Episode 50- Where more or less things happen…
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"What was it called again…? Kane's peace, if I remember correctly. It calms most animals, though I hope it helps anyway." Dobromir was looking at one of the pod's occupants, which was thrashing inside its rebirth chamber.
The problem with zerg was that none of them cared about pain, so if something wasn't going exactly right… Well, there is a reason Abathur was kind of necessary evil. None bothered with making the infection process smoother, or easier, or painless, or bearable.
"What were the words… Gah, can't remember right now. Okay, focus, the meaning, meaning will guide your path. First, Kane obviously. The second, dream…? No, it was Peace. And the last one… Trust. Now, it sounded like…"
He started thinking, his mind kicking into overdrive. After a minute, he bent over the pod, and instead of shouting, whispered "kaan, drem ov". The figure inside the pod calmed down, again becoming a barely visible outline among all that fluid.
Jaruga looked at the clothing in her hands, then at the Kontusz, then at the new clothing again, and just scrunched up her face. When it came to making for herself a new Hazard Environment Suit from the replicator, there was a fully expected outcome, as in more or less a perfect copy. Jaruga gladly shrugged off the old one, which still had a hole burned in the back, and put the new one on.
But when it came to the finer cloth… what she got from the Po'Midor's craftsman was leagues beyond. Bah, the patch she used to sew the hole shut was of higher quality than this thing. The fabric was just… just god damn awful. The only cloth the replicator was capable of producing was that scratchy, and hard military one.
Welp, beyond that, she was all set. Alcohol was beyond her reach, but there should be somewhere a motherlode of sweet and sugary drinks, right?
Miko sighed with pleasure. The human that was lucky enough to brush her fur was doing that with great enthusiasm. As it continued for some time, the female called over her friends.
Right now, the Giant Orange & White two tailed fox was sitting on her haunches, front paws holding her upright. With all the majesty, the Mighty Fox had her fur brushed, claws polished, teeth washed, and ears scratched.
Even if the gaggle of the females were obviously very giddy with their task, and somewhat overexcited, Miko didn't hold it against them. It was very hard to remain calm when basking in her Majestic Presence, after all.
If only Wit's new friend, Vella Glan, was one of the warriors on the front. She would receive the protoss equivalent of open broadcast, and Wit could listen in through the mycelia connected to her undeveloped nerve cords.
Alas, Wit had to wait for Artanis to finish his own communications. "High Matriarch Raszagal… is becoming bloodthirsty? Anyway, I will carry Uraj, Zeratul will carry Khalis. Our forces will have separate bases, but will meet in the middle to protect the temple. My friend, I hope you will join us?"
Standing Wit, with neck craned high to meet Artanis's eyes, replied "But of course." Now, protection of the temple huh… From what They observed of the protoss, defense meant just stationing forces in one place, and eventually warping a few photo cannons. It failed to his shoulders to give this hopeless race at last a glimpse of proper defense, even if it could never hold a candle to Terran's superior one.
Upon the return of the Smothership all the groups slowly dispersed. The ship itself went to restock on the ammo. The earth magical duo quickly opened a portal and jumped through it. The Rider's went away to get some rest. The two Po'Midorian leaders left for their home, citing the 'very busy people' card. The orphanage matron gave a few key words to Stetmann before leaving.
That pretty much left just the two of the triplets, their older sister, the leader of the Technical Research division, and the girl who just returned to the conscious world a few hours earlier.
"Sooo… time to rest." Said Stetmann, putting his hands above his head and stretching. Trixie yawned loudly, Ixie tried to keep her eyes open and Pixie was already snoring propped by her two sisters. "If you want it, Orphanage still has some space for newcomers, including you."
"If Trixie wants to be honest, that's probably the best option. Optionally, I have some space in my tent, or you could join the triplets. The last one I strongly advise against, they need their personal space rather urgently."
Nahida looked at their tired faces, and slumped postures. She considered the propositions only for a few seconds but… looking around, a rather sizable field of green was extending from the city outskirts to the forest. A comfortable space. "Can I just… stay here? I don't need more than grass, to tell the truth."
Stetmann looked at her, then around, and then just shrugged his shoulders. "If you don't wander off too far, we will see each other tomorrow then. See ya." And he wandered off.
Ixie put her comatose sister on Marshmallow's back, just to climb on Rufus herself. And off they went, deep into the forest.
"If you want to contact someone, Trixie will be in the tent over there. Trixie also has the greatest network of connections, so Trixie can also share a lot of information." With a wave, she went her way too.
Nahida waited for a moment, to let the others fade into the distance. Afterwards. she floated a little upwards, creating a green, glowing swing suspended in mid air. She started swaying a little, watching the city. In the night, some street light's remained, though most of them had smaller intensity, so the citizens could sleep in peace. She had a great many things to ponder, and it wasn't really like she Needed sleep. It was just nice to dream and rest usually, but not in this case.
"It's done, commander. I finally finished making the Defensive Wall Lettice." Dobromir looked up from the pods, and walked over to .
"Show me. I anticipated this moment for a long time." The other infected just pointed at the bulging part of a wall. Taking the axe off his back, Dobromir took a swing, and cut about halfway in, before his weapon got stuck. Tugging it didn't give any results, so he just tensed up, and ripped his axe off with a mighty pull. The wall instantly started knitting itself together, in a few minutes it would be like nothing happened.
"I like it. How would it fare against Siege Tank fire though? Or Dragons plasma ball?"
"It all depends on the thickness, Commander. This wall could be up thick enough to just shrug off Ultralisk's attack, though to reach that level would require a lot of material. Zerg's attacks should be mostly ineffective. Terran's, it depends on the size. And Protoss, Reaver's are just terrifying, same as the dark templar. Not much I can do against that without more information. And tests, lots of test's."
"I approve." Dobromir walked towards him and patted his shoulder. "Now, try to make it look metallic, and then coat the whole outside of the command center." 's grin vanished rather quickly. The amount of work needed to reinforce everything…
Dobromir saw that, and already had a response. "That's your new quest. Make it so you don't need to oversee it personally. Program it, link to some tiny sapience or something. You can't be everywhere at once, same as me. It would be prudent for our defence to be self-deployable."
Now to return to the pods… His zergling leader was going through major rearrangement of all her bonds, muscles and other things, though it remained painless. The tormented soul, on the other hand… The infection was leading an all out war against the rapidly degrading cells of the cursed body. The power of zerg evolutionary supremacy would finally shine though, but it will be a long, arduous process. Not to mention the great amount of pain that the tortured soul would have to survive, at last Dobromir's efforts were helping in dealing with it.
'Crunch, crunch, crunch' 'slooorp' 'Crunch, crunch, crunch'. There was nothing quite like relaxing before a screen with a big bowl of chips, smaller bowl of not less important salsa, and an assortment of drinks.
Rest was her game, and Jaruga her name. No annoying missions, shady ghosts, annoying ace pilots or backroom plots and hidden agendas. Relaxing socially wasn't her thing, and with the fire burning inside her, sometimes quite literally, she could gorge herself without a stop.
"No missions, no quests, life is good." She kept sitting and watching, before her own words registered in her mind fully. "Dammit to oblivion!" She shouted as her screen was overtaken by incoming call from the Vice-Admiral Stukov himself, again.
After some persuasion, Artanis and Zeratul agreed to Wit's plan, much to Their surprise. Clearing the zerg surrounding the temple was the easiest part. Defending it would be a completely different matter. And now the completely different matter gained a completely different approach.
Instead of just dumping forces and skirmishing with any zerg incoming, Wit's urging made the protoss take a step further. The three enternances had their openings tight end by adding there a few forges and mass of pylons. And all around the temple was practically a critical mass of turrets. Not tens, nor hundreds but thousands of photo cannons protected the temple, and the meager amount of land forces.
In the small circle between the cannons and the temple High Templar took their positions, their task: simply eradicating big swaths of zerg with their psi storms. Wit was levitating among them, mostly to avoid being in the line of fire.
Somewhere between the forges and cannons awaited Dark Templars, hidden in the shadows, with a helping amount of void powers. Loosely leading them was Zeratul, their task? Deal with things harder to kill, which pretty much meant the Ultralisks.
The last group were the Air squadrons, led by Artanis in his overpowered scout. They were there to take out those annoying guardians, and lure over any zerg trying to eat away the forges. Of course, corsairs were also there, to tip the scales even more.
There were no zealots, no dragoons, and certainly not reavers. Carriers were still in the process of being made. Looking at all this, Ziemowit felt almost overwhelming pride. One of the templars activated the temple, and all hell broke loose. On incoming zerg, that is.
"My dear friend, our forces will begin their attack on Augustgrad. Earlier, we eliminated the threat of Battlecruisers from Dominion's side. But, their ghosts still remain a very real threat. I want you to protect our base from their Nuke attempts. The actual assault isn't your concern."
Jaruga will rather painfully experience what the life of vice-admirals 'friend' would look like. But for now, finding her wayward pilot took the priority.
"Mr. Bit, what did we actually DO?" The two of them looked at the two figures, freshly emerging from the pods. They still were coated in some slime.
"I think… we shouldn't treat it like a cooking recipe in the future." They continued staring.
"I mean, the outcome is better than expected, but everything is becoming even more meta by the day."
looked at his commander, eyebrow raised. It was barely noticed by Dobromir, maybe because tey were so close that their eyeballs were almost touching. The infinite mirror effect of their irises was really mesmerizing.
Dobromir turned back to the smaller duo. "I don't even need to think up new names or anything. I am just wondering why they look like the leaders from the faction creation screen from the game I played… last month, I think."