Might I recommend keeping our distance from the hive that was under attack? Considering how alert they are, it is likely they would mistake diplomatic efforts as hostile. Just plant the seeds, look after the plants as they're growing to give the distressed hive a new source of food and allow us to show our peaceful intentions, but keep a non threatening distance from them.

The discovery and destruction of the Warp hive is a solid plan through.

It makes me want to show those big wasp bastards what we do to punks that think they can throw their weight around just because they're bigger than what they're fighting.

We are, though, flightless skitterers at heart. An aerial battle isn't something we can take direct part in and a hive of flyers isn't something we could take easily.

Hmmmm...maybe the harried hive would talk to other bees? After all, if the wasps wipe out that hive who's to say they won't turn their sights in the others. Maybe we should try and convince our friendly hive to send out diplomats to the other two so that the entire forest could present a united front. Maybe when faced with a force like that we could bring them to the negotiating table and see why, exactly, they're being such assholes.

Seriously, I heard those things lay eggs in your head! I want to know why it chooses to do that.

While we're waiting on the results of that see if we can't get that fish pool dug. Let a little stream trickle in there, create a nice little stagnant pool for small fish. Boom, we have a supply of meat we can use our new water adapted children catch.

Workers making the pool should be careful, as they would have to get wet in order to make a stream deep enough to allow small fish in. This project should only be done if we are fine with possible worker casualties due to drowning/getting washed away.

Intel on the wasp hive should be a priority, but caution and any info we can get from the bees about those wasps comes first.

A few worker drones maintained a cautious presence near the bee colony that had encountered the wasp. They started planting flower and berry seedlings in as nonthreatening a manner as possible, but the bees there seemed to pay them very little attention. In fact, they've started evacuating their hive and seem to be in the process of trying to find a new place to move. We spoke to our bee allies, and while they too expressed horror and apprehension at he prospects of a nearby wasp nest (it seems that the bees and wasps are ancient enemies) they're almost as concerned that they'll now be facing even more competition for the resources in their territory if these other bees move closer.

Meanwhile, a small council of princes were placed in charge of overseeing further expansion. They ordered the establishment of a small hive close to the river's edge. To protect against flooding they built it on a small rise and kept most of the space above-ground, with minimal tunnels underneath and (as of now) no underground connection to the other two hives. In order to get the materials to build this great hollow mound of a nest, they had to excavate a sizable sandy pit nearby. The hope was to just leave it there in order to create a pool, but that's been met with some obstacles. Small puddles have been forming in it after the rain, but the sand underneath is porous and most of the water sinks down before long. Building an artificial pond might take some more work and cleverness!

Numerous scouts have been sent out to the southwest to search deeper into the forest for the wasp nest; however, several have gone missing, and the others kept trekking through forest until they came across a great body of water where the trees finally come to an end. It's obviously natural to suspect that the wasps were the culprits behind our scouts' disappearance, but in fairness, we never saw that happen and to date neither we nor the bees have even so much as seen a second wasp scout. In any case, we could continue sending these small scouting forces and perhaps suffer even more attrition, or we could consider blindly sending in an entire army with orders to seek and destroy. They'd probably stop being picked off one by one if we sent an army, but having a couple hundreds bugs rummaging around in the forest will probably destroy any element of surprise that we might have been able to gain if we could find the wasps before launching our attack.

We should send more scouts in small groups, and they should use the undergrowth of the forest to help keep them hidden, while still able to look for the wasp nest. A suprise attack on the wasps would be the best way to go.

Perhaps on making the pool, the workers' sticky spit would help keep the water in?

Scouts being picked off by threats/wasps(?), attrition nor full on assault calculated to be in hive's favor....

Solution: Curb scout losses into an advantage.

Ask bees about the nesting, hunting, breeding, etc. habits of their ancient wasp enemies.

New 'marker' scout caste to be created--

'Marker' scouts are to be extremely lightweight, cheap, fast, and capable of flight.

These scouts are not designed to live for extended periods of time; but rather, die for the greater good of the hive.

'Marker' scouts should contain a gland that constantly produces an inert, but highly concentrated, and easily trackable pheromone only detectable by the hive.

Upon seeing its target, a 'marker' scout should have a secondary gland that then activates the tracking pheromone, as the primary gland is sent into overdrive. Scout is then to throw its body onto its target, causing its carapace to rupture violently; leaving said target relatively unharmed, but a walking beacon for the hive to follow.

A large swarm of marker scouts is to be released to comb to forest-- seeking any wasp activity; aided with knowledge provided by the hive's bee allies.

Do we know where our missing scouts were headed when they disappeared. Concentrate our search in those regions if so.

It is worrying that we none of us have seen another wasp. It either means we're barking up the wrong tree and a total unknown is lurking out there, or the wasps are clever. Can we ask the bee's for any information they have in these bandits? How do they fight, what would be their objective, where would they set up camp if they were exploring the forest? After all, the third hive need not move if we can nip this problem in the bud.

It's saddening to know that my Fish Project is hitting snags, but I do like the suggestion of coating the pool with the same sort of material we now use for our hives. Hmmm, theoretically we could also shape something out of the substance. We could leave an chunk missing, then later fill it with a separate slab that could be removed and put back in as we please to cut off the flow of water.

I think this idea has merit. I shall call it a gate, and tuck it away for refinement.

I'm now also interested in this south east area between the forest and the horrid toad march. I think that would be our next target for exploration once this mast wasp business is taken care of.

Perhaps the wood of the trees could serve as a useful material to fill the bottom of the pools? It could also be used as part of the previously mentioned 'gate' once the materials are coated. Order a contingent of workers to begin collecting branches and bark for this task and have them transported to the river-side hive.

The bees, it turns out, really don't know much about own old enemy. They do know wasps are hiveminded and live in nests, sometimes building said nests up in trees or high places but sometimes even in the ground. The wasps tend to attack suddenly and in great swarms; they work together to take down larger prey, and only rarely go hunting for smaller things alone. So if a lone wasp is ever spotted, it's probably just trying to scout, but that's perhaps even more dangerous, for the wasps adore honey and will apparently massacre an entire hive just to steal its honey and sometimes even eat the larvae.

Beyond that, the bees claim that they wouldn't know anything about the loathsome wasps. They've never made any efforts to launch an offensive against the wasps, viewing it as utterly futile given that the giant wasps are easily capable of killing a dozen bees each. The wasps hunt other insects and will gladly wage war to feast upon the fallen, but for the bees, fighting the wasps can offer no benefit and risk only utter ruin. Whenever they see a lone wasp scout, they do everything in their power to kill and silence it lest its nest learn of their presence and launch a raid.

But if the bees should ever fail to spot and kill a wasp scout, and sometimes if they even so much as suspect that there might be wasps nearby, they take the precaution of abandoning their hive and fleeing elsewhere. They note that sometimes certain birds prey upon the wasps and help to cull their numbers, but at the same time those birds will readily eat bees, so they have never been able to successfully pursue any sort of alliance with the wasps' enemies. But if we would be able and willing to kill off the wasps, the bee queen nearest to us ensures that it would gain us the gratitude of just about every bee colony in the land.

Regarding our search efforts in the far end of the forest, we began to redouble our efforts by sending groups of scouts, some of which developed more advanced tracking pheromones. We sent a few larger groups into the areas where we seemed to have had the most scouts go missing, and we quickly discovered the culprit--more beetles! We accidentally discovered a small group of them trying to head west and leave the forest, and they attacked upon sight. Fortunately a few scouts from that group managed to successfully flee and live to tell the tale.

We don't know whether this means that there's an entire second nest of them that's been hiding out here, or if these are just the exiled remnants of the nest we conquered. Either way, in a fashion similar to how the bees did everything they could to ensure that one wasp scout never returned to its hive, these beetles seem to have been trying very hard to hide from our scouts and kill any that witnessed them or discovered signs of their presence. Unfortunately, that very strategy is what drew our attention to them. The governor in charge of the fallen log and its fungi farms (who has continued working on the beetle breeding program, to some limited success) is naturally an eager proponent of subduing this group of beetles as well, but if that is the path that we choose, we'd best hurry because it seems that at least some of the beetles are fleeing the deep parts of the forest to get even farther away from us.

Coating the entire bottom of the sandpit in a woody mesh is going to take a fairly large investment in time and resources. Several hundred worker drones have been devoted to the task, but because we're confident that the new floor will be able to retain water, we've started simultaneously digging a small channel to the nearby riverbank. Rather than relying on infrequent rains to keep the pond full, the hope is to have a small waterway with a removable floodgate (though rather than one solid, cohesive gate it's probably going to end up being more like a pile of rubble that acts as a dam; but that's no matter, we have the manpower to dismantle and replace the dam as necessary) so that we can empty or fill the pond whenever needed. Assuming no delays, the construction will hopefully be done in the near future.

So some of the beetles have gone rogue and are interfering with our efforts to locate the lair of the wasps (even if unintentionally). Naturally, this treason can not be allowed to stand... but we have to treat the matter with some degree of care, since coming down on the wrong beetles will cause more harm in the long run.

I have an idea.

Step 1: We need to develop a pheromone that, when ingested, blends in with the natural scent of the eater, but can be picked up by our more sensory advanced scouts like the great light in the sky on a blue day.

Step 2: We use said pheromone lace a stockpile of berries. We can then offer it up to the beetles freely without uneven distribution for good or bad behavior. We can claim it is a celebration of unity and the bounty that we all now have access to since the end of the conflict between us. Try and cement some good will and maybe bring some beetles on the fence over to our side.

Step 3: With the laced berries being consumed, all we have to do is keep an eye out for a trail of the pheromone that is heading off into the general area the other rebel beetles have fled into. As long as we avoid giving the beetles any tasks or jobs that leads them in that general direction, any pheromone trail heading that way will stand out easily. Even better, it's likely that any group making the trip will take along supplies to help tide themselves over for the journey, as well as to help out whatever hive they are setting up.

These aren't our beetles, our beetles have been nothing but well behaved. These are some that escaped our first containment.

I won't chance our beetles catching the strange notion that we've perpatrated some kind of indefensible injustice on their forefathers. These beetles want to be gone? Fine, hurry them along. If possible I'd sweep them all the way to that desert the bees said was so deadly. Once they're gone we're free to write whatever kind of history we want.

Do the berry plan anyway. If these bastards have been in contact with our boys I want to know, and it never hurts to show a bit of good spirit. But once we confirm that I want our army rallied and those things driven into the wastes.

Of course, none of our beetles are going to be involved in that operation. Ideally, they wouldn't even be made aware it's happening.

The good news is that our enemy is neither unknown nor clever. With no more beetles we can have our scouts safely keep an eye out for more wasps, but I think the bees may have nipped that problem in the bud.

Set princes and promoted warriors to handle the beetles.

Develop winged scouts to continue to search for wasp hive, be sure to check higher up in the trees.

I agree that the beetles should be driven away, but if that is too difficult we should send a few, small, spaced out groups of warriors to dispatch those beetles. Spacing the groups out and keeping them small will hopefully attract minimal to no attention to us, as we don't want to have a sudden suprise attack from the wasps.

Once the beetles are gone, scouts can be sent to sweep a large amount of the forest around the threatened bees in pairs to find the wasps' nest.

Our priority should be to prevent the current beetle population from learning how they were brought into the colony. Ideally, any remnants of the previous colony should be eradicated, however, if we are unable to successfully track and destroy them we should ensure our own population will not question us. If any beetle begins questioning how it was that their species entered the colony they should be told a tale of how their old colony struggled to survive and was starving before us who mercifully supplied them with vast amounts of berries. Emphasis should then be placed on the greedy few who took some of our generous aid and fled to try and create a second doomed colony. Ensuring the subjected beetle population views the rogue population as an enemy will greatly reduce the odds of them rising up in rebellion against us.

Strategy concept for dealing with tree bound hives- an even larger drone equipped with huge sharp mandibles that can work in groups to gnaw away at the base of trees.

The distant beehive finished the last of their evacuation procedures as we dispatched the first raider squads into the deep forest. Some of the hostile beetles that remained entrenched in the woods were eliminated while others (mainly those in larger groups) were simply harassed and driven out of the forest, to the northwest away from our territories and into the desert wilderness. Careful watch was kept over the captive and domesticated beetles during this effort, and no signs of contact between them and the foreign beetles was observed. Information quarantines also ensured that they remained blissfully unaware of our systemic efforts to rid the forest of their (now distant) kindred.

With that matter dealt with, the forest was scoured and after many days of searching we were finally able to rest satisfied that there were no wasp nests anywhere in the woods. But a few days later, a team of workers reported having witnessed what they thought to have been a wasp scout flying in a westward direction. A new caste of our own winged scouts was quickly dispatched to search in the direction that the wasp had purportedly came from, and after following the southern river for a long enough time, they surely enough came across a gnarled, twisted, and long dead tree. It must have been grand in its prime, for even as a withered husk the thing is massive and it serves as a landmark for a long ways around. At the top of that weathered and venerable tree is a blight, though; a massive wasp nest is up there.

Work continues on the newest hive that we built. A small tunnel now connects it to its sister hives, despite some concern about the potential for flooding. The channel between our great pit and the river was finally carved out, so we now have a shallow pond (though the bottom is a goopey mesh of organic matter mixed with sand, dirt, and gravel). Some of the newest berry bushes have also started to bear their fruits, leading to record harvests.

We have found the wasp hive! Now it is just a matter of dealing with the damn thing before it becomes to great a threat.

An overland assault is... not advised. They would spot it long before we got within striking distance of the hive and if what the bees have told us about them are true, the wasps would be -more- then willing to kick start a war out in the open for the sake of fighting... and they would have the edge in such combat.

Fighting in the skies isn't advised either, since we have only recently started to develop air units ourselves and they are not prepared for full on aerial combat on this scale just yet.

Having given the idea much thought, our best course of action might be to tunnel. Starting at the beetle log, we should start to develop a tunnel between it and the wasp nest. Along the way we can develop mini hives underground in order to store food supplies and places to rest in order to continue the advancement of the tunnel. The idea behind this plan is that if we can launch a surprise offensive against the hive itself, we can negate the advantages of the wasps and force them to fight defensively. We also have the benefit of being able to damage and destroy their means of replacing their fallen numbers at the source.

An underground strike is an excellent strategy however I believe to maximize its effectiveness we should have a 'dummy' army approach the wasp nest from the surface to draw the wasps attention before the true attack beings.

Also, we should send scouts to the area to the north of the wasp hive to see if there are any areas of strategic importance.

I agree with that. I couldn't think of an approach that had a chance of victory. If anything I'd like to avoid kicking the wasps neat here if at all possible, considering their size and numbers. But if we could isolate their queen then they would be at our mercy.

Wait. The underground tunnel is a good idea, but even then we would have to climb the tree to launch any sort of attack. We'd be left exposed enough doing that that there's no way our surprise would last and we'd be stuck fighting an aerial foe while clinging to the side of the tree. But what if we could completely negate their ability to fly?

What if we attack while it's raining?

We've seen the rain, it's almost suicide to be caught out in it. Especially flying. No one would expect to be attacked during that. Those waterproof shelters I proposed? We could rework that idea into something we could carry with us up the side of the tree to protect us from the rain and use the sound to mask the noise our approch. I'm picturing a squad of soldiers and workers. The soldiers to take on any of the wasps that try climbing out to fight us, but the workers are more important here. Once we're up the tree we have them start sealing off exits from their hive with the sticky fluid they have. Funnal the wasps to, ideally, a single exit where we can pick them off. Hell, maybe seal them in entirely and cart the whole thing to the river.

We can discuss the plan on attack on the Wasp Hive itself when we get there and can get some proper recon. Until then, let's focus on digging the tunnel to get us into position to launch the invasion.

If I might suggest an idea in order to assist our bee allies by offering them some protection against possible Wasp raids. I recently had plans for a new breed of flying warrior. They are similar to the recon scouts but instead of having pheromones for the purposes of tracking, inspiration has been taken from the spiders to give them acidic venom and a single, spear like mouth to punch through outer layers of armor and skin.

The general idea for this swarm warrior is... well, to fight in swarms. A flying tide that is meant to swamp the target and inject them repeatedly with their acidic venom to literally melt the target from the inside out. If a few are killed in the attack against a bigger foe, that's fine because these aerial assassins are designed and bred to be spawned and grow to full size in large numbers quickly.

Digging a tunnel would be smart. The element of suprise is very important here. A distraction army would be a good idea, placed on the opposite side our main attack will come from. And if the decoy army can harm a few wasps in the process, then great! At the moment when our main army attacks, we should have a bunch of winged workers flying around, harassing them. If those workers can do any sort of damage and/or somehow trap the wasps(the workers need sticky spit for that) then they'd be of even more use.

I had wanted a flying warrior previously, but that wouldn't work then. But maybe it would work now. We should take our time perfecting a flying warrior, getting rid of the heavy weapons, and the armor can be lighter. I agree that the ability to inject acidic venom would be useful, and having a ton of them, growing fast, would be too.