They landed just before dark. The area looked good for their purposes. There appeared to be good sources of food around, and they quickly found a suitable underground hive location. They moved underground and settled in for the night. In the morning, they would start foraging and exploring their new world.

It was unusual for the Confederacy to do a pickup in an outside location, but Gunnery Sergeant Schmidt was originally from this area, near San Bernardino, California, and he knew that there would be lots of suitable people in this park area early in the morning. It was also somewhat isolated from passers-by that weren't heading here directly, so they shouldn't be disturbed. He placed discreet sensors and sentries near the park entrance and drones overhead, of course.

The announcement of the pickup and the rounding up of all of the people in the area took a bit of time, but there were over two hundred people out here, even though it was still not quite seven AM on a summer morning. Most were fit, or at least not too badly off, and there was quite a bit of interest in the twenty high school girls that were there to practice their cheerleading routines. There was also a small Tai Chi class, several family groups, walkers, groups of kids on foot or on bikes, several groups of runners and individuals that were out before the heat of the day, and a bunch of skateboarders.

The gunny told the older sponsors who were married that he would arrange to collect their spouses if they wanted them. Kids, of course, would be collected. There were twenty-one male and six female sponsors who were due a total of ninety-six concubines. The lady cheerleading coach grabbed a young married couple and two of her cheerleaders. The rest of those went fast as well. Everything was going well, until one sponsor wanted to test-drive a girl who was there with her jealous boyfriend.

CPL Wilson and PFC Martins both used their stunners with a narrow beam setting on the brawling boyfriend. One of the beams only partially hit him, while the rest of that shot went past him into the bushes. The stunners, which had a sonic component to the beam, hit a roiling mass that had just left the hole in the ground. It had already noted the disturbance and was planning to deal with the intruders. Now, they were under attack. The swarm consensus, reached instantly, with no deliberation, was "Defend the hive!" They headed for an all-out war.

The first screams were from the girl and the prospective sponsor. "Bees!" The two of them and the boyfriend were stung in passing as the swarm spilled out in it's thousands. When the two Marines saw it, they instantly widened their beams and started spraying the swarm. Their shots seemed to have no effect. Well, maybe that wasn't quite correct.

The AI contacted them both. {Your weapons are making them angrier. The insects seem to be focusing upon you. I suggest that you cease-fire and remove yourselves from the vicinity.}

"Martins. You heard the man, err, AI. Run away!" Wilson was retreating towards the transporter. "Gunny. We need to bug out. Bee swarm. Really mad!" His message was automatically transmitted to Gunny Schmidt over fifty meters away.

{It appears that the swarm will not stop. They are pursuing all in the area, but especially the two Marines that fired on them and the three who were first stung.}

Several bees landed on the prone boyfriend and stung him. When honeybees sting, the barbed stinger is torn from the body and the bee dies. In the process, pheromones are released. The pheromones tell the other bees. "This in an enemy." He was stung again and again.

The swarm descended upon the crowd. There were several couples engaged in straight missionary position sex. The paler buttocks of many of the men seemed to attract some of the bees. Women too had paler patches. Butts and breasts were attacked with impunity. The Marines and the children fared the best. The kids were still mostly dressed. The Marines were covered in their skin suits, so only their faces and hands were exposed. Everyone that was stung drew more attackers. Every bee that was crushed drew dozens of avengers.

{One of the bees in the vicinity of the transporter has been transported to the ship. Analysis will be available shortly.}

"Transport anyone that gets to the transporter. We can sort them out later. Activate the back up receiver pads and switch destination pads between people so that we can keep them from tripping over each other. Notify medical. We need people ready to handle anaphylactic shock." Gunnery Sergeants need to be ready to handle almost anything while the world is falling down around them. A full retreat in the face of a swarm of bees is not the end of the world, so it would be expected to be handily dealt with.

{Gunnery Sergeant Schmidt. DNA analysis has determined that the insect in question is a hybrid of the African honeybee, Apis mellifera scutellata and the Italian honeybee, Apis mellifera ligustica. Analysis indicates a sixty percent hybridization. Mitochondrial analysis...}

"Not now, AI! African Killer Bees! Just great. Lower the temperature of the arrival areas of all transport destination pads on the ship to below freezing temperatures if possible. Some of these things are going to get aboard with the pickups."

The Marines had only set up two transport pads. They were having people just run at the pads one at a time, about one second apart. When people cooperated, it worked fine. WHEN they cooperated! Some ran past the transporters, while some tried to stay with other people and thus clumped up, disrupting the lines. Mothers with children were especially bad about that. Some people were hysterical and just ran in random directions, while others froze, or stood in place trying to kill all of the bees on them. The AI's initial estimate of a two-minute complete evacuation changed to a five-minute partial evacuation with multiple deaths.

"AI, I need fire extinguishers. CO2 type. Get some people down here carrying them. Port them in from CAP testing stations or anyplace else where they have them near transporters. Switch number two transporter to reinforcements only. Ouch! Dammit!"

It took a minute for the first Marine to arrive with a fire extinguisher. It was exhausted quickly, but as he sprayed, people seemed to understand this would help with the bees, so they ran up to him. He hosed them down. The other Marines grabbed people from the pack and just threw them across the transporter pad. They were concentrating on the kids first, then anybody that was covered in welts. Someone in the Marine unit aboard the ship realized that the Halon extinguishers, which were more prevalent aboard ship, would work, just not as well. So, several of those got sent down as well. The hi-tech ships had on-board automatic fire suppression systems, but some bureaucrat had stated that any human occupied areas 'must have adequate safety equipment' which he had detailed as being only tried and true, human items. A quick reaction force arrived in full armor, including helmets and gloves. Some bright soul had passed out smoke and CS grenades. Tear gas. As the grenades went off, the bees either collapsed into dormancy or left the area. It took another five minutes to collect everyone who was still around to be collected. The original troublemaker, the boyfriend, got collected but nearly didn't make it. He had received over fifty stings. On the other hand, his girlfriend decided to stay with him, so he called it a good day after all. The gunny gained another morsel to his air of infallibility. The bureaucrats made him pay for refilling all of the expended extinguishers though. After all, what if they had had a fire?

The swarm had lost hundreds of their number, but they had driven off the intruders. They would stay here. It was a good place for a hive.

Thank you to the Swarm Writers group for feedback and to Mulligan for helping with the final edit.