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CHAPTER 44 The Hive Part II

They drifted through what seemed the darkest sector of the universe they've seen so far. The medium sized Special Operations Vessel worked with very low energy levels to avoid detection as much as possible. The ship was black as space itself; inside out.

"We are getting close to the target, Commander." The young pilot Storm said.

The interior of the ship was dark. The only light that came from the panels faintly illuminated Titan's face as he approached to the cockpit. He examined some information in a very large handheld device that looked like nothing more than a bigger and more sophisticated ComPod.

"Proceed," He replied. He then immediately went back to the lab, which occupied most of the roughly fifty meter long ship.

"Everybody ready," He advised. "We should be making contact in ten minutes."

The small group of engineering scientists worked assiduously through the ship, at the same time that the warriors got in position. Most wore the PX 500LD armor, while the warriors wore the heavier L3000 multi-purpose environmental armor. This made it evident of how delicate this situation was.

"Captain K9, I want you guys to stay calm." Titan ordered. "Whatever you see, you have to maintain composure; no matter what.

"I understand, Commander." K9 replied.

"Shadow," Titan then ask the veteran Retcan now in charge of the small defense squad. "I need you and your team alert at all times."

"As you wish, Commander." The strong voiced Retcan replied as he sealed his helmet on.

Some time passed and unexpectedly, light started flooding the vessel.

"Commander, we have a visual." The voice of the pilot echoed softly through the ship's speakers.

"Ok," Titan whispered. "Listen everyone; this is where it all starts. I want full compliance to my orders. No one is to divert from the original plan. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Everyone onboard replied.

"Hemi, you are in charge of communications. You will be in contact with Bo and inform R105 of our progress." The beige Retcan ordered.

"Yes, Commander Titan." The soft voiced Evo replied, complying with the order immediately.

"Ok, let's do this!"

Titan worked hard with his team of scientists to prepare the reprogrammed machine. The Vessel finally approached the asteroid cluster that enclosed the machine's hive. There was no way to go through since it was too tight for the ship to do so, but in their plan that would be as far s they would go.

A quick maneuver and the vessel faced the opposite direction of their objective. This would facilitate not only the deployment of the reprogrammed machine but also the defense team if needed; a quick escape would be much easier as well.

Everything was finally ready. A couple of scientists wore an L3000 along with Titan. With the Defense Squad escorting them, they moved the machine that sat in a big cradle until they reached the rear of the vessel.

"We are set. Open the hatch." A mechanical version of Titan's voice came out of his helmet.

"Maintain your positions, team." Shadow, the veteran Retcan ordered his team.

The large rear chamber of the vessel depressurized. Soon after, the rear gate started opening very slowly.

Activating the light enhancers in their helmets was vital at this time since the darkness of the place was so deep that made it impossible to tell what was even a meter or so before them. With the gate fully opened, the first phase of the mission had reached its mid point.

"Testing the subject now," Doko, one of the Retcans that took part of the Blue Comet Operation said from inside the ship. Titan checked very carefully as the machine started to come to life before their eyes.

The defense squad was in high alert. Half of them checked outside the overwhelming darkness and these grisly shadows that were the asteroids that floated not even ten meters from them.

The other half held their weapons ready, pointing at the machine that started moving right before their eyes. The eerie figure moved slowly like a distorted cadaver coming back to life. Two red lights that were the monster's eyes started shining harder before they dimmed and settled.

"It's working, Commander!" Doko informed. "All systems online, there doesn't seem to be any command issues; we have full control of this thing."

"Then can you please stop moving that thing in such a spooky way?" Tech, the well known female Retcan warrior and Doko's best friend said, as she pointed her high power pulse rifle at the machine.

"He's not, Tech." Titan replied. "Although we have full control, these reflexes seem to be involuntary. I can't explain why."

One more thing was to be done; to take the restrains off the monster. One by one, heavy steel belts came off the machine until it was free.

"Keep it calm everyone!" Shadow ordered as he saw through his visor how his team's vitals increased rythm.

The machine slowly stood up, easily doubling the tallest Retcan's height.

"Proceed!" Titan ordered.

Giving it some space, the machine finally walked outside the ship. The monster moved very naturally as if having life of its own.

"Are you doing those movements, Doko?" Titan demanded information.

"Negative, Commander. It is obeying every input that I make, but those other movements seem to be done on their own." Doko replied somewhat nervous. The machine walked everywhere he ordered to, but head and extremity movements were being done by the machine itself.

Titan doubted for a second, but they were too far to retreat and plan a new approach. This mission had to be a success.

After the machine was deployed, the gate was again sealed and pressurized. Titan ran back into the lab, taking his helmet off really quick and sitting in the main control panel next to Doko. So far, everything was going as planned, as they guided the machine through the dense asteroid field until it reached the large open area where the Hive was located.

Working together with the probes that were sent before, they observed and waited until the surveillance hoard of machines passed by so their own machine could join them. That was a risky move, but less risky than to guide the machine right into the hive's core. They had to blend in as naturally as they could.

Minutes passed as they waited for the surveillance hoard until they finally detected it approaching. The atmosphere inside the vessel was tense as it could be, as they hoped for this to work. After some time, the hoard went by as usual and immediately Titan gave the order to proceed.

"Storm; please be ready for an emergency retreat." Titan advised. "If this doesn't work, they'll know that we are here."

To everyone's surprise as the machine was slowly taken out of its cover from behind some small asteroids, the hoard made it right through the machine as if not even aware of its presence.

"Is that it? Did it work?" K9 asked as he watched very closely.

"I don't know," Doko replied doubtfully.

"Now Doko; follow them!" Titan ordered.

Heavily hesitating, Doko commanded the modified machine to follow the rest. As surprising as their first move was, following the other machines didn't provoke any suspicions. So far the first phase of their plan was a success. But the next phase was probably the trickiest move of the operation; that would be getting into a completely unknown territory. After that, the most dangerous phase came as they had to upload the worm and connect to the Hive's systems.

Some time passed as they patiently awaited the right moment to separate from the group and get inside the Hive's core. They weren't sure of what ship they had to infiltrate into, so they were following their instinct and got for the one with the strongest concentration of energy.

After almost an hour of waiting, they realized that the surveillance hoard wouldn't reach the Hive's core, so they waited until they were as close enough as possible. Yet again a risky move was made as Doko boldly made the modified machine separate from the group and hide behind some debris floating around the place. Thankfully, their move didn't seem to alert anything.

After a few minutes waiting to see if there was a change in the machine's behavior or unexpected movement within the hive itself, they felt that it was ok to continue. The machine was carefully guided to the Hive's core, where the larger ships seemed fused together to form an improvised but massive fortress.

More comfortable with the fact that they weren't raising any attention, the machine was literally thrown to the cluster of ships, passing by what appeared to be surveillance probes and other machine-like objects that appeared functional. Again, nothing happened.

"I'm getting something, Commander." Doko said. There was indeed something showing in their computer.

"I see it." Titan confirmed. "A strange energy signature is trying to link with our machine. They have detected it now."

"What do we do, Commander?" Doko asked worried. The rest were getting ready for a possible emergency retreat.

"I will let it complete the link." Titan said.

"Wait, what? Commander, if the machines link to our modified machine they might figure out what's going on." Doko said very worried. This theory made much sense and not only could the machines know of that modified machine's presence, but that could lead to the team being discovered.

"We will have a fifty-fifty chance." Titan affirmed. "If we don't do this, then the machines might also suspect. Either way, you know that we will have to link the machine in phase three of our operation."

After doubting heavily on continuing with the mission, Titan decided that the risk was worth it. With his hand-paw shaking he inputted the command so the modified machine accepted the link from the hive's core.

"Nothing, Commander." Doko informed as he waited for the worst.

A full five minutes passed and nothing. So far they had been very lucky.

"Proceed." Titan once again ordered.

It didn't take too long until the modified machine finally made contact with the hive's core. They had located a possible entrance a while back, so there was nothing else to do but to direct the machine towards it. And so they did.

"Are you seeing this?" Doko asked as the first information came in, given by the small scanners mounted in the modified machine. This gave not only a visual of its surroundings through the machine's eyes, but also started building a three dimensional map of the place.

"I see it. Apparently the majority of these ships are indeed fused together." Titan confirmed. "Not only that, but we have oxygen levels!" He then said very surprised.

This was completely unexpected and that immediately made them realize that there was organic life inside that base. Why else they wanted to have the place pressurized and oxygenized? K9 and Hasky held each other really close as they had never felt such tension in their lives. They felt that their lost brothers were there. They hoped that they were ok.

The modified machine finally made it inside the Hive through a large hangar gate that was kept open. That gate was probably one of many active gates that the machines used to go in and out the hive. There was an energy shield that kept the vacuum of space from depressurizing the base. The place was surprisingly illuminated, but everything seemed so asymmetrical, not because of the possible design of the ship, but because of how the machines had probably modified it.

Seeing through the modified machine's eyes, they didn't notice too much movement other than occasional machines passing by. The strange thing was that these were other type of machines; smaller and seemingly purpose built. They were probably only workers in the Hive.

As the scanners processed an ever increasing area, they could now see a vast portion of the hive. To their relief, their modified machine didn't appear to be creating any unwanted attention, which made them feel almost too comfortable.

Titan worked hard to decipher where they could make a connection to the hive's system, while Doko took charge of exploring the base. K9 and Hasky just watched closely and Hemi informed every move to R105. The hearts of the Evocanis were beating faster than normal. They were just waiting for their brothers to appear in one moment or another.

After a long while they reached a large area were the strongest energy signal was detected. To their surprise, they found themselves with an immense open area full of those killer machines. These were stacked in rows across the walls that reached almost twenty meters high. The corridors that separated these walls were so long that it was very difficult to tell were it ended. It was obvious now of how dangerous the machines were. There were literally thousands of them and they didn't know if this was just a portion of the machine's army.

All of the sudden, as they were still shocked by their finding, something happened. The image that the modified machine transmitted shook violently.

"Something happened, Commander!" Doko yelled.

"I know!" Titan replied very worried. "Defense Squad, alert! Storm, be ready for retreat!" He ordered, as chaos started to invade the Special Ops Vessel.

"Wait, Commander Titan!" Doko again informed. "I think our subject is being docked into that station."

"Stand by, team" Titan ordered. "What do you mean, Doko?"

Titan closely inspected the image feed from the machine and saw huge mechanical arms getting hold of various machines that walked through the immense room. These arms placed them into docking stations. They knew that this could be their opportunity.

A few seconds after the machine was placed high up in the wall, a strange claw reached for the wire harness that came out of its head and connected it to another harness that the docking station had. Whether they wanted or not, the machine had been connected to the Hive's systems. The only problem is that they didn't know if this would be enough to be able to upload the worm.

"We are connecting to something, Titan." Doko advised.

"Keep calm; let's wait." Titan responded.

There were all sorts of information coming in and out of the modified machine. It was really hard to keep track of it and to know exactly what was going on. The only thing they could do now was to upload the worm and hoped it worked.

"Uploading the worm." Titan informed the rest.

A few minutes passed and nothing showed in a secondary panel that was assigned as a control for the Hive's systems, once the worm was successfully implanted. But all of the sudden, they started to see information being transmitted directly to their ship. They were connected now.

"Did it work?" K9 asked anxiously.

Titan didn't respond as he examined the information with a separate group of engineering scientists.

"We are getting something. Our program is starting to copy the machine's system and translating it to our own system's algorithm. I can't say it works until the process is complete." Titan updated the team.

"How long do you think it will take, Commander?" Doko asked.

"I have no idea, Doko. I've never seen such a complex system. It might take us hours."

They had no option but to wait, so they did.

While this happened, the team inspected the map that was being slowly generated by their computer. Many of the ships were indeed fused together in one mass, and there was one in particular that had a strange section. It was a large area like the one they were in at that moment, but somewhat different. This section had richer oxygen concentrations and it was certainly fitted for organic life forms to survive. There was some carbon dioxide detected as well, giving hints that this place had oxygen breathing creatures. This unsettled K9 and Hasky, knowing that in this large chamber is where they might have their lost brothers confined. It was frustrating to know that there was absolutely nothing that they could do at that moment. The Hive was so massive and this chamber was so tucked inside the Hive's core that a rescue mission would be considered suicide.

After what seemed like an eternity, some good news arose.

"I can't believe it worked!" Doko said amazed. The worm had successfully infiltrated in every corner of the Hive's systems and copied it into the Special Ops Vessel's systems. They had everything they were looking for.

That was too easy. Titan thought. He didn't want to worry the Evos anymore so he decided to continue, though very cautiously.

Once this was done, they would have to examine every aspect of the Hive, and how did it operate. They managed to get control of the surveillance scanners in the whole area and searched what they came for; the lost Evocanis.

"There is one thing that has been bothering me, Titan." Shadow said. He also was aware of not worrying the Evos more than they were at that moment, so the whispered to his friend's ear in their own language. "I knew Zonda and Alpha very well. They were like my boys. I know their capabilities and judging by what we've seen here, I'm telling you Titan, I have no idea how those two managed to get inside or how they managed to find out that the Evos were here." He said this at a very paused pace. "Look how much it has taken us with our resources. We don't know how Zonda and Alpha made it out of that planet, and honestly it's very difficult for me to believe that they had the equipment and resources to come up with such audacious operation on their own."

He knew that there was something else going on there. Suddenly everything became very difficult to believe, as he said.

"I'm just telling you that we have to be very careful, Titan." He continued. "We've had so many coincidences going on lately; too much luck. It's like if someone is controlling our fate. I don't like this, Titan. I think we should return and abort this operation for the sake of the Evos and ours."

A cold shiver ran down Titan's spine as he felt the warm breath of his friend blowing into his ear. The words of Shadow had so much common sense on them. Had they've been making a big mistake all along?

"Titan!" Doko suddenly caught the attention of the beige Retcan. When Titan turned to face him, he saw Hasky, K9 and Hemi stuck to the holographic screen. Their eyes were full of tears and anger. Walking to the screen, Titan looked into it in shock.

"I think we have found them. Zonda was right; they are here..."