“Agreed” came a distant reply.

Mark looked over his shoulder to see that Terra had already made a break for it. He just shook his head and tore off after her, his drone flying unconcerned behind him. The rumbling footfalls continued unabated. From the rhythm the rumbling made, he concluded that it was a quadrupedal creature.

As he sprinted after his fleeing companion, he noted something off about the cave. He could see the random stalactite in the bouncing beam of the flashlight, but noted the floor was surprisingly level. There had only been a few stalagmites and they had been much smaller than they should be. Vaulting over one of those stalagmites as he ran was enough to answer his question. There was a loud crack from behind him, as whatever was chasing them stepped on, and crushed, the rock protrusion into powder.

“So not good,” he grumbled under his breath. Putting on an extra burst of speed he closed the distance with Terra, to run at her side. “You left me,” he accused as they hoofed it.

“Oh stop whining Old man,” she said with a forced smile. “We both know how slow you are, if I’d have wanted to leave you behind, you’d have never caught me.” He had to admit she had a point. He was still far from her equal in attributes.

The pair continued to run, occasionally checking over their shoulders. They couldn’t see anything in the blackness but couldn’t resist looking anyway. Eventually Mark spotted a narrow crack in the ground ahead.

“Look” he said pointing. “I think we could fit.”

“Yea, but will we be able to get back out again?” she asked dubiously, eyeing him as they dashed forward.

“Who knows, but we can’t outrun this thing.”

“You have a point,” she admitted. Sprinting forward and diving into the crack ahead of him.

“This girl,” he muttered diving in after her. Getting his drone down after him proved a challenge, but he managed by ordering it to collapse into its storage mode, just in time.

With a loud, boom, a massive foot slammed down above the crack in the ground. The edges crumbled and caved in. Mark lay on his back in the narrow gap, rocks tumbling done onto where he was hiding. The foot was so close he could reach out and touch it.

“What now genius?” Terra asked as she crawled further down the gap. “A few more stomps and it will be on us. Also, I can’t go any further the crack is too narrow back here.”

“Shit” he said as he scooted back into her, holding the drone in his arms. He couldn’t reach his rifle anymore; it was sandwiched between him and Terra. That limited his options, “I could try to shoot it with the IT3?” he said, his tone a question. The hand gun was extremely powerful, but the bullets were tiny. He didn’t know if it would puncture whatever stood above them smashing rocks, plus his ammunition was limited.

“If you can get the strap off, I might be able to get the mark III…” she was interrupted by a mechanical voice behind her.

“Silly surface dwellers, turn off your lights” Mark was so started he nearly jumped into the path of the foot as it descended again.

“What the hell” Mark and Terra shouted in unison. Voices drowned out as the foot slammed down above them again. Larger chunks of rock broke off this time, covering the pair in rock dust.

“The ancient one dislikes the light, turn it off and she will leave” the mechanical voice said from inches away.

Mark and Terra shared a look, it was clear that neither trusted the strange voice. It was also just as clear that they didn’t have another option. As one they switched off their flashlights, plunging the cave into blackness. Long seconds passed in silence. Then, a loud snort from above caused the rock dust to bellow up around them. Mark fought the urge to sneeze as the gargantuan beast moved away, each foot fall shaking the floor as it went.

Surprisingly, after it had moved away Mark could see a dim light overhead. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom the dim light seemed to grow brighter and brighter until he could make out his surroundings again. Looking up he saw the stalactites where emitting the illumination. From rock to rock the color varied, some blue, others green, there were also a few yellows mixed in.

Mark slowly stood, from the waist up he was out of the crack. His eyes had adjusted enough to see the lumbering form moving away. The creature emitted light as it moved, making it hard to pin down its exact shape. Terra had squeezed her way up beside him, her voice in his ear helped kick start his brain.

“I’ll be damned, it’s a turtle.” With her words, his mind fit the disjointed pieces together. Sure enough, it was a snapping turtle the size of an apartment building. The light it gave off came from its shell and was similar to the stalactites above.

“Bioluminescent Moss” said the strange machine-like voice from right next to them.

The shock caused them to jump and attempt to turn toward the sound. Unfortunately, the crack was too narrow and they were too close together.

“Is this a bad time? I am unfamiliar with Surface dweller mating rituals…I can come back later. Or perhaps I could watch the process? Which one of you is the egg layer? How…” the synthesized voice continued to buzz on asking questions.

The pair tuned him out, having realized that they had somehow gotten wedged together in the tight opening. They were now standing face to face, and nearly the entire length of their bodies were touching. They looked into each other’s eyes from less than an inch apart for an endless second then scrambled franticly to separate themselves from the crack, and each other.

“No mating ritual today buddy,” Terra said with a scowl. “Old man hasn’t even offered to buy me a drink yet.” Despite the angry look on her face, Mark caught a twinkle in her eye as she straightened her clothes. Letting him know she wasn’t actually angry.

“Too bad.” Said the voice. “I had prepared my recording device to preserve and share the ritual with the entire hive after my exploratory mission is over…perhaps if I offered a drink, you would change your mind?” Mark, having reigned his feet turned a full circle looking for the owner of the strange voice.

“Gaaah,” was all he managed when he caught sight of the speaker. “What the hell?” his rifle was already coming up when he was stopped by Terra’s hand on his forearm.

“Relax old man,” she said with a smirk. “It’s just a Tinker Scree, they are pretty harmless…if a bit eccentric”

Mark looked back to the ‘Tinker Scree’ it looked to him for all the world like an ant the size of a Rottweiler. It stood on its four hind legs, while the front half lifted up into a vaguely humanoid upper torso and head. It looked like a small…ant…centaur…thing. Probably the strangest thing of all though, it held what looked like a computer tablet in its ‘hands’ and was pointing it at them as if it really was recording their actions.

“This…is a Scree?” he asked a bit baffled as he lowered the gun. Having got over his initial shock he had time to get a better look at the creature. It was naked, but had a tool belt slung over one shoulder. There was also a strange head band wrapped around its head, with several lenses near big eyes.

“Yes, this is a Scree. One of the Tinker cast. The hive has several casts, not all of them friendly but the Tinkers are an ok lot.” she said before turning to the Tinker and saying, “Greetings Tinker, we thank you for your assistance with the…ancient one…just now and sorry but we won’t be mating today.”

“Greetings surface dwellers.” Answered the Scree in its mechanical voice, slipping the computer pad into a belt pouch. Mark noticed that the words were actually coming from a small speaker box strapped to the creature’s forearm. “I am a Tinker of the Hive. Why are you so far below the surface?”

Mark was having a hard time following along. The voice projector was primitive, by earth’s standards, there was no punctuation to the words. Making everything the creature said run together. He glanced over at Terra who seemed to be keeping up better than he was. She gave him an understanding nod and spoke for them.

“We’re explorers, trying to reach the bottom of this mountain. We want to travel new paths and discover interesting new things. Did you say you were on an exploratory mission?” she asked, impressing Mark with her ability to bend the truth so far without lying. It also made him wonder how many times she did the same thing to him.

“Yes indeed, surface dweller. My hive mother recognized my insatiable desire for knowledge. She granted me the rare opportunity to explore wherever I wanted outside of hive lands for a span of no less than ten years.” Mark thought he detected a hint of smugness, even though the synthesized voice box. “As we are all explorers, I shall accompany you to the bottom of the mountain. I wish to see surface dweller mating rituals, and fear that without the guidance of an expert Tinker, you will make another blunder like with the ancient one.” Mark opened his mouth to object, but Terra spoke first.

“Although we would love your company, the journey will be dangerous and we have to move swiftly. Do you bring anything to the table apart from your adventurer’s spirit?” The rumbling steps that had grown increasingly quiet, cut off while she was speaking. A loud boom followed after the few seconds of silence, and Mark saw the ancient turtle laying down in a pool of water. Waves rippled out from where it settled in, high enough to capsize a small ship.

When he looked back to the ant man, he was shocked to see that it was surrounded by at least six drones. They were of a variety of shapes and sizes, some hovered on propellers, and others crawled on insectoid feet. There was even a porter drone flying behind the Scree, with a box bigger than it was clamped beneath it.

“You have drones too?” Mark blurted out without thinking.

“Of course, I am a Tinker of the hive. I saw the delightful modification to your porter drone and just knew you must be a kindred spirit from the surface. That is why I saved you and I was right, when do we leave?” Mark shared a look and a shrug with Terra, seemed like they had a new traveling companion.

“Let’s go now,” Terra said at last. “We have limited supplies and want to reach the bottom as fast as possible. Did you see any way down from here?” she asked.

“Of course, follow me.” The Scree turned around and started walking away without another word or look back.

“What’s happening?” Mark asked as they followed behind the strange creature.

“Tinkers are really smart. They have ridiculously high Mind stats, but are…a little weird. They’re the only Scree you will typically find wondering around outside the hive.”

“Why’s that?” Mark asked

“Because they are the only ones outside the ruling cast with total free will. If they can’t learn to keep their heads down, they get exiled to a death sentence.” She said with a shrug.

“A death sentence, really? That seems a little harsh, didn’t this one say he was only on a ten-year exploratory mission?”

“Well, yea. But look at that guy, do you really think he is going to make it for ten years all on his own. I mean he just casually walked up on two complete strangers who were in the process of being stomped to death by a giant turtle and said, ‘hi, can I watch you have sex? Nice drone, I’m coming with you.’ like it was the most natural thing in the world.” Well, when she put it that way…

“All good points, which begs the question, why do you want him along?” Mark might not know the ins and outs of this world, but he wasn’t blind. Terra had steered the conversation to this conclusion.

“Such a suspicious mind old man” was all she said in reply.

The direction the Scree took brought them right by the pond the ancient was sitting in. Mark watched in fascination when its head snapped forward in a blur, straight into the water. It withdrew soon after, an albino elite frog kin clamped in its jaws.

“Those things are everywhere,” he said as the jaws clacked together bisecting the bulky amphibian.

“Yes, they breed quickly and are easy to keep. The hive farms them in huge numbers as a food source.” The Tinker said, nodding his head.

Mark wanted to be disgusted at one intelligent species keeping another intelligent species as a food source. However, he’d eaten several of them himself and couldn’t say he wouldn’t do it again if he had to. He supposed that was just the world he lived in now.

Still, this place was pretty amazing. The multicolored moss glowed faintly on the shell of a turtle that was quite possibly older than the written history of earth. This one beast changed his prospective on life, and his old heart opened up, just a little bit at the wonder of it all.

Unfortunately, the feeling didn’t last.

“Can someone please tell me…what the hell I’m looking at?” he asked, hand held firmly over his mouth and nose.

“It would be my pleasure to educate you. The ancient one is not unintelligent; she has grown too large for this space but due to her size she is unable to get out. It is my belief based on the evidence, that she realized her excrement was becoming a health problem. Having found this angled shaft leading into the ground she…”

“Yes, I realize it’s her bathroom that was a rhetorical question. Thank you...what is your name anyway?” he asked, getting temporarily distracted from the stench.

“I am a Tinker of the Hive.” The synthesized voice didn’t change in pitch or tone, but the way the Tinker drew himself up made it obvious he was proud of what he was.

“Yea I get that but what is your name?” Mark repeated his question.

“I am a Tinker of…”

“Only the ruling cast have individual names. Addressing him as Tinker is the appropriate mode of address.” Terra interrupted.

“…Right, so anyway, why did you bring us here Tinker?” he said, feeling out of his depth with the number of changes he was forced to deal with since leaving home.

“I have already searched the entire cave, apart from an underwater tunnel at the bottom of the pond, this is the only way down large enough for us to fit.” Tinker replied, drawing himself up proudly.

“Of course it is,” Mark sighed. “Alright, how are we doing this? I overloaded the drone on the last trip, so I’m thinking I’ll go down first and secure the site. Then, between my and Tinker’s drone’s we can ferry down all the goods. Afterwards, you two can come down together.” They discussed who would go and in what order for a few minutes but in the end, they settled on his original plan.

Without the pot to worry about he was more comfortable. He wrapped a length of rope around himself like a harness. Then had the drone grip it at both shoulders and each side of his waist. The trip down this time was more akin to flying a hand glider, and allowed him the use of his rifle. Which as it turned out was a good thing.

He descended the sloping shaft as high up as possible, doing his best to keep away from the soupy turtle shit that coated the bottom of the slide like tunnel. However, the further down he flew the shallower the slope became and the higher the filth rose. He was forced to pull his feet up while the drone scraped the ceiling to avoid dragging his smart boots thru the muck. He reached the end of the shaft at last, breaking through into a much smaller cave. Thankfully this one was filled with the bioluminescent moss too, so he had some warning.

As he passed through the mouth of the shaft into the cave, his toes brushed the surface of the sludge. Instantly, as if waiting for just that moment, the filth burst into a wriggling mass of activity. Using the faint light provided by the moss he stared intently until the shapes revealed themselves. Maggots, it was a writhing sea of foot long maggots.

Mark fought to keep the bile from spilling out of his mouth at the sight. Finding a rocky ledge near the roof of the cave he moved towards it to touch down. His feet had barely touched the spongey rock and the drone detached itself before the ceiling came alive as well. He should have expected it, where there were maggots there would be flies. Where the maggots were a foot long, the flies were no less than three.

Looking down he realized that the rock wasn’t spongey at all, it was covered in a thick layer of fly excrement. The stench was dragging at his consciousness, forcing him to breathe as shallowly as he could. The buzzing of all those hundreds of wings had another side effect as well, all the shed exoskeletons and wing flakes of who knew how many years had been stirred up. The only bright side was that the flies were also covered in the bioluminescent moss, so he knew exactly where to aim.

Without any regard for ammo conservation, he unloaded into the swarm. The flies were so thick that each one of his shots, even on the mark III’s weakest power setting, brought down a dozen flies. The laser carving its way through the thin beating wings like a hot knife through butter. Mentally calling the drone to move into a hover over his head, he continued firing his rifle. That ridiculous shield finally serving a purpose, in keeping the gruesome rain off his face.

Eventually his gun ran dry, and he was forced to switch to his Billy club. Without the constant fire to keep the insects at bay they had completely swarmed him. He was forced to drop the drone at that point, afraid that the mass of bodies would destroy the propellers. Wondering desperately why he had insisted on going first. If he got out of this mess, he was definitely insisting on being chivalrous in the future. After all, it would only be right to allow a lady like Terra to experience this in his place.

He couldn’t see anything, the swarm of flies so tightly plastered to his body that swinging his club was a struggle. The fist sized compound eyes that stared at him from inches away would fuel his nightmares forever. Finally, after an eternity that only lasted a few minutes, relief came. He hadn’t noticed them right away, but after beating aside a particularly grotesque specimen he saw that Terra and Tinker had flown into the cave.

Terra was being held by Tinker’s porter drone, much like he had been and the dog sized Scree was being held aloft by his other two flying drones. Only, unlike the porter’s, these two had weapons. He caught a small explosion from Terra’s hand-held crossbow that likely ended the lives of a dozen flies. That feat, however, was being hands down outshone by the Scree. It held a small laser rifle in its arms, and coupled with the two drones holding him in the air the insects were dying in droves.

His line of sight was cut off after that brief glimpse, but it gave him the energy he needed to redouble his efforts to crush his attackers. He was now swinging the Billy club one handed, thrashing the air with his other closed fist. The bug’s bodies hard enough to bruise his flesh, yet giving under his fury. The trio continued to butcher the swarm, until, all at once they broke ranks and fled.

Mark stood chest deep in bodies, panting. Trying desperately to forget about all the fly flakes he would have to clear from his mouth and nose when they got out of here.

“Thanks for the save,” he managed to heave out when the others landed near him. “One of you mind finding the exit? I need a break.” That said he moved over to a boulder that was just as filthy as everything else, backhanded a fly corpse away and sat down with a huff.

* * *

It took longer than any of them liked to leave the cave. Except for Tinker, he had been fascinated by the flies. He had swooped down to the filth below and retrieved a maggot, stating that he wanted to bring it with them. To study how this lesser species of the Hive grew. Mark hadn’t been pleased, thankfully Terra’s quick tongue saved the situation.

Once they entered the next cave, this one at least as massive as the ancient turtles, they found a small pond to bathe in. Mark had been worried he wouldn’t live through that experience, but as it turned out the flies hadn’t managed to hurt him. They had been drawn to his movement more than anything else. It hadn’t made the experience any less terrifying, but at least he hadn’t been injured.

Mark and Terra hadn’t been able to agree on who would take the first bath. Neither of them having been willing to wait to get the filth off. So, they bathed together in the small tepid pond. Keeping their backs to each other, and counting on the dim moss light to preserve their modesty. Tinker on the other hand, waded right into the pool, splashed his exoskeleton with some water and walked back out.

“I am going to scout the area for danger. Should you surface dwellers decide to perform a mating ritual while bathing, do not hesitate to call me back. I have my recording device ready.” before wondering away.

That had been several minutes ago. The pair, now alone, had started to relax after their ordeal. The water wasn’t quite bath warm, but it wasn’t icy cold like the outside pond had been. So the two were taking this opportunity to relax and clean their clothes as well.

“If I ever see another fly, in this life or the next, it will be too soon.” Mark said, scrubbing the fly guts out of his jumpsuit.

“No joke,” replied Terra, who having finished cleaning her robe was relaxing in the shallow water. “Hey, old man, you have something on the back of your neck.”

“What?” he asked turning his head to try and see what she was talking about.

“Don’t look over here, pervy old man.” She squeaked, and he hurriedly turned his head away. She let out a soft giggle as she stood up and moved over towards him.

“You are so easy, I’d never believe you were in your nineties if I hadn’t seen your Character sheet with my own eyes…here, I’ll get it. Squat down.” Mark complied, lowering himself in the water. Terra stood behind him, scooping water into her hands and pouring it onto his shoulders to clean away whatever she had seen.

“Not sure what to tell you,” he said giving an involuntary shudder as her fingers brushed his skin. “I joined the service when I was fifteen, didn’t get out until I was in my thirties…”

“Tilt your head forward, it’s really stuck in there” Terra said. “And?” she added when he complied but didn’t continue talking.

“Mhh?...Right” he said, distracted by her fingers digging at his hair. “Well, I worked for my father after that. Didn’t meet my wife until he had passed and I was, fifty-five I think. By that point, I had already dedicated my life to my work. I never had as much time for her as I should have.” He wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying anymore, too caught up in her ministrations and his attempts to forget the fly cave.

“So, what you’re telling me is that you’re a workaholic. And the reason you get flustered around me is because that after nine decades of life you have only been with one woman, and you ignored her most of the time?” her words might have been meant to tease, but they stung. A flush of shame creeped through him, followed almost instantly by anger.

“That wasn’t called for, why do you always…” he was pulling away from her when she started to yank on his hair.

“Hold on, I’ve almost…” with another yank she ripped an insect the size of a thumbnail from the base of his neck and crushed it. Three things happened at once after that.

First, letting out a yelp of pain Mark spun around, coming to his feet.

“Damn it woman…”

Next, Tinker reentered the clearing.

“I have scouted the area, and I believe…”

Lastly; Mark and terra found themselves standing in thigh high water, standing face to face less than a foot apart, as naked as the day they were born.

“I specifically asked you to call me before you started the mating ritual.”