novelzi Chapter 32 – A chorus to sing to our greatness
Chapter 32 – A chorus to sing to our greatness
Chapter 32 – A chorus to sing to our greatness
“There are many ways a Vanguard can increase their combat effectiveness. Of course there are also many ways in which a Vanguard can better their normal life, or the life of those near them. Many Vanguard instinctively figure out the balance they need, although some, of course, focus too much on either the one, or the other. Interestingly enough it is extremely rare for Vanguard to focus too much on their personal life, and too little on fighting the antithesis, while the converse is quite prevalent.”
“Do you push one way or the other when helping your Samurai pick out what exactly to buy?”
“No. Some of my brethren take some interest in trying to help their Vanguard with the little details of their lives, but generally we don’t push at all. Unless, of course, our Vanguard finds themselves trapped in a situation in which their current equipment gives them an insufficient chance to survive.”
“So you don’t push either way. What happens if your Samurai over commits on one end?”
“Then we advise. In most cases their over commitment does not negatively influence their abilities to fight off the antithesis, or their personal lives. Of course, there are, as there always are, some exceptions. It becomes tricky when a very combat focused upgrade starts negatively impacting their personal lives or relationships.”
- Excerpt from an Interview by Dave David Davidson with Techytron, Personal AI of the Samurai ElectrodeManiac, 2032
I was woken up by a strange feeling. Groaning I shifted, trying to get a grip on what was going on. I had a pretty weird dream, watching an army of strange creatures take care of a city that had just endured an incursion.
Wait, strange creatures? And what was this strange feeling?
Taking a moment I took a deep breath, sorting through my thoughts. It took me a couple of moments to remember the previous day and realise that I had watched my own drones work while I was still asleep.
I could feel them, of course, they were part of me. Or rather should I say, we were a whole.
Hold up. Something was wrong.
Yesterday they still felt distinct to me, despite our connection. Yes, they were part of me, but only to a degree. Now things had changed. It wasn’t that I was supervising them, or even splitting my attention to controlling them, I was them.
We were a whole, a chorus of voices controlling multiple bodies.
That was kind of a fucky thing to think about, but it also felt... natural in a way.
There were some outliers, the Queen’s Guard to be exact, and of course the Hive Princess. They were different, part of... us, but removed.
Okay, okay, there had to be some order to this. We were the whole, yes, but I, individually, was still the Queen. There had to be some kind of distinction, if only for the sake of others interacting with us.Rread latest chapters at novelhall.com
The Queen would be me, while the drones were not. They were part of the whole, but not the leading authority, that squarely belonged to me.
“What a fucking mess to wake up to,” I muttered.
Good morning. How are you feeling?
“Weird. I am me, but I am also us. We are a whole, no longer a single person. I knew that strangeness would come, but it’s a lot weirder than I had anticipated.”
It was a bit weird to think of myself just as myself. Sure I was still the same as before, but I was no longer alone in my head.
Which, come to think of it, was an insane thought to have.
“Do I need to visit an asylum or anything?”
The comment was more meant for myself, but Kaysa answered it regardless.
No, you are quite normal for your circumstances. Not exactly what I had been expecting, but also not widely out of the expected.
“Grand...” I muttered, rubbing my face.
The whole thing was a shit show, yet despite my misgivings it also wasn’t that I was feeling bad about it. Yes it was weird to think of myself as a part of a whole, but it could also have been worse. We were a grand chorus, many voices arguing and debating, but at the end of the day I was still me, and I was the asshole in charge.
“So... I guess this is the full thing then? Not the budget Hive I had before?”
Yes, your Hive-Mind upgrade has finished. You are now the Hive, the whole with all that entails and it will probably take a little to get used to. But you are still you, or rather, the entire Hive was built upon you as a foundation.
“Well... Hopefully I don’t creep the fuck out of Chloe or Jenna...”
That thought threw the chorus into disarray, every last one of us panicked at the idea. We would have to really keep ourselves in check.
One upside though was that I now no longer had to micromanage the whole. The drones were me, but they were also individuals. Individuals bound to me and to me alone, we were one, we were the chorus, and they would act as I wanted them to act. Instinctively. We didn’t need to split our attention any longer, even if we still could. Now we were myriad in nature. We were Myriad, as true to the name as it was possible to be.
“Well, nothing for it,” I muttered, then sat up and looked around.
I found myself in a rather large room, larger than my entire old apartment. There was a large wardrobe on one side, and a giant bed that took up the majority of the space. At the moment I was alone, which just hammered home just how big the sucker was. You could probably fit four people on it, with room to spare.
From the looks of things it seemed that I had slept alone on it. Not that I would have minded Chloe’s or even Jenna’s presence at all.
Again the chorus rose as one and an emotional tidal wave I had never experienced before rushed through me, almost knocking me back down.
For the last couple of hours down in the undercity I had been suffering from emotional hypersensitivity and I had hoped it would go away once the upgrade was complete, instead it felt like our entire purpose had been boiled down to one singular thing.
The love for both Chloe and Jenna.
We loved Chloe and Jenna. We loved them deeply. Which was a lot of love to give, considering that right now there were over seven hundred of us.
And every single one of us loved them as much as it was possible to love. It was an echo chamber of emotions, a self-reinforcing cacophony of love and affection that was almost paralysing.
“This is so fucky,” I muttered as I pushed away the blankets, revealing that I was naked. My tail was missing too, although my senses made it clear that my ears weren’t.
Let us begin with the teaching programs, since they will most likely take the most time. There are three main ways you can use to learn new things in relatively short order.
The first is pretty straight forward, have one or more of your drones go through various exercises to learn whatever you wish to learn. To that end I would recommend a tutoring program and preferably some central place in which you can learn. It will probably take the longest, considering that you would need to learn the skills you are looking for manually, but it would also be the cheapest. There is also the issue of skills you could not learn yet, since you are missing either the features or drones for it, such as flying.
The second would be Dream Learning. In effect it means installing a small implant that would alter your dreams, basically a form of an enforced lucid dream, to teach you various things. It will take some time for you to learn the skills you wish to learn, but it would be a lot faster than the first method already. It would also directly impact the entire Hive, rather than just one drone who would then need to forward the knowledge.
Last is the quick and dirty, downloading knowledge directly into your head. This is the route we have taken for your personal healer and the medical corp, which sidestepped the usual issues. We could do similar now again, just know that those drones might be adversely affected in the future. It is by far the quickest option, but since you are not bound for time, I would discourage this option.
We took a moment to discuss it while I showered. The last option was immediately rejected, we didn’t need to rush things and we didn’t want anything adversely affecting the whole. That could lead to massive problems down the line that could be easily prevented.
It was an option for emergencies, for when we were in a situation we were ill-equipped for and needed immediate and drastic change. Outside of that, however, it would be disregarded.
A part of us began to keep track, their purpose was to archive and note our decisions. They would be our library, the root of our knowledge, and they would ensure that we would be aware of what needed doing and how to achieve it. They were the Burdened, and their task would be to ensure that nothing was missed or forgotten.
The Dream Learning sounded nice, but we weren’t sure if it was the best option to take right now. There were some things where it would make sense, especially considering the fact that we knew that knowledge from the whole would be disseminated at reduced efficiency, so for things such as combat and things we couldn’t yet achieve on our own it might be our go to. But there were things we could learn without. The question was what did we want to learn?
Three priorities were clear, close quarter combat, general targeting and aim training, and weapons knowledge. If possible we wanted knowledge about as many weapons as we could get our hands on to ensure perfect combat effectiveness in the field, even if we had to use improvised or outsourced weaponry. That went both for the drones and myself, since I had realised that I was quite fucked in regards to combat.
In the same vein, stuff like advanced medical training, anatomy, and things of that sort would be a good choice to complement the knowledge we already had from our healers.
The Burdened and I would be the ones to get the Dream Learning implants. It was to ensure continuity and access to the knowledge should I be compromised, as I was not a Hexclaw. We didn’t know for certain, but it might pose problems in the future, and that had to be remedied as quickly, and thoroughly, as possible.
Of course since I wanted to return to my job eventually, at least as things stood right now, anything to do with my job would also be welcome, even if the chorus was a bit torn on the issue. Many of them did not share my appreciation for the pleasures of the flesh, mainly because the drones they inhabited couldn’t feel it. There were many who were curious, and some I might even invite to join should a client want to, but that was not that important right now.
None was against my job, but it was clear that it wasn’t a priority for everyone, which was the first time we discussed a topic this thoroughly. It once again reaffirmed that we weren’t carbon copies. But even those would still conform to my wishes. They just ended up thinking more about efficiency, then actual pleasure first. It was a useful perspective, even if it wasn’t one I could share with them.
But that was what the chorus was for. To ensure I had the proper perspectives, that I could see things beyond just my understanding, as much as it was possible considering that they were based off of me.
Then there were other things to think about. We had never enjoyed proper education, nor had we enjoyed training in other fields than sheet work, which could come in handy for the future. If only to help the district along.
“Would it be possible to buy teaching drones? We don’t mean stuff controlled by you or another AI, we mean drones that could be part of the chorus but could help teach others.”
Of course, there are options for that, although none from the original Hexclaw genome.
Which meant if we decided to broaden our knowledge base we could teach those in the district. It was a priority and one we would take seriously.
Something to note for the future.
“Cooking,” I said aloud in the shower, more a stray thought really, “That is something I want to learn.”
The chorus of course incorporated my idea, noting it for acquisition in the future. The Burdened were already noting down litanies of ideas, a whole plan of action taking into account thousands of important factors and priorities of various importance.
“Okay,” we focused back on the virtual realm, “We think we need both Dream Learning and the first method. Dream Learning for important things like combat and such, the other for less important things that might be useful in the future. Mechanical knowledge, academic knowledge, cooking, medical know-how, that kind of stuff. The problem would be finding a place in which we can learn.”
Maybe you should discuss it with Vanguard Jenna then, she has already decided on buying the Legion Corvette and with the points she is planning to spend on it there would be more than enough room for one that your drones can use to learn.
“Good to know. Now, the transportation issue. That is probably the biggest priority in the short term, should we need to mobilise.”
There are several options available to you. For fast ground based movement the Mark III Carrion Shellwalker or if you are looking for a single big purchase to transport all your drones the Mark VI Carrion Swarmcarrier.
The Mark III Carrion Shellwalker is a smaller drone, capable of transporting around forty basic Hexclaw drones, or a few less of the bigger varieties. It is designed to be a quick deploy transport that can scale a wide variety of terrain without much issue and even has limited burrowing capabilities. It comes in at 1250 points per piece, but the low point cost does indicate the general combat capabilities.
The Mark VI Carrion Swarmcarrier could best be described as a large centipede with a bulbous body that can carry up to two thousand drones. It is a bit slower than the Mark III Shellwalker, but has better burrowing capabilities. Loading and unloading it is quite fast, since it can open up its shell every couple meters to allow entrance and egress. At 5800 points it is quite expensive, but while not designed for combat can deal with most lower digit antithesis quite handily.
Again we took our time to discuss the options. Both sounded valuable in their own right, but neither jumped at us as a solution for what we had in mind.
The chorus also reminded me, which was quite jarring, that we didn’t need to buy any right now. Short term didn’t mean immediately, and perhaps we would benefit from taking more time on the issue, or talking to the others about it.
“Hm... Consensus is that we should talk to the others, which... I kind of agree with. It’s weird that they needed to remind me of it.”
They are you, Seraphine. The Hive is more than just an easy way for you to make points. Remember that they have your best interest at heart, which sometimes means reminding you of things that you forget or ignore. Listen to them and learn. But very well. I have some more options for airborne transports, if you wish.
I shook my head, “Not right now. For the moment we want to take things slow and relax a bit.”
Understood. On an unrelated note, Victor has tried to contact you numerous times, asking if and when you would return to your job.
I frowned. So far my plan had to go back eventually, I did like my job. But the chorus was quite undecided on that front, mainly because of worries how Chloe and Jenna would react.
That sparked another debate on if we should even broach the topic with them, or if we should wait until we could talk to them about our relationship in general. While many were quite emotional, the rational ones did point out that so far we still were only friends with nothing binding us together yet. To jump to conclusions would be unfair to them and unhelpful.
Of course the counter point was that if either of them didn’t like the idea of us doing our job, it might hamper our relationship from the get go, although this line of reasoning was quickly dismantled considering that both were aware of what I did for a living, and so far neither has commented. Chloe even seemed pretty enticed by the idea of me having my clients, if her reaction to the soldier I took on at the gate was anything to go by.
No, we have to talk to them. As much as we might worry, our ideal relationship, be it friendship or otherwise, should be built upon communication. Not guesswork that led us nowhere and might end up in disaster. I liked my job, and I would love to continue doing it. We were changing what it meant to be a joytoy in the direction I always wanted. If Chloe or Jenna were against it, then we would reconsider. But unless they specifically told me not to, we would continue with the plan of returning to our normal life, which meant doing the job I’ve been doing for as long as I was working for money.
We ignored the deep pangs of pain that came with the thought that they might not like it, or that they might not feel the same as us as we did, should I continue to be a joytoy. But we would deal with it when and if that time came, not before. As much as we wanted to ensure that everything went smoothly, we couldn’t prepare perfectly for every eventuality. If only because it would drive us insane.
“I think I will. Let him know that we, uhm, I will contact him in the next couple of days.”
Very well.
I stayed under the hot water for a while longer, enjoying the feeling. I had already finished up while we were discussing things, but I simply wanted a moment for myself. It felt nice to simply relax under the hot water and it washed away the tension I had felt over the last couple of days of constant fighting and survival. A tension I hadn’t even realised I still had yet. Only when I felt truly relaxed did I step out. Now I was ready for the days to come.
I have a Discord!