Buzz Kill

MRC at Hive Tyler was buzzing as SCUL's busy bees polished their wings in preparation of National Honey Bee Day! Cpt. Piranha led the charge toward a hopeful victory. Many pilots were dressed for the occasion. Black and yellow. Black and yellow. Black and yellow! Some bee-dazzled their attire with shiny electrical tape, but eager Civi-drone tried particularly hard to entice the queen bee with his strategically placed stripes and backward stinger. Baby-larvae Bleeder was introduced as he suckled our collective royal jelly, and fancy-pants LCdr. DreadFlint, clad in yellow electrical tape and a tux-bee-do so sharp it stung, rechristened the reforged "Bee"ber Fever, Justin time for launch. (Wait... that's not a bee pun.) Time to crank up the Bee Gees!

The droning buzz of bee puns was deafening as the swarm was swept up in a frenzied excitement! We buzzed through the Davis System to the pleasant surprise of the many civilians, eager for the sharp sting of our hive-hives! From there, Cdr. Nosepicker navigated his fellow hive-mates through the neighboring Cambridge System and onto the dormant cells of the Radcliffe honeycombs, awaiting the arrival of new brood. We docked for fuel somewhere between Central and Inman to consume packaged honey, and Adm. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane Thuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunderwooooooolf surveyed the local flora for potential harvest the entire night. Buzzing through MIT, a floater was caught up in the electrostatic charge of our thorax. We pollinated his imagination, ensured that he was sufficiently bee-stickered, and released him back into the wild.

At a playground surrounded by flowers, we were in bee heaven! However, we were surprised by a sudden burst of rain from some sprinklers. Now, as we all know, bees can't fly in the rain. The water weighs us down. In fact, it's a wonder we can fly at all! Once the rain stopped, a little waggle dance was enough to shake the water from our wings. Then, we were off to the Charlestown System for what may be the "World's Largest Band Saw!" Is it true? Who knows! What's it like? It was like a small band saw... only BIGGER and... COVERED IN BEES! SCPO Dillweed climbed that big band saw all the way to the top and was followed by many clambering workers and drones, but didn't find a single trumpet or bass, anywhere.

Flying back toward Inman, Ens. Cobb of the Starchaser Division clipped her wings and spilled her honey! Emergency protocol initiated, she was transported to safety, thanks to the collective efforts of Threes"bee"d, Talbot, Bane Thunderwolf, Red Squirel and hive queen Piranha. Just to name a few. Once the smoke had cleared, it was time to begin the der-bee! Dillweed and Nosepicker won, but aren't we all winners, really? Then Saphron, Red Squirrel and Sprocket each had a taste of the hive life on their first HARV test flight. Don't worry. They weren't too buzzed to fly. All in all, it was a "bee"-u-tiful night, filled with stings, wings, and other bee-related words for excitement. And though it was technically a failure, we all left feeling like cham-"bee"-ons!