Chapter 21 More Hosts

"Why the hell are we here anyway?" A voice echoed through the dark tunnel system, a voice that was followed by the appearance of a slowly growing light, a light that emanated from a torch that was held by a pale skinned man.

Behind the one who held the torch two others followed, one of them, a rather skinny looking individual couldn't help but chuckle and say. "Upset that you had to leave your bitch behind." 

"I was almost finished for god sakes!" The man growled, his teeth clamping together in frustration at the circumstances.

"That explains why you weren't paying attention when we got our orders." The final member and the shortest of the whole group muttered with a slight shake of his head. "One of our new outposts has gone dark and the boss wants answers as to why exactly that is."

"This is so fucking stupid." 

"Well what can you do, we either do what we're told or end up like Johnny." The shortest one mused with a shrug.

"God damn, why did you have to remind me of that?" The one with the torch breathed somewhat shakily while the other man just shivered silently in the background. "I've never heard someone scream so loudly before..."

"Then let's get going shall we." They all nodded at that.

And so they began to move once more, slightly faster now compared to before though, however there was now also a silence that had fallen over the group as they all continued on with their mission. Eventually the shortest of their number did have to pull out a rather crudely drawn map as they had become somewhat lost within the ever winding and decaying husk that was the crumbling tunnel system that stretched under the city above. Anyway, after getting back on course and traveling for a while they were finally in the last stretch of their rather irritating journey.

"Fucking hell, I swear these bastards better have a good explanation for making me walk all this damn way." 

"Oh stop complaining already, we are almost there...any...way...huh...?" The one that was holding the map tried to say but trailed off somewhat when they noticed something was wrong with the path up ahead.

Much to the confusion of all three of them the tunnel ahead was covered in some kind of black substance. "What the hell is this stuff?"

"It's bloody disgusting is what it is." The one with the torched hissed as he took several steps forward away from the group and towards one of the walls that was covered in the gunk.

Using the light he glanced around before speaking up once again "Hey James, have you ever seen this black crap before?"

"James?" No response. "James, where the fuck are you?!" The short man was gone.

"Mark, where the hell did James go? Mar-?" The skinny man was also nowhere to be seen. "What the hell is going on...?" Once again there was no response, that doesn't mean he was alone however.

"Aaaaaaaah!" His screams and the sound of the torch hitting the ground were all that could be heard as he was dragged off into the darkness.

I watched in odd contemplation as this very event took place not all that far from my main chamber, I had witnessed it all while looking through the eyes of one of my children who hung from the ceiling above. I had watched as Alpha, who was apparently somewhat pissed off that these three had come so close to the central nesting area, picked them off one by one and threw them to the open and waiting arms of her siblings. 

The three men tried to kick and scream all in an attempt to escape from their predicament but it didn't really matter or do anything at all, it was pretty pointless actually. The lot of them had no hope of escaping and could only struggle helplessly because they were now getting dragged all the way back to where I was currently, a place where several hundred eggs and their contents waited for them patiently. And I had watched all of this without feeling any kind of pity for them, a fact that I was surprisingly okay with.

In fact I was actually far more shocked by my egg producing capabilities, it hadn't been all that long since I had gotten set up and yet there were already over six hundred eggs scattered around me at the very least. I knew beforehand that it would be like this, with all the information that I had from my old life I shouldn't have been all that startled by this sight and yet despite this fact I was still taken off guard to actually see it all in person. 

To put it simply, if I'm given only a few weeks to properly prepare my forces without being bothered by anyone, the number of xenos that I could actually gather in that time would probably be in the tens of thousands. That's considering I have access to enough hosts for all the facehuggers to attach themselves too in that time but you get my point.

Anyway, normally xenomorphs would be far less tactical, they wouldn't just sit back and wait for a singular member to do the deed when they have superior and overwhelming numbers but that didn't happen this time because of my intervention. Your normal average xenomorph would just end up running into gun fire without much, if any care at all, fully grown adult drones and warriors would die in droves just to protect a single egg without any care for their own lives, a complete waste if you asked me.

They can also use tactics to some extent, however they don't usually resort to that without a leader of some kind, like a praetorian or a queen telling them what to do but even that has its limits. With me in control of them all however, well, everything has just become far more complicated to say the very least. In fact now even a facehugger, a creature driven by a singular instinctive goal in life can use complex strategies with me guiding them from behind the scenes. 

And yes, I could order them to kill without a care for their own lives and they would do just that but I didn't want that, not at all. In the future I could eventually end up sacrificing hundreds, if not thousands of xenomorphs at a time, all just so that I can kill a singular person. This is definitely something that I would be willing to do if I had no other option in the situation, however that was a complete waste of resources in my opinion and if I had a choice in the matter I'd rather lose as few as possible in any given battle. 

And sure, this line of thinking wasn't really necessary in the current situation but I wanted to train myself into this kind of warfare as soon as possible. Also I was somewhat curious, I wanted to know if my xenos would actually begin to learn from my tactics over time as well.

As I was thinking about this a feeling leaked through the bond that I shared with all of my children. (Hmmm? What is this...oh.) Changing my view I found that some of the other groups that I had sent out into the surrounding areas had also found and captured potential hosts as well.

[I estimate that your hive's population will probably explode relatively soon, possibly in a couple of days at the very least.] Goldy mused, he honestly sounded rather excited and I could only guess that was because he wanted to see some massive battles in the future.

(No kidding...) I said while nodding ever so slightly. (Good news for some of the bastards though, I need a few of them alive.)

[So you're really going with that plan?] He asked and I once again nodded in response.

(Yep, it's the only thing I can see stopping them from just nuking the whole planet.)

[It should work, considering things go well anyway.] He hummed encouragingly but stopped when he noticed something. [Your first born is back by the way.]

Talking about Alpha, I had kept her as well as six others close to the nest while all of the others went out to hunt down new possible hosts and to explore  our surroundings to some extent. Although Alpha and her group were directed to patrol the area they also had the mission of spreading the hive resin to expand our territory borders. Currently the hive covered about three hundred meters worth of railway systems, this wasn't counting the half a dozen xenomorph sized tunnels that had been dug out at some point while I wasn't paying attention.

As for my other assets, well, I hadn't sent out any swarms of facehuggers or anything like that yet, this was mostly because I didn't want to leave behind any evidence for the gangs and thugs to find. I'm hoping that they'll start fighting amongst themselves once they realize their people are going missing, giving me a chance to grow rapidly during the chaos.

Anyway, I watched as the group returned with our three very unwilling guests who were still struggling desperately to escape. In fact their struggling got even worse when they realized where they were, not that I really paid them any mind.

<<Good job.>> I muttered through the link I shared with them after Alpha, who was the last to return, entered the main chamber.

Hearing my words they didn't really react all that much, however I could sense a somewhat crude version of pride coming from them. That somewhat surprised me a little but in the end I just shrugged it off, there was nothing saying that xenomorphs couldn't feel emotions like pride to some extent, and as such I quickly turned my focus back to other more important things.

Most of my attention was pulled towards the hosts that my scouts had captured, these lot however seemed to be from a different group then the ones that I had encountered so far but before I could investigate that any further Goldy spoke up. [Will they do for your plan?]

(Yeah, yeah they will.) I hummed with a slight shrug. (Not that they really have to do much of anything except for following the script I've set out for them, even these idiots can't screw it up at this point.)

[Don't jinx yourself now, after all you mortals are surprisingly good at making stupid life decisions.]

(I...the fact that I can't argue against that is honestly kind of depressing...) I sighed, getting a chuckle from Goldy.

(Anyway...let's just call them up and check on their progress so far.) With that said I opened up the link connecting me with my thralls.

<<Ashley. >> I spoke and almost immediately got a response from the person in question.

<<My queen?>> 

Not really caring all that much for small talk I quickly got to the point. <<Have you managed to find them yet?>>

<<Yes, we are going to meet them in a moment.>> Once again my thrall almost immediately responded. Honestly though she sounded like a school girl who just got her crush to notice her, a fact that kind of creeped me out a little.

<<And are you ready? I'll be sending them over soon?>> I asked, referring to my new "actors" who only need to be "briefed" before I sent them off.

<<We are, we can begin the plan whenever you are willing to give order.>>

<<Good. >>