The Hive

The Hive is a nation in Call of the Void/Ballad of the Laser Whales.

## History

The Hive encompasses seventeen "nations," each with its own island (in one case two nations share an island) united by the great leader Xu Bao.

Xu Bao was a warlord during the warring period in what is now the Hive's central province, Da Yuan. Xu Bao was originally sponsored by UC ideologues who wanted to bring an end to the constant wars in the Seventeen Kingdoms. They succeeded – the collectivist ideology of "The Single Sky," or Yikong, proved very appealing to the people, and Xu Bao united the Seventeen Kingdoms into The People's Collective of Socialist Nations.

The Hive's unification was a huge step forward for the region, whatever downsides it brought. Yes, centralization of agriculture starved millions, and yes, millions more were executed in purges of intellectuals and bureaucrats, but the region was largely modernized, and perhaps most importantly, exploitation by foreign empires came to an end.

The Hive and the UC enjoyed positive relations for a time, but eventually they began to diverge. The UC had hoped that after its initial revolutionary period, the Hive would embrace more enlightened concepts as part of its government, abandoning the authoritarian state necessary during the revolution.

This hope proved damningly naïve. The Hive began to expand, aiding "the revolution" in several nearby countries, and eventually bringing them into its sphere of influence.

The Hinamoto had not expected the Hive to reunify so quickly, and had been relying on the anarchy and weakness of the seventeen nations to keep the people distracted so that the Hinamoto colonization of Khitania could proceed uninterrupted. These hopes quickly collapsed after Xu Bao rose to power, and war became inevitable. The Hinamoto struck first with the typical extreme aggressiveness and alacrity characteristic of their military endeavors, and completely destroyed the Hive's naval capability in the early days of the war. From there, however, the war proceeded very slowly, with grinding infantry battles tearing apart the coastal cities of the nation, and massive terror bombing becoming the Hinamoto standard. Several massacres were carried out, killing an absurd number of people, and atrocities were committed by both sides--though primarily the Hinamoto.

The Chironites pointedly refused to withdraw their advisors from The Hive initially, but had a change of heart when the true scope of the UC's involvement in the Hive became apparent with Xu Bao's declaration of the New People's Republic as "The Heart of Yikong." The Hinamoto were allowed to run rampant across the country for six years before finally agreeing to a white peace--albeit one which left the Hive utterly desolated, with hundreds of millions of people displaced, starving, or dead. The Hive government thirsts deeply for revenge against the Hinamoto, and expects to get it in Koriyo, another Hinamoto colony where a local Socialist movement is gaining influence.

The Hive has also been very influential in the Volgin Quagmire, where the Pensnezarists have received much in the way of funding and assistance from the Yikong Party of the NPR.

## Military

Since then, the Hive has been continuing its proxy-war with the Chironites while pursuing expansion and development elsewhere. Faced with great difficulties expanding into The Eastern Straits (a huge latticework of islands and small kingdoms colonized ages ago by other powers) and by a few vexingly independent kingdoms, they are nevertheless making gradual progress. Already their arms technology has improved significantly from the start of the war--though they are still far from experts. The Hive's favored Type 70 rifle – a mediocre copy of the Schwarzvald C5 – is disparagingly nicknamed the "Brennholz" by the Chironites, and troops are oftentimes equipped with spears or simple cleavers instead of firearms.

The Hive military is not, however, inept--they are highly motivated and standards of training are impressive. What the Hive lacks is advanced technology, and they compensate for this with manpower and highly aggressive tactics intended to disarm their foes of artillery and aerial advantage. Light infantry tactics are the Hive's specialty, and they are considered second only to the Hinamoto--and possibly the Rahoo Ogre Battalions--in sheer bloody-mindedness on the assault.

## Ideology

Yikong is Is blatantly Maoism. Pending further explanation.

## Trivia

-The Hive seems to be Maoist China, except that for whatever reason, China become Communist before Russia.