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When We All Fall Asleep - Awaken... — Description
Hey y'know when I said that I'd probably be uploading these story parts out of order! Yea... this is that, this is kind of a 'Chapter 0' for this thing :v

ALSO DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how like, DNA manipulation works so... this is pretty much sci-fi technobabble so bear with me I'm not a scientist :'v

Aight story time:

[All his work. All that time. His life, both physical and non-corporeal. Almost all of it had been destroyed in one day. The only thing Niles could do was sigh in dismay when he came across the body of his beloved Matriarch. The amount of damage and the not-so-insignificant number of specimens that had been lost due to her being released would have been bearable had she survived but alas here she was, face down in the snow. There was nothing he could do now, the thought that filled his digital mind as he rolled back through the labyrinth of destroyed halls in his spare robot unit, all that was left now was to take inventory of the losses and list the needed repairs. An ever-growing list these days.

On his journey following the destruction back to its source, one of the armoured doors caught his attention, luckily untouched by the Matriarch’s rage. A check of his location in the facility piques his interest, “Maybe...” He mused aloud. He opened the door, current thoughts on how his operation would recover thrown out of the metaphorical window for now. This room contained only one active, viable stasis pod. ‘One final chance,’ he thought.

“My Matriarch is dead... My soon-to-be queen has abandoned her destiny...” Niles had picked up this habit of musing his thoughts to whichever specimen he was working on at the time. He was unsure when he had started, or why, he found it nice however to voice his thoughts, uncaring if his audience hadn’t the capacity to hear, let alone understand him. This specimen, though, most likely had the capability of both.

“Perhaps this is my punishment for relying on such diluted blood...” He rolled forward and began to run the data, he pulled up two sets of DNA data. Two different, yet similar sets. One set of data he’s had for years, meticulously hand crafted by himself, culminating in the being before him. The other, he’d only acquired just hours ago. “In not just the queen,” He corrected, “but her subjects as well.” If were able to shudder he would.

An idea began to form in Niles’ artificial brain. He compared the data, overlaying DNA structures and running multiple scenarios in his digital head. It could work. The chance of failure was incredibly high and would risk him losing his most valuable specimens.

“You always had this incredible blood running through your veins, so close to perfection, so close to Her...” He paused, a dramatic intonation, unnecessary though it gave him chance to visualise how well this could all come together, “No wonder She raised you to be her successor, far better fitting for the role. DNA that is so close, yet so far...”

It all came down to this one choice, if the procedure was a success, it could mean that he and his locust creations had a chance. If it failed, however, he’d lose everything. With no matriarch he’d have no chance to create a specimen like this again ever and his supply of viable drones was quickly diminishing with the sires being awoken once more, the drones that had been slaughtered by their selfish should-have-been queen and many more being lost due to their stasis tanks becoming ineffective in sustaining them. It all hinged on this.

He took an artificial breath.

“No Matriarch, no queen...” He lamented, “what else have I left to lose? Every simulation I’ve run comes with the same outcome. I promised you that you’d rise once again, my creation. Perhaps this, unorthodox solution shall be your return.”

The stasis tank gave no reply, just the same electric hum that all the others had.

“This has not been the first time your DNA structure has been altered, not by a long shot. But it is the first time I’m sure you’ll take notice in it. As a proud warrior, I can already tell that you will be upset with me, these changes will not be insignificant, alas, they are necessary. It is time for you to stop being ‘close enough’ I think.”

Niles finally pulled up to the monitor attached to the stasis tank an went through inputting the needed calculations. He’d set up this specimen in this tank, one which had a much bigger purpose than just keeping her alive, just in case he’d have to do something as drastic as this, not that he’d have expected a scenario such as this to actually happen.

“My only hope is that you can turn any anger you have for me towards the humans that have forced my hand and know that soon, very soon, when you are ready, you will awaken”

With the final taps of the dust-coated keyboard, the instructions were quickly sent to the various machines tasked with essentially re-building his most valuable asset from the ground up. He’d never actually tried such an intense procedure on a fully-formed and, in most definitions, alive specimen. All that was left for Niles to do was wait for either a miracle or a catastrophic failure.]