I could see better where the wall of ooze was retreating and used that to press our advantage. My helmet softened the glare of each spark strike, and I filled in the gaps their random strikes left. With the help of our drones, we pushed it back and reclaimed our area.

The drones did a great job of keeping out of our way, and I noticed all the hobbs did too. Nobody tripped, and there was no friendly fire with the Sleem Sticks, which I assumed would be unpleasant.

Once the hallways were flowing together better, the drones were able to keep order without us until the large, red block had moved on. The rank and file Sleem were next, packed in so tightly with one another that they filled the hallway too.

Oozes began trying to attack us, diverting from the main group in threes and fours. We mostly zapped them back in place, but at one point when we were getting overwhelmed, Rayna stepped in and sprayed down a group of them with napalm. They behaved better after that.

Cubes and orbs were mixed in with the rush of smaller Sleem, but they avoided trying to fight us. One particularly large cube even squeaked in fear and tried to surge forward when it went by. Eventually, the flow of sentient snot slowed, and only a few stragglers remained. We waited for them all to be gone, and I followed the progress on my map.

The Fumble-Bees hadn’t quite managed to keep them all going down the elevator, so there was a contingent of drones roaming the residential blocks and rounding up strays.

The bulk of it went down the elevator, and a new conflict began growing in experimentation.

The Sleem appeared to have realized what was happening and were actively resisting. The large block of red Sleem had adhered itself to one wall, and several oozes, orbs, and cubes were surrounding it, shooting globs of slime at the buzzing drones in an attempt to knock them into the concrete pillars.

My counter started to tick up for damaged drones, as more were released to compensate. The red jacket drones began working overtime, retrieving damaged Fumble-Bees from experimentation. They had to go through the ducting, as there was still a mass of Sleem in the way, so it took them longer to retrieve the drones.

I instructed the main group down there to break off and continue active mapping the area, instead of trying to push the Sleem down the elevator shaft.

“We have to go downstairs and help the drones,” I announced.

The active mapping showed the entire medical and testing wings clear of Sleem. Only the last of the mass retreating down the elevator shaft and what was in experimentation remained, but there was still a huge number of Sleem. Rayna had the situation pulled up on her own device, and nodded, before organizing her troops.

We walked in a wedge. Rayna took point, with the flamethrower up front. Tollya and half a dozen hobbs wielding rifles with tracers spread out in a pyramid formation behind her, spreading out to allow for my group as we carried the hive with us.

The closer it was to the action, the faster it could cycle drones. The remaining hobbs carrying plasma rifles brought up the rear, to protect us and the hive.

Our formation walked slowly, keeping pace with those of us hauling the hive. As we walked with the base of it held on our shoulders like a coffin, it still operated. I could feel the machinery inside humming through my bones.

As I watched the numbers of damaged drones, it began to even out. We had roughly six of our ten thousand Fumble-Bees in action to even out the numbers and keep moving the Sleem downward, but I noticed that a new tally had begun at the side of the read-out; repaired.

Almost a dozen drones that had been damaged at the start of this endeavor were now reading as repaired and back in action. That was faster than I had expected, but very welcome. We needed every drone we could get.

Walking down the bare, concrete steps was the hardest part, but we managed without incident. The hobbs were, to an individual, defined by their competence. None of them were superhuman, like the mordren, but they focused on the task and worked like all our lives depended on it.

I wondered how long they had lived under BuyMort.

To the point that work like this was considered normal, and their bodies had evolved to heal faster. Food like giant, lethal wasps sustained and invigorated them. I wondered what they had been before BuyMort. And what we would become through it.

A sharp bark from Rayna stopped us. We had moved down to the second residential level, and discovered Sleem at the elevator shaft waiting for us. The angry slimes were surrounded by Fumble-Bee drones, and flinched away from various sparks and snaps of electricity, but seemed very focused on our arrival, as multiple cubes and oozes rushed our front line.

A setting on the drones changed from shepherd to security, and the drones suddenly changed their focus. Tiny, red eye lights sprang into life, and the drone cloud swirled into spears. Each spear of Fumble-Bees hovered in front of a Sleem momentarily before plunging into it.

Once inside, the drones used their on board tasers to simultaneously ignite the Sleem. The cubes appeared able to withstand a single attack like this but were badly injured afterward. Oozes died on the spot.

This expenditure of energy required drones to recharge after being part of an attack formation, so the hive spun up to even higher levels of activity, and a steady stream of mechanical insects flew back and forth from the ever opening and closing doors. They formed up in front of us and killed any Sleem that got too close.

The cubes all retreated after being spiked, squealing in pain, and dropping themselves down the elevator shaft. We routed the Sleem without anyone having to fire a shot. I started to appreciate the Fumble-Bee hive, in spite of the cost. I would have loved to have had this thing as backup the night before.

Our push ended at the top of the stairs to experimentation. Rayna, Tollya, and I broke apart the mud-creted cube I had used to block pursuit the night before. I used Falcor to slice through it, and they carried chunks out until it fell apart and cascaded down the stairs in a tumble of crumbling solidified gelatin.

Below us a battle surged. Sleem spit globs at drones all over the room, and the instant we opened our stairwell we became a target too. Those of us carrying the hive set it down in a hurry, before rushing to ready our own weapons. I grabbed my shotgun and racked a laser slug into place.

Three cubes and a large orb rushed toward our group, followed closely by several oozes. I lit up the stairwell with a burst of crimson light. With the new and improved heat resistant barrel, my beam shined in the form of the threading, a segmented wheel.

I grinned as the beam became more visible in the smoke of burning Sleem, and the air filled with their dying fart screams. The light was so pretty in the dark.

I immediately racked another laser slug in place and fired, sweeping it across the oozes that rushed us. They too died.

Rayna and the other hobbs stood back and watched, their own weapons ready to assist me if needed. They were not, I held the stairwell by myself until the Sleem backed off and focused on their resistance against the Fumble-Bee drones.

It was going poorly for them, the smaller Sleem had already mostly been pulled away to the tunnel with repeated shocks. A steady, but resistant stream of cubes and orbs were being pulled away from the wall, but the giant wall of red Sleem was still there, and still defiantly clutching the far wall.

It had dozens of Sleem hidden with it, around the edges and nestled behind it. It was chaos, with little firefly zaps lighting up the massive underground room and showcasing just how many Sleem were down there with us. Thousands.

If we didn’t have the Fumble-Bee hive to sow chaos with them and prevent a solid offense, we would have been overrun easily. Thankfully, Rayna was a smart shopper and the device lived up to its marketing for shepherding.

Since we had brought it closer, the fight was going in our direction, with drones returning for charging and repair much easier, over a significantly shorter travel distance.

Tollya clutched a crystalline grenade nervously as we descended the stairs. Rayna and I led, weapons ready. I slipped fresh laser slugs into my new shotgun as I went. The block on the wall was our target, and Rayna started off by unleashing the flamethrower against the side of it nearest to us.

The screaming fart rumbled through the walls, and I saw more than one hobb cover their ears. The block undulated away like a worm, but clung to the wall, even using it to put out the flames on its body. It didn’t move far away, but as soon as we followed it, the block moved a little further.

The second time it did this, Rayna held up a fist to stop us. The stream of retreating Sleem had stopped, and was more engaged in fighting their drones, trying to hold position. “Retreat! Up the stairs!” Rayna suddenly yelled.

We all did as she said, but the Sleem moved as one. Our retreat was cut off, and the Fumble-Bee hive was engulfed. It had a mode for that exact scenario, but that involved closing all external doors and occasionally issuing a small shock to discourage the Sleem.

From the bottom of the stairs, I watched as multiple oozes gathered around the hive to repeatedly engulf it. They would wear down the charge rapidly, and without ambient sunlight to recharge itself with, or a dedicated power supply, that would be the end of it.

The Sleem pushed in on our defenses, and I looked to Tollya. She had the grenade key out and was holding it up in the air. Just waiting for the order. As the giant red block of Sleem moved toward us, Rayna gave it.

“Kill!” It was just one word, but I felt the frustration and anger behind it. We had walked into it, after all. I shook my head as Tollya threw the grenade. We should have waited at the top of the stairs.

Lightning flashed, and a ball of hot arcs formed around the grenade, suddenly immobile in mid-air. It burst, and the black liquid inside sloshed at the edges of the lightning shield encasing it. The liquid bubbled and smoked out, as the pure electricity flooding the room expanded.

Walls of lightning raced up and down the concrete underground, lighting up the air and dazzling many of the hobbs at my side. Thousands of Fumble-Bee drones sparked and died.

My helmet protected me from the worst of it, but the rush of vacuum and freezing temperature that followed I felt. Something tore in the air overhead, and all of us were momentarily lifted off our feet. I glanced up to see a rend in the fabric of reality, and blackness speckled with stars on the other side.

The creature passing through the rift immediately caught my attention though. It didn’t make much sense to my eyes, and it kind of hurt to even look at it.

I blinked hard as I was lifted bodily toward the creature and rift by rushing air evacuating the underground complex. The creature was a series of hardened rings wrapped in tentacles, spinning slowly around a core of pure light.

Eyeballs of various sizes coated each ring and rose on stalks, and as I stared, I noticed the light in the center had a pupil and moved much like an eyeball itself.

The rift snapped shut behind it and dropped us all again, to collapse in heaps on the concrete. I had the distinct impression that if the rift had stayed open, we all would have been sucked out into space.

A deep, rumbling voice sounded in the room.

“BEHOLD,” it commanded, and all of us did.