Regina had given her drones remaining in the hive’s settlement strict instructions to run if they were attacked by anyone. Her Hive Queen side chafed at it, but trying to keep her territory wasn’t worth the potential loss of life.

She’d moved almost all of her sapient drones to the castle and village, leaving very few people there. Unfortunately, she did need at least a few to command the Swarm Drones effectively. While Regina could control them with her mind, she could hardly focus on it all the time, and the Swarm Drones weren’t very good at acting on complex orders or adjusting their actions to match new circumstances.

Quickly, Regina dove into the mind of Zac, the most senior drone and the one in charge of the group. You need to run, she told him. It looks like this is too big of a group to fight. You’ll get help as quickly as I can manage it, but you need to go now. Take all of the Swarm Drones.

My Queen, what about the camp? He asked, wincing slightly. Her entry into his mind hadn’t been the most gentle, and he was standing frozen in the middle of walking between two of the huts. I don’t think the defensive measures we have left are going to stop them. They could just burn the houses down.

They’re just houses. Go. It grated on her, but the camp wasn’t worth the risk of her drones being killed or taken captive.

Then Regina opened her eyes again and took a deep breath. She reached out with her mind once more and contacted Max, Tim and the rest of the stronger drones who were close by, urging them to come quickly.

“Are we going to try to fight them or launch a rescue mission?” Janis asked. She looked concerned. “I don’t think we can reach the place in time.”

Regina shook her head. “I can fly. I could take the Winged Drones.”

“What’s going on?” Max asked, running towards them and sliding to an abrupt stop.

Regina quickly filled him in, and his hand went to the ax on his belt while his expression darkened. “Shit. We can’t afford to risk you, though, my Queen. I know you probably want to hurry out there and fight the intruders, or help the others, but it’s dangerous.”

“We definitely need to inform the elves, right?” Tia asked, who came running and stopped a bit slower than Max.

“Of course. Tim, go and do that.”

Tim, who was just approaching, nodded and turned around right away. Regina focused her attention on Dark and made the bird fly towards where she’d spotted the group in the forest. He was still faster than the Winged Drones.

Regina stayed still and watched through her drones’ eyes, occasionally switching between them. The group of humans - she’d seen enough to confirm their shapes, at least - were moving quickly, as if they were all using Haste or something similar. This was obviously supposed to be a fast, surprise strike. Her drones were packing up really quickly, but by the time they were all at the outskirts of the makeshift village, the intruders had already come considerably closer. The lake also meant they wouldn’t be able to run away on the best direct course.

Regina cursed and started pacing up and down.

“I heard what’s happening,” Anuis said. When Regina looked up, she realized the elf had come with two other officers. “We have a few soldiers who can move quickly. I’d be willing to lend them to your aid if we can establish what is happening and determine a good plan.”

Regina sighed softly. Dark had reached the humans by now, though he still kept his distance, according to her orders. “I’m not sure if they’re Delvers or Nerlian soldiers. Maybe both. There are at least two dozen, and many seem to be above level 20. They’ll be there very soon.” She took a deep breath, checking on her drones once again. “The drones won’t be able to escape them at this rate. They can’t move fast enough. And the humans are altering course slightly.”

“I expect at least a few of them will have some tracking abilities.” Anuis frowned.

“Dammit.” Regina stopped and glanced up into the sky. “I’ll fly over there. I’ll take all of the Winged Drones, everyone who can move quickly enough should try to catch up as fast as they can.”

“Regina -“ Max made as if to grab her arm, then hesitated.

“That would put you in a lot of danger,” Anuis said. “We do not even know if you and your flying drones will be enough to hold the attackers off. Judging by how you described them, I would rather doubt that, in fact.”

“I only need to stall them long enough for the drones to escape,” Regina countered, already stretching out her wings. Luckily, she was wearing a tunic with slits across the sides and back, so it only took a bit of fumbling. “I’ll take lots of grenades.” She paused and briefly dipped into the minds of her Winged Drones to make sure they would grab what they could.

“We need to be careful, anyway,” Tim said. “We shouldn’t send all of our strongest fighters away.”

“Of course not,” Regina said. "If anyone else who’s going can use the Haste Spell or something similar, they should use it on you, Tim, and we can stay in contact.”

Talking about it had actually calmed her down a little. She still felt the urgency of the situation, that danger was coming closer with every passing second. But they couldn’t just rush off without any kind of plan. Regina only cursed herself for not making better surveillance arrangement for the forest or getting all of her sapient drones to the village and castle. Not that she would have been happy to lose Swarm Drones and her old base, but she could have dealt with it. I hope.

That was why she didn’t spend long hashing out the details. They could talk on the way, if necessary. Although Regina also tried to keep some of her attention on the drones in the forest. Using her psychic link this much and trying to keep many different points of attention in focus was taxing.

She lifted off into the air and summoned her Winged Drones with a shrill whistle, although she’d already called them telepathically. Then she banked and rushed off towards the forest. Unfortunately, the Drone Attendants couldn’t actually fly yet. It would be nice to have other sapient fliers who could manage the Winged Drones, the way the Warriors and some others did it for the War Drones.

Regina beat her wings hard, but she actually couldn’t fly as quickly as she would have had she been alone, since the Winged Drones were still slower than her. Their speed seemed to depend on their levels, but since there wasn’t that much of a difference between them - none of them had reached level 10 yet - it didn’t matter much in practice.

Keep moving, she telepathically urged Zac. We’re coming to help you, but the more time you can buy, the better.

We’re trying, Zac answered back, breathing hard. I’m sorry, my Queen.

None of this is your fault. Regina hesitated for a moment. Leave the slower Swarm Drones behind if you need to. They may be useful as a distraction, at least.

Regina took stock of her situation as she approached the outer reaches of the forest. She had a flock of over fifty Winged Drones, some of them carrying payloads, though not all. Then there was herself, of course. Her mana pool was about two-thirds full, which meant she probably had more than a normal mage her level. A group of her allies was moving quickly into the forest, consisting of Ada and Ace, who had Skills allowing them to travel more quickly, as well as several elves. Janis was following them with another group who couldn’t quite go as fast, feverishly trying to figure out Haste while moving.

Then they were almost there, and Regina had to focus on her own surroundings. The forest beneath them made it difficult to see any details from up here. Although she could get a view from different vantage points through her drones, she still had to figure out how to integrate that information. She slowed down a little and sent a group of eight Winged Drones ahead to test the water.

They gave her glimpses of the humans rushing through the forest as if the undergrowth didn’t exist. Regina gave a short mental command, and the first Winged Drones started dropping grenades on the leading humans they could see.

A few consecutive booms shook the forest, and the branches of the trees beneath the flock rustled with the force of the explosion. Regina started circling, still some distance away from the humans’ force, and mostly focused on what she could see from her drones.

The attack had done a lot less damage than she’d hoped. For one, the trees got into the way and made it hard to deliver the explosives to the correct location, and also seemed to catch and buffer some of the blast. What was worse, the humans she had to deal with now were stronger than any group she’d faced before. She saw a heavily armored man staggering away from close to where a grenade had impacted, maybe a little rattled but obviously still in the fight.

Then a scream from further away diverted her attention. Regina flapped her wings almost on instinct, turning toward it. She dove into Zac’s mind and immediately cursed.

He’d done as she said and sent most of their Swarm Drones to cover their retreat, but that gambit only met with limited success. Regina must have overlooked a group of humans who’d already been catching up to Zac and the others. They had already put down almost all of the Swarm Drones and were still chasing the other drones down. Switching to the drones’ perspectives, she even caught glimpses of a few humans further to the side, clearly attempting to hem them in.

“Most of the flock, dive down and try to cover the drones’ retreat, over there!” Regina shouted. It was easier to give verbal orders to so many at once. At least they all had good hearing.

The Winged Drones followed her order at once, turning and flying to their new goal. The flock spread out slightly as they did. Regina hesitated, then flapped her wings harder for a few seconds to gain more altitude. So far, she hadn’t seen any kind of air capability from the humans except for tame Wyverns, but they could still shoot upwards, so she didn’t want to be too close.

Her caution was validated almost right away. A big tongue of flame, vaguely reminiscent of her Fireball, shot into the sky between some trees. It caught two Winged Drones and incinerated them almost at once. Regina cursed and ordered the drones to spread out a bit more.

The flying drones’ arrival gave her other drones some reprieve. More grenades fell on the humans, injuring them or at least slowing them down with the side effects they had on the forest. Regina sent more of her Winged Drones to specific spots, trying to gauge how effective they were.

Unfortunately, while they could easily bomb their enemies just by using gravity, they didn’t have much in the way of weapons. Some picked up rocks and anything else they could to let them rain down on their targets, and some dive-bombed humans in small groups. Regina winced as she watched four out of five of one team that tried this dying. But they did injure the human fighter, who looked like a high-level rogue, as they did.

She pulled herself out of watching the fight and instead turned her focus to Dark. The bird was already in the forest, relatively close by, and she sent him forward now. With his magical stealth, she could use him to get a better look at the enemy and maybe find some hints to their affiliation, reasons for the attack or their plans. He should still avoid getting too close, though, considering the high levels some of them clearly had.

Dark took her orders well and approached them quickly but quietly. He seemed to decide to circle around from the northwest, and Regina let him. She watched, still circling above the forest, as he got close enough to pick up snatches of conversation. His hearing had improved quite a bit, probably the equivalent of a Skill that sharpened his senses, although she hadn’t figured out how to pull up a monster’s Ability list yet, if they had one.

She almost laughed as she heard one of the humans curse loudly after another Winged Drone dropped off its payload. “Well, you wanted a demonstration of their new explosive equipment, Commander! Are you satisfied now?”

Another man, presumably the commander, said something still too low for her to make out. Dark hopped onto another branch and he seemed to get louder, allowing her to catch the next sentence. “You know as well as I do that we need to investigate this, Bird. This reeks of Precursor technology. And did you forget that the mages think their leader might have a Conjuration Spell?”

Dark paused here as they passed by, but Regina figured she’d heard the important bit. She nudged him to turn to other squads, but they seemed to be less talkative. Except for a lot of cursing and some shouted orders, she didn’t get much.

Regina was considering sending him closer to the previous group again, when her mana sense suddenly tingled. She pulled her awareness back towards her body, realizing that she’d been sensing a small accumulation of mana close to her. But she didn’t have time to consider it.

Regina had only just started to draw in her wings to move herself away when the magical net caught her. It burned against her like hot wires and tangled up her wings. She shouted as she started plummeting downwards.