Drone #060147

Chapter 2

My ears rung as I sat awake, my head throbbing from what felt like I had been headbutted by a thousand minotaurs. I stood up shakily before suddenly doubling over and retching on the ground. “Oh fuck….everything hurts….” I cried out as I looked at the ground, having thrown up blood, the neon green almost blending in with the grassy field I found myself on.

“Where am I?” I asked to no one. I looked around and realized I must have been just outside of the forests past Canterlot. I stared in the distance and spotted a black figure lying on the ground a few hundred yards away. I stumbled over to it weakly to find a dead Builder, his eyes glossed over and flies buzzing around him, some inside a big gaping hole he had in his chest from the blast of magic that must have killed him. His green blood blending into the grass around him. The smell made me retch and vomit more of my blood up again and I collapsed in the pool of blood next to him.

It took me a few moments to finally realize two horrible things. My skull throbbing how it was meant that either the queen was dead, out of range, or is in too much pain to even be able to connect to it. Which meant the troops I knew as my family were scattered and on the run. Hiding from the same species we thought were like sheep. We had lost the battle of Canterlot.

I heard the sound of faint buzzing somewhere and I thought it must have been the flies coming to feast on my soon to be corpse until I realized the sound was getting closer and it was much louder then flies could ever be. I went wide eyed and looked around, my vision fuzzy from what I assumed was a concussion. I saw two black figures flying toward me and I was hit by another wave of pain, causing me to collapse. “Sweet Larva Chrysalis that hurts……”

“We got a survivor!” The smaller of the two shouted and flew over.

“Help me get him up….come on….” They said, the voice definitely had to be a younger drone of some sort and the frame definitely suggested he was a medic class. The larger one hauled me up onto his back

“We need to get him away from the grass, Royal Guard is bound to come out here any moment now and begin making patrols to find survivors.  We need to move now. “ The other said, which I could now tell was a Lieutenant based on the armor I felt he was wearing.

“Then let’s move!” The medic said as they rushed into the woods, the Lieutenant with every bump he made over the trees’ roots made my body ache as I felt myself slip away again into unconsciousness.

I regained consciousness sometime later, feeling fine except for some minor throbbing in my chest and head.

“You had a major concussion and a few broken ribs, Drone. It’s a miracle you’re alive……..” I heard the familiar younger voice say as I opened my eyes, seeing the two changelings I was with much clearer. The medic had a chipped left fang and a blue bruise just above his right eye.  He looked young, this must have been his first battle. The Lieutenant had scars covering his face and body, his right side seeming to have been mauled years ago but his body showed a few recently healed cuts and gashes.

“Thanks um, uh….?”



“Number 068888 of Theta-Sigma-Alpha, though my buddies just call me ’32’ on account of my four eights.”  Chimed in the Medic

“Uh, alright, and yo- “ I began but was quickly cut off

“Alpha-Delta-Zeta was my batch, I am the last one so my numerical designation no longer matters.” He says coldly and I felt a chill go down my spine, remembering the legends about that hatchling batch and how they were some of the fiercest Trooper Drones around a couple decades ago. If this old bastard was the only one left alive he had to be the toughest son of a bitch to ever come out of the hive.

“Time for talking is over, we have to move if we’re to make it to the outpost before nightfall, when it hits nightfall we’ll have to worry about them spotting our eyes and deal with snipers or hide somewhere, so shut the fuck up and let’s move out.” 

He says and begins making a brisk jog ahead. 

 32 looks to me with his goofy grin

“Well, I know It’s sure as hell safer to stick with him, let’s move Droney boy!” He says and rushes to The Lieutenant.

I chuckled dryly and sprinted. “You ain’t leaving me behind!”

——————————————————————————————————————————

Several hours later I spotted a light in the distance where the outpost should have been.

“Holy shit…..” 32 muttered as we got closer and The Lieutenant snarled when we had reached what looked like the dying embers of a burnt down loghouse in the woods, in the center of the wreckage was green blood and fried changeling corpses. The rancid smell of burnt flesh and charcoal lingered in the air

“Fuckers burned it down……”  The Lieutenant muttered.

“MOTHERFUCKERS! PIECES OF SHIT KILLED THEM! THOSE BASTARDS KILLED THEM!”

32 yelled and The Lieutenant tackled him and put his hoof over his mouth to muffle him

“Shut your mouth, they may still be near, let’s hope they haven’t heard you…..”

32 struggled under The Lieutenant as best he could.



“What happened?”

I asked, in utter shock at the sight of what was supposed to be the hidden outpost.

“We can talk later, what we need to do is head North-West of here, look in the dirt.”

The Lieutenant said and pointed to what looked like hoof tracks

.


“Those hoof tracks are pony, came from the West and took this outpost out,  Then they headed north east to the next outpost to take it out, we need to head northwest and avoid them.”



“How do you know they are going to take out the next outpost?” I asked as 32 finally got loose.



“Because somebody fucking sold us out that’s why! “ He shouted.


“It doesn’t matter if somebody sold us out now, what matters is we get out of here and get back to the hive to warn them. Not go for foolhardy revenge against these bastard ponies, we rush over there and attack them head on we get killed, we build up a fortification in preparation at the hive and we can fend them off for however long we need to.”  The Lieutenant replied and got off 32 and he let out a sigh of defeat.


“Fine, I guess you’re right…..” He said and stood up

“Should we look to see if there is anything left in the rubble?” I asked the Lieutenant. 

“No, looks like the ponies either took most of the supplies or destroyed them. All that’s left is ash and dust.”

“Fuck……” 32 muttered and looked at the corpses.

“Don’t think about it soldier, we need to move now, the Hatchlings at the Hive depend on us. “ The Lieutenant states.



“I know, just…..fucking hell…….” He mutters and we begin trotting again, The Lieutenant kept ahead of us while I kept a good pace next to 32.

“Why do you think someone sold us out?” I asked

“Well think about it, someone knew where our outpost was, the ponies went on high alert before we even got there and we had to change the whole plan to deal with a huge fucking shield that we wouldn’t have been able to get through if the Queen hadn’t dealt with that pink alicorn bitch before then. Of course somebody sold us out.”

“I was thinking so too, just wanted be sure we're on the same page.”

“Question is, what sick fuck would sell us out?

“

"I don’t know, but when I find the fucker I’m going to make him pay if it kills me.”  He says with a look of fierce determination.

“Save some for the rest of us.” I said and he gave me an evil smirk.

“The more the merrier.”