Mission complete, YO347. Return to your Nest for recovery and next assignment. 

347 stared down at the goblins she’d been forced to kill. She’d been told they were Blackbloods that were too far gone to be of any further use, but she knew better. She’d seen the fear in their eyes as she’d descended on them. She shook her head, climbing up the building, and making her way across the rooftops to her home. 

The Nest towers were arranged around Yil’ototh’s Citadel, 347’s being the northernmost. She made it to the top with ease, pausing to look out over Oro’grus in the moon’s glow. It almost looked pretty. 

She climbed down the access hatch, weaving through the curving tunnel into the beehive-like interior of the Nest. Other Tempests moved up and down through the structure, in silence, only broken by the occasional clank of metal, or creak of leather. She kept going further and further down, all the way to the third tier. With a contented sigh, she crawled into her outlet in the wall and settled into the pile of blankets. 

The faint whistling of wind lulled her to sleep, or what passed for it for Tempests. Fragments of another life flickered through her mind, places and people she might have once known. It was a pleasant escape, for some few hours.

A faint clicking noise slowly roused her from her slumber. She blinked, to find a small form moving carefully across the gaps of her helmet. She snapped her hand up, forming a cage with her fingers to snatch whatever it was that had violated her personal space. The intruder tried in vain to escape, but it was already too late for them. She slowly moved her hand back away from her helmet, so she could actually see what it was she'd caught. 

In her hand, was a large insect. It was mostly black with a long, oblong body. It's most striking feature, was a pair of long, curved horns jutting from the top of it's head.

 As she stared at it, a memory flickered. A deer in a forest, to a backdrop of fog. A male. A stag. 

The beetle tried the force its way out again, only for her to tighten her fingers further. She continued to stare at it, trying to decide what to do with it. Technically speaking, she should destroy it. No one was allowed into Nest Towers, save Tempests and their attendants. But...it was just a beetle. She shifted the beetle so it was pinched between two fingers, so she could get a better look at it. 

With a nod, she decided it was cute, and she wasn’t going to squish it. But she couldn’t let it go in here. Someone else might find it. She peered out of her bunk, seeing how many other Tempests were active on the tier. The only sound she could hear was 366 further down the row. She must be having a nightmare again. She shifted the beetle back into a finger cage, and began to make her way down.

The service tunnels at the base of the tower were rarely used by Tempests, but they provided her an excellent way out to her destination. Several of the Soothe Slugs gurgled at her as she passed, but she didn’t slow. She didn’t need healing or repairs right now. 

She continued to weave her way through the tunnels, until at least she exited out into the quiet light of the setting moon. She knew there was a garden nearby, that was used to grow fruit for Yil’ototh’s personal stores. There’d be plenty of food there for her little friend.

She peered around the garden from the rooftop, making sure that none of the garden’s caretakers were in the area, before creeping down to the ground. She sniffed at the familiar, and comforting scent of the dirt beneath her feet as she crept carefully through the plants. She found one toward the center that was laden with fruit. She carefully placed the beetle on a stable leaf, and took a step back to see what it would do. The beetle shuffled about on the leaf for a moment, seeming to get its bearings. It seemed to look up at her for a moment, before retreating further up the branch.

347 felt her face twist up in an unfamiliar motion. She carefully reached up under her helmet, feeling to see what was wrong with her. The corners of her mouth were drawn out and upwards, and should could feel a hint of teeth between her lips. She didn’t know why she was doing that, but she felt...happy. It was strange sensation, to say the least.

She carefully picked her way back out of the garden, leaping the last few meters up onto the wall. Hanging on with one hand, she looked back over the vegetation. Hopefully, this would be a safe place for her friend to stay.

Upon her return to the Nest tower, 347 took a detour to the Color Den at the base of the tiers. Stocked with a variety of pigments, pastes, and paints, some Tempests took up decorating their armor. 347 had dabbled with it a bit in the past, adding some blue dots to edge of her collar-like chestplate, as well as some other orange stripes on other plates. This time however, she had a specific design in mind. With careful but firm movements, she detached the left shoulder guard and set it on the table. Messing with that one always made her bones ache where the armor attached, but she’d deal with it for now. One of the Soothe Slugs could  help deal with that, once she was done. She perused through the selection of paints, settling on a blue that was similar to the one she’d already used, and got to work. 

By the time she finished, a blue beetle, shaped like her friend, adorned the armor plate. Her face pulled itself in that strange shape again as she looked at it, before re-attaching it. Even if she never got to see her friend again, at least she’d always have something to remember them by.