Day 5 - Standard procedure: 3/8
Being the only team remaining on the balcony after 10013’s and 20100’s left, 99526 patiently sits by 36658’s side while the veteran drone keeps looking into the distance over the parapet. When the silence grows unusually long, 99526 clears its throat.
“Umm, 36658, are you okay?”
“Hmm?” the other drone’s ears twitch before it looks sideways at 99526, “Oh? Yes yes yes,” it smiles, “I was just watching the sunrise. The way everything sparkles against the sea is… a gift.”
“Yup! So many dancing shinies!” 99526 beams back, “Can we go down there once we’re done with chasing points for today? Or, you know, while we’re doing that? Speaking of points, where do we start?”
“No idea,” 36658 hops onto the parapet and floats into the air, “but High Score will provide a way, we just have to keep looking.”
“Eyes. Peeled.”
With an excited smile, 99526 follows.
From the air, however, the tall slope looks lifeless, prompting the casually flying duo to eventually land on the flagstones of a long promenade arcing along the beach.
“Hmmm,” 36658 unceremoniously sits down, “I doubt forcing anything would help. It might even make ponies get angry at us if we wake them up early. Maybe we should just explore…”
“You know, I’ve been thinking about this whole ‘points’ thing, and… I mean, not to criticize 10013, but how is this helping your argument with 99111?”
That makes 36658 look at 99526 in puzzlement.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, since we’ve been doing all this to help our ‘side’ -you know, hairy tics and frantics- then if we gain points as a duo, or the same amount of points each, we won’t tip the balance anyway.”
36658 frowns and his look turns thoughtful.
“Are you really just doing this for points or because it’s an order?”
“Umm, yes? I mean, I suppose it’s good for the overall reputation of the hive and all, but that’s kinda beyond me, really. Too big. I just like being useful and I like headpats.”
36658 pats 99526’s head, making the corners of its mouth curl up again.
“Would you mind if I changed our mission a bit since, you know, us both getting a point wouldn’t mean much?” asks 36658 out of nowhere.
“Fine with me, but won’t 10013 be disappointed with us?”
“10013 will understand. It’s one of the very few drones who understand the bigger picture.”
“The bigger picture?” 99526 tilts its head and hazards a guess, “Is that like The Great Shiny or… some new 20100’s project?”
“No, it’s not,” 36658 chuckles to itself, “Oh, and it might be extremely dangerous.”
99526 shrugs.
“What isn’t? Are we going to get eaten?”
“It’s possible.”
“And are you sure we gotta do it?”
“I’m starting to believe that I must do it. You don’t. As I said, 10013 will understand if we split here and you tell it what I just told you.”
After pondering it for a second or two, 99526 shakes its head:
“Nope. Rule number one - drones stick together. So, can you sense 387? Because I for sure can’t, even now that we’re closer to the floaty sea houses,” it nods across the beach towards the water bungalows.
36658 concentrates, closing his eyes to avoid being distracted by the sparkling sea.
“Goop!” it curses after a moment, “I can’t. Oh well,” it shrugs, “I can always find him later on my own and that way you won’t be in danger.”
“Nu uh!” 99526 shakes its head vigorously, surprising 36658, “If it’s really that important to you, we can try to find him, right? Besides, who’s to say that High Score won’t show us a way to get points while we’re looking? And if it’s dangerous then two drones can do more than just one,” it puffs out its chest, “65536 did say when talking about Canterlot that if we’re easily replaceable, we gotta help those who aren’t and… you’re far more valuable than me,” its honest and determined expression makes 36658 give it a tight hug.
“Don’t mistake easily replaceable with valueless, buddy,” it lets go, reexamining its approach, “Are you sure there’s nothing you want to do?”
“I’m planning out my Scufflestick faction!” 99526 taps its temple knowingly, “I can keep doing that while we’re looking or we can do it together if you want.”
“Great idea, I’ve been playing with some ideas myself. First things first, though - how do we find a high rank warrior who doesn’t want to be found?”
“With extreme difficulty!” answers 99526, factually correct.
“Exactly!” 36658 laughs, and the drones start strolling along the promenade.
***
“Ha!” 36658 exclaims out of nowhere.
“Huh?” 99526 stops staring at the white houses lining the mountainous slope to the right and glances at 36658.
“Hahaa!” 36658 laughs victoriously.
“Humm humm humm!” 99526 rubs its head, “I think I’ve run out of noises. What are we ha-ing about?”
“I think I’ve figured out how to find 387.”
“Really?” the revelation genuinely stuns 99526. A drone finding a hiding warrior? That’s crazy.
“I’ve been checking the hive mind map and… you see the long strip of explored beach to the east from here?” 36658 pings the eastern end of the promenade which they’re slowly reaching.
“Mhm.”
“We haven’t been there, it wasn’t mapped out when we went to sleep, and I don’t think it’s significant in any way, yet it’s still explored. On the ship, I think the reason why we haven’t seen 387 the first day at all was because he was being all sneaky and scouty.”
“And then boom, on day two we had the whole map ready!” 99526 nods, “So… you think 387 went that way and the reason why the map just ends in such a noodly strip is because he got too far to connect to anyone else?”
“Exactly! So if you want to back o-”
“Welp, I guess that’s where we’re going then,” 99526 nods and starts striding along the promenade, legs pumping faster than their up to now casual pace, “387 gots to be far ahead.”
Conflicted, 36658 matches 99526’s new speed.
It feels better to not do this alone, but if everything goes wrong then 99526 might get punished just for proximity. On the other hole, it’s more likely that if things go wrong then 387 will just wipe its memory.
Heh… I guess 99111 isn’t the real heretic here.
***
Their quicker pace ends once the promenade slopes down in a low-angle ramp straight into the sand, and the drones slow down to avoid exhausting themselves by walking through the sand. 99526 is the first one to open a topic, since the road ahead seems to be a long one.
“You wanna hear about my Scufflestick faction?”
“Sure thing.”
99526 clears its throat.
“So, I was thinking about your argument with 99111 and wondered if I could make something along those lines, but bigger. You know how 20100 made up the Empire- uhh, Imperium of Ling, right?”
“Mhm. Go on.”
“Well, I was thinking about, you know, guys who used to be lings, but went bad, and now they are everything that the Em- Imperium isn’t. Like, drones who dislike digging and hate carrying!”
“GASP! MONSTERS!”
“Exactly!” 99526 nods with vigor, “And, since you know a lot more about the hive, I was wondering if you could give me some pointers.”
“Hmmm, everything that the hive- uhh, the Imperium of Ling isn’t…” 36658 pouts, “If we start from the top, what about not being ruled by a Queen?”
“As if ruled by a drone? Wouldn’t work,” 99526 shakes its head, “I think it would get eaten too quickly by warriors and such.”
“What about a King?”
“Ohhhh, good one! Who has ever heard about a changeling king, right?”
“Yup! What a silly idea,” giggles 36658.
“Alright, so ruled by a King…”
“Waaait,” 36658 grins, “What about having no ruler? You know, like being independent? Maybe they’re scattered into groups of lings who don’t like each other because they don’t have a common hive, but they cooperate on occasion because they dislike the Imperium even more?”
“THAT’S WAY BETTER THAN WHAT I HAD IN MIND!” 99526’s eyes nearly plop out of their sockets with how wide it opens them, “Ha! And the drones don’t believe in The Great Shiny, but rather in… in… umm… The Small Un- uhh, shiny?” it pouts, “I like that part a lot less…”
“You don’t have to take the anti-ling sentiment literally, I think,” 36658 ponders it, “Maybe… maybe they could think that the Great Gablonk is up there instead of down here?” 36658 briefly looks at the sky.
“Then how would the good drones get there? We can’t fly that high, it gets super cold!” objects 99526, voice full of despair, “That’s way too crazy even for my traitors,” it shakes its head, “Oooh, I got it! They’re going to believe in The Deep Dark… something so bad that it eats all shinies no matter where they come from. And if they win they’ll eat all the shinies and no one will ever see any shinies anymore!” 99526 bursts into villainous laughter.
“Ewwww,” 36658 shudders, “Spooky.”
“Yep, so what do you think?”
“Not the way I thought this would evolve, but I’m loving the idea,” 36658 gives it an appreciative nod, “And what made your guys leave the Imperium of Ling? Why are they traitors?”
“Uhhh… do we have to think of that too? Sounds hard.”
“I don’t think we have to, but why not? Maybe some backstory will help you flesh out what your faction really wants? I’m doing it with my High Score stories all the time to convey the right message.”
“Huuuh…” 99526 takes a deep breath, opens its mouth, and… says nothing, “Goop. I’m stumped.”
“How about I ask you some questions about you or your guys? Maybe figuring out the answers will help.”
“Sure!”
“If they betrayed the Imperium, then what was the thing they didn’t like? Is there something you dislike in particular? Too much digging, too little digging,” 36658 winces, “Maybe the Queen was too stingy with rationing love, maybe the high ranks ate too many of their friends, maybe they were fed up with no one caring that they can get eaten at any point of your worky time…” 36658 relaxes its sudden scowl, unusually intense for a drone, “Anything. Just goopballing here.”
“Oooooh…” 99526’s ears perk up with inspiration, “Okay, I think I get the idea now. So… they… they were sent to clear up deep caves, right? But they only got one angry shiny… and they asked for more but they were denied- heartlessly and very evilly denied!” 99526 beams at the choice of words, “Some of the asking drones might have even been kicked and called cowards. And so they and some high ranks went in and… and the angry shiny broke because there were too many of- of- ooh ooh ooh, I KNOW! I CAN CONNECT THIS TO 10013’S GRIBBLERS! EEEEEEE!” 99526 bounces up repeatedly out of sheer excitement, “10013 will be so happy! So, there were gribblers all over the place and the angry shiny broken and a whole bunch of them got eaten in a really loud, screamy, and crunchy way, and the rest had to run. And when they came back, they didn’t get a love refill because they didn’t fill their worky time quota and so they ran off to get love on their own. And the Ling Queen is mad at them because she needs all the love!”
“That’s an amazing start!” 36658 smiles.
“Uhh, start?” 99526’s expression turns a little more fearful, “There’s gotta be more?”
“Not really, but we’ve got a long trip ahead of us, and maybe the others will like to learn about your guys. Maybe even Mister Shiny. Stories are stories.”
“I guess you’re right,” 99526 nods, “Ask away then.”
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99526 is going to end up with Lord Tellis at this rate.
Who is going to be a loud angry music promoter trying to make big his latest group.
Alien Ant Farm?
Short updates a week are good. An apple a day and a drone a week lol
Hah ruled by a King, how ridiculous. XD
Who doesn't?
Oh, gotta hate those kind of guys. They're always filling things in and dropping everything they're handed.
Naming him Thorax would probably be too on the nose though...so I propose Xaroht instead.
Me thinks 36658 has some hidden grudges of their own...
Short updates are perfectly fine! This story's mostly about the drone's day-to-day (mis)adventures while on this (somewhat disastrous) cruise, and it doesn't need to be super long to accomplish that.
11318116
- That sounds vaguely Gamey ofy Throney, but I didn't particularly enjoy the series past season three/four-ish so I don't remember much anymore.
- Is this about noise marines? I think this might be about noise marines.
- And now I'm more lost than Twilight in a gym... or Pinkie at a salad bar.
11318144
I'm not sure if I can trust you with that username...
11318693
Where do they even get these crazy ideas...
*Unit 3, black-bag the heretic the moment no one's around. Queen's orders.*
11318701
- THE HERETICS! THE JEANS STEALERS!
- ...noting that for later...
- ...this too. Why be creative when I can just STEAL IDEAS?! MWAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
- Insert Nicolas Cage "No, really?!" meme face here.
- I don't know. It's just near impossible to shake off the feeling that I'm on limited time here before viewership and interest die off, and since my stories take a year usually, that time must be running out. I keep thinking about trying a real book, but I the only style I know that would fit a sci-fi/fantasy is Blaze's stuff, and that doesn't particularly fare well around these parts.
Just seeing this in recently updated brings a joyous smile to my face.
Then I read it and I'm even happier!
11319025
Lord Tellis is a very angry noise marine who came to like ponies because they do the most amazing things when literally thrown at the enemy.
11319129
I'm updating on Mondays to give you a boost for a new week.
11319150
Oh, a different fanfic. Yeah, that's a reference beyond my knowledge.
11321037
But wait! There's MORE!
11321128
Smiley like best number!
A changeling king from a drone.
What a silly idea.
Never gonna happen.
11327142
Clearly only a fever dream.
Death to the False Queen! Death to her ignorant drones! Death to the weakling Imperium of Ling! Let the hive burn! AHAHAHAHAHA!
11390595
Talkin an awful lotta shit for someone in digging range.