"How's the reactor output?" Patina, now noticeably taller and slimmer, asked out loud as she levitated several pens over a blueprint. While the cave walls she and her hive were inhabiting were primitive and lacked many of the tools they were used to using for the past fifteen years, they were near achieving breakthrough on her project. Case in point, dozens of wires that were connected to an large bulky Barouche Military Transport onto a massive device in the center of the massive clearing in the cave.
"Reactor output is 87% and holding, Miss Patina.'' An another Changeling with a feminine shape, nearly a head shorter than Patina, but with similar features like with orange back, orange tail, smaller than normal wings; reported next to her while looking at several monitors at once. While Patina's horn looked like a flat screw if it was eight inches long, this Changeling's horn looked like a flat circular wrench with a thick handle.
"Good. Now reroute 20% of the power to the LGE to start it." Patina ordered the Changeling as she continued to work on the schematics of a new small cockpit that would allow an unaugmented Changeling to pilot an battlemech. She smiled as she saw her firstborn click several of the larger, hoof- friendly switches to carry out her orders. Since landing back onto her home planet, she made her first major choice after hiding the DropShip. And by using a gift given to her by the Doctor and the scientists aboard the ship, she had more time in solidifying her place in this world. Oh, she had at times come down with crew members to scout the world and the neighboring planets, and had already chosen many locations she could use as her temporary bases or labs. “With that meeting coming up within a month, I have to have some solid results for them to even consider joining up with me.”
"Well, if this test goes right, couldn’t we just recruit other hives, Mother?" And there it was. She had forbidden within her hive to call her a Queen. She had told them to call her mom, mother, Miss Patina, and at times Precentor Patina; but she really hated being called a Queen. It simply didn't feel right...
"Sadly, they would most likely not believe me unless I had the backing of a major hive." Patina knew that she was a ‘newcomer’ to how the Changeling hives were run and the politics that followed it. While she was most likely the most intelligent, many other minor Queens had advantages over her in the sense that they had survived off sheer determination and not technology. Her hive, only being born barely seven years ago and at a shockingly small number of thirty drones, was the smallest in all of the hives that existed in Equestria. Oh, she intended to build her hive up later, but as of now, she intended to keep her hive small and as invisible as she could. Not to mention that the other Queens were known to be rather territorial and had the tendency to ‘teach’ her how their politics worked. “If I hear how I should collect love and capture the rare pony in the next meeting, I will bring a portable flamethrower and burn them all alive.”
"Don't worry, mother. I'm sure at least one queen might listen to you." Patina really appreciated her firstborn, but this was Changeling Queens she was talking about here. They were all either assholes with an one track mind
or just plain idiots who thought she was the weakest one there from the size of her hive.
Patina merely sighed as she rolled up the edited blueprint and slipped it into a plastic tube and sealed the top with tape. Tossing the tube into the open door of the sizable hover APC, Patina walked over to the terminal hooked up to the device her firstborn was looking over.
"LGE is at 17% operating capacity." Patina glanced at the progress chart on the screen and sighed. She knew using a vehicle reactor would be different from using a DropShip’s reactor. “It’s building 0.4 percent charge every hour, so it's not a complete failure.”
“It’s not, but...” Patina sighed as she walked over to another terminal being operated by another one of her drones. “And what is it with the Griffons? They somehow went from muskets to automatic weaponry in three years time.”
“Still can’t find out what had happened to them, but their military build up is worrying.” The drone operating the terminal reported as he, with a stockier build and a male voice, brought up a series of pictures that revealed the beginnings of a tracked vehicle. “While not using composite armor like ours, they will become a threat eventually.”
Thank the HPGs that she had access to the few satellites that her saviors left behind. She had been tracking how other ‘nations’ were doing and found out that the Griffons were building up rapidly in the military and civilian sector. If the sheer increase in factories and the amount of military bases weren’t a sign of military build up, then she would eat an assault mech whole.
"Now go take a nap, mother. You’ve been awake for thirty seven hours worrying about a meeting a month away." Her firstborn nudged her as she was semi- forced into the APC so that she could at least get some shut-eye. It was nice to develop new ways to survive and thrive, but to get her kind to use them without abusing them? Ugh. She just wished all those hives didn't have a 'Look a pony! Drain it of its love!' mindset. She really didn't hate the ponies, but at times, anyone- anypony would do the craziest things to stay alive.
“Fine...” Patina let out a yawn as she walked into the APC. So much was on her mind, but she still had a lot on her mind. One of which was the upcoming biannual meeting between hives and the encroaching air fleet that had originated from the Griffon Imperial Aerial Fort far to the North. And those feather-brained fools were approaching the Chaotic Southern Continent... Where her DropShip and the remaining drones of her hive was building an underground factory. “Still going back to the South afterward to make sure those feather-brained idiots can’t get a foothold there.”
The seven drones that had followed her here for the meeting all shared a knowing look and could only continue their efforts to maximize information and the success of their mother’s device. As powerful as their weapons were, they couldn’t take on an entire air fleet with infantry mixed in.
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Patina mumbled incoherently as she approached the small cave where the other queens were gathering for the biannual meeting implemented by some idiot that possessed the largest hive and even began to call herself the Queen of Queens.
"For the betterment of our species my damn ass..." Patina grumbled as she approached an earth pony who was reading a book in the middle of a forest while seemingly guarding a rundown shack. She herself was disguised as a pegasus with rust orange coat, dark red eyes, bright orange mane and tail, along with a cutie mark of a wrench. Her left eye twitched violently as she finally noticed why the pony had not reacted to her. He was asleep. While holding the book up like he was awake.
With a flare of bright orange magic, she sent a pebble with a bit of force at the pony's head. With a pained grunt, the pony sat up growling after falling over until she dropped her disguise in a blink of an eye. He swallowed nervously while tapping the ground twice.
"Same disguise as the last meeting, again? What does your queen even teach you? Change your damn disguise every meeting so even if a passing pony sees you again later, he or she would ignore you! The coincidence of the same pony sighting you way too high!" She scolded the poorly disguised Changeling muzzle to muzzle while she adjusted the bag slung over her body. Wordlessly glaring at the Changeling, she felt surprisingly refreshed at his worried look.
At least her hive wasn’t as incompetent... yet.
Descending down a long array of straight stairs down after a wooden/metal trapdoor, she could hear the idle chatter of her fellow queens half of the way down. Over three dozen queens resided in Equestria alone and some queens came from across the seas just to see what the hell is going on. She was just here to present her idea. A design that the doctor started and she had recently been working on perfecting it. As she walked through a solid metal door that opened for her, (how they got it, she’ll never know) she sighed in despair at the scene before her. The room was a massive stone amphitheater set in a semicircle with a single large table in the center to where the Queens of larger hives sat while she and other 'minor' queens were 'coerced' into sitting around in the half circle of the large amphitheater. And in the very center, on a stone throne would sit the 'Queen of All Queens'. Now if she could somehow smuggle in some machine guns, she could easily take over them all...
She hung her head as she threw that particular idea away. It was stupid. She'd most likely cause this 'order' amongst Changeling hives to crumble so that they would once again fight each other over borders and what-nots. This idea of this loosely created 'Order' that settled border disputes, new methods of securing love, and other concerns was nothing short of brilliant; but it lacked the organized power she had learned from. ComStar was well- organized if anything.
Taking out a small rectangular case from within the bags she had over her barrel, she turned it over in her hooves before placing it before her. She might be young compared to the other queens and possessing what was most
likely the smallest hive, but she had long ago decided to make it up with quality. Using her magic, she felt around her bags, locating the Needler Pistol with three extra blocks of the polymer-composite blocks that served as ammo, the plastic case, and a couple of flashbang grenades. Other than her data and its results, that was all that she had carried here. She ignored the various bickering of the other queens that sat around her. She merely ignored them for her sanity and merely focused on the major queens that sat at the stone table at the center.
Possessing the second largest hive, was Queen Miasma of the Miasma Hive. The only thing that made her 'different' were the openings to the side of her mouth that showed her inner jaw far too clearly and the extremely bad smell of rotting... things and the strong smell of some potent perfume. Her violet coloring of her back, mane, and tail gave her a sort-of regal look that was ruined by her smell. (Patina hated her for being so haughty. That and the bitch had bumped into her once. She smelled horrible for days!)
Sitting next to her with a stack of scrolls and a pair of red glasses, was Queen Myxine of the Hagfish Hive. While the hive itself was small along with their queen, she was considered a major hive due to the fact that she maintained the only known ‘navy’ that her Changelings ran. Myxine herself was slightly shorter than Miasma, but held a strict stance in the way she was sitting and acted. Both her mane and tail were rather short and under her blue eyes were lines that were most likely not from age. Her horn looked rather unique with two grooves that seemed to give a feel of a shark's fin unlike Miasma's own looking like a curved blade almost. (Would make such a great finance manager for a mercenary company in the Inner Sphere.)
Sitting across from her and who was most likely the most 'playful' of all the Queens present. Queen Ambrosia and her Honeycomb Hive was by far the third largest and their young queen was... something else. She was tall and both her bright orange mane and tall were long enough to be on the floor and her young greenish yellow eyes looked excited as she played with some glowing bugs that flew around her. Her horn was relatively curved with a single curve within. But Patina knew that the ‘playful’ attitude of the Changeling made her all the more dangerous as she was unintentionally sadistic as was her hive when extracting love.
Noticing one of the major queens were not yet present, she turned her eyes on Chrysalis. The self-proclaimed Queen of All Queens and this was not an assumption. Her hive was the largest, most aggressive, and their queen was just as volatile. Noticeably taller than most queens, both her long mane and tail were colored a dark bluish green and her jagged horn gave her a near sinister look. Her green eyes looked bored at the surroundings, but her posture was enough to read. There was something major happening today.
A slight buzz by her side made her sigh in an annoyed manner before turning to address whomever had decided to sit next to her. She had made it known that she didn’t like others sitting too close to her, but froze upon recognizing the Changeling Queen that had the gall to plop down next to her.
Her breath hitched as she tried to breathe normally and trying her best to stay calm at the sight of the wayward major queen. Queen Calliphora of the Nekropolis Hive sat next to her with her extra set of milky white lens was
over her crimson eyes and her even more so 'perforated' limbs than the normal Changeling look over Patina’s form ever so slowly. Her back and barrel were colored a reddish pink color and both her mane and tail were colored a light reddish peach color that gave her a ghost-like appearance. As Calliphora slowly finished inspecting Patina, the pair of clear eyelids slid vertically upwards to reveal her brilliant crimson eyes focusing entirely on her.
"Patina, was it? Would you like to join me at the table?" Her voice was silky and smooth, nearly sounding like a whisper. A whisper that silenced the hall and had all attention focused on her. She quickly looked around her in a slight panic and noticed several jealous looks from the other hives, a puzzled one from Chrysalis, an amused one from Miasma, a tired one from Myxine, and a cheerful looking Ambrosia. But before she could answer properly, Calliphora spoke again.
"You would? Very well." With a glow of crimson colored magic, Patina felt her artificial hoof being ‘gently’ pulled by Calliphora’s magic. With a squeak of surprise, Patina quickly shot to her hooves to prevent herself from falling over and tried her best to walk on three's with her artificial leg being dragged along by the Queen of the 'Order of the Fly' as the ponies lovingly named her.
"Can I ask why you are dragging me to the center? My hive is small and I have nothing to contribute as of yet." Patina asked the most mysterious Queen, but got no reply even as she was forced to sit between Calliphora and Ambrosia. "Erm... Greetings?"
"You look so adorable with the armored hoof~" Ambrosia's voice was young and held a youthful quality to it. "Names Ambrosia, what's yours?"
"Didn't you just hear Calliphora say it?" Miasma hissed as she glared at Calliphora. "And repeating the minor's question, why'd you bring her here, Calliphora?" Miasma's voice was a mix of an hiss and something that she couldn't get her hooves on.
Said queen merely looked at her right foreleg with little interest and ignored the question once again. Myxine let out an exasperated sigh and offered a hoof across the table towards Patina. She shook the offered hoof slowly and tensed as Miasma glared at her intensely.
"Ignore Miasma's blabbering, my dear. I'm Myxine." Myxine's voice reminded her of the ocean waves smoothly moving in and out. "Hope you don't mind sitting here."
"It's fine..." She glanced at Miasma's frustrated glare and whimpered. They had their advantage in possessing large hives, but she had the smallest one; so it was understandable that she was rightfully nervous. "My name is Patina Gear of the Ferrugo Hive."
"Nice to meet you, Patina." At least Myxine didn't seem to care for her sitting here... "Miasma, stop being a grouch and introduce yourself." A glance at Calliphora and the disgruntled queen grunted before offering her own hoof. Patina shook the queen's hoof hesitantly before quickly withdrawing her hoof. She was not going to risk having a smelly hoof from this encounter.
"Miasma. Now can we start the meeting before the minor decides to feint or run?" Patina gulped as she felt Chrysalis' curious look made her even more nervous as her former courage, annoyance, and anger fade away all at once.
"Let's begin!" Chrysalis shouted as the hall immediately quieted down. "Let's first go over the borders we share and with the current supply of love in each hive."
As each and every queen listed their positions and total stock of love in crystal form, which was the best way to store them, Patina's mind began to race. Did she give the samples now?
"Calliphora, how much love does your hive currently possess?" Chrysalis' voice turning her attention onto the steadily humming queen next to Patina.
"A hundred seventy crystals. I have to say that the collection has been slowing ever since ponies began to avoid graveyards more and more." To Patina's horror, Calliphora smiled at her. "But if I have to guess, don't our dear ‘engineer’ have a solution to that?"
Patina's nerves froze over. She had not told anyone that she was an engineer of any type and had definitely not revealed her origins to anyone!
"The minor? What can she do about our love supply? She doesn’t even possess any significant presence in any pony settlement." Miasma scoffed as she glared at Patina's wide-eyed form.
"Oh dear... I believe Patina is in shock." Calliphora genuinely looked surprised at Patina's reaction. Just as Calliphora said her name, Patina quite literally exploded, figuratively.
“H-How’d you even figure out that I was an engineer? Not to mention, I’ve told no one about the project that I’ve been slaving over for such a long time!” Patina shrieked at Calliphora as she pointed her artificial hoof accusingly at the Queen. “I’ve even made sure that none of my drones were followed by any being! There can’t be any way you know of what I was doing!”
Every Changeling was shocked at Patina's outburst, but Myxine seemed more interested in how Patina was speaking.
"She didn’t say anything about a project. What project are you even referring to?" Patina's eyes widened considerably at her own mistake and began to push herself backwards as every eye followed her retreating form. Her mind roared with confusion, panic, and was about to bolt when she noticed that she had stuck her hooves onto a golden syrup that had not been there. A quick glance at Ambrosia and Patina noted the slight amount of the same material on the childish Queen’s lips.
“There’s no need to run, Patty!” Patina blinked at the nickname Ambrosia gave her before trying to pull her hooves out of the sticky trap. She managed to pull her artificial limb free, but failed to pull her other limbs free. “Come on, tell us about your project!”
Patina idly thought about tossing the flashbang in her bag, but knew that some of the Changelings were used to such exposure and would work to capture her the moment she tried to run. Biting her lower lip, she slowly withdrew the small plastic container from her bag and placed it on the stone table with narrowed eyes glaring at the Nekropolis Queen.
“My project is a personal objective of mine.” Patina began as she stuck her artificial hoof into the bag and allowed the fingers to grip the needler pistol. “I am not the only one to notice the ever decreasing amount of love each hive reports nearly every meeting. Not to mention that the ponies and Griffons are getting better and better at detecting our presence. My project was to turn our species into a self-reliant species without relying on them to survive.”
With that said, Patina, having been freed by an unapologetic Ambrosia and her magic, tapped the plastic cover open to reveal four vials filled with luminescent pink fluid. Quickly glancing at Calliphora, she noticed the slight smile the older queen sported and vowed to find out how that weird queen found out about her project.
“This, fellow queens, is artificial love.” Patina declared quietly as she levitated the vials for all to see. While her voice was barely above her normal speaking volume, she knew every queen had heard her. “Far more potent than crystallized love all of us use, but far more versatile. Dilute into water to grow vegetables that are infused with love. Mix it into bread, and it will fill you with love as if we sucked love out of crystals. So on and so forth.”
Ambrosia swiped one of the vials without much resistance and quickly sniffed the liquid before looking at it with a surprised look on her face. (Incidentally, the cork Ambrosia popped off had hit Miasma on her eye to which no one really cared about...) Slowly tipping the rather thick liquid downwards, she took a light sip of the pink liquid. As Ambrosia closed her mouth, every eye had focused on Ambrosia; whom instantly lit up and... let out a hiccup. “That’s ‘love’ alright! Ish so gooood!”
Patina sighed before taking the vial back with a sigh and acknowledged the confused looks on the faces of many queens.
“Like I said this is a highly concentrated liquid form of love.” As Ambrosia giggled madly before her blushing face hiccuped once again and collapsed onto the stone table snoring. “It’s like the heavy cider ponies drink that makes them drunk in seconds. This stuff is potent damn it.”
As the others began to eye her vials greedily, including Chrysalis, she silently unpinned several of the flashbangs in her bag and held the arms of the grenades so they didn’t detonate soon. As she placed them back into its container, she spotted Miasma moving towards her and acted instantly. Tossing the half-dozen non-lethal grenades out of her bag and into the air, Patina swiftly dashed away towards the door just as the flashbangs went off. The shrill screech from the gathered queens weren’t what she wanted, but these fools weren’t ready. Not to mention, she had seen Chrysalis’ glare at her
ever since Ambrosia had fallen asleep after declaring that it was indeed ‘love energy’.
It was the look of someone who felt threatened of losing what little power they possessed.
As she zoomed out of the meeting place, all she could think about was getting out of here and headed back into the Southern Continent. She had silently decided that she would hold back her innovations for now. These fools were nowhere near ready to form a permanent ‘nation’ upon her inventions. Not with Chrysalis in charge.
But she had other matters to solve. Like the Griffon Air fleet encroaching upon her territory.
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After somehow managing to get the other minor queens to leave, it was just the five major queens left in the amphitheater. Or rather four, as Ambrosia was still asleep from being ‘drunk’ off of love. Chrysalis, studied one of the vials closely as Patina had decided to ‘abandon’ her samples there after escaping in a rather ‘flashy’ manner.
“It gives off no magical traces, indicating that it is clearly artificial.” Chrysalis muttered as she used her bright green magic to levitate one of the untouched vials that was on the table. “Calliphora, how did you even know about the minor’s efforts in her... project?”
The strange queen of the Nekropolis Hive merely tilted her sideways and frowned slightly.
“Even I only found out by chance.” Calliphora said quietly as she levitated one of five vials to herself and studied the liquid within. “One of my drones hiding in one of the more remote cemeteries found her bribing diamond dogs with jewels to buy raw metal ores alongside other ores that I have no idea what it is being used for. Finding it strange, I had the drone follow her from afar.”
“...From what she ranted on, she was rather paranoid about being followed.” Myxine commented as she had already taken a vial into her own bags.
“Imagine my surprise when I saw her enter a rather well-hidden cave hidden by a fabric wall that appeared to blend into the surroundings. Within it, my drone found part of her hive and her working alongside a large metal dwelling that had many hoses coming from various parts of the dwelling into a device that had at least a dozen magic crystals embedded within and was generating the liquid you see within the vials.”
“...So her hive is elsewhere.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes as she began to smile slowly. “Why don’t we make this a game amongst ourselves?”
“Game?” Miasma arched an eyebrow as she shook the liquid within the vial she claimed for herself.
“Whoever ‘catches’ Patina Gear gets to take her under your hive as... a protected hive.” Chrysalis grinned as she spread her forelegs apart and thought it was a great plan.
“Very well.” Myxine narrowed her eyes and frowned as she could literally feel the greed rolling off the ‘Queen of Queens’. “Whoever manages to ‘secure’ Patina first will secure her project. Very well.”
As the five (One who will be informed later by Myxine when she wakes) agreed silently about Patina Gear. Whoever got to her first would secure what amounted to unlimited love.
The race to ‘secure’ Patina Gear was on.