The last cycle had been a blur, gathering allies, keeping the new spawn in line, and preparing for the coming tasks ahead. She felt the weight of responsibility back on her shoulders and it felt almost like home. Familiarity. It wasn't, of course, this was much more then she had ever taken on in days past, but it felt like a second chance. Where she had failed before, where she'd fallen into slumber, she would be better now.

And perhaps this new world would give her the chance to stretch and become somebody new.

But before that could happen, she needed to speak to Master Vargas. After all, her Task Force, was intending on working closely with his Forge, or at least in tandem. Take some of the weight off his shoulders, as Aethril had recommended.

She marched into Draco, nodding to the guards outside the door, and boomed out a greeting - "Master Vargas, if you have a moment to speak?"

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas's response, prompt, was likewise best described as "boomed:" something, it seemed, the old Masters had liked in their Valkhounds. "Yes? -Here. And yes."

He was already approaching, his lanky stride bringing him in sight quite quickly. He offered a dip of his head, though one of his eyes was closed, wounded and perhaps healing. "Overseer Tectus. What brings you to Draco?" was his extended greeting, given with both professional respect and a demeanor of authority.

@Tectus

Tectus gave her respectful nod as Master Vargas approached, immediately catching and noting the damaged eye, but choosing immediately not to say anything about it. Spars could get intense, didn't she know it.

"I came to check in and give a report of what has been happening - there is a lot." She waited a moment for Vargas to prepare, and then decided to dive right in and not waste either of their times - there was a lot she wanted to get through here, no point in holding it off. "First of all, I've spoken to Miss Aethril about the state of the caves and she has made me her personal Overseer. I intend to gather a group of gembound to continue her work - and yours - in other parts of the caves. I understand that you are shouldering a lot of responsibilities at the moment, especially with many of the Masters...uh..." she paused, and shrugged, hoping she wasn't being too offensive or accusatory towards Vargas's coworkers. "Not as active as they could be? Aethril wants me to help shoulder that burden. If there is anything I can do to help, I will - and I am gathering my own small militia to help see it through. I've found use in some of the gembound crawling around. We intend on rooting out this infestation out first - our first order of business as a Task Force. Hopefully, once it is complete, we can begin working on other things - rebuilding some parts of the caves, gembound cataloguing, and any other task that needs attending."

She took a breath after the steady explanation, giving Vargas time to process and respond to it. There was a hint of nerves in her that he might take some kind of offense that she was essentially creating Chaos Forge Two, but Vargas didn't strike her as a jealous or territorial type, so hopefully there would be no problems in that regard.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas nodded once, then listened to the report. When Tectus briefly trailed off, seeking polite phrasing, he barely suppressed a quiet snort of laughter. With them sleeping on the job, you mean, he thought, but that would also be accusatory, and he wanted to watch his words.

When Tectus had finished, he took a moment to mull it all over, thinking over what she'd said. It would ease his work, certainly. His goals had been to restart the Nest as a whole, and he'd been struggling with creating and enforcing, training and supervising. He still didn't have enough Overseers of his own to delegate the latter three tasks to. One had gone to shit, so to speak. The other was a trainer and supervisor of only a single faction. So perhaps Tectus could help with all of this--and he could offer aid in turn.

"It will be good to have more of us working toward our goals. Let me see. Congratulations, first, on being selected by Aethril for your position. I can certainly suggest directions the Chaos Forge cannot or should not handle on its own; for example, I do not have the numbers to both patrol the caves and protect the Womb." He needed them here, most of the time. And some could not yet be trusted to roam freely. "Few of them are builders, either. Hmm. You speak of the infestation. That was our next task, as well; we might coordinate on that, and take the battle to them. Let us begin there. Let me tell you what I know of the Hive here, and what my plans were, if you have the time?" He hated the idea that a good Overseer might go in blind, knowing what he did of its dangers. And he didn't think Aethril actually knew how damn entrenched they were.

@Tectus

Relief - Master Vargas was more then eager to forge this alliance. She hadn't known him well enough at any point to gauge if he would, but she supposed in matters of bringing the caves back to full productivity, there could be no animosity or jealousy. It was more work then a single Master could shoulder.

A nod - "Thank you, I'm honored to serve her." An honor she wasn't sure she deserved, but she would not be one to turn down a promotion. Or really anything that the valkhand would order of her.

Another nod. "I figured. We will be set up in Orion, so we can get our reach into a number of the caves in the southern quadrants. I am also still focusing on Eridanus - I would say the fires were a success, we cleared a good amount of the infestation, but there is still more work to be done. I was going to bring another group in for a second run - if you have any that are willing to participate in this." She would have to go find that dragon again and see if he would be willing to go for a second run. And the deer, wherever he'd run off to. And...she would not invite Pride this time. He'd done nothing but put them all at risk.

"I have the time, yes. Master Astraea has already informed me of the basics - they are in Ursa, yes? Under the mountains. Guarded by drones with venom that bypass the chrysalis. It seems a dangerous task to attempt an assault there."

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

"Tell me when, and I will ask for volunteers. For now, I have been asked to have the Forge sit on Canis; it is cleansed and we are ensuring it is not retaken."

Vargas, nodding along to Tectus's summary of Ursa's situation, interrupted the gesture with as much of a grimace as his rigid face could manage. "That is part of it. The venom is bad, yes, and we do assume that's how it works." He hadn't ever verified it. The most they'd been told of were statues found that were clearly the now-dead. "But the Hive has... 'recruited' the Lessers in Ursa as well. Infested them with the Hive, and now their queen controls them. Most of them. That includes the Ice Worms. Do you remember them-? Or Hydra's Sand Worms, if you ever observed a Trial? They sense vibration, and tunnel very, very fast. They are enormous, and will come up beneath a victim. In Hydra they do this as ambush hunters. In Ursa, they are soldiers of an army. We also have no idea where exactly the Hive is. I am a Master now and could tell you where the Clearstones are, but the problem with Ursa is that they are everywhere. The nest extends throughout the underground of the cave. So we will need to dig them out and move through, tunnel by tunnel, clearing their soldiers as we go, while at the same time fending off the Ice Worms. To make things worse," he went on--he knew the Hive post-dated Tectus by some centuries--"the soldiers are the largest creatures that can fit easily in those tunnels. The tunnels are half my height. I trust you see the problem," he went on, with a grimace.

Tectus was smart enough, strategic enough (he believed, anyway), that she should be able to see the typical scenario: tunnels far too small for the majority of Valkhounds, ones they'd need to very slowly dig through bit by bit, all the while watching their backs and flanks for attack and their everywhere for the sudden appearance of Ice Worms.

"Those of the Hive also do not bleed. That is not only something that makes them harder to kill, but they explode when killed. Like small bombs, with shrapnel. And it means they are immune to many things: we cannot wipe them out easily with poison or disease. They have no blood to carry it. And below ground, there is no light. The Hive is used to fighting in darkness." Vargas sighed.

"Since they are all hidden in these tunnels, we have little idea of their numbers. I cannot tell which of the clearstone pieces I sense are workers, soldiers, or created Lessers, or what have you. We must assume the worst: that there are hundreds at a minimum. My plan was to host training in regards to combat in confined spaces. In those tunnels, numbers will only matter inasmuch as who has more to throw away; you cannot fight side-by-side, there. If we had something like a disease that could spread among them, it would be easier. But that is made more difficult by their lack of blood. We might collapse the tunnels, but that is no guarantee they will die: they might simply dig their way out, or summon an Ice Worm to help them. We can try to lure them out but their queen will not come, and it is her we must destroy. And no assassin would make it to her. Those not of the Hive cannot pass through their tunnels, and their Hivemind ensures they cannot foster spies." He sighed again, wistful and irritated. If it were easy they'd have done it by now, but there was a reason even Astraea had mostly left it alone after the single disastrous attempt.

"I think it will have to be a war of attrition. We kill every single plant and Lesser on the surface; we dig out the tunnels nearest the surface and kill everything within, and then collapse them. We leave one or two open and sit on them. And once they are starved out and chrysalized, we head in and shatter their stones. I see no way to assault it en masse."

@Tectus

She listened attentively, grimacing at places, nodding at others. The first discomfort was at Ice Worms. She had not had the displeasure to meet any in-person, thankfully they didn't range to Orion, but she'd heard enough stories about them and cautionary tales. "I've heard enough about them." If the Hive had control of them...oh she understood immediately why an assault had not taken place. The tunnels were an additional issue. But...perhaps one she could assist with, if she was recruiting/creating herself. The ones she had already, most might be able to fit in. She'd have to think about it.

"Yes," she sighed. "Clever of them, hiding in a place we can't physically reach." They would change that. They could adapt. That was the nature of Chaos, after all.

She continued to listen, saying little else through Vargas's explanation, storing it into her mind for later planning. Thinking it through, realizing how well thought-out The Hive's defenses were. She had initially thought it was some errant infestation that was difficult to cleanse, but this was a network, an issue. It really occurred to the Overseer, in that moment, the importance of their task. This was a long-festering wound at the heart of the nest, but simply trying to cut it out might make it worse.

"I see your plan. If we do it like that, however, we need to do it fast. The longer we wait between assaults, the more time we give them to rebuild their numbers." As if she knew better then the Master who had been dealing with it for numerous cycles now. "But...yes, I will have my people work, then, to get rid of what we can reach. And quickly. Another fire, perhaps. And we haven't even touched Gemini yet." She was really starting to understand how swamped Vargas must feel.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

"They build their numbers, but Ursa can only support so many," he pointed out. "The plant life is limited and they would need to begin to cannibalize their Lessers. Not that I plan to wait overmuch, but we are pushing them back, and I would rather not rush and lose Valkhounds. And on that note," he added, with a note of amusement on his tone, "I will shortly be hatching and training two specialists on the topic." Coincidental, really, that Tectus had arrived so soon after the designs had been formulated, but it worked well nevertheless. "One is designed to overwrite their Order with Chaos. It will destroy them or convert them to our side. The other is designed to take back over areas that are tainted by their mold. If you wish, once I have offered that one basic combat training, it might aid you in Eridanus. Its powers will not be as useful in Ursa."

Vargas considered. He sat down, an awkward hunch, the claws of one forelimb tapping the warm, black rock underfoot.

"You know my history, I think. An Overseer relegated to solo hunting and stalking, and later, to assessing designs in Hydra and disposing of failures there too. That does not make me an experienced war-leader or a strategist. So take my plans with a grain of salt and by all means, suggest improvements," and here he made an invitational gesture with one hand. "But my opinion on Ursa is that we will need to siege it in the long-term. When I speak of attrition, I am thinking of a very real, full-on assault, but the sort where we build our own barricades. Where we deny them food, corrupt their water sources, corrupt the earth around their tunnels, and kill any desperates who try and flee. And when none are left awake below, then we delve down and slaughter them." He paused. "No doubt they may try to mount a coordinated defense at some point. A desperate break-out. We would need to be prepared for that: that would be the war most might imagine. Do not repeat this to anyone, Overseer," he added, with the first hint of actual, forbidding authority in his tone. "The Hive has subjugated Lessers throughout the cave to act as hidden spies. So... Not a word to anyone. No matter how safe you think it may be. If anyone asks of any plans, you tell them I have forbidden you to speak of it: they may find me here, in Draco, away from Order's spies. But here, where it is safe, tell me what you think of such a plan."

@Tectus

She nodded, thoughtfully, on the topic of Ursa. "A good point. I guess that is the downside of setting up base in Ursa." If Tectus had eyebrows, they probably would have shot to the ceiling at Vargas's next words, and she could not help but let out a chuckle at her convenient timing. "Well, I guess I came at the right time, then. That is a powerful ability. I didn't think that kind of thing was even possible, how did you achieve that? And - yes, I will take any help with cleansing that you can offer." She wondered if she could see the one that Vargas had created to replace Order with Chaos, although she supposed it was still incubating. She could always come back.

More nods - she was doing that a lot. "Unfortunately, I don't have much more experience then you in strategy - the most war experience I have is from the rebellion." A grimace passed across her face. "I can't...remember a lot of it very well, though. Thousands of years in hibernation will do that to you. But...a blockade may be necessary."

She stood up a little straighter at the command in his tone. "I understand. Not a word." It made her skin crawl to think that Mother's Lessers would be able to hear her from inside Orion's tower. All she had discussed her spawn and current soldiers wasn't...dangerous, but were there already spies weaving their way inside? She wasn't sure.

As for her opinion? She thought for a moment, and then responded, evenly. "It's a good plan, from initial thoughts. Once Eridanus and Gemini are properly cleansed, it might be a good idea to collapse some of Ursa's exits, and guard those that remain. Create a choke-point, like we did with Cassiopeia." She paused, and then sighed. "Ah, but those damn Ice Worms. It might not be a bad idea to attempt to pick those off. Dangerous, I know, but those will be a problem. Still, a long siege is a good idea. If I think of anything more, I'll let you know - you've definitely had more time to put more thought into this then I have. Regardless, sentries on the exits of Ursa would be smart, I think, if you agree." It was more manpower needed, but Tectus was only beginning her own force. They would have more soon, hopefully. "We should compile faces, names, of her drones - not the bug-soldiers within the tunnels, but the creatures she's sent out into the caves, and those she's converted."

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

"An outside suggestion. And let us not praise the design until I know that it works." Vargas's tone held amusement--a self-deprecating humor, rather than anything even remotely resembling reproach.

He was, after all, still very new to this whole "creation" business.

"A choke-point. Good, yes." He considered, and then nodded. "I did try to put my best assassin--Overseer Cain--on watching them. The cold makes that problematic, but I have been considering creating a few that are identical to the Lessers in that cave. Because the Lessers already in there are spies in and of themselves. But I suppose it does not matter if they see us watching. And that plan would take time." He tapped his claws on the rock, thinking.

"Who do you have, so far, and what are their abilities? It would be good for me to know yours, and you to know mine. And perhaps I can offer a creation or two to fill any niches you have unfilled, or point you toward useful bloodlines. The... 'Gembounds' in the caves, while often useless, still hold some more powerful families here and there you might be able to make use of--if you can convince members to join your or to lend your stones. I had to build the Forge from scratch, and most of those were created from the Gembounds' lines," he explained. And those had turned out quite well. The Sentinel, Onyx-Three, Khavur, Cain--either Gembounds or creatures not of Chaos, and all had surpassed his expectation.

In any case, it might have seemed an abrupt change of topic, but to Vargas, it tied in: he had to think about who to set as watchers, and he needed to know if he might cooperate with Tectus and her budding group in that regard.

"And does your militia yet have a name?" he asked, glancing up, as an afterthought.

@Tectus