Emergence: Chapter 5

The Hive was unsettled, Devilclash noted. As a Pyrkagias, she was essentially just a Hive-Stone; an insect that controls a hive mind. The Hive made up the rest of her body, controlled by the Hive-Stone. But today, the Hive seemed restless, and the individual bugs would not stay in one place.”Stop it!” she broadcast telepathically from the Hive-Stone; the bugs that formed her mouth were down by her left hand. She had not lost her eyes, though; she could look through any of the bugs that made up her body, or even all at once. But even without them, the Hive-Stone had a sonar-like detection sense. “Stop!” she broadcast again. This time, the bugs actually listened and formed a humanoid shape again. “Thank you.” she said to herself, testing her mouth again. Her voice was more hoarse than usual, but she felt satisfied that all was working as it should.

But the sudden restlessness worried her; the Hive only felt like that in dire times. She remembered the last time she felt like this; on the onset of the Adjeti War. She was young then, centuries ago and, by Pyrkagias standards, still young now. She barely remembered the war itself, but the feeling of your body tearing itself apart and the confusion as you saw out of a hundred pairs of eyes, all moving in the opposite direction, was something she'd never forget.

She closed her eyes and opened the Hive-Stone to the Swarm.

The Swarm was the hive-mind of the entire Pyrkagia race, and all the emotions, knowledge and memories of every Pyrkagias that ever lived resided in it. She searched through it until she found a blazing surge of fear and anger. She honed in it and delved into it.

Fires, flames, fear gripped the building before it toppled. Things flew overhead, spewing fire down upon the land. Raan was doomed.

She closed her mind and was filled with dread: there was a Pyrkagias on Raan, and it was at war. It took all of her resilience to hold her body together as the bugs' instinct was to flee from the danger perceived by the Hive-Stone.

She turned and walked out of her room.

The walls of the corridor she stepped into were pure white, with windows traversing one side of it. Out of the window, Devilclash could see the New Orbus skyline below. Pillars of steel tried to touch the sky, but ultimately failed, while further away from the building she was in, Devilclash could see small dark-red squares, obviously roofs of houses. These had a road cutting through the centre, but the houses had a lot of green area surrounding them.

The building she was in was the Spire, or, as some called it, The Empire Building. This was where the Twelve rulers of the Empire met. As ruler on New Orbus, Lord Tahkshi was the leader of the Twelve, and the other eleven were due to arrive for the monthly conference soon. Yuki of Raan was already here, Devilclash had noticed; her perfume carried a distinctive scent that the bugs choked on.

There were signs on the wall, with signalling the directions for various areas of the building: the Presidential Suite, where the rulers of the Empire stayed, the Senate Room, where Tahkshi met with his ministers, such as Cinradahs, and the Empire Room, where the rulers met with Tahkshi. But Devilclash didn't need those signs; she had been around this building long enough. And even if she hadn't, she wasn't heading to either of the areas listed.

She heard footsteps approaching and she turned to see who it was. Although she need not have bothered, as she started to feel choked up: Yuki. “You.” Yuki said, indicating Devilclash by jutting her chin upwards, “Where is Cinradahs?”

“Up the corridor and round the corner.” Devilclash said, in pain from the scent.

Yuki strutted down the corridor and Devilclash returned to normal, the Hive trying to breath easily again. She shook her head: Yuki didn't even thank her. Although, Devilclash remembered, her planet is at war.

Using the Hive, Devilclash hovered above the ground now, careful not to make a sound as she went to Cinradahs's office; she wasn't sure if she was supposed to be there, but curiosity was in her nature.

Yuki knocked at the door. A voice answered, but Devilclash didn't hear what it said; it was too muffled. She figured it must have been “come in”, because Yuki entered, not bothering to close the door behind her.

Devilclash moved closer and heard Cinradahs say: “You are at war.”

There was silence for a moment, but then Devilclash heard a choked cry of “Impossible.”

“I am afraid it is not.” Cinradahs said calmly. “I have advised Admiral Fairns to surrender to the Xaosian forces.”

“The Xaosians? Why am I not surprised...” Yuki swore. “And why surrender?” she spat at Cinradahs.

“On the Xaosians ship, they have a weapon akin to the World-Burner; they threatened to use it on the Sea of Oil.” Cinradahs said, slowly and carefully, as if talking to a child. “That will destroy Raan. They won't use it if you surrender.”

The World-Burner: the Hive hissed at the very mention of the machine. Adjeti and Pyrkagia were locked in a devastating war decades before the World-Burner was created. In fact, the Adjeti were the only beings to ever discover how to kill Pyrkagia.

Yuki seemed in distress. “We-well, what about the Orbital Defence System?”

“Admiral Fairns,” Cinradahs called. There was a tapping sounds, like someone typing on a V-Board before Cinradahs continued. “Admiral. What is the state of the Orbital Defence System?”

Devilclash sent one of the Hive bugs to the doors and looked through its eyes. Everything was suddenly huge, but she could see the screens now. A middle-aged human dressed in a sleek silver armour, different to the white and grey of the others behind him. “Minister. My lady.” The Admiral nodded to each of them respectively.

“Have you surrendered yet?” Yuki asked.

“No, but we will when we get your confirmation.” Fairns looked at Cinradahs, “I'm sorry Minister, but I can't act without Yuki's approval.”

Cinradahs slammed his fist down on the desk, scaring the Hive. Bugs scattered briefly, before rejoining again. “I try and help your world.” Cinradahs growled, “And you throw it away because of your refusal to help yourself.”

Yuki jolted, but then regained her posture, looking more haughty than ever; she obviously liked annoying Cinradahs, even in this time. “Admiral Fairns, what is the state of the ODS?” she shot a smug smile at Cinradahs.

“Almost non-existent.” Fairns said sorrowfully. “I'm sorry, but there are very few cannons left. Two at my last count.”

The smug smile melted from Yuki's face. “What?”

“The Dominion's weapon destroyed them all.” Fairns said, shaking his head.

“Well...then...” Yuki seemed to be lost for words, before she yelled, “Use the remaining cannons and destroy The Dominion! Target the weapons and bring it down! We will not surrender!”

Devilclash reeled the Hive bug back into her body; it made up part of her left hand. She had heard enough: with that unrelenting woman in charge, Raan was going to die. She passed a framed picture of Orbus before it was scorched. Luscious, green plantlife filled the picture, with only a few small buildings scattered among it; it reminded her of her home on Buun. She wondered how the Orbans would view this massive, floating city as a memorial in contrast to their nature-embracing world. She had once delved into Swarm memories to get a glimpse of Orbus, but she could not find much, and what she could find was either after it's scorching, or locked away; some Pyrkagia didn't want to share their memories, and thus put inhibitors on their Hive-Stone. Usually these were for military or governmental reasons, but sometimes there were others, usually intimate, that were locked away. She felt a pang of sadness that she had never been in her childhood, but the Adjeti had imposed strict travel sanctions on the Pyrkagia after the Adjeti/Pyrkagia war; they were confined to Buun.

She continued down the corridor and into the Planetarium.

In the centre of the dark room was a huge ball of light; Solus, the star that eleven of the Twelve orbited. Around Solus were smaller spheres; not to full scale, or else they would have been dwarfed by Solus. There was the brown Rat'hak, the orange K'hrak, the blue Quarus, the silver Irin, the light grey Raan, the black Xaos, the red Prauw, the white Narcsia, the green Buun, the yellow Tras and the dull grey of New Orbus. Around another smaller star was another black planet: Oblivion. Devilclash reached up and grabbed the Virtual-Model of Oblivion and pulled it down to her. The artist who had made had even put tiny ruins on it; it truly looked dead, unlike Orbus, which seemed as though it had never been lived on.

She left the Planetarium through its other door and walked along a busier corridor. People barged past her, knowing the Hive out of place; she was no good in crowded places. Most of them were human but there was other species marching through the corridors: the reptilian Scalimen of Narcsia, here to escape their dying world; the strange Trasmen, whose hair had a literal mind of its own, and Quarens who wore a tank-like device around the neck to provide oxygen to their gills; their world was largely underwater. There was even a Hak'i, with its tusks trimmed to stop any accidental impaling. Devilclash looked around, but could see no other Pyrkagia; not unusual for a public place outside of Buun.

Devilclash put her discomfort aside and pressed on, pushing through the crowd. It took all of her resolve to keep her self together, despite the temptation to do otherwise. Out of all of her eyes, there were people standing, moving, walking. Out of all of her ears there were people talking into phones or to each other; it was deafening. From any of her angles, it was difficult to see the walls of the corridor. But she persevered.

After what felt like an eternity, she emerged from the corridor. There was still a lot of people here, but this hall was huge and could easily accommodate thousands. She headed to the left side of the room and walked along until she found the door she was looking for, before knocking.

“Come in.” came a voice from within.

Devilclash did so. “Ah, Devilclash!” the Irinian sitting in the chair exclaimed. “How are you?”

Irinians were nicknamed Cyborgs for a simple reason; their electronic implants and augmentations. The augmentations allowed them to store knowledge, become faster and stronger, whilst being able to directly control their bodily processes by repression. Also, to protect against the vicious storms that frequented Irin, they had metal fibres woven into their skin.

“I'm good thanks, Seir,” Devilclash said, “but not for long, I think.”

“Why?” Seir asked.

Devilclash left an hour later with a heavy feeling in her heart; she started the walk happily, just wanting to see her friend, but instead she had told him about the onset of war.