7: Double O Ling
The world around Blitz narrowed to a single point, her mother’s reptilian eyes. It took her half a minute to process the question. “…You want me to be a royal daughter?” she asked with reserved confusion. Rainbow gave her, her signature snarky snort and nod. “W-what makes you think I’d be any good at that? I’m just a fifth level engineer, there’s got to be better picks.”
“Pah,” Rainbow huffed dismissively as she returned to her pot of royal jelly tea. “If I did everything that looked good on paper, I’d be some lame-o back in Cloudsdale with some desk job.” Her brain decided to remind her that quite a few of her drones had such ‘lame-o’ jobs. Well, whatever. They're my kids so their natural awesomeness makes up for it ten times over.
“Look, Blitz, I think you’d make a good queen.” Rainbow’s smirk soured a little at the drone’s panicky expression. “Really.” Rainbow’s horn lit up and she pulled a folder off her desk and started reading. “As strange as it may sound, I’m not looking for an athlete or capable warrior here. You practically aced your Ldog test, Ratchet personally vouched for you since it was you who came up with the more efficient thumb design for Aegis’ gauntlets,” Rainbow was going to continue, but an excited gasp escaped Blitz.
“R-Ratchet actually vouched for me!?”
“Damn right he did,” Rainbow chuckled as if it should have been expected. “He doesn’t like to show excessive pride to his underlings, but he was crazy impressed.”
Blitz had to take a moment to squeal in delight and spin in circled while dancing on her hoof tips. “Yes, yes, yes, yeeeeess!”
Rainbow Dash allowed her daughter to enjoy the moment for a little bit before speaking again. “Twi, Aegis, Ratchet, and I have all drawn up a list of my kids who we think would make good queens, and you were the first.”
“Why ask Aegis?” Blitz replied with slight confusion while spinning back around to face her mother. “I sorta thought older people should decide that.”
There’s that brain of hers. Rainbow nodded with approval. “Normally, yeah. But since this decision directly affects her…” She trailed off to let Blitz come to her own conclusion. When understanding dawned on her daughter, Rainbow continued. “But the biggest thing, is that you have that…” Rainbow tried her best to think of the proper wording. Years ago, she might have been poorly equipped for such a task, but her time as an officer in the Wonderbolts, and Twilight’s assistance later in life, helped Rainbow formulate a half decent pep talk that wasn’t directed at soldiers. “You’re smart, competent, and you have a good strong heart, but more importantly, you have that rare unnamable quality that my old CO, Spitfire, saw in me.”
Blitz listened in rapt attention as Rainbow scrunched her muzzle in miffed confusion. “Something you’d think all of my unaltered kids would have, but whatever.” She affixed her gaze on Blitz, exuding calm motherly warmth. “Apparently having an awesome possum mom isn’t enough for somepony to have the right clay to be shaped into a ruler. I think you have right stuff, and if you want, we can see if I’m right together.”
Blitz sat flat on her rump with her mind going a million miles an hour. Truth be told, Blitz was quite happy with her lot in life as a drone and engineer. A contentedness Aegis seemed to be born without. Sure I planned to one day be chief of the robotics division, if not the whole Engineers’ Corps, but to be remade into a royal!? This isn’t just some job promotion. She’s offering me a chance to be a queen-mother. I don’t think I can do that. I don’t even know how mom does it!
Rainbow Dash sensed her daughter’s mounting panic as the drone’s thoughts threatened to drive her into an anxiety attack. She spoke slightly louder than normal to cut through to Blitz. “Why don’t you give it some thought? Sleep on it, give it a week while I spread the word to the other candidates, and then come back to me on it.”
“Thank you, my queen. I will.” Blitz saw the kind dismissive nod from Rainbow and turned to leave.
Blitz opened the door only for Rainbow to speak up, giving the drone pause. “Before you go,” Blitz turned back to face her mother and saw wisdom in her eyes that Rainbow lacked in her early years. “Just remember one thing: you never know what you’re capable of unless you try. Spitfire and Twilight taught me that, and I’d like to pass that on to all my kids, you included.”
Something sparked in Blitz’s mind. Whether it was a flash of her mother’s own brashness or a lapse in judgment, potentially both, Blitz looked her mother dead in the eye with a determined half-smile. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do it! Aegis won’t have nothing on me!”
Rainbow snorted with a wide approving grin. “Good to hear. We’ll start the competition once we return to the hive. I’ll have spread the word to the other candidates by then. For now, get some sleep, you’ll need it.”
“Yes, my queen.” Blitz bowed her head, an act she scolded herself for forgetting when she entered the room in the first place. Ignoring her embarrassment, she departed for Ferrum’s bunk.
With the matter closed and Blitz leaving, Rainbow turned to her gallon sized stein of royal jelly tea. Now, back to feeding those hungry hungry eggs of mine, she mused while eagerly latching onto the drink.
Blitz was riding high on her mother’s intense pride until halfway to the crew quarters when what she had agreed to finally sunk in and her irises shrunk to pinpricks. “Lingbeans, what have I done!?”
The following morning, Blitz sat at the end of one mess hall table surrounded by her fellow drones, yet she was lost in her own thoughts. She barely got any sleep that night between her romp with Ferrum and being lost in her thoughts about a possible royal rebirth. Blitz’s tired gaze was centered on the bowl of cold cereal she was idly stirring. Every so often she would take a small bite. What am I going to do now? I had the perfect life of an engineer all set for me. Impressed the royalty with my work on the princess’ armor, might have even gotten a chance to be a full on apprentice to Ratchet, maybe even be chief engineer one day.
The spoon clattered out of her magic and into the milk, splashing a little bit around the bowl, but no one else noticed that nor the growing panic in the young drones’ face. Now they think I’m good enough to be a royal?! How can that be? I’m just a fifth level engineer! What if they DO select me and I fail horribly? It wouldn’t just be a machine or two that would act up, I would doom a whole hive! What if my failure is so bad both mothers decide to abandon elevating drones to royals? Blitz started to hyperventilate. What if they only catch my failure after I’m turned into a royal? They’d have to turn me back into a drone, but that would mean losing all my memories! I like my memories! I don’t wanna become a cautionary taaaale! she wailed helplessly, just barely stopping herself from collapsing onto the table. A few of her siblings were about to ask what’s wrong, but were interrupted by a newcomer.
“Mind if I sit here?” a voice called out just loud enough to break through Blitz’s out of control train of thoughts.
The blue engineer looked up with half-mad eyes to see Aegis standing beside her with a warm smile. The princess was standing on her hindlegs with enough stability to look comfortable. Oddly enough, Aegis had no idea what to do with her forelegs, or arms as she liked to call them now, when she wasn’t holding something or on all fours. As a result she opted to just cross them in front of her chest. Aegis still kept her food tray aloft in her magic because she wasn’t too keen on testing her balance with food in hand, though she kept that to herself.
Blitz fumbled to reply after shaking her head. “A-ah- sure,” she waved at the empty seat in front of her, “be my guest.”
While the long bench that serviced the table were built to allow a changeling to rest on their bellies, the design didn’t hamper a biped’s sitting posture. As a result, Aegis took the opportunity to practice sitting like a minotaur. The act caused her to appear much taller than anyone else at the table, only causing Blitz’s panic to rise as she saw the princess as a monument which she had little chance of living up to.
Aegis on the other hand, was a model of giddiness at being able to talk to Blitz away from the machine shop, and spoke while stuffing her maw with jam toast. <I gotta say, Blitz, I’m a little surprised you actually took our mothers’ offer to become a princess.>
<Yeah… me too.> Stupid bug! Why couldn’t you keep your mouth shut and just tell momma you’re not cut out for this? Wait, I got it. If I ask the princess why they chose me, then I can debunk them so they’ll spend more time on better candidates! She had to suppress the urge to clap her hooves in victory.
By the time Blitz looked up to Aegis, the princess was giving her an amused look. “You alright there?”
“I… don’t know.” Blitz started wringing her hooves under the table. “Why did you pick me of all people to be your partner? It’s not because I made your gauntlets is it?”
Aegis paused to look at the spoon in her metallic fingers. Her grip was badly flawed and it forced too much wrist movement to get the food to her mouth, but it was there. “I’d be lying if I said that had nothing to do with it.” Aegis took a more relaxed posture and tone. “But the biggest part is two things: I think we mesh well together, and you’re crazy smart. Like, momma smart.” And I’m just crazy, she added with no small amount of good humor.
“But that’s like saying I’m the reddest apple in the tree,” Blitz countered. “There’s plenty of super smart drones other than me.”
Aegis’ smile started to falter. “Well, yeah, but you had the presence of mind to customize the bonding process between my legs and the gauntlets to allow for greater neural activity. Uncle Ratchet didn’t even think of that. He just assumed attaching my nerves to the boots would have been enough.”
Blitz’s frown wavered a little. “That was just an accident. I didn’t really plan that.”
Aegis shrugged while swallowing a bite. “That just means I’ll have to add mad good luck to your resume.” Blitz just rolled her eyes at the smirking princess. “Besides, I’m a soldier, through and through. I need a civilian minded partner to make my future hive more efficient, and you’re perfect for it. Our mommas want to follow Celestia and Luna’s diarchy example of rule, and I gotta agree. Splitting the work is better than a solo job. Not to mention that our hive can grow twice as fast with two queens instead of one.”
<And, not gonna lie,> Aegis continued with a quick switch to the hive mind as she took the last bite of her toast. <But your love tastes like heaven, and I hear Intel constantly telling me my love got even better after my rebirth.>
Blitz leaned back with a sour scowl. “And so the other shoe drops.”
<Hey, come on now,> Aegis replied with a lopsided grin. <You're a top notch engineer for your age, who both mommas know you’re only going to get better. You’ve got a level head… when given a non social problem, at least.> That earned Aegis a harmless scowl. <You’re like the coolest blue sister I know, I mean it. Who else could get to a fifth class engineer within a year? You’re a natural! Not only that, since I’m a soldier, I need somepony like you to be at my side. Just like our mothers: one to be the sword and the other the shield.>
Aegis resumed eating to give Blitz a few moments to think about it all. “The love flavor’s just a bonus.”
After hearing all of that straight from her possible royal counterpart, Blitz felt her spirits lifted, if only just. She looked up from her cereal and deeply into Aegis’ slitted eyes. “You really want me to be your partner, and your shield?”
By now, most of the crowd around them had drifted off to their duty stations, leaving the pair alone. Aegis flew around the end of the table and squashed Blitz in a hug. “If it came down to the wire, there’s no pony I’d rather have than you to be my life long partner.”
Moved to tears, Blitz returned the hug as hard as she could. “Okay, Aegis. I’ll give it my best shot. I, ah, kind of owe you since I forgot to give you the anesthetics when bonding you to your gauntlets.”
Rather than spoil the moment, Aegis let the comment slide. Damn right you do.
Much later that day, the changeling spy within Stripped Gear slunk through the narrow confining passageways to the underground crystal factory. The main access point was too crowded to risk, and the cargo tunnel had been magnetically sealed and warded.
The maintenance tunnel the spy crawled through had exposed pipes and gearworks everywhere along the poorly lit walls and floor. The spy’s abnormally soft hooves allowed it to slink quietly along the metal grated floor. After creeping along at a snail’s pace, the spy at last came upon a door, presumably leading into the factory itself. Unfortunately, there was a drone standing in front, so the spy crouched behind a bend in the passageway.
A simple charm spell would allow me to bypass him, but do I risk getting him to open the door for me? The controlling queen’s magic was subtle enough to gently scan the door for wards, and found two right away. One was to detect forced entry, while the other for detecting telekinetic manipulation. Cadista’s no fool. Those wards are painfully obvious to even a novice spellweaver, it’s a trap. She’s got to have secondary, maybe even tertiary wards to detect anyone tampering with the door or the obvious wards.
The puppet cast its eyes towards the repair drone again. He had several tools at his side while his attention was fixated on a crankshaft he was servicing. A cursory scan revealed he possessed a few mental screens, but the controlling queen had recently taken one of Cadista’s drones, and knew how to pick apart each ward, save the one that kept the spy from totally dominating the intelligent drones. Deactivating that last one without killing the drone is next to impossible. I’ll have to settle for dismantling the others. Without anyone else coming into the tunnel, and the mechanic’s single-mindedness, prying apart each of his protective spells went on uninterrupted. Once she was done, the puppet slipped forward with its horn aglow and moved close enough to whisper in the mechanic’s ear. “I am very tired and forgetful.”
The drone slowly stopped working and his eyes became vacant. “Sssooo tired.”
The puppet weaved a spell to make sure the mechanic vocalized his thoughts. “I can’t seem to remember how to open the door.”
“Can’t remember…” The mechanic droned. The controlling queen loosened her grip on his mind just a bare smidgen. “Oh right… I have to press the button on the ground there,” he pointed at a discreet raised plate of steel. “Then pull the lever by the wall so it doesn’t lockdown.”
The queen was about to release the drone when he absently commented to himself. “I hate that door. The Link always goes silent.”
The puppet froze in shock. None of my captives ever spoke of Link silencing doors. No wonder all my other infiltrations past the wall failed. I always thought my puppets were getting picked off by some hidden guard or possible mechanical defense weapon. She refocused on the pliable drone. “I can’t remember, is it the whole factory that cuts off the Link or not.”
The engineer’s eyes slowly blinked separately. “No… only the doors do when both are closed. But long enough to screw up any of those idiotic rival queens.” The mechanic had a superior grin. “As if dumb drones were better than us.” He spat on the ground in disgust. The act also proved to strengthen his will, loosening the puppeting queen’s charm over him.
Fearing that she might trip the dead-switch ward on the mechanic’s mind, the queen gave him one last minor suggestion. “I think you forgot to finish up further back. You better check on it to be sure.”
“Hey, that’s right.” The drone said with mild worry. “If I had reconnected this shaft without section 58-b in working order, the resulting damage would take all week to fix.”
The puppet side stepped to allow the mechanic to gather his tools and depart. The problem with intelligent minds is that they tend to ramble on and volunteer information when put under the correct charm. A snide grin crossed the queen’s muzzle. The most you can ever truly get from a normal drone is their alchemical secrets. I warned Cadista that these intelligent drones would be the death of her.
Turning her attention to the door, the queen contemplated how she was going to circumvent a momentary breakage in the Link. It’s been a while since I’ve had to implant a series of commands and let a drone act independent of normal instinct. The controlling queen smirked and popped a few joints at the challenge. I better hurry before that drone returns.
It did not take long before the puppet was programmed with a number of actions. The queen released it, allowing the drone to press the correct buttons, and walked inside the doorway, which led straight into a very small room with a second door on the other side. The instant the first set of doors closed the queen’s connection with the spy cut off abruptly. For a being who counted her lifetime in centuries instead of years, the delay felt entirely too long.
My allies are in position, the pawns are in place, but none of it will matter if Cadista isn’t distracted. Her toys of machine and steel are pitiful on offense, but defensively? Any victory would be a hollow one. And she knows it.
The queen’s attention was partially drawn to a battle going on to Stripped Gear’s northern territory next to the road between the hive and its railroad outpost. …Polybia. So she’s on the move as well? Or is it just a probing attack? I don’t think she’s ever attacked Cadista with so many drones before.
The various eyes and ears the queen had in the field showed just how quick the two gunships in the area annihilated the contingent of drones. The queen was unmoved by the two hundred dying drones, their lives were cheap in the Jungle. Even so, the queen was rather disappointed in Polybia as the raiding party was cut down to the last drone. Still, such a paltry amount of information is not worth the cost she paid.
One of her closer scouts was near enough to the carnage to be within spitting distance of the broken changeling corpses. Something about the spilled blood tickled her scout’s magical senses in a disturbing way, but the reappearance of the infiltrator upon the hive mind pulled her attention away.
The queen immediately resumed complete control over her puppet. The infiltrator was standing on a catwalk just inside the crystal factory itself. The very air churned and roiled from the immense heat wafting from the dozens of large water and steam pipes. The largest pipes sank into a hole in the center of the football field sized chamber where an orange hot glow emanated from the lava chamber below.
The room had machinery everywhere, from turbines, heat exchangers, and most intriguingly, the crystal farm. Ten huge vats of Borosilicate heat resistant glass filled with dense semi-opaque brown liquid held the growing future cloaking crystals within. The infiltrator counted twenty two workers who tended the various machinery. No guards, as expected. Time to get to work.
Spotting the first isolated worker, the spy moved in for the kill.
Cadista bore a humorless grin as the titanic hangar doors groaned open upon massive hinges. The brand new flat decked ship was pulled out by a smaller tugboat. The grey queen stood above the hangar doors along the edge so she could watch from above as her latest weapon of war was birthed into the violent world of the changeling jungle.
Those dark thoughts weighed heavily on Cadista. Twilight, I’m glad you did not try to settle your hive here in the jungle. You and your progeny will lead our species along a better path. Of that I am certain. But that will only happen so long as you outlive the old guard, and every day that I hold the other queens here, the better your odds.
By now, the warship had been fully removed from the air dry-dock with the tugboat uncoupling itself from the vessel. The warship was so new, so radically different than anything she had masterminded before, Cadista had been at a loss as to what to classify it as, let alone name it.
Cadista furrowed her brow in mild irritation at the thought. Gah, I’ve been using Equestrian naval classes for so long I didn’t really think that I’d ever have to come up with a new one.
She watched the vessel start to lazily orbit the palace, more to live test the onboard systems than anything else, but the ship still drew many eyes towards it. Cadista didn’t care if any spies managed to sneak a peek at the warship now. It was something new. Something strange and unknown, and that made queens hesitant. “Even with their disdain for my technology, they’re not stupid enough to underestimate it. Not since the incident. They’ll spend months if not years figuring out if this is a new weapon or some odd looking freighter. That should buy more than enough time to work out the remaining errors and install the cloak crystals.
"The only thing it needs at the moment is a name and classification.” Thus far, Cadista had been thinking aloud mostly for her own benefit, but also for the two Queen’s Guard at her side. Unlike Twilight and Rainbow’s guards, Cadista’s were bred to be paranoid. They suspected everyone and everything, including their siblings to be spies unless they could speak to them over the hive mind.
Watchful Eye, her Guard Captain and the drone to Cadista’s right side, hummed while sweeping his gaze for incoming threats. “It’s supposed to carry smaller aircraft into battle right? Those mini-airships?” He received an affirmative grunt from his queen. “Why not classify it as a carrier?”
This time, Cadista actually turned to face him, causing Watchful to shrug. “Keep it simple, stupid. That’s what I always say, er, no offense, my queen.”
Cadista received no response from the other guard, making her scowl. “I was thinking of ‘long range power projection platform’, but… I suppose carrier is easier to say in conversation.”
“It’ll save on ink and page space, that’s for sure,” the thus far silent guard chirped in.
Heaving an exasperated sigh, Cadista conceded. “Very well. Any future ships of this type shall be henceforth known as carriers. Now, to think of a proper name.”
Their brainstorming session didn’t last long before a highly agitated foreman barely waited for Cadista to register his ping before speaking. <My queen, I think we have a problem. No pony down in the crystal factory is responding. If there was an accident down there, we’ll lose power throughout the entire hive!>
The hair stood up on the back of Cadista’s neck at the warning. She hastily scanned the hive mind for those who were on shift down there, and quickly discovered none of their voices were present. Damn, Polybia’s forces must have been a distraction! The timing is too perfect. <Gather a response team with an A-2 loadout! A spy managed to work his way down to the crystal factory.>
Despite the gravity of the situation, the dispatcher was calm and collected. <Received and acknowledged, my queen.> A short pause elapsed. <The team is on its way.>
Watchful Eye and his counterpart shared in their queen’s agitation. “What’s wrong, my queen?”
Cadista began giving out rapid fire commands to the various overseers and foremen. “A spy or even a team of them have somehow broken into the crystal factory. If they damage the wrong pipes, they could cause a wildcat steam buildup that could cause ruptures all over the hive!”
Watchful buzzed into a low hover. “We should evacuate immediately! There’s no way a spy got their way down there without knowing how much damage they could do.”
Cadista’s face was marred with hate. “I’ve lived here for thousands of years, over more lifetimes than I know. I will not abandon it now!” She saw the fearful gaze of her drones, only making her angrier. “Besides, we have contingencies in place if the magma chamber ever got out of our control. Even if the damage is done, the mountain won’t erupt for months.”
“But, my queen, if Chrysalis is on the move, all she has to do is besiege us and wait for the volcano to blow. If we try to evacuate immediately, it might throw her timetable off.”
“Or maybe they want us to panic,” piped up Watchful’s counterpart. “I say we tighten the airship cordon around the hive, prepare to evacuate, and wait to see what the response team finds. If worst comes to worse, we can always relocate to Phoenix’s Roost.”
“As much as I hate imposing on my daughters, it is sound advice.” Everything is secondary to safeguarding Twilight and Rainbow Dash, even my pride.
A few minutes ago, the last surviving drone within the crystal factory had been so absorbed in the read outs of his console that he completely missed the silencing of his coworkers due to the background white noise of the rest of the hive mind. In fact, he didn’t even notice anything out of the ordinary until he felt like something bit him in the back of the neck and a foreleg wrapped around his neck, pulling him away from his work and into the cold embrace of the changeling spy’s poisonous fangs. Within the space of a few seconds, the spy’s toxin cut off the hive mind, effectively blocking any chance the worker could raise an alarm and ended his life a moment later.
With no further need for subtlety, the spy released its camouflage and studied the maze of machines and steam pipes. That’s the problem with cold metal technology. When the drones die, there’s no one left to protect so much vulnerable equipment.
The spy remembered the biggest console it had come across during its elimination of the workers and flew over to it. The mass of dials, levers, readouts, knobs, and switches might have baffled the controlling queen if she cared at all to try and decipher it. I know nothing of these things, but I do know steam can be quite destructive. While I took the time to splash some acid on the smaller turn wheels I came across, these look even more important. If the puppeting queen could put her pride aside, she’d admit she knew nothing of the machine in front of her; however, she knew that everything could break. These red zones along the knobs and levers look dangerous. How careless of me to pull them all. I think it's time to signal my allies to attack.
The spy started pulling levers, twisting knobs, and moving any control to whatever maximum value it possessed. With startling rapidity, the dials and readouts started redlining and the pipes started banging so loud it forced the spy to cover its ears.
A callous grin marred the controlling queen. “Such is the folly of metal technology.”
“Alert! Magma dampening field compromised,” boomed a synthetic feminine voice across the chamber, drawing the puppet’s gaze along the ceiling in an effort to locate the source. “Steam pressure exceeding safety limits. Lockdown protocols in progress.” The spy witnessed several robotic arms folding out from the floor with large orange crystals at the ends. It didn’t take the puppeting queen long to detect the charging frost magic within each of them.
Before any of them could reach their intended position, the infiltrator rushed over to the closest one and spat vicus green globs of acid at the biggest looking piston. The queen had the presence of mind to back off, saving the puppet from the blast of pressurized steam when the acid ate through the piston, causing the arm to collapse and fracturing the delicate crystal in the process. The spy repeated the process to each arm. “Warning, automated failsafe protocol inoperable. Steam production exceeding normal levels. Manual secession of water supply required to prevent cascade failure. Please enact emergency venting and shutdown procedures without delay.”
What the spy couldn’t know was that same warnings were being broadcast all over the hive. Within the crystal factory itself, the white lighting was joined by strobing red warning lights. Yet most alarmingly was the large black crystal appearing from an opening in the center of the room. It started glowing an angry dark purple before flooding the room in the same twisting mana. “Intruder alert,” began repeating itself constantly, though the banging and hissing pipes threatened to drown it out.
The puppet’s horn was in agony as the crystal’s magic burned the spy’s stored mana. The controlling queen severed her sensation of pain from the puppet so she wouldn’t be burdened by it. So you found a way for the machine to defend itself, Cadista? What a shame you didn’t have it react to the possibility of sabotage earlier.
The muffled clank of metal announced the doors opening with pounding hooves and buzzing wings heralding the arrival of two squads of guards from the cargo and main entrances with rifles at the ready. The spy barely had time to notice the protective helmets covering the soldiers’ horns, keeping the mana-burning crystal from affecting them.
“It looks like I’ve worn out my welcome.” The spy turned around and started bucking the control console, smashing it to pieces by the time the fastest soldiers got within weapon's range, and fired upon the spy.
The puppet managed to slide away with a quick green-fire portal spell. Though successful, the feedback from the crystal exploded the puppet’s horn, leaving its vision swimming and awash with blood. The controlling queen had placed the spy at the second largest control board it had seen and started spitting up large globules of highly acidic salve that dripped in between the levers and knobs, ruining the control mechanisms.
The teleport spell was hardly inconspicuous, and the soldiers saw the destination. The spy barely managed to spit up three globs of acid before two riflelings sprinted the distance and peppered the puppet with five bullets, finally ending its life.
Blood and acid dripped from the corpse, causing further damage to the machinery below.
Cadista watched through the eyes of the last soldier to enter the factory. <Good work, Bravo team, keep searching, there might be more of them.> She switched perspective to the engineers moving in behind the soldiers, and fully took control of one. Time was too critical to leave in the hooves of anyone else. “Repair the damage, and bring the power plant back under control!” she commanded to the other drones as the group stormed into the hellish heat that was wafting up from the magma chamber and the warning klaxons only adding to the chaos.
Cadista’s ire mounted as she started getting warning pings from drones all over the hive with one voice giving her serious pause. <My queen, we have seriously delicate instruments here. We need to vent the steam immediately before the whole lab is ruined!>
Another voice only compounded her fear. <My queen, factory 1-A was already operating above rated levels to make the ship launch deadline. We need to vent immediately or the whole factory could blow!>
It was a sad truth. With the upcoming war, there were mounting concerns that the constant high pressure on the pipes hive-wide would eventually give out. Now with the geothermal plant dumping far too much steam into the rest of the pipes, blow outs were inevitable. If we blow the release valves, it’ll take hours to bring power back to the turrets along the walls, and days to restore everything, assuming the damage to the plant is minimal.
Still standing upon her perch above the airship dry-dock, Cadista heard metal bangs coming from the pipework beneath her hooves when she heard news from the geothermal engineers. All of which spurned her own puppet on to hurry. Yet all it took was a single look at the smoking and half slagged primary control board to see there was no hope there. Fuming with rage, Cadista’s consciousness invaded the drone who was just arriving at the secondary board only to find all but one dial to be non-functional. “Damn her!” she raged louder than the banging steam pipes. “Both primary control boards have been ruined, it’ll take days, weeks to repair this!
“There’s no other choice,” she growled grimly once she learned of the broken status of the stabilization crystals. <To all damage control teams, vent all steam pipes and bring the backup coal plant online!>
Cadista left the engineer’s body to allow him to follow her orders as her consciousness returned to her body. Her escorts looked upon the hive in horror as steam started to fill the air. Within an hour, the hive would be totally obscured in a dense fog of steam. Watchful Eye’s fearful gaze shifted up to the shield tower and the masking dome above. The constant din of the tower’s machines, a symbol of the hive’s power as old and venerated as Cadista herself shuddered to a halt. Cracks spread rapidly all throughout the orange dome above before it shattered in one massive crack of escaping mana.
Both escorts looked to Cadista with terror gripping their hearts. “My queen, with the steam pipes vented, we won’t be able to lift any of our artillery and wall mounted weapons into firing position! All we have are small arms and the gunships!”
Cadista gritted her teeth and tried to calm herself to think rationally on how to fix everything. A scouts’ report coming in did nothing to help her. <My Queen, there’s a truly massive army coming in from the west eighty kilometers out! They must have tunneled their way in! There’s even three-> The informant was suddenly silenced by one of the invaders’ advance scouts.
Fear and panic started spreading rapidly throughout Stripped Gear with equally worried communications coming in from Phoenix’s Roost, Twilight and Rainbow Dash chief among them. Her daughters’ voices gave Cadista exactly what she needed most: support. <Twilight,> Cadista barked just harshly enough to get her daughter to listen. <Help organize the civilians and do your best to get power back up in the hive. Rainbow Dash, my forces are yours to command, Get my new warship out of here and into Equestrian lands. It’s not ready for the battlefield yet. I know neither one of you will let me down.>
Rainbow Dash shared her sister’s rising worry. <Why me? You’ve got like hundreds of years of command experience.>
<True, but they know most of my tricks and tactics. The other queens have studied me for an equal number of centuries. But they will not expect you, Rainbow Dash. You know of my army and its capabilities. I put my trust in you to lead them.>
<Yeah… you got it, but what will you be doing? Don’t tell me you’re going on the front lines!>
Cadista turned westward to face the general direction of the oncoming swarms and sat on her haunches. The setting sun baked the sky a dark red as it slipped below the horizon, giving the invading army some measure of cover in the coming darkness. <No. I will be calling upon my allies for aid, but primarily, I will use my hive meditation to give my children the strength they need to fight.>
Twilight and Rainbow knew full well from experience that meditating like that made you nearly deaf to the world and unable to act, save to end the meditation. <I won’t let you down mother, just promise me one thing.>
Cadista prepared herself to open herself fully to the hive mind as she sent word to her various ambassadors to the allied hives. <If it is within my power.>
<Come out of this alive, mother.> Twilight’s demanding tone was laced with profound worry and love. <I can’t stand to lose you.>
<Everything dies, Twilight,> Cadista replied sagely even as she sent off commands to her drones to prepare for battle. <But I don’t plan to today.> Cadista’s thoughts and tone darkened. <I still have unfinished business.>
The conversation faded as time forced everyone to act. Panic was sweeping through her hive with terror hot on the heels of news on the invading swarms. Thousands of souls looked to her for guidance and hope. If there was one thing that Twilight had instilled into Cadista through the years, was the power of music. Pulling upon old memories of a time when Yumia still lit up her life, Cadista expanded herself to every single grey drone, and sang an old song Yumia used to sing to her when times were bleak. Cadista sang now it now to give her children the strength to weather the coming storm.
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TO WAR WE MARCH
Good chapter... Now give me the next one.
And here... We... Go...
Delete "
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Needs begining " mark.
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supported
Or did you mean "supposed"
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Aegis is best Ling, and I hope Blitz enjoys her bit at being a Royal.
Also, this battle is going to be epic, especially since the other Queens don't know how "close" Pheonix Roost, and Stripped gear Lings are.
please please do not let Stripped Gear fall
I hope Cadista doesnt die yet, too soon since Velvet
Battle meditation, huh? The Jedi have a similar technique known as the Battle Meld. Pretty useful when you fly something like a Stealth-X that has no other way to communicate...
5546106
Actually, the Jedi have a similar technique called Battle Meditation
5546151 Whoops! It's been a while since I read the EU, which is where I originally saw it used. Jaina and the others always referred to it as the Meld, though, if I remember correctly. That's why it stuck in my mind as Battle Meld.
5546156
)
Actually, if you read the page, it mentions Force Meld as a different thing. The reference here is likely to KotOR, though. (Personally, I think it was a little too heavy handed
5546186
Well, by heavy handed, I just mean the naming. I have no problem with it as a thing
It's hardly unusual for this series, though, considering I believe there's a mention of Jefferies tubes in one of the previous stories
5546167 5546156
While i concede the similarities, this story's battle meditation is not a reference to kotor, I'm simply using the same basic concept. The only real reason I'm using the same name is because it's the most practical phrase for it. This BM has been mentioned since FtH. The principle difference here is that the hive meditation is more often used for day to day activity and not just for combat.
edit: now that i think about it, hive meditation sounds better.
Oh no, it's quite a bit into the plot already. We might actually risk losing Cadista since it will most probably kick start a war from Phoenix's Roost to avenge Cadista and thus fulfill their part in the culling of hives.
It's too soon!
A good 'ling goes to war. Oh wait, they've already done that. My bad.
5546208 KOTOR? I was pulling from post Episode VI ( mainly New Jedi Order and Legacy) sources. Huh.
Guild Wars 2 reference!?
You set up a cliffhanger of the worst kind. I am not happy with you. Besides that, it was a great chapter though.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
Yay! New chappie! But at the same time, Nooo! No next chappie!
Poor Cadista... *starts to cry*
I don't bloody believe it... If it was indeed Kreesus who sabotaged the factory, I am gonna kill her myself!!!!!
Either way sh*t just got real.
*waiting for next chapter with bated breath*
I’m gonna be so pissed if Cadista dies. You’ve done so well to avoid stupid clichés and killing her off risks being just another example of an author killing off a character to fit a pre‐ordained narrative rather than the logical progression of things.
5546208
FtH? Don’t you have two stories with that acronym?
Everything I'm used to in literature (particularly fanfics) tells me Cadista is gonna die here. I'm actually surprised that she's lived this long. Not that I want her to die; I really, really don't. Cadista is awesome. Still, I'm steeling myself for it even as I hold out hope that your plans are different than that.
I don't usually do this for various reasons, but this fic (and the rest of the series for that matter of course) is pretty fucking great. Like "this series was one of the top three that I found out about last year" kind of great.
I also can't stop listening to that song, and thinking of what happens next. You're good, this is good, keep it up.
Bring on the Battle of/for Stripped Gear!
"Pony combat effectiveness increases 70% while singing..."
5548218 Bring on the battle of/for Stripper Gear!
...It was funnier in my head.
--SYA, The Horse
If you kill Cadista off now just 'cause she no longer has plot armor...
I wonder how the sphinxes (sphinxi?) will react to finding out that they're going to be going into a warzone (even if it is just aboard the ship), after just starting to get used to the changelings? Since I'm assuming that Twilight and Dash are putting the ships into overdrive to get to Cadista in time.
As a side note, I'm wondering about Chrysalis's longer term thinking about Stripped Gear. That is, I believe that part of her motivation for attacking now was due to the absence of Twilight and Dash, along with their warship. Now, Chrysalis (and allies) has a fair chance of taking down Stripped Gear, given that a good chunk of their defenses are down. Assuming that she's successful, what does she envision as the response from Twi-Dash when they get back? Cause I give an even chance for them going to wreck bloody vengeance on her if she takes down Stripped Gear and Cadista. Or barring that, for them to lay waste to her own hive, given I assume that Chrysalis has allocated a decent amount of her forces to the attack (thus leaving fewer forces defending her own hive), and that Twi-Dash has superior mobility due to the airships. Not to mention that they've demonstrated that they can inflict large-area damage with the ships, as they showed to the sphinx delegation with their saturation bombardment of the surrounding area.
I actually squeed when I saw that this was updated. Seriously, why doesn't this have more likes?
Keep up the good work!
Nitpicks:
Considering the example of "presumably", shouldn't it be "assumably"? Also, I'd say "presumably" instead.
mechanic's
Perhaps you mean "discreet"? It's probably also "discrete", but that seems like an odd thing to mention.
shaft?
"While" and "but" disagree: as written, they seem to be incompatibly redundant. Choose one; or, if "while" is meant to indicate that she took another action while splashing acid, tell us what it was.
her; however, she
knobs
it's
knobs
so she
Hmm, Cadista went through the trouble of implementing hive-blocking access chambers to screen infiltrators but apparently did not bother with making the process of passing through them complex enough to require independent thinking.
5551080
some of those errors.
fixed, thanks
Funny, how Twilight's Princess is the soldier and Rainbow's is the engineer. Though it is probably for the best, each will be more familiar with the other side and better able to rule for it.
The scary thing about this chapter is that I could see this happening... Every time you build a new system you make improvements, strengthen the design, but if the very oldest system has never failed, and if all the improvements and upgrades happened down stream...
This reminds me of industrial accident stories where the original plant design was flawed, but the flaw wasn't found until all hell broke loose - google chemical safety board videos and you'll see what I mean. Very nice work!
5551964 Law actually did that on purpose for contrast and hilarity. Don't know if it was in the comments here or not, but you could probably find the comment if you dig.
Anyway, amazing chapter. I am also wondering how the sphinxes will react to this. I find it doubtful that they won't learn of the hive mind in the process and that's another can of worms in itself. Can't wait!
SO HURRY UP!
if you don't mind
Darn, I was vaguely hoping that the infiltration subplot would end up being at least mildly subverted.
Beautiful music choice, yet again!
I have a question, one that should be answered ages ago but hasn't:"How did Rainbow Dashs parents react on her becomming a Changeling Queen?" Seriously am I the only one who thought about that?
Phew, finally got completely caught up with this epic series (and indeed it has been epic). Figures it'd finally end, albeit temporarily, on the biggest cliff hanger ever, but that just has me eagerly rubbing my hands in anticipation for more.
5597932 I find it funny that two people downvoted my comment, when all I was doing was pointing out a subtle joke the author, most likely, made. If the name, and the fact it's stated it is a mare's name, is a coincidence I will be surprised.
Either way it isn't meant to be taken seriously, but some people just don't possess an Ulnar nerve do they?
Hmm, outlook for this battle is most unfavorable.
This reminds me of a newly built Enterprise (c?) that relied on the warp core for everything except torpedoes? Granted there were failsafe procedures, but those clearly depended on the idea of accidental action and not sabotage. Not only that, but venting pressure shouldn't completely drop it, at least with the right kind of relief valves, but we suppose there hasn't been need yet, somehow...
Loving this so far!
Keep going! ;)
Opening " mark still missing.
Sidenote: could not listen to the song. Fucking NCsoft game song.
And it starts.
I do hope Cadista get's out of this alive 
I can't wait to read the next chapter. 
I...love this chapter!
The tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuune...so gut es ist fantastisch! :3 *Adds the song to youtube playlist* What amazing artist and song! Dang, I completely forgot that the gaming realm boasts an impressive selection of tunes. I gotta browse that section someday more intensively.
I absolutely hate the fact that Stripped Gear was attacked...Urgh, why Cadista? I loved that hive. Now it is gonna be ravaged by war and who knows how it will turn out...Poor Caddie! ;_; I hope she survives!
If Cadista dies, I swear to god...
And so it begins.
War... War Never Changes
6642908
If only Cadista invested more time into building Power Armor. That would be even more true.
Cap.
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Ah, good ol' Ghost in the Shell. Is Cadista othewise known as "The Major" now?
[future-proofing] Guild Wars 2: Fear Not This Night