Forging a Team
It had been a few days since the total subjugation of Salt Lake Station. It took two of them to finally track down the last of the holdouts of UOF soldiers and civilians hiding in the warrens of the city-station's expansive lower levels, devoted to maintenance, industrial, and engineering processes and accesses. Gina had not been involved directly, as she was busy making sure all of the security and computer systems throughout the station were thoroughly subverted.
Fortunately, corrupting the last of the humans was done without further casualties... Gina didn't think ABYT could've taken more after the grim discovery at the heart of the central spire.
The Queen had ordered that shelter be turned into a mausoleum and memorial, and all those who perished within were then interred, along with those who had sadly died in the battle to take the station.
Gina still felt that ABYT wasn't dealing with what happened well... swearing off more ambitious plans because she feared more people would die in numbers did not seem healthy, and potentially risked the Cluster being absorbed by another Queen in the system, and there were a few powerful ones pushing the front lines...
But Gina was in no position to sway ABYT's mind. And Gina wasn't about to push her Queen so soon after the tragedy.
Besides, it was pointless dwelling on such unpleasantness. There were many glorious new beginnings since Salt Lake Station was captured, and it was already undergoing total conversion.
The high-rise human buildings were choked with great metallic roots, worming all around them and sending smaller tendrils deep into their interiors, breaking down or repurposing anything of use, the material used to facilitate other Machinium growth.
Other things were preserved, pictures and art and other such personable items left alone to be included in the new Hive. ABYT wasn't big on completely erasing the culture that all Machina came from, preferring to integrate it into their new evolved existence.
The complete reconstruction of the station wasn't going to be achieved with the material found on the station alone, so ore and rock taken from the refinery stations ABYT had conquered before gifting them away to other Queens was brought to provide additional material to draw from, along with scrap from everywhere and anywhere, UOF war machines broken down and recycled, or used for the bodies of larger Cat 3 Machina, like the Scorpion Types. The wrecked fighters that had defended the space around the station suffered a similar fate, but the UOF Frigate had not; a large vessel like that was valuable to ABYT, as a transport, and a defensive craft against potential UOF counterattack, or challenges from other Queens.
Gina walked along a street, the road divided by numerous criss-crossing conduits of Machinium, sending their tiny feelers into the metal and concrete around, slowly breaking down and repurposing material, Bee-types and other construction Machina hard at work forging the bland and uniform human dwellings into what was to become a winding, labyrinthine hive, insectoid and strange in nature. Like a great nest, ABYT's Machina would flourish here, breeding new generations of Larvae, and making new Machina from whatever humans that had the good fortune to be brought here before they were corrupted.
A Centipede-type skittered past Gina, brushing their hair aside and carrying what appeared to be a canister divided into sections, full of different coloured M2, M2 she had no doubt 'extracted' personally. The scientist Machina gave Gina only a brief nod in courtesy, but Gina could feel their excitement over the network, so the elongated Machina must have achieved some sort of breakthrough, however small.
To her side, Gina saw a petite-framed Machina being hit-on by a pair of burly Beetle-types, the former eyeing the latter's throbbing members with a look mixing sheepish nerves with salacious desire.
Gina smirked to herself, and continued, passing through a mess of tentacles that parted and brushed loosely around her, permitting her passage, though she was pleasantly groped. The writhing column of tendrils were forming a spire of mundane importance to the Hive's future functioning.
The glass dome high above had darkened since the station's capture, many, many veins of Machinium permeating through the reinforced transparent windows, Jupiter a little less clear now. How much of the dome was going to remain by the time Salt Lake's conversion was complete, Gina couldn't say.
She looked ahead, to the unrecognisable central spire of the station; once a needle-like tower for the administrators and the most elite of the station's inhabitants, it had taken on an almost organic, twisting appearance, numerous glowing lights and pipes pumping pure M2 prickling it in a dazzling constellation of blues, purples and greens. Branches of Machinium grew off it, snaking into nearby buildings, slowly forming passages connecting the blobby nodes that were once smaller surrounding buildings, now satellite structures for what was the heart of the hive. Only the Mausoleum possessed any semblance of former human architecture, but it was not visible from the outside, held deep within the new Hive.
ABYT was no doubt somewhere in that new core, resting and coming to terms with herself whilst overseeing the creation of her Hive, and forming the supraluminal communications connection between the station and her old Hive on Amalthea, which she had retained as a secret research base, and private retreat.
Gina was curious to see what kind of new Larva strains she would create from the facilities there, along with new types of Machina to forge humans into, as well as upgrades for her existing Machina.
A lot of fun, depraved upgrades, Gina hoped.
However, the Spire was not Gina's destination, instead finding a hole in the ground that led deep into the heart of the station.
She had to use her flight systems to arrest her fall, though she could've easily landed without harm. 'Super hero landings', however, just felt ostentatious to Gina.
But now she was in the lower levels of the station, and it was unrecognisable from before; it was a warren even then, but at least it was
mostly
navigable to the average human, built largely like a grid and in a semi-uniform manner.
With the density of material, however, it was the quickest part of the station to be reformatted into the now winding, almost organic labyrinth that lived up to the name 'hive'.
A human would've easily gotten lost, especially with the many passages that were not obvious to the naked eye, with some of the patches of conduits actually serving as doors, not that a human would be wise to try and pass through one, lest they get snared.
Sometimes the tunnels went vertical, other times they seemingly led nowhere, others had perilous abysses, Gina passing over a small bridge of tightly interwoven conduits spanning a gap that seemingly had no bottom.
And with the only light coming from the many glowing points pricking the curvy walls of this 'underground' den, the gloom only made the grey machinium walls all the less defined.
But for a Machina, navigation was effortless. The layout of the Hive, even as it evolved, was imprinted into their Quantum brains, and they navigated to places they hadn't even been to as if from memory. The Hive constantly spoke to them, communicated with them, shared data and information. It was as simple as a human walking down the block to the corner store.
That was one reason Machina Hives were so difficult to assault by REPAIR and the UOF. They didn't always follow logical or even outwardly efficient layouts, and many were built to be deliberately complex for invaders, either as a defensive consideration only, or because the Queen wanted to make any attack on her lair a delicious game for her to enjoy, with traps and gauntlets abounding.
ABYT hadn't gone to such lengths, assuming the confusing nature of the Hive and the many normal traps and prowling Machina would provide sufficient 'natural' gauntlets to provide entertainment and defence. Especially with the Spider-Types finding places to create 'nests' strategically around the station to continue their duties as guards and security trappers, lying in wait to catch any human who
might
have managed to get away from their captors in this place, and to make any UOF or REPAIR operation all the more difficult.
And, of course, catching any wayward Machina who happened to fall into their threads; Gina entered a somewhat straight and wide passage, but took a wide berth around a spot near the middle, her sensors picking up a concealed hole in the ceiling, where a Spider-Type laid in wait.
As soon as she passed, she received a message over the Cluster Network.
[You're no fun]
