[Mars]

[0 Hours in base reality]

Mehbla Vayatsundero stood tall and proud.

The central pillar glowed as the life systems of Vayatsundero herself hungered.

The projections of the battlefield flickered to life.

The Great Mother was represented where the throne sat. Before the throne was the human home planet.

Mars. Sol. Milky Way Galaxy. Virgo Supercluster. Oosak-Surang Megacluster.

Why they called it the red planet when it was obviously blue and green, Mehbla did not know. Nor did she care.

The Great Mother demanded sustenance. Which was what the planet was full of.

Humans were not the most nutritious. What they lacked in meat, they made up for in numbers.

“Let the Harvest commence!” Mehbla commanded.

The pillar wiggled as the life pods of his communication drones began their work. The interlinked minds talked to their fleets, and thus Vayatsundero came out of subspace.

Acting as a beacon, the Great Mother shined in the darkness of space. Her children followed.

Martian Central Command lit up as an armada appeared on their front porch.

—

[Mars]

[24 Hours in base reality]

Rennnah twitched. The lifepod she resided in transferred her thoughts into the fighter pod she had piloted since she was a grub.

The oval, sunseed-like-ship was a sleek, and a living companion to her. She was the ship, and the ship was her. Their relationship type was as old as time. Like a grub and her pet.

The planet's orbital defenses were now crippled. A limping beast trying to give outs its last roar.

Looks like the legend of warrior-like humans was as believed. Nothing more than a passive race of meal grubs.

Which made sense. Humans possessed limited senses and hilariously thin carapaces. Though it was true that making them bleed did not always result in death.

The soulless, inelegant metal fighters danced through the void with her. Those that were left at any rate.

Outnumbered, the human’s only real defenses were the orbital rings that were currently being torn apart.

{Humans fighters have reduced j88%. Orbital defenses j71%.}

{Glory to the Interstellar Void Wings! Orbital Landings are approved.}

{All Interstellar Void Wings are to shift to escort duties!}

Rennnah felt joy sweep through her.

The ship’s muscles flexed and her speed increased as she quickly joined the 117th wing, 13th locust swarm. Glory to her Queen!

Once Orbital Landing has been completed, the feast would begin!

Fresh food!

Oh, how she hungered for something other than the standard resin rations.

—

[Mars]

[48 Hours in base reality]

Gol-Resh used her upper-arms to rub at her sister’s antennas. The red paint signaled their warrior's spirits.

The simple bowl in her bottom-hands was already almost empty. The line of her sisters was down to just one last one.

Gol-Rea moved up and kneeled.

“Glory to our Queen! Glory to our 44th colony!” Gol-Resh intoned as she dipped in her top-hands into the bowl, and then rubbed her sister’s antennas.

Gol-Rea was the youngest in this brood. The eldest would charge out first, to pave way for the youngest.

The experience of battle was the hard-earned right of the living. A warrior's right to live here in the 211th Brood, 44th Colony.

The final paste was then used to rub the red color onto her own antennas.

{3rd wave is to fly in 30 minutes. 3rd wave is to fly in 30 minutes}

Gol-Resh nodded and looked at her sisters. The strong, sleek killing machines that millennia of natural selection had honed them.

The first two waves were full of glory, but it was the 3rd and 4th that where results mattered.

Gol-Resh blew into her conch, allowing the vibrations to fill the air. The 211th Brood twittered as their antennas shook at the frequency.

Then they began to march into the resin-spore reinforced mega-grub. The centipede-like creature was huge, and they would ride it down to the planet.

The distant horns of the other broods made her antenna tingle. Gol-Resh looked up, and there at the hiveship’s walls was the picture of her Queen. 44th Queen and her great-mother.

“All aboard!”

Gol-Resh saluted her void-sister. The frigate class warship was to deliver them planetside.

“Off to war we go!~” the girls began to sing.

Gol-Resh made sure to be extra loud as the commander of this brood.

Today was to be full of glory, and food.

—

[Mars]

[60 Hours in base reality]

Lady Gol-Reesa stood at the side of her queen.

21,456th Gol Queen. Orisa.

The humans had finally rallied and were currently warping in reinforcements.

Which was pitiful. Their hive world had been under assault for 22 hours and this was their first major response?

The 3rd and 4th waves were already on the ground, gaining territory and paving the way for the 5th wave.

From the looks of things, the 44th Colony was going to earn much glory. Which meant a better share of the delicacies of this human species.

Their fragile and passive nature was the perfect target for the Vayatsundero. The Great Mother was unscathed and now her children were beginning to shatter the capital city of their hive world.

A blip appeared on the map.

Lady Gol-Reesa frowned as she took several steps forward. The small blip was not exactly a fleet. But they were large enough to register individually on the sensors. There were dozens of these ships.

[Focus on this] Gol-Reesa though to the command pillar.

Several of the communication drones did as she requested. The image enlarged and showed off a standard human battleship.

Lady Gol-Reesa watched in confusion as another two ships docked to each other via its sides.

While the resulting odd metal mating of the three ships made a bigger ship with more guns, the heat faster buildup would negate any real advantages it would have.

Then the ships began to fire at them.

Which didn’t work as the minute imperfections of their weapons did not give them enough accuracy.

{Human hybrid ships are heating up. J68% of the calculated maximum before human system failure.} the communication drones relayed to her.

For minutes Lady Gol-Reesa watched as they simply fired at them. Out of the hundreds of attacks, only one hit. Which glanced off their shields.

Two dozen hybrid human battleships firing at them, and only one hit. She was tempted to send out a swarm at them, but there was a noticeable influx of human fighter ships.

Then a big blip came.

It looked like a human refinery ship. They were common enough across the universe. All in one machine. They could dig for materials. Process it into base ore. Then smelt it into bars for easy sales.

This one was unusually large. Then the hybrids began to dock with that.

What the hell!?

Even Queen Orisa took notice as the four hybrids joined the refinery into one super ship.

{Ships designs are j72% in compliance with all known records. j28% deviation due to potential military redesign. Outer hybrid ships quickly losing heat to what is potentially a heat-system mega-core.}

The mega-hybrids then began to lumber forward. Their incredible mass made them slow, and their turn times would have been atrocious. Yet advance they did.

{Send a swarm to deal with them.}

“Yes, my queen.” Gol-Reesa bowed and sent the mental commands.

[Send the nearest swarm to intercept. I want them broken!]

The display showed as an entire swarm detached and began to intercept. Gol-Reesa smiled.

Space battles were in many cases more complex then ground warfare. Her sister could prattle all day about how hard it was on a 2d plane, but it was in space that tactics were what made or broke a fight.

Humans were pathetic.

—

[Mars]

[68 Hours in base reality]

The scream of the hiveship rocked her mind.

Queen Orisa hissed as her left shoulders felt inflames from the intense heat.

The mega-hybrids were ridiculous. Their design was a hodgepodge of slapped-together systems.

Two large ships for weapons. Two larges ships were dedicated to shields. Then eight smaller ships dedicated to power generation.

The hybrid ship's central hole began to spin up.

“Evasive Maneuvers” Gol-Reesa screamed out. A sign of her stress.

{Requesting aid, Mahbla Vayatsundero} Queen Orisa thought out to the Great Mother.

The humans were concentrating on her colony. Most likely because they were the closest.

Say what you will about humans. They knew how to sacrifice as well as they could.

Though their technology was far rougher and far less elegant. A ship with large guns and durable shields was one thing.

An assault refinery that could spit out 2-ton blobs liquid carbon? This was insensible.

Yet she could not deny its effectiveness. The great hiveship of the 44th colony had already lost its outer carapace from two strikes.

This third one would break into the delicate organs and then they would have some real problems.

The 43rd, 42nd, and 41st colony hiveships were already en-route to support.

It would not matter if they died here.

Their combined swarms were already assaulting the mega-hybrids. Six had been destroyed.

Six of twenty-four. Half of which was sitting in the back of their formation.

They were testing them on their colony!

Queen Orisa's emotions raged but kept her mind calm. Her locusts' swarm was currently devastated. j84% dead.

[My Queen, more mega-hybrids are forming behind the planetary moons. We are counting another fifty of these mega-hybrids… along with another strange ship. It resembles a mega-combat-drone.

It resembled the biped humans. Except it was missing half of its legs. Stunted stumps that had claws to most likely dig into what it latched onto.

A giant drill was in its hands. A battleship sized drill.

What was this?

{All hiveships are to form up beside the Great Mother. The human resistance has increased multifold. New ships are effective against our ship carapace.}

Queen Orisa sighed as the 41st swarm destroyed the mega-hybrid that was assaulting her.

{We move!} Queen Orisa ordered and she felt her, and by extension, her hiveship, began to limp into a much closer formation.

Humans were weak yes. Yet it seemed that they were no strangers to war.

—

[Mars]

[88 Hours in base reality]

Mehbla Vayatsundero sat on her throne. Her posture sagged as she watched Vayatsundero scream in rage. She shook as the intense emotions ripped through her mind.

Vayatsundero's pain was her pain. Vayatsundero's rage was her rage.

From her vantage, she could feel the pain as the 21st hiveship yell out in pain. The mega-combat-drone was currently drilling into the hiveship.

Vayatsundero lashed out. It's very simplistic psychic assault was like a tsunami as it smashed into the damaged humanoid body.

It separated at the joints. Before blossoming into an explosion.

By the grace of Vayatsundero, no hiveship had fallen yet. Though some were in very poor shape.

From the information given, two queens had lost j99% of their swarms.

Mehbla scowled.

This was no longer a simple harvest. It was simple and undeniable. She had chosen poorly.

These humans were obviously no strangers to war. Their ability to absorb losses, and remain combat calm showed that they had simply laid low in the sands.

They had two choices.

Fight to the end, where the survivors would feast. They would win but at a cost.

Leave, and save the queens. Ancient lineages that had served Vayatsundero faithfully. Even now, the most injured queens were ready to spearhead a counter assault.

{We leave!} The telepathic message was clear to everyone as they were all close.

Vayatsundero roared.

A massive discharge hurt the minds of everyone. Then it enveloped the whole super-colony and faded into hyperspace.

“You have proven your fangs, today Humans. Tomorrow we will meet in again!” Mehbla screamed as Vayatsundero tore through the thin veils of reality.

The super-colony would survive. Then they would meet up with the others.

This wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot.