Chapter 4: Sliced Slaver Dinners
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The Batarians and their mercenary allies had settled in the centers of several of the seemingly abandoned cities of the planet they invaded. The architecture of those cities was in a normal euclidean design but in an alien aesthetic, it was the architecture of the Elder Things. Though instead of Elder Thing statues or artworks, there were statues of Shoggoths and their patron god, Nyarlathotep. Some of the Asari members in the yellow clad Eclipse mercenary gang were looking at the odd art styles of the city they were currently in. They had focused on the statues that were nearby their campfire and tents.
"Uh, how ugly these things are! Do the natives really look like this!?" said one Asari looking at a Shoggoth statue in disgust. A salarian took note of the statues in the city and and spoke his observations to the other mercenaries with him. "The creatures represented by many of the statues appear to be some sort of amorphous blobs with multiple eyes, mouths, and tentacles. Other statues however, appear to represent some sort of important figure to the blobs. A bas relief in one wall shows the blobs prostrating to the figure. The figure is hideous to look at, has many horrid features. Is this figure some sort of deity? I am disturbed by the imagination of the statue's artist." stated rapidly by the Salarian to his fellows.
Suddenly, the group of pirates and mercenaries heard what sounded like musical piping in the cold night air. The piping seemed to form words that said "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" The camp was put on alert with the armed pirates and mercenaries standing straight up and looking at their surroundings. Their various armored vehicles were activated and manned by pilots. The strange piping then died down. A loose stone fell down from a tower, making a loud noise on impact. The armed people aimed their guns in that direction and waited for any further sounds. There was none that followed so they focused away from that direction.
As they were moving away from that direction, something happened. In the middle of their camp, there was an explosion of blinding light. As the pirates and mercenaries were recovering from the temporary blindness, eight meter long monsters pounced at them from the shadows. They appeared to be the natives of this world, the Shoggoths. The Shoggoths were armed with claws, fangs, tentacles and other hidden things. A batarian was sliced in half by a bladed tentacle. A salarian was chomped on by a hungry mouth and swallowed. A tentacle wrapped around an asari and squeezed her hard enough to crush her bones. The armored vehicles were prioritized by the attacking forces, who destroyed all of them with beams of purple arcane energy or named by the shoggoths as Eldritch Strike.
The invading troops opened fire on the native beings with their weapons. Bits of flesh were torn off the hides of the creatures by supersonic projectiles, red ichor was spraying into the air, but it did little to help the invaders. The shoggoths had surrounded the invaders in the city that night. They had used the hidden underground passages to get into the city and now they unleashed their fury on the slavers and their allies. The shoggoths opened fire on the infantry with a volley of laser fire from their many eyes as well as torrents of corrosive fluids from their mouths. Most of the batarians and salarians troops were killed by the attack. They were dying due to pieces of their flesh exploding because the water in their cells were instantly vaporized from the intense heat of the lasers. Their bodies and armor were also being dissolved from the corrosive fluids.
The asari members of the Eclipse gang had better luck in the fight as they were able to raise biotic barriers to defend against the attacks. They now began to counterattack the shoggoths with their biotic abilities. An asari mercenary hiding behind a some rubble, threw a Singularity that pulled a shoggoth into the air before detonating it, tearing large chunks of flesh from the creature which screeched in great pain before it was killed by a salvo of rockets. Pulls, Throws, and Warps by the Asari were proving somewhat effective in keeping the shoggoths at bay. However, the beings had displayed the ability to quickly regenerate their health, provided they were not overwhelmed with damage.
The shoggoths were becoming wary of the biotics of the asari and so they quickly decided to unleash magic spells of their own upon their enemies. The formerly smug asari mercenaries widened their eyes in horror as a swarm of fireballs were thrown at them from all sides. They dodged as much as they could though the sheer number of fireballs scorched several of their members. Other things that were unleashed upon them were devouring plagues of unusual microbes which consumed the infected victim's body, as well as volleys of ten centimeter long, venomous spines, and even more eye laser attacks. Eventually, the group of invaders in this city and in the other occupied cities all died painfully. The victorious shoggoths however, quickly retreated to the underground passages as they knew the enemy would unleash orbital strikes against them soon.
The enemy fleet started blasting the land cities on Zanxir with orbital strikes once they learned of the death of all of their first wave of ground troops. After they were done with that, they sent even more troops to the surface, hoping to overwhelm the natives in a daytime battle. The pirates however, were unknowingly playing into the plan of the shoggoths. The shoggoths who had participated in the night assault, returned to each of their respective hidden mountain bases. The next day, they, together with the Turians, would attack the invaders again and wipe out as much of them as they can. The shoggoths knew that their fleet reinforcements were coming soon, and that they would finally destroy the slavers setting foot on their world.
Saren Arterius was in a guest room provided for him. It had a simple four legged bed with a mattress and a pillow, a green desk made out of some kind of solidified resin, a chair made out of the same substance as the desk, and a tall metal locker for storing weapons. There was also a small TV in the room for news. The room was lit by a bluish glowing bioluminescent sac suspended in the center of the room. Its light output was adjustable, allowing for brighter or dimmer levels of light in the room.
He and his unit had a fun ride to their housing structure, brought there by Greta and her companions. It seemed scary at first, but later it felt fun going at high speed over varying terrain. He and the rest of his unit had settled into their temporary accommodations. The turians were told to rest that night, and that they would participate in tomorrow's battle. The officers of the turian soldiers were given information regarding how the they would fight their enemies the next day.
There was still the danger of the enemy fleet in orbit but shoggoth fleet reinforcements would arrive here tomorrow afternoon. The enemy troops were still searching for any hidden settlements of the shoggoths. The enemy ground forces had camped out in large formations on the flat plains near the mountains that were housing the hidden military bases of the shoggoths.
The plan of attack was as following. First, the ground defenders of Zanxir, led by General Wizzian, would wait until the reinforcements from the Amorphous Navy would arrive in the system and engage the orbiting enemy fleet. Second, once the enemy fleet is unavailable in assisting their ground troops, the expert sorcerers among the defenders would cast a spell that would blanket the area the enemy ground forces were staying in a dense fog of darkness. Third, the defenders of Zanxir would attack the enemy troops in an all out assault. The defenders would capture some of the enemy officers alive, while most of the enemy troops would be killed if necessary. All in all, the plan sounded simple enough to do.
Saren had read the battleplans for next day and he felt it was good enough. He was thinking on what would happen next? After they would achieve victory against the slavers tomorrow, what will happen in the future? How will the rest of the galaxy react to these newcomers? Would they be accepted in the wider galactic community or not? Sure, they aren't so good looking but they seem friendly enough to be around. There is also the fact that according to the information provided to us by Greta, that states that the Shoggoth Empire controls 30% of the galaxy. That would mean they own more territory than the entirety of Citadel Council space. That would also mean that their armed forces would dwarf the combined armed forces of the Citadel races. Those were some of his thoughts Saren had.
Suddenly, the small TV was switched on automatically. Saren turned to look at the screen. The screen displayed an image of the inside of the military base he was staying in. The view then turned to a shoggoth who was holding a black microphone in his hand. He said, "Tonight, our brave soldiers took the fight to invaders. After a vicious battle in the cities occupied by our enemies, our soldiers achieved a great victory against the enemy. Our mighty troops had killed off the entirety of the first wave of enemy forces." Saren and other Turians looking at their TV were surprised by this announcement. The reporter quickly turned around and pointed to someone who was familiar to Saren and his unit. It was Greta! "Hello private, how did the assault on the foe went according to you?" said the reporter. "The attack went well enough. First, as we suddenly appeared in front of the slavers, we blasted apart the enemy armored vehicles with our magical attacks. Next, we took out the four eyed beings and horned ones permanently with our laser eyes and acidic fluids. The blue females however presented more of a challenge. Sadly, they were able to kill a few of us with their abilities. We then decided to unleash our own magical attacks on them, then they all died horribly." Greta showed videos of the fight she had recorded with her omnitool, to the reporter. She smiled and waved a clawed tentacle at the video camera. The view changed back to the reporter who was smiling as he spoke. "That is it for tonight viewers. Hopefully tomorrow, the defenders of the Shoggoth Empire will remove the invaders from this world and end this little skirmish." The TV turned off by itself after the reporter was done.
Saren was shocked by the sudden news broadcast. He thought about what Greta and her companions did. How they had accomplished this victory. He concluded that she and her team had definitely earned respect from him. Turians both on Zanxir's surface and in the fleet hiding behind the gas giant, had also viewed the news broadcast in surprise. They were thinking about how much damage the shoggoths were able to inflict on their foes, both in the space battle that had happened recently and this night attack on the enemy ground forces. They concluded that shoggoths should never ever be underestimated at all.