Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 408: The fall of a titan

With each passing day, the Oracles prophesied the possible attacks of the metal-eaters deeper and deeper into the Bee Empire.

I put all the forces I had to spare on the search for them, and instructed bees all over the Empire to be vigilant during their regular work, but it led to nothing. The metal-eaters were stealthier than any creature I could imagine.

Then, despite all the warnings, one of the prophecies has come to pass. And it was a total catastrophe!

Of course, I didn’t see all that with my own eyes, but I could vividly imagine how it went based on all the reports about them I got afterward.

There were mines at the edge of the Bee Empire, where we extracted iron and copper ores. Princess-class mecha Titania, the first mecha, was working there together with thousands of bees without mechas.

Titania was carefully checked for breaks every time it was turned on. One can never be too careful, especially with saboteurs around!

But there were only a couple of Beehounds near the mines, and they were there to warn about predators and dangerous gases found underground, not to search for the metal-eaters.

Nobody noticed the metal-eaters who hid inside of the mecha and stayed there as it started work. Titania’s crew worked their shift as usual until...

The metal eaters finished chewing on the cables and the support beams. The intricate system that let the mecha walk without stumbling broke apart.

Its hands and legs got wrong signals and began acting out of turn, making the massive machine lose balance. The pilots in the control room hurriedly activated the protocols for an emergency shutdown, but it was too late.

The corroded support beams couldn’t hold the out-of-balance mecha and Titania just fell. Right in the mines, while its drill was still working!

The sheer weight of the machine alone had caused dozens of small support tunnels to collapse, burying all the workers inside or blocking their way out. Then the active drill made a hole in the mecha’s frame and the wall of the mine.

This caused another collapse, this time of the main, mecha-sized mine shaft.

It was terrible! Half of the mecha was buried by the mass of earth. The crew members first had to suffer bruises and injuries from the fall—and no amount of safety strapping could fully protect them—then from the rocks and ground hitting their mecha!

The command room got it the worst, since it was the least protected. But there were many victims in other places. Dozens of people were injured, dead or just unable to get out of mecha because all exits were blocked by metal and earth.

After visiting inside of a mecha personally, I shuddered at the mental image of its narrow passages being partially blocked by bent metal and debris in many places. And bodies. The reports I got spared me these details, but my imagination didn’t!

As for the bees that were working near the mecha in the mine—the list of missing, dead and injured was still being compiled when I got the news of this incident. But the numbers were in the thousands!

The entire mine and Titania became inoperable for an indeterminate amount of time.

Of course, rescue teams were sent from the nearest sub-hives immediately. Another mecha had arrived to dig out Titania from where it was meters underground.

Thanks to telepathy, even though Titania’s crew and other bees stuck in the mine were separated from the bees outside, they could still send their telepathic cries for help and reports about what happened.

Thanks to this, finding the stuck bees was much easier.

And thanks to this, I knew the incident was a fault of the metal-eaters.

Because when the mine collapsed, they got stuck in the buried mecha together with its crew! Despite their stealth, they got hit as much as everybody else.

Some crew members found bodies of unknown creatures inside the mecha and sent an alarm about the intruders. While Titania was being dug out, they also found the corroded teeth marks in some places inside their mecha.

When I got this report, I was with Ambrosia, Workharder, and Tabletina, helping to organize people to fix the situation and exchanging a lot of telepathic messages.

But after reading this slip of paper Attendant Helping-Hands brought me, the emotions overflowed me. I was so touched that I had to pause and blink rapidly several times to not cry like a fool again in front of my Advisers.

"My girls... Even during an incident like this, they think about work and helping the Empire instead of themselves," I spoke aloud, putting the report down. "I know that all telepathic bandwidth is currently taken by orders and other actually important communication, but I just really want to tell all the people in the mine that they are my amazing daughters, that I love them, and that everybody works really hard to save them."

Amby smiled at me a little.

"This is a short message, Necty. We can send it along without a problem. And it will improve the morale of our progeny underground by a lot."

"High morale has a positive effect on health. Considering that it has been six hours since the mine collapse, and not everybody there must have food and water available, these bees would need anything they can get to improve their health," Tabletina added seriously.

It took fourteen hours to dig out enough of Titania that the first bees could get out of it—tired, hungry, and wounded. The rescue teams immediately provided them food and medical help, and those who could be moved were brought to rest in the nearest sub-hives.

At this time, the found bodies of the metal-eaters—five of them—were also discovered and carried to the Hive Supremo before they rotted too much.

There was going to be an autopsy done by the best Physicians, and I was going to be there and find out what beasts were sent to attack my Empire like that!

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