(This thread picks up at the conclussion of Inquisitive)



All that had been left for him was waiting. Aegir had lived for over 12,000 years and had often been quite patient in that time knowing that things would come to pass at a leisurely pace. There had been no need to rush them and while he knew this patience but it was different this time around.

He could sometimes glimpse the future though not haphazardly either. The Princess was in danger and he did not know how the future was going to play out. He could try this by himself though his chance of success went up greatly if he did not have to concentrate on two things.

Aegir could not alter Octavia's mind … he probably could have if he were more forceful there but had no reason to and so convincing her to abandon her people had not been about to happen, especially given that her hand maidens were probably amongst them or would be sent to rescue her and possibly be amongst the captives. To get her cooperation he would have to see about rescuing them and so he had anticipated her desires and thus cute off that important step.

But at last Minerva had arrived. His favorite agent amongst the ADD. They had crossed paths a few times before and so he had not disguised himself from her as she arrived. It was time to appraise her of this situation and what was expected.

Splendid. You have arrived. The situation is rather bleak I am afraid but for one of your skills I doubt you will find it impossible. Unfortunately your skills as a sharp shooter probably won't come up but this is a rescue mission of sorts. I cannot be in two places at once and rescuing the Princess of the Trixians happens to be important to me.

All this I helped make possible. And while I could careless about it all the Princess is a priority that I will not needlessly sacrifice. He began to the agent.

All that had been left for him was waiting. Aegir had lived for over 12,000 years and had often been quite patient in that time knowing that things would come to pass at a leisurely pace. There had been no need to rush them and while he knew this patience but it was different this time around.

The agent knew it was important to the Directorate to get the Trixian Hegemony to become allies. The aliens were a race with out a homeworld, though they had similar view of the galaxy as the Directorate.

Thus it came to be that Directorate sent Minerva to go help out the Trixians. If she could help out the Trixians rescue their queen it would go along way to win over the Trixians to the Directorate side. They would be able to provide their technological expertise, and even some of their naval strength to help out the Directorate. Due to Minerva's experience with other hive like creatures, she was sent to respond to the Trixian's request.

The agent was a bit surprised to find that it was not the Trixian request, but a fake one that had been sent by the Cosmo Eagle and her former partner, Rei Yamamoto. She had made the request for the most surprising of creatures, Aegir.

A rescue mission? The agent raised an eyebrow, she did not know the creature in front of her to be interested in the more mundane aspects of the galaxy, where some one was captured or not.[/color]

He explained that it was the Princess he wanted free. Was it because the rumors that the royals of these Trixians were psionic. What do you have so far on them.

Unfortunately not much. Aegir was concerned here, how many thousands of years had it been? No, he was concerned with how he allowed fate to play a huge hand in recent affairs, such as with Ryu but that was in part to make life interesting for him, to make success far more important.

Thoughts on the insects are rather jumbled since I have only the memories of the Trixians to go by and thus their impressions. I am sorry about the deception in getting you here but I needed the best and would not have stood for some rookie agent.

The Trixians have recently sent their people forth so we have a small window of opportunity here. I will delay them from making such rash decisions given that if unsuccessful here they plan on rather drastic measures to wipe out those bugs, measures that would kill the Princess and I am quite fond of her … there are few that I am, present company included, if not for that and your expertise I would have turned to other avenues.

The bugs seem to possess an intelligence and have been seen in three types, winged drones, soldiers and workers. Each capable of using retractable tentacles but possessing different attacks. The workers can project at least two slimes, a green slime that is an adhesive meant to restrain and a blue slime which dissolves the first. Glands that produce the slimes have been studied by the Trixians after the attack though obviously in the time it has taken you to reach here they learned little in regards to these glands.

The soldiers can use an acid and the drones stingers are equipped with an aphrodisiac, at least it functions as one in the Trixians and I'm assuming humans as well.

They can generate illusions as well though I will defend your mind in a way, I wish to remotely see through your senses, even remotely I should realize what is false and what is not. In a sense we can keep radio contact in such a way and I can check on matters.

I only care about the Princess, and while I wish to buy us time through influencing the right minds first, and while I would prefer to remain in constant contact least there are any surprises it will be necessary for me to go. I will extract her people, I have not had contact with her mind but knowing her as I do she'll wish to save her people.

Rei probably won't like it but bonus pay should appease her if she remains at a rendez-vous point to extract the rescued too and for a point for any Trixan teams to pull back too.

They bugs attack in waves with no regard to their safety, only the achieving of their tasks it seems. I nor the Trixians do not know how they will take to defending their hives but I have got the location of it, which is in a series of caves at the mountains. Weapons and equipment I can get with little persuasion though I doubt I can connect with their minds, while I have had limited success as of late with plants bugs are another matter entirely. In any case I doubt we can parlay with them.

Since the bugs are in a series of interconnected caves there are several ways in without their notice so their numbers have not reach overwhelming portions yet where they can defend their hive though I would suspect some sort of defense or warning method closer to the main areas of the hive. He relaid the jumble of thoughts he had gathered in best form for her sake.

Also, the Princess has a homing device implanted in a bracelet I gave her. She was opposed to the idea of being implanted though in retrospect I wish I had as I could remotely use my powers through the implanted nod. In any case using the tracking device you should be able to find her.

The agent brow forrowed as Aegir explained he had not much to give her in terms of Ashlyn. It would make harder to fight an enemy she didn’t understand. But at least the alien would tell her some information on them.

For his part he apparently that was going to delay the Trixians in their assault on the creatures, for he felt the efforts they were going to use would be extreme. In fact, Aegir believed that the attack would kill the Princess. And he did not want that to happen so that is why he called in the red headed agent. He wanted her to go rescue the princess, it seemed that the Trixian royal and the agent herself was people of interest to the ancient.

It was then that Aegir explained the creatures. That despite them being bugs, they had intelligence and that made them dangerous. The creatures came in different forms, castes if you will. Still any of them were dangerous as they had tentacles to pin down any female. Worse they could produce slime that could restrain opponents on its own at least until the produced another slime to render the first slime inert. And that just seemed like it was the just of the tip of the iceberg when it came to these creatures.

The soldiers of these bugs seemed to have stingers in which they could inject an aphrodisiac into their victims. Minerva would probably have to field test the vaccine that Luna had just developed.

The alien explained that the Ashlyn had the ability to create illusions. Aegir explained he would protect Minerva from those illusions by seeing through the redhead’s mind. I wish there was another way. But she knew it was probably the best solution.

The alien would have just have rescued the Princess, but Aegir explained Octavia would always want to make sure that all of her people was freed from the Ashlyn. The agent admired a leader who would go out of her way to rescue her people, but that was why the agent was here. To rescue the Princess while Aegir rescued her people.

The agent was surprised that the outlaw was Rei Yamamoto was being used to extract people. It seemed odd that a pirate like her would do so, even for bonus pay.

Aegir didn’t really elaborate as he explained how the Ashlyn operated. The methods you speak of makes sense. Bug and hives attack in the method you speak off. And they love tunnels because it hard to attack and hard to defend. The addition of weapons would be good, though the redhead would prefer automatic weapons over any energy weapons the Trixian could provide. Still anything they had would be of use.
So your saying their hive is bigger than they capacity to guard? The young woman assumed that must have lost many of their kind on attack on the Trixians. That would give her the opportunity to move fairly deep without having to sneak around. Still your right in that they would be dangerous if I tripped whatever warning system they have.

The Princess has a homing device? The bracelet would at least make it somewhat easy to find the royal, though it would be hard to work her way through all that Ashlyn. I am sure that she would prefer to keep it as just a bracelet.

There is another way to protect your mind but I don't imagine you would want to be implanted. Tapping into your senses would be the strongest, surest method though a weaker option would be to shield those portions of the mind that govern perceptions so as to give you a defense against external influences that try to manipulate it. Or he could do both and not tell her about the safety net.

Whichever option you feel is best.

It is the drones with the aphrodisiac, the soldiers have acid and the workers have the slime that you need to be weary of.

Though I am uncertain how big the hive is currently but they just attack so we have two equally likely scenarios, that they just arrived and have barely established themselves or have been here for a long while and have a sizable force bidding their time until now.

It's likely the first scenario since the Trixians terraformed this world and there was no life present and the Ashen equipment can only manufacture plant life and microbes not full fledged insectoid life forms.

But the cave complex is far too big so getting into the nest should not be too hard given the number of entry points it's doubtful that all the entrances could cover all of them.

His mouth tendrils twitched in a grin as Minerva considered the pirate.

I assisted her out of a rather dark situation. Rei could be dead, or whatever some cultures do with captured pirates … in fact at one stage I had hired her to find you, now though I usually have her assisting the Trixians.

She's probably still a pirate though, but you'd understand that I cannot allow you to arrest her while she's with the Trixians. I don't know whether the Trixians are bored with searching the stars for a home and will tough this one out or abandon it … but as a precaution encase they stay you will forget the coordinates to this world once you leave this system.

Hopefully all his “toys” could play nicely together though he did not view any of them in such a light.

The Princess knows of the homing device, whether or not she left it in place is another thing. I cannot see into her mind … I believe I could if I were more forceful about it though there has been no need on my part to do so.

It's tougher to keep tabs on her thoughts, if it weren't an inborn ability I would recommend it. I will change my appearance it the minds of the others to get into the armory and meet you back here with whatever equipment you deem necessary. Simply think of what you need and I will attempt to acquire it.

Firearms would be a challenge but he'd look. When he returned, meeting her at her ship he had the majority of what she requested in addition to a few other matters. A map of the mountains marked with the caves though not many were explored sonar scans of the region showed that the majority of them linked up. He also had the reader for the homing device and four vials of a blue slime.

This dissolves the green slime though I am unsure how much is needed.

Minerva was give a second choice by Aegir, that he could implant something in her head. To agent both ideas seemed abhorrent to her. If she could, the redhead would have avoided both ideas. However, she knew that probably was not possible. I would rather avoid the implanted idea if you don’t mind.

The alien went on to explain what the creatures that each had a different role, and each had a different way to attack the agent.

Aegir when on to explain he was not sure how big the hive was. Despite this he explained that the creatures had either just established themselves or they had a sizable force. He believed that it was the latter.

I would agree. If they had a sizeable force they would have used to overwhelm the Trixians, rather than waiting for the Trixian’s to gather their own forces. To let the Trixians gather like this would suggest they did not have to capability to overwhelm then when they attacked.

The purple alien tendrils seemed to twitch as the topic of the platinum blonde pirate came up.

The alien explained that he had rescued the former agent from being captured by some forces and had originally hired her to find the redhead, though he for the moment had her helping the Trixians.

The purple being explained the conditions she was going to have operate under. The first made sense that she would not be able to arrest the rogue pirate that was helping the Trixians. Worse though was that she would not forget the location of the Trixians. It seemed a tad unfair to the redhead, especially since she wanted to keep good relations with the female aliens.

The topic turned towards the Princess and the homing device. So you think she would keep it on her at all possible. Do you think the Ashlyn would know of its purpose or it could fall off or is that something that would be unlikely to happen.

He asked her what she would need for the mission that laid ahead. Once she had provided him with a list the alien headed out to meet with the Trixians to gather what Minerva needed. He would use his illusions and psychic powers that enabled him to walk among the female species without raising any suspicions.

Soon the alien returned with almost everything she had asked for. Minerva would have to make up the rest of what she need from her own ship’s stores. He also had a map of the mountains that marked the caves. A reader and some vials that could dissolve the green slime. Okay so this will desolve the green slime huh. Do the workers produce it, I might have to force them to create more if the situation arise.

No implantation. He would have to fine tune aspects of her brain temporarily to filter out false images and sounds once he himself figured out how the bugs caused this. Linking up with her mind was probably the best way about it though he could sense her disappointment in loosing the memory of the world's location.

She had not complained about the matter though but perhaps instead he would just delete from her mind that Rei was even here. Whatever worked best he supposed in the wrong one.

The agent agreed with his assessment that there probably weren't too many Ashlyn given the evidence though neither could be certain it was likely that she had analyzed the situation correctly. They had a foot hold scenario here though he had his own agenda here.

The slime they use dissolves clothing but not metal. She maybe wearing it, she was opposed to being implanted with a nod but seemed agreeable to having it one. I do not know how sentient the Ashlyn are but even if they are sapient creatures jewelry on a royal isn't too unusual and even I it's been removed we can at least narrow down the search area unless they set it quite a distance away from her.

If they are really sentient they could even use it against us if they know what it is and set up an ambush but there is no telling and with them being insects I cannot tap into their minds either ...

When he returned he nodded. Yes, the workers do. This is how this was made, apparently there is a gland ...

It was a useful talent taking memories and imparting them so she knew exactly what gland and how to remove it. Dead ones can only make enough of the neutralizing agent for one dose. I do not know how much slime that will dissolve. Minerva … thank you.

And to think she had shot him when they first encountered one another. Unless there was anything further it was to the Cosmos Eagle for transport where they would be drop off near an entrance. He had explained that he had already delayed the Trixians from taking drastic measures for twenty-four hours at least, taking care of it when he went back for the supplies.

The redhead felt a little dizzy for a moment as she felt a little weak. She had felt this way before one other time. And that was the first time she had encounter Aegir. It was that time he had trapped her in a huge illusion. To do that he had entered her head and the agent was pretty sure he was doing that now.

It meant that he was going protect her from the illusions, but at the same time he would know everything the agent was thinking.

The alien explained that the slime dissolves only clothing not metal. Well in that case if she was smart, she would have made sure she had it on before she was captured. Minerva had to careful. Her flightsuit was made of essentially more protective clothing. If she was hit with the slime she would just be running around in her helmet. The redhead might as well had been sneaking in her dress uniform.

Your right of course. I will just have to careful as I approach and be prepared for whatever happens.

It was explained that apparently the workers to that made the neutralizing agent and it was their gland that produced.

Minerva felt a little light headed as suddenly she realized that somehow the gland was to be removed from a worker and how to use it. The agent was disturbed a bit about easily Aegir was able to manipulate her mind.

The Cosmo Eagle soon took off as they began to head to an enterance. Rei Yamamoto was an excellent pilot, despite Minerva’s misgivings about her. The redhead knew that the pirate would get them to their destination safely. No I guess there is no more questions. I should probably get my gear ready.

Aegir could sense her uneasiness about how easily he could insert thoughts, it was not the first time and probably not the last time either but he had been able to keep her surface thoughts in order without her even suspecting a thing, it was with these deeper insertions into her mind that she could pick this up.

He rarely had to go so deeply into a mind though but such was necessary for extracting or inserting knowledge, real or factual, in this case the later. He could also “steal” information by copying it into his own mind and from there he could copy information onto other minds if he had wished.

They were taken to one of the numerous entrances as she prepared her equipment for the infiltration. At least the Ashlyn did not mutate like the Harvesters so they were probably easier to deal with over all. Over sized bugs, albeit dangerous ones.

Aegir went with her a small portion of the way before they separated the homing deice emitting a steady pulse though I it had been worn had yet to be seen.

Be careful, Lieutenant. Aegir offered up a tentacle coiled about her hip, a tentacle slithering against her rear though there was no time at present and so that touch so extracted itself.

Upon that they split up, the passage up ahead filled with some of that luminescent fungus for a small stretch of the passage that must have been beneath a pool or lake.

Two passages up ahead one that had lead on to a passage of fungus and the other spiraled into darkness, the homing device signal growing down this way. The passage sloping down as she hears the buzzing of wings – an Ashlyn approaches, a drone and not a soldier so she was probably not discovered yet, it just happened to be coming this way and soon it wold be upon her …

Minerva could not even tell if he had already in her head. Give the few encounters she had with the alien, the agent knew how easy it was for him to enter her mind. The young woman assumed that Aegir had already entered her head, and that Aegir was right now listening in on her thoughts and feelings.

The Cosmo Eagle felt like it had touched down somewhere. It was ironic that the agent had just traveled with one of the most wanted pirates in the galaxy. She was mainly wanted for being a former agent but still it was strange to catching a ride from Rei Yamamoto.

When the redhead moved to hatch to prepare to head out. She could see from a window that the ship had landed right next to one of the entrances into the hive. It appeared that were no Ashlyn near this entrance or they would have attacked the ship.

Minerva stepped and began to head to the tunnel. Aegir followed her to the tunnel entrance as the redhead checked her tracking device.

The alien told the redheaded agent to be careful. As the if to emphasize the concern, Minerva could feel the tentacle rub against her hip and rear. The agent simply nodded as she moved into the tunnel.

The agent had expected to use the low light system on her flight suit. However the tunnel was filled with some sort of fungus that glowed somewhat.

The agent careful made her way down the passage as began to break off into two passages. The young woman saw that the homing signal was coming from a path that lead into the darkness. The redhead was about to make her way in that direction when she hear the noise of some sort wings flapping. Not willing to give her presence away at the moment, she hid away in the opposite corridor. With luck the drone would just move on by.

She had been near the beginning of the hive and to give up her presence already. That would have certainly made things a lot more difficult to deal with and so she moved into the darkness. Soon an Ashlyn drone landed in the passage where she had been senses, keen senses must have told it that there was something amiss and it seemed to investigate just a little.

Then determining that anything could have made the slight increase in heat hear it left continuing on it's way leaving the agent to use the lighting system on her armor as she moved through the dark passage that connected in with the hive.

Eventually she came to an area that had green slime plastered to the wall and a map was adhered to it. No … not a map she soon realized. Blue prints of the castle. They had no secret passages on it and seemed to be the sort of blue print that one got from city hall … the plans may have been taken after the recent attack and not before though the fact that they were here, even if not up to speed had denoted some form of alien intelligence telling the agent that these were not just bugs she was dealing with.

A hive mind? Perhaps, though as the tunnel continued it grew warmer. It did not become unbearably hot though but noticeably warmer. In fact up ahead was light, more of that fungus that emitted a soft glow though this chamber emitted sounds of various animals, clucking, mows, that sort of thing.

Investigating revealed that the were to Ashlyn workers here and a multitude of animals adhered to the wall. Some struggled uselessly, others made sounds of distress and a few seemed to accept it.

With the noise her approach had been covered and the abundance of animals made it a bit easier to hide along side them. Domesticate animals? It was hard to say (unless she's dealt with the culture). One was being hosed down with a blue slime after one bite it, paralyzing it in some way or making it susceptible to the blue slime it was hard to say though the green slime gave way and the pair carried the animal off neither aware of her present.

A quick study of the animals revealed that they were all male too, that fact was hard to miss. Nor did she miss that the homing device followed the paths that the Ashlyn made so she had to shadow them until getting to a room where their was a creature affixed to the wall …

That was unusual … he was not a Trixian given that he was male and more reptilian than mammalian. A Hel'Corian, there was an agent of that species in the ADD before she disappeared on a recent assignment. The creature was barely conscious and she had yet to enter full into the chamber approaching cautiously when she say the shadow of movement … there was some of that phosphorescent fungus here as well and it was her call how she was going to approach this situation.

The agent quickly moved into a dark section of the passage and turned off her lights. She had to hope the creature would not notice her. For a moment the drone paused and seemed to turn in her direction. Minerva kept her gun pointed at the creature, ready to take it out if attempted to raise an alert.

The drone seemed to pause for a moment, before it slowly turned and began to move away. The agent waited until the creature disappeared behind a turn in the tunnel, before she finally exhaled in a sigh of relief. Now at least the redhead could further into the hive.

Lieutenant Rocha soon came to an area that looked like it had some sort of map that was pasted to the wall of the tunnel. The agent had hoped it was a map of the tunnel, but she quickly realized it was not a map but blue prints to some sort of castle. This was disturbing as it meant the creatures here at least to some degree understood the importance of how to use maps to plan, even though she did not know if something they captured during their assault on the colony or if they had before. If they recognized the value of a map, it meant she was not dealing with animal intelligence but something higher.

The further the lone agent had traveled down the tunnel the warmer it felt. The light seemed to be getting stronger as Minerva assumed to be a chamber ahead. Still the last thing expected was the sounds of animals.

The agent carefully edged her way to the entrance into the chamber, it appeared to be Ashlyn workers as they seemed to be tending to animals that were stuck on all the walls coated in green slime.

The agent could not really tell what time of animals they were except they must be male though, that could be determined by the appendage that was hanging between their legs. Some of the workers bit a few of animals. The agent watched as the animals in question quite moving and soon were sprayed in blue slime. The green slime they were covered in began to dissolve and soon the workers began taking those animals elsewhere.

Minerva looked down at the homing device that she had, it appeared that she was going to have to enter the chamber to continue to search for the Trixian Princess. Slowly and stealthfully, the redhead began to make her way through the chamber until something moved on one of the walls.

The agent took cover for a moment as she tried to identify the creature that was on the wall. It seemed to be a Hel’Corian, though Minerva could not be sure. She had only met one before briefly, Nail. Though Nail was only halfblooded and so looked somewhat human to the redhead, and even then Minerva did not know Nail very well. The agent would have to move closer to determine what the situation with this creature was.

The constant mooing and baying covered her movements as she entered into the chamber, careful of the slime though the majority of which had been collected near the wall. Mostly green, some blue and some clear … while she had not seen the clear slime in work it may have done something similar to the blue slime though had to do something different.

That had been her guess any way. Though she had to move closer, the Hel'Corian she had met was a half breed and this one was full … the horns where similar and she could get a better look at the ridges along the spine.

He was conscious, turning towards the agent as she approached. He was in some sort of uniform though it was tattered by the the slime that had been adhered to him keeping him restrained to the wall.

“Eh?” His voice low beneath the animal sounds. “You are not Trixian. Why are you here?” A Trixian made sense to him, not a human … he looked upon the red head then as if he were going through his mind as to who she was.

The agent slowly moved through the chamber as quietly as she could. The noise of the animals hid any sound that the redhead made. She did her best to avoid the different slimes, especially the clear slime. It mostly pooled near the walls, but Minerva did not want to take any unnecessary chances. Things were difficult as it was.

The agent soon made her way to strange alien on the wall. There was little doubt once she had gotten close, just by the horns and ridges on the spine alone…he had to be a full blooded Hel’Corian. He seemed to match the ADD’s description of those aliens.

As she approached, his head turned to her frame, a clear sign he was still conscious. He had bits of what remained of outfit. The slime that had pinned him to the wall had done an number on whatever clothes he was wearing.

I am here because I am looking for someone. The agent didn’t want to reveal too much as this stage. What are you doing here? How did you stuck to the wall like this?

She was cautious though given the information that he had been privy too he could guess as to whom that person was that she had searched for. Still he found his head dipping into a nod as he accepted that answer without questioning her further. Of course, he would have expected a Trixian operative if his hunch had been correct …

“I see … I hope you find her ...” there were only female prisoners here of course save for he and the animals secured to the wall. He did not know why the animals were here though he understood why the gathering of prisoners … he had seen it before anyway.

“I am the pilot of the Ashlyn, these bugs … they do not know how to operate space craft … they placed me here, I think the Queen can only control on person at a time and since I am not needed yet I was secured until the time I was for whatever reason, to control another or free up some strain I have only speculation on some of their abilities.”