With a major hurdle cleared, the chase takes a sudden, skyward turn.
While officially the exclusive property of their respective Houses, in practice HIVES are the sole turf of Outer Trinity Spyders. As soon as the drones leave their hangars, they are deluged with a never ending flood of command-and-control malware. Full control over a HIVE for any period of time is an outright oddity.
The Houses have largely resigned themselves to this reality, as generally what interests Spyders interests them as well. It is common practice for hanger crews to completely reinstall the operating system each time a HIVE returns, if only to keep up appearances.