The hivemind is conquering for me?

Yacob came back a few minutes later, cleaning his hands with a rag. He then put the rag away with a satisfied smile before yelling. ”Alright everyone gather round!” He then waited while everyone began to gather around before continuing.

”Before I begin on our topic focus of today, does anyone have any questions regarding what they have seen so far? Questions about the wing, the building, the inhabitants. Feel free- Ah, yes you there. You have a question?”

The woman he just addressed them spoke up with a stammer. ”U-U-Um. Y-You have some blood on your cheek.”

Yacob then brought his hand to his face before laughing. ”Oh! Whoopsie! He is quite the spurter at times that one. He-he-he.”

After cleaning himself up, he then pointed at another raised hand who asked. ”A thousand victories sir. I couldn’t help noticing during my look around just then that a particular enemy is missing from this treacherous place. I assume there is a reason for that?”

Yacob chuckled at that question, knowing exactly what creatures the man was referring to, it was one of the most asked questions from the previous for visitors. ”Yes, the scourge of the north... I apologise for their absence. You see we have tried to capture them on numerous occasions. Different levels of strength from the little workers all the way to basilisks and queen guards, but during transportation, they mysteriously die no matter the condition they are in. We have tried everything from sedation to some.... Risky Psionics that I am not at liberty to discuss. Nothing works. Those insects are quite the elusive prey. But worry not, we will have one inside this research facility eventually. Now anyone else? Yes you!”

My body clenched at the mention of the hive. And I stopped listening. I was missing her a lot right now and the thought of her having to sever her connection and killing precious little bio forms because they were captured cut me deeply. ’Poor cuties...’

...

Gabrielle felt her son clench at the mention of the swarm and felt a deep sickness in the pit of her stomach. He felt a rage towards those creatures perhaps even greater than her own. That planet, by her mistake, was his. For it to be lost. For him to be exiled away from his loving mother. It was all their fault.

She silently squeezed his bicep and rubbed his back while giving him a soft smile hiding the message that it was ok and together they would have revenge.

...

Feeling Gabrielle’s touch, I must have let my emotions show a bit too much, though judging by the look she was giving me, it appeared the fake backstory of hating my darling bug wife was working once more so I just mouthed. ’I’m fine’ before turning my attention back to Yacob.

”-So in conclusion, if you attempt to stick your penis anywhere near one of the creatures in this place, prepare to have it cut off and force fed down your throat before I feed your entrails to my beasts. Now, any further questions?”

The room didn’t dare to move, clearly I had missed something seriously crazy just then, but Yacob continued.

”Excellent. Now show of hands, who here has seen a Drakoshi before?” A good amount of hands went up, almost all from the veterans. Gabrielle also lifted her hand.

”About 80% of you. Not bad. Now how many of you have seen a Drakoshi warlord before?” Almost all the hands went down, only three remained. Two veterans that were basically cyborgs at this point with the amount of metal augments they had and also Gabrielle which caused me to look at her in surprise. And I wasn’t the only one.”

”Cease your murmuring and ignore that one, she’s an outlier. Those two over there are the second common results of coming into contact with a Drakoshi Warlord, the most common being death. Well, I have good news. We have one here and all of you get to see them today. Oh you three, if you don’t want to see it, feel no need. I am sure your psyches have had enough of them for your lifetimes. Now, before we get to them. For the others that have never seen a Drakoshi before, we will go and look at some new grown first. Follow me!”

I was a little bit excited to see a Drakoshi I had to admit. Everyone talked about them as being these menaces and warmongers that were the epitome of battle. I hated to pull from my past life, but the image of an orc was what was inside my head at the thought of them.

However, I was utterly disappointed in that regard when I came to see them. They looked nothing alike.

The creatures in front of me were three meters tall with grey skin. They looked a little odd. Alien for sure. I had a tough visual indicator to compare them to. The closest I could think of was if a buffalo had its face squashed flat, its teeth turned razor sharp and its horns removed for a complete bald look. They also had sharp clawed hands and clawed feet. The Drakoshi in front of me had tiny red eyes and all twelve of them were wearing matching grey armour with orange power accents.

The most striking thing though, and I wasn’t sure if this was me being race blind or not, was that they all looked identical. Nothing different about them. This particular group of Drakoshi upon noticing our arrival charged at the barrier head first and began wailing on it screaming and crying out in anger hurling what I assumed to be insults in their language and a few definite insults in very broken Spartari and laughed at what they yelled between the perpetual onslaught. The entire group seemed genuinely enraged by the sight of the Drakoshi. ’I guess it makes sense? There is a generational hatred, but...’

I couldn’t help finding them hilarious to look at in their current state. They just looked like little goofballs. Well, three meter tall goofballs, but goofballs all the same.

”Zip it you lot or no dinner!” Yacob suddenly yelled at the Drakoshi at which point all of them simultaneously flipped off Yacob before walking away. Yacob then turned his back to them and then to the group.

”Drakoshi. A warmongering faction of extra galactic aliens that have been making colonies in our galactic south for decades now. While most of their attention is against the coalition, the amount of troops they send our way is truly no joke as our wars against the Drakoshi have caused more casualties in the last ten years than we have in the last one hundred against the Coalition. For those perhaps keenly versed from your service, these twelve are Drakoshi of the Vim clan with the easy to spot tell of their red eyes.”

”VIM!”

The twelve Drakoshi in the closure all shouted gutturally at the sound of their clan name before beginning to look around the room clueless at Yacob’s glare.

”Vim-” Yacob turned around quickly as the twelve went to open their mouths again and turned around after they firmly shut. ”-Are a specialised clan with a high affinity for technology. They are considered among their kind as general all rounders. Not specifically the best at one particular type of warfare and usually support other clans as pseudo mercenaries. As a result Vim- - are the most spotted of Drakoshi we encounter as their clan is less likely to be wiped out in one engagement and don’t have to retreat to whatever cesspool their cloning vats are on to make more.”

Yacob took pause to look around, most of the veterans looked bored already knowing this stuff, but the younger ones were eager to learn about their greatest enemy. ”Now does anyone have any questions about these twelve before I continue to explain more about Drakoshi over at Grimshank?”

My hand instantly shot up alongside a few others and with us being good chums, Yacob called on me first. ”Apollo.”

”Yeah, quick question. Why are they still in their armour? Shouldn’t it be confiscated or something?” I asked and Yacob chuckled.

”An astute observation, Apollo, and to answer your question bluntly. We cannot remove their armour. ”You see, Drakoshi biology is, let’s just say... Crazy. These twelve are very young Drakoshi. They were probably only a day old at most when we captured them from the battlefield they were on. When a Drakoshi is created, their DNA is fused with their armour. In their culture it’s called a ’fodder assistant’. Weaklings, such as these twelve need a little boost when they first learn to fight. Over time, as they get older and stronger with each battle, their armour falls away from them, their biology rejecting the signs of weakness at which point they will wear as little armour as possible. Though they still will wear clothes, leather, the occasional pauldron for style points, but they aren’t exhibitionists like the Starforged. It’s just that armour is a no go. For the Vim at least. But we will discuss more about their biology in the dissection I have planned later.”