One cycle, a minor scuffle, a cute little surprise party, a life-changing religious encounter, and many, many bags of chips later, Jinyi was back. Or more accurately, he came back to the tunnels and the chip factory pretty much every day, but he was back to this particular matter—that was, TRANSCENDING. Anyway, Jinyi was BACK, and he was READY. Hopefully. As ready as he'd ever be, at any rate, and besides he always felt ready for literally anything ever since literal Dontacael had looked at him and said his name and wished him good luck. Yeahhhhhh. Nothing was getting him down after that.

I'm ready to transcend, Mother, he thought one fine snowy morning. This fine snowy morning. If the method you thought of to access it is also ready—?

Deep within Ursa's tunnels, excitement glimmered along the Hive's link as Zero-Zero-Four Manager's mind sought out Zero-Zero-Six Juggernaut's and prodded for its attention. Where was Juggernaut? It should come meet Jinyi, who was already traveling through the tunnels to find it. He had a surprise for it!

And even though it totally could just peek into his mind and find out what it was, Jinyi highly suggested that Juggernaut did not look too closely. That was the point of a surprise, after all!

The Ursa winds were fierce and cold as Tectus began her descent, some branches of tough winter leaves clutched in her jaws. She had thought to perhaps hide her bright colors before stepping into the cave, but in moments she realized she wouldn't need to. Snow was easily collecting in the divets of her scales, clinging onto her spikes and chilling her to the bone. She would be covered in it before she reached the peak. A good disguise for her intended ambush.

Her business here was collection. She had been considering this for a while during Eridanus's final days with the hive. Had Vargas ever constructed a beast to monitor Ursa properly? They knew the Hive was here, after all, even if an assault wouldn't happen again soon, it might be good to have a gembound to keep an eye on it.

She'd considered a few of the Lessers already there, but decided the Ghostbird might be the best - it could soar far above and keep an eye on everything. Hopefully, it would have her strength as well, to fight if it needed.

Once she'd reached the peak of the smaller mountain, Tectus roamed, looking for a good spot. Even for Gembound that could fly, the bird would prove elusive. She needed to ambush it. She eventually found a good dip in the stones that was covered in snow. It was large enough to just cover her as she crouched. Cringing at its icy touch, she began to worm her way into the snowdrift, pressing herself deeper and using her tail to kick the snow back over herself. Hopefully, that would be enough.

The chrysalis was tucked away in one of the dead-end tunnels, a tiny thing compared to most drones produced by The Hive. At regular intervals a cleaner would visit to tidy up the already pristine tunnel and examine the chrysalis, but otherwise it was left to grow and develop until it would finally be of use to The Hive.

And now, the creature inside was awakening. Its empty, barely-awake mind brushes against the edges of the mental link, alerting The Hive to its general existence before it was even truly cognizant of its own existence. By the time it figured out what to do, and how to break out of this tiny, cramped void, a couple of cleaners had already arrived, waiting expectantly. It finally broke out into the world only to be met by several gigantic insectoid faces peering down at it. It did not feel fear even as the mandibles got closer, began to clear away shards of clearstone and puddles of chrysalis fluid. It knew it was safe and among family. It did not feel curiosity, either. It knew that it was exactly where it was supposed to be, and that all else would be made clear in time. It DID, however, feel irreconcilably filthy, and an overpowering need to rectify this immediately. First its antenna, so it could better parse it's surroundings in the dark, and then systematically moving on to the rest of it's pelt.

Deep within the Hive's Dontas Factory, its manager was spending his working hours making something decidedly inedible. And also, should any Drones or Hosts peer through the Hivemind at what he was doing, they would get the gentle but distinct sense that he would prefer if it was a secret for now. No, secret was too strong of a word. A surprise. Mother knew everything he was doing as clearly as ever, but he wanted to keep this a surprise for its intended recipient--especially if it did not work.

A crystalline workbench on which dough had been flattened had been cleared and requisitioned for this purpose. On it lay a shining metal music box, which had been partially disassembled. Drone Zero-Zero-Four Manager hovered over it, facial features indistinct, holding a complicated clockwork mechanism with small sculpted figures attached. As he lifted a hand, a delicate white screwdriver grew from his fingertip, and he carefully detached each of these figures from their mechanism.