The combined Cernlian and Nerlian army moved quicker than it had any right to. That was not the first sign something was wrong, but it did help Regina understand what exactly was going on.

They marched in about the same order they had before, at least from what she’d been told, although there were a few obvious differences. Like a strong rear guard. Ben had barely taken one look at the projected course and direction laid out on a map when they gathered all information from their flying scouting drones before he guessed what they would be doing.

Most moves open to their enemies’ army had been uncertain, risking the possibility of being pincered between Lyns’ troops and the hive’s. Now, they were moving quickly enough that even if Lyns tried to hit them in the rear, he was unlikely to be able to. They were going roughly north, where they would enter Earl Whitor’s domain. They weren’t completely home free, Lyns would still be able to threaten them - if they slowed down, or were slowed down, significantly.

“I would’ve expected them to attack Lyns’ army,” Ira commented. “It doesn’t seem like their goal, though.”

“Me too,” Regina said. “But maybe whatever magical effect they got is better for a march than fighting a battle. They could be afraid of getting bogged down fighting him, or have the effect run out. And maybe the Nerlians just insisted on going to defend their own country. We really don’t have enough information.”

“They will not be directly facing Whitor or our own most concentrated force,” Ben muttered, staring at the map and frowning, clearly half-invested in the psychic link. “But they are clearly heading for Nerlia.”

“And our own army is dispersed and too far away to react right away,” Regina said.

He nodded, then grimaced slightly. “We didn’t take into account that they might do something like this. I’m sorry, my Queen.”

Regina shook her head. “Not your fault at all. If anything, that’s my responsibility.”

He didn’t look quite convinced by that, and the others gathered in the room also felt hesitant.

“I fell too deeply into the trap of thinking about this as medieval,” Regina continued. “Sure, with some elite forces of stronger fighters and some other advantages, but basically the same as the dark ages of the old world’s history. I failed to take the breadth of magic into account, what it makes possible.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I knew ritual magic existed, but it never really came up before. I suppose it’s a good thing I got a wake-up call we can still deal with reasonably well. I mean, we can do that, right, Ben?”

He smiled slightly. “I think we can, my Queen. Admittedly, this is definitely a setback. From what I’ve seen, they probably are faster than our own troops right now, excepting the Winged Drones, at a sustained pace. But we’re still seeing them coming. We can adjust.”

“And we can be pretty sure now where they are headed, what their goal is,” Ira added.

Regina glanced at her and nodded. She was right. “They’re coming for us,” she muttered. “Back into Nerlia.”

“We’ll need to coordinate with Marquis Lyns,” Ben said.

Regina hummed in agreement, skimming a few more impressions from airborne drones in the psychic link. The enemy army hadn’t made it far yet, since Ben had called this meeting as soon as they saw what was going on. Lyns must have realized something by now, too. Although it was still dark. Not that that hindered her drones’ vision at all.

“So, what do we do?” she asked, letting her gaze sweep over the assembled drones. “Make me a plan.”

They got started, first hesitantly and then with more enthusiasm. Regina mostly listened as the drones around her discussed supply lines, elite units, features of the terrain and relative walking speeds. They also included some people that couldn’t be here in person with the psychic link, and she kept half an eye on the marching enemy army. They were trying to shoot down any of her drones watching them, but she kept Winged Drones and mounted Scouts back far enough that their enemies couldn’t get to them. It meant she didn’t have as detailed a view as she’d have liked, but hiding an army like this was basically impossible. If they split up any significant forces or changed direction, the hive would know.

“It’s going to come down to Janis and the others,” Ben finally concluded. A moment of silence followed in his wake as everyone acknowledged what they’d just heard.

“I suppose you’d be upset if I decided to go there myself,” Regina said drily.

Several of the drones stirred, and she felt a small spike of alarm from Ben. “Max would be very much against that,” he said carefully.

Regina smiled and waved it off. “I know. Don’t worry. I’ll keep my distance from the enemy army.”

That had them relax a bit. Not completely, though, most were still tense from what they’d just learned. After the initial surprise had passed, Regina wasn’t too worried, though. In a way, this actually suited her pretty well.

“We shouldn’t take them lightly,” Ben muttered.

Regina caught his gaze and sighed. She had been thinking that their enemies basically couldn’t win, and he was right, that was not a good attitude to take. Overconfidence and arrogance could lead to mistakes, no matter how justified they were.

“I expect you to come up with some contingency plans and defensive measures,” she said. “Do still try to keep things to what we can easily explain, if possible, though.”

Ben nodded. “I will, my Queen.”

Regina glanced at the others again, tugging on her mandible absentmindedly as she considered them. She didn’t know everyone in this room personally very well. Partly that was because many of her senior drone officers were elsewhere, with Tim, Janis or the army they had left in Nerlia, but it went deeper than that. This is turning into a real military force, with an actual officer corps, she reflected. The hive wasn’t just a small group struggling to survive in a monster-infested forest anymore. The thought made her feel wistful, for a moment, but considering how far they’d come and how they had improved, she pushed that away and allowed herself to feel pride instead.

She realized she’d been silent for a bit too long, everyone looking at her, and cleared her throat. “Good. I will leave you to hash out the details and finalize plans, then. Split into groups as you consider best. Ben, our meeting later today is still on.” She paused. “Good work, everyone.”

They exchanged quick goodbyes and Regina left them to their planning. She should probably sit in on the conference, but there was a lot for her to do and she didn’t know how much she could really contribute to the details. She’d discuss the plans and tactics they came up with later.

Regina felt restless. The war, or at least its next stage, would be decided away from here, where she couldn’t be personally. She’d still be able to influence it by using her psychic link and acting through her drones, but it wasn’t quite the same, and it meant she wouldn’t be fighting in person. With her commanders seeing to the details of the actual military planning, that meant her job now was to prepare for it, to make sure the hive could carry out their plans.

She took another walk around the area, watching her drones and their work. It was, metaphorically as well as literally, a hive of activity. Most of their magic-users were busy Conjuring various things, while Workers and Evolved Classes put them together for more complicated projects, or using more mundane materials. Some of them were still experimenting, while others were assembling stuff according to plans they had already worked out pretty conclusively. Mostly explosives, given the war those were always going to be needed. And Conjuration was usually a lot safer when it came to those substances, rather than trying to get them the mundane way. The old trick of Conjuring chemicals directly into an airtight container was proving its worth.

I’m not sure this is sustainable, Regina reflected, as she watched a young Attendant fill a metal casing with what was probably compressed hydrogen, going by the shape. Although, I guess so far there’s no indication my magic-using drones can’t, in principle, all learn Conjuration.

Education was a bit of a tricky matter. While all sapient drones were hatched with some of her knowledge, Regina generally still insisted on getting them some lessons. It was something that had fallen a bit by the wayside recently, she acknowledged. She’d need to make that a priority. Explosive growth wasn’t a reason to half-ass things, only to push to do them properly, since it didn’t look like the hive would stop having at least phases of it. She also needed to connect it with efforts to educate the humans around them, at least in her territory. Including any newly acquired ones. It would be tricky, since they’d come from, generously phrased, very different knowledge bases. Just putting drones and humans together and giving them the same lessons might not work very well.

Regina sighed and scanned the psychic link to look for Ira and Jem. She’d bring it up with them and consider some ideas. Both were busy at the moment, though, so Regina set a time for later and moved on.

While she took care of her other duties, she checked on the enemy army as well. Unfortunately, they’d gotten pretty good at keeping her drones at a distance, probably putting high-leveled fighters with Classes related to archery or magic on it, so the view she got was limited. Regina could still tell they were moving consistently at the same pace. There was no indication of their buff running out or losing power. She was curious how long it would last. They should probably plan on it being enough to reach at least their planned destination, though, just to be safe. Just not rely on it.

Regina sighed at the thought. Even Galatea didn’t know much about the kind of magic used here. Without watching the ritual or knowing what they’d actually done, she couldn’t say much about its effects, she’d told her. It’s a shame, I’d really like to be able to duplicate it, Regina idly thought. Then she paused. Galatea had said one reason this kind of magic isn’t used often is the cost of ritual components, but they didn’t exactly have to worry about that, did they? Unless there are special magical materials hard to find, but I could Conjure enough gold to pay for anything reasonable. That’s if we can’t just Conjure what we need ourselves.

Regina smiled to herself and got going with a new spring in her step. This might not pan out, they didn’t have any experience at all with this kind of magic, but it was worth an attempt.

Before she’d reached the next step on her path and actually started talking to Galatea, a call through the psychic link distracted her. Regina looked around for a moment, then retreated to a quiet room in the headquarters they’d set up while she focused on it.

Their enemies were attacking.

It was one of the most distant outposts in Whitor’s domain, barely more than a ring of palisades around a squat tower guarding a worn road and a small town. Janis and the warriors with her had stationed some drones there, mostly hidden in the woods, and kept a flock of Winged Drones close by. There were also a few sapient drones in the area, since they’d known it might be part of the front where they’d meet the Cernlian army. Right now, Dan was there as well, riding a flying mount, on a patrol of Whitor’s fortifications.

Regina quietly linked herself into a connection formed between Janis, Dan and several other drones, the senior ones of this expedition and those on the ground.

This looks like raiders, Dan reported, and she faintly sensed him focusing on several Winged Drones, looking through their eyes.

How strong? Janis calmly asked.

Stronger than it might seem, Regina spoke up. This is a small enough raid they could send them on ahead, but they probably used their own Skills or magic to move that quickly. She could sense their minds, if very faintly, through her drones close by, and didn’t get the impression they were weak.

It’s the same tactics as the gnomes, Janis noted.

Reinforcements are on the way, Alf said. We can fight them off.

Don’t risk your own lives, Regina ordered, but try it.

Of course, Dan immediately sent his Winged Drone Mount into a dive, heading right towards the humans at full speed. Regina sighed and clenched her fingers. She hadn’t used her teleportation Ability today yet, so she’d be able to get him out if it came to that.

Besides, she realized after a moment that he wasn’t being as reckless as it seemed. He was calling the flock around him and razor-focused on the approaching human fighters. They’d clearly realized they were found out by now and had abandoned an early attempt at stealth for an assault on the outpost.

It was, Regina had to admit, going pretty well for them. Whitor didn’t have that many people defending the place, and one of the attackers blew a hole through the palisade in the first few minutes. Before they could properly take advantage of that, though, Dan was there, almost crashing his mount into the ground as he jumped off and Charged one of their mages.

The fight went blindingly fast. Regina had seen high-level fighters clash before, but it still struck her. Dan bashed the mage’s head in after a short exchange, barely taking a second. Then he immediately moved on, just slipping away from another’s attack - some kind of dark fireball - and slipping into their back line.

Alf struck a moment later, clearly choosing his target with care as one of the warriors dropped to the ground with a bolt through their throat.

The humans managed to rally and hold the drones off for a bit, even as Whitor’s men got their act together. They definitely got the short end of the stick, though, several of them falling quickly as the enemy squad moved fully into the outpost. Then the flock of Swarm Drones struck, falling on them from above.

In the ensuing confusion, with the humans fending off the swarm, the sapient drones continued to pick off the enemy elites, until they were broken by the wave of drones.

She felt Max’s mind touch hers softly, drawing her attention. They are trying to open the way for the army, he commented. It will be there soon, probably too fast for Whitor to realistically reinforce and take back these outposts if he loses them now.

Makes sense, Regina said. Alert the rest and redeploy however you think necessary.

I will, my Queen. This is just the opening skirmish, though.

Regina nodded. Before the conversation could continue, she sensed another call for attention through the psychic link, originating not far away from this one. It was quickly followed by another.

Other outposts under attack by enemy strike teams. She sighed and dove deeper into the psychic link. They’d be able to fight them off, she didn’t doubt that, but they could have used more time for Whitor and their own forces to prepare. Now they’d just have to deal with what they had, facing the enemy army.