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** CHAPTER 36** The Hive

Finally getting out of the transport ship, the D.E Team stood once again in R105's massive hangar. They weren't received the usual way, and instead they were rushed into the command center area of the ship as soon as they arrived.

"Please have a seat, my friends." The white Retcan greeted them. "My name is Bo. I'm the Captain's assistant. Silver is on her way. Titan should join us soon too."

Each one took a seat in R105's Strategy Room. The place was only illuminated by the faint lights that ran through the table's border, and a soft bluish light that came from the ceiling.

By now, it was almost sure that the Evos would be impressed by the place and probably would comment on it, but this was no time to play around.

"So..." K9 said. "I thought you were leaving in the following hours."

"Many things are going on right now, my friend Evocanis." Bo replied. "Our return to Lusceonis has been postponed indefinitely."

There was a moment of silence after Bo's confession. Other things were priority at that moment .

"We appreciate the sacrifice that you have made." Hasky continued. "You have done so much for us. And we haven't given you anything in exchange. We know you have your responsibilities."

The White Retcan stared at Hasky, smiling at her.

"You have given us more that we could've wished for." Bo replied. "And don't worry about our duties." He then sighed. "There have been a couple of unfortunate situations going on, and all I can say is that we have been... freed... of our obligations." The way that the white Retcan said this made it seem like if it was something wrong going on. The Evos just hoped that it was not because of them.

"According to our current situation, we will probably be together longer than we imagined." The white Retcan continued.

"What do you know about our brothers, Bo?" Fx interrupted out of the nothing. This caught Husky and Hasky by surprise. Fx seemed very irritated and that was alarming. Husky hadn't seen his brother act so impulsive, though he understood what could've caused his reaction.

"Titan will fill you in with the details, my friend." Bo replied calmly. "Listen, I know what this means to you. I would lie if I told you that I wasn't worried about this situation as well. Whatever happens, I give you my promise that we will work together and do whatever is in our hands to bring them back safe."

"Calm down, Fx. Everything is going to be alright." Hasky tried to calm the orange Evo.

It was now obvious what was going through Fx's mind.

Finding Fx wondering around the desolated Sector of Canis Major right after the failure of the D.E Project made it clear that Fx didn't want anything else but to find his parents; or at least confirm their fate. That was his duty as their son.

Soon, there was chattering heard outside the Strategy Room. The voice was familiar. It didn't take long until Silver made herself present.

Everyone stood up as she walked through the room followed by Titan, Shadow and a small group of Engineering Scientists. The silence was very unsettling. The Evos wanted nothing but to know what was going on.

"Evos," Silver finally spoke after taking her seat. "I'll be direct."

The D.E Team was very anxious. After thirteen years of not knowing about their lost brothers, or how could they even start looking for them, they might finally have an answer.

"We might have found your brothers that were taken alive by the machines." Silver said. "However, before we jump into conclusions, let me tell you that we haven't had a visual contact yet."

The Evocanis' hearts were pumping really fast. This was their moment, but somehow the insecurity in Silver's words made them feel uneasy.

"Titan will explain you better what we have found, and then we will discuss our approach to this situation. Please understand that the lives of many are at stake and any wrong movement caused by our impatience could have serious consequences not only on them but also on Canis Major and R105."

Titan stood up and activated the holographic projector that immediately started showing images of their findings. At the beginning, the image was unclear until Titan started giving an explanation.

"First of all, let me tell you how we know this." Titan said. "We received a tip from one of our brothers." He made a pause before continuing. This meant so much for him but knew that the priority were the Evocanis that were possibly trapped within the enemy lines.

"Apparently, our brother Zonda survived the Supernova." Titan continued.

Everyone at the room had gasped. It was a bittersweet feeling, knowing that General Zonda made it, but that the Retcans were doing as much as they could to ignore him at them moment to focus all their effort on the lost Evocanis' rescue.

"Titan, how did he survive?" K9 stood up.

"Captain," Silver interrupted. "I appreciate your concern, but we need to focus on saving your brothers. Don't worry about him; he can take care of himself."

There was no response from K9. Realizing how much the Retcans cared for them was very heart touching and they needed to honor that effort.

"He didn't explain any details on how he found the machine's base of operations, but what's important is that he did." Titan continued.

The image got bigger and sharper. It was now clear of what this chunk of space trash and eroded ships were.

"Following the coordinates that Zonda gave us, we found what you see on screen now in real-time. This is The Hive. We have two stealth probes over there right now."

The real-time image minimized to show a virtual image of The Hive, displaying stats such as mass and the total area that it filled inside the asteroid belt.

"We thought that we had done serious damage to the machines thirteen years ago, but it seems that they not only have recovered, but grown in numbers. Somehow they found a way to replicate themselves. What bothers me the most is that they seem to have gained control of various ships that you can notice at the core of The Hive. I don't know if these ships are functional, or if they work as some sort of base. What I can tell you is that these ships are very different from each other, making me come to the conclusion that they probably have attacked other intelligent civilizations, seizing these ships in the process."

"This ship caught our attention the most." He continued. Zooming in, they saw a heavily mangled black ship that was docked at a far end of the core. "I will ask you to keep calm, Evos. I'm going to show you an image that we took from outside Canis Major thirteen years ago."

At the screen, various images of a ship engulfed by explosions with large chunks of it falling off and drifting to space, as well as a dense cloud of debris surrounding it was displayed. Not all of the Evos reacted, but suddenly, they could hear someone whispering.

"Canis Major..." K9 muttered. Being an Engineer as well, K9 had vast knowledge of the Evo's space colony. He knew how Canis Major looked prior the remodeling, and he instantly recognized it.

"That's terrible..." The female Doberman whimpered. "That's our home?"

Anubis was shocked as everyone else, but he was more shocked at the fact that Ace had spoken, as she rarely did. These images were affecting them heavily.

"You were very lucky that day, Evos." Titan said. "Canis Major was very close to terminal damage. If the damage reached deeper, the ship would've faced a total loss of atmosphere. What saved it was not only our intervention, but its sheer size."

"This has been left in the past, Evos." Silver said. "What Titan wanted to show you was something else." She said, nodding at Titan afterwards.

"Look at this ship." Titan zoomed at one of two ships that surrounded Canis Major at the moment of the second attack. He then transferred the image to a black screen. Immediately after that, he zoomed at The Hive and to one ship in particular. Selecting it, he then transferred it to the black screen which immediately interposed both ships.

The result was shocking as the computer gave out calculations of both ships. Their appearance was somewhat different, but after a quick study, their proportions ended up matching exactly.

"These are the same ships. There is no doubt about it. The same ships that not only carried the Machine troops, but also the ships where you brothers were taken in. This and the sighting of a group of annihilator machines confirm that we found the right place."

"Wait a minute," K9 interrupted. "Where's the other ship? Have you've seen it?" K9 demanded to know. He knew that the other ship on the attack served the same purpose, but he was alarmed that they couldn't find it in the images of The Hive.

"I don't know, K9..." Titan responded not very sure of himself.

"That means that whoever was taken in the second ship didn't make it?!" Fx yelled. He was now obviously going through a lot of stress.

"Calm down, Fx!" Silver responded to the orange Evo. "I know that you are all concerned about this situation, but we need to focus on getting who ever is still alive in there, and bring them back home."

"Look, I know you want to get this over with, Evos, but understand that this Hive is much more than what we expected it to be." Titan concluded. "I'm afraid that we don't have the enough weapon power to conduct a direct offensive towards the machines. We will need to be very careful, and study our possibilities. Our first objective is to infiltrate The Hive's core. We don't even know what's inside, or how big their numbers are. We don't know how they operate. We only have data from the attack thirteen years ago."

"The attack were you defeated them easily! Give me the weapons and I will destroy them personally!" Fx yelled again.

"Brother, calm down!" Husky said.

"Fx; enough!" Hasky then yelled. "You are smarter than this!"

"I understand your frustration, Evos." Titan tried to reason with their sudden lost of composure. "These are machines we are dealing with. We don't know how much they have improved from last time, or how much they have grown in numbers. They were obviously created for the sole purpose of killing."

"I am not loosing anyone in this operation, do you understand?" Silver interrupted.

"Listen Evos," Titan continued "we don't want anyone getting hurt this time. Those things probably outnumber us now. We don't know how they will react to a sudden attack. The lives of your brothers depend on us outsmarting those monsters."

"I don't mean to sound abusive," K9 said "but can we get help from your brothers in Lusceonis?"

There was another period of silence. Titan and Silver looked at each other thinking on how to explain their current situation to the Evos.

"That won't be possible." Silver said. "We don't... R105 is no longer under Lusceoni's guidance. Our brothers have been confused for decades, and it seems that we are the first ones to realize that. Unfortunately, I don't know how long it will take them to wake up from their confusion and realize how meaningless our actions have been in the past decades. In the meantime, R105 is our home. My crew and I no longer belong in Lusceonis."

Despite the Evocanis trying to encourage the Retcans to overcome their situation, the Retcans refused to talk about it and continued focusing on the possible rescue mission.

"Our next step, as I said, will be to approach The Hive's core. Then, we have to somehow hack into the machine's systems and know what's going on." Titan explained.

"We should go ourselves." Anubis suggested.

"No. That's suicide." Silver immediately confronted him.

"I've created a worm that we need to upload directly into The Hive's core." Titan explained. "Hopefully the machines won't detect it."

"Let's do it, then." Fx again jumped in.

"Look, I'm confident that my program will work, since the program adjusts itself to mimic any system that it infiltrates, but it's not guaranteed."

"There is another problem." He continued. "It seems impossible to fly all the way to The Hive's core without being spotted. The place must be saturated with surveillance scanners, and as soon as they detect something that doesn't belong in the area, they will spot it."

"So how do you suggest that we do this?" Hasky asked, a bit more impatient than before.

"We do have a plan, but it will be very risky." Titan responded. "They only way to infiltrate The Hive is with something that has the same energy signature than the machines."

"Can't you copy the machine's energy signature into a probe?" K9 asked. "I can help you with that."

"It's not that simple, my friend. However, we do have an alternative that might work."

"Are you sure about this, Titan?" Cobalt, the blue female Retcan asked. She seemed concerned as if knowing the mentioned alternative.

"If we are going to act, we have to act now. This is relatively the safest and fasted way around this dilemma. Of course, if you agree with it, Silver." He then directed towards the Captain.

"You know I didn't agree with this since the beginning, but considering the circumstances, there is no other choice."

"I'll take that as a yes." Titan replied. He then called someone through his ComPod, as if requesting something. He then got a hold of the holographic projector's control and prepared to show everyone his plan.

"I don't know how you are going to react to this, Evos. I am sorry if this will bring unpleasant memories." He activated the holographic projector once again and showed a confusing image. For most of the Evos who stared at the image, this was concerning, but for two Evos this was like staring at that horrible incident that took the lives of their loved ones that day.

Hemi looked at K9 who had his eyes wide opened, reflecting that ghastly figure through them.

"That, thing..." K9 uttered completely broken.

"What's wrong, Kalem?" Hemi asked concerned. He didn't receive an answer.

At the other side of the table, Hasky had walked backwards of her seat. Her expression was of pure horror as she saw that image of the past.

"K9, Hasky." Silver said. "I know what this means to you. But you have to be strong. This is part of our plan that will ultimately bring back your brothers."

"What is that?!" Husky asked concerned. The image of some sort of being that was kept frozen in a capsule appeared in the holographic projector. The ice was clear and it gave a perfect view of what was inside.

A large figure, with extremely thin limbs stood motionless inside its ice imprisonment. What impacted the most was its face. Flat like the humans that almost killed them in that planet, though somewhat eerier. The face was white, without any apparent eyes, nose or mouth, but only indentations that mimicked these. Half of its face was cracked, showing a mechanical skull with a bright red eye that stared at them.

The younger Evos stared at it closer, soon realizing what it was. They had never seen one in person, but judging by the older Evo's reactions, it was obvious of what this mechanical being was.

"This is one of those machines, right?" Husky dared to ask.

"It is, Husky." Titan replied. "We recovered it after the attack."

"Wait, what?!" Fx asked irritated. "That thing is here?!"

"I am sorry if we hid this from you."

Titan's confession affected K9 and Hasky even more. They were not only scared but furious.

"How could you keep this thing and not tell us?!" Hasky yelled.

"Silver, these things killed half of our population! I saw how they ripped our brothers apart without any mercy! I saw how they took my loved ones not only once but twice! I can't believe that you did this to us?!" K9 was furious, showing a fierce gaze at Silver. His fangs shined of pure anger.

Silver didn't respond to that. She sat down with her head down.

"Evos, I won't ask you to forgive us." She said in a very submissive tone. She like her brothers felt extremely remorseful for holding such information from the Evocanis.

"We needed to study our enemy, Evos. If they decided to return, we would know more of them." Titan tried to explain. "Once we deciphered how these things worked, we would give you all that information so you could learn how to fight them."

It took some time for the Evos, especially K9 and Hasky to calm down. Of course, knowing this wouldn't make them feel at ease from now on. But they knew that if Titan had a purpose for keeping this monster, it was for a good cause.

"I know how you feel. And I promise that we will destroy this machine as soon as it has served its purpose." Silver promised. The Evos seemed calmer and ready to hear the Retcan's plan on saving their brothers.

"I've managed to decipher how this machine works. I've run a full scan of its systems, and I've learned how to gain control of it. I found a central A.I processor in this subject and came to the conclusion that it might also serve as a link to whatever controls them. This means that if we activate this machine and take it inside The Hive it will instantly link to its core. The Hive will recognize it as another machine, giving us not only full control of it, but also full access to the Hive's systems. Once in, we can upload the worm into The Hive's system core."

No one questioned Titan's plan. There wasn't really any other option at that moment. Their lost brothers had waited for so long, that it wouldn't be fair to make them wait any longer. Of course, they didn't know if their brothers were still alive. The only way to know that would be to follow Titan's plan.

"It's the only way, Evos. However, to control the machine, we need a low profile link to our systems. If we control it from R105, the signal strength will be so intense, that they might discover what we are doing."

Titan turned the projector and walked closer to the Evos.

"The only way to use a weaker link to control the machine is to be as close to the machine as possible. That means that we need to go to The Hive's location and control it from there."

"I will do it!" Fx again acted impulsively.

"Fx!" Hasky yelled to him.

"We will all do it." K9 said. "They are our brothers, and it's our duty."

"And I will not object on that" Silver replied from her seat.

"We have a ship that's made for these situations." Titan explained. "Doko, a group of warriors led by Tech, and me, will be with you. I suggest that not all of you take part on this. The ship is not small, but we will need all the space so we can work properly."

"We understand, Titan." K9 spoke for the rest.

"Good, but first I need to fill you in with further details on this operation. Hopefully, everything will be ready by tomorrow at first hours. Come with me."

Hemi and Ace agreed to stay in R105 and give them support from there. The rest were impossible to convince to stay.

Titan had to show the Evos the machine that they would use as an infiltrator. No one was really ready to see this thing in person, and just imagining that it was onboard that ship with them made them feel extremely uneasy.

As they walked outside the strategy room, something happened. In front of them someone stood; someone that they didn't expect to see in R105. How did he get there?

"What is going on here?" The deep voice said as he blocked their pass.

"He decided to join in your mission, Captain. I thought he was with your group, Evos so I let him in." A female Retcan told them. She seemed to have been following this mysterious Evocanis that had arrived at R105 after the D.E Team had.

The male Evo looked directly at K9 and then at the rest.

Suddenly, in the distance, a couple of other Evos that had tried to keep up with the mysterious one appeared. It was a white spitz Evo and a gray Chihuahua.

"Lay, what are you doing here?" Hasky asked, walking in front of the group to face the strong Malamute Evocanis...