"Actually… It's two special tasks, Researchina. First, find a good Archivist who isn't too reluctant to leave the hive and find Explanatory—she's the head of the dragon language project. Let her install soone else in her place, give her a new team—a larger team!—and a new assignnt. She must go to the human settlent and study their language!"
I paused, then added:
"Not right now, of course. We still don't have the route toward human settlent, and it looks like a long journey. But you can begin preparations now."
This was a much harder task than studying dragon language, and more dangerous. But I felt like Explanatory was a person with the best skills and experience for it.
"We never needed a language to conquer soone before," Bloodhero muttered, then hurriedly added, "But it's as you say, Father!"
I chuckled.
"It's not that diplomacy is *impossible* without language knowledge, but the lack of it will make it way, way harder! I'm not yet done teaching you how diplomacy works. You will understand later. But for now, settle on the fact that our enemy is cunning, and knowing their language will help us imnsely with knowing their plans and intentions. Then, we will be able to prepare accordingly!"
Bloodhero saluted.
"I understand, Father!"
"I will arrange teams as soon as possible," Researchina said. "Considering the importance of the task, a thousand bees will be the bare minimum. I request building a small work camp near the targets' location when we find the exact route toward it. And a defense force, together with a scouting force. Beehounds specifically, if possible."
I raised my eyebrows, but then realized why Researchina ntioned them.
"You want Beehounds to gather study data stealthily with their perfect mory without endangering the Researchers?" When Researchina nodded, I smiled. "Good idea. Request as many people as you need—you heard , girls, this is a very high-priority task. Build that work camp sowhere safe from the green giants. Perhaps fly higher in the pillar mountains than usual."
Researchina nodded and made so notes on her wax tablet.
"What was the second task for , Father?"
My smile widened into a full-blown grin.
"Well, this will take a longer ti to explain…"
***
A phrase often attributed to Al Capone (but actually belonging to a humorist Professor Irwin Corey) read, "You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."
The Bee Empire had no guns, but at my command, they began making them as soon as possible—or at least, their nearest possible equivalent, but scaled to the size of their enemy.
The technology for making bows was a part of the Early Bronze Age package. Siege weapons weren't—they were Iron Age things by Earth history, only being invented in relatively late Ancient Greece.
So our Researchers had to do it themselves, with my schematics. Thankfully, the chanism was simple, we had all the materials, and Researchina found the task almost as exciting as her tallurgy project.
In two days, the first prototype ballista, made from sturdy wood and iron parts, was presented before in an indoor training ground.
Most training grounds nowadays were outside the Hive Supremo's cave, because of the sheer size the hive stretched for. By now, space was becoming a bit tight in the confines of our cave, and with thousands of soldiers and other specialists training at any given mont, they mostly did it outside.
The training ground we currently stood at was mostly used as a testing ground for Researchers' inventions.
The ballista was loaded with a single arrow large enough to give a green giant a nasty splinter. Its fletching was made from massive feathers that covered hides of land lizards, and its tip was made from a trophy murder hornet stinger, still with a venom sac attached.
〔Ballistas〕
Brainpower requirent: 25000
Allows creation of ballistas.
Military: 1-20 per combat-ready and manned ballista, based on the ballista's paraters.
〔〕〔〕〔〕
"Excellent!" I said, walking around the entire construction (while being careful to not stand in front of it). "Now shoot sothing!"
"Gladly," Researchina said with a sharp smile. "It's a sight to behold every ti. Assistants, set the target!"
The target was a stack of wooden blocks put twenty ters away from the ballista. Several Researcher Bees turned the ballista around with great effort (I noted that the construction needed a rotating base) until Researchina told them to stop.
Then she walked up to the ballista and pulled out a wooden pin that held the taut string (made from either so beast's, or from human sinew as I gathered) back.
With a loud clang, the ballista's massive bow straightened, sending the arrow flying.
A whoosh, a thunk—it was a hit!
The arrow almost split the wooden block in two, while also sending it and the entire block tower flying to the ground.
I clapped my hands.
"Amazing! Needs a bit of improvent—but it's already great, Researchina! How far can this thing shoot—did you test already?"
"No, Father. I would normally send the new prototype through more thorough testing before showing it to you, but you said that it was urgent…"
I nodded.
"Yes. I can already say it's pretty good. At the very least, it looks like it won't fall apart while shooting."
The entire construction was made from thick, solid pieces of wood and thinner, but still solid bits of iron. It was going to be tough to move around, but it wasn't going to break when shooting.
"I'm glad to be of use to the Empire, Father," Researchina said with feeling. "All the designs are ready to be passed to Craftsn, then—unless you want us to make improvents first. You wanted to point sothing out, you said."
I nodded.
"Spare a day on making this prototype better."
From my mory, I added extra points to the ones Researchina already used to make this construction—like a crosshair and wheels; she promised a fully complete prototype by the next day.
While this was happening, dragon riders were still flying out, trying to gather as much information as they could about our surroundings and watching out for humans.
A week later, as the first Beehounds that I've sent out to search for green giants have returned to Hive Supremo, the dragon riders brought more troubling news.
Reviews
All reviews (0)