Ep 3: Alert Level Red and the Onslaught

Beep! Beep! Shoot! In the heart of a 300-year-old giant oak tree, and throughout the hexagonal palace of the bee kingdom, the most urgent and desperate highest-level alarm in the million-year biological history of bees rang out. [ALERT LEVEL RED: Red alert issued throughout the kingdom!] Upon hearing the urgent report of the Behero, who carried Ama with a broken wing on a stretcher to the flight deck and returned with her entire body covered in dirt and wounds, thousands of sentinel and guard bees vibrated their chest flight muscles violently more than 250 times per second, emitting an emergency warning sound (Hissing Alarm).

Shoot! Nettle liquid! The waxy walls of the entire hive trembled from the huge vibrations of the warning sound that spread like waves. From the queen bee's egg-laying chamber to the deep larva chamber, the entire kingdom was instantly transformed into a wartime mobilization system. “All personnel, complete emergency combat deployment!” Stinger, the kingdom's greatest general and the captain of the guard, erected his majestic antennae and issued a loud command to the entire hive. On both of his shoulders were writhing hard armored muscles that had been forged in countless battles.

"Wax sappers, immediately build a triple propolis barrier at the entrance to the spawning room and larvae room! The foreign army bees must open all the bees of the honey storage and supply the warriors with unlimited high-calorie sugar! All the warrior bees must gather at the flight deck and entrance corridor!" The worker bees began to tightly seal the vulnerable gaps at the entrance to the hive by kneading propolis, a natural antibacterial substance, oak resin, and hard clay. Five hundred adult warrior bees formed a wedge-shaped defensive formation, forming a scrum in layers on the flight deck and entrance passage. The strong banana scent of isoamyl acetate, an alarm pheromone emitted from the bees' bodies, filled the hive.

It was the scent of the solemn determination of warriors ready to die. “Captain Stinger! A wasp scout has rubbed aggregation pheromones on the outer wall of the entrance flight deck! Their main force is coming soon!” The behero urgently reported, fluid dripping from his torn wing.

“Thank you for your hard work, Behero. Thanks to your risky reconnaissance, we were able to avoid a surprise attack. However, the scale of their invasion looks like it will far exceed our expectations.” The senior scout bee organ trembled its antennae and delivered measurement data. “Captain, judging by the sound of flapping wings captured by the barometric pressure sensor and acoustic vibration meter, the enemy’s main force consists of at least 30 individuals! They are all adult giant hornets!”

“Thirty...? That’s 30 demons that can destroy a colony of wild bees with just three!” The chins of the warrior bees around them began to tremble. A shadow of fear was about to overtake the formation in an instant. At that time, Captain Stinger jumped heavily onto the wax platform in the center of the flight deck.

“Everyone, lift your head up! Stop making weak noises!” Captain Stinger's shout hit the warriors' chests. "We have lived proudly as the masters of this oak forest for 3,000 years! No matter how gigantic the scissor jaws they have, we have the hot blood of 3,000 brothers flowing through us who would sacrifice their lives for each other! If we run away from here, the newborn larvae and the benevolent queen behind us will be torn into meat dumplings by their jaws! Don't take a single step back! We protect this threshold with our blood!"

“Waaaaa—!” After the captain's messenger, the warrior bees responded by flapping their wings in unison. Despair instantly turned into a fiery fighting spirit. At that time, the queen bee Melissa, the mother of the kingdom, bitten the maid bees and came to the flight deck herself. The queen bee, with golden wings and soft eyes, gently touched Behero's wounded shoulder and Captain Stinger's hand with her antennae.

“My children… do not be afraid. The hornet’s two-millimeter-thick steel chitin armor will deflect all our fragile stings. If we sting, the hook on the tip of the sting will get caught in their hard hide and only rip out your stomach and intestines. But we have 3,000 hot hearts and body heat that they never had.”

“Queen... Are those words really ancient secrets?” Captain Stinger asked, holding his breath. "That's right, remember the wisdom of 'Heat Ball'. Our bees have excellent body temperature control and can withstand temperatures up to 48 degrees Celsius, but if the temperature exceeds 45 degrees Celsius, the nerve proteins and respiratory enzymes in the hornet's brain coagulate and they become brain dead. Do not deal with them in the open air. You must lure them into the hive, surround them one by one, and vibrate their hundreds of chest flight muscles to embrace them with the heat of living hell."

“I will keep this in mind, Queen! I will bury their heads in the wax floor of our kingdom!” Captain Stinger clenched his fists resolutely. “Behero, you are seriously injured. Retreat to the nursery and protect the larvae with Ama.” “No, Captain Stinger! My wings may have been torn off, but my six legs and sharp jaw are still intact. I can’t just sit back and watch my country burn. I will fight alongside you on the front lines!” Looking at the behero's burning eyes, Captain Stinger patted him heavily on the shoulder.

“Good. Don’t have my back. Never back down!” The nurse bees wiped away tears as they evacuated the young bees, who had not yet sprouted wings, to the safest wax bunker in the deepest part of the hive, while the warrior bees exchanged a final comradely greeting while rubbing each other's antennae.

“Tonight, let’s meet again in the heavenly flower fields, my brother.” “Do not be afraid. As long as we do not fall, the Queen and the children are safe!” 6:15 am. As the morning sunlight slowly cleared away the fog in the forest, the sky over the northern ridge of the forest suddenly darkened as if dark clouds were hanging over it. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! Kugugugugugung—! A flight of 30 giant giant hornets formed a perfect V-formation and were speeding through the forest sky at 40 kilometers per hour. The tremendous wind pressure caused by the flapping wings bent the branches of the surrounding oak trees, and thousands of dry leaves flew into the air like screams.

At the forefront of the squadron, a ferocious beast one head larger than the other wasps was tearing through the sky. Alpha Hornet. He was the absolute monarch of the Wasp Empire and a notorious slayer of the forest. Body length 5.5 centimeters. On his dark-red breastplate that looked as if it had been lacquered, the glorious scars from scratches from countless insects' deadly battles were roughly engraved like medals, and the dried black blood of other insects that had been slaughtered a few days ago was viciously clumped on his huge scissor jaws. Last fall, it was a legendary monster that wiped out three native bee kingdoms across the valley in just two hours and slaughtered 50,000 larvae.

“Slaughter everything!” The Alpha Hornet's great evil collided and a telepathic command was issued that tore through the air. “Drink all the sweet honey, and turn the eggs and larvae into meat dumplings for the larvae of our empire! Cut off every single head of those insignificant yellow bugs!” Kwaaaaaaaaaaaa! The Wasp air attack unit, which dived vertically at 40 kilometers per hour, crashed into the defense line at the entrance to the oak tree like a missile. Just from the impact of the collision, the propolis barrier at the entrance of the beehive collapsed like a sand castle. The merciless slaughter of wasps began.

Perfect! Suddenly! Wow! Each time the Alpha Hornet's huge scissor jaws sliced ​​through the air, the head and chest of the bravely fighting Bee Guard were cut cleanly in two in just 0.1 seconds and fell to the floor. The bees' sharp stings skidded away without making a single scratch on the wasps' 2-millimeter-thick steel chitin exoskeleton. Even after stinging the bee, the hook at the end of the sting did not penetrate the wasp's hard shell, so the venom could not seep in. Instead, the bee's stomach was torn open and it died instantly.

“Don’t spit! Bite the joint!” The behero jumped to the front lines, flapping his torn wings. “Tear off the thin membranes at the base of the legs and wings with your jaws! Break their joints to stop their movements!” At Behero's cry, five or six worker bees latched onto one wasp's leg and began biting its joints. The wasp struggled violently to shake off the worker bees, but the bees never let go of their jaws even though their legs were broken.

“Don’t back down! You can’t back down!” Guard Captain Stinger roared desperately while surrounded by three wasps. "Be-hero! Get their attention! I'll decapitate Alpha Hornet!" The stinger lunged at the alpha hornet's nape and clamped down on the base of his left antennae with its large jaws. With his sharp teeth, he bit down with all his might to sever the wasp's bundle of sensory nerves.

“Aaaah! How dare this bastard ruin my senses!” The Alpha Hornet was furious at the excruciating pain and swung its huge scissor jaws wildly. “Die, you worthless bug!” Two huge steel blades intersected and pressed down on Stinger's chest.

“Captain Stinger, no!” The behero shouted and rushed forward, but Alpha Hornet's blade was merciless. Suddenly! Without even being able to scream properly, Captain Stinger's waist and stomach were cut in two with a single knife, and he fell helplessly to the floor of the flight deck.

“Captain Stinger—!” The behero's desperate scream tore through the blood-red air. Captain Stinger, bleeding and lying on the cold wax floor, breathed his last and looked into the behero's eyes. The last words of telepathy flowed from between his cut lips.

“Behero… Don’t cry… Now you must lead the warriors… There are ten… We must lure them into the hive… 47 degrees Celsius… We must create that temperature… Please take care of our kingdom…!” Captain Stinger's last antenna was bent weakly and the light in his eyes went out. One wasp bites and kills 40 bees in one minute. In just five minutes, hundreds of bees were spewing blood and piling up on the floor like a tomb, and the first line of defense of the bee kingdom was turning red with blood and screams. Desperate destruction was approaching.

The Alpha Hornet landed proudly in the center of the flight deck at the entrance to the hive. The corpses of dozens of bee warriors were trampled under his feet, and his giant scissor jaws were aimed at the passageway to the nesting chamber where the queen bee was. “Hahaha! Bugs, is this all you have?! Now I’ll cut off the queen’s head and throw it to my larvae as food!” In the middle of the collapsing defense line, the Behero stood in front of Alpha Hornet with his broken wings flapping and his bloodied body. In his compound eyes, a flame of desperation that would burn everything, no longer fear, began to burn fiercely.

“I won’t let you in even one step before I lose my breath!” Behero's roar shook the morning in the forest.