Since You've Been Gone
The report from Blue's infiltration adviser was long winded, though it does helps a drone's ability to report when it doesn't have to breathe. In summary, Queen Blue Sun and Queen Catalyst were now aware that something was wrong in the human side of the camp that caused Colonel Bunker to worry a great deal. The Hive Adviser had gone out of their way to build the hive as efficiently as possible for Blue Sun, which she appreciated greatly. Her friends had yet to be seen in the few hours since the base evacuation, though a single drone was missing from the hive's role call as well and it may simply be observing them. Additionally, a group of humans had ventured into the hive in search of information and found one of their friends in the 'hospital' section of the hive.
Taking the queens through a tour of the hive, they were made aware of four separate spires designed to each house a different sub-group of changeling within the hive. Warrior, Infiltrator, Tunneler and Caretaker each had their own place to sleep. The spire that the humans had taken to calling a 'hospital' turned out to be the Caretaker's spire, and it was where the group of humans currently waited. In the center of the hive between the four spires was a large statue of Queen Blue Sun serving as a gift to the drones' queen agreed upon by all three advisers.
On the outskirts of the hive, however, sat the human encampment. Chest high walls of cautiously placed sandbags and routinely refreshed soldiers guarded the perimeter of their hastily constructed tents and shade-screens, with a large tent dominating the center complete with air conditioning. Power cables weaved their way through the entire encampment linking with boxes and other things that the Adviser had no clue as to their purpose, and reported that the humans seemed very uneasy about the rapid expansion of their hive.
"The decisions of how to run your hive are yours alone Blue Sun," Queen Catalyst reminded her, "I suggest you deal with the humans before things get out of control, and to ensure your Hive Adviser doesn't go on a building spree and waste more of the hive's love storage."
"Where is the love storage, by the way?" Blue Sun asked, earning a deadpan stare from Catalyst.
"You're joking," Catalyst sighed. "You used to be a drone, idiot. Where was it in your hive?"
"Uh... Queen Chrysalis rationed the love, so we didn't have one." Blue explained naturally, causing Queen Catalyst to bristle with anger, her head frills raising in the same moment her expression soured.
"Of course that selfish waste of life would hoard it all for herself!" Catalyst spat in angry buzzing. "It's no wonder her hive was always starving," Catalyst added, walking off in an angry rant, "The stupid scum-bubbler attacks Canterlot with the excuse that her 'hive is starving' when she's the one that caused their hive to starve! When I get my hooves on her.."
Catalyst soon stormed out of earshot, still rambling and muttering to herself as a very bright glowing orange light before disappearing into the Warrior's Spire. Blue Sun and her drones shared an uncomfortable look before continuing on with their discussion.
"So..." A caretaker drone spoke up after a long pause, "The love storage is in the Caretaker Spire, my Queen."
Blue smiled, nodding to the drone. "Thank you! Now we just have to talk with the humans that came into the hive. Are they still waiting in the spire?"
"Yes, my queen. They haven't left since the tremors." The drone reported.
"What has the rest of the hive been doing? I'm very proud of all of you for the hive that was built while I was away and that nothing horrible has happened with the humans, but are you all well?" Blue questioned, giving the drone beside her a concerned and inquisitive look.
The drone then went into lengthy detail about the roles each of the advisers had played in the hours of the queen's absence. The evacuation of the base had lead to some casualties amongst the humans, and all the wounded that were within a large perimeter of the hive designated by the Warrior adviser were taken to the caretaker's spire in order to be healed. Various low ranking soldiers, cleaning staff, medical personnel and a few pets had all taken up residence in the various floors that dominated the spire and most were still unconscious. All of the patients had been dutifully restored to the best of the caretakers' ability, of course, but it still left most of the hive with a sense of uneasiness about their overall relationship with the humans nearby.
They were confusing, the drone explained. All with similar coloration and slight variation in clothing, all stern and serious with sparse laughter away from certain individuals that seemed to hold power amongst their group. The human warriors, as the adviser put it, shared a sense of fear for the unfamiliar and uncertainty about how they would actually 'deal' with the threat that the hive presented to them. From the drone's understanding, the humans had their own queen that needed protection along with a similar amount of advisers that ran operations that couldn't be micromanaged by the queen of the humans alone.
Blue tried to explain that there was no queen in the human's encampment, only a leader named Colonel Bunker and her two subordinate advisers referred to as Shen and Vahlen. The hive's infiltrators had noted regular reference to 'The White House' and the 'United Nations Security Council', along with the grumbling that came from soldiers being forced to sit and stare at the hive. The persons referred to as Vahlen and Shen wanted to learn more about changeling biology and architecture, respectively. The drone explained the reactions of the advisers upon hearing the reports from various infiltrators as being very defensive, neither the Hive adviser nor the Warrior adviser wanting to allow the humans a single step on the territory of the hive, while the Infiltrator adviser had reminded the two other advisers of Blue's command to not upset the humans. Instead, the hive was advised to be as vague and uninformative about the specifics of the hive as possible in order to confuse or disinterest the humans in the hope that they would get bored and leave.
"How much have the humans asked about?" Blue Sun asked, approaching the Caretaker's Spire. "Has there been anything the advisers think they shouldn't know?"
The Infiltrator adviser explained their encounter with the humans in the spire and their interest in their love storage. The drone explained it away as 'healing goop' along with a fancy mist that keeps patients calm, though the drone was uncertain if the humans accepted it as fact.
"Queen Chrysalis never allowed a love storage." Blue pointed out, "Would you explain to me what it does?"
The drone happily obliged. "Love is stored in the center of the Caretaker's Spire. As we gain more of a reserve, more energy is spent to raise the pool's outer walls vertically in order to store more love. As it is right now, we had only enough left over from building the few sections of the hive necessary to house the few hundred drones that were hatched along with a very basic flooring. We told the humans that their contributions of affection from being healed were more than enough, but it was on recommendation of the Warrior adviser to not give signs of want or weakness to the humans," With the final bit of the drone's explanation, it grew more worried, "In truth, we could use far more love than we have, and we are draining our reserves steadily enough that our Hive adviser states we will be depleted within the remainder of the day."
"All of the love is nearly gone already?" Blue replied with surprise. "How many humans do you think the hive would need to sustain itself at the current number?"
"From the huge amount of emotion that these humans give out, the Hive Adviser calculates that about one human per one hundred changelings should be enough, should nothing strenuous happen." The drone explained while adding, "The warriors use more love than any other changeling from their patrolling and heavier bodies, and the Warrior adviser seems very eager to rid the hive of the few humans within it."
"We're on our way to speak with them, aren't we?" Blue smiled along with a reassuring pat on the drone's head. "I'll take care of it. Go and tell the other advisers that I've returned along with Queen Catalyst, and not to harm Catalyst or any human that's around. If you find one that looks suspicious, take them to the Caretaker's Spire to meet with me."
The changeling bowed. "Yes my queen, right away!"
*****
"Getting anything on the radio?" Muldaney asked, "This place is starting to lose what little friendly vibes it had the longer we wait here in silence."
The few soldiers along with the away team had begun to set up a perimeter with the scientists either in the middle of their circle or very slightly apart from it and collecting samples to place in glass vials. The pool of 'healing goop' as it was called had slowly been drained by passing changelings and unconsciously reminded the group of a ticking clock.
"I'm certain the Colonel will get through," Lieutenant Olive replied while checking his shoulder radio, "Her signal got through the walls last time, so there's no reason to assume it would stop working suddenly now."
One soldier was unconvinced. "If the ground outside's been shakin' that long, I don't think there's a base to go back to at this point. What's it been, ten minutes?"
Muldaney raised a flat palm to the fellow away team member, taking it away from his rifle. "Cool it. It's not gonna be that bad."
"How do you know? Nobody's gotten a single glance outside since their weird doors all shut." He countered. "What if-"
The soldier was interrupted as part of the wall rippled open, allowing some of the strange fog that engulfed the bottom floor of the 'hospital' to vent out from it. In the doorway stood a comparatively large yet familiar sight.
"Lieutenant Olive!" Blue Sun cheered, her fangs and sharp teeth being unsettling to the away team. "I'm glad to see you again."
"Blue Sun?" Olive asked with some surprise, lowering his rifle and allowing it to hang by its strap. "You've gotten shorter since I've last seen you."
The tall queen approached the group steadily, her worrying smile still presenting itself to the increasingly nervous team. "Don't fear, everyone." Blue announced, "Olive and I know each other, and I'm the Queen! You're all welcome to stay here so long as no harm comes to my drones or hive."
"Somehow I don't buy that." Muldaney grumbled, lowering his own rifle but keeping his hands on it all the same.
"What happened in the base?" Olive asked as Queen Blue Sun arrived within conversational distance. "We hadn't heard anything for a few hours and Colonel Bunker had me lead this away team to figure out what was going on."
"Oh, nothing too dramatic," Blue Sun replied with a dismissive wave of her hoof. "I chased after Queen Catalyst to save one of my drones, ended up melting a room, getting lost in the base, and now here I am!"
"You melted a room?" Olive asked, crossing his arms over his protective vest with interest. "How'd that happen?"
"Oh," Blue Sun nervously chuckled, "Well, Queen Catalyst got bored with wandering around lost in the base, so she created a magic shield around the three of us and we melted our way outside."
"You..." Muldaney questioned, before shaking his head and deciding it was better for the Lieutenant to deal with this craziness than himself.
"What about Colonel Bunker?" Blue Sun inquired, "Did she make it safely away from the mountain? I know you stated that she gave orders, but it's also possible to give instructions while wounded."
"The colonel is fine, Blue." Olive reassured her, "So is Vahlen, Shen and your friends as well."
"Have my friends been worried?" Blue wondered. "Do they have somewhere to sleep in your encampment?"
"From what I've been told, they've been slinking around the base looking for a way out. They keep running into perimeter patrols and we're keeping track of their progress. They probably just want to make sure you're alright." Olive explained, "By the way, we can't get any radio signals out of this hospital. Would you mind if we all walked back to the command tent and debriefed the colonel?"
"It would be no problem at all," Blue applied with hasty agreeableness. "I think that Doctors Vahlen and Shen have a lot of questions to ask me about the hive and the wonderful work of my drones."
"They're pretty eager, I gathered that much." Olive replied, giving a hand signal to the rest of the away team to ready for movement. "Shen was practically drooling when he saw your drones raising these spires in such a short time. Vahlen has been asking the perimeter patrols non-stop about your location and the effects of your absence as well."
"I'd be more than happy to answer their questions, though I'll be bringing along my advisers." Blue replied with another of her unsettling smiles. "They would probably have just as many questions for Doctors Shen and Vahlen, and I wouldn't want to disappoint them."
With the group now ready to move, Olive motioned towards a nearby wall. "So, how do the doors work in this place?"
Blue Sun raised a brow. "The doors?" Looking to the wall, the realization came quickly. "Oh! A changeling simply walks toward where they need to go, and a hole opens for them."
The actual mechanics of how the hive worked was more complicated than that, but Blue reasoned that if her advisers had told her drones to not give away anything about how the hive really worked, she should probably be following the same advice. Blue Sun stood next to the wall, and when everyone was ready she opened a hole and stood by as the away team exited with an uneasy rush through to the other side. She felt each of the humans she was unfamiliar with emit a sense of fear and repulsion as they drew closer to her, and that it was mostly based on her appearance.
"Ah well, more to work on, I suppose." Blue cheerfully muttered to herself. "Lieutenant Olive! I will gather my advisers and meet you outside of your encampment's territory."
Olive gave a quick salute and lead his group away from the hive, checking his shoulder radio for signal as they proceeded down the artificial hill that the hive rested upon.
*****
"Base, this is Lieutenant Olive, come in, over."
A nearby communications soldier lunged for his headset, quickly putting it on. "Roger that, away team. We hear you, over."
The attentions of Colonel Bunker, Doctor Shen and Doctor Vahlen all turned to the sudden commotion from the radio. Shen and Vahlen set down their unsweetened dirty bean water, an instantly made poor substitute for coffee, and listened in.
"Queens Blue Sun and Catalyst have returned from the base unharmed. Queen Blue Sun is interested in meeting with command and is bringing over her advisers," The scratchy radio voice of Olive relayed,"We're approaching the perimeter now and can confirm the missing wounded personnel are being administered by the changeling hive in their hospital, over."
Colonel Bunker took up a spare headset and placed it on her head. "Away team, this is Colonel Bunker. Any signs of hostility to your presence? Over."
"Negative, command. The drones were peaceful and gave us a tour of their hive. They seem insistent or almost religious on following their commands from Queen Blue Sun." A short pause from Olive's radio, and he spoke again. "The Warrior drones seemed the most suspicious of us and the caretakers were the most helpful. I'll give a debrief when the team returns, over."
"Interesting..." Vahlen hummed, taking another sip of the blackened MRE powder that attempted to pass for coffee, her face scrunching with bitterness. "Their reactions are better than I had expected."
"Understood, away team. We'll await your arrival. Out." Colonel Bunker replied, setting the headset down on the desk and turning to Vahlen and Shen. "So, what do we think so far?"
Shen was scratching his chin. "The fact that our radio signals couldn't pierce the walls of their hive is interesting. I wonder if it is their biology or architecture that interferes with the equipment, and if there is a way to counter the effects."
"The behavior of the drones suggest at least some form of limited free will among them." Vahlen added, "They follow the spoken orders of their queen, and that order is quickly communicated through the rest of the hive with speed. Perhaps suggesting some kind of biological signaling. Pheromones, perhaps?"
"From the perimeter reports there haven't been any negative incursions," Colonel Bunker added, "Warrior drones standing in towers or flying next to the camp are common, but only their infiltrators attempt to move past the patrols. It seems odd that China would have any issue dealing with the changelings, considering we haven't seen a single vehicle."
"Perhaps the changelings don't have enough resources to develop them?" Vahlen suggested. "Or they have some other form of defense that renders large vehicles obsolete or inefficient."
"Didn't the reports state something about shielding?" Shen pointed out, his arms crossed with interest. "Perhaps the warriors are capable of the same barrier that we witnessed Queen Catalyst use to escape the mountain."
Vahlen shook her head. "The amount of energy that would require would be unsustainable in larger amounts. There have only been scattered reports of a changeling fitting the description of a queen, and she hasn't been in every engagement. There is simply too many unknowns to guess at without proper study of these changelings in more detail."
"We're not going to damage relations with the only friendly queens we've seen so far, Doctor Vahlen." Colonel Bunker mandated. "Maybe if they can kill one of the ones in China and they send it our way you can take a poke at it, but we're certainly not starting an incident on our home-front out of curiosity."
The interest of the radio operator was peaked once again as a new message came through. "Base, this is watchtower six. Sighting matching the description of Queen Blue Sun and three changelings has been spotted. Recommended action? Over."
"That must be her already." Colonel Bunker muttered, moving to the headset and placing it on her head once again. "We copy, Watchtower Six. Direct the queen to the command post, over."
*****
"Copy that, base. Out." The soldier replied, standing to the side and allowing Blue Sun to pass, pointing with a vertical and flat hand towards a tent in the distance. "Just follow along that path and take a right. Look for the tent with a bunch of equipment and antennae sticking out of it."
"We know the way already," the Infiltrator adviser smiled, "But thank you for the help regardless."
"No anger, nice." the Hive adviser replied, bumping the Infiltrator.
"Complacency will only weaken our hive. The less the humans know about us, the better. Keep conversation with their warriors to a minimum." The Warrior adviser warned. "My Queen, I must insist that this idea of cooperation can only backfire."
"The humans haven't endangered our hive even once, Warrior adviser. What makes you so certain that they would change their minds so suddenly?" Blue Sun questioned, leading the group towards the command tent. "Besides, you've all met my friends before and they found you cute."
"One of them did." the Infiltrator adviser pointed out. "The others were not so enamored."
"One is all it takes for a hundred of us, remember?" Blue pointed out. "We don't need as many humans to love us as we would with ponies. They are as unknown to us as we are to them for the time being, and I'm certain that we have nothing to fear from them."
"My Queen," the Warrior adviser pointed out, "the only thing we can be certain of is that we do not know enough about the humans to be certain of anything."
Blue hummed in agreement. "I suppose you're right. It's your duty to look after the security of our hive, after all. Perhaps I've been too close to the humans to be suspicious of them?"
"Queen know best," the Hive adviser stated, "Queen final say."
"We all know that, Hive adviser." The Infiltrator grumbled. "We're simply stating the fact that not everything is as peaceful as it may seem at any given time, and we want our queen to be aware of it."
"Yes." The Hive adviser simply replied.
Approaching the command tent, a soldier called in through the tent flaps about the changeling's approach. They had been steadily monitored throughout their slow walk through the camp with many soldiers and personnel seeing a changeling up close for the first time. Their presence in the base had been largely kept secret, as most other things had been, and Queen Blue Sun could sense the fear and uneasiness surrounding them.
The Queen and her advisers now stood outside of the tent, smiling with their sharp teeth and glowing eyes at the door soldier. Seeing him tense up and his hair stand on end with worry, Blue Sun decided to stay put with a passive expression instead, her drones following her example.
"Come in!" Colonel Bunker called from inside of the tent. The door soldier gladly pulled the tent's door flap away from the center, allowing him more room to stand farther back from the aliens that stood too close in his opinion.
The tent was well air conditioned despite the electronic equipment in the room that constantly hummed or scratched with purpose. Doctor Vahlen was once again standing at the ready with a pen and clipboard in hand and Doctor Shen stood with equal interest with a mug of coffee. Colonel Bunker was taking up the center of the room behind a folding table, her hands behind her back at ease and awaiting a reply from Queen Blue Sun.
"Cold," the Hive adviser commented, "small."
"Is something wrong?" Colonel Bunker asked, "We could have the discussion outside, if that would be more comfortable."
"We are simply taking notes, Colonel Bunker," the Infiltrator adviser replied smoothly, "Much as you are doing the same."
Bunker was a bit unsettled that the changelings had already discovered her name, considering the fact they had hatched not a few hours ago and held a single conversation with their queen before Blue Sun went into the base. They could have been informed on their walk over, of course, but the chance was slim.
"Your warriors seem few, Colonel Bunker." The Warrior Adviser pointed out, "You are not an army here to contain us, then?"
Bunker shook her head, relaxing her stance to one more informal. "No, we're not. What are your names? You already know mine is Colonel Bunker, and I suppose you know Doctors Shen and Vahlen. It would be rude of me to call you drones for our conversation, wouldn't it?"
"No name. Honor not given." the Hive adviser replied immediately, earning a stern look from the Infiltrator adviser.
"What he means to say is that our culture is different." Blue Sun explained. "I hadn't received a name until Maria, Rickey and Karol gave me one when I was a drone."
"Strange name for queens." the Hive adviser wondered aloud.
"They're my friends." Blue Sun explained further. "The point is, until my advisers are given a name, they are referred to by title."
"Would it be a terrible thing to name them now?" Doctor Vahlen asked, scribbling away in shorthand notes as the conversation continued. "It would be far simpler to communicate if they had some unique identity to refer to them as."
The advisers all shared an uncertain look of worry and confusion as Blue Sun pondered the question.
"Perhaps a working title, for our records?" Shen suggested. "If a name is too much to ask, then a nick-name might be enough?"
The drone's eyes went wide. "A nick-name! A second name!" They blurted in awed unison. "Such honor!"
"Eh... I suppose that might not work, then." Shen quickly backpedaled, rubbing his chin in thought.
"Do you have everything you need for the continued health of your hive?" Vahlen asked, looking up from her clip board.
That comment drew the attention of the advisers once again, the drones becoming serious and focused while looking to their queen.
"Being honest, we are in need of love." Blue Sun stated simply. The Warrior and Hive advisers chittered with annoyance in reply, but the Infiltrator was curious. "I haven't seen my friends since Catalyst and I escaped the remains of Cheyenne Mountain and I'd like to meet with them again."
"I'm certain we can arrange that, Queen Blue Sun." Colonel Bunker quickly replied with good will. "They've been poking at our perimeter trying to get into your hive for the past hour now."
"We were watching." The Infiltrator adviser noted. "They are not successful with stealth."
"How did you manage to construct such tall structures in a short amount of time?" Shen asked, his hands now moving to his hips after setting down his coffee. "I've never seen anything like that. Of course, I doubt any human has seen changelings at work, but the speed is just unprecedented."
"Carefully." The Hive adviser replied ominously. Receiving a nudge from Blue Sun and a slight look of disappointment, the adviser continued. "Use love, make dursine. Dursine make spire. Many spire hold drone. Hive."
"That... doesn't really answer my question, but thank you for the information anyway." Shen smiled, still caught off guard by the advisor's clipped speech.
"Why the sudden interest?" Queen Blue Sun asked.
Colonel Bunker shared a look with Vahlen and Shen before producing a red colored folder and placing it open on the table. The Infiltrator adviser was the first to leap onto the table with their wings, getting quick and informative glances at the information and documentation.
"Changeling Queen... a great many hives working in unison... but only one queen?" The Infiltrator chittered. "Not possible... something missing."
"This queen showed up while you were in the mountain. Most of China and Korea have gone dark and the rest of the world is gearing up for a war," Colonel Bunker explained, "We could use all the information you can provide on how to defeat this queen, seeing as she doesn't share the same positive outlook about humanity that you do."
"That's Queen Chrysalis..." Blue Sun announced with open mouth. The gesture was more of a reflex that she had seen humans do, and Blue hoped that it would convey her astonishment well enough. "What is she doing here on Earth?"
"Apparently her plan is world domination," Vahlen summarized. "Chinese forces have been over run by some kind of energy shield that is immune to our weaponry and we could use any information you are willing to give us to avoid more bloodshed."
"My queen, if I may?" The Warrior adviser asked, gaining a nod of permission. "It is standard tactics for the warriors of a hive to form a many layered shield in front of their formations to deflect projectiles. From these photos, they are following that tactic."
"Like a shield wall?" Shen asked.
"I think a closer representation would be a Testudo." Colonel Bunker guessed, her expression becoming grim. "The drones in the front create a shield that deflects fire, and the ones in the back cover the ones in front of them. Using their dome shields, I suppose that it would be like trying to fire through a hundred tank hulls at the same time. Any drone that falls can simply be replaced by the rest of the swarm, and bullets would be useless against it. We probably couldn't figure it out until now, seeing as the shields overlap to appear as one giant barrier."
"Would we be able to train our soldiers against such a tactic?" Valhen asked. "With your assistance, Queen Blue Sun, any breakthroughs in tactics would greatly help with the conflict in China and abroad."
"That would place our own hive in danger." The Warrior Adviser quickly pointed out. "At any point that you discovered a weakness, our hive would be much easier for you to defeat."
"There is also the problem of love, Warrior Adviser." Queen Blue Sun pointed out. "They don't have to attack our hive if they want us gone. They simply have to wait us out." Blue Sun smiled at Colonel Bunker, "Not that you would harm my drones, of course."
The sweet chittering of Blue's voice was offset somewhat dramatically by a flash of menacing purple and blue in her eyes, immediately seen as a guarantee that she would never accept any harm done to her hive as a queen.
"Of course, Queen Blue Sun." Colonel Bunker replied a bit uneasily, seeing the slight shift in Blue's personality. "We mean your hive no harm."
"Good." Blue Sun replied. "How can we help?"
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Great work as always! The title makes me think of that one Portal song
That... did not seem like a five thousand word chapter. Your work reads really quickly.
This was a pretty good chapter. And I like how you explained a bit about why our weapons weren't working to well on the energy shields.
Hopefully now we'll start having more luck in battles.
im really surprised when they said "we need love" that not a single soldier, not one, snickered at that
You got featured again.
Looks like the Thembrians are going to see if they can plug the shield with their bathtub bombardment.
Or, you know, millions of square miles of total wasteland, noone will miss a couple tests of the heavy stuff? So why havent the satelites picked up the detonations?
Funny how a new chapter can make my day better. Thanks!
How do you defeat an infantry testudo? The same way it has been since its inception, fire.
Swinging back into the story.
I am very intrigued by where this is going.
8369934
shame the enemy is pretty much heat resistant (how much so im no sure, but still very high on the scale.)
8369934
Fire won't work, as they appear rather resistant to heat. However, infantry must move forward to achieve their objectives, the next best strategy is minefield emplacements and flanking maneuvers. Artillery would also be a good choice. While shields may be effective in frontal assaults, defending a position from all sides becomes a severe problem if you want to expand your territory (r-squared law). Once you reach a size that requires more drones than you have to maintain the shield on all side, you stop moving. Artillery would allow attack from all sides with only minimal emplacements (say, five around the enemy encampment).
8369950 8370027
Emphasis on heat resistant. I'm not talking about piddly flame-throwers, I'm talking the big guns. Few things can survive prolonged exposure to burning napalm or white-phosphorous. Hell, you can deliver WP with artillery.
8370027
Also, I don't think the inverse square law applies here. We're talking about a shield projected by multiple sources, not one, so it's not getting weaker over distance. There are a lot of variables here, such as the number of casters, and the fact that their entire area doesn't need to be covered, just where their forces are...
Heh, Blue has an interesting ‘relaxed’ way of explaining things in detail at times. As for the characters, everything seems like they acting as they normally had been, so you are good on that part. As for this chapter, you are doing as great as you have been doing, and all I can do is give you a thumbs-up.
C&Cs will be PM.
can't wait till the Mane Six meet Blue Sun, that will be fun to watch.
8369950
Catalyst lived in a volcano so if that doesn't give a depth at how much 'heat resistant' they have then I don't know what would.
Good chapter. I think you have a few tacticans here.
I was there. In registration. In disguise as a normal, functioning human rather than an evil Internet troll without a trace of mercy or remorse.
Here's to hoping sharing tactics doesn't result in an attempt at arms race. The humans would lose quite soundly.
One human per hundred idle changelings? That's pretty darn awesome for a conversion rate. That number probably decreases proportionally to level of activity, but that's not too shabby!
Keep going! ;)
8370068
Queen Catalyst and her entire hive lived inside an active volcano; Napalm is a warm summers breeze compared to that kind of heat, and White Phosphorous wont do much better.
Furthermore, White Phosphorous is banned by international treaty from being used as a weapon; and its use in smoke shells is at best, a legal grey area. and Napalm, while technically legal to use against "military" targets; wouldn't even inconvenience the Changelings, and thus is worse than useless here, as it will only inflict collateral damage.
From the sound of how these shields work, and how they are being layered up; the only way i can see to punch through them effectively, will likely involve either something like a GAU-8 Avenger autocannon, or possibly a Tandem-charge bunker buster.
8369621
Well, technically it's not, seeing it's only 4,920 words, not a full five thousand.
I know what you mean, though.
Indeed, the story always has read pretty quickly. It's been fairly good a keeping one hooked and reading.
Reunions, woohoo! That's going to be fun. So now we have the Twilight & girls helping one group of the army (assuming they can persuade the others, not agitate them into another conflict) and Catalyst now helping (or thinking about it) the others on her end. Fun how her own drones are so very different from her mentality - I would have guessed that they would inherit a bit more of her since they're her children. Ah well, they just need time.
Really good to see an update through
Changelings are fireproof and their barriers can absorb bullets!? Also Chrysalis is a selfish jackass.
8370068 I don't think you're understanding the point or scope of view. The point he's trying to make, is that eventually the changelings won't have enough bodies to continue expanding their turf without compromising overall shield quality due to lack of casters. More circumference, more casters needed. Thus, they either halt, or start taking casualties. Plus, They probably need to 'police' their gains.
8370594 I don't think you're being devious enough... Tandem remote explosives.
8370027 Mines are good, Remote explosives are better, when one goes off, everything in the string goes off. If you don't know to scan for mines and walk into a minefield, you can get out. And if only one mine goes off, you can scan for things that don't belong, and find the others. If they all go off at the same time, you can't really scan for them because you don't know what they look like Before they explode.
8371749
Fireproof, definitely; seeing as Changelings in this story can survive the conditions inside of an active volcano.
As for the Barriers: the Warrior Advisor explained how the barriers are made by overlapping shields multiple shields; and Colonel Bunker reasoned out simply enough that shooting through those barriers is like shooting through a hundred tank hulls.
Against that level of defense, infantry firearms are useless; but anti-tank weapons may be able to make a dent.
8370594 8371916
I'd like to point out that WP is NOT forbidden by international law. The Geneva Convention forbids their use in 'civilian areas' and ergo against civilians, but says nothing about against combatants. Furthermore, the Geneva Convention only applies to signatory nations. For example, the United States is not bound by the Geneva Convention, because we did not sign it - we tentatively agreed to follow it, but we never signed it. I figure it's a safe bet that Chrysalis didn't either, so she's shit outta luck. Willy-pete, willy-pete for days!
As for living in a volcano, there is a difference between living in an active volcano and being on fire/ swimming in lava. Just because it's active doesn't mean flowing lava.
As for your points regarding AT-weapons against shields the GAU-8 is actually nearly obsolete at this point as it is generations behind. Now, I happen to think that Col. Bunker is speaking hyperbole, and that this shield is merely very strong, there may be some kinetic-penetrators that might penetrate and do damage, but not to the extent we're looking for...and if she was not speaking in hyperbole, there is no chance to penetrate that shield, there is just no AT-weapon with that kind of penetration power.
Either way, I reiterate. IMO, your best conventional options are WP-incendiaries. If that doesn't work, chemical-weapons would be the next best bet, finally followed by tactical-nuclear-munitions. I'd say that landmines might be a good option, but they're really only a defensive tool, not a practical, offensive strategy. Alternatively, depending on if those shields allow slowly moving objects through, you might be able to send in flying bombs - weaponized drones.
8370068
The inverse-squared law always applies. Each individual broadcast point has it's own inverse-square application and while that will extend the range of the totality, it is still finite. Especially if you are trying to maintain a 3D hemisphere of protection. As the size of the structure supported goes up, more and more changlings will have to be airborne to prevent holes in coverage ABOVE the perimeter line on the ground. You quickly reach a point where you need many thousands of soldier changlings to simply maintain what you have captured. For example. If each soldier can maintain a flat shield in front of himself that is 20 meters on a side (400 sq meters), then to maintain a sphere that is merely 1 kilometer in size would require around 31,500 changelings. Or if you want to advance in only one direction, the same 31,500 changelings would let you create a tunnel one kilometer wide by eight kilometers long. With howitzer artillery capable of reaching 18 kilometers, a rather small set of encampments could pin down the changelings rather easily via constant and changing attack angles.
8371861
And it's highly likely that NONE of the changeling have any experience with high explosives, and thus do not know what to expect or look for. (And it is relatively simple to set up a grid system to provide sufficient remote control to set off only one mine at a time. You could even create a random timer on each explosive such that when the signal arrives it waits for the timer to run down before exploding (if the Germans in WWII could drop timed bombs, we can emplace timed explosives with a remote start). That we have never had to create and use such a system is because we have never had to be that specific.))
8372583
Had a thought after writing my prev response. Large tandem remote detonated explosives[buried 500 pounders?], spread over a 50x300 or a 100x500 foot area, detonated as the changeling formation is directly over top? Assuming they use a dense, shield wall formation this tactic could either punch a large hole in the line, or otherwise disrupt the those shielding to allow for human munitions to be effective.
8372570
What I'm trying to say is that you only need a shield over your troops and not necessarily over the territory behind you. You don't need a hemisphere over all your holdings. The changelings don't seem to have the same kind of infrastructure requirements that modern (human) armies do. That being said, I think you're right, artillery and high-altitude bombing are the best counters to this changeling horde.
8372793
Actually, regarding shields only over the troops . . . paratroopers would make a hash of the changelings by dropping immediately behind their lines, making the changelings fight both forwards and backwards as they tried to advance or secure supplies for the hive. And not having a secure route back to their hive would make it simple to divide and conquer the changelings. Unless the queen was willing to write-off every expedition that left the hive, they would have to maintain shielding over their troops and their supply routes at all times or risk them being cut off and lost. And with the hives isolated it turns into a starvation situation for the hives rather quickly.
I'm not saying it would be easy for the humans, but the hives, once located would quickly find themselves on the defensive. And the bunker-buster fuel air bombs wouldn't have to break the shields as they would suck out the oxygen from the hive. While this might not harm the changelings (do they need to breath?) it would eliminate the changelings' source of "food" by killing any human prisoners. Not an ideal solution, but an effective one. And one the Chinese, North Koreans, and Russians would find easy to justify.
8371998
This took a while to put together, and i had to break much of this response down to address different parts of your argument:
Having done a little more research, i will concede that it is possible that direct exposure to White Phosphorous could burn a Changeling; since it is able to burn at nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
We have not yet seen how much heat it takes to even discomfort a Changeling in this story; but we have seen that Blue Sun, her Defective Advisor Drone, and Catalyst have all casually ignored ambient temperatures hot enough to rapidly melt stone (most stone, melts when heated past 2'750 degrees Fahrenheit, and that number can climb as high as 3'762 degrees depending on the composition of the stone).
on the Geneva Convention:
the United Sates signed and ratified the original 1864 Geneva Convention, and several of its revisions since then; but not the most recent version in 1977.
However, Incendiary and Chemical weapons are not addressed by the Geneva Convention.
On the legality of Incendiary weapons:
I will also concede that i forgot the detail about WP being legally justifiable using the same loopholes that let Napalm be legally used; however, White Phosphorous Incendiaries fall under "Protocol III" of the "Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons" (only WP Smoke Shells are exempted from Protocol III). the United States did sign and ratify this convention, and all 5 of its Protocols in 1982.
Which means WP Incendiaries and Napalm cannot be legally used by the United States anywhere near civilians; not that that has ever stopped the US military from doing so, any time it was convenient.
On Chemical Warfare:
Chemical warfare as a whole, is notoriously dangerous, and unreliable; as a simple shift of the prevailing wind can blow the chemicals away from their intended targets, or even towards allies, or civilians.
Use and development of Chemical weapons are banned under the "Chemical Weapons Convention" of 1992, which the United States has signed, ratified, and at least pretends to obey (especially since they used it as a legal justification for the Iraq invasion).
However there is another problem, the targets here are Changelings not Humans; their biology is very different from ours, which means chemical agents like Mustard Gas, Saryn, and VX may not have the same effects on them as they would on us. developing chemicals that are guaranteed to be effective against Changeling biology would require time for research, and development....
and living test subjects, preferably a large group of test subjects; who are certain to suffer from the testing in ways that will horrify the international community, and would invite world wide condemnation.
the GAU-8 Avenger:
I cited the GAU-8 Avenger autocannon as an example. yes, the GAU-8 is virtually obsolete against modern tank armour; it is not however, any less ferociously destructive now, than it was 40 years ago. put another way, weapons do not get weaker with time, the armour we make to stop them, gets stronger over time.
And i'm fairly sure Bunker's "100 tank hulls" statement was hyperbole; the essential point is this: the barrier manages to be unbreakable, by being immune to total failure from any single breach.
so as i see it, you either need to hit it with a lot of weapons that can pierce multiple spaced armour layers; or you need to batter the barrier with an overwhelming volume of firepower to wear down it's individual components.
bomb drones:
I would remind you that these Changeling formations are generating steel melting levels of ambient heat from their shield magic, a slow moving drone will cook its circuits, melt its casing off, and burn up its motors, simply from approaching the barrier; and then the bomb will need to safely cross two shield layers just to reach the nearest Changeling.
Tactical Nuclear Munitions:
This could work; though they will have to contend with limited numbers of available warheads, loads of radioactive fallout in the blast zone, and the country they deploy these weapons in not being very happy with them, if they did not receive that countries explicit permission to do so, first.
In short, could work, but the political fallout would be a pain in the ass; and the existing stockpiles of tactical nukes would run out quickly being used like this.
8372960 Terril, please cite Tanis' post below yours, as his comments on heat are the same ones I'm about to make to you. Also, we don't know if their shields stop slow moving objects or not...
8372967
Regarding the Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNW) the USA currently has ~700 and Russia has 1,000~6,000. If we need more than 1,700 we're well and truly fucked.
8373149
Once you start throwing around Nukes, even just Tactical grade warheads; the dogs are already howling, its just a question of how much of the world, are you willing to blow up, and poison, to stop your enemy.
If it's possible can you do a drawing of the different classes of changelings?
8373149
Oh, I wasn't referring to heat with the fuel air bombs, I was referring to the fact that they tend to suck out ALL the oxygen in their vicinity. And the shields most certainly DO NOT stop oxygen from penetrating. (Or they would consider shields to be weapons -- encase your target and wait for them to suffocate).
Well, I liked the story, I decided to make notes of things that I looked and wanted to comment, if it's okay....
----
chapter 17, the image is not there. Chapter 29 the same.
Chapter 40... Madam President? Thank you it was not Trump, we have problems with the coming World War III that Trump is making, the problem of the White Supremacist, and if we add a changeling war, well...
Chapter 43... I think they should ask more Discord that Twilight, she know about magic, but Discord is more ancient and he can move between realities. At the same time it make me worry what could Discord do in Earth
Waiting until a infiltrator find a library... Anatomy, science, chemistry, metallurgy... Or worse.... Internet.
8373158
If it's come to the point where you're choosing between the slow death of a changeling-slave or throwing nukes, which are you going to pick? Because for me, I say, give me liberty or give me death!
8375787
Well... this conversation got very dark, very quickly.
8376127
We've been talking about all out war with extra-dimensional, magical, alien bugs; in which hundreds of thousands or even millions are dying, or worse, being enslaved as a food source. Buddy, this conversation has been dark from the beginning.
8377580
True; but then the conversation specifically slid down the ever so lovely path of "Mutually Assured Destruction."
The rest of us have been puzzling over which conventional munition would be best suited to dealing with the Barrier; the conversation turned dark, shortly after you started reaching for the WMD options.
8377750
Tactical nuclear ordinance is NOT mutually assured destruction. The world didn't end when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, that's the size of most tactical nukes, others are even smaller than that.
8378216
You are correct that one or two nukes at a time wont do that much damage to the environment, but setting them off in large numbers is a different matter.
Each nuke you detonate in rapid succession and proximity adds up; and given their remarkable resilience, and the layered shielding, i find it unlikely that one or two tactical warheads at a time is going to do it, for putting down a changeling battle formation.
Also, you where the one declaring, and i quote:
8378297
Tanis, forgive me for being blunt, you don't understand nuclear weapons, their power and effects.
As for the second point; I will die on my feet, before I live on my knees.
8378830
Which part do i not understand?
- The X-ray pulse that nearly instantly attenuates in our atmosphere into a blast of heat sufficient to scorch (but not melt) stone and metal?
- The short lived pulse of Gamma and Neutron radiation that against this type of target may or may not do anything of value?
- Or the undirected shock wave of expanding heated air caused by the X-rays attenuating into heat? that you seem to be hoping will batter aside and flatten the changeling's barrier formation, where every type of directed and shaped munition must surely have already failed if we are resorting to nukes.
If your hoping to avoid Nuclear winter effects, airborne detonation is a necessity; but that also limits the useful damage effects to the heat flash and the shock wave. the Heat blast (aka the fireball) is essentially useless against even unshielded changelings; while the shockwave from a single nuke detonation will, at best, merely knock the changelings around the target area for a few minutes; during which time they will be vulnerable, but any military units that where close enough to take advantage in time before the Changelings regroup would have been within the shockwave radius as well, and would be far worse off unless dug in so deep its going to take them too long to mobilize anyways.
If you don't mind blasting tons of powderized, radioactive dirt and ash into the atmosphere triggering a nuclear winter that will block out the sun and doom us all to a slow choking death; then your best bet for directly damaging the Changelings with nuclear ordinance is laser guided ground detonations. Hoping the Changelings don't blow the warhead out of the sky on final approach; and hoping that direct exposure to the X-ray pulse will be too much for their ultra hardened alien biology to handle.
8379347
There is so much wrong here I don't even...
First, air bursts are devastating against infantry. That flash is plasma, as in, as hot as the surface of the sun for a fraction of a second. If you survive that, then there is the pressure wave that kills by rupturing internal organs via pressure differential - not merely knock things around. Anyone who survives that will be burned, blind and oh...that's right, suffering from radiation poisoning. Mechanized infantry could be in the blast-zone hours before Chrysalis even knew what hit her (now dead) army. If they can survive that, we're up sh*t creek without a paddle.
Second, tactical nukes are not deployed in ground burst mode, because that's only used against hardened targets - like bunkers and nuclear silos - and that takes strategic nuclear devices. And then you go completely off the rails... laser-guided nukes? And changelings taking out the warheads?
You've been grossly misinformed.
8380618
I could have chosen my wording better, and yes, i forgot the detail about plasma being formed (attenuation of soft X-rays and other radiations, energize the air around the point of detonation into a short lived expanding ball of plasma that we perceive as an expanding fireball); however, i did not forget about the heat the fireball imparts.
You, however, seem to have both already forgotten what i previously brought up about Changeling's heat resistance, and have not fully absorbed the implications. To quote myself:
Rapidly melting stone from the ambient temperature, requires temperatures far higher than the melting point of that stone, and they casually ignored prolonged exposure to those temperatures; we know from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the fireball (plasma and all) will carbonize Human bodies, but it barely lasts long enough to scorch the surface of stone, and to soften metal objects.
Therefore i find it dubious at best, that the fireball will do any notable damage to the shields of the Barrier Formation, nor is it likely to do any serious harm to a Changeling caught out in the open, though the shock wave will indeed be a different matter for any Changeling not taking cover as part of a Barrier formation.
Blindness from the flash:
The intensity of the light from the blast certainly will blind any Changeling looking directly at it; but even ignoring their innate healing capabilities, and basic survival instincts prompting them to not stare at the painful brightness, we cannot rely on any inflicted blindness being permanent.
A note on radiation:
The radiation pulse from an atomic device, is intense but brief; and the higher up you detonate the warhead, the more spread out the radiation becomes upon reaching the ground thanks to the Inverse Square Law.
As for the part of the radiation pulse that does reach the Barrier Formation from an airborne detonation; moving at roughly the speed of light, the radiation pulse will be the first thing to hit the changeling's shields, which may or may not block out the radiation, and if the radiation does pass through the shields at all, the energy derived, insect like, biology of the Changelings is likely to be much more resilient to radiation exposure than Human biology anyways; so, i would not count on Rad exposure alone putting the Changelings down within any useful time frame.
Shock Wave:
In terms of an airborne detonation, the shock wave is your best bet for inflicting any useful damage; but if the radiation pulse and the fireball fail to collapse the shields of the Barrier formation, then the shock wave will slam into the intact barrier formation, as a bludgeoning force spread roughly equally across every shield in the formation.
If the shock wave proves sufficient to overload and shatter the entire Barrier; then indeed, it will almost certainly pancake the now exposed changelings against the ground, with crippling, or lethal results.
If the shock wave fails to collapse the entire barrier outright before it passes by, then it will also fail to directly harm the changelings under it; in which case, your best remaining hope is that the gale force wind's following the shock wave will not register to the shield as a destructive force, and will pass right through, knocking the Changelings out of formation.
Regrouping:
If the Shock wave or any of its associated effects succeed in scattering the Barrier formation; any mechanized infantry unit sweeping in trying to catch them before they can regroup, had better hope the Changelings are unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, otherwise they can use their mobility, small size, and personal shields, to evade or flee from direct combat while they regroup or retreat.
Ground detonations, and Laser Guidance:
This was a personal suggestion; Detonating the warheads in direct proximity to the Barrier formations on the ground would limit and contain the blast radius, and guarantees exposing the Changeling formations to the maximum force of the radiation flux. but getting a warhead that close is likely to require fitting it with smart munition style guidance system, and having it guided in by a Laser Designator, as is common practice in modern armies for any other munition type whenever GPS guidance, or cruise missile optical navigation cannot be relied upon.
Warhead interception:
As for shooting warheads out of the sky, Changelings are able to cast combat magic; if they spot a warhead inbound and can manage to blast through any part of the casing to damage any of the internal sub assemblies, before it detonates, they can render the warhead useless.
Nuclear Bombs depend on detonating in precisely the way they where each designed too, any disruption to the precise alignment of the bombs inner workings, or the timing of the detonation sequence, can prevent the device from achieving criticality upon detonation.
one final note:
If we are desperate enough to start throwing nukes, we where already up sh*t creek.
Even so; you seem almost obsessed with using the brute force approach, of throwing WMD's at the problem until it goes away.
I would rather pursue finding ways to apply conventional weapons unconventionally, to break the barrier and take down the Changeling formations, before i resort to dropping nukes.
8381866
Tanis, you are wrong on so many counts and making HUGE assumptions based on one or two lines the author has handed us is only exasperating the issue. I have no interest in continuing this conversation, partly because you will not acknowledge when you are wrong and partly because now you're starting to take what I've said out of context. Adieu.
I read through your story over the last few days and just want to say that I have enjoyed it very much.
Man, I'm so glad to see this story active again! Blue Sun and the Colonel finally talk again! The suspense was killing me, so thanks for fixing that!