As the Voyager closed in on the eastern cliff wall, Dan could feel how much anticipation she had for her coming meal, she was over the moon.

  "That's it, big girl," Dan said once they made it, "Eat as much as you can!"

  Really! Voyager said, almost unbelieving, For me?

  "Yes, it's for you." Dan chuckled. "Eat as much as you can."

  The Voyager didn't need to be told twice, as soon as she got the permission, she sent one of her Aura Appendages at the boxes atop the cliff. From how it felt, Dan was sure that it was one of those dark mouth-filled appendages. Dan knew that she had a hard time controlling those, but it seemed that the Voyager's decision to send just one of them to consume the mana crystals was the right one, as she didn't seem that affected by it.

  At the same time, Dan was happy that no one could see how her mana appendages truly looked, especially the ones made from the dark oppressive aura. Even he had to be engulfed by the auras to see what they truly looked like. Well, maybe having people see them would have won them some intimidation points, but Dan felt that it wasn't worth it.

  "Fuel's rising fast," Keith called from behind Dan, "I doubt she's going to consume a lot of those boxes there."

  Dan frowned, the Voyager was consuming the mana crystals fast, but fuel rose just as fast. He had hoped that the Voyager would be able to consume most of the mana crystals, leaving them only with as much as they needed, but it seemed that it wouldn't be the case, they were most likely going to be left with quite the amount.

  Things continued on slowly after that, the Voyager greedily feasting on the mana crystals while Keith called from time to time, updating them about their fuel levels.

  "Closing in on full," Keith called.

  Dan felt a mix of relief and disappointment. With their Titles and all, and Voyager becoming more efficient with fuel, having a full tank meant that they didn't have to worry about it for a long long time, but he had hoped that they would use more of the mana crystals. He didn't know how much Voyager had used, but he doubted it was as much as he would have loved it to be.

  It was then that Dan noticed something, Voyager seemed to be almost getting sleepy the more she ate, as if she was almost entering a food coma.

  "Are you good, big girl?" Dan asked, a bit worried.

  Tasty! she sent, the mental image he got was as if she was giggling lazily. Then she sent a bit dejectedly, But full...

  "And full!" Keith called as she looked from the screen to Dan, "How is she? Can she continue or is this her limit?"

  "No, I think this is it." Dan didn't even have to ask the Voyager, she kept on sending him feelings of contentment and silly happiness. "I think we are done."

  Dan then tried his best to get the Voyager to tell him how many of the mana crystals were left, after wrestling with her for a while, they realised that she had only consumed a bit more than half of what was atop the cliff.

  "That's a lot less than I thought she would deal with," Dan said as he looked at the island in front of them.

  "Same, but what can you do," Robert said as he shrugged, "Look at the bright side, we used more than we would have ever been able to use or take with us, and our fuel is full, we are in a much better state than ever."

  "You're right," Dan had to agree. He guessed it was mostly him being greedy and not wanting to leave anything for the nobles when they eventually returned to the island, but all in all, it was a good haul.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Besides," Keith spoke from the side, "Who says we can't return here when our fuel is low? The nobles are going to take a while to get a Deepdark, we can get back and refuel any time before that. And if we find that they restarted their operation, we can just deal with them again."

  "That's a good idea," Dan said, "Let's just return then, steer us back, the Voyager is... groggy."

  They then returned to their previous spot, Dan had the people on watch be extremely careful, telling them that Voyager might not be as alert as she usually was. Dan felt that he was worrying too much, he doubted the Voyager would miss obvious danger coming their way, especially after the scare with the Deepdark, but they had to be careful nonetheless.

  He also made sure to ask her how she was doing and if she was good enough to keep an eye on them. She answered that she was alright, that she would keep watch, with all the conviction of a child fighting against sleep.

  Choosing to trust her, Dan bid her goodnight as he went to sleep. He would have liked to read a bit, but he feared what might be waiting for them the next day, so he didn't want to stay up late.

  BWAAAA!

  Dan found himself jumping to his feet as the Voyager's horn sounded, his heart beating fast and his mind confused. Woken due to the loud sound, he was unsure of what was happening or even where he was, but it all came back to him as he hurried to open his door and look outside, it was still dark.

  "Voyager, what's happening?" he asked as he fought with his clothes, "What's out there?"

  Voyager didn't answer, he felt the auras seep from the walls and floor all around as they cocooned him. Soon, he was connected to the feed from one of the bow's cameras, and what he saw made his already shaky hands tremble even more.

  "Fuck!" Dan cursed as he ran out of the door, buttoning his clothes, a sense of deja vu hitting him.

  He made it to the bridge soon, finding Robert there, before he could say anything, his chief officer beat him to it as he asked:

  "It's the hive?"

  "Yes." Dan nodded. "It's still far, but we are going to need to move fast."

  His mind was running at top speed, but most of his thoughts were messy and cluttered. He took a moment to just stand put, close his eyes and take a few deep breaths as he tried his best to bring it all under control and think rationally.

  A few seconds later, he opened his eyes, and the first thing he did was get his phone and look at the time, what he saw made him want to curse again.

  "Sound the horn again, three times," he ordered Robert as he closed his eyes and connected to the camera at the bow again.

  As expected, the single peak was missing all those Harvesters circling it, unlike the last time they had seen it. That at least meant that they most likely weren't nocturnal creatures, but it also meant that as soon as the sun rose, they would start their attack, a continuous never-ending wave, Dan knew they didn't have a lot of time.

  "We most likely only have 20 minutes before sunrise, that's when the Harvesters are going to start their attack," he explained as he watched Robert go and start sounding the horn, "I doubt that's going to be enough for them to gather and evacuate, it's a mess."

  Dan felt like an idiot, he should have expected this, all the clues pointed toward the hive closing in on them; the shortening of the period between attacks, the rising of their numbers, they had even seen the single peak drifting over the ocean, it was all there, and yet they missed it.

  "They had been through a few drills and they have Old Raily," Robert said, "They know what more than two blares mean."

  "They need way more than 20 minutes." Dan still shook his head. "They need 35 to 45 minutes at least, we need to win them those extra minutes."

  As they were speaking, more and more people joined them on the bridge. Everyone knew what the blares meant, the shadow of the last time something like this had happened was still fresh in their memories, the Ghostly Lantern had been quite an experience.

  "I think we have two main choices here," Dan said after most were on the bridge, "The first is advancing to deal with them, trying our best to buy Old Raily and the others time to evacuate, and the other is remaining at the back, awaiting the tenders while we send the Swarmers to hold the Harvesters as long as they could."

  Dan didn't need to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each choice, they were clear. Sending the Voyager first would give the best protection for the people on the island, it would take the hive sending all they had on them to overpower her, but the disadvantage lay in two points. First, the tenders would have to move even deeper into the ocean to reach them, raising the danger they would have to go through, and second, the Voyager could only hold back those inside a 60~ meters radius with her at the centre, that was the effective range of her mana appendages. After all, things weren't like last time, they weren't the only target out there, the Harvesters could simply ignore the Voyager and head straight to the island.

  As for the option of sending the Swarmers ahead first, it let the Voyager be free to close in on the island, letting the tenders reach her way faster, and the Swarmers were strong enough to hold their own against the Harvesters, at least for a while. It also gave them the option to fall back into the Voyager if all came back to it. As for the disadvantages, first, the Swarmers too didn't have much of a reach, they could move freely, but their reach wasn't that big. Second, if things went south with the Swarmers as the spearhead before the natives evacuated, Voyager wouldn't have enough time or space to react, she would be too close to the island for them to do much.

  "We will send the Swarmers first," a voice broke the silence on the bridge.

  Dan looked over to see Marcus standing there, looking a bit pale.

  "What are you doing here?" Dan asked as he moved to lead him to a chair.

  "After those blaring horns, who would continue sleeping," Marcus said coolly as he allowed Dan to lead him, "I calmed the natives and came straight after Fleta arrived at the med-bay.

  "All that aside," Marcus said after taking a deep breath, "The Swarmers are going to be the first line of defence, while the Voyager sits at the back, that's the best course of action."

  "Okay," Dan finally said after looking at Marcus, "Let's get busy."