Episode 52- Where the tension is falling/ rising.
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This time, it wouldn't be so easy after all. The base was still in development, and rather in its early stages. For now, there was a rather sizable number of Barracks, Armories, and a lot of Supply Depots. It seems that the Admiral ordered a special precaution, so the Captain was making a safe development.
All the Marines, Firebats, Medics and partially Ghosts had full access when it came to repairing or replacing their equipment. Coupled with a very high production of ammunition for everyone.
Behind the bunkers of course were Siege Tanks in their Siege Mode, but their number would increase as soon as possible. Right about now, only one Factory was practically overworking itself trying to fill the demand, but it's comrades were already under construction.
The Dominum was sending one wave of enemies after another, steadily increasing in numbers and strength. UED (expedition forces) was sending reinforcements, one wave of Drop Ships after another. The accompanying Wraiths scared off any would-be aerial assaulters.
And in the middle of all of this was Jaruga, currently still on her foxy friend. Together they are standing on the star boat, steered by their friend/subordinate Mina. After defeating three ghosts, the new ones didn't show up. It didn't mean they stopped sending them out, oh no. They were intermingled with their comrades, using them as meatshields.
Because she was no sniper, and charging wouldn't work with this many enemies around, Jaruga had to think of a new strategy. "My current equipment wouldn't work over distances that big… Maybe a bombing run? But the boat isn't that sturdy either… Hmmm…" She looked at the whirling motors, then at the retreating Dropships, then into the distance with unseeing eyes, before an idea struck her. Mina was already filled with worry seeing her boss lady's growing grin.
Patience Dear held the pants for a moment, and then released them. As expected the pants were twice or thrice wider than her waist and just slid down without any problem. She looked at her… dad.
"Honestly, I'am spontaneous kind of guy, planning anything is usually outside the scope of my brain. At last the shirts don't fall down." They really didn't, but the adult to kid size ratio was very apparent. As an afterthought, someone packed a few spare shirts and pants on the wooden boat, but they were rather obviously for a not so small male specimen. There weren't even any belts or anything to tighten the fabric.
Currently, both Patience and Benni were wearing white shirts so big that they were reaching somewhere around the knees. A little surprisingly, the spare clothes were too big even for Dobromir, by a size or two.
"Living clothing could probably lead to some disaster, so I think you will need to wait until we reach some tailor. I already have specific clothing in mind…" He was eying the two of them up and down with a critical eye.
To the side sood the prisoner with her jailer, mostly too keep watch. She had two theories, something was wrong with Dobromir before he was infected, or after, just with the effects unseen at the first glance. She meant that he didn't cast any lustful gaze, or even looked a little longer than he should at the region he shouldn't be looking. The two freshly reborn had, surprisingly, the private parts associated with normal humans, so they definitely weren't just some infected… Anyway Dobromir didn't have a strong parental instinct, he… completely ignored what even a granny would look like.
But even then, the prisoner was determined to observe, just in case of… anything.
Barely five minutes passed before the overseer spoke up. "How long will this trek take?"
Stetmann looked over his shoulder at the somewhat irritated man. Seems it would be better to not agitate someone who sounded almost permanently angry. "Half an hour, I'am afraid. Usually we directly use the ships, so travel by land is a domain of a few separate individuals."
Scrooge seemed to mull something over in his head, before sighing. "Then update me about your 'experiments', I don't want this time to be entirely wasted."
"Right." Stemtann looked ahead, thinking about an abridged version. "So, the non alien experiments. We firstly thought about bringing the animals from earth here, on this green swampy planet. Then we thought about making them better so they would be even more adaptable to different environments. And after some furious debates, we decided on uplifting them altogether."
Ebenezer's face twitched a little, though no one saw that. "The idea of making them anthropomorphic was quickly scrapped, because adding human genes would just make everything messy, and the moral undertones…"
The last part Stetmann added in the last seconds, remembering the United Powers League (UED predecessor) 'divinity of mankind' philosophy. The hard crackdown on anything that 'degenerated human species' was very harsh. If not for the Doran Rothe, some part of the 'criminals' wouldn't be sent into space for the purpose of colonisation, and Koprulu sector would remain largely undiscovered to this time.
Anyway, "At the end of the day, we decided to just make them overall better, maintain the ability to reproduce, and accelerate the development of their upgraded brains. As of now, we have Boars fully developed as a race, and now the process of integration and increasing consciousness is underway. You saw me riding on the boar earlier, yes? It was actually a taxi service, created by boars. It's still in its beginning stages, but that is already a step in the right direction."
Karax, immersed in his projects of new structures and equipment, felt a familiar presence of a certain subordinate behind him. Without turning around, he asked "No critical errors occurred I hope?" He certainly wasn't expecting what came next.
After a second of silence, instead of a probe hovering in with a text, a youngish voice much closer to the ground replied "There is a certain… anomaly in some pylons."
Phase-smith turned around, and witnessed the little shrooms mouth closing. Also, was his subordinate looking more radiant than usual? "Elaborate please."
The little clone of their unexpected ally looked at Vella for a moment, then back at him and said "A few of our pylons started emitting an unexpected mix of both Khala and Void energies. The only explanations I have are their short proximity to Uraj and Khalis Khaydarin crystals."
"And speaking to me is…"
"Me." Replied the little shroom, when at the same time Vella pointed at herself with a thumb. "Apparently, our new friend is more than just a Terran." When the little one was relying on her message, she turned her head to the side, showing her somewhat see through mycelia imitating a protoss nerve cords.
"How… No, it doesn't matter. It's not my area of expertise." He turned away, returning to his plans and trying to focus on the more crucial matters. "Perform a comprehensive research on those pylons, we will bring it to someone's attention later. It probably will be the young executor Artanis."
The little shroom looked at her and grinned. Vella Glan would probably return the gesture, if she had a mouth that is.
"Are you realllyyyy sureee?"
"Yes, I am certain that I wouldn't be able to remain stable after flipping the whole boat upside down!"
"Oh fine, we will do it the boring way then." And with that, Jaruga went over to 'enchant' the rotors. Whatever she meant, Mina was glad that her adamant stand was working. Despite having Some magic, remaining glued upside down would certainly cause all the blood to rush to her head, and there was no countermeasures against that.
The ghosts guarded by the foot forces were a problem, but her boss was nothing if not full of imagination. After a few calm seconds, the rotors going somewhat reisurly suddenly burst into flames! Mina quickly steered her speedy boat to the right course, and Jaruga leaned over the left side, awaiting her target.
The small boat leaving four blazing countrails behind it certainly was seen, but at the same time too quick to be hit by the few bullets and rockets. The ship wasn't on fire, it was just her boss de magick's caused the rotors to run on flames, quite literally.
With Miko wrapping both of her tails around Jaruga's waist, her boss lady leaned rather dangerously over, took a deeeep breath… And promptly exhaled a great cone of flame towards the advancing group, burning a few soldiers and most importantly, hitting dead on the Ghost.
The poor sod in question dropped to the ground and started screaming his fool head off as his whole being burned, both inside and outside. His comrades rather quickly turned to ash, but not him, oh no. His world turned into every color of rainbow, and the pain in his dictionary gained a new subcategory.
The rest of the troop tried to shoot the small boat, but it already blazed past them and away, their target down. Jaruga was almost falling over the railing, with Miko trying to pull her back in. Mina, on the other hand tried to hold on to the steering wheel as the boat, for some abysmal reason, sped up even more. It would be really hard to control this thing.
Despite her hesitancy, and surprisingly weakening revulsion, the prisoner gripped the concealed zipper hidden by an additional flap of synthetic cloth, and dragged it down to her belly button, resulting in a rather tempting look. Her great assets attracted almost every pair of eyes present.
She did it for a reason, and she felt somewhat relieved about the results. And maybe also a little bit worried. Both the two shortstacks and her jailer looked exactly where she expected a typical male's eyes to land. But most importantly, Dobromir just looked straight into her eyes, one eyebrow raised.
"I knew it!" She shouted, thrusting one of her hands forward, finger pointed at him. "There is something wrong with you!" The other females in the room just followed the jiggle with their eyes. Didn't they look a little TOO interested?
Dobromir, on the other hand, just rolled his eyes. "Eureka! You noticed! Let me tell you, there is more wrong with me than just something. And let me tell you something more! Even I don't know if their gazes are filled with envy or lust? Maybe both?" He just threw his arms up and waved himself off. "I'll go supervise the journey, please stop stating the dead obvious, or else I will doubt your intelligence."
Gulping a little under the intense stares, she zipped her suit closed again. Problem was, she couldn't find a quiet corner to die of embarrassment, because duh, there was someone chained with her together.
"The domesticated cats are our next subject closest to already are bigger, and more adaptable to many different environments. Our last step is making them fully able to reproduce naturally, and then other hands guide them forward."
The overseer was looking at the menagerie of animals, all of them mammals. What's more, all of them were easily recognizable as the ones from earth. "Frankly speaking, where are the other, alien species?"
Stetmann looked at him for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders. "The only exotic species we have are the few hybrids that are stable, but at the same time are sterile. When our ancestors arrived on this planet, there were only marshes without trees. Just muddy earth with grass and nothing more. We planted the trees, added other plants and a mass of flowers together with insects. There were no animals here, and frankly speaking the novelty of alien non sapient life forms quickly faded away. Compared to fauna from Earth, they were nothing."
"Hmmm…" Ebenezer continued looking at the animals a little longer, his mind adding more lines to the detailed report he would have to write.
The two earthed mages were, of course, fascinated with looking at the bigger, more impressive sights compared to the ones back home. The soldiers' faces were unreadable, probably because of those helmets they were wearing.
Stetmann was politely waiting for the overseer to continue, Trixie pulled out her tablet some time ago and was amusing herself with it. And Nahida… outside of the earth's people's sight, was quietly conversing with a cat. And there were some great tidbits of trivia about daily life to be had…
"I find this… acceptable. You aren't affecting humans with this, and the changers aren't atrocious." His face loosened, if only a little. But still, work to be done. "Anyway, I came here for different reasons, so lead me to the alien research facility."
Vella strode towards the increasingly familiar presence, meeting her… saviour? Not exactly. Leader? Not really… Friend? Almost. A shroom-terran hybrid? Yeah, sounds about right. Zimowit was leaning over his latest work from the replicator. Walking over, she could see that the golden 'bones' were even smaller than the ones made earlier, which meant… Wit reaches somewhere to male's protoss waist. His first creation is half of Wit's height, and the newer one seemed to be half of that. So, rather tiny.
Not turning around, her friend exclaimed "I barely had any occasions to gather the spores at all. Most zerg were too far, or too obliterated." And for the finishing touches, They dropped the meager amount They gathered and turned around, facing her. "That said, considering the size difference, it will take much longer for everything to become as it should be. So, let me ask you a question. "Why is the Protoss arsenal so devoid of ranged weapons, besides the poor glaive thrower?"
"Those damned traditions, of course." She thought out, and a second later "Those damned traditions, of course." was echoed. She looked at her small companion.
"Just practice sending your thoughts in only one direction. Treat it as useful practice."
Nodding, she continued, properly. "Protoss despise ranged weapons, but they know it is necessary, that's why they have created exoskeletons and robots. But you still wouldn't find any protoss using one."
Wit noted it down in his mind, before asking an important question. "You they, instead of we. Any particular reason?"
Her eyes blazed a little at the question. That was the sign of some emotion. Was it anger, or bitterness? "Without Khala, one can't really be a protoss. Or should I say, without nerve cords. Even Nerazim get along with each other just fine. Me? I can be glad that they decided against killing me from the start. But that didn't mean I was accepted, just… tolerated. And it is in no small part by those traditions."
Author's mumblings:
Patience dear & Benni Zali are faction leaders I created in Age of Wonders 4. Patience was Feudal/pure good. And Benni was High/and chosen uniters. Rather similar, but you know, good goblins and those 'ancient wise ones' halflings.
And I thought up a different name for the protoss female, but forgot it. So Keira's shout while casting a spell it is.