"Shit shit shit!! That's a lot of Drones!" Thought Elie to herself. She was running through the woods with a large cloud of vespians buzzing right after her. She kept taking random turns and quick changes in direction. From the vespians point of view, it looked like she was just trying to get away from them. Of course with their incredible sense of smell via their antenna, losing them would be next to impossible. They kept up the chase until they reached a steep cliff. Elie had been cornered. "End of the line monster." Said the Spitter menacingly. "We have you surrounded. No getting away now!" He taunted. Elie smiled and chuckled. "No. It's YOU who's surrounded."
"Huh?" Questioned the Spitter. Feeling the air with his antenna he smelled the faint scent of 1 Kobold… No 4, 7, 18, 37,68! How many were there! The amount kept going up! It quickly became apparent that many kobolds were hiding in the trees around them. "It's a trap!" He warned his brothers. But he did so too slowly. Giant nets fell from the trees and bound his brothers like flies in a spider's web. A net had also been thrown towards him but with his smaller size, he managed to be a hard target to hit.
He turned just in time to see what the kobolds did to his trapped brothers. They were quickly being picked off by kobolds who were throwing their spears at them, killing them without risk to themselves. Some of the larger bouncers that couldn't be tied up by the nets were being pummeled by the monster. A large Kobold with steel armor and sword jumped from the trees and drove a large metal sword right into the back of a bouncer. Despite wearing heavy armor the kobold was quick on her feet. The spitter had realized she was a female because of her well-endowed chest.
The spitter got to work freeing some of his brothers from the nets using small amounts of his acid to turn the tide of this battle. Once untied, scout drones quickly started engaging kobolds in close combat. His brothers were superior to kobolds in combat but after being culled down to just a handful of drones the kobolds had them outnumbered. Being outnumbered was a new feeling for the drones as they were for the first time ever finding themselves overwhelmed by the number of enemies they had to defeat. As he freed his brothers he started painting a big target on his back as the kobolds saw what he was doing.
He managed to dodge a volley of spears thrown his way. As he was flying away he smelled a kobold right behind him! It was the armored female and she was charging up a swing aimed right at his neck! He managed to duck right at the last possible moment and the only damage he sustained was his acid tube being sliced in two! Without his tube, he can't reload his acid shooter and he only had about 3 gallons worth of acid left. He aimed his weapon at the Kobold but she reacted quickly by kicking him right in the thorax!
Due to his small size and thus lighter weight he got sent flying through the air until he hit a tree. He survived the hit, though not unscathed. He had vomited some of the acids in his stomach mixed in with some of his clear blood. He weakly managed to stand up. He looked around for any sign of the kobold that attacked him but found nothing. He started smelling the air with his antenna and he found where she was hiding. But he smelled something else nearby. Something that he knew was leagues more dangerous than a couple of kobolds.
"Humans!"
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"Ok, that's that." Said Dover as they finished surrounding the hive in stacks of slow-burning oak wood. They had to stack the wood in such a way that the fire wouldn't spread to the forest or cover the hive entrance which would block off any escape routes. "Time to commit arson!" I cheered while pumping both my fists into the air. The rest of the Kobolds follow my example.
The kobolds got into position. Each of them held a torch that they would use to light their respective piles of wood and they were waiting for Dover to give the signal. "You don't start a fire you can't quench… That being said, light 'em up lads!" As he fired his sentence the kobolds all threw their torches on the piles of tactically placed wood. The flames started small but quickly became towering towers of orange plasma. We all pulled out some bandanas and wrapped them around our mouths. It's not that we have to hide our identities, it's the fact that the smoke would be hard to breathe through without them. The Firestarters brought giant paper fans, the type you see used by servants in movies to cool down royalty. They started fanning some smoke into the hive, hopefully, this will calm them down.
"C'mon boys it's time to go spelunking." I signaled the kobolds to follow me. Before we could go inside Dover put his hand on my shoulder. "We're coming with you." He told me. I was confused by this. "You did your part. Why don't you regroup with the others?" I asked him. He chuckled. "Vespian honey is said to be 'The nectar of gods'. Do you really think I'm gonna pass on an opportunity like this mate!?" He shot back. He waved to some of his kobolds and they pulled out bags full of empty glass jars.
"Were you planning this from the start?" I asked. "You bet your ass!" Dover laughed. I sighed. "Fine then. But don't come crying to me if your green ass gets stung!" I said as I looked him straight in the eyes. We headed inside the cave one by one. Some of the Kobolds commented on how dark the cave was but I really wasn't having that much trouble seeing in the dark. I did grow up as a sewer rat after all… I should go visit sometime, just for nostalgia purposes.
As we dove deeper into the hive. We could start to hear a low-sounding buzz coming from further ahead. I told everyone to stay as quiet as possible. Largs clumps of hexagonal-shaped honeycombs were starting to appear all throughout the cave, though they were empty. I stopped the group to discuss something. "Voss and I will go 'put some workers to sleep'. If we do this right they won't have time to alert the hive and we'll use their scent glands to mask ourselves better." Once I finished relaying my plan Both of us started coating ourselves in bee's wax. It will serve as a temporary cover. I handed Voss a steel dagger that he could use instead of a spear.
We went off alone into the hive, combs started appearing all around us up to this point. We hid behind some rocks as two workers came out of a hole from a side tunnel. They seemed to be talking amongst themselves. "Jeez, this smoke is really making me sleepy! What are those Drones doing up there!?" She yelled with bitter resentment. The other one scoffed. "Males. Just because the queen gives 'em a little power and refuses to kick them out all of the sudden they think they're the most important ones in the Hive!" she complained as if she was somehow violated. We started following them from a distance. "We're the ones that do all the heavy lifting! Plus we have stingers and venom, they don't!" she whined. They stayed silent for a second. "They have been taking a long time though. Do you think something happened to them?" Said the worker nervously. "Nah, they can handle themselves. Anyways, did you hear about W-02263? I heard she got moved to the nursery-" She was cut off as Voss and I both snuck up behind them. We quickly wrapped our arms around their necks to silence them.
As the workers realized what was happening they started struggling. We drove our daggers into the worker's necks and held on till they stopped moving. We both relaxed a little until I noticed that Voss's eyes screamed panic and worry. He bit his lip and started hyperventilating. "S-so uh, B-b-bad news." He stuttered over his words. He slowly turned around to reveal that his arm had been stung by the vespian worker.
"Ah, SHIT!" I swore as I dropped the corpse and rushed to help him. I looked at his arm, The stinger had barbs on it. It's going to be hard and messy to pull out. Despite the Worker being dead the stinger was still pulsing and injecting more venom into Voss's system. I need to do this quickly but carefully. I ripped one of my shirt sleeves off and tied it firmly around Voss's upper arm, higher than where he was stung. "Open your mouth," I told him. He did so and I stuck the handle of my dagger inside. "Bite…Hard." I said to him. He did just that and braced himself as I grabbed the stinger. "On the count of 3. 1…2…3!" We both yanked the stinger, Voss Bit down in pain on the dagger as hard as he could. But the stinger didn't budge. "Again! 1…2…3!" The stinger was ripped free from his arm pulling bloody chunks with it. I had to cover Voss's mouth so he wouldn't alert the hive as he gave a howl of agony. The stinger was bigger than it looked. It's at least 6 inches long and more than half of it was stuck inside his arm.
"C'mon you dumbass let's take you with the others before you get worse," I said to him. He silently nodded. I picked up both the corpses and escorted Voss back to the main group. "And what the fuck happened to him!?" Asked Dover with slight disappointment. "He got fucking stung. Should probably send him to the medic outpost we put up nearby. He got a lot of venom pumped into him." I explained to Dover. Voss was distressed "What! N-no I can do t-this." He pleaded. "Nope, you're out," I said firmly.
I rounded two kobolds up and dissected the Worker to take out its venom gland. "Here, take this and give it to the nurses. Tell them to make an anti-venom for Voss." I ordered them. As they set off I started removing the pheromone glands from the worker. Dover walked up behind me. "That was awfully considerate of you. I guess I might've been wrong about you." Dover said with a condescending tone. "Really? What did you think before?" I asked curiously. He crossed his arms. "Well, I thought You were the type to only look out for themselves." He answered. "Then you were right." I corrected him. "Then why bother saving him?" He asked, confused. "Simple. It would make me look bad. Can't have a co-worker dying on me now can I? It's bad for business." I explained. Dover chuckled. "Haha! Well, I guess you're right."
"Anyways here take this." I tried handing him a scent gland but He was hesitant to grab the organ. "I know it's gross but you're just going to have to deal with it," I said to him. He took the gland and squeezed a bit of gel-like bile onto his hand. It was just a pea-sized drop but the smell was strong. It smelled somewhat like pears. All of us rubbed some pheromones on our skin and got ready to set out deeper into the hive. "Brendan, you're my second in command now. Just remember-" He interrupted me. "Yeah I know I know, you got your 'eyes on me," he said annoyed. I gave him a threatening nod.
We traveled deeper into the hive and it started getting really dark. We formed something like a train with me at the front since I still have good vision even in these conditions. Originally it was nine of us but since some members left it is down to six. As we dove deeper the sound of buzzing was getting slightly louder. I could see a couple of workers on the ceiling but not close enough to be a problem. But I got ahead of myself and a worker was walking towards us. I signaled everyone to be absolutely quiet.
The worker came up to me and started touching me with its antenna. "W-002343? Is that you?" It asked me. I had to think of something and fast If I don't want to die of a thousand stings! I used my pointer finger and pressed it against my throat. I fed magic into myself while thinking of the voice the worker I killed had. "Uh, yes! It's me, dear sister. Why do you ask?" Just as I hoped my voice had changed into that of the worker vespian. "You gain a lot of weight. Lay off the pollen." She said as she walked away. Well, that was rude.
I pressed on. We walked a few more feet until I smelled the faint scent of something sweet. Honey! We walked through a branching hallway in the hive. When we got inside the chamber I couldn't believe what I was seeing. a tall and massive room with honey-filled combs reaching high into the ceiling! I changed my voice to that of the workers to not arouse suspicion. "Ok, you three Kobolds will stay here and loot the honey. Brendan, Dover, and I will go to the nursery and try to find the Royal jelly." I planned. Everyone nodded in agreement.
We set off. I walked up to a worker. "Hello dear sister, do you by any chance know where the nursery is?" I asked the worker. "Down the main tunnel and three chambers to the left. Also, what's with the formal attitude?" She asked me. "Oh nothing, just trying to be nice," I told her. That was surprisingly simple. Well now with the location of the nursery given to us this heist might just be nearly over.
Now I just wonder how things are going for Elie and the kobolds on the surface.