The hivemind is conquering for me?

The defenders did the best they could in the short amount of time they had left. But with the ship’s dispersion field still active, very little damage was dealt to the ship and the inhabitants within.

As the ship hit the ground, it pulverised entire forts in an instant. Despite the five kilometre ship coming in at an angle, there was still a great deal of impact force, which as it began tearing through the crust into the tunnels below, sent a shockwave for roughly fifty kilometres, dealing massive damage and causing mass death in the first ten.

The ship finished crashing. More than half of its body had submerged into the tunnels underground. If anyone was close enough to the ship and had survived, they would have noticed the eerie silence that took hold of the surroundings.

The silence was broken, however, when the ship began to open its ’pores’ and in the millions a second, Hive bio forms began to pour out of the ship like liquid filling the space wherever they needed to be.

A wave of chitin began pouring over the surroundings at a rapid pace, they had to move quickly to take advantage of the shockwaves damage. There was no time to snack upon the dead, the bio-forms would have to leave that to the drones.

Ten minutes later in all surroundings upon the surface, the multiple warrior strains and Freethinkers variants had travelled 10 kilometres in that time and had found prey, alive, disorientated within debris fields.

With the prospect of a reward for killing the prey, The bio forms sped up, not allowing the competition to get the first kills. A Freethinker with the augmentation of greater Psionic prowess was the first to get a kill, stomping a prey, piercing through its chest as it did so, it kept on sprinting as it began firing Psionic bullets towards the prey that had gained some composure and began firing.

All across the battlefield, the chitin horde was merciless casualties began piling up the further they went, but that was just life. The death of their prey, that is all that mattered.

…

Meanwhile... ”♪ I am the righteous hand of god... And I am the devil that you forgot... And told you Hmm, hmm you will see.. Hmm back I guarantee... Hell is coming~ with me.♪” I was pleasantly surprised as an earworm from my past life burrowed its way in, as the ramming of the ship was taking ages.

”What’s hell Apollo?” Keyla asked curiously as she listened to the song she had never heard before. ”Oh, um... Right... Its a plane of eternal fire where damned existences go. Apparently.” Keyla seemed intrigued by this ’plane’ and asked. ”Oh did you learn that from the fire slut? Is that where she is from? Speaking of, fire slut, will you be joining us in the upcoming murder?”

Sol materialised herself upon my lap, her fire as dim as possible to not injure the beings in the tight vicinity with her Kindled. Apollo told a little white lie about her and decided to help him out before answering Keyla’s second question.

”Yes I am from the plane Apollo speaks of. Quite a dangerous place for those not affiliated with fire. Now, to answer your second question. No, I will not be participating. There are... certain rules I must follow now I have a body. Apollo cannot utilise my form in combat just yet, but that does not mean I will not be helping him during the fights to come. He is my kindled after all, I will do my all to keep him safe.”

Sol then turned serious towards Keyla, allowing a portion of the entity she is to radiate through her eyes. ”And my name is Sol. You address me accordingly, Bloodfiend.” The part of Keyla that was a Psionic murder machine felt a chill go through its existence at Sol’s glare, causing her to shiver.

Shortly after, Sol dissipated, giving me a kiss on the cheek for good luck as she did. Once she was gone, Orchid snuggled up and said. ”Orchid enjoyed your singing too Apollo love, she always does. What did you mean when you said you were Jewel’s righteous hand though? Orchid is confused by this.”

Pinching my glabella, I spent the next five minutes explaining that not all the songs I sing are my own and I had heard them elsewhere. Using Ecumenopolis 4 as an excuse. I was just relieved that Orchid did not ask about the songs I used to sing as a kid. I really did have no explanation for that one. I was also relieved that Keyla did not follow up and asked where I heard it from as what Spartari citizen would know the word hell?.

Suddenly, mid conversation, Something hit me. ”Jeez, how long does it take for the ship to reach the planet? I feel like we should have struck the planet by now.” My question was answered casually by Orchid as she said. ”We crashed nearly thirty minutes ago, Apollo-love. Can you sing another one of your songs now? Orchid still finds your voice enchanting.”

”Wait what!” I exclaimed loudly as I stood up straight, banging my head against the warrior ceiling. ”Are you sure? I did not feel any impact or lurching sensation, are you sure? shouldn’t the ball have at least moved a little bit?”

Orchid then explained that after we got into the ball, the ball had become surrounded by bio-forms so densely that they added as even more padding, the ball literally becoming unmoveable.

”Let me out. We need to catch up!” I said excitedly. Simply saying I wanted to leave, my warriors needed no link command and proceeded to exert themselves, the foam in between them breaking apart as they began movement.

As the warriors moved from underneath us, Orchid and I landed on our feet while Keyla fell on her rear, causing her to exclaim ’ow’ even though it did not hurt. After helping her up, I turned around and the thirty warriors were staring at me, their large heads with the extra thick exo plate on their heads, seemingly quivering with anticipation.

Looking at the eager cuties, I asked, ”can you take me to an exit?” Causing the warriors to split off in two groups in a moment. Orchid grew confused by this and tried to order the warriors and failed to do so, causing her to exclaim loudly. ”Apollo, call them back!”

Looking at her confused, I did not question her as I yelled. ”Um, warriors. Come back.” In a second, the warriors turned around and returned to their initial spot, seemingly awaiting my next command.

”Wow. I cannot believe the queen would do this... I suppose we do love you enough to trust you with this.” Orchid mumbled to herself, causing me to look at her with intrigue. Feeling my burning gaze, Orchid looked at me and melted as she thought of my reaction.

I quickly snapped my fingers, the noise causing Orchid to come to, as I put on a ’what’s going on?’ Face. Orchid then looked between me and the Warriors once more and smiled lovingly. ”Apollo. The Queen has rescinded her authority over these thirty bio-forms and has given you total authority. She is still within them to prevent them turning into a rogue Hive-mind, but she cannot control them in any way. The only being capable is you, our love.”

I had a totally neutral expression on my face hearing that. Turning away from Orchid, I moved closer to the warriors and connected a link to each one. ’Turn around and start wiggling your lower thorax.’ I relayed.

In a second, they did exactly as I asked, causing Keyla to start laughing at the sight before her. I stopped them shortly afterwards and made them do a few more things before I relayed. ’Open full link.’

All of a sudden, I was seeing myself through thirty different points in the room. It was disorientating, but manageable with my recent improvement to my Mindspace. However, the constant relay of thoughts and emotions as I was staring at myself became too much. The hive loved me way too much for me to see myself from their perspective.

It was an emotional overload so I severed the connection. ’A shame, being connected to the hive and me acting as the brain would have been incredible. If only I had a way to mute the emotions from the link. Then I would-’

”!!!”

Manifesting my helmet over my head I relayed my intentions to my Power armour ’Suppress all emotion coming in through the link, allow only perceptual stimuli.’ My suit was a hive being, but created differently. It had the capability to connect to the hive, but not on its own. With an actual hive being acting as a super computer for me, muffling out the needless emotions and thinking of the warriors before entering my link, I believed I was onto something.

Reengaging the link once more, I ordered the warriors to link to my power armour, which they did and I then released my link to them and linked to the Power armour as well. A moment later, I could see myself again from multiple angles. Not only was there no emotions so I was not at fret of falling madly in love with myself, I could now control the warriors with much less strain.

With now a massive smile on my face, I had half of the warriors come towards me with a simple thought and they began to surround me, interlocking their heads into a shield, leaving a window for me in the centre I could potentially shoot out of.

I practiced for a couple more minutes before I was satisfied. Pointing out my finger dramatically, I relayed. ’To the surface!’ and began following my warriors. For I was now Apollo: Hive-brain of thirty. And my hive-wife needed aid!