Chapter 33(OB)
Having recovered from the near blasphemy, Jen, Seth and Z8C talked more generally about things, just catching up on gossip. Z8C clearly needed sleep, but he was making what time he could with them as he might not get to talk to them again for a long time.
What Jen and Seth learned was disturbing. Every adult man on the planet was trying to cough up 50000 credits to buy a 679 line wife. Those who could not afford one were borrowing money from local loan sharks, loans with gruesomely high interest rates that would make debts that their children and grandchildren might be paying off for generations. Not all the power grid owners during the air wars had been as generous with the share of the profits as Seth had been, and some people were little more than slaves to a rising class of power grid owning drug lords.
Without meaning to, Seth was now a member of the new upper class known colloquially in the local slang as the "Air Dukes" or just "Dukes" powerful land owners who had survived the air wars with their holdings intact and now had a gang of followers working their lands for them like subjects or vassals. The planet's entire social system had been transformed in a few short months from the air wars, and was now a much more inequality filled place.
Wsuioo acting through Colonel A1A as their agent had fortified the entire space port and surrounding settlements and industries. Air defence towers were now set up everywhere, razor wire fences controlled movement around the entire area, and the mouths of the two bay's to the north and south of the space port had patrol boats inspecting every boat. It was just fortunate that the Wsuians needed the drugs to keep flowing into the space port to make money, otherwise the entire planet would go bankrupt.
The Wsuians had done more than just rob the planet blind prior to the air wars to just sell to send the money straight to Wsuioo for nothing. They had also taken about half of the money made from the looting, and had used it to order a contingent of female 1 line worker models from Wsuioo to provide an instant workforce of highly trained slaves.
According to Z8C, the Wsuian Colonel had very quickly gotten his men to find proof of 1D8V-44 Governor Jacob Stone's direct involvement in the illegal drug trade of 1D8V-44, and Colonel A1A had not hesitated to use this information to blackmail the Governor. The Colonel had threatened to share his evidence with both the Adeptus Arbites and the Inquisition, which would earn the death penalty for the Governor, unless the Governor "cooperated" with everything Colonel A1A asked of him.
With the Governor metaphorically gotten by the balls, the Wsuians could do almost anything they liked with the planet so long as they hid what they were up to from the handful of Commissars attached to the regiment. Jen could only pray that the Commissars got wise, they alone could depose the Colonel now.
In addition to subtly controlling 1D8V-44 Government policy and tax spending, the Wsuians now also got a huge cut of the profits from every drug export out of the space port, making millions of credits. This money was being primarily used to order more 1 line workers from Wsuioo to steadily build up the local industrial workforce.
The areas around the twin bays of the space port were now flooding with more and more 1 line workers, turbocharging the local industry in the process. New factories were being set up everywhere, with 1 line workers manning them. The blimps had all been made by 1 line workers in some of these factories.
The original locals in these settlements were not free to move around anymore, with mandatory inspections of houses at random, mandatory curfews, and an endless maze of fences and guarded gates restricting where they could go. What Z8C described was almost like a concentration camp, it sounded horrible. According to Z8C the fenced off areas hid a massive new research facility for studying the success of the 679 line, hidden among a gargantuan industrial complex staffed by a slave labor force of 1 line worker models.
Z8C was one of the only civilians with freedom to access all the fenced off areas. In the absence of an S99 line officer, a planet's resident S41 like Z8C would be placed in temporary authority over all Wsuian forces on the planet until Wsuioo could scramble new S99's to take over. An S41 was ranked just below a lieutenant in the Wsuian chain of command, just below the rank of the lowest ranking S99's but just higher in rank than any of the other lines, and could technically command the obedience of any Wsuian line below his rank, exactly like an S99 could.
Z8C was the chief civilian officer on the planet, given authority and responsibility over all Wsuian civilian trade and commerce on 1D8V-44, and that made him uniquely placed to know things that no one else knew. Fortunately for 1D8V-44, Z8C also had at least the beginnings of a conscience, he was still bound by his programming to obey Wsuioo without question, but he was willing to bend the rules as much as his programming allowed, to do what he felt was the ethical thing to do.
It was this spark of goodness and humanity that compelled him to warn Seth and Jen as honestly as possible about everything he knew, to warn them about something he had ethical problems with. It was evidence that no matter how genetically engineered he was, Z8C was still human.
What he described was 1D8V-44 being rapidly transformed into a lab experiment, under the guise of military operations against the eldar. It was disturbing but at least the population was being relatively well treated by Wsuian standards. The 1 line workers were being used as slave labor wherever possible rather than the locals, and the locals were at least being fed. It could be a hell of a lot worse.
***...
Jen did not sleep easily that night when Z8C finally stopped talking, she had learned some truly disturbing things. Her sleep was troubled with dreams as soon as she fell asleep, dreams of dark things.
The dreams went on for some time as a confused unrelated jumble, the way most dreams are, but then the dreams suddenly changed. She felt like an outsider was invading her mind, filling it with clarity.
Jen was standing in the infant oxygen tent, looking down at her own sleeping body. Her standing body was ghostly and insubstantial, but her sleeping body looked real. The level of detail in the dream was astonishing, like real life rather than a dream, like nothing she had ever dreamed before.
Beside her in the tent stood the ghostly bodies of Seth and Z8C, both of them looking down at their own sleeping bodies, looking as astonished as Jen felt.
"This is a weird dream," the ghostly Seth said.
"I thought I was the one dreaming husband," Jen told the ghost.
"I am the only one dreaming," the ghost of Z8C said with a voice of certainty.
"You are all dreaming, but not a mere dream," said a very strange female voice.
Jen and the others looked around the dark shed for the voice, their own ghostly bodies glowing with a soft blue light. They saw no other speaker, but noticed a faint blue glow growing outside the shed door. The light got brighter until a 4th ghostly person floated gracefully through the shed door, moving slowly towards them.
It was obviously an eldar, and a woman of their kind judging by the outline of breasts in her chest plate and judging by her ghostly face. She wore no mask over her face, but her ghostly form did not seem to need to breathe. She floated in the air in a strange attire cladding her tall slender body, and had strange glowing eldar symbols floating around her in angled orbits.
She was unarmed, and slowed to a stop a meter before reaching the tent. She then just hung floating in the air, but she still made slight movements of her posture and limbs to show that she was alert.
Jen, Seth, and Z8C all gawked at the strange ghostly eldar, unsure what to do, when the ghostly eldar woman spoke.
"I am Farseer Aliriel of Craftworld Iyanden, one of what you call the Eldar, and I have grave need to speak to all 3 of you. I have traveled far to combat a great and growing threat to both our races, and have used my psychic powers to link all our minds in this dream." The eldar woman said.
All 3 humans exclaimed in panic at the mention of an alien using psychic powers on them, but the eldar didn't move, merely waiting patiently for them to compose themselves before continuing.
"Why talk to us?" Seth asked.
"Because you 3 are but a few among the sanest people left on the planet with the power to help me stop the coming doom, you 3 are not the only ones I will speak to in dreams, all actors must play their part," Aliriel said gravely.
"What doom?" Seth asked.
"The doom that ends with Wsuioo controlling the entire Imperium of Man and obliterating the Craftworlds. The doom of the 679 line wives if they spread across the Imperium," Aliriel said enigmatically.
"Explain, explain what you mean," Seth demanded.
"The 679 line wife model is far more sinister in its intentions than merely making money. The 679 line was deliberately intended to, how can I put this bluntly... fuck the entire natural human race out of existence until all humans are Wsuian 679's." Aliriel began.
"The 679 line is unlike other Wsuian lines, in that the artificial genes cannot be bred out over the generations. Other Wsuian lines dilute over time if they are allowed to breed with normal humans, until the genes are bred out, but not so the 679 line."
"The 679 line stores all artificial genes on separate additional chromosomes, chromosomes specifically designed to carry on unaltered from generation to generation, duplicating extra copies of themselves in every gamete cell to ensure that the genes are never lost no matter how many generations of breeding it goes through."
"Hidden within these artificial genes is a secret control gene that can only be activated by a very specifically designed virus, a virus that Wsuioo has made huge stockpiles of. When Wsuioo eventually releases this virus, all 679 line descendants of any gender will become unquestionably obedient to S99 line officers."
"That's not true! I know all the genes of the lines I sell!" Z8C interrupted.
"You were not shown the incomplete genes, these control genes are incomplete without the virus to complete the gene code sequence. They are designed to appear like unused junk DNA in the sequence, and look innocent without the rest of the code provided by the virus. The S41 line salesmen were not informed of the secret control genes because the S41 line are capable of ethical agency and might warn people."
"But the 679 line is so expensive, how will the majority of the Imperium breed with them, rich fathers won't let their daughters marry poor people?" Seth asked.
"The sons of 679 line wives carry the same chromosomes as the daughters, merely inactive because of the Y chromosome. The sons of the rich are not above having sex with low born whores and vulnerable low born female servants. Some of these low born women will get pregnant by sexually promiscuous high born men, and their children will breed with the low born population."
"It will take many generations, but 1000 years from now the majority of the human race will carry 679 line artificial chromosomes, including over half of the High Lords of Terra. Wsuioo is thinking long term, and will not release the virus until 1000 years from now. When they do release the virus, the entire Imperium of Man will fall under their control, perfectly united as obedient slaves, and will finally have the perfect unity necessary to completely conquer the galaxy of all other sentient life. It will be the end of all life worth living." Aliriel explained gravely.
Jen felt sick, completely and utterly sick. That was the sickest thing she had ever heard, and this was exactly the sort of thing that Wsuioo would do. The entire human race united in slavery to the sociopathic S99's! It would be the very definition of hell!
"A claim of this magnitude requires proof. We have only your word so far. This might be a trick, you Eldar are invading 1D8V-44, how do we know that you are not merely sowing discord to weaken the Imperial war effort?" Z8C asked suspiciously.
"Take a look at the junctions between the genes, look for stop codes in the gene sequences that lack corresponding start codes. The virus contains the beginning sequences of these incomplete genes including the start codes, look for palindrome sites in the code, that is where the virus will insert the missing section of code. Look for the specific locations of the palindromes and decide for yourself what it looks like," Aliriel said plainly.
"I will look at the codes when I have the time, but I still don't trust you," Z8C said with slight hostility.
"Assuming that what you are saying is true, what do you expect us to do with it?" Seth asked.
"You are but small actors in a much larger act. The situation will not be solved here, but will be solved in hundreds of different places including 1D8V-44, millions of actors must play their parts together to stop this distant doom. What you must do is complicated, and will require many dreams over the coming years to explain your role one day at a time." Aliriel began.
"Hold on, let's back up a bit here. You eldar invaded 1D8V-44, you stole from us, people, innocent people, died because of the theft of food supplies. You were the ones who brought the Wsuians here in the first place. And you want OUR help?!" Seth demanded incredulously.
"The eldar who invaded you are pirates, members of the Sunblitz Brotherhood. I am not of the Sunblitz Brotherhood, I am a Farseer of Craftworld Iyanden, a separate faction. I am not responsible for the actions of the Sunblitz Brotherhood," Aliriel protested defensively.
"Call them off, make them leave, and maybe I will trust you," Seth demanded.
"Craftworld Iyanden is already in dialogue with the Sunblitz Brotherhood, urging them to disengage from the robbing of civilians. The pirate princes of the Sunblitz Brotherhood are in the process of agreeing on the size of the bribe Craftworld Iyanden must pay them in compensation for ceasing all theft of civilian property." Aliriel assured them.
"Will they leave the planet?" Seth asked hopefully.
"No, they will continue to engage the Wsuian forces on the planet, as part of a coalition of Eldar forces to stop what they plan to do. The civilians will be left alone, but the Wsuians must be eradicated from the planet to end the threat of the 679 line," Aliriel said gravely.
"Wait, please I must speak! I am a 679 line wife model, and my son carries my artificial chromosomes. Do you plan to kill my son and I? What will happen to my sister 679 line wives?" Jen interrupted, unable to contain herself any longer.
The ghostly eldar gazed at Jen, with a look of deep pity on her face. That look of pity made Jen's heart fill with dread.
"Poor child, you are so young and so innocent. You did not ask to be what you are, and you mean well in all that you do. I would not have you suffer," Aliriel began with deep pity in her voice.
"Oh fuck that! I am not going to let you kill my wife and child!" Seth shouted at Aliriel.
"The entire human race will be reduced to slavery if the 679 line is allowed to spread, quadrillions of lives will be enslaved for the rest of time, slavery until the stars themselves burn out! You must see the bigger picture here, this is a catastrophic threat to the entire galaxy!" Aliriel insisted passionately.
"Yeah, fuck that. No one is killing Jen or my son. 679 line wives are the most gentle and good natured women in existence, only a monster would harm them. I will fight to protect these innocent women you xenos monster!" Seth shouted angrily.
"They are deliberately designed to be endearing to make their husbands emotionally invested in them, to make their seed spread as easily as possible. This gentle natured girl is a deadly trap, designed to enslave the entire human race," Aliriel insisted.
"A thousand years from now! I am not going to kill my wife and child for the sake of events a thousand years into the future. You can go get fucked! I will fight to protect her, I will DIE to protect her!" Seth yelled at Aliriel.
"Foolish creature! I could fry your brain right now if I wished, kill all 3 of you right now if I decided to! You will listen to what I have to say, or you will all die in your sleep right now!" Aliriel yelled angrily in response.
"If you wanted to kill Jen, then why didn't you kill her already?" Z8C butted in suspiciously.
"Because I still need her alive for the time being to help stop this growing doom..." Aliriel began.
An evil distorted daemonic titter echoed through the dream, and a sense of the most cold and palpable evil filled Jen's already numb heart.
"TigerLily... Be gone foul abomination!" Aliriel demanded.
A slow clapping sound filled the air, and something absolutely huge slowly materialised in the shed in the dream, clapping it's hands mockingly. Jen, Seth and Z8C all recoiled in horror at the foul abomination that had just materialised.
The thing was like a cross between a human and a bird, with mighty blue feathered wings, human like blue feathered arms, long bird legs, but with a blue skinned human woman's face at the end of a long feathered birdlike neck. The thing had a human shaped torso, clad in white shimmering linen robes bedecked in blasphemous symbols of the foul chaos god Tzeentch, a feminine torso with the outline of very large breasts under the robes.
"Hold your applause, I know I am awesome to behold," the daemon, for daemon it obviously was, said mockingly, giving an elegant curtsy theatrically as it did so.
"Be gone foul deceiver!" Aliriel demanded.
"You want a husband to let his own wife and child be killed, yet I am a bad girl for just showing up? I think that you are the monster here not me," the daemon spoke.
"What the hell is this!?" Seth demanded.
"Do not speak to the daemon, she has manipulated billions to their deaths!" Aliriel warned frantically.
"Billions of Khorne worshippers you mean? Does killing murderers even count as murder?" The daemon tittered mockingly.
"What about the atrocities committed on the hive world of Mia Rho? What about the Hapela Theta Rho campaign? What about the obliteration of Beta Kyoto Epsilon?" You have killed more than just Khorne followers you deceitful creature.
"Well yes, those particular wars were maybe not so much targeting Khorne troglodytes, but how many wars have you yourself fought in? How many billions have you killed with your foul little schemes? You are the one asking husbands to kill their wives, not me," the daemon tittered mockingly.
"Be gone abomination!" Aliriel insisted.
"Nope, I'm staying put little psyker. You can go if you wish but I am having a little chat with these nice people," the daemon said mockingly.
"I would very much like to wake up from this dream right now," Jen said fearfully.
"Without my protection you will not live out the day little one. This Eldar witch would kill you now if I was not even now blocking her from attacking your mind. Unlike this Eldar sociopath, I will not ask your husband to kill you. My whole family is on it's way to protect you little ones from harm, Wsuians must stick together after all," the daemon tittered affectionately.
"Do not listen to her! Tzeentch daemons lie!" Aliriel pleaded.
Jen and Seth ignored Aliriel and tuned her out as white noise, focusing solely on the daemon now.
"Who are you?" Seth asked.
"My name is TigerLily Sevenson, Daemon Princess of Tzeentch and daughter-in-law of the lovely daemon princess MA7 the 1 line worker model turned daemon princess whom little Jen has already heard of. Back when I was mortal, I was married to a Wsuian hybrid, part 1 line worker and part natural human, this man is the son of MA7, born back before she ascended to daemonhood, her oldest surviving son Luke Sevenson. Back when I was mortal, my husband Luke got me pregnant with 13 wonderful little babies, children that are now threatened by what this eldar psychopath plans to do!" The daemon said with surprising feeling.
Jen shuddered fearfully at the mention of the spawn of MA7, if they were coming HERE then everyone was doomed!
"How does her plan affect your kids?" Seth asked.
"The morally bankrupt Farseer Aliriel plans to not only wipe out the 679 line, but to wipe out ALL Wsuians everywhere, all lines and all hybrids. I ascended to daemonhood quite recently, and I gave birth to my youngest child mere months before I ascended to daemonhood, a little girl named Lotus. Lotus is not yet 5 years old. My children have Wsuian genes from their father Luke, and they will die if this evil bitch isn't stopped!" TigerLily said hatefully.
Seth exclaimed in outrage, and even Z8C gasped at these words. Jen felt absolutely sick, even more so than before.
"Is this true?" Z8C asked Aliriel coldly.
"I have no choice, it's the only way to be sure of stopping this doom! Your deaths will all be quick and painless, you won't suffer," Aliriel said adamantly.
"Get out of our dreams eldar witch, and if I ever meet you, I will kill you myself!" Seth spat venomously.
"You must not listen to the daemon! She is utterly evil! She will damn you all!" Aliriel begged them.
The mention of damnation made the 3 humans pause, this was a daemon after all, and daemons damned people, everyone knew this.
"Well I certainly don't claim to be a saint, I have done a lot of morally questionable stuff I agree, but you are trying to kill my KIDS! Even a daemon of Tzeentch will not tolerate someone trying to murder her babies, you loathsome bitch!" TigerLily said hatefully.
"HOW is the Eldar witch going to kill us all?" Z8C asked sternly.
"She and many of her fellow schemers wish to manipulate millions of Wsuians into carrying out a massive ritual designed to mark their entire genetically engineered ethnic group with a psychic marker to let daemons of Malal the god of destruction materialise around them at any time to kill them! Wsuians won't be safe anywhere if these Eldar succeed, no more than you can flee your own shadow!" TigerLily explained passionately.
"Is this true?" Z8C asked Aliriel dangerously.
"It sounds worse than it is, but yes, it is true. Your deaths will be very quick, you won't suffer, and the galaxy will be safe forever from the Wsuian threat!" Aliriel said adamantly, apparently thinking her plan was reasonable.
"Mark my word Aliriel, I am going to personally take your soul, and deliver it to my mother-in-law MA7 the daemon princess of Slaanesh. Even if it takes a thousand years, I will get you to MA7, and she will find an afterlife fitting of a creature like you!" TigerLily promised with terrible certainty.
Aliriel screamed in terror at this promise and fled from the dream, flashing out of existence in the dream.
"Come back here you evil bitch! I will find you you monster!" TigerLily screamed with hatred and vanished too.
Jen suddenly awoke screaming, and found Seth and Z8C doing the same.
"Did you dream the same dream?" Jen asked them terrified.
"About the daemon and the Eldar witch?" Seth asked fearfully.
Jen nodded numbly.
"Aliriel and TigerLily?" Z8C asked her.
"Oh Emperor yes, that horrible Eldar witch and that big blue bird daemon! I dreamed it too!" Jen exclaimed fearfully.
"Holy fuck that dream was real! I never want to sleep again!" Seth exclaimed going pale.
"The spawn of MA7 are on their way HERE! That's even worse than Eldar pirates! I must warn the S99's at once!" Z8C exclaimed.
Jen wept with fear, and Seth held her comfortingly. The chaos worshipping Wsuians loyal to MA7 were on their way to 1D8V-44! Emperor preserve us all!
***...