Chapter 43: Chapter 43 : A NEW TYPE OF WAR
The valley had turned into a forge.
Buzz stood in the center, sweat slicking the cracks between his shell plates. The air smelled of heat and metal. Around him, the coalition trained—Scarabs pounding their claws into the dirt in rhythm, Centipedes wrapping their coils into shields, Glowbeetles darting through the air in patterns of light that burned lines into the canopy.
Every strike shook the ground. Every move had purpose.
Zza barked orders from the ridge, her silk whistling through the air. "Keep your rhythm clean! If you break formation, you break the net!"
The Scarabs adjusted, moving tighter. The Elder watched from the edge, threads spread wide, connecting every faction in a web of signal and command. For the first time, the coalition moved like one creature.
Buzz turned his head toward the Glowbeetles overhead. Their flight had grown sharper. Coordinated. Beautiful. "They’re learning," he murmured.
Zza smirked from beside him. "So are you."
He grunted, adjusting the jagged spear strapped to his forearm. "I’m just pretending not to die every ten seconds."
She laughed, the sound cutting through the air. "You’re doing better than that. For once."
He didn’t answer, but a faint smile crossed his face. The gold in his veins stayed quiet today. The silence almost felt merciful.
Then the ground shifted.
The rhythm of training faltered. The Scarabs froze mid-strike, antennae twitching. The Glowbeetles dropped lower, their light dimming.
Buzz stiffened. "That wasn’t us."
Zza frowned. "It came from outside the net."
The Elder looked up, threads trembling. "No—beneath it."
The ground erupted.
Soil and roots blasted upward as a rift tore through the valley floor. Gold light speared out, blinding and hot. The net above snapped taut, holding for a heartbeat before the pulse ripped through it.
The coalition scattered.
Buzz tackled Zza as a blast of golden shards shot past, slicing through trees like glass. The sound wasn’t a roar—it was a crack, like something tearing open reality itself.
He looked up and saw it: a tear in the air, faintly shimmering, rippling like heat over metal. Inside it, there was no light. Just a tunnel of dark that sucked in air, pulling leaves, smoke, even sound.
Zza pushed herself up, panting. "What is that?"
The Elder’s voice came low. "A breach."
Buzz squinted at the distortion. It didn’t look natural. The edges of it hummed, not with gold—but with something else. Something sharp, clean, and mechanical.
Then he heard it. A sound he didn’t recognize but somehow knew was wrong—metal clicking, air hissing. Footsteps that didn’t belong to the forest.
Figures stepped out of the breach.
They weren’t insects. Their bodies gleamed under light that wasn’t sunlight. Smooth shapes of armor, silver and dark green, faces hidden behind glass. In their hands, they carried rods that hummed faintly blue.
Buzz felt his chest twist. "Zza... they’re not part of this world."
The humans scanned the clearing, their movements deliberate. One lifted a device that flickered with symbols. The others followed, stepping over roots and corpses like they were inspecting a failed experiment.
The Elder’s threads shot forward, wrapping around the nearest one. The human lifted a hand and pressed a button. Electricity surged through the silk, burning it black. The Elder recoiled, hissing.
Zza’s eyes widened. "They’re not just passing through. They came for something."
Buzz’s blood ran cold. "Me."
The humans moved faster. Two fired nets made of thin blue light, spreading wide. Buzz rolled, claws slicing through the threads, but the energy stung his skin. His veins lit up gold in response.
The humans shouted something to each other—short, clipped sounds he couldn’t understand. One pointed at him, yelling, "Subject confirmed!"
Zza lashed silk at their faces. "He’s not your subject!"
One of the humans turned her way and fired. The pulse hit her chest, throwing her backward. Buzz’s vision blurred red. He charged.
He slammed into the nearest human, claws cutting through armor. The man screamed as Buzz threw him aside, but another fired behind him. The dart hit Buzz’s shoulder, injecting something cold. His body went rigid.
Zza crawled toward him, gasping. "Buzz!"
He tried to move, but the cold spread fast, numbing everything. The gold inside him flared, reacting violently. His vision filled with static light.
The Elder’s voice echoed faintly. "They’re pulling him—"
The humans surrounded him. One held a device to his chest, and the world folded. Light bent. The forest twisted away.
The last thing Buzz saw was Zza’s face—eyes wide, silk outstretched—and then she vanished.
The light faded. The sound went with it.
Buzz woke in silence.
He wasn’t in the forest anymore.
The air was sharp, metallic. The ground beneath him smooth and cold. Glass walls rose around him, filled with wires and faint blue light. The hum here wasn’t alive—it was mechanical.
He tried to stand, but bands of energy pinned his arms and legs. His claws sparked when he moved.
A voice came from somewhere above. Calm. Human. "Specimen 42—awake and stable. Begin synchronization test."
Buzz’s heart hammered. His reflection stared back at him from the glass—a creature half-gold, half-shell, breathing in a world that didn’t want him.
He pressed his claws against the glass. "What do you want from me?"
The intercom crackled.
A pause. Then a voice answered.
"To understand what makes you *remember.*"
Buzz’s claws sparked against the barrier. His veins glowed brighter, the gold flaring like fire under his skin.
Somewhere deep in his mind, the forest whispered back.
And he knew this wasn’t captivity. It was the next war.
Buzz’s vision blurred, and the light stabbed through his eyes again. The sound of air hissing filled the space around him. Cold metal. The sharp scent of chemicals. Voices layered through speakers—flat, emotionless, precise.
He was still in the glass cell.
The humans moved behind the barrier, their faces hidden behind masks. A dozen of them now, all in matching armor, each carrying glowing instruments. They watched him like he was a specimen that had finally started breathing again.
"Heart rate stabilizing," one said. "Neural activity spiking near temporal nodes. The specimen’s gold veins are reacting to the electromagnetic field."
Buzz couldn’t move at first. His body fought itself, muscles locking under the strange blue light that pinned him. His claws twitched. Sparks of gold flickered under his shell, crawling up toward his face.
Then he heard it again—*her* voice, buried deep beneath the hum of machinery.
*You brought me here, Buzz.*
His eyes widened. "You’re not real."
*Real enough to bleed through you.*
He slammed his claws against the barrier, and blue light pulsed back, shocking through his limbs. He fell to his knees, growling.
The scientists flinched back. "Subject showing aggression. Increase field density by thirty percent."
The air thickened. Every breath turned sharp. He could feel his heart hammering against his ribs like it was trying to dig its way out.
Zza’s face flashed through his mind. Her eyes. Her silk. The smell of the forest after rain.
He roared. The gold flared through his chest, his claws bursting with heat. The energy snapped against the barrier, cracking it. One of the scientists shouted.
"Containment breach detected!"
Buzz’s mind split between pain and clarity. The Queen’s echo clawed through the back of his skull, whispering through his thoughts. *You think you escaped the hive? You are the hive now.*
He forced his claws against the glass again. "Get out of my head."
The room trembled.
The lights flickered. The gold veins along his shell burned brighter.
Then the entire wall exploded outward.
Glass and metal shards flew. Alarms blared. Humans dove for cover. Buzz staggered free, smoke pouring from the ruined cell. His breathing came ragged, his body trembling between power and collapse.
He saw the nearest scientist—small, terrified, human. Buzz’s shadow fell over him.
"Where am I?" Buzz hissed.
The man stammered. "L-Laboratory Nine. Sector Four. You’re—"
Buzz’s claw grabbed his collar and lifted him clean off the floor. "Why did you take me?"
The man shook, eyes darting toward the others. "You—your kind—escaped years ago. The Queen wasn’t the first. She was *made.* You’re all remnants of an experiment."
Buzz’s breath caught. His claws trembled. "You made her?"
The scientist nodded, face pale. "We made everything."
Buzz dropped him, the words sinking like poison. His vision blurred again. Flashes of the Queen’s face, the forest, the war. None of it natural. None of it random.
The Queen’s whisper turned soft in his head. *Now you understand. You were never born—you were built.*
He slammed a claw to his temple. "Shut up."
The floor vibrated beneath him. Somewhere deeper in the facility, heavy machinery stirred. Alarms kept blaring, and red light pulsed across the walls. Buzz stumbled forward, half limping, half running. The corridors twisted—metal and glass instead of trees and roots.
Each door he passed showed tanks filled with floating insects—mutations of the forest kind. Glowbeetles with exposed circuits. Centipedes with steel legs. Each one half alive, half machine.
Buzz stopped. His breath hitched.
He touched the glass of one tank. Inside, a creature stirred. Its eyes opened—faint gold, like his.
"Prototype 7-A," a voice said from behind him.
He spun. A woman stood in the doorway, no armor this time. A long coat. Cold eyes. "You shouldn’t be conscious yet."
"Who are you?"
She tilted her head. "Your designer."
Buzz’s claws flexed. "You made me?"
She nodded. "I made the neural lattice that your Queen corrupted. You were supposed to be the bridge between control and instinct. Instead, she infected the network."
Buzz’s voice broke low. "She wasn’t infection. She was life."
The woman smiled faintly. "She was a virus. You’re the last carrier."
He moved toward her, but before he reached, she raised a device. Buzz’s body seized instantly. Electricity screamed through him. He collapsed, writhing, the gold in his veins flashing wild.
The woman crouched near him. "You’ve survived longer than any of the others. That makes you valuable."
Buzz snarled, fighting the paralysis. "You have no idea what’s coming for you."
"Oh?" She smiled. "Your little silk friend? She won’t find you here."
He tried to speak, but his body wouldn’t obey.
The woman turned to the glass tanks. "Prepare extraction protocol. We’ll isolate the gold essence before the infection spreads."
As she walked away, the gold inside Buzz began to twist again—not in pain, but in resistance. He felt it moving with intent. A rhythm pulsing against the restraint.
Her voice echoed again, not the scientist’s—the Queen’s.
*You want to live, don’t you? Then let me help.*
Buzz clenched his mandibles. "You’ll kill me."
*Or save you.*
His claws sparked. The restraints began to melt.
The alarms went from steady to frantic. Guards shouted outside. The scientist turned back just as Buzz rose, eyes burning gold, his voice no longer just his own.
Two voices spoke through the same mouth.
"We remember what you did."
The lights shattered.
The entire lab drowned in gold.