The hivemind is conquering for me?

”What do you mean you retreated from the fight? Were you created yesterday?” A thirteen foot Drakoshi yelled at the top of his lungs down at the hundreds of cowards that had the audacity to come into his forward base after not heading his call, but the call of the calamitous trio

One of the more confident of those in front of him, looked up and replied ”Uma. Yes, I was boss. We all were. Our group were told our entire eighteen hours of life before our first battle about the greatness of the calamitous trio. That’s why we joined their call. We were told they were war heroes of the great Emoth clan, but they were all killed in single combat by the small pink ones, some blue thing and a medium sized snake. Kragg Skullbreaker, we were fools for thinking their stories were true. The trio were clearly vain, glory takers. Not like your strength. Allow us to join your warband and we will be the first to crash into the enemies line in your name!”

”Heh, heh, heh.” Kragg chuckled to himself before taking off his leather vest and tossing it to the side, revealing his grey body of pure muscles, though much leaner than other Drakoshi his size. ”Tell you what, chums. It’s been a right proper age since I’ve had so many Emoth weaklings still fresh in their armour kneel before me like this. As a Dinnac it makes my hearts O’ so happy.”

He then looked over the group in front of him and nodded. ”Tell you what, there are one hundred and seventeen of you. Kill each other till fifty of you are left and that will prove you ain’t no cowards. You have five seconds to begin before my Warlads start shootin’. Five.”

No more time was needed before the brawl began. In a fight like this, a free for all. It was not the strongest that won... No clan Dinnac didn’t need strength, they made their own. They weren’t like the other clans. They cared nothing for personal pride.

As Kragg looked down at the Emoth fresh grown he spotted Dinnac traits in a few of them. The smart ones banded together to take out the strongest. The threats. Together, the weak killed the strong and only turned on each other when the strong were ripped apart.

This was good.

Kragg was an old Drakoshi at this point. Fifteen years old and still not a Warlord after all the battles he had fought in. For the other clans, this would be disgraceful. But he didn’t care. Kragg had plans. He wouldn’t throw his life away for ’honour’ But he would use its influence on the Drakoshi to make him seem more powerful. It worked perfectly as he raised his hand and shouted.

”Halt!”

His voice shouted and looked round once more as everything turned silent. Drakoshi don’t usually infight, at least not in the colonies, but when they did. It was fast and efficient. In just a few minutes sixty seven Emoth were dead.

”Those of you left. You are Dinnac now. You will begin training in mixed armed warfare with my armoured brigade. Unfortunately we are stuck here for the next few days on defence as your so called ’heroes’ allowed all of our munitions depots from here to who knows where be destroyed by the feeble pink skins. The moment we have more guns, from the reinforcement ships, is the moment we begin our offensive.”

”For Dinnac!”

”Dinnac!

”Vim!”

He then rolled his eyes at the vim mercenaries in the distance being little runts, but let it pass for now. He had war plans to write up.”

...

After being filled in about what happened with Keyla and Willow and couldn’t help rub my eyes with stress. Willow, while not physically powerful. Her aura, both passive and active, was too dangerous. One mote of resistance during her transformation. One thought from her mind and the whole bio cult would have died...

The thought left a knot in my stomach. But the way Willow was looking at me now... There was no doubt in my mind after seeing it so much in so many individuals. The parasite had stuck in her Mindspace. She was one of us now. The microscopic portion of Jewel now within her DNA had made it so my boon had stuck. So far though, she was only displaying Eros, being quite polite in her affections and only trying to hug me, but who knew when that would change?

Though that was quite welcome right now, as I didn’t think of Willow like that before, so it would take time for me to adjust to her as a portion of my mate. Still, it was nice to have more hive around, especially when I wasn’t expecting any more than Onyx.

Fortunately I didn’t have to think about all that for too long though, as Nerissa, alongside Sithrik, found the three of us in our little hiding spot.

I greeted Sithrik first. ”Hey, Sithrik. Onyx told me you did very well running down the enemy. Good job.”

Sithrik then proceeded to coil up next to me, making it a point to use the end of her tail to initiate contact. ”Oh Apollo, you set my heart aflame with your compliment. These ’Drakoshi’ are much simpler to kill than I originally thought. You should spend a day on my home planet, these creatures wouldn’t last a minute.”

”Hmm, a large talking snake? Cool.” Willow spoke like she had seen more outlandish things prompting Sithrik to address the newcomer. ”Apollo, who is this? This is not the pink haired one we came with? Is this a new concubine?”

Everyone present then looked at me with varying levels of emotional intensity. So I proceeded forward with the best course of action.

”So, Nerissa. Did you get in touch with everyone else?” I asked.

”Hmm~” Nerissa hummed curiously before following up normally. ”Yes. I got through. Some were wounded on our side, but no mortal injuries. Our drop pod squad rendezvoused with the others no problem and all of them are on their way here.

Serena was impressed with our handywork. Apparently those silver pauldrons were some local figureheads with quite the high bounty on their heads. So she has ordered us, well, you to aid the current special forces here with their behind the lines missions for now. As the longer we stall the Drakoshi in setting up a true beachhead on the planet, the better our chances are at taking the planet back in a shortened time parameter.”

Hearing that, Willow clapped excitedly. ”Looks like we are going to be working together. How fun!”

I ignored that remark for now and followed up Nerissa with a question. ”So what are the current time parameters for this war? In your opinion?”

Nerissa looked away for a moment in thought before returning her attention back to me. ”Drakoshi are notoriously difficult to get rid of when they invade a planet, especially when they bring mobile cloning facilities to the front lines. That alone adds at least a month of grinding fighting... Plus the territory they have already taken is almost all hilly. Troublesome...

Plus I noticed a mix of at least five clans since our drop in so that means even more reinforcements than usual... Best case scenario. We will be here for two months, but that is with nothing going wrong across all regions of the planet... Worst case, the Drakoshi don’t get bored of this fight and see this as a vital resource world for their empire... We could be looking at a long campaign here.”

I frowned upon hearing that. That was kind of a bummer. I had wanted to be home in a couple of months to celebrate my birthday with Jewel... ’Looks like I am going to have to put in maximum effort if I want to get back sooner rather than later.’ I thought to myself.

”Ok then, what are our next orders?” I asked.

”Nothing for now. Our group is going to take a while to get here, they have been ordered to sweep the surroundings from where they landed to look out for Drakoshi stragglers. For now, we rest. We have only been active a few hours so far, but it is best to rest now and regret not doing so later.”

At the talk of rest, Willow yawned and patted me on the shoulder. ”The Praetorian can say that again. I-*yawn* I have been up for three days straight at this point, so as much as I want to stay up and talk more, I have a little spoon named Rhea waiting for me in the barracks.”

She then stood up, yawned once more and proceeded to leave the small tent I had ’requisitioned’.

Once she left though, the toll of fighting, running, fighting and hiking suddenly took its toll as my brain had a wonderful thought. ’Yeah, I could do with a nap.’

” Oh, Loch Ness Monster, you are a genius at times. I am going to take you up on that advice, you care to join me?”

Nerissa had seemed to freeze in place for a moment before replying, uncharacteristically. ”Wha? Oh, um, no that’s ok. I am going to do some perimeter checks and figure out more intel about the current situation. Enjoy your nap, Apollo.” She then hastily walked out of the tent.

I shrugged my shoulders at her reaction before a large serpentine eye gleamed at me. I then rolled my own as I got on the floor.

”Fine, you can join me, Sithrik. It will be nice to have a blanket that envelops my entire being like a tight cocoon again.”