Path of the Hive Queen

As they advanced further into the core territory of the Gnomish Confederation of the East, Janis found herself thinking longingly of the city they’d recently taken. Being quartered in an actual city was a bit of luxury she didn’t usually get on campaign, especially with the comforts they’d afforded to a princess. And she was probably close enough that she could technically fly back for the night, but that seemed unfair to her soldiers.

For now, Janis just rolled over and stood up from her cot. One of the drones would pack it up later. She stretched, pulled a comb through her hair and then strode out of the tent.

“Good morning, Princess. Ready for another day?” Sir Willard greeted her.

Janis managed a smile. “As I’ll ever be,” she agreed.

Normally, she would have enjoyed sleeping in a cuddle pile with the sapient drones present. But they were in an army with more human soldiers now, and Janis might have to take more care about her image and actions. Beyond that, though, having a proper tent with some amenities to herself was pretty nice. At least no one was poking her in her sleep.

She didn’t ask the older knight how long he’d been standing there, unsure if she wanted to know the answer. He seemed to have taken it upon himself to guard her, which she supposed she appreciated. Janis knew Sir Willard was one of Kiara’s most trusted knights, and she really appreciated her gesture in sending him to join her.

“Do you think we’ll reach our goal today?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’m quite confident, Your Highness.”

Janis hummed, then turned away to join some of the other commanders and senior knights. Around her, the encamped soldiers were already packing up and making ready to leave.

This army traveled more slowly than one purely composed of Hive drones, but the human soldiers — mostly Delvers and some Cernlian soldiers with a sprinkle of Nerlians — provided a core of strength that the generally weaker War Drones wouldn’t have. There were enough of them now that it wasn’t exactly feasible to transport them all in the air or with other means, even using their own magic and Skills, so they mostly marched. They didn’t get to advance across so much territory without fighting or having to establish their presence that it would be much of an issue, anyway. The logistics train was more important.

Janis climbed onto a Drone Mount for the trip, but stayed on the ground this time. Sir Willard kept close to her on his horse. She glanced at him but made no attempt to start a conversation. He wasn’t the knight she really wanted to have at her side … but at the same time, she was glad it was this way, too. Her relationship with her great-uncle Sir Richard had been fraught, lately. She was pretty sure he’d disapproved of her joining the Hive, although he wouldn’t say so now. Nowadays, it felt like he didn’t know how he should talk to her, and Janis was struggling with the same issue. At least, she was relieved he stayed back in Cera so he wasn’t in danger fighting in the war.

Several of the other commanders joined them as they rode, and they discussed the push forward and their expected opposition, while scouting reports came in periodically. Janis dipped into the psychic link regularly for more information, as did the few other drones with her. Most of them were overseeing the gathered horde of Swarm Drones, staying closer to their charges, since they could just communicate over the psychic link.

As the sun climbed and it got closer to noon, a slight stir went through the army and Janis gestured to the others to make a bit of space, then watched as Thor descended to the ground, carrying Ada. He’d asked to join the war effort and been partnered with several of the high-ranking sapient drones. If it came to battle and she participated, Janis knew Regina wanted her to ride him, since Tim was away at present. For now, he’d been helping Ada.

The other girl hopped down and patted his shoulder absently once before turning to face Janis and the others, nodding in greeting. She didn’t bother with more than that, which Janis certainly didn’t mind.

“Good to see you, Ada. What have you found?” Janis asked.

“There are two villages further northeast,” Ada began shortly, pausing to make sure they were all up-to-date. “One further along the path. Two of them seem to have been abandoned, and a company of defenders has set up in the southernmost one — about two hundred soldiers, I think. No artillery. The road further east is mostly clear, no signs of sabotage so far. The river beyond it is carrying a lot of water, though, and the bridge has been burned. That’s all in the immediate area. From what we’ve seen, they’re still gathering forces at the pass just west of Ikris-on-Plains. I’ve seen hints that they are also drawing together forces north and south of there — possible places are marked in the link.” She trailed off, raising an eyebrow.

Janis nodded. She’d been checking those. “We can’t advance too far or they’ll get the opportunity to encircle us, and can’t spread out too much,” she said. “But we’ll get the chance to route them. Sending some flocks can keep them busy, if nothing else, especially once we move properly on the pass. For now, we can’t get bogged down. Sir Willard, take our company of cavalry and however many foot you feel comfortable with and secure the villages mentioned. Keep to our usual rules of engagement. I’ll send two hundred War Drones and a small flock of Winged Drones with you too.” Mostly to keep casualties down. They could advance to rejoin the main army later, hopefully.

Sir Willard bowed in the saddle. “As you command, Your Highness.”

Janis nodded. He was the commander she felt most sure about. She was tempted to handle the matter entirely with Hive forces, but that would be a bad idea for several reasons.

Even if it felt odd, on some level, to send this many actual people into a fight, having to expect some of them would die. She was used to tactics carefully preserving the lives of sapient commanders at the expense of Swarm Drones. But she had to be able to use, or at least know if she could use, the human soldiers mostly independently. Besides, there’d be no end of trouble if she tried to keep them out of the fighting.

There were a few more questions, which Ada fielded patiently, before she took off again, this time to the west, probably back to their command post to get some sleep. No one questioned Janis’ decisions and they kept moving forward, while she dropped in and out of the psychic link to watch the progress of the task force she’d detached. The gnomes would probably kill for this level of operational control, she thought absently, not for the first time. The rest of the time, she considered how to handle the destroyed bridge. It wouldn’t be much of an obstacle, they had enough mages to deal with the water and, in the worst case, could probably construct a temporary bridge pretty easily. It would only mean a delay. It would be a good spot for an ambush or to try to slow them down, too, so she detached a few more drones to monitor the area and keep it clear of gnomish scouts or would-be guerrillas.

As a smaller force, composed mostly of cavalry and War Drones, the detached task force reached their goal first, just as the sun was approaching the horizon. Although they’d called been cavalry, the heavy horse were mostly experienced and reasonably high-level fighters that worked just as well as mounted infantry, able to dismount and fight on their feet as well as on horseback. Once they arrived and Sir Willard saw their enemy had tried to barricade themselves in the village, he ordered most of his fighters to dismount.

Janis kept an eye on them, but let the knight prepare for the battle as he wanted to. He had to call orders up to be relayed by a sapient drone — two had come with the Winged Drones — but it worked out well enough. A few minutes later, they started flying above the village and tossing down explosives and stray rocks, focusing on the walls.

She could see the civilians had sought shelter in the biggest house in the center of the settlement. That was a relief, at least.

Janis watched, absently twisting her fingers as the battle picked up steam. Their infantry moved forward, Skills and Abilities flashing, to meet the gnomish defenders ensconced behind the simple walls, barely more than wooden palisades. They might be enough to stand up to the occasional stray monster, but didn’t stand up well against a concerted attack, not even with the reinforcement the gnomish  soldiers had clearly done. Quickly, the two lines met and clashed.

It was in many ways a more conventional battle than Janis had seen in a long time, and her stomach twisted unpleasantly as she kept watching.

Are you okay? Dan asked, glancing at her with a little frown from where he was coming up beside her.

Sure, it’s nothing, Janis brushed him off.

It wasn’t nothing, but as much as she liked Dan, she didn’t think he’d understand if she tried to explain. She wasn’t sure what she’d say. In a way, it was almost a relief to her that she was having a negative reaction.

She’d grown far too accustomed to war and violence. I didn’t even want to be an adventurer, Janis thought with a bit of bitter humor. And now look at me. A great commander, according to a few people — although they were probably just trying to kiss up to me. She shook her head to herself. It was undeniable she seemed to have some talent for it, though, but it wasn’t like with magic. She definitely didn’t feel about it like she felt about magic. A few times, she’d almost resented that she seemed to be good at war.

At least, when she watched her people fight and die like they did right now. She knew the relief and exhilaration of battles won would come after it, and there were few things like that satisfaction. Right now, Janis could only watch somberly as Sir Willard’s knights pushed back the gnomish soldiers, using their reach advantage to good effect and herding them into fields of fire for the flying drones.

Although the fight seemed to drag on forever, it was actually over quickly. The human infantry, supported by Swarm Drones, managed to control the entire flow of the fight. Their pressure was too much for the gnomes to withstand. They would have probably broken earlier if they weren’t effectively trapped. As it was, some still tried to run, but they didn’t get very far. The soldiers set to securing their prisoners and sent a few War Drones to sweep the village for surprises. Except for a few caches of ammunition, they didn’t find anything, no traps or hidden mines. Although that would be more of a tactic for the Hive, anyway.

Eventually, her attention was diverted by the progress of her own force, which was coming up on the river. Janis had forgotten its name, the mental map she kept checking didn’t include it, but it was bigger than most of the brooks they’d passed so far, not something they could easily wade across. Especially with horses or vehicles. She took command of a Winged Drone and circled it down over the river to get a better look, then focused on the psychic link to talk to several of the other sapient drones with them.

They didn’t have many Production Drones nearby, so she wouldn’t be able to rely on their secretions to build a temporary bridge, but there was also little need for it. Janis watched as a few of them went into the river, or more precisely, over it — a spell for walking on water wasn’t very common but did come in handy — and then a few drones dove to create holes for support struts. Fortunately, Ground Excavation worked just as well with water around a target than air. Meanwhile, Janis, like a few others, focused on her magic and put a lot of mana into another Spell, their trademark Conjuration. Long boards of titanium appeared for the drone and human workers to use. They wouldn’t make the whole bridge out of it, but enough for the support structure.

It took a while, but in the end, they had a bridge that she thought might have been better than the one that was here before. It certainly allowed all of their army, and any future supply shipments or reinforcements, across without issues.

And what now? Ada asked when Janis contacted her to update her on their progress and check if there had been any noticeable developments. Apparently, nothing remarkable.

We’ll continue, carefully, she said. They had made a plan for this part of the campaign — well, mostly Ben had created the detailed plan — and Janis saw no reason not to stick to it at the moment.

I thought you wanted to do something about our Queen’s most recent plot with the gnomes? Ada asked.

Janis shrugged slightly. We only need to be at a specific town in two days, I’m sure we’ll manage that.

Well, that and there were other parts of the plan, but they were either being fulfilled or seemed to be well on their way, so that was fine. Janis didn’t exactly mind being here, but she was aware that at least part of the reason for it was that she was present for whatever might happen, and in case the gnomes wanted the reassurance of speaking to someone high-ranking within the Empire. Of course, she could always just talk with Regina over the psychic link, and so could any of the drones, but it was different. They still weren’t sure just how much the gnomes really understood about the psychic link, and didn’t want to give away more information than they had to. Plus, emotionally, speaking to a princess would make any promises seem more serious than a random soldier.

Janis was looking forward to it. Any chance to end the war early would be nice. And turning the situation around on the gnomish leaders who’d made the war break out in the first place would be great, if they could manage it.

Well, she also wanted to be done here so she could go back to Kiara, of course. Who could blame her? Unfortunately, that wasn’t looking like it would be a possibility soon, though. Whatever happened, she’d probably have to stick around for a while, and she didn’t really want to miss out on it, either.