Above ground structures likely to draw attention to hive.

Counter-proposal:

Plant more berry bushes around hive before beginning above ground expanion.

When the rain finally ceased, loss assessment and preventative measures for the future could begin. Despite damage control, there were hundreds of drones that drowned or died in collapses while parts of the food stores and other supplies were waterlogged, but the queens and the vast majority of the eggs and larvae were relocated and kept safe.

Good ideas had at least been generated for how the Hivemind should move forward. A great deal more berry bushes were planted in such a way as to form a ring around the central hive; the satellite one already had a good deal of foliage cover, and planting more berry bushes would have been difficult in such a densely forested patch of land. Following the earlier talks, the bees had greatly increased their presence around the berry bushes; they now seemed to feel more comfortable doing so. And they took notice of the new berry bushes sprouting, and to that they buzzed in delight; it seemed that we had inadvertently done what their queen had been trying to ask of us. In hindsight, it seemed rather obvious that she was trying to tell our prince that they wished for us to plant more bushes.

The new worker drones used sand and wood pulp to make their papery mortar, with the occasional pebbles stuck into the goop. This new biological concrete was being used to coat the walls of the underground tunnels and build up the above-ground mounds. It would take quite some time to finish, but the end product would one day be hives that were much larger and sturdier. They'd not just be less prone to weakening and collapse when wet, but also almost entirely resistant to wind erosion.

As our species recovered from the disaster, warriors and workers once again began leaving the hives in droves; however, the warriors found a nasty surprise when they tried to take up their old posts and patrols. While they had expected the various bunkers and ambush points along the border with the beetles to have been washed away and ruined, the posts had seemingly been repaired and occupied by the enemy! Beetle warriors had taken advantage of our vulnerable state to press their borders a good ways farther, forming a tight circle around the original patch of berry bushes and the satellite hive that protected them. Our own efforts to entrench that border had also been turned against us, for even though we obviously knew where we'd built all of those ambush points and redoubts, they were naturally in defensible spots that were now being manned by a vigilant and formidable foe.

There was at least some good news, though. Some messengers from the scouting expedition had finally made it back to report that our prince had ventured a long ways east and encountered no other creatures of note. There's just wide tracts of open grassland ripe for the taking, and while it seemingly lacks any new resources of note, it would make a fine place to direct future expansion. He is intent upon pressing farther east for a while longer before turning back.

Begin tunneling under known defensive positions being taken up by beetles.

Teams of warriors are to burst up from beneath the beetles before dragging them under and to their deaths. All offensives are to be overseen by Princes augmented with warrior-like traits.

Suggestion: perhaps a small, powerful pincer of the front most leg of warriors would allow them to tear away beetle shells.

Increase overall strength of warrior drones.

Study how beetles manage to remain unaffected by rain.

First of all the lost princes actions dedication is to be commended. Have the messengers relay the news to the populous before returning to him. The tale might take some of this sting out of losing the berry bush.

And about that berry bush. We needs to impress upon these beetles that actions like this won't be tolerated. Once our numbers are back up muster our forces to the the border, make it look like we're massing for an attack. But send a team of workers tunneling under the ground. These fortifications we had aren't built to our new standards, and we already know they are prone to collapse. Undermine them, bring them down, and in the resulting confusion have our forces sweep in and wipe out all beetles intruding on our territory. There are less of them than us and it would take a significant number to occupy our old defences, so this would be a terrible blow.

We can not suffer our own works being turned on us. It is offensive!

Suggestion for anti-beetle campaign: Try and take some of them alive. Opportunity to study living captives to gain information on the Beetle menace, as well as the possibility of uncovering how they communicate. Note: Beetles do not need their limbs to survive.

Proposal; produce prince subspecies outfitted with glands producing neurotoxic agents.

Neurotoxins are to place captured beetles into a more docile and suggestible state to better facilitate study.

Means to keep limbless captives alive during study should also be looked into.

Whilst we were rebuilding the hives with our new material and deciding upon how to react to the beetle incursion, the beetles began to grow bolder. A series of skirmishes broke out, with each starting when large groups of the beetles would suddenly emerge from behind their lines and charge to the berry bushes. There they would quickly battle with whatever guard force was present and in the midst of the fighting, some of them would seize berries. Then after about only a minute of carnage, before more of our own warriors could arrive as reinforcements, they would begin to make off with their looted berries. Pursuit was futile, as more of them would be lurking in the trees and the fortified posts beyond.

A few of the beetles inevitably fell during these assaults, and though they tried to fight to the death, the warriors were able to take some live captives as requested. When placed near one another and observed, they can signal one another through twitching and clacking. Some patterns have been observed by the princes studying the captives, but the work in deciphering the beetles' language is probably quite hindered by how the warriors had to bite off numerous limbs and large chunks of the beetles' mandibles to subdue them, and being maimed like that limits the beetles' ability to communicate. The beetles don't seem to have possessed any secrets that helped them to fare better in the rain; we presume that they simply don't mind the mud, live mostly above ground where flooding is less of a concern, and can swim better than we can anyways.

While all of this nonsense occurred, we were naturally tunneling in preparation for our surprise attacks on the ambush points and bunkers that they'd stolen from us during the rainstorm. That plan had its merits, but it also necessitated a fair amount of time and caution. Fortunately the beetles seemed content to maintain their tactic of encircling the satellite hive and occasionally raiding the berry bush; no doubt they thought that this siege tactic was weathering us down, but of course the satellite hive's underground connection to the main hive meant that secret supplies and reinforcements kept coming in with the beetles none the wiser.

Interestingly, on a few occasions the warriors spotted gigantic beetles waiting behind the siege lines to receive the berries as an offering. These beetles are easily twice the size of their smaller peers, which range from equal to slightly larger than our own warriors, and they sport extra thick armor and even larger mandibles for it. Their bulk makes them quite intimidating; however, these giant beetles have never tried to partake in the raids and have never engaged us, which seems to rule out the initial suspicion that they'd developed a warrior type of their own.

The bees buzzed overhead throughout this entire standoff much as they always had; however, now that the hivemind understood the creatures' mannerisms better, it was clear that they were much more observant than we initially assumed. Though the drones always seem to be busy and occupied with their own tasks to the point of being oblivious to the ground, they in fact seem to break up their regular patterns and fly in different paths to investigate any battles or movements of interest. So they are certainly aware of our conflict with the beetles, but thus far have neither said nor offered anything.

Our preparations are now done. We've finished the tunnels and bred more drones to help replace some of those lost in the flooding, and numerous princes are standing by to command waiting armies of warrior drones to breach the last little bits of dirt separating them from the beetles' positions on the surface above. We could either give them the affirmative now, or stall a bit longer to do other things like request aid from the bees or reconsider our plans given this new knowledge of the mysterious giant beetles.

Only one order needs to be given at this stage. Slay. Them. All.

Not all. Prepare a special detachment that has only one mission; take one of these giant beetles alive. Wait for one of them to appear to receive offerings before launching our offensive.

New plan devised.

Emaciate a small number of drones. Ensure beetles only encounter emaciated drones from now on.

Bait beetles into committing for full assault.

Once beetles are too far in to withdraw, collapse on them with EVERYTHING, and allow none to escape. (This includes launching assaults on the stolen forts)

Large beetles are to be prioritized for capture, normal beetles may be captured if situations allow. Capturing beetles with the sticky goo produced by workers should prove effective.

All is to be overseen by princes.

Captive beetles may be useful for future testing. Their language must be deciphered so we may be prepared for their fall and assimilation. Such a feat will also allow for a better understanding of their tactics.

Drones supporting groups of warriors to subdue beetles may be effective.

One of the gigantic beetles received its tribute at a location that left it almost perfectly between the satellite nest and one of the lost bunkers. Having selected that particular one as an ideal target for capture, we waited for the next beetle raid on the berry bushes, offering some token resistance so as to throw off any suspicion. The raiders began making their escape, but lo and behold, the gigantic beetle was leaving the treeline and coming toward them this time, chased by a host of our own warriors that had emerged from under that one bunker behind and moved to flank. They'd quickly overwhelmed and killed the bunker's occupants before rushing the giant beetle, who had no safe direction to flee. Moving into the berry bush clearing brought the beetle closer to the raiders that could protect it, but that maneuver also left it completely surrounded as the berry bushes' guards as well as reinforcements from inside the satellite hive now had the monstrous beetle completely surrounded.

Its monstrous size allowed it to kill or maim several warriors. Some worker drones on hand helped by spitting sticky globules at the giant beetle (as well as any others that got too close) and eventually the giant beetle succumbed to a combination of warriors pinning her down, adhesive spit awkwardly making her limbs clumsy as they stuck to one another and to the dirt and leaves around, and finally paralytic venom as a few warriors were able to find vulnerable spots in her armor. The now-helpless beetle was picked up and slowly carried back toward the hive as a prisoner, and as predicted, other beetles from the treeline saw this and tried to charge to her rescue. It was in that time, where they had fully exposed themselves and ran out of their spots in a disorganized scramble, that the warriors underneath all of the other bunkers and ambush points burrowed upward and struck.

Sure, there were enough of the beetles rushing to save the giant one that they managed to kill and drive off the warriors holding it captive, but it was still so thoroughly incapacitated that it couldn't even move, much less try to escape with the would-be rescuers. As more and more of our kind emerged from behind and from the nest and from hiding spots in the upper reaches of the berry bush, seemingly everywhere, the chaotic battlefield started to devolve into a massacre. At least two hundred of the beetles were slain or captured around the clearing. A few managed to escape, but the princes led the warriors in pursuit. We followed them back to their nesting site and continued pressing the attack there, storming the leaf pile and fallen log. We experienced much greater casualties there as we fought a cornered and determined foe and no longer had the advantage of surprise and overwhelmingly superior coordination that we'd had in the previous surprise attack, but in the end it was still a victory.

Upon raiding the beetles' nesting site, we discovered numerous hatching ideas filled with countless eggs and occupied by the giant beetles. It would seem that those large ones were simply the females, and the smaller beetles males that would try to curry favor by bringing offerings of food. Well, that was one mystery solved.

With dozens of males and a few females captive, studying the beetles was easier and we began to understand the basics of how they communicate. Maddeningly enough, they seem to be inferior organisms that lack a hivemind. Unlike the bees and us, each beetle runs around trying with its own thoughts trying further its own goals, and though they live together in communities and do care about the welfare of the collective, they don't truly become one with the collective. They lack unity and coordination, and that was ultimately what left them so disorganized in their battles against us and ultimately caused their downfall.

Now some questions arise, like what we should do to all the live beetles and eggs that we captured, whether we should move into this newly opened territory that had been theirs, and whether we should try to search for the inevitable few that would have managed to escape.

We now have a perfect slave race tasked to suit a variety of purposes, whether that be testing, research or a new caste of warriors. It should be our duty to unite all under the Hive.

Now we have control of their females we have control of the race, we should capture as many of the females as possible and raise the young as part of the colony. Better for beetles to die than our own warriors.

Strange, nay heretically, independent creature they may be they offer a different perspective that could prove useful in the future.

We're not savages. Reward the prince who led this successful battle with governership of the log, have our workers fortify it and it should make for an excellent staging ground to control the whole berry bush area and a step toward further expansion into the forest as needed.

Bring to the large beetles we have prisoner berries, as their own people would, and treat the grubs that emerge from the eggs with kindness and civility. Allow them to watch us work, show them that they too can benefit from our ingenuity. In a generation our kindness will be all they've ever known.

Bringing the beetles into the fold as a servant race is an idea. However, while controlling their females does give us a means of dominating them, their individuality does mean that they'll be inclined to do something stupid in some vain attempt to try and liberate themselves from our guiding wisdom.

A possible idea: We employ the methods we use to rapidly improve our own biology in order to alter the biology of the beetle larvae within the eggs so that if they are not apart of the hivemind itself, they are submissive to our commands without the presence of mind to plot rebellion. We can employ them as beasts of burden.

I would not recommend using them for military actions; At least, not at the cost of our own militant abilities.

Begin attempts to generate princes capable of breeding with female beetles.

Beetles are to be assimilated into hivemind, that we may find greater use for their abilities.

Assess current hive roster, eggs, and resources.

Plant more berry bushes leading east of the main hive.

Check findings from exploration team.

Send the Exploration Team some fresh supplies with the messagers.

Not a servant race, a client state.

We beat them in their home. The fact of the matter is they don't have the numbers to take us. Now isn't the time to start to torturing and forcing demands, that will only breed resentment and large scale rebellion down the road. Better to slay them all in that case.

No, no, no, now is the time to show them the benefits of working with us, rather than against us. From this point on the vast majority of the beatles will have no memory of a life that wasn't lived side by side with us. There may be some rebellions, but I believed they will be small and easily put down with the help of the ones that remain loyal.

It is better to be loved than feared.

...Okay. I am okay with attempting to have them love us rather then fear us.

However, a recommendation in order to subtly prevent rebellions: A subspecies of the Prince developed to be stealthy and difficult to detect for the beetles who's purpose is to spy on the beetle population for signs of rebellion or treason and then... quietly make the guilty party disappear. Love and Fear both have places when it comes to governing after all.

Perhaps it is time to begin diverging Princes into different categories. At present they seem to serve as breeders, scientists, generals,and in the future spies.