Hey guys,
I recently finished the mission “Choose your own” in Kaidan. It’s my favourite mission of all time now because of the complexity and mystery surrounding the collective known as “The Swarm”. From what we know, they are a group of bees that have been imprisoned in a facility known as “The Hive” and escaped it. People go that don’t want to join one of the three major factions are being held prisoner in the Hive. All three organizations work together on locking those “rogue bees” up. At the end of the mission, you are offered to keep the data of the swarm or send it to your faction HQ. When climbing the Orochi Tower I found a log entry that said many or all of the Mitsubachi were probably recruited from the Hive and basically enslaved or experimented on.
My guess is they’ll force a story that accounts for both options (us having to fight the Swarm due to some story thing, while working with elements of them).
Not necessarily. Technically this was only an introduction to the Hive - one that can absolutely be considered optional. At worst, they could alter a line or two depending on whether you’ve had that little experience with them or not. This is not beyond their bounds (I think they’ve done it before).
I always assumed that the lack of development of the Faction Rank System was a hint that, in the future, we would be disowned/burned/disavowed by our factions, likely as a result of our conflict with Samael. This would result in us joining the Swarm, possibly after a stint in the Hive. Maybe even going to war with the three Factions themselves (picture each Headquarters as a Dungeon and various power players as Minibosses with the as yet unencountered Faction Head as the final boss). It hasn’t happened yet, but it still might. Adding a ‘Suppressive Persons’ declaration from the Morning Light to Samaels’ smear campaign could be enough to tip the scales against us, making us radioactive to our Factions and forcing them to turn us over to the Hive to maintain the status quo.
That investigation mission made me think that Bees have no other options - it’s either faction, or prison. And yet here he is, former Templar who apparently thinks he’s free now. I’m more or less sure we will have explanation of this contradiction and am waiting for it.
That said, if there’s someone/something to break the rule of Faction or Hive… It’s probably the Morninglight. That said I agree that Riley isn’t as free as he thinks.
Have to correct you on the Vali computer - it’s stated that they only obtained a single Bee from the Hive for their experiments. The Mitsubachi were recruited like how the Big Three recruit - see the Mitsubachi legend entries.
