Intergalactic conquest with an AI

"You know, when I first sensed you, I thought about sparing you since I could use a servant," she said, her voice changing, losing its playful tone. "But these little ones are telling me you call yourself a queen." Her irritation was obvious now.

In an instant, she appeared on top of the bug queen’s head. "There are only five individuals who can call themselves queens, and they’re my mom and my aunts. So, I’ll be taking your life for being so... presumptuous."

With those words, her left arm morphed into a massive claw with long, pointed fingers. She drove the claw deep into the bug queen’s skull, piercing it straight to the brain. With a squeeze, she crushed it.

The bug queen’s body collapsed, lifeless. Without her mental power to control the swarm, the newly-born princess effortlessly seized control. The swarm was hers now.

The Khryssari princess nodded to herself, cleaning her claw. "Hehe, now that that’s handled, I can go check on my partner!" She hopped off the queen’s head and skipped toward Rex while giving small happy jumps, humming to herself.

When she reached Rex, she knelt down and gently pulled him into her lap, giving him a lap pillow. "Mmm, now what am I going to do with you?" she murmured, brushing his hair. "I don’t think my abilities can heal you since you’re not organic. Hmm..." She closed her eyes, swaying her head side to side as she thought.

"Aha! I’ll take you back to the ship and put you in the tank, right?" She started to stand, but Rex grabbed her hand.

"Wait, I... I can’t leave yet... I need to find Carlos." His voice was weak, energy leaking from him as he struggled to stay conscious.

She tapped her finger to her lips, thinking again. "Oh, your bald friend, right? Don’t worry, I saved him earlier. If you want, we can take him with us."

Hearing that, Rex sighed with relief, the tension leaving his body. "That’s good... Are there any other survivors?" His overdrive mode powered down, and his large white wings began dissolving into a shimmering dust.

"Mmm... there are a few still alive, but... they’re missing pieces, you know? Are you sure you want them?" She asked, her eyes scanning the battlefield through the shared vision of the swarm.

Rex clenched his fist, eyes closed tight. "If they’re alive, I want to bring them back."

She smiled, standing up. "Okay then, if that’s what my partner wants." She summoned a group of flying bugs to gently lift the surviving soldiers and carry them alongside her.

Rex wasn’t sure what happened next. He just woke up inside the recharging tank, and from the looks of it, his wounds were healed. He could see clearly again, and his HUD no longer displayed any system errors.

He stepped out of the tank, noticing a set of clothes on a nearby table in the charging bay. After getting dressed, he left the room, only to be greeted by a massive hole in the door to the cargo bay. "Wha... the..."

"Cleo!?" Rex called out, hoping for a response. There was none. "Cleo!?" His voice grew more urgent as he began searching the ship.

First, he checked the cockpit, but she wasn’t there. Then he went to the second floor, where the assembly factory was located. That’s where he found her; she was sitting in a corner behind the assembly machine, hugging her legs, her face buried in her knees.

"Cleo?" Rex’s voice softened as he approached. She didn’t respond, so he sat down beside her on the floor.

"Phew, rough day, huh? This time they really got us good. What, 100k? Too little for all that trouble? Damn, I thought I was going to die down there!" Rex rambled on, trying to lighten the mood by talking about their recent battle in the bug cave.

"I’m sorry," Cleo said quietly, her voice barely audible.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Rex turned to look at her.

"I’m sorry," she repeated, a little louder this time.

"For what?" Rex asked, confused. "Did you do something bad?"

"For the things I said... and the things I tried to do while you were down in the cave," she muttered, still hiding her face.

Rex scratched his head. "Oh, that? Don’t worry about it, Cleo. I’d already forgotten! I’m not the kind of guy who gets mad easily, you know? You’d have to do something really bad to make me hate you."

He smiled and stood up, stretching out his arms. "Come on, cheer up! We haven’t even conquered one world yet, and you’re already this down?" He grinned. "One day, I’m going to conquer the whole galaxy and present it to you to do whatever you want with it!"

Cleo finally lifted her head to look at Rex, her eyes still filled with uncertainty.

Rex met her gaze, his smile softening. "If you want to be the Empress of the entire galaxy, you’re going to have to stand up right now and join hands with me again. We’ll make your dream come true."

Cleo mumbled something under her breath, too quiet for Rex to hear.

"Huh? What was that?" He leaned in closer.

She murmured again, just a little louder this time. "Both of us. We will..."

Just as she was about to finish her sentence, a soft green glow interrupted them.

"There you are, partner!" The female creature suddenly appeared and wrapped herself around Rex’s arm.

"W-what? Since when do I know such a cute girl?" Rex stammered, blinking in surprise. Now that his vision had been repaired, he could finally see the girl who had been helping him.

She was small, barely 1.6 meters tall, with a slender figure and glowing green eyes. She wore black armor covered in bright green tech markings that seemed to pulse as if alive. Her small, delicate wings resembled those of a butterfly, also glowing with a soft green light.

Then it hit him. "Wait a minute... you’re that girl from the bug cave! The one who keeps calling me ’partner.’ Who are you?"

Before the girl could answer, Cleo appeared on his other side.

"She’s the egg we had in the car at the cargo bay," Cleo said flatly. "The Khryssari princess."

Rex was taken aback by the news. "Wait! How is that even possible? I saw what was inside the egg, and it didn’t look anything like the cute girl standing next to me." He pointed at the princess.

Hearing the conversation, the princess let go of Rex’s arm and walked proudly in front of him, placing a hand on her chest. "I can explain that! My mom said we take the form that best adapts to reproduce with our partners. That’s why the princesses and queens of our race come in all sorts of shapes and sizes."

"Wait... reproduce?" Rex raised an eyebrow. "You mean... you and me? To give birth to bugs?"

The princess’s face twisted in anger at his words. "You’re making me very angry, hubby. But I’ll forgive you this time because I know you don’t understand our race. We’re not ’bugs.’ We’re an advanced species that may share some similarities with what you call bugs, but we are completely different."

"When we reproduce with our partners," she continued, "we don’t give birth to ’bugs’ like you just said. We give birth to children that look like me... and you. The ones that birth our army are the broodmothers."

Rex blinked. "Broodmothers?"

"Yes," she said, crossing her arms. "Those so-called ’queens’ we capture and modify. They’re the ones who produce our soldiers and workers. That’s how it works! So don’t ever compare us again, or I’ll get really mad!" She pouted, making an adorably frustrated face.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" Rex raised his hands in surrender. "I won’t compare your race to them again. But... since when am I your partner?"

"Oh, well," the princess said with a grin, "the moment you gave me your blood, the link was already established. And when I came to help you in the cave, I used the rest of your blood to complete the contract!" She smiled brightly, clearly proud of herself.

"Wait, wait, hold on a second. So, what does it mean to be partners?"

"Well," the princess began, her eyes sparkling, "based on the memories I got from our bond, I’d say it’s a lot like being... husband and wife! And your mission is to give me strong babies to lead my royal fleet!"

"Wait, what fleet?" Rex asked, his confusion growing.

"Oh, well... the fleet that..."