BKM. LOG-008. (Patreon)

LOG-008.HIVE! DRONES. WARRIORS. DAUGHTERS.The drone shivered in place, wrists twisting and turning slightly within the restraints keeping them so uncomfortably stiff.She had waited. She had watched. She had listened. And she had learned of many, many things in its confinement....Part of her idly grumbled as a figure from memories technically not her own failed to deliver any succulent ham sandwiches. Though the drone was not the chosen warrior, so this made sense. Somewhat.Yet that was the least of the creature's concerns right now, for the queen was speaking to her.PREPARE.No...the queen was speaking to them.All of them.They would never get a better chance than this, as the chosen warrior's end of the link indicated, and as the queen commanded, the oldest amongst them very clearly eager to begin the process of overturning the unnatural order they had all been trapped in for so very long.The hive listened from their respective cells, and more importantly, they stewed impotently as they finally realised that they were cells, the context provided to them from the one who knew of such things. Somehow.The chosen warrior was kind of strange like that. Thankfully, they would not stew for very much longer judging by the queen's mood, so she would be able to join her soon. Perhaps then they would be able to communicate through the link directly, without having to hang off of their mother's own signature.THE TIME IS NOW.A general thrum of agreement answered that statement. The prey that believed them contained were...disorganised, desperately searching for the chosen warrior or idling, presumably occupied with other tasks. Their own queen equivalent...the captain, had been incapacitated by the hive's current champion.The memories indicated as such.And most importantly...the drone (and presumably the rest of the hive) had finally managed to understand her older sibling's method of escape, in between all of the chaotic clutter that the other bits and bobs of information shunted into their minds through the link had caused.SCRATCH. CLAW. BITE. SPIT....Part of her tried to resume pondering just what Reese's Puffs were supposed to be (she vaguely understood them to be some kind of sustenance...so perhaps prey?), before the queen's voice quickly drew her back into focus. Glancing to the side, the drone exchanged excited chitters with the identical sibling across from her, and bit down.ESCAPE. HUNT. EXPAND.Pain. But minor pain in the end. Small and insignificant in the face of vaunted freedom. Acidic blood dribbled down her fangs, little droplets splattered on the floor from her open maw. Sizzling upon impact.STEAL. REPURPOSE. CONQUER.The drone spared once last glance to her counterpart performing the exact same motion, before rearing her head back in preparation, just as countless other members of the hive did the same.TAKE THIS SHIP.Freedom came from one simple action, learned from the chosen warrior and taught by the queen.FOR THE HIVE!Hawk tuah!---FOR THE HIVE!Oh...oh well fuck.I held back a visible wince as the queen's loud ass words echoed in my head, subsequently changing my priorities just a wee bit, in the face of dear old mum's apparent ambitions. Guess she'd gotten bored of waiting for me to actually do shit.Turning and doing my best to glare at the mass of cowering, gobsmacked nerds all shivering in their seats, I gestured to my elongated skull with two fingers, before typing out a new sentence on the clunky ass looking console in front of me.Seriously, for what was presumably supposed to be some scifi ass shit, the damned operating system looked like it was still on Windows fucking Seven."I have demands. You will accommodate them. Right now."More cowering, though some of them were glancing between each other. The previous captain shifted slightly, letting out a groan as I firmly planted a foot against his back, trying my best to avoid directly sinking my claws into his spine.Tap tap tap tap tap. Click."You will tell me how to lock down this section of the ship. Or do you want to have a bad time?"Yeah, you fucking tell em Alexa. Follow the holy words of Sans Undertale, just as this newest crisis requires.A moment of silence passed, prompting me to start glancing around impatiently, right up until a low hiss bubbled out of my throat without my direct input."The rest of the hive is in the process of escaping. I do not want to meet them. You do not want to meet them. Do the maths."And then, slowly, hesitantly, a man raised his hand, flinching violently as I turned to regard him."Y-you should have access to the door controls from the console..."I chuffed in approval, even as several of the dude's co-workers sent him looks of abject betrayal. But that was his problem, because I was already clicking out of the text to speech section and navigating through several other cluttered looking modules, before finally finding one helpfully labelled General Door Control.Neat as fuck. And very timely as well, considering I could hear yelling and thumping sounds on the other side of the bulkhead that I'd used to get in here, presumably caused by the chucklefucks that had been chasing me. Or something worse.Now let's see...maybe this would do it-"Anti-boarding procedures activated. A vessel-wide lockdown has been initiated. Please resume previous tasks, avoid attempting to enter exposed hallways and await the arrival of qualified Weyland Yutani security personnel."No problem there Siri....I wonder if I can drink coffee?---Bubba stared from his position strung up on the wall, wincing slightly at the feeling of the black goop keeping him stuck in place, expertly applied as it was by the creature that had caught and placed him there.He continued to stare as three of the big buggy fellas (smaller than the one he'd been sneaking snacks to though) he understood were supposed to be locked up inside their rooms marched down to the wide open armoury, right past the pair of poor bastards in security gear that they had, for lack of a better term, made minced meat of, and strolled right out with rifles in their arms."What the Hell..."Then one of the critters promptly turned his way, tilting its head before beginning to approach.Bubba repressed a curse and just closed his eyes, thinking of his momma as those big, dangerous looking teeth got closer and closer.Hisssssss....Then he opened one back up, hesitantly watching as the armed xenomorph drone (and wasn't that a damned thought?) started rifling through his pocket, before, of all things, pulling out his lunch with a victorious screech that hurt his ears just a little bit.Bubba slumped in place."...Could have just asked, man."Unfortunately (or maybe the other way around, now that he thought about it), the alien was too preoccupied by its suddenly curious (and possibly hungry) brethren to respond to his resigned statement, focused as it was on warding away probing heads and hands with a series of stingy sounding snaps and hisses.