The foremost general prince responsible for the conquest of the beetles was stationed at their nesting grounds with an occupation force. As it turned out that the fungi on and around the log and its surrounding area was edible and nutritious enough to have long been a staple of the beetles' diet, as part of his role he oversaw its cultivation and harvesting. That fungus, along with the occasional berries, was given to select male beetles. In time their eggs would hatch and their diminished numbers would rise, but in the meantime a breeding program was underway. Because the beetle males were expected to offer the females food as part of their courtship ritual, it was easy to identify the docile ones and ration them much larger portions of food so as to allow them a much better chance at mating.
Experimentation into bringing the beetles into the fold of the Hivemind hadn't achieved success (and neither had any attempts at making hybrids between our species and the beetles), but at least through controlling their females and influencing their breeding we were able to discourage the overexpression of negative traits like individualism and rebelliousness. The beetles overall seem to be somewhat less intelligent than us to begin with, which probably helps our cause because we don't think that they fully understand what we're doing to them or that the prince now placed in charge of their home was responsible for the deaths of so many of their peers. For the most part, they actually seem reasonably happy and content with the accommodations that we allow. We found some success training them to utilize their greater size and strength to assist the worker drones in harvesting berry or fungi crops and in cutting, carrying, and pulverizing twigs into wood pulp that's used in construction. With the beetles' help, construction of the much larger and reinforced hives was expedited.
The beetle captives that we kept in our own nests with all their limbs severed were finally killed and eaten, given that they are no longer of any particular use to us. The others of their kind need not know, and hopefully never shall. What few troublesome elements that arise in the remaining beetle population are being similarly dealt with by a few vigilant princes working on the breeding project.
On the topic of other projects, more berries were planted in the open space east of the main hive, and some of the closer ones forming a ring around it have begun to bear their fruits. This great increase in food supplies is allowing us to sustain a larger population, but it's also begun to draw the attention of colossal creatures from deeper in the forest and from the grasslands to the northwest. This increased attention from the giant animals is becoming a real problem, as it means we have to devote even more resources towards protecting the food supplies. There's also the issue that nothing less than a swarm of warriors is capable of killing such large creatures. In small groups, they end up being eaten or just proving to be minor annoyances despite their paralytic venom presumably causing muscle cramps and minor pain in small doses.
Before we needed to resupply him, the prince leading the exploration team retreated back to our territory. He, as well as all the bugs under his command, looked haggard and worse for wear, and at least half of the warriors that had accompanied him were gone. He detailed having discovered a horrible land far to the east, where the grasslands ends and the river widens and bends. There pools of stagnant or slow-moving water breed all manner of horrors, the tall reeds shelter predators, and what looks like solid ground is sometimes a muddy slurry that traps any who steps into it and leaves them doomed to slowly sink and suffocate. Inside of this swampy fen were water moccasins, giant snakes that helped contribute in part to the expedition's diminished numbers, but also frogs. The frogs had not only eaten numerous warriors, but they'd actually pursued them some ways beyond the edge of the wetland and hunted them until they'd gone almost a full third of the way back! Such a savage land also bred savage insects; the scouts reported having seen tiny flying bugs with long, needle-like mouths. If for some reason the hivemind ever decided to try and conquer that swamp, those mosquitoes would probably be the only ones with which diplomacy could even be attempted.
Experimentation into bringing the beetles into the fold of the Hivemind hadn't achieved success (and neither had any attempts at making hybrids between our species and the beetles), but at least through controlling their females and influencing their breeding we were able to discourage the overexpression of negative traits like individualism and rebelliousness. The beetles overall seem to be somewhat less intelligent than us to begin with, which probably helps our cause because we don't think that they fully understand what we're doing to them or that the prince now placed in charge of their home was responsible for the deaths of so many of their peers. For the most part, they actually seem reasonably happy and content with the accommodations that we allow. We found some success training them to utilize their greater size and strength to assist the worker drones in harvesting berry or fungi crops and in cutting, carrying, and pulverizing twigs into wood pulp that's used in construction. With the beetles' help, construction of the much larger and reinforced hives was expedited.
The beetle captives that we kept in our own nests with all their limbs severed were finally killed and eaten, given that they are no longer of any particular use to us. The others of their kind need not know, and hopefully never shall. What few troublesome elements that arise in the remaining beetle population are being similarly dealt with by a few vigilant princes working on the breeding project.
On the topic of other projects, more berries were planted in the open space east of the main hive, and some of the closer ones forming a ring around it have begun to bear their fruits. This great increase in food supplies is allowing us to sustain a larger population, but it's also begun to draw the attention of colossal creatures from deeper in the forest and from the grasslands to the northwest. This increased attention from the giant animals is becoming a real problem, as it means we have to devote even more resources towards protecting the food supplies. There's also the issue that nothing less than a swarm of warriors is capable of killing such large creatures. In small groups, they end up being eaten or just proving to be minor annoyances despite their paralytic venom presumably causing muscle cramps and minor pain in small doses.
Before we needed to resupply him, the prince leading the exploration team retreated back to our territory. He, as well as all the bugs under his command, looked haggard and worse for wear, and at least half of the warriors that had accompanied him were gone. He detailed having discovered a horrible land far to the east, where the grasslands ends and the river widens and bends. There pools of stagnant or slow-moving water breed all manner of horrors, the tall reeds shelter predators, and what looks like solid ground is sometimes a muddy slurry that traps any who steps into it and leaves them doomed to slowly sink and suffocate. Inside of this swampy fen were water moccasins, giant snakes that helped contribute in part to the expedition's diminished numbers, but also frogs. The frogs had not only eaten numerous warriors, but they'd actually pursued them some ways beyond the edge of the wetland and hunted them until they'd gone almost a full third of the way back! Such a savage land also bred savage insects; the scouts reported having seen tiny flying bugs with long, needle-like mouths. If for some reason the hivemind ever decided to try and conquer that swamp, those mosquitoes would probably be the only ones with which diplomacy could even be attempted.
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