The Hollow Gutter Nest wasn't just our new home, it was a sacred space—it was a feeling. It hummed with a low, ambient energy, a blend of dead hive and nascent technology that responded to our presence. Me and Felicity spent the first few hours in silence, wandering through the newly unlocked chambers, letting the sense of ownership settle in. The air, once thick with insectoid pheromones, now smelled of cool stone and ozone.
We found a living neural-web that responded to touch, its fibers lighting up in intricate patterns. We discovered hydroponic pits that could grow all sorts of bioluminescent fungus for food. This was more than a hideout; it was a self-sustaining ecosystem waiting to be revived.
Felicity sat on a veinstone bench, tapping on her datapad. "All of the offers from the clans are changing. They're not offering to sponsor us anymore; they're offering to absorb us. The language is… less friendly."
I nodded, watching my plasma tail settle into a relaxed, idle state. "Clearly we don't want to be absorbed. We want to remain independent."
I decided to start with the essentials. I needed a new cloak, something that would give me an edge against the dozens of sensors and scanners in the Vein. The Swarmskin Cloak seemed like the perfect first project.
Felicity pulled out the materials from her pack: two vials of Hive Amber and a pile of Brood Shell Chitin from the drones we had killed.
There was still tons of Hive Amber and piles of Brood shell Chitin littering the nest from our battle with Zerask, we were incredibly wealthy ladies now.
The chitin, laying in the cool moist air of the Nest, was no longer brittle. It was now a flexible, malleable material.
We placed the materials in the vein-fed crucible. With a soft hum, the amber liquefied, pulsing with a faint gold light. The Aegis Node, suspended above the forge, projected a series of instructions in glowing glyphs. I and Felicity followed them, my hands moving and working with an instinctual ease I didn't know I possessed.
The living anvil chittered softly as Felicity laid the chitin on its surface. It was a bizarre, symbiotic process. The anvil's bone-white surface seemed to feel our will, shaping and refining the chitin until it was a single, seamless sheet. We draped it over the crucible, and the amber fused with the chitin, creating a cloak that shimmered with a subtle, predatory iridescence. The cloak was lighter than air, and when I wore it, the hum of my tail was completely silenced.
Suddenly the gate glyph pulsed with a different kind of light. A single, sharp, aggressive signal. Not a clan request. An arrival.
We armed ourselves. My tail lit up, the familiar sizzle of plasma a comfort. Felicity slipped a pair of her knives into her belt. We approached the gate, and it hissed open, revealing a lone figure standing in the corridor.
He was a tall, thin snake man, draped in a black segmented coat that moved like a snake's skin. His face was a mask of polished bone and veinstone, and from beneath it, two glowing yellow eyes fixed on us. His voice was a sibilant whisper, smooth as oil.
"Team Veinborn. It is an honor to meet the ones who brought down Zerask. My name is Viper."
I didn't lower my guard. "What do you want?"
He didn't move. He simply reached into a pouch and pulled out a small, glowing data cube. "My clan, the Twisted Serpent Clan, has been watching you. We see your potential. We want to extend an offer. Join us. We will give you access to our elite forges, our exclusive intel, and our protection."
"We don't need protection," Felicity said, her hand resting on her knife. "We just won a territory."
The Viper's head tilted, a serpentine gesture. "Territory is a good start. But territory in this city is only yours for as long as you can hold it. We offer you a place in a power structure that can't be broken."
His eyes, like a predator's, flickered to the altar.
"All we ask for in return is your loyalty...the Zerask core and access to the Aegis node A.I. the Zerask core, it is dangerous in the wrong hands."
"It's already in the right hands," I said, my voice low and firm as I held up my right hand which now sported a new growth: a single, black, chitinous plate on the back of my hand, with a small, unblinking compound eye at its center.
The eye-blinked at Viper, "My right hand." I said cooly.
The Viper's form went rigid. He laughed, a quiet, hissing sound. "You're either the bravest hunters in the Vein, or the most foolish. That Core is a liability. It makes you a target. Don't believe for a second that our offer is unique. Every clan will come to your door. Some will be polite. Others will simply take what they want." He took a step back, the shadows in the corridor swallowing him whole. "Think it over. We will be watching."
The gates hissed shut. The Nest felt heavy again, the air thick with a new, subtle threat.
"He's right," Felicity said, her voice strained. "They're going to keep coming. We're a target."
Suddenly, the Aegis Node's voice, cold and ancient, resonated in my mind. "He speaks the truth. But he does not speak the whole truth. The Twisted Serpent Clan does not wish to destroy the core. They wish to refine it. They are obsessed with forbidden nascent technology. The desire to acquire the bone engine they believe can control all of the Vein's bio-flux."
A new glyph appeared on the console. It was the same red, blinking warning from before.
[BONEKIND ENGINE – RESTRICTED / CORRUPTED]
The Aegis Node's voice was a whisper in my skull. "The Viper did not come for the core. He came to prevent you from creating a rival to their power. A power they've been building for centuries. They seek a monopoly on evolution."
Felicity looked at me, her eyes wide. "Who are you talking too?"
I didn't answer. I just stared at the blinking red glyph. The game had changed.
It was the beginning of a war.