Alien Hive ((Closed))

In the future humanity would be forced to look among the stars, for a new home, new resources and new allies. Massive ships were deployed to this task and scattered to the stars, reporting back to the Milky Way colonies what they found. However, not all the ships were lucky, every once in a while some would just lose contact, meeting an unknown fate as they risked their safety for the good of all humanity. On one planet known as Epson V to the star charts, one of these great ships found a wealth of resources and even a habitable atmosphere, the perfect place to set up a mining colony. They thought this planet was uninhabited other than lower forms of flora and fauna, however the explorers would be shocked to find that they were far from alone. Hiding in deep underground cities were large insectiod aliens known as the Zirus, they seemed to pick up English and a few other human language with shocking ease and in spite of early confusions they were happy to consider a peace treaty.

Meeting one of the human groups were a small group of Zirus, handpicked by the queens to meet and discuss terms with the humans. Their meeting place was a very distinct rocky outcropping, worn by nature it resembled a giant stone tree. The first of these was a Zirus who sported a very strange name, Jeffry Anderson. His body was a mangled mess that resembled many Earth arachnids, predominately long spider like limbs along with a tail that looked like it had come from a scorpion. It was easy to see that he was nervous, both pairs of hands behind his back as the Zirus paced back and forth. "Stop that youngster. You will wear tracks in the land." The speaker was a much larger Zirus who had to move on all fours to keep his bulk comfortable. The gorilla like Eurbath stood near by, clicking his mandibles at Jeffry, his gurgling voice sounded as if the heavy insect was trying to speak with water in his mouth. With extremely dense armor and three fingered, crab like claws, it was easy to tell that Eurbath was a field worker by trade. He grew fungus and other plants that the Zirus considered extremely tasty, he was picked for his raw strength and calm outlook, the perfect front to show the invading humans.

"Yes. You are strong as they are strong, but the way of the Zirus makes your strength the hive's strength. All things lead to one end, young one." The smooth talker was a smaller Zirus was a slight build, even thinner than Jeffry's. He looked like some crazed fusion of a cricket and a bard, each of his four arms sporting sound making organs so he could play a rather spirited duet all by himself. He was a classy nobleman by Zirus standards, every bit as cunning as Eurbath was powerful. His name was Rukkus, he had a reputation for being a bit of a flirt, using his musical talents to really get the antennas of female Zirus to hum. Rukkus had taken immeasurable joy in teasing the young Zirus, Jeffry knew very little of his people and would often blunder into situations that would require him to quickly apologize, this wasn't helped by the fact that Rukkus would often lead his young charge astray just to watch the fun.

This odd band seemed to be waiting for something, every now and again one of the Zirus would check the position of their sun to tell how much time had gone by. As they waited for the other have of the meeting to show up, a fourth set of eyes was watching from a near by tree, like Jeffry he was a very young Zirus. Named Scott Whells he had been a friend of Jeffry, the two stick together since they were both newly created Zirus, but that was only part of the reason he showed up. What he really wanted to see were the people that the emissaries were sent to meet, humans from a spaceship named The Argo which had a very special meaning for both Jeffry and Scott. They would get to see the sort of people they once were, before the Zirus twisted their genetics into the newest generation. Rukkus and Eurbath seemed to take this all in their stride, then again they were pure-strain Zirus, growing up in this culture they simply saw this day as another in a long line.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

Touch down - first day in Epson , Jihl is already excited to exercise her diplomatic skills to the planet's natives. The Agro expedition was already informed about what happened to the previous expedition that made first contact with the insectoid race known as Zirus. The Terran Coalition of Man Colonization League has full confidence that Jihl is the right person for the mutual understading of the two species.

While the reports from the previous expedition confirmed that it wasn't alarming, still, the Arg expedition needs to be cautious if they want to establish a stable diplomatic relationship with the Zirus to avoid any setbacks and possible future conflicts on their true mission since starting a war might cause dire ramifications for the TCMCL.

Although Jihl is eager to demonstrate her mettle in diplomacy, she still felt nervous, of course, in space, even the most trivial things there could prove fatal, how much more by trying to build a bridge with an insect?

Jihl and her closest friends went out of the colony ship to meet with the Zirus delegates. Lianshi is the head researcher of the Argo expedition is fond of studying the fauna of Epson V. Vi is the chief of security who is concerned with the safety of Argo's crew. And last Sienna who acts as Jihl's right hand and ace in the hole, like a last resort, she is there when words fail let the hollow point shells do the talking. Sienna is also like the safari bodyguard of the party.

A few minutes of trekking, they finally arrived where the delegates are waiting. To their surprise, two of the delegates didn't seem to appear like what they are expecting. These two Zirus are mutated humans who belonged to the previous expedition, their bodies almost unrecognizable, save from their deformed human face and intact human legs. This is probablt something they didn't from the reports.

Lianshi gasps as she suspect one of the two mutated humans to be familiar to her, the one with insect wings on his back but she doesn't want to assume that he is what she think he is, but curiosity got the better of her so as to find the answer, she approach him cautiously and tries to communicate with him, Jihl almost stopped her but Lianshi just made a gesture assuring that its alright.

Lianshi: "Scott?....... Is that you?"

Jihl: "You know this man?"

Lianshi just made a quick glance back at Jihl and nods her head, telling her that she is positive on her claim.

Lianshi also see some little flying bugs hovering and whizzing above the winged Zirus, making him looked like a pile of shit surrounded by flies. What Lianshi doesn't know is that the winged Zirus has the ability to command these tiny flying bugs and he is also able to see what these little bugs sees. Lianshi is completely clueless that a little flying zirus is hovering between her legs just below her skirt.

As Jihl is focussed on observing the start of communication between Lianshi and the winged Zirus, she can't help but give back the stare at the other mutated human who is staring at her. He looked young, probably the youngest among the four, well, who can tell the age of a Zirus?

Jihl is curious as to why this young mutated human is staring at her, he doesn't look like as if he is preparing to strike her like a predatorial insect, his posture is still quite the same as a normal human, though awkward by human standards. What Jihl doesn't know is that this young Zirus has the ability to see through objects. What he is seeing is probably for his own enjoyment.

Jihl waits for Lianshi to be done of her dialogue with the winged Zirus, so she could get her turn.

On the other hand, Vi felt quite intimidated as she sees and hear the thumping of a large Zirus's pincers, as if this hulking Zirus looks for an arm wrestling match. Vi gave him an annoyed stare as she clenches her shiny pneumatic gauntlets. Vi is left confused to see this hulking Zirus act like a gorilla thumping at its chest o show its superiority.

Meanwhile Sienna is geting irritated by the cricket like sound produced by the fidgeting looking insect, this insect just keeps on waving and moving his limbs as if he was itching like a cockroach moving its legs in frenzy. Yes, Sienna's trigger finger is also itching at the moment, but she doesn't want to start a seemingly irrevisible trouble."

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

Not aware they were being watched until now, Rukkus and Eurbath followed the stares of the humans to a near by tree. "Bah! Fliers always think they are invisible on the high-ground." The sing-song voice of Rukkus was followed by a gurgling chuckle from his larger partner "No point in hiding now. Come down young one, the Zirus are not spies and we do not wish to frighten the humans." this sound advice of course came from Eurbath. At being found out, Scott nearly fell off his perch on the tree, partly because he was trying to divide his attention between the others and the little flying insects under his command, one of was sending extremely distracting images back. Sheepishly Scott fired up his wings, they made a loud rumbling sound, akin to the motor on old Earth vehicles as he flew over and landed beside Jeffry. His friend seemed a bit annoyed that Scott had followed them, the man had been insanely curious and hyper-active before the change, but after gaining his wings he only became worse.

With that settled all four Zirus turned to their human counterparts, though Scott still seemed a bit twitchy and nervous, he did his best to loom somewhat dignified. Rukkus seemed determined to lead this small group, moving his arms together he made a soft thrilling sound, not unlike that made by a violin, he strummed out a few cords before giving a very elegant bow to the females. "I am Rukkus, music lover, song writer, lesser noble and humble servant of the queens." Shifting his clicking mandibles around into a rather broken imitation of a human smile, the Zirus seemed to be quite the showman as he then gestured to the others "This brute is Eurbath. He's a farmer by trade and a dear friend, please heed his words of wisdom." then finally he set his eyes on the two former humans. "These two have not fully embraced their new lives and still cling to their old names, you know Scott it seems, but this one here is Jeffry. I forget their second names, why you people need more than one name is beyond me. In any case these young Zirus-" Breaking the speech Jeffry spoke up "We aren't young, I am in my late twenties and Scott isn't that far behind me." this got an annoyed glance from Rukkus "You two don't have a year between the two of you. You will be considered grubs until you grow more accustomed to your bodies and devote your strands of genetics to the hive." Rukkus then turned back to the humans, annoyed that they were seen fighting in front of them.

"Now, Jeffry has been elected to debate terms with you, Eurbath and I are just here to set him straight on the finner points of Zirus desires and the demands of the queens." Taking a few steps back he shot a glance over to Jeffry who seemed to be trying to point his eyes away from the women. "Young one, it is rude to not meet the eyes of your allies." Eubath stated, forcing Jeffry to look straight ahead at the women, twitching just a little as an inhuman chittering sound left his mouth. Embarrassed, Jeffry stepped forwards, making sure to keep his stinger armed tail low to the ground so he didn't get himself shot "I understand what my ship was looking for, but what do you want to get out of this? Whatever you want, the Zirus will want what they consider a fair trade..." he was hesitant to say just what the Zirus would want, knowing that the contacts would have trouble giving human lives for resources.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

The ladies were quite astonished to see an insectoid race display a courteous demeanor. Jihl is the one who will do the talking for the party, while Lianshi didn't get an answer a straight answer from Scott, she didn't insist in asking for more.

The girls were amused a bit when they heard that the two former humans are now called grubs in the Zirus insect society.

That aside, after hearing Jeffry's statement, Jihl steps in front to introduce first herself and her companions first. "My name is Jihl Nabaat, overseer of the DSS Argo, I'm sure you are already familiar with this expedition" Then she glances to Lianshi, "This is Lianshi my head researcher, she is very fond of studying sentient lifeforms such as the likes of you, I believe the winged one and her are going to be real friends soon." Lianshi blushed a little and smiled as she mused to herself Then giving a look to Vi, "This one is Vi, Argo's finest, her gauntlet has saved many lives from perilous adventures including me" Then finally patting her hand to Sienna's left shoulder. "And this Sienna, my long time friend and party girl, that is if you can keep with her in reveling in alcoholics."

"Now to the matter at hand, I would make this short, simple and honet, my expedition sent here to investigate what happened to the first humans who came here and retrieve any lost refugee, second, we came here looking for the same thing the first expedition was looking for, the mineral called unobtanium, we are here to harvest those minerals. I believe this planet is a treasure trove of natural resources. So Jeffry, I would like to hear the terms of your new family."

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

On hearing the little mousy woman's name, Scott's wings buzzed excitedly "Lianshi? Lianshi! I remember you! Sorry, I didn't recognize you at first but it is certainly glad to see another friendly face!" this outburst was met with three annoyed glances from the other Zirus, followed by Jeffry coughing politely into his chitin armored hand to get things back on track. "Sorry. Scott's transformation has made him a bit hyper-active and as a result he tends to get a little scatterbrained at times." This excuse got a loud and rather harsh chatter from the winged Zirus, but the others ignored Scott this time to focus on the humans. "The Zirus have no real need for metal. They dig up the stuff largely just to get it out of the way of their tunnels. They would be happy to get rid of some, but the queens are very weary of being taken advantage of. They don't trust humans, even the transformed like me are often watched carefully." As he spoke, Rukkus' antenna twitched now and again, though he seemed to largely agree with what Jeffry was saying. He then shot a glance towards the two pure-strain, as if asking for permission, Eurbath answered with a low gurgling tone that sounded like water sloshing around in a bucket.

Glancing back to the humans, Jeffry looked to their leader, Jihl "What the Zirus want is new sources of DNA. There are two ways they can get it, the first is...well, what you see happened to me. All the humans from the ship were changed this way and most are living quite well, so please don't worry about them. The second way is a bit impolite to bring up in mixed company, it does not involve transforming bodies but the harvesting of genetics can take quite some time." pausing to let his words sink in, Jeffry then continued to explain "You see, nearly every animal on this planet is related to the Zirus in some manner. They have taken almost everything this planet has to offer them and the queens constantly worry about their genetics going stale and the race as a whole degrading. Some family might have degraded already, which the Zirus believe their close relations on this world are the results of. The humans landing here was a massive boon to their people and they are extremely thankful, the queens are willing to give you a good sized amount of your metal to pay for the humans they have taken into their fold. However they still need more DNA. They will want humans willing to transform into Zirus, if they can't get that they will settle for the second method but you will ultimately gain more favor and metal if you let your fellow humans be taken by the Zirus." at the end of his sales pitch Rukkus and Eurbath nodded, it seemed Jeffry had done his role quite well.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"What happened to you Scott? Your obsession with insects seemed to have finally paid off..." Lianshi replied back to Scott's greeting in disbelief.

Jihl listened carefully to everything that Jeffrey claimed about the terms of the Zirus.

She gives a second thought about the first option, deeming the crew of the Argo not deserving to be mutated into bugs, to be transformed is the same as damning humanity, and still a human life is still priceless compared to a precious superconductor.

Vi, tried to give some suggestions to Jihl about the first option, "Well, we could contact New Folsom to give us a plethora of their criminals, that might give us more permit in mining."

Jihl looks to Vi and gives her thoughts with her."A good option but I doubt these bugs are contented in just settling for cons to become bugs, I know there is still a hook beneath this."

Lianshi backs Jihl's in pursuing the second option.

"Let's just do our mission here and get out clean, unless you want us to return to Earth as political criminals. Lets choose the minimal collateral and let the next expedition deal with our unobtanium blunder."

Jihl looks to her henchwoman to ask for her thoughts about their next action, "What about you Sienna, shall we go with the more pain or less pain?

Sienna gave her self concerned response to her friend, "If we get back to the fleet with a few loot, I doubt high command will let us stay with the Argo for the next expedition, if that happens, we will be discharge without a retirement check."

Jihl took a deep breath as she want to be clear first before casting the dice. She goes back again to Jeffry to learn every detail of the terms.

"So humans are but genetic cattle gifts for the Zirus? So if I pick the second option, no human will be transformed but we will get less metal, am I correct? I need more specific details about the second option. I want to know what you really meant by the term harvesting of genetics"

Jihl suspects that the second option might be the lesser evil, at least she could get her hands clean by not committing atrocity to her crew just for the unobtanium, but she still wants to know the price of the second option.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"Oh...well, it was a surprise to me as well. One moment I am checking out this large fly looking creature and the next I am waking up in front of a Zirus queen." Scott explained to Lianshi as he buzzed his wings nervously "Not that I don't enjoy my new body. Flying is unlike anything I can put to words! I feel very lucky to have my own pair of wings."

Ignoring Scott's awkward interactions with his old friend, the other three Zirus were pretty much business centered as they focused on the terms. "There is also something else." Jeffry stated, getting the attention of both Rukkus and Eurbath who seemed a bit annoyed that their mouth-piece was going off script. "It won't take too long before human genetics will be part of most Zirus and new infusions of it become less and less important. They will need to travel the stars in search of new sources and one day they would like to come with you." This took the pure-strain Zirus completely by surprise, chittering back and forth Rukkus and Eurbath were quickly speaking in their native tongue, which Jeffry hadn't quite mastered yet, but he caught bits about how he wasn't supposed to have figured out the queen's end-game which was indeed to travel the stars. Jeffry smiled smugly at the reaction, quite proud of himself that he managed to figure out the next step of the Zirus plans and possibly warn his former race in case the Zirus became a threat. "But lets put a pin in that for later. The Zirus don't have much in the way of technology and would require outside help to build a starship." Another hint that this was possibly an even larger barganing tool for Jihl to use against the Zirus and it had Rukkus completely flustered. "Please ignore him! He knows not the desires and plans of the queens." The cricket like alien chittered quickly, before reaching out a hand and pushing lightly on Jeffry's armored shoulder "Now, they want to know the second method, why don't you quite stalling and tell them?" this got the former human to flinch a bit before hissing his annoyance.

"The second method I spoke of...is to mate with the Zirus. Queens can take genetics directly from other species in the act while normal Zirus can impregnate or be impregnated by other races if they choose to let it happen. This method is very slow for their tastes since other species have much longer gestation rates than the Zirus who carry eggs for only a month before laying them and are ready for another batch. Some females can even lay eggs in the wombs of others to so they don't have to carry the eggs themselves." It was easy to tell that Jeffry was very nervous about explaining this, it was not helped by the fact that he could still see right through the clothes of the women before him and make things even harder for him. Due to his nature his tail twitched, the stinger on the end dripping venom in response to how unsettled he was by having to tell the women that they choices were to let humans be changed or to breed with giant insects.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"And I hope you still remember that man has already reached interstellar travel. You seem to have found poetry instead of science from that." Lianshi sees Scott flap his wings so fast as if he were Tinkerbelle's alter ego.

After hearing Jeffry draw out the Zirus Queen's agenda, Jihl finally had an ace on her deck, thanks to Jeffry for averting the diplomatic table, now Jihl will only have to cheapen the deal. Even more, the ladies quickly knew that the two pure Zirus are hiding something, therefore showing themselves untrustworthy.

Jihl quietly put her hands on her back while listening to Jeffry and dialed some buttons to her holographic computer located at her palm, sending a coded message to the crew of Argo to left supply cache for the 4 ladies and proceed for an immediate evacuation.

Jihl this time has finally decided to go for the second option. "Very slow method? If you say that your species is formidable in genetic manipulation, why don't you just manipulate the genes of humans to hasten our gestation rate so it would suit the suggested birth rate and make humans able to produce not just a single live birth? Besides, you said that a Zirus can also inseminate numerous eggs inside a human womb, so how come its slow?"

After that statement, Vi, got quite uneasy to what Jihl is saying, "You're not planning on making us an insect breeding machine are you?"

Jihl responded in a calm demeanor, "Yep, that's where we going next."

"What the hell? You're out of your mind capt.?" Sienna followed.

"What choice do we have? Unless you want us to return without a big fat bonus and commendation." answered Jihl.

"Are you sure about this? This is something we haven't deal before." Lianshi hesitantly added.

"There is a first time in everything, Scott will help you get used to it for sure." Jihl sarcastically responded

"Shut up." Lianshi gave an annoyed end answer.

Jihl just smirks in a crass manner.

Jihl looks again to Jeffry to seal the homo-ento diplomatic relation in conviction.

"Here's our term, from this day forward, ANY remaining crew of the Argo left on this planet will submit to be turned as breeding host for the Zirus. We will allow any Zirus to procreate with us in any way they see fit. The use of our bodies for breeding purposes by Zirus will end once 400,000 tons of unobtanium is collected and placed in the northern desert of this continent. The unobtanium will be gathered ONLY by any able bodied Zirus once the breeding commenced. Should any harm come to us due to hostile actions or should any of us perish while undergoing sexual reproduction, we will immediately sever our submission for breeding and we will take the current amount of unobtanium. Do we have terms?"

Jihl waits patiently for their answer.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"Wait...what?" Scott seemed completely shocked by what was going on, he froze almost instantly, even his twitchy wings stopped buzzing as he stared at Jeffry and the women that his friend was dealing with.


There was complete silence on the Zirus side as they listened to the humans dictate their own terms. When she was finished there came a great gurgling laughter, or at least Jeffry thought it was laughter, from Eurbath who suddenly sat his large bulk down to rest his legs, causing a slight tremor as he did so. "The humans are far smarter than we thought. Your terms are acceptable." Rukkus on the other hand looked completely annoyed and exhausted "No! Zirus morphed humans are smart, we have no evidence to say if pure humans are smart or just ruthless." The smaller alien shot back at his larger friend, Jeffry on the other hand looked very pleased with himself, feeling that perhaps he could make up for the giant blunder his ship created.

When the Jihl began asking a few questions, he figured he might as well help to clear the air about a few things. "The ability to lay eggs inside of another is fairly rare among Zirus, only certain females are gifted with it and I am expecting they will all be drafted for this project. As for the Queen's ability to tinker with genetics, it isn't quite as fine-tuned as that, they can store and use DNA but they can't shape it beyond simply injecting it and watching what happens. Perhaps if we worked with a few of the geneticists you have on the ship we could figure something out." Jeffry explained as best he could, but he didn't have all the information he would have liked, the pure-strain Zirus were limiting what the newly created hybrids knew, just in case one felt like turning on them as Jeffry borderline did a few moments ago.

"Ladies, I think it might be best if you worked out further details with your own command, I can already see the deal will be a tad unpopular." Jeffry himself had no intention of taking part in the project, he might be adapting a lot better to his new body than most, but he didn't think he was ready for something like this.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"If we are ruthless, you won't be seeing us standing in front of you, what you will see are tungsten carbide rods raining from the sky. The only thing standing between the Zirus and the Terran Coalition Navy is the Argo." Sienna interrupted as Rukkus gave his seemingly upset remarks to the humans.

"Well said, sista! I couldn't have put it any better." Jihl complimented her old friend in a comical way.

"Yeah, good thing the fat-claw understands better than this so-called insect poet." Vi said as if backing Eurbath against Rukkus.

Jihl listened carefully to what Jeffry is adding, "Geneticist you say? well Lianshi, looks like you'll now have a one time evolutionary project." Jihl glances at Lianshi and instates her in helping the Zirus queen make some gene modification for the Zirus-Human procreation compatibility enhancement.

"Piece of cake, all I need is a set of medical apparatuses. Hey Scott, do you still have some working laboratory equipment that we can still use?" Lianshi assures Jihl that everything will go smoothly, and still she doesn't know that a little flying bug of Scott is still hovering between her legs which has gone deeper now between her thighs. Scott might not have heard Lianshi spoke to him.

"Well, it will be a disaster if your queen will be hesitant on modifying our bodies, how she is going to get a suggested birth rate if she is not going to enhance our progesterone? The choice is hers. If there are other hybrid species aside from half humans that wish to procreate with us four then they are more than welcome to join and add the gene pool. And you know what, why not take us to the queen's lair instead of wasting time here? TIME IS EGG." Jihl is getting excited to go for an AGGRESSIVE NEGOTIATION.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

The pure-strain Zirus did not understand the human's words or the nature of her threat, Jeffry and Scott on the other hand flinched, or rather in Jeffry's case his tail began to rise off the ground in response to the threat. At this point Rukkus had given up trying to steal center-stage and just crossed his arms, making a light strumming sound as he did so, Eurbath on the other hand was quite content to let the humans and former humans work things out, he saw no reason to get in the way just yet. As the talk turned to the queens, Jeffry began to speak up once more as Scott continued to fidget for reasons unknown to Jeffry. "The queens have never refused change in the past, they see change as the best defense against the Zirus people dying out. However, it will be harder to convince them you only want a little change instead of having your entire body warped." He paused before going on "And be very careful what you say, by Zirus and human terms the queens are ancient, they are extremely intelligent and if they can find a loop hole that will gain more Zirus without angering your fellow humans, they will take it without hesitation."

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

Jihl clarifies to Jeffry about the loophole, "Jeff, just to tell you the truth, we've already made ourselves as the queen's bargaining chip. The Argo expedition was sent here to make up for your expedition's blunder, and should the Argo expedition met the same fate as your expedition, the TCN will swiftly come here and strip mine this planet and bombard it with orbital strikes of tungsten carbide rods." Jihl looks up to the sky to see her ship floating above the sky, "See that? I've already sent Argo to go observing our progress, now if your queen plans on back stabbing our deal, the Argo will immediately alert the TCN for a planetary invasion, and none of us would want that. If you want numbers, then I might still be able to draw in more players to revel in this deal."

Lianshi added more as Scott is continuing enjoying himself of the "surveillance", "Besides, Jeff, what's the use of getting our bodies warped totally if the queen already has the human gene in her collection? Wouldn't that sound redundant?"

Sienna teases Rukkus for his currently quiet state, "Hey, still with us poet? What's the matter, silver tongue turned lead?"

Vi can't wait any longer, "Come on let's get this over with, enough talk, the fat-claw is already tired of the chit-chat."

"Hear that Jeff, don't tell me you're going to deny this in front of your queen." Jihl smirks.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"Jeffry, please." The hybrid stated, not very fond of the shortened form of his name, for some reason he never liked the sound of it. Jihl's words also stung quite a bit, Jeffry knew his ship's mission had failed in a manner not a soul could have predicted, but he didn't see why she needed to rub his face in the matter. "Come, first we must take you to the queens. Rukkus and Eurbath are acting as their proxies, whatever they agreed to the queens will back up. I'm just here as a pretty face." With his slightly soured attitude Jeffry became a bit of a snarker as he motioned for the women to follow him into the alien jungles of the planet. The two pure-strain Zirus were quick to follow, Eurbath charging through the underbrush to create a path while Rukkus seemed to just vanish as soon as he reached the trees, his colorful chitin skin blended in almost perfectly.

Scott remained behind, becoming further flustered "Wait!" he shouted as he buzzed his wings "You wouldn't think the guy with wings wouldn't be the last to leave!" he huffed childishly. He stayed on the ground however, for some unknown reason seeming a bit too awkward to take flight at the moment.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"That's the spirit, I'm sure Lianshi is going to be in awe once we get there." The four ladies walk along the path Eurbath had carved, in the forest. "Hmmm, that fat-claw has some tricks on his sleeves, wish I could I sprint as fast as that." Vi was quite fascinated at the beastly strength Eurbath displayed. "Hey, where's the poet? I hope he did not sulk at what happened earlier. Sienna looks around, having no clue where Rukkus went. "Scott, shouldn't you be flying right now?" Lianshi felt quite strange about Scott's behavior.

"So how far till we get there Jeff?" Jihl asks Scott as he leads the way.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

Jeffry lead the way, keeping an eye out as he raised his long tail up, ready to strike any creature that tried to make a meal out of the odd party. "Rukkus and Eurbath will have gone ahead to warn the queens of your visit. There is a tunnel around here connected to the main hive which should take us there in short order.." He explained as they walked, the twin whip like limbs on his back extended forwards like giant feelers so Jeffry would have a heads up in case one of the local predators was near. The last thing he needed was for these humans to get eaten and have it be blamed on the Zirus, he might not be happy with his new species but that didn't mean he wanted to see them wiped out. Scott on the other hand looked even more nervous, flinching and fidgeting when Lianshi started to ask questions of him. "I...um, I wanted to talk to you girls and that's hard to do when flying." He then made an odd chittering sound more akin to a car's engine clogged with bad oil, the Zirus version of a cough or clearing one's throat. "I'm just a tad uncomfortable on the ground, I don't have a lot of the armor of other Zirus or even the venom and offensive abilities of Jeffry, it leaves me about as vulnerable as can be."

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

"So what is it that you want to talk about? Well in fact I have some questions too on what happened to the crew of your expedition." Lianshi glances at Scott who is seem to be having a "malfunction" moment.

"So this is what happens to us now, space explorers turned bug sluts." Sienna speaking her concerns to Jihl.

"Don't worry, the festivities would suffice, besides I want to try this." Jihl responding adamantly.

"Ewww, just as I thought, you are fancying insects mowing you." Vi replied in disgust.

"This is what I call the art of diplomacy, first insect diplomat whore, that would give me a good mark in human history since Marco Polo. You should be excited too Vi, no man in the armory could give you a hot wet bed time report, besides, you can't use that pneumatic gauntlet of yours to jack-off yourself."

"At least I have standards, unlike you." Vi replied in her defense.

"Really, like letting the commander back in Arcturus station ram his hollow point cock inside you for promotion?"

"Haha! You sure knew a lot Jihl." Sienna laughed.

"So how far is it Jeff, are we going to need camping for this journey?" Jihl can no longer wait to get to the main course of the diplomacy, and not even knowing that the two pure strains are planning something.

RE: Risk of the Stars(Korax and little_iveta)

Stopping beside a patch of ground that seemed like every other patch on the forest floor, Jeffry used his long whip like tendrils to stretch out, feeling about before they seemed to slip right into the ground. Then with a twist a large chunk of top-soil came up in a neat hatch shape, the hole was big enough for Zirus as big or bigger than Eurbath. "We are here, though it will be a bit more walking until we are in the hive proper." He explained before jumping down into the hole, landing in a deep, rather dark tunnel. The Zirus had no problem seeing in the dark, the tunnel might as well have been lit up with torches. However, there were not other Zirus around, just Jeffry and Scott, the tunnel in question didn't seem to be terribly popular.

The jittery hybrid struggled to find something to talk about "Um, I can answer questions. Yes! That I can do." when they came to the hole he paused and looked down in it. "Well, all the humans became like me and Jeffry...though some took their lives afterwards, unable to cope with the change. The rest settled into their new lives, becoming traders, woodsmen, hunters and crafters." Scott didn't seem to be the sort to lie easily, he let go little secrets almost every time he spoke.

RE: *Closed*

The ladies watched in amazement as the patch of ground suddenly pulled out, it seems the Zirus have an ingenious way of turning their environment suit their needs, hell it won't be a surprise if these bugs have a factory beneath a hill.

As they look to to tunnel they saw that it was deep as if an intensed mining and drilling activity took place here.

Jihl sighed as she learned that they are to travel further to reach their main destination.

"Great, nothing is ever easy, here I thought having two legs is great. Good thing our host could have four plus wings."

Vi and Sienna didn't like the smell of the tunnel, it smelled like a beetle's fart.

"Damn our perfumes even makes the smell worse, my head is starting to spin." Sienna complained.

"Its probably their pheromones, the moment we smell like them, other Zirus will start to think we are one of them." Lianshi responded

"Oh yeah, so these guys use shit as their IDs?" Vi retorted

"That's one way of putting it, we got ourselves a hell of party from smelling like shit." Jihl sarcrastically responded

The ladies listened to the talkative story teller bug, Jihl finds it quite amusing and disturbing at the same time.

"Well would blame those that comitted suicide, at leat they have the guts to spare themselves the nightmare of becoming a house fly.

"Hell, there's no way I'm gonna end up like you egghead." Sienna responded in an insulting way.

"Me too, I wanna get out of this with my girl image still intact." Vi added.

"And what of Eurbath and Rukkus? Did they have a hand in the previous expedition as well?" Lianshi curiously asked.

The sounds made up in the tunnel mostly came from the loud conversation of the group, as if the tunnel itself hasn't seen it share of stories.

RE: Alien Hive(Korax and little_iveta)

The tunnel consisted of a slope that would let the band easily walk down into the underground and later merge with a larger tunnel that would take them where they needed to go. Holding the door open Jeffry motioned for the girls to head down "I'll bring up the rear. The last thing we need is some predator to slip in because of us and devour an entire nursery." though his tone was sarcastic, the deadly tail of the hybrid slowly began to raise up and ready itself as he turned his gaze out to the jungle that seemed to be closing all around them.

"Them? I didn't see anyone until after I was transformed. The last thing I remember is studying this really fascinating creature that resembled a grasshopper with it's hind legs in reverse so it had to jump backwards away from danger." Scott sighed a bit, his twitchy body growing still as he headed down into the tunnel, a bit lost in memory. "Jeffry says they weren't there, in fact he thinks that the queens were not horribly happy with the way things were handled with our group and sent those two this time to make sure things turn out better." Shrugging a bit the dragonfly looking Zirus just gave a bit of a nervous buzz "According to what we have managed to pull together, there has been a total of five Zirus caused deaths, the rest were by the native predators or their own hands after transforming. In two of those cases the Zirus were mistaken for predators and attacked, the other two were Zirus acting out of revenge for their fallen friends and the fifth one is a bit of a mystery, we couldn't find anything about it." it seems the first encounter was by no means free of trouble, no matter how Rukkus might try to romanticize it to the humans.

RE: Alien Hive(Korax and little_iveta)

"Better tell that to your queen if something managed to get on her egg trays." Jihl responded to Jeffry's joke.

"But I thought you said the Zirus own this planet and yet there are still species here who are vying to get on top of the food chain? So who was it really that started the mess? Or was it just the natives who dragged the Argo into the mess?" Lianshi wants more of the details elaborated.

"So where's the other two, are they gonna picnic somewhere else?" Sienna followed.

"Are there rats and snakes down here? I'm not seeing any other tiny bugs and rodents down here." Vi said.

"I hope you still remember that we're not in Earth." Jihl responded

"But this planet could somehow sport something similar to a rat." Vi retorts/

"Yeah, and hope that its about a size of man..... A ratman hahahaha!" Sienna jokingly responded

RE: Alien Hive(Korax and little_iveta)

"They are, for the most part." Jeffry grunted as he closed the hatch behind them and moved up to join Scott and the girls. "There are creatures on this planet that burrow through the earth, giant worms that could swallow Eurbath without any trouble at all. Not all Zirus are so lucky, while most of teh surface predators would not be able to deal with the likes of me or Eurbath, smaller Zirus who lack thick armor such as Scott or Rukkus are in danger of being picked off if they aren't careful. And of course when they are young they are every bit as vulnerable as a human baby, which of course means anything larger than a cat could kill and eat them. There are many predators who burrow and move through the soil, feeding off of what they can from the Zirus waste shoots and will occasionally eat unwary Zirus if they can mob them." He paused before clearing his throat "You forget that almost everything on this planet is related to the Zirus in some fashion, while the native creatures can't change as quickly they can adapt shockingly fast by Earth standards, the Zirus are constantly at war with their primitive cousins in evolving measures and counter measures against them, the only sure fire way to remain safe is to live in vast colonies where many can make up for the weaknesses of the individual." through all of Jeffry's rambling Scott would back it up with a few nods, as he was the one behind most of these discoveries.

"The Zirus are no more the apex predators of this world as we were on out own planet. Wild dogs still roam the streets and will eat humans if they can manage it. Before they became extinct in the wild there were great predatory cats and wolves, giant reptiles ruled the water ways and weren't restricted to the sewers as they are in our time." Shrugging at that Jeffry sighed "You seem to forget that just because we are the masters of our world we are still prey to some creatures and now that we have expanded into a larger universe we are once more in a very big pond and who have no idea what lurks in the waters." at the end Scott chuckled "Don't mind him, I think he has been hanging around the cricket too long and picked up his dramatic attitude."

RE: Alien Hive(Korax and little_iveta)

"Giant woms? Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if there are two headed centipedes or web spinning scorpions or acid spitting giant ants out there. This planet is really a bug turf, meant for species that has more than two legs, no human would ever last in this place for sure. Good thing humans have developed weaponized lasers and atomizers in this space age. We may be physically inferior but at least we are the masters of survival." Jihl added to the conversation.

"Yeah and good thing I have these large pneumatic gauntlets so I could punch as hard as a wrecking ball." Vi added

"If I'm not mistaken, maybe their evolutionary process was somehow influenced by the Unobtanium, the flora of this planet is so vast and yet to be discovered by humans." Lianshi responded.

"Yeah, and that discovery starts with you, once you become a host to the grubs." Vi sarcasticaly retorts.

"Give her a chance will you? Who knows, Lianshi could be the future Carl Sagan." Sienna added.

"You could bring some back in the ship if you happened to find some small bugs out there doc, once we are done here. Just try not to catch some that are big as a bear or plants that are the size of a car. Better if you couldd find a dung beetle that could talk!" Jihl gives out some amusement and encouragement to Lianshi.

"So how much further flying egg head?" Jihl asks Scott.

RE: Alien Hive(Korax and little_iveta)

"Technically they aren't truly insects, arachnids or even the worms I spoke of actual worms. At least, no more so than a clump of mold is a tree." Scott interjected, trying not to take over Jeffry's role as their guide "They simply are subjects of co-evolution, the same reason why sharks and dolphins are so similar from a morphology point of view but the two groups couldn't be more different." the winged Zirus spoke quickly and nervously, his buzzing voice at times blurred his words and made it hard to understand him. He also winced a bit when Jhil called him an 'egg-head' as Scott was no stranger to such nicknames, he mostly relied on the more assertive Jeffry to keep other people from just walking all over him. "I'm not sure. I don't use the tunnels all that much. I do however know that the entire planet is mapped in giant Zirus highways, not unlike some depictions of ancient Earth." He shot a glance at Jeffry who gave a nod "The distance isn't all that far for someone with wings. Maybe half an hour's flight? Walking with Eurbath and Rukkus was quite longer, perhaps two to three hours. Though any time spent with them is hard to judge as it stretches out far longer than it has any business to."

RE: Alien Hive(Korax and little_iveta)

"What?! Half an hour?! Why didn't you tell us about this earlier? I could have ordered Argo to punch a hole directly into the queen's hive with the orbital satellite cannon and spare us this long hours of walk. I'm getting tired. And my shoes is not meant for rugged terrain." Jihl said in an almost frustrated tone.

"Me either I'm also wearing high heels, better go bare foot for now." Lianshi added as she removed her high heeled shoes and carries it as she walks.

"Too bad you guys aren't prepared for your own safari trip, Good thing me and Vi are girl scouts. Couldn't ask for a better boot. And aren't you guys feeling toasted with your dresses?" Sienna bragging her combat boots and her appropriate fatigue apparel which are just fine for this kind of journey.

"Yeah I'm getting boiled in my uniform, damn I feel so soaked and wet in my own sweat." Jihl answered as she removed her trench coat, revealing her soaked arms and damped turtle neck sleeveless dress.

"Getting hot there already?! We haven't reached the finish line yet." Vi jokingly remarked.

"Stop pretending you're not feeling the same, I know you're also soaked in your tight pants." Jihl returned the sarcasm.

"Good thing you guys are well adapted to this kind of environment." Lianshi remarked the twwo hybrids.

RE: Alien Hive(Korax and little_iveta)

"Well, that and the fact that our muscles no longer work the same way they used to. Zirus have a hybrid sort of structure, partly fluid based hydraulics like Earth insects and partly mechanical based like what humans have, the fusion lets us walk or run for miles without slowing down." With a heavy sigh Jeffry shook his head and then shot a short insectiod glare at Scott "No more biology, the girls are tired enough without you chattering half a book at them." with that Scott fell silent. This finally gave Jeffry a bit of room to speak up "Every few miles there are...well, you could call them rest areas, places where Zirus can hold up for safety and rest. Frankly, I am a tad shocked we haven't run into any other Zirus by now, most tunnels tend to be a lot more active than this." as he spoke Jeffry flicked his long whip like limbs in front of him, feeling the sides of the tunnel and looking for a few scents. What he found was not all that encouraging, he could tell that no Zirus had traveled these tunnels in little over a month, Zirus never abandoned a tunnel without good reason. With a soft hiss Jeffry raised the stinger on the end of his tail as he glanced around, the not so subtle gesture had Scott buzzing nervously as he forced himself to stay on the ground.