Prologue: Teppelin ain't no Party-Town
There had once been fourteen turrets to this battery, but with little use for any gun whose firing arc was due skyward, especially this high up on the super Dai-Gun/city, the half of these canons, as well as there sisters in the other halls that wrapped around the castle districts main spire, thusly, where in the process of being removed. Material to be used for the first Dai-Gun fleet, "Home Fleet" it would be called, an unheard of expansion of Teppelin's military might seemingly brought on by the emergence of a small inconsequential group of humans. Only one of these floor mounted turrets remained in this hall, half deconstructed, and partially tarped. Massive crates that required Gunman to maneuver, full of the turrets pieces, where stacked all around, taking up nearly a quarter of the hall heading port close by the gun. It made the entrances on that side of the room nearly useless, creating a labyrinthine footpath that caused the few Beastmen up here to avoid using this hall completely. It'd be another month before the crews returned to continue on the removal of that gun. The hall retained all seven of the ceiling mounted, landward firing turrets.
Thymilph was dead, killed in combat by some rag-tag group of humans out on some island, and she was stuck drinking confiscated swill, waiting for that bunch of monkeys to come charging the capital itself, sitting and waiting, as they kill yet more Beastmen and steal yet more Gunmen.
"Idiot." she threw a full glass of the drink behind her, hearing glassware shatter and its pieces skitter across the floor, piss tasting contents not missed.
This hadn't been part of the plan, getting as plastered as she was now. She was going to celebrate her friend, drop any pretenses, and recollect the life they had together. But every time she thought of a good time between her and the gorilla general, she remembered what a raucous bitch she'd always been. Again, and again, every memory she had was thusly poisoned by herself being part of it, and that little hurt she would remember seeing in the corners of the dead general's eyes, in the smiles that stopped reaching his eyes.
"Idiot!" Sitting up onto the edge of the lounge seating that a turret hard-point had been converted into. Why did her eye itch so fucking much, why was it hard to breath, why was her heart and stomach and throat tied up into knots, why was Thymilph dead? She knew the answer to all of those except the last.
It'd almost driven her to disobey His Majesty's orders to remain in The Capital and wait for the human's to role up on there front doorstep, it was Guame though, who'd overheard her and Viral's conversation to utterly disobey such a command, and the fat Armadilloman disgraced her in front of her own crew, invoked the name of The Spiral King. She was basically kicked off the Dai-Gunkai after that, her crew ordering HER to go cool down.
She resolved then to do just that, of her own accord though, not at the bidding of her crew. But her little "Celebration of Life" simply beat her down and pissed her off and failed at that purpose.
The Castle District as a whole was a cold place, but she knew that wasn't what made her shiver, quake. Her effort to restrain the tears that so desperately wanted to flow affected her entire body. It was her ego, that which she resolved to drop this night, but she still couldn't even then, still couldn't admit she'd loved that man, still couldn't admit she was sorry for what a bitch she had always been, to the one guy who saw her as more than a piece of tail. Thymilph had seen her as a Warrior, as a General, as an Equal, as well as a Woman, as so many things so many others did not.
"I'm such a fucking idiot!" She was well and drunk by this point.
It was the sound of crunching glass that alerted her to the presence of another, she wouldn't suffer who she knew it to be. Wouldn't stand that blonde coward's insipid beta-male worry for another second "Thymilph's dead because of him" she'd beat the twerp senseless the moment he...
"In human culture, If my memory serves me, it's common for support to be given to those in mourning." Turns out she'd been wrong in her assumption of Viral having the guts to be here.
"I don't need those monkeys primitive fucking proverbs from some random fuck looking for some tail." whoever this guy was, fuck him.
"Honestly I'd say Human and Beastman culture are equally primitive, you people self destruct in the exact same way." She grabbed a bottle of her contraband, spun around, arm raised to lob the quickly emptying container at this motherfucker. At this eight-foot-tall, bald, bearded, king of Heaven and Earth, motherfucker.
Even in the pseudo-delirium she was in, as per what Beastmen are genetically predisposed to experience, she froze at the sight of The Spiral King.
His gate was slow, lazy, but still each step could cover twice what her legs would at the same pace. His gaze, as every time she'd found herself beneath those red ringed eyes, seemed to leave wherever they landed hot, her skin was icy and clammy. She'd just spoken so uncouthly to The Spiral King.
The bottle was empty by the time Lordgenome reached the rim of the former hardpoint, Adiane thoroughly soaked and stinking of the illegal drink, and whose body was wracked by poorly restrained shudders. She felt like she was moving through molasses, she dropped the bottle to the floor, slowly rose and backed away just a few steps. She was being overloaded by everything, Thymilph's death, Guame making her loose face with her crew, that blonde idiot who'd attached himself to her hip, The Spiral King who'd she certainly insulted just now.
She dropped to the floor, barely supporting herself with her arms as the tears finally started flowing. It was a mix between the biological compulsion to bow Beastmen felt when in the presence of The Spiral King, and her simply giving up on standing at that moment. And then the words, things she barely heard come from her mind or mouth. "...Please... Mercy... I didn't know... Someone... Mercy... Mercy... Help... Me..." Her thoughts felt so fragmented, images of how The Spiral King would ruin her mixing with Thymilph's almost smiles, the anger she'd seen in the eyes' of her crew when they'd thrown her off the ship, stupid pointless things said by a half rate Beastman, concentric red ringed eyes burning holes in the back of her skull.
"Stand." It was the fear of death exploited and made productive in a simple, barbaric way, The King's thralldom over Beastman. You will die if you do not obey him. A small voice in the back of her head, the largest defeat she had ever suffered sounded just then, just at the edge of though and emotion. "Do I even want to live." It would be the only freedom from The Spiral King's influence Beastman would ever know, to crave death, to spit in his face for giving them life, that was the fear that kept this world turning.
But it was an echo of an echo of a half thought, she certainly feared death, she certainly was one of The Spiral King's mighty generals.
Even though this was the greatest fortress the world had ever seen, all around her felt unanchored and adrift and divorced from any sense of surety.
"It is an honor...Truly an honor to be graced with your presence my liege, thy bidding shall be done." She choked out, now feeling the tears on her face, her eye-patch becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
His majesty had seated himself where she'd once been, uncaring for the cushion soaked in bad liquor, spilt drink staining his once pristine white cloak.
"Sit with me." Such was the speed she complied with the demand, that her mind barely caught herself before she threw herself to the man's side, mind still so scattered, her breaths becoming quicker at the fear that was finding itself a home beneath her stomach. Knowing The King and his demands, especially of women, she made sure to press against him, as little as she could afford, but enough as well. He seemed to pay no attention to this.
"As I'd said earlier and since I'm in a whimsical mood..." His attention was more on The Moon than anything or anyone here and now, and that lack of focus smoothed out the tumult in her mind just the slightest, as did The Spiral King's similarly smooth monotonous words. "...I was not aware you and Thymilph had been close, tell me of your friendship."
She swallowed far to many times for it to be a thing of elegance. He was to her bad side, she really couldn't see any of him unless she strained to do so, but she felt his side against her own, feeling iron coals where the clothing between the two was pressed hard. She was taking too long to formulate her response.
"It... It'd truthfully started... it'd been I, who'd been responsible for the outcome of The Battle of Descent thirty years ago, but I'd had too few honors to capitalize on that victory fully, I gave the glory of that day to the then commander Thymilph, and he was promoted to general..." She remembered it'd been early in there acquaintance, remembered the smiles he gave her still reached his eyes then. "...my plan had been to eventually have him nominate me when the next generalship position became available, but my field promotion after General Squilliam's passing was never rescinded, and I've remained commander of the Dai-Gunkai and the oceanic theaters since. I have proven my worth to The Spiral Kingdom on my own, he owed me, but..." "I owed him so much more than some stupid position." She crumpled and bent forward, face in her hands. "...I'd... he..." Tears now blinded her good eye. "...I..." She gagged a bit. "...I'm so sick of whatever this is..." She instinctively moved away from The Spiral King then, still seated beside him, but turned so her back was to the massive man, she was rubbing her hands together, form scrunched and tiny at the edge of her seat, lost in her head for minutes, non statements spilling out and disjointed regrets she knew held no bearing for The King.
"You will always miss them, it will always hurt, and only time will dull that pain, and the company of others who care for you to smooth things out..." His words reached her, brought her from the worst of it with their clarity. "...We live our lives not knowing what someone else truly wants or needs, or what is best for even ourselves, all we can do is try and not destroy the things we care for, and to simply move forward once something is lost." She felt the weight in his words, It was His Majesty, everything he did and said had weight to it. But this wasn't something that called upon the ingrained fears or compulsions Beastmen where designed to have for this man, this was created by but the man's own experience and of his life alone.
"I have no one though." It was a broken whisper.
Her dress had slipped from her shoulders during her tantrum, the cool air seeming to bring her a pinch from her fugue, but she also felt The King's gaze upon her back, burning little pinpricks, painful and unwanted lines being drawn by what was surely a lecherous...
"You have not been eating well." It was stated factually, as ever, even his previous statements made to comfort had been spoken with his monotony, but it told her his mind was not on what she had believed it to be, and the slight wave of comfort this caused was bringing her further and further from the drink enforced fugue.
She felt the seat shift, and she pulled her kimono back over he shoulders, the stink of the liquor that'd ruined the dress punching her in the gut, mixing with her already knotted gut and causing her to gag and very nearly vomit.
"Wow this shit's crap." Adiane turned to The King then, seeing him inspect a bottle of her illegal drink. "Yebichu?"
"Yebisu...my lord..." She watched him take a drink from the bottle, silently watching, with little energy to do much else.
"Hmm" The bottle looked like what a pop bottle would in a normal sized beings hand, she looked between he and the bottle, saw to her surprise the slightest pinch of a smirk before he imbibed another dose of alcohol. And he coughed and chuckled with what seemed the slightest stirring of entertainment in it.
"Exactly as I remember it, you got any more of this?" Adiane felt like she was having some weird dream now, the wake of what she'd been experiencing leaving her in a state of super clarity in this moment. She blinked a few times at the odd, almost-smile, upon The Spiral King's face.
"What I have here with me." gesturing at the two unopened and the one empty bottle on the floor, he hmm-ed at that.
"It was a very old friend of mine's favorite, absolute trash when it comes to liquor, but she was a very dear friend of mine, and I get it whenever I can." Something must've clicked in her head, and she brought a smile to her face.
"Is that why it is labeled for confiscation within the capital?" Something she never though she'd ever see upon The Spiral King's features appeared then. She saw teeth peak from his lips as the almost smirk became an honest smile. His chuckle again,his chuckle then came deeper from his chest.
"You may have all you wish my lord, I cannot say I ever enjoyed this drink, I thought it was some forbidden concoction to toy with." She was nearly out of it all, the pain was to be felt another day, the tears that where to be shed this night had been shed, tiredness now quickly making itself known in the aftermath.
"Aye, thank you General Adiane." he took another swig from the bottle. Stood and grabbed the rest of his spoils.
"You are welcomed to the palace General Adiane, I will be retiring promptly, and I ask that you do the same." The seats where no more than stairs for him, and as he moved to leave her there without another word or further acknowledgment, Adiane spoke up.
"My Lord." he kept walking but acknowledged her, with the slight twist of his head.
"I was going to disobey your orders today, go out and avenge Thymilph, if Guame hadn't stopped me..."
"We will address that another day general..." she heard an iron in his words that sucked some of the comfort she had just begun to feel from her. For a tenth of a second she began imagining some horror, but, sounding as if it where an afterthought. "...nothing too severe will come of it." It was an odd mix of being genetically manipulated to believe his words and the reality of what kind of man The Spiral King was when it came to disobedience, she didn't believe him and her fear remained rooted in her gut.
And then he was gone, lost in the shadows of a hall in The Castle District.
She sat frozen, too tired to fully grasp the oddity of the encounter she had just had, she remained unmoving for many minutes after. It wasn't a short time before one of His Majesties wives came to escort her to what would be her room in the palace. The girl took Adiane's ruined clothes and left The General to her devices. All the while the general remained caught in her head, caught by the incongruity of her encounter with The Spiral King, with fear and pinches of pain.
Cathedral-Terra had two computer cores, the primary, a mass of conventional processing units, utilized mainly for running the similarly conventional systems of The Mega-Dai-Gun. Primary energy distribution and management, basic spiral energy distribution and management, energy/matter conversion, attitude control, configuration control, thrust vectoring, Super-Dai-Gun manufacturing, targeting within three-plus-one dimensional space. That was the core he ceded control to The Anti-Spirals after the end of the war.
Chronal attitude control, causal attitude control, advanced spiral energy distribution and management and manipulation, chaos computational farms, combat AI, crew neural linkages, soular linkages, anything that dealt with systems that dabbled in the multidimensional, outside the perceivable three-plus-one universe they lived in, when science blended with what could easily be described as magic, that was the duty of the secondary core. The one he had and forever would have complete and utter control of.
The Anti-Spirals did not know man was capable of such technology, in truth, man hadn't been, it was stolen from a very old race of beings, and repurposed to be an engine of war. Many drafts of Cathedral-Terra had had this core serve as the backbone of The Mega-Dai-Gun's mainframe, but by his insistence, it would eventually be relegated to it's secondary role, Lordgenome having envisioned it as a trump card, the grand finale to reveal to the Anti-Spirals when the time came to end the war. Because he knew if The Anti-Spiral's ever discovered it, they would raise humanities threat level and change tactics and the makeup of there forces to counter this machine.
He retained control of this core for those reasons, all the false system schematics and deck layouts, the physical disconnects between the mainframe and the core, the cores own nature being something extra-dimensional coupled with The Anti-Spiral battle philosophy of never truly overreaching there enemies, meaning that they would never utilize scanning mediums that would detect the core. The plan had been to find The Anti-Spiral home world and unleash the beast upon it, but he'd discovered The Spiral Nemesis Equation, and Earth had been the world afflicted by its wrath.
It was a blackish sphere, thirteen kilometers in diameter, with a dark red sheen created by a thin roiling red ocean upon its surface. Lordgenome stood on a catwalk encircling the spheres equatorial line, four miles from its surface.
He stared at the core, heard in the winds of this place things that would drive men mad. His death was fast approaching, his life's work to be invalidated soon after, the fear of a primordial thing, something between living and dead, on display for he and he alone, matched by its worry and its pleading and wailing and mourning. He pitied this thing, pitied her, the soul of Cathedral-Terra, possibly the only human he still pitied for she did not endanger the universe as the rest of there kin did. Did not contribute to Spiral-Nemesis.
Names, events, past, and future, flickering before his minds eye, unfocused red eyes never discerning there detail or the individual scenes meanings, not caring to observe what she was trying to show him. She didn't want him to die, and truthfully, to his astonishment he didn't either. But this machine had never been wrong with its predictions, his death was as in stone as those who where already dead, even at the cores illogical insistence that there had to be a way.
For all the cores processing power, attribute to the mundane and short life it'd lived as a human before actually becoming the core, it was unimaginative. Observing all the half-thoughts and plots it was coming up with, many of which he could see failing for the simplest of reasons and requiring an inhuman amount of finesse to pull off, they where devised from it's perspective, not from the perspective of human being.
That was the lot cast then, he had devised a plan and he would elucidate his companion. Would she like it? Would she hate it? She would love it, no matter how much pain and torment, how broad the warpath to be reaped, if it meant her beloved friend would live then it would be done. The machine god would play her role dutifully.
He'd resolved to forget how to doubt his decisions a millennia ago.
"Do you wish to wake up...?"
And a name he hadn't felt pass his lips in a millennia met the churning winds and roiling ocean.
Adiane's senses where assaulted by the bright pink room, and furnishing, and the reek of the alcohol she'd drenched herself in the night prior. Her mood truly afoul, but mind thankfully quiet compared to last nights gauntlet of thoughts. Clear enough to quite its anger in a magnificent shower, to scrub away so much the shame and embarrassment she felt. Everything that'd occurred the night before did not come rushing back or was hidden and obscured by some veil created by bad alcohol. As per His Majesties design, interactions with him would always remain crystal clear within a Beastman's head, perfectly stored and immutable for review. But looking back on the words they'd exchanged, the experience did assault her in a more personal way without booze to soften the blows.
The water was warm as it took away that foul smell.
The Spiral King had been kind to her. But she wouldn't go and say the man pitied her.
A predatory smile spread across her face. "Better then that" He'd shown her empathy.
And Empathy could be exploited, changed into other things.
It was all true, real, and raw, what she'd done and said the night before. She did know His Majesty enjoyed a stroll about The Castle District on nights of a full moon. And that recent construction, that had been postponed by a general wanting extra manpower to enhance her personal Dai-Gun, would funnel his majesty down particular paths and lead him to that gun battery. But what wasn't in the plan was Thymilph's death, or that she would even go to that place last night, she'd planned to go out, kill those human's and return with honor, and possibly meet his majesty on this coming nigh and receive his praise personally, steer the conversation and what was to be done that night down the path she wished it.
No, she'd been kicked off her Dai-Gun, on impulse, gone to that place and gotten herself plastered, knowing full well that she could've been killed by his majesty for any number of thing's she'd said and done in her drunkenness. Drunkenness brought on by illegal drink. It was only at the very end when she regained her wits, pretended to be surprised by the revelation that His Majesty preferred the drink she'd brought.
A few sentences and she had an invitation to the palace, she could only imagine what she'd have gotten if she hadn't been so caught up with Thymilph's death and that discomfort that'd found itself beneath her stomach. She took a sharp inhale and shut the water off.
"Is this how you will repay me, my dear General?"
If empathy was going to be the start of her path to The Spiral King's right hand, so be it. But she was still surprised that such a thing could be found in that man's heart. The Spiral King, the tyrant who has ruled the world with a bloody fist since he created it eons passed, responsible for the death of untold scores of beings, Human and Beastman, the man still had the capacity for empathy.
Stepping from the shower, drying herself with the pink fluffy towels about the bathroom.
"Bitch" that concubine who brought her here.
This whole place burnt the eye with how bright and vibrant and pink everything in it where. Taking the bathrobe, something that very much did not fit the generals figure, the thing tight in the shoulders in a way that felt like it was tailored for a child. The bunny embroidered upon the breast reinforcing the thought.
She grabbed a comb, slightly disgusted as she had to pick little knots of blue hair from its bristles and combed her own. She used the makeup articles upon the sinks rim to add some lip and shading where she thought she needed it, surprised to find her preferred products greeting her. It didn't take long before Adiane felt she looked one hundred percent again, and resolved that today she would not suffer the foolishness she had the night prior, even if it had turned out to be adventagous.
making sure her eye-patch was properly in place, she returned to the main room, the bedroom that one of his majesties wives had brought her too, smile remaining as she observed all the luxury.
The place was opulent, if a little sparse of decoration, and maybe a bit too old with some of its furniture. The room was upon the exterior wall as was the battery from last night, with a wall that was a window overlooking Teppelin's garden district on the main disk of the spiral. only looking out enough of a moment to catch where the sun hung in the sky, mid morning, a respectable time to make ones appearance and to great there host. But back to the room, It was pink, all so very pink, and with frilly girly things all about, dolls scattered seemingly to all corners of the place, dressers with yet more girly things atop, perfume, gaudy makeup she surely wouldn't dream of touching, hair brushes in similar states as the one she'd taken to the bathroom, and hand mirrors. It seemed a caricature of a paradise for some of young Beastwomen, built by someone who had a vacuous understanding of little girls. "It all seems so fake." For General Adiane the Elegant, this place hurt the eye for sure. "It's as if someone turned that loud mouthed princess into a room."
She again cursed the woman who'd brought her here last night.
Rolling her head, cracking her neck and knuckles and as many other parts she could, righting a crick in her tail from sleeping on her back last night, and glad she did not get another face full of that drink stink.
She realized then she'd missed something in the room, two things, a Cello she recognized to belong to The Princess, and one of the blue haired wives of Lordgenome sitting on the edge of the bed in the corner away from the window.
Adiane jumped like a Gunman had reeled back to strike her.
"General Adiane, His Majesty The Spiral King has summoned you to the Lunarium." her unblinking insectoid eyes showed nothing, Adiane knew quite a few Beastmen and Beastwoman with insectoid DNA, and often that it came with the physical inability to show much emotion. The voice as every time she had ever heard one of His Majesty's brides speak, was a monotonous string of words, seldom to be describe as a being actually talking. His majesty had his gamut of expressions and inflections, sneers, humphs, entertainment, and boredom. But not his brides, it was always nothing.
They where always so quite, the creepy women his majesty took to bed, Adiane contemplated yelling at the thing for her scare, but unsure truthfully who was above who on the food chain. recognizing that this woman was one of the eldest of the wives. "Is her time to go approaching or is his majesty fond of her to have kept her around for so long?"
Then Adiane saw the tears streaking down the woman's pale white face, and that she had in her hands an old raggedy doll.
It was the one of the twin blue haired wives, the one Adiane was sure to be Nia's mother.
"I'll need to get dressed, my clothing from last night..."
"You'll need to do only as you are commanded by His Majesty The Spiral King." The woman stood, placing the doll she'd been holding reverently upon the bed. "Great there's another one." The woman went to the door opposite the window, that which led into a hall of the palace proper, head not turning to look at Adiane, but something Adiane knew those eyes did not much require. She knew the brides where stiff beings, but the movements of this one particularly, everything she'd just seen from the woman, something obviously had happened.
"Bitch"
It, was human once, not a Beastthing at all, plucked from that beauty village his majesty frequented, trained in the manner befitting a concubine or wife or whatever word you wanted to use to describe this thing, and, if that then girl proves herself, is of a particular liking to His Majesty, He'll turn her into this thing, a hive minded, insectoid creature, a mind disseminated and synchronized with six other women, and, if she wanted to push what she personally believed, with Lordgenome himself.
What a great insult, these abomination, these things between, being chosen to bear The Spiral King's love and affection, and not a proud Beastwoman. Adiane chuckled at her little fantasy.
The elevator that would take them to the throne room was very close to the apartments. And the ride up was silent.
"Where is she?"
It'd somehow slipped her mind, all the obvious signs, that she in-fact had been boarded in the princess' room. The shock of seeing the other woman in the room unannounced throwing the fact she'd seen Nia's old Cello out of her mind for a moment. Eith as little like she had for the girl, her recitals had always been a fun little excursion. They always boosted moral with how much of the Beastmen population absolutely adored the girl. Adiane was not worried in the slightest though, Nia was the daughter of The Spiral King himself, literally no harm could come to her.
"Unfortunately"
She always smiled at you, but it did stop reaching her eyes a few weeks ago. Adiane's breath got caught in her throat. As annoying and insipid as the girl was, The General could only remember the girl beaming, be it at her tyrannical father, or any other who'd keep her company, and those who always found an excuse to get away from her or blow off plans.
Adiane quickly remembered how to breath.
She heard a hiss, and cold air met her wet skin and hair, the elevator platform rose from the floor of the room known as both His Majesties Throne Room and The Lunarium. A stray thought on why his majesty was rather inconsistent when it came to using his teleportation magic or conventional methods when it came to hosting his audiences.
He could've saved Thymilph if he wanted to, pluck any general from anywhere in the world.
Her nails dug into her palms, but she steadied herself immediately.
"Your Majesty, you did not need to retrieve me, I was just preparing to come and great you this morning..." as was expected of all who are invited to stay within The Spiral King's palace. "...and must I say it has been a privilege to be in your presence as oft as I have these last few days my liege."
"Truly..." This was the man she expected, bored with everything. Her escort, the blue haired wife left the elevator platform then, crossing the generous distance between them and the throne, seating herself at its bottom most step instead of closer to her husband.
Adiane saw His Majesties eyes flick to the woman for just a moment before his gaze returned to her.
"Adiane, I hereby strip you of the title of General and Warden of The Oceanic Theaters..."
Prologue End
"The Unique Cultures of Dai-Guns and there crews pt 1"
To be stationed upon one of the four general's Dai-Guns required a Beastman to be of a caliber of character and martial ability a step above the common soldier. To be the lite of the elite, strong in almost every aspect of there being, the flawless among His Majesties myriad creations. Specialization was still present though, not every Beastman on these ships could be a strategic genius, master of Gunmen combat, or aerospace engineer, true that they where usually a step above and could mesh and mingle and give aid in all these theaters, but Beastmen still often needed to find there niche during there first few weeks aboard these ships, lest there peer review be unfavorable.
As these ships where often marveled as some of the greatest machines ever built by The Spiral Kingdom, they where a great draw to those who liked to tinker, as these ships where the mobile bases and locus for one of The Spiral King's own generals it attracted would be aspirants to flex there minds at strategy, and as being stationed upon one guaranteed many more battles than standard patrols, it attracted the warriors. But, it was not always an even split between each ship, The General commanding them and even the ship itself would affect how many applicants, and of what specialization outlined above would apply for a post upon the ships. Guam, who was revered as an immortal strategist, his Dai-Gundo attracted like strategists, to be mentored by the old Armadilloman himself, the sheer birth of applicants who applied where predominantly strategists. While Cytomander's Dai-Gunten, the most ship in the fleet, would attract those of an engineering persuasion. Thymilph and his Dai-Gunzan, a Beastmen who was more legendary as a warrior than he was a general, he of course attracted a crew who wanted to stand beside the Gorilla on any front, fight as many battles, and bring as much glory to The Spiral Kingdom as possible, of course mostly warriors would come. And then there was Adiane and her Dai-Gunkai, possibly the only balanced ship of the four when it came to the
distribution of skill the skills, the unique environment that the ship found it in attracting the strategists, the unique make of the ship attracting the engineers, and the sheer size of the theater she was responsible for attracting the warriors, all with a much harsher environment to deal with.
The ships where either cripplingly unbalanced or of poor design when it actually came to there functionality.
The Dai-Gunzan was Viral's first post with the four generals, he'd been recognized by Thymilph himself for his combat prowess that the gorilla general both resigned Viral to his patrols of the far east theater as well as pulled a favor with Cytomander and gifted the blond Beastman a gunmen produced by Cytomander's renowned engineering corps, Enki.
Viral was surprised at what he saw on the Dai-Gun, a tightly knit bunch, oft huddled together come dinnertime, around an ignited fuel canister upon the main deck at night, eating and laughing and even drinking as they recounted war stories and honors passed. Camaraderie, something he'd rarely experienced during his patrols, as the makeup of units where often changed or a Beastman would simply be dispatched solo.
But there was another thing, an oddity he had not expected from any Beastmen this side of the last two centuries, and consistent with what seemed to be the majority of the crew. They read the Gnomic Bible, at the beginning of meals or at there end, or seeming whenever someone wished it, Viral would catch a Beastmen on break, studying the pages. And they weren't just editions found inside the first aide packs, no, many of these where of the expensive kind, well bound and with full replications of the images found within the original.
It, from what few experiences he'd gathered before being called into His Majesties service, was and old and dry tome. Never once had he heard of Beastmen willingly reading the thing, it'd actually been a punishment in his village for libel.
But here he was, watching someone recount the tale of how His Majesty created this world.
"...but then he learned of despair, the joining of Genome and his Godthing lover, the amalgam of the primordial forces A, L, G, and J, created no children, but demons. Evil swarming things that multiplied to fill and destroy any realm they inhabit. The Thinking Locusts, Mankind, was born of The Spiral Kings forbidden love, and it torments him eternally..."
Viral had choked on his food when he heard this, a fur covered Beastman smacking him on the back a few times to dislodge the clump of foodstuff. If his attention wasn't wrapped up in the story then, it surely was now.
"...she soon died, no knowing her children nature, and thinking her beloved could find happiness with them. As her own torment of a life grew to much to bear, she perished upon the moon. But he knew no joy from that day, or any day since, he knew Man would swarm to fill all the cosmos if left unchecked, and so, without his bride, he created children solely of himself, of J, Beastman, to control this dangerous population, in hopes of one day ridding the world of them and having The Spiral Queen return to the land of the living, to try again at creation..."
What he heard was quite possibly treason, but as he himself read these texts that night, confirmed they where written in all editions of the book.
"WHY THE FUCK DOES NO ONE READ THIS!"
No one read it because it was an old and dry and dusty thing, overstuffed with half ideas and contradictory notions, revelations like that where one in ten thousand lines of what he would still call drivel. There was truth to be had in the book, but the book itself obscured so much of it.