Strengthen The Hive

If this place is to be the seat of your power upon this planet then it would be wise to take steps to make the space secure and comfortable.

The area is comprised of a moderately sized intersection with numerous structures built along the walkways and into alcoves that have been placed along the walls that house a series of regulators, pipes and valves that are placed along them.

Your drones stand around, a vacant look in their face as they await directives you set them to work, your command requiring no words to be spoken before they begin to cannibalizing their meager shelters to create a perimeter wall made from cinder blocks and wooden pallets, it won’t stop a real attack but it may deter strangers from getting too close.

You can already envision the future of this place, the area is spacious, with plenty of room to grow and upgrade your accommodations, one day you’ll have a paradise, one the humans had always dreamed of and with your longevity, you will be able to look upon it, ever guiding it.

Halfway through the process of constructing your fortifications, you feel something crawl along your foot, it’s small and covered in some kind of fur.

You reach down and snatch it up, slowly inspecting the creature as it writhes in your grasp, it sports matted short fur, a pair of red beady eyes and tiny fangs that it attempts to bite you with to no avail, you’ve heard of these creatures, it’s a rat, a small scavenger that feasts on the fruits of others labor. it’s pathetic.

But alas, it DOES contain a rudimentary brain and nervous system and thus, it can join your host, you assimilate the poor creature, creating another loyal servant of the greater good.

You proceed to assimilate several more of the vermin that dwells down below, they’re small and fast, making for a reliable early warning system in case of attack.

By the end of the day you are fairly confident in your defenses, if you can’t withstand an attack you at the very least can avoid it.

From there you bring your focus to the living situation, your drones can only work so long before their body’s give out, for now at least.

You send one of your drones above ground, apart from the slightly glazed over look in their eye the drone is able to blend in relatively well with the rest of the humans.

Though you’ve looked through your drones memories and seen glimpses of the city within them, this is the first time you’ve seen the city as it truly is, thrust the eyes of your drone as he steps through the streets, most others giving him wide berth as though afraid they might catch something from standing too close.

From what you can observe this appears to be a pre-spacefaring civilization that has yet to unify into a single world empire, still clinging to tribalism and warring factions.

You can also surmise this species puts a lot of emphasis on living a life with creature comforts, tasty food, soft silks and entire stores completely dedicated to the selling of furniture and knick knacks, little bobbles to decorate your dwelling.

Every so often you’ll pass a man or woman resting on the side walk, clothes tattered and features gaunt from malnutrition. It appears there are many individuals who suffer in this city.

Suddenly a great boom sounds throughout the city streets, a body sails through the air, landing in the side of a freight truck, denting it inwards.

The man is visibly human however he seems divergent from the rest of his kind, he is tall, roughly 8ft in height and his body beard heavy musculature, he also sets himself apart by his clothes, he doesn’t wear jeans or a dress or any of the clothing you thought was universal throughout the species, instead he wears a spandex suit with a black torso and yellow arms and legs.

The civilians around the drone scatter in all directions hoping to avoid whatever comes next as he begins to pull himself out of the truck, seemingly uninjured from the crash.

A second figure arrives, this one smaller in size, a woman made out of metal, at first you think her to be some kind of automaton but then there’s a spark of recognition from deep in the drones mind.

That’s no robot at all, that’s a person, a so called ‘superhero’ who seems to be the dominant form of law enforcement throughout the city.

This one in particular is familiar to the drone, his memories denoting her as ‘Iron Maiden’ a superhero who can morph her body into some form of flexible metal.

“Give it up Goodson, you’re only making this harder for yourself, it’s one thing to skip out on your parole officer, it’s another thing to duke it out with a cape” says Iron Maiden as she places her hands in her hips.

The man launches himself at her, picking her up and carrying them both up into the sky and out of view, leaving the drone standing along on the street corner.

This changes things, if there are aberrant offshoots of the human species that can host such abilities, you will need to be careful going forward, as powerful as you are, the swarm is still small, too small to challenge these mutants.

After roughly an hours searching your drone comes across what you think may be a commercial building with the purpose of selling furnishings.

This is precisely what you needed, however it won’t do to raid this establishment in broad daylight, where another of those mutants can arrive, no, this will take a delicate hand, a strategy.