Tremors Underground

"Fuck! Everything!" Marcus cursed.

His current mood was darker than a moonless night. Lately, almost nothing seemed to go the right way, and even the things that did go well still managed to irritate him somehow.

He was sitting in the central chamber of his hive. In just about three weeks, the place was almost unrecognizable: the cave was completely covered in mold wax, which had also dripped from the ceiling creating columns and stalactites. The river that once crossed the cave was now blocked by a small dam and formed a little lake at the center of the chamber right under the opening on the ceiling. Many circular holes opened on the walls, leading to narrow tunnels that disappeared in the darkness.

The floor was littered with dozens of eggs, while many small larvae scuttled around and the builder drones were tending to the mold wax.

The place looked eerily like an alien hive out of a sci fi movie, and to be fair that was technically true. The air was warm and full of the smell of eggs, mold wax and other less identifiable scents, there was barely any light and there was a frantic skittering everywhere: it would have been enough to give a panic attack to any normal person that had the misfortune of wandering inside.

And yet, it all felt weirdly relaxing to Marcus, making him feel safe and cozy... making him feel at home.

The problem was that Marcus didn't want this place to be his home. His home was on Earth, where he had left his friends and family, not in a hole in this god forsaken forest!

But he couldn't help what he felt. And ironically this feeling of ease irritated him a lot.

He also had trouble looking at all the eggs and drones that filled the place at the same place. He had no trouble looking at them separately anymore, but when they were together he couldn't help but make the connection and think that he was the one that had given birth to all those creatures. All 314 of them, not counting the ones that still had to hatch. And the many more that died during the previous weeks.

"Now that's a big family indeed!" he thought sarcastically "If I'm glad about something, is the fact that I don't have to change their diapers. I'd literally be neck-deep in shit!"

Luckily, he didn't actually feel any maternal instinct towards the drones. He had come to see them only as instruments, and losing them was only irritating in the way losing some useful items would be. This stance was enforced by the fact that he actually knew for a fact that the drones didn't have any individuality, as their only thoughts and emotions were echoes of his own. They lived only to serve him, and had no desires of their own.

Combined to the fact that lately they had been dying in droves, it was much easier for Marcus to think of the drones as objects rather than living things.

There was one exception though, and that exception was following him around right now.

Cooper was the first drone he had made, and it had been his sole companion for quite a lot of time. Marcus was attached to it like he had been to the stuffed raccoon that he had in his childhood. Many years ago Mr Stripes had helped him fall asleep many times, warding off all nightmares and loneliness while he was hugging him, and Cooper had a similar job right now.

This was also one of the reasons he had stopped sending the hunter drone out, as losing it would actually be rather painful to him. And as things were right now, the probability of it dying in the constant skirmishes with the gremlins were rather high: even the newer hunter drones, that were stronger, faster and better armored than Cooper, were dying in droves. The smaller, weaker and older hunter would simply stand no chance in the current state of war.

Marcus grimaced. He didn't really like it, but the conflict had indeed escalated to the point it could be called a war. And it wasn't going well for him.

At first his forces definitely had the upper hand. Thanks to the strength of both warrior and hunter drones, not to mention the aerial reconnaissance provided by the flying drones, they had manage to annihilate any gremlin patrol south of the swamp, leaving some of their mangled bodies where they could be seen as a warning.

Unfortunately, the humanoids didn't heed the warning. Worse still, they responded by counterattacking with a force that Marcus didn't even suspect they possessed. The patrols had more than doubled in both size and number, they were better equipped, more disciplined and to top it all off they were often accompanied by some "mutant" humanoids that were far more dangerous than the others and that were more than a match for the warrior drones.

Two and a half meters tall brutes covered head to toe by rock-like scales, armed with gigantic maces; quick and skilled warriors who could cut down their opponents in a flash; wild berserkers who fought with fangs and claws; and finally red scaled, winged gargoyles looking creature which could breathe fire.

The last ones had been especially annoying, because Marcus had no way to counter them: the flying drones were too light to damage them, and even though he had given birth to a new breed with venomous fangs and sharp claws they still were usually killed by the fire breath before they could reach their opponents.

It took at least a dozen of the new flying drones to kill a single one of the gargoyles, and even though Marcus gave birth to them non-stop, it wasn't nearly enough: the aerial superiority had been lost, and even worse those flying humanoids had started scouting from the skies, searching for Marcus's location, while he was powerless to stop them.

That came with all sorts of problems. Simply remaining hidden wasn't enough: sooner or later the cave would be discovered by the patrols, so the drones needed to keep them away, but they could be spotted by a gargoyle scout while moving around the entrance of the cave.

The solution that Marcus had come up with was simple: if they couldn't move on the ground, they simply had to move under it.

So, he had created the digger drones.

He had taken bits from worms, moles and various other animals and combined them into a single, gigantic creatures. The result was a four meters long drone with the torso of a worm, powerful claws capable of digging through any soil and a huge mouth with a powerful jaw capable of crushing rock. Its eyes were very small, but it had exceptional hearing and could perfectly feel and read vibrations through the earth.

It dug in the ground at an amazing speed, leaving behind itself a circular tunnel with a one and a half meters diameter, which the builder drones then reinforced with mold wax to prevent cave-ins.

He had given birth to only three of these creatures, since they required a lot of energy to produce, but they had been working tirelessly in the past week: the result was that now there was an underground complex of tunnels that reached all the adjacent valleys.

The warrior and hunter drones used these tunnels to move out and ambush any gremlin patrol they found, before disappearing underground again, making the tunnel entrance collapse after they were done since the digger could easily open it again if needed.

Marcus smiled, a small hint of smugness in his insectoid face.

He was a bit proud of this idea, which evened the ground in the conflicts between him and the humanoids and, at the same time, had provided him with an escape route should things take a turn for the worst: a few of the tunnels reached pretty far into the nearby valleys and could be used to leave the cave.

While he was walking around in the cave, one of his own patrol, a couple of warrior drones accompanied by six hunters, returned from one of the tunnels. All of them were carrying something in their mouths, which at closer inspection turned out to be the corpses of the humanoids, plus one of a hunter drone.

The smug smile slowly faded from Marcus's face, as the drones dropped the bodies in the middle of the cave, where they were immediately swarmed over by the larvae, who started ripping and eating them in a feeding frenzy.

One of the least pleasant things he didn't plan for was the food shortage they were experiencing right now. There was a huge number of drones now, and the warrior and digger in particular needed a lot of nutrients to stay alive. The mold wax growing inside the cave wasn't enough to feed them all, but at the same time he couldn't grow it outside because it would be like putting a giant "I am here" sign for all the gargoyles scouting the valley. And to make things worse, most of the wild animals had moved away due to the constant fighting between the drones and the humanoids.

Luckily there was an abundant source of food available. But unluckily, it wasn't a very pleasant one.

It was, of course, eating the corpses of both humanoids and drones killed in battle. And this felt quite wrong to Marcus.

Sadly there wasn't any other alternative for now, so he had the drones take back all the bodies they could grab in order to use them as food for the hive.

But even as all the other drones ripped the corpses apart, Marcus still continued to live off the mold wax. It was a bland, monotonous diet and he would have killed for some good meat, but he couldn't force himself to eat neither the gremlins nor the drones. For the first he was still reluctant about eating a fellow humanoid while he could help it, as it went against pretty much every sense of morality he had, while for the second... well... eating something that had come out of his own coochie felt wrong on so many levels that he couldn't even count them.

Although, to be fair, Marcus had already tried eating some of the more powerful gremlins in order to gain their abilities, but he kept telling himself that t was different than using them as food.

Sadly, like what had happened with the laser deer, the humanoids' more powerful abilities couldn't be found in their DNA. No matter what kind of gremlin Marcus ate: the huge scaled ones, the beast ones or even the gargoyles, the informations he got from them were always those of a simple, small humanoid with no outstanding features.

And this made him hate the little buggers even more.

They tried to kill him, kept fighting his drones and won't leave him alone! And to top it all off, they didn't even have the decency of giving him a good power up for his minions!

Marcus could have just ran away, leaving the valley and taking most of his hive with him, but at this point it was a challenge for him. His pride wouldn't allow for a retreat unless there was no alternative available.

He had promised to take vengeance on the humanoids, and by god he would do so!

To vent his frustration and distract himself, he let his mind go, concentrating on one of the drone patrols that were currently preparing an ambush in the valley north-west of there...

The tunnel was small, dark and crowded, but those weren't problem for the Vex. Their eyes were perfectly capable of seeing in pitch black darkness, while the proximity of so many of their kinds just felt reassuring. They were one mind in many bodies, after all.

Right now, they were all standing still to not disturb the Digger, who was using his senses to feel the passage of the enemy.

The Digger felt the vibrations of many creatures walking on the surface. At least fifty, and roughly a third of them were walking on all four. That meant that there were about fifteen beast-humanoids up there, while the others could be either the quick, skilled ones or the strong, scaled ones.

Using the Queen's knowledge, they assumed that at least one gargoyle was accompanying a group of that size, even if the Digger couldn't feel it as it would be flying above the ground.

The hive-mind quickly analyzed the chances of success in case of a fight. Their group consisted of eight warrior drones, eleven hunter drones, one digger drone and nine flying drones, so they were outnumbered but if they managed to catch the gremlin by surprise they could still win. The problem was that if a gargoyle spotted them they would lose the element of surprise.

Luckily, the area they were in was good enough for that: there were numerous trees and a thick undergrowth that would hide them from above. The hive-mind pondered for a while, and then took a decision.

The digger drone started digging, creating an exit about one hundred meters from the humanoids, inside a small basin in the ground, covered by ferns and bushes, and slithered away to let its brothers get out.

The drones crawled out of the hole, staying low to avoid being seen by the enemy. Slowly and carefully, they started moving towards their prey without making a sound.

They reached them a few minutes later. It was indeed a big gremlin patrol: sixteen beast-humanoids walked in front of the group, smelling the air in search of potential dangers, but the drones had emerged from the ground downwind and couldn't be found.

The rest of the group consisted mainly of a dozen simple humanoids, those without any peculiar traits, armed with wooden spears, fifteen of the more human-looking humanoids who wore a crude armour and were armed with shields and pole weapons, and finally six of the fat, scaled humanoids with wooden clubs, one of which towered over all the others being over two meters tall. That last one seemed to be the leader.

In the sky, barely visible through the foliage, there was the winged silhouette of a gargoyle flying over the patrol, but it couldn't see the drones hidden in the bushes.

They waited for the perfect chance, moving along the humanoid patrol. The enemies were staying closer to each other, on their guard, but with such an irregular terrain it was only a matter of time before they got distracted.

And the opportunity presented itself in a few minutes: the patrol walked into a wall of thick thorn bushes, which forced them to change direction. There was some confusion, with the big humanoid bellowing order in its incomprehensible language, and they lost cohesion for a moment.

This was the time.

Without a single sound, the drones attacked. The warriors immediately ran towards the enemy leader, while the hunters attacked the armored humanoids and the flying drones remained in reserve, ready to attack when the time was right.

The humanoids were taken completely by surprise. The few of them between the warriors and the leader were immediately killed, not even slowing down the drones, while the armored ones were almost completely wiped out by the first attack, being too surprised to use a formation with their pole weapons to defend themself. The simple humanoids simply screamed and ran away, disappearing into the woods.

But then they started to fight back. The leader reacted instantly, hitting a warrior that had pounced him with his mace and sending it flying in the bushes. The other fat ones started fighting back as well, trying to rescue their leaders and hitting hard with their humongous wooden clubs. In the meanwhile, the beastly humanoids that acted as a vanguard turned and came to the rescue of their allies, charging the hunter drones and engaging them in a fight that looked like a tornado of fangs, claws, chitin and fur.

The Vex still held the advantage though. A great number of humanoids had been killed during the first assault, and apart from their leader they were greatly outclassed by the strength of the drones. The hunters were quickly having the upper hand against the beastly humanoids, and the warriors were making short work of the fat ones while three of them kept the big one occupied.

It was then that the gargoyle dropped from the sky. It was almost as tall as the leader, his red scales gleaming under the sun, with claws as big as knives and a sharp beak full of fangs. The creature turned to the closest warrior and vomited a river of flames upon it, killing it instantly. One of the other warriors tried to attack it, but the gargoyle deflected the slash of the scythe-arms with his scales and counterattacked by ripping the assailant's throat with his claws.

Encouraged by the help received, the leader attacked with renewed energy, crushing another warrior with its club.

"Now." the Queen thought, a command for the ones still hiding in ambush.

The flying drones immediately emerged from the bushes, flying like arrows towards the gargoyle. The humanoid saw them and started breathing fire, but it was too late: they were too close to be hit by the flames, and as soon as they hit the creature's body they started biting it. Thanks to the humanoid's scales, most of those attacks did absolutely no damage, but a couple of them managed to find a vulnerable spot, sinking their venomous fangs in deep in the gremlin's flesh.

The gargoyles screeched, ripping the little drones away with his claws, but it was too late: taking advantage of the distraction, one of the warriors attacked the humanoid, sinking it's scythe-arm deep in the gremlin's neck.

The creature went down, black blood spraying from its wound and smoking wherever it landed, and immediately the warriors and the fliers left him, concentrating on the leader.

The big gremlin defended himself valiantly, with a defiant look in his small black eyes, but in the end he was overwhelmed by the sheer number of aggressors, falling down with multiple horrible wounds on his body.

The rest of the goblins was quickly dealt with, with only a few of them running away into the woods. Not that this would do them any good: after the battle ended, the hunter drones immediately started chasing them. Thanks to their senses, speed and abilities to find any trail, it was almost assured that there wouldn't be any survivor.

The Queen quickly counted the survivors: four warriors were dead, and another two were badly injured, and only a couple of fliers remained. The hunters had better luck: only one of them had died, stabbed in the neck by a sword, while the others only received minor wounds.

It had been an absolute victory. Now the only thing left to do, after thee hunters had finished taking down all the runaways, was to return to the hive and collapse the tunnel behind them, taking back all the bodies they could as nourishment.

Marcus returned his focus to himself with a smug, ferocious smile on his face.

"Take that, you little bastards!" he said with satisfaction, slowly petting Cooper like a stereotypical mafia boss would pet their cat "This should teach you not to fuck with me!"

He teathrically indulged this satisfaction for a bit, cackling like an evil mastermind, but then a sudden pain in his lower abdomen announced him that he was ready to lay eggs again.

That immediately drained all the fun from him, and he sighed while going to a corner of the hive to get it over with.

"Damn, never a moment of reprieve!" he said bitterly before squatting.