"Besiege?"
"Yes, we will starve the hornets to death right inside their nest! We will surround them and make sure they can't leave for food or water."
"That's amazing, Father! And we won't have to fight them *inside* their nest. I will start gathering the soldiers imdiately!"
"Wait, Bloodhero. The first step of organizing sothing like this isn't to gather soldiers… It's packing their lunches. And make sure no bullies steal them on the way!"
***
Thus began the new operation in the line of my brilliant stratagems—operation "Superior Sting" (I decided ordinary nas like "Kill the Bitches" or "Siege of Hornets" were too simple and I've really ought to move past them.)
Step one of organizing such a massive military operation at such a distance from the Empire was to prepare the logistics of it.
That step alone could take weeks, but Workharder did a lot to shorten this ti.
If this was a more basic fantasy world, I'd gather an army, take enough food to sustain it, and request more supplies to be delivered at so intervals. Simple. Basic. Military organization 101.
But in this world, I had to think about every hungry insect that would sll this food and want to get it if it was unprotected. Starting with the murder hornets themselves!
I'd call them bullies, but my daughters, who rcilessly killed every insect they found looking too curiously at their food, were the real bullies here.
But those insects only had themselves to bla for trying to take my girls' food! And I was not biased toward my daughters in the slightest.
***
The notification hit in the morning when I was about to leave Hive Supremo for the first ti in a while.
The achievent reward was crap, but it made look at my stats once again and smile.
〔Bee Empire〕
〔Wellness〕: 90 %
〔Population〕: 920 thousand
〔Territory〕: 48042 sq. kiloters
〔Settlent count〕: 22
〔Developnt level〕: 5
〔Developnt points〕: 228 / 1500
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Attributes〕
> Workpower: 15060
> Military: 2420
> Brainpower: 7889
> Logistics: 2427
> Resilience: 3859
〔Resources〕:
> Food: 3780 units
> Building materials: 360 units
> Crafting materials: 53 units
〔Empire Council〕
〔Military Adviser〕: increases total military by 10%. (Bloodhero)
〔Science Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to brainpower. (Researchina)
〔Industry Adviser〕: increases total workpower by 10%. (Things-Things)
〔Economics Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to military. (Workharder)
〔Culture Adviser〕: increases all total attributes and wellness by 3%. (Ambrosia)
〔Health Adviser〕: increases wellness by 0,05% of brainpower. (Tabletina)
〔Technologies〕
Dance Communication, Hive Building, Food Preservation, Forager Posts, Rank-Based Hierarchy, Border Patrols, Candles, Primitive Spiked Armor, Work Camps, Literacy, Scientific thod, Basic Hygiene, Technology of Stone Age, Archives, dicinal Plants, Feudal Governnt, Dedicated dicine, Job Orientation, Sundials, Soap, Primitive Flying Transport
〔〕〔〕〔〕
The stats were good! Wellness was at all tis high, and developnt points were rising steadily.
By the ti Beemarines erged, I could have several more dozen points more!
'This all looks like a good on for this operation,' I thought, closing the interface and looking outside the hive. Then I turned to the squad of my quietly dutiful guards.
"Let's move out, girls!"
***
The place I and my guard arrived at was a cave in a fallen pillar mountain. Ti broke the stone apart, leaving plenty of small hollows, one of which I directed my squad to.
This cave stood out from the rest by the sheer amount of bees flying in and out. Many of them were carrying things, either food or materials.
There were so many things to move that so bees used nets to carry jugs and leather sacks in teams, really stretching their carrying capacity to the limit. The visible strain they flew with made it surprising that they could fly with this weight at all!
〔Primitive Flying Transport〕
Brainpower requirent: 1200
Logistics: 0,1 per 1 thousand affected workers.
〔〕〔〕〔〕
A technology that was doing a lot of work right now, boosting my logistics!
And all groups of carriers had guards around them.
More guards, a couple dozen Warrior Bees, were guarding the entrance to the cave; at my appearance, they stood straighter and saluted their hamrs.
I smiled and waved at them, landing nearby.
Then, without going deeper in, I took a palm-sized wooden sundial and looked at the sun through the holes in the forest canopy above.
'Right now is still the first part of the day… So I have to turn the dial here… And… Should be it!' I looked at the sundial.
"So we've been flying for about 3 hours, if I guessed the north correctly. Neat."
〔Sundials〕
Brainpower requirent: 1500
Logistics: 0,2 per 1 thousand affected populace.
〔〕〔〕〔〕
This was a relatively new technology, and still tricky to use, but also incredibly useful. Finally, I could stop guessing the length of an hour. More or less.
Things could be scheduled to happen at a certain ti! Sothing that I really took for granted in the past.
For all I knew, the length of a day in this world was different from Earth. I had no way to tell.
anwhile, the Lieutenant of the guarding Warriors approached .
"Father! You've co to look at your military work camp? Do you need sothing? Food? More guards?"
"Ah, thanks! Yeah, a snack would be nice, and for my guards, too. All that flight is exhausting, and I can't do an inspection on an empty stomach!"
"Got it, Father. Hey, Warrior Hamr-Hamr-23, show Father where we put the food!"
"I can find it myself, really, girls—"
Too late—they were determined to show their hospitality. But it gave an excellent opportunity to look the place over.
The work camp was still half-finished, but it already hosted 2000 bees permanently. There were so bees from Hive Supremo, but most bees present, including Hamr-Hamr-23, were my granddaughters.
My escort smiled at brighter than the others and pointed at things with imnse pride. Her intelligence was 70…
Inside, hundreds of Builder Bees and Foreman Bees were making rows of cells. Most of them were too busy to notice , but those who did would gasp in shock, smile and wave.
Joy swelled in my chest.
Was this how celebrities felt like?!
Reviews
All reviews (0)