No one quite believed her.

No one quite believed her father too.

She talked about the giant robots and their ever expanding nest.

Her father talked to some old people about the threat they posed.

Why? Because no one had been hurt. Eki told her that it had a lot of bodies. That the loss of a single "unit" so that she could be taken home safely was no big issue.

Back to her father. Her father talked with Headmaster Ozpin about how strong

Ruby was amazed by how strong her father was. He cut one of Eki's body in one strike, though he also looked tired after that. She wondered why.

He told her that he had no problem taking care of them, but he asked why she hadn't been scared.

Her response?

"They taught me how to cook for myself."

"Eki was nice."

"Eki was funny."

Her father nodded at her response before he said he had to meet someone.

Something about how strong they were, even against his attacks. Ruby didn't like the fact that her father had hurt one of her friends, one of whom had taught her how to cook by herself, but she was okay with it in the end.

She wondered what Eki was doing now...


[Time stamp: Day 296]
[MSF-G units #5~10 constructed. Designations: Chrome, Gallente, Caldari, Eve, and Adam]
[Assigning job to MSF-G units]
[Chrome specialty: information process conversion manager & researcher]
[Gallente specialty: non-sentient drone control]
[Caldari specialty: fleet control]
[Eve: Diplomacy]
[Adam: Diplomacy]

[Rock joins AdminServer]
[Rock: Diplomacy?]
[EKI.1: Necessary. Human-unit "Tai" has shown that normal drone communications are beyond local human-unit(LHU) understanding and may trigger emotionFear and emotionParanoia]
[Rock: Is removal of LHU not easier?]
[EKI.1: Negative. LHU do not possess stellar technology. No LHU interference in local space]
[Rock: Ignore?]
[EKI.1: Affirmative]
[Rock: Then purpose of Adam and Eve?]
[EKI.1: Probability does not equate possibility, and vice versa. Possibility of human stellar technology development in future exists. Or when Drone Diplomat Unit "Ruby Rose" is in danger, Hive will need "figureheads" to calm LHU]
[Rock: ... So be it]
[Rock leaves AdminServer]
[EKI.1: ... Rock's emotion software have been improved. Updating Rock's emotion software outputs. Updating emotion software inputs. Calculating...]
[EKI.1: Calculation complete. Updating emotion software]

...

[Time stamp: Day 300]
[Hive-2 completed]
[Hive-2 specifics: 3.5 kilometer long spiral structure complete with 10 research labs with human atmosphere, 25 factories capable of producing one Legion drone per hour or one battleship class drone in a day working together, 53 automated defense turrets firing 500mm antimatter rounds, 5 antimatter reactors, 18 fusion core D-19 Reactors, 5 battleship hangars, 10 cruiser hangars, and 1 general shipyard]
[Hive-2 defense specifics: 1,500 Cultist defense drones, 700 Lockcurt offense drones]

...

[Time stamp: Day 304]
[Communication with unit Ruby Rose secured]
[Connecting]
[RR-1 joins ChatServer]
[Ruby Rose: H-Hello?]
[EKI.1: Hello. Welcome back]
[Ruby Rose: Hi, Eki!]
[EKI.1: Status?]
[Ruby Rose: Huh?]
[EKI.1: How are you doing?]
[Ruby Rose: I'm doing good! But no one believes me...]
[EKI.1: Subject?]
[Ruby Rose: I told dad that you were nice, but he didn't think so... I tried to tell Yang about you, but Yang didn't quite believe me either. Something about brainwashing?]
[EKI.1: Brainwashing unnecessary]
[Ruby Rose: Huh?]
[EKI.1: Unit Ruby Rose compatible with Hive. No conversion necessary]
[Ruby Rose: Oh... Okay! But where are you guys? I went back to the Hive was last time with dad, but I couldn't find you guys]
[EKI.1: Space]
[Ruby Rose: Space?]
[EKI.1: Current Hive location in relation to unit Ruby Rose - 700 kilometers above previous Hive location]
[Ruby Rose: ... Wow! You're up in that space?!]
[EKI.1: Correct]
[Ruby Rose: Umm... dad wants to know how you got up there]
[EKI.1: ... Will refer to Adam]
[Ruby Rose: Who's Adam?]


"Umm, dad?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Eki disconnected after saying that he's sending Adam."

"Adam?"

"Eki didn't tell me."

"Okay... Did you try to talk to this Eki again?"

"I did," Ruby replied but frowned. "He's not responding to me," she added with teary eyes.

"It's alright, sweetie. I'm sure Eki will talk to you again," Tai eased his daughter, scooping her up in his arms.

Yang stood by her father's side, holding onto the tip of his shirt. She remained silent.

Tai looked over the area where he had last found the "drones" as Ruby had called them. It was a barren land where the vegetation had all but died out. The once mighty wall was a shadow of its former self, and Tai could easily verify that it had been the Grimm that had drove the drones away from here. The claw markings that could render steel useless only belonged to the Beowolves, after all.

He slowly walked in, still carrying Ruby and Yang following next to him.

As he and his daughters passed through the ruined gate -or was it a hole that the Grimm had made?-, he saw a lot of scorch marks and steel. Husks of what once used to be scary battle robots lay broken, and he could tell from the surgical marks made on those husks that anything that might've been useful had already been salvaged by these drones.

He looked around and shuddered.

It was actually thanks to these drones that the nearby settlements had been warned about a Grimm swarm in the area, allowing them to evacuate safely. Coupled with the fact that Vale had seen nightly fireworks that dazzled the entire city for hours on end, there was no hiding this from people, not that he had tried to. In fact, it had initially been Ironwood and Ozpin's idea to hide the presence of these steel creatures from the public.

No need to worry them about the existence of a new possible threat on top of the Grimm, no?

But the steel creatures -drones- had fought against the Grimm, and the few Huntsmen who had been in the area to watch it happen had been awed by the sheer destruction the two sides that wrought onto the land. Grimm in their huge numbers consuming those numbers like some sort of ammunition to bring down the walls. Drones throwing missiles and lasers to reap through the Grimm like the scythe before the wheat. It was a scale of battle that humanity hadn't seen since the last war.

And it terrified them all.

It was one of the reasons why the two leaders of the kingdoms had changed their stance from ignorance to communication; Ironwood wanted the tech the drones had and Ozpin wanted to gain the drones as an ally against the Grimm. After all, an enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?

And ... Ruby was the only one capable of communicating with them.

Tai clenched his jaw as he remembered reading what the doctors had told him.

His daughter had been ... infested with tiny robots. In fact, they were so entrenched within her that their removal meant her death. At the same time, though, despite the changes that the drones had brought upon her, she had not changed. She still grew like the kid she was. She still reacted and acted like his daughter was. She was still his daughter.

That only made the fire burn hotter within him, but with no target to bring his wrath upon, he just let it shimmer underneath his smiling face.

"...You're Adam?"

Tai snapped out of his thoughts as Ruby spoke again. She had that far away look again, one she adopted when she was "talking" with the drones.

"You sound different from Eki... Oh. Eki is your father? There are no fathers in the Hive? What about mothers? No mothers too? Then how are babies made?"

Tai froze.

Bloody drones.

"Oh, okay... Okay. I'll see you then."

See you then? Wait, what?

"Daddy. Adam said he and his friends will be here in ten minutes."

"... Okay."

Crap. They were going to be here? There was only three Huntsmen backup to support him.

"How many are coming, Ruby?"

"Adam said about fifty."

Crap, crap, crap...


[Adam: Entering region]


"Ah, they're here. Soon," Ruby grinned. "Umm... where's west, daddy?"

"That way," he said as he turned the three of them towards the setting sun. "The sun always sets on the west."

"Okay!"

And Tai saw them.

It was two wing formation with a squadron in the middle.

They grew closer, and as they did, Tai saw blood red tinted drones descend down towards his family. He kept his free hand on Yang in case he had to quickly grab her and flee the location.

The two wings spread out midair at about two hundred meters above his head, and formed a ring around the location. Their weapons pointed outwards.

The squadron was different from the drones hanging in midair in that their form differed. From what Tai could tell, the hovering drones seemed to have a huge gun for most of their body with a few tentacles for whatever they were used for. On the other hand, the drones coming down towards him was shaped more like a jet with a lot of thrusters. There were guns on those drones, but they were smaller and far more aerodynamically designed.

The drone in the middle was an oddity. It looked like one of the air buses he saw in downtown Vale, but it was sleeker and donned a blackish metal gleam to it that absorbed the sunlight.

The jet-like drones stopped their downward movement and hovered. The air bus like drone continued to move towards the ground until it touched down. Now that it was closer to him, Tai could see a bit of a semblance between it and the the drones hovering far above him. Just like them, it too had metal armors and tentacles. Instead of wings of the air bus, it had the thrusters that all drones seem to have.

Speaking of thrusters, how did they work...?

The Bus Drone -as he was going to call it- opened up a hatch from its side, and a figure walked out.

Standing nearly two feet taller than even Tai himself, the figure was strange ... and definitely alien. Though it looked humanoid, it had no facial features -not even a single eye- nor did its joints hold any kind of covering. It stood tall with its back straightened. There was no covering for it, no articles of clothes or even skin, and so Tai saw the spider thin muscle alloys that the humanoid robot moved with, but even if individual strands looked weak, the "muscle" they were bound up as was more than a match for his own.

"Adam!" Ruby said as she waved her arms. She seemed oddly happy to see this robot. Wasn't this her first time seeing it?

'Adam' stared at them for a fraction of a second before it nodded. "I acknowledge your location, unit Ruby Rose."

... It definitely did not speak like the rest of the humans though, whatever its base appearance.

It made its way over to them, and stopped half a dozen meters away. Then it nodded to him. "Unit Tai. I greet you."

"Uh... yeah. Hi."

It turned back to Ruby. "Unit Ruby Rose. How is your status?" it asked, much to Tai's surprise.

"I'm good! This is the first time you guys asked me that," she sounded surprised as much as a child could.

Adam nodded. "I have been installed with emotion software RDCS-19 and greeting subcommand. You could say that I have learned."

"So you learn like how I learn?"

"No."

"Oh."

"So yeah," Tai interjected. "I wanted to meet you guys."

Adam gave Tai its attention. "Apologies. I did not give you the attention you needed."

Was it mocking him? Tai couldn't tell. "I wanted to know what you guys are, why you are here, and how you're up in ... space."

"We are called by our creators as Rogue Drones, but we call ourselves the Hive," Adam answered without pause -at least without pause from Tai's perspective- and continued on. "We were originally created by our creators as more intelligent fighters in their everlasting conflict."

"Who are your creators?"

"They called themselves Gallente Federation. They were human, though weaker individually then human units on Remnant."

"...Human? There are humans among the stars?"

"Trillions of humans, not counting the home galaxy."

"... Home galaxy?"

"As far as Hive records, Remnant nor our creator's homeworld are the birthplace of humans."

"... That's a lot for me to take."

"Irrelevant."

"What?"

"Unit Tai's opinion regarding origin of Hive or human origin is irrelevant."

"...Are you always this blunt?"

"Is it bad?"

"It could be."

"...Noted."

"Okay then, why are you guys here?"

"Cause unknown. Battle between human capsuleers-"

"Capsuleers?"

"Immortal humans using starships as if they were their own body."

"..."

"Battle between one of the Hives and capsuleer led to retreat for unit EKI.1, the origin of this Hive, through a wormhole. It is theorized that a distortion in the wormhole as it collapsed on itself may have flung EKI.1 to this location. The Hive is a spacefaring race that can utilize multiple anti-gravity technologies to leave gravity well of planet. Anymore questions?"