The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Outer Regions)

(Hidden Location- Secret Laboratory)

"Good morning my dear! How are you today?" a hoarse voice echoed through the laboratory.

Dr. Valenna slowly walked towards a reinforced metalloid container in the back of the room that housed the most valuable specimen on the planet.

The creature inside the container was an Insectoid and a member of the race known as the Serpentinea.

It was a humanoid alien with elastic and stretchy skin that bore a striking similarity to rubber.

Yellowish scales covered certain areas of its skin and tiny green spikes jutted out of its shoulder blades.

Three bright pink eyes that stared directly at the female scientist were located along its torso and one could see a mysterious orifice near its posterior region.

Dr. Valenna smiled warmly as she approached the container and gently touched its cold metallic surface.

She rapped her knuckles against the metal, but the specimen continued to remain motionless as if it could not hear her.

The lead scientist chuckled lightly to herself as she opened up her communicator and jotted down some notes.

Today was an important day.

It was going to be the start of the new set of human trials using the blood and DNA from the Insectoid in front of her.

Of course, this was just going to be a few preliminary experiments, so Dr. Valenna was not expecting great results.

Dr. Valenna sent out a few messages to the members of her team and then powered off her wrist communicator.

There was a large, raised button next to the metalloid container which she pressed.

The trapped Insectoid finally reacted, and its eyes showed a trace of panic.

A cold smile flashed across the scientist's face as she observed green gas begin to rise up from a small opening in the bottom of the container.

The Insectoid rushed forward and began to furiously bang on the walls of its prison but after being intentionally starved for weeks, it simply did not have the strength to break out.

Dr. Valenna patiently waited for the poison gas to take effect and soon the Insectoid collapsed motionless to the ground.

Two heavily armed guards walked into the laboratory from the entranceway as Dr. Valenna opened the doors of the container.

The guards wore protective gear that included several layers and had plasma rifles attached to their hips.

They roughly grabbed the unconscious Insectoid and held it upright as the scientist approached its body.

Dr. Valenna pulled a few empty syringes from her storage bag and jabbed them against the Insectoid's neck.

She filled the empty vials with the Insectoid's blood and then gestured towards the guards holding the alien.

The guards returned the Insectoid back to its enclosure and then Dr. Valenna locked the door using her fingerprint.

She left the laboratory while accompanied by the guards and headed towards a certain area.

The Insectoid that they had left behind was still asleep but judging from its furrowed brows, it was clearly suffering from a nightmare.

Dr. Valenna slowly walked through a winding labyrinth of side passageways and corridors to get to the gene-splicing testing zone.

Guards could be seen patrolling up and down the length of the corridors and several robot androids were carrying out daily cleaning tasks.

The noble patrons behind Project Rhat'ets had injected new funds into the project so the facilities had received several upgrades.

Dr. Valenna was grateful to her employers but could not help but feel an increased sense of pressure.

There would be no second chances.

The previous attempts to create the ultimate soldier had failed and the blame had been placed on the low-level Insectoid species that were used in the experiments.

Now that would no longer be an excuse.

Serpentinea were classified as high-level Insectoid species and had intelligence that was on par with that of humans.

If she failed again…

Dr. Valenna shuddered as the thought briefly flashed across her mind.

She was aware of the price of failure. In fact, the researchers who were killed instantly were the fortunate ones.

Dr. Valenna rubbed her fingers nervously as she finally saw a translucent dome-shaped structure that surrounded a large pit.

Inside the pit were a monstrous worm-like creatures composed of humanoid bodies sown together to create filthy abominations.

These were the Tarkkankan- human hybrids that had a combat power roughly in the early stages of the qi spirit realm.

They were failed products but there was still value in researching them to get a better understanding of Insectoid biology.

Next to the pit were several tent-shaped buildings and she could see men and women wearing white lab coats rushing from one building to the other.

Guards escorted naked test subjects inside the buildings.

The test subjects were in various states of health, but most were generally in good condition.

These test subjects were heavily shackled since having drugs in their systems would affect the gene-splicing process.

That ruled out the use of sedatives or anesthesia in the process. Loud screams and cries of agony could be heard coming from the buildings.

Dr. Valenna entered a tent in the further corner of the dome and saw three elderly men waiting patiently for her arrival.

"I have acquired multiple samples so please extract the pure DNA by the end of the day," Dr. Valenna coldly ordered.

She handed over the vials of blood and expressions of excitement appeared on the faces of the elderly men in the room.

"When can we begin the testing process?" one of the men suddenly asked.

"I will be reviewing the list of available test subjects to determine who is most suitable for the preliminary experiments," Dr. Valenna spoke solemnly.

The elderly man did not seem satisfied by her answer, but Dr. Valenna's authority made it difficult for him to complain.

The lead scientist left the tent and wandered over to the edge of the pit.

She looked down and saw several of monsters begin to rub their oily white flesh against one another in some kind of mating ritual.

Dr. Valenna stared at the process unblinkingly and wrote down notes during the process. There was nothing more important than the pursuit of knowledge.

She finally turned away when the ritual finished and pulled up the video-feed of the containment unit on her communicator.

The Insectoid was now awake, and it sat on its knees with a depressed and lonely atmosphere surrounding its body.

If Dr. Valenna had an ounce of compassion, then the sight of the depressed alien may have stirred some kind of emotion in her heart.

But she merely glanced at the video-feed and then turned it off.