Wraiths

The Smallest Hive

Part 4

On board the Hive the Female was growing dangerously impatient. Not that she really had much patience to begin with. For over an hour she had been watching the Male move frantically around the consoles on the command bridge. The Male was almost a blur as he jumped from one to the next. If he wasn't punching controls on the boards he was crawling underneath opening panels and fiddling with the internal mechanisms. The scary thing was the more he worked the worse things seemed to get. Panels that he had just "repaired" would seem to be working fine for a few minutes would either go back to the diminished capacity that had originally been, or would go completely dark, or as in one case burst into flames. Even the Main Screen was starting to falter.

*What is going on? Have you gotten anything operational yet?* The Female snarled.

*Ah almost I just have to make a few more…adjustments.* The Male stammered as he continued to try and get ANYTHING operational as fast as he could. It was almost as if the Hive itself was resisting his attempts at repairing it. All of the scans and test that he'd run showed that despite the damage things should be getting better but for some reason they weren't.

Not that he could really blame himself for it. As he has already stated he wasn't used to interfacing with the high level functions of the hive. It was all above his station. And it wasn't like SHE was helping matters any. Did she not know what she was doing? Her pheromones and emotions were all but raging like an out of control engine fire. It was like she had no control of herself, and all of that chaos was aimed at him. It was all almost all he could do to keep himself from going off like an uncontrolled drone in a human holding pin. He could almost smell the sparks coming from his stone hard teeth as he grinded them. He was amazed that he hadn't accidently blown up the Hive already. He had to triple check everything he did. Didn't she have any control over herself? It was like she was an untrained novice or more like a storm that had gotten off its leash. He had never in all his centuries ever felt emotions or physical feelings like these before. He could literally feel her gaze as it bore its way into the back of his skull. He couldn't take much more of this. He needed her to be distracted and NOW! Thankfully, his wish was granted.

"Aarrgh!?" growled the Female as she was suddenly shocked from her glaring at the pathetic example of the male form that was before her to a different form altogether. The Warrior Drone had finally arrived in the Control Room.

The Female almost took a step back. It was an unnerving experience to so suddenly find something so…large standing right behind you.

"How did you…how could…Why can't I fee…sense Him?" The Female stuttered as she as she turned her focus back towards the other male.

"Uggh" Grunted the male as he banged his head against the bottom of the panel that he was currently underneath. "Whu what" he asked her.

I SAID WHY CAN I NOT SENSE HIM!? She all but bellowed at him verbally. Her eyes burned with the intensity of stars.

The Warrior tilted his masked head in a curious manner at her. She glared at him for a second longer before turning her attention back to the male.

"He is… defective" The male responded to her matter of fact as he continued on his repairs.

"Defective, what do you mean defective?" The Female growled as she turned to glare at the warrior again.
"That sigil on his mask it isn't just decorative." He told her.

She looked at the warrior more closely this time and there it was. It was an almost soft green. Oozing like a fresh wound the rune symbol in the wraith language was very apparent

She almost began to wonder how she failed to notice it but then she reminded herself that he was only a warrior drone and thus not truly worthy of her attention, so she aimed her wrath back towards the only other occupant of the room. "….WELL!?" the female barked at the unfortunate male. "Ugh!" grunted the male as he banged his head against the bottom of the console again. Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it as he crawled out from under the console he was under. Once he was on his feet he looked at the dimly glowing displays.

He bit back a quiet hiss as he took in the information it gave him. "We have…a…problem." The male said as he tried to avoid the females glare.

"What kind of problem?" She growled. The Male fidgeted with the console he was at for a few more seconds in an attempt to gather his wits before answering her. "I have gotten some of the internal systems functioning, and they are telling that the Hive has been… invaded."

The Invaders at that moment were standing around in an almost awestruck state as they took in the sights before them. After having gained entry to the alien vessel they now found themselves in. After the Al'kesh had managed to pry open the exterior doors, the Jaffa troops of Ereshkigal they had made their way down the cavernous tunnel to a chamber so large that could only be described as MONSTOROUS. The Jaffa was awestruck as they took in the interior of the vessel they now found themselves in. So enthralled by the enormity of the situation they found themselves in that they failed to notice the arrival of the First Prime of Nef-er'et as she ringed in from the ring glider surrounded by the elite guard of Ereshkigal. "Jaffa, Kree!" The Frist Prime barked as she took in the relaxed state of the troops she found before her. It was almost like a thunderclap as the multiple squads of Jaffa warriors snapped to attention. Even Nef-er'et was momentarily awed by the labyrinth scale of the chamber she now found herself in. The very ALIEN-ness of area was nearly shock inducing. The configuration of the room made absolutely no sense to her. It had large ramps that were wide enough for several battalions to parade up and down and they seemed to go off in almost every direction. Some of the ramps led to what looked like organic caves. Some large enough for a single Jaffa while others could allow access for 2 or more cargo craft to fly thru with room to spare. She had to pull herself back to get on with the task of doing her duty. Hearing one of her own elite guard make the whispered comment "You could fit a Ha'tak in here" only helped to steel her resolve.

Bringing the clubbed end of her staff weapon down on the large platform they were standing was like a cannon firing in the huge chamber. The crack of the Jaffa snapping to attention again mixed with the still echoing drum of previous one gave a most ominous feel to the already dark atmosphere of the bay. "Hear me Jaffa I the First Prime of the Goddess Erishkigal command you." Nef-er'et bellowed. Once she was sure she was confident she had their undivided attention she began to inform them of the actions they would take. They would divide up into 3 groups each group to be led by 1 of the Elite Guard. She would lead one group down one of the smaller tunnels into what appeared to head into the deeper interior of the craft. The largest group would make their way down the cavern that leads into a huge tunnel. The smallest group would stay behind and guard the Ring Glider that was the final link of the Cargo vessels that formed the ring link with the outside ships. The "ring link" was a method that was used when a direct line of sight couldn't be established when trying to ring transport into an area. It was mainly a line of Jaffa Cargo ships that would act as "links" in a chain to carry the transport beams to their required destination. Once she was satisfied with the troop detachments she turned to her own group and activated the button to unfurl her own helmet. Once it was fully unfurled around her head she took her troops into the dark tunnel ahead of them.

"What do you mean my hive has been INVADED" the female snarled at the male who was still jumping from console to console in the command chamber. "Um it appears that uh according to the internal systems there appear to be several unknown life forms in the main dart bay." The male tried to inform her as he kept up the appearance of trying to repair the hive's systems. He had actually given up a few minutes ago but it seemed wiser if the female didn't know this.

"Unknown, what do you mean Unknown life forms?" She snarled. "How can there be a technologically advanced life form in this galaxy that WE don't know about?" The female all but screamed at him. "Uh um may maybe they are not from this galaxy." The male stuttered as he realized the absurdity of the comment almost as he said it. The look of disbelief on the females face only helped to hack away at his resolve. He quickly turned back to the consoles in an attempt to discover some other information to hopefully enlighten the situation. "It seems that the internal sensors are classifying them as unknown because they system wants to categorize them as human but there seems to a non-human component to their physical make ups." The male stated to her.

"What is that supposed to imply?" She asked. Well more like she demanded. "Uh um the internal systems are heavily damaged and I haven't managed to repair them yet so it is possible that they are registering the information that they are detecting incorrectly and that could be the reason for the anomaly in the readings they …are ..displaying." He slowly stopped himself as he stammered out the first thing that came to him. Even the Warrior Drone looked like it wasn't sure if it could swallow what he was saying. He started to cringe as he steadied himself for The Female's predictably abrasive response but it didn't come. He looked up expecting to see and feel her gaze burning into him but instead she was staring intently at the main screen and the data flowing erratically over it. "Why does it keep registering that there are more and more beings in the bay?" She asked. The male looked at the screen then at the instruments he had attached to his arm, and on the console next to him. "It looks like they are using some form of primitive matter transmission device." He replied. "They are being transmitted from the vessels outside the hive." He added. The Female glared at him for a few seconds before she hissed out loud. "WELL DO SOMETHING TO STOP THEM YOU FOOL!" She screamed at him both verbally and mentally. He staggered a few steps back from the attack before regaining his posture and stepping back up to the console. He nodded to her and then looked down at the controls. His hands hovering over them he tried to figure out exactly how he could do it.
The Warrior Drone uttered a deep growl while shaking its large head. It then moved forward and roughly pushed the smaller wraith out of his way and jammed a large finger down onto one of the buttons.

In the dart bay Nef-er'et and her squads of Jaffa were nearly to one of the strangely organic looking tunnels that led into the deeper areas of the ship when the audio sensors in her helmet alerted her to a strange sound coming from the way they had come. She turned to look and looked back at the platform where the cargo shuttle and ring glider were located and still beaming in the Jaffa troopers. Suddenly the rings that were descending from the glider began to spark and tremble. More arcs of energy and now smoke began to emanate from the glider and now the shuttle. Before she could even raise them on her com link both vessels exploded in huge balls of flame and shrapnel all over the platform destroying everything on it. Ships and Jaffa both were now gone. She quickly tried to contact the fleet outside, but got only a loud burst of static in her ear. "It appears that we are on our own." Nef-er'et whispered to herself.

"What are we to do now?" Her second in command asked her. "What our Goddess commanded of us." She replied to him with steel in her voice. "We are to take this vessel and that is what we will do."