Hive Queen Quest 57.2

The could covered sky cracks open with a thundering sonic boom. Piercing the clouds, dropping like a stone, is the vaguely mushroom shape of a civilian freighter falling from the sky trailed by the glowing mini star of its gravity drive. It hovers patiently over the spaceport, an expansive structure of docking bays and metal domes, and it slowly drifts its way to an open bay. The ship lowers itself stem first into the silo and its shield cap is captured delicately by a number of outstretched metal arms as loading cranes reach out and begin detaching the ship's cargo pods and plastic umbilicals quickly run their way to the ship's airlock doors as the passengers begin to make their way into the space port. Among them, the human clones of the hive shuffle quickly to the customs terminal, gathering the various carefully packaged and disassembled weapons and equipment stored in various musical instrument cases.

The charter for the small transport was rather in depth, offering the use of concealed compartments within the ship's sizable smuggling hold, as well as the use of a number of scan shielded cases and containers. A customs official takes the false ID cards from your clones and examines them briefly as he looks over the ship's manifest scrolling on a data pad in his other hand. He hands the cards back with a knowing look, and leans over to fumble with his shoelaces as your clones' cargo rolls past the security checkpoint. Your clones quickly gather them and walk briskly out the door and into the cold evening air of Path's spaceport. Shuttles and tram stations echo in the air with automated voices as they ferry travellers across the planet.

Welcome back to Hive Queen Quest!

>Archives suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Hive Queen Quest
>Twitter twitter.com/HiveQueenQuest
>Various pasta pastebin.com/u/QuestDrone
>FAQ ask.fm/QuestDrone
>Discussion page 1d4chan.org/wiki/Quest_talk:Hive_Queen_Quest

HYPE

Right as I'm leaving for work. See you in 5 hours QD.

AYYYYY
THE FEELING IS A GOOD PAIN.

It's 01:14 am you crazy insect.

On the dark, sunless world of Tenebris the eyeless monstrosity still stands, still motionless, atop the cliff leading into the mountain valley where the isolated research facility stands, a solitary light in the endless night. In the distance walls of thick dust and smoke billow into the near-vacuum and churn in the air like stormclouds. The marine transport in orbit spins its sensor arrays.

"Ground team, be advised, we have multiple large objects on an approach to the facility."

"More of those things?" The marine leader asks.

"Affirmative. Unknown number, but there's at least, uh... six, hard to tell through the dust though. Looks like it's mostly fine mineral powders. Scattering out thermals."

"Roger that. How do these sonic fences work, anyways? Like, does it kill them or..."

"According to the files, it causes a constant seismic vibration in the ground around the facility. It either causes them pain, or triggers some pavlovian response." There's a deep sigh over the radio.

"So they don't know why they don't like it, just that it works." The marine says. You hear in the distance as someone shouts down the hall.

"Yea, until it doesn't! How we know they're not gonna get over it? Figure somethin's hungry enough it'll put up with some annoying noises." A number of voices hush the marine as the squad leader speaks again.

"Well either way, what's their ETA?"

"They should get to about the same distance as the other one in an hour. At their speed, I'd say it would take them about half that to get the rest of the way to the base."

"Roger that Command." The leader says, his helmet cam pivots to the rest of the squad. "You heard the lady, we've got a deadline now. Unless any of you want to put some faith in that fence."

Your ships continue to observe the research facility, watching the billowing trails of smoke flow up from the ground as at least of dozen eyeless, gargantuan figures hurl their bodies through the low gravity.
cont.

yeaaahh boi

Hive quest: Doom edition.

All the hype!

I reeeaaly wanna capture amd study one of theses creatures.

Seconded.

Loot all the wildelife when we're done.

>Unknown number, but there's at least, uh... six, hard to tell through the dust though.
>at least of dozen
At least what dozen?

So games on weekdays are a thing?

On a big enough cliff hanger they are.

The humans are guessing that at least 6 giant demon lava worms are heading towards the facility, while the Hive sees there are over twice that many.

the union tech is probably less reliable

I know that.

"Of" is not a number.

QD is putting on a thread on the weekday stop being petty.

The pirate sensors are probably even worse, so sending a shuttle has minimum risk.

Hooray, I've finally read through the entirety of the archives for this quest.

Congratulations.

Your prize it catching a live thread.

So two questions now that I've caught up.

1.) Why are we not nuking the ever loving shit out of the research facility?
2.) Why did we choose to have our Ambassador drone be another adorable speaker rather than a more eloquent and articulate drone? What impression are we trying to give humanity with this ambassador?

"Ow!" Lee winces as he watches the holoscreen footage of Aral taken from the Angel. Elizabeth stands behind him with a small, slender object of organic bone in her hand, waving it carefully over his head.

"I keep telling you, stop thinking about it."

"I'm not! You look at this fight and tell me if you think I can wonder about some psychic skrewdriver." He says. Elizabeth rolls her eyes and adjusts her grip on the instrument.

"It's a tachyonic tuner. It's made of the same spongy, bone-like substance that makes up the primary component of a tachyonic relay." She says. "I made it because while poking in the brains of brain samples made from cloned cells is all well and good, at some point I need to actually poke around inside your head and see what's going on, and since you're currently far to sensitive to tachyonic emissions to read normally without you having a seizure, I made this to go about it with more finesse." She says. Lee jerks his head slightly as his face contorts in pain again.

"It still hurts." He says.

"That's because you're thinking about it. The more you think about it, the more your brain resists the psionic influence. I think I've figured out where and why the human brain falls apart, and I'm trying to nudge things back in place, as it were. At the very least, it should be able to help mitigate the side effects temporarily."

On the screen, you see the zoomed in view of the robotic agent smith open fire with a sun caster as Jackob bats away the condensed plasma. Lee nearly chokes as he takes a bite of his food.

"Hold your head still, or I'm going to call in some drones." Elizabeth says dryly.

>Inform Elizabeth of the details of the events on Tenebris
>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union
>Let them continue their work
>Other (write in)

I think we're not nuking the facility because it could make things worse. It's possible nuking the facility will destroy whatever containment is left.

>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union

>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union

>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union.
And a passing comment about ancient aliens man being right.

Blowing up the containment makes it worse.

The only thing we should nuke is the ship there.

>>Let them continue their work

They're making progress. At last. Exposition.

>>Inform Elizabeth of the details of the events on Tenebris
its happening right now we could use a second opinion

>>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union

Please mention ancient aliens man

>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union

>Inform Elizabeth of the details of the events on Tenebris

Why not both?
Also, Elizabeth may have some advice/an opinion on making first contact with the Union.

>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union

>>Let them continue their work

Wait. Can Gilliam ask if the ship guy can shoot at the silicon creatures with mass drivers?

They're pretty large aren't they?

>a small, slender object of organic bone
Thank god it's none of that artificial inorganic kind of bone.

>Inform Elizabeth of the details of the events on Tenebris
DOOM
seriously what are the chances that the union will do what it takes to stop a voidgate being opened?

>Let them continue their work

So these worms things are near sentient then and their being called in by the crystal to be uplifted?

>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union

>the Hive has space downloaded and watched millions of hours of film and Television, or at least read their plot synopsis on spacewikipedia.

>Inform Elizabeth of the details of the events on Tenebris

So.

Did we ever actually translate the Phantom language. The Thinkers were on that but it's not listed.

>I'm not gonna say it was the white queen
>But...it was the white queen.

I'm sure the Barren queen would let us know.

>>Inform Elizabeth of the details of the events on Tenebris
>Other
>Leave our fortified bunker and move back into our proper throne room now that we've secured our space, meet Lee and Elizabeth personally.
>Inform them both that humanity was indeed the result of the White Queens efforts to genetically engineer a psionically resistant species aeons ago.

Just drop all the bombshells on them at once, not like we're going to get a better opportunity than this.

Hey it should be 24 hours since those flies cocooned into parasites inside our two newest adoptees now.

And we should have Decker integrated into the hive by now too.

The door flexes open and your speaker enters, scurrying up to the two in front of the holo-projector. The screen flickers and changes to show several pages worth of data on various Union activities. Lee seems visibly disappointed for just a moment before turning to your speaker. Elizabeth shrugs impatiently as she tosses the tuner to a desk.

"I assume this is important." She says as the gist of the topic at hand passes over her mind. "Right. I think we spoke about that briefly already."

"About what?" Lee asks. He looks at the pages of intelligence files your pods have assembled on the various Union political squabbles they have seen unfolding across the Union's innumerable news outlets as the chaos continues to build ahead of the elections. "If it's about the Union, I mean, I never really was that important until after I got back and that was... rather brief." He says.

"The Hive will be introducing itself to the Union soon." Your drone chirps. "You are currently the most appropriate." Lee's eyes widen.

"Wait, what? Again? I got a soldier killed the last time I was a diplomat, and almost died myself when I got back. What about Dr. Vaughn?" He says quickly. Elizabeth's antennae twitch across her scalp.

"I'm kept busy here. I have nearly unlimited resources, funding is not an issue, and the support of an entire empire to perform my research on a field of particle physics previously unknown to mankind." She says. "Or, I could have dinner parties with politicians and pet egos all day." She looks off to the side dryly. "I've had my fill of that already from my days on Chandra."

cont.

>>Inform Elizabeth of the details of the events on Tenebris
>>Speak with Lee about initiating relations with the Union
whynotboth.jpg

...

>cont.

>She looks off to the side dryly.
Is she on the fucking office?

There are technically eyes in all the walls to turn and look directly at.

you are very nitpicky on QD's choices of words today, stop being petty

Top kek QD

dude I'm just though it was funny

That wasn't pettiness, that was clarification. Who knows what sorcery autocorrect wrought, he could have meant two dozen instead of one or half.

"Wait, you worked on Chandra?" Lee says, then quickly changes the subject back as your speaker leans in close to him, as if trying to physically pry an answer out of him. "What about, uh, maybe Lyle, or one of his team?" Your speaker lets out a chittering howl as it attempts to mimic laughter. It seems to consider this an appropriate response, but several thinkers feel the noise was not quite accurate enough to be clear.

"No." Your speaker says.

"Well, what about... uh..."

"You are the most appropriate." Your speaker repeats. Lee stamers for a moment.

"Well, it's just, last time I was made a diplomat I sorta dropped the ball. Really badly."

"You warned the Hive of the threat, at risk to yourself." You remind him. He seems to shrink in his seat, unsure of himself.

"But not soon enough to stop it." He says, then looks back to your drone with curiosity. "Wait, I figured I'd be some kind of wanted criminal. You broke me out of some top secret black site lab that nobody would ever believe exists anyways." Elizabeth leans back on her limbs, folding them into something like a chair.

"Actually, you're supposedly dead." Elizabeth says. "I looked it over when you first arrived. The charges were tossed out posthumously and you were given an honorable discharge from the space forces, probably to try to smooth over the protests."

"I had protests?" Lee asks. "I mean, I heard them outside, but I thought they wanted my head." Your speaker quickly scrabes its claws together.

"It was a bit of both." You say. Several of the files on the screen enlarge, with passages of text highlighting.

"The Union requires a human representative. They will offer one to the Hive, or the Hive may present one as its 'citizen'." Your drone says as it points to the passage of law.

"Yea, makes sense I guess. You'd still, I mean, have a speaker there too, right? I mean, I don't feel comfortable talking on behalf of, uh, all of this." He says as he waves his arms around him.
cont.

You sound really oversensitive. That wasn't remotely bullying the QM.

>"What about, uh, maybe Lyle, or one of his team?" Your speaker lets out a chittering howl as it attempts to mimic laughter. It seems to consider this an appropriate response, but several thinkers feel the noise was not quite accurate enough to be clear.
>"No." Your speaker says.

We send Lyle in when we want boom boom, not when we want a peaceful assembly.

Although it would be funny to put Lyle in a suit.

Could you imagine Lyle fucking Rodgers as our representative to the entire Union? To be fair, I doubt anyone else would be as able to make clear to Killinger what we think of him.

>He doesn't want to read about the diplomatic misadventures of ambassador Lyle.

I need an omake. Now.

Oh god, Lyle with diplomatic immunity. Just, wow.

Lyle's political stance is walk loudly and carry the biggest nuke

He is his own bodyguard, no need for secret service

His face would light up with childlike joy and wonder once he heard those words

I want this now.

I can just imagine Elizabeth shaking her head at us as we briefly consider the merits

Can Theseus manipulate online communication and produce truther documentaries poking holes in the official report on Lee's death so that the revelation that he's actually still alive has more of an impact?

>as this discussion continues, a faint tearing sound is heard
>small scraps of quest notes flutter to the floor around QD's desk, their contents forgotten

What're the odds Tenebris is going to be dragged to the Crystal's home base without our intervention? Or wherever those crystal fucks happen to be keeping the Ceph homeworld.
Now what are the odds the humans make a face when we tell them they already know where the Ceph homeworld is located: Hell?

We should see if Lee knows some way we can claim the right of command to the fucking mess Tenebris will become. Just so the humans don't try anything stupid and end up breaching containment.

"Relax." Elizabeth says calmly. "You'll have your own personal teleprompter at all times, if you want."

"That sounded ominous." Lee says nervously. "Why did that sound ominous?"

"I said if you want." She repeats. "Although I would highly recommend it for the healing properties alone. I would also recommend you at least receive a basic secondary heart implant, just in case. You would be a political figure, after all."

"Alright." Lee says, nodding slowly. "I just... feel a little apprehensive about, you know, all of this. Everyone trying to kill me or capture me or blow me up or put mind powers in my brain or, blowing up my apartment. All I ever wanted to do was paint my painfully overpriced figures and roll dice to see if they managed to kill someone else's overpriced figures." He gets up from his seat and presses his hand to the side of his head, closing his eyes tightly as he rubs his fingers over his temple in a small circle.

"Okay. I'll do it. I'm not sure if I'll be all that great at it, but, I mean, I guess you can just tell me what to say." He says. Your speaker chirps loudly in affirmation as the holo screen flickers to show a number of files on various Union politicians and all the publicly available data on them, as well as a list of various implants and cybernetics.

>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>Offer all augmentations
>Recommend Augmentations (write in)
>Offer parasite
>Other

>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>Offer parasite
He needs to look outwardly human

>>Offer all augmentations
>Offer parasite

>>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>Offer parasite

Well, there is a point where diplomatic immunity stops applying. I think Lyle sped past that point at relativistic speeds a long, long time ago.

>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>Offer parasite

>Offer all augmentations
>Offer parasite

depends how big the diplomatic stick is

Lee look at it this way now you can say the overly cliché line of "I'm afraid the rumors of my death were over exaggerated"

>>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>Offer parasite

>>Offer all augmentations
>>Recommend Augmentations (internal heart)
>>Offer parasite
If he really wants them he's free to any of our augs (perks of hive citizenship) but we will recommend the simple required implant for humans.

>>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
Lee has to look pretty for the cameras!

The point at which diplomatic immunity stops applying is the point where pissing off the other party does less damage than their diplomat has been doing.

So, we just need to present an immensely worse alternative.
>Oh, you're ejecting our representative? Such a shame. RELEASE THE SPORES.

In a galaxy far far away .... Tune in next week for "Lyle's Adramada Adventures" Saturdays at 630 am or your plantery equivalent

if we hang Lyle out on a hook and tell Killinger if he takes a bite we are going to fuck his world up would he really do it and try to pull an assassination?

>Offer parasite
>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)


Chemical fabricator and fermentation gut among them definitely. Want to be immune to poisons.

Also Electrostatic muscle grafts. What if someone tases him bro?

>>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>>Offer parasite
As long as he has Echolocation so he can eavesdrop on people who think they stepped out of earshot too.

>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>Offer parasite
He needs to appear human.

The only augmentations that really fit with that are
Second Heart
Chemical fabricator
Fermentation gut
Echolocation

I'm not seeing a great need for any of these, but I guess he can gain the ability to breathe any number of helpful gasses.

Mention to him that this will allow him to at least attempt to integrate back into human life, whereas here it's just clones and drones. Not the best of people to be playing not-warhammer with.

>Offer all augmentations
>Offer all parasite

>I doubt anyone else would be as able to make clear to Killinger what we think of him.

A parasite on K's spine would be able to.

I tried

>After a long day of work, Lyle Rodgers, Human Ambassador of the Hive, could only think about getting shitfaced with alcohol. And in his current line of work, alcohol is a must.

>But alas, not everything in life can go right; a warrior drone materializes from the hotel door and seizes the bottle of fermented Leeland Special from his grasp. Following behind the warrior was the Hive's Speaker, it's colorful carapace ablaze in distress.

>"What?" Lyle asks innocently. The speaker does not reply. Instead, it takes a remote and turns on the suite's viewscreen to a local news channel. It doesn't matter which since all of them are covering what happened.

>Caught on video was Lyle "ambushing" Killinger outside the parliament building, decking him in the face with a right hook, then proceeding to use Killinger's own arm to punch the politician's face in. A security officer moves to intervene, but Lyle looks at him and growls "Diplomatic Immunity, cunt." before going back to humiliating Killinger.

>The officer looks to Lyle's escort of warriors in confusion, who only return the officer with a look of bewilderment as the thinkers back in the Hive struggle between feeling euphoric joy and panic as they attempt to map out the consequences of this breach of etiquette.

>Lyle grabs the remote just as a talking head suggests that the assault was a metaphor of the state of the Union. He looks the speaker straight in the eye. "The cunt deserved it." Was all he utters before stealing the bottle back from the warrior.

OR we could just give him a fly with the full camo package that way they can't question his humanity and we get radio esdroping power as well

>proceeding to use Killinger's own arm to punch the politician's face in
hahaha Christ

I haven't laughed this hard at HQQ writefaggotry since that smut fic went up. Post more, please!

>Offer internal augmentations only (second heart, ect.)
>Offer parasite
>Other offer him a plasma blade

>48264767
Why doesn't Elizabeth try the tuner procedure on the unconscious Earthlings' brains first?

I didn't do that one but I'm pretty sure thats how It'll look if I wrote smut.

Does anyone have that WW1 propaganda picture with Germany threatening a country, followed by Britain, Russia, France and everybody else?
I have an idea for an edit.

Oh god 11/10
My sidea.