A Joytoy’s Journey to become a Hive-Queen [A SCS Fanfic]

Chapter 58 – A rude awakening, or: You never want to piss of a Hive-Mind

“Gangs are a bit of a weird thing, I feel. Like, I know why they’re there. And I ain’t sayin’ that they’re always bad. But if you look through all the shit going on, you’ll realise that most of them are fucking mental. More than most Samurai are, believe it or not.”

  -  Anonymous citizen in an interview with ‘Samuraiz’

The evening lasted a lot longer than any of us had probably anticipated. After Chloe had complained all the way through the Sideswipe romance, and we had to pause multiple times because she went into a full on tirade more than once, Jenna had found some other things to watch.

Joenna and Keity had, of course, acted as our personal waitresses, keeping our cups filled. That had ended with all of us getting pretty knackered pretty quickly, but it also added to the absurdity of Chloe’s rants, which became more and more erratic as the evening went on, making it all just that much more amusing to watch.

Junior had returned sometime in between, giving us a short report of what had transpired during her meeting, none of which the three of us really cared for at that point. That said, once Junior joined our movie night fun, and the drinking, of course, things had quickly derailed as Chloe and Junior had taken turns ranting about this and that.

I hadn’t even known I had such a critical streak in me. But it was damn adorable, the way the two of them just edged each other on, so neither Jenna or I complained.

Between all of that, the evening did prove one thing I had been curious about to be true. Hexclaws did not handle alcohol very well, at least not unless they were adapted for it. I wasn’t quite sure why, it seemed like a rather nonsensical thing, but Junior had very quickly ended up rather deep in the cups.

And, of course, no surprise to anyone, that just meant that as the evening went on, Joenna, Keity, Celine, and Myra, who had returned together with Junior, all also slowly got more and more hammered. At first they kept their alcohol consumption to a minimum, but considering that they were all based on me, and I was a damn alcoholic, that had quickly changed once they started to get tipsy. In the end we all found ourselves in one big pile of drunken goodness on the couches.

It was kind of adorable to watch them, since most of them seemed to be very much like me in terms of their reaction to getting drunk. Mainly that they all became very cuddly. Of course, there was a difference between me and them. Mainly that I got sexy cuddly, while they got wholesome cuddly; none of them really interested in sex as a whole, apart from intellectual curiosity.

That said, Chloe and Jenna appeared to approve very much. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol or just their general disposition, but both eagerly accepted the offered cuddles. For Chloe that wasn’t too much of a surprise, it had been the only real thing on her profile when she booked me, after all. Jenna, on the other hand, did surprise me quite a bit. She seemed very much into cuddling the drunken Hive-Princess, which Junior, of course, gladly accepted and revelled in.

It did make me wonder if Jenna might be more eager to accept Us than she had led on previously. Not that I asked her.

Chloe also got along with drunk Junior very well. Their shared penchant for going on rants about the most inane things probably helped. What surprised me the most, however, was that Chloe actually gave Junior a big kiss on the mouth at some point. She probably meant it as a joke in that moment, but it was enough for all of Us to squeal in excitement. Which Chloe, who was just as deep in the cups as Junior was, didn’t seem to really recognise.

Not that we minded, she was just so damn cute when she was drunk.

All that said, the evening ended when we all slowly dozed off in a big pile, Jenna surrounded by Junior and Joenna, who would have guessed, and me on top of Chloe, with Keity and Celine next to her. Myra was somewhere in the whole chaos; I didn’t really pay much attention towards the end, considering that I was much too preoccupied cuddling with the insanely adorable and beautiful woman I was laying on top of.

It also meant that when the incessant beeping of an incoming call woke me up, I had a killer headache. By far not the worst hangover I’ve ever had, but it was annoying to shit, and I couldn’t stop myself from groaning in complaint.

Unwilling to move from the comfy pillow in the shape of the most amazing person I’ve ever met, followed very closely by the woman last buried under a heap of Hexclaw, I decided to just deal with the call later.

I’m afraid that it is rather important. You should definitely take it.

Kaysa’s voice, while soft, was like a jackhammer trying to rattle my skull and I groaned again, silently cursing the stupid AI for ripping me out of my sweet dreams of fucking Chloe and Jenna until both had lost all their braincells.

But Kaysa wouldn’t speak up if it wasn’t important, so with much complaint I switched over to the virtual realm. Quickly checking the clock, and nearly having my eyes pop out when I realised it was already half past noon, I turned my attention to the incoming call.

The caller ID listed it as coming from some private merc corp or some such, and I was halfway tempted to damn the consequences and go back to sleep, when Kaysa updated it to say ‘Cheryl’.

Now, that was important.

Grumbling to myself I finally picked up, not trying even in the slightest to appear more awake than I felt. I think my stare actually frightened Cheryl for a moment, considering that she took an involuntary step back when the call connected.

“Myriad?” she asked, voice uncertain.

“Yes… I’m awake… Mostly… What happened?”

“Pardon the intrusion, I didn’t want to bother you. We do have a somewhat important development, though.”

“It’s alright. We might have gotten a bit too deep into the cups last night. My head’s killing me like some fuckwit is skullfucking my brain with a Bad Dragon dildo, so please make it short, okay?”

“Uh… Sure…” Cheryl was obviously a bit surprised, but she did catch herself quickly. A true professional. “We are currently in the process of relocating everyone from the megashelter back to the redlight district. So far not that many complications. We managed to get the buildings set up to be livable and did another sweep for any potential antithesis hives. Everything went as planned, until Castas contacted me. Some of his boys apparently have just been attacked at the outer edge of the redlight district, on the border with the Kanvai district. Typically, they’re on pretty good terms with the gangs there, since they typically visit the brothels and such. But it appears some idiot from the next district over, Little Town, decided to make a powerplay of some sort.”

It took me an embarrassingly long moment to parse that. “Didn’t I tell you to use little girl words? Fuck… Okay, so some idiot attacked the Kanvai district, and they in turn turned on the Crows?”

“No, ma’am. From the looks of things the ones attacking the Crows are from Little Town. There are some reports of high tech weaponry, but nothing confirmed yet. Still, I thought it prudent to let you know, since you openly stated that the redlight district is under your protection.”

I groaned again, rubbing my face. For a long moment I didn’t reply, just asking myself who would be fucking stupid enough to organise an open attack in broad daylight!

“Kaysa, I need something for this headache,” I muttered, ignoring Cheryl for a moment and getting up from Chloe’s comfortable chest.

A moment later a ding rang out that had my brain rattling, making me curse under my breath, and soon after I swallowed the pill that had appeared in my hand.

The change was immediate and in that moment felt better than any orgasm I ever had.

Finally feeling more like myself I quickly bought a whole box of Cleanse pills, placed them on my mystery cabinet next to the couch, then got up completely and stretched.

“Okay. So we have some idiots playing at bigshots. Idiots who very likely get some weapon deliveries from somewhere else. Fucking grand. We’re on our way. They better have a very fucking good explanation or I might have to rethink the whole ‘no eating people’ policy.”

“I’ll leave it to you then. Just… try to keep casualties to a minimum?” Cheryl’s voice was uncharacteristically cautious.

“Don’t worry, we’ll clean up the bodies,” I muttered, then slowly made my way over to the main hangar.

“That’s not what I’m worried about, Myriad.” She shook her head with a sigh. “Alright. I’m not going to get involved, you do you. If you need anything, let me know. We’ll try to get a better idea of what’s going on.”

“Thanks, Cheryl. Talk to you later.”

And with that I closed the call, feeling much too pissed about it all. Today was supposed to be an easy day. Visit the redlight district, help folk settle in, maybe get some things here and there if they need something. Not a fucking gang war. Fuck, I just woke up and I was already done with the day.

“Evelyn, new destination. Kanvai district. Prep the shuttles and make sure you fly low enough for Tiny to jump out if need be.”

“Of course, Seraphine. Destination set: Kanvai district. Estimated time of arrival: 7 minutes.” The AI’s voice was, as it always was, soft and friendly.

I ignored it and instead grumbled my way to the main hangar, my Queen’s Guard in tow. They were the only ones not getting involved with the previous evening’s fun, and therefore much less compromised.

When I arrived in the hangar, Evelyn had already prepared the shuttles. A huge number of Us were already ready to board, chatting idly between themselves. I didn’t bother joining the conversation, mood still foul, and instead just walked over to the private shuttle already waiting for me.

I could have woken up Chloe and Jenna, but I really didn’t think it was needed and they probably wanted some more sleep. I knew, because I would have loved a couple of hours more. But some fucking retard just had to go out of their way to be the most stupid person to ever be born.

Tiny had already started networking everyone up. Considering that she didn’t have much she could do outside of combat, since she was a huge fuck-off scorpion, she had taken to the role as the main node for the Burdened, as well as the information distributor. While technically all of Us could access my implant, at least to a degree, Tiny had taken it upon herself to organise it.

And so she sent me a very, very extensive list of things already known about the situation. Not that most of the stuff she had managed to figure out was useful. Still, she was doing her best and didn’t deserve my ire.

“Thanks, Tiny,” I muttered as I walked past.

A moment later I got a text message from the huge scorpion.

‘No problem, Sera. Just lemme know if you need anything else, yeah?~’

That did manage to cheer me up a little. I wasn’t quite sure why, but Tiny was the only one of Us who didn’t call me some variation of ‘Our Queen’. In general, she seemed surprisingly childlike, considering that she was based on me. Not that she was childish, she was still very much a competent member of our Hive, but it was quite obvious that she was different from the rest.

Okay, they all were a little different. But it seemed that some of Us were more different than others. Quite often those were the ones who wanted a name for themselves, which probably had something to do with it. I didn’t mind, really. In a way I preferred it that way. It meant that there was some variety in this big mess that was Myriad.

Making another mental note to give Tiny some way to actually speak with people, I finally entered the shuttle and let myself fall into the big armchair in the cockpit. The shuttle doors hadn’t even closed yet, when the shuttle took off; the giant hangar door opening to allow Us egress.

As I had ordered, Evelyn kept the Corvette quite low to the ground so that Tiny could jump out without too many problems if she had to. Of course, it would leave a giant crater wherever she landed, but I just really couldn’t be fucked to think about that at the moment.

With a sigh I decided to immerse myself in the chorus, letting all my worries slowly seep into the background. It helped my mood tremendously, and soon we were a lot more calm and prepared to deal with this new batch of faeces that was dropped at our doorstep.

Even from afar we could see the chaos that was the border to the Kanvai district. Chaos that only became more chaotic when the people present realised that we were headed straight for them.

Some even tried to shoot Us out of the sky, which had to be the most stupid thing they could probably have tried. This was a Samurai grade shuttle, even if they had the most ridiculous rifles humanity had on offer, the chances of them shooting Us down were so low to be effectively nil.

Whatever, let them waste ammo, who cares.

We hadn’t even landed yet, when we got a call. The caller ID was not one we were familiar with, but, considering that it came through, Kaysa probably thought it was fine.

Picking up, we focused on the virtual real for a moment. The call didn’t have a video window, being sound only. Considering the meta-data of the device placing the call, that wasn’t much of a surprise, though. We were by no means an expert on tech, but even we could recognise a device from fucking 2027 as being too old.

“Who’s this?” we asked, not entirely able to keep our displeasure at the entire thing out of our voice.

“Uhm, hey. I’m Simmons, this Myriad?” The man who spoke sounded a bit older, maybe around fifty?

“Yes, we are Myriad. A very fucking pissed Myriad, because apparently people have to be idiots when it’s least convenient. You with the Crows?”

“No. I’m working with the Crows at the moment, but I’m part of Obsidian Gaze. Castas said I should give you a call.”

“Despite our displeasure we perked up. “Oh? Now that is curious. We rarely see you get involved. You deal in information and shit, right?”

Obsidian Gaze was one of the more well known groups here in New Savannah. Not a gang in the traditional sense, they most often dealt with information. If you needed any juicy dirt on anyone, Obsidian Gaze was the one you went to. There was also Quantum Veil, but they rarely worked with others in any capacity.

Their involvement hinted either at something bigger, or corpo fuckery, since otherwise they wouldn’t come out of their nest, wherever that was.

“Yes. We keep to ourselves on principle, but these fuckwits, or whoever sponsored them, are fucking with our business. Shits need some killing, and you’re damn good at killing.”

“You’re not going to use this to get some crap on the Crows, are you?”

There was a moment of silence. “Myriad, you’re fucking terrifying. If we antagonised you this openly, our boss would have us drawn and quartered the old fashioned style.”

His evasiveness made Us chuckle. “As long as you don’t start using whatever you learn to mess with them, we won’t have trouble. If you do…” We didn’t finish the sentence.

“We can’t give you much on who exactly supplied the weapons. We can tell you, though, that most of the gangs of Little Town are involved somehow. If you want more info go find Black Lotus. From what we could gather, they have found out some more about it all.” The way Simmons switched the topic was amusing, but we couldn’t begrudge him for it.

“Very well. Thanks for the information. Oh, and if you have some time afterwards to help Us with a little problem of our own, we’re inclined to do some business. What say you?”

“Depends on what you need.”

“Some corp scavenged Samurai lures and placed them under the southern gates of the Inner City. Now, we couldn’t give less of a fuck about the Inner City, but they turned the lures on during the incursion. You probably heard about the mass at the gates.”

“The one you first showed up in? We’re aware of it, yeah.”

We nodded, even if he couldn’t see it. “We wanna know who it is and why they did it. We have some leads, but by far not enough. If you can help Us with that, we’re willing to pay. Even in more esoteric things. I would wager you lot could use some Samurai grade cyberwarfare shit, right?”

There was a long moment of silence.

“I’ll look into it. Might even be connected with this mess; while we don’t have specifics, this has corpo fuckery written all over it. I don’t know where they get their tech from exactly, but it’s clear that it ain’t district standard. Neither here, nor in Little Town. If our clues are correct, they’d need some kind of corp connection, and there aren’t many corps who’d go this deep into the Outer City. If they are messing around like this, they might have ties to that issue as well. I’ll do some digging, see what I can dredge up. For now, you gonna clean up, yeah?”

“Yes. Not gonna lie, this won’t be pretty. Best get your people out now, while you still can. We’re going in soon, and we’re very, very fucking pissed.”

The last mini-arc before we head into the final arc of Vol 1! This one won't be too long, roughly 5 chapters or so, so we will have alien crushing goodness coming up soon!

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