In this RP, we all collectively control a hivemind of big bug creatures. The hive of bugs has only just achieved a rudimentary level of sapience, and while great things might be coming for it, the Hivemind is unfortunately somewhat divided and schizophrenic. What's going on inside the bugs' heads sounds more like a party full of screaming kids than anything resembling organized directions.

And you can be one of those voices! Just step on in and start shouting out orders.

Periodically I will post a prompt that says what the Hivemind has been up to (which might include a few suggested courses of action and/or a picture) and then everyone can post on the IC to say what they want to happen next. For instance:



And that's basically it! It's not very complicated, so let's get started.

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With a start, the Hivemind sudden realizes that it is aware! Its species has probably existed for a long time, but they have only just achieved sapience and have very little memory or knowledge of anything except for their immediate surroundings. The Hivemind has a few hundred drones and a single nest located in a grassy area between the edge of a forest and a small river.



The Hive has long been stagnant, sending lone drones to forage for food in the forest (risking death by the hands of predators) and gathering just enough to sustain itself and scrape by. Now that the Hive has an intelligence, perhaps things will change.

Take inventory. What do we have to work with in the nest? What are the capabilities of our drones?

Also, skitter.

Ensure the safety of the hive. Check immediate surroundings for potential resources and predators.

Create roster of current drones. Sort into categorical specifications based on tasks each variant is best suited for.

The Hivemind has a moment of introspection, contemplating the situation. The species is large by the standards of most insects, but still rather small. The queen has grown to be about the size of a tree leaf, with all the others ranging from tiny larvae just a bit bigger than grains of sand to the size of cockroaches. The species has minimal polymorphism, with just three types of members: a singular female queen, a few male princes, and two hundred of a generic breed of sterile drones. The drones are not noteworthy in many aspects; they can act as a group to defend the hive, but are prone to wander out alone in search of food and are thus prone to being preyed upon by larger (or more clever) insects or animals. Their only weapons are their mandibles, which they can use to bite and tear off the flesh of smaller creatures, or simply annoy larger ones. Perhaps in reaction to some sort of selection pressure or with a conscious effort, the Hivemind could change these characteristics.

The nest is rather humble. It is little more than a mound of dirt hollowed out by a system of tunnels and warrens, with the queen and the larvae kept safely in a large chamber at the bottom. The only resources that the Hive has to speak of are a few days' worth of food stored inside the hive, as well as the one queen, three princes, and two hundred eager drones. The nest isn't very tall, so the weeds and grass help to hide it.

The nearby forest is known to have berries, which have always been a good (albeit unreliable) source of food., Recently the drones have seen bee nests up in the trees.

Begin development of larger, sturdier, combat suited drones. Deploy 3 small 20 drone regiments in tight formation to scout, secure, and retrieve (if possible) resources near to the hive for the time being.

Set a portion of the remaining drones to training with one another in order to increse their combat effectiveness and inspire esprit de corps.

With time, some of the Hivemind's drones begin to diverge into a warrior caste. They have grown larger than the generic drones and developed a thicker carapace. Their mandibles are larger and more exaggerated, and while they still retain those as their only true weapon, with greater size has come the ability for them to use their foremost legs to pin down enemies. They have had some opportunities to practice this and train together, and have developed a strategy of using a team of warriors in which several work together to pin down a larger foe while others try to bite its exposed limbs.

Three worker regiments are sent out into the surrounding land. One group ventured into the forest and retrieved some small twigs, while another regiment brought back some pebbles from the riverside. The third group was supposed to head further into the grasslands, but they still haven't returned yet...

So the group that has gone exploring the grasslands have gotten lost or something has consumed them. Either way, we're not sending anyone else after them. If they come back great, but until then screw 'em, they're dead.

Right now, we need to focus our attention on exploring and getting a feel for the forest. We know there is food to be found within, so let's go and find it before our stores run dry.

Mark grasslands as no-go zone until further notice. Develop glands within warrior drones to produce paralytic agent to aid in combat. Paralytic agent is to be injected into foes via mandibles. Deploy regiment of 28 workers and 7 soldiers in tight formation to locate, secure, and retrieve food from forest. Set a portion of remaining worker drones to begin construction of tunnel from the central hive toward the forest; tunnel is to be braced with twigs gathered from last outing. Any techniques discovered or developed by drones during this undertaking should be documented for further review.

Upon completion, tunnel should end in a hidden satellite access point to the hive.

Store stones gathered from river until they can be used.

Reassess current hive roster and available resources.

Losing those guys might be a good thing in the short term if it takes some of the food pressure off us, but I agree with the other voices in our head. We must secure a reliable source of food if we want to expand and bring our skittering across the globe.

Those drones that ventured off into the grasslands never do return. They were expendable and so not terribly missed, but their disappearance was still foreboding enough that no further expeditions were sent in that direction.

The Hivemind dispatched a sizable troop into the forest. Usually the drones didn't go much farther than the outskirts (or fell prey to snakes, birds, or any other manner of terrors if they did) but that was when they went alone and had no warriors to protect them. This time, the troop ranged deeper into the forest than the Hive had ever dared to go before. Along the way, they were attacked by a giant spider, but through the use of sheer numbers and a newly evolved paralytic venom inside the warriors' mandibles, they were able to slay it with only a few casualties taken. Bees buzzed obliviously overhead as the spider was dismembered and sent back to the Hive in pieces to serve as food. Waste not, want not.

After that was sorted, the troop pressed on and they found a great thicket filled with berry bushes. There was immediately a skirmish between the troop and several beetles that had been inhabiting the area. Despite the beetles having a nasty bite of their own and being like tanks with shells too thick to be pierced by the warriors' mandibles, they were defeated. The beetles simply were not as numerous or coordinated as our species and so they were easily pinned down and rendered helpless while their legs were bitten off.

Some of the beetles scurried off and retreated deeper into the forest. Instead of pursuing, the troop of drones began gathering huge quantities of berries and carrying them back to the Hive. More expeditions followed, made easier by a winding tunnel that was eventually dug from the nest all the way to the edge of the forest. More beetles were seen skulking around in the following days, and though they've been driven away from the berry bushes, they probably have a nest somewhere and the Hivemind can only wonder at what other resources they might still control.

With the berry bushes now solidly inside the Hive's territory, the food supply has massively increased. Things got frisky back at the Hive, and the Queen spawned an unprecedented horde of larvae. There are currently only about 250 drones and one queen, but there's about to be a population boom of hundreds when the new generation grows. This opens up the possibility of establishing more Hives, or perhaps even launching a full invasion into the forest or somewhere else.

Make sure to plant some of the berries we've gathered in the ground a little to the east of the main hive. Great civilazations are built when bugs plant trees they will never feel the shade of, or something like that.

The bee tribe seemed non-agressive for as long as we stay in our lane down here, the beetles agree worrisome, but the spider intrigues me. It probably didn't have a web, seeing as it chose to engage us, but keep an eye out for more spiders. Webbing could be a very useful material.

Expand central hive, establish new hive at current forest satellite location.

Increase crushing power, and strength of warrior mandibles.

Study of other organisms recommended... Solution; create sterile sub-queen, digestive systems are to contain sensory organs capable of analyzing the most acute characteristics of digesting prey; that the hive may adopt the most advantageous characteristics itself. Sub-queen is to be classified as Abathur Librarian.

Librarian is to analyze the remains of any new foe the hive slays, as well as the remains of the slain spider and beetles.

Potentially valuable traits discovered are to be presented to the hivemind for review.

Send small scouting force of 10 warriors, and 10 drones to track the fleeing beetles. Their orders are not to engage, but to scout, and locate where the beetles have their hive.

We must gain the most potent genes of all local species, we must begin sending scouts to locate the bees nest and eliminate the survivors so they may be studied.

Send a detachment of 15 drones up trees to begin scouting for the bees hive, and another detachment of warriors to try and catch any distracted bees.

Planting new sources of berries closer to the capital hive and establishing an outpost hive in current berry location to serve as a storehouse/defensive position for a work force and garrison to protect our berries is a wise idea.

While losses taken during engagements with beetles and spider where within acceptable limits, there is always room to improve. Bodies of the our fallen should be examined in order to see where fatal blows were landed so that carapace armor can be altered to better resist bites in these areas.

We should not provoke the bees. Who will then pollinate our berry bushes?

Agreed. Bees assessed to pose minimal danger to the hive at this time.

After eating the berries, the bugs spat out the seeds. Some worker drones gathered these and ported them a short ways outside the main hive before dropping them onto the ground, and after continuing this for a long enough time, we managed to get a patch of sprouts to emerge. There are green bushes poking out of the grass, but so far they have yet to bear much fruit.

As the new generation came of age and grew to their adult sizes, the Hive became very crowded with the presence of no less than a thousand of our species. So it was split up, with hundreds of drones as well as a new queen establishing a satellite hive on the other end of the tunnel to the forest, further cementing control over the berry bushes and allowing for the Hivemind to project more of its power into that region. Using the new hive as a base of operations, more troops of bugs were sent out to scout the forest.

The Hivemind was conflicted and so the warriors have not yet agitated or attempted to capture the bees, but they did note the creatures' presence and report back the exact location of three beehives. There was of course the one that the Hive had previously seen and long known about, up in a tree near the forest's border, but the drones also found another two beehives deeper into the forest. It's unclear if the three beehives are independent or if they work together as our Hivemind, but in either case, it would be easy enough to send warrior drones up a tree to storm one of the hives using the element of surprise; the bees have never really paid attention to us or seen us as a threat, after all. Of course, one expects that there would still be quite a few casualties when attacking a beehive.

Scouting troops also managed to figure out where all these beetles are coming from--deeper into the forest is a huge fallen log covered with fungi, and next to it is a pile of fallen leaves and sticks. The beetles swarm out from burrows under the log and the leaves. It's impossible to get an accurate count, but there could easily be 300 of them in that nest and the surrounding area. This information didn't come freely though. Despite trying not to engage, several small scouting groups were attacked by the beetles, and some were wiped out altogether. It seems that those bugs have grown quite intolerant of us, and any presence in their territory is met with immediate aggression. Skirmishes along our border are somewhat rare, though. The beetles still keep to their side of the forest. It seems as though they've wisely ceded the berry bushes to us, and all the beetles that we see skulking around the edges of our territory are more akin to border guards than some raiding force.

Directed by the Hivemind's will, the warriors have develop larger mandibles with more crushing force. They still retain the paralytic venom, which has been useful against larger foes like spiders and snakes. We've long since rooted out the population of spiders and snakes that resided within the vicinity of the berry bush and our forest nest (and the spoils of that were spidersilk, snakeskin, meat for it, and knowledge of their various traits), but occasionally some of them still wonder in from outside and need to be dealt with.

Analysis of spider and snake venom recommended. Traits of these substances are to be used to further enhance the paralytic agent of warriors.

Analysis of beetle carapace structure recommended. Warriors are to have their armor reinforced based on the beetle carapace characteristics. Strengthen frontal legs of warriors and add armor plating equipped with sharp serrations to increase combat effectiveness.

Use small squads of drones to bait beetles away from main nest. Draw beetles into prepared ambushes of hidden warrior ants.

Once the numbers of the beetles have been deemed sufficiently culled, preparations for full assault may begin.

Create tunnel from secondary hive extending near to the border of beetle territory. Tunnel is to be braced with spider silk and twigs. Establish small; completely underground, hive to serve as a hidden staging ground for future assault.