer of chitin. Having 2 pairs of arms made building tasks most of the time very easy. Standing almost 2 meters tall he was also one of the bigger Insectoids lurking around. His strong head and round eyes gave him a gentle feeling though if it weren´t for the huge mandibles on the front of his trapeze mouth.

His antenna was twitching periodically, although they couldn´t relay a lot of information anymore. One of the many traits that got lost during their evolution.

"Okay everyone, listen up! We have to focus on our survival for now. We won´t be able to get anything done today building-wise. First, we have to prepare materials and food. Dung beetles, you start gathering materials for tomorrow, everything from dirt to stone will be useful. I know some of us could just dig underground but especially now we have to work together."

Jakob was quite nervous. He wasn´t used to speaking in front of so many Insects and them actually listening to him. His wife always said that he was a great speaker and had a lot of charisma, but he preferred to be the quiet type.

"Everyone that can fly at least a little bit should try and collect some fruit. There are a few patches of fruit trees to the north of here, we should be able to survive on those. You all should know that you are best capable of. After we get done with this today I want to have a talk with one Insect from every group. We need to make a plan if we are getting attacked again."

Jakob nodded, as a sign to everyone that they should start their tasks now. Just when he was about to turn around he heard a familiar voice coming from the south.

"Father! You made it!"